Tremors Beneath Your Feet

[Luther Lewis]

​

Source: https://au.pinterest.com/pin/247486941998404264/. Original Artist unknown. ​

Prologue:

Spoiler

Pirate attacks on Tatooine were not uncommon occurrences. So, when a large freighter crashed in the Northern Dune Sea, very few were surprised. Many teams rushed to the site of the crash, not to help the survivors, but to strip the vessel clean of any worthy salvage. The freighter had crashed deep into the loose sand, far from the nearest town, Allon. The first couple of teams to arrive found the ship empty, the crew nowhere to be seen. Even more mysterious was the lack of cargo. The cargo bay was split open but there was no sign of the cargo in the surrounding desert.

Zai Avery had arrived first for once. That was rare for him, he was used to fighting for the best pickings. He had also been prepared for encountering a crew. He had medical supplies aboard his skiff and was hoping that they’d let him leave with some choice components, in return for the medical attention. It looked like the supplies would stay unused for a while longer, however.

The empty ship gave him chills down his spine and his thoughts of salvage had gone out the window. His travelling companions were an informal group of salvagers with which he had an uneasy alliance with. A few members of the group didn’t share his reservations and had started stripping wire from the walls.

Zai took a different route from his group and climbed the sloping floor to the rear of the ship. He passed the cargo bays and paused for a moment. They were ripped apart but, aside from the missing crates and containers, nothing strange stood out. Unable to shake the feeling that he was missing something, he moved up to an observation deck at the rear of the ship. He looked upon the surrounding area.

Wide endless dunes of sand surrounded him. He entertained thoughts that he could see Allon in the distance but knew he was far away from civilisation. He frowned at the shifting sands. "The winds were supposed to be calm today" he muttered. His frown deepened as multiple bands of salvagers arrived. A few were armed, clearly looking to claim the best of the salvage by force.

Zai’s stomach dropped and his eyes widened at what he saw next. The sand moved around the approaching force, in bizarre patterns antithetical of a typical wind-blown dune. The rises dropped away and reformed as the desert came alive. A few noticed, but their cries of panic fell on deaf ears. One group had almost reached the crash site when a large tremor knocked them to the ground. They looked up as large segments coiled around them and a maw, filled the with razor-sharp teeth, snapped down.

The sand-worm stirred the rest of the salvagers into a panic. The majority fled toward the skiffs but two more of the monsters appeared, thrashing out of the sand. Faced with the slaughter, any who made it to a skiff quickly abandoned their comrades. The survivors soon realised there was only one island of safety: the crashed freighter. Those close to the debris managed to board the ship to safety, but there was no hope for those out in the dunes. Zai fought a wave of sickness, and turned away as the worms finished their feast. He sat down, breathing hard and fast. ‘This isn’t happening’ he choked out. ‘This is a nightmare…’

 

[Formorta]

Another crashed ship, a large on at that, 'That has got to be the 20th I've seen come down over the planet, though this one looks intact for once'. Formorta stood atop [member="Zai Avery"] Skiff as it made its way to the crash site, the sand blowing against her already bleach white hair and causing little irritation to her eyes, her mask filtering out and dust and smoke while the tattered though functioning cloak flapped in the wind. The assassin was a born and raised on the Desert planet and was not unfamiliar with strange crash sites popping up every now and then, though their was a gut feeling something was wrong.

THe skiff came to a stop, and the other members piled out, going to work in dismantling the ships hull, not concerned in any way of survivors or possible bandits, "Amateurs". While [member="Zai Avery"] went off with the other do do their own thing Formorta scanned around, the ship was still very fresh, though the fact that no crew members, even bodies were around was strange, Tusken raiders were too sloppy to have come and gone in the small time frame, something was wrong.

Pulling out her sniper rifle she too scanned the horizon, noting the other scavenger groups, "Looks like we have company", She loaded a round into her APAR ready for a possible confrontation, that was until said scavengers dispersed. "What the Kirff, is that a..." sand worms engulfed the approaching groups devouring them in drove, Formorta had just enough time to make a break for the freighter and get on high ground, having a close shave with it teeth.

Looking back any trace of the approaching groups was gone, like they had never existed in the first place, "I think I know where the crew went", she said turning to Avery, with a first in her life time shocked expression, "Now what"?

 

[Fyl Terrano]

Allon, Tatooine was the kind of place no one was actually going to. It was full of those going away from something, a collision of fugitives and wanderers.

At least, that was how Fyl Terrano had justified ending up there without really meaning to. One too many close shaves with the consequences of past mistakes had driven him as far away as he could get from everything, and that had been here, on a part of this sun-baked dustball that was remote and isolated by the standards of a remote and isolated planet. He was spending most of his time in the cantina, getting as far into oblivion as he could without getting himself robbed and lobbed in a gutter. Unfortunately, that wasn't very far in this cutthroat fringe town; he had been unpleasantly sober for several days now, and memories he'd rather avoid were hitting him like blaster bolts in the gut.

So he'd been glad when a ship, like a falling star, had crashed to earth close enough for salvage teams to reach by skiff. He'd done plenty of scavenging during the Insurrection, both from ships and vehicles that were already slagged and from the ones he'd slagged himself - the Twelfth Freedom Battalion had been perpetually short of supplies, and one of Ranger Squad Esh's primary duties had been to try and find ways to mitigate that as much as possible. He'd proven that he knew his way around a blaster and a fusion cutter, and one of the armed, rough-looking groups of scrappers had taken him on. They weren't the first to reach the crash site, but they were close enough that they'd get some good stuff.

Fyl hadn't been properly drunk in days, and his hands were fairly steady on the fusion cutter as he sliced through a section of hull plating to pull out some of the more valuable modules. It took a while, over the whine of the blazing tool, for him to hear the screams. By the time he removed his borrowed goggles and peered around the edge of the bulkhead he was working on, the feeding frenzy was in full swing. The ex-rebel gaped for several precious seconds as massive worm-like creatures scythed through the dunes, swallowing whole groups of men at once with their vast, toothy maws. Then he kicked himself into gear and started scrambling up the side of the ship, gambling the things couldn't breach durasteel.

His heart sank as he surveyed the scene. The worms had cut through the scavengers as if they'd never been there, save for the occasional splash of blood or dropped tool on the sand. The dunes still shook slightly with their passage as they roamed, probably still ravenous. The skiffs were fleeing into the distance, taking no chances with the monsters. Fyl was stranded. He had enough water for maybe a day, and that was because he'd been overly careful - he'd brought no food at all, thinking this trip would take a few hours at most. And if he took one step out onto that sand, he had a feeling that all of his other worries would soon be solved, but he wouldn't much care for how.

Glancing around, he spotted two other survivors standing at the raised aft section of the ship, near the cargo bays. He picked his way down the bulkhead he'd climbed, doing his best to reach them without breaking his neck. They'd probably been part of one of the rival salvaging crews, but that didn't seem to matter much anymore. They could bicker over who got the choice bits if they managed to get back to Allon alive. The thought stopped Fyl cold - could the worms eat a town, if they were so inclined? They looked like they might be big enough. "Either of you ever seen one of those things before?" He asked, worries churning in his head. "If I'd known they lived here, I'd have stayed off this lousy planet."

[member="Formorta"] | [member="Zai Avery"]​

 

[Luther Lewis]

His breathing steadied out as long-dormant survival instincts kicked in. He oversaw a large group of people here. He had to make sure they made it out safely. He stood as [member="Formorta"] approached. He was glad to have the woman around, the presence of another person helped calm his nerves. He tried to hide the subtle tremor in his voice as he spoke. "I have no idea how we fight something like that. Our best bet is to-" he stopped speaking as a man approached and asked about the burrowers.

Zai nodded grimly. "Yes, I have seen one, but only from a distance. They're native to Blenjeel, I have no idea why they are here. Perhaps this freighter was carrying them". The last time he seen one was actually on Blenjeel, when he had been contracted to mining company. They'd marked the planet for a possible mine, but the explorers had told him it would be impossible with the burrowers. 'And now I know why' he thought.

Other senior members of each salvager band had arrived, sensing that there was planning going on. Zai addressed the group. "I'm Zai Avery, off-world salvager. I have a team in this wreck, but most of the other bands have come under my wing in the confusion". That wasn't a fact he liked. He didn't like playing the leader; your group were just as likely to revile you as to praise you. The senior members seemed pretty happy with his leadership however, so he left the topic there.

"We have good news and bad news. The good is that we are safe for now; the burrowers can't dig through metal or travel above ground. The bad is that we don't have any long range comms equipment, so we can't call for help". He let that sink in for a moment and turned towards the large window. "The situation is looking bleak. All we can do is..."

He trailed off as he saw a shape in the distance. He squinted, trying to place the shape until the answer hit him. "There!" he exclaimed, pointing to the debris in the distance. "That's the bridge of the ship! That'll contain a communication array, or at least the components to construct a makeshift one". His grin dropped as he measured the distance to the ship bridge. Five hundred metres of open sand. More than enough space to be easily swallowed by the monsters lurking beneath the ground.

"Ok, I don't like this, but we have little choice. We'll need to split up into two teams. One team will make a run for the bridge and construct the comms unit. The other team, will have to distract the burrowers and buy the others enough time to run the distance". He took a deep breath and continued. "We have one advantage on the monsters. They don't have eyes, they rely on vibrations on the sand. They can be tricked by setting explosives off somewhere else, and possibly by staying still on the sand". He wouldn't recommend that last tactic, it would leave the person stranded in no-mans-land.

He stared around at the grim faces. He swallowed and said, "Do we have volunteers for each team?"

[member="Fyl Terrano"]

 

[Fyl Terrano]

Fyl suppressed a bark of bitter laughter. The plan was sound - the freighter's communications equipment was almost certainly their best chance - but he could guess which part of it everyone would volunteer for: the part that didn't involve a sprint across terrain that might at any moment be replaced by the fanged jaws of a grisly demise. He should let them reach that impasse, let everyone bicker over who would take the death sprint. Trying to play the hero had never gotten him anywhere but lost out here, never earned him anything but pain. He scratched at the patch over the empty socket of his left eye. Sooner or later, someone would pull a blaster and force someone else out onto the sand.

He sighed. Who was he kidding? He was already on the verge of unable to live with himself; he couldn't let that happen. And what did he really have to lose, anyway? "I'm pretty good with machines," he said, stepping forward and gauging the distance. Five hundred meters - several times the distance most sprinters would attempt. "I'll get the comms fixed if you can keep those... things distracted." In a way, it was a smart decision. Fyl had positioned himself as necessary to the group. If he survived, no one else had to go out on the sand, and they all had a chance of rescue - that was incentive enough for them to make a real effort to keep the worms at bay.

"Never heard of a 'Blenjeel', but I'm trusting that you really do know something about those nasty critters. Otherwise I'm vaped." Taking a deep breath, Fyl picked his way down from the aft section of the ship. He stopped just short of the sand, stretching his muscles and psyching himself up. Between the war and the hard labor at Camp 19-Cresh, he was pretty fit, but a 500-meter dash was still nothing to sneeze at, especially in this heat. He was already sweating profusely just from climbing around - he wasn't looking forward to how he'd feel when he made it to the other side. If he made it. "I'm ready, Avery," he called up to the group. "Don't go getting me killed, now."

[member="Zai Avery"] | [member="Formorta"]​

 

[Formorta]

She looked back at Avery, he had a sense of fear I about him that was not uncommon with newbie soldiers, something told her thy guy was not use to seeing people die on a regular basis. "No I have not seen these creatures before, though the do seem to thrive in the sand", she replied to the man wearing an odd hat, though for this climate, a desert world full of desperadoes, it seemed very fitting, some how.

Her eyes narrowed at the mention of Blenjeel, "That would explain those missing people I was sent to assassinate that one time, would have been nice know that before hand". Poeople of the other bands how survived the attack gathered around, Avery proceeded to address them all, being the most leader like out of the three, she was just a solider, take order kill people simple, the cow boy, that was a mystery.

She listened to his plan, no eye but vibration movement, and she had plenty of thermal detonators for said job, "no on shoot anyone now, I can set of some explosive away from the sprinter", Looking to the side, Mr cow boy seemed to be volunteering for the run. She walked up behind the man as he gauged the distance, "You run and ill throw down cover, both explosions and bullets, any on that gets to close will be a target for my rifle". She showed Fly her APAR, the massive 50 cal anti-armor rifle, "She can easily penetrate a Rancors armor, and should have no problem with those bugs, just have to make your I kill them before they eat you".

Formorta got into a prone snipping position near the sand, giving both Fly and Avery a thumbs up, "Ill detonate my grenades once you get a few meters away, I only have a few and you need to run half a kilometer". SHe loaded a clip into the oversized rifle, pulling back the bolt and loading the first round into the chamber. "Ready when you are". Her breathing slowed, all her arms resting on the rifle to prevent recoil, this task would require all her skill.

[member="Fyl Terrano"]

 

[Luther Lewis]

Zai was glad he wasn't doing the run. He felt guilty at the thought but he honestly preferred not to be worm food. Before [member="Fyl Terrano"] and [member="Formorta"] ran off, he made sure to address both of them. "Good idea, but explosives won't distract the burrowers for long enough". He paused for moment as he thought of a solution. He peered down towards the back of the ship and an idea sparked in his mind. "I'll get the engines running, just enough to cause vibrations in the ground. Fyl, take some extra salvagers, the extra vibrations from the footsteps might distract the burrowers". It would also give them a better chance of reaching the comms if some of the runners get eaten.

"We'll use Formota's explosion as the universal signal". He continued. "Once it goes off, the runners leave five minutes later. Ten minutes after that, I'll activate the back-up generators for the engines and draw them back to the wreck. With some luck, the monsters won't even realise that some of us have left the vessel". He had a empty feeling in his gut, he doubted it would go that smoothly. The others wasted no time and moved out. Zai beckoned a few select salvagers from his team and explained the situation to them. They nodded and followed him to the engine bay.

The ship had crashed nose-down, leaving the engines almost untouched. 'Almost' being the key word; an almighty crack formed down one of the drive shafts. Zai whistled. "This is going to be very noisy". He positioned his team at key points around the engines. The only exception was a lookout near the door, who would listen for the explosion. He stood next to the emergency start, waiting for the signal.

 

[Fyl Terrano]

It was a sound plan. Well, maybe not, but it was the plan they had, and Fyl had agreed to it.

Actually staring out at the expanse of sand, he found himself trying desperately to suppress his second thoughts. He'd only caught the latter half of the worms' feeding frenzy, but it had been enough to see the effortless way they vanished into the sand, only to emerge beneath their desperate prey and swallow them whole before they could even scream. It had been enough to hear the rumbling roar-screams of the hideous creatures as they wallowed in their orgy of blood-soaked appetite. If his whole life had passed without hearing that sound or gazing into their toothy maws again, it would have been too soon. And now he was going to stroll out into their very domain.

But what choice did he have? He saw the same resignation on the faces of the other salvagers who were queuing up to accompany him, the same desperate hope and fear. It would only take one of them to reach the comm system and get it working, but the odds were poor that even one of them would make it. For the millionth time Fyl asked himself why he'd even stopped in this horrible backwater place, but for the millionth time he pushed the question away. There was no point in futile asking, only in focusing on the one thing that might yet save his hide. The heat shimmered on the sand, his sweat dripped down, and all around him the others waited for the signal.

The first detonation, Formorta's proposed initial distraction that would be followed by Avery's activation of the engines, went off like the pistol at the start of a race. Every one of the scavs looked at each other, halfway uncertain that any of the others would run. The clock ticked down. It was impossible to say if the monsters had taken the bait, whether they had been drawn away at all. Finally it was time. As one, the motley crew dashed across the sand at full tilt, fear lending wings to their feet. It was difficult to run on the sand, which shifted awkwardly beneath their boots and forced them to lift their feet high with each step. Plumes of dust were kicked up behind them.

Then Fyl heard it again - that roaring, the rumble of proximity. "Spread out!" He yelled. "Don't let 'em take any two of us in one gulp!" It was hardly reassuring, but it was practical. If the monsters really were coming for them, they had another ten minutes until Avery turned the engines on, and that was a long time once they started getting eaten. Every dune, every drift that shifted in the wind, became a possible threat. Fear drove them on even as their lungs began to burn and their legs began to tire. Falling behind the rest of the pack could be fatal, and none of them would chance being the first to do it. They would run until they could run no more. Time would tell if it would do them any good.

[member="Zai Avery"] | [member="Formorta"]​

 

[Formorta]

"I copy, don't die now cow boy", while the runner got ready for there life or death race Formorta got to work setting the charges at on end of the track. Hopfully it would distract the worms away from the group as they started to run, but would need to be sparing with them, lest they all be used up in the first 5 minutes and the group be left without cover for the rest of the run. She gave the thumbs up to [member="Zai Avery"] as the rest of the runner got prepared, they would only get one shot at this.

The first blast went off, distracting the worms to the other side of the ship, and away from the runner, but it would only be a matter of time until the fingered it was a false alarm. Running back to the front she saw the runner bolting across the sand, shifting a bit awkwardly due to the unstable ground, but running like athletes or for there life, both looked the same. She veteran sniper got into a prone position and looked through the scope of her rifle, the slightest movement in the sand making her trigger finger twitch.

The next few minutes felt like an hour, but soon a moving lump cause her eye moving to intercept the group, followed by the worms head leaping out of the sand in an attempt to swallow runner members. In the half second since its head poked out Formorta let rip, the massive rifle sending out a defining 'bang', launching and .57 caliber Phrick tipped slug at the worm. The round hit its mark, blood flying out of his head, but the body kept going forwards, crushing the legs of one of the runner.

"Kark", they were one runner down, but at least the worm had been immobilized for the moment, she hopped. The several arms of the mutant woman worked like a fine oiled machine, pulling the bolt back and returning to a stable firing position, readying the gun for its next target. Her heart, mind and body as calm as a left sitting on a wave-less pond, 'Show your heads again, I dare you'.

[member="Fyl Terrano"] l [member="Zai Avery"]

 

[Luther Lewis]

[member="Formorta"] gave him a thumbs up indicating that she was about to begin. Shortly later, Zai heard the explosion and started his count to nine hundred. He felt sick, thinking about the runners. Half a kilometre on loose sand with carnivorous worms in pursuit had to be as worse as it gets. 'All the more reason to get my part right' he thought, his resolve strengthened.

At six hundred seconds he began the warm up procedure and fired-up the engines. The main engines wouldn't turn on, yet. A small rumble, barely felt through the floor started as minor turbines booted up. It was necessary to get the ship running without the mechanism backfiring, but this process was costing him more time than he thought. At nine hundred and twenty seconds, the light finally turned green and Zai hauled down the switch to activate the main turbines.

An massive rumble was felt through the entire ship. A noisy racket started up from the cracked engine, drowning out any other sounds. His crew were having a rough time, delicately balancing controls to prevent the engines going off. Zai grinned and stared down at the throttle. 'We're making a lot of noise' he thought. 'But we can make more'. He slowly eased the throttle up. The vibrations turned into tremors as the engine's oscillations increased.

'That should provide a good distraction' he thought. He eased down the throttle. The vibrations didn't die down, instead they increased in intensity. He frowned at the throttle and moved it more suddenly. Again, there was no change. Desperate, he ripped open a nearby control panel and his stomach dropped. He wasn't controlling the engines, they were speeding up by themselves. He leapt up and started frantically waving at his companions. He was trying to figure out how to get them to stop when a ripping sound sounded through the ship.

He was rocked to his side as a pipe exploded in the wall. He screamed and a nearby generator exploded. The blast knocked him clear of the wreck and out into the open sand. Unconscious, Zai laid still.

***​

As the engines explode, the vibrations come to an abrupt stop. The shrapnel from the explosion kills two of Zai's crew, while the others escape to safer parts of the ship.

 

[Fyl Terrano]

Five hundred meters was not a long way in terms of sustained sprints. Fyl knew from experience that he could run five kilometers in not much over twenty minutes, and this was a tenth that far. A distraction at ten minutes seemed rather unnecessary for a distance he could clear in well under five. But the situation was not so simple as running while attached to an exercise machine or dashing across an athletic field. The sand was treacherous and difficult to run on, and running in a straight line might well be death. Fyl couldn't reach what would have been his top speed across open ground, and zigzagging easily quadrupled the distance. Heat and exhaustion only made it harder as time wore on.

And then the worms returned, definitively, and everything got a lot more complicated. One burst from the ground just behind them as they ran, swallowing only vibrations in its first pass but preparing to crash down on whichever of them it could reach. But suddenly a loud crack echoed across the desert, and a heavy slugthrower round tore into the worm's eyeless head, sending up a spray of blood, teeth, and ragged flesh. The worm collapsed, more out of surprise than anything else. It fell awkwardly, writhing as it went down, and like a swinging whip it struck the Rodian on Fyl's left, smashing into him and pulping his legs. The alien screamed, trying desperately to drag himself forward.

Any heroic thoughts Fyl might have had were rendered moot as a second worm emerged beside the first, silencing the Rodian by swallowing him whole.

He could see half a dozen trails now, disturbances on the sand that signified massive bodies moving below. They would never outrun them at this rate. Something Avery had said flashed back to him, and he abruptly stopped running, stumbling to a halt and struggling to keep perfectly still. "Stop moving!" He shouted. "They're on us. We have to wait for the distraction!" Most of the remaining runners stumbled to a halt. The Bothan that didn't was gone in a flash, snapped up before she even had time to scream. Breathing hard, the survivors balanced in place, struggling to keep perfectly still. A grizzled older human stumbled, off-balance, and in seconds he was gone as if he'd never stood there.

They held their positions, sweat dripping down their faces, and waited. And waited. And waited. Fyl felt the heat, the tiredness. He wanted nothing more than to collapse to the ground and lie in the sand, but if he did, it would be his last act. At ten minutes on the dot, something did change, and he felt a surge of hope. But then that hope died. The vibrations coming from the ship were weak, so much so that the worms - still questing all around the waiting runners, searching for them - didn't seem to notice. Fyl swore under his breath. Had Avery's plan failed? And then, all at once, the ground seemed to shake as the ship's engines roared fully to life. Fyl grinned. Five minutes late, but better than never.

The worms began to retreat, drawn back toward the aft section of the ship. But the whine of the engines kept increasing in pitch and intensity. Fyl grin turned to a frown as he tensed to run. That didn't sound good at all. His worst fears were confirmed as the engines suddenly erupted in a vast fireball, ejecting debris and bodies in all directions. The ex-rebel watched in stunned disbelief as Avery himself was ejected from the wreck, flying through the air to land awkwardly on a sand dune. He paused, considering his options in the brief instant he had to decide. He was between where Avery had fallen and the path to the comms. One led to rescue. But if Avery woke without realizing where he was...

The worms seemed momentarily stunned by the vibrations of the huge explosion. That sealed it. As the other runners dashed for the bridge, Fyl took the chance to run for Zai. His blaster was out in his hand - maybe opening fire on the sand dunes several meters away would lead to distracting vibrations, if that became necessary. For now, the ex-rebel had only one other trick up his sleeve. "Formorta!" He yelled, hoping his voice was not swallowed by the desert. "Cover me!"

[member="Zai Avery"] | [member="Formorta"]​

 

[Formorta]

The runner continued to bolt for the ship, though going any further would be suicide with the worms chasing them. Though her scope she was two unlucky people get swallowed up by the monsters while the rest remained still to try an avoid detection. It was a useful tactic but how long would it last, 'Avery better hurry up'.

As if on command the engines of the crashed ship spluttered and came to life, shuddering the entire area and making a definite rumbling sound, ranging for miles around. Looking through her scope she could see the mounds in the sand start to shift towards the worked ship, having no vibrations to go off. The runners bolted for the other end of the ship, it appears things were going their way, until the sound of the engine got louder, and louder, and even more louder, 'Wait somethings not right here'.

She turned around quickly just in time as the engines over loaded and exploded, shrapnel another deadly projectile flying everywhere, accompanied by fire, forcing Formorta to take cover under her cloak and behind a large piece of snapped off metal. The heat was extreme and the area became dead silent, asides from the screaming of burning scavengers.

Formorta looked around, trying to see who had survived, her eyes widening at Avery lying on the ground in the sand. Thoughts of trying to save to boy rushed through her head but was it worth it, to save one sole as the expense pf two or more.

She didn’t get to decide as Fly turned around and bolted for the unconscious man, yelling out something, but it was too far away for her to hear. Thankfully the veteran sniper knew what she had to do, and with Fyl being the closet target she could bet the worms would be after him.

Around where he was shooting a worm launched up from the sand, confused by the strange vibrations. The minutes its head came out Formorta sent another .57 calibre slug into it head, the body crashing down, undoubtedly making its own vibrations.

In half a second her rifle as reloaded and as Fyl made a bee line for Aery , mounts of sand rolled and moved around him, garnering several more shoots from her sniper rifle in attempts to keep them pinned down. “let’s just hope the others make it”.

[member="Fyl Terrano"] l [member="Zai Avery"]

 

[Luther Lewis]

OOC: Sorry for the delay. Been really busy and the security issues with the site have made things difficult. I expect this thread will only last a couple more posts, thanks for your patience.

Zai's head was pounding and his body was awash with pain. He groaned and opened his eyes, squinting at the bright sun above. The sand shifted around him as he squirmed. There was a nagging thought in the back of his mind, but it was hard to focus over the pain. Deciding that moving would be too painful, he lay still.

The sand continued to shift.

His stomach dropped and he scrambled to his feet before he realised his mistake. He looked frantically around. The sand was shifting left and right with the subterranean beasts. [member="Fyl Terrano"] was sprinting straight at him while firing at the nearby dunes. He figured the only reason he wasn't dead was that the monsters were confused with all the vibrations. He had one shot at safety.

Spying a large piece of debris not far from his location, he steadied his breath for what he planned to do. "Fyl! Follow my lead!" he shouted. All the tremors stopped and the air grew silent. Zai held his breath, and took off at a full sprint.

The dunes came alive with the tumultuous thrashing of each burrower. Zai ran faster than he ever had before, his heart pounding. It seemed like an age before he reached the wreckage, but it had been a mere couple of seconds. He was two steps away from the debris when he was thrown off his feet. Impacting with rough metal, he rolled and landed on his back. Above him loomed a massive maw of teeth. Before he could so much as blink, the burrower snapped down towards him.

He could hear screaming, only dimly realising that it was his own. The screaming continued and he realised something was wrong. The maw was stuck four feet above him, thrashing, but coming no closer. He looked down to see that the great beast had impaled itself on a sharp piece of debris. Zai wept in relief and crawled away from the ravenous monster, towards a safer part of the metal.

***​

​

Koth was sweating so badly he was pretty sure he'd halved his weight with the water alone. The Zabrak swore under his breath as another burrower erupted from the sand, swallowing another running salvager. He'd volunteered for the run because he figured he had the least to lose. No family, no friends. Seemed like it didn't matter if he died. He had since changed his mind on the subject.

His every muscle was aching, his lungs were on fire. His initial steady run had turned into a frantic scrabble as the sand loosened, and his trembling legs were struggling to keep up the pace. He looked up to see the bridge wreckage only one hundred metres away. He bowed his head and ignored the cries for help, the sound of churning sand. The kept running and collapsed as his feet touched solid ground. He landed in a heap in what used to be the bridge.

He turned to see the last of the remaining runners swallowed in the shifting sand. Unable to help himself, he threw up and screamed in anguish. After a moment of recovery, he searched the bridge. By some miracle, most the equipment was unharmed, and Koth found a long-range communicator. Sobbing with joy, it doesn't take him long to activate its backup battery. An SOS is sent out on all channels, eventually reaching [member="Bkik"] . Having completed his job, Koth shudders and collapses, exhausted.

| [member="Formorta"] |​

 

[B'kik]

B'kik was slowly heading to the location of a crash freighter knowing he would was already to late for first pickings but while in his WAS he received a transmission from a random salvager and of course B'kik wondered why this random salvager was sending him a comms message until he listened to it. The freighter he was heading to was full of sand worms and worst his buddy Zai was surrounded by Sand Worms. B'kik quickly responded to message thanking koth for informing him of the situation that [member="Zai Avery"] and everyone else at that freighter was in

"Tell Zai ikee am ashuna gasha save baa. Ikee also also know someone who can go him gasha safety."

Once B'kik finished the message he changed channels as he needed to talk to a new business partner who wanted something very special.

"M'um m'aloo ikee know the location of a certain ton ton worm baa wanted. Ikee weeza meet baa there, Ikee expect the toineepa gasha be ready"

The second comms message also came with the location of the crashed freighter. B'kik decided it was best to move at max speed which wasn't much for a sand crawler but still faster than his current speed. He didn't wamt to get there too late to see Zai being eaten by a sand worm.

[member="Formorta"] [member="Fyl Terrano"]

Warning spoiler on who B'kik contacted

Spoiler

[member="Emilia Ravel"]