Public Weekend Treasure Hunt 33: Midnight in the Forest

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

ABHERIN — ANCIENT SITH FOREST MOON


Ashin Varanin shoved her way through needletrees, too quickly to keep her skin intact. The forest stank of her blood.

The call of the Drengir hive mind dominated the Force tonight. In other circumstances it could have been funny.

<<MEAT MEAT MEAT>>

Abherin had seemed like a decent place to hide and build some resources. But leaving the Pomojema had proven to be a mistake. After three incursions into the Root-Mind, the Drengir had a taste for her.

Serious enemies, the Drengir. As far as the Pomojema's best researchers could tell, they'd posed a major threat to the Jedi and Sith of their day. Slash apart the living plants' huge, beaked, tentacular bodies and they'd re-form quickly. Fire should have had a shot, except their bodies were fundamentally just green wood soaked in a swamp. They laughed at blasters and, despite being single-minded in more ways than one, they were extremely smart. Through invasive root-tentacles, their dark side hive mind could control or assimilate the strongest Masters. As she pushed through the woods, Ashin shivered at the memory of roots in her eyes and mouth.

Worse, now they lacked their historical weakness. The ancient Jedi and Sith had used a wall of light and a Force-clouding artifact, respectively, to seal the huge Drengir progenitor away from the rest and drive them to uncoordinated hibernation or weakness. But more than a millennium later, either the Drengir had many of these progenitor queens or they'd adapted beyond the need for them. She'd smacked a few with Kotsirluuk, but all that achieved was separating individual Drengir from the Root-Mind. Temporarily.

<<MEAT MEAT MEAT>>

All that to say, whenever Ashin stood and fight against the tide of Drengir chasing her, she lost. Now a huge wake of devastation and hungry Drengir stretched across this moon like a scar. She'd made her stand at half a dozen Sith tombs in the forest, and the Drengir had cracked them open like Life Day chocolates.

She needed to keep moving. Anyone who wanted to dig into the ravaged tombs of Matrun Sessh, Karyl Cal-Tenn, or Darth Peraxis might find grave goods aplenty, a treasure trove she couldn't exploit. They'd find things she'd lost along the way: a Ring of Cold Rites, a confused DNK0 spotter droid, a couple of Angakuts she'd tried on the Drengir with limited success.

<<MEAT>>

They'd also find the Drengir in those forest tombs...the biggest risk of their lives.


OOC: By tradition, this thread isn't about me, it's about you. Please don't just claim treasures in a couple of posts. Make strange alliances, be desperate, have fun.

 

[Mercy]

Treachery.

That's how Mercy found herself on Abherin. Someone sending a distress all that had piqued her interest. To ransack them, of course, not to actually help. So in a way this could be considered karma. Sadly Mercy didn't think in those terms. No, no, the person she planned on robbing had betrayed her and they'd pay.

If she survived this anyway.

Her ship uprooted and grounded with roots. Cuts a dozen across her body. Head pounding in a migraine.

Why did she keep thinking about meat?

Her ship had landed a click or two from a Sith Temple. Its roof just peeking through the forest roof. Of course, half of that forest wasn't an actual forest but something far more terrifying. Moving, clicking, but the teeth kept coming back to the woman as she moved quickly through the forest line. Somewhere behind Mercy the screeching magnified as they found her scent once more.

The problem was the chainsaw.

She found it on a strangled corpse that seemed completely dried out and enfolded in vines. When the tree came at HER she managed to send it fleeing with the vibo-chainsaw. Her only weapon now that her sword was lost to the forest.

Then again, that sword wouldn't have been effective against the hardened bark these fethers were made of anyway. "Oh, come on." Mercy grunted as she skidded to a halt. Right in front of her? A bush.... with TEETH.

<<MEAT MEAT>>

Maybe Mercy shouldn't have trained and fed herself so much.

Prime rib target now.

The vibro-saw whirred into action as Mercy leaped into the fray. The thing was between her and the Sith temple. So it had to go down.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Lief]

Just one more stop, their benefactor had assured them, just another one he begged... The Atale had bounced half way across the Galaxy at the whims of one Tetan politician, and seemingly he'd paid for his misuse of the Captain's aid. The only problem was, so too had the Captain.​

​

Eliphas Dune awoke in swamplike surroundings, muddy water soaked into every fiber of clothing upon his form, and smoke swirled around him and entered his lungs with each burning breath he took. He couldn't recall how he'd gotten to be there, in truth. As he pushed up and tried to make sense of his surroundings, the only memory which came to mind was of he and Yara in the mess hall. They'd finally made time for that date...​

​

A sharp pain traveled along his leg, and snapped his focus away from the past and firmly into the present. He coughed against the smoke, and finally found his footing in the marshy soil below. One hand raised to shield his eyes from the stinging of the smoke, and through his fingertips he tried to make sense of the scene which lay about him. The crackling of fire echoed through the trees, and pieces of the shiny hull he'd come to know as his home among the stars lay scattered here and there, the equipment and modules housed within lost within the swamp.​

​

It was a mess, his immediate area had seemingly been ransacked by the falling yacht as trees lay topped here and there about the wreckage.​

​

"Captain?" he called out, between hacking coughs, "Yara?" Only his own voice echoed back toward him, joining the rhythmic crackling of the continual fire. By this point his eyes were watering, and it was becoming more and more difficult to see. He held his sleeved arm over his mouth, and took a few haggard steps forward. "Yara!"​

​

Nothing.​

​

Behind him he heard the creaking of the durasteel hull as some of it began to sink and submerge itself into the deeper waters of the swamp. All he could do was stand and stare in disbelief. Were the others here too? Had they been scattered among the trees, or were they too slipping down into the earth? That final thought made him heave.​

​

So focused was he on the wreckage, that he barely even tried to make sense of his other surroundings. More specifically, the creeping vines which slithered their way toward the crash site...​

​

Ashin Cardé Varanin | Mercy ​

​

​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

For once, she had decided to take some time for herself and resume one of her most favorite pastime from the old days: going off into the galaxy to hunt down artifacts and obscure knowledge. While discovery and experimentation were her day to day in creating new and fearsome creatures and poisons and spells and everything in between, there was always something more that she could learn, some ancient secret that could provide a new avenue of study and testing. At the root of her desire was her ever eager curiosity...

And it was that curiosity that had led her to Abherin with a small retrieval team, a retrieval team now long consumed by the most irritating plants in the galaxy.

Their landing site, about ten klicks south of a tomb identified as belonging to a Darth Peraxis, had been quiet for a day, just long enough for them to settle in, unload their equipment... and for the vines to slither in while Taeli and another of her scouts had gone on for some quick recon. They had started on their way back and found the plant monsters waiting for them, blocking their way to the sealed ships.

The scout with her had quickly found out, to their detriment, that lightsabers were not the end all weapon for the creatures. Their screams as the vines tore into them were slowly turning to gurgles, but it had been the distraction she needed. A rush of dark smoke in the Dathomiri style and her form solidified at the ship.

She could leave, but why waste an opportunity to study the Drengir further... and she was loathe to leave completely empty handed. The plants no doubt would be in the tomb, and that would require some extra assistance. Luckily, she had just the thing to help. Making her way to the cargo bay, she opened one of six large containers on board.

"Rise and shine," she whispered, using the Force to stir the first creature to an awakened state. When the boarding ramp lowered, and the toothy beaked maw of the main Drengir monster turned, it would see her framed in the doorway with six large mounds of florescent goo... goo that would surge forward to begin engulfing the monsters and dissolving them. This was going to take awhile.

Ashin Cardé Varanin Mercy Lief

 

[Gi Gregain]

The forest was almost serene at first... she had been sent out alone... most of the Heralds were too small in number to be a massive forrce and guardians were needed elsewhere. Gi's armor was smeared with much and grime as she ran at a full run chasing one of these things... they had awakened and been dangerous with little methods to really finish them off. Best choice shoot them with disruption shots to break down the matter into dust.... not exactly an easy thing to do when they could surround you but she moved now and slammed into one of the trees as the heavy armor activated its thrusters to give her more strength to the impact force.

The sound of cracking wood and a small grunt as she slammed it from its base sending it to pin the mound of teeth and plant... the peak like mouth there and her hand came up as the biolayer of the armor shifted to turn into a blade to slice the tentacles that came at herr. The snicker snack sounds of the slicing as she moved around and selected with a flick of her eye the acid launchers in her forearms spraying them onto the plant and watching it scream in shrill sounds with the caustic acid eating away at it. Long enough for her to back up and charge a disruptor shot from her wrist gauntlet and send it into the beings face.

"Stay down." She said it and moved back a little to watch for it to try and twitch. Her eyes flicking around and the armor was sealed to the planet and the elements as the herald stood tall and could hear fighting in the distance. She took off at a run going through her weapons and pulled her rifle with a look at it opening the compass on her wrist. The layer allowing her to incorporate it into her armor for the mission and secure it as the strange force detector directed her towards one of the tombs and she could see Ashin Cardé Varanin fighting. THe Herald firing shots as her mind slowed everything down to a near standstill and she was reacting.

"Down." She said it with a rough voice that could be heard as she shoulder tackled the massive hulking form and moved to push it aside and withdrawing to her hand the officers blade as she changed the munitions to shifter rounds and started firing it. The shots being mini gravity bomb like slugs with explosive energy that were great for breaking down bonds but they didn't have the impact radius for more area of coverage. Gi backed off and was firing it while her rifle went onto her back with the magno clasps to hold it in place. SHe was backing up and using the biolayer to maake a shield while tossing towards Ashin one of the shield gates for the tomb entrance.

"The beams cut like a saber."

 

[Alessandra Io]

Location: Approaching Tomb of Darth Peraxis, Deep Forest - Abherin
Objective: Obtain Sith Artifacts for House Io
Tags: Ashin Cardé Varanin Gi Gregain Taeli Raaf Mercy Lief Taeli Raaf

There was no killing a Drengir.

Abherin was infested with the hive-bound, carnivorous creatures, their vine-tentacles strangling much of the world’s native flora and ensnaring native fauna, to be consumed bodily or have their very essence drained to feed the hive’s insatiable appetite. Alessandra had downloaded information pertaining to the Drengir into her digital-biological cognition systems during the flight over, but even with so much data at her disposal, she felt ill-prepared to truly face the botanical beasts. While her chakrams could cut through their vines and roots with relative ease, the weapons did little to actually kill them. The weapons only bought the Nuetralizer time to escape, ideally allowing her to soar past the Drengir in her path, harnessing her repulsor organs to simply fly away from their grasping vines. Instead, more often than not, they forced the HRD to retreat and choose another approach when their vine-tentacles proved too numerous to risk flying through them.

Nevertheless, Alessandra made slow progress toward the tomb, finding a few dropped weapons, no doubt from less fortunate adventurers, as she moved deeper into the forest and by extension, the collective maw of the Drengir hive mind that dominated this area. All the while, the whispers of the hive, which by some foul magic had managed to penetrate the HRD’s digital-biological neural matrices, chanted a vile anthem that threatened to erode the integrity of her cognitive systems.

Hunger. Harvest. Meat. Feast. Hunger. Harvest. Meat. Feast. Hunger. Harvest. Meat. Feast.

Before long, the whispers turned into foreboding calls.

HUNGER. HARVEST. MEAT. FEAST. HUNGER. HARVEST. MEAT. FEAST. HUNGER. HARVEST. MEAT. FEAST.

The shotguns on her wrists answered with a booming, fiery retort towards a Drengir in her path, briefly stunning the creature as fire consumed its bark-like hide, before the creature managed to slink back into the shadows of the forest. Not a second after the Drengir’s retreat, a pair of sharp thorns that sought to impale her lanced out from the darkness, spurring the Nuetralizer into motion as her repulsors pushed her out of their path. Immediately, her energy sword sprang to life in a low hiss, severing the thorns in a precise arc with just as much speed as their initial attack.

However, just after the Nuetralizer slashed through the thorns, three more of the spiked barbs came at her from the rear.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Eversor Bodysuit
  • Gauntlets
    • Hekler'Kok WMMW-01 - R/L
      • Shotgun (2) - 10 Gauge Incendiary
  • Energy Shield
    • Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield
  • Droid
    • IBIS Drone
• Eversor Rings
• House Io Citizen Energy Sword
• G-20 Glop Grenade (2)
• NOVA40 Plasma Grenade (2)

 

[Percival Io]

Percival was supposed to be accompanying Alessandra Io on a quest for Sith artifacts. However, the sight of distant smoke coming from the swamps had distracted him. To be fair, it was a lot of smoke. The scores in the forest floor matched that of a crashed vessel. Given that the wreckage was still burning, the crash had been quite recent, and there was a possibility of survivors.

His programming threatened to stop him, but he satisfied it with a bit of mental gymnastics: crashed ship meant potential new converts. Any survivors he found would thus be obligated to listen to a sermon or two from the Chaplain, but that seemed a small trade in exchange for their lives.

After signaling to the others in his party that he was going down to investigate, Percival traipsed through the mud of the marshes, following the smoke. By the time it became thick enough to damage lesser lungs, he had begun to give up hope that anyone could've survived. The intense heat of the fuel-fed flames would've cooked them by now.

That was when he caught a hint of motion in the underbrush. Raising his weapon (in this case, a katana - blasters and other energy-based weaponry had proven ineffective against the Drengir infestation, and while Percival was notorious for being overly-prepared, he had cursed himself for not bringing along something with acid, or perhaps a few cryo grenades), he sliced through the nearest vines, then darted away, braving the fire of the wreckage in order to escape.

He leaped atop the remains of the yacht's broken wing, running along it until he reached the other end. Then he jumped down, his boots landing with a loud splash in the muck.

It looked like there was, in fact, at least one survivor. A human male stood nearby, looking surprisingly intact. He was staring at the crash site in disbelief or fear or uncertainty - probably a mix of all three. But shock, while a natural bodily response to stress and trauma, was not very conducive to survival in this sort of situation. Percival saw the vines creeping forward and immediately lunged at them, his blade slicing through the Drengir.

"Run!" he commanded the human, hoping he spoke Basic.

we battle for supremacy later Lief​

 

[Akemi Io]

Communication "verbal" <<non verbal>>

Loadout :
Loralora interceptor swoop
2 x Gei Borugu Electro Spear
Dashade Sonic Blaster
House Io Citizen Energy Sword

Akemi hadn't been to Abherin before but she hadn't really been anywhere before. Her sister Alessandra Io had suggested it might be fun and interesting here. She also detected the mental signature of Percival Io here but she had encountered him yet. She calmly watched the ground shoot but as she navigated her swoop towards her destination. This she predicted would be her path of least resistance, but the Drengir added unpredictable variables to her calculations. The hive mind was not a problem for her, it was crude and ran on instinct, but it was persistent. <<come and play with me>> she communicates to the Dregnir hive mind, <<I have a lovely game you would find fascinating>> she had opened up sub routines to allow her assailant to busy itself playing a children's game against itself. It was a simple game where opponents took it in turns to fill a 3x3 grid with crosses and zeros, but an AI would find itself trapped in a loop, never realising it was impossible for one side to win barring mistakes. She had trapped several AI intruders in those sub routines during her training.

Her mind pinged as the hive took one more attack on her, and finally, its tendrils reached the spot where she wanted, she activated the game and it started playing, if it learned it was playing against itself it might stop, but for at least a while she could keep it penned in there.

Her HUD updated with the percentage of her RAM which would now be permanently engaged, something else pinged up, an outpost of some description, with active technology running. She plunged out of the sky and landed her Loralora, once dismounted the swoop took off and went into a loiter mode to wait for her.

The outpost was wildly overgrown and she pulled one of the swordspears off of her back, extending it to full reach with a click, in the other hand she held her energy sword.

...connecting...

She saw the digital layout of the complex in her head, most of the systems were down including locking systems, unfortunately the door were sealed shut, and without power the systems couldn't be hacked. Oldest defence against intrusion, unplug the target. She would have to find another way in. Looking up she saw a vaukted glass roof, that was probably her best bet and she pulsed her repulsors to reach her target.


Tags:
In the spirit of the thread I would love someone to come play with Akemi

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

TOMB OF MATRUN SESSH
Gi Gregain


As a rule, Ashin rarely indulged in gratitude. Today she opted to make an exception. An eight-foot power-armored cyborg Force-strong super soldier was exactly the right amount of help. Ashin snagged the thrown shield emitter and deployed it at the door.

A Drengir threw itself against the shield and recoiled, smoking. Ashin barked an incredulous laugh. More Drengir lurked in the midnight dark, among the trees. Roots rasped on stone, distantly.

Tension bled out of her. She unlimbered her sniper rifle, which the Drengir hadn't been considerate enough to allow her to use. "They'll find another way in soon enough," she said, propping the rifle across her knees, "but thank you for the rest."

She opted not to share her name or the fact that the Drengir had a particular taste for her. Neither fact would be likely to secure the big woman's help.

"What's the suit? It's not tech I know."

 

[Mercy]

Lief | Alessandra Io | Percival Io | Akemi Io

At this point Mercy was tired as feth and never wanted to see another tree again.

In truth she was pretty sure she wouldn't look at any forest the same way again. She crept further through the forest, trying her best to be as stealthy as possible (about as well as a boulder rolling through a porcelain shop) and trying to keep her panic down. All of this pushed Mercy out of her preferred element.

She was the hunter, not the hunted. She was the one putting the fear in others, not the one shrinking from every shadow. She-

Oh, chit, a karkin' tree monster, Before Mercy could get a hold of herself she jumped towards said tree and began cutting it to pieces with her vibro-chainsaw. It went down with a thunk. And... stayed down. "Oh... that was... just a regular... tree." Completely embarrassed the one thing that kept Mercy going was the solace nobody else had seen her in that moment.

Maybe Mercy would have slinked off right there and then.

If not for the fact that sounds of combat made her look up. "Hrm." There was a fear just under her skin. All of this was too real. She was used to beating the chit out of people. Weak drunks, but also grizzled mercenaries. This was different however. This was- and Mercy was moving, shutting down THAT line of introspection entirely.

A moment later she dashed out of the forest line in the middle of Alessandra's fight.

Usually Mercy would have hung back and let them weaken each other. Something told her however that this time... alone? Wouldn't be the way to survive this and get out.

As Alessandra was attacked from the back Mercy roared her battle cry. It might have looked impressive, but mostly she was scared chitlessly at this point and needed something to push her back into movement. Her vibro-chainsaw spun into action and cut off the spiked barbs about to impale the other woman.

"Hope ya dun' mind the company, lady." Hissed over her shoulder as Mercy raised the saw to ward off another attack. "Figure two fight better than one, yeah?"

Now let's hope the other woman wasn't another Mercy.

Because this would be the prime time to stab her in the back and take her saw for one.

 

[Gi Gregain]

TOMB OF MATRUN SESSH
Ashin Cardé Varanin

She listened and the tomb wasn't exactly the most fortified area... debating quickly about using the fortifications she had to try and close the gaps was short lived as boxing them in wasn't an option. "I am Herald Gregain." She said it and was short and clipped. THe helmet largely obscuring her gender but remained at the ready for anything. "My armor is propitiatory technologies from the jedi." She said it but it was less snark and more a standard line as she only knew somewhat the origins and had been one of the first classes for using it. She stood there though ready for anything as a seeker drone came off of her shoulder and moved around with scanners into the tomb.

"Someone or something awakened Drengir and we were sent out to engage." Her rifle coming out though as she checked it and holding it at the ready for a fight looked to the sniper rifle that was being used. For the area it was a different weapon which either denoted skill or ignorance given she wasn't freaking out the debate was one sided she had combat experience. "These things are difficult to kill but acid works well enough, plasma and gravity munitions as well." The highly explosive rounds served a good purpose but it wasn't going to make a paste of them when they could regenerate. She had punched a few and that helped for a time as well as blades.

She did two things quickly one lotus mine to act as a detriment and tossing Ashin one of the small compartments from her backplate which housed the Cracken Survival Kit built into the armor. "It is a storage compartment, when you're outside press down on the center and toss it down. It will give you a Runabout escape shuttle." The technology was also something few ssaw as moleculr disruption being used to house vehicles in survival kits was not done as often but she had a few others.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

TOMB OF MATRUN SESSH
Gi Gregain

The prospect of an escape vehicle that fit inside a backpack module threw Ashin for a loop, but at this point a dubious hope was the best one she had. The rifle was fine apart from cosmetic damage, thank feth. Kotsirluuk, her sap-slimed golden mace, was still a comforting weight at her belt — for all the good it had done here today.

"Good luck on the hunt," she said, shouldering the rifle. If she was going to blitz outside, she couldn't spare focus on killing Drengir. "Acid I knew. Gravitic's a good idea. Happy trails."

She wrapped the Force around herself in a shield, deactivated the gate tech, and burst from the tomb. Drengir root-vines slid off the shield harmlessly — for now. She'd done this exact thing a dozen times today in critical moments as the Drengir pushed her limits. She caught herself stumbling more than once.

The shield expanded, throwing the Drengir away just long enough for a very small shuttlecraft to unfold, impossibly, from the backpack module. Matter compression tech hadn't even been a gleam in Warren Valik's eye back in the day. Someone had been busy.

Ashin didn't wait for Gi. Presumably the huge super-soldier had plenty to do. Instead she took the tiny shuttlepod's controls and ascended. Vines tore away the last shreds of her Force shield. Maybe this craft had shields of its own, but she had no time to figure it out.

Her lapel comm crackled at long last: a simple dit-dah signal from the Pomojema. The wandering academy was finally in the system. They'd shaken pursuit from Drengir-controlled ships. Ashin pinched the comm for an equally simple response. She felt certain academy staff reaching out, eager for the samples she carried and the lessons she'd learned. Rendezvous arranged.

 

[Alessandra Io]

Location: Outside Tomb of Darth Peraxis, Deep Forest - Abherin
Objective: Obtain Sith Artifacts for House Io
In Vicinity - Tomb of Darth Peraxis: Taeli Raaf Lief Taeli Raaf Akemi Io Percival Io
Direct Engagement: Mercy

HUNGER. HARVEST. MEAT. FE-

The distinct, roaring vroom of a vibro-chain weapon snapped Alessandra’s attention away from the droning chants of the Drengir hive, which continued to bash against her cognitive systems, slowly wearing down their robust defenses. Ironically, resetting her focus back to the danger that threatened her physical form, that of the Drengir themselves and their viny, barbed root-tentacles, mitigating the assault on her digital-biological systems. Unfortunately, that lapse in processing had very nearly cost her, saved only by the arrival of a large, powerfully-built woman, wielding a vibro-chainsaw that slashed through the spiked barbs in an explosion of plant material and left them writhing on the forest floor, severed from their host.

Nevertheless, the HRD regarded the newcomer with as much suspicion as she would give anyone else.

Willing her repulsor organs to send her flying back and up in an aerial flip, Alessandra quickly analyzed the larger woman, taking in brilliant red-orange hair, toned copper skin, and a piercing golden gaze. There was an unmistakable danger in her stance, which spoke to years of martial conditioning, if her muscle bound frame taken on its own was not already enough to convey the woman’s power. And yet, the Nuetralizer judged, perhaps arrogantly, that the woman might be easier to kill than these botanical beasts.

However, that theory was not worth testing. Without each other, it was likely that they both would remain trapped within the maw of Drengir hive, forever denied their mutual goal of reaching the Tomb of Darth Peraxis.

“Thank you for saving my life.” The Nuetralizer began. “Our combined efforts might yield more progress, yes.” She continued in a precise, Coruscanti accent. “However, when or…if our expedition bears fruit, I hope you understand that we will need to work out how to distribute it, whether through negotiation or failing that, martial contest.” Alessandra said, hissing the last part in a sharp, direct tone.

“For the time being, I assume that there is a mutual interest in surviving the Drengir to reach the tomb, unless I am mistaken.”

Spoiler: Loadout

• Eversor Bodysuit
  • Gauntlets
    • Hekler'Kok WMMW-01 - R/L
      • Shotgun (2) - 10 Gauge Incendiary
  • Energy Shield
    • Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield
  • Droid
    • IBIS Drone
• Eversor Rings
• House Io Citizen Energy Sword
• G-20 Glop Grenade (2)
• NOVA40 Plasma Grenade (2)

 

[Gi Gregain]

The woman charged off and Gi remained there with the rifle ready firing a few shots to draw at them and make a distraction. The seeker drone returning with information but also anything that looked of interest while she moved with her rifle going towards the front of the tomb. She looked at it and charged through it using one of the grenades to clear the path as she went into a run kicking a boot into the peak of one as it snarled... her rifle firing and the muck around her. Her eyes flicking around as she spun with the grenade and used the hellfire throwing it into the muck under one as it detonated sending chunks into the air. She fired itno it but was staying on the run.. the best chance as even in power armor she doubted a stationary target would be foolish when she shifted her forearm into a shield and used it to deflect a whip like tentacle coming at her and slid into the swamp getting it smeared across her armor as the thrusters kicked in to send her faster and further under a branch.

 

[Sal Katarn]

"Don't get paid enough for this."

Forest weren't silent. Sal Katarn preferred 'em silent. This one came full of screams and buzzsaws. Sal grunted and hobbled toward the sound of the buzzsaw.

He held a hand to his stomach. The other held a pistol. Both were slick with his own blood. Sprung a leak or two and was leaving a nice trail of red spoor with every wobbling step. Turns out the plant monsters had vine arms with nice long barbs on 'em. Turns out they could stick through blastweave real well. Turns out.

Two figures came into view, one wielding a vibrosaw, and they looked to be bushwhacked.

Heh.

Sal leaned against a tree after double checking that it wasn't about to eat him for lunch and wiped the back of his wrist across his sweaty forehead. Strands of his blond-hair peppered gray clung to his face and he pushed 'em out of his eyes.

"Suppose I should help 'em."

The Firrerreon looked from his gun to the fight and back again, then took a breath, leveled his disruptor pistol and fired. Wasn't entirely sure if the bolt would atomize part of the Drengir or just make it angry. These days he never could tell. Disruptors weren't all they used to be.

Neither was he, turns out.

Mercy | Alessandra Io

 

[Lief]

Another cough.​

​

As the burning increased, sense slowly began to resurface within the boy. He'd die if he just stood there breathing it all in. He'd die if he didn't do something... For all his shouting he hadn't heard a single thing back from the wreckage, he afforded himself one last 360 degree turn in place, eyes narrowing in search, and then he forced himself to focus on where he was, and how he'd get away from the shifting bog which tried to consume him.​

​

Up above came a methodical thunking, drawing his attention back to the shipwreck just in time to notice the arrival of another. He could tell almost immediately that they were not of the crew, no man could suffer such a crashlanding and come out utterly unscathed and the way in which the stranger moved was with fresh vigor. Eliphas watched as he dropped down and sliced through a tangle of creeping vines the boy hadn't even noticed before now. Next came the command: run.​

​

Well, Eliphas didn't need telling twice. He reached down and grabbed up some of the loose equipment which had been scattered into the mud, and then set off in the opposite direction from the plant. The pain he'd previously felt in his leg magnified with each step he took, a distinct limp taking over and adjusting his gait until he was all but hobbling. He pushed on through it, noticing now the sheer number of similar vines around the place and the real predicament they were in. He could sit and whine about his leg and probably die, or he could soldier on and deal with it later.​

​

Adrenaline helped his decision, but it just barely masked it enough to keep him from dropping.​

​

With each step the fog which had overcome his mind began to ease, no longer inhaling the smoke of the vessel allowing for some clarity. All at once he came to the distinct realization that the figure back at the ship had looked awfully familiar. Unnervingly so. Was this swamp playing tricks with his eyes? Was he losing his mind?​

​

He'd looked an awful lot like Eliphas, after all...​

​

Percival Io ​

 

[Moya Virtu]

Wearing: Capacitor Garb

Armed With: Decoy's War Staff (Double Bladed Sith Tremor Sword)

Frontier Pistol

Current Configuration: Heavy Combat Form

Near Akemi Io

Inevitably, being on the run for questioning had once more caught up with her. She had dared to leave the confines of the Planet Denon, and then the bounty hunters had come.

Her ship had been shot down, and she had barely survived the crash. Thankfully her rabbits had not been aboard at the time.

The rabbits, other than a few armors were all she had left of Laertia. Especially now that a second daughter had simply disappeared.

Moya kicked open the hatch of her XS Stock Freighter, clambered out with only her linked Sith Tremor Swords, joined at the hilt by a slim magnetic coupling, and a single 45 Caliber Semi-Auto Pistol, with a single spare magazine. She looked around, scanned for enemies, spotted a Mandalorian Ship descending. The same one that had shot her down. Even as fast as the suit made her, there was no way she could out run it, no way she could hide...

Just then, it was engaged by what looked to be an old stock M12-L Fighter, in a green flecktarn pattern camouflage.

It unleashed all of its guns on the other, a fire spray class, going out of its way to blast apart it's engines with enough concentrated fire. But the Fire Spray, even as it went down, unleashed a salvo of backwards firing rockets that slammed into and sheared off a wing from the fighter, which forced it to make a crash landing also.

The occupant of the Fire Spray burst out of the cockpit, a Mandalorian in red and blue armor armed with a heavy Sonic Rifle. Moya instantly got behind her own wreck but it was too late, as he spotted her and instantly started firing.

The Alchemized Android dived. The weapon had been modified for rapid fire, and Moya crawled on the ground as the Sonic Bolts tore through the craft.

Blaster bolts pinged him as the occupant of the other fighter burst out of the cockpit, armed with a Varco-56 Rifle, shrouded in a tattered brown cloak, shooting rapidly and with deadly accuracy at the head. The Mandalorian fired his jet pack and started to fly and that was when Moya reacted, running to other cover just as the mysterious attacker did also, diving to avoid the intense sonic fire from The Mandalorian, returning fire even as he did so. Moya took the heat off him by now shooting at the Mandalorian herself, then tugging at his helmet with the Force, throwing his aim off and letting the cloaked figure blast apart his jetpack, sending him hurtling to the ground, and damaging his rifle at the same time. But he was a sturdy specimen of a Mandalorian and was up as Moya approached, drawing a secondary Sonic Pistol, forcing Moya to dodge and flip and twirl to his location, his armor resisting the Blaster Bolts of his attacker, who he fired a wrist rocket at, forcing him to dodge as Moya kicked the pistol out of his hand, but he expertly deflected her deadliest sword attacks, covered in Beskar. Rally Master Armor, probably.

She was starting to get worried...

A Concussive Bolt slammed into him, sending him flying backward. Moya drew her pistol and emptied most of it into the visor like the cloaked figure did. The Mandalorian soon fell dead.

Moya turned her gun on the cloaked attacker. The attacker made no moves.

"Whoever you are, I'd strongly advise you to leave. You're not getting the bounty.

The figure dropped the rifle. And removed the cloak.

Moya stepped back.

It was a Nuetralizer Model 1, but in very questionable condition. There were clear scrap metal patching in his torso, and it was dented and scuffed in other places, and it was missing it's Jaw. One of its photo receptors was damaged. There were recently repaired cracks in the knees, but she noticed it favored one leg in particular.

"Why so damaged? Laertia would never allow you to be in that condition." Moya said.

"My name is David. I recently reactivated at Sarka and have spent weeks trying to get out of SJC space...Grand Mother..." David answered.

"Well why are you here?"

"Because I cannot find Mother. Or my siblings. They are hidden from me, as they seem to be hidden from every one else..."

"So you went for the loose end..."

"Correct. I do not know why you broke contact, but it is extremely doubtful Mother would stop surveillance of you. I find you, I find Mother, and rejoin my siblings in glorious battle."

"Your Mother...my Daughter...was going down a path I couldn't follow...surely you heard of what she did at Rhand by this point..."

"I've been a bit too busy running to watch the news."

"I left before it happened, but she blew up a massive Space Station, a worldship full of thousands of innocent slaves."

"Who owned it?" David questioned.

"The Maw."

"Those savages? Huh, not like Mother to kill innocents like that..." David replied, clearly perturbed. "It must have been for a concrete Military objective...I can't see her doing it otherwise..."

"No military objective, no matter how concrete, justifies the deaths of so many innocent people."

"I'm sure there were nice folks at Yavin 4, when the Jedi murdered the entire surface of the planet just to keep one Sith's spirit trapped. I'm sure there were plenty of innocent people who died because of the Jedi in other conflicts. They have no special license for outrage, and neither does anyone else anymore."

"I don't need your help, David."

"There will be more. I barely intercepted this one. I wouldn't be surprised if they are minutes from arrival."

Moya weighed her options.

"After we fight off the Mandalorians, we part ways."

"I still need you to find Mother. Besides, even if I wanted to leave you, I can't. My databases still list you as VIP and you are clearly under threat. I must assure your safety until you are out of the combat zone."

Moya sighed but nodded.

David quickly ran up to the fighter, quickly stripping him of all useful Equipment then ran back to his own fighter.

"Good, they survived..." David said, pulling out a belt of 40mm plasma grenade rounds and a single shot, breech loading Shatter Rifle with a scope on it, along with a Mandalorian Disintegrator. He picked up it's cloak and put it back on himself, concealing his features once more

"C'mon! We've stayed here too long as it is!" David said, breaking into a run with her deep into the forest...

(Due to field repairs with substandard parts, David's strongest resistances as a Model 1 are reduced to average, and only his back up and emergency power plant are fully functional. Most of his weapons have been cannibalized for spare parts save his built in concussion rifle, which barely works also.)

A half hour later.

Moya took care of any bunches of living plants, either slicing them apart or hitting them with her powerful form of Electric Judgement, which corroded it's tissues, David would just shoot them with his concussion rifle

"This would be a lot easier if you used the Grenade rounds or the Disruptor!" Moya complained, jungle dirt and grime all over her purple catsuit.

"I'm saving those for the Mandalorians..." David replied. I don't trust anything less than than those to properly kill them on the first go. Feth these plants."

The plants were momentarily cleared, and they soon spied an overgrown outpost.

"We might find a hiding spot. Decent Equipment if nothing else..." Moya said. Her eyes spied Akemi in the distance.

Moya, do to not having been in the loop for a while and David, due to not having been active since the Battle of Sarka, which was years ago by this point, had no idea what or who she was, only that she was floating to the top of the outpost.

Moya began walking to the overgrown heap, not knowing she was in Akemi's database, David followed behind with a noticeable limp, spotted a Mandalorian ship in the far distance, landing.

"Chit..." David muttered. "Now we really gotta haul ass..."

"Hey up there!" Moya called out. "Me and my friend are...kinda in a jam. A Mandalorian related kinda jam. I don't suppose you would mind us hiding in here while you nose around in it..."

"We gotta get inside within the next seven minutes. They surely have our trail now..." David said, noticing Akemi's perfect skin...

 

[Percival Io]

Dealing with the vines proved difficult. Percival could keep them off his tail, but the limping of the survivor from the wreck forced a much slower pace. He swung his katana almost constantly, and while he was not at risk of growing tired, the Drengir that he cut through reformed mere seconds after he sliced them.

When the plant creature began to close in on multiple sides, threatening to surround the two of them, Percival knew drastic measures would have to be taken. His options were limited, but hope was not lost… yet.

From a holster at his belt he drew a pistol. At first glance, it might look like an ordinary (if rather fancy) blaster. But when he squeezed off a shot, the bolt was blue-white—and the part of the Drengir it struck instantly disintegrated, falling to the ground as ash.

He squeezed off a few more disruptor shots, effectively and efficiently clearing a path to freedom, though the window of opportunity would close soon enough. Percival then turned toward the survivor—and noticed that he looked quite familiar, though Eliphas Dune was flawed, squishy, and generally inferior to his Neutralizer counterpart. Any attempts to find out why they looked so much alike would have to wait until they were out of danger.

“We’re going to have to speed things up here,” Percival said, hooking an arm around Eliphas. The built-in repulsorlifts embedded in his legs kicked in, launching the two of them into the air. The change in elevation afforded them an excellent view of both the crashed ship and the very damaged (but steadily reforming and now very angry) plant monster, which had surged forward to engulf the vessel. If there were any other survivors, they could only hope that they had managed to escape before the Drengir arrived. Or if not, pray that the smoke and flames got them first…

Lief​

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The tiny shuttlepod proved simple enough to fly, but Ashin caught herself making stupid mistakes regardless. She wasted a good five minutes figuring out how to hover in a stable position, high above the forest. The first order of business, then, was to rummage through the backpack for something caf-related.

Down in the forest, light sparked here and there from assorted munitions. Others were fighting the Drengir and, presumably, losing whether they knew it or not. There was no silver bullet for killing Drengir. Chewing on survival stuff, Ashin eased the shuttle toward the nearest violence. Like feth would she head down to the surface, but she could at least help from up here, yes? The more people who survived the Drengir, the more long-term resistance the Drengir might face.

A good five hundred metres above the trees, Ashin cracked the hatch and unslung her rifle. The Revenant Industries Modular Blaster Mark One, obtained via Enyo Typhos , had proved a fine addition to her collection. Its invisible blaster bolts and lack of muzzle flash had the benefit of NOT revealing her exact position to the Drengir.

Invisible sniper fire — hardly her best shooting, but ah well — rained down from the shuttlepod in support of the fighters below.

Lief Percival Io Moya Virtu Sal Katarn Mercy Taeli Raaf Gi Gregain Alessandra Io Akemi Io

 

[Lief]

In his haste to escape, Eliphas had well and truly believed himself alone. Maybe it was the heavy thumping in his head from his raised heartbeat, or just the tunneled vision which had taken over his sight, but with each stomping step he truly believed himself free from not just the strange vined creatures but also the doppelganger he couldn't quite pinpoint the reality of.​

​

Maybe he'd imagined the whole thing. Crash, plant, man... Maybe this was all some vivid hallucination. Had he eaten the pizza back on Alderaan? Had it really been spice laden? The past few months just a mere blink in the eye of an unintentionally drug-addled teen? Was Starlin just sat watching him in his freakout?​

​

Something about the continual pain in his leg, and the burning in his lungs, made him doubt that. Perhaps it was an easier reality to slink into, perhaps it could help ease the realization that the ship - and likely its crew - were gone. But either way Eliphas Dune could not let himself succumb to such thoughts, as much as he hoped it to be true.​

​

A supporting arm looped around him snapped him rather abruptly from his thoughts, and before he could say or do anything to the contrary he was suddenly jolted up into the air. Though he'd piloted starfighters, and sat within the bridge of a ship with an unwavering view of the stars, Eliphas had never felt a sensation quite like it. He was flying, more or less, high enough that he was afforded an immediate view over the entire crashsite and the beasts prowling in to engulf it.​

​

Any hopes he might have had for Yara's survival were snatched away in a moment, and with it came a heavy heart and a churning sensation deep within his stomach.​

​

He said nothing as they moved further and further from that smoldering mess of durasteel and tangled vines. Some might have felt lucky that they had survived while the rest had not, but Eliphas just felt an immense measure of guilt which left him trapped within his mind. At least for now. At least while he was relatively safe in the sky, with this strange and mechanical doppelganger.​

​

Percival Io ​