Private Welcome to the Red Planet

[Amur]

If there was one word to describe this place, it would be eerie. The red glow of the sun seemed to tint everything like it was coated with dried oxidizing blood and the air felt heavy. Yet there was one thing for certain this planet felt alive. Not like Kashyyk where it radiated with life no this was a different kind of life. As the Scorched Sith walked across it's surface she could feel a small pang of anxiety with her every step, it was like there was a constant awareness that something could come along and deem you it's next meal. Yet at the same time most of your hike was relatively safe. It wasn't the fear of a constant horde of monsters swarming but rather long periods of silence where one could feel alone intertwined with frantic ambushes by an opportunistic predator.

Amur walked ever so farther away from her Tie fighter, which really the only sign of advanced civilization for miles. Following her datapad's map to the coordinates laid out in her mission plan. One hand on her lightsaber at all times ready to come to life at a moment's notice in defense. The landing sight was a short hike away from the site in question but Dathomir with it's bent foliage and low visibility seemed to make distances twice as long as normal. At first only something resembled a mountain wall would come into view, but quickly the outlines of detail began to fill and instead she saw it for what it truly was. The massive mouth of a some sort of structure that seemed into the rock and caves. Littered about it's entrance were a few pieces of equipment that were out of place. A hydrospanner here, a torch there, and pieces of some kind of droid model littered about the place.

The Sith knew without having to use the force that a struggle took place from members of the Imperial Excavation team took place here. Good she was on a viable scent already. Odd though to not see a single piece of living remains. She didn't like it but she knew what she signed up for. "Determine the fate of the lost excavation team, recover any items of value or interest that the team retrieved and execute any survivors". The empire always liked to be extreme about their orders. Amur would stare into the mouth of darkness that faced her and with the soft kick of a idle oil filter she would begin her trek into the ruin.

Soon the darkness would swallow the light and the Sith would find herself tapping into the force lighting it guide and replace her sight. In a way she felt more alive this way as her mind reacted and ebbed and flow with the energy this place carried. She couldn't tell if this was a ritual site used by Nightsisters or a Sith building in design though she did know that despite what the carved entrance might imply about this place it was still every bit as wild and natural as the rest of the planet. Soon the craved and smooth stone floors would give way to rocky and uneven floors and claustrophobic hallways that betrayed the place's cave like nature to the Sith. Soon with a steady descent down the narrow jagged walls would widen into a mouth that would reveal to her the true treasure of this place. A chasm that opened up with narrow paths that covered over long pits that fell for hundreds of meters.

Amur stopped as she opened her real eyes seeing that the huge airy chamber expanded before her her. It looked like you could maneuver a star fighter around this place if one were careful enough and daring enough. A few openings in the cave to the outside world would let the light flood in again through the narrow skyviews as it casted long shadows over the entire expanse. There was really only one word to describe it. Breathtaking. She was now curious if the team only found this view or something more, though as she stepped forward she could feel the air change and reverberate through the force. She disturbed something just being here. Now feeling like hundreds of tiny eyes upon her, Amur would tighten her grip and walk with a steady deliberate pace avoiding trampling along and generating unnecessary noise. She didn't want to provoke anything yet till she got answers.

Nezira Viresh

 

[Nezira Viresh]

Nezira had felt the presence of something arriving and caught her attention, as she explored the beast's cave while it was out. However, before she got to go deeper into the massive sized chamber, the approaching aura, made Nezira teleport away and into the many deep shadows in the expansive chamber. Watching the strange enter the chamber, Nezira got a better look on who or what it was and apparently it was one hiding behind a mask. Not knowing when the Chirodactyl would return, and with the stranger in the way, Nezira saw her only option, for now, to be hidden away from her sight.

Curiously, the masked figure seemed to look for something as she clearly followed something emanating from her hand. Nezira followed the stranger with her Greyish blue coloured eyes from the shadows high about her hiding spot in one of the many small naturally formed holes. If Amur would continue to go deeper into the massive dome-formed cavern, she would start to notice what looked like bodies. However, these bodies were close to sucked dry for anything soft tissue on them. What Amur also would see, was the fine thin silk-looking web the body was half-covered in.

Hundred upon hundreds of shining yellow dog-sized eyes all stared in the direction of the Sith, staring intensely at her, waiting, for something. Nezira saw the eyes too and while she grew up with giant spiders, even had two as pets as well, these were different spiders. Dog size, aggressive pack hunting mentality, and sprayed acid to incapacitate their prey. In other words, they were nasty little things that really weren't that small, to begin with.

"You trespass, stranger, why have you come here?" Asked Nezira, creating a small echo as she stepped out of the shadow, showing only her left side. The young Nightsister was both curious, but also on alert, given that this was a very dangerous place to be, no matter how you twist and turned the situation.

Amur

 

[Amur]

It wouldn't take long to start putting the pieces together. A steady walk and she would see the bodies, though really the term body was generous for these things. These husks seemed to be dried of any fluid that once remained and the webbing around them would indicate that it was done by a spider like creature. Amur was now standing over one of them the husk's face now captured into a permanent scream. the bits of skin left clung to the bone like plating, atleast in the few places that didn't crack. Meanwhile his chest and abdominal area was collapsed leaving Amur's imagination to figure that whatever spider like creature had likely injected the poor soul with a venom or acid that liquefied his insides. These were now past the point of being food and now were like territorial marks and warnings.

The Sith would need to crouch over and began delicately searching the bodies trying to see if there was anything salvageable, though the search would turn to be fruitless as all that she would find was one datapad that had been was damaged beyond repair as something had melted a good portion of it. Picking it up though Amur would shut her eyes and reach through the force trying to see if she could get some faint glimmers through psychometry.

Force delivered her to the same spot she stood now looking through the eyes of a young man. It was night time with a faint artificial light nearby on the ground. "It doesn't want us here we need to leave" She could feel the view she inhabited speak. The man an older gentleman with greying hair and dressed in an imperial Field scientist uniform. He tried to calm the man down. "Johan, don't tell me you're starting to believe the spook stories those native savages speak of. There's nothing..." He would be interrupted though by a hiss and then a combined flurry of fluid being thrown at him and all the other people she could now see. They would all scream in pain while the young man looked paralyzed in fear. Turning his head to see a horde of eyes staring at him. Something moved through the air and the young man reacted holding the datapad up to his face to protect himself. Amur viewing through this lens would see an image on the datapad. It happened too quickly for her conscious mind to understand but her subconscious understood fully. It was a being, and it was threat. A terrifying one at that. As it sent a wave of primal ancient fear through the Sith's mind.

Reality snapped back to her as she blinked looking down at the husk, damaged datapad in hand. Though she would find herself fighting the urge to drop it. Her mind in thought over what to do, knowing that she might be walking down a path with danger then the Sith tomb she explored with Malevolum. This time alone. Though suddenly she would hear a voice, her head cranked over to look at the figure, or the one side she presented.

"I was to track down a missing excavation team. They found a ruin here from my understanding, though I feel they may have tried to take something the planet wouldn't let go of." She answered the mysterious woman, Amur could feel the aura radiating off of her and could sense something familiar about it. Amur was getting the sense that the one eye she couldn't see was scanning the area around them. Amur opened her senses to the force as she could now hear the faint echoes of movement.

Nezira Viresh

 

[Posh Raven]

Looking down at the trespasser on the ground, from her elevated position, she kept herself alerted to the creatures around them, hiding. Seeing the datapad in the stranger's hand, Nezira's eyes lit up with luminous colour, which quickly covered both eyes. The green colour produced quite a strong illumination, giving the Nightsister's face a low glow. Soon after, the same misty fog covered Nezira's hands, dancing and caressing the skin as she started to walk over the edge of her hiding cave.

However, instead of falling she slowly walked down towards the ground, almost as if she was walking on an invisible staircase Amur couldn't see. Coming about halfway down in the air, something else started to show itself from the cave that Nezira had hidden from Amur. First the long black legs almost impossible to see due to the darkness, but the many glistering black eyes looking in the direction of Amur.

Emanating a clicking sound by hitting its chelicerates together that could easily give people goosebumps. Crawling down the vertical cave wall, it never leaving its predatory eyes from Amur as it made it down. As Nezira landed a silently on her feet, the mist like fog disappeared from her eyes and hands, making the green glow disappear, having her face covered in shadow again.

"They were unwelcome on Dathomir and so the Fanged God took them" commented the Nightsister, looking at the husk of the former Imperial on the ground. The large gaping spider was keeping further back, but slowly circled the Amur its front facing the Sith. When Nezira faced Amur, she looked at the stranger in front of her, "you still haven't answered my question, why are you hear, trespasser?" Asked Nezira again, now with a more icy tone in her voice, staring at the Sith with an eerie look.

The tiny clicking sounds in mass was kept on the low, but it was not clear that other things occupied the cave. Many small things, or more like it, small creatures, watching and waiting. The large gaping spider even made an alerting low vibration sound, by rubbing its fang with its body and a short burst of stomping with its leg. Alerting and unnerving sounds started to replicate all around them with a slight differential in sound vibrations.

As soon as the massive continuous copying of Nezira's spider's sound, the whole cave lit up with tiny luminous dots in the dark. "Bane Back Spiders..." said Nezira now really on alert, as she looked around her and Amur's position. They were completely surrounded in small eyes, all peeking out of their small holes in the rocky wall interior.

Amur

 

[Amur]

Her Visor's view was glued on the the witch, a new fire of curiosity and excitement quivering within the Sith's form upon watching her take on that ghastly green glow. She knew what she was looking at and it was exactly why she wanted to set foot on this planet. A nightsister plain in the flesh and pure presumably. Her mind dissecting and analyzing the workings of her witchcraft as it fervently tried to work out exactly how she was doing that both in sight and through the force trying to see how she pulled the web in such a way that she could effectively walk in mid air, though perhaps it was just a show of levitation.

She almost missed the approach of a new being but the flashes of it's large movement at the edge of her vision forced her to take note. A great large spider crawling into view eyes locked on to her. A intimidating clicking sound and an intuition within the observing Sith began to formulate a picture. This thing was likely tied to the nightsister in question, whether it be a heavily trained bond or something deeper at work.

A show of intimidation most certainly, all of it meant to convey the simple message that seemed to radiate around this planet. You're not welcomed here. Still the Sith did her best to remain calm, knowing that any sign of fear or weakness was bound to be exploited upon. Watching the sister land to the ground delivering a message of the teams fate and now a double back on her query. Why was she here? A silence took the sith for a few seconds knowing that she was in a delicate position and if she wanted to satiate the thirst within her she would have to play this carefully.

"Officially, I'm tasked with discovering the fates of these outlanders and recover what they found. She pointed a free hand towards the bodies. "Given the state of these bodies, that part is done, and any data recoverable on this pad is sufficient enough." She quickly pocketed the device in a small document container built into her armor, a care was taken to make all of her movements slow and deliberate. "Personally though, I met a nightsister, Kalanda Tishire. I was captivated by her magick. I was hoping that by coming here I could meet another nightsister and perhaps even learn from..." The Sith's heart warmed at a bit at the mention of Kalanda, a small bit of solace in this murder cave. The soft stomp the large spider was giving would cause Amur to trail off, as she was hoping that it wasn't the sound of a strike or worse: An impending mating attempt. Instead it drew her attention to the eyes.

The Sith swallowed some saliva as she saw and began running through in her mind the numbers of creatures the eyes correlated with now as it began to unnerve her. She knew what this curtailed an overwhelming amount for even the 3 of them if they pooled their forces. Surrounded and outnumbered this wouldn't be good. Amur turned back to the Nightsister.

"I take it they don't discriminate in their choice of food. I'll make this quick. I mean no harm, and I'll gladly answer any questions you have if we make it out this alive. I mean it." Amur now pacing her vision back and forth now trying to see if there was any kind of opening in the horde.

Nezira Viresh

 

[Nezira Viresh]

The Sister had listened the the words who the Sith had spoken, however, as much as Nezira was against this, they had to work together to win. "You are correct" she affirmed, bending her knees a bit, to go in a more defensive position. "They are pack spider and spit acid venom from their back" explained Nezira flaring her magick up. The area around Amur, Nezira and her spider, lit up with a tint of the same ghastly luminous green colour as before. The giant spider kept its focus for a bit longer on Amur, clearly not trusting the stranger one bit, before facing the same direction as its master.

The massive loud clicking noises, stopped all at once as if the Bane Back Spiders had practiced it before and only the eyes remained. Then, with insane speed for a spider of a medium-sized dog, rushed out of their holes. The whole interior wall was almost covered in Bane Back Spiders as they rushed down towards the ground.

"Vex, stay by my side" commanded Nezira her spider and fired green lightning from her hands, fraying a couple of spiders that came too close. At first, it surprised the spiders, but all it did, was keeping them at bay for a few seconds.

Launching herself in the air with magick, she dodged a line of acid shooting directly at her position. Vex, Nezira's Gaping Spider went on a killing spree, slaughtering many of the smaller and inferior spiders. groups after groups of Bane Back Spiders with surprisingly fast speed. However, even her spider started to fight more than it could chew, literally and figuratively by the smaller spiders. A line of acid strafed Vex's back causing it to wince in pain, forcing Nezira to choose.

Without a second thought, "Vex, leave this place, don't wait for me!" Said the Sister and with those words, crawled the large Gaping Spider out of the large open hole in the cave, opposite of the entrance Amur went through. Reaching out to the force, Nezira felt the spirits flow through mind and body, feeling the Nightsisters of the past with her and released a powerful force blast of invisible energy, pushing back a large wave of spiders at her side.

Looking over her shoulder, having a short breathing room, "It's useless to fight them, we have to flee" explained the Nightsister, feeling a spike of danger coming her wait and only just managed to dodge to the side as a spray of acid came her way.

Amur

 

[Amur]

Acid well that wasn't that a nice twist on the normal killer spider, almost to be expected with a planet like Dathomir. This was going to be a dicey encounter and Amur wasn't to keen to add acid burn to the list of awful afflictions and pains that had been felt in her life. She had enough pain right now thank you very much. Still in a wonderful act silently the two would begin to face off the looming threat of death by a thousand burns and forgo any further tensions. The air illuminating with that sickly almost radioactive green from the nightsister's magik. Not only would she meet a nightsister but she finally get to relish in seeing one in action and without it being an attempt on her life. how delightful really! The giant feth off spider that was supposedly still on their side whilst showing signs that it wanted nothing more than to rip and tear into the black clad human would yield to it's master like a good savage killing machine.

The Sith wouldn't sit idly and rest on her laurels, no no already the force began to collate around her sucking in that wonderful tension like an overpowering elixir. Her body twitching and tightening as it braced itself for a fight. Her saber would be drawn it's beam would erupt from it's hilt like napalm, pulsating and rippling covering the air and space around her in a coat of red. There was a silence that hanged in the air like a sword over everyone's head. It wasn't a matter of if it would fall but rather when. It didn't take long for the onslaught to begin.

It was hard to describe the mass of spiders by the individuals but rather one insane mass wave where each of the spiders merged and morphed into one singular amorphous mass that poured out like a liquid from every single orifice of the cave. Amur would prepare and cast a force barrier around herself in order to stop the initial wave of acid thrown at her as she shielded herself for the first few critical seconds. Doing so she saw and felt the power of the green lightning being flung out by Nezira. it was different then the usual brand of lightning her and her fellow sith practiced. There wasn't the same pure unadulterated raw hatred to it but instead something more wild. It began to change something in the sith as she dropped the barrier something now seeping into the forefront of her mind as the blood and pain would finally spread and begin to taint this battle.

Seeing the exposed flank behind Nezira Amur would leap into action as her armor gladden form accelerated at great pace each step feeling absolutely electric to the sith. Several spiders would test their aim against the sprinting sith but that would be only call about suffering for them as she used the force to pull one of the spiders up into the air and towards, it's feet dangling in the air in some manic attempt to control itself. It did nothing to stop the acid from it's friends from colliding into the floating creature as Amur used the carcass as a shield hearing it sputter and click and screech an eldritch array of sounds as acid pelted into it. Feeling her left arm ready to explode as she felt her muscles begin to shake her arm as she concentrated she would punch it forward to perform a force push that would send the acid-stricken spider hurtling back to it's friends. In that time as the two parties advance now within striking distance the Sith would begin to slash her blade to and fro in a brutal display. There was no elegance in her lightsaber form, no care for efficiency instead there was merely blunt power as her saber had begun to slash, claw and dig into the surrounding spiders in a flurry of simple brutish strikes. The close proximity with the spiders being a saving grace as it meant that acid wouldn't be flung her direction until she got distance again.

Instead one of the spiders would tackle the Sith as she fell with her back to the ground. Now she her two eyes begin to meet with the 8 eyes of a predator that was trying to dig it's large fangs into her throat as she pushed her arms out to stop it's bite temporary before the Sith would grip the the bane back by it's fangs and begin to pull. Sheer anger flowing through the arms as while at first there was resistance in a second she could feel the flesh begin to give and her ears registered the sound of tearing. Soon cries of pain begin to be met with sight of the fangs tearing off and smorgasbord of blood and viscera stain and further darken Amur's uniform.

Feeling the calls of the beast within take over and claw and tear away at Amur's mind for control she would kick herself up on her feet then with a manic giggle, the laughter forming an off beat and stuttering cadence as she then leapt into the air and channeling more of the force and with little care for the mass of flesh that trapped her mind She would ready to slam her left fist into the ground channeling a powerful force push that radiated outwards and pushed all the spiders that had mass around her position out into the air. Her arm cried out in agony and all it would do to the sith was fuel the madness. A few idle sparks being wildly channeled in her broken hand as the Sith was now in pursuit of more blood, more pain, strip the flesh and burn all that seek to hurt you, they must feel your pain.

Then a simple set of words from the witch clawed there way to the front of her mind as Amur would feel her mania lose it's grip just enough that she could force it down and snuff it out of it's power and kill it's influence. From fingertip to forearm her hand cried as her bones stabbed her insides and her gloved uniform began to stain, and with it what felt like fire leaked and pulsated out of her. She looked at the witch and realized the spider guardian was nowhere to be seen. Amur's blood lust now being replaced with critiquing anger. Still she bolted her way back to Nezira's side sliding to a stop her eyes scanning and coming to the conclusion that their efforts indeed had failed to relent as more spiders took the place of the fallen. This was now starting to look and feel unnatural as she wondered if what she saw in the vision had some sick play in all of this. Still the Sith looked and came to a conclusion.

"You're not gonna like it but we'll just have to pick a direction and force our way through, perhaps back where I came?" Her eyes scanned back to the pathway that she used to enter the cave and saw it now have a mass of spiders though it looked thinner then the rest of the horde around them, she need to disrupt them somehow and with that an idea came. Sheathing her lightsaber she would grab for a thermal detonator on her belt. "When I say run, you run, Whatever fate that besets me is already decided." She said pointing to the entrance as she armed the detonator. With a quick study and a guide of the force she hurled the explosive towards the spiders, one noting it's vastly high height as it was atleast three meters above the spiders when a bolt of lightning from Amur's throwing arm would ignite the explosive. The shockwave and heat would begin to descend upon the spiders like molten steel rain, injuring and disorienting most of them.

"Run!" She would call out as her legs dug and kicked the ground flinging her forward as she dropped a concussion down where she once stood. The charge for survival had begun.

Nezira Viresh

 

[Nezira Viresh]

Nezira had been busy fighting for her life, to hear the Sith lose her mind for a bit. However, no matter how many she killed with her lightning, it was futile as a new spider just took the last one's place. And much to Nezira's annoyance, she agreed with Amur, they had to get out of the cave.

While Amur explained the plan, Nezira kept blasting spiders away in masses and the moment she yelled run, Nezira disappeared. Right before the Sith landed by the cave's entrance, the Nightsister appeared out of thin air from a green coloured mist. It wouldn't take long for the spiders to figure out what had happened and started to chase them like a wave on the ocean.

Running through the small natural formed hallway, Nezira stopped, letting the spirit ichor overcome her with power. The Nightsister's eyes lit up in a flame of green coloured mist, completely eating her entire eyes. "ARRRRRAH!" She screamed and released a rock shattering push, overwhelming the spiders chasing them. The first five rows died from the intense force laid on to them, while the rest of the spiders behind them was forced all the way back into the cave.

With time given, before the spiders would get to where Nezira stood, Nezira turned to look over her shoulder at Amur, "Cover me, I'll bury them" said the Nightsister, still having her eyes fully engulfed in the same green coloured Ichor. However, her voice had changed, it was almost as if dead Nightsisters spoke with her, giving her voice a booming yet eerie tone.

Many thousand clicking sounds from the overwhelming numbers of Bane Back Spiders came into few again, covering all sides of the tunnel as the crawled. Not waiting for an answer, Nezira turned back to facing the tunnel as she started to chant, "Mother, sisters, spirits, guide me". Raising her hands towards the top of the tunnel's rock ceiling, the whole area started to rumble. Cracks and smaller rocks began to fall down, splitter ones they hit the floor. "Mother, sisters, spirits, help me" she kept on, chanting while her eyes flared to an insane level. Same green coloured looking flames started to float at the corners of Nezira's eyes while sweat started to slowly glister on her forehead.

"Mother, sisters, spirits, help me!" She screamed, showing visible straining on her body as rocks in the entire tunnel and surroundings started to rumble loudly. Rocks started to rip free from the ceiling of the tunnel, smashing multiple spiders, but the surrounding interior Amur and Nezira stood also started to have rocks, large ones, fall from the ceiling. A few came a little too close to Amur and Nezira, though the Nezira kept chanting.

And then, a loud almost "boom" sound echoed through the entire mountain as if a high explosion had gone off. The entire tunnel had rocks fall down at insane level, crushing everything it hit. Not only the tunnel get covered, but it felt as if the whole mountain was imploding from within. "We got to get out of here, now!" Yelled Nezira, only to have her shoulder be hit by a spider's acid spray, slowly eating and sizzling her clothes and flesh away, causing the Nightsister to release a loud screak of pain, falling to her knee.

Amur