World Delver

[EmKay]

"I said I'm sorry, okay? I don't usually keep an eye out for astromechs when I walk, R9!" Rhoujen said to the little droid, while it continued to chase him through the halls of the Hand of Fate toward the bridge. The machine was relentless in its whirring and chiming, and if the apprentice didn't know better he'd assume he was being bludgeoned with mechanical profanities. A short distance later, they arrived at the entryway to the bridge, where Atretes used a bit of telekinesis to push the droid away from his heels, which were about to be run over again.

"Look, you can keep pestering me later. I have important things to talk to Salem about, okay?" he asked R9-I0, who let out a low-pitched chime before rolling away to perform its duties. With a deep breath to settle his frustration over the pesky astro droid, Atretes spun on his heel and walked up the bridge until he was standing beside the form of [member="Salem Norongachi"]. He looked out the viewport to the verdant world of Kashyyyk, and a wry smile adorned his face.

"Ah, so you got my memo, Salem?" he asked cheerfully then continued, "I assume then, that you liked my idea to go exploring this world." he spoke, nearly in rhetorical observation, while he watched the planet spin lazily before them. Rhoujen picked up a glass and poured himself a few sips of whatever drink was on the table today, and drank down a small gulp. He mulled over what he'd proposed while he swirled the pittance of fluid contained within the glass he held.

Kashyyyk seemed to have a long history, and someone or something interesting always ended up there. It was one of those places. At least, that's what the young apprentice had read. At any rate, it seemed like a good place to explore and train, so he'd suggested to his master that they do exactly that. Even if it turned out to not bear any exciting fruit, there was always more to learn, and Atretes was practically a sponge for knowledge. He was eagerly looking forward to this excursion.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Norongachi half turned at Atretes arrival on the bridge and then returned his gaze to the viewport. A glass hung at his side, held by fingertips around its rim and a cigarra smouldered in his other hand. "Liked," He began letting a jet of smoke flow from his mouth. "Is a strong word. Its a fitting world to test the practical aspects of your training. I'd have preferred an asteroid field and some vac-suits but someone is afraid of a little space rubble."

"Fix. My. Guns." Came Emahs response.

"On the cards, I can assure you." He responded and then nodded to the lush green world below. "No armour, just your sword. No provisions. We survive off the land or we die. Clear?"

[member="Atretes Rhoujen"]

 

[EmKay]

"I'll get my coat," Atretes told [member="Salem Norongachi"] with a playful grin. He was trying to be light, even though the situation was entirely serious. He spun on his heel and said, "And meet you at the hangar".

With that, the young Knight Obsidian headed out to his room. He dismounted Drachlann's sheath from its clip on his armour and strapped it to his belt. After that, he made good on his word and picked up his long, dark coat from his desk chair and threw it on, then did up a few of the buttons. It was open at the front, but wrapped slightly around his legs. It had long sleeves with adjustable button straps and the tail of the coat hung down to his ankles. It wasn't a fancy coat, but it was a nice one. After a few moments to arrange his sheath within his coat, he picked up the blade and hilted it into the enveloping object. After he was done, he swept through the Hand's halls. The paths between the sections of the ship he frequented were becoming so familiar that the time it took seemed negligible, and soon he found himself in the hangar.

He could tell his senses were getting stronger. A tingling sensation crept up his spine when his sight was cast upon the planet again, a ghost of the sensory overload of life that radiated from the world. It was fascinating, to feel himself grow in such a way. It made him feel whole again.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Norongachi was waiting for him in the small shuttle that ferried them from A to B, except this time he was in the co-pilots seat and not the pilots, as he usually was. He wore a simple black t-shirt and combat trousers in a colour to match with his army boots. He wore no weapon, save the Force and smoked a cigarra while he waited for [member="Atretes Rhoujen"] to enter.

"We haven't got all day kid!" He called out through the open boarding ramp.

 

[EmKay]

Atretes hopped up into the shuttle upon the call of his master. He hung up his coat on a rack upon entry and hit the switch to close up the hatch, which closed with a slow hiss as the airtight seal was created. He briskly covered the few steps to the pilot seat, not bothering to question that [member="Salem Norongachi"] had decided to let him fly. With the quick, near-instinctive flicks of controls and switches, the ship rose at the hands of the apprentice and lurched forward with its clunky momentum. Soon they were out of the hangar and headed down to the planet surface.

The forested surface of Kashyyyk was one that brought wonder to Rhoujen's eyes and spirit. He had never before witnessed such a vast expanse of massive woodland, and his senses were fluttering from one focus to another in amazement of all of the life, not quite able to grasp and focus on one thing for very long. It was scrambled and confusing, but he found it somewhat comfortable. Amid the haze of confusion he was still able to detect some individual lives, though most of them were trees that felt absolutely ancient. How something could live that long mystified Atretes.

"How old is this forest?" the apprentice asked his master, while the scanners laboured to find terrain suitable for landing.

Following Salem's answer, the scanners highlighted a small rectangle on the planet's surface as suitable for landing, followed by a bright warning: "DANGER, AREA DEEMED HAZARDOUS FOR EXPLORATION".

"Excellent!" raced through Rhoujen's mind, already acquiring a taste for risks and danger. Perhaps he was moulding into something greater already. Time would tell, wouldn't it?

 

[Salem Norongachi]

The shuttle lifted off under Sigmas practiced guidance and soon they were barreling from the hangar of the Star Destroyer toward the canopy of Kashyyyk. Norongachi said nothing, he did nothing, as they descended through the atmosphere, the small shuttle bunking and jerking as it was buffeted by the planets natural shield. They broke into low lying clouds, so delicate and white that he almost felt like he could scoop a handful of it if he so desired. Then they were skimming the tops of the great wroshyr trees that were as impossibly tall as they were broad.

"How old is the Galaxy?" Was his response, in truth he had no idea nor little inclination to find out. He was only ever curious about such things that mattered to him at the time or would in the future. The lifespan of a plant was not one of them. The ship chimed a warning then and Omega cast it a lazy glance before reclining back in his seat.

"Now this is a camping trip..." He said with a smirk.

 

[EmKay]

Atretes let out a soft and wordless murmur in response to [member="Salem Norongachi"]'s words. It wasn't exactly the answer he was hoping for, but he could understand the meaning behind the answer to a degree. Sometimes things are too old to be worth knowing their age. With a few more ticked switches, the ship swiveled in the air and lowered down slowly. Branches snapped and groaned, and the leaves of the massive trees whirled as if caught in a maelstrom. Soon, the shuttle touched down with a slight jolt and settled onto its landing gear smoothly. As soon as Rhoujen cut the engines and lights, all was dark and quiet within the craft.

"Why have you come here?" a voice crept through his head. He recognised it as Sigma, but in place of the usual loathing it was more of curiosity. A moment was all it took for the young Obsidian to shake off the other's presence and stand. Wordlessly, he made his way to the door and threw on his coat with a bit of a flourish. While showy, it was a quick way to get the jacket on, and that's what mattered. Something about being down here, after the little outburst from what he could only call his 'other half', made him tense. As a precaution, he sent out his senses.

The world before him was teeming with life, and he could feel the traces of many powerful Force users having intersected here at one point or other. He had never felt such sensations before. Dark, Light, and even a kind of in-between such as himself had come to this place many a time, for many a purpose. With more thorough, yet still tentative touches, he could feel the remnants of wars, of conflicts. He stepped out of the ship and onto the ground, and was assailed with how much life there was. It was like a field of static, glancing across his sight without being able to be properly focused on. It was a little irritating, and he felt almost blinded. The prevalent life was overloading his senses, and he had to disconnect a degree to be able to focus back on being able to sense the Force alone. He sighed. Up until this point he felt like he was making outstanding progress in his training. Now he felt like he did when he started. A little speck in the vast universe that the Force was, and his abilities were still far from where they belonged.

"Where they belong hm?" came Sigma's voice in his mind again. He frowned. Sometimes, he felt a little more arrogant than he should, and had thoughts like that... it was a dangerous thing. He had to keep it in check more frequently as he got more powerful.

"So, any ideas on which way is forward?" Atretes called back to Salem. The blackness down here was expansive, and there were many routes. He merely couldn't choose one.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

The ship descended, branches and leaves scraping against its hull and slowly but surely the light began to drain away as they went deeper and deeper, down to the very base of the titanic trees. The ship came to a rest with a bump, its side wedged against a massive root that snarled from the ground in a great arch that could easily have allowed a freighter to pass.

They moved outside, the darkness seeming to cling to Norongachi's skin. If it were not for the grace of the Force he would have lost his footing immediately but as it were, his senses kept him upright.

"This is your adventure Sigma, I'm merely along for the ride." He replied, moving toward [member="Atretes Rhoujen"].

 

[EmKay]

"Hm." Rhoujen responded simply. He wasn't going to whine 'but you're supposed to be my maaasteeerrr!', because that would just be, well, stupid. He peered around, trying to make out anything in this darkness. He could sense the paths through the Force, and sense what was around him fairly well, but he wasn't skilled enough really to be able to make out everything he should simply through the energy it gave off. He frowned, and waves a finger through the air, ensnaring a vine of the Force along with it.

He focused on that little tendril, and formed it into a ball, with which he honed more energy unto until it began to shimmer with life. He focused on his need to see beyond the darkness, unaware that as he did so the darkness itself seemed to move away from him, and his brow furrowed while he put more intent upon needing light into that little sphere of the Force. It began to flicker and spark in his hands, like an ember struggling to turn to flame, until with a final injection of energy the small orb became a brilliant white light. With gentle touches that caressed his palm with glowing warmth, he tethered the ethereal light to his belt where it acted like a torch. He looked out beyond him and could now see, better than he could at least, the different paths. He saw one that looked less brambly, and figured that would be a good direction to start.

"Shall we?" he offered to [member="Salem Norongachi"], internally proud to have made that little ball of light but externally adventure-oriented. Still, he couldn't help the smile that played across his face.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Norongachi felt the force jump to Rhoujen's command, watching through eyes unseeing as the intricate process of shaping it into a usable energy began and was completed quickly. The area became illuminated as light sprung from Sigma's hand, like he were a lesser god creating a tiny sun for a world the size of a pinhead. The sight brought a mental smirk to Salem's mind, the boy had been studying Emah's archives. That made one of their larger more important lessons clear; Soon [member="Atretes Rhoujen"] would wield the flame, as his master did.

"After you," Norongachi responded with a nod of his head. "We should find a place to make camp."

 

[EmKay]

With the aid of the light, Atretes made his way through the knotty brush of the Kashyyyk surface, stepping along almost quietly through the vegetation. The sounds of wildlife permeated the air, and something chilled down the young man's spine for no certain reason. His senses flared slightly, only to be assailed again by the sheer volume of life here, and he withdrew. He frowned, but decided to focus instead on the task at hand. He could not tell the time of day by looking ahead, and looking back showed that the sun was likely nearing midday. Something snapped his focus forward, and then up, and with a quick step forward, his blade drew and encircled in an upward arc than sliced the falling creature in half. A jolt of the Force sent the two halves outward from Atretes' body, and he flicked the goo from the blade of his sword. He stared at the slug-like creature, then tossed an inquisitive look to [member="Salem Norongachi"], wondering if he knew what in the nine hells this thing Atretes had just bisected was.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

The darkness of the undergrowth teemed with life as they made their way forward, even with senses almost four decades old in the making Salem Norongachi found it difficult to separate them. It took a level of focus beyond his usual relaxed sensory perception and further still to find a singular creature among it all. The force, however, provides many talents the most important of which was that of precognition, so when the leech like monstrosities fell from the branches above he saw them coming in a ghostly flash of the future.

The Master didn't even falter his steps, his preternatural gifts had locked onto and calculated the trajectory of the two arm length annelids. He could feel the opening of the circular sucker like maws, needle like teeth filling it with row upon row that wished for nothing more than a taste of his lifes blood. A rapier of telekinetic energy lashed out from his body, so practiced was he that not even a look was required, and their bodies fell apart in more pieces than they had started with.

"Really big leeches," He shurgged. "There's worse than that down here."

 

[EmKay]

Atretes' senses flared again, and a small monkey-like creature ran past. This place was teeming with life indeed, and as the denizens recovered from their temporary flight from the starship nearby, they were making a good show of frightening the apprentice at every turn. He closed his eyes and stilled his nerves, then carried on to look for a clearing to camp.

The trail went on, lined almost constantly by trees, boulders, and tree-covered boulders, until finally what appeared at first to be a pile of large rocks turned out to be a small crevice into a cave upon closer inspection. With a cursory, if partly useless, scan of his senses into the space for danger, Rhoujen took a few steps back and dipped his will into the Force, which he impressed upon the rocks. Gently they shook, until Atretes wove his hand through the air as if worming his energy into the rocks and space between. Finally he twisted his wrist and gripped with his hand, and the rocks snapped to attention. With his other hand, he guided the pile of rocks away from the gap, each one furrowing into the ground around it until they lined the chasm entrance like a retaining wall. Finally he released his grip and, save a small rock that fell out, the whole construct stayed solid.

Atretes let a moment pass to see if any more rocks would fall, and when they didn't he focused on another aspect of the Force and brought to life another small ball of light. With this one, he focused in on it, willing it to become brighter. Its intensity grew, and became brighter, until the light warmth it gave off was a small heat. He opened his clasped hands and stepped forward to guide it into the cave, when the sense of danger that had been getting quite a bit of practise lit up his mind like an explosion of warning. He changed his step, and by instinct his palm closed around that bright light and crushed it. The light peeking out between his fingers dimmed, then changed from a pleasant off-white to a deep amethyst with blue streaks. Those shards of light wavered and flicked, until licks of identically-patterned flame were streaming out from Rhoujen's hand. He volleyed that ball of flame at the destination of his senses, and not three feet away the ball splashed against exoskeleton in a stunning burn across a semi-arachnid's body with a central lance-like appendage. Stunned, however, was all it was as it recoiled, but Atretes took his sword and made quick work of the creature with few steps and fewer slices. He glared at the corpse for a moment, before he looked to the hand that held the flame. There were some minor burns, as though he'd touched a hot pan for a moment, but he was otherwise unharmed for holding fire. He looked from his hand to [member="Salem Norongachi"], and lofted a brow in a silent 'did you see that?'.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Norongachi found himself idling behind his student. He could do little but watch and keep his senses attuned for the approach of something worse than their previous encounter as [member="Atretes Rhoujen"] made short work of the collapsed entrance to the cave beyond. The stones moved under his command and the darkness of the opening awaited them.

A tingle of something came to Omega's attention and he made to step forward before a burst of unnatural flame downed the arachnid, he let his eyes fall upon Sigma, a cold stare that gave away little to his thoughts on what had just transpired. They moved deeper into the cave mouth and his senses stretched out like a stream of water, finding the passages beyond, feeling every rock and crack that lay ahead. The space they were in was only a few heads taller than the Master and in the gloom at the back of the cavern a wide hole easily large enough to accommodate them...or something else, lead to a warren of snaking tunnels.

A thought brought the stones that had previously bared their entrance under the control of his mind and the moved in behind them, the largest of the three set themselves against the entrance, the hole no larger than half a meter their only view back out into the wilds of Kashyyyk. The others set themselves against the opening at the back of the cave, effectively sealing them in from all sides.

"Better get a fire going," He said resting his back against the stone cavern wall.

 

[EmKay]

The little light still burned on Atretes' belt, and he lingered a moment with his gaze affixed to the fallen creature. He sheathed his blade, and turned to follow [member="Salem Norongachi"] into the cave. He heard the rocks rearrange and turned to see the entrance mostly closed. He turned back around to be greeted with instruction. He frowned. This was no doubt a test of that accident he'd managed to pull off, and unfortunately he didn't know how. He opened his mouth to say he didn't know, and Salem raised a hand to halt him.

"You've done it once, you can do it again." he said simply. The cold fire in his gaze never left, and the idling neutrality of his posture remained. That didn't help the apprentice much, but he sighed and sat himself down, then closed his eyes. He let himself fall into the Force and take a deep breath, then suddenly was surrounded by the life around him, sheltered slightly by the walls of the cave. He was lost in a swarm of colour, or movement, of interweaving, intermingling, woven-together mass of energy that threatened to swallow him. he felt a nudge in the Force, something that brought him back to the present. Whatever it was, he managed to fight off the peripheral sensory overload and concentrate on the orb of light, as he had before. He heard Salem muttering things, small advice while he could sense his student learning. The way the air moves together, the intensity of heat in the orb of light, the various aspects of friction, movement, and making sure he didn't burn his face off. It was all highly complex, and spanned likely hours. Time dragged on.

Within Rhoujen's meditations, he began to be able to pick out the atoms of oxygen. He carefully began to manipulate them as he moved the ball of light into his hands, bringing them into a conglomerate around the ball of light. He used it as a kind of conduit and fire starter, gaining more intimate knowledge of how the ball of light was constructed and how it reacted to the Force. Slowly the subatomic sparks flickered, and with just the right touch, the ball of light burst into silver flame. As the unnatural process dwindled into his own influence, the silver took on a sky blue hue then simmered into a bright blue flame as you'd see in the hottest coals of a fire, with a clear base signifying the flame grown from nothing. He opened his eyes at the flickering warmth, and stared into this small ball grown from his previously innocent powers. He set it down much as he did the ball of light, only this was on the cavern floor. He brought some sticks and branches small enough to fit through the hole into the cavern and settled them atop the flame. After a few moments, they caught and a campfire was born.

 

[EmKay]

Something felt amiss, then. Atretes stood, not sure what to make of the chill crawling across his spine, and made his way across the small cave toward the back. He placed a hand on the back wall and felt a light tremor through the stone. He looked back to [member="Salem Norongachi"] with a puzzled glance, before tracing his fingers along the stone further toward where the vibrations seemed to come from. He felt the stone change then, to a smoother, more polished surface and then traced his hand up and down that... groove? He took a step back and examined the wall. Something ground against that section daily but... what?

click

He heard from underfoot. He looked down to see his heel sunk into the stone, a half-metre-wide circle depressed into the floor, and the smooth part of the wall slid down to reveal further depths. He tilted his head and peered in, not sure what to think of this development. Then he heard growling from within and took a quick few steps backward. He looked down and brandished a large stick from the fire into a makeshift torch, then threw it down the hole. Large eyes reflected the light as it traveled down, guttural growls and shrieks coming from within, then they vanished as the light faded. Something struck Rhoujen then, that sense of fight or flight that could take hold of your sanity and drive you, literally, up a wall. It was then, in a desperate scan of the surroundings for something to close the door, that he noticed the bones of various species strewn across the floor. There was something else, too. A malicious intent. Something not quite right about those creatures as they crept nearer like predators stalking prey. They were nearing the entryway, and Atretes drew his sword as the first leapt out at him.

[8] The creature, something that looked like an albino Wookiee with massive eyes, longer fingers, and a more slender frame, lunged at Atretes with claws outstretched, [20] but Atretes slipped to the side of it and jammed his sword through its skull, pinning the creature to the stone. Another crawled out, then another, [15] and the young apprentice slid his sword out from the flesh and bone of the creature beneath him. He turned to face the creatures, but saw them beginning to swarm out. The walls appeared fuzzy and writhing, then he realised something. They were furred. He gripped his new found power in the Force, and a flame flickered to life he backed toward the exit area, and launched the small flame into the mass of Wookiee-like creatures. [20] The fur of one of the individuals caught, and their close-knit formation caused the flame to spread rapidly, scorching flesh and searing their fur off until the mass shrieking was deafening in the small space. They retreated, at the same time trying to put one another out, and soon they disappeared into the tunnel. A moment later, the portal slid closed and sealed with a dull clunk.

Atretes looked down to the dead one on the ground and rolled it with his foot. He scanned over its features and his brow furrowed. It looked like a mutated Wookiee of some kind, but he couldn't really be sure. He looked up at Salem, wherever he was or whatever he was doing.

"Do you have any clue what the frak this thing is?"

 

[Salem Norongachi]

"Trouble," Norongachi growled as the sub-dwellers beat a retreat. He looked down at the corpse, half scorched and smaller than any surface dwelling Wookiee. The half-light did little to obscure his vision, such were his enhancements and he stepped over the corpse toward the entrance to their subterranean domain. "It would take centuries for a species to devolve into something so unique..." He spoke, half to himself. His fingers found the groove where the 'door' met the rock around it. He slipped ethereal claws of telekinetic energy into the groove and then slid had hand to the side. The rock groaned, its base scarping against the floor as it was forced aside.

"Well?" He asked [member="Atretes Rhoujen"]. "You wanted an adventure..."

 

[EmKay]

The hesitation was holding Atretes frozen. He stared down the tunnel, looked around him, flexed his hand, and frowned hard. There was danger here. Adventure, certainly, but was he ready...?

"The fact that you question as much proves you're not, child." came that voice. Atretes' posture wilted at that, a kind of defeat washing over him. He couldn't object to the truth behind Sigma's words, as irritating as they were. He exhaled and looked to [member="Salem Norongachi"], and shook his head.

"Another time," he muttered loud enough to hear, "I don't think venturing after those... things... is a good idea." he said grimly, and shifted his stance to take a step away.

"Not now," he added, his expression turning hard, "Later, though, when I'm not so weak." he finished. He was strong, yes, but he was still mostly unskilled. Venturing into such a hive in his current state was a step below suicide. With the numbers they displayed, Atretes wouldn't be surprised if even his teacher would have been occupied and there still be more of them to spare on him. He shuddered at the memory of their claws, and took an actual step away at that thought.

 

[EmKay]

OOC: I'll just call this done with the assumption we just hopped on the shuttle and left Kashyyyk. We have more important things to do.
[THREAD COMPLETE]