Palm nodded, offering a small smile as a silent 'thank you'. She shared that same philosophy and had made it her mission to never turn her back on other unless it was inevitable or done for a greater good. However, Palm had stopped being an idealist a long time ago and knew not everyone held themselves up to that. She didn't judge them, Force knew how many wounds and sorrows she would have saved herself from if she had chosen to walk away. But again, today was not a day to walk away. Hopefully it wouldn't be a day for sorrows either.
As they walked through the corridors, Palm kept her eyes open and her stance ready. She heard Beltran's words attentively and found herself agreeing with his plan. The ambush was inevitable, might as well give the freaks a hard time with it. Palm no longer kept her full focus on sensing, seeing as how now she had her sight to follow the creature's movements. Once again, she drew on the force to strengthen herself and her reflexes, enough to match the creatures', since she had already had a taste of them. These things had been people, but they were no more. They would at least put them out of their misery.
When the four creatures came down on them, Palm prepared to face off against the two in the front. Not only would she be protecting herself but watching Beltran's back, as she trusted he would do for her. The geminaie noticed that one of the creatures had what seemed to be a burnt slash on its chest, and she recognized it to be the first one that had attacked her. Because of this, the creature knew to watch out for the sabers. The other one was the first one to lunge at her. Palm dodged its attack, kicking its flank as she moved to make it smash against its companion. She then moved forward, a slash of one of her sabers aimed at the creature while the other remained on the defense.
Having been forced out of their rudimentary formation, the blade cut through the head of the one that had attacked her while the remaining one barely managed to dodge the blade. It screeched, and just as Palm thought it would jump at her, the creature changed its course and went for the Ranger. Palm moved quickly, positioning herself between them to intercept the creature. This time it couldn't overpower her, the Geminaie blocked its attack with an ignited blade that burnt through the creature's hand before rotating her body and bringing down both sabers in a slashing motion, cutting off the creature's head in the process.
There was one left, the one that had spat acid at Beltran, and Palm positioned herself towards it. The geminaie jumped forward, her ability to jump so high and far apparently surprising the creature and forcing it into the ground again before it spat more acid, leaving it vulnerable to an attack from Beltran. They were intelligent, but apparently not great at quick thinking. So far they had had the upper hand when the darkness gave them time to prey on and plan. Luckily for them, that table had turned. But this did not mean they were safe. One bite from these things, and Palm was sure they'd have to say goodbye to whatever limb suffered had been wounded.
As soon as the creatures were dead, Palm began trotting the rest of the way towards the elevator, intending to make it there before their assailants could regroup. When Beltran was in the elevator too, she put in the clearance code, the same scientist's card and took them one floor below. Section 46 was here, and now they knew what way to go to find it. However, something had her brow furrowing. 7th under level, Section 46,
Containment Plant.
As the doors to the elevator opened again, they were met with a gruesome sight. Another room with a clear window, but within it there was not one affected male twi-lek. There were about a dozen creatures that didn't even look remotely human anymore. Their bodies twisted and their behavior nothing short from bestial. Some of them lay dead, chunks of them missing indicating that the other had...eaten them. And as soon as they set sights on the two, they all run and hit themselves against the glass in a rampage which had Palm raising her sabers out of reflex. But the transparisteel held still, they couldn't come through. For now.
"We need to get out of here fast." Palm didn't want to stay around to find out how much longer that glass would hold, and so she began making her way towards section 46. Nervousness and anxiety began attempting to take over her again. She needed to know if her people where there. If they were still people.
Still on high alert, she occasionally looked back to make sure Beltran was still with her. And eventually they made it to the last corridor. Palm muttered something below her breath in Nexilis, a muffled plea to not be met with disfigured faces, fanged mouths and clawed hands. But instead, this glass was covered in what she though looked like pillow sheets, impeding them - or anything else - from looking within. Her eyes went to Beltran, questioning, as she raised her hands to knock on the glass thrice. Then she waited.
Palm-Imer
. The exchange of blows was quick, but even in the near darkness Beltran could tell from the shadow that he had identified as his ally that she'd been injured.
