DemonTongue

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

"Good. We're not just stuck. We're stuck on a planet full of primitives. There goes any chance of getting parts or real tools. Time to start learning the local customs and settling in. Just one thing. Is asking for just one damn thing to go right too much? Uhg. Whatever. At least the planet is inhabited this time. I guess. By humans. There's no place you people don't get to is there? Breeding like fucking rabbits up in this shit. Not as bad as T'wileks though. I swear to every single fucking ancestor and spirit I have if I find one damned T'wilek on this stupid planet I'm gonna..."

Quin listened to the Togruta's racist ramblings to nobody in particular before rolling her eyes and walking away to make her way through the armory in search of something she could use. She went for the obvious choice first, a sword. However, after removing it from its sheath and taking a few moments to swing it from side to side a bit she found it to be far to heavy and unwieldy in her untrained hands. At least the vibro-dagger Nyrette had given her was still as sharp and lethal as ever. She left the large assortment of blades behind knowing they were more likely to get her killed than defend her.

The armory also contained a large assortment of armored suits, most of them being archaic, clunky and largely immobile. There were shields, some small, some large, some towering beyond ridiculous sizes. Though she played around a bit with a buckler, again she decided that these items just weren't for her.

She wasn't the only one struggling with the strange selection. Iisska seemed completely disinterested in everything on display. Even the bastard sword Cheshik was trying to talk him into.

"Not that I don't like it or that it's not a real warrior's weapon. I mean it is. It just looks... like a lot. I mean big. Also dangerous. Very, very dangerous. I'm just gonna get my gauntlets and punch things like usual. Good old punching things," he defended himself.

"Agreed," Quin interrupted, "It takes a lot of training and martial skill to use weapons like this. Unfortunately such methods of combat and therefore the corresponding training has fallen out of favor in Republic systems. And with the ship's supply of Kolto dwindling so low I don't want to see any avoidable injuries from bad choices."

Iisska's mouth was slightly open and he gave her a confused look. Cheshik's expression was similar.

Quin sighed, "Don't try and use any weapon you don't have experience with."

"Oh. Yeah. Exactly," Iisska said.

"You may want a little extra protection though. Maybe a chest plate or something... Unfortunately this situation doesn't leave some of us with a lot of options."

"Heh, is the gunner girl shit outta luck?"

"Mm," Quin was about to leave them again when Cheshik directed her attention to something in the far corner.

All she knew was that from here it looked like a rifle stock. Could it be? Quin bolted over to where it hung along side a small handful of similar weapons. When she got closer it definitely looked more like a bolt-caster, but fundamentally different. After taking it off the wall she recognized that it needed to be manually loaded with some kind of projectile but for the life of her she couldn't figure out how. It was solid, made of pressed wood and framed in metal and bone with all the pieces riveted together and rather intricately decorated through the limbs. She pressed it against her shoulder and looked down the sights. It had sights. Sweet mercy it had sights. Ignoring the other's looks and questions she took long fast strides toward the door of the armory and faced Cynthia.

"What is this, where is the ammunition and how do I use it?" She demanded.

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

Iisska mustered the strength to get up and walk up behind Marquis, whom was addressing their intruder.

"Means us no harm? Pft," he mumbled at the droid, "What ever this thing is, and whatever its 'master' is, they've been watching us. I don't like it. We should get outta here."

He glared over his shoulder, across the lake, to the opposite shore which seemed barren.

"And go where, Iisska?" Nyrette asked, standing close to Quin with her arms crossed. "In case you've been plastered and brain dead for the last twenty hours, the ship is here. We have nowhere to go."

"I don't know, just away from here. We don't need the ship, we can just walk. You know. With feet. I don't like weirdos watching me," he snorted.

At the mention of abandoning the ship, the death stare that Iisska received from Marquis was real.

"Yeah. Bad idea." Nyrette said. "I don't see the harm in at least seeing what they want. I mean, this for all we know could be his land. We don't know the rules of this planet, we could be jailed for the rest of our lives for sneezing in the wrong area for all we know. It'd be better to play the nice people instead of running away from a planet we're stuck on."

"You don't see the harm!? Are you for real? What if he's gonna eat us or something?"

She stared at him for a moment then pointed at Cheshik then Marquis. "Leather death and metal death. Probably won't work."

Iisska let out a groan and rolled his eyes before looking between Cheshik and Marquis. He could see from the way Quin was standing beside Nyrette with her arms folded that she wouldn't be swayed either.

"Cheshik. You're not okay with this. Right?" he asked.

"My brain agrees with you, but my squishy gut bits tell me that it will be alright if we listen to her, so I go with gut." He snorted and stood up, grabbing his sword. "Gut has lied only once, and it was on the subject of fish and raw quality. It has learned since hospital. Will not be wrong now."

Iisska slapped his hand over his face so hard it could be heard halfway across the lake. Incoherent mumbling came out of his mouth in a steamed hiss before he took a deep breath and stood up straight.

"Fine! We'll go talk to what-his-ass and I'll laugh while you all get chopped into snacks."

"While you...what? Become the first course?" Nyrette said and gestured at his stomach and smiled, turning towards the woman.

As the group stood up and stretched a bit, Cheshik slid over next to Quin and whispered into her ear. "That was burn like teenager use, correct? Should I write down for grammar lesson?"

"Yes. That sort of thing is quite important in the day to day, I would say," Quin winked at him.

Sitting down next to the fire pit, Marquis resumed his melancholy stance from the night before. "And nobody offers to stay at the ship. No. No. It is quite alright. I will stay." He huffed, unhappy.

Iisska's hand shot up immediately, "I'll stay!"

And just like that, Iisska would once again be finding himself dragged on the ground by the Cheshik in the direction of exactly where he wouldn't ever want to go ever. Again. As usual.

Quin sipped her coffee for a few long moments, watching Iisska scream his lungs out at Cheshik. A gentle little gnawing on her boot tore her away though as the energetic little pup had woken up as well and was trying to get her to play with him. A smile spread across her lips as she bent down to pry him away and give him a rub behind the ears before he started wrestling with her hand.

"You won't be alone, Marquis," she said, "this one is a little young to be coming with us."

Quin looked up at him with big eyes that almost mirrored the ones that the pup was now giving him as well.

He looked up to her and his eye seemed to lighten a little. "If I have to feed it I will probably not be-" He stopped as the little pup ran up to him and tried to jump up to his lap but failed. The Gentlebot leaned over and picked it up so it could bite and play in his lap. "I hate you." He said bluntly.

"That's adorable, Sterling," Quin purred, "I suppose we should get going. No use in moping around here."

Once they had all gathered the strange woman turned without saying a word and lead them into the forest. They followed her through an area they had explored somewhat the night before but very soon they lost sight of the ship and wandered far away from the explored area. Here the trees grew taller and closer together. Massive evergreens that stabbed higher and higher into the sky as they grew up the side of the foothills past the lake that gave way to a wide, jagged mountain range. That, however was a place far beyond today's destination. Mesmerized by the small glimpse she caught of them before the dark of the thick forest obscured the mountain entirely, Quin wondered just what could be out there.

She also had to wonder how this woman was finding her way through this forest, over the fallen logs, hills, ravines, the stream, the brush, etc... with no navigational devices, not even a trail. She didn't even seem to be looking at her feet or surroundings. Though now Quin had to ask herself if she could even see past that mask. Or if she even needed to see. Who was this person they were going to see?

It was several hours of hiking before she felt that they had probably rounded the lake. The further they went the more nervous she became.

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

It took some few hours for the crew to come to accept what had just happened. Their situation brought new meaning to the word "bittersweet." When things had settled down, when the shock had begun to wane, and after any injuries had been tended to they began clean the debris and put the pieces of whatever they had left back together. Quin surveyed the lake and forest around them from the gaping hole that used to be the far end of the engine room and the back of the ship.

"On the bright side, we finally made it to a planet with a beach," Quin said.

Iisska detached the charred remains of an auxiliary thruster from it's all but destroyed mounts and struggled with it's weight until it hit the floor with a loud CLUNK. He set his foot on it and took a few seconds to catch his breath from a usually very easy endeavor and then turned to glare at Quin. He looked at her with a deeply unimpressed frown for a good five seconds before giving the useless thruster a good hard shove with his boot off the edge of their new patio. He walked away muttering as it shattered all over the ground below.

Deciding it best to let him sulk without her, Quin left to let him salvage the engine room by himself. The rest of the ship was dim, almost too dark to see in some areas in fact. The crew had set up a couple of charged emergency lights, but there was no telling how long those would hold up on what little power they had stored. Even working in the dark it was determined that some of the ship was in rather remarkable condition under the current circumstances. Extensive work would have to be done to the electrical grid and control panels all over the ship, but most of the necessary living space equipment, projectors, communicators, navigation equipment, and other miscellaneous systems were fine. Or so it seemed that way. They weren't exactly functional with every ounce of energy having been drained from the ship on descent. Even Trinity was still quiet.

This dire predicament, however, had a chance at being remedied. Marquis revealed to them that the ship was equipped with an array of solar panels for just such and emergency. They were stored under locking hull panels along the exterior of the ship. They could be opened and extended via mechanical cranks in the upper service passages of the ship. Quin volunteered to be the one to maneuver through these tight, one man passages to get to the cranks. After nearly an hour of work in a claustrophobic's nightmare it was revealed that six of the eight cranks were broken. They would have to be opened manually from the outside. With spit, sweat, a crowbar and many, many swear words.

When Quin ventured back to the engine room to get more muscle for the job, she found the place nearly gutted, a practical junk yard scattered on the ground outside of the loading ramp and Iisska fast asleep against the corner wall. Waking him up again was no easy task and he didn't fully snap out of his dazed and confused state until after falling down the ladder to the main deck.

By the time all of the panels concealing the stored solar arrays were brute forced open, mostly thanks to Cheshik, the sun had set.

"Whatever," Iisska sighed and plopped down on the roof of the ship, "Not like any power would have been back today. It's gonna be a week or two before we can even get enough stored for the synthesizer to shit out one cup of coffee."

"On that topic..." Quin said quietly, "We only have about five or six days worth of dry rations."

"You mean we have five or six days worth of cardboard flakes," Iisska snorted.

"Eight or nine if you'd rather starve," she proposed.

He lay back and rolled onto his side.

"That's what I thought. Anyway, we'll need to find an alternate food source, and quickly, just in case. Hopefully there's some kind of edible wildlife or plant matter around here. Better yet a city or a space port where we can get help. Or a native species that would trade with us rather than execute us on sight... Cheshik. You were a hunter right? Maybe you can help us out with that? I suggest we organize a survey team in the morning and start to get a better grasp on our surroundings."

Quin looked up into the night sky, that was now lit up with millions upon millions of stars, as she finished that thought. For a moment she was intimidated by how impossible that expanse seemed now that they were without a functional ship. It defied her reason. Then she felt calm. Though her thoughts were turning toward the imposing, it was all so beautiful. Stunning even. It reminded her of something very important.

"I know things don't look good, but we are alive. As long as we're all breathing then that's something. If we survived... that... Then I think we can survive this."

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

Iisska looked between the light saber and Zen with much apprehension before fastening it into his belt. He looked ahead into the arena. A fighter or two was already filing past them.

"You do a lot of stupid shit, Zen, but picking me to back you up over one of the others is pushing it," he said, "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that in a real fight, I would rather fight beside my student, somebody I trust, over somebody like Quin or Cheshik, whom would be crushed in an instant at the start of battle."

"Mm," Iisska nodded, "You're right. I'm sure I can last at least two, maybe three instants."

"Better than half a one."

---

The pair stepped out into the sun and the cavernous amphitheater-like arena. Rows of seating rose up at least a hundred feet on one side and several stories of box seats, storage, animal cages and prison cells on the other. The bottom of the pit was oblong and rounded and must have been at least 300 feet across at the widest point. Strange horns bellowed and reverberated through the stone. A swarm of insectoid natives and other aliens a thousand strong cheered, shouted and raised a cacophony that could have been heard from a mile away.

"These people must love their idiot parades," Iisska mumbled under his breath.

They were gathering toward the center of the arena as an announcer bellowed in an incomprehensible language over a primitive loudspeaker. It sounded intense. The crowd cheered. He had no damn clue what was going on or what they were supposed to be doing or fighting. Behind them the gate to the underworks slammed shut. On the opposite side three more opened. Iisska shook his hands out, clenched his fists, made sure he was breathing correctly and relaxed as best as he could. His eyes locked on the dark lairs.

A filthy looking heavily armored mercenary several feet away already had his guns out. He snorted, "So green grass is sproutin' up 'round yer feet, boy. When you get dismembered I'll be takin' them fancy blasters."

The man went almost completely ignored, much like a bothersome gnat, as the second he finished a squad of Geonosian cavalry charged from the open gates and spread out on the sand. They wore featureless helmets that obscured their faces entirely and blackened armor that wrapped their bodies in strange contours. Their steeds were huge bipedal beasts that were nothing more than jagged drooling maws and powerful legs. At their sides each rider wielded a heavy spear eight or more feet in length in one hand and some a sword in one of the other hands. The spears were held parallel to the ground as they came at the group, ready to eviscerate them. A bolt from a heavy rifle belonging to one of the mercs caught a rider square in the face and dismounted him, but it was only a split second before the first of them was caught on the end of one of those viscous lances. The crowd erupted in a riotous cheer for first blood. Projectiles and flashes of light sprayed over the sands. A few went astray and found themselves in the crowd of onlookers. The start of the battle happened so quickly they were not given time to plan strategy or decide how to best face their new enemies. Iisska however found himself with a few precious moments of alacrity as he tore through the air, over the head of a rider who had been trying to impale him, in a well-timed, wide-arching flip.

His thoughts: "Not a fist fight."

He planted both feet on the ground with a hard, WHUMPH. The new DT-57 was already in his right hand and hardly a moment after Zen's lightsaber was in his left. He let loose three shots. All of them struck the mount and spine of the rider who was still trying to turn his beast around. Where they impacted carved out gaping, charred wounds and tore wide swaths of armor and flesh away. The animal went down screeching and crushed it's master who made no sound. The show had drawn the attention of two other nearby riders. They changed course, but Iisska was already on the move across the blood soaked arena.

The Geonosian soldiers were decimating the mercenaries faster than they could retaliate. If it were not for Zen, who had carved a wide swath out of the action with a few expert cuts, they may have been wiped out already. The crowd was loving it and a new surge of excited clamor followed each spray of blood and wave of sand kicked up underfoot.

Iiisska strung out the two soldiers after him. The fastest could almost keep up, but he wasn't trying to get away. Without a moment's notice he stopped dead, crouched low with sword arm and gun pulled close around him, like a spring ready to go off. The creature staggered clumsily trying to come to a stop and take a bite, but Iisska snapped out and severed it's hind leg while it stumbled over him and crashed to the ground. He twisted as soon as it landed and slammed the saber through its neck to end its suffering then put a bolt through the chest of the rider. Not forgetting about the second foe, he bolted off again with a set of man-size jaws snapping at his heels. For once the look in his eyes as the thing chased him down wasn't fear, or anger, or panic. It was focus. He wasn't thinking about who's fault this was or where he'd rather be because he wasn't thinking at all.

The wild fray that had engulfed the arena for the first thirty seconds of the fight had thinned into something far more interesting. Only four mercs remained. Zen, Iisska, the man who called him green and a dishonored Mandalorian judging from the armor. It was them against six cavalry. Iisska set the same trap again. But this time it didn't work. This rider gave him more space than his fallen comrade and was able to line up his spear with the explosive little upstart. Had Iisska not thrown himself prone immediately he would be dealing with a foot long blade stuck between his ribs. He felt it bite into his rear lekku leaving nothing more than a scrape. But now he was flat on the ground with those teeth coming down on top of him. He rolled to his back, dropped his weapons and caught the jaws of the beast in his hands just before they were able to snap shut. It felt like he was being squeezed between two sides of the universe. The steed's jaws and his arms quaked violently with the effort it was taking for it to continue to bite down and the effort it took for him to keep those teeth apart. He writhed, grit his teeth, and hissed. How many pounds of pressure was he holding? How long could he keep this up? What did death by being bitten in half feel like? He shoved the questions away, struggling to breathe and focus again. He struggled to draw on the force as the muscles and tendons in his arms started to tear and give out. There was a popping and crackling noise in his shoulder as the animal wriggled its massive head around trying to get better leverage and ground him deep into the sand. Then he saw the glint of the spear in the sun. The rider raised it high and aimed it for his skull as he lay helplessly pinned. But the next sound, instead of being steel through bone and brain, was the deep and sudden whir of a light saber.

The soldier's top half hit the ground next to him. Suddenly the beast's jaws went lax and Iisska found himself holding up its dismembered head. He threw it away immediately and found Zen standing over him. The man wore a look on his face that scared Iisska worse than death. It was grim, furious, and utterly vacant at the same time.

"Get your weapons. Now," Zen told him.

Iisska did as he was told. Scrambling up and pulling his thrown weapons to his hands with the force. Now he could see that the arena was still. Bodies, body parts, gore, fluids, weapons and armor littered the place. Most of them scorched with saber cuts. The other two mercs were down. It was just them now.

So why did he still feel it?

"It's still here," he told Zen, who seemed to ignore him.

Iisska wandered the site of the massacre as if searching for something. He rolled the body of one of the soldiers over absentmindedly with his foot. The face plate on the helmet had been knocked slightly ajar. The face underneath, though alien, looked and felt wrong somehow. As if it wasn't the right shape. He felt repulsed and yet drawn to it. With a sort of sick, nagging curiosity tugging at him Iisska knelt and tugged at the face plate. Only to find that it was bolted down. He gripped it in both hands and wrenched it away. It took a few good tries, but the faceplate suddenly snapped out of place, taking bolts and clinging tendrils of flesh with it.

Iisska threw the piece of metal to the ground and lept back screaming. He fell back where he rushed away in a flurry of panicked movement until he was a good ten feet away from the damned corpse.

"Zen! ZEN!" he screamed and continued to back away slowly. The color was draining from him.

Where a Geonosian face should have been was nothing but a gaping hole and the remnants of a lower jaw. As if the entire front of the skull had been hastily hacked out with a dull saw blade. And inside was nothing. There was no bone, no flesh, no light, no shadow. Simply nothing. A limitless blackness that could swallow up everything in its path. Iisska did not stop until his back touched the far wall of the arena where he stood frozen with fear. The crowd had quieted to a loud burble of murmuring. The announcer who had been so excited to go shouting about their victory now sounded confused and hesitant.

It was a few more moments before he noticed that there was another merc who had survived the fight standing by one of the open gates. Except this human man didn't look like a merc. He was barefoot, dressed in dark grey robes and had minimal plates of armor on his chest, arms and shins. His face was tattooed and he carried a black sword that shimmered in the sun. When he walked it was flawlessly smooth like a dancer. He made no sound and left no footprints. The space around him seemed to be in a constant vacuum. The crowd was growing quiet and nervously shouts were thrown about. This man had not been with them at the beginning. Iisska's chest felt like it was crushing in on itself and he quickly realized it was because he wasn't breathing. He gasped, but nothing. He couldn't breath. A hand went to his throat and he went to his knees, trying again to get a breath in, but failed again. It was as if someone had filled his lungs in with cement and he was suffocating.

The man stopped, raised a lazy hand toward Zenithar and gave him a disinterested "come here" motion.

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

The rain never seemed to cease in this miserable place. Even inside the ship Quin could hear the ever so faint sound of it striking the roof and walls of the facility. Even more so now that everything and everyone on board had gone silent. Normally she would have been urging them to take flight, get off the planet, find somewhere safer to hide. But she, like everybody else, needed a moment. And the feeling of pressing danger, like somebody biting at their heels, scouring the land for them, it just wasn't there yet. She knew they would need to leave, and soon, but not right this second. The damage had been severe. It would be some time before their victims could gather the recourses to hunt them. That and somehow she just had a sense about these things. A sense developed over a decade of walking the edge between life and death.

Quin walked down the loading ramp into the chilled air and steel echoes. The fresh wafting scent from outside cleared her lungs and her head already. Though she snuggled down into her light jacket to keep warm. Then she took her time walking the length of the cavernous room to a short hallway that wound its way to a door that lead to an inconspicuous back door. When she got there she slowed even more and examined the door closely. It was ajar. A cold sliver of light cast an eerie glow on the corridor.

She investigated with caution. It had not been forced open, but the locking mechanism looked like it had been damaged. The hinges were warped in the wrong direction and the mechanism had been torqued outward. Like something heavy had collided with it from the inside... Or slammed it shut. Quin lightly pulled it open with a long, hollow creak. The water and mud came up to the top of the step and lead out to an overgrown trail that disappeared into the thick, swampy forest. She looked for other paths or for some kind of assailant or movement, but found none. The foliage and swamp had pressed itself right to the walls in all other directions.

She stepped out to feel the water on her skin. She had not been able to enjoy it earlier this morning in her focused fervor. In only moments the rain drops were dripping down the back of her neck into her shirt and off the tip of her nose while her hair began to stick to her face in wavy strands. Quin stretched and breathed deeply. She was still shaking off the shock. She just couldn't rid herself of the anxiety.

Quin rolled out her neck and her eyes stuck to something interesting in the mud. Tracks. She knelt to get a closer look. They followed the trail into the forest, spread out in a sprint, barefoot, somewhat humanoid. With a sigh she put her hands on her knees and stood up. Then she took the trail at a walk, following the tracks with her hands in her pockets.

It was nearly half an hour before Quin stopped and settled down comfortably in the tangled roots of a large, sprawling tree. She was soaked through and through. Luckily the rain struggled to get through the thick canopy here. At first she only stared at her hands in her lap.

"When you serve under the Republic there's no room for anything else. You don't think for yourself, you take orders. For all their preaching about peace, righteousness and benevolence in the galaxy our beloved Republic is anything but forgiving. For us, anything short of flawless, surgical execution was akin to failure. There was no adventure, there was no companionship, no pleasure, no color. There was only work. Our sworn duty to the Republic. It was so easy. You could just turn off your heart and soul and let your brain run through what they had taught you over and over and over again. You didn't have to be human. You could steal, murder, kidnap, torture... And it only kept you up at night for a little while. It wasn't your problem. It was the person's giving the orders." she said, "This... Being out here with nobody who can tell you what to do or where to go or who to be with... This is hard. You have to call all the shots on your own. You have to be responsible for your survival and desires. When you fail, you don't fail some faceless government. You fail yourself and people you care about. You lose things you love. You never stop losing sleep over it."

Somewhere a creature croaked loudly, calling out through the storm. Quin took a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. She supposed she was waiting for something, though she knew she shouldn't be.

"The point is, part of me thinks it would rather run a cheese grater over my face than be in the same room with someone so out of control," she grumbled, "... But the other part envies you. I guess that part of me wanted to be you. At first I was so disgusted with myself the very thought made me sick. I wanted to beat you down and put you in your place like a good little soldier, but now I understand. You constantly relinquish control and perfectionism for adaptability and somehow come out on top. You fit in, you make friends wherever you go, you treat mistakes like lessons... Or at least... you used to. Those things you said back there... That sounded like something that I should have been saying. Not you. I'm sorry I picked you to take out my frustration on. And I'm sorry I decided to leave Zen behind... I was... Afraid. For all the times this miserable crew has almost been a smear on the cosmic windshield I thought this would be the one that actually did us in."

There was a rustling from high above her head and the sound of claws digging into the bark.

"I couldn't let that happen. It's not just Nyrette. She may have started it, but it's not just her. It's everybody. Not one of you has turned their back on me yet or left me to die or let me spend the night black out drunk in some alley... Even though I probably would have let you all rot. I've never had real family before. I never thought I wanted one, but now I don't know what I'd do if I lost it."

Several dislodged twigs and pieces of wood tumbled down the trunk into the system of roots before Iisska dropped down beside her. He nestled into a good spot, boots laced together and draped over his shoulder, muddy toes gripping the roots, just as soaked as Quin.

"Family really sucks that way, huh?" he snorted.

She smiled just a little and nodded.

"Now would be a good time to throw me in the swamp and run back to the ship," she added a few moments later.

"No... No I'm not gonna do that. I didn't really mean... The anger... er, whatever that was. Fuck, I dunno. You said it. That wasn't really me talking back then," he said.

"I get it," she replied.

"I'm sorry. I..." he shrugged and put his face in his hands, "I shouldn't have said that stuff. None of it was true. I don't know why I said that. I don't know why... It all just let loose like... like... something that lets loose and then I couldn't shut up, I just wanted someone or something to suffer like that would make it fixed or some bullshit, but I know you can't fix things like that, I know it doesn't help and I think the word I was looking for was volcano, but it all turned out alright even though I fucked it up and--"

"Breathe! Breathe,"Quin stopped him, "It's fine. I know you didn't mean it. That kind of thing happens in high stress situations. Just calm down, alright? I forgive you."

"How do you do that?" his voice was muffled as he buried his head further into his arms, "Give whole pretty speeches with lessons and feelings and shit? I mean, damn. How are you always so... so... put together? Comin' out here looking all... like that after all that and you're just... just like that."

"Iisska..."

"I saw my reflection a few days ago and I jumped out of my skin because I thought someone stowed away on the ship... I didn't recognize myself... Now I don't even recognize my words or thoughts. I don't feel like me. You want to learn to give up control? Not having enough to even keep yourself together is just as bad as having your fucking shits scheduled by the Republic."

"It's not easy. Believe me. I know how it feels. The amount of terrible things you've managed to survive makes you one in a billion. Coming from someone who has seen her fair share of people lose it in the face of adversity, I'd say you've done remarkably well. As for the lengthy monologues and keeping myself in one gorgeous piece, well that's just talent."

Iisska groaned at her.

"I'm sorry," she chuckled, "Iisska, you're still you. Maybe the you that fell into the wrong end of a wood chipper, but still you. I'm not going to blame you for cracking a little under pressure. Nobody is. Now, if you want to start putting yourself back together then I recommend comming back to the ship with me, getting off the planet before the HKs find us and taking a little vacation. Maybe we find you a girl and some drink and you blow off some steam. And maybe you come talk to me if you start feeling like this again. Okay?"

"Okay."

Iisska sniffed hard and stood up before giving Quin a hand.

"Just not the girl part," he added.

"What? Why not? I know a good one. She's--"

"Just, don't. I'm not so comfortable around... I just don't usually ever... I mean I used to. You know. All the time. With women. And I was good at it too... That stuff..."

"Oh? You-- Oh. OH! Holy shit! No way!"

"Hey! Don't even start! What!?"

"You're absolutely a--"

"NO!"

"It's all over your face! This is priceless!"

"No! Quin, please. Just shut up about it, please. We never talked about it. Got it?"

"Fine, fine. My lips are sealed."

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

"Wait!" Iisska yelled at the group as they ran, "We left Zen!"

Quin risked just a few seconds to slow and turn toward him with a frown and a raised brow. Iisska made a confused face in return and then sighed and shrugged.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, let's go. He's fine," he said.

They continued to haul ass out of the building as it slowly came down on their heads. Behind them the debris was already starting to fall and the flames from the fight with the assault droids was consuming the way back. The alarms were ever blaring, keeping the crew from even hearing their own frantic and sparse thoughts, but the screeching from the structure tearing itself apart drowned even those out.

Quin yelled back, "We're almost out! It's just up--"

---

Everything warped and disappeared. The world was replaced by the void. Blinding pain which fills the skull to the point of cracking. Nothing but darkness with twisting stabs of flashing red. Weightlessness. Nausea. A surgical separation of the self from the body.

"I wonder. How long do you think you can ignore me?" the voice was quiet and yet it was everything, "I call for you time and time again yet you never return. You never respond."

A faceless woman wreathed in power stood before Nyrette in the darkness. For a moment the pain ebbed and her surroundings became frantic calling voices and fire. She could hear her name and feel herself being pulled along. The woman, whom was fading in and out of her vision, raised her hand with fingers outstretched. She slowly clenched her fist. There was an intense tension in her head and the flames and voices were strangled out. The pain returned tenfold.

"You will listen to me. Despite your best efforts, your mind has been of some use to me since you deserted. However, I have need of you elsewhere. Return willingly and be punished for your insolence. Or I will drag you back by force and you will beg and pray for death. You cannot run. You cannot fight. You cannot stop us. I know where you are."

As suddenly as she was overtaken, Nyrette was released.

---

Sol'tzyri exhaled slowly and opened her eyes. She sat cross-legged on the floor of a dim, sealed off chamber with her hands in her lap. The only noise was the timid flickering of candles in four sconces on the walls and her own breath and long, slow heartbeat. She was mildly tired after the exercise and yet somehow calm and rather pleased with herself. There was something mentally rejuvenating about it.

A knock on the chamber door brought her awareness forth but did not startle her.

"Enter," she commanded.

The door opened, letting in more light and a human figure stood there.

"You summoned me, My Lord," he stated.

"I have an errand for you, Apprentice. Our stray agent is currently in Hutt space. She refuses to come to her senses and I feel it is time her little romp around the galaxy was over. Fetch her for me," the Sith said.

"It will be done, My Lord," the man bowed slightly.

"Her companions will more than likely make obstacles of themselves. If it is not a detriment to your task, please destroy them."

"Do you think the corpses could be useful?"

"Indeed."

---

"Just get her into the ship..." someone whispered.

"What about the power core?" the voices were so distant, "How did we fuck this up so bad? Marquis is gonna shit embers."

"Not exactly our priority right now. Cheshik, be careful with her."

"Not a priority!? Did you see that mess we made? Even for Zen that fireball would have been a deathtrap. We all nearly died, for all we know he is dead, and we have nothing! Just because your girlfriend goes and has an episode nothing else matters!?"

"You shut your fucking mouth."

"No. It's obvious you don't give two shits about anybody else in this crew."

"What the hell do you know?"

"Enough to tell that you're nothing but poison! Don't you fucking shh me! This isn't over! We should have killed you along with all your stupid Republic friends! You're probably some fucking spy! I'll throw her in the swamp and leave her ass on this rotting planet I swear to--"

A door slammed loudly. Quinn flopped down in the chair next to the semi-conscious Nyrette and the bed where Cheshik had lay her down before dragging Iisska off to who knows where. Her launcher and other gear hit the ground. She put her face in her hands and took a long ragged breath. She was covered in scorch marks, scrapes, bruises and the stench of failure. Nyrette wasn't any better off. Gently, Quin made sure she was still breathing and waited for her to snap out of it.

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

He was chewing his own tongue off to pay for his silence. The things he was remembering he would have seen buried for the rest of his life and been happier for it. A soft and precise voice spoke old words of practical wisdom in his mind. Any second those blue eyes would flicker on, she would tip her head just so and place those long fingers over the elegant mouth she never had and would never have. Where she had picked up such a useless, yet so very becoming behavior would be forever a mystery. He waited while the others talked after his passive and quiet protest had been forgotten. He wanted to tell them to leave the damned shell, but didn't want to say why.

He waited for her to wake up, retaliate and change their minds, but she didn't. Before Cheshik could get to her... it. Before Cheshik could get to it, Iisska stepped forward to where the droid chassis was hung on the wall and put his fingers on its jaw. He turned its head to the side gently. The neck gave way and the chin fell lifelessly to the chest. It was only a body with no soul. He prayed it was only a body with no soul. He prayed it had never had a soul before. Never had that soul before.

He helped Cheshik heft the heavy thing onto his shoulders. Not because Cheshik couldn't do it himself, but because the serial number would be on the small of the back just above the waist. He searched for it and found it quickly still while pretending to help. The first dozen or so numbers were the same, but the last four were wrong. It wasn't the same one. It wasn't her. When everybody had moved on and nobody was looking he heaved a deep sigh of relief and stilled his furious stomach and heartbeat. Iisska took up the rear of the search party some distance behind as Quin began to shoot out cameras and motion detectors.

---

"What the fuck is going on down there? Tribals again?" an obese man with a breathing apparatus embedded into his face asked.

He leaned over a portly alien woman with a visor as she monitored well over a dozen screens, displays, switches and lights. A handful of others sat around the large office at stations similar to hers.

"No, Sir," she shook her head, "They've already disposed of twice as many patrol units than any tribal raid and they've been poking around our systems. This is someone very well armed who knows what they're doing."

"Dammit. Can you get me a visual?" the man asked right as a screen went dark like several others had.

"They're destroying our cameras too, it would seem."

"Well this is just fan-fucking-tastic. Call the boys in security. Get the big guns out. Lock down our reactors and sound a station wide alarm."

---

"Let's pick up the pace people!" Quin barked, "The engineering block should be close. That's where they'll have the power cores on standby."

The alarms were spreading around them and growing louder. They could hear them kicking up along different hallways and wings. A loud voice started to bark orders over an intercom and then began to threaten them.

CEASE YOUR ATTACK. STOP WHERE YOU ARE AND PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND YOU WILL BE DETAINED. RESIST AND WE WILL COAT THE WALLS IN YOUR ENTRAILS.

"What's the difference?" Quin rolled her eyes.

The crew rounded a corner only to find themselves with a massive blast door sealing them out of the engineering block.

Quin immediately started fiddling around with the control panel on the wall trying to find someway to bypass the lockdown routines. Sounds of more HKs could be heard rallying in their wake. The rest of the crew turned down the hall with weapons at the ready. Iisska backed up to Quin. The last fight had been more than enough droid action for him and everybody was beginning to wear down.

"Will you just-- DAMMIT! Stupid fucking thing wont let me-- Just-- COME ON!" Quin punched the machine while the buttons flashed.

"We don't got time for that," Iisska said to her.

He looked around the console with his fingers on the wall before pressing his head against it and giving it a good hard thump with his fist.

"Have. We don't have time," Quin huffed.

"Look who's agreeing with me for once," Iisska retorted, "Stand back. Way back."

A small army of the infernal, profanity spewing, blaster toting, Jedi splattering droids filled the mouth of the hallway. Iisska had his feet planted firmly into the edge of the floor opposite the control panel wall. He clenched his fists and set his shoulders with his head low like a charging bull. With a massive burst of the force behind him he shot back to the other wall faster than most eyes could see and impacted with a punch so hard the wall disintegrated at the molecular level at the epicenter. The surrounding six feet merely rippled and exploded out into the next room with the rest of the wall breaking free of the ceiling and only just holding itself up thanks to the reinforcements in the floor. Iisska was blinded by the fine mist of wall dust on the other side, but had otherwise gone clean through unscathed.

"Hurry up!" he yelled back.

Nyrette was already in after him and the rest of the crew followed quickly. They sprinted through the dust cloud away from the HK's.

"Nice!" Quin yelled at him, "Great thinking! You might turn out to be useful yet--"

They reached the end of the cloud. The room they were in spread out a couple hundred yards in all directions and was at least three stories high. Assembly bays and machinery filled the floor and parts hung from the ceiling. Huge parts. And fully constructed monstrosities. The lights on the half dozen house sized droids were flickering to life. One had already stepped free of it's restraints and now towered over them with missiles and rail-gun in their faces.

Quin sighed, "I hate you again."

Before the droid could get a bead on them she dropped her grenade launcher from under her rain cloak, got into stance, aimed and gave the droid a face full of fire as one of the heavy charges hit it square in the targeting module. The rupture deafened them and reverberated through the entire facility. The droid sagged and staggered back before gaining it's footing once more. The crew scattered.

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

"Thanks. You're not too bad yourself," Quin said.

She smiled at Cheshik and made herself comfortable on the roof again, hugging a blaster rifle to her chest.

"Nyrette and I plan to get everyone up and on the move at dawn. I'd go get some rest and prepare if I were you, but I wouldn't mind if you decided to stay. You're an interesting person Cheshik. I'm glad you decided to come with us."

---

With the sun rise came yet even more rain. It turned the sky an angry dark gray and showed no sign of letting up. Heavy rain drops, some nearly the size of bottle caps, pelted the ground and everything living on it. They stirred up a soothing sound that contradicted the tension and nervousness of the crew stepping outside the safety of the Harpoon. Quin and Nyrette scouted ahead, but stayed well within earshot of the others.

Quin constantly checked their surroundings by looking through a telescopic scanner that would pick up any anomalies that came within range. Although the coast was fairly clear aside from the occasional animal she stayed low and stuck to shadows and brush. A thick waterproof cloak helped her feel more camouflaged and kept her clothes (a decommissioned reconnaissance suit from a nation, the name of which she couldn't pronounce despite her best efforts), her blaster and her new toy dry. Her scanner picked up a large fortress-like complex in the distance.

"There it is," she whispered into a headset so the crew and the T.I.'s back on the ship would get the update.

Quin looked to Nyrette who had stopped not far from her, "That's quite a bit more extensive than I thought it would be. Maybe most of it will even be left standing when we're done with it."

Though she was trying to joke and stay positive and alert she was also rolling out her shoulders and neck and taking calculated breaths. She had never gone up against an HK before and what she saw from the fight yesterday left her convinced that she didn't ever want to. Too bad.

"They're certain to have patrols around the perimeter and in the jungle nearby. We will need to approach as quickly and quietly as possible," she said, "And then once inside we should at least try to stay quick and quiet. I'm not expecting much, but best efforts. Please. Pretty please."

"Fuck me, you have a sense of humor sometimes," Iisska came up beside her wearing a rain cloak similar to her own, "Or are you over here wishing on bugs and flowers for impossible shit? Lemme see."

He took the scanner from her and started to size up the lay of the factory. Quin punched him in the arm.

"Moron! This is important and more dangerous than you can imagine. Seriously, if you don't care about getting Sterling back together and staying alive doing it, then get your stupid lardass back to the ship," she hissed.

"Ow!," he hissed back and threw the scanner in her lap, "You wanna play? Check out what Zen ordered from Cheshik's friends."

He made a fist and showed off one of two extremely sturdy gauntlets that covered his entire hand and forearm up to his elbow. Something resembling brass knuckles had been rather crudely, but cleanly attached to the back of the hand.

"I made a modification or two. They look the shit don't they? And no HK is gonna cut through 'em," he bragged.

"Oh good. Those will really come in handy when you get shot in the face," Quin rolled her eyes, "You go punch holes in stuff, kid. I'll make funeral arrangements."

---

Cheshik and Zen were the first ones out of the jungle. They cut through a rusting fence, disabled the motion detectors and flanked the locked service entrance Nyrette had picked out from their surveys. The coast was clear. The other three crew members rushed out to meet them. Quin immediately knelt and got ready to hack the pinpad on the complex locking mechanism.

"Okay, just a minute or two and--" she started.

Zen unsheathed his lightsaber, shoved it through the crack between the door and the jam and severed everything from ceiling to floor in about twenty seconds. Quin glared at him and then rubbed her temples.

"Whatever," she mumbled.

They were in.

Quin steadied her blaster in her hands once more as they all filed into the first corridor. It was dark and empty. Obviously the workers did not use this passage often. After deciding on which way would probably lead to an office or factory floor where they could find out where a powercore would most likely be housed they headed off. Quin stayed close to Nyrette and defended the rear. She had wanted to head the group like they did in the forest, but the boys, namely Zen, had other plans and charged off ahead of them. At least they were still being quiet.

The first room on the right turned out to be a janitorial closet housing a small, dusty cleaning droid that sighed miserably and put its face in the corner when they informed it that they were not in need of its services. The next room was a restroom with no doors on the stalls and a leaking sink. Finally they came to a small office space on the next floor. Two computers were stacked side by side on the far wall.

"Excellent!" Quin hurried forward and began to access them, "There might be an inventory system somewhere in here. Keep an eye on the hall."

"This place is somehow even more creepy than the rakghoul infested wreck where we parked the ship," Iisska complained from the doorway.

"Probably because of the exponential increase in mechanized death," she shrugged.

"... Are you making up words?"

Nyrette shushed them both.

The seconds seemed to tick by slower and slower as she worked. The software was an incomprehensible mess to anybody who didn't know how to use it. She knew they didn't have all day. It would only be a matter of time before--

"Oh, fuck--"

"HALT! DROP YOUR WEAPONS, TRESPASSING, FLESHY SCUMBAGS!"

The hallway erupted into blaster fire and the startling sound of lightsabers being turned on before Quin could even react. Time up. She frantically redoubled her efforts to crack into the inventory records.

"Hold it off for just a second!"

STAR WARS: ANIHILATION {Reboot} {DemonTongue/Vash}

Scaling down the wall, Snickers came to the bottom of the chasm and stepped into a (human) waist high muck. She trawled through it, easily doing so because of her marshy upbringing, and felt for Iisska. She knew where he had fallen and it was easy for her to find a small lump in the muck. She buried her face into the swil and found his shirt, biting and lifting him up and out. She shook him a bit to wake him up.

"Huurrgg! Kk--aagck! L-let go! I'll beat your stupid robot face in you pile of--" Iisska started and then slowed when he realized what had him, "... of lizard."

She opened her death trap and dropped him back down into the pool, snorting at his insult.

"Hey, you aren't the only one who's mad," he waved her off.

He walked slowly through the foul smelling swamp water that flooded the basement of the facility carefully testing each step. There was no telling how many diseases he had contracted from this stuff already and he didn't want to go under again if he didn't have to. A shaft of dim light pierced down into the darkness but that was the only illumination in the suffocating dark. Iiskaa walked into it and looked up. It was a long way. A gaping pit that seemed to go through at least two or three floors of rusting rotting building materials that jutted out like teeth. Much of it looked like it had been broken ages before they arived. He squinted.

"Thinking I can't jump this one," he cast a look at Snickers who only stared back at him, "How helpful you are."

Giving up on that vanished glimmer of hope he cupped his hands around his mouth and started yelling, "HEY! ARE PEOPLE DEAD!? HELLO!?"

There was no response from above, but within a minute, something long fell down and landed on Iisska's head, giving him a nasty bruise. When he picked it up, there was a note attatched saying. "YES". It was then that he realized that he was holding Zen's lightsaber.

Iisska glared down at the weapon while rubbing his head. Somehow it felt like his brain wasn't functioning quite right. Actually he was pretty sure he was asleep. This didn't make nearly enough sense for his waking life. No. Actually. This was the perfect amount of sense for it to be his waking life. Part of his face developed a nasty twitch and he gripped the saber hard.

"ZEN! I NEED OUT! I DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN TOY! GET A ROPE YOU STUPID FUCK FACE! I SWEAR WHEN I GET UP THERE I'M GONNA RIP--" Iisska fell silent immediately.

Something was moving in the water. Now stilled he could hear that something turning into somethings. His heart began to race. As quietly as possible he dipped the side of his head into the water. He was met with a chourus of scattered scraping and thrashing and feral voices. All coming closer. He backed up.

"Oh, we have to go now. Right now," he flipped the switch on the hilt and the glowing black blade of the saber erupted to life.

At that very moment, Snickers started to growl loudly, searching for whatever was in the swamp muck.

Meanwhile...

"So, think he'll make it?" Nyrette said as they looked down and saw Iisska waving them lightsaber around.

"20 credits says he loses an arm." Zen said.

"I'll take that bet. He'll make it." Nyrette answered his call.

"You are both the holes of the butt." Cheshik scolded.

"This is mean. Entertaining, but m-- Wait, what?" Quin snapped at Cheshik, "No. No! You mean 'assholes.' Come on. It's not hard. Why is Basic so hard!? 20 credits says it's a leg, not an arm!"

Kobel whined at them and circled the crumbling hole in the floor.

Back at the plot...

"There's gotta be a way up," he kept telling himself, "If she can climb that so can I."

Snickers' growl was met with others far more unnerving. Like nothing living he had ever heard. A pale figure slinked into the white glow given off by the lightsaber. It crouched on a large piece of rubble that jutted from the swamp. Hunched eyeless horror covered in spines. A wide slit full of jagged and cracked teeth split it's face near in half. It snorted and sniffed the air through its mouth before tilting its head. Another joined it mostly submerged in the water. Two more of the creatures came into sight.

Are those...

Iisska wasn't give time to think. The first beast came at him in a flash. It burst through the water in a splashing, furious uproar. Shrieks echoed up from the depths. A disembodied head sailed through the air and plopped into the water where it sank. Blood began to dye the foamy mess that was forming. But all this went unnoticed. Iisska frantically ripped through the first of the things that came forth running on instinct. The dangerously light weapon cut through bodies like butter. Steam wafted off the blade and anything that it touched.

Iisska jumped out of the water onto a beam running the length of the celing where he took a precious second to catch his breath. No longer illuminated or aided by the small bit of light from above, but painted like a target by Zen's weapon. He stopped looking for a way out. Now he was just looking for the next target to destroy. If he couldn't run away he would carve his way out. Dozens more of the creatures ran through the darkness with hungry tongues lolling. A disgusting gut feeling pressed down on him and he was strongly reminded of the hssiss cavern.

He dove off his perch and whipped the blade in a wide arc through at least three of them. The smell was nauseating. Finally it struck him. Rakghouls. He knew he recognized these things. Horrible, virus-spreading, murderous vermin. Though most of the civilized galaxy had been vaccinated against transformation in the past decade such things did not make them any less dangerous to any creature. He brought the blade down and cut one of the monsters in half before leaping out of the water on to semi-sold footing once more.

"Snickers! Get!" he pointed upward.

He would not be responsible for anything happening to the friend of a friend.

"Go!" he snapped again.

His awareness lit up for a split second and he turned, ready to swing but felt the teeth sink into his leg. The rakghoul didn't feel the saber go through its skull. With a pained grunt he pryed the dead jaws off himself only to feel another set go into his forearm and another into the top of his shoulder. By the time he had shaken them off and retreated to high ground again even more had poured in. Every single one was on the edge of his frayed consciousness and they were near countless. He would never be able to cut them all down. Not at this rate. He ground his teeth and bolted back to the hole from where he came. With a little use of the Force he bounded up the unstable wreckage to what may or may not have been the next floor.

"Snickers! Get your butt up here before I drag you!" he yelled down.

The rakghouls could climb too, it would seem, as they were slowly making their way up the walls. Shifty little bastards. They couldn't be allowed out of this place. He could feel something inside him spiking and rippling. These cielings were awful unstable. He was getting a pretty good sense of the building's layout. The crazy was starting to tug at him. Snickers scrambled past him several feet before stopping. Iisska shut off the saber and put it in his mouth before finding a place he could crouch for a second. A place that didn't seem to be connected to the next floor. Boy he hoped this beam wasn't connected to the floor. He closed his eyes and spread his fingers. He had no idea why, but it felt right. Everything pressed down on the lower floors of this place. It wouldn't take much more time or weight or decay for disaster to strike. A little more pressure, a little more shaking and shivering and instability, a few broken supports. The foundations started to tremble and the entire level groaned in resistance. Harder. With another inhale, a slow, heavy exhale and a large dash of anger he crushed his will down on everything that lay below his feet. The dilapidated floor cracked and ripped and fell through. In a crecendo of distruction everything came collapsing down onto the rakghouls trapping them in a dark, swampy basement prison.

Dust blew out of the gap in the floor up above. It felt like an earthquake up there. After Snickers came scrambling out, Iisska bounded out into the light, covered in mud, blood, slime, dirt and other umentionable substances. He collapsed onto his butt, took the saber hilt out of his mouth and threw it at Zen.

"THIS PLACE SUCKS AND I HATE IT!"

Aether: Legend of the Crimson Dusicyon - Now Recruiting Crewmates!

Sorry for not being active. Haven't really been in a good place mentally. Lack of quality sleep, no help at work, throwing myself at my artwork and dreams for the future at a work-aholic's pace to forget the other two things...

Anyway I have some ideas for NPC's and things so I should be getting a post up soon.