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Vulpesen finished dressing @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]'s wounds and looked into the bag. "I prefer flimsy, but let's see here..." His search didn't last long until Vulpesen managed to find a small hacking device and a datapad, both of which he tossed to his compatriot. "I'd prefer if you didn't ask why I have that." He said, pointing to the hacker. "By the way, exactly what are you doing?" He walked over and examined the circuitry. Personally, he had absolutely no idea what @[member="Kale Arkin"] was doing. Back on his adventure days he'd always depended on hired slicers and though he had learned the basic tech used for infiltration, he'd never been one to figure out how to program things. You know this kinda reminds me of the days on Nar Shadaa. My main slicer was reproggramming droids to help me sneak into a ring of drug dealers. Nice girl. Rodian with big blue sparkling eyes. If it weren't for her, I'd have been stuck in a huts prison instead of the jedi temple.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I hooked in the corresponding circuits, linking the datapad to the hacking module to the B2's control console. Coding appeared on the datapad's screen, rows upon rows of binary. Thankful that I didn't have to make a further fool of myself trying to tear double plated duranium, I set to altering the code, removing what I didn't need and adding what it didn't have. Really, whoever had programmed these droids was either an asshat or an amateur -- the personality matrix coding was especially awful.
"Whatever else is in these tunnels," I moved on to the next droid, intending to program the three I'd already been tinkering with, "having these ought to help something." I might have given them a tad too much independence, but after how thoroughly I'd rewritten the personality coding, I didn't foresee any problems. They'd be just as self-righteous and do-goody as Tee Nine.
Vulpesen sighed. He had the general idea on what was going on, but as afore mentioned, he was far from a technical genius. "While flyboy goes patching droids, I'll patch people. Any other injuries?" He looked around his compatriots, searching for any signs of injury. Perhaps he would apply for force heal training when he returned to the temple.
Already, he was starting to view the roles of the group form. As usual, he had administered himself as a jack of all trades, a role he had always enjoyed playing. @[member="Kale Arkin"] was obviously the technician, and @[member="Hood"] had become the group's fire support. Granted he loved when people could adapt to their roles, but he also enjoyed knowing who to go to for different problems. Perhaps his other friends would show their capabilities in time.
@[member="Diana Moridena"] @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"] @[member="Kei Amadis"]
After the firefight, Kei had become strangely absent... he wasn't with the group, somewhere in the middle of their searching for him or just walking around in general, they would hear a great big crash. Rubble pouring down to the left of them might lead them to a cave in. A surprise outpouring of metal bodies above, which Kei had seen coming, thankfully lay scrapped at their rear, but also had seen the absent padawan take a tumble. Trouble is was he was about 60 feet down a steep and dangerous hole, with at least sprained ankle if not a fracture. Too far to jump they might make the climb if they were very, very careful, but it looked treacherous, like more rubble would fall and there probably was another route to him, it felt like there was anyway. If anyone did try to climb it directly, it'd probably seal the hole and give them a tumble too.
Calling up until the others found him, shouting up until they did. He clicked his neck, clearing his throat, and feeling a twinge of pain. "Nice trip," offering a solid grin, a touch of bravado, pun intended.
Resting up on the rock, he leaned back calling up, "still kicking, how you holding up?". Clearly grazed from the fall, and showing one other good blaster graze to the dueling arm from the fight, it was usable but hurt like hell, with no training to control pain, he was carrying on anyway, but the look of it was expressed on his face.
"Look i'll be fine, just got to find out a way out of here. I'll meet you back up there." Looking over where he found himself, it was especially murky down here, not getting a good bead on where he was, an dthe glowstick had shattered in the fall., At least unity was still in his hand, that was the last thing he'd let out of it. Taking a slow limp to his right, obviously struggling with it but pushing on anyway, he had a look into the blackness beyond. Something here wasn't right, even more not right, than up there. Darker than the shadows he looked into, more menacing than the beasts that had avoided it above, and colder, much colder.
If tries anyone tries to come down, maybe consider the rubble stopping you or following you down, so the groups have to find each other? Let me up the tension over a couple of posts though , race against time and all that..
Lilia stepped back with a mumble of thanks as she looked around. There was Hood, Diana, Kale and Vulpesen obviously, and...uh-oh. "Am I blind, or is Kei missing?" Lilia asked, half to herself, as she spun on one heel to look around. No body. That was one mark in his favor. No living Kei. That was one mark not in his favor.
Silently, she cursed herself for not noticing earlier, even though with her inexperience should have - and did - render her pretty much oblivious to her surroundings. With a speed bordering on franticness (was that even a word, and why did she care?), Lilia swept the area with her eyes, looking for any sign of the missing Padawan. Eventually she heard his shouting, and followed it, having the conversation described in the post above with the fallen Jedi. Literally fallen, not...fallen to the Dark Side. That would have been bad.
"Nice trip."
"Ha-ha. Are you okay?"
"Still kicking, how you holding up?"
"We're fine, I think, but how are you going to get back up? Those cuts look nasty"
"Look i'll be fine, just got to find out a way out of here. I'll meet you back up there."
"Kei - " But she gave up when he started walking off. Muttering a less-then-complimentary word under her breath, she eyed the wall. Well...maybe it was climbable.
Vulpesen followed @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"] to Kei's voice and looked down. He let the two hold a small conversation before finally making up his mind. "He might need some back up." Vulpesen force pulled and blaster into his hand and used it as a makeshift drill to blast small holes into the walls of the hole before leaping down like a mountain goat, going from one toehold to another until he finally landed at @[member="Kei Amadis"]' side. As he recovered from his little jumps, he looked up and immediately reached out in the force to throw the tumbling rubble away from Amadis, himself, and his kreehawk who had decided to follow him down. "No sense in letting you go alone. Besides, I like creepy catacombs that are under even more creepy catacombs. They practically scream adventure... death too, but I like the adventure part."
"Watchout!" Hearing the voice, he blinked in pause to the man blasting the hole. From somewhere behind him, @[member="Vulpesen"] 's jump and firing into the stone, had loosened most of the cave mouth, just as Kei had worried about. Most of the initial rock moved away in the force, the rest started to come loose as predicted, there was a rumbling behind them both as more and more began to fall, sealing the two of them in pitch black save for Vulpesen's own light, if he had any left with him! Another passage existed to reach the rest of the group, carved out by the worms themselves, but it would be treacherous to reach, worms, rocks, landslides, droids, even another one of these... if that were possible, if one wasn't bad enough. They did hunt in pairs....
Dust kicked up into the air and the Epicanthx covered his mouth to stop himself inhaling it. "I did say watch my back, but how are you going to see it now!" He grinned, shaking his head painfully, coughing up cave dust and fumbling to see the wall and to balance. Brushing the dust out of his eyes, Kei staggered around a bit slowly becoming aware of that creeping cold feeling, chilling, right in the base of your spine. It wasn't like the darkside of this all powerful force always hit you in the face, sometimes it seeped, it crawled and sometimes, you just weren't ready to face it.
Something around them moved. This wasn't a presence that would not respond to beast signals, or easily make itself known, masked in the force, a dangerous hunter that gave knights and masters trouble. You simply didn't know where it was till it attacked, it was hunting them subtly, you might catch a glimpse of its eyes and then it was gone again just as quick. Worm noises could be heard above and to their sides but they wouldn't even touch this thing, whatever it was down here. It was black, blacker than the shadows, unforgiving, twisted by the darkside. A blaster wasn't going to cut it, and Kei's dueling arm was done for. It had been living off the worm eggs, the real experiment of the droids, a nest for this thing, built around it like a worm farm.
Vulpesen had just put himself with Kei right in the Hssiss's trap, sulking through this dank cavern. "Look for an exit. Fast." Kei was in no shape to move, and no shape to fight, but he pushed through the pain limping forward to look for an exit. The presence of the Hssiss was masked, just like the trained hunters they were, and this one was seemed especially drawn to Kei, maybe the site of blood, the wounds or maybe something else he carried? Either way, blasters wouldn't cut it here, it was coming for blood and if its poisoned mouth tasted it they were in real trouble. Worse usually they hunted in pairs... but Kei couldn't even see or sense them, masked as they were.
Vulpesen ignited his lightsaber, illuminating the cavern in it's glow. Looking around, he was finally able to catch a glimpse of the ancient sith lizards. "Kriff!" Vulpesen lifted his blaster. He wasn't sure how reliable the relic would be in a real fight, but it made him feel better. In any case, he certain that a creature straight from the hellish depts. of Korriban wouldn't really be much affected by Vulpesen's beast tame ability no matter how strong he might be with it. Vulpesen racked his brain for any information he might have on the old creature, but to be honest, he was rather distressed as he looked for a way to get him and the lamed @[member="Kei Amadis"] out of there.
Lilia instinctively scrambled backward, bringing an arm up to protect her face. A few scratches on the back of her hand, and a lot of dust, but nothing else. Coughing from the sudden dustiness in the air, Lilia groaned softly whens she saw the rock wall where Vulpesen used to be. She opened her mouth and inhaled to call out, choked on more dust, and weakly rationalized to herself that if he was alive, he couldn't hear her anyway, and if he was dead, calling wouldn't help and she really didn't be the one to find the body. Blinking dust out of her eyes, she turned to face the group.
"We'll have to meet up with them, go around somehow. Anyone have any bright ideas, dim ideas, deductive guesses, or totally random hunches about which way we should go?" She asked, looking slowly from one remaining padawan to the next.
Turning around and trying to make out a shape in the black, to see those moments when the shadow's spelled your name. Hssiss didn't attack head on, much smarter than that, it disappeared back into darkness as quickly as it had appeared. It was the one they could not see the pair had to worry about. There was the soft hissing, and a slithering behind them, claws gently touching stone, and scratching out a walk.
Kei squinted, looking for a passage out of here. "See anything?" He called over to Vulpesen, feeling around the stone wall and limping, obviously the leg was injured, but he was just pushing on anyway. A jittering came from somewhere ahead, another deeper predatory hiss, acknowledging the first, the two animals were working in tandem.... a flicker in the force given for a split second followed the thoughts sent between them, even though the animals were masked to sight and force sense.
"There might be a way out up here, to the others," he looked up to his right, the stone giving a few painful footholds to ascend, but ascend he was able to do all the same, trying to pull up on his good arm, a foot at least upward.
A rapping of claws came closer, and closer, the padawan tried to ready unity to face the threat in his bad arm, pulling back down, but the second beast's leap was already coming silently from behind him! Kei only just rolled aside, rolling onto a fractured leg which made him grunt in non too much comfort. It hissed a poisonous bite snapping at his heels, and at that moment the first made itself known to @[member="Vulpesen"], the force cloaked presence coming in right at his side as it lept.
You didn't kill a darkside dragon easily, knight's and master's struggled, you merely survived it. The other's didn't have much time to find them.... "Forget what we know, just try and shoot the damn thing!" Kei called out, trying to grab his saber in the force, the pull slow but steady towards his hand. The beast almost on him! "Shoot it a lot!"
Vulpesen's battle mind kicked in as he heard @[member="Kei Amadis"]' pleas. The rifle snapped to his shoulder and Vulpesen blasted away at the Hssiss, using the sounds of the scraping claws to locate it. The blaster fire lit up the area, allowing full vision as Vulps let loose a hellspray of blaster bolts. As his Hssiss retreated, alive but injured, Vulpesen instantly got to work on how to get rid of the creatures for good.
As his thoughts raced, Vulpesen's lightsaber bumped against his leg and popped an idea straight into his head. He suddenly remembered the two reasons he had yet to build a fully functioning lightsaber. One, because he had promised his master/father that he would return on that day to build the blade on his homeworld. Two, because Vulpesen was afraid blowing himself up without the advice of a master. He yanked the saber from his hilt and opened the crystal chambers. "You find our way out, I'll provide the fire power!" He hollered back, giving one of the crystals a good flick before closing the panel again. He prayed he wouldn't be put on KP duty for this when he returned to the temple.
"We'll have to meet up with them, go around somehow. Anyone have any bright ideas, dim ideas, deductive guesses, or totally random hunches about which way we should go?"
I closed the last b2's control panel, dusting my hands against my shirt as I turned around to look upon the other padawans. While I was busy reconfiguring protocols, Kei and Vulpy had gotten themselves in a bit of a quandary. There was nothing to it but to continue -- we couldn't just leave them. "We go that way," I said, pointing off down a random tunnel. I turned on the B2's one by one, stepping back as the red power light on their shoulders lit up.
"Whazzup?" the first one said. "Who you?" asked the second. "Locked'n'loaded," the third added.
"Fellas," I spread out my arms, "welcome to the catacombs. Your mission is simple -- keep us," I gestured to each padawan, "safe, and help us find our friends." The verbal 'command' resonated with the protocols I'd added, shaping their parameters to suit their new primary task.
"Move it slim," said the first, pushing me aside. "I got 'dis." He headed off towards the tunnel I directed him to. "Bang bang," the second one said, following behind the first. "Go on," grunted the third. "I'mma watch yo back."
"Well, shall we?" I started walking down the tunnel. I had faith that we'd find Kei and Vulpy. We'd find Kei, Vulpy, and a whole heap of trouble.
Lilia's eyebrows crept higher and higher on her forehead with every word the newly programmed droids spoke. Eventually, she looked back at Kale with an expression that was a mixture of disapproval, disbelief, and the urge to laugh aloud. "Whazzup?" She repeated, shaking her head in semi-genuine despair as the other Padawan walked down the tunnel. "How you survived without getting shot for mouthing off will forever remain a mystery to you." She muttered, following him.
"I've certainly been shot at," I confessed. "Just never hit." Not with a blaster anyway. I'd been sucker punched a few times before. "So blue eyes." I sidled over to Lilia. "Have I worn you down yet? You warmin' up to me?"
"So blue eyes. Have I worn you down yet? You warmin' up to me?"
Lilia gave him a grin that would have made a Corellian Sand Panther look friendly. "Sure, I'm warming up to you. You're up to frozen-block-of-carbonite-in-space right now. An improvement." She said sweetly, glancing at the droids ahead of them. Hope he knows what he's doing with those battle droids..."You think the others are okay?" She asked, worry creeping back around and scaring the levity of the situation out of the catacombs.
Upon the time of @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]'s Question, Vulpesen was thinking about the same thing. "Please don't die." Maybe the wording was a bit different, but the idea was the same. He knew how dangerous his tactic was, but it was his best option he threw the training t saber at the hssiss' open mouth and watched as the 30 centimeter handle landed in his mouth. @[member="Kei Amadis"] "Duck and cover!" Vulpesen's vvoice was accompanied by a force depression which encircled the lightsaber and activated the adjusted weapon. The energy surge moved through the misaligned crystals and detonated the hilt with a medium sized explosion, effectivly destroying the monsters head.
Shielding his eyes from the blast, the cavern shook, and more stone fell about them. "Its up to our right, just got to climb that passage, I'll wait here you get help!" Climbing out on this ankle would be a nightmare. @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"], there was a sense Kei was definitely, about to not be okay, time was ticking down. The cunning explosion from the other padawan pretty much took one of the beasts right out of the fight, if a Sith twisted darkside dragon could have been whimpering it would have been. Though Sith beasts didn't whimper, they grew more ferocious the more they were pressed. The second stalking Hssiss was nowhere near the blast, instead drawn to what was in Kei's chest, the crystal he carried held that same blackness the dragon knew as familiar, a spec of a very dangerous Sith in the shards.
Some of the worms noticed the melee, right in this worm's nest?... the only thing keeping the hungry predators at bay from reclaiming these tunnels, was the even more ferocious Hssiss inside of them. Unknown to Kei, who was leaning against the stone covering his eyes from the flames ahead, and trying to brace the fractured ankle with something so he could stand. They were in a worm farm, right in the heart of it, the Hssiss fed and kept in check by the droids, with no way out, till now.
"Look at the walls!" He called over, seeing the movement behind @[member="Vulpesen"]
About this time of realisation, through those kindling flames, a sheering roar came. Lunging forward, claws rapping against the stone around him, he threw a heavy elbow to its stomach, the second darkside dragon barely even felt it. Rolling around hand to hand was probably about the worst place he could be, but gripping it in both hands is where he had it right now, the dragon beneath him. One bite and it was a hell of a job to heal, if at all. Dodging his head he got a nasty gash from the claw on the good arm, as it tore through tissue like it was paper, both arms now becoming almost unusable to the Padawan.
More than a grunt of pain this time, eyes closing shut, fighting the urge to simply pass out, had the poison got in? Even if they overcame the Hssiss, the worms wouldn't wait around patiently for the rescue party, this would be one big padawan buffet if both of these predators were killed off. "Don't kill it," looking at the wall and the movement around them, there was that sense and sight that this could get really hairy, really fast, from all sides. "Oh hell shoot it," it was that or become dinner, "here!" He hurled the beast from his bleeding and battered body, sending it end over end towards @[member="Vulpesen"].
Vulepsen quickly turned to slam the butt of his rifle into the beast's head before putting the barrel on its eye to fire three shots directly into the brain. "Listen Limpy, either both of us, or neither of us. I'm not leaving you behind even for a second." Vulpesen's voice turned serious. To leave any wounded person with these creatures would be a death sentence. Vulpesen stepped over @[member="Kei Amadis"] and picked up his lightsaber, flicking it on and illuminating the cave. He wasn't worried about the worms. Those would be easy to take care of compared to these menaces. The lightsaber felt strange in his hands, but Vulpesen was sure that he could use it if he had to. "Please tell me this is the real thing and not another training lightsaber like I had."
, race against time and all that..
