Alzocs In The Closet [Omega Protectorate Dominion of Alzoc III]

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Ava Solborne"], [member="Aeron Kreelan"], [member="Veino Garn"], @whoever else is still in the thread



And so we are back for another thrilling episode on the ice planet! No, not Hoth, though that place is fun as well. Especially since it's full of Ropos. But in this case we mean Alzoc III, which also has the distinction of being Planet Siberia writ large. To recapitulate our intrepid band of heroes had come to this world to explore the ruins of the ancient, abandoned Jedi enclave and the old Imperial base that had been erected during the time of the Old Empire, when the Imperials enslaved the Talz to mine for ores.



This writer will not even attempt to make sense of the timeline since when the thread started HK was an Exarch, then became Iron Lord and now the Protectorate is undergoing another regime change. Fortunately the character they're writing is terribly stoic and laconic all the time anyway!


Regardless Kaida and the Eldorai warriors in her small group would keep advancing through the caverns, which strictly speaking were more like tunnels. It was bitter cold, even when you were wearing protective gear and such. Perhaps not quite on Hoth levels, but nonetheless. A rush of cold air swept towards them, but Kaida seemed untroubled. However, she did spare the young girl called Ava Solborne a glance, seeing that she was shivering in the coat she was wearing. The girl was new and Kaida was not familiar with her, though from what she had heard she was a Shaper who had an aptitude for pyrokinesis. In other words, the complete opposite of Kaida. She would probably get along with the space elf's sister though!


Ironically, if they went to a tropical planet it would probably be Kaida complaining because she did not do well in intense heat. "Do you know tapas? You can use your powers to regulate your own body temperature. Try to harness your energies and focus on your body heat. You have fire inside you, use it," she said softly. It was probably the closest Kaida came to a pep talk. They were sort on a mission and in some ways she was less nice than Siobhan Kerrigan was.


Along the way our party would also come across a bunch of corpses, which all tended to be badly mauled and frozen in snow. She activated her comm and gave the Zeison Sha a call. "Prex, we're moving deeper into the caverns. Found a few dead bodies, no hostiles. Can you link up?" This one recalls HK telling Aeron and minions to secure the LZ, but joining the party would give the ballistakinesis specialist something to do. For instance, she could kill bad guys by tossing small projectiles at them with railgun velocity.



As the group advanced they soon came across what appeared to be a massive ice barrier, walls of thick ice that bared their passage. If their information was correct, they were close to the ruins of the Imperial base. Kaida frowned slightly as she took in the big wall, giving a signal to the group to stay put and cover her as she approached. A gloved hand covered in snow ran over the ice wall as she examined in, trying to get a feel of its stability and strength before she concluded that it could be destroyed safely without a risk of the tunnel collapsing on them.


"I'll make a door, cover me," she said, you might have guessed it, laconically. This one thinks frost elf could use some...defrosting. This one also likes making incredibly lame puns and breaking the 4th wall. Having said this she turned away from the group and focused upon the ice wall before them as she harnessed her Sciia, as the Eldorai called the Force. She took a deep breath and her eyes seemed to turn even colder and crystalline as she stretched out to manipulate the temperature in the ice formation.


Soon, very soon, the temperature dropped rapidly and became colder and colder. As a cryomancer she could manipulate moisture in anything...and so this massive ice block gave her lots to work with. Concentration was etched over her features as she focused, driving the temperature down and down again. Then, as it continued dropping, she made a fist and thrust her hand forward to send shockwaves through the ice wall as she acted like a elf-sized icebreaker. There was a loud, almost deafening bang that resonated across the tunnels when ice wall crumbled and burst into pieces...

 

[Tempest]

[member="Kaida Taldir"] | [member="Ava Solborne"] | @Whoever else

And so Tempest quantum tunnelled into the thread. After all, there might be ice here, but there was no storm!
Lame puns are not just reserved for Kaida’s writer.

Either way, the three assembled weather goddesses had three of the four elements nailed. All they’d need would be a certain Saedaris girl and they’d have the full set!

Wearing her Beskar armour, Tempest at least was insulated from the cold, which was well because she had come from a tropical world where anything below room temperature was considered a chilly day.

“These names for things are silly. On Dahomey, Tapashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas was a type of food,” she grumbled.

 

[Veino Garn]

Veino was still here, but knew nothing elemental about the Force, and so tagged along, kneeling to inspect the corpses, and then following along quietly. If ballistakinesis became necessary and the expert did not appear, he could fill in, as it was a technique the Jensaarai focused on quite heavily. But not at a master level. He wasn't that good at it.

But as this again require elemental skills, he lingered near the back, watching the rear to ensure they weren't being stalked be creatures from the shadows. Not that much could survive in here. He was fairly sure of that. But it was always good to be careful, just in case.

 

[Ava Solborne]

Oh, tapas. Ava had completely forgot that skill she had learned some time ago. She had used it for a lot of a different reasons at the training, cold being one of them. Now it was the time to finally utilize the power in real life, in the cold that she couldn't stand.

Fire burns us, but it's okay -- it keeps us warm.

She tried to walk along with the rest of the group, focusing on casting the powerful control ability on herself to make the cold less painful. She let the flame inside her grow, make its effects more powerful. She had to. To live. To survive. "Thanks," she muttered to the one named Kaida. The warmth of tapas made her feel good again. She felt like she was actually able to do something now.

[ [member="Kaida Taldir"] | [member="Tempest"] | [member="Veino Garn"] | Anybody else ]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Ava Solborne"], [member="Tempest"], [member="Veino Garn"]


The ice wall had been shattered, resulting in the broken blocks of ice turning to cold liquid, and our intrepid band of adventurers now had passage into the ruins of the Imperial base. They could finally explore the dungeon, beat up bad guys and take their loot! Sort of like a D&D game session.



Speaking of opposition, obviously things could not be that easy. Every good dungeon needs hordes of expendable mooks whose main function is to throw themselves at the band of adventurers. Presumably said mooks don't have lives beyond that. Perhaps at some point there would even be an end boss, like an ice golem. Or an ice dragon. Or an undead ice dragon. Ice was bound to be involved in some manner.


"Are they tasty?" Kaida asked half-seriously when Storm...Tempest started talking about tapas that you could actually eat. Maybe the fact that she was on an ice planet was making the frost elf slightly less stoic. She gave Ava a nod as she felt the girl cast her spell. Kaida was...a good deal less maternal than Siobhan. Likewise she did not like pep talks much.


She advanced further down into the ruined base. Time seemed to have done a number on the place. Cold blue eyes scanned the are as she stretched out with the Force, passing a couple corpses. Suddenly she felt a prickling within the Force, a warning. "Danger...take cover," the words had left her lips when suddenly a flurry of blaster rounds and slug shots came their way as they were put under fire.


"Their heads for The Vader!" a call was heard from the shadows as...soldiers clad in armour that vaguely resembled that of stormtroopers emerged. Well, if stormtrooper helmets had possessed horns and they had been clad in Talz furs over their armour. In some cases their white armour, which was showing wear and tear, was covered in bizarre arcane runes. Kaida's lightsabre ignited in a flash and she slashed blaster rounds out of the air as they whizzed past and towards her, pulling one of the Eldorai soldiers into cover.


Slug rounds peppered her armour but they were as inefficient as bullets fired from archaic slugthrowers tend to be. Note to anyone who is interested, never use an M1 Garand or an AK-47 in a high-tech, space fantasy environment. Aside from being wholly ineffectual, it just looks embarrassing and cheap. The Eldorai returned fire with salvoes from their bolters and blasters, taking out several attackers as they were blasted into oblivion, though then the stormtroopers started lobbing grenades.


"Tempest, give the group to the right a frying. I'll handle left," Kaida called out to the lightning goddess as she sent a blaster bolt meant for her chest right back to the shooter, who keeled over in pain. As the cryomancer found cover behind some wreckage she sunk into the Force and harnessed her Sciia. The attackers were about to find out why it was a bad idea to attack a cryomancer on her home territory. There was...lots of snow and ice in the base and the temperatures were ridiculously low. The stormies were inevitably standing upon snow.



So she stretched out with her power and concentrated. Suddenly a cold, powerful wind blossomed into being and swept across the hall, gathering snow and water along the way as it created a small wave. Debris that the attackers had sought cover behind was removed as the wind tore through. A number of soldiers were flung through the air as the wind engulfed them and the cold onslaught of ice blocks hit them. But the worst was yet to come as Kaida willed the layers of snow around them to move and rise up, covering several soldiers as they formed layers upon layers of ice. In effect, the stormies who found themselves in this uncomfortable situation would feel like someone who had been locked into a freezer. Those made of sterner stuff tried to struggle, using their blaster rifles to beat against the ice blocks surrounding them, but Kaida persisted as she used her powers to thicken their confinement. Even as they futilely struggled, they would be subjected to extreme cold and lack of oxygen. Brain death would set in, their hearts would stop as they were quite literally frozen to death. Of course, there were still other stormies for the party to kill.

 

[Vaena Askari]

Alzoc III. Such a beautiful, picturesque planet. At least so it appeared from the viewing port of the Thrax, an Illyria-class frigate presently stationed in orbit. From this lofty vantage point the world appeared like a massive, white orb...a place of beauty and innocence.



Of course, appearances could be deceiving. The world was covered in snow, ice and sparse but hardened foliage. Lady Tarissa Cadalthor found herself questioning why the Protectorate was taking an interest in it. But then it was run by human monkeighs, so that was probably no surprise. At least they were not throwing millions of credits into a sinkhole by trying to terraform it like Firemane Industries had done with Gehenna. Of course, Tarissa had not joined the away team that had been sent down to explore the remains of the Jedi enclave and the Imperial Ruins - and was now being accosted by the Lost Tribe of Imperials.


No, she was aboard the Thrax, reviewing reports sent to her whilst providing coordination. Smaller survey teams and probe droids had been dispatched to explore the ancient mines where the Imperials had used Talz slave labourers to extract valuable ores from. Based on the initial reports the probe droids had achieved success, though a number had gone missing. Presumably the planet was still infested with heretics and scum that would need to be purged with fire and sword. Tarissa was probably far too fond of purging for her own good. She also hated frigid ice planets.