Am I Dreaming? [Primeval dominion of Sernpidal]

[Laguz Vald]

[7/20]

"THE FET-"

Okay, so Laguz was never the most eloquent of people — well, unless the situation absolutely called for it — and Sithly illusions really weren't xir favorite place to be. Those two factors combined made for a very crass shi'ido, and under different circumstances, the shifter might've been beating xemself over the fact for displaying such bad manners in front of a lady.

Moments later xe would remember, of course, that xe never really cared about that too, and unless the lady paid well, Laguz was going to be as rude as xe wanted to be. Which, currently, was probably quite a lot. It was a small consolation that the girl didn't seem to be any more well-spoken than xe was, but perhaps the spell had worn her out and she was only capable of inchorent sounds and tasteless screaming.

How coarse.

"Wh— do I look like a Forcer to you?" Laguz spat back with no small amount of idignation coloring xir voice, leveling the dark-haired woman with a seething glare. "Reverse my ass, dear. What are you even talking about? We're all alone here. In the middle of nowhere. Zilchville. The God's left buttcheek."

"THERE IS NOTHING HERE."

It was becoming clearer and clearer to the sniper that reason had long abandoned the space behind those brown eyes, but such can't be helped. Mother had always taught xem not to judge, and even though none of those lessons — or any others she'd thought to impart, for that matter — ahd ever taken root, it was the effort that Laguz was going to honor in light of what the spell had shown xem before xe had extricated xemself from its greedy grasp.

"Let's go."

With that, the shifter would pull on xir new, unwanted protégé, the gesture lacking in any and all gentleness. It was high time they got a move on, after all.


[member="Perla Pirjo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Post 3 of 20
Objective: Find a pet amphistaff
Mentions: [member="Dara Gola"]

Blue fingers dipped down, gently taking hold of the squirming form.

The juvenile amphistaff was difficult to hold, twisting and pulling as it seemed instantly curious about everything. Doing his best to keep a firm hand on the slithering wanderer, the young Pantoran knelt down beside the now dead ground mouth. Trails in the sand marked where the other two amphistaffs had already made their departure. The one in the boy's hand was the runt of the litter, barely a meter-and-half long.

It was interesting as well for the fact that the boy couldn't sense the creature at all.

But for holding it in his hands, he would have said that there was nothing there. Nothing alive anyway. Curious...

A chirp from his wrist caught the youth's attention. And, apparently, the amphistaff's as well; the creatures sliding around to encircle his arm as it's triangular head poked and prodded at the wrist link that was beeping.

Gently moving the serpentine head away, the boy tapped a button to activate the link. The only comm channels he was monitoring were those used by the Primeval or the Levantine Academy. Were there other agents on Sernpidal?

"This is Dara Gola, is anyone receiving this?"

Without responding, the boy tapped another button to switch frequencies. "Ar-Three, can you run a trace on this transmission?" the youth inquired, speaking back to the droid master of the Star Courier.

Without waiting for the droid to come back with a response, the boy switched back to the earlier frequency. No response, which didn't mean that there might not be more people out there. Distress calls, after all, were a favored tactic of pirates drawing in prey like the young amphistaffs feeding a ground mouth.

Had someone seen the Equinox come in for a landing?

"This is Cadet Chiyo," the youth answered finally, giving his Levantine form of address. "I read you, Dara Gola. Are you in distress?"

If it was an act, he would play along. For now.

And, if it wasn't... just what was he taking rescue courses at the Levantine Academy for?

 

[Armand Temi]

15/20

Perla blinked at the Shi'ido and tried to figure out if it was male or female. Or perhaps this was another smoke demon that she also had to face in Mother Zivka's trial. But the creature suddenly shouted at her and pulled her along to escape the cave. If this was a spirit, he or she was sure a sassy one.

Too confused to even protest, she allowed herself to be lead of the cave by the Shi'ido, but by this time the smoke demon was enraged. It roared along behind them in the tunnel, threatening to overtake them with its inky black void. It even touched Laguz on the back and it would feel like a thousand icy needles were being thrown at her. Then the sensation was gone. Perla chanted in ancient Paecian under her breath as they ran from the demon.

[member="Laguz Vald"]

 

[Boethiah]

Anja was just as puzzled as he was, things were quite out of the ordinary but that was a secondary concern. It was impossible for her to understand--no, comprehend--the existence of this dream state; perhaps others were not so unlucky that their minds were in a deep slumber. She had full control over her actions but not the world around her, everything she saw was as factual as anything in their real world.

"Come along," she said to the blind one. Walking forward Anja found herself heading down a trail that she didn't see before, the stone pavement was unusually soft on her bare feet and the road twisted like a river.

The world around them shifted subtly, little-by-little and when she turned around the place she came from was gone... Vanished into thin air. Her head turned back towards that which was ahead to find canyon filled with caverns.

How odd

She thought to herself, shaking out all that didn't make sense she continued down the beaten path and found herself in an alien landscape with no familiar sights.

[member="Perla Pirjo"] | [member="Laguz Vald"]

 

[Dara Gola]

[4/20]

She listened for a few moments, the lack of replies bothered her. there was protocol for communication and while she didn't follow it as perfectly as she should have, she was certain that someone would have come through on the comm channel by now. She heard a crackle through the receiver in her ear and she perked up a bit. and then it stopped. It started again and she heard a voice through the comm and she smiled, someone was out there but she didn't know the name.

"Cadet Chiyo, I am Agent Gola of the Bleeding Sun. I require assistance at my location as soon as possible. I cannot specify anymore at the moment." She sent her location through the comm and left it open in case whoever it was on the other end needed more information. She began a search of the room, carefully moving from one storage locker to another looking for anything that may have caused whatever it was that caused all of her men to be out cold on the floor. For her at that, who was powerful enough to get the drop on her without her knowing something was wrong.

The anger flowed through her and she let it melt away, it wouldn't do to get angry at the moment, she needed to focus on the situation. Anger would come later when she hat someone to focus that anger at. Lockers were empty and the only thing left were a few large crates, she pulled out her lightsaber and approached the first crate, the time for subtlety was gone, she was going for the direct approach.

[member="Boo Chiyo"]

 

[Laguz Vald]

[8/20]

Laguz was a professional in many senses of the word, but perhaps the most important aspect of xir professionalism was xir expertise on running. Due to the nature of xir work — spying, subterfuge, betrayal; call it whatever you like — the sniper had to learn to run very well and very fast very early on. There were many who'd chosen the same career path and ended it quite shortly after simply because they'd forgotten to train for that highly important part of their job.

Silly, silly fools.

Xe didn't pay much attention to her shrieks of protest, gathering the woman up in xir arms instead — quite more comfortably than what a normal humanoid could manage, that was for sure — and simply kept running, meandering deftly between the illusory obstacles that sought to disrupt xir pace. It wasn't quite a sprint, but not a jog either; one could call it a healthy trek, perhaps, but labels hardly mattered in the end, especially to someone who could change xir form with such ease.

The cave of [member="Perla Pirjo"]'s nightmare was soon left in the dust as Laguz traversed the dangerous slopes of the canyon with the girl of xir dreams — pun intended — xir feet finding purchase on the harsh surface of the conjured rock as xe slowly but surely took them both towards safety.

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Post 4 of 20
Objective: Find a pet amphistaff Investigate
Mentions: [member="Dara Gola"]

A light illuminated on the edge of the wrist link, indicating that coordinates were being supplied over the frequency.

"Of course, Agent Gola. I'm on my way," the boy supplied in answer, terminating the communique as he rose back up to his feet. Switching over to the channel that the Equinox used, he brought his arm back up to speak...

...and got a mouthful of Amphistaff when the snake decided to, at that moment, stick it's head out to see what this blue head was that was doing all the talking.

Boo would have used his free hand to push the snake's head out of the way, except that the meter-and-a-half long serpent had coiled around both wrists like a pair of biot handcuffs. Instead, the boy twisted his head so that he could at least speak while the snub nose of the snake poked at his face. "Ar-Three, send the coordinates to the swoop and then see if there's anything in the Bleeding Sun database on a Dara Gola," the young assassin noted aloud.

He stood and struggled with the snake wrapped around his arms for about another minute, though the amphistaff just seemed to squeeze more tightly around his wrists when he did. Sighing, the boy started back toward the ship, his arms held out in front of him as though he were making a prison break in chains.

He'd figure out how to get the amphistaff off from his arms on the way back to the ship, then take the swoop out to the coordinates this 'Agent Gola' had provided.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

[member="Laguz Vald"] | [member="Perla Pirjo"]

An amorphous blob hovered into view, tentacles writhing sluggishly while eight stalk eyes swiveled this way and that. How the creature had come to this place was immaterial. Indeed, most matters were now immaterial. Nothing but the dream remained. Oh, Bal'gul could see through the dream web. For whatever reason he remained one of the few unaffected. Perhaps it had something to do with his time in the Nether, or Beyond Shadows.

No matter.

He floated toward two quadrupeds. One of them seem familiar, but his mind, focused almost entirely on cataloguing important bits of history, mythos and lore, did not have time for things like recalling the name of a vaguely familiar face.

They appeared lost in the dreamscape, but then Bal'gul had ever been a poor student of the lesser races expressions. They were as unimportant to him as the task of rescuing them from their perceptual slumber. Why wake the restless? He would rather watch them dream.

"Yeeees," his grandfatherly voice crooned, muffled and moist, "Sleeeeep."

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Sernpidal - System[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Catalys Maijora"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][07/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Yuuzhan Vong technology.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It was all organic shet and that made Khal only a little bit uncomfortable, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do and in this instance it meant putting on the suit. It was a painful experience, comparable to the usual cloaker-tech that his men got for him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]But boy, wasn’t it worth it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It had the cloaker-tech incorporated, so you could change your looks to whatever the moment prescribed, which meant that camouflage would be the best there was. Literally changing towards the backdrop of whatever was there. Propulsion systems - not sure how Vong call ‘em - allowed for flight and a steady back movement.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Meant that it was a perfect orbital drop suit.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Took him a few minutes, ten of fifteen and then it was done. It wasn’t a bulky armor either, fit cosily around the Asheran Armorweave he had managed to retrieve back from Byss. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Cata.” Khal would greet him, helmet visor making it impossible to disconcern any visual expressions, but the man could practically hear the grin coming from the Underlord. “I am gonna go jump outta the shuttle, gotta test this thing.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“I will get ya about a five minute head start, people will be mostly focused on me.”[/SIZE]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

He was honestly quite surprised by this turn of events, it was unexpected to say the least...

He hit the gas as they came close to the ground, at full speed the buggy dove out of the hangar and its wheels gripped the dirt below. The suspension took most of the punishment, damaging the shocks for the most part but the vehicle kept rolling rather smoothly. The shock absorption in his armour took care of the rest as he twisted through the obstacles like a winding snake. Five minutes was all Catalys needed to get into position, his objective was to make it towards a hill overlooking the compound.

Until then he'd have to hope Khal was worth more than just a good distraction, otherwise things were going to get rough for the two of them but then again they did steal a space station together. If that was considered 'tough' then this was probably a breeze.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Sernpidal - System[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Catalys Maijora"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][08/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Air tugging at him, friction caused by sheer speed and air particles bombarding the armor at every turn it could. Powerliner nullified most of the kinetic blunt energy that would have been transferred into the body, vacuum and environmentally sealed meant that the occupant was safe from the hazards that could threaten them. Propulsion system kicked in and decelerated the speed of impact, before the Underlord crashed into the hillside and dust spread out.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Moments later a lone man walked up to the gates of the compound, his hand gently caressed the durasteel plate that held up the reinforced gate in a sign of contemplation. They didn’t see him, didn’t know he was there… yet.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Then he took a few steps back - lazily, taking his time with it, just savoring the moment really - and energy started to collect itself in those hands, a raging storm barely held at bay. A few more moments passed as the axis of the Galaxy shifted into Khaleel’s favor, then he [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]punched[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It was in the air, his fist not even hitting the durasteel, but suddenly a huge wave of kinetic energy flowed out of him and knocked right one of the durasteel doors out of its hinged, continuously crashing into the environment behind it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]People that hadn’t been caught in the blast peeked out of the open doorway.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Nobody there?[/SIZE]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

The exterior was empty -- odd... No wait.

"It's a trap," Catalys said over his comm to Khal. It was probably obvious information but still, both of them were at risk and he wasn't about to allow them to be at a disadvantage.

Sliding down the hill the agent made his way towards the opposite entrance, if Khal went in one way Catalys would be ready to head in the other. It was a classic pincer maneuver to push the enemy where you want them before striking from the side. Of course a few details were significantly different but the principle remained the same. Brandishing his assault rifle the Umbaran was ready to bust through at a moment's notice, ready for hell or worse depending on what waited inside.

Communicating again, "I'm waiting to bust in 'round back. Let me know."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Sernpidal - System[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Catalys Maijora"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][09/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Acknowledged.” cold voice returned the message. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It wasn’t Khaleel Malvern who had answered the call, because Khaleel Malvern wasn’t in the building anymore. In some ways the fear of using telekinesis directly had been an overstatement of the fact, but in other ways the Underlord had been on the money.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Lazy steps, sand crunching beneath his boots and another wave of the hand send the defenders sprawling to the walls - bones breaking and shattering against the intensity of the kinetic energy. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Then he was inside the compound.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Trap indeed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“They are focused on me now, go in.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Blue eyes surveyed the environment before two bullet hit him square in the chest, Khal stumbled back two steps and then grunted against the inconvenience. Powerliner stopped the blunt damage, the Asheran Armorweave did the rest to avoid being killed right on the spot.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Casings of the bullets suddenly flew up in the air and started ritchotting in the air. [/SIZE]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

Catalys blasted the lock on the door before rushing inside and taking cover behind some conveniently placed crates. Looking up he fired towards a group of henchmen that were clearly too busy dealing with Khal to realize that the agent had just flanked them. Sadly the surprise didn't last very long and Catalys was now busy dealing with three men, thinking about it he had no idea who the leaders were or what they looked like.

Kark.

Now he had to aim for the legs and arms.

Still it could be worse -- a lot worse. Taking what life gave him, Catalys peeked from cover and shot a few burst rounds towards their legs, dropping two but only glancing the remaining one.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Sernpidal - System[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Catalys Maijora"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][10/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Focus on the leaders, Catalys.” the Underlord would say, before twisting his palm and then crunching it down into a fist. The helmet of the remaining gunman crunched into each other, killing the man almost instantaneously, one of the many dangers of wearing a helmet when you were up against a specialist in telekinesis.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Everything could be a weapon.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“I can handle the grunts.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]The leaders would be located deeper in the facility, probably in a node of infrastructure and security, they would be the ones directing the defense and cetera. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Was all that Catalys needed to know to do his job, whilst Khaleel was drawing in most of the attention of these guys, which is what the Underlord did best anyway. Gotta fire it up and all that. His footsteps took him into one of the hallways as an alarm went off.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Seemed they had finally caught on.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]This is gonna be fun.[/SIZE]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

Firing off a few covering shots, Catalys sprinted towards the corridor leading deeper into the facility. Surprisingly things were rather sparse, a guard rushing towards the skirmish was caught off guard by the running agent. Holding the rifle with one hand he stuck his arm out which came into contact with the poor soul's neck, knocking the wind out of him as he landed flat on his back. The contact wasn't all good for Catalys who stumbled in an attempt to keep himself upright.

Continuing forward he found a central room of sorts, opening the door he'd see what was inside but there was hesitation at first. If the leaders were inside they probably weren't dumb enough to leave the door unguarded, another trap was likely awaiting him.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Laguz Vald]

[9/20]

Apparently the combined stress of dealing with an irritated shape-changer, a Sith spell that had endured Gods know how many years just to mind-frak her, and whatever the illusion had conjured up for the girl was simply too much. About halfway through the canyon, Laguz realized that the admittedly attractive features of the woman in xir arms had grown lax, her body slumping against xem.

Well, that's just fantastic.

With a loud groan, the sniper ran a few more meters, scouring the slopes surrounding xem for a good spot to set the girl down. Xe reached for the water xe always carried on xem, grumbling something about overly sensitive non-combatants as xe splashed the contents of the bottle into the girl's face.

"Wake uuuuuup," the sniper sing-songed into her ear, half-tempted to slap her back into the world of the living. Xe'd tried that before, though, and it didn't really have the intended effect. Then again… this time around, the woman had already been able to hear xem and even touch them. Perhaps… second time's the charm? Laguz didn't really believe in superstition, and so instead of wondering further, the shifter simply delivered the best queen-slap xe could muster, a fast and accurate smack on the cheek that was sure to wake her up. Right?

RIGHT?!


[member="Perla Pirjo"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Location: Sernpidal - System[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Allies: [member="Catalys Maijora"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][11/20][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]And Khal started making [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]noise[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]A lot of it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Kinetic energy ripped walls down, crushing people under sudden weight added up to their frames, invisible cutting edges flowing through them and slicing them up in pieces. Telekinesis had a lot of applications, most of which weren’t really explained all that much in general.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]But oh was it effective.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]More and more people were coming in, just to be cut down by invisible menaces and in the meantime Khal was pondering on how long it would take Cata to take out those leaders. Because with them gone the whole framework would fall apart.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]With them gone? Their tactics would be destroyed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Easy pickings next.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]This was all about ambition in the grand scheme of things, about power after gaining the money, their organization was getting flushed with the amount of operations running and giving them profit. But that money had to go somewhere.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Had to keep rolling.[/SIZE]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

Rushing inside the room Catalys was being shot at by the damn guards. Of course there'd be more of them, why wouldn't there? If he wasn't so busy being shot at he might've sighed but instead the Umbaran ducked in cover, determining between guard and leader. Once he got the general idea he fired well-placed shot at the men preventing him from succeeding in his objective.

Afterwards he moved forward to take out the leaders, however one of them managed to slip out in the fighting. With two new hostages Catalys contacted his man over comm.

"Got one heading your way, a runner." He made sure to alert Khal.

Hopefully this was it.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Laguz Vald]

[9/20]

Well. The lady would be left to do as she pleased in those scorched wastes of her — their? — dream canyon, because Laguz was busy getting out of that hellhole of a place. The air was dry, the earth was hot, the canyon was looming and looked on the verge of launching a rockslide on the pair of them. Xe didn't like that weather forecast one bit, let me tell you. Sunny with a chance of boulders? No, thank you.

With a low grumble in the back of xir throat, Laguz stuffed back the small — infinitesimally so — pang of guilt in xir abdomen, telling xem that maybe leaving a poor, unconscious woman to her fate wasn't the nicest thing to do. Then again, the shifter had been doing exactly that for years, if not decades. It wasn't always a canyon, and it wasn't always a woman, but it made little difference in the end; unless you had credits (or any other object of value redeemable in credits), the sniper would be gone sooner than you could blink.

Xe sniffled a bit as xe looked down on the girl, bemoaning xir seemingly hopeless situation. Xe had never asked for any of this. Why did people have to touch things they knew nothing about? It was Tomb Raiding 101, for Gods' sake!

"UGH, fine," Laguz finally spat out with an eyeroll for the ages, picking the girl back up and slinging her over xir shoulder like a sack of starwarsified potatoes. "You owe me," xe threatened to the limp body of the witch bumping against xir back as xe fell into that fast pace again, hoping to clear the cwm before the whole thing came down upon the two of them.


[member="Perla Pirjo"]