Beasts

[Thaddeus Wyse]

W A Y L A N D​

[member="Darth Filiae"]​

​

From the moment her starship breached the atmosphere of Wayland Skai knew that something was wrong.

Direct tight beam communication should have returned a message to her, but instead... all that the Dathomiri received was static. A white noise that hummed through the audio feed of her ship and left an ominous feeling within her, a pit slowly growing the closer she got to the wide swath of jungle that was designated as the territory Cerbera's secret facilities were located.

Much of it was below ground with a few facilities breaking the ground and rising up, but still hidden well beneath the gargantuan trees, sensor-masking equipment and other technology to keep a low-profile.

Then she reached a particular distance.

Maybe five clicks (or about three minutes at maximum burn) until she would reach the landing pad. Suddenly the white noise cut off and in its stead was an automatic warning message. The robotic voice was clinical, to the point and completely standard in its approach.

Why?

The range was short, someone would have to know the facility was here to actually come across it, but it was still a risk to take... and Cerbera was not exactly one to take risks.

She had called on her to visit Wayland today.

Something about an experiment that would be astonishing in its feat. Skai couldn't help but wonder if something had gone horribly wrong in the progress. She angled the starship to align with the vector of the landing pad, but got immediately suspicious when she noticed another ship already resting on another one of the hidden landing pads.

Who else was here?

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

"Csen'ai? Csen'ai?! Van can, cart vah cseah? Carcir ei ch'itt'siz bah to von'ehn, rot'ar. Ophidia, come in- Chit! Over"

Filiae unplugged from the ship and kicked a wayward cleaning-droid on the way out, cursing under her breath as she did. She bit down the pain in her foot from kicking the droid, which corrected itself and whirred on with its chores. In a light jog, she stuck her head out from the ship and looked up at the Wayland sky. Her lips thinned in frustration as she saw a ship approaching. Pulling a blaster rifle from its stand, she quickly checked and loaded it before peaking out again.

The ship was coming down. Were they jamming her signals? No, this was something else. The Pale was in there somewhere with the green woman. Darling chattered from the piloting seat in his binary, and Nethil answered.

"Yes, I see it. No, it's too late for that; if they wanted to blast us, they would do it already." "Make ready for takeoff- Yes without her. You know her orders."

She squeezed up against the lip of the door, holding the blaster at the ready.

"No, I don't know that they're hostile, but what am I supposed to do? Step out there and talk to them?" "Really? How about you do that, while I get the ship ready?"

To her mild surprise, Darling stood up and made his way out of the ship. Quickly, Nethil ran over to the pilot's seat, getting the Phasma ready for take-off. [member="Skairus"] would see a tall, thin droid: A pilot. It waved a darkened metal hand with an obscene nonchalance.

"He is going to get himself blasted, and I will be the one to rebuild him. She is going to have my skin."

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

This complicated the matter immensely.

That ship shouldn't be here- few if anyone knew about this facility. It could mean one out of two things: either this was an ally or someone had uncovered the facility and breached it. Skai wasn't trusting, no, but there was also the matter of the alert coming out. If someone had found the facility, breached it and was rampaging through it?

Would explain a lot of things.

Skai locked down the ship, but kept the engines running- it meant that nobody would be able to lift-off without her say so, but it also meant that if she needed to... retreat?

She could.

Part of the Dathomiri wondered if it wasn't better to flee, while she stepped out of the bay ramp and onto the brushed steel of the landing platform, after all she didn't owe Cerbera anything. If the Sith was dead? Well, would be a pity that she couldn't learn more from her, but at the very least she would be free.

Any more thoughts of that went away when she noticed the droid awkwardly waving at her. Skai blinked... the kark? "You there, droid, who is your owner?"

"I belong to CHHHHRRRCHHKKK"

Skai sighed, yes, that was helpful, but then the droid shook its head and waved her to follow him. Into. The. Ship. That. She.- This was probably a stupid thing she was about to do, but what other choice was there? Try to enter the facility with an unknown ship at her back with Goddess knows what inside of it?

Run back to Dathomir with her ship?

No. No.

After a moment of consideration she followed the droid into the ship.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Nethil almost had the ship locked down when Darling came back inside. She heard the clanking of his metal feet, scurrying up the ramp. She turned, a mocking smile on her lips as she looked at the droid.

"I see you're still in on-What?"

The smile dropped, her left hand strayed to the blaster which she had set next to the seat. Darling stepped aside to let Skairus on board, Nethil's eyes narrowed as she weighed her options. Should she draw and blast them? She let go of the blaster and stepped away from the cockpit. She moved her hip with purpose, showing the cylinder attached to her belt. Her cybernetic hand clenched and un-clenched, she felt energy stream to the shock glove - Just in case.

Who in the world was this person? Did she belong here? Did Nethil? She was with Ophidia. Who knew what this person was, and what she was after. Filiae only knew so much of what the csen'ai and her green friend was up to, but she knew it was of great importance and that there were many who wished to stop them. As such, she was very wary of the situation. This one could be anyone.

Darth Filiae approached [member="Skairus"] with confident caution. Darling had made the bed, Nethil had to sit in it. There was a pause before she greeted her.

"Darth Filiae." She left an expectant pause.

She had revealed herself a Sith, this would either confirm or remove options. If it would come to blows, then at least it would happen quickly.

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

Crimson orbs flickered to the blaster next to the blue-skinned woman.

She suppressed a scowl, her amulet may have one or two charges left in it... maybe enough for a single blaster bolt, but this was close and that could affect the charge capacity. Feth. The fact that she was apparently a Darth removed the immediate option for hostility, but that left out about half a dozen options where it would occur in the next two minutes instead.

Sith did not equal to friend... never.

"Skai." Hand rubbed against the pommel of her dagger. The angle of the droid could maybe soak up the first blaster shot... maybe. "Who told you about this place?"

That would determine what happened next, as far as Skai was concerned.

There were only about... five names that the Dathomiri could imagine knowing about this place, but maybe half of them had any right to take people with them to this jaunt. Cerbera was very strict on that point. So, either this Sith was part of Cerbera's network or one of them would drop on the floor soon.

Not her.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Not a Darth, nor a Jedi - She did not feel like one - The more obscure options remained. The obscurity was dangerous, she did not like to know. There was a tension in the air between them - Understandably.

"I could ask the same."

She knew her master preferred not to be named if she could avoid it, and who was this person to ask? Well, clearly she knew of this place as well, and she had not been shown the way. Spies? Leaks?

What about honesty? It could be worth the gamble.

"This is the ship of Darth Oph-" The radio crackled suddenly.

Nethil swerved to look, hearing the voice crackle through as the signal adjusted. She wanted to go to it, but found herself stuck in the stalemate. Darling, however, did not. He bounded over to the communications table in two springing steps and adjusted the dials in order to strengthen the reception. It was back to static, but under it was the clear inflection of a voice. Slowly, it became more and more clear.

A familiar voice. "I thchhht krhht-hrough. kchhrt-ome in. Filiae."

[member="Skairus"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

Darth Oph-

Skai was cautious, not a paranoid nutcase.

There were too many coincidences here- this person had tracked down a secret facility made by Cerbera out of all the paranoid Sith wandering the Galaxy. That was supposed to be next to impossible, which meant that it was more likely that she knew the way or had been shown the way. Then the fact that the ship was owned by Oph. Oph who?

There was only one logical conclusion: Ophidia.

"I thchhht krhht-hrough. kchhrt-ome in. Filiae."

That did it. The voice was broken apart around the seams and the static was filling in the syllables, but it was difficult not to recognize Ophidia's voice throughout it all.

"Skai is here too, Lord Ophidia." The Dathomiri responded as she appeared next to Fil. A risk, the young blue-skinned woman might be jumpy, but this was the time for answers. "Is she with you?"

"S--hhjdeeee-he is." The amused voice of Cerbera filtered through the room.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Great amounts of tension rose up in Filiae, then dropped like a hole had opened in the floor beneath her. The Csen'ai knew this person? Filiae clenched her jaw into a hard frown as she stepped closer to the com devices. Darling looked at the two fleshy beings with as smug a face as a piloting droid and part time tea maker could possibly conjure.

"Skai, hssssh plea-. Excuse- -manners."

"Csen'ai, Tahe'ir bah g'et'asisah?" She spoke in the Chiss language of Cheunh.

"Trust, FCHHH-iliae." Ophidia responded in distorted basic.

It was evident that the Chiss did not approve, but begrudgingly accepted. Darling ran over to the controls and shut down the pre-takeoffs. He knew what this meant. He had travelled with Ophidia longer than Filiae.

"What happened? Where are you?"

Was there worry in her voice? Ophidia had raised Nethil as her own child. Perceptive ones would question if Ophidia felt anything for Filiae, but it was undeniable that Filiae cared for the Rattataki. A weakness? Perhaps, it created an interesting twist of passions that had helped drive Filiae to this point.

"Chhhhsht- rbera, care to explain h- -ou got us-ccccht-in?" Even through the static, one could feel the bemused sarcasm in Ophidia's voice.

[member="Skairus"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

"Csssshhht- ertainly." Undisturbed and quite at ease with everything that was happening. "It all sta- ted with thisssssshhhttttt present given to me by deaaaaaaarressssht Ophidia."

On a good day it was difficult for Skai to determine what exactly the relationship was between her Master and Filiae's. Sometimes they seemed like caty sisters, then amicable friends, loyal allies, before seemingly being this close to karking each other's brains out. There was no consistency to be found and it annoyed Skai.

But that was put aside for now, as Cerbera - through static and shimmering - managed to explain about this strange arcane book that Ophidia had given to her as a present. One that she had experimented on, before realizing that one particular set of pages seemed to be cursed.

More specifically it seemed to be linked to somewhere.... else.

Not this Galaxy or any other Galaxy, not the spirit realm either, but either way something had gone wrong in the security procedures. A hole was ripped open and soon before long the entire facility was overrun by what seemed to be... demons.

The facility was in lockdown to contain the threat, but that also meant Cerbera and Ophidia were locked out.

They needed to get to the center of the facility, breach containment where the demons were at their thickest and then close the book. Ophidia was in the middle of a witty response, when the comms were suddenly locked off again.

Trying to reconnect only got them static again. Skai stared at the display, now only showing a rotating map of the underground facility.

"Well, this will be fun." She remarked dryly.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

For a moment, Nethil simply stood there. Her eyebrow twitched slightly, unsure whether to show embarrassment, irritation, or bemusement. It seemed to fluctuate between the three and numerous more, all in the span of a second before she slapped her forehead with her fleshy hand. It made a resounding clapping sound that called Darling's attention. The droid stared at her for a moment, then went back to fiddling with the dials of the communications table. Nethil let her hand fall, and looked at Skai.

"Fun. Yes."

She sighed and picked up the blaster rifle, balancing it over her arm. It would be handy to have an extra weapon or two. She thought for a moment about the sabres her master wielded, supposedly able to cut down demons as though they were flesh. They would have been handy at this time.

"I assume you know the interior? The map can only tell us so much."

Maps only told them so much, and as the map turned around and around in front of them, Filiae copied it to her own memory core and opened it in a smaller holo display. She could stabilise it this way, and keep it with them. Unfortunately, this also meant she would have to work closely with this scrub. She hid her distaste, her potential envy.

With a nod, Nethil then sent Darling to keep the ship in stand-by for a quick escape - Or to blast the doors down. She then turned towards the ship's exit, expecting Skai to come with.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

It wasn't going to be fun.

No matter how uncaring and amused Cerbera sounded... well, Skai had seen her works up-close. It didn't surprise him that the infamous Alchemist didn't have much care about what was happening, she knew that together with Ophidia they could probably wipe out this entire facility on their own. It was just that they couldn't with the protocols locking them down in the centerfold of the laboratories. Containment could be a right schutta like that every once in a while.

Filiae turned just in time to have Skai brush past her and back into the sun of Wayland proper. "First thing she made me memorize." Not really the first thing, but the first thing that Cerbera had relayed with clarity that she should know.

There had been dozens if not more assumptions before that.

She had a few scars left from not meeting those expectations immediately, but such was the way of the Sith. As they approached the gate her companion would see green erupting from the corner of her eye- if she turned to look she would see Skai's hands moving in complicated gestures. Fingers hooking and unhooking, almost as if they were weavings threads in the middle of the air. It was the Emerald Ichor of the Spirits, that began to cling to her nails.

They made pretty lines radiating light, before it burst into a tiny cloud of mist.

Out came... a short-blade which Skai caught in her hand. She weighed it, flicked it once in the air for experimental flourish, before catching it once again. "Bless the spirits." Skai murmured a thanks while inclining her head towards the flat of the blade.

All done in a matter of moments, before they reached the doors.

"We can cut our way through?" Skai offered- their Masters wouldn't be of any assistance, not in the middle of the lockdown procedure.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

"Good."

Nethil knew the feeling; Ophidia had forced Nethil to march through a maze on Maena, and familiarise herself with every wall, every corner, every painful trap and pitfall. She hated it, but a part of her also understood the why: They wanted them to learn more than just the map. Perhaps they had meant to teach them how to cope with the unknown. Or else, they would just give her a map, right?

Filiae turned to follow, she almost fell into the habit of being two steps behind - As she would with Ophidia - but caught herself and stepped up to be equal to Skai. She watched Skai's motions from the corners of her eye; not looking directly at it, but catching it still. She had seen something similar before, but not quite: Not green or quite so spirit'y.

"We could. Or we could knock." By which she meant override the local lockdown code for a few seconds.

It was simple slicing really. She had used it to get herself, or others, in and out of structures undetected. It worked 99.9% of the time, and it was usually less telling than cutting a hole through the wall.

Nethil's cybernetic hand shifted as her middle and index fingers conjoined into a dataspike which she proceeded to insert into the console of the outer door. Her eyes went blank as her mind delved into the realm of numbers and code. She isolated the lockdown code and reverse-engineered it. Finding the individual elements, she could synthesise a temporary access, tricking the door to open. However, it would only work for a few seconds, as the lockdown would soon refresh the codes, then isolate and terminate her access - If not worse.

And the doors opened, Nethil ushered Skai to enter, and delved into the interior of Cerbera's creepy house of science.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

Brow quirked up as Filiae's fingers shifted and suddenly turned into a data-spike out of all things.

"Neat trick." It surprised her how easy it turned out to be, relatively speaking. As the door slid open and Skai went on through she mused about that. It wasn't like her Master to make it... this easy to simply slice here and there and then get immediate access. The lights of the facility were dimmed, running off emergency power no doubt. Where were the hordes of Sithspawn descending on them? The turrets and mines and death rays vaporizing them for daring to breach the doors through one means or the other?

They stood there in silence.

"Strange, I exp-" That's when the whine of the klaxons burst through the corridors. Behind them the doors closed shut, going in full lock-down, if Filiae tried to open them again in the same way she had before? She would notice that she would have... quite some difficulty with that.

Enough to short-wire her cybernetics in an automatic feedloop.

In the distance the howling was already starting. Inhumane, high-pitched, their screeches echoed from wall to wall and now explosions rang in the distance, the sound of fierce animalistic fighting as something clashed against something else.

Skai scowled, exchanged a look with her companion and then decided that wasting more time wasn't a good idea. Instead she opted to walk down the corridor, slowly. So no surprises would catch her.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Her fingers changed back, it was a handy modification, and not all that difficult to make if one had the right contacts. Sometimes it helped to have friends in strange places. She had indeed thought it would be more difficult, or that there would be something on the other side to greet them. Turns out she was half-right: It succeeded 99.9 per cent of the time, but 75% of the time it worked there were nasty reprisals.

"It comes in handy."

She raised an eyebrow at the next comment. What she had done was not easy, even if it possibly looked like it from outside. Nethil had to navigate a cybernetic maze to make it happen and- She stopped once the klaxons began, a half-voiced "chit" escaping her voice as she shouldered the blaster.

"I am going to make a wild guess and just not wire up to the mainframe until we are out of this. At least not like that."

Filiae looked where she heard inhuman roars accumulate to a clash and a bang of metal. A part of her expected the wall to bend or crack under the pressure, but they held. So Nethil walked next to Skai, keeping her eyes sharp and the carbine blaster shouldered. With every step, she half expected something to fall down or burst out of the floor, but for the first few minutes it seemed fine - Loud, but fine. Perhaps they were still locked away from the bulk of the sithspawn?

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

"Good plan," Skai mumbled while keeping her eyes on the situation.

The corridor slowly shifted from clinical neatness to blood, gore and bones spread around. At the end of the corridor was another set of doors, but these ones were ripped open. The amount of strength needed for such a feat would be astonishing. Another look was exchanged between the two before the Dathomiri crouched down a bit, peeking through the doors and observing the room beyond it.

It was a mess.

The center of the room (maybe an intermediate storage facility) was dominated by a large pulsating... something. Flesh shaped into a mass of translucent veins pulsing like a heart.

What was worse? Every so often things ripped their way through the fleshy mass, before the tears were knit back together like some kind of organical super-mass. "The kark." Skai whispered softly to Filiae. Most of the things (the demons?) disappeared down the other corridors leaving the storage facility.

"Whatever that is... we need to kill it."

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Disgusting.

Nethil's face curdled like blue milk turned green as they came within sight of the pulsating pile of fleshy something. She tilted her head as her cybernetic eye zoomed in for details, then immediately zoomed back out as something clawed its way out of the broodmother. The thing squeaked like the infantile demon-spawn of a rodent and a surprisingly hardy insect, then the fleshy bit stitched itself up again.

"Oh that is just all kinds of wrong."

Nethil looked at Skai, for once without scorn on her face.

"II agree put it out of our- its misery." She shouldered the blaster and cocked it.
"A mouthful of plasma ought to do it." Nethil whispered back, nodding in agreement.

Keeping low and her right shoulder close to the wall, Filiae moved closer. Her feet touched the floor with the outmost quiet. Her boots were made for this; her feet were trained for this. She shifted her weight through the steps, making no sudden movements. Yet, her eyes stared at the fleshy form with intense determination. Then a jump, roll, she closed the distance and stood up in a crouch. With a practised movement she turned the barrel down at where the last of the creatures had exited, then pulled the trigger.
Thump thump thump

Three flashes of red light flashed from her blaster as the plasma was pumped out. Would it be enough to kill it? The fleshy mass quivered furiously, and a creature clawed its way out of it; in response, the Chiss stepped, turned, swung her metal leg and punted the newly spawned demonoid in Skai's direction.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

There was practiced ease as Skai went through her knees, edge of the sword drifting lazily a few inches behind her, before swinging herself up with the edge following in pursuit.

Right before the demon would barrel into her the sword cleaved straight through the soft parts of its belly, upwards through membrane, veins, muscle and tendons, by the end of its journey the short blade had cut the thing entirely in half. Blood dripped instead of spraying, implying the creature did not move by the natural way of blood pumping through its veins. Either way her leather and arms and hands were covered with the thick crimson substance.

She stepped in between the two sides of the demon. "If it weren't for her being locked in the middle of this fething thing, I'd say glass the entire facility." The mumble came while watching the heart (it looked kinda like a heart) pulsed in anticipation.

It was almost a shiver.

But this time it wasn't anything that came out of it... instead Skai suddenly felt something curl around her leg and squeeze down. "The kark?!" The demon had been split, yes, but instead of dying like any self-respecting organism... it had separated itself in two. One was currently trying to cut through hardened alchemical leather, while the other crawled up and took a lunge towards Nethil. In the meantime... in the distance they could hear an inhuman scream piercing through the corridors.

And it was approaching.

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Well that was eas- Nope.

"If only I had a row of turbolasers on hand. I might not have cared."

She snickered for a moment, but it quickly turned to a disgusted look of disbelief as the cleft demon morphed, one of its sides begining to squeeze and cut at Skai's boot, the other worming a few inches towards Nethil before launching at her in a positively suicidal lunge. Nethil let go of the blaster with her left hand, the wires in her palms sparked into a blue glow. Force lightning? No, nothing so traditional; her arm had an integrated shock glove. Her hand hummed as she stepped back and thrusted out her left palm.

She grabbed the lunging fleshy fekker in the air. Sparks flew from the dies of her hand, accompanied by a series of cracks and snaps. The demon half in her grasp twitched and wiggled, scratching her metal arm, pulling on the joints.

"Why won't these things die?"

She threw it on the floor, it twitched a few more times before regaining muscle control, just in time for Nethil to throw her right leg up as far as she could, before bringing it down in a vicious stomp. If cutting it didn't help, then perhaps splattering it.

The screams came closer and closer, too close for comfort. Nethil could almost hear the sound of talons - or were they spikes? - tapping against the metal floor in a quickened pace, accompanied by the occasional sniffing and huffing of a hunter following a scent.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Darth Filiae"]

The thing kept chewing on her boot like it was some kind of domestic creature playing with a toy.

Kinda reminded her of the Rancors of Dathomir, at least in the amount of teeth and just the sheer stubbornness once they caught a scent. "Who knows, just keep karking hitting it." Slicing and cutting didn't seem to do much besides piss it off more though. Enough that the thing let go of her boot and lunged at her, to try and chew her face off.

Schutta jumped and all Skai could do was react instinctively. She actually punched the monster straight in the mouth.

If it had been anyone else? Might have been bye bye to their arm, but Skai was a Witch and witches had their neat little tricks. The skin of her arm erupted in flames of emerald, like the spirit ichor she had used to construct her sword, and where it touched the insides of the beast?

It caused it to spontaneously combust.

In pain and agony it danced away, trying to out itself out, but all it did was spread the green fire even more all over itself.

"Ugh, that was nast-" Skai raised her blade immediately, when she noticed the shining orbs of magma in the shadows beyond the corridor. The scrapping against metal had finally arrived. Terantatek.... and not the littles one deluded Jedi Padawan were slaughtering by the dozen.

No, this was Cerbera's work. "We are karked."

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

When Nethil lifted her boot, the body laid still. Either it was dead or its bones too broken to put up a fight, she slipped the toe of her boot under it and flopped it out of her path just as the fires consumed Skai's half of the infantile demon.

'We are karked.'

The Chiss turned to look where Skai had set her eyes, and she saw the glowing orbs in the shadowcast form. She thought there would be more fear, but what she felt most was a resounding readiness. The blaster clattered to the ground as she let the grip of it slip out of her right hand. Filiae's jaw set hard, so hard she thought her teeth would crack under the pressure. Her right hand, now available, plucked the lightsabre hilt from its place in her belt; her left hand seized its hum.

"We can do it."

She gripped the sabre with both hands, the hilt being large enough to accommodate it. Her left foot slid back, dropping her in a ready position as she raised the dormant hilt over her head: Form V - Djem So. She thumbed the activation button, summoning the blade. Not red - It was a vibrant orange, like the sun setting over an ocean, or the sands of a Dathomiri desert just before they turn red.

Her hands twisted around the hilt, tightening and loosening, falling into place.

The terentatek charged, barrelling at the two with its hulking form. It did not scream now: It hunted; it came there to kill.

[member="Skai"]