Burned Books and Pickaxes (Lords of the Fringe)

[Velok the Younger]

The things you find in ruined mines.

Hellgotha had mines, more or less. Crevasses full of reeking biomass, vertical melee battlefields a week or a year old. Bones and rotten flesh ready to be carted into other caves one backpack at a time and fed into the reprocessors for dinner. But real mines, for ore, gems, crystalline formations? Hellgotha had nothing like that, and no need for it. At least not in the place where I was. Planet of seven billion, and no mass transit.

Halm is cleaner, brighter, drier, sandier and infinitely less populated. Its mines are mostly empty, with the occasional subterranean facility half-full of sand and detritus. Pickaxes, books burned for fuel by people trapped down here centuries back. It's a dead place, a nice place.

For the first hundred vertical metres. Anything below that, and this ghost town of a planet turns into monster central. Conveniently, that's where the adegan crystals are, and I haven't owned a lightsabre in sixteen years.

The mine cart and its chains have a rusty rattle to them. I like them even less than I like the Fringe, but 'go here, kill things, we'll give you money' is a pretty reasonable business transaction.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Hellgotha had been stupid, the whole concept of it at the very least. But that’s usually the case with prisons of any kind. Say what you want about a good ol’ fashion penal colony, but at the very least they made their prisoners work for their expenses check, economical boost, men and women working off their debt to society by providing some much needed manual labor. ‘gotha on the other hand was an one-way black hole where you shove in all the taxes you needed and never got anything back in return.

Maybe I was getting cynical with age, or it was the vong talking, never really know these days. Only thing I do know is that the Fringe were paying money for clearing down a mine, apparently they were able to harvest adegan crystals here… only problem was the monster infestation.

Problem for most people, Ordavo and me were our own brand of monsters. We could probably handle the situation with some cleavers. We stepped inside the tunnel and I sniffed a little. Seemed all fine for now.

Would probably take us a while before we encountered any real resistance.

‘Remind me how much they are paying.’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Ten thousand a tail. Walking-around money."

The mine cart rattles against the shaft's wall. Reminds me of the last escape from Hellgotha, me and Nui in a spot like this, but moving up to the surface, with no mine card. So maybe it's not the rattle that reminds me. Maybe it's just the taciturn Vongshaped ex-Jedi who's slowly becoming the closest thing I have to a friend.

"Keep your eyes open. There's things down here that love Jedi in a gastronomic kind of way. I mean, don't we all."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

‘Noted.’

The money was good, hell not gonna lie… if we don’t get eaten by these guys? Probably will be earning more cash than I have ever seen in my life. Another perk being a Jedi, you really only got your robe, lightsaber and maybe a good pair of shoes. Can’t ever go wrong with a good pair of shoes, I will tell ya that.

Some part of me was wishing for my old lightsaber, it had gotten me through more scrapes than I could count on one hand. On the other hand… I looked at my literal hand, contracted a muscle and watched as three sharp objects raised themselves from the flesh.

Painful, but bearable.

I didn’t need anything else, not for now at least.

Somewhere in the depths of the mine I could hear something, it was an echo, nothing concrete and yet it worried me. Too close if the intel given to us was accurate.

‘Doubt there is much Jedi to smell on me anyway. You hear that?’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"What, you didn't run out to Tython for some burlap tail?"

The chain squeals to a halt in front of a pitch-black tunnel. I'm wishing for my lanvarok, but if wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak. I tweak the Force just right, and I can see in the dark. Ignoring that particular skill is just plain not an option when you spend the better part of two decades underground.

"Speaking of tail, I'm thinking the limiting factor here might be how many we can carry." A roar. It's coming from a set of lungs about ten times bigger than mine. Lungs are sort of a specialty of mine.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Snort. ‘Doubt they’d give much action.’

Dark, didn’t have his skill in seeing in the dark. But there was a plus in rolling with the Sith for the better part of year. Sithspawn eyes. Corners, walls, all the clingy things got contrasted and made things more clear. By this point in time you could say I didn’t give much of a dang anymore.

‘Think the limit will be how hard we can run.’ again a sniff. ‘Sounds fun.’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"I didn't come down here to run."

Weapon of the day is a control lever from a surface facility, a rig half-buried in sand. The lever has a couple teeth that form a mace head, balance within a couple centimetres of where a mace should be, a rubberized handle and a weight of five point five kilos. I haven't weighed it. I unsling the level off my shoulder and keep heading into the dark.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

I never said which direction.

With a grunt the claws tore through the skin, left hand half size, right hand full. Didn’t know what we would be exactly facing, but by the sounds of it I will want some distance between myself and whatever the hell it was. Didn’t stop walking either, just kept on going, this was gonna get interesting real fast.

Gotta admit, those claws might be one of the best thing that has happened to me. Lightsaber resistant, cuts straight through steel and blablblabla. You get the drill. It was overpowered. It was good.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"If you're gonna grunt like that every time I'm around, I'm gonna have to start charging you. And-"

I lose me train of thought as a new smell hit his nostrils. Lizard or fish, and iron. No, copper. A new scent has significance to me; I've been downwind of just about everything lethal. I can't repress a grin.

"Whatever they want dead is something I haven't run into before."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

‘Hope it’s cheap with a mug like th--’ was about the time when I got my own whiff of the creature, didn’t have that kind of developed senses. But I felt the excitement coming from Seren, would have lied if I wasn’t feeling the same thing. The more I fought, the more I wanted the fight. Funny how it worked like that, ‘least we were doing some good by dealing with these things.

We kept walking, on our guard, excitement boiling over in anticipation. I blinked. ‘Watch out.’ two seconds after that the biggest lizardhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hssiss I had ever seen jumped at Seren, what we- or at least I wasn’t aware of was that these fethers hunted in packs. Usually duo’s.

So there was probably another one out there waiting for us to slip up.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

My right hand snaps up, I pivot left, and I grab the Dark Side dragon's throat hard enough to keep mine out of its teeth. My back hits the tunnel wall, a claw catches my left arm, and I roar right back at the hssiss. I've dropped the lever, but we're at close quarters, too close for a bludgeon. A Fringer taserblade fills my left hand -- snagged that off a recently dead marine on Hellgotha -- and I flex my bicep. My upper arm may be pinned against the wall, but my forearm slams the taserblade up into the dragon's front leg. Electricity courses through both of us and I gray out. I'm a little faster to recover than the hssiss is. The knife does its work.

"One."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

I let him handle the lizard, too small to really be of much use without accidentally stabbing him at the same time. Didn’t think he would be all that happy with me. Whilst he was handling the lizard, I kept an eye out for more… didn’t have to wait for very long though.

There weren’t many smart tactics around these parts, cramped spaces and all. Looked away for a second, looked back and these big freaking jaws were flying right at me. Too much teeth to count, I acted on instinct, not exactly on anything else and… punched in the direction of the flying Hssiss.

Don’t forget, claw was already extended so what happened next was pretty awkward, for the lizard.

The beast couldn’t alter its trajectory and it didn’t have the prese-- hell, it was simply too fast to really do anything. Claws embedded themselves into the inside of the lizard’s throat, jaws clamping down on the claws but it was too late already. After some struggling here it was… a dead lizard, hanging on my claw.

I sighed, this would need some cleaning up.

‘You still alive?’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

Thud.

Thud.

Splat.

These are the sounds of a five point five kilogram, eighteen centimetre durasteel lever introducing itself to the skull and upper spine of a hssiss.

"I'm good."

Actually, I'm hungry. I want to do a cookout. The air smells like electrically charred lizard, and I carve some off with the taserblade. A little raw meat never hurt anyone; frankly, it's miles better than what I ate on Hellgotha.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Really wanted to say something about that. Like. Who the hell starts eating in a dark, damp cave with lizards prowling from the shadows. But just as my mouth opened to say it… both of us could hear the rumbles coming from my stomach. Think that was really all the answer we needed right about now.

Lent Saren’s blade and charred some lizard meat, slicing off a bit chunk. Hadn’t had a proper piece of meat in a long while. Munch. Munch. This wasn't all that bad, actually. Somewhere in the depths of the cavern system I heard another rumble, louder than what we had heard before. Which was an accomplishment in itself.

'Fifty creds that is a dragon.'

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Nah. Dragons are banned."

A low rumble percolates through the ground, and I wipe hssiss blood off my chin as I stand. "Sounds like a wall breaking." I heft the lever and set off down the tunnel, straight for the sound. Not much else to do. It's one of those days.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Managed to suppress a snort. Looked around, before taking a final bite from the meat. Wasn’t all that bad, Hellgotha had been worse, army rations hadn’t been all that of an improvement either. Retracted the fist claws and started after Seren.I could practically feel the vibration in the ground. This was probably going to be better than a few lizards here and there, tilted my head, stretching the neck.

Couldn’t help but start feeling excited again and you gotta understand. It’s all about having been a Jedi for such a long time. Some managed to take a bit of emotion in every once in a while, I hadn’t been one of those, felt it too dangerous to live on the edge. So I kept myself separate from it all. It had worked for me then, but I hadn’t ever considered what would happen if I got pushed all the way over the brink.

There was passion, darkness. Desire to kill. It was all there and what better way to vent then by killing some monsters?

 

[Velok the Younger]

Abruptly, the ground gives way beneath me, and I catch myself at the edge. Below me is a hssiss-dug tunnel, or that's what it looks like. Crystals gleam faintly in the dark. Not another vein, that'd be too convenient, just stray crystals, basic kathracite and relacite. Who knows if I'll find better. I jump down, my boot squishes in hssiss droppings, and I use my knife to pry the best crystals from the wall. I'm not fond of blue or green, and that's what the vast majority of Adegan crystals produce when you stick them in a blade, but I'm even less fond of most hues. Green might do, I suppose. Good strong statement that I don't care about the iconography schisms and color scheme wars.

"Found a busted geode down here."

[member="Nui Akona"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

I like crystals, I like the colors that everyone found to be 'tied to their souls' or something. Personally I never used a blade, but if I did I preferred the crystals from Hoth. Maybe I should see if my lightsaber would even turn on, its felt like ages since I had even done so. Leaning against one of the cave's sides the best I could, I reached for the slender shaft and held it tightly. If the object could gather cobwebs mine would be the ultimate gatherer. Either way I twisted the blade around searching for the activation button. Finally finding it, I pressed it. The button was hard and not used, but the blade ignited and the soft hum of energy emitted. Which for some reason acted like a beacon. There was another echo along the cave, I couldn't hear them, but their presence lingered in my mind.

Quickly, I pushed off the wall only to catch a shimmer of the hidden creature. Their bite, full of dark side poison. Needed to avoid that of course, locking up my senses I quickly searched through the force for their ripples - everything gave it off and soon finding the one that tried to lock its jaws around my neck like a Garhoon. The blade moved quickly and tasted flesh for the first time. [member="Seren Ordavo"] [member="Nui Akona"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"] [member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Somewhere in the distance a lightsaber ignited, I still remembered that distinct sound and it bothered me, Seren was alright, at least… he probably would have said something if he had broken anything, so we were good in that department.

‘Mhm.’ acknowledging the geode remark, before trying to pierce the darkness. Sithspawn eyes, but they couldn’t see through walls sadly and my senses were never all that well with the Force.

‘We expecting anyone else here?’

Might be another Fringer, might be trouble. I would love some trouble.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"] [member="Spencer Jacobs"]

That snap-hiss carries down the tunnels, and I freeze to maximize my hearing. That's not just a lightsabre -- even after sixteen years without hearing one, the sound is past distinctive -- that's a lightsabre being used on flesh, probably hssiss. As Akona's voice fades away, as his question ends, I draw a deep breath.

"I smell...cake. Conditioner. Old electronics."