Hallowed Ground

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Some form of vessel had crashed near the old village ruins. Anderit saw it come down while on his hunt; the damned thing scared away the wounded Nexu he had been tracking for half a day now. If he returned without any dinner, the Lady would surely take her wrath out upon him. In any other place in the galaxy, he would retaliate, but he needed her knowledge, and had little desire to sour the fragile relationship they had fostered between one another. Dathomir was a savage planet, and forging alliances of even the basest of natures was often an effort in futility. Most folks not born into the Nightsisters did not survive for very long.

Despite this worry, the promise of salvage from the downed ship proved to be too enticing. Cursing himself for his foolish curiosity, Anderit made his way through the thick jungle toward the crash. The trek was longer than it should have been. The forestry was especially thick in these parts due to the lack of human intervention. No one dared to set home in the ruined village out of fear that the Bull would make them its next meal. That was how the village had come to be a ruin in the first place, after all.

Fortunately, Anderit was not among those that feared that haunted land. He and his brother [member="Zared Rinaren"] had taken down the foul Terentatek of the Great Maze where all others had failed. Together they had slain the beast, and its Sith master shortly thereafter. The lightsaber staff Anderit took as a trophy was proof enough of that. The weapon's crimson blades hissed as they carved a steaming path through the shrubbery. Another few feet and...

"Finally," the Nightbrother sighed his relief as he came into the clearing at the village's edge. The settlement's once busy streets were empty, and rimmed by scores of wooden husks that had served as the Nightbrothers' homes so long ago. Even from this distance, Anderit could feel the oppressive aura of the hallowed ground. He was sure that even without his magicks, he would have felt it.

Drawing in a deep breath, the young warrior moved further into the village, searching for the ship's crash site.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Tracking down leads, that was the hard part. The Architects were still out there and Coren needed to find them. He wanted to be ready in case another situation like Yag’Dhul happened again. The Commander really was working to put it on the line for the Alliance, and the galaxy. The Sith were their main enemy, but with so many dark side teams rising up in the galaxy, and those droids, all the help and information they could find was going to be needed.

But this was what Coren did, once more into the breach, right?

Dathomir was a world teeming with the dark side, for whatever reason, he wasn’t surprised that the Architects made it out this far. But still, the Tachyon Rising hit the ground and Coren started to gear up. Simple armor, his standby, and his pistol, lightsaber for flavor. The man had landed near a part of the planet that was just shouting at him. He descended the gangway, before locking the ship again. He accessed his armor’s recording device.

“Going to be searching for the Architects out here. Don’t know why they’re coming here, the Mandos and the witches are… not the easiest people to get along with.”

[member="Anderit Rinaren"]

 

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The Magicks were silent here. On the rest of Dathomir they were wild, untamed. Sometimes it got to the point that their call was detrimental to one's mental health, and that was when the witches learned to shut it out. The Nightbrothers were not allowed such luxuries. Fortunately, Anderit had convinced the Lady to teach him just such an ability. He almost did not notice the distinct lack of the magick here because of it.

The Bull was no ordinary beast. It was a Rancor, twisted and shaped by vile magicks forbidden to the clans. The Bull was born long before Anderit saw the light of day, and it still yet lived. He'd only ever seen the monster once, and that was over his shoulder. It had raided one of the Nightbrothers' caravans when he was little more than a child. The resulting destruction had been catastrophic.

The Bull was no animal; it was a monster, and the magicks recoiled in its presence.

Anderit tried to extend his senses as he strolled over the hallowed ground. Skeletons and other remains stared out at him from the ruins of buildings. Rubble and various other forms of detritus lined the roads. This place was dead.

The sight of the ship up ahead drew his mind from such thoughts. It looked to be some kind of probe, though as to what kind he had no idea. Robotic amalgamations were scurrying around the base of the ship; making shrewd high pitched noises as they ran to and fro from the crash to a pile of salvage. Odd.

Anderit approached the creature's the only way he understood. He ignited the lightsaber staff.

"This really is not the kind of place you want to go camping, droids."

The figures stopped moving, but something else did. It was an unknown; a presence within the magicks, but not the Bull. Something else. Anderit narrowed his eyes and turned toward the direction of the oddity, eyes narrowed as he peered out over the ruins.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Acheron354]

Zared's brother had gone ahead, against his wishes. While he did not worry about the man he still knew that to venture into the darkness without backup was foolish. The warrior moved through the forest with little care about the beasts that hungrily roam in search of prey. It was not until a faint screech caught the attention of the man. He looked around, crouching low while listening to the movements of the jungle. When he focused it was as if Zared had a third eye, a sixth sense, that allowed him to see more than what just his two eyes could. When he heard the screech once more it became obvious that he had become the prey to a hungry beast.

"One....two....three....four. There are four of them." Zared pulled his war spear from it's place on his back, swinging it while slowly turning, watching the movements that were almost completely hidden by the dense mist of the forest. It was only moments later that another screech could be heard, echoing off of the trees that surrounded him.

The shadows danced around him, in tactical movements before he realized his time was up. The first of the creatures leapt from a nearby tree and pounced on Zared, Though he was forced onto his back he immediately kicked with his hind legs, sending the creature sprawling off of him. Moving swiftly he rolled over his shoulder, into a three point stance, his spear held in front of him as if a shield to protect him.

The next attack was almost expected, another of the reptilian beasts sprinted from it's cover, aiming it's large jaw for Zared's head. The Dathomiri warrior spun on his heels, twirling his war spear as he did. Though the blade connected with the hard scales of the beast it did no do any true damage, it simply forced the animal to run away and regroup.

Zared looked around and soon he found himself surrounded by the four large beasts, a small smirk was on his face as he looked them over. "Ssurian's.....Been a while since I've fought these things." Zared set his spear back in it's sheathe on his back, his idle hand reached for the lightsaber that was on his hip, after pulling it from it's place and igniting the crimson blade he looked to each of the Ssurians. "Now let's try this again."

[member="Anderit Rinaren"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He had a few new droids with him this time. His astromech was great, but not suited for this world, and Coren knew that. Probes were the way to go, he had them heading out ahead of him, looking for signs of advanced technology, something bringing him back to the Architects, or, on the flip side, something he could extract from this planet and bring back to the Alliance, or Underground. The pilot didn’t see them as two entities, merely something to pass the time when the other was deliberating. And he owed a lot to both of them.

Gave him purpose, gave him people at his back.

But there were times when the pilot just needed to explore space. And stalk down his enemy. The beings that came for Yag’Dhul? They had taken a few things of his, and he was needing to get them back. But first he had to find where they retreated to. When he was on mission, that was far from his mind, stalking them down.

So many Givin had lost their lives.

But now he was on the path, he thought. And according to the ships sensors, there was a village not far from here. And beyond that, what looked like a place of bones. That was where Coren was headed.

[member="Zared Rinaren"]
[member="Anderit Rinaren"]

 

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His brother had awoken something within the forest. Anderit could feel the faint tug of chaos within the magicks; his connection to his sibling was strong. So long as [member="Zared Rinaren"] could handle the threat, he would leave the Nightbrother be. They both had bigger issues to deal with right now. Still, he gave the warrior a slight push through their connection, a simple means of gaining his attention.

Then the droids began to move. Slowly at first, but they gradually started to pick up speed. It seemed they were paying him no mind -- Anderit did not like that. Lips pressed into a thin line, the young warrior marched toward the downed craft. That was when they took notice. One of the droids -- tall, with six long appendages that seemed to dance along the ground rather than walk -- fired an energy weapon housed in its center.

It was all Anderit could do to raise his lightsaber in time. The bolt collided with the weapon, and went flying back to dispel against the crashed ship. That drew the attention of the three other droids, and they all began to fire upon him. Caught out in the open, Anderit had no choice but to try and fend off the semi-automatic assault with his lightsaber staff; a task that proved far too taxing each time he repelled a bolt.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Acheron354]

The Ssurrians were made quickly dispatched by Zared's lightsaber, the glowing blade, slicing through the thick metallic hide of the beasts. Zared found Ssurrians to be mildly interesting, he did not enjoy carving through them the way he did. As their corpses were laid under him he still could not help but feel a sense of accomplishment.

As he bent down to run his hand over the cauterized wounds he felt something reaching out to him. His brother, Anderit, was trying to pulse through the connection the two had. After a moment of pausing to reach into the dark magicks the two shared, he began to run towards the crash site.

He could sense that Anderit was in danger, while he did not know what it was that could be causing his distress he had no reason to wait to find out. Anderit had gone ahead quite a bit so it would take Zared several minutes to reach his brother.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This world was strange, the Force was teeming, both the life energy and the Force. It was intoxicating. Could see the value of this world, but it wasn’t why he was here. He was looking for something, searching for the Architects and that meant he was hunting technology. His sensor droids were doing their thing to find everything, but even Coren could hear the blaster fire.

Now he wasn’t a Jedi, but when there were the sounds of warfare? That was a blasted mating call for Coren Starchaser. Grabbing his pistol, knowing he could get his lightsaber out if he needed it, but he was also more dangerous to himself with it, he was going to see what he could find right now. Racing through the woods, he was coming up to where it was louder and tucked behind a rock.

Picking his head up, he peered over. He could feel the Force between the two beings, no lightsaber though, that was interesting. Coren wasn’t exactly hiding in the Force, but he wasn’t stepping out into the fight yet.

Watching.

[member="Zared Rinaren"]
[member="Anderit Rinaren"]

 

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The droids had a thing for overwhelming firepower, it seemed. Anderit had very little experience with automatons of any kind; sentient ones especially. He ducked and weaved to try and avoid blaster fire. Had he been any of the other brothers, he would have been reduced to smoldering ash. Thankfully, the magicks were guiding his hand. He managed to get ever closer to the ruined house at his left between bursts.

Unfortunately, his arms were starting to get very tired.

The staff flicked too far to the right. A blaster bolt caught him in the shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from the warrior. The force of the strike sent him tumbling back, and he barely managed to pitch a last minute roll toward the ruin. It was luck more than skill that had Anderit behind the cover of the ruin, his staff set across his lap.

His gaze locked on the unfamiliar shape of [member="Coren Starchaser"]. Another human? Was he friend or foe? Time would tell.

[member="Zared Rinaren"]

 

[Acheron354]

Zared ran forward, finally reaching the crash site and immediately he found himself searching for his brother. Instantly blaster bolts came flying towrds him, causing him to lose his footing and fall forward, past a piece of machinery, he hit the ground rather hard before looking up and seeing his brother laying down right next to him. "Well....you seem to be having fun."


He paused to push himself up to see over the ridge next to the ruins, instantly blaster fire covered the ground right in front of him. Quickly ducking he exhaled before rolling onto his back and pulling his lightsaber back into his hand. "What's going on?!" The warrior had seldom seen droids like this, what is more he did not know why they were firing at them.

[member="Anderit Rinaren"]
[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren wasn’t always the most secretive when on the field of battle. What his skills showed when looking at his ability as a Special Operations member of an Imperial unit, was a man who excelled at rolling charisma scores. He was able to make himself blend in with a local population, a chameleon as it were. Understanding how worlds and cultures worked, understanding how to adapt to their creole languages, and knowing just how to behave to be seen as one of the group.

There was another and Coren grabbed a scope, stolen off of one of the sniper rifles from the Dawn Treader. He was trained with a sniper rifle, but no where near as effective as his daughter, more of the pistol and scattergun kind of guy. He used it to get a range on the others and see what they were doing. Time would show if he was to approach.

And after that bout, these two could go in two different directions.


[member="Anderit Rinaren"]
[member="Zared Rinaren"]