Private Into the Rabbit's Hole

[Darth Angonous]

It took a half an hour but Rowena and Angonous finally arrived at the Fun in Sun resort. It was large white house that stood next to one of the many rivers in the jungle. As they got closer, Angonous sensed a disturbance in the force his body briefly became numb causing him to gaze at his Lightsaber tucked underneath his right jacket pocket. Whatever it was probably came from the jungle but Angonous wasn't entirely sure. "Strange," Angonous said. "Usually there's a droid to greet us."

Allowing Rowena to enter first, Angonous followed noticing that the entire room was empty. He scanned the area searching for anyone but it seemed that they were all alone. "Empty," he muttered before staring at the many straw hats that was hung on a rack.

"Take it," Angonous said while slapping down some credits onto the table just in case someone did come by. "But stay close to me Rowena, something is not right here. I can feel it."

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Most of their journey was filled with idle chit chat or listening to the sounds of nature.

It was nice.

But once they had arrived and there was no one there, Rowena felt a bit nervous. At times she'd go to a place with no one there, but that was because she had called ahead and got it cleared beforehand.

This was different.

She nodded to Darth Angonous as he suggested that she stay close. "Maybe they just aren't open yet?" Rowena tried to feel a little optimism in regards to the emptiness all around them. She picked up the strawhat anyways and put it on her head, moving over to a little mirror on the wall to see how she looked.

 

[Darth Angonous]

"Doubtful they're usually open 24/7," Angonous said. "At the very least they have security droids guarding the perimeter. Nubian Prime may claim to be the safest jungle in the galaxy but that doesn't mean there's animals prowling around pouncing on unsuspecting guests. Every year there's at least a few people who either die or disappear in the jungle."

He had to fight off a small smile when he saw Rowena place her hat on looking at the mirror to see how she looked. Angonous didn't tell her that she looked fine, his smile should be sufficient besides there were more pressing matters. Still the way Rowena looked at herself remaining optimistic despite the suspicious circumstances. It was a rare innocence something that Angonous vowed to maintain that within her, Rowena will never be hurt under him. Which was strange since before he met Rowena all Angonous wanted was to gain power for himself but now he wants to use it to protect her?

"Come on Rowena," Angonous said. "I don't want you to be alone." With his hand on his suit jacket, the Sith Lord slowly approached the resort room. Normally guests would be watching the Holonet, playing tennis or participating in those yoga exercises with cheesy jazz music blaring in the background. However as soon as he rounded the corner, Angonous' eyes rose up in shock at the destruction ahead.

Angonous was hardly the one to be flabbergasted, but he couldn't contain his shock as he gaped at the destroyed room. At first glance it looked like it was blown up explosives. Black markings pelted the room indicating blaster fire, many parts: Droid, furniture, machinery were reduced to scraps. Angonous sensed another disturbance walking into the carnage his Lightsaber removed from his jacket. "I need to find out what happened here," he said. "Rowena try to contact the Casino, have them send for security."

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

"Well maybe it's the off season? I highly doubt that there'd of been some animal attack without any of us noticing. And wouldn't there had been some notice about it at the casino?" Rowena tried to find some logical explanation to the resort being empty. There just had to be one.

And then Darth Angonous seemed to be a bit on edge. He bade her to follow him and so she did. Yet when they came across the common room, Rowena took hold of his arm. Her eyes studied the destruction, which looked a lot like some big fight happened here. It was bad...

"Maybe we should just leave?" She nodded to his statement about calling security and dug through her purse for her commlink. She punched in the channel, yet there was nothing but static. Rowena furrowed her brows and tried again. "I think it's broken. Do you have one on you?"

 

[Darth Angonous]

There was a rush of excitement churning inside of Angonous, for the first time for what felt like an eternity he had found a potential conflict. Finally some action at last! However before he can act on his instinct, Rowena took hold of his arm and Angonous was immediately brought back to reality. She was right, the best course of action was to leave. But who knows if whatever attacked these people were waiting for them at the entrance. "There should've been a warning," Angonous said making sure that Rowena held his arm while he walked through wreckage. "But the attack must have come too fast." He shook his head. "No I don't," he said. "The signal must be jammed, we got to reactivate it."

There was a brief sound metal screeching against metal and Angonous immediately placed Rowena behind him igniting his Lightsaber. A crimson blade sprang up in front of his face as he saw dark yellow eyes emerging from the shadows. "Stand down." Angonous growled. "Or you will be eradicated."

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

"Then leaving is probably a good idea."

But Darth Angonous didn't try to leave. Instead he just entered into the room even more. And something surely caught his eye for he ignited his lightsaber and kept her behind him.

Rowena had never seen a lightsaber in person before, let alone an ignited one. She had witnessed brawls before, but never a fight with such a weapon.

She stepped backwards, keeping some distance between them and then the eyes caught her attention too, as well as the noise of scraping metal. "What is that, Ang? A droid? An animal?" Rowena took her hat off of her head and flung it at the eyes. The hat flew through the air, yet went well wide of the target.

 

[Darth Angonous]

"Rowena wait!" Angonous reached out to the force to grab the hat midair pulling it towards Rowena. Did she call him Ang? It looked like she did but he had no time to dwell because as soon as he handed the hat to Rowena, a blaster bolt came whizzing towards Angonous chest he managed to deflect the shot attempting to redirect it towards the shooter but it missed it by inches. "Intruder alert!" The creature that emerged from the shadows was a blue guard droid crawling towards the two of them.

"Threat detected!" The Droid unleashed more blaster bolts with its pistol and Angonous deflected more shots with one of them hitting the Droid in the eye. Electrical whirrs were heard as the Droid began to malfunction, "Intruders in section, alpha....." it dropped dead as Angonous deactivated its saber. "Are you all right Rowena?" He turned to the woman. "Are you hurt?"

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Something else she hadn't seen before...things moving in the air from the Force. It was strange and almost scary. It was the kind of thing that she didn't have control over snd couldn't predict. Rowena didn't like that. Maybe that was why her husband despised his Jedi brother so much.

But her thoughts didn't stay on the subject for too long as Darth Angonous deflected the blaster bolts. Were those security droids? Attacking the guests? Someone must have messed with their programming. She kept well behind him as he fought, using the much larger man as a shield.

Yet the battle ended as soon as it started. Thankfully...

"I'm alright. Thank you. We should leave...in case there are more of them."

 

[Darth Angonous]

"Right," Angnous said putting his Lightsaber away and staring at the downed droid. "Those were the security droids but they shouldn't have attacked us considering we have the clearance. Unless their combat inhibitors got malfunctioned." It wouldn't surprise him if somebody reprogrammed the droids to attack guests due to taking out a rival. Angonous had heard numerous stories of people being murdered by hacked Droids. Which was why Casinos made sure that they always download the latest anti hacking software onto their guard droids.

"Guard Droids aren't usually armed to the teeth in order to cause this much damage," Angonous said leaning over the droid using the force to open its shell and taking out a recording. "We can find out what happens if we reach a security office," he said. "We're going to need to get out of here first though." Just then Angonous sensed another disturbance this time stronger than before.

A growl was heard upstairs a low guttural sound. "Rowena," Angonous activated his Lightsaber. "Head for the exit, I'll be right behind you." There was scratching noise like nails on a chalkboard as the loud thumps were heard descending down the stairs likely heading their direction. "Go now." he said simply tossing her the chip.

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Rowena always preferred people to droids. And this was a prime example as to why. They can easily be reprogrammed and cause havoc.

"Be careful..." She began to get a little nervous for Darth Angonous to be so close to the downed droid. But surely he knew what he was doing....

Her eyes darted to the ceiling as she heard the sudden noise. Now what? A chill ran down her spine.

Rowena fumbled the chip as she tried in vain to catch it with the straw hat. Sports was never something that she was good at. The last time that she had tried to catch something was when she was very young. So of course she failed miserably.

Picking the chip off the ground she slipped it into her purse and then put the hat on her head before stepping back outside of the door. Yet it wasn't as though she knew right awsy of where the security building was.

 

[Darth Angonous]

Rowena wasn't the most coordinated of people it seemed, no matter at least she got the chip and was headed for the exit. However just as the door closed behind Rowena, a voice rang through the building. "Security breach detected," a female A.I voice was heard. "Entire building is on lockdown." Angonous craned his head turning to Rowena. "Rowena!" he shouted heading for her before electrical shields instantly activated in front of her. "Activating ray shields," the A.I said forming a bubble around the building. "Please head to your rooms and lock your doors. Stay in the room until security gives the all clear signal."

The creature above began to growl and there was a large noise like it was beginning to thrash the area around it. Beneath Rowena's feet, there were small cracks beginning to form and it got bigger and bigger. Sensing a disturbance in the force, Angonous opened the door looking at Rowena. "Get back here!" he said. "Hurry!"

 

[-Shelved-]

The door slamming shut behind her caught her attention, and Rowena twirled in place to look. A sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach. She started towards the door, but stoooed abruptly as the energy field went up and the AI's voice was heard.

Oh no....

The ground began to crack beneath her feet. Rowena started to move away from it, as Darth Angonous shouted out at her. But how could she go to him when they were separated? "I can't!" The heels of her shoes weren't helping, their tips at times sticking into the cracks in the ground, and she had to yank herself free.

But Rowena moved back towards the building anyways, stopping short of the energy field. She turned around to look at whatever might come after her, holding her breath as she commanded herself to bury her fear after counting to five.

"One...

Two...

Three...

Four...

Five."

 

[Darth Angonous]

Angonous watched in terror as he saw Rowena struggle to move thanks to her heels getting stuck between the cracks growing on the ground. Using the fear of her Rowena getting to fuel his rage, Angonous reached into the force and hurled a large telekinetic blast destroying the exit doors and allowing him to run through. Angonous ran the ground began to shake nearly throwing him off balance in the process, he managed to reach Rowena in time grabbing her off her feet and placing her in a bridal's carry. "Got you!" he said

"Damn!" Angonous looked down and saw large holes forming under his feet, turning his heel the Sith Lord sprinted back to the entrance as the ground began to split in two. As the Sith Lord reached the entrance he turned around and saw large hole made accompanied with multiple growls below. "Looks like we're stuck in here," Angonous said still holding Rowena in a bridal carry.

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Rowena ducked as the doors were destroyed, bit and pieces of them flying over her head. At least they missed.

The ground shaking so much was almost making her sick. And as Darth Angonous approached, she wrapped her arms around him as he lifted her. And just in the nick of time he had managed to get them to better ground. It made her wonder if Sith Lords could fly. Her knowledge of Force abilities was minimal at best.

One thing was for sure. This wasn't the kind of day that she was planning on. "Isn't there a saying....be careful what you wish for?" Angonous wanted battle. Well now he had found it. All that Rowena had hoped for was a relaxing day in the sun.

 

[Darth Angonous]

Angonous placed Rowena down approaching the newly shaped hole which now separated the resort from the road. Looking down, all the Sith Lord could see was darkness along with yellow eyes staring back at him as they scurried along. "What are these things?" Angonous mumbled before turning to Rowena. "There's plenty of exits in the building but the problem is that as long as that ray shield remains activated we can't escape."

He racked his brains trying to remember where the security room was, he was only here a few times mostly to continue playing Sabacc. Angonous recalled playing against a drunk security guard who was cursing at the fact that the Droids were malfunctioning and making a mess at the surveillance room. Apparently it got so bad that he had to go downstairs for some peace and quiet. "Well I remember the surveillance room is at the top somewhere." he said his gaze returning back to the destroyed room. More grows were heard near the entrance while Angonous sighed.

"I didn't want this," Angonous replied to Rowena. "I didn't want conflict not with you around."

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Rowena grabbed onto the door frame of the building in case the ground started shaking again. She watched as Darth Angonous began investigating their current predicament.

So this is what happens when she takes part of a day off? Rowena silently berated herself for it. If only she had stuck to her schedule more firmly. There was a reason that those were in place.

"Well regardless, this is what we've got. Now you just have to figure out how to turn it off." Of course she didn't include herself in that. She wasn't an investigator, she was a Lady of Royal Descent. This was not her area of expertise.

 

[Darth Angonous]

Angonous felt a tiny bit of guilt when he saw Rowena's regretful expression, all she wanted was to relax but instead something like this happens? It was foolish to build more resorts in the middle of the jungle anyway. No matter how safe you make it, a jungle is a jungle nature cannot be confined. If a person pushes nature then they'll find a way to retaliate. "And it seems that they've done so in a big way," Angonous thought.

"Shouldn't be too difficult," Angonous said taking out his Lightsaber. "All we need to do is find the room and shut if off."

For a change Angonous wanted to be optimistic but the tremors in the force are telling him otherwise. Motioning Rowena to follow him, Angonous slowly approached the stairs. There was a creature up top growling and making a mess of things. "I'll investigate first," he whispered to Rowena. "Stay at the bottom of the steps and do not move until I say you can okay?"

Rowena Arenais

 

[-Shelved-]

Rowena nodded in agreement. Darth Angonous needed to find whatever the security system was being powered from and shut it off.

Or destroy it. More than likely that was on his mind for he had taken out his lightsaber again. At least he was prepared to go against any other blaster fire that might come their way.

She followed him inside, keeping herself close, her eyes searching the room for any movement other than their own. Angonous drew her attention back to him as he whispered instructions for her, to which she dutifully acknkowledged. "Be careful..." A silly thing to say, but there was a creature of some kind up there. And it sounded dangerous.

 

[Darth Angonous]

The Sith Lord nodded as he reached the top of the stairs his senses ready to ignite if he caught a whiff of the creature. What was once the luxury rooms was now reduced to an unrecognizable wreckage. Long, multiple claw marks filled the walls accompanied by splattered blood. Angonous' nose twitched a bit, that repugnant scent.... He smelt it before. A growl was heard again immediately causing Angonous to ignite his Lightsaber, from the corner of his eye he saw the silhouette of the creature creep into one of the room further to the right. Angonous gave chase to the creature entering the room, his eyes lit up in horror as he saw two bloodied mangled corpses.

Their guts were spilled all over the wet and bloody beds, they were brutalized and gnawed at so badly that Angonous had difficulty recognizing the species. It was likely human due to one of the people having a bloodied, slender arm. Getting closer, Angonous' eyes darted looking for any sign of the creature. "Where are you?" he muttered.

While Rowena Arenais was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, the holonet receptionist desk began to ring. "Please enter the security footage to report to the police," the AI said. "Have a nice day."

 

[-Shelved-]

Her eyes kept watch of Darth Angonous until she could no longer see him. And when she couldn't, Rowena took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. How could anyone possibly like this more than politics? At least she can always see her enemies.

The sound coming from the desk drew her attention. Report to the police? There was a way to get help?

Rowena walked over to the desk and around to the back of it. She knew how to access the holonet, use datapads and various holoterminals. But she wasn't an expert by any means. Carefully she wiped away some of the mess on top of the terminal with the tips of her fingers, removing a cloth napkin from her purse and wiping the dirt off her skin. "How horrid..." She spoke more of the dirt than anything else. And once it was clear she started to search the programs for the one that would report all of this to the police. It shouldn't be too difficult to find. So long as she doesn't need an access code, all should be well.