Jurassic Chaos | Mandalorian Empire Dominion Of Myrkr

[Silas Mantis]

"Watch over them."

It wasn't clear who he was speaking to, [member="Kaden Mantis"], [member="Baiko no Kaho"], or Preliat. In fact it was only certian that he wasn't speaking to [member="Yasha Mantis"] or [member="Adora Namadi"]. He dismounted the speeder bike and rushed to where the ground had fallen out beneath [member="Ra Vizsla"] and so many others. There was no hesitation in his mind, he simply dove into the darkness after the Mand'alor.

As [member="Kal Ordo"]'s shatter rifle sounded, Silas flipped himself upright and activated his jetpack slowing his descent until he landed atop a chunk of one of the smaller starcraft that had fallen into the depths. Flames from the wreckage cast light into the darkness, but they also played hell with his thermals. Following the sound of the old man's rifle he leapt into the darkness with shotgun raised, only activating his thermals after he cleared the small blaze.

All around him was red, he could see nothing but the angry color. They were surrounded by something, or more likely many somethings. "We need light down here, now!" He relayed to [member="Dorn Skirata"] as the chants echoed and angry roars pierced the air. He heard something coming towards him, something large. Silas turned on a heel and blasted the MF-44, pumping it, then quickly firing again. Whatever was coming didn't stop, it only let out a furious roar.

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"]

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

“No one can be faulted for that which they remained ignorant. Now you have knowledge. [member="Yasha Mantis"] is an important child, gifted with many abilities which set her apart from any peers. It is to you and I to foster her through these awkward years, and she cannot move into a higher strata of life with you condemning her identity. She is Atrisian. She is Epicanthix. She has come among the Mando’ade and I fear she is so talented at the arts of war that it will destroy her. I do not want to see Yasha killed young, or so wounded in battle as to turn to her father’s path. Adapt, help her through these cultural divides or leave her be.” Harsh, but noble words from the governess to a child. She left them with [member="Kaden Mantis"] to mull over, hoping now the child would give Yasha a break and ease off his dogged determination to follow six tenants Yasha knew from [member="Ra Vizsla"]’s tutelage. Thus, the group was on Myrkr’s suface.

“Your niece required a new pet!” Baiko shouted back, as [member="Silas Mantis"] slowed in his speeder. Aditya’s chrystalis vornskyr was Yasha’s one constant on the Mantis Estate. Now that the Keldabe Estate was ash, Baiko wanted to make the transition to Atrisia as kind and easy as possible. “And your son required the use of a blaster before my lessons led him down the path of insanity! Of course I will watch over them.”

Smirking at her little joke, Baiko bundled up her little group and prepared to make for the settlement, where [member="Adora Namadi"] and [member="Yasha Mantis"] could obtain the desired pups.

That was, until the ground quaked. Fast as a shot, Baiko grabbed Adora and leapt to the trees, hoping the vast root systems would make the ground more stable. “I do not take orders from you, Master Mantis! We stay togeth-YASHA!”

Baiko’s demure eyes cranked open as Yasha & Preliat Mantis fell through different pockets of crumbling debris. She raced to the edge.

 

[Shia Kryze]

"Roger that Theta-1, we are on approach to primary drop site. Five by... WHAT THE?"

The pilot of the heavily laden troopship banked a hard right as the trees - some of them tens or hundreds of meters high - rippled like grass in a breeze and then began to topple as the ground beneath them sloughed away into a vast network of pockmarked sinkholes, taking with them supplies, landed ships, Mandalorian warriors and - perhaps worst of all, Mand’alor the Undying.

"One, this is eight, I am aborting drop - we have unknown incursion at the dro..."

The pilot's voice trailed off as a silver and red hand clamped onto his shoulder and a slim, bald head rested next to his.

"You will do no such thing, pilot. Be a gentleman and bring us to 125 at 100 meters and hold for thirty seconds, then orbit and find a place to deploy anyone who doesn't follow me."

"Doesn't follow you..?"

But the pilot was speaking to empty space, the silm figure gone as quickly as she had entered, hurrying back down the narrow gangway and between the ranks of standing armoured figures, their visored gazes locked on her. With a grunt, he wrenched the ship around onto the requested course - straight over the sinkholes at a minimum flight level for a beast of a transport like this.

Behind him, in the back of the transport, Shia triggered the quick deployment hatch on the rear of the vessel, which began to lower with an electronic whine and warning bleeps, the drop light still clearly signaling red.

"If any of you are crazy enough and honorable enough to follow me, now's the time. I'm going to make sure the Undying doesn't put his name to the test a third time." She commented quietly, her form a silhouette against the sunlight outside as the deployment ramp locked into place. Her amber eyes swept the warriors once, then vanished behind the black curve of her helmet. When she spoke again, her voice came out with a modulated crackle. "The rest of you secure the perimeter - if I were any natives, I'd trap us down there then just throw rocks on us..."

And with that, she was gone. A single graceful turn and a step as she threw herself out the rear of the vessel.

For a long, long moment she fell, first through sky and then through blackness, a single cruiform plummeting into the abyss, haloed by a barrage of rocket fire to clear her unseen but soon to be immediate landing zone far beneath the surface of Myrkr.

 

[Asantas]

Mykr of all places was one of the worlds she actually found fun to explore despite the dinosaurs and other dangers, Mandalore wanted the children of stone dealt with either through the blaster fire of mandalorian guns and steel or through other means. To be honest she would prefer just blasting them into pieces and calling it a day but first things first shes off to grab a few toys while she was here, Step one find a dinosaur to try and mount and tame Step 2: Get a yasalamiri or maybe a vornskr ...or both if shes lucky for now she simply kept her rifle ready in case of unwanted surprises as she walked through the jungle terrain. She made sure to be quiet as she walked as she brushed and sometimes even cut away some of the vines and leaves that got in her way, Jungles are annoying always finding away to get in the way for the simplest things and even worse if your an engineer. She just kept on walking either she will meet one of her brother's and sisters or the animals shes looking for.

 

[Kad Tor]

Kad landed his booted feet on the grounds of a planet he had helped to capture once before. Things were different now, and the man was still adjusting to the "cure" which he had been given. A week had seen him irritable and grumpy, thank the Manda [member="Artemis Lux"] had not seen him during that time. [member="Briika Tor-Munin"] had, and she nearly killed him as a result. Had it not been a known side effect she likely would have.

As soon as his feet ht thr ground he heard the rumbling. Other dropships brought people with them, but Kad did not wait. With [member="Strider Garon"] absent on this mission, he took point for the Tal'rekr. His boots would be the first on the ground and the last ones off. This would be another point of discussion with Artemis if she were to see it. However, he was a warrior first. Their promise to each other was they would not allow their realtionship distract them from the call of their leader. Kad had just never expected it to follow the next morning.

The rendezvous point was collapsing. The ground pulled apart. Kad watched with horror as members of his team began to fall through the ground. It was a stupid decision, but Kad lunged to grab the arm of the warrior nearest him. The warrior would not fall through if Kad could help it, but the ground around him was too unstable. Kad needed someone to help him. He looked around and called out to anyone listeneing on the comms.

<<< "This is Kad Tor... the rendexvous site is compromised. A new landing zone is needed. Also if anyway is still on their feet I could use some assistance. We have warriors falling into the ground." >>>

His call was matter of fact. There was no desperation in his voice. As he lay on the ground, his torso hidden as he was bent over into the crevice, Kad knew if this was his moment he would regret nothing. His only thought was one of concern for what would happen to Artemis if she lost him so soon after just trusting him with her heart. It was this one thought which made him fight and struggle to pull the warrior up to the ground before they both fell to whatever hell awaited them beneath.

 

[Artemis Lux]

M Y R K R​

T H E F O R E S T W I L D S​

​

Artemis Lux was the sort of woman who would square off with Satan himself if he dared to inconvenience her. The wicked glimmer of her beskad, from where it swung at the curve of her hip as she slunk lithely through the forest wilds, suggested that she would offer no greater amnesty to the beasts of Myrkr. She moved with a sinuous lethality that allowed her to blend in with her environs, enhanced by her choice to wear muted green beskar’gam in place of her signature gold. To anyone perceptive enough to monitor her movements, it would become apparent why their people had christened her the Lioness.

The title was a favorite term of endearment for one man in particular. Her history with [member="Kad Tor"] was as storied as it was complex, but the simplest account of their narrative was that they loved each other. Nothing with Artemis was simple, however. It had taken nearly a year after crossing paths with the goran for her to eschew her pride and submit to their shared feelings – and even then, she had sworn their relationship to secrecy. No one would know of it except for them.

Artemis had her reasons for that. War had swept like tidal waves of fire through the Mando’ade in recent years, ravaging and complicating their world like twisted metal. It had stolen the lives of her husband and child just three years prior, and the lives of Kad’s wife and family several seasons before that. Artemis had come to believe that love predicated loss, and that unchecked emotion was a distraction from what mattered most:

Duty.

Honor.

Glory.

Mandalore.

Now, another war had come and gone – but this time, she wouldn’t brave the fallout alone.

While Kad had deployed to the front lines of battle against Mia the Defiler, Artemis had remained at the colony on Dxun to evacuate, relocate, and protect those who were too young or too weak to join [member="Ra Vizsla"]’s cause. She had neither seen nor heard from Kad – nor he from her – since then. The radiowaves were still cross-linked and frayed, with their people only just beginning to fit the pieces of their shattered nation back together under a new and stronger regime.

Artemis had come to Myrkr on a tip from a comrade. Word had traveled back to the encampments near Sundari that a war party had embarked to the verdant planet on a mission to conquer it – and she knew with wry certainty that, where there was a chance to swing a weapon (or rather, detonate one), there her lover would be. Upon her arrival, she had resolved to track down Kad and formally pledge herself to the Vizsla banner before sundown.

A tremor beneath her boots stopped her dead in her tracks. Perplexed, Artemis lowered her helmet to zoom in on the viney undergrowth through the lens of her HUD. There was a moment of tense silence, and then–

CRRRRRRACK!

[“What the–“]

The woman doubled over and was nearly sent to her knees as the earth opened its mouth and roared, the entire forest floor seeming to split right down the middle before her wildly racing eyes. Just as she thought it might swallow her whole, an unmistakable voice cut through the static over the comm.

Kad.

It was a distress signal. She inputted his coordinates and tore after him like hell.

[“Don’t move.”]

The directive came as a simple command to his back. Her voice was garbled from beneath the borrowed helmet, and with wearing the unfamiliar green armor instead of her customary gold, he wouldn’t know her. Artemis didn’t care. Lithe arms ensnared his thick torso, and with a hidden strength that belied her small size, she gave both Kad and the warrior who dangled helplessly from his hands a mighty heave.

 

[Atsushi Ono]

"LIGHTS!!!!"

Lights flared to life in several forms. Glowsticks illuminated certain areas with a flickering red glow and headlamps gave off cones of light that went deep into the caverns that had swallowed up the Mandalorians. Was this happening all over Mykyr? Dorn gripped a vode's arm and took the help up. He had twisted his ankle badly.

"Where is the Mandalore?!" It was more a shout than a question, a shout that hopefully he would hear and answer himself. Light had not been their friend however. The would be camp was surrounded by creatures he had never seen before. "What in the Seven Hells..." One of the creatures let out a terrible shriek and charged him. It jumped, teeth ready to maul.

Purple blood splattered on his visor.

"Stand up Skirata, grab a blaster, there's more coming." The cool, collected voice of Diego filled his ears. He had been a long time friend to House Skirata and served Gil faithfully. Dorn nodded and pulled the blaster from his shoulder and brought it to the ready. Whatever they were fighting he had never seen anything like them.

[member="Artemis Lux"] [member="Kad Tor"] [member="Shia Kryze"] [member="Liset Vereen"] [member="Silas Mantis"]

 

[Tal Vizsla]

It was worse for Tal than it had been for most of the others. With no jetpack or repulsors to cushion his fall, the Umbaran plummeted through open air, colliding with boulders two and three times his size as his mass pulled him to the bottom. Ironically, it was these collisions that saved him, preventing him from reaching terminal velocity before he crashed through a jutting ledge, then into a second that halted his progress.

He came to only a moment later and pushed himself to hands and knees, groaning at the agony that shot through him.

Just walk it off.

While there was still some debris clattering down, the majority had already begun to settle below. Pulling himself to the edge, he peered down and gauged the distance to be roughly thirty meters, but that was not what his attention was focused on. Surging in from all sides through the tunnels surrounding them were creatures of nightmare, monstrous lizards with teeth the size of beskads and riders every bit his equal in size. He had no need of his helm's enhanced vision modes in the darkness that surrounded them, and even as his hammer flew to his hand he was leaping from the ledge and into the fray below.

His first blow was delivered as he fell, smashing his hammer down with two-handed force on top of the skull of one of the massive beasts, cracking it open and dropping the monster to the ground, though whether unconscious or dead remained to be seen. He switched to a single-hand grip as he landed, and his shield leaped from his back to his arm in time to catch a spear hurled from atop another beast. His hammer greeted the warrior in kind, hurtling through the air and crushing his chest before circling back to tal's outstretched hand.


[member="Ra Vizsla"] | [member="Kervo Namadi"] | [member="Kal Ordo"] | [member="Dorn Skirata"] | [member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Shia Kryze"]

 

[Not Ordo]

Kal fired agian, the buttstock of his rifle bucked against his shoulder and earned another roar. They were getting too close for the long range weapon and his options for terrain were few.

He took aim one more time and this time cycling to biometric vision mode.

Breath in. Breath out.

Breath in. Squeeze.

The rifle fired again. The shatter pellet ripped through the air and struck a rider in the head. The creature didn't even have time to grunt as his head evacuated his body and left the giant lizard vacant and without direction.

It was time to hunt. He could smell the blood in the air now. The beast in his tunnel had now halted long enough for him to quick release his armor and shift to a more fitting form .

He charged in the darkness his nose working like echolocation as he moved. He didn't wonder what the others were doing. He didn't care. His first bite of one of the riders throats was sweet. He had a taste for it now.



[member="Silas Mantis"] [member="Baiko no Kaho"] [member="Shia Kryze"] [member="Dorn Skirata"] [member="Tal Vizsla"] [member="Ra Vizsla"] [member="Tahn Vizsla"] [member="Adora Namadi"] [member="Kervo Namadi"] [member="Aryn Spar"] [member="Jor Kvall"] [member="Artemis Lux"] [member="Liset Vereen"] [member="Kad Tor"] [member="Vilaz Munin"] [member="Malika Mantis"]

 

[Shia Kryze]

Shia flipped like a diver, then brought in her arms to increase her speed.

Light.

A blur of green.

Darkness, the rushing of walls. The flickering symbols of her HUD displaying the terrifying short distance between her and said walls.

A sharp red warning glyph flared up as the laser range finder informed her the ground at the bottom of the tunnels - and the hot red press of targets blooming on her thermals - was coming up fast.

She extended both arms, triggering the auto-release to quick-flush both micro-missile tubes on her vambraces. Not aimed, but down here they didn't need to be.

She met the shockwave half of the remaining distance to the ground, the rippling *crack-crump* of high explosive staggering her in the air and trying to batter the air from her lungs even through the air filtration and blast-proof armour. Not perhaps her smartest plan ever, but effective.

She turned an elegant half flip, aiming to meet the ground and alight neatly with a flare of thrusters, but a still living creature roared in pain and smashed her sideways into a wall just as she slowed to a near stop.

"Fine." She spat, snap-drawing the heavy blaster pistol from her belt and adding the distinctive sharp noise to the cacophany of noise in this part of the tunnels. She extended her vambrace-blade on her right arm and severed the head of the next creature to dive in as she triggered her boosters and kicked back up to her feet. The move was apparently unexpected (and came within unknowning inches of the low roof in the darkness) and the pirouette that followed allowed her to clear her immediate space for a precious few moments.

Just long enough to jack the transmission volume on her locator beacon up to it's rated maximum - she'd have gone higher if she knew how - in the hope of sending out a signal the others could locate in this doubtless comm-defying maze of natural rock.

"Anyone who can hear this, locate on me."

Not an order, Mando’ade don't give or need orders in combat, but getting cut to ribbons one by one in these tunnels would be the death of them.

[member="Kal Ordo"] [member="Tal Vizsla"] [member="Dorn Skirata"] [member="Artemis Lux"] [member="Kad Tor"] [member="Liset Vereen"]

 

[Kad Tor]

Kad felt two arms wrap around him. The pull was enough leverage to help the warrior he had grabbed back up to safety.

With his boots firmly planted on the ground once more, Kad turned to look at the person who had saved him. It was a woman in a muted green armor, fitting for the jungles. Her frame looked familiar to him like he should know it, but many women looked similar in full beskar'gam. It was the color that gave away this woman was not who Kad's heart hoped it would be. The longer the conflict grew on, the more he missed his [member="Artemis Lux"], the Lioness of Dxun.

His hand rest on the head of the hammer which hung from his belt. Ever since saving the boy from the winged beastes which tried to consume him, Kad kept the hammer with him as a weapon.

<<< "Thank you. You've saved me from having to explain myself later..." >>>

Kad chuckled before helping to other warrior up to his feet.

<<< "Come, let's find a more stable perch. I have a feeling that our mission here has drastically changed from the original objective. For now, search and rescue. If these cracks remain open we may have to gather who remains to search out the verde who fell through." >>>

 

[Artemis Lux]

The snare of her arms around his waist, and the press of her breastplate against his back, lingered only for a moment.

I’ve missed you.

The Lioness wouldn’t say it aloud, but the emotion rose and fell within her like a mighty tide. She bit it back. There was no room for softness here, no place for weakness. Artemis pushed herself away and nodded curtly, knowing Kad didn’t recognize her in the strange set of armor.

[“Watch your step next time, vod.”] She cautioned dryly, true voice masked by static of her helmet’s sound transmitter. [“Wouldn’t want to get yourself killed.”]

Artemis lifted a hand to remove the helmet and reveal herself to him, but just as soon thought better of it. She knew Kad well. The moment she exposed her sable curls and vivid green eyes – rendering her identity unmistakable – he was likely to do something heroic and stupid. Even worse, he was likely to kiss her. The prospect of revealing their clandestine union at such an inopportune time, in such an inopportune place, was enough to make her hand fall back to her side. Their reunion would have to wait.

[“I heard several others go down over the comm. There must be at least four or five of our own down there.”] Artemis glanced warily toward the wicked-looking gash that had split the earth open in front of them. [“I’m not sure how far the drop is, but – “]

But they were about to find out.

Another tremor, stronger and steadier than the first, vibrated a twig that rested on the ground beside Artemis’ boot. Her attention snapped downward before flashing back to Kad.

[“Feth,“] She swore, flinging out a protective hand to take hold of his forearm as the forest rumbled and roared back to life. [“Another quake’s coming – brace yourself!”]

It was too late. The original crevice that had almost stolen Kad the first time widened and groaned like the mouth of a monster, ravenous and angry that it had been denied its supper. In an instant, it swallowed them whole. Artemis and Kad tumbled down through the darkness, into the fray that awaited them below.

[member="Kad Tor"] | [member="Silas Mantis"] | [member="Shia Kryze"] | [member="Dorn Skirata"] | [member="Ra Vizsla"] | [member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Kal Ordo"] | [member="Tal Vizsla"]​

 

[Not Ordo]

His eyes were useless here in the dark as he grappled with a being that he had never smelled before. His fur was covered with the sticky wetness of blood and for once it wasn't all his. A clawed hand swipped aside a heavy axe like weapon as his mouth lunged forward. The long teeth closed around the beings throat and he felt the hot liquid life ooze i to his maw.

He was glad he couldn't be seen. He didn't want witnesses to this. It was his hunt. His kill. Quickly the rider fell and he turned on the huge mount. Two others lay dead, clogging the tunnel behind him as he dropped to the deck. The beast rounded on him, its heavy tail struck his chest like a heavy maul and sent him crashing to the wall, but he kept his feet.

His mind filled with the echolocation of the noise and he grabbed fallen great-axe and hefted it in one hand as the giant lizard struggled in the tight confines. The beast roared and Kal replied in kind. His blood lust fueled roar echoed through the tunnel as he lept forward axe held overhead i both hands. The weapon swung forward, bladed head singing in the air as it fell. The blade struck with a sickly crunch and the giant lizard fell to the ground limp.

Kal stood for a moment, chest heaving with deep breaths, arms burning from the fight. He changed his form back to his natural form and began to eat his fill of the enemies while he could. He only stopped when he heard a voice from somewhere east. Not a comm, the voice itself. Calmly, he changed to a more human form and grabbed his discarded gear. Then in a few more moments he had his helmet on and was on his way to the speaker's location.

"Enroute." He said calmly despite the adrenaline still coursing through him.


[member="Shia Kryze"] [member="Dorn Skirata"] [member="Tal Vizsla"]

 

[Silas Mantis]

The light came, his thermals dropped, and Silas ignited his jetpack for an instant, propelling himself away from the snapping jaw of a massive reptile. "Put them down!" He barked over his COM to no one in particular, and rather everyone who could hear. Pumping the shotgun as the beast turned towards him and let out angry roar. The Mantis sunk his knees and as the monster began to charge again he exploded upwards, his pack sparking to life again and propelling him over the open jaws meant to swallow him.

Cutting the pack he came down on the back of the beast, right in front of its rider. The being muttered something, then Silas blew its head open, splintering it into a gory mess as he pumped the weapon again and turned as the reptile twisted around, letting out roars of fury as its rider fell lifeless from its back. Pressing the barrel against the back of the animal's skull, he squeezed the trigger and expelled the 8 gauge shell's contents into the brain of the animal.

It fell silent in an instant as he jumped from its back, leaving it to collapse alongside its rider. "Where's the Undying?" He called out, priming the weapon once again and unleashing a storm of pellets into a smaller reptile which skidded to a halt next to him as it tumbled over itself. This wasn't at all what he'd expected to happen when they'd come to Myrkr, but he supposed he'd have to adapt.

[member="Kal Ordo"] | [member="Artemis Lux"] | [member="Kad Tor"] | [member="Shia Kryze"] | [member="Dorn Skirata"] | [member="Baiko no Kaho"] | [member="Liset Vereen"] | [member="Yasha Mantis"] | [member="Kaden Mantis"] | [member="Ra Vizsla"]​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Son of a mook!” Yasha yelped as she hopped and jumped back, skidding on mud in boots that stung her toes. They were too small now, but she refused to wear other ones. These ones were special. They helped Yasha jump further than her physicality demanded.

The boots didn’t help as the ground cracked further. As [member="Baiko no Kaho"] shouted her name. As [member="Preliat Mantis"] tumbled away and down another section of the ground’s tear.

She landed on something leathery, soft, like skin over a well fed bantha. “Oof! Sorry!!”

A blue limb swung away, knocked off its mount and fell screaming to the ground. The thump hit Yasha’s ears and she winced. [member="Silas Mantis"] and others were firing into the beasts, into the maw of blue sapients and reptiles. [member="Kaden Mantis"] said not to get caught down here.

In the dark, Yasha’s naturally dark-seeing eyes adjusted and she realized the slick vine in her hand was a rope. A halter.

The girl landed on the saddle of a carnosaur. “Oh... my... Manda.”

A giggle broke into the air as Yasha grabbed the ropes and swung to the side. “Uncle Silas!! It’s just like riding a turkey!! Bless you [member="Joanes Quez"]!”

With a war cry and holler, Yasha turned the carnosaur toward its brethren and rammed into another humungous mount and thrilled at the confusion and screaming coming from evacuating blue warriors. The carnosaur snapped back at her and she kicked it in the jaw, “Hey! Bad Dino! Attack the other guys!”

The carnosaur was yanked again to the side, like a mounted war turkey, and snapped angrily at one of its own fellows surrounding [member="Ra Vizsla"].

“Can I keep it?!” She yelled, happy as a girl could be.

[member="Artemis Lux"] [member="Kal Ordo"] [member="Kad Tor"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden looked to Baiko as she addressed him. There was a strong urge to argue with her to a degree. She tried to imply that being a Mandalorian was not noble. Yasha did take naturally to the art of war and the ways of killing, that was because she learned to in order to survive. Yasha was a survivor before she was anything else, and Baiko needed to see that.

”The resol’nare is about more than armor and killing. It is also about language, culture, and family. We only eat when Mand’alor calls us to. You make my people sound as though they are beneath my Yasha. You want her to be more than a warrior, and she already is more, but she is also Mandalorian, and that is something you cannot take away from her. To do that, that would change her into less of the person she is now. I won’t stop her from ascending, but I also will not allow her to forget who she truly is.”

These were the words of a Mandalorian adult to the caretaker.

”If you cannot accept the fact she is all of these things, then you are the one who is ignorant. Si’buir wants me to learn to be more than a Mandalorian, to be what Yasha is, but one thing you will have to understand Yasha is alive because of me, and I because of her. We have promised that I will always be her Kaden, and she will always be my Yasha. Let her be who she is, and understand that you are not the only one fighting to keep her alive.”

Kaden looked away, then back to [member="Baiko no Kaho"].

”I promise not to fill her mind that she is any less if she doesn’t fully live the resol’nare if you promise that you will not take away a third of who she is.”

He turned and left as he needed to be at Yasha’s side, but as the ground broke and Kaden began to bark orders the girl fell.

”YASHAAAAA!”

Kaden didn’t wait, he dove in after her. It was foolish, but he was not going to let the girl fall into the darkness alone. All he could think was she would flashback to the Netherworld only to be alone. Kaden’s promise was that she would never be alone.

He landed on something. He cursed wishing he had his armor on simply for the HUD. Kaden could bear Yasha giggling. She could see what he couldn’t.

”What is it, Yasha?”

[member="Ra Vizsla"] [member="Silas Mantis"] [member="Adora Namadi"]

 

[Kad Tor]

”No, I do not want to die. If the fall wouldn’t have done the job, someone else would have...”

That was as close as Kad was going to come to saying anything about [member="Artemis Lux"]. Of course he had done a good job of keeping things a secret, despite wanting to tell everyone. There was just an excitement. Artemis was exactly what one expected of a female in their culture. Kad had struck rare beskar with her and he knew it.

He nodded at the count. There were several down below, and their vitals still registered on his HUD.

”They survived. It must not be that deep, whatever is down there.”

Kad was preparing to ignite his jet pack and descend when the ground began to rumble. In the time the woman cursed and warned him, they were falling.

His back hit the ground as they fell. He’d been been first to fall and kept the position to break the fall of the other who came with him. It was unnecessary risks like these which made Kad at risk of getting trouble with his lover, but it were the same risks which made him a good leader. His philosophy was that he took the risks so there did not have to. Kad never asked something he would not do himself, and he proved it to his team and clan by example.

He stood once he was able.

”Are you okay, vod?”

 

[Artemis Lux]

Artemis wouldn’t have the luxury of unconsciousness at the bottom of their fall.

All around them ricocheted the shouts and blaster fire of their comrades, echoed by the keening wails of exotic beasts and their wicked riders. Artemis attempted to rise, to fight, but her limbs refused to comply. The ground was cruel and unforgiving beneath her cheek where she lay, alive only from the strength of the beskar that encased her body like a fortress. She gasped as the air that had been knocked from her stomach rushed back through her lungs, the kaleidoscope of her senses converging into focus all at once. The vague intonation of Kad's voice called out to her from somewhere close by. Artemis rolled over one shoulder and reached out to find him.

Something else found her first.

Leneemmo unu! came a low, guttural snarl.

A simian-humanoid dismounted from its titanic reptilian steed and extended one enormous, horrible claw, wrapping its globular fingers around the back of Artemis’ skull. She cried out into the darkness and reached for her beskad, only to find that it had detached from its sheath in her sudden and turbulent descent. Her legs twisted and kicked and thrashed violently beneath her, but all movement was for naught.

With nothing more than a flick of its mighty wrist, the creature ripped the helmet straight from her head and sent it skittering across the earthen floor like a toy marble. Artemis fell forward from the sheer force of the gesture – but just as her knees hit the dusty ground, the creature seized a fistful of her dark hair and jerked her upward and back like a rag doll.

Obsidian curls flew. Emerald eyes flashed.

With the helmet gone, and her face exposed, Artemis stared defiantly out into the abyss and prepared for a beautiful death.

[member="Kad Tor"] | [member="Silas Mantis"] | [member="Shia Kryze"] | [member="Dorn Skirata"] | [member="Ra Vizsla"] | [member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Kal Ordo"] | [member="Tal Vizsla"] | [member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Kad Tor]

Once the man was caught and secure Kad looked to the woman who had fallen with them. His HUD trained on a creature that was lurking toward her. Kad reached for his blaster, but it had fallen off in the fall. In the time it took him to discover the missing weapon the creature had plucked the helmet from the woman’s head as if it were nothing but a tin hat.

Blue eyes trained on the curls which matched the ubiquitous darkness which enveloped them. Everything became silent. The sounds of battle around them failed as her vivid green eyes and proud face waited for death to come. A fire burned in Kad’s sapphire orbs as he pulled his hammer from his belt. The beskar head was lifted high, and with the force of one hundred warriors, the goran brought the weight of it against the base of the creatures skull. It crumpled to the ground next to [member="Artemis Lux"]. The thud was the first thing Kad heard once the world they were in returnd to him.

“Not today!”

Kad reached his arm out for Artemis to grab. He pulled her to her feet and nodded. He head looked to the fighting ahead of them and then to her helmet.

This was not how he imagined their reunion. His heart was about to burst within him at the sight of her, but here he could not show her how happy he was they were together again. They were warriors first and lovers second. It was the only thing Artemis and Kad could have agreed to.

He paused as they stood there for a moment. Kad let the moment be what it was. Soon the sounds of war and the beating of the drum fell on his ears. His eyes kept their fire as he looked to the woman.

“Collect yourself, Ar’ika. Gather your weapons. I will kiss you later.”

 

[Shia Kryze]

The crackle of acknowledgement in her headset was faded, almost drowned out by the echoes of blaster fire, the roars of saurian carnosaurs and the occasional crump of an explosive or thud of another falling Mandalorian body, but it was all Shia needed.

A quick glance indicated the response had come from somewhere east, into the flow of the attackers - which was interesting - so she turned with a roar that combined the scream of her jetpack and her own voice, counter-charged the enemy.

Her beskad vambrace retained it's iron blade, the heavy weapon wet with blue-black alien blood as she parried and fought with it, hewing limbs with single blows the strength of which belied her size. The kad vambrace had the smaller dagger extended, but one of her two heavy blasters was in hand, snapping off close or point blank range shots to remove threats or wrong-foot opponents.

The tunnel was slick with gore, but her visor showed a nearby tracking signal that was definitely Mandalorian.

She and [member="Kal Ordo"] emerged into the same small cavern at once from two of the three exits, the hail of withering fire and blades slaughtering the trapped aliens with such ferocity that even their seemingly endless tide drew back for a second to collect itself.

Shia said nothing - a silver and red flame in her gore streaked armour, she nodded curtly to the unknown warrior opposite. There was no time for stupid questions, and if he'd found the Undying or a solution to this problem, he wouldn't be here. Not trusting the comms even at this range, she made gestures with hunters sign as ancient as the armour either of them might wear or the foes they were fighting.

'Press on.' 'Find source.' 'Eliminate.'

Then a single gesture towards the third exit which lead deeper.

[member="Kad Tor"] | [member="Artemis Lux"] | [member="Kaden Mantis"] | [member="Yasha Mantis"] | [member="Silas Mantis"]​