Playing in the Sand (Mandalorian Dominion of Aargonar)

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

Gaius stood still. The sand was reverberating softly, as if the very earth was trembling beneath him. The dune below his boots began to shift, rapidly. The sand grew unsteady, and it felt like it was collapsing under him. Gains wasn't going to stand around and see what was happening, not while he was stranded and without help. He spun around and began to move, kicking up the ground behind him. It was hard to run in the sand, and even harder when the wind was trying to push you in the opposite direction while wearing armour that weighed you down. It was like trying to fight a losing battle. As the saying goes, one step forward, two steps back. He kept his hands out before him, preventing sand from splashing into his visor while he watched where he ran. He noticed that when he had started to run, the rumble grew worse. He pushed himself harder than before, only thinking about the movement of his legs. One foot in front of the other, he kept telling himself. He kept his breathing under control. Losing his breath in a situation like this was dire, even worse when heat stroke could claim his life if he wasn't careful.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

Gaius Vel found himself suddenly descending. The dune started to curve upwards as it collapsed further down, and the desert floor loomed above him. He could see the sun at precipice of this sudden ravine, and it vanished, casting him in shadow. The sand was no longer simply drooling down into this epicentre he had found himself trying to escape, but it was cascading down like a waterfall, and he was being swept away. A wall of sand, insurmountable, came crashing down upon him. He felt himself go under momentarily, and everything turned black. He wasn't suffocating, but his mind interpreted it as such, and he grew into a panic. He hit the thrusters of his jetpack, boosting him out. He shot out of the sand horizontally, briefly scything above what looked like the mouth of a Sarlacc, before hitting the other side of this crater. Large tentacles rimmed the mouth that was trying to eat him, and when the nearest one came to him, he pulled on the strap of his carbine rifle and fired off a quick round. It writhed in pain. A momentary victory.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

The Sarlacc didn't shy away from another attack. Gaius had been ready this time, if not a bit surprised that he was walking across the desert floor one moment, the only thing he had to complain about was the heat, and now he had every reason to complain about everything. The teeth of the sarlacc were slanted inward and surrounded its beak-like tongue and plant-like tentacles in tiers.The lightning-quick tentacle moved to slam into him, but he fired off a sonic burst. It recoiled in pain, but he had not been anticipating the second tentacle that exploded into his view along his 360 degree faceplate. It slammed into him with the full force of a charging locomotive and sent the beskarsmith hurling down the face of the Sarlacc's mouth. He rolled down head-over-heels before ditching his carbine in preference of survival, using both his now-free hands to hang-on tight to one of the many teeth.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

A lifetime of training drilled into the deepest and darkest recesses of his mind allowed Gaius the elite reaction times of the Mandalorians, while not comparable to the Jedi or Sith, or any number of Force-Sensitives, it was what some called the warriors reaction. You thought quick on your feet and kept a steady head, even when poodoo like this went down. While he hung from the tooth, feet hanging limp over the Sarlacc's mouth, a tentacle came in for the final blow that would no doubt send him falling into its beak. Before it reached him, he released his hold, and with cat-like reflexes he trained his right wrist towards the tentacle, firing off a fibrecord whip. The small metal dart imbedded itself into the tendrils flesh. It shook at the intrusion, and with Gaius attached to the other end, it sent him flying about like a rag-doll at the mercy of this tentacle.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

Gaius flew about wildly, at the mercy of the Sarlacc's tentacles. When the semi-sentient creature realised that Gaius was hanging from it, it began to lower its tendril, and Gaius was quick to pick up on it too. He didn't have many options right now, so he was doing the best he could with what he had available. He began to swing his legs back and forth, and then swung hard forwards. It momentarily flipped him, enough that while he had been coming around upside-down, he loosed one of his left-wrists MM9 miniature rockets into the Sarlacc's beak. Fire and shrapnel tore through the air. An explosion of scorched flesh, blood and bits of tooth splattered across his faceplate. The tentacle he hung from seemed to turn into total anarchy as it moved about quicker than he could react, throwing him around back and forth. If he had thought he was going to get whip-lash from his crash landing, he knew he was going to get a broken neck from this if he didn't end it, and quickly.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

Gaius whipped himself around, forcefully, using both his hands on the fibrecord. He came sailing towards the tentacle. He crashed into it, the fleshy arm striking him right in the abdomen and knocking the wind out of him. He gasped, and punched down, activated the retractable vibroblade. It buzzed and tore through the flesh like a hot knife through warm butter. More blood splattered over him and his otherwise clean, white beskar'gam. Well, he thought, it wasn't clean anymore. He knew he didn't have many jumps on his jetpack and had been reserving it, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Before he would find himself plummeting into the deepest depths of the pit, he hit the JT-12 igniters. Propellant ignited. He soared upwards, pivoting his body to direct himself out of the pit. The jetpack sputtered, fuel rapidly ran low, and before he knew it, he was coming in for another crash landing, on the relatively safe desert floor.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Run from the Sarlacc

Gaius broke into a break-neck sprint, this time he was running with the wind. He allowed him to push him further, faster, and take strides he would otherwise not achieve without the force of the breeze behind him. Thunder clapped and lightning struck, but no rain poured. The sand noticeably began to shift behind him. When he craned his neck to look at it, he realised, there was something else following him. He kept running. He wasn't far from the rocky outcropping at all, a collage of strewn boulders that had formerly been asteroids that had been decimated upon the ground at impact. Gaius felt the sand below his feet begin to surge upwards, lifting him higher. He bounded forward and came up in a roll, just in time. A sand burrower broke through the surface of the dune and shrieked, failing to kill its prey. "Today is just not my day!" Gaius roared.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Run from the Sarlacc
  
  Gaius dove into the first opening he found among the fallen asteroids. He landed in the gnarled remains of the space-rock, it had been eroded into something similar to that of a cave. Perhaps cave was a poor way of describing it, more like a small niche he found himself huddled in. He squatted down, looking out from the way he had come. A tooth-revealing grin split across his face, and he laughed. Memories of adventures across the galaxy came back to him, the various times he had gotten himself into trouble. Once more; Gaius Vel was in trouble. The sand burrower had returned under the dunes, but he could feel it. And it was close. The Mandalorian ducked his head out, looking for anything he could use as a natural advantage - even if that mean't a rock for which to throw when it came to eat him.
  
  
  

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

He walked out onto the unsteady sand. He began to stomp his feet, unsure how effective it would be to grab his attention. What little he knew about the creature, it was attracted to vibrations in the sand. The sand began to fold and rise under his feet. Gaius dove quickly, knowing what would come next. He had been right, the massive creature shot forth from the sand dunes, attempting to engulf him between its teeth in a single mighty swallow. Gaius fell to the ground, rolling over to face the Sand Burrower. The creature lurched forward then dived down, mouth wide-open. Gaius lay sprawled on his back, and quickly rolled off to the side to avoid it. He was well and truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

The sand burrower emerged just as quickly as it had vanished. This time, Gaius had not been prepared. As its mouth engulfed him, he spread his legs, throwing them against either side of the beasts throw, preventing him from being swallowed any further. He reached for its reach with his crushgaunts, and began to pry open its almost-closed mouth. There was but a bare glimmer of sunlight inside this creatures mouth, and he had all intentions of seeing that sun again very soon. His gloves exponentially improved his strength, but even then he still struggled, placing everything he had in prying the mouth open, and it slowly edged wider and wider. When it was fully open, he had no idea how he was going to get out. He was stuck and his jetpack was without fuel. He did all he could do, and continued to push. A sickening crack was heard, something akin to that of a bone being broken, and the jaw suddenly flopped limp. The sand burrower collapsed onto the desert floor, and Gaius crawled out, covered in spit and flem.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive the Sarlacc

All had been done and dusted, for at least as much as Gaius Vel knew. He crawled wearily back into the niche of the asteroid, and felt the compulsion to punch the rock in frustration as reality dawned on him once more. Not only was he trapped in the desert with very few resources, he now lost his rifle, was covered in some alien spit, his jetpack was out of fuel. Everything seemed to come crashing down on him at once. He fell into the desire, twisted his body and unloaded a stocky strike into the stone, the crushgaunts enhancing his strength and cracking the asteroid. It splintered. Gaius turned, drew his knees close to him and tried to keep as much of his body in the shadow as possible.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Gaius took his journey back to his downed Bes’uliik, knowing that there might be some time before rescue arrived. He cautiously took a wide birth from the Sarlacc pit, and arriving back at his starfighter, he pulling himself into the cockpit. He searched for whatever was handy to create a makeshift shelter. He tore his flight suit into long strips of cloth, and even removed the nexu and terentatek hide from his armour. The sun was still high in the sky. He looked upon the sand that stretched as far as the eye could see, and he knew well that it would go beyond the horizons. He had flown reconnaissance only a few hours earlier. He fashioned himself a makeshift tent, using the side of the Bes'uliik as a wall, he curled into a ball beneath it, hoping to soon fall into a sleep. While he had not needed to learn much in survival skills relating to the desert, he did know a thing or two. He heard once it was better to sleep during the day and move in the night. Something about conversing more energy, he couldn't quite remember. He did it anyway, and soon he began to doze off.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

As he tried to rest during the day of unrelenting heat. It was far hotter than Gaius had imagined possible. The desert was nothing like what Gaius had expected. He awoke in the night, and as yet there was no rescue party, he began to move. He let out an audible groan, carrying his makeshift tent under one arm, and his few consumables under the other. The travel was slowed by more than half the march he had performed earlier in the day as fatigued legs had to fight terrain that slipped away underfoot and provided nothing to push against as he tried to step. He had to remove his armour due to its weight, and it now dragged behind him. It was tied around his waist using the fibrecord.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

The wind rubbed his nerves raw; it was a dry thing, sucking moisture from his body even if cold. And there was always a grit in it, a sand so fine that no amount of cover could keep it out of his eyes, mouth, or nose. As much as his parched mouth made Gaius dream of water, he glorified the thought of washing his face, his hair, and his clothes, which was nothing more than a pair of underwear at this point, the rest of it had been using in the makeshift tent. The constant friction of the fine grit had rubbed raw spots on his arms and legs, as well as making food crunch between his teeth. His march was slow but steady, making sure to take measured sips of his water between long intervals. He briefly looked behind him, and no longer could he see his starfighter, but only a trail where he had walked.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

The sun was rising once more, and Gaius began to scan the horizon for any sign of water, birds in flight or changes in the heat pattern. There were none. He felt a dull ache of frustration at not having yet been found, and fear gnawed at his mind that he may never be found. Gaius retired, setting up his shoddy tent, dropping his armor on the desert floor and began to doze softly, unable to sleep. When he at last fell into a deeper sleep for a moment, he dreamt of falling, and the movement in his mind was enough to jerk him awake. He knew that while he would feel tired, he would get enough rest during the day to continue on at night. He rolled back over, and fell into another restless sleep.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Gaius closed his eyes again and tried to will sleep to come. His memories drifted and soon he was thinking of Sigourney, but in this dream he couldn't quite make out her face. He knew she was beautiful, but details shifted in his memory. As the sun vanished once more on the far horizon, he willed himself to wake. Gaius stood from his cramped tent, pulling the loose cloth around his shoulders. He took out his water canister and shook it, and with a heavy heart he knew there was little left. He took the canister to his lips, and while it was warm and salty, it was refreshing nonetheless. He took only two mouthfuls, reminding himself to conserve even when he was growing desperate.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Gaius had been walking half the night, eyes trained on his feet. he had barely noticed the cliff that was looming before him. Rocks cruelly jutted out in places, as sharp as swords. It looked impossible to climb, but when he peered up against the moonlight sky, he saw the circling of birds. It felt like his eyes almost burst out of their sockets in surprise. There was a stone chimney that lead up the face of the cliff, though it meant he would have to leave his armor and tent behind for the time being. He braced his legs on either side of the chimney, reaching out to opposite ends of the fissure, he found a handhold and began to scale upwards. He was only a third of the way up when sudden panic struck as there wasn't much room to grip. He reached across the chimney and put his hand upon the opposite face and pulled himself upward. Several times Gaius halted to catch his breath, but he felt that most of the time moving was no more demanding on his arms and legs than hanging motionless. He was tired and focused his mind on the task of putting one than the other, of moving a foot, securing it, and pushing himself up a little bit higher.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Despite his being in the shadows of the morning sun, the heat caused sweat to run down his face, blinding him momentarily when he looked up. He wiped his eyes upon his shoulder several times, and cursed the need. Gaius remained motionless for what seemed a long time, unable to find another foot or handhold. He was stuck. He felt his arms and legs starting to knot as he held the same position without moving. Another stab of panic rose as his left hand began to slip upon the face of the rock, then he gripped harder. Breathing deeply, to become calm, he thought to himself, don't let your concentration lapse. Time dragged on, and Gaius felt small cramps and aches and knew that he had never been so tired before. Gaius was now shifting back to his former position, when suddenly his left foot slipped. He cried out in pain as he scrambled to find a grip. He was hanging by his hands from a tiny ridge of stone, his feet scrambling for purchase on the smooth rock face.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Gaius grimaced at the effort, feeling his shoulders burn from the exertion as his skin was scraped raw by the stone. There was no where to go, and if he fell from this height he was surely to die. He closed his eyes, thinking that perhaps this would be it for him. He would hold on for as long as he could, but how long would that be? He found comfort in the darkness of his closed eyelids. He thought of home, Concord Dawn, and of water. He would quite literally kill for water and a hefty meal right about now. Suddenly he felt something slap him in the face. Gaius opened his eyes to see a rope before him, and looking up he saw a nomadic Yuzzem on the top of the cliff-face. While surprised, he found his presence far more beautiful than even the farms of his homeland.

 

[Lord Gaius]

| Details |

• Location: Desert
• Objective: Survive

Gaius pulled; more line was fed out to him, and he snaked it around his waist. He gripped the rope with his right hand and shouted, "Ready?"
"Ready," came the answer. Gaius let go with his left hand, grabbing the rope as his feet lost purchase on the opposite wall. Suddenly he was hanging from the rope, twisting as he felt it slip around his waist. He swung into the rocks, bruising his face. The rope seemed to hold, and he shouted, "Pull!" Faster than he had thought possible, he rose, scraping every exposed inch of skin on unyielding rock. Then he was at the rim of the cliff, and saw two large brown eyes staring down at him. The goat gave a surprised bleat and scampered away as Gaius was dragged up and over the edge of the cliff. He let himself be pulled away from the brink, rolled over on his back, and stared at the blue sky. Then he tried to sit up. Every muscle in his stomach and back clenched in spasm and he cursed in pain.