Removing Resistance

[Samka Derith]

Sam was scanning the crowd, wondering how many were armed. She locked eyes with a large, angry wookie holding some sort of sharp farming tool. She was confident that she could cut down any attackers who strayed from the mob but the longer they waited the larger the crowd grew and the more had time to retrieve weapons of some kind or another. Having her lightsaber trained on the teenager on the floor was enough to give them pause but angry shouts and obscenities were being thrown at her causing deeper tension. It was not a permanent resolution.

"You know what is even more pleasant than the Anoati surface? The Anoati sewers." She heard [member="Wolf"] saying from inside. If he meant what she thought he meant...

Sam shook her head and muttered beneath her breath. "You cannot be serious." She moved backwards into the shop, tugging her hostage behind her. Wolf and [member="Viktor DuSang"] had already left and [member="Skjold Alexeyev"] was preparing to leave. Apparently they were serious.

Mael gave an order to tie up the hostage and leave her behind as he too left the junkyard. "Fantastic idea," Sam grumbled as she stared at the terrified girl in front of her. "Let me just get out my bountiful supply of rope and mouth gags I have right here in my pocket." The others had gone so they wouldn't hear her remarks anyway. Nor would they see what they actually did with the hostage. Mael probably had a logical reason not to simply order the girl dead so Sam resisted her darker impulses and struck the girl across the temple of her head with the lightsaber's hilt. An instant knock out would have the same effect anyway.

Walking out into the back of the junkyard, Sam could just see Mael disappearing into the open grate. She walked over not bothering to hide the disgust etched into her face. The puddle she'd jumped into early was completely forgiven. With one final sigh of resignation, she hopped into the sewer below, sealing the grate back up behind her.

 

[Wolf]

[member="Samka Derith"] | [member="Viktor DuSang"] | [member="Mael Ren"]

Lurkers. The mutated, degenerated survivors of the gassing of Anoat by the Galactic Empire centuries ago. And still they haunted this planet, their faces etched into a permanent scream, their existence a testimony of the horrors of warfare. The sewers were dark, and at Viktor's words warning of the Lurkers, Wolf felt as though he were in some horror holofilm. This was not like being in some Sith Temple, or some ancient Dark Side cavern. No, because those places were filled with the Dark Side, with the Force, and though they could be unnerving, with all sorts of terrible ghouls, the concentrated presence of the Dark Side was exhilarating and helped one grow stronger.

But here, there was no concentration of Dark Side energy aiding these creatures. These were the natural results of a horrific gas attack by the Galactic Empire. There was no quest to find more knowledge or power, instead they were stuck in this old, filthy sewer with deranged and degenerated mutants. Wolf drew out his vibrosword, cautiously walking forward in the darkness.

"Someone throw a light on. Turn your lightsaber on, anything, so I can bloody see something."

His mind was desperately reaching out to the Force to see if he could sense anything, but Wolf was still too unskilled for it to be of any use to him. Instead he had to rely on his own instincts, honed in his service as a soldier, and edged forward through the murky sewage. Wolf froze as he saw movement in the darkness ahead of him. A flash of two eyes, and then it was gone. Steeling himself, he carried onwards.

 

[Visser Chernykh]

Mael followed Wolf into the stinking sewers. His nose wrinkled in disgust as he pulled up beside his fellow. He realized Krieger was right. They couldn't even see their own fingertips.

Mael knew a light would serve as a beacon for the mutants. Yet the dark would prove deadlier. It was better to see what attacked you. So he reached for his lightsaber wishing for glowrods instead.

He froze when he heard the skittering. Mael felt for the source of the sound. Through the Force he could sense them moving quickly. Further into the maze.

Perhaps they were afraid and sought to hide. Mael quickly dismissed that thought. No, they were setting an ambush.

The disciple unhooked his weapon and thumbed it on. It hissed to life and bathed the immediate surroundings in eerie crimson. The grime on the circular tunnel walls around them was thick and virtually black.

The channel that divided the floor held only stagnant pools. He was glad they stood on an elevated sidewalk. The disciple wasn't squeamish but didn't know what diseases the water carried. Better it were avoided.

"They're waiting for us ahead," he said to the others. "Draw your weapons and stay close. They could come from anywhere."

He turned to the foppish assassin.

"Are your droids able to scout ahead?"

[member="Samka Derith"] | [member="Wolf"] | [member="Viktor DuSang"]

 

[Samka Derith]

Samka joined [member="Mael Ren"] in igniting a lightsaber, this way they had a light at both sides of their party. If such a thing could count as a light. It illuminated the face (or mask) of the holder in crimson but little more beyond that. Thankfully they were on a path above the putrid water. The water's stench was enough to make Sam give a loud most un-lady like gag.

"S-sorry," she spluttered. Sam had been told she could appear spoilt to others, complaining at what others deemed minor issues, but this was no exaggeration. The odour was so intense that her body wanted to vomit whenever she opened her mouth. She held her breath as best she could.

Who needs the droids? We'll strike down any in our path anyway, was what she wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to let the sewer smell back in.

She stormed ahead regardless to show her point. No matter what those 'lurkers' were, she was confident they could not overpower four Knights of Ren so her primary concern was getting out of this rotten environment as soon as possible.

[member="Wolf"] [member="Viktor DuSang"]

 

[Visser Chernykh]

Mael growled in irritation when Samka ran ahead. Stupid girl!

"Let's go," he said as he set off at a run. He held his humming weapon in front of him like a crimson torch. Not far ahead he could make out the sound of her footfalls. Mael cursed her for being so foolish.

A simple assignment had been botched already. Adding dead disciples would mean dying here would be preferable. Better than what would await him. Things might yet be salvaged if they emerged alive.

Ahead he could make out the glow of the girl's weapon. Then he heard the sound of bare feet slapping the stone. He halted and turned to face the sound. The sound now seemed to echo from many side passages.

He could make out faint growling and the scratching of claws. "Ready yourselves," he said just loud enough to be heard. "The fool has led us into their ambush."

[member="Samka Derith"] | [member="Wolf"] | [member="Viktor DuSang"]

 

[Wolf]

[member="Samka Derith"] | [member="Viktor DuSang"] | [member="Mael Ren"]

Wolf watched as Samka stormed ahead of them, and Mael went after her. Wolf sighed, and followed after them. His vibrosword drawn, he could hear noises from all around him, unsure of where the lurkers might come from. Eventually they came to a halt, and Mael Ren warned them that they had fallen into the lurkers' ambush. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, Wolf swallowed and looked around him, his unskilled mind unable to sense any presence around him. He gripped his vibrosword tightly, standing close to the others and preparing himself.

And then they were upon them. From the shadows leapt a misshapen figure at Wolf, snarling and shrieking. Wolf's eyes widened in shock as the creature jumped onto him, but Wolf steeled himself and thrust forward with his weapon, stabbing the lurker through the belly and bringing the creature to the ground. Wolf pulled the sword out as the lurker crumpled into the sewage, and Wolf sighed a breath of relief. He thought it was over, and jumped in shock as he felt a hand grab his foot. He turned to see the lurker very much still alive, its zombie-like body oblivious to the pain as it lay in the sewage and growled at him. Wolf pulled his leg back to try and shake the thing off, but the lurker had an iron grip. Raising his vibroblade, he brought it down and quickly separated the lurker's arm from the rest of its body, before lopping off the creature's head completely. Wolf lifted his foot in disgust to see the lurker's arm was still attached to his foot in a vice grip. He swore under his breath as he prised the fingers of the detached arm from his foot, dropping it into the water.

The wretched creatures had surrounded them now, leaping from the shadows and the side passages to attack them, desperate to feed on their new prey. Wolf found it hard to believe that these creatures were once civilised beings, as he brandished his weapon and continued to fight the lurkers as they came. As Wolf cut down another lurker, he tried to move forwards through the sewers. He shouted to the rest of the group above the shrieks of the lurkers,

"If we stay here, we will be overwhelmed. We must cut through them and keep moving!"

 

[Visser Chernykh]

"Agreed."

Mael Ren was in no mood to argue just then. He'd drew his blaster pistol with his right while using his saber like a burning brand. Near him lay the still twitching body of a lurker. The hole through it's heart gave off faint wisps of smoke.

So they pushed on after the teenager. Not without resistance did they push forward. Mutants came from each side passage and they had to react quickly. More than once his crimson blade made wide sweeps to strike out at multiple attackers.

They screamed and growled with all human speech long forgotten. It was a terrible thing that happened to them. Even more terrible was that they had been left alive to breed. They all deserved the mercy of extermination.

His pistol spoke words of destruction as he pulled the trigger. Plasma bolts were guided by the Force's true eyes. They struck true even in the shadows. Yet not all were fatal and the horrors came on shrieking as if in indignation.

[member="Wolf"] | [member="Samka Derith"]