The Foundry
[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Prazutis"] [member="Venthis Zambrano"] [member="Wolvren Malafactor"] [member="Darth Banshee"]
Ain't no party like a Zambrano party, cause at a Zambrano party, everyone dies.
It was, as expected, a massacre.
It was.... oddly..... almost as if they ran toward it, embraced it. Found it more suitable than whatever it was that they were currently seeing. The look in their eyes was not of slavish devotion or the burning of a zealot.
It was
relief.
[member="Onley Xiangu"] [member="Vaylin"] [member="Elensa Jari"]
It took only a minute's observation for them to realize that, not only were the workers paying them no attention, but that they seemed almost moving by rote. One shuffling foot step after the next. Perhaps continued exposure to the heat had made them dull. Perhaps the simple fact of what they were doing brought them to a place where they needed to disconnect from the task at hand. Whatever it was, all they had to do was be careful and there would be no trouble in the approach.
When they did, they would find the gruesome remains to be no less strange up close. It was as if nothing but skin, bones and cartilage had been left by whatever the process was that had killed them. Hollow husks, limp and rubbery. A fine sheen of hard, black material crusted, offering a slight gleam in the darkness, over every pore. Brittle and smooth it could be picked off like a scab, though nothing flowed from beneath it. Not now.
Not from these.
The Grand Bazaar
[member="Drios Rapux"] [member="Vereshin"] [member="Harley"]
As Vereshin dug, however, he found more, clamped down beneath fear and festering anger.
Pho Ph'eahians, veins black and eyes alight, dragged from their homes. A contagion, the government had called it. But there was no rhyme or reason to how it struck, who it struck. It did not cleave strictly to households, to families. But oh, how it had spread. New cases were discovered swiftly and dealt with quietly, but everyone knew. And not long after, the stones had started filtering out of the city, sold only to those off world. How they were connected precisely could not be found in the alien's mind. But he had suspicions. They all did. The stones came from the infected. But what were they and how was it possible?
Unfortunately, he only had a Forcebook account because his brother had bullied him into it three years ago. He never used it and had even forgotten he was logged in, so Harly didn't find much.
[member="Anora Demici"]
He scowled at her, one of his hands clenching slightly. If she was only paying attention to his face, she might miss it. The barest shade of black in his palm.
"Gone. At least, 'nuff of 'em," he answered grudgingly. "Got bettah thing ta do than answer questions for pushy off worlders, neh?"
But the sweat at his temples grew heavier, and his eyes darted around. Suddenly, quick as a snake, he tried to snatch at her hand. His palm black as pitch.
[member="Darth Ophidia"]
His breathing came in short, explosive gasps, eyes wild as they canted about this way and that. But it was her that arrested them, again and again, and he trembled.
But then, as if a switch had been flipped, the trembling ceased. As she neared, she'd realize that, hidden beneath the fur, only visible in the places the fur thinned- around his eyes, the palms of his hands, the corners of his mouth- the veins there ran
black. And what she had thought at first were beads of sweat, drawn from the chase, from fear, were in truth beads of thick, black liquid.
"The Sith can't stop this," he whispered, eyes glazing slightly. "The Force is vast and great, but the sith touch and warp only the barest slice. But that slice? Dark, thick- to its liking. All you have done,
Sith, is leave open the door. From beneath you, it devours. You can't protect anyone.
You invited it."
City Council Chambers
[member="Kor Vexen"]
He left the outskirts unmolested, the black tar in the vial viscous and slow moving. But in his pocket, something
changed. Shifting from a liquid to a solid- a momentary flash of inner red light, and then quiet. Except when it clinked as he moved.
A tiny stone. Nothing more.
[member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Atlas Kane"] [member="Zylah Dvale"]
From beneath you, it devours.
The Pho Pheahian they had followed stood near the entrance to the room, eyes a little wide, half dressed in isolation gear.
Isolation gear?
Beyond him, a panel of transparisteel cut off the antechamber from the rest of the lab. A dozen tables, Pho Pheahian's strapped to them, perfectly still though it was clear they were breathing, conscious. Not drugged, simply quiet and waiting.
The same could not be said of the pair in the clear, upright tubes on the far end. They writhed, screaming though the tubes must have been sound proofed, because it was only their faces that gave away the promise of sound. The way their fur stood on end was the first indication- but it was the tiny droplets of black that the attached equipment was sucking out of their very pores that brought it home. A half dozen smaller tubes collected the tar like substance. While one looked much like a relatively healthy Pho Pheahian, the other was emaciated, as though flesh, muscles and organs had been removed and the empty space left behind collapsed. But there was no scent of blood, no sign of harvested organs.
Only the black ooze being taken.
To their left was a series of clear plastic cubbies. Nearly half of them were filled with the inert, perfectly smooth black stones that two of them carried. The ones that had brought the Sith here to begin with. Each nestled in its own box, alone, kept separate from the others by a thin panel. In every case, however, the stones sat right up against the dividers, as if trying to touch the one in the cubby next to it.
*****
There were no answers found, in truth. Only more questions. The Pho Pheahian's did not know what caused the 'contagion' as they had been calling it- they did not even realize fully that it had implications far beyond their own planet. Beyond small minded greed and taking advantage of something that would prove to be far deeper than simply the sale of pretty little stones.
From beneath you, it devours.
Something was causing it. Causing the inner workings of a body to melt into nothing more than black tar that could then be used to spread it. Tar that, sometimes, solidified into a stone. Exposure to air? Some mechanism as yet undefined?
But now the Sith had a population they could study.
Now, there were new steps to be taken.
Study it.... or bury it and hope it went away?
Of course, they had seen how well that had worked on Gravlex Med.
From Beneath You, It Devours.
Tread carefully.
To be continued........
