Private Thriller Night

[Ravenous]

A cloud of dust rose into the air the deafening sound of multiple explosions drawing people out from their homes. The rubble from the building seemed to mountain the center leafy green branches finding their way through the cracks. "They survived." Six robed figures stood idly atop a rooftop edge, overlooking the prey below. "Their deaths are inconsequential. We only need to hold them here." The six figures descended their landing silent and angelic despite their demonic demeanor. "If we attack them we'll surely fail. We need to hold some type of leverage to keep them interested." Reaching out with their hands the figures summoned dark obsidian Swords into their palms gripping them as they pressed forward towards the amassing crowd of bystanders.

Their fates sealed in the arms of their captors the crowd began screaming in terror as six individuals were locked in a chokehold, obsidian blades pressed against their throats. Slowly the figures began backing away towards three speeders hidden in an alleyway. The preeminent figure spoke his tone weightless and empty but his voice powerful and heavy as he projected it towards the officers. "We have six hostages in our possession." The figures pressed their blades harder to their throats drawing a small measure of blood. "If you attempt to fight us we will kill them. If you allow us to escape we will kill them. If you wish to save their lives you will find a way to stop us from escaping." They were banking on the police listening to their demands and engaging them in some form. No doubt this will be time-consuming and the six may very well lose their lives...but that was irrelevant.

Meanwhile at the shipyards...

Two cultists laid sprawled on the floor one still woozy from his injuries and the other a bleeding mess on the floor. The third cultist rose quickly after being knocked down his body seemingly in no pain. He stood idly as Bithia charged at him her ruthless taunting falling on deafened ears. With inhuman speed and strength, the woman punched a bloody hole in his chest her crimson-stained blade twisting and turning inside his heart. Gently the figure placed a hand on Bithia's face his golden claws tenderly stroking her eyebrows. "You're not human. You're like Ravenous. But he will be better he will be stronger. He's earned that right because only his goals matter."

The figure slumped over his breath wasted on praising his master. "Be consumed, you inhuman sinner!" On the ground drowning in a pool of his own blood, the cultist raised his gloved hand at Bithia a scarlet arc of energy firing from it. Death incarnate, a rotting famine that ate away at the body and the Force. Darkness surrounding his hand the man increased the power the arc becoming a river of Force drain.

Meanwhile at the legion of doom (I mean bankers point)...

"Hey! Check this out!" Anoius to be done with the tedious searching Sy's partner leaned over towards him an open file in his hands. "Look at this! The date of this file is recent! On it is a detailed documentation of one of The Headhunter's victims! There's not much here BUT there is a location on it! Its faded but it seems to be near an old winery that closed down decades ago." The young officer sifted through the pile some more until he returned with another file.

"Look! Here's another one! Same date, same location! Can't be a coincidence." Energetic the young officer stood up tucking the files under his arm. On one hand, he wanted to investigate the scene some more...on the other he was just happy to be done rummaging through all of Bander's old crud.

Meanwhile, a police investigation takes place...

"It pains me to say this...but we lost the captain last night..." A somber look fell over the room as photos and images of a bloodied speeder and cracked windshield were posted all over the room. "Last night two murders happened. One in the streets to a Weequay who was killed via lightsaber. The other W-was the captain. We concluded that he was knocked unconscious before having his brain removed...and his body hung on the power lines." Looks of disgust, anger, and horror populated the room leaving those in attendance stunned at The Headhunters bloodthirsty tactics.

"Without the Captain, the commissioner has stepped up to lead the investigation but it will take some time to get everything ready. Also, we can't ignore that this was obviously a targetted execution. We need to be more careful as we proceed. By being on this case all our lives are now at risk." The room remained silent with only the mechanical whirring of the AC present.

Sy' Lanat | Ishani Dinn | Beltran Rarr | Gnoll

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Beltran had expected the entirety of the building to come down on him, so when it didn't the Lorrdian blinked in surprise. Looking around, it quickly became evident that Gnoll was responsible. The growth of branches that held the pieces of broken building in place. Beltran's ears still rung from the blast, so he missed the first part of the tree-man's words to him.

"...But they cannot change the past. Beltran, if you don't mind, would you mind creating an exit. While I will ask you to be quick, that is for the sake of everyone else. I would do it myself, but I do not like to move quickly. And have not yet figured out my own exit."

Beltran couldn't say he really understood all the stuff about changing the past, but that didn't matter. Quickly he gained control over himself and set about doing as the Knight suggested. He pulled his lightsaber from his waist and activated it, the sunset orange blade thrumming to life with the flip of a switch. Using the light of the weapon to illuminate his way, Beltran found his way to the pile of rubble that was blocking the entrance.

He couldn't simply cut a hole anywhere he liked. The pieces of duracrete were far from stable and very likely to collapse if he wasn't careful. So Beltran found the largest intact piece he could find and began to cut in it's center. If he kept the hole small enough, perhaps he and the few survivors who remained alive, protected by the Tree-man, could fit through. There was virtually no chance that he could make a hole big enough to allow Gnoll to exit, so he would have to trust the being to find his own way out.

Beltran worked as quickly as the delicate work allowed, stopping periodically to ensure that nothing had shifted. It took perhaps five or six minutes in total before he had cut a small passage through the duracrete to the outside. He could see officers and medical personnel running around. Rescue technicians ran forward when they noticed the hole and with their help, Beltran was able to pass the remaining survivors out.

Once it was just himself and the Tree-person, Beltran nodded. "Thank you for saving us, Gnoll." He said. "I will aid the rescue personnel in widening the hole. It may take some time, but we will make an exit big enough for you to escape. All you need to do is hold on."

With that, Beltran crawled through the hole and escaped. Once outside, Beltran was helped to his feet by a pair of rescue techs. He left the techs to their work, informing them that they had one more person to extricate and began moving to the remaining police officers when a commotion caught his attention. Six cloaked figures seemed to appear from nowhere, each having grabbed one of the nearby gawking civilians. They each held a black blade to the being's throat.

"We have six hostages in our possession."

Beltran could feel the eyes of the remaining police officers on him as he approached the group, his hands out-stretched to show that he was unarmed. "Yes," Beltran replied, his tone calm. "I can see that."

"If you attempt to fight us we will kill them. If you allow us to escape we will kill them. If you wish to save their lives you will find a way to stop us from escaping."

Beltran considered this a moment. It was a peculiar set of threats in that it was obvious this was a stalling tactic. It was so obvious in fact, that the leader of the cloaked hostage-takers had basically just told him as much. So the question became, were the lives of the hostages worth trying to save? Odds were, these beings would kill them regardless of what happened.

The officers had all drawn their own weapons and were working to establish a parameter, putting themselves between the cloaked beings and any other civilians. Turning to the officer next to him, Beltran whispered something in the man's ear. The officer then keyed his radio and spoke softly into it, issuing a brief set of instructions to the others in low tones.

Beltran then took a step toward the leader of the cloaked figures, his hands still outstretched and empty. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage," He said to the figure. "But you need not worry," He told them, a dark predatory smile crossing his lips. "Whatever happens here, one thing will be certain. You will not be escaping."

His hand snapped down to the hand-cannon at his side, drawing it and levelling it at the leader in the span of an eyeblink. "Now!" He called out to the officers, and as one they all set their blasters to stun and fired at the hostages. The hope was that the sudden dead weight of the now stunned hostages would throw the cloaked figures off balance while Beltran opened fire with his hand cannon, sending six depleted baradium slugs flying, one destined for the head of each of the hostage takers.

With a swift, fluid motion, Beltran would then holster his now empty revolver and draw his saber once more. With the orange blade active, he would stalk toward any of the cloaked figures that remained alive, deadly intent evident on his face.

Sy' Lanat Ravenous Ishani Dinn

 

[Gnoll]

(Greatly sorry for the long delay! My post will be shorter than normal, as I am still having issues with getting time for posting)

Even as Gnoll waited for Beltran Rarr to create their escape route he was thinking, and working, to free himself as well. "You are quite welcome. And thank you for your aid." he responded to Beltran.

This was not so easy. He was trying to find a way to escape without further danger. But given the size of things, if he did it wrong, he could crash the building into someone where else, causing another bit of destruction. That was ignoring also anything that flew out of the way. Humans were much more fragile when it came to such things. They were much smaller after-all.

However, more difficult things were at work outside as the mysterious strangers. He could feel the fear as things began to escalate, feel the danger, real and potential. Even from inside he could hear their words. What an unusual conundrum, they worded it like some sort of riddle. There was of course an issue with it, there were cold beings in the universe. Some would see such a statement as them saying they'll kill them regardless, so the solution? Kill the people making the threat regardless of what they do. After-all, if they escape, they kill them anyway. And a perfect attack is ever so hard to come by.

This would not be Gnoll's solution of course. They only required that they could not escape. They did not say what means were allowed to do that. Gnoll's solution would be to play the game and entrap them, then stun them. It seemed Beltran however had his own solution. His, in Gnoll's opinion, was probably a much more efficient one if it worked. If it didn't, Gnoll wouldn't blame him.

But if it worked, they'd also have stunned enemies, enemies who should know a thing or two. "They could prove useful for interrogation as you likely know." he called out.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Well, she hadn’t expected the last guy to keep talking after being stabbed through the heart. The eyebrow-caressing was pretty weird too. His final words didn’t make much sense, and to top it all off, he had a zombie hand that cast deadly space magic at her after he breathed his last.

Good thing her biot body was Force resistant. Before the arc could become a river (at which point it might actually become a problem for her), she swung her cutlass like a butcher’s meat cleaver, severing the man’s head in a single slashing cut. I mean, if being decapitated didn’t stop him for good, nothing else would.

Once that was over with, she searched the bodies. Predictably, she couldn’t find any identification or even pocket change, but she did find some weird items concealed in the folds of the robes. They all seemed designed for occult purposes—bits of string tied in unusual symbolic knots, herbal roots and seeds which she recognized as poisonous, a ritual knife recently stained with blood, ordinary looking stones that hummed with an eerie energy. One of them even had a kyber crystal that glowed ruby red in the darkness, but no lightsaber to go with it.

Twilight had fallen. She turned her attention to the surviving cultist who had merely been knocked out. When he came to, he’d find his wrists and ankles bound, his body slung over Bithia’s shoulder as she carried him back to the police station.

"Oh, you're awake!" she exclaimed without breaking her stride. "Don't worry about your friends, I'm pretty sure they're already dead. But guess where we're going? We're taking a trip to the police station. That's right—you're going to spend the night in a nice, comfy cell."

Ravenous Gnoll Sy' Lanat Beltran Rarr

 

[Sy' Lanat]

The time stretched to infinity, Sy' had never desired to be a bookkeeper, he had never done well in school, and he had most definitely never spent much time reading books. He had been a hunter, an outdoorsman, and he had never really changed in this. Sure, he had learned to study, but rarely did books play an important role in that. His was the fate to compete, to fight against others in a game of life or death.

Guess, this kind of fits that. Certainly, this 'headhunter' was a killer and the mercenary was working to stop the killer, maybe even see him executed. Heh, they might even hire me to knock him off if he's unapproachable by the local authorities. It would hardly be the first time the assassin would be on a government's payroll, legitimately that is.

Building this, buying that, keeping ahead of competitor x, got to buy off developer y. Goodness, this stuff is dull. He was beginning to wonder if this search was about to reveal anything when the Chiss reminded himself that the papers had been strewn for a reason. Yet the offworlder wondered if perhaps this had been a mess made many decades ago, perhaps even by the original team that had arrested the owner, though Sy' had no idea if they had arrested him here or somewhere else. Probably would have gone through his paperwork nonetheless, maybe they found information they were looking for and left in a hurry. No doubt I'll be in a hurry to leave if we find anything.

As if the thought had summoned a response, the police with him spoke up. Revealing the information he had and the files, Sy' grinned to himself. After the younger person concluded, Sy' responded, "Alright, let's just look for a minute or so, find anything that might be connected to this." At least now he had an idea of what he was looking for. Newly motivated, the Chiss redoubled his efforts and was pleased with himself when he found a loose sheet with the same location, although it was a day later. Sloppy, never hunt the same place twice. A sniper's mindset. If this guy was making this a regular place, maybe it will have some clues. Then again, the rest of the folder was missing, so there was nothing to suggest that anything had happened the day after if could have been a file about a local gang checking the place out. As of yet, there had not been much in the way of repetition with this killer, it would have been odd to see it start now. Nonetheless, Sy' dutifully folded the sheet and stuffed it in his pocket before hunting for more potential leads.

Reading a small snippet of a review of a local delicatessen, high remarks indeed. Been a long while since I found a good one of those. Maybe I'll check it out. I can call it an official inquiry, their name did pop up at an investigation site. Bet they'll give some good food to keep it quiet. The wearied Chiss stood and motioned for his compatriot. "Alright, let's go. Nothing much on my end. Think we should report back?" Maybe this was a more independent style officer, or maybe he was still junior enough to want to play things by the book. Sy' wanted to know just how much leash he could get.

Ravenous Gnoll Ishani Dinn Beltran Rarr

 

[Ravenous]

Like works of marble engraved in stone, the six robed figures stood motionless as Beltran Rarr approached them his weapons forgone leaving only his resolved gaze to act as his spear. Beltran acknowledged his disadvantage but still found the gumption to proclaim that his enemies would be stopped where they stood. Blades now dripping with blood the figures pressed harder against the captives hoping they could buy their esteemed leader more time. There was a slight tension in Beltran's movements and his eyes dilated before he shouted for his fellows to attack. Robotically the figures raised their captives into the air to meet the...stun rounds?

With time these cultists have learned to leave their humanity behind and act only with conviction and resolve. Their lives ended long ago, there is nothing left they can hope for, nothing left to aspire to. Their conviction...is the grave but their resolve lies with their master and their faith. The sudden weight of the bodies caught two of the cultists off guard leaving them open to a face full of lead. Golden claws digging into their nape the remaining figures rose their hostages into the air shielding themselves from the blast...and killing their leverage in the process.

Their faces melted and their corpses limp the hostages laid on the ground their former captors now in defensive stances. Beltran was taking their bait, sure he knew it was bait but that was inconsequential what mattered was that he was occupied and that as long as he was Ravenous could execute his plans. With horrific speed three of the figures charged forward. Two of them attacked from the right and left of Beltran attempting to clothesline him with their swords. The third one leaped into the air his blade coming down with lethal intent. "Perish Heretic!"

Cut to an artificial lady carrying on her back a homicidal cultist...

Hatred burning in his eyes the masked man hissed at Ishani Dinn . "I won't yield to a heretic like you! You are but a speck in what my master Ravenous has planned!" He knew he was finished. Ravenous would surely destroy him for his failure and going to the police and giving them more information was a no-go. In a soft stoic tone, the man spoke his hands clasped together as though in prayer. "Tikazi Tave Visuom remembers j'us Valia Buti right Zenotisas." Hesitant the man reached for his mask his hand shaking as he removed its golden surface. His face now unshrouded it was clear the man had undergone some sort of operation. Stitches lined his face, patches of different colored skin made up his face and his eyes were white and bleak as if they were dead.

"Your resolve. Is my resolve. And as I falter near the end." A tear streamed down his cheek. "I weep in shame at my deficiency. My will was not enough to sustain me." Oxygen touched the man's face turning it black as it withered away, old and decayed. His skin turned to ash and his muscle fibers and hair rotted away as what could only be described as rapid aging took place. "Hellers..." His voice was strained and dusty as he struggled with his final breath. "Hellers Winery...Take me there. To be carried with my savior." The Man's lips turned to ash as well making it harder to understand him. "I won't...Suffer anothers..rites on my body."

With that spiteful sentiment, he faded away his body nothing more than the bottom of a grill after a Huttball tournament. There was commotion somewhere in the streets and the dark of the night was finally settling in.

Meanwhile...

Coming to a halt the yellow and black Taxi the pair had ridden in finally arrive at its destination. Stepping outside the two would find themselves hidden behind a cornerstone meters away from their actual target. It was smarter not to emerge directly in front of their target, especially when they held the element of surprise.

The Hellers winery was a dark desolate place. No lights to be seen anywhere, no vermin that chose to inhabit the crevices of its walls, no trash or litter to be found...just nothing. The thing that made the winery so eerie thought...was how quiet it was. Night critters, ventilation systems, and even the wind could be heard up until you approached the compound and its cold creepy atmosphere that froze you in place. The Junior officer looked to Sy' Lanat his expression recoiled but driven. He clenched his fists, "The Captain is dead. Damned Headhunter got him." His gaze fixated on the front door its rusted handle and hinges.

"I bet that bastard is in there right now, planning, plotting, deciding who to kill next." His gaze still focused on the door the officer drew his blaster. "You want to wait for reinforcements?"

Gnoll

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Beltran fell back, swinging up with his lightsaber attempting to break the clothesline attempt. His orange blade hit his assailants' weapons causing sparks to fly. As he has suspected, the blades were resistant to lightsabers. Beltran spun around and reached out with his hand, sending an arc of Force Lightening at the third cultist as he flew through the air toward him.

Lying in pools of their own blood were the bodies of the hostages. It had been a gambit, and apparently one that had failed. That didn't upset Beltran much however. Those beings, innocents though they were, were dead the moment they had been captured. There was no way that such vile beings would have ever let the civilians live and attempting to persuade them otherwise would only have wasted more time.

As Beltran continued backward, batting away each successive strike the cultists' made, he could see the officers on scene attempting to find a good position with which to engage and provide cover. "Back off!" Beltran growled, waving them away with his free hand. "Protect the remaining civilians and get Gnoll out of the building."

With any luck, the officers and other rescue personnel could help the giant Tree-being disentangle himself from the compromised warehouse in time to help with the fight. It wasn't that he didn't respect the officers' skills, but they were clearly outclassed here. A fourteen foot Jedi, on the other hand, could probably help the Lorrdian turn the tide.

Using the Force to strength his muscles and increase his speed, Beltran performed a forward flip over one of the cultists, landing behind the cloaked figure and swinging his blade around for a quick and clean decapitation. As the other two turned to face him once more, Beltran's predatory grin returned. "When I'm done with you," He told them menacingly. "I'm going to bathe in the blood of your God."

Sy' Lanat Ishani Dinn Ravenous