We Ain't on Ansion Anymore [Primeval Dominion of Rhadamanthus]

[Boethiah]

Anja slowly walked through the opening, rays of sunlight broke through the edge of the jungle as now the ravine was visible. Structural shapes were hidden through the edge of the foliage, clearly made by an intelligent race. The Host Lord waved her hand and a few soldiers went ahead -- more careful than before.

One turned around, "All clear.", she said. But as she turned back a strange dart shot through her neck. Dangling above were dozens of smaller plants attached to the large trees, they looked almost snake like and shot darts from their mouths. After the first attack, before the soldiers could react quickly enough a barrage of these darts shot everywhere. They weren't strong enough to pierce armour but bear skin was an easy target. The Host Lord on the other hand simply created a telekinetic barrier deflect the shots from the direction. Of course it was an easy enough force power but it wasn't perfect. It required one to focus on the area a shot was coming from but luckily here she was, there was nothing flanking her.

 

[Ciara]

Ciara dashed through the foliage, acrobatically leaping across and swinging from the trees and allowing her biological sensors to fully capture the species in the entire area she traversed. She constantly had primed her rifle, however, for what were to come. The soldiers behind her barely were able to keep up, and she could see her HUD displaying a constantly updating and refreshing list of the new species she had just scanned.

An interesting one popped up and was tagged by the ship's support crew. She halted immediately and readied her rifle, prepared to fire at any given notice. Ciara reviewed the data brought to her: it was a plant that had a highly acidic solution of pure hydronium ions and proteins. She paused for a moment before holding up her fist for the squad to pause their trek.

She slowly moved back to the last known position of the plant and paused before it.

 

[Tyro'din]

When the plants had first started to fire the darts, it had taken Tyro'din a few moments to identify where the attacks were coming from before he started to take shots from his blaster rifles, aiming for the ends of the vines and firing multiple shots at a time. All it took was a few seconds before the barrel began to overheat and the bothan was forced to tone down the rate in which he fired his shots.

Beside him he could hear [member="Mikkel Markov"] doing the same thing he was.

 

[Ciara]

The plant immediately recoiled at the presence of Ciara, fanning out its leaves and exposing a bladed leaf structure. It vaguely resembled a face in a way, but in the center was a single tube, most likely apart of the stem. Air passed through its porous, vascular tissues, releasing a loud and distinct hissing noise. A small cloud of liquid vaporized upon the hiss and her sensors read a high content of sulfur oxides. She mused, An olfactory warning. The sulfuric content seems to also be deadly.

She called for one of the soldiers to approach the plant, and he slowly did so. The plant immediately rotated its stem, and its 'head' began hissing. The soldier immediately recoiled at the smell and Ciara laughed. "I see. Advance, or I'll kill you myself."

The soldier warily approached the plant and took out his vibroblade. Wrong choice. Ciara thought to herself.

The plant immediately emitted a rain of clear liquid at the soldier's helmet, and almost immediately, the soldier's helmet began melting. He immediately jumped backwards, and began stripping his armor. However, as soon as he removed his helmet, he instantly choked on the sulfur oxides in the air.

 

[Mikkel Markov]

Mikkel started firing on the plants, relying on the targeting system in his suit and not his scope. Shot after shot, Mikkel went through 3 power packs before swapping to his pistol. The plants were charred and falling from the trees as they were shot, and it was tough to tell when they would stop.

"Someone burn those fracking trees!" Mikkel shouted, wondering why nobody has done so already.

 

[Ciara]

Ciara exploded into laughter as the man crumpled to the ground. Almost immediately, a network of roots slowly covered his body and various thorns and needles were injected into his soft flesh. Soon, his entire body was liquefied into pool of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids. All that remained was his partially melted helmet and his equipment.

She laughed harder.

She calmed herself before remembering the objective at hand. Ciara stretched out her hands and collapsed them together at one point, stating out loud, "Focus. Focus Ciara. Focus."

Without any fear or hesitation, she approached the plant and snatched its stem, uprooting it in a single motion. She commed the support team to retrieve this particular sample, and deposited it inside the helmet with utmost care. Ciara petted and said, "Mommy will be back soon."

"Onward we go." she said with great enthusiasm.

 

[Ebenezer]

"Gah! How many of these annoying plants are there?!"

The dart-like thorns kept thudding against his fake skin as he started to fire his plasma pistol into the foliage and through the barrier until he heard a simple click when he pulled the trigger.

"Farquad, you fool! You gave me a device that stopped working!"

The soldier that the croke had forever branded as Farquad, first he had been put on a vanguard foot mission with these sephi and this croke, and now he was the target of it's stupid quips. sighed once more as he pulled out a clip for the pistol and threw it to him

"Just reload it, There's a button near the trigger....sir"

The croke observed the gun until he found said button, a rectangle gas canister falling out and onto the ground.

"Aha! Good thinking!" The croke said quixotically, picking up the canister and loading it into the gun then going back to firing the plasma pistol into these thorn-shooting vine things.

"Host lord, do you think that we could use these?"

 

[Boethiah]

During the onslaught many soldiers and many plants were falling around her; rather than waiting for a conclusion the Host Lord merely wandered onto the path and found her way out of the jungle and overlooking the settlement. It seemed well defended and enclosed, only a small pathway to her left lead into it. It was made of rock and metal.

"This way.", she didn't even look back; only assuming that anyone was smart enough to follow.

She felt something as she began to walk down the beaten path.

 

[Tyro'din]

When Tyro'din saw the Host Lord moving down a path he made to follow he, holstering his rifle and drawing his pistol to continue to fire at the plants, dropping an incendiary grenade every few paces. Exiting the jungle and leaving the battle behind him he came across the same view of the settlement as [member="Anja Aj'Rou"]. Quickly getting over the rather impressive view he hurried after the Host Lord onto the path that lead into the enclosed area, his senses straining for the tiniest sign of a threat.

 

[Ciara]

Ciara dashed through the forest once more and paused in her tracks. She sensed something. Something that she never sensed before.

A presence? It could be the universal feeling of uneasiness when the Force was disrupted. Sure, Ciara was not attuned to the Force in anyway, but like all other sentient beings in the galaxy, she had a basic sense of it.

She didn't like the current she felt. For someone who never felt fear, the disturbance in the Force was unsettling.

But riveting at the same. She insisted to herself to continue forward. For glory, for honor, for grandeur. No, none of those matter. All she needed was the thrill of it all. She cursed at herself for stopping in the first place. She had always went head first. Fortune favors the bold.

 

[Mikkel Markov]

Mikkel followed [member="Tyro'din"] and [member="Anja Aj'Rou"], pulling his rifle back out and looked over the settlement. "I'll provide overwatch, you go ahead," Mikkel said, sitting down and looking down the scope of his sniper, evaluating the settlement. "Contact me over comms if you need me."

 

[Boethiah]

Marching her way down, the Host Lord finally came upon a doorway. Two soldiers had followed her.

"Open it.", she ordered them. Without hesitation the two pushed open the doors into what seemed like an empty hall that lead into the large underground cavern. Taking a few steps, Anja glanced around; her Umbaran eyes allowed her to see well in the dark and although she saw no sign of life she did sense it. A four-armed Qineam leaped out from a barricade and charged her. Anja, without a second thought reached out with her hands; summoning the worst fears, her intricate finger movements caused the warrior to drop in terror; releasing a harsh scream. After maybe ten seconds she released and the hoofed being curled up, weeping tiredly.

A few other Qineam approached, weapons in hand, and began speaking some sort of language which she couldn't understand. Then one which was Vong she knew of, but couldn't understand either. They knew Vong? Too bad Dredge wasn't here, she thought to herself. Nonetheless she walked over to the victim from earlier, placing a hand on their head as the two soldiers entered. Arguing back at the gibberish. She exhaled and inhaled, slowly calling on the darkside of the force, her magics as the invisible tendrils of darkness made their way down her fingers. The sharp twisted power leeched into the mind of the Qineam victim who once again began screaming, which put the other ones on edge. But because this was all new to them they hesitated. Anja was draining the victim's knowledge, trying to learn Qin their language.

After moments she finally began to understand the language, it wasn't perfect and by this point the being's mind shattered from the two forms of terror.

Turning back, "Take me to your leader.", she reached out with the force and spoke in their language, using her mind magic and Umbaran natural ability to convince them.

Hesistantly, the Qineam put down their harms and lead her on their way.

Walking with them she would soon enter a grand chamber.

 

[Tyro'din]

Tyro'din followed in after his leader to the sound of the local's gibberish blabbering, to his ears anyway. When whatever [member="Anja Aj'Rou"] was doing set the locals on edge his grip on his blasters tightened and he brought them closer to bear, ready to fire at a single notice. When the Host Lord demanded an audience with the leader or leaders of the settlement, the bothan smirked at how easily his liege could get something done and twist others to follow her orders, it was an art form really.

As the Host Lord came closer to the chamber where she would meet the leader (or leaders- it hadn't been clarified yet), he drew on his teachings to let himself shift his body language to fade into the background and become the Shadow of his leader, ready to strike at a moments notice.

 

[Mikkel Markov]

After confirming there were no other visible entrances to the settlement, Mikkel ran down the hill and drew his pistol before entering the settlement. While catching up to [member="Anja Aj'Rou"] he passed a man in fetal position, whispering gibberish. Mikkel shot the man in his head before he caught up to Anja and [member="Tyro'din"].

 

[Boethiah]

Entering the chamber she was approached by countless Qineam. Furious four-armed warriors, hooves instead of feet, and tails for balance. They seemed tribal but by their surroundings they were clearly far more sophisticated than they let on. In front of them walked out a tall male Qineam, by his posture and armour one could easily tell that he was a figure of authority.

"Who are you, Pitrzhohduna?", he asked in his native tongue. The words weren't all there yet but luckily he spoke only in a small sentence.

Anja processed what he was saying before speaking, "I am the voice of God.", she normally would've flaunted her usual response, 'I am Anja Aj'Rou, Host Lord, Harbinger of Nogras, Prophet of the Gods.' but unfortunately this was the best she could do.

"God? Hmpf.", he responded; it was difficult to tell what his response was saying in body language. "How do you speak our tongue?", he asked. Again it was difficult to tell if he was asking harshly or if that was just how they asked anything.

"I use magic. It allowed me to learn.", she answered him again.

The leader of theirs was reserved by the looks of it. His eyes sent signals to the guards. "Prove it.", he said turning back to her.

For Anja proving it wasn't that difficult but she needed to be more clever. Attacking one of them would likely be bad, so instead she decided that conjuring an illusion would be best. She nodded and kneeled, this caused some of them to react defensively, unsure of what was about to happen. She entered a pre-meditative state to draw upon the source of her magic, the force, which she still had yet to master completely. Feeling the power flow through her she could sense all around her that they lacked in it, they weren't force dead but they seemed blind to its presence. Magic must be nothing but folklore to them, and the concept of the force is likely beyond their comprehension.

With a moment the floor in front of them, all around them, would begin to see a small creature protrude from the floor as if it was now a puddle. Climbing out was a sickly looking thing, spikes and barbs lined its dark hide. The creature let out a yelp that turned into a vicious hiss, and then another moment later it burst into flames. Crying out in a screechy roar before turning to ash that seemingly floated away.

 

[Ciara]

Ciara charged forward, and encountered the "host lord." It was a large super structure of fibrous network of leaves of sorts. Although, there were bulbs of exotic shape, comprised of most likely pheromone glands which drove the machine. Or perhaps, reproductive glands themselves to implant intelligence, or neural connections, to its hosts. Either way, the entire apparatus intrigued Ciara.

She commed her support team, "Bring the Dropship. We got a big one."

Slowly approaching the host lord, Ciara immediately went up to it and sliced off one of the bulbs and deposited it inside of a cryogenic tube. Sealing it, she looked around and observed its structure. The central processing unit needed to be somewhere, as the fibrous network simply seemed to be a plant-based neural net of sorts. Perhaps for receiving and transmitting signals, similar to a holonet dish.

 

[Boethiah]

In reaction, their leader seemed shocked by expression; or angry. They all seemed absolutely surprised as if it was something they've never seen before. Their eyes felt tricked but their minds were open, they must've been thinkers, which was useful.

"Voice of God?", the leader spoke, he seemed to be asking rhetorically. It was still hard to understand his tongue.

"I seek an alliance. With you.", she said. Finally she could find the right word there.

"Why?", the leader responded he was still suspicious it seems of outsiders.

Anja knew this wouldn't be given away easily but she had ideas, "We can provide your people with the means to see the stars.", she replied in a more understanding statement. It seemed for a moment that their leader was uninterested but that was wrong.

"We seek stars, to follow the Vong. Now we know there are others.", she picked up more words this time. The Vong, they had indeed been here.

"The Vong are with us.", she made note of. It seemed this was the key; they trusted the Vong and on that note their leader looked far more willing to negotiate.

"Come, we'll speak alone.", he waved to dismiss his guards and then turned -- expecting her to follow. Anja nodded to her own men to stay as she did.

 

[Ciara]

Ciara paused for a moment. She sighed. She closed her eyes and imagined the layout of the specimen. She eliminated obvious layouts that were incompatible with the role of this "Host Lord" and eliminated layouts which crippled its function. Nature was an efficient and ruthless machination of the galaxy. Efficiency was a necessity. Or at least, the bare necessity. Of course, there was a margin of imperfection to allow for adaptation. But these organisms had minimal imperfection. Everything had a purpose...

That was the key. Adaptation. What induced the adaptation and rapid evolution of these plants? It was simple. Intellectual design. Their purpose was dictated, their design was dictated, and thus leaving no room for imperfection, but at the same time, no adaption. Thus, these bulbs most likely held the genetic data necessary for the creation of new designs and the production of current designs.

She smiled and began collecting all of the bulbs. The design of the host lord could wait, as this was most likely not even the main host lord of the planet...Perhaps a proxy... Perhaps a minor lord which produced rather than designed.

 

[Mikkel Markov]

Mikkel stood and watched the Host Lord perform her feat, standing next to [member="Tyro'din"]. After they spoke a bit more, [member="Anja Aj'Rou"] and the leader of these people went off alone, leaving Tyro'din and I standing in a room of scary 4-armed aliens who were prepared to attack just moments before. After Anja and the leader left, everyone else in the room turned to us. Out of instinct and a little bit of anxiety, Mikkel fired his pistol in the air to keep the strangers from getting any funny ideas, and luckily it worked.

"What should we do while we wait, Tyro'din?"

 

[Ciara]

Ciara paused for a moment after collecting all the samples. The host lord had not reacted to any of this. Obviously it was created for the sole purpose of producing and perhaps a minor role in synthesizing new or modifying existing templates to fit new niche roles, but defenseless? Highly unlikely.

There must have been a central processing unit as well, which Ciara had yet to discover. The biological sensors were far too inefficient and well, too far inferior to conduct advanced scans necessary for that determination. She focused on the plant and its details. She immediately opened her ideas, and raised her DC-15a Blaster Rifle.

Something was coming. Her initial question was now answered. The men behind her were nowhere to be seen. Their presences were gone.

It seemed the host lord had set this out as bait. Meaningful and rewarding. But only if she could survive.