Log:Explorer's Guild: Mustafar Memoir

Explorer's Guild: Mustafar Memoir

OOC Date: February 7, 2018
Location: Mustafar
Participants: Explorer's Guild: Corr Waldin, Jehni'va Cihn, Zhu Yan, Eilam, Netep Muri, Rosh, and Arwen Durnn; Special Guest Stars Hex, Kasia Ashkuri, and Pash Danigo

MUSTAFAR. It's not commonly known what an important planet this really is to galactic history, what with the high ground and all, but it is well known as an important hub of all things metallurgic. The planet is almost completely covered from pole to pole with volcanic rock and lava flows, resembling a scene out of Hante's Inferno. "Right, so what we're lookin' for down here is a special element the locals want prospected, only they can't be bothered to look themselves right now. You're prob'ly thinkin', 'the hell are we going down here when these people do this stuff all the time and we ain't never done it?' The answer is, they offered pretty decent cash and they had a real bad accident two weeks ago. One of their special hovercraft tipped into the lava and took out a whole crew. Now I've been assured that that's not one of the hovercraft we're riding on," Corr explains, giving the side of theirs a pat. It's a big ol' platform big enough for half the group, with a railing, some benches, and blossoming blue energy fields around the base that keep the occasional glob of lava from becoming a problem.

"The tube oughta be right up ahead, and it's supposed to be empty, so shouldn't be much a problem with lava in there." Surface excavation gear takes up some of the floor space, and everyone's been given at least some sort of (somewhat) flame-retardant jumpsuit that's not good for much else. The other craft rides close enough that everyone can hear and converse with each other pretty easily as they sail along over the slow-moving river of molten rock below.

Jehni'va Cihn is hearing a whole lot of 'been assured', 'shouldn't be', 'supposed to be' and these, in general, should alight more red flags than there are red rocks on this planet. Unfortunately, she is too busy sightseeing. "This is so cool." She chatters, leaning dangerously over the side of the hovercraft. The pilot is in her usual jumpsuit, blaster holstered at one hip and her knife at the other, and she wears goggles - which... Is surprisingly practical, especially given the splash risk. "This is so cool." She repeats, holding a hand out to test the heat.

Hex is hot. He's Twi'lek, so at least a species that tolerates heat reasonably well, but still, this place is hot for anyone non-native. He's brought a pistol, and mops his brow with something that looks like it's possibly a rag for engine grease. "I'd ask what 'prospecting' entails, but... me and mine are here anyway, ka," he observes. "You point us in the right direction and give us vague instructions, we'll do it. Might even get it mostly right."

This is not a place for the unobservant - that much is made clear from the get-go. Climbing onto the hovercraft only deepens the lingering sense of possible regret that Netep's having as she tromps between benches to have a seat. At least they aren't 200 leagues under the sea. She's swallowed up in that scout armor, helmet already locked into place and thermal control set...just in case. "What's it called again?" She squints over at Corr while plopping her butt onto a bench and anchoring herself there with hands.

This planet was metal af. Zhu Yan was having a ball. He was sweating, sure, but judging from how comfortable he looked there were serious hints that his home planet was possibly hotter than Ryloth. That or he lived in an oven growing up on Corellia. Over the top of the jumpsuit was Yan's heavy battle armor, with his helmet tucked under one arm. The Bryar was at its permanent place on his hip and on the hovercraft deck in front of him was a long repeating blaster rifle in the vein of a space-FG42. And, as always, he had a jetpack on his back. Exploration, yo! "I got my enhanced visuals here. Just remind me not to turn on thermals. Might blow my head up! That'd be a bit unfortunate!"

"...do they not have droids and machines for this?" Eilam asked, not really understanding why he keeps going on these outlandish trips. First the ocean planet, now this. The ghostling looked outright miserable, covered up fully and not sure if he should be staying back or what. "And would we all even fit on that? I am not sure it is large enough." While Eilam had with him a satchel that contained several books on metallurgy and ores and such, his knowledge of this planet and just how much it was lava vs not... well, he was underprepared.

Sapphira is also hot, and hot Sapphira is cranky Sapphira. She's stripped down to a loose tank top and fitted pants, with her gunbelt and boots on, and her hair down her back in a single braid. She looks sidelong at Yan's jetpack and wrinkles her nose a touch, reaching over to touch the man's shoulder. "Yan, yanno you're wearin' a whole bunch of fuel on your back, right? And we're in a hot place drippin' with hot metal and hot stone that could ignite that thing, given the wrong circumstances. You are aware of all this, yes?" At least she's concerned for his well-being!

Pash Danigo is starting to wonder what the heck he's doing here. He's no miner, nor is he particularly interested in sightseeing. Plus, he's already drenched in sweat. Then Corr mentions the nice paycheck that comes along with his excursion and he's reminded. He smiles, briefly, at the thought of what the pay could lead to, and does his best to enjoy the untamed view around him.

"Am going to get sweaty. Am going to chafe," remarks Rosh, tugging at the crotch of his leather pants. "Plus, I dropped my yogurt in the lava a little while back. I hate this planet."

Arwen has found a spot near the back railing. He's quiet, watching the others. It's his first gig, and so he hasn't met any of these folks yet. He's wearing the scout trooper armor that Corr gave him yesterday, and he has the helmet off, strapped to his belt. He's sweating, but his long black hair blows in the wind as they float along. He's carrying a medical satchel, and chewing on his lip as they move over the hot lava.

Kasia is here standing beside Hex, listening to all the instructions as they're given, looking more and more concerned. Especially as she eyes Jehn. "Someone is going to get burned," she mutters to Hex quietly, arms folding across her stomach.

"It's called Dolovite, and it's the chief export. Only really found one other place so the price is pretty good. This job's a little more commercial'n we usually take, but... the pay was good," Corr repeats again, shrugging as he leans against the railing. He's not driving, so everything is fine, what could possibly go wrong? "'ppreciate it," he nods at Hex, glancing over at where Kasia, Sapphira, and Jehn are all helping to manage the vessel. It's a weird thing, being this high above the lava but not being a proper ship, and takes some of the skills of all three to keep it going, but they're doing a GREAT job. Just great. "Keep up the good work, this is goin' really well so far," he comments, giving everyone a broad grin and rummaging in a pack for his canteen. It's hot.

While Corr is looking down, a dormant lava tube below them suddenly decides to open up, shooting a flume of magma sky-high, a steady stream that doesn't just fly up and fall down. Instead, it stands in their path, shedding sheets of slag downward all the while.

Hey, don't look at her. Jehn is just here enjoying the sights and the flights. She settles back into her co-pilot's position after her dangerous suare overboard and turns a shit-eating grin over the rest of the squad. "This place is awesome. We should come here more." She's drenched in sweat already and those pit-stains are a sight to behold, but that grin does't waver - even when the giant geyser of magma opens in front of them. "Woah! Steamy!" The pilot, co-piloting, frantically throws several switches. "Shifting stabalizers, gonna try and - ah, kriff. UMBRELLAS UP!" Jehn is still grinning as they hit the spray of lava. "This is going great." She ducks sideways as a spray of magma sizzles on the floor where her body had just been.

Hex eyes Yan thoughtfully at the man's assertion that he might explode should an unacceptable amount of heat come near his jetpack. And everything is an unacceptable amount of heat. He inches a little further away, then has to flail and grab the rail when there's dodging to be done. "Kasia!" When in doubt, backseat drive your spouse. "No, you have to go AROUND the things, but like... GENTLY, ok ka, you're gonna tip us out!"

Poor Eilam, he was completely out of his element. His own doing too. The Ghostling did not have the stamina for this and inside of his D.D.C. Glider suit, which he had his own flame retardant lining here and there to still allow for the suit to actually work if needed, inside was lined with a cooling gel lining that he was quite, QUITE happy he had invested in. Simple enough heat-redirection tech, but for him and his poor constitution, lovely. His long hair was tied up carefully and tucked away inside of a full-covered helmet, trying to piece together if he was familiar with Dolovite or not.

Though the sudden lava had the Ghostling emit a rather feminine yell of panic as he wound up trying to dodge back and forth. "This is supposed to be exploring, not... not dangerous! Are we not getting off-topic of the guild? Exploration is not adventuring!"

Ok, so Sapphira was totally paying attention. She totally saw the column of fiery death coming, totally saw it's tragectory, and was already compensating when fire and doom start happening around them. "Guys we have to manuever. Guys." She yanks harder on her own controls, but hers against the others means that the ship doesn't go the way she wants it too. "Guys. Guys! GUYS!" Yank yank yank!

Muri squawks, fumbling her datapad as she gets bounced up aside by the sudden jerk of craft. Quick hands snatch it back before any globs sneaking through the energy shield can melt her 'book'...or before it slides overboard. "Everyone okay!?" she calls from the floor - her new seat, datapad hugged to chest of her suit before it gets stuffed back into her belt. "Exploring /does/ entail a spot of adventure, Eilam," she notes aloud for the Ghostling's benefit. "Elsewise, little fun is there?" She's wearing an idiot's grin, but the sheen of sweat under her mask on brow is definitely not from the heat.

"It's designed to be hot! I don't see how making it hot will make it explode!" Zhu Yan complained. See, the second someone interjected logic to Yan's Thoroughly Cool Ideas(TM), he tended to get a little bit ruffled. Unfortunately, he was not skilled enough to reject reality and substitute his own. "Besides, what if we need to get something from high up? Or I fall down a hole? Logic, my child! Logic!" He'd thought this through.

He was still being haughty and self-assured when all hell literally broke loose! With a cry of "ACK," he was thrown across the deck by the lurching hovercraft, latching on to a railing as he went! His helmet slipped out from under his arm! He stuck his free hand out and snagged it between his fingers! The repeater slid across the deck and he slammed his foot down on it! It was like the absolute worst game of space-Twister he'd ever played!

"Hovercraft hitting a lava flow," he commented, laughing his little head off. "Best album cover EVER."

Pash is seated leisurely at the start of the excursion, his posture suggesting an easy road ahead of them. Boy does that change, though. "Woah!" he exclaims when the plume of lava rises and the craft they're on lurches in response. He plants his feel a little more solidly, grabs the railing next to him, and manages not to get dumped overboard and/or scorched by magma. Reaching out to help Muri from the floor, if she needs it, he curses and wonders out loud, "People do this for a living?"

RUMBLE. Rosh tips over, helmet smacking into the floor of the platform. But, he doesn't roll off into the melty-boi. "Am fine," he offers, sitting up and deciding to just chill for a while. Who needs standing? It's too hot for standing.

Arwen grabs the railing when the float lurches, and looks a little concerned toward Muri. It's a silent look of, 'Are we gonna die?' but he doesn't speak it. Once things seem to settle, he widens his stance a bit to keep better balance.

Kasia isn't sweating, she's glowing. She is glowing SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. She's got a handkerchief that she's using to blot sweat from her forehead and upper lip every so often, and her hair has been pulled up higher than the ponytail in started as so that it's now a messy bun. She did have makeup on at one point, but a lot of that is already gone. She settles into the pilots seat and prepares to safely take them through the tunnels, but then there's unexpected lava. "I see it! I see it!" Her reply to everyone is slightly higher pitched than is her usual, and she's doing her level best to help manuver them out of the way, but it's not quite enough. She grimaces and thanks whatever higher beings might be listening for the invention of shields. "We're fine, ok. We're fine." She's glowing a lot more after all that.

Just as Corr is pulling his canteen out of the bag, the whole craft shudders and shakes as it impacts against the volcanic eruption. The lava just keeps coming, like a geyser of ash and molten stone, spitting globs of red hot material everywhere. Their shields bloom bright blue against the thing, protecting the sides of the vehicle, but a few chunks and spatters do splash down on the deck. The impact sends Corr's drink sailing out of his hand, and for some reason the shield is set up to stop incoming rock and metal but not out-going. Goodbye, canteen. After a moment staring at where it rolled under the railing, he sighs and waves towards the ladies at the helm. "Take us into that hole in the rock over there," he instructs, pointing out a nearby cave set above a river of lava. There's lots of lava, okay?

The descent goes well, and soon enough, they're landed inside. It's almost like a tunnel, but carved by the slow movement of molten rock, so the walls are a sort of bizarre liquid texture. Corr is first onto the ground, with a tool in hand and a pack slung on his back. "We're explorin' a cave in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lava no one else is brave enough to go near. I don't know how you can get any more 'exploration' than that. Let's go," he calls, waving the group in. The tube splits in two directions.

Hex checks his weapons and mops his brow, then descends the craft following Corr. He offers a hand down to his glowing (massively sweaty) wife, but everybody else is on their own. The price Kasia pays for this fine treatment is tolerating Hex's sense of humor. "We're exploring the core with Explorer Corr's Explore Corps," he beams at Kasia, grinning his stupid pointy-toothed grin. "And you say I never take you anywhere nice." He seems pleased to be in something like a cave though; Hex always likes caves. He eyes the split in two; "Hmm, this way or that way?" He seems content not to make a call on that. And content to follow Jehn's very decisive directions. "You're great at this, ai'jou!" Terrifyingly, he seems to mean it.

"Everyone makes questionable life choices," Muri tells Pash as she accepts his help up. "Some of us happen to be repeat offenders."

And to prove her point is Corr, beckoning them off the relative safety of hovercraft to venture the rest of the way on foot. Splendid! After giving the cooled magma under their feet a tentative stomp, she follows along, eyes unable to keep from roaming the surreal surroundings with a dizzying flick this way, that way, can't focus....ORANGE! "Hey, HEY!" She shouts and points to the right branch. "Somethin's glowin down that way. Kinda orangey....er. Well. I suppose that's not a unique color scheme 'round here. What do we think? Good glow? Or fiery glow." As her feet start to take her in that direction anyway for a closer look. Feels GREAT inside this suit.

Having recovered from his act of gymnastic physics defiance, Zhu Yan was putting the helmet on his head. "Aaah!" he cried out, before smacking the side of it and going "Aaah." The idiot had left it on thermal vision. He'd scooped up his repeater up as well. He hopped out of the hovercraft, prodded the ground experimentally with one foot, and deemed that it was good. "Yeah, left," he said firmly, pointing towards the right path. "Way too much lava down that way."

It's hard to really read Eilams facial expression, but somewhere beneath that helmet the Ghostling had on, he's slowly starting to realize he's losing a desire to keep putting himself at risk like this. Sure, it's nice to come out and see new places and do things he didn't think he'd ever be doing so much as reading about others doing, but this was terrifying and he wasn't remotely in for this. Though to his credit the Ghostling didn't back talk or complain aloud, instead, he just... quietly followed along, hugging onto the satchel he had with him as if it were some kind of security blanket.

Sapphira grits her teeth and focuses on the task at hand: driving. This time, she and her drive-mates seem to somehow work together, and they're able to steer the hovercraft to a safe landing, settling down upon the cool, fresh rock. While everyone goes to jump out, Sapphira stays put for a moment, before finally rising from her seat. "Hey," she calls to the group. "I'll stay here and make sure we didn' break or burn nothin' that'll kill us on our escape," she announces to the group, walking along the length of the craft to where the toolkit it stowed in the back. Yep, she'll stay here and guard the ship.

When they finally land within the tunnel, Pash stands and hops off the craft quick as he can. Landing with a thud, he peers around him with an almost child-like wonder on his face. Then he remembers what he's looking at and how they probably almost died just a moment ago, so his expressions sours a bit. But something catches his eye. Something he's about to point out to the group, except someone else has beat him to it. Good, let's all follow the light! And so he does.

Rosh stands up from his seated position and straightens out his coat. So fresh. So clean. Slipping his thumbs through his gunbelt, he steps down off the platform and looks around, his visor scanning their surroundings. "Ei. Orange," he says, reiterating Muri's point.

Arwen slowly stops off the skiff as he puts his helmet on. He walks over to the wall and takes a moment to run his hand on it, looking closely at the rock. Turning to the group, he joins them as they begin to head toward the orange glow. "Does this Dolovite stuff glow orange? Or is that more lava?" he asks curiously.

Everything is fine, they're not all burning to death in lava, and they manage to get the vehicle settled down on solid, not-currently-lava ground. "You and I think different things are fun, Jehn," she informs the younger woman with a shaky sort of smile. Kasia sits there for a few moments to exhale and mop away more sweat off her face, then gets to her feet to follow Hex. He offers her a hand off the craft, and she takes it, once again sticking close to his side, which means she gets to hear his joke. "Oh, Hex," she sounds amused, eyes rolling, but that's followed by a little laugh. "That was awful, ka're."

Corr glances between all the folks who are trying to decide which way to go, noticing immediately that several of them are pointing in the opposite direction of what they're saying, left and pointing right, avoid the glow and pointing at it, and so on, and after a moment just staring, he sighs and sets his shoulders towards the branch with the glow in the rear. "We'll find out soon enough. It can be either. There's a spectrometer in my pack that'll read the walls or a pool of lava for levels of dolomite," he assures the party, getting the name wrong in what is sure to be a very reassuring statement. "Let's keep moving."

A thumbs-up goes to Sapphira, bravely staying behind to keep an eye on the hovercraft. Hex has a terrible sense of humor, but it gets a laugh out of Jehni'va. Of course. But she likes Netep's suggestion until the 'good glow bad glow' is decided to be a bad glow or... Good glow? Whatever, she still says 'left' - but she is also all for going into the light. What if it's magma? Okay, sure. But what if it's friendly? Jehn isn't going to take the lead, so she instead drops back to Yan's side after a sympathetic look and a nod to Eilam - poor guy. "Where did you get that thing, anyway?" She asks Yan as they head towards the glow.

"Do you have it on?" Muri inquires of the spectrometer inside Corr's pack, presumably unwielded. "Should we start taking readings now? Even if for a baseline? I mean I dunno how concentrated this stuff IS throughout. Wasn't geology that took my fa---" something shuts her up for a long few seconds and she flails a hand to any still behind her for "Shh! You hear that?" she pseudo whispers. "S'like....steam. Err..mmm." Her brows furrow and tongue flashes over dried lips. "Somethin's moving. Or spraying." Those could be very different things.

"Tatooine!" Zhu Yan answered Jehn. He hefted the big ol' repeater in his hands as though to show off its features. "One hundred shots, massive damage, can do burst fire, more accurate than all my other stuff. And it's not that heavy either!" Oh, Yan loved his new big gun. It wouldn't do him much good down here, but hey, if there was a fight, best to be prepared! "Oh, we're going to the lava? Cool. I may actually explode," he said, with a little bit of worry because he was carrying a fuel tank on his back.

"It's fine," Rosh says to Muri, continuing to move down the corridor. "No problem." He'll lead the pack if he has to. He /will/ slide his guns out of their holsters, though.

"I do not think this is going to go well."

Eilam looked around idly before reaching into his satchel and pulling out... a lightsaber hilt? Well, at least something that looked like it. It wasn't turned on though. "There better not be some giant lava monster worm that is going to squeeze through here at us or I think I may try and leave."

Arwen stays a bit toward the back of the group. "Sounds like a hissing. Could be a lava snake thing? Or just lava. Or just a snake. Or... Ugh." He sighs, and he lays his hand on his small blaster.

Kasia continues to stick by Hex's side as the path is decided, but as she doesn't really know anything about any of this, she's leaning a lot on what other people decide here. Corr picks a path, and the couple walk along after him. "Now I know what my dinner feels like as it's slowly being warmed up. I have to say, I don't enjoy it much," she informs Corr, but it seems to be in good enough spirits. For now, anyway, Hex hasn't fallen into lava yet so things are rolling along just fine so far.

"...good point," Corr replies to Muri, slowing in his advance and swinging the pack down off his back. Setting it down against the melt-molded rock, he starts rooting around for the device, a big, blocky computer box with a small flat screen set into one of the sides. The screen appears to be taken up mostly by a dial. "Scrape somethin' off the wall," he suggests to the resident scientist, powering the gadget on with a whirr and a repetitive clicking sound.

While Corr is doing all this, the scraping, hissing sound has grown louder, and abruptly not one but four orange creatures drop from an unseen crevasse in the ceiling. They're long, tubular, and as big around as a man's waist. These are, indeed, the lava eels of Mustafar, and they're amphibious or really pissed off about having to leave the lava, tendrils of which splat to the floor around them. Rows of razor sharp teeth are born wide as they snap and hiss, sizing up the group and likely deciding who to eat first.

Glancing up from the spectrometer, Corr sees a writhing mass of orange and black many-headed death, and comments aside "Oh, yeah, that'll be the lava eels. Blast, this was goin' so well."

"Oh." Jehn nods. "Tatooine..." The fact that she's taking this info down with such intensity is... Not a good thing. The pilot lets out a screech of surprise that quickly dissolves into an 'aw'... As she pulls her blaster loose. "I'm so sorry, sweet babies. Please get out of the way." She winces as the blaster whirrs to life in her hands, the safety flipping off with a whine.... She squeezes her eyes shut, and fires.

Hex is already drawing somewhere around 'sweet babies', and takes a moment to cast an exasperated look at Jehn. "What is it with you and the evil-ass wildlife?" he complains. "We are /not/ bringing an eel home." He raises, aims, advises, "Don't watch," and then fires twice. One shot misses, the other takes the head off an eel. "Kasia, you think I can eat that?"

"Oh great," Muri grumps, already having started scraping at the wall with a little sport knife that she's yanked off her belt. She abandons that scrape zone and shuffles a few feet BACKtracking to restart, like that's gonna buy her time while all the blasters come out. Her right hand scrapes the wall in a frenzy, left hand cupped beneath to catch what flakes off while she monitors the 'DANGER' level from over shoulder. They look nasty. "Okay, okay, here!" she sloppily rushes back to dump a fraction of what she was holding into the sample tube. "Is that enough?" Five nervous glances cut over to the inbound eels in the span of a couple seconds. Spaz.

WHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPH.

Unrelenting hellfire spewed from the barrel of the repeater rifle, massive red bolts illuminating the cavern even more than the orange glow off in the distance. The sound was ungodly, deafening Yan through his helmet's auditory sensors and booming throughout the room. The recoil staggered the man, sending him stumbling backwards and ensuring that all four shots carved out huge chunks into the rock wall directly behind the snek. "They're not exploding!" he cried out. He was now the loudest target in the room. "Help!"

"No. No no no no no no no no..."

That is the sound of Eilam ritualistically chanting in the background summoning the god of 'Nope fuck this I'm out' as he starts to backpeddle. The snap-hiss of the stunsaber he has in his hand igniting can be heard as he begins to deterringly wave it in front of him, lashing out at anything and anyone that may get close and try to keep him from staying /away/ from this.

Rosh gives his duo of blasters a S T Y L I S H twirl and levels them at the eels. There's probably a band of light that runs along one of the barrels and turns into a nice anime sparkle at the end. Then he pulls the triggers. One round buries itself in the wall, one smacks into one of the eels, but the last one ricochets several times before ending up lodged in Rosh's shoulder. "AAAAAHHH."

Arwen takes a bit of cover, drawing his blaster but staying out of the way of those who seem better prepared to deal with this. He takes careful note of where everyone is and watches carefully for who is injured and getting his medpac ready.

"Hex, we have to kill them all, or they'll be coming home with us," Kasia warns her husband in a low voice, giving Jehn a /look/ as she says it. Her own weapon is pulled free, and she takes a few moments to aim at the same eel Rosh hit. She squints a little and then squeezes the trigger, hitting and finishing off the aforementioned eel. "And no you shouldn't eat them until we know whether or not you /can/ eat them."

LAVA EELS. They are terrifying, they are roiling all around, dripping lava and bad intentions. Hex's hand cannon blows the head clean off of one of them, which seems to irritate all the others. Rosh and Kasia take turns tagging one, putting it mostly down for the count, before Yan and Pash are beset by the healthy pair still remaining. Massive teeth shred through protective gear with horrendous efficiency, almost like these things live in lava and eat stuff that does too, this is a bad place.

"This is a bad place," Corr mutters as he frantically hits buttons on the box-device, the spectrometer. "This is a bad place, Muri, we gotta get the reading and get out of here," he tells her, shoving the sample a little further into the hole. The dial... it's moving. "Is that a positive? I think that's a positive. Do you know if that's a positive?" he asks his assistant, alive with a lot more speed and intensity than his usual mode of speaking, pointing down at it with a rough finger. "You're the scientist! Keep those eels off the new guy, I told him we wouldn't let him die on the first day!" the director yells over at the folks fighting with the monsters that fell from the ceiling.

"I should have stayed with the ship." Jehn decides, snapping another bolt at an eel - thankfully her aim is so poor that it just buries into the wall, rather than one of the men they're attacking. "So is it a positive?" She asks over her shoulder at Corr and Netep, her voice cool and surprisingly collected.

"I really think you could eat them though, Kasia, I just don't know how you'd cook them, on account of they're so hot already. Like what am I gonna do, cook it on the trash can fire I built on the patio? They're way hotter than tha-- YAN!" Hex gasps; people are getting chomped. "Bash!" Close. Pash. So close. The Twi'lek attempts to return fire, but he doesn't hit anything this time, bad luck and worse aim.

It tore through his armor, it tore through the jumpsuit, it tore through his FLESH. This wasn't another shot-in-the ass moment. This was real life-threatening injuries. He didn't have time to assess the full extent of it. Frack standing up! A loud noise started. Zhu Yan put barrel to eel and squeezed the trigger, over and over and over again. The eel latched on to him didn't die so much as come apart. The noise continued. The angle he was firing on made something crack in his shoulder but the man was blinded by his own fury. He kept firing. Throughout it all, through the fear and the anger and the hate and the suffering, the noise continued. Zhu Yan was screaming.

"They DO dwell in extreme temperatures, resistant to the scald of molten rock, are we POSITIVE the blasters wi---" Yes, they do work. Oh the dial's moving! Netep holds her breath for science and stares over Corr's arm at the meter. It's not easy to concentrate, what with her ears ringing from that BOOMBOOMBOOM of Yan's initial spray'n'pray and the other shouts of terror and chaos as slithery, splatty eels begin to chow down on their comrades. Is it positive?

"Y...es?" Netep's puffed cheeks deflate with the sound of uncertainty and she nod-wags her head. "Possibly not. I-I don't know!" Another frantic look aside. "Why don't we just try the OTHER tunnel? I'm sorry. I was hopeful it was a /good/ glow..." And yet, her knife's out again, grinding another hasty sample off the wall, just for good measure.

Meanwhile Eilam is just hanging /way the hell back/, not having actually done too much to help the situation today. He didn't accomplish much, he didn't contribute much. If anything, the Ghostling who was still wagging that stunsaber about like it was actually going to do much was already considering how to go about resigning from the guild. Because not only did this turn out badly again, it once again was scaring him and he wasn't enjoying said scaring.

Just as Pash is trying to help Zhu up, one of the lava eels that managed not to get hit by the storm of blaster fire around them flies through the air to tear into the man. He lets out an animalistic howl that fills the tunnel, a sound he's never heard himself make before. And the thing just...keeps biting. And biting. He doesn't even have a chance to fight back. Oh god this is going to give him nightmares. If he manages to survive.

As Pash flails around under the creatures attack, he manages stick his pistol barrel up against the side of it and fire off a shot. Boom! Take that!

"I'm important and I'm injured!" Rosh proclaims, ignoring the other losers that are being eaten alive. "Someone protect me! Augh," he grasps at his shoulder. That's one of the shoulders attached to one of the arms attached to one of the hands that holds one of his TWO GUNS. "Aaaaaaaugh," he cries, the most important injured person in the cave.

He slides his guns away and unclips a frag grenade from his bandolier. C-3P0 is freaking out somewhere. He steadies himself against the cave wall and limp-wristedly tosses the thing towards the eels. It just rolls along the floor and explodes, destroying a big chunk of the cave wall.

Arwen purses his lips, grumbling, "...everyone's important when they're dying," he mutters to himself. He inhales deep, and then he scrambles as quick as he can toward Rosh. "Hang on, hang on," he shouts to Rosh as he slides across the rocky floor to Rosh's side. He quickly throws open the medpac and checks out Rosh's injury. "Hold still a second," he says to Rosh. Then he gestures with a nod to Rosh's gun and adds, "And keep us from gettin' eaten."

"Heksash'kuri, you cannot just eat it," Kasia insists in a stern tone, frowning as she watches the other eels get shot to bits. Not that this is why she's frowning, it's more that there's still one left wriggling and alive. Also people are getting hurt, and then there are explosives being used. After cringing back from the blast that doesn't kill the last eel but takes a bite out of some rocks, she lifts her blaster again and aims at it, squeezing the trigger once and missing. Thankfully her second shot is a lot more accurate, finishing the wriggling thing. "How would you even cook it? Given how hot it is already, what would you actually have to do to it so it was cooked?"

"It's positive," Corr decides reluctantly, shoving the device back into his sack as Kasia finishes off the last lava eel. All is well, the crisis is averted, the grenade explodes, the wall of the lava tube is destroyed, lava begins to flow into the tube, all is not well. Corr's eyes go from the dead eels to the explosion to the lava, blinking. "...run!" Tossing the pack onto his shoulder, he scrabbles to his feet, waiting only long enough to make sure everyone else has the good sense to get going before he starts booking it toward the hovercraft.

Run? Run? SITH SPIT. RUN. At least Jehni'va doesn't have to kill any of the eels - she just has to run. Ironically, it's the headless corpse of one of the sweet, steamy babies that is her ultimate undoing; Jehn's foot catches its body and trips her up, sending her sprawling and delaying the pilot long enough for the lava to singe through the knee of her jumpsuit and armor. Burning... Burning /hurts/, no matter how slight and simply-singey, and Jehn lets out a shriek of pain as she scrambles away, now limping to catch up.

"Ohh... okay... okay not good," Hex slowly realizes as the eels are down, the cave is partially down, and lava is incoming. "This better be some top notch science," he grumbles while holstering his weapon, and then starts booking it down the -- Oh there's Jehn tripping over corpses. "Ai'jou, no, it's beyond our skill to heal!" he misinterprets why she's down, then helps her stumble-scramble up and keeps running, with the occasional worried pause to make sure the wounded, Pash, Yan, and slightly less important Rosh, are making it out.

"Okaygood," Netep gushes in a single breath just before Rosh's little ball of joy goes off and she startles off her feet, arms flailing over her head as they chunks pelt down. She can feel the bits plunking off the armor plate on her back, off her helmet, but can't hear squat over the ringing in her ears. Oh no. Crawling in a half circle to face the right direction, she scrabbles to her feet, only to lose balance when a chunk of rubbly rock rolls under her foot. OW!

Actually the jarring impact of a tiny tumble isn't so bad through the knee pads, but then there's a different sort of noise as lava spurts'n'sputters out of the weakened wall. A tiny bit of the spray catches her in the arm as she lifts a hand to ward it off and her voice lifts to join Jehn's. "HOOOOOOOT" At least her feet still work and she finds them, fast, again, and runs like hell while trying to pull and pluck the melted material away from her poor, toasted limb.

By the time she's made it to the hovercraft, she's got a confession to make. "Stressful as this -- ooooooo" she starts tugging at the fasteners for the bodysuit, desperate to peel that arm free " -- was, don't think I'll be fancying a smoke." Adara'd be so proud.

Zhu Yan was in a bad way, that much was sure. He was having difficulty dragging himself to his feet when the grenade went off, causing a lava flood. Well crap. He had a bomb strapped to his back. "Run!" he yelled to Pash, who appeared to be well off. Yan, however, was in no state to run. Something had torn a chunk out of his leg and it was buckling. So y'know what, frack that. Deafened, near-blinded, he smacked the small control panel built into his gauntlets and the jetpack on his back burst into life. Fwooomph! Out of the tube he sailed, crossing the distance towards the hovercraft, stealing all the oxygen and replacing it with carbon dioxide, getting completely to safet-WATCH OUT FOR THAT WALL!

Thwack!

"Owwwww..." was the groaning sound from the man as he slid down the wall, cartoon style. Good work Yan, you saved your ass through the most painful manner possible. At least he was right next to the hovercraft! And he didn't drop his gun either! "Sap, gimme some medical loooovin'..." he grumbled out in delirium, pain, exhaustion. He sure hoped a doctor was available to fix his stricken hide!

"THIS IS NOT EXPLORATION, THIS IS SUICIDE! I AM OUT!" Eilam yells, half out of panic, half out of simply being done with everything, as he turned and ran. The stunsaber unignited and slid back into the handle as he didn't bother stopping to try and help. Call it selfish. It was. He just wanted out of this all.

The creature attacking Pash goes limp and the smuggler ditches it with a weak shove. "Right," he huffs to Zhu. "Time to run." Grunting, he shoves his blaster into its holster and reaches out to probe his more obvious wounds, wincing when he touches them. Then, he starts to move, slowly at first, throwing a glance over his shoulder. The hot, oozing death he sees behind him helps urge him to move a little faster, and soon he's running despite the pain. Running just ahead of the lava flow, his footsteps and his wounds being his sole focus for now. Eventually, he makes it to the hovercraft and throws himself onboard, sprawling out on the floor, where he doesn't even try to get up. He looks...unwell.

"Gobika'si!" Rosh shouts, looking down at Arwen and swatting at his face. "Go!" he adds, before shuffling past the medic and limp-hopping his way back to the floaty-boi. Because of that high Dex roll, he also does like a really cool combat roll, too.

Arwen scowls, "What- I was- Ugh." And he scrambles to his feet, grabbing his medpac and running off after Rosh. "I'm comin'...!" He races after, with no intent on turning to ash.

Hang on, the explosives didn't just bite at the rock, now there is lava. There aren't a LOT of things that Kasia will run over, but lava is definitely one of them. "ROSH," Kasia shouts the name of the person who will be paying later for making her work out and sweat even more. Hex steers over to help Jehn, and she slows to do the same, making sure their creature loving pilot stoner doesn't get burnt up by the lava, and then she continues to run, and swea-- I mean glow. She also fits in really hating caves, and nature, and places that don't have climate control. They've got the high ground though, so all in all it could be worse.

Leaping onto the hovercraft, Corr helps drag the stragglers aboard, waving at Kasia and Jehn to "Go, go, go!" Once everyone is safe, from the lava coming towards them, at least, he collapses back onto one of the benches, leaning up against the railing and looking around at the others. A few are in a bad way. "Well, we got the goods," he announces, kicking his pack vaguely with a booted foot. A worn-out, shellshocked grin cracks across his face. "And we got a /doctor/ now," he notes proudly. "Arwen'll get you patched up until we can get back to Nar and get you treated right. Stop by and see Doc Tosha at Wayside. I need to send them a card anyhow. Let's get off this molten rock."

Another job well done, payment to be collected, and destination to cross off the galactic bucket list. All in all, a good night for the guild.