Log:Knights of Ren: Interlude: Cave Diving

The Knights go scavenging. Also spelunking. Who's explaining this to the Ren?

OOC Date: November 11, 2020
Location: Hoth
Participants: Andro Tain, Errod Zand, Malik Ren as Self/GM, Tamsin Cas, Tarq Najjic, Knights of Ren

[Tamsin Cas]

It had been hours, since that hapless team had gone off on their fateful mission. And in that time, it had been all hands to the wheel. Andro Tain and Malik had been brought back to the abandoned base, and the work of butchering the kill, such as it was, had begun. No one was entirely happy with the work, no more than any of them, save perhaps Sebek, had relished the idea of eating that monstrosity. But the need for survival was a painful and pointed goad, and what was must be done would be done.

Tamsin, who seemed to have returned to herself, had overseen the return of the two patients, tending to the downed archaeologist first, as her burns were severe, and then the Ren. Why she had fared better with the former than the latter was not something she spent much time contemplating. Healing was a process, and Tamsin trusted to the process. She had finally slept, awaking to find one of her charges missing from where he had been laid. She did not go immediately to find him, taking the time, first, to gather her supplies, a fresh canteen of water, and a few of the ration bars so he need not risk shocking his system with meat (mostly) most foul.

[Malik Ren]

There is a temptation within the command of the Force to assume one has complete mastery over that which cannot be mastered.

Hoth cannot be mastered, and the master of the Knights of Ren has learned this at the point of pain.

His injuries were extensive, and grievous; broken bones and internal bleeding much like a speeder crash at high velocity. Considering that slug was about the size of a large vehicle, that probably makes sense. It's bad news. That needs surgery, and it needs bacta, neither of which they have. Did it finally happen? Has Syrus reached a point at which he can make his play to usurp power?!

No. Unfortunately for everyone, Malik is still alive.

He is in fact a short distance from his emergency-pack sleeping blanket, kneeling, in what looks like a meditative state, but one that is surprisingly upright and functional given his position last night. The man is motionless, long hair all unbound in a state around his shoulders, but eventually Malik draws in a sharp, ragged breath and starts to open his eyes, slowly lifting back up out of that trance to the here-and-now. Inside the base, he looks around in a moment of confusion that reads a bit like 'where am I?'

[Errod Zand]

"What was all that hubbub about last night?" The voice is a raspy growl that betrays who it belongs to without necessitating a look, but the owner comes along momentarily, Errod's wild hair in a competition with Malik's for most-unkempt, sticking out from all sides of his furry hat.

They have one professional monster hunter and he didn't show up to hunt a monster. Typical.

"You've looked better," he observes to Malik, propping his butt up on the side of the airspeeder languishing derelict within the old, partially-collapsed hangar. The fingers of one mitten are pulled back so that he can fidget idly with a cig butt, rolling the thing back and forth between thumb and index. "I had a dream last night." His wild eyes stare towards the icy wall off to the right. "I don't often dream, sleep and I are estranged lovers, more than not, but after the crash, I slept. I slept long, and I slept hard, and I swirled in the eddies of my own subconscious. A place where neither time nor death has control or dominion. I opened my eyes and found myself here again. I found myself wishing with all the shattered fragments of my soul that /this/ was the dream, and that other place..."

He trails off, glances back over at Malik. "You bring any smokes?"

[Andro Tain]

It's possible that Andro Tain has been avoiding eye contact for the last twelve hours, since her 'fool proof excursion' nearly killed all of them, or that she's just been sleeping off her injuries - but, in the end, she doesn't have anywhere else to go or anyone else to be around. They're stranded here.

The Mirialan archaeologist doesn't look great when she finally limps out to join the others, her jacket bundled around her like a cape rather than a jacket, trying to minimize the contact of cloth on burnt skin. A little sniff as she wiggles down to a seated position and flicks her gaze between the others. Guilt means she doesn't look at Malik too long.

"There any of that slug meat left?"

[Tamsin Cas]

Come on now. They had a //little// bacta. And they had some small store of supplies. It might become more, if Tamsin had her way and she returned to scour every inch of the ship that was still intact. Surely such a ship was not left without supplies to tend to its passenger as well as its prisoners. She was not, though, quite ready to face that feat. There was still work to be done.

It was the monster hunter's voice that that lead her over to where Malik was kneeling, the slight thinning of her lips showing what she thought of that. But what she said, was, rather, "There were a number of remains within the tunnels where we fought the creature. There may be supplies there that you would find useful." Who knew? "They may be stale, but better than nothing."

Tamsin slowed her approach, making certain to walk so that Malik could see her, "You've gone too long without a meal." She sets down the canteen and the ration bars, before she turned to contemplate the archaeologist making her way into the space, "It was a massive creature, once we had an opportunity to look at it." You know, without it flailing around and trying to fricassee its puny opponents, "There is more than enough." Andro's movements did not go unnoticed, "And I will need to address more of your wounds."

[Malik Ren]

"It feels like it was a dream." Malik scrubs his face tiredly with both hands, then runs one through his hair and leans against one of the crates stacked near his sleeping area. They don't contain anything useful -- just a bunch of wiring and conduit that they might be able to knot together to make traps later if they get desperate. And if they knew how to make traps. Which they don't. Maybe it's best just to use the wiring to tie chunks of frozen slug to hover sleds so they can haul it back here.

"You can ask her what happened," Errod gets his answer in the form of a tired gesture toward Andy. Malik is looking much more like a normal person than a slightly possessed Force apostate fully in control of his plans. He's gotta be hating that, and it's ANDY'S FAULT, but the only reaction toward her is a long, inscrutable study of the Mirialan. No comment, no blame. Maybe it'd be a relief if there /was/ a little blame, in a way... but none seems forthcoming. Continuing to Errod, Malik shakes his head, "I did not bring any smokes." A pause. "And I am out of lesai." Oops. Almost like there's a downside to using drugs to stay awake for every minute of your life. Almost like that can be a problem. Again.

Malik seems like he just wants to pass out and fall asleep, and at some point he won't have a choice in the matter unless a good Ren Scout like Imani brought him some precious purple vials, but for now -- decisions to be made, leader stuff to be done. Ration bars are accepted, but set aside. "Anyone in good health should investigate the corpses in the slug-dragon chamber for useful supplies. Andro Tain, you are not in good health, and you are not going anywhere until you are. If you encounter wildlife, do not engage. Do not waste time exploring the caverns beyond those we've already traveled. We need able-bodied Knights to find and retrieve the Buzzard's starboard engine."

[Errod Zand]

"What happened?" Errod asks Andro dryly, tucking the butt of the dead cig in the corner of his mouth so that he can at least chew on it, even if there's nothing to smoke. "Well krif. We're right out of all the good stuff, but at least we got plenty of the bad," he observes with a shrug. The mention of a 'slug-dragon chamber' gives him an inkling, though, and he pulls a face.

"You lot decided to tangle with a dragon slug in its own territory? It's a relief that so many of you are genetic anomalies, the likes of which only nature herself can answer how great a misstep such a thing truly is, or you'd be more bodies in the chamber. I've seen what those creatures can do."

[Andro Tain]

"You may address my wounds as 'm'lady' or 'm'lord'. They're very proud." Andy grumbles, flicking her big, furry hood up over her head and resigning herself to the day. She does dig into her jacket, amidst those pockets of squirreled-away goods (none of which were ration bars or things more useful than an ice pick, her datapad, and the data on her hand held holo that brought them all to the cave to begin with) and lays the pad and projector on the crate. "Maps are on there. Calculations on what to do if tunnels changed, too." She taps the pad. "With th'slug gone, those caves should be peaceful... Unless the local wildlife got th'hint and are trying to move in on the foreclosure deals."

Knowing their luck?

To Errod, she sighs. "I came pre-equipped with some intel on an artifact that was left in a cave nearby. We found it. It did not go well. Now we get to learn how slug tastes." She shifts to allow Tamsin room to poke and prod and heal at her - luckily the burns are 'minor', considering the blast, but she is cut up and bruised where the ice pillar shattered and sent her flying. It's not great.

But, with a glance towards the crates of wiring and conduits, she nods. "I might be able to rig us up some sort of... Early alert system, in case the wildlife gets too close."

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin's mouth opened, a flash of something unpleasant in her eyes as she looked towards Errod. It was likely a good thing (for her!) that she mastered her first impulse to speak, and simply left Malik to eat or not eat. Instead, she made her way over to Andro, turning her attention to battles she was more likely to win, "Eat." She held out a ratio bar to Andro, before she offered a second canteen of water. Much as Malik had done for her in the wilds of Kashyyyk. "I will go out as soon as I am sure that you are stable." And once her hands were free, she got to work. Tamsin was no stranger to rationing, food or supplies, and she calculated down to the microgram how much she could use of the supplies she had to affect the best outcome.

[Errod Zand]

Errod isn't a diplomat, but he isn't blind either, and the spark of aggression that passes through Tamsin doesn't escape his notice. His eyes skim her way, wild, bloodshot orbs narrowing. "There is something you wish to say?" It's day 3, it's time to start FITES. "We're all on the same side here. Let there be no secrets among the living, as there are none among the dead." His lips curl back slightly beneath his horseshoe mustache, an amused grin.

"There's worse things to eat than slug. Falleen, for example. Shame we don't have any tomo-spice." He nods towards the crates as well. "You need a hand, you let me know. My father taught me how to tie a mean Mrlssi half-hitch, and he was firmly of the mind that there's nothing enough of the things strung together won't hold down."

[Andro Tain]

Accepting the ration bar in one hand, Andy gives a noncommital grunt. "I'm stable, just sore." Is that a lie? Is she lying? "...I can walk." If anything is to be learned from triage, it's that 'I can walk' amidst other priorities means you're green.

At the tensions that flicker between Tamsin and Error, Andy braces a hand against the ground and struggles herself to a standing position. "See? I can walk. You may show me those knotting skills in -" She waves between the pair. "-a moment." Happy to give them room to air their grievances, she pretends to busy herself with the crates, beginning the arduous process of laying out usable pieces in neat piles. It is slow going, with her left arm more burned than the other held close to her stomach as her right does all the work.

Though she busies herself with the guise of privacy awarded to them, she is 100, absolutely, without a doubt, eavesdropping. She's craving a hot drink, and this tea will do just fine.

[Tamsin Cas]

"There is nothing //I// wish to say," was Tamsin's measured reply as she worked. "There is much the thing still inside me wishes to say." She had returned enough to herself to know that the feelings were not coming //from// her. She had learned too long and too well at the knees of her Muun tutors to allow herself the delusion that what she was feeling was actually what //she// was feeling. Such was the legacy of a people who were raised to the logic of math to the exclusion of their baser, less logical emotions. "But I think that, perhaps, if you are looking for a world without secrets, you will not find it here among the Knights of Ren."

Tamsin offered no argument as she stepped away from Andro as the woman got to work, only speaking softly. "You can walk, and he can kneel. But I imagine if I were to walk over to him now and blow on his too forcefully, he might topple over. There are others who can carry the burden for right now. If we are indeed supposed to be a team, then let those of us to who co what we can. You will be useful again before too long."

[Malik Ren]

"Save your criticism for endeavors in which you assisted, Zand." That's Malik piping up, cracking open an eye to eye his resident monster hunter, and carefully opening the canteen he was brought. He doesn't argue that a stiff breeze might knock him over, but that's probably a good sign it's true. "There will be plenty more of that before the end, I imagine."

He closes his eyes again, leaning against the crate. "Go search corpses." Is it an order to fetch supplies, or to remove themselves to somewhere not near him? Or both? Either way, the waking world has been as much as he can take, and Malik slips back into the trance keeping him alive.

[Errod Zand]

CORPSE TIME CORPSE TIME

"We've all got a demon down inside somewhere. Most people just prefer not to talk about it," Errod replies with a shrug, evidently considering that enough discussion on the topic. "Let's go see if there's anything worth checking on these bodies," he suggests, pushing himself off the airspeeder and straightening. Infuriatingly, perhaps, there's hardly a scratch on him for all the drama of the landing and the others' encounter with the dragon slug.

"...where are the bodies?"

[Andro Tain]

Is that a grateful smile awarded to Tamsin? Whatever it is, it's gone with the next gust of wind, the green-skinned woman snuggling deeper within her layers.

OF BOTH CLOTHING AND EMOTIONS. Angst.

"The story went that some 'powerful witch' sealed the circlet in that pillar of ice after killing his crew and lover in a jealous rage." Andy finally says, not looking up from her work, though her tone lapses into one more melodious and rythmic. She's telling a story, and there is a pageantry to that. "I don't know much about th'magics of the Force, not yet, but it doesn't seem a far stretch to think that - maybe - he sealed some of that away with it. It festered, jealous and angry, and you finally gave it a place t'go." Andy shrugs with her good arm.

"I can mark the bodies on the map. It'll just take some fiddling." She abandons her trap-making to give her datapad some commands, but the fog in her mind and body proves too steep an obstacle to productivity. "...They're.... They're in there somewhere. Just follow what was there already." She should have paid more attention in GIS.

[Tamsin Cas]

"It wanted a vessel. I was not strong enough to refuse it." Tamsin was not above admitting her mistakes, "Tarq took it away from me, but some of it, some of him is still in there." She could feel it, like a dark beast rattling its cage, "I will learn to cast him out, or I will learn to live with it." She did not know if either was possible, but it was all she could offer. Once Andro had done what she could with the datapad, she reached out to take it, "We can take the hoversled back. We will need it to bring back more of the meat in any case. There is no point in wasting a trip there." Tamsin looked over to Errod, "I remember the way, and the entry is difficult to miss. But if anything else has taken root there, you will need to weed them out. You and any others who care to go with us." And then, as an afterthought, "And I would like to return to the ship to scour for more useful supplies."

[Malik Ren]

There are several avenues the team could pursue here: Search for meats, perhaps tauntauns, that are not SLUG or Lieutenant Kepp -- or set traps for the same. Search the wreck of the Night Buzzard for any other supplies that might be useful and missed in the first sweep at the crash. Or search the landscape for lost Buzzard Bits which will be necessary to restore the noble steed to space worthiness. Or... search corpses in the slug caverns for useful items.

A blizzard outside has answered the question for the Knights. No one is going outside right now. No one who wants to be heard from ever again.

After some restorative ration bars and the conclusion of the healing trance, Malik is feeling better... but seems to be struggling against the withdrawal of that strange drug he takes to stay awake. An exhausted liability, he's been left back in the caverns to ride out lesai withdrawal in a long nap... or get rescued by someone like Imani, who might have extra supplies of that particular item.

Unchaperoned, Team Hoversled has Andy in tow, and the twisty ice caverns lie before them just as they did yesterday -- a room of sculptures, its ring-turn door lock now open and the entrance laid bare; a chamber following in which there are bones and a truly impressive amount of frozen dead slug. Dark passages lead off into the unknown, beyond this place.

[Andro Tain]

On the hoversled, Andy is bundled up in her jacket and then some - but has come equipped with her datapad and axe. If anything, there can be some space to further study whatever those denizens of the past left behind - perhaps to find some answers as to /why/. /Why/ were those statues and door brought here? Were they meant to protect the circlet, or something else? Was their original purpose hidden or buried by the changing tunnels, dragon slugs, and ice worms? There are always so many possibilities, and they are all exciting to Andro Tain.

Gingerly stepping off of the hoversled, Andy looks around the cavern - forgotten clothing, supplies, rations, or treasures... All are a welcome find, if any can be found. "This place looks much more impressive when we aren't... Trying not to die." She allows, her voice echoing as she pushes aside a burnt hunk of metal to reveal... A droid? There's no repairing this, but Andy does set to work ripping the plating away from it to reveal its insides; there could always be a use for the wiring!

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin had done all she could for the Ren, and she had left him to sleep, perchance to dream, after helping him with a few more of the dwindling supply of heating packs. For she was rationing those too. But being unable to move, he needed those as well, perhaps more. She would have to improvise something before too long, even if she had overstuffed a bag with them. She made no argument, as the request to be allowed to search the ship was delayed. It was not a battle she knew she would win, and instead, she made the trek back to the cavern, and the bodies. And the slug. Because who could forget the slug. But perhaps she could leave that for the next little while to do a bit of open grave robbing. Let us only hope that they were so long and so desiccated...or even so frozen that she would not need to hope she could find a nail file to scrape gore from under her fingernails when they were done.

Tamsin, making use of her eye for dark places, to save on the need for better lighting was soon off into a far corner of the cavern. She had her stubsaber with her, she would use it for illumination if she needed it. But for now, she knelt beside what looked to be an old soldier, their uniform so blackened and burnt it was impossible to say what side they had fought on. She pulled the body back, exposing a crevice with an old net bag inside. It crumbled away, of course, as she tugged on it, but its contents seemed more resilient. "I have some climbing equipment here! Looking like they had plans to scale the walls." Hrm...could there be something to be found in the heights? Possibly. Or perhaps it was only..."Did any of you see where the slug came from? It might be worthwhile to check its nest."

[Errod Zand]

After a long time spent contemplating wandering out into the blizzard never to be heard from again, Errod was prevailed upon to accompany the hoversled instead, riding along in relative silence with his furry cap pulled down tightly over his mane. The fur matches his mustache, though one has a habit of picking up frost that must be periodically swiped away.

"This is where it was living? Curious," is his only commentary, sliding his mittened hands under his armpits and leaning down to inspect one of the corpses, without looking any further. A peremptory toe of his boot flips it over, but apparently that's all the searching he intends to do. "When I die, I hope it's not somewhere cold. I do not wish to be preserved. Ideally, there will be fire; a quick and efficient conversion of matter into energy and dust, an ephemeral flash appearing for a moment and vanishing just as quickly, untraceable and forgotten. Like it never existed to begin with."

[Malik Ren]

The cavern seems frozen, with no companions here except for the dead... dead people, dead slug, little trinkets among the bones pointing at lives long ago extinguished and forgotten.

They are completely alone.

Probably.

[Andro Tain]

Deeper in the tunnel, there is a sound. It is soft, nearly imperceptible, but it draws Andy's attention. With ice caverns being what they are, it isn't uncommon for little bits of debris to shake or melt loose, or the very disturbances that they themself cause to have some adverse effects. She is sure it's nothing, as she limps in that direction, choosing one of the mysterious, unexpected corridors. "I'm going to look this way." She announces, hesitant to raise alarms and bring the group with her on another job that 'should be easy' and 'shouldn't kill any of them'.

Girls got guilt.

But she does nudge something with her boot, and stoops down to pluck a little statue from one of the bodies. What could this have signified? Good luck? If so, she hopes that the luck it brings is of a different variety than that which it brought to its previous owner, because she tucks it away into a pocket.

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin, having taken the time to carry her find back to the sled and leave it secured there, was soon back walking through the cavern. It was hard not to make noise, honestly, with so many ice chunks and so much frost to crunch beneath her boots, but in that odd way that allowed you to identify noise you were making as opposed to noise you were not making, she stopped, just before she would have found her way to another body, her head turning. Was it in the same direction Andro had gone, not that Tamsin had seen her or another, "I heard some rattling, off in this direction." She pointed off that way. Hrm, she could go poke around a bit. She could see further than she had to walk, right?

[Errod Zand]

While the girls get it done, Errod loiters back, ruminating on the inevitability of death and the probable destiny of his own corpse. The thick fur-lined earflaps prevent anything like razor-sharp hearing, even if he had that, and his own disinterest in searching for items that might improve their odds of survival is demonstrated through his half-hearted mime-ery at meaningful scavenging.

Through no fault of his own, his toe catches on something frozen under a layer of ice, the corner of a slicer's toolkit just barely sticking out. "Hm," is the announcement after he regains his balance, and he stoops to start chipping away at the thing, intent on extracting it. He pulls a knife from somewhere and, using the pommel, begins to crack through the shell of frozen water.

[Malik Ren]

Their lights glint strangely off the cavern walls as they continue to follow the corridor -- rock falls and debris piles almost completely obscure the passageway at some points, but with some effort, progress can be made. The ice is pocked with strange little tunnels, nibbled through by some unknown creature, though at least whatever it was that made those little tunnels seems much smaller than a fire breathing slug-dragon. Unless those come in many sizes. Keep one in your pocket, use it for a lighter.

The corpse of some long forgotten rebel soldier is trapped under one of the rockfalls, but lucky for this crew, he was a medic! His frost-rimed medical pack is still visible, marked with faded fed and white insignia. It's never bad to have some extra bacta patches.

Further ahead, the sound starts up again, and this time there's no mistaking it: the scrabble of pebbles falling. Is it just debris? Will the tunnels collapse? Or is there something alive in here?

[Andro Tain]

Andy picks her way carefully down the tunnel, using her datapad for light. How much charge is left on it, anyways? 11 . She frowns. That is disheartening, and she endeavors to find another light source. "Does anyone have some extra... Glow?" The datapad is tucked into her pocket, placing her in darkness once more and leaving her alone with her thoughts while she waits for a light. Tamsin seems to be heading her direction, and Andy calls out again to give her a focal point.

Her thoughts, briefly, turn to the charm: it is meant to signify whatever it needs to. For her? It will forever be a reminder of a time that she did not die, but likely should have, and did not cause the death of any of her compatriots, but likely should have. It is a reminder that she plucked darkness from the ice, and watched that darkness touch another before crumbling to dust. As strange a team as it may be, it is still a team that she finds herself apart of, and she cannot continue to operate as if she is alone and out for herself only.

Or maybe she is putting too much thought into the weird little statue she just took off a dead guy.

She leaves the medical kit for Tamsin, her gaze snapping up. This time, she knows it is not just her own paranoia. "There's something here." She whispers, hoping that the other two are close behind. She withdraws her ax from her belt, though she does not switch on the vibro-blade just yet.

[Tamsin Cas]

As Tamsin moved along the corridor, she could see that Andro had indeed proceeded her, but where the archaeologist might have forged head, Tamsin did not. First, there was the medic to strip of all of their valuables, and that meant taking the pack as well as anything she could find on their person. She knew herself to be a doctor who stuffed her pockets full of useful items. They might have been the same. As she worked, she withdrew her stunsaber, igniting it and leaving it on the ground next to where she was working. Which both made the work easier...and lit her up like a beacon. "Move away from the light, in case something comes after me. It might not see you." She did not sound worried. Perhaps she was too focused on the work at hand. Or perhaps she was simply resigned to her fate.

[Errod Zand]

By now, even Errod Zand of the Ushanka can hear that there's something stirring in the ice, in the lil tunnels of the ice, the lil bitty stirrings of lil evil things, more likely than not. The knife in his hand inverts, switching it into a fighting grip as he rises up, following the light of Tamsin's stunsaebr. "All due respect, doctor, but if something is going to get at you, it'll have to get through me first. Until your weapon does a bit more... weaponing, anyway." One wild eye squints in what might be a wink before they turn towards the source of the sound.

[Tamsin Cas]

As Tamsin liberated the erstwhile and lost medic of their remaining gear, she spoke, her voice...not wavering, but uncertain, as if she was having difficulty processing what she was feeling, "Something...is waiting ahead. Dangerous, but...I can't...I can't point to it. It's...slippery, like something you can only see out of the corner of your eye. A mirage, but it isn't one."

[Malik Ren]

As they continue forward, the path begins to open out a bit, though it's still very dark, underground as they are. The light of the stunsaber catches glints of something ahead that might be... water?

Sure enough, a few steps forward has the path opening into a larger chamber. The path they just arrived from lies to the south, and more cavern paths lead to the east and west. Directly in the large cabin between lies a pool of dark water, and... THINGS MOVING! AAHhhhhh oh wait, they don't seem so bad. Little creatures like a rodent or a lagomorph, with long ears and tails. They appear alarmed and scamper back a safe distance, but there they pause near the water's edge, peering at the humans. And the green human. They probably don't see a lot of this kind of creature!

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ice_scrabbler/Legends

[Andro Tain]

Andro Tain heeds the medic's advice, stepping back to to the shadows, though her gaze tries to penetrate the darkness ahead. Tamsin's description of some danger ahead as 'slippery', however, raises her eyebrows. "Like... A slug...?" She doesn't like that... But it turns out not to be a slug!

"Please tell me we don't have to eat these to survive." The archaeologist says after a time. "I don't think that I could ever forgive myself. Maybe Ren could use a pet, like... A therapy animal or whatever. He seems like a cute and fuzzy type." She wants one.

[Tamsin Cas]

Once Tamsin was sure that she had scavenged every last useful thing from the corpse, she continued ahead, reclaiming the stunsaber from where she had left it on the floor, the place which was quickly becoming its preferred location, given the good doctor's complete inability to wield it with any sort of usefulness, and she continued along the cavern, using the saber as a light to illuminate the expanding cavern and the sparkling pool of water. "The danger is here, in this place. With us, but it isn't these things." Tamsin shook her head, "No, it isn't //only// these things."

[Errod Zand]

"Whatever they are, they'd certainly make good eating if you /want/ to survive, but no, you don't /have/ to eat them," Errod offers reassuringly to Andy when he catches sight of the scrabblers. He strokes his mustache and three days of stubble on his chin.

"I don't know this planet, and ice worlds are unpredictable, but there's two basic options for their place in the local food chain: either these are the apex, or they're not. Given the dragon slug, I'm going to put them in the 'not' column, which leaves two basic options. Either the dragon slug is the only thing higher, or it's not. The logical conclusion you should have now reached is that it's a moot point: whatever is eating these things is either another dragon slug, or... something else."

He shrugs. "I'm just making wild assumptions at this point, though. I don't even know if dragon slugs are carnivorous. They could be."

[Malik Ren]

Everything explodes into motion all at once! AAAH! The cracking of ice, shrieking of ice-scrabblers! REEEK RREEEEEEEKKK REEEEEEK REEEEEEK REEEEEK! The small creatures begin to bolt, splashing carelessly into the pool or away into tunnels as they attempt to escape the thing that has just launched itself into their midst! Which is... a white-furred beast, bi-pedal and slightly smaller than a human, with tiny little horns and a fluffy, fuzzy, juvenile aspect to itself. When a slug's moved out, guaranteed, won't be long before something else moves in to take over the local ice-scrabbler buffet.

One of the ice scrabblers has not been lucky. With all the others departed, it hangs limp and bloody from the clawed hand of the wampa cub. Which looks pleased with itself, as anyone would be, but now, its beady little eyes are studying the OTHER prey here. Those look much bigger. Those look very tasty.

[Andro Tain]

They've lost Andy again. "Of course it isn't these things, they're /adorable/!" She protests, frantically digging through her pockets for anything that could hold a creature - she could bring one back as a pet. She is stooped over, picking out which one she is going to take home, when the small wampa bursts out of the ice! She swears as she stumbles away, her string of obscenities punctuated by swipes with her ax, which connect with nothing. "Sunnuva coldcocked half-shot fraghopping motherkriffer!" She wasn't brought along to fight, she was brought along to find things! "Found th'predator!" She announces. See? This is why they bring her along.

[Tarq Najjic]

Tarq has no special eyes. He is merely human. So he has his stunsaber up, its white light providing illumination as he catches up from where he was being perhaps overly thorough in looting the bodies. He hears the call: ANOTHER predator? What are all these creatures eating?! He puts a little hustle in his step. No slugs in sight. "If we kill it and eat it, /we/ are the predator!" Maybe he is spending too much time with a certain other Knight, or the desperate, selfish animal that is Tarq beneath the absorption with fashion and substances has just become a permanent addition to the man while they are stuck on Hoth.

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin was no fool, and she was not about to get close to those little vermin. No matter how cute they were. Because those beaks looked deadly. Also, no one liked to be swarmed by space rats. And so, perhaps she was lucky that she had a clear vantage as the sense of danger suddenly solidified itself into the sight of a...well, she had no idea what it was. She'd never been to Hoth, and was no naturalist in any case. But it was attacking and that was something to be dealt with, "Get back into the tunnel!" Tamsin, who was still holding her stunsaber in one hand, lifted the other. The force, for a wonder, actually did as she bid it to do, a wave of unseen energy blasting the creature, she hoped, away from the tunnel the needed to return to to make their escape.

[Errod Zand]

"These animals are just that: animals," Errod asserts in a rasp as Andro pulls away from their little clutch of Rens and charges in towards the wampa cub, despite her injuries. "This is their natural food chain, and we've got plenty of slug as it is, /leave it./" Stepping ahead, he marches deliberately towards the thief/archaeologist (same thing, different timelines), his vibrodagger held loosely in one hand while the other reaches out to haul her back like a parent breaking up a fight on the playground.

[Malik Ren]

Malik Ren's instructions might come floating back to mind, here.

"If you encounter wildlife, do not engage." "Do not waste time exploring the caverns beyond those we've already traveled."

But hey, he's busy dealing with lesai withdrawal, he doesn't have to knooooooow, right? He won't be awake for like, another 24 hours, unless he's been saved by the backup supplies of an Eagle level Ren-Scout. In which case everyone is SUPER FIRED. SUPER IN TROUBLE.

Poor wampa cub! It was just living its life, securing some delicious ice scrabblers for breakfast, when what should occur but a terrifying ATTACK out of NOWHERE and then a terrifying ANOTHER ATTACK out of EVEN MORE NOWHERE. All it did was peer! It wails! WAILS! It sounds like RAWRARARARARARARWBLE and because this is a juvenile creature, it does what most juvenile creatures would do: It runs away!

A much deeper, throatier, angrier ROAR follows, and there, barreling out of one of the dark tunnels to the east, comes an enormous version of the same, a huge, fully grown wampa, with long claws and long sharp teeth and a very, very upset-looking attitude. Retreat may be advisable!

[Andro Tain]

"I vote we do what we should have with th'slug." Andy announces, stepping back and away. She's still injured, and that statue weighs heavy in her pocket as a reminder of better decisions which she promised herself would be made in the future. Andy is backing off. "Can we collapse th'tunnel between us and them? Give us time t'get the hell out of here?"

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin was quickly scrambling back into the tunnel they had come out of, her free hand, for now, trying to make sure she did not lose any of the precious supplies she had found. "Go, get back as quick as you can!" She heard more than saw Tarq, as the light played funny tricks when you were both terrified and wobbling a weapon around. "We can try to collapse it behind us!" Well, Tamsin would try, anyway. She had no idea if Tarq would help her.

[Tarq Najjic]

Tarq raises a hand, looks up, and then lowers it again. "Back, back, everyone. Yes- collapse tunnel!" He counts heads: only once Andro Tain and Errod Zand are even with him does he call, "Now!" And he reaches his free hand up and /pulls/ with all his might. Not a lot is immediately happening, but the Force works in mysterious ways, certainly. He just keeps on pulling! Keep - on - pulling! Keep - on - pulling!

[Errod Zand]

Errod latches onto Andro's collar around the time she decides she wants to go home and rethink her life, and so rather than dragging her bodily, he gives her an encouraging tug, there to lean on if she needs it, the gimpy green girl. Then he's off, heading for the tunnel at a power-walk. "Don't show fear, predators respond to fear. But walk FAST." Do both!

As soon as they clear the narrowing mouth of the tunnel, and he hears a faint cracking in the ceiling overhead, the hunter smacks the pommel of his weapon into the icy roof. "Hm." The pommel of his very smol vibro dagger. "Krif." The action is accompanied by a frown and a curse, along with a stare of his wild eyes at the two Force-wielders, waving his free arm wide in a gesture that says 'what do you want? I'm trying here' while he bundles Andro along.

[Andro Tain]

Dragged/helped along by Errod, the scrambling archaeologist can She has her ax, and she's going to use it! It's not like a head massage and good vibrations will do them any good here, Andro Tain is just a person with an ax, and she is going to use it. When they are free of the tunnel, she turns and begins to smash at the ice before wedging the handle into rocks and heaving her weight against it, assisting them in weakening the structure further, and further, and further... "Okay, are we running now?"

[Malik Ren]

The ice and rock of the south tunnel begin to rumble and shake, with rocks and and freezing, snowy debris beginning to fall as Tamsin and then Tarq tug as hard as they can on the walls surrounding! It isn't enough, though with Errod's blows, the tunnel begins to weaken further, with larger and larger chunks of ice and debris beginning to fall... it still isn't quite enough, and the wampa is barreling down upon them quickly, roaring her displeasure at the interference with her offspring. A clawed hand/paw is just reaching in to try to snag an unwary human or Mirialan when at last, Andy's final chop brings the house down, and the paw disappears past a quickly falling wall of rubble. An angry roar voices the creature's frustration on the other side.

Hooray team, we did it!

Except... now there are huge rifts cracking through the ice around them and over head, splitting like gunshots, and the ice, weakened by the tunnels burrowed through it, seems ready to fall at any time. More pebbles fall down. Little bursts of snow fall down. CRACK CRACK goes the ice.

Might be good to run.

[Andro Tain]

Look at them, learning lessons. "I'm out." Andy nods, climbing into the hoversled. "We can come back for th'slug, or you lot can use a lightsaber - or... Or we can just hunt tauntauns." Because she refuses to eat those cute little rodents. She is DTR. Down. To. Run.

[Tamsin Cas]

Tamsin, seeing the tunnel starting to crack and collapse around them, simply turned, hoping she could make it out of the tunnel before Hoth got the drop on her. Literally. She still held tight to the stunsaber, the thought of taking the time to clip it back to her belt being cast aside as 'too much time that could be spent running'. She had more care for her supplies, she which clamped to her side as she ran. because those mattered. And if she ended up like the poor sod who corpse she had desecrated to get them, well, maybe the team could do the same to her.

[Tarq Najjic]

"Yes, running is now." Tarq dashes down this naturally-formed corridor as cracks spread, ice loosens, and rocks fall, and his form is marred only by his need to hold his stunsaber up in front of him with one hand so that he can see. Eventually he sees the hoversled, and when he gets back to the mouth of the corridor, Slug Ground Zero, he looks up to see if the collapse has followed them. "Move the sled," he urges Tain and takes a few more steps into the room, stepping backwards with a hand raised in case he needs to prevent this 'rocks falling' episode from ending in 'someone dies'. Can he catch a falling rock before it crushes another Knight? Let's not test that.

[Errod Zand]

Errod, in the midst of trying to help Andro and perhaps in a bit of a panic, slips right on the ice and flops down flat and nearly stabbing himself with his own knife in the process. Luckily, he's quite a nimble fellow, and he just keeps going, scrabbling along on all fours long enough to maintain his forward momentum until he can claw his way upright against the slippery wall. When the snow settles and he finds himself all in one piece, there's another habitual patting himself down for missing bits, leaks, or any other sort of damage, and he lets out a heavy sigh, shoulders rising and falling rapidly from the exertion and stress of not being crushed to death.

An eye skims towards Tarq. "I am going to submit the assertion that we are not the predators."

[Tarq Najjic]

Tarq Najjic meets Errod's gaze. "Agreed. Do not tell Sebek."

[Malik Ren]

RUN RUN RUN RUN! Mishaps notwithstanding, the crew manages to bolt out of their collapsing tunnel, and into the cavern with the frozen slug. There are gnaw marks in its flesh, they can see that now. Do all of those belong to Sebek? Probably not! Icy dust and the deafening collapse of the tunnel chase them out into the comparatively open chamber, where they're once again alone with just the grinning skulls of those who failed here before them. It does seem guaranteed that no wampas can come at them through that north-south passage... but there are many tunnels, and nothing is completely safe.

All that remains now is to follow Andy's map out and back to the abandoned Rebel base that is now their de facto head quarters... All they have to do is walk back home.

And think about what to tell Malik. But there's plenty of time to polish this story up juuuuust fine.