Log:Knights of Ren: Skipping Stones
The Knights seek their prey on Sivvi. Spoiler Alert: There did not end up being any stones to skip.
OOC Date: May 8, 2021
Location: Sivvi
Participants: Errod Zand, Tamsin Cas as Self/GM, Tarq Najjic, Zyrette as KS-0613, Knights of Ren
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The squelch of boots was the first thing you noticed. The land was not so much land, as it was a fetid soup of soil, and slime, and slithering things which might or might not be something more than just the active imagination. The smell, that was the second thing that you noticed. It wrinkled the nose, and attacked the senses with an insidious creep that even rebreathers and air filtration systems could not fully mask. And it was cold. That was the third thing that you noticed. This was not a nice, comfy, hot and humid bog. It was a cold, icy, and limb-numbing bog. The team had been dropped at what had been deemed a safe distance, the path that Nightfall had cut visible even from the air. Whatever weapons they had employed had burned a swathe of the over and undergrowth in a straight line towards their destination. The temple, such as it was, from this distance, looked to be nothing more than some fallen down mound that had once tried to be something, before the bog had began the slow, insidious battle to return it to its watery embrace.
Tamsin, looking down at her feet, watched the toes of her boots being oozed over in goo, and took a deep breath. That was a mistake, and it was only the fact that she still had her helmet on that masked the sound of the cough and sneeze that made her eyes feel like watering. "This feels almost too easy. Either they were in such a hurry that they did not care who came behind, or they thought no one could find this place. Or...they trust whatever is all around us to watch their backs." Ah well, onward and upward. Tamsin stepped away from the ship and was soon on her way along the charred and rotten trail.
Tamsin Cas says, "Did the Sith of old hold a pathological hatred of dry land, do you think?"
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
Errod issues forth from the Night Buzzard like a creature returning to its den, a pig to its slop, immediately tromping out onto the dank earth and taking in a long sniff through the nostrils. "Hmm. Smell that? The peat and sulfur. The scents of decay," he rasps, bending low to examine the swamp more closely, a finger dragging through the muck and raising it to the level of his eye where he can smear it between fingertips. "Sticky. Rich with organic material. Algal or dead things, most likely. Ample food for predators."
He straightens up, wild eyes staring towards the train that Tamsin heads toward, reorienting his train of thought to the task at hand. "Near as I can tell, they held a deep hatred for most things, up to and including themselves. Not that it requires any great leap of introspection to find reasons to hate oneself, to wish that the 'I' trapped inside our head was some other, different 'I'."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
This day, Tarq still has his helmet on. His gaze sweeps the disgusting mire. It's going to stay on. "Vile. ... alive, once. Alive, maybe still." He trudges along the one and only path inwards. "Tarq Najjic's guess? Ran into complications. Thought not - to tarry." From his voice, it's clear his nose is wrinkled. "Bog had /other/ ideas."
"Sith abominations offend." His left hand disappears up under his cloak. "Temples on nice planets? Surely destroyed with prejudice already. Who - would colonize... /this/?" His hand comes back with a lightsaber hilt, which he taps against his helmet. "Smart Sith hide their works." He tilts his head to the side as he lowers his lightsaber to his side. "Cheer up, Errod. Hideous force field says we are alone. Enjoy group vibe."
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
KS-0613 fell into formation as the troopers lined up and prepared for the march. A quick turn of helmeted head was enough to still the slightest bit of muddy boot fidgeting among the ranks. While she did not lead the small contingent of Troopers under the Knights' command, she had moved a bit higher in the ranks. Not that her promotion had been a happy one. The loss of their former sergeant was felt by all.
Once all were in an orderly formation she held her weapon in a low, relaxed stance. They were ready to fall out at a moment's command. Quiet and disciplined, they waited, no allowance to react to the unpleasant conditions around them.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
There was an eerie quality to the land as the Knights and their troopers moved through the bog. The air was heavy, it buzzed and chittered, with no sign of the source of the sound. Every now and again, it was almost possible to catch the hint of something at the edge of one's perception, but any attempt to look that way revealed nothing but slime and char and decay.
The closer to the remains of the temple the team came, the harder it was to move, as though the land itself was trying to hold them back. Tamsin, for her part, was soon no longer in the lead, as one of her boots caught in what looked to be a sinkhole and she stumbled to a knee. It was the work of no small amount of effort, and an assist from one of the troopers to get her back on her feet. "Ah, well, hatred for all things would certainly explain this place."
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
Errod is no stranger to swamps, bogs, and marshes. "Reminds me of a spot on Felucia when I was hunting Aacklay that had been terrorizing a local village. They barely speak but they have ways of communicating, the locals do, and a different sense of existence if I had to guess. Philosophers say we're all connected, and in a way, that's true; we all share a certain background level of suffering and pain that colors the same background note on every life. But for the Felucians, it seemed a step beyond that. Not a hive mind. I've seen that. More like a fungus, which makes sense when you consider the locale. Everything there is fungal." Annoyingly, he manages to maneuver through the muck without much trouble at all, never getting bogged down in the mire, though it's hardly a sprint.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
The Kuati steps around a sinkhole and makes a long hop across a section of particularly gripping grass and vines. "Fungi with common purpose? Terrible. Mind step," he advises the soldiers. Then he pauses mid-step. He's not stuck to anything, just not moving. He straightens. "Troopers, advance! Move - up." He waves his arm, gesturing for them to spread out. "Watch - for targets. We - are fighting. Just do not know /what/ yet." Then he resumes his own progress.
With a bit of forced casualness, he tells the others, including the most senior stormtrooper: "There is wrongness. Twisted danger. Like feeling air from furnace, yes? Warning to turn around, because beyond, you get burned." He's still walking. "Temple, presumably, but feels - active. Nightfall tripped a trap," he says. "Bet you ten credits they did, Tamsin."
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
KS-0613 could not shake the feeling, as stated by Knight Cas earlier, that this was too easy. Despite her unease she traversed the muck successfully. Still, suspecting some sort of trap, or ambush, the trooper remained alert and searching their gooey surroundings for danger. Of course, the almost eerie monologue of Knight Zand did not help. Above his voice though she heard something from the temple ahead. Whatever awaited them there, it surely wasn't empty. A crooked finger and gesture of gauntlet-ed hand singled for the troopers to lift and ready weapons.
Just as she signaled, so too did Knight Najjic. Obediently they followed his command. KS-0613 jogged forward as swiftly as the sodden ground would allow and spread out from her fellow troopers. Once several paces clear of the others, she slowed and hunkered, taking a slower more cautious pace, riffle at the ready.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Despite the bog's best efforts to thin the herd, it seemed to have won the battle only with Tamsin. But not the war! As the rest of the party made their way back to moderately more stable ground. The team was soon at the entry to the temple. The stone entry had grown rough and jagged, and looked like nothing more than the gigantic maw of some half-buried earthly beast, overgrown by the swamp in the time that it had sat still and silent, open in an eternal wail as it awaited the return of those who had built it. Tamsin, who had, for the most part, managed to put herself back to rights, was soon stomping her feet, trying to shake some of the detritus that still clung to her boots and legs off. Tarq's words brought her head around, the pair working in that natural way that had marked so much of their early escapades, as Tarq reached in one direction, and Tamsin in another, all without a spoken word between them. "Something alive...in there, but...I can't focus. It's not one thing, or many things. It just...is." A sentiment which was only bolstered by the report from KS-0613, and Tamsin looked over to the stormtrooper with what might have been a look of gratitude...if she had had a face to be looking with. Helmets. What could you do? Stumble on into danger, clearly, as Tamsin proceeded ahead with the troopers, ducking down into the mouth of the temple. She did not go far, as she came up short enough to bump back into front of the trooper behind her. "Movement, in the dark."
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
As they near the target of this outing, Errod reaches back for the helmet clipped to the rear of his belt, pulling it free and tugging the plain masked bucket over his frizzy ponytailed head. The front is a just a sheet of metal with two slits for his wild eyes to stare out of, and there is no fancy filter or vocal modifier involved, so his voice becomes tinny and a bit distant.
"Hm," comes the muffled grunt of dissatisfaction as he moves into the dark halls, a gloved hand reaching cautiously over his shoulder to unshackle the chainwhip riding on his back, holding it low without turning on the plasma as he proceeds ahead. "Bodies. They're... shuffling aimlessly through the darkness. Aren't we all?" he adds dryly, and rather than attacking, he just tries to sort of go through them, a phrase which here means 'collides with the very first one he tries to slip around'. There's a metallic rattle as the variety of weapons stored on his person are jangled more roughly than usually intended.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The movement of the Knight, as Errod attempted to move through the hoard of shambling bodies did not go unnoticed. But when it did, it was all or nothing. They turned, as one body, one mind, all shifting so that they were facing Errod, surrounding him, their mouths opening in unison. Always in unison as they began to wail. A mindless, piercing sound that drilled into the ears and raised the hackles on the back. And up close, Errod could see that these were all sentients, of all species, perhaps a dozen and a half of them, all dressed in light armor, all armed, and yet, they drew no weapons. So many, so much sentient life. Why had neither Tamsin or Tarq picked out their minds? They move,d at once, attempting to converge on Errod Zand.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
"Tarq Najjic hears them." With a snap and a hiss, a contained beam of plasma extends from the hilt in his hand, providing an island of red illumination. "What - are /you/?" he inquires of the crawlers in the dark, searching for the answer. He turns his head both ways, seeing little. He just assumes they're crawling, as one does when one cannot see. "Wait, what?!" Who is wailing? "What /special/ hell-" It seems to be coming from ... near Errod, as he sees the gloomy warrior's location from his weapon activating.
"Behold!" Is it Sebek?! No, it's Tarq's dry tones: "Your doom flock. Perfect - for each other." Distracted mildly by his own snark, he only cuts down a few of these mindless creatures. Presumably mindless - he didn't sense them.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
KS-0613 nodded her acknowledgement of Knight Cas' look. One could only assume, through the obscurity of helmets, what the look meant to convey. But as 0613 remained on her feet, she could only assume it was some sort commendation or the like. She continued at her careful forward press, noting the aimless movement of the figures in the front room and the discarded explosive remnants. Something wasn't right. People didn't behave like this. She... din't have time to consider the mystery further. They strange mass of bodies attacked one of the Knights. Training took over, and she dropped to a knee and opened fire.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The wailing that rose from the mass of shambling bodies echoed and reverberated through the space, the sound rolling and billowing in waves as the Knights and their troopers fell into battle. Arms, tipped with clawed (but not taloned, mostly) hands, tug and tore at the Knight's raiment, finding purchase, but his rapier kept them at bay, and they could not overrun him like so many now only semi-sentient bipedal ants. Tarq, had better luck, as he cleaved, saber first into the hoard on his way to aid his fellow Knight, and behind them all, a beacon of discipline, KS-0613 and her troopers worked at picking off the bodies. Between them all, that dozen and a half was almost down to a dozen.
Tamsin, having had time to allow her eyes to adjust, sprinted away from the troopers, trusting in that blind way that one must, when running into a blaster fight, that none of her own people would send a bolt into her back, moved to converge on Errod, to cut him free of the horde, the red of her blade igniting as she called the hilt into her hand.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
When Errod first bumps into one of the... it only seems fair to describe them as people, there's a pregnant moment where he believes against the odds that nothing bad is going to happen. Then the travail of labor as the wail begins and reaches a crescendo around the time they descend on him in their fervid mass, mindlessly flailing and grabbing at him.
None of this is exactly 'normal' and before Errod can react properly, he's hit hard but the force of the blow knocks him back long enough from their reach to regain his senses and the chain-whip sparks to life, laboring back and forth to clear some breathing room. When the others come to his rescue, he takes the opportunity to lash out with more precision, doing some damage in return.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
A few more swings of the lightsaber, and Tarq is next to Errod with a few more corpses on the floor of the Temple-hole-warren-thing. "How could they resist-" Slash-slash. "-your charms?!" he exclaims. "They must not be people ... people. Introverts. Without ... interior - minds." The Kuati is having difficulty making philosophical sense of this, but his cape is dashing and he is killing things with lightsaber flourishes. He is content.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
As KS-0613 and her fellow troopers open fire on the strange mass, 0613 has little time to much else but react. However, between the combat mastery of the three Knights, and the steady fire from the troopers, the last of the attackers seem to fall. Once all ceased to be moving KS-0613 rose and crossed to one of the nearest dead bodies. She had no medical expertise but she looked it over anyway. While curiosity wasn't exactly encouraged among the troopers, she couldn't help but feel knowing more about their foe could only strengthen their offense.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
They might have been overwhelmed by the shambling horde, that was true, but the Knights and their troopers were not without their defenses, and what had been a mass of seething, teeming, and most terribly of all, screaming bodies, was soon, well, just bodies, sprawled and littered around the floor like broken dolls. But these were dolls of a different sort, for, in the dim, and dusty light, they seem to writhe and move even still, though none of the bodies, or parts of bodies, seemed inclined to wish to attack the Knights or their troopers.
Tamsin, as she stepped over a dismembered leg, did not quite find good footing, even in the dark, and she ended up trodding on some poor sod's head, which again caused her to stumble. A picture of grace she was not today. But she looked ahead, "The passage continues on ahead." Onward and upward, to victory! It was the Knight fighting song. (No it wasn't).
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
Ah yes, victory. Errod stands there taking in the noxious air in deep breaths, his shoulders rising and falling as he settles himself down somewhat from the fighting, wild eyes casting about quickly to be sure there's no more of the mindless people ready to scream and then try to kill them before he moves ahead. When no more of them materialize, however, he decides that they must be safe for the moment, if not for long, and sets off in the direction Tamsin indicated. "Come on then, let's get this farce over with," he mutters gruffly, eyes narrowing to slits behind the slits in his helmet as he peers through the gloom. "There's something at the end. A light. Not the good kind." It's not clear what the bad kind of light is to Errod.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
<"Knight Cas,"> The voice female, sounding from behind the full helmet. The Trooper remained transfixed while everyone else moved onward. A booted Foot raised, ready to squish something slithering among the strange bodies. However, a glimmer of wisdom forestalled her. Instead she hailed the medically inclined Knight. <"Knight Cas, please pardon my interruption, but Perhaps you'd like to see this."> She cleared away some of the corpse so the strange. toothy slug was visible.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Those who made it down along the passage, which was covered in some wet foulness became gradually illuminated as they moved, the dark wetness giving way to a phosphorescent covering which spread across the old stones like paint. It was not a long way to go, but perhaps, it should have been, as the chamber was revealed. As with most of the Sith temples they had found, there were few rooms, and this, large as it was, was the central one. There were three passages leading off from the room. The one through which they had come, one to the left which was collapsed, and one to the right. Ahead, was the altar, as such things were considered. But what was upon the altar was nothing at all like what most of them, likely, had seem before. A body was held in stasis there, a female, her skin smooth and untouched by death or decay, her robes a soft gold which glowed with a faint luminescence. She resided within a translucent casing, which glowed as the chamber glowed, and looked as delicate as spun silk. In her hands, she held an orb. But that was not the most remarkable thing, no. What was more remarkable, and perhaps worrying, was the cocoons which were spun off of the one in which she rested. The filaments were all around, trailing like gossamer banners. At one end, the altar, at the other, similar cocoons. But inside of these, were bodies which looked like the ones which they had encountered in the narthex of the temple. But while the female slumbered on her altar, the bodies in the cocoons were writing and moving, as if trying to break free of their confines. There were a dozen of them that could be seen.
Tamsin, though she had begun to make her way down along the passage, turned as she heard the call from KS-0613, and she turned back to return to the room of bodies. There was an odd tilt to her head, as she saw what the trooper was pointing at, and for the moment, she forgot about the passage ahead, "KS-0613, get yourself clear of the bodies, all of you. Check your armor, every inch, make certain that none of you have been compromised. Any who have report, the rest, the rest proceed with Knights Zand and Najjic." As for Tamsin herself, she retrieved a specimen container from her bag, moving to collect a sample or two of the slugs. "I hope I am not seeing what I think I am seeing." That, she said only to herself.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
The walls are covered in some sort of luminescence, and Errod gestures to this as they move along the passage. "Not part Hapan, just imp-hatient," he rasps with an exaggerated near-rhyme.
Any sort of wit dries up as they enter the central chamber, though, and his wild eyes look up and around at the various decorations lining the walls. "Like a spider's web," he mutters gravely, cautiously approaching the cocooned woman in the middle of the room, like a moth drawn to a flame.
One of the slugs has found a home in his clothing, but that's a problem for later.
"See here. The light, it's traveling along these. Like tributaries. Or wiring. They're connected." He fumbles with his thoughts for a moment, a thumb worrying at the handle of his still-drawn weapon. "Obviously they're connected, the strings, but the connection is doing something too. It's more than just tied together."
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
"Mmm. Not - natural." Tarq scratches the front of his helmet as he surveys the pretty lady in a weird glowing altar. "Maybe Sith? But what is- ahhhhhh!" His hand bumps into a slug whose face, such as it is, is nothing but vicious burrowing teeth. "Get - off - my -" With a swift jerk at the slug and some prying, it comes loose, writhing and wriggling in his hand. There are multiple small holes in the metal of his helmet. "Taaaammmmsiiiiin! Do you want to take a sam-ple? Tarq Najjic pulled it off his face." Fire, not ice, is what this place needs. "Do not want to understand, if I even can- we must destroy this place."
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
0613 Withdraws from the corpses as bidden by Knight Cas. She instead moves down the hallways, checking her armor for any worms that have tried to hitch a ride. As she pats herself down she trails a bit behind and follows the others to Cocoon Room. Fortunately she finds none of the strange parasites, so instead steps into the current chamber. Silently she wonders if anyone thought to being a flamer. She brings her weapon to bare, but takes no present action beyond.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
The more the team moved around the room, the more agitated the cocoons became, the eyes of the bodies staring into nothing, but the hands were clawing as if trying to break through the walls of their sacs, prisons, make of them what you will. One of the bodies did manage to break free, dropping down towards the floor like a lead weight.
Not the face! That was, oddly enough, the first thought that came to Tamsin's head, as she heard Tarq's call from where she was finishing up her sample-taking before she headed in the wake of the rest of the team. It was almost enough to make her laugh, a rare thing, and completely not in keeping with what was likely very real, very grave danger. The body did not drop all the way to the floor, but impacted with Tamsin, just as she came into the chamber. Tamsin, who, had eyes, first for the team, only just managed to avoid being felled by the thing, her saber swinging wildly away and cutting a nice score line through the stone beside her. She did manage to escape its clawed hands, but only just. And it was still coming.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
At least this one hadn't screamed. When the writhing body finally works its way free and goes after Tamsin, Errod springs into action, lunging towards it with his chain-whip pointed outwards to stab the thing. It's less of a mortal blow than could have been hoped, though, as the thing keeps chugging, and when he pulls the weapon free for a swing it clatters harmlessly against the wall. "One is well enough but the others could be trouble. Cut the strings and the puppets collapse?"
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Seeing as Tamsin is no longer in a position to collect samples, as a pod person drops on her head, Tarq holds the slug against his lightsaber until its face is gone, then comes at the pod person itself. It's off balance from Errod's attack and the whole 'it was standing on a person' thing, and it appears dead afterwards - though it took extreme bodily destruction to get the job done. "Strings, or puppet master?" Tarq asks, pointing his lightsaber at the woman. "Destroy altar, yes? If not enough, destroy /everything./ Well, do that anyway." He crouches. "Tamsin, are you good to fight?" He stands over her, watching the ceiling, instead of moving to follow his own plan.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
KS-0613 took in the ensuing chaos of the alter chamber. She looked from cocoons to the shimmering threads connecting them to the alter. Nodding as the knights all seem to agree, 0613 gives a signal to the other troopers to open fire on the alter.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
As Tarq finished off the pod person Tamsin was busy scrambling to her feet. Credit to her, she did not manage to either skewer herself, Errod or Tarq and that was a good thing. "Yes, I can fight! We need to destroy everything. There's nothing we want here!" What was not a good thing was the sound, that sound, the wailing sound that began to rise from the pods as KS-0613 opened fire on the altar cocoon. The bodies became more frantic, as though they were responding to the damage to the female's pod, like animals responding to the cries of the leader of the pack. They were trying to rise to her defense. Tamsin, following Errod's command (haha, sucks to be the highest ranking Knight, amiright?) moved to join the attack on the altar. She slashed as Errod has suggesting, trying to sever the filaments leading from the altar to the pods.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
It's been a long day and whatever animates these things really hurt whenever it smacked Errod earlier, so when he turns on the altar to enact his own theory, it's with less than the usual vigor. The chain-whip lashes out smartly once, glancing off the stone(?) surface and rebounding awkwardly in his hand, nearly causing him to drop the thing.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Tarq doesn't really differentiate between the threads and the 'queen' at their center. On his way to the altar, he runs the saber through these strangely-resistant organic fibers. Once he reaches it, though, he is thrusting his saber in as far as he can, trying to find purchase. It proves not to break easily, translucence notwithstanding, and he keeps cutting, trying to make the material melt, if nothing else.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
Trooper KS-0613 tried to let nothing distract her. She continued to concentrate fire on the alter, despite the ensuing combat around them. Destroy the alter destroy the alter. It was her silent mantra as she followed the commandments of her training. Her only other concern is not hitting any of the Knights or fellow Troopers as they all focus on this one target.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
As a unit, the Knights and their troopers opened fire, and set to work cutting and stashing at the central cocoon, that was to the good. What was not to the good, was the sound of another body falling to the floor. This time, it did not impact anyone, but it fell to ground not far from where Errod was standing. It needed barely a moment to clamber to its feet, before it would be heading in his direction. Second verse, same as the first. Now, they faced a choice. Continue to attack the altar, and risk the descent of more foes, or turn aside and eliminate the falling threat? Two paths laid before them...
Tamsin, whose single-minded focus was on doing as she had been ordered to do (that always made this crazy business make more sense) continued to slash away at the filaments, hoping against hope that it would actually DO something.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
"And there it is," Errod groans with the longsuffering patience of a toddler as another of the shambling figures to the ground. This time he is ahead of them though, and before it can beset any of the Knights or their complement of troopers, he is there. Maybe he's having a second wind, maybe this one is just slower, but either way there are two sharp cracks as the rigid blade of his weapon impacts against it, though worryingly it's still upright afterwards. "Keep on the altar, I'll slow it down. Or that should slow it down. I don't know how these work." This is somehow his fault for mentioning a connected fungal tribespeople on the way in here, he just knows it.
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
Tarq is not hacking and slashing randomly. He seems intent on the idea that he can reach further in and disturb whatever that central mastermind is if he just gets the lightsaber in far enough, so he holds his saber's hilt almost touching the material of this aquarium-cocoon. Eventually enough material steams, turning to a hissing liquid that reforms into a kind of slag before it hits the floor, that the container is breached, with whatever fluid lies within spilling out. As he stares at his work, holding the saber in place to widen the breach, he starts in surprise. "Her eyes just opened!" They are white. "Cannot sense life-" Which has been a recurring theme, so that doesn't tell us much.
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
0613 watched as Knight Najjic reached the central container. Assuming the work to be near done and the alter destroyed, the Trooper focused her fire elsewhere. She signaled to the Troopers and they turned focus once more on the pod people. However, no sooner had their bolts made contact than Tarq was speaking again. 0613 slowly turned around, feeling a sense of dread that threatened to overwhelm her training.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
There was a fierceness in Tamsin, as she caught Errod's movements out of the corner of her eye, and she twisted, away from the altar, trusting Tarq to do what needed to be done, as she always did, allowing her to push forward to Errod's defense. Protect the Knights, that was her main, and sometimes sole purpose. Her blade joined his, supported by the precise blaster fire of the troopers (take that, haters!) and the body was soon falling to the ground. Try to avoid any slugs.
In other news. As Tarq broke open the cocoon, aided by the cutting of lifelines that Tamsin had abandoned when she went to Errod' aid, the other cocoons stopped, still, and fell dormant. The woman now staring, not at Tarq but past him, through him, did not move. "Kill her!" That's right, Tamsin. Channel your Inner Sebek! You could die twice, these pod people had taught them that.
[ Errod Zand (EZ)]
A ridiculous amount of damage later, the pod person is dead, or at least immobile, which is the most anyone can hope for in this scenario. Errod stands over the body suspiciously, prodding it with the toe of his boot, just to be sure, and when Tarq calls out his head snaps over his shoulder followed shortly by the rest of his body. "Cut the /cords/," he words breathlessly, but makes no movement himself to do so. He stands immobile, then wonders aloud, "How long have they been here? What is their existence like? Are they so different from us? Would we have done differently if intruders broke in to loot and kill?"
[ Tarq Najjic (T)]
This place was already fetid, and with the smelly ichor flowing freely from the ruptured cocoon, the floor is somehow becoming even more disgusting. Tarq cuts more sections out, increasing the flow, until the current brings the woman within within reach. He jabs his blade back into the stream to stab through the woman's chest, and then wiggles it up to reach her head. Then the white orb that was when her hands falls from her grasp, rolling out of the stream at Tarq's feet.
He slices it into halves, and the room goes dark, all the bioluminescence and glowing liquid fading at once. He slices it into a few smaller pieces, just to be sure, and kicks one away from the others. Then he holds up the lightsaber for light. "Think we are done here." One more destroyed artifact of creepy unnatural life extension and zombie-fication. You're welcome, galaxy!
[ Zyrette (Zee)]
0613 watched as the last of these strange reanimated bodies fell. As Knight Cas went into a defensive stance by Knight Zand, 0613 signaled to the Troopers, the formed a defensive ring. No more of the reanimated beings wiggled out of their pods however. None the less, the Trooped sent a few more bolts into still bodies. Better to be sure. Only at Knight Tajjic's observation did she finally lower her riffle. She motioned to the other Troopers to fall back into formation.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
And so the Knights and their troopers end as they began. On a dead world. A bog world. Always a bog world. Damnable Sith.
