Log:Shadows of Kashyyyk

Shadows of Kashyyyk

OOC Date: August 3, 2017
Location: Kashyyyk
Participants: Gamble as GM, Stavros, Adhar Gann, Wodi Corcer, Mujiji, Toz, R5-DT, Tarion Tavers, Kasia Ashkuri

The Black Forest. Wookiee legend tells that this ancient wood, made up of giant trees surviving from the dawn of time, is haunted by evil spirits who wish to do harm to those unwitting souls that dare step into the shadow of their realm. Stories abound within Rwookrrorro City of poor wookiees, young and old, who have made the mistake of venturing into this region of the planet to seek glory or to disprove the old legends.

Whatever the truth may be regarding the Black Forest, one can certainly see why it has gotten the reputation it has, as the region comes into view of the forward view port of the shuttle tasked with delivering the hunters to the site so that they may begin their hunt. The canopy of the tree tops is almost a sickly sort of gray color, grown so close that no sunlight is able to make it through the thick tangle of branches and enormous leaves that twine together far above the ground. The ancient trunks of the gargantuan trees are almost black, seeming twisted unnaturally as they climb stubbornly ever higher. The shuttle becomes steadily smaller the closer the vessel draws to the haunted wood, and soon enough the enormity of the wood is realized as the vessel is able to glide between the tree trunks, zipping left and right in a sickening fashion.

The Landing Site is a small clearing, a field of overgrown grass, easily reaching mid-thigh to a human. Thorns and brambles make the going difficult right off of the bat, while the field ends around fifty hards to the north, giving way to the blackness of shadow that reside beneath the trees. The hunters one and all are ushered off of the shuttle in a group, no rules having been given to dissuade teams or solo hunts, and the pilot and crew seeming very eager to be away from this place.

Why are Kasia and Tarion here? Well, initially it was to deliver something, but then they caught wind of this hunt, whatever it is, and since it seems like a bad idea, it's probable at least 50% of this duo wanted to go, and convinced the other half to go as well. Thankfully Kasia is decked out in her not so customary attire of trousers, and heavy boots, with a blaster on her hip and some techy looking gloves on her hands, though whatever they are, they don't appear to be active right now. "This is a bad idea," she tells Tarion. "Hex is going to be so sad he decided to stay home."

"Damn Wookiees and their superstitions," Tarion complains, leading the way ahead of Kasia, his armor zipped tight against invading insects and perhaps the amorous advances of the local residents, who knows what Wookiee ladies are into. The bounty hunter's rifle is slung on his shoulder, that customized G8 he's always lugging. "Damn Wookiees and their silly claws and fangs." Already, a big bug has landed on his cheek, and a loud smack rings out as he delivers quick and sudden- "Damn Wookiees and their /fast/ insects," he whines, trumping ahead. "It's a bad idea but if there's a paycheck at the end of it, we'll be alright. Come on."

And so here we are. In a shuttle. In the forest. The dark, dark forest where the Wookiees don't show their furry faces. And here Adhar thought there would be money involved; perhaps, in the form of a posthumous life insurance payout. Clad in battle armor, expecting that it would be used in a place called the /CURSED FOREST/, Adhar suddnely wishes he knew how to use a blaster rifle. Sidearms will have to do.

Until they don't. Should have stuck around the hospital.

Okay, if everyone is asking why they are here, it's really a mystery why Kadi is here. I mean, come on, she's not a hunter! Heck, lucky if she even has ammo for her gun, all things considered. But somehow she's managed to get here, and sheer curiosity has her investigating the hunt. "Ax is totally going to kill me," she says glumly, as she puts up the hood to her armor, offering some protection from bugs. "If I survive that is."

Stavros takes a few deep breaths of the forest air before his visor slips down, sealing him into his vintage armor. He has a sniper rifle with its separate bipod hanging over one shoulder, clasps holding it together. He holds a blaster carbine vertically by its grip, leaning it back against his shoulder.

He was near quite a few people he knows in the shuttle, but there's something he doesn't know. He asks Kasia quietly, the vocoder of his suit like an angrily buzzing insect, "So do these bad mama-jammas come to _us_, or...?" Being experienced at killing things, but he is not an outdoorsman.

The shuttle was not made for ones as small as Mujiji, but she is used to this. The Kushiban has spent the shuttle ride tucked beneath the seats, eyeing the footwear of the hunters she is to be working (i.e. competing) with. A swift nip to the achilles could knock a few out of commission right then and there - but no, no. As the shuttle settles to the landing pad and the others filter out, Moo settles in with them, trotting amiably down the ramp, ears perked, nose twitching. She eyes the loud-mouthed one complaining: Tarion. She was almost paid to off him, once upon a time - had she been able to put a name to the face, she would be regretting the loss of that venture around now. Instead, the fluffy, adorable creature rolls her eyes and settles into the shuttle's shadow, large, grey eyes flicking back and forth through the trees.

The entire ride on the shuttle, a purple colored Twi'lek had been seated near the rear of the vessel, fussing angrily with a safari hat. No matter how he turned the hat, he just could not seem to make the thing fit correctly. Finally tugging it down onto his head as best he can, which is still crookedly perched atop a lekku, Toz grumbles, "I am going to make this damn thing work." Other than that hat, there is nothing overly special about the fellow. He is wearing a set of field gear, complete with scarred up boots and two blaster pistols strapped to either thigh.

Toz rises and walks out with all of the rest, placing his hands on his hips and gazing at the treeline with some level of poorly contained dread masked as bravado. "Well... that place looks cozy as hell," he says to no one in particular.

"So what're we doing here?" Wodi asks, hands reaching into his pockets. He looks over to Adhar, brows raising. "Hunting Wookiees, right? Best course is to just land the ship right on top of them." He claps his hands together. "Squish."

As the hunt is to be held within the Dark Forest and that forest is reached on the north side of the field the hunters are currently in, that is naturally the course that they will have to move in. Whether separate or alone, the tree trunks steadily draw nearer until the blackness from the tightly webbed canopy above plunges the group into darkness. Lights from armor, weapon mounted lights, or flashlights are a necessity unless the hunter can naturally see in the dark, causing the bobbing glow of lights to dance against the scarred and twisted tree trunks. Huge insects zip by overhead, all hungry for the flesh or blood of the newcomers to this area of forest that so rarely has fresh bodies... visitors happen by.

"I have no idea if there's going to be a paycheck out of it, but maybe," Kasia replies to Tarion, glancing up at Stavros next. "I'm not sure, honestly, but we can have a look aro--" SLAP. She tries to squish a bug on her arm, then immediately rolls down the sleeves of her jacket to try and cover up as much skin as possible. She's not as armored as others here, which means she's way more likely to get eaten alive. Ugh. Bugs. She spies Kadi, another familiar face, and gives her a grin. "Hex won't kill me, he'll just be upset he didn't get to come, too. There's probably some mold, or fungus he'd want to eat here." A pause. "Then he'd get sick or something, and I'd have to deal with it. It's best he's not here."

Seeing little in the dense forest ahead, Tarion leads on with surprising alacrity. "Come on, Kasia," he repeats, as he apparently considers himself her partner in this enterprise.

"Ugh, so much for darksight optics," Adhar mutters through his helmet's vox-grille; the forest seems to swallow all light that falls into it, such that the giant insects overhead are as yet simple outlines. "I can't see a damned thing." He smacks the side of his helmet sharply with one hand, the other resting on the grip of the smaller of the blasters on his belt. "Anyone see anything out there?"

Kadi sticks with the group, being unable to see. She drifts towards Kasia just out of enlightened self interest. She is at least somewhat armored, and the hood helps. For the moment, the bugs seem to be somewhat avoiding her. She hopes. "I am not sure why I am here," she confides to the group at large. "Curiosity mostly." Paycheque? Nah, it's all about the experience. "When Ax and I visited this place, we didn't come down to the ground level, so this is something new to see."

Stavros can't see a thing in the pitch black. Stavros-with-armor can, fortunately, and he picks each step carefully, slower than Tarion. He's not sure what he's looking out for, exactly, besides spikes, fangs, claws, and stingers - but as he moves forward, he shifts sideways, eyes on the ground. Then he drops to one knee for a moment, before rising back up. "There was some kind of road-" Wait, this is a forest. They don't have roads. What's it called- "-a path, whatever, here. Ground'll be sturdier, right?" He knows what he sees - the implications, that's different. "I'm taking it, anyway." Artificial beats natural anyway. "No more sinkholes," he mutters in Kasia's and Tarion's direction. "Head towards my voice, Adhar." Nightvision for the win.

Kushiban have those wide, mammalian eyes - surely Mujiji will be at some sort of advantage in this environment, right? Wrong, you racist: the rabbit people of Kushibah are intelligent, civilized sentients, no matter what the opinion of this lost daughter may be (something other than 'civilized' most likely comes to mind), so Moo sees about as well as the next squirrel. She isn't so bothered by the insects, though - she is, quite literally, flying beneath their radar and that thick fur has to be good for something. A familiar voice draws large ears toward Adhar, and she squints at him through the darkness, sizing up his viability as a partner in this since that damn Dug would rather - no, y'know what? It's fine. Moo has /got/ this - but Addy's inability to get his helmet working deters her. She's oppurtunistic, and some other dude found a road/path. Mujiji trots, tiny, quadrapedal strides falling into step behind everyone else's larger ones, following the sounds of a hopeful path - a path probably made by something big and hungry that will pick off the larger, easier targets first. She grins an evil rabbit grin.

Toz seems pretty content to just follow along with the rest of the group. Or maybe he just seems quite intent on not being left behind in this haunted place. His lekku curl closer to his chest and he hustles along, every step of the way insuring that Tarion is more or less in front of him. He has already drawn one of his blaster pistols, and he squints in the darkness, peering around for any sight of a Rancor or other beast ready to eat him. "Ouch!" he yelps, slapping his cheek hard enough to send a ringing loud noise through the relative silence, naturally what you want when there are evil spirits and monsters somewhere close.

"You could just turn the ship lights on, you know? Probably be pretty helpful. Like a beacon. So they can inevitably run away from whatever's just eaten the fattest of them." He looks over to Adhar and says, "Speaking of which, you're looking a little thicker these days. Good on ya. You should walk in front." Wodi gestures for Addy to start walking.

R5-DT wheels on down towards Addy and Wodi, "click ee beep boop ee boop too boop ee." His dome spins around as he looks at the different places and people in the area before he makes his way towards Addy, "click beep beep beep click click click ee ee?"

As the group moves toward Stavros' uncovered path, it does seem that is indeed the case. The path, or what was once a path seems quite wide, certainly wide enough for a land vehicle to have moved along this overgrown route. The careful examination would even reveal indentions in the ground that were almost certainly made by the passage of heavy tracks pressing into the dirt. Through the passage of time, the forest has steadily been overtaking the path, and now it is really only discernible by the shorter undergrowth compared with the rest of the dark forest floor. The path stretches back in the direction of the clearing, and then off in a northwestern course, deeper into the forest.

Kasia moves along with Tarion, or rather, slightly behind him, because a lady needs her meatshields. She seems happy to have Kadi there as well, nodding in agreement. "That is mostly why I'm here, too, curiosity. Also he wanted to see if there was a profit to be made from it, and I didn't want to let him go off and get killed on his own," she angles her head toward Tarion for a moment. It's that motion that brings Toz into her view, and she smiles at him as well. "I see you're dressed for this hunt." Stavros speaks, and she pauses to listen. "Tarion, wait, Stavros found a path." Just in case he's gotten too far ahead, it's spoken over their coms too. They step onto the path, and she freezes for a few moments, certainly long enough for others to take note. Her brows furrow and she looks around, an uneasy expression writ plainly across her face. "We need to be careful, there's something here. I can... can anyone else hear that?"

Tarion heard something about a path, and started stumbling toward Stavros, his visor showing him the surroundings but he's not great at reading the natural signs. "Kasia, help me look, we have to find the beast and mount it atop the hangar wall. It's gonna be effin legit, and we can charge admission to look at it," he theorizes, "if no one pays us for it." He's following the path, pulling his rifle into his hands just to be ready. "I heard it too," he confirms to Kasia. "No clue what it is."

"Oh, good," Adhar mutters, still smacking at his helmet. "Audio rig's acting up now. Suns below! Hope we don't get into a fight anytime soon." A beat. "Hey, who'd be down here? This our big game hunter gone ahead?"

Kadi smiles. "Hey," she says to Toz, still not really seeing much of anything, unless through someone else's armor light. But she can hear, and in that moment when Kasia frowns, Kadi listens as well. "Wing beats I think," she says, her gaze going up to the inky blackness above. "Reminds me kind of like Adder's flight, though - not exactly." She frowns a bit, glancing at Adhar and then to the rest, just as one of the bugs decides to land on her arm, eliciting a squeak and a slap shove of the thing. "Get off," she mutters in a very not happy tone.

The forest is making noises. Big surprise; it's a forest! Stavros the city-boy can't disentangle one sound from another. What's dangerous? What's not? He doesn't know. At Kasia's warning and Tarion's confirmation, he stretches his shoulders. Then his gaze flits to Kasia, as though he were a startled prey animal who _did_ hear something- and his carbine is up against his shoulder immediately. Wings, Kadi says. Wings? He sweeps the upper canopy with the gun, watching for movement.

Mujiji will never admit it, but she is, pretty much any way you look at it: prey. Her eyesight may not be the most in tune with the environment, but those big, floppy ears are good for catching the encroaching modulations of unwanted, hungry company. Crouching instinctively lower, the Kushiban's gaze rolls upwards to follow the vague disturbance she catches above them, and one paw drifts from the ground to seek the reassuring weight of her small blaster as Kasia points it out and the others agree. "Aye." The Kushiban grumbles in answer, scuttling a foot or so backwards to tuck into the thicker brush beside the path. "Of course it sounds like bloody wings..." Images of hawk-like monsters swoop through her mind and Moo's scowl deepens.

Toz offers a nod and smile toward Kasia, his crooked safari hat bobbing and falling off of his head in the process and falling onto the ground. "Damnit," he grouses as he bends full over to pick it up. He stills as he hears something as well, rising slowly, eyes going skyward as Kadi makes mention of wings. "Man... I guess it is a good thing that we have this little kushiban with us. Maybe if it is a bird we can just let it have her..." he muses thoughtfully before his eyes widen and he says, "Uhh... no offense."

Stavros sweeps his arms upward bringing his BlasTech EE-3 boomstick up to an aimed and readied position!

"I don't hear anything. You guys are losing it," Wodi remarks, wandering after the group. He's ready to bolt at the first sign of...well anything, really. "Oh, is it guns time?" he asks, hearing weapons being brought to out. He slips his Defender out of his holster, flicking the safety off of the long, black handgun and waving it around.

R5-DT turns his dome to look at Wodi, "I don't hear anything either." The dome swivels around a bit as he spots everybody readying weapons, "But something must be going on."

The general chatter from those with rather good hearing serves enough of a purpose to get most of the group's attention turned skyward. It was likely inevitable that a group of small(for this type of forest) organics would draw hungry attention, and that is evident when with an otherworldly screech a huge winged monster comes diving out of the sky toward Tarion. By appearance, it almost looks like an earth bat, only its wingspan is around four times the length of a man, while from head to foot it is two times that height. It dives with an open mouth, fangs gleaming in the light from the flashlights turned upward, seeking to bite and lift Tarion from the ground, though Tarion's reflexes are surely fast enough to evade the beast.

Kasia takes a step back as everyone begins to arm themselves, or at least bring their weapons up to shoot. Though she's worried, there is a moment of amusement at Toz's expense, or at least his hat as it goes tumbling off of his lekku'd head. That moment is short-lived however, as the winged creature(s) appear, which makes her duck down into a slight crouch, and press something on her gloves so they kick to life. She's not outright attacking, but she is ready to defend herself should something try to grab her. Or bite her. Or get too close.

Kasia Ashkuri raises her fists, ready to fight, the hum of electricity, followed by light blue sparking around her fists signify that her gloves aren't quite typical.

The bounty hunter dodges the incoming bat, shooting wildly after it. "SHOOT IT, the beast!" he shrieks, unleashing fire. Tarion the bounty hunter that is

"Beast? Where?" The damn helmet is still giving him trouble - because /that/ is how things go for him. The visor still snaps with static, keeping him from actually seeing what's going on just yet. Hilarity.

Kadi does have a blaster, but she's a few moments behind everyone else in drawing it. And she's not aiming it at anything except the ground at the moment. "What is it?" she asks, as she stares at the black sky trying to see signs of something. To no avail.

Stavros may not have heard anything, but he's looking right at the giant bat-monster when it descends from the canopy straight at Tarion. Once the bounty hunter is (a little bit less) danger-close, he opens fire, staring down the top of the gun. His first shot goes wide, and with an adjustment, his second shot hits- solid, but not solid enough to take him down. He glances around for a brief moment- where there's one giant-bat, there might be more.

"NOPE." Mujiji yelps, popping abruptly above the grass, tiny blaster held tightly in both paws. She aims, lining up a shot that would perfectly splatter bat brain everywhere; the blaster clicks uselessly. "Oh, you've got to be kriffin' kidding me." She stuffs her blaster back into her belt, yanks her knife free, and with an other-worldly screech, runs forward. It flies, she's small, and her gun don't work - she follows the only logical course of action, which happens to be running up Tarion's leg like he's a tree and using his height to launch herself at the beast, knife clutched in both paws. She sinks her vibrodagger into furry flesh at it's back, between the shoulders, and it's in this fashion that Mujiji rides the thing into the ground. Kushiban and bat crash to the path in a tangle of fur and she jumps free, white paws stained red with her dagger clutched tight. "There's no way I can carry this thing." She growls at the giant bat as it bleeds and, presumably, flails dangerously.

Toz is busy fussing with his damn hat, and keeping an eye on Mujiji, who he just said he would offer up as bait for whatever is flapping around up there. As such, there is no way the Twi'lek is getting a shot off at the diving monster, and he can only crouch... heroically... and cover his head as blasters start shooting at the screeching thing. He stands quickly, once the bat-thing is on the ground and he moves to quickly step forward, closing one eye and aiming his blaster at the bleeding, thrashing thing as he says, "Guess that's your loss and my gain!"

"Alright, well; good luck guys," Wodi says, turning around and heading back in the direction of the ship as people start shooting and giant bat monsters start screeching. His blaster is still drawn, but he's not planning on using it anytime soon.

R5-DT spins his dome towards the bat things and focuses his optical sensor on it before he warbles a bit, "Yeah this is going to end great." He turns a bit to look at Addy, "Thought we were flying support not rollin around on the ground..."

Tarion did yell to shoot the thing, and he still appears to be serious about it, unleashing hell and blasting it in the throat. "Well. That one's dead, we can mount that," he announces, looking to Kasia for approval. "Let's keep moving."

"Wodi." Adhar turns to look at the departing man, visor now clearing sufficiently that the giant nerd can be seen going the opposite way. "That suit makes your ass look big. Great big target to get bit." Meanwhile, Tarion has shot the thing in the head behind him, the blast sending sparks and a flash of crimson light up across the trees and undergrowth behind him. "Come on back with us and save yourself."

Kadi didn't have to fire, good. Well, good for her party, no doubt. She breathes a little easier, peeking up, and seeing mostly nothing, but the blaster fire does provide a little illumination. "Ugly," is her pronunciation on the bat thing. "And I am pretty sure that anything around here that didn't know we were here - it does now."

The bat-monster goes down, leaving Stavros aiming at- Tarion. Lowering the barrel quickly, he dashes ahead a bit to get a closer look. "That's worse than what grows in the sewage pits," he opines. Then he continues forward, gun out, flicking left and right to cover behind the nearest trees as whatever is hidden behind them is revealed.

"Oh bite me, Twi'lek." Mujiji snarls at Toz over the dying bat. She isn't being offered up to any beast, and certainly isn't losing that reward to purp over there. Wodi, sauntering away, earns her attention. "HOI, YOU! CARRY THIS AND I GIVE YOU HA-" BLAM. She rolls her dagger in her paw, roughly scrubbing at a smidge of blood across her forehead, a move which only leaves more bat juice on her face, and stares at the obliterated bat creature. She spits, angrily, to the side and glares back at Toz again. "Your hat is dumb." She informs him, turning with a huff - tail held high as she marches on the path. There's got to be more of them... Or whatever eats them.

"You jerk!" Toz rumbles as Tarion zips in front of him and steals the kill that he himself was about to steal from the rabbit! He reaches out and shoves Tarion in the shoulder. It is about to come to more serious fisticuffs, when Mujiji makes the gravest of insults and Toz's mouth drops open in horror. His hand reaches up to self consciously tug at his hat, and then he too is attempting to storm on down the path... but he has to try and walk faster than Mujiji, so it looks rather silly.

"Normally I'd have to pay for it, so win-win!" Wodi shouts back to Adhar, thumb tapping the grip of his blaster. "Alright, so the ship was kinda...this way, probably," he remarks, pointing in the direction of the ship...probably. And so that way he wanders. "This job freakin' sucks," he murmurs to himself.

As Mujiji and Toz stomp off in a walk-off race, and presuming the rest of the group follows along behind them, it is actually not seeming as though anything has heard the group's blaster fire... or at least they are not coming out to eat them yet. There are screeches and roars off in the distance, but hardly anything that seems to forewarn of impending doom. The longer the group marches, the more it seems that there simply is nothing out here that will beat that bat.

Just when it is seeming as though the group would be better off to look elsewhere, a form rises in the distance. It is odd, and difficult to place at first. It is covered in greenery as the rest of the wood, but it's shape does not seem natural... quite the opposite the sharp angles and placement of the mounds seems as though it is man made. The closer the group gets, it is evident that it is exactly the case. Buildings had been built here, for whatever reason, and they like the path the group follows are slowly being retaken by the forest surrounding them. Soon enough, the group will realize that they are on the perimeter of a giant compound. A fence had once encircled the area, and huge sections of it have fallen, such is the case in the area the group now stands. What were once huge cages can be seen dotting the inner area of the compound here and there, stretched between the crumbling buildings. The largest of the buildings seems to be directly before the group.

Sadly Kasia wasn't so far or low enough to avoid bat goo, which splatters her jacket. Ugh. That's probably going to stain. She's going to need a bigger clothing budget. The things is dead though, much to her relief, and surprise as she shoots a grateful look Tarion's way. Onward they go, down the path, and again her brows furrow as they go on, in fact, the further they go, the more tightly knit her brows are going to become. If this carries on, her face might get stuck that way. "Be ready to shoot more things," she states to no one in particular, pausing as they reach the edge of the settlement, or compound, or whatever it was. "Hey, do you see--" She glances over at Kadi, and gestures off toward something, but she doesn't finish her sentence, instead she shoots another uncertain look around, appearing as though she expects something else to leap out at any moment.

"Back off, Tick Tock!" Tarion yells back, shoving the Twi'lek roughly away from him. He looks like he's about to go after the purple man, but then Mujiji intervenes with an insult and remedies the situation. The hunter hauls the bat onto his back, draping the wings around his shoulders and shoving a thin strand of wire through the membranes of each near the bony protrusions and wearing the beast like a cape. He's basically turned himself into bait for the actual creatures out here. "Come on, Kasia," he enthuses brightly, smiling through the blood smeared on his face, gathering in his dimples. He's oblivious. "Wait, what are you looking at?"

"Hey, you got a jetpack out of it, so shut your trap." Adhar shakes his head, Mr. Jomon Combat Armor 2017, and jerks a thumb over his shoulder. "Come on, Wodi, time for heroics. Plus you'll look prettier than all of us. Also the shuttle left. Let's go, gorgeous!"

Into the jungle then, and down the road, and then...buildings? Vast buildings. Overgrown, begging for their doors to be kicked open and treasures to be looked. Good. This, he can do. Or at least smuggle things out to collectors. Belongs in a museum? No, my friend, it belongs in somebody's closet. Somebody rich. Somebody with more money than sense.

As he walks into the vicinity of the complex, he hopes against hope that he will have cause to meet that somebody after today.

Kadi stares, as well as she can. Blink. Blink. Probably looks a bit like an owl. At Kasia's words, she stares again, in that direction. "It's - something, I think, yeah." A glance at Kasia. "If you think it's a door, I think it might be? Or you know, it's just a trap and some nasty animal is using it to eat us. I wouldn't put it past them, here on this planet." She doesn't reholster her ion blaster, keeping it in hand, just in case.

"What are you guys talking about?" Stavros asks, the suit vocoder doing nothing to mask his puzzlement. "Where are you looking?" Stavros is in the front, having made it past Tarion and Kasia while they were back with the carcass. When Kasia is looking about in all directions, the Zeltron freezes, though without looking back. "Come on. Tell me somebody's got eyes-on. ... a door?" He is suspicious of everything at this point. "I mean, we can just blow it apart from here and check, right?" Still, he doesn't move. He doesn't see squat.

Oh yeah, big man racing the tiny quadraped. Mujiji glares vibrodaggers at the Twi'lek, the cogs of her brain working faster than her short, desperate strides; she needs at least one of these fools, and the Kushiban finds herself cursing her companion's absence again. They continue forward, and she is almost at a full run by the time her paws dig, hesitating at the edge of the compound. "I hate this." She decides, grimacing at the empty cages, the ruined buildings, the forest-encrusted ruins... Nope. But, what's this now about a door? "Of course there's a door, there are buildings." Grump, grump, grump - but she wouldn't mind a look around, if she can't carry a dead thing back, maybe some poor sod left a family heirloom behind when whatever used to live in the cages ate them. She trots in the direction everyone seems to be focusing - doorward, if you will. Never back.

Toz has been walking, trying to stay ahead of that damn mouthy ass rabbit. Practically speed walking, the purple Twi'lek slows to a halt between Kadi and Kasia, his own brow furrowing as he looks from them toward the building where he *thinks* they might be looking. "Well... if you think it is a door... someone go open it. It has to be safer in there than out here, right?" he questions thoughtfully. Turning a glare down on Mujiji, Toz says with a mean grin, "I would tell you to go open the door, but you probably can't even reach the knob!"

After wandering around in the jungle for a while, Wodi ends up walking right into the compound just a few moments behind the rest of the group, "This...is not the ship." Noticing the others, he runs a hand down his face, groaning all the while.

R5-DT twirls his dome to look at Wodi, "Nope not the ship. Glad you aren't dead though would hate to do your job too."

When Kasia and Kadi point out the door, and Tarion foolishly leads the way forward, there is indeed a door behind the hanging vines and brambles that seek to bring the building back down to the ground. It takes some doing, but the door has been weakened by time and weather, and with a hard enough shove, it will swing inward. As the group moves inside, it is clear that this was some sort of processing center. Rows of stalls line the walls with dry rotted hoses hanging from the ceiling, drains litter the floor here and there.

As the group moves on through the building they will find a room filled with empty cages, several of which have their doors torn and hanging crookedly on their hinges, and then finally what appears to have been a control room. Ancient computer terminals covered in dust and holo monitors litter the room, some turned over, and almost all turned off.

Kasia is among the first to go in, not THE first, she's not that crazy. She steps to the side of the door and eyes the cages, frowning and glancing around at the others as they come in, too. "I wonder if this was one of the places where they kept wookiee slaves after they were captured? Before being sent on to the mines, or... wherever else they might've been sent to."

Tarion /is/ the first one through the door, because he is that crazy. The bounty hunter goes storming through the door, ready to blast something, but instead there are only old computer consoles. Frowning, he makes his way over to them quickly, pulling an old slaver's prod off the keyboard and starting to push buttons, ALL OF THEM. "One of them has to work," he mutters, like a kid in an elevator.

As the computer terminals hum to life, the dust covered screens flicker pitifully. It is clear that whatever power this facility retains, it is likely very near to being completely extinguished. The picture crackles and jumps, but it is obviously a sort of video feed. Different dates range across the display, seemingly at regular intervals. They start off seemingly business as usual, and reveal that Kasia's guess is not far from the truth. Wookiee captives can be seen marched in in groups, shackled and prodded with long electric prods and zapping them with huge sparks of electricity. Wookiees who attempt to resist are dealt with harshly, multiple humans leaping in and beating and shocking the wookiee into submission. It is clear by their garb and records within the computer system reveal connections to the Empire of old.

As the video log continues, however, it is clear that at some point there was a shift. The Wookiees begun to act erratically, wild, and notes of disease begin to appear in the data files. Seemingly quite contagious, the wookiees became enraged, and the last video feed shows the captive wookiees assaulting their captors, all seeming mad with rage, foaming from the mouth, and more than a few with blood trails leading down from their eyes.

ALL BUTTONS MUST BE PRESSED. Adhar looks about the place while Tarion does his thing, frowning behind his mask. It's a slaver station. He didn't bring any explosives. Does Deetee have explosives? Grenades, probably. Dammit. They're going to find traces of dead Wookiees and horror.

Also everything they find down here is going to have to go back to the Wookies. Because of the horror. Also: one-hundred percent guaranteed to be haunted by Wookiee ghosts. Do you want to be haunted by a Wookiee ghost? Adhar sure doesn't. Pull your arms off while you sleep. Dammit, Wodi was right. This job is gonna suck.

And now there's rabid death-Wookies. Dammit, Wodi. Stop being right.

Since someone is looking at the computers, Kadi looks around, curiously. She moves around a terminal and catches sight of something on the ground, reaching to pick it up. "Huh, what's this?" she asks briefly, holding a cattle prod more or less in her hands. Maybe there's a button there, she can press, and see what it does?"

So the video log plays, and Stavros looks around. He says conversationally, "I know jack about Kashyyyk. But I do know that Wookiees live for a really long time. Let's all keep ears peeled and our eyes open, so that rabid Wookiees don't open our ears and peel our eyes, m'kay?" He looks to see if there's a back door, so they can continue on in the same direction without backtracking. If he can, he's opening it.

"You don't keep your mouth shut, and I'll shoot /your/ knob off, dickhair." Mujiji grumbles back at Toz as she makes to open this alleged door. Oh, that other guy is back, but Moo pays Wodi little heed as she follows Tarion into the creepy building. "You can't just press every button and expect them to -" Proven wrong, Moo can only watch in a silence that darkens as the feed flows onward, black fluttering and surging through her strange, ancenstral moodfur. Kadi's discovery of the prod urges her several feet away, following after Stavros as he heads for a back door. "Be careful which end you touch." She snarls to the woman in warning, fur retaining that blackness as her ears pin back. She hates this place more and more.

"This is a super great place to be, guys," Wodi voices over the bad ideas flowing about. "You know why there's no people here? Because something /killed/ them. You know what we are? People. Well, not Are Five." He points at Mujiji, "Or that thing. Not sure what that is." He sucks his teeth and looks around. "Hey, Tarion," he remarks, finally noticing the bounty hunter. "Gotta give Czerka credit, though. They knew how to run a business. Location leaves a lot to be desired, though." Wodi was definitely never a slaver, you white knights.

R5-DT swivels his dome to look around the place, "Yeah. You all are doomed. Me I'm likely going to roll right on outta here." He looks around the compound some more, "But this is a nice place. Location not so much but building wise it's stood the test of time."

There is a rear entrance to the building, which deposits the group out and further inside the main compound. The cages are much closer here, and the overgrown forest is easily reclaiming what was once a place of despair and sorrow for so many. As the group steps outside, however, their flashlights begin to highlight odd things. Dark brown designs are drawn on the walls of the building and cages, closer inspection revealing them to have been drawn in blood. Human bones litter the ground here and there, and if one looks directly ahead, human skulls have been fastened into the cage itself, forming a macabre decoration along the upright mesh. The group has just enough time to notice these things when there are several loud roars from varying angles and four beings can be spotted here and there, several standing atop of nearby buildings, and two charging the group.

They are no doubt what remains of the crazy wookiees seen in the footage, driven insane and sickened by whatever ailment swept the slave camp.

Kasia moves along with the others, out the rear door of the building, only to find crazy wookiees outside. "I think we're going to need bigger weapons. Or a lot more people. Or to leave," she says, but it's spoken quietly, because she can see at least two of those poor former slaves, and has no doubt there are likely more. She shuts off her gloves, and instead pulls her blaster, not firing yet, but this seems like it's to require something stonger than zaps that the gloves provide.

Kasia Ashkuri lowers her fists, no longer looking to punch at anyone with her X-21 Shock Gloves. The hum of electricity and the sparking subsides.

"I feel like there's probably no reward for shooting these things," Tarion mutters, holding his G8 at the ready nonetheless, but the prospect of not getting paid for it has him thinking about not actually shooting. At the last moment, he decided to take a shot anyway, grazing the furry forehead of one of them, but it does like, jack all. "Well then. That probably just pissed him off."

Welp, it's time to see if there's anyone to save...or destroy, for that matter. Adhar shakes his head, resting his hand on the smaller of his blasters at its place on his hip. "You all need a backbone," he mutters to his crewmen, crewdroid, whatever. To Tarion and Kasia, the smuggler calls, "Shall we go trough the complex, or..."

Oh. Wookiees. Crazy Wookiees. And then there's the, uh, bones. Welp.

Immediately, Adhar pulls from its place his hollow-gripped DL-30, firing a pair of bright crimson bolts of light across the building at the monstrous walking carpets - and missing, the energy expending itself explosively against the walls behind them. So this is great. He might have met Chewbacca, but he knows a death-furry when he sees one.

Wodi was right /again/. That absolute /bastard/.

Kadi still has her ion blaster, but she absently holsters that, as she examines the new thing she's got. The incoming slavering wookiees get a gulp, an eep, and a crouching down Kadi with a cattle prod in hand. "This does not look good at all," she says, wide eyed.

Qadira Suuryet raises a meter-long staff, ready to fight, the hum of electricity, followed by light blue sparking around the staff's two-pronged end.

Stavros steadies his position, then squeezes the trigger on his BlasTech EE-3 - 7818, a bright red bolt of plasmatic death speeding toward NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (454)!

On the way out the back door, Stavros pauses, staring at a wall overgrown with some kind of moss or fungus. He slams the butt of his carbine against it a few times, and there _is_ a handle there. He opens it, opens his mouth to call out- and pauses. Inside that room is what's left of a human who apparently barricaded himself in there against the wookiees. He's long since dead. But you know what's he's holding? A G8 rifle. Stavros takes a step in, grabs the gun, brushes finger-bones off of it, and slings it over his shoulder.

And then, there's the death-wookiees. He raises his carbine, snaps two shots off - and isn't sure if he even pierced the hide. "Well crap."

Wodi earns a raised lip, her patience frays deeper and deeper the more they find. "I've got a bad feeling about this." She huffs, turning at the sound of more beep-booping from the droid... But, y'know, that thing is probably going to just roll right out of there if the rest of them are doomed... Mujiji angles towards Cowdroid BeepBoop as the translator droid bzzrks out just that. "Do you do probabilities?" She asks the R5. "What's the chance we're gonna -" And then Wookiees. Her knife is in her paw, vibrating in a very useless way. "That's 100, then." Jaw set, Moo scrambles backwards - hesitating. Stabbing up on the slaves who killed their masters seems a bit hypocritical of her, but at the same time she would expect someone to put her down if she went rabid, too. "Sorry." She mutters to herself, and slinks out with a hiss to swipe at the ankles of one of the charging wookiees, missing when his over-large stride passes her right over. "Kriff this." She decides - this is a death wish, and even in her black little heart it feels wrong. Moo makes the brave, executive decision to melt into the background until the bulk of this wears away - or everyone else dies and the Wookiees leave.

Toz's experience had been getting steadily worse as this little excursion into wookiee hell went on. From the video of tortured wookiees eventually going rabid and attacking their slavers to stepping outside and finding the scary ass decorations, the night is just made all the better by the sudden attacking of four of the sick wookiees. "Every man for himself!" Toz yelps reflexively as he brings his blasters up to bear and begins squeezing off shots at one of the charging wookiees.

"What'd I tell you!?" Wodi shouts at the group, lifting his blaster to fire blindly at two of the Wookiees as he runs (valiantly) away. On his way out, however, he spots an open supply locker. Taking a moment to root through it, he spies an ion blaster and says, "This'll come in handy for when Are Five is feeling uppity."

R5-DT wheels himself out of the line of the fight, "You try to use that on me and I swear I'll shut off the life support to your cabin." He does try to keep himself semi near the skipper.

The Wookiee that was being shot by Toz drops to the ground dead, and the one shot by Stavros does take a heavy wound to the abdomen, but that only seems to further enrage the rabid beast who leaps in to take two powerful swipes at the Zeltron. Similarly, the other two remaining leap, one taking heavy hits at Tarion, the other picking up R5-DT and throwing the droid across the open area.

Thankfully Kasia manages to not be the target of any of the rabid wookiees, scrambling back a few steps before she lifts her blaster to take aim at the one attacking Stavros. She squints slightly, exhales and squeezes the trigger with the look of someone that... doesn't do this that often. Luck is on her side, however, as the shot hits the wookiee in question, and not one of her fellows on this horrible woodland outing. Yet more reason to hate nature.

And while everyone else is shooting Wookiee, Kadi has a melee weapon in hand. Oops. She sets the thing down and draws her gun again, but of course, this takes time, lucky for the folks with her. Cause it means she doesn't hit them instead of any wookiee. But she does manage to get her ion blaster out, and starts working on aiming.

Tarion is attacked by a rabid wookiee, it lunges upon him and gouges at his body with its fearsome claws. Kasia shoots it, and the hunter jams the barrel of his rifle under the chin, grimacing as he pulls the trigger and splashes brains all over his bat cape. "Krif, that is not gonna wash out."

"Stavros! Deetee!" Suns below, the damned Wookiees are tearing into his friends and crew, and this is not going to work. Adhar charges the Wookiees, or at least the one tearing into Stavros, firing another two crimson bolts across the space between himself and the feral alien, prepared to leap on the damned thing and stick the barrel in its ear if he has to.

Stavros's armor can work as a space suit in a pinch. It was sealed against vacuum! The past tense is appropriate, because while he twists out of the way of the wookiee's first madclaw-slash at him, the second rakes deeply. The Zeltron's internal organs would have been rearranged if not for strategic armor plates and the suit itself, _all_ of which now have been rended. He's not unprotected, but those slashes went deep, and his armor is reddened by the blood from his wounds.

When the Wookiee roars at him, Stavros roars back, an angry shout that can't really compete with the Wookiee's, for volume. He steps back, shoving the barrel of his carbine up against the chest of the feral creature and pulls the trigger. The delightful smell of burning fur, from the first shot, and at the second, the the Wookiee falls back off the gun, which now has dark Wookiee blood on the barrel. He grimaces and spits on the wookiee corpse, looking to see what's still alive.

Toz has downed one rabid wookiee with extreme prejudice. Apparently feeling high on himself, he spins around to attack the remaining wookiee, the one doing bad things to that poor droid and begins to steadily pull the triggers of his twin blasters... only to miss with every... single... shot.

Wodi Corcer continues his scurrying around as he attempts to find a way out. He will gladly sacrifice each and everyone of you for a chance at survival. Two more shots at the big mean carpets, two more misses.

With R5-DT thrown across the clearing, the enraged Wookie moves on to the next victim in line. The beast is aware that it's fellows have been slain, and he takes that full out on Adhar, sweeping left with a huge clawed hand, and then right. Both blows connect with terrible force on the poor man's body, little to soften the blows.

Kasia cringes back again as the droid is picked up and thrown across the clearing, not wanting to get close to the creature at all. Not at all. She's seen up close what an angry wookiee can do, the capacity to rip arms off, or legs, or basically whatever parts it can grab hold of. She sees the thing go for Adhar and fires off a round, but alas, it misses and hits one of the trees instead. Sorry, tree, but you're nature and therefore also had it coming.

The remaining Wookiee goes ape on Adhar, and Tarion jerks his rifle around drawing a quick bead on the Wookiee, firing off a shot at the rampaging creature that used to be sentient. Used to be, right? Anyway, the bolt smashes into the furry flank with the smell of singed flesh and burning hair. "Come on, don't stop now!"

Well, there were heroics happening, what with Adhar charging the Wookiee trying to murder his friends and shooting ineffectively at it, trying to turn its attention his way - and at this he succeeds, for Stavros ventilates said Wookie before it can cause more troubles. Alas, the Wookiee has a friend, and the death-monster brings its claws down in a scything swing, catching Adhar across back as he passes the horrible tower.

The smuggler unzips like a coat; flesh and undersuit opens wide, revealing ribs only just healed by bacta dip that morning, parting musculature and smashing bone. He goes down without a sound, collapsing in the dirt as a lake of blood begins to pour from the wounds opened in his flesh.

When he can use his hands again, the folks at Cinnagar Armor Works are getting SUCH a nasty note.

Ewww, that's just nasty. Kadi peeks up from wherever she is crouched, spying real nastiness. It's enough that she knows she has to help! Because - because. that's why. Because. So she uses both hands to steady her pistol, aims, aims, steadies her posture, makes sure she's got the woookiee in sights, aims. Yes, she's a titch slow, no two shots for her! She aims, closes her eyes and fires that ion blaster at the crazed Wookie. And then opens her eyes, praying she didn't hit anything but the Wookiee.

Stavros has a perfect- which is to say _terrible_ - view of the smuggler captain's expression as he is sliced open from behind. Tarion's shot hits home, the Zeltron's nostrils flare as he swings his gun up. "You-" He doesn't seem to have good adjectives or slurs ready. Good posture hurts a lot, right now, but he braces himself long enough for a good shot into the beast- though he slips on the second shot, hissing at the pain in his side.

Toz sighs as the last wookiee goes down. He seems more than a little shaky, his hands trembling as he holds onto his blaster pistols and just manages to slip them back into their holsters at his thighs. He backs up slowly until his back hits the overgrown wall and slumps down to a crouch and rubs a hand across his face. "You guys are terrible," he says with a shake of his head. "I should have went with that other group."

"That's what happens when you don't come to fight, Captain," Wodi remarks as he sees Adhar go down. He runs over to the be-Wookieed man and kneels down next to him, looking him over. "Before you die; what's your bank info? I'm kidding. I'm not bland enough to pass for you. They might believe I'm your cooler, more attractive brother. By the Force, you look terrible." He stands up and looks around at the group, "Somebody get this lump. My shoulder hurts. Got snagged on a beast of a branch when I got lost, earlier." He slips his blaster away and begins heading towards the fence. "Gonna go make sure that the clearing is...clear." A click of the button resting in the palm of his off-hand and his jetpack flares to life, sending him flying into the air and off into the shadows.

There is much relief on Kasia's face when the last wookiee goes down, or at least the last one they know of. She shoots a look around and then hurries over to Stavros to check just how wounded he is. "Tarion, go check on him," she points to the fallen Adhar "We need to get out of here as soon as possible, there might be more of them here and I don't want to stick around if there are." She looks around, brows furrowed. "Kadi, are you alright?" She's lost track of the other woman in the chaos, but the concern for her is evident now.

"I'll take care of him," Tarion announces, hurrying over to the fallen smuggler when his first mate abandons him. The man with the bat cape kneels down next to him and starts going through his pockets for loose change in between looking over the wounds. "Boy, you came out here loaded. Shame you lost it all in the woods," he mutters sympathetically, siphoning everything he can fit into his own pockets.

Kadi is staring at the dead wookiee, then at her ion blaster, and then back. It takes a moment or two for her to register Kasia's words. "What? Me? I just - I'm okay, yes. But - I think I hit it. I'm not sure how I feel about that." She accidentally gets a good look at poor Adhar, as she moves over a bit closers to inspect the wookiees. This means that Kadi's skin turns a lovely shade of green and she hurriedly backs up, until she steps on one of the corpses, slip sliding a bit, and then coming to a halt back where she started. Which reminds her to pick up the shock rod she found.

The Zeltron's lacerations have pierced all the way down to the ribs, and there's definitely more flesh AWOL than anyone should be comfortable with. "I'm - not bad." His eyes pass over to Adhar. "Not _that_ bad. Is he.... Tarion!" The shout makes him wince. Too much lung movement, but can't stop- "Don't take his stuff, just fracking bandage him! Are you _kidding_ me?!" He scowls at the bounty hunter. "Kasia, I'm- holding together. Go-" He waves towards Adhar.

Toz doesn't seem to see anything. In fact, he is busy picking at a bit of blood that has somehow splashed up onto his jacket. "NO!" he shouts suddenly, his voice every bit as loud as Stavros'. "This was my good damn jacket! I'm going back to the damn field. Maybe that fucking shuttle is back." With that, the Twi'lek stands and begins to head back for the building... only to stop a short distance in and wait for the others. He is ready to go and all... but he isn't crazy!

Kadi sighs, as she realizes there are two injured, and that just means she is surrounded by icky yucky squishy stuff. Not cool. "Oh come on, that's not right," Kadi says, as she also notes what is happening. "I'm totally going to tell him about that, Tavers, when he wakes up."

Kasia has her back to the looting, and has no idea it's happening until people start protesting, and then she turns to look back at him. She still doesn't /see/ it, but evidently trusts both of them enough to believe it's happening. Also, she's met Tarion. "Tavers," she gives Stavros a look, saying quietly, "Don't start this here." With that she turns, striding over to where Adhar has fallen, giving the looting one of the two a look as she holds out one hand. "Give it to me. Whatever it is, give it to me. People are dying, who knows what else is out here, if something else comes we're all dead, and whatever you took won't be worth it. Hand it over, and then we /all/ need to leave." She puts an emphasis on 'all' and glances back at everyone, or at least those that didn't rocket off.

"He didn't have that much on him anyway," Tarion replies dejectedly, casting bitter looks between Kasia and Stavros. "Fine. Take it." The bounty hunter holds out a few thousand in credits to Kasia, dropping the chits into her hand. Notably, his other hand still rests on his blaster rifle's handle, and the finger is on the trigger as he looks over to the Zeltron again. "Happy?" An exasperated glance goes Kadi's way. "Fine, and you can tell him I gave it all to Kasia for safe-keeping."

Stavros coughs, staring at the bounty hunter. "Drop the crap, Tarion. Give her... all of it." He coughs again. "Krif, he'd probably _pay_ you if- he knew you helped get him out. He's a good guy, man." He himself does not aim any weapons in Tarion's direction.

Kasia lets out a sigh, turns from Tarion and strides over to Stavros, putting a hand on his shoulder, if he has a good one to place a hand on. "Stavros, this isn't the time or place for this." She paises for a beat, and then adds. "It's fine, the matter is settled, we need to leave now." Another pause, long enough for her to stow the credits into her pocket since Adhar isn't in a state to take them back. "Alright?" She takes a step back from him, and looks around. "Tarion, keep your sticky fingers to yourself, and help Adhar, we have to leave. Right. Now."

A long moment passes while Tarion considers whether he should shoot Stavros too, just in case, but then he seems to relax, letting the rifle go and pulling out the small medkit on his belt. "You don't pay me to patch you up," he mutters to Adhar, sifting through the supplies he's got, "and honestly they don't either, so... yeah, I'll do what I can, bud." In the end, he squirts what's probably sunscreen into Adhar's wounds, rubbing it in because it seems like the thing to do. "There you go." He hoists him up off the ground with some difficulty, glancing around the confinement. "How the hell we getting out of here?" Tarion is bleeding himself.

As the group finally pulls their shit together, they will hear the sound of the engines of the Transport faintly above. They will have to hustle, and it is very likely all are covered in a good deal of Adhar's blood by the time they make it back to the field where the shuttle awaits, but make it they do. The shuttle is filled with a medical team who soon get Adhar stable, as well as treating all of the other group members' injuries. Once they return to Rwookrrorro City, and begin to tell what has happened, a bit of investigation into the hunt and it's mysterious Corellian benefactor finds that the man behind the Hunt had special interest in seeing that the surviving Wookiee slaves were dispatched and the man himself has since faded completely into the shadows, and the people participating were simply tools, a loaded gun fired at an intended target.