Acid Rain

[Aadya Drast]

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As the shuttle dipped down through the Vjunian atmosphere it became obviously apparent why your average person would have no interest in a planet like this. The sky was splotchy, an unappealing mix of green and brown only broken up by looming clouds. Not white clouds, though, dirty ones. Grays and blacks, like the color of the sky before a nasty storm.

And that's essentially all Vjun was, one nasty storm. The precipitation that fell wasn't water though, at least not the kind you'd think about when it came to rain. Vjun's rain was acidic, the primary reason that its surface could scarcely support any vegetation or life. Aadya was familiar with one particular flower that was able to grow on Vjun, a rose. It was sad to be so deep and so darkly red that it appeared almost black. Few had seen one in person and Aadya hoped that maybe she would be able to.

Of course, that wasn't the main reason she was coming to Vjun in the first place. She had been reading some of the older books in the Korribani library and had come across a few chapters that talked about Vjun and the potential presence of a dark side nexus. Of course, she could find little other corroborating evidence to support that, but it seemed like a wasted opportunity to not go and give it a look herself.

Aadya had enlisted the help of a fellow acolyte named Malice who would accompany her on this strange exhibition. She didn't know him, in fact the first time they had even met was when they were both boarding the shuttle, but he had caught her eye once when she saw him engaging in one of the common practice duels the Sith seemed so fond of. She figured that if anyone would be good to bring along on a potentially dangerous field trip, it was someone like Malice.

As the shuttle landed and they disembarked, Aadya spoke to the pilot. "May as well take the shuttle back up and wait for us there. No telling how long we might be gone, and I doubt sitting outside in the acid rain will do you very much good. Wouldn't want to get stranded down here."

They had landed near an area known as the Bay of Tears. In the book Aadya had read, it insinuated that the vergence of the nexus would likely be found somewhere in the labyrinthine tunnel and cave system - which was almost entirely useless information, but better than nothing.

"Not sure what we may find in the tunnels and caves," Aadya said, turning to Malice as she began heading towards what she hoped was the right direction. "There may be stuff down there that can't survive up here, which probably means its gross subtterenan mole people or something." Aada remembered back to a few weeks ago when she and her friend Zandrali had cleared out an old temple on Boz Pity. She shivered at the thought of the gross things they found in there.

As they approached the mouth of one of the larger caves, Aadya gestured forward. "After you."

@Bronzy

 

[Malice]

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Malice had been mostly trying to find his way around the place on Korriban; if for nothing else, he knew there had to be useful information he could glean from the archives on there, and something he could learn from the other acolytes who were gathered around him. He may have preferred his own company, but he was smart enough to figure out a couple of things - that he was in way over his head, and that if he wanted to live, he was going to need to make friends.

For now, many of those 'friends' had either trounced him or been trounced themselves in the sparring circles. Frequenting there meant that most of those he could maybe trust as later confidants were the brutes, and those who desperately needed some skill in a fight, having none. Neither of those were going to be helpful if a reckoning came for him, so he had to look for and hope for the capable ones, those with a decent head on their shoulders and the ability to handle themselves in the field.

He counted it as a stroke of luck or maybe a blessing that one of them had approached him so early in his search.

Of course, Aadya needed something. Everyone on Korriban wanted something before you were allies, and it was just common sense to bring backup on something you weren't totally sure of. Still, it...wasn't exactly what Malice had been expecting. He was figuring it'd be some creature that needed killing, or at least something that was still on Korriban. Instead, he was being dragged off-world. To some planet he didn't know, not that he knew any, where a dark side nexus lay in wait. He tried his best not to show any eagerness when that part got brought up.

Once he stepped down the boarding ramp and into the battering acid rain that hit his robes and mask, he found more reason to speak. "You could have at least brought me somewhere scenic." That was the closest that they were getting to a joke for now. Especially since it wasn't as though he could be surprised; if a planet had a dark side nexus, what were the chances it was going to be somewhere with a decent view?

The Bay of Tears earned its name. The deep water harbour, with shoals dotting around it was peppered by the acid rain above, turning the liquid a sickly green, much like the sky above it. The mouth of the cave they came to seemed to almost be a gaping maw, with twisted features near the top - droplets pattering down from it in pairs of two, no more or less.

Malice focused his senses, trying to keep them sharp as he stared into the darkness ahead. He muttered quietly, giving her a passing glance. "Don't sense any mole people yet." The cave itself was just as moist and disquieting as outside, with further puddles decorating the floor and the noise of quiet dripping further in. As he continued to walk, the insides getting darker, Malice darted his eyes around, positive he could see a few different paths and directions. "You don't have any directions for this?"

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

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"We will be able to rely on the Force for our direction," Aadya said matter-of-factly. It obviously wasn't the most reliable modes of finding where you were going but Aadya had faith that the books she'd read would put them in a close enough proximity to the vergence that they'd be able to feel the darkside power growing as they neared it.

For now, though, Aadya didn't feel anything different. Their luck didn't seem to be that great, at least not yet. Because honestly that's what it was going to take to find what they were looking for: faith, and a whole lot of luck.

As they walked further and further into the caverns, the pathways seemed to narrow as the natural light became more scare. Taking out her lightsaber so they could have some sort of light, Aadya decided to take the straight path for as long as they could.

As they walked she could feel the air getting cooler, and that was when she started noticing that the walls of the tunnel had weird symbols engraved along the walls. They were strange and crudely carved, causing Aadya to stop for a moment and examine them. From her time spent in the library she'd seen plenty of old Sith runes and these didn't remind her of any of those.

"Malice?" She asked, running her finger over several of the symbols, memorizing their shapes. "Do the Nightsisters use symbols like these?" Aadya didn't know much about the zabrak that was with her, but she did know that he was from Dathomir. Perhaps he may recognize something. It was a long shot of course, but you never knew.

Aadya did find it curious, though. The creatures she'd encountered on Boz Pity seemed far too primitive to use symbols like this. Even the scant amount of communication that she'd heard between them was little more than grunts and low screeches. If they were intruding on the territory of something actually intelligent, things could escalate very quickly. They were not prepared for that as far as Aadya was concerned.

For now it didn't seem wise to linger forever, though. She would begin heading further in, unless Malice wanted to look a the symbols some more.

@Bronzy