Ask Ryloth Another Happy Landing

[Asminys]

After the Battle of Ryloth​

Asminys clung onto the straps of his lifepod seat as the ship rocketed away from the plummeting Star Destroyer. He knew it had been a bad idea to go along, though the experience of fighting a Jedi for the first time had probably been worth it. He had had little time to meditate on the subject though as the frantic dash through the service corridors of the falling battleship had turned out just great. Evidenced by his current situation, plummeting towards the surface of a world full of unknowns.

Debris pinged off the thick skinned escape pod. The view of the jungle below rattled in Asminys view as the pod's piloting computer tried to correct course. The ship stabilized and the view of a large band of rainforest flanking a river expanded in the viewport. So far so good, Asminys relaxed his grip on the safety straps.

BANG! The rear roof of the pod dented suddenly inwards and the pod was sent twirling. Angry alarms rang through the small space of the pod as it spun and flipped through the air, as if they needed a sound to tell them they were in dire straits. Panic blossomed in Asminys chest, a natural reaction to the situation. A human reaction.

But Asminys was a Sith. He did not submit to nature or fear. He reached within himself and clung to his fear, embracing it, fanning it to new heights.

The ground grew closer and closer with each flip.

He had to time it just right.

His mind raced in the background, a spinning mess as he counted the seconds, full of fear.

He seized it.

Panic was a life raft of an emotion.

Sweat poured from his brow as he closed his eyes and thrust his fear outward.

A solid wall of force around the pod.

KTCH-KRASH!

The shuttle tumbled through the treeline, bouncing off a massive trunk.

KRUCHHHKKK

It slammed into a tangle of gigantic roots.

Quiet.

With his head hangng Asminys breathed heavily. He was alive. A low chuckle escaped his throat. "Another happy landing." He laughed with a hoarse throat. He might have been yelling the whole way down.

@Scarlet Sky

 

[Domri Seht]

Domri couldn't quite remember how he'd gotten in the pod. Sweat beaded across his forehead as he felt himself plummeting to the surface, his senses all discombobulated by the chaos around him. He briefly remembered fending off a Jedi before a blast from the deteriorating Star Destroyer had separated them. Luckily he'd sustained no significant damage, barring a small piece of shrapnel from the ship caught in his arm. However, the quickly plummeting escape pod he was in presented a more immediate issue. He sensed another person in the pod with him, a Sith doing his best to pilot the pod despite its failing systems. The Echani might have offered help, though even with the full range of his sense piloting was extremely difficult; the one time the gift of blindness provided him challenges his own strength couldn't overcome.

He sat on the edge of his seat, doing his best to calm his mind and dispel a loud ringing from his head. Domri managed to recover just in time for the pod to be knocked off-course, and he lurched forward as the pod lost all steering capabilities. Sensing the movements of the other Sith, Domri quickly read his intentions to keep them alive using by shielding the pod with the Force. Summoning the all the strength he could muster from the panic at the back of his mind, the Echani drew upon the power granted by the Dark Side, supporting his comrade's efforts.

KTCH-KRASH!

Domri's senses were once again thrown off balance as the pod crashed against a tree, before smashing through the underbrush and finally coming to a stop. He fell back against his seat, breathing heavily as his sense re-adjusted and restored his "vision", the mental image in his mind created by combining the information of his heightened senses with that of what he sensed through the Force.

"Another happy landing." breathed the other Sith, as Domri wiped sweat from his face.

"That it is indeed," the Echani finally replied. "I don't believe our paths have crossed before, yet I can see you are Sith. The name's Domri Seht."

@Arclight

 

[Asminys]

Taking a deep breath, Asminys leaned his head against the back of the pod, wiping sweat the sweat up he brow and off the top of his tattooed head. "Domri Seht." He said with a nod in between breaths as he committed the name to memory.

"Asminys." He offered as he gained control of his breathing, closing his eyes for a moment as he took in a deep breath.

His breathing settled, he reached for his seat latch. "Lets pop the seal on this thing and see what kinda mess we crashed ourselves into." Freeing himself and standing, shakily at first. Trying the hatch he found it jammed, evidently broken or so hard up against something that it wouldn't budge.

Turning to the other wall, Asminys ignited his crimson saber. Carving an opening in the pod, he stepped out onto uneven footing. A mass of root and vines rested under the pod, dwarfing the vessel.

Massive tree's roots wove together to make a very uneven forest floor, as far as the eye could see, which wasn't far. Vines hung low, obscuring sight lines between the large rising chunks. Various flora grew from the root floor, large flowers and other plants sprouting from vines and trunks. The air that met them clung to their skin, the heat oppressive. A fetid odor of vegetation and rot permeated the air.

"Great place for a vacation." Asminys muttered to himself. Watching his fellow Sith, he noted the blindfold. Glancing back to the expansive wild ahead of them, he wondered just how much the blind Sith could see.

@Scarlet Sky

 

[Domri Seht]

Asminys. A strange name but certainly a unique one, and provided he ever got off the damn planet, one that Domri planned to remember. While the other Sith carved a hole for them to exit the pod, Domri took pause to meditate on their surroundings. He felt lots of life, as well as the decay of death underneath. The circle of life, the new and the strong dominating the weak and the fallen. He smiled ever so faintly before stepping out and joining his new companion.

Domri finally stood and crawled through the still-hot hole Asminys had created in the side of the pod, straightening out as his feet touched real ground. He could feel the vegetation around the pair of Sith, the mess of roots and undergrowth below them, the massive trees and low-hanging vines, likely somewhat obscuring Asminys' vision. On the subject of vision, the Echani could feel his partner's gaze towards the red band that covered his eyes, his face contoured into an inquisitive expression.

"You're wondering how I can see. It's a gift, really. The Force allows me to feel the life around me in addition to amplifying the rest of my senses. Physical barriers and darkness conceal nothing from me. In some ways, I can see more than anyone else."

Various cries and songs of different creatures rang through the forest, none of which the Sith knew off the top of his head. No doubt some of the creatures that roamed Ryloth would love nothing less then a free meal, something Domri wasn't planning to provide. He reached out with the Force, feeling the concentration of three more people nearby; likely another crashed escape pod. Turning to face Asminys, he simply stated, "More survivors." as he nodded his head in the direction where he could feel the other escapees of the Star Destroyer. The Sith started off in that direction, expecting his partner to follow.

@Arclight

 

[Asminys]

It seemed that his fellow Sith was more attuned to his senses than Asminys would have thought, picking up on his inquisitiveness. Nodding as Domri explained how the force let him see, he wondered if the man could truly sense more than Asminys could with his working eyes.

"I shall remember, should I ever be so fortunate to have my eyes carved out." He said, half serious, half jest. While a situation he would prefer to avoid, such things happened from time to time and such a situation would not be the kind that Asminys would allow to overcome him.

Grabbing the life pod's survival pack while Domri concentrated, he gave a nod when the other Sith informed him of more survivors. As much as he knew he could depend on his lightsaber and the Force, Asminys knew little of jungles and preferred having the extra supplies on the off chance that his jungle vacation ended up being an extended one.

"Lead the way." He waved the blind Sith ahead, noting the irony in allowing the blind to lead. Perhaps in this situation the blind man's finely attuned senses would be of greater benefit than merely seeing. Slinging the survival pack behind his back, Asminys followed.

Meanwhile, high above in the branches and vines a pack of ravenous primates watched the pair. Nervous at first of the crashing escape pod that had rudely interrupted the pack's afternoon nap, their mood swiftly turned from fear to hunger as they watched the pair of humanoids depart from the safety of the pod. Lacking the protective shells of the murderous Gutkurr's or Lylek's, the pack saw the pair as an easy meal.

@Scarlet Sky

 

[Domri Seht]

Domri smirked slightly as heard the slight humorous undertone in Asminy's voice as the other Sith allowed him to lead the way, his partner likely reflecting on the irony of letting the man who technically couldn't see tell him where to go. Jokes aside, the Echani could feel the presence of a pack of forest creatures high above the two Sith, hearing their faint calls to each other, something of a mix of chittering and growling. It was unnerving as he felt the pack following above, as if to study the new kind of prey that had crashed into their territory. Domri couldn't quite feel out their intentions, but he knew for sure it wasn't friendly, nor just benign curiosity. Steeling his nerves, the Sith kept the creatures in the back of his mind as he continued leading Asminys towards where he could feel the other crash survivors.

In short time, the pair had made their way to another crashed, pod, finding a trooper helping a Sith acolyte and another trooper out of another crashed pod, though it appeared that their landing had been a little less rough. By the time they noticed the two Sith, the others had exited the escape pod and stood a little straighter; whether out of respect of a little fear, Domri couldn't tell, but in the end it didn't really matter. The Echani nodded towards Asminys as a sign to take the lead with the other survivors, while Domri looked through the Force for the pack of creatures in the trees that had been following them earlier.

@Arclight

 

[Asminys]

The trek to the second escape pod did not take long with a blind man leading the way. The irony of that fact still lingered in Asminys mind as they came to the crash site. It seemed these survivors of the battle had been luckier in their landing.

"Looks like you were right." Asminys commented to his counterpart as he approached the soldiers and the young acolyte that stood before them. His eyes glanced over the soldiers before dismissing them in his mind, turning his attention to the acolyte. "What is your report?" He asked, his eyes glowing with menace. Best to show the young one his place early on after all.

The acolyte gulped, looking first to the two troopers that flanked him before returning Asminys' gaze. Bowing his head, he began. "We were guarding the tractor beam generator when the destroyer began to fall. We made it to the escape pods without incident or opposition. Then we crashed here... wherever here is."

Glancing to one of the troopers, the man gave a small nod, corroborating the story.

"Rise." Asminys said, allowing the acolyte to break his bow. "Strip the pod of anything useful." He ordered the troopers before dismissing them from his mind for the moment. Glancing about the surrounding jungle, he wondered if the men would be anything other than dead weight as he considered killing them then and there.

Better to keep them as fodder for now.

Above, the primates watched with interest as one set of prey grouped up with another. The pack was nervous, their appetite beginning to spoil as the hunt became that much more difficult. It was then that some other movement in the jungle spooked them, sending them fleeing higher into the treetops where they would watch from safety.

@Scarlet Sky

 

[Domri Seht]

As Asminys addressed the other pod crash survivors, Domri shifted his focus towards them order to analyze their reactions. In doing so, the Echani hoped to gauge either how helpful or how much of a hinderance the others would be to the pair of fully trained Sith. Despite the Sith acolyte outranking the soldiers, his frequent glances back towards them betrayed a reliance on them, and a deep-rooted nervousness within the acolyte. He was most likely rather new, very unsure of himself and not in the least bit ambitious. From what Domri could sense, he didn’t hold much potential in the Force either. A pathetic excuse for even an acolyte and hardly worth saving should be fall behind.

The pair of soldiers were similarly uneasy, though far more capable of holding their nerves than their companion. They might prove more useful than the acolyte, surprisingly, but these were not elite soldiers. At best, they could slow something or someone down.

Domri’s attention was quickly turned back to the primate creatures in the trees, not because they were attacking as he expected they might, but because they retreated upwards. The Sith doubted they were running from the group, but that meant they intended to get out of the way of something else.

He heard it first, a heavy rustling in the undergrowth likely too faint for the others to pick up on; but then again, they all relied on their sight as a primary sense. Reaching through the Force, the Echani could feel it was something big, and it was coming closer. He felt a very primal sense of desire, and the puzzle fell into place.

“We leave, now. Take what you already have from the pod and MOVE. Something big is coming.” Domri turned his head towards Asminys as he gestured the group to follow him. By now the creature was close enough that he could hear its footsteps as it ran in the group’s direction. “By the sound of it, we don’t have much time.”

@Arclight

 

[Asminys]

Asminys sensed the nearing of the great creature moments before Domri warned them to move with urgency in his voice. The sound that heralded the approach of the creature was not one that could be easily explained, a mix of skittering and chunky stabs into wood.

Chshhtk. Chshhtk. Chshhtk.

"Agreed. We leave now." Asminys said as he turned to follow. The troopers abandoned their dive into the pod for supplies and instead grabbed their blasters. The Acolyte seemed uncertain whether to follow or fight, his lightsaber making an appearance in his hand but remaining unlit for the time being.

It didn't take long for the beast to make its approach, bursting through the vines at a rapid pace as it charged the group. Vines snapped where they clung on its chitinous frame and its six spear like legs stabbed into the hard trunk wood like it was paper. It long neck protruded from the insectile body to end in a razor sharp maw, with a pair of flailing tentacles grasping at the soldiers who replied in turn with blaster fire.

The red energy bolts splashed and dissipated off its carapace harmlessly, and its deadly sharp tail shot forward to nearly skewer one of the troopers who dove to the ground to dodge it. The creature roared, its rage and hunger palpable through the force.

@Scarlet Sky