Bugger Off

[Aadya Drast]

[fancybox2] Bugger Off

The Roche asteroid system is split into various tunnels. It is a labyrinth for the average being but for the Verpine they can traverse it easily. While appearing meek they are capable and are manufacturers of formidable weaponry. Do not take their threat likely.[/fancybox2]

____________

Caves and tunnels. It was literally always caves and tunnels with the Sith. Aadya could count at least three or four times in the past several weeks where she'd had Sith business to conduct, and it was being conducted while spelunking through caves and mother kriffing caves and tunnels.

And somehow, this one was primed to be the worst! Not only where they traipsing through unfamiliar territory, but the place was literally crawling with giant bugs. It was as if some unsightly specter had reached into Aadya's mind and drew out her worst fear and made it real.

The trio of Sith arrived at one of the tunnel areas previously scouted by the Sith. The company that was joining her was actually fairly impressive - mostly due to the presence of Darth Tagus. Aadya hadn't met him before but had heard things, though how much of that was actually true was up for debate. Either way, Aadya was prepared to make a good impression on the Darth during their mission.

Leaving the shuttle that had ferried them to their destination, Aadya headed straight for the entrance that they'd be using to begin sweeping through the tunnel system. Their mission was somewhat ambiguous, but it really boiled down to killing anything that dared to stand against the might of the Sith until it was clear to the Verpine populace that resistance was utterly futile.

She didn't bother beating around the bush, drawing her lightsaber but not igniting it yet. She turned to her compatriots to see that they were ready before she headed in. "Time to play exterminator, I guess," she joked, hoping that her partners weren't too serious and didn't hold it against her. "Ready when you are."

@Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Why was it always either a cave or a tunnel? Why was it that when he was dispatched to kill enemies of the Empire it was never to somewhere bright, open and sunny? He would have complained about it but he was here with Acolytes and he wasn't going to be complaining in their presence.

He wasn't Dark Council but being Sith Lord held a certain air and he was loathe to ruin it just for a chance to have a bit of a moan about nothing that mattered. The insects they were here to exterminate however? Oh Tagus loved this kind of work. There was just something so satisfying about being able to point to a mountain of dead and say that you had had a productive morning. Something you just couldn't experience sat behind a desk.

Drawing The First Blade, Tagus ignited the red blade and held it out in front of him to help light the tunnel. It wasn't as dark as many others he had been in and it was wide enough for the three of them to walk abreast of each other but light was always a good idea in such a place. He hummed a little bit, glancing at Aadya.

His little sister knew her.

"... is this the part where one of us makes an overly serious comment about 'burning out the enemies of the Empire' or something similar?" he remarked dryly, "If not then we can begin."

@Logan @Wit

 

[Darth Nihil]

Kaye didn't much mind the caves, or places such as these in general, she had been prepared for worse. She did mind the bugs though. She wasn't scared of them, things like that had been beaten out of her early in her training, but she did still find them weirdly off putting, something about pincers and all the clicking.

But on the other hand she was glad that this was where she was going to be able to test out some of the new tech she acquired after her recent promotion, splattering bugs was as good a test run as any. And the fact that she was doing it in the company of someone actually competent was a added bonus. If something did go wrong these two seemed like the sort she could rely on. The Darth title spoke for itself, unless of course you were the accidental Darth who was probably there to fill up the numbers, and she was sure Aadya wouldn't have been mouthing off a Crusader on Coruscant if she hadn't been confident of holding her own in some way. So not a bad team to be a part of.

"Burning is not in style anymore," Kaye chimed in as the Mirilian's blade lit up, adding more illumination to their surroundings, "it's not the Sith way. We shall freeze our enemies to death,. Let us begin, fellow refrigerators!" The words, uttered deadpan, might not hold much meaning for the Darth, though she was sure by now everyone would have heard of the loony wannabe priestess' antics on Coruscant. But if not, at least Aadya would know what Kaye was on about, and where she stood on the seriousness-humor scales.

@Logan @Nefieslab

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

Aadya chuckled a bit at the deadpan style that Tagus attempted humor in. Well, it was less of a chuckle and more a quick snort of air out of her nose, like the kind you did when you scrolled over an image online that was just funny enough to respond to with "lol." Kaye, on the other hand, got a real laugh out of her. Aadya instantly spotted the reference and appreciated any time someone would deride Eriana Fox. She made a mental note to ask Kaye out on a day-date sometime, Aadya thinking she could definitely use some more lady friends.

Following suit with Tagus, Aadya also ignited her lightsaber. There was no sense in going into where they were going and not being ready to kill anything that they saw considering the overall goal of their mission. As they descended deeper into the tunnel system, Aadya was surprised to find that instead of the air growing colder it was growing warmer, moister. The ground they were walking was smooth and well traversed. Like it had been walked a million and one times in exactly the same way.

Just then she heard a strange noise, loud chattering like mandibles clacking together. Aadya stopped for a moment, her hand gripping her lightsaber intently. "Verpine know we're here," she said, her eyes glancing from Kaye to Tagus. "The hive will probably send the drones first, they're more expendable."

As if on cue, Verpine drones started to come out of the woodwork. They looked essentially the same as a standard Verpine, though their carapace was more mottled and brown/tan than the usual green. They were also much more stupid, suited to do little outside of manual labor. They'd been equipped with crude melee weapons instead of the typical advanced tech you'd expect because of it, too.

Without hesitation, Aadya reached out with the force and gripped the first bug she saw, pulling it towards herself and cleaving it in two with her lightsaber with ease. One down out of how many, she did not know.

@Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Tagus hadn't been present when the priestess had made herself the subject of some amusing jokes within the Empire but he had heard enough about the incident in question to understand the reference. He smirked a little bit at the joke but didn't laugh like Aadya did - you probably had to be there to find it funny enough to laugh about.

He really should get out more, he supposed.

As they advanced, he could sense the creatures that they were here to destroy. There were more than he expected of them but nothing to be too worried about he supposed. Three Sith of some skill would be able to take down most of these creatures considering they were seemingly all blind and deaf to the Force.

"Just so."

Indeed, the drones came and they came in a surge, a wave, of insect-like life. They charged and Tagus merely raised his free hand towards them with his fingertips extended. Drawing on the Dark Side of the Force, Tagus unleashed a barrage of Sith Lightning down the tunnel towards the enemy.

Only the first few were hit by it but they froze up, twitching, with the current and that held up the others' advance. It also made them an easy target for his allies.

@Logan @Wit

 

[Darth Nihil]

By the reaction to her comments Kaye knew a little more about her companions, specially that Aadya was as she had expected, someone not like the standard edgy and brooding template most Sith seemed to be made from. Tagus she had known a little, but Aadya was a newer entity to her and this was useful information to have. Potential allies were always hard to come by, specially for someone as picky as Kaye was.

She hadn't pulled out her blade, letting the two lit blades provide illumination as she kept her eyes peeled for any activity. When the drones showed up, and her two companions responded with impressive attacks with the Force, Kaye pulled out her new toy and started shooting at any targets that got past the dual force attacks. As the bolts flew from the Quickdraw, a grin appeared on Kaye's face, jubilant in the simple pleasure a good weapon gave her.

But the smile dipped for a second when the next drone she was about to shoot at suddenly jumped up and spread it's appendages, making itself a larger target. That alone was weird enough behavior, but what happened next was even more so. The drone behind ran into its splayed brethren and started charging at Kaye, using the first drone as cover. Her lightsaber flew into her free hand, cutting through the two drones just as they were about to slam into her. Looking around she started to notice more coordination among the next wave of drones, and a little bit of information from one of the briefing notes came back to her.

"Hive mind," the words were accompanied with an even wider grin on her face as she realized that this might actually be a challenge after all, "the drones are working as one!"

The first wave might have been easy enough, but things were going to get a wee bit trickier if these drones were indeed being controlled by some singular hive mind.

@Logan @Nefieslab

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

The tactics of the drones were clearly evolving and Aadya wanted to kick herself for not realizing what would happen sooner. Verpine didn't quite operate as a hive mind, but they could communicate silently through transmitted radio waves through their antennae. The communication was nearly instantaneous, like a species wide internet chatroom. If they were actually going to make a dent in the Verpine forces, they needed to push deeper into the tunnels and find the central chamber.

The easiest way to accomplish that would be to level the enemies in front of them as quickly as possible so that they could press inwards. Aadya did not have the power capabilities to do what they needed, but Tagus definitely did. Drawing her pistol, Aadya started leveling shot after shot into the chests and faces of the charging Verpine drones.

"Darth Tagus!" She called out, unsure how well the man would take potential advice from a mere acolyte, but unwilling to let trepidation and fear of ramification prevent her from relaying a needed message. "Need to take out large swathes at a time so we can press in," Aadya had to pause, firing more blaster shots but having her pistol run empty. "I think it might be time to light a fire in the tunnels!"

Aadya hoped that Tagus would know what she was talking about. Force Fire was a very handy tool, but above her skill level. The Darth should have had no problem turning himself into a human flamethrower, though.

Reloading her pistol, Aadya kept up her barrage of blaster bolts. Vahl willing, they wouldn't get overrun.

@Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Well when bugs started to work together it seemed that they became more than the sum of their parts. When bugs worked together they could bring down mighty predators - or avoid being shot by using one of their numbers as a portable shield at least. It was rather devious in his opinion.

He would have approved had this not been an attack on himself and his allies.

Oh?

He glanced at Aadya when she made her suggestion before nodding in agreement. Extinguishing his lightsaber, he cut the flow of the Force to his fingertips, cutting the lightning off. He began to build the Force up within both of his hands as the other two focused on keeping them busy.

"Aadya. Kaye." he called out to his allies, "Disrupt their communication with Force Fear. If they share a deep connection it stands to reason we can spread fear through them like a virus."

Especially with his attack.

Stepping forwards, hands outstretched, he unleashed torrents of fire ahead of himself, burning the bugs alive before they could get too close. He began to steadily advance, burning his way through the resistance as he filled the tunnel ahead of the Sith with a wall of fire.

@Logan @Wit

 

[Darth Nihil]

Kaye had to admit that she was impressed with the Sith Lord's display of power. At least some of them seemed to be actually be worthy of their title. Try as she might, she didn't think she was going to make much of a dent compared to what Tagus was putting out. So while he attacked through the Force, Kaye took up a position a little behind him, her quickdraw firing away at any bugs that managed to get through his attack and threatened the Sith.

Once the effects of Tagus' strategy began to take hold, the bugs became more disoriented, no longer working in harmony as their hivemind was disrupted by the fear radiating into their minds from the Sith. Noticing a decent sized boulder in front of them, Kaye reached out with the Force and sent it flying down ahead of them. It slammed into a bunch of them before it crashed down on top of one of the bugs.

Soon enough there was not much resistance up ahead, they seemed to have cleared out a path, at least for now.

"Which way?" She asked as they came to a split in the tunnels. But even as she asked the question she knew the answer was evident to all teh Sith. The tunnel on the right wound down, and was radiating fear from a little ways on. If she had to guess, whatever lead this hive was down there. And it was scared of the Sith.

@Logan @Nefieslab

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

It appeared her suggestion to Tagus had worked. The fire was pushing back the bugs that were smart enough to run and incinerating the stupid ones that attempted to keep up their advanced. At Tagus' behest, Aadya reached out tot touch the minds of the Verpine, impressing upon and building the fear of the fire now streaming into their faces.

As they advanced and came upon the split, the path ahead was clear to Aadya. Without hesitation she headed down the right-side tunnel, fully assuming her partners would follow. As they descended the fear emanating towards them became palpable. Whatever was leading this particular section of hivemind was very obviously coming to the realization that they were about to die and there was little they could do to stop it.

The tunnel ended in a wide chamber that was inhabited by about six vibrantly green Verpine. Apparently they hadn't really expected opposition to make it through the horde of drones they were controlling, though Aadya doubted they'd even thought about a Sith Lord playing exterminator.

Each of the Verpine were armed with some weird blaster rifle looking things Aadya had never seen before and didn't bother pleading for their lives before starting to open fire. Aadya dove behind a large rock that would protect her from the hail of blaster shots. Poking her head out, she reached out with the force and focused on one of the Verpine's thin, fragile necks. Gripping it tightly, she started to choke the bug out. It wouldn't take her long before she would be able to snap his neck completely.

Their fight should be over soon.

@Wit @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

The bugs were burning well but he was going to tire before their numbers ran out unless they got somewhere he could blast more than just those in front of them. He cut the technique off for a moment and instead used Force Push to banish some of the burning corpses into their fellows.

He checked and saw that none of those in front were either moving or, indeed, living after his parting blast so he followed Aadya down the tunnel. This place was beginning to get incredibly hot, the air incredibly close, but there was nothing for it yet. They still had an objective to complete before they could go anywhere.

Holding his lightsaber in his right hand, Tagus held it up in front of him, batting blaster bolts aside defensively as he reached out with his free hand and tore a chunk of the ground up using the Force. Flinging the rock forwards, he crushed two of the remaining five creatures against the wall with the chunk of earth.

@Logan @Wit

 

[Darth Nihil]

Kaye would have liked to figure out how these drones worked, whatever means the Verpine used to control them would surely have been useful to study and understand. But as things stood it was more important to take care of them.

As the Sith started attacking the remaining six creatures, her companions taking out three of them, Kaye took cover behind the Sith Lord and let go of her blade. It started dropping towards the floor for a moment before it suddenly shot away along the floor as she caught it with the Force. Trusting in Tagus to deflect the bolts coming towards him and thereby staying protected, she used the Force to guide the blade towards the Verpine and fly through one and then another, before dropping to the ground.

Just one to go, they were almost done with this mess.

@Logan @Nefieslab

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

It hadn't taken her companions long to finish off the remaining Verpine, leaving just the one that Aadya was currently choking to death. With a quick and sudden twist in her hold she snapped the bug's fragile neck, resulting in the thing's head coming clean off. The rest of its body slumped lazily into a neat heap onto the ground.

With the death of the intelligent Verpine the drones would soon lose their hive mind signal and likely their surging urge to kill them. Looking around, Aadya shrugged her shoulders as it appeared their job was now complete. "Maybe we should start an exterimination business," She joked, turning back towards the way they came.

Any Verpine left still looking to fight would likely die fairly easily now so the trek out would be far less dangerous than the trek inside. The faster they could get the kriff away from these bugs the better as far as Aadya was concerned. She needed a four hour hot as kriffing hell shower after this one.

//end thread

@Wit @Nefieslab