Open Dead Civilizations

[Talak Rand]

Talak had spent several days flying his ship around the surface of Gree, and the experience had been a frustrating one. In reality, it had been Artee flying around - with a great deal of complaining - while Talak meditated and tried to hone in on what he was looking for. He was trying to let the Force guide him, but he'd found the Force wasn't as responsive as he would have liked. This brought on its own slew of questions about Talak's dubious walk between the dark and the... not dark, and how that may or may not have been affecting his abilities.

Frustration had taken over, and when he was just about to be at his wits end, something clicked.

The ship had been set down, and Talak had quickly disembarked. Gree wasn't an overly hospitable world, and anyone who had done a scan of the atmosphere would know that humans were advised to wear assisted breathing equipment. To that end, Talak had opted to wear survival gear that offered a rebreather. Though the only visible weapon he carried was his vibrosword, his lightsaber was hidden in one of the pouches, and he disembarked the Nomad before ordering Artee to lock it down.

He started walking moments later, reaching out with the Force to guide his path. It tugged at his mind like it hadn't the entire time up until now, and he could only hope that it was a good sign. It didn't, however, mean that he ignored his other senses. His eyes traveled over the "city" and couldn't help but notice the striking reality of the Gree civilization. They had once been one of the most advanced civilizations in the galaxy, perhaps even more so than modern eras, and now they were nothing. They had been decimated, and apart from one city, there was almost nothing left.

Is this what awaits the worlds the Sith Eternal goes after? he asked himself. They were taught that in destruction there was the opportunity for new growth based on past advancements, but that hadn't been the case here. If it wasn't the case here, would it be elsewhere? But then, worlds like Taris had rebuilt and now thrived. He shook his head in annoyance at the thought.

If you don't focus, you won't find what you're looking for, he reminded himself. The exploration was afoot now.

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

It was a fairly simple calculation for Korsak, if he wanted to find one of the ancient hypergates he needed to go to the source, to the dead world of Gree. The errand of locating the hypergates had long ago been written off as one for fools to get lost and die on, but Korsak knew all those that had come before lacked one crucial trait. They weren't him.

He'd studied every scrap of data and parchment in the libraries of the Eternal related to the Gree, and he had settled on a specific settlement for his point of first contact. He'd invested in a survival suit, knowing that Gree's atmosphere was quite harsh to most forms of galactic life. It had taken some time to find a suit that fit well on a one-armed Amaran, but in the end Korsak was as satisfied with his suit as he would probably ever be. He had his pilot droid land his shuttle on the outskirts of the city, a safe distance away should anything or anyone else come to interfere. Korsak was eager to drudge up the ancient knowledge of the hypergates but he was by no means to proud to run, at least not anymore.

Once the trappings of technology and artifacts of the past had guided him to the ruins, Korsak now found the Force to be his only guide, assuming there was anything here to find. His senses, physical and otherwise, began to probe out into the desolation that surrounded him. It was almost comical to him, once some of the most powerful and advanced beings in the galaxy walked these streets, and yet they were all gone, consigned to ash and dirt untold centuries ago. Now only dust and debris remained of their ancient hegemony. At least they had the courtesy to leave their remnants of their civilization behind for others to explore.

One day he would have to return and fully explore the remnants of this unique civilization, but for now he found himself drawn to a faint whisper of darkness that existed at the edge of his extra senses.

 

[Talak Rand]

From behind the shield of his helmet, Talak frowned. Maybe it was the wind playing with his mind or the otherwise silence of this place, but he was fairly certain he had heard a ship fly over. And if he'd heard it, then it meant that it wasn't all that far off.

Just my luck, he thought, thinking back to the last trip he'd taken to Nar Shaddaa where everyone and their mother had wanted to poke their nose into what the Legionnaire was doing. It didn't escape him, however, that with the recent mandate by the Eternal, there was likely to be others poking around this same area. Perhaps, if he was on the right track, someone else would be drawn here as well.

The Sith Eternal on the whole weren't nearly as cutthroat as the ancient Sith, but that didn't mean that they could all be trusted. The Guardians, in particular, idolized the ways of the Sith Lords, and in Talak's mind, that bred distrust. He'd be... optimistic but wary, he decided.

For the moment, he didn't divert his course to find the new stranger. In the remnants of a city without hard coordinates, he could have been wandering around looking for days. If they were here for the same reason, they'd find one another... but Talak did keep a bit more alert.

The buildings that lined the street he walked were as beaten up as one would expect. Weathered by thousands of years and pounded by the elements, but he still held out hope he would find something here of value. Research labs, maybe? Who was it that had created the hypergates? he wondered. If what he'd read was correct, the Gree masters zealously guarded their secrets. Falling back onto some form of alchemical tracking was... an option, but one he'd really rather not use. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

Korsak knew he could spend the rest of his life wandering this city, looking through every scrap of debris and decrepit ruin in this city and still come up with nothing. The Gree were prolific builders and even one of their cities could cover quite some distance both vertically and horizontally. So rather than pick through every heap of rubble in the city Korsak had pinned down a few key locations that, based on his studies, seemed likely candidates for research and development areas, large complexes with potential hangars and underground structures for further work space.

He'd marked the locations down on a holo-map, which he used in part to help guide himself through the city. The other part was his connection to the Darkness, which he allowed to flow and probe over the ruins, searching for any extrasensory signs of what he was looking for. While he heard no whispers of knowledge, what he did hear he quickly came to understand as another Darksider wandering the ruins. Gree held no secrets of Dark power and clearly their civilization was not ripe for conquest or destruction, so clearly another Eternal had come to Gree in search of their mysterious master's prize.

Now Korsak had no specific love or loyalty to the Sith Eternal, in fact he was torn between which subfaction he liked the least. On the one hand he was baffled as to why the Sith cultists would be so obsessed with an organization with such a storied history of self destruction and cataclysmic failure. On the other hand the Legion's fixation with tearing down any civilization more stable than two people throwing kark at each other was just as concerning.

Korsak hoped that whoever was with him on Gree was of a more reasonable persuasion, or at the very least they were dim enough that he could follow them. After all, he had done his due diligence but that didn't mean he had all the answers, and it wasn't like the city or the hypergates were going anywhere anytime soon. So Korsak suppressed his presence in the Force and began to make his way in the direction of the other dark presence, wondering what he might find when he arrived.

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak frowned behind his helmet and the comlink clicked. Artee, gimme a scan of the area. I thought I heard a ship, he said. He didn't bother stopping his progress as he pressed into one of the large buildings in what had once been downtown, he assumed. The one he picked seemed to almost pull him forward, but moreover, it appeared to be a technology building of some sort. Everything of use had been picked clean by the scavengers over the years, and dust clung to everything, but that didn't mean the keen eye couldn't still find something of value.

The power in the building wasn't working (of course), and even if it were, he wasn't sure he had anything that could interface with ancient Gree data systems. This could end up being complicated...

He groaned in annoyance as he pushed further into the building. Surely they didn't use old fashioned paper, could they? Or some smaller, battery-powered devices he might be able to recharge. That was a possibility. He moved further into the building and climbed up a larger girder to the upper, balcony floor of the lobby.

Master, I read residual power vents from a single ship with no one aboard. It appears they've disembarked, but tracking them will prove difficult as there still appears to be sparse wildlife in the area, Artee's voice rang out in his comlink.

So someone's out here with me, he thought. Who he didn't know and whether they were actually here for him remained to be seen. Still, it was interesting, and Talak found it unlikely that it was simply "coincidence." The Force didn't really allow for coincidence.

Keep the ship locked down and keep me posted, Artee. Out, he said. He considered jamming communications, but that would only draw more suspicion and he didn't actually know who this was. He decided caution as he moved forward was his best bet.

He found the old turbolifts... and they weren't working. That's gonna be a lot of stairs, he thought with a sigh. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

As Korsak followed the faint whisper of moving darkness he realized it was heading towards the same structure he had chosen to explore. So this had done their homework, or they were following some lead or impulse he was unaware of. Now Korsak's curiosity was piqued, perhaps this stranger had also done their homework and had come to the same conclusions he had. After all, there was a difference between just going back to the source of the hypergates and strategically researching where specifically such information might be located. Not that Korsak intended to just walk right up to this stranger and ask to borrow their research notes, but it still implied this person was something a cut above the ordinary scavengers and pillagers.

As he summited another mound of rubble, the Amaran saw a shadow slipping into the ruins, the source of the strange presence he'd detected. Korsak picked his way down the mound slowly and began to make his way quietly and carefully into the structure, which appeared far more decrepit and unstable than he first expected. Hopefully the damn thing wouldn't come down on his head while he was snooping around.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak felt something creeping along his neck that was oh-so-familiar. It was the same feeling of being tracked or hunted that took him back to his training and the training of his students. When they were in the Shadowlands or the deep forests, there was always something hunting you. Now there could be no doubt in his mind that someone or something was following him. He just didn't know what.

He didn't open his comlink to Artee again lest someone be listening in, but turned from the turbolift toward the stairs, ascending up one floor before stopping and waiting. With so few options, they were likely to follow the same route, and Talak would be waiting... at least to catch sight of who it was.

He took position at the side of the door to the stairwell and waited for the sound of feet. While the other being would know - if they were sensitive to the Force - that there was someone in the building, this was already known. Locating his exact position would be far more difficult. In truth, Talak wanted answers more than a fight, but whether he was accustomed to it or not he didn't like that feeling of being hunted. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

As Korsak entered the building his sense of the other Eternal's presence suddenly became drastically blurred. It was as if the his target had suddenly up and vanished from the galaxy. Korsak felt no great or overpowering presence from the building, so it wasn't the structure that was blocking his senses, it seemed his prey had caught on to his presence. Not impossible, Korsak was not a master of the Darkside and masking was not a flawless technique. Well, if the game was already up there was no sense in maintaining the ruse, Korsak dropped his apparently failed cloaking attempts and shouted into the ruins.

"Alright, we both know that we're here, and I imagine we both know why we're here. So what happens now? Because I don't know about you but I find cat and mouse games very tedious." Well, hopefully his mystery target was feeling sociable today.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak waited for several minutes before he felt the cloak actually vanish from the other person. He couldn't have pinpointed that the individual was a dark sider before now or where he or she was, but now it was far more obvious that this was, in fact, another member of the Sith Eternal.

He heard the voice echoing through the building no doubt enhanced with the Force, and he moved down the steps to the balcony of the lobby. His eyes scanned over the room from behind his helmet and he crossed his arms as he looked down at the person below. Were it not such an unusual species, he likely wouldn't have remembered that it seemed vaguely familiar. At the meeting the Eternal called? he wondered to himself. It had to be because Talak had spent little time with other members of the Sith Eternal otherwise.

As much as I love a game of cat and mouse, I'd rather not waste the time either, he said. It was illogical for them to fight one another, but Talak also knew that people consumed with the dark side weren't always logical.

They call me the Arcanist. Legionnaire, he said. With his face obscured, he decided that giving his moniker was the better route. If the Amaran had kept up on the galactic goings-on, he would likely recognize the title as the one who had been causing so much grief in Hutt space. That, too, might cause its own issues if this one had a problem with his actions.

So much drama, he thought to himself. Or at least, much potential for it. In the meantime, he waited and watched. The ball was in the Guardians court about whether they would be allies or enemies, but Talak was perpetually skeptical. There was no reason to explain why either of them were here... it was plain as day to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

Korsak waited for a few minutes before he again felt the presence of the other Eternal, although he could not quite pinpoint it in space. Thankfully he did not have to as a humanoid figure in an opaque helmet stepped out of the shadows on the floor above into view. The figure was, apparently, a Legionnaire, and not just any Legionnaire but the infamous Arcanist who'd caused such a stir in Hutt Space. So clearly this person was bordering on maniacal, but for the moment they seemed at least semi-reasonable so Korsak decided to extend them the same courtesy.

"Then you may call me the Occultist, Guardian." If the humanoid was going to use a pseudonym in his presence, then why shouldn't he do the same? "Considering we haven't killed each other yet, I say we get on with the business we both came here for, Arcanist. Unless you have other plans..."

Korsak had no intention of fighting this figure, but if attacked or provoked he would fight back with a power and ferocity well beyond his small size and seemingly harmless appearance.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak wasn't at all offended by the Guardian using an alias. After all, what kind of double standard would that mean he was holding?

A Guardian, he thought to himself. He was still dubious about the Guardians and their obsession with the Sith Lords of old. Of course, he also knew many people in the Guardians weren't so bad either. Time would tell where this one fell.

He motioned to his left at the pillar he had climbed up. It's the only way up. There's a stairwell on this floor, he said, pointing with a thumb over his shoulder. It was blocked below this second level, and he hoped that above they wouldn't run into further issues.

He waited for the Occultist to make his way up before heading to the stairs.

Long way up, he said, looking up toward the top of the building. He started almost immediately, heading toward the top floors and taking the steps relatively quickly. It would be tiring, but any major offices would be on the upper floors... of the skyscraper. Great. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

"I'll be with you shortly." Korsak made his way over to the opening and simply leapt straight up through the hole in the floor to the second level. Despite his small stature and apparent physical weakness he had a wealth of both knowledge and stamina when it came to the Force, and could easily leap his way up a floor at a time if their other stairs were blocked.

"Thank you, I hadn't noticed." Korsak had become a bit more...venomous ever since his maiming. Understandable, but it was an impulse he needed to learn how to reign in if he wanted to last long in this organization. It was unwise to anger people who's power came from emotion.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak rolled his eyes behind his helmet at the sarcastic response, and didn't say anything else. At least it helped further set the precedent for this partnership, so Talak started ascending the stairs.

They didn't appear very stable, and even as he was ascending they seemed as if they were going to give way under him at any moment. His feet caused several of the older pieces of rusted metal to twist away under him and nearly sent him plummeting down to the flight below.

Between the number of stairs, the obstacles they had to climb around, and the unsteady nature of virtually every flight, the ascent wasn't a quick one, and the sun had begun to set by the top they reached the upper floors. That would make their search even more difficult in the darker conditions, and would either diminish their chances of success or force them to "camp out" here for the night until they could search with something more than Talak's glowrod. Who knew what was lurking on this world at night. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

Korsak could tell that climbing the massive stairwell would take hours, even without the decaying structure of the steps and the debris lying in the way. The first few steps on the stairwell even crumbled under the Arcanist's weight as he tried to climb them, creating a small gap Korsak had to leap in order to keep going. If this was going to be the order of the day the sun would be down before they got halfway up the stairs.

Korsak decided to expediate the process as best he could with the Force, waving piles of rubble aside with one hand and holding steps in place with telekinesis as they crossed them. This helped to shave some time off their climb and made the process much easier for both parties. Now it was just a matter of seeing if they could reach the top before night fell, bringing darkness and possibly worse to the tower.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Their ascent still wasn't very quick, but at least neither of them went plummeting to their deaths. He came out into the upper floor and could feel the breeze rushing through the building. At this height, the wind was faster, and he didn't dare go to the edge of the building to look down. He knew the drop was hundreds of feet at the least, and plummeting to his death didn't sound appealing.

We should split up to search the offices, he said. There were a lot of offices, and the sun was half-sunk behind the horizon already.

He started making his way through the first of the rooms he came to, not hopeful that there was going to be anything in here. The odds that they actually found anything was slim, but it wasn't actually a hypergate location that he was looking for. He was looking for anything to point them to the person who might have made the hypergates.

Talak was surprised when... he actually found something. He booted up a computer, using the power supply from his datapad, and it showed the names of several projects. Although it wasn't exactly the location of the hypergates, it did show the name of the chief engineer.

I think I got something, he said, taking a picture of the display before holding it up for the Guardian to see. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

"Agreed." Once they had made their slow but relatively safe climb to the upper floors of the office the Arcanist suggested they split up and investigate the offices separately. Under the circumstances that was probably the best plan, as it was getting much darker outside and Korsak did not want to be on this planet longer than he had to.

Korsak split off from the Arcanist and entered the first room on his side of the floor, finding a long, narrow hallway in front of him. He stepped out into the hall and got perhaps halfway down the hall before disaster struck. The floor gave way underneath him, and though he tried to leap to safety or grab onto something it was no use, he plummeted straight down to the floor below, a dark abyss with no visible windows. The fall was painful enough, but Korsak landed awkwardly on his left foot and felt a very loud, painful crunch.

"GAAHH!!" He roared in pain, having almost certainly snapped something from his rough landing.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Unfortunately, the Guardian never made it back. Talak heard a loud crash and crumbling sound and he stiffened and jumped a bit. His eyes went wide and he quickly unhooked his datapad and slipped it away before going to investigate. His hand was gripping his sword hilt, but he didn't sense any signs of violence or malice in the Force. He didn't even sense any impending danger, which begged the question....

He saw the hole in the floor a moment later. Ah, kriff... he muttered, taking very cautious steps near the edge and actually laying out on the ground as he neared the hole so that his body weight was distributed across the ground instead of centered in one place that might collapse.

Peering into the blackness didn't do him much good, but he could hear a cry of pain.

How bad is it?! he shouted down, inching away from the edge and pulling the grappling gear out of his belt. I'm going to come down! he shouted again, finding a steady anchoring point to attach the line and beginning the descent very carefully so as not to trigger a worse cave in or come down crushing his impromptu partner. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

Korsak wasn't sure how long he languished at the bottom of the pit, snarling and snapping in pain from the sudden drop, but he was surely relieved when he heard the Arcanist's muffled voice from the top of the shaft.

"I think I broke something!" He hollered back as he tried to roll over on his back. It was painful, but he was able to work his way onto his back and face up at the barely lit opening to the floor above. "Watch yourself, I doubt the floor was the only unstable part of that hallway."

That was the last thing he needed right now, the Arcanist plummeting down on top of him or causing more debris to come crashing down from the ceiling.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Yeah, I'd rather we don't both plummet to entrapment, he said as he started the descent.

Unfortunately, luck was not with them both. As he continued the descent down, the pillar that the he had anchored to promptly gave way, and Talak was plummeting down... and he landed right on top of his partner.

This would, of course, be quite painful if Talak landed on the broken leg, and things only got worse. The pillar that had ripped away brought down with it pieces of the ceiling, sealing over the portion of the exit that they might have used. His grapple was tied up up top in the rubble as well, which meant that using it again wasn't an option.

He rolled off of the Amaran, and pulled out his glowrod, lighting the darkness that had consumed them both. Saying "sorry" didn't really feel like it would help anything, so Talak started digging through his medkit and jammed a healing stim into his partner's leg. The pain killing effect would set in almost immediately, and he started pulling out bacta patches and looked around for a piece of rebar to stabilize the fracture.

Hold still, and start patching up the injury, he said, handing the bacta patches over as he located a piece of rebar and sliced it with his saber. They would have to find a new way out of here, which would prove problematic as well. Particularly with a leg fracture. He couldn't have Artee just fly up to the window to pick them up. @The Captain

 

[Korsak Wulpez]

Korsak didn't notice the collapsed ceiling or their now pitch-black conditions, because he was too busy screaming in agony from the second break the Arcanist's awkward landing caused. This second break was further up the leg, closer to the knee, and the combined agony of both injuries and the crushing weight of the human on top of him elicited the very normal reaction of howling pain from Korsak. The only thing that dulled his animalistic agony was the sudden injection of an anesthetic stim into his leg, which eased the sharp ache but didn't realign his bones.

He was in no mood or condition to argue at this point, when Talak shoved the bacta patches in his tank Korsak did his best to apply them to the most damaged parts of his leg. With the pain slowly subsiding and his senses returning Korsak activated his lightsaber in the hopes of casting some more light into this dark abyss around them.

@Phoenix