Ask Event Deepest Dark

[Kyssiara Serket]

The Stygian Reaches? It was the first Kyssiara was hearing about it, though by Ra'sa'd's description it seemed plausible that some very ancient Purebloods might have ventured out here before mention of their journeys were lost to time. His answer provided some clarity, though the acolyte wasn't sure how helpful the information ultimately was. On that note, he seemed to be talking with a little more confidence than Kyssiara would have expected of a guide who was scared for his life—

Everything next happened so fast. A droid activated, catching attention of the girl's master (@Akheron) while she felt Ra'sa'd drawing on the Force; out of the corner of her eye, the Pureblood noticed some kind of scrap or debris at the gorgeous redhead (@GABA) who'd been piloting the shuttle. Kyssiara had no time to shout out a warning, though, as the thief-turned-guide turned on her next, his arm cocked back and ready to throw a punch.

This is what she got for playing nice. No more.

Ra'sa'd was halfway through his swing when he'd find himself thrown back against the wall, Kyssiara's hand extended as she pinned him there. Golden eyes shone bright as the girl channeled the Dark Side, drawing on all her pent up anger from her earlier humiliation on the deck of the Wildcard. Behind her, she could feel her master drawing on the Force himself, sensing his focus was on the other Pureblood as well.

"I've got him!" Kyssiara called out, beginning to walk forward while she addressed Trodai behind her. "He's mine." The acolyte continued pinning Ra'sa'd to the wall as she closed the distance; intensifying the pressure to not just restrain him but to hurt him, threatening to crush him like an ant under a boot. "Let's make one thing very clear." she began. "You're only alive at our mercy. At my mercy specifically, got it? And I ain't the regretful type like the first guy ta shoot you."

Kyssiara's eyes bore into Ra'sa'd as she sent him brief flashes of memory through their psychic link, images of what she'd done to the bankers of Aargu. "So ya either help us leave, or I kill ya; right here, right now."

@Nefieslab @LouJoVi @AutoFox @Apollyon @Sreeya

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Team Doctor

Thankfully, Trodai was able to destroy the droid before he could fire at Caerllion again. The Annfyn slowly rose from the ground, while the thing was in the ground basically lamenting about its fate. The only thing that crossed the man’s mind was the fact that it sounded so melodramatic. How someone could make a droid like this one.

Halfway while rising from the floor, Caerllion sent a push with the Force to send it crashing against a wall. Then he turned his attention to Ra’sa’d, who obviously had betrayed them. He really wasn’t surprised that it had happened, but at least Trodai and Kyssiara were already dealing with him.

@Nefieslab @AutoFox @René @Akheron @GABA

 

[Nye]

Team Professor — The squid Jedi and others got distracted with the child. Just how did the Fiani lady conclude that the child was force-sensitive? Is she another one of those force-users too? This is getting out of hand...

Anyways, Nye would do as the squid-faced Jedi asked, he would use the key to unlock the shackles that aren't presently binding anyone. He is definitely superstitious alright. After Nye would finished, he would call out to the Jedi "Hey Master Jedi Squidface, I did it as you asked. Now what?" he said, not caring about what the Jedi was doing, looking at the clock on his EZPhone, waiting for something to happen.

@Nefieslab @Narzen

 

[Rina Oziaf]

TEAM DOCTOR

Rina stood, holding out her arm as Trodai (@Akheron) instructed. She hesitated, though; Ra'sa'd had turned on them, but something about the purpose of this exertion of her newfound power seemed...

Kyssiara (@René) took away the necessity for Rina to choose, stepping in to help restrain the local adventurer herself. The Tintinna steeled herself, turning toward the downed droid which had sprung up to attack them; Caerllion (@LouJoVi) had shoved the literally disarmed machine against a nearby junk pile. Gritting her teeth, Rina started toward it.

"You look like you've got this!" she called over her shoulder. "Time I put my more mundane skills to use!"

Reaching the droid, which was still feebly squirming and grating invective through its harsh vocabulator, Rina dropped down and opened the large access panel on the front of its torso. Pulling out her datapad, she searched for a standard interface plug, but found none; it was the work of a few moments to find some loose wires from another wrecked droid, strip them and fashion a rough-and-ready improvised link to what she thought was a diagnostic socket. Binary data began scrolling across the screen of her small device, and she frowned at what she got.

A lot of it was gibberish; whether that was intentional scrambling or just data corruption due to age, Rina couldn't tell. Still, she was eventually able to access the droid's core memory stacks, which appeared mostly intact, although her access kept being reset. Cursing, she tried to stay one step ahead of the droid; though unable to fight her physically, the machine was attempting to deny her its secrets. Abruptly, lights inside the chassis began going out. It took the experienced Tintinna only an instant to guess what was going on, and she acted on pure reflex; a chunk of non-ferrous debris was jammed strategically into what Rina thought was the power supply, blocking the last manual interlock from opening and preventing the droid from powering itself off.

"Great stars, who coded your self-preservation stack?!"

Rina got her answer a moment later, gaining access to what should have been the droid's tasking hierarchy. What she found inside read more like a manifesto, one she was fairly sure the droid had written itself, or had at least acquired from another droid who had written it. There was a lot about the right of droids to self-determination, as well as some stuff reminiscent of Hunter-Killer Philosophy, although Rina thought its inspirations might be original. All of it seemed childish, inelegant...

"An actual droid rebellion, not a slice or a dataplague?" she muttered to herself, "I wonder how far they got?"

Abruptly, something caught Rina's attention. It was a strangely phrased segment of code, and some instinct made the Tintinna swoop to grab it. As it was downloading to her datapad, however, there was a fizzle from the droid; abruptly, the debris Rina had shoved into the power supply shattered, peppering her with small shards of plastoid. The droid abruptly powered down, and as Rina checked the progress of her download she cursed; only about half had been saved successfully.

Standing, Rina waved her find in the air.

"I think I've got half the door code here!" she called. "But I think I'm gonna need another droid for the rest!"

@Nefieslab

 

[Theia Durand]

Team Doctor

Whelp, she didn't like misadventures of chaos and unpredictability. When Ra'sa'd froze, things were clicking for the padawan and his scowl was met with her own, her bright eyes burning with annoyance for the thief. Though as fast as she scowled, she didn't realize entirely that she was moving. An urgency, of what, she didn't know but the girl dove off to the side, breaking her fall in the bones of beings past. The metal flew through where she stood, impaling itself into the wall of the spire access point, "You a-hole!" she groaned, pushing herself up.

However, she paused looking at the bones and dust of where she had fallen, it was like something straight out of a horror movie as she scrambled to her feet, pulling her vibroblade. Though seeing Kyssiara and Trodai getting ahold of him, she was worried what irrational response they would have next. Theia would agree the thief needed to be detained in some way that didn't hinder their objective to get back to their homes, but also didn't needlessly take a life. It was certainly a dilemma the padawan was chewing on, she wished Ezra was here so she could ask him for his guidance; though he would probably say use the Force or something.

She heard Rina say something about getting codes as she stood between the rodent and the thief, her grasp still on her weapon. "Are door codes necessary? Why not get big guy here," Theia pointed to Trodai with her thumb, "Use his saber to cut us a door." With as old as this place was, the doors were already having difficulty opening as evidence when they were reaching the generator room. If no one had touched this area for millennia, there was no guarantee these codes would still work.

@Nefieslab
Dice Rolls, 2d20 = 8, 7

 

[Cipher Four]

Team Professor

---

___As Alhazred (@Narzen) approached, Four gently held the girl's hands, allowing the child to squeeze them as tightly as she needed. Even as the child hyperventilated and fell into the waves of panic and anxiety, Four kept the girl's attention squarely on her with gentle words and quiet reassurances.

___"You're doing wonderful," Four said, her sweet smile a beacon of hope for the girl. "Focus on me, all right? He will help you," she continued. Even as the Jedi placed his turban against her head, the girl remained transfixed on Four. The Cipher kept the child grounded in reality while Alhazred helped her focus on the innate feeling of the Force around her, attuning to it and purging her mind and heart of the feelings of fear. With each steady breath, the girl's panic subsided, and as she did, Four elicited a happy chuckle, a sign of progress and hope.

___"See? There you go," Four continued. As the girl loosened her grip on the Fiani's hands, the woman lifted one to gently stroke the top of her head. "You did such a good job," she stated. Four's attention turned to the Jedi as he stood and turned away. She nodded her appreciation to him. "Thank you for your help," she said. "I'll keep that in mind if it happens again. With any luck, it won't," she sighed. She rose to her feet, allowing the girl to continue holding her hand as she glanced around the room to gain an idea of whatever progress had been made since the girl's panic attack.

@Nefieslab

 

[Azathoth]

As the whispers in Aza’s mind roiled and shifted from cruel to the soft cooing of a lover, she couldn’t help but feel like whatever it was that she had done to gain this beings approval, it had been the right thing to do.

The warmth she felt settle onto her shoulders was welcome and willingly embraced it, and she was confident the entity would know that. She wasn’t a fool, of course, Azathoth wasn’t going to just let some strange, invisible - and likely darkside, given its request - being freely inhabit her. But her walls had holes, and she would speak back to it if it had anything to say.

Aza had no interest in calming the child, figuring that was what Jedi were for anyway. The whole thing was a bit tiresome as far as she was concerned. They had used the child to gain the trust of the locals, and as far as she could tell, the kid offered no other value at this point.

It would be easier just to kill her so that they could get a move on. Though, strangely, Azathoth wasn’t sure if that was entirely her own thoughts or if the whispers had come back and pushed her in that direction.

The Jedi is right, she said, her tone bored. We should get a move on.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

Team Professor

@The Good Doctor @Charndley @Interdictor @Narzen @Logan @Laskt @Remileah @StephDLegend
​

As dedicated as he clearly was to the Dark Side and immersing himself in its ebbs and flows, it was also obvious that the trained Jedi Knight was a class above the Dark Sider. Enthusiasm and a connection to the Dark Side were both good things for someone without much in the way of training but they were, ultimately, building blocks.

Whereas Kaedan's skills were built on a mixture of talent, experience and skill... his assailant had only one of the three and it was the crucial part of why he fell to the ground, released from Kaedan's grip of the Force as a maimed and unconscious former foe.

Kaedan would have little trouble in catching up with the Professor's group as they were collectively dealing with the situations presented to them by the slave holding area. The situation with the child would be visible to Kaedan through the Force, allowing him to see the Force swirling around the young girl as she descended into a panic.

Fortunately for the little girl, the team was more than happy to ensure that she remained grounded in reality both for her benefit and their own. As Four grounded the young girl in the here and now, acting as an anchor in the tumultuous surroundings, Alhazred acted as the calming of the storm. The Force around them all quietened with their combined efforts as they worked together to calm both the Force and the girl - resulting in a little girl wiping her tears away but smiling up at them both.

As her mother thanked Four, the little girl let go of her hand for just long enough to grab a necklace she had been wearing. Mostly hidden under her clothes, it was only as she pulled it off to present it to Four that the pendant was made visible; a slightly misshapen chunk of crystal in a warm amber colour.

"Thank you..."

The mother thanked Four again, bowing her head as the little girl pressed the crystal into Four's hand before waving shyly and allowing her mother to shepherd her away.

The Professor's ears wiggled a little bit in joy.

"Wonderful... simply wonderful! It is always a joy to see the Force and compassion working together... oh! And I see our lost member has returned!" the Professor chirped, "Hello there Master Jedi! We thought you might have gotten lost back there!"

It was meant as a joke but it was clear that the Professor was relieved - he couldn't imagine losing members of his team in this strange new Galaxy! As Nye was working to free the shackles, he would feel something, like a breeze, against his forearms before it was gone, Strangely enough it stopped as soon as he had opened the shackles.

Perhaps nothing would have happened had he not unlocked the shackles - after all, he wasn't afraid of no ghost, right?

Taking the advice of both Azathoth and the Jedi present, the Professor nodded in agreement and quickly shuffled toward the door at the end of the slave quarters. With the keycard that Azathoth had found, the door opened without issue, sliding open as though it had only been used yesterday. Within was a spacious lift, an elevator of some design that the Professor was, admittedly, unfamiliar with.

Once everyone from the team was huddled inside the lift, the Professor eyed the control panel for an awkwardly long moment before pressing a button with a short, stubby, claw. The doors shut fast behind them and there was a whirl and the unmistakable feeling in the gut of ascending at speed.

There was, quite pointedly, no music.

Before the awkward silence could become awkward enough to prompt the Professor to ask if anyone had seen the most resent episode of The Real Househusbands of Rina Major, the ascending feeling stopped and the doors opened. Immediately, the path ahead of them was dark but seemed to be lighting up as they stepped out of the lift, as though the lighting was only just coming back online after a very long time.

They stepped out into a t-junction of a corridor, with the lift they had just stepped out of mirrored directly across from them by another, very similar, lift. To the right, in the middle of the junction, was a large circular door that appeared to be very similar to the blast doors of a starship's main bridge. In the middle of the door was a note, worn paper held in place by ancient adhesive.

To the left of the main door, a door control panel could be seen but even from a distance there was a clear warning in red on the screen - CONNECTION LOST.

"Well..." the Professor spoke, clapping his hands together slightly, "I daresay we are in the spire and have arrived before the good Doctor. Go team!"

Team Doctor

@René @Apollyon @Akheron @LouJoVi @AutoFox @Sreeya​

The Doctor was beginning to think that his team was cursed.

First, he was pretty sure that most of his team hated each other and weren't afraid to show it. Second, they also seemed to be very keen on getting themselves attacked, blown up and otherwise incapacitated. Gods but he wished that the sensible Doctor Rowan would have been slightly less caring - that way he would have been here to help the Doctor sort out these messes they seemed to keep finding themselves in. Especially because now? Their captive guide seemed intent on trying to do them harm before he could make his getaway.

In the end, though, he was rather outnumbered.

The Doctor ignored the commotion for the moment, reaching out and helping Theia climb to her feet - she had taken quite a tumble to avoid the projectile that had been sent at her back after all.

"Miss Theia are you alright?" he asked before frowning ever so slightly at the sight of the Sith starting to torment their betrayer, taking it in like Caerllion seemed to be doing - with an understanding air but a touch impatient with it already, "I suppose we did rather need Dr Rowan on hand to keep him in line... oh well. Miss Rina, if you could enter your half of the code into the door, I'm sure that we'll be able to find the other half in short order. Unfortunately, the door appears to be for the equivalent to a turbolift - see the column above it goes all the way to the ceiling? - so a lightsaber might cut through it too well. Lifts don't tend to go at appropriate speeds when their doors are permanently open."

As much as the Doctor seemed content to ignore the situation going on as much as possible - Ra'sa'd himself was, unfortunately, not in a position to do so. Pinned to the wall, the thief growled in pain as Kyssiara pressed him against the wall like the hand of an anger god pressing down on an insignificant bug. He might have been able to mount some kind of resistance but his concentration was taken up by the pain of having his body pressed so hard against the metal of the wall behind him that it felt like Kyssiara was doing her best to see if she could push him through the wall - an inch at a time.

As she spoke, Trodai used the Force, twisting and bending one of the pureblood's limbs - snapping it in short order, causing Ra'sa'd to let out a particularly vile cursed in the Sith language. It wasn't a Force-focused curse so much as it was a well-used turn of phrase meant to imply that Trodai's mother had been smell vermin and his father had stank of poorly produced fruit wine.

The mental assault from Kyssiara found less traction, with the mental barriers around Ra'sa'd's mind slamming shut in the face of the assault. She would not be able to push the images into his mind and she would find that her comprehension-sharing had stopped as well - she would instinctively know that Ra'sa'd would no longer understand Basic.

But something happened in his mind that she had not predicted; when Rina mentioned having half of the door code, there was a flash of numbers in Kyssiara's mind that she had no memory of before. Instead she would notice how Ra'sa'd's eyes darted from Rina to one of the droids a short distance away, then the flash of numbers again. Outwardly, Ra'sa'd seemed to sag against the wall as much as he could, his face contorting in anger and determination as he used as much physical strength as he could to lift his head form the wall ever so slightly...

He spat at Kyssiara, missing her entirely as it kind of just fell between them before he was pressed further into the wall.

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Team Doctor

Caerllion turned his attention away from Ra’sa’d and back to the Doctor. The Chiss seemed to be giving instructions about what they needed to do next. “I’ll give a look at the control panel.” the Annfyn said, before rushing toward it. He had been being successful with his slicer abilities, so it wasn’t going to be a problem.

Unfortunately, this part of the system seemed to be more ancient than the rest. Caerllion didn’t understand anything that was being shown to him. “I can see that it has no errors.” he said, a bit disappointed for not being capable of finding anything else useful.

@Nefieslab @Akheron @René @AutoFox

 

[Trodai Narat-iv-Adas]

Trodai continued to observe, as his apprentice Kyssiria dealt with the betrayer. And smiled as the limb broke, punishing him for his defiance of them and the Sith. He hoped he was smart enough to reconsider any further betrayal if he valued his life. It took some considerable restraint to not assault him further for the insults, but they needed him...for now. Once his use run out well...who was he to be denied some retribution. To make him pay for the offence.

He spoke in Ur-kittat to make his point "I suggest you start behaving Ra'sa'd. Less you lose your other leg and I have someone drag you until your no longer of use. We will leave you to rot here. You paid the penalty for betraying us once, do you really want to test our patience." He said making the point clear as to what a precarious position Ra'sa'd had now placed himself within.

He helped assist keeping him pinned there with the Force until it was clear he understood what was being said and exactly what was required of him. That he would do as told, unless he wanted to lose another bone.

"Nod your head if you understand me." he spoke to the group "Someone get stuncuffs ready if you have any. Make sure his on a tight leash."

@René @Nefieslab @LouJoVi @AutoFox

 

[Rina Oziaf]

TEAM DOCTOR

Rina nodded to the Doctor, dutifully going to the controls panel for the apparent turbolift and keying the digits of the password she had recovered into it. As she did, she gave a nervous look toward Ra'sa'd and Trodai (@Akheron); the adventurer had proven willing to betray them, certainly, but the brutal utilitarianism of the Sith was... well, outside her comfort zone. If they decided to kill the stranger in cold blood, she wasn't sure she would be able to stand by and watch...

Maybe I don't have to? she thought to herself, looking down at one of her hand and flexing her fingers experimentally. It was the one attached to the injured arm, blood matting the fur in places; despite the injury, however, it only ached, rather than radiating the searing, debilitating pain she knew it otherwise would have. That was her doing; if Rina could do that with only the barest concentration... well, the Sith had told her how she could do other things.

She glanced at Trodai, then shivered slightly and looked away. That was not a healthy train of thought; she was a novice to this power, whereas any of the Sith present were well trained and well practiced in any number of counters, from the merely painful to the dramatically lethal. And anyway, they might not provoke her to action...

She stepped back from the panel, glancing over her shoulder at the droid wrecks and old bones. This place had other secrets...

@Nefieslab

 

[Nye]

Nothing seemed to have happened as he was undoing the shackles, which lead to Nye thinking he was doing was pointless. But for some reason it felt like cold air hit his arms. Then the breeze disappeared as quickly as it came. That was odd. Shaking his head, the technocrat would shrug off notions of spirits and other nonsense as he would put his focus at the task at hand.

Inside the lift, he would fiddle with and focus on his EZPhone, as the group would awkwardly make their ascent.

Now that they are off, there is one path forward. "They are probably at the way other end of the station at this point" he replied to the Professor. Nye thought aloud on the status of the other team. He would wonder if they are even heading in this direction or not.

Nye would position himself at the console of the blast door, taking the initiative. 'CONNECTION LOST' it says. Nye would see what he can do with it. "Hmmm. The console is in fine working order, reporting correctly. But this looks like it was disconnected from the other side."

He would look to his colleagues, to see what they make of this. In case any of them try slashing the door with a lightsaber, he would get out of the way.

@Nefieslab

 

[Alhazred]

TEAM PROFESSOR

The Elevator ride was, thankfully, uneventful. True, it was a bit awkward with everyone close together, and being more-or-less crotch height did have some disadvantages, but at least people weren't making idle pointless chatter. There was some level of self-respect to be had after all. And the further the group got from that one hallway, the better Alhazred felt.

Once in the T-corner hallway, Alhazred followed the others. The one named Nye made some comments.

"Your guess is better than mine. Technology is not my people's forte"

With that, he went to go study the note held by the adhesive. Maybe the other group had passed through already and left them a sign?

@Nefieslab

 

[Cipher Four]

Team Professor

---

___Four glanced up at the mother as she was thanked, softly smiling and nodding to acknowledge the woman's gratitude. Her attention was drawn away as the child let go. The Cipher observed in stunned silence as the girl removed the necklace and placed it in her hand, pressing it into her palm. Before she could open her fingers to see what it was, the child was ushered away by her mother, and as the girl waved, Four waved back.

___"You're welcome, little one..."

___It was then that she looked down at the necklace. It was warm to the touch, and upon closer observation, Four could see it possessed a faint glow. She furrowed her brow as the group proceeded towards the elevator, turning the crystal over in her hand to examine it from all sides. It looked like a kyber crystal at a glance, and the Fiani was all but certain it was. An inkling of doubt resided in her mind about what it was and whether or not kyber would even be accessible in this new, unexplored galaxy.

___It didn't matter. It was a gift of adoration from a child she had helped, and Four couldn't dismiss a gesture like this. The weight of the necklace in her hand was a tangible reminder of the child's gratitude. Lifting the necklace up, Four pulled the accessory over her ears and let it rest around her neck as she filed into the elevator with the others. The warmth it radiated, accompanied by the meaning behind the gift, felt almost like a hug. The Cipher let her fingertips rest atop the crystal for a few moments before she lowered her hand, retrieving her rifle from its place on her back. They still had a mission to complete.

___When the elevator doors lurched open, Four lifted her rifle and adopted the same ready stance she had taken when they first arrived at the station. She exited the opening, scanning the environment for anything lurking in the shadows.

@Nefieslab

 

[Theia Durand]

Team Doctor

Theia thanked the Doctor for helping her up, the dust seemingly unrelenting sticking to her clothing as she looked back to where the sith were playing with Ra'sa'd. She nodded in agreement to having Rowan stay and perhaps they wouldn't have been in this situation. Though for her own reasons, she wished Rowan had stayed because he was super cute and the rest of the sith were starting to look...okay, well they were still weirdly hot in some obscure way that she couldn't quite explain.

She frowned to herself when the Doctor explained reasons they couldn't open the door by making their own with a lightsaber. And it made sense, perhaps she just really wanted to make a door with a lightsaber- it would probably be the first thing she did when she was finally able to build one. It didn't help her annoyance with the obstacles that were coming at them non-stop; generally she didn't mind challenges, to exercise mind and body, but there was something more heavy that weighed on her with these tasks. Perhaps it was the fact she was surrounded by the dark side, she was warned it would obscure her senses in some ways, but she was also worried that they would be stuck here for a very long time. The idea of not being able to return home was painful to think about, so she tried not to think about it since it has not come to reality-yet.

The padawan took a calming breath inward, slowly exhaling before speaking; "So how long would it take to go through all these droids to find any more clues to our code?" she asked frowning as she looked around.

@Nefieslab @LouJoVi @René @Akheron @AutoFox

 

[Kaala]

Team Professor
Kaala didn't bother to acknowledge the Jedi's return but stepped into the lift with the rest of the group. Standing in the corner, she nervously shifted, checking over her carbine and helmet HUD for the umpteenth time today. It was, of course, functional. After the quiet trip in the lift-she really needed to get better at talking-she stepped out into what must have been the spire. Scanning the junction, she noticed the broken door control and frowned. The door could have been broken by age, or was it something else? You could never know. The Togruta let out an amused huff that was her version of a chuckle when the Professor made a small attempt at humor. At least he had tried. Without saying a word, she motioned for Vaze to try and open the main door. The droid turned and approached the door, looking for any way to plug in.
@Nefieslab

 

[Kaedan]

Kaedan made light work of the enemy. While he was confident in his lightsaber skills, he wasn’t as confident in his force abilities. He also hadn’t been in a true 1 v 1 situation before now. The battle with the dark sider was a huge motivator for the new knight. All the sparring and training paid off. Now that his skill had paid off, he would be sure to remember the importance of trusting in the ‘tedious’ training exercises.

With nothing in his way, he rushed to catch up with the others. It didn’t take him long before he was reunited with the group. He quickly observed the area in an attempt to piece together the bits he missed while taking care of their dark sider. Seeing the slave holding area made him uncomfortable, even so, he kept his composure.

Then there was the child, she was going through an experience with the force. Interesting. If she is indeed force sensitive then she will need help centering herself and training though we can’t just pull her from her mother; that won’t do. Also, with the lack of the council’s direction, there’s a lot to do to make sure that the order survives.

As the girl seemed to have calmed down, a small smile found Kaedan’s face. Kaedan observed the exchange of the crystal and wondered about something. Is that a kyber crystal or is that something else?

Kaedan chuckled at the professor’s humor. “I got sidetracked but I am here now.”

When the door ahead opened with the use of a keycard, Kaedan walked with the group to the lift. As the lift closed and moved without music, Kaedan communed with the force, finding it easier to do so now that the dark sider was out of commission. When they arrived on their floor, Kaedan stepped out into the darkness that started to illuminate.

Directly ahead was a lift similar to the one they just came out of. To the right there was a blast door with some sort of note on it. As he got closer, he saw the connection lost prompt on the control panel.

Kaedan placed his hand on the door, trying to see what could be done to open it. The metal is too strong for a lightsaber to work. He continued moving his hands on the blast door before his fingers brushed the central lock. Maybe if we use multiple lightsabers here, we can get some results. “Alhazred, based on what I’m feeling and what I can see, a single lightsaber won’t do squat with the door but if we work together with our lightsabers, it is possible to melt the central lock in the middle. Anyone else who may have a lightsaber on them are welcomed to help.” Kaedan activated his blue lightsaber and forced it into the central lock, hoping that others would assist in order for them to get inside.

@Nefieslab @Narzen @Interdictor @The Good Doctor @Logan @Remileah @Laskt

 

[The Gatekeeper]

Team Professor

@The Good Doctor @Charndley @Interdictor @Narzen @Logan @Laskt @Remileah @StephDLegend
​

While Nye had no way of knowing the location of the other team any more than the Professor did, the little intellectual decided that he much preferred to be an optimist. He had hope that the Doctor and his team would be heading for the Spire as they were - but, he would admit, that the Doctor had some volatile elements within his group and he didn't quite know how his friend would be able to cope with the whole thing.

A worrisome story for them to share over drinks back on the Wildcard he was sure.

The reveal that the door had been sealed from the inside was more than slightly concerning. Rubbing at his right ear in a reflexively calming motion, the Professor frowned deeper. This would be confirmed by Kaala's droid, who would find a connection point and confirm, in binary, that Nye appeared to be correct - the note in the binary suggested that it might be surprised that Nye was so adept at slicing, for an organic, but it would begin to map out the internal systems, finding that most systems within the room beyond the door were reporting functionality above 60%.

"Why would anyone do that? If this door has been shut for a long time... they'd have either died in there or needed another way out."

And what was the point of designing a main bridge area with defences like blast doors that could be walked around? No, the idea of a secondary exit seemed unlikely but he hoped it was right, rather than the person who had locked the doors being inside - alive or dead. Still, he did a short jump to grab the note from the door. Looking over it, the Professor muttered to himself as he mentally translated the note - it appeared to be written in ancient Tionese.

His grasp of written Ancient Tionese was actually far superior to his grasp of the spoken language - after all, it had been a dead language back in their home Galaxy.

"It reads... it reads almost like a notice of lack of service? They talk about something called 'The Guild' and how it 'failed in its duty' but I can't see anything here about what either of those things might be." he scratched behind his right ear, "Anyone heard of a Guild of some kind?"

The Professor was confused but that was alright - it was just that it made him curious. Curiosity was required in his line of work and this adventure was giving him enough to "kill several cats" as his mother used to say. Still, Four would find the area devoid of any kind of more active defences - as though the designers had forgone things such as turrets in the name of beefing up security on the door.

This perception didn't last long, however.

As soon as Kaedan sank his lightsaber into the central locking mechanism of the blast doors, a red light began to pulse from the top of the door's frame. There was no sound - either the speaker having been broken by time or perhaps designed to be silent - but it was clearly an alarm system. The back section of wall, opposite the blast doors, had been smooth and featureless until but a moment ago as it slide down into the ground, revealing a security team.

The security team was long since dead.

They were human-like skeletons, dressed up in worn-red combat suits that looked similar to space-suits. Each of them had visible, chunky, cybernetics fused to their skulls, covering both of their eye sockets with a blue-tinted visor. As the team watched, the lenses flashed red and the five-man security team did something rather unexpected.

They took a step forward.

It was a jerky, almost robotic, movement but it was movement - the dead were walking and were reaching for the odd-looking blasters strapped to their waists.

Team Doctor

@René @Apollyon @Akheron @LouJoVi @AutoFox @Sreeya​

Caerllion's luck and skill with the panels of the places served him well again, though this time he was able to confirm that there was nothing wrong with using the lift. The Doctor shared a little bit of his disappointment for a moment - if the lift wasn't acting up then they really did need the code, rather than an alternative route. Their luck was fading quickly and there was an odd sense of urgency in the back of his mind.

The Doctor hummed slightly at Theia's question, rubbing at his beard as he thought about it, eyeing up Rina and Caerllion in particular before sighing.

"With our group's talents? Far less than it would take the Professor's team, for example, but still some number of hours perhaps. And there's just... a sense that time is more critical than that would allow." he admitted, "Though it does feel odd to admit to such a 'bad feeling' amongst so many Force Users."

He growled in frustration.

"If only we'd brought a droid of our own to interface..."

A strangled sound of pain caught the attention of the group as a whole as Ra'sa'd was dropped in the Force slightly before Trodai's reinforcing "hand" in the Force picked up the slack in pinning him to the wall. The reason for his near escape was made clearly when Kyssiara dropped her use of the Force, flinching back and away from the captive, a hand going to her face as pain flashed through her mind.

"What is the matter with her?"

It was Ra'sa'd asking, looking genuinely confused that Kyssiara was seemingly stricken by a sudden pain. A sudden pain that was causing the Force to react around her, a surging of the Dark Side as she keenly felt the pain until, after a tense moment, there was silence.

Then, chaos, as every member of the team was assaulted by a screeching, scathing, noise. It didn't echo in the mostly empty main street and it sounded off to the ears because it was not a sound in the traditional sense - instead of it was a noise coming from a message being rammed directly at the minds of those surrounding Kyssiara's location. In her pain from the unexpected intrusion of information, Kyssiara's mind reacted and began to transmit the information as a short burst of aggressive telepathy.

A burst of information, of numbers, that forced their way into the minds of the group even as Kyssiara collapsed to the ground, barely conscious, with her legs having given out beneath her.

1̵̺͍̩̩̫̘̜̩̙͐̓́̅̋̾͂̃͐̎̃͆̍̒̾̉͜͜͜͠͝6̷̡̡̛̠̣̫̻̐̓̾͋̓͛̀̋͊̾̑̓͒̕͘6̸̡͓͇͓̺͇͕̭̲͚̠͇͇͓͍̱͓́̏̅̆̔͊͂̕͜ͅ8̶̧̡̼͔̬̪̤̪͍̜͎̩̳͇͇̟̜̎̈́̀̂̔̓̓̽̊̈̒͘͜͝5̷̞̫̬͊̉͐͗͜3̸̡̨̲̰̺͙͍͖̟̭̩̦̫̼̗̙̘̺̖͍̰̊͋͛̒͛̓̌͂̇̀̄͌͊͒̀̿́̕̚͘͘͝͠͠͠3̷̧͈̱͇̬̜̘̹̳͈̌̑ͅ

​

The Doctor had learned to shield his mind as part of his research into the Dark Side but it took a shaking against the unintended attack, rocking him back on his heels and having his vision go fully white for several seconds. Ra'sa'd faired worse - he trashed against his bindings, blood beginning to leak through his noise as he screamed in pain as the message battered his mental shields, shredded by pain as they were. He bite through a part of his tongue even as he shouted out to Trodai in his native tongue.

"T-that's the other half of the code - she took it from my mind but why... why is she lashing out like this?!"

The Doctor knew enough of the language to translate something - something was better than nothing when combined with context clues.

"Caerllion, Rina - punch that code in, we're leaving!" he shouted, "Theia, please grab Kyssiara and Trodai, sir, please stop playing with your food and kill him before he has a chance to harm another one of us!"

 

[Alhazred]

TEAM PROFESSOR

"Guild? No I can't say I've perceived one around here..." Alhazred stated simply.

His fellow Jedi requested for some help with the door. She was, unfortunately, under the impression that he carried a lightsaber on hand. While this was an accurate assumption on most Jedi, Alhazred was not one of most Jedi. Partially because he liked devoting his training to channeling the Force through his body, and partially because he felt sick at the thought of personally slicing body and limb asunder with a energy blade, Alhazred discarded his lightsaber in favor of Sign Casting.

Before he could rectify her thoughts, or indeed even help, the knight thrusted her blade into the door. The alarm went off, and Alhazred froze, before spinning around at the opening wall. He gasped in slight fright as the cyber-skulls, for lack of a better term, stepped forward.

"By the void!" Alhazred exclaimed.

Movements were made for weapons. Trained instinct kicked in. Raising his hands up, Alhazred bent his webbed fingers into crooked, practiced motions as he perceived the music of the force emanating around two of the approaching cyber-skulls. As both his hands found the proper movement, the music around them slowed and tried to stop completely. In reality, he was performing Force Stasis on them. He had no hope of stopping these lumbering things forever, but he could try to slow their drawing of weapons long enough for the others to shoot them down.

Spoiler: OOC COMBAT ACTION

Alhazred is attempting Force stasis on the two closest cyber-skulls to slow them down, giving others a better chance to react.
Combat Roll: 13/20

@The Good Doctor @Charndley @Interdictor @Nefieslab @Logan @Laskt @Remileah @StephDLegend

 

[Cipher Four]

Team Professor

---

___Kaedan acted before Four could stop him. When she noticed what he was doing and opened her mouth to protest, his lightsaber plunged into the door. As much as she wanted to be angry and condemn another careless action by one of her team, the red light overhead turned on. The Cipher settled for an aggravated sigh as she levelled her rifle and kneeled, sweeping the rear wall as it lowered. She saw the sentries, and whether they were alive or dead, they had every intention to try and kill the boarding party.

___Four set her crosshairs on one of the guards as they shambled out. They all had one thing in common besides being deceased: the cybernetics. Even though the security team was dead, their cybernetics appeared fully functional. She had never seen a technology capable of animating a skeleton. Still, given that she and the others weren't in their regular stretch of the galaxy, Four could only assume anything was possible.

___The Fiani surveyed her target closely. Since the cybernetics users weren't alive, the tech had to draw power from somewhere to make the bodies their puppets. Four then noticed something around their necks, an object that looked like some type of power supply. The woman steadied her breath and positioned the crosshair of her rifle over the device, pulling the trigger once she was positive she would hit the target. The chirping hiss of her blaster echoed through the room, a streak of red careening through the air before punching into the device around the guardsman's neck.

___A shower of sparks sailed through the air, followed by electrical static and the lowering pitch of humming electronics. After a couple erratic movements, the skeletal guard skittered to a halt.

___"Aim for the device around their necks," Four announced to the party. "It's powering them." Once she finished relaying her information, Four swept from left to right with her rifle, firing one precise shot after the next at the power supply units that were keeping their opposition functional. Another guard fell after the second, and a third crumbled to the floor shortly after. It was a trained marksman's deadly, pinpoint aim to eliminate their target one after the other execution-style at work. A fourth shot dropped the fourth of five guards while the fifth shambled just out of her sight, safe from the business end of her blaster.

___"Does anyone have eyes on the last one?"

---

Combat Roll​
20​

@Nefieslab (sorry, Nefie)