Her Majesty or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

[Kazzatobhk]

Ilum.

Once a center of Jedi learning, the planet still trembled from the deaths wrought by unfathomable betrayal in the closing years of the civil war between the Guardians of Peace and the progenitors of Andraste's empire, the Exiles. Icy winds whipped across the barren valleys and snow covered Plains, daggers of cold that pierced through the sleeveless coat and layers of thick fur that covered Kazzatobhk's body.

Still, the Wookiee padawan bore the discomfort without complaint, frost clinging to the wet fur around his muzzle and weighing down the fur that hung over his eyes. He was a Hunter, a tracker, and it was for this purpose that he was chosen to accompany the Grandmaster. Elsewhere on the planet Kazza could feel the ripples through the Force as his fellow Jedi engaged the mindless insectoid Horde that had claimed the former Jedi tunnels as their hive. Idly checking his equipment, the tall furred Jedi waved his companions forward with a muffled howl and stepped into a crevice etched into the side of the valley.

Just like hunting the kinrath in the Shadowlands, his companions on the other end of the valley served to draw the horde of 'warriors' to the entrance of the hive and keep them distracted, the true target was the Queen that lay deep within the cave system. Kill the Queen, and the nest would die with her. Cracking a lum-rod, Kazza held it aloft and pointed at a cramped passage hewn through the stone as his companions stumbled in out of the cold winds with a low whine.

It was time to pay Her Majesty a visit.

 

[Arda Breaux]

Each time Arda had come to Ilum, it was never a pleseant experience; the world itself was scarred deeply, some wounds were still fresh and they oozed with the consequences of dark intentions from centuries prior. It wasn't going to be a comfortable experience this time either, while others took care of the messes on other parts of the ice and crystal world, Arda had a padawan with her for this task, one she trusted in his abilities to hunt and track, a task she was not familiar with, but she could make up in other ways as they headed into one of the numerous cave systems on the planet.

She knew almost nothing other than the intel reported back to her about the insect like creatures that had found home on this world, their goal would be the Queen and from there, the threat would be eliminated. The padawan cracked a glow rod, giving just enough light to see in front of them, the darkness of the tunnels and she looked at Kazza, giving him a readied nod, her lightsaber at hand as she followed her companion inside.

The last time she climbed through a tunnel on Ilum, she was pushed into a large hole and landed in an underground lake, that she had thought would be more pleasant than dealing with a queen bug. Carefully, the Grandmaster followed, her senses stretched outward to detect immediate dangers as there always seemed to be something more ominous on the far horizon. Though the present would be more pressing, the faster they took care of the queen, the more likely they would not take significant losses from those putting up a fight with the hordes on the other side of the valley.

@Darasuum @Rom

 

[The Storyteller]

THEME?
​

Cool and quiet. That was the way the Queen liked it. Her mandibles clicked momentarily as if performing the equivalent of a sigh to calm her nerves. Two pinchers slammed down into the ground a she moved forward in the large underground cavern. There were intruders, things that were threatening her hive. They were far from welcome. But she had dispatched drones under her command to fight them. For now only a small amount of the drones remained for the time being.

She was hungry though. She dwarfed the drones nearly a dozen times over. She could probably face off against a rancor. To some people it would almost look like she was some sort of insect and acklay hybrid. That could be the case generations ago some sith alchemist had probably tampered with the normal genetics of both types of animals to make her what she was today.

For now she scuttled about in her large mass. The handful of drones that moved around the catacombs around the main chamber were going about the normal autonomous activities. Sometimes they stopped to pick at the bodies of long dead beings or examine something with their antennae before moving along.

@Rom @GABA

 

[Kazzatobhk]

Kneeling in one of the twisting paths of the catacombs, head bowed in concentration as his fingers brushed over the furrows dug into the ground by insectoid claws scuttling over ice and stone, Kazzatobhk's presence in the Force pulsed faintly as his senses drifted along the path. The spirits were quiet in this place, the Force ragged and pulsing with wounds that never healed - fearragehatedeathbetrayal - and through the haze he could sense the muted devotion of the drones and the feral malice of their Queen. Drawing his mind back along the sprawling tunnels, the Wookiee padawan rose to his feet and gestured toward the leftmost path of the branching tunnel and chuffed softly at Arda while moving forward with a long loping stride, his saber held unlit but at the ready.

His goal was to loop around the drones of the hive and find the central chambers; killing one of the drones may alert the Queen to their presence, and if they could collapse a few of the passages leading into the core of the hive they could trap the Queen and cut her off from reinforcements.

"Just like the kinrath back home... only bigger. Spirits, I hate bugs."

He could only hope Arda didn't understand Shyrrrwook.

@GABA @Darasuum