The Collector

[Irma Kinton]

"Wait, they're already all over the city?!" She replied to Howl, disbelief in her voice. "I only landed a few hours ago! How in the hells didn't I see them!?"

Irma's attention was drawn back to the door by another bang against the metal. And then, suddenly, there were monsters.

The door buckled, and then caved in under the pressure of not one, but a score of the giant, faceless humanoid creatures that Irma and the Director had faced back in the office. Also, there were other things; slavering, half-skeletal hounds, their claws scarring the white marble floor of the exhibition hall. Giving an involuntary squeak of fear, the Tintinna let off two shots at the oncoming horde; she couldn't tell if they hit anything.

Beside her, the guard who had come to Irma and the Director's aid began popping off shots with his weapon. The carbine was old, but it still had punch; crimson bolts flew at the attackers. Everyone continued back toward the opposite entrance.

But wait, where was the Director?

"My EXHIBITS!!"

Irma looked over with wide eyes to see the Director, the old man having climbed up onto a plinth that displayed an ancient heavy repeater. He had taken the spooled cable - meant to connect to a power droid or field generator - and plugged it into a power socket at the base of a nearby display case. Taking the control yoke, he had begun firing at the approaching monsters pouring through the door; the antique weapon smoked and pinged in protest as it was cycled for the first time in probably generations, but it did what it was made to do, spitting a stream of incandescent death at the enemy.

The sight was so distracting the Irma almost didn't see the hound as it rushed at her. Squeaking, she swung the barrel of her own blaster toward the creature, loosing a pair of bolts into the charging horror. Even as she did, she scrambled backward, trying to get around a nearby corner.

@Nor'baal @Logan @Yuan @Plebometer

 

[Howl]

HOWL​

Howl and the others had made their way most of the way across the hall of weaponry by the time the door failed. Howl heard the door breaking apart behind them and spun around, continuing to walk backwards at a good pace. She raised her rifle and began firing. Assuming the others followed suit, red and green laser bolts would begin flying across the hall, cutting into the abominations as they surged through the door. Even if the civilians weren't crack shots, there were enough shots fired and enough abominations. It was a turkey shoot. And Howl's accurate firing cut down the beasts who made it through the line. "Don't stop! Keeping moving back! Get through that door!" Howl shouted at the others. As they reached their destination and slowly made their way through the doorframe, Howl and Irma, the last two, were set upon by the handful of monsters who had made it across the laser-filled room.

Two of the humanoid monsters lunged at Howl. She leapt backwards using a move similar to the one she had used in the hallway before, sliding back on the hard floor. Rolling left, Howl shot three bolts into the abomination to her left scoring a chest shot and one to the head, her third flying wild. Without hesitating, Howl rolled right and fired two more shots through the abomination to her right, ceasing it's functionality. As she slid to a halt just outside the door to the hall of armaments, she reached her left hand to her waist and pulled a grenade canister free, activating it. "Kelr b'ami'r! Out! Now!" Howl shouted, referring to Irma as 'Mouse girl' in Mando'a. As she shouted, she lobbed the grenade into the hall. Raising her rifle, Howl shot the door control panel on the outside of the doorway. The security door hissed shut as the control panel sparked and the abominations inside, charging across the room disappeared from view. A second later, there was a very large boom from within that shook the walls around them.

Howl rose from the ground and dusted herself off. "Well, that's unfortunate. I was saving those for special occasions. But I guess this qualifies. Now, lets head to the front. All these things seem to be coming from the rear of the building, but we haven't seen any from that direction. Maybe it's clear and we can take a moment to better-assess the situation?" Howl glanced around at the group. "Wait, wasn't there another one of you here?"

@AutoFox @Logan @Plebometer

 

[Eisa Swan]

The grip on her weapons tightened as the Force reacted violently in the wake of Donny's downfall, the momentary rush of pain from the man as his body tumbled down the stair case before his rag dolling form was viciously torn asunder by the faceless abomination - resonating through the Force like nails being drawn over a chalkboard. The Jedi Knight gritted her teeth as she weathered through the Force's torment, things it seemed, would only get worse, not only was her ally now dead. The blood soaked abomination that felled him; as well as another was ascending the stairs from where Donny had fell and were moving up towards her. And, on top of all that the Sith's Focus was now purely on her!

Sensing the initial tingling sensation that the Force was somehow seeping away from her, the shimmering red glow around his out stretched hand giving visual indication that some unknown dark ability was being used. Eisa opted to forego withdrawing the EMP grenade, but instead quickly withdrew her blaster and swiftly leveled the muzzle towards Azgarn's head, and firing off three rounds in rapid succession. Each one of the shots fired would potentially kill the Sith; should he not break his concentration and attempt to protect himself in time.

With the break in Azgarn's concentration, one way or the other. The Fiery haired Jedi would be free from the leeching effects from the Siths powers and, able to revitalise the energies that had been sapped away. But even then what hadn't been sapped away would still be enough.

Enough to ensure that as the two abominations lumbered onto the landing of the stair case where Eisa was standing; they were met, without warning by a sudden and violent explosion of telekenetic Force Energy would errupt out from within Eisas body radiating in a spherical form, the rapidly expanding ripples of kenetic energy would abruptly knock the abominations back down the stairs before the high velocity wave of energy would tear through their flesh, and with a bit of luck so would the same would fate befall upon Azgarn.

In the wake of the blast of Force Energy, the Fiery haired Knight would once again continue to pour the Force Energies through her, as she prepared herself for what ever would come next.

 

[The Storyteller]

The Jedi was proving to be more annoying than he'd initially assumed she would be. Well, that's not entirely true. Azgarn knew that any Jedi was going to be terrible and annoying, he was mostly just surprised the child-looking Jedi in front of him managed to continue to draw breath. So pesky.

With the shots fired towards his face and his lack of personal lightsaber, Azgarn made an unfortunate choice. He relinquished his drain on Eisa for the time being, yanking the upper half of Donny's body towards him. With a flick of his wrist, Azgarn would use the man's torso as a blaster shield, absorbing the bolts shot out by Eisa. The explosion that eminated from the small woman's frame had a surprising amount of power, but Azgarn was no slouch himself. Throwing up a telekinetic barrier, he poured energy into it - more than enough to stand against the tide, or at least that's what he would have assumed.

His barrier broke, letting Azgarn get hit by some of the energy, though not enough to rend his flesh from his bones. It knocked him backwards and off the steps, causing him to roll along the ground a bit before getting back onto his feet with a scavenged sense of grace.

Things were beginning to take too long. Azgarn needed to expedite his plans here. With a telepathic signal, Azgarn would inform his abominations to prioritize the artifact he sought over killing those who were left. It was an unfortunate choice that needed to be made, but if leaving survivors meant getting what he needed, Azgarn was willing to do that. It was clear that this Jedi was the strongest one - the only one - who could hope to stand in his way. If he could keep her distracted outside, she would be unable to prevent him getting what he wanted.

----

The two heroes inside were doing well in their fight against the horde. For now, the grenade thrown by Howl would grant them a moment's reprieve - but only a moment. As soon as the dust settled, those inside the room would hear an ear-piercing scream followed by loud chattering, like one abomination was telling the rest something extremely specific.

If they were looking out into the hall, Irma and Howl would see the abominations all heading in the same direction. Several dogs and several faceless raced off as if they were suddenly on a very different mission than before. To the discerning mind, this would seem particularly... odd given the behavior up until now.

In the hall were still several abominations, staying behind to slow down anyone thinking of chasing the others. Howl and Irma would have a choice to make now. Head to the front and aid their Jedi sister, or investigate the sudden change in behavior of the abominations. Which would they choose -

Door one or door two?

@Plebometer @AutoFox @Yuan

 

[Irma Kinton]

Before Irma could respond to Howl's words, there was a muffled bang from the other side of the closed doors, and shortly afterward, a bone-chilling shriek followed by chittering sounds. The Tintinna clutched her blaster, expecting the abominations to start battering their way through the second blast door Howl had lowered.

But there was nothing.

"...so, wait, do they have a really short attention span, or something?"

Irma turned to Howl, the Tintinna looked serious. A strange feeling was beginning to creep over her, a sensation that there was something important, something urgent, that she had to see to.

"They're up to something." She said, looking around. "I've got to find out what it is. I'll-... I'll catch up with you later!"

Spaying what she was looking for, the Tintinna raised her blaster. Two well-placed shots blew a grate leading into the museum's extensive ventilation system off its mounting. Irma tossed her blaster up into the duct with a clatter, and then scrambled up after it, quickly disappearing into the maze of confined tunnels, not big enough for most sentients, but just big enough for her...

@Nor'baal @Logan @Yuan @Plebometer

 

[Howl]

HOWL​

A fight between a Jedi and a... sith, if you could call him that... was not something that most people would dare to interfere with. Your average person upon witnessing telekinetic powers and laser swords and super-human-ish abilities would simply turn around and walk the other way, whistling a tune as their perception of reality totally denied the bizarre and utterly terrifying spectacle that they had just witnessed. Jedi and Sith alike were something out of fairytales (though the sith were a little more real than most independent spacers would like), and might as well be gods or demons as far as most people were concerned..... But, then Howl was not most people.

As Azgarn recovered from his recent fall and issued forth his telekinetic commands to his monstrous minions, one of the dog-like abominations behind him and to his left would suddenly experience the joyous occasion of having it's head explode, as a red laser bolt flew past Eisa's shoulder and impacted into the beast. Two more bolts whizzed past Eisa's other side and impacted the chest of one of the humanoid abominations off to Azgarn's other side, leaving burning holes in the beast's chest. Behind Eisa, at the top of the stairs stood Howl, silver hair blowing lightly in the wind and violet eyes glaring down at the two beings below her. Her still-smoking rifle clutched in her hands. Honestly, this was such a weird day. First monsters and chaos and death, then running into a little mouse-girl and her friends, then mouse-girl goes and scampers off into a ventilation duct and her friends go running off in the other direction. Howl had been the only one to make her way to the front of the building, and probably the last thing she had expected to find was a jedi squaring off against a guy who looked like he had just won a demonic beauty pageant.

Howl began walking down the steps, eyes shifting between the fiery-haired Jedi and the dark and foreboding... dude... finally settling on the jedi as she reached a point just a few steps above the woman. "You don't know who I am, and I don't know who you are, but I think I know WHAT you are, and life-or-death situations have a remarkable way of bringing people together, wouldn't you say? I don't know who he is either-" Howl nodded towards Azgarn. "But, judging by the swarm of monsters behind him, I'm willing to bet he's neck-deep in all this. I'm not usually one to play the hero or anything, so don't go getting the wrong ideas, but if it will put an end to this nightmarish safari I've been running through today, I'll back you up, Jedi." She raised her rifle, lining up the sights on Azgarn. "Name's Howl, by the way. In case we actually survive all this and it matters and all."

@Plebometer @AutoFox @Logan

 

[Eisa Swan]

Stoicly the firery haired Knight watched through narrowed eyes, as the Sith's defence crumbled under the weight of her telekinetic attack. First the Crimson hued barrier that Azgarn threw up held long enough to stem the brunt of the powerful shockwave that had rended the remains of Donny and his minions to dust, but the cracks had formed under the weight of the blast that radiated from the Jedi Knight. The telekinetic Energies, although softend crashed hard into Azgarn's body; throwing the Sith backwards, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Both Eisas gaze and the muzzle of her blaster tracked his descent back over himself, his previously drawn blade flailing loosely in his wake.

As the Sith came to a standstill and he attempted to right himself back upright, another three bursts of blaster fire streaked towards the Sith. But unlike before there was little in terms of Donny's corpse for the Sith to desecrate and use as a shield. The fired shots being concentrated around Azgarn's chest.

Simultaneously as the blasters trigger was squeezed, there was a subtle slight twitch from the fore fingers of the Jedi's lightsaber welding hand. Manipulating the Force around the Sith's blade, abruptly taking it up in a telekinetic grasp and thrusting its jagged tip diagonally upwards towards the side of Azgarn's chest on a path that would come up from beneath the base of a chest plate; whether he was wearing any, straight through to the Sith's heart.

Her gaze narrowed as additional blaster shots streaked past her from behind, she could sense the arrival of another. Emerging from within the museum and standing initially behind Her. As Howl addressed the Jedi, Eisa kept her focus fixed purely on the Sith, the Force radiating through her body, ready to react to what ever the Sith would attempt should he survive the earlier dual fronted attacks. "Eisa" the Jedi stated, offering her name in return to the other females introduction. "He's a servent of the darkside" Eisa commented briefly, responding to the newly arrived Ally's words. "He is responsible for the countless deaths that have befallen this city, but do not take him lightly Howl, he has already claimed the life of another that made a stand here" the Jedi continued, keeping her firm gaze upon the Sith.

Although support had arrived, the Jedi wasn't going to relax, not until this bloody ordeal was over, although she hoped to the Force that Howl wasn't as brash as Donny was.

 

[The Storyteller]

The sudden light of muzzle flash made Azgarn realize that the Jedi was starting to get the upper hand. He would need to put his focus entirely on defense now, unlike before where each of his moves had some sort of upper-hand gaining attempt. This was really just all about biding time anyway. He didn't need much more.

The a swirl of his fingers Azgarn rose a sheath of ice around himself, using the power of cryomancy. With all of his attention and concentration focused on it, the cocoon would be already thick by the time the blaster shots would have struck him, rendering them mostly useless. What did surprise Azgarn, though, was the sudden appearance of the upper half of his sword piercing through the barrier. Eisa had given it enough strength to impale him but not to drive through ice, though it still came through with enough length to stab him a few inches deep chest. It missed vital organs but the pain was still there in full force - though Azgarn was much used to pain.

With an annoyed sigh bordering on frustrated anger, Azgarn drew on the pain Eisa had just caused him, pulling the darkness into himself before letting it explode outward. It would shatter his barrier and send sharp pieces of ice in all directions. In the chaos of the explosion, Azgarn would grab his weapon and move out of the line of sight of the new blaster wielder and Eisa, forcing them to confront him more personally if they wanted to continue to fight.

He was not running, but playing the distance game seemed to have been a bad idea. He was confident that in a more.. intimate setting, he'd rend the flesh from both of their pretty bones before they'd have much say in the matter.

---

Inside, Azgarn's abominations were doing their master's bidding. The abominations that had fled from the hallway before reached their destination, one of the older sections of the museum that contained artifacts of long extinct races. Inside one of the larger cases sat a a rather nondescript, albeit extremely polished looking orb. The archaeologists of the museum had always surmised as to what it was made of and how it was created but could never quite figure it out, leaving the mysterious orb a mystery to them.

Azgarn knew its true purpose and where it came from, though, and it is what he had come here to collect. Without hesitation one of the faceless smashed through the case and snatched up the orb. It looked around as if it was unsure of what to do next before seemingly deciding and heading back the way it came, keen to deliver its payload to its master.

It wouldn't be long now before Azgarn would have what he needed and the entire galaxy would feel the consequence.

@Plebometer @AutoFox @Yuan

 

[Irma Kinton]

Irma muttered to herself, crawling through the museum's cramped duct-work on all fours. The ducts were tight, smaller than would be practical for an adult human to crawl through (in spite of what the holodramas may have portrayed), but just big enough for an adult Tintinna and her blaster carbine to manage. She was making decent time, too; her species was adept at scurrying through cramped tunnels, it was what they had evolved for after all.

As she crawled, light fell across Irma's features, shining through a slatted grate that normally allowed climate controlled air to circulate through the building, but which now allowed Irma to see out into the corridors. The ducts ran behind the walls, and grates were spaced every 4 meters or so. It was thus fairly easy for the Tintinna to shadow the abominations as they moved through the building, and to stay hidden from them as she did.

As she traveled, Irma could not help but feel a pang of grief and anger at the damage the creatures had wrought. Not only were at least dozens of people dead - Irma had seen their mutilated, often partially eaten bodies scattered throughout the corridors - but the museum itself as in ruins. The abominations did not seem to be interested in taking anything, but neither did they seem to have any great respect for the exhibits and artifacts, and many had been carelessly wrecked by the mindlessly rampaging beasts.

Irma wasn't sure what sort of senses the abominations had, but if they could see, hear or smell her in her hiding place, they didn't seem to be paying much attention to her at the moment.

She had followed the group that had retreated from the Hall of Weapons via the ducts, and they had led her to a grate overlooking a room in an old section of the museum, one that contained ancient artifacts belonging to extinct or unidentified species and cultures. The placards giving information on many of the items were scarce of information, and many had been put on display simply for their aesthetic qualities, rather than any known historical significance.

And in the center was an orb. An orb that, for some reason, immediately drew Irma's attention.

Hers, and the abominations'.

As she watched from her place of concealment, one of the faceless humanoids lumbered up to the pedestal that bore the orb, and snatched it. After a moment's hesitation, it backed away, and then turned to go back in the direction from which it had come.

Well. Irma thought to herself. That can't be good.

The slats were just far enough apart for Irma to poke the muzzle of her blaster through. Quickly, she brought it up, and taking aim at the retreating beast, snapped off two shots before it could leave the room...

@Logan @Yuan @Plebometer

 

[Howl]

HOWL​

Things were happening quite quickly out here it would seem. But then, that's how the saying goes... It's tough in the streets. Even as Howl made her approach, Azgarn somehow encased himself in ice as Eisa launched an attack with her peculiar blaster/lightsaber at the man of mystery. Howl could feel the ripples moving through the force as the attack struck at Azgarn. Of course, she didn't realize that's what she was sensing. She just felt a great sense of danger moving through the air between the two. She chalked it up to her own keen instincts, still in denial about her own force sensitivity. Howl had been a proud Mandalorian once upon a time, and her culture had left her with a deep-seated mistrust of the mysterious power known as the force, and of those who made use of it. Though her opinions had been slowly shifting ever since she had forsaken the mandalorian ways, she still was not ready to consider the fact that she herself had developed any such abilities.

As the two women introduced themselves, Howl would suddenly feel another sharp twinge telling her that danger was imminent, and it was coming from Azgarn's ice. "Move!" Howl shouted at Eisa as she swung her rifle onto her back again and took off sprinting to the side. As Azgarn's ice-shell erupted, Howl slid off the side of the staircase, grabbing onto the edge at the last second, and swinging down to hang from the edge of the large staircase. Shards of ice whizzed overhead and impacted the duracrete around the area in little icy explosions, like glass shattering. Howl braced herself as the countless ice missiles impacted the duracrete above until finally the barrage ceased. She didn't even know where the hell that ice had come from in the first place. These damned sith and jedi were freaking wizards, just like all the independent spacers said.

Pulling herself up onto the stairs once more, Howl crouched and whipped out her rifle again, aiming it at Azgarn, only to find that he wasn't there. She lowered her muzzle, sighing in frustration. "Seriously!? All that and the kriffing bastard just tucks tail and runs off? What the krong?" Howl said aloud, turning to look at Eisa. Howl hadn't checked on the jedi yet, but she assumed one wizard could defend against another wizard's attacks. Perhaps she hadn't even needed to tell her to move, come to think of it.

 

[Eisa Swan]

Narrowing her eyes as the formation of ice sprung up around the Sith, the Fiery haired Jedi observed as the fired rounds of burning plasma collided with the ice, small geezers of steam erupting from the ice as it melted under the intense heat of the plasma. Though the blaster fire hadn't been successful, the wave of pain radiating from the Sith gave clear indication that his weapon had managed to wound him. And like all things with the dark side pain eventually made its way to anger., or was it the other way around? "Howl, get behind me" Eisa spoke simply as she readied the Force within her, not realising that she had made a break for cover.

Like all darksiders, the Jedi figured that the pain would be used to lash out. The eruption of the icy cocoon being one such way of doing so, raising her saber welding hand the Jedi projected a wave of telekinetic energy into the path of the oncoming ice shards headed directly for her. Reducing them to a slurry of ice chips that scattered over the stairs before her, in the midst she could see the Sith retreat further down the stair case leaving a trail of blood in his wake from the piercing chest wound, and now playing the distance game to goad them into drawing closer.

The question now was; do they also move further down towards the Sith, or do they hold their ground? But the answer would come sooner than later, she could feel the deathly presence of the abominations draw near, approaching from behind. The Jedi could feel her brow furrow. "check your six, we have abominations in coming, as soon as they emerge through those doors light them up" Eisa commented as she looked towards Howl through the corner of her eyes. Her mind focused on the currents of the Force whilst she built up and concentrated the Energies within her, preparing herself to unleash a potent attack upon the incoming abominations that would come bursting through the entrance, as they escorted the one carrying its master's cargo - Eisa and Howl acting as the final barrier between the Sith completing his goal {provided that Irma hadn't already dealt with the abomination in question from her vantage point}. If however Azgarn opted to come back into view from his hiding spot to intervene, from his distanced position away from sight and his wounded state, Eisa would be able to react in time to counter.

 

[The Storyteller]

If abominations could feel elation, this Faceless would be feeling it. It had succeeded in what its master had requested, it had the thing, whatever it was. The Faceless had no idea what it had or why it had it, only that it needed to be had. As it neared the door it had come through earlier its sense of happiness was tragically cut short as two shots from a blaster tore through its back, sending it careening to the floor with a loud, dull thud.

The orb went rolling across the tile floor of the room but it was quickly snatched up by one of the dogs that had been with the Faceless. It seemed even when they were dead, dogs just couldn't ignore a rolling ball. With an abrupt bound, the dog escaped the room, racing down the hallway with its new toy gripped tightly in its skinless maw. Through a window, the beast jumped down to the ground below. It had a new toy and it wanted to show its master. Hopefully he would throw it!

---

Outside, Azgarn had retreated slightly back into the mist. He didn't see the bright haired woman or her weird gun toting friend, but that didn't mean they weren't coming. Azgarn knew that one of his beasts had acquired the thing he sought and he could see it approaching his position already.

With the item in hand, Azgarn let out a small snort of laughter. He had cut the time he had to do what he needed to do very close, but it seems he would still be victorious.
The champions of good had done well in preventing him from entering the museum to get what he wanted himself, but it seems they had utterly failed in keeping his hordes of abominations from doing the work for him. Perhaps they should have sent more than just a mouse.

Clouds of smoke began to envelop him as he drew in the force around him, Azgarn using the last of his stamina to move himself far away from the museum and back to his boat. He would need a long rest after this, but it would be one where he could bask in the glory of his successes.

//thread end

@Plebometer @AutoFox @Yuan