Ask The Cult of Chaos

[Insoulent]

Myrkr was home to many a curious creatures. Lizards that could mess with a force user’s control of the Force, canines that hunted using the Force itself, the most odd however were said to be conscious, force wielding trees. While a small insignificant floating piece of rock on the cosmic scale, Myrkr was an anomaly that held very strong connection to the Force. This connection is one that not many other planets in the known universe could even come close to. While surely there planets that held sacred reverence by Force Users, Myrkr was unique in that Force Users actively avoided the planet. Even the countless of Governments that controlled the Core for over 20,000 years, Myrkr stood a lawless and almost uninhabitable forest planet.

“Professor, come look at this!” a worried Verpine shouted, her long insect fingers clicking against a jagged obsidian blade she managed to dig out of a pile of bones. Shards of the black glass mixed within the surrounding dirt and bones littered the entire dig site that seemed to stretch out for some distance within a strange jungle. “This one is intact!” a Nautolan scientist shouted from afar, her voice excited and fearful at the same time, her eyes ever so fixated on the black obsidian blade. She yanked the blade from the hands of the Verpine and stared intently at it.

“Those pirates, we cannot let them know-“, a shadowy lump dropped from tree’s above them, landing on top the Verpine and dropping the bug-woman to the ground. The Nautolan scientist gasped in terror as the cloaked figure launched itself at the woman in a sudden flash, and found the obsidian blade in her hands being pushed into her stomach, guided by the sudden cloaked figure. She tried to grip the assassin’s hand’s, but it just continued to shove the blade through the Nautolan’s stomach as she futilely resisted it digging any deeper. A sudden storm of electricity began to crack from out of the glass blade, tendrils of lightning wrapping around the Nautolan’s body - burning away her flesh away in mere seconds. Within moments, the Nautolan’s bones dropped into its own pile, and the obsidian blade fell to the floor and turned into the similar black dust that littered the forest floor.

“Good riddance,” the veiled assassin muttered underneath it’s cloak, stepping into the thick of the forest and it’s body disappearing from view once again.

 

[Insoulent]

“Gessner! Wake the Hell up! Those damn scientist should’ve been back come sundown, I need you and Dizz to go look for them. If they’re dead, we need to know - they had some fancy ass equipment with ‘em.”, a copper-made, steam-powered droid asserted. The human boy groaned, moaning as he reached his pillow over his face, turning his back to the droid. The droid’s body released steam, letting out a strong whistle that seemed to echo louder within the small room. “Force’sake, Ma! They’re probably stuck in a hole somewhere about to be Vornskr food. I’ll just go in the morning...” the human tried to persuade the droid, as he dug his body deeper into the bunk bed trying to fall back asleep. “Dizz is already warming up the A5, I don’t expect you to leave him waiting?”, the droid said in a playful tone, as it began to walk away from the room. The boy let out an exasperated groan, as he sat up from his bed and dropped to the ground.

“Dizzy.....!” the boy shouted as he stepped foot into the heavy speeder-truck transport from the side entrance. “Over heeere!”, a voice answered from within the cargo bay, all the way to the rear of the truck. The boy made his way to the back of the truck where a tall human male sat above a cargo box, chugging a large bottle of brown liquid. “You don’t mind driving, do ya’ bro?” the older human asked, his face looked tired while his body didn’t really look to be in perfect health either. The younger boy’s smile turned sour quite quick. “Uh...sure. Let’s go, I want to go back to sleep already, Ma wants to know if those scientists ladies got ate up already,” the boy began to repeat as he followed Dizz to the front of the truck, “we can keep whatever we find, she said.”

“Offworlder tech doesn’t last long here. Even if we manage to save it in time, you think Laan is really going to buy Imperial equipment?”, the older human questioned, letting his feet rest on top of the ship’s controls. The younger human shook his head as he began to flip switches and placing his hands on the ship’s controls. “No, not Laan. Efreen.” the human said as a matter-of-factory, his grin tightening as the ship zoomed out of the outskirts of the only real city on the entire planet - Hyllyard City. It was comprised mostly of shady vendors from across the Galaxy, pirates, and the occasional space traveler stupid enough to ever come to the most backwater world in the entire Core System. Sure some criminals would often hide for a few days on the planet but none were dumb enough to leave the safety of the city.

Dizz sat up straight, reaching for his bottle and threw more of the brown liquid to the back of his throat, shaking his head. “Efreen?! Why the Hell would you want to trade with that sad sack of bantha poodoo. Ma definitely didn’t mention anything about doing business with pirates, especially one that owes us a damn ship. Did Ma make you eat brain goo?” the older human boy asked as he placed his hand on the younger boy’s head, shaking it left and right as the boy tried to yank away and focus on his driving.

“It’s not a trade. I got a plan, is all. I seen thermal detonators in that Verpine’s bag. She wasn’t messing around.” the young boy said, his mischievous grin once again flashing above his devilish eyes, the older boy simply shook his head in disagreement. “And blow up half the damn city? Okay, you definitely got into some Neti brainleaves or something, you’re cosmically high if you think I’m going to get into it with that Bothan and his lackeys just for a ride offworld. Do you even know how to drive a ship like that? Even with Ma’s help, we don’t know the first thing about flying a space ship through space.” Dizz responded as he crossed his legs back above the control board. “Mmm...nah, but I’m sure it can’t be that much different than this.” Gessner said as he shifted the weight of the back of the truck, drifting through a forest clearing. The speeder-truck struggled to pick speed up before zipping through some larger trees back in the thick of the forest.

“Well, keep dreaming because I don’t got that kind of time today, I don’t want to play soldier, I’m too drunk for all that. What about Sain-Jor-Mane? I heard people saying they saw his barge yesterday, I’m sure Ma could get us an audience, he’s Doc’s grandson! Plus he is like literally always throwing a party”, Dizz said as he once again filled his mouth with the liquid. “That’s Doc’s barge, our home. And he kicked us out.” the young boy’s tone shifted from playful to serious instantly. “Fine, Laal it is. I can’t believe a Hutt is our best choice.” Gessner said between his teeth as the speeder truck picked up more velocity and he gained more focus.

 

[Insoulent]

“Where the Hell are you going anyway, I thought they said they’d be going to the Great Northern Forest...” Dizz said with a bored tone, looking over at the planetary map pinned inside the heavily armored speeder truck. “Yeah, they lied. Sasha, the Verpine, traded me one of Ma’s magcoils for one of her transponder beacons, I already linked it up to hers. They went to the Lower Shadows.” the younger boy stated as the truck shifted weight and moved through the forest at high speeds.

“Why the Hell...Gess, you’re not frackin’ serious are you?! That’s Vornskr mating grounds, their equipment is gnawed on trash by now. For sure by the time we get there!” the older boy protested, reaching for the co-pilot controls. The younger human quickly reached above him, flicking two switches, before the other boy could take control. “Gessner, do you have a death wish?! What’s up with you, you’ve been acting really weird ever since these Imperials got here. What stories did they fill your head up with? Myrkr is home, whether you like it or not.” the older boy scolded, obviously knowing the root of the young man’s sudden determination. “I saw them talking to somebody, they knelt to the ground when they saw him.” the young boy said with his normal playful tone. “Emperor, my lord.” the young boy mocked them in an odd posh voice.

“Wait they were talking to THE Emperor? Did you see his face? Wait, how is that going to help us?” the older human asked as the younger one stopped the truck in its tracks. “I told you, Efreen is our best chance. You don’t think the Emperor is going to want whatever it is that they left behind?” Gessner asked as he got up from his seat. “No, I think they’ll kill us or throw us in prison and pin the deaths on us. What do you expect, you and that Bothan dancing in the throne room?! Jeez, you’re such an idiot..., hey wait where are you going?!” Dizz shouted before stumbling to run behind Gessner.

“Beacon is getting louder. You hear that? Sounds like an old generator.” Gessner said, looking around the forest clearing. “Look, what the Hell is this?” he said moving forward to see a large satellite dish in front of him attached to some other smaller electrical boxes. “I don’t know, but I think it’s helping keeping the dogs away... we should be surrounded by now.” Dizz said, scratching his head and taking another swig of his drink. “Yeah, this shit’s annoying as Hell.” the older boy nodded in agreement of his own statement.

“...Dizz...” Gessner said, his face pale white as it looked in the opposite direction of where they were, on the other side of the truck. The Verpine lay in its own green life-fluid, and the two boys rushed to the side of the Verpine.

“H..he...” the Verpine’s chatterbox gasped in between the words, Gessner kneeled down to the bug’s side, holding his hand over the wound on the bug’s chest. The Verpine’s hand reached out to grab the young boy’s arm, “...elp...” the clicks broke through. The bug drug the boy’s hand over his open wound on his chest. The Verpine’s hand began to glow, as the boy felt an intense heat rush through his body. Gessner panicked, but could feel his body get colder, weaker. “What..” the human’s strength began to fade, before Dizz yanked the Verpine’s hand away from his friend’s arm. “Hey what the frack are you doing to Gess?!” Dizz screamed, sending his boot to the dying Verpine’s head. Before the leg could connect, both humans flung back, as the Verpine dragged her weak hand and it began to glow brighter now, and her wound started to close. “Verpine anatomy...no heart.” the Verpine mustered the strength to let out, as she found the strength to struggle to sit up.

Gessner’s vision was blurry, waking up from the sudden throw, groaning a bit in pain. He looked over to his right where Dizz was knocked out next to a tree, while Gessner pushed himself up off from the floor, he could feel the cold broken metal dish of the machine the Imperial scientists were using was now detached from its equipment. “Ow...” the human let out a soft groan, as his vision came back to normal. A chorus of howls came from the thick of the forest.