The Sacellum Of Ilum: Tithe In Fealty

[The Storyteller]

[fancybox2]

ILUM : 1900 Hours

Kyber crystals have been observed in various sections of Ilum's vast caverns. As you know, their power cannot fall into the wrong hands. Harvest them.\---Be warned: Don't wake anything that might be sleeping....

Mission Thread ; Self DM ; @EmilyHuene (Viewing)
@vamp ; @One For Sorrow [/fancybox2]

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

This kriffing planet again. Eriana would surely owe Wes several favors after this was all done and over with. He'd carried out her stupid errands twice, this being the third time, and he had developed a disgust for snow and cold weather. Perhaps if the Force was so glorious as the Jedi always seemed to preach, all the ice would melt and Illum could be more temperate. Except it wasn't. The Force deserved to be commanded.

He'd been the designated driver again, his experience in the Imperial academy being no secret to Eriana, who seemed to do her research. At least, that was the only explanation he could give himself as to why he'd been forced to drive a landspeeder through a blizzard three times in three days. Maybe she just hated him. That was a possibility as well.

The two Sith had exited the speeder moments ago, and were mere meters away from the mouth of the cave where they would be seeking Kyber crystals. He could already feel the power within, the stones leaving ripples in the Force like guppies in a pond. Oh, he would have fun here.

They entered through the mouth of the cave, which gave way to a small cavern, its ceiling only about 3 meters tall. Icicles drooped from it, some minuscule and some large enough to impale a Wampa. Wes' mind drifted to snow beasts—the fear of being mauled by one of them was not so unrealistic on Illum. If they were lucky, the cave was empty and they would spend the afternoon plucking crystals out of walls rather than teeth out of their flesh.

"Ever been to Illum before?" he asked, the sarcasm hidden to all but him.

@One For Sorrow

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo rode along in silence, he knew nothing of his partner on this mission, save for the fact that his last name had Drast in it.

The man seemed angry, or at least irritated. A trait that the Nagai agent had noticed about many of the Sith. Thankfully, this man didn't seem to care about Talo's non-human nature. Or if he did he kept it to himself well enough. Either way Talo was glad for it.

They reached the cave they were to start in, a relatively small one. Well, small for Ilum at least. He looked around hoping to see any signs of danger, but so far it seemed unoccupied.

Finally his partner spoke, asking if he'd been to Illum before. "Only on this campaign of Lady Fox's. Can't say I enjoy it much, though it beats Iktotch's deserts." he chuckled in response.

He walked over to the nearest wall of the cave and eyed a small crystal. "So, there a trick to getting these out of the rock?" he asked the Sith. Wondering briefly why Eriana had given him this task, he knew little to nothing about the force after all. Maybe that was why.

Or maybe it was just because things often seemed to work out for the agent. Barring a few wounds now and then.

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

Wes, unlike the majority of his family, did not harbor the xenophobic sentiments so popular within the Imperial Republic. It was one of his least favorite things about the Empire, and one of the only. Still, public sentiment could always be changed.

The Nagal brought up deserts, and Wes cringed inwardly at the thought of entire mountains of sand. He'd forgotten deserts even existed, having spent the past week either in a ship or wandering the tundra in search of whatever that blind bitch kept sending him after. The Drast nodded sympathetically at the mention of deserts.

The walls of the cave had some kyber crystals encrusted within, but Wes knew the real payload was underground. What they were seeing was simply the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended. "Always just sort of plucked them out," he said. "It may be restricted to Force sensitive individuals, though I can't say I've ever seen anyone besides a Sith try to do it." He pulled out an empty bag made of a thick fur and opened its mouth. The Drast reached to the wall and took a crystal out, the stone coming off instantly. It burned in his hand a bit, as if protesting his touch, but he ignored it and dropped it into the bag.

"Here's an easier plan," he said, since the man needed a job as well and the objective of the mission was something he could not physically help with. "Watch my back while I harvest." With that, the two delved deeper into the cave, passing through a tunnel encrusted with Kybers. There would be more at the bottom, if they reached it safely.

The cave got warmer the lower they went, a byproduct of going underground. He slowly could feel his skin heating back up, no longer ice cold. It was a welcome change, and further incentive to delve deeper.

They reached a crossroads—two tunnels stretched out before them. "Pick one randomly."

@One For Sorrow

 

[Talo Geist]

"That easy, huh?" Talo muttered, more to himself than to Wes. His hand hovered just an inch away from the crystal, in spite of his not being connected to the force he was tempted to try and take it. Oddly enough for himself, he thought maybe if he kept one he could learn to make a lightsaber.

Wes' statement about an easier plan snapped him out of...whatever that was.. he dropped his hand to his side and followed along, perhaps the thought was brought on by lingering effects of the last cave he had been in. "Consider it done Lord Draste." he responded, letting years of honed and practiced discipline finish dispelling his sudden strange thought. He pulled his pistols out of their holsters as they descended further into the caves, just to be ready in case there was anything bad.

Eventually they came to a fork, two tunnels that were basically identical. The Nagai agent was shocked when his Sith partner told him to choose a path. He was surprised because it was a huge decision, one he would have expected a force user to want to let the mystic energies that they could harness guide them to the right place. But the instuctions were to pick at random, perhaps this was in hopes that the force would guide them through Talo. Perhaps the Sith just didn't want to risk being misled. He had heard the force could be fickle.

So, without a second's thought he just blurted out "Left."

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

The Nagal seemed a bit surprised that Wes let him make such an important decision, but truth be told, he could feel crystals everywhere around them; whether they went left or right didn't matter much. If anything, the only thing he was trying to steer away from was a possible animal. Hopefully Talo hadn't damned them.

They went further down into the cave, darkness slowly taking over. Wes took out two glowsticks and handed one to Talo. They were Aerak's, so both were blue, made to confuse Jedi. They passed through another, small, chamber but the tunnel stretched on further, so Wes continued, bag in hand. They'd empty out one of the big caverns and then leave; there was no need to harvest the entire cave.

That was when he heard a noise, far in the cave. It wasn't in front of them though. The unsettling part was that it was coming from behind. A large, beast-like grunt followed, echoing through the cave. Wes grabbed the hilt of his lightsaber and put the bag down. They were in the largest chamber they'd seen so far, and conveniently also the dead end.

Foot steps approached, two pairs of them. In the darkness, white fur glistened. "Oops."

@One For Sorrow

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo turned at the sound of the growls and footsteps, swallowing hard as he realized what was behind them.

Two kriffing Wampas. This was bad. Probably. He brought his pistols up and moved to a position just beside Lord drast. "Do we have a plan of action M'Lord?" he asked, his usual slight hint of cockiness gone.

This could be bad. But he knew that he and the Sith he was with could handle it.

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

The two Imperial soldiers had paled at the sight of the wampas, though to their great fortune, the creatures, dumb as a brick, tried to go through the tunnel at the same time. This resulted in them getting stuck, squashed against each other. Loud growling and barking ensued, and the Sith watched on, unsure of what the hell he was supposed to do.

The wampas broke out into a fight. Cramped in the small tunnel, they used their claws and mouths to inflict as much damage onto one another as possible. Blood splattered on the wall as one of them landed a good hit, then tore the throat of the other one out. Huh.

It kicked the corpse aside and began making its way through the tunnel toward Wes and Talo. "Well, I guess it would be a good idea to start shooting at it now and don't stop until it's dead—or we are." He ignited his lightsaber. The Sith waited until the wampa entered the chamber. Then, he extended his left arm and formed his hand into a fist, using the Force to grab at an icicle right above the beast. Then, he shoved it down. The ice around it cracked and shattered, the icicle falling down. It landed on the wampa's right foot, leaving it pinned down—for the time being.

It let out a loud, ground-shaking roar, and Wes approached, lightsaber in hand.

@One For Sorrow

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo watched in horrified awe as the wampas tore into eachother, halving their problem in a brutal second.

Wes said shoot and don't stop, Talo could accommodate that order.

As the creature walked towards them and was pinned through the foot Talo leapt to action, dashing out to the left and firing his pistols in a blazing fury. The Wama roared in shock and pain as the bolts of superheated plasma burned through hair and flesh, but it seemed to endure. Still ripping on the icicle through it's foot.

With just one shot left in each blaster Talo stopped, inspired by Wes' use of the icicle. He fired both shots near the base of one above the wampa, breaking it off and bringing it down to impale the creature's head.

He reloaded his pistols as the beast fell, and nodded in satisfaction at their work. "Well. That could have gone worse." he chuckled.

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

Well, that wampa had definitely been a lot less dangerous than he had expected. In the span of a few minutes, it went from life-threatening to ready to be made into a coat. It was strange that people actually found wampas dangerous.

Wes nodded. "Agreed." He turned around, hundreds of crystals greeting him. Yeah, this was definitely the spot. The Sith began harvesting freely, stuffing his bag with as many crystals as possible. Then, when it was full, he pulled out another and stuffed that one too. After 4 bags, the Drast stepped back, satisfied. He lifted two—one on each shoulder—and then handed the other two to Talo. The more bags they could carry out, the better.

"Ready to go?" he asked, already making his way to the exit.

@One For Sorrow

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo chuckled a little, keeping his pistols drawn and ready in case of more Wampa attacks as Wes stuffed bag after bag with precious Kyber crystals.

The harvesting finally done, Talo took the two bags and slung them both over his left shoulder. It was a tad awkward but it allowed him to keep a pistol in his right hand.

"To be honest Sir, I've been ready to get off of this frozen rock since I got here." Talo chuckled as he followed Wes out.

@vamp