Saga - OT I've Got a Bad Feeling About This... (round robin, jump in!)

Oh, wow! So Rayk transformed into one of these hive-slugs, mentally. This is even better than joining with the Killiks. Let's see if they, Faala and the rest of the gang can beat the Crunchy Ones.

 

Welcoming a new writer to the team, RX_Sith! Can't wait to see where this goes now. The battle of Wyrm and the Crunchy Ones may (or may not?) be pending...

I mean, I suppose there's a possibility of a diplomatic solution (a really, really, really slim next-to-impossible possibility, given Imperial mindsets), but... we'll see. And where will this leave Rayk? Hm...

 

"Sir, we have them trapped inside of the cave," FK-371 and DT-2016 reported to Lieutenant Hiretsuna, "Do you want us to attack?"

"No," Hiretsuna ordered, "Set up a perimeter first and engage the Force Field; we need to ensure that they are indeed trapped with no way to escape from the cave."

"Yes, sir," FK-371 and DT-2016 replied, "Setting up the Force Field."

Hiretsuna attempted to contact the Empire for further instructions, but for some reason, the communications once they were inside of the cave were unable to get out.

"It is up to us now," he mused, "Sergeant Capryl, you are to scan the cave to ensure that this is the only way out. I will attempt to contact the Empire. If you do not hear from me within the next two hours, you are to ready your attack."

"Yes, Lieutenant," Capryl obliged his orders. He immediately set up the huge scanning equipment and commenced the scanning of the cave complex.

After scanning for an hour, he looked at the data and concluded that the way they have come into the cave was the only way out. He waited patiently for Hiretsuna to contact him again while he readied the troops for the attack if necessary.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What are we going to do?" Faala asked hoping that the response would not be worse than the situation she was in now. "They have set up a Force Field and we are trapped in here."

"We have two choices:" Rayk stated succinctly, "We could fight or we could also tunnel to a more secure location."

"Uh, well, then tunnel," Faala implored desperately, "We must escape now."

"Of course, if we tunnel, then the Crunchy Ones will also be able to follow," Rayk spoke in a monotonous manner, "So unfortunately, we must fight. Are you ready?"

"Hell no!" Faala shouted, "Can't you just make more than one tunnel so that they will not know which way we went?"

"They have scanning equipment to pinpoint our location," Rayk responded smoothly, "No, we must fight. Make preparations now."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hiretsuna has more sense than I gave him credit for! Although I suppose he's in the shuttle, ready to make a quick getaway if things go south. Let's see...

 

Well, he might have some sense or perhaps he is deciding to get away quickly once the attack begins like you stated, but I guess it will be up to the next posts to determine what he and the rest will do.

 

Looks like there are some folks on both sides who are more than willing NOT to fight. But the slugs' way is not about running away! Great update!

 

Okay! I'm back from the holiday visit to the folks, still congested & coughing, but the new cough medicine is not making me woozy, so I think I am clear-headed enough to plug in the next chunk. It's shorter than I intended, but I wanted to leave leeway for someone else. The Battle Begins! (Someone had to do it...)

* * *

Faala took a deep breath and exhaled. What would Luke Skywalker do? A heroic pilot, outside of an X-wing, he’d probably just blast his way through with that friend of his, Solo. What would Mon Motha do? Try to negotiate peace with the Stormtroopers. Yeah. Like that would ever work. What would General Madine do? She frowned at this, and turned to Rayk.

“Rayk, is there any way we can take down that force field?” He looked at her blankly. Her hearts sank, as she realized there was no sign of the Theelin she knew in his eyes.

“Crash through force field, destroy the Crunchy Ones!” he droned.

Faala counted to ten. Quickly. “Wyrm, I must speak with the Beast Warden. He has knowledge that can help us!”

“We are Wyrm. We are one.” From the corridor, she could hear the Stormtrooper leader.

“Rebels! You are surrounded! Surrender or die!” The problem with that, as near as Faala could tell, was that surrender pretty much meant death anyway. Slowly and painfully, after being tortured to extract information on the Rebellion. Not a lot of incentive to cooperate, as far as she and her Rebel comrades were concerned.

“For the Beast Warden! Attack the Crunchy Ones!” bellowed Rayk.

The creatures vibrated, a strange sequence of purple and green running along their sides, and then they slithered towards the force field at speed. The first few hit the field. Blue current arced through the air and over their bodies. Rayk screamed in anguish as he felt their passing, but the next group were already pressing forward.

Faala grabbed her blaster. Rayk was lost, too busy serving as the hive mind to fire or act. She moved forward cautiously, hugging the wall, using their hosts’ bodies as cover. There was an explosion of sparks, a smell of burnt…ugh, burnt something. Probably burnt Wyrm. The force field was down, and now she could see the armor of the enemy, gleaming white even in the dimness of the tunnel. “Blasters at full!” said the Stormtrooper commander. “Fire!”

The Stormtroopers opened fire on the advancing Wyrm, while slowly retreating.

The next wave surged towards them…and a series of explosions blasted them to pieces. Faala was knocked backwards by a chunk of flesh which hit her in the chest. Mines. The troopers had mined the floor of the cave. They were trapped.

 

Great start to the battle between the Wyrm and The Crunchy Ones!

 

I have to give full snaps to Raissa Baiard for coming up with "The Crunchy Ones." I still giggle every time I type it.

 

This is scary! And the way Rayk guides the Wyrm, it's like they are kamikaze. But a good start to the battle, indeed. Will have to think a bit before I sit down and write.

Послато са SM-J500FN уз помоћ Тапатока

 

Faala came round and tossed the piece of sluggish flesh off her armor. The area in which she, her companion and the remaining Wyrm were now trapped was separated from the cave entrance by what seemed like a bottomless pit. She did not dare look down.

The Wyrm empath Theelin was lying on the ground, trembling. He had undergone some sort of a seizure for each member of the Wyrm hive mind blasted by the Imperial squadron. Still, the Kiffar felt like she had no time for this.

She approached the other Rebel and poked him in the ribs. "Rayk, this is where your plans got us... get us out. Now! Now! Now!"

"We suffered great losses...but we went down fighting!"

"The hell? The Wyrm just...just tossed themselves onto the Stormtroopers...I mean, the Cruchy Ones. That is not how one fights!"

*If you cannot beat them...* Krag-na spoke from their retreat behind the next curve. *You have to win them some other way.*

"We will all go down fighting!" Rayk exclaimed again, still shaking.

*There is a way out. I speak for the Beast Warden.*

Just what was going on there? Wasn't Rayk himself the Beast Warden? Or was it actually his subconscious speaking to the Wyrm using a much lower frequency than most Human or near-Human's mind could hear? Yet, the orders were clearly audible and the complete opposite of what Rayk was really thinking.

"Okay, Ra...I mean, the Wyrm. You are going to go down fighting."

*There is a way.*

"No." Faala was determined. "You are going to go down fighting."

Rayk finally got up, waving his arms in the air. He gestured to the Stormtroopers on the other side of the pit.

Seconds later, to the surprise of other Wyrm, the Crunchy Ones started jumping into the pit, one by one.

Faala's plan was working - the frequency emitted through the hive mind was showing a confident Beast Warden to the Wyrm. The one audible by carbon life-forms was, however, showing the same old coward she knew - but both of them were influential enough to lead large groups.

 

So the Wyrm can sort of mind control the Stormtroopers to fall into the pit. Definitely a game changer in the battle.

 

I am so glad I'm not up next! What happens now? Will Rayk find his way back? Wildness!

 

FS-1925 had been a corporal in the Stormtrooper corps for nearly half a decade. He had fought rebels on so many planets that he had lost count, battled the Twi'lek resistance army in the burning sun of the Ryloth Bright Lands, pacified Colicoid nests, and cleared the nascent Tatooine base of its wamp rat infestation. Throughout his illustrious military career, however, he had never seen anything that even approached what was going on at the moment.

"What the kriff?" he cursed. The other members of his squad walked dumbfounded into the gaping pit that was in front of them, still marching as if there were obstruction between them and oblivion.

He grabbed the shoulder of a stormtrooper that passed him, only to wince as the private shoved his arm away with the force of his strides. 1925 felt the pull enter his mind, prodding at invisible barriers that he didn't even know he had before retreating away. He looked forward, across the chasm at the Theelin male gesturing towards the pit and the gigantic slugs behind him.

"All troops, focus fire on him!" he yelled out. He raised his blaster carbine and switched the fire selector to single fire. He peered through the scope, the targeting sensors meshing with the optics in his helmet to compensate for the falling dust and darkness in the caverns. Humanoid, he thought. Theelin. Heart 1.3 centimeters lower in the chest cavity than humans. He adjusted his aim as the sound of tunneling grew louder to his right.

The stormtrooper and the others that had warded off the strange mental command that the rebel must have been emitting fired and fired again. Blaster bolt after blaster bolt impacted the rebel in his chest, leaving smoking wounds that glowed a bright orange. He never moved from his standing position.

An explosion of rock and dirt sent shards of debris onto his armor, the sound of the chips clinking off of the white plastoid nearly unintelligible over the echoes. The surviving stormtroopers screamed as the flanking slugs poured out of the hole. FS-1925 switched his blaster to full auto and poured shots into their approaching ranks.


He backed up as they continued advancing, each of the giant gastropods that begrudgingly fell being replaced by two more. "Hold the line!" he cried out even as he took another step backwards. He continued shouting it even as his footing gave way and he fell into the abyss.

 

A very tense and serious battle cry by the remaining Stormtroopers as they succumb to the slugs.

 

That was scary!

 

Loved it, whiskers! That opening for FS-1925 was excellent. I hope you won't mind me borrowing the veteran trooper.

 

Collab fic, he's as much yours as he is mine.

 

FS-1925 expected a long fall with the sickly crunch of his breaking neck being the last sound to enter his ears. To his express delight, the fall was more like walking down a staircase in which the final stair was three feet lower than expected. The veteran trooper sprawled into an undignified position on a small lip of rock left behind by the slugs tunneling. 1925 peered over edge just in time to catch another trooper's boot against his helmet as the doomed man disappeared out of sight.

"Stang," he muttered, scanning his small domain for his weapon. He reclaimed his blaster rifle teetering at the cavern's floor above him. He hadn't remembered dropping it before he fell.

More troopers leaped to their deaths.

This had to stop or the battle would be lost as soon as it started. 1925 pulled himself up and back into the action. He immediately took cover behind a charred chunk of slug flesh. He could see the Feelin standing rigid on the dais, his clothes and flesh burning as well. It appeared that the only way to break the spell the Feelin had over the slugs was to destroy the man himself. 1925 would have to avoid the mind control boundary, navigate the minefield, and locate an RPG before blowing the possessed Rebel to bits.

Stepping from his cover, laying his owner covering fire, he was immediately hit full in the chest by a flash of brilliant pink. Pink! The momentum of the attack took them both the ground. 1925 was really starting to hate falling down. After the initial shock, he realized it was the Kiffar who had been taking pot shots at them after the force field was breached. She was able to get in two solid blows, before wresting his helmet from his head. She froze in momentary shock, which allow 1925 to turn the tables, rolling her onto her back and straddling her. He raised his rifle to her face.

"NOOOOO!" rumbled the voice of the Feelin on the dais. It was the lowest guttural rumble which filled every head and brought everything to a momentary standstill.

 

More action and suspense as FS-1925 survives for a little longer, but getting hit by pink definitely was not worth it.

 

HOLY COW! Or maybe I should be saying Holy Bantha? Two action-packed posts so close together!

I was pleased by whiskers contribution of a Stormtrooper who was not 'weak-minded,' and able to resist the mind-control. Poor Rayk; it doesn't look good for him. And I love brodiew bringing in some hand-to-hand; FS-1925 is too good to lose too soon. I have absolutely no idea how this will turn out. I'd say he deserves a promotion, but it would be a waste of a damn fine non-com (one of my brother's favorite lines from Forrest Gump). Darn it, now I don't know which side I'm rooting for!!!

Let's see...we've lost Raissa Baiard to an attack of Life (we'll miss you, Raissa; thank you for playing!), and I think Anedon is up next? Remember, you've got a week. Don't feel pressured. (She says, realizing that at this pace her turn will come tomorrow!)

 

They're all too good to waste, but darn, that was some good, good action, guys!

 

Faala knew she would die, the man, the Stormtrooper above her pointed his rifle at her face. Everything seemed to slow down around her as to strege the Kiffar's last moments in this galaxy. She saw into the soldiers eyes, into the eyes of the man who would end her lufe and for a moment there seemed to be a conection between the two. The man doubted for a moment, maybe because of their eye contact, maybe because of the screaming around them.

That moment was enought, Faala's fist slammed into the humans face and she managed to dragg his blaster away from her face. A second later her boot hit his chestplate and she could threw the soldier of her. Getting up she hit his face a second time, breaking his nose. She wasn't sure if the man was dead or merely unconsicous, but now was not the time check on him.
Instead she turned to Rayk. Her friend looked horrible but was still alive. He even gave her a smile for a second before another seizure shook his body.

Faala run towards him ignoring the battle that still surounded them. The seizures seemed to become harder and harder for Rayks wounded body and Faala prayed that he would survive. The Kiffar had no illusions had her friends ability to control these slugs was the only way they could get out of here alive.
"We have a name." Rayks voice was weaker than ever before, only a whisper but Faala was happy to hear it. "I'm sorry Rayk." She whispered back.
Then she again turned around, to the battle that surrounded them.

 

Oh, excellent, Anedon! I love that Faala's a fighter to the end. And remembering that Wyrm insist on their dignity is a great touch.

RX_Sith is up next, then. Bring it home!

 

Hope all of this dignity and bravery results in something good! *crosses fingers*