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

"Do you trust us?" Rayk queried Faala as she could see that the remaining Stormtroopers were closing in on their position.

"I have no choice but to trust you," Faala motioned to the Stormtroopers getting ready to survive the final assault, "But, it looks like our situation is very grim."

"We need to link now," Rayk placed his hands upon Faala and then she felt a strange sensation course throughout her mind and body, "The link is complete."

"Yes, I feel it," she responded in a calm and cool manner; now understanding the link to the Wyrm that she was experiencing, "We need to get away from here to safety."

"Do not worry about us," Rayk soothed her thoughts and it seemed like time slowed down all around Faala who now had no worries about the impending Imperial troops massing on the other side of the abyss, "We will escape from here now."

The Wyrm immediately slithered and gathered Faala close enough to them as she held on for dear life as they descended into the abyss where the Stormtroopers had fallen to their doom. They now tunneled swiftly and escaped from view of the amassing army of troops.

***

"Where did they go?" Lieutentant Hiretsuna openly wondered with the new compliment of Imperial troops that the Empire had sent in as reinforcements, "Scan for them!"

The troops now set up the scanning equipment in earnest, but before they could finish a new hole immediately opened up and swallowed the hapless victims into a new hole to oblivion. Lieutenant Hiretsuna stared down into the emptiness realizing now that even with his reinforcements, he was no match for these creatures.

"We must retreat now!" he ordered as he ran as fast as he could towards the cave entrance, but before he and his troops could make it there the entrance started to collapse sealing them in between more holes that were dug behind them.

With each new hole excavated more and more of his troops succumbed to their deaths. It definitely now felt like there was no hope for him surviving this kind of attack.

"Quick, blast through the rubble before we perish to our doom!" he ordered as he repeatedly shot his blaster at the rubble ahead of him, but with each blast more and more of the inner part of the cave collapsed around he and his remaining troops.

"We have failed!" he lamented as he suddenly felt the sensation of falling and falling and falling....

 

That was really, really good. Faala learned to believe the weirdness of Wyrm to save herself and Liutenant Hiretsuna hara kiri'd himself in a way slightly more epic than his people before him.

And it looks like an...ending? Or is that just me?

 

I was thinking that a wrap up epilogue would be the next post or the story could continue even more.

 

I was going to do a conclusion/epilogue in the next post, as soon as I think of one. This was good and looks very final! This would be the first RR I ever participated in that HAD an ending.

Which isn't to say we couldn't do another one, or a long collaborative thing with actual PLANNING and a outline of a plot if we wanted to.

Nice post, RX_Sith. Lots of destruction and mayhem.

 

Wrap it up, Mistress_Renata! This has been fun.

 

I'm sorry, I haven't forgotten this! Hope to have the finale tomorrow. And then if everyone else hates it, you can retcon to your heart's content. But I'm keeping in mind some of the discussions we had, so hopefully, there will be a happy medium.

 

Okay, this may be a bit gloomier than I had intended, but you can take it as a given that the flame of the Rebellion continues to spread. Thank you everyone for playing; it's fun bouncing ideas off each other and I confess, this didn't turn anything out the way I anticipated when I first started it (which is not a bad thing). You are all crazy creative, and it's been a pleasure doing this with all of you.

* * *

It was darkness and dust and Faala pressed her lips together tightly to keep from swallowing the earth as Wyrm burrowed frantically to escape the Stormtroopers. There was an explosion which she felt more than heard, a powerful vibration throughout her body and thudding in her chest, and then another and another. Thermodentonators. The Stormtroopers had thermodetonators, and some of them had the chance to activate them before they died. The caves were disintegrating, the mountain above it falling in, and Wyrm were trying to escape as quickly as they could.

The crushing feeling of earth and Wyrm suddenly lightened, and she could feel warm air. Wyrm slid out from under her and she was rolling on the ground, blinking up at the sun, which was hazy behind a cloud of dust. She sat up, coughing, and looked around.

They were very close to the small Rebel ship. Rayk was lying on the ground nearby, with several Wyrm in a semi-circle around him. The smallest had its pseudopod pressed against Rayk’s forehead, which was pulsing rhythmically. It backed away when Faala approached, and Wyrm regarded the two of them with those strange, flat eyes.

Faala bent over her friend, catching her breath at the sight of the terrible wounds in his chest. “Rayk?” she said gently. “Rayk?”

He opened his eyes. They were clouded with pain, but it was Rayk looking back at her, not Wyrm. “Faala…” he said. “S-sorry…”

She fumbled at her belt, looking for a medpack. “Okay,” she said soothingly, “just take it easy. I’ll get you patched up in no time.”

“Faala…”

“Rayk? Rayk! Stay with me! Stay with me!” She grabbed his shoulders, shaking him, while frantically pressing the medpack against the wound on his chest. For one moment, their eyes met. And then the light faded from his, and he was gone. “No…” She sat back in horror and grief.

There was a vibration in the ground. She looked back at Wyrm. Bands of color, purple and yellow, were rippling across their bodies. One by one, they wriggled up towards Rayk, and extended their pseudopods as they had when they paid homage to their Krag-na. Then, slowly, they moved away, and burrowed into the ground, one after another, leaving the young Rebel Kiffar alone with the body of her fallen friend.

She wiped her sleeve angrily across her face. There was no time to grieve right now. The Imperials could have sent out a call for reinforcements, and she needed to be gone before they showed up. The small U-wing wouldn’t be able to outrun or outshoot TIE fighters. She took him under the arms and slowly began to drag him to the ramp. “I t-told you…to lay off the…r-resk pies,” she growled, cursing between sobs. Gently, she laid him on the webbed bench, and moved to the pilots’ seat. There could be no Rebel base on Mopusa 8. Their mission had failed.

* * *

Deep below the surface of the planet, the small group of Wyrm joined the survivors, bowing low before Krag-na.

Beast Warden has passed, they said.

We must transfer, answered Krag-na. It opened its massive mouth, and the smallest of the Wyrm, the one who had probed Rayk as he lay dying, slithered inside. Krag-na closed its maw, and there was a long pause while the small Wyrm was digested.

After several hours, Krag-na stirred. We are Krag-na. We are Wyrm. We are Warden.

What are our orders, Wyrm Warden?

Protect the planet. Destroy all Crunchy Ones. We are the Rebellion. May the Force be with us.

Wyrm vibrated in acknowledgement and slowly spread out on their mission. Any of the Crunchy Ones who survived would not do so for long. And any who were foolish enough to land on this planet would not be there for long.


Wyrm were ready. Wyrm would remember.

 

Faala Dis, you're one brave woman. But your friend Rayk could have only been saved by a miracle and you know that.

There are so many things to like about this epilogue. The idea of the smallest of the Wyrm absorbing Rayk's consciousness a'la Eywa in Avatar, the fact that there is so much more to explore about the species' mind and give culture and the hope in the end...but even then, there's a tiny bit of absurd humour in the "resk pies" moment.

A great ending to a great story that was so much fun to do!

 

I agree with Ewok Poet, whole-heartedly, Mistress_Renata! This was an excellent two pronged finale. It is well written and immersive. It was indeed sad that Rayk died, bit was nice to see that he was Rayk again at the end. I will admit that the second part gave me goosebumps. You did such a great job with so few words. Though Rayk died, the Wyrm Warden survives.Bravo!

 

Poor Rayk
I'm just feeling bad right now and ask myself, if I had written my posts different could he have survived?
That always hits me when I kill of a character that I liked. But alas, it was a nice epilogue and I liked the comment about the resk pies.
It was a fun project Thanks to all of you.

P.S. I'm still slightly confused about the ending though. Did Krag Na killed the Ryak slug to absorb his powers or did he became on with the Wyrm?

 

I've been holding comments out of an attempt to avoid leading people where I thought the story should go. All of you did great in this story, creating a perfect mix of action, comedy and the right level of weirdness that made me think of some of the old Marvel adventures.

 

A superb ending and I like that the Warden still lives.

 

Well, it's a war. I hate to kill characters, too, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do it. As to the ending, the small Wyrm took in part of Rayk's consciousness to itself. Then it allowed itself to be eaten by Krag-Na so that the consciousness could be absorbed by the leader. So part of Rayk still lives on. But I did want him to die as himself. That only seemed fair.

And this is the first RR I've ever participated in that had an ENDING!!! We should be proud of that, people!

 

Now, I still think that we should continue the story and have Faala bring over some xenobiologists to Mopusa 8.

And I also never participated in a RR that had an ending (the one I was in back in 2015 died off), so this was gr9.

 

I agree that continuing the story with Faala's further adventures is something that we as a group should do.

 

If we do I would like to take part again.

 

As someone who used to run Round Robin assignments for a homeschooler group at my library, I know how challenging writing a story piecemeal can be. The story may start in one place, and end up somewhere completely unexpected. I enjoyed following the twists and turns of this story, as each author interpreted (and re-interpreted) what had come before. I’m impressed that this story had an actual ending – that’s often the most difficult part to pull off.

Excellent teamwork by the authors, who have crafted both a good story and aliens who are very much not-human. (Transference of personality by digestion? Whoa….)

 

This was a very entertaining read! Thanks to all the authors who made it possible. Seeing everyone's inputs and twists and how everything built on the previous posts reminded me a lot of playing tabletop RPGs and the group dynamics involved with creating a collaborative story. The storyline took lots of directions I didn't expect, LOL.

Wyrm were ready. Wyrm would remember.

 

This was a great story. Love the round robins. Just like the USJS