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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 17:57:49 GMT -8
There was a short pause as Mig processed that.
-Mig
Something is eating my ship?!
Snapping off an order to one of the roughriders, Mig was already looking forward to killing something.
-Mig
Call in reinforcements, tell them to send everyone that can come. & the heaviest weapons they have.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 11, 2017 18:33:49 GMT -8
Nartaga ran over to Mig, waving at the way they came, trying to persuade the Jawa to give the order to head back. The Tusken's gaderffii hand was visibly shaking. The wrenching sound of metal giving way drew closer, and several roars shook the walls around them.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Do you know what eats dune worms? We need to fall back and come back in fo-"
The floor beneath the group of Jawas and the lone Tusken shook, and large upward dents in the plating appeared beneath the feet of several of the party. Nartaga froze as the metal floor between Mig and himself bent upward. Without thinking the Tusken pushed out with the Force to throw himself and Mig from the damaged floor. Not even a second later the floor split open in several areas, large, black, chitinous claws reaching up and grabbing anything close to the breaches. Several Warboys were not quick enough and were picked up and thrown against the wall, while a few even unluckier ones were forcefully squeezed in half by the sheer power of the creature's claws.
There were seven splits in the floor, each one widening as the beasts ripped the metal of the deck out of their way with their razor sharp legs like it was paper. The Sand Demons kept moving up as they encountered their new prey, moving up onto the walls and ceiling to protect their underbellies from the hail of gunfire hitting their shells, using the advantage of height to strike down at their food, reaching down and striking with claws, teeth, and legs. The black insectoids attacked with the purpose of intense hunger, coupled with extreme anger and hatred of the pain given by the guns of the Jawas.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 19:07:26 GMT -8
Hitting the wall & quickly rolling back to his feet Mis saw several of his war boys cut down. Mig let out a bestial war cry that resonated strangely with his metal jaw. Drawing both his pistols he dove toward the nearest beast as it was still pulling itself up from the ground. Sliding under its slicing legs head first & on his back, he triggered the pistols onto full auto. The defacto head of the Sand Lightning clan was quickly lost to sight beneath a welter of gore & then the collapsed & twitching body of the demon.
The first few moments were bloody as the roughriders opened fire on the strange creatures of nightmare. But some stroke of luck however, they creatures seemed drawn to the ceiling. The very same ceiling that held most of the still alive war boys that had been getting ready to ambush the worm once it was found.
-Warboys
<WITNESS ME!>
Three of the giant insects, half of the remaining creatures, found their bellies full of chopping blades & screaming berserker jawas. The surprise attack wasn't without its own loses, but it was sudden & vicious enough to cause the semi-sentient creatures some confusion. Even as the three attacked demons fell from the ceiling, the warboys continued to hack into them with their vibroblades, casting wide sprays of blood.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 11, 2017 19:57:59 GMT -8
Nartaga struggled for a moment to regain his senses after throwing himself from the epicenter of one of the breaches. He reached out for his gaderffii which was thrown a few feet from him. As his outstretched hand touched one of the metal ends of the Tusken bludgeon a Sand Demon reached down from the ceiling and grabbed it, snapping it like a twig between one of its large claws. The Tusken yelled out in anger reaching for his slugthrower sidearm on his belt. The sand demon screeched and before Nartaga could get a shot off the creature fell from the ceiling, hitting the deck with a loud thud, blood spewing from its belly as several Jawas who had been hiding in the ceiling waiting for the worm came down to attack its vulnerability. Nartaga's rage grew as the blood struck his robes, the Tusken losing control over himself as he felt the death of his allies around him, and the violence filled him.
Nartaga emptied the clip at one of the demons still attacking the Jawas from the wall, throwing it to the ground before charging in at the beast with his bare hands. The sand demon was distracted, playing with its food, and did not see the Tusken until the enraged Nartaga had jumped onto the neck of the creature. The Tusken howled a war cry as he reached up rammed his hand into of the beasts eyes. The sand demon shook and swatted at the Tusken. Nartaga swung his body by the eye of the demon up onto its back and ran his hand into the other eye of the insectoid. The sand demon roared in pain and fell from the wall, thrashing its legs around in blind rage.
Standing on the side of the still squirming sand demon Nartaga lowered his an open hand at the beast and let its pain and rage fill him, giving him the power to do what was needed. A blood-like red light flowed from Nartaga's goggles as the sand worm burst into flames. His gaze turned to the other sand demons, who recoiled at the feeling of a superior predator in the Tusken, taking their eyes off of the more immediate threat of the Sand Lightning Jawas just long enough for two more of them to be killed by the smaller beings. Nartaga raised a hand and took grip of two of the remaining sand demons with the force, crushing them together with only the gesture of making a fist. When all was said and done the once large and imposing creatures were little but a twitching semi circular ball of burst innards and gore.
The tide turned quickly as reinforcements finally arrived and beat down the remaining sand demon with several large caliber slugthrowers that tore clean through the beast from front to end, leaving several large holes in its new corpse. Nartaga slowly walked over to one of the bodies of felled sand demons, the red glow from his goggles lighting up the black shell of the still warm body. The Tusken raised his hand again, this time lifting the body up and throwing it off of Mig who was beneath it.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 20:54:00 GMT -8
Once the massive weight had been lifted from him, Mig was back on his feet nearly instantly. He felt surprisingly full of energy, given that he was literally soaked with gore. He did a quick head count. Of the original thirty, half of the war boys had died in the few moments of the attack. Of the remaining ten, once enough gore had been wiped off to check for injuries, not a single one was hurt. The roughriders has been lucky in that they were standing further back when the attack happened. While they had been close enough to be lightly splattered from the ferocity of the war boy's attack, they had managed to avoid the worst of it.
-Mig
Suddenly, I don't want to be down here any more. At least not for the moment. Let's get out of here.
His metal jaw was itching like mad. It hadn't done that in a long time & it was really starting to bug him. Leaving the still fine roughriders & the reinforcements to finish searching out the worm, Mig took the warboys back to the safety of the upper levels, pausing to see it Nartaga would join them.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 11, 2017 21:18:41 GMT -8
At the site of Mig still breathing the glow from Nartaga's goggles subsided and the Tusken suddenly felt as if the entire weight of Tatooine was on him. Struggling to stay on his feet the Tusken turned weakly raised his arm, calling the two broken ends of his gaderffii to him. The metal pieces skittered slowly across the deck to rest at the Tusken's feet. With all the power he could muster he brought them up into his hands, he held them in his hands. The blood from the sand demon he had blinded coated his gloves, soaking both down to his skin and caking the dull metal of his now broken weapon. He spoke, not to anyone in particular, but to just ground himself, to reassure him he was here and this had not been some vision or hallucination.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I don't know if I will make it...."
Nartaga fell to his knees and turned to look at the trail of blood that was behind him. His eyes traced the path of blood back to himself then the reality came back to him. The pain of a large gash across his back, from the top of his right shoulder down to his left side wracked his mind. The back of his robes were torn in two, revealing a large portion of the pale white skin beneath his clothing, the blood flowing form the wound and soaking the tattered cloth and moving down to a small pool where he knelt. Nartaga collapsed onto his side and let the darkness take him into unconsciousness. Before he faded out he heard the cries of a few Tuskens and Jawas, followed by the thuds of boots hitting the deck towards him.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 21:36:31 GMT -8
When he opened his eyes the next morning, Nartaga would find a bowler hat & a small pair of wire frame spectacles looking him over. Unusually for a Jawa, his rat-like face was plainly visible. It was also covered by a network of heavy scar with neat regular stitching. He was humming softly as he was poking something squishy on Nart's chest. After a few moment, he picked up a chunk of worm meat from the plate sitting on Nartaga's chest & offered him a bite.
-Doc Chop (in jawa)
<Was wondering when you would wake up. You have a good set of organs & I'd hate to see them go to waste.>
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 11, 2017 22:48:20 GMT -8
Nartaga slowly opened his eyes and looked where he was. He was in a small tent from the looks of it. His vision was blurred, but he smelled incense in the air from outside, which Tusken Shamans used to calm the minds of the sick and injured at the field infirmary. The Tusken blinked a few times to clear his eyes and regain his focus as the pain of his injury crept up. He cursed under his breath in surprise as he realized he was not alone, finally noticing the Jawa looming over him. The site of the Jawa was startling but was comforting to know he was not dead. Nartaga shook his head at the offer of food, grimacing in pain as the start of the wound on his shoulder moved with his poor choice in answering the Jawa. The Tusken looked down and saw that his torso was wrapped around in tight bandages, and that parts of his white skin was open to the air.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Why am I bare skinned?"
Despite the pain Nartaga forced himself to sit up, looking for a set of robes to cover himself. He tried to stand but found himself lacking the strength to do so. He settled for shifting onto his side to help with the pain of the wound. He put a bare hand to his face, still masked, and tried to remember what happened. Flashes of sand demons came back to him, but beyond that he could not remember much else. He had obviously been hurt, but he could not piece it all together, at least not yet.
Panic gripped Nartaga as he felt for the necklace with the Kumumgah crystal around his neck, but did not feel it. The Tusken Councilor searched the inside of the tent for any of his belongings but did not see anything of his. Nartaga's gaze turned to Doc Chop, pointing to his chest.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I had a necklace around my neck, where is it? It is very important I have it returned to me."
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2017 18:43:51 GMT -8
Doc Chop was rather annoyed when the Tusken tried to stand.
-Chop <in jawa>
<You will remain laying down or I will tie you to the bed. Understood? As for your things, they are in the box in the corner. They were filthy, so I removed them.>
True enough, there was a box in the corner, from the look of it, it would take several people to move it & the lock on the top was both obvious & complex as anything Nartaga had ever seen. Hearing the noise from within, another jawa entered the tent. After a moment, Nartaga would recognize him as Mig. Though his metal jaw seemed to be pushed out further than before, & he almost looked like he had gotten ten years younger.
-Mig
Up already? I figured it would take more than a few hours for you to wake back up after that scratch you got.
Mig's voice was oddly slurred, perhaps due to how misaligned his jaw seemed to be. Doc Chop tisked over it, but would do more without being invited to.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 12, 2017 20:20:06 GMT -8
Nartaga raised his hand and pulled the box of his belongings over to him. The Tusken was surprised at how easily the box moved for a second given his injuries. Nartaga tightened his hand into a fist, staring at his naked skin with a disturbing intensity. Why could he not remember what had happened? Why did he get the feeling he would not like the answer? Nartaga opened the box and dug through the mess of bloody clothing until he got to the bottom where the crystal held in the necklace was, taking it out and hooking it back around his neck.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"No offense to your skills, but why was I not brought to the Shamans of my clan?"
Before Doc Chop could answer him Mig walked into the tent. The Tusken squinted for a moment as he gazed upon the Jawa's face through the beads hiding most of his face. What he could make out seemed different from before. Nartaga' hand went back up to his head, closing his eyes trying to forcibly bring forth any memories of the events leading up until the present.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I have been told I am harder to keep down than I look. Mig...What happened? I remember very little."
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2017 20:31:07 GMT -8
Mig decided to answer Nartaga'a questions & let Doc Chop get back to his meal. A meal with he moved from the injured tusken's chest in order to keep it from spilling on the floor.
-Mig
Doc Chop was part of the group that came to reinforce us. He was already working on your back before you finished hitting the ground. You probably own him your life. The short version is some metal eating bugs jumped us. There was a fight. Things got
There was a pause here as Mig seemed to think about how to phrase it.
-Mig
Very bloody. I lost a third of the boys I took down there with us. Not much more I can say about it as I spend most of the fight stuck under one of the dead bugs.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 12, 2017 20:53:25 GMT -8
Nartaga shook his head trying to make sense of everything. Going the box of his belongings he took out his bloodied and torn robes, looking them over before carelessly throwing them aside and digging around to take out his pistol, its clip still empty. Nartaga paused at what he found next, his gaderffii, or the two pieces of metal that had been his gaderffii. He held the pieces and a flash of the creature responsible came to the front of his mind's eye.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Sand Demons....Exactly how blood did it get? The blood of a sand demon is said to have rare properties of self discovery of those who are anointed in it. Do you feel any different?"
Nartaga moved to sit back up, despite any protests from Doc Chop and the pain he felt in doing so. Nartaga took out the two pieces of his broken weapon and held the pieces in his hands. Moments later he was standing up, again against the protests of the Jawa doctor, and slowly moving over to Mig. The Tusken lowered himself to eye level with the Jawa by taking a knee and stared into the eyes of the older Jawa.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I am sorry for the loss of your boys, Mig. I hope I am not overstepping my bounds by saying I am sure they would have been happy to die for their clan in battle."
Outside the tent several Tuskens could be heard yelling outside. Nartaga groaned and brought himself back up to his full height. Several Tuskens burst into the tent, carrying several items in their arms. They were visibly shocked to find their head councilor unclothed from the neck to his hips. With several curses directed at the Jawas one of the Tuskens ran out of the tent after dropping what he was carrying and running to get a shaman. The other Tusken ran over to Nartaga, moving past Mig and Doc Chop without so much as a glance, holding out a new pair of robes and wrappings for Nartaga to wear. Nartaga looked to Mig and bowed his head to apologize.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"After all of this is said and done I would like to be there for the funeral of all the people we have lost, both Jawa and Tusken."
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2017 9:32:49 GMT -8
Mig pulled open his coat to show off the clothing he was wearing under it. It was all died a solid blood red now. A closer look at the coat itself also showed it to have a new barely noticeable red tint.
-Mig
Me & the warboys were up to our noses in gore. The roughriders were further back. I can't say that I feel any different, though I do have a lot more energy than usual. I actually stayed up outside the tent all night waiting to see about you. I haven't pulled an all-nighter in years.
True enough, when Nartaga rose, Doc Chop protested, before throwing up his hands & leaving to deal with more compliant injuries. Mig was just happy to see someone he was starting to view as a friend back on his feet.
-Mig
Don't morn the lost. They were witnessed. Even now the roughriders are spreading the story of their glory. They ride beyond the chrome gate now.
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Post by Jawas on May 13, 2017 13:59:02 GMT -8
Waving at Tikk, Doc Brown wanders over to talk with him. -Brown <So how did it run? Everything nice & smooth? Once we unload these heavy plates we will really push the engines to see what she has.> True enough, a rather large number of the ugly airspeeders were waiting to begin hauling off the plates. It didn't take long for them to set up a steady stream emptying out the hold.
Oh yes it ran wonderfully, we were all squealing with delight and running about the sandcrawler when we first got on as if we had found a new shiny piece of junk.Tikk said ever so excitedly as he spoke to Doc Brown, and upon hearing that they were going to push the engines on the way back got him all the more excited to see what it could do. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2017 17:43:50 GMT -8
Doc Brown was happy to hear that the war rig worked well. Of course, he was going to have his own war boys look over the craft to make sure everything really was well.
-Brown <in jawa>
<Excellent, on the way back we will fly high & fast. Have you ever seen the Dune Sea from above?>
With a wave, Doc Brown ordered his war boys onto the craft to check over all the modifications they had installed.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 14, 2017 16:23:29 GMT -8
Nartaga struggled for several minutes to put on his new robes that had been brought to him. It took him a little longer to wrap his hands and arms and then put on his gloves. He then moved onto wrapping the other areas of his body. A place that he had particular trouble with was his neck, just below his mask, due to his injury. Any help that was offered was refused. Nartaga did not have much in the way of pride, but he wanted to do this himself.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I appreciate your concern, Mig. You really did not have to stay up for me. "
Nartaga slowly moved to adjust his clothing to fit properly. He paused a moment to make sure he had not torn any of his sutures. Satisfied, Nartaga slowly made his way out of the tent and over to some of the R'Crurak Shamans. Nartaga hoped seeking other care would not insult the Jawa Doctor, but thought he would understand that he needed to be combat ready sooner rather than later. The Tusken, nor anyone who was here, had time to wait around and heal. As the Shaman began his work on healing Nartaga's injuries, the Councilor continued speaking to Mig.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I am sure they would be happy knowing they are remembered. Have any more demons been sighted?"
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2017 19:04:29 GMT -8
Personally, Mig had been planning on turning in to get some rest hours ago. Surprisingly, he wasn't tired though. He was a bit sore & his jaw was really bugging him. He would have to get it looked at by Chop before much longer.
-Mig
Always good to have another warrior on vigil.
Doc Chop probably would have had words to say about returning immediately to the shamans, but he had already left & Mig had no intention of sharing that bit of information. Mig had not heard anything else on the insects, but he had also been somewhat out of the loop up on the surface.
-Mig
So far it has been fairly quiet. If any more were found, they would have to have been dealt with quickly.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 15, 2017 17:53:23 GMT -8
Nartaga stood up after the Shaman had finished healing the wound on his back. It was not completely fixed, but it was enough that it would not be an issue. He took a slow bow, still having trouble moving a bit, to the Shaman, who returned the bow to the Head Councilor.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"That is good news. If you hear about any of those...things....before I do, please get me. But, if you would like to rest I can watch things here. I can wake you if anything requiring your attention arises."
Nartaga bowed his head to Mig and walked away to go back to helping with scout rotations and scheduling. As he walked away, his hand moved up to the crystal beneath his robes. A worried look formed once more under his mask.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2017 19:01:40 GMT -8
He didn't feel like he needed it, but Mig decided to follow advice & get some sleep. It would also give him a chance to take his jaw off for a while. Meanwhile, the war boys & roughriders of the clan were really beginning to warm up to the R'Crurak clan. New way of life or not, too many had grown up with horror stories of the Tuskens, or seen their work first hand. It began mostly with the scouting parties. Working together in possible mortal danger does wonders for making strangers close. From there is was spreading out to the rest of the clan. More & more the tuskens were being offered the chance to hang out after rotations or join in card games. A few of the elders still had their doubts, but the majority of them were the types that got down & dirty with whatever tasks their boys were doing. This mean that most of them were right there in the thick of the shift in mood.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 16, 2017 18:51:05 GMT -8
Kal'Shor had continued to move his team of Jawas up and down corridor after corridor. Progress had picked up significantly in repairing the power systems throughout the ship recently. Nartaga had sent in more help by the hundreds to do a massive sweep of the upper areas of the ship that had been cleared. Teams of Jawas repaired everything they had the capabilities to and then moved one. Afterwards a team of Tuskens would follow to clean up the area they had been and clear out any debris. That way the Jawas could focus on repairing the ship. Kal'Shor moved back and forth between several panels, helping some of his companions with any trouble they had.
Nartaga stood in the bridge of the buried ship, watching the constantly updating display and making note of any new life signs that appeared. He had sent the Dunewalkers that had come to the site out for seek and destroy missions of anything the scouts reported. They were given access to the anything and anyone they needed to do what they were ordered to do. As the most elite warriors of the R'Crurak clan swept deeper and deeper into the ship, Nartaga smiled as he noted the growing number of empty rooms in their wake. After a level was cleared they would remain at any breaches in the walls to help guard the repair crews that were sent in, just in case anything decided to try and come through.
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