Post by Thrakk Valinor on Nov 13, 2023 13:34:13 GMT -8
* With his eyes still closed, Thrakk began to shut down the ships systems with the force leaving on the most minimal needed subsystems functioning. The ship then ceased to rattle and shake as the sounds of the engines began to dissipate. For a brief moment the vessel drifted in the Maelstrom like a lifeless husk in the wind before it began to right it itself. Thrakk was drawing upon the raw energy of the Maelstrom itself to fuel his power. He could feel his insides burning as if every fiber of his being; down to his own cells where being fleshed out into the faces of the twin suns of Tatooine. His eyes flashed open to reveal only pupilless black orbs, the veins surrounding them also begin to bulge and turn black as if Thrakk's own blood began to turn into hot tar from the darkside that was beginning to consume him. The ship moved forward but this time with an uneasy elegance as it sailed the torrents of energy within the Maelstrom, Thrakks fingertips begin to start to turn as well almost looking like the first stages of frostbite as he continued to manipulate the force around him like a marionette. Dragus would see out of the main viewport that no longer where the debris and space rocks being turned away from the ship but being formed in front of it, like a shot gun being primed to fire*
Dragus licked his lips nervously, studying his Thyrsian pilot with a mixture of scientific curiosity and sorcerous introspection, seeing through the arcane ability of his rakatan ocular gem the insipid shell of reality to flake away to expose the dark soul beneath this husk of flesh and blood.The Jedi believed every living being was more than the body through which they drew breath. 'Luminous beings are we', a phrase they often recounted, and they were right. But for the Sith, well, luminous was hardly appropriate. Thrakk had managed to tap into his own inner darkness, not just sinking into the shallows closest to the surface of the ocean of infinite hatred, but plunging head first into its deepest depths. Those waters, however promising, were extremely dangerous even for one as versed in the lore and study of the darkside as the Hungering One himself.He reached a gentle claw towards the young man's shoulder, intent on stirring him from the power fever that gripped him, but blue forks of raw ethereal current stung his talons and forced him to withdraw the now smoking digits.
<<Careful, my boy. You draw too deep from the Well. Without the proper ritualz to channel thossse currentz and fortify your ssspirit, you risssk incurring the flesh change.>>
Outside, beyond the wall of rock held in place by the corrupted Jedi's telekinetic claw, the Summa-Verminoth had begun to take notice of the vessel that had broached the borders of its gravitationally unstable lair. More massive than a lucrehulk, with long sinuous arms that could rip open armoured hulls and crush reinforced durasteel skeletons, the mighty void leviathan unfurled and exposed its great eye. It was captivating, and quite frankly terrifying, though the Dark Apothecary retained enough sense to pull Squeakers from his seat and push the rodent towards the rear of the cabin.
"Empty the cargo hold."He whispered with a growl, hardly hiding the urgency in his tone or the fear that was beginning to slip into his saurian hiss."Quickly now, before it decidez we'd make the better meal."
Hurry-scurrying down into the bay compartment, the Famine Lord's faithful but also faithless ranat assistant scampered towards the cargo controls and leapt at the lever in question, catching it with its prosthetic vibro-hook and yanking it down to release the contents of the hold. The deck rumbled beneath their feet as the Bad Bantha voided its bowels, releasing a sluicing fleshy broth into the frigid void that congealed into a frozen mass as it drifted towards the widening beak of the monstrous space squid. With a gargantuan snap, the black beak of the Summa-Verminoth closed on the contents of the Potage Aux Esclave that had drifted into its maw, seeming to swallow it in an unearthly gulp that caused its whip like extremities to shudder and shake. Ice crystals and a dusting of carbon particles misted from its ginormous frame, drawn across the void towards the hungry gravitational anomaly of the Maw.
It was beautiful to behold.For once even Dragus seemed lost for words, staring with his own jaws agape, drool spilling stupidly onto the cockpit floor.
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."
Post by Thrakk Valinor on Nov 14, 2023 19:32:37 GMT -8
* The vessel perhaps had made it safely away from the gaping maw of the space leviathan if it took the offering it was provided from the cargo hold, they would be at the edge now of their journey; right where Dragus had directed Thrakk to take them. This horrific encounter would soon be over with, but the young Sith apprentice new it would not be the worst or the last thing he saw on this ill-fated adventure.
From withing himself, he could hear the words of the Dark Apothecary reverberate inside his mind; almost losing them like an echo of thunder within the storm. Thrakk struggled to maintain his grip on the force as he felt the darkside continue to widdle away at his flesh. It fed off him in, keeping itself deeply rooted within his being. Though the darkness again called to with it's sirens song. Taunting him to siphon the life of those around him in order to continue to fuel the nexus. Thrakk reaches out in the force and feels the life energy of those on board, though his Master's own power was to greatly shielded; the others where not.
As Thrakk began to draw upon the other's life essence, his body began to reform saving him from the flesh change. His veins begin to turn back to normal as fingertips once again show signs of life, his eyes lose their void like similarity and return the red and yellow of one known to be a user of the darkness. With this also comes clarity as his own mind once again takes hold of his actions as he pulls himself out of the depths. He wanted more, he wanted to turn kill them all in order to strengthen his pact to the darkness, but he knew it would not further his goals at the moment. Ripping himself free of the darksides embodiment, Thrakk falls back into his seat. Breathing heavily and letting his senses clear*
"Well done, lad."Hissed the serpent lord behind the exhausted Thyrsian, resting the bladed hooks of his talons upon the young man's shoulder."The firssst sssip iz alwayz the sssweetest, the mossst ssseductive, but you resssisted becoming itz ssslave. Remember that feeling. With ssstrength of will, thossse currentz will ssserve you, and never the other way around. I will teach you how to inure yourssself to their falssse whisperz, and to harden your sssoul againssst corruption. Ritual emboldenz a Sssith in the sssame way meditation centerz a Jedi. We are two sssides of the sssame coin, diametrically opposssed, even if not all sidez are equal."He finished with a wicked smirk.
Beyond the cockpit window, the monstrous summa-verminoth let out a terrible cry as its belly twisted and split, the Potage Aux Esclave it had just consumed terribly disagreeing with its alien stomach. Moments ago it radiated with delight as it dined on the spice heavy soup, but not it radiated with growing aggression, its massive limbs thrashing in the void. Giant carbonbergs shattered and sent splinters hurtling towards the ship.
"Thossse lessonz will have to wait."Snarled Dragus, his mismatched gaze growing wide as he watched impending doom fly through the void towards them."Get uz out of here!"
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."
Post by Thrakk Valinor on Nov 21, 2023 21:53:57 GMT -8
* Thrakk pulls himself out of his daze, his refocusing and with sheer will he forces his body into action. Fighting the exhaustion, he pushes himself once again forward. Ignoring his screaming muscles and forcing them to move once more, if there had been one thing he took away from his father's teaching while being indoctrinated into the Sun Guard it was this, pain means that you are still alive, and as long as you are alive you never stop fighting.
With the flick of a few switches the Bad Bantha comes back to life as the ships systems come online with the reintroduction of power. The engines once again roar sending the small vessel hurtling towards the edge of the field of space debris and to their final destination. Thrakk was sure the Maintenace needed to get the ship back to being fully operation would be exhaustive, but that labor was to be worried about at another time. The Sith apprentice diverts all power to the engines, as the shields would not be needed as long as piloted with the Force as his guide. As they barrel past the last of the asteroids and carbonbergs, Thrakk can see the ending coalescence of the all the energies of the maelstrom*
" We are here Master "
*Thrakk was able to utter out a few words under his gritted teeth as the ship began to be pulled into the final act of the Maelstrom*
Behind them, the summa-verminoth was using its massively long limbs to pull itself through the debris field after their fleeing ship, now situated near the edge of the Maw into which everything in the Maelstrom was eventually drawn. Dragus could feel the effects of time-dilation distorted by their proximity to the blackhole, as the onboard chrono seemed to come to a stand still, not frozen necessarily but slowed by an incredible degree.The seconds they perceived were days for the rest of the galaxy. To linger here too long, one might find the galaxy a very changed place upon exiting the effective field of the gravitational anomaly.Even colour seemed to be stripped away, transforming the black depths of space into a grey limbo of sorts. The sheer force of the Maw's pull was also having an unpleasant effect on the Bad Bantha's hull, slowly warping its skeleton out of shape as it threatened to swallow the ship and crush them in its hungry centre.
"Thiz was a missstake."The Dark Apothecary reluctantly admitted, his mismatched stare focused on the rear camera displayed on the cockpit dash in front of them. The vid screen showed the mighty space leviathan closing, its giant eye leering at them, while its beak shredded through small carbonbergs between them."The Potage did not sssatiate the beassst az I anticipated, and I am beginning to sssuspect it will make for a poor ally."He shrugged his shoulders and waved a claw dismissively, quickly moving past the disappointment as he turned his spice addled scheming brain on to bigger and better things."You live, you learn. Unlesss of courssse you die. Write that down, Thrakk. That'z a good one."
By now Squeakers had reentered the cockpit and was squeaking in indecipherable rapidly espoused rat-speech. The rodents arms were a flurry of exaggerated movements, until it caught its vibro-hook on Dragus' seat and had to pry it free with a hard pull that tore some of the stuffing out of the leather encased cushion.
"Calm yourssself, Squeakerz. We haven't been eaten yet."He tapped a crooked claw against his scaled chin, clearly pondering their escape. The amethyst gem set in the contemplating crocodile's left eye socket lit up as inspiration struck."Ah, of courssse. My newly formulated ultra-coaxium should do the trick."Rising from his chair, the Famine Lord slipped into the co-pilots seat beside his Thyrsian comrade and began to scrape his talons upon the navigational controls."I'm disssabling the sssafety parameterz of the navi-computer, Thrakk. You'll have to get uz clossser to the Maw, but I believe we can ussse the blackholez gravity like a sssling-shot, then jump to hyperssspace usssing my experimental fuel. It'z uncertain where we'll end up, asssuming we don't explode of courssse, but anywhere haz to be better than here."
Even the summa-verminoth's horrid cry was distorted by the proximity to the Maw, as the blackholes indiscriminate hunger swallowed even sound itself. That had moments at most.
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."
Post by Thrakk Valinor on Nov 23, 2023 21:30:27 GMT -8
* Thrakk listened closely to his Master's plan, he had practiced smaller slingshot like jumps in a simulator before but never anything of this magnitude. He knew the Bad Bantha was not rated for this kind of a maneuver, hell most vessels in general couldn't do it either; but he knew it had to be done. As the nav computer was released from the confines of its built-in safety measures, a whole new list of possible jumps and routes began to fill the screen; Thrakk began to select a new course as the shrieking vibrations of the leviathan grew ever closer. It was then it came it to him a possible idea that could transport themselves and their prey allowing them to accomplish the task set before them *
* Master, it seems the wrym will not cease to hunger. But that could be because of the effects of the Maw...if we could get it close enough we can envelope it withing our hyperspace tunnel. Taking it out of the maw where perhaps it could be more, easily satiated"
* Thrakk's finger hovers over the hyperjump ignition waiting for Dragus to give him the go ahead *
Last Edit: Nov 23, 2023 21:30:41 GMT -8 by Thrakk Valinor
Drag the beast with them? Of all the hair-brained ideas, this was absolutely the most...brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!Dragus' overlong tail swept out enthusiastically behind him, nearly taking off the verminous head of a quickly ducking Squeakers in the process, instead simply chopping through the top cushion of the chair behind him."Of courssse. Good thinking, Thrakk. Getting clossse enough shouldn't be a problem..."He hissed prophetically as a large space barnacle encrusted tentacle seemed to stretch ahead of the cockpit viewport and encircle the Bad Bantha in fleshy hooked suction cup covered coils. The Dark Apothecary took a moment to fasten his seat belt as he gripped the arms of his seat tightly with his claws, giving the Thyrsian pilot a last nervous look."I feel it only fair to warn you, my ultra-coaxium haz a bit of a kick to it."He quickly genuflected, making the sign of the Eye as he whispered a silent prayer to the evil deity he worshipped for good measure.
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."
Post by Thrakk Valinor on Nov 28, 2023 1:14:09 GMT -8
* Thrakk waits until the last possible second to send the vessel into hyperspace, the jaws of the levithian had almost engulfed as the space outside the Bad Bantha began to stretch and then suddenly stream past them. They had made it into the jump, with the great wrym being dragged behind them. Now it was only a matter of the ship holding together until they reached their destination. *
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."
Ionic lightning crackled around the mouth of the Akkadese Maelstrom as a Recusant-class light destroyer emerged from Black Rock Passage and passed close to the Spice Forge, or what the common-man of the galaxy referred to as Kessel. The journey from the rings of Geonosis to the stellar storm wracked Kessel sector had been largely uneventful.Dark Apostle of the Famine Lord, Jerec Cretin, had been tasked in that time with making the Clone Wars era derelict vessel void worthy again. As far as the depraved servant of the Dark Apothecary was concerned, there was no better testing ground than the Maelstrom, which had been the end of many a ship over the countless millennia since the galaxy was born.He stood straight backed with his gloved hands clasped behind his back, staring out the bridge viewport as he kept one eye on the gravity storm, and another on the planets they were passing. The furthest world out, Karedda, was little more than an ice-ball. The closest to the primary star of Kessa? That would be Senna, which was very much the opposite of Keredda, being completely covered in molten iron. Of the three worlds, only Kessel possessed the bear minimum requirements to support life, largely centered around the jungled southern hemisphere. Christened the Night Buzzard by Jerec after taking command, the destroyer pulled into a synchronous orbit over the capital of Kessendra, parking itself high above just outside the upper atmosphere.
Behind the Dark Apostle the bridge doors split apart, the bright lumens of the lift stabbing painfully into the dimly lit room, obscuring the serpentine form standing just beyond the threshold. Stalking inside, a barabel of black scale and garbed in a heinous long-coat of stitched together human faces emerged onto the bridge, trailed by an overlong tail capped by a sinister barbed spike coated in an oily resin of rock-worrt venom. As Jerec turned around, he immediately dropped to a knee, recognizing his master anywhere despite his unquestioned surprise.What was he doing here? How had Jerec not sensed him? And most importantly, how had he gotten aboard the ship when they had only just arrived? Unfortunately if he was hoping for answers, he was doomed to be disappointed.Dragus black lips split into a serrated smile, putting on display his full forest of fangs, which separated to allow his forked tongue to slither past the rows of razor blades filling his saurian snout. It was only as he appeared that the Hungering One allowed his miasmic aura to be felt, expanding beyond his depraved self and entire to encompass the bridge and all living things that currently occupied the ship, most of whom were Nu-Jake clones bred on Kamino. Like a slithering serpent his envenomed presence entered their thoughts and weighed heavily on their collective conscious, settling in to their psyche.
My Master."Said Jerec, his bald head bent forwards towards the polished floor. He attempted to lift his head so that he might better interpret the Great Devourer's intent, but he found his body frozen in place, his limbs too heavy to move and his head far too heavy to lift. As Dragus stepped beneath the dim deck lumens, the Dark Apostle could just make out the drake lord's left claw, curled into a fist as he exerted control over the acolyte's body. It was the deranged draconian who knelt next, but only so that he could get a better look at his servant's pale features, trembling in place as he struggled to move his body. He-Who-Hungers grasped his pawn's chin and held it between two talons, raising Jerec's chin just enough so that the loyal vassal could see the gnats flying about his mouth daggers, feasting on the morsels of carrion trapped between his teeth in a rotten buffet of decaying meat."Jerec, you were sssupposed to bring me a Providence-classs dreadnought."He turned his snout from side to side, the mechanized gismos of his rakatan ocular implant whirring away inside his saurian skull. When he was done, he returned his revolting toothy expression to the Dark Apostle's ghoulish face."Correct me if I'm wrong, az I'm hardly a connoissseur of capital shipz, but that'z not what thiz iz, iz it?"He released his hold on Jerec's chin, then maneuvered his tail around until the edge of the blade capping its end was pressed against the near-translucent flesh of the Dark Apostle's throat."Explain."
"It wasn't my fault!"Jerec stammered, but he already knew in his heart that it was too late.Whatever punishment his malevolent master intended for him, he would have to endure it and hope to come out the other side more or less still intact.He attempted to call on his own prestigious wealth of sorcerous power, but unprepared as he was, there was no resisting the sinister compulsion of a High Lord of the Eye. Dragus' potent psychic power shattered his mental defenses like a comet hurtling through a pane of glass, raking his mind with astral claws, poisoning his attempts to protect himself. It was all he could do just to spit the words through his teeth as they rattled together in a pained grimace, his brain feeling as though it were being stabbed by a thousand needles at once."The...patrol...marked them...wrong."
Which is exactly what happened, through no fault of the Dark Apostles own. The patrol who had discovered the derelicts along the outskirts of the Geonosian rings had misidentified the two vessels, and miscounted them as well, leading to the current situation on their hands. Of course, if Jerec was expecting that to spare him the coming agony, he was sorely mistaken.
Dragus scaled cheeks creaked as the corners of his jaws twisted and turned outwards in an impossible chainsaw expression, bathing the Dark Apothecary's pale complexion in a fine crimson mist expressed from bleeding gums and a cloud of sulphuric breath that caused the corrupted human to gag."Oh, I'm aware."He leaned in, dragging his forked tongue across his blood bubble covered lips, slurping up the steaming residue of vitae and saliva."Who do you think waz the one who found them? Siss, Siss, Siss."Crimson specks continued to spatter across Jerec's face as Dragus cackled, playing thrumming his talon tips upon the Dark Apostle's frozen shoulder, pricking his servants flesh until a trickle of dark blood ran down the human's arm.
"You?!"Exclaimed Jerec in exasperated shock, his besieged mind attempting to make sense of the situation, even as a familiar sinking feeling of unrelenting dread settled in to the pit of his stomach.Oh no. Knowing his master as well as he did by now, the acolyte could already tell this wasn't a punishment, this was a plan with purpose. That made it much worse."Master, please! My only desire is to serve you..."
"Oh, ressst asssured you will, my mossst pitiful peon."Rising back to a standing position, the Dark Apothecary twisted his left wrist and raised Jerec alongside him, still holding the apostles body in a telekinetic vice with his mind."Thiz iz not a punishment. It iz a reward for your many yearz of devoted ssservice."Hurry-scurrying to the Famine Lord's side was the ruthless reptile's verminous personal assistant Squeakers, who held out a overfull goblet of red wine, which Dragus took into claw and raised to toast his frozen servant."And here'z to many more."Tilting his saurian skull back, the conniving carnosaur poured the contents of the glass down his throat and into his gurgling gullet, completing the action with a revolting bench that would have knocked the wind out of a wookiees sails.
The next thing the Dark Apostle knew, he was being manhandled by powerful rodent paws as a pair of ranat-ogres appeared next to Dragus and unceremoniously carried Jerec further into the bowels of the ship.
"Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yes, I seek perfection. Perfection of body, perfection of mind, and perfection of the soul. Attaining perfection is the ultimate acquisition of power, and I crave power."