Log:The Dark Places of Madness

The Dark Places of Madness

OOC Date: July 13, 2019
Location: Umgul, Mid Rim
Participants: Rey, Syrus, Nova Korell, Idan Jensa, Jessika Pava, Merek, Sajin, Rhysio Ando, Aryn Cole

Umgul, Mid-Rim

Umgul is a sandy world with dark, rocky mountains. The sky is a constant overcast of dust, and the air is thin, but breathable thanks to a series of atmospheric processors.

All ships have landed in an area of restricted space known as 'Hayerta wa Deisos' translated loosely to the Hills of Death. While the name did not live up to the view, the group that assembled could see the mine-shaft entrance. It was tall and foreboding, with massive doors that were shut tight and controlled by a small terminal wired into the rock itself. Red strobes dotted the landing area, but was still difficult to see with the small gusts of amber colored sand.

The briefing had come from Lady Aryn Cole, or so the Duchess referenced her. It went like this:

"Duchess Aria has made it very clear. We're granted access to this place only to retrieve the research team led by Lord Corbin Follar (knowledge:literature or knowledge:coruscant if you want to know who he is already). This guy is some really well known archaeologist and adventurer that's gone off the sensor grid, essentially. Our hope is to find he and his team alive in these underground ruins. If I'm honest, I'm not sure /what/ we'll find down there. So please.. look out for each other. It's supposed to be very dark, cold, and eerie. Beyond that, I'm not sure what we're walking into." Aryn swept her bright blonde hair back behind her ear and hugged the shadowsilk poncho a bit closer. "Are there any questions before we open the gates?"

Nova Korell looks over the entryway to this mine, doors and all. "Have they heard anything at all since this Lord Follar disappeared? And do they know if the power still works down there, for air circulation and lights? We could be inside for some time. The air gets very stale in mines, and without lights or nightvision equipment, we won't get far."

"What are the lights for? Is that some automatic warning system, or is it an indication that someone is in the area?" Dressed in the extravagantly expensive armor of a Shadowsuit, a dark-haired woman with her hair swept back into a ponytail most definitely has a question. A pair of goggles keep hair covering her forehead away from her eyes, but with the way the dust in the atmosphere is swirling around, one might wonder why they are. She's loaded for Bantha. A blaster rifle is slung from right shoulder towards left hip, with the barrel angled away and towards the ground at its natural resting point. There's a sidearm on her right hip, and a black bag draped across her shoulders to rest against her back. One of them, at least, looks to have come prepared.

Merek has put on his smuggling equipment, which comes with some elemental protection from the planet. He checks on the D-Rings which keep his kits, then he smooths the jacket while he shifts the goggles upon the scarf which he wears also. He is nodding a bit towards Cole, while he listens, checking his maglight, "No questions from me," he says.

Sajin is here in his Fromfitter, hidding his pretty face with the protective wears helm. The Thermal insulation should help in this situation along with his various lamps and targeting system scanning option. "Right..." Came his voice from the helms modulator. "Broke my arm last time I was underground in anything... lets hope this goes better."

Agent Axon is once again out for the mission, arriving wordlessly and checking in succinctly until he finds himself staring down the door from beneath his full facemask. He is dressed in his usual attire. The swoopsuit, the utility belt, several odds and ends. He looks towards Aryn with a raised eyebrow, his voice sounding from behind the mask, "What was Lord Follar researching?"

Idan Jensa is a short, slight Neimoidian who has elected to wear what look like formal robes for some reason and is followed by a spindly, insectoid protocol droid. "More of a.. statement," he offers aloud. "But Lord Follar took out a.. substantial loan to finance this expedition. If al has gone badly, any recovered equipment is owed as collateral."

Aryn does her best to answer each person's questions in the order she received them.

To Nova: "Lord Follar or those with him have not made any contact. The Duchess believes it might be interference with minerals these hills are made of. She's not certain though, she can't seem to find someone experienced enough in mineral science or metals to go down there. Surveillance has reported on the power, and it is still on and circulating air below. Though, we should bring rebreathers if you don't have some already. Best to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

To Jess: "The color of the lights indicate a restricted area. There is a defense force that monitors these lanes, what with the influx of pirate activity. The Duchess is very serious about guarding her rocks." A thumb his hiked up and angled toward the rocky hill-mine.

To Axon: "Follar is an adventurer and historian of sorts. He looks for ancient trinkets and treasures which is why the Trade Union and Mr. Jensa, has elected to come along. Their investment in this expedition hinged on them finding something worthwhile and expensive."

Aryn nods toward Idan, then looks to the rest of the group. "Are we ready?"

"That's all I need to know," Nova replies, patting a pouch as if making sure something's there. She looks around the little group, frowning a bit as she notices the Neimoidian. "Guess now'd be a good time to check your gear, make sure it's all ready to go. It could be a long trip down," she says, suiting actions to words, checking fitting straps and equipment, then nodding and moving to the doors, ready to go in.

Lifting her gloved hands, Jessika pulls the goggles down from their spot on the crown of her head to fit over her eyes. It's instant relief from the particulates in the air around them. From there, her hands maneuver to her slung rifle, with her left taking up position on the handguard under the barrel and the right wrapping around the pistol-shaped grip. Her index finger rides along the trigger guard, and her thumb folds over, not too far from the safety of the weapon. "Good to go." Jessika begins to approach the shut mine doors. More specifically, her booted feet carry her towards the panel that she assumes is associated with them. There'd been no business about traps in the initial briefing, and she doesn't think that's something easily forgotten.

"Did they give us a code for this door?" The door, of course, are the giant pair that are shut tight to protect the entrance to the mineshaft.

Merek nods a bit to the others, while he takes a moment to check his weapons also. He then seems to think about it while he looks to Nova and to Jessika, a nod to the two, the others which he knows, he has worked with before, and also get a nod from him also.

Sajin checks over his armor latches and seals, makes sure his helmet is on right and that the tracking system is working properly. He checks the head lamp and wrist lamp then gives a thumbs up to Nova silently. He was firepower and potential muscle if it was needed, figuring out mysteries was left to those with a bigger brain than handsome hapan.

With a nod, the Agent seems satisfied with the answers given and responds with a simple, "I'm ready." He reaches down, removing a glowrod from his belt and tossing it in the air. It does a full two rotations and and lands in a reverse grip. With a flick of his thumb, the glowrod is activated and emits a beam of light that threatens to bombard areas of his choosing with photons. Axon will surely go mad with power.

Almost casually, his hand ventures down to the drop-holster on his thigh, smoothly removing the EL-718 holstered there. Holding the glowrod in his left hand and across his body, his sets his right hand holding the blaster atop his crossed arm, bringing the blaster to bare on the door, "Who wants to pop the lock?"

Idan Jensa moves along (toward the back of the group) with hands crossed into opposite sleeves in front of his abdomen and with steady, smooth steps that give his gait the appearance of a glide. The Neimoidian has an expression many might descripe as 'long suffering irritation', though that may just be the way his face looks. As the others draw out and prepare their various weapons, the slight trader seems to remain unarmed, his two-meter tall bipedal droid tottering along behind him.

"I'm ready," Syrus offers, having been here the whole time; promise. The Kiffar adjusts his duraplast gauntlet, tightening a strap here and there and looks around at the rest of the group. A moment's consideration and he takes the time to bind his large collection of dreadlocks behind his head before lifting his hood. "/Now/, I'm ready. Wait...actually..." he trails off as he tightens the strap of his bag that's slung across his body.

Rey is a quiet hooded presence in the back of the group. She has a dark gray trench coat on her shoulders that looks entirely too large for her, and its on top of a sst of sandy tan hued clothing that a hood is an added feature of. That hood is up over her head bathing her features in soft shadows. Over her nose is a veil that falls down to conceal her mouth and the rest of her face from eyes downward.

She gives a glance to Syrus, to the others and otherwise is just here following along with them. She appears nothing more than just another person in the group, to those who know her she may even be difficult to recognize unless they already knew she was here. She continues to say nothing and just follow, a silvery hued blaster is on her belt in front of her lap, holstered still, its black grip pointed toward her right hip.

"Yeah, here." Aryn says, pulling up her poncho to unclip a small datapad. The screen is oriented toward Jessika, and Aryn jogs briefly to close the gap with the veteran ace so she can read the numbers. When Jess has acknowledged that she has the code, Aryn clips it back to her belt and turns to the rest of the group. She realizes that her place is with the Trade Union representative, Idan. She let the others, who were far more qualified to handle extreme situations, lead the way in.

The gate jerks when the code is input by Jess, and it slowly begins to draw back with a loud groan and annoying, sandy sounding grind. Light immediately fills the space, and a gust of air rushes out like a breath exhaling from the planet. They're faced with a staging area that has a series of opened and unopened crates. The room is very large, and lit with a single mining light that flickers with a high frequency. At the back of the room is a mining lift. It appears operational, and controlled by a manual crank system that requires someone to turn a wheel. The piece to turn it is missing.

The door grinds back, and Nova steps inside, carbine at the ready. She moves to the mining lift first, making sure it's ready to move... which it obviously isn't. "Well, here's our first obstacle," she mutters, and pans her gaze around the room.

She pauses after a few seconds and moves to check a welding kit set near the lift. "This has been opened. Can't tell if it's still complete, though."

After tapping in the code to the terminal, Jessika advances in the opposite direction a few paces. The giant doors shift and begin to open, spilling sand through the crack that forms in the middle and creating an awful cacophony of old machinery going through the motions. It looks in desperate need of upgrades. Of the mind to be prepared for anything, Jessika brings up her blaster rifle into a low ready, elbows tucked in and barrel moving into an orientation that's still pointed at the ground, but in front of her. She keeps it squared in front of her body, with the stock tipped, but resting against her right shoulder. What she doesn't do is stand in front of the opening that's forming. She checks, first, to see if there's any danger.

Once she's sure it's not a fatal funnel waiting to mow her down, Jessika steps in. She's careful about her movements. Her booted feet lift only as far as is necessary to advance forward. That's why she kicks, rather than steps, on the metal crank on the ground. It's odd shape seems prime for the kind of imbalance that'd cause a good ankle twist. Kneeling, she gathers the item with her left hand. "Well, I think I found your crank. It's broken, though." Glancing to Nova, who is by a kit near the left, Jessika steps over and observes it to be a familar kit, indeed. "Give me a minute. I might be able to work with this." Checking through the tools in the kit and the crank against the lift, she sets to work.

"Watch your eyes. This is gonna get bright." Slinging her rifle around so that it's against her left hip and frees up the front of her torso, Jessika goes to work with a torch and the crank after donning the glarevisor that'll keep her retinas from being burned into blindness. In a few minutes time, they have a functioning crank.

Merek makes his way to one of the weapons racks, then he checks on it. "Some kinda stuff on this," he says, while he picks up a blaster rifle, lifting his brow a bit as he examines it with his gloves also.

The Drikish King keeps his bowcaster at the ready, trigger hand on the wookie weapon's pistol grip as it hangs from a single point strap. He tightens the strap of his Ryyk blade that sits across his back... Massive even for a taller and larger human like him. Possibly more norma looking in the hands of the Kiffer in the group. As he tactfully moves forward, shining his free wrist light around, he stops at an opened panel. "Herm...." Stepping forward he inspecs it, pulling out a couple round probes and a datapad. "Looks like a mapper of some sort... anyone good with this kind of thing?" He offers the tech to someone more quaified.

As the door opens, Agent Axon proceeds from the side of the door in through the opening, being at least careful or paranoid enough not to stand dead center for anyone on the other side to shoot him easily. With his arms intersecting at the wrist, he is able to move easily, illuminating any section he has his eyes on at any given time.

As the single mining lamp isn't quite suitable to the ask, Axon sweeps his glowrod around before it finally settles on the cart with the missing piece to turn. Quietly, he listens as Jessika begins to put together the missing pieces (so to speak, ha ha) and set up the welding kit. He turns easily, taking a knee with his face turned away from the machine and angled down.

He rests his hands on his knees, the blaster pointed down and away from himself. The glowrod is wiggled back and forth as the Agent seems to be radiating nervous energy as best he can in the current situation.

Idan Jensa's right eye twitches as the machinery of the opening door screeches and grinds. Posture static, otherwise, when the air gusts out and the party moves in, Idan idly looks over a few of the sealed crates, instructing his droid to scan and record them for inventory. When Merek speaks up, he wonders aloud of the human, "Can you be.. more specific?" Averting his eyes from the welding as Jessika lights the torch, the Neimoidian will reach for the technological offerings of Sajin, "If I may?"

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Syrus focuses inward for a moment before exhaling slowly through his lips. A roll of his neck and a stretch of his arm and the man steps into the entrance. Noting that Nova and Jessika seem to have the situation under control, Syrus continues his meditation, hands clasping in front of him with his index fingers extended and pressing against each other.

But then Sajin's found something of interest to him. "This is a DigSonic brand mapping suite," Syrus explains, stepping forward and taking the offered equipment. A quick once-over and Syrus sets the small drones down on the ground and taps a few commands into the datapad. The little metal balls whirr to life, rolling around for a second or two as they get their bearings. "We can use them to act as scouts when we get to wherever the lift takes us. /And/, we'll be able to track our position."

Once she makes her way inside after the others, Rey listens to them as they spread about and begin to do their individual things within this first section of the mine. Her eyes dart here to there, then back and forth before they settle onto a pair of boxes not far from her. She steps to them and tentatively lets her gaze wander through them.

After a moment, her right hand reaches out and she nudges a lid off of one of the boxes enough to get her grasp within its contents. She pulls out a fistful of glowsticks that she looks at for a moment before she tucks them into a pocket on the overly-large coat she's wearing.

The second box is regarded then. Its contents are much larger items. She reaches for one, inspects it with her uncovered brown eyes, and then starts to lift a bunch of them out. Temperature bandoleers. Rey pulls out one bandoleer for each of them and rests them hooked over her left forearm as she turns back to the others and takes a few steps toward them. Her eyes watch what Syrus is doing with the little droids, and then a glances toward Jessica and Nova as well.

The crank is reinforced with a stronger metal and functional. It steams slightly from being repaired, and those who have a good sense of smell, pick up the scent of burnt metal. The light continues to flicker a bit while each person searches the room for treasures and goodies to make use of.

For those who had exceptional hearing, there's a faint sound coming from the elevator shaft. It sounds like howling, or screaming, and it might be human or it might not be. It's ominous.

The temperature bandoliers Rey is carrying help regulate the body heat for each person. Unlike the heat suits that Kessel uses for their labor, these are an even cheaper version of that, but still functional. They're intended for deep mining environments.

Aryn takes one of the bandoliers and fastens it over her waist. The cylinder like device oriented to her lower back is activated, and the warmth begins to travel up her spine. "Well, let's push toward the lift. Seems odd that it's up here though, given it's a manual cranking one.. a cranky lift.." Aryn surprised a laugh out of herself. Each step she took, the rattling of her crystal sword in its concealed baldric was heard.

"Ooh... nice, Rey," Nova says, stepping away from Jessika and her torch and accepting one of the temperature belts and strapping it on. "It'll be cold down there."

Sajin's find is equally interesting, or so Syrus notices. "If this takes too long, those will come in handy," she agrees, moving to take a place at the manual crank for the lift. "I think we'll need two of us to work this thing, and someone to keep watch. Anybody got muscle to spare?"

Jessika's in the middle of returning the torch and the glarevisor to the welding kit when a noise echoing up the shaft catches her attention. It's a disturbing enough noise that her actions halt and her chin jerks to the side, so her eyes are fixed on the lift. Goosebumps prickled up over her skin, and an unsettling ball of anxiety feels like it's forming in her abdomen. She glances around from the other individuals in the party. "Did you hear that?" Jessika's tone sounds equal mixtures concerned and spooked. She knows, for certain, it wasn't an errant rush of wind whistling through any kind of crack. At least, she thinks she does. Lips folding towards one another, Jessika darts her tongue out to wet them and regrets it. They taste like dirt and sand.

Jessika accepts one of the temperature bandoliers, but deposits it into her bag rather than puts it on. The bodyglove underneath her suit is doing what she needs it to. Bag secured, she reorients hands on her weapon and the weapon itself back in front of her. Like the good Doctor suggests, she pushes towards the lift.

Merek lifts up his brow in thought, while he takes a moment to place the blaster rifle in a seal so he can bring it to the team. He then nods while he moves to follow with the others as well. He then lifts up his pistol, while he follows with the others, keeping his maglight about so he can look also. He then looks to Nova, "I can," he offers, shifting away his things for a moment to move and assist also.

Helmeted Sajin looks between the Kiffar and the Nimodian as if horribly confused on who to give the mapper to. So, in typical braindead fashion, the hapan offloads a bit into Idan's hand and the other half into Syrus'. "You two can fight over it, to the death..." The armored King shrugs and turns back towards the tunnels, sticking his light out ahead of him again, walking away from the two. He stops at the shaft and listens a moment, nodding to Jess. "Yup..." He takes a deep somewhat nervious breath, "This is about to get interesting. Someone or something is down there..." A gance is given to Nova, "I can lend a hand."

As the welding work is done and the cart gets up to speed, Agent Axon returns to his feet in time to turn to Rey and accept one of the thermal bandoliers with a nod of his head and a gruff, "Thanks." He takes a moment to stop his glowrod and blaster, then attach the belt around his waist. He is wearing a swoopsuit, a garment able to handle the cold temperatures of the skies, but he won't seem to turn his nose up.

He draws his glowrod and blaster again, setting up for the descent down with a somber look in his eyes.

Idan Jensa accepts a bandolier from Rey, offering a delayed, "Ah.. I. Thank you," to the woman, before adding quietly to his droid, "Add the thermal belts to the inventory, Forte." His elaborate flat topped hat tilts to a slight angle as he hears those faint howls in the mineshaft. "That is.. most ominous." A slow nod confirms the welder's question. "More is the pity.. you did not imagine it." He is distracted enough that Syrus is simply handed whichever piece of the mapping unit Idan had been given.

Lifting one of the bandoliers from Rey's arm, Syrus drapes the thing over his torso, tightening it so that it won't get caught on anything, should the man have to run away from any giant boulders. It's a known hazard of the profession. Stepping onto the lift, Syrus's cadre of sensor droids bounce their way up along with him, circling around the Kiffar and waiting for their 'go' order. The call for muscle goes unheard by Syrus, however. HE'S AN ACADEMIC. Y'know? Like the nerd in the 80s movie who takes off his glasses at the end and turns out to be super handsome? Just like that.

The temperature bandoleers are handed out to those who want them, she nods softly to those who speak to her and the others are taken over to the lift as Rey gives a listen herself down into the tunnel. The spare belts are setup on a hook on the lift itself. One is plucked off that hook for her own personal use and its wrapped around her waist beneath her coat before its cinched at the front of her stomach and activated beneath her huuuuge coat.

With a light sigh beneath her veil, Rey looks back to the others and steps onto the lift after Syrus as well. She remains quietly unspoken as she finds a corner to step to a old metal rail to place a single hand upon for keeping herself comfortably sturdy in her place on this moderately uncomfortable mode of descending transportation.

The lift has two sliding doors, one that shuts horizontally, and another that shuts vertically. Both doors are made of chain link like design, and rattle from being shut. When the doors shut, it disengages the safety lock on the lift, so there's a loud snap and the platform shakes. The crank locks it in place, and the group can see how/why the crank was broken like it had been. There's a great deal of stress on it.

Descending down is slow going, and the room with the flickering light disappears and is replaced by rock that's been mined. Anyone familiar with mining or geology recognizes the grooves in the rocks as being carged from a large mining drill, which is common on mineral worlds like Umgul.

As the lift goes down, the air begins to get increasingly colder. Before long, everyone can see their breath. Then, the only light that's seen is abover in the shaft. When they finally reach the bottom, the cranking emits an impossible loud creaking, screaming, squealing noise that ECHOES. The only light they have is above, and ahead, beyond the gated chainlink door, there is an immense darkness.

This darkness is so opaque, that no detail can be made out ahead. Only the ominous sound of the lift coming to halt on the bottom level, the cold, and lastly, a distant human scream of absolute terror.

There's a noise that comes from the darkness.. a shifting sound that segues into the sound of countless pounding feet. Without warning, the pale images of sentient faces emerge beneath what little light is available, and collide against the chainlink doors all at once.. piled up and clawing. Several try to reach into the gate, some even breaking and dislocating their fingers in a manner that they bend back in pop as they try to get inside. "HEEEEEEEEELP US! HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLP USSSSSSSS!" They cry in random, chaotic intervals.

The pounding against the metal of the lift shakes violently, and it seems like they'll never leave, then, there's a distant howl followed by a clicking noise, and all at once.. the people leave, running away into the darkness once more.

Silence.

The mechanism isn't familiar, but Nova's a quick learner: Once the crank wheel locks into place, she tests it, then begins cranking it in tandem with her partner, taking the lift slowly down into the stygian darkness.

Whatever's down here, it's even got her nightvision system acting up. She can't see a thing... Until that scream. And then there are all kinds of people clawing at the lift! How can so many people crowd around the gate?! Behind her visor, Nova's eyes go wide, and her hands tighten on the crank, going white-knuckled, as hands and fists pound and shake the lift.

And then the people hear something, and flee into the darkness. But the soldier still doesn't move, clinging to the crank rock-still, staring at where they were, shivering uncontrollably.

There's a hundred things wrong with the situation they're in, and Jessika can't figure out which one bothers her more. Relying on a quick patch job for the crank is near the top of the list, but it's not the most pressing issue. It's how long they have to rely on it that's got her on edge. She's thankful when she spots the opening in front of them starting to appear from the bottom of the lift and then working it's way up. That silent gratitude lasts all of a couple of seconds, because as the dust of the lift settles, Jessika can see movement through the night vision setting of the goggles she's wearing. "Multiple people approaching the lift!" The others might not be able to see it, yet, but Jessika does. The weapon of her barrel snaps up at them.

She sees no weapons, but the pure force they hit the lift with is enough to make her step back out of instinct. It's not the traumatic shock others might experience from the sudden appearance of pale faces pressed against the metal, but it does more than just makes her nervous. "What the drek?" It's more under her breath than asked to anyone in particular. Following it is a hard exhale of breath vapor. Jessika watches them sprint away and tries to keep tabs on them. She needs to get through the door in front of her, but she's also smart enough to realize something made them run away. She also knows they're all grouped up in one horrible clump of people. Jessika's left hand reaches out to make short work of the vertical and horizontal linked doors.

"Stay close. No more than five meters apart. The group ran off in that direction." Jessika's left hand points, but ever since stepping off the lift, her rifle has been raised into the high ready, preparing to engage anything hostile.

Merek nods to the others, while the lift is moving, then he sees the figures that come to them, trying to find a way into the place with them. He looks to them for a moment, while he sighs, then he takes a moment, checking his pistol. He lifts up the weapon as they take off from the place, then he shifts the maglight so that it can settle on his belt to provide light.

He is looking to the others a moment, then he nods to Nova, "You'll be alright, try to think about something else," he offers comfortingly. He then nods to Jessika as he then adjusts his position so he can keep with the team also, "You know, it is still not as crazy as that time we found ghosts." He sounds like he's saying that actually happened also. Those that know about the Force might not find it difficult to think that's a thing also.

Sajin helps in what ever way he can. He makes sure to palace himself somewhere up front so if something were to attack, shoot, stab, hurt them when they got to the bottom he would be the one to take a good brunt of the attack. He was heaviy armored, and armed. "WOAH!" He lets out, seeing the people comming a little bit before with his thermal scanning. His headlamp helped. He would raise his bowcaster just a bit to show he had it. "Back it off... hey... Calm down. We're here to hel" He stops in confusion as they start to run away and the ominious creepy noise is heard. He thinks a moment, and shuts off the wrist and head light, going by his tacking system alone. He checks his bowcaster charging handle. "It might be attracted to light..." Referencing the crazy people who just fled into darkness. He moves over to hep Jess with the fence, one handed as he's holding his bowcaster with the other.

Remaining mostly quiet for the ride down, there's definitely an uncomfortable vibe coming from the man who is referred to as Axon. He occassionally shines the light of the glowrod in random places before turning it to help light the handcrank. As the cart settles down onto the ground and the warning is given, the man quickly brings his glowrod and blaster up, pointing it towards the chainlink door of the cart.

As the screaming faces appear, it's a testament to whatever training the man purports to have that he jumps back as slams against the back of the cart rather than shoot indescriminately. The action causes his eyes to close tightly in a wince of some kind, but they open back up immediately and begin their search anew. As the faces disappear, he seems to be at a loss for words. He does look towards Jessika though for a moment, and then throws it to help get the door of the cart open.

He proceeds out with the rest, blaster up and at the ready as they get to the meat of their search.

Idan Jensa places himself to the back of the lift, as it descends, composure looking quite intact, as they travel deeper into the cold. That composure doesn't hold up as well when the begging, screaming press of humanity slam into the gates of the lift, the little Neimoidian recoils back, habitually half-lidded, bored eyes going wide with fright. As the horde flees off and others begin conversing and discussing tactics, the trader quietly clears his throat, adjusts his hat in a futile effort to restore his calm, and wonders aloud, "Does the lift still.. go up?"

Syrus reaches for the cylindrical, leather-bound device hanging from his belt as the contacts outside of the lift make a mad dash for them. The Kiffar's thumb brushes idly against the activation switch, but the blade remains unignited. Stepping to the front of the group, Syrus kneels down and picks up one of the drones, inspecting the thing before sets it back down and taps a command into the datapad. "Travel carefully, little ones. The mine is dark and full of terrors." The droids whirr around once more before they disperse themselves, speeding down the corridors, pinging a soft sonic 'coo' occassionally as they go, assisting in their mapping.

"It's heartbreaking to say, but I think we've found our expedition team," Syrus says, looking back to the group.

As they descend into the darkness, Rey is well aware of the chem lights she'd pocketed but she doesn't pop any of them out yet. The others are providing some light so its not deemed quite necessary up to this point. She's certainly glad for the heating belt though as the temperature is rapidly dropping around them all. She sees the others' breath in the ambient light, but is otherwise just settling into the ride...

Until the chaos starts, this makes Rey's eyes open wider as she stares at the gathering of people trying to get into the lift at them. Within a second, Rey starts to look to the others with her inside the lift, her stance shifts weight from right to left foot...

But when they run off and the others react, she remains stoic and quiet. She's the last to step off of the lift and she glances over to Idan, she's grinning slightly at that question but she doesn't comment on it and the grin is sadly hidden in the darkness and by her mask.

It gets darker and darker, and Aryn shrinks back sheepishly suddenly unnerved by the crowding darkness. The area ahead of the gates opened up, and even with the limited ambient light, her snooper goggles reveal a single corridor of rock, then further back? Darkness. Utter darkness. There was not a good feel about this location and it made her stomach turn, her knees weak. When the motion of beings rushed the lift, Aryn tripped and fell back in a sudden urge to run away, but rather look away from the faces, she watched. A slow rise up as she cringed observing several break their hands and fingers trying to contort to the shape of the chain links.

Jessika's command presence reinvigorates purpose within Aryn though, and she nods when the gates are opened and they are exposed to the elements ahead.

The metal rasp of a crystal sword is drawn from the sanctity of its scabbard and freed from where it's hidden beneath Aryn's poncho. She takes a far left lead, though she's significantly further back from the more experienced warriors and soldiers. She holds the sword in a mid-guard, its immensely sharp blade oriented ahead so that she can defend and slice through whatever runs into her.

The seeker droids lift up at once and activate. Low frequency beeps emit from them as thin red, laser contrails light up and begin to scan around them. They take off without further warning and disappear into the total darkness, scanning. The datapad that Syrus is holding relays the information they collect. The map conveys that the corridor stretches for at least 20m, then.. it expands much further, into a main atrium of some sort.

"HELLO?! IS ANYONE THERE?! I'M IN A RIGHT PROPER PROBLEM HERE, YEAH?!" Yells Lord Corbin from AFAR! A very distant light can be seen.. by distant, at least 200m.

Nova doesn't hear all of Merek's words, but they shake her out of that horrified daze. She takes several deep breaths, which are easily audible outside her helmet. Nodding her thanks to Merek, she moves to take up a covering position near Jessika and the door. "We've... got a job ahead. This place has to... has to be /huge/," she says, stammering a little as her nerves begin to steady up. Her carbine meets her shoulder and lifts into firing position. At least it doesn't quiver much.

She blinks at the sound of Lord Corbin's voice. "Why is he not coming to us? He has to have heard the lift. Do think he's... /trapped/ somehow? At least he's got light..."

"Don't forget to look up." Jessika imparts the message to the rest of the team while maintaining her gaze on the immediate one-eighty in front of them. Not that there's anywhere else to go. Proceeding forward down the corridor, off-center but not close to the wall, her left hand has returned to the barrel to provide her a stable firing platform should she need to take aim at anything. She doesn't like this. Not one bit. These confines? They're the exact opposite of being in an X-Wing in the void of space, where there's, as far as shw knows, infinite amoutns of it. Nova's question has her thinking. "My guess? The light. Maybe his source is immobile. Those other people ran as soon as they heard something, and maybe that something doesn't like light."

Jessika shrugs at the end of her assessment. "I could be wrong. I've been wrong before." The atrium they approach is what has her most skeptical. "Or," Jessika starts to say again. "Whatever those people ran away from nests here, and he doesn't want to get into its territory. Lots of things are territorial. Bugs. Animals. Me." She's trying to bring some levity to the situation. As much as she doesn't want to admit it, those faces pressed to the gates of the lift had an impact. The pure terror represented on them..

"Well, it looks like there are still folk that are alright," Merek mentions, while he looks to Jessika for her leadership on this. "You know, something is... Weird about all this," he offers, while he lifts his pistol, keeping his formation. "Yes well, this place is," he nods, lifting his goggles which offer him assistance in the HUD which it has also. "On your five," he offers then to the woman while he moves with her also.

Sajin continues to scan with his tacking system, switching between night and thermal vision. "Big, that's an understatement. It's massive... even my tracking system is having trouble." So much so he turns his lights back on just as Lord Corbin makes himself known. He looks up of course just as Jess mentions it. "I'll keep an eye out." He mentions to Jess, a bit of a shiver in the Hapan's voice. If it wasn't for his helmet he'd be more than blind.

His head tilting to the side as Corbin's voice can be heard, Axon's eyes narrow before he look over towards Nova, "Either he's lost, trapped, or is bait." He continues to swoop with his blaster and glowrod, leaving no corner unilluminated.

He then says, almost off-handedly, "There's gotta' be a better way to do this. Any luck from the seeker droids?"

Idan Jensa glances nervously aside at Rey, Aryn, and any others who spare a look for him. Seeing the doctor draw a crystal sword, the Neimoidian glances hesitantly back at the trailing J9 droid, murmuring, "Forte, I will.. Give me the.." his gestures at the sword Aryn has drawn prompt the droid to chitter in understanding and produce a similar blade for the trader, whose hand is shaking badly enough that the crystal sword wobbles from side to side as he attempts to (poorly) imitate a mid guard. The sound of Lord Corbin far ahead seems to settle his nerves sightly, as the little trader recalls, "That sounds like Corbin.. *he owes me money*."

"Watch your eyes, everyone," Syrus advises, depressing the activation switch on his hilt. The emerald beam bursts forth, bathing the narrow corridor in light. It's like a multitool. "It's very likely, Miss Pava. Anything nesting down here is likely highly photosensitive." Syrus offers. "It could do us well to remember that."

Holding his saber aloft, Syrus treads forward, keeping his eyes open and reaching out. Or more...inward. To that soft little voice. To that prickling of hair on the back of his neck.

"We're in the presence of...fury," Syrus offers, holding a hand out to the side to halt everyone. Turning back to look at them, he says, "Tread.../very/ carefully."

Rey's eyes look past the shoulders of those before her, blocking her from seeing the man screaming many meters away in the darkness. She spots a glimmer of the light down there but otherwise just looks back to those she's traveling with on this mission...

Her right hand reaches toward her hip pocket of her big coat...

Her eyes dart over to the green of Syrus' lightsaber as its lit up beside her on her left. A moment later and she's raising her right hand... then igniting one of her own! Wait... no, that is NOT a lightsaber. Its a tiny little Chem Light, in the shade of golden yellow light.

Rey holds it up in the same way that Syrus is holding his lightsaber, just tiny and cute in comparison. If he could see her well enough he'd see she was grinning.

Out of Rey's coat pocket come the rest of the Chem Lights, they all are lit and they're floating up out of the young woman's garment and into the air around the travelers to provide them with even more vision.

The one in Rey's hand is placed over onto the lift's door, hung on a metal hook by a little loop on its base end.

The others? They're floating silently in the air around them all, providing a perimeter of light.

Fury. Great fury. It was the adjective that described the creature that loomed up ahead. Light began to impede upon the great and utter darkness, revealing, much like the seeker balls had, a wondrous atrium full of crystals that glittered along the ceiling and walls. They stuck out with sharp points along the walls and ceiling, and there was one, nearest the opening where the group emerges from the corridor that held the body of a woman impaled upon it, her insides and the gore that revealed itself from such a wound, hung motionless from her.

Up ahead, all the people that had rushed the lift were knelt and bowing before a great stone dais. Each, mumbling a humming sound, shivering from the cold. Further inspection of their condition revealed paled out eyes that had been in the pure darkness too long thus blinding them because of it. A few scattered bloodied skeletons lay about the ground, the tell-tale of people having been eaten alive and what was left was what could not be consumed.

Standing upon the dais was a caped figure standing lordly and holding a single crystal that sparkled all its own. He, himself, was aglow in a blue tinge that was from a MCA-P1 personal reflector shield. It was Lord Corbin.

Behind him loomed a greater shadow, with multiple eyes that opened all at once that resembled massive reptilian like qualities (think snake eyes). It hissed and stepped forward, showing pale skinned hulking muscular arms and a back comprised of dark, spiky crystal. Its head, a massive thing, was long, with a pointy chin and narrow forehead. It possessed the means to speak, but it only flashed thousands of rows of jagged teeth.

The people surrounding the dais spoke in unison. "Kiiiiiiiiiiilllllllll..." They say eerily. "Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllll..."

All at once, 8 of the expedition rose and released a hollowing scream that sounded like they were sucking in air at once. They turned to face our heroes and rushed blindly, intent to kill.

This looks like something out of a holovid. Jessika struggles to grasp what's going on from the initial impression view they're provided into this strange, little world. She wonders if the crystals have significance. She wonders if the monster has some form of mind-controlling telepathy. She wonders if the guy in his personal shield is some evil Force user. There are a lot of things to wonder, but the truth of the matter is, nothing matters much except the screeching of the expedition members. "Drek." Dropping her rifle on her sling, Jessika's right hand goes for the sidearm at her hip. She draws, but she's not in a rush. She knows the specific movements to make, and knows that slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Rushing causes too many mistakes.

Curling her left hand around her right, Jessika snaps the barrel of her sidearm up towards one of the approaching team members. "Set to stun for the expedition members! If you don't have stun, attack the big one!" Her thumb flicks the toggle, and she tries to line up a shot. The squeeze of the trigger sends a stun bolt, but it's not remotely on target because of the erratic behavior of the expedition members.

"I haven't seen anything yet that light really /hurt/," Nova says, looking to Jess. "But then, I've never been down in a mine, either. First time for everything, right?" Bait? It's a possibility, one Nova can't turn down out of hand. She gives the light ahead a troubled look. "I guess we'll find out."

Rey's trick with the light sticks... /that/ is enough to have her staring in wonder. It's just such a /cool/ way to put those little chemical wonders to use! She follows one with her eyes until she recalls why they're here, tearing her gaze away and turning it back on the path.

And then they get there. If getting there is half the fun, they'd better all get their money back at the end of this screamride. Bait, confirmed. And that personal shield might be the only reason Lord Corbin's alive, considering what's close at hand. "Take it down!" Nova shouts, firing a burst at the monstrous creature.

As usual, the shoddy underpinnings of the universe seem to have something against her: Only one of the shots strikes home, the others spattering uselessly off the stones. Likely, she's just made it mad. And those claws look nasty...

When it looks like there's Corbin, standing there with a crystal, Merek nods a bit. "Well, I kinda figured it was like that," he says with a husky drawl, while he lifts his pistol to take a shot at one of the team of expedition folk, set to stun. He then nods to Jessika, "I think that the crystal he has might be controlling it, although he has a shield it looks like," he says.

He then takes another shot which strikes a wall someplace, and he shifts his position, "Remember your formation," he adds to the others also.

Sajin just kind of stops and stand there as the Lord further reveals himself. "Ah... uhm... this is." He clears his throat and points the muzzle of his at the Giant thing with the teeth and lets two loud and bright bolts loose from the powerful wookiee weapon. One is far off but the second tracks a hit. The weapon beeps at Sajin indicating that the charge has been depleted. He'll have to reload the next round so he moves to the back.

As the team approaches the lit area, the Agent's eyes go first to the impaled woman, then to the drones going on about it, then to the shadow behind him, and finally to the capped man on the dais. With a tisk, the man shakes his head, "You really messed up." He looks towards Idan, his head tilted, "I think it's safe to say he's defaulted."

Turning his attention back to the dais, the approaching drones don't seem to phase him as much as the shadow. Tentatively raising his blaster, Axon fires off three bolts in rapid succession, all of which fly mostly wide.

Idan Jensa startles and looks to one side as Syrus ignites a lightsaber. His mouth moves for a few moments but no words are formed. Then Rey draws out an array of lights and wills them to hover around her in the air. The Neimoidian swallows hard, once. The wobbling of his sword intensifies, the merchant has clearly never used it in anger (or even fear), before. The revelations of the crystal chamber and its denizens cause him to let the point of his sword slump down to *tink* on the cavern floor in dejection. A forlorn lament follows, likely only audible to those nearest, "I need.. *so* many more droids for this sort of thing."

Whipping his saber down and to the side, Syrus reaches up and slaps the release on the strap holding his bag to his body. It slumps to the ground and he tucks his free arm behind his back. It's a Makashi stance for anyone that might know or care about that sort of thing. Breaking into a sprint towards the beast, Syrus shove his way through the oncoming wall of zombies and perform a jung ma, a deft three hundred and sixty degree spin used to build momentum; and bring the blade to bear across the Vorantikus's leg, in an attempt to bring the monster's more vital bits down and closer to stabbing range. The first swipe goes wide as the great beast lifts it's leg to avoid the bright blade. But Syrus is quick to adjust and leans back, swiping the beam across the bottom of the Vorantikus's foot.

It topples over once foot meets ground, spitting up dust and shards of broken crystal. Syrus runs and jumps atop the downed monster, making a run to its head where he flips the hilt of his blade, grips it with both hands and drives it down through the great beast's skull.

Fierce roars are, in an instant, reduced to mewling howls as the life fades from its massive form.

The floating chem lights precede the traveling group through the tunnel from the lift, two by two the lights glide silently through the air and spread out wider into the chamber that they are emerging into providing a wash of golden glowing light (one of them is blue, its Reys favorite).

The display of gore is unsettling, but there is much more to worry about than the impaled woman here-in. The attack unfolds and the hooded Rey watches her companions engage, she watches the blaster bolts start sizzling and Syrus running off to engage the beast.

Her left hand extends out to her side, fingers splayed keeping the focus on the chem lights that are swirling through the air around the whole chamber now, while her right hand comes up and she focuses her gaze on two of the incoming attackers. She thrusts her palm toward them, and summarily blasts them with an invisible Force then sends them slamming into the crystals, and a gust of hear-popping pressure change spreading out throughout the chamber.

Everything happens so fast, and Aryn is drawn into a state of terror as she sees the Vorantikus looming above, and all the people knelt before it. They attack, and Aryn is frightened, her first instinct is to run and she does but trips almost immediately over a skeleton that's been raked of its meat. She screams when she lands next to the bloodied skull and tries to scramble away, but two of the attackers are upon her. They grab her legs and drag her into the darkness, her arms outstretched, hand clinging to the sword in her hand as the shadows of her friends grow further away.

The sudden death of the Vorantikus breaks its spell over those present and total madness fills the atrium. Lord Corbin lowers the glowing crystal, and leaps down through the middle of the group intent to make it to the elevator and leave them all behind. His cape snaps behind him as he runs, tucking the crystal into his satchel.

The remaining twelve expedition members add to the 6, making 18 combatants all at once. All of them are crazed, uncontrolled, and intent to kill. They cannot see well, but they make out the blurs of light and run right toward those wielding it. Screams are everywhere, chaos is everywhere.

At least somebody got the monster! Trouble is, it's still got friends just as monstrous, even if their faces aren't as horrific. And two of them have Aryn! "ARYN!!!" Nova shrieks, wild with fear for her friend. She takes aim at the closest of the crazed expedition survivors (relatively speaking) and opens fire, intent on stunning a path through them! One shot hits, the other two are simply wasted. The story of her life, lately. And the one that was hit is already up and coming straight for her! "Oh, frell..."

To go from being in a personal shield to hauling off with a crystal towards the lift? That's suspicious activity, if Jessika's ever seen it. She doesn't condone it. Even in the frenzy, she spots Lord Corbin attempting to make a break for it, and she's not having it. As he attempts to sprint by everyone, Jessika snaps her blaster to the new target. She waits for that right moment where she feels the shot, and then squeezes the trigger again. This time, the stun bolt smashes into the target and he goes sprawling. It's the crystal that she's concerned with. What's so valuable about that thing? She doesn't have too much immediate time to wonder, though, because they're still in the process of being swarmed by expedition members. "Try not to kill! We don't know if they're just being controlled!" It's a nice sentiment.

Merek lifts up his pistol while he takes a few shots at those coming at them, then he watches as Syrus takes on that being, and Jessika manages to bring Corbin to the floor. He notices Cole is being brought into the cave, so he then also moves to follow her into the place as well also. "Checking for Cole!"

Sajin didn't have enough time to reload as the horde was on him. They ran towards him almost in slow motion as he thought. He couldn't reach his pistol quick enough and switch it to stun. He always had it on kill. He lets his bowcaster drop and widens his stance a bit. Arm cocks back and slams into the first ones face. Blood gushes everywhere, the sound of their nose cracking. They end up a heap on the floor. The Drikish king, known for his skills in hand to hand combat moves right on to the next one, immobilizing one arm and he lobs two gauntlet covered fists into their face. The sound of the impact and breaking facial bones likely echos through the entire cavern.

Taking several steps back as the shots he sent go wide, but pave the way for the Jedi to strike the monster down with a lightsaber. He is then beset upon by drones, and in reply, he flips a switch and levels his blaster at the first one he sees. With a smooth trigger pull, he puts two stun bolts in the middle of the first one he sees chest.

Idan Jensa stagers a few frighted steps backward as one of the ravening drones rushes at him. Singularly ill dressed for a fight, the Administrator attempts to flee, in a curious twist of fate, saved from injury by falling put of reach as he trips on his own robes. Scrambling for distance, he has a harrowing view of Aryn being dragged out of the circle of light, and of the sprawling melee which accompanies Corbin's dash..

...and the crystal the Lord was holding when he fell. The Neimoidian scrambles toward the ominous crystal at the center of this entire mess and reaches for it, closing fingers around the glowing stone which vanishes into a sleeve. Another tense swallow follows as the sounds of a fading struggle in the shadows reach him.

Dropping from the Vorantikus's corpse Syrus scans the battlefield and turns his lightsaber off. It, hopefully, won't be needed from here on out. Lifting his hands, he moves to assist Rey in her pacification of the expedition team. One is lifted and thrown into a nearby cave wall.

"Are you alright, Rey? Where is Aryn?" he asks of his fellow Jedi as he plucks another drone off of the floor and hurls him into one of his compatriots, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

The chem lights that Rey had been suspending in the air all simultaneously fall and land almost all at the same time upon the cavern floor, bouncing and rolling around in different directions like they'd all been dropped at once by individual ghostly hands.

When Syrus rejoins her, Rey's right hand reaches up and pull sher veil down exposing her face. "Stop the other attackers from harming anyone else." She tells him. "Keep up the good work." She adds as she starts to run toward where Aryn had been drug off!

As Rey runs, her heavy trench coat falls off of her shoulders and her right hand reaches toward her belt. The cyan color of another lightsaber fills the shadowy darkness of the cavern, as does the sounds of a snap-hiss and subsequent humming energy blade.

When Rey reaches them, finding Aryn in a scuffle with her two attackers, she raises her lightsaber and extends her left hand! She grabs hold of the two attackers, and locks them into place, leaving Aryn to do whatever she wants to them, or just leave them be.

"Aryn! Are you hurt?!" Rey calls out to her friend, her blue bladed lightsaber lighting up the right side of her face in the dimly lit area they're occupying.

Chaos is all around them, and screams are so loud that it's leaving ears ringing. Aryn turns to her back, feeling one climb over the top of her, she tries to bring her weapon up to guard but it's discarded with ease and falls from her grasp. She feels a cold hand on her face and it scratches over her left eye leaving a deep mark that immediately fills with blood. She screams, feeling the other coming up and trying to rip her protective chest piece away.

But suddenly both stop moving, and Aryn hears Rey's voice. She opens her eyes to a bright blue light of a lightsaber. "REY!" Aryn cries in desperation, and she scrambles to her stomach, grabbing the hilt of her sword and runs to the Jedi to hide behind her. Rey can see that Aryn is injured, but still whole.

Meanwhile, the fight rages on as our heroes are literally swarmed from every direction. Low light, high movement, there's people in every direction! The light from the elevator can be seen in the distance. What do they do?!

It's all Nova can do to keep from being overrun, and barely at that. Another wild blast not intended to be wild takes her first dancing partner, but she's still got two more swarming her, one of whom just landed a nasty slash across her upper back. Gasping with the pain, she elbows the creep who slashed her and shoves him away, but doesn't hurt him.

There's still more of them coming. Jessika expected this all to come to an end when the big bad went down, but that doesn't seem to be the case. She tries to line up a shot with another one of the Expedition Drones, but it's no good. Either her aim is off, or this weapon just isn't doing her any favors. "Gather up! Advance back to the lift to hold it! Someone secure Corbin!" They need to at least get the guy they came to find. At this point, they're taking on casualties, and with no sure way to break whatever kind of thrall these people are under, the best thing to do might be to pull back to a strong, central location so they can focus fire and other efforts. All of this is too spread out. But they are beginning to win the numbers game, at least.

Merek looks to see that Rey is already protecting Cole, which means that she will be safe. He is satisfied with that, then he feels as one begins on his leg. The skin as well as the cybernetic synthetic materials within it and some of the blood of what's still his is on the floor. It takes a nice bit of his leg it, then he lifts his pistol to take a shot at one on Nova, then he points the pistol to the one on his leg. While managing to about hit that foot of his, though looks like it actually managed to hit the floor. He calls back to them, "You got this guys!" He twirls about the pistol. Then he begins to make his way to them also.

Sajin has had just about enough of this one resilient fellow he's been clobbering for a good while now. He even had to watch out for a few random scratches from the former expedition member. Fed up, Sajin shouts and head butts his assailent into unconciousness. He doesn't wait for another to come after him, instead seeks out the nearest one. He beats his chest repeatedly with one fist before launching himself forward with a flying knee, landing, and then elbowing his target into submission.

Idan Jensa starts to climb back to his feet, the forgotten crystal sword hanging from his left hand. But as he raises his head, looking between the direction of the lift and the direction the doctor had been hauled off to (presumably) certain doom.. the Neimoidian is bodily tackled back to the ground, adding his own screams to the chaos as both is torn, blood wells up and spills, and ribs crack under the bludgeoning onslaught of a ferocious once-Human. "Unhand me!" he cries in desperation. Dropping the useless (in his hand) sword, he scrambles loose of his tormentor's grip, trying but sadly failing to escape toward the imagined safety of the lift.

Rey's right hand lowers down to her side and with it her lit saber's light grows dimmer across her face as Aryn has joined her. She nods once to her friend, a quick look over of Aryn's condition is satisfactory for now, so her eyes dart back to the two she was freezing in place. A flick of her head sends the two frozen bodies colliding into one another, and then slumping down into a heap on the ground in the Ying-Yang pattern facing eather's feet.

"Come on." Rey encourages Aryn then as she spins around and starts to rush back to the others, one of the Expedition Drones has their back to Rey as she draws closer and with a quick 'grab' with her left hand, Rey pulls the person from off of their feet and drops them onto their butt, then SHOOTS them back behind her on her left side, sliding across the cavern floor and into a rocky embankment.

With lightsaber on, held up to her side, Rey prepares for any more attackers to come get her hopefully, and not the others.

Aryn stays close to Rey, too shaken to do anything but follow. All Aryn feels is the pain on her face, and the terror of being in this place with all these rekking drones. For the most part, the mob has been knocked unconscious, bodies laying everywhere, and Aryn has to stop to watch as more are appended from their position by some unseen power and thrown haphazardly into the darkness. She watches in horror as Nova fights for her life, surrounded.

There's two remaining, one latched to Merek's leg trying to pull him down. The other is on Nova, giving her the business.

Flanked and under attack from both sides, Nova can't break free to help Aryn and Rey! Not that Rey needs it, usually, but the frustration combined with the pain of her wound is robbing her of precision and strength.

Correction: Wounds, plural. One of her playmates just bit her in the leg, leaving torn fabric and bloody toothmarks in his wake. Nova's green eyes blaze with pain-laced fury... but Merek's on the job. A shot takes down the other attacker, leaving her free to deal with this one.

And deal with him she does. She backsteps as the fiend charges again, letting him stumble past her. Hooking the butt of her rifle under his arm, she viciously kicks the back of his knee, and the survivor collapses to his knees. Nova jerks her rifle free, then smashes the butt into the back of his head. The monster goes down at last!

Gasping, still gripping her much-abused carbine, she looks around to find that the last of the monstrous survivors are down. And it looks like Aryn is safe again. She huffs out a sigh of relief. "We should... get out of here..." she manages to say, not much above a whisper. "Just in c-case... there's something else... down here..."

Holstering her weapon because attempting to take a shot at one of the expedition members while they're latched onto a team member's leg is a bad idea, Jessika closes the distance between herself and Merek. When she arrives, a slightly bent-left knee and a thrust forward right foot, hitting at an angle and waiting until she's about to make contact to tighten her muscles into hardness, smash into the expedition member's face. Unlike some animals, he doesn't stay latched on. The smash to his jaw doesn't dislocate it, but the shock of pressure is enough to knock him out, especially as the floating bone rises up and hits the socket above it. The person collapses into a heap, leading Jessika to see the back of his neck now that he's face down in the dirt.

It's a bad idea to pull anything off of anybody when one doesn't know what it is. She hopes, though, that the urge to do so produces the results she hopes it will. Reaching down, she yanks the insect off the back of the person's neck, and rather than anything special happening, the opposite happens. The body seems to go rigid, and what rise and fall there was from the plane of his back ceases completely. She doesn't drop the insect, though. She holds onto tight between thumb and forefinger. Not where she wants it, exactly, but it will do. "They have something latched onto the back of their neck! Pulling it off kills them!" She doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but in this situation, there's no easy answer to it.

Merek looks at them when it's finished, while he nods to Jessika and looks towards Nova checking upon her, then to some of the others, then towards Cole as well. He nods a bit, while he guards the others while he makes his way so they can go back up, "Well... There's not much we can do, I suppose we can tie them up, then have someone come find all of them, might be a way to assist them, but we should be on our way, ya," he says also.

Except for a bit of blood splatter and dust Sajin hasn't taken as much of a hit as some of the others despite him trying to be a bigger target for the sake of the group. Sometimes, that just isn't how things turn out. He glances over towards Jess as she makes her discovery. He immediately reaches for his pistol, "Get the wounded out of here... I don't have the smarts to figure out what to do with them... other than. You know." He pats the pistol at his side.

Idan Jensa gasps in pain as he struggles back to his feet; he agrees with Nova, shoulders heaving with shallow breaths, "Yes.. yes, we should." With his elaborate hat lost in the scuffle, Idan looks even smaller as he struggles toward the lift, a pained wordless cry passing his thin lips as he leans hard on the lift wall, eyes darting between the others of the bloodied party as they too board the aged platform.

Once the threat had been neutralized, Rey deactivates her weapon and she reattaches it to her belt. She scans around the faces of her companions to see those still standing. Syrus is off near the entrance checking to see if there were any trying to flank them from behind, and with a heavy sigh, Rey just softly shakes her head.

With calm steps she moves toward her discarded trench coat and leans down to pick it up. Its still very cold in this chamber, even with the heating desk attached around her body and focused on the small of her back. She picks the coat up and starts to sort it out, pulling it back on over her shoulders, its clearly a man's coat, a man larger than she to be sure!

Once its on, Rey sorts it out a bit by tugging on the lapels and she turns back to Aryn. "You're sure you're okay?" She checks before she looks to the others. They'd done well, now it was time to clean up this mess...

Rey starts to walk toward the woman impaled upon the stake. She stops a few steps from it and she reaches out with one hand... focusing on the woman to prepare to remove her from the wretched emplacement where no one deserves to find as their final resting place…

The body Rey moves is gently set upon the soft, cold dirt, and an eerie silence falls over the place. There's a soft groaning noise as those who lay upon the dirt begin to shift and rise in unison once more.

It's time to leave.

Aryn grabs Rey's hand and pulls her away from the shifting bodies. "Yes.. please, everyone.. go to the lift. Now!" Aryn isn't brave enough to be the last. She is running to the lift.

By the time the doors shut, and everyone is aboard with Lord Corbin secured and seated against the back of the lift, those within the dark crystal chamber charge at the lift again. Haunting voices sound as they screech and yell, attempting to reach through the chain link fence to grab at them. "KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLL!"

It's all they heard the entire way up. They repeated it in differing intervals, but it was the same, haunting tone over and over and over. Some might think that when the doors to 'Hayerta wa Deisos' closed and locked, they might have still heard those voices over the whipping winds and stinging sand.