A Diamond in the Rough (Kress)

[Professor Mors]

***Hurikane System, Wild Space, Grid Coordinates V-9***

“No! Not there! The other release valve, attached to the- argh!”, Sa’ato groaned and shuddered about as a jet of hot vapor burst from the exposed wall section and seared along his exposed neck, “Confound it! Give me the ply-wrench!”. The Neti’s less-than-reliable pit droid beeped with embarrassment as its master snatched the tool in question from its grasp. In theory, when traveling to an uncharted planet, the planet itself was the biggest danger. As misfortune would have it however, the professor’s route had taken him too close to Kubindi, and to its host of scavenger-pirates.

Even now, the droning whistle of prerecorded Kubaz threats blared through the Mudhorn’s intercom as four raiders continued to splash the rear decks of the Pursuer-Class assault craft with fresh laser fire. Normally, the academic’s old but hardy vessel would have made quick work of the ramshackle uglies buzzing around her hull. Unfortunately, a lucky hit from the insectoid interlopers had disabled the ship’s one and only torpedo launch tube, and so it was that Kressara was foisted onto the pilot’s chair while the Neti attempted emergency repairs. Groaning and heaving at one of two dozen jammed pressure valves, Sa’ato pulled with all his might before crying out as the wrench snapped in two and sent him sprawling onto his back.

“Thryn!”, The professor boomed desperately into the nearby comm terminal, “It’s no use down here! We’re going to have to fire manually!”. Snatching an embedded commlink from the nearest fixture, the Neti coughed and wheezed as a fresh puff of smoke and fumes doused his entire body, “If- you can just- line all of them up at once- the warhead should do the trick- but hurry…”. Hurry indeed. Hands clamped tightly over the emergency override, Sa’ato was confident in his ability to expel the torpedo. If the Sith duo waited too long however, there was no telling if a stray wire might have a care to detonate the entire magazine early. Force or no Force, Kressara needed a mad miracle to make ends meet.

For his part, the professor earnestly hoped crazy stunts weren’t unfamiliar territory for the afflicted youth. If not, it would be a rather short trip. Painfully, painfully short…

[Kressara Thryn]

“Maaaaan, Professor I really don’t like dogfighting! It turns my stomach!” The lurching about of a serious interstellar scrape never was tolerable to the young woman in Sa’ato’s captain seat. One hand supported the controls while another rummaged through her pouches to retrieve a packet of tablets. Motion sickness medication, something the poor thing relied heavily on during her galactic travels. Moving about with the pull of gravity planetside was no issue, but put her through the sensation of G-Force in artificial gravity and lunch was in danger of being lost. Her thumbnail pinched free one of the translucent blue pills before popping it into her mouth and swallowing hard. It was the third one she’d taken this trip, giving her a serious case of drowsiness to contend with the thrill of a life or death situation. Luckily, that mellow tiredness actually worked in Crow’s favor. It was hard to panic and make mistakes when her mind was thinking in a calmer space than the reality of chaos and danger around her.

Steam gushing in the background of a transmission from within the ship caught her attention, causing that glitter caked heart of hers to sink as she answered back, “You all good back there, Sa’ato? Frack...okay, hang onto something and get ready for some rattling! This isn’t going to be gentle.”

Kressara altered a few settings and wove as they flew, avoiding enemy fire with every twist through hyperspace, though a few stray bolts grazed the exterior of the vessel. Hazels darted from fire spray to fire spray, mind constructing images of where their trajectory placed her targets behind the Mudhorn. One to the left, three somewhere center right, unlikely to put much effort into evasive maneuvers from the flank of the ship where their ammunition couldn’t touch them. Knowing this, Kress gradually lowered their speed just enough to bring their enemies close, but not enough to cause a reaction other than overconfidence that the Mudhorn was running out of steam. They needed to be right on her tail, or else her next move might be too avoidable.

Just as another round of cannon fire scorched past Kressara’s view, revealing that the fourth vessel in their wake had taken the position she’d been hoping for, the glitzed pilot called over the comlinks, “GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!” before cutting power to the accelerators. Star light in motion bent with the sudden braking of the vessel as their enemies zipped by and anything that wasn’t bolted down, strapped in, or clinging onto something that was, would have been flung about the hull when the lead footed flier returned power to their accelerators, on top of throwing the whole system into overdrive. Pipes tremored, walls shook, and the engines quaked as the Mudhorn veered left, now in pursuit of the four brigands. Before the poor fools even had a chance to correct their formation (left fighter hanging back to support two central gunners, while the fourth flew ahead to try and stop their prey from weaving out of harm's way) Crow was darting to the far left rear of their diagonal flight pattern.

She had one shot and if Kress took anything away from the teachings of her cartel's very own ace pilot, it was to trust your initial hip firing instincts. If she wasted this chance and opted to perfect her aim instead, she’d lose it.

Slowly, air escaped her lungs in a controlled exhale and her trigger finger applied pressure gradually as each fleeing ship fell into line with the upward pull of the Mudhorn’s nose. Her calculating stare took into consideration the lag of their ascent, resistance against the crook of her pointer finger tightened, then released with the deployment of a warhead. The first of four clipped it’s right side in the blast, sending it spiraling out of hyperdrive as it’s neighboring vessels took the full brunt of the attack, pushing one of them into the last ship. The final enemy tailspun into the blast and in a blaze of light, sunk out of view. Flames and scattering particles burst into the cosmos behind the speeding Mudhorn.

“Four birds with one stone!...Uh-oh...Professor! We blew something! I’m losing power to the thrusters!” Kress had a feeling the rough treatment of their poor ship would result in a few things malfunctioning. Losing speed, the junkie sith pulled them out of hyperdrive and cautiously lowered the system’s output until the limping Mudhorn was safely halted.

True to Kressara’s awful weak stomach for space battles, she drooped over the controls and groaned. Salad was a horrible preflight meal idea.

[Professor Mors]

Fortunately, the automatic percussion caps had roared back to life at Kress’s goading. Unfortunately for Sa’ato, his hands were still firmly affixed to the loading bay cover when it suddenly snapped shut, his entire body hurtling toward an impassable wall while the lucky warhead slipped free. For his efforts, the Neti’s face impacted into a poorly-placed pipe with all the force of a small rocket engine. For any other humanoid, it would have meant death. For the academic, death might have been cleaner, for while he had no “brain” to smash, he now sported an obvious, demeaning indentation from the top of his head to the base of his chin.

Were he not so immensely tired, the teacher might have torn his droid companion apart, for it was now partially buried in downed tools. Instead, he made a haggard effort to climb the service ladder up to the Mudhorn’s cockpit. “Lets see if we haven’t traded one danger for another”, the professor commented with some disdain upon reappearing at helm, his face still utterly in shambles as he sunk in the co-pilot’s chair. Leering with fatigue at the various consoles lining the cockpit interior, the academic steadily shook his head with revelation as he leaned back further into the faded leather.

“It is good that you took us out when you did”, the retired academic explained, “Any longer and the hyperdrive might have destabilized- ''. Which assuredly would have turned the unlikely duo into space dust, Sa’ato thought to himself. “I’ll have to try to flush and replace the coolant once we land”, the professor continued on, flipping through a few switches on the dashboard and sighing audibly as the overhead lights seeming flickered out of existence, “But, I think I can get auxiliary power to the thrusters in the meantime”. In truth, it took the academic a good while longer than expected, but after a few embarrassing recitations of the repair manual, the matter was temporarily solved.

From upper orbit, Hurikane’s exterior gave off a hazardous, cold, and unfriendly affectation. And, as the golden corvid took the ship down through the pale gray sky, she would no doubt find the endless sea of rocky crags, ravines, and steep plateaus to be equally inhospitable. When the Pursuer-Class craft finally touched down on one of the lattermost, Sa’ato was quick in gathering up his things, and evidently eager to postpone more infuriating repairs until after their true work was finished. Typical of his many expeditions, a biting wind stung at the professor’s mutilated features as he strode out onto the arid terrain.

Much like Mustafar, this latest destination was particularly isolating for the Neti. There was sure to be little if no plant life at all on a world like this. And, while Hurikane was not particularly prone to heavy rains, meteorology dictated an almost-perpetual overcast haze. In which case, the sun was none too plentiful either. Regardless, Sa’ato was prepared to weather such inconvenience. He had told the young Thryn he would help her overcome her weakness, and he meant to deliver. This was but one of many steps. And like most learning experiences, there was a cost involved.

“The gems we seek are a natural byproduct of the local inhabitants”, Sa’ato commented sternly, his eyes scanning ahead for any and all dangers, “If they do not part with them willingly, are you prepared to take what is needed?”.

[Kressara Thryn]

The woozy sith assassin pulled her head up off the dash to glance back at the emergence of her traveling companion, only to jolt up in her seat with eyes wide.

“WHOA WHOA WHOA, SA’ATO, YOUR FACE!” Kressara was horrified, expecting the professor to keel over dead at any moment. When the Neti merely carried on as if nothing was wrong with him, his befuddled pilot stammered, “Dude...are you okay? To hell with the ship. Your face looks like you kissed a speeder in flight! I-” He really was okay and she could hardly believe it. Ah, the joys of ignorance to Neti physiology. With the ship remaining Sa’ato’s greatest concern, Kressara was forced to drop it and carefully guide the ship down onto Hurikane’s surface. Entry into the hazy atmosphere was difficult enough without panicking over the poor wooden man’s facial mutilation. How did you even fix that? Wood glue?? Nails?? Plant food??

The craft successfully landed along a snow drift and Kressara left the cockpit with a wobble in her step. Solid ground would be a welcomed change, even if it was frozen. Kress found her way to a little compartment for her gear and began suiting up for the hazardous chill of the planet’s surface outside. It wasn’t often that she got to wear thick, cold resistant clothing. Her winter gear was soft and warm, making her feel like a winter bird fluffing its feathers for heat. With the proper footwear for the job and her gear secured on her various belts, Kress exited the Mudhorn and crunch along the snow covered ground to stand beside her wounded, but surviving guide.

“I’m prepared for whatever may, Professor. I might not be as bright as some of your former students, but I don’t sign up for jobs I’m not prepared to do. Besides, I’m sure you know what you’re doing. If this plan of yours goes sideways, I’ll just have to make sure we make it, eh? No biggy.”

Guilty hazels glanced up at the damage to his face. “Can’t let you pick up any more dents...sorry about your face, Sa’ato.”

Well, better make trails! Kressara took the first step into the craggy tundra, boots sinking into the buildup of snow. She had a love hate relationship with snow. Something that used to bring her so much joy had long since been tainted with unpleasant memories. This time, she wasn’t leaving anyone behind to rest frozen on yet another hostile planet. She wouldn’t repeat her past mistakes. Hopefully Netis weren’t too prone to ice.

[Professor Mors]

“My features will reset themselves before too long”, the Neti huffed with a neutral indifference, “And none of my senses are thus altered”. Pondering Kress’s comments on the weather, the professor sunk an inquisitive finger into the snow at his feet, probing for its depth. “No more than seven or eight centimeters”, the academic commented more for himself than for his companion, “Likely from a light snowfall last night- most of it ought to melt by noon”. With that, the wandering lecturer rose to his full height, and traipsed after his ward. Every so often, a slice of the sun might blink out behind the clouds and the haze of fog- but its appearance was rare at best.

Similarly, harsh winds thrashed and jarred the duo as they negotiated the modest downward slope of the nearest crag. Several times Sa’ato had to latch onto the blonde corvid and hold her in place, lest they both desired to be blasted straight off the plateau. After a good hour and a half of slow going, they finally reached some manner of respite at the base of a sandy ravine. Below what might have passed for sea-level, the gusts were much less oppressive, though they still howled consistently overhead. As of yet, the professor had made no sighting of the most-important locals, but he was not overtly surprised.

As uncommon and unknowable as their biology was, they could hardly be blamed for small numbers, or inconspicuous lodgings. If the natives were out there, the Neti ventured, they were either further ahead, or watching from afar, keen to stay out of the Siths’ periphery. In either case, Sa’ato had a new quandary. Holes, lots of holes. He quickly ruled out craters from meteor impact. No, these were certainly tunnels of a subterranean nature. And as the professor parted his lips to speak, his voice was quickly interrupted by a piercing, metallic whine. The single pitch swiftly split off into many, and the academic had no trouble observing the myriad pebbles dancing round his feet.

It was only the timely whisper of the Force that galvanized Sa’ato to action. Leaping powerfully off the ground, the retired teacher thumbed the main switch on his lightsaber, and brought the cruel orange blade hammering down on what appeared to be a large set of insectoid mandibles. The owner of the now-ruined fangs screeched and sunk back underground, but it was hardly a lull in the action. The metallic cacophony grew to a fever pitch, and drones, either composed of rocklike geodes, or fused to them, swarmed en masse. Ants, Sa’ato groaned inwardly, of course it was ants.

Not waiting to give Kressara an invitation, the Neti silently activated his more limber shoto, and charged into the fray with both weapons raised…

[Kressara Thryn]

Reset eh? Must be nice being able to heal from such drastic damage. Better trust the Neti, even if every instinct told her to stop and recover first. He knew his body and his ship better than she. If he thought it wise to march off without repairs to either, then she would give him that confidence.

Before making their descent, Sa’ato’s fellow explorer reached onto her belt for the durasteel talon attachments for her boots. Snapping and latching each razor sharp hook into place at the toe of her footwear, Kress gave the equipment a few tests by pressing the articulating joints against a rock. Tension seemed reliable, each metal tendon stretching to grip the stone tightly, but even with the talons, teetering along the jaded edges of a steep windy plateau to the ravine below proved no easy task. Heavy clothing made it difficult to move as gracefully as Kressara might have otherwise, though not heavy enough to keep her feet planted on the ground when gale force gusts of Hurikane tore through the crevasse. Catching her clothes like sail cloth, wind tipped the lightweight closer to the edge. Grip support gloves struggled to cling onto the rockface and her body lurched towards a steep drop. Branch fingers latched around her arm and caught her, pulling her close to the anchor of a Neti before the winds turned their hike into a solo climb.

She shouted over the rush battering her eardrums, almost amused, “Thanks, man!”

It took more effort to scale the cliffside than Kressara cared to admit. Maybe she should cut back a little on the less important of her substances...Professor could be onto something. Feeling the grog of her motion sickness meds sink into her joints only further convinced her while they wandered the twists and turns of a deep scar along the planet’s crust. They appeared to be carved out by water, likely glacial during the planet’s thaw cycles. Was it really all that safe to be down there? If snow would melt up above them, then would it not drain into the canyon’s?

“So professor, what do we do if all that ice and snow starts to melt into a slush that filters into the gorges?” Death by frozen sleet rivers sounded dreadful, but not as repulsive as the spine chilling shiver of a metallic whine from below skittering up and down her back. Crow turned to face her academic companion just as he leapt into the air and brought the blade of his impressive orange saber down into a set of screeching pincers. “Great! Just great! It’s a cold planet! Why do there have to be giant bugs?!”

Rattling beneath her feet spurred the assassin to stagger back as a massive insect erupted from the ground. Turning tail with two of the things marching behind her, Kressara bolted to the edge of the ravine, ran partially up a slanted boulder, and unsheathed one of her many vibroblades. Thumb fired the heated metal to life and the acolyte twisted her body to spin her momentum, pushing off of the rock face and diving atop her pursuers. Talons pierced the thorax and skull of one giant ant with a crunch and her sword hand brought scorching metal down over the antenna of her second enemy. One shrieked and scurried back while the other struggled to buck Kressara, every movement only digging her hooks deeper. Plunging the blade into its brain, the glitbiter felled one ant before the second rushed her. Mandibles snapped at her, catching her blade and breaking the weapon in two. It forced Kressara back as a fourth ant emerged nearby Sa’ato’s heels.

“Behind you!” Her voice called out over the wind and ruckus. She flung what was left of her first blade at the professor’s ambushing attacker, piercing the hot half blade into its abdomen to stun the bug. A force of nature knocked her off her feet when her own enemy slammed the young sith into the cold sand. Before pincers could lock around her unprotected throat, Kress rolled, flung gravel into the eyes of the ant, and unhooked another vibroblade, prepared to fight from her back if she must.

[Professor Mors]

Briefly locking eyes with the blonde vagrant, Sa’ato sharply angled his neck to one side as Kress’s broken blade soared past his face and struck home against the unruly insect. The professor then turned to address two juvenile drones with a fierce horizontal sweep, yet when he looked back at his companion, he was duly reminded why they were here in the first place. The young humanoid had fallen into a tight spot without a more reliable weapon, and now the academic needed to return her earlier favor. Temporarily deactivating the smaller of his blades, the professor sent a large teardrop of fire flying out of his flamethrower, which impacted just above the ant’s antennae.

As the creature screeched with sensory dismay, Sa’ato sprinted forward and dropped into a rough slide, running his traditional saber through the beast’s rocky thorax and cutting it neatly in two. Shooting a sinuous hand out to help the corvid back onto her feet, the professor spun away from his work-in-progress with equal swiftness, bluntly swatting and slicing the periphery of the swarm with the typical harshness of the Djem So. In a rare bout of optimism, the Neti guessed that the six-legged horde would elect to retreat before long, lest the continued assault was perceived to be a threat to the hive queen.

Unfortunately for the retired academic, this particular hunch was not entirely founded. The smaller drones seemed to withdraw for a few moments, until a pitched, alien cry cut through the air. What Sa’ato observed and thought to be the side of the far cliff-face giving way seemingly crawled back up the side of the ravine as if it were an afterthought. Thus, what might have otherwise been mistaken for a large boulder unfurled rocky, geode-laden limbs, and two tusk-like mandibles. Glistening black eyes like marbled jet blinked into being and narrowed at the two shipwrecked Sith, and with yet another cry, it charged forward.

Sa’ato groaned internally as he recalled a similar situation from the duo’s earlier volcanic outing. With no intention to drag things out sooner, the Neti adopted a two-handed grip, and stood firm as the hulking ant sentinel drew nearer and nearer. At the last moment, with one great exhale, the professor side-stepped his foe. Letting animated stone bolt past mere centimeters from his features, the academic drove his blade straight down in the same instant, severing one of the titanic mandibles just below the tip. The larger insect bucked and chirped with anger, but the Neti was not overtly perturbed. The teacher and his new pupil would tie things up here, and finally move on to seeking out the natives…

[Kressara Thryn]

Pincers clamped onto the downed assassin’s arm guards, causing her anxiety to rise as compact high voltage batteries beneath the plating could be compromised by any severe indentation. If that happened, both pupil and insect might end up seared in a corrosive splash of battery acid.

“Trust me, dude! You don’t wanna bite there!” Kress pointlessly warned the massive ant, clenching her teeth and kicking at its thorax for freedom before a blaze of amber rendered it in twain. A grainy hand reached down to her after the immediate threat was neutralized, which the snow powdered blonde took with a relieved grin. “Thanks, professor!” No harm done. She was up and standing again with only minor scrapes to her armor. Those remaining ants scurried away into the bleary snow clouds, nearly convincing the young sith that they were in the clear, that was until a portion of the mountain itself shifted atop the back of a giant insect. Ironically, Kressara felt ant-sized in comparison to the real deal as the monstrous thing rumbled down the mountain.

“Brings back fond memories! Maybe I won’t get impaled this time, huh?” Batting her palm against the old scar over her liver, Kressara reached onto her belt for a set of small steel contraptions surrounded in furled claw-like barbs which would jut out at the press of a button. Grappling hooks. Nudging the Neti and motioning to a weak looking ledge above them, Crow shouted over the commotion “We’ve got this, Sa’ato! Keep her busy!”

The little bird took off to their right, running through snow drifts and leaping up onto the stoney walls of the canyon. Her vibroblades weren’t likely to pierce the beast quite like the bite of a lightsaber, but she COULD give it something to cry about while Sa’ato landed a few hopefully fatal blows. Durasteel talons dug into the permafrost and barbed climber’s gloves gripped the rockface. Kressara was making her way upwards with considerable time for a human, minus a couple slips here and there. When the icy mesa’s edge protruded overhead to prevent her from climbing by three points of contact, Kress unwound her wire rings, reattached each ring to the sturdier anchor points of her self made apparatus on the backs of her hands, and attached the grappling hooks. With a few good swings metal barbs soared skyward and sunk into the cliffside. The nimble assassin entrusted her weight to the wires and set to scaling its surface.

Below, Sa’ato severed a section of the giant’s mandibles and sent her frenzying into the cliff side. Stone and ice rattled beneath Kressara’s boots, causing one of her grappling hooks to dislodge.

“BAD BAD BAD!!!” The acolyte hollered as the remaining hook began to give way as well, snow and ice crystals dropping down from above. Setting the wire on her left hand to retract back into its coil beneath her armor before the second gave way, Kress plummeted. True to her callsign the would-be apprentice kicked off of the rock face for a better angle, whirled her left handed grappling hook around for momentum, and tossed the life line high as she fell. It fought the wind and downfall, flew above the icy jut, and circled thrice around its thinnest point. Tension tightened the wire with a metallic thrum and caught the diving crow, but sudden pressure against an unsteady tether broke a large hunk of the ice protrusion off. Kressara’s trajectory changed, falling at a diagonal towards the opposite ice wall. Spear like icicles and hefty chunks of frozen earth dropped down the ravine and pulverized the exoskeleton of the oversized ant.

“Good! Good! Good!” She cheered midair, tucking and rolling onto an outcrop while the monster below thrashed against the walls of their enclosed battleground. Shaking more snow and debris loose, Kress slipped and tumbled off the edge. “WAIT! NO! BAD! REALLY BAD!”

There was nothing left to grapple but the ant itself, but that was better than a broken spine! Kress swung her right handed hook and released it, wrapping around one of the monster’s upper leg segments. Sparks flew from the contraption beneath her arm plating with the force and speed in which her hang wire rewound itself and the ground was racing towards her. With all the core strength Kressara could muster, She curled her arm, caught the wire with her other glove, and swung low over the frosty ground beneath the bumbling beast. The claws of her boots dragged through powdered snow, obscuring her form even further within the mist of ice and dust created by massive legs hammering into the earth.

[Professor Mors]

“What in the–”, Sa’ato growled in an attempt to dispel the nearest drones while keeping tabs on Kress. The professor did not have time to finish his sentence, as he observed the larger soldier ant careen into a nearby ice trench, with his companion in tow. “Blast!”, the Neti swore, thrusting his main blade into one of the smaller aggressors so harshly that it shattered into a stream of pebbles. Not wasting any time for theatrics, the professor felt for his tethered ally in the Force, and leapt high into the air with a single motion. Sabers barred, the wandering teacher stuck the landing, though his luck was only fleeting.

While the bulkier attack drone had been robbed of one of its mandibles, it was in full possession of the other. Foolishly failing to take physiology into account, Sa’ato barely had time to blink as the ant swung its rocky head all the way around to sweep its lone tusk at the Neti’s legs. Crying out more with anger than anguish, the professor partitioned one leg from the bulkish soldier’s torso, while slinging his arm through a lower limb for support. The Neti assumed it would take little more to resolve the situation from there, precarious as the Siths’ footing was. He was mistaken. Much to the lecturer’s surprise, the mammoth drone wailed.

And wailed, and wailed. Though Sa’ato lifted his weapon to silence the beast for good, to his internal dismay, a powerful, deafening crack sounded from further up the ravine. This was followed by another, and another still, before the reason was laid bare. An avalanche, like a great white wave tumbling down from the nearby peak. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the glacial walls of the gorge began to shatter from the horrid shaking and the previous sonic assault, and within moments, the soldier drone, Sa’ato, and the unlucky corvid entered freefall. Thankfully, the initial drop was not strong enough to throw the humanoids from their unlikely mount.

Truly finished with all the insectoid business, the Neti parted the drone’s body from its oblong head, and carefully worked to climb onto the top of its thorax. Giving Kressara a moment to untangle herself from the web of her own making, Sa’ato offered a hand, before deactivating his main saber and preparing to brace for a snow-flooded impact. As the gord-like corpse of the ant smacked down into the mounting alabaster tide, a curtain of frigid powder flew into the Neti’s face as his body was jerked this way and that. Mercifully, rather than immediately sink, the duo found themselves floating along the semi-solid slurry, albeit very quickly.

Though the two rode without fear of being thrown off, they did have to contend with lethal icicles and other collapsing formations. Indeed, just as Sa’ato was forced to bisect an airborne pillar of pack ice, the battered pair found themselves beached, and subsequently tossed upon a larger rocky island. Over time, the second wave of snowy discharge had built higher and higher, and when the Neti looked in the direction he and his colleague had come from, his gaze was met by a sheet of eerie white. The curtain was tumbling down, and fast. Groaning with displeasure, the Neti immediately called on the Physical Force to alter his biology at a faster rate.

Sprouting roots from the armor gaps between his shins and torso, Sa’ato painfully entrenched him into what appeared to be solid rock, and brought reactivated blades in front of his person in an x configuration. “Get behind me”, the Neti offered with much enthusiasm to his ward, “And hold on…”

[Kressara Thryn]

Grappling to a living anchor point always posed its challenges, one being unwanted changes in momentum. Kress was soon tangled in razor wire by her footwear, metal screeching against metal with every thrash of the giant ant. Before she had to bite the bullet and sacrifice one of her wires by cutting the darn thing, Sa’ato arrived at the scene in a flash of saber light. Taking down the titan insect and aiding her in slipping free from the tightly wound web, they hardly had time to regain their senses before the icy chasm collapsed! A tsunami of slush and ice roared down the expanse, pushing the carcass along like a raft among tidal waves.

Digging her taloned boots into the thorax of the bug, Kressara held her arms out for balance and bent her knees, riding the twists and turns. Spears of ice and chunks of stone threatened to smash them, or wrench them off the insect body into the certain death of an avalanche. Not able to offer much help, Kressara spent her focus on staying latched by the boots to their only hope at riding out the force of nature, offering support where she could to ensure that the professor didn’t go tumbling into the cold flood.

They were thrown onto a solid bit of earth, though a second wave of topside snow was racing down the slope in an all encompassing wall of white. “YOU GOT THIS, PROFESSOR!” Shouting her encouragements from over the eardrum murder of sound filling the gorge, Kressara was fast to take cover, back to back with the Neti.

They only had moments, but that wave of snow would surely overtake them despite their best efforts. Damage control was all they had left, so behind what protection Sa’ato offered, the assassin set to work with her own attempts at ensuring neither of them froze to death in the aftermath of the onslaught. Unhooking every available wire from her fingers and attaching them to whatever daggers, knives, and swords she had left on her, Kressara stabbed each blade into the permafrost boulder, spreading the wires in a spiderweb like grid along the ground behind Sa’ato. Turning the switch on her bracers, electricity arced over the wires and ignited each vibroblade, causing steam to rise from the ground.

They wouldn’t be able to stop the tide of snow from battering and possibly entombing them, but the combined heat of sabers and a network of ten ignited vibroblades big and small along heated wires might provide a tiny safe pocket to burrow out from. At the very least, the heat from her battery packs would keep her arms from freezing, allowing Kressara the chance to dig them out once the avalanche settled.

“Let’s see if we can survive this!” The flaxen sith laughed into the whiteout until it swallowed up the sound of her cackling.