Originally posted by ASW-003 Darth Amaterasu
“Amoral, keep an eye out for any resistance or supernatural occurrences.” The male togruta slapped the hand of his human companion. “If you touch my brain tails one more time, woman!”
“I am trying to get your attention. There’s a booby trap right in front of you! Don’t get any closer to it and we won’t get sliced to pieces! Let me disarm it!”
“Tap me on the shoulder next time!” The togruta adjusted his brown baldric about his chest and spoke into his communicator once more. “Amoral? Do-you-copy?!”
“Yes! I was in the loo! Let me breathe, Ralk!”
The togruta chuckled. “Atta-boy! I’ve got this hall, you six split up in twos and take the west, east and north halls. Com in if you run into anything strange.”
The heavily armored mandolorian’s exchanged hand signals before they skulked in separate directions. Their silver and white armor could not be missed in the slightest. Ralk was outfitted in a long dark green coat. Made of the finest leathers in the galaxy, he was quite a sharp sight. He had one baldric across his chest. Off of which, hung various items such as ammo, grenades, and any other tools he would need while hunting for artifacts. His black slacks, brown boots, and two-layered red shirt were rather dressy for his occupation. They shimmered with reflective fibers. He liked dressing nice. When he presented his findings to his buyers or commissioners, he wanted to look good doing it.
“How’s the trap coming, Vira.”
The oriental woman glared over her shoulder at the togruta. She blew her long and dark hair out of her face before she drew her attention back to her handiwork. “You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
“What did I do, now?!” Ralk tossed his arms about.
“Is she badgering you again?” Ralk’s comlink buzzed.
He pursed his lips and raised the device to his mouth. “You have no idea,” he hissed.
“Hey! I’m not deaf!”
“I beg to differ,” the togruta muttered. He drew back when the woman suddenly appeared before him. He cracked a charming grin at her.
The woman couldn’t stay mad at him for too long with such a smirk. She patted his cheek. “It’s finished, we can move forward. Why did you hire so many Mandolorians? This is going to run us nearly dry you know. We’ll have to deal without the greasy food of the bars on Nar Shadda for a while.”
“I wanted to be safe. What I’m looking for is dangerous. So I’ve heard. These old sith temples are full of curses, traps and ghosts.”
“I KNOW that, darling, we are a team, remember?” The woman stooped to pick up an old flag. She recoiled and the flag fell back on the lumpy skeleton she had disturbed. “That’s the last time I pick up any clothing. Do you recognize the flag?”
“It’s one of the old republics, I think.”
“Aaannnd, how did you learn so much about the jedi and their order?”
“I steal artifacts from both sides love. I did my research before I sold them. I know what I’m selling and whom I’m selling it to. You gotta be well rounded in the black market business.” Ralk clicked his tongue. “This place was grand at one time. It was built right. Look at the columns and the ceiling.” Ralk pointed his blaster upward to shine its cone of light at the cobwebs and creatures that skittered out of the light beam.
He lowered it and moved forward. The stone of the temple was old. The red carpet underneath their feet was sporadic. Some of it had been torn, eaten, or it had just flat out rotted away. He had read stories about the temple through sith holocrons and books. He had inherited the books from a long dead family member. He was told stories of the sith and the battles of the jedi. One such story was highly encouraged to be listened to over and over again from his great-great grandmother.
“You’ve told me about the story, before, but I would like to hear it again, Ralk.”
“What?!” The togruta looked at his companion.
“Why do you sound so alarmed? Were you thinking of something dirty?”
“No!” The togruta stammered a bit. “My great great grandmother, Sokana told me the tale of a darkside pupil that was frozen in time here.”
Vira snorted with laughter. “What?! You believed her? C’mon, nobody can be frozen that long without dying.”
Ralk frowned. “You do realize the sith delved in the dark arts. They used magics and sorcery to preserve her body.”
“She? Oh, do you have some type of an infatuation with her?” Vira pointed ahead to a sealed door. “What’s that symbol?”
“The right one, but not a good one. Right for us, but bad for any jedi or other trespassers.”
“The door isn’t rigged is it?” Vira scanned the general door frame structure for any signs of booby traps.
“No, I think the jedi devoured this place, long ago. It’s been opened, but closed again. Unlock the keycode, will you?” Ralk drew up his comlink. “If you haven’t found anything interesting, come back here to the main hall, I will need you all, shortly. We’re close to finding the weapon.”
“Weapon? How dangerous is this female ‘weapon?’” Vira inquired while she unscrambled the door code.
The doors shuttered and dirt showered the woman. She coughed and backed away while a hand waved the particles out of her face. The great doors groaned in suffering as they opened. A bedding chamber was revealed. Ralk and Vira cautiously stepped in, blasters at the ready. The mandolorian crew showed up shortly after and the room was scoured for relics and valuable artifacts.
“It’s been over 15 thousand years, Ralk, I don’t think anything could have survived. There’s no furniture left, there’s dead skeletons everywhere and old fabrics.” Vira kicked a human skull away from a staircase that lead up to what was once a shrine. “You think this was where they, maybe communicated with the dead or something?”
Ralk stepped up the six steps to the flat. The carpet underneath his feet was still intact. He placed a hand on the bare stone wall for a moment and removed it. “Dag, this is the place, but there’s nothing here.” He used his black boots to kick the carpet back. “Ah, this is what we want, right here.” He stepped on a misplaced stone. He righted its position back into his hole.
More dirt showered the woman and three of the mandolorian’s that were in the general vicinity.
“Back up, boys, I think I found out where our treasure was hiding!” Ralk cackled as the bare wall began to descend into the floor. “All these years of hearing the tales. Guns at the ready, we don’t know what is in this chamber.”
The floor became caught just above the floor they stood on. Ralk was satisfied with most of the wall making way for what he had heard so many tales about .Frozen in carbonite was this legendary monster. Perfectly preserved in her slumber she rested in an upright position.
“She’s a wolfman?”
“Yup! Hurry up, get her out of there and down the steps.” Ralk watched the mandolorian’s heave the slab of carbonite down the steps and gently onto its bottom half. He went around to its front and admired his prize. “This is what we’ve been searching for.”
“What you’ve been searching for, you mean,” Vira commented. “Ralk, she’s all ready thawing!”
“What?! Who in the stars touched the code on the slab?!”
“Nobody,” one of the mandolorian’s commented. “It’s been set to respond to any activity to it being moved!”
“A timer?” Vira inquired.
“It don’t matter now, she’s thawing fast!” Ralk snarled. “Guns up, now!”
The charcoal matter receded from the fleshly face of the wolfwoman. The company waited and pondered about the monster that Ralk had educated them so much about to tear out of her enclosure and slay them all. Possibly at once, but maybe one at a time, for she may like to play with her prey.
The company of men cried out when the lifeless body of the wolfwoman fell out of the slab and landed on her front. They stood in skepticism for a time. Ralk kicked the body of the wolfwoman. Another jump scare rippled through the group as the loud shrieking of chains slithered out into the floor from the slab, coiling into neat piles.
Ralk studied them. They were attatched to her wrists and her ankles. It looked like they were deeply embedded into her body. It had to have been painful. He wondered if she still would be in pain, now, after all these years.
“Ralk, I told you, she’s long gone! Let’s just leave before-before-ahhh!”
“Vira! What’s the matter with you?!” Ralk watched in horror as his close friend was lifted off her feet, clawing at her throat.
“Ahhh-ahhh!”
Ralk twisted around. The hired personnel were levitating as well, clawing at their throats. The togruta growled.
“Oh, you’re a clever girl, aren’t you?!” He kicked the wolfwoman on her backside. He couldn’t gasp soon enough after her orange, glowing eyes shot open.
A repulsing unseen force thrashed the choking company into the nearest wall. They slid down it and lay rasping. The white canines of the wolf woman flashed. A most atrocious growling arose from her chest.
“Get up! You’re coming with me, if it’s the last thing I do!”
The wolfwoman sifted erect and Ralk found himself fighting for air while her caustic grip around his neck sucked the life force from him. The long and dangling chains snapped with her inhuman movement.
“Who are you? Where is my master?”
Ralk’s confused mind echoed with the wolfwoman’s warped voice.
“You’ve been frozen for over 15 thousand years! Your master is dead!”
The wolfwoman snarled in fury. “Then you will die away as well!” She flung the togruta into the chamber she had been removed from. Turning on her digitigrade legs, she proceeded to use the force to move the wall back into its upright position. She snarled in offense when blaster fire deafened her sensitive ears. She ducked and sifted away into the air. Ralk athletically hurdled the wall and found his blaster on the ground where he had dropped it. The echo of her chains faded into the musty air.
“She’s here, stay on alert. I’ve read about her abilities. To your left!” His blaster drew up and he fired at a skeleton, once a jedi, which was making its way over to one of the unsuspecting mandolorians.
“She’s using the force to animate dead remains!”
“You’re knowledge will not save you!” The wolfwoman raved throughout the chamber.
“I think it will, Darth Amaterasu! You were just awakened out of a 20,000 year slumber from carbonite! You are blind and weak! You will not recover for quite some time!” Ralk rehearsed.
“You’ve been planning this for a while, Ralk, what are you up to?” Vira inquired, pacing around in a circle for any other tricks.
“Oh, foolish vermin, I can see you just fine through the force and with my senses. I can smell you.”
Another skeleton was shot where it fell apart behind Vira. Ralk smiled nervously at her. She frowned at him. She was not pleased that she could have died just now. He got the message. He needed make sure his intention to capture her would actually work. He needed to draw her out into the open.
“I can feel you!”
A harsh grunt alerted Vira. She whipped around to see Ralk pinned into the stone wall on the far side of the room.
“Ralk!” Vira blindly charged at the menace, but found herself with arms and legs akimbo, flying backwards.
Three mandolorian’s were peeled off their feet with her flying body. They hit the wall and attempted to gather themselves.
“Ughn! I can’t move! What devilry is this?!”
Ralk was being choked again, but this time by the stinging cold chains that had coiled around his neck. The wolfwoman’s irises glowed an ominous yellow and orange. She tipped Ralk’s chin back with a clawed finger.
“You have something that belongs to me! I’ll take it, now and maybe I’ll make your death quick!”
“You can have it!” Ralk reached into his satchel and shakily handed the artifact to the furious being.
The wolfwoman’s ears twitched and she glanced down at device. It’s sphere shell twisted and turned before it locked and a red light beeped. The wolfwoman roared in pain and flew back from the explosion of the grenade. Ralk was blasted a ways away, but he was unscathed. He picked himself up, once more and reached into his satchel for a new device. He strapped a cufflink onto his left arm. A hologram flared up from it. He pin-pointed the frequency he needed. The hologram pinpointed the locations of the chains on the wolfwoman. After popping up a description of each contact point it flashed red.
“Gotcha.” Ralk sauntered over to the recuperating wolfwoman. He kicked her onto her side and a blaster was aimed at her. “I think you’re blind, deaf, and disoriented. That was a point blank detonation explosion. Your hand isn’t looking too good either.”
The wolf woman placed her charred and bruised hand on her head, groaning. She attempted to get up.
“Ah!” Ralk kicked her backward. “Line her up, boys, I want to make sure she gets this message.”
The wolf woman cackled. “You cannot keep me down.”
“Then get up! Show us what for, if you must!” Ralk motioned his crew to back away.
The wolf woman sifted into an upright position. She struck the solid floor on her back after her feet shot out in front of her. “No!” She scrambled erect and pulled at her new delimma. “You!” She glared at Ralk. Her orange-tipped dark brown fur bristled profusely. “You have the device?! After…after all this time?! How did you get that?! Only my master can control me!”
Ralk rolled his eyes. He was silent for a moment, allowing the wolfwoman to soak in her defeat. She pulled at the chains, snarling and growling. She was literally feral, like some wild animal in a tatooine rodeo. The chains clanged and jingled to the point where he was becoming annoyed.
“Enough! I have won! I have one thing that you cannot resist.”
The wolfwoman smirked. “What is that? I am immune to any weaponry, even in this day and age.”
“No, you are not. Vira? Shoot her with the tranq, since she insists on being a rabid beast.”
The wolfwoman’s fur flared in offense. She ground her teeth. “I am no ANIMAL!”
“You act like one. Stop acting like one and I won’t be referring to you as one.”
“When I get out of this I’ll-“ the wolf woman winced and pulled the dart out of her neck. A death glare was administered to Vira. Before long the wolfwoman collapsed and lay motionless, breathing in peace.
“Get the binders and let’s get the hell out of here.” Ralk began to grueling walk to the entrance of the chamber. “Amoral, get the ship ready. I’ve found what I’ve been looking for.”
“Yeah, boss. How difficult was it?”
Ralk glanced back at the wolfwoman on the floor. “It’s the most painful shistavanen I’ve ever fought with, but not the most difficult. Strangely, she’s cooperative. More so than I was told when I was younger. That thousand year slumber really did a number on her. C’mon! Hurry up, I don’t want her waking up before we get to the ship!”
Vira waded up to Ralk. “Easy, big-guy, that dart is an eight hour sleeper. She’s not waking up at all for a long-long while.”
