On and on they ran. Disoriented and tired, blind in the dark twisting tunnels of Strak. After what seemed hours they stopped. That sat down, breathing heavy, leaningagainst the walls and eachother. Verkur still held onto the cleogi's box. It was another several minutes before those who had been stunned by the red crystal explosion fully recovered. Marak looked over at Verkur and shook his head.

"Your still holding onto that stupid box?" Marka questioned.

Verkur looked at the container that he still held onto for dear life itself. He was shocked that he hadnt dropped it during the explosion. He looked at Marka.

"I guess so. I had completely forgotten about it."

The comment drew a few chuckles from the squad. Those few laughs went a long way. It helped them all relax, even just for a few seconds. After several more minutes of sitting in silence, everyone began to get themselves together. The sound of new clips being loaded in sang through the tunnels. In the process those who had more red crystals began to drop them on the ground, littering the floor with them.

Then it began. Once again they heard the hollowing. Though this time it was different, ordered and calm, like chanting or singing. The group took one last sigh, and began to move out, slowly, and measured, cautious. Verkur stopped for a few seconds and attached the box to his back. Then he ran to catch up with the group.

After what seemed like an eternity, the group came to another tunnel megre. A tunnel went left, and another went right. Alan moved up to he right, and Aeos to the left.

"This must be a new tunnel. More wet black ooze." Aeos stated.

"This tunnels old. Black stuffs dry." Alan said.

"So then. Do we go back into te depths of this hell hole? Or, do we head out to the surface?" Lucky asked.

OOC:

For those that are eccentric about some sort of reasonable explanation for everything

Onboard the ISD Dominion

Senior Scientist Jinus was not exactly known for punctuality, but he was certainly the best in his field of classifying creatures, and hence the Vast Empire's continual employment of him in their scientific development budget.  And his lack of punctuality showed when he arrived about two hours after he was expected to in a small room aboard the ISD Dominion filled with screens and holoprojectors and two techs squeezed in the mist of all the technology.  It probably used to be a janitorial closet converted to a small analysis room for this mission; if not... then it was certainly a poorly designed intel analysis room.

"Ah, good to see you Jinus, we already bookmarked the feeds of higher interest," one of the techs raised his cup of caf in greeting.

"Well, go ahead and show them," the Zabrak scientist gave a brief wave of his hand before settling into one of the small chairs and adjusting a screen.

"Alright, first contact..." The screen flicked to show the cam integrated into one of the helmets of a trooper.

As the loading ramp lowered, two Cleoggi were seen retreating, another preparing to charge.  The vibroblade wielding trooper, labeled as Trooper-3698, apparently thought that his excellent handiwork with the blade fell the creature, which was actually finished off by several blaster bolts to the head by whomever helmet they were viewing from.

"Incredibly resilent to that damage," Jinus mused, "To be expected anyways, they live without air, and survive decent doses of radiation... Sentience is indeterminable from this, what else we got?"

The head tech's fingers clicked across the keyboard and the screen brought up four HUD displays, one in each corner, "Ambush, at least the squad declared it as one from the comm chatter."

Quite a few Cleoggi rose out of dusty holes they had cleverly covered over themselves earlier, rearing up to attack the troopers.  One of the beasts made some sort of gestures towards the squad before moving back, the others advancing, using improvised weapons of rocks.

"Interesting... that one appears to be a pack leader, and.. garbed in a robe? Oh wait, illusion of the light, just his hair," Jinus was making notes on a datapad while he watched the scene.

The apparent 'leader' of the group was felled by the bottom right trooper of the screen with a couple carefully aimed shots which seemed to raise the ire of the other creatures.  After significany losses, many began retreating.

"Semi-sentient judging by tool usage.. they seem to have a pack mentality, much like the hounds of Cepany, so the 'leader' will not convey true sentience at this point. The ambush may as well been an evolved tactic.. although what they use it against normally is beyond me, perhaps other Cleoggi?"  He scribbled some more notes down, "Anyways, next?"

"In the caves, seem to have evidence of an acidic substance, black, slime-like.  Possibly used for forming the tunnels."  The tech had several short clips of the slime, including one where it was eating though the glove of one trooper.

"Eh, that can be produced through their metabolism, we'll need a live specimen to be certain of that though.  I suppose a sample is out of the question, since they don't have anything that will hold it without dissolving.  Move along."

The tech nodded, "A crystal cave, with.. waterfalls, granted water in a vacuum is pretty much impossible as we know, especially with the temperatures and such, so this isn't normal H20 if even that.  Most likely some sort of mercurial substance."

"Interesting, contact them over their comms to see if a sample of that liquid is possible at all, as for the crystals, best they avoid trying to break those, might be a dangerous gas trapped within that forms the glow."

"Will do sir, next is an ambush within the crystal room, as you can see quite brutal."

The scene from the view of every HUD was squeezed on the screen, each trooper trying to deal with more creatures dropping from a place above.

"Apparently we never see them in more than a group of fifteen," another note was scribbled, "Averaging around seven or eight I imagine, more frequently around four."

"And this.. is perhaps the most interesting scene of them all, almost.. shaman like.. if you care to use the term.."

Seven (as predicted by Jinus) Cleoggi rose from the water, but they were quite different from the others.

"Significant radiation effects.. looks like they were out in the sun too long.." Jinus mused, then suddenly widened his eyes at the shaman the tech mentioned earlier, "This... is interesting..."

He watched the scene unfold, then seeing the crystals being destroyed that affected the cleoggi, Jinus muttered something under his breath before asking, "Show me the radiation levels."

The tech looked at the scientist with a confused look but did as he was told before gasping, "Wow.. radiation is rather high here considering how far below they are."

"It gets higher for those closer to the crystals?" Jinus asked.

"Indeed, what does that mean?"

"These.. deformed Cleoggi are evolved differently from the others, they require radiation to survive... hrm.. or they are more dependent upon it... perhaps radiation serves a role similar to light in photosynthesis for these creatures.. although what they use in place of CO2 escapes me at the moment."

"Uh huh.." the tech blinked, wishing he understood the rambling, probably best he didn't anyways,"So.. anything I should tell them?"

"Not sentient... yet... Everything can fall into non-sentient categories at least for most of the Cleoggi.  No need to bother with the details, doubt they'll understand at their intelligence levels, they are grunts after all.  Oh, and a sample of the liquid if they have a means of storing it. Get the message to them, I gotta check up on the other squad rooms."

"Alright, I'll get them the info right away," the tech took another sip of caf and flicked on his comm, "Aurek squad, this is Dominion, details of what you have sent to us so far via the helmet feeds leads to a non-conclusive result, but appears non-sentient.  If possible, we need to procure a sample of that liquid, you copy that?"

OOC:

Your latest helmet feeds haven't been processed yet, so don't think that I don't care about the other stuff much

"Chaos take your kriffing liquid samples..." Dante muttered, as he removed a depleted clip from his rifle and let it drop to the floor. One of the enhanced Cleoggi, which Dante had dubbed "Cleoggi Majors", screamed a war-cry and charged. Half a dozen shots impacted against the commandeered and badly stretched light body armour the creature was wearing, which melted and began to drip off due to the heat. The creature's thick hide, however, was almost undamaged, and it attacked with a howl.

With its first swipe, two Imperials went flying. One went still, and his heart rate leaped wildly for a few seconds. None of the dots on Dante's HUD winked out though, which was something Dante was thankful for.

"Who gave the bastards body armour?" a trooper yelled.

Must have scavenged it off their first victims. I just hope it didn't come from another squad...

Pushing the thought from his mind, Dante opened fire and a volley of well aimed bolts began to impact on the closest alien. The creature howled with armour and shook its massive muzzle before leaping a meter through the air in the lowered gravity. Cursing, Dante backpedaled even as he emptied the rest of the clip into the creatures open mouth. The blaster bolts tore massive holes in the creature's less resistant jaw tissue, sending clouds of mucus and amber blood into the air.

As they slowly and gracefully drifted down, the creature dropped to one oversized knee, trying to snarl but failing due to the hole blasted right through its neck. Its jaw hung limply by a few shreds of its tough hide, and the stench from roasted flesh would have been unbearable if Dante could have smelled it. Despite its near decapitation, the Major was still very much capable of attacking. Emitting a low and drawn-out growl, it slashed viciously at the trooper, its long claws rendering the air.

Dante cursed as he felt the long claws draw thin lines in the layers of heavy armour, coming dangerously close to compromising his suit, and pumped the rest of his carbine clip into the Cleoggi. The monster staggered back for a brief moment then leaped forwards again, slurring a challenge as it did so.

This time, Dante decided engaging it in hand to hand combat would be suicidal with a damaged suit and only a few power cells left for his blaster. When it tried to attack again, Dante sidestepped and flattened himself against the cool stone wall. It missed, realized its mistake, and tried to turn. Swiftly, Dante shoved his E-11 carbine into the hole he had made in the alien's throat, pushed the barrel up slightly, and held down the trigger. The bright crimson energy bolts burned through the soft tissue that had been protected by the monster's thick, leathery skin and bounced off the inside of the creature's thick skull. Its hide smoking, the Cleoggi fell to its feet and, still writhing, succumbed to the last few shots in his clip. Dante kicked the corpse before pulling the depleted power cell from his weapon.

Nearby, the last of the Cleoggi Majors fell to the ground with its chest and right leg torn to shreds, tried to get up but was stilled by a humming blade.

Dante allowed himself a grin.

"Come on, let's find a sample and get the hell out of here." he heard Verkur say.

Roger that.

Dante had already started to move when he heard a loud thumping, followed by animalistic shrieks.

"Looks like the Cleoggi have other plans."

Who...who were these people? Arnaut looked around him, still a bit dazed. There were men around him, and maybe a woman or two. He couldn’t tell. They were all wearing white armor. So white... Why were they wearing armor? Arnaut reached up and realized he was wearing armor too. Maybe it was important. He tried to pull the helmet off and found that it was locked in place. Probably important, he decided.

The other people were moving now. There were beasts in front of them. They looked...angry. Someone was shouting something, but it didn’t make any sense to Arnaut. There were shots going off now. They were so loud. And bright. Just like the explosion. Explosion? The thought disappeared as soon as it arose.

Arnaut decided that he was supposed to be helping. Maybe he was part of the people’s group. They might realize that he wasn’t shooting, like them. So he started to fire his...his thing. He thought it might be a gun, but he didn’t know for sure. It was aggravating, not being able to remember. But he couldn’t let the others know that. They might be...be...be mad. That wouldn’t be good.

The beasts were attacking the people now.  They had a lot of teeth, Arnaut noticed. A lot of teeth. He was suddenly very afraid of them. They could...could...could hurt him. He raised his thing—no, gun, he reminded himself—and fired at the nearest one. It shrugged off the shots, starting to turn toward Arnaut. Arnaut stood where he was, in the middle of the hall, firing dumbly at the beast as it started to move toward him.

Around him, the other people were falling back, but Arnaut didn’t notice. His damaged mind was focused on the task at hand: keeping the beast from getting to him. He didn’t grasp the irony, that, by trying to keep the beast away from himself, Arnaut had actually drawn its attention. But it was too late now. The beast, still taking shots from Arnaut’s puny carbine, crouched back, powerful legs wound up, ready to spring. Arnaut fired on, oblivious.

Arnaut fired the last shot of his carbine and stared up at the beast as it came. He was scared, but not overly so, his simple mind not really comprehending what the beast was about to do. The thing lunged, huge legs pushing off the ground and propelling it through the air. A large object impacted Arnaut from the side and shoved him roughly to safety just as the beast came down.

Aeos and Arnaut tumbled through the hall and smashed into one of the walls in a jumbled heap. Aeos stood up just as soon, yelling at Arnaut while firing. The beast was still looking at the ground , confused, at where its prey should’ve been. Fire from the rest of the squad took its focus of Aeos and Arnaut allowing them some room to breathe.

Aeos was looking down at Arnaut now, yelling something. She was talking too fast; Arnaut couldn’t keep track of what she was saying. He said nothing.

“Arnaut?” Aeos said, for the first time some hint of worry entering her voice. “Arnaut? Arnaut!?” She waved her hand in front of Arnaut’s visor.

“H-hey! That’s...that’s...my...name!” Arnaut slurred thickly, sounding oddly pleased. “Who...are...are...you?”

“I’m Gunnery Sergeant Aeos,” she said slowly, “of the Vast Empire Stormtrooper...” Arnaut nodded dumbly, not comprehending. Aeos muttered something too low for Arnaut to hear, and shoved him back to the rest of the squad. She was yelling again, but not at Arnaut. Toward the other people, Arnaut assumed.

Arnaut wondered if she was mad with him. Maybe. He didn’t want her to be mad. He didn’t even know what he’d done. Everyone was still firing, so he figured he should too. Maybe she wouldn’t be mad at him anymore if he did. He raised his thin—gun again and began to fire. He noticed that two other people had moved up beside him, and kept throwing irritated glances at him. He moved a little to his right and they followed.

Arnaut wondered if they might be mad at him too.

Alan watched as Aeos talked to Arnaut, trying to remind him of who he was and giving him a run down of his weapon.  He watched and looked back down the passageway.  The fight with the Cleoggi and their beasts had been fierce and now Alan wanted to move, to get back to the surface.  Damn it, let’s move already he thought as he started to get impatient.

“Aeos, we don’t have time for this!” Alan called out to her as his hearing picked out the familiar cries of the Cleoggi gaining in volume.

“Now, stick to my back, okay” said Aeos to Arnaut.  Arnaut looked at her and merely nodded.

“Aeos, we have to go, now” said Alan.  He knew that staying in one place for too long was never a wise move.

“Alan’s right” commented Lucky, “we should get going”.

Aeos nodded and said “alright follow me and stay sharp”.

Alan didn’t need to be told that as his blaster had never been sheathed back in its holster since they had entered this cave.  Now all he wanted was to find the exit and get back to the surface.  More importantly, he hoped that this was the end of the Cleoggi Majors but he didn’t hold out that much hope.  He was sure that at some point their paths would cross again, he hoped that it wouldn’t be soon though.

The squad moved back down the passageway searching for a way out.  Alan was sure that by now they were lost and finding a way out was going to be a matter of luck.  They came to an intersection and Aeos decided to make a left.  Their wanderings soon led them into a large chamber.

The chamber was bathed in a deep red glow as all along the walls were red crystals.  Alan remembered back to when one had been dropped and the destructive force it had made.  He knew to stay well clear of them. 

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, several Cleoggi Majors appeared.  Damn where do they keep coming from thought Alan as he raised his blaster and prepared to fight, suddenly realising that a stray shot to one of the glowing red crystals could result in the entire chamber being blown to smithereens.  Guess we’ll just have to be accurate thought Alan as he aimed and fired.

Hallways. So many hallways. And it was so dark. Arnaut groped along, trying to find handholds in the dark, flailing his arms wildly until someone kindly, and slowly, explained to him how to turn on his IR filters. Now everything was green. So green. But he could see.

He felt so stupid. The other people had been able to see in the dark. They had seen him, flopping around. He felt so very stupid. Wasn’t he though? Angrily he tried to push down the thought. He wasn’t stupid he just...just...couldn’t remember. Since that one thing. The thing that had made him lose his memories. Eye-os—Arnaut thought that was her name, however odd—had tried to explain it to him but he’d forgotten.

The tunnels became darker and more cramped as they moved on. At first they were three across, then two, then finally single file. Arnaut was placed in the center. He wondered if that was on purpose. He didn’t like being a burden; he was fairly certain that’s what the people saw him as now.

He wished he could remember. He really did. He didn’t realize how much his memories meant to him until he couldn’t remember them. Which was a paradox, since Arnaut couldn’t remember not cherishing his memories when he had had them. Arnaut didn’t realize this, but instead sulked silently behind his oppressing visor.

Everything became oppressing. Oppressing visors. Oppressing people.  Oppressing walls. Oppressing slime sliding down the walls. Slime... Somewhere, in the deep reaches of Arnaut’s mind, in some fragment of memory left, he knew the slime was bad and that it...did something. It was bad, he was sure. Really bad.

“Slime...” he said, pointing at the walls. Everyone looked around, noticing it for the first time. There was a heated exchange of words, none of which Arnaut caught, but after a bit, they began to move on again. They were avoiding the walls a bit more. He had done something correctly. Memories or no, he could still be of use! He felt invigorated for a moment, and seemed to be on the verge of...of...something. Maybe remembering. But then the sensation faded, leaving Arnaut feeling even more depressed.

That’s what the sounds began. They were small, very distant at first. No one else seemed to notice, but Arnaut did. They were...odd, sucking noises, distant, and yet...It sounded as clear as anything Arnaut had heard. Which, considering he couldn’t remember anything, wasn’t a whole lot. They went in and out of focus, sometimes loud, sometimes very, very soft. Arnaut had a feeling that that was because of his mind, not the sounds themselves.

Still, it was at least five full minutes before anyone else in the noticed the noises. Or, at least, Arnaut thought they noticed. The stopped and exchanged words, glancing back down the hall where the noise was coming from. There was another exchange of words and then they picked up the pace. Arnaut followed, still not certain what was happening, only that it probably had something to do with the noise. As they jogged, the noise kept increasing in volume. It hurt Arnaut’s head. He wished it would stop.

As if on cue, the noise ceased. Everyone looked around confused. And then they started screaming and firing. Arnaut couldn’t ell what was happening. He thought about using his th-gun, but he didn’t know what he’d do with it. Shoot stuff. The answer floated up to the top of his consciousness. He shoved it aside. That was obvious. But what...

He noticed that he was being pulled down the hall. They were running again, and Arnaut still wasn’t sure why. Worse yet, the noise had started again, closer and much, much louder. Arnaut pushed the hand off and began to run too.

The noise became even louder, almost unbearable. Arnaut wanted to scream, wanted to roll over and die, wanted to...to...something. The fact that he couldn’t think of anything else aggravated him even more. He ran faster, spurred with anger.  He quickly surpassed the person in front of him, and quickly the rest of the squad.

They were yelling something. It sounded like his name. He didn’t listen. He just wanted to make it stop, make it all stop! He ran, faster, faster, faster, fa—He was falling. The sensation felt...surprisingly good, considering that he was probably about to fall to his death. Free. Uplifting. And, best of all, the rushing of the air cancelled out the suck—

He hit the water at full force, the screams of his squad members still echoing from far above. His world went black.

OOC:

I figure the sucking things are little slug like creatures that move quickly and excrete the corrosive slime, and travel in LARGE packs. But, hey, that's just my idea. Put in whatever you want. Oh, yeah, I fell out of the end of the tunnel, into a cave with a pool of "water" at the bottom. Just in case that wasn't clear.

Cleoggi swarmed the squad and everyone was soon in the thick of battle.  At least they aren't the mutated Cleoggi thought Alan as he brought his blaster to bear and fired off several shots.  Each shot impacting a Cleoggi's head neatly.

Soon the black thick liquid that the squad were standing in was littered with dead bodies.  Alan glanced round at his fellow comrades and was happy when he was able to confirm that all of them had survived the battle.

Alan started to look around and wonder whether anyone had managed to find a way out of this area when he heard a distinctive squelching noise.  He whipped his head around but could not find the source of the noise.  Soon everyone heard the noise and was searching frantically, weapons raised.

"Look, up there" said Lucky as she pointed upwards.

Alan's gaze went up to where Lucky was pointing and his mouth opened as he thought to himself you have got to be joking.  The hole that they had jumped through now had something else coming through, the slugs.  They started pouring through the hole, their bodies sticking to the walls and they slithered easily down them.

One of the slugs that had made it to the bottom did not seem interested in getting into the thick black liquid.  Instead it settled at the bottom and its body seemed to expand and contract.  What the devil thought Alan as he looked on, fascinated and curious as to what it was doing.

All of a sudden it propelled itself with intense velocity directly at Alan.  Its jaws open, displaying nasty jagged teeth.  Alan's quick reflexes found himself lying face down in the black liquid as the slug flew over his head.  Can this day get any worse pondered Alan as he struggled to get his head out of the liquid.

"Lucky, take point and Dante, bring up the rear. It’s about time we got the hell out of here."

I'll second that.

There was a beep as Dante let another power cell drop into the ooze at his feet. The mud swallowed the depleted clip with an unpleasant squelching noise, and sloshed under the boots of the troopers.

Metal scraped on metal as he pressed another power cell into the socket, and the aiming icon reappeared on Dante's HUD with a loud chime. Aiming data scrolled across his HUD as he moved the weapon and it changed to a pale green when it contacted a friendly sentient. A few more quick tests, and Dante was satisfied. Clicking off the safety, he followed the others, watching his motion sensor to make sure nothing tried to follow them. The last thing the squad needed was to be tackled from behind by half a dozen of the little slug-like bastards they had run from earlier.

They had run. Dante didn't like it, but he was a realist. There are porbably thousands of the things other than the few that followed us down, we were fighing on their terrain,  and the longer we waited the more likely it was that the Cleoggi would find us. For all we know, they somehow ordered their hideous little pets to attack us.

So they had run from a superior force, run to save their skins and the mission objective. It stuck in Dante's craw, but he knew they had no other choice.

Imperial Combat Handbook General Order 2-B3: When sacrificing one's life would be of no strategic value, do not do so. When a retreat would benefit the Empire more than a last stand, do not engage.

With that advice in mind, Dante scanned the area for any signs of movement.

Nothing. Wait what's that?

"Contact!" Aeos yelled and the whine of multiple blaster rifles filled the chamber, echoing through the deserted passages. There was a howl as a Cleoggi fell to the ground, trying to hold its insides inside its burned and blackened chest cavity. It succeeded, only to have its head blown away by another volley. Another Cleoggi rounded the corner, its jaw hanging slightly open, and emitted a primal snarl upon seeing the smoking corpse and the bloodstains on the floor. Screaming a warcry, the creature quickly withdrew a long durasteel pole from a back mounted pouch. In the surprisingly malleable claws of the Major, the pole spun as though it was made from light alloy, and the air whistled as it was split. Lunging, the creature brought the pole down with enough force to deform the reinforced metal.

Blaster fire pummeled the alien from all sides, melting away the badly fitted set of armour it wore and leaving massive burns in the creature's flesh, but it fought on. Dante was firing with the others, having retrieved several of Arnaut's power cells from where they had dropped when the amnesiac officer had jumped. A lucky shot burned through the stolen belt pouch the beast was wearing, melting plastoid and hitting one of the orange crystals that the alien had placed inside. The subsequent string of explosions tore the alien in two, with shrapnel going straight the monstrosity. As torso and legs fell to the ground with two wet thumps, howls from dozens of other Cleoggi echoed through the tunnel complex. Incredibly, the dying Major still had enough life in it to attempt to return the call and even tried to get up and continue fighting.

"I don't think so." Verkur calmly stated, before placing his carbine between the creature's dislocated jaws and pumping fire into the creature. It writhed under the relentless barrage and finally fell still.

How much firepower does it take to put these bastards down for good?

There was an unpleasant, liquid-like sound and Dante whirled around to see a full dozen of the slugs from earlier oozing towards them.

"Damn it, theses things never learn!"

He burned their slime-covered hides with precision fire, only to watch as another group crawled right over the burning corpses. At the same time, a feral growl from behind him, followed by blaster fire, told him the others had more pressing issues.

"Looks like we can't run this time."

We're literally caught between a rock and a hard place...

Darkness. The world was darkness. Arnaut drifted lazily through the darkness. He was blind, deaf, and dumb, and so the darkness was fitting. He couldn’t feel anything. Of course, there wasn’t anything to feel. He couldn’t move at all, for the most part. Of course, there wasn’t exactly anywhere to move to. So he drifted, lost in an infinity of darkness. Maybe this is what death feels like, he wondered. In the extreme silence, his thoughts sounded like artillery going off in his head, even at a whisper.

He cringed and continued his floating, not thinking either. After an amount of time had passed—it could’ve been seconds or years, as far as Arnaut could tell—a new sensation began to grow. Suddenly, he could feel. His limbs started to ache. There was a terrible pain in his head.  He tried to scream and found himself still mute. The pain passed into his ears, threatening to split his head wide open. It hurt. It hurt so much. As he thrashed in his silent agony, slowly, the darkness began to collapse. Arnaut kicked out and suddenly he was face up on the ground.

Arnaut bellied his way through the mayhem. Blaster bolts flew everywhere, accounting for the ear-splitting headache Arnaut had. Stones were being hurled to, causing Arnaut’s squadmates to duck every now and then. They were surrounded and outnumbered, and, even worse, were out in the sun for too long a time. They needed to get back underground or to a shuttle soon.  Since the latter wasn’t available, it looked like they were doing the former. Not a happy thought.

Arnaut went largely unnoticed, crawling on the ground as he was. Ever since Marka had dropped him to the ground roughly and the fighting had began, it seemed everyone had forgotten about him. It had been a painful landing. It had woken Arnaut up, though, and for that he was thankful. He would still have to talk to Marka about that though, it was—he stopped. Marka. Sergeant Marka, whom Arnaut had served with briefly during a mission to put down an insurgency on Lotaith. Marka, age twenty-three, a pretty decent swordsman, a soldier in the Vast Imperial Stormtrooper Corps. He slowly looked around, noticing the other people as if for the first time. Gunnery Sergeant Aeos, Lance Corporal Dante, Lance Corporal Jinx...

He could remember. It felt good. Quickly he called up some more distant memories and did a brief synopsis of his life in his head, oblivious to the battle around him. He was still vague about some parts, and most of his early childhood was...was...somewhere. He might’ve lived on Tatooine, but he wasn’t sure. The main point was that he could remember at all.

He pulled himself up into a crouching position, hoping to minimize his target, and therefore threat, to the cleoggi that were attacking. His carbine was still with him, but he was left with only two of the ten or so he’d had before the explosion. The squad must’ve been running low, Arnaut thought, though that didn’t make him any happier. He checked the clip in his rifle and found that it was nearly empty. About a dozen shots, at best. He made them count.

Sitting, crouched on the ground, Arnaut pushed himself into a more comfortable firing position and began to pick off targets. He had the two benefits of not only being surrounded by Imperials who would, more than likely, screen him from most of the cleoggi’s view, but also that the cleoggi weren’t expecting shots to come from so low. Arnaut’s first few shots merely singed the fur of a few cleoggi, but, quickly, he readjusted himself and worked on firing again. It felt like ages since he’d fired a gun.

He shot again, this time turning a cleoggi’s eye into a mush of exploded meat and tissue. The creature screamed blindly and was cut down by more Imperial fire. Arnaut took aim and fired again. His shot left a nasty hole in the throat of a cleoggi, enough to kill any other creature. The cleoggi merely gave a hoarse, half-roar, and charged. A second well-aimed shot blew out the back of his skull and dropped his body to the ground.

It was like the firing range. Simple, accurate shots, fired calmly, were bringing down a fair amount of the cleoggi. He could easily fell one in two to three shots, even if it did take a bit longer than spraying them with half a clip. Arnaut had the benefit of not being actively attacked that made it easy to choose the better targets: ones with jaws open, just inviting a shot, ones with their heads turned, providing a more deadly angle on the head. He lost count somewhere around fourteen or so.

By that time, the numbers of cleoggi had become to great. They couldn’t stay where they were. Hurriedly, they began to form up closer together, ready to make a dash for it. To where, they still weren’t sure. But they had to keep moving.

Marka turned back to where he’d dropped Arnaut only to find him kneeled on the ground, carefully aiming his carbine.

“Arnaut?” he asked tentatively.

“Shh.” Arnaut said. He let out three shots in rapid succession, dropping two more cleoggi.

“Alright,” Arnaut said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

“You—”

“Yes, I’m back. I can fire a gun at least, and I know basically who I am.”

“Bu—”

“Yeah, some memories are still missing. Let’s get moving.” Arnaut was already huddling into the pack of Imperial soldiers, leaving Marka standing, confused, behind him. Finally he moved into the fold.

They stood, back to back, a tight knot of soldiers, guns pointed outward. The cleoggi stared at them, wondering what to do. Both sides had stopped firing and attacking. They stood, gazing at each other for a long moment.

“There’s a stone outcropping about half a mile from here, everyone see it?” Aeos asked quietly. There were murmurs of ‘yes’. “Make for it as fast as you can. Don’t slow for anything. If you have to, fire a few shots back to dishearten them, but don’t stop ‘till you’ve reached the stones.” Everyone nodded, still staring at the cleoggi surrounding them.

“Alright...go!”

The Imperials took off. Behind them the cleoggi began hooting and howling, in mad fits of rage, before setting after them. Arnaut turned around, firing shots blindly at roughly cleoggi head-height. His carbine ran out of shots halfway through, and he slammed in his last clip, sprinting the last stretch to the stones.

Quietly he hoped they would find more ammo or weapons soon. If his clip didn’t last him the rest of the mission, he didn’t know how he was making it out alive.

OOC:

Not my best post, especially since it was written in fits and starts over the better part of five hours (yes, I kept jumping in and out). We’re at a small stone ‘outcropping’, basically a bunch of jutting stones and boulders providing some semblance of cover—and shade—from the cleoggi and sun. There’s probably a cleoggi tunnel at the stones, which could allow us to get off the surface and away from most of the beasts, at least for a while. Just my two cents.

The squad scrambled quickly through the passage in the only direction they could go: down. It was a steep decline, screaming out for caution, but not one of the Aurek members took heed of it. Salvation was above them, past an enraged pack of Cleoggi, a hair out of reach, it seemed. The situation was becoming increasingly difficult, having tried time and time again to get out of the tunnels only to be forced back into them. They’d been free, and then had that freedom snatched away by the ferocity of the local life. These creatures were relentless in their hostility, forsaking diplomacy for violence. But then, they’d not been given a chance to begin with. First contact with these beasts turned bloody within the very first moments.

Time wore on, and the passage didn’t stray its course. Down it continued, leading the squad further and further from whatever hope of survival the surface had promised. Every once in a while it would turn one way, or curve another, but it always continued down. It became narrower, and when the first Cleoggi came bounding at them head on, the squad had little choice but to let the trooper on point dispatch the enemy.
  Jinx fired a few rounds into the beast’s skull, causing it to jerk backwards and tumble to its knees, sending broken earth scattering across Jinx’s boots. Not that it could be distinguished from the copious amount of dirt and dried liquid and blood already coating each trooper’s suit. They were filthy, and their originally white armour was now, for the most part, stained a sort of red-black colour.

The attacks continued, the Cleoggi charging into the squad one-by-one, falling in the same order. But Jinx couldn’t hold them off forever; ammo was running short. As his carbine clicked out, Jinx dropped to his knees, allowing the next soldier, Aeos, to fire. It was the only tactic they had.

“Aurek squad,” grumbled a voice over the comm, “this is the ISD Dominion. Your evac will be there in six hours. Same spot as you were dropped. Be ready.”

In a moment, the entire squad was overwhelmed with emotion. First was hope, and then despair. Extraction was on its way, but there was a good chance that it would take longer than six hours to find a way out of the winding, brutal labyrinth. Nevertheless, the troops were spurred on, now hastened by a definite deadline. And it was quite literally that. It was get there on time, or be left to die. A death at the hands of these beasts didn’t seem like a particularly merciful way to die.

After Jinx’s second round of firing, the Cleoggi ceased their assault, the passage now littered with bloody corpses. It was an effort for the troops of Aurek squad to wade through the piles, and did little for their general cleanliness or the amount of room in which they could move.

The passage wound on further, presenting no sign of Cleoggi resistance, until it came to an almost symmetrical fork; a passage left, and a passage right, both winding out of sight. The good part was, they were level. The bad part was, either one had the potential to send them even deeper into the hive of the Cleoggi. It came down to choice, and as Marka thumbed the hilt of his vibroblade, he felt the weight of the decision radiate through the squad.

Here’s to hoping we get it right...

OOC:

Not my best, but I'm sick and finding it hard to concentrate. The six hour deadline doesn't have to be rushed, we have plenty of time until the comp ends, I just wanted to put some form of end in sight. Sort of.

The spiders were annoying. Arnaut would give them that. As soon as you thought you had a shot, they’d jump to another part of the chamber, higher up and, usually, at a worse angle. They were hopping all over the place, and the Imperials had long since stopped firing at them. Only when they got close did a hail of shots break through their exoskeletons and leave them a dark smear along the rock.

Slowly, hesitantly, the Imperials began to walk toward the nearest exit. The spiders seemed to be consumed with jumping more than the soldiers below them. It wasn’t until the troopers were within five feet of the exit that the spiders made their attack.

There was a horrible screech, and suddenly, for a brief moment, the spiders stopped, all eyes staring at the troopers. And then they lunged, twenty or so of them, bounding straight at the group of rad-troopers.

“Vibroblades, out! Troopers with rifles to the back, vibroblade wielders to the front.” The Imperial troopers did as Aeos ordered, quickly reshuffling their group. Arnaut ended up in the second group, behind a wall consisting of Alan, Marka, and Lucky, all who had their vibro-weapons out. Before any more orders could be given, the spiders were upon them.

Arnaut shot the first one of the sky as it pounced. It’s head blew open in a spray of purple-black liquid. It slid to a halt on the ground and was quickly replaced by three more. Marka was fighting now, his sword a blur of metal, hacking off limbs  and slicing open exoskeletons wherever he moved. Lucky and Alan soon joined him, knives flashing out, if a bit less gracefully, just as deadly.

Arnaut fired, only one shot at a time. His power cell was at about fifty shots left, a little over half of the cell. He knew, though, that with the radiation wearing down on the cell, that number was likely to go down quite a bit faster.

The spiders weren’t too hard, all said and done. If they didn’t make it close enough to you, they weren’t really a threat. Up close...that was a different matter. Their pincers were as hard as durasteel, or so it seemed. They nearly chopped Marka’s blade in half, and left Lucky and Alan with quite a few gashes on their armor. Soon, though, the Imperials were the only ones left standing in the room.

“Let’s move. Lucky, Alan, and Marka, stay in front. And conserve your shots; I know everyone’s low.”

They moved out, the three without ammo in front and everyone else tailing them. The halls were less straight now, seeming to wind at random, taking unexpected turns and spinning around aimlessly. There were far fewer signs of cleoggi. Every now and then, they’d hear a howl in the distance, but aside from that...

Thirty minutes after the spiders, the squad met another group of cleoggi. The soldiers readjusted their weapons, ready for the inevitable. It came as a major shock, then, when the cleoggi ran. It was a sight that the Imperials hadn’t seen since landing on the forsaken planet. Maybe it had been the battle with the cleoggi, or maybe it had started with the crystal explosion; regardless, it was obvious that the cleoggi were beginning, at least slightly, to fear them. It was wonderful, and yet...now capturing them would be all the harder, it seemed, with all the cleoggi fleeing from them. And their six hours were running out fast. Arnaut glanced at the timer he’d set in his HUD. 5:17:21 and falling fast, it read.

Arnaut urged them on. At that rate, they weren’t going to make it out of the tunnels in time. The group of cleoggi were their best bet for ever capturing one. They followed the way the cleoggi had ran, all the way up until the city.

The squad didn’t recognize what it was at first. In fact, it was hard just to recognize any details at first, overwhelmed as they were with the immensity of the cave they had entered. Large was an understatement. It must’ve been at least fifty or sixty stories tall and just as wide in every direction, keeping with the same circular style that all the rooms had.

They appeared near the middle of the wall, standing on a roughly hewed ramp in the stone that led into the interior of the “city”. The city proper was a large jumble of interconnected bridges, overlapping and jumbled, sprawling throughout the room. On the sides, rooms had been carved out, supposedly by the slugs, and were, as far as any of the squad could tell, used as living compartments. It made sense, now. The tunnels were just for easy movement under the surface of the planet. This was where the cleoggi actually ended up, at the end of the day. To store food. To...live. If there was no other proof of some sentience, that chamber proved it.

On the bridges themselves, rudimentary tents were fashioned out of bone and hides. They looked to be cleoggi hides, making Arnaut wonder if the cleoggi had inter-tribal wars. It seemed likely, considering how aggressive they seemed.

Blue-white crystals illuminated the entire room and the same waterfalls that they had seen before jutted out of various points in the walls. The bottom of the cave was one giant pool of the liquid, sloshing gently against the sides of the lowest bridges. The whole room felt...comforting. Homely.

There were cleoggi down in the cave, they could see now. Quite a few, actually, including small ones Arnaut supposed were children. Arnaut silently clicked the helmet cam a few times, taking picts of various parts of the room, just in case their helmet feeds didn’t make it back to the ISD.

Someone whistled from the back of the group, summing up what they all basically felt.

“Well, we might as well take a stroll on in. Let’s stick to the outsides and try to snag a straggler,” Aeos said.

“I’ll leave an IR beacon on this doorway, so, if need be, we can find our way back,” Arnaut said, already pulling off the adhesive cover and sticking the small black box next to the opening.

“We all ready?” There were nods. “Let’s go. And try not to cause a commotion, if you could. I don’t think we could take the whole city ourselves.”

OOC:

Alright, let’s just snag one and get out. Preferably right ahead of a large pack of angry cleoggi. And try not to cause too much trouble. There’s a city of cleoggi down there. Basically, the city is here so we can have a bit more room to operate, rather than staying in the claustrophobic tunnels that have become so dear to us in this story. Enjoy!

Oh, and P.S. No more introducing new creatures!

OOC:

Dante: Aeos says check your post because it has been edited.
Lucky and Marka: I was told to ignore your posts by Aeos, and continue from where Dante left off.

Verk sighed as the running continued. He quickly glanced from the tunnel ahead to the countdown timer to the right on his HUD. 3:41:22 and falling. Another sigh passed from his mouth. Still the running continued as the squad looked for an exit. On and on, left then right then left again. The dark winding tunnels seemed to go on forever. Verkur began to wonder if they would make it in time. He shook his head, quickly dismissing the thought. Of course we are going to get out of here....I hope.

And so the running continued, and then, they stopped. All could hear the sounds, and all dreaded them even more. Verkur checked his rifle. Half empty and only one clip left of the several or so he had brought. Each member of Aurek went throgh the routine motion of checking and preparing themselves for the upcoming battle. Verkur watched from behind Lucky as Marka cocked his head to the side.

"Whats up Marka?" Verkur asked over the comm link.
"The noises. There... different." He said hesitantly.
"How so? They sound the same to me." Aeos commented.
"They are.. but there calmer, a bit more relaxed. Its like they dont know that were here." Marka explained.
"If thats true, then we might be able to use that to our advantage. This might be our last chance to bag on eof these bastards. So lets do it quickly and as quietly as possible, and then get the hell out of here." Alan said over the comm link with great pleasure.

Nods of agreement rippled through the squad like a stone hitting a calm lake. Once the plan was set, the squad moved out, tracking the sounds of the Cleoggi. After several minutes of sneaking, Aurek finally found them. The Cleoggi were huddled together, sitting on the floor. They seemed to be resting.

"This is our chance, while they still dont know where we are. Do it quietly, so everyone use your melle weapons." Aeos commanded quietly over the comm, even though no one would have heard her outisde of her helmet.

The members of Aurek began to make the switch from their rifles to their knives and vibroblades. Verkur gladly switched from his rifle to the twin ryyk blades attached to his back.

"So heres the plan. Marka, Verkur and Alan. You three will attack silently from behind. The rest of us will follow behind and keep the dead ones dead, and any that might follow off your backs...." Aeos began as he gave out orders. "...Be sure to leave one alive, but wounded so we can complete our mission. Once we have the beast, switch back to your rifles. We'll use whatever we can to bind it, and carry it to the surface." Aeos finished up.
"We also need to keeps its mouth shut so it dosent call its friends." Alan added in, checking the blades attached to his gloves.

Verkur and Marka nodded. The three members of Aurek turned and headed up to the Cleoggi quickly and quitely. From their position, they could see that the beast were a bit spread out, giving themselves room to relax. The Cleoggi farthest back had no idea what hit it from the darkness to its back.

Marak launched himself forward, grabing the first one around its mouth, and slipping his blade through back of its neck, killing it instantly. Next up was Alan. Doing the same motion, but instead, punching his right hand into the back of its skull, turning its brain to mush. Marak took another as Verkur moved up to take his first kill. He used a trick he had used many times before. He turned the ryyk blade in his right hand, so that the tip, and curve of the blade face out, and away from him, instead of under his arm. He came up fast and silent, hitting the Cleoggi in the base of its skull, forcing the point into its spine, throught the base of its skull and out the top. He then brought the second blade around, slicing the beast neck, silencing it forever.

Verkur, Alan and Marka quickly and easily made their way through the group of resting creatures without being noticed, until all but one was left. All three stodd behind the creature, looking at the back of its skull, the rest or Aurek coming up being them, making their way over the dead. Verkur lifted his foot to the hieght of the creatures head, then kicked it in the temple, knocking it out cold. The move brought a chuckle from Marka and Alan.

"Nice work you three." Dante said coming to stand next to Verkur.
"It was nice that we could kill them quick and not ave to deal with more coming soon after." Lucky said, happy that the beasts lay dead at her feet.
"So, lest get the thing bagged and get out of here." Jinx said, annoyed that they still had not gotten to the surface.

Aeos nodded. Her and Arbaut began to bind the beast, tying his hands behind its back, and wrapping several cords around its mouth to keep it quiet. Finally they bound its legs.

"Alright. Jinx, Verkur. You two carry this damned thing. Stay between the rest of us." Aeos ordered, a hint of relief in her voice.

Verkur and Jinx lifted the beast off the ground as the rest of Aurek squad moved into position around them.

"Lets move out. We should head to the outpost that we had gotten that distress beacon from. We might be able to find some ammo for the last leg of this mission." Arnaut said.

The group was relieved to finally be getting off this damn planet. So the running began once again through the dark halls. Aeos led squad through the halls, following the course that kept them going in the direction of the outpost. Each time the bound cleoggi moved, Verkur gave it a rap on its temple to quickly put it back to sleep. After a good fifteen minutes of running, and tracking, they finally came to an opening. The squad moved slowly from the tunnels, glad to be out from under the planets crust. To the left the squad could see the sun setting in the distance. However, none of them were looking in that direction. Instead they were all looking straight ahead. Right at the smoking remians of the outpost. One thought was running through all their heads.

Please let there be something left.

“Ow….”
“You’re such a baby chief,” Marka muttered when the Jesters were finally alone. Verkur and Marka was currently at this moment assisting their squad leader sitting down on the bunk.  She sustained no major injuries, but seems to have ignored any muscles she pulled or torn and right now it was all crashing back at her.

Verkur only chuckled at the younger female, her position now out of the window. She was a kid in so many ways.  Jinx remained at the door, lingering about, slightly uncertain.
“I’m going to look for an drink, we’re gonna get hogged once this trip is done, “ he muttered before disappearing from the door frame.
Aeos fell back to the pillow underneath her as gently as her sore body limited her to.
“That was a blast,” she muttered, her eyes glistening with child-like wonder.
Marka only shook his head, pushing her down when she tried to sit-up again.
“I’m need to head off, Arn is still MIA on the ship, Verk, make sure she stick to this bunk?”
The private smirked,
“No problem with that Marka, I feel like nodding of myself,” he muttered in reply while patting the nasty bruise on his one arm gently.
Aeos sighed, smiling contently while she kept her eyes on the ceiling.
“Verk…do you think we died?”
The private who was in the process of sitting down after Marka left, looked at her quizled.
“No, Aeos, why you ask?”
“Because I think I’m in heaven,” she muttered softly, her words slurring slightly as the light dose of painkiller finally circulated her bloodstream before it started taking effect. Verkur’s chuckle fell on death ears, the thought of the peaceful darkness  an much welcoming though to process.