A Hostile Invasion

[Jack Starbuck]

Jack stood facing the center of the doorway, while Charles got to the side of hit. The next crawler to come in Charles unloaded his FC-1 flechette launcher onto the crawler instantly throwing it to the side. While Charles was taking care of the one, another came in. Jack grabbed his blaster and fired 2 shots into the crawler, when it came close enough he rolled to the side coming up with a jab to the side, then a slash taking out one of the crawlers leg. The Crawler squirmed hitting Jack to the side, he used the momentum to roll back up to his feet and then stabbed the crawler on the top of his skull. It still squirmed. "Blast it! whey are these things so hard to kriffing kill!" he put his blaster parallel to the sword and fired five shots into the crawlers skull, finally making it go limp.
Jack looked up to Charles near his dead crawler who gave him a thumbs up. Suddenly a web shot out and wrapped itself around Charles. It was so thick his scream was muted, as he was dragged outside "No!" Jack brought out his sniper rifle and aimed. He fired and hit the source, and it let go. He was about to go outside to get him until he saw 3 more crawlers jump on Charles. Jack hid back in the compound. "Blast it Charles, I'm sorry." The only place he could go was down. He closed the door, stepped over the rubble and went down back the way he came.

[Xeones]

Xeones had wasted his explosives on saving the team from the wookies, mabye there was something in the coffins he could use. As he was searching through them the loss of his Lt. finaly hit him. No, not now he cursed he had to stay sharp. He pushed the thought away forcing his mind on the task at hand. He realized that he was not really mad at Jack, the stress of the mission had just got to him and he almost snapped. Who knows what would have happened if those spiders didn't show up. There were no explosives down here, only rifles and blasters. Xeones re examined the door. It was a massive 15ft. tall made out of wood. It was too sturdy too break down by himself. He was going to need help. Xeones started to worry for the first time in his life. He didn't know where he was, what the kark he was even doing. He would have never imagined leaving a squad before. But, things just seemed different ever since his Lt. died. He no longer felt the same loyalty to the empire. Something was off. Here he was all alone trapped in a dark room with a bunch of dead bodies. The situation had become FUBAR.

[Bardok]

Titus peered through the thick vegetation that comprised of his hiding place. For conventional reasons he had removed his cloak and was adorned in his own customized battle armor. From the prone he watched as the group of three wookies conversed quietly amongst themselves. From what Titus could see, they were standing around a corpse, and occasionally one would make a gesture towards it.
The wookies were in a small clearing of tall grass, the diameter of which was around twenty five meters across. Directly across the clearing from Titus, behind the wookies was a massive cliff face. It's surface was mostly flat and void of outcroppings to grip should someone wish to climb its face. The troops would surround the wookies, and force them against the rock, blocking any and all escape.
" My lord," the trooper next to him, Dessel, or Des as his fellow soldiers called him, said, " the walkers are in position my lord, and are waiting for your order."
" Very well. The time to strike is now. And remember seargent, the wookie must be captured alive," Titus said in his deep, threatening voice.
" Yes my lord." The Sgt. gave the green light to the squad.
Titus watched as three red bolts exited the treeline and strike the wookie. Two rounds struck his head, the third impacted his shoulder sending him spinning before he collapsed to the ground dead. Simultaneously two different rounds struck the smallest of the two remaining wookies, one hitting the chest dead center and the other contacting and the other contacting the back of the head. He fell face first to the ground.
The troopers emerged from the trees, yelling at the remaining wookie. He roared and waved his bow around but did not fire. The gloom walkers pressed in closer, forcing the wookie further back. Titus rose to one knee, still in the concealment of the bushes, a cruel smile beginning to play across his face. He watched as the wookies back pressed against the rock. He was trapped and he knew it.
Suddenly, Titus smile desappeared. A cold chill ran down his spine, and his adrenaline began to pump. He sensed, to his great astonishment, a great mass of darkside energy suddenly sparng into his awareness. After a few seconds it grew closer, and then the ground began to tremble. Titus knew it was coming directly for them.
The wookie looked off to it's right and a massive beast crashed throuhg the trees into the opening.
The terentatek charged forward grabbed the nearest trooper with one massive clawed hand, and put the soldier in it's huge jaws headfirst. With one bite, it's sharp fangs severed the trooper's torso at headfirst. With one bite, it's sharp fangs severd the trooper's torso at the waist, through the hardened armor and the soft muscular flesh beneath it. It dropped the still twitching legs and spit out the half chewed torso and barreled forward. The creature was already upoon the next trooper before the man could turn to face the threat.
With one swipe of it's huge muscular arm the beast slammed the the soldier into the trunk of a tree. there was a sickening series of of crunching and snapping as the trooper's armor and bones were crushed beneath the force of the blow. When the creature removed it's arm, the flattened trooper remain embedded in the side of the tree. The remaining three gloom walkers had finally turned and brought their weapons to bear on this new threat, and they opened fire.
But the creature ignored them and instead turned it's massive, horn-crested head toward the trapped wookie. It roared again, and Titus knew now was the time to act; he could not afford to let this wookie die. It meant two days of marching bacck to the LZ, at least a day to restock and recoup, and then days more marching and sneaking to find another wookie. That was if he himself survived this.
The terentatek ran ran at the wookie who had nowhere to go, his back blocked by the cliff face. Titus called upon the force, and with it he laucnhed himself high into the air. At the climax of his ascent he drew his light saber and activated it, intending to drive it down through the beast's skull. But something was off. The creature had stopped in mid-charge, and gazed up at Titus. This caused Titus to overshoot his target, and he landed lightly on the jungle floor in a crouch, between the terentatek and the wookie. This at least would focus the creature's attention on Titus.
The gloomwalker's ceased fire to avoid a strong round hitting their general.
For a moment nothing moved.Titus watched as the beasts black eyes widened , watched it's nostrils expand and contract. It drooled profusely, and Titus knew why.
Terentateks were bred by the ancient sith masters of the darkside. They had been born of the darkside's powerful, destructive energies, and were bred for one purpose: they feasted on the blodd of any and all force sensitive beings. They had been unleashed upon the jedi. They were resistent to most force based attacks, and so were particularly hard to kill. And this one, Titus knew, was drunk with the smell of his own blood, the blood of a dark lord.
Titus crouched lower, his lightsaber held in front of him. He bared his own fangs and growled at the monsterous beast. Titus was unafraid, rather angry. He let it build and called upon the darkside. In response to his challenge, the terentatek growled and bared his own fangs, preparing for the attack.

[Jack Starbuck]

Jack found ran into the Casket room to see Xeones standing by a door with his head down. He looked down at the weapon cache then walked up to Xeones. He could see the pain on his face, it was very much the pain he could feel in himself. He reached down and picked up his helmet and held it out to him. In the most apologetic voice he could muster "I'm sorry about all this." He met Xeones eye to eye. "But right now lets just focus on getting out alive and getting this mission done so we can go home and honor our dead." Jack held up his blaster and fired a couple of shots into the door "Now help me get this damned door out of the way"

[Xeones]

Xeones knew the Captain was right. He grabbed his helmet and got to work. "I tried blasting the hinges off already but it won't budge, theres something special about this door. I'm all out of explosives and those damned spiders are going to figure out that were not coming back up. Any ideas Captain?"

[Jack Starbuck]

"Right" Jack looked around to see the caskets with the weapons inside, he reached in and pulled out a chaingun and handed it to Xeones. "Charles had a set of explosives on him, unfortunately the crawlers got to him, but if we have enough firepower maybe we can get what we can off of his body." He then swapped his own sniper rifle for the the proton carbine and then pulled out a missile launcher. "This should do the trick" They both ran up to the door where Charles was last pulled out, when he motioned for them to stop. Jack peered around to see a couple of the spiders still around but most importantly Charles carcass was in between the compound and the tree-line. "Alright buddy, your gonna have to go get to him, I'll provide you cover fire with this" He motioned to the missile launcher. "Unless you want me to do it instead." He winked then turned to face the door again. He lined up the sights with one of the crawlers and fired. The missile when straight into the abdomen, exploding the spider into chunks of bone and blood. "Go Xeones! go now!"

[Xeones]

For the second time that day Xeones ran faster than he had ever before. He did not want to imagine what would happen if the spiders got to him but he pulled out his knife just in case. He was quicker with it than a vibroblade so he trusted it more. Xeones slid feet first into where the body was, grabbing the vest full of explosives. Just as he was about to leave the body called out to him. "Jack, is that you?" It struggled to speak, mangled and suffocated by the spiders. What a karking day thought Xeones.
"CAPTAIN!," shouted Xeones. "You'd better get over here."

[Jack Starbuck]

"Damn, what could it be now" Jack loaded another missile into the launcher then fired it at the nearest crawler blowing it to pieces. He slung the launcher on his back, raised his proton carbine then charged forward. Another crawler came out of the bush and came toward him. roaring his lungs out, Jack unloaded an entire mag before the spider began to slow down, to finish it off Jack pulled out the short-sword jumped on its back and took it down with a final stab. The area was clear for now. He ran over to Xeones to see Charles still alive. "Ca-cap-captain" 'Oh no' Jack had a horrified look on his face, but because of his helmet it wasn't visible. He looked up to Xeones "Come on, we can't leave him here." He picked up his fellow soldier and ran as fast as he could to the entrance. Once they got inside Jack slammed the door shut, then proceeded to the door. Jack took the explosives off of Charles and handed them to Xeones "Hurry up and get these primed we can't stay here for long." He then laid Charles down to rest and he gave him some of his mineral water then a shot of Bacta. "Your gonna make out of here buddy just wait." Jack took off his helmet to see his comrade eye to eye. Charles gave chuckle which came out to be a cough "I would hope so Captain, but in case I can't pull through-"
"Shut up! don't talk like that soldier, your going to make it."
"I need you to be the one to tell my family that I really did love them, even though I never showed it at times."
Jack was quite, Charles was becoming borderline delirious, so he figured he would listen to his last words. Jack only had minor training in first aid, and unfortunately Charles was the medic and unable to help himself, it was only a matter of time before Charles was gone. Charles took off a locket around his neck.
"Please, to my sister"
Jack took the locket and held it to his breast. "Anything for you buddy" They were talking in a whispered tone now
"I never wanted to join the empire, it was either this, or my family and I would be shipped to Oovo IV."
"You and me both buddy" Jack gripped Charles hand
"Jack...pro. *cough* promise me you won't let the empire take over your life"
Jack was silent
"prom..........i....se" Jack felt Charles hand go limp
"Charles!" He was gone, Jack bowed his head.
"I'm sorry Charles, I can't make that kind of a promise......I'm sorry." He picked up Charles and place him in one of the empty caskets 'If he didn't want to be buried as an imperial then Jack would grant that wish, but he would be buried as a soldier.' He pulled the sledge over the casket and placed Charles' helmet on the top. He gave a final salute, then turned to see Xeones had the charges set and ready. Jack took a deep breath, "Ok" Xeones gave him the detonator "1...2...3" *click, BOOM!* the door flew out into the open Kashyyyk wilderness. 'this was the way out' Both of them ran out of the room and into the tree-line to cover. The area was clear. When they were fully concealed Jack crawled over to Xeones. "Alright, this may not be much but I have a hunch the temple might be in the south sector." He paused to make sure Xeones understood "When we were getting extracted last time I saw a stone structure that did not seem like a natural formation, I suggest we head there."
Jack slammed a fresh magazine into the proton carbine and started heading toward the last place he remembered seeing the structure.

[Bardok]

The giant beast growled deep in its chest, its large teeth bare and its drool pooling at the ground. Titus stood poised, ready for the imminent attack. His lightsaber thrummed a dull lazy noise. The troopers behind the beast stepped tentatively forward, their rifles raised at the beast. Titus shook his head every so slightly, warning them to stay back. He cared not for their lives, he only needed them alive to take the wookie captive.
That moment of distraction was all the beast needed. It charged and Titus barely managed to roll to the left. He didnt stop to turn to face the beast however; he completed his roll and ran as fast as he could make his legs move. He didnt need to look. He could hear the beast's thunderous foot steps, could almost feel its warm, horrid breath on the back of his exposed neck. He had to figure out how to lead the beast far enough away too lose it among the jungle trees.

[Bardok]

The great beast roared a mighty bellow. As it chased the small two legged creature, it knocked aside trees, kicked up boulders and snapped at low hanging branches. It was drunk with the smell of its prey. Soon it would feast on its flesh.....

[Jack Starbuck]

Jack and Xeones walked for a while without saying anything to the other, he was tired. Jack saw a blip on his motion tracker. "Hold, I'm picking something up on my scanner....... something big." He kept his head in a swivel, just then he heard the ground move. He looked over the Xeones to hear a roar from the trees. He turned to see a black figure running frantically through the woods being followed by a giant creature "What the hell?" The beast stomped near Jack, with the shear force of its stomp Jack was airborne. He landed with a hard thud, only to look up at the beast luring above staring at him with the most hunger-full intent. Jack went into action with no intention of waiting. He reloaded the launcher faster than he has ever done before, took quick aim and fired. the missile flew into one of the monsters tusks blowing it off but it only appeared to make the monster that much more angry. "Oh........kriff!" Jack sprinted to the cover of a nearby tree to turn around and fire 10 shots from his carbine into the beast, it didn't even flinch. The beast stepped forward and slashed the tree down, Jack was able to roll out of the way of the falling log. As he got up he primed a thermal detonator. "Xeones! deploy grenades! now!" as he said this he flung his own onto the beast. Before it went off he turned around and ran looking for more cover.

[Bardok]

Titus looked back over his shoulder. The terentatek had stopped following him. Just beyond the treeline behind him he heard an explosion, followed by the beast's angry roar. Titus ran straight at the sound of gunfire. He halted just at the edge of the shadows of the trees.
From here he could see the young captain priming a grenade and tossing it at the terentatek. He then turned and ran for the trees. The explosive detonated in the beast's face. It blinked hard and shook it's mighty head, trying to clear it's vision. Titus could see where a tusk had been blown off.
This was the perfect opportunity to make a retreat back to his sqaud and the captive wookie. Titus took one last look at the scene as Jack fired at the monster again ineffectively, then turned on his heels and walked the opposite way. He would get some distance between himself and the beast and then double back in a wide circle.
But he took no more than ten steps when he stopped. He felt a strange presence in the force. It drew ever nearer, and as it did it grew steadily larger.
He realized suddenly that he was in danger. Whatever was coming was big, whether in size or numbers he could not tell. But he knew his best chance was to help the captain so as to have another gun to watch his back.
He turned around again and sprinted straight for Jack.

[Bardok]

Titus burst into the small clearing in time to see the back of the terentatek disappear into the trees. He started after the beast when a faint movement caught his eye. He looked left just as something black disappeared into the brush. Titus' eyes narrowed on the spot. The terentatek roared in the distance, and more gunfire ensued. Titus decided it was unimportant, and chased off to get the Captain.

[Jack Starbuck]

(OOC: Topher is gone so were gonna keep postin)

"Xeones! deploy your thermal detonator!" there was no reply. Jacks lungs were on fire and the thing wasn't stopping. While running Jack loaded his launcher, he ran uphill to turn to fire another shot into the beast. He only had one shot left. It went right into the beasts belly and it roared. He slung the launcher and finished off his carbines energy cell "kark you!"

[Bardok]

Titus had caught up to the angry monster he ran alongside it, keeping a safe distance should it turn and strike. Suddenly Titus had an idea. He gathered as much of the darkside as he could. He wasnt great at what he was about to do, but all he needed to do was get the monster's attention.
When the force, had built up as far as it would go, he unleashed it. It wasnt anything spectacular. A small bolt of blue lightning discharged from his finger tips. It lanced across the gap between them and struck the creature in the right bicep. The bolt struck, sizzled, then winked out of existence.
The creature halted in midstride and turned to glare at Titus. Titus mimicked the creature, and stood ready to run again.

[Jack Starbuck]

The monster stopped after Jack unloaded his clip. Did he do any damage? He then saw the beast look toward the dark figure behind it. Jack recognized it as the Zabarak sith he met on coruscant. "Hey!" he skipped the pleasantries as he did before. "What the hell are you doing!? get away from it!"

[Bardok]

As the terentatek again prepped for his charge, Titus shouted at the captain.
" Shut your karking mouth and listen up Captain. There is something coming this way. A lot of something's. Whatever it is it's big. I'm going to lead this barve to 'em." Titus looked at Jack with his blood red eyes, " and you'd better karking be following me! I want you on this thing's ass! Stay where I can find you afterward."
Titus didnt wait to see or hear the captain's response.
" All right you mother barve!" he shouted at the beast, " come and karking get me!" He sprinted off into the trees back the way they'd come, straight for the new threat, the terentatek hot on his heels.

[Jack Starbuck]

Jack stood poised. He never heard a Sith swear as much as he did just then, either way he liked it.
As the thing which the sith called a terenatek charged the other direction. Jack stood in thought 'should I really follow this guy? or find Xeones and find the temple.' He looked on "Oh hell." he picked up his weapons and followed the abomination.

[Bardok]

Titus charged forward, resisting the urge to look back. He could feel the terentatek's monstrous footsteps tremor through the ground even as he ran.
He came to the clearing where the ground was slightly scorched from the explosives Jack had used moments before. He stopped in the center where the sunlight had managed to break through the canopy hundreds of feet above. He turned as he heard the terentatek break through the trees. It did not slow however. It continued forward, straight for Titus. It was clear that it was tired of these games.
Titus looked over his shoulder behind him. He looked at the terentatek.
" You will die, you sleemo," he said as behind him hundreds of giant spiders ran into the clearing, crawling straight for them. Titus rolled out of the reach of the terentatek. It tried to stop and follow Titus, but it was too big to make that sharp of a turn.
In an instant the spiders were upon the great beast. They swarmed it, biting at it, scratching it. The terentatek roared and fought back.
Titus knew he couldnt stay to watch, so he turned and ran back into the trees to find the captain.

[Jack Starbuck]

Jack was following behind the terentatek, unfortunately he was too close. He saw the crawlers jump on the monster and unfortunately he got caught up in the storm. A crawler pounced onto Jack. "Dammit!" He held the spider above him as its pincers could almost reach his face. "Aaaagh!" He pushed with all of his might to fit one hand onto his heavy blaster pistol and then fired 3 shots point blank into the the abdomen. The spider roared up in pain, "Gotya" he got up and unsheathed his shortsword and plunged it into the crawlers mouth. He pulled it out and ran for his life while letting the crawler squeal. He ran up to the zabrak panting and gave him a look saying 'what the hell was that?'