Daka Gavalun was afraid. He had faced every challenge the council had presented him with fearlessly. He had not cried when he left his family to join the Jedi order. He had not gotten angry when the council had assigned him to babysit a young Twi'lek with stars in her eyes. Yet as he stared into the face of a creature that had devoured four men whole, he felt fear.
The creature was silently staring at them as it sized them up. Daka could feel Lezbiso's fear, her hand twitching toward her lightsaber.
He couldn't understand, he was Arkanian; the pinnacle of evolution. Yet when he stared back into the creatures cold blue eyes he felt fear, the same fear he had felt when he was but a child and was sure there was a monster under his bed.
The creature chuckled as it's claws shifted into five-fingered hands. "So I must ask... what are two Jedi doing out here in the back end of the galaxy?" The creature asked a sarcastic tone. Lezbiso shifted into a basic lightsaber combat stance.
"How do you know we are Jedi?" Daka asked as he tried to force the creatures mind away from the idea. Yet he realized too late the creature had no presence within the force. Where the creature stood there was nothing, the only way he could tell the creature was even there was by his own eye sight.
"You're wearing brown robes and carry no weapon, yet I see a slight outline of something near your hip. On a planet like this you want to always appear armed, unless you want to get mugged. You must be hiding lightsabers, if you were a sith you would wear black robes and wear that lightsaber like a badge of honor. Not even the most desperate spice addict would mess with a sith." The creature listed off in a bored tone.
The creature stood completely still not even breathing. "I see, is there going to be a problem?" Daka asked reaching towards his own lightsaber, using the force to bring it to his hand and activating it in all its blue glory. Daka had chosen blue because it brought to mind images of respect and honor. Lezbiso followed suit, activating her purple saber.
"Did you know Rodian's main diet once consisted of insects?" The creature asked inquisitively as it looked up towards the sky, seemingly ignoring them. Lezbiso growled, Daka could sense her sadness and anger. She was obviously upset about the casual way the creature ignored the question and lives it had snuffed out.
"They most likely evolved on a world littered by swamps, where they used their highly adhesive spit to lay traps that insects would get caught in. The solution took months to degrade and would use a series of chemicals and nano toxins to force the insects into a state of hibernation. In this state the insects could remain alive for months, even years."
"Of course they over populated and were forced to start hunting for food. Thus the trait that had allowed them to become the top life form on their home planet would become nothing but a forgotten line of code buried within their DNA." The creature lectured as it smirked.
"So... We can go?" Lezbiso asked, her sadness taking the back seat as she was over whelmed with confusion at the creature's strange lecture.
"I never said that. I just thought I would brighten your pathetic existences with some wisdom." The creature grinned as it rushed towards them. Daka activated his lightsaber as he force shoved the creature back. He was amazed as the creature was launched into the wall, he felt as if he had been trying to move an entire space ship. He already felt so drained.
Lezbiso ran towards the beast as it pulled itself from the wall, cutting off the beast's arm as she ran past. Now that they had it pinned between them, the creature did something amazing. It regrew its arm and laughed. Its newly formed hand turned into a mass of black tissue.
It threw its hand towards Lezbiso. Luckily, Daka force pushed against the beast slowing it's spiked appendage enough for Lezbiso to raise her lightsaber, cutting off the beasts hand yet again. The creature growled as it rushed towards Lezbiso. She attempted to strike the creature and managed to pierce it's chest. The creature was unperturbed though, gripping her by the neck as he threw her into the wall, creating a crater from the impact.
As the creature rushed towards Lezbiso, Daka growled, his strength was drained and the beast was moving too fast to easily hit. He pulled back, aiming for a spot next to his friend. The beast would have to pass it to reach her. He threw his lightsaber, praying it would be fast enough, and watched as the beast rushed into it. The monster was sheared down the middle from head to groin and stopped dead. Daka felt himself preparing to release a cry of victory, but instead watched in horror as the creature's severed halves recombined.
Daka fell to his knees in shock, so drained from his use of the force that he could no longer call back his lightsaber.
The monster's arm took a new form, it grew orange and green pustules. It's hand morphed into a spherical shape covered in those same pustules, orange light pulsating in what looked like a mockery of veins. The creature pulled back as if to throw something and as it's hand moved forward, the orb of its hand disconnected and flew towards Lezbiso, striking her in the chest. Instead of the crack of broken bones Daka had expected, he heard a squelch and looked up in shock.
The orb had exploded on impact, coating his friend in green and orange slime. He watched in despair as his friend struggled against the substance before closing her eyes as her breathing slowed.
Daka focused all his will power as he attempted to pull his lightsaber back. It was not to be, as the creature ripped him from the ground causing the lightsaber to skid uselessly by the beast's feet.
"Do you know why your order failed? It teaches you that emotions are harmful, but guess what? Those same emotions are what allowed your species to evolve to the point they have. Your order takes millions of years of evolution and spits on it." The beast growled as it held Daka aloft.
"Why...Why are you telling me this?" Daka gasped as he struggled to breath in the creature's iron grip. He had to keep it talking just a few more seconds and he would be able to call his saber to his hands.
"I ate my mother, thus she never taught me not to play with my food." The creature grinned as Daka's fallen lightsaber flew towards his hand. The creature grew another arm and caught it mid flight, crushing it as one would a tooth pick. The creature held the blue gem in it's newly formed hand, before a mouth opened in its palm and swallowed it.
"Now that was rude, didn't your mother ever tell you it's impolite to interrupt someone else's meal?" The creature grinned as it shoved its tendrils into Daka's body. In his last moments it hit Daka; he had been afraid of the creature but it was not just his own fear. He had felt the fear in his blood, the midichlorians themselves were afraid...
Line break
Mercer was displeased to put his mood in polite terms. He had finally gotten to devour a force user and he had learned quite a bit. The force was a byproduct of midichloriana, a semi-sentient, symbiotic, and microscopic form of life living within the blood of most creatures across the universe. The creatures seemed to function on some form of hive mind, communicating across the galaxy with one another.
No doubt the creatures had a home planet and on that home planet, some race had created these creatures for whatever strange reason. There was no way creatures with such abilities could evolve naturally, and they most definitely could not have become so wide spread without the help of some sentient intervention. Now that race was either dead, crazy or even worse in Mercer's opinion, preparing for an invasion. For the creatures now directed the universe, keeping it in a near constant state of flux.
Perhaps the creators of these things had placed them across the universe to weaken it and were even now waiting for the galaxy to be weak enough to strike. Luckily the race was most likely dead since they hadn't invaded already. Still, the idea that such an advanced race existed was of great interest to Mercer.
The force abilities were either purposeful and the race hadn't wanted to invade, or more likely, in Mercer's own opinion, the force was a byproduct of long-term exposure to the creatures. Most likely caused by what ever allowed them such long-range communication. Though Mercer thought to himself, they also seemed to affect a host's body depending on their temperament. Perhaps they released a form of radiation when exposed to adrenaline?
He had also been unable to devour the creatures. They had committed cellular suicide and destroyed most of their DNA. Mercer had only managed to get some broken pieces of DNA and code. He would need to devour several more force sensitive individuals to get a full look at the creatures DNA.
Mercer was sorely tempted to devour the young Twi'lek but he had bigger plans for her. He was actually quite proud of himself, the Rodians had been far more valuable than he had hoped. With their DNA he had been able to create one new power and upgrade an existing one. He could now throw a chunk of biomass that would explode with a higher concentration of the adhesive once used by the ancient Rodians.
He had also improved his tendril bomb. When a creature was injected with the tendril strain it would force the creature to sweat the same adhesive, allowing his thrown bombs to stick to his enemies. Mercer eyed the young Twi'lek, throwing her over his shoulders as he took to the roof tops, sprinting across the city wall and landing next to his ship.
The Twi'lek would be the key to him working his way up the imperial ladder of power. He needed to get the disguise of another soldier. One that hadn't disappeared on a routine check-up mission. He could then turn the girl in, making it possible to meet the higher ups and take their place.
Mercer smirked as he planned his distant future. First though, he would visit this Arkanian home world. It sounded interesting. Mercer walked into his ship, smirk firmly in place and threw the Twi'lek down in the corner. Argo was floating in the map room seemingly not worried about the apparent kidnapping, his Wookie and Abyssin flanking him. "Well, engines are all fixed up and I threw in some repairs to the auto pilot and the star map. Pay up." Argos explained with his hand held out expecting cash.
Mercer took his hand and watched, face remaining impassive as Argo screamed. Argos had felt spikes pierce his hand as a tentacle grew from the hole. He screamed as his hand turned black and was pulled into the man who had saved his life. Argo felt the life draining out of him as he was pulled into the smirking monster.
Ragnar roared as he fired his bow caster, striking Mercer in the head. The Abbysin screeched, firing its blaster into Mercer's chest. It was in vain though, as Mercer kept moving regardless of the hole in his head and chest. He jumped over the Wookie, grabbing it by the head mid-flight and using his immense weight and strength, he broke the Wookies neck. He kept moving even as the Wookie was pulled into his body. The Abbysin attempted to flee but was impaled by a fist through his gut, groaning as he felt the life bleed out of him.
Line break
Mercer was standing on the outside of the city, scowl in place as he stuck his hand into the ground, tendrils digging thousands of feet down. They created a large chamber but were stopped from finishing by a large red crystal. Mercer growled as he flowed into the ground, arriving to glare at the crystal that blocked his construction.
Apparently, this planet was full of the same crystals that Jedi used in their lightsabers. His tendrils were only able to chip off bits of the crystal. Mercer smirked as he pulled out the crystal he had collected from the broken remains of Daka's lightsaber. Mercer focused as the tendrils created a devourer and dropped the crystal into the creature's mouth.
Mercer watched, smile upon his face as the crystal became liquid, a nearby tendril reaching down and devouring it. The tendril coated itself in the liquidated rock, before beginning to mine the giant crystal again. It tore through it like wet tissue paper. The bits broken off by the tendril were collected by the devourer and then applied to another tendril.
Mercer stuck his hand into the ground again, forming a large brain, a hive mind. It was not overly useful to Mercer himself, he was his own hive mind and as long as a single bit of Blacklight survived, he could reform. The hive served two purposes. If an evolved were destroyed they would be able to reform either here or on any other world with a hive mind. He would not allow history to repeat itself, he would not risk the lives of his evolved again.
It would also direct his tendrils and creatures in his absence. It quickly formed a nest and began producing more tendrils and Devourers while also producing hydras to help tunnel. He would turn this planet's underground into a massive hive mind. He had given it an order not to breach the surface until he gave the command. The creature was slowly producing its own biomass but its main source were the fossils that littered the underground.
Mercer smiled as the devourers began vomiting upon the hive mind; encasing it in the red crystal. Mercer flowed back to the surface and jumped back to his ship's landing pad. He climbed aboard and set his course. If anyone had seen the grin on his face they would have ran in terror.