Chapter 23
Foyi kept a tight grip on the discblade encircling her right fist, even as her free hand snaked to her back, fumbling with the stocks of the disruptor rifle and the A295 Blaster Rifle strapped there, wondering if either one of the weapons would have meaningful effect upon a rancor and its Force-sensitive rider. She gave Rayf a furtive glance, who was wiping beads of water dripping into his eyes from his hair, his hands kept loose upon his reassembled wan-shen, turning the weapon over in his palms. Foyi met his eyes in the darkness, then gestured with a flick of her tchin at the VES-700 Pulse Rifle strapped across his back, though he shook his head. He spoke no words, though his meaning was clear enough; he did not want to use such a volatile weapon in such a confined space unless it was a life and death situation.
Which it might be in the next few moments, Foyi thought as her attention returned to the rancor decorated with war paint and ridden by an alien steeped in the Dark Side. The rancor had picked up its pace now, its rider giving encouraging hoots and gesturing with the prominent arm on its right side, the pseudopod-equipped hand affixed to a sharp, jagged length of bone that looked vaguely like some kind of crude blade. She did not dare reach out to the Force-sensitive rider, lest she inadvertently alert him to their exact location, though it was beginning to appear more likely that he and his mount were aware of them, no matter how well they had hidden.
Foyi looked down at her discblade, then back up to the approaching monstrosity, gauging the distance and power, both physical and mental, she would have to summon for a devastating throw. From all she had heard and read regarding rancors, it was unlikely even a Force-imbued spinning disc would be effective against its armored hide. Perhaps she should aim for the rider, and maybe grant them enough of a distraction to retreat out of the rancor's range of smell and sensation. The Twi'lek rose slightly from the tangle of fungi, cocking her arm back for a throw, but found herself interrupted when Rayf reached over and shoved her back to the mud, forcing her back into a low crouch. A spike of irritation nearly gave her Force presence away as she whirled on Rayf, who was shaking his head, concerned still with maintaining their cover. Attempting to let the rancor and Felucian pass them by unmolested.
The thunder of the rancor's footfalls slowed as its rider gave a short bark, and the creature came to a stop, barely two meters away, standing still under the swaying and glowing fronds and stalks. The rancor sniffed deeply of the air, a low growl escaping its throat. A similar nasal sound came from the rider atop it, as though the Felucian was attempting to pick up their scent as well. Neither Foyi nor Rayf dared to breathe, much less move, as the rancor slowly plodded back and forth, trampling the mud and the smaller mushrooms at its enormous feet. It passed within decimeters of their position multiple times within the next few moments, the Felucian and rancor both turning their heads in eerie tandem as they tested the air for unfamiliar scents. Foyi could feel the alien's consciousness riding the currents of the Force around them; she could feel its presence sliding just past hers, as though she were a frightened gnooroop hovering near the ocean's surface as a predatory demonsquid passed in the depths below. But the circumstances of both hers and Rayf's lives had necessitated they both be well-versed in Force-augmented stealth, and so the native's consciousness moved passed them without acknowledgment. The alien made a clicking noise that rose into an undulating hoot, and the rancor began to lumber off, heading deeper into the jungle, but cutting a course through the foliage that remained parallel to the edges of the battlefield.
Foyi let out the breath she had been holding, and reached a hand over to Rayf, drawing strength from the tactile contact of her palm against his shoulder. She was feeling weak again, and despite her training, the harrowing experiences she had faced and overcome, she had felt fear throughout her entire being for moments that had felt like an eternity. The Dark Side's effects upon this world were insidious, and it was already eating away at her emotional control and her mental solidarity, which served to continue sapping at her tenuous strength and the alacrity of her healing body. She looked past Rayf and watched as the rancor continued to plod away from them, dropping upon its claws and knuckles as it strode through the jungle, still growling and chuffing, the alien astride it bobbing up and down with the motions of its immense shoulders. The pair seemed to be looking for something, though she knew not what; hopefully, they were the only such team of Force-sensitive and beast that they would encounter as they continued searching for Tama.
Rayf turned to her, perhaps to indicate a new direction in the opposite direction of the rancor and Felucian, or maybe to say something comforting or snarky. Whatever his chosen action, it was interrupted by a lance of brilliant crimson light that briefly lit the immediate area as it streaked through the forest from an elevated position unseen in the darkness, then bisected the Felucian and rancor's path. The blaster bolt sliced through the alien's torso and emerged from his right shoulder blade before dissipating amongst the foliage, sending the alien spinning and flailing off the back of the rancor and crumpling in the darkness and underbrush. The rancor gave a surprised growl as the weight upon its shoulders was suddenly lifted, and was just turning about when a succession of shots screamed across the night again, burning through fungal protrusions before impacting the rancor in a tight cluster about its neck and the left side of its head, eliciting splashes of thick blood and glinting phosphorescent paint. The rancor gave a keening whine as it nearly collapsed, bleeding profusely from the five shots that had struck its neck and face, but remained upright, balancing upon its right leg and arm as it attempted to catch its breath. The rancor gave a wet, gurgling growl as it pushed against the ground and struggled back to is feet, but the noises of defiance and suffering that permeated the jungles were not enough to mask the sound of a shrill whistle through the mushrooms. Had Foyi not possessed such keen eyesight in low light, she would not have seen the flash of metal, like an insect moving at supersonic speeds that emerged from the same direction as the blaster bolts, impacting within the wounds suffered by the rancor. The rancor gave another shriek as the projectile burrowed into its ruined flesh, then the monstrosity began to flail and jerk, as though suffering and losing some internal battle with its own musculature. With a throaty, choking gasp, it collapsed in the brush and thrashed weakly, its body entering convulsions that became less severe as the moments dragged on.
Foyi and Rayf waited in the darkness, straining to listen to the silence that slowly gave way to the expected cacophony of night activity from the Felucian fauna. The rancor did not move save for an intermittent twitch; the only sounds it made were light groans and strained, gargled breathing. Foyi narrowed her eyes, attempting to gain a better vantage on the invisible sniper somewhere in the jungle ahead of them, not daring to reach out in the Force to help her search, lest she attract the attention of other Darksiders she was unable to sense in the miasma of entropic energies suffusing the planet. She gave Rayf a quizzical glance, and he merely shrugged, still clutching tightly to the haft of his wan-shen, the pale skin of his knuckles being the only indication of the stress he was feeling.
Foyi began to stand, then stopped halfway through the motion when an icy splash of danger sense skittered over her mind. She glanced down at her chest, and upon the damp tunic and jacket danced a skittering dot of light. She felt her breath hitch and her blood run cold as she realized the dot was projected by a spot-luma, a targeting laser that hovered in a silent, lethal threat over her heart. Rayf saw it at almost the same moment she did, and made a move toward her, perhaps in an attempt to push her out of the field of fire, but the dot switched to hover over his own heart, then back to hers, then his, in a matter of mere seconds. And as both of them froze, imagining what it must be like to have a high-powered blaster bolt sear through their chests, a silent voice arose in their minds in a cold, demanding tone. Unless both of you think you can survive fist-sized holes through your hearts, I would remain as still as the corpses you may yet become. If you wait for a moment, we can have a proper conversation, at which point I'll decide whether you're more useful to me dead or alive.
The voice did not answer for an agonizingly lengthy moment, and Rayf replied audibly, in a tone that was characteristically positive. "We'll be here."
There was no reply, and the spot-luma wavered, sometimes up and down, other times back and forth, occasionally disappearing off Foyi's chest, only to reappear on Rayf's, and vice versa. Foyi and Rayf stood still, not daring to move, keeping their breathing shallow, but their bodies tense and ready for an attack. Foyi kept a grip on her discblade, her eyes roving the darkness and fungi ahead, searching for a target she might throw the weapon of the Zeison Sha at in a lethal arc. Cautiously, she opened her mind to the Force, barely stretching her sensations beyond her body, but feeling nothing specific, save for the confusing waves of the Dark Side that permeated almost every surface, object, and creature on this planet.
Despite both Foyi and Rayf's acute awareness and Force senses, the person who had spoken to them through telepathy alone approached unheard, a figure suddenly stepping out from behind the wide bole of a enormous mushroom, the figure's dark garments melding almost seamlessly with the shadows cast by the mushroom's canopy. The figure continued to creep forward with quick, measured movements, striding like a predator and making barely a whisper of sound. The figure was humanoid and female, judging by the effeminate grace and curves of her body. Her lithe form was clothed in a garment of blackest night that hugged her features, a shadowsuit that blended in so well with the darkness beneath the fungal canopy and the black ceiling of the night sky, and yet was elastic enough to allow a full range of movement. Shrouding her shoulders was a sort of half-cloak made of the same black shadowsilk, the hood of the garment pulled up over her head, keeping her face hidden in shadows. Strapped to her waist was an utility belt laden with pouches and equipment, and upon her wrists were vambraces that had been modified to include several miniaturized tools and weapons. At one hip was a holster containing a C-10 Dragoneye Reaper Heavy Blaster Pistol, and strapped to her back was a pack filled with unknown materials, slung beside an Accelerated Charged Particle Array Gun. In her hands, balanced against her shoulder and swinging quickly between Rayf and Foyi's chests was an E-11s Sniper Blaster Rifle, the weapon emitting the spot-luma that foretold impending blaster bolts through their vitals should they make any move deemed hostile.
The woman remained in the shadows, though she crept close enough to the edge of them that she, and the weapon she had trained on the human and Twi'lek companions, could be seen clearly. She gestured at both of them in turn with the barrel of her sniper rifle, and reluctantly, Foyi and Rayf dropped their bladed weapons in the mud and mold at their feet. Rayf straightened, his hands held far from his sides, and gave the hooded woman a crooked grin. "That was some stellar shooting back there, sweetheart. Not many people can take down a rancor with so few blaster shots."
The hooded sniper's only reaction to the compliment was to train her weapon specifically upon Rayf. She spoke verbally this time, though the cold, detached tone of voice was the same as the telepathic message they had received moments before. "The rancor and its Felucian rider have been hunting me for the last three kilometers, but I could never get a decent vantage point on them until you distracted them with your-" she sniffed deeply before continuing, "-unique smells. Count it as my way of showing gratitude that I didn't blast you guys immediately after taking down the rancor."
"Yeah, you're a real hero," Foyi replied sourly.
The sniper rifle's barrel shifted so that the Twi'lek was staring down its dark tunnel of death. "Who are the two of you? Who do you work for? What are you doing here?"
"We could ask the same questions of you,"Rayf replied cryptically.
"You could," the woman responded as her aim shifted to Rayf's face. "And I'm willing to answer those questions, as long as I like your answers. Which you will give me first. Give me a reason not to cut the both of you down now."
Foyi waited until the sniper's aim had swung over to her companion before suddenly jabbing her open, empty palm forward, while lashing out toward the woman with a wave of the Force. Foyi was nearly startled from the concentration she kept upon her telepathic pull when she saw the woman beginning to dodge to the side, her rifle sweeping to point at Foyi, but she was a second too slow, for the rifle was ripped from her grasp, whereupon it spun through the air, cartwheeling end over end to slap into Foyi's waiting hands. Simultaneously, the woman continued to dive to the side, fouling Foyi's initial aim as her hand flashed to her hip, reaching for the C-10 Heavy Blaster Pistol. But Rayf was not simply standing by either, for the Force surged within him as his motions blurred; the toe of his boot hooked under the hilt of his wan-shen, kicking it up over a meter into the air, where he caught it midspin and immediately jabbed it forward like a spear. The flat of the blade caught the sniper's gloved hand as she had drawn her heavy blaster pistol halfway from its sheathe, and a lightning-fast twist of the wan-shen dislodged her fingers from around the weapon, sending it spinning from its holster and into the darkness. All of this occurred before the sniper had even hit the ground, but she did now, striking the mud with her shoulder and tucking into a roll in an attempt to carry her out of the pair's reach and give her enough space to draw her last weapon, or possibly lever one of the weapons on her vambraces.
But Rayf was too fast for her to even complete this motion, for he put on a burst of speed that was only possible for a Force-user, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye and swinging his wan-shen with frightening power. The butt of the weapon disappeared into the depths of her hood and cracked against her chin, eliciting a cry of pain and sending the woman sprawling on her back in the mud hard enough to vacate her lungs of her air. Rayf tossed his weapon to the side and bore down upon the sniper, keeping her pinned and further hampering her breathing by pressing a knee into her clavicle and seizing her left arm, pulling it vertical so that it could be pulled free of its socket or snapped in half if the Corellian applied the right amount of force and leverage. The sniper struggled a moment as she attempted to dislodge Rayf from his perch atop her, but her struggles ceased when Foyi stepped beside the two of them and leveled the E-11s at her hidden face. She went limp almost immediately, and lay there gasping.
"You're not going to kill us because we have you at a disadvantage," Foyi snarled, the end of the sniper rifle hovering mere centimeters from the woman's face.
Rayf gave the woman a stern glare, but there was still a smirk on his lips. "I hope that's an acceptable reason for you, sweetheart."
The woman gave a lengthy gasp, and Rayf raised his knee just enough to allow her to draw in a deep breath. "Maybe...maybe I was a bit hasty in assuming the two of you were my enemies. If you've...spent any length of time on this world, you'll find...it's best to treat strangers with a healthy amount of suspicion. Or just blast 'em. Nothin' personal...just trying to keep myself alive."
"We typically take threats and blaster bolts personally," Foyi answered in a deadly tone of voice.
"Don't mind my cousin", Rayf added nonchalantly. He stood upright, dragging the defeated sniper up with him and extricating the ACP Scatter Gun from her back, then backed away a full meter before aiming the weapon at the woman's chest. "We actually get shot at all the time. Or rather, I do. This whole 'fleeing from a hail of blasterfire every planet we visit' thing is relatively new to her, and she just hasn't acclimated yet."
Foyi shot him a disapproving glare, but made certain her attention never fully left their impromptu prisoner. "What I haven't acclimated to is your awful sense of humor, you nerfherder."
"That hurts, Foyi. That really does."
"It's a wonder the two of you just proved to be so capable, considering how you don't seem to get along," their prisoner interjected, her voice no longer breathy for want of oxygen. Indeed, an attitude of calm, even self-assured haughtiness, suffused her Force presence; if she had held any fear for how the tables had been so quickly turned upon her, she felt none of it now. "It's been...awhile since I've seen Force-users at work. I fear I've underestimated you."
Foyi shifted the sniper rifle's stock against her shoulder, not quite able to hide the surprise that leaked through to her countenance. "You know of the Force? Is that how your voice was in our heads?"
The woman snorted, as though Foyi's question had been completely ridiculous, and reached up to draw the hood back from atop her head, revealing a gaunt, haggard countenance, dark eyes, leathery skin in shades of brown and pink, and horns that emerged from her cranium and curved downward to either side of her face. Rayf made a minute gasp of recognition at the revelation of the woman's species, but it took Foyi a moment to reach the same realization, for she had only seen holos of Iktotchi, and had never met one before. She could not remember much information regarding their homeworld, society, or physiology, but she did recall that the Iktotchi were naturally telepathic, and supposedly possessed minor precognitive abilities. Such would explain the voice she had been able to project in their thoughts, as well as the fact that she seemed to have anticipated the movements that had led to her being disarmed and threatened by those she had similarly threatened, though her reactions to this prescient knowledge had been too slow to counteract the Force-enhanced reaction times of both Foyi and Rayf. Standing within such close proximity, Foyi could not sense any connection to the Force in this woman, and parts of her were relieved, while others were disappointed. She would have been delighted to meet another Force-sensitive, as she had met far more than she could ever have predicted since leaving Yanibar, but the part of her that was relieved reminded her of how many of those Force-users had been deeply tainted by the Dark Side, which was a frightening eventuality on a world such as the one they stood, where the very fiber of Felucia's being seemed to be ill with the Dark Side. The Iktotchi woman turned to regard Foyi with an impassive stare, crossing her arms across her chest as though she were merely having a pleasant conversation. "Girl, I'm old enough to remember the Jedi Order and what it meant to the Republic, no matter how much Palpatine's 'New Order' tries to pretend none of it every existed. Hell, I was a little girl when that whole fiasco when some Jedi Masters tangled with the Red Iaro on Malastare. I'm aware of the Force, but I can't access it, as the two of you obviously do. Some of us have to make our ways through the galaxy by relying on something other than religion and magic tricks."
Rayf cocked a brow. "A little telepathy and precognition probably doesn't hurt either, eh?"
The woman nodded, conceding the point. She turned her head back and forth, her gaze lingering on the rancor lying several meters away, its limbs continuing to twitch infrequently, its shoulders quivering and heaving. "Look. The two of you find me interesting enough to talk to, I'm flattered, truly. But there are better places to talk than in the middle of the Felucian wilderness at night, by a rancor that isn't even close to dead."
Foyi's eyes opened wide in alarm as she too turned to regard the rancor with more than just her eyes. She could feel its life essence in the Force, one that seemed to wax and wane with each breath, and its mind, filled with semi-sentient thoughts of hunger and confusion was rapidly becoming defused with rage and awareness. The rancor, despite its grievous wounds, was still alive, awakening from whatever the Iktotchi had done to it, and actually wanted vengeance. Rayf was eerily calm, though his words expressed his concern when he faced the sniper again, gesturing with the ACP Array Gun he clutched in his hands. "You didn't kill it?"
"I was meaning to," she replied irritably. "It's hard to punch through a rancor's skin, even with that E-11s you stole from me; not even the wounds it sustained from my sniper fire will kill it. I did that to weaken the skin enough that I could get a Lecepanine dart into its softer tissues and knock it out for awhile, just long enough that I could move in for the kill. That is, until you distracted me."
The rancor was beginning to growl, a throaty gurgle that Foyi felt shivering through her lekku. The Iktotchi woman's calm, detached facade slipped for a moment as she regarded the rancor, which had seemed to regain most of its motor functions, and was pressing its widely-splayed claws deep into the mud in an effort to lift its bulk upright. The Iktotchi quickly whirled on Rayf, a glare in her eyes that spoke of the seriousness of their situation. "Give me the gun back."
Foyi sighted down the length of the sniper rifle, curling her lip into a snarl. "Absolutely not."
The woman made a placating gesture toward Rayf, beckoning for him to hand over the ACP. "I only need it for a moment, to make sure that beast doesn't get up and swallow us whole, since neither one of you seem too eager to preserve your lives." Her gaze flicked to needle Foyi. "If I try anything you don't like, you can blast me to your heart's content. But unless either one of you know how to properly bring that big murglak down so it doesn't get back up again, I'm going to need my gun back."
Foyi's regard flicked back and forth between the woman she did not remotely trust, and the rising threat of the rancor, which was still struggling, barely supported by weak and shaking arms that seemed to be regaining their strength with each passing moment. To her utter shock, Rayf shrugged and tossed the ACP back to the Iktotchi, drawing his own WESTAR-34 in the same motion. The Iktotchi deftly caught her returned weapon, and without a second glance at her captors, sprinted across the intervening gap of forest between herself and the rancor, whereupon she paused beside the left side of the rancor's head, where the ragged and charred skin on its neck and face were. The rancor gave a wheezing growl as it tried to rise, while at the same time bringing its claws to bear upon the woman it dwarfed, but the Iktotchi showed no fear as she leveled the weapon and pulled the trigger. A sudden flash of energy particles screamed from the barrels of the gun, impacting the wounded side of the rancor's head with another spray of blood. The rancor screamed in agony and flopped back to the mud, but the Iktotchi woman was not done, cocking the weapon and firing again, as quickly as she was able to repeat those motions until the cartridges in the weapon's magazine were spent. Each burst seemed to punch through deeper layers of the rancor's throat and cranium, until the blood erupting from the wounds was slick and chunky with gore and chips of skull, spattering the front of the woman's shadowsuit and cloak, though she was not bothered by it at all. With each successive shot, the rancor's screams grew softer and longer, until its last breath exited its lungs with a wailing rush of air. The Iktotchi, who had one last cartridge to expend, took careful aim and fired, and the impact became a short-lived fountain of glistening slush and blood as her onslaught opened the rancor's brain cavity and spilled most of the matter on the muddy ground. Satisfied with her work, the Iktotchi reached into her belt for cartridges, reloaded the weapon, then strode back to them and handed the gun back to Rayf, who gladly accepted it with a nod, though the serene expression that typically described his features had slipped slightly. "That was cold," he remarked with a slight tone of condemnation.
The Iktotchi shrugged. "The rancor was in pain, and a wounded beast is not something you want on your afterburners."
"Either one of us could have done that," Foyi interjected suspiciously. She was attempting to sound confident and ruthless, to establish a sense of power and authority in relation to the dangerous woman before them. But inwardly, she struggled with attempting to imagine whether she could have put the suffering creature out of its misery in such a ruthless and brutal manner. Certainly, if the rancor had gotten back to its feet, it would have undoubtedly tried to tear them to shreds in its jagged jaws, but she could not hate an animal for following its natural instincts. Even so, she could not help but silently condemn the woman for her ability to so mercilessly slaughter such a living creature, and she almost opened her mouth to say something to express her feelings, but she was interrupted by images of Lido's broken body, of the charred hole in his chest, and she kept her tongue. They all had blood on their hands.
The woman nodded her agreement. "I'm sure you could have, girl. But then I wouldn't have been able to demonstrate to you my sincerity and willingness."
"Willingness to do what?" Rayf begged the obvious question.
"To work with the two of you, of course," the Iktotchi replied in that maddening tone that suggested she knew everything there was to know in the universe, and was waiting for everyone else to catch up. "I've had a vision...a vision of the future, where we band together, and maybe, just maybe, we all get what we're after."
Foyi and Rayf exchanged a glance. Rayf shrugged, and Foyi rolled her eyes, then stretched out in the Force again, doing her best to ignore the pressing, metaphysical weight of the Dark Side settling down upon her like a smothering cloak. She sent a tendril of searching thought toward the Iktotchi, and was answered by the eddies of her surface thoughts, which was a kaleidoscope of emotions, all of which betrayed the calm and collected expression she wore on her countenance. The woman felt anxiety, hostility, confusion regarding her aforementioned precognitive vision, juxtaposed with a certainty that the future she had glimpsed was not a lie, nor was it steering her astray. And underlying all this was a vast, dark undertow of grief and simmering rage, an unquenchable thirst for vengeance for the infliction of a wound upon her soul that had never healed, a wound that continued to actively fester. An old wound.
As she made these discoveries regarding the woman's mental state, Rayf lowered the barrel of the ACP he held, though he kept it ready, in case he had to bring it to bear once more. "And what exactly do you think we're after?"
Foyi could feel the anger beginning to radiate from the Iktotchi woman, though her face remained impassive. "The Shepherd. You're here for him...I must admit, I don't like the idea of splitting him three ways, but I could use the help. This planet is some new kind of Hutt hole; if it isn't the colonists desperate for survival risking shots across the bow at anything that moves, it's the Imperials trying to raze the jungle to the ground. And then, there's those things." She hooked a thumb in the direction of the pair of corpses submitting to rigor mortis in the mud. "You know they're Force-users? Hard as duracrete to kill..." She paused when a cacophony of roars, hoots, and keening wails echoed through the jungle, indicating a large group of creatures moving noisily through the jungle in the distance, their continuing calls indicating that they were drawing closer to the trio. The sniper turned to face them again. "Even harder to evade."
"More Felucians and rancors?" Rayf asked, concern sharpening the edge of his voice.
"They travel in packs. The one I killed was just a scout who picked up my trail and stumbled on yours. If we want to keep breathing, we should punch it before they arrive."
Rayf grimaced; the Iktotchi made sense. "Alright. Let's relocate and find a defensible position, where we can continue this stimulating conversation regarding wild beasts and destiny and...things." As if to punctuate his assertions, the roars continued with greater tempo, their volume indicating their increasing proximity.
The Iktotchi woman sprang into action, beginning to jog in the direction the deceased rancor and rider had been traveling. "Follow. I know of a place where we can find some cover from this hunting party."
Foyi and Rayf hurried to catch up, letting the woman lead them through the darkness and amidst the underbrush, the Iktotchi's shadowsuit guaranteeing that she barely made any sound, even as her speed and recklessness increased in relation to the roars drawing closer. Foyi, still holding the sniper rifle, sped up her pace until she drew beside the woman, and hissed in a breathless, hopeful voice, "How much of this area have you scouted?"
"Most of the region around the battlefield," she replied, her voice even despite the increasing speed with which they ran.
"Have you...have you seen any trails left by landspeeders? Or maybe a repulsortruck?"
"Actually, I have. I was following the trail back to the battlefield to see where it led when I was nearly run down by that Felucian. Why?"
"We think it's the path used...by the Shepherd. You were right," Foyi added begrudgingly. "We're looking for the Shepherd, too."
A slight grin curled the sniper's lips as she ran, amused by the realization of her own assertions. "I thought as much. Let us reach somewhere safer than the middle of the jungle, and perhaps we can begin sharing information."
"Well, if we're all going to be sharing," Rayf called as he ran up between them, "then maybe we should start with sharing names. Unless we all want to go by species names. I'm Rayf, and my angry cousin is Foyi."
"Cousins, hm?" the Iktotchi replied in a manner that suggested she sincerely doubted they had any familial relation. "Very well. I'm Vaevi. Vaevi Zshi. Maybe I won't regret blasting your heads to spacedust after all."
"Glad to hear that's no longer in the cards," Rayf replied cheerfully.
"I never said that."
"You better try," Foyi growled as they ducked through a natural tunnel created by overarching limbs of fungi and mushroom caps. "Vision and common goal or not, you keep talking like that, Vaevi, and you won't get to play sabacc again."
The night had grown old, the sky lightening above the fungal canopies, before the trio fleeing through the Felucian jungle found they felt marginally secure enough in which they could rest. The Iktotchi calling herself Vaevi Zshi clambered ahead of Foyi and Rayf, grasping a tumble of stones that led up a steep embankment that Foyi had not been able to see initially due to the thicket of mushrooms and bulbous stalks gracing its peak. The Iktotchi scrambled up the stones with quick but precise movements, reaching the cover of the mushrooms' shadows while Foyi and Rayf picked their way carefully behind. Upon reaching the top, Vaevi turned and offered Rayf a hand, and though she could have easily made a move for any of the weapons Rayf carried on him while he was in such a compromised position, she pointedly did not. She similarly offered a hand to Foyi, but the Twi'lek stubbornly refused, slinging the E-11s over her shoulder and putting on a burst of Force-enhanced speed that propelled her to the top of the slope in a blink of an eye. And even as Vaevi was attempting to realign her gaze to the Twi'lek's new position, Foyi had already grasped the sniper rifle in hand and aimed it at Vaevi's head.
The three of them crept deeper into the tangle of mushrooms, then crouched in the shadows, which were still oily and thick, despite the approaching light of dawn. They paused and listened, tuning their ears to every movement of the hunting party they had yet to see with their naked eyes. Never at any point during the night had their pursuers bothered to move through the jungle stealthily, or attempt to use their superior knowledge of the local terrain to locate their quarry. They had merely followed the trails left in the wake of the trio's flight, the sounds of their primal calls and the roars of the rancors they used as mounts announcing their presence for kilometers. Thus, it had been simple for the trio to sketch out a false trail and to diverge from it, keeping well ahead of the Felucians and rancors hunting them, then peeling off into the deeper, darker parts of the wilderness, but still not straying too far from the ragged, scoured edges of the Clone Wars battlefield.
They waited amongst the fronds, tendrils, and stalks atop the ridge, barely able to see in the alternating shadows and streams of light from Felucia's primary. None of them could see the hunting party as it drew closer, but the increasing proximity of the natives' shouted hoots and shrieks, the snuffling and low growls of their rancor mounts, described their position relative to the trio's as assuredly as sight would have. Foyi heard them pause over a dozen meters away, near the foot of the ridge's slope, the rancors' cacophonous feet shuffling and pounding the mud anxiously. There was a lengthy period of grunts and screeches as the Felucians conversed in an unknown tongue, which eventually ended with a keening holler that echoed throughout the forests. With that, the hunters peeled off, meandering deeper into the jungle's tracts of interminable fungal growths, molds, and clearings of mud bisected by small fetid ponds and dark rivers. It was not long before what little could be heard of their number was lost in the discordant cacophony of sounds of both flora and fauna that seemed omnipresent within the Felucian jungles.
Vaevi let out a lengthy, controlled exhale. "Well done. Despite how easily I found the two of you last time, you are both surprisingly skilled at moving unnoticed when you wish."
"That's high praise from a bounty hunter," Rayf replied as he leaned against the expansive base of a sticky, drooping mushroom.
"So it is," Vaevi replied positively. "My kind tend to work alone, and therefore are used to relying on our own abilities, rarely trusting anyone to even be competent enough to keep up with us. So far, the two of you are a welcome exception. It should make this whole partnership easier on all of us."
"You assume a lot from people you just met, and threatened to kill instead of offering a proper greeting as introduction," Foyi snarled, keeping the sniper rifle trained on the bounty hunter, though Vaevi had yet to make any move that would invite a blaster bolt.
Vaevi shrugged, as though none of these past events should matter even in the slightest. "I gotta good feeling about the two of you; a feeling that goes against my instincts as a bounty hunter, sure, but we Iktotchi learn to trust the visions we have, as they're rare this far from Iktotch. Not that I've ever been there, but that doesn't seem to matter," she muttered as an aside.
Foyi raised a skeptical brow. "You're saying a vision told you to work with us?"
"I'm saying, a vision showed us working together. Whether that's to our mutual benefit or detriment, I couldn't say, though I suspect the former, considering we're all here for the Shepherd, and I can tell by the faces you make every time I mention that name, girl, that you aren't here to play a friendly game of dejarik with him. The two of you seem relatively sane for spacers actually willing to brave Felucia's jungles, so you definitely want him badly enough to risk a lot coming here. So, I'll offer you a deal: you give me back my weapons, and we all find the Shepherd together, bring him back alive or dead depending on the fuss he gives us, and we can split the bounty three ways."
"You seem certain that 'the Shepherd' is an actual person," Rayf remarked, scratching his chin in concentration. "And you keep referring to the Shepherd as 'he'."
"Sixty thousand credits says the Shepherd's real," Vaevi replied flippantly, though Foyi's sense of her emotions told her that the woman was intentionally trying to be evasive. "And if he just turns out to be some Lord Nyax ghost story, the pronouns I used to describe him don't really matter, do they?"
Rayf considered that for a moment. "You make a valid point. And sixty thousand is easily divisible by three..." That last comment elicited a jab from Foyi's elbow, and he flashed her a roguish grin that only served to further infuriate her.
Foyi turned her glare upon Vaevi, and the Iktotchi met it with an unreadable expression. Her thoughts were difficult to perceive, though Foyi did not require the Force to realize the woman was not being entirely truthful regarding her motivations. "We're not interested in the bounty," Foyi replied evenly.
Vaevi nodded her head in consideration. "Then you must be here to recover something he stole from you. Someone he stole from you. A child perhaps? A brother? A sister?"
Foyi kept her expression neutral. "My sister. She was taken...a week or so ago. The trail led us here, to the supposed Shepherd, who hides somewhere in these Force-forsaken jungles."
Vaevi turned to Rayf, puzzlement on her face. "And you? What's this girl to you?"
"She's my cousin, too."
Vaevi furrowed her brow; whether she found the idea of a Twi'lek and human being related laughable, or simply did not believe the Matukai Adept was unclear. She sat in the mud beneath one of the bulbous stalks of fungi, bringing her knees up to her chest and rocking on her haunches. "Then I propose a partnership between us...you help me track down the Shepherd and bring him in to collect in whatever shape we put him in, and we'll find where he's holding your sister. Likely, it'll be a place relatively easy to find once we locate the area of the jungle he's been using as his personal exogorth cave, and judging by the other victims of his I've studied, he prefers to keep them alive, at least for a little while." She leaned forward, meeting Foyi's eyes. "Your sister is probably alive, girl. I can't speak for what kind of shape she's in, but if she was kidnapped by the Shepherd's proxies only a week or so ago, then she's still breathing. Most likely. It's the way the mudcrutch likes to play with the children he kidnaps."
Rayf gave Foyi a look that was a mixture of hope and fear. Foyi could barely breathe as she forced herself to ask the invited question. "What does he...what does he do to them?"
Vaevi shrugged nonchalantly, but the slight sharpening of her features, the clenching of her jaw, and the sudden swirl of jagged thoughts that swam over the surface of her mind showed that she found whatever horrors she was bout to relate disturbing, despicable even. "He seems to...mess with their minds somehow. I mean, far beyond simple telepathy of those like me and other telepathic species. The slavers who take jobs for him snatch children off the streets of almost any world, with no pattern to their grabs, and the kids go missing and are never heard from again. Most of the time. But sometimes, an Outer Rim Imperial patrol or an enterprising spacer will find their bodies deposited in lonely corners of the galaxy, on worlds almost no one treads, floating through the black of space at locations where pilots usually stop to recalculate their routes. When examined, their bodies show signs of extreme malnutrition and emaciation, deadly levels of stress, and wounds both superficial and mortal. Some of these are self-inflicted, while others are from low-yield blasters or simple, bladed weapons wielded with very little strength. Some forensics analysts have even linked some of these bodies together on similar timetables, and suggested that not only were they held and tortured in the same locations, but may have known each other, perhaps even killed each other. And some bodies show enormous levels of mastication and deep slashes from claws and teeth, like they were killed by large predators who never bothered to finish devouring their corpses."
"Did any of these marks match the jaws from a rancor?" Rayf asked.
Vaevi nodded, her expression still tightly pinched. "Some of them did. Or, at least, creatures like rancors. Most of the bodies, by the time they were found, were so badly damaged and decayed by both their circumstances and the exposure to the environment or vacuum in which they were found, so there are far too few reports that are as accurate and complete as they should be. Most local law enforcements just bury the reports, chalking it all up to a kid who wanders off while their parents visit a place they don't have the good sense to stay away from. Others say the body belongs to a kid who was too stupid or inexperienced to realize that opening an airlock in hard vacuum is a good way to meet their destinies."
"So how did these...kids lead you here? I mean, to Felucia?" Rayf prompted.
Vaevi massaged her forehead, dredging up the memories of her journey to Felucia in what had obviously been a painful experience. "I studied the kids' bodies myself. The ones that were still in morgues, and hadn't been buried, cremated, or tossed in a trash compactor. The ones that could still be identified as the remains of sentient beings." Vaevi paused here to school her expression back to a neutral one, and Foyi felt a pang of regret for initially assuming this woman was merely a cold-hearted killer, trudging through the jungle to answer an insatiable desire for credits. But she continued with a controlled voice. "The more bodies I studied, no matter how old and decayed they were, I began to discover some commonalities between them. Almost none of them belonged to the same species, but there always seemed to be an equal ratio between males and females in each group. What was even more puzzling was the fact that all the males were of twelve standard years of age, while all the females were fourteen..."
Foyi could not hide the shock from her features. "My sister's fourteen."
"Then she fits the pattern the Shepherd has been using for as long as I have been tracking him," Vaevi confirmed. "But I found another curious similarity amongst the corpses. Upon close examination, I found in over half of them unique kinds of spores and traces of fungal residue, usually smeared into the creases of their skin or lodged in their olfactory organs. This biological material either overlooked or completely ignored in each of the autopsies; apparently, the investigators didn't find it worth noting. Or maybe, they did follow the trail left by the spores, and seeing that it led to Felucia, decided against making a journey here."
"But you decided for," Rayf supplied.
Vaevi gave him a feral grin. "The credits are good. Not to mention the bump in my rep for bringing this Shepherd murglak in. Most bounty hunters think he's a myth and don't even bother, but to be responsible for catching this piece of filth, well...I'm perfectly fine with thinking that in my own way, I could be getting some justice for those kids. No child should die like that."
"You sure other bounty hunters won't beat you to the score?" Rayf asked coyly. "It's an awful lot of credits. What if someone like Dengar, or Boba Fett gets to him first?"
"Dengar? Boba Fett? Who?" Foyi asked.
Rayf gave her a long-suffering look. "Boba Fett. Only the best and most famous bounty hunter in the galaxy."
Vaevi snorted at his assertions. "I don't think I'll have to worry about other hunters, unless the two of you aren't actually what you claim to be. As for Boba Fett, this bounty is way below his interest; the score would have to be a true fortune before he pulled his pompous head out of his pretentious afterburners. And if there are any other hunters out there looking for this guy, I'll just have to...discourage them." Vaevi shrugged as she looked out into the lightening dawn and inky shadows of the jungle. "Not that there isn't already plenty here to discourage competition."
Foyi nodded. "You mentioned scavengers and natives. And Imperials."
"And all the predators roaming the jungles," Vaevi added. "Which would explain some of the marks I found on the bodies. If the Shepherd has his own pets he sets on the children he kidnaps, or just releases them into the jungle to be hunted down and killed by the rancors, acklays, and whatever else is large enough to perceive sentient beings as prey, then he must have some form of shelter or base from which he runs his whole slave ring. Those bodies...those spores, have led me here thus far." She gave a helpless shrug. "Unfortunately, I've had little in the way of leads since then. Mostly, I've been following my visions, seeing where they take me on this backwater, looking for signs of proper civilization or any evidence that this is the epicenter of the Shepherd's sick games."
"Have you found anything useful regarding the Shepherd?" Rayf queried, propping the ACP Scatter Gun on his knees.
"Have you?"
Rayf and Foyi exchanged a look that, to an outside observer, was cryptic to say the least, and almost completely unreadable. But the connection they had forged through their ordeals had attuned them to each others' surface thoughts and feelings, and though both were naturally suspicious regarding this dangerous would-be ally and the motivations she was not entirely truthful about, they needed to only meet the others regard to come to the agreement that both of them could use all the help they could get. Foyi begrudgingly made this assertion, though Rayf seemed more positive about the idea of allying themselves with Vaevi, which still did nothing to drop the caution and readiness cultivated in him by years of trying to mask his abilities and identities from the Empire and other unsavory individuals who looked unkindly upon those gifted with sensitivity to the Force.
Foyi finally lowered the sniper rifle, and with a slow but steady motion, she flipped the E-11s around and offered the stock to the Iktotchi. Vaevi accepted it gladly, and Foyi let her entire body tense, ready to spring upon the bounty hunter if she attempted to use the weapon, despite the awkwardness of utilizing the longblaster in such a confined space. Instead, Vaevi simply slung the weapon over her shoulder and returned to her previously seated position, giving Rayf a significant look, awaiting the return of her Scatter Gun. Rayf shrugged, then passed the weapon to her, accompanied with the C-10 Heavy Blaster Pistol of hers that he had scooped up, and she similarly replaced her returned weapon upon her back. As she did so, Foyi provided the reply to her question. "We believe so. We landed our ship at an old Separatist platform where the Shepherd receives the kidnapped children from slavers, and we were following a trail made by landspeeders or repulsortrucks through the jungle leading away from there. The trail showed signs of recent use, and we believe that if we can locate it again, we can follow it to where the Shepherd is keeping the children he takes." Foyi braced her forehead on her palm in consternation. "But then we lost it in that old battlefield...that horrible, burned place. We were looking for where it resumed along the jungle's edge, when we came across that Felucian and rancor hunting you down."
"Which you dealt with spectacularly, just in case you haven't gotten the credit you're due," Rayf added. "I don't know anyone who can take down a rancor so quickly without getting at least a few scrapes in the process. Though it was still unnecessarily messy."
Vaevi shrugged. "Rancors are such tough bastards...honestly, I don't know if there is a clean way to kill 'em."
Foyi made a slashing motion with her hand. "If we're going to work together, we should all remain focused. Focused on finding the Shepherd, and rescuing my sister...and anyone else he might be holding captive. Vaevi, you mentioned that you were following the trail we discovered, if I heard you correctly. Do you think you can find it again?"
"I can," Vaevi replied simply. She stood upright and peered through the fungal stalks, the dripping fingers of drooping mushrooms providing cover for the trio upon the ridge. She studied the jungle beyond intently, as though looking for landmarks or recognizable features with which she could gather her bearings. Her gaze lit up, and she turned to Foyi and Rayf. "We're only a few klicks from the old battlefield, and I was chased from the deeper parts of the jungle to the burned plains. We've actually backtracked over much of the ground I previously covered, so the trail we were all following should be..." She gestured between two warty stalks of mushrooms, through which could barely be glimpsed a dense portion of the jungle that remained dark and foreboding, despite the weak, grainy light of the sun attempting to sheer through the atmosphere thick with spores and humidity. "Somewhere in there. It's rough terrain, and the Felucian hunting parties seem to be thick in those parts of the jungle. From all the tracks I've seen, I'm guessing one of their villages is nearby, but I've been mostly successful in avoiding them; there are a lot of hiding places in those dark thickets, and tight spaces their pet rancors have difficulty traversing. Plus, I haven't seen any signs of Imperial patrols, so it's makes sense to me that our mutual quarry would cut a path through that. It's like the Maw in there."
Foyi, who had stretched out with questing currents toward the bounty hunter, could sense no deceit on her part. She similarly stood, squeezing her eyes shut momentarily as she experienced a wave of vertigo. Her body was still attempting to heal, and the constant exertion she had placed upon it since awakening from her medically-induced slumber was eating away at her stamina. Foyi sank more deeply and completely within the Force's bolstering waters, then opened her eyes to regard their new ally and guide. "Lead the way, then."
Rayf sprang to his feet, remaining perfectly limber and energetic; their flight through the jungle apparently not sapping his stamina in the slightest. "Let's go drop in on the Shepherd and really ruin his day."
Both Foyi and Rayf marched forward, passing between the two mushrooms and carefully picking their trek down the steep and slippery slope of the ridge, keeping their senses attuned to the jungle around them and the Force suffusing the planet, trying to pick out any potential threats in the morass of life essences and energies tainted by the Dark Side. Vaevi followed quickly behind, her steps hurried yet careful, so that she seemed to clamber, scramble, and leap down the jagged rocks and mud slicks of the slope with the grace of someone born with familiarity to such terrain. Despite her lack of reliance upon the Force for balance and speed, Vaevi reached the bottom of the slope at almost the same moment that Foyi and Rayf did, and the unlikely companions immediately dropped as one into the thicker tangled of fungal undergrowth, so that they would not be easily spotted from a distance.
Vaevi pointed into the alternating speckling of light and darkness in the forest before them, indicating the copse of mushrooms that seemed to be just the perimeter of a section of overgrowth that was particularly ill with the Dark Side's taint. In spite of the rising sun and the aging morning, the grove she indicated barely let any light pass its canopy, and just looking at it gave Foyi a nauseous feeling in her stomach as the cold undertow of the Dark Side splashed against her consciousness with renewed vigor.
The bounty hunter looked to her pair of companions, saw the pained expressions on their faces, then faced back toward the objective she had pointed out for them. "That's where I last left the trail. There are a lot of choke points and locations for excellent ambushes in there, so we must be careful, unless you want to be set upon by Felucians and rancors like a bunch of kath hounds." She returned her attention to them, a query evident on her features. "By the way...I don't think I ever got your names."
"Foyi," the Twi'lek bit out, her eyes skeptically searching the noisy and eerie jungle about them.
"Name's Rayf. Rayf Moors," Rayf answered more flamboyantly. "Pleasure to formally make your acquaintance. Maybe now we can get going, unless you want to sit down for a hand of sabacc while we're getting to know each other so well in the middle of these slimy mushrooms?"
Vaevi snorted as she turned away from him. "Just wanted to know who exactly I'm walking into hell with if we all die."