I. HATE. HEAT.
Nikkitis once again found herself outside of the cool confines of the Sith Academy, riding in a planetary speeder on her way to the Lower Wilds, where her next trial awaited her. The speed at which she was travelling did nothing to mitigate the intensity of the Korriban sun on her skin, nor the fact that no air currents were to be found, the air still and steady. She spied the opening to the caverns of Marka Ragnos in the distance and longed to be inside its dark depths already and out of the oppressive rays.
Landing in the Lower Wilds was a bit odd to her, as the landing pad required an elevator to reach the ground. Why it didn't land on the ground was beyond her, and she viewed both the platform and the elevator as a waste of resources. The metal and the energy required to keep the elevator functional could have been used for something else entirely.
Stepping off of the elevator, she noticed a perhaps late-middle-aged human male hunched over a purplish-grey quadrupedal beast. He moved slightly and she saw that he had cut open the creature from her new vantage point. It seemed to be a very odd location for both study and an autopsy, and for a moment she forgot about her discomfort from the heat of this blasted planet as she approached him. He was humming a happy little tune that she would have expected from, perhaps, a parent to a young child, but most certainly not from a portly Sith who was removing a... spleen, maybe? She couldn't even identify what this animal was, much less what he was removing, but there were several more in cages nearby, and probably all of them were due for the same treatment.
She cleared her throat to get his attention and he turned to face her. She probably should have been prepared to see the Dark Side influence on his face, but she had to hide her disgust at the veiny black tendrils coming from the corners of his mouth and eyes, the greyed skin patches, and the red irises on the pale backdrop of his light skin. The fact that he was wearing gray and was barely contained within his clothes did nothing for his appearance, though he looked clean, at least. He introduced himself to her as Lord Renning and she fought back the urge to say something about his looks. She had to disguise her revulsion even further when his concern was not for his own appearance, but for the mess on his operating table.
"I have no fear of dead things," was all she could say without giving away that her nausea was caused by him, and not his activities.
She patiently listened as he explained with an over-inflated ego that he believed that the beast on his table, a tuk'ata, was a manifestation of pure dark side energy due to its tendencies toward all-encompassing aggression. He asked her for a favor, since she was going to be going to the tombs anyway, and sent her away to his apprentice, Malora. Malora informed her that his prize tuk'ata had gotten away and ran into the tomb of Marka Ragnos. The apprentice reminded her that she only needed to retrieve the brain of the thing. Before she could depart, however, the apprentice had an intriguing request of her own: to bring the brain back to her first, so that she could taint the sample.
Ah, and so begin the Sith games, apprentice versus master.
From what little she gathered, the older Sith was a little mad, so she eagerly agreed to the apprentice's terms. It could only serve the Empire to remove this man from the pool of scientific and Force-based academia before he tainted it with his off-the-wall thinking, not to mention the drain on resources, both financial and tangible.
She made her way to the tomb in the distance, once again aware of the heat. She would need to get used to all kinds of climates, now that she was no longer just training on Csilla. Still, her body betrayed her discomfort, making her breathing far more laborious than it should have been, and she felt the heaviness of the air deep in her lungs. The task for the odious Sith and his apprentice was closer to her at this time, so she quickly turned to the shelter of the tomb to get out of the sun.
The first step into the shade of the tomb was an instantaneous relief, as though she had plunged into a pool of water, the temperature plummeting quickly the further she got into it.
Right. Malora said I need bait, and to kill some k'lor'slugs for that. Alright. Time to unleash some of my fury at Devotek's failure.
She allowed her mind to wander slightly, wondering what the Darth she was supposed to be impressing was like, as she slaughtered a sixteenth, then a seventeenth k'lor'slug, trying to find the perfect bait. She assumed it had to be heavily malodorous to be right, as that's how bait worked on Csilla, at least. She struck gold on the eighteenth one, and the entire spinal column was intact, allowing her to carry it easily. She tried not to gag as she laid out the bait and tried to waft the scent towards where she was told the tuk'ata was likely hiding.
The hulking beast roared out of a hole in the wall towards her and she swiftly realized why this one was called a mutant. The other tuk'ata seemed to be significantly smaller than this one. She couldn't help but grin. Finally, she felt like this was a fight that would challenge her, even if only slightly. The tuk'ata charged at her with its mouth open, using its two large, sharp lower bone-like mandibles like swords.
Interesting. This one can think, I believe.
She leapt upwards, above the creature, and flipped herself as gravity propelled her back towards the ground, pounding into the mutant with her warblade. She grinned further when she heard a cracking sound, and blood shot forth from where she had hit. This blade would suit her just fine for now, but she almost couldn't wait to get a fully realized lightsaber and do some real damage.
She focused on the wound she'd caused and gripped the armored hide of the tuk'ata with the Force, pulling it apart with as much power as she could muster. More blood spewed from the wound, creating a sizeable puddle on the ground where the brutish creature was rooted, unable to move due to the pain of her machinations. Releasing her hold, she stabbed the blade through the wound, ending the tuk'ata's life.
Before the tuk'ata had even fully collapsed to the ground, she was already reaching for her vibroknife to cut through the skull and extract the brain for Malora and ultimately Lord Renning. But she wasn't done spending her rage from the prisoners, so she quickly bagged the brain and tied it to her belt for easy transport before moving on to her next target: Ragnos's beast.
She had almost cooled off enough, but when the wave of sweltering air came and hit her, her visceral hatred of heat returned, and sweat began to form on her skin as she turned towards the main entrance to the caverns.
The primary section of the cavern of Marka Ragnos was filled seemingly to the brim with deserters to the Sith, and her rage only increased, filling her with more power than she had ever felt. Even having been ostracized and shunned by not only her people, but her own family, had previously given her power, she had never felt such fury. She could understand, to a point, why her people and family had disregarded her and removed her from social gatherings and an even remotely normal upbringing. But everything over the last day had pushed her further than she knew she was able to feel, and she relished the surge in might, the potential energy in her pinky finger seemingly outstripping anything she'd been able to muster to date.
She cut down the failed acolytes and deserters that dared to get in her way. While she felt stronger than ever in the Force, her body was becoming physically exhausted, and she knew that she had to hurry to her objective before she was too weak to defeat the beast. She was grateful that the chamber she had to be in wasn't terribly far from the entrance, and she sat amongst the blue flames to meditate at the giant tablet resting amongst the pyres. She only stopped meditating when she heard a loud stone-on-stone scraping noise, followed by an explosive sound that was accompanied by an indescribable screeching cry. She stood and turned to face the fabled beast.
This creature was easily twice the size of the tuk'ata, and had what appeared to be thick natural armor with several spikes that could be found all over its body. She couldn't help the grimace she made when she thought of being run through by any one of them as she steeled herself for battle.
Letting out a primal shout as she vaulted towards the gargantuan facing her, she swung her warblade with all of her might in a side slash, causing a deep gash from its mid ribs to its hips. The beast roared and she had to leap back to be near the tablet as it swung both arms downwards, where she was just seconds before. It seemed confused for just a split second, so she took action immediately. Jumping to her left, she jabbed into the wound at Ragnos's beast's hip and twisted upwards. She didn't have time to pull it out before she was backhanded across the room, the blade jutting out at an awkward angle. She feared her only physical weapon would snap from the hulk's strength and weight, but didn't have much time to do anything about it once she slammed into the wall and had the wind knocked out of her.
Springing over from across the room with surprising agility, she barely managed to make herself a smaller target and summon a shield around herself before the beast slammed into the ground around her. It bounced her off the ground with the shock of its landing and unleashed a torrent of brutal attacks on her. She instinctively curled up into the fetal position in an attempt to protect her vitals as her breath returned to her, and she was extremely glad that her hastily summoned shield managed to protect her. It started to fail as she reached up for her weapon, yanking it out of the monstrosity before it struck the ground where she just rolled from.
Popping up to a standing position, Nikkitis sliced into the beast's ankle, then the other one, making it buckle, then cut the tendons behind its kneecaps. The creature fell face forward into the ground and made to push itself up. She grabbed onto one of the spikes and launched herself forward, stabbing the cap into its skull with enough force to see the tip of her warblade through the front of its skull. She felt it go limp beneath her, and the heaviness on her lungs seemed to clear, the Force noticeably lighter than it was before.
Was my breathing more difficult this whole time? Did I just not notice?
She felt her exhaustion ease slightly, and made her way back through the cavern for the long trek back to Malora and Lord Renning to turn over this tuk'ata brain. Malora seemed thrilled as she injected it with something Nikkitis couldn't identify, and Malora rushed her over to Lord Renning. The Sith was virtually beside himself with joy upon receiving the brain and she left quickly before she became wrapped up in what was likely to be a messy aftermath once the treachery was discovered.
Consciousness evaded her on the speeder ride back to the Sith Academy, and she found herself being shaken awake by the droid at the landing pad, a medical droid already scanning her. Waving the two of them away, Nikkitis hopped out of the speeder and ignored the fact that Overseer Tremel likely wanted to speak with her immediately, turning instead towards the acolyte bunks, and she passed out.