Journal Entry 62

Monday May 1, 2023
Artifacts: 55
Repairs: 55
Kill count: 539
Another long day. The back of my neck is in pain. I have a nasty cough. I did find a 'pool' with fish swimming to the surface, so I have a new item on the menu. I think I have a new pet. Ever heard of a sith hound from Star Wars?

TT

I can't believe that I'm getting used to life in the crawlways. In the beginning, I did panic whenever I woke up in the confined space, leading to whacking my head. Now, it's part of my life. I'm even thinking this Temple as my own, much as I hate it.

Never got the chance to get my own shield. The first one got too damaged. And any other simply fell apart. Darn it.

I finished my call to Dune Wolf a few hours ago. He was asking me after my health. There are no mirrors down here and I know due to the lack of sunlight that I've become more pale than normal. Guess I look worse than losing color. Then again, I have been scratched, cut, bit, jabbed and burned so many times in the two months I've been here.

I caught some sort of bug along the way. With a blood sample, Tabby simply said it was lethal or life changing, just a minor annoyance. With proper medicine, it would pass easily. Without, it lingers. I need to find a way to wash my clothing. They stink.

Anyway, I'm facing a bit of a problem right now. My gut telling me of danger increased sharply since being dragged here. I am being stalked. In the crawlway. Where I'm supposed to be free of being stalked. That will not do.

It couldn't be a metalhead. All light eco veins I've come across so far are still holding up. Then again, there are aggressive fauna that aren't part of the hive.

Crawling to the nearest vent I personally marked, I made my way into an empty room. I didn't put the vent back on. I am meeting this thing head on.

Keeping my rifle trained on the opening, I thought it would be glubs, the red critter with the furry tail and long froggy tongue, giant rat, or worse, giant spider. It was none of those. It looked like a Sith Hound.

With my ADHD, I tend to hyper fixate. My first one was Star Wars, centered around the Clone Wars. During that time, I came across picture of Sith Hounds. I found them so fascinating. This one has the same shape like the one on Wookieepedia, grey base color with a touch of blue. Not blue this one, rather orange. Fitting for being in a Precursorian Temple. It's also the size of a Labrador.

'Friend companion master' What the hell? Pressure began to build up in my head, similar to a headache.

'Will serve. Please let serve.' Ok, pressure is a migraine now. When did I drop my rifle? I should have blasted that thing as soon as I saw it.

'Let Serve!' I'm on my knees, clawing at my head. 'LET' I grabbed the rifle and smacked the beast between its eyes as hard as I could. "STOP!"

The pressure vanished. Stomach rolling, I locked eyes with yellow irises. "That is NOT how you ask to serve!"

The beast seemed to wilt. 'Need to serve. To survive. Friend companion master. Please?'

Deep down below, a tiny part of me is excited from the memory of my first fixation. A cool beast wanting to serve me? But I knew better. I had to focus on my goals, namely finding one more metalhead to eliminate before tucking in for the night. "You're not the only one that wants to survive."

'Hunting?'

Digging the key out, "Yes, just need one more today. If you're going to follow me, be quiet as you can." Slipping out the door, I gave the beast a chance to follow, which it did, before locking the door. Must be out of my mind to let this happen. I don't need to smell the air, I can feel through the floor that something heavy is tromping near.

Rounding the corner of the hallway, I found a new room. With a giant. In Jak 2, when you go to the nest, there is a big metalhead that lets off electricity and you can't kill it. That's what I'm looking at. And it's BIG. I think it's ten times bigger than the ones in the game. And that's when the entryway shut.

And it sees us. Fuck!

TWO HOURS LATER

"DIE ALREADY!" I'm tired, sore and thirsty. And I'm sure my new friend feels the same. I named them Tik Tak. Blue flashed out and I'm on the ground shaking.

Tik Tak bit my shirt and dragged away before I could get stepped on. Oh, and we had about a dozen Mantis metalheads too. Tik Tak made quick work of them. Good work.

Forcing myself back up, "Keep its attention off me!"

Through blurry vision, as it always is, I mapped out a path to climb via thick cables crawling the walls. Dropping everything but my spear, I made my way up. I need to start toting a mini canon around, for the rifle and handgun did nothing. Not even to the eyes. Tik Tak managed to claw metal covering off the one weak spot, the skull gem. So, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm going to make a leap of major faith.

High enough, I can see a spot of yellow. Lord Almighty! Give me accuracy!

TT

Something's not right. The last thing I remember is falling. Instead, I'm laying on the ground, no, the crawlspace. I'm still experiencing the shivers from getting electrocuted. And there's something warm on my stomach. Oh, it's Tik Tak, sound asleep.

'Awake.' Ok, what happened? 'Giant beast dead. Hit mark. Got shocked. Fell asleep. Dragged you to small space.'

Fine. "No hunting tomorrow. Move." Pushing Tik Tak off, where's my . . . there's my bag. One bottle of water left. I drank about a quarter of it before carefully pouring the rest into Tik Tak's fanged jaw. "Good work. Hopefully we won't come across another big one like that before getting a better weapon."

Kill Count: 550