Tony reached the basement levels of the building he had been searching for days on end. Khem Vaal loomed behind him as he pushed his hands through a small gap and used the leverage to kick out some detritus from the doorway before him.
"God it stinks like a sauna in here!" He covered his nose as he flinched from the smells, the realism of the game now hitting on a new level entirely. The VR aspect of the game had always stumped him and many others but to the vast majority of players they only really cared for the games... A pity, since he could see the potential for fortunes off of this tech.
"Khem Vaal smell, corpse, lot of corpse." The monstrous entity groaned above him as he smiled. Dead bodies meant loot, loot meant boss monsters and boss monsters meant his steps towards learning tech never faltered.
"Let's go stinky, let's see if there is any food for you other than good-ol corpses..." His metallic boots clanked roughly against the screeching debris, the force augmenting each of his measured kicks. Metal split in half as his vision filled with noxious green gas and the wretched bodies of mutilated aliens. Togruta, Chiss and Rodians made most of the dead population, with some rare exceptions in the form of Genosians and Sullustans; He recognised their species from the small prompts upon his status screen.
Putting his helmet on, the re-breather activated and once putrid air became crystal clear as his every breath hummed in robotic malaise. The eye sockets of the helm flickered bright red and activated the full armour set, his force senses skyrocketing in potency as he felt something distinctly wrong about these particular mummies.
"Khem, pal oh buddy oh friend, could you please smack one of these corpses for me?" The monster grunted at the mechanical utterances before running up and simply smacking one of the moderately decayed corpses with his newly found vibro-mace. Khem was grinning ear to ear with jagged teeth bared by the end, simply enjoying his brutal new weapon as it pulped a squishy body.
Nothing occurred, absolutely nothing. And he was now stumped. 'There has to be something to this room!' His force senses were positively screaming at the dark side connection in this massive chamber, it couldn't even really be called a room at this stage. His eyes, behind the mask, tracked the edges of the walls and ceiling, the floor hidden beneath pools of stagnant water and body fluids. No details were present anywhere, it really felt like an endless space of perpetual dankness.
Taking several steps forwards he knelt down next to Khem Vaal's leg, his gloved fingers hovering just above the mouth of the freshly squeezed viscera that was once a person. 'No breath... More than that, this place seems to lack humidity despite the water present.' His helm turned towards the walls, inspecting them for vents or other such atmospheric modifiers. There was nothing.
'Concerning...' He frowned within his mask as he drew his lightsaber, drawing it for an extra light source and for personal protection as she stepped forwards alongside his monstrous companion.
~One, has come to claim, what is not theirs, again~ A wispy voice emerged from the sploshes of his feet through the water, its tone arrogant and sparking anger into the very whisper itself.
"Who's there!? Damn!" The whispers collected near his helm before suddenly fleeing with alacrity, the sounds vanishing as a distant blackness began to bleep light, on and off, every thirty seconds. He would have hissed but was held back by Khem Vaal who raised his mace and began looking around the chamber. He knew what this mode was.
'Fucking typical, knew it would be something...' Bodies lurched upwards like puppets with their string freshly implanted, a soft red glow surrounding their irises as the wispy voice returned with a vengeance. ~Let's see if this, one, can finally claim, what others could not~ He gulped and watched hundreds, nay, thousands of corpses trundle upwards to their feet or scrape along the ground.
"Sh-it?"
...
Yuna Al Ghul, or simply, Yuna, walked through a chamber with some of her clan. It was dusty and old, containing many empty racks of equipment. There were sparse suits of armour and combat gear, which her clan members pilfered without care, those spoils mixed cordially with the barren firearms lockers that looked scratched at and peeled backwards.
"Hunt Mistress, are we to wait for our contractor still?" She grimaced under her helmet and felt conflicted. This game had become crazier with the new update... it had only changed a few hours ago, but her experience with the previous version made her all too aware of the advancement of the game and the 'NPCs' that handed out missions to players.
Waiting for Ned was stupid and would risk hurting her relationship with her own faction. That didn't mean that this was all a waste though, and, she would make sure Ned paid her back. "We are going to loot as much as we can of this building then make for Mandalorian space."
The decision was taken well by many of the temporary mercenaries, their hands grasping more in glee as in comparison to caution. Usually finds would go to the client, now? Well, they were free to loot and enjoy the spoils of their galactic jaunt.
Said looting continued for over an hour as most of them had filled several bags with weaponry, armour and various other technological items. She had also filled her inventory with rare grade items and uncommons. They halted before a sealed door as she gestured for them to turn around, her fingers rotating in the air as her clan members happily began a mass exodus from the room.
"*GRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!?!?* "
"What the hell was that...!?" One of her members dropped their bag and took out duel blasters, a rocket upon her back whirring into activation as her equipment's computer began battle preparations.
Yuna grimaced and pulled her right arm up whilst she took out a blaster in her opposite hand. "Bad news, is what it is. Run!" The clan member quickly scooped up the tightly tied bag, clambering out of the chamber as the rest of her troop waited for her to appear.
"RUN! We aren't going to die on some back world shithole, you got me?" She ran past them as all of them followed after her. The climb began, but whatever was happening was rocking the entire building.
'Why does this always happen to me... This morning, and now this???'
...
His lightsaber sparked into the paste that vaguely resembled a head as he pulled back and to the side, slashing through several of the 'undead' whilst his companions roared loudly. Rotten viscera splattered alongside diphtheria infested waters, collecting on his armour as he lashed out to the side with his hand, lightning springing forth and coiling between several creatures until they turned to ash and joined the swamp-sludge brew on the floor.
"Khem, take out as many as you can, we can survive this if we focus." The monster didn't respond to his pointless statement, merely punching through the body of a Togruta male.
Pulling back his hand he plunged his lightsaber up to the hilt through multiple bodies, yanking it out before rounding on another two abominations that soon had their lifeless corpses bisected. Whatever was happening, it wasn't natural...
~Skilled... But, is he, skilled enough? Hehehehe~ The laughter faded into the vapid, lifeless, trudging of corpses through the swampy soot on the floor. 'Son of a bitch! This isn't even the boss fight yet and I am having to exhaust myself?' Having a brief moment of rest as Khem cleared the surrounding ring of enemies, he looked down and facepalmed.
'Really it was so simple?'
"Khem, when I say 'go', jump as high as you can." It nodded before tensing its muscles and preparing itself. He liked its simplicity sometimes, it didn't argue back like most people who thought themselves more intelligent than him.
'Here goes nothing then!' He launched himself in the air using a force jump, sustained his altitude with a levitation and then shouted out his command word to his companion. "GO!" Khem jumped and then things went very quickly indeed.
Lightning sparked across his entire body as he blasted the pure electricity into the water, the powerful energy frying anything that had made contact with it. Luckily for him and his companion, that just turned out to be all of the 'undead' in the entirety of the room. Legs disintegrated and turned to ash as other sloughing body parts slowly descended to the same fate. Lightning pumped from his hands in a veritable tidal wave as Khem slowly began his descent to the ground, gravity being a cruel and heartless bitch as per usual.
Deactivating his force lightning and levitation he dropped onto his feet in the water, much of the liquid evaporating with the levels of heat present in the energy he projected outwards. All around him the sight of burned algae and charred flesh met his eyes. If he hadn't spent time in Afghanistan with his 'captors' he would have been gagging at this sight.
"Khem Vaal, not get, to eat..." The monster almost sounded sad, the emotion usually vacant from the large brute's mind. 'I guess miracles are possible?' He chuckled to himself before look around him in a 360 degree radius, the wispy voice simultaneously shouting but whispering in his head, or was it in the chamber itself? He couldn't tell.
~Oooohhh? Wonderful. Excellent. Intelligent... Wonder will never cease~ He tried to speak up but was once again shunted from his thoughts as the voice playfully scraped the inside of his mind.
~First trial is completed, I wonder, will you be the one to finally claim my prize?~
His thoughts cleared immediately as the far corner of the room lit up with light once more. There was something there and he supposedly needed to get to it.
"This prize better be fucking worth it! I hate breathing through this thing and it smells like ass out there." No answer came, but the fact he had said it gave him comfort enough to venture forth, his companion turning his head to the side and shrugging.
Sloppy gulps echoed out as his boot slid deep into water-laden mud, the noise sounding moist and disgusting. He shivered as his lightsaber still groaned with energy off to his side, the singular red blade hazily projecting crimson light over heavily darkened refuse.
'I hope real life isn't like this when using the force...'
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