The four travelers watched as their ship took off to dock with its larger partner, figuring they'd both be more safe (and available for recall at a moments notice) in orbit than on ground. Going into a mission with very little knowledge of what is ahead always calls for more caution. Or at least that's what Raezyr kept insisting on to his older brother. Until Trychon could come up with a better way to settle such disputes besides sparring match, he had to concede on some finer points such as this.
"Raez... the ground keeps making crunchy noises when I walk on it, and the air tastes like dirt." Trychon complained after they parked their vehicles outside what they hoped was an uninhabited cave to set camp for the quickly approaching night.
"Well, hopefully things will go well enough for us that we won't have to do too much sneaking. As for the air... it tastes fine to me. The little pieces of rock we call sand that's flying through the air though... I bet that tastes a bit like dirt. Bet you won't make fun of me for taking a mask with me when we go out in public in the future."
Trychon sat down and began assembling part of a portable structure. "Doubtful, but I get your point." He said as he tossed the instruction pad over his shoulder after a glance.
"Trych, what are you doing? We don't need to set up camp if this cavern turns out to be a safe place... come help me check it out."
"It'll give us something to block out the bad taste from the air. Give me just a few. Only need a couple of walls, really."
Raezyr stood and kicked a few pebbles while watching Trychon finish. He gazed up into the darkening sky, the reddish sunset adding to the already crimson landscape, bathing everything in a blood-red light.
"You coming?" Trychon asked from behind him, causing his brother to come as close to jumping as any Force user might possibly come.
Together they turned and headed deeper into cavern. They didn't bother telling Schyrt and Reed to stand guard, as they knew what their duties were and didn't need to be reminded. The two were nothing if not efficient and loyal. Not for the first time did the brothers feel lucky to have found employees as good as these two had turned out to be.
Quickly, Trychon snapped on a glow rod, while Raezyr activated the night vision on his helmet, casting the underground tunnel with a green glow and giving him just a bit of a visual advantage. Not that he'd really need an advantage. Both should be able to detect any living threat before it came into visual range.
The sand on the floor of the cave eventually lessened and finally disappeared altogether, giving way to courser gravel and finally solid rock. They were going to turn around when Trychon noticed something peculiar that wasn't readily visible under Raezyr's infrared vision. "Check this out," the elder brother said, running his fingers along the wall of the cave.
Raezyr removed his glove and did like-wise. He noted the damp feeling on his fingers. "Must be water farther down."
Suddenly they both turned toward the darkness deeper in the cave. They could sense something living coming their way, it wasn't sentient, that was for sure. The mind wasn't a complex one. What concerned them was the size of thing.
Raezyr held his forearm in front of him. He had upgraded his armor a bit when they were last on Den Var. Adding a limited sensor package was one of improvements. He checked the read outs. "It's thirty-five meters and closing fast," he told his brother. "I don' think it's friendly."
The creature came into the beam of the glow-rod, it was two meters wide, a meter and a half tall and flat. It had a tan chitinous shell and eight legs, but what they focused their attention on were the two massive pincers it held in front of it, and the loud clacking sound it made as it approached.
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