The wild planet of Kashyyyk is known to be home to the gentle, but short-tempered race of Wookiees. Wild and untamed, the lush, wroshyr tree-filled forests form a multi-layered deathtrap. The local wildlife present a threat as one descends towards the forest floor, though the battle-scarred beaches and the remnants of the Clone Wars provide refuge. However, as one ascends the danger of falling becomes the largest threat until coming in contact with the Wookiee settlements. Fauna and flora flourish in delight, growing within dirt pockets in the crevices of the trees. Some of these plants are carnivorous, becoming larger and deadlier closer to the forest floor. Others have some form of consciousness, able to communicate with the Wookiees to give some understanding of their use.

Above the Wookie settlements rests the wild rain forest canopies. Within the crevices of the trees, empty fruit and rotting shells from seeds show the spring season has ended. A soft wind whistles between the thick vines and shrubs that stick to the trunks of the ancient and sleeping giants. Despite the never-ending lack of footholds aside from the branches of wroshyr trees, a series of abandoned and rotting platforms are suspended a hundred meters above the surface, once home to its own Wookiee settlement. Overgrown and decayed, it has since nourished countless plants and trees with their outstretched branches sheltering the dense and soft floor from the extreme sun rays and torrential rain. Upon closer inspection unusual signs become notable. Moss carpets particular areas on the platforms and nowhere else, and tree-dwelling animals and birds never seem to land on the surface.

Tread carefully, or fall whim to the creatures that inhabit this terrain.

The sun filtered through the forest branches, bathing the abandoned village in rays of light. While no wildlife seemed too keen on landing on the old platforms, Yeet couldn’t help but clench their jaw at all the incessant noise.

Birds are first against the wall when wesa ascend, the Gungan thought.

Many resources had been expended to get the Sith here, research and researchers alike used up to track down the Adept’s quarry. There was an ancient Sith holocron on this forsaken, life infested ball of dirt and wood, Yeet simply had to find it. Their scouring of old texts, scrolls, and databases had lead to this deserted township in the heights of the forest, and the Gungan had an inkling of what they were looking for. An ancient machine, with the holocron integrated into it. Old mysteries and powers would be Yolo’s, the Gungan’s palms seemed to itch under the heavy gauntlets they wore as they thought on it.

Freylia Sanfe whistled as she worked, having finally gotten the panel off the front of the rusted, corroded console. Finding it had been a trick in itself, her little ID-3 buddy having tracked down a standby power signal while searching for other salvage. The massive wroshyr tree almost seemed to have grown around the black and gray machine, unlike anything she’d seen before. It gave off an unsettling feeling, but that didn’t bother the scavenger that much. With the sun at her back she squinted into the machine, eyes tracing wires and circuit boards.

”The red wire is connected....to the capacitor! The blue wire is connected to the...power supply! The green wire is connected...to...the...ground!” she sing-songed as she pulled bits apart, having to tug on the ground wire harder to get it loose. ”The black wire is connected to the….to the…”

Her tattooed face scrunched up, purple eyes squinting at what the black wire was running to. It was a pyramid-shaped object, a frame of blackened metal holding in what looked like panes of crimson glass.

“Shiny,” she whispered, eyes glittering. This is gonna be worth a friggen mint!

Her droid chittered in alarm, and she glanced over at it.

“What?” she managed before she heard a humming sound. “Oh kark, did I turn something on?” she muttered, before yelping, finding herself pulled from where she knelt half inside the machine and into the air.

Freylia flailed as she was turned in midair, and found herself floating towards a tall figure adorned in a set of red armor, built like overlaying plates. Mental calculations about how much that might be worth gave her a quirk to the lips, even as she noted the source of the humming she’d heard. A blackened saber hilt with a crimson blade was in the figure’s right hand, while its left was seemingly drawing her nearer. She came to a stop about a foot in front of them, well within the range of the lightsaber, and felt a tightness around her throat that wasn’t her own fear.

“Oh, come on, can’t a girl find one good haul without frakking Sith showing up?” she gasped, kicking as she floated six inches off the platform.

“Oyl, moole, moole, yousa bombad unlucky, girlie,” came a rasping voice from inside the helmet. “Mesa hopes yousa not break that machineeks, or wesa have to hurts you.”

The Sith clenched his outstretched hand slightly, causing Freylia to cough, her airway slowly cutting off.

“Hey...hey!” she managed, one hand coming up placatingly, the other dropping towards her waist. “Its not...that broke. I just found it!”

“Yousa gonna give up the holocron, or daree gonna be moi moi hurts.”

Wait, that thing is a holocron? Those are worth a fortune! thought the scavenger, darkness pushing in around her vision. “Yeah! Sure! I’ll get it out, just stop!” she cried.

Yeet stared at the girl, debating simply crushing her windpipe, but relented. It was important to let others do menial work for you if you were going to someday rule the galaxy. Minions were important. The girl had found the machine before Yeet had, after all, perhaps she was useful. With a sigh of disgust for themselves showing such mercy, Yolo released her, dropped her to the platform. Even with having the life nearly choked out of her, she landed lightly in a crouch, violet eyes flashing as she looked up at the Sith.

“Move.”

“Yeah, yeah, gimme a second,” she grumbled, moving back to the machine and dropping to her knees. “Just gotta take the mounting off,” she called over her shoulder, reaching for an object on her belt and throwing a Look at her droid.

ID-3 braced and leaped into the air, tiny repulsor unit sputtering to fling the droid at the armored figure, shock prods sparking and pincers snapping.

Freylia almost thought she heard a sigh of annoyance from the armored Sith, before its offhand rose and a blast of lightning turned the droid into a charred hunk of metal on the ground, slightly smoking. Her own hand threw what she’d pulled from her belt, while her other hand closed around the grip of her micro-grenade launcher.

The C-10 grenade arced towards the target, before stopping a few feet out in mid-air, the Sith’s fingers twitching. It began to travel back towards the Miralian, for just a moment, before exploding and drawing curses from both of them. If it had been any nearer either of them it probably would have ended things right there. She fired blindly, the launcher made a ‘fwoomp’ sound as it sent another grenade in the general direction of the Sith. A shout of pain was heard, which she took as a good sign as she placed her freehand on the trunk of the tree and used it to guide her away, hoping to at least put an obstacle between her and the frakker she’d just blasted.

Yeet hissed in pain, parts of their armor were shredded by the nearly direct hit. The girl was a lucky shot. The Gungan could feel blood seeping from multiple wounds, soaking the comfort glove of their armor. With a hiss the Adept moved forward, looking at the machine.

Mesa be back for you, the Sith thought to themselves, before slapping a hand on the wroshyr tree’s trunk. The bark around the hand darkened, looking sickly as Yeet grit their teeth, the wounds across their side closing up as it used the ancient tree to fuel their healing. First, the girlie is gonna get deaded.

Freylia ran from the Sith Lord, placing the grenade launcher back into its holster. She came up to the edge of the platform, where the planks attached to the tree and looked below. Several meters down was the next platform. Taking her cybernetic hand and placing it on the tree she held herself still for a moment.

“This ain't gonna tickle,” she said to herself before stepping off the platform.

Sparks flew off her metallic hand as the bark of the tall tree blistered and cracked. Freylia slid down to the next platform, trying to make some distance between herself and the Gungan. Pain surged through the techno-neural network within the machinery. A wicked smile plastered across her face as she thought about how Yeet’s face must have looked in that explosion.

”Things are gonna get real good now. I hope his face isn't too messed up, especially if I still gotta look at it. I wonder if he’s really mad. He did fry my poor ID-3 afterall.”

Perhaps less focusing on his face and more focusing on making it out of this alive.

”I ain't leaving without that trinket. It was so pretty and shiny, I bet it’s worth a lotta creds.”

Not that those credits will mean a thing if you’re not alive to spend them.

“Oh don’t be so dramatic.”

Her feet finally touched down on the platform and the Mirialan grabbed her trip-mine from her belt. She set the bomb on the ground and activated the device before running to the edge of the platform where another tree grew through the planked floor. She hid behind the tree’s trunk and pulled out her grenade launcher, waiting.

“I always wondered how cooked Gungan would smell.”

Our mind is a complete mess.

“You still love me though!”

Ugh…

Freylia’s thoughts were broken by the sound of loud hissing. She looked up and around the trunk slightly seeing that the black cloaked Gungan was following her to the lower level. His dual red lightsabers were burned into the tree, scorching the bark as he descended from the platform above. When he landed, he yanked the sabers free with a loud screaming hiss.

“Yousa gonna die for yousun bombad bombs girlie. No one makes meesa bleed meesa own blood,” the Dark Side of the Force dripped off of his masked voice. His helmet turned as he searched for the girl. He could feel her presence, even if he couldn’t tell her exact location.

Yeet stepped forward before noticing the gleam of the obviously placed laser trip-mine in front of him. He shook his head as his eyes rolled behind his mask. The Gungan deactivated the lightsabers and placed them on his belt before he summoned a barrier in one hand for potential protection. He used the other to crush the device with the Force. The mine caved in on itself leaving only a chunk of scrap metal in its place.

Two rounds flew from the grenade launcher, heading straight for the Gungan. The first exploded near Yeet, his barrier taking the brunt of the explosion before cracking apart and breaking. The force of the second explosion sent the Gungan flying backwards off of his feet, his armor protecting him from most of the blast damage. Slowly and in pain, the Sith stood from his spot on the ground, hatred emanating from him in waves of dark energy.

“So much for that hoity toity dark side power of yours. My babies have shown you real pain,” the crazy woman shouted with glee. “Now die!”

The Mirialan threw her grenade launcher to the side before pulling out her disruptor pistol. Keeping her focus on Yeet she pulled the trigger. Freylia fired two shots at the dark armored Gungan with her blaster but he managed to erect another barrier in front of himself. The ionic plasma just faltered against the power of the Force.

“Well that’s not fair. You Force users are such cheats, ya know,” her voice whined in self pity

“Time for meesa to teach yousa a bombad lesson, girlie. Yousa will suffer for the pain yousa caused meesa,” His left hand raised high and Freylia felt a pressure on her throat as she too lifted from the ground. She was choking and could barely get breath into her lungs. “Meesa gonna fry you like yousa droid. And only when yousa feel the truth of yousa failure, then yousa have meesa permission to die.”

Freylia lifted her blaster and fired several shots towards the Gungan Sith Lord, but they all missed. He didn't even have to move out of the way or use the Force. Her voice was garbled by the crushing feeling around her throat and her skin was turning a shade of blue from lack of oxygen.

“Yousa couldn’t even hit meesa. What was the point in yousa shooting?”

A slight smirk grew across her face before the Gungan let off his choking for a moment.

“Wasn’t...aiming...for ya…”

A creaking noise followed by the sound of crackling wood alerted Yeet a second too late. As he looked at his feet, the wood around him had been vaporized by the disruptor pistol of the Mirialan. With a loud snap the floor beneath his feet fell away, and Yeet dropped into the hole.

Yeet glowered as they clung to one of the branches making up the platform’s support structure, hanging by one Force infused arm and watching a charred saber hilt bounce between limbs into the depths below.

Girlie busted up mesa armor, now cost a shiny sword. Slow death, the Gungan decided, slapping the remaining lightsaber back to its resting place and using the freed-up hand to help pull themselves atop the branch. Yeet took a moment to gather their thoughts, glancing up at the disintegrated hole. The Sith knew about that trick now, and was determined not to rush into things. Yeet could hear creaking on the platform as the girl moved around, and with the Force they could just about tell where they were exactly. With a glance over their shoulder, the Adept came up with a plan.

Freylia peered over the edge of the hole, pistol in one hand, shaking with excitement. She was loving this. How often did you get to make a Sith Lord go splat after all? Shit bit her lower lip and grinned, slowly circling the hole in a crouch, trying to see if she could spot the Gungan’s broken body on top of a branch, hoping it hadn’t fallen all the way down.

I wanna keep one of those saber thingies!

You don’t even know how to use it

But it would be suuuuper handy for getting through things like bulkheads! Or if I lose my keys

Did you hear that?

Hear what? she asked herself, before catching the creak of wood behind her, and felt something close in on her, pinning her arms to her sides. “Hey! No fair!” she cried out, pulling against the invisible grip.

She continued to struggle, teeth grit, as she felt a creeping fear crawl up her spine, still just hearing the creaking of armored footsteps on aged wood behind her, pacing.

“What is yousa afraids of, little girlie?” came the rasping voice of the Gungan. “Wesa find out, together. Maybe beastie from below? Mesa find for yousa, and feeds you to it, yes?”

Freylia barked a laugh, twisting her head to give the Sith a wide, toothy grin.

“You look all mean, but you’re really bad at this.”

“What?” the Gungan looked perplexed. This usually works.

“Ooooh, big bad Sithy, with your shiny swords and your big scary armor...hahahah, I half blew you to bits with a few grenades already!”

She could tell she’d made the Adept angrier by the way it moved towards her, the Force grip holding her in place tightening and making it harder to breathe.

Yup! Just a bit closer…

He is going to kill you! He is going to kill you, and that means he’s going to kill me!

Nah, I won’t let him. ‘Sides, can’t kill us if we’re already dead!

What? No no no no

Freylia quelled the voice in her head and stuck her tongue out at the Gungan, the expression turning into a yelp as an armored hand closed around her throat.

“Mesa was gonna kill you slowmo like, but mesa getting bored,” came a growl.

“Aww...boring….you?” Freylia tried to push out, her grin returning. Her arms might have been pinned to her sides, but that didn’t mean her hands didn’t work. They could both hear the audible ‘click’ of metal sliding from her waist. “Too….bad…!”

Yeet glanced down, alarm from the Force washing over the Sith even before their golden gaze settled on the now active thermal detonator.

“Yousa would off us both?” asked the Adept, looking into the girl’s eyes intently. Yeet released the telekinetic grip and began to gather a barrier around themselves. All they saw was the thrill in Freylia’s eyes as she let go of the detonator, then it was just a flash of white and nothing, the forest platform losing a chunk of itself and the world went silent once more.