_Brim, wake up. Damn it Chiss, wake up._
Clouds of noise clamoured in Brimstone's head from the sudden fall through the ancient space station's bulkheads. He had been with his team, searching for the missing Teylas. Plagueis lost contact hours earlier and the Dread Lord commanded an immediate search for the missing Plagueian.
_Damn it, can anyone see down below for him?_
The voices kept pounding in his head. Opening his eyes, the darkness started fading as his eyes adjusted. Looking upwards, he took note that he fell approximately 40 feet. The hardened floor didn't help cushion the stop. Sitting up, some blood trickled down his forehead and into his left eye. Reaching into a utility pouch, he pulled out an illumination stick and cracked it open, illuminating the room green, causing the shadows to retreat in fear.
Callus, who was yelling above, saw the glow stick. As he reached for the comm device, Brimstone was already contacting him. "I'm ok boss, little blood on head, don't take a step."
"You ok? "
"Yeah, looks like some kind of laboratory. Dome shaped.
"Okay, stay there. We'll find a route to you. Dropping a med pack through hole, should seal ya fine" replied the Quaestor.
"Roger, out."
Brimstone watched as the package fell about five feet from him. He reaches out and grabs it with the Force, bringing it to him. Looking around and surveying his situation, Brimstone applied a gauze bandage on the top of his scalp.
A noise from behind made the Sith Warrior spin into a kneeling crouch, immediately grabbing the hilt of his lightsaber, igniting it quickly. The red blade fired more shadows into oblivion.
"Teylas, is that you?" called out the Chiss. He was hopeful for an answer, but instead he only heard metal creak its waning song. Brimstone continued to search the room for any power source to shed light on his location. After about thirty minutes, he found a dusty computer terminal. Pulling of a side plate, Brimstone tinkered with the wiring until the screen finally flickered back to life. Reading the command prompts, he found access to the rooms controls and turned on the lights, air filtration system, and security cameras for the room and three hallways. The vision he saw in each hallway looked like different access to the room he was in.
He continued to punch in more commands to find any information on his location. But unfortunately, most of the files were corrupted due to millenniums of inactivity. He did find a partial journal log, dated approximately 3000 years earlier. But the language was one he wasn't familiar with. One word did come out that he heard before; Terentatek. Brimstone remember the creature during his studies in the Chiss Ascendancy in xenology. It was a 3-4 meter tall, horned creature that fed off of force sensitive humanoids or creatures.
Another creak in the bulkheads caused him to turn his head. Shaking off the disturbance, he went back to the monitors. Brimstone noticed one of the hallways cameras had gone dark. He figured it was due to age, but something in his gut caused him to investigate it. Keying in commands, he rewound the feed. Watching closely, the hallway was illuminated until a shadow crossed the wall and then suddenly the camera went dark. Brimstone's senses went into full alert. Something or someone was nearby and didn't want to be seen.
Looking around, he tried to setup where he could have an advantage incase he was attacked. Storage lockers lined the room along with lab tables and busted glass containers. The hole above was full of jagged beams so leaping out was pointless, especially since his team was trying to find their way to him. Going to a storage locker, he opened it, but found nothing within. Nearly all of them were empty. Nothing of any use was available. Just when he was about to quit searching, he went to one that resembled a deep freezer. Expectant to find molded food stuffs or decaying petri examples, he was aghast to find something different. Teylas. Grabbing his neck to check for signs of life, Teylas' eyes popped open and force shoved Brimstone away. The Chiss hit hard on the other side of the room as Teylas jumped after him, igniting his lightsaber, ready to strike dead his foe. Only when he realized it was an ally did he stop in mid strike.
"Brim, what the sithspit are you doing here" he yelled.
Sitting back up, the Chiss looked at him. "Looking for your sorry ass. We lost contact with you and Vivackus sent out search parties." Brim then stood up as he continued, "what were you doing in the freezer?"
"I was in a force cocoon. I was trying to hide my presence."
"What ever for? " exclaimed the Chiss.
"Damn sithspawn. I ran into it in one of the hallways and it nearly decapitated me. It hunts via force ability. Now that I'm not hidden, our chances to being discovered just got worse. "
"Well Callus and others are on the way" he started to say as he watched Teylas go over to the monitor. "Yeah, I got the systems running. Lost one of the monitors a few minutes ago. Something is outside."
At that time, the southern door pounded. Dents started forming in the steel. Loud sounds reverberated from the other side with each strike.
"Looks like we have company" retorted Teylas.
"Defense patern wampa" suggested Brimstone.
Both Plagueians stood next to each other, one foot forward, one a step back, ready to jump out of the way once whatever came through entered. Seconds later, the door bashed inwards towards them as they dove out of the way. A black and reddish hued horned creature barrelled in, bellowing loudly. Standing nearly 4 meters high, Brimstone recognized it immediately. It was a mutated Terentatek. This one had many more horns and spikes all over its body. And it also saw them both. Teylas and Brimstone knew they'd both had to attack from different angles to keep it off balanced.
The creature went after Brimstone first, lashing out with its razor sharp talons. Brim dove out of its killing blow, but barely in time. At same time, Teylas jumped behind it to strike with his lightsaber. The strike, which would have severed any other creature, just deflected off its armored hide. He then flipped backwards as the Terentatek spun around to strike back.
"Brim, its hide has been enhanced. Lightsabers can't.penetrate it" he yelled.
Now they were both in trouble. What they needed to do was escaping their grasp.
To be continued ........
(Note. I left this ending opened for the reader as if he was reading an on going comic book series)