The Fourteenth Great Jedi War left deep wounds across the surface of Arx. One such victim, unnoticed by the Brotherhood at large, was the Corrino Research Laboratory on the marshy continent of Uskil. The Collective had assaulted the Shadow Academy's Nesolat platform to gain access to the surface of Arx, its strategic importance dwarfing its role as an isolated research facility. When the battle moved to the planet's surface, the Nesolat was discarded like so much chaff, and debris from the disintegrating station was scattered across the planet.

Some of that debris struck the specimen habitat, damaging them enough for the specimens contained within to escape into Uskil’s swampy wilderness. In the aftermath of the invasion, playing animal control was a low priority for the Iron Throne, but the beasts became more of a nuisance—and even a danger—as time went on. Their exposure to the maelstrom of Force energies around Uskil, stirred up by the Grand Master’s ritual during the invasion, has made the creatures aggressive and unpredictable.

Rather than wandering Uskil’s swampy, storm-soaked wildlands, many of the escaped beasts have since returned to their ruined habitats, finding the climate more to their liking; it was designed for them, after all. They’ve since become extremely territorial, attacking any Shadow Academy staff who try to remove them so the habitats can be rebuilt. Rather than continue to delay the Academy’s research and sacrifice hapless construction workers and lab technicians, the Headmistress has put out a call to any members of the Brotherhood who are willing to help with the problem.

Your goal in this scenario is to subdue and capture the hostile creature so that it can be transported to a different facility for further testing. As the creature has been modified by the Academy’s scientists, the Headmistress would strongly prefer that you capture it alive, rather than killing it and forcing the researchers to make do with data from a dead specimen.

The Corrino Research Lab housed a variety of different species. Each one was provided with a habitat of their own akin to their natural environment. It’s footprint spanned for many kilometers outside the abandoned lab building. The borders of its territory were defined by wired gates that were once charged with an electric current. In the northwest sector was a sandlot that stretched from the shores of Uskil into a soft wasteland. This small desert acted as an insect farm for a hive of Krykna. Within its labyrinth of underground tunnels hosted the queen widow, who was responsible for maintaining the colony and was notorious for devouring her mates. Reports during the mission brief specified that there were only two female Krykna per colony; the queen and her young successor.

Jedi Knight Creon Saldean and Director Jon Silvon were dispatched to Arx to capture the princess Krykna in order to start a new colony off-world. Ever since the lab’s abandonment from the Collective’s assault, the hive was left to fend for itself. In attempts to domesticate the creatures to do the Sith’s bidding, the Shadow Academy routinely provided the insects with imitation dokma meat grown in the lab. These processed meals had been injected with nutrients and additives that bred a generation dependent on the food. Without the need to hunt, the hive lived a sedentary lifestyle which spelled out their doom for survival without the Sith. In response to their hunger, the Krykna burrowed themselves in a hibernated state until the day their providers returned to feed them once again.

The presence of the Odanites somehow alerted the hive into awakening once they had arrived. The Krykna’s eagerness to be fed caused a frenzied stampede from the underground tunnels, which put the pair in a panicked retreat. The smaller spiders were shot down with relative ease but their blaster bolts were seemingly helpless against the bigger ones. Creon was left with carving legs off with his lightsabers when one would get too close. To make matters worse, Jon’s heavyset body was beginning to take its toll. They had marched 30 kilometers from the facilities’ landing pad before making it to the Krykna farm, and have been running what seemed to be an endless marathon.

If it wasn’t from the panic induced adrenaline from the nightmare fuel of a slow death via spider feeding frenzy, Jon’s legs would have buckled him into the dirt by now. Watching the hippie monk keep his stride with the occasional dash to flurry his blade while clad in armor made him think twice on what his mother said about eating your vegetables. But even Creon would soon give out from fatigue before they could get anywhere close to safety and recuperate.

A net of moist web shot out from a large Krykna’s mouth and latched itself onto Jon. It dragged him across the sands closer while the smaller ones converged and crafted his cocoon. Think Jon, think! You have two droids, a Jedi, and your wits against an endless army of six-legged freaks! With a scream the mercenary ignited the web with the flame projector on his vambraces. The large krykna detached its grip and the smaller spiders retreated as he began to envelop in flames. Jon rolled from side to side to put out the embers until he felt his body rise and fly. The wind in his glide dissipated the flames and gave him almost a sense of freedom. The web no longer bound him, and the sudden flight took him some distance away from the hell of the hive. His bliss was shortly lived however when the landing caused his head to smack into a small rock and knock him into a subconscious flashback:

2 Hours Earlier

Unlike his Jedi companion, Jon stopped momentarily at the random beacon found in the middle of an empty desert. He saw no logic behind as to why one needed to be here as the ones from the lab facility could easily cover movement and comms from its tower.

“Hey uhh, Creon. Just a thought, why not instead of us going into the tunnels and having Artemis scan for the female we use your B-D unit?”

The droid at Creon’s back piped up and turned to Jon with a response of beeping noises; B-D functions = stealth scout // Artemis functions = loud astromech // Artemis ≠ scout // B-D > Artemis//

Artemis = recommends B-D memory wipe to delete sass//, replied the R3.

“You know, that’s a brilliant idea. B-D will just need to link with Artemis to download the data so it knows what to look for. I’ll keep an active sensor beacon to track its movements to keep a direct path without getting lost in there. It seems perfect! I have a feeling this mission will be smooth as these sands.”

“Yeah,” Jon said looking once more back at the beacon post behind them with suspicion, “Smooth as these sands…”

Now

Jon’s face rose from the smooth sands from the sudden epiphany and the small zap from Artemis’ shock prod. He could see Creon knelt above him sweating profusely and shaking Jon’s shoulders.

“Your… comlink…” Jon gasped to say but no words had escaped his lips. The landing had knocked the wind out of him, temporarily silencing his voice.

“Oh thank the Force you're awake. I’m sorry I had to throw you like that. But listen, that gave us some distance from those crawling critters. I’m thinking I throw you again and catch up with the Force, and we just repeat it until we’re safe.”

Jon’s eyes almost burst from their sockets at the idea. He shook his head furiously and grabbed at Creon’s belt where his comlink was clipped. “Sensor… beacon!” he tried to wheeze out.

Creon’s eyebrow raised in response to the mad merc, “Hang on.” The Jedi then stood tall and extended an open palm at Jon with closed eyes. He took a slow and deep inhale through the nose and held it at the crest for a few heartbeats. The Jedi then let the air leak from his lungs rather than an exerted exhale. When repeating the motion a second time, Jon felt his body mirror Creon’s breathing in the exact fashion. At the end of a breath, he felt a jolt of energy as if injected with an anesthetic.

“I can breathe!” Jon finally said out loud. “That’s a neat trick. I have one too. Give me your comlink!”

The Jedi handed him the comlink and Jon activated the locator’s signal function. “Artemis, B-D, activate your sensor beacons and project them at maximum strength!”

The droids followed their commands and raised antennas. The pings from their signal waves traveled to the Krykna, who shuddered in frustration and kept their distance. After a while the spiders retreated back to their caves, giving the survivors the chance to rest.

“That is a pretty useful trick, Captain,” Creon said, breathing a sigh of relief as the spiders descended back into their dens. “Good job.”

“So glad you approve, Creon,” Jon replied. Better than tossing me around like a kriffing rag doll, at the very least.

Releasing a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, Jon collapsed onto the ground with a groan. Creon crouched down beside him.

“Well we’ve bought ourselves some rest,” he said, “but we still need to find the princess.”

“Maybe she’s in a different - “ Jon began, but was interrupted.

“Jon,” Creon sighed.

“Let me cope!” the Director exclaimed.

Creon ran a hand over his face and groaned in exasperation. He glanced over at the droids, still dutifully maintaining the signal, then back to Jon, who by this point was laying spreadeagle on the sands. His red cape was splayed out beneath him like an impromptu tarp, and his hat was shading his face.

After a moment of silence, the Jedi Knight joined his captain on the sandy ground. Both of them tried not to think about the network of spider infested tunnels that were likely right beneath their bodies.

“...What made you think to use the sensor beacon anyway?” Creon asked.

“Hm?” Jon looked up. “Oh, we passed another one of those beacons on our way into this nightmare. I’ll bet the scientist who ran this dump knew enough to use a network of them to cage… them… in! That’s it!” Jon exclaimed springing to his feet.

“What’s it? Jon? Where are you going!”

“To the beacons! Artemis, BD, follow me! I’ve got an idea!”

1 Hour Later

Jon and Creon now stood just on the boundary of the habitat, where the sandy desert was gradually giving way to the planet’s more natural marshes. Right in front of them was one of the deactivated beacons.

BD and Artemis had just finished doing repairs to fix the worst of the damage, and make it operational again - the sixth one they’d done so on.

“This just might work,” Creon said with a thoughtful expression.

“It will work, Creon!” Jon insisted. “As soon as Artemis and BD switch the beacon net on, it’ll act like a wall for the miserable little spiders.”

“All the beacons but one” Creon pointed out.

“Exactly! They’re so hungry, they’ll try and come after us all the same. So they’ll take the only route we leave them open. All rushing out here. Then Artemis and BD switch it back on - “

“And we rush back inside where they won’t follow,” Creon concluded.

“And with all the hunters out here, the Queen and her darling daughter will be waiting for us inside.” Jon finished his presentation by slapping the beacon appreciatively… causing a loud crack and a lot of sparking.

Artemis and BD pushed Jon away with a lot of loud, angry beeping and went back to their repairs.

“Ah… I’m sure it’ll be fine?” Jon said looking sheepishly at Creon.

Creon facepalmed and let out a loud groan.

---

“I hope this works, Jon,” Creon said as he, Jon, and the two droids crouched in what little cover they could find among the sand dunes.

“That makes one of us,” Jon said, before signaling the droids to drop their signal.

At first, nothing happened. The sand dunes remained still for several minutes, and Jon began to suspect that maybe the buggers had simply re-entered their previous state of hibernation. Then, the ground began to rumble, and before long the krykna were bursting from their hiding places in droves. In spite of the chaotic rush of legs and shells and shrieks, the stampede nonetheless rushed in the direction of the gap they’d left open.

“Alright, when I give the signal we bolt,” Jon said, watching the krykna swarm follow the invisible corral.

“One… two… three!”

The beacons sent a single wave in unison across the sand desert and overlapped each other like the ripples of rain in a pond. The second ping failed to resonate however. The krykna adjusted their formation from the first ping and seemed to follow in unison to the opening Jon had laid out.

“What happened?” Creon inquired.

“Power outage. It feeds from he facility, which I’m sure has a battery that hasn’t worked in months,” Jon replied.

“Can we do anything about it? I don’t think the Krykna will stay this cooperative for long.”

“You’re right, I’ll send Artemis to see if he can try to get any power back online. But this is our chance, you and BD should go fetch the princess. You’re the fastest one here.”

Creon nodded in understanding and helped his droid hop onto his shoulder. He then leaped high in the air with the Force continuously until he disappeared from Jon’s view.

1 hour later

Artemis moved through the empty hallway corridors of the abandoned lab. The organics informed that this particular building was a massive hallway where one could easily get lost. Artemis remembered from the overlay maps the structure and design of the building and was able to process an accurate estimate of a map layout. It moved through the empty rooms and scanned for heavy wiring or safety protocols that would warrant the entrance to a room containing a power generator. When the R3 unit found a terminal designed for droids, it accessed it and fed it’s own internal battery power to bring the system back online. It was already under half of its own battery capacity from feeding power to the beacons after making repairs. It wondered if it was the same discomfort that humans felt when they were hungry.

Once the termal was able to boot itself, it searched for a map layout of the facility. Basic information such as directions didn’t require an access code, but it did take some extra time after being turned off and becoming degraded. The malfunctions this computer had required Artemis to access the protocol similar to what the organics call ‘patience’.

---

Jon was running out of patience. The Krykna were starting to spread and explore rather than stay on the trail he had intended. They needed to be herded like livestock to keep the course. Jon wished he brought a speeder bike and fantasized wrangling the spiders together like a cowboy would with livestock. He would have to make due with the options at hand. He moved to the intended route and shot a large blast of fire from his vambraces. He whooped and hollered and waved the flames like flags. The Krykna stampede screeched and the stragglers rejoined the group in a direct path to Jon. His heart pounded heavy, but courage was one being brave while being afraid. It made the difference between a coward or being reckless. Part of him regretted the situation he just put himself in, but if Artemis can’t get the power back online it would be up to him to lead the herd.

---

Creon walked patiently following B-D’s trail. The small droid scanned every tunnel and pathway counting the number of eggs attached to the ground, walls, and ceiling. The droid would consistently take the path with more dense and larger eggs, as it would lead them to the queen. Creon did his best to keep up with soft feet so his footsteps don’t awaken any remaining krykna or cause a premature birth. Often B-D would have to stay and wait for him to catch up before turning a corner or hopping down a hole to go deeper. If it wasn’t for his little buddy, Creon feared he would never be able to find his way out of the underground labyrinth.

The droid stopped short of an opening and turned off its scanner and flashlight. It looked at Creon with a low red light and gave two small hops in silent excitement. This was the queen’s chamber. Inside was a different set of eggs that distinguished themselves from the rest of the masses. Their shells were more moist and coated with vein-like webbing that almost pulsed in the warmed environment.

“Are these the girls?” Creon asked B-D in a low whisper.

The droid made a small scan on one of the eggs and gave a nodding motion. There were so many, but they only needed one to begin a new colony. Creon carefully used his shotosaber to disconnect the webbing of the egg from the ground and held the egg close to his chest like a baby. He nodded to his droid who then proceeded to head towards the tunnel exit. It stopped short in confusion when the tunnel they came through was now blocked off. B-D turned on its light again and saw a pillar in the way. It trailed up the pillar until it revealed to be a leg connected to the largest Krykna that Creon had ever seen. The queen’s eyes looked to the light of the droid, and then to the Jedi holding one of its eggs. It let out a roar of anger that shook the tunnels in a low rumble. That rumble could have been enough to wake up all of the eggs.

“May the Force be with us…” Creon said with a feeling of fear before B-D turned off its flashlight.

End of Phase I