Competition: [MoA Week 2] Something Rotten in the State of Aliso (Fiction)

Southern Ice Cap
Aliso, Aliso System

The wind howled eerily in the lengthy daylight of Aliso’s perpetual autumn. It blew across the glacial shelf, intermittently kicking up small flurries of snow. It pierced through the armor of the figure trekking through the icy wastes as he continuously scanned the horizon. Each footstep created a soft crunch on the frozen landscape. Each exhale of breath gently hissed into the wind with plumes of steam. The bag of marker beacons clacked on his back with the sway of his strides as Furios Morega scouted the area for the Ascendant Clan.

The Quaestor had been walking this glacial formation all morning in search of anything noteworthy. His face was wrapped and his body cloaked to help shield the cold. Many months of training on Morroth had been enough to familiarize him with arctic temperatures but compounded with the winds, he felt the need to steadily draw on the Force to maintain homeostasis regardless.

The winds were steadily picking up and it seemed as if a storm was on the horizon. He approached a rise in the ice and hiked up the slope with ease. On the other side was a large, sunken hole. He slid into the crater, seamlessly shifting back to his stride. Peering into the hole, the Obelisk saw a snow-covered ledge and immediately dropped down to it. Discovering the sizeable depths of the glacial cavern below, the Epicanthix dropped a beacon and vaulted to the next ledge. Away from the entrance the caverns were made of ice and slippery, but he navigated them steadily, sliding along the dimly blue-lit tunnels with grace. Eventually he came across a fork in the icy depths. Placing a beacon at the left tunnel entrance, he continued on. After a time of travelling his chosen passage, he came upon a wide and final pocket in the ice, littered full of glowing red mineral formations. Furios placed another beacon and grabbed a couple of samples to take back.

After returning to the fork he’d decided upon earlier, the Battlelord set down another two markers in front of the right tunnel entrance and set out to explore its mysteries. This side went much deeper and further than the other one. After what felt like hours of navigating tunnels, searching individual branches, and overcoming obstacles in the ice, the light had grown much dimmer and the temperature steadily lower. Suddenly he noticed a faint humming sound that gradually increased as he continued on.

The noise had reached a low roaring by the time Furios reached the next obstacle, a tunnel the size of a small air duct. By now he was curious as to the source of the noise and so crammed his shoulders into the icy crevice and crawled through. When he reached the next sizeable pocket, he stood and looked around to see nothing but a small rockslide in one corner of the small cavern, yet the noise was loud enough that he knew he was close. Listening to the echoes, he found it was louder by the pile of frozen rubble and purposefully cleared them away. When he finally excavated a hole into the next area, the Quaestor peaked in to find a big drilling operation going on. He recognized some of the faces overseeing the operation as Collective agents and came to the conclusion that he’d better get some help. He covered the hole he’d made and ran back the way he came, hoping to get back to communications range for his ship.