As Caieous tries to move the tattered body of their opponent, it lets out an indignant ear piercing screech. "You dare try to use your magics against me? I am one of the Seven! I am beyond your reach! You are only here to let them feed!" The creature hunches low, dark energy rolling off of them like a tidal wave.

The horrible visage of their enemy flickers and disappears from view. More troubling, the presence within the force seems to disappear as well. The gurgling cackle echoes around the room before they reappear to one side of the cavern, and then another, and another. More and more of the figure appear, spread in a semicricle before the jedi, numbering six in total

As Vinteer rushes past the corpse of their master, they attack shatters one of the oncoming statues. The air is filled with the sound of crumbling rubble and a sharp crack as a burst of green energy snaps out of existence like a rubber band. It is not enough to stop the tide of inanimate enemies though. The lurch towards the padawan with their swords and spears, almost all notable features have worn away with time, leaving most faceless monsters before the jedi. Suddenly the blades lunge out at the jedi with wild and irregular strikes. Every attack was a single swing, nothing flowed or linked. It was like fighting mannequins, hundreds of the sinister possessed. The practiced padawan is able to deflect the blows with ease, but the sheer numbers catch him out. Pressing their weight against him, the padawan finds himself flung to the floor, the faceless baring down on him with weapons raised.

Meanwhile, following the intuition of Driz, the clone squad and their injured jedi are able to follow the sounds of rumbling and shaking in the ground. After a few wrong turns the squad burst into a large cavern, different to the others. This cave looks naturally formed, not carved like the rest of the temple. Set in the centre of the room is a huge, almost perfectly circular sinkhole. Dozens of the largest veins that ran through the temple run across the floor and ceiling and disappear into the inky black of the hole. What is more unsettling is the seven skeletons that lie evenly spaced around the hole. Each one is prostrated in front of the hole, dressed in what was once fine robes and head dressed. Now the colours are faded and tattered, the metals tarnished. The skeletons aren't human, they are squad, their skulls seem to be of some kind of avian. It looks as if they died mid-prayer, undisturbed since.

Set near the back wall of the cavern was what looked like old mining equipment, open crates stacked with core samples and cutting tools. The most dominant item was a large orange and black crane arm, complete with an open topped cab. Attached to the arm was large flat platform lacking any real railing, and truly huge spool of reinforced cable. The platform was fitted with a small console, presumable to control the crane from the platform itself.

Vos staggers towards the sink hole, wincing as he clutches his side. "I can sense something. I think, I think my master is down there, and something, terrible". He staggers back, genuine fear crossing face. "We have to hurry, they won't survive for long. There was four of us in total on this moon. Me, my master; Master Gux, Caieous was the knight I think, and another padawan, Vinteer". As he says this, it is easy to tell that the platform won't fit a squad of five clones, and four jedi. Maybe six at most.

“CT-4077, Check out that console over there, get it up and running. Brick, Give me a hand here with the platform controls. Slugger, lube that chain with some of your gun oil. Driz, you’re overwatch. Let’s get this crane operational!”

The old mining machinery is not in such poor repair as he had initially feared, and the squad works together to quickly restore it to working order.

”Good work! Let’s move, Cyclones! Going down!”

( 1st Maneuver (squad creation) : 2eA+1eP+1eB+1eD 2 successes, 4 advantage
Mission spec.formation (2 adv=incidental) : 2eA+1eP+2eB 5 successes, 2 advantage
Mechanics w/Leadership : 2eA+1eP+3eB+1eD+1eS 3 successes
(I will recover 1 Strain with the single unused Advantage))

" Yes sergeant! "

CT-4077 walks over to the console and swiftly looks at it. He opens the casing, and almost immediately spots a couple of loose wires. Just a tad too enthousiastic, CT-4077 grabs hold of the wires as he would tie them together, and a slight jolt slightly numbs his left hand for a little while.

" Bantha poodoo! I'm a medic, not a technician. " he mutters under his breath, maybe just audible or maybe not. But, it's a truth, and even if the truth told him otherwise, he does manage to get the wires attached in a haphazard way. As CT-4077 closes the casing again, the screen lights up, showing the controls, and a couple of bottons now have a faint, shining light underneath them.

" Sir! Console's ready! "

Slugger Nods and pulls out a can of Oil from his pack and starts to apply it along the length of the chain. When the group finishes their separate tasks he turns back to Gunslinger, " If it fits six of us, We all go down together, coming back up we will need to split into groups, should the Jedi all still be alive down there."

"Makin it look easy Sarg." Said with a grunt while assisting Gunslinger.

"All" is doubtful at best. Driz thinks. "You sure that thing can support our weight?" he asks, giving the platform and crane a dubious look over. "Should we leave someone up here to control the crane, just in case things go wrong?"

"You volunteering brother!" Said with a playful, if hard, punch to the arm.

"Sarg said MOVE! LET'S GOOOO!" Getting onto the platform in a flank position and motioning for Slugger to take another.

“All aboard! We’re all brothers here, Squeeze in, Driz!”

Driz shakes his head, but moves onto the platform readily enough, guessing that one way or another none of them will be coming back up. He looks over at the corpses and shakes his head again. He really doesn't like the look of this place. As the platform begins its decent, he lays down on the edge of the platform and begins scanning the shaft, keeping his eyes peeled and ears open.

Slugger gets on the lift with Martha ready and spinning, surveying the area and ready for a fight.

While the clones work on the crane, they notice that the control panel isn't written in basic, it seems to be some kind of alien text. Driz and Brick recognise the text as identical to the ithorian script used by the engineers and scientists that they were charged with protecting. Seeing the equipment, memories slowly begin to come back. It had been months ago, but some ithorians left the base to take core samples, taking one of the bases cranes with them. Nothing had come of it, but it was shortly after that the problems had begun. Broken equipment, corrupted data, and finally, missing personnel. This had concluded in the attack on the base by the gungan creatures and Driz's capture.

Vos and Akua stand back a little as the clones work, a look of helplessness shared between the two. Vos slumps against the wall, glancing between the pit and the opposite wall, still gripping his injury with his good arm. Akua had taken to pacing nervously, muttering something incomprehensible under her breath.

As the clones pile onto the platform it creaks or groans with a decidedly upsetting noise. Still, after the rocking stops the metal cable seems to hold. The platforms stability is tenuous at best, held by the single cable that split into the four corners, any serious moment could send it spinning out of control.

Before activating the process, Akua steps forwards, straightening up as a serious look comes across her face. "Erm, I don't know if there's something I should do, or say, as a commander. I'm sorry I'm not strong enough to help you, but, well I'm really proud of you, all of you. Good luck, may the force be with you". With that she offer the squad a salute, and a small smile in Gunslingers direction.

With the sergeant at the control panel set on the platform, the cranes engine grumbles before sputtering into life. Slowly the squad descend into the inky black of the pit. It takes only a few seconds before the black consumes them and they can no longer see the entrance. It's as if they were suspended in some kind of sinister limbo.

So bad was it that the squad could barley see the beyond the exterior of the platform. Though they could not see anything, they could hear perfectly well. There was the sound of cracking and stone splintering in the dark, and it seemed to be coming from everywhere, from all directions. It was loud and decidedly off-putting, but the source was almost impossible to see without torches or night vision setups.

As they continue to descend surrounded by the dry clicking and cracking, Driz begins to realise his bad feeling was earnt, though perhaps for different reasons. As his eyes adjust he begins to see shifting in the dark, shapes that flit by as if something was falling past them at an incredible rate. Here and there it looks for a moment like something is scuttling along the wall of the bore hole before being lost again. By chance there is a slight burst of green light from somewhere below, and it is enough to give Driz a snapshot of what they are descending through.

He sees that this is more than just a bore hole or mining shaft, the walls are lines with row upon row of arches. Similar to the ones that they had been trapped in but extending far further back, capable of holding who know how many people. Some were empty but most were inhabited by worn and eroded statues holding all manners of archaic weapons. What the issue is, is that these statues seem to be moving on their own accord. Lit by a faint green light that shines through the cracks in their bodies, the statues are crawling down the arches to try and drop down further with sharp and unnatural moves. Some slip and are lost from view, others hop and jump down the wall, some even clambering over their fellows to continue their descent. As the clones continue to drop down, the faceless plates of the statues begin to turn towards the clones, whatever these things are, they've spotted the squad.

"SHAB! Those statues are moving, and I think they've spotted us." Driz shuffles back from the ledge, grabbing the E-5. After a second, he fully realizes what he just said. "Yes, statues moving. At least, I think they're statues. This just keeps getting worse... Shoot at the light!"

The deafening echo of gunfire fills the shaft, half deafening the clone troopers as Slugger holds back the statues as they try to manoeuvre to land atop of the platform. Each bolt from the rotary cannon illuminates the endless swarm of statues that line the alcoves of the strange structure surrounding them. They had faced droids in the simulator, seen recordings of the battle of Geonosis, but never faced such a quantity of foes. Imagining what the separatists could martial from their factories compared to this, suddenly the situation of the war was all too real.

The gunfire from the clones can be heard in the main cavern as well, alerting the jedi to the sound of their incoming rescue. Looking up with the light of their lightsaber, Caieous could see the rickety platform slowly approaching. The ragged figure senses the approach as well, glancing up with a guttural snarl. "They can't save you jedi, you will all be fed upon!"

Slugger fired Martha into the swarm not getting any kills but definitely keeping the moving statues at bay. " Open Fire, we're Surrounded!!!" Slugger would announce to his brothers as blaster fire revealed just how many statutes there were.

“Feed upon this!” Gunslinger shouts into the terra-cotta horde, as he fires into them with his remaining pistol, felling one and sending shards flying from another.

"Brothers! When we land, let me lead the wedge. If any of you have close combat training, I'll take you on my flanks. I need CT-4077 in the middle of the formation. We keep them off the guns, or we die trying! Sergeant! Orders!?"

“Almost sounded like you were giving them. I handed you my pistol, not my squad.”

”Brick, lead away!” Not sure he realizes there were only five of us on that platform, it was kinda dark...

”The rest of you.. Try not to shoot Brick.”

"Just formations, sir! Are we holding the platform or advancing towards a target?"

Following Gunslinger's tone, he looks around at everyone and their guns, and hangs his head for a sec.

"I'm REALLY gonna need that shield!"

“Attack! For the Republic! Fight your way to the Commanders!”

Holding the platform would be nice, but that’s not our mission. We have to go in. We don’t have to make it out.

As the chaos quickly consumes the sinister cavern, the last remaining jedi knight sees Vinteer rapidly being overrun by the seemingly endless enemies. Rather than rushing foolheartedly into the battle, Caieous centres himself as he reaches out with the force. Instead of calm and focus however, he only finds the swirling dark of this evil place. The face of his dead friend haunts him, and Caieous feels the cold creeping up his spine. Just this once he accepts the powers of the darkside, and with a battle cry tears the top off of the plinth with the power of the force. The table top rapidly spins in place before being released by the jedi, hurtling fowards towards Vinteer. Just as the padawan is able to push one of the statues back he witnesses two statues torn in half by the impact with the plinth. A second statue is left missing an arm and most of its torso, but it does not seem to notice the damage. Still, it gives the padawan a chance to fight back or retreat.

Vinteer's attention was immediately drawn to the master's attack. He wasn't as in tune with the force as some others but even he could feel the shade behind Caieous' attack. With bigger fish to fry though, the padawan rushed and weaved in between the statues making his way towards one of the many unknown figures that populated the cavern. Without anything to go on for attacking the right figure, Vinteer instead went by the seat of his pants and lobbed some more statue parts at him. The shards passed straight through them, almost brining Vinteer to curse though he managed to hold it. He was hoping the clones would be able to get down quick so they could pool their fire power better.

"Looks like Imma get that shield after all, brothers! Slugger! On our flank!" Said while using his borrowed pistol to light up the targets... and get lucky...

As chunks of statue rain down on the jedi from on high, the attackers are slowly driven back by the onslaught of gunfire. Deeper in the passages behind the alcoves numerous more of the strange rocky forms can be seen, but they are certainly slowed by the attack.

As Vinteer makes their attack, the illusion of the figure flickers from the shards of rock that fire through the ragged body. The visage lets out a piercing laugh, clearly amused by the jedi's failing. "Your quaint magics are barley a fraction of what you need to stop me!" As the woman shouts, the illusions blur and rush together, forming into one in front of the jedi. Raising her wizened hands, there is a scream of energy as brilliant green lightning burst force from the witches fingers and engulfs the young padawan. For a moment he is lost from view for Caieous till their eyes adjust to the blinding light. When they do, the knight can see Vinteer bound in a net of green energy, binding him to the witch. The figure turns to leer at Caieous as they speak in their gargled voice. "I will take this one to be fed upon, just as your friend was".

While immobilised by the strange power, once again the statues lumber towards the padawan, weapons raised at unnatural angles. Despite being bound by the burning energy, Vinteer is able to hold off the more damaged statues, dodging and using his feet to keep them at bay.

Figure Combat Check : 4eP+1eA+1eD 4 successes, 1 advantage, 1 Triumph

Missed Setback Dice : 1eS 1 failure
Does 9 base damage to @rocketrobie2 , advantage spent to pass a boost to an ally, triumph spent to activate ensnare 2

Statue Combat Check : 1eP+1eA+2eD+1eS 3 failures, 1 advantage

Missed Boost Dice : 1eB 1 success, 1 advantage
Advantage spent to add setback dice to @rocketrobie2 's next check

Slugger lines up his shots and destroys a few of the advancing statues, “ I can hold them back, I might need to stay on every trip of this lift so we have the firepower to stop them!” The Clone says as another statue crumbles from the direct hit with his Rotary Cannon.