Sandstorm

The little known world and it's mysterious island now behind them it felt good to be back in Triumvirate space.  As they entered orbit and began their descent, Maligaant thought to himself how good it would be to get back to their regular duties.

"Anywhere in particular, sir?" Rerrick's voice broke through his contemplation.

Gazing at the map, displayed on his data pad, Maligaant responded, "These co-ordinates should be fine." he tapped the screen sending the information to the pilot's console.

Standing up, from behind Rerrick, he moved out of the cockpit and to his personal quarters.  The men had their orders and the ship would soon be buzzing with activity the moment they touched down, a good time to contact command.

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"I can't see anything in this mess! Anyone else?" Zan's voice snapped into the coms.

Looking at his helmet's heads up display Maligaant had noticed the winds were steadily increasing in strength over the last hour.  They needed to find shelter soon as a sandstorm was definitely brewing.

"Standing next to an old wrecked ship due east of you guys. Shouldn't take you more than a 20 minutes if you if you double time it." Kraspen's voice crackled through their headsets.

"You heard him, let's move! Zan you and Kael take point, everyone else form up behind me." Maligaant growled into the coms.

He watched his heads up display as everyone's indicators moved into place and the squad began moving at a much increased speed toward Krasp's location and the safety of the wreck.

They'd moved as fast as they could for about 5 minutes before the winds had again very noticeably picked up in intensity.  Whether because of the flying sand, blasting against their bodies or some other interference Maligaant's coms seemed to be crackling and producing a steady stream of static.

"-an!" what sounded like Kael's voice crackled over the static followed by the sound Kael's roar.

Instantly the entire squad stopped and readied their weapons. Maligaant watched as the blip representing Zan disappeared from his heads up display. His eyes widened as he watched the blip representing Kael move much too quickly, zig zagging across his heads up before disappearing as well.

"Brother!" Toby's voiced roared into the coms.

"Everyone spread out, a meter each to my left and right!" Maligaant growled into the coms and began to slowly move forward.

They hadn't moved forward but a few meters when Toby's roar filled the coms as Toby's body came flying out of the sand filled air, entwined by a massive tentacle and slamming into Maligaant.  The force of the impact freed Toby from the deadly tentacle's embrace and sent Mal flying several meters back.

The sound of weapons fire could barely be heard over, the now raging, sandstorm.

Maligaant stood back up and shook his head as his vision blurred and then cleared. "To me! Everyone to me! Now!" he roared in his helmet. They'd stumbled right into the desert trap of a massive Sarlacc. If they didn't get out the reach of it's tentacles, and now,  they'd all be dead.

Nils came running through the haze of sand carrying the bleeding and unconscious body of Toby as the rest of the squad appeared one by one through the hazy storm winds.  Grabbing Toby from Nils he immediately gave orders for retreat to the surviving members of his squad.