Leaning against the cool stone of the cavern wall, Johte Fang pulled off one of his gauntlets and used his bare hand to palm sweat from his brow, long fingers rifling through his dark hair as he pushed it back from his face.  Behind the slotted lenses of his cybernetics, he closed his ruined eyes.  There was peace to be found and blessings to be counted: though the skin of his face still stung from the brutal heat of Tattooine's twin suns, the caverns were cool and damp.  They were not without a certain strange beauty, filled with luminescent flora and still pools as slick and stygian as volcanic glass.<br/><br/>But the caverns were winding, endless, and overrun with foul creatures whose gore even now spattered his tunic, his synthleather cuisses, his boots.  He pulled his glove back on and let his awareness stretch out into the cavern, scanning with both cybernetics and the Force even as his hand shifted down to touch the hilt of his lightsaber.  But the cavern was empty.  He could feel signs of life, tainted with rot, flickering just on the edge of his awareness in the passages beyond.  For the moment, however, he seemed to have found a safe place to rest.<br/><br/><i>Those people...</i><br/><br/>He drew a steadying breath, then exhaled slowly.  He wasn't a scientist.  He didn't have the power to cure this plague.  Those who did were working in the relative safety and comfort of the THORN base, as need and skill dictated.  His duty was to wander the contagion zone, stare into the faces of the infected, and cut them down.  To collect samples.  To do the dirty work, as per usual.  He couldn't allow himself to be caught up in revulsion, or irritation, or pity.<br/><br/>Johte sank to his knees behind a stone pillar, where he wouldn't be immediately visible from the mouth of the cavern, and folded his hands together in his lap.  Despite the fact that the cavern was momentarily empty, and despite how his body ached, he knew sleeping here would be tantamount to suicide.  But he could meditate.  Seeking calm, he let his mind fold into itself, his body growing still.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>