Static crackled over the intercom of the transport, before being replaced with the deep voice of Captain Sulvir. “Can they hear me?” There was a timid, muffled response, before Doon - a bit louder this time - continues. “First, thank you all for volunteering. We don’t know much of what you are headed to, other than what we’ve picked up on scans since your departure. The ship was hiding from us in some debris, and appears to have lost most non-emergency power.
The transport banks suddenly as it flew past a cluster of space rock and wreckage debris. It’s speed slowed as it begun to weave back and forth, winding a path closer to the target ship that hung silent and dead in orbit.
“We’d expect this to be some form of trap, usually, but we are having difficulties finding life forms aboard. Still, keep your guard up. We’ve seen stranger things than obscuring scans in our time.” The transport suddenly slowed, swerving to the side as it nearly avoided impact with a particularly large rock. “Find out what happened. If there are any survivors that wish to surrender, accept them but keep an eye on them. I’ll leave the rest of the decision making up to you, just be sure you come back in one piece.”
The captains tone fades out with some static before cutting out fully. It soon crackled back on with much more clear voice of the transport pilot. “Almost there, preform final checks on your gear.”
Mune questioned for the umpteenth time why they had decided to participate in this mission. They eyed the environmental suit dubiously, tugging on it here and there in growing irritation. They only noticed their growl increasing in volume once they got a look from one of the others and put a lid on it. How were they supposed to move around correctly in there? The white-furred Shistavanen frowned, wondering if he would have been so amenable to getting into one of those before the memory loss. Somehow, they doubted it. They were active support, anyway, they reminded themself.
“Is walking into traps normal operating procedure for us?” Mune asked, genuinely curious. “I mean, if it is, far be it for me to question procedure.”
Dutifully, the Shistavanen did their final checks. There was no point in being more risky than they were already being. They made sure their weapons were safely stowed and readily accessible. The Force whispered as it always did at the edges of their mind; the subtlest brush of fingers traced the surface of their awareness. The whispers had become more insistent since losing their memories, visiting them more often than not, always somewhere on the edge of their thoughts. They found if they focused on them, they would sink into the embrace of flashes of images and snippets of sound that they were rapidly relearning how to decipher.
A crate. Mune stared into it. Crystals. Blood. The echoes of greed, worry, fear and regret jumbled and tangled. In the present, the white-furred Shistavanen stumbled and had to grab onto the wall to maintain their balance. Blood. Their nose wrinkled, assaulted by the coppery tang of it. Their team. They saw that they, too, stood around this crate and peered in at its bounty. Witnessed the blood that spattered the cold, unyielding crystalline surfaces, running down in slow rivulets of crimson. They consciously ripped themself free of the visions, pushing the whispers back with a visible effort.
Mune swallowed thickly, a hand coming to their head only to be halted by the helmet. They gave their head a shake to clear their head. “Ready when the rest of you are,” he rumbled, voice rough as they focussed on returning to themselves.
The newly recruit of the Voidbreaker II listened. Her other ear rotated for other sounds at her surroundings. One of the Shistavanen who she hasn’t properly met yet chimed in if traps was usually normal for them.
She sure hope so or this would be boring. Her ears rotated for any sounds, on high alert. She had nothing to say. After checking her suit and weapons, she was ready to go.
Fwoo-woo! BD-99 chirped with excitement, burying its head into Adem’s helmet. The Umbaran Jedi stretched his gloves over his fingers for comfort and completed the last checks of his armor’s various pressure seals. The droid stood tall on little legs to present the helmet, and Adem took it in his hands.
“Thanks, pal,” he said, giving the droid a smile and sucking in a deep breath, and then comfortably letting it out as the pressure seals twisted into place, hissing as they did. He was eager to get a look at the ship they were soon to board, though no power was a disconcerting sign.
Eleceos sat near his friend, Mune. They hadn’t been on a mission together since Ele helped save the Shistavanen from his brothers paws. The captain of the vessel, Doon (another Shistavanen Ele was close to), had requested the Miraluka’s assistance on the mission at hand. Not because of what he couldn’t see, but because of what he could.
As he sat in silence, a ringing in his head alerted him to what he knew was coming. He was drawn into the Force, into the very future. Voices filled his mind, an overwhelming myriad of sounds calling out for help, and then…silence…cold…the vacuum.
Ele found himself in what he assumed was the interior of the target ship. As if frozen in time, he could make out the outlines of bodies, some in what he assumed to be VAC suits, others left to their own devices. The voices came back, but somewhat clearer. He could make out a few of the words.
“Gather…. More crystal…. Engine… Sound alarm…. Meltdown…“
And as quickly as it started, Ele was back again. Shaking his head, clearing his mind of the brief pain, he turned to his friend, Mune.
"I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
In the corner, a red male Shistavanen was trying to put an EVA suit on but totally tangled himself. “Hmpf….” He made a small sound of frustration when his arm somehow found a way to the one of the leg sleeves instead of the upper body part of the suit.
After a few minutes of desperation Archian was sitting down in the corner and was listening to the last words spoken by Doon. He nodded to Mune to let them know that he was ready. At the board was also the new younger female Shistavanen but he had never met her before. There was also Eleceos sitting who Archian met when was vacating Aedile position and personally had given him a Skeleton Key multiple times.
When the communication was finished, he started considering whether he could upgrade some of the EVA suits for the creatures which were accompanying him to not have to abandon them at the ship. Also he was double checking all of his equipment as this was quite important mission for his House by the looks of it.
The bumps of small chunks of debris bouncing off the transport’s deflector shields were prominent in Adem’s thoughts as he considered the situation.
A ship the size of their target being hard to pick up on long range scans wasn’t surprising, the Voidbreaker wasn’t very different after all, but detecting nothing aboard as the team approached was disconcerting. Why they were stranded likely wouldn’t be a surprise; damage to the ion engine after a deflector shield failure would easily explain it. It might even be a simple repair job with some time and parts. A decent astromech or even a passable civilian pilot might be capable of making such a fix in a few hours.
So why hasn’t that happened yet?
Adem shook the thought off and focused, his palm gently resting on the grip of the lightsaber hanging from his hip.
“We docking soon?”
Archian put down his equipment and double checked his Eva suit, when he heard the word “docking”, he turned around and looked at Adem, estimating and analyzing the best way of medicating him in case of emergency.
As Aden spoke, there was a rumble from the engines of the transport as they began to reverse, slowing their descent on a course to dock. The airlock next to the group shuddered as it clanged into place, hydraulics whining as clamps squeeze into place. A small red light flashes near the door, indicating an issue. The speakers inside everyone’s suits flick on, and the pilot speaks again.
“Alrighty, we’re in place. Heads up, I’m not seeing any power to this airlock. I’ll force an override from here to unlock it, but don’t forget the lights your suits have. I’m also gonna pull a Vac in your room before you open it though, just to equalize pressure.”
As they spoke, vents around the room started to hum. After a minute, they died down, leaving the crew in their suits.
“All green. Open it when ready, and good luck. I’ll try to keep coms open, just in case.”
Archian grabbed the doors and opened the airlock connecting both of the ships. The flashing light coming from the ceiling wasn’t the most pleasant but Red noticed the long hallway. When he crossed the doors, it was noticeable that there were three options: turn left, turn right or move forward. Shistavanen slowly decided to turn right, and had paw ready to reach the material poach hanging from the side of his suit.
“Shall we check there first?” He asked companions still crossing the doors.
“If there are survivors, I’d assume they’re in the bridge? That tends to be the usual evacuation point,” Vicxa Varis spoke over the comms. Her normally veridian shape had been covered in a suit of armour clearly Mandalorian in design, though painted in a garish orange and black tiger stripe that made it obvious its previous owner had held little regard for stealth.
“Anyone familiar with the ship design, perchance?”
Mune’s eyes scanned the halls. Their fur bristles, unsettled by the whole situation. Aside from those few images they glimpsed, there was no telling what they were walking into. There was no telling if what they saw even had anything to do with the current mission. Visions were fluid, ever-changing things. A drop in an ocean of possibilities. So, too, were the possibilities of what they were walking into. They wondered at the probability that this whole thing was exactly as it appeared to be. A ship, dead in space, no survivors. It seemed unlikely, looking at the history they made themself sit through to refamiliarize themself with their clan. Trouble seemed to be natural for them, or so Mune had concluded.
They were no exception.
The Shistavanen tugged at their suit, not happy with the kink in their tail. “The bridge makes sense, everyone in one place, redirecting power to those systems.”
Mune wasted no time pulling their datapad from its carrier. They may not be one hundred percent, but they were still who they were: a smart boy. They pulled up the ship’s schematics with some quick flicks of his fingers across the screen. Within seconds, they were eyeing the map that glowed dimly on their screen. Mune slipped past Archian, giving a quick nod to the taller Shistavanen as if to communicate that they should follow them; why use words? The white-furred wolf led briskly, not happy that every step took them further from the airlock and their escape path if something went wrong. The feral flight instinct was nagging at the back of their mind, wrestling with the instinct to stay with their pack, to protect them like they knew they could when, not if, things went sideways. They hoped Eleceos maintained his focus on sensing danger because their instincts were definitely repeating to them to get their tail back to the shuttle.
Ele followed the others as they left the safety of their ship. He reached out into the Force to see if there were any survivor’s, or potential threats. Unfortunately he could sense no living sentience aboard. Not even anything more animalistic.
But he did sense….something. Something with some form non-traditional sentience.
The Miraluka pulled out his energy bow just to be safe.
“We must be cautious. There is…something…here.”
It was logical to check the bridge, but there was something not straight like it should. “If I knew that an attack would happen at the bridge, I would move to a safer area.” Archian said through a coomlink of his suit.
He followed Mune’s leadership and admired the courage of the lower Shistavanen. He opened the material of the pouch and the small creature spread its wings, looking above the edge with curious eyes around.
A sense of creeping unease had settled on the group like ethereal fog, and it bothered Adem no less than others. Suggestions on action to take would serve as a distraction, if nothing else.
“Bridge isn’t a bad guess,” he mused, “another place to buckle down might be the engineering bay, somewhere near the reactor. Any designer worth their credits keeps it armored, and if someone was trying to fix this thing, it’d be from there.”
Zae’s ears continued to listened and was prepared for any odd sounds. Her team wanted to go to the bridge and she knew better not to get separated. One of them spoke up and mentioned few other places that they could go to. She stayed silent and prepared.
The hallway towards the bridge, shows evidence of destruction. Panels have been blown off the scorched walls, lights have exploded and covered the ground in glass. The entire hallway was twisted, evident by the strange shape it took on as one peered down it. The ceiling was ravaged, wires cables and pipes hanging loose and required to be pushed out of the way to proceed.
The hallway ended at a closed bulkhead that was bowed away, towards the bridge, as if it was strike by a massive concussive force.
crunch crunch crunch Vicxa’s armored bootsteps chewed up the broken glass with every step. “Huh, that doesn’t look structurally stable at all,” she commented, pointing at the bulkhead. “Judging by the shape, something struck it from our side. Overpressure? The rest of the place is totaled, need to take a moment to look around. But if you wanna get through the direct way—” she rummaged around on her belt pouches and pulled out a spread of high explosives. “—I’ve got a few cherry bombs to help us persuade durasteel. You know what they say, the wiser yields first!” One could feel the wide grin behind the helmet faceplate.
Mune studied the bulkhead before slipping his datapad back into its holster. They approached the door, studying the damage, then pressing their fingers against the slight opening. There would be no survivors here, they thought grimly. Still, it is worth investigating if they could find a clue on the bridge. No sooner had they thought it did they feel that odd something at the edge of their perception. They turned their gaze to the hall from which they came, scanning the shadows, searching the nooks and crannies for movement. They could clearly hear a deep and rumbling growl, realizing it was coming from them only moments later before they cut off the sound. Rolling their eyes at themself, they turned their attention back to the door.
“No one is alive on the other side of the door; what are the odds we find any clues?” Mune asked no one in particular.
Whether or not they found anything, they were here, now, and they had to move forward. Mune reached out and Eleceos came to their side. Each raised a hand without speaking, the Force gathering at their beckoning. Thick durasteel, brutally dented and twisted, groaned. The Arcanists breathed out as one. The Force responded and metal shrieked. They jerked their hands towards the walls and the bulkhead was thrust as open as they would get, considering their condition. It was more than enough for even the biggest of them to get through. The Force-users dropped their hands back to their sides and moved out of the way to allow one of the fightings sorts take the lead.
“Whatever Eleceos and I sensed is nearby, I do not believe it is ahead,” Mune said with a note of cautioning in their tone.
Ele placed a hand on Mune’s back in a reassuring manner. This mission was already proving difficult. Whatever Mune had glimpsed was probably as unnerving as his own vision, and it put them both on edge.
“We shall remain cautious, but we must move forward.”
Ele walked through the opening, hoping to seem braver than he felt.
The bridge was dark, save the occasional spray of sparks from emergency power trying to reach vital computing stations. The room was obviously not in the best repair already , but something seemed to have torn through a number of the machines here. A single disembodied hand rested on the main console, as if it was detached while in the middle of typing. The body missing the hand was against a wall. They wore a vac suit, but their inner face plate was blocked by blood as if the suit itself turned into a blender.
Archian noticed a thin slit near the rib area of the body, about a foot and a half long. It oozed a small ammount of blood. The rest of the bridge was other wise empty, save a few streaks of blood towards the nearest escape routes - which appear to be mostly collapsed.
Red stepped through the threshold as well. First thing to notice was that all screens at the bridge were black with no useful information to show. With careful steps and awareness against immediate danger Archian made a way to the nearest terminal. He reached for an arrow. By using the edge of the arrow tip he opened the cover of the machine, and slowly with care started to connect, disconnect and expose the metal wires of the cables. Finally there was a spark and Archian found the right power cable. The screen brightened the surrounding area of the bridge.
The screen blinked a warning.
Immediate Meltdown detected
This flickered away after a brief moment as the operating system starts to reset. It lands on a recovery screen, offering a connection to the black box of the ship. A recording of whatever was happening prior to the shutdown of the ship.
As Archian fiddled with the computer, behind him, the handless body twitched. It jerked to the side, as if a rope was tied to its sternum and was tugged on. It heaves this way a few times, thankfully sound was not transferred easily, as otherwise the crew would hear the wet crunches that accompanied each movement
While Archian and Eleceos pressed on inside the bridge, Vicxa remained by the bulkhead. Running the bare durasteel of her cybernetic over the damaged sections, she tried to wrack her brain to figure out what in the worlds could have caused such a localized and violent burst of pressure as to buckle the bridge-side bulkhead, but not rupture the entire hull in the process. The damage was extensive and bewildering, despite her better atunement to the muted sense of her cybernetic hand, it was like doing chronorepair with mittens.
“Find anything in there?” she called over the comms link.
Ele stared at the moving body. There was no life in it, aside from whatever the thing controlling it was. The idea alone was enough to unnerve the Miraluka.
He activated his energy bow and took aim of the “creature”, ready to defend himself if necessary.
“There is something in here with us.” He answered his comms. “It seems to control the corpses of the deceased.”
The body jerks again. This time, the slit along the ribs splits open, allowing a bright white shape to almost flow out of it.
It landed on the ground with a distant thump then seemed to shake, vibrating at an incredible speed. The white crystal thing then scuttled along the gound, using amorphus apendages to propell it forward towards the group
As the thing…whatever it was…slithered out of the body, Ele was presented with a blinding white light in his Force Vision. He could feel this things need. It’s one desire.
Heat
Heat
It needed Heat. And as it moved towards him and the rest, it was clear that theirs would do. Eles bow, trained on the light, released a powerful bolt of searing hot plasma at the creature before it could reach him.
The bolt of plasma cut through most of it’s body, sloughing off half of it’s weight as it continued towards the group. The only alteration being to pull towards Eleceos, the source of such immense heat.
It Lunged, far faster than expected at it’s target. The sharp crystal edges of it’s body, vibrating at incredible speeds, sliced through the Vac suit easily, breaching it. Eleceos managed to avoid it landing on him entirely, though just barely. Where it slammed into the floor it contiued writhing, the pain of loosing half it’s mass finally driving it away from potential threat. Is sliced through the floor, disappearing as if it swam beneath the metal
After the attack at Elecos and the disappearance of the strange creature, Archian noticed the leak in Miraluka’s Eva suit. He quickly moved to him, gesturing also to the close-by younger female Shistavanen for assistance. He opened the Envoy Corps Essential Kits, took the fibrecord rope out and tried to seal the leak. It was difficult to maneuver with the suit’s gloves on, and there was still a leak coming through to the vacuum.
<@216702440140046336> <@206692046424113152>
Zae growled and huffled under her breath in frustration. This vacuum was complicating things. She can’t track it by sounds or smells. And the stupid gloves- why are they so thick? She aided with Archian to try to seal the leak and shook her head. This… wasn’t a good job.
Mune, taken aback by the sudden attack and the ensueing damage to their friend’s suit, snarled. Their fur was no doubt bristling, hidden from view though it was by the EVA suit. “One of you, get Ele out of here,” the white-furred Shistavanen growled out.
Mune was not pleased. No one hurt their family and got away with it. The Arcanist approached whatever bits of the creature remained behind when it retreated from them. They knelt by the abandoned mass of the creature, the Force buzzing at Mune’s fingertips and their mind opening up. They shot the Miraluka a look that communicated that they could not argue, that he was expected to take care of himelf immediately. They also knew Eleceos would return as soon as the suit was properly repaired. It took but a thought to form the necessary sympathetic link through the Force, the creature’s presence filled their mind, images coelescing in a rush.
“Archian, do you have something in your medkit I can use to collect a sample of this? I may need it,” Mune stood up.
After Mune’s command Archian redirected his attention to the freshly melted, spread flesh melted to the floor, leaving Eleceos in the other Shistavanen’s paws. He carefully took out his flask from the side pocket of the EVA suit, opened it, let the brown liquid out of it into the vacuum, and carefully with the scalpel dug into the body of the former starship crewman. He dropped pieces inside, sealed the small flask and got up from his knees, trying his best not to step into the rest of the body.
“What do we do now?” Archian growled with questions. “Are we leaving or splitting with Eleceos who needs immediate extraction from here?”
<@114916641581563913>
Eleceos stood up from the ground. He hated being fussed over like this, especially because of a stupid mistake like that. He also knew not to question Mune. Though the Shistavanen seemed angry, it was merely because they were concerned for a loved one.
He also didn’t want to be seen as weak, or needing to be protected.
“I am perfectly capable of getting back to the ship myself. I’m not some breakable toy. I will get myself to safety, you guys continue on with the mission. I’ll meet back up when it is safe for me to do so. I will not derail this assignment with my carelessness.”
Not waiting for an argument, the Miraluka began moving to return to the ship. Feeling the lowering temperature, Ele focused on the Force, drawing it into his body to stave off the cold. He hastened to the ship, intent on showing himself as not a weak burden to the others.
Mune knew full well their friend was not at all weak. They may as well have been cut from the same cloth. The second person was to make sure no one could be caught unaware, again. Lettig the Miraluka go, Mune pulled their datapad out again to check the schematics, checking to see what was under the bridge and focusing on the sympathic images they had seen through the Force. The Shistavanen shot a glance over their shoulder to Archian. “I am tracking the thing. If yu could stay in the middle so yu are protected. If I get injured, you’re medic skills will be needed.”
Mune took the lead again, guiding them through the ship, follow the images they had seen in the tracking of the creature. Now that they had a vague idea of what they were dealing with, they were not going to be caught unaware again.
The images flashed through Munes mind of this creature limp crawling through the twisted, uneven walls of the hallway. It headed towards engineering, carving a straight line through the ship. As the crew moved, the ship became more and more deteriorated, until the back half of the ship was nearly in shreds. Massive gashes ripped through the hull, exposing the crew to the vacuum of space as they move through the treacherous terrain.
On the ship, Eleceos was brought into the cockpit where he could discard his damaged suit for an emergency one.
“I wouldn’t recommend tearing that one, doesn’t have the same amount of pressure in store. Good lu-” the pilot cut himself off as he swiveled towards his monitors. “Something’s up. Just lost comms with the team, readings are.. abnormal. Magnetic interference?”
The comm-link in Adem’s ear squawked with the pilot’s report, though in truth he barely heard it. He was much too preoccupied with trying to anticipate the angle from which the strange crystalline creature would strike from next. His palm had sat on the grip of his lightsaber ever since Eleceos’s suit was ruptured. The Umbaran Jedi’s thumb gently rubbed his weapon’s activation stud whenever he felt some vibration or heard the groan of the ailing ship.
Adem’s vigilant affect was that of a still pond, specifically one with a boulder about to be dropped into it. All thoughts of the worm were chased away by this sudden, growing crushing feeling of emptiness building around him by the second. The squeals of tearing metal only confirmed his suspicion.
“Everyone,” he barked, “grab hold of-“ Adem’s words disappeared with what remained of the corridor’s thin air. Before his mag-boots could trigger, he and BD-99 slammed into the floor. Loose pipes and wiring snapped from free of their places in the walls and floors, knocking both Jedi and droid out of the corridor and into open vacuum.
For a moment the cold infinitude was silent. It was then filled by the sharp hiss of the armor’s air supply and the Jedi’s first gulp of breath.
“Bwoooo!” chirped 99, the droid comfortably navigating the vacuum with his small jets. Adem laughed the rush of the moment off, letting the Force reach into him and ease his nerves. The mangled flooring remained moored to the ship by a few meters of the very wire and pipe that had knocked them outside, but probably not for long. He wasted no time carefully pulling himself back towards the torn-open corridor, his Jedi agility carrying him safely between delicate hand-holds and daring leaps.
“Grab hold of wh-AAAAAT?”
Vicxa had barely enough time to make a grab for a convenient grab handle when the remaining atmosphere vented through the hull breach. As her body tugged at the flimsy handhold, the metal snapped like a twig along a seam of rust and neglect. Spinning arse over head, the Mirialan was ejected from the hull, sailing past Adem who clung on to a tenuous connection of debris.
Instinctively, she tried to fire her jetpack to regain control and propulsion, but the disorientation and racing adrenaline didn’t exactly help with precision maneuvering. “Blast!” She swore to herself, her ragged breaths echoing inside her helmet as she struggled to fire the pack’s thrusters at the correct time to stop her spinning. With each rotation, the pale shape of the stricken craft she’d been ejected from grew dishearteningly distant.
After the surprising deterioration of the ship, Archian fell down at the metal flooring with Neebray flying around him, not affected by movements of the ship. He shook his head, and assessed own body for injuries.
Shistavanen growled angrily and lifted himself up by pinning into the wall adapted climbing Claws connected to his EVA suit.
He slowly made his way to others, and was waiting for Mune to gave more directions.
Mune would not be detoured. The white-furred Shistavanen would hunt this thing to the other side of the known galaxy. Eventhe ship breaking part failed to alter their course, Mune, unphased, trudged down the crumbling hall. They’d grasp and handhold where needed, planted their feet where they needed. It was not even the Force guiding them, it was all the Shistavanen’s natural grace and balance; this was just another obstacle in the way of getting to the thing that dare threaten the life of their friend. Not for the first time, Mune had to remind themself to stop snarling.
Eventually, through twisting halls and maintenance shafts, the team arrived on the maintenance deck and stood before the bulkhead leading into the main engineering bay. Mune slipped their datapad back into its satchel. Before anyone could ask, Mune said flatly, “Neither Eleceos nor I have sensed any life, we proceed under the assumption that they have been slain by this… or these… things.” Their tone held the hard edge of a feral growl. They could not be bothered tamping it down this time. They were ready to force the door open if needed; already, the Force rushing into the door they threw open.
As they neared the tattered engineering bay, Mune felt the stirring of the creature they had been following. One sharp thing, squirming through the ship until it reached it’s destination.
The images that flashed through Mune’s mind was like that of a still tornado. As the broken little crystal nestled it, the whole cluster shifted, slowly awakening. Hundreds of them, moving as a swarm. The entire ship began to quake as the creatures began flooding towards them, tearing what remained of the ship to shreds as the bore through walls and flooring alike, seeking one thing.
Heat
Mune slowed their pace until they paused entirely. Their fight or flight instinct very insistently dialed to flight. It certainly helped that their Arcanist senses concurred entirely with that assessment. They curse under their breath. Of course the creature had friends. They had stranded an entire ship and slain all its inhabitants, they only assumed the single creature with its deadly capabilities could cause such destruction on its own.
“Retreat,” Mune barked. “Do not slow until you are back on the ship. Now!”
Their mind calculated quickly, putting together what they had observed and sensed so far. The things craved heat. How intelligent were they? Difficult to assess. So far they seemed driven by a need for heat, enough to kill to and crawl inside a body. The team was certainly the main source of heat present. When the creatures followed… they could as easily devastate their own vessel, Mune summised. Already, the Shistavanen was visualizing a protective wall, knowing full well it would be necessary if the creatures closed the distance between them. “Explosives! Have them at the ready!” they called out as they cleared the really unpleasant mess of a hall and hit the first maintenance conduit between floors.
“Up!” Mune growled, “Do not look back. Up two levels then take a left!”
They kept their awareness open, tracking the creature and its kin, calculating how fast they were moving and their distance. The team could not slow down. As soon as they were in range, they’d have to order the ship to make preparations to disengage else there was the risk of the creatures getting on board. They tested the comms, hurriedly grabbing onto the ladder rungs to drag themself up after the next to last team member.
“This is Mune. We are retreating. We are being pursued by the creatures!” Mune had no time to wonder if they message went through.
They did however have time to make note that some folks on the team really had to work on their athleticism.
Ele could feel the fear coming from Mune. He reached out into the Force and connected his mind with his friend.
“Mune, comms are down. Tell me what you need! I think we need to get off this ship and send it to the netherrealm.”
Mune cursed under their breath and thought good and loud for Eleceos. Get the ship ready. We need to bolt. These things cannot be allowed to make it onto our ship. Prepare for potential injuries.
“If anybody has anything on them to slow them down, time to use it!” Mune shouted.
“GO! GO!” Archian slowed down and shouted to everyone letting them pass him by. He turned around, without stopping and started running backwards. Red stared into the darkness and noticed flicking, shiny points of the oncoming crystal swarm getting closer and closer. Shistavanen lifted his right arm, straightened it to the front and pushed the button at the flame projector with another paw. The woosh filled up the corridor and liquid started to ooze from the machine. Archian’s arm was moving in circles, while his legs were still following the group. Every surface in contact with liquid started to change onto the ice, making the chilling pocket and cover hiding their heat from the wave of the swarm. After finishing the supply of the cryo-band liquid Archain returned to normal run and followed the group.
Eleceos turned to the pilot.
“Get this ship ready to fly, I’m heading to the entry port. We need to get our people to safety.”
Adem could feel the swarm gaining as the last drops of Archian’s cryo-ban hit the floor, and the dilapidated corridor creaked and groaned under the weight of the team’s boots clanking them back to their transport.
“Bwoo-woo!” BD-99 chirped an idea, brandishing the carbonite projector installed in his head.
“Worth a try, pal, just do it fast!” Adem drew his blaster and peered down the warped hallway into the darkness. The droid tapped across the floor, spraying carbonite as they went, building small but solid layers behind the group.
“How much slowing down do you need?”
A denton charge in one hand and a thermal detonator in the other, Vicxa grinned like a cheshire cat behind her helmet. The parasites, or whatever they were, were hot on their collective tails. As Mune led them back towards their ship, she did not much bother to wait for an all-clear to lob the explosives. Her thumb flicking the activation pad, she tossed the denton charge while dialing in the timer on the detonator. As the first explosion blossomed to life, carving out a sizeable chunk of the starship corridor and bathing it in the heat the creatures so craved, she lobbed the delayed second explosive and broke into a sprint.
“I recommend high-tailing it. That one’s a doozy!”
The seconds counted down inside the detonator’s durasteel shell, isotopes hungry for a blossoming chain reaction, just waiting for the atomic spark to ignite the nuclear conflagration.
The swarm of crystalline parasites pursued the boarding party, swimming through the scrapped hull like it was a soft clay. The swirling mass of them met the frozen-over hallway, they stopped their pursuit momentarily, slowly spreading out until the encompassed the hallway inside of them. Only then did they push forward, continuing the chase. They met the carbonite walls with a silent crashing, squirming through the barriers just in time to be faced with the explosion from the denton charge.
The blast ripped through the hull, tearing metal and crystal apart. The major mass of parasites where blown through the newly opened hole into the void, hopelessly drifting away. The few remaining seemed dazed by the intense heat, no longer continuing their chase.
The pilot of the transport brought the ship humming to life, engines lit as the crew made it to the airlock. After a beat to count heads, the airlock was closed and the ship detached. In a few more moments they were free of the ship, engines screaming as they tore through the field of rock and twisted metal that had hidden the ship in the first place.
It wasn’t for another minute that the pilot released their held breath, more confident now that they escaped the swarm. It did not occur for a few more minutes that the Voidbreaker had just brought on it’s third load of crystal shipments.
Comms were lit, in the hopes that someone aboard the Voidbreaker would answer the blinking light sooner rather than later.