Beware of What Lurks in the Shadows

[Taeli Raaf]

Taris system

“Why did we get stuck with the boring operation?” Captain Hunter grumbled, the flashlight on his blaster rifle illuminating the dank mine they were exploring. A full team of Aurora security personnel and scientists had been deployed to Taris to recon and refurbish the old Project Siantide sites. Hunter was a former captain in the Republic military, but the call of the private sector had brought him into security operations.

“Boring? This was the place everything started?” Chief Scientist Flepu replied. “This world is incomparable in access to Sianium, and securing the original sites of the project is essential to boosting the current project even higher.”

[SIZE=11pt]Flepu didn’t understand why they needed such a brute and his men, but Jaxson and Miss Raaf had been adamant about needing proper protection on this world. Something about ancient Sith monsters that lurked in the depths of the planet. He knew rakghouls had been a problem in the past, but he had heard that the Mandalorians had cleansed them from the world.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“There’s nothing to engage here, we’re just glorified bodyguards,” Hunter grumbled. “Miss Raaf and Jaxson said there might be monsters here that would threaten the operation. Clearly, they were misinformed.”

Plenty of digging equipment was strewn about the tunnels, skeletons and dust all that remained of the original crew of Project Siantide that had likely been killed by whatever Sith had come to pay them a visit. The site seemed like not even scavengers had picked over it, for whatever reason. There was some old valuable tech, but then this deep in the Undercity made people nervous.

[SIZE=11pt]“Spread out, secure the perimeter,” Hunter ordered to his men. [/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

While they did that, the scientists and recyclers began going over the equipment and getting power into the lights above. Two men went along a side tunnel that led to the nearby power station, one of Hunter’s men going with them. He didn’t have his rifle at the ready. There wasn’t any danger here.

“This stuff is ancient,” one man grumbled as he fumbled around with just the light of a glowrod to go off of. “I’m surprised there is even electronics to salvage.”

“Power conduits are still stable,” the other engineer said, running a scanner along the couplings. “Little old, but nothing too bad. We can update as we go of course.”

[SIZE=11pt]The security man shrugged and leaned against the wall of the power room while they worked, the sounds of the main group working on getting the mining equipment appraised and if any of it could be used for the Sianium present in the mine.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

As the men were almost finished, a clanging sound came from further down the corridor. The three men in the power room looked at each other before the guard shrugged and picked up his rifle.

“I’ll check it out,” he said. Stepping out into the tunnel, he shined his light down the corridor and didn’t see anything.

“All clear,” he called back over his shoulder, slowly walking down the tunnel to see what the noise actually had been. A piece of conduit lay on the stony floor, having fallen from … above? How in the feth…

[SIZE=11pt]He never got to finish that thought as he was yanked up into the conduits along the ceiling, didn’t even have a chance to scream. His rifle clattered to the ground, attracting the attention of the two technicians.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“What in hell?” the one grumbled, finishing his splicing job. “You alright out there? Simmons? Hey!”

“I’ve got the lights, and here we go,” the other tech said as he flipped the switch and the facilities power came online. Lights started to flicker on, some of them anyways, and the two men walked out of the room. The guard was nowhere to be seen.

A crunching noise caught their attention from above, and they screamed as the thing leapt down on them. They never had a chance as whatever had attacked Simmons fell upon them, biting and tearing and ripping.

“What was that?” Flepu said, frowning as the lights came on but screams echoed from that tunnel.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Sithspawn!” Hunter yelled, throwing Flepu to the ground as a pale creature burst from the rapidly shrinking darkness and lunged at the scientist. Blaster rifle from all around … screams and growls … Flepu crawled along the ground towards the distress signal the security men had brought, whimpering as he had to avoid the creatures ripping through the men and other technicians.

“There’s too many of them, Captain!” a soldier yelled before a creature grabbed him from behind and pulled him into the shadows.
“Fall back! Fall back!” Hunter yelled, nursing a bite wound he had received while saving Flepu’s life. “Get everyone out now!”

[SIZE=11pt]Screams rebounded towards the rapidly retreating security personnel, many nursing bite wounds or scratches. The last Hunter saw of Flepu was the man triggering the distress beacon before two of those monsters fell upon him. Out of the entire team, only ten men were left trying to make it back to at least the Undercity.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

They could still hear screams and shouts coming from below, but they slowly started to fade out. Luckily, whatever had been after them wasn’t following, but Hunter groaned as he felt like his insides were on fire.

“What were those things?” someone asked, horrified by what had taken mere minutes to transpire.

“I don’t know,” Hunter grunted, dropping his rifle and doubling over in pain.
“Captain?” another officer asked before he grimaced in pain.

Hunter gave a scream as he wanted to rip his own skin off as he started to transform. The only unwounded man started running as the partially transformed captain started to attack and accelerate the changes in the wounded squad members. He was almost at the exit when a clawed hand fell on his shoulder, and with a scream, he was pulled back into the mine…

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Two standard weeks later…

Taeli was concerned as she and a full-fledged response force arrived in Taris orbit. The team she had sent down to the old Project Siantide sites hadn’t responded in a while, and when contacted, all they got was the pings of a distress beacon.

“What do you think happened?” a tall Echani asked. The Echani, a man named Yular Venis, was the regional head for Aurora Security and had personally sent Captain Hunter along on the mission. Hunter and his team had been the best he had to offer, and them getting wiped out was not good in his opinion.

[SIZE=11pt]“If my gut and the Force are saying anything … something that I was worried about all along is still alive and kicking down there,” Taeli replied, stepping onto one of the Wraid dropships in the hanger bay. “You know the stories of course?”[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“You think there are still surviving rakghouls down there?” Venis asked incredulously. “Reports said the Mandos got the last of them when they retook the planet after the Akala Incident.”

“They might have gotten all of the rakghouls on the surface, but probably not deep underground,” Taeli mused, strapping on plates of armor over her robes. “A colony seems to have survived in the old Siantide project site. We’re going to have to clear them out.”

[SIZE=11pt]“Good thing we’re packing the brand new tech that came out of Jabiim,” Venis replied, hefting the heavy blaster rifle that was the first Aurora weapon designed to use the Sianium power cell. Dubbed the BurstStreak by the men, the proper title being the AI-321m Heavy Weapon System, the weapon was a true marvel. Every soldier and droid on the response force had been equipped with them, although that was every weapon developed so far.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Good thing,” Taeli said, the ship rumbling as it entered atmosphere and headed down into the depths of the semi-salvaged cityscape. Centering herself in the Force, she could feel the sickness at the site they were rapidly approaching. Dark side energies from the primal rakghouls … hunger and pain.

With a roar, the dropships opened up the sides and the teams began rappelling down to the opening the survey team had made into the tunnel network below. Harbinger and Herald droids fell to the ground, hefting their heavy weaponry and advancing to secure a beachhead into the tunnels.

[SIZE=11pt]Over two hundred Aurora security men and women were gearing up outside the opening, the dropships above providing an insurance policy in case any rakghouls tried to head for the surface this way. Taeli didn’t sense any nearby, they were all below.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Purple light ignited from her lightsaber as she led the teams down into the depths of the planet. The scientific side of her was letting her know this was serving two objectives: securing another source of Sianium and testing the BurstStreak blasters.

“Tight patterns people, droids up front,” she ordered. Scraps of cloth and armor were lying nearby, blood splattered against the wall. Seemed like someone had almost escaped, but had been attacked before reaching salvation.

“Poor fether almost got out,” one soldier said.

“Yeah, karking rakghouls,” another said.

“Keep your eyes everywhere,” Taeli said. “Rakghouls can scamper along the ceilings, burrow in the ground…”

[SIZE=11pt]Even as she said it, the ground gave a shift right in front of her and a clawed hand broke through the stone as the transformed Aurora security man from before attacked. Or tried to at least, before Taeli’s saber took him through the heart.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

The commotion seemed to be a signal as more screeches and growls started to come from below and from where the droids were. Three security personnel brought their weapons up and began firing into the hole the rakghoul had dug, green energy burning away the creatures trying to attack from below. More holes started to crumble away in the passage as more rakghouls attacked, but they were met either by the burning green energy from the security men or Taeli bringing her lightsaber to bear.

“Move it up!”

“If anyone gets scratched or bitten, take them out,” Venis ordered over comms. Taeli wanted to countermand that order, but it was only logical. Even just one wound meant one more rakghoul to deal with in the future. While the team and droids battled the rakghouls, pushing deeper in the Sianium mine, she was observing the rakghoul she had dealt with earlier.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Curiously, its eyes were the white of blindness. Living in the darkness, evolving in this dimly lit place must mean this particular colony and strain had changed for the surroundings. Increased auditory receptors, thinner limbs … stronger though. Longer and sharper claws, lovely.

“Ma’am, we’ve cleared the way forward, sent a message that we will require additional droid forces,” Venis stated as she got up from the body she was examining. “I had the men detonate seismic charges so any tunnels or rakghouls that might be in them should be taken care of.”

“I doubt we got them all,” she said. “How are the BurstStreaks working?”

[SIZE=11pt]“Like a charm ma’am, but they’re killers on the gas canisters,” Venis said, hefting his own weapon. “Went through two myself, but we’re stocked with plenty. These don’t seem like the rakghouls on file though.”[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“They aren’t,” Taeli said, walking with him into the main chamber. Droids were already securing checkpoints, going over and identifying corpses on the ground. It would seem the team had tried to make a stand here and died, or they had been ambushed. “They’ve evolved in some ways, degenerated in others. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous or infectious, if anything … these rakghouls are more dangerous. They don’t need to see you … they just need to hear you.”

“We’ve identified all bodies here, no sign of Captain Hunter or Head Scientist Flepu or half of the survey team,” a Harbinger droid stated in a cold monotone. “Analysis shows a hyper-advanced virus of unknown origins within subjects that have mutagenic properties. Conclusion: They burn just as easily when confronted by an AI-321m Heavy Weapon System or similar type of energy projectile.”

[SIZE=11pt] “I suspect Hunter and our good scientist are rakghouls by now,” Taeli sighed. “Along with the rest of the team that isn’t here. How much deeper does this mine go?”[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Scans indicate multiple levels and a breach into the old transit system hub nearby,” Venis answered. “We’re setting up checkpoints and seismic scanners to hold this position. Heralds One and Two have deployed into the central tunnel network to flush out anything else that might be on this level. They don’t seem to like the lights.”

“I wonder if their hides are photoreactive,” Taeli mused. “Could be they evolved? Would be a fascinating study.”

“They deserve to be burned into oblivion,” Venis replied. “My forces have located their hive, we’ll be deploying down to the transit hub to deal with them. Three squads of twenty should be enough, plus the droids. The rest of the team will secure the remaining tunnels.”

“Did we deploy any probes to check the reactor site where the Sianium was refined here?” Taeli asked.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Probes have indicated the reactor is just a crater now, they must have blown it during the Sith attack,” Venis said, handing Taeli a datapad showing an overgrown crater with glowing trees. “Looks like we’ll be shipping this stuff to Galidraan instead of everything here.”

[SIZE=11pt]“Very well, let’s cleanse the last of these rakghouls,” Taeli said, heading off with the teams assigned to wipe out the transit hub. Passing through the hastily established checkpoint, they followed behind the Herald droids, weapons primed to fire.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Make sure you keep track of your gas canisters,” Taeli stated, her lightsaber out of place among all the soldiers. It was odd to be in that situation again, but soldiers knew to take orders from a Jedi Master by now. She could checks being done … and then bedlam broke out as more rakghouls attacked. These ones were much faster for some odd reason … older versions of this strain?

Green energy lanced out towards them, scorching the tunnel and burning through the Sithspawn. Some of them were blasted backwards from the force of the energy bolts, but one managed to get past the droids and flood of energy and scratch one of the front soldiers.

It happened faster than anyone processed, but suddenly the wounded soldier was on the ground … a smoking hole in their armor from a shot from Venis’s rifle.

[SIZE=11pt]“No wounds,” he stated simply.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

The attack was pushed back again, but Taeli was getting uneasy about it. Rakghouls, while mindless in some cases, were quite clever about prey. These attacks were not what she expected … but perhaps that would change as they neared the transit hub.

Breaching into the wide open space, weapons ready to fire … they could only stare in silent horror. Rakghouls, or whatever these evolved strains might be called, were clambering over every surface. There was so much dark energy coming from them, their hunger, their pain, their hate … it was spewing forth into the air like a noxious gas. The rakghouls turned as one to regard the arrivals in their midst, not truly seeing them, but either through some sort of auditory vision substitute or something, they were being watched.

[SIZE=11pt]One rakghoul in particular was still wearing the shreds of his uniform, the Aurora security crest emblazoned on it along with the captain insignia. He was chewing on a bone, probably the leftovers of someone who didn’t turn fast enough. Slowly, the transformed Hunter turned and tilted its head in thought.[/SIZE]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

A screech left its mouth and the fight began, the Herald droids opening up with their cannons while the rest of the sixty member squad and Taeli began firing or slashing at the oncoming surge. Mayhem, and more than a handful of soldiers had been wounded. Taeli herself narrowly dodged being injured herself, but the Force was her ally and she could predict where these monsters would strike at her.

The transformed Hunter charged her, but was brought down by her activating the spinning feature of her saber and bringing it to bear, shredding the rakghoul into pieces. The fight like hours, but it only lasted minutes … but she could hear more coming.

“Status?” she asked, looking at the executed security personnel on the ground among the bodies.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

“Fifteen of us dead, Herald One is missing its right arm and more are coming from below,” Venis answered, grimacing as he fell to the ground. “Make that sixteen dead, Miss Raaf. Blighter got me in the neck … make it quick.”

“Thank you for your service, Venis,” she said, sighing internally. It would be a mercy to the Echani though. The virus in him was already going to be changing him, mutating him through Sith alchemy into one of the beasts they had just put down. Her lightsaber moving and taking his head off was the last thing Venis saw, even as his insides started to blaze and a feralness started to claw at his mind. “Set charges, I want to crush every rakghoul that comes into this chamber.”

[SIZE=11pt]“Yes, Miss Raaf.”[/SIZE]