Food for Thought (Denon Dominion)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan listened with a grim expression on her face when the head researcher relayed what they had ascertained. Powerful tissue regeneration, the possibility that the zombies could keep going for decades, perhaps even more...all engineered.

"Elixir of life," said grimly. "What's this, pathway to immortality, superior race of supersoldiers. Looks like someone took a page out of old Shadow's book. He wanted force-using zombies," she shuddered a bit, considering this.

If someone had been deliberately messing around and engineering this virus, then there was no telling as to what grotesque creatures they might face. They had already ascertained that they were smart. And now Cira, Sarge and Zero had descended down to the lower levels, deeper than she and Tegaea had gone, and that had been quite rough already.

It was then that she noted the flare of activity on the holographic projectors, the glow of the red light. Sirens howled as the perimetre was breached.

"Colonel, we're under attack, they're storming the elevator...under heavy fire...aaah," a message came in from one of the troopers standing guard at the elevator before the connection was cut.

Dozens of red dots appeared on the holographic map, indicating zombies. They had managed to fight their way up the elevator and were swarming them now. At the same time the map showed a smaller group of hostiles that was already on the upper levels, coming out of wrecked buildings from that party of the city considered safe.

"Guess we gotta cut science hour short!" Siobhan called to them, grabbing her boltgun and lightsabre to storm out of the building. The beleagured Omega troopers had taken up position behind cover and were laying down volleys of bolts and blaster fire at their attackers. Bringing up her boltgun Siobhan pumped out explosive rounds, blowing creatures apart, but she herself came under blaster fire when they drew closer, and so her lightsabre flared to life as she surged onward to engage.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Siobhan and Tegaea worked well together. The Colonel's bolter, either with buckshot or bolts, drove the enemy back and struck them at long range, while Siobhan's lightsabre and powers cut down any who got near.

Some heavy repeater and e-web turrets were deployed, and the zombies fell in great numbers. But then, rather than throw themselves into the fire, they showed intelligence by sneaking around the edge of the platform, trying to outflank the Omega forces.

"@[member="Cira"], we're under heavy attack here! Hope whatever you're doing goes quickly!" she said in between shots.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"]

The fighting was brutal, intense. Scores of zombies fell before the Omega mercenaries when they let loose a true firestorm of laser rounds and bolts upon them. Siobhan moved almost like a blur, striking at enemies with her sabre.

The mercenaries started tossing in grenades, blowing apart several zombies. But then the zombies just had to demonstrate their brains and retreat into the shadows, seemingly fleeing, before they suddenly attacked from the flanks.

"Tegs, down!" Siobhan called out to her lover, roughly grabbing Tegs by the shoulder and pulling her down when zombies leapt towards her from behind, surging forward herself to drive her blade into the forehead of a snarling zombie, then spinning to give another creature a hard kick into the jaw before stabbing down.

Intense blaster fire was fired their way, then the earth shook when the zombies started tossing grenades. With lightning reflexes Siobhan caught a frag grenade and tossed it back into the fray, experiencing the satisfaction of seeing zombie bodies fly through the air, but then suddenly one of their E-web gunners was taken out by a shot and the repeater was turned against them as a zombie grabbed it.

Distracted for a brief while Siobhan felt a laser round graze her side and as she grit her teeth she tried to spin and dodge to evade the hail of laser bolts. More zombies lunged at her and she swung her blade in an angry flurry to drive them off, before the combined onslaught forced her to the ground.

A hard kick landed against her neck, a zombie up his sword and moved to bring it down on her, then his head was blown off by a slug round and Siobhan swung her blade to chop another zombie's legs off, then with a tug from the Force tossed the two corpses at their comrades. But as she got up she could see more hostiles incoming.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Siobhan pulled her down and dealt with more of the monsters, and as she got to her feet she loaded buckshot and opened up a killing fire on any that got close. Despite the danger this was what she loved most. Well, that and Siobhan. But outside of that, the weight and recoil of the bolter, the havoc and chaos of the battle was the most exciting thing in her life.

Finally, the enemy drew off, their numbers thinned by over two hundred.
"Keep ready, people. Get a sample from all the zombies then dump the bodies over the edge. Keep your weapons ready. Major Kerrigan, please join me for a moment."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Finally the zombies retreated, leaving behind scores of their comrades. Omega mercenaries marched across the area, delivering headshots or stabs through the heart to make sure the undead stayed dead. The stench was terrible of the corpses was terrible.

Siobhan quickly followed @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] as the soldiers secured the perimetre and collected samples. "You know I like it when get all authoritative. Hell of a fight. Never a boring day on the Alcori and Kerrigan Express, is there?" Then her expression turned serious. At this rate napalm sounded a pretty good solution.

"That was just normal zombies with guns and a brain upgrade. Gods know what's down there in the lower levels, where Cira and company are headed...right into the arms of whoever's behind this."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Jorus stood up. It didn't go so well. But then he vomited, and that felt better. Zombies with power tools worked on the door, but he had a way out. Not a good one, of course. That would never do.

He climbed up through the ceiling and into one of the spaces between additions. In this area, crammed-in renovations conformed to no master set of blueprints. Entire rooms could be walled off and forgotten. In this case, the room in question was about two feet wide, and he climbed up grimy, exposed pipe on the insides of those walls.

The door yielded beneath him, and he aimed the shell gun downward. A fireball cooked them; a second fireball cooked their followers and sucked the air from his spot. He let go and fell, rolling awkwardly, then scrambled to reload.

The Mandalorian shell gun roared, and half the wall blew away. Jorus inhaled deeply and stared out over a dirty abyss. No more zombies were forthcoming.

"Uh, control," he said to @[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"] , "if you're reading my location, there's not much left of this area, but I'm not getting much sound or vibration. Think I got most of'em." He nudged a toasted zombie with the butt of his gun. "Yeah, maybe all of'em that's around here. Figure I'll sit tight until you're in a position to start quarantining me and such. Still no symptoms. Vaccine's golden."

 

[Tilda Sai]

"Confirmed Colonel," @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] and @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] a finger motioned for the intel comm officer to get @[member="Cira"] online.

"Besh team, we have information regarding the hostiles. Head and heart shots will neutralize them, nothing else. They are sentient, working in more than just a horde mentality." Around her the klaxtons roared, chaos errupting as the red dots that detailed the horde to be hostiles came up the elevator.

"Everyone on high alert!" Anika bellowed tersely, already unholstering her own weapon, checking the power cell and taking the safety off. While the mercenaries began to take on the zombies, Anika too, began to relay more information throughout the teams, keeping her weapon at the ready. The mercenaries at least managed to get the bulk of them from reaching the comm area, but one managed to escape...

"Besh and Cresh team, headquarters is underattack. We have contact." she relayed, only to hear in her earbud the rather winded voice of Merrill.

Her jaw tensed, and she went rushing towards the holoscreen. There. She found him. @[member="Jorus Merrill"] "Sit tight Merrill. We'll get you soon. Keep talking to me." A roar came behind her and she did an abrupt turn, her arms shooting up to send a volley of bolts downrange. There were screams around as the body thudded to the ground, still twitching. She came to stand just over it, expression cold, set. Another shot went into it's head.

"Everyone on high alert!" she ordered in a clipped tone, gathering a measure of calm to the intel security team. "We are the eyes and ears of the rest of Omega Pyre and we will do our duty." cold black eyes stared down at the now dead zombie.

"We will do our job."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"]

"Sure you're alright up there, Control?" He squinted up and across the expanse, sure he could pretty much see the command post, or at least its general area. "I'm thinking I could probably make it up to give you folks a hand, maybe. This area's still pretty quiet, and not the bad kind of quiet. Pretty sure I'm feeling better. I'll sit tight as ordered 'less you say otherwise, Boss Lady."

 

[Tilda Sai]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

​

A sudden explosion rocked the area, sending Anika tumbling to the right. As she fell, she hit her head, scratches causing a bit of blood to pool over her temple, shrapnel hitting her cheek. The point of origin was the turbo lift.

They had to detonate it to prevent any more of the horde from coming up.

Her free hand rose, fixing her comm, answering the question with a question, "Merrill... can you confirm that lift still is still operational?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"]

"Good enough for me," he grumbled, scratching the vaccine itch on his arm. Shell gun loaded and pointed forward, he sprinted down the zombie-strewn hallway. His boots slipped in blood, but a Warden's instincts kept him up and moving.

After a few tense minutes, he reached the turbolift. Lights scrolled across the display. "Confirmed, Boss Lady. Turbolift's operational. Looks like it's hitting a floor below me to stock up on nasties. Lemme see what I can do..."

He pried open the doors just as the car shot past, heading up with a fresh load of zombies. By instinct, he leaped and caught the bottom of the car. He shouted against the wind. "On the way up!"

The car jostled, as if packed. A turbolift car this size could hold, well...zombies didn't read safety warnings. He grimaced and hung on, bringing up the shell gun to point at the bottom lift vents.

BAM.

And then he was falling along with the lift car that would never disgorge its zombies.

"Problem solved, ma'am..."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea gave @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] a look. This was not a time for joking around. That would come later. For now they had a serious issue to deal with. "@[member='Anika Od'Manteiv'], are you alright? Do you need backup? Siobhan, I need you to get in contact with @[member="Allaina Mare"] and get us some gunships. We're going to give support to Cira and her team and try and draw the enemy away from their location. Hopefully by then our researchers will come up with something useful!"

 

[Vora Kaar]

@[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Cira @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Sarge Potteiger
Zero just shook his head. The man kept staring at him like normal. He knew that a Question was on his mind when he entered the ship. Sarge held his hand out for the woman, which she took, but not at him. He was fine with that. Its not like anybody else knew who he was. He got onto the ship by himself And moved towards one of the open seats. The other Men may not want to sit next to him. Everyone avoided him like the plague.

He knew that Sarge had the question of who Zero really was. So he said to Sarge "Human is what I am. Zero is my name because there are Zero people that know who I truly am. Does that help you with your unasked questions?" Zero didnt give the man time to talk back to him because he didnt care. Zero didnt want a response from him.

he pulled out his blade and began to hone its edge so it would be ready to behead the Zombie foes that wanted his blood.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

To be fair Siobhan had been serious at the end. Nonetheless she nodded and activated her comm, calling @[member="Allaina Mare"]. "Allaina, it's me. Big zombie infestation. We're going in deep and could use a couple gunships."

 

[Qae Shena]

Allaina grinned. "Perfect timing. I was just getting ready to take a nap up here, Siobhan. Gunship wave coming up; I'm committing Aleph Flight to your location. Hangar, deploy Aleph Flight down to Major Kerrigan with incendiaries. Tell me more about these zombies..."

"Aye, ma'am."

It wasn't long until a flight of four Inimica gunships were out of the Invicta's hangar, headed straight towards Siobhan and Tegaea, loaded up with incendiary bombs in the bomb dispenser. They'd be able to rain that down on their target.

"Aleph Flight Lead to Major Kerrigan. Got us some coords and a target, ma'am?"

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

As the gunships came in to land, Tegaea got aboard one of them with Siobhan. "Take us up and hover over the area."

The nature of the city meant that it was hard in many places to see the lower levels from above, but one area where the top platforms had collapsed, zombies could be clearly seen massing. They clearly had not anticipated the danger they were in.

"Open fire on the hostiles in sector 3827," Tegaea said, coming to stand by the pilots. It'd be a fantastic sight.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

A cacophony of shriekds and screeches was heard when the zombie horde amassed. Many of them were unarmed, their clothin was in tatters, their mouths full of angs, some had hands that seemed to have sprouted claws.

But a great number of them had armed themselves with an assortment of weapons, blasters, sluggers, even light repeaters. They seemed to be directing the assault, using their less intelligent brethren as cannon fodder to rush the Omega forces while they came in from the flanks.

Siobhan took up her position at the gunnery, along with a second gunnery officer. Her fingers moved over the console, setting the targeting algorithms. "Prepare to drop incendiary bombs."

Oh, this would be so much fun. "Target moving into range."

The zombies came storming forward, opening fire at the Omega forces. They saw the huge shadow and heard the deafening roar of engines that was a harbinger to the arrival of the Inimica. A few, the more intelligent ones, took flight and sought cover, but many were taken by surprise at the unexpected intervention.

"Ready for bombing. Opening dispenser."

"Exterminate them."

The bomb dispenser opened and fiery death was unleashed upon the horde of the living dead. The entire sector was engulfed by flames as the incendiary explosives hit the ground and detonated, engulfing the creatures in a blazing inferno. The air was filled with their agonised screams as they were incinerated, the smell of burnt and charned flesh, fire and smoke rising up into the sky. Zombies ran, some that had been ignited tried to put it out by rolling on the ground but oftentimes just collided with their brethren. There was no escape from the glorious flames.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

@[member="Cira"] @[member="Zero"]

Well spank me with a hockey stick and call me Shirley, the woman does know how to smile. Taking hold of some netting along the side of the troop bay, Sarge looks down to Zero who seemed to fancy himself some kind of enigma... and a psychic. "Ya know what I was thinkin'? Mind you're own kriffin' business."

He snorts.

"I know who ya are, Zero. You can't stop the signal."

The man could choose to believe him, or not. It didn't matter. If Sarge really wanted to know who he was, he could find out. It wouldn't be easy, but the Syndicate had information that, if he were to start sifting through now, would take him several millenia to even skim the surface of.

A gloved hand points to the sword. "Waste of time; at least until we get into the lab itself."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea watched the inferno and let out a sigh of contentment. Much better to roast the monsters from on high than be there in person! Still, she knew that air power would not be the panacea for all their problems. A solution needed to be found to the zombie problem beyond killing them. They were, after all, a replicating resource. And it was that question that made Tegaea pause.

"@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], did you see anything about how these zombies eat? If they rely on killing the humans here for food, or converting them, then surely they'll run out eventually. What is keeping their numbers up?" Granted, Denon had a large population, but zombies were a self defeating system eventually. They would, in the end, run our of their food source by creating more and more predators. Something was odd here.

"Take us back to base...I need to speak to the doctors again."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan paused, considering the question from @[member="Tegaea Alcori"], then shook her head. "No idea, but you're right," she admitted, pondering the question further as her mind drifted back to Shadow's experiments for a brief moment.

"Most of the zombies didn't even look they'd been mauled or gotten flesh ripped out, just had the marks from getting bitten for conversion. These creatures are precise about it. Reminds me of the Unity if they'd been more time to spread out and develop. They didn't eat any of the humans in Shadow's lab, just turned 'em," she said thoughtfully.

She signalled the pilot and the Gunship took a sharp turn, flying back to the improvised base camp so that they could consult with the science team. The plot was thickening, this would be more than just a simple search and destroy.

 

[Ryan]

@[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Allaina Mare, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""]Ermac Laith, @[member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""][member=""] R. Brek Madak

Location: aboard the YT-1300 "Jaro" in space above Denon

The Jaro, a heavily modified YT-1300, ripped from hyperspace with Dred Varad at the helm arriving at their designated destination of the planet Denon. The planet engulfed the view within the transport's cockpit but that was not what made Dred almost die of a heart attack. It was the klaxxon alarms that screamed through out the ship and lighting up cockpit with flashy red lights from multiple scanners. The more urgent one being a capitol ship pinging the Jaro with weapon locks from multiple weapon platforms.

"FREK!FREK!FREK!" The mandalorian snarled to himself as he steadied his nerves, his hands gripping the Jaro's yoke and keeping her course steady. "Jaro! give off our transponder codes and hail this ship"

"Yes Captain, Transponder code being sent to the Invicta" A female voice echoed from the ship's PA system. The Jaro was complete with a advanced AI system almost making the ship completely Automated, the sexy voice was optional. "Hail Open!"

"Invicta! This is Captain Dred Varad. Please check the invitation list, under 'The Jaro'. We have been invited to this party" Dred relayed using humour to cover up his nervousness. The worry was warranted, wouldn't take much for Invicta to make the Jaro and all those aboard nothing but space dust.

Dred turned his head so that he was facing back towards the cockpit's entrance corridor " LAITH! MADAK! GET YOUR FREKKING SHEBS IN GEAR!" The captain roared "Seems we are late and might get spanked for our tardiness"

Varad turned back to the forward view point, his eyes glancing between real space and down to what the Jaro could see with all her sensors and scanners while waiting for the Invicta to respond.