ZIOST ORBIT
| ASV UNNAMED
Equipment:
Armour,
Rifle, Grenades,
Sidearm,
Sabre,
Ion Paddle Beamer, Cryo-Ban Gun.
Loske Treicolt
They were not fast enough. The Sithspawn were there. Diona's Cylix bolt pistol blew off the head of the beast. Too late to keep it running Melanie through with a spike. She fell to the ground. Lorn gave the word. They had ten minutes. A tech took the initiative to override the door controls and raced down the hallways. "Move!" Nyssa shouted.
Where they went, the beasts followed. They came from seemingly everywhere. Sithspawn burst from the ceiling, and charged them from the corridors. Tactics and formations gave way to a naked struggle for survival. Rhea leaped upon a Sithspawn that had ambushed one of their techs. With a blood-curdling scream emanating from her throat, she drove her blade it into it while a torrent of lightning burst from her free hand and directly into its skull.
When it stopped moving, she grabbed the tech, who winced when she inadvertently zapped her. "Run!" the Rattataki growled and the tech quickly did so A Sithspawn lacerated Rhea's thigh and she had to spin to defend herself and slice through it. Blood and gore showered her.
Celaena was screaming something in her native tongue. The others just heard the screams and felt the scorching heat as she projected fire in every direction, scorching her friends but burning mutated monstrosities to a crisp. The screaming stopped and she dropped to one knee. Reverence dashed forward to cover her and haul her up. Her repeating blaster was smoking as she fired. They were trapped amidst the hordes. Even Vagt had been seized by an abomination. With a savage war cry and a flurry of curses, Nyssa tried to force her way through.
Wielding her lightsabre like a claymore, she cut down abominations or simply punched them with her Phrik hand as she tried to create an opening. Then her comrades heard a roar of agony and fury when the poisoned spike of a beast stabbed through her. The roar was enough to send the beast careening into a wall, but she was down. Reverence and Sienn were trying to provide cover for the technicians. Their blasters fashioned a hailstorm as they pounded beasts. But their ammunition was running low.
Shikoba had stood on the sidelines, trying to help where possible. She saw her comrades being grabbed, injured and encircled. She saw the bodies of dead Sithspawn and crew members. You can raise them, the voice dead. No, she thought immediately. She had vowed not to.
You've done it before. This is different.
There was the flash of light, the sound of a blade tearing through flesh as Diona cut down an abomination and before smashing others with a barrier to send them careening into their brethren, only for a Sithspawn to descend and envelope her throat, even as she struggled and tried to throw it off.
And then the Vashyada made her decision. Retracting a gauntlet, she drew a knife and cut the open palm of her hand, while chanting. Necrotic energies flowed from her. She could hear the spirits chanting, sneering and yelling at her. Corpses rose from the floor. Their eyes glowed with a fierce blue fire. And they fell upon the Sithspawn.
The surviving crew members and more than a few of her own comrades looked upon the ghastly scene with shock. Then they realised the opportunity it presented. "Push through!" Nyssa yelled, breathing laboured and in pain. Shikoba looked like she was in trance, lost in the embrace of death. The scores of spectral essences thundered inside her mind. Then Reverence grabbed her forcefully and shook her. "Move, Ghosttalker!" The Vashyada reeled and her ears suffered when the Dahomian flung a grenade into a creature's mouth, but she bolted.
More beasts came, but they pushed through the corridor and towards the hangar, which was now a blazing inferno. The carnage inside the remains of the hangar, as well as the gaping hole seemed to deter the beasts a bit. Yet the squad members had to magnetise their boots to keep themselves from being pulled into the void. Moreover, it was exerting pressure upon their shuttle. "We need to close the hole!"
"I just need a moment," pained, tired-sounding Zhaleh exclaimed.
"Team, cover her," Vagt ordered.
The Qadiri passed her rifle to Lorn. "Here." The officer's hands were a bit shaky, but he took the offered gun. He soon had cause to put it to use as Sithspawn appeared at the door. Perhaps it was Melanie's cries of agony he heard when he fired a burst into it. Force energies rippled from Diona, temporarily holding beasts in stasis so her comrades could blast or burn them. But even her energy was dwindling.
While her comrades tried to shield her, Zhaleh called upon her Zari. She lacked her superior's talent for fire and raw destruction, but had an inherent aptitude for ice. Where fire destroyed, ice preserved. The heat that permeated the hangar made her sweat. "Hurry up, sis!" Celaena shouted over the cacophony of battle, fire sweeping from her.
Zhaleh focused, finding her centre amidst the firestorm. And as the temperature dropped, ice spread from her. It took all her focus, but her powers shaped the ice into a wall around the hall, temporarily sealing it. "Go!"
Pursued by Sithspawn, the Champions and what was left of the crew raced to the shuttle. Vagt, Diona and an injured Nyssa remained at the hatch, firing at pursuing beasts until everyone was aboard. Diona slammed the hatch shut on a Sithspawn beast. Sano hastened to the cockpit. Taking the controls, she deftly steered the transport out into the void. Sithspawn that had latched onto it were blasted. The blood of an arachnid was splattered against the shuttle's hull when she rammed it. The vessel shot away from the battleship, just as the
Profundity went on its final voyage, shooting towards a broken wreck drifting in space.
Vagt made a headcount of the survivors. Nyssa was in pain from the poison. Indeed, she had dropped down to a knee and was panting. Deep inside, she was feeling frantic, but forced herself not to show it. She tried to comm Elpsis and it failed. She accessed scans, but there was nothing. "Where is she?!" she yelled.
Shikoba looked like she was in trance. Sweat dripped down her face and her features showed she was under strain. "The Phoenix's light is flickering. She is in pain and need. I sense her, but I cannot locate her alone."
Diona looked stoic as she stared out into the void. Doubt crept inside her mind. The ship shook as it felt the after-effects of a huge explosion. Finally, she made her decision. "Meld with me," she suggested or rather ordered, taking ahold of Shikoba's hand as her mind reached out to her.
xxx
"Warning, oxygen leak. 35% remaining..."
There was no sound in space.
And it was deathly cold.
The abomination had been sent flying into the darkness of the void. Perhaps it would survive, perhaps not. Elpsis had little cause for elation. The ship was preparing for a jump. There was a sudden jolt as it was thrown into motion and sped towards a wreck. Elpsis tried to jump. Not quite successfully. Debris slammed into her. With enough force to smash bones and fling her into the void. Commlink busted, air supply dropping rapidly. Lovely.
"...30% remaining..."
Space was big and lonely. The void swallowed her. Amidst the endless vastness of space, she was tiny. Just a small flame that becoming weaker by the moment.
"...25% remaining..."
Dimly, she could sense her squadmates. She could not sense how many were left or where they were, but she could feel them. That made it fine. She told herself that they were alive and she had done her part. It was all a soldier could ask for.
"...20% remaining..."
She blotted out the warning and the ones that came after, floating aimlessly in the darkness. Perhaps she was starting to feel delirious, but she could not help notice how beautiful space looked, even with all the carnage going on around her.
"...15% remaining..."
A starfighter exploded not far away from her. She could not tell whether it was an Alliance or Sith-Imperial one. Either way, the explosion and the shower of debris gave her a hard push, and she drifted away further and further. Her air tank had sustained even more damage, depleting her air supply even more quickly.
It would be the right end for a soldier. She had done her duty. She thought of her mothers - biological and adoptive - and of her sisters. Perhaps she would see her birth mother Coryth in the Nether again. She could tell her all the things she had failed to do in life - and never let go of her.
"...5% remaining..."
Jedi breath control techniques helped - a bit. She lost track of how long she had drifted in space. Far away, the
Profundity slammed into a ship wreck with tremendous force. Explosions rocked the Alliance vessel as fires broke out across the ship and it was consumed by a blazing inferno.
The counter reached zero and her air supply died like the
Profundity. She could not breathe and the pain she was in made it extremely difficult to even bubble herself. She was in agony and suffocating. The void devoured her. She had lost consciousness by the time the
Emberdawn's tractor beam seized her and pulled her into the light.