Dominion Isolation | First Order Dominion of Red Nebula

[Aurelian Dash]

It was like one , single take, never-ending horror show. The mess of decaying flesh, the smell of decomposition, the blood lined walls and floor. By and large he was finding it hard to focus, hard to keep on task. It was an unusual experience for the veteran agent. Is my mask working? Did I get scratched? As Agent Nakano and the Major contemplated the fates of their kinsmen Dash took the opportunity to give himself the once over. Legs, nope. Arms? Nope. Torso? Also negative. He hadn't been wounded in any way and his suit's seals seemed good. Shake it off buttercup. he thought to himself.

He started to feel better, information wrangled from the corpse's datapad - until Isobel suggested that they might just decide waiting wasn't in their best interest should they upload the data over the net. "You don't think they'd..." he stopped. No. No, they most certainly would leave them there as long as they had the data. Their deaths would be deemed collateral damage in preventing another outbreak of Blackwing Virus. "You've got a point." he added.

As they worked towards finding an exit route Aurelian chewed the inside of his cheek. No pods. Blast. With the routes highlighted, there really was only one option - how exactly they were meant to get back to the auxiliary hangar though was a guess. The only entrance was behind them, barricaded and blocked off by the mound of lab trash they'd hastily erected. Eyes slowly working their way around the room, he landed on what appeared to be their only other option. No. No. He glanced at the other two agents and then back at the bloody vent hole in the wall. "You can't be serious." he questioned. "That's our exit?"

Isobel Nakano | The Major​

 

[The Major]

Agent Shepard sighed, loudly as well, but the rebreather mask might have muffled the brunt of it.

"Yeah. That's our exit." Well, that or unsealing the door they came in through, and taking their chances with the teeming mass of limbs and teeth pushing up against the barrier. As Sybil spoke it she was already lumbering upwards, mantling the table and flashing a light down both ends of the vent opening before entering their adopted escape route.

"It's a little.... soupy in here." Namely, the vents were still providing warmth for the vessel. Certainly didn't help that there was human juice staining the edges in splotches that painted the way out in crimson. None of it was inviting, so Shepard kept her heavy blaster as close as possible and maneuvered to the best of her ability. Her height and gear made following the duct less than graceful and noisy to boot, but at least she refrained from cursing every time her back or head slapped against the duct. Eventually she came across a choice: open a grate or continue down the bloody duct.

A minute or so later she busted open a grate and poured out into another hallway, landing with a thud on the deck. Interesting that none of the virus' victims were moaning around. Auto turrets chirped instead, detecting the point Agent and activating their deadly subroutines. They were very helpful in clearing any infected who had wandered down this way in the last few hours. Now, aiming at the Almanian, not so much. She had enough time to realize what was about to occur, rolled from her belly over and over until she was behind one of the gaps against the bulkhead wall. Not supreme cover, but it did manage to save her from the raking laser fire now raining down both in front and behind Sybil.

She would have screamed for help, but the auto turrets were loud -loud enough to declare the problem for Dash and Nakano.

Isobel Nakano | Aurelian Dash​

 

[Isobel Nakano]

"Are you serious?" Isobel demanded incredulously, her eyes darting between the vent and her compatriots in turn. "You aren't serious. Are you? Oh God, you're serious." And before Isobel could conclude her rotation, off went Sybil Shepard into the vent. She cut her eyes to Dash and sighed heavily, as if defeated. "Bloomin' hero, she is. Right, I guess I'm next." She dropped to her knees, then onto her hands and shuffled into the hole left by removing the grating. She tried to ignore the fact that she was covering herself in gore and God knew what else as she shimmied through the crawlspace, following the path blazed by Shepard.

She lost sight of Shepard, but followed the noise until the noise turned to the sound of automatic blasterfire. She wriggled herself to one side of the vent and drew her blaster. She inched forward, following the route Shepard had taken. "Hold up," she whispered over her shoulder to Dash. From this angle, Isobel could just make out the bearing to which the turret was mounted to the wall. She lined up her shot and fired several times in rapid succession, managing to disable one of the turrets.

This, it turned out, was a mistake, because now the other turret had swiveled its attention to the vent, a fact she discovered when she moved forward towards the mouth of the vent and the turret opened fire. "Kriff," she said, ducking back. She shifted, gaining some traction on the edges of the vent and then hurled herself out of the vent hole, clattering to the ground, turret firing at her along the way. She was almost home free, but a blast caught her in the side as she scrambled for cover. Her uniform provided some cover, but it wasn't total protection, and she staggered into the alcove beside Shepard.

"Kriff," she spat, slumping to the ground as the turret stopped firing, finally. The pain was intense, but there was more to it: the blaster bolt had burned through her uniform and what felt like several layers of flesh. She'd just been crawling around inside a vent covered with guts. Could she now be infected? She looked up at Shepard, wide-eyed. "Gotta... disable that... 'fore Dash comes through," she panted.

The Major | Aurelian Dash​

 

[Aurelian Dash]

A violent thumping on the sealed bulkhead and a clatter as something fell off the top of the heap spurred Aurelian into action - consequences be damned. Clambering atop the desk, he too managed to squeeze into the duct. An obvious design flaw during the refit. Aurelian grumbled, taking solace in the fact that at least the viscera was mostly dry and.. S Q U I S H. An irritated sigh escaped his lips, Isobel's booted feet the only thing he could see - well, almost. He grinned. Silver linings.

The trio moved as fast as they could, eventually arriving at a point where he could see light ahead. A short crash and scuffle later and he heard the chirp and spray of autoblaster fire, his heart skipping a beat. This was not the place to be, no sir. The only saving grace was that he doubted any auto-blasters had been placed with a clear shot down the duct itself. If so, they'd find out momentarily. Instead of waiting to die in the coffin they found themselves in, Isobel scrambled ahead, suddenly dropping out of view as the blasters showered sparks across the entrance. Oh hell...

He heard what sounded like a small explosion followed by more shots. His compatriots appeared to have disabled some of the problem but the return fire was sweltering. Maybe if I just inch up. Digging in his knees and elbows he forced himself closer to the opening into the corridor, blaster prepared for fire. It sounded like the other agents had stopped firing, the methodical hum of the autoblaster echoing in his ears. If it was distracted, maybe he could get a snapshot off. Biting his lip and pushing himself over the precipice of the vent he raised his blaster, eyes glued to his target. It felt like a lifetime, blaster bolts flying towards where the other two were hunkered down, each heartbeat blotting out all sound. Then - blessed silence following a screech from his own blaster. A snap and a fizzle popped as his shot landed square on the controls module of the autoblaster, shorting out its targeting system. Machines were limited, it wouldn't fire blindly without a target and now without its ability to identify a target its barrels stayed silent.

"You two alright?" a waver in his voice appeared as his hands shook. Extricating himself from the vent, Aurelian landed deftly on his feet before looking to see where they were. A concerned frown appeared through the clear plating of his mask. "Nakano. You've got red on you." He pointed to the charred and singed biosuit.

Isobel Nakano | The Major​

 

[Resurgent Narrative]

Invoke the spirits.​

​

Tanileu watched as the Stormtroopers made their way out back toward the hangar, she radioed ahead, "stormtroopers heading to the hangar, they'll hold as long as they can for you. We've got evac shuttles en route." Either that or someone was lying to the Storm Commando. She moved row to row accessing consoles along the way. All to find the self-destruct sequence which would have laid with the captain's command area. The horde of undead were quickly starting to outnumber the Commando. Valiantly she held as long as she could until she found it, and once it was set the Commando rushed for the exit and back down the corridor.​

​

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. ​

​

THIS VESSEL WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN TWO MINUTES.​

​

Baton stowed away, both hands on the blaster rifle Tanileu's aim was true but the horde was simply too much she turned and focused on running down the corridor. "C'MON!" She shouted down the hall urging the Stormtroopers forward and back toward the hangar, slamming her hand on the blast door controls along the way. It would buy them time, precious time to escape the hellhole that was the FIV Virulent. ​

​

Vakim Duval | Isobel Nakano | The Major | Aurelian Dash | Firenne Van-Derveld ​

​

 

[The Major]

Shepard reacted more instinctively at her comrade at being banged by a bolt that found its mark, suddenly grasping at the hit agent, pulling her tighter, pulling her over to better cover, and overall making things more painful and generally worse by getting a look at the wound. There was of course the expletives cast back by Isobel, cast either at Sybil's laspe in concentration or the damned thing that struck her in the first place -each swear spat with such force and determination one would think that they would in and of themselves rip the turret apart. Not true.

Dash managed to disable the last automated enemy and land upon the deck with the liquid smoothness of a master burglar or room temperature butter.

In the new quiet followed by Aurelian's deft one liner, Sybil stuffed her nervous apprehension and exchanged useless worry driven melodrama for something more helpful. The wound was the kind that stung like hell and looked a lot worse than it was; the casualty could move without causing much more damage -blessed be the cauterizing nature of blaster plasma. Maybe hot enough to burn infection as well. Maybe. Shepard and Dash could help Nakano with that later. The Former Fallanassi produced, prepped, and stuck Agent Nakano with a combat stim approved by 9 out of 10 First Order military researchers. Isobel would be able to run, shoot, and more importantly curse at the enemy for an hour or two. Unfortunately, the hang over tomorrow would probably one of the worst of her life -even with her advanced training.

"You're fine." Not even two weeks ago Shepard was telling this to Nakano on Avalonia during a light festival. Their job was kind of cool like that. The tone this time was the opposite.

And then. . .

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. THIS VESSEL WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN TWO MINUTES.

"Kriff. Some bantha tipper must be last standing on the bridge. That's our cue..." Or they had dragged rear too long. Either or.

So they double timed it to their extraction point, apparently touched by the spirit of luck along the way. The right doors were locked, the right decks vented, and the hordes were clawing in from just the right directions to give the three the wiggle room needed to bee line to the hanger.

Maybe thermal detonators further helped them. Maybe a couple of well aimed blaster shots as well. Definitely the foul mouthed devilry earned their path. The count down software was probably a little bugged as well. That, or some engineer designing the thing programmed the self destruct mechanism to count two minutes as four. Unwritten space rules and all that.

They came upon a transport being captained by callsign Black Leader, one Kim Dae-Hyun who had their ship ready to go.

Dash, Nakano, and Shepard weren't the only survivors. A few other troopers arrived. Some spec ops people as well. Even an Imperial sentinel or two -all of them were in various states of worse wear. One happy family now, they punched it and escaped.

To the Nether with the Virulent. When it exploded and the shockwave rolled over the transport ship, a couple of the people aboard cheered and clapped. The agents were not among them.

[exeunt]

Isobel Nakano | Aurelian Dash | Resurgent Narrative | Firenne Van-Derveld​