First Reply Know God, No Fear. No God, Know Fear [Closed]

[Sebastian van Ruud]

It's been a while since Sebastian was on the surface of Svivren. He was almost got used to the scent of pressured oxygen stored in oxygen tanks and the taste of canned, long-expired food. Luckily, he never lived in luxury despite his family wealth, so extreme living conditions were totally fine for him (as possible as they can be for an average person). Despite that, he liked his job to his heart and never was avoiding any job of any sort. However, getting a distress call from an superminer named Osaga, which was supposed to operate at Corva Yag's orbit, has cast a shadow on if the small team should even get involved. The mining vessel was one of the largest in the Consortium and if something ever happens with big vessels, an entire engineering brigade is sent to investigate issues. Why a small engineering team (namely, three persons) is about to help the Superminer was beyond Sebas' understanding. But an order is an order, hence the team accepts the distress call and immediately travels to Corga Yag.

Approaching the mining vessel was a bit hard because of multiple asteroids spinning around the planet. It couldn't be called an asteroid belt as its amount was low. However, their traveling speed forced the engineering team to take extra security measures. That was enough to close the distance with the Osaga to assume what sort of a problem might be with the vessel. The first glance revealed that the vessel, big as a Krayt dragon, had no lights across the whole hull as it looked like it was affected by a giant solar flare. But the superminer didn't look damaged. In fact, it looked in a good shape, almost intact so it wasn't a pirate attack or an attack at all. So it seems is whatever has caused the power outage is inside the ship. At this point, it would be worth calling for a backup as it wasn't known how serious a threat can be on the vessel. But since Sebastian was the highest in rank among his team, he decided to investigate with the assistance of his team. Then, in case of a need for firepower, he will try to call the headquarters and ask to send some military support.

Along with that, an absolute silence on incoming transmissions from Sebastian's team has also shown that the ship sustained something bad. Not much time passed between the distress call and the emergency team, which means whatever happens inside, it does bad things fast or was doing for already too long. The vessel can house around a crew of five thousand persons and no one is able to respond? For Sebastian it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, while Sebastian was thinking about why the superminer was drifting like it was abandoned hundred years ago, the team's corvette engines collided with an asteroid. It didn't cause the corvette to explode but resulted in a tough landing at the hangar bay of the Osaga, knocking down the team for a while.

But the distress call was broadcasted not only to the Rimward engineering corps. Whoever was on a distance of about seven hundred light years around Corva Yag could also accept the signal, meaning Sebastian's team might not be alone...

OOC: having Discord account is a must here, please contact my OOC account before posting here.

UPD: this thread doesn't accept anyone, all other postings will be ignored.

 

[Under Foot]

Corva Yag was far and away from Denon.

Luckily, the landfill more or less operated itself. Left in the care of droids, the waste collection, salvage, and recycling processes would continue for as long as the droids did. It gave him liberty to seek more lucrative employment off-world.

Case in point, this contract -- with some connection to the Rimward Trade League -- promised to provide him enough credit that he ought to be able to pay down some debt with the Corporate Authorities of Denon. And maybe even have enough left over to purchase some new environmental scrubbers for the incinerator.

Of course, if the payout was big then that meant the job itself was a monstrosity in terms of scale. An RM-501 superminer? That thing had a crew in the thousands! And they had a small team to go after that?

The rough ride was just par for the course. Whatever had caused the distress on the superminer to begin with, it had drifted into an asteroid system. That meant repair was going to be just one challenge. Then they'd have to fly it out of the asteroids.

But, if they could manage both parts of that, then they'd get paid. Which was why they were here. To seek out new profit and new commerce markets! To boldly go where no Squib had gone before, and then sell the people they found there some used parts with a reasonable mark-up and no warranty.

A pair of scanner goggles decorated the top of the Squib's head. The bright, amber-colored fur stood out against the environmental suit that swallowed his fox-like form, though a hole cut in the back allowed his twin tails to move freely behind him. A hold-out blaster in a drop-leg holster looked inordinately large against the diminutive alien's small frame.

Manipulating a scanner, the fox-like alien stood before the airlock that would lead from the corvette into the mining vessel. "Looks like the mains are off-line, for sure," the Squip opined.

"The air is stale, but the oxygen levels should be safe."

Sebastian van Ruud​

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

Their landing wasn't bad as it could be, but the same wasn't true for the corvette. Luckily, everyone in the mining company who was designated for security or emergency operations was wearing Type 68 Personal Protection Kit. Along with KN-E "Spezia" Blaster Rifle, which was just Sebastian's preference. These, of course, were the property of the company and doesn't belong to employees (but who can buy it). The exception was Sebastian's an amaran-like partner Ree. Type 68 was a bit big for the squib, so he had to find another form of protection. The same was for a Lepi named Jax, who also was on the team, and also had issues with the armor, but in his case, he didn't wear a helmet because of his ears. RTL doesn't have any restrictions on species for their jobs, so almost any non-hostile race can be found here. Hence colliding the corvette with the Osaga he survived a bit harder, but nothing worse than a couple of bruises. That makes three of the teammates to be ready for their duty.

"That's good, I think. You're okay, by the way? Nothing broken?". Sebastian asked on the squib's brief summary, appearing behind Under Foot. Osaga's docking port was huge. Yet, there were no ships or personnel, supposed to work. In fact, there was some wrecking of the port property, meaning there was an incident on multiple occasions. Welcoming messages were still at work, though, telling the arrived people where they were. There were no even droids. To address his doubts, in his next speech Sebas addressed Jax. "Jax, report.".

"I'm not picking any readings from the port, nor any broadcasts. Primary thrusters are severely damaged, fixing them is impossible at the moment. Something else?". The rabbit said and after a shortly joined the rest of them as van Ruud shook his head to indicate that he doesn't need anything at the moment.

"That's a bad omen. Everyone, stay close and watch each other backs.". Sebastian commented, slowly making his way out of the corvette, and finding out that the hangar was even bigger. It was hard to believe there was no activity at all. At this moment he wanted a Jedi to be at his side, so they can sense a potential threat, shifts, or balances of forces as they say. Maybe some dark forces occupied this vessel? Sending a small team here was tactically wise - if RTL's military going to clean this place, later on, it should be aware of any threats. So the small team can find those and warn them ahead. From another hand, Sebastian's team wouldn't able to handle a well-armed enemy. He hoped it wasn't the case here.

After the team opened the door leading to the flight lounge manually by switching doors to manual mode, they were presented with an empty room but a lot of packed bags. It seemed like everyone here was in hurry. There were a cargo lift and a stuff room, both need to be checked.

"Jax, Ree, see if you can fix the elevator. I'll check the security room meanwhile. Its console seems to be still active.". Sebastian ordered and went to the room. What he discovered there he didn't like at all - bloodstains on the floor, quite a lot. There were also stains of other colors, seems like the blood of other species. Whatever caused this, it was extremely violent, beyond any morale. Hence Sebastian decided to warn the team. "I spotted blood here, stay on alert. We need to find out first what the heck happened here. Someone did a massacre here."

While van Ruud was fiddling with the console, Jax and Ree, because of their pinpoint hearing, might hear like something or someone was crawling in the vents.

 

[Under Foot]

"You're okay, by the way? Nothing broken?"

The Squib's twin tails fluttered, as the small alien craned his head around to look up at the man. "Okeeday, for sure," Ree answered cheerily. A rough landing, to be sure, but Ree had been knocked on his butt harder battling a dianoga. The tentacled vermin tended to creep into the salvage whenever heavy rain caused a lot of runoff from the landfill.

"I'm not picking any readings from the port, nor any broadcasts. Primary thrusters are severely damaged, fixing them is impossible at the moment," the Lepi -- Jax -- reported.

"I wonder if that's internal or external damage?" the Squib mused aloud, peering down at the small datapad he carried with the technical specifications for the superminer's design and internals. They ought to have parts if a space walk was required, but an internal repair would be the easier option. If they could get access to the primary drive shaft, that is.

As the team disembarked into the cargo area, the fur on the Squib's head bristled. His ears flattened back, as the alien shuddered as goosebumps seemed to move up his spine.

This place was beyond creepy.

Sliding his goggles down over his eyes, the Squib's face was illuminated by a series of lights as he switched to several different visual modes. "Do you smell that?" Ree asked, tipping his head back as the black, button nose seemed to wiggle slightly as he tested the air. It was the distinctive trace of tibana gas. Which meant blaster fire.

But who had been doing the shooting? And at what?

"Jax, Ree, see if you can fix the elevator."

From inside his goggles, the Squib's large eyes peered around the interior of the cargo bay. As he turned to follow the Lepi, the diminutive alien reached down to loosen the retaining strap securing the small blaster pistol to his side. Pressing his thumb against the blaster cartridge at the rear of the pistol, there was a muted hum as the weapon was primed.

He felt as though a dianoga could leap out of the trash any moment now. And they'd be fortunate if it was a dianoga.

"I spotted blood here, stay on alert."

The Squib's fur bristled again, as the pair of furry aliens arrived on opposite sides of the elevator to begin their inspection. Ree bent down to remove a maintenance hatch, hesitating as his goggles illuminated the presence of a foreign material.

"We've got more blood over here," Ree reported, swallowing anxiously before removing the cover and starting to probe the interior mechanism for the elevator controls.

Sebastian van Ruud​

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

The report from the console has shown that a lot of sections on this vessel have sustained significant damage, which led them to be cut from the power source. What's worse - the monorail system and hub were offline as well, meaning traveling around the sections will be hard. There should be a direct way to access them by passing through docking pads, but since Sebastian was a practical guy, making the monorail work needs to be done. The most interesting part is that comm systems weren't affected so the crew had the means to communicate with any bypassing vessel, should any come in range. That made the case with the vessel even more confusing. Along with words from Ree about more blood, this adventure can be a very good plot for a holobook. It could be a pretty good one!

"Whatever happened here, from inside it looks bad, multiple sections affected, although nature of those is sporadic. The central transport system is also offline. Now, wait a minute... Something right beside me.". Sebastian reported, changing his focus to a small shaft next to him from where droid noises were coming. After pressing a switch above, an R9 astrodroid appeared, making a lot of worrying beeping. As far as Sebastian could understand the droid, the droid was in that lounge when the massacre occurred. In addition, the droid recorded a potential culprit which he was about to show using his holoprojector.

It was a small scene where a man, shouting curses in all known languages, was shooting at a strange creature with prolonged arms, producing weird sounds as if it was in the water and breathing heavily. Despite the fact that the man did several shots at the creature's head, it continued to walk. Unfortunately, the recording stopped at that moment, so Sebastian asked the droid to repeat the recording, so he can look better at the potential enemy. As the human noted from closed observance, the creature's arms were featuring blades on where the wrists were supposed to be. Its chest was also changed nastily. Is it another hostile alien species?

"Guys, I think you need to look at this. Any thoughts? I haven't seen anything like those before. Is this some sort of a weapon in action? I heard about viruses, but not any of them I know can do this.". Van Ruud asked while still looking at the holographic creature as if to find any other details. Perhaps, it was one of the reasons why the vessel was drifting and no one was inside. A single creature won't be able to accomplish it, but a swarm? Even more - since the droid was hidden in a shaft, the scene it recorded could happen in this room, meaning the hostile creature could be still here.

"It looks like a heavily modified version of the Vongspawn virus, made by a Sith alchemist a long time ago as my grandpa told me. No idea what kind of virus made this. Maybe that's not a virus at all, I don't know. We gotta get out of here as soon as possible, this gives me creeps already, especially if we gonna to fight with those... things.". The Lepi said after he examined the projection on his own. The last word was for Under Foot now. "I'd like to work with dis droid when you'll done, please. Maybe the lil' guy has also something to tell us.".

 

[Under Foot]

The Squib popped the maintenance panel off and then stuck his head in as he assessed the engineering.

Primary power relays were off-line, but the ship was supposed to have secondary and auxiliary back-ups so that essential functions continued even if the primary reactor was off-line. Given the rigors of space travel, starship safety standards anticipated catastrophic failures in primary systems. And a ship of this size would have been required to have had multiple failsafes in order to avoid another White Star interstellar transport disaster.

So was the superminer not being operated up to code? That didn't seem reasonable. Sure, corporations cut corners all the time, but to operate as large an asset as this with no secondary systems?

Unless all the secondaries had failed as well, but that should be statistically improbable...

"Something right beside me."

Backing out of the crawl space, the Squib put one hand on the butt of the blaster pistol as he turned to look back in the general direction of the security terminal where Sebastian was working.

"Guys, I think you need to look at this."

Exchanging a look with Jax, the Squib and the Lepi each made their way over to where the man and the traumatized astromech were running through a series of holographic recordings.

Raising his goggles so that they were on top of his head, Ree crossed his arms as he studied the hologram. "It's like a low budget horror holovid," the fox-like alien deadpanned dryly. It'd be funny... except it wasn't. Casually, the Squib reached down and tightened the retaining strap on his holster. By the look of that playback, blasters were going to be kark all effective.

"It looks like a heavily modified version of the Vongspawn virus," Jax offered, prompting a questioning look from the Squib.

Vong? As in the extragalactic boogeyman? Ree had read stories about them, part history, part urban myth. He didn't recall much, other than they seemed cut from the same cloth as the Bryn'adul. And just about as friendly.

The cherry on top was the name drop. "Sith spit?" Ree uttered, at mention of a Sith alchemist.

Great, that was just what they needed. Black magic voodoo.

Ree didn't know what the secret to great financial success was, but the secret to great financial failure was anything relating to Jedi, Sith, the Force, magic, voodoo, or whatever nerfherders were calling it these days. Not a penny of profit to be made in any of it!

"I'd like to work with dis droid when you'll done, please. Maybe the lil' guy has also something to tell us.."

The Squib gave a slight nod toward to Lepi. "I think this answers my questions about why the failsafes weren't working," Ree noted dryly. "They probably sabotaged the elevator attempting to seal off the cargo bay."

There was a cheery thought. This was the last stand of the Space Alamo.

"I think I can bypass the grid and run it off the auxiliary batteries," the Squib remarked, as he turned back toward the elevator. "Should be up and running in a moment."

A pit was forming in the Squib's stomach. Just what had he signed up for, any way? This was definitely more than just a salvage op...

Working quietly for a moment, the Squib was in and out of the crawl space before there was a loud clang as the elevator started moving again.

"Going up?" Ree deadpanned darkly, as he turned to glance back over to Sebastian and his team.

Sebastian van Ruud​

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

"Good job, Ree, it's time to see what's down there. Jax, barricade here, see what the droid can tell. The console in the security room has a full map of the miner, so we will consult to plan our actions. And maybe see if you can fix our corvette in case we will need to leave this vessel if things go bad too much. Same for the long-ranged comm system. Godspeed.". Sebas commented, entering the elevator. Its control panel was simple because this lift has only two destinations, so the human waited for the Squib, then hit a button that sent the elevator down and closed its massive doors. That provided a bit of time to evaluate what the team saw and witnessed so far. Perhaps, sending here an armed team wouldn't be a good idea if the vessel is swarmed with creatures from the recording. In this case, Sebastian resolved to find a way either to destroy the vessel because if something like here will happen on a habituated planet, it could be a major disaster. History had a lot of them, the problem would be how fast it can be stopped and chances are it may take even centuries to find a solution.

Upon arriving, the first thing the two have spotted is four giant words written, most probably, with blood or a red substance. 'CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS'. That made Sebastian hang in the elevator for a while because the way the message was written was a little shocking for him. It seems people here were desperate in their efforts to fight the creatures and it seems the battle taken place here was fierce. He supposed the limbs mentioned in the message were limbs of those hostile beings. Unless there will be clear evidence that the creature transmits a virus that can be stopped only by losing your hands and legs, Sebastian will assume it's creatures who need to be dealt with in a such way. Of course, the question was why limbs? Alas, the team didn't have any lightsaber owners along with them, so it might be a bit hard for a while because the blaster might not be very effective against those.

Another thing that was there is a dead body of a Zabrak with multiple wounds. However, the loud sounds of an ongoing fight quickly changed Sebastian's focus toward the door right from the elevator, which was leading to the transport control room. It sounds like someone was constantly being slammed against walls and the floor. But it was closed and need to be hacked in order to be opened. Considering what could be behind it, van Ruud figured that a fox-like partner needs to open the door while Sebastian will meet the enemy.

"Ree, try to open the door. And get ready to engage in a fight. Remember to target its limbs.". The human said dryly, aiming his rifle against the door. Once the Squib managed to hack the panel, Sebastian would witness a totally naked creature, the one from the holovid but in its natural size, trying to tear apart someone. Van Ruud opened fire without any hesitating, trying to aim at the enemy limbs. Unfortunately, that made the being even angrier, which rushed to the human. Luckily for Ree, the creature didn't note him, allowing Under Foot to provide additional fire support.

 

[Draco Miles]

Sith Relics and Sith alchemy in general… such a marvel! Draco had always been fascinated by the machinations of ancient Sith and jedi, the artifacts they created having a special sort of power and complexity to them she wished to understand completely and fully. To document their inner workings and even replicate these results if possible! She heard of the super miner going down and felt it with the force, feeling it’s dark presence and the artifact within and leapt on this opportunity! Charging forward and having breached before any of the repair crew had gotten there… her ship she had drop her off and orbit nearby completely cloaked so it could not be discovered.

Venturing deep into the super miner, when much of the crew was still fighting back, she had cut and slashed her way down the elevator shaft and entered this area, though now seemingly with only her being the sole survivor, she was left to battle the endless horde of Sith Monsters.

The loud banging and ongoing fighting heard was from the 6’11” Draconic woman in her power armor punching and slamming a squad of these devils around, having a couple left, she was tearing one limb from limb and even let out a deafening roar with her anger, echoing throughout this room and most certainly terrifying whoever was on the other side of that door. When it would open, the walls would be painted in a plethora of colors from different species’ blood and in the middle would be her, in her Armor with all of her weapons currently holstered, which really was only a double bladed lightsaber across her lower back, and her primary saber magnetically attached on her hip.

That last monster lunged for Sebastian van Ruud instead of dealing with her, which honestly was highly offensive, going after a poor defenseless engineer. She caught the monster in midair using the force then yanked it to her, impaling it on her primary saber then cleaving it in half, then came the fun of stomping it dead while it was on the floor

 

[Under Foot]

Attack the limbs.

The Squib's two tails alternated up and down, his ears twitched as the fox-like alien had his head down in thought. Clearly, blasters were not an effective weapon of choice for whatever these creatures were. It was making Ree think back to the dianoga. Other vermin, such as womp rats, a blaster was as good an option as any. Even if it didn't hit it, the rat would run away.

A dianoga, on the other hand, generally shielded its body mass and made its presence known by its many tendrils. And even if a blaster hit a tendril, it was just going to make it angry. And a dianoga was aggressive to begin with. So when faced with them, Squib usually had to adopt tactics that were more brutal than Ree would have otherwise prefered, hacking away at tendrils until they could get a shot at the central body mass where a blaster might actually do some damage.

Though, just like poison was a better method for dealing with womp rats, dianoga were better dealt with using either incendiary or cyro-ban grendaes.

"Cyro-ban," the Squib offered, glancing up at Sebastian as the two rode the elevator. "If we could get our hands on some of that, or even coolant from the reactor storage, then I could probably fashion something that would be effective against these creatures."

Standing on his toes, the Squib bypassed the door mechanism, As the elevator door opened, Sebastian snapped into action.

...and then a dragon lady dropped from the ceiling?

A dragon lady with a red laser-sword-thing. "Oh, that's very effective," the Squib murmured appreciatively, admiring the ease with which the red laser-sword-thing cut and rendered the creature. One of those would be very nice for hacking at dianoga tendrils.

Or, apparently, murderous Sith spit. Or whatever these things were.

"Hi-diddly-ho," the Squib offered in a cheery voice as he gave a wave toward the dragon lady. Denon had a very diverse populace, but Ree had never seen any species even remotely resembling the Amazonian figure before them.

"I take it you're not with them," he deadpanned.

It wasn't exactly 'hello' but how did one go about saying hello to strangers when fighting body-exploding zombies in an apparently murder spree of a ghost ship?

Draco Miles Sebastian van Ruud​

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

Only by pure luck, Draco wasn't shot as Sebastian was ready to open fire at the abomination rushed to him. He watched as the unexpected guest dealt with the hostile creature which made him numb. The brutality that is shown was excessive, but from another hand, such help was very welcomed. Sebastian was sure that the team will encounter much more of those things and chances are more often as they'll explore the deeps of the floating rig. However, Draco's intentions were unknown as well as where they come from, so Sebastian wasn't as happy as he wanted to be. So some questions first need to be issued first.

"You've picked the distress call, ain't you? You're clearly not from Osaga's security personnel. We appreciate your assistance, but may we know who are you and where you come from?". Sebastian said carefully, still not willing to lower his blaster rifle, not to mention everything that Ree asked was instantly got ignored. Or rather got delayed for a better time. Dealing with all sorts of pirate scum taught him to be always on alert and this case wasn't an exception.

 

[Draco Miles]

Draco focused more on their leader, looking him and his men up and down, analyzing each of them. Distress call? Well… that could only be assumed was sent out when the monsters first appeared so that was understandable. Who was this adorable little fox though? She thought he was cute, like a puppy… perhaps he was considered a pet among them? Ooo or maybe he could be bought~ for now though, staying silent wouldn’t exactly help her, so she answered their question

“Draco Miles of House Io, I was here when the distress call was sent, I sensed the dark presence they had brought aboard their ship and have been trying to… mitigate damage since the worst of it broke out”

She turned her saber off and put it back on her hip, even without her weapon she could easily dispatch of them all, though they probably didn’t know that, so this gesture would hopefully be seen as friendly, and inviting.

 

[Under Foot]

Sebastian seemed better at these things than Ree was.

He was able to get down to the who are you and why are you here pretty succinctly. In part because, well, he'd asked those questions. More or less. For his part, the Squib ventured forward some more in order to try and get a closer look at the laser-sword-thing. Which wasn't very laser-sword-y at the moment. It was just a metal cylinder.

In his mind, the Squib was trying to extrapolate an engineering principle for the device. It was clearly an energy blade -- but how did they get that kind of cohesive confinement on the output? What was the power output? What was the cutting power? Battery life? A host of questions about the internal mechanics and the physics that must underpin the design.

Ordinarily, he'd say that a laser sword was a rather impractical weapon.

In the present circumstance, however, he was wondering if he might not be able to replicate some of the engineering principles, lost in thought as Sebastian and this Draco person bonded over murderous zombies.

Draco Miles Sebastian van Ruud​

 

[Lady V]

Navigating through the asteroid field close to the landing bay of the Osaga, controls are flipped almost furiously as several noises are emitted from the cockpit of The Arconic-M . It's thrusters were reversed as it came almost to an instant hault within the confines of space. An electronic pulse would from the vessel like that of lightning, cloaking it in an energy absorbent shield. How much damage it could withstand remained to be seen, however, with its thin shape..It was fast and possibly fragile if mishandled even in the slightest of maneuvers. Lady V would simply stare at the navigational charts for a few moments before looking up from the dashboard and seeing the docking bay in view. Her objective was clear...Assuming the rumors were true about refined crystals being held on superminers such as this.

"I have arrived my Lord." She stated simply as she moved in closer towards the hanger carefully navigating to avoid any unnecessary collisions

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

"Dark presence or not, I'm intended to do what people expect from me. I don't mind your assistance, but since I'm in charge of this investigation on this vessel, you'll need to cooperate with us if you want to tag along. If you're okay with that, then feel free to join.". Sebastian stated while not being frightened at all, yet he lowered his rifle as in the response of Draco. In fact, the human sounded a bit bold for someone who stands in front of a Sith, even if he knew he wasn't in a position to act like this. Part of the job as he would say. Another part of that is because of the shock he experienced after the four giant words, making his mind operate faster and under pressure. That makes him focus on what really matters. "Let's go, Ree, we have things to get done. I hope your filtration system works, you'll see now why.".

After that Sebastian quickly observed the person cruelly slaughtered by the unknown macabre while passing along the Sith, but as the examination didn't reveal anything useful, van Ruud simply went further. Then he remembered Ree's question about Cyro-ban and decided to ping Jax using his comlink set for RTL internal communications. Needless to say, it was encrypted with RTL development protocols. Luckily, Draco didn't know about the space rodent. Perhaps, it was for good as at least Jax, the Lepi, has access to the hangar and can escape if he manages to fix the corvette by a miracle.

"Hey Jax, if any of those creatures make to you, shoot off their limbs. Don't ask how we know, it's complicated. Did you get anything useful from the R9 droid? Or maybe you can give a hint on where we can find some Cryo-ban?". Sebas asked, carefully going down along corridors.

"Indeed. Listen, the whole vessel is in a quarantine zone, so most of the sections are locked. Actually, this superminer has a lot of medical facilities and labs. If I'm not mistaken, you should reach one enough, fingers crossed, it should tell shed some truth on what's going on here. Cryo-ban should be there as well because they keep medical supplies frozen. Frankly, mate, I'm not sure if mining was the actual purpose of the vessel. If anything, it was a cover to hide things here, so don't do anything stupid, aye? I need to get to the Bridge to get personnel files, but without the functional transport system, it's impossible. Its data board is fried, there should be a spare one in the Maintenance Bay. Try to find it first, then we can continue. Jax out.". Lepi answered, closing his comlink channel while Sebastian was approaching the Cargo Hallway, heading to the Transport Tunnel next, and making sure Ree wasn't left behind. Behind the Tunnel's door was a large room, which was designed to move cargo across the vessel. There the team faced yet another issue, a malfunctioning blast door. It was opening and closing fast with sheer force, enough to crush into bits anyone even in armor.

"Okay, now what? No way we can pass it safely.". Van Ruud asked, looking around as to what can be used to block the door or even fix it.

 

[Draco Miles]

The new craft landing in the hangar notified Draco, and she felt out to figure out who the hell came in now. Realizing another Sith was on this ship certainly put her on edge, and made her reluctant to rely on the force, just so she could remain hidden and between these normal people

“Check if it can be disabled from a control panel or something. Push comes to shove, I’ll hold it open for us.”

She did seem to take a liking to Ree as well, as he moved closer to her, she stuck close to him mainly. Letting him get a good observation at these “laser-swords” he became fascinated with, and if she caught him staring, she may just strike up a conversation

“Interesting, aren’t they? It’s called a lightsaber”

 

[Under Foot]

"Let's go, Ree, we have things to get done."

The Squib's ears twitched. "Huh?" Ree uttered, eyes blinking as his musings regarding the physics of laser-swords was interrupted. Glancing over to Sebastian, the fox-like alien was reminded about why they were there. And also about the murderous zombies. "Oh, right," the Squib affirmed, falling into step behind the human, both his tails undulating behind him.

They didn't get very far. A turn here and next thing was a blast door that was malfunctioning.

"Okay, now what?" Sebastian asked.

"Check if it can be disabled from a control panel or something," Draco added, a sentiment that the Squib was inclined to agree with.

"Sensor malfunction?" the Squib wondered aloud, reaching up to slide the scanner goggles back down over his eyes. A series of lights shone around the lenses that framed his face, as the small alien seemed to be scanning the walls and ceiling, looking for an access hatch or wiring hubs.

Pulling out a multi-tool, the Squib walked over to a section of the wall and cracked the case on a maintenance cover. Rooting in the mass of wiring and circuit boards, the alien commented, "If we had an astromech, we could try slicing the door controls. But since we don't, I'll try jumping the security bypass."

After another minute, there was a spark from the panel that the Squib was working within, followed by the doors sliding apart. Rearing back, Ree folded the multi-tool and put it back in the pouch on his utility belt.

As he looked back up, his eyes were drawn back to the metal cylinder at Draco's side.

"Interesting, aren't they? It's called a lightsaber."

Lightsaber? That was actually quite catchy. Was that a technical term or a brand name? Did someone already have a trademark on the design?

"What do you use for a power source?" the Squib inquired curiously. "Chemical reaction? Nanobattery?"

The blade cohesion had to be a magnetic field of some kind. Focusing lens? Maybe something like a holoprojector, only with the power dialed way up?

The possibilities were igniting the Squib's engineering imagination on fire!

Draco Miles Sebastian van Ruud Lady V​

 

[Lady V]

"There is a strong presence here. Something.....Different..." Lady V said aloud as the silence from the hangar bay gave away several theories. She had a sense of her environment and this one was strange. As she continued descending from the small set of stairs from her fighter, while scaling the railing with her finger she closed her eyes once reaching the ground floor. It was time for her to concentrate on her aura. Reaching out to the force, sensing anything within the area. She opened her eyes slowly and had a sense of where to begin searching for the supposed crystals. There would hopefully be a cargo area, as most cargo holding rooms or lockers were located nearby.

Tag: Draco Miles Sebastian van Ruud Under Foot

 

[Sebastian van Ruud]

"Let's have a casual talk after we're done here, alright? The faster we'll get out of this hole, the better.". Sebastian commented, going deeper into the vessel's guts. However, once he passed the malfunctioned door, he started to hear voices in his mind. They were like whispers, constantly talking in an unknown language. Is it their new friend's tricks or did the vessel got haunted all of sudden? Considering the potential amount of people who died here, it could be the case. That made Seba wonder if he was the only one who can hear those voices or not. "You hear those whispers too, right? Otherwise, I'm losing my sane. Unless someone tries to manipulate us. Unbelievable...".

The corridor behind the door led the team to a big room, called Transport Control Room, with an arm mechanism. It was a huge platform with two extendable claws and a control panel. On the other side of the platform was a damaged car which needs to be replaced. And the arm mechanism was supposedly designed to do that. Unfortunately for the team, once they've entered the room, it was the first time Ree and van Ruud when faced multiple abominations at once. But since the male was in front of the team, the hostile creatures have targeted him. On another hand, van Ruud opened fire at once, trying to lure them away from Ree. Perhaps, Draco can make use of it.

"Let's kill them first.". Sebastian shouted, firing at a creature. All of them move slowly, so keeping distance shouldn't be an issue. But they were fighting in a closed room, hence enemies should be eliminated before they can encircle the rescue team. "Don't engage with more than one!"

 

[Draco Miles]

“We can talk and listen at the same time, Boss man. Radar in this suit can track for 20 meters, but if need be I can feel out w—“ She felt a presence, Lady V reaching out with the force. Luckily her effort to conceal her dark sided nature worked perfectly, but now Draco knew she was here, and did not consider her a friend. “On second thought, I will not be reaching out with the force. Warn your crew of an additional potential hostile, Boss.” Seems she was worried on why a second Sith would be here, but that wouldn’t really stop her bonding with Under Foot though! Happily answering the Squib’s questions and eager to share lightsaber knowledge with someone finally. Though to respect the leader’s wishes, she kept it to a whisper. “We use an ion battery to power it, but the main concentration comes from a Kyber crystal, that’s how we can get away with not having to recharge it for years at a time” she hoped this would spark something in Ree and have him marvel at the lightsaber much like Draco had when she first received one. They moved to the transport hold and she certainly noticed the 5 abominations wanting a piece of them.

"Don't engage with more than one!"

It appears Draco never really received this memo… so instead what had happened was two charged at her, and in order to make her load even larger, she used the force to pull an additional one to her location with one hand while the other took that long silver cylinder off her lower back and flipped a switch, fully igniting a double bladed lightsaber, akin to the one used by Darth Maul, and threw it horizontally, adding a spin to it so it could easily cleave one in half and she didn’t have to worry about it.

As the blade traveled midair, she lunged for the abomination she pulled with the force, the added momentum of it being dragged combined with her immense strength, she could easily remove its head with a nasty left hook and disable it enough for her to grab a leg and use it like a flail against the final enemy. Slamming the two together to daze them before pulling her saber back to her hand finally for the finishing touches of severing these three abominations completely and making sure they couldn’t get back up. That left the commander to deal with the final one, as he managed to gun one down already.

Her not directly following his orders though may cause some issues, as that little stunt also technically put Ree in more danger… but also at the same time it was dope as hell,

 

[Under Foot]

"Let's have a casual talk after we're done here, alright?"

A casual talk? They were on an alien derelict, drifting in an asteroid field -- which made any attempt at escape about as dangerous as remaining here -- and had discovered a new species of zombie with apparent murderous tendencies. As one did when a zombie. "Absolutely, yes. And perhaps a spot of tea as well," the Squid deadpanned dryly.

He liked a nice crumpet when on the run from sociopathic xeno-necrotic-whatever-this-was. Something with a good amount of crumb and maybe some meiloorun jam.

"Warn your crew of an additional potential hostile, Boss."

Didn't she just say that her suit sensors were only twenty meters? Wait, this was probably some of that space sorcery gobbity-gook. The Force.

"You hear those whispers too, right?"

The Squib's traingular ears atop his head seemed to perk up, as the fox-like alien strained to try and hear anything other than ambient noises from the various gases passing through the ship's internal piping or wiring. At the same time, the exposed fur on his head and tail was sensing something. What, he didn't know. It was almost a creeping sensation.

Honestly, he dismissed it as nerves.

Fighting with a tentacled sewer monster over a used landspeeder battery was not even half as hair-raising as this adventure had been. Next time he took a job offworld, he was definitely asking for a larger retainer.

"We use an ion battery to power it, but the main concentration comes from a Kyber crystal, that's how we can get away with not having to recharge it for years at a time," Draco was commenting, explaining the power source for the lightsaber.

"Kyber crystal, eh?" the Squib mused aloud. It must be capable of channeling a great deal of energy, though her description made him again wonder if the internal components might not be akin to a holoprojector. All that energy would need to be focused into some kind of angular confinement field...

The Squib's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of several bad things charging at them. While Draco and Sebastian snapped into motion, the Squib drew his blaster pistol.

Not the most effective weapon against there creatures, but from his low stature, Ree had an excellent line of sight to their legs. Even if he couldn't stop one, he could probably slow it down.

Strafing to one side, the Squib headed toward a control panel. With luck, it would be the control panel for those mechanical arms -- which could probably take one of these creatures apart. Pausing intermittently, the Squib would line up a shot and pull the trigger.

His blaster had a twelve round tibana cartridge. So, in his head, he was counting as he went. "Eleven... Ten..."

Sebastian van Ruud Draco Miles Lady V​