Private Outbreak: Hyperion

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Envir Vadul , Tru Accardi , Jack Sandrow , Todblaz Graker

He wasn't sure how to carefully explain to Tru that these were not Atoans-- but, thankfully, the man in robes presented the answer. He couldn't blame her for being reluctant to kill. Couldn't blame any of them. Not even an hour ago, these people had been annoying but harmless passengers. Now they were nothing more than beasts. The only hope they had was to dispatch them as quietly and as painlessly as possible.

"So big guy, would you like to talk before we deal with the situation out there?"

Once again, the Mandalorian's helmet slowly swiveled to lock the assassin in his sights. That was the way he wanted to play things? Fine. That was the way they would play.

"Sure. We can talk," the Kaleesh rasped, his voice both ragged from exertion and laced with venom. He crossed his arms over his beskar chestplate, wondering if the man would really be stupid enough to fire off those blasters in here and risk calling the entire horde down upon them. There were certainly more undead roaming the hallways now; he could hear several snarling, guttural cries, although it was hard to tell if they were one level above or one level below.

"Let's have a little chat about how you burnt down an apartment complex just to get to one man." Fulcrum's posture was tense, rigid with distaste and anger. He wouldn't make the first move, but he would damn well make the last, if it came down to it.

"Or maybe you'd like to have a polite conversation about the way you shot a man, in the head, point blank, in front of his goddamn four-year-old." A beat. He had gone back after waking up from his tranquilizer-induced haze, just to make sure that someone had taken care of the child. "Kid's name is Dilo. Lives with his grandparents now, since you burned down the place he lived. Every night, he still asks why someone did that to daddy."

In truth, Fulcrum didn't want to talk. He wanted to step on the assassin's head over and over again until he stopped moving, stopped talking, stopped breathing. But that wasn't practical right now, and he wouldn't put these people at risk with the commotion. Slowly, the Kaleesh's posture relaxed, and he shook his head.

"There's one reason-- one-- that I haven't turned you into a smear on the goddamn wall," Fulcrum warned. He nodded down to the guns at the man's sides. "It's because right now, like it or not, I need you. We all do. But it doesn't mean I trust you. No one should."

"Ahem, if we were to hypothetically get through those creatures, how do you guys think we'll escape this place? As if the filthy rich hadn't already used the escape pods-- actually I can't be the only one that noticed the lack of emergency protocols,"

The Kaleesh's anger washed away in a moment, replaced with equal parts curiosity and anxiety. In the commotion, he hadn't picked up on the detail, but the man was correct. No alarms, no calls for evacuation, nothing. Surely, at least one person would have thought to pull the fire alarm.

"Because they're either not working, or they've been deliberately turned off," Fulcrum replied, filling in the blank that he so desperately did not want to. "Look... it's worse than that. A ship this big, with this many escape pods? We would have felt them go off by now. One by one. You can feel the reverberations in the ship when the explosive bolts go off. But we haven't heard a single one. You couple that with no alarms... and it's starting to look like this was all engineered. We're like dianoga in a barrel."

 

[Jack Sandrow]

Jack had been thinking for a while, and he decided now was as good a time as any to voice his (admittedly somewhat paranoid) theory.

"I'll hazard a guess - we're being watched. Whether at range or right here on the ship, there's someone or some group watching us. No emergency protocols, no escape pods available, and the suddenness of it all. You saw how fast that crap propagated. If that had happened naturally, it would have happened while we were in the dock, 5 days ago. No no, this happened now, in the middle of the voyage, in deep space. No chance of contamination from outside sources, no chance of escape for victims." He shook his head. "Poor souls..."

As for what he felt... He addressed Tru Accardi directly. "I'm not a Jedi, no; I'm just more Force-sensitive than average. And that, back there, felt like the most primal hunger I'd ever sensed in the Force. There's animalistic hunger, and then... there was that." He shuddered a bit at the thought.

"Okay, so let's pool our resources and come up with a gameplan. Quick." He thumbed to the door. "Because that ain't gonna last for long." He gestured to himself. "Hi, I'm Jack. I do plant stuff, shoot guns, and wave lightsabers around."

First, he turned to Envir Vadul , the only person he actually knew from before all this. "You get any additional practice in with those sabers since I saw you?"

To the cowboy, Todblaz Graker , "If you've got a way of killing quietly, I'd stick with that. Otherwise we're going to call every monster on this ship towards us."

To the towering Mandalorian dragon lizard behemoth, Fulcrum , he looked at eye level (which was a rare experience for the six-foot-seven Vinithi) and added, "If you've got any idea what we're up against, then I'm all ears. I'll follow your lead, just..." He eyed the cowboy again, adding, "...try to keep any personal beef out of this? Just until we get off this tub?"

 

[Todblaz Graker]

Tags: Fulcrum | Jack Sandrow | Tru Accardi | Envir Vadul

Tod, nodded at Beast's response, "Okay big man, glad we sorted that out." He flipped his cloak back over pistols and put his hands in his pockets. "And just so you know, intel told me it was empty and that man was a murderer."

This was partially false, intel did state the building was empty but never specified anything about the man beyond appearance and location. Regardless, he added the last part to maybe gain a little favor and not be beaten to death at the end of this all.

Turning to the green man he nodded and reached into one of his medical pouches pulling out a knife. He had it there and used it as his scalpel because he didn't want to dull the blade on his professional one.

Tod theorized all he had to do to kill one of these creatures is just severe the spinal cord to brain, he would go for backstabs up into the magnum foramen. "I would suggest you all aim for spine, no electrical pathways, no movement." Tod held the knife in a reverse grip waiting for the group to continue.

 

[Tru Accardi]

Tags: Fulcrum | Jack Sandrow | Todblaz Graker | Envir Vadul

---

"Atoans are human looking and we clearly saw other species act crazy, anyhow I don't know if food pois- nevermind that,"

It was a fair point even if Tru was searching for a more rational answer to what was happening out there. Everyone in the room seemed gung-ho about killing whatever it was, but from what she saw they were people at least once. After all the atrocities she saw the Maw commit on Empress Teta, she knew what real monsters were and they wore the same faces as everyone else. Zombies or undead if they did exist and that was what was out there, they were innocent people once. If this was some kind of engineered situation, then the real monster wasn't the ones biting the neck, they were victims.

"Nice to meet you Jack despite the circumstances, Names Tru." She finally spoke after the issue between Fulcrum and the weird man from a space western seemed dealt with for now. From the words spoken it seemed like space cowboy was a bounty hunter or hitman and Fulcrum had a run in with him before. Thankfully they both seemed to be putting their issue on the back burner for now. "Maybe if that is true then we should make our way to the escape pods to see if they are deployed or even still intact. If they are sabotaged, then we know there is a grand conspiracy going on here. However, a ship like this, being a cruise liner, would also have at least to lander craft on it. Landers would be in the back, but the escape pods are generally not always more towards the front. Two directions to choose and I am sure their others in hiding just like us as well thinking up the same plans of escape." Here point was they didn't have much time for debate on what to do regardless of the monsters outside.

"Also, I don't know how to use a blaster, outside of what I have seen in the holovids. And I have never had an itch to kill someone" She tact on there just so they knew she was pretty damn useless. No fancy spider sense, no weapons training, and no armor like Fulcrum and the space cowboy. "I'm just a detective in training, and former carbonite smelter worker."

 

[Envir Vadul]

The padawan answered immediately, "Yes, plenty of practice," he pulled part of his robe back, revealing the lightsaber holster on his leg. He absolutely did not like the idea of killing those creatures, no matter how many specific directions the trenchcoat man had. He wondered if the individual was knowledgeable on such matters due to being a killer as the reptilian Mandalorian pointed out.

"Envir," he curtly introduced himself before the girl, Tru, continued to speak. She was completely right, who knew how many others were out there hiding or even already running off to find whatever available escape routes there were.

There certainly wasn't enough time to create a detailed plan, and there certainly wasn't enough time for her to not know how to use a blaster. Without the intention of mansplaining, he held out the blasted he had taken a moment ago to her, "Look- I'm not encouraging blasting everything but all you need to do is point," he displayed the trigger, "preferably not us- you'll be alright," he said. Despite how the tall Mandalorian seemed capable of protecting her it was still inevitable that at some point she would need something to protect herself. Although Envir just met this group, he certainly did not want to witness any of them get their necks bitten off like he witnessed back at the club. "Detectives sometimes need to protect themselves," Envir added.

Envir stood in front of the closed door to listen to the outside noise, the hall wasn't as loud, "We should go while it's calm..."

Although it was faint for him, he could feel the creepy cannibalistic hunger Jack had mentioned.


Fulcrum Jack Sandrow Todblaz Graker Tru Accardi