Private The Dark Below

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

"We've got something, Bloodscrawl," Elias said as they entered the map room. The Council Chambers of the Dagobah temple featured a sophisticated emergency room for situations like this, when a collection of maps, data, and archived resources would be needed. The dark-skinned Jedi brushed his hand through the digital particles that lazily drifted above the map's surface, activating it and bringing into view a map of a barren Mid-Rim world.

His sharp eyes looked over the globe, seemingly scanning for something. When he found his mark, he pointed to it and spoke without looking away.

"Here. A botany lab on Kenari. It's owned by..." he trailed off, swiping his free hand through a database of information near the map terminal.

"DuroLabs? I'm not familiar with them. They're a bioscience consortium from the looks of it."

What they were doing on an abandoned world like Kenari, he couldn't say. And what a botany lab would send an SOS for, he couldn't imagine. Some sort of containment breach? Pirate attack? It was difficult to say. The only thing they had to work on was the signal itself, and the cooridinates it originated from. He turned his eyes to Nathan.

"It's worth investigating, I think. It could be nothing, but..." his mind went to the last unusal distress beacon he answered. What could otherwise have been nothing ended up being a secret Sith army growing in a ruin on Fresia.

"...it's probably best if we check things out. Better safe than sorry."

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: NJO Jumpsuit

Armed With: Nathan's Saberstaff



Nathan Bloodscrawl, unaccustomed to operating in a temple space, was unsettled by how quiet and peaceful it could be. How with all the chaos about to come down on them all, they could act like there was nothing outside the temple at times.

He'd been at Ossus. Seen the shortcomings of a temple approach first hand. It's why he scoped out all the escape routes the first few times he had come here. He was all but counting the days until the Sith came to this place as well. He didn't even try to pretend it wouldn't occur: If the Sith wanted to damage the league, they'd have to hit this place eventually.

And then there would be blood. Chaos. Like the day Castle Bloodscrawl fell. Like Ossus.

When the enemy came, Nathan had no intention of making it easy for them to kill as many as they did at Ossus. He was even considering petitioning the Council to start on new defenses on the perimeter and the interior, upgrade whatever turrets were present. He favored sonics.

Of course, that might require him to disclose a few things. And he wasn't sure he wanted to do that, given his personal affairs...

Nathan quietly debated the merits of keeping his head down or risk having to disclose he was the leader of something that was a Jedi Aligned PMC in all but name as he headed into the map room with Elias Edo

(Narrator suffers nosebleeds from intense MGS4 flashbacks)

Nathan examined the planet. Kenari. He had been forced to hide there during the plague. He wondered how it had changed.

At the mention of the DuroLabs distress signal, he raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about how his company, Bacta-Works of Epica, had been considering purchasing this very consortium. Bacta-Works was swallowing up lots of the lesser medical corps sales in trade league territory.

He instead simply stared at the maps alongside one of the few people in this era he actually considered a friend. But Nathan still kept his past to himself. His mistakes to himself.

His eyes were artificial now, though they looked real. The result of getting a little too careless with one of his daughter's Nuetralizers. He glanced at Elias with them.

No one except a handful of people knew he was Laertia Io's father. Elias was not one of them. Nathan had no intention of advertising it, either.

"I got a ship that can get us there nice and quiet. Biohazard suits also in case there's some sort of project that went out of control."

Nathan openly sighed as he said it. He spoke clearly from bitter experience.

"My money's on it being some sort of horrible abomination. That's why they set up labs on isolated worlds. At least, that's what happened whenever I went to one. Looks like I'm gonna spend the next week paranoid about catching something there...ah well, duty calls." he remarked.

"We should depart immediately."

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Elias grinned, looking confidently to Nathan from across the map table.

“I like nice and quiet,” he said. He grabbed his lightsaber from a nearby table and clipped it to his belt, then forwarded the map of the DuroLabs facility to their holopads.

It was clear he expected trouble.

“For their sake, I hope it’s nothing serious… but in my experience, it’s rare for scientists in a remote lab to cry wolf without good reason.”

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan's ship for the occasion, a IPV-2C scavenged remarkably intact from Kirdo 3, waited on a patch of stable ground on a restored landing pad. It had obvious age and signs of patch jobs and retrofits, it's dull, faded over old republic stripes still visible. Since coming to Dagobah, Nathan had gone to great pains to locate stable land in the swamps where a hangar could be placed. As luck would have it, he had come across this. It wasn't too far from the temple, and the trail was well hidden. He led Elias Edo to it, only speaking to give directions.

Refurbished OOM Pilot Droids tended to the inside and out of the vessel, one noticed him and went up and saluted.

"Ship ready to go, boss." it announced in a harsh electronic voice, Nathan unable to stand how they normally sounded. A battle droid should sound like it was built for battle.

"Good. Begin pre flight checks." Nathan ordered.

"Roger Roger." The Droid replied, telling the others to open the hatch.

Nathan was the first aboard, the interior restored to habitable status, but still cramped. The main hold held the most room. Everything else was very utilitarian. Few signs of Nathan's personality could be found throughout the ship. Playing cards lay half scattered on a nearby table. An empty pizza box was bent in half, stuffed hastily into the trash. The lights flickered often, casting rooms and corners unexpectedly in shadow. A cup of coffee lay next a mat on a table where the parts to a lightsaber unfinished, and next to the parts was a transparent box containing a strange gray gemstone with an asterism.

"We'll be ready to take off in a few, make yourself at home." Nathan asked. He was more casual in his tone than normal.

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Admittedly, Elias had always felt there was something… more to Nathan, than what meets the eye. It started when the Coalition team encountered him beneath the ruins on Sullust, where an uneasy alliance grew into a partnership that Elias respected; Seeing the sparseness of Nathan’s ship struck a sympathetic nerve in the Jedi Master.

“You, uh… only bring the necessities, huh?” Elias asked as he ducked into the cramped interior of the stealth ship. He admired Old Republic relics like this, likely from his budding friendship with Valery Noble - who was, in her own right, an Old Republic relic herself.

He’d have to crack that joke the next time they see each other.

He looked about the cabin, clearly impressed by the retrofits and upgrades made to the ship. Even the OOM droids were impressive components of this project. Elias grinned as he settled in at one of the tables.

“I had no idea you had such affinity with old tech like this. Remind me to introduce you to Cailen Corso , I think the two of you would have much to discuss.”

He held a smile for a few moments, but it faded as he reviewed the data on his holopad. It was easy to hope for the best, but Elias had already begun to suspect the worst. He had no idea what they’d be up against on Kenari.

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Often, yes. Only necessities..." Nathan answered as he set down his Saberstaff and picked up that half drunk cup of coffee as the ship shuddered as the engines fully came active and they lifted off, him having transmitted the coordinates remotely.

"I was required to know how to restore stuff like this to working condition. My assignments have often operated by procurement upon sight. Scavving, basically. And if this Corso knows how to restore a Mk III Stygium Cloaking Device sure. I could give pointers. Or vice versa.

He began studying the info they had on Duralabs. "Yeah, we're gonna need biohazard suits for this nonsense..." he added with a snort. "Excuse me a moment..."

Nathan went off and rummaged in a nearby armor locker, and retrieved two sets of Armor .

"Been wondering when I'd find a use for these." he remarked. "Good for Nuclear or bio disasters, but it's not good against projectiles. They were often used by mercenaries in the...the..."

He stopped. Gathered himself a moment.

"If there's anything in that lab that can get past this stuff...if nothing else, we know whatever was made there works." he added dryly before turning to Elias Edo

"Speaking of protection...I have concerns about the Dagobah Temple...I think it needs more of it, frankly..."

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Elias grinned, humored as he watched Nathan polish off his coffee. When it came to Cailen and technology, there were very few 'ifs'... and those few that did crop up were usually taken care of in a few days time, depending on the Padawan's other duties.

He eyed the envrio-suits Nathan rummaged from the locker, clearly pleased to have at least some form of protection. They made him felt a little less worried by biological surprises waited for them on Kenari. His eyes squinted slightly when his friend lost himself for a moment. Elias knew that Nathan had an interesting past, for lack of better words, but much of it was obscured from any sort of public records. It had actually posed something of an issue when he first joined the Coalition, but Elias helped to smooth things over with the council members.

As far as he was concerned, Nathan had proved himself on Sullust, when he helped the Coalition with their mission.

"If there's anything in that lab that can get past this stuff...if nothing else, we know whatever was made there works." he added dryly.

Elias nodded, grinning.

"Good thinking." They would need every bit of help going up against so many unknowns. Protection would be invaluable, a fact that Nathan extended to the Dagobah temple. Elias nodded his agreement, cocking his head to the side as he contemplated potential upgrades.

"Do you have anything in mind, Bloodscrawl? I've tried to convince the council to make preparations in the event of an attack from the Sith, but it seems the Trade League is leery of a 'militarized Jedi compound,'" he said mockingly. He tried to smile through it.

"We do have access to the satelite station on Mount Dagger, DRAPAC. It's an old research base left behind by the Republic. Maybe we could pay the team a visit sometime, see what room there is for upgrades that won't bring the Rangers down on us."

He could bring Cailen Corso along as well. It'd be a perfect opportunity to introduce the two of them, and between both of their techy minds, they ought to be able to think up some better defenses for the temple and Dagobah itself.

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"More Shields. Greater internal defences. Maybe even a cloaking device if we can swing it..."

Nathan then frowned. He never smiled, but that just made the frowns more noticeable. It was as if he were incapable of mirth or joy.

"Those are probably exactly the defenses the League would protest..." he added. "But there is more than one way to shave a wookiee. I know where to get my hands on other assets. Other locations. I scout league space whenever I have the chance. But we can try DRAPAC first, so we can say we tried to do it legitimately and by the book."

But deep down, Nathan knew extraordinary measures would be required to prevent the Temple's fall if an enemy arrived in force. The problem was that the very measures that would be most effective would raise the most ire.

It was one of the most annoying things about red tape. It pops up in the most unexpected ways. It was one thing to be paranoid about Jedi getting too much power. It was another matter entirely to prevent them from being able to protect themselves and their strongholds adequately. The era of easily destroyed Jedi Temples had it's time. Now that era needed to pass. Or they might as well start purchasing the body bags right now.

The ship went into Hyperspace.

"You should meditate, Edo. Perfect time for it..."



Later on....


Nathan's vessel avoided the fatal error of Admiral Ozzel in that it came out of Hyperspace not too close to the system, engaging it's cloak.

Nathan had put on the hazard suit and armed himself with a pump action shotgun. He clearly had been in situations like this one before.

"Don't slice or break any vials whatever you do. No telling what they worked on...take baby steps, glance around. If you see corpses, check for signs of illness especially..." he said Elias Edo as the ship finally started to descend into the atmosphere...

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

The labs seemed deserted as the ship dropped through the atmosphere. A pair of civilian shuttles rested on an exterior landing pad, like giant metal monuments. None of the perimeter lights were shining, though whether that was the result of power loss or it simply being too early in the afternoon for them, Elias couldn't say. More troubling than the visuals was the bitter sense he felt in the Force. It wasn't a heavy disturbance, like what you'd face before a battle or when in the presence of a Sith. It felt more... primal. Frustrated, confused even.

It didn't sit well with him.

Elias stood from his seat, double-checking the seals on his vacsuit and making sure his lightsaber was at the ready. He raised his eyebrows at Nathan's shotgun, but didn't say anything - Jedi didn't typically handle firearms, but then again, they also didn't typically investigate remote labs that dropped off the grid. Nothing about their mission would go by the books.

When the ship touched down on Kenari, Elias put on his helmet and nodded.

"After you."

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan stepped off the ship, and the OOM Droids shut the hatch behind them as he moved towards the central lab compound lobby entrance, close to the shuttles, noting the stillness of the dead world around him. He began to hear a faint message broadcasting over a PA system.

"WARNING. CONTAINMENT HAZARD FAILURE. DO NOT APPROACH. HIGH RISK BIOHAZARD BEYOND. DO NOT APPROACH. REPEAT, DO NOT APPROACH."

The message then looped again. Nathan crept up on the shuttles. Open. No signs of anyone. He took a look inside one. Saw a strange transmitter attached to the pilot console.

"Fueled. No damage. Activated remotely from within the facility given this device..." Nathan noted, "Somebody wanted to leave. Lockdown probably stopped it. Or rather, whatever caused the lockdown."

Nathan had to consider their options at this point.

"Ideally, this is the point where I would have just obeyed the warning, and left, come back later with a baradium device to blow the place sky high and kill the bacteria or whatever the hell is inside. But there's no telling if whatever is in there got out elsewhere, and if someone else should pick up that signal before we have time to destroy it, they might not be as cautious. Only way to know that is to go inside and check records." he said to Elias Edo before he went to the front door, which had a biometric lock on it.

Nathan sighed. "Give me a moment..."

He took out some tools and a laser cutter, cut into the lock panel and began fiddling with wires and circuits. Best way to get past was to trick it into re opening from an earlier login event.

The door slid open. Nathan held out a sensor.

"No airborne biohazard detected..." Nathan said after reading the scans. He then stepped inside.

He saw no bodies. The lobby was empty. No one at the front desk.

"I was real young when I found myself in one of these nightmare places..." Nathan remarked as he went to the front desk computer.

"They'd been toying with samples of a witch corpse. Cells got a charge of the ol' Force and regrew the witch...she killed everything in the facility. Doesn't feel like that sort of situation though." he added as he began slicing the computer.

"There. Lab breach. But... that's odd...none of the listed labs are showing breaches..."

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

"Figures," Elias said, eyeing the unnervingly pristine reception desk. He knew the Duros were a techy people, preferring to develop cutting edge inventions than play the war game with other species. It made perfect sense to see that none of the listed labs were experiencing a breach. That could only mean...

"There's a secret lab somewhere," the Jedi said rhetorically. He stepped over to the terminal, swiping his fingers across the screen.

"It'd be too easy if they had a map of the place, huh?" he remarked, looking over the images that flashed against the darkness around them.

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Oh, they always got a full map. Somewhere..." Nathan remarked.

As Elias Edo checked the computer, Nathan's discomfort began to manifest at his surroundings. He didn't dare leave Edo to go do some scouting. That was just asking for one of them to go missing. They would stick together.

He glanced at the dead world outside...


Gulag Era...

Heavy drops of rain splashed the dirt of Ossus as the TIE Advanced crash landed into a grassy clearing. The thing had been a scavenged wreck, barely space worthy, and it's luck had run out.

From it's rusted hatch popped out a teenage human in tattered black biker clothes, a red bandana covering the lower half of his face. His eyes were a cloudy white color, as if he was blind, surrounded by scars that crossed the bridge of his nose. He waited for his foe, staring up at the sky.

A much more intact starfighter , a red TIE Interceptor glided in, and the boy felt a dark presence aboard as the fighter landed, the hatch at the top opening.

A figure in torn black robes emerged, scrawny, and with one arm. He held a single bladed lightsaber with a rusty, slightly longer than normal hilt, parts of its internals exposed due to its somewhat scavenged nature.

The rain pounded on the boy's head as he removed his lightsaber, a broken off half of a Jedi temple guard's lightsaber pike welded to a Cortosis Weave durasteel length of chain from his shoulders. It had a small counterweight at the opposite end, a simple orb made of the same material as the chain. The boy's cloudy, empty orbs fixed on the Dark Jedi.

"Ah, so you have finally chosen to stop running. Though I suppose the starfighter didn't help matters." The Dark Jedi chuckled.

The boy said nothing, already irritated.

A red lightsaber the length of a claymore sword erupted from the piecemeal hilt of the Dark Jedi.

"No lectures, Padawan? No monologue about my evil ways?"

The boy only stared with sightless eyes.

"Ah yes, I forgot. Bloodscrawl. From an older way of doing things. Before the business got taken over by the spineless."

The teenager was very still.

The Dark Jedi pointed his blade at the boy.

"When you fall here, the last of your wretched Jedi bloodline dies with you."

The Teenager activated his blade and a short yellow blade sprouted out. He wrapped much of the thick chain around his arm, the rest for personal use.

The pair approached one another, circling.

"I sense how fried you are on the inside, Jedi. It would take only a nudge to push you to the darkness."

The boy made no reply. He was whittled down to pure survival instinct.

The Dark Jedi lunged and the boy blocked the heavy overhead blow with a free bit of chain, backing off as he deflected the strikes that were launched at him, driving him backwards into the jungle.

Their blades steamed from the rain hitting them as they sliced at each other, burning branches off trunks, the heat of their weapons consuming the leaves they passed through as The boy defended himself, the blade strikes heating up the chain more and more. He tried to dive back, only for the Dark Jedi to yank him forward with the Dark Side. He barely deflected the stab and it took all his might to do it, getting flung against a tree trunk.

The Dark Jedi felt an internal disquiet as the boy rose up with eerie silence, blind eyes glaring at him. The boy made a clutching gesture, and the Dark Jedi felt reality melt around him for a second before realizing he was suddenly closer to his target than he had been a second prior. MUCH closer.

The yellow shoto glanced it's tip across The Dark Jedi's mid-section, and he howled in pain, trying to slice at the boy, who teleported to the spot the blade had just passed through and swiped upward, cutting him again.

The Teenager parried the resulting hate and rage filled slashes with a length of chain looped together, the attacks coming faster and fast, until one got through, slicing him across the thigh when he moved backward too slow. He collapsed, but not before he directed a palm at the Dark Jedi, who vanished and reappeared over fifty stories above him, flailing helplessly as he fell.

Knowing that wouldn't kill his foe, just infuriate him, the boy broke off into a run deep in the jungle. He at least tried to run, but his limp made that extremely difficult.

As he fled the scene for his life, he slipped on some patch of decayed mushrooms and began sliding uncontrollably down a steep incline on the forest path, that led into a long drop down a raging river.

He tumbled from the sky and into the chilling, roaring water, violently tossed about, only getting scant moments when his head was above water long enough to take a breath.

When he was finally tossed ashore, he was half dead from his injuries sustained in the river, having broken a rib as he slammed into a rock underwater. He pulled himself across shore sand in great pain, and forced himself to stand. He had lost his weapon. Disgraceful.

He began walking through the jungle, looking for somewhere to hide. Looking for shelter as he dragged himself through the woods.

It was not long before he spotted it.

A massive dome in the middle of the woods, with a the shutters to an underground hangar clearly visible. He tensed. This was the era of the Gulag Plague. Lone buildings in jungles were never a good sign. He stepped forward cautiously, clutching at his side. The front doors of the lobby had ivy growing through them. He pokes his head in and sniffed. Musty. Smelled of old death.

The boy went inside, and spotted a lone, intact shotgun shell and signs of an old battle, but no weapon.

He looked around, spotted an old, rusty flashlight and approached it, flicking it on. It still worked, but the beam was weak.

Not seeing much other choice, The Boy went deeper into the old facility.

AT first he thought he had located some old field hospital but when he spotted the biohazard symbol and the decontamination procedure he knew he had stepped in it.

He might have caught something and not realized it, because there were a ton of bodies, long decayed, some in lab coats others in cheap looking security armor, and a dozen half open doors leading to various office cubicles.

The Boy started a search for something, anything, pertaining to what they had been working on. He flipped through rotted flimsi sheets containing security directives...

Present...


"Master Edo, pick up any clues?" Nathan asked as he pulled himself out of his memory...

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Elias skimmed through the maps, pursing his lips as he drew nearer to the end of the records without uncovering the missing lab.

"Damn..." the Jedi muttered. It had to be here somewhere. He moved to another directory, once that seemed to host hard schematics rather than simple facility maps. Maybe a forgetful engineer left the full blueprints behind?

He stared at the monitor, relying on his peripheral senses to detect any unwelcome lifeforms. His hopeful side wanted to believe that the staff were safe somewhere inside the labs, but the emergency power and total lack of life were discouraging. Just when he thought to give up on searching the database and move to more unconventional methods, the schematic they were looking for passed the screen. Elias reached behind him, patting Nathan on the back.

"I've got it," he said, pausing for a moment to ruminate on his friend's odd state before nodding to the terminal.

"The access isn't far from here, but it's probably locked under the security measures. Think you can get us inside?"

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Yeah, I can get it open..." Nathan answered. He HAD to get it open. It was their only lead.

He studied the terminal, breathing through the gas mask slowly. He saw the directions and took the lead. He moved slowly, in methodical, careful steps, head on a swivel as he made sure there were no booby traps, using a demolition sensor to scan for mines ahead. He saw broken turrets on the floor by and ceiling everywhere. Still no blood. Still no bodies. His concern grew as he walked past what had clearly been the section of the worker bees. Office cubicles. A mess area. The tables and chairs were empty, food and drink still where they sat. Evidence of barricades, hastily reacted in a last ditch effort to survive what was happening, easily torn through.

Evidence of scratch marks. He signalled Elias Edo to stop a moment as he knealt down running his scanner.

"No biohazard detected." the sensor announced quietly, in a cold machine voice.

He spotted debris in the scratch marks. He peered closer. Whole fingernails. They had literally gouged the floor in a desperate attempt to prevent being dragged away.

Nathan couldn't help but feel a sense of irony that his allies were created in labs like these.

His thoughts switched to Vera Mina for a split second and he brushed it out of his mind, not quite able to understand anymore why his mind wandered to the killer android...

"It was sudden..." Nathan noted, "No one had time to react all that much. They got a few shots off. Whatever did it was fast."

He went forward. Evidence of more smashed barricades showed. More blaster fire. But no blood. No bodies.

"No biohazard detected." the Sensor announced tonelessly as he held the scanner forward, moving slowly until he reached the Access.

The Access door had an active holographic sign: WARNING: LEVEL 12 QUARANTINE IN EFFECT. DO NOT APPROACH. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.

Nathan began thinking out loud.

"All the defenses were overcome. No bodies. Yet the Lockdown door is sealed up. Either whatever did this already left and computer mainframe initiated lockdown automatically in the absence of available personnel. Or whatever did this willingly retreated back to the quarantine area...or something or someone drew it back in..."

He saw a keypad and went forward carefully slinging the shotgun over his shoulder, making sure Edo wasn't where the barrel was facing as it went over his shoulder. He spotted the transparent locker full of firearms and explosives next to the keypad.

"Here's the problem with Lockdowns in labs like these..." he muttered. "It's good for keeping the hapless out. But say you need a clean team to sweep through an infected area. Not that that would be an immediate or desirable possibility for Corpos..."

He carefully used a laser cutter to open a panel beneath the Keypad. Then he began slowly taking the cutter to the circuits and wires inside.

"You gotta have a way for the teams to get inside quick. Usually, the reason they send teams like that in is because they are afraid of evidence getting out..."

The Access door opened a second later. So did the footlocker.

Nathan studied the contents, grabbed a pair of 40mm Plasma Grenade Rounds and the single shot breechload grenade launcher that went with it.

"Plasma...and grenade launchers...they were working on something bad here..."

Nathan ran a the hazard sensor into the turbolift ahead.

"No biohazard detected."

Nathan went in, holding the left open for Master Edo.

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

He nodded as he followed Nathan, listening to his reasoning behind the chillingly sparse trail of evidence throughout the main complex. Much of his deductions could be chalked up to a natural mind for strategy, but Elias couldn't help but feel that the man had more experience with this sort of thing than he let on. The two men weren't exactly close, but Elias had become fond of Nate, and decided it wouldn't damage anything to ask deeper questions.

"You've uh- seen this kind of thing before, huh?" the Jedi asked, feigning ignorance with his tone.

"You seem to know all the tricks of the trade, that is. I've handled outbreaks and experiments gone wild before, but they were always... bloodbaths. Bodies everywhere, survivors nursing their wounds or driven mad by the horrors."

He shrugged, playing off the horrible memories as just part of the job.

"When it rains, you know? It comes with the territory... but this? It feels different. It feels wrong."

"Either whatever did this already left and computer mainframe initiated lockdown automatically in the absence of available personnel. Or whatever did this willingly retreated back to the quarantine area...or something or someone drew it back in..."

Elias sighed, kneeling down to examine the nearby debris of a failed barricade. Neither situation was good; If the escaped whatever-it-was had fled the labs, only the Force knew where it could be now. But on the other hand, if it elected to remain, that was evidence of either mindlessness or dangerous sentience. Telling the difference at this point was impossible, and that had the Jedi gnawing at his cuticles as he looked over the blaster burns on the floor.

When Nate got the quarantine doors open, Elias stood to join him on the other side of the threshold, lightsaber in hand but not yet ignited. The emergency lights inside the corridor were bright enough to light their way without the need for an ignited blade. He followed his friend deeper into the facility, beyond where the official maps ended. All they had to go on now was the engineering blueprints, and even those could be deceptive of what truly lays inside the depths of this place.

Just when Elias thought to make a light joke to break the deafening silence, a metallic clang sounded ahead. The Master stopped immediately, his widened eyes scanning the dimness for any signs of movement. His thumb rested on his saber switch. A moment that felt like eternity passed.

"It came from one of the rooms ahead, I think," Elias said in a voice barely audible.

"Let's check it out. Could be a survivor."

It was wishful thinking, but how could a Jedi go into anything like this without hoping for the best? After all, they had lightsabers, a shotgun, and a fancy new plasma launcher if it turned out to be the worst.

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"Yes." Nathan answered as they moved deeper into the hidden section, the spinning lights creating a nightmarish kaleidoscope through a dark tunnel that led to another section of red doors.

"No biohazard detected." the sensor he carried announced quietly and coldly.

"Take my word for it. Sometimes the worst cases don't have any blood at all..."


The Padawan rifled through papers, seeming sightless eyes glancing over everything, then his eyes fell on it.

Blue Shadow. The Maniacs had been working on Blue Shadow. But most of it was scientific garbage he couldn't make heads or tails of.

He had to get out of here now. No question, and pray he hadn't already caught it.

"HELLLLLLPPPP!!!!"

The Padawan's head snapped to attention. A lure? Or had another unfortunate soul found their way here due to circumstances beyond their control?

His Jedi honor forbade him to leave until he knew which was which.

The Padawan looked for something, anything to defend himself with. He searched the office he wandered more thoroughly, coming across a partly rusted Treppus-2 Vibroblade, embedded in the wall. He checked it. No charge. He'd have to rely on the edge alone.

The screaming for help got louder and he was off running, checking every angle for a possible ambush, hiding his presence in the Force still.

He saw a busted open lab, and silently snuck into it, blinking as he saw a sweating, scared man of no later than twenty-five, with sand colored skin and and with a short buzzcut and hazel eyes pinned to the wall by some invisible power, surrounded by a pentagram of white blood.

The boy approached cautiously, saying nothing, a sliver of black and ghost eyes creeping ever closer.

The man spotted him and his adrenaline went up.

"Please...please...get me down from here!" the man begged. "She--IT--is coming back!!!"

The Padawan tilted his head to one side, began examining the Pentagram, trying to see how best to undo it's magic.

But as the man's panic increased, he heard footsteps, a click of the heels in a dirty floor and ducked behind a desk as he observed the threat casually striding in and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

To put it simply...she was gorgeous. A voluptuous Chiss Woman in an all white, skintight catsuit.

"Ah, you're still here!" the woman spoke in a jovial tone. "You must feel terribly unlucky, I know, but all of this is meant, ultimately to glorify you..."

She leaned closer to her scared captive, stroking his face slowly.

"Besides, the suffering really is very short, ultimately."

He was already fixing to sneak up on her, creeping quietly as she whispered all the horrifying things she was going to do to him as a result of his foolishness in trusting her.

Not really having the energy to do anything but kill, The teenager slammed the knife into one side of the back of her skull. The power contained in her scream of pain flung him backward and shattered whatever hold the pentagram had held on her victim. He hit the ground running as she continued to scream.

The Padawan recovered and ran with him, and they were soon both fleeing for their lives. He didn't bother hiding his presence now. And what he felt inside the woman was horrific...

The pair found a Flight of emergency steps and ran down it. The boy spotted an open turbolift, and, out of desperation pulled the screaming victim in and pressed buttons at random.

The Force 'had' to be with them. It HAD to be, for just as the doors had finished closing they saw the woman, fully healed, screeching and sprinting right for them, a dagger in hand. The one the Padawan had used to stab her, in fact.

The doors closed just as she reached them.

The man who had been her captive breathed a sigh of relief... only for the dagger to be shoved perfectly between the crack of the closed turbolift doors.

The Teenager palmed the shotgun shell he had retrieved earlier while the man he rescued started to panic, covered in torn civilian clothes, having clearly been tortured.

The first sight that greeted her was the Padawan's covered face, the next sight was of watching the shotgun shell get plunged into her right eye as she tried to pry the doors open with her arms. She buckled from the pain but managed to keep the doors open with her arms. That is, until he Sparta-Kicked her away as hard as he could into the wall across the turbolift, but stopped the doors, gesturing for the person he rescued, now half crazed with terror to hold the lift open.

Not having time to question, the victim held the doors open as the teenager viciously beat the stunned witch with fists and boot, still punching her in the face even as he dragged her into the lift, seemingly trying to cave it in. But the with struggled, a few ropes of lightning escaping her fingertips as he beat her as senseless as he could, nearly electrocuting both of them.

The Padawan grabbed the knife.

"Get out." he spoke in a calm but cold monotone to the victim of the Witch. (On your feet, soldier!: 700 XP)

The victim of the With practically jumped out of the lift letting the doors close at last. Then he ran for his life.


"My knowledge was gained over..."

Nathan paused, pushing the quarter second of that terribly violent memory back to function.

"Over extremely difficult circumstances..." he finished.

"For much of my life, I have been forced to operate in such conditions. Not just labs like this mind you..."

"No biohazard detected." the Sensor chimed.

"But places where everywhere was like the labs you mentioned. Places where nothing but evil reigned..."

Nathan caught the metallic clang.

"No biohazard detected." the sensor chimed unnervingly.

Nathan took point, heading to the source of the clang. What did the color of the red doors mean?

He peeked through my a window, saw a man with a broken leg banging a rock and a piece of rebar together. It looked like server farm. The lights on the servers were faint, very weak.

Nathan hand signalled Edo to stay back while he worked the door control keypad to open it, the wounded man stopped banging the debris together. He was dressed in a labcoat.

Nathan reserved his sympathy, even as he observed broken legs.

"Close the door, both of you, quickly! This is the only place that's safe in the whole facility!" the man hissed weakly.

A sound like flies and screams mixed together in the darkness and everything in the Force felt horribly wrong.

"GET INSIDE! GET INSIDE!" the wounded man begged.

"Biohazard detected." the sensor chimed...

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Nathan may not have shown it on purpose, but Elias could sense a brokenness deep within his friend. Something powerful in his past, left unmended all this time. He felt a pang of guilt for enlisting Nate’s help, but that was a realization afforded only by hindsight; If he had known, he wouldn’t have subjected Nathan to this… but there was nothing to do about it now.

Elias came to a hard stop the moment Nathan signaled him to. There was a survivor, but his condition looked worse for wear. What happened here must have been terrible.

"Close the door, both of you, quickly! This is the only place that's safe in the whole facility!" - Survivor

The Jedi frowned, his eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean? What happened here?-“

An unnatural screech and the ugly sound of insects buzzing cut their dialogue short. Elias put his back to Nathan and the scientist, holding guard with his emerald lightsaber as he covered them into the chamber. He smashed the doorlock with his off hand, sealing it just moments before the source of the screams crashed against it on the other side.

It’s blue skin and bulbous head was reminiscent of the Duros for which DuroLabs was named, but that’s as far as the similarities went. From the nose up, a thick plate of plantlike matter was writing on the doctor’s face. It wound through the blue flesh like an outward tumor.

Elias snapped his eyes to the survivor behind them, the anger clear in his face.

“What the FUCK is that?” he demanded.

“It-it’s-“ the scientist stammered. Tears rolled down the man’s face, mixing with what must have been blood and grime from surviving in the server room for who-knows how long.

“What - is - that?” Elias repeated. He jabbed a finger to the mutated corpse that bashed its fists against the viewport.

“… it’s a grave mistake,” the survivor finally admitted, before sliding down to his knees and cowering beneath the glow of Elias’ weapon.

He disengaged the blade, cutting his eyes to Nate before kneeling beside the sobbing man.

“What happened here?”

Elias’ fingers waved subtly by his waist. Nathan would know exactly what he was doing, if he caught the motion. In this state, the scientist’s mind was easily manipulated into divulging the truth. At least, as much of the truth as he was privy to.

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan had been about to run for the controls when Elias Edo beat him to it, shutting the door just in time. Nathan studied it for a quick second while Edo interrogated the scientist, who quickly broke down in tears.

Nathan caught Edo's hand gesture and went over to him.

Whereas Edo's tone had been fiery and full of totally justifiable horror and indignation, Nathan's was simply...ice...

"Tell me what happened. Now." Nathan said quietly, the frost in his tone enough to give pause to even the most cold blooded species capable of speech.

The Scientist snapped to face Nathan as though stung physically by the cold in Nathan's word.

"We were conducting experiments in splicing photo synthesis into various species..." The Scientist explained, shaking. "The goal was to eventually create a genetic splicing treatment that would give anyone who took it the ability to regenerate it pure sunlight."

"Oh, I'm just dying to know how you fethed up." Nathan muttered dryly.

"Nothing we tried worked. We studied some of the most photosynthesis reliant plants in the Galaxy, and still we could not discover the secret..." The scientist said through fearful tears. "Then one day, we got a new sample. It's genetic code was badly degraded. We didn't realize what we had found...but its cells possessed a tremendous capacity to absorb radiation and a capability with almost any nervous system."

The scientist winced from the pain he was in.

"We tested it on insects first. Then we tested it on rodents. We got amazing results. The specimens could regenerate from nearly any wound...we were very careful!" he whispered. "This facility was not some irresponsible hellhole, Jedi. Medical breakthroughs are made all the time in facilities just like this one--"

"Oh, I agree..." Nathan replied with extremely low key sarcasm. "Such astounding breakthroughs."

"We took ten times the countermeasures of the Galactic Alliance's finest Organizations for this sort of research--"

He was startled by the loud banging on the door.

"I'm awestruck at the extent of your preparedness." Nathan replied tonelessly. "What happened?"

"Ordinarily, all our countermeasures should have worked. Under ordinary conditions there's no way there should have been a breach. But there was one thing we hadn't counted on. The sample was not as dead as we thought when we harvested the cells...and...and it turned out what we harvested was sentient..."

Nathan stood up.

"Did you ever learn what it was?" Nathan asked.

"Some unknown variant of the Drengir..." the scientist answered.

Nathan's only response was a long slow clap, which gave away how disgusted he was. And how many times he had had to go through conversations just like this one.

"Nice job. How come you aren't plant mulch?" He asked.

"The electrical frequencies from these servers prevents them from entering...But we are running low on emergency power. Before you arrived, I had three hours left. The generator is a couple of floors below us. That's where the infected are."

The Scientist then grimaced.

"The Drengir waited, dormant in the test specimens, waited until our guards were down during transfer of specimens."

"How I despise dealing with the screw ups of those such as yourself." Nathan muttered bleakly. "What's kept them down here? Kept them from leaving?"

The scientist winced as the pain of a broken leg shot through his body.

"There was a nutrient we were giving the specimens. It digested it slow but it loves that stuff. The last of the others...they dragged a large amount of it down there, probably as a last ditch effort to prevent it from leaving, at least until it's processed all of it."

"The victims..." Nathan asked, tone somehow frostier than it already had been. It was best described as blizzard, more than a sentence, what he asked next.

"Can they be saved?"

The Scientist shook his head. "The nervous system is completely compromised within minutes of infection. I saw the transformations. They were horrible--"

Nathan cut him off.

"Tell me all you know of this place, how to properly kill them, how to slow them. If you leave anything out deliberately, I will recommend the maximum sentence at your trial, provided you survive."

The scientist nodded, started talking more about the layout of the facility, and how best to reach the generator. Plasma based weapons only slowed them down, and as with regular Drengir, lightsabers would be almost totally ineffective...

You needed flames. Constant flames. Even that only bought so much time if there were too many.

When the scientist finished answering, Nathan turned to Edo.

"Place is wasted, Master Edo. Likelihood of survivors after this guy is highly unlikely. We go to that generator, it will have to be to overload this place and destroy it along with the Drengir."

 

[Elias Edo]

Location: DuroLabs Facility, Kenari | Soundtrack: Below the Asteroids

​

Elias scooted to side, giving the scientist’s undivided attention to Nathan.

He hadn’t completely lost his cool with the man yet, but Elias was grateful for his friend’s chillingly effective reasoning skills. Nathan had experience here, and while Elias knew it wasn’t a long history of fond memories, he understood how positively cathartic it was to use such trauma in a constructive way.

The Jedi stood while Nathan handled the rest of the questioning, stepping first toward the dimly lit servers. He eyed them carefully, listening to the survivor’s reason for barricading himself inside. Then he moved to the viewport and stood eye to… eye?- with the Drengir mutant. It pounded its fists against the glassteel relentlessly, rage and frustration unbridled as it tried to reach them. It could sense the waning energy.

It knew the man was running out of time.

“Place is wasted, Master Edo,” Nathan said. Elias nodded, not breaking his gaze from the mutant.

He knew that Nathan had no quarrel with firearms and explosives. The plasma launcher he collected would do wonders against the Drengir-spawn, but Elias didn’t feel quite right using it. But he did have another idea in mind…

Elias, ever the druid, reached out in the Force to touch the mutant. Drengir were sentient, but still a species of flora; Plant Surge would work wonders in pacifying it, if not mentally, than physically. The Master closed his eyes and held an open palm face up, gently rolling his hand like ocean waves as if to coax the Drengir upward.

The pounding of fists slowed, but soon was replaced by horrible screeching.

Elias’ fist clenched the air around it, cinching down on the parasitic plant. Its viney tendrils flailed as the Drengir-spawn attempted to free itself, clearly unaware that Elias’ grip was entirely ethereal. The Jedi twisted his fist over, knuckles facing up, then jerked his hand back as if pulling a lever. In a devastating motion, the parasite was ripped from the Duros’ skull.

It’s darkened blood spattered against the viewport as the plant mass collided with it, sliding down into a heap on the floor.

“I’ll leave the burning to you, my friend,” Elias said with a tired grin.

This ability was new to him, and would take a great deal of effort to repeat time and time again. But he could persevere and destroy those who survived the plasma canon.

“Let’s do this,” he said, turning from Nathan to the injured man.

“Do you think you can make it back to the ship? They know we’re here now, we cannot afford to separate and guide you.”

Elias swallowed hard, speaking quickly to avoid panicking the man.

“They’ll be wanting us far more than you. If you go now, we’ll deal with the ones coming from below.”

---

Tags: Nathan Bloodscrawl ​

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan watched as Elias Edo disabled the creature with a creative use of plant surge. It stopped banging on the door.

"Impressive." He remarked.

The Mutant's head became chunky gibs as Edo yanked out what was clearly something vital.

"Most impressive." Nathan added.

When Elias said he would leave the burning to him, Nathan's reaction couldn't be seen due to still wearing the protective Hazard Suit.

"If you only knew how much I already had..." Nathan replied back in a very quiet voice, ignoring the screams of his wife as her soul was annihilated by Darth Phyre in a distant memory in the back of his head.

He turned to the scientist. "This leaves you..."

"Hellllloooo, broken legs!" The scientist exclaimed as Elias proposed them serving as a distraction "I can't make it to your ship in this condition!"

Nathan knealt down to examine the legs.

Compound fractures. Yeah, he wasn't going anywhere. Not like this.

Nathan reached into his pocket an pulled out a small package of precisely two capsules containing a special medicine .

"This is MedSpice...It was recently approved in the Rimward Trade League to treat severely physically and mentally wounded soldiers. Extremely potent painkiller. You may not be able to walk, but you can crawl in this state." Nathan explained, popping one container open and dumping the capsule in the scientist's hand.

"You will crawl, if you wish to live." Nathan replied. "It'll be slower, sure. But the Drengir will be so focused on us they won't care..."

The Scientist swallowed the pill. After a few minutes, he had completely mellowed out.

"I feel like I could swim a marathon!"

"Good for you." Nathan replied coldly, before turning back to Edo.

"Ready to open the mouse trap when you are, Master Edo."