Weekend Treasure Hunt 1: Derelict -- Winner Take All (contest finished)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Rave Merrill"]


The door opened with a groan to reveal an assortment of datacrons and a holocrons. The dark side emanated from the Sith holocron of Belia Darzu, primal and powerful, repulsive and yet alluring at the same time. Siobhan stared at the collection a bit dumbfounded. One wondered what she had been expecting to find.



Now Siobhan did not know about the Order of the Selab and on the whole had little to do with arcane artefacts, though she had tagged along on a couple expeditions with [member="Phylis Alince"], everyone's favourite badass bookworm who sadly seemed a bit cross with her lately. At first she looked a bit disappointed as she examined the datacrons, for Sio sadly did not have much of an appreciation for scholarly pursuits and ancient history, so the Chu'unthor expedition would mean little to her. Belia Darzu did not ring much of a bell beyond being an ancient Sith lord. The Sorcerers of Tund were some sort of Sithian cult of darkside magi. Something about mechu deru. Speaking of Phylis, maybe Siobhan could bribe her way into her good books again by giving her one of the obscure datacrons. She loved that sort of thing after all.



Siobhan made a snap decision and got out her backpack, stuffing all the datacrons and the Sith holocron inside it. She could decide what to do with them later. Or whether to keep them. Then she quickly took off. Well, as quickly as she could while limping. Gas had flooded the place everywhere and she should really get out, but something pulled her down aft, to the back of the ship. Unbeknownst to her there was a vault there.

 

[Chloe Blake]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] -- Message from earlier would have been received by now xD



So it would be that the Aurora Hawk would blaze her engines as it flew from under the belly of the beast.

Quick fingers would reach up overhead to flick on the QQ Crybaby -- allowing her the method to prevent anyone from tracking her new departure. While she wasn’t made of money, she had always purchased as much as she could from Silk for upgrades; the bulk which were display models that she bought at a discounted price -- or in some instances gleaned them for free. She had Jorus to thank for that.

Burn lines in the sky she did, able to dart out and make for hyperspace for the first of many series of micro jumps.

Unfortunately, it would not be long before the gas that had entered her ship would reach the Warden.

At first, it would feel as if she was still hearing things in the wake of her departure, and minutes later, she would feel the sense of hot flashes, followed by the distinct lack of energy one felt as her sense through the Force would start to diminish.

It wouldn’t be long before the Aurora would jump out of hyperspace not too far from Baylan, but by then, it would be too late.

Drugged with the Ixcetel Cilonia and with the Sith Poison now pumping through her veins, Chloe would not hear the secret stowaway from earlier draw close to her, that rather interesting astromech droid she’d passed by earlier on the Scion. One of the last remaining GTF0 Droids had made it inside the Aurora, and finding her biometic information not on his database, would send a small volley of bolts at her direction.

Her body would fall in a loud thud on the floor after bouncing off the piloting console, hands scrambling over the controls, creating a series of conflicting commands. An alert would howl with an incessant scream throughout the ship. Consciousness falling away as DOT’s panicked yelped could be heard in the distance.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Rave Merrill"]
Back of the ship, vault


Dead bodies and destroyed droids lined the way. Siobhan had not emerged unscathed from the fights with the countless security systems tha the genre-savvy owner of the ship - unbeknownst to Siobhan the Monster Maker who had healed her with Sith magic once during the battle with Lotek'k - had installed. Likewise gas was being spread everywhere. Namely Ixcetal Cliona and Sith Poison. The latter was nasty stuff, as Ashin Varanin and Coryth Elaris could attest.



Siobhan limped through corridor upon corridor but eventually reached the rear of the ship and hit upon what seemed another vault. It appeared that someone had already come before her, but she felt the call of the Force and her eyes were drawn towards a shimmering force field, which guarded what appeared to be a shelf containing holocrons. She felt the vile pull of the dark side from one of them. It happened to be the holocro n of King Nakgru, an ancient Sith king. The other was the holocron of Dray, which contained information about the Vong.


Pondering as she examined the Force field she raised her limp hand, drawing on the Force to contain the pain just as she forced herself to stand straight. Electricity cackled across her palm as she concentrated, then sent forth a purple current of ion energy with the intention of disabling the force field as the blast was shot forth towards it.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

Objective: STILL TAKING THIS DAMN SHIP!!!!


Romeo awoke a few moments afterward, alive.
-Ha...-
He lifted himself up from the ground, head pounding, and heart still set on taking the ship.
Lucky his mind was coming too, but he was high as a kite, and it was getting hard not to be angry do no reason.
-No..not again..-
He had already controlled his angry, had already chosen to walk the darker path of the force, but with the added stimulant in the gas...it was hid decision anymore.
-Now, how to get this ship.-
He saddled himself in the captain's chair, and pulled out his own datapad, nothing fancy, but he bound determined to have this ship.
-Think..what would Patricia do? Or Break? Or...-
More ideas poured into his head as the oxygen sifts through his lungs, still high but functional enough to do what needed done.
He linked up to the main computer in the bridge, the bridge was control, control the bridge, control the ship..right?
-DAMN IT HURRY UP!-


//System Boot, evacuate ship.//

"WHAT?! WHY?!" He yelled out.

//System: Explosives about to detonate.//

It was programmed to read out in simple words so he could understand tech more, a simple thing really, but could he hack in with it, and stop the timers?

"WHO BLOWS UP A FREAKING SHIP MADE OF MANDALORIAN BESKAR?!?!!"
He yelled more.

He typed on a few commands.

//System Reboot, Deactivate Bombs.//

Didn't work.
-Give me this ship!!!-

He typed in another command.

//SYSTEM FLUSH//

He was hoping to just flush out all commands and retake the ship through that way.

//Denied.//

"WHAT THE HELL?!" he yelled again.
There's was a AI in the system, probably a rouge AI.
-Explains some crap!! BUT HOW DO I TAKE IT OVER!!-
His mind raged over it. He had to think, and think fast.
-Um...Um...memory while won't work...wait!-

//System: Find corrupted data.//

AI was nothing more but an advanced for ofdata maybe that would work, if he could find the corrupted data he could erase it, or flush it some how. Rouge systems were usually the result me corrupted data.

-HAHAHAHA!-
his mins continued to rage.
"NOW I SHALL HAVE THIS SHIP!!" It appeared his mind worked faster in a fit of rage, adrenaline kicking through his body and a that science jazz.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

((Posting success with permission))


It took a while but amidst the torrent of ion energy the force field flickered and then overloaded with a blast, filling the room with light. Siobhan averted her eyes and then approached the two holocrons, that of King Nakgru and that of Draz, just to recapitulate. She was shaky on her legs and almost stumbled, for a moment felt tempted to just place a thermal detonator and cause an explosion, but then went on to grab both and put them in her backpack.



After all, she had already taken those in the frontal vault, though she was uncertain about what use they would be to her. Sith holocrons were...bad news. Of course, perhaps she was just takng them to ensure that they would not fall into the wrong hands, even though she was hardly a bastion of responsibility. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or so the old and perhaps a bit trite saying goes.



Artefacts successfully acquired she quickly turned and ran, as fan as she could, drawing upon the Force to strengthen her muscles and make her blot out her injuries. Death permeated the entire ship, as the bodies lining it attested, even though the gas would not affect her due to her sealed armour the place gave her the wiggins. So she quickly moved across the corridors and away from the rear of the ship down to the hatch where she had docked her starfighter.



She would eventually come across it and board the craft, taking a breath as she finally sat down and strapped herself in. The engines would be powered up and then she would blaze out towards space, unless something untoward happened to keep her here, and then seek out hyperspace.

 

[Velok the Younger]

OOC/ Everyone, thanks for participating in the Very First Weekend Treasure Hunt, glad y'all had fun. Final take:

The ship was Rave Merrill's new mobile vault and lab. It was, however, targeted by the elusive Bard of the Hyperlanes, who managed to remotely upload a copy of the Republic AI known as SCINET. SCINET used the ship's internal defenses to kill the crew. Rave fought her way out, using mechu-deru gleaned from Belia Darzu's holocron - but the best she could do was to drive this copy of SCINET into rampancy. Y'all been dealing with a crazy AI that loves the Republic.

If I've forgotten any of you or anything you picked up, my apologies.

[member="Cira"], I believe, got away with her life and no more. Sadness.
[member="Ayden Cater"] got away with the Velok Holocron and the Taurannik Codex.
[member="Chloe Blake"] got away with the writings of Odan-Urr and a datacron on the Kathol Rift, plus a very angry GT-F0 droid and a Sith Poison infection. Props.
[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], to my vast surprise, got the King Nakgru Holocron, the Dray Holocron, the Belia Darzu Holocron, a datacron on Dathomir and the Chu'unthor, and a datacron on the Sorcerers of Tund. None of which her character can use, nor care about.
[member="Romeo Sin"] soon found that his nutty rage reflected that of the ship. It liked him, and systematically used depressurization and beskar blast doors to kick everyone else out until Romeo and the damaged ship could hyperjump away without bringing anyone along. The ship is his.
[member="Alicia Drey"] got Rave's Sith Abattar amulet, the one she got on Dromund Kaas, and probably the only item of actual immediate power. Legit.
[member="Romeo "]and [member="Noah Corek"] were, sadly, forced out by the ship before they could accumulate more than minimum loot, perhaps the cortosis from a GT-F0 droid, and/or some weapons from the dead crew. Romeo also got a good solid scan of the ship's cloaking device.
[member="Valik"] changed everything and gained nothing. Sad.
[member="Ayumi Pallopides"] and [member="Maya Whitelight"] escaped without being poisoned, though it was really freakin close.
[member="Ronan Dyre"] got away with six hundred thousand credits and a few things from AEL.

My hope was that everyone would walk away from this with a scar and a toy, and for the most part that looks to have been how it went down. Thanks for playing, all. And if you're dissatisfied with your take...

...I plan on doing this again.

 

[Romeo]

This was one hell of a trip, three men down already and it was only a few hallways. The gun turrets were taken care of with a few well placed shots and his soldiers had taken some heavy losses. It wasn't until he heard from the five protecting the boarding craft that someone was sense planting warheads. Could they be explosive or something else? He took the chance to venture further as many would already have taken some of the prizes on board. Than gas appeared throughout the ship, which he quickly put on a gas-mask that his crew carried encase they were sent into space for any reason.

Passing by some of the rooms, he had decided that the most important room in the ship was the core. What little did it matter to him as he reached the one location that he wanted to be in within the ship. The reactor room was the source of power to the ship, but it was also where the systems would interface most of the time. If there was one way to control a ship it would be to take control of the power source and than threaten to blow it up if they didn't leave. It was one thing to blow a hole in a ship, the other was blowing up the entire ship from within.

When he reached the Reactor room, he would open the doors without a problem. Getting into the room, than locking the doors behind him with his two soldiers left. Making sure that the automated lock was activated, while he worked. The ship was a very advanced model as he would be working on the systems, searching for the main system panel. It was time to get to slicing this ship up, when he found the panel he would take it off neatly and than grabbed his tools from his suitcase.

A little insertion here, while he tried to focus on cutting the right cord. So that he would be able to hook up his own datapad interface with the ships, looking for what sort of data that it contained. Looking for any sort of problem, maybe even an AI gone rouge. When he was almost there, he would start typing on his datapad trying to hack the system with a load of cyber trash, mostly have some fun tonight Ads being uploaded to the systems mainframe.

He wasn't going to be wasting any time, trying to get in contact with the main systems.

[member="Rave"] Merril

 

[Velok the Younger]

OOC/ Sorry, totally forgot you were writing a post - long day. I'll bump up your reward.

IC/ [member="Romeo"]'s attempt at intrusion would run straight into the crazy AI who was currently involved in using near-indestructible blast doors and vacuum decompressions to force everyone out of the ship. The AI was the Republic's military-grade security model; it ate his slicing attempt in short order. Though he would likely be forced to flee, he would be near several items of value. The cortosis shell from a GT-F0 droid, for example, and possibly a good scan of the vessel's cloaking device, an ancient adegan-based model. He might also encounter some valuable weapons which the dead crew no longer needed, before decompression and powerful blast doors compelled him to depart.

 

[Cira]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

Now that they were on their way, Cira would head on over to look for Ayden. And see exactly what it was he found.

Her appearance-- was likely going to require explainstion. If he bothered to voice the question. They both had their secrets.

"So, what did you find?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]

The Gypsymoth virtually apparated next to the Aurora. With Jorus at the helm, it had been fast when it went one-point-oh. Now it had a Silkworm.

Jorus had gotten here at an effective oh-point-one.

When nothing got through on the comms, he docked and tossed in a code he'd known for years.

"Chloe - feth!" He threw himself across her cargo bay as particle beams scorched the air. Tenloss Ambassador revolver shots slammed into the heavy armor of the GT-F0, knocking it over; with another curse, he pulled his sonic servodriver and put the droid to sleep. "Chloe!"

 

[Chloe Blake]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]


"Over here!!!!" would come the rather panicked metallic reverberating sound of DOT, the CL-Series Astromech Droid that had kept the Warden company for the last several months. His singular wheel would be making treks round and around Chloe's unconscious form on the floor of the cockpit deck.

"Mistress. Wake up!" His two arms would periodically reach out as if to shake her awake, but to no avail. Strands of blonde hair would shield her clammy pale face, and her eyes would periodically twitch behind half closed lids. The combination of Sith Poison along with the Ixetel Cilona had done it's job alright, although there would be no outward sign of the poison at all. Leaving the truth to the complicated nature of Chloe's predicament likely only being diagnosed by a specialized healer.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]

His first instinct was to wake her up, but any spacer knew that contaminants and infections got especially nasty in close confines. He forced himself to take the time to don a sealed suit before he examined her -- he wouldn't be able to help if he got whatever-it-was too. First aid training was all he had, ODF standard stuff, and absent any big injuries it became pretty clear that this was outside his expertise.

Every ship had crash couches, and he strapped her into one in a posture where choking on vomit wasn't an option. As the Gypsymoth's crew disengaged and arced away, Jorus settled into the pilot's seat of the Aurora Hawk and keyed in a course for the OP medical facilities in the Rhommamool system, not too far away. The freighter leaped to hyperspace.

He'd hoped for instinct to guide him to somewhere that a solution was available, but instinct offered no clues. When the jump concluded, a blistering zero-point-three effective, he sent the medcenter/relief node his codes and let the tractors reel him in. He rose to check on her-

And found his eye caught by a compartment. Caught, in a very subtle and yet specific way. As if a solution wasn't out there somewhere in the stars, but right in here. An antidote, maybe.

The crystals blazed with inner flame, and for a long minute he cursed his absolute inability to use the Force in any normal way. Because a few months chatting with the greatest holocrons ever made had given him a pretty decent idea of what these were -- and yet he couldn't use them at all. Hopefully the OP facility had a Force healer.

 

[Chloe Blake]

Chloe had this vague notion that she was floating. Except how could that be possible? She must be hallucinating.

No...it really felt as if she was floating, with that weightless sensation one would feel at zero gravity. Seconds would tick pass before she would register being on one of the crash couches. Blue eyes would dart under half closed lids, dim lights turning into bright hazy rings. She tried to open her eyes fully, but found that she couldn't, and tried again. As the effort exhausted her she found herself increasingly irritated by that fact.

Stars, she was tired... almost like back when she got a bad case of the Bothian Flu. Ached all over, too, especially at her head and torso. And she was nauseated.

Annoyance would rush into a rare aggravated frustration as she tried to remember what had happened. Aggravated frustration would start to bubble into a steady roll of vexation at the entire ordeal.

This was ridiculous, she was better than this! Dry lips would part, and finally her eyes would crack open. Tendrils of blonde hair would stick to clammy skin, and for the life of her she could not shake that rolling boil of ornery at the situation.

She felt him then. [member="Jorus Merrill"], right at the edge of her senses, fluttering like a Koros butterfly and just as fickle to catch. A frown would draw over her damp brow. Jorus? Why was he here? The thought had turned audible without her realizing it, his name spoken in a near intelligible murmur as the Aurora gave a shudder at being docked by the tractor beams of the ODF medical facility.

Outside, emergency aide workers would soon swarm near the access door.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]


The next few hours were a blur, as the Omega Protectorate medical staff did its best to diagnose Chloe. The station had a couple of healers -- one of [member="Feena Mason"]'s students, whose name Jorus didn't catch, as well as someone from some random assorted Force sect who seemed to know what she was doing. What mattered was that he'd put the Healing Crystals in their hands, told them that they belonged to Chloe, and told them the general idea of how to use them. Not that that did much good without a diagnosis.

 

[Chloe Blake]

Needless to say, once the awareness that the girl with the odd symptoms had the Healing Crystals of Fire on hand, things.. became a bit interesting. The last word on what would be considered a precious treasure of the Jedi Order was that they'd been auction off to the highest bidder after being stolen from the Circle of Healer's vaults.

There was, of course, the rather awe inspired ambiance of being able to actually see and feel the Healing Crystals of Fire face to face. Quite another to see it in action.

But this is not to say that the Force using Protectorate healing staff were ready to jump the gun. Diagnostics would be run on Chloe's body scans, bloodwork, and a whole slew of a battery of tests. She'd been isolated in the event she'd been exposed to a virulent virus -- no one wanted another Dark Harvest event -- but were confused when all they found were the lingering tell tale signs of ixcetel cilona exposure.

Protocol and procedure would continue -- had to check off the list and go to the next. But otherwise they couldn't find anything that would warrant the use of the Healing Crystals; as much as they were itching to. All this would be relayed to [member="Jorus Merrill"], adding to it that her unconscious state had been due to exposure to Ssi-Ruuvi paralysis beams.

All the while, tick-tock the clock was running out for Chloe. Sith poison was not a factor that the majority of the galaxy was exposed to, and [member="Valik"] is an alchemist beyond compare and he did beautiful work for something so vile. As more of the ixetel cilona left her body, the more her sobriety would return and in turn, so would her unnatural tendency towards a growth in irritability.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]

There had been a time, not too many years ago, when this sort of thing had been totally outside his experience. But between a couple months of holocron guardianship and a couple years of having one's little sister turn into the galaxy's second-best alchemist, Jorus had picked up an instinct or two. His gut, he was certain, had led him to the crystals, and when the diagnostic team reported no problem requiring their use, that caught his attention. And then there was the irritability, as if something was assailing her mind.

Zerek whispered a touch of memory, and it all fell together.

He ran, straight-up ran, to the Gypsymoth's comm panel, and keyed in the code for the Lethewalker. The signal pinged back from Alteraan, of all places. Then again, Mohc Extractives ran phrik mines there, and Rave had been a close friend of the last queen. Alderaan - not horrible. Could have been Gromas or even Aza'zoth or Laekia. Short hop Coreward on the Corellian Run, straight shot to Alderaan on the Hydian Way.

The conversation was...interesting. But twenty minutes later, all he could do was attempt to use what vanishingly little clout he possessed to have them release Chloe to his care for emergency transit to 'a specialist on Alderaan' - a specialist he couldn't really talk about. A problem compounded by the medical team's inability to find the problem.

 

[Chloe Blake]

"I'm fine, Jorus." would come the growing impatient assurance from Chloe. Granted, she would still be feeling the waning effects of the hallucinogenic drug. Needless to say, there were a few colourful moments in her slightly feverish condition. As high of a kick as the narcotic would give, so would the crash of withdrawal painfully linger like the worst hangover in the wake of a hedonistic Zeltron pleasure cruise.

Her head was pounding, and she was just as irritable to match each dull ache that would pierce her skull. Filters would seem to be off, and throughout the trip, she had become defiant in nature. There were things she had to do. People to see. Je'gan and the rest of the Order. She had a job to do.

Why couldn't he understand that? Why couldn't he listen?!

Fingers would lightly twitch before they would run through the slightly sweat damp locks of blonde hair, shoving the long bangs away from her face. Aggravation at him would line her face as she would struggle through an increasing rollercoaster of emotions. About Jorus. About Je'gan. About what happened on that ship. The here and the now.

"There's a Selab ship out there." she'd say, clearly trying to control her temper. "And something happened with Je'gan -- The medics said I'm fine." she'd emphasize again. They were already en-route to Alderaan, and with [member="Jorus Merrill"] on the helm, it was no surprise he could shave her new .5 hyperdrive into something jealously faster than that.

Her lips would thin, then came the confusion. Wait that didn't make sense. Why would she be angry about that? A groan and another rub of her face would follow. Normally she'd fall into prayer, and in that she attempted to find a measure of peace.

She was fine, right?

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]

Though he was keenly, even painfully aware of her condition and attitude, his focus remained on enhancing her vessel's already excellent hyperdrive. They were cruising at point-two effective, his hands glued to the controls, eyes shut.

"I just want to be sure," he said. "Just need to be sure. There's a specialist who'll know. If I'm wrong, we get straight back to the things you need to do. If I'm right..."

They hopped onto the Hydian without reversion. He was not fooling around.

 

[Chloe Blake]

Chloe would tense, shifting uncomfortably in her chair beside [member="Jorus Merrill"] in the co-pilot seat. Why did he have to do this? she'd muse as she went glancing away in at attempt at polite restraint. His concern would only make her mind wander as surely as the sith poison would continue to pulse through her veins, adhering to cells as the silent count down continued.

Fears would start to plague her. Doubts. Why did he come? A sense of obligation? Just because he is also a Warden? More questions would run through her head, growing wild, frantic, and leaving her more and more confused by the second. The mottled tunnel of hyperspace would go streaking lines across her viewport as the Aurora flew at a speed no one else in the galaxy could match; likely ever would.

'I can take care of myself.' the thought would percolate in her mind before the realization would come that she had spoken it aloud. Having him here, back on her ship, with her in the state she was in was stirring her more than normal. Reminding her and fanning the emotions and feelings that still would linger with only loub-paper letters to bare witness to it. Things she never could say, that didn't get to be expressed due to @Spencer Jacob 's intervention long ago.

"Forget it." A sigh would fall from her lips, and she would bring her knee up to her chest. Just focus on something else. Anything else. "... right about what?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Chloe Blake"]

"There's a thing -- feth, how do I put it." The Hydian Way blurred by, perceptible only to Jorus. "I can't even remember what it's called, there's a name for it, something juvenile or plain or, I don't know. 'Dark Side Drug' or something like that. Point is, it's real hard to detect, and it's for getting people irritated, then angry, then, uh, more. I could be way off base, but there's one person I know who could tell us for sure. Rave wanted to see you again anyway, so there's that."