Star Wars Intervention: Echoes in Eternity (An Original Trilogy Game; Always taking new players!!!)

IC: Lieutenant Hawkins
Location: Outpost Nowhere, Rhen Var


"Well, at least, that's as far as I can figure."

They were moving by now again, walking through a ghost city, down a lonely redish dirt covered road. Buildings were on either side and the wind made loose doors or other items swing open and shut, adding a creepy noise to the already creepy mission. The Lieutenant was still pushing his jaw back into place a few moments after Priest had finished, "Not bad, Doc. Now the question becomes, what happened here?"

"Point Element to Command," came a soldier's rough voice over the helmet comm.

"Command, go Point," Hawkins replied back immediately.

"Lieutenant, we have a hospital one half a klick North-West of our current position. Initial assessment from recon indicates doors are boarded up and chained. Barricades and law enforcement or military vehicles in circle around hospital. How copy?"

Hawkins side-glanced at Priest, knowing he could hear the whole conversation, "Solid copy Point. Recon ahead and report. We'll double time it to your location."

"Solid copy, Command. Point proceeding to hospital for recon. Point clear."

Hawkins looked at Priest as the Lieutenant gave a silent hand signal for the double quick, as everyone had already heard the comm traffic and no need to repeat verbally what was about to happen. As walking turned into jogging, the gear increasing in noise and heart rates going up, Hawkins said, to Priest, "What if I told you that both happened here, Doctor? That whatever happened was both unexpected and planned?"

Hawkins waited eagerly for the Surgeon's response. A boarded up hospital didn't speak to 'unexpected'. But neither did randomly abandoned hover cars on the side of roads speak to expected either...


TAG Wildwookiee

 

IC: Captain Jason Lasso
Cockpit, Speedy Trial


Lasso was still a bit disappointed in the lack of an auto-pilot system which could also run defense, which would of made this all much more simple. But Lasso already had a Plan B in place before the flight. He knew what Dak had put in that crate and that was they needed. Whether Taab or Havah had other means, Lasso knew what he would have to use. In the grand schemes of things, he really wished Atin would be there---it would be nice to have an extra pair of guns in that ship. But this was what they had.

"Evasive maneuvers, Captain?"

Lasso shook his head as he unbuckled, "Put on your bucket kid. Just in case. Once we're free, head to escort and intercept duty with Edge. Keep your ears open, in case we need a quick pick-up," Jason then looked to everyone else, "To the escape pod."

Lasso wouldn't risk opening the Trial to vacuum, even if Atin had a bucket on. Too much could happen with floating debris out there and one piece flying in at gravity-less speeds was like making a penny-sized piece of debris into a finely turned killing device to the Trial if it somehow got inside the ship and out the other side. An escape pod provided a excellent medium, however. Once locked inside the escape pod from the entrance part on the ship side, people inside could override the safety devices and pop the emergency hatch on the other side and opening the pod to vacuum. As long as the emergency hatch could be resealed on, the pod was reusable. Lasso had heard it done countless times before by smugglers avoiding customs or spacers who needed off the ship, but using the regular exit/entrance hatches were impossible for some reason.

With Lasso's plan, a ex-commando in Havah, and a mercenaries' mercenary in Taab, Dak's equipment crate was easily handed out among the team in moments. Each had their own self-contained metal backpack that contained a first-aid kit, personal survival tools including several hundred feet of safety rope and 3 MREs (guess Dak was expected them to be stranded for some a while), two extra oxygen tanks along the sides of the backpack for an extra 30 minutes of air each, a mini hull cutting set-up to rescue a trapped person, basic starship repair tools for a basic non-complicated engineer's job, a "box light" for search and rescue, and a comlink booster and spare personal hand-held comlink. The trusty droid had also dug up three Manned Maneuvering Units he had acquired through some black market deal several months back; they were ancient equipment, but would do the job they needed to get done.

If the fit was tight before in the escape pod, it was even tighter now. With the backpack tied to his waist and hanging down around his ankles, Lasso walked like a awkward duck to the escape pod with the MMU attached to his back. Once inside the pod, Lasso was glad this would only last a moment. He was pretty sure if anyone moved an elbow, the pod would explode outwards to make more room!

His suit sealed and contained, the mercenary Captain said over his comm, "Extra-vehicular Team to Atin, we're going!" the Captain nodded to Havah, who nodded back, and overrode the emergency.

What was flashing red emergency lights inside the pod of warning and an emergency alarm suddenly was sucked---literally---out of Lasso's hearing range as he was sucked into the vacuum of space. Soon, only the soundless silence of outer space could be heard and his own breathing inside his suit.

For Jason, this was one of his few times in outer space not involving a starfighter. So, he looked around in awe at outer space not confined to a pilot's cockpit.

"Wow..." Lasso said as he looked all around, seeing the stars and nebulae, "Utterly peaceful."

Suddenly Jason's world was twisted around as someone YANKED on his backpack hanging below his ankles, pulling the mercenary captain back to the here and now! The peaceful view was harshly replaced by the twisted wreckage of the Bacta hauler and Taab holding two thumps up----there was no point in wasting air if someone understood basic hand signals. Lasso gave two thumbs up back and activated the MMU, following a far more experienced Havah Jeth and Taab as they navigated the debris field.

The hole near the starboard bridge was coming into view now and Taab and Havah waited patiently by the hole as Lasso caught up. Havah was the one who had taught Jason the hand signals he and Winterkill were so proficient at, so Lasso used them quickly to illustrate that he would lead the way, followed by Havah, then Taab to secure the rear and to fan out and take points of tactical concern first in the bridge (so basically everyone had a full view of their immediate surroundings). The MMU would be too big to fit in, so Jason did a quick job of securing it to the outside of the hole's ripped edges and then, bringing his blaster rifle around, turned on his helmet light and rifle mounted light.

Leading the way, Lasso went in, careful to avoid the sharp edges despite his armored suit. He was less then a meter in to the bridge, it's ghostly looking equipment and other loose articles floating freely in the gravity-less dark area only to be given light by Lasso's own lighting equipment, when a hand suddenly came across his view and ran along his helmet!

"Holy Sith!" Lasso barked, bringing his rifle up to blast whoever dare intrude across his path! Only, a battle scared body----the human form's flight suit ripped and body strewn with cuts and bruises and it's face marred and imploded by a fiery explosion that left a crater in the face where the eyes and nose should of been---floated by, drops of blood following in it's wake as it escape the body's cavity.

Someone bumped into Lasso from behind and the mercenary almost brought his rifle around a second time when Havah's armored hand came into view, clamping down on Jason's shoulder to calm the jumpy Captain.

Okay, so discovering ghost wrecks on a lack of sleep wasn't the best idea ever.

Havah gave a single thump up and Jason nodded back, giving a thump's up back. Jason looked back to see Taab come in from behind. Now, all three of them inside, their respected lights giving a eerie glimpse into a dead world. The starboard side of the bridge, where they were, had the looks of a ghost wreck hundreds of years in the making. Everything looked old and neglcted and exposed to whatever elements the vacuum of space provided. The far port side of the bridge looked as modern as ever with battle damage and the debris---and several other floating bodies soon discovered----that trekked back and forth between an invisible barrier between both sides of the bridge transformed accordingly between modern and old.

The biggest question was, why weren't the Mercs themselves then transforming to a older looking state if they were on the starboard side of the bridge?

"Extra-vehicular Team to Trial," Lasso finally said over the comm, "We're in. Recorders on. Proceeding on mission for rescue and investigation of wreck."

As Jason's own lights came back to the sealed blast doors, Lasso said over the comm to the Team, "Bridge is Base. Havah, you have the bridge and all living quarters area; once power is restored, try to find out what the heck happened here via ship logs and sensor and comm data. You find anyone alive which---probably is doubtful from the look of things---comm in Atin for a pick-up. Their dead, Havah, so if you find anything useful in the crew cabins...its fair game. Taab, you take engineering and the power core. Try to get some power back to this place. Some gravity and life support too if possible, even if limited. I'll take the spheres, to see if we can collect anything useful. Any questions?"



TAG Mitth_Fisto, Bardan_Jusik, @Heavy Isotope

 

IC: Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Zapp, Rachael, Tayc, Deputy, Johnny Boy Engineering


Williams stopped to listen to the latest announcement across the ship's P.A. Good, they could get weapons.

"Rachael!" He called, then saw her head pop into view on one of the metal catwalks above him. "Get down here; bring your friend. Zapp, how we coming?"

He saw the Givin's spiral horns before the rest of him, then the hyperspace tech gave his report. "This one is nearly done, Chief. We should be able to give Engine One a test burn in a few minutes."

"Good man. Keep on it." Tim nodded and turned as his daughter and the Twi'lek femme arrived beside him. "Crew has permission to arm, and it is about time. Pick two volunteers of the repair team, and head to the Armoury. Pick E-11s, and bring enough back that we can defend this area."

Rachael nodded, her ponytail fluttering on the shoulder of her lubricant-stained Blob Race t-shirt. "Right, Dad."

Everyone looked up as the ceiling glowbeams flickered, then went off for a few seconds, plunging the section into darkness, then came back on, and remained steady.

Power fluctuations The Chief thought to himself, "Get going. Oh, and take Deputy."

Duh-weet? The diminutive droid queried from several metres away, holding one of the acid-soaked power couplings in it's little metal arm.

"Put that down and go with them." The bearded Chief ordered, waving at his daughter. "I want you doing the three-sixty scan so you can warn them of any trouble as they go. Capiche?"

Bweet. Deputy acknowledged, opening his pincer claw and dropping the coupling onto the deck with a clang.

"Hey, careful with that!" A technician on the repair crew called over, only to be ignored by the droid, who trundled after the group leading the chamber.

Tag: no-one

 

OOG: I have kept the "Old Man Blue" NPC character vague for several reasons on purpose over the years. Below, you see partly why, given the game's storyline.



IC: "Old Man Blue," Hank, Pit Droid
Crew Cabins, Second Level, Johnny Boy


"And your sure no one saw you?" Hank asked, repeating Blue's earlier question moments prior.

The Pit Droid nodded.

"Wonderful," Hank said sarcastically, adjusting his cane as he sat on the bed, "The greatest secret the galaxy has ever known is entrusted to a Pit Droid."

Blue shrugged, "You just need to trust in the Force."

"You keep saying that, it's irritating," Hank said, hitting the droid on the nose who then collapsed.

"Your a Jedi," Blue said, arms crossed over his chest, as he stood against the wall with that ever-present smile, "Isn't that second nature?"

"Funny, coming from the guy who calls him a Jedi Prophet."

"I never claimed to be a Prophet," Blue said, "That is a title you and others have applied to me."

Hank rolled his eyes, "What else do you want us to call you? You say you roamed the galaxy the last decade or so, have never been a Jedi, refuse to wield a weapon, are against the Sith, yet you listen to the Force and go where it tells you to go. You just happen to come along during the Red Ocean crisis and have stuck around ever since."

Blue smiled, "Well, the Force saw it fit to take away my ship---and droid co-pilot---in service to you Mercs to be here."

"I never claimed to be a Merc," Hank corrected, "I'm just the 'ole Order 66 Jedi Knight who has a crumpled leg after the Imperial Convoy mission, knew Taller from the Clone Wars, and really hasn't had a chance to leave the Johnny Boy since."

"We've seen port many a times," Blue pointed out.

"Imperial ports, genius. The whole former Jedi Knight thing and Order 66...probably not the smartest thing to travel off ship and around an Imperial port if you were once a Jedi."

"If that's how you view trusting the Force, sure," Blue said.

"You make me tired," Hank said in frustration, "Anyways, how long did you say you were carrying those 4 metal orbs around for?"

"Fifteen years," Blue replied.

"You waited fifteen years with, what appears to be useless metal orbs, and then one day the Force tells you what they are? And you---we---decide to put them into the four backpacks of the away team? Hidden nonetheless in the medical kits!"

Blue thought a moment and nodded with a smile, "Well, I did some investigating over that time, finding lost civilizations, and trying to find what they did. But, the Force lead me to those places and the Force lead me to use those natural skills to help solve what these orbs were used for. But for the sake of time...yes, you are correct. The Force lead me to the decision on what to use them for after fifteen years."

Hank shook his head, "This is why people drink."

"Lets just hope they don't remove their backpacks," Blue said.

"Why?" Hank asked in a sudden worried tone.

"I don't know what will happen to living tissue if it interacts with a time altering field for a longer duration time then mine of several minutes without the orbs' protection. And then you have to factor in the emotional state of the person affected---are they mad, sad, or happy----and then add in how the time altering field will affect that person. A calmer person will be able to resist it longer...a angry person, depending if they age into the future, could age into the very tyrant history will know of them later and that could affect the whole mission. "

"And you were going to tell me this when?" Hank asked, irritated.

Blue thought about it for a moment and had that ever-annoying smile grow bigger, "Now."


TBC

 

IC: Havah Jeth
Bridge, Wrecked Ship

The journey over had been tenuous to say the least. He had kept his own council. Better not to waste air. Something he felt he would be doing from the moment the Captain laid out the plan. Actually he still didn't see a need to talk. Nothing was needed said and now the prospect of limited air was a literal ticking clock not far away from his left eye that softly glowed on the inside of his tactical HUD.

By not breathing the counter was falling slower. A good thing considering the Captain seemed to be the most likely prospect to need an air transfer to keep going. A risky business even with replacement canisters. He just hoped he wouldn't have to do a patch job on him. Although that last jump from a corpse was not a good sign. Something that reinforced his gut feeling that the kids judgment was off, something that built from the layout of the mission, to butting shoulders with a Mando, to being made mid on a breaching op, and now with that spook jump that would of earned any lesser member beneath him a stiff routine in the gym once they got back with random flashes of what made them jump in different states of decay. Every jump would of lengthened or extended the times of the grueling work out to purge the fear response. Of course Pic would of supervised after the first session, that or else the Mando. Still, he was the pilots lead now, not the security lead. So that ball would be in the Mando's court when it saw the vids of this mission.

The Captain, Lasso. Just Lasso, why the twerp ever had lead was beyond him, as an amnesiac the kid was no less sloppy, just had less of a chip on his shoulder.

Well, Lasso laid out the mission and gave Havah free salvage rights to whatever he found. So with a salute to spin slightly he planned out his breaching options. Tap and check. If a tap back was heard then there might be life and opening the door could decompress the cabins so he would have to move slowly. Hooking a foot through a restraining belt on a bridge chair to hold himself steady he scissored his other foot on the arm rest to firmly anchor himself in place. Removing his backpack he opened it for the rope, hull cutter, data probe and spike, and a small hand held scanner. Once prepped he would be ready for what was coming. Although the need for a drink was causing his left hand to shake a little when he wasn't holding onto the pack. A situation which he let pass by slapping his rope coil onto a dangling float hook and holding it taunt until it passed.

TAG: Intervention, Bravo, Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Priest
Location: Outpost Nowhere, Rhen Var

Hawkins looked at Priest as the Lieutenant gave a silent hand signal for the double quick, as everyone had already heard the comm traffic and no need to repeat verbally what was about to happen. As walking turned into jogging, the gear increasing in noise and heart rates going up, Hawkins said, to Priest, "What if I told you that both happened here, Doctor? That whatever happened was both unexpected and planned?"

Priest shrugged, it was an educated guess based on the information at hand. "Lieutenant, I am sure that we're going to be surprised many times over before this is over. I hate to say it, but do you know what this reminds me of? Those holodramas where the dead come back to life to terrorize the survivors in a post apocalyptic story. Think, why hospital? Why military? Why is it that some of this looks like normal life, and the rest looks like a last stand. In those stories there are many different narrative hooks, but there is always seemingly a pathogen or some sort of microbe. I hate to take queues from fiction, but I can't shake that feeling. I wish that I had field lab, I would do some tests on the soil; all I have is my medic pack, and it is kitted for battle trauma, not forensics.

TAG Bravo

 

IC: Masha Tinovorsh
Combat Escort for Speedy Trial, Blade Dancer

"Edge," Jason was saying over the comm channel, "Break off and watch our perimeter. Nothing in, nothing out. Keep us appraised of any developments. Trial out."

"Roger that, moving out," she said, turning her craft starboard and observing the wreckage, that strange phenomena... With the wreckage and spaced corpse shifting between decayed and... Less decayed. How is that even possible in space... She wondered. Everything was ravaged. Masha shifted uncomfortably at the controls and in her seat. Minding not to fly towards the site of the time warp, or whatever it was.

"Edge!" Lasso barked over the comlink, "You have a Cruise Missile flying our way from Galactic East! Intercept immediately! It could be shielded, so it may take some shots to knock it out!"

"Moving to intercept, prepare for evasive action and prep whatever countermeasures you might have," she said in a hurried but even tone, despite her outward appearance her stomach twinged as she brought her fighter around in a J-hook. The Blade Dancer's x-foils were still closed, allowing her to accelerate to full power, there was a slight gravitational shift as her craft's small artificial gravity generator compensated for the movement. Feeling the inertia in her limbs the craft sped past the Speedy Trial.

And there it was... The fuselage of the cruise missile appeared faintly in front of the blackness of space, it's thrusters burning brightly as she got closer it appeared on her sensor's display screen, five-hundred meters from her. She banked port-side and prepared to bring the Blade Dancer around, four-hundred meters.

Three-hundred meters. Banking her craft in the opposite direction Masha brought it around, two-hundred meters, when she reached the apex of the turn. The distance remained relatively the same as she came around behind it, opening her wings would slow her down too much, this thing was fast. "Speedy Trial, deploy ECM if possible, it'll slow it down."

She could still use her cluster missiles, that was an advantage. The IFF in front of her switched to targeting mode as she activated the firing controls of her missiles, keep the target in the circle... Steady.... Wait for lock.... Her systems began to beep rapidly as her targeting computer locked on. At this speed she'd have to be careful when she fired. "Fox one," she said pressing the button on her control stick she let the first missile fly, it closed in on the cruise missile, Edge slowed the Blade Dancer to give distance from her and the impending explosion.

At thirty meters missile broke apart into multiple smaller ones, closing in on their target, at a closer distance the lead missiles impacted the target; the rest exploding within close proximity. Nosing down to avoid the explosion, she waited to see if her target was eliminated. Her sensors being unclear due to the cluster missiles and explosion.

"Target has been hit, can you confirm destruction of the missile?" Masha's voice was slightly exasperated as her heart pounded in her chest, leveling the Blade Dancer out as she got closer to the explosion.

TAGS: Bravo, Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Deputy the Astromech, Rachael Williams, Tayc, Yav, Bridge crew, Johnny Boy corvette


The jet black Artoo unit took its responsibilities seriously, and instructed the four beings to follow it closely, step where it stepped, stop when it stopped, and to imagine that it had sign on its back that said 'Follow Me', and if it zipped down the corridor-

"Yes!" The younger Williams snapped, "We get it! You run like a little bith, we follow you."

She led the others in Deputy's wake to the bank of turbolifts that would take them up to-

"Hold on," she asked to the group, as the turbolift doors opened, and the lights inside the car, and outside in their hallway, flickered, "what deck is the Security Office on?"

"Deck Three, bottom level." Tayc offered.

"Isn't that where we are now?"

The penny being dropped got derailed by the noise and flashing lights from the apparently hysterical astrodroid, as it bounced side to side on its main legs.

"Oh really?" Rachael leaned against the nearest wall, and crossed her arms as she glared critically at the little droid. "Several creatures approaching from the sand dunes to the east?"

The droid stopped bouncing around, its dome stopped spinning to regard her with its main red photoreceptor. [Well, pardon me if I go with a default warning while I figure out what the **** I am looking at here!] Deputy whistled and blatted back at her, internally running an analysis on its sensor sweep findings. Astromechs could scan a fair way, certainly beyond the confines of a 195 by 131 metre vessel.

"And pardon me for calling you on the lack of sand dunes on board ship."

It moved to the wall, and extended a sensor probe into a computer interface, the thin cylinder turning slowly clockwise.

"Take your time. Not like we have an emergency."

Tayc looked from Deputy to Rachael, and back again, really only following one half of the exchange. "Armoury is nearby. You two do your thing while we go get armed."

She and the two repair crewmembers moved around the droid to continue.

"WAIT!" Rachael snapped, pulling rank on the three. "Give him a minute."

Deputy started whistling: [Multiple breaches of the sealed life-support barrier between the armor plating protecting the ship and the liveable areas of the ship.]

"That would have lit the bridge up like a durindfire." Williams pointed out.

[For whatever reason, the sensor trip was disarmed almost immediately, causing the computer system to discard the sensor-trip as a malfunction and did not send an alert to the bridge.]

"Okay, frag subtlety. Tayc, go get some weapons." Rachael pushed herself off the wall as the others jogged up the corridor, and unfolded her arms to bring her wrist-com up where she could talk into it. "Williams to Security."

* * * *
Bridge - Command Deck

Yavscout's personal holographic projector had switched out from showing the sensor logs, to the result of the data packets being transmitted from Edge.

Wreckage changing characteristics, a skeletal form changing to a freshly deceased cadaver.

His first thought was, 'time dilation field', though he didn't know what there was in deep space that would skeletonise a corpse like it was in an atmosphere.
Still, that was small fry compared to the over-riding impression that there was something temporal going on here.

"Mr Monk, are there any black holes or singularities near here?" Those could cause such effects. If the answer is yes, Draukyse is fragged.

"Commander? April here at Sensors."

Yav smiled despite the young woman not being able to see it from her position downstairs on the main part of the bridge.

"What is it, April?"

"Sir, Specter is requesting we identify which part of the hull got breached."

"Patch him through to Astrometrics. Give them a heads-up as to what is being asked."

"Copy that, Sir. Oh, hold on. I'm just getting white noise."

Yav concentrated on his helmet comlink. "Yep, me too. Has comms gone down again, Ronnie?"

DelPike interrupted. "Comms was never up, Sir. I organised a work-around with the personal comlinks and the astromechs on the hull. Possible that the Speedy Trial is out of astromech range."

Tag: Any, Bravo {Mr Monk), Bardan_Jusik (Security) - imagine that Rachael has relayed Deputy's findings.

 

IC: Doctor Timothy "Old Man Blue" Waters
Jedi High Council, High Council Chamber, High Council Tower, Jedi Temple, Coruscant; 26 BBY





"You must see, don't you!?" Timothy pleaded, the Jedi High Council around him---once again---looking on him as of he was a dummy!

"It's not a matter of what we see or don't see, Doctor Waters," Mace Windu said carefully, but with authority, to the academic business dressed man with brown hair to his shoulders and a carefully taken care of German Goatee; Doctor Water's eyes showed a fierce competition. In his right hand, Timothy held a Imagecaster which displayed a lost world, "It's the practical matter of the situation."

"The practical matter of the situation?" Timothy repeated with just as much content as he had intended, "I am telling you---"

"You are telling us nothing, Doctor Waters," Ki-Adi-Mundi said with force, "We are telling you that the Jedi High Council refuses to back the expedition costs you are requesting. Even if we backed you, the amount of money you are requesting for a wild goose chase on historical theories...even the most naive Senators would not approve such a government funding. And since you are here, again, it can be assumed that your private investors have left you as well."

"You are a man of great education Doctor Waters," Plo Koon said, "And you have my up most respect and greatest wishes for your success. However, there is a change coming and a man of your Force ability must know that."

"There's a darkness," Doctor Waters acknowledged, "That is covering everything. Most indeed the Sith. But where and who?"

Plo Koon nodded, "Yes. So you have felt it. Since Naboo, as you already know as well. Then you must understand that the Jedi High Council---or the Jedi Order in general---cannot be seen conducting business on anything less then reliable at this point in time. We must build and maintain our public imagine...for whatever darkness lays ahead, we must show the people that the Jedi only deal in matters of the up most importance."

Timothy turned to Yoda, his old friend, "Master Yoda?"

Master Yoda closed his eyes and searched the feelings of the Council and when he opened his eyes, his face looked resigned, "Spoken, the Council has. Mind, theirs is, cannot change."

"A course," Timothy said, shutting down the Imagecaster and putting it into his coat pocket before he picked up his briefcase next to him and put on his Akubra hat, "The Council is always right."


*************************

Jedi Temple Main Entrance







"Doctor Waters!" Yoda called out, following the retreating academic man out.

Timothy stopped, turned, and looked up at the small green alien coming down the steps with his cane, "Master Yoda," Waters said with a incline of his head.

Yoda sighed as he rested on his cane a few steps above Waters as to be as even as possible, "Man of great knowledge, Doctor, are you. Two Associates Degrees in Protohistory and Military History, have you. Three Bachelor Degrees in History, Biology with a focus on Genetics, and Religious History, have you even more. A Masters in Archaeology and a Doctorate in Archaeology to impress as well. You have spent your life a student of history and a great one at that. Teach at the University of Coruscant full-time, you do. And taught, have you, at both Corellia University and regular guest professor on matters of importance at the University of Pangalactic Cultural Studies. Age withstanding at 36 years of age, most educated and gifted person know I! But your indefinite withdraw from the University of Coruscant and a unknown hold on all other teaching pursuits----to go pursue a personal career in digging up mythical and legendary lost cities and planets to prove your theories of ultimate Good and Evil in the galaxy is unacceptable!" The Jedi Master slammed his cane down on the steps in frustration.

"Teaching students history, Master Yoda," Doctor Waters said, "Is my love. My passion, however, is discovering history's mysteries. And my education is wasted teaching people who don't share that passion. The Force has put a calling on my lie. I must pursue it...before it's too late, for us all."

Yoda sighed, "You were young Timmy when I first met you. Still wonder----dream---I do, what would of happened if you became a Jedi."

"The Council does well to hide my Force sensitivity from others," Timothy observed.

"Something we do not do lightly and not all in agreement in the Council, they are not," Yoda replied, adding as he handed Timothy a data crystal, "Everything you need, in there. I believe in you, even if the Council does not. This conversation we had not and may the Force be with you, Timmy."


TBC

 

IC: Zhoul Al'kesh (NPC), Security officers Al and Izzy (NPCs)
2nd level, Johnny Boy troop quarters, Johnny Boy Armory.

Deputy Al'kesh nearly dropped the comm unit when he heard the report. He relayed the message up to the bridge now hoping that they would believe that their own alert system had been compromised. His frustration was mounting. Here he was with the QRF, a half dozen B2 Super Battle droids ready to go, and he still had no target despite clear evidence that the ship had been boarded.

"Bridge, we need to localize and contain this."

---

Armory.

Al and Izzy were busy now as various departments sent runners down to them to retrieve weapons for themselves and their comrades. They were following protocols, doing their best to make sure that each weapon was signed out and its whereabouts accounted for. In the chaos they had forgotten all about the access they had given Crewperson Formal to the Security Chief's office.

TAG: Sith-I-5

---

IC: Atin Taab
Speedy Trial


Atin grabbed his bucket and slipped it over his head at the Captain's order. Things were about to get serious. With one ear he listened in on the orders to Edge to intercept and destroy the incoming ordinance and with the other he tried to keep up with what was going on aboard his own ship. The Skipper, Jeth and his buir were all headed over to the wreck, and they weren't going to wait for Atin to find an ingress/egress hatch for them. Well, that did make his life easier.

He watched his HUD, seeing Edge's progress towards the missile and waited for the red flashing that would tell him that the EVA team had departed. Once they were free Atin himself would be free to maneuver the Speedy Trial.

"Extra-vehicular Team to Atin, we're going!" Atin waited for the team to fully depart and then pulled the Trial away, he was running a parallel course to the incoming missile. "Speedy Trial, deploy ECM if possible, it'll slow it down."

"Not yet," Atin told himself. The debris field itself would also serve to slow down the missile, acting as an impromptu chaff cloud. He waited for a few more moments and then pulled into the missile now, turning the A-24 Sleuth Scout into its path and released a basic chaff bundle. Hopefully the introduction of the countermeasure would confuse the weapon's seeker head. The Trial's turn into the missile would also make it more difficult for it to turn with him. It was a standard defensive tactic and one that Atin was well practiced at. It also didn't matter a bit in the end as Edge destroyed the missile before it came close enough to do any damage.

"Target has been hit, can you confirm destruction of the missile?"

"Roger that Edge, target negated." Atin replied, subconsciously sounding more like his father every day.

TAG: Heavy Isotope

---

​

IC: Beskaryc Taab
Aboard the wreck

The short trip from the Speedy Trial over to the wreck had gone cleanly enough. There had been a moment where Taab had felt the Skipper had lost focus, but the Major had quickly brought him back to the moment. Taab hoped it wasn't something that would reoccur, the vacuum of space was one of the most inhospitable environments for a human, losing one's focus could quickly result in the loss of one's life. And if the Skipper died, then Taab's contract died with him.

Truth be told Taab disliked zero G environments, they made him sick to his stomach, but over the years he had gotten more used to them. He gave no outward sign of his discomfort, but as this was the second such event for him in a short span of time with the Mercs he was inclined to ask for a pay raise. He laughed the idea away, better not to give the Mercs any hint of that minor weakness. Instead he would just deal with it as he always had.

Upon boarding through the ripped open hull, Taab moved quickly away from their point of entry and scanned about the bridge with his bucket's thermal sensors active, his Westar-34 raised. No heat signatures (save for the Captain and the Major) were sighted. In fact the interior of the ship was so cold as to seem nearly invisible with his thermal vision (he switched that off and went with a "normal view"). The wreck must have been here for some time. Of course that assumption meant little with the temporal anomolies the EVA Team had witnessed thus far. Still, the bridge seemed secure, and quite dead, at the moment. Taab holstered his pistol and looked around.

The displays were all shut down, but a cursory glance at the consoles told him that the vessel was fairly nondescript for this area of space. It had a pair of quads for self defense, though without power Taab couldn't see if the crew had gotten any shots off before...this, had happened to them. He turned his attention to the bodies and the odd effect aboard that had only been hinted at in the debris field. It was nothing Taab had ever seen before, and to be honest it was well outside his area of expertise. Whatever was happening here was for someone a lot smarter than him to figure out. Until then he would protect the Skipper and gather what evidence he could.

"Taab, you take engineering and the power core. Try to get some power back to this place. Some gravity and life support too if possible, even if limited. I'll take the spheres, to see if we can collect anything useful. Any questions?"

Taab simply nodded in reply. Switching off him comm circuit for a moment he burped slightly, that always seemed to alleviate his queasy stomach for a a few moments, and headed off into the interior of the wreck.

Making his way through the darkened corridors, Taab noted how clean they were. No debris, no bodies, no anything, at least at first. Coming around a corner his light caught a flash of red on the wall at roughly shoulder height. He paused for a moment, inspecting the red splatter suspecting what it was. Dabbing bis free hand in it he rubbed his fingers together for a moment and proving his suspicions right. Blood. Now that was disconcerting.

Taab glanced around the surrounding area noting droplets of blood on the deck as well now. There was no damage to the corridor though, no debris that might have caused this. Taab was no forensic technician but he had been in enough combat zones to be able to differentiate the aftermath of a melee vs. a space battle. This splatter had been caused by a battle aboard the wreck, not by the naval battle it had apparently waged. That information needed to be shared, immediately. He commed out to the EVA Team.

"Be advised, there was a fight aboard ship as well. Sometime before it depressurized. It may have been boarded."

Nothing more was left to be said about it so Taab continued on, but as he got closer and closer to engineering more evidence of something strange occurring here began to mount. There were no bodies, though he did find several "parts" floating about. The largest of which, the severed leg of Devaronian, still oozed silverish blood. The bloodstain on the walls also became more and more prevalent as well. Something very bad had happened aboard this ship.

He came to a hatchway marked "Engineering" in both basic and huttese. It was closed, but not sealed. Pushing it open slowly he was met only by darkness though the hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end. Taab switched to a thermal view and drew his pistol once again. If anything was alive in here he would see it. But he was met only by darkness and cold. He holstered the pistol once again and switched back to the "normal" view. He did another 360 degree scan with the light before reminding himself that he was here to restore power to the ship.

Burping again slightly he made his way to the main engineering console. The reactor had either been switched off or gone into a forced shutdown as a result of the space battle. Taab was no engineer but he could bring it back online in fairly short order. But he didn't know its condition, and with power out the consoles were dead. The Mandalorian didn't want to risk a cold start of a damaged reactor so he went for the easier, and quicker, option. He sought out the ship's backup batteries.

Moving away from the main console, Taab looked around for anything that could be the backup power units. Checking his own oxygen reserves he saw he had plenty of time, but better to get this over with quickly. Hopefully the batteries would have enough power for basic life support functions. He checked two other consoles, one smeared in blood and gore, the other perfectly clean, before finding what he was looking for. Checking it over he saw the ship had two batteries backups, labeled A and B. Looking at the switches and dials he saw that battery A had been drained. Someone had already switched over from the reactor to that backup system, but whether that had been the engineering crew for the transport or someone else Taab didn't know. All that mattered was that battery A was as dead as the rest of the ship. Battery B though held a full charge. He flicked a few switches and brought synced the ship's internal systems with battery B.

Taab burped one final time as the slightest hint of artificial gravity began to take over. Lights slowly flickered to life and air began to circulate through the engineering station. Taab thought he heard scratching and scurrying sounds for a moment and once again went to draw his pistol, but he stopped short. He saw no targets, nothing to bring his weapon to bear on. Maybe it was rats that had somehow survived thus far, or maybe it was just the life support system coming back online. In any case the noises soon became the least of his worries.

The lights had stopped flickering now and the engineering consoles were also starting to come online. Taab commed out again. "I have us on battery power. Not sure how long it will last. I suggest we get in and...standby." He ended his message as he heard the scurrying sounds again, louder this time. That was something alive. He followed the sound, coming to a closed access hatch over a shaft near the rear of the engineering compartment. He drew his pistol again and shrugged his shoulders. It was probably nothing, but better to be prepared. He opened the hatch with a loud creak and peered down into it, a slight hiss escaped his lips. "Well, there's the bodies."

Inside, in a crumpled mass at the bottom of the shaft, was the engineering crew. Their bodies were torn apart and disfigured. Graves registration would be working overtime trying to make heads or tails of the mess down there. Taab holstered his sidearm yet again and knelt next to the open shaft. From afar the bodies seemed fairly fresh, a few days old at most. The temporal distortion that had affected the rest of the ship hadn't appeared to have made it this far into the vessel, so Taab was fairly certain of his assessment. He stood up, prepared to report in again when suddenly the lights went out.

TAG: Bravo, Mitth_Fisto

 

IC: Winterkill
Johnny Boy, CAP

The nagai frowned.

Neither Quagmire or Control had responded to his inquiry, which was a concern. But, before he could try and hail either, ‘Ghast’ beeped and whistled suddenly.

“The comm is down? I thought it was fixed.” Winterkill stated, slightly perplexed.

A sharp burst from the astromech followed.

“It was never up?”

There was a brief pause as another series of bleeps and chirps were heard.

“I see. That was pretty clever.” He admitted, after hearing and reading the astromech’s explanation.

“But now we’re in the dark again.” He noted sourly.

“Well, at least there’s no ‘Separatist’ debris in that field, so there goes that theory. Thanks for the update.”

No sooner had he finished his sentence, than another, albeit louder, series of whistles filled the pilot’s cockpit.

“A missile….!?”

Winterkill regarded his sensors and watched as Edge took the Blade Dancer to intercept the attack. The whole scene played out on the X-Wing’s sensor display. Edge flew past and shot an intercepting volley; but would it be on time to save the Speedy Trial?

A hint of a smile came upon the nagai’s face when he saw the Speedy Trial’s movement. Atin was using the environment to his advantage, as he moved to place some of the debris field between himself and the incoming missile. It was a smart move, which re-kindled the nagai’s confidence in the young mandalorian.

To everyone’s credit, Edge was able to neutralize the threat before it ever became a concern, and Scorch proved that his head was in the game.

“Good.” Winterkill whispered to himself as he checked the sensor readings for the two tangos straddling the CAP’s sensor range.

“It begins…”

Whoever was ‘attacking’ the Mercs was making his move. First causing the JB to exit hyperspace prematurely, have it boarded by ‘Buzz’ droids and now launching a missile attack.

Though, ‘who’ and ‘why’ were still important questions, they quickly lost priority over the need to ‘defend’.

[Specter to Ace, do you copy?]

The call was made to the only other pilot in the CAP. It was imperative that communication between the two defending starfighters remain uncompromised in order to exact maximized defense efficiency. If their communications was inoperational or was somehow being jammed, then they would need an immediate alternative.

Smoke signals was clearly out of the question.


Tag: @Mitth_Fisto, @Bravo

 

IC: DelPike the Troig, April the...I dunno, Month? Commander Yavscout, the Johnny Boy corvette
Location: near Draukyze system


"Waaaiiit." One of DelPike's two heads said after a pause, swinging on the long neck to look at the readouts of the nearby sensor station, knocking heads with its operator. "That doesn't make sense."

April swivelled all the way around to face her superior. "What doesn't?"

"Specter is looping fairly close around us. Any distance-related issues with the comlink workaround shouldn't affect him, only the Speedy Trial." DelPike's second head, the one still manning Communications, looked over the console at April. "Run a diagnostics on the..."

"On the what?" She prompted, after a respectful pause for the alien to find his place.

"I'm...not sure. Now, how did my workaround work."

"Bridge, Al'kesh."

"Yav, here. What's up, Deputy...Al'kesh." Yavscout felt he had to make the verbal distinction, lest he confuse the being with his droid.

"One of the astromechs has detected that the membrane between the hull plates, and the living areas has been breached."

"Really?" Yav frowned. "There were no readings up here."

"He says the sensors that would have sent an alert were compromised, and knocked offline. Whatever was on our hull, they are inside the ship, Sir." The Merc sounded like he was having trouble holding his temper. "Bridge, we need to localize and contain this."

The elf stood up from the command chair. He needed to walk around to think. "Alright, let's consider this." Yav rubbed the palm of his right glove over the plexiglased dome of his vacsuit. "Whoever created these drokkers-"

"Colicoid Creation Nest." The Master Chief Petty Officer's voice interjected.

"Oh hey, Wa Yay." Yav acknowledged, continuing, "These Colicoid people called them Pistoeka Sabotage Droids, not Pistoeka Bloodbath Droids. So, we are probably not going to run across them in a corridor, looking for confrontation."

Al'Kesh caught on fast. "Maintenance tunnels, data and power pipes, behind the walls." The voice paused. Then, "We put Doctor Cook's kid in a tunnel with a hand scanner and a comlink-"

"I hope you are joking, Deputy Al'kesh."

"Why not? He's small enough."

"The solution is simple, Commander, Deputy. Now that we know the intruders are damaging our internal sensors, we track that using the diagnosis software aboard the astromechs."

Yav nodded, "Thanks, Wa Yay."

To be continued...

 

OOG: Still feeling a bit under the weather today. I will get to other tags tomorrow night. I worked 8am to 8pm today (and later, about 8am to 8:15pm yesterday), so I didn't even get home until after 8pm tonight. And its 10:23pm here now. So long day and not feeling good.

I don't have to work my second job tomorrow night, so I'll be able to focus more on getting to tags (even if I still don't feel good). Sorry for the delay everyone.


IC: Chief Helms Officer Andrew Monk
Bridge, Johnny Boy


"Mr Monk, are there any black holes or singularities near here?"

Monk shook his head after checking his consoles, "Already ahead of you, Commander. I'm sending the data to your holographic station now."

What would appear on the holographic screen was this:



"Commander," Monk clarified as he turned around in his seat to project his voice to the Commander he couldn't see, "This is what the sensors are reading now, roughly 1,000 meters to our starboard. All of those singularities are less then the size of a starfighter and are shrinking---and closing---at the rate of one meter every five seconds. When I wanted to trace where they came from, I first did a search pattern on black holes and worm holes. Both nothing, I'm finding no gravitational pull on the other side of those that would fit those two theories. Then I did a hyperspace search, which would of been the next logical stage, since we got yanked out of hyperspace. Commander, sensors should be picking up tachyonic matter from hyperspace if there was a hole in hyperspace...and it's not. So, let me give you a quick trip on science," Monk said; despite being a diehard rockn' roller, he was as smart as he was savy behind the controls of a starship, "Special relativity basically says that if one event is happening now, that same event could be viewed by a different person at a different time...I think. So, you'd be thinking, time dilation field, right? There's a problem with that..."

Monk typed in a few more commands on his console board and this imagine appeared next,



"I filtered out time effects and had the computer run a reconstruction on what that area of space looked like before we got here. Commander, if the available data was reconstructed correctly by the computer, we're looking at a hole in spacetime. And more specifically, where that holes leads...Commander, your talking Multiverse and Many-worlds interpretation here. But that hole is gone and that Bacta Hauler came out of that hole---the sensors were able to trace the tranjectory of that Bacta hauler commed out by the Speedy Trial to coming from that hole. Sir, the hole has sealed itself---or someone sealed it. Sir, whatever is happening here, someone or something has the power to rip a hole in Realspace and reseal it. And the question is, if whatever lies on the other side of the hole isn't hyperspace, is it Otherspace or something else completely? Either way, that Bacta Hauler came from those singularities and we have five Mercs near that thing now. Whatever happened to that ship---or is on that ship now---came from that hole in space. And that doesn't good, Commander. Now, the question is, whoever ripped that hole in hyperspace...are they the ones firing at the Trial and shadowing us or is it pirates coming in for a random kill on a random singularity by a unlucky Bacta Hauler caught in one?"



TAG Sith-I-5

 

IC: Havah Jeth
Command deck, Bacta Hauler

Waiting where he was anchored next to his back pack he waited for power to return with data probe and data spike in hand. The Mando's message came about body parts and Havah mentally filed it away as of some concern. Still, that made him the most safe, he would see someone coming with his innate Infra Red vision, at least as the egotistical human galactic and Merc domination force would label his ability to see.

When the power kicked back on Havah kipped off the chair to a main computer terminal and jabbed in the spike. With power uncertain for duration, he didn't feel like he had time to be gentle. With one hand steadying himself he jabbed for the last two weeks data and inserted the data probe to download the data.

Then he began the second task, viewing what he was getting. The first thing called up was boring.

"Nothing of note." he mumbled as he tapped for the next message. And then the next. Until he came upon one that didn't start with 'Captains Log'. Because really only backwaters just getting into the galaxy would use such a phrase, that or else amnesiacs with little sense. Not to mention using a systems or micro governments time scale instead of galactic standard was a sure sign of being wayward and stiff collard. Something which the next file dispensed with.

"Gotcha." he whispered as he noted a comm from the list that corresponded to under a week ago. Halfway through his downloaded data. The announcement was shut off and data filter was overlayed from his suites built in pad. The words were converted to text and freeze frames were displayed from the log. The captains panicked face. the Captain's despondent face. Notes of pirates and freak random hyperspace jump to escape. Ship was lucky to have ever been found in the black between, but was testament to the wisdom not to do blind jumps. Because just one little thing could do this or worse to a ship.
Nothing much of note. Bridge hit by missile strike just as it was jumping and then fire and static. Onto the next log.

Next log? How was there more?

Deciding he was truly curious he opened it even as the probe was working on the download from the ships sensors and the present log he was trying to view. A brief flash showed on the screen and he glared as the lights died and the terminal ceased to function. Hitting it in frustration he pulled the useless spike out and jabbed it into the bottom of the screen in front of him. There were other consoles and the spike would render this one most likely useless for another intrusion unless someone fixed this wreck some more. As was he took the probe and secured it.

Looking back to his backpack he opened the comms to contact the Mando and Lasso. "Intruder wearing a space suite found in log after the wreck several. . .days ago. Possible hostile or live crew that could be taken." The usual litany of 'Proceed with Caution' did not need said. At least not to anyone that deserved to be on this mission.

Turning he looked at his back pack halfway across the bridge and kipped off to retrieve and replace it on himself before checking the crew quarters.

TAG: Bravo, Bardan_Jusik

 

Sorry for the double, but needed to do one more before I lost connection for a few days.

IC: Chris Streets
Luck's Gamble, Hanger Johhny Boy

Looking at the Wookiee as he shut off the comlink that was blasting the weird music. Which oddly enough had his toe wiggling. Hmm. Perhaps after he got back he would find out what that was. It had a nice beat.

Still he waved, "Go! Protect your family and stop hiding in closets!" That earned him a snarling roar. "Go prove it." he calmly replied. Actually he had completely missed the meaning of that roar but it seemed like a threat or reaffirmation of the wookiee techs abilities. Hopefully it was the second. Which he felt more confident of as Kalka'tech moved past him and loped to the ramp. A switch and a few minutes later the wookiee was off his shuttle and once more the thing was sealed and prepped to go.

Walking back into the cockpit he nodded at the pilot and others. "Bridge. We are set to go. Going." he simply sighed as he waved a hand for the pilot to take them out.

TAG: Heavy Isotope, Sith-I-5

 

IC: Lieutenant Hawkins
Location: Outpost Nowhere, Rhen Var


Lieutenant Hawkins' smirk was growing on his face as he remembered Priest's words, Those holodramas where the dead come back to life to terrorize the survivors in a post apocalyptic story. The stone in-carving on the front of the hospital above the primary entrance doors: T. J. Memorial Military Research and Scientific General Hospital would of given Priest a leg to stand on for his comment. After all, military and research never went good together.

"Well Doc," Hawkins said as he looked at the hole in the hospital's wall about the size of several tall human beings length wise; debris and battle scars suggesting they were trying to keep something in and that something had been trying to escape. But, the hole in the wall and the debris surrounding it was merely background; what Hawkins was smirking about was the skeleton remains of a creature that certainty didn't fit the good Doctor's apocalyptic zombie storyline, "There goes any zombie apocalypse ideas, Doc."

A wind was picking up and Hawkins looked to the direction of the mountains and a storm moving in, "We better make this quick Doc, before this storm comes in. Knowing this planet's apparent luck, it could be a acid rain storm and that would end our day really quick," the Lieutenant looked at two soldiers flanking the wall, "You two remain here. You two," he pointed to others and waved his hand towards the hole, "Lead the way."

The two soldiers nodded and, turning on their rifle lights, ducked into wall. The hospital's corridors looked as chaotic as they should of been, considering the evidence outside. The biggest thing, however, was the amount of empty stretchers along the walls; old medical supplies looked disregarded on the ground. As the soldiers walked through the abandoned hospital's corridors, noting that doors had been sealed shut and in some cases chained shut all throughout, they also noted all the hospital rooms were full as well---all the room's beds looked used, but no bodies, no medical staff, no nothing! Nothing but debris, disregarded medical equipment and cloaks, and even a---ah, there!

Hawkins accepted the identification badge found on the floor by one of the soldiers, "A Doctor Hussel Mantall," Hawkins said, noting the ID's ancient and neglected look, but also seeing that what was left of the imagine, a alien humanoid face---possibly blue or green, maybe both---could be made out; he handed the badge over to Priest, "Well, at least we know what they looked like."

"Doc," Hawkins said, "Sure looks like this hospital was trying to cure some outbreak for sure. All those stretchers, they look used. But certainty, this hospital had access to the civilian population, which isn't all too surprising. Question, whatever that creature was, what was it doing in a hospital full of civilians? If you worked in this hospital Doc, where would you put that monster so no one could see it?" Hawkins asked, looking around the debris filled emergency room, "Do hospitals have any self-contained, off-limits rooms? Or would they just seal off a floor for something like this? Basement floors maybe?" Hawkins asked, trying to be helpful.


TAG Wildwookiee

 

IC: Terrel Vacks
Algor


The place hadn't changed much.

Ass-***** of the galaxy.

Dirt, poverty, drugs. So much for Empire and "bringing order" to the galaxy.

Terrel's non-aggressive behavior with the AADM---and the fact that most of the senior Imperial officers knew him and flagged him as VIP as soon as he was reported by security patrols as "some guy wearing stolen Imperial Storm Commando armor"---allowed Terrel to operate in that foggy enemy against enemy respect zone. While Terrel was a sworn enemy of the Empire and the Empire dedicated to Vacks' destruction and or imprisonment, there was something to be said of the respect that the Imperials who fought against him had and the respect he shared with them in return for those he fought against. It was a respect that the men and women in the trenches shared with each other that would never be understood by the big shots on both sides of the war effort who couldn't see past their differences to give someone a cup of cold water if they were the enemy.

So by the time Snake had commed him about Sweet Jenn's, Vacks had a load of information that pointed to Rhen Var from the local Spacers. Vacks could testify to the information's truth, simply because he kept to the same shop owners and the same information brookers he had used for years. So, finding the Mercs, was almost a done deal. Now it was getting Snake through the shock and awe of Sweet Jenn's, which should be interesting...

Soon, Vacks spots Snake enroute to the meeting place and meets the Shadow Man outside the doors; lots of chatter, yelling, music, and breaking glasses could be heard right outside the door.

"Glad you made it," Vacks said as he took off his helmet and smiled, "Now time for the hard part."

Terrel opened the door----

OOG: Imagine this type of bar in Star Wars terms with the music in the video playing in the background of the bar In-Character!


Vacks walked through the door, where fighting and card games and drinking was everywhere! Vacks ducked as a bottle went flying over his head and crashing against the fall wall in glass shattering fashion. He stepped over an Imperial Army Trooper punching the lights out of a Imperial Naval crewmen on the floor, and looked back to Snake.

"Welcome to the AADM! One of the hardest fighting units in the Empire! They'll drink all night, beat the crap out of each other, and go on shift the next day and kick some serious arse! If we had these guys on our side, the Empire would of been defeated ages ago!" Vacks smiled in pure delight as he marched up to the bar.

"Ah!" said the bar tender with a smile, "Considering we're not firing at you or your not firing at us, Ter---"

Vacks shook his head slightly, nodding his head back to Snake as covertly as he could as Snake was just walking over the punching bag match on the floor, "OH!" the bar tender said in realization, "I mean Howard, how are you doing today!?"

"Good James, good," Terrel said to the bartender he knew by name as Snake came up and stood by him, "My friend here and I want a drink."

"You got it Howard," the bartender had to work that new cover name around in his tongue a few times, "Same old Corellian Whiskey?" James asked Terrel.

"Yes," Vacks said, "Double shot. Its been one of those months."

"I hear you there!" James replied, looking to Snake, "And you Mr...?"


TAG Tim Battershell

 

IC: Mary Formal, Commander Yavscout, Security Office and Command Deck, respectively.
Location: near Draukyze


Woman? You crazy. Mary noted as she held the heavy red fire extinguisher canister in her hands, and released the nozzle to spray billowing white foam and vapour all over the Security Chief's seat.

She had not been able to determine that it was not booby trapped, but her memory had dredged up instances of movies that showed the cold of extinguishers being useful against improvised explosive devices.

Several seconds later, breath held against the toxification of the air, she CLANGed the canister on the floor by the desk, and sat on the seat, feeling the chilled white material crunching under her backside and thighs.

The terminal screen showed the Merc logo of a caped, kneeling warrior, as two X-Wings screamed up to the Heavens.

She started a mental two minute countdown, and pressed a button on the keyboard at random, hoping to see files or programs come up, at best showing the screen divided up into tiles showing various views of the ship.

[Please enter password] flashed up on a pale blue blank screen.

Frag. Dammit, this was annoying. Oh well, cannot hurt to try that as the password.

Her right index finger jabbed at the aurabesh-embossed keys: forn resh aurek grek.

[Incorrect password. Two attempts remaining.]

"Computer says 'no'." Mary murmured, ignoring a faint sizzling sound to concentrate on the task before her.

Was the password case-sensetive?

She capitalised the first letter and tried again: FORN resh aurek grek.

"Computer says 'kiss my arse'."

One try left? Should she potentially waste it on 'frag' in all caps? Mary thought about this. "Okay, back on Cifre, common passwords were 1-2-3-4-5; user's own birthdate, or names of pet, spouse, and offspring."

She was unwilling to entertain the idea that Security Chief Taab, him who the Captain oft-described as the "mercenary's mercenary", whatever on Flitter that meant, would do the five-number code.
She could not think of anything more iconoclasmic.

Is that even a word?

Likewise, she did not know when the man had been born, hatched, whatever. Clearly he must have been married at some point, to have had Atin.

She tapped in the boy's name.

[Incorrect password. Terminal locked.]

sizzle

"Well..." Mary stood up, glaring at the screen, as it silently told her what she could do with her Charlie's Angels' moment. "...balls."

sizzle

"What is that sound?" Formal straightened, and spun towards the back of the office, where part of the grey wall had been sloughed away, pooling on the floor in a glistening puddle of mercury.

Lemon-coloured globes on tiny insect-like legs poured out of the darkness and skittered into the room! Several of them split their shells down the middle and raised them like wings, to reveal multiple circular eyes.

****
Bridge - Command Deck

The Elven commander stared fearfully into the yellow-spattered starfield that was presented holographically before him as Andrew Monk's voice called up to him, explaining the probable cause of the time dilation field detected by Masha's Z-95.

"-finding no gravitational pull on the other side of those that would fit those two theories. Then I did a hyperspace search, which would of been the next logical stage, since we got yanked out of hyperspace. Commander, sensors should be picking up tachyonic matter from hyperspace if there was a hole in hyperspace...and it's not. So, let me give you a quick trip on science," Monk offered. "Special relativity basically says that if one event is happening now, that same event could be viewed by a different person at a different time...I think. So, you'd be thinking, time dilation field, right? There's a problem with that...""

YES! It's a ******* time dilation field! Yav silently screamed at the man, teetering on the edge of blind panic now.

Then the navigator backtracked to get a good run-up, and drop-kicked the elf over the cliff of reasoning with his next holo-image.



"That's it, I'm outta here." Yav decided aloud. "Goo'bye, and thanks for all the fish."

GATE

The green light sparkles of the magical spell drifted down around his head and shoulders as the emergency personal teleport got to work.

Yav did not know where he would end up, but if it was anywhere near that ISB investigator, Hillick Soal, he intended to beat the location and disposition of Havah's sister, out of the man.

After a while, it dawned on the elf that he had either beamed to the command deck of a Jod-designed warship, or, he had not budged a drokking inch.....which meant....

Yavscout hesitantly tracked his gaze up to the ceiling. Ah, frag.

A carpet of black-and-yellow-striped Norrathianised Honey Bees carpeted the ceiling, droning, buzzing, and crawling over each other.

Frag! How in Oseon am I going to explain this to Jason? He wondered, shaking his head. Ah, bastasi.

Andrew was still droning on as if nothing had happened, which was one blessing of the Kingdom of Jod's cultural enforced separation of senior officers and subordinate bridge crew.

"And the question is, if whatever lies on the other side of the hole isn't hyperspace, is it Otherspace or something else completely?"

That's a point, Yav noted as he stared up through the plexiglased dome of his helmet at the swarm. And, I'm back.

"Either way, that Bacta Hauler came from those singularities and we have five Mercs near that thing now. Whatever happened to that ship---or is on that ship now---came from that hole in space. And that doesn't good, Commander. Now, the question is, whoever ripped that hole in hyperspace...are they the ones firing at the Trial and shadowing us or is it pirates coming in for a random kill on a random singularity by a unlucky Bacta Hauler caught in one?"

The commander did not answer. He was thinking about another pair of wormholes. Ones that supposedly led to the satellite galaxy where the Jod came from.

This wasn't the Open Sea, the vast spatial region in Centrality territory largely devoid of stars. So, was that swirling thing of death out there, the other wormhole that Captain Jim Palso had told him and Chief Engineer Williams about, when Yav had had command of the Johnny Boy?

"Commander!" The B1 droid manning the security console, yelled up.

"WHAT?" he yelled back, then remembered the insects, and their sensetivity to noise, and moderated his volume somewhat, leaning over the safety railing to look down at the droid. "What?"

"Shots fired in the Security Office."

"Deputy Al'Kesh!" Yav snapped, "Security Office! NOW!"

Tag: Bravo (whatever you want to deal with), Bardan_Jusik (Al'Kesh, QRF, Security)

OOC: Okay-dokey,
1) "Computer says no" is from some UK comedy show that I do not watch, don't know the name off, but may be Little Britain, but the phrase is fairly popular over here, as it relates, I believe, to people phoning up car insurance call centres for quotes.

2) The Gate thing with the bees is a repeat of the Strident Haze. What can I say...I'm a hack.

3) I checked the Disallowed Words list. 'Arse' is allowed. 'Balls', as long as not an insult to a person, seems to be acceptable, too.

4) Whoops, only caught this one on the edit read-through. "Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish" is the title of the fourth book in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Yeah, I know.

 

IC: Aidan Dodd
Sweet Jenn's Pub, Algor - Cronese Mandate.

I can tell that this isn't one of the most genteel establishments I've ever visited just from the variety and volume of noises coming through the walls and closed door! For safety's sake, I remove my Rank Cylinder from its normal pocket and stow it in a belt pouch.

I am, though, more than slightly surprised by the near-riot going on inside, especially this close to an Imperial Base and involving Imperial personnel. Darkness' comments about the AADM slightly reassures me that this state of affairs is reasonably Normal-for-Algor rather than having been staged in aid of a variation of the 'MP-pick-up' scam; nevertheless, I'm on my guard, especially when I have to step over a pair of individuals indulging in unarmed combat practice in the middle of the aisle leading to the bar. Their technique appears to be very sloppy!

I don't catch exactly what the bartender says to Darkness, but do note the latter's reaction and the bartender's hurried correction. Could my new friend have been so brazenly foolish as to have let his real name be known around here? So-called 'neutral territory' or not, it's a big risk; and not one I'd be prepared to take.

"You got it Howard.... Same old Corellian Whiskey?", the bartender asks as I come up beside Darkness.

"Yes.... Double shot. Its been one of those months." my friend replies.

"I hear you there!" the bartender turns to me; "And you Mr...?"

As with names, so with choice of beverage. Let the bartender and my new friend think me a wimp if they will but 'Strong Drink encourages bragging while taking away the ability you're bragging on' is a good principle to live by; and I'm still not certain that we won't end up having to demonstrate our combat skills before leaving. And I hate missing with a shot, any type of shot!

"Dobb, Aden Dobb, I reply to the bartender;", using my well-worn 'public' alias out of habit, "A Gizer Pale for me, please, if you have it. Interesting place you have here, reminds me of home!"

That's all true enough; any cover-remark should keep as close to truth as possible, less chance of anyone detecting an inconsistency that way. A mixture of Farmers' sons in from the Camp, young bloods from the University and Calna Muun youths can make for a highly volatile combination - rivalling the contents of the strongest Binka Liquor bottles behind the bar - the ones normally only drunk to show one can! Fortunately, our local Security people know what to look out for and step in before things go too far - usually. ASF doesn't like bar-room fatalities, it offends their sense of Order and the paperwork, one of them told me confidentially, is pure hell!

Turning to Darkness, I say, "I trust your expedition went well Howard, I think mine did.... smoother and more fruitful than expected, in fact."


TAG: Intervention

 

IC: "Doc" Priest
Location: Outpost Nowhere, Rhen Var

"Doc," Hawkins said, "Sure looks like this hospital was trying to cure some outbreak for sure. All those stretchers, they look used. But certainty, this hospital had access to the civilian population, which isn't all too surprising. Question, whatever that creature was, what was it doing in a hospital full of civilians? If you worked in this hospital Doc, where would you put that monster so no one could see it?" Hawkins asked, looking around the debris filled emergency room, "Do hospitals have any self-contained, off-limits rooms? Or would they just seal off a floor for something like this? Basement floors maybe?" Hawkins asked, trying to be helpful.

Priest thought for a moment, partially mulling the question, partially remembering the last time that he had been called "Doc." He really didn't mind, it made him feel somewhat human again. Nothing here felt right.

"I have a bad feeling about this." He found himself saying; only then to wonder why exactly he said it exactly like that. "This makes no sense. It's obvious that this hospital was used, the beds were full at one point and these halls were chaotic, but where are the people? Where are the bodies? We have blaster scars and battle marks, people should have died here, but its all gone. This is damn peculiar. Since the mind that built this place is alien to me, I can't be entirely certain where they would contain high risk patients. In my experience, the Basement is typically where the morgue and service facilities are, not patients. With this logic, a basement may be a place to keep something without inviting prying eyes, however they would have to modify for contamination protocols. I don't know what went on here, but I would recommend before we go traipsing into an unknown hospital that had an unknown tragedy that we take precautions. Hospitals are rife with disease and we don't know if there is anything here that could compromise our immune systems. We should do our best to avoid touching things without protection, and we should probably use canned air. "

TAG:Bravo

 

IC: Doctor Russel Cook
Medical Bay, Johnny Boy


Cook was shivering, even with the emergency all-weather coat on. Ice collected on his medical goggles and started to frame the medical droids like it was Christmas.

"Lower," Cook managed to get out over his comm link as his body shook, trying to keep warm; the medical data-pad in his hand was shaking like a bouncy ball and Cook wondered, as the orange-blue glow surrounding Seira Trasks' body would freeze too. An energy shield had been activated over the medical bed, but even then, environmental controls inside the shield had been set to match those inside the medical bay. But all of that didn't matter. What mattered was it wasn't working; vital signs and every other source of medical measurement was saying Seira Trasks was becoming something different.

"Two life signs detected, Doctor," the 2-1B medical droid announced.

"Sith!" Cook cursed as temperatures were well below zero now!

"Movement detected," the same droid announced, "Sensors are reading unknown alien life sign. Energy levels are off the charts."

"Medical Bay to Bridge," Cook started to say with urgency as something started to emerge from the medical bed as the glow started to die down, "Oh Hutt! Securi---"

All that was heard over Cook's comlink were the reports of his personal sidearm and a roar from somewhere in the background. The reports of the two B1 Battle Droids' blaster fire could be heard as well in the background, then static.

If anyone reached the medical bay, they would find the half melted remains of the battle droids (fired upon, it seems, by a plasma weapon of some-short), the medical droids broken into pieces by what appeared to be superhuman strength, an unconscious Doctor Cook with a gash across his temple, and a hole in the wall roughly the size of a human. Any remains of Seira Trasks was gone from the twisted remains of the medical bed...with the energy shield still on around the medical bed.

Flashing on Cook's data-pad, on the floor next to him, were the words, "Unknown alien life form."


TAG Sith-I-5


************************


IC: Random Crew Men
Level Three, near Senior Crew Cabins


"Hey, have you seen Frank? He said he was going up to the first level to find a usable refresher station," asked a Bith crew member holding a blaster rifle as he and the Gungan holding a blaster rifle both guarded the bow side turbolift lobby on the third level; with them stood a single B1 Battle Droid.

The Gungan shook his head; then, the emergency ladder access door opened along side one of the turbolifts and out stepped Frank, "Oh, hey Frank!" the Bith said, his smile quickly fading as his eyes fully took in what Frank, a human male, was looking like, "Holy Sith Frank, you need to go see a Doc---what are you-----ahhhhh!!!!!!!"

The Gungan was turned, like his friend, into a burned mess from a plasma weapon discharge. The B1 Battle Droid with them, it's systems connected to that of the ship computer, managed to start recording the whole scene and even managed to get off two blaster bolts that scored hits into Frank----or whatever he was with the burning red eyes and a plasma projectile weapon that seemed to grow out of a normally perfect arm seconds before---and did nothing to slow the man as the plasma rifle soon turned on the Battle Droid and all holo footage was lost. It was a brief 7 second clip, but it provided the framework for the first details of what was going on aboard the Johnny Boy...


TAG Sith-I-5

 

IC: Captain Jason Lasso
Hauled Bacta Hauler, deep space


Lasso was rocking along to a song in his helmet, playing softly in the background of his helmet. His rifle light and helmet light pentrated the darkness, scanning everywhere. Except for "floater," a new term he applied to the floating bodies, along the long corridor in between the spheres, he came along no one, except random debris and tools.

"Be advised, there was a fight aboard ship as well. Sometime before it depressurized. It may have been boarded."

Taab's words replaced the music for a moment in the speakers, "Quagmire copies."

The music resumed. Then stopped again with Havah's words next.

"Intruder wearing a space suite found in log after the wreck several. . .days ago. Possible hostile or live crew that could be taken."

Music resumed.

"Quagmire copies," Lasso replied, doubly making sure his weapon was hot and ready, adding, "Sphere corridor clear of any hostile contact. Checking spheres' conditions now. No time affect noted in sphere section of ship. One floater body located. Quagmire clear."

Lasso found the master control station and started singing and dancing, "I came to get down...jump around! Jump around! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!"

The news couldn't be better! Not only did the spheres contained bacta, fuel, food stuffs, and even one with medical supplies, but everything was running on a very low circuit of energy, just enough to keep the spheres going. Even with the ship "dead," someone must of been using one of the emergency batteries up to very recently and----from gravity being restored and lights flickering on---the low circuit was restored. Someone had been using the batteries...but who?

Lasso was going to head for the food stuffs sphere and when he turned around, he looked up.

"Dang your ugly!" Jason said as a man with a cracked open space suit face plate, his face half skeleton and half normal; his suit was torn in places and blood smeared his suit.

The being growled and punched Lasso so hard the man did a full back-flip over the console board and in between the wall and console. Jason collected his crumpled body and stood up, padding the metal armor under the suit where the being had punched with super human strength, "Dak's idea," the mercenary Captain said, bringing his blaster rifle to bear on the being, "My turn!" Jason said; but as a tentacle arm started to grow from a glove-less right arm and present itself into the open, Jason said, "Or maybe not!"

Jason jumped out of the way as the tentacle arm shot forward, crushing through the wall behind Jason. As the mercenary finished his role, he came up to a knee and let loose a few blaster shots of his new baby into the beast (noting the only affect of pissing him off more), then got up and turned and ran towards the bridge. He got on the comm, "Animal control needed in the sphere corridor ASAP! Spook, I'm running your way with something very nasty behind me!"

Jason glanced back, watching as the beast started running like a dog after Lasso, "Screw animal control!" Jason said to himself out-loud, "Give me a tank!" Up ahead, the bow section of the ship became visible!

Lasso glanced back again and saw that he had no chance to make it! "Okay," Jason said as the music changed inside his helmet, "Time to play!" Jason slowed down and fell backwards, watching in slow motion as the creature cleared over him and came to a sliding halt. Jason got up and brought his weapon to bear on the creature that now stood up again on two legs; the tentacle arm wiped out wickedly.

Lasso could only hope that Havah would appear soon from the bow, now behind the creature.

Lasso started pouring rounds into the creature that started sprinting towards him...


TAG Mitth_Fisto, Bardan_Jusik

---

IC: Boba Fett
Engineering Room, Hauled Bacta Hauler, deep space


"Your getting soft Taab," Boba Fett spoke, coming around the corner with his favorite E-3 Blaster Carbine leveled towards Taab, "How's your over-qualified skills doing for the retirement gig with the Mercs? Not your style. So, question is, who's paying you a star system's random? Or, should we stop with the pleasantries and get to the business of why I'm here?"


TAG Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Zhoul Al'kesh (NPC), Security officers Al and Izzy (NPCs)
Johnny Boy, 2nd level troop quarters, Johnny Boy Armory.

Al and Izzy had been keeping busy handing out blaster and other assorted weapons (mostly blades) to the various crew members that had come by the armory. But they had all left, leaving the pair of security officers in something of a lull, though Izzy was pretty sure that their work wasn't over yet. It seemed to come in spurts, but for now all was quiet. Until they heard the noise coming from inside the Chief's office.

Al looked up from his paperwork (he had been going over the sign out sheet for the weapons issued thus far) with a perplexed look on his face. Izzy was confused for a moment too, until he remembered the female they had let into the office. He sprang into action, with Al just behind him and forced their way into the Chief's office. Catching sight of the nasty little droids (those must have been what Mary was talking about earlier Izzy thought), the twi'lek leveled his blaster and opened fire.

---

QRF

"Deputy Al'Kesh!" the voice of the commander came through loud and clear over the comms. "Security Office! NOW!"

The armory? Fierfek! The Devaronian made a motion with his blaster and the rest of the QRF followed him with a string of "Roger, Rogers." that sounded comical coming from the lumbering B2 Super Battle Droids. "Bridge, we're moving," he commed back as they made their way back to the Security Office. "Make sure the crew is clear of the area and gives us space to work." He flashed a toothy grin. Finally, some excitement, some adventure. It would be good to knock some heads, of course he wasn't quite prepared for what would meet them.

TAG: Sith-I-5

---

IC: Beskaryc Taab
Aboard the wreck, engineering section

"You're getting soft Taab," Taab knew that voice, though he hadn't heard it in some time. "How's your over-qualified skills doing for the retirement gig with the Mercs? Not your style. So, question is, who's paying you a star system's ransom? Or, should we stop with the pleasantries and get to the business of why I'm here?" Through his own T-Visor, Taab eyed the EE-3 blaster carbine now leveled at him, but he wasn't afraid. If Fett had wanted him dead, he would have fired by now.

A strange thought crossed his mind though. Was this all Fett's handiwork? It really didn't seem the shabuir's style. In fact if anything it seemed far more like something Taab would do...

... Of course time could change a man, and Taab hadn't seen Fett in quite awhile.

"Hello, bob'ika (Little Boba). So what brings you here?"

TAG: Bravo

 

IC: Boba Fett
Engineering Room, Hauled Bacta Hauler, deep space


"Hello, bob'ika (Little Boba). So what brings you here?"

"You," Fett said, lowering his blaster carbine, "And your family. I was told a few days ago by one of my wealthiest clients that the game is changing," Fett smiled somberly under his helmet, "When I was offered double to kill you, then triple for your son and your wife, I figured it was. Back in the day, Taab, you knew the routine. We didn't hunt each other and we left the families out of it, no matter the credits involved. The ones that broke that honor code, you remember those hunts, we hunted them down. But, this contract is no window shiner of a contract. Your talking enough for your own ImpStar. I need to know why, Taab. Someone with a lot of resources has inserted themselves deep enough into our ranks...question is, who will break first and hunt you first? Or me? I'll handle my own, you too. But family? Your son? You wife? It's getting dirty. All my client said is that they had to stop you from your next employer. You know who that employer is. And we both know its not the Mercs. I'm keeping your six clean, Taab. Don't make me wipe it too."

As soon as he was done, Fett disappeared and the lights came back on. For Fett's end, his client for this job had given him rather well placed coordinates and said "starfighter coverage" would protect his comings and goings. Well, it was time to retrieve what he needed to and get off this death ship. The credits was good...once again. Which worried him. He tended to stay away from making loyalty too quick with new clients...but you couldn't pass up enough money to buy a Corvette outright for one little, small box.


TAG Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Assistant Engineer Rachael Williams, Pearce and Bali (Security npcs), Boras Felroah, Medical Bay, Deck Two, Johnny Boy
Location: near Draukyze


Rachael Williams paused in the corridor with Tayc and their two crewmates, all laden down with multiple E-11 carbines, some with their stocks extended.

She was speaking to Security on the Bridge. "Tayc and I are armed. We can head to Medical."

"Negative, Engineer Williams. Security personnel are nearer. Please continue to Engineering and secure it."

"Copy. Williams out." Rachael looked at the three, who were gazing back with anxious expressions. "Let's go."

INTRUDER ALERT.

The four started jogging for the rear of the ship, with one of the men putting his head down, and pulling ahead of the other three.

* * * *
Medical

Pearce and Bali, both of Security, held their blaster carbines in both hands, while Bali also had her personal Q2 holdout blaster on the back of her belt, as they guarded the midway point of the central corridor of Deck Two.

They did not have much of a view, heavy blast doors disecting the corridor in both directions, as part of the lockdown.

INTRUDER ALERT.

"Security to Unit Four." came from Pearce' comlink on his belt, and Bali's wrist-link.

Looking down at the former Naboo handmaiden that he was paired with, Pearce took up his communicator and fielded the call. "Unit Four, copy."

"Emergency in the Medical Bay. Go."

"On the way." Pearce could see the blast doors rising out of the way in the direction of their destination, as the droid on the Bridge cleared the way for them. They sprinted in that direction, passing the Ship's Library on the right, and slowing as they approached the right-hand corner that would take them to the Medical Bay.

Bali, her back to the wall, put up a palm to keep her partner back, and peered round the corner, spying Nurse Ulrike in the corridor, slumped against the wall of the otherwise empty hallway, streams of red over her face and a garish contrast to the white of her nurse's smock where it pooled above the breast.

She nodded her head, and disappeared round the corner, Pearce on her heels.

Both security bods remained low, the femme stopping by Ulrike to press fingers to the other woman's neck, while Pearce moved to the open doors of the Medbay.

"She's alive."

A noise from behind them had them turning weapons upon the late-arriving Boras, the Selkath incongruously cradling a high-end flimsi shopping bag to his torso while also aiming one of his two DL-44 blaster pistols to the floor. Head down, he froze at the end of the corridor as soon as he saw them, identifying himself, "Combat Medic Boras. New recruit."

Bali waved her gun at him, indicating that he should join them.

"I'll take over." He reported, dropping to one knee beside the nurse, putting aside the bag given him by Ler, and beginning to pull items from the medikit pouches at his belt. "Looks like a head injury. They always bleed far more than severity of the wound would dictate."

Both guards swept into the frigid infirmary, finding the black bulk of two motionless SBDs (Super Battle Droids) facing the flickering blue-coloured force field protecting the isolation chamber, but with their blast arms at their sides.

"We were unable to penetrate the shield." One droid reported, while Pearce moved up to the shield, to look through it, spotting the shattered parts of B1s and medical droids, plus the winter-coated form of Doctor Cook on the floor, partly visible behind the medical bed support.

"Doc'!" He called out to Boras, "We need you in here!"

"I'll try to drop the shield," Bali volunteered, and moved to investigate any visible control panels on the walls or near the beds.

"Check the Doctor's Office." Pearce advised. "I expect there will be an over-ride in there."

"On it."

The male Security guard now spotted the dark hole in the bulkhead beyond the bed, looked large enough to have been made by an adult human.

He took up his comlink. "Security. Unit Four."

"Security."

"We're in the medbay. Nurse Ulrike is unconscious in the corridor outside, head injury. Medic Boras is attending. We've found Doctor Cook and several destroyed droids inside the shielded isolation bay, but we cannot get to them as the shield is still up. We need an over-ride to get in there. There is a hole in the wall on other side of the chamber."

The force field faded away, freezing air from within the space washing over the guard in an instance, setting off a series of dry sneezes from him.

"Achoo-achoo-achoo. Yeah, that's got it." Pearce had his eyes shut for the sneezes. He carefully opened them and stepped onto the slippy, frost-covered deck. "Fragging cold in here. Like spring break on Rhen Var." He reported into his comlink.

"Found it!" Bali's voice called from the Doctor's Office, Pearce turning back to see the blue shield spring back into place, tiny shocks of yellow lightning running up and down the energy as it met the freezing air.

"You've turned it back on!" He told her. "I'd already gotten the bridge to turn the shield off. Hit it again!"

"Hit it again?"

"Hit. It. Again." He knelt carefully to the floor, tucking the E-11 under one armpit to free himself to pick up Cook's open datapad. Several words flashed green on the black screen: [Unknown alien life form.

"Oh, wonderful." The shield to his left faded again, and a moment later, Bali re-appeared, aiming her blaster over the bed towards the hole in the wall to his right. "Security. Unit Four. We got a medical datapad bearing the reading, Unknown alien life form."

* * * *
Bridge - Security Station

The B1 manning Taab's usual station was definitely earning it's next lubrication bath.

"Security. Unit Four. We got a medical datapad bearing the reading, Unknown alien life form."

"Copy, Unit Four. Standby." A screen on the angled console flashed up with a view from one of it's fellow B1, on guard with two crew near the Senior Crew Cabins on Deck Three.

"Oh, hey Frank!" the Bith organic said, his smile quickly fading as his eyes fully took in what Frank, a human male, was looking like, "Holy Sith Frank, you need to go see a Doc---what are you-----ahhhhh!!!!!!!"

The picture disintegrated as the B1 filming the scene took fire. The static froze, then reversed playback till there was a good angle of Crewman Frank's face, which under the B1's key presses, outlined in red, and jumped to the right of the screen, where it arrived in a smaller, vertically rectangular black screen two centimetres to the right of the playback monitor. This in turn lit up with three red-outlined facial representations, one above the other, which spun up like something on an arcade machine till it settled on Frank's visage, and basic crew data.

The Security B1 sent out a ship-wide: "All hands. Red Alert. We have multiple intruders in the ship. Buzz droids, a reported unknown alien life form, and Crewman Frank. Frank is to be considered armed and dangerous, and should not be approached without adequate backup. Break. QRF from Security. Two crew down on Level Three. Near Senior Crew Cabins."

Tag: All on the ship, Greyjedi125 (Mahaben)

OOC: Grey, I'm assuming that Mahaben took the cocoons to his cabin, and will come back for Ulrike. That okay?

Jedi_padawan_leigh, as soon as you want to get involved, have Kannari knock on the inside of her medical coccoon, or push the lid open.

---

IC: Mary Formal, Security Office


The globe-shelled mecha-insects had proved to be quite manoueverable, able to get airborne, or crawling up walls just as easily as they skittered over the floor, her first-drawn E-11 in pieces on the deck a testament to the fact.

She had put down two, shooting one in the face while it ran across the floor, and grabbed a second out of the air with her left hand, crushing it to fiery shrapnel in her inconceivably steely grip, and shaking it free before the sharp injector that she had spotted about to jab into the fleshy part between her finger and thumb could do its thing, the critically damaged Pistoeka rolling across Taab's halon-encrusted seat, leaving traces of a blue viscous gunge in its wake.

Mary ducked to avoid a droid that swooped at her head, and dropped to one knee to retrieve Roberta from her boot holster, the Biker Scout holdout aimed to her rear so she wasn't blindsided by that last attacker.

The door opened finally, and Izzy, the Security Twi'lek, entered, and upon seeing the what was going on, opened fire in the other direction, while she took care of the one that had ended up beside him.

Izzy's first shot bounced off the carapace of his target and burnt a blackened pit into the wall. "What?" He cried in confusion.

Mary recognised the reaction as echoing her own earlier when she had first engaged the intruders. "Shells are blaster resistant. Aim for the eyes." Her gaze and gun arm tracked a droid crawling up the wall to their right, behind the weapon carousel that she had used. "Also, don't let them get on you, they seem to want to inject something."

One on the floor exploded into flames under the Twi'lek's renewed gunfire. "Boom. Face shot." He laughed in delight. "Ah-ha, I got this."

INTRUDER ALERT.

The one Mary was tracking emerged from behind the carousel, and must have spotted her interest, for it braked on a dime, and backtracked along the wall, just enough for her shot to explode the wall just in front of it, smoke and carbon scoring blackening the front of the otherwise unharmed Sabotage Droid.

"Oh you tricky little-" She started to gripe, when Al entered, and from his better angle, shot the thing in the face, blasting it apart.

"Guys, fall back now. QRF want us out of the way."

"Just let me get another one." Three green bolts from the Twi'lek's blaster chased a droid across the floor to its fiery doom.

"Izzy, now." Al insisted, risking a hand to his partner's shoulder. "You too, Miss."

Mary rose smoothly off the floor and backtracked to the door with the other two, pot-shotting at a few at the back that she could see retreating to the hole in the wall. "Some of them are getting away."

She slipped out in the corridor when Al and Izzy gallantly let her exit first, retreat to the outside of the counter.

RED ALERT. THE SHIP IS AT RED ALERT.

Al was on his wrist-comlink, unusually having to speak to the inside of his wrist with his hand held up to side of his temple because of the way he had it placed. "QRF, Security Office clear of friendlies. No casualties."

Catching her breath, Mary reached over to grab Al's wrist so she could put her two credit-worth over the communicator. "You better hurry; some of them are retreating back into the wall!"

"That was fun!" Izzy crowed, an excited look in his beady eyes and his braintails jittery on his shoulders.

Tag: Bardan_Jusik (QRF)