Star Wars: Shattered Galaxy

[Smagmuck_]

"Rec," Joseph said. "I'd hate to be bossy, but stay on me, we're going to clear the way out for the rest of the group. Understand?" He asked. He kept his pistol leveled. "Since you're a hunter I won't bother you about accuracy." Jospeh linked himself up to Rec's, so Rec could see what Joseph was looking at, and the other way around. "Here, take my rifle if things get too close." He tossed Rec his Rifle.

 

[blaze96]

"I set off no alarm, Niner entered the room and sent a signal to something called the casket. You may want to hold of killing me once you find out that the Jedi hid an entire cloning facility under this temple. Excuse me if I actually wanted to know why an organization would want such a thing after certain events. So if you get angry fine, but at least ask yourself some questions first. Why is the facility here? What is its purpose? Why would some kind of creature still be here and only be stirred specifically when Niner and I were in that room?" Prenlarr said, somewhat angry about the accusations being thrown his way. Any one of them could have set off that alarm and yet, because it was him, all the accusations were thrown his way as if they themselves could never have made his mistake.

 

[UnusualStranger]

"Let me put this as simply as possible Prenlarr. Why are we trying to get more questions put in our place when we are NOT here to discover them? We did not come here to find out about everything they stored down here, why the place was built, when it was built, and why they have security in place. You can be curious all you want, but it would be nice to be curious AFTER we get all that we came for." Marcus said, taking a deep breath afterwords.

"Look, I get it. You want to know all about this stuff, and maybe it wasn't your fault that Niner entered the room and set off....whatever. It's done, and we need to get our asses moving, because I'm not very confident that we could take down something guarding a Jedi temple when I'm pretty sure none of us could handle a single Jedi."

"Joseph? Here is to hoping we don't need to blast our way through too much of anything, but you are the soldier. Try not to pull any heroics, eh?" Marcus said, pulling free the Beam cutter from the holster he had locked it on.

Hah....perhaps I should go a little easier on these people. Might be stuck with them for a while, and while they are all quite horrible salvagers, maybe they can pull something else out of their hat. I hope so, otherwise I think I might just try to get the hell away from these people, Sith be damned and the Force be damned too.

 

[blaze96]

"And let me put it this way. Why are you questioning none of this? Why are you blindly accepting everything that is happening and moving on as if none of it matters? Clones destroyed the Jedi order and it has long been known that Jedi can't be cloned, so why are they maintaining this facility? I find it disturbing that it would exist, and that the only reason any of this is happening is because it exists. There is some secret being kept from us, and that troubles me greatly. As it should everyone here." Prenlarr responded as he too pulled the beam cutter he had kept on him.

 

[UnusualStranger]

"Well, I would guess that I am reactionary. That, and being in a Jedi Vault that I didn't know existed until today, and that I am going to be taking some it's contents with me to not even sell like I usually do, but use and learn from is a hell of a lot for me to do in the first place." Marcus said with a shrug, guessing this was as good a time to chat as any.

"And frankly, I don't know if you noticed, but being in a location with things I don't understand, on a planet that is presumed dead, but actually roaming with some creatures outside, with a vault that has some sort of defensive mechanisms doesn't exactly make me the most pleasant person to be around. There is a time to think about they 'why', and a time to just take something at face value and think about it later. It is just how I work. It is very disturbing that things are being hidden from us, and the cloning facility doesn't make much sense, but that is all the more reason to figure it is a danger, and with Jedi it is likely a danger made to take down trained fools, and I don't think we are by any means trained, just fools." Marcus continued, checking his somewhat bulky weapon, as well as checking one more time that everything was secure, just to make sure that while running he didn't drop his new Holocron, nor the crystals he had collected.

As good a time as discuss this as any, if I am going to be possibly dying to this trap, or to something outside that likes to rip apart droids that it spots. Goddamn bad days, I knew I was due for one, but I didn't expect it to be station shattering, world killing, new trap hunting bad.

 

[CounterAttack]

Rec immediately returned the gun Joseph tossed to him. "I have no use for a weapon such as this. My own weapons will suffice. Trust me; my sniper rifle will be more than adequate for long and medium-ranged combat. If things get up close and personal I have my pistol." The game hunter then took a moment to consider the situation at hand.

Prenlarr and Marcus appeared to be getting worked up over something, judging by the conversation Rec could hear over the comm. From what he could tell, it seemed like they were disagreeing on how best to proceed now that whatever had happened had happened. Prenlarr had a point. Why would the Jedi have a cloning facility in the Vault? There had to be some reason that would cause them to build such a place. And whatever it was, perhaps finding out that reason was not all that bad of a thing. They could observe from a distance, armed and ready in case anything hostile made its presence known.

"If I may chip in, Prenlarr, Marcus; I offer another idea. We hold here a moment, take the time to see if anything hostile comes out of that... cloning facility. If something does, we gun it down and investigate who or what it is and how it was produced. If it proves too much to handle, we run for the turbolift. Perhaps whose of us who cannot fight particularly well should stay closer to the lift than the fighters," he added, thinking of Rana and her limited combat abilities.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

The turbolift rocketed up to the surface with it's passengers. The wait was long and unpleasant. To their newly opened minds, there was a sense of a nameless hunger all around them and a darkness in the vault they had just left, like a slowly spreading stain of ink. Roughly a minute and a half after leaving, the turbolift came to a sudden halt.

"Problem detected. Opening turbolift doors, eleven floors below destination."

The doors slid open, revealing the exit. It looked like everything was clear, but there was something echoing through the buildings, a scream or cry that chilled them to the bone. Something was coming.

 

[UnusualStranger]

The uncomfortable silence that seemed to echo about the turbolift as they proceeded upwards was by no means deafening, but the sounds and feelings of the planet seemed much more...noticeable now. Perhaps it was not a good idea to jump into this Jedi business on this planet in particular. However, the sudden halt of the turbolift was not good, and the echoing of something coming did not help the cause.

Well, there are those creatures that were startled. Eleven floors under huh? Long way to the top if we have to fight it.

"Here we go...remember, don't start shooting unless it looks like it is coming for us. No need to attract unwanted attention." Marcus reminded, deciding that he would instead use his blaster pistols rather than the Beam Cutter. Unless there was a mob of them, single shots would work far better....

"....Let's see if we can get an eye in the sky..." Marcus muttered, hoping the comms could get out of the building. "Hey, you guys still awake up there? What is going on at the surface? If you can read, please respond." Marcus said, trying to not be too loud, now certain that he would rather sneak about than face whatever was roaming this planet.

 

[Smagmuck_]

"Remember, watch your corners." Joseph said. "If you see anything, yell." He stepped out of the Turbolift. A sense of unease in his stomach. He keyed his helmet light. A bright wash of blinding brightness flooded the room. He shoulder his rifle, keeping his finger off the trigger like Marcus said.

"Rec, could you cover me?" He said, a hint of caution in his voice. He made sure his steps were light.

 

[blaze96]

"Wouldn't yelling be counter-productive? I mean unless death is imminent shouldn't we just signal each other somehow?" Prenlarr said as he kept his beam cutter close. He followed in the middle of the others as they began to move through the area.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Knaake swept the room with his light. It looked all clear, then he swept it back through, and something moved in the dark. He brought his light back over to it, revealing some kind of twisted monstrosity, a vaguely humanoid figure hunched over with dirt and stone dust ground into it's skin. The flesh on the creature seemed to be sloughing off in rivulets, the exposed flesh weeping stinking yellow pus.

The creature turned it's head to stare at them, it's eyes glowing a pale yellow in the dark. It opened it's mouth, showing a maw lined with yellow, jagged teeth, a grayish-pink tongue picking bits of unidentifiable material out from between it's teeth.

It screamed. Then it ran at them.

 

[Smagmuck_]

"Contact!" Joseph said through Comm in a oddly calm voice. He dropped his rifle and it snapped taut on it's Single Point sling as Knaake drew and activated his Vibroblade. He braced for the inevitable impact of the beast, not wanting to risk missing it with his blaster and risk collapsing the building even further. His heart rate on his HUD spiked as Adrenaline poured into his blood stream.

 

[CounterAttack]

As Knaake braced for impact - a stupid move in Rec's opinion, since the best way to avoid being hit by something is not to be in its way - the game hunter dropped to one knee, paused for half a second and lightly squeezed the trigger of his sniper rifle. A bright flash emerged from the barrel and what passed for the head of the abomination rushing at Knaake exploded.

The result wasn't pretty, at complete odds with any similar depiction one would see on the Holonet. Nonetheless, Rec was completely unfazed by the simple headshot and the corpse that didn't yet realise it was dead. He had performed such actions many a time before. "There will definitely be more of those things," he stated plainly. "We have to keep moving; they may be attracted by the scent of blood, even if it belongs to one of their own. Joseph, I trust you understand the concept of 'leapfrog' formation?" he asked as he moved to the cover of a nearby column, rifle ready in case more of the aberrations were skulking in the dim light.

 

[Smagmuck_]

Joseph nodded, bits of brain matter, blood and flesh stuck to his helmet. He looked down at the now dead and headless creature and gave it a hard kick to what passed for a chest. He sheathed his blade and grabbed his rifle. He moved up ahead of Rec, and keyed his Night Vision. Those things were sure to show up on his display. He reached down to his duty belt and popped open a compartment, pulling out a small cylindrical red stick. Thinking twice, he put it back and instead upped the power slightly on his infrared projector. Making it easier to see then flat out revealing his position to whatever those were.

"Rec, move it up... And be careful."

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

The abomination wasn't dead from Rec's shot. It fell to the floor, twitching, then raised it's head and began crawling forward, biting at Knaake's leg, only for a second shot to put it down permanently. A horrible stench came from the corpse. The blaster shots seemed impossibly loud, echoing through the empty building.

As Rec and Knaake moved forward, all seemed quiet.

 

[UnusualStranger]

Marcus gave out a growl as he noted Knaake's behavior toward the creature. While he was distinctly pleased at Rec's reaction, he was less so to see how determined the thing was to keep going after them.

"Sith's spit....Don't let the Force forsaken things close, or you might as well start praying that it can't slam or bite you hard enough to ruin something." Marcus whispered through the comms, now drawing out the Beam Cutter as he noted how the things moved damned fast.

"And don't let the goddamned silence throw you off. The thing charged because it figured it could get a meal and it almost did, so they are at least somewhat smart...so keep your damned eyes wide open, and lets find some good stairs to start climbing, or another turbolift."

Saying that, Marcus checked the Beam Cutter in his possession once more and looked everyone over. All slightly shaken from the random thing charging them, but not broken.

Those damned things likely know where we are now. We gotta start moving, and why didn't those goddamned comms pick up? Must be too low. Gotta get higher to get picked up.

 

[blaze96]

"Hopefully there will have been only one of them, a strangler. As unlikely as I know it probably is." Prenlarr said as he stayed close to the rest of the group. at this point he kept the beam cutter ready to go at quite literally any moment.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Aye, you have it there, Marcus. The sooner we are off this ruined planet, the better," Rec muttered into his comm as he took up a new position in cover, waving Knaake ahead before he ducked out of his spot and repositioned himself once the soldier was able to provide cover fire if necessary.

The hallway ahead of the group seemed to be deserted... given the presence of the creature they had encountered earlier, there were undoubtedly more of them. Rec didn't believe for a second that it was a lone wanderer, as Prenlarr hoped. If there were more in the area, which was highly likely, the novice Jedi would find them soon enough. And when that time came, the ensuing fight would preferably be over sooner rather than later.

As long as Joseph doesn't do anything stupid, like trying to resist a charge attack, we should be fine, he thought as the two of them continued to leapfrog one another, moving from cover to cover. The man can be trusted with a gun, but he is by no means an immovable object to be bounced off of.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

The sound of skittering footsteps seem to come from behind, but when they turned to look, there was nothing but a wall there. The footsteps seemed to be coming through the floor, the walls. Then, as they moved forward again, Marcus spotted a large window, nearly invisible in the dark and covered in filth. He barely had time to indicate it before it exploded inwards, shards of transparisteel flying at them while the monsters poured through the hole, bloodcurdling screams coming from them.

 

[Smagmuck_]

"Oh Blast!" Joseph said, fear crept into his voice. He Picked a target at random, and fired. The blaster bolt hit on of the targets in the chest, leaving a fist sized charred hole in it. It slump to the ground mid stride. Two more of the monsters tripped over it and clattered to the floor, Knaaked picked those off with well placed head shots. To him, this was as normal as sleeping to him.

"Marcus!" Joseph yelled over the gun fire. "Any bright ideas this time, Salvager!?"

One of the monstrosities came right up to Joseph as he was to busy with farther way targets. It tackled him. He had mere seconds to act before he'd get ripped to pieces. He had to think quickly. It's jaws snapped at his face plate, saliva and chunks of rotten meat splattering across his view, his stuck his forearm on it's throat to keep at at bay. A claw swiped at him and scratched his visor, leaving deep scratches in it, nearly puncturing the protective seal. He though quick and jammed the barrel of his blaster into its mouth and squeezed the trigger, the back of the monster's head exploding outwards. He shoved the corpse off of him and scrambled to his feet almost falling over a second time near Rec. His heart pounding his chest and his left arm felt weak.