Byss. Bug Bash.

[Akestos]

Byss Sky
​

Byss Bug Bash
Who Bashes Bugs Best? [member="Kaida Taldir"] | Khia Varad

Byss was a mess at this point. That was often true, lots of stuff went on here that the galaxy would rather forget. Prone to more darkside nexuses than perhaps anywhere in the galaxy. However today it was more a mess than usual. With an infected fleet in orbit of Kissarm, a gas giant in the system. Blood burned hosts that hadn't taken to infection, as with most hosts the hive came across. One Sith captains gibbering half-formed words, vague muttering thoughts and general psychotic episodes over communications. Their red and orange painted ships were covered in badly formed Hive Material. Early attempts at the Hive conquering the dead metal it had come across, there was also some terminus armor trying to grow, but it was just making a mess of the ships rather than helping. Ugly.

Having returned from first order space unmolested and unchallenged. The Surge Fleet known as the OS First Maw was also somewhere in system, but they were little more than large space whales and energy leeches at this point, driven on to feed far from the planets in the asteroid belts beyond. They would roam the galaxy in deep space mostly. To even see one gathering on the fringes of a system was a rarer sight, and could be dismissed as a large swarm of the mythical space whales, that spacers and their friends would tell tales of seeing in bars. Very tall tales usually, a friend of a friend’s co-worker running into one.

Byss was a strange place though. Today was no different.

​

Location: Stormhanger - Surge One

Former Surge Monitoring Kethenite Facility


Acidic lakes were beneath the midnight blue dark skies. Pale green liquids, releasing orange gas into the air, with strange fungal growths around them. Byss was no holiday spot as it was, so who knew what they were. The minor lakes or large pools seemed to be flowing out of the top of a facility, it had a large crack in it, and steam or vapor was rising into a small cloud. There was obvious activity below, a crashed ship or two in the side, long left buried and forgotten about.

Beneath those dark blue skies, avoiding the small lakes of acid were shifting, moving figures. Red armored Mandalorians running very fast into a cave opening, chased by what looked to be several small bug creatures. A grenade was thrown and they disappeared inside the dry structure, several bugs flying into the air. One of many tunnels on the surface it seemed, with all kinds of strange goings-on, strange signals, whale-song? Sonic disturbance if anyone was tuning in, but that was harder to work out what the hell that meant if it was picked up at all.

This was a BIG HIVE. The Air was dry, the temperature was unnaturally hot. Occasionally there would be a rumble beneath the ground. Drones through to Giants called this place home. Dead Sith Lords in the background no doubt laughing in their tombs at the misfortune of travelers who came this way or came to see what had happened to a friend, as was the case with Khia Varad and her small group.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Akestos"]


Life had not been kind to poor Akestos. One moment he had been entertaining rich space divas with his sword dancing skills. The next he was turned into an abomination. One could only hope that he had at least been able to sleep with Siobhan Kerrigan before being captured and transformed. However, that is not the plot of this thread. This brings us to the location of today's adventure.


A lovely world called Byss. Change one letter and add another, and you got Bliss. Once upon a time, it had been a resort planet, a totalitarian utopia and Emperor Palpatine's secret stronghold. On first sight, a paradise world. But scratch the surface, and it turned out to be a world of horrors where the Emperor drained the life force of his subjects to fuel his experiments. Then it was blown up - and came back via unexplained means.


Kaida could not say that she had set foot on this world before, though she had visited her share of Sith worlds. There was something about this accursed place that made her skin crawl. Not that she would admit it.

"You know, Ice Lady, when you said we were going on an adventure I'd thought you meant some place...nice. Gee, this looks worse than Kaeshana." Kaida craved silence, but Telara conspired against the quiet. The girl was her 'apprentice'. She could hold her own, but was immensely annoying.

"Do not call me that," Kaida said gruffly, without turning her gaze from the viewing port as the shuttle began its descent. "And this is not an adventure or a vacation trip. One wrong step, and you're dead. So you will take it seriously and follow my orders."

"Yes, Boss," Telara said. "You know, I did survive on Kaeshana on my own just fine when all the bigwigs ran away. Despite all all the gang wars, lack of food, pirate attacks," she added. She had enough sense not to mention that Kaida had been among the exodites.

There was a pause. "I'm aware. Shows you're capable. You are still an initiate."

"And you're always here to remind me."

Kaida would have made a gruff retort, but her attention was pulled elsewhere. "Approaching facility, Seraph. Landing in five minutes. No response to our hails. Our scanners are picking up life signs though." Aelene Thalien chimed in from the pilot's seat. Like Kaida, she was a former Angelii. "Be advised, there's some strange gas in the air. Our sensors cannot identify it. I'd advise rebreathers and sealed suited at all the time. The lakes may be acidic. Temperature is way higher than Byss' norm," she leaned back in her chair. "It reminds me of Gehenna," the Exemplar added.

"Gehenna?" Telara asked. "What's that?"

"Long story."

"Bando Gora homeworld. Fought there twice," Kaida's frigid tone cut any discussion about it short. "Bring us in." Stepping out of the cockpit, she made her way to the shuttle bay, where the rest of the team was waiting. They were a mix of Exemplars and Shadow Knight regulars.

"Team assembled and ready, ma'am. What are your orders?" Chanadi Jai Himoul snapped to attention, delivering a professional salute with bonecracking efficiency. Unlike Kaida and Telara, she was a Qadiri, a race that was kin to the Eldorai. They were new to spaceflight but were rapidly learning ever since Tygara had been unwillingly opened up to the Galaxy.

"We're inbound. Land close to the mountain, move into the facility, get what we need, place charges then leave. Be vigilant, pair with a partner when we encounter hostiles and make your shots count. No heroics." There was a pause. "It is suspected that the creatures might be infectious. Make sure to keep one last bullet for yourself."

 

[Khia Varad]

Muse

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ4Z_uX6WFE

Talrus Casteer, of Vanmere Biotech Industries and Galtech Engineering, turned to Khida with a look that said, just keep me alive. He had fronted the credits for both teams. A quiet man, not a pain in the neck like you might expect. Still, you never could tell with corporate scientists how they’d react under pressure, and he’d insisted on going with them. They need three samples from within the facility. A small dead creature for study, part of the wall, and any recorded information or logs on what happened. Khia needed to know what had happened to her friend in the crashed ship, then she was to join up to all leave together.

Simple. Two teams, four easy goals. Easy because this facility had been scanned and whatever creatures were inside, hadn’t had a long time here. What was interesting to Vanmere and Galtech was why the OS had abandoned it with no trace, and exactly what they had been working on.

In her shuttle, she’d hear from a Varad below, “following the lower tunnels beneath the stormhanger. No visible reaction from inside the structure. Dormant as hoped. Advise entering higher up, looks like less activity in the main Surge station sections.” The Mandalorians had found the ground outside the hive more dangerous. Inside the structure, things were calm. Not that they knew but the hive was in a seasonal cycle, seeding or sleeping.

At least. This hive.

Inside all six Mandalorians had flashlights on, advanced cabur beskargam or a close clan equivalent on each of the six. Huds scanning away and tracking anything out of the ordinary.

Six crusaders in the red and blue armors, orange clan symbols. Thankfully no acid below in the tunnels, that was just a surface breach, a breach from what? As she turned her blaster rifle around, one of many weapons, the light on top of it paved the way. Wasn’t a big hive this, or it shouldn’t be, nobody really knew what the OS had been doing here. They had the layout though on their huds, plans drawn up by Talrus Casteer. How he’d come by those plans or knew of how long this structure was here, was another story.

Following his floor plans. That was when they hit a hive wall in the maintenance ducts. “Problem.” Khia grunted. Kae Vines were growing outside, and apparently inside along the walls. Thankfully no flowers on show, but they were thick, veins for nutrients, and in this case something that had grown over the floor plans. That Varad was back on the comms to the shuttle "Got some plant blocking the way, bring cutting tools for yourselves." Outside lurked small black beetle creatures with pincers, spiders and other crawling insects, not things you wanted to be bitten from. Probably just part of Byss wildlife, probably.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]


Kaida was, all things considered, not fond of corporate types. Or free market capitalism in general. It struck her as unpatriotic. The moment capital was given power, it used it to line its own pockets. Her people's dependence on Firemane had long vexed her. Now the Eldorai Matriarchy was a puppet state. It was one of the reasons she had recanted her oath. There was no point in being loyal to a broken system.

The Shadow Knights were stupid and naive in other ways, but at least they were led by her people and didn't have aristos. However, they were also short of credits. Rebel paramilities and nomad fleets tended to be. So here she was. Helping a corporate bigshot go on a safari trip in a spooky laboratory on a dead planet populated by monsters. His credits better be good. He better not try to screw her over. Or she'd kill him.

Their approach was quiet. No automated defence systems sprang to life to open fire upon them, no monsters pounced from their hiding spots to attempt to tear them limb from limb. No noise save for the roar of engines and the sound of their boots on the ground. The shuttle touched down upon the ground a bit away from the research base, throwing up sand and dust in the process. The Shadow Knights had landed about 1km away from the mountain that housed the base, above the hangar. Not a huge distance, but their landing spot gave them cover.

Quickly and professionally, the Shadow Knight soldiers exited their transport ship and fanned out. Chanadi and Aelene directed them in securing the LZ with military precision. "Get moving, people. I want a perimeter set up around this area," the Qadiri lieutenant ordered. She was kitted out in a sealed powered suit and armed with a Firemane boltgun. She had a Sarzmigar for melee. From their vantage point they could acidic lakes and clouds of orange gas. It all looked quite disconcerting.

"Why land here? Scanners didn't pick up anything," Telara muttered as she stepped out. "Hangar was in reach."
"Think," was Kaida's laconic response.
"Open doors make you blind to traps," the girl said after a brief moment. "If there's monsters in hiding there, they'd swarm us. Or wait and cut off our exit."
"Yes," Kaida stated. Her tone was gruff, but not unkind. "Our employer would have us believe this will be a simple milk run with one dormant hive. What does that tell us?" she continued. Telara blinked. Was Ice Lady actually asking her for her opinion? Next thing she knew, Ashira would swoop down from the heavens and hand out lembas to starving Eldorai orphans.
"He's stupid or hiding something. Or both," she opined bluntly.
"Yes." This exhausted Kaida's capacity for small talk. "Move out. Aelene, comm the Mandalorians."

 

[Khia Varad]

Storm Hangar. Classified, Surge Monitoring Facility Floorplan ​

Spoiler

7 Levels​

Classified Name OS Maw Hive Facility​

Classified Directive 12 Levels​

1st Level Upper Docking: Storm Hangar​

Ground Level: Administration​

Sub Level 1: Quarters​

Sub Level 2: Containment Checkpoints and Cellblock.​

Sub Level 3: Sample Research​

Sub Level 4: Containment Checkpoints and Barracks.​

Sub Level 5: Specimen Holding​

--------------------------------------​

Sub Level 6 ----------------- Classified.​

Sub Level 7 ----------------- Classified.​

Sub Level 8 ----------------- Classified.​

Sub Level 9 ----------------- Classified.​

Sub Level 10 ----------------- Classified.​

​

​

​

Tag: [member="Kaida Taldir"]

The Mandalorians communicated back the difficulties inside. They were unable to actually get into Sub Level 2 with the vines and plantlife being so thick. Rather than risk cutting the plant, they opted to take a maintenance tunnel upward to Sub Level 1, or maybe even higher. Climbing a ladder. Khia had wanted to search the cell blocks for any One Sith prisoners here first, that would have to wait.

Everything was very quiet.

Outside. Not so much. There was a small swarm of seeder slicer beetles heading for Kaida. Nothing too unmanageable, maybe a dozen. Their pincers alone might not breach armor, but numbers were usually the problem. Nothing a good boot couldn’t fix here. Maybe a few annoying flies buzzed around that might prove irritating, but so far the scientist hadn’t lied about this being something they could handle. Far off in the distance, there was a rumble and a stormcloud, probably thunder.

Acid bubbled away, and strange fungal growths could be seen along the bank of it. Those were more dangerous and if anyone walked that way, the scientist advised them to "steer clear of the pools". Seemed rather obvious probably, but he wasn't taking the chance. They were thoroughly unnatural wildgrowth, in fact oddly the smaller bugs and insects outside seemed to be trying to rip some of the fungi up. Their employer was calm, small creatures, a heavily armed team with him, as if this much at least he’d expected. He'd paid for the best after all. Talrus pointed out a door in the facility side for the uppermost hangar level, “here are the codes.” Offering a small data device, curious he had the codes. There seemed some thin red Kae vines laying over the entrance, but nothing they couldn’t move out of the way.

Easy.

The Structure was actually shaped in a mechanical hive beneath the orange hive ridges and red vine growth ahead of them. The upper floors the biggest, circling around and going down to a central point. A drill design Archangel might have appreciated, as it was used to drop and drill into Byss before actually being fixed in place. Darth Centax was not Raien Keth, he liked his facilities effective and clinical, with little wasted inside the hallways. Given that fact, there might even be mention of Cytech [member="Mr Black"] on the walls, his company known for efficient design, alongside the engineering expertise of [member="Fyor Nayus"]’s old Galtech on a few tools, how that company had fared with their prodigal son long assassinated was anyone’s guess. More likely most insignia or smaller markings were overgrown with the occasion Kae Vine or a thin layer of Hive Material trying to claim the dead metal as its own. This might also hinder some of the door controls or doors themselves sadly.

Inside. For Kaida and for Khia, they might see the occasional spider and significantly more dangerous slicer beetle attempting to sneak up on them, but these were easily solved with a good boot to the floor. Maybe they could all relax, take it easy? The Mandalorians knew better, and to be sure of it, “sharp, at every corner.” Khia reminded them. They were in something straight out a horror holovid, none of these veterans were slacking for one second.

Around the outside of the facility. If Kaida cut her way in instead. Kae Vines would try to seal any doors or hole very slowly behind her. Pesky things that would take twenty minutes to regrow if they were cut.

Quiet. Very Quiet.
Muse Music:

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Aw-UpBJR8

Foreshadowing

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]


"Beetles?" Behind her helmet's faceplate, Chanadi looked a little puzzled. Even the fact that her voice was modulated by her helmet's electronic speaker could not completely hide her bemusement when the small swarm of seeder slicer beetles suddenly was upon them.

Most were crushed by being stomped the old fashioned way with army boots. Telara lifted some rocks to throw at them. It seemed to work well enough. Flies buzzed around, and Kaida waved them away with an expression of irritation on her face. "Don't let down your guard," she ordered. Feelings of safety bred complacency. Complacency led to sloppiness and sloppiness to death.

It was all too quiet, too safe, too everything that screamed normalcy and milk run. "Mandalorians are being blocked by...vines and plants," Aelene spoke up, pulling Kaida away from her suspicions and general disdain for corporate big shots and their crazy vanity projects. "Say they're a maintenance tunnel to sub level two."

"Think any of them are like the Harbingers?" Telara spoke up, shrugging when Kaida looked at her. "You know, those people with no Sciia who keep yapping about how they're blessed by Illyria or some rot like that. Didn't the Mandalorians butcher their Sciians a couple years ago?"

"Focus your attention on what matters," Kaida's capacity for small talk was extremely limited. Vines had taken root, as the elves saw when they approached. On first sight it looked like nature was reclaiming what man had occupied, but these vines were not natural growths. "Place explosive charges. We'll blow our way in."

 

[Khia Varad]

Assuming Explosives were placed, a clever and nice good hole was blown in. One that would take a lot longer to reform. Maybe many hours, even a day or more. Inside it would reveal metal corridors along the octagonal ring, somewhat overgrown by vines and other harden hive minerals, half-formed like the ships in orbit had been. Dead metal yet fully claimed. Khia finishing her climb. Corridor lights were flickering on and off. Red lighting was on emergency in some parts of the facility. Power was half on, some doors were not opening at all, so they had to cut their way through. Eventually just taking the easier route to where the explosion had gone off, strength in numbers being a preference. No point reinventing the wheel and both cutting doors.

Moisture dripped from above her, splattering on Khia’s armor. They were going to need a stay in decontamination after this.

​

The explosive wave above caused more of that thunder from the storm cloud in the distance. Connected? Didn't seem likely. An orange storm front, Kaida might begin to see the lightning flashes. Still a good distance away, clouds always looked closer than they were from any distance. They had time. Bugs actually were content to let them walk right in, sometimes they’d nip at their heels but any collective swarm will was sleeping. Like those mushrooms, as soon as there was room, the dead bugs were being hauled off from behind them.

When the second team breached the circular upper hangar, they’d find it had One Sith ships in. Older fighter designs. Maybe an old gladiator squadron ace marking on the side, top of the line fighters many years ago. Strangely for a hangar, there were also medical beds, barren of anything on them at all, no blood, nothing. The two hangar doors down to the admin level had been sealed very tightly indeed, reinforced even, and were now in pieces with holes in them. Room to pass.

Explosives? Didn't look like it, there were plenty of blaster shots on the doors, but no organic matter whatsoever. Efficient creatures. When the team found their foot, they’d find the six Mandalorians waiting for them near the stairway doors that were in ruins. Khia nodded. One of the Varad, spoke up. "Nothing yet. No bodies. No bugs."

Their employer remained equally tight-lipped, taking time to look over the medical beds and do some scans of his own. “We need to keep going down.” He said eventually. Sealing a shield around himself, one he offered to anyone who wanted it, small devices. “Better safe than sorry.” They wouldn’t take much of an impact, but the enviro-shields would also help keep any cases of unfortunate flu at bay.

Sadly for them all, something far below them had stirred in the wake of explosions. A subtle ripple of communication going through those vines, a Hive Node came to life, anyone with any telepathic or force ability to read minds might feel a sharp piercing ringing that lasted for a second or two. One of the Mandalorians felt it, holding her helmeted head till it passed. Near to Kaida, somewhere off to the side, the first Surge Drone woke up. Dazed at first. Its jaws chittering. Like it didn’t know where it was, its own hive missing. Unfortunately not the specimen they needed on Kaida’s plan, that was something bigger with a fiery mouth.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]

Explosive charges were placed at the wall. The team sapper quickly moved into cover, gave the signal and pressed the detonator. Boom. The explosives detonated. The force of the blast tore a hole through the wall. Acrid white smoke escaped into the air. Quickly and with military precision, the Shadow Knights passed through the billowing cloud. Inside the facility, they found themselves in a metal corridor along the octagonal ring. The walls had been claimed by overgrown vines. Red lights flickered on and off. Power was unreliable, and doors were often uncooperative. This was not helped by the fact that some had been literally covered in vines, making it difficult to access control panels if there were any.

Still, the team pushed through. As she passed a window, Kaida caught a glimpse of lightning flashing outside. All was quiet, save for the distant rumble of thunder and their own footsteps. Still, she remained vigilant. "Stay sharp," she ordered. The Shadow Knights moved in pairs of two, checking every corner and room, weapons at the ready. Each soldier carried a rifle of some sort, hand grenades, a knife and a melee weapon.

They happened upon the Mandalorian team when they made their entrance to the hangar. The first thing Kaida felt through her Sciia was noticeable through its absence. To be sure, her preternatural Senses were not the most advanced, but she perceived...nothing. She heard their steps, but did not feel them. It was like looking into a void. Her rifle was up as she came across the corner, ere she lowered.

"Thunder," she called, that being the prearranged code. She got 'Flash' in response.

"They're like the Harbingers - all of them," Telara said in a low voice, speaking in Eldarai as opposed to Basic. The girl looked more curious than afraid though. Her eyes swept over the Mandalorians' beskar suits. Kaida made no different.

"Kaida Taldir. Shia Varad?" it was more of a statement than a question. The corporate big shot got a curt nod. That was it. Perhaps she should be more polite to the rich maleling who had hired her, but polite and Kaida did not go well together. She was also a bit sexist.

However, introductions were cut short. there was a subtle ripple of communications. Too subtle for Kaida to sense, though some Shadows did. Then a bug suddenly woke up from its slumber. It seemed confused. There was chittering noise.

Chanadi spotted it and reacted first. Spinning around, she squeezed the trigger. An armour-piercing round leapt out, hitting the head, which turned out to be well-armoured. However, then ice wrapped around its legs as Kaida willed her power to ensnare it. The creature hissed and Chanadi aim low, shooting it in the mouth. There was gore and stuff. "It was dormant, ma'am," she said sardonically.

"Don't think it's bug family will be now," Telara commented wryly. "Just before bug eyes woke up, I heard something. It was like a...piercing noise, ringing in my ears. I think it was the bugs talking to one another."

"I heard the same," Aelene added, while she scanned the room, rifle in hand.

 

[Khia Varad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q6WFYxywLE​

​

"Olarom Kaida Taldir" Greetings. Khia said bluntly. The two of them seemed on the same wavelength. "Khia Varad." The scientist with them keen to pull the main doors down open, which Khia assisted with. No point going down the maintenance ladder again, if this was the main stairway down. “Hear anything now?” Seka, Khia’s battlesister asked the forcers keenly. There was no sound, not for a long time, like someone had pressed a button and nothing had yet happened. Then it pulsed again a bit faster than before. Very gradual and spaced apart, and so on, until the sound got much quieter.

Inside sub level 1 administration. There was nothing at all. No hive, no nothing. Not a sign of a thing?

While the six red Mandalorians felt absolutely nothing from this Hive beginning to receive signals again, their instruments registered some sonic static for a time. Then. Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. Their own version of a sonar. Was something doing the same to them while they were in the dead metal? The Mandalorians were using some form of lifeform detector but it kept giving them movement, then nothing. They’d show one of the two devices over if anyone asked. Small beetles would crawl out of an air vent, annoying but hardly life-threatening, big enough to set off the detector though, which did nothing to engender calm.

Continuing down the mostly pristine cleaned corridors. Strange that there had been a firefight on the doors. Would anyone spot the clue as to what that meant? Khia was too busy keeping her guard up. The Varad were professionals, and worked in Tandem with Kaida’s people where they could. There was no sense of separation for their part. They covered them and moved with them. While he noted the upturn in tension, Talrus seemed calm enough as well, and took a moment to advise Kaida as a second stray drone was blown to pieces by a Mandalorian, “there won’t be much bigger below” More certainly but not bigger. The specimen they needed was bigger, but they were few and on an operating table as far as he was concerned. This whole place was sleeping.

They passed a room full of equipment, he told them all to stop and pocketed a vial of a blue liquid. Seemingly very happy about that find, maybe someone should ask for more pay? Whatever was on the terminal didn’t please him so much. “Computer's wiped here, there will be backup logs below with the specimens.” There better be. He looked to Kaida to see when she wanted to move next.

Khia didn’t seem all that phased, one of the male Mandalorians did ask Telara, “seen anything like this outside.” Pointing to a red flower hanging off the wall. A single vine which was pushing through an air duct. One which the Telrus advised, they “do not touch, burn or freeze any flowers.” The flowers should be dormant, he looked at the vial in his hands wondering about something. That was the first sign of any concern on his face at all, but even so, he was still assuredly calm and felt in control.

Down to the quarters now, and inside the door was working again. Piled high was the food, clothes, bedding, and sheets, liberal amounts of each. Like far too many people had been living here. No sign of them now, signs of vines toward the end of this ring instead, the stairway a walk around the central frame over a grated floor. Talrus pocked a holopicture from a makeshift bed as they passed.

A rock of thunder. Outside the storm front kept coming.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]


"No," Telara said after a moment of straining her senses. In contrast to Kaida, she had better senses and telepathic abilities, but she was still an acolyte. She had gotten over her surprise of coming across a bunch of Force Dead humans. The priestess of her mistress would have said that they were vile, soulless demons. But the priestess had done nothing to protect her from her mistress' cane and abominations when she saw fit to 'chastiste' her servant. "Wait, there's noise now. It's gone again."


"The...machines are registering noise. It is a bit like - what do you call it again? - sonar," Chanadi noted. She was new to the way the outsiders did things and did not yet know all the fancy technical terms. Still, their instruments were picking up on the same noise as the Mandalorians.


They passed through the strangely pristine corridors of the facility towards the dormitories. "Clear," Chanadi declared and lowered her rifle, having assumed the position of pointwoman for the space elf contingent. The Qadiri turned to Kaida. "It's clean. No bodies, ma'am. But we saw signs of struggle outside," she spoke in Zandri. "Whatever ill befell these humans does not bear the signs of an battle. It resembles an abduction."


Kaida nodded curtly. The scientist advised them not to do anything to the flowers. "I'll burn and freeze anything I have to if it gets in my way," Telara retorted. "My life's more important to me than whatever you want to get for your lab." Kaida did not reprimand her. There was something else Telara saw in his eyes when he looked at the vial. "Something's not right," she muttered to Kaida.


"Keep an eye on your lifeform sensors," Kaida ordered. The dormitories were a mess. The tell-tale signs of cramped quarters. Food, clothes and sheets were all lying about. In more than a few cases the food had gone mouldy from lying around beyond its expiration date. No one here had expected an attack. But there were no bodies, no blood. It led to vines, a stairway and a grated floor. Kaida beckoned them to a halt. "Good spot for an ambush. Ideal to drag people down," she muttered. Perhaps that was why there had been no signs of fighting inside the base. Perhaps most of the base's occupants had never left.


"Anything to say?" To say that she asked Talrus Casteer would be inaccurate. Asking implied politeness and she was not polite, especially not to civilians. It also implied one had the option to say no. There it was again. Now she could hear the noise, too. It sounded...different as she stepped onto one of the greates. Drawing upon her Sciia, she wrapped her willpower around it and pulled it up. Aelene stood close, providing cover for her commander. The sonar-esque noises grew louder.

 

[Khia Varad]

Whether Khia might have taken the demon moniker as a compliment or grunted stoically, the galaxy would be left to deliberate that conundrum. Machines were afoot with strange readings, another thing which was not Khia’s forte was the technical side of any operation, her shining Varad boots a testament to the term boots on the ground, polished well. When the mandalorian responsible for working this sonic chatter out tried to show her the readings, she looked at him… till eventually he stopped trying.

Anything to say. “Burning them. Will work.” Talrus wasn’t about to argue, in fact, he was warming to the idea. He knew that wouldn’t answer her question well enough. “If there is any data here to stop this. I’ll give you double.” Credits didn’t matter when this was floating around. How many transports or ships had left this facility before they had arrived? Walking toward the grated door with a new purpose, unceremoniously Talrus held up the holopicture of a woman. “So nobody else dies.” She probably deserved it if she was down here working on this, but that didn’t stop the sentiment being true, a flawed kind of half-nobility.

Down the stairs to the next floor. The first containment level with several smaller specimins and a large amount of security doors. There was a large amount of hive here, the walls covered against the checkpoint, narrowing and funnelling the corridors. Clever creatures. Everyone was careful. Taking their time. Aware the tension had jumped a notch. Something moved on the scanners again, but then nothing. Thicker vines. More of them. Why was everything so quiet here. What had happened to the creatures, and the scientists? Both were missing?

The floor moved. The floor. Khia’s active pinging went off the charts. “Besbe'trayce! Weapons!” Her powerful shout was deafening, and called in both languages so nobody misunderstood what it meant. There was a whipping motion around the Mandalorians. Two creatures. One front. One Rear. Vaguely Nautolan? But Kit fisto this was not.

A whirling mass of black vines emerged. The very room coming alive.​

Talrus actually ran to help one of the Eldorai, not able to do much, completely unprepared. A whirl of vines? No, it was two creatures covered in them that came alive and snatched the man from view, pulling him into the doorway. They couldn’t track it previously, because it was the vines! It had been all around them earlier. Insidious Wildgrowth from the chemical lakes outside, the fungi, all of it leading to this. Another stage of Hive evolution, why this one was separate and alone, why it was cut off.

Any parts of the creature shot away, didn’t regrow immediately, but you could see it twisting and turning as the mandalorians fired into it, vines from its own body trying to fill the gaps. An impacting vine arm hit a Mandalorian in the chest and sent him against the wall. It didn’t kill him outright but his armor showed the impact, another Varad was taken by the legs and thrown into a doorway.

Fast rather than lethal, a disruptive creature, dangerous from the secondary impacts at being tossed around. Hopefully, while the Eldorai and the Mandalorians found a way to kill the main threat. The second creature with Talrus jumped down a grated shaft several levels through a hive tunnel. More levels than were on the floorplan? All that was left of their scientist employer, was the vial he’d been holding. Maybe a cure?

Firing till they ended it, Khia checked on the nearest Eldorai, and then a Mandalorian nearby. They could still all leave now if they wanted.

The thunder outside got a bit louder. Perhaps they should? Something else didn't like wildgrowth either.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]


For Kaida, it all clicked to together. The clues had been there really. There had been no fighting because it was not hordes of bugs that attacked the base's staff, save for those outside. Rather, the vines had pulled them down into the pit. No signs of struggle, a completely silent base. It had nothing to do with the supposedly dormant hive. All hell broke loose. The room came alive, as a whirling mass of black vines emerged from seemingly everywhere. Trying to grab Mandalorians and Shadow Knights, pull them, throw them or drag them down into the abyss for Force knew what.


There was no time for speculation. Instincts took over. "Open fire!" Her comrades sprang into action. Using her small size and agility, Telara evaded the brunt of the vines' attacks, grabbing the lost vial. Kaida's lightsabre sprang to life with a snap-hiss, carving through a vine. Another was frozen by her power and then shattered when she bashed it with her shield. However, an impacting vine arm slammed into her chest. Pain shot through her and in her moment of weakness, another vine swept her legs out from under her. She hit the ground hard, thrown into a brief daze. As she tried to rally herself, a vine wrapped around her legs. She furiously swung her sabre, but a vine came from above, grabbing her throat.


She struggled to breathe. Grabbing the vine with her hand, lightning surged from her fingertips to cook it. The vine around her leg tightened, seeking to drag her away. Then there was enraged shriek from the grossly mutated Nautolan controlling the vine when an unnatural power forcefully grabbed the vine. Standing above Kaida, Telara tore it from her leg and slammed it into the floor with great force before shooting it with her pistol. "You owe me now," the teenage Eldorai declared. Kaida grunted something, but got to her feet. It was time to take control.


"Shadow Knights, formation!" she called out. The elf soldiers rallied, assuming a formation that would help cover them from various angles. Aelene shot lightning from her fingertips while providing cover with her shield. Adjusting quickly, Chanadi moved towards the group. The Qadiri fired armour-piercing rounds with her boltgun, firing towards the mutated Nautolan. When her bolter was snatched and tossed aside, she switched to her Sarzmigar, hacking at vines with powerful swings. The polearm was a strong weapon and had a good deal of reach.

"Seraph, these vines keep sprouting from this squid creature. New ones will emerge until we take it out," she called out, beating a vine with the pommel of her weapon before cleaving it in twain. The Nautolan targeting them directly was canny though. When they fired bullets towards it, additional vines sprouted to place themselves in between their projectiles and bolts, being destroyed in its stead.

"Keep the vines at bay. Chanadi, grenade. Aelene, with me," Kaida ordered flatly.

The Eldorai raised an eyebrow. "Vhaerun again?"

"Yes."

While the the other Shadow Knights stabbed, hewed or shot vines that came their way to clear a path, Kaida and the aeromancer advanced, weaving a path forward. At her signal, Chanadi primed a grenade and flung it into the fray. There was a loud, bestial shriek and smoke filled the air. Part of the grated floor fell. Emerging from the smoke, Kaida drew upon her Sciia.

Gathering all the moisture in the air she manifested an ice sipike and sent it hurtling towards the creature. With it so busy fending off attacks, it could not block the spike and it impaled itself in its skull. Moving in perfect sync, Aelene blasted the mutated Nautolan with lightning for maximum conductivity. After all, water and electricity did not go well together, as anyone who had been electrocuted while it was raining would know.

 

[Khia Varad]

Bringing new meaning to the term gardening, vines were cut, shot, electrocuted by Eldorai and impaled! Now burned by some of the Mandalorians and their wrist flamers. Though Talrus was nowhere to be seen unfortunately. When the second creature decided to crawl its way back up for seconds, the vines snatched out to catch one of our red armored Varad’s ankles, threatening to pull Seka down the same hole. Khia’s boot came down HARD. Shooting her blaster right into the vine until it released its hold.

The Mandalorians hadn’t had time to organise as the Eldorai had. Having to duck to narrowly avoid a spinning tendril, it raked along the hive wall in a whirling motion, she offered her hand to her battlesister and they went back to back, covering each other from any stray vines. Doing the best they could to hold. The mass moved along the roof and floor, they both began firing into it, splitting away more of its mass, and witling it down. That worked well until it tried to come down on top of them. She shoved her battle sister out of the way, and the main mass fell right beside her, feeling her arm getting squeezed around the coiling creature, the armor threatened to crush inward.

Khia snorted, putting her blaster as close as she could and firing right into it. It was soon knocked away. A punch would do nothing, so she used her wrist blade to cut herself free, then the other to slice at a trailing vine. A hail of fire later from the Mandalorians focused in the beast, and finally both creatures lay still, what looked like dead. Feeling her wrist, sprained but not broken. Her first weapon was wrecked, so she unholstered her sonic rifle. Firing a few shots to be sure. Nothing moved.

Outside the StormSurge was closer. An ion storm and mineral dust cloud obscuring the way. It was hard to tell the magnitude of the orange storm headed their way, there was some lightning but not an overpowering amount. Creatures were moving inside of it, large and small, light rumbling of the earth ahead of the surge was obvious. They had time to make a choice. Khia was ready to continue down, checking first on the injured of which there were a few. One was out cold, but most were in shape to fight, bruises and maybe a broken rib or two. Their armor well scuffed. “Nobody will be alive here.” One of the mandalorians stated. Acknowledging the loss of her friend she'd come to assist as likely, Khia grunted distainfully, “No loss of honor in leaving.” The Varad woman said to the speaker bluntly, checking her new weapon and getting ready to go down. “For any of you.” She told both the Eldorai and Varad with her, who looked up getting their bearings, they’d managed to wake up their fallen vode and he was standing up. Each rising to their feet.

One of their clan was here, in this mess, now Talrus too. Until they knew what their vode was, or what had happened, they were going deeper. All 6 crusaders were preparing, had to admire a crusader’s spirit, even if they were about to be trapped or face death. Reckless honor, but first. By the stairs Khia fitted an explosive to the wall. It happened to be an incendiary device. If you had to be trapped, better it by your own traps. Waiting for Kaida to tell her what she was doing before she armed anything. It only got thicker and more dangerous from here, at least they knew what to look for now. Flowers. Living vine.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Khia Varad"]


After the bloodshed came the quiet. Outside the storm was closing in. Down here they could not see the lightning flash, but they heard the thunder boom. "That's not natural, Seraph," Aelene muttered, after firing a couple explosive bullets into the mutated Nautolan. Better safe than sorry. Kaida nodded curtly. She checked on her soldiers. They had adjusted well enough. A few scraps, bruises and a damaged rib or two were things they could handle. But who knew what abominations awaited them down there in the belly of the beast. "We got no clue what's down there. Our ship's not responding to our hails. Damn storm's getting in the way. Nothing but static," Aelene added after fiddling with the comm, sounding a bit frustrated.

"They were under orders to take off if the situation gets too hot," Kaida said matter-of-factly. They had, all things considered, good reasons to depart the base while they still could. Of course, it would mean foregoing a pay check, but then their employer might already be dead or been turned into an abomination. Kaida could come up with some good reasons to continue with the mission. The research could still be valuable to certain interested parties, for one.

But the truth was that one of her reasons was an irrational one. Over the past two decades, the Eldorai had done nothing except run away. They had been forced to flee their homeworld aboard Firemane ships to avoid being wiped out when an asteroid devastated it. And when they had returned to reclaim their homeworld and help their trapped sistren leave it, the oppressive First Order had subjugated it. The Eldorai Matriarchy had grown indolent and effete, incapable of doing anything other than sucking on Firemane's teats. This was unacceptable.

"We're coming with you. But we better get something out of this," she said at last, addressing Khia. "One last thing: we know now for certain that these creatures are infectious. Keep a last round in reserve - for yourself."

"Why did I agree to be your minion again?" Telara wondered aloud. "That egghead better be alive and give us a pay raise. By the way, he dropped this," she added, holding up the vial.

"He kept it close. It had value to him. Mayhaps it is a cure against these...abominations," Chanadi suggested. She frowned slightly. "Or a plague," she added after some thought.

 

[Khia Varad]

Either a cure for this, a plague in its own right, or what they were working on at the very end. Maybe all three. Kaida could hold the key to stopping many old mysteries that Kethenites should have best left in the boxes where they found them. The shaking of Eshan had woken more than just tired civilians, but that was for another day. Was there ever an end to the cycle? There was hope. In an unlikely heroes pair of hands.

“We still have our ship, if the cover over it holds.” One of the younger Mandalorians said. If any of them made it out of here, and the ship survived the weather or rather Surgefront moving in. That was an escape.

“Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur" Seka said to Kaida. Khia looked at her and the Eldorai with some serious respect. “She says. It’s a good day for someone else to die.” Waiting for Eldorai to pass the arming point for the incendiary bomb, Khia activated the trap. “Let’s kill some bugs.” Rosi, one of the youngest Mandalorians declared spiritedly, there was a charging of his weapon, and he proceeded down first. Committed.

Khia actually walked out in front of Kaida before she could proceed much further. “entye, a debt.” Then she got out of the way, they were going lower and not just for credits, for the battle itself, and for the clan member lost. That would be repaid, assuming anyone survive the surge coming, they would need to move faster. Another explosive device was set behind them, this one cryoban for freezing the area. The rumbling was growing more pronounced.

Sub Level 3: Sample Research

There was that telepathic and sonic pinging again. Trying to track movement. A flash of something might be in their mind. Hurry it said. Something big, very old was deeper in the hive. Restrained and locked away. The images it gave off seemed older too, past tense, as if they were trying to tell a story, but unable to break free of whatever shackled them. Hurry.

Meanwhile the research level continued to grow thicker with vines. There seemed to have been a firefight here at least, or rather the markings of some sort of weapon. Force scarring, lots of energy discharge. Not matching anything known to conventional weapons, but maybe forcers? A lot of the vines were ruptured in this area, and there was the lingering sense of Harbringers, because half of this entire level was force dead. Though the levels narrowed as they descended, that was still a significant thing to feel the absence of.

Khia’s clan, force dead themselves, felt ill at ease within it. Like void. Absence welling within nothing. If a chemist had put two properties together in a test tube and watched them boil over into this, whatever this was. Force Death. That would be accurate. The broken vials in this room looked much like what the Eldorai had recovered, sadly none were intact. There was a half formed log entry, most of the days of which were missing, but the Mandalorian tech managed to play back some.

….. While Initial tests are encouraging. Vong DNA being Force D*** did nothing to ***ist its stability …
... Secondary reactions continue to persist….. mutation from Wildgrowth too unst****….
…. Lost 3 today in an explosion, it wasn’t c***ical. But the contr*** species looks like it might give us some.….

The console didn’t offer any futher insight, if anything by the force energies scarring around the metal, the operator likely hadn’t survived whatever happened here, or if they had, nobody would want to meet the result. Images of infection, the fleet that had been in orbit, someone or something was trying to tell them the story and failing. The door down awaited, or a vent if they wanted to take the quicker more confined route.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]​