Private Cold Embrace

[Yuri Maji]

LOCATION: Space | Wyl Sector
TAGS: The Lost

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Theme​

If Yuri had a credit for every time he stumbled upon a distress signal in the middle of nowhere, he'd at least have to credits. This was the second credit. The lone beacon crossed his dashboard as he tried to get as far away from pirate space as possible. His antics and repeated thievery of valuable materials and industrial equipment had landed him in hot water with various entities, as well as the damned Black Sun.

But the beacon had caught his attention. A quick jump later, and he was face to face with an absolutely enormous ship drifting aimlessly through the void. Upon first glance, it looked like the vessel was attacked, but a closer inspection indicated something far more interesting. Maneuvering his freighter around the derelict hull, he noted that the hull panels and armour was bent outward, with a distinct lack of scarring from turbolaser fire. What could have caused an internal explosion of such magnitude? Yuri moved closer and sent a hail out to the ship, but there was no answer.

Just the distress beacon.

Feeling an opportunity within his grasp, Yuri docked his freighter at a nearby airlock and suited up in his armour. Enormous ships like this usually held some kind of treasure. Not in the usual sense, but there was bound to be something of value to the right people if someone could secure it in time. Whoever this ship belonged to was bound to send out a recon party to secure it. Entering the derelict vessel, Yuri noted the emergency lights still lighting the halls in a dim red but not much else. Main power was down. The Hound drew a pistol and carefully pressed on, running a few scans of his immediate area. He needed a terminal, or a map, if he had any hope of navigating the derelict.

 

[The Lost]

Force be damned.

This was always how it went for her. There was no rest, no chance of escape. She thought she could here, hiding away on this freighter like a stowaway. But like a beacon of bad luck, or just a slave that wasn't allowed to escape, it had followed. A Sithspawn of some sort, she knew, but what breed, what strengths and skills it had, she had no knowledge on. The crew had been devoured, the monster had tried to chase her down, but a good trick had at least kept her from being eaten herself.

Blowing up the ship. Part of it, anyway. Now she was locked in one of the few airlocked rooms near the explosion site, idling away. A distress beacon had been sent, but would that only lead her jailors back towards her? Maybe. She dreaded that thought. She dreaded all of this. At least she'd found the cookery. Food was.. Not plentiful, but at least she had some things she could crack open to eat.

And the booze. There was thankfully one bottle squirreled away that she'd been nursing at one point. It was empty now, but she certainly didn't have a drinking problem.

She couldn't get out to one of the escape pods, this section had been sealed. What's worse was she wasn't even sure the beast had actually been killed off. Sucked into the vacuum of space, maybe? But it didn't seemed bothered by that in the brief time she saw it getting sucked out by the hole she'd caused. If anything it had the appearance of something that had already figured out how to get back.

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

Careful, quiet footsteps guided Yuri forward, his head on a swivel to check every corner and hall he crossed. For the moment, it seemed that the ship was entirely abandoned. Atmosphere looked good, so the the bulkheads did their job with whatever had caused the explosion he saw. Luckily for him, various signs indicated different areas and a terminal was flickering in the darkness further down the hall. Yuri picked up his pace and activated his wrist computer as he neared it.

Scomping in, Yuri spent the next few minutes bypassing the security lock until he finally managed to gain entry into the terminal. A map was quickly found and downloaded, but a more useful discovery was found as he rummaged through the system. A report on activity, as well as a few mentions of what the ship was carrying. An unknown detonation occurred towards the aft section, but that wasn't what caused the power outage. More interesting was the report on unauthorized movement around the kitchen and crew area towards the rear. Survivors, perhaps? He browsed a few moments longer until finally unplugging to push further into the battered ship.

It didn't take long for him to happen upon a body. At first he suspected some kind of raid or mutiny, at least until he studied the mangled corpse for wounds. Unless someone attacked him with a grinder or some other power tool, it wasn't a person that caused such grievous wounds. He didn't want to think about what kind of animal could have caused it, but it raised the very good chance that it was still onboard. Yuri holstered his pistol and instead drew his rifle from his back as he pressed on, eventually reaching the aft section bulkheads. "Gotta be... ah." He muttered to himself, checking the map for away around the hole in the hull.

He eventually bypassed the blast doors and entered the crew section, activating his night vision as he began to sweep the area from room to room.

By all accounts, it seemed that whatever had gotten onto the ship had torn everyone apart. The report indicated a few escaped pods having been launched, but not nearly enough for a crew of this size. A few more bodies littered the area, indicating that the unknown entity had reached the crew section at some point. From the condition of the bodies, it thankfully didn't seem to be recent. The blast doors did their job.

The kitchen came next, and his suspicion of survivors grew stronger from the state of the cupboards and cabinets. Mostly looted clean, not just destroyed and littered. The survivors picked a damn good spot to barricade themselves. Now it was just a matter of figuring out where they were...

The Lost

 

[The Lost]

Movement. It sent panic right down her spine as she froze. Footsteps, shuffling. Beeping? Mechanics, technology. It wasn't the beast, at least, but it did not bring safety to her mind. If it was a fellow survivor, that didn't guarantee an ally. Survival lead to desperation. The food she had was plentiful, but having to share it with another would half it. Would leave them to fight eventually.

An outsider would be worse. What if it was an agent come to collect the beast? Collect her? She fumbled with a vibrodagger before clutching it desperately in her hands. If she had to fight, she would. Perhaps she should strike first? It was a good idea. Maybe she could threaten them and get them to at least explain who they were.

They'd understand, surely.

She crouched by the door, holding the blade in both hands as she stared intently. She had some combat training, she could do this. She could fight. She could ignore the trembling in her hands as fear returned to the back of her mind. She hated this. As soon as movement was visibly seen, she lunged right out.

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

Slow, careful movements through the area. He could call out to the potential survivors, but not with an unknown entity possibly still onboard. Silence was golden in situations such as these... as unnerving as it was. It also reminded him of the faint ringing in his ears from all the other incidents he had been involved with recently.

The silence, however, broke the moment he rounded another corner and someone lunged at him. Instinct overtook him as he blocked their arm with his rifle and swung the butt up at their head to knock them back. With a quick slide backward, Yuri brought his rifle to bare on the stranger and finally got a good look at them. Just a young girl, Chiss if her skin was any indication. From the look of her clothes, she was likely one of the survivors of the crew. He maintained his aim on her for a brief second, making sure that she didn't try to take another swing at him with her knife.

"Wanna try again, sis?" He spoke up with a threatening tone, breaking the silence as he watched her. "You a survivor?" He continued with a calmer voice, the rifle lowering somewhat to help her feel more at ease. He took a chance and scanned the area before looking back to her. "What happened to the crew?" He enquired further.

Standing in the middle of an open hallway had all of his nerves screaming at him to get the hell out of there. They needed to move.

The Lost

 

[The Lost]

"Wait- shit-"

The moment she lunged she realized her folly. The armor alone spoke volumes. Mandalorian. Bounty Hunter, probably. She couldn't exactly stop herself, but the dull thud as she felt the blaster clip her cheek earned a groan as she fell back from it. She reached up, idly rubbing her cheek as she glared up at him. Annoyance, despite it being her own fault really.

".. No." She muttered bitterly. She could fight against other, normal people. Not so much a Mandalorian. She continued to rub her cheek, frowning deeper. That lessoned had been learned. "I am. .. They were eaten. Some- monster. I don't know what it was. I blew up some fuel tanks in the corridor, seemed to suck it out, though it didn't look bothered. .. Freaky stuff." There was a pause before something visibly clicked in her gaze.

"Wait, you have a ship right? Get me out of here. This place is fucking crazy."

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

She gave him a lot more answers on what happened onboard the ship, and it confirmed what had gotten to the rest of the crew? Was she the only survivor left? She went on to startle Yuri mid-scanning by insisting they get the hell off the ship. Certainly not a terrible idea, but he wasn't going to just leave without even trying to get a manifest.

"Not a problem. I just wanna check the cargo manifest first. Besides, if there's some kinda freaky monster on the loose, we can't just leave it lyin' around on the ship. It'll just keep killin' anyone who hears the distress beacon." He gestured for her to follow as he handed her a flashlight. Normally it would go on his helmet, but it still worked like any other light. He also drew Peace from its holster and held it out to the girl. "Safety's on. It shoots explosive bolts, so... watch your aim." He warned, leading her through the hallways.

After a few quiet moments, Yuri decided to enquire some more on what they could possibly be dealing with. "So... you say it got sucked out... but it didn't seem bothered..." He stepped over a bloody corpse, motioning for her to watch her step. "Is it small enough to get through the ventilation? 'Cause all the bulkheads sealed around the hole you made. So if it can't get through the vents, it's just gonna be stuck bein' exposed to space." He spared a glance at her, then behind them.

For the briefest of seconds, he thought that he saw something behind them. Flipping over to thermals, however, revealed nothing but cold steel and corpses.

He continued on, lightly tapping her shoulder. "Dunno how much you know about fightin' but just watch our six. If we encounter something... just stay behind me." He spoke, switching over to x-ray sight to scan the area ahead of them.

The Lost

 

[The Lost]

She gritted her teeth for a moment. A part wanted to try and tell him they just needed to get out of here, that whatever was on board didn't matter. She didn't know what it was after all, considering her nature as a stowaway. And that the beast was after her specifically. So, she didn't say anything, instead begrudgingly taking the pistol.

"It- might be able to change it's form. It was big when the doors were shutting from the vent, but there's no way it was able to hide as large as it was." It was a Sithspawn, though she wasn't going to say as much to a stranger and a Mandalorian. As far as she knew, they were enemies normally. Her tense expression didn't fade, even as she nodded and looked behind them.

Chiss were trained to be soldiers from a young age, and she hadn't been an exception when her family was still alive.

"I'm-" Decent was the first thought, but as her cheek throbbed in pain she practically scowled. ".. Passing, normally."

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

Yuri sincerely hoped that she was simply mistaken with a beast that could change form in order to get around. Regardless, the Hound felt somewhat confident that they could do something about it. It likely would not be easy, but he felt good about their chances. She went on to admit that she was normally a bit more solid in a fight, but that simply earned a quiet chuckle from Yuri.

"Yeah, well... I don't expect ya to take me down when you've been..." His humorous tone grew quiet and his feet came to a halt. A hand instinctively shot out to halt the girl as he stared ahead of them.

At a glance, there was nothing. Even with various vision modes, there was nothing to see for the entire length of the hallway. And yet, Yuri slowly gripped his rifle with one hand and reached down to grasp a flashbang with the other. "Previous hallway... run for it." He whispered, flicking the switch on the flashbang. In the distance, a faint shift of the wall's pattern could be seen.

"Go!" He barked, tossing the flashbang down the hallway before opening fire at what he saw. An unnatural shriek tore through the hallway alongside the cacophony of blaster fire before Yuri followed after the girl. Every few seconds, he fired behind them until he noticed a control panel. Strange noises began to draw closer and closer until Yuri shot the control panel, slamming the blast door shut behind them. Almost immediately after the door slammed down, a hard thud echoed from the other side of the thick door.

Yuri didn't pause for even a moment, simply slotting a fresh power cell into his rifle as he led the way further down the hallway. After what he had just witnessed, his confidence was a bit more fragile. "Didn't even see it. Karkin' smelled the death on it." He admitted, sparing a glance at the girl.

The Lost

 

[The Lost]

She was gone. The moment he said run for it, she didn't hesitate in the slightest. It was a mad scramble as she fled back the way they came, letting the fully armored soldier handle what she felt. Dread had flooded her mind, an unspoken and unsourced fear that she knew where it was coming from. The Sithspawn. It'd come back.

She was still sprinting, at least until she heard the blast door shut. Soon as it did she peeked around the corner, her red eyes near flickering with how terrified she actually felt. Just hearing his voice without the confidence from before certainly didn't help her own lack of.. Anything resembling confidence or courage.

"T.. Then we should go. We should go. We can't fight that thing."

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

Sparing a glance back at the blast door, Yuri motioned for her to follow as he tried to put some distance between them and it. He was already trying to figure out how they could track it or at least have an extra pair of eyes to look for it. "Small problem with that idea." He gestured behind them with his thumb as he looked around. "That was our most direct way back. So either we loop back around... or we take the long way. Right now, both sound like terrible ideas." He explained to her.

A bright idea popped up, and Yuri quickly fiddled with his vambrace for a few seconds. A tiny droid popped up and hovered above them with a small eye studying them. The Hound tapped away on his wrist computer, and the tiny droid floated off to navigate a corridor. "Cam droid. If we're lucky, it'll eat it and we can track it. Otherwise, it's just another way to keep tabs of our surroundings." He explained to her.

Proceeding with relative silence, Yuri kept glancing at the girl every few moments to check on her. Thoughts still swirled on how she managed to evade the beast for so long when the rest of the crew all perished. "Never caught your name, by the way. I'm Yuri." He introduced himself with another glance.

Unless they could figure out how to fight the beast, getting to the cargo hold was going to be risky.

He paused to project a hologram of the ship for them to study. She probably knew the ship a lot better than him. "My ship is here..." He indicated to a red blip on the side of the ship, quite a distance away from them toward the bow. "Way I see it, we got a few options. If we loop past the bridge, it'll take us to my ship and we can likely figure some stuff out. Otherwise... if we go to the cargo hold, I can likely set up a trap to ambush it." He explained to her.

With no support and in such close quarters, the mutt's usual confidence in his abilities wasn't as fully on display as it normally would be. But the challenge of it all still brewed in his chest. If he could secure his companion, he would be able to move with a lot more ease.

The Lost

 

[The Lost]

"Chit."

Panic filled her mind. They had to go back? Back through that? Or the long way? She clutched at the side of her head for a moment, trying not to just devolve back into a panic attack. She was just.. So done with being chased by the Sith like this. Worse, if he found out that it was after her, wouldn't he just serve her up as bait to get free?

She took a breath, closed her eyes. The advantage of being a Chiss, calm under pressure. Can't let him figure that out, stay with him, don't get eaten. She nodded a little, looking over the hologram he'd pulled p. Studied it. She did know the ship, if only because she'd been hiding on it. ".. Okay, yeah. A trap would be a good idea. Can't really kill it I think, unless you got more than blasters hidden away in that suit of yours."

Which was possible, but she didn't know how to kill the damn thing anyway, regardless of what he had. ".. I just want to get out of here."

Yuri Maji

 

[Yuri Maji]

Yuri watched her contemplate their options, visibly looking like she was seconds away from a breakdown. He couldn't blame her. From the state of the ship and where he found her, he would probably have reacted exactly the same if he were in her shoes. But after a few moments she decided on setting a trap for the creature.

A daring grin took hold as he looked at her. "Not on my suit, but I definitely got somethin' better." He admitted, switching off the hologram for them to continue moving. She was going to have to lead them further if the holograms fell short. But now they at least had a route and a plan, arguably a step or two above their previously hopeless situation. "Don't worry, in an hour's time we'll be sippin' tihaar and enjoying the sweet silence of space." He commented in an attempt to help her relax. He still kept his head on a swivel, though, silently nervous about the creature's whereabouts.

A faint ping flickered on his vambrace. He gestured for them to halt as he fiddled with his HUD. "Droid got a ping. Movement further down. Seems like it's tryin' to loop around us." He explained before continuing. It didn't sit right with him. Between the vents and a few corridors around them, there were plenty of more direct routes to its prey. Was it toying with them, or was there something missing? "Check our six... and check the ventilation. If that thing's plannin' something, we gotta be quick." He warned her, though he spared another glance at the Chiss. "I'm Yuri, by the way." He introduced himself. If they were going to work together, it would probably help to know her name.

The Lost