Private Dance of the Deathwing

[Kadann]

Hadassah

A great deal of knowledge had been lost during the Gulag plague. Some knowledge should have been buried. Only the warnings of the damage it could do should have remained.

In all the centuries, the project Blackwing destroyer Astrodarrus had drifted. The hive mind aboard preserved in the cold vacuum of space. It crossed a beacon on the edge of a system.

The heat of the star started to warm the ship and systems came back online. The strange anomalie caught the attention of the Sith Empire, always willing to find any weapon or ancient knowledge to add to the arsenal.

Kadann's shuttle approached the destroyer. No weapons turned upon him. He was tired of the cycle of war, but too tired to even lay down and die. He served another master. It did not matter who. He had let his vengeance consume him.

He slowly maneuvered himself towards the hangar bay.

 

[Hadassah]

There were others on the Astrodarrus. Living and the dead.

Kadann had not been the first to try to salvage what treasures or marketable material could be used from the drifting project Blackwing Destroyer. While the Sith Empire certainly set its sights on the ship, other damned souls had attempted to traverse its metallic halls to their doom. Pirates and salvagers alike. Kadaan would see the sort of graveyard of several different ships not of Imperial origin on that hanger. Personal starships and even an X-wing starfighter, it's canopy empty and open. It appeared that a firespray had been the last one to have set down; at least the layer of dust with fresh footsteps and it's open ramp indicated so. Curious enough, the tracks along the dust seemed to show three distinct pairs of foot steps leading into a locked blast door.

Elsewhere on the ship, in a medbay, harsh breathing would pant from parted lips, black slanted eyes narrowing at the viewport through the door, watching for any movement. The Neimodian Imperial infobroker yelped out in pain as the Devaronian smuggler roughly did his best to patch up the massive gash alongside his arm.

"Can you get us out of here!?" Tayo, the Neimodian squealed, frightened beyond belief. However, Hatoh, the Devaronian slapped his thick hand along Tayo's shoulder and squeezed hard.

"Not until we get what we came here for, Tayo. You promised me being able to get a sample and we are going to get it."

"I gave you the schematics! They are good!" Tayo yelped back.

"Nuh uh, you are going to take me the lab yourself."

"We won't be able to survive!"

"We better. You promised me Tayo...and if you don't get me there, I'll throw you to the dead myself."

 

[Kadann]

Kadann took a little time exploring the hangar bay. There were no signs of violence. No blast marks on the wall or blood on the floors. He climbed up to the cockpit of the x-wing to find its batteries long dead.

Even climbing the small ladder could cause his left knee to ache. He carried a plethora of war wounds from the old days. The scars ran deeper than could be seen.

He followed the footprints to the door. The switch did nothing. He decided not to force it. Not immediately.

The Force moved strangely through the decks of the ship. There was something amiss. It was the same way the Force moved through living beings, but more chaotic. There was nothing alive here, which made him think that there could be some sith magic at work still.

Kadann found another door that could be pushed open. He shone a light down the long corridor ahead. He had never minded the darkness, but the shadows stretched out ahead of him.

 

[Hadassah]

Kadann

"Hadassah, you will get us to the laboratory this sniveling coward Tayo promised he'd get us to," Hatoh ordered to the young woman standing guard by the door. Dried sweat caked her dark olive face, and those slanted black eyes would swivel back to the Devaronian.

"Why should I? You reneged on our contract by not providing the details regarding the type of creatures I was to guard you of." Hadassah's cool, accented voice would cut the tension.

"We had a deal!" Hatoh cried out, irritation lining his crimson features as they sharpened in his growing aggregation.

"Yes. But that was before you revealed that my fight was with undead." Hadassah responded back. "I want double my original price." She parlayed, her dark gaze unwavering. "With a guarantee."

"What guarantee?!" He shot back.

"That's for you to provide to me now and me to decide if it is worth it. Otherwise, I will leave you here to die."

 

[Kadann]

What was a confusion, he thought to himself, was that the ship had remained dark for so long and then started to power up. There was warmth in the air, power running around the ship.

It had to tumble through space entirely dormant for a thousand years. As it reached a star system, something had triggered a response to start waking the vessel.

The question was why?

It felt deliberate for a ship that must have suffered an accident or being damaged in battle in a nearby star system.

Kadann turned a corner. He stopped still. The light of his torch moved between several bodies on the floor. They wore white armour. Kadann approached them slowly. The helmet of one trooper was cracked. The gaunt face still visible inside.

That a body had been preserved meant the ship must have been in vaccum or had cooled far below freezing. Now it was warm and it had been repressurised.

Kadann walked on.

Behind him, a hand was placed on the deck as a dead body started to try and stand up again.

 

[Hadassah]

Hatoh was incensed. He had a mighty strong itch to draw his blaster up and just blast Hadassah in the head; hell, his hand twitched right by his holster made it pretty evident where his thoughts lay. However, the Devaronian was in a mighty rough predicament in which without the added muscle to guard Tayo and him from what they could come across until the reached the lab and came back in one piece back to the ship, there was precious little chance of them making it out of it.

He wasn't willing to risk it, but did it piss the blue blazes out of him.

With a snarl, the smuggler reached into his belt, where he quickly unbuckled a pouch. From there, he pulled out two purple crystals. "These are Nakfet crystals. Sentient. For sure you aint' gonna find anything like this for your use. I know you need them blades powered up. Use these and they will increase your cutting power."

He tossed the crystals one by one to Hadassah, who deftly caught them one by one with each hand. Carefully, those slanted eyes would study the crystals, the Force Sensitive feeling the truth to Hotah's words.

"I agree to these terms." she told him stoically, tucking the crystals away safely. "But remember -- double the price." she leveled him a look.

"Fine, double!" Hatoh hissed back.

Kadann

 

[Kadann]

Kadann had found an old map of this kind of model of destroyer. All that taught him was that this ship had been reconfigured from what had been the standard. Whilst technology might have caught up with pre-gulag standards, some records from the old wars were hard to come by.

He abandoned the map on the datapad, but let it provide a rough indication of where he was in the hull of the ship based on inertial measurements.

Kadann came to a halt, robes flicking across the floor. He turned very slowly. The rubber soles of boots had degraded over years, so it was the soft padding of bare feet on metal deck he had heard.

"Well this isn't good."

He felt something in the Force. A ripple of awareness. It was two, he realised. Something vague woven around him that drove the dead troopers after him, but also a note of panic. He was not alone.

Snap-hiss

 

[Hadassah]

"Give me the map schematics," Hadassah ordered, her thickly accented voice shot out to Hatoh and Tayo, one metallic palm extended. Two metal fingers curled inward, gesturing for them to hurry.

"We do not have time to linger," she added, blinking slowly in stoic contemplation. Tayo, realizing that this was the only way he was going to get out of this alive, immediately dug out his datapad. With a couple of taps and sweeps of his fingers, he brought up a holographic map for the sellswords pursual.

Hadassah reviewed the path. It was complex, requiring them to get to a different level before reaching the laboratory. Who knew what would be between here and there.

"So. We will be going out blind." glancing at areas that hopefully would be safe, she made a note. "Stay close. We must cross this hall towards the lift -- that is if it still works. Otherwise open the lift compartment and accent to the level."

Shutting off the datapad, she tucked it away.

"I suggest you save your blaster shots unless absolutely necessary. It is uncertain if sound would stir their attention."

 

[Kadann]

It was lucky that he had lit his blade. The first trooper stumbled closer before breaking into a run. Kadann swung hard. His style was all heavy swings and careful defence.

That swipe cut the first trooper almost in two. It still swiped at his head as it fell. It nearly caught a handful of white hair.

A thousand years frozen in vacuum and they were being brought back to life by something. He had the sense of something greater moving in the dark shadows of the Force.

He ripped one of the pipes from the walk with the Force and launched it down the corridor at the second. It went down, pinned by the weight of metal.

The Force made Kadann dodge to his left, right before a blaster bolt lashed over his head.

"You can use a gun?" he hissed in disbelief. Holding up his left hand, Kadann forced the pipe down until it crushed the trooper.

"That's going to be a problem..."

 

[Hadassah]

With a slow withdraw of the twin songsteel Force imbued blades, Hadassah gave a crack of her neck. Quietly, she let herself sink into herself. Stretching out her senses. Letting them reach out to touch and feel both living and the dead. It was the only way the would survive. She had to trust her instincts and simply strike when the nudge came.

"Stay a meter behind me." Her thick accented voice ordered Tayo and Hatoh. The Neimodian, curled up like the coward he was, stuck close to the Devaronian. But hold near to her they did.

With a deep breath, slanted black eyes would open. With a press of a button, the door to the medbay slid open. A growl came from the darkness. Purpose lined her lithe body and the woman strode forward.

The blades ignited a vibrant crimson, as if held to the fire so long they glowed. As a body lunged at her, she twisted her wrist, slashing diagonoly as the blade hit flesh. The scent of scortching burning flesh hit her nostrils but Hadassah did not relent. Letting the guidance of the blade take her, she began to carve a path down the hallway. Not too far the sound of a blaster would cut the din. Kadann wasn't too far.

 

[Kadann]

Ahead of the scavenger crew a pack of undead troopers started to amass. A critical weight of dead flesh to slow them down. They lumbered into position, sacrifices of some wider animal-intelligence that guided them.

They did not growl. They stood and waited.

As Hadassah cut her path into their section of corridor they rushed forwards, shoulder to shoulder.

Something dark cut across them and crashed into the far wall. The sound was deafening. An entire blast door had been ripped free and thrown through the crowd.

Kadann's orange blade cut down another trooper as he stepped into the corridor after the door.

"What a mess," he muttered. He turned and regarded the warrior and her blades curiously. His gaze slowly slid off her shoulder and regarded the crew behind her.

 

[Hadassah]

"Who is that?" Tayo cried out, followed by the Devaronian who echoed, although not so nicely, "Who the fuck are you?!"

Meanwhile, Hadassah stoicly swung her crimson song steel blades to impale an undead's head, splurting out black ooze as it twitched and groaned before falling to the floor in a loud thud.

Off in the distance, the growls and paddling of footsteps indicated that if they did not move, more would arrive.

Stepping over the prone undead ghoul, pitch black slanted eyes caught sight of Kadann . Without pausing, she continued on her way, adding, "Follow if you desire. Or stay. It matters not to me."

"IT MATTERS TO ME WE ARE PAYING YOU TO GET US TO THE LAB!" Hatoh screeched out. A bad idea, as the yell only echoed throughout the hall wall. Hadassah only quickened her step. She wasn't sticking around to have another wave of the horde come through.

 

[Kadann]

"IT MATTERS TO ME WE ARE PAYING YOU TO GET US TO THE LAB!" Hatoh screeched out. A bad idea, as the yell only echoed throughout the hall wall. Hadassah only quickened her step. She wasn't sticking around to have another wave of the horde come through.

"You might want to reconsider," Kadann muttered.

The pale white of his beard was flecked with black ichor. Kadann had stopped caring about his own life a long time ago. Instinct drove him on. He was too tired to even lie down and die.

He had two options before him. He could change direction and try and find a way back to his ship and hope that this raiding party caused a distraction or he could see if they were heading to the source of the danger.

"But if you insist on pressing on, I'm not here to stop you on your little mission."

He drew his lips into a thin line. They would have met under very different circumstances if so.

He turned and swept after the girl. He tried to stretch out with the Force but it was difficult to hone in on the undead creatures.

"Those are not lightsabers," he remarked. He doubted she would engage in conversation.

 

[Hadassah]

"Those are not lightsabers,"

Hadassah gave a slight glance over towards Kadann . He was right; they were not. While they gave the impression with the super hot blades of the songsteel, they did not have the same plasma capabilities as a lightsaber.

Lifting her chin, Hadassah gave a twist of her wrist, the red-hot orange blade cutting the darkness as if it were a glowing rod at a techno rave party.

"No. Songsteel. Superheated." her metallic fingers flexed around the hilt.

"More dead up ahead. Likely even more in the laboratory. Stay or go." again, she let the older man know before steadily moving forward toward the danger. Hotah and Tayo did not hesitate, following her closely.

Up ahead, however, there was another pair of undead with a blaster. Unfortunately, Hadassah's training and abilities to sense and block were not as attuned as that of Kadann. She barely managed to warn the others to duck behind cover.

"The fuck who is shooting at us?!" Tayo yelped out. Again, this caused another commotion. More growling. A wave of half a dozen undead heading their direction.