Dead on Arrival (Open; Roche Asteroids)

[Grozurra]

Grozurra felt the wrongness in his surroundings shift and swirl as his comrade called out for help. From where he stood on the nearby wall, he could see the creatures pouring from a nearby wall. The armored behemoth fired a single shot from his boltcaster at the center of the mass of moving flesh and quickly began loading another shot. By the time the wookiee was prepared to fire a second time, the first bolt had imbedded itself in the soft flesh of the unnatural creature detonated its explosive charge from within the creature's chest cavity. Blood and bone, flesh and steel, smoke and fire erupted from the creature and injured those nearby. Grozurra noted five bodies drifting in the low-gravity of the hanger as he took aim for his second shot. The creatures that had been swarming from the hallway and rushing towards the boarding party had paused in confusion as the first explosion took its tole on their kin. A second bolt pierced through the head of one creature before coming to a stop inside the abdomen of the creature behind it. The first creature continued as if unphased by the severe wound to its face. Until the second bolt detonated in a similar way as the first.

Still holding his bowcaster in his right hand, Grozurra pulled the modified blaster rifle from his left hip and began firing at the oncoming creatures. His large, armored feet steadily thudded with his approach as he slung his bowcaster behind his back and readied one of his Beskar-forged Ryyk Blades. The blaster in his left hand fired again and again into the thinned out hoard of creatures as he closed in on them and the besieged Mando'ad. Soon he was standing beside the smaller Mandalorian and they were firing at the onrushing creatures together.

An audible -click- came from his rifle in place of a bolt of plasma and Grozurra holstered the weapon. In its place, he pulled his second Ryyk Blade from his waste and stomped towards the wall of flesh that still poured from the hallway.

@[member="Arrbi Betna"], @[member="Captain Larraq"], @[member="Zack Varad"], @[member="Preliat Mantis"],

 

[Captain Larraq]

The silence of vacuum kept Larraq from hearing the blaster fire from the other side of the room. On his HUD, one IFF tag turned red and three nearby icons turned yellow. The communicator in his ear told him the problem. Whatever the dead creatures had been, more were coming. Glancing in the direction of the conflict and seeing the double flash of explosives followed by the concentrated firepower of several blasters pointed at the onrushing hoard, Larraq knew that the situation was being dealt with.

"All men are to operate in pairs. Cover each other and be prepared to deal with pockets of resistance." Larraq said over the communicator as he continued with his business. Turning his back to the conflict at the main hallway, Larraq nodded to the Mandalorian in the control room... or security office... Whatever it was, the Mandalorian inside worked the controls and a light vibration echoed through the walkway under Larraq's feet as the hanger doors opened. Light from the system's star poured through the dust and debris that surrounded the ship and outlined the Mandalorian shuttle that waited on the far side of the doors.

As the fighting continued behind him, the shuttle slowly entered the hanger and descended onto one of the many platforms that dotted the hanger.

@[member="Grozurra"], @[member="Arrbi Betna"],

 

[Grozurra]

Grozurra's blades severed arms from bodies, heads from necks, legs from thighs, and split torsos in two. The teeth and claws of the creatures that surrounded him did far less to the beskar plates that wrapped around the mando'ad's hairy form. They bit and scratched and grabbed and pulled at the wookiee, but not a one could find a weakness in his armor before he laid them low with his own blades. Blaster fire surrounded Grozurra as the creatures focused their attention on the wookiee and his Mando'ad brothers focused their fire on the creatures.

Eventually, Grozurra stood alone amid a pile of corpses. Looking back at his brothers, he nodded and then turned to delve deeper into the derelict ship.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

@[member="Grozurra"] @[member="Captain Larraq"]

Betna let the muzzle of the submachine gun drop as the last of the creatures fell. The fight had been close, brutal, and nasty, but he'd learned one thing from it. Rather, he'd relearned it.

Don't piss off a wookiee.

He took a moment to reload the weapon he held before keying the comm.

"Clear, moving deeper into the ship."

 

[Nolan Detta]

Nolan had been with another unit clearing a corridor when these creatures came out of the vents and attacked. A few men were snatched up by the creatures, and ripped apart. The Kath Hound in Nolan's began to bark out shell after shell at the creatures. Heads began to disappear from atop the creatures. One jumped on him, sending him into a wall, dropping the weapon to its sling. In its place, Nolan shoved his left fist under its jaw and fired his grapple gun through the brain of the beast. Pushing the dead creature to the floor, Nolan charge one of the horrors, clothes-lining it and his vod unloaded into its face. Of the ten that he had been with, three were left including Nolan. Bumping forearms with his vod, Nolan acknowledged @[member="Captain Larraq"]'s command.

Alright, looks like we need to stick together, no heroes, stick tight. Check your corners, and each others blindspots.

@[member="Kable Detta"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

Preliat turned on his helmet lights. He turned to the others, and nodded for @Zack Varad to follow him."Varad and I will go clear a path ahead for @[member="Captain Larraq"]."Preliat said, lowering his M45 rifle. He blinked several times, and then narrowed his eyes, glancing around slowly.


"Dark Harvest all over again."He said, moving through the dim portion of the ship."Next objectives?"Preliat inquired over the radio, his eyes turning this way and that way.

 

[Kable Detta]

Blaster fire poured down the hallway. But for every creature that was dropped, two more seemed to take it's place. Kable Detta had been apart of a 5 man squad, but it was now just Kable and one other vode.
They fired at the mass of creatures as they retreated down the hall. A sound behind Kable cause him to turn around. 5 more creatures had come in behind them and were advancing on their position.
Kable informed his sole squad mate through his helmet comm. "On our six, I've got it!"
He opened fire on the advancing creatures and easily dropping the five. Then, more started coming around both corners of the intersecting hallway. They were surrounded.

A shout from behind Kable brought his attention back to his squad mate. The creatures had converged on his partner, and were ripping him apart. Kable was now alone, and surrounded.
Acting fast, Kable opened fire on the ventilation duct above him, blasting a hole big enough for him to fit through.
The creatures were on him.... He fired up his jetpack and rocketed up into the blaster made hole. He hit the top of the duct with incredible force, causing everything to spin and taste metal in his mouth. The duct was a tight fit, he could only move on his hands and knees.
He grabbed a thermal from the bandoleer on his chest and dropped it down into the mass of creatures below. Then scrambled away down the duct as fast as his hands and knees could take him. He made it out of the fatal blast zone, but the explosion rocked the duct and the concussive force shot Kable down the ventilation duct till he collided with the wall at the turn of the duct. Blackness began to take over. Before he finally lost consciousness, he manage to weakly say over the open comm
"....Nolan
@[member="Preliat Mantis"]
@[member="Captain Larraq"] Nolan Detta

 

[Nolan Detta]

While walking down a corridor, he and his vod felt an explosion far off. And in his ear "Nolan..." Came from his vod Kable.

Without thinking, he looked up Kables IFF tag and ran. The other two followed but soon they all realized that they were being chased by some of the creatures. The first fell to a massive claw swiping at his legs. The other turned and fired wildly crying out for his vod, Nolan turned pushed the mango to the side and rolled a grenade into the horde...BOOM... Pieces flew everywhichway.

"Let's move!"


@[member="Kable Detta"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

The screams of men and monsters echoed through Larraq's glass helmet, but he didn't so much as glance over his shoulder at the men he had ordered to secure the hanger. They had been paid well and they would do their job or die trying. And those that didn't die would get paid more for their trouble.

Oddly enough, this gave Rygel Larraq all the confidence he needed to know that he could trust these men to accomplish the goals he laid out for them. And each of them knew enough to put their own life on the line long before they would let their employer end up in harms way. After all, a dead employer can't sign a paycheck.

Ignoring the sounds that came from his communicator, Larraq stood by with his dataslate and oversaw the unloading of several large crates from the now-landed shuttle. Fresh men from within the shuttle stacked them silently as they kept weary eyes pointed in the direction of the fighting. After just a few minutes of unloading, all twelve scanners had been stacked on the hanger floor by Larraq's feet and the fresh mercenaries stood at attention as they awaited further orders.

"Outer perimeter, hold your positions and eradicate all invasive organics. Weld shut any access points you find and contact the shuttle for fire support if absolutely necessary. We need the hanger secure, now. Primary mission parameters are about to begin." Larraq said over an open com to his mercenaries.

@[member="Nolan Detta "], @[member="Kable Detta"], @[member="Preliat Mantis"], @[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Nolan Detta]

I'm attempting locate Kable, his team has disappeared on my IFF, I am down to one vod and am being chased by the creatures. We are enroute to Kable's last known location. Repeat, lost most of my team, and Kable went dark.


Nolan turned a corner and saw what looked to be the remains of some mandos and pieces of creatures all over the area. A whole in the vent above gave Nolan an idea as to where Kable went.

Vod, stay here, cover me while I get Kable.

Nolan jumped to the ridge of the vent, pulled himself into the tube and saw Kable laying further up the shaft, not moving. He crawled into the shaft to Kable and heard a bloodcurddling scream come from his vod below.

Nolan was alone with his unconscious brother Kable in a ventilation shaft with creatures beneath them and no way to get out here safely. Nolan plugged a bacta-stim into Kable's under arm and hoped it would wake him soon.

@[member="Kable Detta"] @[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Grozurra]

Grozurra moved forward with the rest of his squad. They had their orders and no amount of small, smelly, disgusting creatures would stop him from seeing them through. His HUD cycled from nightvision to thermalvision to hyperfrequency sonar and through a number of other settings. Right now, he wasn't picking up anything as they made their slow advance into the darkness of the corridor.

Broken fragments of wall and ceiling littered the floor here and there. Black ooze stuck to the floors and walls in blotches where once blood had stained. Bullet holes and the scorch marks of blasters marked where one person or another had made their last stand. But what was lacking from the hallway, was a single body.

An automated voice came from Grozurra's helmet and broadcast to the rest of the team. "We are finding no bodies. It is possible the creatures are gathering the remains of the crew someplace."


@[member="Nolan Detta "], @[member="Captain Larraq"], @[member="Kable Detta"], @[member="Preliat Mantis"], @[member="Arrbi Betna"],

 

[Kable Detta]

Kable stirred as the bacta-stim went to work. His eyes opened and blinked on the night-vision in his helmet. He saw his brother crammed next to him in the ventilation duct.
"How did you find me?" Kable's modulated voice breaking the silence.

He hurt all over, but there were no injuries.

@Nolan Detta

 

[Captain Larraq]

Larraq watched the IFF tags disperse and advance on his datapad. Here and there a tag deactivated as the mercenary became a casualty that he'd no longer need to worry about paying. One squad was nearly wiped out to the man. Most of the squads were managing themselves quite well though and the squad that had collapsed was being reinforced by other nearby squads.

On the whole, Larraq had nothing to worry about.

Responding to @[member="Grozurra"]'s transmission, "Continue forwards to the tram station. We need to secure the tram and confirm that it is still moving. We'll worry about the dead once we've secured this ship and cleansed it of this infestation." Larraq said into the communicator before ordering another squad to move forward behind the Wookiee's squad and weld shut any doors or air ducts they encounter. He wanted this section of the ship completely secure. Until they could shut down the point defense of this ship, there would be no reinforcements and no escape should they lose this hanger bay to those creatures.

"All squads, begin sealing any alternative access points. Once this room is secure, I want everyone to rally on the tram station. Each squad is to take a single scanner unit with them. The original mission is still the priority. Every major section and component of this ship must be scanned in detail. Nobody gets a paycheck and nobody goes home until that objective is accomplished." Larraq said to the men on his frequency.

Satisfied that things were progressing well enough, Larraq nodded towards two of the nearby men and instructed them to unpackage one of the scanners and begin using it on the hanger. It was a fairly simple device. It was heavy and bulky, but it did an amazing job without requiring much from the user. Simply place it on the floor of the room you need to scan, press a button, and wait while the device cycles through a number of advanced scanning techniques to get a complete reading on the surrounding area. Electronic components, mineral composition, everything was recorded. Even the exact location of every single bolt or weld.

As the device activated, a high-pitched whine began to escape from the scanner. It would only take two minutes to completely scan the area... But it was only a few seconds into the scanning cycle before someone yelled "Contacts!" and the volume of blaster fire drastically increased.

<Does the scanner attract them?> Larraq questioned to himself as he drew his pistol and gestured for the surrounding mercenaries to assume a defensive position around the scanner.

@[member="Arrbi Betna"], @[member="Grozurra"], @Nolan Detta , @Kable Detta, @Preliat Mantis,

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Captain Larraq"]

Zombies. Somehow she always ended up fighting them. Ever since that quest where she and Adril had been captured by Darth Shadow and then proceeded to wreck his laboratory after his own creations had rebelled against him. Of course he had tricked them and possessed her master, almost driving her to insanity before he was exorcised. That was the part she was less eager to remember.

Then there had been the purge on Denon, when Omega Pyre, still young, vigorous and voracious in its expansion, had faced hordes of intelligent zombies, undead creatures able to learn and think tactically, controlled by a hive mind of sorts, infused with the dark side to give them something like intelligence. To her knowledge they had been wiped out after Subject Zero was destroyed. When one thought about it Reavers were zombie-like as well. Just also obsessed with skinning their victims, wearing their flesh and sacrificing them to their dark gods.

So suffice to say the former Exarch had ample experience fighting the undead. She was one of the mercenaries who had just poured into the hangar, just in time for the next wave. Twin boltguns gripped in her hands she took up position at the front of the defensive perimeter that was being formed around the scanners. All they had to do was protect them until the scanning was complete.

Against hordes of zombies. That was simple enough from her perspective. She looked cold and focused as the first of the undead came for them, their bodies decayed and rotten, hunger evident in their eyes. Twin boltguns were brought up and roared as she squeezed the trigger, explosive bolts being pumped out, blasting zombies into chunks of flesh, smoke rising up into the air. As she focused herself and sank into the Force, power rippled through her and a powerful force repulse swept towards the first of the hordes, a blast of force energy that ripped apart limbs, smashed bones, sent countless creatures flying like ragdolls and crashing into walls or plain and simply crushed them. Area of effect damage was a beautiful thing and telekinesis was her forte, though the horde showed no sign of thinning. Not that it mattered, she had plenty of force energy and lots of ammo and so the boltguns kept firing, telekinesis would reload them once the magazines were depleted. The squad of Firemane soldiers she had brought with her added to the mayhem with volleys of repeater and MK2 bolter fire, switching to buckshot for the latter when the zombies came in closer.

 

[Galaar Tal'Verda]

The dead should stay down. That was a vital piece of philosophy that should have been passed down from generation to generation in the process of cultural evolution that embraced all sentient races of rim-to-rim galaxy. These creatures though, they obviously hadn't gotten that memo, for they were awake and rather violent. They came at you with blooded claws and comping teeth and made screams that echoed within his Katarn Rig like the pulses of a giant heart. Needless to say, it was one of the worst situations the Commando had ever found himself in. His career had been spent slotting terrorists, sparking clankers, and blowing away a Sith here and there during his time in the Confederacy in this new era.

Now the clone stood in a hanger, clad from head to two in his trusty armor and armed to the teeth for one reason... Credits. He was managing a flotilla now and people needed to eat and arms needed to bought, it required a constant stream of the shiny monetary chips that seemingly made the galaxy run round.

With another horde bearing down a side entrance to the hanger to kill their new prey which were making all kinds of noise, the Clone moved into action. Currently, he was using a rather generic plasma rotary blaster with his sniper and Deecee strapped to his back. As the columns of creatures pulled into range he pulled the trigger. Even with his helmet's filter he could smell the ozone as it hummed to life and send glorious streaks of green plasma into the horde, barreling them over and blowing them to pieces.

This better be worth the credits... He slowly backed up and formed up with a group of what seemed to be soldiers and a woman, @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], covering their flanks against the moving horde as she and hers covered his.

@[member="Captain Larraq"] @Arrbi Betna, @Grozurra, @Nolan Detta , @Kable Detta, @Preliat Mantis,

 

[Nyos Val]

Ignore

 

[Nolan Detta]

Nolan rapped his helmet with his knuckle, showing his clan brother he used his head. Now came the part neither of them would like, getting out of the vent.

Scooting back over the hole in the vent where the brothers had entered, Nolan peeked out to see if anything was down there. There was, a few of the creatures were pulling the body of the vode that had followed Nolan off into a dark corridor. Another stood directly below the opening, taking out his combat knife, Nolan slid his torso down the opening until he directly above the creature. He was close enough to see the mutated humanoid face and tattered clothing of what seemed to be a naval uniform.

In one quick motion, Nolan grabbed the skull of the creature and plunged the blade into its brain dropping it with nothing more then a last gasp for air. Checking to ensure they had not been heard, Nolan dropped down silently as he could and unslung his Kath Hound shotgun, winked his comm up to @[member="Captain Larraq"]...

"Looks like creatures we've been seeing were part of the crew."

 

[Kable Detta]

Kable scooted after his brother and quietly lowered himself down from the duct. He inspected the body of the creature that Nolan had just killed. His brother was right, these creatures had once been the crew of the facility.

The two brothers were alone. They had no scanner, and there were an unknown amount of creatures just down the corridor. Just another day for the Detta brothers!

He comm'd Nolan. "We can fall back and get a scanner, or....." He pointed down the corridor "we can see where they are taking the bodies... Up to you"


@Nolan Detta @[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Nolan Detta]

"I say find out where the bodies all went. I'm curious as to how this crap is happening."

Nolan walked to the end of the corridor and checked for enemies. His Kath Hound pointing down the hall.


@[member="Kable Detta"]

 

[Hannibal Oryen]

OBJECTIVE: SCAN MEDICAL DECK
COMPANY: [member="Azalus"] | [member="Neskar A'toll"]

"Man, I ain't waitin' 'ere 'till these shmucks fight these goons off." Hannibal announced, unloading a Trandoshan Accelerated Charged Particle Array Gun into an approaching Zombie.

The round tore through the animated corpse like a hot knife through Bantha butter. Trandoshans were pretty good with their guns, and nothing quite beat the feel of an ACP Array Gun. The abomination flew onto its back, spasming wildly before finally dying. By that time, Hannibal had already gunned down another one in a similar manner, only to be forced to spin around and head-shot another that had tried to get the jump on him. Tricky little bastards, these guys. The thing's head exploded in a shower of gore and rotting zombie flesh, bits of it flecking Hannibal's person. He wasn't any more heavily armored than usual, but he was confident that these undead mooks wouldn't get any solid blows on him.

Hannibal replaced the three rounds he had just utilized, jamming them back into the gun before locking it back into ready position. Hannibal had no desire to wait around for these other guys to clean up shop. The sooner they got everything scanned, the sooner they could call it a day. He called over to Azalus, an acquaintance of his who also happened to be in the neighborhood. Funny how that worked out.

"Ey, gunslinga, grab one of them damn scanners. Let's go scan 'is crap get this shavit ova' with."