Dead Space (FWC Halloween Thread)

[Laira Darkhold]

Some days were better than others, some days were worse than others. The morning had been great for the princess, relaxing on the deck looking up through the transparisteel into the stars, but today was not so good. Today had become totally not cool.

The Ranger Corp had been dispatched to the Queen of the Core, a massive luxury cruiseliner that had stops all over the Core Worlds, to investigate a possible biological pathogen being transported on the cruiseliner. Laira and her partner Dimeria had investigated the ship, in fact Laira had been fairly certain dumping about a hundred slicer scarab droids into the vents and scanning the cargo area would have been sufficient. So sure in her methods that she and Dimeria had retired after a day of scanning the ship and become passengers enjoying the many luxuries aboard the vessel.

About an hour ago the first one had been seen outside one of the poor cabins, disturbing the Princess's sunbathing by an indoor pool. Before she could even get changed and down to the passenger levels sightings had happened all across the Queen. By the time Dimeria and her had geared up, the bridge had gone quiet. Within thirty minutes she could no longer raise anyone on the radio.

Whatever it was, it did not seem to be affecting Dimeria or Laira at the moment so the possibility of an airborne agent was limited, though not impossible. Regardless of the cause, the effect was the same. People were being bitten and eaten. They afflicted were stumbling around in packs, rushing the living they came across to tear them apart, and they didn't seem to have any cognitive thought or awareness. Dimeria had taken to calling them 'Ghouls'.

It had taken a while, but Laira manage to activate the distress beacon on the Queen of the Core and the girls were in the process of securing a place to lay low until help arrived. At some point the main reactor had been deactivated or became damaged, leaving only the emergency lights and life support active. Even the doors didn't open or close, neither did the locks work. Communications only seemed to have a local band available given the power outages across the ship. The transmission Laira prepared began playing,

"Attention. Anyone hearing this should know the Queen of the Core has suffered a possible Biological Attack. Roughly sixty percent of its passengers and crew have been affected and many of the others are already dead. The Survivors need assistance asap. Be advised, those afflicted are feral. I repeat, feral."

"Alright, Di. It should play on a loop so long as there is power to the comms." The redhead turned to the woman behind her. "Lets get moving."

OOC
Its zombies (Left 4 Dead style) on a boat. Come and RP, though we are trying to keep it low key, so please no armies or fleets.

 

[Derrick Veltraa]

[member="Laira Vereen"]

Derrick Veltraa clapped the top of his helmet as he looked out at the looming silhouette of the Queen of the Core quickly approaching. The drifting cruiseliner's distress message had been picked up by the Rendili Defense Force Captain's cruiser as it escorted a cargo shipment back to the planet. Unable to abandon his assigned duty of safeguarding the convoy, the veteran officer could not divert his vessel to provide assistance. Instead, he had ordered several squads to suit up and for two of the onboard RAET dropships to be launched. His bridge crew would carry on the escort mission while he led teams to board the starliner. In that manner his assigned duty was not neglected while he could fulfill his obligation to rescue those who were desperate for help. His lieutenant had even reminded him to comm in the situation, putting the call out for others to respond to the Queen of the Core's disturbance if able and getting word out to Rendili to alert the Free World Coalition as well.

Checking the soldiers around him, the Captain smiled as he opened his unit comm to talk to the squads he had brought along. "Alright teams, you heard the distress call. There's a biohazard aboard the Starliner out there, and there are a high number of hostile infected. Set blasters for stun since we aren't aware of whether these people can be cured yet. Our objective is to secure the Hangar bays on opposite sides of the ship and sweep for survivors. One squad will stay with each ship, the other two will make their way around to search for those in need of rescue. Open up an open line to the ship, let's hope they have it so they'll hear us over the speakers." Seeing the hangar bay appear ahead of them, the Rendili PDF squad readied themselves as the transport touched down inside, weapons shouldered as their dropship doors opened and they stepped out in the darkness. "To those aboard the Queen, this is Captain Veltraa of the Rendili Defense Force. We're responding to a distress call intercepted during a convoy escort. We're here to setup an evacuation zone for the survivors in the hangar bays. . . ."

Not hearing his own voice coming out of the starliner's system, Derrick made the assumption that only specific comm stations were going to pick him up then. It would seem his teams would have to search the darkened ship to locate most of the survivors. The emergency lights, where any were, cast a red glow about the vicinity, and those without even that were pitch black, nearly as void as the space outside the hangars. "Attach spare lights, even if we got gadgets in these helmets it doesn't help survivors spot us. If they see our lights in the dark they might not run thinking we're feral like the afflicted. Keep your eyes out now, we don't know everything going on ye-" Before the Captain could another word out the squad's comms were torn apart by shrieks as the other dropship's squads began to take over the channel, and what could be heard could only be described as horrific.

"Captain they're everywhere! They're everywh-Jeanne watch out! JEANNE! THOSE SCHUTTA TORE HER THROAT OUT! EVERYONE BACK IN THE SHIP! BLASTERS TO KILL! i SAID KILL! AGHH! GET IT OFF MY LEG! HEL-"*

The screams that followed were not the sort any would expect from a soldier who had seen war before. Derrick could see behind him that the squads that were with him were shocked by what just transpired. He himself though was more upset than unnerved, signaling his soldiers to action as he wiped his face. "Get some equipment out of the RAET and get more illumination in here. The team guarding the transport here will put up some barricades to hold the area. Sergeant Bor, your team is with me on survivor sweep." The other squads had landed in a hotzone where the afflicted were he supposed. There had been nothing for them to do the moment they stepped out in that hangar but to die. The Captain blamed himself, for dividing the teams to cover more ground, though he had no idea that what he had assumed were average civilians would be so monstrous. Just what sort of biological attack had hit the Starliner? While contemplating if he should call off his orders to stun for his surviving teams, Derrick grunted and lifted his own blaster rifle, aiming it along with the light down the darkened hallway ahead. "Form up on me, Sergeant Bor set your blaster to kill. If the rest of our blasters do nothing on stun then you're free to use lethal force. If stun works to keep casualties down you switch once we confirm. Everyone move out!"

As he and the four soldiers with him vanished into the darkness, the only thoughts on their minds were: Perhaps they should have brought more bodies.

 

[Chekīta Kaie]

Well it seemed today was not going to be as relaxing as she had initially though, more fun and exciting, but not relaxing, which was not something that happened often for the usually busy body guard. Chekita had just been laying down in her room, minding her own business, then some idiot came frantically knocking on her door for help or something, which she couldn't give a kark about, then some strange moaning and screaming and then what seemed to be the literal gut wreaking sound of someone being fed to a scarlack pit.

This prompted Chekita to take a look a things, only to open the door and find some half dead looking people eating what remained of the person who was knocking at her door, some of which turned there attention to her. Come 5 odd minutes and, she stood of a pile of corpses, blood splattered everywhere, her side arm smoking, the empty clip dropping out, clattering against the floor, vibro knife dripping with blood. "Well.... that was a thing".

She quickly loaded a new mag into the hand gun, placing the barrel to one of the creatures head, its arms still twitching, "You guys are such a waste of ammo, though that means more target practice". Her gun went off one more time, finally silencing the beast, its head pretty much exploding all over the place, "Guess I should go suit up, casual clothes might not be the best attire to fight the walking dead, and I don't want to get them all messy, looks bad when partying".

As she lazy wander back into her cabin the distress message was played over the com lines, her own coming to life, spewing the message on repeat as she suited up in her armor, "Yer yer, I get it bio attack, infected crazy, shoot to kill, what ever... now where to go now"? She ran through the map and layout of the ship, having memorized part of it before boarding the ship, a common habit form working as a body guard, always have to have a route of extraction, though in this case she was extracting herself. "Best head for ship security, maybe take down as many of these infected as I can along the way, gotta stay sharp and all". Chekita slammed a clip into her ACS-201, pulling back on the bolt as she strolled down the hallway, eager for some more action.

[member="Derrick Veltraa"] l [member="Laira Vereen"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Laira Vereen"]


What should have been a relaxing cruise had turned into something far more violent. Vaena was quite annoyed about the present state of events. However, her annoyance was only indirectly related to the ghouls that currently populated the cruiseliner.


Firstly, she was out of armour. Instead of being encased in the comfortable embrace of steel, she was stuck in robes. At least she was not wearing a silly dress. Secondly, she was presently being accompanied by one of her many annoying half-siblings.


Truth be told, Karina Cadalthor was not the worst of the bunch. Sure, she was a debauched, dim-witted racist who'd never done an honest day's of work, learned how the proles lived or gotten dirt under her perfectly manicured fingernails, but still.


It did not make her company less annoying as they made their way down a corridor. Excluding the emergency lights, the corridor was dark, though the dim lighting ensured that one could make out blood stains on the wall. It was eeriely quiet.


"Are you sure we are going the right way? For the love of Ashira, I do not want to end up being eaten by these fiends," Karina whined. "As I told you, I am quite certain that this outbreak was a monkeigh plot."


"The 'monkeighs', as you call them, are being infected as well," Vaena said grumpily.


Karina had no effective counter for that. She shuddered when she saw blood on the wall. "Disgusting. This is horrible. We must get off this ship. And my feet hurt." She also had an annoying, prissy upper class accent.


"That's what happens when you wear stilettos. And your whining is starting to irritate me. You sound like a whiny little boy. So woman up and handle this as our ancestors. They would be rolling in their graves. Understood?"


Karina winced. "Y-yes...sister."


"Good. Watch my back." They had reached a door, but alas it refused to budge and the console next to it seemed offline. "Here goes nothing," Vaena muttered and pressed the palm of her hand against the durasteel door. Blazing heat surged through her fingers as she poured all her concentration into the act.


However, then her sensitive elf ears picked up noise, coming closer. Shadows danced across the corridor, here and there she heard screeches. "Aim for the head. Or the legs. That won't kill them, but it will slow them down."


Before Karina could have said anything, Vaena had tossed her prepared fireball and set a ghoul ablaze. But more were coming. A horde of bloodthirsty, feral attackers advanced with claws and clubs. Drawing upon her Sciia to augment her strength, Vaena gave a ghoul a hard kick when it tried to tackle her, then thrust her Sarix into the creature's head, sizzling through its brain. Drawing upon Eldorai agility and acrobatics, she managed to weave a path through the horde.


This was more like it. She felt something like a stab of enthusiasm. This was way more fun than dealing with the idiotic trivia that was so important for the life of an aristo. Her Sarix, the emblematic weapon of the Angelii, glowed fiercely as ghouls fell to her blade. An Eldorai war cry escaped her lips and she clove through another ghoul with an upward cut.

 

[Farnis13]

Verian had thought he was so clever for managing to sneak on board.

Just stow away in the cargo hold of the ship, come out during the sleeping hours for some left-over food, and hide back in his box when the passengers were awake. However, currently curled up and asleep in the crate he temporarily called home, he could hear banging and faint screams. The noise almost didn't even register to him, but he was jolted fully awake when his crate was tipped over.

Verian tumbled out of the box as it fell down and fell on his back. He quickly started to get up when something roared and tackled him, pinning him to the floor and attempting to claw at him.

"Oh kriff! Oh what the kri-" He started to shout as he attempted to fend it off. What he recognized now to be one of the ships staff was drooling bile and blood onto his chest as they wrestled.

He finally grabbed it by the collar of its jacket and managed to haul it to the side onto the floor. The former crewman was thrashing wildly, shrieking and wailing until Verian grabbed it by the hair and started to slam its head over and over into the metal floor. He sat there, bashing the creatures head against the floor until it stopped moving, only twitching slightly.

Verian got up from the body, panting as he stumbled to where his knife was dropped on the floor and picked it up. He looked over to the thing he just killed and gagged a bit, coming to terms with the fact that he killed someone.

"Kriff, ok I need help." He started to stumble a bit down the hall, looking for help.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The redhead was breathing heavily, her dark haired compatriot panting behind her large mask. "Sounds like blasterfire above us." Which was either rescue or survivors from the initial attack, either way it was better than sitting around alone, running through the passenger levels trying to avoid large groups. "Do a quick ammo check while we have a moment, and then I guess we will see about what's going on a level up." Life sign scans were worthless at differentiating between survivors and infected, but had the benefit of being able to pick up large groups.

Laira clicked her little blaster pistol, just a Sorosuub Renegade. One magazine, no grenades, spear and multi-weapon were all she had to see through the ship. They would need to rely on avoidance in order to survive. Dimeria however was much better off. The Knight of the Flame had decided not to pack so light for the trip and thus was in full armor with her bolter and flamer. "We'll be fine, if not just remember to save one round." Her voice was cheery and excited, as though the prospect of dying wasn't a bad thing running through her mind.

"I'll remember that. Thanks." Laira's attention slid away from the woman with the dark colored top-knot and towards the long empty corridors leading in either direction. "Gotta find a turbolift and climb it. This way." She took quick steps, conserving her energy for short bursts of high speed sprints as needed. She moved nearly silently, but the woman behind her thudded along as heavy sabatons plodded against the hull of the ship. It wasn't loud to the point of being obvious and attracting everything for miles, but it was enough that if they came too close the infected would certainly investigate. Shaking her head, Laira moved off down the corridor in search of a turbolift.

About twenty yards down the hall the sound of shuffling from ahead of the pair. Dimeria instinctively moved ahead of Laira, leveling her bolter at the noises. The first infected turned the corner, sniffing about on the ground a second later, the pair unnoticed for an instant. The redhead moved quietly up against the wall, slipping towards a doorway where she could hide, but even as she did the subtle scuffing of Dimeria's sabatons rumbled out, not that it was likely they would have gone unnoticed. The first glanced up towards them, freezing for a moment, others joining it too look at the two attractive morsels alone with them in the passenger decks. Suddenly the hallway erupted in bolter fire, belching out explosive rounds in rapid succession. The Knight swept the large bore weapon across the corridor in a methodical pass across their center mass. It might not kill each one, but the explosive microgrenade rounds would certainly slow them or disable the infected.

Laira pulled the trigger on her heavy blaster pistol, one after the other with careful precision. Each shot had to drop one or it was a waste of effort and valuable resources. The smoke cleared, about twenty bodies lay strewn across the deck, but silence did not return. Screeches from all sides began, from various distances, echoing through the hallway. "Move." It was Laira's voice but she didn't remember saying anything. She only remembered starting to run, starting to take off at a full sprint towards the turbolifts. The doors to the lifts, of course did not open and the redhead found herself having to wait on the Dame following her, relying on her strength to force the doors open. If a certain Zeltron had of helped her get a lightsaber instead of teaching her to drop it like its hot, she would not have needed to wait. "Come on, give me your hand." Laira hadn't done this particular thing often, and certainly not with a friend in tow, but it would have to work. The sound of rushing infected was closing in on them in the shadows, surrounding the pair.

Laira jumped, straight for the opposite wall of the turbolift shaft and landed, standing at a sharp ninety degree angle with Dimeria hanging from her hand. Her stomach churned at the sudden shift, but her legs kept pumping onward, keeping her moving straight up the wall at a decent clip. <Let's see them do that!> She thought as the mild vertigo began to set in and the lunch she had started trying to make its way back up her throat. They went up one level, and then another diving through partially jammed doors of the lift and landing together in a pile about twenty yards away from two space elves, including one [member="Vaena Askari"] and her companion.

[member="Farnis13"] [member="Chekīta Kaie"] [member="Derrick Veltraa"]

 

[Derrick Veltraa]

[member="Laira Vereen"] [member="Farnis13"] [member="Vaena Askari"] [member="Chekīta Kaie"]

"Switch to kill! If there's a cure to be found later I'll take the blame dammit!" Captain Derrick Veltraa spat behind a tense grin as he flipped his blaster carbine from stun to kill after his and his squad's stun bolts did nothing to hamper, deter, or put down the shambling horrors that were the afflicted. The Rendili officer had hoped that stun would have been sufficient in the event that a cure could be provided for the starliner's infected crew and passengers. However, when a half dozen stun rounds refused to do a damn thing against the blood soaked monsters limping or dead sprinting toward them, he had little choice but to rescind his previous order while Sergeant Bor provided cover with his already set to kill weaponry. They had hardly managed to go down two hallways before entering an intersection where they were set upon from two of the other diverting pathways.

Now they were being forced toward the last option, away from the hangar where they had come and unable to head down the other halls unless there were few enough infected for them clear. Given that a closer look at the horrific figures approaching his unit were essentially corpses, with torn throats, missing limbs, and blood soaked bodies, there was little guilt to be had in wiping them out to make a new path since the former passengers appeared to be dead already. There was still the issues about running out of ammunition to worry about though, which the Captain tried to keep in mind as he hefted his blaster carbine and released short bursts at the nearest approached desiccated figures, putting several rounds into one of the monsters chest and another bolt into one's head. "Someone get that control panel and slice this door closed! We'll reopen it on the way back with survivors. Sergeant get on Comms and warn the other Squad with the transport to fortify themselves and let them know what we're up against."

Kneeling down to brace his rifle better, the Captain aimed down his weapon and continued his burst fire into the advancing creatures with the support of the unoccupied squad members. "Damn ghouls! Just go down!" Hearing the impromptu name seemed fitting to Veltraa as he backed up when the blast door came down. "Alright, put up a warning for survivors that come across the door so they don't unseal it without making sure its clear first. Remember to keep updating the map's layout as we go so we cross off where we've been. . . . back to searchin everyone." Laughing as if he had heard a joke, Derrick shook his head as he turned around, lifting his carbine again and moving beside Sergeant Bor as the squad moved further into the ship, hoping if their blasterfire didn't attract more infected then that it would alert survivors to their location.

 

[Chekīta Kaie]

Head shots, that seemed to be the only way these things would die, yes shooting them in the chest did the trick sometimes, most likely hitting the spiral cord and damaging the central cortex or some other brain thing, a leg shot just turned them into shambling crawling horror movie monsters. Despite this not every head shot hit its mark, sometime the bullet skimmed the top of the infected head, and it still came walking, to the side, kept walking. Through trial and error Chetika had discovered that only a clean, all the way through, in between or around the eyes, round put these things to sleep permanently.

She took a drag from her cigar as she kicked to the floor the last remaining ghoul from the latest group she engaged, placing her boot against its temple, pinning it to the floor. 'At least this experience has told me I need to improve the efficiency of my marksman ship, but better to find that out here then during a job'. Bending down she blew the smoke from her last puff into the infected persons face, before finally crushing its head, preferring to conserve ammo, resorting to hand to hand combat when possible, though very aware of the dangers that came with it. Her search for the security level of the cruiser came to a halt when the blast door to a following hall refused to open, seemly barricaded from the other side, or in lock down due to the power outage. Either way there was no going on that way, but at the lest it meant only on direction to worry about, the problem was how many infected were between her and the hanger bay, the only other direction she could go in of any real importance.

'Note for the future, make a backup plan for the backup plan, and maybe even and backup plan for that.... okay maybe that's a bit too much, but anyways hanger bay it is'. Trying to keep quite Chekita slithered down the dimly lit hallways of the once luxury cruise liner, often coming across long dead bodies of passengers and security guards, and the odd infected, giving said ghoul a hello with her throwing knife skills. Though something seemed to bother her, the actual lack of infected? where had they gone, it was clear the things had been through the same hallways she transversed, but less than 30 had fallen to her gun, there had to be more, but where?

Her questioned seemed to be answered as gun fire echoed down the hallway, at least a kilometer away, from the sounds of things controlled bursts, more then on fire arm going off, not random people frantically trying to defend themselves. No, it sounded like a breach and clear operation was underway, operations she had very much been a part of in the past. 'those shots could be from professional soldiers, perhaps a rescue party, but there is no ruling out pirates, capitulating on this unfortunate event, best keep my guard up'. Loading another clip into her carbine she made haste towards the sound of gun fire, soon the moans of infected slowly coming clearer, it seemed this group had attracted the attention of quite a few of the undead. [member="Derrick Veltraa"]

[member="Laira Vereen"] l [member="Farnis13"] l [member="Vaena Askari"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Laira Vereen"]


A bolter would have been useful for Vaena at this juncture. She was not that fond of the gun, considering it loud, noisy and a bit crude. However, she could not deny its efficacy as a crowd controller since it was a semiautomatic grenade launcher firing explosive microgrenade rounds.


However, she did not have one. The same applied to a lightsabre since she was a bit of a traditionalist. However, she had her Sarix. Even with the containment sphere activated, it could not manifest the cutting power equal to that of the fabled laser sword, but it was close enough for now. It served her well in these moments. Glowing with a fierce, blazing light, it scythed down ghouls. Ridding them of limbs did not kill them, but it slowed them down and time was what she needed.


Time to remove their heads from their rotting bodies with a beheading stroke or a thrust towards their neck. Time to severe their spinal cords with a precise stroke. Time to unleash a wave of flame that swept across the corridor like a fiery broom. But she could feel herself tiring. Eldorai were not built for endurance and her muscles slackened. A ghoul pounced her from above and she fell. The zombie pinned her down and raised a clawed hand to strike, but she grabbed its throat and literally cooked its brain. Pushing herself up, she stood and raked her blade across another ghoul.


Karina was still cowering in a corner, shaky hands gripping her blaster. Whimp. Calling upon her Sciia to strengthen her muscles, she leapt away and spied a short blade on the ground. It must have belonged to a dead guard. Calling it into the grasp of her off-hand, she whirled about in a blur as she cut a swathe through the undead.


Then one attacker pointed a gun at her and a sonic wave shot forth. It seemed at least one ghoul was bright enough to know how to use a gun. The wave of sound caused her ears to bleed and made her feel like someone had clubbed her head, causing her mind to reel.


She was pushed backwards against a wall with a hard thud. Rotting, clawed hands grabbed her neck. As everything seemed to turn dark, the ghoul was suddenly speared by a blaster bolt and fell. Karina was leaning against a wall, holding the blaster with trembling hands. "I hit it," she sounded incredulous.


"It's what happens when you aim," Vaena said dryly. Her throat was sore, and her head hurt.


"You're...filthy." Indeed, the Eldorai's robes and long raven hair were covered in gore.


"I feel more soiled when I attend family banquets." Then suddenly there was loud noise when Laira and her Force Dead Sister of Battle companion landed in their vicinity. Immediately, Vaena raised her blades, just in case it was more zombies.

 

[Farnis13]

Verian clutched his knife tightly, blood soaking it down to the hilt, as he slowly made his way down the halls of the ship. He'd spotted the occasional infected hunched over bodies and feeding on them. The smell of gore in the air caused him to gag every now and then, but he was ashamed to say that he was starting to get used it.

Verian was curious as to why he didn't meet any large groups of infected until he started to hear very faint shots. As far as he knew, these things didn't bother with weapons which meant there was people. If there were people putting up a fight, he'd find help there.

So he moved, taking side rooms and halls to go around any infected he encountered. The shots became louder until he could hear them practically right next to him. Verian would turn a corner, running almost right smack into a woman with cigar in her mouth [member="Chekīta Kaie"]

 

[Derrick Veltraa]

[member="Laira Vereen"] [member="Farnis13"] [member="Vaena Askari"] [member="Chekīta Kaie"]

"Is anyone out there? We're Rendili Planetary Defense Force members responding-" Being the rescue operatives on a darkened drifting starliner was a rather unfortunate role to bear. With little information on the bio attack that had been reported in the distress call, Captain Veltraa could hardly tell much about the situation. How many survivors there were for example, what intel could easily differentiate them from the afflicted Ghouls, and even the exact state and layout of the ship was unknown given the potential damage done to the passenger vessel after everything went to hell in a hand basket. Plus everytime he called out for survivors he and his squad were set upon by the shambling horde of corpses that comprised the victims they were already too late to save.

Not that they had a choice in the matter either. With the lights practically out it was hard to tell at first sight if a huddled body was a corpse, a ghoul, or one of the survivors they were searching for. Everytime they came across a body they had to call out first, most often resulting in their words being cut off by the howls of the Ghouls just before they were rushed. At least it was better than if there was no response at all, and they'd have to risk checking the body up close. So far though they hadn't had to worry about that. They just had to worry about putting down the ghouls charging at them, their shrieks and screams beating on their ears trying to outdo the sound of their blasterfire.


"Captain, the hangar is secure. We're erected a barricade and fortified the doors. A repeating blaster has been setup and we've repelled a group of the infected once so far. We'll update you on the situation if it changes." Hearing the pilot's voice crackle over his comm unit, the Rendili officer reached to activate the channel to respond when one of the ghouls broke through the hail of blaster bolts and threw itself at him. Lifting up his blaster carbine, Derrick grunted as its weight fell on, his soldiers stunned by the surge of ferocity the ghoul had over the others they were putting burst into. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yelling like an animal at the rotted face in front of his own, Captain Veltraa hefted his rifle and pushed the corpse back as its slavering jaw repeatedly thrust at him. Grunting, the officer swung his blaster around to slam the ghoul grasping onto it against the wall, staggering it before he shoved his weapon at its head, bouncing its skull on the wall before with a brief shout he began to slam his helmeted head against the undead's own. Like this the Defense Force Captain bashed the ghoul's head against the wall with his own while blasterfire blared behind him until with a loud crack the ghoul collapsed to the floor and released its grip on his firearm.

Veltraa would be the first to admit he was an inelegant man. He wasn't the most tactical of commanders either, though he was not always aware of his errors, in fact he was more of a brute and not simply because of his size. However, he certainly had jovial charisma that made up for it. Or perhaps it could be called an oblivious charm, with a good example being his beaming smile as he turned back to his squad, breathing heavily as blood dripped from the top of his helmet where he had slammed his head against the ghoul's. "I think it's better if most of these folks have closed casket funerals. Sorry for the yelling, felt really pumped up there for a moment. . . .are the rest dead? Thanks for keeping calm and taking care of matters Bor! Let's take inventory on our remaining ammunition and get a move on." The squad around him shook their heads as Bor went around putting a round into the head of each fallen Ghoul whether they were still making noises or not. Their commanding officer was an unbelievable sort, and whether they served directly with him on operations or not, they were well aware of the situations those around him were witness to. Yet, with a confidence and innocence like his they couldn't help but be compelled to follow through to see where everything led. "I guess we should call out again. IF THERE'S ANY SURVIVORS! THIS IS CAPTAIN VELTRAA OF THE RENDILI DEFENSE FORCE! WE'RE HERE TO RESCUE YOU! Although I guess survivors would've ran if they saw all those ghouls huh. . . ."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Get off me!" Laira huffed, groaning as she tried to rise with the heavily armored woman laying ontop of her. Her stomach was calming, but her vision was still a little blurred, senses adjusting to having twisted herself around and her perception of gravity having adjusted several times so rapidly. That would take some getting used to.

"Sorry, it just felt like the right time to make a move with all the 'could be dead any second' thoughts buzzing around." Dimeria grinned beneath the golden mask she wore over the lower half of her face. Red cloak pooled around her feet as she stood up, pulling Laira to her feet as she did so. The golden armored woman lifted her bolter, letting it rest across her armor's bulky pauldrons. Laira was very different, wearing simple casual clothing with trousers, white shirt missing a few buttons by now, and dark colored vest. Underneath she was wearing syn-skin armor, but that wasn't visible.

"You wish... Oh, hi there." Laira's grey eyes turned to the two space elves nearby, one of them looking like she had been through a slaughter house the other prim and proper and looking terrified. "I'm Laira Darkhold, this is Dimeria, we are with the Ranger Corps." She glanced around, wearing a pretty smile and giving them a dainty wave of her fingers. "I, uh, I guess we are here to rescue you." Certainly not her original intention when they had escaped that particular horde, but it was a solid bonus.

Dimeria, ever the cynic rolled her eyes, "Yeah, rescue."

"Shush you." Laira's eyes narrowed at her companion. "We should start making our way towards the hangars. Maybe there is a ship there we can fly out of this death trap." She kept her smile on, even though the situation was dire, trying to appear confident and at least somewhat reliable.

[member="Vaena Askari"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Laira Vereen"]


"Rescue? Absurd. We are the daughters of the dragon and in no need of being rescued by humans of all people," Karina declared pompously, giving the two newcomers suspicious looks. "They might be infected, sister."


"Karina, shut up," Askari brushed her half-sibling's words aside as if they were buzzing insects. Her intent gaze fell upon the two humans. She liked the armour the tall, imposing woman with the bolter was wearing. But what perplexed her was that the woman felt like a void in the Force. Where she should have had a Force presence, she could only see emptiness. It was disconcerting for a Goddess-fearing elf. As for the redhead, she was cute.


"It appears to me that you fell next to our fight rather than performed a rescue," she said very dryly. Her Basic was understandable, but very accented and her diction a bit old-fashioned. "But we will accept your help either way. I relish a good fight, but the ship is a bit inundated at the moment and it is difficult enough to get a single door to open. Let us make haste."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Dimeria didn't pay much attention to the prissy sounding space elf high on superiority. Other than shrugging at her, the Knight didn't bother with paying her much attention. "I'm going to go with I was dragged here, but its good company. I ain't complainin'."

"Good, then you get to open doors." Laira beamed at her companion, holding her hands behind her back with her arms straight. She batted her eyelashes at the tall woman with the top-knot, causing a reluctant, but accepting groan to escape the Force-Dead Knight's throat. Dimeria's shoulders slumped a little and she moved to be in front of the little convoy.

"And I'll pull up the rear with the daughter of the dragon here," She stuck a thumb towards the space elf, identified as Karina with a wink. Karina didn't know that Laira could also wear that particular epithet if she wanted to, being the eldest daughter of the Dragon of Alderaan. Plus Laira could breathe fire, so maybe that would help knock some of the chill off.

Dimeria put her boot and fingers into the seem of a blast door, grunting as she forced the door open. Muscles and servos strained, but the blast door slid open enough for people to duck through while the knight held it open. Behind the little group, a very heavy thudding began to sound in a slow walking pace, as though the thing moving was the size of a hutt with legs. What ended up turning the corner at the very far end of the corridor was a houk, bloated and fat, his body leaking fluids and sickly green ooze. The Knight's eyes widened, "Move your pretty legs or loose em girls!"

[member="Vaena Askari"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Laira Vereen"]


Karina shot Laira an angry glare, and muttered something in Eldarai. Presumably it was something unpleasant about human monkeighs and how in the good old days someone so uppity would have been punished severely etc.


For her part, Askari ignored her. Her half-sibling had shut up, so the newcomers could not be that bad. Even though she found the presence of the huge woman with the boltgun quite disconcerting. Not because of her impressive armaments, but because she could not sense her through her Sciia. Could such a being even exist? Apparently it could, but she was certain she was human rather than an abomination.


As the group was about to get a move on, an actual abomination emerged. It was huge, repulsive and bloated. Indeed, it reminded Askari of the vile demons that according to scripture had been birthed by Illyria, Goddess of the Underworld and Mother of Monsters. "May Ashira's light guide us." Swiftly, she bolted along with the rest of the group. Even Karina seemed to finally get some sense and fall in rather than sulk. Doubtless more vile creatures awaited them before they could make them escape. She would gladly send them

 

[Chekīta Kaie]

Chetika quietly hummed to herself as she calmly placed shot after shot into the head of oncoming infected, there were appearing in larger numbers then before, but scattered, not in grouped clusters. It seemed as if this part of the ship had been done away with, all the infected just left to stumble around, any coherence that they may have had in a group lost, or the larger groups had wandered off some where else. 'Hope there not all congregating in some huge hoard, that would be bad... but maybe also fun, ooh perhaps there is a queen or king infected, that would be exciting to fight'.

Lost in her imagination Chetika failed to notice the man running around the corner at full ball, slamming into her 'chest', making for a slightly awkward encounter if anyone was watching. "Well hello there, I hope you are doing fine this... is it evening or morning, ah never mind.... do you like sticking your face between my breasts... are the scary wary monsters coming for you"? Most would have found it weird for someone to be happy, let alone making sexual joke in a situation like this, but it helped calm peoples nerves, or perhaps Chetika had just gotten to used to killing that fighting zombies was a nice change of pace.

She place an arm on the man shoulder slightly pushing him away, he was covered in blood, mainly around her arm and legs, a virbo blade of sort dripping with it. "You seem handy with a knife, but I think maybe a gun might suit your more, this... infection, may be blood born", she pulled out a blaster pistol that she retrieved from one of the dead security garuds, checking its power pack before handing it to him, "My name is Chetika Kaie, body guard for hire, I enjoy long walks across the beach and night outs at the bar.. who might you be". Through the entire conversation she could still hear the sound of gunfire going off, slowly coming closer followed by a slight echo.

IF THERE'S ANY SURVIVORS! THIS IS CAPTAIN VELTRAA OF THE RENDILI DEFENSE FORCE! WE'RE HERE TO RESCUE YOU! Although I guess survivors would've ran if they saw all those ghouls huh. . . ."

[member="Derrick Veltraa"] l [member="Farnis13"]

 

[Derrick Veltraa]

[member="Laira Vereen"] [member="Farnis13"] [member="Vaena Askari"] [member="Chekīta Kaie"]

Once Derrick was convinced all the ghouls near them were put down the squad moved on, sweeping lights down the halls as they went until they caught sight of more figure standing in the center of the hall not too far away from their last firefight past the next intersection they came across. However, for the first time since boarding the ship it appeared as if they had stumbled across their first set of survivors. Mostly because the defense force troopers noticed that neither of the figures rushed at them after a few moments and that the their faces clearly didn't look the same as the feral, blood splattered ghouls. Still, given the situation on the ship thus far they couldn't exactly relax on a whim. Not that such a thought seemed to occur to the unit's Captain as Veltraa shook his head and laughed after they had a moment to look over the pair in front of them. "I guess it isn't a Ghoul ship yet after all!"

Stepping forward while the squad sighed at either his lack of caution or confidence that the pair weren't part of the threat, Veltraa grinned as he addressed the two survivors. "I'm Captain Veltraa of the Rendili Planetary Defense Force. While escorting a transport back to Rendili, my ship the Vigil Heart picked up the distress signal here. We diverted here to rescue you! You can relax now, we'll make sure you get out of here alive!" Of course it wasn't as if he could guarantee their safety for certain, at least his squad was aware of that. They did however, think he believed that statement entirely and that at the very least he'd die trying to keep his word.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Dimeria held the blast door open, straining to push it wide enough that she would be able to dive through once she let it drop. Meanwhile, Laira took aim at the oozing monstrosity. Acrid scent wafted from the creature, the smell of burnt metal and disease following the bloated houk's fiendish corpse. The supposed biological agent had mutated its body far more than others, sores and boils dripping pus which hit the floor, smoke wafting up as the acidic substance burned the metal deck leaving pockmarks in the durasteel.

Her Renegade blaster pistol blazed, a beam of searing light crossing the distance between the redheaded princess and the gruesome monster. The bolt struck the creature in the stomach, bursting it open and spraying acidic pus across the walls of the corridor, the bloated creature still waddling towards the four beauties, hunger gleaming in its bloodshot eyes. "What the hell is that thing?" she muttered.

The knight grunted from the doorway. "Doesn't matter. Get through door. Can't hold forever." The top door pressed against her shoulders and the bottom rising even against the pressure of her armored sabaton. From the look on her face it was clear she had no intention of being crushed or killed by this door, even if it meant closing their chance to escape the creature that pursued them.

Reacting to the order, Laira smacked Karina on the rear to usher her through the doorway as quickly as possible, "Geddy up Princess!" Her trigger finger squeezed off a few more rounds, each causing a spray of pus and fluids to erupt from the creature's wounds. The sound of other ghouls scrambling to investigate the noise caused by the four women echoed down the empty hallways, signalling the eminate arrival of reinforcements for the being. Of the space elf maidens, Askari appeared to be able to take care of herself, reacting well and moving along. She was covered in enough gore that she had obviously killed several of them at close quarters. Karina seemed shaky and unsure of herself or her situation.

[member="Vaena Askari"]

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Laira Vereen"]


While Laira fired her beams of crimson light at the bloated, horribly mutated monstrosity, Vaena drew upon the Force. Or her Sciia, as she would have called it if someone asked her. Muttering a prayer to the Goddess, she manifested an orange freball and sent it flying towards the creature. The blazing flames illuminated the poorly lit corridor. The beast howled in pain and anger when it hit. But despite being ignited and in the throes of anguish, it kept coming closer towards them.


Karina yelped when Laira gave her a smack on her incidentally very shapely rear. "Don't touch me, human!" However, seeing the vile monster waddling towards them was enough to give her a sufficient scare and so she ran through the door.


Seeing this Askari suppressed a sigh. "Would you rather have an abomination touch you? Because there is a huge one over there." Too bad you could not choose your family - or your biological one at any rate. She did not need her sensitive elf ears to tell her that more ghouls were coming, for their scrambling was rather loud. So she moved through the door in a considerably more graceful manner. To her credit, she kept an eye on her new allies to make sure they got through too, instead of suddenly being ambushed by zombies.

 

[Chekīta Kaie]

(OOC was waiting for [member="Farnis13"] but I wanna keep this RP going)

Chetika waited for a response from the man, but didn't get one, perhaps he was a little stunned by the whole ordeal, and her very light attitude, but either way they could not afford just to mull about like some very bloody cardboard cut outs, getting out of this join was priority number one. "Well what ever, but anyways I'm headed for the hanger bay, you come with? we may be able to- well slap me silly and call me an aunt, looks like the gungan cavalry is here". She she tuned to face down the hallway several armed men approached, she instantly recognized them as the Rendilli Planetary Deference force, it was always good to get an idea of the law enforcement, lest you accidental shoot them while on a Job, though having no quads about working for criminals, she'd rather not get a criminal record.

She gave her usually slightly creepy smile to [member="Derrick Veltraa"] as he introduced himself to the duo, "Well that is kind of you captain, but I can handle myself just fine, this little bugger on the other hand, may need some protection, as for relaxing, I feel pretty calm myself, though having people trying to eat my guts is a bit bothersome". She strode over to the captain, extending her hand for a greeting shake, "The names Chekita Kaie, though most people call me Kill Joy, professional body guard and mercenary contractor, was heading to the planets surface to pick up some work, though you can see how thing turned out".