Food for Thought (Denon Dominion)

[Ryan]

@R. Brek Madak @Anika Od'Manteiv, @[member="Ermac Laith"]

Location: rooftop to HQ Level

I won't kill him, I won't kill him, Dred hummed in the back of his mind, it was all that was holding him back from popping the pot headed rookie. The mandalorian took in a deep breath, calming his anger while at the same time using the intel reports that were coming in as a nice side distraction from the disturbing one he was dealing with.

"Brek, you better know what your doing" He exhaled loudly then turning towards the turbo lift chute "Alright form up, wedge formation like Ermac recommended, Brek.... you got rear guard" Varad commanded taking up the right flank of the wedge giving Ermac the left.

Dred had his custom EE-3 carbine at the ready as he lead them towards the turbo lift. He took a quick look down, seeing that it was all clear. He then Pressed the button and.......nothing. Dred then tried the second lift and again nothing, both turbo lifts were out. "Well, guess that was on a need to know basis" Dred snorted stepping back from the lifts. "You two repel down to the next level, I will jump down first to get the door open."

Dred opened up the coms to Anika to inform her of his plan on entry "This is Dred, We are coming down in Turbo lift two, Major! Don't shoot us"

With that Dred then jumped into the turbo chute, barely free falling before his jet pack ignited and slowing his decent down. Only took a second for The mandalorian to make to the next level where Omega Pyre called 'base', Wrapping on the sealed door three times with his crushgaunts to signal that it was friendlies coming in.

Only took Varad seconds with the assistance of a security blade to slice through the doors operational programs and successfully opening it. He hovered in taking a few steps with the momentum as the jet back shut off, his rifle at the ready as he waited for his team to drop in. Dred, like any Mandalorian, was decked out to the nines with all sorts of tools of war and mission specific items. His HUD hasn't been properly updated with allied markers so he had his weapon slightly lowered pointing to the ground so it would only take a snap to bring it up in firing position.

The precaution wasn't necessary as he saw Anika and her team already had the area covered, so the mando eased himself and lowered the weapon lower as he looked Directly at the Major " Nice to meet you, My crew will be down momentarily and then you can set us to work. Also please send me a HUD update of your teams transponders. We don't want any accidents now do we?"

 

[Rebekka Brek Madak]

Brek Madak was the second one down, and his zip-line was kinda short, leaving him hanging by the belt about 3 feet off the ground. Brek pushed the button over and over again, but the servomotor only buzzed in protest. No more line to draw out, and people were staring. "Omm, technical difficulties ?" Brek said, the dorky goggled cooking pot 'helmet' masking his facial expressions.

Reaching out and grabbing the upper part of the door, he finally pressed the emergency release button, swung forward into a flip, body-slammed the floor like a sack of flour, and then stood up to retrieve his zip-line unit.

Brek may be a mercenary, but he was Definitely Not Mandalorian.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"]

"...that's an order."

The turbolift car fell, its engines destroyed. Thankfully, this wasn't one of the shafts that went all the way down. Denon was tall, too tall. The car only fell a handful of stories, its damaged emergency brakes squealing and sparking. Jorus hung from the bottom of the car by one arm, flinching away from the sparks.

And eyeing the oncoming bottom of the shaft.

The shotgun blast had ripped away much of the car's underside, revealing a major crossbeam. Jorus closed his eyes, turned the shotgun to point downward, and, at the last second, swung over to put the stock against the crossbeam.

Overpressure knocked him out and blew out his eardrums. When he came to, he lay in the space between the car and the bottom of the shaft.

The Mandalorian shell gun, its beskar construction unbent, was holding up the car.

"Boss Lady, I'm alive but stuck. Someone's gonna need to move a turbolift car. Y'all OK up there?"

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

The battle was a bloody, vicious scrum. Zombies, even smarter and more cunning than before, had swept down on them. Siobhan was fighting her own rearguard against an enemy who was trying to subdue or kill their enemies.

Tegaea, with her squad, formed a firing line not unlike the battles of the ancient past and fired salvos of buckshot as the enemy came on. Soon the zombies realised this was suicide and they changed tactics. Blasters opened up from the buildings to either side, ambushes assailed them from all sides, but the Omega troops stood their ground, even when one of their number was hacked to pieces by an enraged enemy mob.

It was time to break the stalemate. "Cammy, flamer now!" Tegaea ordered.

The trooper with the flamethrower unleashed a gout of burning fuel into the enemy, and then into a ruined building where the enemy was hiding. That seemed, at least for now, to take the wind from their sails. Turning, she saw Siobhan struggling with a zombie and blasted it with a load of buckshot, then went to Siobhan and hauled her up.
"You alright? Need a medic?" she asked.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Being faced with the fiery onslaught spewing from the flamethrower sent the zombies scurrying into the shadows. The agonised screams of those undead who were incinerated was most satisfying.

No doubt a larger horde would be lying in wait for the mercenaries and they would have prepared for this eventuality. Where one was destroyed, ten were there to take its place.

The undead who had been causing Siobhan difficulty was blasted by @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] with buckshot and Siobhan was hauled off the ground. It said quite a bit about the seriousness of the fight that Siobhan did not respond to Tegs' query with one of her usual lame jokes or quips. "No drama, I'm good for action." She clutched her shoulder, where it seemed a zombie had gotten her good with a vibro-blade before being dispatched, blood dripped down her face. "Just a little bacta is all. Gotta keep moving."

 

[Tilda Sai]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"] @[member="Dred Varad"] @R. Brek Madak

​

"Good work Merrill, you saved us. We are coming to get you. " she answered. That's when a ruckus behind her drew her attention.

Ah, yes. The sub-contractors.

These thoughts would not be gleaned from mere expression; the Major was ever so professional.

A nod towards two of her security officers brought forth the necessary uplinks that would relay the positions of Aurek, Besh, and Cresh teams in their HUDs. It would also connect them direct to headquarters, allowing her to to view what they see and hear what they hear.

They would be hearing plenty of the Major as the situation progressed.

"We haven't heard from Besh team yet. Aurek is currently leading the charge at taking care of the horde that is attempting to take over our headquarters and moving towards Besh team from the north." sure steps took her over towards a holographic relay, where she slid her fingers over it, drawing up more plans, blueprints, and positioning parameters.

"Subject Zero is still at large. However, we need to get Lieutenant Merrill back to our lab techs." another swipe of her finger brought the exact positioning that Jorus's tracker placed him at.

"He is in the lower levels, unable to progress further on his own. He has had contact with the rakghouls and the zombies, but as I mentioned, has been vaccinated against it. " a small raising of eyebrows came then. "We hope."

"So far, it seems to be working. If so, we are going to need him back in our labs. We have a zombie specimen currently being studied as we speak... but with subject zero, it would go by faster."

"Once we get Merrill here, Besh team will need to be scouted for. I've lost contact with them since the horde waves began attacking. The last transmission I received was when I relayed Major Siobhan's last input."

She gave a turn of her upper torso, her stoic gaze settling upon the Mandalorian, "Any questions?"

 

[Laith Varad*]

@[member="Anika Od'Manteiv"], @R. Brek Madak, @[member="Dred Varad"]

Next time a Jet pack might be an idea. Just something that Ermac considered when Dred went ahead of the group to open the doors at the bottom of the turbo lift. Allowing Brek to go ahead of him Ermac would remain in the rear for the moment to ensure everything went smoothly though a low chuckle could be heard over the comms when he mentioned technical difficulties due to a shortened zip line. Eventually it would be Ermac's turn and he would take up a position to repel down with his two comrades towards the Omega Pyre Base of Operations for this mission.

Looking across the roof one last time to ensure it remained secure he would have attached his zip line to a secure piece of steel before backing into the turbo lift tube and beginning to rapel downwards towards that others. Better late than never. As Ermac came to the bottom, detaching his zip line from his belt and falling into a crouch with a thunk due to a combination of his weight and the armor he wore he'd have walked out in time to catch the Major advising Dred and Brek of the situation. Interesting, she looked better in person.

Footsteps drew him closer to Dred, flanking the Mandolorians left side, while he listened to the rest of what the three of them were now being told while the target finder in his helm identified the different Omega Pyre personal. The ARC Blaster was held horizontally across his chest. Apparently from what he gleaned having come into the briefing half way they were to descend to the lower levels and assist a person known as Lieutenant Merrill back to the Omega Pyre labs so that they could ensure a vaccine, which he had been injected with, was working. Basically they had to rescue and escort. Simple enough.

"Yeah one question."

Ermac butt in when he heard the Major asking Dred if there were any questions. Dressed in his battle armor Ermac might have been mistaken for a Mandalorian himself but he wasn't; he remained just another hired gun of the near human variety. When he had the Majors attention he moved ahead to stand beside Dred instead of flanking him slightly and spoke up again...

"When all this is done and we've killed these zombies what are you doing later?"

...there was never a bad time to hit on a good looking woman. Looking at her with his crimson gaze from beneath the helm he wore Ermac could tell that Major Anika Od'Manteiv was probably quite a professional person but his own voice was confident, a little arrogant, and he had nothing to lose. Glancing back to Dred after he'd said his piece Ermac would let him ask any pertinent questions he had in mind before he turned his head to Brek and also stated...

"Hope you're a good shot."

...being the least experienced member of the trio Ermac did have his concerns about Brek but thus far he hadn't done anything worse than make himself look a little inexperienced. Gazing back towards the Major he let a wry grin play across his features underneath his helm, clearly he was checking her out, there was nothing wrong with admiring a good looking woman before they all went into battle. Hell he might die, not likely, and he didn't want the last thing on his mind to be Dred or Brek.

 

[Cira]

@[member="Zero"] @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Cira had barely received the transmission about the possibility of Subject Zero being part of a force imbued experiment when the shadow over head attacked. Sarge took it down quick, but it was only the distraction.

The tiny hairs at the nape of the Prex's neck stood on end, danger senses flaring as she grab a hold of her saber. Violet light engulfed her as she glanced up. Straight into eyes that glowed like twin furnaces from Hell, staring malevolently back at her from a swirling fall of shadows.

For a moment it was hard to separate the thing from the shadows; they were both forged of blackness. Then her vision cleared and her training as Disciple of Twilight kicked in, allowing for dark-vision and it was clearly visible. He was well over eight feet, with thick arms that bulged with veins and a gruesome visage littered with half healed lacerations with tuffs of black hair over a bloated skull traced by a skein of think, black veins. His lips - one sculpted, pink and firm, one rotted -- peeled back from sharp yellowed teeth. It was as if his face had been ravaged by a foul leprosy, blackened veins running down his left cheek, over his jaw, and halfway down his neck like rotted marbling in a nerf steak; above his right crimson blood shot eye the flesh was grey and moist; most of what passed as his chin and lower lip had collapsed into a wet, septic decay.

This was no ordinary zombie, but Subject Zero. A mindless, primative fool that came tearing straight at them. No shot to the heart or hit through the head would be taking him down, for like Darth Sion many millennia ago, his decomposing body was held together by the Dark Side of the Force. Harsh growls and the sound of claws ripped through the durasteel plate as a great big hulking form came tearing through straight at her.

There would be no immediate stopping of it.

It would be a gruesome fight.

'WATCH OUT!" Blasted Cira, just as her hands had shot up, telekinetic tendrils grabbing hold of a lose slab of durasteel plating to slam it against the great hulking beast. It gave a furious cry, causing it to rock to the right... but shrugged it off.

He let out another massive roar loud enough to make the nearby glass of the broken bacta tubes crack, sliding thick green bodies of more subjects experiments to the floor... only to stir right after as they came to life.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

@[member="Zero"] @[member="Cira"]

Sarge went to say something into his comm... but there wasn't a comm. At least not a working one. All he could hear was a gentle murmuring, as though someone had simply lost their mind and started whispering fervent prayers in the hopes that something, somewhere, would be able to help them.

But the voice wasn't that of any of his men.

'WATCH OUT!", Cira shouted, and Sarge spun with his weapon up, pumping shot after shot into approximately where the spine would be in that mass of... who knew what.

Suddenly, his churns made sense.

Suddenly, he didn't want to be here anymore.

Suddenly, he was glad he didn't eat this morning.

Already the smell of decayed flesh, that horrid gagging sensation of rot that clung to your nose and settled on your taste buds, came through his helmet's air filter.

This thing wasn't natural. This thing was Dark.

"Burn them."

Two of his soldiers, blasters replaced by massive flamers, feathered fuel into their lines. From the muzzles of their weapons erupted cleansing flames, catching the undead bodies within their grasp and melting their flesh off in bile-inducing rivers.

The caustic smell of burnt flesh penetrated even the horrid stench that came with Subject Zero.

That's when he heard it; the whine.

It began low, just beyond the hearing of his ears before it rose to a painful crescendo. Blue light filled the room as a single bolt of brilliant plasma erupted from the barrel of his heavy weapons specialist to catch the beast in the chest.

A chunk of it vaporized.

It still kept coming. No order need be given; all of Besh began pumping shot after shot into it. Sarge had made it abundantly clear on the ride over that nothing would happen to the Prex, but he only hoped they could kill this monstrosity before they were overwhelmed. Support wasn't coming.

That strange ghost-whisper was still nagging at his ear.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea made sure @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] had stopped bleeding, then pressed on with her. "You need to get some armour, Kerri," Tegaea advised, smacking her own breastplate where the blaster bolt had been stopped.

Occasionally the zombies would attack, but blasts of bolter and flamer fire would drive them off. So it was that they soon came to the old research station, but from the other side from @[member="Cira"]. They found more resistance, but they pressed on.

It was then, while Cira was battling the monstrous first zombie that they began to hear the chant....

Spoiler

There were no audible words, but the mere sound was unsettling...wrong. The sound would be very familiar to Siobhan, as it was like the Unity used. The purpose though...was unknown for now.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

((Awesome pic))

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"]

Siobhan sighed a bit at Tegs' advice, though she had to concede that her superior and lover had a point, much as she didn't like it when she was proven wrong. "Maybe a light one," she conceded. Her fighting style did involve quite a lot of jumping and leaping around a lot, after all.

So they penetrated further into zombieland, reaching the old research station. They faced stiff resistance, though the combination of bolters, flamethrowers and Siobhan's flamethrower seemed to see them through. It was then that they began to hear the chant. Words could not be deciphered, they were not clearly audible, but there was a clear sense of wrongness.

Siobhan stiffened at the sudden auditory invasion, made even more disconcerting by the fact that words could not be made out. "It's like the Unity again," she said quietly. "We're getting closer."

But the purpose of the chant remained elusive. Did it just serve to coordinate the zombies, was whatever malignant will that had birthed them driving it, like Shadow had attempted?

Then she felt the presence, dark, alien, pure, primal hunger. The entity was not natural, its hunger infinite. As she stretched she could briefly feel Cira's Force signature as well, somehow she had the impression that the inaudible chant was making it difficult to focus. "Subject Zero's close. Very powerful. Cira's there. Gotta hurry." Looking grim she pressed on as they struck through the groups of zombies that had been roused by their intrusion.

Like it or not, the truth was out there.

 

[Tilda Sai]

@[member="Dred Varad"] @[member="Ermac Laith"]

Caught off guard at the sudden asking out, Anika on the inside went like this.​

​

​

​

On the outside however, she did this.​

​

​

​

She wasn't used to getting asked out in the heat of battle. Her level of professionalism and by the book tendencies were well known. It wasn't nothing new with the intelligence security agent. For one to get past that barrier, it would require a bit more work.

Maintaining that professional air of the typical Anaxi, the Major gave a nod to Ermac. "Keep your comm set to this frequency. You'll be hearing from me if there are any new developments."

A wave of her hand had another security officer hand them a small satchel of the sticky camera droids they were to mount on the walls on the way down.

"Mount these where you are able. I need them to keep an eye on you and any more possible dangers."

She then began to turn back towards the dozen holoscreens behind her, dismissing them unless there were other more mission specific questions to be asked.

"We've work to do gentlemen."

 

[Vora Kaar]

@Cira @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Zero made his way down to the lab where everything seemed erie and scary. Zero got a little chill up his spine. he pulled out his sword and one of his GH-44 pistols. he looked around to see cables hanging from the ceiling and bodies that were trying to be hidden from sight. he faced the Zombie that had tried to take sarge out and saw that he could handle himself. he shook his head. If this was just the begining then he didnt want to know what he would have to fight later.

Just his luck the 'thing' came out

It was a tall thing that was taking the damage that was being sent its way. looks like Zero had a Job to do. While the soldiers were sending fire at the beast. Zero had put his pistol up as he vanished from sight. He ran around the beast that was coming towards them. Zero came from behind and jumped onto its back. Before the beat may throw him off he slashed at the exposed back of the neck. where he was hoping to cut of the head. and ending this bout.

With a slump the head fell off and fell to the floor. he let the body fall wit himself on the back of the thing. He stood up right as the thing fell. and wiped his blade on his glove to get the blood and guts of the blue blade.

 

[Cira]

@[member="Zero"] @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Well, if only it were that easy.

However, as soon as the head fell with a sickening thwap on the floor, the bloody black putrid stump began to shift. It molded, the stench was horrid, as it bubbled forth. The chant around them became louder, and louder still as it became obvious what was going on.

The head regrew.

This time, there was no septic skin clinging to bone. In stead, pitch black eye sockets flared crimson as the dark side of the Force molded it's body together. Just like Darth Sion, it's decomposing body held together by the dark sorcery, it came back to life.

And came barreling to Cira anew.

A grunt fell from Cira's lips as a massive maw came over and slapped the Prex to the right, sending her body flying with a sickening CRACK as she hit the wall. A shaft of pain filled her, as she glanced down. There, sticking out of her belly, was a large broken pipe, impaling her to the wall.

Blood soon came bubbling quickly to her lips, pearling metallic copper in her mouth, staining her teeth red as she gave a grunt. There Subject Zero gave another loud shriek, sending the remainder six bacta tubes exploding behind Besh team. More bodies slipped down onto the ground, slimy, green and covered in thick sludge as they came writhing to life.

Jaw set in determination, the Prex pressed both hands against the wall then shoved herself forward, the rusty pipe slipping through her body as she gave a painful cry. However, it was too long for her to simply slide completely out. Saber still in hand, the movement forward was enough for her to swing the violet blade of her saber behind her, sparks flying as it cut the pipe behind her, releasing her from the hold on the wall.

She fell forward, pipe still impaled in her, breathing hard as she gave a furious battle cry and slid the hurikane blade in a horizontal slash in the air. LIke a boomerang, it went flying, twirling, aimed for it's foot, managing to slice at the zombie's ankle, severing it's foot. It gave another bellow, but it made it teeter.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

@[member="Cira"] @[member="Zero"]

Sarge was livid; the man went for an easy kill that was clearly not going to work... and then stood there like he'd just accomplished something magnificent. That's the sort of shit that got people killed.

Or in this case, Cira filled with pipe. Sadly, not the kind he wanted her filled with.

"Keep it off the Prex!"

The chanting was louder, driving spikes into his mind and ears. His concentration was going, it was hard to hold his weapon straight; big target or not soon he'd have to drop the weapon. He needed to focus; more importantly he needed something to focus on.

Seeing Cira not only pulling herself off the pipe, but cutting it to give her freedom... it gave him something to focus on, alright. An objective.

Now he needed something to block out the chanting, something that could use it's rhythym to give it the power he needed to get his head on straight.

...song lyrics.

In the sunset scene I sing, there's a detail that language of any kind in the hands of the words best poet with the strongest imagery would still fail to describe: your eyes...​

By the stars he wasn't happy that these were the first song lyrics that came to mind. He strode forward, flipping the fun switch on the side of his blaster and simply holding down the trigger as the best fell to the side.

"Kill it. Flamers, hold off the others."

The two flamethrower men handled the new arrivals the same way they handled the last. With righteous cleansing gouts of superheated gas.

And that glow...

The other seven members of the squad, however - including the one with the massive plasma weapon - swung their weapons to the beast that was struggling back to its feet.

It's world erupted into flashes of bright blue and crimson as spear after spear of light ravaged it's body with overpowered pulses of coherent energy. Flesh bubbled, vaporized, disintegrated. It struggled to right itself and finish the kill it had started.

A blast from the plasma cannon took out it's knee. It had to crawl now.

The beams of the moon on your back-lit figure, leave me terrified...​

Cira was out of blast range though, so he gave the order.

"Grenades."

In unison, seven thermal detonators landed around the beast and in three seconds sent the room into flame. Thermal detonators were a marvel of engineering to him. They had a set radius and outside of it... you simply got the heat.

I'm afraid, cause I know - that if I look to long, you might take hold...​

But in this case, that heat was immense.

Feeling your armor melt from the simple heat of a detonation is never a pleasant feeling. Even less so is realizing several of your men are probably dead, even as your eardrums ruptured and you felt yourself flying backwards as secondary explosions began to pop as equipment, disused for some time, began to blow.

But I just can't look away.

Man, this was cheesy. But so, so right.

 

[Cira]

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"] @[member="Zero"] @ NPC's that ain't gonna die on my watch!

With blood bubbling from her lips, a pipe in her belly, taking a knee she simply.... reacted.

Emotional highs and pissed off rage had a tendency to do that.

So when the grenades when off, considering they were in a small area, and they had a big boom, Cira gave a savage curse, the saber she'd caught scattering on the floor, both hands reaching out and with every bit of focus she tugged with her right hand... and tugged... HARD.

Her men came flying towards her as the explosion hit, her left hand snapping up, palm out as a shimmering blue stasis force field came blooming in front of them all, shielding them from the majority of the blast. While they had that kissing bit of heat, at the very least, with her last bit of strength, she managed to save them from death.

Bruises, broken ribs, and a cracked skull... not so much.

After that, well... everything went dark.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea skidded into the room and saw the terrible battle going on between Cira's squad and the monster. She saw Cira be impaled on a pipe, the counter attack by Sarge.

"Fire! Fire! Kill it!" she said, perhaps a bit hysterically. Seeing Cira go down was hard to bear.

Her seven remaining members of the squad opened fire with their bolters, slamming explosive round after explosive round slammed into the monster, blowing chunks off it. Then came the detonators, and Subject Zero was atomised by the onslaught....

Fortunately her and Siobhan were far enough away that the flame wash didn't cause too much harm....

All across Denon the zombies wavered, losing their focus, milling around, no longer driven by the evil monster's presence.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Cira"], @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

By the time Siobhan and company had arrived the battle between Subject Zero, Cira and her group was already in full swing. Countless wounds were blown into the thick shell of the super zombie, but seemed to give it no pause.

Then she beheld Cira being impaled by a pipe, just as she entered. Almost hysterically Siobhan pumped out rounds with her boltgun, unleashing a hail of explosive rounds, going through one clip after another at a fast rate as they blew out chunks of flesh.

Seeing Cira of all people seemingly go down was great blow. With her telekinesis she ripped out a damaged piece of wall to hurt it at the creature. Then Sarge bombarded the great monster with thermal detonators, the great explosion tore through the room. Fortunately this had happened before Siobhan had followed through on her foolish instinct to swoop in with her sabre, so she was still with Tegs and thus relatively safe though the shockwave sent her flying backwards.

At once the chanting ceased...

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea got to her feet and ran forward, skirting the crater in the floor and sliding to a halt by @[member="Cira"]. There was so much blood...too much to be healthy.
"Get a medic over here! Help her!" she said, her composure unusually absent for once. She cradled the fallen woman in her arms, feeling a slight pulse of life still, and sought to stem the bleeding and try and keep her body from being any further damaged.

Cira had to survive...she had to!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Cira"]

Siobhan called for a medic, gesturing to the mercenaries with them to check for other survivors and keep on watch against zombies, but it seemed like that with Subject Zero atomised the undead had scattered.

The being who was responsible for being this monstrosity into being still eluded them, but keeping Cira alive was more important. Her composure failed at the sight of her boss - and, in a way, her friend - lying there helpless and impaled in her belly. With Tegaea trying to stem the bleeding, Siobhan ran towards her.

Enclosing flesh and robot hand around the pipe, she gave it a hard pull, reinforced by the Force and her desperation about Cira's peril, the boss had to survive. The pipe was long and had penetrated all the way through, snarling like a beast she took ahold of it and pulled it out, tossing it onto the ground behind her with a loud thud. The pipe was blood-stained, to say the wound it had left in Cira was nasty was like saying that a krayt dragon was not a cuddly pet.

Finally a medic arrived on the scene, along with two mercenaries who carried an improvised stretcher.