Ghosts of the Heart Line

[Isaiah Dashiell]

Spoiler

Along Under Construction Hyperlane: The Heart Line
Somewhere Between Bothawui & Kamino

The Tiefling Exploratory Craft dropped out of hyperspace along the planned route of the Heart Line. The cargo hold was full of hyperspace beacons and so far the route had been clear enough to safely place them, building the foundation of a hyperlane that would branch off from the Mara Corridor at Kamino and connect all the way to Sullust. It was a massive undertaking, but with modern technology a process that would have taken centuries in previous eras would take less than a decade to finish if all went well.

As the creaking of dead and rotting ships filled the aural sensors Izzy was beginning to think that maybe things were about to start not going so well. His hairs stood up on his neck and the Force was tugging at him.

"What are we looking at?" The com officer tapped a few buttons and looked back at Izzy.

"A ship graveyard, previously un-charted." He tapped a few readouts on his screen and made a few keystrokes on the console, "Some of these ships...are hundreds, thousands of years old!" The com officer's brow furrowed.

"Uhm...Sir, one of the vessels has a emergency beacon active...They're calling for aid!"

"Maybe they slammed into all this debris trying to jump outside of a hyperlane? Get me eyes on that ship." A console to his right brought up an image of an older ATC cargo ship. It was massive, as large as a destroyer from the looks of it but was easily over twenty years old. He recognized the logo almost immediately, both because he and his brother used to...acquire goods from their shipments and also because his cousin worked with them. It looked suspicious but if they needed help, or if he could help get closure to the company he was sure ATC would appreciate the gesture and help out Mags.

"Bring us around, I'll get a closer look with a small team. Make sure when Mags drops in behind us she knows where we are."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"What the krakking krak?!" the curses came out of Scherezade's mouth as a prelude to a string that came out of words from various different languages, all extreme enough to make a random personal uncomfortable, but together being more than sufficient to make a sailor blush. Bare feet ran across the Giggldust against her better judgement, but she had to get quickly to the cockpit. With all the windows on the ship darkened, it was the only place that would let her see what the actual phrak was going on.

It had been a big sound of bom that had alerted her. They were leaving Kamino, headed north since Scherezade needed to make a stop on Hoylin before returning to Geonosis, but something along the way had stopped them. No, not stopped them – threatened to destroy them.

"How did this happen?!" she asked, looking at Twinkle Doom. He was the creature in charge of running the ship, especially when the Sithling attempted to rest. All she got in response was a bunch of beeps and bloops. "That's not an answer!" she responded, and in return, got an electrocution zap from her droid. "Stop that!" she whined, only to get yet another one.

Annoyed, Scherezade did the only thing she could in the situation. The ship wasn't responding to her, and she had herself, Baal, and Twinkle Doom to consider. So she hit the emergency button. Outside looked like a mess. Ship remains. Ship... Yeah, ship graveyard, like an elephant graveyard, but for ships, and something there was pulling or pushing her ship along.

Her ship was stiff drifting, getting hit on occasion from other ships. It was… Probably a race against time. There was a suit for her to help her survive in case it was breached and the vacuum would take over, but Baal? She didn't have anything big enough for a Loth Wolf.

Krak.

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

The arrival of Nova 235 was both sudden and unexpected. There was a lot of yelling, a moderate amount of swearing, and a few bodies being unceremoniously jostled from their seats. Everyone was fine, but Magda felt a host of shock and accusatory looks coming her way.

"What the hell?!" Shelista Kor, ExMaP Director from Ceto Engineering & Techonology Operations, carefully picked herself up off the floor, swiping hair from her face, "You just performed an un-calculated drop from hyperspace. I don't care who you are, do you have any idea-"

"Look," Magda was in the Captain's chair, the gleam of the ship graveyard reflecting off her visor. Everyone looked and even Shelista Kor fell silent. Situated before them was a field of dead ships and battle debris, floating like jetsam through the fathomless void. Right in their path? One half of a dilapidated Destroyer that would have been the ruin of them all.

Magda's hand remained hovering, shakily, over the ship engine controls.

'Let go your conscious self and act on instinct.' ​

Words of mildly-drunken wisdom from [member="Jorus Merrill"] halfway across the galaxy.​

Those on the bridge figured it out on their own but no one said anything.

"Message in from Luma 4. They picked up a distress signal about 20 cliks to our 10. Shall we pursue, Captain?"

Magda's environmental suit HUD blinked at her, reminding her to breath. She nodded, "Set course for the Luma and prepare to -"

"Captain, I'm picking up an emergency distress signal."

"I'm sure Luma 4 has already-"

"It's a different ship, 12 cliks on our 2."

A blink. Another distress signal? What happened here? She nodded, "Send word to the Luma and respond to the signal. Get a mark on that ship."

Luma 4 this is Nova 235, we are responding to an emergency distress signal on the eastern quadrant of the debris field. We'll rendez vous at your location once we have the situation under control.

And to [member="Scherezade deWinter"]'s ship: This is Nova 235 of the GUIDE Heartline Initiative. We have received your distress signal and are en route. Please advise to the status of your ship and crew.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Unknowing what to do, Scherezade had spent the last few moments in the hallway of her ship, with Baal, her Loth Wolf, in her arms. He was too big for that by now; standing up, he reached her shoulders. Yet still, despite his size, he was but a puppy, and Scherezade felt endless need to coddle and take care of him, and try to make him feel protected, even though he could take down a squad of humanoids in a matter of seconds with his jaws alone. A funny thing, it was, being protective of such a potentially vicious predator.

When the reply came from the Nova 235 though, Scherezade jumped up, and ran back to the cockpit, only now realizing that she was still bare of feet, and that this was still not a good idea on a ship like hers.

"Nova 235!" she answered, doing her best not to scream, "Ship's a little beat up, not sure about the shields, but the hull is intact at present, though that might change if the ship keeps getting beat up. I'm here alone with a Loth Wolf and a Protocol Droid."

It sounded… Probably nothing even semiprofessional. She didn't care though; the content would explain properly what was going on.

Was there a way to save her ship without anyone actually boarding it? Thinking of the blood magic that covered the walls of her cargo bay, she sincerely hoped so. Scherezade wasn't truly ready to let people come onboard though… Yet it seemed the choice might no longer be in her hands.

[member="Magdalena Lethe"] [member="Isaiah Dashiell"]

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

Izzy frowned as the message from Magdalena's ship passed over the coms of Luma 4. He was getting suited up for his excursion onto the ATC vessel with a small boarding rescue party that consisted of himself and a humanoid droid and despite getting ready to board a ship that looked like hadn't seen any activity in 30 years, it made him even more nervous that Mags was moving to the aide of another vessel. He quashed the thought though and slipped his helmet on.

"Acknowledged. Good luck, stay safe Nova." He clicked the seal in place and nodded to the droid. The hatch of the Tiefling explorer craft hissed open after the ships docked. Stepping out into the darkness, his helmet's lights clicked on, illuminating the hallway. Thick dust clouds and discarded duraplast boxes cast strange and unnatural shadows which only added to his discomfort. He never liked derelict ships.

"Let's find the source of that distress signal and get out of here," he muttered to the KX-series droid beside him.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"What did she just say?"

"Roger that. We don't have the hauling capacity to get your ship out of here but we can anchor it and set up temporary shield modules until someone can collect it. If you have survival suits available I advise you put them on. ETA 3 minutes -"

CRASH on the hull of the Nova as several pieces of space detritus smashed against their shields, skirting up and over the viewport. A metallic pinging followed its progress down the spine of their ship.

"...make that 5."
"Did she say ...wolf?" Magda felt her mouth go dry.
"Loth wolf, I think, Captain," the Comms Officer looked over at her with a small frown, "Hopefully it's well trained."
"Oh dear."

The Nova carefully maneuvered through the realm of ship carcasses and debris, pitching and yawing as the path before them continued to shift and change. Drifting past a massive piece of twisted and pock-marked steel, their mark suddenly came into view, sitting within the shadow of the other half of the dead destroyer.

"Captain we have a visual."
"Looks pretty battered," Magda pulled up the display, zooming in on their target, "scans are reading an estimated 42% hull integrity."
"SR Team Alpha standby."
"Prepare to launch the Modular Shield Drones."

"Nova 235 coming in on your port side. Please stand clear of the entry hatch and prepare for extraction."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

[Music]

The footsteps of Izzy and the security droid echoed in the long hallways and clouds of dust illuminated by his headlamps filled his vision. He wasn't totally blind though. Luckily the vessel was a common freighter used by ATC, even today and its build layout was readily available on the HoloNet and so all he was doing was following the map on his HUD. Something was giving him chills though...

They had yet to find a single body among the derelict ship. A few deactivated droids had almost made him soil his pants already and after he thought about it, it made sense that there were more droids than humans aboard but even droid controlled ships like this usually had organic maintenance crew and the fact that he hadn't found any despite the distress signal was unusual.

"This whole situation is unusual," he muttered to himself before he abruptly stopped in the hallway. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck and he heard them.

A LOT of them. He swallowed hard and began running back to his ship.

"Sir, where are you going? The signal is coming from that direction." The droid had barely finished its sentence before the white, skeletal figure materialized seemingly from the dust in the air and gripped its metal arm. Its fiery white eyes were like bright stars in black voids.

"Oh dear."

The droid swung its free arm in an attempt to punch the creature but the monster towered over it and was easily able to catch the fist. It let out another terrible shriek, this one deeper and more like a howl. Several more ghostly figures warped into existence beside it and looked in the direction of Izzy's bobbing lamp, their frazzled white hair floating and wavering despite the artificial gravity on the vessel.

"This is Dashiel of Luma 4, abort mission. I repeat, abort mission!" What he was about to say was hard to belive, even for a man like him who'd seen any number of crazy things in the wilds of space. But the words came out sharp and frightened as much as he tried to keep an even tone.

"Its a trap."

[member="Magdalena Lethe"] [member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Three minutes. That was more than enough for her to get into a suit; but what was she going to do about Baal? Not to mention there was also [member="Duckie deWinter"] to think about. Within instants, Scherezade herself was ready, and standing with her two beloved pets near the exit to her ship.

"This is what we're going to do," she explained as she picked Duckie up in her hands and held him close to her heart, "Baal, you're going to keep Duckie safe in your mouth. I'm going to cast a Protection Bubble over you, which should keep Duckie safe as well. Hopefully, it will hold until we're on the rescue ship. I don't want to leave either of you here alone, especially not when we have no idea when a tow-ship can drop by."

And it was time.

Scherezade sighed, wrapping her arms around Baal as the port side opened. Almost instantly, a blue bubble covered her and both of her pets. She thought she heard Duckie quack in Baal's mouth, but she wasn't about to ask, not when she had to keep her concentration up.

Entirely oblivious to the message sent by [member="Isaiah Dashiell"] at around the same time, Scherezade waited, hoping the expression on her face, or at least however much of it that could be seen through the bubble and the helmet, was friendly enough.

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Modular Shield Drones Launched. Engineer Team Warlock en route to install temporary anchor."
"SR Team Alpha commencing extraction."
"Keep an eye out for moving debris," Magda flipped through several holographic screens as scans of the surrounding gravezone poured in, "there are so many dead ships out there..." the questions of the origins of the mass graveyard had to be forcefully subdued. Now wasn't the time, Magda, now wasn't the time.

The bridge of the Nova 235 fell silent as the crew turned their attention to the rescue operations.

"Captain, incoming transmission from the Luma 4-"
"Did they find someone?"
"No ... it's ... their signal is breaking up. I think the debris is throwing interference."
"Ask them to relay again."
"Nova 235 to Luma 4, please repeat, we couldn't understand."
"CAPTAIN- DEBRIS HEADED STRAIGHT FOR SR TEAM-"

Just beyond the open port hatch of [member="Scherezade deWinter"]'s ship the sight of SR Team Alpha came floating into view, backlit by the search lamps of the Nova 235. Security Detail personnel outfitted in white exploration armor suits floated across the open expanse on tether lines. Bringing up the rear was Officer Garrel. Just a dozen feet away from their destination, the team of three was cut short by the sudden appearance of sheet metal careening through the open. Smaller pieces flew through like leaves in the wind, and one particularly large chunk swung through, narrowly missing them.

"KARK!" Officer Garrel growled into her comm.
"SR Team report."
"GET THOSE GODDAMN MOD SHIELDS UP. We're sitting ducks out here!"
"Roger that SR Team, Mod Shields deploying."

The first two of the team made contact with Scher's ship, planting their tether lines on either side of the port hatch. Garrel moved in through the hatchway, engaging her magboots and stepping down onto the steel decking. She turned to Scherezade, giving the woman, the wolf, and the bubble a long look.

Kark there were some weirdos in CIS space.

"Ma'am, I'm Officer Garrel. We're gonna get you out of here in just a moment..." Garrel greeted Scher with a nod, "Nova 235 target party acquired. Standby to engage Retrieval Lines."

"Roger that."

Reaching down to her middle, Garrel unlatched a tetherband at her waist and moved to attach it to Scherezade only to find a large, glowing bubble in her way. Not being a Force User, she opted not to take her chances with it potentially being one of those gorram zappy things. She gave it a respectable amount of space, "Gonna need you to strap in, Ma'am, then we'll pull you and your pup on over."

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

​

She screams.​

​

He can hear them in his head, the terrible, mind splitting scream. How long had they been here in this graveyard and why were there so many? He stumbles forward, realizing that one of the creatures and shoved him forward, the hate palpable. It sent shivers down his spine as he tried to make his way back to the airlock.

He didn't recieve anything back from his crew or Mags', only static. He couldn't tell if it was the starweirds or the ships getting in the way of his signal. He tried again.

"This is Dashiel of Luma 4, abort mission. I repeat, abort mission! The signal was faked!"

[member="Magdalena Lethe"] [member="Scherezade deWinter"]

​

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Tether lines were attached. Scherezade looked at it, her arms around Baal's neck, swallowing hard. Despite having managed to live through several lifetimes in the mere year and a half she'd existed outside of the pebble, there were things she'd yet to do; space walking while in very immediately and very tangible danger was one of them.

Looking at the officer, there was little she could do but nod. Turning the bubble off, she took the tetherband, looping it around Baal's middle before attached it to her own belt. The seconds ticked by were enough to make the color drain out of her face.

"We're ready," she said in a quiet voice as she looked outside.

Actual space was a scary place. All that void, all that emptiness; now with floating debris and sharp things added for free. Motioning for the officer, Scherezade walked herself and Baal close to her before turning the bubble back on, protecting all three of them (four if Ducky deWinter inside of Baal's mouth was to be counted as well).

"If anything goes wrong, my wolf is the priority," she said before they began to go through the sequence, "my suit will protect me for long enough. My Loth Wolf doesn't have that sort of protection. And there's a baby duck inside his mouth."

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Dashiel ... 4 .... mission .... ete .... abort missi .... signal .... fake

"Ma'am," the Comm's officer looked up, slowly pulling the earphones from her head, "we have a situation."

Magda's attention was honed in on the holoprojected screens displayed around her Captain's chair, watching the incoming debris and making adjustments to their position to avoid what they could without throwing their rescue teams about, "Report."

"The signal from the Luma 4 is still broken, but I think I understood enough of it. Dashiel reports to abort mission, the signal was faked."
She paused, the gleam of the display shining off her visor as she turned to look at the Officer, "Urgency status?"
"None given, Ma'am, but from what I can tell it sounded pretty urgent."

A large knot formed in Magda's chest, drawing tightly between her lungs. The thought of [member="Isaiah Dashiell"] in trouble ...

"Send a response to the Luma 4, tell them we're nearly finished here and will rendez-vous at the drop coordinates."

"Aye, Ma'am," and with that the earphones were back on, "Luma 4 this is Nova 235, we read you. Disengage and retreat to drop coordinates. Extracting targets from secondary call site. Will rendez-vous in 5."

"Engineer Team Warlock report."
"Target ship anchored and secured, Captain. Modular shields activated, making our return now."
"SR Team Alpha report."

~~~

Officer Garrel just gave a nod to the woman, opting for silence over the possibility of letting slip a comment about the absurdity of the situation. A wolf with a duck in its mouth - only in deep space. She gave the signal to her team mates clinging to the hull of [member="Scherezade deWinter"]'s ship who engaged the recall.

In unison, all 3 members of the SR Team Alpha and their quarries would feel a tug at their waists as the Nova 235 began reeling them across the open space between the ships and into the waiting open hatch. With luck, the retrieval went off without a hitch and in less than a minute Officer Garrel and her team, the wolf and the woman had feet on the deck of the GUIDE craft.

SR Team Alpha report.

"Targets acquired and secured on deck, Captain. Locking it up."

"Good work ... do not let that wolf into the bridge."

Garrell gave the wolf a long look as the hatch doors hissed shut behind her, "We'll get them settled in, Captain." She removed her helmet and brushed a gloved hand through short hair, "Ma'am, if you and your ... companions will follow me. The Captain would like to invite you to relax in the lounge."

Luma 4, we're en route to the rendez-vous point. What's your status.

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

Luma....en...ro...e...vous point...What's...status?

He cursed under his breath and took a blind shot behind him in hopes of it hitting something. Unfortunatley all he heard was the sound of a blaster bolt sizzling on durasteel. He tried the next best thing and reached out with the Force to Mags. He didn't do it often, but after he'd nearly lost her and after she'd told him about who she really was they'd reached out to one another on occasion. He still wasn't sure how she saw or felt what he sent but it was his only option right now.

Danger. Leave. Monster.

The quick and dirty message of feelings was accompanied by images of the derelict vessel, the droid being ripped to shreds, and finally a scream which faded into the face of the terrible visage that was the Starweird.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

What she felt and witnessed flashing through her mind did not always equate to what she understood. Given the thought processes of herself and Isaiah were two fundamentally opposing forces at the best of times, it was no small feat of a miracle that the transmissions came across clearly.

They came across loud and clear this time, however.

Magda nearly crumpled from her Captain's seat, hands grasping for a hold as the message blasted through her psyche.

"Captain!" the Comm's Officer was at her side, carefully picking her up, "what happened?"

"Izzy-" Magda choked through the rush of fear that had flooded in through their link, "Isaiah is in danger. Something screaming - a monster -"

"Monster?" another crew member, "a screaming monster?"

Magda nodded, shakily sitting back down in her seat.

"I was afraid of this ... they congregate in these kinds of places. Starweirds. We're karked. They're goners. We have to leave, now Captain."

"We are NOT LEAVING IZZY BEHIND," the thunder of her voice could not be fully appreciated coming through the speakers of her suit. For a moment the air in the bridge felt electric. Magda breathed deeply, "The Luma..." she corrected herself, "we're not leaving the Luma and its crew behind."

"Then we're going to need backup. Force Users, powerful ones. You can't stop these things with blasters."

"Put a call out to the fleet at the HQ, tell them to hold their positions until further notice," Magda replied, reaching for the comm of the ship, "This is Captain Lethe. The Luma 4 has encountered a threat at the other emergency beacon site. Any occupant upon this ship with competency in the Force or knowledge of how to combat Starweirds is to report immediately to the bridge."

"Set course for the Luma 4."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"] [member="Duckie deWinter"]

And there they were. Against all odds, the move from her own ship to this one had gone without a hitch. No one's cables had snapped, no one got a dose of deep space radiation, and both her wolf and her duck were safe along with her. Scherezade smiled with relief. She was definitely going to curl up and do that whole combination of crying and screaming later to let the sheer stress of the situation out of her body, but for now, she was relieved. And happy.

"Yes ma'am," she said to Garell with a smile as she turned to Baal, who opened his mouth. Carefully, Scherezade removed [member="Duckie deWinter"] from his mouth, and set him on Baal's head. Her duck would be the gallant knight rider atop his wolfy steed. The three of them followed Gallant to the lounge. "Baal is a Loth Wolf," she found herself explaining as they walked, "Loth Wolves are sentient. He's like us, just furrier and on all fours."

They'd arrived early enough though for Scherezade to hear the commotion. She had no clue who Izzy was, but she knew more than a thing or two about monsters, not to mention Force Wielding.

"Hello," she greeted everyone inside cheerfully once the doors opened. Protocol? What was that? "Thanks for saving our butts there!" Motioning for Baal with a smile, the giant wolf walked to the corner and lay down on the ground, making sure none of the crew would be feeling threatened by the nearly two meter tall thing. People were funny that way.

"Heard something through the doors about you guys looking for Force Users," she resumed, her voice light and bubbly. And now she was realizing she was hungry. Maybe she should've eaten something before boarding the ship. "What's going on?"

 

[Duckie Talon]

The scary wet place was gone! He had been terrified of it for a moment there as the brave duck had valiantly wrestled with the beast. It had been a long and tiring duel, neither side willing to give an inch in a contest where the slightest slip could mean death...or worse. It had been so dark that Duckie never thought he'd see the light of day again. But he hadn't given up, he'd fought on and it was worth it. The yellow-feathered menace sucked in a deep breath, his little chest swelling up as he moved his arms at his slide, flapping drool away as he looked around proudly, the joy of his victory filling him as little webbed feet danced a little dance on Baal's head.

"Quack"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Magdalena Lethe"] | [member="Isaiah Dashiell"]​