Hindsight

[Kuzo]

The ship floated quietly in space. Settled between major hyperspace lanes, the system they hung on the very edge of was barren, but that was just fine by Raj.

"That," she declared, "Was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Hold still."

They were in the medbay of her ship. It was one of the only public rooms that hadn't been thoroughly trashed. The entire lounge had been utterly upended. She didn't think she'd ever get the stains out of the ceiling.

[member="Elliot Locke"] sat on the table, Raj standing beside it as she tended to a long, ragged gash on his arm. It wasn't the only damage to either of them, but it was the one that needed attention first. She carefully flushed it clean with sterile saline, washing away dust and fur.

"Looks like there's a couple pieces of gravel wedged in there," she said, frowning at his wound.

Without looking up at him, she started her work, the frown never leaving her face.

"And. Um. Thanks. You didn't have to do that. But I appreciate that you did."

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

No anesthesia.

That had been the first thing out of his mouth, once they crawled into her ship and left that place behind. Once the cold steel of her table pressed against his side and made him shiver just so. There were no complaints on his lip, no worry that she'd kark him up more than he had already been. Not after everything that had happened. There's a certain thing that forms when you go through hell and back together.

Not a friendship, that was too surface level. No. It was more than that.

"You got two outta three of my main weaknesses." He grinded out from between his teeth as the saline bit into his skin and wound. "Didn't stand a chance."

Still as glib as the morning dew gathered together on the side-grass petals.

Even getting karked nine ways to sunday didn't take that away from him. He sat back and let her handle it, Locke wasn't much of a medic, but he knew the basics for in the field. Couldn't be any other way, not when you were a field agent from the SIS who was used to being behind enemy lines without any form of backup. You picked up on a few things.

"Stupid? Oh yeah. But you gotta admit it was impressive." Stupid grin was tugging at the corner of his mouth, but it turned into a scowl as she picked out a piece of gravel the size of his fist. Well, probably not that large, but it would be better for the stories. Much better.

Didn't broach the subject they'd be both dead otherwise.

 

[Kuzo]

"Only two out of three? Well, guess we can't all be perfect," she said with a smirk.

She didn't look up as she started to stitch him up.

"If 'almost getting disemboweled' is impressive, then, yes, I'll have to give that to you. But there are easier was to get someone's attention."

Hazel eyes followed the needle, other hand settled on his arm holding both sides of the gash together. Despite the bantering tone, there was nothing but professionalism in her touch on his arm. She was quiet for a moment, concentrating on what she was doing before....

"What *was* that thing anyway?"

Strange beasts and their dietary habits wasn't really her area of expertise.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"You haven't tried to kill me yet. Give it time and you may be three outta three."

She was a pretty thing all things considered. Not that there was much he could do about that right now, what with wounds littering his body and making it difficult to move, much less actually being charming for once in his lifetime. Locke grimaced as she started sewing shut another large gash, where the thing's metal talons had left their track on him.

The act of shrugging was impossible, so Elly just tried to smile. One of his charming once. All that came out was a gorram grimace, blood still staining his teeth where he had been punched in the face one too many times.

"Yeah, but now I made an impression, wouldn't have been the same thing if I just came up and started talking about the weather."

The thing though.

That thing was intense. Beast of metal, grinding gears and organic tissue all interwoven into a whole mess of problems for the two of them. But that brought him back to his original question, the one he hadn't been able to ask back then.

"That, ow, was a Technobeast. Oef. Sith's work. Something with their poodoo Force abracadabra." Few times during the sewing he really wanted to take that gorram needle and punch it through her pretty neck, but that was the pain talking. Mostly. "Better question's what you were doing on Exocron trapped in an underground facility swarming with all those things."

 

[Kuzo]

"Well, I generally don't make a habit of-"

She stopped, not finishing the statement 'make a habit of killing my patients.' She grimaced, not looking up, trying to focus on the actual task beneath her fingers, rather than the memory that threatened.

"That's kind of a long story," she continued, that question marginally easier. Peering closely at his arm, she spoke as she stitched.

"You see, I got some news that something I was looking for might be there....."

*****

Exocron
2 Days Prior

"Well, this is the place."

OM-3 didn't respond. Of course, she never really expected him to. But Irajah never stopped trying to engage the droid, trying to treat him like a person, rather than a piece of furniture. The pilot droid simply sat there, waiting for an order. She sighed.

"I shouldn't be too long," she continued, hefting the backpack over one shoulder. "Couple of hours tops. If I'm lucky-"

She stopped, then shook her head.

"Anyway, I'll be back soon. Keep the door unlocked."

"Affirmative."

Sigh.

The uppermost level of the facilities she was here to find was the only part visible above the floor of the mountain valley. Om had put them down fairly close, so it was just a short walk to the squat, duracrete structure. Of course, if her information was right, the facility went down over a dozen levels.

​And she would find the earliest works of her father- Simon Ven- and if she were lucky, more about the Gideon Virus.

Drawing a fusion cutter out of her pack, she carefully circled it around the lock, knocking it loose with the butt end of the tool. Glancing back over the serene mountain meadow, she paused, a cold sensation rippling through her. It was gone in another moment and she shrugged, ducking into the darkness of the abandoned facility.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Apparently his joke wasn't that well-received.

He grimaced again, now because of mixed pain and just a twitch of regret.

"My bad, doc. I was just hitting on ya." Frankness, that was one of the things that Locke was known for. He didn't enjoy playing around all that much, just cut right through the crap and such. Besides, it would probably tear her away from whatever karky memories were inside that head of hers. Then the SIS agent just settled down and listened softly to the story being told.

Made him think of his own reasons he arrived there...

----​

​

There was that insistent bleeping sound again.

Bleep. Bleep. Bleep Bleep. Bleep bleep bleep. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Now Locke was cursing, rolling and falling down on his face in his bedroom. The ship was still crappy, but the longer he lived in it, the more comfortable it was becoming for him. The pain flaring through his face only reminded him to buy a gorram carpet for the room though. Bleary eyed, watery and rubbing his nose, Elly stumbled out of the room and into the main corridor of the little, dingy freighter he called his home.

He looked from the left to the right, before realizing the bleep came from the cockpit. To the left then... arriving there, he saw they had already dropped out of hyperspace and the surface of Exocron was looming bright, filling the entirety of the viewport.

"Always hate this part." Locke mumbled to himself, before clicking a button and settling down in the pilot's chair. In front of him the hologram of his handler showed up, as always cloaked by proprietary SIS tech.

That man was even more paranoid than he was.

The words filtered in, but Elly was only half-listening. He was thinking back to the base on Bast he had destroyed. Managed to save a lot of people, but he wondered if it wouldn't have been better to destroy the mainframe. Instead he brought it back, let the SIS at it... and now he was here. Another Sith apparently, another experiment, another operation.

The call was disengaged soon after and the ship broke through atmosphere. It landed a safe distance from the facility's location. The rest of the journey would be done by foot, safer that way.

 

[Kuzo]

She chuckled, shaking her head.

"Nothing to apologize for, but, I mean, come on- I'm literally sewing up a hole in your arm. It doesn't seem like the best time for that," she said with a smirk.

Of course, it was better timing than it would have been before.

*****

Irajah frowned, pulling a small lamp from her belt. She had come better prepared this time- after Gap Nine, she wasn't going to get stuck without basic tools necessary to find what she needed. Clicking it on, she shined the light around.

Unlike the facility on Gap Nine, this one hadn't been abandoned for thirty years. But it was in almost as bad of shape. Her frown deepened as she caught sight of over turned desks, rotting papers, and broken chairs. She moved deeper, sweeping her light ahead of her. Hopefully, there was back up power somewhere to power the lifts. The lights not coming on was not promising however.

As she stepped past a fallen bookshelf, she didn't notice the grim remainder of a humanoid hand peeking out from just beneath it.

The small blip of light down the hall caught her attention. The frown spread into a grin. The lifts had power. Excellent. Climbing down a shaft twenty stories was an experience she never wanted to have again. Pushing the button, she gave a sigh of relief as she heard the lift rumble to life.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

This is what you get for being curious, laddy. For being a good ol' soldier boy just following orders. Locke thought to himself as he made his way through the terrain and what a terrain it was. All manners of hills, frozen ground too treacherous to walk on without twisting a leg or two, liquid in the air just waiting to be disturbed and inhaled until you felt like you were submerged in water instead of being surrounded by air.

No fun times to be had, if that wasn't the truth.

The farther he walked, the more the valley was starting to feel like it was choking him.

Surrounded on all sides by high-strung mountain walls, forests and sounds in the distance. Locke had never been much of an outdoors person, preferring to stick it with the urban sprawl of the Core or the nightmare glades of the 'Shaddaa. This was new for him and he did not like it at all.

Finally the coordinates came up, beeping insistently on his data communicator wrapped to his wrist, and the building was supposed to be- there. It was only barely visible from the floor up, mostly cloaked in vegetation and bad choices. Locke had the feeling that if he hadn't had the coordinates themselves he wouldn't have even noticed it in the first place.

Before he could make his approach though, something else caught his attention.

Off the beaten track, sure, but the way those trees were bend and the footsteps... feth, someone had been here.

This only made things that much harder for him.

 

[Kuzo]

Whistling cheerfully to herself, Irajah peered into the lift. It looked to be in decent shape. This was way better than last time. She hefted the rucksack higher on her shoulder and stepped inside.

The archives were down in the lowest level according to her sources. She didn't need to traipse through the entire place if she could access that data. The chances of finding any useful, still living samples, over a year after they closed their doors? Very unlikely indeed.

Irajah was blissfully unaware of two particular facts.

One, was that someone else was about to enter the facility, and the barest trace of her cheerful whistling would reach him a moment before the doors of the lift closed and began her downward journey. After all, who else would be here, in this place, at this time?

The second was that something from the old research had indeed survived.

And that was soon to be far more of a problem than she had expected.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Two options had been presented to him.

Backtrack while using the footprints to localize where they had come from- ship or something else, or simply follow them into the facility and handle it from there. In the end he opted for option two, namely because those footprints were still fresh, which meant that whoever made them only recently passed through.

Too much of a risk that they'd disturb or kark whatever was in the facility.

He entered the building just a moment after the lift doors closed and started their descend. The faint cheerful whistle was still bouncing around the room, before ending just as quickly.

"Feth." Too late. But there was only one lift and it was already moving down. The SIS agent was not going to let himself be rushed though, especially because of the chances of a trap. So he started studying the ravages of the room. By the looks of it, it had been some kind of processing room.

Tables were karked to hell and back, computer displays shattered and blown apart, then Locke noticed the hand behind the ruined bookcase.

He crouched in front of it and whistled.

Deader than dead and by the looks of it, hadn't been a pleasant dead either.

The ding of the lift arriving at its destination tipped Elly off that it was time to move on. He approached it and noticed it was one of those open shaft elevators. You could just look over the edge and notice the cage the elevator rode up and down in- allowed you a clear view of your surroundings without it being too dangerous.

Somewhere far in the distance Locke could see a point of light.

Calling the elevator back up would be too dangerous, would tip off whoever had used it previously. But luckily he was in the SIS and prepared for such things. From the back of his pack Elly got out climbing equipment. Hydraulic powered, so when he was hooked up, he wouldn't have to do anything, besides enjoy the breeze.

The long, long rope was cast down into the shaft and Locke started hooking himself up.

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah hated heights.

So when the turbolift walls fell away, it was pretty much the worst thing she could have expected. She recognized the deliberate construction and everything, but being able to peer over the edge down down down-

She sat down immediately, feeling a little lightheaded. Scooting to the center of the lift, she tried to breath deeply and slowly. Fishing out a data pad, she flicked it on, keeping her attention fully on the screen. She couldn't keep the movement flickering past out of the corners of her eyes completely off her mind however.

Blessedly, she didn't vomit.

It wasn't possible for her to launch to her feet or scramble out of that lift any faster than she did when it finally stopped moving. She didn't even stand all the way up before crab crawling out. Shaking more than she would like, she started muttering to herself.

"First 20 stories down an open shaft with ropes, now this. Why can't these people build properly functioning lifts with opaque walls? Chit-faced nerf humpers....."

Dusting herself off, she self conscious put the pad away, readjusting the pack on her shoulder. She stopped, frowning. The lift doors shut behind her.

What was that noise?

​It sounded..... almost..... like..... breathing.....

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

The light of the elevator suddenly went out as the doors closed behind Irajah.

She still had a datapad for light, but suddenly Locke did not enjoy the idea of having to go down into the dark without knowing what was lying in wait for him. From his pockets he got out a few glow sticks, broke them down the middle and then let them fly down. The eerie green light cascaded against the ropes and far-away walls and sections, before landing with a not-too-loud thump on the elevator cabin itself.

Ven would most likely hear that.

Now there was a green speck at the end of his landing.

If Elliot had waited just a few seconds more, he probably would have decided against going down, but his body was already in the air and rappelling down. Just in time to hear the sudden inhuman screams coming from way down and echoing straight towards him.

"The feth?" That did not bode well at all.

 

[Kuzo]

As she started to walk into the darkness, she tucked the data pad under one arm absently. Fumbling for the light she'd clipped back to her belt, her boots crunched softly on *something* that seemed to be lining the floor. Managing to unclip it in the dark, she startled, whirling around at the sound of the glow sticks- an invisible to her tak tak in the darkness. In the process, she dropped the datapad- it clattered much more loudly, echoing oddly.

The room down here was obviously huge. Why would the archives be just one, large, empty sounding room? Fingers clumsy, the light in her hands finally bloomed to life. The first thing she saw as the light flooded around her, looking for the dropped datapad, was just what exactly was making that crunching sound beneath her feet.

Bones.

A low pitched growl sent the hairs at the back of her neck standing.

And the second thing she saw was the reflection of glittering eyes.

Back peddling slowly, she held her breath. The sound of the crunch crunch beneath her feet seemed deafening.

"Nice monstrous metallic kitty, beautiful threat to life and limb," she muttered in what she hoped was a soothing voice. "What a lovely deadly boy or girl thing you are."

It was then that the howl pierced the darkness and Irajah jumped, scampering randomly in a direction NOT where it had come from.

"CHIT!"

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

As his boots hit the metal cage of the elevator Locke whirred around with the light attached to his shoulder now.

A lady, running straight towards him and behind her... dear fething karking kark. The disruptor was in his hand before Locke knew it and the first shot took the technobeast straight in the shoulder, sending him skidding back, before screeching and dashing in again. Again the disruptor roared in defiance, knocking the beast off its limbs and onto the ground.

This time he didn't seem to try and raise himself.

"You alright down the-" Before Locke could finish his thought he was knocked off his feet as something crashed into the elevator beneath him.

The rope snapped and he was send flying through the air, into Irajah, which probably saved the both of them. They rolled through the bones and dirt and behind them the elevator collapsed into itself. The technobeasts seemed to be preoccupied with it, in a frenzy as they kept crashing into the elevator like it had caused them personal grievances.

Locke pushed himself up, dimming the light on his shoulder with his hand, and prodded at Irajah.

"Move, before they wise up to us." The man whispered, not knowing quite where to go anyway.

 

[Kuzo]

Everything happened very quickly. One moment, she was scurrying into the dark *away* from something with too many teeth- and the next moment she was being toppled over beneath what she assumed was the same creature.

Whelp. I'm dead.

So it was with some measure of relief that she was indeed not dead, and whomever had sent them both tumbling to the ground spoke and clearly didn't wield excessive talons. Momentarily blinded by the shoulder light, she winced, scrambling up gingerly.

The sounds of that thing tearing apart the lift filled her with multi-level dread. Beyond what it was doing to the durasteel structure (and could therefore do so much worse to -best not to think about it), that was the best way out of here.

She could have questioned who he was- what he was doing down here. But somehow, it didn't seem particularly important at that moment. Far more important was putting as much distance as possible between them and it.

"According to my map there were partitions down here," she murmured. "But there should still be some structural walls right up ahead, something we can get behind...."

Unless that thing could chew through duracrete.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Locke wanted to ask what the hell she was doing here, why she was doing here and what the heck those things were behind them.

But right now there were bigger priorities, like not getting killed in the middle of nowhere. Whilst they were busy chewing through and generally karking up the remnants of the elevator, Elly pushed himself off the ground and pulled Ira up as well.

There wasn't much room here for error. By the looks of it those things could be taken down with concentrated firepower, but their speed and numbers made it a gorram nightmare on the best of days. This wasn't one of those best days, when you took in the wide open space, the dim lighting and the fact he had to baby-sit this lady.

It took willpower not to try and look back, but Locke managed it and within a few seconds they managed to round a corner and get behind something relatively safe.

For now.

"The kark are those things?" He whispered as he felt the safety of the wall against his back. "You got that map still with you?"

There had to be someway out of here. Maybe some kind of maintenance space behind the walls or something else, but there was always an option.

They just had to find it.

 

[Kuzo]

She almost lost her footing a couple of times, but the inexorable pull of [member="Elliot Locke"] kept her scrambling without going down. When they finally did reach a spot they could stop, Irajah slid down, her back to the wall as she tried to catch her breath.

"Didn't.... get..... a good look.... at them-" she gulped down air, her heart hammering in her chest in a combination of the mad dash and fear. "Little.... distracted.... by the.... by the grrrrr."

She raised her hands, making a gesture that, if one were generous, could probably be described as looking like claws in the air on either side of her face. Rawr.

Her hands dropped then, and she closed her eyes, wincing. Not in pain, but because-

"The map," she groaned. "I dropped it, somewhere out there. It's on a data pad. It either fell face down or broke, I don't know which, but I couldn't see the light from the screen."

Irajah frowned, brow furrowing as her eyes opened again.

"But I remember a lot of it," she said slowly. "If we can get our bearings. I'll be honest, I don't really know which direction we went running, in reference to the lift. That's in the center of the level and everything else arrays out around it."

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Locke looked at her for a moment when she made the rawr expression.

Slow blink.

For anyone else it would have looked silly at best and completely stupid at worst, but for some reason... it worked for her. If they hadn't been in a life-or-death situation right about now, he probably would even have classified her as cute, but that wasn't a thing Elliot could focus on.

Not right now.

Not with the sound of twisting and ripping metal echoing in the distance.

He pulled out his disruptor again, looked good, but it wasn't good. The moment he got it in his hands, Locke felt the disaster already looming. The casing was karked, most likely from the fall and that meant they were in for a disaster- all he had on him were two knives and a gorram stun gun.

"I will be honest with you, cutie, this isn't looking too well." Didn't even realize how he addressed her until he did, but there wasn't much to do about that now.

"But I paid attention- we moved in a straight line from where the elevator doors were to here. The facility elevator was facing west, if that helps."

If there was one thing Locke did, was pay attention to his surroundings and what he was doing in excruciating detail.

All part of being a field agent.

 

[Kuzo]

Cutie?

She blinked.

Oh, this was going to be absolutely hilarious. Even in her own head, it wasn't possible to be more sarcastic. The fact that now was hardly the time-

Wait, he said west.

"West, okay," she said distracted, trying to remember the map. It wasn't difficult, but there were certain hazy patches, areas that just hadn't seemed all that important to her when she was looking over it. After all, she was here for the archives.

"That's.... good," she said, more to herself than him. "This is the direction the archives are in. And..... there's a service lift.... on the..... north wall?"

​Despite everything, not getting what she had come for wasn't really in the cards.

"We should be able to hit the archives and then circle around."

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"Woah there, dazzle fox, slow down." Locke pulled her back, before she could push herself off the wall completely and head off into the direction of the archives.

Usually he would have been all for exploring the depths of this shindig and find out the kark had happened here.

But there was a thing called odds. This day the odds weren't in their favor- hell, they weren't even close to the middle-point, it was almost like Lady Luck and Lord Fate decided to get drunk together and call it for the day. The longer they spend here, the greater the chances were that they would get impaled or disemboweled by those things.

"You see what those things out there did to the elevator? What do you think it's gonna do to our fragile meat bags when they stop beating the kark out of it?"

He pulled out the knife hidden in his boot and pointed at it.

"I got this, another one like it and a stun-gun." A grimace told the tale as it was. "We should get out now, while we still got our entrails inside of us."

If there was one thing Locke never had an issue with was being called a coward. To him it was simple realism, the way of the world, to accept that there were limits to what you could do. Take on an entire base filled with cultists by yourself to save civilian prisoners? Sure, he had signed up for those kind of risks.

But those archives weren't going anywhere.