A well-adjusted individual may have confronted their personal feelings on the atrocities they witnessed here, but frankly Dr. Vex didn't have any.
He had made a decision. It seemed in the present circumstances, it was safe enough to use the bunker's hyperwave transceiver. He didn't want to resort to this until he had confirmed what was out there, since for all he knew he might as well be painting a target on the base and its findings. They had been cut off until now, protocol dictating their contact with the outside was restricted to ward off leaks, but the arrival of the retrieval team heralded salvation, proving they weren't so alone after all.
The facility's dated comlink numbers had been breached by an intruder, despite their military-grade encryption. It was a feat that would take significant processing power for most people to achieve, but they would need direct access, so it would have to be mobile in this case. An advanced droid brain perhaps, or a grown AI. However, the advantage of mobility imposed certain technological preclusions and required proximity, which meant being in the thick of it and dodging swamp wildlife, spliced abominations and worse things while resources were focused on staying alive. Thus the interloper wouldn't be equipped to hijack this next attempt to reach out.
Unfortunately the array was still halfway across the bunker, remotely locked by the head scientist. As vice head, Vex had insufficient clearance to just overrule it and gain access from his fortified lab, and so he would have to brave the lurking Abelothian horrors. He took a small contingent of FOSB guards to avoid attention from the monsters prowling the depths. Even with his coordinated purging, more always seemed to pop up. The remaining staff and security, he left in the lab expecting they would be safe in his absence.
Emergency lights were ubiquitous, shining a bloody omen on the group. He led them briskly through the reinforced corridors, making turns seemingly at random. The display on his mask linked to every kind of sensor a field researcher could need, plans of the bunker and a steady stream of camera feeds. They had too many close calls, but the few creatures which strayed into their path were dealt with silently by a synchronised volley from the security's stealth blasters. They had managed to evade the predators' patrols by a narrow margin, eventually arriving at the blue-hued communications centre. With a quick manual override of the blast door, they were inside. The well-lit room was untouched and contrasted the dim hallways outside, with its walls covered in luminescent screens and its space filled with large devices instead of decay. The actual antennae and dishes were above ground to bypass the bunker's shielding, but this equipment connected to all of them.
The doctor identified the model he needed, a bulky block of a machine right in the centre which would look more at home on a spacefaring warship. This would allow him to transmit through their hyperspace relays and finally reach the First Order's military, maybe even Dosuun. He worked to get it up and running, prying open panels and forcing a reboot. Given he was transmitting blind without a precise recipient, he would keep the range within First Imperial territory rather than risk potentially lighting a beacon for their enemies. That said, the encryption was meant to prevent unwanted observers. The ciphers may have expired by now but any reasonably well-equipped listening post could still pull up the legacy keys to make sense of it, and his FOSB detail's skills at encoding messages would confirm the legitimacy of the transmission.
As the message would translate, "
Hello, I am the Vice Head of scientific research and development at Dagobah's Camp Aurark. Or, as my department calls it, Rancor's Reach."
He recounted his situation. "
We are in the heart of darkness. Aurark is lost. A passive corruption by the planet's Dark energies awakened our head scientist's Force potential, and apparently triggered a predisposition for psychotic disorder. She caused a catastrophic containment breach, releasing our experiments. Rather than tearing each other apart, the rogue specimens appear to have fallen under her control, and promptly began a systematic massacre of all personnel. We have taken refuge underground in Zentrum Labour, but it has become our prison after she posted a mutated rancor in the swamp above us. The facility's turbolaser defence turrets could destroy it, but we simply cannot get to them."
He always found it easier to communicate through text. Trivial compared to keeping track of various social cues and sensibilities when face-to-face. "
Recently, the retrieval team 'Echo-429' arrived to salvage Aurark. We received their distress signal, although they have since been unresponsive. To make matters worse, it appears a number of criminal elements also picked this up and have intruded on the Camp. The beasts seem to have largely dealt with these opportunist third parties, and they will not uncover our true purposes here. My local comms were compromised by a foreign agent who seemed to suspect, but I believe I have thrown him off. This should not affect the First Empire as a whole, as our ciphers are well over a year out of date."
Vex's six fingers danced deftly across the keyboard. He had never really put to writing what had happened, and it was strange to do so after merely trying to survive all this time. "
We have surviving high-level researchers, seasoned Bureau personnel, and moreover a centralised archive dating back to Aurark's inception, containing invaluable data which does not exist outside of the facility. With your assistance, I intend to extract these assets, perform a wipe of the records and ultimately detonate the thermobaric warheads planted within the perimeter. Something extremely volatile and dangerous has been let loose here, though fortunately contained within the walls of the Camp. It is the darkest secret we kept on this ark: a viral rakghoul strain which could conceivably threaten the galaxy if it escapes, as in the age of the Gulag Plague. Annihilation is my proposed solution."
The message was signed, "
Best wishes, Dr. Indra Vex."
[member="Delilah Graham"] | [member="Vonnegut Pyre"] | [member="Isobel Nakano"]
