Numbers

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Location: Esfandia

The Alliance's capital ships Home One and Irrepressible hovered over the obscure orb as it hurtled through space all alone, Marines preparing for a rather interesting bit of work. A dropship-full of recently acquired M-1 astromechs would accompany them to the unseen surface of the free-floating world, on a mission to secure the important tech that was down there and modify what would be left behind.

In the meantime, Geneviève's docked corvette, Intangible, would be undergoing some tests with its own fresh alterations. There would be no better place to make an initial test run than out here in the most desolate depths of space, no one apart from the Alliance within a score of lightyears and an eerie serenity that would provide the challenge for the engineers' goals. Mitczik and Grizzki and Stjikki were all present for this occasion, naturally.

"Marine deployment is ready to go," an officer announced over the ship's intercom system. Twenty-four men and thirty droids would be descending to the desolate rock in a few minutes.

"Drop away, then," the Benefactor affirmed.

Out the bridge viewport, Lasedri saw the dropship slowly exit the hangar bay of Irrepressible and make a cautious trajectory for Esfandia. All was well so far.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck watched the tactical display of the planet as the dropship began making its way towards the the planet. Corruck had never heard of this planet before, though a quick read up on some of the history showed that he hadn't missed much. Apparently the planet had been unimportant, only having a small military installation during a long ago war. Even then, it had hardly had any importance. It was special in that it had no sun, and that there was a HoloNet relay on-planet.

His own ship, the Recalcitrant was sitting close beside Home One, though further forward towards the planet. He had figured that the reason they were coming here was to reestablish the relay, though he sometimes wondered what the purpose of simply jumping from system to system simply to capture relay stations. He was sure there was a reason, there always was. Still he questioned it, he could understand the usefulness of having a number of HoloNet relays under control, but he couldn't understand how that could be a priority. He would have assumed that collecting food supplies and equipment. But he would follow Matchboxes lead....

No not Matchbox. Her name was [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], Matchbox was just a codename. He had to force himself to remembered that, for if one did not remember that those around him were living beings, but only names then that was the start of Imperial thinking. He kept himself from that only be remembering people's names, it was the simplest and easiest way. To fall for the trap of simply thinking of people in codenames was to fail to see them as beings. He hoped never to fall in that pit....again.... He hoped never again to become that man that had been a true underworld lord. He needed to remember people as people, not as expendable or simply faceless numbers. It was sometimes difficult to remember that, especially with his old habits.

And so his dark brooding continued as he watched the tactical display without actually seeing.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Steadily descending towards the surface of the runaway planet, the dropship filled with the Rebel crew made a sluggish pace. In the absolute depths of space, the only good sources of light were the ones cast by the two capital ships following the speeding rock. Mostly, the dropship pilots would be relying on radiation sensors, infrared distance gauges, and magnetic detection instruments. They would directly report to [member="Corruck Kazen"], him being the director of the Alliance's Intelligence operations.

But now Geneviève was more concerned with her more-or-less personal project: modifying the base model Antilles-class corvette for an advanced blockade runner of her own. It would be absolutely cloaked and needed to avoid all sensory detection to be so. This was what Mitczik, Grizzki, and Stjikki had been working on over the past months, ever since they had gotten the first Antilles fresh off the line of EIC.

"Shall we get to work?" the storied Mon Cal engineer asked, a clap of his flippered hands grabbing attention.

Geneviève held up a finger. Calling over the comms, she radioed to Recalcitrant. "Gryphon, are they reporting any potential lifesigns down there?" If they were not welcome guests here, they would need to make themselves welcome--at least, as far as their purpose was concerned.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck was snapped out of his thoughts by the question from [member="Geneviève Lasedri"]. Reflexively, he turned from the display to the comm unit. He replied, "There appears to be no life, however there is the possibility that they have dug underground. If that is the case then our sensors won't pick them up until the dropships are much closer. Should we head down?"

He had been hoping to upgrade the Recalcitrant with better sensors, specifically for the purpose of seeing planets' populations while further away from the planet. Though so far other things had taken priority. First establishing ReCal's base on Praesitlyn, then he had been busy with missions to other neutral worlds. He still hadn't been able to pull off the run he had planning, Maramere. Business and the Rebellion were keeping him fairly busy, even so he had plans. A mine on Maramere would be perfect for the future ships that ReCal would produce, and then he would have to arrange a raid on that facility to steal some of the crystals. That would allow him to supply the Rebellion with stealth tech without being identified as part of their team. Of course he had other things planned as well, hopefully a documentary in a fictional format would at least get into the market. He had learned some of it in history, but he needed to get the facts, which meant a run to Coruscant to collect the necessary information.

The Recalcitrant moved forward, to keep nearer to the dropships, Corruck had assumed that this would hopefully grant them a little more courage.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"Go ahead, Gryphon," she replied in the affirmative. "If anyone is alive down there, move to disarm rather than destroy. Let's not use force unless you deem necessary." In their spacesuits, the Marines would be more armored, but they would be less mobile and appear more imposing to anyone who might possibly be alive and hiding down there. Hopefully, all they would have to focus on was slicing and engineering, rather than hunting and shooting.

Deadening the comms for now, the Benefactor returned to her plans with the Three Engineers. They stood in convenient staircase fashion, coincidentally--the tall Rodian on the left, the average-sized Mon Calamari in the center, and the typical Jawa on the right. They were her main henchmen in these little affairs of hers, and they would be essential to this development of her personal blockade runner. "I'm ready whenever you are."

The taller of the two nodded, and Stjikki chirped something enthusiastic. Then Mitczik, her senior engineer, and the Jawa departed for the airlock on the ventral portion of Home One, ready to man the operation in a new kind of stealth tech development. Grizzki would remain on the carrier's bridge with Geneviève to inform her of how things would work and to interpret whatever Stjikki might radio them about.

But he was also here for another reason. She knew the Rodian tech engineer had been a little ruffled about his being supplanted by the newr--although far more experienced--Mon Cal engineer, and it was best to keep him near his boss to at least let him know he had not 'fallen'. It was just best to respect the elders. He was still her original, and therefore invaluable.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck sent an affirmative signal before switching the comm over to the frequencies used by the dropships. He would be ready if anything unexpected happened, such as an attack or something of that ilk. He intended on joining the marines on the surface, with proper precautions in place of course. He found that having a leader visible in battlefields or in less that friendly areas almost always boosted morale, efficiency, and overall effectiveness. His experiments early on in warfare had proved that much, though beyond that it was based solely on the person's mind and its ability to adapt to new situations. Gear was a good thing, but the mind could turn a losing battle into a won one. ))

He wondered what [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] was doing out here if Corruck was going to be leading the search and set up. He didn't discount the theory that she could just want to oversee his abilities under unknown circumstances. But he was more prone to thinking that there was an ulterior motive. That was the criminal talking.... he always had to remind himself not to judge others based on his own past. It was still taking time to transition, even though it had been quite a while.

As the dropship and Recalcitrant lowered towards the rogue planet, Corruck continued to check for life signs. So far nothing…..nothing……not- wait. He checked again. Yes there was something down there, either that or there were electrical equipment that were messing with the scanning systems. "There may be something down there Matchbox." He said before he realized that the comm was off.

Before he could turn it back on, Sheera turned it on for him. Corruck nodded his thanks before speaking into it, "Matchbox, we may have found life. We will be proceeding with a search once we have landed."

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Intangible detached from its docking lock and began to drift away from Home One, the dimly-painted blockade runner having started up its main systems shortly after Mitczik and Stjikki had made it aboard. Now it was time to test.

"Systems check, Gen," the Mon Cal engineer called over a private line. "See if your scopes are picking us up. Just to make sure." Of course, that would be suggesting that there was something extremely faulty with the carrier's detection systems, though there was one reason that Mitczik might be concerned. There was the smallest of possibilities that some sort of signal distortion could be caused by whatever was on the Holonet relay--or whatever other gadgets might be on the surface.

"All signs affirmative," a bridge officer reported.

"Everything is working just fine, Crusty." A nickname. She had not given anyone a nickname before. Gen nearly smiled as she thought of how her engineer might be reacting right now, and finally did betray a minute grin when the Rodian tech gave her a perplexed look.

There was an amusing moment of radio silence in between her response and Mitczik's follow-up. "...Then we are go?"

But confirmation would have to wait. Gryphon had just messaged in about a curious situation. Of course the one thing she did not want to hear would be the actual case. Frakkit. No cakewalks--ever. "We are on active standby, Gryphon. Do you need a gunship to assist?" The Benefactor glanced at her bridge officer--a look that was part annoyance and part concern. Were they prepared for hostility?

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

"That's a negative Matchbox. At least for now, we have things under control. Just don't get too comfortable." He left the comm on this time, if something came up he would need to speak fast.

The hailing attempts that Sheera had sent out ahead of the group, to try and get any people to respond, had so far had no effect. There was silence on all the frequencies that he checked, except the one which the transports were using. So far no luck, with scans either. It was difficult to tell if it was sentient life, animals, or even complex plants. For all he knew the signal could be messed up by the tower. The people down there may have set it up that way when they neared death. He didn't know.

"So you create preposterous concepts that have absolutely no foundation?" He asked himself, within his mind.

"Of course not, I don't believe any of the ideas. They are just possibilities. One must be prepared for all eventualities, yes?" Again within his mind, he spoke to himself.

"Well that may or may not be true, however that does not justify creating wild suspicions. Like Geneviève having an ulterior motive for being here. You can't go around making wild accusations like that."

"Boss."

"That is why I am not making wild accusations, I am simply using what logic and intuition I have to make answers for questions that seem unanswerable."

"Booss."

"If that were the case, then why are you planning for them? To plan for something is to believe it may be true."

"It can also mean that one is simply prepared for any outcome. Is that not a safe area to be in?"

"BOSS!"

"But that means that you don't trust others enough to not have to keep watch. To trust someone is to believe that they won't stab you in the back...Right?"

Corruck felt a pain like being punched with a large fist suddenly hit him in the head. He tumbled out of the seat he didn't remembering sitting in. He looked around, his eyes clearing from the fog of thought. He found a datapad near his feet. That must have been what caused the pain, but how would it be able to do that?

"Corruck?"

Corruck looked up to see Sheera watching with a mixture of concern and anger easily visible in her eyes. "You were talking nonsense there, something about whatever you were thinking then."

Corruck didn't seemed fazed by it, he had spoken sometime aloud in the past, it was something odd about his mind. Sometimes his mouth would simply throw out little bits of what he was thinking, normally too small an amount to actually understand...it always seemed to happened during a cross-examination of himself...which was to be honest quite annoying. He didn't understand why she cared that much, Sheera had heard him do it many times in the past. He gave her a questioning look.

Sheera frowned and nodded towards the open comm. The comm on a frequency with [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] . Corruck fell silent, he turned the comm off, not caring about any emergencies that might appear.

"How long was that on?"

"The entire time."

"Oh blast. What did I say?"

"Not too much, just some random stuff, I couldn't really understand most of it. It was Basic though and the words made sense, but the context was lost."

Corruck's face creased with worry and frustration. He turned back to the tactical screen and watched as the Recalcitrant and the shuttles landing sequences, they had entered the atmosphere and would be landing near the beacon withing ten minutes.

(Italicized is where thought is and non-italicized is speech. The non-italicized within the thought areas is intentional. Just wanted to make sure that that was said)

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

The Benefactor bit her lip as she processed Corruck's reply, nodding slightly but a bit apprehensive of not dispatching more firepower. She always believed in security over policy. "I'll leave it to your discretion, then."

Grizzki quickly retrieved her attention and reported on the test so far. "They've started up the engines, and we've just been alerted that they've activated the signal scrambler." The Rodian turned his head and pointed out the viewports in the direction of her vessel. It was barely detectable, matte-black coating blending in with the colorless void and absorbing almost all light that found its way to this isolated place in the galaxy. Lasedri nodded in approval.

"We're having difficulty picking up something solid, but we have determined its approximate location on the scopes, ma'am," a sensory crewman announced.

"Is it that obvious?" A tinge of irritation could be discerned in her voice.

"No, ma'am. We wouldn't even notice it had we not known to look for it." The crewman's eyes locked into position, not exactly looking into Geneviève's eyes, but still maintaining focus on her person. She was generally calm and unimposing to her people--albeit detached--but she did run a tight ship when her mood was off. As it seemed to be currently.

His answer was good enough for her, however, and no further interrogation ensued.

A faint garble on the comm caught the Rebel leader's attention at that moment, curious as it came from the Recalcitrant and all seemed well down there, if mysterious. The dropship was soon to land and its tech troopers and droids to disembark. Their course had not been altered, so what was this? Stabbing whom in the back?

This was bad timing to be uttering strange words like that. Gen quickly recovered the line after the signal had apparently been cut. "Gryphon, what are we discussing now?" She raised an eyebrow and awaited his explanation. Perhaps she had misheard, as the speech had been faint.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Hearing Matchbox's question, Corruck almost banged his head against the durasteel walls. He thought to himself, "Blast, blast, blast, blast, BLAST."

He walked back and forth on the bridge for a minute, rapidly trying to come up with an answer to his question, it was obvious that what he had said had not been missed and probably was needing an explanation. Turning to the comm, Corruck let a calm appearance roll over his face. He took a breath, and then replied, "Sorry about that, Matchbox. Just thinking aloud, had a recent conversation that needed some mulling over. Didn't mean to throw anyone off-guard."

Corruck hoped that [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] would let it go for now. He would gladly explain later, just not over a comm. He felt the ship begin to land, followed by the crunch of dirt under the starships as they settled. "We've landed, I'll be joining the marines in the initial searches. Cor...Gryphon out." He almost cursed to himself as he closed the comm out. He was feeling on edge and he had just about had enough of it. These feelings were simply too much, he would have to vent later. Maybe sitting in the airlock with decreased oxygen would help...it certainly had when he was getting himself ready for that Kessel Spider hunt..."That was insane."

"Ya think? Maybe next time you should just point a blaster at the comm and end it that way. That way at least they'll know your crazy."

Corruck sat down again, and banged his head against the control board in front of the co-pilot seat. It felt good in that it proved this was not, in fact, a dream. But then, this was a really bad time to not be in a dream.

"Oi, be careful with the controls! Now get out there with those big men with guns."

Corruck glared at Sheera for one moment, his tiredness kicking in and making him unable to hold the look. He stood, slipping his rifle from the floor into his arms grasp. His pistol was already in his pocket by the time he had reached the ramp. This was going to be a long night. "Damned if I'm not going to make it." He said half of the thought, while slipping a breath mask over his face.

------------------------------------------​

​

Corruck stood in front of a group of marines, a scanning specialist by his side. So far life-form scans had come up with only one area having any possible life. 'Conveniently' that was right in the old relay station. Now he was burning a hole into the door seal. He moved the mask, which had been hanging around his neck for quite awhile now, out of the way. It was being a pain for him to deal with this mask and he partly wished he had left it behind.

As the door finally opened, Corruck stood back and allowed the marines to pull through with something akin to military precision, except without most of the precision. He turned on his small comm, which was set to work with the ship holocomm, which was currently set to the frequency of Matchbox. "Matchbox, only one area seems to have the possibility of life. Unfortunately, that one area is the relay station. The marines and I are heading in. Any suggestions if we meet hostiles or friendlies?"

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

There certainly was a delay between her inquiry and his answer. It was a bit disconcerting, and her eyes reflexively scanned the bridge, paranoia setting in and considering that someone may not be entirely loyal on this ship... It was not like her intelligence director was squeaky clean. With a wary tone, Matchbox let the comment go--for now. "Whatever you're going to do, just make sure you stay on target," she advised, cryptically.

Hostile or friendly? "If it's hostile, shoot it. If it's friendly, don't." Or could this potential lifeform reading be a ruse? This was the last thing she needed on her mind.

The cackling of a Jawa replaced the tension with a rude cantankerousness as Stjikki was apparently signaling them from Intangible, now a kilometer or two away. The mischievous vocals were soon diminished, however, as the seasoned voice of the Mon Cal chief engineer was clearly heard over the comms system. "The magnetic field is active, Gen." Stage One had passed. "We're deploying the strobe now, if you're ready."

There was no reservation in her quick response. "Ready."

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck walked through the darkened hallways, behind two marines but ahead of almost a dozen. If one just took the fact that there was no light and most of the electronics seemed to have long ago corroded to no use, then one could make the assumption that there should no life. However the scanners still detected something, more towards the actual relay room. That fact made Corruck suspicious of the readings, it may be that the relay had become so dilapidated that it was giving off signals on the scanners frequencies, or maybe it was just some animals.

So far the marines and he had moved about the main structure, they had been able to identify a small barracks, mess hall, and a number maintenance rooms. No life was to be seen in any of them. There was little to break the monotony of checking each room with the same movements. One marine moved to the right, another to the left, and then Corruck would walk down the middle. Only one event had broken the tiring session. That was when one of the marines moved into a particularly shallow maintenance closet, he had run right into some of the cleaning implements, which had set random materials falling on and around him. The poor man had panicked and began shooting at random, almost hitting two or three other marines outside the door way. Corruck had had to call out 'friendly' at least three times before the guy had calmed down enough to actually hear him.

Corruck found this relay to be quite a pain, the fact that there was a constant fear of walking into a room to be only be shot at, or something along those lines. The men were getting more and more jumpy as they got closer to the relay controls. He just wanted to get there and finish this stupid job. He turned back on his comm as he neared the next door. He was just about to speak when he heard a voice on the other end of the comm. It sounded like Rathur and Sheera were playing a game of Pazaak.

"Plus two makes my score 17, add a three for a total of twenty."

"Ah again! One last game. I'm sure I can get you this time."

"Fine, fine. I'll shuffle the deck."

"Oh no, I'm going to do it."

"Oh, do you think I'm cheating?"

"Like hell you are, you couldn't win that many games in a row."

"It's just my lucky day then."

"Or a sifter up your sleeve."

Corruck could tell from the voices that there was something of an argument beginning. He decided to break it, "Excuse me, but if you could put this comm back into the proper frequency, I have a message."

He heard the shuffling of shoes as someone moved to the console, a click of a button on the console, and then the fair silence of an open comm. "Matchbox? Gryphon reporting, we have just about reached the main control room. So far we have found no life, though the scanners seem to indicate that the control room is where any life is. On a side note, I think we need to work on the training for some of these marines. They get spooked quite easily. Anything I should know before I head in?"

He heard in the background nearby him, the burning of a laser torch on the door. Apparently it had been sealed, meaning they had to force entry, which meant if there was life in here it had probably barricaded itself in.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

There was no brilliant onslaught of light and sparks. No, the strobe was undetectable to the eye--or even to Gen, as she tried to take note of it through the Force. It was simply electricity and particles, dancing invisibly about Intangible. If the device was actually working. "How's it looking?"

"Still getting a positive carbon-based reading, ma'am."

"Stjikki!" the scientist burst out, automatically flicking on the comm line to the blockade runner. "Did you forget to install the carbon brick again?" Gen had heard the Rodian get irritated before, but this was a new level of frustration for him. To be fair, though, the Jawa was... a Jawa. It took a lot of patience to hang around one for too long, no matter how sophisticated he was.

Some furious babbling was returned through the radio, almost comedic in nature. Grizzki crossed his arms and fired back sourly, demanding his associate to go make sure this rather vital piece to the equipment was installed. Lasedri was just amused at how they could both understand each other, though unamused that the machinery she had invested in was not functioning properly.

Another status report was received from the Marine detachment on the surface, and the Benefactor moved across the bridge to find a quieter place to communicate, as well as have a better view of the artificially illuminated sector of the dark planet through the viewport. She answered, quite calmly, "I don't know. Do you need me there?" Her tone was sincere, not perturbed but prepared to assist in the operation if absolutely necessary. "If you encounter any resistance, I can be down there in about ten minutes." If her engineers remedied the current problem, they would have a stealth ship on hand to sneak up on any hostiles, should the worse come to worst.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

"I don't believe that will be necessary Matchbox. Unless there is a horde Noghri in there I think we can handle what is inside." Corruck grinned to himself as he responded. He didn't want to drag Matchbox down here unless absolutely necessary. He felt that that would be unnecessary unless they had a true catastrophe on their hands. Corruck looked back at the door, whose seals were almost broken. About half way around the door, suddenly the door began to open on its own. There was the sound of air pushing out into the hallway, Corruck was suspicious almost immediately and pulled his breath mask over his face.

"Breath masks now! Move away from the door!" He yelled at the others as the door opened fully and a burst of air flew out. One of the life scanners that Corruck looked at showed the life forms that were in there had been a bacteria or virus. He got the feeling that it was a virus, maybe that was why the station was dead. His paranoia was sparked, he had heard tales of sealed areas being found only to release deadly strains of viruses that had been thought extinct. He activated his comm as he moved into the main control room.

Only to almost trip over something in the door way. When he looked back to see, dread filled him. It was an aged skeleton, human by basic guess. Corruck spoke into the comm, his words muffled by the mask. "Matchbox, we may have a complication. There was a virus or bacteria inside the main room. Apparently they were packed so tightly in here that it made a life signature. I'm afraid that there may be contamination within some of the men, maybe including myself."

He took a deep breath to calm down the panic, which may or may not be without foundation. He then continued, "I would like to ask permission to begin incineration of the immediate area to eradicate whatever may be in here. I have a sample of this virus or whatever it is for study." He held his datapad up, with a microscope attachment he searched the air. The life was certainly a virus, if only by the way it was reacting to the air. He had the datapad begin looking through possible matches, which was quick enough as it found nothing exactly like it. He took a number of images of the virus and sent them to the Recalcitrant. He spoke into the comm again, setting the frequency to just his ship.

"Sheera, Rathur, find out what virus this one is most like. I want answers in the next few minutes."

At first he didn't hear any response and then there was a loud clatter as the two got to work. "Alright boss." "Yah, we'll take care of it."

Corruck dropped his datapad to the floor, pulling out his blaster as he made a quick check. Behind him he heard other marines slipping into the room and searching the area. Corruck pulled himself upright and made the tried as hard as he could to hold his voice together. "Men prepare the incendiary grenades, mines, and rounds." There was a belated affirmative before the men began to look around and pull out the necessary supplies. They probably questioned Corruck's command, but they obeyed none the less.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Gen gritted her teeth, perturbed by the news from the station below. "Permission granted, Gryphon. Burn everything but the tower, if you have to." She was hardly concerned about her ship now, despite the declaration of success following Stjikki's replacement of the carbon brick element in the prototype lifeform concealer.

An instant later, she changed her mind and hurriedly flicked back on the comm line. "Negative! Negative, Gryphon!" She had realized that things were more complicated. Had she blundered in bringing these men out here with less preparation? Both Home One and Irrepressible were well-equipped with some of the most advanced medical technology in the galaxy, but there was the matter of killing whatever was currently contained down there. "You're going to need to be quarantined down there for the time being."

Her stomach dropped at her own words, fearful of what her command might spell for the people on the surface. Had she condemned them to a solitary death, withering away on an isolated rock? "I'll be coming down momentarily. Prepare one of the astro droids to carry the sample out. We're not going to leave you."

Lasedri switched the comm channel once more. "Mitczik, I'm going to need the Intangible back, stat." Grizzki looked at her glumly as the corvette began to reverse course and return to its dock. Well, it seemed like he was looking at her with a glum expression. She could never read Rodians.

Within a few minutes, the Benefactor and a posse of medics boarded Intangible, completely clad in airtight spacesuits. They were away, ever so slowly creeping towards Esfandia's barren landscape below.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck watched as his orders were carried out, only half listening to the comm. When he heard the loud negative come across he quickly yelled out to the marines, "Belay that! Return all gear immediately."

He felt a slow tingle of dread fill up his being at Gen saying that they needed to be quarantined. That was not an experience he had ever wanted to live through. He quickly pulled away from the group, though from some of the talking among the men they had heard the command. Corruck smiled reassuringly, hoping that even though he was wearing a concealing breath mask the effect would come across. He was about to come up with some argument, but in his heart he knew that in the end a quarantine would be best idea. His comments died within his throat as Gen changed her mind.

Corruck gave an affirmative nod before he realized that the comm had been changed. He began to speak, "Alright, alright settle down everyone. Nothing bad is going to happen. I want complete silence."

It seemed that the one comment about a quarantine had set off quite a lot of fear. Only one or two of the hardiest marines obeyed Corruck, the others continued jabbering. Corruck tapped his feet for a few moments longer before he whipped out his blaster pistol, which had been returned to its holster, though he didn't remember putting it there. He let off two shots before trying again, "If... I have your attention, please will all of you shut it!"

The blaster fire seemed to bring the soldiers back to reality. They all went directly to attention, standing stock still while they waited for Corruck to continue.

Corruck smiled, this time not so reassuringly so much as somewhat evil. "Thank you. Now as I was saying, we will not be under any sort of quarantine and so long as no one tries anything nothing especially bad will happen to anyone."

The men seemed to take that fairly well, however there was one problem soldier. He looked jittery and more than a little frightened by the circumstances. He would have to keep an eye on that one, Corruck thought to himself. He looked over at one of the astromech droids and motioned it over. The droid, not having any feelings and certainly not scared of the current condition, moved over quickly and with a joyful chirp. Corruck handed it his datapad along with some quick orders to take it outside the building as soon as possible and to seal the building behind it. The door was only open for a moment before Corruck himself sealed it behind the droid.

He stood for a moment, not sure what to do until suddenly his comm began beeping loudly. Corruck quickly turned it on, walked away from the men, and waited for some statement. "Commander... We found the only possible match..."

Sheera's downcast attitude told Corruck all he needed to know, but he needed to ask, "And what was it?"

Sheera's voice was inaudible for the longest of time then she replied, "It has no name other than hive virus."

Corruck trembled slightly as he replied, "But that virus died out a long time ago."

"Apparently some small strain of the species survived... Tell me you aren't in there."

Corruck stayed quiet as he shut off the comm. If this strain had survived the initial extinction of the virus, that meant that it had evolved to some degree to have survived. He sat against the wall and thought hard. Things had gotten just as bad as he had feared.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

The corvette settled down on the pitch-black surface of the lonely rock, some of the crew--including Lasedri--a little concerned about their landing despite the experience of the pilot and the lights and sensors that would aid him in the touchdown. Sometimes things take a little more faith than one feels.

Was this Rebellion a leap of faith for Gen, or was it just a hobby some bored rich girl had started up? Did she believe everything she flaunted in this crusade against tyranny? Some things felt subjective to even her. But she needed something absolute; iron for her to cling to. She needed to be resolved with herself and ideals. What did she believe? She believed in this. She had made herself believe in it.

But was it worth the price of life that it would inevitably cost in the future? Now may be the time the Benefactor would discover if this was the case. She had men in the contaminated base that were relying on her and the Rebels on the outside to save them.

It had to be for the greater good. Everything she would do would be for the greater good from here on, if she had anything to say about it. And she would. She insisted she would have everything to say about anything she did. She was accountable for herself. She was accountable for the security of thousands as it was. And that included Kazen's and his men's security. "Gryphon, we are on the ground," she announced as she and the 'rescue crew' exited the ship in their suits.

An M-1 droid dawdled on up to her with what she assumed were the bacteria samples. "I need scrubbers on this droid. It does not get on my ship without practically being burned clean." Who knew what was in there with the engineer team?

Breath was heavy and fogged up the visor of her helmet as they trudged across the largely undisturbed dust of Esfandia. Visions past were conjured as she looked below at the cloud she had kicked up, and her head reactively jerked to look towards the stars. No, this was not where she had 'died'--not that the similarities of the moment made her any more comfortable about the situation. The medical officer previously beside her had gotten ahead, betraying her hesitation in progression which her more soldierly compatriots shifted in gait to accommodate.

What was it like to die? And alongside people one commanded? Would she need show penitence to anyone? To what extent was she responsible for each person's life as it was under her hand?

Kazen, like frak are you dying.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck had always wondered how he would die. Would it have been a blazing glory or hiding in a hole. He didn't know completely why he joined the Rebels, he had found himself drawn to them for one reason or another. He would have loved to have just been able to say that he joined because he was working towards the greater good, but he couldn't be sure of that. He felt uncertain as to his inner mind's workings. It was strange, strange to claim that something so close to yourself is foreign. He bet that most would laugh at that, how could one's own mind be strange to the person? Yet that was how Corruck felt.

Was this really the death he had ever expected? If he put it very specifically, dieing in a station on an asteroid through some ancient hive virus, then no. But a death in a greater cause... maybe. He had always wanted to prove himself, at least of what he could remember, he at one point had been willing to die if his father, who loved Corruck very dearly, would approve of him. He assumed that that need for approval had transferred into his current employment with the Rebels. He guessed, that when he was not the sole leader he wanted to prove himself worthy of his boss.

He had to shake himself out of the thoughts, the noise had mostly died down to a few whispers here and there. He was able to quickly figure out who was frightened and who wasn't. Either out of fear or lack of concern some of the soldiers were playing some card game with a deck that had one of the soldiers had smuggled with him, obviously expecting a boring routine check with lots of time to spare. The ones that were frightened seemed to fidget or move around looking for some way to escape. Apparently whoever had been in this room originally had sealed almost all the entry ways, Corruck could see weld marks left on the majority of the doors. There were a few other men who didn't seem overly concerned but they weren't completely unafraid. They were rifling through some of the chests and boxes in the rooms, most of which contained datacards and small memorabilia.

Corruck further noted that a few of the men were asking if they could take their masks off. That was an interesting question. If he remembered correctly, the virus didn't need to enter the lungs in order to infect a person. Any pore or wound would be fine. Seeing as none of the people had kept their vacuum suits on there was an incredibly high possibility of everyone in the room being infected. As such, there was no real need to keep the masks on, they were all dead anyways. The only thing they kept out was the taste of the air, the oxygen scrubbers inside the masks turned the air they were breathing into a very unappealing flavor that tended to dry out the mouth. Corruck thought for a moment before shaking his head in response, they would have to live with it for now, not that it would be long anyways...

Or would it? This hive virus was supposed to have an effect on people that lasted a long time, depending on if someone else killed them. The insanity was something to keep an eye out for, Corruck was willing to bet that some people would be less resistant to the virus and might have symptoms much quicker than the others. He didn't see any odd behavior, keeping in mind the situation.

He listened to Gen's transmission and stayed silent. He was trying to figure something to say. He didn't want to sound juvenile or sound foolishly heroic. He eventually just fell to saying, "One hell of a party. Mind you, would prefer not to be here." He injected humor and warmth that was simply not real in him. He heard a few laughs from other men in the room. At least there were some who held high spirits. The only thing he really wanted was to make [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] promise that she would not come in here. Even if he could say that without sounding dramatic, she probably wouldn't listen. She cared too much for her men to be willing to let them die without trying to help. He liked that about her, she was a good leader, if one that needed a little reassuring at times. Of course, he couldn't be the one to try and reassure her, he was younger than her and his past would probably reflect badly on whatever heartfelt message he tried to communicate.

He switched off his comm and listened to the silence. He said to himself as he closed his eyes, "Dug your own grave..."

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Geneviève and the five medics who had stayed with her proceeded to the airtight doors of the comms base after two of them departed to take care of the droid and bacteria handling. Each step sent a shiver through her body as she realized how close they were to the scene of decay. Who knew what was about to transpire before their eyes, nothing but thick transparisteel separating them from the men trapped inside with what they believe to be an ancient, deadly disease. Her breaths maintained their heaviness, though her suit was now adjusting its environment to defrost the visor of her labored exhalations.

So, she was here. What did she do now? "How are your readings, Kazen?" Suddenly she was no longer operating by protocol. There was guilt in her voice, though she would not let her face show it as she stared through the glass. Using real names instead of code names seemed to make things more personal and at least rectify something about the dire situation--the dire situation she had put these men in. No, she had not known there would be a hostile virus within the old base. No one could have known that. But was this entire mission; her entire rebellion simply an ego trip, of which she had no idea of knowing the personally detrimental and fatal implications of war? Was she so blind and stuck-up? Was this some game to her? People were literally dying before her eyes, and the enemy was not even in the area. Truly leading people to death.

And here she was, cozy in her spacesuit while several comrades within shelter had been exposed to their potential doom. Ironic. "How much air do you have? Pressure?" She nodded to the lead medical officer. "We're thinking about venting the structure."

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck heard after what felt like an eternity [member="Geneviève Lasedri"] talking over the comms. He didn't catch the missing codename but automatically responded, "We are doing alright." He realized that his comm hadn't been activated so he quickly turned it to transmit and responded, "We are not wearing our space suits, you probably passed them on the way in. We have our masks and have been using them. Out oxygen is about..." He held up a small dial attached to the mask, about another standard hour of good air and then it would switch over to efficiency mode where it acted like a bad rebreather and that would last about a half hour beyond that. These were not meant for long engagements obviously. "We got another hour or so with these masks. Give us some time to see if there are any suits in here."

He watched as the men who were listening to the communica stood and began talking to one another. Those that were not almost completely taken by fear were now moving to the closets and to the bodies, trying to find some suits to where. They wanted out more so than Corruck probably comprehended. He was just glad that they were moving quickly. He knew that it was really too late to use the suits to protect from the virus, it was going to be used to more likely just protect others from it

He lowered the volume of his voice as he asked, "Matchbox, can we please switch to a private frequency?" He wanted to talk with her alone, he didn't need the others hearing this. After all it was never good for a leader to sound pessimistic. He had to appear strong, even if he felt weaker than any person in the room. He wasn't one of these marines, he wasn't indoctrinated to obey orders and fight the good fight. He was a past crime lord, the scum of the galaxy. He did not have the physical strength of those around him, the only thing he was better than them in was manipulation. He was little more than a coward compared to these men and it made him wonder why they would listen to someone like him when they had Gen around.

Perhaps he was being overly dramatic about all this, perhaps too downtrodden. He had never been in such a situation before and he really did not know how to respond to the stimuli. He was trying to handle the stress as best he could, but he was under the potential illusion that he would die. He did care overly much right now, all he wanted was to keep the virus from spreading, even if that meant venting the atmosphere with everyone still in here without protection. He was willing to sacrifice himself for that. Of course he wanted to live, who didn't, it was a question of the chance. He simply saw it as too little to be worth the risk. This was all a gamble, he didn't see them winning the toss. He was not going to endanger the people outside the room just for his own survival.

He wondered how well all this bacteria would burn anyways, perhaps just one of the charges would end everything. He would have to keep that in mind should the situation require it.