Faction Samhain's Derelict [Darkwire]

[Xan Deesa]

Xan glanced over to Brie Jaxx , a smile appearing behind her helmet. "Sup, Brie. And yeah, I'm not looking for a fight. As long as everyone can be friendly, I'm sure we can all tag along. I'd highly suggest it on this ship." she commented as she glanced at the other members. They were a massive group, to be honest. But if her suspicions were correct, a massive group would be exactly what they needed. One of the other groups among them took charge of the situation and managed to get a layout of the ship from one of the terminals. She was surprised that anything still worked on a ship this ancient. "Yo, can one of you send me the layout? Would make navigation a lot easier." she asked Elpsis Kerrigan 's group, however her thoughts were interrupted when blasterfire and screams filled the halls of the empty vessel from, another group ( Marimax Mortui ).

Xan's rifle was shouldered as she turned towards the direction of the screams... though quickly that plan fell apart as echoes bounced around as well. From the corner of her eye, she took note of Deryn Kaaldos 's comment, giving a scoff. "Yeah, no shit." she muttered as she glanced around. "That confirms that suspicion. We're not alone on the ship. On the way here, I saw something in the hallways for a brief moment. It definitely wasn't humanoid, I can tell you that." she explained to the others, taking a few steps towards them. Daiya strongly suggested they tag along which she had no objections to. "She's got a point. Let's stick together. We can do with a bite sized snack for whatever's on this ship." she jested, giving her a casual two-fingered salute as she winked from behind her helmet.

With her rifle at the ready, she walked along with the rest of the group. Elpsis' crew took point and Xan wasn't far behind them with her head on a swivel. As they proceeded through the hallways, they came upon the corpse of a victim... not that there was much left. She looked over their shoulders at the corpse with curiosity. Whatever was on here was big... and probably very angry. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard rumbling and sounds of creatures that weren't humanoid. Elpsis' crew was first to engage, firing at something through a hole in the roof. What fell down was pretty much what she expected to see. A big karking animal. Her rifle was at the ready as a few more came at them. "Weapons hot!" she called out as she knelt down and fired at one of the creatures. Her blaster didn't do much to the thing but somewhere a lucky shot got through, sending it slamming into a wall with a pained roar.

She moved towards the rest of the group, checking behind them to fire at another few creatures. "Heads on a swivel, they're all over." she stated as she fired a few more rounds at a creature. Hopefully whoever else was on this ship could lend a hand. If they didn't have their own hands full, that is...

Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx

 

[Brie Jaxx]

Spoiler: Music

Brie became silent for a moment as pleasantries were made and rough plans on how to proceed was drawn out. The group of varied species, professions and background had came to a conclusion to stick together. It proved to be a very wise decision, as suddenly blaster fire could be heard in the distance and screams of agony reached them. Brie looked around, searching for the direction it came from but never realy looked frightened by what they heard, she had more of a serious and close-bitten look. Her helmet flashlight threw a cone of white light where she looked, lighting up space dust in the cold air, but the light never reached the end of the vast and dark hangar bay. Nothing but a gulp that she tried to hide came out of her. She did not realy believe in ghosts and monsters like the ones she had read about in her holobooks, or she did not want to believe. What Xan said did not make things easier, and she could feel the anxiety build up in her.

''Ready.'' she said and gave a nod to Daiya, before joining her by her side as they walked over towards the group of women warriors. One of them looked the girls over and said something in their language. Brie did not understand it exactly, more than it seemed to be a question about them to their leader. The woman might have wondered why they brought the girls along or what they could add to the group of misfits. Their leader grunted something. Despite her suspicions about the meaning of the words, Brie said nothing. Instead she gave the woman an indifferent look, stretched herself in defiance and casually pulled the KC-77N Hybrid Pistol to be ready for whatever they could meet behind that door.

The team proceeded down a hallway with the group of women leading the way. The halls and the ship itself was beginning to give her the creeps, yet she could not let fo of how awe inspiring it was and their numbers gave them another level of security. She had been on similar places all by herself, but not on a derelict ship in space like this. Who could possibly know where it had been, or what it had encountered on its way through the galaxy and maybe even beyond. A log book could give them some answers, if they dared to venture down that path.

Suddenly, Elpsis and her crew was the first to engage vile and vicious creatures that shot themself through the shadows and against the group. Brie's eyes went wide and in a reflex she pushed Daiya to the side and towards a cargo crate to give them some cover, before she hauled her arms and the pistol over the crate and fired slugs at the creatures. The heavy pistol had a good amount ot stopping power and the hits she got was about enough to either cripple the creatures or kill them, depending on where it hit.

''You okay, Daiya?!'' she shouted to her friend and spared a quick glance at her.

Elpsis Kerrigan Daiya Xan Deesa Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx Marimax Mortui Deryn Kaaldos

 

[Gray Venasir]

"Yeah, it's as good as any," replied Gray as he looked down the corridor Ruby Jaxx was shining down. He started walking down the corridor, shining down any adjecent corridors they past, and made sure to stay close to Ruby. Whatever had killed the previous team that had been sent here had not been friendly, nor civilised based on the condition they had found the corpses in. And the two humans walking down the corridor had a much better chance against whatever it was together.

After a moment, the sounds of gunshots could be hear from somewhere on the ship, echoing along the corridors. Gray stopped, and looked at Ruby. "Seems like the others I saw when we arrived here also made it on the ship. Dunno if that is good or bad, but I suggest we try to keep away from them."

It was hard to tell where exactly the sound had come from, so Gray took the lead down one of the side corridors. After around 15 minuttes of slowly finding their way forward, Gray stopped in front of a door. "Think we've hit gold here, honey" he said in a light-hearted way as he shone his light on the sign above the door. STORRAGE - DATA AND DROIDS. The door was closed, but it easily opened with a tug. The storage was filled with shelves of datachips along the walls, and a few terminals they could be used on. And further inside, towards the back, stood old astromech droids, meintenance droids, protocol droids, and some other varieties too.

"Come on, let's check what contents are on these chips." Gray went over to one of the shelves, picked out a few datachips, and went over to one of the terminals to try. Just then, a high-pitched growl could be heard very close by, outside the room.

Daiya | Brie Jaxx | Elpsis Kerrigan | Xan Deesa | Marimax Mortui | Deryn Kaaldos | Mliss Roo

 

[Daiya]

"Bite sized? I'm not short!" Daiya protested at the remark. She looked, up, at Xan with a gaze masked by her protective gear. The girl wasn't unaware that she had to do a lot of looking up, between Xan, Brie, and especially Tawrro, she definitely experienced some challenges when it came to height. The teen was sure she would grow taller soon, and if her body wouldn't do it on its own there were growth pills and implants that could supplement it. Then she could look Xan in the eye and tell her she wasn't short. For now, the girl turned away and muttered a defensive assertion that, "I'm not that short..."

It was the smallest ounce of levity in the grip of fatal tension.

Daiya adjusted her grip on the 434 Blaster she carried in her hand, its familiar weight feeling off in the low gravity. She felt just as off as she stepped from the cavernous hangar bay into the confined corridors of the ship. Her armor was supposed to provide a targeting HUD and overlay, but something in the gas giant's atmosphere or the age of the ship made it glitch out, leaving the girl with only her own senses to rely on. The sounds and screams from before kept the girl on edge, with every sound and errant motion making her pause for a moment to confirm it was still safe. She found Tawrro's massive hand on her back more than once, gently-but-firmly reassuring her enough to move forward.

She didn't see what Elpsis and her team happened upon ahead of them, only that they had stopped and were congregated around something. Something alarming, from the tones of their conversation. The constant stream of life-giving air within Daiya's face mask kept her lips dry, but now her mouth was as well. The girl shivered, that persistent feeling acting up again. She could taste the fear in her own mouth, and when she tried to swallow, Daiya found that she couldn't.

It happened all at once, her HUD was swarmed with shapes as the group was swarmed by fast-moving creatures. Shots fired, and Daiya reacted without thinking. She moved back and into a position with a clear line of fire at...whatever those hideous things were. The teen didn't have time to think or ask questions, her streetwise skills acted in lieu of reason, squeezing the trigger on her blaster aimed at one of the monstrosities.

The shapes were confusing in the dark, and it really just looked like the group was being mobbed with a mass of...stuff. Big, bulbous stuff, that when reflected in the light of the blaster bolts, showed off a mouth full of teeth it used just as aggressively as its bulky limbs. Whatever Daiya was firing at didn't have much of a reaction, it kept moving and flailing at whatever was in its path. "AGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!" The girl cried, frustration and adrenaline coalescing into a cry of primal outpouring. She just kept shooting, her finger moving at a lightning pace as the flashes from her muzzle sped up until it was nearly a constant stream of light. There had never before been an enemy this capable of simply absorbing her blaster bolts. "Why won't you die?!"

As suddenly as it began it was over, the corridor was quiet, her hand was empty, and Tawrro was standing over her. He had one hand on her arm as he held her blaster in his other. Daiya blinked as she looked up at his face, concern overriding a sternness that lurked behind. He growled something and pointed at the creature in front of her, lying unmoving on the deck of the corridor. A large section of charred flesh revealed the outcome of her frenzied attack. "Oh, oops. I guess it's dead?"

It was a real question, and Daiya turned on the lights on her facemask to verify it. The creature was still, and now that she could see it clearly, the girl could taste bile in her throat. The creature's form was revolting, a mass of twisted flesh and sinew looking very inside-out from what it should be. It had a generally humanoid shape, but nothing resembling any species she had encountered —and Denon was a rather cosmopolitan world. The wounds Daiya had inflicted in the creature were now oozing, something pale and sticky that cause her to step back from in disgust.

Daiya joined her teenage friend nearby, giving Brie a wide-eyed expression that said more than her answer. "Yeah, I think so." Tawrro felt it prudent to add his own commentary, for which the girl shot him a dirty look, "So a went a leeeeettle bit overboard, it's dead right? So what does it matter?" She glanced at Brie with a grin, but then realized the mask obscured her lower face. Instead, she just offered a crinkle at the edges of her eyes, that would have to be a good-enough expression.

"These things are gross," Daiya said to Brie, loud enough that the rest of the group could hear. "What are they?" She approached some of the other monstrosities by Elpsis and her crew, nudging one of them with her foot for good measure. The flesh bounced in a spongy manner and the girl sprang back, surprised. A head fell within her gaze, just a head. Daiya clapped a hand to her mouth —well, to the mask portion above her mouth— to stifle a would-be scream that might have disturbed more than just their relative calm after the storm.

"Oh my stars! Is that from the forward team?!" The shadow of dread fell across the girl's eyes as she realized what fate was in store for her, for them, if they weren't as luck in their next encounter with the creatures. Her eyes were damp at their edges, and the mask made it impossible for her to wipe them dry. So Daiya just stared, bleary-eyed, at the bloody aftermath around them.

Brie Jaxx Elpsis Kerrigan Deryn Kaaldos Xan Deesa​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Daiya , Xan Deesa , Brie Jaxx

Presumably the other party members received the layout because that was the sensible thing to do. Of course, the map was old. A room that was labelled as the engineering room might lead to a big hole...Regardless, the party had gone forth and confronted monsters! Monsters everywhere! All of a sudden Rhea's HUDs was swarmed with hostile contacts. The shapes were difficult to make out in the dark. What could be seen of their features made them more bestial than sentient, showing mouths full of sharp teeth.

Surprisingly enough, Rhea felt...fine. The dark void of space unnerved her, but beasts she knew. This was familiar. She had fought beasts like this in the blood-soaked swamps of Tephrike, when the Vaderite hordes assailed the Dominion. And the worst beasts were not savage monsters, but those with sentience and cunning to hide their true nature. Battle lust took over as she felt a surge of adrenaline. Her Reaper Shotgun roared.

White-hot shards ripped through the abominations. More climbed over their bodies of their mutilated brethren. She just kept firing. She saw Natalie spin about, pumping hypervelocity pellets into a beast with unerring accuracy. Her movements were as fluid as a dance, but Rhea had no time to admire them lest she become prey for the claws of abominations. Elpsis shouted something, but over the cacophony of battle noises, Rhea barely heard it. Then she felt a cold chill when a cone of ice erupted from Zhaleh towards the beasts, then a surge of heat caused by Elpsis' subsequent fireball when flames burst from her boss' hands.

The screams of abominations echoed across the corridor. Rhea clubbed a beast that came close, but undaunted by the pain, it tore the shotgun from her grasp and caused her to stumble. Her yellow eyes glowed and forking arcs of electricity shrieked from her fingertips, electrocuting the beast. Its body spasmed and shook, then finally fell.

Then finally it was over - for now. The abominations had retreated into the depths of the ship. Rhea still felt as if a hundred demonic eyes were upon the party, waiting for the moment to pounce from the darkness. Sweat and ichor clung to her. She retrieved her shotgun. "It wanted to kill you. It is dead. You are alive. That is all that matters," she commented when Daiya talked about going a wee bit overboard.

Stepping forward, she examined one of the beasts Daiya had been looking at. She agreed that it looked most gross. Realisation dawned upon her the moment the feisty young girl voiced it. "They used to be people? They look like Sithspawn." she looked towards Elpsis and the others.
"Or the Xio's beasts, but none of those reached the stars" Zhaleh said quietly. "I sensed many of these creatures. The entire void-ship could be crawling with them. If these creatures were smart enough to ambush us, they will now know we'll be more difficult to hunt while we're together than if they can pick us off alone."

"Whatever they are, they're not in a mood to ask questions. The bridge is an obvious place to hit up, or the captain's cabin," Natalie commented dryly. She glanced at Elpsis. "Still want to go on your treasure hunt? We don't know whether these things are infectious or not, so don't let them bite flesh."

"Chopping off infected limbs sometimes works with zombie bites," Elpsis muttered to herself, speaking from personal experience. There was no mirth in her words. She turned her gaze towards Daiya and Brie. "Not what you expected, huh? If you want out, no one blame you. We can lead you back to your ship." Both girls were clearly capable, but while Elpsis could not see their faces, it was plain to her that they were very young. So telling them to go back without help did not sit well with her. She strongly doubted that the girls would accept...because she would not have if she'd been them.

 

[Xan Deesa]

The fighting was intense as the creatures kept coming at them. When Xan's rifle ran dry her pistol came to bear which thankfully did a bit more damage than her simple rifle. Perhaps getting a heavy blaster wasn't that bad an idea after all. One after the other the creatures fell to the ground with a few extra shots in the head just to be safe. All of a sudden she was yanked back as a creature grabbed hold of her neck and picked her up. She immediately holstered her pistol and grabbed hold of its massive fingers, straining for a second before the beast's grip popped open with a sickening crack. It roared in pain but the agent didn't give it time to react as she dropped to the ground, slid between its legs and jumped up onto its head with inhuman speed. With vibroblade in one hand and pistol in the other, she dropped on top of it and drove the blade through its skull, following up with a number of point blank shots to kill it.

As the creature fell to the ground, Xan rolled off and jumped to her feet to keep firing at any other monsters still in the vicinity. The last monster finally hit the ground and Xan relaxed with a light sigh. Her blade was tucked away and the spent cell in her pistol dropped to the ground. Calmly she slotted in a fresh one and did the same with her rifle after picking it up off the ground.

She glanced around at the others, making sure they were all fine. A smirk appeared on her lips as she listened to the exchange between Daiya , Brie Jaxx and the Wookiee. "Rather safe than sorry, I'd say." she commented dryly as she turned to inspect one of the other monsters. Her vibroblade was drawn again as she started to stab, poke and prod at various parts of its body. "Don't care what they are, really. As long as they can die, that's all that matters." she commented at Elpsis Kerrigan 's group as she sunk her blade into its neck then again into its chest area. "Neck and chest seem easy enough to penetrate. Just don't go for the head." she explained as she tapped the thing's head with her knife and stood up. She walked back and stood by the girls as they spoke, scoffing at Elpsis' remark about walking the two girls back to the ship. Almost as if reading her mind she turned to face her slightly. "Would you if someone told you?" she quipped as she glanced at them, resting her rifle against her shoulder. "Let's keep heroics to a minimum and just stick close. This is a score and a half for all of us. Besides, I think we're gonna need the extra manpower if the others on this ship aren't as friendly as we are." she reasoned as she studied the group.

A smile formed as she gave Brie a few pats on the head. "Plus I think there might be a few tight spaces we'll need someone for." she joked with a wink as she gave Brie a nudge and looked around. "We need a better idea of where to go. I suggest we check out the bridge. Maybe they still got a manifest or some info on these kriffers." she elaborated as she gave a dead creature a kick to the head.

Marimax Mortui Deryn Kaaldos Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx

 

[Ruby Jaxx]

The sound of gunshots ringing through the ship gave Ruby pause. Her eyes darted about, unsure. But she gave a nod to Gray, “Yeah...” It probably would be best to keep to themselves.

Time passed and she counted it in footsteps rather than minutes – it was quite a lot of walking, in her professional opinion. She glanced to the side as Gray stopped in front of a door marked storage. Usually, that wouldn't be cause for celebration, but this door also touted Data and Droids. Yes, this could be good.

Ruby rubbed her hands together in anticipation. As they made their way inside, there was a lot of old droids of various sorts. “Maybe some of these could be fixed up or something,” Ruby noted, giving one of the astromechs a tap on the top of its domed head. However, she knew that the real money was not in fixing up some old droids. These chips though, they seemed promising.

As she moved to accompany Gray at the terminals, a growling-sound made Ruby's head turn.

The door to their room was slightly ajar, enough to see a shadow falling outside. Straightening up, Ruby strode quietly over to the door and peered out the slim opening. There was... something out there. What it was, she had no idea. As the creature continued to walk past the door, Ruby caught a better glimpse at its grisly form.

She recoiled hard, the edge of her heel knocked a nearby shelf, causing it to rattle – and draw the creature's attention. “Kark,” she spat and threw herself against the door just as the creature bolted for the opening. The heavy door slammed against the weird being's body, slamming it's arm in the door frame.

“Oh, kark!”

Gray Venasir

 

[Brie Jaxx]

Brie stood up silently after the awful ear-splitting screams from the creatures ended in a thin smoke of metal burnt by laser bolts. If the team would have not wore their breathing masks, a disgusting odor from the burnt corpses would have reached their senses. The same eery feeling laid itself back onto them again, like an all too heavy blanket that was about to suffocate you if you didn't do something. The silence was only broken by the questions and guesses from the group.

One of the women wearing that awe inspiring armor, witches or whatever they were, approached Brie and Daiya with an offer to turn back. Back to their ship and take the fastest hyperlane route out of here. Brie was tempted to take the offer, she could not deny that it was her first instinct. However, when suddenly feeling a few pats on her helmet and knowing and hearing who it came from, she changed her mind.

"Plus I think there might be a few tight spaces we'll need someone for."

Xan's nudge evoked a small grunt from the salvager girl. She haven't known the older girl long enough to realy know if she was just pulling her leg in a friendly manner or if it resided a note of malevolence in her statements. Probably not, but she wasn't realy sure where she had her.

She gave the magneta haired girl a frown before looking at Elpsis and her women.

''No, we're good. We're not just abandoning you when we have just got here - right, Daiya?'' she said, having to turn quite the bit to be able to locate her close friend from behind the spheric helmet.

Brie turned to Elpsis group again. ''We need to stick together now, just as Daiya said. Can you guys locate the bridge?'' she said, agreeing with Xan and felt that courage from her earlier journeys alone build up again.

Xan Deesa Elpsis Kerrigan Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx

 

[Daiya]

It wanted to kill you. It is dead. You are alive. That is all that matters.

The tattooed woman's words cut through Daiya's bravado, anchoring her levity in the weighty situation they were in. It made her plainly aware that they were not on the streets of Denon, and a medivac crew was not minutes away. Help was not coming for them if they couldn't defend themselves. The girl's skills, and none other, were her own last line of defense.

Daiya felt no shame from it, hearing the message from someone other that Tawrro helped it to stick. She only felt it strange that the message wasn't exacerbating her fears. Standing there, looking at the severed head that had once included a torso and limbs, the girl found herself feeling a sense of resolve behind the fears. A primal sensation, one that some part of her knew was as instinctive as breathing. She had felt it before, but the spookiness of the derelict and their separation from help only amplified its presence now, an instictual prerogative to survive.

It wanted to kill you. It is dead. You are alive. That is all that matters.

She nodded along as Xan added her own words of resilience. She had killed the thing that wanted to kill her. The severed head, and whomever it once belonged to, had not. The young shadowrunner knew couldn't fail like that. Wouldn't fail like that. As pretty as her head was, Daiya knew she wasn't destined to end up like that one, alone and discarded as the leavings of some monster's savage meal. The girl gripped her blaster pistol. "That can't be me," the girl whispered to herself. She set her jaw, turning away from the grisly sight at last. She repeated her resolve again, "That won't be me."

Elpsis was talking now, laying out their options. Three of them, one of which prompted Daiya to look at the armored woman. Elpsis was giving her a way out, a means to the end she had promised herself. The girl studied the woman's face, searching for some sign of her intent. She nearly looked over at Tawrro for his take on it, but the teen didn't want to see her companion's expected agreement. Daiya wasn't a child to be pandered to or guided about!

Brie was the voice she needed, speaking their answer first. Daiya grinned to her friend from under the mask, nodding more visibly as the taller girl rejected the addition of Xan's own patronizing remarks. "Right!" she confirmed, looking defiantly at the adults in their little band of adventurers. The young shadowrunner had just as much place here as they did. Her words were something of a chant, "Hell no, we won't go!"

The words died on the thin air of their surroundings, even as their message carried on.

Daiya looked up into Tawrro's disapproving face, and brazenly stuck out her tongue from under the safety of her mask. He growled a pithy retort, something she could have expected from the Wookiee who considered himself her guardian. She felt her confidence wane, and was struck with a sudden sense of self-awareness. The girl glanced around at the carnage of their lethal encounter, lethal for the monsters...this time. He was right, she might not be as lucky next time.

It wanted to kill you. It is dead. You are alive. That is all that matters.

Next time would happen next time. Daiya knew all about the future and predictions, and she hated being tied to them. "We'll be ready for them next time. They can't surprise us again."

And that, she told herself, would have to be enough.

""So," the girl asked, itching to get away from the site of these visual horrors, "the bridge?"

Brie Jaxx Elpsis Kerrigan Xan Deesa​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Xan Deesa Brie Jaxx Daiya

Elpsis snorted when Xan asked whether she would've left if she'd been one of the girls. "No, but teen me's a shitty example to follow." Natalie seriously considered making a sarcastic remark about whether present Elpsis was a good one, but her professionalism won over. In any event, the two girls decided to tag along. The Essionian just shrugged. She was not without compassion, but not their mother. They seemed to have some combat skills and believed they could handle it, so she would take them on their word and treat them like adults. Besides, the so-called 'paragons of justice' used child soldiers called Padawans. Red cares. It's going to frak her up when she goes back to Tephrike, she thought.

"Stay close and watch our back. Any beastie pops up, shoot it. Clear? Good," Elpsis said after a moment. She looked towards Natalie. "Bridge?"
"That way. Bit of a walk from here," the career rebel said laconically. "Red, you can cast super bright light and all that, can't you?" she asked Elpsis.
"Yeah, what about...," Elpsis began, then realised what Natalie meant. "Beasties won't like it if they're used to the dark."
"Just give me a headsup first. I like seeing the normal way and I don't want to waste credits on implants."

Zhaleh fell in line close to the two teenagers. She had an assault rifle in hand and a blade in her sheath. "We aren't far apart in age, I reckon," she remarked in Basic. She had an exotic accent. Technically, Zhaleh was forty, but since Qadiri developed at a slower pace than humans, that was actually their equivalent of being just out of childhood. "Where I come from, young huntresses go on their first hunts at your age to earn their spores." Perhaps she was trying to be encouraging. "Elpsis is an experienced warrior. We work together, and we shall prevail over the fiends."

Rhea, meanwhile, advanced forward at the front, shotgun in hand. Her yellow eyes were predatory. She spared the severed head of the dead monster a last glance. Once it had been a person, but it was not anymore. The sight brought back memories of clearing out Sith temples on Tephrike. That, in turn reminded her of her family, long-dead in a mass grave they had been forced to dig.

Her jaw tightened. Whatever or whoever had spawned these creatures was evil. She had little hope of finding the culprits, but she would give the persons these monsters had once been the gift of mercy by putting an end to their debased existence. Death is their release. So the group advanced into the space hulk.

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan smirked at the woman's comment, giving a light shrug. "That's pretty much everyone." she quipped at Elpsis Kerrigan 's comment before looking back to Brie Jaxx . The girl clearly didn't like the joke too much but she wasn't bothered. "Oh don't worry, Brie. You're too adorable to shove into weird spaces." she teased as she walked past the girl. She glanced at Daiya as she made her comment on the creatures, giving the girl a nudge as she walked past. "You'd be surprised. Just remember, they know these halls better than us." she warned her as she pressed on.

The walk to the bridge was quiet, apart from Zhaleh having a bit of small talk with the two girls. Xan had fallen more to the rear, casting a glance around them every few moments as she held her rifle at the ready. Her night vision helped out a ton with the darkness and a lot of the darker rooms they passed. Every now and then they passed a splatter of blood against the walls or giant claw marks. Sometimes even the skeleton of an ancient corpse. Every now and then a creak or groan would echo through the ship or a very distant growl almost too soft to even hear. Luckily the group was pretty quiet, aside from the soft thumping of their boots against the floor. It was only when Xan heard something akin to scratching in the plates of the ceiling when she stopped, aiming up with her weapon. "That wasn't normal." she muttered to herself, glancing around. Her golden eyes glowed brightly in the darkness of the halls as she looked all around. She quickly moved again, still keeping a rear guard for the group.

From the shadows of holes in the ceiling, pairs of eyes watched them carefully. The eyes moved slowly and carefully to not make any sounds. They kept their distance from the group but never let them slip out of their sights. In the darkness their bodies were hidden, impossible to see and hard to pick up with scanners. But they were ready to attack. Only thing holding them back was their patience for the right moment...

Ruby Jaxx Gray Venasir

 

[Gray Venasir]

Oh, this was not good.

The arm that was sticking through the almost-shut door was flailing around, and threatening to tear the door apart - or worse, hurt Ruby. Gray aimed his blaster, and shot a few bolts at the weird arm, but to little effect. The one or two shots who actually hit the arm only seemed to make it angrier. And it was only a question of time before the shouting and growling of the creatuer would attract others. There was no way it was alone on this ship.

Thinking fast, Gray jumped over to one of the bigger shelves, and pushed it as hard as he could, making it fall towards the door. "Ruby, out of the way!" he shouted as the shelf was toppling over. It slammed against the door, and slid to the ground with a big thud, which could probably be heard all over the ship. From the other side of the door, an ear-piercing screech could be heard. Gray looked towards where the arm had been, and saw that it had been replaced by blood-splatter all over the wall. Right below, the now-severed arm of the creature lay lifeless.

"Alright, that happened," Gray said, and put his arm around Ruby, trying to lead her towards the back of the room. "Think that shelf is heavy enough to keep those creatures out for a short while. But we need to get out of here." He took out his communicator and tried to contact "Shiny". No signal. "I'm open for suggestions."

Ruby Jaxx | Daiya | Xan Deesa | Elpsis Kerrigan | Brie Jaxx

 

[Brie Jaxx]

From behind her visor, Brie rolled her eyes at Xan's comment as the older girl passed her. The two had worked together before, where the older girl had questioned why she even was there. Brie had stood her ground then, and would do it now as well. She shared a glance with Daiya as she replied to Elpsis Kerrigan that they were just as deep in this as they were, they would not leave but instead stay and work together with the group of misfits searching for an answer and the loot of their life. Then, the group started to make their way to the ships bridge. Hopefully, it would offer them some answers to what happened to the ship and its crew.

One of the womans in Elpsis group joined the two teenagers. It was a welcome company as they passed claw marks and dried out blood stains on the walls. Outwardly, she didn't show much of anxiety though, being able to hide most of it under her helmet. The company of Daiya, Zahleh and the other ones in the group made her feel confident that they had the firepower they needed. Brie was the opposite of Daiya, realy. She didn't say much if she didn't have to and that she could live with.

''Mmh, me and Daiya have been friends for quite some time... We're in this together. With you guys.'' she said simply to Zhaleh, a question from before coming to her mind as they walked to long and desolate corridors. ''Where do you come from, anyway? I've never seen anyone looking like you...''

Elpsis Kerrigan Daiya Xan Deesa Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx

 

[Daiya]

Daiya was hoping that her resolve would carry her through the rest of the job. She might have turned down the offer made by Elpsis, but it was hard to shake the thought of leaving from her mind. Every step she took sent her deeper into the labyrinthine vessel, an ancient tomb of monsters and the dead, and with every step she felt a rising fear that she would join them. With every breath out, she could push the fears aside, but they quickly returned with her next step.

Xan's chilling assessment of the monsters didn't help in that regard.

One of Elpsis' warriors stepped up alongside where she walked with Brie, offering words that Daiya felt were supposed to be encouraging. The girl was too focused on her own self-control for the moment, and Brie was all too happy to offer the kind of resilient sentiment she shared. The young shadowrunner was definitely in this, even if her pounding heart was threatening to leap out of her chest by itself and run to safety. She looked up, offering a

Tawrro filled in, offering a growling response to the dark-skinned woman warrior about similar Wookiee customs. The thought of it didn't help the teen, who had found herself in Kashyyyk's shadowlands once. Even though she had spent the majority of it in a relatively safe clearing, and with Tawrro right beside her, Daiya wasn't itching to get back anytime soon. She couldn't imagine having to venture out into the creepiest parts of their worldwide forest alone, especially at such a young age as Tawrro was suggesting!

"I much prefer the group hunt idea," Daiya murmured, her voice small and quiet as she remembered the grisly scene they had left behind. "Rather than end up a lonely head, drifting out here with the monsters for eternity."

Daiya closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head as if that could dispell her disquiet. To her surprise the girl found that, if she really focused on her breathing, it actually seemed to work. She opened her eyes to a brighter world than before, and not because of any of the Force magic Elpsis may have worked. Whatever the cause, it let her tense muscles relax a little and gave her a better perspective of their surroundings.

Compared to the corridor they were in before, the path to the bridge was far more decayed. Whatever had been living in the ancient warship for years —decades? centuries?— had made itself at home, using the hallways as a skeleton for its own designs. The additions seemed to use both the sinewy flesh of the bulbous monsters, and metal or duraplast components that looked like they came from other parts of the ship. Daiya was fascinated by them as they passed, but their purpose was indecipherable to her.

Here and there, Daiya could spot a break in the walls, and sometimes they seemed to host tunnels leading off the main corridor. She couldn't tell what lay beyond, but something in the girl just knew it wasn't a good thing. Daiya tried to hurry past those spots, finding herself bunched up against Elpsis and another of her companions. "Is it just me, or does all this feel like we're walking into someone else's home?"

As Daiya spotted a decayed sign for BRI GE on one of the walls ahead, it seemed to the girl that she was about to get her answer one way or another.

Brie Jaxx Elpsis Kerrigan Xan Deesa​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Brie Jaxx Xan Deesa Daiya

"Tygara," Zhaleh responded. "I'm told it's a very remote world in the void. But every world I visit seems remote to me," she shrugged. One could probably infer from her words that she was very new to space travel. Indeed, first contact with the outside galaxy had been about a decade ago for her species.

The path to the bridge was marked by decay. The walls were not just scorched by blaster bolts or grenade explosions, but had suffered breaches. But maybe it was not just destruction, but transformation. Some walls were covered in the flesh of abominations. Metal and components seemed to have been moved from one section to the other. Body parts were strewn across the floors, along with red viscera and some strange looking black substance. "Yes," Rhea said laconically. She held her rifle at the ready, checking every hole they passed to make sure nothing would burst through. "They have burrowed deep. The ship is their cocoon."

They met no resistance on the way. The door was badly damaged and covered in bulbuous flesh. There was no resistance. Cautiously, Elpsis stepped inside. The bridge was covered in darkness. Her comrades had their searchlights. Those would be no good for her, for her eyes were dead. "Watch yourself. Nat, anything you can work with?"

"Found a working terminal," the Essionian responded after a moment. Miraculously, the alien creatures, Sithspawn or whatever they were had avoided warping it and it still seemed to have juice. She booted it up. "Seems to have logs. Accessing." They were password-protected. After some slicing and the use of a computer spike, she was in. Most of the logs were corrupted, but accessing one produced the hologram of a bearded, middle ages man dressed in some sort of uniform. The apparition was of poor quality, flickering in and out.

'The merchandise has been acquired and placed in quarantine. The delivery will be made in two weeks. Until then Security Protocol Alpha is in place. Only authorised personnel may enter the quarantine zone to monitor the merchandise.'

A few days later...'One of the units has escaped. Personnel has been dispatched to retrieve. General lockdown.' The final log said: 'They think. They are everywhere. No response to distress call. The bridge's sealed. If they get off the ship...if anyone hears this, destroy it...only chance..." Then it abruptly cut off.

Elpsis had walked a bit deeper into the bridge. Her Force Senses tingled, as if she was being pulled into a certain direction. Her lifeless, milky-white eyes swept through the darkness. Inanimate structures appeared translucent in her view. She blotted out the background noise, and focused on the strands of the Lifeweb - and saw. Eggs were spread across the bridge, hidden in the dark "It's a nest. Get out," she ordered. "They're here." Fire and burning light burst from her hands. Beasts pounced from the shadows.

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan was dead quiet as she walked behind the group. She knew for a fact that she heard something and it wasn't her imagination. She barely heard what the others were talking about but kept them in her view to make sure they were all accounted for. They finally got to the bridge level and the sights were disturbing to say the least. She was glad she had a mask on, otherwise she would likely have gotten sick by the smell. "Well I'd hate to break it to them, but their home is getting repo'd now." she quipped as she backpedalled along with the rest. The bridge wasn't in any better condition in all honesty. But at least there was still some power and she was left to wonder how much power there still was.

She took the time to look around, listening to the garbled recordings one of the others played back. She was in the middle of messing around with a broken terminal when she heard Elpsis' warning. "We can't-" she started but several nightmarish wails cut her off. In the blink of an eye the group was set upon by monsters that could only be described as demonic. There were easily a dozen of them crawling out of the walls or ceiling, sticking to them as their lifeless eyes glared at them. Xan managed to hit one in the body as it got ready to pounce and it dropped dead to the ground, but the rest started to move as well. Their movements were erratic, unpredictable and sharp. One swung its stinger at her but she luckily dodged it before firing a few rounds into it. "Stick close, cover each other! these kriffers move fast!" she shouted over the carnage. From the sounds of it there were more on the way... and several enraged roars could be heard not too far outside the bridge. They were going to be swamped soon if they didn't do something quickly.

As she fired at another, a crazy thought popped into her head. "Can the ship still maneuver?!" she called out to Elpsis' team. "If we can get the engines on we can fly out to space! Freeze these kriffers to death!" she continued, her quick movements intercepting a stinger coming at her. She grabbed hold of it and her hand clamped down like a hydraulic press, crushing its tail before it was ripped off.

Elpsis Kerrigan Daiya Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx Brie Jaxx

 

[Brie Jaxx]

Spoiler

As the group wandered in the direction of the bridge, Brie stuck to Daiya and Zhaleh, listening to the laters statement about her homeworld and experience with space travel. Despite Zhaleh seemed new to space travel, saying every world felt remote to her, the tygaran girl struck Brie as courageous and bold. It made Brie curious about the rest of the mysterious group of women that her fellow Darkwire folks were now running with. Where the rest of them came from. What species they were. How they had met, and what purpose their group served. To her, they almost seemed like some sort of vigilantes or those Wardens of the Sky. Calling them supernatural would be to exaggerate, but with their special armor, their way of fighting and Elpsis Kerrigan force-like way of seeing despite her blindness, force-users would not be too far fetched. Either way, it took some of her focus from staring down at frozen body parts on the floor and blood stains at the walls.

They entered a blacked-out bridge. Their flashlights being the only thing to shed some light onto the dark panels and through the dusty viewports giving them a glimpse of the equally dark and frightening unknown space around the ship. As Elpsis Kerrigan made her way over to a panel, Brie gave Daiya a tug in the arm of her spacesuit to pull her along and follow the woman. The eery holographic message that played before them soon made the salvager girls heart beat a little faster than usual.

''The bridge's sealed. If they get off the ship...if anyone hears this, destroy it...only chance..."

Brie gulped inadvertently, feeling a chill travel down her spine as she got stuck staring at the panel for a moment. Maybe Daiya would have heard the gulp despite the spacesuit. Brie wasn't that easily scared, but she started to feel like they were realy in the deep end now. An uneasy sigh left her, one that would hopefully exhale a bit of the fright that was starting to build up inside her but she tried to hide from the rest. Chilling cries and wails came from the darkness and made the group painfully aware that they were not alone on the bridge.

Suddenly, Brie lost her footing and dropped her carbine in the process. She hit the floor with a grunt and were quickly dragged backwards along the dirty and cold floor.

''XAN!! DAIYA!!'' she exclaimed frightened, but were able to grab onto another desk panel. She felt the claws of one of the creatures around her boot, trying to pull her from her grip.

Daiya Xan Deesa Elpsis Kerrigan Gray Venasir Ruby Jaxx

 

[Daiya]

She thought it seemed easy for Elpsis and her team to make their way into the infested hollow of the bridge. The girl only wished she had that much confidence. Daiya's heart was in her throat, and with every beat it threatened to close up on her, to choke the life out of her. Not even Xan's snarky comment made the effort to breathe any easier, despite the giggle she wanted to give it. The girl reminded herself again that she was alive, that it was all that mattered. She had defended herself before, and she could do it again. Even with such overwhelming reassurance and reasoning, Daiya still felt crushed by the bad feeling she'd felt since they arrived.

It took everything she had to cross the threshold of the bridge, plunging herself into the heart of the monsters' lair.

No, it took a pull from her best friend. Daiya looked up into the helmeted face of Brie as she found herself inside the bridge, smiling with her eyes at the help from the older girl, before looking around to survey the ship's command center.

The monsters had taken over everything. Daiya spied the sinewy strands of alien flesh everywhere with the lights from her facemask, making new walkways and partitions inside the ship's command center, hiding secrets in the deep shadows of their cocoon. Whatever those things were, they had made the bridge their own. The girl even found the gooey material under her feet, lifting her boot once to find strands of gunk oozing down from its sole. She stepped carefully after that, gingerly placing her feet and body to avoid the disgusting goo and the bulbous flesh her mind concocted into more of the monsters.

"Yeah, I know they could be anywhere..." Daiya answered when Tawrro growled out a warning. It wasn't like she needed the reminder. The evidence was everywhere, the creatures came here often. That they were absent now was nothing short of a miracle.

Unless it wasn't.

One of Elpsis' crew found a terminal that was still working. That piqued the girl's interest, and she turned to look at it. Undamaged, unmolested by the monsters, and with usable power? Daiya frowned, and it only deepened when the holo-recording appeared. None of that added up to her. The young shadowrunner wasn't one to see lines and patterns in nonsense, that was more of Tawrro's penchant, but even she could see that it made little sense for there to be just one piece of the ship still operational when the rest of it had been given over to the monsters.

She kept her blaster up and ready. The teen felt years younger, gripped now by the same fears that had plagued her as a child. Any corner was a hiding place for an enemy, any shadow a home for watching eyes. Any time she turned her back was an opportunity. And anytime she wasn't ready was the moment that she died.

The scream she heard first couldn't have been hers. Daiya wasn't certain of that, so much happened at once, just one horrifying thing after the other. Elpsis shouting about a nest. A flash of shapes moving across the darkness that quickly swallowed her mask's lights. The noise of an automatic shotgun and several blasters, one of which could have been hers, firing into the fray. Heat from a sudden blaze of fire and lightning, threatening to scorch any piece of her exposed skin and hair even from meters away.

But the most horrifying of all was the screams she heard from her best friend, helplessly crying out Daiya's name as she struggled against an alien creature's seizing grasp.

The girl reacted instantly. She was turned the wrong way, her blaster firing at some other shapes moving around, so it was her hand she flung out instead at Brie's monstrous abductor. She felt something else of her reach out along with her hand. A cry escaped her mouth, she had no control over what. It could have been, "NOOOOOOOO!" or "BRIIIEEEEE!"

Whatever the sound, whatever reached out, Daiya found her outstretched hand guiding the rise of one of the monsters, a very different sort from the kind they had faced earlier. Its bony hide writhed and twisted as it hung in the air, clawing and screeching at nothing in front of it. The girl felt all of her fears and rage focused into the sinewy monster, terrified of all that it could do —and would do— if she let it free to ravage Brie and the rest of her friends.

Let it free? Daiya was barely conscious of her connection to the creature's plight until she realized its motions were slowing, its sounds becoming more ragged. It took mere seconds, but once the Force-wielding girl realized it, she only needed one more to swing her blaster arm its way and shoot the monster. The thing dropped as she did, dead before it hit the ground.

"You okay, Brie?" the breathless teen asked, but she could hardly wait for an answer. Their fight wasn't over, and Daiya wasted no time rushing to her friend's side. The girl took up a position next to Brie, covering the older girl and giving her the chance to recover. She shot at the ambushing monsters that approached them —Xan was right, those kriffers moved fast— killing or keeping them at bay for a moment.

Suddenly she felt a large presence behind them, and the girl gasped as she looked, fearing the worst. Instead of one of the fast kriffers, or the bulbous monsters from before, it was Tawrro at their side. One of his meaty hands was wielding his almighty shotgun, exploding the monsters in single bursts, while the other gently pried Brie up to a standing position again. Daiya breathed out, quickly now, and pulled at both of her friends to move them back to where the working terminal lay at the center of the conflict.

"Whatever you're going to do," Daiya told Xan and the tech woman who had been fiddling with the terminal before, "Do it now before they overwhelm us!"

Brie Jaxx Elpsis Kerrigan Xan Deesa​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Daiya , Xan Deesa Brie Jaxx

"Give me a few minutes," Natalie spoke.
"We don't have minutes," Rhea barked, firing her shotgun. A creature screeched in agony when the hot shards tore through its skin, but there were more - always more. Guts splattered over the terminal Natalie was working on. The strange creatures moved fast. Monstrous creatures tried to grab her, claw her or bite her. Blood dripped from her thigh when a creature managed to claw her good. And she fired. When that was not possible, she used the shotgun as an improvised club. And choked and roared. A cry escaping her mouth was so potent it knocked her to the ground, but ripped a beast's head apart. She was showered in blood and guts. Her heart thundered inside her chest. Blood dripped from her nose. She had to roll when another beast pounced from the shadows.

Zhaleh meanwhile had been trying to cover Natalie while the latter fiddled with the terminal. Short, controlled bursts came from her magnetic repeater, but as the beasts flooded the room, they became increasingly frantic. Hypervelocity projectiles tore through tore the ambushing monsters. Then the power was out.

No time to reload. Dropping it, she fired her pistol into the skull of one of the bulbuous monsters, then a creature emergeged from the shadows and gripped her hard, causing her to fall. Then it was upon her, pressing her down with all its weight and clawing at her as it tried to tear off her helmet. Fear and anger took over and when she grabbed it by the arm, ice spread across the beast.

Then a blast of incandescent whiteness caused creatures to screech. Luckily, the beast was still on her, else she might have been robbed of sight. It was followed by a ball of flame. The beast melted and Elpsis hauled her up. The hand that gripped her was smoking. There was no time for words just a nod of acknowledgement. "Nat, status?" Elpsis roared impatiently. Smoke wafted from her armour and it was covered in red ichor.

"Firing thrusters," the Essionian declared.

 

[Xan Deesa]

Things went from bad to worse as more and more poured into the bridge. They stuck close and covered each other but these monsters were pushing them all to their limits. Xan fired with machine-like precision at the creatures. One or two in the head then onto the next one. When her blaster ran out, she tossed the power cell aside and slotted in a fresh one. When her rifle ran out she slung it around her body and drew her blaster. A scream erupted from Brie but Daiya beat her to helping the poor girl... with an unusual ability. She blinked in surprise when she saw the creature suspended in the air, trying to get free. She fired a bolt into its head before focusing on the others as well.

Natalie was getting overwhelmed and no matter how many Xan killed, they kept piling in. To make matters worse, ungodly roars erupted through the hallways. The others were coming as well. Likely even the ones who were trying to get to the other looters on the ship ( Ruby Jaxx , Gray Venasir ). But that meant more enemies and she knew they didn't have the ammo or armour for an open fight like this.

She fired at one that tried to jump at her and slammed her vibroblade into another that came from behind. Emotion and worry left her as her body and mind focused completely on simply surviving this fight. Her movements were sharp and every round fired was done so sparingly. If they came too close she used her blade to rip them open.

Then the good news.

"Get the ship out of the atmosphere. We need to get this thing out of the planet's grip." she called out with a cold voice devoid of emotion.

The ship's thrusters were old, but it still had enough power to get up and out of the gas giant's surface. The higher they went, the colder it got. Xan could feel the temperature in her suit drop. Unless everyone had suits meant for space, they only had a matter of time before oxygen or exposure became a problem. But it was more than what their enemies had. As the oxygen got thinner, the creatures started to lose focus and lashed out at anything and everything. They started to scram for shelter as the temperature dropped but it was no use. Soon the ship was full of monsters gasping and shivering as their mutated life left them. By the time the ship breached the atmosphere and broke into the void of space, they were all dead or breathing their last breaths.

But now there was a new problem.

A shiver ran through her body as she looked around. "Ship's secure. We need to get to our own ships as well. Let's move it." she ordered them before looking to Daiya, Brie and Tawrro. "What are you kriffers waiting for, let's move." she snapped at them as another shiver coursed through her. "We only got a few minutes tops!"

Brie Jaxx Daiya Elpsis Kerrigan