Swarm

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Neesa shrugged. She hadn't bothered to find out. A few tens of thousands of people must have been changed by now. The chances of recovering them all neither interested her, nor seemed particularly feasible. Waiting to find out if a stun weapon worked had appeared a waste of time when a bolt to the head was guaranteed to put them down.

"We'll find out I guess."

That and the complete lack of a reaction to Tali's children would either rouse some suspicious about her Jedi story or convince Irajah that the Jedi were even more emotionless than she had already believed.

Neesa tentatively tried the door. She sucked air over her teeth and closed it softly.

"Thirty metres to the fire escape, but two of them in the way. These things can make a lot of noise, draw more of them in."

 

[Kuzo]

Thumbing the safety on, she tossed the blaster underhand to [member="Neesa"] when she found a second one.

"Well, now's probably as good a time as any to find out if that works," she said, standing up. She tramped around for a moment, getting a feel for the fit of the boots. A little clumpy, but far more muffled than the heels had been. If she was careful, she could move around pretty quietly.

Irajah wasn't particularly surprised by the lack of response to certain things by the Jedi. It jived with what she'd experienced so far actually. Just another reminder of what the Jedi were. Hypocrites or outright liars. That wasn't fair. She was sure some of them were true to their perception of the Jedi Code.... she just wasn't impressed by the code either.

She frowned slightly, then turned, pulling a heavier weight coat out of one of the lockers. Having a little extra padding between her and someone trying to bite or claw her seemed like a good idea. Sliding it on and zipping it up, she headed over to Neesa, blaster in hand.

"I'm not a great shot but the stun setting has a pretty wide angle," she commented. "We can each aim at a different one and try to take them down at the same time?" No chance to cry out when the other fell then.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Neesa looked down at the pistol, flipping it around and testing its weight. She seemed remarkably comfortable with weapons for a doctor. It would have been quieter to get close and use blades, or a lethal poison dart. However, in this case following a simple plan that wasn't quite to her preference was a small cost for keeping the doctor loyal. Neesa would be relying on her before too long.

Neesa thumbed the stun setting and practised an aim to familiarise herself with the iron sights. Simple enough. Irajah might just notice that her thumb stayed on the switch. If the stun didn't work then she could put them both down quickly enough.

With a nod she returned to the door. The spawn were facing away from them. Just standing there, twitching every few seconds. It unnerved Neesa. She took two tentative steps into the corridor, giving Irajah enough room to take aim. She held up three white fingers and started to fold them down.

 

[Kuzo]

Despite the nerves inherent to the entire situation, Irajah couldn't help analyzing as [member="Neesa"] counted down.

Three fingers. The stun setting is intended to incapacitate a subject. It functions by overloading the target's nervous system. It disrupts the biometrics, forcing a body to shut down, hopefully rendering them unconscious.

Two fingers. This will tell us something about the effects of the virus! If they work, then the victims nervous systems are still largely intact and properly connected to everything else. They are still people- with a chance of being returned to their former state! But if this fails, then....

One finger. Then there may be nothing we can do for them. OH CHIT THE SAFETY IS ON.

Raja quickly thumbed the safety off, firing a fraction of a second after her companion. The blue light flashed, expanding rings of energy filling the air between the two women and their targets. Irajah held her breath.

As the light flashed past them, they paused, heads tilting to follow the path of the glow. Her heart sank.

It didn't work.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

One of the spawn stumbled forwards, going down onto all fours. There it stayed, a look of confusion on its face. The other turned and ran for them. It opened its mouth wide to cry out. The noise died in its throat as a blaster bolt went through that open mouth and burst out the back of its neck.

Neesa laid her left hand on the top of Irajah's wrists and gently pushed her blaster down. No need to waste power.

The other spawn was still on all fours, mumbling to itself.

"I've seen some like this before," Neesa whispered. "They seem... inert. But they can change."

She holstered her blaster and drew a knife. Carefully she crept forwards, keeping out of its line of sight. It only started to react as Neesa stood right behind it and bent down to wrap a lithe arm around its neck. The knife down and back up. Under the rib cage, into the lungs to silence it, before that serated edge on one side carved up and into the heart. These things were tough, would carry on heedless of wounds, but they still followed the laws of science. Greivous wounds still killed them.

 

[Kuzo]

While her face was stricken, the doctor wasn't beside herself with regret or panic. It had been worth a try, and she had desperately hoped that it would work. But whatever this was, too much had changed in them. That much was out of her control. But there were things she could do.

"Let's hurry," she said quietly, her words tight. She paused, looking down at the body rapidly cooling on the tiles. "Before this spreads any farther than it has to."

One more glance and she moved toward the fire escape. Once death found someone, well, that was no longer her jurisdiction. When it was one of her patients, sometimes that meant she had failed. But sometimes, it simply was. She couldn't help these two. But maybe she could stop this.

Peering over the edge, Irajah was perfectly content to let [member="Neesa"] go first. The pair swung over the edge (Neesa far more smoothly than Raj). The night was cool, a heavy mist roiling down from the foothills outside the city. Great. Of course. That was *just* what they needed.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

The darkness and conditions which hampered vision had always been Neesa’s allies. Even so, she didn’t relish the idea of moving through the inner city at night. There would be thousands of these spawn in there. Perhaps, she hoped, the mist wouldn’t reach that far. If it did everything would be a dull orange haze.

Neesa slid down the ladder to the ground below, stepping away quickly so that the doctor could follow. One day Irajah would be introduced to sith runes in the worst possible way, but for now she might simply wonder at the intricate carvings at the base of Neesa’s sword. She kept Sorrow out, but Thirst remained sheathed as she peered around.

She had come full circle now, back where she had first entered. There were still the bodies of the two she had despatched on her way in on the tarmac.

“At least it isn’t raining heavily anymore,” she remarked. Her cloak was still damp from the footrace here. She wasn’t the best driver and had crashed her land speeder a few hundred metres from the gates to the facility, but had lost the spawn who had chased her away from it. “There are a good few of them beyond the perimeter fence. We’ll need to find some transport.”

 

[Kuzo]

The metal rungs were cold and wet beneath her hands. She was a little out of breath by the time they reached the ground, but she recovered quickly enough.

"I was dropped off, I don't know where they took the transport after that," Irajah said with a grimace. "Not sure if it'd be the best thing anything, thing was a beast." Big and lumbering and *noticeable*. "But I remember them saying something about a garage on the south side of the compound? We should be able to find something there."

"If we can find a speeder bike or a swoop I can handle that," she said quietly as they crept along the side of the building. "Too much bigger and eeeesh you'd better drive."

Raj almost bumped into [member="Neesa"] when the other woman stopped suddenly. She bit back a question- after all, it was either more of those things or just precaution. She couldn't see around the corner up ahead, but she kept an eye out behind them as best as she could.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Neesa held one hand out towards Irajah, palm open. There was movement on the other side of the fence. Yellow eyes that seemed to defy the deep shadows. Neesa turned very slowly.

"Let's go for the garage," she whispered. Better to get a vehicle inside the perimeter she decided. The facility had gone into lockdown so in the grounds between the outer fence and the centre they should have been relatively safe.

Neesa set out to round the building and head for the south side. "A bike might be a good idea," she suggested. "Swoops are the ones that go high up? Haven't seen any of those in flight but that would make life easy." Neesa's knowledge could be remarkably deep in some areas whilst painfully naive in fairly everyday matters.

 

[Kuzo]

She couldn't help it. Irajah rolled her eyes behind [member="Neesa"]'s back.

"Yes, swoops go high," she confirmed. Raj wasn't a swoop racer, by a *long shot*. She wasn't going to pull fancy tricks, or even open it up to full speed if she was on one. But she could fly it okay and at least she knew the difference.

"I'm not sure our luck runs to there being swoops here though," she admitted after a moment. "People don't tend to use them casually. But I'd be surprised if there wasn't a regular speeded bike somewhere."

The pair scuttled through the night fog, Neesa by far the more stealthy of the two, but Irajah did her best. She followed where the other woman led, stopping when she did, and kept her voice low. They reached the garage without incident, but of course, that luck wouldn't hold out.

Even Irajah could hear the shuffling inside when they reached the closed door. Her brow furrowed, falling silent as she strained to listen. More than one, but it was hard to tell just how many were inside the hangar.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

The Nagai pulled an expression of disgust and moved closer to Irajah. "If there are a few," Neesa whispered close to the doctor's ear, "the doors between the garage and main facility could be open."

Neesa let her right hand fall to the hilt of the sword at her belt. Thirst always seemed to want to be drawn first. She slid the blade free just a few inches. The runes on the blade glowed faintly as it was drawn. There was a distinct touch of a dark side aura about the blade.

"I'll draw them, if the doors are open go and close them. If not...Try not to shoot me in the back with that blaster." Neesa reached for the button next to the door as she pulled the blade entirely free. With a touch the entire door slid away in a fraction of a second. Needa counted four. The door to the main facility was wide open.

 

[Kuzo]

Hazel eyes cast across the scene for a fraction of a heartbeat before Irajah was sprinting in a wide arc around the denizens of the hangar. She didn't glance back at [member="Neesa"], trusting the other woman to do her part, just as she would do hers.

She felt it rather than saw it- the feeling of something bearing down on her from her left. Without really thinking, she swerved, feet scrambling under her but avoiding the lurching grasp of one they hadn't seen at first as it came out from behind a transport.

"Chit chit chit!"

Putting on a final burst of speed, her chest already burning, she leaped forward, slapping the door controls with her palm. As the doors started to close, she whirled around. In her head, she was going to draw the blaster from her belt and in one smooth motion fire on the incoming creature. She'd already reframed them in her mind far enough to make what needed to be done possible....

Of course, that's not what happened.

The blaster stuck in her belt. She looked down, slightly panicked look on her face and then back up at the looming, dead eyed presence.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

The spawn fell away from Neesa, taking Sorrow with it. The creature had came at her so hard the blade had been thrust into its sternum. Neesa let the blade go. As hardy as they were the creature couldn't survive having its heart cut apart.

She swung at the next with her right, the sharp blade hissing death as it arced up. There were several more coming and one heading for Irajah. In one smooth motion she pulled a blade from her cloak, holding the blade between forefinger and thumb as came naturally for any Nagai.

Those dead eyes looming before Irajah widened. It's body jerked and it slowed it's stride. The blade had only pierced its lung and the poisons it was coated with were as effective as the stun weapon. But at least it had bought Irajah time.

Neesa darted away from grasping claws. Rolling over the back of a landspeeder to find some space. It didn't matter how effective she was at killing. A handful of these things in a tight space could drag her down. She was still just a slender girl when it came down to it, quite delicate if anyone took the time to look past the professional assassin.

 

[Kuzo]

The hangar door clattered shut behind her, and she yelled out a short, strangled "Thanks!" as she finally got the blaster clear of her belt.

That was stupid.

She looked down at the blaster, up at [member="Neesa"], over to a trio of spawn that were coming around the side of a speeder, then at the large transport. She didn't bother shoving the blaster back into her belt as she ran toward the last. Reaching up, she pulled herself into the cab.

Normally, she wasn't particularly good at driving vehicles this large. She had a tendency of crashing them.

That, however, was exactly the point.

Flicking the transport on, she wrenched the control stick, starting the behemoth moving with a grumbling moan. Checking quick to make sure Neesa was out of the way (fighting for her life, but out of the way), Irajah floored the vehicle-

And tried to ignore the sound of three sickening thumps as it went tearing through the open, the trio of spawn lumbering toward Neesa disappearing beneath the transport. She immediately turned off the engine, letting the repulsors die down and drop the vehicle to the floor- even if they had survived the initial hit, they weren't going anywhere now.

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"Huh ."

Neesa couldn't gawp for long as a scarlet arm snatches at her shin from beneath the speeder. Very calmly, she took two steps back and waited for it to crawl forwards. She wrapped both hands around Thirst's hilt and raised it up. Once it's head was exposed she swung down. A crack resounded around the garage.

Neesa gave a sharp nod. She looked up to Irajah in the cabin of the transport and smiled. The expression managed to soften her harsh features just a little. The smile went as she got on with the business of planting her boot on the chest of a spawn and yanking Sorrow free.

She didn't need to wipe the blades clean, the blood rune glowed and they soaked everything up. At the back of her mind she became aware that one of the spawn nearby, clearly still alive. She almost felt remorse for the dying creature, almost no one could defend themselves from a weapon like this. It didn't seem quite right.

"Are we taking that then?" She called out over her shoulder as she went to retrieve her knife. One could never have too many knives.

 

[Kuzo]

"Only if we want to be crashing into everything," Irajah called over the din of the engines. "Or if you're driving. I have no idea where the maw-cursed corners on this thing are, and it has a blind spot the size of Kessel."

On the one hand, the transport was large and more than tough enough to keep the spawn out without any risk to its passengers. On the other hand, it was large and loud, and not particularly fast. Sure to attract their attention as they went through the city. Irajah honestly didn't know which was more important- security enroute? Or not drawing a lot of attention on the way?

She opened the cab door, leaning out and looking over the other options they had, a small frown on her face.

"NO SWOOPS!" She yelled down to [member="Neesa"]

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"I am... not a fantastic driver," Neesa admitted. As expected noises started to come from the door Irajah had sealed. Spawn, attracted by the sounds from the garage had come rushing down in numbers. "We should be quick."

Neesa turned and darted towards the door they had come through, realising it had been left open. There might have been more of the creatures - and that was how Neesa saw them, not as people who had been temporarily changed - close to exits in the main building attracted by the sound. For now the main garage shutters were down, but they would tackle that problem in a few moments.

Neesa shrugged and held her arms out wide. "What's the quietest thing here? Roads are well blocked so small would be good too."

 

[Kuzo]

Turning off the engine, Irajah slid out of the cab and onto the duracrete.

"Probably the speeder bikes over there," she said, pointing. "There a thing or two we can do to muffle them even further and it won't take more than a minute or two. But, well-"

The draw back there was obvious. No protection whatsoever. Both women would be completely vulnerable.

She glanced at [member="Neesa"], eyes trailing down to the sword in her hands and flickering over the runes there.

"If you think you can keep anything that jumps out of us off our back, I can get us through."

 

[Neesa]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Neesa gave a shrug. "If we take the bikes we can get further into the city centre before going on foot. Unless they've learned to drive or set traps I imagine we'll be fine."

That seemed to be enough for the doctor to get on with whatever she needed to do to muffle the engines. It was a subject Neesa knew less of than medicine. She at least knew enough biology to kill a whole host of different species in the most efficient manner.

"I've never driving a speeder bike before though. Is it... difficult?"

 

[Kuzo]

Kneeling on the floor and fiddling with the bike, Irajah paused, giving [member="Neesa"] a *look* over her shoulder.

"I have no doubt that you could learn- it's not hard," she said. "But this hardly seems like the time to test it out. We'll take one bike. I'll focus on getting us there, you focus on making sure we don't get jumped out at, deal?"

While it was technically a question, it was clear that Raj was simply not going to be baby-sitting a novice rider today. Not in this situation. Just like Neesa probably wouldn't hand her one of the swords she was carrying and just tell her to go to town.....

Speaking of which.....

"So, what do those markings mean, anyway? The ones on your blades," she asked, turning back to the task beneath her hands.