The Plague Spreads

[Aellin Tedronai]

Lucrehulk Class Freighter - The Dying Light
[member="Katya Shorn"]

The Galaxy was an ancient place, filled with old relics and ancient pieces of the past. One of these pieces was The Dying Light, an old Lucrehulk Class Freighter, a ship so decrepit and torn apart that one might have thought it unworthy of spaceflight. The ship had seen many things, many battles, many decades, many centuries. It had been operational through the millenia, carting about all sorts of different cargo for all sorts of different people. The ship had seen it all, all but one thing really.

Today, as for the last near decade, The Dying Light was marked as a transport ship under the flag of the One Sith. It's massive ringed arms were marked with the symbol of the One Sith, painted in black on either side of the massive freighter.

For the past year or so The Dying Light had carried cargo for the One Sith from it's newly conquered worlds to those deeper within the core. The cargo varied from world to world. At times it was riches, at times it was armaments, and a few times it had even been sections of entire cities. One kind of cargo never changed however, one piece of the ships holds were always filled with the same thing, people. It was an unquestioning resource, one that the Sith were desperate for, manpower. So they took it from the rim of their territory, seizing and claiming those who had nowhere else to go.

These people were brought onto The Dying Light, ferried to the Core and brought to labor there.

It was no coincidence that Aellin was one of these people, his simple clothes and his light traveling gear placed against one of the far walls within the largest of the cargo holds. There were no chains on anyone, at least not yet. Most of these people had come voluntarily, thinking that they would find something better for themselves within the core. They were wrong of course, very wrong.

A sneer pulled at his lips as a man walked past him, a cough tearing at his lungs.

Disgust played over Aellin's face, his eyes turning away from the man and his mask pushed closer to his face so the rebreather placed within would do its work. A sickness had fallen over The Dying Light, a plague that was not of the Acolytes making. A dozen or so men and women had already been sent to the medical bay, half of that number already laying dead within the ships morgue. Aellin had no idea what the disease was, not did he particularly care. His journey was already set out, and The Dying Light was a mere transport to ge-

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted, the entire ship lurching forward as it was violently torn from hyperspace.

 

[Eun]

"Here she comes, captain, right on schedule."

Kate's fingers gripped the arms of the command chair as she stared out the forward viewport. Sure enough, in the empty blackness of space there suddenly appeared the enormous shape of a Lucrehulk, torn from hyperspace by the gravity well projectors of the Pariah.

"Open fire. Ion cannons only. Give it a few salvos and then we'll hail."

From the Privateer-class frigate and the Peregrine-class pocket carrier Twilight came a flurry of bright blue bolts that cut through the void and slammed into the massive freighter. The shields on the craft flickered and it returned fire, but this Lucrehulk was not outfitted for war. As streaks of red and blue danced between the three ships, fighter screens that had lain in wait for the ambush came billowing out, bombarding the prey.

It quickly became apparent who held the upper hand.

"Hold."

Kate activated the transmission to the enemy vessel. "This is the Captain of the Heralds of Chaos. We'll be accepting your surrender. Refuse to comply and I cannot guarantee the safety of your crew."

True enough. After a fight, tempers ran high. There were well over four hundred souls between the two crews of the Heralds. They abided by the articles of confederation well enough, but if they started to sustain casualties? She couldn't be everywhere. The less loss of life here, the better for everyone. Besides which, she'd read the intel reports on the cargo manifest of the Lucrehulk. An errant missile or turbo laser was all it took to extinguish dozens of innocents.

Thankfully, no hard choices needed to be made that day.

"Greetings captain," came the reply, "I'm Captain Patawa. We're a merchant vessel, no wish for a fight. Please cease these hostilities."

"That's not possible," Kate said, a bit more harshly than she intended. "You fly by the One Sith's transponders. And it's open season on you and yours. Shut down your weapons systems and your shields."

"I see. It seems you leave us with no choice. What exactly do you intend to do with us?"

"Corpses don't fetch coin, Captain. Ransoms do."

* * *

The boarding shuttles landed inside the Lucrehulk's hangar and quickly disgorged scores of privateers. Kate was among the first wave. She wore light body armor, having lost her suit of beskar in a failed raid not so long ago. She clutched a DH-17 in one hand and held it pointed at the ceiling as she stomped down the ramp.

A small ensemble was gathered to admit the privateers. The captain and his officers. Patawa looked to be in his forties and balding. He looked askance when she stalked up to him with a glare.

"Did your captain deign to come with the boarding party?"

"You're looking at her."

"I-..." he frowned, then raised both brows, "That must be some story."

"Sure," she shrugged on shoulder, tone apathetic. "Let's go look at your cargo."

The two of them started toward an exit, when Kate suddenly paused. A sensation crawled across her skin. Blue eyes narrowed with suspicion. She'd thought she felt... but no. This was just a freighter.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Katya Shorn"]

Alarm klaxons began to blare, red lights flaring within the cargo hold and the guards that had been standing at the door seemed to tense. The ship had been assaulted, that much Aellin had already been able to guess. The sound of turbo-laser fire and ion cannons striking against the hull had been obvious enough, the shields going down and the metal of the ship buckling against it's own weight had been a clue to the idea that the ship had likely been boarded. Aellin knew that it was likely only a short time before things began to move more quickly. Whether pirates or Alliance soldiers, it didn't particularly matter, neither would take kindly to a Sith on board this ship.

With a sweep of his cloak Aellin stood.

He knew that he would have to keep ahead of the boarding party, keep ahead of the guards within the ship as well. His lips thinned slightly and he let out a soft curse, his eyes folding on the bulkhead door where two guards still stood watch. He heard a man violently coughing in the distance, his hand reaching out to grab a piece of metal before he buckled over onto the floor and keeled onto the ground. Aellin watched him with disgust, then began to wander over towards the door.

"Back away."

The guard told him, his voice reverberating through his helmet as he raised his blaster rifle.

A small crowd followed Aellin, people that were nervous, hopeful, perhaps even terrified. The Acolyte paid them no mind, not caring if he suddenly became their god. This was about self preservation, nothing more. The guard seemed hesitant at first, their blaster rifles waving up only barely until the crowd began to gather before them. Aellin could not have said who it was, but quickly he began to hear shouting. Demands for medicine, food, to be allowed out of the cargo hold.

The crowd demanded to know what was going on.

Aellin only drew his lightsaber.

 

[Eun]

Kate stomped down the halls, even with Patawa. Behind them a group of seven privateers, all armed. As they passed civilian passengers, most of them wearing breathing masks, a frown darkened Kate's brow until she was positively scowling.

The click-clack of her boots on the floor came to an abrupt halt. She crossed her arms.

"What aren't you telling us."

Patawa stopped and looked back, puzzled. "I'm sorry?"

"The passengers. They're all in masks. Your guards looked nervous. Maybe a little haggard. So what aren't you telling us?"

"Oh, that," he shrugged, "Just a flu virus. We ran out of vaccine."

Blue eyes narrowed to slits. "Hmph."

"Shall we resume?"

"Fine."

* * *

Fingernails dug into her palms. A tremble of rage rattled through her at the sight.

"This is the cargo," muttered one of her privateers. Lan, she thought.

"So that's why it smells," said another.

Before them were a mass of imprisoned bodies kept in deplorable conditions. Slaves. Hundreds of them. Most of them sick. No wonder the place had a virus running rampant.

Kate didn't trust herself to talk, much less move. It would be all to kill Patawa. She'd just lift up the blaster pistol, point it at his head and bam. Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

She closed her eyes and exhaled until the air left her lungs completely. Her father would have snapped his neck and left him to rot. I am not him. She told herself. And so there would be no executions today. Patawa would get his dues, but not at her hands.

"Get them off this ship," Kate hissed between clenched teeth.

Her comm chirped. "Cap'n, it's Jaz'z at the medbay. You better get down here."

"What?"

"The virus. It isn't what they said it was."

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Katya Shorn"]

He hadn't waited for the guards to give him the okay, he hadn't waited for the crowd to over come them. Aellin had slaughtered his way out of the cargo hold, his lightsabers having bitten through the crowd and the guards within half a moment of igniting. There hadn't been time to waste, and the screams of those within the hold had been enough to send him soaring to new heights, heights that pushed him to move faster through the Lucrehulk.

There had been a surprise though.

One that he had not expected.

The bite of his lightsabers had been effective as always, they had cut, slashed, and sliced as they always did. Corpses had fallen and laid on the ground, yet only a moment after their death, a second after their passing they began to raise once again. The act had caused more screams that Aellins slaughter ever had, corpses shambling from the floor and slowly raising themselves to their feet. It had been an interesting enough sight, certainly one that he had not seen coming.

There was something else happening here, something that he could not explain. The Acolyte had rushed from the cargo hold after seeing those bodies walk again, deciding that it was not within his interest to watch them work.

When he had left the corpses had begun to attack those around them, shambling, biting, scratching. There had been screaming and cries of pain, the sounds of terror had echoed down every hall as Aellin had moved beyond the hold and towards the hangar bay. There was something wrong with this ship, something very wrong. Those men and women within the halls, those that Aellin stalked by had fallen to the ground, their fingers twitching, their eyes bleeding.

They were changing.

All of them.

 

[Eun]

They stood outside the medbay, staring at the walking corpses within.

"What the hell is wrong with them?" Kate snarled at Patawa, "What is this?"

The people, if they could still be called that, shambled aimlessly inside the sealed bay. Red, gaping holes in their flesh showed where chunks had been torn off by teeth, or clawed out by fingernails. Shorn's man was inside, half his throat ripped out, eyes glassy, but not dead because he was still walking about with the rest of those poor bastards. They no longer bled, but a strange grey fluid leaked out of their wounds, which were also changing, turning black with necrosis.

"I don't know," stammered Patawa, sweat beading down his forehead.

"The hell you don't."

She reached out, seeing if she could get a feel for them in the Force. Tendrils of thought stretched toward them and encountered a sudden malevolence that caused her to physically reel backward. The privateers looked around for a threat, confused. The presence didn't leave, but seemed to intensify, as if she had poked a sleeping giant that now blinked awake and fixed a wicked stare on her.

"Sithspit," murmured one of her men, staring wide-eyed at the transparent door into the medbay.

The walking dead had ceased their shambling and now stood in a row, hands at their sides, eyes fixed directly on her. Ragged breaths fogged against the glass.

Kate swore and activated her commlink. "Tori, this is Shorn. Jaz'z is down in the medbay. There's a plague on this ship. Alert the other ships, tell them not to approach. We're yellow flagged."

"Copy that captain."

Turning to the others, "I want everyone in EVO suits, full seals. Anyone who doesn't have one wait in the shuttles. Nothing leaves this place until we figure out what's happening."

"It wasn't supposed to be like this." Patawa stared at the floor, a vein in his neck twitching. "This wasn't supposed to happen. He lied to me."

Blue eyes, cold as ice swiveled toward the merchant captain. "Explain."

"I-"

He vomited, projecting a grey mucus onto the floor. The man fell to his knees, body shuddering. His head swung up suddenly, covered in spittle and that oozing slime. Eyes glassed over. His hands came up, reaching for her as he scrabbled across the ground.

"Kriff," Kate backed away, "Kriff."

One of the privateers raised a blaster rifle and shot him in the chest. He barely slowed, getting to his feet and running at her. Kate palmed her blaster pistol and plugged him in the forehead. The body slipped, hit the deck, and skidded across the ground another foot before it came to a stop.

She looked up at her men. "EVO suits. Now."

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Katya Shorn"]

What was happening?

He did not understand this.

The dead within the halls, hundreds upon hundreds of bodies had all begun to rise. They shambled, moved like they knew not thought or motivation beyond their next meal. Some came at him, some tried to bite him, get to him, they met with a swift end at his lightsabers. Others ignored him, preferring to simply gnaw upon one another. Blood soon began to seep through the halls, the stench of decay and death permeating the ship as more and more passed, and more joined the legion of dead that now haunted the ship. There was a ringing to the air, something, something he could not quite understand or even perceive. It was like the ship itself was changing, the halls bending, the hangars twisting.

What was happening?

Aellin moved through the wide corridors, his hands each wrapped around the hilt of a lightsaber, one ignited and the other containing no life.

The air was growing thicker, the stench of decay taking over. In the distance he could hear screams, blaster fire ringing out, the massive ship seeming to contain some resistance to the dead, though not enough. His eyes darted from place to place, his fingers lacing around the durasteel within his palm. He tried to remain calm, tried to think rationally. He remembered mention of this disease before, of the dead rising from their graves.

It had been just a rumor then, a story told by his father to Baelid one night.

Aellin had never thought that it was true, had never even entertained the idea. He knew that the force was powerful, knew that the mass death of others and the concentrated strength of the darkside could return spirits from their grace. Yet this...this was not the force. This was a corruption of the natural order, a twisting of life.

A disgusting thing.

 

[Eun]

"Mr. Koin, we're getting a transmission from the Lucrehulk. Looks like it's from the captain."

The man who now helmed the Pariah narrowed his eyes and stroked at a goatee. They hadn't heard from the Lucrehulk since the first check-in post-boarding operations. A thousand thoughts ran through his head, most of them revolving around what could go wrong with a seventeen year old girl in charge of a pirate fleet. She'll be the death of me.

"Let's hear it."

A voice came over the comms. Tori's.

"-this is Tori, there's a plague on the ship. Some sort of virus. Captain says we're yellow flagged until we know what's going on."

Koin glanced sharply at the helmsman. "What?"

"That's all it says, sir. It cuts off into static after that."

"I want a full index of our medbay capabilities. They might be yellow flagged, but we'll not sit on our hands."

* * *

Breath sawed from her lungs, a hot rush of air inside the helmet. Legs pumped. Back and forth. Back and forth. Sprinting, muscles straining. She looked over her shoulder. They were coming. Dozens of them behind her, choking up the hallway.

Kate turned a corner at full-tilt and nearly ran into a second pack of the creatures. She backpedaled, one arm flailing, blaster pistol barking once, twice as she blew apart a walking corpse. The body fell, a smoking hole through its head, but another one took its place. They shambled toward her, arms extended, jaws open and slavering for her flesh.

Panic rose in her throat. A flutter of terror. Run She thought. I have to run.

Turning on her heel, Kate sprinted down a third corridor, away from the mass of bodies.

She and her crew had almost made it to the bridge before they'd been found. Almost. Far enough to get Tori's scream of warning over the comm. Far enough to watch half her crew go down beneath those things, torn limb from limb. In the ensuing flight, she'd been separated from the others. And now? Now nobody was answering their comm.

Kate checked the power level on her pistol. Nearly depleted. She scowled, face twisting in desperation as she tried to think of some way out of-

A familiar hum came from just around the bend. Kate's heart stopped. She took a step backward. Another.

The man rounded the corner, cowl hiding his features, crimson lightsaber lit in his hand. She held up her blaster reflexively.

"Sith."

Shuffling bodies and horrible moans. Kate looked over her shoulder again.

The two groups of corpses had merged into one mass that came directly for them, driven by some malevolent entity that seemed intent on turning them all into whatever those things were.

Blue eyes looked between the Sith and the undead.

Better the devil you know.

She swung the blaster in the direction of the horde and fired a few quick shots, knocking two over and kneecapping a third. Blood splattered across the bulkhead, followed by an oozing, grey slime.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]