To the Lord Protector [ Dev ]

[Quietus]

"Has anyone been able to get in touch with the Lord Protector?" Lorelei's voice sounded over the din of noise within the bridge of her ship.

"Not yet, M'Lady, we've lost contact with Hazel as well. There seems to be some kind of interference."

The Queen's lips drew thing, "Get me in contact with his ship," she waited only moments before the comm was established, "This is KDY CEO Lorelei Darke, our readings and scans have shown major civil disturbances on the surface of Quarzite at the drop location for the mining site. Now I don't usually tend to overstep my boundaries off my own planet, but I aim for efficiency. I have a host of soldiers armed and ready to clear up the situation at the mine while the Lord Protector finishes up on the Station. All I need is your permission to send in the drop ships. Any assistance you can offer would be appreciated."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy had paused as the last of Ayden's soldiers passed her by, looking back as she holstered her premiere blastered to switch it out for a fresh weapon. When she looked back her jaw dropped at what she saw, and it wasn't due to the mass of crazed bodies and droids coming at them.

He was a force user ... the Lord Protector was another one of them. For the briefest of moments Ivy felt her breath catch in her chest within a painful knot, but all too quickly the man was running to catch up, and she blinked the shock away. Running alongside him, mind racing, she fought to keep herself in the present. The station around her was flashing in and out of scenes from her memories, and it wasn't replaying any of the good ones.

The group rounded a corner, pausing for a moment as one of the team fought to open a maintenance hatch.

"I've never seen anything like this," she heard one of his soldiers say, "the hell is wrong with these people?"

One of about a hundred thoughts currently tearing through Ivy's head...

"We're in," said the soldier at the door as he shouldered it open, "Deck 17 is four floors up, let's hope they take the lift."

Ivy, staring at Ayden, stepped after them as they piled into the stairwell and began the trek upwards.

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden ran towards the elevator and let himself fall forward a bit, hands bracing against his thighs while he caught his breath some. Those things were inhumanly fast. They had just kept coming; an unrelenting wave of death. He stood up and ran the back of one hand across his forehead as the lift doors were pried open. For a moment, he looked at Hazel and noticed how tense she was. He brushed it off as a result of the inhuman things that had come after them and turned to enter it before he noticed the same thing that had caused the others to pause. The elevator shaft was empty.
Peering inside and looking up, Ayden could faintly see the running lights on the bottom of the lift several floors above them. After taking a moment, he waved the first man into the shaft. They filed in, one by one. Some climbed the guide lines, others used the emergency ladders on the sides. Looking back to Hazel, Ayden gestured for her to follow and then jumped across the chasm to the far wall.

Climbing was slow with fourteen climbing through the lift shaft. Above them, the lift loomed ominously. But unless the shaft lost power or someone hit a button, it wouldn't come down. The first soldier got into position at the door. Jamming his knife in between the sliding doors, he slowly pried them apart. The metal groaned and screeched in protest. Half-way open, the doors froze as everyone's heart forgot to beat for a moment. When nothing sounded, he continued pulling the doors apart.

As they finally gave way and slide apart freely, the lift above them shuddered. Distantly, Ayden thought he heard something drop ontop of it. All eyes were on it as the guide cable swayed ominously. "Everyone out, now." Ayden ordered firmly, eyes glued to the lift as the first two soldiers scrambled through. When the one soldier on the guide cable swung back and jumped, the lift above them dropped about a meter then held fast. Looking upwards again, the others in the shaft could see about a dozen of what could only be described as crystalline spiders skitter down the sides. They seemed to peer downward with consideration before they turned and crawled back up. Someone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then came the most gods-awful noise as second before the guide cable snapped. The lift dropped a full ten meters that time before the emergency brakes kicked in and stopped it. "Move, move!" Desperate now, the other soldiers began scrambling to get through the doors. Ayden's eyes never left the emergency brakes, spotting the crystal spiders as they moved down and began gnawing at the metal. They were deliberately trying to drop the lift on them.

"We're not gonna make it." Ayden said with surprising calmness and quiet, speaking more about himself and Hazel. He looked down at her briefly before he grabbed a small box from his belt and slid it over one forearm, locking it into place. Just as the second to last soldier crawled through, the lift gave way. "Jump!" The last soldier managed to jump through, but Ayden knew that he and Hazel weren't gonna make it through, even if they jumped as one. So he did the only thing he could.

He grabbed Hazel's wrist and jumped down.

The shaft was filled with a horrible screech of metal on metal as it barreled right past where the pair had been not seconds ago. Ayden did his best to get an arm around Hazel's middle and prayed to the gods she knew well enough to brace herself as he lifted his other arm up and fired a grappling line into the bottom of the lift. They were much smaller than the shaft was, so they fell easier. The wind roared in his head as the lift seemed to desperately try and push through the air to get to them. But the line went taunt just as the other emergency brakes reengaged and they jerked to a sudden stop, now far below where they had intended to be.

[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Struggling with a past that refused to fade and a desperate, undeniable urge to put a bullet in the Lord Protector's head, Ivy hung in the balance for several seconds longer than she was proud to admit. The Merc watched the team file into the lift and with a tense, steady movement, holstered her rifle at her hip and willed herself to follow.

The next ten seconds were second longest in her known recorded life.

Everything passed in slow motion, up until the moment that horrific screeching heralded an inglorious doom. Distracted by that inner turmoil, Ivy suddenly felt a hand around her armored wrist and the weight of the Lord Protector yank her bodily from her perch. She had the instinct to let go of her hold, at the very least. Life spun, reeled, and suddenly sped up faster than she could maintain. The lights of the lift shaft buzzing by, her head and thoughts spinning, the Merc gave a startled gasp as they came to a jarring stop. She felt herself slip through the man's one-armed grasp and gave a yelp as her figure scrabbled to stay connected.

She succeeded in ensnaring the man by his arm ... or perhaps it was the other way around. Regardless of who's actions were responsible for keeping her from becoming a tragic mess at the bottom of the lift shaft, the woman hung with her feet kicking at nothing but thin air beneath. Ivy stared up at him with wide eyes, the sound of her heavy breathing absurdly loud in her helmet, and set her jaw in determination. The woman's hands closed tightly around his arm. She wasn't willing to die even if it meant depending on a Forcie to keep her alive.

The lift above began to creak ominously.

She felt a faint shudder reverberate through the dropline above.

"There's..." she breathed, head turning as the pair of them slowly spun on the tetherline, "there's a door below, it's jammed open on something. Swing me to it and I'll climb through."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

Ayden screamed, feeling her slide to the end of his grip and then stop suddenly. The armor kept his shoulders from dislocating, but only barely. Every muscle from hand to hand was stretched as tightly as they could be without giving out. He clenched his jaw to keep from shouting any longer, aware that it could attract more trouble. The last thing they needed was more of those crazed crew attacking. Then the lift brakes groaned ominously.

Okay, second to last thing.

Looking up and down the lift shaft, Ayden heard Hazel call out and looked down about seven meters to see the door she was talking about. Sure enough, he could see the door wedged half-open on what was probably a droid limb. Good enough for government work. Despite the desperate protesting in his arms, Ayden began to shift his weight to swing her over to the ledge. The door was opened enough she would easily be able to grab hold of the door to steady herself after she landed. If she bounced off... Ayden briefly looked down and saw that the lights seemed to go out around six levels down. There was no telling how much further there was to fall.

With a grunt and kick of his feet, Ayden built up the momentum to swing Hazel across the chasm and let her go as they reached the edge of the swing. He couldn't tell if whether she made it or not as he started to spin perilously and had to shut his eyes to prevent himself from being sick. Above his head, the lift creaked ominously once more and he distinctly felt the line jerk as if the lift shifted down about a quarter of a meter. Oh, that was not good. "How's the door coming, Hazel?"

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy hit the door barrier with a bit more force than she was prepared for and uttered a painful noise. Momentarily her footing was not the greatest, nor was her hold, but she soon found a firm grip on the door jamb and pulled herself solidly to her feet. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, heart still hammering in her throat, then reached one arm through the opening of the lift and began to wedge herself through it.

The Merc grunted as she called upon her warrior strength to force her way through and after some effort the door gave a protesting screech.

Well, something gave a protesting screech, but the sound itself was so loud she could hardly tell what. Teeth grit, the woman finally scrambled through the opening to make a rather ungraceful landing in the hall on the other side. The immediate left was caved in by what appeared to have been an internal structural failure. Scorch marks marred the walls and floor, Ivy caught sight of an arm sticking out amidst the rubble. The flesh was grubby with blood. She thought she saw it twitch.

A sound of clanking echoed down the open end of the hall and with a glance towards the lift doorway Ivy considered her next move.

Clank CLANK CLANK clank clank.

"How's the door coming, Hazel?"

Throat tight, Ivy swallowed and took a step back, away from the door. Another followed. Then another. The image of the man flinging bodies of ... those things down the hall flashed before her eyes. Her gut felt raw, her fingers tingled, as though the thought of those powers had reignited a deep-seeded desire for revenge.

A second, mind-rattling screech filled the hall, bursting forth from the lift shaft. It sounded like the secondary breaks were failing ... or being destroyed.

Ivy. What are you doing.

She blinked and suddenly a man was standing by the doorway of the lift, he needs your help.

You could have looked at her then and seen the fur bristling beneath the plates of her armor. All good and scared and nowhere to go.

Are you going to let him die? What's gotten into you?

She shook her head, fervently, and suddenly her feet were moving again, plowing across the detritus of the wrecked hall, back to the doorway where she once more wedged herself in the opening and shoved against the door. The mechanical groan it made was horrendous, but not nearly so much as the sound coming from the lift well.

"Here - HERE!" she appeared below again, half hanging out into the open lift column, arm extended, bracing herself against the door.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

Ayden swung in silence, left with only screaming muscles and a sense of dread for company. Fortunately he managed to stop spinning and unwound the line to prevent a counter-spin. He didn't hear anything in the lift elevator, and he didn't hear anything from the door Hazel had disappeared through. A boon, or a sign of approaching disaster? "Lord Cater, are you alright?" His com crackled to life with a surprising amount of static. Perhaps a sign of a blocking attempt, or interference from the crystals? "I'm alright. We're alright. The elevator stopped on the..." He looked around the shaft and found the painted numbers he was searching for. "Deck 51. We're on the main research deck."

A faint skittering caught his attention. Looking up, Ayden saw a crystalline spider crawling to the underside of the elevator and for a moment he would swear it was looking right at him. "Hazel and I are gonna make our way to the research docks. With any luck, there will be a dropship there. If not, we'll find some escape pods and get out that way." He paused and considered the situation while looking at the spider. "New orders; find the main reactor and rig it to blow. Twenty minute countdown. No alarms, no accepted shutdown commands. You rig that thing to blow and you get the hell off this station."

Whatever the lieutenant had to say was drowned out by the shrill screeching as more of those crystal spiders began to swarm to the bottom. Apparently they hadn't liked what he said. Looking around, Ayden noticed Hazel had reappeared in the lift doorway and was holding out a hand. Working to swing his way over, Ayden's stomach suddenly soared past his head as one of the spiders cut his line before he was ready to release it. Fumbling in mid-air, Ayden swung his arm out to grab Hazel's... and found only air. His chest crashed painfully against the wall, his helmet briefly smashing against the ground, and he started to slide backwards before he found an edge to grip himself against. His muscles started screaming again as he scrambled to pull himself up and through the doorway.

Once he had managed to do that, he rolled over on his back and panted with exertion. About a minute later and the elevator let out a death shriek as the last of its breaks failed and it plummeted into the void below. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Ayden sat up and pulled off his helmet. The force of his impact had apparently cracked the visor, rendering the HUD nonfunctional. "Outstanding..." Ayden murmured before tossing the helmet into the chasm. "Alright, we're on the main research deck. Let's get to the research docks and see about getting a bird off this station. The others are gonna rig the main reactor to blow, so we've got a little more than twenty minutes to get out of here."

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy stood back, giving the man room to breath. Or perhaps she was giving herself room to breath. She watched him collect himself and eventually felt her back hit the wall. Leaning against it, the woman gave a painful exhale and glanced down the open hall. Her hands move to the holstered weapon on her left hip and pulled it before realizing that was the one emptied on the previous level. She put it back and pulled the other, checking it over for no other reason than to have something to do that didn't involve staring at the Lord Protector on the floor.

Another glance down the hall and Ivy watched a shadow of man disappear around a bend. Somewhere amidst the din of clank clank CLANK CLANK clank she thought she heard the words Good choice.

She didn't know what to do with herself.

Ayden's helmet clattered down the hall and Ivy physically startled. Feth, she released the lock of her helmet and pushed the visor back to run a gloved hand over her face. It was covered in sweat and dried blood; she could feel her skin blanch and her scars burn. She felt like a plane crash and not a particularly bright one. Ivy looked down the hallway again, blinking after the apparition that was no longer there. This was becoming a thing.

"Sure," she replied distractedly, stepping away from the man without offering a hand to help him up, "let's get the feth out of here."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

Left with only his sidearm, Ayden was not feeling particularly confident as he peered around one corner. If there were any more than a few of those things on this level then they'd be in very serious trouble. Gripping the pistol in one hand, he motioned for Hazel to follow as he started to break out into a jog. The timer on his wrist device ticked down silently. There was no telling exactly how long it would take for his men to reach the reactor, so it felt safer to simply start the timer at twenty minutes. If they weren't off by then...

"I can't say that this is what I had in mind when I got a message from Lady Darke." Ayden quipped with a weak sense of humor in his voice. The unnerving silence and fear of being ambushed by those creatures created a very tense environment and Ayden wanted to defuse that as much as he could. This whole mess seemed to really be getting to Hazel and he didn't want to have to explain to Lorelei that her chosen operative went crazy or killed herself from stress. "Makes me wonder what properties the crystal has. If they're taking over droids, then they must have some sort of innate energy supply. They could be the power source we've been looking for."

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy puffed after the Lord Protector, weapon drawn and charged, eyes flickering across their path. Shadows lingered and danced under the failing lights of the station, until finally they cut and dropped the pair into darkness. Emergency beacons flared to life, filling the halls with intermittent blue illumination. It was enough to make one dizzy.

But no worse than Garhall.

Ayden's words came to her muffled at best and she strained to hear them over the din of their movements. Though she was going as quietly as she could, it was difficult given their surroundings and the pace they kept. Ivy wasn't bred or reared for stealth, after all. When the man paused at intersecting corridors she took a moment to ponder their predicament and his own confusion.

"If you don't mind me asking, Lord Protector," she shot him a glance before checking the cross hall and motioning for all-clear, "what are you looking to power with these things? If what we're seeing here is any indication of what could happen, I might think twice about it."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

Rather than answer her immediately, Ayden noticed an activate console that was playing some audio files. Walking up to it, Ayden tapped in several commands to restart the file. The face of a middle-aged scientist appeared and seemed to shuffle some notes and adjust his frames before beginning. "Day thirty-seven; the crystals continue to exceed all expectations and projections. We have confirmed definitively now that the crystals, in liquid form, have an unparalleled transmitting speed. A single gel pack could handle the data transmission bulk of several racks of data chips, and what's more, it would not be susceptible to the same damage the data chips would be from a sustained electromagnetic discharge normally displayed from sustained ionic barrages. They do seem particularly sensitive however to sonic frequencies."

Despite the excitement in the man's voice, his face darkened. "However, some tests have turned up some rather disturbing results. The crystals have been observed reacting to our tests at a speed far outside our calculations. If I did not know better, I would almost say they were observing us as we were them. Other tests have been rendered void from errant data bursts that we cannot explain or isolate. We are sending another excavation team to the surface to acquire addition samples." At that point, the audio moved on to other logs, but they didn't interest Ayden. He had heard what he needed to hear.

"Power? I don't intend on powering anything with them." He smiled and downloaded the scientist's work and reports into his armor's storage device. A few gel packs were on the table and were quickly put into a case for transport. The deaths of the research team would not be in vain. They had less than ten minutes now to get to the hanger, but that was more than enough time. Signs were beginning to crop up directing them to their destination. Unless there was a nasty surprise waiting for them in the hanger, they were in the clear. All that was left was to let the station explode and get a debrief to determine what led to the situation in the first place.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Hazel's frown deepened. What else did one do with crystals other than use them as a power source or as decorative centerpieces to superfluous things? Clearly she wasn't the person to ask. The Merc listened in silence to the recording, brow knitting together. She'd been awake for nearly a year now and still had a difficult time wrapping her head around the advancements of the galaxy since her time.

These liquid crystals and their zombie hosts were just not computing.

"Pardon," she grunted as the Lord Protector made to collect his bounty of intell and items, sticking to his right as they set off for their final destination: the hangar, "I've never been technologically savvy. But so long as you have what you need, let's get the hell out of here."

The way was, more or less, clear. A few droids, a few mad workers, a smattering of blaster fire and quick thinking - they were at the hangar and boarding a shuttle to safety. They watched the station explode behind them as they made way back to the Kuati and CEC command ships. Expression tightening at the sight, Hazel looked away and tried not to think about what innocent lives might've been lost.

Could those people have been saved instead of slaughtered or had it really been a lost cause?

They just didn't know enough to tell.

Silence reigned from the Merc as they boarded the command ship.

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Quietus]

"I have five squadrons of soldiers on the surface of that planet subduing a horde of mindless miners and mining droids that had attempted to attack the local workers settlement," Queen Lorelei spoke over the holocall to the Lord Protector just following the debriefing, "if I've overstepped my boundaries on your turf I apologize, but I'm not accustomed to sitting by and doing nothing when innocent lives are being lost and I can do something about it. My teams have been instructed to use non-lethal force on compromised organics. The major mine entrance in quandrant C7 has been secured and a small scouting team has been sent in to clear the rest. They're ready for you down there."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Lorelei Darke"], [member="Ivy Lasranae"]

Ayden watched as the brilliant explosion that had consumed the station fell away leaving only a cloud of debris in its wake. He mentally made a note to drop a warning beacon over the planet to warn any future arrivals to the perils of the planet. He did not want a second event like this. Whatever had been jamming external comms had apparently been destroyed in the blast, as he suddenly received a transmission from Lorelei. "Miss Darke. Apologies for the lack of contact. I think whatever was responsible for the deaths of the station's crew had been jamming our comms. You need not make any apologies. You did what needed to be done. You may very well have saved lives today. For that, you have my thanks."

He looked down at the gel pack and turned it over in his hand. "The research team was all dead, though I did manage to salvage their work. It's my hope that their deaths will no go without meaning." Their dropship soared across the void towards the Sentinel-class cruiser that had held position throughout the ordeal. Once they landed, Ayden undid the flight harness and powered the dropship down. Already waiting for them on the hanger deck was a containment team which took possession of the research data and placed the gel packs into secure containers. "I'm optimistic, Miss Darke. Whatever we found, I think if we can safely find a way to replicate it will be everything that we had hoped for, and more." Already his brain was working to integrate this new tech with ship designs in his head. Turning to Hazel, Ayden offered his hand to her. "You did good work over, Miss Scheler. Perhaps one day we'll have the pleasure of working together again. Perhaps without the crystal monsters chasing us."

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"Thank you," Hazel replied, voice low. The Merc slowly reached forward to take his hand and shake it, "I'm always looking for work, feel free to give me a call if I can be of any help." Sometimes good money could outweigh that uneasy feeling. Force knew you needed money to make money in this galaxy.

 

[Quietus]

"You're not finished just yet, Captain Scheler," The Queen's transmission cut in, "I'm getting word from the scout team that they have detected life forms trapped in the mines. There's been a cave in during the dispute, we're going to need an extraction team while my people keep the area clear."