V is for Virus (Maelion/Rave)

[Maelion Liates]

@[member="Rave Merrill"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

HRDs were, when one got down to it, unsubtle. They were a distillation of all the cold hearted cruelty and darkness of organics with none of the redeeming features. There could never be compassion or mercy because they were the avatars of the shadow in every person’s soul…the Dark Side of the galaxy perhaps.
So whilst Rave gathered, Maelion slew. She switched to buckshot and blade early on, and despite being scratched, bitten and even suffering a glancing blaster bolt, she continued to slay until twn dead zombies were piled around her.

The rest fled, waiting patiently for the virus to overcome their victims. Sadly for them, that would not happen.

“I have samples of their saliva,” she commented to Rave blandly, extending a chewed hand, the metal showing beneath. Also there were the broken remains of teeth from the foolish zombie which had tried to chow down on solid durasteel.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Rave Merrill"], @[member="Tamara"]

One might say an HRD was what the organic would be if stripped bare of all the moralistic inhibitions - but also of the hypocrisies, for an assassin droid would never claim that their desire for murder and conquest was driven by 'the greater good' or to 'protect the weak from the strong' or 'punish the arrogant'. Stripped of all redeeming qualities and packed in a frame that was almost indestructible, power and violence incarnate.

One dispensed with subtleties, insofar as they were not needed to blend in with organic society and fool them into believing that one was like them...until the moment came to strike. If one conceived of the dark side as something that lurked inside a person and not as an external metaphysical force, then they came pretty close to it.

The tunnels were littered with the mangled, mutilated and burnt bodies of zombies, their actions had reaped a bloody harvest and now it was time to collect after the droids had struck like the scythe of Death. The scent of death was strong, as was that of burnt and charred flesh, rotten and long decayed. In other words the sight was absolutely beautiful. Scratches and bites had torn into Moira, even her face had not emerged unscathed as one particularly strong zombie had ripped through her visor, slashing into the synthetic flesh to expose the durasteel plates that lurked beneath. Her armour had been sprayed with zombie blood and there was saliva from a zombie dripping down her damaged arm.

Wordlessly she passed over some zombie fingers she had chopped off, her souvenir collection also included her heart which she had quite literally ripped out of one of the creatures. She offered a damaged arm that was coated with zombie blood on hard durasteel.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Maelion Liates"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"]

The gore was...exceptional. Rave collected it all painstakingly, in multiple vials and boxes, even going so far as to remove especially interesting gobbets from the HRDs themselves. In total, her sample cases numbered thirty-five, and weighed close to ten kilos -- not a small weight for a small girl, when added to the armored space suit.

"I have more than enough," she said as they walked back to their ships. "I'll process and culture the samples on Endor and my other facility, and you'll have a crude weaponized variant within a week."

 

[Maelion Liates]

@[member="Rave Merrill"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"]

Maelion nodded. This was good. She could get behind a nice weaponised organic virus.
Of course, simply leaving was more difficult than it sounded, but once it was clear they were exiting zombieland their enemies were content to watch them hatefully from the shadows. Any which tried to attack were soon cut down.

As they boarded their ships and left the Protectorate behind Maelion and Moira could reflect on a successful mission, and the hope of further chaos very soon….

 

[Moira Skaldi]

@[member="Maelion Liates"], @[member="Rave Merrill"]

As they had come, so they disappeared, like phantoms, unnoticed by the Protectorate and its minions, as the HRDs boarded their vessel and took off into space, the tunnel of hyperspace swallowing them as they made the jump. They left Denon, the shadow world of the hungry dead, behind them. Once the site of a great Omega Pyre victory that showed the power of the company, now the zombie virus would serve another purpose.

That of bringing the extinction of all organic life one step further. Moira was not one for introspection, rather she was planning, strategising, for there was more chaos to be sown, more blood to be spilt and there was a Galaxy full of resources that would have to be theirs. Regardless the HRDs returned to Corellia, where they would continue as normal, for they still had a corporation to run, which was now getting closer to reaching the next stage in its development.

A week later, as agreed, they would return to Endor to finalise the deal.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Maelion Liates"] @[member="Moira Skaldi"]

As the terminatrices landed on Endor one week later, a somewhat glassy-eyed Ewok trundled out of the facility bearing a briefcase and a note.

Busy watching the Empire burn. Thirty-two vials of weaponized virus. Enjoy, if you're capable. Rave.