Hey guys, another Star Wars story, just for all of you! Enjoy!! This will also have Earth in it, although a radically different one than my other one.
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The jungle was silent. It was a hard thing to come by in the jungle, usually even the large ships passing overhead would no more than dull the roar of sound which echoed from the jungle floor. Yet now, there was nothing but silence.
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High above the silent jungle hovered a shuttle with the logo of the New Republic emblazoned on the side of it. Slightly above it was the additional emblem of the Jedi Order, which marked the shuttle as the personal shuttle of the order.
Currently it was hovering over a break in the jungle canopy where a collection of structures were enclosed by a high wall built of pre fabricated material. The little outpost was the only piece of civilization around for almost five hundred kilometres in any direction. There was a small town that was more an outpost for the main city that was another three hundred kilometres away from the mysterious outpost.
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"I still say there's something odd about this." said Capra Geldon, the Jedi Knight in charge of the ad hoc mission group that had been hastily scrambled to get out here.
"You mean aside from the fact that this little base isn't on any records and therefore shouldn't be here?" asked her friend Jaryn Halos, also a Jedi Knight.
"Yeah, I do mean aside from that. Don't you think its weird that we haven't been hailed? Or at least that we see some activity down there?"
"A little odd, but they can still hope at this point that we haven't seen them right?" said Jaryn grinning, "Heck for all we know these people have a perfectly legitimate reason to be here."
"Right." Capra rolled her eyes
"Not saying they do, just keeping an open mind like Master Skywalker always tells us too."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." muttered Capra, "So what do you want to do? Are we going down?"
"Hmmm." said Jaryn, thinking. In addition to the two Jedi there were five Army troopers that had been assigned to the mission, as well as a spook from Intelligence. It was an awfully small party to go calling with, but at the same time, whoever was down there shouldn't present too much of a problem.
"Okay," he said, "We'll go."
The shuttle hovered over the small landing pad that was nestled into the middle of the base, between three other buildings that gave it some protection from view from anyone in the jungle. Everything was still quiet except for the whine of the shuttle engines as they shut down.
"Well, guess we better go knock." said Jaryn, striding down the landing ramp with Capra by his side, "Sergeant Pax, detail three to stay behind, the rest will come with us."
Sergeant Moira Pax, a ten year military veteran nodded, jerked her head at Corporal Daxton who tapped two privates to remain behind. The remaining private hurried in front of the two Jedi and took point. The Intel geek fell in behind and Pax took the rear.
The party moved off towards the building in front of them which had a large bank of satellite dishes and antenna. Corporal Daxton stationed himself and the two privates by the extended shuttle ramp and set up a small automatic laser turret.
Something stirred. There was a new presence nearby. A tantalizing one. It was…different.
The Knights and their escort paused in front of the main entrance to the probably command post. The door was half melted along one side, making for a hole large enough to squeeze a human through.
"This doesn't bode very well for us finding people." said Capra
"Oh no, its bodes very well, just might be people we'd wish we hadn't met," said Jaryn, unhooking his lightsaber, "I'll widen this a bit and then we'll get in there."
It took almost two minutes of gruelling work to widen the hole, which surprised both of them. Most metals were far easier to breach than that, which implied that this wasn't any ordinary scratch colony. This was beginning to look like some hush-hush government lab or something.
Sergeant Pax took point and hopped through the expanded breach in the door. She landed in a hallway that had been completely and thoroughly trashed. Debris was scattered everywhere, and there was widespread damage to the walls.
Further down, it widened out into a circular room with what looked like banks of computers. Pax waved the group forward, and cautiously proceeded towards the end of the hallway.
Pax stepped into the room, checking it out for threats. There was a small desk facing her, it looked like a security checkpoint. The glass door had been completely shattered, glass crunched under her boots as she continued on into the room.
Three separate rows of computer banks faced towards a large screen which covered most of the wall opposite Pax. The computers were unlike anything she had seen before, none of them appeared to use holo projectors, and they were all rather bulkier than the one's she was used too.
However, they had all been damaged in some way; some had been blasted apart, others had been soaked with fluids, and one had had something driven clean through it.
Pax waved the rest of the team forward as she moved deeper into the room. Off to the side, tucked away in a corner, was a single computer. It still had power, so Pax hurried over to it.
"Whaddya got Sergeant?" Asked Jaryn, walking over to where Moira was crouching beside the machine.
"Might have a bit of a clue," said Pax, "This baby still has power. We might be able to get something from it, once I've booted it back up."
The Intel geek came over to stand beside the two of them, while the other trooper Moira had brought with her kept an eye on the second Jedi. Within a minute the computer had booted back up and was ready to go.
The geek punched a query in, asking about events in the past twenty four hours. A flashing icon appeared on the screen, and the guy looked up, "I've got what I think is a video of something that the computer thinks is important."
"Go ahead and play it." said Jaryn
The geek nodded and hit a button. The flashing icon morphed into a video shot which covered the entire screen. The video displayed a man in a white lab coat standing inside a room that was covered with electrical equipment.
"17 October 2565, Project Reclamation has reached its final stage. The Hive Mind will be brought to awareness in approximately two hours. We have assembled enough material for it to produce sufficient drones to begin supplying itself. Early reports from Dr. Jacobs indicate that the first shipment of combat forms should be available within the week."
Another speaker cut across the doctor on the camera, "Will they be controllable Doctor? I have no wish to replace one threat to our race with another, especially one that has been designed to attack all kinds of technology."
The Doctor onscreen smiled slightly, "Not to worry General Fuller. We have ensured that safeguards have been placed in multiple spots inside the Hive Mind. All combat forms will be inactive until the troopships deploy them on reclamation missions. They are quite safe…at least to our personnel."
"Very well Doctor, but we'll be sending a heavy task force to ensure that nothing goes wrong. The last thing any of us want is these things running loose in the universe."
A new voice came in after the General's voice fell silent, "Doctor, what of the other inhabitants on the planet with you? Do any of them suspect that your complex is there?"
"Nothing that we've picked up has indicated they have any idea we established a laboratory complex here. Their main settlement area is over six hundred kilometres away from our current position."
"Excellent. Once your work has been completed, begin tear down of the facilities. We'll be shifting the Hive and all its occupants to an uninhabited world. Your current location has too much of a security risk, not to mention a containment risk to continue using it."
"Yes Mr. Director. My staff has already begun shutting down all non-essential systems. When can we expect the task force to arrive here?"
"It will arrive in 72 hours Doctor. Make sure you are ready. Out."
The transmission cut out and the video ended a few seconds after. The room was once again filled with silence.
"What's the date on that video?" asked Pax
"Seventy-five hours ago Sergeant," replied the geek, "What's your take Jedi Halos?"
"What I think is that we better find out just what in all nine Corellian hells we've found here," said Jaryn, frowning in worry at the screen of the computer, "Check for a map of the building in there. I want to find this lab."
Capra walked up to him and tugged him away from the group a little bit, "Can you feel anything about this place Jaryn?"
"Nothing dangerous, why?"
"That's just the thing. I can't feel anything! I can't even feel anyone in this room!"
Jaryn reached out with the Force and found she was right. The Force was still there, but he couldn't feel anyth¾
"Wait…there is something…right below us, you feel that?" he asked
"No, not at…hold on." She concentrated for a moment, "Yeah, there's a faint presence about three levels down from us. It's very faint though Jaryn, barely alive."
"Then let's go find out what it is," Jaryn turned back to the rest of the small party that were all looking at the two Jedi, "We're going down, there's someone down there who is just barely alive. We don't know what we're walking into, so stay on your toes."
Pax nodded and then grabbed a sheet of flimsy that came out of the machine sitting next to the computer, "This is a map of this building. There should be elevators and stairs that way," she pointed down a corridor which was opposite the one they had come in from, "Private Teff, take point."
Teff nodded and raised his blaster rifle as he paced forward cautiously towards the direction Pax had indicated. He was only twenty two years old, this was his second actual mission, but he carried himself confidently enough, and handled his weapon with a calm assurance that went beyond his years.
Pax motioned for the two Knights to go next and then followed the Intelligence puke after them. She consulted her sheet again, and then stashed it in her combat harness.
The little group found the stairs quite easily, the door had been torn off and been sued to pry open the elevator doors. The interior of the elevator contained what were definitely organic remains, but of what was difficult to determine as they had been blended together, as if by some kind of harvesting machine.
They descended the stairs without incident, although they were forced to break out their own lights at the second landing because the power was completely out from that point down.
Teff came down to the third level access point and stopped outside the door which was partially opened inwards. At a nod from Jaryn, he nudged open the door with his blaster and then cautiously went through the opening. A muffled "Clear" came back and the rest of the party hurriedly departed the stairs.
Capra was becoming worried, the presence ahead was just as weak as before, but a new one had been coalescing in the back of her mind. The new…thing, was far more elusive, but also had a darker tinge to it, definitely something she didn't want to bump into. From worried expression, he could feel the new presence as well.
The corridor they had entered was littered with broken machinery and here and there were lumps and piles of clothes which Capra knew quite well contained bodies as well. Parts of the wall had been melted and torn away, and some areas of the ceiling had collapsed as well.
"There," said Jaryn, pointing at a door on their left, "The being is in there."
Corporal Daxton's voice suddenly crackled over Pax's comlink, "Sergeant there's……approaching……ETA?"
She stopped and pressed two fingers to the bud in her ear, "Corporal? You're breaking up. Say again your last."
"S…again, storm…our position. What……ETA?"
"Corporal, our ETA is two zero minutes. I say again, ETA is two zero minutes. Get into the shuttle and wait for us."
"—ger, out."
"Damn comlink's. They never bloody work!" muttered Pax, "This one you said?" she asked Jaryn
"Yes."
"Right, Private? Open it."
Teff slung his rifle and hauled on the handle, slowly pulling the door open. He then unsung his weapon and proceeded inside, closely followed by Pax and Jaryn.
The inside of the room was some kind of security center. There was a bank of monitors that were directly across from the door. Half of them were black, or buzzing with static, but a fair amount were still operating in low power mode. The rest of the room had been taken up with a table, some chairs, and several weapons lockers.
This room had also been somewhat torn apart, but to a lesser degree than the corridor outside. However, what teff was currently staring at were the four human bodies that were scattered around the room. Two of them had been clawed by some kind of animal, while one had had his head blown off. The fourth…what had happened to him was indescribable. Something appeared to have changed his original shape to one that sported massive claws on one hand, and what had been something like mandibles instead of a regular human mouth.
"Alright, nobody move." rasped a voice
Everyone in the Jedi's group turned to where a fifth human had appeared, clutching some kind of weapon which was pointed unerringly at Teff's chest.
"Who the hell are you people, huh?" The security guard leaned heavily against the desk, he was learly badly injured but his aim didn't waver at all, "Well?"
"We're an investigation team sent here to find out why there was an unauthorised settlement." said Jaryn, "My name is Jaryn Halos. Who are you and what happened here?"
"You just got here?" asked the man, wincing, "You have a way out of here?"
"Yes, we—"
"Then let's get the fuck out of here," said the human, rising quickly then toppling over backwards.
Capra hurried over to him, as did Pax, although Pax was more concerned with covering the sprawled human with her rifle than helping him. Capra placed a hand on the man's forehead and asked, "What happened here trooper?"
"Classified," groaned the man, "We gotta get out of here alright? The bastards left after Jimmy ate his pistol, they didn't smell me out, but they'll be back!"
"Who'll be back man? We have no idea what's going on here!"
The man looked up at Capra and said, "If we leave now, that happy little state of affairs can continue. Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you! Now let's get out of here!" he tried to get up only to fall back, groaning.
Capra looked up at Jaryn, "We can have this conversation on our shuttle. I think we should listen to him."
"Agreed, let's get out of here."