Well here's chapter two of my new Star Wars story. After this one I will be writing a history just to make sure everyone knows what's going on.
Anyway, on with the story…
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Jaryn looked up and jerked his head towards the door. Teff nodded and moved outside into the hallway.
As the rest of the team began moving towards the door, Capra noticed a sheaf of papers which were bound up in a folder. On a whim she grabbed them and tucked them into her robes, securing them as she strode towards the door.
The security man that they had discovered was now fairly steady and had found an exotic looking rifle, nothing like Capra had ever seen before. While she watched, he withdrew a curved rectangle of plastic or metal and slammed it into the bottom of the rifle, which he then brought up to a ready position and started moving back the way the Jedi had come from.
Jaryn followed close behind him with Teff, then the geek and Capra, then Pax brought up the rear. They made it to the stairs before a muted scraping sound drew Capra's eyes back the way they had come from the security room.
The guard cursed, "Shit. They're on the move. We gotta get out of here fast, or we ain't leaving!" Matching actions to words he turned and began running up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Jaryn added his own curses as he tried to keep up with the fleeing guard, with Teff frantically trying to cover the landings as they ran past. As the little group ran upwards, they could hear more sounds coming from the floors that had previously been dead.
Groans, scratching, and screams began to echo all around them. Then, as they neared the final landing before the main floor, gunfire erupted in front of them, shredding the door into metal splinters that went screaming down the stairwell.
Jaryn threw a Force bubble up around them, but too late to save the guard who took two splinters about a foot long through his left leg and left arm. Smaller pieces hit him all over and he crumpled to the floor with a cut off shout of pain.
From the destroyed door emerged another security guard, this one in full combat body armour. He had lost his helmet somewhere though, and they could see the glistening of sweat on his face as his rifle tracked towards the group.
"He's infected!" Shouted the downed guard, "Kill the fucker!"
Teff hesitated for a fraction of a second, which let the guard blast five rounds at the group, before he finally squeezed the trigger and hit the guard with three bolts right in the chest.
He staggered backwards, armour smoking and blackened from the lasers, then his hand began to slowly raise the weapon once again.
Then his head disappeared in a welter of gore as the downed guard fired a three round burst which impacted right under the man's chin and exited through the top of his skull.
As the body toppled over onto the floor, Jaryn grabbed the wounded guard, and hoisted him to his feet, "When we get out of here, you've got a hell of a story to tell buddy."
"Damn…right I…do," gasped the guard, "Just don't…let those things…get me."
"Let's go Sir," said Pax, "I've got movement coming up the stairs!"
They continued upwards to the sound of blaster and gun fire as Pax and the infected personnel of the base traded shots. The lobby was, fortunately, still clear of hostiles, and the tiny group of investigators charged down the hallway that they had entered from.
Suddenly Pax's comlink buzzed to life, "¾heavy attack. Both privates are down, one dead, one seriously injured. Shuttle is under heavy attack from multiple hostiles. I say again, we are under¾"
Pax quickly lifted the com to her mouth as she ran, "Corporal! We're on our way out now! ETA two minutes, I hope you have that shuttle running!"
The relief in Daxton's voice when he came back was very obvious, "Sarge! I've been trying to raise you for a while! I thought you guys were goners. Shuttles prepped for launch, the pilots are keeping the hostiles at bay with the blaster cannon for now, but they're starting to shoot back at us. What've we found here??"
"I've got a survivor of whatever went on here, and as soon as we're onboard and flying, we'll find out."
Pax flicked her comlink off and replaced it in her pouch, just as the group burst out into a light drizzling rain which had started up while they had been inside. The shuttle pad was a slagged pile of rubble, liberally coated with bodies or bits of them.
The shuttle was now hovering a few meters above the ground and about thirty meters away from the group. Its laser turrets were flashing furiously as it fired shot after shot into the gathering horde of diseased humans.
Then suddenly, Pax had other things to worry about as something grabbed her ankle and yanked.
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Jaryn heard the sergeant's cut off shout of surprise and whirled around in time to see something which had once been a scientist impale the Intel geek on a blade which had become part of his arm.
The thing stood on its two legs still, which were still human, and it also retained the head it had had when it had been a human. However the torso had expanded to accommodate the scythes that it now had to replace its arms. Pus and blood flowed from its chest and face, and it shrieked a battle cry as it held up the struggling sergeant with a tentacle that had grown out of its side, and readied one of its scythes.
Jaryn lunged forward at the monster and as he activated his lightsaber, he plunged it through the things human head. After the encounter on the stairwell, he thought he had killed the thing, and so was quite surprised when the other arm knocked him away like some pest, and sent him flying for five meters before hitting the ground.
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Capra had also turned around at the sound of the sergeant's shout. She however, noticed the fact that the chest cavity seemed to have some kind of armour around it. She activated her lightsaber with the distinctive snap-hiss just as Jaryn was being batted away, and stabbed the thing right through the chest.
It gave out a pained squeal and frantically tried to claw at the saber which had killed it, but only succeeded in severing its other tentacle and one of its scythe arms. The monstrous thing sagged to the ground, releasing Pax as it did so.
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"Teff, get the survivor on the shuttle, the rest of you MOVE!" this was shouted by Corporal Daxton who had had the shuttle set down right beside the group as the corrupted human died.
Jaryn stumbled to his feet and grabbed Pax as she rolled upright, wincing, "Let's go Sarge. This place is for the mynocks."
The horde noticed that there were now people on the ground and began to swarm over to the group which was now loading itself onto the shuttle. The two pilots manning the ship managed to discourage them with targeted blasts from the laser turrets, but inevitably some got through.
Jaryn sliced a questing tentacle into two and then buried his lightsaber into the armoured torso of an infected. Then he withdrew it to cut a pistol in half, followed by removing the human's head at the shoulders.
He and Capra had formed a rear guard of sorts and slowly backed up the ramp, leaving a trail of broken and bleeding bodies behind them. As they got up onto the ramp, the shuttle began to slowly rise up.
Seeing this, the infected rushed forward, ignoring the losses they took as they tried to board the rising shuttle. Five of them managed to clamber onto the ramp, the rest didn't make it in time.
Capra and Jaryn spun, sliced, hacked, and stabbed at their five opponents. One of them, an unchanged human was quickly dispatched, while two others managed to get in each others way and actually pushed themselves off.
However, the final two had been changed like the one which had killed the geek, and they both seemed to have become experts in using their changed bodies. Capra and Pax worked together; Pax shooting at the thing, while Capra kept it busy fending off her lunges and slashes. The changed human quickly toppled off the ramp, bleeding from the stumps of where its arms had been, and also from where Capra had stabbed it in the center of its chest.
Jaryn had been equally busy with his opponent, but with no one to distract it with blaster fire, he had had a much more difficult fight. As Capra finally finished with her enemy, Jaryn's wrapped a tentacle around both his wrists and then slashed a deep gash across his chest and upper right leg.
"NO!" shouted Capra, bringing up her 'saber. She lunged at the thing as it was turning towards her and skewered it with her blade. It fell back into the base, as the shuttle began to climb into the sky.
Pax was already ministering to Jaryn by the time Capra had finished his opponent and shut the ramp. She had wrapped the wound with bandages and had squirted bacta into the wound. Capra knelt down by Jaryn's head and smiled as he opened his eyes.
"Hey," he said weakly, smiling, "Did we win?"
"We're out of the base, so yeah I guess so." Capra noticed the tightening of his eyes and felt at Jaryn's body with the Force, trying to determine what was wrong.
"I think…whatever that thing was…infected with…is inside me now." he said, grimacing in pain, "I'm trying to fight it, but I think I need to go into a Force trance to keep it at bay."
Teff came hurrying back from the cockpit with a worried look on his face, "Sergeant, we've got a problem. I think you need to take a look."
Pax looked over at Capra who nodded, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
Pax nodded back and then went forward, following Teff to look at whatever problem he felt required her attention. Capra looked back down at Jaryn, but his eyes had already taken on the half closed glazed look of someone deep in a Force trance. She closed her eyes and drew the Force into her, feeling for the darkness of the infection which she had felt before.
She almost sobbed with relief when she found it was stopped, and just in time as well. From how it had spread through his body, in another minute he would have been gone, regardless of the Force trance. For know though, he was holding it at bay, though he didn't seem to be able to rid himself of it, at least he'd live until they could return to the Temple.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Sergeant Pax returning to the room, looking worried, "Ma'am, I need you up in the cockpit. Someone…wants to speak with you."
Capra looked up questioningly, but Pax shook her head, "I think it's better if you see for yourself, Ma'am."
Capra nodded, "Get Jaryn settled in the medbay then." With that she stood and then went forward to see what had come up.
The cockpit of the shuttle which had carried them down to the surface was large enough to accommodate four seats and consoles for each of those seats. The two pilots sat in the forward two seats while someone else, in this case Private Teff, looked after the comms gear and the weapons.
When Capra entered, Teff looked up with relief and said, "We've got visitors Ma'am. They've asked to speak with whoever is in charge of our mission. They're…they're already onboard the Vigilant."
Capra's eyes widened. The Vigilant had been assigned to the Jedi Order by the New Republic. It specifically said that when the ship broadcast its ID to anyone, so whoever had taken it over obviously either was insane enough to think it was a good idea to take a Jedi ship…or they just didn't care.
Capra shook herself and then walked over to the holo station, keying in the code for the Vigilant, "This is Jedi Knight Capra Geldon, I'm in charge of our mission. To whom am I speaking, and why have you taken over my ship?" The question came out slightly harder edged than she had wanted.
The display was quiet for a few moments, then it snapped to life. The head and shoulders of a man were displayed on the console. He was wearing some kind of uniform, one that was totally unfamiliar to Capra, and spook in a really strange accent.
"Capra Geldon, I am Captain David Gordon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, Third Legion of Man. You have entered a restricted bio-hazard zone and I must quarantine your ship and your personnel until we can be assured that you have not been contaminated. Be advised that any resistance will be met with deadly force, as this bio-threat is extremely severe. Continue towards your ship, you will be met by my escort. Gordon clear."
The holo snapped off and Capra sank into the fourth chair, still staring at the empty space where the head of Gordon had been. Then one of the pilots cleared his throat, "Uh, Ma'am? I've picked up some mass readings. They're definitely star ships, but their drives are completely invisible as far as I can tell…and there's six of them Ma'am."
Capra turned to him, "What's their current position?"
"Two of them are with the Vigilant right now Ma'am. The other four are all headed towards the compound. Not sure what they're up to, but two of them have the look of transports to me."
Capra nodded slowly, "This must be that task force they were talking about." her mind raced.
From that recording it sounded like these people were in deep, deep trouble. They seemed to have been counting on this 'Hive Mind' to defend them from something. Instead it had run amok, killing most of their personnel, and possibly unleashing a horrible fate on the population of the planet, well over half a billion sentient beings.
Whatever these people were here to do, she had to be here as well to try and ensure that the people on the planet below weren't killed, or left to be infected by whatever virus these people had created.
"Get us to the Vigilant," she said to the pilot who had reported the task force, "Let's hope these people will listen to us."
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Back down on the planet, night had fallen. The city, called Calamar, shone in the darkness, banishing the night and providing a welcoming glow for dozens of kilometres around. A glow which had attracted…unwelcome guests.
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Please review. I really hope you guys are liking the story so far, but again, constructive criticism is always welcome. Chapter three should be posted soon. Cheers!
