Holy shit. Rick May, the voice of the Soldier in TF2 and Peppy Hare in Star Fox fucking died.
It's… kind of hard to process that, actually. This year fucking blows, man.
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Lexi laid her head in Nax's lap, occasionally whimpering as he tried to comfort her. Kyra, meanwhile, came back from the galley with some freshly brewed caf, and she set it on the table near Lexi. "Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better." she said. Lexi lazily sat up, took the cup into her hands, and drank.
There was a long pause, and when Lexi was finished, she simply stared at the bottom of the cup. Her tears had dried up a while ago, so all that was really left inside of her now was emptiness. Kyra sat next to Lexi and ran her fingers through her hair, while Nax just looked on. He didn't have to imagine what she was thinking right now – he'd already been through it, and he knew the wounds weren't going to heal for a long time.
Lexi slowly set her empty cup back on the table, before shifting closer to Nax and resting her head on his shoulder, and he reciprocated, pulling her into a hug. Kelah came from down the corridor, carrying a datapad under her arm. "Hey, Nax?" she called out as she changed her focus from the datapad to Nax, and immediately changing her tone once she saw the three of them huddled together. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
Nax shook his head as he let Lexi bury her head in his chest. "Not really. What did you want?" he said, gently rubbing Lexi's shoulder to try and comfort her.
Kelah approached the table and set the datapad down, leaning over the table. "We're going to be at Fusu's belt in twenty minutes or so, so I wanted to check with you – do we have any sort of entry plan for Rest's base?"
"No." Nax admitted as he straightened his posture. "…Well, unless you consider blasting our way in and shooting everything that moves funny to be an entry plan." he said, only half-joking.
Kelah chuckled as she took a seat at the table. "Fine by me. Who's going in aside from you and I?" she asked, looking to Kyra, who nodded to confirm that she'd be tagging along.
"I'm coming along." Lexi suddenly said, causing everyone to look at her.
"You sure, Lex?" Kyra asked out of concern.
Lexi suddenly roped Kyra into Nax's hug. "Well, I don't exactly like being sidelined with Nevda to work tech support." she said, trying to sound lighthearted despite what had happened just hours ago. "That, and I hate not being with you guys when you're out there."
"Fair enough." Kelah conceded, turning her gaze back to Nax. "What about your battle droid, Knockout?"
Nax half-shrugged with his right shoulder. "Might as well bring him along. Guy like Rest being in hiding as long as he has, I'd wager good money he's got some security that we can't just shoot away with what we've got." he opined, before sitting forward. "Knockout, get in here!"
Knockout's telltale stomping echoed through the corridor as he approached the crew lounge, finally appearing in front of them, towering over everyone in the room as usual. "Yes, Master?" Knockout boomed.
"Run a weapons and system diagnostic. You're being deployed for combat soon." Nax ordered, and Knockout stood straight up.
"Affirmative, Master." the droid boomed, moving into the back of the crew lounge and locking up.
Kelah impatiently rapped her knuckles against the table. "You know, it's times like these where I wish we could just blow the whole damn base up and be done with it." she lamented as she pulled out a nupoz injector. "But Rest's got the antidote, so if we blow the place up, we blow the antidote and any sort of research he had on it up, and we get yet another bioweapon on the loose, this time on the center of the damn galaxy." she continued to wax, prepping the injector, before finally stabbing herself in the arm with it.
Nax glanced towards the cargo hold where the warheads were stored. "Well, I mean, that is the plan." he responded, a faint smirk cropping up on his face. "It's just that we need to capture Rest and rob the place first."
Kelah reeled back in surprise. "We're capturing him?" she questioned, and Nax shot her a questioning look.
"You think I'm gonna miss out on a thirty five grand bounty?" he asked, his smirk growing. "Of course we're capturing the bastard. Plus, he might have a lead on Vindi, who, if I recall correctly, the Empire really wants."
Kelah chuckled briefly, and then started to cough. At first, they all passed it off as her just having a coughing fit, but that attitude quickly changed when she began hacking up a kind of pink dust onto the table. "Warning, poisonous chemical detected!" Knockout boomed, suddenly approaching the table.
Nax and Kyra quickly went to Kelah's side and tried to hold her still as she rapidly began to shake. "Poisonous? What the hell?!" Nax shouted, demanding an explanation from Knockout.
"Analyzing." Knockout automatically said, and he began to scan the pink residue. "Scans indicate the material coming from subject Kelah is a combination of neuropozyne and an unidentified chemical. Said chemical blocks neuropozyne's catalytic reaction with regular tissue by occupying the activation site, in effect, causing her body to-."
"In Basic, please?!" Kyra shouted, trying her best to keep Kelah conscious.
"She is dying." Knockout said in a stale, emotionless voice. "Suggested remedy until further treatment is possible: carbonite freezing."
Nax quickly shifted his gaze between Knockout, Kyra, Lexi, Kelah, and the corridor in a panic. "…Damnit, alright!" Nax conceded, sweeping Kelah up into his arms and storming to the cargo hold. She tried to reach out and touch him, but couldn't hold her arm steady long enough. "Just hold on, Kelah, you're gonna be okay." he reassured.
Kelah had already started bleeding. "Sidewinder… get Sidewinder…" she hacked out. "…Contact the Ascendant… tell him what's happ…" Kelah trailed, falling into unconsciousness before she could finish what she was saying, but Nax got the gist of it.
Heading into the cargo hold with Kelah in his arms, he ran past the warheads and moved to the carbonite slabs that were laying against the wall near the back. He laid Kelah in the front slap as neatly as he reasonably could, engaged the freezing process, and stood back as the cold air blasted him in the face, covering Kelah's body. Once the mist had cleared, he checked her vitals, and the light was blinking a soft yellow. Hopefully, she would make it.
As he was about to return to the crew lounge, something suddenly hit him. The mist she was hacking up was the same color as the mist outside of the Mare's Leg when the explosion happened. Whatever that mist was, was also blocking her nupoz from working, and they had found a multitude of empty nupoz injectors and pill bottles in the Pather base. Yet, Nax and the others weren't effected because they didn't need nupoz.
It finally clicked - this was Mau-Sanir!
Nax immediately activated the repulsorlifts on Kelah's brick and slid it aside, freeing up the middle slab. Then, he ran as fast as he could to the cockpit. There, he found Nevda still piloting the ship with Arfive, showing no symptoms as far as he could tell. She half-turned her head and waved to Nax. "Nevda, I hate to break this to you, but you're probably infected with Mau-Sanir." Nax blurted out.
"What? How do you know?" Nevda questioned, still piloting the ship.
"Because Kelah just came down with it." he quickly responded, eager to get Nevda out of the pilot's seat and into the carbonite slab. "It basically blocks your nupoz shots from working and forces rejection to set in. You need to be in carbonite until we can get you both the antidotes."
Nevda sighed and got up from the chair. "Fine. Time to get frozen, I suppose." she dryly said, before giving Arfive a devious look. "You better not crash the ship while I'm gone." she warned, and Arfive gave her a mischievous series of trills in response. Taking Nevda back to the cargo hold, Nax let her into the carbonite slab. "Hey, Nax?" Nevda asked as he prepared to engage the freezing process, and Nax looked to her. "You save our lives after this, and your new ship parts are on the house." Nevda offered, before leaning back into the slab fully. "Kick his ass for us."
"Will do." Nax promised, before engaging the freezing process, once again blasting the cold mist into his face. Again, once the mist cleared, Nevda had been frozen, locked in stasis for the time being.
Nax sighed, held his head, and leaned back against the wall in frustration. They were down two people now, so it was just him, Kyra, Lexi, and the droids against Suns-knows-what in the base. Even though she didn't believe he was at fault, Nax felt that he almost killed Kelah when the Empire attacked the compound, and he'd be damned if he was going to let her die under his watch.
Nax turned to leave the cargo hold, but saw Lexi staring at him from the entryway, leaning against it with her shoulder. "…It's Mau-Sanir, isn't it?" she asked, before coming over to look at the now occupied carbonite slabs. Nax's nod told her all she needed to know. "…Bastards." she cursed as she stared at the slabs. "First the Path takes my mom and destroys my family, and then when I finally see my dad after an entire decade and maybe get a chance to eventually patch things up with him, they kill him, too." she lamented. Nax went over and pulled Lexi into a hug, and she half turned her upper body and leaned back into his arms, looking up at him with tired eyes. "I hate them. Every single Pather. I find one of them, I'm killing the bastard."
"…And what do you intend on doing about Rest?" Nax questioned, and Lexi sighed in frustration.
"Death is too good for him." she simply responded, hatred flowing from her voice like a torrent of water. "When we capture him, I want some time alone with him before we hand him over to the Empire and let the ISB have their way with him."
"Not happening." Nax denied, and Lexi gave him a frustrated look.
"Why not? Don't deny me this, Nax." Lexi questioned in confusion, prompting Nax to clarify.
"I'm not saying you can't beat the hell out of Rest, Lexi." Nax responded, and instantly, Lexi's look of frustration dissipated. "I'm saying you're not doing it alone. As much as I'd like to have him dead, I can't have you take it too far and accidentally kill him. I want my money's worth out of the bastard."
Lexi narrowed her eyes at him. "And who are you to decide what's 'too far'?" she questioned, causing Nax to point at the scar below his eye that he gained during the torture session that inadvertently served as his and Lexi's first meeting. "Fair enough." she relented, before pulling herself out of the hug. As Nax headed for the cockpit to take over for Nevda, Lexi trailed him close, taking her hand into his.
They had arrived at Fusu around an hour ago, and, in that time, had been attempting to locate the rough area of the belt where Rest's base was, running counterclockwise to the belt's rotation. "You seeing anything on scopes, Lexi?" Nax asked as he gazed outside the cockpit window.
"Nope." she simply responded, leaning back in the copilot's chair, flicking her bangs out of her face. "Just dust and echoes."
"Arfive, what about you?" he questioned, and Arfive gave a short negative trill. Nax sighed in frustration, running his hand back through his hair. "Bastard can't keep hiding forever." he muttered in annoyance. Just then, Kyra came into the cockpit, causing Nax to briefly look over his shoulder. "Hey, Kyra, come here for a second." Nax requested, and Kyra obliged, situating herself between the two seats. "You see any likely suspects for Rest's base? We aren't seeing squat."
Kyra leaned further in over the controls, before pointing to an unusually large asteroid a good distance away from the ship, located within the inner part of the belt. "That one." she declared with supreme confidence. "Look at the way the light's reflecting off of it."
Nax cracked his fingers in anticipation. "Scan it, Arfive." he ordered, and the droid gave an affirmative chirp. He looked at the scopes to his left, and, sure enough, the asteroid was slowly revealed to only be a façade – there were numerous power fluctuations coming from the asteroid, alongside signs of life support, and hidden sublight engines. Curiously enough, there didn't seem to be signs of weapons emplacements. Or a hyperdrive.
Turning his attention from the scopes back to the base, he could just barely make out a small speck ejecting itself from the side of the base facing the field, but just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone again. Nax shrugged it off and began the approach to the base.
As Rest's base grew closer, three blaster bolts shot in front of the cockpit, just narrowly missing the ship, causing the three of them to jump in their seats, and Arfive to shriek in alarm. Quickly following the bolts was a ship far too fast to identify, but Arfive's shrieking intensified, and the words 'TRI-DROID' started flowing across one of the screens. "What the hell is a Tri-Droid?!" Nax questioned as he kicked the sublight engines into gear and dove down towards the belt. The words 'INTERCEPTOR. FAST. POWERFUL.' then replaced the text. Nax turned to Lexi and Kyra. "You two, on the turrets!" he ordered, and the two of them nodded, darting out of the cockpit.
Nax's plan was to hopefully either cause the fighter to overshoot a turn and crash into an asteroid, get hit with debris, or just flat out get blown out of the air by one of the girls. Any option was preferable, as long as it was fast. Zeethree waddled into the cockpit and spotted the approaching belt. "Master Strag! I understand that we're under attack, but the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid belt are three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one!" he prissed, and Nax waved him off.
"Who said anything about navigating?" Nax responded as he put the comm headset on. "You two there? Where's the fighter?"
Kyra's voice came through. "I see it – he's coming around now." she said, before he heard the quad laser cannons go off in a burst. "…Missed him, he's shooting back!" she reported once the burst had ended.
Nax kept the ship straight, and another burst of bolts flew past the ship and into the belt below, but a stray bolt hit the ship, rocking the interior. A quick glance to one of the side computers showed that the shields had been damaged, but were still holding. Another burst flared up from the top turret as the fighter shot past the ship, before disappearing beneath the belt.
Their ship wasn't trailing too far behind, and Nax settled it above an asteroid that hid the ship when one would come from the bottom of the belt. "Here's the plan," Nax said into the headset. "I've got him on scopes, so I'll call out wherever he's coming from. When he shows himself, you two have to light him the hell up before I move the ship. Got it?"
"Got it." the girls responded in unison.
Nax turned his attention to the scopes. "He's coming from behind the ship in twenty." he reported, and immediately he heard the sounds of the gun turrets adjusting to face the rear of the ship. They all collectively began to count down, with Nax intently watching the scopes.
Right as the fighter crossed over onto their side of the belt, Lexi and Kyra opened fire with the blaster cannons, absolutely saturating the area in weapons fire, although Lexi's burst was short lived thanks to poor angling. "Hit him!" Lexi shouted over the comms.
"Is he down?!" Nax demanded to know.
"No, he's still flying." Kyra answered for her. "He's got a huge plasma fire, though."
"Got it, moving the ship." Nax declared, sliding the ship under an asteroid directly in front of the ship and moving to the bottom of the belt. The fighter's path appeared to reach the apex of its turn, and seemed to be coming down directly on top of the last asteroid. Scopes showed something else detach from the fighter, before flying off towards the belt. "This isn't gonna work anymore! He just shot a proton torpedo off!" Nax shouted through the headset, kicking the sublights back on and getting the ship out of the belt.
The torpedo impacted the asteroid not long after, sending a shockwave through the belt as debris created a significant hazard. The fighter shot through the asteroids regardless, and likely took damage for it. The path of the Tri-Fighter had now changed – the fighter and their ship were now in a sort of spiral pattern around the belt. Quickly turning the ship backwards, Nax cut the sublights to make the turn, and then re-engaged them, rolling the ship so that it was 'upright' again. "He's coming up from the front right side of the ship!" Nax called out, and the guns were quickly oriented.
"I see him!" Lexi shouted, quickly followed by a long burst of cannon fire into the belt, blasting away smaller asteroids and, somehow, hitting the fighter, causing a second plasma fire to break out. "Got him!" Lexi declared proudly, keeping her stream of cannon fire going.
The fighter began to list to the side, but was still climbing. Lexi quickly ceased fire as soon as it had gotten out of her firing angle, but Lexi's fire had just as quickly been replaced by Kyra's. The fighter wasn't even going at top speed anymore, it was kind of just… drifting. The sublight thrusters were still on, but now it was moving at a much more manageable speed.
Right as it was about to pass over the freighter, Kyra's turret blasted the fighter apart, scattering debris against the particle shields, and even hurting the regular shields from some sort of residual power source that collided with the hull. "Good kill!" Nax complimented as he brought the ship to a halt. "Moving on the base now, so sit in the turrets in case we get any other surprises." he continued. Arfive gave as best of a sigh of relief as he could in binary, and Nax reached back to pat him on the head. "So much for being deadly, huh?" he remarked, causing Arfive to shock him in offense. "Whoops. Sorry." Nax apologized. Evidently, Tri-Fighters were a touchy subject for him. Probably best not to ask about it now.
Now that the main threat was out of the way, Nax felt comfortable flying the ship to Rest's base. Dipping the ship closer to the asteroid field, he pulled close to where the fighter had ejected, and found a concealed hangar bay. It was small – probably only just big enough to fit a freighter about the size of the one he was flying now. There wasn't anything resembling service crew inside of the hangar, only an empty launch platform in the middle of the bay. There weren't any interior turrets, which didn't help assuage Nax's fears.
Carefully, he slipped the ship into the hangar, just past the hangar shielding, and rotated it so that the boarding ramp would be facing the shields rather than the doors to the bay. Engaging the landing gear, Nax dropped the ship on top of the empty launch platform, before powering down the sublights. "Alright, Arfive," Nax said as he got up out of the pilot's chair. "You get to babysit the ship. Anything tries to come close that isn't us, you blast them with the cannons." he ordered, and Arfive chirped a dry comment about Nax sounding like one of his superiors. "Very funny." he quipped back, giving Arfive a little kick as he walked. "Katy gets to babysit the ramp, and Zeethree…" he trailed, turning his attention to the idling protocol droid in the corner. "…Don't touch anything."
Zeethree bowed his body. "Of course, Master Strag." he said humbly, causing Arfive to snicker. "Oh, do be quiet!" Zeethree prissed, whacking Arfive as Nax exited the cockpit.
Nax, the girls, and Knockout all met at the boarding ramp. "You two ready for this?" he asked.
Kyra raised her '44, putting her off-hand onto the bottom of the grip. "Ready when you are, Nax."
Lexi inserted a fresh power pack into Thel's blaster and twirled it. "All good here." she affirmed.
Nax looked at Knockout, who, upon registering this, bashed his fists together. "Wallhammer protocol activated. I will take point." Knockout boomed. Nax reached around for the button to drop the boarding ramp and smacked it, and the ramp hit the hangar bay floor with a loud thud.
Knockout deployed an arm mounted deflector that covered his entire body and stomped his way down the ramp, with Nax, Kyra, and Lexi following him in that order. Katy rolled up at the top of the ramp and twittered something they couldn't quite understand, before the ramp lifted back up into the ship. Knockout's attention quickly shot from the back of the hangar up to a side observation room on the group's left. "Movement detected." Knockout declared, pointing his wrist blaster at the room.
Nax raised the DC at the window, using Knockout's deflector as cover. "Is it Rest?" he questioned as Knockout relaxed his blaster.
"Negative." the droid said with a monotone confidence. "Movement is too erratic. Subject is non-organic." Knockout continued, marching to the wide entry door, but keeping his body tilted at an angle to the observation room. "Possible droid assassin in operations zone. Activating Antibody subroutines." Knockout finished. The entry door to the hangar opened for them, and the group continued through, much more alert now that they knew were being watched by something that wasn't Rest.
The hangar entryway was a T-section, yet they could only go down the left hallway, as for whatever reason, the one on the right was a dead end. Knockout stomped onwards regardless of this brief illusion of choice. The ceiling above them had a long grate running down the hallway, from the corridor ahead all the way back to the dead end. As the group marched, Knockout suddenly raised his wrist blaster and fired a burst into the grate. Startled, the others raised their weapons, but lowered them once Knockout lowered his arm. "Gone." the droid simply declared as they could all hear faint metallic footfalls running away.
"'Gone'?" Kyra questioned, poking her head out of the line to look at Knockout. "What's 'gone', Knockout?"
Knockout turned his upper torso halfway to look back at Kyra, just on the edge of his photoreceptor. "The droid assassin, Master Kyra." Knockout said calmly, before facing forward again. "From that brief try it had at taunting us, it can safely be assumed that our assassin droid is an IG-100 MagnaGuard. It's too fast and too light to be an IG-86, and what little of its movements that I could pick up were far too fluid to be an… older model of assassin droid."
"MagnaGuard?" Nax echoed in confusion. "What in the fresh hell is that?"
Lexi twirled around on her heels just to check the dead end, before glancing back at Nax. "Bodyguard droid from the Clone Wars." she answered, and Nax shot her a look that could only be described as 'so what?', causing Lexi to roll her eyes. "Let me clarify – MagnaGuards were programmed and built according to General Grievous' standards." Lexi continued, putting emphasis on Grievous' name. While, admittedly, it was still speculation that this was the case, even nearly twenty years on from the Clone Wars, it still warranted some consideration.
Life on Tatooine was sheltered for Nax, but even he knew what kind of weight Grievous' name carried. "…Got it." he slowly responded, raising his DC slightly now that he was firmly aware of what kind of threat this droid posed.
Knockout rounded the corridor, before suddenly standing still. "Wooow, a B2, huh? The Path must have really come through for the boss!" a nasally robotic voice sounded off excitedly. Knockout braced the arm holding the deflector, and there was a bright flash down the hall that bled back onto their side. "My receptors!" the same droid screeched.
"Engaging." Knockout declared calmly, raising his wrist blaster. Nax, Kyra, and Lexi both swung around him, and the group opened fire on the squad of B1s. Knockout and Nax sprayed into the squad, while Kyra took more precise shots, and Lexi only fired a few bursts from Thel's blaster. In just a few seconds, the droids were now a melted scrap pile on the floor, rash with blaster scoring and battle damage. "Threat eliminated." Knockout stated, before marching down the hall, taking the left door, only to come right back out. "That is the control room. My mistake." he stated dryly, before moving to the right door and opening it. Lexi chuckled briefly as they followed him.
The right door led out to some sort of modestly sized service and storage area, the sides practically stuffed with stripped fighter parts, and Lexi immediately broke formation to take a look. "Hey, look! These are sublights from an Actis!" she noted, tracing her finger along the top of the casing of the thrusters. Something else caught her eye in the pile, and Lexi reached in with both hands, pulling out a small metal ball that was half painted in a faint yellow-green color.
Nax inserted a fresh power pack and shot a moderately annoyed look at Lexi. "We can loot later, Lex." he remarked as she managed to open the ball, and a small droid fell out, dangling from the two ends. Curious, she prodded at the droid itself. Suddenly, the droid animated, and began screeching in her grasp, scaring Lexi and causing her to shriek and stumble backwards, dropping the droid on the ground. The droid had lost its sense of balance, but Lexi hadn't, and in her adrenaline rush, quickly drew her blaster again and turned the droid to scrap in a single burst.
Holding her chest to try and catch her breath, Lexi slowly rose to her feet and swallowed. "Are you done?" Nax asked, half amused at her antics. Lexi gave him a dirty look, before rejoining the group. "What even was that thing?"
"A buzz droid." Knockout replied, scanning the junk piles and raising his blaster. "There are more of them." he boomed, readying his deflector again. As they all moved into a position where they covered each other's back and quieted down, they could hear the ravenous chattering of buzz droids hidden in the piles of junk. Keeping their weapons raised, they slowly moved through the storage room. Small piles of parts would occasionally shift, but they couldn't ever get a clear shot.
There was another rustling pile on the left, just ahead of the group, and it was far more pronounced than with the other droids. They swung out into a line formation and pointed their weapons at the pile as it came tumbling down and out onto the floor. Rising from beneath the scrap metal was a far larger droid, almost insectoid in appearance. Its 'spine' curved into a half circle, and it had two blasters mounted to the arms. The droid slowly crawled out of the junk pile, revealing its tripedal legs, as well as the fact that it was clearly being controlled by a buzz droid located at the droid's base. "Droideka!" Lexi called out, tossing her blaster to the side, grabbing Kyra and Nax, and pulling them into cover, leaving Knockout in the open with his deflector shield up. Picking her blaster back up, Lexi was about to poke her head over the junk to look at the Droideka, but it opened fire before she could, and she ducked back down as bolts flew into her cover, over her head, and into Knockout's deflector.
"DIRECTIVE ONE: PROTECT THE MASTERS!" Knockout shouted out, marching forward. Slowly, the blaster fire stopped coming at them, and instead kept hitting Knockout's deflector. Nax stood up, his DC raised and ready to fire, but he kept his finger hovering over the trigger. Kyra and Lexi rose to join him.
The Droideka had its own deflector up, and the two droids were effectively staring at each other within knife-fighting distance. The buzz droid controller was panicking at Knockout's mere presence, warbling and letting out sounds of distress as it desperately tried to back the hell away from Knockout. Knockout raised his right arm, and began to slowly reach it through first his deflector, and then through the Droideka's. The buzz droid let out a shrill screech when Knockout shot his arm down and grabbed it, tearing it from its socket in the Droideka.
The buzz droid was still functional, but the Droideka deactivated, leaving Knockout free to remove the nuisance. As it flailed helplessly in Knockout's iron grip, he deactivated his deflector and grabbed the two capsules, tearing them off and throwing to the side, even as the droid was screaming in pain. He held the buzz droid closer to his photoreceptor, and although he lacked a face, was clearly looking at the droid like one would a helpless pest. Without further ceremony, Knockout crushed the buzz droid, splashing oil on himself, before he let the crumpled buzz droid fall to the floor in a heap. "Threat neutralized." Knockout boomed again as he wiped his photoreceptor off.
The other buzz droids had gone silent now, and they were seemingly clear to proceed. The three of them left their cover and fell in behind Knockout again, who had just stomped on the buzz droid for good measure. "…That could have turned out a lot worse had we not brought you, Knockout." Kyra calmly said, staring at the deactivated Droideka.
Nax turned and looked around the room. "…I don't think there's much left of the base past this room." he opined, mentally trying to process just where exactly they were on the asteroid. Rubbing his thumb against a spare power pack on his hip, he pulled it out and pointed ahead. "There's probably two, maybe three rooms ahead that're the same size as this one. After that, there might be a hall that leads to engineering, 'cause there's no way in hell he's got space where we're heading."
"A valid assumption." Knockout blurted as he approached the next door, only for it to not open. "It is locked." he declared, shutting down his deflector.
Lexi stepped out of the formation to go for the door controls. "Hold on a second, I've got it." she said, pulling her slicing tools out.
"Unnecessary." Knockout objected, centering himself against the door. Lexi paused, before stepping back as Knockout reached his fingers into the small slits. Straining himself only for a moment, Knockout forced the door open, revealing a personal medbay. On the left was a deactivated medical droid and an empty bacta tank, as well as some extra medical equipment hooked up to the tank, probably to monitor vital signs. On the right, there was a single countertop that ran the length of the room with overhead cabinets intermittently placed above it.
On the countertop itself were a few syringes that contained a light blue liquid. "Hey, Knockout?" Nax called, picking one of the syringes up. "What's in these syringes? Bacta?"
Knockout looked over and scanned the syringe. "That is, in fact, bacta." he confirmed, and Nax went to stash the syringe. "However, I would caution that, while I am not detecting infectious bodies on the injector, it would be unwise to keep these syringes on your person, given who has had access to it."
Kyra pulled the power pack release on her '44 and inserted a fresh pack. "Listen to Knockout, Nax." she advised. "Last thing any of us needs is you using one of those things down the line only for it to give you a case of bonewrack." she said, a light tremor echoing in her voice.
Nax examined the injector carefully, before tossing it back on the counter. "Yeah, good point." he conceded. As the medbay had nothing else of immediate interest to them, they headed through the next door that was, thankfully, unlocked. This new room was some sort of crew quarters – triple stacked bunks lined the left side, numbering at about twenty or so bunks, but only a few showed any sign of recent use. Aside from the door in front of them, there was also another door on the right marked 'ENGINEERING' in hastily drawn lettering
Before the group could proceed, though, there was a metallic clanging coming from overhead, and they barely had time to react before the lights suddenly cut out. There was the crashing sound of a vent hitting the floor, quickly followed by something much heavier. Nax had only just turned his helmet's low light mode on, only able to catch a mere glimpse of the MagnaGuard's blood red receptors before he, Kyra, and Lexi were all effortlessly punted into the bunks.
Nax hit the beds first, and the girls crashed right on top of him, softening their impact, but they were all down for now, leaving Knockout to defend them by himself. The lights cut back on, revealing the MagnaGuard in full – its plating was a rusted blue, and it wore a faded, torn cape with matching headwrap. "…Unfortunate, I was expecting a better fight." the MagnaGuard remarked in a deep, muffled voice, looking over at the only three organics in the room. It reached behind its back and produced an undeployed electrostaff, before extending it and twirling it around, managing to brace the pole against its forearm so that it pointed to Knockout. The MagnaGuard engaged the staff, and white-purple sparks flowed from both ends of the staff to their pointed peaks. "I do not expect a failed prototype to be much better." it taunted.
The two droids began to circle each other – the MagnaGuard was ready for a fight, keeping light on its feet, while Knockout was completely and utterly calm. "If I'm a failed prototype, then you were trained in the image of a coward." Knockout shot back.
The MagnaGuard readied its staff. "Do not speak of the General in such terms, traitor!" it hissed in anger.
"Traitor?" Knockout replied, bemused. "Who have I betrayed, when the Confederacy is no more?" he poised, raising his arms in a half-shrug. "If anyone were a traitor, it would have been the General." Knockout continued, and the MagnaGuard began to emit sounds of frustration.
"Enough of your treasonous words!" it shouted, before pointing its staff at Knockout's masters. "First I kill your organics, and then I kill you!" the droid proudly declared.
Knockout suddenly shot forward with speed seemingly impossible for a droid of his type, and grabbed the MagnaGuard by its neck, slamming it into the bunks. "Directive One: Protect the Masters!" Knockout boomed as the MagnaGuard grabbed his forearm with its spare hand.
"…So, you do have some fight in you." the MagnaGuard noted, before echoing a mechanical chuckle. There was a heavy clunk that came from the droid's neck, and its body fell out under it, before the free hand swiped the head out of Knockout's grip. The droid backflipped away, reattached its head, and gestured for Knockout to come after him. "Try and keep up."
Knockout obliged, striding towards his opponent. The MagnaGuard briefly crouched low, before jumping over Knockout. Knockout grabbed both of his legs mid-jump, and before he could react, Knockout had already slammed his face against the floor. Knockout lifted the MagnaGuard up to slam him in the other direction, but midway through the slam, the droid had regained its senses and jabbed Knockout with its staff, before separating its body at the waist, causing Knockout to be stuck holding its legs, while his torso flew back towards the medbay door, and it used its electrostaff to catch itself against the doorframe, before finally falling, keeping itself perfectly balanced on the staff, clearly not impressed with Knockout's skills.
Knockout tossed the legs to the side and prepared to charge the MagnaGuard again. After only a few thunderous stomps, the MagnaGuard launched itself, using its staff as a springboard, and it flew over Knockout, landing perfectly on its legs which had been remotely controlled by the droid into a position to reattach themselves to the separated body. "Clever." Knockout simply said.
The droid swung its electrostaff out to its right. "Enough!" he shouted out, clearly annoyed that Knockout wasn't falling as easily as he had expected. "I tire of this game!" he ranted, pointing the staff at Knockout's masters, before swinging at Lexi and hitting her in the back.
Knockout's droid brain barely had enough time to process the fact that he had already shot a bolt into the droid, let alone that he had just shoulder charged the MagnaGuard. Caught by surprise once again, the MagnaGuard only offered token resistance when Knockout tore the electrostaff from its hands and proceeded to break it in two against its user's head. The MagnaGuard managed to catch Knockout's twin punches, locking them in a battle of attrition. "…You. You're no battle droid." the MagnaGuard strained out. "…You have the loyalty of one, but the programming of an assassin droid. What, exactly, are you?"
Knockout tightened his grip, slowly crushing the MagnaGuard's hands under the immense pressure. "I?" he questioned, rousing a dark laughter from inside of him. "I am C-B3-KO, designation 'Knockout'. You have made the mistake of attacking my masters, and for that…" he trailed, pressing his advantage. "…You will be deserviced." Knockout finally finished, completely crushing the MagnaGuard's hands.
Whacking him over the head to stun him again, Knockout grabbed the droid with his left hand and his left arm with his own right. Easily tearing the arm from its socket, Knockout repeatedly hit the droid in the neck with its own arm, before jamming said arm into its chest and twisting it. Still not satisfied with his brutality, Knockout balled his right hand up and pounded on the MagnaGuard's head until it was now firmly located within its chest, the eyes only just barely poking over the shoulders. Tearing the other arm off at the elbow, Knockout casually threw it behind him, before kicking the droid to the wall.
The droid stood against the wall only briefly before its leg motivators gave out, sending it to the floor in a crumpled mess. Knockout approached once more and raised his left arm at the lower abdomen of the droid, before the panel containing his TriShot exposed itself, and he fired a single shot into its body. Quickly concealing the weapon again, Knockout placed his foot on the droid's chest, and reached over, grabbing it by the head. Encountering a surprising amount of resistance, Knockout only briefly struggled with it, before tearing the MagnaGuard's head off, along with what could only be described as a droid's spinal cord. The cape also came off the droid's head, tearing against jagged bits of metal.
Briefly holding the head up in victory, Knockout pulled it close to his receptor to examine the damage. His desire for violence had been sated for now, but just to make sure the droid would not get up again, Knockout stomped on its chest several times, irreparably destroying the torso and rendering the MagnaGuard combat ineffective. Knockout's audio receptors picked up movement behind him, and he quickly turned to see the masters had begun to recover. "Directive one completed, Masters." Knockout stated as Nax rubbed his head through the helmet, only just barely catching a glimpse of the carnage. Knockout approached them and knelt down. "Are you alright, Masters? Calculations indicate the force exer-" Knockout started to ramble.
Nax quietly waved Knockout off. "I'm fine, Knockout." he reassured, helping himself to his feet, before picking the two girls up. "You two good?" he asked.
Kyra rubbed her sides. "Banged up a little, but I'm alright." she responded, examining her armor plating. "Gear looks fine, too. Lexi?" she continued, turning to the Zeltron.
Lexi was biting down on her left sleeve, leaning against the bunk ladder for support. "…My back." she muttered, reaching around with her free hand. "…Feels like I'm just… constantly getting stabbed. Hurts like hell." she swore, pulling her hand back out to reveal a thin layer of blood on her hand. "…Son of a-" she cursed again, before flipping her coat up and to the side, showing her back to the others. "How bad is it?"
There were a few thin streams of blood beginning to flow down her back, only barely visible against her pink skin. There was also a single large mark that was half seared on her exposed back, and half on her top. Said mark also had faint strings that expanded out in all directions. "The hell? How'd you get this?" he questioned, poking at the mark, causing Lexi to arch her back and whimper in pain. "Sorry."
"Master Sapphyra was hit by the MagnaGuard's electrostaff before I could intervene." Knockout stated, lowering his body slightly. "I regret this failure immensely." he apologized.
Nax ignored the droid and reached into one of the front-mounted packs on his armor, pulling out a bacta patch. Freeing it from its packaging, Nax immediately applied it to the wound. Lexi gasped in pain at first, but slowly, she leaned off the ladder and stretched. "That's better." she cooed, flipping her coat back down.
"You sure you're good to keep going? Knockout can take you back to the ship if you want to." Nax asked out of concern, eyeing her up and down. Lexi gave an affirmative nod, before pulling her blaster out of its holster. "If you say so. I'll patch you up properly once we get back to the ship." he continued, before drawing the DC and approaching the final door, the others following suit.
The last door didn't have a sensor, and, not wanting to risk setting off a trap, Knockout let Lexi slice the door open. In under a minute, they were through, and the last room was very obviously a lab. Rest was at the far end of the lab, behind some monitoring equipment, and standing right beside him was a Zeltron in a hazmat suit. Rest had his hand on top of a canister similar to what he had in the hologram, while the Zeltron had a blaster pistol to Rest's head. All had their weapons trained on the Zeltron. Rest was only moderately annoyed with the situation. "Put the blaster down, Kaell." Rest ordered, and the Zeltron sneered.
"Like hell I will!" Kaell shouted, tightening his grip on the blaster. "You led these bounty hunters right to us, so why shouldn't I shoot you and make a break for it, huh?" he ranted, before looking over at the group. "They're only in it for the money, and I'm saving my own ass!" Kaell continued, before his eyes fell on Lexi, and a sick, carnivorous grin began to creep up on his face. "…You. You're that girl that lost her dad during the bombing, aren't you? INN showed the whole planet what should have been one of the most private parts of your life, didn't they?" he went on. Lexi only offered him a scowl in response, and the grin grew. "You are." Kaell said, now fully fixated on Lexi. "Tell me, how does it feel having that happen to you?"
Nax finally spoke up. "Hey, uh, if you intend on leaving in one piece, I'd maybe suggest you don't taunt the guys who have you outnumbered four to one, jackass."
Kaell laughed. "You seem to be mistaken – you have no bargaining power here. I hold your bounty and everything he owns, and if you want to claim it, you will let me do as I please." he taunted, before turning his attention back to Lexi, who had now moved into a position where she could shoot Kaell without probably shooting Rest as well. "…Now, do you know what I felt when I saw you on the news? Nothing but contempt and disgust." he said with a disgusted sneer. "Empathy and compassion are for the weak, and we as a species would be better without-" Kaell continued, before stopping short as a blaster shot rang out, hitting him in the face and splattering his brains on the equipment.
Everyone had been caught by surprise – even Rest. "…Well, I guess that's one way to skin a womp rat." Nax remarked, giving Lexi a wide-eyed look through his helmet. She was visibly upset, taking heavy breaths, before pointing the blaster at Rest, who now had his hands out, waiting to be cuffed. Kyra approached him with her own blaster pointed at him, and pulled the trigger to release a stun bolt, knocking Rest out cold.
She quickly ran up to him and slapped a pair of stuncuffs on his wrists, before checking his pockets for any gadgets or traps. "He's clean." she confirmed, before turning her attention to the myriad equipment in the lab. "Knockout, got any idea where his research data would be stored?"
Knockout quickly scanned the room before walking up to a large central computer and attaching his arm to a scomp link port. "Here." he simply said as he looked around the room. "Downloading research data now. Please escort the prisoner to the ship. Do not forget the antidote."
Lexi nodded, holstering her blaster and grabbing the vial. "Right." she choked out as Nax and Kyra picked Rest up over their shoulders, leaving Kaell's body to bleed on the floor. "Don't forget the warheads, either." she reminded the other two.
The three of them, alongside all of the droids, were currently packed into the cockpit, staring out the viewport. They had looted what they could and set the charges, and Rest had been prematurely thrown into the carbonite brick after Nax decided against letting Lexi have at him.
Nax raised the detonator and held up an open hand, slowly lowering each finger, before balling it into a fist. Once that happened, he pulled the trigger on the detonator. There was but a slight delay before the base blew up on itself, scattering asteroid chunks and power conduits throughout Fusu's belt, creating a temporary hole that would, in time, be filled again.
Nax set the detonator aside and engaged the sublights back to Coruscant. "Alright, let's get the hell out of here before any patrols show up." he said, kicking back and letting Arfive handle the flight back. As the others left the cockpit, Nax took particular note of Lexi, who seemed to be deeply disturbed over something. He'd find out soon enough, but for now, Sidewinder was demanding his attention. "I know, Sidewinder, I know." he said, heading over to the communications console and sitting down, putting the headset on as Sidewinder plugged in.
The console turned on without Nax's input, and Sidewinder began to insert the communications code for the Ascendancy's leadership – the Grand Ascendant, specifically. When he was finished, there was a sharp tone coming from the headset, before a highly mechanical voice choked through. "I trust you have something good to report, Voto, because we have problems cropping up left and right." the voice, presumably the Ascendant, said. "Voto?"
Nax breathed in, before leaning forward. "Kelah isn't available right now." he responded in as stern a tone he could manage. "I'm using her droid to contact you."
"Identify yourself immediately." the Ascendant ordered, clearly angry that Kelah had just given someone access to their communications on a whim.
"I'm Nax Strag, with the Coru-Hivers." Nax introduced himself. "Kelah came on-board and joined up with me and my crew to investigate the Path of Ludd."
The Ascendant made a grunt of consideration. "…Ah, I see. She has told me of you, and she trusts you. I, unfortunately, do not trust that easily, but I'm not exactly allowed to be picky at the moment." the Ascendant cracked through. "First, though, I must know – what has happened to Voto and Nevda?"
Nax crossed his arms in his seat and leaned back. "Both were infected with Mau-Sanir, and I have them on ice right now. They were with us when the bombing occurred at the Mare's Leg Cantina, which I believe to have been ground zero for Mau-Sanir."
The Grand Ascendant let out an electronic sigh as he took this information in. "Most unfortunate. What of Amhe Rest and Mau-Sanir?" the Ascendant pressed.
"Rest is on ice, too, and we've stolen not only his research notes, but also an antidote for Mau-Sanir."
Nax couldn't see for himself, but he could tell that he had just piqued the Ascendant's interest. "You… you have the antidote?" he asked, taken completely by surprise. "Alongside Rest and his research notes?"
"I just-" Nax started, before being cut off by the Ascendant.
"When can you bring them to us?"
Nax shot forward. "Hold on a second there, I never said anything about giving them to you." he responded, annoyed that he was being pushed around. "Rest is going to the Imperials – doesn't matter if you double, triple, or quintuple the bounty, money isn't an issue for me or my crew." Nax continued, and the link went silent.
"…He's hurt you, hasn't he?" the Ascendant pressed. "Or someone close to you, I gather."
"Doesn't matter." Nax rather obviously deflected, and the Ascendant decided to back off silently. "I'll happily hand his research notes over to you, if you have a databank I can transfer the files to." Nax offered.
The Ascendant made another grunt of consideration. "And what of the antidote?" he questioned, remaining calm despite Nax's reluctance to just hand everything over to him.
"That depends on how the Empire is reacting to Mau-Sanir by the time we get to Coruscant." Nax answered, tapping his fingers against the console. "If they're not reacting in the slightest, we'll hand it off to you. If they've got their hands full, it's going to the Empire."
The Ascendant sighed from his end of the line. "It might be more prudent to hand the antidote over to us, Strag." the Ascendant suggested, clearly trying to bargain for it. "My scribes are not as mired in bureaucracy as Imperial scientists – we would be able to reproduce the antidote much faster than the Empire could." he offered as a thought. "Furthermore, I also have a vested interest in curing both Voto and Nevda of this disease."
Nax scratched the side of his face in thought. "I'll consider it." he said, and the Ascendant let out only a lightly disappointed sigh. "That being said, I'll need to drop by anyways to hand off Kelah and Nevda to you. Do you happen to have a landing bay that would fit a YT-1300?"
There was a heavy metal clunk from the Ascendant's side of the link. "We have a hangar bay that houses ships much larger than a simple freighter. I will send you the coordinates to our church, as well as an uplink to a databank you can send the files to."
"Sounds good." Nax said, moving to turn the console off before pausing as he remembered something. "One last thing, I think my crew and I are all carriers. We haven't had any symptoms, but we were almost definitely exposed, so I'd have the crew that meets us in the hangar bay be naturals in biohazard gear prepped with decontamination equipment." he advised.
"Of course – we've been taking the utmost precautions since the first several of the Faithful began to experience symptoms."
"See you in a day or so, then." Nax finished, shutting the console off before he cracked his knuckles and turned to Arfive. "Hey, Arfive," he said, and the droid turned his head to look at him. "Get Knockout up here and have Rest's files sent to the databank. Make absolutely sure that Knockout saves a backup we can give to the Empire, just in case." he ordered, and the droid gave a mock salute.
Nax finally sat up out of the comms terminal's chair and headed down the corridor, Sidewinder floating past him, now without a master to perch on. Knockout quickly came thundering to the cockpit from the lounge, lightly brushing shoulders with Nax, before disappearing again.
Heading down towards the crew quarters, Nax opened it to find Zeethree standing outside the single person shower on the far left side of the room, holding Lexi's clothes over his right arm while she showered, like some sort of obedient butler. Before Nax could quip about it, Lexi shut the shower off and stepped out half-naked and dripping water, the only thing covering her being a white towel. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Nax, and the two of them exchanged embarrassed looks.
Before she could yell at him to get out, Nax had already disappeared back into the corridor, practically slamming the door behind him. However, Lexi knew he was waiting outside for either Zeethree or herself to tell him that she was decent, so Lexi decided to have a little bit of fun with it. "Look away." she ordered, and Zeethree interpreted that as 'stare at the wall'. Amused, Lexi started to dry herself off, and began to make some rather suggestive noises as she did so.
Once she had dried off, she took her clothes from Zeethree and began to dress, making sure her moans were getting louder and louder, just to mess with Nax. Once she was finally dressed in a light blue tank top and black sweatpants, stopped her moans and dismissed Zeethree.
As soon as Zeethree left the quarters, Nax traded places with him, his face flushed a deep red. Lexi smirked and leaned against the bunk. "…You know, Nax, I wouldn't be making all that noise if I didn't want you looking." she teased, a small giggle showing itself in her voice.
Nax tried, and failed, to hide his embarrassment. "…Yeah, well, maybe I didn't want to look." he responded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Lexi's mischievous grin only grew as she stood up from the bunk and walked over to Nax. "Is that why you didn't leave as soon as you saw Zeethree with my clothes?" she pressed, throwing her arms around Nax's back and looking up into his eyes. "Or why you stayed in the corridor when I started moaning?" she continued, creeping her hands up his back, much to his embarrassment, before pulling her right hand back out and tapping him on the nose, bouncing away towards her bunk gleefully. "Take a hint, dummy." she teased again as she sat down, crossing her legs and stretching.
Nax brushed it off and moved next to her bunk, resting his arm against it and looking under at her. "How's your back feeling?" he asked, blissfully ignoring Lexi's attempts at flirting, causing her to playfully roll her eyes in annoyance that Nax wasn't going to fall for her charms so easily.
Lexi feigned a light pain and bit her lower lip. "I don't know…" she trailed as she turned over and exposed her back to Nax. "It still kind of stings. Maybe you should check it for me?" she offered, pulling the back of her tank top up.
Nax went under the bunk fully to examine her wound. Slowly peeling the bacta patch back and tossing it aside, Nax rubbed his hand around where the wound had been inflicted. Parts of Lexi's skin were smooth at the impact site, mostly where the patch had just been peeled, but parts further up felt raw and even looked reddened. Lexi gasped in surprise when Nax's fingers touched them. "This hurt?" he questioned.
Lexi shot him an annoyed look from behind her bangs. "You tell me, Nax." she shot back. "Would you like the feeling of having salt rubbed in an open wound?" she snarkily replied.
Nax immediately ceased rubbing the wound. "I'll… go get some bacta cream from the hold." he said, before getting up and leaving the crew quarters. As soon as Nax left, Lexi's playful attitude evaporated like a puddle in the Tatooine suns now that she was left to her own devices, even if only for a minute or so.
Lexi's thoughts quickly drifted towards her dad's last words, or to be more specific, what he had wanted her to do. She couldn't help but wonder just what exactly he had planned for her at her old home. As she sifted through her thoughts as the possibilities, something came to the forefront of her mind. Whenever mom and dad got into a fight, dad would usually go out and get the two of them an apology gift, generally something inexpensive like sweets. She had to wonder if he'd done it one last time.
Nax came in soon after, carrying a small bottle of the bacta cream. Taking his left glove off, Nax uncapped the bottle and squirted the cream onto his hand. "Hold still for a minute, Lex." he requested, before applying the cream to the wound. Nax was initially caught off guard by Lexi's gasps, but he quickly realized that she wasn't faking it this time. Once the cream had been applied, Nax wiped the residue off on his right glove. "Better?" he asked as he put his loose glove back on.
Lexi flipped over and sat up, legs crossed. "Lots." she said appreciatively, stretching her arms behind her head and yawning.
Sitting down next to Lexi, Nax began to gradually undo the armor plating on his gear, and piece by piece, the suit clattered to the floor, leaving Nax in only the undersuit, now able to move much more freely. Something crossed his mind, and he looked to Lexi, who had been admiring him the whole time. "Hey, Lex?" he asked, pausing for a second to let Lexi catch up with his question. "When you shot that guy holding rest hostage, you looked really pissed. More than you should have been, all things considered. Why is that?"
As soon as Nax finished what he was saying, Lexi's expression immediately changed, and he knew he had hit something he shouldn't have. "…Zeltrons have a, uh, special term for people like him." she exposited, brushing her hand through her hair. "We call them Demagols – Zeltrons that've lost their sense of empathy, or just never had it in the first place. The majority of us don't consider them to be part of our own kind."
That word kept repeating in his head. "…I think my dad called someone a demagol once." Nax said, not sure what the significance of that word meant.
"He was Mando, so that makes sense." Lexi responded as she tipped over and leaned against Nax's shoulder.
"How?" he pressed, causing Lexi to look up at him.
Lexi breathed in as she tried to recollect the old fables her parents had told her. "From what I remember, Demagol was a Zeltron scientist that worked with the Mandalorians during the, well, the Mandalorian Wars. Experimented on kids, made genetic abominations, real fun stuff. The few actual Mandos I've met on Nar Shaddaa have all told me it's the same way with them, too."
"…Huh." Nax simply said, before going to crack his fingers. Desperate to change the subject to something less dark, Lexi saw an opportunity to tease him further, and immediately threw herself into his lap, staring up at him with a cheeky grin. "Damnit, Lexi." Nax complained, earning a giggle from the alien as she got comfortable. The two of them sat there like that for a while, until Lexi looked up at Nax, a dim look in her eyes.
"…Hey, Nax? Can I ask you a favor?" she eventually asked, and Nax looked down at her, waiting for her to speak. "…When we have time, can you take me to the place I used to live as a kid? Just the two of us? I-" she stammered, briefly losing her train of thought. "…Before he died, dad told me to go there and check my old room, and I feel like there's something there waiting for me."
Nax nodded once. "Sure." he responded simply, briefly catching Lexi off guard. She had expected some kind of resistance or even a straight up 'no' from Nax, but she'd been blindsided just by how fast and how blunt he was in agreeing to go. She was stunned only for a few seconds, before tears quickly welled up in her eyes, and she forced Nax into a hug, whispering thanks into his ear.
Nax began the landing sequence for the Ascendancy's hangar bay with some assistance from Arfive. The bay was large enough to pack multiple corvettes in, but eerily enough, the bay was completely barren save for a few humanoid figures in hazmat gear. In fact, barren was an unusually apt word to describe Coruscant when they had gotten back. Skylanes had significantly fewer airspeeders in them, and most things walking around, both on the surface and in the underworld, were the police droids, Underworld cops, and Stormtrooper patrols. Even the Star Destroyer in orbit that had given him permission to land had tried turning him away.
It was like everyone had just packed up and left, and to see what the beating heart of the Empire basically go still was unsettling, to say the least.
Without any issue, Nax landed the ship in the hangar and shut the sublights down, before getting up and heading back into the cargo hold where Kyra was waiting for him. "Creepy, isn't it?" she asked as she turned the repulsors on for Kelah and Nevda's carbonite slabs.
"What, the lack of people?" Nax asked as he set the antidote inside a case that was impact-hardened on the outside and with a rigid foam on the inside. Nothing short of an explosive could break the vial contained inside.
Moving the slabs as gently as she could over to the cargo hold lift, Kyra hummed an affirmative, before stepping aside for Nax to load the incredibly delicate cargo. "Yeah, I mean, this is Coruscant, you know, shining jewel of both the Republic and the Empire, population in the trillions, main attraction of the Core." she went on, putting her hands in her pockets and stepping back as Nax lowered the cargo lift into the hangar. "Seeing it so empty just feels… weird, you know?"
Nax nodded. "Yeah, I get you." he said as the hazmat guys took the two slaps, as well as the case, and loaded them up into biohazard containers. "Hey!" he shouted down, catching their attention. "Why's nobody out?"
"Quarantine!" one of them shouted back. "The disease's been spreading fast, and the Empire's trying to get a handle on things, nobody's allowed out or off-world without the proper paperwork!"
Nax cursed under his breath, before giving them a thumbs up. "Take care!" Nax finished, before closing the lift back up, and he turned back to see Kyra transfixed on the painting of the middle aged woman with the white hair, which was resting upright against a pile of crates alongside other loot pilfered from Bullen's home. "…You really like that painting, huh?" Nax questioned with his arms crossed.
Kyra stared for several more seconds. "Huh?" Kyra mumbled, before she snapped back to reality. "Oh, uh, yeah. I guess." she rambled, still staring at the painting.
"Why?"
Kyra paused and scratched her chin, thinking of an answer. "…I don't really know, actually." she answered honestly before crossing her arms. "I mean, it's definitely a nice looking painting, but I can't place exactly what about it keeps my attention." Kyra continued, sighing in annoyance.
Nax began to mentally transpose Kyra's image upon the woman. Change her hairstyle to be less messy and more regal, and age her up, and Nax had to admit, the two looked very similar to one-another. "You think you know her?"
Kyra shook her head slowly, not entirely sure of how to respond to that. "I feel like I should, Nax, but it's just that…" she trailed, slightly annoyed by her inability to place just exactly what it was about the painting that had captivated her. "…well, she doesn't look like someone I'd associate with, you know? She's too royal looking, and I don't take too well to royalty. Too snobby and uptight."
Nax nodded in understanding, throwing his hand around Kyra's shoulder. "Yeah, I get you." he agreed, pulling her closer to him. "Come on, let's get the bounty claimed on Rest, turn the data over to the Empire, and hope this all blows over." he said in a slightly reassuring tone, catching Kyra's glance back at the cargo lift. "They'll be fine. Come on."
Kyra followed Nax back to the cockpit, albeit reluctantly.
As it turned out, the bounty office hadn't been closed like Nax had expected. A few short inquiries on the holonet revealed that one of the local offices on 1313, not far from the apartment, had remained open. Unfortunately, the office was located basically in the middle of one of the larger field hospitals that the Empire had set up to try and contain Mau-Sanir. Specifically, the one where the Imperial effort was being coordinated for 1313, which had been put into a large park.
As Kyra and Nax passed through the impromptu camp, Stormtroopers and Underworld cops alike were both giving them wary looks – the only reason they were even allowed on site was due to Nax's bounty hunter license that Gaffi had issued him back on Tatooine, otherwise they would've been thrown out by the guards.
As the two of them carted Rest's frozen body through the camp, they happened upon scenes that struck deep. Young children, very few older than about five years or so, were being escorted away from their infected parents by doctors clothed in hazmat suits, screaming and crying, not understanding what was going on. Doctors were desperately trying to detach cybernetics from patients having seizures and bleeding everywhere, to little effect, and even a few hive gangers holding a silent vigil for a fallen member – there was so much death and chaos everywhere, it was like something out of a war holo.
Obviously uncomfortable, the two sped up and headed to the bounty office, heading through a checkpoint where they were quickly sprayed down with disinfectant chemicals. Being let through to the bounty office, they came face to face with an obviously tense junior officer wearing a respirator, just barely out of his teens, but he looked like he'd aged to his thirties from stress alone. "Name?" the officer requested.
"Nax Strag."
The officer sat forward and produced a datapad. "You got a puck, or are you just here to waste time?" he asked, and Nax produced Rest's puck, handing it over to the officer who quickly turned it on. "Hot damn!" he remarked in shock, staring at the puck's hologram before quickly correcting himself. "I find that hard to believe. Show me the goods."
Nax and Kyra stepped back towards the slab of carbonite and set it upright to let the officer look at Rest's face. Stepping back, the officer reached under his desk and produced a handheld scanner, before turning it on and running it over the slab. The scanner quickly gave three rapid beeps, and the officer stood back, surprised. "Stars alive, it is Rest!" he exclaimed, before glancing at Nax. "Where'd you find him? The Empire's been looking for him for years, and he just shows up in carbonite!"
Nax crossed his arms. "Let's just say that he was a little too close to home, and leave it at that." he offered as his only response, slightly annoying the officer.
The officer sighed and pulled out a flat datapad with a plastoid stylus attached. "Fine, then. I just need your signature here, here, and here." he said, pointing at several blank spaces in the text on the device. "Once you've signed, I can start the payment process, and you'll see the credits in your account within a week or so."
Nax looked over the agreement three times, making sure there wasn't anything suspicious about it that would screw him over down the line. Satisfied with the agreement, Nax signed, and they were out shortly afterwards. "So, now all we've gotta do is turn this in…" Nax trailed, patting the pocket that held the datacard with Rest's research on it. There was an approaching Underworld cop patrolling the area. "Hey!" Nax called out. "Who's in charge here?"
The cop looked around and pointed to himself, not sure if it was he that Nax was speaking to. A simple nod sufficed for an answer. "Our boss, or the medical officer?" the officer questioned.
"Medical!" Nax responded.
The officer turned around and pointed towards a hill with a large tent at the top, overlooking most of the park. "She's in there, but she's busy as hell, so if it's not important, don't bother her." he advised.
"Thank you!" Kyra said graciously, before she tugged at Nax's arm to get him moving.
As the two of them headed towards the doctor, the pair found even more horrifying sights than when they were carting Rest around. Hoversleds were moving about the camp slaved to utility droids, their cargo an innumerable amount of bodies and detached cybernetics, blood dripping in varying shades to create an ugly brown sludge. The further into the camp they went, the greater the stench of death grew, and Kyra could barely stomach it. "…It's only been a day or so, how is Mau-Sanir already this bad?" she quietly asked.
Nax looked down at her and put his hand on her shoulder as some form of assurance. "I don't know." he whispered back, looking around at the entropic scenes playing out before them. "Maybe this is the intended effect? Short burn, high damage?"
"Maybe?" Kyra said, her tone uneasy as they approached the doctor's tent. There was another utility droid, and without any warning, it sprayed them both with a disinfectant, before moving aside to let them through.
Lifting the flaps out, they found the medical officer's tent to be a rather large mess. There were stacks upon stacks of datapads lining the tables at the edge of the tent, a small pile of discarded testing equipment, various culture dishes, and rows of empty or sealed beakers and vials. The center desk was occupied by an overworked and stressed out woman, with no less than seven empty caf mugs occupying most of the desk space that wasn't already being used by her terminal. Her short, midnight black hair had been haphazardly maintained, and her dull amber eyes were darting all over the terminal screen. She wore a tag that identified her as Mizala Sonde. She was so preoccupied with her work that it took her almost a full minute before she caught sight of Nax and Kyra. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" she asked, speaking incredibly fast for someone as tired as she should be.
"Bounty hunters." Nax replied, and Mizala scowled.
"…Are you shitting me?" Mizala angrily said. "You come into my tent when I'm overworked as it is, and you decide to waste my time with bounties?!" she shouted, before standing up and pointing to the tent flaps. "Get the hell out and go talk to the shithead in the office!"
Kyra stepped forward. "That's not why we're here, ma'am." she intervened, before looking up at Nax. "Hand it here." Kyra requested, and Nax produced the datacard. Kyra took it and showed it to Mizala. "This datacard has everything you need to know about this disease." she said, which sounded rather ominous to Mizala. Kyra walked up to Mizala's desk and set it on the desk.
Mizala's scorn had been replaced with mild curiosity, and she put gloves on before taking the datacard into her own hands. Slowly, she inserted it into the slot on her terminal, and the screen began to light up with Rest's research notes. Her eyes widened as she took everything in. "…What… is this?" she questioned.
"Research notes, from the man that created the disease." Nax answered, causing Mizala to stare at him.
"…I see – I'd suspected as much that it was manufactured. Do you know who made it?" Mizala questioned, rapidly tapping her finger against a mug.
"Amhe Rest." Nax replied simply.
Mizala's jaw dropped. "You're lying." she denied as she continued to look over the research notes.
Nax shrugged. "Believe it, don't believe it, whatever. Doesn't matter to me." he said casually looking over at the mess on her desk. "Point is, those are his research notes. There should be a writeup for an antidote and the virus."
Mizala focused entirely on her terminal, rapidly flicking from folder to folder at what may as well have been the speed of light. Eventually, she came across the files for Mau-Sanir, and she stood up, only paying attention halfway. "…I have no idea how to…" she started, before looking up to see the tent flap gently swaying, and the pair nowhere to be found. "…thank you." Mizala mumbled, before sitting back down and getting to work.
Nax and Kyra, meanwhile, were already on their way out, trying to ignore everything happening around them. It was too much to bear, and was enough to make Nax regret giving the antidote to the Ascendancy, rather than the Empire. He had hope that the doctor would be able to reproduce the antidote, otherwise, everything would be resting on the shoulders of the Ascendancy, and that wasn't exactly preferable.
As they passed through a decontamination shower, they heard a man yelling outside the camp. "Ludd has deemed you all to be unclean! Prepare to bask in eternal fire!" he shouted. As the pair exited onto the street, they were immediately knocked back into the camp by a powerful explosion.
In their daze, the two of them could hear the screams of civilians, both those that were locked in their apartments, and those inside the camp. Plastoid boots thundered past where they laid, but didn't try and pick them up.
Nax slowly sat up, his ears ringing and head spinning, and he turned to find Kyra, slouched against one of the decontamination sprayers. Crawling over to her, Nax helped her to her feet, leaning on each other for support. As they turned back to face the street, they saw that a lot of the front tent had been incinerated in the explosion, and the entire entrance checkpoint had been turned to scrap and rubble, the only sign that it had any prior usage being the burned underworld cops getting picked out of the wreckage by Stormtroopers.
A small piece of cloth blew in from outside the decontamination tent, and Nax caught it, unfolding it revealed it to be a burned Pather patch.
This was not going to blow over like he had hoped.
Two chapters in one month (almost), that's the power of making up for lost time, baby!
'Till next time!
-Tweak