Author's Note: It's October 31 and that means I owe you all a chapter! Special shoutout to SAK-96 who encouraged me to not save this idea for Rebels and to use it in a Clone Wars setting instead. I hope this chapter gives you a few Halloween chills (or else I need to try harder!). Also shoutout to SAK-96 for the idea for Wraith's 'treat' in this episode... you'll see what I mean.

Oh, and housekeeping some updates: due to my lack of attention to detail, I've edited the story to change Wraith's armor to being made of phrik. Cortosis will actually short out a lightsaber, which his armor's never done. Plus, phrik was actually mined by the Separatists on a regular basis. This is canon folks, and I'm a sucker for keeping things canonically accurate!


-Chapter 29: Ship of Horrors-

Location: Drackmar System

"Nothing natural needs to be feared. The unnatural is a different story. That you should be afraid of."

Standing before the holotable in his base, The Wraith was in a meeting with Count Dooku and Doctor Scipio concerning his next assignment.

"Morseerian scientists have been working on a special bioweapon for use against the Republic's Clone troopers. So far it's been a rather tight-lipped secret, known only by its title of 'Project Dreadwind'. Rumors say it was based on a viral agent found on Odacer-Faustin, but none of us know for certain." Scipio was explaining.

"With the location of Merj such a closely-guarded secret among the Morseerians, we were not concerned about it until this morning when it was reported that the Separatist laboratory on Merj was raided." Dooku added.

"I'm assuming the Republic has raided this laboratory." Wraith mused as he crossed his arms.

"That is correct. An Arquitens-class light cruiser, carrying a team of Clone commandos, raided the facility and made off with a hefty sample of the Dreadwind virus. It must be recovered immediately to prevent the Republic from understanding its full potential and creating countermeasures." Dooku informed him.

"If the Republic already knows about this stuff, maybe it should be moved offworld. We take it back to Merj, they'll just try again." Wraith noted, spotting a potential pattern.

"A wise insight, Wraith. I shall make arrangements for transport to another facility." Dooku replied, nodding in agreement. He was pleased that Wraith was able to determine and catch the pattern before even he realized it.

"Any idea where this stuff is?" Wraith asked.

"We've received reports from some agents that the cruiser, called the Bravado, has been sighted in the Drackmar System. You may want to hurry Wraith, we've also received reports of a Republic force attacking the planet Drackmar." Dooku explained. Wraith nodded, understanding and sharing Dooku's feeling that these two incidents were somehow connected.

"I'm on my way." He stated. Dooku tipped his head and ended the communication as Wraith readied to leave.

"Before you go Wraith," Scipio stopped him, producing a syringe as he did, "your arm please." Wraith understood and removed his gauntlet before rolling up the sleeve of his duster.

"What's this?" He wondered as the doctor stuck the needle in his arm.

"You might call it a 'super-antivirus'. It'll protect against whatever is within Project Dreadwind." Scipio replied as he finished injecting the contents and withdrew the needle.

"You mean you don't know for certain?" Wraith wondered in a questioning tone as he unrolled his jacket and strapped his gauntlet back into place.

"I was assigned to Project Sunstorm, Wraith. I'm primarily a geneticist, not a virologist." Scipio answered with a measure of sarcasm. Throwing the needle away, the Pau'an picked up a pneumatic dispenser. "Here's a second dose, just in case." He stated, passing off the device.

"You're not exactly instilling a lot of confidence in me, Doc." Wraith commented, tucking the device into a pocket within his duster.

"What did you expect? That I would have all the answers?" The doctor shot back.

"You have so far..." Wraith muttered, rolling his shoulders.

"Well consider today a rarity." Scipio mused in reply as he gave Wraith a quick once-over. He gave a quick nod as he deemed Wraith mission-ready. "Now get going, before the Republic makes off with Project Dreadwind!"


Later, in the Drackmar System...

Arriving in the Drackmar system out of hyperspace, Wraith kicked his shuttle's thrusters to their maximum power as his scanners quickly discovered the exact location of Arquitens-class cruiser. Quickly triggering his stealth field, Wraith disappeared from view as the cruiser drew closer. The shape was unmistakable as it grew larger the closer he got, a real Republic ship if ever he'd seen one. Prior to his departure, Scipio had uploaded a code to his shuttle that, when transmitted, would bypass all security measures protecting the cruiser's docking ring and allow him total access for a few seconds. Wraith thought it risky to park his shuttle on the side of an enemy warship, but there were very few options and this was the best one.

Queuing his scanners, Wraith quickly swept across all available Republic channels. No chatter was coming to or going out from the ship. This was good. As long as they were quiet, they would not be sending a message any time soon. A pity he didn't have any jamming technologies, but his shuttle could only carry so much tech.

His scanners also announced the ship was moving at a very low speed, not nearly as fast as it could go or should go, considering it was running away from Separatist space. His thermal scans then indicated the cruisers engines were running at low power.

How odd. With such a valuable cargo one would think they would make all possible haste back to Republic space, even if there was a military force close by.

Flying to the starboard side of the ship, Wraith broadcasted the shutdown signal as he neared the docking ring. With careful precision, he aligned his craft with the entrance and locked them into place.

Stepping inside, Wraith discovered that the lights were off in the entry, leaving the room a dark, cold, empty space that seemed uncharacteristic of a Republic vessel.

Interior lights off, engines running low... something seemed off about this ship.

Is it just me, or is this too quiet for a Republic vessel? The voice suddenly within his head suddenly asked. Wraith grunted in reply and started moving deeper into the ship. The echo of his boots clicking against the metal floor resounded in the empty hall, adding to the cold and unnerving feeling that something was wrong with this place.

Drawing his pistols and venturing down the next corridor, Wraith found the lights on and assumed an infiltration approach. While there may be no immediate crew to deal with, they could still be around.

"Now, where would they store a potentially volatile bioweapon?" He asked himself. "Watch it be the cargo hold..." Rounding a corner, pistols pointed forward, Wraith found another door that opened to yet another corridor...

A corridor that yielded a rather gruesome surprise.

A massive splatter of blood painted the opposite wall, covering nearly the entire length of the panel from floor to ceiling. Wraith paused and holstered a pistol, pressing two fingers against the wall only to pull away seconds later and find the blood was still in its liquid state.

It was fresh.

I've got a bad feeling about this. Voice mused. Wraith couldn't help but agree. Now very wary, the soldier slowly continued on, adjusting his scanners to thermal. So far he registered nothing, no sign of life anywhere. If the blood on the wall was any indicator, it seemed some violent fate had befallen the crew.

Question was, what was it and was he in any danger of it?

His scans detected a mass of heat radiation further ahead, past another door. Curious, the super-soldier moved on, allowing his scanners to guide him. He could see the door now, the heat signature being just past it. It opened for him automatically, just like all the other doors on this ship. The heat mass was right there on the floor...

And was twice as gruesome a sight as the blood on the wall.

A pile of flesh and innards lay splattered along the corner intersecting the floor and the wall, a streak of blood trailing down through the hall and leading around the corner at the intersection ahead. Wraith paused in mid-stride and slowly knelt, his optics scanning over the pile of fleshy organ pieces. The thermal readings were bright and high, suggesting they had been torn out of their victim only recently.

First of all, that's gross. Second of all, that's not right. Something bad transpired here. Voice mused.

"And I get the feeling I'm about to be in the thick of it." Wraith grimly replied. There was definitely something afoot on this ship and he was determined to stay on high alert until he could fully comprehend this threat.

A ravenous munching sound could be heard coming from around the corner, like something was enjoying a feast. Choosing to investigate, Wraith stood up and holstered one of his pistols, favouring mobility and response time over extra firepower. With a firm two-handed grip on his weapon, the super-soldier crept down the hall, following the trail of smeared blood as his scanners detected yet another heat mass. This one was even bigger than the one behind him. As he prepared to round the corner, and the sound of eating grew louder, Wraith steadied himself and took a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever lay ahead.

He took one wide step around the corner, back straight and his pistol pointed straight ahead. The sight that greeted him was so unnatural it nearly unnerved him.

A Clone trooper was tearing into the corpse of an officer, its hands rummaging around in the chest cavity. Blood splashed on the ground and the body jerked as innards were torn free and flesh was consumed, quickly shoveled into the Clone's mouth.

Ew... that's nasty. Voice audibly grimaced. Nor is that normal behavior. Think we found the problem. Quickly diagnosing its behavior as cannibalistic, Wraith was starting to piece together what fate had befallen this ship.

Taking another step into the hall, Wraith's metal boot clicked against the ground, creating a loud enough echo that resounded in the semi-empty hall. The feasting Clone suddenly froze, its hands still buried in the body before it. It seemed to have heard him, indicating it was not an entirely ravenous creature, only determined to eat. Wraith tensed up as the Clone turned towards him, allowing him a good look at it. Part of its helmet had been shorn off, revealing discoloured green skin that had been torn in places, exposing raw bone and muscle along its jaw. Its mouth and teeth could also be seen, all of it blood-red with crimson excess dripping down its chin. It was then that Wraith realized the majority of the Clone's legs had been ripped away, revealing dangling flaps of discoloured green flesh surrounding shafts of raw bone. While his upper legs and feet were still encased in white armor, nothing but leg bone connected them. "What the hell...?" Wraith quietly murmured as he slowly sheathed his pistol and reached behind him for his carbine.

This situation required something a little more powerful than his sidearms.

Drawing his weapon and arming it, the loud clicking seemed to be enough to attract the creature's complete attention. The thing let out an ear piercing shriek as it started to run towards Wraith, half-stumbling on its barely-there legs as it displayed surprising amounts of speed considering its condition. Taking aim, Wraith fired repeatedly only to find his shots weren't slowing it down. They hit, but appeared to do no damage. The Clone continued to run until it was close enough to pounce on The Wraith...


Drackmar Airspace...

Standing on the bridge of the Resolute, Anakin was pleased with their progress so far.

Republic forces had arrived suddenly and without warning, engaging Separatist naval forces immediately. With the blockade effectively dismantled, Obi-Wan Kenobi took charge of both the 501st and the 212th in leading them down to the surface against the ground forces. Anakin would've preferred to have been on the ground too. However, instead of leading his men down on the surface, he was forced to stay behind and wait for the Bravado to arrive, if only to maneuver his forces into a protective formation so the cruiser could make a clean getaway. The three Jedi involved in this mission were well aware of the Bravado's sudden collection of a Separatist bioweapon and that this assault on Drackmar was merely to provide the ship and its crew an escape corridor.

But the Bravado had yet to arrive.

Growing impatient, Anakin was really struggling to stay put on the bridge. With Obi-Wan on the ground and Ahsoka cleaning up the remaining naval units, Anakin was feeling left out.

"I'm getting real antsy just looking at nothing, Admiral." He griped to Yularen.

"Might I recommend checking in with the Bravado, sir?" The Admiral recommended.

"Can't. They're supposed to maintain radio silence until they come in contact with us. So far they've only been able to chat with Coruscant." Anakin explained. "I hate waiting games."

"Don't we all, General?" Yularen replied. Suddenly, an incoming communication captured both their attentions.

"About time." Anakin muttered as he switched on the holodisplay and an image of Mace Windu shimmered into clarity. "Master Windu, how can I help?" Anakin greeted him. The reply was instant... and odd.

"Anakin, we need you to check on the Bravado." Mace informed him. Anakin raised an eyebrow.

"But I thought they were supposed to maintain radio silence." He replied.

"They've been silent for too long. They were supposed to check in some time ago, but they never have." The Jedi Councillor explained.

"Sounds like the Separatists found them." Anakin grimly mused, crossing his arms.

"Maybe so. But we won't know until we check them out." Mace added. "We've sent you their final broadcast transmission along their coordinates. Extrapolate their current location and then send someone to scout them out." He commanded.

"Will do." Anakin nodded before ending the communication. "Admiral, have someone decipher this stuff ASAP." He ordered Yularen.

"Right away, sir."

"I'm gonna have Ahsoka fly out and do a quick recon." Anakin determined, switching his comms back on. "Snips, you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Master." Came the reply.

"Up for a little trip? I need you to check on a set of coordinates for us." Anakin told her.

"Any idea what I'm looking for?" Ahsoka wondered.

"An Arquitens-class light cruiser called the Bravado. Might be derelict, might be under attack, we're not sure. We need you to find out their condition." Anakin explained. One of the navigational crew gave him a thumbs-up, indicating they had an idea where the ship might be. "Head on back to the Resolute and grab a shuttle. We'll get you set up with the coordinates."

"Copy that, Master."


Some time later...

Fortunately for Ahsoka, the Bravado was fairly easy to track down.

The suggested coordinates turned out to be relatively accurate to where the Bravado actually was and Ahsoka soon had the cruiser in her sights.

However, after several attempts to hail them, she received no response.

This was the first worrisome sign. The second was that the ship was not running at full power. After conversing with Anakin, Ahsoka planned to dock with the ship and investigate from the inside. Having switched out her interceptor for a Eta-class shuttle, she could dock with the ship and climb aboard if need be.

And right now, she needed to.

In actuality, she was glad to be getting away from any heated action for a bit. Prior to Drackmar, Ahsoka and Anakin had just wrapped up another campaign and had just returned to Coruscant when the call came in that they needed to be part of a distraction. Although reluctant to go, especially after having just finished with another war zone, Anakin agreed to join in. Ahsoka, however, went along reluctantly. She hadn't had a chance to do any self-maintenance and, after a particular incident beforehand, this left her slightly disadvantaged in the clothes department. However, she refused to let Anakin know and decided to just act normal, hopefully throwing off any suspicions.

She'd been confined to a starfighter and the interior of a ship for the past while, which was fine by her. Hopefully this little recon would be just as straightforward.

Docking with the larger ship, Ahsoka climbed aboard and stepped into an empty corridor. She glanced back and forth, hearing and seeing no one.

"Hello?" She called, looking about for some sign of life. She started to wander, starting down a random hall as she continued to search for the crew. Time passed as she explored wherever she could, venturing down random directions as she tried to find someone who could tell her what was going on. "This is so weird." She muttered. "You'd think I'd at least hear someone..." As a social-centric species, Ahsoka was starting to get restless being all alone. Togruta's needed interaction of some kind and couldn't stand to be alone for prolonged periods of time. This solitude was starting to wear on her, building up antsy feelings within her. She needed to find someone... then again, maybe the lack of crew should worry her.

This was starting to remind her of one of the ghost ships Anakin told stories about. The ships that were found adrift without a crew, rendered a mystery forever.

But then, as she turned a corner and travelled down another corridor, she heard something.

It was a series of sounds, each one different from the last. There were little scrit-scratches of something being raked across the durasteel wall, briefly reminding Ahsoka of the scattering noises small clawed creatures made when they started running. There was also the odd groan or grumble, sounding primal and beastial, and the scuffle of multiple feet shuffling down the hallway before her, coming from around the corner. It sounded like it belonged to a group of... something. She crept a little closer, hoping to discern who or what was on this ship. Shadows were cast on the opposite wall, thanks to a single, flickering light in the same hall, growing in size as the shuffling crowd grew closer.

But before Ahsoka could get any closer, or be seen by the horde, a pair of strong arms reached out, grabbed her and pulled her into the storage closet they'd come from.

Suddenly finding herself in a semi-dark room, a hand around her mouth and her back pressed against someone else, Ahsoka was more than a little freaked out.

"MPH! Mm mmm!" Her cries were muffled by the large hand over her mouth.

"Do not scream. They are hypersensitive." A voice whispered from behind her. Ahsoka immediately recognized Wraith's mechanical tone. She heeded his advice and stayed quiet as the sound of shuffling footsteps moved past the door, along with some scattered grunts and growls. Craning her neck so she could see through one of the slits in the door, her eyes widened as she realized who was walking by outside.

It was a group of Clone troopers. Only they didn't look right. In fact, they looked downright... horrifiying.

They shuffled by on half-existent limbs, staggering and crawling past the locker looking more dead than alive. Their armor torn and bodies swollen, begetting the appearance of bloated corpses. Bone and innards protruded from various tears and holes in their sullen gray skin. Ahsoka released a muffled gasp of horror as she tried to piece together what happened to those poor Clones. She'd never seen anything like this before and if Wraith was hiding from them, this must be a really bad situation...

Wait. Why was Wraith here to begin with? Did he have something to do with this?

Her mind began to slowly form a suggestion she quickly accepted, now believing that this was a Separatist experiment gone wrong. She turned her head a little and show Wraith a questioning, withering glare. Sensing her shift, Wraith glanced down at her glare and put two and two together. "No, I didn't cause this." He quietly told her. His answer not enough to convince her, Ahsoka chose to say nothing more until they were in the clear. Their gazes returned to the shuffling horde, watching the undead Clones move on in utter silence. When the last of the cluster was out of sight and no further sound could be heard, Wraith released his hand from around Ahsoka's mouth. Breathing deeply, Ahsoka whirled about as best she could in the closed space to confront the Separatist.

"Wraith! What're you doing here?!" She wondered in a hushed voice.

"I came to collect Project Dreadwind." He explained. Ahsoka gave him a quizzical look.

"Huh?" Her response indicated to Wraith she had no idea what Project Dreadwind was and that she was unaware of the Bravado's mission.

"Hm... so you don't know either. Guess this ship's mission really was a tight-lipped secret." He mused, stroking his metal-encased chin. "And what are you doing here?" He asked.

"I was asked to check on the Bravado. We lost contact with them." Ahsoka explained. "And just what the heck happened to those poor Clones?"

"That, I believe, is Project Dreadwind at work." Wraith answered, a grim tone in his voice. "It was an experimental bioweapon we were working on as a means of dealing with Clones en masse. Unfortunately, the Bravado absconded with a sample and I think the fools handled it incorrectly." He surmised, having had some time before her arrival to develop a theory. Unfortunately, due to the hide-and-seek nature of this mission, he hadn't had an opportunity to confer with high command yet.

"The Seppies are developing bioweapons now?!" Ahsoka exclaimed, momentarily forgetting their need for quiet.

"Keep your voice down!" Wraith growled, glancing out the slits in the locker door. "And yes, it's nothing new. Ever heard of THX eleven-thirty-eight?"

"No..." Ahsoka hesitantly replied, "wait, wasn't that the stuff from Honoghr?"

"Indeed." Wraith affirmed. "But this is far more deadly that that." Ahsoka couldn't help but agree. Honoghr had suffered from a kind of acidic rain that had completely destroyed its ecology. This stuff had turned Clones into... well, the stuff of nightmares.

But how did they get this way?

"What exactly did this... 'Dreadwind' do to those Clones?" Ahsoka asked, still wanting to learn more and still thinking Wraith might be responsible for some of this.

"It appears to have killed them and then turned them into reanimated corpses with cannibalistic urges." Wraith replied, stating what he had seen but was also in need of concrete answers.

"Are you sure they're dead?" Ahsoka skeptically inquired, knowing for a fact that the dead didn't walk.

"That's just it. My optical sensors don't register them like they would anyone else. In every physical and scientific sense of the word, they're dead." Wraith explained. Proof didn't lie. "But they walk and function as though they are alive." He added, stating the obvious.

"So they're... what, the walking dead?" Ahsoka theorized.

"That is one way of describing them. I've noted them working together, they don't attack or feast on each other. Only on the healthy living. They comprise a literal army of the dead... or, more accurately, the undead." Their descriptions sounded absurd, but were completely accurate. The ship's entire crew of seven-hundred and fifty people, plus any additional passengers, had now been turned into these walking corpses.

"We can't just stand around here." Ahsoka determined. "We have to do something."

"I haven't been able to do much. I found one and killed it when it lunged for me. Then a much bigger horde showed up and I've been hiding until now."

"So if we move, make any noise, encounter them at all, we're in trouble."

"Big trouble." Wraith agreed. "What do you recommend we do?" Ahsoka threw him a bewildered look.

"You're asking me? Aren't you supposed to be a tactical genius?" She replied.

"Yes, but I wanted to make you feel important." Wraith informed her. Partially taken aback by his aparent thoughtfulness, even now, Ahsoka paused as she tried her best to come up with something. But her lack of insight into the situation demanded she turn the reigns of this conundrum over to Wraith.

"Well... What do you recommend we do?" She wondered.

"As much as I would like to recommend escape, I get the feeling we're parked on opposite sides of the ship. To help one would certainly doom the other." Wraith mused, crossing his arms. Ahsoka nodded glumly. "Then that leaves us with one other option: we try to learn more about this virus... and then see if we can escape... somehow."

"Way to instill me with a lot of confidence." Ahsoka sarcastically replied, crossing her arms too and giving him an aside glance.

"A plan doesn't have to be great to work." Wraith muttered in response, triggering his multiscanner once more. "Before we go..." He mused, reaching into his jacket and withdrawing the spare injector Scipio had given him before leaving. Moving quickly before Ahsoka had time to act, Wraith pressed the injector into her arm and emptied its contents into her.

"Ow!" The Padawan cried out, recoiling as Wraith pulled back. "What was that?" She wondered, rubbing the spot where the needle had pricked her. It was then that she saw the empty injector dropped on the ground and put two and two together. "What did you inject me with?!" She demanded.

"An antivirus. It should keep you from suffering any adverse effects. The same substance is coursing through my veins." Wraith replied. Ahsoka rubbed her sore arm.

"You could've warned me first." She pouted.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Did that hurt?" He asked, voice taking a notably sarcastic tone. Ahsoka frowned.

"Are you done?"

"Yes and no. We need to figure out where we're going and how we'll get there." He responded, pinging his sensors for any sign of electrical radiation or heat output. "You know these ships a tad better than I do. Where should we look for a canister containing a deadly virus?" It didn't take Ahsoka long to come up with an answer. To be honest, it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer.

"Probably in the cargo bay. It should be up near the bow of the ship." She explained.

"Terrific. All we have to do is bypass scores of zombies to get there." Wraith grumbled.

"Is there a better way?"

"Well, either we try to fight our way through halls filled with the undead, which is a bad idea in every sense..." Wraith trailed off, his scanners picking up air currents in the roofing above them, "or we see if we can't do this quietly and move through the ceiling air ducts." Again, another no-brainer of a solution.

"I vote air ducts. I've seen enough of these... undead troopers for one day. They make my skin crawl." Ahsoka decided, shuddering a little at the thought of seeing those walking corpses again.

"A wise decision."


Carefully stepping out into the hall, Wraith first ensured the area was clear before he motioned for Ahsoka to follow him. The two crept down the hall as quietly as they could, Wraith regretting the fact his boots were made entirely of metal and made the loudest sounds. The air was thick with the stench of death and decay, no doubt wafting through the halls as the dead roamed the ship. Wraith could smell it now, having deactivated his olfactory scrubbers for the time being. Generally they filtered out anything that wasn't oxygen, but a few times Wraith had purposefully disabled them so he could breath deeply and take in the smells of a battlefield. The stench of smoke and fire mixing with split blood and charred bodies often excited him, igniting some hidden directive in his brain that fuelled his bloodlust.

But this scent was different. The death that surrounded him was unnatural and foul, it didn't excite him but, rather, it sickened him. Still, it helped him track where these zombie Clones had been, despite it's horrid nature.

Walking over to the nearest access panel, Wraith plugged in the equipment of his gauntlet and cycled through the available data before he retrieved the maps he was looking for.

"What're you doing?" Ahsoka asked in a hushed voice.

"Downloading the schematics to this ship. Hopefully it'll help us figure out where we're going." Wraith replied in equally quiet tones. The download successful, Wraith uploaded the map to his HUD, granting him a greater understanding of the ship. It was then that he spied the grate above them. "There's our point of access." He pointed, firing a grapple and tearing away the cover, only to catch it before it clattered to the ground. Ahsoka was about to jump up, sensing Wraith's desire to be chivalrous and say 'ladies first'. But remembering her wardrobe predicament, Ahsoka knew she couldn't take the lead.

"You first." She quickly said.

"If you insist." Wraith replied before firing his other grapple and pulling himself up. The opening was small and made for a really tight fit, Wraith's already wide body and additional armor not helping the process in the least. "Urgh... These were not designed with someone of my build in mind." He grumbled, forcing his waist and hips through the narrow passage. The ductworks he'd last used at the Republic prison were much bigger than this. Once he had finally wriggled his way inside the vent and disappeared from view, Ahsoka launched herself up and inside with the Force, making Wraith's arduous task look easy.

"What about the vent cover?" She wondered, looking back at the opening.

"Let's hope these things are as mindless as they appear." Wraith responded, beginning to crawl forward.

Time ticked on as the two slowly worked their way through the ventilation shaft, partially out of a desire to maintain total silence so to not alert any of the zombies and partially because Wraith was having a hard time moving fast in these cramped spaces. The endless stretch of gray air duct paneling growing monotonous with each passing second. Ahsoka dutifully kept up with Wraith's six-foot four-inch body, crawling directly behind him as he worked his body through the tight space. She was starting to wonder if she might wear out the knees in her leggings, adding yet another problem to her laundry predicament.

They were suddenly halted when an unnatural cry resounded through the vents, coming from somewhere below them. Wraith and Ahsoka froze in place, the Separatist pinging his sensors while Ahsoka reached out through the Force to try and sense the presence and location of whatever had cried out. Then, off in the distance from somewhere else aboard the cruiser, another voice echoed the cry, almost as if it were in response.

"What was that?!" Ahsoka wondered, fear starting to get the better of her.

"The undead." Wraith grimly replied. "It... It sounds like they're... communicating." He added, speaking slowly. The echoing cry reminded him of Loth-wolves and how they howled over vast distances as a means of communication. Had these things developed such a means too?

"Please tell me they're not." Ahsoka said worriedly.

"I don't know for certain." Wraith replied, also hoping he was wrong.

Mental note: ask the higher-ups about what this stuff is supposed to do. Voice mused. Were they actually trying to turn Clones into walking corpses? 'Cause that's kinda messed up. Wraith couldn't help but agree. He may not have a squeaky-clean mind, but he wouldn't wish this on anyone. When he killed Clones, sure, it hurt. But to be reanimated soon after? That was crossing more than a few lines...

The two kept crawling until they discovered the duct suddenly ended. They were in the mess hall and the passage before them had been completely torn out, the vents ripped away and lying on the floor. Wraith pinned the blame on the walking corpses congregating around the bloody room below. He quickly deduced there had been a number of Clones in here when the disease broke out, given the copious pools of blood on the walls and floor of the room and the half-eaten ration meals on a few of the tables.

The place looked like a warzone... after he'd been through it.

His thoughts returned to the task at hand. They could no longer continue this way, not without drawing the attention of the Clones. Wraith's HUD map still urged him to continue forward, obviously not in sync with its surroundings.

"Well, this is not an option any longer." He muttered to Ahsoka. The Padawan could see the problem and backtracked, remembering something.

Sure enough, only a few feet behind them, the vents turned up, running vertically towards the upper levels.

"Here! We can go up a level and then keep going." She announced. Wraith looked over his shoulder to spot her discovery, nodding in agreement.

"Lead on, my dear." He stated, slowly crawling backwards himself. Ahsoka took the initiative, feeling rather desperate to get away from the zombies, and started climbing up the shaft. Wraith was a little slower to join her, his bulky body still proving to be an issue in these tight quarters. He growled as he forced his shoulders into the narrow opening of the verticals shaft, half wondering if this one was smaller than the others. "Look at the bright side, these things must not be that intelligent, or else they would've come stampeding towards all the noise I'm making." He dryly commented as he squirmed and wriggled the rest of his body into the vent. Ahsoka didn't comment, focused on moving up. Wraith tilted his head back to see if he could judge how far they had to go, only to find out that Ahsoka was directly above him... and that he was looking right up her skirt. As his optics adjusted to their new condition, they suddenly revealed in crystal clear detail the fact that Ahsoka had gone commando today.

For a fraction of a second, Wraith was completely frozen in place.

What're you looking a-daaaaaamn! Voice suddenly exclaimed as he laid eyes on exactly what Wraith was seeing. I know we should look away... but that is... wow! Wraith said nothing as his mind rapidly memorized the sight before him and quickly created a reason to start moving again. Bracing his feet against the side of the vent, Wraith propped his body in a resting position as he tried to make it look like he had not been sneaking a peek up his crush's skirt.

Ahsoka, in mid-climb, remembered her wardrobe malfunction and was horrified that Wraith was now beneath her. Knowing that her currently position was likely bearing all, she decided to be blunt and asked,

"Wraith? You better not be looking up my skirt!" Her tone of voice was far more commanding, indicating that he had better heed her words. However, Wraith had been anticipating her comment and had an answer ready.

"I'm not. I'm busy watching the hall below through my scanners." He lied, tilting his head down before she could look to complete the appearance. "Why, should I be?"

"What? No!" Ahsoka exclaimed, looking down to see only the back of Wraith's silver helmet. It sure seemed like he was telling the truth and Ahsoka decided to accept his answer. "Thank you for not looking." She quietly said, moving to a position where her legs were pressed together, her skirt hiding her error.

"I respect you, Ahsoka. You deserve your modesty and privacy." Wraith replied from below, being honest this time. Ahsoka have a slight chuckle as she continued climbing.

"Maybe you're more of a gentleman than I thought." She quietly mused, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. He may be a warrior, and a bloodthirsty one at that, there was an element of humanity to him that was unmistakable.

It was the reason why Ahsoka was so determined to help him. She took it to be a sign of the good man locked away behind the appearance of a deadly super-soldier, peering through the cracks she was slowly forming in his facade.

One day. She thought.

Wraith, however, looked back up to the ascending Ahsoka and recalled the tantalizing sight he'd witnessed. Now that was a pretty little something you didn't see everyday. The voice in his head also agreed, whistling as Ahsoka moved on.

I'm not gonnna condone that lie, but that was pretty hot. He mused.

"And here I thought you were the 'noble' one." Wraith quietly jabbed.

Hey, this is my body and my hormones to begin with. Voice shot back.

"Whatever." Wraith rumbled as he continued to crawl, grinning as he did.

This misadventure just got a whole lot better.


After their detour, Wraith and Ahsoka continued on, Ahsoka no longer worried about taking the lead, knowing Wraith respected her privacy. After a few more minutes, which felt like hours, of crawling through the ducts, they had arrived at their destination: the cargo hold.

"We're getting close. Just another few feet." Wraith announced.

"That'll put us right overtop of the hold." Ahsoka guessed, realizing Wraith wanted to avoid having to opening any doors for fear of alerting the hordes of creatures still aboard this ship. "But... what if we run into more of those undead Clones?" She wondered, not knowing if she had the stomach or the willpower to actually fight those horrid things.

"You will leave them to me, my dear." Wraith replied, knowing he had the plans and the equipment to deal with those things... as long as he could plan his battle before hand. They kept crawling for a few more seconds, Ahsoka's hearing picking up what sounded like grunts and growls from the room below. Her montrals provided her with a kind of echolocation, which enhanced her hearing capabilities far beyond that of any being with simple ears, and made it practically impossible for anything or anyone to get the drop on her.

And yet there had been more than one occasion where Wraith had snuck up on her.

An open grate in the floor ahead of them revealed their way inside. Ahsoka reached it first, and peered through to the room below... her worst fears confirmed.

The cargo hold was full of zombified Clone troopers. While it wasn't necessarily enough to constitute a massive horde, but there was certainly a crowd of them. And there was certainly enough to pose a problem.

"Great. Now how are we going to get past all of those things?" She wondered, gazing at the zombies below them.

"You are going to wait here. I've got the tools to clear them out." Wraith replied, the wheels of a plan already turning in his mind. After a recent upgrade from Scipio, his duster and body now had the storage capacity for any necessary weapon. Reaching down to the waist of his duster, Wraith pulled out a simple chain and fastened it to his gauntlet in two places. He did the same to the other side, the chains winding down through the tails of his coat to a pair of pockets sewn into the fabric.

For hidden in these pockets were his chain blades.

Wraith brandished his weapons, the silver edge of his blades gleaming in the light.

"Where did you get those from?" Ahsoka wondered, turning to stare.

"I made them myself." Wraith replied. "Now, if you wouldn't mind opening the door for me." Ahsoka nodded and crawled to the opposite side of the grate before she turned and used the Force to open it. Wraith gave her a quick nod in thanks before dropping through to the room below.

Showtime! Voice mused. A single undead Clone was standing directly beneath him and became Wraith's first casualty as the super-soldier dropped down on top of him, driving both blades into the back of his skull. Wraith wasn't quite sure if killing the dead would actually work, but he did decide that if these things could walk and function then that meant they had a brain. If there was any one thing he should target, it would be their heads.

A zombie to his right started shrieking, recognizing the presence of fresh blood. Wraith promptly silenced him by spearing his head with a blade, splitting his head in two. Pulling his blade back to his hand, Wraith lashed out with his other chain blade and decapitated another zombie before slamming his other chain down to cleave yet another Clone right down the middle. The others in the room, now recognizing Wraith's presence, began to close in with remarkable speed, surrounding him. The super-soldier took hold of the chains tied to his arms and began to swing and twirl about, cutting through any who dared to get close to him. Wraith's blades tore through the screaming, howling crowd, splitting skulls and tearing apart heads as Wraith did what he did best. His blades were soon covered in sickly dark-red blood as he butchered the horde without hesitation. One Clone found his head torn off, impaled on Wraith's blade. Another fell as both blades speared his torso, tearing him open. Yet another died as his head was cut in two, the blades swinging by and cutting through others as they did. Wraith moved fluidly with such refined precision and speed that none of the zombies could touch him, falling dead in various states of bisection, their remaining innards splattering across the ground. Wraith ceased to move as he pulled his blades from the last zombie, one he'd torn in half personally. The corpse hit the ground as Wraith stayed standing, shoulders rising and falling in time with his breathing. He gave a few quick glances around the room to ensure only he was still standing. "We're all clear, Ahsoka." He called up to the vents. "You can drop down now." The Padawan suddenly appeared as she lept from the duct over to one of the crates in the room.

"I'd prefer not to land on a pile of corpses, if it's all the same to you." She replied, crouching on top of the crate. Wraith shrugged.

"As you wish." Storing his chain blades back in his duster and removing the chains from his gauntlets, Wraith began stepping over bodies as he adjusted his optics to find any unusual chemical signatures.

It didn't take him long to find a broken canister with a blackish liquid oozing from its cracked shell lying on the floor.

"Found you." He mused, stepping over another corpse before stooping down next to the canister. Finding some ground that wasn't covered with blood or corpses, Ahsoka hopped over and landed next to Wraith. She peered over his arm at the black puddle of semi-fluid liquid spread across the ground, her eyes full of curiosity and intrigue.

"Is this... it?" She wondered. "What is that?"

"It's chemical signature is unlike any known or natural combination. It has to be Dreadwind." Wraith told her. Reaching out, he slowly tipped the canister back, his optics roaming over the shape and design of the construct before him. It certainly matched many of the qualifications for biological sample containers. The THX1138 sample he'd recovered from Honoghr had been in a similar canister, leading him to draw the conclusion that this was, without a doubt, Project Dreadwind. "This is a far more complete sample than I first imagined." He continued. Ahsoka glanced at him, wondering where his unfinished thought was going.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning this canister should come with a scientific instrument package." He answered. "It'll have all the data we need." Reaching for the lower end of the canister, Wraith pressed down on a panel which responded to his actions by springing up via an ejection sequence, revealing a single microchip. "Bingo." Wraith took the chip and inserted it into his gauntlet, powering up the built-in computing device. A projected holoscreen appeared before him and Wraith began to pick apart the data within the SIP, sifting through records as he slowly began to comprehend exactly what Project Dreadwind was. Ahsoka remained crouched beside him, waiting with anticipation for him to reveal the truth about this stuff.

"Well? Anything?" She anxiously asked, equally invested in learning the answer.

"It appears this is an unfinished form of the virus." Wraith reported, scrolling through files. "The original intent of Project Dreadwind was for it to be a semi-sentient virus that took control of the host's brain and then force them to kill their allies in an immediate vicinity before expiring."

"That's... pretty disturbing." Ahsoka commented with a grimace, vaguely reminded of the Geonosian brain-worms she and Barriss had been forced to fight off. They had taken control of the Clones aboard their medical frigate and had tried to kill them more than once.

"It gets worse." Wraith went on. "The semi-sentient part of the virus backfired during this phase and started doing things in the reverse order. It killed the host outright and then took control of the corpse, turning it into some kind of... puppet for it to use."

"For what purpose?" Ahsoka asked.

"To kill any other living thing in the area." Wraith explained. He paused for a moment as he realized the single, malevolent reason for the existence of this virus. "Its soul purpose is to kill, for the sake of killing." He surmised. For a brief moment, he noted a sort of kinship between this virus and his own secondary nature.

Was this all the Separatists wanted? Killing machines?

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Voice piped up. About whether or not this is really the path to be on? Wraith said nothing, his thoughts automatically consuming him in an effort to drown out Voice. You know, if you do need a way out, I'm pretty you'll find one right beside you... It added, trailing off. Wraith glanced over to Ahsoka, momentarily dwelling on the idea Voice presented to him.

But while his desire for her was strong, his Separatist programming was much stronger, and those thoughts soon vanished in favor of staying true to the cause.

"What about its level of contagion? Can this stuff spread?" Ahsoka inquired, wondering if this stuff had similar properties to the Blue Shadow virus she'd been infected with on Naboo.

"Yes. But there's not a whole lot of detail on it. It spreads in a viral manner, and through death, But there is, apparently, the odd individual who is naturally immune to it." The super-soldier replied. Shutting down his screen, Wraith stood up and began to put the pieces together as the fate of the ship and the crew came together in his mind. "My guess is that the outbreak originated here. The virus was first unleashed and it killed any crew member or Clone that happened to be in this bay. Then it reanimated them and spread to the rest of the populace as the undead killed them off." Ahsoka rose beside him, any hope for fixing this problem gone.

But if that's what could happen to a single ship... could the same fate befall an entire planet?

"So if this ship, as derelict as it is, crashed into a planet," she started to say, "then the planet's entire population would become like these... zombies?"

"That seems like a likely outcome." Wraith agreed. "And I believe that was the intended goal from the getgo: to wipe out entire Republic worlds with their own dead." Ahsoka shuddered at the thought of this disease spreading. If not dealt with, this virus could be the beginning of one of the worst catastrophes every recorded in galactic history.

"Entire planets... populated by these things." She whispered, the realization a dark and horrifying one.

"The Clone Wars would have a third party join in: the Separatists, the Republic... and the dead." Wraith mused.

"Dead troopers..." She muttered, shivering a little at the thought of having to fight these things on a regular basis.

"More like 'death troopers'." Wraith added. The two stood silent for a moment, left to their own thoughts as the gravity of the situation sank in with them both. Under normal circumstances, Wraith would've been fine with leaving the Clone army to deal with such a situation. But given both he and Ahsoka were now in danger, he knew they needed to get out of here and contain this ship somehow.

"We have to stop this ship." Ahsoka determined, echoing his own thoughts.

"I agree. Any suggestions?" Wraith asked. Ahsoka paused and began to think, the ball back in her court. Suddenly remembering a ploy used by the kid-bounty hunter known as Boba Fett aboard Master Windu's cruiser, Endurance, Ahsoka realized that, if kicked up a notch, it might work on this ship too.

"The engine room. If we blow the engines, or start a chain reaction with the main generator, then the whole ship will go up in flames." She noted.

"Right. Back to the ducts then."


Back to crawling through the ventilation shafts, Wraith took point with Ahsoka right behind him as his optical HUD calculated a map from the cargo bay to the engine room. They'd have to travel all the way back through the ship, virtually from bow to stern, in order to reach the engines.

After this, Wraith was determined to gladly accept and missions involving him upright and running.

"It's going to be a bit of a trek to get back there." He informed Ahsoka as the crawled. "If you need a break, let me know."

"I'm just worried about you getting stuck and blocking my way." Ahsoka jokingly responded.

"Ha ha. I'm thick, not fat." Wraith replied. "And I'm not known for getting stuck." Brushing her remarks aside, he continued on... but did his best to make sure his burly shoulders did not get wedged within the narrow walls of the vent.

They kept moving, pushing forward despite the less-then-ideal conditions. The trekked on for several minutes, doing their best to not alert the hordes of undead below them. Periodically, a Clone or a series of Clones started shrieking and screaming, seemingly at random. Then, moments later, an echoing noise could be heard from somewhere within the ship, coming from another zombie.

Wraith was growing convinced it was a means of communication between them.

The unnerving sounds were cause enough to compel Ahsoka and Wraith to keep pushing forward and to remain silent. They passed through halls and climbed levels in order to avoid destroyed sections that emptied out into rooms full of the undead. The smell was really starting to get to Ahsoka, the pungent aroma of death and decay growing stronger with each passing second. It got so bad, Wraith triggered his olfactory scrubbers, sealing his mask off entirely to the external elements. And yet they kept moving, crawling steadily along with the determined purpose of reaching the engines and the ship's primary power core.

But then, Wraith stopped. He could've sworn he felt the bottom of the vent buckle and bend beneath his hands, in a fashion so unnatural that it had to indicate a weak point. Something that, if ignored, might cause them some serious problems.

"What is it?" Ahsoka asked, wondering why he stopped.

"Did you feel something?" He asked over his shoulder, curious if Ahsoka had felt a similar sensation.

"No..." She hesitantly answered. Wraith slowly started moving again until he heard the sound of stressed metal buckling and bending. It was close, very close.

"Do you hear that?" He asked, stopping again.

"What?" Ahsoka wondered, glancing around and thinking he had heard a zombie coming after them.

Without warning, the material beneath them gave way, coming undone and collapsing forward. Wraith was pitched out of the vents and onto the ground with Ahsoka tumbling out and landing atop him moments later. The two groaned at the sudden and unceremonious drop, both of them having to shake off such a hard impact, Ahsoka finding hers especially hard as she had landed on top of Wraith's armored body. They had been deposited in the middle of an empty hallway, the vents giving way and falling apart under their combined weight.

"Shoddy Republic engineering." Wraith growled, wishing to sit up but remaining pinned to the ground beneath Ahsoka's body.

"Ow." She winced, rising up and rubbing her face.

"You okay?" Wraith wondered.

"No." Ahsoka replied, sitting up even further. "I landed on your armor. That stuff's hard, you know." She grimaced, wondering if she had a bruise somewhere.

"Sorry." Wraith mumbled, not realizing his armor's impact compensation would have such an effect on an organic being. Ahsoka climb off Wraith and stood up, glancing around the empty hall as Wraith sat up as well. "You gonna be alright?" He asked. Ahsoka opened her mouth to reply but never got the chance to. The floor before them suddenly burst open and shattered, torn asunder by gray, bloodied hands. Undead Clones started to claw their way out, screaming and shrieking as they did, announcing their unsettling presence with equally unsettling noises. Their helmets torn open, their sickly yellowed teeth and exposed jaws hanging wide as they uttered noises no living thing could ever replicate. His scanners quickly informed Wraith that they were coming from the floor below, having heard their crash and torn through the roof to get to them. Then a door to their left collapsed and a mixture of bodies bearing Clone armor and officer uniforms came tumbling out, adding to the crowd filling the hallway. They threw themselves up into broken half-standing positions, crying out in unsettling tones as the scent of fresh, living bodies entered their senses and drove them mad with an insatiable hunger. "Go go go go GO!" Wraith rapidly shouted, scrambling to his feet and taking off alongside an equally fearful Ahsoka. The young Togruta's eyes were wide with fear, her mind barely able to comprehend this maddening reality and wishing it wasn't so. They sprinted down the corridor as quickly as they could, trying to leave the howling cries of the undead behind them and put enough distance between themselves and the growing horde that could be considered safe. Two more Clones shambled out from around the corner in front of them, surprising Wraith and Ahsoka. Their bodies looked even worse than the others, their armored limbs barely held together by twisted masses of distorted muscle tissue, turned sickly gray by the infection. Their bodies had been torn open, broken white armor covered with splashes of dried blood and a collection of shredded innards partially dangling down to their feet. No doubt this was what remained after their deceased comrades ate them, killing them, bestowing upon them a sickly rite of passage from life to death to undeath.

"Look out!" Ahsoka shouted, her senses barely comprehending the words leaving her mouth. But Wraith was already moving, drawing his slugthrowers and taking aim as he continued to run. CRACK! CRACK! He pulled the triggers and shot both the Clones in the head, blowing open their skulls with a shower of grayed flesh and dark red blood. They rounded the corner, passing the falling corpses and kept on sprinting, desperate to leave the nightmarish situation behind them. "We've gotta get out of here!" Ahsoka cried.

"Find a corridor, somewhere we can hide!" Wraith replied, pistols still drawn. "We've got to throw them off our trail!"

Where's a storage closet when you need one? Voice muttered. The two kept running, Wraith rapidly scanning the hall ahead for any more zombies. Ahsoka could see no other corridors around, their only exit being the door in front of them at the end of the hall.

"Up ahead! It's the only way!"

"We'll have to get it open first." Wraith noted. He suddenly stopped in his tracks. "You go, I'll hold them off!" He instructed, turning around to face the oncoming horde. Ahsoka stopped short as well, hearing his ridiculous response.

"Alone?!" She cried. Wraith turned to her, almost as if he were smirking as he replied,

"Don't worry, I can handle myself. It's what I do best." Of course it was. That was how he always worked. With that assurance in mind, Ahsoka ran to the door and started working on the activation panel. The horde came barrelling around the corner, a tidal wave of bodies crawling over each other in their strained attempt to reach what they hoped would be a meal. That's when Wraith started shooting, the flare of his pistols illuminating the hallway in intermittent flashes as he shot round after round into the undead. Despite the chaos before him, his steady gaze and trained mind translated through his arms and into his guns, ripping apart heads with each shot. The slugs were so powerful they disintegrated the heads of their victims and continued to tear through the bodies behind them. And yet they kept coming and coming, an unstoppable rush of dead corpses with no end in sight. Wraith fired and fired until his clips were empty, then he reloaded and was firing again within seconds. He kept up a steady stream, headless corpses piling up on the ground. But the horde kept coming. Their numbers were endless! Wraith slowly began backing up towards the door. He knew he couldn't keep this up forever. "Ahsoka? Please tell me-"

"I've got it!" She called. Wraith quickly glanced back, seeing the door open slightly, revealing a narrow, horiztonal opening. They could escape but the zombies couldn't follow.

How wise of her.

"Come on!" Ahsoka lept through the opening without hesitation, rolling to her feet on the other side. Wraith turned and holstered his pistols, breaking into a sprint with the horde hot on his tail. His mind quickly calculated the necessary angle for him to successfully jump through the doors and he lunged forward, his broad shoulders barely fitting through the doors, his armor scraping against the edges. Crashing into the ground Wraith rolled over and clambered to his feet, Ahsoka helping him up. He could still see the horde drawing closer, rushing the door.

But Wraith had an idea.

Launching a pair of explosives into his hands, he rigged them with three second detonators.

"Chew on these, undead freaks!" He called, whipping them through the door. Too dumb to react, the undead kept moving, oblivious to their impending doom. The disks exploded in the midst of the horde, incinerating them in a single blast. The fire moved swiftly, tearing through the narrow opening that separated Wraith and Ahsoka from the undead. Seeing his mistake Wraith moved with sudden swiftness as he caught Ahsoka in his arms and stood between her and the explosion, using his body as a shield to protect her from the sheet of flame that followed. Ahsoka could feel the intense heat surging past all around her as Wraith absorbed the brunt of the blast. After a few tense seconds, the heat dissipated and was replaced with smoke. Ahsoka, having squeezed her eyes shut, hesitantly looked around and up into Wraith's optics.

"Are you...?" She wondered.

"A little crispy. But otherwise, I'm fine." He answered, releasing her from her grip. They turned back to the door, to see a black mass of charred corpses on the other side. Some of them were stirring, not quite dead but not quite alive either. Regardless, this horde had been dealt with... for now. "Not sure if that'll keep them down. Do us a favor and seal the door, would you?" Ahsoka nodded and moved to the panel on this side as Wraith glanced around the circular room they were in. "This appears to be some kind of central command room." He commented. It was dimly lit, but the odd illuminated controls scattered around the premises were enough of an indicator for him.

"It's probably the operations hub for the lower decks." Ahsoka replied, fiddling with the de-powered controls.

"Just like on a Venator." Wraith mused. "Gotcha." The super-solider walked past some of the controls, switching on his electrical sensors as he scanned over various cables and routers, trying to discern which controls did what. "Would this place happen to have the controls to the main generator?"

"Probably." Ahsoka replied, finally managing to seal the door. "Whew. That was intense."

"Indeed. I'd rather not have to deal with another horde, I fear I'm close to running out of ammunition." Wraith replied, checking the status of the clips currently in his slugthrowers. They were both half-empty. Stowing his pistols and pondering how he could best fight off these things, Wraith glanced over to Ahsoka and noticed a distant look in her eyes as she walked over to him. Evidently her thought were preoccupied with another matter, but there was something solemn in her appearance. "You okay?" He asked. Ahsoka glanced at him before looking away.

"I just... I've never encountered anything like this before. I can't explain it but... I can't help but feel... terrified of these things." She admitted.

"They are a horrific sight to behold." Wraith agreed.

"But I just feel this... this innate sensation of terror everytime I see one of them." Ahsoka continued. Wraith nodded slowly, understanding she was being open and even a little vulnerable with him, talking about thoughts and feelings that she would normally have to supress around other Jedi.

"It's okay. I do to." He responded, sympathizing with her.

"You?" She wondered incredulously. Then she started smiling. "The Wraith is afraid of some zombies?" She snickered.

"You don't sound too terrified of them anymore." He noted. Ahsoka chuckled.

"That was nervous laughter, smart guy."

"Could've fooled me." He shrugged in response. The moment of tension-cutting reprieve helped both of them relax and calm down after the harrowing escape, both Wraith and Ahsoka recalibrating before returning to the task at hand. "Think you can figure out which one of these controls the generator?"

"Well... maybe not controls..." Ahsoka admitted, walking around the consoles.

"But you said-"

"I was trying to avoid getting eaten alive! Cut me some slack." Ahsoka replied with a wave of her hand. "But I can try to shut the engines down and re-route the power into the main generator. That would save us a trip to the engine room."

"So they are controls." Wraith murmured.

"Just not for the generator. The more power I force back into it, the sooner it'll overload without us having to manually do it." Ahsoka explained. "You really need to brush up on your starship schematics." She added, throwing him a cheeky grin. Wraith rolled his head and crossed his arms in response.

"And you do realize that process requires us to override the ship's electrical dampeners lest it cut off the feedback response before it blows the generator?" He wondered, adding his own level of snark to the conversation. Ahsoka's eyes widened a little as she remembered the complicated part of her simple plan.

"Oh yeah... the safeguards, right..." She slowly said. Wraith opened his arms.

"See? I do know my starships." He retorted, voice thick with sarcasm. Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

"Sure you do."


Wraith's electrical sensors managed to come in handy as he pinpointed the location of a primary switcher that was connected to the command deck. The problem was, it was located in the midst of a hallway beyond the safety of the sealed off deck, meaning Wraith and Ahsoka would have to venture out into the zombie-infested hall.

It was a task neither of them were looking forward to.

After fiddling with another door panel, Ahsoka managed to grant them access to the hallway. This door was smaller than the last one and she had to open it fully so they could walk through. Wraith stepped out first, slugthrowers drawn and raised. Ahsoka waited in the entrance, watching as Wraith checked corners and slowly adapted to his surroundings, functioning with an elegant precision seen only the most highly-trained soldiers.

"Clear." He called from the corner ahead. Ahsoka took that as her cue and crept up behind him, Wraith moving ahead to ensure the entire hallway was clear. It was long and dark and eerily quiet, the majority of lighting coming from a single fixture that was still on. Ahsoka could barely see the floor in front of her and she crept along nervously behind Wraith, worried that a zombie might leap out of the dark.

The thought of running into one of those here and now made her skin crawl.

"I hope this darkness isn't an indicator of a failing power generator." Wraith mused.

"It's probably just a lack of power to this particular area." Ahsoka said. Wraith said nothing, but refused to let his guard down.

To him, this hallway was quiet... too quiet.

It would be best if they fixed this panel and got out of there as soon as possible. Identifying the mass of electrical readings coming from behind a single wall panel, Wraith stowed his weapons and drew one of his knives, prying off the section of wall and setting it on the ground. Beneath it lay a master control panel that regulated the flow of power controlled by the command deck. "Yup, this is what we're looking for." Ahsoka commented, placing her hands on her hips as she sized up the controls before them. Wraith was quick to spot the controls they needed... but there was one problem.

"So we need to flip off the dampeners and regulators in order to get the flux we need."

"Yeah."

"Then it appears we have a problem." He observed. Ahsoka looked at him, confused.

"Why? What's the problem?"

"The dampeners have a secondary failsafe." He stated, pointing to the second set of identical controls at the bottom of the panel. "There's four switches that need to be pulled simultaneously... and one of us needs to man the master controls at the same time. In short, we're kinda hooped unless we can find a second pair of hands." He surmised, crossing his arms. "What I would pay to have Grievous' abilities right now..." Wraith mumbled, pondering the conundrum before them. But Ahsoka wasn't concerned.

"Not to worry, big guy. I'll just use the Force to trigger it while I stay here and help you flip these switches." She stated with a wave of her hand.

"The Force?" Wraith repeated, turning to look at her. "You sure about that?"

"Hey, just 'cause you don't trust it doesn't mean it doesn't work." She replied. Pushing past Wraith so she stood between him and the wall, she set her hands on the bottom switches.

"If you say so." Wraith relented. Stepping up behind her, he rested his hands against the top switches. "On your mark." Ahsoka closed her eyes to concentrate, but was interrupted as she realized just how close Wraith was to her. It briefly reminded her of the time he looked over her shoulder when they dealt with the Yuuzhan Vong. The memory of his warm body brought a light blush to her cheeks and she tried not to think about the same body that was behind her now.

Come on, snap out of it Ahsoka! She mentally berated herself, knowing she had bigger priorities at the moment. She channeled her focus on the controls, using the Force to move levers and change systems, readying the engines to redirect their power into the central generator and creating a mass-feedback input that would surely blow the generator to pieces. It didn't take her long to get things into proper position and before long she was ready to throw the switch.

"On three." She stated, eyes still closed. She started to count down, Wraith standing completely still as his mind focused on the switches before him. "One... two... three!" The moment she spoke, Ahsoka threw the power switch while she and Wraith flipped the switches simultaneously. A burst of sparks forced them to back away as the gentle hum of power flowing through the walls slowly grew until it became a constant background noise in the midst of the silent hall.

"Well, I'd call that a job well done." Wraith mused. "Guess the Force really did work."

"See? I told you it would." Ahsoka said with a grin, proud of herself.

"Indeed." Wraith replied. "So the generator is on its way to an overload now."

"Yeah. Now we just have to get out of here." Ahsoka added.

And then, in the silence of the hall, there came a bloodcurdling shriek.

It was followed by a cacophony of sounds that absolutely shattered the silence and sent chills rippling through Ahsoka and Wraith's spines. Screams and shouts, unnatural growls and groans filled with the primal instincts of anger and hunger tore through the calm they had been feeling. Wraith knew light travelled faster than sound, but the fact that he could hear these things before he saw them actually managed to chill his blood. The wall of sound preceding the horde of undead Clones hit them hard and Ahsoka and Wraith whirled about to see a herd of zombies surge out of the inky gloom of the corridor behind them. Their barely-there bodies flailing wildly as they charged through the hall, desperate to feed on fresh blood.

"Run! RUN!" Wraith shouted, pistols drawn. Ahsoka needed no further encouragement and broke into a sprint, summoning the Force to increase her pace and propell her forward at supernatural speeds. Wraith moved faster as well, his enhanced body capable of matching Ahsoka's Force-empowered speed. As they took off, a series of blue blaster bolts slammed into the wall behind them as zombies rounded the corner with remarkable speed and started shooting after them.

"Are these things shooting at us?!" Ahsoka cried, blaster bolts flying past them both.

"They've learned how to use blasters." Wraith grimly realized. "The virus... it's adapting, learning!" He responded, turning around and firing off a volley of slugs that cut down a few of the undead troopers. Dealing with regular zombies that used their hands and teeth to fight was one thing. But zombies that could shoot?

"This is bad... this is so bad!" Ahsoka fearfully muttered, stating what was on his mind.

This is insane! Someone needs to talk to the Morseerians about restraint! Voice agreed. Moving nearly three times the speed of the zombies, Wraith and Ahsoka reached the doorway at the end of the hall first.

"Quick! Use your powers to close that door! It'll buy us some time!" Wraith commanded, stowing his weapons and sprinting over to the door-control panel. Ahsoka did as he asked, whirling about and using the Force to forcibly shut the doors, just as a few zombies rounded the bend. The doors slammed shut with a metallic clang, followed by a muffled shriek from a trooper on the other side. Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close... too close..." She panted, feeling quite done with this whole situation. "Here's hoping they can't follow us in."

"Not now they won't." Wraith stated as he deployed an arm blade and plunged it into the door controls, destroying it with a shower of sparks.

"Maybe we should seal it off even further." Ahsoka suggested, remembering how the zombies had brute-forced their way through the floor. Wraith agreed, but before he could say anything further, another muffled scream echoed from the opposite side of the far door. The two looked to the bigger door they had sealed off, realizing that the screaming really was a form of communication, and that there was another horde awaiting them on the other side. "We're trapped!" Ahsoka dejectedly realized, renewed fear coursing through her veins.

"Calm down Ahsoka." Wraith instructed her. "If we're going to survive this, we need cool heads. We can't let our feelings get in the way of-" Suddenly a part of the ceiling came crashing down into the room and a body fell after it moments later, landing with a wet splat. Ahsoka and Wraith turned and watched as a zombified Clone slowly rose to its feet, growling and grunting as it did. Limbs comprised of gray strings of muscle and bits of tarnished white armor, disjointed and broken, reached out, groping the air as it tried to grab the pair. But the super-soldier drew a pistol and shot the zombie in the head without hesitation, blowing its skull to pieces.

"Where did that come from...?" Ahsoka hesitantly asked, afraid of the answer she already had. Wraith said nothing and looked up, wondering if there were any other zombies hidden away in the ceiling. If they could learn how to use blasters, who's to say they couldn't learn how to crawl as well.

I've got a bad feeling about this. Voice mused. His thoughts were soon confirmed when a much larger part of the ceiling gave way and a half-dozen undead Clones came tumbling down.

"Get back!" Wraith shouted, wanting to avoid these things getting the drop on them. With one arm raised to protect Ahsoka, Wraith opened fire with his sluthrower. Several of the zombies were dropped instantly, others managed to crawl to their feet and give a shriek of success. Wraith was quick to draw his other slugthrower and finish off the remaining troopers. His tactic to aim for their heads appeared to be working, as they no longer rose as soon as their brains had been blown apart. "These things are learning and fast. They're trying to circumvent our defences and they're figuring out how!" He realized.

"Oh Force... we're doomed!" Ahsoka groaned, holding her head in her hands.

"Not as long as I have something to say about it." Wraith determined, checking his magazines. At this rate he was burning through his ammo way too fast and would be running out of slugs soon. "We've got to stay positive, Ahsoka. It's the only way we'll survive."

"Easier said than done." The Padawan remarked gloomily.

"Come on Ahsoka! I need you!" Wraith urged her, stowing his weapons and setting his hands on her shoulders. "I can't fend off these things by myself. We need a way out before that generator blows and takes all of us with it!" He was saying this not just for her sake but for his also. Without any sort of reinforcements or a place to run, this was the literal definition of a 'last stand'. Unless they came up with an alternative, this would be the end of both of them. Ahsoka started wracking her mind, pushing down the ever-present fear as she tried to come up with anything that might help them.

Suddenly, her eyes widened as the light switched on.

"Hold on..." Dashing over to another control panel, Ahsoka began punching in codes and scanning through the available systems, evidently looking for something.

"Have an idea?" Wraith asked, glad to see something other than fear had become her focus.

"Maybe. I'm gonna see if the corridor auto-turrets are still functional. If they are, they'll give us some extra firepower." She replied, not looking up. But she did when a hole was torn open in a wall adjacent to the master door, allowing a herd of zombies to flood in. Wraith drew his weapons.

"Keep searching, I'll hold them off!" He shouted over the unsettling din. Ahsoka gave a quick nod and kept searching the system as the resounding CRACK! of Wraith's pistols echoed loudly over the cries and screams of the undead. Slugs flew through the air and ripped through the undead personnel, felling zombified officers and Clones alike. Ahsoka kept typing and searching, seeking out the interior weapons subsystem and the defensive controls. With the generator set to overload, she knew she could only turn the turrets on for a few minutes. Hopefully it would be enough to turn the tide.

Her screen lit up as she found the program.

"Okay, I've got something!" Ahsoka called to Wraith. "I can get the turrets in here online and-" A zombie suddenly crashed down on the console, crushing it under his weight. Ahsoka recoiled at its sudden presence. "AH!" She screamed. The living corpse reached out for her with a shriek, showing off a bloody, shredded hand comprised of loosely hanging skin and chipped bones. Ahsoka drew her lightsaber and sliced off it's arm. "Excuse you, graveyard breath!" She snapped, promptly slicing off its head.

"Something wrong?" Wraith wondered.

"Stupid death trooper just destroyed my console." She replied, using the Force to move the body and check on the totaled, sparking console. "Sorry Wraith... we're back to square one now." She said, voice full of disappointment.

"It's okay, we'll find a way-" He started to say, backing up, when another cluster of zombies fell through the existing hole in the roof. "Oh dammit all!" He growled, realizing their situation was not getting better any time soon. He opened fire once more, pistols ablaze with fresh clips. But the horde kept coming, an unstoppable wave of decayed flesh that sought to add two more to its numbers. Wraith realized he and Ahsoka were slowly being backed into a corner. His single-shot pistols were no longer cutting it. "Time to heat things up!" He declared, stowing his pistols and flicking some explosive discs into his hands. Pitching some into the crowd before him, Wraith turned and urged Ahsoka to back away as the discs exploded the zombies moments later, incinerating them in balls of fire. Those that weren't killed retreated, afraid of the wall of fire. Evidently this virus had some level of self-preservation in mind in addition to replication.

Wraith hoped he could exploit that.

"Those little things pack a punch." Ahsoka observed.

"Hopefully they'll thin the heard for us." Wraith explained. Suddenly the master door began to open, the two halves being forced apart as the horde on the other side. Spying the next wave, Wraith whipped disc after disc from his hands. The single red switches on top beeped at an increasing pace as they sailed through the air before exploding right in the zombies' faces, the explosion blackening the door and blowing the creatures to pieces.

But even more poured through the opened, pushing aside the charred corpses of their comrades.

Uh oh. Guns up. Now. Voice stated. Wraith agreed and, without hesitation, snapped up his arms with pistols in hand to open fire, pulling the triggers as fast as he could. His slugs tore through the horde, sending blood and bits of flesh everywhere with every shot. But as soon as he felled one, it seemed like two more took its place. Ahsoka was quick to also recognize the replenishing factor of the horde and knew she couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

"Wraith, let me help you!" She cried, watching as he reloaded and continued to try and hold off the horde alone.

"No! You have to be close enough for your lightsabers to be effective, and too close to these things will result in death. I'm not taking that chance!" He shouted in reply, determined to keep Ahsoka safe above all else. He didn't care whether he made it out or not. As long as she survived...

Then again, he also wouldn't turn down an offer for help. Maybe there was something else she could do...

"But you don't have to fight to help me. Use the Force to hold these things back! Give me a barricade!" He hurriedly asked, blasting another four with rapid-succession headshots.

"All of them?!" Ahsoka wondered, wondering if she was powerful enough to hold off a ravenous horde of numerous individuals. Wraith glanced at her with a quick look that said 'please try'. "I'll try!" Stretching out her hands, Ahsoka focused all of her energy on creating an invisible barrier around her and Wraith. It wasn't easy will all the screaming and growling going on around her and took a lot of concentration. Wraith did his best to provide cover with a mix of explosives and slug rounds, trying to buy her time to do her thing. Soon, he began to notice the zombies getting stuck and piling up against an invisible obstruction. With her arms fully outstretched and her eyes closed, Ahsoka had formed a shield with the Force with every once of concentration she had.

"Way to go, my dear!" Wraith happily called, stowing his pistols and drawing his carbine. "You're the best!" Inserting a plasma-infused energy cell into his rifle, Wraith charged up his weapon and opened fire. The amplified rounds blew the zombies away with each hit, the additional explosive capacity obliterating the zombies with similar effectiveness to his slugthrowers. Setting his weapon to automatic, Wraith gunned down zombie after zombie with a stream of high-powered blaster fire. Ahsoka smiled a little as she opened her eyes to see corpses piling up on the ground, Wraith starting to clear out the zombies. Perhaps they could win this after all.

As long as she could keep up this barrier, they might actually be able to win this.

But the zombies were putting an incredible amount of strain on her abilities. Aging to constantly keep moving individuals at bay was proving to be taxing and was draining her concentration quicker than she thought it would.

It only made matters worse when the adjacent corridor door was torn open and another horde burst through and into the command deck, screaming and shrieking as their mangled bodies clambered over each other as they struggled to consume the still-living persons. Wraith saw the zombies streaming in from the corridor they just sealed and was faced with a grim reality. "There's too many... there's too damn many!" He realized. "No matter what I do I can't destroy them all..." He growled, turning his sights on the newcomers. Red blaster bolts ripped through the crowd, blowing the undead to pieces. But they just kept coming. No matter how many fell more just charged through the door.

It was an endless horde that showed no sign of stopping. Not until Wraith and Ahsoka joined their numbers.

"Can't you just get angry?" Ahsoka wondered, knowing his notorious 'enraged state' would be enough to overcome all of these things. Wraith heard the strain in her voice as she struggled to maintain the Force barricade. She couldn't last long and, unfortunately, he couldn't summon enough anger to replace the sheer terror that was starting to grip him.

"At what? There's nothing for me to get angry about!" Wraith shouted over the din, more rounds ripping through the horde. Disliking his negative answer, Ahsoka looked to see the original horde recovering from Wraith's assault, now that his aim was elsewhere. They were mustering for a renewed attack of her barricade, one that surely wouldn't last under the combined strength of two hordes.

They would be overwhelmed.

Ahsoka knew she had to do something. Wraith had said there was nothing for him to get angry about. Maybe she could change that by altering his focus. If she could trigger his rage, this would all come to a very swift end. All she had to do was manipulate his emotions to the point where he was unleashed and then he would do the rest of the work.

And she knew just what to use to make him angry. It was the most volatile topic that could easily set him over the edge. Herself.

Drawing on the Force to summon a powerful blast of telekinetic energy, she pushed all the zombies back with a massive Force-push, buying her enough time to jump in front of Wraith and ignite her lightsabers. "Ahsoka?" He wondered, shocked by her sudden moves. Then he realized her intentions as she approached the horde. "Ahsoka! What're you doing?!" Wraith exclaimed.

"We're going to get overwhelmed either way, might as well take 'em head-on." She replied, explaining her irrational actions.

"Fall back! You won't survive an onslaught like that!" Wraith shouted, knowing that to attack this horde head-on was to invite death. They would overwhelm her for sure! He commended her for wanting to fight but, despite her thoughts, attacking in such a way was a death sentence.

"I know Wraith." Ahsoka responded, her voice sounding quiet and despondant. "Just think about it; me, getting turned into one of them, dying a horrible and probably painful death before I get resurrected as a walking corpse." She elaborated, the thought enough to make her shudder. She really didn't want that to be the case, but she really had to sell her emotions right now. She looked back at Wraith and gave him a sad smile, her eyes conveying the deep regret she felt. "It's been fun Wraith..." She mournfully told him, the zombies starting to rise up before her.

Her words had the desired affect.

"No. NO!" Wraith shouted, a plethora of thoughts surging through his mind. The first one conveyed Ahsoka's fear of suffering the same fate as these Clones. The second was his own fear and agony of witnessing Ahsoka suffering the agonizing process of becoming a zombie.

And that triggered an unstoppable fury at the thought of these things assaulting her.

Those thoughts began overwhelming him, triggering the release of RGE-7 and telling the chemical to flood his veins and consume his mind. Dropping his rifle as he momentarily fought to steady himself, Wraith felt hot wrath burn away at any other emotion until it was all that remained. With his vision turning red, body shaking, muscles tensing as he entered his Feral Rage, Wraith unleashed a primal roar that dwarfed anything these zombies could utter. "HhurrrrRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Ahsoka smirked a little as she realized her plan had worked and then dove for cover so there was nothing between him and the horde. The zombies began to charge forward, nothing stopping them from drawing closer. Wraith had lost all coherent speech as his ragged breathing, accented by growls, became the sole evidence of his enraged state. His mind urged him to tear through these things, to tear them asunder! To kill! And kill! AND KILL!

With another roar, Wraith's blades slid over his hands as he met the horde head-on, butchering them as he waded into their midst. No zombie could touch him, none could bite him or infect him, hacked to pieces before they could even draw close enough. Zombies were dismembered left and right, torn apart as his blades grew slick with blood. Clearing out a small circle around him, Wraith's blades vanished as a pair of chains appeared in his hands. His assault continued with another roar, chain-blades sprouting from his jacket and tearing through the undead with ravenous fury. Wraith held nothing back as he tore through the zombies, ripping through them like they were nothing to be scared of.

Seeing Wraith wade into the horde of undead, unrelenting anger and fury in his every move, Ahsoka ducked behind a console and stayed hidden, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.

Wraith continued his rampage through the horde, an unstoppable force stampeding through relatively fragile obstacles despite their numbers. His blades and their chains grew slick with undead blood, splatters of the stuff also adorning his arms and jacket. Bisected corpses were starting to pile up around the command deck, the floor growing slick with dark red blood. If not for the miniature magnetic stabilizers in his boots, Wraith would've surely slipped by now. But his mind was barely able to summon a tactical or even a coherent thought, his every act clouded by rage.

But he could summon just enough logic to know when to switch weapons.

His chain-blades were useful, but not nearly useful enough, he had nearly cleared out the entire deck but there were still some holes that needed to be plugged and some hordes that needed to be stopped. Dropping his blades on the ground and drawing Tyth from behind him, Wraith snapped on his firesaber, the blade glowing yellow but swiftly flickering to pure white moments later. With another guttural roar of primal fury, Wraith continued his massacre by charging ahead and swinging his blade with powerful force and deadly efficiency, cleaving zombies in two with every swing. Tyth was effective, killing these things where they stood, just as his other blades had.

But this ancient weapon was about to reveal a few new tricks to its wielder.

As Wraith carved his way towards the side door, the zombies grew bottlenecked within the narrow confines of the corridor. Some where desperate to get inside and join the fight, others were trying to escape it, an innate fear of fire and its incinerating properties enough to make them scramble away and defy their malicious tendencies for a moment. Wraith plunged into the horde without hesitation, swinging Tyth this way and that as he dove into the foray with murder on his mind. Thrusting his blade forward, Wraith unknowingly triggered the first perk of a fully-fueled Tyth, sending a jet of white-hot flame blasting through the zombies, incinerating them on contact and completely disintegrating their bodies. The supernatural flame flooded the hall, destroying every zombie within reach and reducing them to dust and ash. The flame died down as Wraith turned and attacked the zombies behind him, cutting them down with each swing of his fiery weapon. Charging back into the command deck, Wraith continued his desolation of the horde, his rage fuelling his unstoppable rampage. Tyth unleashed its full fury upon the horde as its bright white blade carved a scorching path through the undead.

From behind her cover, Ahsoka could hear the sounds of carnage all about her. But the sound of fire and flame bursting forth and the screams of zombies as they were annihilated by some terrifying force confused her. She hadn't known Wraith to be equipped with fire-based weapons. Was this something new? She didn't dare stick her head up for fear of being caught in the crossfire, leaving her to sit, wait and wonder.

Suddenly, the sounds started to grow quieter, trailing off and losing their consistency. A few scattered shrieks were soon overpowered by primal growls and the sound of a blade being shoved through flesh.

And then, in a stark contrast to the demeaning clamour that had once inhabited the room, a deathly calm and eerie quiet ensued. The only sound Ahsoka's hearing could detect was the heavy breathing of Wraith calming down.

Peeking her head over the console, Ahsoka looked about at the bits of shredded corpses scattered across the floor, the slick pools of dark red blood and the scorch marks dotting the walls.

This place had gone to looking like a crime scene pretty fast.

And there, off over by the corner of the room, stood Wraith. He was hunched over, one arm resting against the wall while the other was tucked behind him and within his jacket. His body was covered with splotches of blood, his armor absolutely stained with the stuff. Coming out from her hiding place, Ahsoka carefully walked over to him, tiptoeing over fragments of bodies.

"Normally, I don't compliment excessive violence, but... nice work." She said, complimenting him. "Makes me wonder when you got a flamethrower..." she added, having missed seeing his firesaber in action. Wraith glanced over to her, his shoulders still heaving as he fought back the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and regained control of his senses. He regarded her with a curious glance as his mind started to put together how he had wound up enraged. He remembered her words, how she had sounded so mournful and certain of her coming demise.

She never intended to fight them. He realized that now. She had manipulated him, toyed with his emotions and taken advantage of his feelings for her in order to get him angry.

Wraith wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Summoning enough composure to stand up straight and freeing his hand from his bloodied glove, Ahsoka got a good look at the big, broad hand of The Wraith, wrapped in mechanical fixings that extended from his gauntlet. Reaching out, he gently held her chin in his hand, guiding her face up towards his.

"You, my dear, know me too well for my own good." He softly told her. Ahsoka raised an eye marking.

"And who's fault is that?" She wondered cheekily.

"Part of me would think that you like me enough to have memorized who I am and how I work." Wraith responded, his voice strikingly calm compared to his recent outburst of anger.

"Or maybe you're just that predictable." Ahsoka shot back.

"Touché." He mused, pulling his hand back and sliding his glove back on. "All I ask is that you do not toy with me next time. My volatility is uncontrollable and my mental state rendered unpredictable when my anger is aroused." He stated, flexing his hand. Ahsoka took that to be a key indicator that he did not find her comeback as funny as she did.

"Right... Maybe we could get out of here now? Those generators must be close to their bursting point."


For the first time since their arrival, the jog to the docking ports was a relatively quiet one. Despite the imminent threat of the exploding generator, it appeared any zombies that might've been aboard this cruiser had been dealt with back at the aft command deck. In doing some math, Wraith found it hard to believe he had dealt with the entirety of the almost-thousand man crew, but considering just how empty his ammo stores were, he might just be able to believe it.

They arrived at Ahsoka's shuttle first, Wraith deeming himself capable of handling any fight the remaining zombies could send his way on his own.

"Might I encourage you to get some rest?" He wondered, believing Ahsoka was just as tired as he was, despite his inability to show it.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Ahsoka replied, stepping over to the hatch. But then she stopped, knowing there was something she needed to say. It was the polite thing to do after all. "Thank you for helping me out. I probably wouldn't have lasted long alone against those things." She thanked him, turning back.

"Yes, you would've." Wraith replied. "You're stronger and tougher than you realize, don't sell yourself short. It takes a lot of boldness to survive something like this." Ahsoka smiled a little at his kind of uplifting words. "And to go commando at the same time..." He quietly noted.

But he was loud enough that Ahsoka heard him.

"You looked?!" She exclaimed, realizing he had seen up her skirt. Her face flushed in a combination of embarrassment and anger. "Dammit Wraith!" The super-soldier threw up his hands.

"It was by accident, I swear! I looked away as soon as I realized!" He quickly explained.

"Ugh!" Ahsoka sighed in exasperation. "I screwed up my laundry, what else was I supposed to do?" Wraith simply shrugged.

"Maybe wear full-on leggings? Might save you from any embarrassment next time." He suggested. Ahsoka paused to conside that. Up until now her skirt had been long enough to give the impression she'd been wearing full leggings. But maybe he had a point. "We make a good team, we should do this more often." Wraith continued. "Minus the zombies of course."

"Yeah, sure..." Ahsoka absentmindedly agreed, opening the hatch door. She stepped inside before looking over her shoulder. "Bye Wraith." She said. He gave a quick bow from the waist.

"'Til next we meet, my dear." He replied.


A few minutes later...

Back in his shuttle and out in space, Wraith waited and watched the Bravado self-destruct. The internal implosions triggered a chain reaction that rippled through the entirety of the ship until the cruiser was consumed in a fireball and splintered into pieces, exploding without a sound in the vacuum of space.

Well... that was an adventure and a half. Voice mused. Wraith agreed, equally satisfied with the results, and queued his comms.

"Scipio, it's Wraith." He reported. The response came back instantly.

"Been a while, my boy. How's the mission progressing?" The Pau'an asked.

"I finished destroying the Bravado. The virus got loose and infected the entire ship's crew." Wraith informed him, piloting his ship away from the newly-created wreckage.

"Oh! Oh my! Well, how did that go?" Scipio wondered, obviously intrigued.

"It was a... harrowing experience, to say the least." He replied, carefully picking his words. A moment of silence followed before he continued. "We need to talk about this Project Dreadwind... I think it's in need of a bit of an overhaul."

That's a bit of an understatement. Voice interjected.

"Also, I'm in need of a mental tune-up. The voice in my head is back."

Oh come ON! Voice exclaimed. That is unfair and uncalled for! I helped you out!

"Shut up, you!" Wraith growled out loud.

Elsewhere...

Ahsoka was relieved to see the Resolute come back into view. While her little misadventure could've been worse, she was grateful to be back in allied territory... where all the living people were normal. Her commlink chirped to life and Anakin's voice filled the cockpit.

"Well, Snips? How's the Bravado?" He wondered. Ahsoka let out a sigh, mixing relief and exhaustion together.

"Boy oh boy, Master, have I got a story for you..." She replied.


Author's Note: Hope y'all enjoyed this one! I probably won't be able to post again until Christmas, which is an unfortunate reality. But, thank you for sticking with me... and for the 67,000+ views!