"Where am I?" I questioned as I sat up in a hallway with flickering lights.
"Commander, are you alright?" came a robotic voice from my side as a dark gray metal hand was placed in my field of view.
I grabbed it and spoke. "Commander?" I questioned. "My head hurts where am I?" last I remembered I'd filled out a Star Wars the Clone Wars CYOA.
"Hmm the abomination must have hit you harder than I thought. We are aboard the derelict that we found in the unknown regions after fleeing with our stolen craft. Our hyperdrive malfunctioned and I managed to get us near this derelict. Our goal was to reactivate it and use it to get home. It seems that while it is old it's technology is equal to and at times surpassing that of modern starships," replied the droid in front of me.
"Please remind me of your name?" the droid tilted its head.
"I am designated a N03 and in case you have forgotten I am one of four droids under your command. C04 is on the shuttle and J01 and V02 were destroyed fighting the abomination aboard this ship. Rest assured I retrieved their AI cores so we can build them new bodies. Also in case you forgot you are named Belisarius Cawl but also known as Commander Cawl or just Cawl."
"Thank you for the reminder N. I think it's coming back to me now. I think I stole you and your siblings from a prototype droid facility run by the CIS and escaped into hyperspace but suffered damage to the ship causing the drive to explode and launch us here. Am I correct?" I questioned.
"Yes Commander. I suggest we make our way back to the shu-CRASH!" a large vent was bashed from the ceiling a few dozen feet in front of us allowing a hideous monstrosity to crawl from the ship's duct system.
It was eight feet tall and heavily muscled. With a head that had a bony crest with backward-pointing spikes, fingers ended in long claws, and a long snout full of sharp teeth. The snout wasn't long like a crocodile, more like a dog, but overall the thing was vaguely reptilian and resembled exactly what a fucking ELDER was supposed to look like! Elders didn't belong in Star Wars what kind of bullshit was this! "SCREEEEE!" It screeched at us.
"Weapons free!" I shouted and watched as blasters popped out of N03's forearms. With a mental command my own forearms sprouted blasters as well.
"PEW PEW PEW PEW!" red bolts flashed down the hallway, some striking the abomination from the darkness of the unknown regions. Unfortunately it just ran through it with the bolts doing minimal damage.
"Fuck what's this thing made of!" shouted N03. "Biological durasteel or some shit?"
"I don't care what it's made of, I want it dead, we can cut it open later!" The probably insane Elder was closing in on our position fast. "Retreat now use your jetpack we'll fly backwards and shoot!" I shouted as my battle armor that was built over my cybernetic body split open to allow my jetpack to extend.
"Fwoosh!" the two of us flew backwards at the same pace the Elder was running, allowing us to fire at it without missing but still be far away.
"Switching to flechettes!" My right arm's blaster retracted back into my arm and the vambrace of my armor sealed before extending a flechette launcher which began firing the small darts specially made to slice through flesh.
"Ratatatatatatata!" the flechettes flew through the air and into the beast. "Shlick!" Miraculously penetrating the thick hide that resisted blaster bolts. Seeing this N03 retracted his own blasters and pulled a flechette launcher from his thigh. "Bang!" a canister was launched from the weapon and exploded not far from the alien monstrosity. "SHLEK!" its legs turned to purple mist and it fell to the ground but instead of dying it began to use its arms to crawl after us. I rectified that problem with more flechettes and finally we were allowed to halt our retreat mere feet from a sealed blast door.
"Well then that was…" I trailed off.
"Eventful," finished N03. "This can't be the only one of these creatures; this ship measures over 1000 meters in length I would recommend we leave but we are far from where we cut into the ship's docking port. I sliced into its somehow still running network and found a map. Currently we are close to the command deck and I believe I can get this ship back online. Then C04 can take control of it."
"It's better than dealing with more Elders," I replied.
"You know what that was Commander?" questioned the droid as we began trying to open the blast door.
"An Elder. A member of the first race to live among the stars. They were supposed to have all ascended to a different plane of existence but apparently not. They are exceedingly dangerous both through their biological forms and their intelligence. We were lucky. I think that one was insane. I highly doubt we are aboard an Elder starship or we would be dead by now due to the ship's AI doing something to us. It along with any other Elders if there are more were probably found out here by whoever or whatever this ship belonged to. They then of course escaped, killed the crew, failed to find a way home, ate the crew, went insane, and then were found by us," by the end of my explanation we had managed to pry the door open with both of our considerable strength and slip through into another dark hallway that led to the command deck.
We quickly made our way to the end of the hall and pried open the next door allowing us into the command deck. "Get to work patching C04 into the ship's systems. I'll watch for more Elders," I readied my flechette launcher and took N03's flechette canister gun to add to my arsenal of Elder destruction.
