Ezra's heart raced in his chest, looking from side to side, examining every wall, wondering what in the world Kalgen and his Squad had found in cargo bay.
The group left the command level in a hurry, going down along a flight of ornate marble stairs. In normal lighting the place would have been reminiscent of an ambassadorial villa, but in the near pitch darkness with the malfunctioning display lights it felt like an old house left to rot. Continuing down the corridor they passed quarters of some kind, either crew or guest.
Ezra turned his head as he heard a sound. He looked down a passageway and saw a closed door with a trail leading under it and what looked to be water running out from the bottom. He looked forward again as they rounded a corner.
"This place gives me the creeps.."
Ezra looked over his shoulder as they continued on, listening to the techs talk to each other.
"I heard a lot of stories about ghost ships growing up. Haven't you noticed there aren't any bodies? Just where did they all go?"
"Maybe they left in the escape pods or a rescue ship. Sure looks like they left in a hurry."
"Maybe." The tech swallowed a lump in his throat. "Or maybe the reason they left so fast was because they were scared of whatever's in the Cargo Bay…"
"This just doesn't feel right. It's like the Queen of Ranroon, or the Nebula Stalker. All those people just disappeared never to be heard from again." The other tech shivered.
"Well at least we've got someone keeping an eye on us huh? We're not going to disappear like them." Another tech said and tried to give a reassuring smile. None of them were convinced. They looked back down at the deck as they kept walking.
"Ahhh!" Ezra jumped back. Everyone spun around as he looked up.
A large, serpentine figure loomed over him, fangs at the ready, claws reaching out at him. Ezra was about to attack at the creature, swinging his lightsaber when he realised it was made of stone.
"It's okay everyone," he said, catching his breath and swallowing, "it's just a statue..."
Captain Ayer sighed, sliding his hand over the top of his helmet. "Listen Jedi, we're on board an enemy ship, trapped in here with a creature strong enough to single-handedly murder an entire Stormtrooper squad, and the last thing I need right now is the very same Rebel who got us into this mess in the first place jumping at shadows, alright? Is that understood?"
"Yeah, okay, sorry," Ezra said.
Ayer turned away, looking down the corridor ahead of them. It was a lightless cavern, the lighting was dim through the whole ship but here it had clearly just failed entirely, the patters on the walls disappearing into the abyss ahead of them.
"Keep your lights up, cover all flanks, check every corner, and stay together. We do not want whatever this is picking us off one by one, understood?" Ayer said.
The stormtroopers advanced slowly, with Ayer taking point, taking care to shine their torches into every corner. Every inch of wall, floor and ceiling was carefully examined. Ezra gulped, walking between of the Stormtroopers. His heart rate quickened as he clutched his saber for dear life. His vision impaired by the darkness, he tried reaching out with the Force in a vain attempt to locate something. He reached out for anything.
"Karabast, I can't sense it." Ezra said, scowling in frustration.
"That either means it's far away," one stormtrooper next to him said, "or it isn't, and you can't sense it."
Ezra stopped, as did the rest, when they saw Ayer coming to a halt in front of them and put up a clenched fist. The troopers raised up their blasters. Ayer remained motionless, staring back at the blackness beyond his torch.
"Are you picking that up?" Ayer asked.
"Yes Sir..." the trooper behind him replied.
"What is it?" Ezra asked.
"Our helmet sensors are picking up something!" Ayer said, spreading his hand open. The men beside Ezra immediately jumped to action and the lead troopers took aim down the hall. Ayer raised his blaster and took aim.
"Cover the hallway! Two lines! Blasters at the ready! Jedi, get to the back and let us do our jobs! Engineers! Behind the Jedi!"
Like clockwork the Stormtroopers formed up in front of Ezra, lining up in two rows across the length of the corridor. The first row took a knee, both rows held their blasters at the ready.
"Motion sensors are going crazy. Whatever it is it's just down the hallway. Oh my stars. It's huge..."
Ezra watched in anticipation, subconsciously happy the troopers were between him and whatever was approaching them. The engineers stood back, clutching their pistols and tool cases, fidgeting as the prospect of a firefight became much more likely.
"It's getting closer. Be ready to fire on my command when it enters our range," Ayer said.
"How close is 'within range', exactly?" Ezra asked,
"You'll see now."
Without a motion sensor, Ezra simply stood there, waiting for something to happen.
Then he heard it.
thump, thump, thump...
Loud footsteps emanated from the dark, distant and quiet at first, but steadily growing louder, closer. There was no sign of the creature, camouflaged in the darkness, but the sounds confirmed its presence.
"Open fire!"
The Stormtroopers acted on Ayer's command within milliseconds, and the pitch black corridor was at last illuminated by dozens of bright red blaster bolts, the noise of repeating blaster fire and the tinge of ignited Tibanna gas against the hallway echoed against the walls.
At last, Ezra was given a glimpse of the monster and he recoiled. He couldn't get a good look from here, but from what he could tell, it looked massive, towering over a human, even a lasat, with ease. Its dark, smooth skin reflected the light, and its long, spindly limbs flailed through the darkness, showing Ezra only glimpses of it's large pointed claws. It hissed and screamed, revealing pointed fangs sharp enough to pierce a Dewback's hide. It recoiled, shielding itself with its long strong arms as it retreated. With superhuman speed it turned from the flurry of blaster bolts and bolted back towards the safety of the darkness.
"Move! After it!" Ayer yelled. The Stormtroopers advanced, checking corners in perfect coordination. A loud bang, some clawing, and a metallic thud echoed through the empty corridor. The troopers stopped at the the heed of Ayer raising his hand, and he looked down to examine a large grate on the floor, before looking up to see the air vent from which it had fallen.
"Damn it! It's retreated into the vents!" One of the troopers yelled in frustration.
"Did you see that thing!?" Ezra yelled, "it was huge!"
"Unfortunately yes," Ayer replied.
Turning away from Ayer, Ezra focused elsewhere,picking up a faint sizzling noise. He looked down to the floor, eyes fixating on a smoking, sizzling puddle.
"Yuck," a stormtrooper said, looking down at it, "what is this stuff?"
Ezra walked over to examine it. A puddle of grey goo was splashed across the ground, smoke emanating from it as it burned. The sizzling sounded like a dying animal. Ezra wondered for a moment as to what exactly this substance was, until a familiar scent met his senses.
He recognised the sickeningly saccharine scent immediately.
"Wait, I saw this stuff earlier. When we were headed to the bridge."
"It might be some kind of blood," one of the engineers suggested. "Or maybe a secretion of some kind."
"Probably," Ezra said,
Ayer sighed, "Doesn't matter. We know now it can be hurt, and if it can be hurt, it can be killed."
"I hope you're-"
Ezra response was caught off by a bloodcurdling scream, and everybody look back behind them down the hallway just in time to see an engineer's flailing legs in the air and disappear into the vent above.
The troopers didn't waste any time, firing towards the vent as their ears were bombarded with loud thumping noises and echoes of struggle.
"Dammit!" One trooper exclaimed, "It got Chalut!"
Before anybody could react, a loud bang came from behind and above the squad, as a grate came crashing to the ground. Two large gray arms reached down, claws ripping into an unfortunate trooper and dragging him up into the vent as he flailed and screamed, his arm flying back and his blaster firing between them into the wall.
"Kill it!" One of the Troopers yelled, and they all opened fire.
It was too late. He was pulled up into the vent. Loud banging and thrashing emanated from the vent as the trooper's cries for help became more and more distant, eventually disappearing.
"Form up! Move quickly!" Ayer barked. "And whatever you do, stay clear of the vents!"
"Delta-1? This is Captain Ayer!"
"Captain?" The pilot said. "What's wrong?"
"Do you have Sergeant Varn's squad?"
"Yes, Varn, his squad and Chief Engineer Ormyn are here, we have the coolant we're just waiting for you and Kalgen's squad."
Ayer sighed. "Kalgen's dead, and we've lost some of our team too. There's something on board this ship, something hostile. Prepare the transport for launch as soon as we get back there, and if we don't arrive in 10 minutes then launch immediately!"
"Acknowledged Captain," the pilot replied with a renewed sense of urgency. "Get back to the hangar as quick as you can sir. Delta-1 out.."
Ezra heart was racing, looking from side to side, examining every wall, wondering what in the world Kalgen and his squad had found in cargo bay.
Ezra turned a corner and came to an abrupt halt. In front of him was a group of stormtroopers, standing perfectly at attention, lined up as if in a parade or greeting some important Imperial official, four rows stood motionless, blasters lowered and heads up, with one at the front. He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Sergeant Kalgen?" Ayer asked, cautiously approaching the sergeant.
"Apologies Sir. We had a slight incident but as you can see we're fine now. We should really head back to the ship."
Ezra looked on, puzzled. Kalgen sounded off, different. His speech was in a monotonous tone, and he delivered it with an inflection unfamiliar to Ezra.
"Sergeant? What was all that noise? Why did you start screaming? Where is the engineering team!"
"it was nothing sir we just encountered some difficulties but we're fine now sir thank you we should return to the ship"
"Sergeant," Ayer asked, "what the hell happened down there?"
"It's nothing to worry about" Kalgen replied, his words ran together like he was about to fall asleep. "Let's return to the ship."
With that the stormtroopers started marching in perfect synchronization. Ezra took a step back, narrowing his eyes. Stormtroopers were disciplined but this was different. This was wrong somehow.
Ayer grabbed Kalgen's shoulder, and as he did the stormtroopers stopped "Soldier! I asked you a question! What happened down there!"
"Captain Ayer," Kalgen murmured, a menacing tone taking shape, "we should really get back to the transport, the Chimaera is waiting for us..."
Kalgen started to gag and sputter under his helmet, as if he was about to vomit.
"Uhh... Ayer?" Ezra said, "you might want to take a step back. I can't feel them."
"What do you mean you can't feel them?"
"As in, I can't feel them through the Force. They're...they're dead, all of them."
"What? But how..."
Ayer took a step back, clutching his blaster, holding it at the ready.
"Oh dear," Kalgen muttered, "I was hoping you wouldn't notice...it would've made this much easier..."
Kalgen dropped his blaster and removed his helmet. Ezra's breath quickened, and Ayer pointed his blaster straight at Kalgen. Kalgen's eyes were rolled back into his head, his jaw as low as it could be, and out of his wide open mouth seeped a thick gray slime, dripping from his tongue and spilling out onto his armour, gurgling and sputtering as the sweet-smelling ooze spilt out he moved for Ayer.
Ayer didn't hesitate. He fired a single shot, hitting Kalgen in the chest. Kalgen stumbled but regained his footing, and with inhuman speed he knocked Ayer's blaster right out of his hand and grabbed him.
"Get off of me!" Ayer flailed and screamed, and Ezra jumped to action. Swooping with the reflexes of a Jedi and slicing Kalgen's head clean off. Ayer stepped back, catching his breath.
"Never thought I'd say this," Ayer said, "but thanks Jedi."
"Don't thank me yet." Ezra said, eyes wide as he looked over at Kalgen. Ayer looked to see what Ezra was staring at and was taken aback.
The headless Kalgen was still standing, maintaining his balance as if nothing had happened. The rest of the stormtroopers all started to raise their blasters, moving back.
"What the-"
The stump where Kalgen's head used to be bubbled, and gray slime shot out from the stump, spraying onto Ayer's face and armour before he could finish his thought.
The gray liquid on Ayer's face crawled around on the helmet and coalesced, like a living creature it stretched out and recoiled. It was moving.
Ayer moved his hand up to his helmet, attempting to wipe the substance off. But when his hand met his helmet, it became stuck. The ooze moved upwards, coating Ayer's hand and sticking it to the helmet.
"What is this stuff!?" Ayer yelled.
Ezra could only watch in horror as the ooze writhed around, trying to get into Ayer's helmet, moving down towards the mouthpiece. Sickening squelches and squeals abounded as the substance went for his neck and he fell back stumbling into the shadows.
"What the-auugghh!" Ayer said, struggling, "It's on my helmet! It's! My mouth! I can't-arrggghh!"
Ayer's helpless screams sooned turned into a gurgle, and Ezra heard him collapse to the ground. Ezra's knees buckled as he heard bashing sounds, and he was frozen with fear when he witnessed Sergeant Kalgen pick up his head and re-attach it to his neck, the gray ooze holding him together like glue.
Ayer's stormtroopers all raised their blasters and fired. Kalgen's squad growled, dropped their blasters, and lunged. Ezra swung his lightsaber from side to side as stormtrooper after stormtrooper lunged at him. He began slicing them all apart, acutely aware they were already dead. Whenever he did more gray ooze would spill forth from the dismembered limbs and torsos and crawl along the floor.
"What the hell is this stuff!?" Ezra yelled over the battle to whoever was in charge now.
The sounds of blaster fire, the hum of his lightsaber, and the sounds of dismemberment echoed through the hallway as the struggle continued. Ezra held his ground, but blaster fire did little to dissuade the infected, and before long stormtrooper after stormtrooper was beaten down, thrown to the floor by superhuman strength. Any stormtrooper that fell was quickly engulfed by the substance, screaming and flailing as they were coated. But they got back up and kept firing with all the will to stay they could muster.
Ezra continued to hold his ground, but when he tried to lift his foot, he couldn't. Squelching met his ears as he looked down and noticed the substance had completely engulfed itt. He screamed silently as the ooze began to crawl it's way up his leg. His senses were overwhelmed by the sickly sweet aroma, and as the last one fell he looked behind him in horror to see stormtroopers rising...
Ayer's squad looked to each other as their enemies rose to their feet and a trooper looked at Ezra. Somebody yelled for everyone to run as they all scattered. The engineers and the remaining troopers ran in every direction as the remains of Kalgen's squad, even decapitated and dismembered stormtroopers, moved and writhed around him.
With adrenaline-fueled desperation Ezra swung at the ground repeatedly, the liquid making a horrific hissing noise as it recoiled, fleeing from the blue light. Ezra channeled the Force to push his way through the infected troopers, bolting away from the scene as fast as he could.
"Transport are you there?" Ezra yelled into his comm. "Can anyone hear me!"
"Ezra? Ezra, it's Ormyn! What's going on? Are you almost here?"
"Seal the hangar bay! Close the door and don't let anybody in that's not me!"
"Ezra? What's going on?" Ormyn asked.
"Both of the other Squads are dead! Ayer is dead! There's this gray slime on board it... it possesses people! If you see it don't touch it!"
Ormyn was silent over the comm, probably in confusion. He struggled to process everything the Jedi had just told him.
"Brex, close the door," he said, "and don't let anybody in that isn't Ezra. I've got a bad feeling about this."
Ezra panicked, struggling to remember which way led to the hangar. His head spun from corridor to corridor, trying as best he could to jog his memory.
He froze. He could hear synchronized marching, the perfectly rythmic thumping of stormtroopers moving in unison, boots hitting the ground together without a second's delay. Ezra turned a corner, hiding back against the wall. He gripped his saber as he peeked around the corner.
His mind raced, overwhelmed with hundreds of thoughts. He was struggling to comprehend that such a nightmarish substance could exist. Killer liquid and a ... now he'd seen everything.
He readied himself, hoping to maybe stand a chance against the reanimated troopers coming after him. He could only hope the large creature from earlier didn't return.
His heart almost stopped when a familiar sweet scent met his nose.
Before he had a chance to react, a single arm of ooze wrapped itself around his neck, garroting him against the wall as he struggled to breathe. The shock of the assault caused him to drop his saber to the floor, which the ooze then proceeded to coalesce around, coating it completely. Ezra would've been horrified to see the substance claim the last memento he had of his late mentor, but he was too busy struggling as more gray gelatinous arms wrapped themselves around him, restraining him with the strength of a rancor and lifting him up from the floor. Ezra gasped and sputtered, and as he arched his head back his eyes caught the vent from which the substance was pouring.
His screams of terror echoed throughout the abandoned hallways as he disappeared into the vent.