-Darin-
I rushed through the hallways of the ship, Sadie following behind me. Alarms rang and red lights flashed. A few cleaner droids scurried around in terror. The black smoke thickened, stinging my eyes and burning my throat. I heard violent coughing behind me and looked back at Sadie, who waved me off and said "Go! I'll get my helmet!"
I nodded and rushed on until I found the center of the explosion. The ceiling had caved, walls were blown out and charred, and I could see some armor under the debris, and what looked to be the charred remains of a few troopers. Random things were on fire.
I used the Force and extinguished the fires. Something shifted, and I immediately started lifting the debris away to see who it was. As I moved the debris, I started wondering if I truly did see movement. The body was badly burned, it looked to be missing a finger, the limbs were turned at wrong angles. It looked oddly familiar.
I turned the body and was shocked to see Ster's burnt face looking at me. Half of his lower jaw looked to be completely missing.
No, no, no. This was wrong. This wasn't in the visions. He couldn't die.
As if on cue, the head twitched and a gurgling noise escaped his throat. I quickly felt for a pulse and found it. Extremely faint, but there.
I had no idea how to fix him, but I used the Force to heal whatever I could see. Wounds started closing, the breathing became more regular, and the blood started circulating better.
Ster suddenly started moving. He twisted and, with a bloody finger, started tracing on a collapsed ceiling panel. The shaky lines came together, and I was able to make out one word. 'Tag'.
Kriff. I figured this was bound to happen, but I didn't think it would be so soon.
I noticed that he was weakly pointing down the hall. I pushed his hand down and kept healing his wounds, but he kept pointing.
Knowing what he wanted, I nodded and propped him up on the wall. Some color was returning to him. I tried to send a signal to someone to take care of Ster, but my frequency was being jammed.
Tag knew my frequency. Of course he did. Motherkriffer. I hadn't thought of that.
I quickly sent a Ster hurt explode to Sadie through the Force before sprinting off down the hall. I sensed through the Force for Tag, and found him in the suites on the top deck with Caty.
Oh kriff. Was she part of this too? I hadn't considered her siding with him. Thank the Force I rigged the hyperdrive.
As I rapidly ascended the staircase, I heard screaming and crying. I willed myself to move even faster.
I barged through Caty's door and drove my shoulder into Tag. The floor was covered in fresh blood, and Tag easily lost his footing.
Ramming into him was an extremely bad idea on my part, as I immediately dislocated my shoulder. At least I threw Tag into the wall and diverted his attention away from Caty, who was on the bed, mostly naked.
As I realized what had happened here, a familiar feeling started to creep into my heart. It was horrid, empty, overpowering. Like something rotten was eating away at my very presence. I could see that room…
An alarm rang in the back of my mind, and I forced myself to push that moment down, tuck it away, avoid it at all costs. Now was not the time or place for reliving nightmares. Focus, Darin. Take inventory of your surroundings.
Blood all over the floor. A naked woman on the bed. A monster, getting off the floor.
I Force-threw a blanket over Caty to cover her up. A quick glance around the room showed that the blood was coming from a trooper's dead body.
I fixed my shoulder and sent another message through the Force to Sadie, this time to help Caty.
Tag quickly recovered and charged at me. I sidestepped and kicked him in the back, sending him out of the room. I used the Force and a bloody blaster rifle that was on the floor flew into my hand. I shot at Tag a few times, but it was no use. The suit was basically impervious to blaster fire. I tossed the blaster to Caty. I tried to Force push Tag, but it didn't work. I figured it wouldn't.
"You can't beat me," he sneered. "This ship is now under my command."
I used the Force to grab a couple clothes from Caty's closet and willed them to wrap around his helmet. With his vision temporarily obscured, I slammed into him again, dislocating my shoulder again and sending him flying down a flight of stairs.
I quickly charged down to hit Tag again, but he was ready for me. He grabbed me and threw me down the second flight of stairs. An extremely sharp pain in my ribs told me that several were cracked, but I didn't have time to do anything about that as he jumped down the stairs. I moved my head, and the large foot slammed into the floor mere centimeters from my ear. He picked me up again and threw me down another flight of stairs.
I was really starting to hate this stairwell. This time my leg hit the side railing and I felt blinding pain as my leg broke. He jumped again, but this time I used the Force to rip a large maintenance cover off the wall and slam it into him, throwing him down the next flight of stairs and earning a few seconds to fix myself.
I just barely finished fixing my leg and one of my ribs when he came back at me with the fury of a Rancor. I managed to dodge his swings while backpedaling, but I couldn't get any hits in without seriously hurting myself. Even if I did, they wouldn't do anything to him. My only hope was to get him to the escape pods, but the ones I rigged were two floors below us, and we were going the wrong way. I could change our path, but it was gonna hurt.
I dodged an attack and got a chance to push a button on my wrist comm. The door behind me shut, pinning me against the wall. Unable to move backwards, Tag swiftly pinned me and started punching me in the gut before throwing me back towards the stairs. I landed hard on my arm, breaking it, and vomited. My insides were on fire. My hand felt completely numb. Tag walked slowly to me. He was definitely enjoying watching me struggle to move. He grabbed me by the neck, punched me three more times in the gut, and threw me down the next flight of stairs.
One more. One more and this might end. I struggled to get off the ground, though more than necessary. While I was in agony, I needed Tag to think I was worse than I was. He was like a sadist, relishing my suffering, thriving on my pain. As I clutched at my gut, I pushed a button on my wrist comm to open the escape pods. He slowly sauntered to me before kicking me hard and then throwing me down one more flight.
My body was in agony, but I needed him to take his time. If I could heal myself a little I might be able to pull this off. Thankfully, he was relishing this moment.
He got down and stepped on my back, crushing my chest into the ground. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. I felt for a major water pipe on the ceiling and used the Force to break it. Water rushed into the room, sweeping us both towards the escape pods. I slammed into a support beam and grabbed on with my life, using the Force to give me a small air bubble to breathe under the torrent of water. Tag was not so lucky, as he was thrown back into one of the escape pods I'd prepped. Quickly, I pushed a few buttons on my wrist comm. The escape pod closed and was fired into space. Another button press and the Everbright went into hyperspace.
-0000-
Bree batted off a few hits with her staff and stepped back, slowly circling around her opponent. Q's mannerisms appeared nonchalant, but his eyes never wavered from her. She'd learned rather quickly not to trust his mannerisms, only his eyes. She lunged at Q with her practice staff, which he easily parried away and lightly tapped his staff on her back. She huffed in frustration and they reset their stances. She eyed the tall, baby-faced trooper in front of her. A small smile played at his lips.
"You have never been to Mirial?" she asked. Her opponent shook his head and quickly closed the distance, unleashing a rapid sequence of strikes which she deflected. She tried to strike at him but he quickly evaded the attack and grabbed the handle of her staff before poking her gently with his own staff.
"You know you can hit me with that thing, right?"
"I don't want to hurt you."
"I am not made of chofo."
"I have no idea what that is."
"It is the inner lining of a kumbla. It is delicious, but very delicate."
"What's a kumbla?"
"A fruit on Mirial." She swung at him a few times and he blocked her strikes before quickly jabbing her in the gut. She grunted and doubled over.
Q quickly rushed to her. "Oh kriff, I'm so sorry. I didn't mea-" His words were cut off by Bree's staff hitting him in the face. He fell backwards, hand clasping his nose.
"What the kriff!?"
Bree grinned. "What is wrong, beaurey? Did you think one hit would take me down?"
Q pulled his hand away from his face and Bree saw it was covered in blood. Her grin disappeared and she grabbed a towel from a stack by the practice ring and started cleaning Q's face. "Oh, mlaka! I am sorry! I did not think I hit you that hard."
"You're fine. This is nothing compared to Jakku." He took the towel and pressed it to his nose. Bree got another towel and wetted it at the sink before she started wiping some of the blood from his face. Q gave a small smile and said "I think we're done sparring for today."
"A big man like you, brought down by a bloody nose?" she asked mockingly. Q gave her a light shove and she laughed. "Do you want me to find the Jedi to fix it?"
"Nah, it's fine. Can I get some water though?"
"Of course." She quickly jumped up to grab a bottle when they heard the muted sounds of blaster fire from the hallway.
Q groaned. "Those idiots are gonna hurt themselves if they keep up these stupid contests."
More blaster fire, and then an explosion rocked the ship. Emergency lights started flashing, bathing everything in red. More blaster fire could be heard outside. Q jumped up and rushed to the door. He opened it in time to see Jet, his bunkmate, sprint around a corner, blaster bolts barely missing him. Jet aimed the blaster at Q and yelled "Show me your hands!"
Q quickly threw his hands up and asked "What's happening?!"
About a dozen fully armed troopers turned the corner and began firing at them. Jet sprinted into the training room, pulling Q with him, and locked the door behind them. The blaster was still pointed at Q.
"Barricade the door!" He yelled.
Bree grabbed some metal staff's and slid them between the handles of the two doors. A loud thud came from the doors as the troopers slammed against the doors.
"That won't hold long. Move!" Jet yelled, and the three of them sprinted to get out through the other doors.
"What is happening?!" Bree yelled.
Jet ignored her. They exited the gym and made a sharp left as they barreled down the hallway, sharply turning into the med bay, the doors closing behind them.
Jet finally came to a stop, heaving for air, barely able to hold onto the blaster.
"Bro, you really have to tell me what's going on," Q said, slowly moving closer to his friend. Bree quietly circled around him.
Jet shakily pointed the blaster at Q. He was crying. "Those… those bastards… you…"
Bree lunged at Jet's blaster arm. A bolt whizzed past Q and he quickly moved in to help Bree. They managed to wrench the blaster from Jet's hand and Q pointed it at Jet.
"Do it!" Jet yelled through tears. "I'd rather it be you than them."
Q glanced at Bree before lifting his hands up. "I don't want to kill you, so don't make me. Now, what's going on?"
"Thorn. Brock. I have no idea how many others. They've turned. Killing people. They ambushed the cafeteria. They… they killed Tony. Pat. Freddie. Trole. Vince, his wife, his daughter. I don't know who else. I… I left them. I ran."
New panic spread through the room as ordered marching could be heard outside the doors.
Bree hissed "hide" and they quickly scrambled. Jet quickly squeezed under the sink and closed the little doors.
Q and Bree squeezed into the tiny blanket closet and closed the door. Right as the door closed, they heard the med bay doors open.
"Move out boys. Search this room. M5 is a priority target, and there may be others here. Eliminate anyone the Boss marked as a target or anyone who resists."
"Patients too?"
"Anyone on the list or anyone who resists."
They heard rummaging and some mumbling, but they couldn't make out exact words. Q prayed that they wouldn't be found.
"Oy, should we shoot out the bacta tank so they can't use 'em?"
"No, idiot. Then WE can't use them."
They stayed in the closet for what felt like forever. A few times they could hear movement close to them and Q was sure they would be found, but the Force smiled on them and nobody looked in the closet.
"Ey Captain, we just jumped into hyperspace, and teams 1 and 4 aren't responding. You think it's the Jedi?"
"Boss said he would handle the Jedi. Team 1 must have taken the bridge and are just celebrating. Have faith."
"Found the hidden door!" Lots of excited movement followed and a heavy scraping sound could be heard as something was rather slowly forced open. Q barely opened the door and slipped out, silently closing the door behind him. These bastards were really willing to kill helpless patients. He wouldn't let that happen.
He ducked behind a medical bed and watched. The troopers were pushing a supply cabinet aside, and a gap was barely visible from where he was. Q saw M5 quickly dart out and taze the two nearest troopers. Q popped out and started firing stun bolts at the troopers. He managed to get a few of them, but the others quickly recovered and returned fire. Q got hit in the shoulder and he ducked down, the acrid smell of his own burning flesh filling his nose. M5 stunned another one before the blaster fire switched to the droid, and Q heard the droid fall. He tried to get back up, but the shots turned back to him and he was forced to duck back down. The med bay doors opened again and more troopers entered and immediately began blasting at Q. He fired back a few times, getting two, but took a hit to the chest, causing him to fall. He felt the life fading from him as he lay crumpled on the ground. A few more shots hit him in the back as he lay there and closed his eyes, unable to stop himself from drifting into nothing.