Do No Harm (Barab)

[Stephen]

It was a three step issue to Janus's eyes. It was near impossible to break the alien blockade to make landfall on Barab close enough to reach the stricken vessel. The chemical bombardment was bad enough, but the fleets conventional weapons were enough to shred any ship silly enough to come within range. The second step was evaluation of the Saving Grace. A Republic medical frigate should have the legs to make good on an escape if its warp drive was still active, but it'd be impossible to know the state of the ship until you arrived. At this point it was equally likely to find a fully intact medical frigate as it was to find a pile of smoking wreckage being combed over by horrible spider creatures. And finally, assuming you could land, and the ship was in a good enough state to escape the planet, what was to stop the ship from being blasted to slag before it could find a warp corridor? It was quite the issue, but Janus had the start of a plan. For the first bit at least.



The oppressive gloom and silence that filled the UHSV Earnest Aim was hard to ignore. A Hutt Battlecruiser should have the better part of a thousand occupants scurrying around from here to there, so the empty dark halls felt more like a long forgotten tomb and a ship. The awkward lurches as the misfiring engines failed and restarted pushed Janus around the ship constantly, as he used the force to steady himself in the zero gravity. He pushed himself past the unanchored corpses and down the corridors to the escape pods, the way illuminated by his helmet lights. He slid inside and sealed the door behind him, and stared at his entire 8 foot by 10 foot world. A republic army engineer kit, twelve power packs, a signal booster for MoBiva, 6 liters of bacta, 20 thousand in peggat, in case someone was still stupid enough to accept a bribe. His datapad, his lightsaber, his blaster, ten full day military ration kits, and a fusion torch. His entire shipping enterprise compressed into a few bits and bobs loaded into a human sized bullet and fired at a planet. He hammered the wall of his pod twice, and received a single knock in return.



The plan was simple and stupid. A derelict Hutt ship with enough structure to survive a few volleys was secured, and was aimed largely at the last known location of the Saving Grace. If the bombardment fleet turned and fired on the ship, then the escape pods would fire, and then the proton torpedo bay would detonate shortly thereafter, covering the released pods from sensors. If they did not fire on the ship, a larger blast would break apart the core of the ship, then the pods would release. Janus had no idea how well the plan would work, but it was underway now. There was a kind of peace to knowing that either you'd be able to do what you needed to do, or you'd die and it would be someone elses problem

[Ash]

"So Prometheus, how are we looking so far?"

"No change, sir. The Republic Frigate is still showing no movement on the planet. There is an opening in the blockade, but you won't get anything else besides your cute little corvette through."

"That's all the room I need."

From the bridge of the Raptor-class Corvette Shire, Colonel Bit Rook looked across empty space. The way he and the Captain of the Prometheus were speaking, it was as if they were looking over Barab itself, when in reality they were getting sensor data sent over from a small probe, as well as their long range sensors. Barab was under siege, and they needed to get at that frigate.

He turned around, sitting in the command chair, which almost didn't fit him in his Legionnaire armor, but he was lean and fit enough that he managed it. He tapped a few things on his arm console before he turned back forward. He opened a comm channel throughout the small corvette,

"Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank you for volunteering to recover this Republic Frigate with me. Though we are not Republic, we are here to help them out, as I am sure they would help us. In this sign of friendship, we will show that we are on our way to becoming powerful allies. And we will make these Archeri regret invading us and all of our neighbors. Lets show them who we are. LEGION FIRST!"

Everyone on the bridge, and everyone else throughout the Corvette spoke the words Legion First. The corvette was packed full of soldiers and personnel to get the Frigate up and going if it needed it; if they were needed. Their voices seem to make the entire ship reverberate with their call, and Bit let out a cocky smile.

"Mr. Hansen, plot a course to Barab. Once there I will take us planet-side personally. I believe the next largest opening won't be for another few minutes so make sure that calculation is on point."

The Navigation officer grunted in the affirmative tone, his fingers working. Mr. Hansen was a very accomplished navigation officer, and knew what he was doing, and hated to be bugged about it, but Bit couldn't help but ruff his feathers a little. A half smile again, he punched in a few more keys, and a pair of flight sticks jumped up from inside the arms of his chair. He tested them, they were showing were fully operational. Rarely did these flight sticks get used, so it was good to make sure they tested right and wouldn't fail immediately. That was a scramble he didn't feel like messing with. After the test, he slouched back, waiting. With no countdown timer, Bit had no idea when they would jump, but Mr. Hansen, would let them know before.

Out the window, Bit watched the Prometheus gently idle around, turning away before jumping off into hyperspace. It was something else to watch his ship take off without him, but it had its own mission.

"Sir, we have some activity from around Barab. Not sure what but there some heat signatures popping up that are outside of what we have been observing. May be the best bet to jump in."

"Ok. Red alert. All hands prepare for hyperspace jump. It's about time to have some fun. Mr. Hansen, jump us when you feel appropriate."

[Moonfire]

Diva, or Glowstick as her new Holonet Hyperlight Signal moniker presented her, was a tad anxious about this whole thing. She’d thus far enjoyed her time on the Holonet, a rich new world full of lively people to meet and talk to, games, stories and most of all, large collections of still and moving images depicting frequently fuzzy and always adorable baby animals. It was, by far, the best thing Janus had introduced her to yet. She’d even contributed a few of her own, ranking the creatures by most adorable yawns. A very important study she was happy to painstakingly create while he was away on missions deemed unsuitable for her level of skill.

Barab was quite different. She’d noticed the Saving Grace’s plea for help on the HLS boards and immediately reported it to Janus, declaring without a single thought they would most definitely be able to go to spaceport Omega 2-42 to provide some level of assistance to the medical frigate. The scope and scale of the Archeri blockade not quite sinking in until Janus pulled the commandeered battlecruiser within view of the planet.

Soon after he’d packed her, her datapad, a leather satchel, old blaster rifle, and her hunter-green coat into cozy escape pod, the faint yellow biolumience of her skin giving the sparse furnishings deep shadows and menacing highlights. A few moments later a series of comforting taps reminded her she wasn’t alone, tapping back to Janus in return.

Diva wasn’t sure how long they drifted there, moving towards Barab attached a tattered cruiser long removed from the fight before a volley of fire reminded her of the world outside her padded chamber. Thunderous rumbles of ammunition through metal as the Earnest Aim creaked and groaned with every blast through it’s hull. Stomach lurched as she curled tighter into herself, the shadows dancing with every hard shaking of her bundled form inside it’s cushioned cell before firing, like a rocket, forward.

The explosion of the battlecruiser behind them was deafening as the pair of escape pods tore through Barab’s atmosphere.

[Dire Wolf]

Getting to the frigate wouldn't be much of an issue; Rhissai could gather that much as she sat in the darkened cockpit of her starfighter. No. A lone starfighter gliding through the void of space without any semblance of power would likely go unnoticed by the fleet of unknown aggressors around Barab. Whatever life their sensors detected would likely register as a fleeting blip, if at all, unless they'd actively been scanning for life signs in her extremely specific part of space. While they likely were scanning, the likely hood of them getting close enough to detect her was near zero. Big space, little ship.

Nor did she fret over her aim; upon first exiting hyperspace and taking stock of the situation, Rhiss decided the best course of action was to point the nose in the general direction of where she wanted to go, hit max velocity, and power down. Aiming could be done with subtle pushes of the force on the nose when she got a bit closer; too much and she'd wildly miss. Too little, and she'd probably wildly miss too.

What Rhissai really worried about was turning the ship on. Sliding through the blockade would be easy enough, so long as her path didn't bring her too close to a window that someone happened to be looking outside of. The Wanderer would have to go through a couple minutes of required startup diagnostics before the engine could warm up and get her there. A few minutes may not have sounded like all that much time, but it may as well have been an hour. Or an eternity. She'd be defenseless, without shields, and barely able to turn. Goodie.

The Force smiled on her, though, just after she pressed the final button to initialize the startup sequence. Turbolaser fire lept from batteries on the aggressor vessels to fly well over her head to vanish behind her chair. Their lasers continued to leap at the unseen target, leaving her little fighter to itself. By the time the death throes of the unseen vessel reached her in the form of an orange plume, her ship had already begun to surge forward and towards her goal. Running an unknown alien blockade hadn't been the smartest thing she'd ever done, but it hadn't been the most suicidal.

Rhiss only hoped that she could help whoever was down there.

[Stephen]

The awkward lurch of the cabin and and growing heat of the walls let Janus know that they were hitting atmosphere. If everything was on course, they'd land with in a mile or so of their destination. Close enough to make the trip on land, but far enough way that'd they'd be unlikely to land on it. They were taking a calculated risk with the landing in so many ways. They could plunge right through the street and drop out in a sewer as it collapsed on their pods. They could land on an intact shelter and obliterate a group of survivors, or they could simply land in deep enough standing water that it'd be a challenge to open the doors.

As it stood, he ended up embedded a few feet off the floor in the wall of a bombed out strip mall. He climbed out and dropped to the cracked pavement in a roll. He took a quick glance around before walking the few feet over to Diva's borrowed metal casket and slashing the door off with a swing. He could feel the unsteady eddies of the infected all around him. Any attempt at being subtle was out the window, and even if he could hide himself in the force, Diva could not. So a different approach had to be managed.

Janus grabbed his lightsaber between his thumb and index and middle finger and held it palm up before his eyes, before snapping and setting it spinning in the air in front of him. Janus lifted himself off of the ground with it now orbiting just below him. He ignited his lightsaber and left it as a lazy barrier at ground level, as he flew at a leisurely jog down the street. He yelled behind him “Come along, but try to stay low. As long as I'm lighting up the street, you should be clear to approach unmolested.” A silent but urgent Leave, go, run antipathy followed in his wake. In the recent weeks, he found force tricks much more easy to get his mind around, but he shuddered at the implications.

For all his preparation and anticipation, or perhaps because of, the trip was largely uneventful. The origin of the signal came from a massive ferrocrete parking garage the top story of which had collapsed, proving a double thick roof to the inhabitants below. The bottom level had been opened enough for a single ship to be pushed through and stashed inside, and a small shanty hovel had grown around it, complete with open fires burning within metal barrels. Janus extinguished his lightsaber and landed next to it with a thump, quickly stashing it in his satchel. He looked up and nodded to the two humans guarding the gate in environmental suits. They eyed him warily but keep their rifles pointed downward. “Right, let's introduce ourselves to the locals” he said, striding forward slowly, his hands held in front of him palms open.

[Ash]

"Sir, We're jumping. Something hot and we can use it."

Mr. Hanson looked to Bit, then pressed forward on the jump lever, sending them into hyperspace. It would be a very short trip, and Bit was ready for them to jump out. Or thought he was as the aftermath of an explosion of some sort was in the neighborhood.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thiiiiis is your captain speaking. We will be hitting some turbulence so fasten your seat belts and keep all limbs inside the ship at all times."

Bit spoke over the intercom, taking control of the corvette as he did so. He gave it a quick shake back and forth before gunning the engines to full. It accelerated fast enough for him to feel it in his seat, and sent it heading towards the planet.

Someone smartened up and started sending laser fire at the corvette, and Bit made it dance like it was a starfighter, sending the nose around and corkscrewing around almost wildly. It would have been if Bit wasn't such an experience pilot. He danced and before anyone knew it, they were lost in the atmosphere, nosing down almost too far, and he could feel the heat.

"Flight attendants for final approach. Make sure all trays and seats are in the upright position."

A few minutes later and they were in the clear, skimming the ground towards the landing zone. For him at least.

"Take over. Its about time for me to make groundfall"

Bit stood, sending the controls back to the helmsman, and left the bridge, going down a handful of decks where he finished outfitting himself with his helmet, weapons, stealth belt, and a jetpack. When they were over the right zone, he opened the door and bailed out, freefalling some 15000 feet. His target was around a strip mall, and he was right on target, stealthed, landing outside of the mall.

He checking a small tablet, getting a beep from the target ship. He got it, and started off, keeping quiet despite his armor. His rifle was low as he jogged down the street, coming up on some humanoids trying to get into a gate, which was guarded by two humans in envirosuits. He didn't trust his stealth fully and half hid around the corner. He would go in when these other people did, and find those who he was to meet up with. He quietly snickered to himself, thinking that those at the gate could be who he needed to meet up with.

[Moonfire]

A hiss of brilliant too bright light freed her from the uncomfortable little prison, flooding fresh air back into the little canister. Like a newborn paralope Diva found her legs again with a wobble, newly acquired boots helping her to steady on the tips of digitigrade toes. Bright neon flickered, the abandoned shopping plaza running off a back-up generator of some sort had long been abandoned now, casting odd shadows. Thankfully the HuttDonald’s they’d blasted into was made of durasteel and the highly flammable frying oil was kept in the back. The whole in the wall leaked the fragrance of thick grease and sodium.

Bag slung over one shoulder, blaster rifle across the other and Diva resembled a halfway competent adult. A slight tingle of something-- was it nerves or excitement to be helping?-- worked through her, quickly broken by a full body shake. Gloves moved to conceal her hands and a scarf wound its way across her face to dim the golden lumience of her skin. And, like it was nothing at all for a grown man to float like some fairytale farm dream, Janus drifted up his laser sword illuminating a path as he flew down the thoroughfare.

A sudden, violent need propelled the woman forward, faster than the Janus’ initial words had registered with her. Leave, go, run. Springing forward, the paralope found it’s stride as Diva’s gloved hands clutched her belongings. No notice to the scenery nor thought was spared on the journey as the pair moved in anxious silence. Only the need to move and move quickly possessed her.

When the pair finally stopped at the coordinates they’d lifted from the Holonet Highlight Signal was released from the direction, staring wide-eyed at the hovel the refugees had constructed. Rifle still slung over her shoulder she pulled down the mask-like mass of her scarf to smile warmly at the guards with a wave of her hand. “Hello. We are here to help.”

[Stephen]

He let Diva run out the welcoming spiel. He kept his eyes open and followed close behind. Hasmat and environment suits were the call to order in the camp, as were heavy adrenals judging by the wild eyes of the guards on perimeter. Probably full day shifts by the looks of them. You could find stems strong enough to keep a corpse marching on the right markets, but that's likely all you'd get back if you had to use them more than twice. Desperate times it seemed. The piles of oxygen tanks in the back of the camp refuse pile told of over stretched supplies and many scavenging runs. Janus suspected a hospital was somewhat nearby. He let Mo'Biva take a long scan of the camp and then joined Diva at the center.

A stern faced middle aged woman stood around a large wooden wire spool now being used as a table. Across the surface lay half filled reams of paper, each filled with tallies of the supplies on hand, and rationing details. She reached out and shook Janus' hand, and he spent a moment marvelling at how artifucial shaking hands through to hermetic seals felt. She spoke up “I was just telling Diva here that our flight computer is scrambled real bad here. We took a pulse on the ground here and basically wiped it in entirety. We got 'er up and running again but without the appropriate telemetry we can't jump to warp. Those damn spiders will tear us apart.” Janus nodded a moment and tapped the side of his helmet before speaking. “I'll take a look at it”

It was largely as he suspected. Mo' could fix it, but it would take time. Even with the signal booster, it would take hours to upload a new suite of flight software. You just couldn't get good signal in wartime it seemed. Still there was enough to do in the interim, rounding up the infirm and and the extra supplies. Hopefully some type of sanitation routine could be invented. And someone would have to do an inspection of the ship. “Diva if you would.” He made a hand gesture towards himself. “Do a tour of the camp and ship if you would, I might be here a moment and I have need of your eyes.”

[Ash]

Bit made his way through the gate before it closed, Trailing Janus and Diva quietly as he took his own sites in. Quickly enough he made his way to a dark, lonely corner and dropped his stealth, pulling out a poncho of sorts from his pack and draping the thin material over his armor and jetpack. It made him somewhat blend in at a first glance, but his armor was too... well looked like it belonged in a warzone rather than stuck in a grubby little shanty area like this.

He made his way back out quickly enough, and was half surprised he found Janus again talking to some woman. The audio enhancers in his armor allowed him to hear what was going on, and it sounded as if the flight computer was basically wiped out.

"Maybe I have a better fix. We can slave it to a Corvette I have nearby once we get her into space and get to a safer area. That is assuming that the slave systems are back up."

The eye pieces of his helmet unpolarized showing smiling, bright brown eyes of Bit.

"Th' names Bit. Here from Legion to help out."

[Stephen]

“Oh hey.” Janus said in a start. As far as a well armored stranger ghosting his way into the encampment went, offering to help was probably the best outcome. “Yeah man, that's cool. With your kit you could probably give the guys on the gate a break, or if you think you could help with the ship you could hit that up.” Janus wasn't sure what Legion was, it sounded to him like a cult that hits you up for credits at spaceports. Eventually MoBiva pulled the listing for them, and things began making more sense. A Paramilitary outfit out of the Mid Rim with a bit of a reputation. Decent pricing options too. One of them may have seen the listing and guessed there is profit enough in humanitarian aid for their time. Fair enough.

Janus did a walking tour of the camp just drinking in the overall feel of the camp. Morale seemed good for the circumstances. Sarri seemed to be doing a good enough job keeping things together, or an influx of new blood with plans picked things up. They moved with real purpose to the ship and back. It was refreshing to see. Mobiva kept trying to point out discrepancies with their book keeping but he just didn't feel like bringing down the mood.

He reached into his pack and pulled out his signal booster and folded the antennae out, and powering it up. He marked off one of his power packs with his eyes on the helmets cyan hololight hud. A pale blue light shot from the tip of the antennae in a flat plane extending across the parking lot ceiling before descending over the camp like a feather light blanket and drawing itself back into the antennae. Mobiva popped up in the corner of his helmet for a moment to say “I'll have a full report on the camps stocks as soon as I can manage.” Janus shrugged, “whatever makes you happy Mo.” he replied. Apparently the hurry up and wait affected AI as well.

[Moonfire]

Ever appreciating being useful, Diva worked her way along the makeshift camp’s inventories, taking a full detailed stock. Perhaps overly detailed, but it was better to bog the AI down with more information than not enough, right? Gloved fingers tapped across the surface of her beloved datapad, inputting information at a slow, but steady clip. It was still taking some getting used to, the new fangled thing-- but her youth blunted the learning curve a smidge.

There was a decent amount of water, food rations, medical equipment-- Even to her naive eyes it wasn’t truly sustainable. This was a camp spread thin and with too much gumption to quit. They were lucky Janus and her were there to help, them and Legion. She wasn’t sure exactly what Legion was, but Bit seemed friendly enough and anything was better than the queer planty ships full of unknown arachnid monsters.

The ship itself seemed structurally fine. The numbers from the physical counts and their inventory system-- a fun little autofilled form with pleasant numbered suggestions that were oh-so-very-wrong, didn’t match up. Slim lips pulling into a tight fine line as the young woman shrugged. Maybe they’d changed the priority of things. It was all information for Janus to use. He was good at figuring out strange problems. Forwarding the numbers along to Mo’ with a swipe Diva returned to the group, giving a mock salute.

“Counted and looked over everything, Captain Jay. Your orders?”

[Stephen]

“Right. Thanks Dee, Mo' will fiddle with that after we get the flight computer working.” She immediately got herself stuck into busy work when they showed up had worked a furious lap around the camp. There was a level of enthusiastic vigor to the way she approached her work that was deeply endearing. It was good for her to dig into the minutiae of difficult situations. Even if you learned nothing useful, Janus felt she often needed a moment to calm down to make proper decisions. He didn't exactly know why he was trying to teach her, but he was determined to give glory a go in this situation. Besides, she was skilled enough if given proper direction.

The Mercenary disappeared as quickly as he appeared, but he doubt he was gone for long. He hadn't even been paid yet for one, and he probably didn't have a better method to leave than this ship. Hopefully they wouldn't need him, but it was nice to have him in case things went south. Soldiers were always useful in wartime, even if you didn't need any killing done.

Mo' interrupted his train of thought, “Janus, I believe if you start loading now, I'll have the ship ready by the time it has filled.” A small cyan countdown appeared on the inside of his helmet, giving them just under seventeen minutes before the upload finished. All things considered, the signal booster was the best tool he brought on this trip so far. He signaled to Sarri that it was time to board than stepped up the loading ramp. No one looked tired now. Some of the crew looked wild eyed, but there was a nervous but positive energy about the trip now. It was good to know after a long ordeal that even if you were about to die, there would be no more waiting around, and no more fear. Janus was happy with his thoughts for a quiet moment, watching Sarri load the crew in with her supplies on their cramped frigate.

[Ash]

"Ill head to the ship and get it all ready for a slaved jump. I'll have additional help land in and relieve people."

Bit decided to head off into the ship, calling in the nearby corvette for another pass to release a few extra troopers to help out with security. He didn't bother checking out the entire frigate and instead went right to the bridge, going to the helm then navigation areas and inserting a drive into each of the consoles. From there he started working around to get stuff set up.

Bit kept his helmet and gauntlets on, just in case there were any problems. His progress in getting the ship ready to be slaved up to his corvette was slower than it could have been otherwise, but safety first. Especially with the fungus bugs that are threatening the galaxy. He narrowed his eyes slightly, hidden behind his helmet, and sighed, getting back to work.

Should have really gotten the comm channels for the other people. Oh well, too late now. they will wander around here eventually.

For the next few minutes, Bit jumped between different consoles, bringing out a medium sized datapad to run all sorts of data through it. The Corvette did a few more passes, beaming down information, data, and updates to him so he could finish getting everything ready. Looking out the windows as he jumped around the cramped room, and he figured he would be done and ready before everything and everyone was loaded up. Better for him to be ready early than late.

[Stephen]

The logistics of loading a frigate were surprisingly easy. Sarri made it clear once Janus had updated her that they were taking off in 18 minutes with or without them, so loading was trimmed down to what you could reasonably fit on a ship within the time frame. He felt bad for the guards, feet nailed to the floor at the gates, having to make due with whatever people remembered for them. Still a brisk freedom free of your material longings was better than a tomb replete with the finest rubble and filth coated bric-a-brac available. Still a few more mecenaries helped hold the fringe and even they got to join in the wild abandon of wildly abandoning things. Janus frowned, either they'd have to take the whole trip in their suits, or they'd need to work a decontamination protocol for the ship with all this toxic cargo.

Janus himself made his way on to the ship slowly began to survey the rooms. Even this frigate class ship seemed oversized compared to his junk freighter. Multiple housing rooms, multiple functional med bays, storage upon storage. It seemed more a mobile motel than a spaceship, but nothing that wasn't the wayward light would feel just right. Still he could see where the money was spent. She was an sleek steel monster in halogen white. Alien and strange, she still called to him.

A quick head count against max capacity spoke of attrition in hushed whispers. So few to survive so much just to get obliterated by the first cruiser that could be bothered to lock on. Even as nimble as they were, breaking a blockade in a ship you never flew before would be some feat. Still it'd be quick, and you'd die as yourself, which is more than can be said for staying. Janus made his peace and strode on to the small 4 man bridge.

The mercenary leader had beat him here and was already prepping for take off. He looked like he knew what he was doing so he left him to it. It stood to reason that someone responding to this call would know their way around a ship, and it was hardly time for a pissing contest. He sat on his left, a bit back, by the hud overview of the surrounding space. Sarri came and sat across on his right. Like blood draining out of a sink drain, Janus watched the count down swap from three digits, to two, then finally to one. The Finality of blinking oughts broke his reverie and forced him to speak. “I believe we are all aboard. On your mark Sarri.”

[Ash]

Sometime during his leaps and bounds of getting the frigate set for launch, Janus appeared on the bridge. That must have been the sign that they were nearly ready to go. The man took an unoccupied seat, out of the was of Bit's running around which he was thankful for, and he finished his little bit of work.

"Hey Champ, mind hopping in that command chair and making sure all preflight checks are finished? Got a good chunk of the systems routed there and im about to engage engines."

He spoke to Janus, and only called him Champ because he didn't get his name when they first met. He moved to the help, reaching over to tap a few commands in the navigation console and used his suit to send a message to the waiting Corvette. Quickly, the small ship appeared, hovering nearby and sending down the slave information to the navigation console.

With an affirmative note, the information was transferred over and both ships were linked, so long as they didn't stray too far from each other. Bit didn't trust this console. Now all they had to to was get through that blockade.

"Oh how I wish my ship was here. Then the blockade would be cake." He spoke to himself.

He tested the helm controls, getting his seat and a few other things to how he liked it, and settled in. He loved flying, the smaller and faster the ship the better, but things like this were fairly simple as well. He heard Janus speak up about something and tapped a few more times into various consoles, eyes assessing everything.

"Looks good on my end. All readings in green for flight. I think its time to find us a nice hole to enter."

"

[Stephen]

Janus felt the inertia pull him forward as the ship burst into the sky. He loved the idea to trust durasteel over ferrocrete so they burst from the roof of the parking garage in a wide plume of masonry. They blue shifted in seconds and between the span of breaths they broke into the blackness of space. The fleet beyond waited. They stood in mirrored silence, the only movement in their ranks was the pivot of weapon pods. Janus eyed the timer on the jump cooridination calculator. Ideally they'd make a short shift in the system, to where his ship was hidden, but you couldn't expect things to go this well

Two cruiser class ships disengaged, pivoting toward them lazily and began blanketing their area in fire. They weaved and dodged in the sky, diving between the corridors of fire as they drifted away from the pack. The ship shuddered twice under fire, but their speed and agility won out over the near derelict cruiser. Soon after they were in the small hyperlane to the other side of the system.

The ship sharply exhaled after the jump, Janus more so than usual. Janus pounded the console in celebration and was struck by how quiet it was. Surely the people within the ship would at least be aware of their escape, but dead quiet. Even Sarri just stared at him, pale face just behind the clear glass screen. Something was off, he knew it, but he couldn't quite place it. He cocked his head to the side and opened up the text dump that MoBiva gave him

It didn't click for him at first, it was just the readouts of what their supplies were and could have been and what they would have used for this many people, assuming that everyone who died died in the first day. He keep staring at these two graphs projected on the inside of his helmet, swapping his head between them, completely comfused. Eventually it clicked however, Even if they had scavenged non stop from all nearby sites, they would have run out of supplies weeks ago. Their evironment suits were just for show. They hadn't the oxygen scrubbers or the power packs to keep the suits functioning the entire time. The silence, the relative ease of their escape, the look of fear in Sarri's eyes. It could only lead to one thing. Janus' shoulders sunk. “Shit.” he said with an long exhale.

[Ash]

At the appropriate time, Bit shoved the engines to full and blasted off into the sky. The Frigate felt slow and sluggish to him, at least compared to the fighters and even corvettes he was use to and recently flying. Still, he got the brick up and quickly into space.

In front of him, the blockade waited, hanging 'above' them in absolute silence that only space can offer. He let out a slow whistle, glancing at the jump countdown near his left hand.

"An entire blockade against this frigate and a corvette... Too easy"

With a laugh, Bit gunned it, fingers playing across the controls as he dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dogged around laser fire. He felt the frigate get hit a few times, but nothing broke, at least at first, and as quickly as they were in it, they were out an in the swirling mass of hyperspace.

It was a quick jump, and they were out quickly back in real space.

"Well that was a blast. Pun intended. So what are the.... next... problems..."

Bit went from humor to curious in no time fast. He eyed Janus and everyone else here on the bridge with him. He depolarized his helmet, eyes scanning the people again.

[Stephen]

“You knew the entire time.” It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact. She probably knew by the time she made the distress call that no one had a shot of getting there in time. “You knew the entire time, and you were too fucking weak to make the hard rationing decisions.” He could feel himself getting angrier and angrier but he couldn't stop it. “I bet you can hear them now, can't you. You passed right by the fucking hive in the sky and they barely even took a run at us.” His fingers were attempting punch holes through his suit and into his palms. It was just so stupid, she begged, begged people to risk their lives so they could have the pleasure of losing their humanity and dying slowly in space. It was waste of effort, time, and lives.

And now what? The original plan was to take them to one of the refugee camps, but that was off the list now. They'd either be dead or their own private hive by the time they arrived, most likely both. Wasn't this a Republic Medical Frigate? They could easily land this on any core world with no questions asked spread their filth anywhere. It could be a catastrophe. A literal Apocalypse in a can, just break the seal. This was worse than a waste of time, this was near to aiding and abetting. Janus couldn't stand it. He slowly pushed himself to his feet.

Even now he could feel the crew through the force, alive and unsteady. He could feel Sarri's fear echo through the crew, and their new senses alight across the ship like tiny candles of force sparking in the night, guttering in the heavy wind of awakening. He had felt this before, and he knew where this lead. “You Sarri, your judgement brought us here, and so my judgement falls upon you.” He wasn't sure what he was going to do before he started the sentence, but his saber was in his hand by the end. He struck across his body, catching her underneath just underneath her shoulder and raking upward, Her arm, most of her collarbone, and her head and neck tumbled off to her right, as well as the back of her copilots chair.


He was left little choice now. He couldn't help these people, but he could still save them. He stood there a moment looking at Sarri's lower half go limp and slide out her chair before he spoke up. “Pilot, you're clean. Signal your crew to pick you up. Scrub your suit with fire before you go.” His tone was emotionless and flat. Janus strode back to the crew quarters his saber illuminating the dim cockpit with dark green light. “I'm going to clean this up, and then drop this ship off in the nearest star.” His black fist pounded the console in the back wall with a dead thud, and the doors gave way with a unsteady lurch. His blade dragged ragged red lines down the walls as he walked, sparking off into small explosions of flammable dust. A small blinking 27 flashed in the corner of his suit helmet hud. Sarri was 28, 2 were clean, 26 to go.

[Ash]

Bit polarized his lenses when he caught onto what was being said, turning back to his controls. He worked them for a bit, idle movements really as he called the nearby corvette towards the bridge area. He did turn back at the sound of a lightsaber, and had his blaster up when Janus caught Sarri from armpit to opposite shoulder, bisecting her. After a moment, he stowed it back on his leg and began work on a different project.

"This would normally be a good time for a joke about slaying women."

He spoke under his breath, not really caring if he was overheard. He jumped over the pilot seat towards the commander area, typing around there as Janus decided to speak back up.

"Yea, a nice little fire bath never heart anyone. Enjoy your slaughter spree. Kill some of em for me!"

He threw a half wave over his shoulder as Janus lumbered off. He heard the lightsaber spark off on the walls as he walked off, but now Bit paid it no mind.

"There we go. Self destruct set. Lets see... an hour time should be fine. Silent mode oonnnn.... aaaaaaaand start."

Bit yawned and stretched his arms over his head, watching the countdown start. He then double checked the safety measures here on the bridge. On the screens on the bridge, he left a message for Janus for if he came back.

SHOULD BE EASY TO DISARM IF YOU WANT. OR RUN. HAPPY TRAILS

With that, he shot out the front view-screen, opening the bridge to open space. Flying out into space, his left arm covered his eyes and his right went wide, almost like a pose as his body spun out into space. Some odd hype sound escaped him as well, but it was hard to understand. Quickly, he was picked up by the corvette, but it hovered around the Frigate just in case. They could disarm the self destruct from a distance, and probably would. Who knew. With Bit and Legion safe, anything else was extra.

[Stephen]

It was a fine thing to be right. He gripped the righteousness of his work in his off hand, fingers flat against his palm. He'd ceded control of this mission from the beginning. Show up, assist, do what you can, but don't take over. Let these people save themselves. He had been too soft, and now he was being made to pay for his mistake. Still he had woken up before calamity turned to catastrophe. It was the only solace he had; that he could only be stupid for so long before even he noticed his mistake. He had to fix it. No one else could, and it was his fault.

He kept expecting them to run. Lost as they were in the reverie of their transformation, they largely ignored him. It was like walking through a spice den. He'd draw his blaster on someone and fire, and miss entirely as he led a target that refused to cooperate. That got them screaming, but with the overwhelming sensory input, they just collapsed and cried. He missed the first target three time before the blaster bolt tore through the young woman's ribcage. Weakness again found Janus here, and his errors were making this more painful than it need be. Little pockets of terror echoed through the force around him.

It was easier with the saber. He had spent hours alone on a ship practicing with a saber, pretending there were targets. Now that there were static targets, it almost fell back into his midnight rote work. His senses ruined the illusion however. Hair burned in acrid clouds of greasy smoke. Eyes and blood vessels not cleaved burst in audible pops from the heat of the near blade strokes. The pervasive scent of his work was the halfway point between food and sewage. Dead eyes frozen between awe and betrayal stared meaninglessly down the empty halls.

When he started, he feared being rushed. A hail of tattered humanity like Edgepoint station. By the time he finished he almost begged for it. MoBiva had a digital countdown of the self destruct sequence, but he hardly needed it. She had control of the ship, she could stop or start it at her leisure. She could have vented them into space at his command, but he held back. He had to do this himself. He had to bear the weight of this on himself. He could not make the decision and not carry out the task himself. Janus made a small kitchen fire, hot enough to burn his suit clean and bathed himself in flame once again. Then he strode out into space.

Mo drifted the Wayward Light toward him lazily and he glided silently to his ship, the loading ramp closing behind him. At his command, he had the AI fire the ships engines before the self destruct sequence. The momentum would carry the frigate into the nearby star in a few days. Janus sat on the floor of his loading dock, his arms cradling his legs to his chest. He wanted nothing more than to take his suit off but he dared not to. He rocked back and forth as the gentle spray of the decontamination arch rattled quietly around him.