Stars hide your fires... [Kriegen]

[Thaddeus]

Arkoh and the Aegis were on their way back from the Outer Rim, carrying with them a full battalion that was being given its assigned leave, when a message reached the ship. They were to divert to the Ryndellian sector, and to dock and render assistance to a Jedi Knight on a station along the Triellus Trade Route. Arkoh had inquired of his superiors what ‘render assistance’ meant, but they could only tell him that the Jedi High Council had requested the Republic divert a ship to the Jedi, apparently they had failed to check in at an appointed time. Quite why missing a single broadcast would prompt such a response from the Jedi puzzled Arkoh, he was under the impression that for the most Jedi Knights were not closely monitored on missions. As the ship hurtled through hyperspace Arkoh pondered the matter from his quarters.

Arkoh’s quarters on his ship were refined and elegant, like the man himself. The bed was a single mattress, though everything from the fitted sheets to the pillows were finely made (and certainly not standard issue) – it looked like one of those delightful beds into which you and your sore muscles could just melt away into. His desk was tidy and ordered, covered in reports, and a holomap which flickered and mimicked the main map on the bridge. On the walls were a few fine works of Arkanian portraiture, copies as the originals hung in his apartment on Coruscant. Indeed his whole quarters looked more civilian than martial, there were virtually no signs that its occupant was an officer in the Republic Navy – but then Arkoh was not the sort of officer who went in for the military ho-rah.

A blinking light made Arkoh open his eyes, he had stopped pondering for a moment and simply was enjoying the noise of the Aegis, the holocommunicator on his desk had a call.

“Yes?”

“Captain, sir, we will be dropping out of hyperspace soon.”

“Thank you lieutenant, I shall be on the bridge in a moment.”

“Yes sir.”

Arkoh rose from the chair in which he had been reclining, and pulling down his jacket straightened out the few creases that had emerged. Walking over to the full-length mirror Arkoh brushed and pushed his hair into its normal position, straightened his starched collar, checked the polish on his boots and then once everything was just right strode out of his quarters.

Along the way ratings stepped aside and saluted their captain, never with a smile though. They were his men through and through, but their relationship was built on mutual respect of abilities, not on charismatic affection. Meanwhile the soldiers he passed who were their cargo on this trip saluted lazily, and then went on talk about their leave. Typical Arkoh thought, their commanding officer had been the lazy sort who believed he was a beloved father and friend to his men. Such officers abounded in the service, but never really stood up to the heat of battle Arkoh had found. He stepped into the lift with a nod at the Twi’lek ensign passing who had snapped off a salute, the only man with a smile as he did so.

Arkoh walked onto his bridge to the salutes of those officers not about their tasks, the few that couldn’t take their hands off their instruments nodded respectfully.

“As you were.”

The bridge resumed its normal hum as officers prepared to bring the ship out of hyperspace and dock with the station. Arkoh clasped his hands behind his back and watched the busy scene play out before him with satisfaction – they were an excellent crew. It would be but a minute or two before the Aegis exited hyperspace and hailed the station for docking permission.

[Kriegen]

There was no response from the station, merely static. "Say again, Space Colony Excursion, this is Republic vessel Aegis requesting permission to dock," the communications officer repeated. "Sir, the colony isn't responding."

That seemed odd. A space station as large as the Excursion had multiple backup communications arrays, so it shouldn't have gone dark. This situation was starting to get strange. 

"Sir, what are your orders?" an Ensign asked Arkoh. By now the station was coming into view, though nothing seemed amiss. Then again, things rarely ever did, especially when they were catastrophically bad. The comms officer continued to hail the station, but still received no response.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. Arkoh had two choices now. Investigate, or stay away from the station and continue hailing it until there was a response.

[Thaddeus]

The Aegis drifted slowly in space as Arkoh looked out of the bridge at the space station. Arkoh pulled up the schematics of the station on his holomap and studied them intensely,

"In the information packet Sector HQ gave us there was the Jedi's personal holochannel, try to reach them on that."

He hadn't even looked up from the schematics, his hands manipulating the image and studying the myriad of passageways and rooms. As the comms officer went about his task there was a palpable sense of tension on the bridge. Normally everyone would have put the silence down to a generator issue, or some other accident, but wartime did not allow the luxury of such excuses. Looking up from the schematics without the slightest air of worry their unflappably elegant captain spoke,

"I want you to take us in slowly helm, I also want a full scan of the station - tell me what systems are still working, what aren't, and if there are any signs of life..." He turned to face his comms officer, "I want that Jedi on holo asap."

"Yes sir."

"Also someone get a message to that knuckle-dragging colonel that I want his troopers at the ready." This last order prompted a round of smiles and small chuckles on the bridge. Antagonism between the service branches was always present, and the men of the bridge enjoyed the fact that their captain indulged in the tradition.

So the bridge was alive with activity as Arkoh's orders were carried out quickly and efficiently. Meanwhile straightening his jacket once more he lent on the bar before him and strained his eyes at the station trying, in vain of course, to spot any sign of ingress by invaders. A station this size they could have cut their way in almost anywhere, the odds of the Aegis passing by that exact spot were ridiculous and Arkoh knew this. Slowly the ship moved closer to the space station, looking for a docking ring - the helm had asked if they were to make for a hangar, but Arkoh had just shook his head.

[Kriegen]

There was no luck raising the Jedi, either. "Sir, no response form the Jedi, either."

Now that was enough to worry a few of the crew. The station going dark could be explained by a system malfunction, but that, combined with no response from the Jedi, raised a huge red flag.

"Sir!" on of the officers called out, right as a human corpse bounced off the viewport of the command center. It was covered in claw and bite marks as well as dried blood.

Several of the bridge crew swore, some seemed disgusted, and one of the fresh ensigns actually ran off, presumably to vomit. Whatever had happened on the station, it was no simple comms accident.

There was something dangerous on that colony.

[Thaddeus]

"Ensign! Back here this instant!" The ensign looked pleadingly with one hand over his mouth, but the ice cold white eyes of Arkoh regarded him disdainfully, "You will not abandon your post again, do so and I will have you court martialed." The ensign nodded, swallowed, gagged, and then went back to his post.

Arkoh's eyes looked over his bridge, and in an instant like chastised toddlers all the men looked busy and attempted to win back their captain's good graces. He would not have his crew squealing like little children at the sight of a corpse, they were to be officers and men of the Republic Navy. Arkoh walked down from his platform that overlooked the bridge, and made his way to the window and looked at the body closely. The comms officer tried to interject with his failure to raise the Jedi again, but Arkoh just waved him off.

The corpse had begun to drift further off from the ship, and satisfied with his study Arkoh smoothed his epaulets and brushing his hair back with one hand walked back to his platform. The heels of his boots clicked across the floor in a perfect 2/4 time signature. The vague reminder of military marches in his steps calmed the officers and men somewhat with a sense of tradition. Back on his platform rubbed his chin and upper lip as the Aegis kept its course towards a docking ring.

"You can't reach the Jedi, but can you trace where the holocall is terminating?"

"Yes sir, easily."

"Do it."

The comms officer nodded and set straight to it, glad to be distracted with work. It was a simple enough request, the signal was getting through just no one was answering, so all he had to do was follow the call to the holoreceiver. The ship slowly pulled alongside the docking ring, and the automated process begun: lights illuminated the station's ring, and slowly the Aegis extended the tunnel that would connect the ship to the station, the two touched and a seal was established. Just as this occurred the colonel of the infantry battalion walked onto the bridge

"Captain Altunen what is going on? I was told we were just collecting a Jedi." Arkoh did not appreciate the man's presence on his bridge, or his demands, so spinning on his heel to face the officer Arkoh in clipped tones replied, "The station is not responding to hails, and we cannot reach the Jedi, I am therefore requesting that you ready a squadron of your men in the port airlock..." He waved the formerly vomiting ensign over, "...this man will show you the way. Thank you." Arkoh snapped off a salute and turned back to managing his ship, the colonel walked off in a huff imagining the dozen or so comebacks he should have used.

"Sir I have the location of the Jedi's holoreceiver, I am putting up on the map for you."

"Thank you lieutenant." Arkoh watched the map of the station flicker a moment, and then a blinking green dot showed the location of the receiver. "Do I have my scans of the station yet?"

[Kriegen]

"Sir, scans are showing lifeforms all over the station." The officer who spoke activated a hologram that appeared in front of Arkoh. "The Jedi's transmitter is also currently in the maintenance level, sector Delta." That was the reactor's sector. "What are your orders, sir?"

[Thaddeus]

Arkoh studied the map closely, the reactor was a short journey by elevator from the airlock where the Aegis had docked. But the station showed that what little power that remained was given over to powering life support, so rather than putting any more pressure on the generators Arkoh resolved that they would proceed on foot. A longer journey, but by using the maintenance stairwells it should only take 15 or 20 minutes to reach the maintenance levels and then set out for the generators in sector Delta.

The map then flickered as the scan results showed the massive numbers of life signs, too many to be just the crew of the station; but also the life signs were in places no humanoid could fit. It didn't take a smart man, and Arkoh was an exceptionally smart man, to realise that the life signs represented whatever had mutilated the corpse earlier.

"Centre the scan on the holoreceiver, ignore any signature that matches the other life signs."

"Yes sir." It took just a moment. "I have one signature there not matching any other signatures."

Arkoh nodded and clasping his hands behind his back again pondered a little, then turned to the helmsmen, "Disengage the ship from the docking ring, take us down till we are alongside the maintenance level..." The men nodded and the ship hummed and lurched to life once more, "Once we are there I want an ingress to be made." The officers on the deck nodded, it wasn't an uncommon procedure and the docking ring mechanism of most Republic Navy vessels was equipped to cut an entrance.

It took all of 5 minutes for the ship to be re-positioned, an entrance made, and a seal to be created. Arkoh during this time had called the colonel, endured his much belated comeback, and asked for a further two companies to be made ready in the port airlock.

"Once a seal has been established..." An officer gave Arkoh a thumbs up, "...Correction I want one squad to disembark now and establish a beach head, am I understood colonel?" This time it was the colonel who snapped a salute and cut off Arkoh before he could say any more. Not that the Arkanian cared, no Arkoh had other business to attend to. Turning to his comms officer once more he gave instructions for a priority message to be sent to Sector HQ, Fleet HQ, and the Jedi Temple appraising them all of the situation. The message left instantly, along with all of the ship's readings.

"I want our squad of marines to join the two infantry squads in the airlock." The order was relayed, including the squad already disembarked there 52 armed and armoured infantrymen at the ready. "XO you have the ship, I shall lead the boarding party." The Duros Commander saluted and strode up to the platform as Arkoh made for the lift.

He detoured via his quarters to collect his shore-kit, including the standard issue blaster which he had never fired. Arkoh had always found his own reactions and body to be faster, more natural, and more efficient than any blaster. He reached the airlock in short order, and the 39 men there snapped to attention audibly. Arkoh returned the salute, and motioned for the NCOs of the squads to join him. Attended by the sergeants and corporals, and his own warrant officers, Arkoh explained the situation. With this done the squads disembarked, the first squad had upturned desks and cupboards to make a makeshift barricade - thereupon setting up heavy repeating blasters.

The two infantry squads and marine squad would proceed towards the generators, with the re-positioning of the Aegis it would now only take 5 minutes to pass through the several hallways to the Jedi's holoreceiver. Arkoh moved with the marines, who had taken point, all three squads moved along the hallway in bounding overwatch.

((Kreigen don't forget to write about your character, thanks for the help setting the scene, but I can handle my NPCs - I and I imagine anyone reading is quite intrigued what your character has been up to while Arkoh and the Aegis has been going through all this ))

[Kriegen]

The deck was eerily quiet. The only thing heard besides the Marines was that of the distant reactors. There was nothing to indicate any signs of life...save smears of blood along the halls every so often. Whatever happened had been quite gruesome. It was a wonder how many people had survived. Still, other than the blood, they found nothing...though there were some odd sounds heard in the distance every so often.

The boarding team finally reached the reactor, but they didn't find the Jedi...merely the Jedi's transmitter lying on the ground.

[Kriegen]

At the same time as the boarding team was arriving, a young female Cathar Jedi was slowly making her way away from the fusion reactor. That plan had been a bust, as the reactor had been the center of the...infestation. Whoever had started this must have figured someone would try to overload the reactors once the station was completely overrun.

Now the young Jedi had to find another way to destroy this station, lest any rescue teams come and investigate, and ultimately receive the same fate as Excursion. But then, through the colony's protective glass dome, she saw the Republic ship approach, then drop down. It didn't take long for her to realize they must've locked on to the signal from her transmitter...which was still down on the reactor level. "No no no no no no no!" The young Cathar began to sprint back to the maintenance elevator she'd used to come back to the colony surface, doing her best to not be noticed by anything, then furiously slam the button for the reactor level. She had to get to them and warn them before it was too late.

[Thaddeus]

The three platoons advanced slowly, checking their corners and rifles at the ready, nary a word was spoken as all commands were passed along with gestures. Arkoh remained with his marines, eyes scanning the hallway, his pistol remained holstered and his breaths still even and unhurried.

A few blaster burns scarred the walls, and bits of metal were bent and scratched, but on the whole there was little damage. Not Mandalorians or Sith then, even a small SpecOps team would leave more signs than this. As the marines waited in over-watch Arkoh looked along and down the hall, it was dimly lit with emergency lighting.

A quick flash of movement ahead of them prompted 54 flashlights to illuminate where the shadow had been. Arkoh didn't bother he knew that it was long gone, scurried off into some air vent. He wasn't going to divide up his men and chase after it, he was here to get the Jedi and nothing else. The men moved out.

A few more minutes and they had advanced another 100 metres without contact, yet Arkoh remained alert and continued the bounding over-watch. He knew a trap when he saw it, and this was a trap. Unfortunately, he thought grimly, there was no way to get to the Jedi without springing it.

"Sir." One of the marines pointed at the lights which indicated the lift was in use and coming down.

Arkoh quickly signaled the two infantry platoons to form up and keep their eyes on the hall. Meanwhile the marines formed up in front of their CO and trained blaster rifles at the lift doors. Arkoh stood seemingly disinterested, the aristocratic features of his face cultivated into a perfect figure of boredom, of course he was anything but.

"You will only fire upon my order."

[Kriegen]

As the lift slowly descended, strange sounds began to come from everywhere. Claws scraping metal as something ran down a corridor, strange hissing from an air vent, and finally, loud, inhuman screeches from all around, though thankfully still distant. Whatever was out there, it sounded angry...and it sounded like there were a lot of them.

In the elevator, the Jedi heard a loud thud above her, as if something had landed atop the lift from above, before she heard claws against metal as something tried to claw its way in. Instantly, she ignited her lightsaber, giving the dark compartment a bright blue glow, before stabbing upwards at the sound, earning a shriek from the creature above her. But soon, more thuds, and more scratching sounds could be heard. She had to get out of the elevator, or else she'd never make it to the reactor deck. So she hit the emergency stop button, then cut a hole in the bottom and grabbed the edge of the hole once it had cooled off, before swinging over to the scaffolding next to her. Then she turned and threw her lightsaber at the cables, slicing them clean in two.

As she called her lightsaber back to her hand, the elevator began to plummet rapidly, taking the creatures on top and inside with it. On the reactor deck, the sensor for the elevator showed clearly that it was descending far too quickly, before a warning message popped up, indicating that the elevator was in free fall...and its last stop was the maintenance floor.

Probably smart for everyone to move away from the door.

[Thaddeus]

The screeching of metal against metal could easily be heard in the otherwise silent station, and Arkoh lazily motioned his marines to step back from the doors. A few of the troopers looked nervously down the hall, but the marines took one look at the captain and kept their eyes on the elevator doors; for their captain was standing relaxed hands folded across his chest, he appeared more annoyed then anything else. A true assessment, Arkoh wanted to get this Jedi and be gone, wandering around a station searching for them was nothing more than tiring and annoying.

The heavy transparisteel doors held back the debris as the lift finally crashed into the floor, just the deafening noise and puff of dust coming from the crevices the only indication of what had happened. Arkoh brushed some dirt disdainfully off of his uniform, and nodded at his men to pry open the doors. It would be quicker and easier if the Jedi lay mangled in the elevator, though if Arkoh knew his luck the silly fool would have survived.

The men advanced, one fellow prying open the doors and the rest covering the slowly widening opening. Akroh reached into the satchel that hung on his Petty Officer's belt, and pulled out several emergency glow sticks. Snapping them so that glowed orange Arkoh then threw them into the growing maw, and added, "Once it is open check the wreckage, see if the Jedi survived." The Petty Officer saluted. Honestly this was becoming tiring Arkoh thought to himself.

[Kriegen]

Upon forcing the warped metal door open, it became obvious that nothing had been in the elevator when it crashed. The hole cut in the bottom of the lift proved that the Jedi had been in it at one point, but wasn't any longer. Scratches found on a relatively intact piece of the elevator caused further confusion, but also showed why the Jedi may have left the elevator cart.

Something had been trying to get into the elevator as it was on its way down.

As for Evalin, she had cut her way into one of the maintenance decks a few levels up from the reactors. Now she had to find either another lift or a stairwell going down to the reactor level, but it was still a ways before she made it there. She hoped none of the marines who had come to rescue her had met with any trouble yet, but she was certain whoever came to get her was going to order her to leave the moment she met up with them,and she couldn't let that happen. Not while the station was still infested. So she had a plan.It was a dumb one, but still a plan.

She was going to overload the reactors and destroy the entire station, no matter what the cost.

[Thaddeus]

“Nothing sir, though it looks like a lightsaber cut through it at some point.”

Arkoh nodded and the metal doors slammed shut as the marines let go. This was becoming exceptionally tiresome the Arkanian thought, typical of a Jedi to take what should be a straightforward matter and turn it into a twisting nightmare of obscurantism. Well there was nothing to it he supposed with a sigh, onwards to the reactors where the signal was. A manicured hand gave the signal to move out.

As the three squads moved in bounding overwatch towards the reactors again, Arkoh called up the XO on the holo, “Ready the ship, if we do not find the Jedi at the reactors we are coming back.”

He had other matters to attend to, and this wild goose chase was costing the Republic war effort, and more importantly was causing him great consternation. With a click the holocommunicator went off as the XO saluted his reply, and Arkoh with an annoyed click of his tongue turned his eyes forward again.

[Kriegen]

As the marines neared the reactors, the ambient sounds of scratching,running,and the occasional howl grew louder and louder, until they heard a very loud, human scream, followed by a snarl, and then silence. It had come from the direction of the reactor.

Evalin faintly heard the scream from where she was. She stopped, shocked. She'd been certain all of the survivors had already been killed, but that proved that maybe there were still some left on the station. And if that were the case, she couldn't knowingly kill any survivors, just to eliminate the threat aboard the colony. Now she had to come up with a new plan, but she had to find a way to contact the Republic soldiers on the colony. Then she remembered that the maintenance decks had their own personal intercom, which was used to relay messages and warnings to the maintenance workers. Maybe if she found one,she could use it to both contact the soldiers, and possibly even connect to the colony, and give a message to any remaining survivors.

So she set out to find an intercom interface on the maintenance deck. As she'd hoped, it wasn't difficult to find. She activated the interface, selected the reactor deck,and spoke into the device. "Jedi Knight Evalyn Theed to the reactor level, Evalyn Theed to the reactor level,come in," she said. "Can anybody read me?"