Arnaut wandered over to the crouching Kanderin, who was busily fiddling with something in his hands. Looking over his shoulder, Arnaut could see it was a handful of wired.
"Im not an engineer or anything, but i know when wires are broken" Kanderin said, making Arnaut chuckle.
"Your doing fine there soldier, ill be chekcing out the hyperdrive more throughouly"
Kanderin nodded and went back to the wires. He dropped them all to the ground andattempted to arrnage them into their relative pairs.
'This si going to take a while' He thought.

He reached down to his leg pockets to confirm his defences were still securely placed. His DC-17 placed firmly in his right band, and his enwly acquired DC-17M in his left. He had decided against bringing his anhiliator pistol, forseeing it to be too dangerous to fire with all the electronics about. Still, two blaster rifles should be enough to defend himself with.

"Arnaut, do you think one of those things actually can die?" Kanderin asked.
Arnaut did'nt look up, and kept both hands and his eyes firmly fixed on whatever he was fixing behind one of the panels.
"Im not sure Kanderin. As you heard no one has ever killed one, and you saw its regeneration abilites. I figure it would be possible thinking you were able to injure it, but im still unsure"
"Not what i wanted to hear" Kanderin groaned.

"What do you think it did to us Arnaut? We all almsot collapsed when we faced it in the hallway, and when it took me out in the storage i suffered a flash back. I could of possibly killed the one attacking Jin, but it was if someone had punched me in the chest as i took the shot"

"Im again not sure. We'll have to wait and see"

---------------------------15 minutes later-------------------------
Kanderin and Arnaut jumped back in rythm to a huge explosion of sparks from the machine. Looking up they saw the panels starting to whirr back into life, flickering occasioanlly.
"I tihnk we did it" Arnaut grinned.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class Kanderin Draken
-=Wraith Squad=-
Wraith Squad Motto: When staring in the face of death we see our reflection

ASL/PFC Kanderin/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! - Auron, FF X

After D'har and Yoder made an attempt at fixing the sublight engines, they decided that it would be a good idea to get back up to the lounge and make sure everybody up there was okay. As they made their way out of the engine room they were caught with that lingering chill again. As they pushed onward they felt colder and their stomachs tightened. D'har saw a shape in the corner of his eye and spun around to catch another fleeting glimpse of his aethereal tormentor as it drifted away and disappeared. As they almost rounded a corner they stopped dead in their tracks. They were paralyzed, almost like scared children convinced that there was a monster under the bed. That abominable feeling worsened as they looked in horror at the scene ahead. Against the wall was a corpse, almost as ragged and ghastly as the Wraiths that plagued them. The corpse was eviscerated, innards strewn about it and blood sprayed everywhere. After taking in the shocking scene, the troopers felt the paralysis leaving their bodies just as they both felt the same question, where had the body come from?

The two kneeled and looked over the corpse. It was as white as a ghost, but all the more terrifying. The brutality of the scene was amazing and awful at the same time. D'har reached out and put his finger in the pool of blood to make sure it was real. It was definitely real, but it was cold, as if produced by some other strange means or as if the body was there for hours. The latter made no sense because he and Yoder had gone down that same hallway not half an hour ago. The two finished looking at the blood and lifted their heads. The gruesome discovery that the two had made was gone, body and all, but the blood on D'har's finger was still definitely there. This made matters both more disturbing and more complicated. If it never was there in the first place, why had they both seen it, and why was the blood still on D'har's finger? If it was indeed there, why had it disappeared so suddenly?

The two didn't say a word, but both knew they had to focus on the task at hand. If all went well, they could ponder this later. And with that, the two made for the lounge.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class D'har Leth
-=Wraith Squad=-
TRP/PFC D'har/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/Nar Shaddaa

*92% of teens have moved onto rap. If you are part of the 8% that still listen to real music,
copy and paste this into your signature.*

{Official VE Zombie Expert}

www.pointedstick.chaosmagic.com

"Man did i pick the wrong time to come back" Kanderin laughed, but unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

He leaned back against one of the walls of the ship, looking up at the ceiling. He sat there staring for god knows how long, before looking back at SNipes, who was busily wrestling with the controls to get the ship through the asteroid field in one piece.

"So are we just going to leave those things on ship until we get back to the hangar? We could be opening up a whole load of trouble back at base"

Snipes responded through grunted teeth.
"You may be right and you may be wrong. Maybe taking those things back to base would be a bad move, but on the other hand there a lot better equipped down there than we are up here. And also, were limited with what we can actually use to fight them up here. We have weapons that can blow them all straight to hell in a single pull of the trigger, but firing them on a ship in the middle of space would be a bad idea"

Kanderin shrugged. "Fair point"

Yoder punched the wall he was sat against.
"I hate being stuck down here with nothing to do"

Kanderin smiled at him, nodding.
"I know what you mean"

Suddenly, the whole bridge rocked as if it was hit by a missile.
"What the hell was that" Snipes cried out, barely hanging onto the controls.

Kanderin, who had collapsed to the ground with nothing to hold onto, jumped back to his feet and ran over to one of the computer panels. His fingers danced over the keyboard as he checked for any sign of what caused it.

"Outside of the ship is as good as ever, you did'nt hit anything. But wait..... Oh i dont beleive it!"
Everyone in the bridge turned to face Kanderin, as he gave out the grave news
"One of thsoe things must of got to an engine, were losing power at an amazing rate"

"We have no choice. Kand, go with Yoder down to where D'Har and Slick whould be. Tell them whats happened and all four fo you get down to the engine room and do what you can to fix it. Since its just happened its likely your meet one of those things, possibly more. Be ready for anything"

Kanderin nodded and spritned over to the desk holding his Ahnilator pistol.
' Its injured one once it can do it again' he thought.
He then pulled his DCM from its holder and  gripped it ready for combat, a quick signal over his shoulder to get Yoder to follow him.

"You take point Yoder, you know where your going, I dont"  Kanderin called, slowing down to let Yoder overtake him.

He sweeped back and forth across various hallways, with Kanderin keeping an eye on every angle around them, his trigger finger itching to shoot one of the thigns that had caused them so much misery so far. Eventually they arrived at D'Har and Slick, but only paused for a few seconds.

"Slick, D'Har. No time to explain, just follow us, ille xplain on the way there" Kanderin shouted, ebfore sprinting off down the hallway, followed a few seconds later by D'har and Slick.

SLick accelerated to draw level with Kanderin. Kanderin answered his question before it was even asked.
"One or more of those things has damaged the engines, we need to fix them or we'll never get out of here There could just be the one, or all three could be there, thats why four of us are going"

Slick nodded and fell back again to inform D'Har.

A few minutes later the door to the engine room was advancing on them fast. Kanderin threw himself into a slide, stopping to the right of the doorway, the way he had been trained to enter a suspicious room. Yoder took point on the other door, and theyw aited for the other two to catch up and hug the wall to the side of Yoder.

Kandeirnr eached above him and pressed the button to open the door, at the same time Slick and D'har spinning around to face into the room. Then Yoder and kanderin rotated slightly, so they could see past the other two into the room.

The engine room was huge, about the 30 meters by 20 easily, streching all the way across the rear of the ship. The groudn was covered in pieces of pipe and machinery, sparks blowing from some of them. Kanderin looked voer at the engines while the rest were still observing the ground.

That was when he saw it.

All three wraiths gnawing away at one of the engines, luckily they had'nt seen the four of them yet. Kanderin reached up to tap Slick on the shoulder, then pointed down at the three creatures.

Kanderin almost felt Slick freeze up in panic, before issuing the command for everyone to point their weapons at the three wraiths.
There was onyl a few seconds for the wraiths to notice their four attackers, before all hell broke loose.

EDIT: Just ntoiced a little error in my post. SLick and D'har were currently heading back to the bridge when we met them.
-----------------------
Private First Class Kanderin Draken
-=Wraith Squad=-
Wraith Squad Motto: When staring in the face of death we see our reflection

ASL/PFC Kanderin/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! - Auron, FF X

Arnaut set to work trying to rebuild the engines, quite a monumental task in and of itself, but with low gravity, it was insane. . .

And who better to do something insane than Wraith Squad.

D'har opened his mouth to speak, "I wish I could help with the engines, but I don't know a damn thing about them.  I destroy things, not put them back together."

"Well if that's the case, it'd be nice if you could cover me.  Those damn things can come out of anywhere."

As Arnaut again set to work on the engines, D'har made ready his riot gun.  If anything was going to at least shock the wraiths, it would be something big.  D'har propped himself against the corner in between two pipes, next to the door and began looking around the room, waiting for anything that shouldn't be there.  It was a bit boring, but necessary to keep them as safe as possible.  His eyes shifted back and forth across the room, and back, and forth, and back, and forth. . .

He began to squint, his eyes trying to close themselves.  He had gotten enough sleep that night, and normally went without it most of the time.  But since he found that corpse-thing, he had been ready to call it a night.  Just then, that face poked out of the opposite corner.  That face, that terrible charcoal face confronted him once again.  There was something even more terrible this time than the last, the face began poking into the room at a very odd angle.  The figure was almost out now, ready to do whatever it was going to, but D'har enough courage now.  It came at him, it jerked in his direction and floated toward him, but D'har pushed off right at the figure.

The two almost collided, but as they almost touched, the figure turned to a mist of some sort and enveloped D'har.  D'har came back out of the mist, but to his surprise, outside the ship, no, the ship was nowhere to be seen.  Off in the distance, there was that same unimaginable amorphous horror which he had seen through the curtain.  But the glow only suggested of its presence.  D'har began to float toward it, closer and closer, faster and faster, the stars became blurs, but as D'har went faster, the seething horror got fainter and fainter.

And suddenly he stopped.  He was jerked out of the chase, back to the ship, still in the same spot where he was, as if no time had passed.  D'har looked over and saw it, one of the creatures was stooped over Arnaut, whose face was frozen in horror.  D'har still had that bit of courage within him, and that dream had lifted a measure of his sanity from him.  He knew he had to save his squadmate, so he raised his blaster and fired.  The bolts lurched from the barrel of the heavy gun, set to take extra energy from the power cell.  Half of the shots went right through the thing, but the other half found their mark.  They tore bits from the creature and it let out that horrible screech again, telekinetically pushing the two troopers back.  It flew at D'har in a maddened haste, ready to destroy him, but D'har wasn't going to let that happen, he summoned up all his strength and courage as he kicked off the wall again and flew toward the wraith.

The two almost met, but D'har's vision went black.

While D'har blacked out, Arnaut watched in horror as the thing tried to claw at the unconscious trooper.  It made no grabbing motion, just reached its arm toward D'har.  The claws touched his left arm and as they did, his armor came away, his skin seemed to fly off his arm in ribbons, blood spilling out eeriely into the lack of gravity.  The muscles of his arm began disintegrating, his arm wasting away.  But something happened, the creature flew off, out of the ship.

*************************************************************************

"I don't know if he's alright," Arnaut said into the comlink.

D'har's eyes slowly opened and he looked up to see Arnaut standing over him.  It seemed like the gravity was back, but D'har's arm was gone, his shoulder wrapped in bandages.

Arnaut put the comlink to his mouth again, "Wait, I think he's awake-"

"Oh good, you're awake.  I can't thank you enough, you saved my life, but at the cost of your arm."

"I can get a new one.  I'm not sure if my insurance covers it though, they'll be getting quite a bit of verbal abuse if they don't."

"Well it's good to see that you still have your sense of humor.  Slick says that we should get to the lounge so he can make sure you're alright."

D'har slowly got up and the two headed back up to the lounge.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class D'har Leth
-=Wraith Squad=-
TRP/PFC D'har/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/Nar Shaddaa

*92% of teens have moved onto rap. If you are part of the 8% that still listen to real music,
copy and paste this into your signature.*

{Official VE Zombie Expert}

www.pointedstick.chaosmagic.com

Snipes pulled on his hair, frustrated with the creatures, no frustrated wasn't the right word, wrathful was. He wasn't sure he had ever been so angry, the creatures lack of reverence for his ship and his inability to destroy them left him a very angry wreck of unimaginable insanity. Once a master of his own fate, he now felt like a child with a toy, he'd shoot his big gun, and they'd get big gashes, and then they'd run away. While at first their chill stare had left him cold to the bones now all he could feel was the heat of his frustration and shame. They didn't like him much either, they never ran when they saw him but they always attacked him fast and when one left frequently another came in to try it's talons out on him, he'd have to waste another shell shooting it, which frustrated him even more since they never seemed to die. Unlike a wounded beast they didn't just wander off to die, no, no the bastards kept coming back. Snipes was astounded, and outraged at their audacity, they just wouldn't die. Snipes had never wanted anything to die so badly in his life.

Snipes wasn't about to just put his ship down on some asteroid and abandon it, that was crazy talk. So Snipes time and energy was instead going to finding things to fix the engines with, they'd said there wasn't anything but snipes had been adrift before, he knew how jury-rig and make do, so he pulled every mechanical and electrical device around down, everything from heaters to razors, Snipes tore apart the refreshers, the holo-projectors, everything that wasn't keeping them alive and packed in onto a hover-cart, then took that down to the engine room. He knew everyone would be displeased with his pilfering of their belongings, but he didn't care, he didn't care about anything other than getting his ship back, himself back and defeating the damn creatures that were plaguing him so thoroughly.

Snipes took another swig from the bottle that had become his only real companion since his first encounter with the creatures, he had always been familiar with its effects and the way alcohol chased away fear and doubt, it had magnified Snipes angst though, he knew this, but he didn't care; then took another swig and opened the door. Snipes pushed his cart into the scene, there was nobody there, he swore, then went about disassembling the cart.

Snipes had always believed he could make a complete engine from scratch if it became necessary, thankfully it wasn't. Many of the core parts were still good, well, not good, but a few welds, reinforcements and slight modification to surrounding parts and it could work, he only needed one engine, just one and the hyperdrive and he would make it out, he would because he had determined that he would and that was all there was too it.

Snipes wasn't sure why but the creatures had left him alone for an unusual amount of time now, maybe the buggers had gone off and died, Snipes certainly hoped so, and with that bit of hope he was a bit more cheerful, maybe too much more cheerful, he knew it would send him into raging madness when they reappeared, and secretly he knew they would.

 
-----------------------
{Comnet Hermit}
TRP/GSG Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDS]

Sit vis vobiscum.

      Yoder was fixing up his weapons to him, all of them he brought. Thinking to himself, I am going to need all of this and more to even harm a wraith, I am no use at repairing I might as well do a work out, or something I don't know if it will matter. Hmmm, I forgot! Maybe I can just cut my arm a little and swallow some of my own blood that should take away my fears.

      Yoder used his stiech blade to cut a little bit of his arm to draw some blood and proceeded to lick it until it stop bleeding. After awhile he realized that snipes left to look at the engine, so Yoder held pressure to his cut and held down to stop the bleeding.

      Yoder started to walk slowly to a spot with a sturdy metal pole, about one foot in every direction. Hmmm I need to practice fifty kicks with each leg then one hundred punches with both arms, that out to strengthen me a little more.

      Yoder then started to pummel the pole with his fist, counting out loud, So hard he couldn't hear anyone else then after some time he start to side kick the bags with one leg, then the other still not able to hear anyone.

    After what seemed hours Yoder sat down sweating inside his katarn armor intensely, so much the if you looked inside the visor you could see it & and you could see that his eyes seemed brownish-red as if he had somehow gone 'beserk'.

    Yoder then blacked out slowly. After some time Yoder woke up and he saw arnaut and striker go to the hold, Yoder slowly got up and ran after them; still the blood-haze lingered in his eyes.  Yoder arrived to walk into the hold to hear and see what striker and arnaut were doing. 

    "What are we doing." Striker asked exasperated. " Yes what are we doing." Luka's inquired. "We are going to repair this ship." Arnaut said. Arnaut then slapped the button on a door, to reveal ten perfectly gleaming, low military-grade, non-combat zero-G environmental suits." And these will help."

      "I hope your not going without me." Yoder walked in grinning. "I just hope you're prepared for this." Then in a more serious tone. "Arnaut there's probably more wraiths out there in the other ships they are perhaps waiting for us." Yoder said slowly, slightly sounding like he was insane yet a little nervous.
OOC: (hope this is sufficeint enough.)

-----------------------
trp/pfc
Wraith Squad
Yoder/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/LoR

Wraith Motto: When staring in the face of death, we see our reflection.
Monster Hunter for the VE" I hunt any monster, or mutant ,zombie, vampire, were(insert creature),and anything else just give me a call."
Master Swordman(in RL)

"You two are drunk, your not going out there" Kanderin  said, leaning against a pole watching their pitiful efforts to remember how to open the airlock.

"Kanderin? Where the f." Snipes stuttered

"Ive been here all along, just sleeping. Did'nt you guys notice me in the cockpit?"

The two of them looked down at the ground and started mumbling excuses.

"No, too busy drinking I figure" Kanderin laughed.

Snipes suddenly turned round and again started pressing buttons on the cockpit, before Kanderin ran over and pulled him away.

"Did you hear what i said? Normally you'd be the one ordering me Snipes, but since your drunk and im not, im in charge at the moment, kapeesh?"

"Ahhhh, spoilsport" D'har slurred, before following Kanderin back down the hallway.

OOC:sorry about the short post, but im tired from all the work ive had to do and and my brain ise'nt functioning properly
 
-----------------------
Private First Class Kanderin Draken
-=Wraith Squad=-
Wraith Squad Motto: When staring in the face of death we see our reflection

ASL/PFC Kanderin/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! - Auron, FF X

Snipes swore and kicked Kanderin off of him, Snipes could do most things while drunk and his anger was beginning to wear away the alcohol in his system. Leaving Kanderin to pick himself up, Snipes stalked off, lighting another cigarra pulled from under his sash. Snipes wasn't the kind to leave others to do things, any things, he preferred to do it all himself, which usually meant he had stretched himself too thin, and once again he had. So he stalked off to the airlock, where everyone was gathering to receive Arnaut.

Snipes entered right as they got the helmet off, Snipes pushed his way in, then lifted Arnaut up by the suit and slammed him against the wall. "WHAT THE HELL!"

Arnaut started to speak, but Snipes knew he wasn't the person to be yelling at and dropped him, the frustrated mind was not thinking right, Snipes knew there was something wrong, but he ignored it as he spun around on Slick, his old friend.

"WHAT THE HELL!" He roared again, "THE TURRETS ARE STILL WORKING, WHY WASN'T SOMEONE COVERING THEM?"

Snipes wasn't upset about Strikers death, Snipes had seen too many real friends die to care much about someone he'd only known for a couple weeks; for some reason visions of Jyse being crushed by the APC flashed in his head and he dropped to his knees, clutching his head. And then Snipes could see nothing and continued his fall to the ground, unsure of exactly why he was falling.


----


Slick watched his friend collapse and his anger melted away to concern. Slick had known Snipes for a long time and had never seen anything like it. The whole squad stared in amazement, even Kanderin had made it in time to witness Snipes fall to the ground, look offened, then worried, then almost pleased, Slick almost spit, a habit picked up from the man laying on the floor.

"Lets get him moved, Kand, help me here" Slick said, motioning at Snipes.

First thing Slick did was remove the cutlass from Snipes sash and hand it to Arnaut with instructions not to lose it. Then the two, Kanderin and Slick, were able to pick the tall gunnery sergeant up and move him, it wasn't easy, Snipes wasn't wide set, but he was tall and muscular, much more so than he looked. Slick had dragged him home before, he knew what to expect.

They awkwardly made their way to what was more or less Snipes personal cabin as he was captain of the ship in a sense. Arnaut, after being dislodged from the suit, had escorted them, along with pretty much the rest of the ever diminishing squad.

"Yoder, go get my medical bag, don't forget the red one or I'm throwing you out to deal with the wraiths yourself!" Slick was honestly worried about his friend, the one laying on the bed, cold and motionless, but certainly not dead.

Slick wasn't foolish enough to try to wake Snipes without some sort of examination first though, all he could tell without instruments was that the heartbeat was slow but steady, a good sign, and his breathing was shallow, but, again, steady. Slick knew Snipes was a tough bastard, but the recent events seemed to be driving him over the edge.  Slick could always tell Snipes believed himself invincible, maybe now the man would be disillusioned, maybe now he could also accept shackles, Slick just hoped he wasn't completely broken.

"This ship is his life, his freedom." Slick commented, "Leth, take the cockpit, keep an eye out, the rest of you see what you can do for the ship, I'll keep an eye on Snipes."

Slick sat on a chair and looked through the variety of Snipes belongings laying about, there was a great variety, everything from blown power converters to hold-out blasters and their larger cousins, all thrown about in disarray, Slick was unsure asto weather it was from Snipes recent meltdown or if that was just the natural state of the room. Dissatisfied with finding nothing of particular interest Slick sighed and put a hand on Snipes forehead, checking his temperature, the man was cool to the touch, but not cold, Slick found a reasonably clean blanket and pulled it over the gunnery sergeant. Another few minutes passed and still Yoder hadn't returned with the bag, Slick was beginning to look worried when the junior trooper burst through, panting, but carrying the bags under each arm, but with his E-11 clenched in his right fist, despite the clip missing.

"What happened" Slick grabbed the bags and let Yoder collapse into the chair.

"A wraith, I shot it a bunch, but I ran out of ammo, ejected my mag and. . .I had no more."

Slick grabbed a blaster pistol off the ground and tossed it to Yoder, "He's going to want it back, but he won't know the difference now, we're starting to put a dent in our armory so I'll take what I can get."

Slick opened his bag and set about scanning Snipes heart and brain with some arcane looking wand and datapad, but everything seemed to be in fine physical shape, other than his liver and lungs, which had never looked good. His brain seemed to have calmed down, but it was still showing activity, strange amounts of it. Finally Slick sighed and put the equipment away, deciding that it was just stress and exhaustion, mixed with dehydration. He needed natural rest; any drugs Slick could give him would only hinder his body's natural healing processes. And then there came a knock at the door.

Slick spun and hit the button, holding his own weapon at the ready; it was Kanderin, with news.

 
-----------------------
{Comnet Hermit}
TRP/GSG Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDS]

Sit vis vobiscum.

"What!?" D'har and Arnaut exclaimed at once. Arnaut couldn't believe Slick would ever do such a thing, but he had ordered the crate to be taken off the ship.

"Kanderin has been led to believe that it's drawing the wraiths," The screech of a wraith in a distant part of the ship reinforced his words, "...and with the increase of attacks, I think he may be right."

"But there could be twenty other reasons they're attacking more often now too! I mean, for one they just tore apart Striker, so maybe they have a lust for more blood. Or maybe they decided now was the time to end this. Or maybe-" Slick cut him off.

"I don't care. It has to go, just to be safe. Of late it's been disappearing and reappearing around the ship, which makes me even more able to believe that it-- " Now it was Arnaut's turn to cut someone off.

"Woah, woah,woah, you mean it's just been disappearing? I've seen the Wraith's carrying it around the ship a dozen times already! They speed in lightning fast, just enough for you to see them, and then speed off with it to another part of the ship, hoping you'll follow. They're trying to makes us split up to find it again so they can kill us one by one. Why do you even think we're down here? We're seeing where those wraiths will drop it off next!" Arnaut exclaimed exasperated.

The lighting down in the engine room cast eerie shadows on the wall. Arnaut and D'har had been hunting the wraiths until Slick came down looking for them. Slick coming alone just emphasized their point of the wraiths trying to split them up. Lukas was also out in the ship alone somewhere, and Kanderin had been in the ship alone 'till he went up to the bridge to talk with Slick. Virius and Yoder were still safe up at the bridge, with Snipes. I hope...

"We didn't come all this way just to give it up in the end. No, I think not, for Striker's sake, we need to get home with this crate," D'har said, anger starting to replace his disbelief.

Slick gave each of them a hard look, but finally nodded slowly.

"For Striker," he said simply. Both of them nodded in turn.

Two more screeches broke the silence and in an eye-blink guns were at their hands, getting ready for the worst. The wraith appeared through the bulkhead, its sadistic smile never leaving its face.

"On my mark..." Slick whispered to his two companions, "Three...two-" The wraith gave him no such chance, launching itself across the room with terrifying sped. It was all Slick could do to fend off the beast. Rifles opened up, shots lancing toward the creature and hitting their mark. But it wouldn't go down. Slick was now retreating, actually fending off the creature's strikes with his rifle. Finally his rifle snapped in two, and he fell toward the ground.

Arnaut unloaded his entire clip into the beast but it hardly seemed to notice. It's claw raised up for the death strike...and suddenly a blast rang out. The creature was sent catapulting across the room, smashing into the wall. In the doorway Snipes stood, being supported by the doorframe with one hand, shotgun in the other. Yoder and Kanderin were behind him, rifles raised.

Everyone turned to look at the Wraith. Helplessly, it sat against the wall, the gaping hole in its chest already starting to heal. It howled loudly causing everyone to cover their ears, and sped off through the wall again, though much slower and pained-looking than it had come in.

"So...who's guarding the bridge?" Slick asked after a time.

"Oh Lukas and Virius came back...right after I woke up..." Snipes said absent mindedly still staring at the spot the Wraith had left from.

Slick nodded and motioned for everyone to go back to the bridge, and they gladly agreed.

 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Arnaut
-=Wraith Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCP Arnaut/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE

"Take care of your equipment, and your equipment will take care of you"

Arnaut stifled a yawn and collapsed on one of the couches in the ship's lounge. He hadn't slept In two days, and it was all catching up with him.  Kanderin was lying in the center of the room, closely attended by Virius, Lukas, and Slick. Snipes, D'har, and Yoder were getting the last things worked out with the engine. And Arnaut had nothing to do.

Stretching out his arms, he laid his rifle on his lap and promised himself he wouldn't fall asleep. I won't fall asleep, I won't fall asleep, I won't...

Arnaut opened his eyes. He was in the ship...or at least what looked like the ship. The walls were distorted and fuzzy and shifted queasily. Arnaut quickly averted his eyes. It made his stomach churn. He looked around, looking for anything that wasn't distorted. And realized he was surrounded by Wraiths. They were all squatting in the center of the room over what looked like another Wraith. He immediately tensed up. The Wraiths seemed to have not noticed him yet, so inch by inch, he slowly moved toward the door. Suddenly one of the Wraiths shot its head up, staring directly at Arnaut. Strangely, he did not feel as scared of it as he had in the past.

Its mouth moved as if trying to say something, but Arnaut could only hear a number of strange guttural noises. Still moving, he backed up until he was touching the door. The Wraiths were all staring at him now with almost quizzical looks. Arnaut fumbled around with the door controls, but there was no time. The Wraiths stood up and started advancing on him. With no hope, he launched himself at the nearest Wraith, shoving them both into the ground. The Wraiths were screaming now, but he didn't even notice. Jumping off of the first Wraith, he ducked into a somersault and came up in front of another. He was about to punch it when a large object crashed into the back of his head. His world shattered into a thousand pieces.

Arnaut awoke at gunpoint with a nasty bruise on the back of his head and a bloody nose.

"What...happened?" He mumbled.

"Well, we were hoping you could tell us," Slick said from behind the gun.

Arnaut rubbed his head. It throbbed with pain, making it hard to think straight.

"Well, I fell asleep and...and...I think I was surrounded by Wraiths, and I had to defend myself? Why do I have a bloody nose and feel like I was beat into the ground with an extremely large rock?"

Slick let out a chuckle and patted the butt of his gun.

"That would be my fault. But you're the one that pounced on Virius and were about to smash Lukas' face in..."

Arnaut fell back into the couch, reeling. He looked around and saw Kanderin still lying on the ground, Virius sitting next him rubbing his side.

Maybe I'm going crazy like Kanderin...

"We should really get out of here...I think something's making us go a little..." He motioned toward Kanderin, implying what he didn't want to say. Slick nodded.

"Well that's good because we're almost to the edge of the asteroid field. The engines are working again, and soon we can finally get-" He was cut off by the none too familiar screech.

"Wraiths..." Arnaut cursed.

They ran over to the viewport, and were treated with the scene of ten Wraiths descending on the ship with terrifying speed..

Slick loaded his gun with another power cell.

"We stand and fight or we'll never make it out alive. All we have to do is hold them off until we reach the edge of the asteroids," Slick said, and everyone in the room nodded in agreement, similarly loading their weapons. Below deck, the stomps of D'har, Yoder, and Snipes could be heard as they ran up toward the bridge. It was time to stand and fight.




-----------------------
Lance Corporal Arnaut
-=Wraith Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCP Arnaut/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE

"Take care of your equipment, and your equipment will take care of you"

The piercing telepathic scream announced that the creatures were about to round the corner, but Wraith Squad was ready.  A strand of tattered material that could have once been considered cloth drifted out from behind the corner.  When the thing that the cloth was now a part of came into view, the troopers opened up on it. 

Leth brought his heavy blaster to bear as the rest of the squad did likewise.  The noise of their guns rose up in a destructive chorus, nearly disintegrating the wraith.  The shriek grew louder and more terrible than they had ever heard, throwing down the gauntlet in a challenge to their sanity.  As the physical part of the creature began to dissipate, its incorporeal consciousness was just getting warmed up, the cry growing ever louder.  But the squad wasn't going to break, firing still into the air that had once been the monster, trying to ward off the mind-shattering psychic screech.

And suddenly, it stopped, the creature's horrible death-scream lifting from the air.  The others were still wailing from behind the corner, but the horror of the death-scream made them seem insignificant.

Nobody made a sound as they felt the energy from the deceased release itself, but all stood transfixed, watching the door as they waited for the rest of the wraiths to show themselves.

The shrieks grew louder as the wraiths came closer and the troopers raised their guns again.  The first came around the corner as the squad let loose another volley of concentrated fire, shattering the creature just like the last one.  The death-scream filled the air of the ship and the void of space, but even though they had head it once before, it still seemed so alien that it was as if they were experiencing it for the first time.

Their morale began to falter as two more of the creatures showed themselves and drifted toward the squad.  Their cries grew louder as they joined in with the energy of the first wraith, and then the second.  The troopers began to buckle under the psychic stress, but they had made it this far, and weren't going to give up yet.

One of the wraiths was barred from coming closer by wall of blaster fire, but the other pushed through.  It drifted toward Yoder, reaching out to him with its gnarled claw.  Yoder had no time to react and was almost cut to ribbons when a firestorm from Leth's blaster incinerated the creature.

The two death-screams joined in the awful cacophony along with the shrieks of the other creatures, but the troopers were ready for them.


 
-----------------------
Private First Class D'har Leth
-=Wraith Squad=-
TRP/PFC D'har/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/Nar Shaddaa

*92% of teens have moved onto rap. If you are part of the 8% that still listen to real music,
copy and paste this into your signature.*

{Official VE Zombie Expert}

www.pointedstick.chaosmagic.com

(OOC: Well im going to post if no one else is. Just because Arnaut is slowly finsihing this story, it does'nt mean you cant post!)

Kanderin quickly darted back to his room, to gather up whatever was left of his possessions after Snipes' smash and grab. He threw his armour into a rucksack along with the parts of his blaster rifle and some ammo clips, then sealed thebag up and slung it over his shoulder. As he was leaving he grabbed his Ahnilator from the table and slipped it down the back of his trousers, then sealed the handle under his jacket. He hoped he would'nt come to having to use it, but he at least did'nt want himself fussing about trying to remember which pocket it was in, while blaster bolts were raining above his head.

He sprinted back to the bridge, and pushed his way into the Wraith huddle in between Yoder and D'Har, accidently knocking D'Har over in the process. He crouched down and offered his hand to D'Har, laughing.

"Sorry about that man, im just happy that were finally going to talk to another physical race, instead of those ghost Wraith things"

"Dont worry about it, so am I" D'Har laughed, pulling himself back up

Slick looked over at the rest of the squad.
"Remember guys, theres no treasure on this ship. There never was any treasure, and there will never be any treasure, well for all these guys know" he instructed, tapping the side of his nose.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class Kanderin Draken
-=Wraith Squad=-
Wraith Squad Motto: When staring in the face of death we see our reflection

ASL/PFC Kanderin/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! - Auron, FF X

The walls of the corvette were a sleek white, prim and pristine, and had the look of having been swept every day for the past few years or so. Arnaut was disgusted by them.

His boots rang hollow of the shined floor, not stirring even the slightest bit of dust. They probably DO clean it every day, Arnaut thought sourly.

Snipes, strolling next to him, Kanderin, and Slick looked as if they were having the same thought. Faces were contorted with the effort of trying to cover their utter disgust at the New Republic. The very thought of being aboard their ship...Arnaut shuddered. They just needed to get out of this mess as quickly as possible.

The trooper in front of them, a bright chap that wore what seemed like a constant grin, stopped suddenly at one door that seemed no different than the rest. As far as Arnaut could tell, it had no markings to distinguish it at all from its brethren. The little cretin must've memorized every door on this ship.

He glanced back at them, his smile flickering, before coming back twice as large, even though it seemed stressed and the smile never reached his eyes. Arnaut shook his head disbelievingly. Where do they pick up such odd people!? Their escort tapped the panel by the door, and it slid open silently revealing a rather large lift. Quickly they hurried inside, looking at anything but their guide.

Exiting the elevator, Arnaut wasn't sure if they had gone up or down! He couldn't even tell that they had moved at all; the hall was exactly like the one they left. Their guide apparently noticed something the rest of them didn't see and hurried off toward the right. With an exasperated sigh, Arnaut and the others trailed.

On the bridge of the ship, Arnaut could see their ship, The Bachelor's Pride, hovering in the distance, surrounded by the other New Republic ship, the Dauntless.

The Freedom's captain was, as Arnaut thought, the prime example of New Republic scum. His skin was leathery and seemed to be stretched too thin across his skull. His eyes were strikingly dark, sunken back into his head. His nose stood out enormously large, and his frail gray hair looked on the point of falling out.

For all his crippled appearance, though, he voice was very resonate and filled most of the deck, in a quite commanding tone.

"Please state your names, the name of your ship, and then you will proceed to tell me why you are intruding upon New Republic space!" The last were came out at almost a scream, spittle flying from the man's mouth, though Arnaut saw no reason for him to even need to raise his voice a little. As soon as I'm off this ship, I'm gonna get as far away from these freaks as I can, Arnaut promised himself. They were started to make him uncomfortable with all of their...peculiarness.

Slick stepped forward, and in as calm of a voice as he could manage, kindly explained to the man how they were a simple merchant ship, passing through these parts, and had gotten lost in the asteroid field. Their routine and drilled cover-up should this event ever happen. It was near-memorized--all the aliases of every member of the squad, their ship name, their fake destination, everything--and it changed almost every mission to ensure that they wouldn't catch onto it. Sadly, Slick's speech fell on deaf ears.

"YOU ARE ALL IMPERIAL SPIES!" He screamed, his face turning bright crimson. The bridge's crew hardly noticed, and kept on their path. Imperial, yes, but spies? In our territory? I think not, Arnaut thought curtly.

"You will escort me and my soldiers back to your ship whereupon we will proceed to strip your ship apart until we are satisfied that you are 'just traders'," he said, putting emphasis on the last two words and sneering the whole way through. Slick simply shrugged in a compliant way and started back toward they way they had come.

The captain practically lunged at Slick's back, drawing his blaster so quickly that Arnaut had trouble tracing its movement. Slick froze on the spot after hearing the quiet 'click' of the safety being turned off. Raising his hands into the air, he slowly turned around to face the captain, his face calm and collected.

"Alright, fine, we'll do it your way. Lead." The captain lowered the gun, but only by a fraction, and slowly walked in front of Slick and the rest of the squad. AS they walked toward the Bachelor's Pride in a sort of grim processional, New Republic troopers popping out of doors to their right and left at seemingly random intervals to join the group. Finally, after a long walk and a few elevator rides, they were at the hatch for their ship, staring silently at the gray door in front of them. For an odd reason the soldiers had a crazy gleam in their eye. Arnaut nervously edged away from them, cautiously moving his hand down to where he had his blaster pistol concealed. The soldiers picked up on it though, and in a second he was putting his hands in the air at the end of twelve blaster snouts.

The motioned for them to head through the door and into the ship and the squad could only comply. Slick hit the door panel, and the door open silently, accompanied by the breeze of cooler air flowing into the New Republic ship. Arnaut shifted uneasily again before being roughly shoved in through the door by a blaster. As Arnaut stepped over the threshold from the NR ship to the Bachelor's Pride, he thought he heard a scream from one of the upper levels of the ship. He didn't have time to reflect on that, because for at that moment, two tremendous jolts struck the ship.

The squad and its escort were flung to the ground quicker than they could react...but not quicker than wraith squad could draw its guns. Within the space of being flung into the air and landed abruptly onto the ground, every wraith squad member there had a pistol out, firing. Two New Republic soldiers stopped halfway to sitting positions, their torsos nothing but smoldering bits of charred bones and shirt. Their buddies were luckier, finally regaining their sense and picking up their rifles from wherever they lay strewn across the floor. They jumped to their feet as quick as they could, firing as they went and sending the squad running for cover. Arnaut jumped inside their ship, behind the wall leading to the airlock, and peeked back out, squeezing off as many shots as he could.

Two bolts struck home on a rather insane looking New Republic soldier. The man still laughing as he hit the ground, dropping the two rifles he had been double wielding and died. His face was still contorted in a grin. Arnaut ducked behind the wall just long enough to slap in a new power cell into the pistol and peered back out. The dead were numerous, but all of the bodies were New Republic soldiers. The few that survived were running back into their ship as fast as they could run.

Kanderin and Slick stood up from where they had been hiding:  a couple of crates inconspicuously set next to the airlock, but arranged just in case this sort of event were to happen. Snipes pulled himself up from where he had fallen from the first jolt of the ship. He hadn't even gone to cover, instead just firing up from the ground.

More shudders were shaking the ships, and with growing intensity. It was hard to stand up, as Arnaut soon found out, as he, Kanderin, and Snipes tried running toward the bridge of the Bachelor's Pride. Behind him, he heard Slick closing the airlock and starting to follow them.

Arriving on the bridge, they saw a sight more wonderful and horrible than they could've ever hoped for. A star destroyer, with an escort of two tartan cruisers. In fact, an Interdictor Star Destroyer, judging by the four bulbous protrusions it had arranged on its hull. The only problem was, they were firing on the corvettes and the Bachelor's Pride.

Virius was hurriedly trying to open a channel with them, typing furiously at the keyboard. Finally, they acknowledged his request.

"Unknown ship, identify or prepare to be destroyed," said an all too familiar voice. Snipes eyes widened in surprise.

Roughly pushing Virius out of the way, Snipes looked at the miniature holographic blue man in front of him.

"Commander Askorn, this is the Bachelor's Pride of the Vast Empire." No point in using their aliases now; it was do or die.

"Stand down, I repeat, please--stand--down! We will explain later, just tell your men not to shoot us out of space!" And indeed they were about to be. Their makeshift shields were just about gone, and since the wraith attacks, their hull was about to fall apart on its own.

Recognition played across Commander Askorn's face, before he turned around the bark orders at his crew. The turbolasers stopped firing at them and instead concentrated on the corvettes. Turning back toward the camera he spoke again.

"We will board with your ship in fifteen minutes, be prepared with a better excuse than last time," he said giving a slight smile toward Snipes before closing the comm.

Arnaut looked out the viewport in time to see the two corvettes being torn apart. They hardly put up a fight, only the one farthest from them firing at all, and the firing uncoordinated and not aimed very well at the Star Destroyer. Soon they were nothing but dust. Why would they destroy them!? he wondered furiously. Shouldn't they be captured and brought to justice? He would be sure to ask about that once they were aboard the star destroyer.

The captain's lounge was quite exquisite. An oblong glass table sat at the center of the room surrounded by white cushioned sofas, now occupied with the members of wraith squad, and tall, odd shaped trees Arnaut didn't recognize.

Snipes handed over to Askorn the datadisc regarding their mission. Askorn, looking just a bit more tired and older than when they had last seen them, was a commanding man with a grizzled face and large, broad shoulders to complement his tall height. Arnaut thought that if he gave an order, not many people would disobey.

He looked over it quickly, nodding at places, and openly grinning by the time he finished.

"First you were on some crazy mission to find an Imperial lab an now you've decided to chase myths, haven't you?" He said laughing.

"Well," Snipes replied coolly, "they're only myths to the people that haven't seen it for themselves." And with that, he tossed a dark blue jewel, about the size of thumb, onto Askorn's lap. He simply stared at it, awed, before finally managing to say something.

"W-where did you get this? It has to be worth thousands!" He said, never taking his eyes off of it.

"Oh, just a small crate we, shall we say...happened to find in that asteroid field back there. There are more jewels where that one came from. You can keep that one, it's one of the smaller ones." Snipes leaned back, grinning at Askorn who was now holding the jewel up, turning it around so it caught the light.

"Sir, if I may ask? Why did you have to destroy the New Republic ships? I know they are enemies, but they were barely fighting back and you could've just as easily boarded them and brought the soldiers to justice," Arnaut said abruptly to Askorn who had finally set the jewel down again.

"It would've been too dangerous to my men. They were considered extremely dangerous. About two weeks ago, a small institute for the mentally...traumatized victims of the war had a breakout. They were unable to confine it as soon some of the inmates acquired weapons from the guards, and the institute wasn't prepared to handle it. They managed to hijack two Corellian Corvettes from the planet's starport, killing the crew, and shot off into space. They attacked everyone they encountered while hyperspacing at random. Normally  we wouldn't care, but soon enough they came into Imperial space."

They started harassing the shipping lines, so a tartan was sent out to intercept and board them. When it finally caught up to them and had them boarded, half the crew of the tartan cruiser were killed, and the others were forced the to flee. The inmates were said to have attacked viciously, used hands and feet as often as guns. We were sent out with orders to kill. The only reason we shot at you is because we thought they might've taken your ship already."

We were lucky to make it out alive. The squad looked around uneasily, no doubt thinking the same.

"Well, that's all behind us now; you're alive aren't you? And I assume you will want passage back to Tadath. We shall have it arranged just as soon as your ship is repaired. Which could be a while." Askorn leaned back and started to chat with Snipes about this or that; mainly internal Imperial matters. The squad for the most part wandered off to look around the ship.

Arnaut pushed himself off the couch and went over to look out the expansive window that covered one of the walls of the lounge. Sighing he placed his hand on the glass and stared out at the vastness of space, all of the dots of lights that were stars light-years away. Another mission over...and another begun. My father was a pirate. He was finding the fact less and less hard to accept now, but he still felt the initial shock. He would find out about his father's past , if it was the last thing he did. Eventually. Eventually.

* * *

The squad stepped off the ship into to the ground hangar. It felt good to be back on Tadath again. Slick was talking to Rizzit, who had come to see them return with the 'loot'.

The cool crisp air made his hair blow back as Arnaut strolled out of the hangar, bringing with it the slight hint of a winter to come. It was good to finally be back.

THE END

(OOC: Well, it is finally, utterly, infinitely done. Unless I need to edit it around a bit. I might even add a few more posts to wrap it up a little more, but for now, enjoy the feeling of completeness)


-----------------------
Lance Corporal Arnaut
-=Wraith Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCP Arnaut/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE

"Take care of your equipment, and your equipment will take care of you"