"All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are." Principles of War by Karl Von Clausewitz

"Run the tests again." The datapad went flying from his hand and collided with the chest of a startled MedTech. Staff Scientist Jym Nezit was sick. He was sick of living on a platform on the edge of nowhere staring into the heart of a sun. Observation Platform 86-Alpha had been built over forty years ago based on the paper trail he had inherited. During that time it's ownership had changed hands several times. Yet for the life of him Nezit had no idea why anyone would want to spend a day on OP 86-A. The five years, six months, and twelve days he had been assigned to lead Epsilon team had started to seem like a prison sentence rather than a duty station.

Epsilon had been hand picked from the Vast Empire's best scientist, then plopped on OP-86A with an indirect mandate and not even a second glance from High Command.                   

Nezit had joined the science corps to advance technology for the citizens of the Vast Empire that he had grown up in. Instead he found that science in the military was all about weapons, finding new more inventive ways of destroying other people. He had also become a watered down intelligence officer, using technology to break in and gather information from other groups.

He leaned against the large transperiglass viewport in his office and let out a long breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding. The Aneif system wasn't known for much. It had no inhabitable planets and gas balls parading around as moons. The one redeeming quality for the middle of no-where place was the yellow dwarf currently taking up the majority of the view before him. The sun looked like any other he had seen, but the readings the platform collected told a different story. The theory was that with the right experimentation, the solar flares could be harnessed and used as a weapon.

The most amusing thing to Nezit was that his specialty was in genetics not space science. He had to rely heavily on his team to create and execute experiments on the giant Aneif sun, while he longed for some species to understand at the deoxyribonucleic acid level.

beep, beep

Nezit frowned. The last incoming message had been high command informing him that they had delayed sending a relief team for the second time. His crew was almost two years overdue in going home, seeing their families, touching solid ground. He could see it in their eyes, the space was getting to them.

He sighed as his finger apathetically pressed the comm button, which caused his screen to instantly erupt in static.

"Nezzzzit, is that what they call you?"

The image was not from high command. Instead it was a man covered in sweat, dark reddish circles surrounded his sunken eyes.

"Yes." His voice reflected the insecurity he had about what he was seeing. "I'm Staff Scientist Jym Nezit, who are you?"

He coughed. "No time, need to...board."

Nezit punched up a display on his datapad. "Yes I see you, come into docking bay Z35 and I'll send a medical team for you and your crew."

---~~~---

"See right here ma'am, we show evidence of a transport vessel with no known markings docking with OP-86A then nothing. The whole platform goes dark and its been like that for six weeks now."

Captain Ayme Katash rubbed her chin as she examined the display. "And three weeks ago we sent in that team to relieve the crew, what was their designation again?"

"Zeta ma'am."

"Right Zeta, and they've not checked in or anything yet?"

The deck officer shook his head. "No ma'am. We did get a garbled message, mostly static but it came from the platform, after that nothing. Its has if the whole platform isn't even there, all the computer systems must be off. There are only a few scenarios that would end up playing out that way, and none of them would be good."

"Why the hell didn't anyone know about this sooner?" Havock started to pace.

"Well Captain, the platform wasn't in a strategic location and its primary mandate had to do with long term research on sun spot activity."

She snorted. "So the lives of a thousand people are insignificant due to their current job posting? Remind me to kick high command in the nuts if they even think about forgetting where they sent even one of my squads." She sighed, getting a grip on her desire to punch people of higher rank that she was. "Send out a call to the squad leaders, I want them at Fort Sexton in two days ready to be briefed and move out."

"Which squads ma'am?"

"All of them."

---~~~---

Getting large transports on short notice was asking for trouble. The beat up sentinel-class shuttle was cramped and smelled of three day old gronk eggs. Havock stood with her arms crossed towards the back of the cockpit.

The squads had not been pleased by their mission, but Havock gave them a few new toys to play with out of the Phoenix armory. Their objective was easy for now. Board the platform and determine what the frack happened to everyone. It sounded so simple, and that fact alone gave the Captain an uneasy feeling.

The shuttle shook as it decelerated out of hyperspace. "There she is Captain."

Havock leaned forward and took in the darkened Observation Platform 86-Alpha which was dwarfed by the massive sun just beyond it. The platform drifted lifelessly in space like a body floating in golden water.

"Get us in the hanger."

She turned and headed back into the crew area. The squads were in various stages of consciousness as they mingled or slept spread out amongst the seats. "Rise and shine asswipes. We will be on the platform in fifteen, get your gear sorted."

---~~~---

Havock jumped off the landing ramp to the hanger. The stillness around her prompted her to release one of her pistols from its holster. Her eyes gazed through her HUD looking desperately for some sign of life and finding none. The whole situation had her feeling like a lost traveler who stumbled into the mouth of a starving but psychopathically patient beast.

The rest of the squads had filed out and broken off into groups to fan out and search the hanger, when suddenly several muted alarms started to go off. Havock grabbed her helmet and yanked it off to stop the annoying beeping. "What the frack?"

"The suits are overheating."

Havock raised an eyebrow at Karash, the RAIDERS medic, then moved past the annoyance she was feeling to truly take in the stiffling heat they were experiencing on the platform. "Why is it so damn hot?"

"Besides me? Oh and that, yanno, giant effing Sun on the doorstep?" Jaenna shook her head and patted Havock's shoulder.

"Funny." She grabbed her comlink since there was no way she would put her helmet back on in the heat being radiated off every surface. "Garryll, Joamer, Skarr, Snipes, get your asses over here."

They all complied, although Snipes seemed to be more pushed in her direction by Brightstar than actually moving towards her of his own volition. "First of all I want to know why the hell its so damn hot."

Skarr shrugged. "Probably an issue with the regulators, those systems should be controlled by the computer systems."

"Well we already knew the computers were fracked so that's a good place to start, Skarr take Eclipse to the air filtration regulators and make sure they aren't furballed. Snipes, take Jester to the computer control room and see if you can get the computer systems back online. Got it?"

They nodded. "Okay move out."

"You two. Joamer you and I are going up to the command center, we need to access the logs and find out if the team leads did their job and kept them up to date. Garryll, I get a really bad feeling so, you'll like this, find the armory and requisition us some back up weapons. Just to be productive also see if you can find some security logs, if things went bad here there should be some note of it there."

Havock checked her DT-57 pistols. "Alright lets go."

OOC:

RAIDERS:

This is the same post on all threads, no you're not seeing quadruple. Your specific objective is

Quote:"Joamer you and I are going up to the command center, we need to access the logs and find out if the team leads did their job and kept them up to date. "

You may encounter members of the crew, they were all human and/or common VE species (check the academy boards if you need a refresher on what species that would be) but we shall say mostly human. You will NOT find more than 9 (and I would recommend the fewer and more developed the better). Everyone you find will seem ill and confused, but remember we are all in a sweatbox so this won't seem THAT out of place to you at first.

For questions about the story PLEASE use this topic:http://comnet.imperialnetwork.com/topic/15333/ I love you all but I don't want to promise that I'll read everyones squad topic searching for questions. So please all questions there.


Specialized weapons claimed:

• LC-5 Lava Cannon (Grahim)
• 8-gauge Shotgun (Jae)
• Z6 rotary cannons (Beta)
• F3 Flame Rifle (Dusk)

As always let SL's or ASL's post first please, Carry on.

Heliwer grumbled as the trooper stumbled off of the transport. The squad had seemingly forgotten him, and nearly took off from the base before he had even boarded. Maybe it was because he left their mission back to Thyveck in order to get some counseling and to train for close combat. Whatever the reason, he was now certain that no one in the squad remotely liked him, even as a fellow squad mate. It was ok. He did not like a number of them. He relished his sergeant rank and how he outranked a number of his squad mates.

As he checked his M-590, he noticed Jaenna wiping the sweat off of her brow and squeezing the salty liquid from her fist. This made him let out a chuckle. Those years growing up on Nal Hutta and Tatooen paid off finally, with his body producing not even half as much sweat as the others. Still, the heat was brutal. Probably the regulators got screwed up. Nothing like a sauna to make the day even better.

He took a deep breath and walked silently behind the rest of the RAIDERS, taking stock of the persons there. Joamer and Jaenna both at the front with Havock, as they usually would be. Heliwer had only briefly known Jaenna, but thought her as maybe one that the squad needs, not really what they want. However, from the first encounter, he noticed the spice in her cigarettes, and from that point onward, inquired as to the nature of how she got them. The response was not pretty. From what Enriko, his ol’ pirate buddy who kept the gang together these three years later and ex-Mandalorian Intelligence, dug up through favors and drunk personnel, the Jaenna in command was fighting spice addiction. Hopefully she would not get out of control, like that fat guy in that movie he watched a few days ago who was addicted to spice, and when they went in to rescue their fellow soldier, he nearly looses it when face to face with a huge mound of spice.

Havock and Joamer still probably loathed the trooper, but he had newfound respect for them and their job, understanding what pressure they must be under constantly. Karash, the medic, was… interesting. Apathetic with a twist of melancholy most times. Grahim seemed more or less like the typical creepy, fish-faced, googly-eyed Gungan. Dusk and Coadster, the newbs, still had much to prove to the sergeant. Mox, he still distrusted. He probably was in contact with the Republic or something… He didn’t know for certain. This left Beta. Beta, the person whom Heliwer probably considered to be the more friendly of the others. Out of the full squad, this basically meant that only a fellow trooper and the Assistant Squad Leader maybe liked him. Not too bad.

The beads of sweat on his brow slowly got wiped off as he followed the squad down the dark hallway. His helmet was back on the transport with everyone else’s because of the heat. This also caused his M-590’s thermal scanner to be offline. Everything was red or orange or yellow, and it was hard to distinguish objects from one another. He grumbled again  and checked his kit, making sure he had all the clips he needed and that his bowie knife was in its sheath. From there, he attempted not to bump into the squad and make a noise. Not easy when its dark and there was coughing in all directions. Even with the counseling for his shell shock, each cough made him jump. Resulting in him tripping over something and falling to the floor with such a loud bang that the whole squad jumped and nearly shot it.

“Fuck! Can’t see my own nose in front of my face!” Heliwer cursed. The tension in the squad was lifted, slightly, and the sound of a hand slapping the forehead of someone came from Jaenna.

“I knew we forgot someone.” She sheepishly said.

“Glad to know I’m loved.” He replied, grunting as he stood back up. “Sergeant Heliwer Garrath, ready to kick names and take ass, sir and madam.”

He regretted drinking the bottle of whiskey before getting on the ship.

The air was thick, hot, and moist. Oppressive some would call it, but for someone who had very bad experiences on Space Stations before he called it something else. It was a small lingering sensation in the back of your throat, the faint tickle of your nose. Under the heat, there lay a nearly hidden odor. Cleaning agents, stronger than there should of been. Once, and only once did he pick up the tell-tale odor of ozone.

He knew this place was hiding secrets, everything just looked too neat and orderly. He hoped he was not the only one picking up the slight irregularities in how things seemed to look. You had to take into account most of these men and woman had been here much longer than their scheduled jobs had planned for. It was like this place had been forgotten, then found again. The question he had was were they the first group to find this place again. Judging by the feeling he was getting his guess was no, somehow he did not think whoever had come first liked uninvited guests.

He was walking slowly, letting the group explore their surroundings enough to get a feel for the place. He felt the weight of the Atchisson Assault Shotgun strapped to his back. Like Jaenna's shotgun but this one was made for suppression purposes. A single 90 round drum magazine set loaded below it, two more rests on his belt. His custom Particle Magnum sat on his hip like usual, and the hilt of a medium length slightly curved sword sat just over his left shoulder.

His experiences with Space Stations, and the fact Havock, Jaenna, and himself were operating together again made him nervous. He knew it was only a matter of time before something went horribly wrong. Like most of the squad he had removed his helmet, and attached it to his belt. He felt his gloved hand trace over a wall, as he listened to the surroundings. His hand stopped for just a moment as he felt a very faint crease in the wall. Looking around slowly he dropped his hand and motioned the squad on.

He heard the voices of the various members of his squad chat back and forth quietly. For the most part he ignored them, his mind on the current situation. This place just felt wrong to him on many different levels. The sense of foreboding was strong with every breath he took. Stopping at an intersection he waited for several long minutes, after a moment he took a step forward but stopped. The voice was low but clear, and it shook him out of his thought pattern "Does that sound like coughing to you guys?" Dusk said.

He ears strained to hear in every direction as the well trained squad went dead silent. After a moment he heard it, a very low echo from a long way off. "Yea, it does." He said very softly a few moments later. "Something does not add up here at all. Unholster weapons, load and lock. Keep lines of fire clear, but safeties on. Remember we have workers, and a rescue squad still missing. No one fires until I do." Joamer said as he drew his Particle Magnum and checked the power cell.

He knew he was acting out of character, but he was going to air on the side of caution. Specially since he knew something bad was going to happen sooner or later. With Havock back in the squad for the time being bad things were just around the corner. Looking back to the rear of the squad he caught sight of the three new people. One was Sergeant Jilessa Milese, the only surviving member of the combat engineers sent with the squad during the final mission of the Thyveck campaign. The other two were unknowns to him, if time allowed he would ask about them.

OOC:

Filling up the NPC slots boys and girls. One is taken by Jilessa our combat engineer. The other two are up for grabs. They are not expendable assets, so don't do stupid things with them.

‘This is a bloody nightmare!’ The heat was almost unbearable, the atmosphere was eerie and the people were highly irritating; to put it bluntly Karash was in hell. ‘This is going to end in disaster, they did not manage to keep it together in the old days, what the hell do they hope to do now?  I’ll tell you what they’ll do, they will drive me to brink is what they will do!’ The RAIDER was not relishing the opportunity he had to go over old times with his squad mates of the past. From what he could remember they did not get on very well in the old days.

The group were slowly making their way to a destination Karash had not heard due to his self involvement, though there was nothing new on that front. Joamer and Jae were now in command of the squad, this did not please him if anything it made him increadibly nervous; to add to his troubles Havock was accompanying the squad, she was difficult for him to cope with on her own. The combination of the three of them almost tipped him over the edge. Dusk and Coadster were closest to Karash, he had still not made his mind up about them but he was keeping his distance. Behind them was Mox, Beta and Grahim; Mox shared a similar position to Dusk and Coaster in the medics mind, Beta had always annoyed Karash so he just ignored him, Grahim had been increasingly erratic lately and the medic was keeping his distance from him. The rear of the merry group consisted of three people Karash did not know and therefore did not care about as well as Heliwer; this was the only person that Karash actively disliked, the rest of the squad were either ignored or treated with a guarded respect.

“What did I do to deserve this?” The inner voice suddenly became very loud.

The older members of the squad just gave an odd look but the newer ones had not gotten used to Karash and therefore inquired further, “What’s the problem?” Coadster asked.

“What’s the problem? You want to know what the problem is? I’ll tell you my problem, Coadster...” Karash paused in surprise as he had managed to remember his squad-mates name.

“The shaft is just up here.” Joamer spoke, stopping the medic from saying anything he might have regretted.

‘This is not going to end well; the place just reeks of disaster. After all our recent troubles they might have been a bit kinder with the dealing out of missions. That is of course assuming our glorious leaders don’t kill us all.’ The heat was now causing Karash to look like a ripe tomato and sweat like a pig in heat. For the first time he was beginning to notice his surroundings, the place was very clean and there was an odd feeling in the air. Something was not right and everyone could feel it, they were all on edge but no one was sure why. ‘What are they doing with that thing?’

“We are not seriously about to climb up there? Surely not even you are that...” Once again Karash was cut off before he could finish.

“As always we are glad to hear your opinion and it is duly noted.” A peculiar smile was spread across the SL’s face.

“I really have missed that optimistic outlook.” The same mocking smile was spread across Havock’s face.

“Someone needs to make sure that you don’t get us all killed, apart from anything else I like to remain consistent in my opinion.” Karash gave a withering look to anyone that looked at him.

Once again the medic was getting a few strange looks from the newer members of the squad who had not gotten used to his behaviour where Joamer was concerned, nor did they know the rather strange relationship he had with Havock. That feeling was still lodged in the back of Karash’s mind, that feeling that things were not going to go well. ‘Things never go well, why should this be any different?’   

“I really hate my life.” It was then that a very large weight seemed to press down on his shoulders.

Dangling from a ladder above fifty feet of darkness with nothing but dim yellow emergency lights above and drinking a bottle of whiskey only a few moments beforehand…. What a way to spend today…

Joamer climbed up first, taking point with Jaenna following behind. Heliwer came next, with the others following suit. As soon as his hand grabbed the metal rung, the heat permeated through the glove and made him grimace. Sure he was used to the heat, but he wasn’t used to hot metal.

The climb started off not all too good. The squad grunted as they reached hand over hand up the long shaft, the heat and the gear weighing down the RAIDERS. All the way up, thoughts ran through each soldier’s mind. The only sounds were of the occasional grunt, hands and feet connecting to steel rungs, and something that sounded akin to coughing.

Heliwer couldn’t help but start thinking about the old stories he heard when he was a kid. His father recounted tales of how bounty hunters misshapen by some supernatural force would be creeping in the unknown darkness, ready to peddle you off to the highest bidder, how one must never journey into the dark alone and unprepared. The scariest story, that seemed to fit right now, was the tale of Brakkar.

Brakkar was a pirate, a merk, and was very proud of himself, full of selfishness. His biggest pride was that of his coat, made from Shistavanen fur, of which he had great pleasure in hunting. One day, he mistreated an ancient crone in the backwater alleys of Tatooen. The crone cursed the man with words that cannot be spoken by any mortal being, as they are so old and powerful. Laughing it off, Brakkar simply walked away. That night, however, the crone’s spell worked its charm. The coat engulfed him, and turned him into a Shistavan. However, it wasn’t your normal wolfman. Brakkar could only live in the shadows, in the dark and dimly lit places. It was said that at any time, he could materialize from the darkness and kill any unsuspecting person, stealing their life force from then.

Since the telling of the story, Heliwer had been terribly frightened of Shistavans. As he never encountered them often, he never really told anyone. However, right now, in the dimly lit shaft, the story came back in full force. Quickly, he lit a cigarette and resumed climbing, the nicotine slowly alleviating his fears. The shapes in the darkness kept on coming though. Pretty soon, the stench of cigarette was thick in the shaft.

“Heliwer, why can’t you go two minutes without smoking?!” Karash yelled up. A grunt echoed back.

“Hey, can’t help what I do to keep my nerves down!” The sergeant yelled back. “Some people chew their nails, some chew gum, some play with themselves. I smoke and drink. Get over it, doc!”

Minutes went by slowly, and eventually, Joamer stopped at the top, ready to remove the next grate. However, the rest of the squad didn’t notice the sudden stop, and each RAIDER bumped into the person above them. It was a wonder that they didn’t fall off the ladder. Heliwer had the displeasure of ramming his head into Jaenna.

“OW! Someone please tell me when we stop instead of assuming that we can read minds, here?” Came a semi-muffled retort from an annoyed Heliwer. The rest of the squad were between getting angry at each other and staying somewhat quiet for to hear any orders from up top.

Grahim was surprised to see Havock standing there. Somehow she didn't seem to be the one whom had spoken to him on Thyveck. ”Demsa boopjacking NR must have replaced shesa to. Mesa have no one nowsa, but mesa now Havock would want mesa to carry on.” Grahim thought to himself as he looked over at the squad. Once he had gotten back to Thyveck he had checked if there something odd with Coadsters and Dusks recruiting papers and as he had suspected, Joamer had been involved more than once. Grahim wanted to shoot them all for treason.

”But sheesa told mesa to wait. So mesa will wait until mesa can do itsa and be una hero. De army will give mesa lotsa medals and deysa are going to make mesa una bombad leader of disa army.” Grahim muttered to himself with a happy smile. He realized Karash just had fallen down the ladder they had been climbing down. He knew that the real Karash would never have done such a thing. But he decided to play along with these charades. He wanted to know how far they would let him come to their secret before they realized that he knew that they are all liars, murderers... traitors. He walked over to Karash and pulled him up.

”Did yousa hurt yousas self?” Grahim said trying to add caring warmth instead of the cold hatred he felt.

”No, no. I am fine.” Karash said, obviously the man must have realized something because as soon as he was on his feet he took several steps away from the gungan. The doctor usually wasn't this paranoid about himself. Grahim felt himself raising the rifle and starting to aim for the doctor. Which wasn't an invisible movement with the lava cannon. Fortunately no one except the paranoid doctor noticed. Grahim lowered the rifle and saw the expression on Karash's face, priceless. If he could scare them as much as possible he might have a chance of knowing if they perhaps just had replaced the real RAIDERS or if the NR actually had managed to break the squad.

He really should get to the bottom of this. Then a terrifying thought hit. What if they have managed to penetrate all VE's defenses and are assimilating their star system right now. While he is being held here at the outskirts of VE territory. He felt hot rage flowing through him. He was about to incinerate the whole group with the lava cannon when he remembered, that even if Havock had been turned her orders were still standing and that he would probably succeed with saving the VE from the NR's spies and saboteurs even if it would cost him his life.

Grahim realized that he had been following the rest of the squad deeper down the corridors. He didn't know how far they had walked but he didn't see the ladder that had brought them down to this godforsaken place. Now he noticed that the surroundings weren't as they were supposed to be. Somehow they were out of place. It seemed to be a bit to much... something in the air around the squad.

Dusk hadn’t really been paying attention to his SL and was talking to Coadster. The flame rifle Hav had supplied felt good in his hands. Having that destructive power gave him the feeling of safty. When Joamer halted the squad, he gripped his rifle. Noticing the eyes and hearing Joamer shout “Defencive positions”, Dusk lifted the rifle to his shoulder ready to incinerate the hallway. “Come out slowly and identify yourself or we will open fire.”

Dusk’s trigger finger was itching to fry the pair of eyes. An old man in a lab coat walked out and introduced himself and asked for them to take him away from this place. After Joamer promised him a seat on one of their shuttles and the squad started to move on Dusk took on the rear so he could keep an eye on the doctor.

The man walked hunched over and had a limp in one of his legs like it was dislocated. He glanced around at his squad mates to see if they too noticed this. If anyone did they didn’t show it. He un-hooked his helmet from his belt and held it in his hands. He needed his HUD’s bio-sensors and his comm. He worked on the comm. like he had seen Hav do it. After he popped that out, he followed the wires to the area around the right eye piece. Removing that from his helmet, Dusk put the comm. and the eyepiece together making a sort of headset. ‘I always liked stripping things down to the bare necessities.’ Dusk thought as he secured it to his head and switched the power cell on. The HUD was static then switched to a slightly dimmer and a smidge blurrier than before.

“Ok everyone,” Joamer said as he turned to look at his squad. “We’re here.”
“Weapons off safety, we don’t know what’s in there.” Jaena  added.

Pulling his flame rifle off his shoulder he clicked the setting to stream. Hav pressed herself against the wall, hand on the release pad. The doctor cowered in a room that branched off. Slapping the pad the doors hissed open. Luckily no hell spawn jumped out and no blaster bolts were wising past their heads. They walked into the room cautiously; the command center, a large room with large transparisteel windows along half the room with control panels along the outer rim and a raised daises in the center that had a walk way level to the door. At the center of the circular room was a holo display of the sun they were orbiting. The holo shimmered and cut out only to come back on a moment later.

They examined the displays of the ones that still had power. There were two doors on opposite side of the room. Dusk was intrigued by the display of the sun, how it brought up a scale for every solar flare displaying the energy released. Dusk was wondering what that data was used for when Coadster called out, “I think I found something!”

Dusk quickly took a few snap shots with the headset and rushed over with Joamer and a few others.

Standing in the center of the room he watches as his squad moved around slowly, their flash lights illuminating every corner and crevice systematically. His hands were at his sides, his armor shining dimly in the emergency lights. He could hear their new friend somewhere to the side of him, hunkered down against a far wall. In front of him he noticed the shuttered windows on the far wall, the faint smell of ozone was stronger here for some reason.

"Smell that?" He said softly as Havock stepped up next to him.

"Ozone, faint though." She replied just as soft, keeping the secret for now. "Why are the shutters down?" She asked slightly louder.

"Emergency protocol, the station seals itself in response to main power loss. Since the shield is down we would all be crispy crackers without those shutters in place." Jaenna replied as she kicked one of the consoles in anger.

Turning away he glanced at the good doctor for a moment, faintly in the dark corner he was standing in the gleam of yellow could be seen just for an instant. Facing the door way he nodded once to Karash as the medic guarded the door into the dark abyss of the hallway.

Watching a dust mote float through the air for a moment he turned in a slow circle as everyone moved around slowly. He knew the darkness was beginning to play with his mind, but this whole place just felt wrong to him. With his right hand he slowly drew his particle magnum, the worn and stained leather felt good in his hand. Plus, it helped calm his nerves some.

"What are your thoughts on this place?" Havock said slowly as she watched everyone the way he did.

"Besides the fact it's a really big trap?" He replied as he frowned at a computer monitor for a moment.

"Is that why you brought that rather large gun strapped to your back?" He nodded slowly as pointed Mox and Grahim to a door that had not been checked yet.

"Bad feeling and everything, must be a squad leaders six sense." He said as faint lights on the monitors flicked on for a moment. "Defensive positions!" He shouted ducking behind a console.

"Good, you remembered something." Havock said as she knelt next to him, her eyes watching as the squad moved quickly into position.

"Better ready than sorry, power comes back on tends to be when something jumps out to get you." Joamer said as the monitors flickered on and off every few seconds. "They must be having trouble getting it stable, powers been down for days or maybe weeks by now. Thing is, something happened here. Faint ozone in the air, it would of been gone long before now except for the air has not been circulating. Cooling system is off, yet have you noticed our good doctor is not sweating?"

She nodded in response as the monitors came online and stayed on this time. A few seconds later the room was illuminated by the overhead lights activating. The squad stayed in position, he could hear everyone checking over weapons for the final time. He knew they were on alert now, Havock had drilled it into them to be on the ready when things changed. He had kept up the training, some of them were knew to this job but they were well trained.

The minutes ticked by slowly as he could hear the faint breathing from various directions around him. He noticed Havock shaking her head slowly, side to side. He had to agree, nothing was happening.

"Shifts for guard, Karash, Grahim, Mox. Into the hallway, no more than fifty feet out from this room in any direction. Dusk, Coad, Hel. Stand guard outside, watch for anything that looks out of the ordinary. Keep on open mic, I want to hear you curse if you stub a toe on a book. If you see something odd call it out before investigating." Joamer said as he stood up slowly.

He turned around to see Jae already sitting at a console bringing the command system. "I'll try to get the shields back online, that should get rid of some of this blasted heat. Logs are intake, playback begins now."

Doctor Niumo Watts reporting. Made a break through today, using radiation from a solar flare we managed to splice the two species together. Test subjects only survived twenty seconds, but for those twenty we witnessed the actions of a new species.

Niumo Watts again, missed my sons birthday today. He would of been eight years old, I miss him. I want to go home, communication with anyone seems to be gone or they are ignoring us. We all just want to go home. Spotted a ship on sensors today, first one in months. Tried to contact them but they vanished shortly afterwords. We are too close to the sun, I doubt their sensors even picked us up. We are alone out here, lost in the black.

"Seems to be personal logs." Havock said as she flipped through various files on the monitor in front of her. "Command logs end the same time. Reports stop three days after that ship reappeared and it docked with them. Unknown make and model though, and it was not in the hangar when we got here."

"What about the sensor logs? For everyone to have disappeared there must have been a larger ship show up." Joamer said as he stepped up next to her. The minutes passed as they scanned the sensor logs. "Frak me, now that is not a coincidence. Sensor, personal, and command logs end three days after that mystery ship shows up."

"Command to squad, keep an eye out. Something went down three days after a mystery ship showed up. Just under one thousand people worked and lived here, we've found one so far." He said as he keyed off his commlink, he could still hear everyone talking but they could not hear him.

Walking over to the doctor he sighed slowly as he watched the man looking back at him. His forehead dry and his breathing easy. Wiping the sweat off his forehead slowly he looked at his hand then back up at the doctor. "You know, I come from a hot planet. We had unbelievable summers, and freezing winters. Yet, I'm still sweating." His voice was low, but his hand was resting very openly on his particle magnum. "So, how about you tell me your story?"

He met the man's eyes after a moment. His training kicked in automatically making him want to draw his gun and fire, but he kept it at bay. He could see the faint yellow outline around his irises. After a moment the older man smiled.

Heliwer was on the verge of cracking. Again. He suspected Doctor Montrei was Brakkar, especially with the yellow eyes and the faint odor of wet dog. Now the good doctor had run off on four legs and now there were reports of Gates’ survivors doing the same thing. The sergeant was now shaking more than he ever had, his breathing ragged. For a moment, he nearly lost his balance and managed to catch himself on the wall.

“Heliwer, what’s wrong with you this time?” Someone asked. He did not know who. His world became somewhat blurry.

"Shut up! Shut up! You shut the hell up now!" He yelled at seemingly no one.

As he slid down to the floor, he quickly and shakily pulled out another cigarette. The lighter however was not cooperating, leading him to flick it maybe ten times in almost a frenzied rush before someone’s hand grabbed his and lit it for him. He took a very deep drag, and then held his head in his hands.

“Guys, I’m so fucking scared right now, you wouldn’t believe.” Heliwer croaked. “To think, a nightmare that started in my childhood and still haunts me to this day has come alive.”

There was a deep exhale, then his hands dropped from his face. The face had become hardened, as if it was forged from steel. “That’s it. I’ve had it.”

He stood up abruptly and readied his M-590, roughly inserting a fresh clip in. Heliwer then readied the master key and started towards the door with an iron clad determination. He was no longer shaking,  his body seemed to be made out of solid stone. His breathing came at a slow, steady, calm pace, and so did his steps.

“Come on, fellows.” He spoke, in a voice that seemed to be freshly minted from boot camp; it had a sort of ring to it that you would expect from a politician, but had that little bit of firmness that a drill sergeant needs to push his men along in training.

“What the hell is wrong with this guy?”

Heliwer stopped and turned on his heel, steeled eyes glaring at Karash.

“Simple, doc. I am sick and tired of my shell shock. I want it gone. Now. And these little fuckers are not helping one bit, so it’s best that I go and kick their furry asses. I’m sick and tired of these muthurfracking Shistavans on this muthurfracking space station!”

With that, the sergeant led the squad out the door and stopped at the first intersection of hallways.

“Now, which way is the command center?”

Havock came up to the front with a data pad in her hand. “Should be this way.” She said gesturing down the right hallway. The RAIDERS advanced both quickly and cautiously with Heliwer and Havock in the lead. The two felt awkward considering the past relationship with each other, both not really liking one another one bit. It seemed that whoever is up there wanted to have some fun and wanted to see how the two would react.

“Shut up! Shut up! You shut the hell up right now!” Heliwer slid to the floor, taking a cigarette from his pocket with a shaking hand and proceeded to manically flick his lighter, to nothing but sparks that lit up his face underneath in a fashion that made Coadster remember stories told on the lofty rooftop of his parents’ apartment building, the flashlight underneath his father’s chin turning his eyes into hollow pools of darkness. And the figure pulled his cloak, black as the deepest night, from his shoulders, revealing white skin, white hair, and gleaming white fangs. And he said to the man, pale with fright, ‘Welcome to the Night.’ Dusk crouched down and lit Heli’s cigarette for him. He took a deep drag that made the smoldering end burn bright and consume a fourth of the length of the cancer stick before burying his face in his hands.

The cigarette fell from his mouth as he talked; smoke puffed with every word, too low for Coadster to hear. The man exhaled slowly, and his hands came to his sides and pushed him from the ground. From the smoke rose a man completely unlike the nervous, hung over man that had been there before. His face was like a mask, stony and concentrated; it was like a recruiter’s poster, all except for those too-bright nervous eyes that had been staring at the far wall from Heliwer’s old face. Like an old war holovid, an almost jovial, “Come on, fellows!” was uttered by him.

An icy knife slid down Coadster’s spine and twisted in his gut. That voice… it was scary. It was filled with a tension barely suppressed, something ready to snap, a synthetic lilt to it that just wasn’t normal. Another shiver ripped through him, and he took a step back into the corridor, and another before catching himself. The odd behavior of the Doctor was nothing to this. Words were exchanged between Heli and Karash, and then the procession thankfully started moving again. He fell in just ahead of Jaenna, and just behind Grahim.

He tapped the Gungan on the shoulder, popping open his visor. “Have you seen anything like that before? That was… weird, no?”

Grahim gave him an odd look that Coadster couldn’t grasp, though that may have been because he’d been raised in a predominately human environment. “Mesa think yousa shouldn’t think about itsa. Theresa more important things to worry about than datsa show.”

Grahim fell silent and looked forward after that, and Coadster flipped his visor back down to hide his blush. Why do I have to open up my big mouth? By the answer Grahim gave him, he’d just shown the green in his gills.  Besides that, it didn’t seem that Grahim thought much of him. A little embarrassment went a long way with silencing him, and he walked on without another word.

In the dark corners of the hallway he saw images floating and flickering like invisible flames. A face, snarling silently; a handsome man with a missing nose, a black hole in its place; glinting eyes that disappear when his flashlight fell on them; and a woman’s face, bloody eye shedding thick, bloody tears. He suppressed the urge to look at Jaenna, trading it for another shudder. That night, he didn’t even think about what he’d done… Why was it coming back now? He looked down at the blaster rifle in his hands, followed the strap to his shoulder, and fell on an open door. He knew he shouldn’t be dwelling on things, but the more he tried to think it away, the more vivid the mental images became. Joamer’s voice startled him out of his reverie. “Defensive positions!”

Coadster whipped around and took a knee, his blaster up to his shoulder. With no cover, he leaned against the wall to the right of him. Jaenna was in the center, and Grahim was to the left of her. Nothing was behind their formation, as far as Coad could tell. The trio’s flashlights danced in the corners and nooks of the corridor they’d walked through, penetrating the dark like some game of hide-and-seek. “Halt, who goes there?” Joamer called out to the other side of the corridor.

A howl came from somewhere behind Coad, somewhere between a woman’s scream and a dog’s lamentation to the moon. The hairs on his arms and neck rose with the wail, and he couldn’t help but turn over his right shoulder to look. A woman bounded from a door far to the front of the procession. She was wild-eyed and snarling, her hair a mess of tangles and her clothing shredded. She gave another goosebump-inducing shriek and leapt into another open door on the opposite side of the corridor than she’d come from.

Fear constricted Coad’s throat and made him lick his lips. I’ve never seen someone move so… bestially… The screech of metal came, and Joamer murmured to Karash and Heli. They moved forward to the gaping doorway, the three, and Joamer took the menacing looking shotgun from his back. Coadster held his breath. Joamer counted down on his fingers. Three, two, one. They moved in- “Coad!”

Jaenna tapped him on his back, and his hand twitched. Dazzling red light blinded him and his blaster left him momentarily deaf. He landed on his back, and pushed himself back up to his knees. The silence was now completely apparent, and so was the tension directed at him. Every eye was on him in the formation, and Dusk poked through the doorway to look at him as well.

“Dammit Coad!” Jaenna said, grabbing his helmet. She turned it toward her and slapped the visor button open. Her face filled his vision, and she was none too happy. “Keep your frakking finger off the trigger!” She pushed his head away, and Coad blushed a deep red. He looked to his squadmates, all their stony gazes directed at him.

“S-sorry…” Slowly everyone turned back to their end of the corridor. If ever Cody felt like the green soldier, this was it. Blood pumped hot in his cheeks, and he had to press his lips together to keep from trembling. Dammit, Cody, Come on! Who knows how long this would be remembered? He felt like he did when Stacey Trinn told him he wasn’t her type. It stung, and all he wanted to do was bury his head in a pillow. What a kid. You don’t belong here with these people.

Joamer returned shortly with Karash and Dusk in tow. His eyes locked onto Coad’s momentarily in a stony gaze for a moment before sliding away. “Our mystery… woman got away. She took the panel off of an air duct and slipped through. Keep your eyes peeled; if she can get in one, she can climb out of one too.”

Another quick glance at Coad, then Joamer turned around and signaled to move. The corridor seemed a lot darker after they started moving again, and he could feel the heat in his cheeks and the eyes of his peers on him. Dammit. The education system all over again…

Any thoughts of Heliwer were now out of his head; there really were other things to be worried about now; namely the mutilated carcass that was before him. Karash had seen many things whilst serving with the RAIDERS, most of the time he was able to shrug them off or ignore them entirely but this was different. He had seen some horrific injuries on the battlefield but nothing like this, his curiosity got the better of him so he did examine the carcass but with each passing second he wanted to turn away and never see the thing again.

‘What the hell could have done that? They can’t be... no they are bite marks but they don’t belong to anything I’ve seen before. It’s torn this poor fool to shreds and he was probably alive at the time! This is not going to end well for us.’  

Karash gave his prognosis to Joamer and neither appeared to be comfortable with what was being said, whatever was out there could quite literally eat the entire squad for dinner and move on to another squad for seconds. Even as he faced Joamer he could see the grotesque image out of the corner of his eye and it made stomach ache with worry; Karash had been a RAIDER for long enough to know that despite his SL’s outward appearance, he too did not like what all this meant.

“Thank you Karash.” Joamer spoke as he removed himself from a pool of human remains.

As the medic turned away from the carcass he could not help but shudder, nobody saw him do it because they were all doing their best not to look in that direction. As he made the short walk back to his position in the squad his boots made a horrid squelching sound, ‘How rude of you, you’ve walked through someone’s dinner.’ A suppressed laugh then made its way out of his mouth but sound more like a cough.

“Are you alright?” The slightly sickly looking trooper next to Karash asked, not entirely expecting a response.

“Of course I am Coad, you on the other hand look like you are about to faint.” Karash responded coldly, trying to keep up his usual charade.

“What do you think happened to that?” The Private nodded slightly in the direction of the carcass.

“ ‘That’ is a ‘him’ and you have eyes don’t you? I am sure you can see that he has been pulled to bits like an unwanted stuffed toy.” Karash snapped at the slightly hapless young trooper. He regretted doing it but he had shouted at new members before and he would do it again, in some perverse way it probably helped them. 

It was then that a low and deep noise reverberated through the hall and caused every one of the RAIDERS to twitch and look round for its source. Instinctively Karash looked to Joamer and saw that the SL was looking behind them, a number of pairs of yellow eyes were looking at them. They were similar to that of the doctor that the squad had met earlier but they were far more menacing and there were so many of them all focused on the RAIDERS.

“Keep moving, keep aware and be ready. This thing is out there somewhere and it’s not doing that to my squad.” Joamer marched to the front of the group and began to move out.

As the squad continued to move on, Karash remained fixed in his position. His eyes darted from the carcass hanging from the barricade to the eyes that were still glaring at him. The medic looked round and suddenly he realised that he was all alone, the squad in their haste had moved on and left him stood with nothing but his deceased friend for company. He looked back to the eyes and they were gone, there was now nothing but darkness and this was a far more intimidating sight. Before he had known where the monsters were but now they could have been next to him and he would be none the wiser. His heart began to pump very fast and he began to sweat, not like before, a cold sweat that made his heart pump even faster; it was so loud that he could hear it thudding in his ears. By now Karash was panicking as his eyes darted in all direction at once and he could still see nothing but his grotesque friend, providing a macabre view into the medics own future. There were footsteps, definitely footsteps rushing towards him, this was it this was where he would meet his end and in such a gruesome manner. All at once in an almighty crescendo his heart was leaping about in his chest, his eyes were rolling around his head, his stomach was turning about in his gut and the monster was there. . .

“Good heavens man! You nearly got your head blown off!” Karash shouted and sighed with relief almost at the same time.

“What? Joamer says hurry up. We don’t want to lose anyone yet.” Coadster was stood a short distance away, unaware of the terror he had caused.

Karash rolled his eyes and jogged off towards the rest of the squad with the young trooper, if he had not of known any better he could have sworn that a growl came from the darkness, where he had just been standing.

The dead and mutilated body seemed to make his eye twitch slightly. Hell, when Karash turned away, Heliwer had kneeled down to the corpse and spat on it. “Here’s to you.” He softly toasted. Then he stood back up and walked in the middle of the squad, his M-590 set, ready to blast anything that wasn’t normal.

A few minutes later, Coadster stupidly decided to speak his mind, irritating the sergeant.

“I, uh, I don’t feel comfortable with the situation we’re in. There were a thousand people on this ship, and so far, we’ve seen three: the doctor, the… the man… on the gate, and a woman that escaped through an air duct. Am I the only one who doesn’t like the odds of a potentially large number of these things around us?”

Heliwer simply sent him a stare that said “just-shut-the-fuck-up-you-little-shit” and restrained the urge to smash the private’s face in and disable him from talking. Of course, he kept on.

“I think we’re in danger here. If there are people to save here, we’d be hard pressed to find them where these… people couldn’t find them. Is it crazy to think we might have a better shot of survival if we got to the hangars? This is-“

Thankfully, Joamer had slammed his metal hand around Coadster’s throat and squeezed, holding him against the wall. For a moment, it seemed as if the squad leader had finally gone Section 8. However, he let Coadster go and walked away. Heliwer had no idea what to think, so he just shrugged and followed the squad leader as the private hung in the back, attempting to keep up and not become food.

While all this was going on, inside the sergeant, a small battle was being raged between his usual self and this “super” version. The former wanted to get the weak squad member and help him along, while the latter wanted to shoot him and leave him. The battle raged onto the outside, with the trooper looking slowly back and forth between the squad and Coad, lines on his forehead, visibly stressed. Eventually, the former self won.

“Come on, you idiot.” Grunted Heliwer as he wrapped one arm around Coadster and helped him walk. “If you fall or slow down, we’re both gonna get screwed, and if we get eaten, I’m gonna kill ya.”

This lighthearted humor seemed to relax the private a little, and pretty soon, he was able to keep a good pace by himself. “Ok, you seem good. I’m gonna go on up.”

Heliwer made his way up the squad slowly, and accidentally bumped into someone. As he tried to apologize, he realized it was Havock and the words just dropped.

“Uhh….” So came the awkward pause.