Ramblings from a Galaxy far away

  Krenyo, Benu and the Imperials had struggled to agree on any kind of plan to escape the confines of the control room. The only routes off the roof all led through the hangar. Tarketh was certain the creatures were centralised in that area. “This controlling hive mind thing, is that housed there?” asked Krenyo, breaking the silence that had settled after the last debate. “I don’t see how they could have moved it. It was housed in a deeper level below them. Why?” Tarketh replied wearily, he and his men were tired of the same debates they had already had since their confinement in the room. “If we could destroy the hive mind, wouldn’t the creatures become dumb? Didn’t you say they needed the controlling originator?” “To begin with yes, they need the central hive mind. Once they have assimilated enough though we believe they are able to randomly produce secondary hives. Almost like insects, in that way they can splinter off and more rapidly spread the disease.” “So, you t...

  Slyfox mounted the T1-B turret gun and sent blast after blast in to the remaining creatures that milled around the Gallofree’s. Duke continued to cackle and chase splinter groups down, tearing them apart under the hover tanks anti-grav field. If didn’t matter if the creatures wore rebel or Imperial uniforms, they were now the enemy and no-one felt any guilt at dispatching them. A distant howl could be heard faintly over the tanks engines, seemingly summoning the creatures back. Those that could were already skulking away from the landing area, sinking silently in to the shadows of the dark landscape. “So whats next?” called back Duke, gunning the engine forward to catch a straggler, grunting at the satisfying thud against the T1-B’s hull. “Head for the transports, we need to get airborne and off planet.” Samzi shouted, “We’ll make a break while those things are re-grouping.” “Ok,” answered Duke, swinging the tank round in a sharp turn that forced everyone hard again...

  “The Blackwing file I directed you to was only a small part of the full research project. Following the incident on board the Vector, a cleanup team was dispatched to destroy the evidence, but first a sample was stored for later examination. Work on the disease continued here, at first we weren’t aware of the importance of the living organs that were originally brought to the Empire's attention. The lungs acted as some kind of controlling force. The infected creatures operate under a hive mind, but the information must be processed somewhere. Somehow the lungs were able to accomplish that task. Without that, we were unable to achieve any success away from the Vecor. Lord Vader himself expressed his displeasure at losing the source of the infection. One of our scientists hit upon a novel way of addressing this and it proved to be key to making the disease work in our favour. Well, so we thought. In order to create the central hive mind our scientists took a subject, a ...

  Imperial and Krenyo stared back at the walker, it’s black souless eyes looking towards them expectantly. Benu rose and stepped towards them, shoving pieces of equipment back in his pockets. “What do we do?” he asked flatly. “Well, we stay here we die. We go down there we die. Either way, we’re dead. It’s just a matter of where and how many of them we take out with us.” Imperial said it matter of factly, no hint of fear evident in his voice. “Let’s head back down,” said Krenyo, “I’d rather face the walkers blasters then get bitten by those things.” “Yeah, but where are they?” Benu’s question hung over them for a few seconds. Silently the men ignored it and headed towards the ladder. Once on the ground, the three men could hear the hum of the walkers engines, yet it made no move towards them and its weapons remained silent. “What’s the story Imperial?” asked Krenyo, barely more than a whisper. “No idea. Looks like it just wants us to stay out of the garage.” Another scre...

  Slyfox opened his eyes with a gasp, a deep burning sensation in his chest felt like a a vibroknife had been thrust in. The pain passed and he sagged back against the rocky floor, trying to roll on to his side. A heavy hand pushed him back down, “Easy buddy,” said Samzi, “just sit tight.” Sly closed his eyes and let the medic carry out his work, trying to ignore the screaming voice of his body as various parts protested. The cold rock felt cool on his back and helped a little and the night air brushed across his faces, cold fingers that helped calm him a little. He wasn’t sure what had happened, the last thing he remembered was something blue flashing around him. “DEMP pulse.” He thought, “no wonder I feel like a bantha sat on me.” “How you feeling Sly?” Samzi asked him, wrapping another bandage round his arm.  “Like Vaders punchbag.” He answered, opening one eye and looking at his partner. He propped himself up on an elbow and tried to shuffle up to a more comfo...

  The Imperial facility spread out before them on the flat top of the mountain. Even in the darkness, the white walls of the buildings seemed to shine, laid out with typical Imperial efficiency. Other than the occasional scream from the creatures that now seemed to control it, the area was shrouded in deadly silence. Each step the men took sounded like thunder, no matter how softly they tried to tread. A hangar door yawned at the base of the main complex, beckoning them towards an area so black that none dared to guess what lay within. Various small outer buildings and stacks of creates and supplies seemed to provide safe concealment in which they could hide as they advanced, but the men remained in the open. Somewhere up here, the creatures lay in wait. More intelligent than the files suggested, they had baited them with a trap and all the rebels could do was hope to survive. “Look,” whispered Krenyo, “up there, the survivors.” He gestured towards the small light at ...

Krenyo whistled, startling his two companions. “Ok, so it’s some kind of engineered virus. Nothing there that says this place was a cover for working on it.” “That’s only the first file,” said Benu, quickly scrolling to the next one in the pad, “that officer died on board the Vector. When the team went on they pulled all the data they could find. Someone figured his notes may have been copied and so they changed the final destination.” “Sorry to break this up,” interrupted Impy, “but we need to get moving. Make a choice boss, you want to get those imps out or just pull back?” “We have to go up.” Benu said it quickly, adding his opinion before Krenyo could give any further orders, “we need to find the Black Intel guys.” “Ben,” Krenyo placed a hand on his shoulder and softened his voice, “you’ve read the file, I don’t think they’re alive anymore.” Benu shook Krenyo off and strode towards the ladder that led to the ground floor, “I’m going up there to find out.” “Cack it, I’m w...

  Chief Medical Officer Timkalou, ISD Vector. Imperial bioweapons Project I71A – Blackwing Initial studies carried out on Meglumine show positive results. Transfer of the materials has now been ordered by Lord Vader to Khonji Seven via the ISD Vector. Studies will continue whilst aboard and a lab has been made available for our use. Symptoms Initial symptoms for those affected by airborne spores bare similar resemblance to many naturally occurring diseases. The most obvious is a deep persistant cough. Further onset of the disease results in the breakdown of tissue within the internal organs. Notably, the lungs will begin bleeding profusely. Death occurs in 100% of all cases. Secondary symptoms. Following medical death, the disease begins to mutate within the muscular tissue. Subjects re-animate within the hour. Eye’s are typically reddened, and skin pallor is similar to that of rotten flesh (among human subjects). No intelligence detected or vocal communication. Sounds...

  Krenyo, Impy and Benu looked round the room, surveying the devastation. They had gained access to the upper level of one of the outposts control towers. Datascreens were smashed, panels ripped away leaving the inner workings exposed and disturbingly, blood had dried in many areas. “Is that stuff safe to touch?” asked Krenyo, looking over to Impy. “I’m not sure,” he answered shrugging his shoulders, “if it’s dried, maybe the virus got killed off.” “Ok, Benu, its your call. I want you to try and hack in to one of those terminals, see what you can find.” The younger member paused for a second, contemplating the possible effects of becoming infected by some obscure disease that may have claimed his other squad mates. Without replying he removed a portable datapad from a pocket and set about trying to interface with the broken equipment. “If this thing is as bad as Impy says, just shoot me if I start showing any symptoms.” “I will.” Answered Impy, already pulling his weapon r...

  Slyfox waited patiently in the dark. He’d heard the com chatter but largely ignoring, listening only for the order to tell him to return. He forced himself to stay down there in the dark, despite the screams and blaster fire from above. He was a soldier and would obey orders. When the detpack exploded he was thrown from his feet and barely missed falling over the sides. With his head hanging over the edge he could see flashes of white Stormtrooper armour, only a few levels below him now and surging round and round the walkways towards him. He made a decision and got up, running back towards his comrades. He vaulted over the crates, tripping over something as he hit the other side and sprawling in to the wall hard. Gwynzers flashlight still lay on the floor and its light felt a little reassuring after being alone in the dark for so long. He looked back to see what he’d fallen over, something with no head lay bleeding behind the stacked crates. He couldn’t tell who it...

  There was a new noise in the service tower now, a gentle echo that reverberated around the walls of the shaft. Muffled footsteps, scratching, it was difficult to describe but the source was both above and below them. Gwynzer crouched down to check on Ati as Samzi continued to try and treat him. “Whats with his chest?” He asked, eyeing the bulbuous mass moving under the skin. “I don’t know, it’s some kind of fluid. I’m trying to sample it now.” Samzi already had a syringe with grey gelatinous liquid inside, drawn from Ati’s strange affliction. He scanned it with a portable medi-pad and frowned over the results. “Looks like some kind of virus, but I don’t understand why I couldn’t detect it before. I’ve never seen anything like it, I’ll need better facilities to study it. Where’s Blind?” “Dead,” Answered his Squad Leader, “Thomas attacked him and tore his throat out. He was… eating him.” “What?” Samzi stared at Gwynzer, “Ate him? But Thomas was dead.” Gwynzer shook his he...

  At the foot of the mountain pass, the hum of repulsorlifts from the collection of rebel vehicles was a gentle reassurance of life on what so far had been a dead planet. Inside the APC Freerunner Krenyo’s face appeared pale, lit by the bank of screens at Benu’s workstations. Beside him, Impy sat bolt upright, his body locked rigid and his eyes wide with fright. “Impy?” said Ben, reaching over and shaking him, “hey whats wrong?” Krenyo turned and frowned, he’d never seen the man like this. He ignored it for the time being and opened another frequency to address the armour column. “The Black Intel group have run in to some problems and can’t scout the pass. We’re going to go in anyway while they fall back. Stick close and keep the APC centred in the group and remember to stay in the sensor bubble. Move them out.” He felt the Freerunner surge forward, pushing him back a little in his seat as the sound from the engines increased in volume, the sudden pitching from the fro...

  They all heard Blind calling them then his strangled scream being cut off. Samzi already had Ati on the floor, desperately trying to find the cause of the infection as he coughed and writhed around. “I’ll go check it out,” said Gwynzer, already starting towards source of the commotion, “get hold of Ben, let him know something’s wrong and do what you can for Ati.” Samzi waved him off and concentrated on the patient, watching the bio scans marking the rapid deterioration in Ati’s fight for survival. There was nothing wrong! No viral signature, no chem hazard, nothing that would point to a reason behind the strange disease that now seemed to stalk them one by one. Ati lurched to the side in another coughing fit. Samzi had lit a glowrod and in the dim light he could make out the glistening wet blobs. Blood. Just like Thomas, Ati’s lungs were filling with blood. He reached to the medpack and grabbed a long tube and inserted it to Ati’s mouth, pushing it down deep within ...

  Benu twitched nervously in his seat. There was still nothing showing on the sensor scans and there’d been no word from Gwynzer. “Relax,” he told himself, “it’ll take them longer than that to get in to position. They’ll call if there’s a problem.” The instrument panel before him beeped and startled him from his thoughts, “Yes Sir?” “Ben, we lost Thomas.” Gwynzers voice sounded tinny through the electronic scrubbers, but he could still pick up a trace of emotion through it. “What? How?” Benu asked, his own shock evident. “He got sick, real quick. No sign of any bio hazards or chemical spill and the rest of us seem ok. Maybe some new weapon the Imperials have deployed, I don’t know. Sam doesn’t know of anything natural that acts that fast.” “Maybe you should pull back boss.” “We found what looks like some kind of accident, Thomas did… There was blood on the floor and Thomas must have touched it, maybe that was the carrier. Samzi has given the rest of us a clean sweep and...