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[Slyfox]

  Read what I posted at fsmod.

[EvilWhiteDragon]

No? what did you post?

[Blind3001]

Sweet, the Duke part made had me laughing lots

[Slyfox]

I posted how much I like his stories, but it gets tiresome posting on both websites.

[Blind3001]

How is copy pasting text tiresome, you have to click maybe 6 times...

[Twigs]

Chapter 13. Return

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 scream echoed round them, bouncing back from the facilities walls. There was a smell up here, death and decay hung in the air. They were close.

“Cack it,” said Benu, rising to his feet, “I’m moving round.” The three of them moved cautiously towards the walls of the main building, scanning for the creatures and keeping an eye on the ATST. It made no move towards them, just turned its head to watch them as they first reached the wall, then backed round a corner out of sight.

After a few minutes progress they reached the rear of the sensor station without incident. There was only a small stretch of wall between them and the ladder to the top of the roof, a stretch of wall that contained a doorway leading to the main hangar.

“Ok, Ben first, then me then Imp,” Krenyo gave the order quickly, the three crouched down in a more stable firing position with weapons at the ready. The other two men nodded then Benu stood and ran silently to the ladder, not stopping to glance towards the doorway.

“GO!” He shouted as he reached the ladder and jumped up, grabbing the rungs and hauling himself up as quickly as he could. Another of the creatures screams pierced the night as something hit the ladder a few feet before him.

“GO!” Shouted Krenyo from below. Benu pulled himself up the ladder faster, trying to give the two men following him more room to climb up. Another heavy thud against the ladder told him that Imperial had made it past the door as well. This was the most dangerous part of journey, climbing the ladder they had to shoulder their weapons, they were exposed and defenceless.

Another scream, but it wasn’t the piercing shriek the undead creatures made, this was a human scream. Benu didn’t look down, he just kept climbing, one hand after another, feet banging hard against the heavy rungs.

“They’re on us!” shouted Krenyo, he half turned on the ladder as he looked down, with one arm hooked behind the ladder he twisted away from the wall, using his free hand to reach for his weapon. Imperial was struggling below him, one of the creatures had reached up and grabbed his leg, biting hard in to it. It wore a rebel uniform, soaked in blood. More of them were assembling around the foot of the ladder, reaching up over each other to grab at Imperial.

Krenyo tried to aim at them, Imperial stared up at him trying to pull himself free.
“Do it!” He shouted at him, “Cacking shoot me!” There was real fear in his eyes now, as more of them bit into his legs, pain streaking across his eyes. Something bounced past Krenyo and he looked up as Benu shouted down.

“CLIMB!”

The explosion rocked the air and the blast wave pushed Krenyo hard against the ladder. The two men pushed themselves faster up the ladder as more of the creatures appeared below them and howled. The base of the ladder had been destroyed by the blast preventing them from chasing their prey.

As he rounded the top, Krenyo saw Benu sobbing against the side of the control room wall. He walked over and knelt in front of him, “Ben..”

“It was Gwynzer. It was Gwynzer that attacked Imperial. They’re all dead”

Krenyo reached forward and smacked him across the face hard.

“Save the cacking pity,” he snapped, “you’re not the only one that lost friends tonight. I have too, but I haven’t got time to babysit you. Get on your feet and get inside.” He stood and walked towards the door, leaving Benu gazing after him in shock.

Krenyo banged on the locked door as another scream echoed up towards them, he knew there were other ways up to the roof and he didn’t intend to be caught outside when the creatures got here. “Hey, let us in!” he shouted, “We made it.”

Benu joined him as the door opened and the two men stepped inside. A small array of consoles lay in the center of the room and the five Imperial soldiers were sat around them.

“Well done,” said one of them standing up, “I am Commander Tarketh, which of you is the Rebel leader?”

“I am,” answered Krenyo stepping forward, blaster raised.

“There is no need for that, I assure you. Lower your weapons men.” The Imperial Officer gestured to his small group to lower their weapons, which they dutifully did.

Benu and Krenyo did the same, yet still maintained some distance from the Imperial troops. The room was heavy with the musk of men who hadn’t washed in days. A small stack of supplies lay in one corner, evidently the Imperials had enough warning to prepare for whatever had happened here.

“How long have you been here?” asked Krenyo, eyeing Tarketh suspiciously.

“10 days.” Tarketh glanced at one of the consoles then looked back towards Krenyo. “You want to know what happened, I understand that. I’ll tell you all I know, we have time. The creatures have retreated back to the hangar, no doubt they will be waiting for instruction before attacking.”

Benu frowned, “Instruction from what? Or who?”

Tarketh grinned, cold and menacing. “Their queen of course. There are some supplies there, please, have something to eat and I shall tell you everything.”

[Twigs]

Chapter 14. Mutate

“The Blackwing file I directed you to was only a small part of the full research project. Follwing 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 first brought to the Empires 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 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 human subject of course, and infected him with the disease. With no hive mind however, the creature was completely docile. We removed the heart, lungs, spinal cord and brain, our scientists believed that by keeping the brain intact it would grant the creature’s added intelligence. They were correct of course, but more importantly, they were able to begin re-producing the virus. By removing the creatures body it was sent in to some kind of emotional state which heightened it’s appetite and caused the virus to begin reproducing in vast quantities allowing us to farm it.

Naturally, we mutated the virus again, hoping to capitalise on this increased intelligence. To begin with, the creatures we began to produce showed some promise. Controlled by the hive mind they were able to follow some basic commands. We merely had to stimulate the controlling mind with images of what we wished to have the creatures attack. It worked wonderfully! We were amazed at how easy it had been, but we grew too confident. We began to hook the controlling mind to more and more computers, aiming to give it more information and inputs in order to command our new army. We hadn’t counted on it retaining any knowledge of the original human occupant.

The subject had been a rebel spy, caught and allegedly imprisoned. His role within your organisation had been as a slicer, somehow even as an infected dead creature, that knowledge was retained. At first we thought it was all part of the process, as the hive mind began to assimilate more information we saw traces of its influence throughout our systems. Security cam feeds were directed through it, databanks opened up, environmental controls. We just saw it as an exciting new way of waging war. Star Destroyers controlled by organic brains that would also direct armies of our creatures and assimilate traitors and rebels.

Evidently our subject didn’t agree with our work, maybe it even retained some hatred towards us. One night, it opened the cells to the creatures, allowing them to roam through the station. Our personnel were locked in their rooms until the creatures were able to fall on them as they progressed through the station. The controlling hive mind was able to give them almost instant knowledge to utilise or sabotage our equipment.

A small group of us managed to get up here, but the controlling mind has managed to lock us out of our systems. We break in only to have our access removed within minutes. We’ve been able to isolate ourselves here by removing the door controls and hooking up some datapads. The generator over there has been able to keep them powered for the time being. Surprisingly, the creatures have not decided to attack this part of the tower. Perhaps they are waiting for us to starve to death, or just don’t see us as a threat.”

“Do you have no way to destroy them?” Krenyo asked, stunned by what he had heard. There were rumours of Imperial experiments on live prisoners, but he had always dismissed them.

“No. We were to succeed or die trying. Apparently we managed to achieve both of those orders.”

“So what are they waiting for?” Benu spoke up as he rubbed his forehead trying to make the information sink in.

“Ships. They need ships to get off planet and spread the disease.”

The rebel soldiers looked at each other and in unison said, “Our transports.”

[Twigs]

Chapter 15. Airborne   

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 against their seats, “who goes first? Last time we tried to board they were waiting.”

“Pull up alongside the entrance, I’ll cover you from here.” Slyfox already had the turret sights trained on the jump door on the side of the first transport. The tank came to a stop cautiously alongside the grey hull and Samzi and Duke exited. Duke patted his flechette fondly and looked at Samzi.

“I’ll go first.”

Before the medic could reply Duke ran up and into the jump door, a few flashes and dull thumps indicated that he was firing the flechette ahead of him as he ran. Samzi looked up at the turret towards Slyfox and shook his head, then wearily headed towards the door. The lights inside suddenly illuminated and he jumped back, raising his weapon and dropping to one knee to give Slyfox a better line of sight. Duke appeared at the door and grinned, raising one hand.

“Easy lads! Only me! She’s empty. They been in here alright, plenty of blood and guts around but no bodies are anything now.”

Samzi lowered his weapon and stood back up. “You idiot, you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Meh,” shrugged the reckless soldier, “those things are stupid. I can take em.”

Slyfox left the T1-B and joined them by the ship. “So we good to go then?”

“Well I aint no pilot, but she looks pretty beat up. They ripped the cockpit apart.” Duke sat down and dangled his legs over the foot of the door, looking up at them and taking a cigar from a pocket. “Take a look if you like, bet the other ships are the same though.”

Samzi jumped up and trudged through the ship. Sure enough, the cockpit had been torn to pieces by the creatures. Although they had power there was no way they were going to get this one off the ground. He turned and almost bumped in to the other two rebel soldiers.

“Guess we check out the others then.”

“Think it might be another trap?” asked Slyfox.

“Nah, they’re too dumb for that.” Said Duke, shaking his head and turning back to the exit.

“I think you’re underestimating them.” Replied Samzi, “something tells me they have a bigger plan than we realise.”

It took almost half an hour to check all the ships, clearing them one by one before being able to carry out a proper survey of the damage. They didn’t encounter any more of the creatures, though they could hear them howling somewhere in the darkness. None of the ships were in any state to fly, all of them had been sabotaged in some manner and showed various degrees of damage.

“So glorious leader, whats the next plan?” Duke addressed Samzi while taking a black cigarra from a pocket and lighting it. Samzi waved the cloud of heavy smoke away and backed away a few paces.

“I’m the leader? Great.” Samzi mulled it over for a few seconds. “Any ideas?”

“Can we jury rig any of the panels together?” Slyfox gestured at the ships as he spoke, “We take whatever we need thats in the best condition and just slave it in, as long as we can get off planet we’re safe. Maybe we got some spares in one of the ships, anyone checked that?”

“I break em I don’t fix em.” Said Duke, inhaling deeply before blowing out another thick cloud of smoke.

“There are no spares. We’ll have to patch the panels together as best we can.” Cut in Samzi, “And today Duke you’re going to learn how to fix em.”

They worked together, first deciding which ship stood the best chance of repair then moving through the others, pulling away control panels and whatever tools they could find. By the time they had finished the sky was turning a deep shade of blue, indicating the oncoming sunrise.

“Ok, Duke you man the T1-B, keep her close to the jump door and man the turret. You see anything approach, kill it.” Samzi gave the order and jumped on the Gallofree quickly followed by Slyfox.

“Think they’re likely to attack when the sun comes up?” asked Slyfox.

“Don’t intend to be here to find out.” Answered the medic, “Secure the doors, leave the jump door open, Duke can close it when he jumps on.”

It took the two men less than 15 minutes to get the cockpit back to working order. The damage inflicted by the creatures was not as serious as they had first feared. No major connections had been broken, panels had only been ripped from their housing and not physically destroyed. Slyfox held his breath as Samzi leaned forward and pushed the engine ignition switch. It coughed and whirred for a few seconds then stopped.

“Try again!” Urged Slyfox, balling his fists and pushing them hard against the arms of the co-pilot chair. Samzi reached forward again and pushed the button. The engines whirred and coughed then groaned into life. They rumbled slowly at first then settled in to a gentle hum that could be felt through the deck plates. The instrument panels lit up and Samzi ran easily through the startup checks.

“Go grab Duke and secure the door.”

“Aye aye sir!” said Slyfox getting up and heading rearwards. He stood at the jump door and waved at the T1-B turret but it continued to stare out over the landing zone. Slyfox looked round and spotted a hydrospanner. He picked it up and threw it towards the T1-B, it struck with a heavy clang that echoed slightly from the sides of the ship. The turret continued to look forward and Sly started to feel a rising sensation of panic in his stomach.

“We ready?”

The voice came from behind him and Sly almost fell out of the door, snatching at the grab handles to steady himself.

“Cack me Duke. What you doing there, you scared the life out of me! You were meant to be in the tank.”

Duke extended a hand and pulled him upright before smacking the control panel to drop and secure the door in place. “Had to go wee wee mate, then the engines started while I was on the latrine. No harm done though right?”

Sly looked at him, “Guess not. Lets go check on Samzi and see about getting out of here.”

They made their way forward and settled in to the large cockpit. Duke took the sensor station while Sly took the co-pilot chair again. Samzi had a last check of the instrument panel then reached for the control column.

“We’ll head up past the sensor station first. Maybe some of Krenyo’s lot made it up.”

“You want to carry out a rescue mission for people you’re not even sure are alive?” Slyfox stared at him incredulously.

“Yep. We made it didn’t we?”

The ship throttled up and lifted easily from the landing zone. Another howl echoed from the towering cliff walls but none of the men onboard the rebel transport heard it from the safety of their ship.

[Twigs]

Chapter 16. Waste

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 think they have reached this point then? Thats why they want the ship?” Krenyo sagged back against a wall. If the creatures were now able to continue even after the destruction of the first host....  The implications were too horrific to contemplate. If they got off planet they would be able to spread easily throughout the galaxy.

“You guys hear something?” One of the Imperials cocked his head as he spoke, straining to catch the noise again. The room suddenly lit up and the men shrank back trying to cover their eyes. Benu raised a hand in front of his face and approached the window, squinting against the blinding light.

“It’s one of the transports!” He shouted excitedly, waving the others forward to the window. The large grey ship outside flashed its landing lights a couple of times then turned away and banked to the side.

“It’s a rescue attempt.” Said Krenyo turning to Tarketh. “They’ll go and turn back then come in at a better angle. You can come with us, I promise we will not take you prisoner. We’ll drop you on a planet somewhere so you may return to your own forces.”

Tarketh studied the strange Rebel leader before answering. “Thank you Sir. I accept your offer, naturally you will wish to secure us once onboard. My men and I will willingly give up our weapons when requested.”

Krenyo nodded and looked back out of the window. The Gallofreewas coming in slowly and had started a slow turn, approaching side on with the jump gate open. He could see a rebel soldier in the doorway waving at them.

“Ok, arm up, we get one chance at this. On the roof, as soon as we can we run and jump on the jumpgate. If he gets too close the repulsor’s will throw the ship off course and those tanks out there don’t give him room to land.” He gave the order quickly, the men around him already powering up weapons. The Imperial troops took up a breaching position by the door. Two men each side with one in the centre. Tarketh gave the command and they executed the move flawlessly, The trooper at the door hit the switch then stepped back, weapon in the aim giving covering fire. The two nearest the door on each side rushed forward and took position again on either side, kneeling down giving more cover fire if needed. Finally, the remaining two rushed forward, stepping forward a few feet then dropping prone.

“CLEAR!” shouted the guy in the doorway, gesturing the remaining men forward.

Tarketh looked at Krenyo and nodded at his men before smiling. “We’d have had you.” He said before running forward on to the roof.

“Cack me, he has a sense of humour.” Krenyo said it out loud to no-one in particular but Benu heard him and just shrugged.

“Come on, lets get off this rock.”

The transport was almost in position, just a few more metres and they would be able to start jumping forward. Krenyo could see Duke in the doorway, he had attached a simple rope ladder to the grab handles, giving them a little more chance of making the leap. The Imperial soldiers had once again shown their professionalism and taken covering positions in a semi circle.

“Get ready to go!” Shouted Krenyo over the noise of the ship and the wind that was being whipped around them as it inched towards them.

All of a sudden there was a burst of sizzling blue light. It arched and buzzed over the hull of the ship, one of the tendrils reached out and stabbed at Duke. His body reacted immediately, limbs were forced rigid and his head was thrown back. A second later he toppled forward through the door and fell to the ground. He never even screamed. The engines on the Gallofree were no longer making any noise and it began to drop. Slowly at first, quickly gathering speed as gravity took hold. More DEMP bolts struck the hull and it hit the ground hard. The men on the roof could hear the metal hull protesting and groaning, followed by heavy blaster fire.

Krenyo ran forward and looked over the edge. The creatues were pouring forward from the hangar, beating on the side of the hull or sinking weapon fire in to it. The ATST was sending bolt after bolt from its chin guns in to the cockpit, metal shone red under the attack before melting in to slag and swallowing the shots.

“Nooooo!” He screamed, smacking his hand down on the edge of the roof. Tarketh dropped down beside him and paled.

“It’s a trap. They knew the ship was coming and we’d leave the room. We have to get back.”

Blaster shots rang out behind them and the men turned. More creatures were emerging from the stairwell in the far corner of the roof level. It led directly to the rear of the hangar and they were starting to act like seasoned soliders. One or two still ran recklessly towards them, but others were using the roofs natural barricades, firing shots towards the exposed men. Others were splintering off to the sides, trying to get round and cut them off from the control room.

“Head back to the room, focus your shots on the flanking group!” called out Tarketh, taking control from Krenyo who was no longer in any condition to lead. The Imperial reached down and picked him up, throwing an arm around him.

“Krenyo, for cacks sake start firing!” he shouted, struggling to support the man and fire his weapon at the same time. Benu and the troopers were working well together, taking it in turns to fire and manoeuvre. They were almost at the doorway now and were beating the creatures back. A sudden heavy crack sounded and the air blew them all to the floor. A smell of ozone hung in the air and for a second all was silent, then the creatures roared again, different this time, somehow angry.

“What the cack was that?” gasped Benu, struggling to get to his feet and raise his weapon.

“Look.” One of the Stormtroopers pointed up at the sky. Another flash and explosion from somewhere in the stations courtyard, the men all looked up at the sky. A familiar shape hung there, illuminated by heavy green flashes.

“Our message got out.” Said Tarketh gently, “I’m so sorry.”

Krenyo stared at the triangular shape of the Star Destroyer as more bolts struck around the station. “They’re not going to rescue you?”

Tarketh shook his head and lay back, closing his eyes. “Have you ever seen a Star Destroyer perform an orbital strike Krenyo? It can be quite beautiful. They were never going to rescue us, just destroy any evidence of the experiment.”

“So we sit and wait to be vaporised?” asked Benu, watching the creatures on the roof break off the attack and run back to the hangar stairway. Another blast struck the huge sensor dish and sent shrapnel in all directions.

“Yeah,” Answered Krenyo, “it’ll be quick.”

They watched as the blasts from the Destroyer increased. A bright pin prick of light grew larger as it fell towards them, it enveloped them like a floodlight, incinerating them immediately and passing easily through the structure of the station.

It took only minutes for the Star Destroyer to destroy any evidence of what had been there before. Everything was destroyed by the ships heavy guns and streams of molten metal ran down cliffs and gully’s. To ensure the completion of their task, the Imperial Navy dispatched a trio of TIE Bombers to over fly the area. Any small structure left standing was knocked flat by proton bombs. Satisfied with their work the small ships returned to the Destroyers hangar before it turned and drifted away from the planets gravitational influence and made the jump to hyperspace.

A wrecked ATST lay amid the ruins of the sensor station on the Plateau. The legs had been torn away and the main body lay holed and dented. The hatch popped open without warning and a grey sickly coloured hand reached out. He knew they would be back. They had done this, they had to be punished. He would wait.

[Slyfox]

Wow... Made me speechless...

The ending was great, might be my favorite part of the story. All those lives were wasted, which is what the title meant, I guess. And it looks like it's not over, too.