A massive cataclysm has struck the universe, and destroyed most everything in its wake. The survivors are now trying to pick up the pieces, and figure out exactly what has befallen them. Gather together, lightsiders!! The darkness has shattered the peace and calm of the galaxy...and they will do anything to stop anyone from finding out exactly what has been done! This is our first sitewide RP plotline. Lightsiders, you are looking for the source of this massive event. Clues must be found, lackeys tracked down, and bits of memory discovered. Darksiders, you guys don't want that to happen....because of the one behind the whole thing is furthering his ultimate goal. Mandalorians, and non-force users, you guys can decide where you stand on this line....do you side with the Jedi, and try to discover the reasons behind the ruined universe, or will you side with the darkness, and protect those secrets. Will the secret of the cataclysmic reaping be kept under wraps? Or will the Jedi and their allies find out the truth? Your RP and writing will decide the outcome!
BATTLE ARENA
Welcome to The Saga Continues. We have a section called the Battle Arena. Here you can use your characters to fight other characters. Hone your skills and see what you are made of. Don't worry, anything that happens here, does not effect your characters in posts, so if your character dies, you can still use them over and over. Have fun and check it out!
The Saga Continues is the product of the mind of ADMIN ADI; all contents are copyright their original owners. All characters belong to their original creators, and may not be used or replicated without permission. All images are copyright their original owners. This skin Operation Mindcrime was made by pharaoh leap of Pixel Perfect and put together by ADMIN KRYSTAL
Often referred to as "The Jewel of Corellia," Coronet City, or Coronet for short, was the bustling capital of Corellia. Located on the coast of the southernmost continent, it was a technologically advanced city with beautiful architecture. Its urban development paled in comparison to Coruscant. In keeping with Corellia's spacefaring heritage, Coronet's spaceport was second to none. Coronet was also home to the headquarters of CorSec and was heavily patrolled, although patrols were somewhat lighter in the Blue Sector, a rough section of town filled with cantinas, tattoo parlors, casinos, and fences, where offworlders tended to congregate.
The bustling city was like no other. Not only was this her home, but it was also a splendor to behold. A jewel, as many may refer to it as. Indeed, it was - the "Jewel of Corellia." Coronet City was vast and expansive and had so many different things to offer, no matter the interests. Even for one such as herself, a a knight and consular of the greater Jedi Order.
Her half-brother had left the city and system recently on an expedition to locate the ancestral homeworld of the Order - or rather the ancestral world he believed in his heart was the true beginning of it all. She had helped him locate it, but here place was not by his side on this occasion. Instead there were other things of note she needed to accomplish.
She passed by several vendors as she made her what through a section of the city in route to the main government building. As she was doing such, her transponder chimed loudly and from it a message was conveyed. The source, she was unsure of, but the nature of it seemed urgent.
My Brothers and sisters in the force
This is the Jedi holonet, a secure channel for communication within the order. For the safety of the projects development I have had to renounce my given name for official transmissions. The name I have taken in its place, the name you may know me by, is the Grandmaster.
If you are receiving this message then you have not been called home to be one with the force. Sincerest apologies, my friends. Since I began the project of creating this secure Jedi holonet, I have all but cut myself off from the events of the rest of the galaxy. I have seen your access to the network to find a former master, a padawan… a lover. Most of these for naught.
In the past, such call would be for unification. I do not know if that is what you, my brothers and sisters, want this so I will not claim to offer it. What I would like is a show to ourselves that we still number greatly. I await you on Naboo. Contact via this network when you have arrived in Theed.
Until then, May the force be with you
A message from the Jedi Order, from a man, that declared himself "the Grandmaster." Tireya knew of no current Grandmaster in the order. Hell . . . there were very few actual Jedi she knew outside of her Master, who'd become one with the Force recently and her brother and his apprentice. The Order was not what it once was. It did not have very many known members, nor did it really influence very many systems. Nevertheless, there was one in her order attempting to summon all the Jedi to a central location. It appeared suspicious to her in that she didn't know this man and that he literally could have been playing at a ploy to gather all Jedi together in an attempt to eliminate them all once and for all, but even so, this matter deserved at least a look. And besides, if there a trap currently being set, perhaps she would be able to disarm it before it realized its evil intent.
She thumbed over a command on her transponder and opened a connection to her brother.
I've received a data packet from someone who calls themselves "the Grandmaster." I take it you received the same, however if not, I will be forwarding to you.
I've gotten the same message. I don't sense anything at play here, but be careful and watch yourself. I won't be making it, unfortunately. This place is not what we thought. My ship was damaged upon atmospheric entry and now we need to formulate repairs. Go to the meeting and find out what you can. May the Force Be With You. Always.
A fleeting moment of emotion rushed over Tireya as her brother's transmission came through. He'd crash landed on a long lost world. However, frm the tone of it, all was okay, and repairs were likely already beginning. She would go to this summons on Naboo, a Mid Rim world she'd not been to for years and even so, had only visited once or twice in her life time. Nevertheless, something was happening there and she had a job to do.
She pivoted around and began heading back in the direction she had come from and toward the spaceport. Her G-9 Rigger-class light freighter was there and that would be her transport away to her destination.
The crowds still bustled throughout Coronet, but payed her no attention, leaving her path unimpeded. Upon reaching her ship, she prepped it and set off. The ship soared from the port and up into the expanse of the atmosphere above.
Miras swung wildly, his curses muffled by his respirator and drowned out by the thrum of his lightsaber. Both of the infected Humans fell back, one now missing its left arm, and he stepped in to his follow-through, blocking the doorway and forcing them back another step. Ducking beneath their outstretched arms, he drove his lightsaber through one's breast. Superheated blood spattered against his robes as the red-eye shrieked and clawed at his robes. Grimacing, the Knight released the hilt with one hand and thrust it out, fingers splayed. Telekinetic energy hammered into its chest and threw it backward just as blaster fire erupted from behind him, crumpling the other infected before it could turn on him.
His shoulders slumped, Miras studied the two bodies for a long moment, waiting. He'd learned a hard lesson about turning your back on these creatures, but eventually his shoulders slumped and his lightsaber died with a gentle 'woosh'. Breathing hard, he turned to see two soldiers in the doorway, waiting. From the other end of the hall, footsteps. Screaming. He hung his head as he trudged back inside the perimeter. The clang of the door being shut and sealed failed to register.
They'd been holed up in the lower levels of the Peace and Security Station for nearly a week now, subsisting off waning field rations and sleeping in shifts. The infected harassed them constantly, never giving them a chance to rest, and every foray out into the city was met with disaster and forced retreat. Out of the ten man squad, only six remained, one of which was currently bleeding out on one of the makeshift cots shoved against the wall.
He was spent- his arms alternated between numbness and burning, and even simple Telekinesis caused splitting headaches. Yet the fight was never finished. The infected were an endless, teeming horde, constantly throwing themselves against the perimeter, ravenous and insatiable. Grimacing, he pulled his soiled robes off and sat down heavily on his cot. For the tenth time in as many hours he pulled out his personal commlink and checked for a response from the Jedi Order, and for the tenth time he heaved a bitter sigh and scrolled through to his music. 'Mad About Me' by the Modal Nodes began blaring from the device, eliciting a series of groans from the soldiers nearby.
"For kriff's sake kid, again?"
He managed a humorless smile. "Better than listening to the infected scratching at our door though, right?"
"At this point," the trooper replied in a deadpan, "I think I'd rather listen to the red-eyes' music than yours."
Miras increased the volume, hugged his knees to his chest, and shut his eyes.
They circled the skies over Coronet for the fifth time, unable to discern the safest landing zone. Catastrophic damage to buildings rendered the rooftops ineligible for any attempt, as the foundations might give at any moment. Smoke billowed from fires that had raged now for days on end, and the sound of intermittent blaster fire broke the solemn silence. Makoto sat among the others with his gaze fixed straight ahead.
Focus on nothing else but the mission.
He had seen numerous conflicts, far more than the rest of the recruits in this group. Their unfortunate officer was cursed with a slew of fresh blood, not even finished with Basic. The situation on Corellia required immediate action, but this? Were they truly so short handed?
"There's talk that it started out of nowhere less than a week ago," one of the others spoke up. "No one can confirm where it happened, just that it did."
"I heard it was someplace in the Core," another added, "and that it traveled outward with the frequent traffic."
"Someone told me it got picked up in the Outer Rim," another protested. "That some stupid spacer with a cough gave it to a customs agent, and it just went rampant."
"I heard-"
"Will you shut up?" one of the others spoke up loudly to dispel the unnerving talk. "Doesn't matter what caused it," he spat out of the vehicle, "and it don't matter where. What matters is you all get your head in the game. This ain't training. This is the real thing."
His eyes slid shut, and Makoto absently fiddled with the trigger of his A-280. The enemy in this situation was already dead- and if they weren't, a shot with a blaster would be a kindness. He had to swallow his reservations if he intended to keep his team alive. There was far more at stake than a few infected citizens, especially with the sudden news that the Corellian Senator was holed up in his estate, which lay in an area of the city that was in Jeopardy of being overrun. If the damned did not claim him, starvation would.
In order to preserve Order and Peace on Corellia, his safety was paramount.
"Look alive, men," the Sargent barked, "we're inbound toward ground level. Threat level is indeterminate, expect to face extreme resistance."
They grew silent as he spoke, their expressions grim. "Additionally, there's a group here that we're going to rendezvous en route to the Senator- watch each other's backs if you want any chance at surviving this mess. I know you're not trained properly, and this situation is all kinds of insane- but if you listen to my orders and follow them, you should make it out of here."
He's a good leader,Makoto thought, but he doesn't sound like he believes what he's saying, either.
"They're talking about the living dead," one of the others laughed uncertainly. "That's bantha poodoo, right? People don't just get back up."
"Lock it down, son," the Sargent counseled. "Disbelief ain't gonna do you any good. What you're gonna see down there, even I can't tell you for sure. What I do know is, if you let it unsettle you, you're as good as dead."
This is it, Makoto let out a breath.
The craft slowly descended, and in the seconds before it touched down, his HUD screeched. He saw 'Proximity Alert' flash in front of his eyes, and the dropship lurched.
"What the hell was that?" the Sargent yelled. "Someone, jump out and see what's going on!"
Before anyone could react, something streaked through the air and barreled into the Sargent. He let out a shrill cry, and the others looked on in terror.
It was another human.
Or it had been. It raked with its nails at his armor, teeth gnashing and spittle spraying. Makoto saw its eyes flash red as it tore into the unfortunate officer's flesh and tore it away from his bones. Blood sprayed across the streets of Coronet as the infected man howled in triumph, and a subsequent chorus of howls echoed.
It got closer with every second.
Makoto leveled his rifle and fired two shots, right for the head. In this situation, with it distracted, that was the quickest kill. Brains splattered across the pavement, and the corpse slumped overtop of the Sargent.
He groaned. "Nice shot, recruit," he rasped. "Can you give me a hand?"
"It got you," Makoto replied quietly.
"Just a scratch," he growled back. "Now help me up, that's an order."
Two of the others hurried to help him up, but Makoto had a gut feeling. "We won't make it if we have to carry you," he said quickly. "They're coming."
"No one gets left behind," the Sargent sputtered, blood flowing down his chin. "Don't you know that?"
Makoto bit his lip and raised his hand. "I need a perimeter as quickly as you all can form it. Anything that comes toward you that doesn't respond to speech, shoot it dead. Center mass. No fancy fire."
He threw out a hand. "You two, tend to his wounds, but be careful not to come in contact with the blood. He may be infected, and we don't have a cure."
With a sigh, he blew out the last vestiges of breath from his lungs. "I'm going to go ahead and rendezvous with the others," he told them, "we need backup, especially now that we are down a CO."
They threw him a tense salute, and he nodded in response.
I can't tell them, he thought, that he's already done for.
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
“This city. These people. What happened to them?” I said as I fired my A-280 blaster rifle at the last remaining ‘Rager’ in the city square. We had come to call them that due to what the infected do when they see prey.
Private Score tapped me on the shoulder, “I don’t know exactly what happened, but that’s the last one Sir.”
I hate it that they call me that now, I am a Corporal, not an officer. Just because I am the highest rank in our squad doesn’t make me an officer. “I told you not to call me that Score. And I can see that was the last one. Go grab Fritz and Echo, we are moving forward.” I surveyed the square, nothing living moved, nor anything dead. At least after they go mad they stay dead. The Rage must be an airborne thing, I only reason that because as soon as we had landed on the planet two of our ten-man squad had started showing signs of infection within the hour of being in the city. Not truly knowing the signs, nobody had given much heed to them.
Foxx, one of the four had been the first to become a Rager. He had started flailing about, swinging his rifle like a club and snarling like a feral dog, managed to break our CO’s neck before we subdued him. In the chaos Foxx had created we had come under attack by a small mob of Ragers, Cross and Lance were the unfortunate two to take the brunt of the attack. The mob of Ragers had grabbed them, pulling them every which way and tearing at them with their hands and teeth.
We ran for cover, finding shelter in what was a diner in the city square. It was there that Shifter turned. We had been resting from the run when he suddenly attacked Slick, Shifter had managed to pin him to the ground and was wildly raking his nails across Slick’s face like a crazy ex-wife as he screamed and screamed unable to free himself from Shifter. Echo was the one who put him down, swift shot to the head.
The screams of Slick hadn’t helped our plight as howls and screams could be heard from down the street we had just come from. The following fight we had endured through wasn’t too bad, as we had a makeshift barrier inside the diner, but Slick didn’t survive the fight.
I shake my head, clearing it of the recent past. I had to get my head in the game, we had a mission to accomplish: Find any survivors and get them to safety.
“Echo, Fritz, Score, you guys ready to go yet?” I call into the diner.
“All ready Sir.” Replied Fritz, as all three exited the diner’s kitchen.
“Stop calling me that! My name is Dogma and y’all know it!” I said through clenched teeth. I wasn’t exactly mad at them, just angry at how many men we had lost in the first two hours of being in this city.
"We know your name, of course. But seeing as you are the only Corporal and we are all Privates, that puts you in charge and we MUST call you 'Sir' now.” Said Echo with a mustache covered grin.
“Then as -Commanding Officer- I command you to call me by my name!” I replied to Echo, emphasizing the words ‘Commanding Officer’. I wasn’t ready for a command, I had only just gotten this rank.
“Yessir!” all three privates said in unison snapping to attention and saluting with sad grins.
I knew they were just trying to distract themselves from what had just happened to us. I saluted back with a wave of my hand and turned back to the square. I stepped out of the diner cautiously to make sure none of the infected corpses would spring up and attack. Seeing no threat, I motioned for the others to follow. The sudden sound of a ship startled us and I looked up with my comrades to see a landing craft circling the city. I didn’t know what they were doing here, maybe command had sent more squads than just us. I wasn’t sure but we were going to find out.
“We are following that ship, lets go.” I commanded pointing at the vessel as it flew around the city a few more times before beginning it’s decent to the city. “Grab any extra supplies you can carry off of Slick and Shifter. We can’t afford to bring them with us unfortunately, so grab their ID tags too.”
Echo and Fritz followed my command and reentered the diner while Score stood at my side watching the ship. They soon exited the diner and we were off, tracking the landing ship, trying to move quiet enough to not draw the attention of any of the infected Ragers.
Echo had been scanning all known frequencies on his short comm communicator when the transmission came through over an emergency channel. After we listened to the entire thing I told Echo not to reply yet, “Let us see if anyone else replies who might have a ship, I don’t think we will be able to get back to ours. If nobody else replies, we will attempt to link up with the ship we saw and try to get the Jedi Knight from the temple.” I said pointing at the Academy building I saw looking between two other buildings.
“Dogma, are you sure we can’t help him now?” asked Echo, “We were told to help anyone we could. And this Jedi is anyone.”
“Yes, I know what we were told, but we were told that when we had a ship. We no longer can get to our ship with all the Ragers between us and it. And without our ship we can’t leave here. So, helping the Jedi right now won’t really help him. Understand?” I replied, trying to show Echo the flaw in his idea.
“I understand clearly.”
“Good, we will rendezvous with the lander team, tell them about the transmission, get the Jedi, then get out of here.”
“According to my map of the city the ship should be this way.” Chimed in Fritz, who was looking at his holo-map of the city.
“Well, what are we waiting for? I’m tired of this planet and city already. I don’t want to die to these Ragers. I just want to go home.” Slider started whining. I looked back at him, the fear in his eyes. He was only 19 years old on his planet, completely normal for him to be scared. I was afraid too, but I had to show bravery for the others. I had to prove that they would be ok, that this mission wouldn’t be their last. But that wasn’t supposed to be my job, the sergeant was supposed to be in charge, not me. Now I had to step up and lead.
“You aren’t going to die Slider. None of us are going to die. We will get through this, bet back to the Republic and then we will be safe.” I said, not even believing myself. As far as I knew, we were all going to be killed. Surprise attack by the Ragers, run out of ammo and can’t defend ourselves against the horde, not be able to get off the planet, I just didn’t know if we would make it. “Right, lets move then. The faster we get to our goal the faster we can leave.”
The urgent beeping of the comms array startled him awake. It was a sound they hadn't heard since they'd first fortified the CorSec station and hunkered down; the lone sapper in the squad, a native Corellian, had spent the better part of two days repairing it, and insisted it was in perfect working order. Their transmissions were going out...but there was no one to reply. Now, the entire array was lit up, the screen bathing he room in a pale glow.
Miras joined the troopers huddled around the array and strained to hear the message:
"Attention, to whoever can hear me. My name is Jedi Knight Rai Darkwater and I am broadcasting on all emergency frequencies. I am at the Jedi Academy and am in need of immediate assistance. I have important cargo that must be escorted off-world. I repeat, I have important cargo that must be escorted off-world. If you can hear me, please respond."
The message repeated itself twice before Sergeant Rhyn stepped forward and clicked it off. Miras heard him heave a heavy sigh before slowly turning to face them. His blue eyes were bloodshot. his tanned face haggard. The Padawan noticed the gray in his stubble for the first time. 'It's the weight of these men's lives,' he thought to himself. 'They're all resting on his shoulders, and it's crushing him.'
"Alright," Rhyn barked, his eyes scanning his men. When his gaze found Miras, the Jedi felt a wave of grief and frustration boil of the man, but his voice betrayed nothing. "I don't need to tell you that this changes thing, people. If there's another Jedi on the planet, we have a duty to at least make contact with him."
"Your priority is the Senator, Sergeant." Miras said quietly. His gray eyes met the sergeant's, and neither man looked away.
"We're cut off from Republic Command and the red-eyes have the Senator's estate completely surrounded. I decide what our priority is, Knight Tinup, and until the landscape changes we're not going to be able to complete our objective. If this Jedi has something that will help the Republic, it's our duty to get it safely offworld. Maybe it's something that will help us reach the Senator, maybe not. Either way, I'm done sitting in this station waiting for a miracle."
After a long moment, Miras shrugged and looked away. It was true they weren't doing any good here. Supplies were running low and despite daily skirmishes, they hadn't even made a dent in the number of infected civilians still roaming the city. They could only survive another week at best. If they hadn't been torn apart by then, they'd begin the long road of starvation.
"How did this Jedi even get a signal out to us? I thought the communication relays were destroyed during the outbreak?" the trooper next to Miras asked, his voice distorted by the vocalizer in his helmet.
Loman, the sapper, answered before Rhyn had a chance: "Most of the Academy's are on separate grids from the planetary comm systems and have their own signal boosters in case they need to get a broadcast out in...well, in a situation like this."
"In other words, we can hear him, but he can't hear us." Miras stated flatly.
"Right," the sapper replied, "but if we were to scavenge that booster, we could use it to make contact with the Senator's estate. It isn't much, but at least we'd be able to coordinate with them."
"Will it be enough of a boost to get a signal offworld?" Rhyn asked. The silence that followed was all the answer any of them needed. The sergeant looked around again and nodded. "Alright then, that settles it. Gear up people, I want weapon and ammo checks done and everyone ready to move in fifteen minutes.
He watched as hundreds of them flocked past, cascading toward the renewed sound of concentrated fire. Makoto knew that his squad was vastly outnumbered and at high risk, but he had a duty to see the mission through. They all knew- their lives were less important overall than success here. He quietly reminded himself that he was included as the sound of steady footfalls crept closer.
The sound of sniffing, growling, and gnashing teeth echoed through the alleyway, and he felt the hot breath of the creature that had been human once waft past him. The putrid stink made his eyes water. Makoto resisted the urge to jump out and open fire, and was rewarded with the sound of jagged, worn down fingernails scraping against the metal sides of the dumpster that separated him from the beast.
The stench was all that masked his own smell, and effectively, saved him from being noticed. He slowed his breathing and closed his eyes, acutely aware of the heartbeats in both his ears. The mission, he reminded himself. Remember why you're here.
He was the last, best chance the Republic had to gain a shaky foothold on Corellia. He was all that stood between some semblance of Order, and utter chaos. The monumental responsibility humbled him.
Failure was not an option. Not anymore.
The footsteps started again, but they grew further away this time. He exhaled as quietly as he could, glanced around, and noticed a fire escape halfway up one of the buildings. It was too high to reach on his own, but if he could move the dumpster...
...it could work.
It had to work.
The crowd continued to rage past, and Makoto took hold of the refuse container with both hands. "Here goes," he whispered as he took a sharp breath, then started to pull. The dumpster lurched, and he felt his stomach drop.
"Feth," he hissed. "Feth, feth, move, damn it!"
He heard them stop, collectively, because the roar that permeated their numbers dulled. The soldier tugged once more, and the container gave.
It slid several inches, then continued to move as he dragged it. It ground to a halt three feet short of the ladder. There was no time to get any closer.
They surged into the alley as he hoisted himself, and narrowly missed being grabbed by the ankle. Bloodied hands reached out toward him, raking and grabbing, desperate to drag him down into their hell. Others started to clamber on the backs of their fellows, and sought to reach him atop The dumpster.
Makoto blew out all of his fear, and he placed his faith in his actions.
He reached out as he threw himself toward the ladder, narrowly scraping over the heads of the maddened mob, and caught the second rung.
Suspending his disbelief, he grabbed the next, then the next, and pulled himself ever higher. They screamed their hate at him, throwing their bodies airborne, reaching out in vain as he got further and further away.
"The CorSec Station is a block from here," he rasped. "I can do this," he told himself. "I can do this."
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
It was then that the Enclave soldiers chose to strike. The dropships and fighters streaked over the city, dropping bombs in a large plaza to clear it of the infected. Dropships cleared the area with repeating blaster cannons and dropped troops down onto the ground. Laser fire cut into the mutants as they rushed the plaza. They had begun advancing down a large boulevard when they received a message on the unencrypted channel, short range. As soldiers advanced, setting up a perimeter around the courtyard, preparing to advance and cut down the mutants. On the communicator, they heard the message given by Rai. The soldiers knew that this was too important to pass up, but they waited on the orders of their commander. ::Troopers. We have to proceed to the Jedi Academy at the coordinates that will be on your HUD. Prepare for a mobile deployment. Plotting the fastest route to the temple. We will have to fight our way out of the city. The soldiers began moving down the boulevard towards the Jedi Academy. Mutants rushed them left and right, but using a combination of sonic grenades and directed fire, they were able to ward them off as they advanced through the city. Though, if there was anyone who was answering the same distress beacon, they would have seen the massive attack force coming.
We reached the parameter of the landing sight when a solder yelled at us to identify, “I am Corporal Dogma of the New Republic Army, this is Private Echo, Private Score, and Private Fritz. We saw your lander while on mission and came to see if we could lend a hand with yours.”
“Are any of you infected? Were any of you injured by an infected?” the soldier asked, I was close enough to see the horror of the city in his eyes. All he wanted was to go home, leave this city behind and forget about it.
“We are unharmed by the Ragers. May we enter your parameter?”
“Sergeant?! Shall I let them through?” the private called out behind him. I saw a man on a stretcher respond by sitting up slightly and say, “Did you put the tea on before we got here Private?” I was puzzled by the response but hoped that meant yes. Echo, Fritz and Score had made our own mini parameter watching for any more Ragers.
“Is that a yes, Private?” I asked, a little impatient to get some security after the last two hours of slowly and carefully trudging through the city trying to avoid Ragers.
“Yeah, you can come in, the Sergeant has been spouting random glib glob for the past half hour.”
“Is he injured?” I asked, the private nodded with pursed lips. “Let me look at him, I have a little field medical skill.” I said fearing that a Rager may be the cause of his status. I jogged over to the sergeant’s cot where he lay and instantly knew his fate. The gash marks made it clear that Rager had gotten to him and clawed and bitten him.
“You’re not Darcy. Where is Darcy?” the sergeant said squinting at me. I looked around at the other Republic troops, evaluating their ability to do anything here, guard, fight, run. I called the private who had accosted us earlier and asked him who the next rank after the sergeant was.
“Y-you are the next in rank, we are all privates, most of us haven’t even finished basic training. We were sent here to rescue a group of civilians that had been located a couple clicks from here. They said that all we needed was to know how to fire a weapon and throw a grenade if necessary.” The private replied, almost whimpered. I felt pity for these Shinys, they hadn’t even completing most of their training before being sent to Hell to try and save a planet from a galaxy destroying plague. I sat down on a crate next to the sergeant, not only did I have to lead the remainder of my squad, but now I would most likely have to lead an entirely Shiny squad too. Things just weren’t looking like sunshine and rainbows for me today, that was for sure.
“Private, you’re Sergeant isn’t going to make it. The fact that he survived this long without the Rage setting in is a miracle. I lost most of my squad to these infected people within the first couple hours of landing here. I don’t want this command but being senior ranking here I have to. Do you have the coordinates of the civilians?”
The private looked at me, dumbfounded, “He’s not going to make it? But we stabilized him and made sure the wounds were clean. You can’t know he’ll die!”
“Yes, I can. And I do know. The fact that he has held on this long is impressive, but he will turn into a Rager and he will attack you all. Unless we put him out of his misery now.” I said through clenched teeth, this private was getting on my nerves, he didn’t know what I knew and kept questioning me. Yes, I wasn’t part of their squad, but we were all part of the Republic and I was a higher rank. With their Non-Commissioned Officer down for the count I had to lead them. I glanced at the sergeant to see his eyes flutter open, his bloodshot eyes. I pointed at him to prove my point, “his eyes are bloodshot, all of these infected people you have killed had bloodshot eyes as well. It’s only a matter of time now. We have to save him from that fate.”
“That’s not my call to make Corporal. I am sorry.” Said the private who was also looking at the sergeant. He returned to his post on the parameter while Echo, Fritz, Score and I took a breather. The occasional sound of blaster fire rang in my ears when a Rager got close enough for the parameter to safely and accurately kill.
“What is your mission here?” I asked on of the soldiers tending to the injured man.
“We were sent here to extract a Corellian Senator who is holed up about ten blocks from our current position. We were also recently notified before you arrived that there was a group of civilians who had taken shelter about fifteen blocks in that direction.” He said pointing on the opposite direction of the senator’s location. I followed his hand but couldn’t see very far through the smoke of the city.
“What about Private Makoto?” piped up the other private who had been attending the sergeant for the last half hour. “He went to go get backup a couple hours ago.”
“By himself? There’s no guarantee he even made it to where he was going in this mess. Besi-” I was cut off by the sergeant who lunged from his cot at the private kneeling next to him. The private yelled in surprise as both he and the sarge were thrown back one on top of the other. The infected human swung wildly at his prey scratching and clawing at him. I didn’t think, I acted, I leveled my rifle and fired a burst into the back of the Sergeant. The now mindless being who, protected by his armor, stopped and turned toward me, bloodshot eyes glaring into my soul. With his face in my sites I fired another burst from my A280 ending the infected man’s life. I quickly moved to the fallen Private’s side, where I saw his fate: the private had been slashed across the face and throat. Somehow in that short amount of time the Sergeant’s ferocity had mauled the Private enough to cut his jugular.
“I am sorry, you won’t make it soldier.” I said, I shushed him and promised him he wouldn’t change, in answer to his blubbering and whimpering. “Close your eyes, your pain will be over soon.” I placed the tip of my A280’s barrel next to his temple and fired a single shot, ending the Private’s misery. “I’m sorry.”
I stood up to two other privates’ A280s leveled at my chest, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” yelled the first Private we had encountered, “We could have saved him!”
I was getting really frustrated with the stupidity of these soldiers. They didn’t seem to understand how infections were spread, specially this one. I replied calmly to dissolve the situation as best as possible, “Don’t you get it? Your Sergeant JUST attacked him, he was infected and the infection would have been passed on. Also, his jugular was severed, he only had a few pain-filled minutes to live. I gave him a peaceful and merciful end.”
We need to get moving, lucky for me the soldiers both lowered their weapons. “Now that everyone has a level head, I will be taking command of this squad as highest-ranking officer. Does anyone oppose?” I hoped that there wouldn’t be any opposition. We needed to save those people. ‘Yes, saving the Senator would be nice, but people can elect a new Senator, a senator cannot elect new people’ I thought to myself.
“As commanding officer,” god I hate saying that, “I saw we save the people. People are worth more than one man. people can rebuild what has been lost. People can restore life to where there is death. People can make a future where there is the end of eternity.” I said this to hopefully bring courage and meaning to the soldiers about me. I noticed as some soldiers stood a little taller, some held their rifles a little more firmly. Good, I had their desire to save others. “Pack up only what you can carry and absolutely need, we will be coming back here and using your shuttle to get the people we can off this planet. If Private Makoto has returned by then, so be it, if not, he is probably already dead.”
The soldiers who were not needed to keep a frail parameter scuttled about preparing everything to get out of the city and off the planet. I turned to Echo, Fritz and Score, “We need to get those people here as quickly as possible. Who knows how many Ragers we have attracted with our yelling and firing.” Soon everyone was ready to go, to my relief, and we started forward into the smoke and haze of destruction
They had scrambled madly to gather up their gear and muster inside the front entrance of the CorSec station. Ammunition counts, armor checks, and last minute weapon repairs were completed with grim haste, no one speaking. Despite this Miras had sensed the burgeoning of hope coming from the soldiers, much to his dismay. In reality, there was little chance they would make it to the Academy alive.
"Two." the sergeant looked first at the Jedi, then aroforefinger tapping rapidly against the hilt of his saber as his gaze flitted restlessly between the expressionless visors of the soldiers around him. 'One last push,' he told himself. Then it will be over, one way or another. He could only hope his strength didn't falter before they got it done.
Rhyn slipped his helmet over his head, hiding his sternund at the rest of his men, huddled in the short corridor with their rifles at the ready. In the back, Loman's rotary cannon whirred as the barrel spun idly, waiting for the power cells to be engaged so it could rain a hail of death.
He'd volunteered to take point- they would need his lightsaber to clear a path so the rest of the soldiers could get out into the open, where they could concentrate their fire and maneuver effectively. His exhaustion battled a nervous energy, features behind an expressionless mask. The seal clicked decisively. "Go."
Miras slapped his palm against the activation switch and ducked through the door before it had finished sliding open. The emerald blade of his lightsaber flared to life, its vibrant hum drown out by snarls and roars as the two infected wandering just outside the station turned their crimson gazes on him. He met the first with a horizontal slash that bisected the rabid Duros, taking a wide step past the as it toppled and meeting the second head on. It slammed into him, wrapping its arms tight around the Jedi before his blade pierced its midsection, then ripped to the side, severing its spine.
Freeing himself from the infected as it slid down to the duracrete, Miras scanned the parking lot, looking for his next target. They were everywhere, surging forward from all directions, a sea of grasping hands and gnashing teeth. Behind him, the soldiers poured out of the station, and the infected began to fall. Above the scattered blaster fire, the steady thwump of Loman's cannon set the tempo as they fought for their lives.
He was surrounded in seconds. Every time he managed to cut a hole in the crowd around him it would fill with another pair of red eyes. He could feel himself slowing, arms burning from the exertion. To his left, a soldier screamed as three infected broke through his breastplate and began pawing through his abdomen, stringing gore around them.
Suddenly, the sky was filled with the roar of repulsorlifts as drop ships and star fighters screamed overhead, one after another. Within moments, the sound of explosions and the chatter of heavy blaster fire had reached them, and the outer fringes of the infected crowd began to drift away in search of bigger fish. The Jedi hacked and slashed in every direction, and suddenly, he was free.
Panting, covered in superheated gore, Miras let go of his saber and dropped to his hands and knees. Black crept in around the edges of his vision, threatening to pull him under.
"Report!" Rhyn's familiar voice rose above the clamor. "Did anyone get an ID on those ships?"
Only four of the troopers were left- another lay in a crumpled heap a few yards from Miras, his helmet caved in where the infected had bashed his head against the duracrete. None of them spoke up until Loman strode forward, dropping his rotary cannon and bandoleer in a heap on the ground. "No markings, sergeant. No I.F.F. transponders, either. But they weren't Republic, I know that much."
"Well, whoever they are, they just saved our asses." the sergeant spat, ejecting the clip from his blaster rifle and inserting a fresh one. "Anyway, we don't have the luxury of investigating. Our objective remains the same. Reload and regroup, we're leaving in five minutes."
He hoofed it across the close-together rooftops, hopping across the gaps with baited breaths. One misstep would spell a dangerous fall, possibly broken limbs, and certain death at the hands of the infected. His A-280 was in both hands as he moved, and he remained ready to shoot at the slightest hint of motion. They were unable to process more than basic instincts, but the creatures could climb if they found a way.
His HUD marked the location of the CorSec station as a blinking red dot, which grew closer with every step. When it was beneath him, he glanced over the side at the sea of snarling, scratching, scraping damned to where the survivors were supposedly holding out. He had to clear a path for them-
The telltale light gave him pause.
Viridian heat tore through the bodies of the creatures as they grew close, and the Jedi Knight stood as a bulwark between the Republic soldiers and certain death. Makoto sucked in a breath and resolved himself. A Jedi or no, one man could not hold off a seige forever. It had to break, or they would collapse.
But it did, before he lifted his rifle.
The scream of Starfighter engines overhead tore his gaze away, and Makoto wondered for a moment if they were saved. The Starfighter Corps had never been scrambled, from what he recalled. When he scanned for IFFs with his HUD, they did not turn up friendly. They're going to get strafed, he realized instantly.
He switched his short range comms online and called out to those below. "You boys need to take cover if those ships come by again," he told them, "they're not friendlies. Private Makoto, Five Hundred and Sixtieth Division. I've been sent to rendezvous with your group. The rest of my group stayed behind to protect the landing zone. Our Sargent was wounded by one of the infected. I've been incommunicado for over an hour now, so there's no telling if they're still waiting."
He raised his weapon and started raining hell down on the infected that swarmed toward the station, covering the dwindling group of infantry and the Jedi Knight from on high. "If we get back to the dropship, I can get us back to Orbit, one way or the other."
"What's your status?"
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
The Senator's Estate On the edge of Coronet City. A mansion situated on thirty acres of well-tended gardens.
"There it is!"
Leo Malloy sat with her face pressed to the glass, reminiscent of a child peering in a shop window. Of course, rather than a cheerful display of must-have items, the Jedi Padawan saw complete and utter destruction. Fires raged like red panic flares, but there was no one to provide aid on the ground. Instead, Leo watched streams of hunched figures lope among the well-pruned Teljan trees that dotted the senator's estate. The infected, as she knew that was what they were, looked a bit like ants from that height. And in that moment, they seemed just as plentiful.
"Well shit." She drew back from the glass, and settled deeper in her co-pilot chair.
Her companion clucked her tongue. "I have never met anyone with such a foul mouth."
Rolling her eyes skyward, Leo huffed out a breath. "Sorry, Mom. Besides, is this really the time?"
Gina shrugged her shoulders beneath her stiff uniform. Even at the end of the world, she managed to remain impeccably put together. It both fascinated and annoyed the Jedi. "As long as you can do your job, I suppose it shouldn't matter what you say while doing it."
The response to that was a scalpel-thin smile. "I'll get the job done," she assured the woman. "I'm from here, remember? It's like I never left." That was a lie, of course - it had been nearly a decade since Leo had been on Corellia. In truth, the thought of it turned her stomach, but she would never indicate as much. "Find the senator, snatch him up, whisk him away to safety." Leo straightened her emerald robes. "Easy enough."
"It is such a shame that Senator Ronan asked you to complete such a trivial task." Even with the slight nasal whine of Gina's voice, the sarcasm rang loud and clear. "She should have also asked you to cure the plague, and end world hunger."
Leo snorted. "I like you, Gina."
"Yes, well, I am impossibly flattered." Though a slight pink glow lit her cheeks, the other woman forced herself to remain focused on the task at hand. "Now, if you could use that big brain of yours to come up with a plan?"
The redhead swung her gaze back to the window. "Right. Well, the senator's got about thirty acres here. A lot of it is gardens and trees and stuff. The house is about dead-center." She slanted Gina a sly gaze. "Did my homework on the way over. He's got one small landing pad, near the house, but it looked to be crawling with the crazies."
Gina uttered a short sound of acknowledgment. "So no time to land."
"Nah," Leo agreed. "So we'll have to do this high-school style."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You know, like in school?" Leo gave a mindless wave of her hand. "When you didn't want your dad to know that there was a boy picking you up, so he'd just slow down and you'd jump in as he went by?"
Finally, Gina risked turning to look at her companion. "No, I don't know. And what kind of Jedi are you?"
Flashing one of her brilliant smiles, Leo stood, and began picking her way toward the back of the small starship. "One of the fun kind. Now find a place that's relatively clear, and dip down. I'll jump out, and you can buzz 'em on your way out."
The flippant way Leo delivered her suicidal plan in that cheerful brogue made Gina wish they had never left Lothal. When Raisa had asked her to accompany the Jedi to rescue the senator, she had found it impossible to say no. The Lothal senator was her very best friend, and in that moment, Gina would have done anything to wipe the lines of exhaustion and worry from the girl's face. Now, she regretted her decision very much.
"This is a bad plan," she commented, though without much gusto.
From behind her, Leo called back. "Oh, it's a terrible plan. Just awful. Now do it."
With a heavy sigh and weighty prayer, Gina followed orders.
Slowly, his breathing returned to normal, and his eyesight returned. He waited a moment longer before attempting to stand, and immediately wished he'd waited longer. Blinking back the dizzying waves of nausea, Miras tilted his face upward, studying the figure atop the rooftop. It was clear he was Republic military, but his colors were different than those worn by Rhyn's squad. Not part of the garrison, then. 'Does that mean the cavalry has arrived?' the Jedi mused sarcastically.
Still, his covering fire was more than enough to pick off the stragglers that broke away from the crowd- nearly all of the infected were streaming toward the center plaza, drawn by the commotion. A handful of soldiers and a smattering of small arms fire wasn't enough to draw their attention, and Miras was grateful for the reprieve.
He found his lightsaber wedged beneath the torso of an infected corpse, the pommel glittering in a pool of dark blood. Grimacing, he rolled the body over with the toe of his boot and wiped the hilt off on his cloak, which was already covered in a mixture of mud and gore. Nearby, Loman was shaking his head at the disassembled barrel of his rotary cannon.
"Carbon build-up," he said when the Jedi approached. "It's toast. Gonna have to take Rogan's light repeater...poor bastard." The big Corellian gestured toward the disemboweled trooper sprawled out a few meters away. "I only took my eyes off him for a second to cover our flank."
"We knew the odds weren't good."
He shook his head. "You know what they say about telling Corellians the odds, don't you?"
Miras only nodded and walked away. The pain emanating from the sapper was too much for him to bear, so he made his way over to where the sargeant was gesturing to the figure on the rooftop.
"Thanks for the cover, but that's a negative on the evacuation." Rhyn paused, listening, but Miras couldn't hear the other end of the com. "Our objective is the Jedi Academy a few clicks from here; we have a high-value target slated for extraction.
Congratulations, private, you and your squad have just been placed under my command. Get down here."
