Star Wars: Catalyst

[Jade_Tarem]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

STAR WARS: Catalyst
Episode 1: The Peacekeeper's Offense (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG5OsfOuEy0)






THE EMPIRE has most assuredly won. Born from the corroded ruins of the OLD REPUBLIC and standing atop the corpses of the COALITION of INDEPENDENT SEPARATISTS and the JEDI ORDER, the Imperial Juggernaut extends its reach over thousands of systems and trillions of lives. Stability has been achieved, but at the cost of all that makes stability worthwhile. Dissent and challenge within the regime are forbidden, and to oppose the Empire from the outside is unthinkable - none could hope to stand against its might.

This is not for lack of trying. RESISTANCES and REBELLIONS have erupted across the galaxy, but provide little more than training to keep the Empire's STORMTROOPERS in practice. The future is always in motion, though, and a galaxy almost at war will not stand for long. Either a true threat will emerge, or an Era will be born. Truly, these are DARK TIMES.

On NAR SHADDAA, however, things have never been better. The SMUGGLER'S MOON, poised above the crowning capital of HUTT SPACE, has benefited greatly from the Empire's monolithic focus on stamping out freedoms and fires elsewhere throughout the galaxy. Almost entirely devoid of regulation, conditions on the polluted, lawless planet are almost enough to make the EMPIRE into a worthwhile alternative. It is, naturally, a hotbed of activity for those opposing galactic authority.

And sparks are about to fly free...







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


Nar Shaddaa High Orbit, Communications Center of the Moratorium

Nar Shaddaa was sometimes known as "Little Coruscant," and it had certainly earned the reputation of being Imperial Center's less reputable sibling. Covered pole to pole in urban cityscape, the smuggler's moon had begun as huge, vertical refueling and dry dock spars, and the city had actually grown between them, in layers. Because of that, it had also picked up the appellation "the vertical city."

It was, however, a little less vertical today.

"...still updating the casualty count as new reports come in. While details are still under investigation, the uncontrolled descent and impact of the passenger liner Dreams of Ralltiir has destroyed or heavily damaged every structure within three city megablocks of Spar 8080. The Spar itself is in critical condition and has been declared structurally unsound by the authorities. The possibility of survivors on the ship has been declared virtually nil, though rescue crews have so far been unable to even reach what remains of the ship and some of the superstructure is clearly intact. If you are watching this in the Fordrian Province, an evacuation order has gone out for all ships and vehicles. If you are watching this elsewhere, please keep a safe distance from Spar 8080. This is Holonet Imperial News reporter Mavuri'Olan, signing off. Back to you Weldrin..."

The holoprojector shut down, taking with it the hologenic Twi'lek woman framed by a scene of chaos and devastation surrounding a crater full of smoke, with the silhouette of a wrecked ship still visible deep within - that smoke was comprised of a mixture of poisonous chemicals that would never be sorted out until the MD-0 droids started treating the patients who had inhaled it. Lieutenant Ordrar Vinser knew that the harmful gas was the least of the Fordrian province's problems - the ship's engines could catch fire, the reactor could still go critical, or, of course, the giant refueling Spar #8080 could decide to take a swan dive into a portion of the city that was still standing.

And all of that was nothing compared to the danger that Captian Slee Jerrings was in right now. There were three people in the room, and Vinser knew that Jerrings was far too nervous to use a refresher right now, never mind sophisticated communications equipment. Lieutenant Vinser also didn't possess the coveted remote control. It would have been funny, under other circumstances. Perhaps, if he and the captain survived, they would laugh about it later.

Because he would never have figured Lord Vader the type to make a point using prime-time network news.

Now the room was filled only with the sounds of the iconic rebreather, finally broken when Vader spoke. "Can either of you tell me why I have called you here?"

Captain Jerrings opened his mouth to speak a couple of times, but no sound came out. Finally, he made his second mistake by trying to second-guess the Emperor's right-hand man. "My Lord, Nar Shaddaa is a well-known den of iniquity and subversion. I did not think you would object to-"

"I will take that as a no. I do not care about the collateral damage, Captain. What concerns me is that you have failed at the task I gave you. There are survivors aboard that ship. One of them still has the package."

"Impossible!" Vinser catalogued mistake number three. "My Lord, you've seen the damage done, no one could have possiblhggck-" Jerrings began to choke as the giant armored man extended a hand and began to squeeze at thin air. As the Captain thrashed around, the glossy black mask turned to Vinser, and the Lieutenant swore he felt his guts liquefying. "Lieutenant. Some of the officers told me, when asked, that you had proposed an alternate plan to blasting the ship's engines. Would you tell me what it was?"

"Y-yes, Sir. My Lord." Vinser corrected himself, beginning to sweat as well. He wanted to dress it up, make it sound better, but it was impossible with that black gaze on him. "I proposed using the ion cannon batteries and storming the ship after securing it with our tractor beams, along with using our Skipray craft and other tractors to snare any escape pods. The resource cost would be much higher, but we would be able to make sure that we had secured or destroyed the objective... or we could at least present it to you and the Five-Oh-First if we somehow failed to find it." Indeed, that much was true - however, the rebels on board had managed to evade Captain Jerrings at their more subtle attempt to capture them, and had even damaged the Moratorium in the process. When they had caught up to the passenger liner again, the Captain had been in no mood to take prisoners or chances, and had metaphorically and literally trotted out the turbolasers.

The dark lord froze for a moment while Jerrings collapsed, spasming. A soft, wet, crunchy noise came from the captain's throat and he went still. Finally, Vader spoke again. "Congratulations on your promotion, Captain Vinser. Your task now is to recover the package and its courier. I must leave for the Corel system - the Diktat seems to believe that independence from the Empire and harboring Jedi might be desirable, and I must show his successor the error of that thinking. Report to me when you have news."

Vinser looked at the empty space where the holo-image had been. Recovering the package, or even destroying it, would be close to impossible without alerting one of the numerous anti-Imperial resistance groups and giving them a chance to get it first. He would have to be far cleverer than he felt at the moment to pull that off.

Refusing the task would be suicide. "As you command."

Nar Shaddaa, Andola Province, Hudrin Apartments #3035

Nar Shaddaa was noisy at the best of times, all over, but now this part was nearly a combat zone - and where the looters had managed to get going, it was a combat zone. Even being one province over from the disaster zone didn't help, apparently, as the Tabuula zone was under threat from the now-dangerous Spar 8080. Sirens, automated warnings, alarms, and more filled everything, though no evacuation order had gone out for the area just yet.

In Apris Riatla-Covar's apartment, with substandard soundproofing where it existed at all, it was nearly impossible to sleep, which is perhaps why, at this unfortunate hour, she clearly hears the comm's stuttering, anemic chime - with Jon's number floating above it.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris Riatla-Covar

Lying on her solid 'semi-solid' sleeper Apris mentally debated the pros and cons of getting up. The only pro, however, was that it felt slightly more comfortable than her other options. She certainly wasn't going to get any sleep. At least, she wouldn't without medical assistance, but that would cost money, and if she hadn't miscalculated she literally only had fifty Imperial credits left to her name. Thankfully, she had her apartment for the rest of the month, but even that would end up taken away from her if she didn't make enough credits between now and the end of the month.

Sitting up she pulled her covers around her and then plodded over to her only table where she'd tossed her commlink. Slumping into her comfier chair (an extraordinarily relative application of the word comfier) she batted at it. "Yes? Hello."

[Jade_Tarem]

Apris

"You're not going to believe this." No hello, though it was Jon. "Fat. Stacks. Of Money."

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Apris' attention is immediately focused by those three little words: 'fat', 'stacks', and 'money'. "Foreplay, Jon. Try it some time."

[Jade_Tarem]

Jon snorts briefly. "You'll appreciate me not wasting the time when I'm done, trust me." He glances at something just outside of the holocam view, then turns back. "You know that crashed ship, the Dreams of Ralltiir?" A loud, siren-heavy vehicle goes screaming by Apris's window. "Of course you do. Well, the Empire put out a little local decree - a bounty on bits of the Raaltiir. Every piece of working salvage will be purchased at-cost. Every survivor gets you five thousand credits and zero questions. And if you find their 'special package'... a cool million. And yes, we checked to make sure that wasn't a bureaucratic rounding error."

Apris nods as understanding dawns. "Which means you need muscle to make sure whatever gets found doesn't get 're-found'."

"Yeah, that's part of it. You've seen the news - even the authorities ain't touching that rig until the radiation detectors stop singing arias every time they get near the place. Plus, you know, the fire and sharp metal ground around it. And the giant deathtrap looming over the province. But other than that, easy money."

Apris nods. "I assume you've got a plan for dealing with the radiation. Y'know, to make long-term not-intense-agony-filled survival for more than a week possible?"

"Funny you should mention that. There's an old cache of hazmat gear here from when Irillium Exports did all that testing. Shame about their facility... anyway, that place has been on lockdown since you were in diapers, but there's an information broker out there... Pops the Herglic, you know him? He has the access codes. You get me that hazmat gear, I'll get a salvage team with more greed than common sense together, and we'll make bank. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a mission. I'll get in touch once I've got the gear."

"Excellent! See you then." Jon cuts the call before it gets any more expensive.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Tromping over to her plasteel trunk Apris tossed her sleeper covers back onto her sleep. As close as it was the covers only made it half-way onto the sleeper. Opening the trunk she pulled out her blaster pistol, a Paigexia Model N, and her blaster rifle, an F-91 Morgina. After giving them a quick once-over she set them aside while she got into her jumpsuit. It was green and black, but wear had made it dark green and off black. Her blaster pistol went into a shoulder holster which was then concealed by a large jacket, but then over that went her blaster rifle's strap - blaster rifle attached. Fighting against her jacket she fitted her belt around her waist - the commlink from her table going into one of its pockets.

Geared up Apris wastes little time finding her way to 'Pops'.

[Jade_Tarem]

Nar Shaddaa is a compressed Coruscant in more ways than one, and public transportation is easy to find - the Hutts who more or less rule the moon take some care to keep basic amenities available, not because they care that much about the welfare of the common people, but because they can't stand the thought that other worlds have a nice thing that theirs doesn't.

Regardless, the bus manages to make good time despite having to detour all the way around the disaster zone. The on-board holoviewers are still reporting every little detail about the wreck, but other than a couple of secondary explosions, there have been no new developments.

After the bus sets down, Apris is able to follow the walkway markers to the haunt that Pops makes home - a converted bath house. The air inside is humid, but the place is, for a wonder, well-lit and open. More than that - the place is huge, in the sense that most of the furniture, hallways, and doors make Apris seem tiny by comparison. Herglics are large, large creatures, larger than Wookiees, though a lot of the extra mass is blubber rather than muscle.

Pops is the only one at work, not counting his guards. A surprisingly sharp-looking Weequay and a Gotal are on overwatch, though they make no move to stop Apris from entering. Instead, Pops looks up. "Hello there." His voice is a resonant baritone, and he cuts a rather dashing figure by Herglic standards, with smooth skin of a dark blue with a cream-colored underside and striping that contrasts pleasantly with a plus-plus sized tunic, trousers and boots. He hauls himself up from behind his massive desk, nestled deep within a three-walled bank of flat screens, all full of data and diagrams. Apris notes that the entire arrangement is sitting on an island that used to be the sauna portion of the bath house, and while the sauna function was turned off - doubtless it was bad for the equipment - the surrounding pools were still full of water clear enough that she could see the depth markers all the way down.

"If you were looking to get in before I closed, you're just in time. My name is *SKOPOPOP-BOPOP-CLICK-BROP* but my human customers usually call me 'Pops.' What can I do for you? And can I ask your name?"

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Back straightening, one hand held in the other behind her, Apris almost replied with 'Captain Riatla-Covar'. Almost. "Apris," she snapped out quickly. "I don't want to keep you from your plans, so I'll make this quick: I've heard you have the access codes to the old Irillium Exports facility. I'm here to buy them."

[Jade_Tarem]

The face Pops makes is impossible to read, but he simply says, "One hundred and ninety-five credits for the codes... and another twenty-five gets you the reason why it's so cheap and me forgetting that you asked."

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

"****," she swears, her hands unlatching. The biggest potential problem, at this stage, was that somebody else had the same idea Jon did. That was, at least, what she'd concluded on her way over here. "You know what I'm after and why I'm after it, then?" It had technically been a question, but she didn't wait for the reply. "I don't have the cash on me... not all of it, but if you're willing to take a gamble on what I'm doing later being successful... I can pay you double."

[Jade_Tarem]

The Herglic rubs at his face with a massive hand, a huam noise precedes his next remark. "There's a fine line between a wager like that and a loan with no collateral. Mrm... then again, I could never resist an opportunity to spice up a business deal with a little chance. Tell you what, if you want to gamble for it, let's make it interesting. I know that time is of the essence, for you, so it will even be something that you can do while you're, ah, 'using my information.'"

He punches a few keys on the terminals before him, and the monitors behind him all shift to a rough schematic of the building. "I already know your ante: you can't afford to say no. My ante is this little bit of information - assuming my guess is right and you're after the experimental Hazmat gear: Everyone knows Irillium Exports was a subcontractor for Incom and Koensayer. Everyone knows they were working on that fancy Magcon stuff and that it might keep them alive if they decide to plunder that cruise liner. What they don't know is that Irillium Exports wasn't shut down due to mismanagement and financial woes. The place is haunted - not literally, mind you, but part of the reason IrEx was able to meet Incom's contract requirements was that they were already working on new containment units for the... eh, let's call it 'bio-waste' from their other experiments."

Another haum noise. "They did a lot of regulation-free testing on using various types of radiation to control disease-spreading vermin, which isn't that big of a deal... except that one of their diseases was the kriffing Deathseed Plague. Now, there was some indication, back in the day, that the plague might respond to radiation, but no one working with it lived long enough to complete the experiment. IrEx, though... did, at least long enough to change or twist or mutate something about it. Instead of snuffing the victims, it drove their test animals mad... and then the technicians and researchers started to lose it too. One of the last lucid thoughts any of them had was to seal the facility with all the defenses set to maximum overkill, but there's no telling what's in there now. Heck, it could be an entire new ecosystem. Or maybe they all died and the place is a moldy tomb. Either way, the defense droids aren't screwing around."

He pulls a small datacard out of his desk and slides it to Apris. "And that's where you come in. Even with the codes to open the doors, you're still likely to get wasted by the security, the alien life, or, if we're really lucky, one of the disease agents. You don't just need access, you need total control of the building. That is a program my best slicer contacts put together to get you recognized as the new building administrator. What you'll need to do is take my codes and ignore the regular entrances, instead circling around and getting into the security cordon. It, ah, wouldn't be a stretch to say that there might be active security in the security cordon, so you'll have to deal with that. Once you're in there, fire up the control center, apply for a job at Irillium Exports as the new on-site admin, and you should be able to control what areas of the building are locked down, what the security droids fire on, and you might even be able to vent or irradiate problem areas." He shrugs and points at the schematic. "From there, you'll want to make your way to the radiation chamber in the middle of the building. There shouldn't be a need to get into the chamber, but the best Magcon stuff would be right outside it."

He grins. "You might be wondering what I get out of this. That program you'll be carrying also uploads the entirety of their site logs - and other juicy data - to me. That's a much bigger payout than two hundred and change. We never did find out exactly what they did that sent everything to hell, or what possessed them to try. So... there it is. You risk your life and get me a data windfall in exchange for a free, if somewhat dangerous, shot at the goods, and the near-guarantee that anyone ahead of you is probably being dismembered or life-drained to death as we speak?"

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

"Deal." There were a few issues, but she didn't think they were worth bringing up. Mostly that was because she didn't think he had the answers to her questions.

[Jade_Tarem]

Pops manages a handshake without inflicting permanent damage, and lets Apris leave with the slicing program. Outside, her com beeps, providing a text-only message from Jon. Jon never uses the condensed terminology common to text messages, although Apris suspects that he sometimes just dictates. "Hope your meeting with Pops is going well. I've managed to get in touch with Reddry's old crew... all ten of 'em, and I've begun negotiations. They understand the, um, risks and are willing to take on the job, provided that we can get that gear. I don't know how heavy twelve sets of it will be, so you might want to secure some kind of vehicle to move it ahead of time. Unless you think you can swipe one from the earwax facility. I mean, they had to move the stuff around themselves somehow, right?"

A moment later, it beeps again. "That's the I-R-E-X facility. Whose bright idea was it to pair up auto-correct with voice-to-text...? Anyway, the vehicle thing is up to you, natch. Talk to you later."

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Apris rolls her eyes at Jon's messages before replying with one of her own: "Meeting went great. Heading over now. Will grab vehicle."

With nothing else to do besides make her why to the 'earwax' facility Apris wastes not time in doing so.

[Jade_Tarem]

Public transit moves quickly, taking Apris yet further away from the calamity at Arm #8080. It does not, however, take her the entire way. The IrEx facility is literally buried beneath several layers of the Vertical City, with several layers more beneath it. However, the area around it is not heavily populated - a dead urban landscape forming a cocoon around it... or perhaps scar tissue. The facility is not hard to find, however - it is the only building with lights on in the area, though those lights flicker disturbingly in places, and odd sounds come from within.

Perhaps more disturbing, the front door is standing wide open.

From her vantage point on a long disused skybridge a level up, Apris can see the entire facility, and a repulsorlift enabled truck of a long distant year, a single guard and a driver manning it, apparently waiting for something just out front.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Two sentients. One guard, one driver. Truck, repulsorlift. Apris took stock of the situation in a precise and orderly manner. That, however, wasn't her entrance. If she was going to make use the slicing program she needed to get circle around and get into the security cordon. Still, they might have equipment she could use, and their truck just might be useful on its own. Quietly she considered the situation. She didn't want to take the risk, but she was convinced it was small enough, and the potential reward large enough, that she brought her blaster rifle up. Moving up to within thirty meters, and then taking careful aim at the driver, she pulled the trigger.

[Jade_Tarem]

Nar Shaddaa is never quiet, but the sound of the blaster going off still manages to give the impression of silence shattering as the *pshoown* noise fills the open space. The bolt drills through the driver-side window without losing much power, burning into the throat of the being in its path. The driver - a Talz who probably thought that his role would prevent him from seeing combat - spasms and flails at the controls, though whether attempting to run Apris down or flee is unclear.

Apris will never find out. While Talz and Human anatomy is very different in some respects, the four-eyed, furry creatures still have a central nervous system that runs through the throat. The driver slumps against the door on his side of the vehicle and will inevitably spill out and onto the ground whenever the door is opened, but Apris has bigger issues - the guard has clearly heard the noise and looks around the side of the repulsor-truck. Eyes widening, he snaps off a flurry of shots that pass by Apris's hip and dives for cover behind the truck's engine block, cursing. There's a subdued - by comparison - snap as he pops something off of his belt... probably a comlink.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Apris didn't have long, assuming that she wasn't already too late, to stop the guard from warning those inside. Of course, that assumed that they weren't already dead. Regardless of how things were the safest thing was to take him down, so she took aim at him and fired again.

[Jade_Tarem]

The guard picks the worst possible instant to pop up for a snap shot. Apris's bolt glances off of the truck's dingy engine covering, painting a long scorch mark but leaving the truck undamaged, if slightly uglier. The same could not be said for the lookout, as the bolt's adjusted path carries it straight through his eye and deeper into his head, and judging from the way he immediately drops to the ground, boneless and limp, Apris has done enough damage that there will be no spasms like the driver, and certainly no last-second heroics.

And just like that, a mere seven seconds after the fight begins, it ends. Cosmetically, very little has changed - the two live enemies are dead, the truck slightly scorched, and the sickening sweet stench of burned meat fills the air so quickly that even Apris, two dozen meters away and crouched in the shadow of a giant dumpster, can smell it. A small, round comlink slowly rolls under the truck and across the duracrete loading dock, coming to a stop near Apris's feet. The device is powered on, but the transmission indicator is dark - the guard did not manage to warn his friends, if any of them are even still alive. There is no perceptible reaction from within the IrEx compound, and the few ambient noises that quieted when the shooting started slowly fade back in, joining the chorus of city noises that didn't deign to notice something as minor as a shooting in a forgotten corner of Nar Shaddaa.

Part 1: Tools of the Trade

Dreams of Ralltiir: Auxiliary Bridge

Plo had a secret.

Plo had several secrets, actually, but some were more important than others. For instance, she had been been a fan of core-pop music for years, despite the fact that her father said it would rot her brain, but she had - against all odds - managed to keep a Stardance album a secret from him. This, however, was not terribly important at the moment.

The most important one right now was that she was still alive.

Slightly less important - and related - was that she was a rebel agent. She had heard from one of her teachers that you could tell how desperate one of the sides in a war was by how young its soldiers were. If that was true, then the rebellion - her rebellion, anyway - was pretty darn desperate, though not quite on the cusp of total defeat.

Wishful thinking. When you were up against the Empire, you were always on the cusp of total defeat. Even at sixteen, she knew that much.

The third most important secret was that the Dreams of Ralltiir was not just a cruise liner. It had an entire, extremely illegal sensor suite installed, military-grade and everything. Enough of the redundant computers in its cluster network had survived the crash to keep it operational. And while ninety-nine percent of civilian and even Imperial comm gear couldn't penetrate the radiation that the Ralltiir was throwing out, she could.

So she already knew about the great scavenger hunt, the bounty on the survivors. As the courier for some of the most important information a subversive faction could possibly need, she knew that she or her data had to be the Empire's million-credit 'package.' She strongly suspected the commander of the Moratorium would actually keep his word on the deal too - a million might be a lot of money for a lot of folks, but it was chump change for a major Imperial cleanup operation. A rounding error. She refused to die to sloppy accounting.

She had already directed two salvage parties to their doom. Being the only one alive on the auxiliary bridge of a ship that had no main bridge basically made you a localized deity. The problem was that she had to sleep sometime, had to eat sometime, and the restroom - well, no one was going to miss that empty equipment locker. Plus, the radiation would get her eventually, even through the shielding. Or something would go wrong with the backup reactor, and then life support would fail, her room would fill with smoke, and she'd suffocate. No, she couldn't keep this up forever.

But that was a secret she was keeping from herself.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

With the small — but not tiny — possibility that the team that had gone in would be coming out soon Apris moved quickly. The guard she stripped him the way she'd strip a dead combatant. The Talz she just dragged out of the truck and dumped so she could drive it to the security cordon.

[Jade_Tarem]

The difference in security between IrEx's security cordon and the area immediately outside it is like night and day. This could be due to the IrEx people wanting to keep things in more than they wanted to keep things out, but the more probable explanation is that the external defenses ran on the city power grid and got shut down when IrEx stopped paying the electric bills.

Regardless, the only resistance Apris runs into while driving around the building is the passive-aggressive glare of motion sensor lights. The security cordon? That's another story. The door is bolted tight, and not with Joe Antilles's everyday burglar deterrent, either. Entering the password Pops provided causes the control pad to flash a cheerful, if sickly, green. However, despite the noise of something unlatching within, the door remains shut, and a mechanical whine and grind indicates that at least one of the mechanisms within is stuck, out of alignment, or disconnected.

The door itself is a durasteel monstrosity - not quite a proper blast door, but definitely heavy enough to tell blaster fire and light munitions to take a swim on Vjun. The walls around it, in defiance of action-vid principles, are made of thick, no-nonsense duracrete and may well be reinforced.

Still, the heavy door isn't locked anymore, it's just that the opening mechanism failed...

And now that Apris is right up to it, there's some kind of squishy noise and whimpering on the other side, though with the thickness of the door, what she's hearing might be screaming.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Apris swore quietly — but profusely — at the sounds she can hear coming through the door. Mostly it was due to the question of what was causing the noise, and how far away it was. Of course, she still needed to get through the door, and she had a repulsorlift truck. It wouldn't take much to use the truck to get the door open — getting it closed after she was done would be the pain in the ass.

[Jade_Tarem]

The truck and the tow cable it came with are more than sufficient to open the door, and the simple navcomp on the truck will take instructions to raise and lower it for Apris at a signal from her comlink.

Despite Jon's hyperbole, the place hasn't actually been out of commission since Apris's infancy, but it has been nearly a decade. The nasty blast of stale air that sweeps out is proof enough of that, but that's not the most disturbing sight that greets the soldier.

The hallway is filled with debris - mostly organic debris, though a couple of shattered droid bodies can be picked out. Dark stains, unmistakably long-dried bloodstains for those familiar with them, spatter the walls, as do the scorch marks of blaster fire and other, unrecognizable splotches. The panel near the door has been removed, and a mangled corpse has been shoved - or shoved itself - into the mechanisms there, apparently in an effort to keep the door from opening. The body is dressed in the uniform of what was apparently IrEx security.

And the blood leaking from him is fresh.

Map-wise, the hallway has two doors, each apparently leading to a room with an observation window, flanking the now-open external door. The one to the left has its own dried-blood stain obscuring half of it. Further down the hall, another door leads to a room with presumably a bit more privacy, while the wall opposite it has one giant observation sheet, covered from the other side in what appears to be some kind of indigo fungus. At the very end of the hallway, another serious-business door sits. The lighting is not great, but not as bad as it could be - the emergency power was designed to last, apparently... or maybe it's only active when things are moving. Either way, though the lights are obscured by grime, they don't flicker, at least in this part of the building.

Notably, the whimper/scream(?) has stopped. It must have ended while Apris was operating the truck.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Holding her blaster ready as she had been trained Apris moved into the gruesome hallway — it made her glad she had developed a strong stomach. She judged that the more private room would likely be where the program would be inserted. After that she intended to give the mechanism, and the fresh corpse, a once-over. At the very least she wanted to be able to seal the blast door behind her before pushing deeper. That was assuming nothing ambushed her in either of these rooms, of course.

[Jade_Tarem]

The hallway is disgusting, and moving down the length of it to the windowless room doesn't make it less so. Nonetheless, nothing overtly attacks Apris, save for the wash of rancid air that flows out of the office once she punches in the override code on the door.

The interior of the office is dark, but aligned in such a way that the light from the hallway illuminates it. A swivel-chair rests on tarnished wheels before a bank of powered-down terminals, a couple of datapads, and shelving full of long-corroded paper-and-ink books. In the chair is a corpse, slumped to one side. Despite the advanced state of decay, it's clear that he was killed by a single blaster bolt to the side of the head - and the blaster pistol in the cadaver's hand has a bit of flashback char on it, from a close shot.

Despite the grime, dust, and disuse, it isn't too difficult to reconnect the machines to a power supply point and bring them online. The data disc with the sliced code begins working as soon as Apris plugs it in, but the incongruously cheerful blue loading bar it brings up indicates that she'll have to wait a few minutes.

Some functions are already available, though - it appears that, at this terminal at least, any user has read privileges. The file browser window sits in a folder labeled 'logs.'

Security Logs <-
Personnel Files
Maintenance Reports
Testing Schedule
Upcoming Events
Inventory

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

With nothing to do until the thing has finished doing its thing she checks the security logs.

[Jade_Tarem]

The security logs are all in good order, most of them quite boring, detailing arrivals and departures of technicians and test subjects and equipment, as well as guard rotations and the occasional upgrade to patrol routes. The dates on the logs cease two and a half months shy of ten years ago, and a few days before that, things start to get interesting.

Year 9, Month 9, Day 27 IY, 2200 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

New HCU in through the main loading dock today. Hazard containment units usually can handle up to a class 3 threat, this one looked big and bad enough to handle a class 5. They won't even tell me what's in it. Supposed to be some security briefing tomorrow morning. Riggersly took ill (Bothan redrash), I assigned Jamethkai to his watch for now. The Imperial liaison got all pissy about having an Arkanian woman on the security detail, but then, he got his standard-issue undies in a wad about having an Omwati girl on the research team. I told him to direct his complaints to Morrluwoor, and he shut up about our personnel and my 'unprofessional' logging practices, YES I KNOW YOU READ THIS. Mother of chaos, Agent Nembers, you're not *that* clever.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 9, Day 28 IY, 22:01 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

I'm getting too old for this [scrubbed]. The HCU is full of [redacted]. It apparently doesn't matter how dangerous it is, we can't just leave a mystery unexplored, even if that means poking a big pile of [redacted] until it blows up in our faces, all in the hopes that it will [extremely redacted]. At least Jamethkai managed to stay out of the salt even when it was offered to her. Smart lady. Kind of a [scrubbed] move, Nembers, but I guess it doesn't matter, since we'll all be dead of [redacted] by this time tomorrow.

- Security Chief Benston

Seeing as you clearly attended the security briefing, please remember that this is not your IJournal holonet blog. While more secure, this is still a violation of OpSec. Also, you've been watching too many horror vids.

- Agent Nembers

I don't think you've watched enough.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 9, Day 29 IY, 21:58 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

The research team began their testing on that-which-shall-not-be-named today. So far, no terminal cases of the dead have erupted among the facility staff. On the other hand, they seemed disappointed. They only get a limited time with this stuff before they have to put it back, and apparently what they tried did jack-all-squat to it. I wonder if the [redacted] they brought in only [redacted], or needs something from its home planet in order to function properly. Eh, listen to me pretending I know what's going on in there, I'm just the security guard. Riggersly seems to think he'll be well enough to come in tomorrow. Decent guy. Terrible Sabaac player. I should ask him if he wants to move to the day shift - Jamethkai seems to like working here at night, says she doesn't mind the quiet.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 9, Day 30 IY, 22:20 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

The report is late tonight due to the disturbance in Central Testing. One of the mynocks they had in the main chamber lost its mind and threw itself against the transparisteel hard enough to crack it. Pretty heavy hit for a creature the size of a shockball. The mynock died, of course, and Central is shut down until they sterilize everything and replace the transparisteel.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 10, Day 1 IY, 22:00 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

Gotta love Imperial efficiency. We're already back up and running. Moved Jamethkai to night shift, Riggersly to morning shift. May fire Eldron... Gotal or not, no one is worth that much attitude.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 10, Day 1 IY, 22:36 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

Report late due to the huge disturbance in Beta Wing. Every one of the animals in there flipped out today, and we had to put most of them down. It was... harder than I thought it would be, even knowing what would have happened to them anyway. Some days I hate this job. Hopefully they can finish up with what we have in Epsilon Wing and be done with it.

- Security Chief Benston

Year 9, Month 10, Day 2 IY, 12:36 Hours, Galactic Standard Time (Saved from internal communications, filed under routine data sorting algorithm by keyword and sender)

Riggersly, Eldron, get your teams geared up.

Something is seriously wrong. Dr. Melroth has barricaded herself in the Medical Wing and is doing... things. Surveillance has been cut to that area. I'm initiating a Stage 2 lockdown. Presume Med Wing, Beta Wing, Epsilon Wing, and Central Testing are contaminated. Watch for odd behavior from the rest of the staff and meet me outside the Med Wing.

- Benston

Year 9, Month 10, Day 2 IY, 12:42 Hours, Galactic Standard Time (Saved from internal communications, filed under routine data sorting algorithm by keyword and sender)

Belay that order. Med wing confirmed contaminated. All researchers showing signs of modified Death Seed B03. Stay out of the Med Wing. In fact, seal and purge the Med Wing. Stay out of any suspect section of the building and increase the lockdown on those areas. Do not let anything, anyone, even a gust of air, escape the building.

- Agent Nembers

Where are you?

- Benston

Watching Dr. Melroth.

- Agent Nembers

Year 9, Month 10, Day 5 IY, 00:00 Hours, Galactic Standard Time

Report late due to... well, if you're reading this, you either figured out how to pull data from a sealed facility, or you already know. If you're in the building, I have some bad, bad news for you - the whole thing is contaminated with Death Seed "Modified Strain B03." If you haven't lost your marbles yet, you will. I now find myself in the unenviable position of being in the last clean room - the security office. Unfortunately, there's no food here.

I never really accumulated a lot in the way of friends and family - what few work acquaintances I had are now jibbering monsters wandering the halls. Faced with the prospect of joining them or starving to death, I'm going to make use of the fact that they saw fit to issue me a service blaster.

If you *did* come here on some kind of ill-advised rescue mission, let me tell you a couple of interesting things. The first is that the researchers had something they thought could combat the Death Seed if it ever got loose. It didn't work, obviously, but it worked well enough to affect it somehow. Death Seed doesn't normally drive you nuts, after all, it just kills you. If you can hack up some admin privileges, you could try to reactivate the main computer in Central Testing and see if it has any stunning insights into how you could not die. I understand Dr. Xon left it working on that problem before he started trying to bite people.

The second is that if you were dumb enough to break the seal on the building, there's a chance that the Death Seed has escaped. On Nar Shaddaa. That's unacceptable. Also unacceptable - the building is sitting on a plasma bomb. A big one. They didn't tell half the staff, their neighbors, or the insurance company about that, but it's true nonetheless... and this is one time that two wrongs might make a, well, a less-wrong. Death Seed is fiendishly sneaky about how it spreads, but it doesn't disperse everywhere on the wind. It spreads slowly until it comes into contact with hosts that will carry it around faster. It can survive several kinds of intense radiation, all known forms of antibiotics and antivirals, bacta treatments do nothing to it, and it beats every known immune system - but it can't survive 10,000 degree heat. That means there's a window of time for you to set that sucker off and maybe not turn the moon into a charnel house. Heck, I think this model even comes with a directed containment field that's supposed to keep it from setting the atmosphere on fire.

Well, best of luck to you, you poor kriffing bastard.

- Security Chief Crix Benston

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

With time still to go before the program finished its job Apris checked the inventory files and the maintenance records.

[Jade_Tarem]

The maintenance records and inventory are liable to be hideously out of date, but they report nonetheless. The maintenance reports contain nothing of interest, but the inventory...

Inventory

Alpha Wing
- (Contains a rundown of cleaning supplies, animal care supplies, and parts to fix the creature containment units)
- No creatures reported. No life signs detected.

Beta Wing
- (Beta wing likewise features several closets worth of miscellaneous day-to-day items).
- Secure Long-Term Viral Storage: Viral Samples
----- Bandonian Plague: Control Strain, Strains A02, G01-03
----- Cardooine Chills: Control Strain, Strain E00
----- Death Seed: Control Strain, Strains A01-05, Strains B01, B02
----- Mandalorian Blood-Fever: Control Strain [Expired], Strains A01, A04
- Secure Active Storage: Viral Samples
----- Death Seed: Strain B03, B04a

Gamma Wing
- Security Locker 1: 4 BlasTech E-11 Carbines, 12 Power Packs, 4 Stun Grenades
- Security Locker 2: 6 Shock Prods, 6 Stun Cuffs (Humanoid Standard), 6 Stun Cuffs (Exotic)
- Security Locker 3: 4 Thermal Detonators, 4 Ion Grenades

Delta Wing
- ME Grand Load Lifter
- 4 Cargo Palette (Empty)

Epsilon Wing
- (Contains a rundown of cleaning supplies, animal care supplies, and parts to fix the creature containment units)
- No creatures reported. No life signs detected.

Mu Wing
- Full-Size XuphraCorp Bacta Treatment Unit.
- 50 Liter Bacta Storage Unit (35/50 Liters remaining).
- 100 Liter Bacta Storage Unit (100/100 Liters remaining).
- Arkani Medical Suite
- Arkani Medical Tool Set
- 2-1B Droid [E3-98]
- MD0 Droid [M9-90]
- 10 Medical Kit (Imperial Standard)

Central Testing
- Experimental Locker 1: 7 'Gamma Sweepers'
- Experimental Locker 2: 20 'Magcon' Suits
- Experimental Locker 3: Empty
- Experimental Locker 4: Type 4a Tibanna Gas Cannister, IG Droid (work transferred to undisclosed location)
- Computer Core: B55 Rovaldex Artificial Intelligence Droid Brain with Administrative Secure-Site Plugin
- Test Chamber 1: Empty
- Test Chamber 2: Death Seed testing in progress.
- Test Chamber 3: NoNoNoNoNoNoNo
- Test Chamber 4: Empty

Finally, the system chirps. A slightly distorted, overenthusiastic male voice emerges from badly maintained speakers. "{garblegarble} WeHEEEllcoming a new Administrator to our team. Apris Starkiller was the project director for the Tonheld Mining Corporation's Halmad initiative, worked for Sienar Fleet Systems before that, and has more than fifteen years of experience in the field. Be sure to say hello and help her get settled in with the Irillium Exports family."

A new loading bar appears - this one a transmission status as it sends Pops his coveted data. New menus open up, allowing access to security controls, maps, accounting data, and more, though some digging might be required to find anything more carefully hidden.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

"Experimental locker 2," Apris mumbled as she finished reading through the inventory list. Bringing up map she now had access to she plotted her course to Central Testing. She also wanted to get to the Gamma Wing and check if it still had some of the stuff the inventory said it had. There was also Mu Wing to consider, too. It's a shame I'll have to detonate that fusion bomb, she thought to herself. The salvage here could bring some cred my way.

[Jade_Tarem]

The corridor outside the office is a bit darker than it was when Apris went in. Running low on backup power, perhaps? Either way, the musty stench has gotten worse, and... something is moving at the far end of the hall, near some fresh bloodstains.

Strictly speaking, it would be possible to get to the security lockers while avoiding the disturbance, but it won't be possible to leave the way she came in without passing by it.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Apris turned toward the disturbance — wanting to deal with it now rather than later. Raising her rifle up she tried to gauge where it was as she closed just enough distance. She took a moment to aim before she squeezed the trigger and let off a bolt (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4775666/).

[Jade_Tarem]

The shot streaked down the hallway and hit something that sizzled. There was a thump, and then stillness. The disturbance might have come from the open panel by the door, but the now-flickering lights made it difficult to tell.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Taking rough aim at the same spot Apris fired another three shots before advancing to examine what it was she had valiantly slain — a beast, or a box.

[Jade_Tarem]

Though the blaster wound is fresh, the body Apris approaches appears to have been dead for some time - having ground itself into the mechanisms to keep the door from functioning properly in a most grisly fashion years ago. The corpse is in advanced state of decay, having melted sickeningly among the components and split among what few other surfaces remained. Nearby, a disembodied droid arm twitches arrhythmically, perhaps due to failing sensors having detected the shot. Nothing else stirs here, and all is clearly still in the brighter lighting down the hall, toward the interior of the compound.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris

Feeling foolish, and glad nobody had seen that display, Apris turned and headed deeper into the facility, and toward the armory.

[Jade_Tarem]

The armory is rather easily reached, along a straight stretch of hallway, near the end. The label is faded and smeared with something, but the access codes of Administrator Starkiller still work.

The door opens to reveal another corpse, badly decomposed, and bedecked in what must have been the armory's entire contents. There is no sign of combat within. No sign, indeed, that the person this used to be ever tried to open the door after they got in here.

[The Blue Guard]

Apris blinks. Trap, she thought. If those thermal detonators were there, though, and still functioned, she wanted them. Of course, they might also be part of the trap, she mentally considered.

After her moment's pause she carefully stepped into the room, and towards the corpse.

[Jade_Tarem]

The door hisses shut as soon as Apris is clear of it, but other than the startlingly fast Imperial-grade speed with which it does so, nothing alarming happens. There is no explosion, no click of a lock, no canned voice over a PA system gloating about how it has Apris right where it wants her. In point of fact, even the lights stay on, answering an age-old question, presumably in response to Apris's administrative status. The corpse, for its part, does not move, though the stench is even stronger in here than in the hallway.

[The Blue Guard]

With no trap sprung Apris throws her rifle's strap around her neck, and then she begins to scavenge the corpse.