Re: Bravi'os: Requiem

Sully inserted a new power pack into his blaster, smiled at the weapon, then thrust it into his holster. "Well, if we're going with this crazy plan of yours," he said. "I'm going to make sure I am prepared for anything."

The pirate tapped his dirty fingers on the ship's metal corridor. Some loose insect suddenly fluttered around them, battering itself again and again on a wide transparisteel porthole.

"Just try not to drop any of these," Noah said. "I want us to be intact, but the rest of this forsaken ship gone and all traces removed. Nothing left. It's only a matter of time that thing comes nosing around. We've got to be absolutely quiet. Is your comlink functional? We need to find Morgan."

"I tested it some time ago and still no word. But it is working. I hope we find them before we finish this job," Sully said. "Or we may have to leave her and Kier."

Noah's lips curled into a sneer. "We're not leaving nobody. We need to find them."

"If you say so, boss." Sully grimaced back at him and turned to leave. His eyes narrowed in the dimness. "If we find them alive."

The pair continued through the bowels of the <I>Heart of Shade</I> in almost total blackness. Noah had no choice but to trust the computer guidance system inside the <I>Open Sky</I> that Tacita was monitoring. Every few seconds her voice guided them through the corridors and doorways of the massive ship through the comlink.

Sully kept his hand near his holster, hoping they were getting farther away from that horror hidden deep inside the luxury cruiser. He gripped another thermal detonator with hands gone white from cold and terror and placed it inside another corridor. Each time they placed another explosive in an unknown passage, his imagination heard noises of skittering legs and scythelike claws reaching out to pluck them from where they stood.

"Our course should make a full circle around the ship and take us back to the <I>Open Sky</I>," Noah said. "Hopefully, we should bump into Morgan and Kier along the way."

"Where else should we placed these detonators?" Sully asked. He felt his heart pounding. "I suggest we should place a few in the engine room. The fuel tanks should cause quite a bang."

Noah fought to contain a sudden fit of shudders. "I don't know about you, but I'm in no mood to go wandering off our course through dark corridors to find the engine room– not with that thing out there." The thought of a gory death in the fangs of that monster made the option of being back in the imprisonment in the spice mines of Kessel seem not so terrible after all.

Before they could find another location to place the next detonator, the metal door at the far end slammed shut behind them. With his limited sight, Noah could see the controls on the wall next to an inner door. "Tac! What the frell was that? Why did the door close?"

No answer. Were they too far out of range now? Did they get cut off? His knees were weak; his hands trembled as he punched access to the inner door. "Sully, get your blaster out."

Light flooded around them and the two figures staggered inside, Sully holding up his blaster. Dazzled, Noah cupped his hands over his eyes to keep from being blinded. "Anyone in here?" he croaked to no one in particular. "Answer now or we start blasting."

"Noah–" Sully said. He blinked several times as his vision adjusted to the lights.

Noah fought to focus his vision. He heard people rustling in the room. He saw only shadows in the glare. Finally, he could make out a petite form with short blonde hair and sunken eyes. Another form was prone on the floor.

"Glad you found us," Morgan said with a hoarse whisper. "Our comlink's been damaged."

Sully slipped the blaster into his holster. "We've been searching hours for you."

"Some… thing attacked us," Morgan explained. "I drained my entire power pack and it still lived. It got Kier. I've been trying to keep him conscious, but he keeps slipping away. He's gashed pretty good. I had no choice but to hide in here. Did you see it?"

"We're old buddies," Noah said. "That's why we're getting out of here after we ignite these things." He showed the almost empty bag of thermal detonators.

"What?!" Morgan's eyes suddenly grew large.

"We don't have that luxury to explain right now," Sully offered his hand. "We need to get out of here. Now." Both men used their strength to lift Kier and Morgan to their feet.

The door from the room groaned open, spilling a wedge of light into the dark corridors.

Re: Bravi'os: Requiem

At first nobody said a word.

The route they were taking had delivered them into the durosteel cathedral of the luxury cruiser's cavernous main corridor, its vaulted ceilings and paneled walls soaring upward and outward. Sully took in a deep breath– the stale air tasted like metal shavings with a tinge of organic decomposure– and let it out. For a man with a horror of tight spaces, standing here should have been a tonic. But instead of relief he only felt some arcane new species of panic fluttering in the pit of his stomach, this time in reaction to the seemingly limitless rebate of pure space. He grunted at the absurdity of it.

"Grunting are we?" Noah spoke up.

Sully didn't bother looking over. "It's nothing. Just tired and I want to go home." He looked back to see Morgan dragging Kier behind him. "All due respect, captain, I think we're going to need more than an hour to set all these detonators, now that we have baggage with us."

"Stick to the plan," Noah said. "If we end up taking more than an hour, we'll check back with the <I>Open Sky</i> and report in. Let them know nothing has gone out of the ordinary."

"Whole karking place is out of the ordinary," Morgan muttered, and Kier let out a gruff chuckle, despite being in pain.

"Come on," Noah said, "let's keep going. We're wasting time."

"Hold up a sec, boss." Sully pointed off in the opposite direction. "What's all that? Over there?"

Noah looked behind him and saw several of what looked like scattered crates and large fuel tanks across the large corridor. "Supplies and fuel tanks it seems," he said. "Looks like the crew left them there in a hurry."

"I suppose planting one of these babies in that batch will cause quite a boom, eh?" Sully held up a detonator, pulled from the bag.

Noah took a closer look and saw that the pirate was right. It would probably be enough to split apart the cruiser and blow it to to the nine hells and back.

"Do it," Noah said, masking his uncertainty with impatience. "It might just work." He snapped a glance at Kier. "You sure you can keep up our pace? Once we set the last one, we're getting out of here like a hawkbat out of hell."

"I can make it."

"Good–" He stopped.

They all saw it at the same time. Something across the corridor was moving behind the crates and tanks, its shadow bulking forward, slanting across the deck toward them. Behind him he was aware of Sully and Morgan already going for their blasters.

"Murglak!.. is it what I think–" Sully whispered.

"How could it have followed us so quickly? Or… maybe there more of them?" Noah realized, voice trembling slightly. "You think that thing could–"

"Kark it." Sully raised one hand without glancing back at them. "Wait here."

He took a step forward, wading deeper into the near silence, tilting his head to get a better look across the poorly lit corridor. His heart was beating too hard– he could feel it in his neck and wrists– and when he tried to swallow, his throat refused to coorperate. It was like trying to swallow a mouthful of ash. Only through sheer willpower was he able to avoid coughing.

Standing motionless, Sully narrowed his eyes at the things lurking in the shadows behind the crates and tanks. There were several of them, he realized now, stooping forward with gangling furry limbs, the familiar squeek accompanying their glowing eyes.

Sully exhaled, and drew in a fresh breath. "Just a nest of large swamp rats," he said. "Probably escaped from their owner's cages and made a home here."

He heard someone in the party let out a sigh and a nervous chuckle. Sully didn't bother acknowledging it. It would have been too much like acknowledging his own sense of relief.

"We've wasted enough time," Noah said. "Sully, plant that detonator where the tanks are and let's move out."

Re: Bravi'os: Requiem

“How’s it going out there?” Tacita asked over the comm.  She was still scanning portions of the ship for any sign of the projection device in the hopes that they wouldn’t have to actually destroy it.  No luck so far.

Almost done, came Noah’s reply.

“You know, Asshur is going to hand us our cargo holds for this.”  

She heard a sigh on the other end.  I know.

“Have you found Kier and Morgan?” she asked.  “We can’t leave them behind.”

Not yet.  I’ll try to find a working intercom and broadcast our plan.

Tacita had a bad feeling about this.  If they went back to the crime lord not only empty handed, but with the news that they’d effectively removed any possibility of ever recovering the ship, the results would not be pretty.  Maybe they should all just agree to “disappear” rather than return to the Sybarite.

Several minutes later, Kier-Xan Finn and Morgan Evanar stepped wearily into the cockpit, soon followed by Noah and Sully.  “Found ’em,” Sully commented.

“Any sign of the source of the creature?” asked Noah.

“No,” Tacita replied, then turned to Finn.  “And you didn’t sense anything Force-y?”

Finn shook his head.  “Nothing definite.  The entire ship is shrouded in the Dark Side.”

Tacita sighed.  “I guess that’s it then.”

The rest reluctantly nodded.

“I don’t think we should go back to the Sybarite,” she concluded, folding her arms, expecting a battle with Noah.

“You’re right,” he answered instead.

“Really?”  Tac answered, surprised.

“I’ll go back alone, in the Open Sky.  The rest of you can go in Sully’s ship, wherever you want.”

“But why?” Tacita protested.  “He’ll hang you up by your thumbs.”

Noah shrugged.  “Someone has to tell him why we did it, so he doesn’t send anyone else.  I’ll take full responsibility so he won’t come after any of you.”

The group considered it, glancing amongst themselves, while Tacita remained with her arms folded, glaring at Noah.

“What?” he finally asked.

“You’re not going back there without me.”

“But you were the one who wanted to bail in the first place,” Noah reasoned.

“That was different!  I can’t let you face Hellesponte alone.”

“Tacita, don’t be–“ he broke off as her eyes narrowed, then changed his wording.  “It’s not a very good idea.”

The slicer’s hands moved to her hips.  “Come with us then.”

Noah sighed.  “I can’t.”

“Then that settles it.  I’m coming with you.”  Tacita moved to stand next to him and turned to face the others.  “Anyone else?”

Silence was their answer.

“Okay then,” Noah declared.  Tac and me are here, you guys get to the other ship.”