Quoted By:
The search is occasionally punctuated by queries and back-and-forth from the Albatross. Mostly sitreps and status updates, but their communications are a welcome distraction to the eerie silence that goes beyond working in zero-G. The grim and sour mood that had settled on you like a cloak after the battle is lifted when you hear the news of the convoy’s arrival to Ulsind. The supplies (while severely truncated) are enough to momentarily abate the famine.
But the damage hadn’t gone unnoticed. MSDF High Command’s raising twelve kinds of hell, demanding answers for what had happened in 19A-KJ. Jolt-Squadron put in a word through Wing Commander Velka to prevent any follow-up investigations into the system until you finished your own search. As of the last few hours, 19A-KJ is under quarantine and interdiction. No ships come in or come out until you leave…
>>Encounter Roll…75!
“Motion detected-”
B-33 isn’t able to finish his sentence. By the time you and Trykov whirl around, the tactical droid is already firing its blaster. Sizzling bolts of red race towards a shadow in the corridor, crossing the distance in a great leap. Clad in the same, spiked armor as the corpse you’d taken, the creature is unmistakably of the same species – the mortification, scars and facial tattoos…
…your eyes widen. It isn’t wearing a helmet! Almost all of its head is exposed to the vacuum of space, save for a membrane that protects the softer flesh of its eyes, nose, ears and mouth-
Trykov fires his blaster, adding to the droid’s initial salvo. But before your own eyes, the magnificent, plated armor turns the rounds aside. The warrior’s mouth distends, and the membrane warbles as if it means to scream a challenge.
“------!”
The alien reaches behind its back, drawing a long bow staff. It bears down on B-33, firing ineffectively as the droid tries to retreat. You can’t hear it, but your mind conjures up a sickening <span class="mu-s">CRACK</span> when it makes impact.
“[Statement: we come in peace!]” HK-82 shouts in Sy Bisti, the most common tongue in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions, “[We mean you no harm!]”
It is no use. Whether or not it understood what it meant, it had no visible effect. The warrior continues to whale on the droids with a strength fueled by hatred. B-33 staggers, its chassis visibly dented as it tried to shield HK-82. It thrusts out its blaster, firing desperately towards the warrior’s uncovered face…
…but the staff blurs toward the droid. And what had been thought to be a piece of wood is actually a living organism – a serpent whose head lashes out at lightning velocity, seizing the blaster arm in a crushing grip. Metal visibly warps as its grip turns crushing, its head hissing and spitting as it bites towards B-33's photoreceptors.
(cont.)
