October 12, 2011

739. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

Dianna wasn't sure she wanted to examine the ship, afraid of what she might find, so Rhox came out to help Raezyr and Trychon. They moved carefully about the interior of the Twi'lek's ship. She had been an assassin, and as such, was prone to being wary of intruders. It didn't appear as though she had left any traps, or hadn't set them if they were present.

They found two bodies in the med bay. It appeared that Teera and Dek had spent the last few moments using the medical oxygen tanks.

"Frakking Republic bastards," Trychon muttered inside his enviro-suit as the three looked down on the bodies of their friends.

"What was that?" Raezyr asked, not quite catching what he had said.

"Nevermind," he said brusquely before turning to his brother. "Raez, can you get their remains inside the base? I need to check the computers and figure out what happened here."

At that moment, their suit comms crackled to life. "Guys, I'm in the engine room. Come take a look," Rhox said.


They both arrived a moment later. The blackened mess had melted almost everything in the room. Raezyr ran his fingers across the back soot and examined it closely, noticing a crystalline structure to it. "Plasma fire... burned up all the Oh-two and destroyed the oxy-scrubbers as well."


"Can you tell what caused it?" Rhox asked.


"No, but maybe there's something in the logs," Raezyr said and looked at his brother.


"It was probably the kriffing Si..." Trychon started to mumble before catching himself and the glares headed in his direction.  "I'm on it," He said and headed for the cockpit.

It only took him a few minutes to access the proper logs, most of which was spent decrypting his own algorithms.  Seconds thereafter, his datapad had analyzed the data.

"Hmmm."  He said to himself before keying the comm.  "Alright... I've got the results.  Nothing surprising, for what it's worth.  You can come take a look though."

Rhox and Raezyr arrived seconds apart.  Trychon didn't look up immediately, but continued his work as he held up a hand gesturing for them to wait.

"What's the deal?  I thought you had it already."  Rhox tapped her foot impatiently.

"Hang on to your tauntaun.... I'm going to do even better.  I hope."

As if he had timed it on purpose, the display nearest him began playing back a video log.

The screen showed nothing but static at first, but the audio had alarm klaxons as well as the static.  As the picture began to resolve, they could make out a shadow of what seemed to be a humanoid in front of the camera.  They began to hear coughing and muted cursing over the blaring computer warnings. 

Slowly the video began to focus.  It was still dark and grainy, but they could make out Dek's face obscured by an oxygen mask.

"Finally..."  He gasped, breaking into another coughing fit.  "I'm not sure how long I have now, so I'll get to the point.  We're not doing so hot."  He paused to continue trying to clear his lungs.  "We got hit as we made our jump out of the system.  We tried to feign compliance and get out without any further damage, but it didn't work."

"The hyperdrive took some damage, but our first jump was locked in.  When we came out of hyperspace, the alarms... only got worse with the wear and tear.  We knew we were taking a risk... by making the second jump, but with the Republic possibly right on our tail, and the course already locked in... we were risking more by staying.  We couldn't risk everyone else."

"When the fire started, I was able to lock it into the engine room and contain... it.  I don't know how the drive survived to keep us going, but it all happened... so quick.  I think my lungs are..."  His eyes began to water and he went into a long coughing fit.  "I think they're scarred.  My lungs.  Teera took a nasty hit on the head and has been unconscious.  Probably for the best, because her air just may last her long enough.  I'm... wasting mine at least twice as much as I should.  Not... not for long though."

"Di.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry... about... Teera.  I'm sorry about everyone else."  His eyes began pouring out water, and it was more evident that it was emotional, not physical damage that was causing it now.  He was holding in his sobs as best he could.  "I don't... know why they did this.  Why... did they do this to us?  I didn't do anything to... to them.  Not... my fault.  Please... please... save Teera if you... can.  Save yourselves."

"Good...bye."

With his last words spent, he unhooked the oxygen canister from his own mask and walked over to Teera's unconscious form on the table behind him.  Barely able to hold himself up, he connected what oxygen he had left to the secondary input on her mask before collapsing.

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