Ash-Teared Doctor, Crocodile

[Vayna Akhara]

It only took a second to assess the enemy. Heavy, armoured on back and sides, powerful bite and shredding teeth. Best places to attack - eyes, mouth and underbelly. Keep moving, don't let them surround and gang up on you. Start killing them.

She ran at the nearest dragon, one which had been injured by the detonator. It roared at her and lunged to bite, but she dodged to one side and fired her rifle into its eye. It shrieked in pain and threw its head back, giving her the opportunity to drive the knife into its vulnerable throat and slash its windpipe. The dragon collapsed in a fountain of blood, and Taia threw herself backwards to avoid the snapping jaws of another dragon that had joined the fray. She slashed its snout, it bellowed at her, and she fired straight down its throat, blowing out the back of its skull.

A tight smile crossed her face; the blonde hunter was enjoying herself.

 

[Syn]

Knight looked at Taia go and she moved holding her lightsaber and slashing at the throats of the creatures. She decapitated one and didn't make a face this wasn't enjoyable but they had something to do and as she spun around and kicked out fired into the eyes of another creature. She kept looking at Taia and moved jumping over one of the creatures and landed on another's back as her lightsaber went into the back and she rode it working him aroundfiring off his back.

 

[Insanity]

Qwarn stopped near the end of the ramp, his options getting slimmed down considerably as he entered solid ground. The floor seemed to echo, muffledly, the metal covering the duracrete floor beneath sounding.. wrong, to him. He didn't move further, instead sighting the M5 on the mutated thing. He waited, patiently, as it turned and lumbered slowly in his direction, though it stopped and went in another as if uncaring. That confused him, though it was clear as to why soon enough. Two blades of light, which appeared as extreme heat and autmatically dis-engaged his thermal vision, appeared where the thing was looking. Qwarn sighted quickly and fired at the right side of its head.

The det went off, the superheated air in its range illicting an animalistic scream of sheer rage and blind pain. The thing staggered, burned flesh and noxious fumes coming from it. Qwarn laoded another det, firing again, this time at a leg. The beast staggered again, its leg burned partially. Scab-like growth had protected it, likely where early puss-filled tumors and growths had fell away or been scratched off or something else. The sight brought back that queasiness, that urge to empty his stomach. He held it down, firing blaster-bolts into the thing's head, where he hoped the eyes were. Its attention shifted accordingly, angered and in pain and simply raging at this abnormality.

The Imperial cursed fluently in Huttese, Basic, and Twi'lek as he ran along the seeming edges of the room's confines, the creature slowing as it tried to locate him by sound. It was ignoring the other threat, the knight, as if he weren't important. Qwarn knew that the beast's lack of intelligence was good for them.

 

[DeathToll]

As the blind and dumb beast wail from pain, Zsaekriel did not give it chance to find Qwarn; propelling into a zigzag of sprinting bursts, cutting away at the backs of its heels and tendons. Slicing through and spilling multiple colors and consistencies of fluid, Zsaekriel's lightsabers were managing to slow its steps even further. Though, in parts, unattended and pocketed growths burst out with the cutting burns of the silver lightsabers; as the Imperial Knight sailed clear of any possible contaminant. Ranging from the heel itself to the lower thigh, Zsaekriel made quick work ot the lumbering mammoth.

Already pressed up against the catwalk, it was further inhibited and unable to cope; it stumbled back and forth with a raging insanity. Yet, as Zsaekriel's attacks worked well to regain the thing's attention, it swung its entire mass about to turn towards this infliction and lost its balance; teetering back and slamming its swollen back hard into the catwalk as it fall. Its head and bloated face was positioned next to the mid-level catwalk.

 

[Vayna Akhara]

Another dragon came at her, and the tall blonde Stormtrooper dodged to one side, then the other, throwing the beast's attack into confusion as it snapped at where she had been a second before, too slow to catch her. She jammed the muzzle of her rifle into its eye and fired, the shot blasting a hole straight through its skull and out the other eye socket in a shower of blood and brains.

Time to settle on shooting or cutting - shooting, I think. She slid the knife back into her harness and pulled out her pistol, a T-6 'super-heavy' blaster. Now with one shooting weapon in each hand, she dived back into the fight, firing both weapons one-handed at targets as she dodged and spun through the melee, aiming at heads, eyes, underbellies, necks, and anything else she could see in the spilt-second aim she had. One by one, the dragons were weakened and dropped. Taia's armour showed claw scratches on arms and legs, but none yet penetrated. She kept fighting.

 

[Syn]

Knight moved as she stayed pace for pace with the imperial and looked at her suit. She was lucky to be fully armored and crouched low as a dragon snapped as she came with a force enhanced uppercut and sent him back. The dragons were thinning and Knight moved jumping up and firing into the faces as she grabbed a pipe and wrapped her legs around it reaching down and firing with one hand while the other was offered to Taia. "Up here catch your breathe and rejoin me."

 

[Insanity]

Qwarn felt himself to be lucky as the mutated thing, Rancor or something else now, began to become erratic. He saw the blades of the knight flashing, hitting in one place then another. Eventually, the thing ignored the Imperial completely, intent on the other thing hurting it. He caught his breath, drawing a thermal det, one of his last few, and watching for a chance. As the thing got closer to the catwalk, it began to stumble, movements even more erratic then before. He started to move forward, a low sprint. What he planned was daring, dangerous, and incredibly stupid.

The creature began to fall and he jumped, running up the virus-infested skin and flesh. It flailed at him, as he did, until he was by its face. He activated the det, throwing it with a toss into the raging maw. Then he jumped to the side, avoiding another swipe as he landed in a heap on the flooring of the room. He didn't wait for the det to blow, instead heading straight for door where light filtered through a window, the door that connected to the Gungan's sealed room. Behind him, he heard the det finally blow, with a sickening sound of flesh and liquids splattering on the flooring and catwalk. He didn't even notice that his M5 had gotten loose and fallen away when he had pulled his small stunt.

He stopped by the sealed door, catching his breath as he examined the controls, hitting sequences at random. He paused, though, as a mechanical voice echoed in the room. "All personnel, vacate Experiment Cell 1104. We are initiating Incineration Protocol 15. You have five minutes." He entered a few more sequences, none working.

 

[Vayna Akhara]

Taia fired her rifle, hitting the tender snout of one of the remaining dragons, making it bellow in pain and rage, and she fired her pistol straight down its throat. The numbers were falling, but the ground was becoming slick with blood and body parts, and the corpses of the dragons were making movement difficult. If she'd been back in the jungle she'd've been barefoot, but in the boots of the armour, she didn't have the same grip.

Hearing Knight's shout she spun, doing a handstand and roll over the back of a dragon and dashing in her direction, firing the pistol and slinging the rifle over her shoulder as she moved. She hit the wall running, using her momentum to get four paces up the wall before gravity began to reassert itself, before diving for the pipe and throwing herself over it.

"Still a few too many of them. Better clear some away," she said calmly as she loaded a detonator into the underbarrel launcher and handed Knight another.

 

[Syn]

Knight took the det and nodded as she set it but didn't arm it. She moved her saber and activated it cutting into the wall as it glowed red hot and she made a hole. Knight looked at Taia and dropped the det as she activated it and jumped taking off at a run into another room and rushing for the door. She had set it for forty five second enough time for Taia to get through and out the door before it went off...She hoped.

 

[DeathToll]

Zsaekriel followed after Qwarn, having retracted his sabers and re-attached them to his belt, the splattering goop sailing over their side as most of the rest caught along the catwalk and the wall below it. The monstrosity's carcus lay hollow against the walkway as if part of the wall's interior design, some hideous design.

The Keshiri stood off behind Qwarn and watched their back, yet heard the cautioned words of the computer panel.

Zsaekriel looked around, confused as to which cell the voice referred. He did not remember focusing on where they had went, with that giant thing to take up his attention. But then 'incineration' was clear enough. He looked back to Qwarn to give what tools he had available to complete their objective.

"I can keep us safe... But only temporarily."

Noticing Qwarn's trouble with the door, Zsaekriel motioned to step in.

"Here. Let me try."

And with a spitting silver, the light of one of Zsaekriel's sabers shot out with a slashing uppercut through the center of the door. Pulling back from the scratching slash, he then plunged the beam into the center of the doorway and began to twist.

 

[Insanity]

Qwarn hit the control panel again out of spite, having already figured that they were the ones about to be incinerated. Well, incineration... who knew it'd end like that? Part of his mind, the one that was a pessimist, chimed in. He chuckled at the thought, amused in a morbid sense. Yeah, who knew? His fatalism didn't last long, given that the knight intervened. Qwarn moved back as he was bid, given he didn't have much choice between let his ally deal with it somehow or die in a plasma-fueled incineration that'd scorch the entire room clean. Yeah, his choice was the former, obviously.

Once the knight turned that super-heated blade of sheer light back on and was cutting the door, he heard the control panel beside it beep, detecting the breach that was occuring. Making sure not to get in the way, he pushed some of the panel's controls. That illicited more beeping as that synthesized voice chimed back in, pleasant tones stating things that could mean life, death, or worse. "Containment breach... Sealing entire cells... Error.... De-contamination protocols disabled, incineration materials re-routing to surface." Qwarn withheld near-hysterical laughter at that message.

By then, the door was damaged enough that it slid halfway open and jammed, leading into a de-con chamber. Qwarn looked towards the knight, nodding his head towards it. "Man with glowing sticks goes first, eh? Since I do believe people who use glowing sticks can block blaster-fire better than anyone else."

 

[DeathToll]

Great, Zsaekriel thought. It seemed as though he had worsened their predicament, yet freeing them from their poisonous prison. He stepped forward with an almost sarcastic nod. As if this could've become any worse. how would they prevent the contaminations breach? Or was it already too late?

Zsaekriel took one last moment to angle his chin over to his shoulder and address his companion.

"Keep up."

That's all he said before bolting forward. He would do all he could to attract incoming fire and attention for the Imperial with his guns to catch any that Zsaekriel let slip through his sprinting attack.

Better? Not just better. Zsaekriel's specialization was deflecting and redirecting blaster fire.

The Imperial Knight shot forward and past the two high-mounted turrets over the double doors, moving so fast that the turrest hesitated in their rotation inwards to aim at him. Zsaekriel's second lightsaber reignited as he created a flourishing saber barrier that bounced the two immediate bolts back to their points of origin with a showing of hailing sparks. Then, expecting Qwarn to catch up and watch his back now, Zsaekriel twisted in his arms to use the Force and intimately trigger the electrical signal that opens these contamination doors. They would open, and Zsaekriel would be standing there to face all the facility's droids if only to somehow reach the surface and somehow stop this chain of events.

 

[Vayna Akhara]

Taia fired a few more shots at the dragons below, hitting one in the eye and causing it to bellow in pain, She fired the detonator down its throat and swung down from the pipe, running for cover as fast as she could as the blast shredded the beast and several others close by. She dived through the hole in the wall that Knight had made and rolled to her feet, running as fast as she could move as she fired one-handed over her shoulder to deter any dragons from attempting to follow her.

Don't know how long it was set for, so find a nice corner to duck round ...

 

[Syn]

Knight looked at Taia and nodded as she went through the door and motioned 'come on' while she moved and her det exploded ripping through the dragons and the hole like a fireball. Knight reached out while she was running and turned while she ran. She could feel Z and the imperial as she ran towards them letting the force guide her. When she saw a person Knight activated her saber with a snap hiss and slid cutting the man in two as she rolled and threw his torso into another man to knock him down. Slowly Knight stood over him and spoke waiting for Taia to catch up while her blade went near his throat. "In the name of the True Emperor tell me where is Crocodile." The man pointed and she moved.

 

[Insanity]

Qwarn followed behind the knight, though he held his sidearm close rather than completely out, just in case a stray shot went and hit him while he was coming in behind his temporary ally. He didn't need to bother, given the knight dealt with the only defenses present. Metal fell to the ground, sparks emitting from the empty couplings that had moments before been a pair of turrets. He didn't pay the scrap any heed as he started for the door's controls.

He didn't take more than a few steps before the sealed de-con door opened, seemingly of its own accord.

And rather than droids greeting them, it was the Gungan, Crocodile. He held a blaster in one hand, aiming straight at Zsaekriel's head. The Gungan fired, Qwarn fired. Qwarn's weapon kicked mildly as the projectile sped into one of the Gungan's knees, bringing Crocodile down as the Gungan screamed as tendons suddenly torn and blood leaking from the wound.

 

[DeathToll]

More sparks rained over the Gungan as he buckled under flickering lights, Zsaekriel now bent off in a lean. His reaction had been faster than one could notice, not having moved his feet as Qwarn's blaster bolt sailed past him; yet he had twisted a lean left and caught the Gungan's fire with a crossing saber, without the time to properly redirect it back at its originator but instead deflecting it up into the light panel.

Zsaekriel now stepped aside, making note to later give the Imperial a glance at his additional quick reflexes. For now, Zsaekriel circled the evil creature here before them; waving a hand using two free fingers, ripping the Gungan's blaster out of his clutches to clatter against the corner. Zsaekriel's circling would cut off the Gungan's route to escape or any other weapon's reach.

Glaring at the Gungan, whom had given them grief, Zsaekriel swirled around one of his sabers over and above Crocodile's shoulder; the silver beam almost searing into flesh midway along the lanky neck, the second saber held at the ready.

"Quickly. Search him for any tricks. I can sense this one's devious mind churning."

 

[Vayna Akhara]

Taia charged in the direction that the man had pointed,, slamming a fist into his head as she passed, dropping him unconscious - better make sure he didn't try anything once they were out of sight. The door he'd poined at led into another, much larger room, and she saw a Gungan being held by another lightsaber wielder which she presumed was Knight's backup, and Qwarn holding a blaster at the Gungan doctor.

She grinned; one objective completed, now for the next step of the process; tracking down the vials of virus. She stepped up to the Gungan and quickly patted him down, removing the vial she found in a pocket and securing it in her harness. "I'll check the side rooms for more," she said to the previously unknown Imperial Knight holding Crocodile prisoner. She walked into the nearest room and began thoroughly searching it, checking every nook and cranny for any more vials of the virus.

 

[Syn]

Knight looked around and then at Z as she began to look with Taia. Knight went near the side rooms and kept her eyes on Taia while she searched. Knight kept quiet. If Z was visible then she would have to be careful and moved raising her hood and speaking towards the Imperial. "You know you could come with us. You are not evil but misguided, help us restore the Empire."

 

[Insanity]

Things were still on edge, to Qwarn. He didn't have time to deal with Crocodile's surprises, but still the knight was suggesting it. So he'd started to move, interrupted as Taia and the female knight moved in from a connecting corridor. Taia took care of the Gungan, which left Qwarn free from doing so himself. Once the other Imperial began to check connecting rooms, Qwarn started to step over the Gungan to pass Zsaekriel - stopping and bringing his boot down on the Gungan's good knee instead, crushing it under the weight of armor and and his body. Then he moved past Zsaekriel, stepping into the large room where the medical cots holding deformed corpses were. He avoided looking at those.

Instead, he walked towards the bank of screens set over the single console. That was what he wanted to deal with right now, because it was bloody important. Luckily, Crocodile had forgotten to lock it down after he'd been forced to re-route the materials. He found the system that was sending the bio-hazard materials to the surface, shut the main vent down, and ignored it. Slipping a data-chip from a satchel, he hooked it in as he began to transfer Crocodile's files to it. Most of the medical data was beyond his comprehension but most of it seemed... wrong. The images attached to some files were more deformed than the corpses on the cots.

He was getting queasy again, as well as wanting the Gungan dead. Which, the latter was part of the original plan anyways.

 

[DeathToll]

Things were very much still on edge and becoming more and more out of control, as Zsaekriel checked a head nod in Taia's direction for Knight to follow and keep an eye on. Zsaekriel, stuck standing there, was not in acceptance of the Imperial's quick movements in acquiring all data and samples so easily. For the Imperial Knights, if this wasn't handles correctly, there would only be a second coming in the form of another Crocodile in the Empire's devision. And here these Imperials were enabling this future to come to pass. An obvious conflict was sooner down the line this day, and Zsaekriel was watching it close in on them.

As per his usual signature in tactical preferance and effective maneuvering, Zsaekriel swirled that saber round to cut a thin slash across the Gungan's calves as he call out in short pain; falling to his hands as Zsaekriel circle around him to better see the others. He still held a saber poined at the evil creature, yet sought to address the others and stay on top of his own situation.

"I urge you. Do not go down this path."

Zsaekriel obviously wasn't implying that Qwarn allow the questionable substances vent topside, but was in fact asking to continue such action against their likely plans for the virus.

"We should leave everything here. Bury it! Take what you need for an antidote, the less the better; but I urge you not to force my hand..."

He was a confident man, one saber pointed forth and one up to his side; and he was not willling to let their efforts here become meaningless.

One general warning emanated from Zsaekriel's presence towards Knight, and it was a warning to be on guard; be careful, for things here were going south for them.