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Crix Aran

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Well this was turning into a fine day already and they had only just arrived. Crix frowned in a thoughtful expression that some of his friends would have said was out of character for the young Knight but, really, it was more a case of it needing to be deserved. Finding himself frowning at the situation was, however, not unexpected when the reason was an outbreak of an infection amongst the crew of two ships with long and storied histories.

Both corvettes had been assigned to guard a Lictor-Class Dungeon Ship and that? Well that probably went a lot further to explaining where the infection had come from actually. In a very awkward chaining of ships, one of the CR90s was connected to one of the prison ship's docking tubes and the other CR90 was connected to it's sister ship. Through decades of disuse, Crix was able to see that the other docking rings built into the corvettes were not usable.

Standing in the cockpit, even Sebastian was quiet as he thought about their approach. He turned to look at Eyvone.

"Alright Eyve - how do you think we should get aboard the corvettes?"
he asked her, crossing his arms slightly as he forced through a more cheerful smile, "Cus it looks like the first thing we'll be doing when we've got them is repairing some damned docking rings eh?"

He knew, already, that they could dock on the other side of the prison ship through it's second docking ring but that would mean they would need to go through the entire length of the prison ship and through, potentially, nine thousand inhabitants. Just over ten thousand if the crew were all turned as well - hell, the prisoners likely wouldn't be friendly even if they weren't infected.

But part of being a Jedi was being able to think outside the constrains of typical logic - after all, physics obeyed their instructions with the assistance of the Force. Regularly held sentiments about what was possible and what was not were for non-Force Users and those without imagination.

Even still, he was glad that he had given Eyvone his old blaster pistol and a spare lightsaber. She could create her own lightsaber when the time came but, for now, he wanted her to have something that could cut through infected tissue like a hot knife through butter, just in case.


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Eyvone Usoara

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"Eyve." Eyvone winced a bit at the nickname, thinking back to her parents again. They had called her that when she was younger, before she told them she didn't like it. 'If they came back now, I'd let them call me Eyve again.' It was foolish of her to keep bargaining with some absent power that could bring dead parents back, but she couldn't help it.

"Can we not just dock?" She would make her way closer to the cockpit so she could more clearly see the situation out in space. Then she heard the rest of his sentence, and saw what he had already seen. "Oh, well, maybe not." Repairing would be needed, indeed. "Does the prison have more docking rings?" Eyvone didn't like the idea of having to go all the way through the ship to get to the corvettes. It would be much easier if they could figure out a way onto the ships they wanted and cut them off from the prison so they would've have to deal with whatever or whoever lurked inside.

"Do we have to enter through a docking ring? Is there a way we can get onto the first one and get it off the other one?"

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Crix Aran

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Noticing the flinch out of the corner of his eye, Crix's smile dimmed somewhat as he reached out to his padawan through the Force to give her a small nudge. It wasn't anything physical so much as a general warm emotional feeling he sent to her through the forming master-padawan bond the two of them were developing. Of course given their lack of real time together it wasn't as strong a bond as it could be but it could send general emotions alright.

She was thinking about different options and he grinned slightly - if she kept thinking outside the box he would be happy to show her off to Hannibal as the next in line of the "unpredictable Jedi" school of thought.

"The prison ship has another docking ring, yes."
he answered, pulling up a hologram of the ship in question and highlighting the free docking ring, "It's on the opposite side of the ship for security reasons. Kind of sucks for us of course but I doubt they had AMS outbreaks in mind when they designed the ship."

When she brought up the question of actually needing to use a docking ring to access the ships they needed, Crix couldn't help but grin and shake his head.

"Usually? Absolutely. But not for us - we're Jedi."
he chuckled, pointing to the corvettes, "With lightsabers we can cut through the hull of starships - especially when the shields are powered down - but we can't risk breaching the hull of the corvettes in case it compromises the atmosphere and our crew can't fly them out."

He instead gestured to the prison ship, tapping a section not too far from the connection between the first corvette and the prison ship.

"Get yourself a space suit Eyvone, we'll depressurize the cargo hold, open the ramp, I'll descend to the ship with a rope and cut through the hull. You follow down the rope when I've confirmed it's safe to do so."
he instructed his padawan as he led her to where they spacesuits were kept, immediately starting to pull one on over his robes, "What do you know about the AMS infected? Ever seen one?"


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Eyvone Usoara

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'Space suits.' Eyvone had never worn one. The idea of descending out into open space was absolutely terrifying. She'd seen what such an environment could do to people. One little puncture and the same could happen to her. Despite her fear, Eyvone followed Crix to where the space suits were kept, keeping her reservations to herself. Her face held that tense, worried expression the entire time, though.

"AMS?" A look of disgust flashed over her pale features, replaced quickly by furrowed brows and tense jaws. Just another reminder of how much she disliked the Syndicates. "They're scary," she would begin after a moment. "I've not seen any in person, but my- my parents had one or two almost-encounters with them." "Never let one get close to you," they used to tell her. "If you ever encounter one, its best to run." "I know that if they touch you, ýou're basically done for." Eyvone knew little about the virus itself, just what it did to people and all the families it had ruined.

Eyvone finished putting on her space suit, struggling a bit with the weight of it as she was trying to do so. Once it was one, she felt a bit awkward and stiff, but she assumed that would disappear in a zero gravity environment.

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Crix Aran

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A basic as hell understanding of the AMS virus but, well, he didn't begrudge her parents for trying to spare her from the gruesome details. Had he still been living at home when it started to really become a big issue he was certain his own mother would have done her best to keep the worst of it from him. But Crix likely would have gotten the worst stories anyway when his mom came home and desperately needed to just unwind and vent about her day.

It didn't happen often but everyone needed a pressure valve and his rampant interest in her work as he grew older had made him the perfect target audience. In the end though, it didn't matter. He prepped his own space suit before placing a hand on Eyvone's shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Close - it's transmitted through bites. If they bite you, you've got the infection but you can counter it by cutting off that area quickly."
he sighed a little bit, "Wish I could say they're not gonna get close to you kid. I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure you're on door duty and I'll take care of them but you stay ready with those spare weapons yeah?"

He squeezed her shoulder again once more.

"I'll com you when it's safe to come down - seeya soon."


With that parting comment, Crix stepped out the back of the cargo hold. Zero gravity would mean he wouldn't 'fall' anywhere but with the Force he guided himself down to the hull of the ship. Magnetic boots had a history of not working well with the Force so Jedi weren't ever equipped with them for safety reasons. Igniting his lightsaber silently in the void of space, he knelt down and started to cut a hole through the hull of the prison ship with the impossibly cutting blade.

Once he had made one wide enough for four of him, he stepped back before reaching out with the Force and Pulling at the damage he had done - immediately the hull ruptured and the ship began leaking atmosphere. Half a dozen infected were flung into space but he used the Force to Push them into the void rather than letting them float near the ship.

They stopped moving pretty quickly.

Stepping into the ship, Crix eyed both ends of the corridor, seeing dead bodies too far gone to be infected through the bright red emergency lighting. Tying the rope off against a nearby railing, he tapped his helmet to activate the com unit.

"Alright Eyvone, slow and steady down the rope. No Infected left on this corridor - losing atmosphere here probably flushed most of them out the hole in this area."



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Eyvone Usoara

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It was a basic as hell understanding, but she'd had few interactions with people who had even encountered the beasts. Crix's explanation made things make more sense, once she sort of cross-referenced it in her mind with other things she'd read about it. Don't get bit or get an arm cut off. At least it wasn't a complete death sentence.

"Okay... got it."

Eyvone waited nervously by the exit while she held the wrist with her commlink by her ear. Her mind was racing as she went through a list of everything that could go wrong. What if she died? What if he died and she was trapped, and then she died too? Crix seemed fairly confident that she wouldn't be in too much danger, but she'd never done anything like this before. What did she know other than shelter on a ship? Not much. Not much.

"Okay, I'm coming down..." The Nagai grabbed the rope with both her hands and descended down. The weightlessness of space was a new feeling for her. When her feet hit the ground her hand moved instinctively to the lightsaber on her belt. She didn't ignite it, but instead held it in front of her with both hands. "What now?"

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Crix Aran

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As Eyvone began her decent down into the prison ship, Crix could feel the Force beginning to awaken as it spoke soft warnings into his mind. Already he could tell that there were more of the Infected heading their way, not through the Force telling him but because it made sense - they were likely the only creatures actually still here after all. Even with the void of space open to the corridor through the hole in the ceiling, they would likely be an issue.

Thankfully, he didn't need to focus on detaching the corvettes and fighting off the Infected at the same time because he had a partner for the mission. Potentially problematic was how adept at bypassing security locks Eyvone actually was. Once she was settled on the floor, he handed her a datapad and gestured to the lock panel by the airlock.

"Alright Eyvone, I need you to focus on unlocking the corvettes from the prison ship. Once that's done we can vent the corvettes and tow them out of here - and blow the prison ship up from a safe distance."


His lightsaber ignited with the very famous snap and hiss sound as the sound of advancing feet began to grow louder and louder from both ends of the corridors. The Infected weren't here yet but they were already making their presence felt. Crix placed his free hand on Eyvone's shoulder.

"I've got your back, don't worry about what's happening behind you, just focus on the lock yeah?"


Turning away from his padawan, Crix called a discarded vibroknife from one of the deceased to his free hand and flipped it into an ice-pick grip as he activated it's edge. Duel-wielding wasn't something he was very accomplished with at this stage but he was willing to bet he could carve through some attacking Infected corpses easily enough.


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Eyvone Usoara

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Crix's instructions bounced around inside her head, a jumbled mess of words Eyvone desperately tried to understand as her mind began to race. The sound of growls and thundering steps beat in her ears. Her heart began to race, and when Crix handed her to datapad, the hands which received it were shaky. She couldn't find the words to reply, so the Nagai padawan quickly gave him a nod and turned to find the lock panel he had gestured to.

'Unlock the corvettes. Unlock the corvettes. Unlock the corvettes.' While Crix turned to presumably deal with the horde of infected heading towards them, Eyvone repeated those three words in her head as she crouched down in front of the lock panel and connected the datapad to it. She began establishing a connection between the two systems, though her shaky hands made things a bit more difficult. That and her lack of experience with this sort of thing was slowing her down a bit. She'd never gotten to docking or undocking ships from her parent's lessons.

Once the connection was established, Eyvone began to move as quickly as possible,.

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Crix Aran

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He could tell that her hands were shaking and he understood that very well - it seemed like just yesterday he had been shaking like a leaf whenever he thought back to Sullust. Crix gave the shoulder he had placed a hand on a gentle, reassuring, squeeze before he focused back up on his task. As much as he wanted to be there for Eyvone and help her through this trying time, he needed to make sure that she lived long enough for that to be an option and that meant it was time to slice through as many of the infected as he could.

Not one of them would touch her.

"You're alright - we're alright."
he assured her both verbally and via telepathy using the Force as he slashed through several of the infected in one swipe of his lightsaber, the blade cutting through the dumber infected like a hot knife through butter, "The datapad has the right program, you just have to use it when it prompts you, alright?"

Ducking under a slash aimed to cleave straight through his throat, Crix stabbed the vibroblade into the Infected's skull from one side before kicking it backward with the Force. The infected slammed bodily into several more of it's friends, giving Crix enough of a break to actually take a breath himself, the effort already beginning to make him pant from exertion but he refused to audiably do so when Eyvone was on the comlink with him.

"Just this then we're home free, alright?"


He pushed himself forward in a blur of motion, lancing through several more of the Infected as he sought to make a literal barricade from some of the bodies lining the doorway.


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Eyvone Usoara

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'I'm alright.' Eyvone began to repeat those words in her head as her shaky hands followed the program's prompting, tapping through the modules as they appeared on the screen. The sound of fighting behind her was stressing her out, but she was able to calm herself when she remembered a breathing trick her father once taught her.

'Slow, heavy breaths,' Eyvone reminded herself as she adjusted her position and did her best to concentrate on the datapad and not the sounds coming from behind. 'Focus on the task at hand and think with intent. Don't worry about anything other than what I'm doing.' The Nagai padawan's hands calmed a bit, allowing the girl to work a bit faster. As fast as the spacesuit allowed her fingers to maneuver, at least.

"I got one corvette off!" Eyvone announced to Crix as the distant sound of the ship undocking could be heard. Instilled with a bit more confidence, the Nagai girl went right back to work, fighting off the temptation to look back to check up on her master. 'He's fine; he's fine. You're fine.'

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Crix Aran

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She got one corvette off?

Fantastic!

Crix grunted ever so slightly as he grabbed the wrist of a creature that had once been a human man, doing his best to halt the hand that had been thrust at his gut. The hand wouldn’t have been an issue had the infection not mutated the man, granting him freaking talon-line fingers. With the added strength of the AMS infection, the tips of the talons had burst through the light armour in the front of Crix’s robes.

He could feel that the talons weren’t in very deep but blood was flowing underneath his armour and even with the Force aiding him, the infected was freakishly strong… so he didn’t stay in a battle of strength. Instead he extinguished his lightsaber before reigniting it mid swing, cutting the offending hand off at the wrist.

The pressure trying to force the fingers inside of him stopped and Crix was able to pull the talons free of his armour and toss the hand aside.

“See Eyvone?”
he congratulated her with a grin and a shaky breath, “You got this – I believe in that and so should you.”

There was a lull in the flow of the Infected and Crix leaned up against the wall, pressing a hand to his wound as he tried to assess how bad it was. Although AMS could only be transmitted via bites, he wouldn’t be surprised if the unsanitary conditions on the talons would cause him issues if he didn’t get some treatment.

There was bacta on the ship… just needed to get back to it.


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Eyvone Usoara

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'Don't look back.'

The Nagai padawan kept her pale green eyes on the datapad and did her best to keep her head on her shoulders. She didn't have that many corvettes to get through, and she'd already done one. All she had to do was repeat the process a couple of times until they were all freed from their locks.

'Slow, deep breaths.'

Eyvone began to quickly tap at the screen, focused, but winced every time she heard the sound of Crix's saber when he swung it through flesh or the air. "Another one!" She was started to get the hang of this, though her high-pitched voice and tense words sounded more stressed than excited. Eyvone was far from excited; adrenaline rushed through her veins and her muscles screamed to run

'I'm fine. I'm fine.'

"Two more."

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Crix Aran

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Two more?

"Alright! Two more - we got this."


He said this because they both needed to hear it - Eyvone because she needed to be able to connect to what she was doing without looking behind her. And he needed to hear it because he was beginning to get tired at this point. The wound to his gut hurt like nobody's business and he was beginning to tire in a way that the infected just simply weren't.

With their brains rotten away, the infected were a mess of steroids and rage without anything else in their brains. Their brains didn't send the signals like they should and their bodies didn't tire at all because of it. An AMS infected person stayed as freakishly strong as they had always been even after several hours.

It was a feat Crix could not match.

With a grunt of effort, Crix swung his lightsaber up even as he backhanded the lead infected with a Force Push. His lightsaber tore through the ceiling of the hallway and it was just what Crix needed. Pulling it down with the Force, he Pushed the ceiling panel as hard as he could down the length of the corridor, the plating spinning at roughly head height, taking several of the infected out at the head or the neck.

The bruises and the aches from the continuous fighting were beginning to get to him now and he half-slumped against the wall, only keeping his head up through sheer force of will.

"Yeah we got this."



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Eyvone Usoara

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"They're out! They're out!"

Eyvone shot to her feet and caught her balance on the wall with one hand while her other arm waved the data pad. Her voice was quick and short of breath, and her eyes widened at the sight of Crix using the wall to support his weight. She had taken far too long. This was her fault.

The nagai padawan began to walk towards Crix, and as she did she she pulled her saber from her belt once again. It shook in her shaky hands, but she did not ignite it so no blade sprung forth.

"Are you okay?" She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a slight tug. "Can we go? Let's go."

She wanted to get the hell outta dodge before more of those things reappeared.

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Crix Aran

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The ships were loose... they could go now.

He could stop.

The adrenaline that he had been running on for the past few moments at least was beginning to get a little bit much. He could barely hear things aside from the rushing of blood in his ears but he could hear Eyvone and he could feel her hand on his shoulder. So he forced himself to move, pushing off from the wall and giving her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, we can go."
he confirmed, reaching up with the Force to pull down a cable from the back-end of his ship through the hole they had entered through, "Grab onto this and use it to steady and guide yourself, alright? Cus you're going up and out first."

Extinguishing his lightsaber, Crix fitted it back to his belt and physically grabbed hold of Eyvone by the hips.

"On three I'm going to throw you up and out - you're gonna need to guide yourself in. One. Two. Three!"


Using both his physical strength and the Force, Crix would throw Eyvone up through the hole in the roof of the ship towards the cargo hold of his own ship. With the cable he had given her, she would have a tether to the ship that would be able to guide her in safely. Crix himself crouched down slightly before leaping up, using the Force more actively to guide himself up through the hole in the prison ship so he could float almost leisurely toward the cargo hold.

He would help pull Eyvone in if he needed to even as he spoke to her over their suit coms.

"So... AMS infected as karking terrifying, right?"



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Eyvone Usoara

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When Crix said it was time to leave, a wave of relief spread through the nagai. The hard part was finished with. All that was left to do was to clear the corvettes, and Eyvone was pretty sure Crix had said something about just being able to flush them out into space or something like that. But for the moment at least, her desire was to get the hell off this ship.

Her hands gripped the cable tightly as Crix threw her upwards into the air, and when she cleared the threshold of the ship she began to pull herself bit by bit. The wave of relief she had felt before returned tenfold when her boots finally hit the ground of the transport. Eyvone nearly collapsed to the floor, but she steadied herself on a wall. She had done nothing compared to the energy Crix had exerted; she didn't want him to see how it had affected her.

"Y-yeah,"
was her mumbled response to his question. She'd only heard stories before, but now she'd witnessed them. Hopefully she would never have to be that close to those things ever again. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered that those creatures had once been sentient beings just like her. If she was ever bit... just kill her.

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Crix Aran

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Yeah.

People infected by the AMS virus beyond a certain threshold were beyond saving and they were terrifying foes to fight. And they needed to be fought too, no matter how much you wanted to avoid killing them because of the people they had once been. The Infected on the ship were slightly easier for him to think about anyway since they had been prisoners sentenced to the worst kind of hard time.

It helped... a little.

"Let me tell you a little secret."
he told her as he closed off the cargo hold and started to pull his armor and suit off to better check his cuts and wounds, "They're never going to get any less terrifying."

Hissing slightly, he checked out the wound to his abdomen and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a cut half from the claws of an Infected and half from his own armor plating cutting into himself but it was not a bite. With the AMS infection being spread only through bites and direct ingestion of the virus itself, he would be fine.

Still stung.

"Being a Jedi isn't about not feeling afraid, no matter what you might have heard Eyvone. You'll feel anger and fear and all the rest of it because you're a living, sentient, being and that's what you DO. You feel."
he smiled a tired smile at her, "But as a Jedi, what matters is what you do with those feelings. You accept them. You're afraid... so what are you gonna do about it? You gonna let it change you? Push you to make decisions you wouldn't usually? No."

He patted her on the shoulder.

"Accept that you're scared, take a deep breath, plant your feet and do the right thing anyway. It's okay to be afraid, Eyvone, you just can't ever let it change who you are or what you stand for in the moment."



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Eyvone Usoara

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He said they were never going to be any less terrifying, which wasn't reassuring, but he went on to reassure her that it was okay to be scared. It was okay to be angry; it was okay to feel her emotions. 'Accept that I'm scared.' She repeated in her head. 'Just don't change who I am.'

The Nagai had a feeling it was a little easier said than done, but she just nodded and began to remove her spacesuit. Hopefully the rest of the mission would let her stay as far from the AMS zombies as possible.

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