Ask Poison is the Cure

Kayden Skyler

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Coming in hot, captain in the cockpit scratching his crotch, Silence came in just as quiet as it breached the atmosphere of a drukhole named Deysum III. On its last legs. Good thing the galaxy has saviors like me willing to cut those legs off. After peeling the skin off first, of course.

So it was that the Sith touched down with a smile, preparing himself for the events soon to unfold. He wouldn’t be going at it alone. In the overcrowded Dragnoor, capital of this pisspot planet, the sun shone down with as much regard for what was beneath it as anyone had for spilled urine.

The Captain of the Silence descended the ramp, gave the dock handler his due, and walked across the cracked pavement of the stinking outside air toward the meeting point. He was garbed in a thick black leather coat above skull-stomping boots that just stepped over a Pantoran.

Kayden wasn’t interested in the bottle of booze but, having left his pack of smokes in the cockpit, gladly plucked the man’s cigarette from between his fingers and moved along. A ship flew overhead, maybe to escape hell, for little else could classify Deysum.

Corporations had exploited the planet’s resources, raped it for all it was worth, and the husk leftover was little more than a wasteland. Kayden had to watch his step for puddles in the street, but outside the city? Forget about it. Polluted rivers, toxic plains, and a little laboratory whose secrets were waiting to be plucked like a drunkard's cigarette.

Arriving at a cantina called the Paper Pig, Kayden didn’t feel like going inside but he would be easy to spot; a man leaning against the wall having a smoke, listening to the cantina’s music. It was the same song that had been playing in his Silence. Most importantly, the Sith’s Force signature was just as loud and as naked as a wailing woman.


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Cheriss Ktrame

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Deysum. A sorry excuse for a planet. It was no wonder why someone would want a lab here. In the aftermath of the corporations’ often literal strip-mining of the system, the world was so filthy that it would deter most from even setting foot here. The vast majority of the populace did not remain by choice, though this was not the case for the Sith. There was something they needed to do here first, and once they did, they would leave and Deysum III would return to being just another planet in a galaxy of billions.

Cheriss walked at a brisk pace through the crack-riddled pavement, stepping over piles of muck and puddles of liquid that were anything but water. She was here to meet her would-be partner in this endeavor at a certain Paper Pig cantina.

She turned the corner to the street of the cantina, coming face to face with a man with a lazy smile and an empty bottle in his hand. His clothing reeked of alcohol. She moved to go around him, but the man followed and blocked her again.

“Step aside.” He didn’t budge, instead taking a step forward toward her with that drunk smile still on his face. This is a waste of time. Holding a hand out in front of her and curling her fingers into a fist, she grasped the man’s neck with the Force and threw him aside, leaving him coughing in the middle of the street. Moving along and approaching the cantina, she opened up her Force signature, although she didn’t need to. The man in the leather coat having a smoke had an unmistakable aura around him, and she knew before she even saw him that he was the one she was looking for.

“Skyler, I presume,” Cheriss said as she came to a stop in front of him, briefly looking him up and down. “I trust you know where we’re going?”

@Die Shize
 
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Kayden Skyler

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The woman looked the man up and down, the man looked the woman down and up. She had a figure, eyes like milk chocolate, hair a little darker, killer lips on the face of a killer. Kayden did not need the Force to mark this young lady as a dangerous soul. Perfect.

“We are here to reap from the field and pluck from the orchard.” He blew smoke, aware of his ambiguity, and watched it curl toward the sky to disappear before ever reaching the polluted clouds. “And to have a drink. Come.”

He wouldn’t wait, making it clear Cheriss would be briefed inside. Kayden tossed his cigarette and entered the cantina. He expected a toilet but the Paper Pig was surprisingly cleaner than outside, discounting its patrons. They were filthy in more ways than one.

Still, a janitor was mopping up a spill, a woman had her head to the bar, motionless, and the backdoor swung open as a pair of fisticuffs took their scuffle outside upon the bartender demanding it.

“Wine. Red.” Kayden requested, leaning on the bar.

“No one orders that here.” The bartender looked like he had just been asked for carrot purée and corn sabayon.

“I just did.” Kayden smiled.

Bartender shrugged and reached for the nearest bottle while his patron wagged a finger and pointed to the top shelf. Clearly no one ordered wine here or his host would have known where he kept the bottles.

This one was top shelf but still tasted like it had come from a Bothan's bottom. Oh well, the Pinot Noir would suffice as Kayden would toss enough credit chips to include whatever Cheriss might want. Then he led the pair to a table. They were all occupied.

Kayden set his glass down in front of a male Human. “You’re in my seat.”

The Human snorted in contempt. “It’s got my ass in it. That makes it mine.”

“You’re in my seat,” Kayden waved lazily. “Now get up and go piss yourself on your way to the restroom.”

“I’m in your seat,” the man blinked. “Now I’m going to get up and go piss myself on my way to the restroom.” He got up and marched away.

Taking his seat, Kayden watched the janitor curse something foul and hasten over to a fresh spill.

“Sixty-eight percent,” he mentioned before sipping his wine, such as it was. “That’s the infection level of this world. Dragnoor is one of the few cities still living, so to speak. A crowded capital, its brave defenders are doing what they can.”

He spoke passingly, more reflective than informative, looking at the patrons instead of his partner. “That said, the entire east end of the city is already overrun. Walls and barricades keep the Infected out, along with a healthy dose of police brutality and unsanctioned killing.”

He shrugged, finally meeting Cheriss’ eyes. “There’s a Cerean man trapped on the wrong side of the blockade who needs some rescuing. Mission is we find him, free him and he takes us outside the city to his laboratory hidden somewhere in the beautiful land surrounding it.”


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Cheriss Ktrame

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“Very well.” The man entered the cantina and Cheriss went in after him, sweeping the packed room quickly with her eyes before she stopped over at the bar. The red wine Kayden had asked for didn’t look the least bit appealing, so when the bartender turned to her, “whatever is popular” was the request he got. A glass filled to the brim with whatever the drink was slid over to Cheriss. She caught it and took a small sip as she leaned against the bar counter, observing the exchange between Kayden and the man over the table, who appeared to be resisting giving up his seat. Even if she had just met the other Sith, she could tell that Kayden wasn’t one who would easily take no for an answer, and a wave later, the chair was empty again.

Cheriss made her way over to the seat across from Kayden’s, a faint smile of amusement on her face as its former occupant scurried away after his drinking buddy. She had seen him watching along with her, and despite being obviously drunk, the Rodian knew better than to argue with the man who had bewitched his friend with just a wave of his hand. So, by the time Cheriss took her seat and set her glass down across from Kayden’s, the Rodian was already out the door.

The mission brief was simple enough. Go into the infected zone, get the Cerean out, then have him show them his laboratory. The last part was what piqued her interest, and when his eyes finally met hers, her gaze was steady.

“And what are we looking to find in this laboratory?” She took another sip, mentally questioning how this drink was popular at all, tasting like nothing but carbonated water. Clearly the locals had never had anything better. “Any potential hazards that we need to watch out for?”

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Kayden Skyler

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While the janitor was busy cleaning up another man’s urine, something else caught the corner of Kayden’s eye. Someone else had waltzed up to the jukebox right behind him to surely change the song. “You want to put it on repeat.” He didn’t take his gaze off of Cheriss.

“I want to put it on repeat.”

Thus the song played over on a loop. Kayden was quite taken to it, symbolism aside. I hear a voice…from the back of the room… “Questions,” he sipped in response, offering a gentle chortle toward his cryptic tongue. His counterpart was probably sick of it already. “And answers.”

Licking his lips, a sour sensation tingled top to bottom, and the man wondered if the woman had ever disrobed before another Sith. The thought swiftly subsided in place of speech.

“Regarding the lab, that is. Word travels, and the whispers I hear speak of, shall we say, tampering with the living and the dead. I want to discover the truth of that, see what those secrets yield, and potentially put the results to...better use."

Kayden gently swiveled the wine in his glass, doubting it would do much good. “Doctor Maff Sawin is the name of our target. Not the most ethical scientist, I hear he was discharged for malpractice. I also hear he is Force-sensitive, which O so piques my interest.”

It would be clear that Kayden was keeping something from his partner but no surprises there. “We’ll learn more when we grab him from this city. As far as hazards go, well, we’re talking AMS, madam. Ever fought a zombie before?” He raised his brow, dying to know if maybe her experience in the matter was as exciting as his own.


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Cheriss Ktrame

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The Sith tilted her head slightly as Kayden requested for the music to be put on repeat without taking his eyes off her. She hadn’t noticed the song playing in the background before, but now that he brought it up, she could see why he liked it.

Cheriss waited patiently as Kayden took another drink and responded with another ambiguous statement. Although it was mildly frustrating for her burning curiosity, she knew that he would get to the point eventually, and she didn’t want to start an argument with him now if they would be working together for the next… who knew how long.

He licked his lips, and then out came the information she had been looking for. It wasn’t much of an answer, but at least she had some idea of what they would be dealing with. AMS was no joke, and if this scientist was experimenting with it, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

“I can’t say I have,” Cheriss replied, taking a sip. She frowned for a brief moment as she recalled something she’d encountered in the past. “I’ve fought some who acted like zombies. They didn’t know what they were doing. Alcohol, spice, they ruin people. You saw it in the streets.” AMS, in her eyes, was no different, except for the fact that it could be spread with something as simple as a bite. “You? Ever sent someone back to the dead?” She smiled slightly as she set her glass down.

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Kayden Skyler

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Oh, this time Kayden could not help himself. A boisterous chuckle escaped his lips. Good thing I swallowed beforehand. He might just have spattered this other Sith with red droplets.

“Drugs and alcohol truly are the bane of the mind, are they not?”


It was rhetorical; the two of them seemed to be of one mind on the topic. Now Kayden’s was being taken back to a cantina cleaner than this one, with better wine for that matter. And red droplets spattered on faces on account of broken noses and split lips. Only a fool picked a fight with a man like Kayden, and he hadn’t even used the Force.

“I’ve danced with the Infected before, yes. It really is like slicing through walking corpses. A curious contraption, when you think about it.”

He was, turning that glass around the tabletop as thoughts turned around raw flesh and drooping skin no longer attached, though his memories took him to a time before AMS ever came to be.

“Of all the monstrosities this universe has offered us, it found a way to make the dead walk without even needing the Force to do it.” Kayden tipped back what was left in his glass and looked over Cheriss’ shoulder.

“Over there. See those six virtuous police officers at the corner table?” They appeared to be leaving everyone else alone because everyone else knew to leave them alone, laughing away with another round of drinks. “They are our ticket to the other side of the wall.” It was Kayden’s turn to tilt his head. “Though, we don’t need them all.”


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Cheriss Ktrame

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“A monstrosity it is.” But even the worst the galaxy had to offer had their use. Perhaps the Cerean they would be tracking down had discovered something in the virus that could potentially be beneficial for the Sith. If that was the case, Cheriss wanted to be among the first to find out what it was.

Kayden looked past her. Following his gaze, she turned her head to look back at the six officers out of the corner of her eye. Each of them held a drink, and when one finished telling a joke about a Mandalorian and a Bothan walking into a bar the others laughed as if it were the funniest joke in the galaxy. They looked to be just in between being tipsy and full-on drunk. Perhaps one more bottle would do the trick? At his last remark, Cheriss turned back to Kayden with a smile playing across her lips.

“They are our tickets indeed. Now we only need to buy one.” And buy one she would. She waved over a server, whispered something in her ear, watched her nod and leave, then turned back to look at Kayden, taking another drink from her glass as she waited.

The policemen behind her would soon find a bottle of the best, most expensive wine the Paper Pig had to offer being set atop their table. Whether it was actually good or not was besides the point. What mattered was their curiosity at who had gotten it for them. Cheriss could feel their confusion in the Force, and it was only when she felt it disappear that she turned to look at them again. It was just in time to see the server gesturing at her and Kayden. Now all six pairs of eyes were on them, and Cheriss smiled at her partner once more.

“Don’t worry, it’s on me.”

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Kayden Skyler

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This was a time for Kayden to sit back, watch and listen. When the server came over, he felt an ear twitch toward whatever Cheriss was whispering, but just as quickly the order was swept away like a feather in the wind. Server left with an empty wine glass on her tray.

Kayden leaned back instead of forward, watching that corner table as though it was a show on HV. It didn’t take much effort to deduce what Cherris was up to but the fun was in how her gesture would be received.

The bottle looked familiar even from afar. Took one out of my own page. Crafty girl. Given the current condition of those cops, that wine would likely taste like liquid gold. Instead of a golden shower as it did for me.

A big boy, the fattest among them, lifted the entire bottle toward Kayden and Cheriss in a gesture of thanks. “No,” Kayden breathed in through his nose, steadying himself for the entertainment. “It’s on us—to buy our way in with more than a bottle.”

The timing was impeccable; the lyrics just then hit a note that testified to the situation. 'Come on a little closer, I got somethin’ to say…' A thinner police officer waved the pair over, smiling broadly. They were happy drunks at least. Until someone steps on their toes. “Come. This should be fun.”

Kayden got up and made his way over to the corner table. It was just as much a booth, all six cops forming a semicircle, while a couple of chairs were empty on the other side of the table. “Have a seat, friendos!”

Not one to stand on ceremony, Kayden pulled a chair out and took a seat, folding the flaps of his jacket into a relaxed posture.

“You two cops too?” A female cop looked both Sith up and down, licking beer from her lips. “Undercover, maybe, or off the clock?” They themselves may or may not have been, dressed in uniform, but that didn’t matter. Neither do my powers. Let's see what you got, partner.


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Cheriss Ktrame

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The cops soon invited them to come over, just as Cheriss had intended. It was the courteous thing to do. She rose from her seat and went over along with Kayden, bringing her unfinished glass along.

As she pulled the remaining chair out and made to sit down beside her partner, the female cop asked them a question. Cheriss glanced at Kayden from the side, and seeing that he wasn’t going to be the one to respond, she turned to give a winning smile to the cop.

“If we were undercover, it wouldn’t do us much good to tell you, would it?” A few of the others exchanged looks with each other before bursting into laughter. She waited for them to quiet before she spoke again.

“How is the wine?”

“Oh, it’s wonderful. Thank you so much for this. We really appreciate it.” The big guy nodded enthusiastically. The female officer sitting next to him put an elbow on the table.

“Is there anything we can do for you fine folks to pay you back?” Cheriss leaned back in her seat.

“As a matter of fact, there is. A friend of mine is looking for something she lost past the east blockade. Would any of you happen to know how to get past it?” The thin guy who’d waved them over shook his head, giving her an apologetic smile.

“Only way to get through is with one of these.” He held up a silver card in between two of his fingers. “Plus, no one’s allowed out anyway. Tell your friend that she’ll have to wait until this virus starts to die down. Whenever that’ll be.” He muttered the last few words, and Cheriss nodded. There’s our ticket.

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Kayden Skyler

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Silver tongue, silver card. Kayden liked how Cheriss played the game. She was smart enough to not attempt any Sith mind tricks, at least not yet. All it would take was for one of these fools to catch on and potentially call for backup because why not?

“Virus starts to die down,”
Kayden repeated. “Good one.”

One cop laughed. Another just raised his brow. “Because…Infected...zombies…the undead?...you know…” Jokes just never had the same effect when you had to explain them. “Have any of you been to the other side?”

All cops fell silent. One spoke. “Like…died?”

Kayden waved a hand, more in dismissal than Force persuasion. “No, no... The other side of the blockade.”

“Lucy has.” The woman named Lucy nodded but said nothing. “She had to help fend off a wave of those damn biters.”

“Walkers,”
someone corrected.

“Biters, walkers, what the kark ever. Nasty druks. Worse than drunks and Hutts. Ha!”

You don’t say?
Kayden looked into their eyes but never for too long. “I take it you’re stationed at the wall.” They affirmed. “Dirty work, but brave. If not for you fine officers, well, this cantina might not still be standing.”

“Oh, this dump? Yeah, I guess you’re right!”
They drank to that. Then some more. And more. Drink up, whores.

“I need to take a leak,” said a male cop. “Same,” said a female cop. Game. Kayden got up too and, fortunately for him, his partner was a woman.


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Cheriss Ktrame

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Cheriss downed the rest of her drink as Kayden took up the conversation. She wouldn’t need it where they would be going. For now though, she was enjoying listening to her partner's exchange with the cops. The joke wasn’t bad, she’d give him that.

After some further encouragement from Kayden, the cops finished their drinks too, only theirs was far stronger than what she’d had. When the female officer attempted to get to her feet to leave for the restroom, her legs nearly gave out underneath her. But not before Cheriss stood up and caught her by the arm.

“Steady.” She helped the other woman get up, slinging the cop’s arm over her shoulder. “Let me go with you. We can’t have you falling and hurting yourself, can we?” The cop mumbled something that sounded like she was in agreement. Not that Cheriss was going to give her an option. She didn’t look at Kayden as she passed him, half-carrying the woman to the restroom.

As soon as the women’s bathroom door swung shut behind them and the Sith made sure that no one else was in there, Cheriss dropped the act as well as the cop leaning on her back. The woman slumped against the wall, eyes half-closed at this point. The Sith bent down next to her, reaching into the woman’s pocket and taking out the silver key card before straightening up again and putting it into her own.

“Thank you, dear.” She placed a hand on the woman’s forehead for a brief moment, searching her most recent memories, then removed it. The woman wouldn’t remember a thing after this, thanks to the alcohol. She doubted that the others would either, given the amount that they’d drank. As for the card, perhaps she’d accidentally flushed it down the toilet? One thing was for sure. Whatever story the cop would come up with, it would not involve either of the Sith.

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Kayden Skyler

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Perfect. There were speakers in the restroom as well, permitting Kayden to listen to a song called “Buena” played by a band called Morphine. ‘It’s coming to me…’ Said the singer, thought the Sith, whipping his fat one out to spew forth red wine dyed yellow. ‘Yeah it’s coming to me…’ That silver card was, sure as melted pinky toes.

“So, uh…” Hiccupped the cop peeing in the urinal beside him. Though, judging by the splashing sounds, he was missing his target. “...You and your-HIC!-parzner undercover for realz or whatsitsuchithuh”

“Yeah,” Kayden replied nonchalantly, and why not? “Say…” He kept his gaze to the ceiling. Is that feces? “Don’t you gotta take a shit?”

“I…-HIC!-...I…I…I gotta take a shit.” Cop zipped up, turned away and entered a stall, locking it behind him. As Kayden knew, though, locks were made to be broken.

“Got any gum?”
Asked a Chevin in the urinal to the other side.

“Um…no.” Kayden disappointed. Then, when the Chevin finished his business and exited the restroom, the Sith turned to that stall, shifted his hand and felt the lock shift with it, and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

There was a yelp, a plea, a groan, and then…silence. Like the name of my ship, and thank you for the card. The cop would wake up eventually but he wouldn’t dare speak of it and, if he did, it wouldn’t matter. Two Sith would be gone by then and, well, this was Deysum: no one would give two shits.


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The door swung shut behind the Sith, and Cheriss made her way over to the bartender. He took the credits and as he did, she looked over at the group of cops chatting away at their table across the room. A young Duros passed by them just then, and with a slight stretch of her fingers he stumbled into their table, tipping the bottle off the edge of the table. It broke with a loud crash on the floor, smashing into pieces.

“We din’ even finish that yet!” one cop complained. “Yeah? And what are we gonna do about it?” Another stood and marched up to the face of the Duros. That was all Cheriss had to see. She turned and walked toward the entrance of the Paper Pig, enjoying the sounds of punches landing and shattering glass. It went quite well with the music in the background. And I feel all right, I have to tell you… Despite the shouting of the bartender for them to take it outside, he was drowned out by the cheers of the cops as their coworker struck a good blow.

The next time Cheriss would see Kayden would be just outside the cantina, at the very spot he’d been waiting for her earlier. Soon they would be out of here, hunting for something far more valuable than the spilled wine.

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Two Sith, two keys, one gate and one doctor. Geared up, the pair made their way out of the cantina and did not wait around to find out what resulted from the chaos within. There were stranger things in this city than drunken brawls or sleeping drunks, and a wall was calling to those made stronger for it.

Kayden always had a kind of fascination with the weird, the otherworldly, even for a Sith. The Anabolic Myohypertrophic Stimulator, the virus, was one of them. What it produces, he envisioned while approaching the gate. What it creates. Reanimating the dead, then more and more and more, and the dead fear nothing. They are already dead.

“Hold up,” an armed and armored guard of two stepped forth to receive two individuals who otherwise appeared to be civilians. Blaster in one hand, he held up his other to halt them from going any further. "No one goes past this gate."

“Why not?” Kayden asked, otherwise appearing to be a civilian with a mean leather jacket and a build to impress.

“Infected. AMS. Were you shat out yesterday or what?”

“Why, that is why we are here, officer.” Kayden flashed a silver card. It got the cop’s attention, while a man got Kayden’s as he was being dragged away a ways down from the wall, a pair of batons thrashing his body. Ouch.

“You two police?” Not every cop donned the uniform, after all. “Medics? Missionaries? ‘Cause we’re on lockdown right now to anyone but the former, and even then you need a damn good reason. Beat it.”

Nope. The Sith could have just as much stolen uniforms back in that restroom but they had already disguised their minds.

“We need to get in,” Kayden began, gazing into the guard’s eyes. He then flashed a badge; actually it was more like a wallet but the cop was already in a daze. “Urgent business. Code red.”

“Code red?” piped another guard on the other side of the gate. "The hell's that?" He was Cheriss' problem.

“Urgent business,” parroted the first cop. “Code red. Let these two inside.” He motioned with his hand. “Move along, move along.” O-Kay-den.


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Cheriss watched as Kayden showed the guard his card and the “badge”. He certainly had a talent for lying without uttering a single untruth, and she couldn’t help the feeling that there were some things that he might not have even told her about the reason why they were here. Although, that could wait until after they got past this gate. Once the first cop let them through, the other stepped forward in protest.

“But sir! We don’t even know what this code red is! You two-”

“Do you mean to tell us you’ve forgotten basic protocol?” The Sith cut him off, and fixed her cold gaze on the other guard. “It means that there is urgent business that needs to be dealt with immediately. In other words, an emergency. Or do I need to explain what that is as well?” The guard opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“It’s an emergency. Now move along,” the first guard said in his stead. The other one looked from her to Kayden to his companion, and Cheriss could feel the conflict inside him. He still didn’t look convinced, but he stepped aside nonetheless.

“I’m reporting this,” he muttered as the gate swung open to reveal the other side. Cheriss looked at him again.

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.” He turned around and the Sith walked through, the gate closing behind them. Even if he did somehow end up telling someone about this, Cheriss didn’t care. She doubted that the office would do anything about it, and by then they would be long gone.

Still, she had a feeling that getting past the gate had only been their first obstacle.

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Silver tongues and silver cards kept popping up in Kayden’s mind as he moved along. He knew why. The gate guard had mentioned missionaries and medics. Was that how Dr. Sawin got in?

Clearly the silver card was just the initial requirement to get to the other side of the wall; you just as much needed to be the right profession and even then have a good reason.

I wonder, then, if our Force-sensitive scientist sneaked in or was tasked and permitted by someone else to go in. There wasn’t much in the way of detail regarding the Cerean’s disappearance. He was last reported to have made his way through but anyone who knew the true circumstances of that was tight-lipped. Not everyone. Some lips are meant to be peeled.

For a certainty, Maff was not immediately behind the gate, though life was beyond the dead. This sector appeared to still be lived in, by the worst off, those who got stuck on the wrong side and would not be let out for fear of spreading the virus.

Like the city proper, dust and dirt littered the streets, but even more in this sorry excuse for a quarantine zone. Debris was strewn about, among it the dead—the really dead. There weren’t many. Survivors were smart enough to burn the bodies in bonfires, whilst fire and smoke on the horizon looked to be less intentional.

Every now and then, Kayden could hear blaster bolts and screams. As he paced the street just beyond the gate, a woman crawled across the pavement, two bloody stumps for legs.

“Are you here…to help?” The voice had come from the other side of the street where a man sat with his back to the wall.

“Yes,” Kayden approached, crouching down to the poor soul. “We are specialized agents for the AMS vaccine.”

“Thank…”
The man coughed, spattering blood into his hand. “Thank the stars!”

“We are looking for a scientist already on the scene. A Cerean. Have you seen him?”



@Sicadorito
 

Cheriss Ktrame

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Filthy. It was the only word that came to mind. Cheriss had thought the city proper was contaminated enough, but the streets in front of her and Kayden were on another level. The stench of burning bodies was overpowering, and even she had to look away when the woman who had lost the majority of her legs dragged herself past them.

At the man’s question from across the street, Cheriss could only stop and stand a few feet behind Kayden as her partner answered the question. Are you here to help? She’d asked the same question herself to those who passed by, many years ago. Never had anyone responded with a truthful yes. Those who did say they were, like Kayden, had never not been lying. And this time was no different. The Sith would get what they could out of this man and then leave him behind to fend for himself. The only being who can help you in this galaxy is yourself. She’d learned that long ago.

It was only his answer that they were interested in. Nothing more.

The man wiped his hand on the side of his pants and looked up at Kayden.

“I have,” he croaked, before racking up another cough to clear his throat. Some more blood came up, but he wiped it away with his sleeve. “He comes around from time to time to look for people. Both Infected and not. I heard…” His voice faltered, and Cheriss gave him a nod to go on. “I heard that anyone who leaves with him doesn’t come back.” Interesting.

“But-” he hastened to add, his eyes brightening with sudden feverish hope, “maybe he is working on a cure. Maybe the ones who’ve gone were brought back to their homes after they recovered. It must be. Oh, thank the stars for you people.” He rested his head back on the wall.

“Thank the stars,” he repeated softly. What a beautiful lie.

@Die Shize
 

Kayden Skyler

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What a fool, Kayden thought. It was true that not everyone knew of the early AMS vaccine manufactured by MorataCorp, whose supply was limited and certainly not yet meant for the likes of Deysum III. By the time these people get it, well, it may already be too late.

Still, this man with the coughing fit was a fool for the simple reason of being on this side of the wall. He deserved to die choking and bleeding, that much was so, but Kayden had no mind to hand over an express ticket to death.

“When did you last see him?” Kayden’s gaze was unblinking. He needed information, simply so.

“Maybe…maybe…” The man hacked. Maybe what, you dying little kriffer? The man’s own gaze was unblinking, staring at that woman with the bloody stumps. “...T-Two, maybe three…hours ago…he saw…her…the doctor who will save us saw…h-her…and t-took…took…her…l-legs…”

Kayden struggled to keep from cracking up. Curious little scientist we have. “Our savior!” More coughing. “He will return! Save us all! THANK THE STARS!”

It was up to Cheriss whether she wanted to shut the fool up or not. For his part, Kayden rose, dusting his gloved hands as though blood had been coughed upon them.

“I think he’s lost his own stars, this one. Though, if Doctor Maff Sawin was in the vicinity only a few hours ago then I doubt he has gotten far in this mess. Shall we—” There was a shrill screech just then, echoing from around the nearest building, followed by the unholiest of growls.


@Sicadorito
 

Cheriss Ktrame

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Two or three hours ago. That was better than Cheriss had expected. Given the amount of blood the woman across the street was losing though, she assumed that he couldn’t have been far. There was no way someone could have survived that much bleeding for even an hour.

As the man’s shouting and coughing grew increasingly louder, Cheriss felt a small twinge of annoyance. It would attract unwanted attention, from the Infected or not. As Kayden stood up, she clenched her hand into a fist and watched as the man’s screaming was abruptly cut off. She loosened her grip, and he slumped forward, remaining still against the wall. Dead or not she didn’t know or care. What mattered was that now, he was quiet.

“You can save your thanks.”


When Kayden spoke, Cheriss turned to listen, but he was soon cut off by a scream and a growl coming from a nearby building. Looks like the Infected got to them first.

“I’m going to take a look where that came from. It may somehow lead us to the Cerean.” She doubted it, but it was worth checking out. Without waiting for her partner, she made her way over to the building, using the Force to push the broken-down door aside just before she looked inside.

A group of Infected were there, surrounding what looked like a young human girl. She was whimpering now, burying her head underneath her arms. Hearing the noise from outside, a couple of the Infected turned around to face the Sith, their mouths open and snarling as they took a couple staggering steps toward her. One of them suddenly broke into a shaky run, but not before Cheriss flung the creature aside and sent it flying into the wall.

We might have a problem here.

@Die Shize
 
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