Chapter 6
"Black Wing? What the blast is that?"
Elara looks to Raider, then back to Vermillion and says, "Raider and I had a run in on Taris with the virus. Vader is having it produced on a Star Destroyer and has it on certain facilities to test the subjects further."
"What kind of virus is this?" Sage cuts in.
Raider steps forward and says, "one that reanimates dead bodies."
A silence falls over the group. They all just stand there as if frozen in place like time itself stopped. You could here the bubbling of a lava pool nearby. The Commandos didn't know what to say.
After a moment Frostbite speaks up, "so what does this mean? Are we taking care of this or what? What are we doing?"
The Mandalorians look at each other and eventually answer with, "I don't know. we have to see what Dagger wants to do."
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Stormtroopers start swarming the downed barge, searching the entire ship. Every little crevice was not missed.
Up above Phantom says, "well, there's troopers searching it now, so it's as good a time as any."
"Yeah, I'm thinking you're right," Dagger replies reluctantly. He presses a button in his ship, one that just looks like it shouldn't be there.
It seems like nothing happens from the outside, but inside the doors to all the cells open. All the creatures are released... and there are a lot of them. Hearing the doors open, the troopers stop. A rumbling sounds from seeming everywhere on the crashed ship like a stampede approaching, which wasn't too far from the truth. Things from wyyychokk to rathtars, loose on the ship, about to find their next meals. The troopers engage the creatures as they come down the corridors, but they are too overwhelmed to fight them all.
"Well, that should keep the ground units busy, now we need to get out of here," Dagger says.
"Follow my lead," Phantom commands. He swings down flies low. The others follow with of course the remaining TIEs.
"Get the TIEs in Snake's line of sight!" Phantom urges, trying to make small movements so Snake can get a bead on the TIEs. The former death trooper steadies his aim and fires upon the fighters with the ion turret, catching a couple off the start.
"We will focus on speed, once those fighters are disabled we will make our escape to wherever we can," Phantom says, hoping no one else notices the uncertainty in his voice.
Snake disables two more, but the last one I s too elusive and lands a hit on Ace's Headhunter.
"Damn!" He says, "I've been hit, it's not too bad right now though."
Dagger brakes hard and falls behind the TIE, fires at it, and sends it spinning. He catches back up to the group and they all bank hard to the left and head off across the barren land.
The ground watches the air team fly overhead.
"Ace is on fire, everything good?" Elara asks, comming the air team.
Ace replies with, "I am for now, I don't know for how long."
"Keep a lookout for an outpost, the Empire is supposed to have a research facility out here."
"What's in it?" Phantom asks.
"A deadly virus."
"Great, just what we needed," Ace retorts.
"What's with the virus?" Phantom wonders.
Raider takes this one, "it reanimates the dead. Elara and I had a deadly encounter with it back on Taris."
"That's great. anyway we can stop it? It might affect the mission. If we don't."
"They are kept alive by a beacon basically. They can't go outside the range that this contraption provides. We destroy it and it kills them basically. Or at least renders them useless, which makes them easier to be dealt with."
Dagger answers with, "well, good to know that we can stop it, but I'm guessing this isn't the only facility?"
Elara answers that with, "no, but it will make an impact on decreasing the usage of these things."
"Well, everyone down with this?"
Everyone gives their full support. Attacking the facility, they knew, would give them transport off the planet so that they could continue the mission.
So off they set to make this dangerous mission of theirs a success. Although they have no idea what lies in wait, but they do know it won't be an easy battle.