Log:Run.

Don't worry about how we got here. Just RUN!

OOC Date: May 15, 2022
Location: Falleen
Participants: Kohnner, Nerys Greystorm, Zhu Yan as Self/GM

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

Deep within the bowels of a weapons lab on Falleen, something had just gotten out.

The flickering lights and clinical colour palette had made the entire place look like exactly the sort of hospital the unfortunate protagonists find themselves in during a big monster horror holofilm. Ironic, right? I'd go into detail, but you genuinely don't have time to read it, because you have to /go/.

The old Imperial scientist that had been explaining that this was Lord Vader's personal /bio/-weapons lab (this was not written on the tour guide that everyone had been provided) was the first to get caught. When the bulkheads slammed open to the weapons vault the horrible black cloud shot out a tendril and dragged him inside, kicking and screaming. What followed was a godawful crunching noise, and then a scream that sounded a bit like a Rancor, if a Rancor was screaming from beyond the gap in worlds at volumes beyond mortal ken.

Then the black smoke-like substance /charged/.

"Run run run run run RUN RUN RUN!" erupted Zhu Yan, who prior to this was having an absolutely wonderful time plumbing the depths of Lord Vader's bioweapons lab. To be fair this was a super-well-kept Imperial secret. Until today. The Bryar was already aiming and firing, two huge yellow globes of death being promptly swallowed by the smoke oil tendril eldritch abomination.

Go!

Appropriate: https://youtu.be/9JJdyws2qZ4

Dissonant: https://youtu.be/iMH49ieL4es

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

Nerys Greystorm was going to have to have a serious talk with her manager. She was The Protagonist, god****it! This was the sort of thing that was supposed to happen to Unnamed Red Shirt #3. She had stunt doubles for this ****! Well. To be fair, Zhu Yan was //right there//. And if you put him in a red wig--nevermind, Nerys Greystorm, RUN!

And so, she did. Nerys beat feet even before the scientist found himself taken off of the census, not even bothering to snatch and grab whatever might be laying down as she beat feet towards the nearest exit.

[ Kohnner (Chon)]

You know, CHON KOHNNER usually didn't run away from danger. No. He ran towards it. So as he was inspecting some dusty piece of lab equipment and Zhu Yan ran past the taller Klatooinian he turned towards the culprit, hand on the pommel of his blade. Hisnd then he saw it. The yellow eyes, the oil tendrils. An abomination he couldn't hope to battle one on one. He screamed like a girl.

Then ran, his canine feet taking him forwards at full force away from the beast now chasing them. <<"WHAT IS THAT?">>

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

THEN:

"The Galactic Empire left a lot of things to rot down here, and many of the records were sealed," the old man had said about five minutes ago. "I don't know what Lord Vader hid inside these vaults, I doubt it'd be what you're looking for, but we can open it just the same." "Yeah, well, big guns live behind the big door, right?" That was Zhu Yan, still full of cocky swagger. "They'll definitely help. I think. Let's see what's inside."

NOW: "I DON'T KNOW! THIS WASN'T IN THE GUIDE BOOK!" Ah, Yan, always straight to shouting when things went lothballs up.

While we focus on escaping, let's paint the scene a little bit. This decrepit lab had fallen to at least forty years of entropy. Looking around at the formerly sterile corridors rusting and rotting, there's a sort of harmony here, the harmony of overwhelming murder.

Luckily for the trio this was not the start of their sojourn into Places That Should Not Be. Bulkheads had already been opened by Imperial security codes to facilitate their escape! Or, hamper the monster! Those panels were blinking very invitingly!

Behind them, though, was a rapidly advancing black wall. It wasn't quite smoke, it wasn't exactly solid, and it could possibly have borne a viscous liquid-y component to it. But somewhere in that inky nothingness was the vague outline of a screaming maw, and it was pulling itself along via tendrils of whipcord smoke and oil. Though the stench of its metaphorical breath was well behind the trio, the roars were louder than ever.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

There was running, and then there was trying to be smart about running. And then there was trying to be smart and possibly being entirely stupid all at the same time. Nerys slowed, as she got to one of the security panels, working at speed as she tried to beat a subroutine into submissions, in the hopes, no doubt that the bulkheads behind her might do what they could to keep Mr. (or Ms., you never knew, and she wasn't about to get close enough to find out) Noodley Murder at bay. Alas, that she had chosen poorly, and the panel, rather than shutting down any doors, started up a light show with the security alert beacons that would have made the finest dance club on Mar Shaddaa jealous. Ah, well, at least they would be remembered as having the brightest, boldest deaths in this sector. Nerys left the panel and went back to running, "Do you even look at guide books?"

[ Kohnner (Chon)]

<<"There was a guide book?!">> Kohnner exclaims through the vocorder in his helmet as he comes up to where Nerys just was. He sees her having trouble. Glancing back towards the monstrosity, which by the way made his spine tingle just looking at it, he managed to rip off the panel. Suddenly he's stripping wires with his claws. A few sparks later and the door slams shut and locks behind them. Then, he's running again, catching up to the pair that were now slightly ahead of him. <<"That should buy us some time!">> Or so he thought.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

THEN:

Scientist: "Finally, we have the storage vaults. I'm afraid this is where our tour ends, Captain. There's nothing left that can be recovered or salvaged." Yan: "It's all still Imperial tech. That sithspit is robust. Something has to be up and running."

NOW:

Zhu Yan shot through the closing door like a pork dumpling fired out of a torpedo tube. He hit the ground, skidded, and picked himself back up. Mister Noodles, or Miss, Yan didn't judge, was on the other side. Waiting. "Alright, I think we're safe, but I don't pl-"

WHUNG

A crater the size of Yan's entire body was suddenly blown out from the other side of the door, stopping right in front of the smuggler's beautiful mug. With a girly yelp, Yan turned and started running again. "NEVERMIND LET'S GO!"

Around the corner... obstacles! Hospital beds on gurneys littered the corridor, only partially shoved out of the way when they had come through the first time! "SITHSPIT!" Yan erupted at the new development in front of them. Back around the corner was what sounded like a small explosion.

The door had not held.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"I'm not sure if this is why I //can't// ever say no to you, Yan, or why I should //always// say no to you from now on!" As the group came up on the obstacle course that had once been a hospital wing, Nerys reached down, touching the controls of her grav belt as she took a flying leap into the air, the edge of a foot touching down on an old bedrail before she kicked off again, the inertial dampeners in the grav belt making her momentarily weightless, as she glided back down, only to kick off again. It was like watching a bouncing ball ping-ponging around a closed court, with a few flips thrown in, but in weird slow motion. Only not at all slow, because they were being chased!

[ Kohnner (Chon)]

<<"It's a bad habit, for sure.">> Kohnner says in agreement with Nerys, having felt obligated to help Yan out where he could seeing as the man forked out a large sum of money to get his own business ventures in cargo running off the ground with the purchase of a ship. As the crash came, Kohnner turned rapidly towards it, stepping back but unruffled by the quaking as a result of the force of impact. Instead he shook his head and ran, <<"Come on! Let's move!">> He wasn't about to drag Yan with him either. Maybe if he was faster than the fat human the monster would stop and consume him instead of the lean space dog ronin.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

THEN:

Yan: "Look, I'm not interested in seeing disease control. I'm here for whatever the Empire left in the vaults." Scientist: "Patience, Captain. This is where we treated many victims of the Falleen nanoplague. Not many survived, but, we learned a great deal before eradicating it."

NOW:

"LOOK, NORMALLY THEY'RE A LOT SAFER!" Tell that to the Necroflesh Hordes, the Metal Men of Mandalore, the guards of the Coral Vanda, the Parmic Predators and their Annihilator Cannon, and the Console Cowboys of Coruscant, Yan! Rather than bother with shoving carts out of the way he was running it like an agility course, going "huphuphuphuphup" through each overturned bed and hitting his stride as only a man running for his life could.

After the hospital wing was a T-intersection, heading straight ahead but with a sharp left turn in the middle of the corridor. They hadn't been down that turn yet, as they had come from straight ahead. Behind them, the smoke sludge shadow beast was screaming, its claws ripping the hospital beds to pieces just by dint of being put down to drag it along.

[ Nerys Greystorm (Nerys)]

"It's not just behind us, it's coming up from underneath the floor! I can hear it! Head to the right!" Clearly, the left meant death. And so, Nerys did not go that way. She did, indeed, head to the right, but it was then that her luck ran out, and the bed she was trying to leap over shifted under the sudden buckling of a durasteel plate under the floor, and rather than going over the bed, she ended up in the headboard. It was like a stunt gone wrong in one of those Space Jackin Chan movies.

Until it wasn't, and the smoke billowed up around Nerys, dragging her back down towards the ground and into the steaming underbelly of it's...probably belly. A sharp scream of sound of her pistol, but even that bright blaster bolt's light did not make it out of the cloud monster.

And neither did Nerys.

[ Kohnner (Chon)]

"<<WHAT?!">> Was all Kohnner could say to Nery's informing them about how the moster was operating, living, existing, moving. As Nerys disappeared into the smoke, the Klatooinian looked forwards. They came from there, he would exit from there. No use getting lost in a maze with a crazy monster on his tail. He ran down the hallway, alone, the last one left. Not that he had noticed (Or cared) about Yan getting swallowed by the beast. He was going to make it out of here no matter what. Then maybe come back later for the others. With back up... Lots of backup. Maybe he'd ask the Jedi to help.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

THEN:

Yan: "Wait, bioweapons? Not conventional things like heavy repeaters or bombs or whatnot?" Scientist: "Yes, bioweapons. This was one of Lord Vader's private testing grounds. We were very stringent, as you can see here now that we're at disease control."

NOW:

Contact.

A shadowy limb wrapped around Zhu Yan's leg and yanked him down to the ground. "No!" he cried out, turning and shooting at the liquid claw wrapped around his leg. "No no no NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO-" It was not to be. The screaming wall rolled over the diminuitive smuggler, and he was no more.

Just one remained. The gigantic eldritch horror screamed in what could be considered victory, having had three meals already today. Pushing forward inexorably as though not under its own power, it pursued Chon Kohnner towards perhaps the last obstacle. Decontamination. The airlock-like structure was sturdy but had already been opened, as decon hadn't worked in many years. To get through that narrow gap at speed without tripping would require some dextrous footwork!

[ Kohnner (Chon)]

There was something to be said about the Klatooinian and their speed. Canines could outlast a number of species in a race, more or less. He was on a roll. He really was. Decontamination was coming up. He know he could close the door there and buy him some time to get out. The sad thing about it was, as soon as he rounded the corner, something grabbed his leg. He hitched a breath, his body lifting up as he held onto the side of the door way. He gripped it tightly, shouting as the powerful force grabbing up pulled him back. His claws scratched at the metal before suddenly... he was ripped away into the darkness his howl echoing through the entire compound.

[ Zhu Yan (Yan)]

THEN

Yan: "I'm Captain Del Fonso from Intelligence. These are my aides. We're here to secure any weaponry you might have remaining in the vaults." Scientist: "Curious that First Order Intelligence would come to pay a visit to an old bioweapons facility."

NOW

It was done.

All three members of the infiltration party had been caught and devoured by the hideous smoke monster, that was now barrelling towards the open doors to freedom! Suddenly exposed to the bright daytime sky, black smoke churned from the facility, accompanied by the sound of eldritch screaming and ungodly ripping and tearing as the massive amount of space present in a normal atmosphere caused the horrible monster to rip itself apart. With space to live, it simply couldn't hold itself together.

After all, what happens when you drop a mint into a fizzy drink, put the cap on, shake it, and then put it on a shelf for forty years?

The sudden burst of black into an otherwise sunny sky mobilized emergency services from Falleen Throne to come and take a look, where they found wisps and of smoke and oil spread all around the complex. The last remnants of several hundred atmosphere's worth of... something alive compressed into a tiny box.

There were survivors. A Klatoonian, a fat human, and what looked like some sort of humanoid. First to be, first to be digested. All of them varying stages of crushed and shattered, as though they'd been suddenly plunged to the bottom of an ocean and then brought back up, with all the bone damage and nitrogen in their blood (or oil!) to show for it. There was nothing for it but bacta. Of the scientist, they found only a bloody pancake. Being in the epicentre, at his age, his body simply could not continue living, so it didn't.

Perhaps let this be a lesson. Don't stick your noses where it doesn't belong.