2.15: Wildfire: The Cure

DS Day 179 – 206

Where: Uukaablis

They Farstar away-team was walking, of all things, along a long mountain path on what the Uukaablians said was one of their hottest days. It was hot. Not by Tatooine standards, thank the Creator, but still it was hot.

This mountain path was to lead them to the target; a hermit named Tarrens. He was an ex-Qek, so they said. Bifzik had mentioned before they left, that he found it hard to believe anyone could be a former Qek and still be alive. The bug seemed to be learning a lot about the Qek since he had contracted the virus. Since everyone else had contracted a version of the virus, the bug was aloud out of isolation. Now the doc was busy poking and prodding him.

They eventually reached a mountain cave, in which sat a small hut. From it, they heard. “Drop your weapons. Don’t move. I don’t like trespassers around here. You move and you’ll all be dead trespassers real quick.” A medium build man with one bio-ware eye stepped out of the hut with some kind of repeater blaster.

Negotiations with the stubborn man did not go well, until Gorak received notice from Dajus, via comlink, that the virus had officially spread through out the ship. When he heard virus, he froze. “You brought a virus here? A Qek virus? And there is now a chance I have contracted it?”

“Guess you’re in it now, whether you want to be or not” Moyato said

The recluse Tarrens told the group as they returned to the Uukaablian capitol city, that the Qek have a research station on the edge of their space; Qu’mock station. He used to work at that facility before he left the Assemblage. There, he could find the cure for the virus. They had to safely get him there and out. Gorak already had an idea who could do that; the Night Terrors.

*****

Moyato was nervous. He hadn’t heard form the Chillweaver team. They had finished up the last of their operations, and were arranging for evac. He had received no confirmation of evac. That might just be a security precaution, however. He had just received his new orders, and it looked promising. Space Station Qu’mock in the Qektoth Confederation. It was time to treat the Qek with payback.

He was assigned Kl’aal as his superior, as well as Bifzik for his knowledge of the Qek. Bifzik had apparently grown close to the Qek Assemblage since his contraction of the virus, but he wasn’t telling too much. He was always busy “having conversation with himself”. While the team was away, the Farstar would remain behind on Uukaablis. A New Republic presence in this part of the Kathol Sector was key. They were given the Muvon for travel, so Brophar had to go along as well.

*****

Qumok was a large station, but it appeared to be very old. It was definitely once an Old Republic design, but heavily modified, with added modules since it’s first manufacturing. It may have even changed many hands before it settled into the Qek Confederation.

Infiltration into Qek space was not easy task, but with the sensor skills of the Night Terrors and the flying of Brophar, they were able to bypass the probe-droid net they had set up.

The station was far beyond the border, and in a matter of days they had traversed the distance between Uukaablis and the station. It was immense, with only the occasional ship flying in and out of it. It had virtually no traffic. They would have to go in through a sensor-blind spot, which was dangerous close to the gravity well of the dead world it orbited. Only Brophar’s ability got them through.

The team boarded through an underside airlock, and and soon were deep inside a complex maze of hallways. They were fortunate to have Tarrens along to lead them through it.

The infiltration did not stay as smooth as the insertion. Soon, the Qek guards were alerted to their presence, and they had to fight their way through. Bifzik acted as an early warning system, as they worked their way to a primary computer terminal. Tarrens felt like he could break in from there, and find the specs for the virus. With that, the Farstar doctor should be able to make a cure for the crew as well as the Exocronians.

They trekked further, taking out Guard after guard, and only have minimal wounded among their own. Kl’aal realized that despite his stealth ability, the Qek could see him. He faded back to the main body, and acted as another soldier. In doing, he stumbled across a store room, containing thousands of barrels of the virus, along with new breeds of it. It was being loaded up and shipped to somewhere nearby. Bifzik hacked in further, to find out that it was being delivered to a familiar ship… Sarne’s flag ship. It was to be used to extend the Qek Assemblage to the other side of the Rift, when Sarne went there. In return, the Qek passed on technology to Sarne to allow him to create the next stage in his Nuniok Dak project; the Starwolf /Sullustan mix. This would allow him to use the Nuniok Dak Sullustans to navigate the Rift a lot easier. With the Starwolf genetics, the Nuniok Dak Sullustan could withstand the boosted directional powers and enable them to manipulate hyperspace at greater lengths of time.

Moyato made the command decision to destroy the viruses, although it frustrated him that Sarne was so close and he couldn’t do anything about it. To many variables in trying to sabotage a few of the barrels in order to release the virus on Sarne’s ship. Chances were he had the cure already. So he instructed his demo-team to place explosives in specific areas while the rest took care of the hold guards. This was not going to make its delivery shipment.

They moved on, giving the explosives enough time for them to get out… they hoped. On another level, they stumbled on holding cells, and one actually had an occupant. It was a a human female, who looked like was tortured and battered. Moyato called ahead to Brophar, telling him they were taking on a passenger. They easily broke into the call, and soon were giving her medical attention.

Her name was Fasha Dansun, and she was a Xeno-Archeologist. She was mumbling something about a alien “ferry” ship, and Aing Tii monks. They had already gotten an intel that told them the Aing Tii monks were actually the radically xenophobic race that piloted the large ship mistaken as “ghost ship” in parts of the Outback. What did she have to do with them? What is this about a “ferry ship”?

Kl’aal carried the girl and the trekked onward. Tarrens assured them they were getting close. It wasn’t long, after one or two more fire fights, and he was proven right. The primary computer room was impressive. Even Bifzik was impressed. He helped Tarrens break into the main data banks to pull up the archives on the virus. This was much more complicated than hacking the small node they had found in the cargo hold.

It seemed to take hours, when it only took minutes. The team was holding off another group of guards. They had to find another way out. Fortunately, Tarrens was able to find one. The maintenance crawl-ways were not the best exit, but with little choice, Moyato ordered his men in. They journeyed deep with the bowels. Moyato took advantage of the situation, and ordered more explosives laid behind them. This station was going down, if he had anything to do with it.

Brophar awaited still attached to the hull. The countermeasures left behind by the Night Terrors were keeping curious interlopers away. If that didn’t, he had his blaster that should hold them off. When the Night Terrors arrived, he took a deep sigh of relief. His sensors had picked up a Qek cruiser just dropping out of hyperspace. They had little time.

The station started to go up just as they started to leave. The cruiser was getting caught in the flames. This gave the Muvon a chance to jump out of the blast. What they didn’t know was the cruiser survived and was hot on their ion trail.