As the two Jedi slipped inside, na'Tatha stationed herself with her back to one of the doorposts, rifle up and ready, head turned toward the opening. She relaxed, knowing that tense muscles reacted more slowly, and listened.

Nothing.

That was good, she assumed. "Anything?" the subcommander queried, her voice transmitted through their comm links.

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Sahrai shook his head at the method they were using to descend into the corridor--a ladder.

"I didn't think they used technology like this anymore," he said, a touch of contempt in his voice. If whoever their foe was had to use methods like that, then he couldn't be as powerful as they thought.

Sahrai looked down, and since Viree was invisible, he couldn't see her, but he heard when her boots hit the bottom. He stepped off the ladder a moment later, scanning the area with the Force again. "Looks clear my way--are you picking anything up?"

He clicked his comlink once, having a feeling that Viree wouldn't have noticed anything else.

----

Daaron smiled as he heard the click come across via the comlink. "That's the all clear. Let's go." He stepped rapidly down the ladder-- What kind of person still uses this sort of technology!?!?--until he stood at the bottom with the two Jedi, moving out of the way to make room for more commandos.

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na'Tatha was right behind Fahl, sliding smoothly down the metal rungs. "It takes power to operate a lift, Master Faradej," she pointed out over her commlink. "A power source that would be detectable. Fortunately for us, it means that we probably won't be dealing with heavy weaponry or systems - unless there's a back door we haven't discovered. Major Fahl -" she turned to address him "-If our opponent truly has the power our Jedi friends ascribe to him, he may not use conventional weaponry at all. We also do not know the number or type of occupants of this complex."

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Viree13 shrugs invisibly, not bothering to answer at first. There is nothing obstructing the way, and nothing hostile about the passageway. A moment later, she decides to comment on their surroundings. "How very odd...... You'd think there'd be some form of resistance stationed here..... Or at least more of a hostile presence....." Her voice echoes inside Sahrai's mind, very thoughtful.....

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die, but have everlasting Life. ~John 3:16~





~The Mercenary A-U Gentlewoman~

"Good point, sub-commander," Sahrai said. A moment later, he heard Viree in his head.

"Just because they don't have immediate resistance here doesn't mean they don't know we're in," he replied, to everyone except Viree, seeming to add it to his previous statement. He glanced at Daaron, caught his questioning look.

"It was a response to Viree, Major," he said, to clear things up. Daaron nodded his head in response.

"Any signs of holocams or hidden microphones? We don't want them watching us," Sahrai said, glancing around. The Force was practically useless to him when it came to electronics--while some Jedi could do incredible things with Electronics and the Force, he himself had a hard time sensing them at all.

---

The commandos scanned the walls, floor, and ceiling in their immediate vicinity.

"No sign of anything, Sahrai," Daaron reported.

"Odd--you'd think they would have some way of monitoring their entrance, at least," the Jedi Master replied, his eyes troubled. "Keep your eyes open, then. I don't doubt that they know we're inside, so they must have something cooked up for us further in."


Feel free to do almost any plot twist while we're in here, guys, so long as we're not fighting the boss yet...I do have an idea for how that should go, but not really for anything else.

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na'Tatha caught sight of a door set into the right-hand side of the corridor. Motioning to a commando, she stood at the ready, rifle leveled, while he searched for the control panel. Not finding one, he placed his shoulder against the door. It slid open smoothly - it had seen frequent, recent use, then. Together, she and the commando entered the room, the lights on their weapons cutting distinct swaths through the darkness.

The racks on the walls, fully stocked with Maedan weaponry, clearly marked this room as an armory. They swept the room at shoulder height, then search the floor. The subcommander stopped abruptly when the light picked out a dark mound on the floor.

A man. Maedan. Dead.

Shifting her rifle to the crook of her arm, she pulled out her scanner with her left hand, the readings confirming her initial guess. He was certainly dead - from what? She could see no trace of violence. A biological agent, perhaps?

"Master Faradej, you might want to see this."

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Sahrai stepped into the room, taking in the surroundings with one glance, including the corpse on the floor.

"Interesting," he murmured, kneeling beside the body and turning it over. "Do the scanners detect any biological agents that might have been the reason for his death?" he asked, glancing up at na'Tatha. "It may be that the Maedan are developing biochemical weapons. If this is the case, that definitely puts us on your side, because biochemical weapons are strictly illegal."

He stood up, giving the corpse another long look before stepping away.

"As far as I can tell, his death was not caused by someone using the Force--which means it has to have been either poison, some biochemical agent, or maybe some disease that this man had. Either way, though, I think we should get moving--someone's bound to come along, even if it's only to remove the body."

----

Daaron walked into the room in time to hear Sahrai's last words.

"We do need to keep moving," he said, staring at the body, "but I think we should at least figure out the cause of death--it might be contagious, and we certainly would want to know if we might die any minute ourselves."

He flipped down the optical visor on his helmet, scanning the room in infrared and several other spectrums through it, to see if he picked up on anything else.

Hope nothing in my post makes your plot twist more difficult, Valera.

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(Nope, it's fine)

Kneeling by the body, na'Tatha placed her weapon on the floor and pulled out a small, basic cell analysis kit from her vest. As she swabbed the inside of the Maedan's mouth, she instructed, "Major Fahl, have two of your men step across the corridor. There should be a door there, leading into a decontamination chamber." If there was, it would confirm her guess that this was a Kareth-type layout, and she would have a much better idea of both the function and floorplan of this base. "Careful, though - if it truly is an airborne agent, decon would be the best place to be protected from it. Watch for survivors."

She fed the silicon swab into the palm-sized sample analyzer. After a few moments, it beeped insistently. The subcommander ran her eye over the data. "Manaan, this thing is viscous!" Drawing out a blood sample from his wrist, she completed the elementary analysis and turned to the Jedi. "Master Faradej, my equipment is limited, but his blood is showing traces of a degenerative pathogen, probably airborne. There's not enough in him to kill, which makes me suspect that the virus itself breaks down after attacking. I would guess that it was released several days ago, no more than a week, and is no longer active. The release itself was either deliberate or accidental. If accidental, it may be manufactured or stored here. If deliberate, then the source was either Taarin - which I am inclined to doubt - or a party we do not know about."

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na'Tatha tilted her head non-commitally. "This one's been dead for at least a day. His cells were certainly violently disrupted - but this virus has had time to decay, so how ...?" A thought struck her. "Manaan's eyeball," she muttered. "My best guess is that the live pathogen itself does not kill. However, on dying, it must release - something - which kills the host cells." Sitting back on her heels, she followed that train of thought further - and invoked another piece of Manaan's anatomy.

The subcommander glanced up at the Jedi bleakly, her normal composure shaken. "I'm not sure how to put this ..." Swallowing, she plunged ahead. "This is only conjecture ... but unfortunately possible. Perhaps the pathogen has been present in his body for quite awhile. Perhaps what was released was not a biological agent, but a chemical which, intentionally or unintentionally, disrupted the pathogen's functionality, killing both it and the host." Gathering a breath, she added, "I need a sample of the pathogen to send to a properly equipped laboratory, but I suspect that it may enhance the physical attributes of its host by aiding in the production of extra hormones. Which would mean that when this man was alive, he might have been a formidable opponent indeed." Wordlessly, she began drawing more blood samples.

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Lol....it's a good thing that the guy's already dead....too many more blood samples drawn, and he wouldn't have any left...

Just a note: I'm really getting interested in the way this is going. Very interested.

"As in, physical enhancement? That has been tried many times before, but never with much success. This does indeed change some things."

He leaned against the wall, thinking fast. If all of the people in this complex were enhanced like this, then Daaron and his commandos might be overmatched. He had no doubts that he and Viree would be able to outfight these Enhanced humans, but they couldn't destroy the complex on their own without a lot more time than they had.

"So we need to find out just what chemical it is that caused his cells to rupture." He smiled grimly as a method occurred to him, whereby they would have a better chance.

"They've sealed off this level--let's just unseal it," he suggested. "It might take some time to have an effect, but it should at least take them down a little faster than we would on our own."

The two commandos that had been sent across the corridor returned, carrying with them several transparisteel phials of....something. Presumably, it was something that the Sub-commander would understand, and he, with his complete lack of understanding about most aspects of biology, would not.

----

Th'ragg and Daris re-entered the room, handing several phials over to the Taarin officer, then coming over to stand in front of him. "It's mostly a lab, sir, but I don't know, you might want to check it out anyways," Daris said, her voice sounding a little queasy.

"Right," he replied. He stepped out of the doorway, crossed the hall, and walked into the other room. He wished he hadn't. There were several more corpses here, which might prove invaluable to finding out more about the pathogen, but on the table was what had to have been their test subject.

Why couldn't they just use modern technology, instead of cutting him up? he wondered. His thoughts were interrupted by a disgusted grunt from Th'ragg as the Bothan walked into the room behind him.

"I don't think we'll be staying in here long," Daaron said, feeling a very strong urge to sick up, "but the Taarin might find this useful information."

He recrossed the corridor. "Sub-commander na'Tatha? Their lab seems to have been across the corridor, and there are some more bodies, presumably dead due to the same reasons, with one of them neatly opened, presumably to see the results."

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(lol. She can take at least a pint without doing any damage )

"It's not as easy as finding a chemical, Master Jedi." She shook her head, almost to herself. Her own scientific knowledge was barely up to scratch. Manaan's earlobe, she was a soldier and a political analyst, not a labcoat! However, she had been required to take the basics ... "My scans of the atmosphere in here were completely normal. Whatever chemical it was, it was probably moderately volatile - meaning that it didn't retain the same chemical composition for long."

The subcommander was interrupted by the two returning commandos, who handed her several phials. A quick scanner pass partially confirmed her theory. "The pathogen. In a plasma vehicle - they injected it intravenously. This is a different version than the one in his-" she jerked her head toward the body "-bloodstream. Probably a better one."

As Fahl re-entered the room and reported the lab, she noticed that his face had a greenish cast to it. Probably the lighting.

"Right," na'Tatha responded. "I'll take a look." Getting to her feet, she walked across the corridor - and was hit immediately by the sickly-sweet stench of decaying meat. One look at the source, which had obviously not had the same preservation as the surrounding corpses, was enough to send her in the direction of a sink, which she managed to find just before her stomach leaped through her throat.

Finally rinsing out her mouth, na'Tatha glared at anyone who even bothered to look in her direction. "Now. Where were we?"

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All the while, Viree13 has been standing outside both rooms, and she is no longer invisible. Her face looks slightly odd, but now that her curiosity is up, she steps into the first room. She sees the body and smirks, having already heard about it......

Without much bother she walks into the next room, and sees the Subcommander retching. "Well then....."

Viree13 turns to Sahrai, her normally cold eyes slightly disturbed. "I can't dissolve in this air, it's rotting..... Just like that man....." Her jet eyes flick to the sliced open body on the table.......

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die, but have everlasting Life. ~John 3:16~





~The Mercenary A-U Gentlewoman~

Note: After tonight I'll be gone for a week. - Val

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(Okay....)

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die, but have everlasting Life. ~John 3:16~





~The Mercenary A-U Gentlewoman~

(Back! *waits for Aerandir to post*)

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