There was no more blaster fire coming from the basement as Seth rushed down the stairs. He nearly fell twice. As he reached the bottom, his radio finally crackled to life.
"Seth, we've got a situation here," Nova said, her voice coming through a haze of static.
"Where are you?" he replied, taking a few seconds to orient himself, then began sprinting down the appropriate corridor.
"In the reactor bay."
"I'm almost there. Are you safe?"
"Yes. Be careful. Something's out there."
The other two followed him closely. He couldn't see anything in the passageway with them, but there was definitely blood on the floor. A trail of it was leading from the gloom down the way into one of the closed doors. He skidded to a halt and flicked on his flashlight, then played the beam down the dark corridor. Just more metal, more walls, more of the blood trail. Right as he began to turn away, Seth thought he saw something shift at the edge of the light. He refocused the light, watching, but nothing else came and he reluctantly wrote it off as a trick of the light.
"We're here, there's nothing out here," he said, knocking on the door.
A few seconds later it opened up and the three of them came in. Nova closed it behind them. They'd come to the heat sync room, which wasn't particularly large. It was stuffed full of machinery and equipment, leaving little room for the others. Seth could see the job Kato had started. A panel was removed and he could see into the electronic guts of the machinery, and a small collection of tools sat on the floor.
Presently, Kato was crouched over an injured Weston. She had a nasty gash down one of her legs and had bled heavily, though it looked like Kato had stopped the worst of it.
"What happened?" Jennings asked.
"Something out there," Weston replied, sounding strained. "I think it got Jackson. I tried to go after them, but one of them got me bad."
"I'll handle it," Seth said. He almost whirled back around and walked right out there, but he remembered that he had lead on this mission. He looked at Jensen for a moment, then looked over at Kato. "Kato, get back to work. Nova, take over for her. Jensen, Spalding, you're on guard duty outside the door."
"What are you doing?" Nova asked.
"I'm going to find Jackson," Seth replied. He turned to face the door.
"Seth, no," Nova said firmly. He looked back. Kato was halfway in between Weston and the open panel, glancing back at Nova uncertainly.
"Nova-" he began.
"Seth, whatever is out there, it's extremely dangerous."
"She's right," Weston said, then winced.
Seth sighed, then glanced at Jensen and Spalding. "Jensen, you're with me. Spalding, you've got door duty. Nova, as soon as you're done patching up Weston, join him. Kato, grab the stuff you need as fast as possible."
Kato responded affirmatively in a clipped tone, she was already back to work, crouched in front of the open panel. Nova nodded tightly and moved over to Weston.
"Let's go," Seth said to Jensen.
"Yep," he replied, clearly eager to get out there and find his missing trooper. Seth felt his pain. They stepped out of the room back into the hallway, clearing it again. Still nothing, though he thought he heard something coming from the way yet gone.
"Wait right here," Seth said to Spalding, who nodded.
They left him standing with his blaster rifle, then began to make their way slowly down the passageway. Both men shined their flashlights ahead of them. Nothing but a cold chromium corridor. Seth made slow progress down the passageway, eyes wide, listening intently for anything at all. After what felt like a long time, they reached the junction. He looked around, down all three of the other corridors. Two were clear, but the third...
"Oh no," Jensen whispered.
Seth began to move forward, shining his light on an unmoving and very bloody form. Some of the doors farther down the way were open. He watched them carefully, dividing his attention between Jackson's unmoving form and the dark openings. He reached Jackson without incident, and quickly realized the truth.
"He's dead," Seth said flatly.
His neck had been torn out, jugular severed, and one of his arms and half a leg were also missing. It looked like they'd been...severed. Chopped off.
"What did this?" Jensen asked, a cold fury in his voice.
"I have no idea..." Seth hesitated as something chittered nearby. "But I get the feeling that we're about to find out."
Both men aimed their weapons, beams of light pushing back the shadows of the dead corridor ahead of them. Something was moving. Something was coming closer. It obviously was not Sith they were dealing with. A high clacking sound came to them. It was rapid, like many legs tipped with steel tapping across the metal floor.
And then something stepped out into the corridor.
Seth felt a sharp dark fear shoot coldly through his body as he zeroed his sights on what he saw. It was some kind of...giant bug. It vaguely resembled a spider, only it was covered in black fur, and had a cluster of blue glowing eyes on stalks sticking out of its head. Two appendages stuck out of its sides, and they ended in razor sharp claws.
"What is that?!" Jensen snapped.
"Dead," Seth replied, and opened fire.
Jensen joined him. Both of them hosed the thing down with searing hot blaster fire that sliced through the air and carved the awful beast up. It shrieked madly as its dark purple blood sprayed across the walls, floor, and ceiling. With a thump, it fell to the floor. They waited a few seconds, then Seth muttered for Jensen to cover him and slung his rifle. He knelt and scooped up what was left of Jackson, then straightened back up.
"Let's move," he said.
Jensen nodded and they started back to the crossroads. Seth felt his nerves jumping and sparking badly. Now that he knew not only that something was down here, but what was down here, he suspected every shadow, every potential opening, everywhere he wasn't looking. They made it to the crossroads, then began hurrying back to where Spalding stood.
"What happened?!" he asked. Seth began to respond, but then the man's eyes grew wide. "Behind you!"
Both Seth and Jensen looked back and saw another pair of the creatures advancing rapidly on them from the shadows beyond the crossroad's threshold, coming into view. He cursed and prepared to drop Jackson's body, but Jensen was already on it. He blasted one of their heads off with a charged up shot, and gunned down the other with a hail of blaster fire. No others came out of the shadows. For now. Behind them, a door opened.
Seth turned back and saw Nova stepping out.
"What happened?!" she called.
The pair hurried back.
"Oh no..." Spalding moaned.
"Holy crap," Nova whispered as she saw Jackson's corpse.
"Something's infesting the base," Seth replied, stepping in. Nova followed him in, and Jensen lingered in the doorway with Spalding to keep watch. "Kato, where are we with those parts?"
"Almost done, another minute," she replied, sounding distracted.
Seth sighed and nodded. He set Jackson's remains down and looked at Weston. "How are you?" he asked.
"I'll live. I can pilot," she replied. "But I'll need help getting there."
He nodded. Finally, Kato announced that she was done, and hastily began packing up her gear. She pushed the crate of supplies she'd salvaged over towards Seth and Nova. "That's everything," she said as she packed the tools away and then snapped her kit closed.
"Okay. Spalding," Seth grabbed the crate and passed it to the young soldier, "you've got that. Kato, help Weston. Jensen, get Jackson's body. Nova, go with them-"
"What are you going to do?!" Nova demanded.
"We need that kolto," he replied. "I'll grab what I can and follow you out."
"Seth, I am coming with you," Nova said, staring hard at him. He stared back at her, wanting to argue, but he could tell she wasn't going to back down from this. And, to be completely honest, he really didn't want to go back into that nightmare alone.
"Fine," he said. "Everyone, get out now. Once you get your loads to the ship, Spalding, Kato, and Jensen, come back and grab as much as you can from where we piled up supplies at the main entrance. We need to do this fast. Weston, get that ship spooled up and ready for launch. Nova and I will be up as fast as we can."
"Understood," Jensen said. He scooped up Jackson's remains. "Let's go, people!"
They grabbed what was necessary and headed back out into the main hall. Seth and Nova watched them go, then turned their attention back to the dark unknown. Again, he could hear and see nothing, beyond the corpses Jensen had made, but he could feel the base beginning to seethe with life. They were going to have to do this fast.
"Come on," Seth said, and set off at a brisk pace.
Nova kept up with him, her blaster rifle humming with power. He set his to overcharge and stepped into the crossroads section. After clearing all three passageways, he and Nova hurried down the right one, hunting frantically for the storage room that he had pointed out to them earlier. He scanned each in passing, wanting to be out of here more and more with every second. Finally, he had it, the proper storage room.
"Wait here," he said, his voice strained and harsh.
Nova nodded tightly, standing guard, her own movements fast and tense. Seth stepped up to a door with STORAGE 23 painted over it in blocky, decaying alphanumerics. He hit the access button, then cursed softly when the door didn't open. Letting his rifle hang, he found the manual override and hit it, then pried the door open and peered inside. The room beyond was small, and mostly empty. But...there! On one of a pair of basic metal shelves were two small, unmarked crates that looked oddly out of place. It had to be them.
He hurried over to them and pried one open. Vindication: there was a good supply of kolto pouches. Seth considered it for a moment. They couldn't safely carry these crates and defend themselves on the run. They were pushing their luck as it was right now. He came to a decision and started stuffing the pouches in his pockets.
"Nova, get in here," he hissed.
She was at his side in a few seconds. "You found them?"
"Yes. Pockets. Now."
"Got it."
He finished up and then took up watch while she repeated his actions. Between the two of them, they managed to empty both crates, and, after a quick check, confirmed that this was the entire supply of kolto in the area.
"Let's get out of here," Nova said.
Seth nodded in hearty agreement and led the way back out into the corridor, then down it, hurrying back towards the crossroads section. As he reached it and took another look around, he froze as he saw movement.
"We've got hostiles," he said, raising his rifle. There were three of them, coming at them from down the same corridor they'd found Jackson's corpse in. Nova cursed and joined him as he fired off his overcharged shot. It nailed the one in the center, killing it and spraying the others with its viscera. That only seemed to enrage them and they took off, scurrying down the corridor as they began shrieking wildly.
Nova opened fire, hosing one of them down with a concentrated array of blaster fire, and Seth managed to get off a second overcharged shot. Both of them went down before they could reach the crossroads section. But already they could hear more coming.
"Let's go," he said, charging up another shot.
They began sprinting back the way they'd come. As they passed the reactor and then the thermal bay, Seth heard more of them coming. A lot more. They ran on, pushing themselves as hard as they could, muscles burning, boots pounding, echoing down the lonely corridors. Finally, they reached the stairwell that led up to the surface.
Seth spun around and fired almost without aiming. He hit another one of the awful dark creatures, killing it, but there were easily a dozen of them now. He cursed harshly and primed a grenade, then hurled it towards them. Then he spun back around and sprinted up the stairs after Nova, who had smartly not stopped. He barely managed to reach the top as the grenade went off and a chorus of shrieks echoed up after them. Seth primed and tossed another grenade over his shoulder, back down the stairs, listening to it bang repeatedly as it went down the steps, since he knew he wasn't going to be able to close the door behind them.
They made it down the hallway they were in before the second explosion went off. And he could hear more of them coming. He and Nova ran until they'd come to the maintenance bay that the squad had initially entered through. The far door opened as they entered the bay. He saw Kato, Jensen, and Spalding coming in through a swirl of snow.
"Do we have time?" Jensen asked as he caught sight of them.
"Grab what you can and run," Seth replied, and he whirled around to provide cover. Nova joined him. The pair guarded the door while the trio did exactly that. Seth wasn't sure if more were coming, but he wasn't taking any chances. They waited until Jensen yelled 'Clear!', and then they abandoned their posts, hurrying back out of the base and into the snowstorm. And there they ran with the others until they reached their ship.
* * *
"Hey...you doing okay?" Nova asked.
Seth stirred from the half-doze he'd slipped into, inhaling and shifting. "Uh...yeah. I'm okay. How about you?"
"You were going to sleep. I'm sorry," Nova murmured.
"No, it's fine," he replied, shifting more and curling up against her beneath the blankets. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just...thinking."
"What about?"
She fell silent, maybe considering how to word it, or if she should even tell him.
At the moment, Seth felt good. For the most part. After they had made it back to the ship, he'd checked on everyone, made sure they were okay, dropped off the kolto in his infirmary, and then, as they'd started flying back, told Jensen in no uncertain terms that unless it was an emergency, don't bother him or Nova. Then he'd gone back with her to their quarters, stripped, showered, and had sex. Twice. Once in the shower, once in the bed. Then he'd popped some painkillers and downed a bottle of water, and the pair of them had been laying there together ever since, just relaxing.
His body was hurting, but the aches were distant now, soothed by the painkillers and the lovemaking and the comforting warmth of the bed. He knew he still wasn't fully healed from his experiences on Taris and then Dantooine. And although Maya had done a stellar job healing him up, he knew that he simply needed rest. But he wasn't going to get it, not in the quantities that he needed to fully heal up. But that was nothing new. He'd been sore for years now, honestly. But someday, he was going to take a real vacation and actually rest.
"I guess I'm just kind of afraid," Nova said finally.
"Of what? I mean, I don't blame you, that was crazy," he replied.
"Not of that. I mean yeah, those things were really scary. That whole situation was. But...I'm a little scared of where this is going."
"Why? What about it?"
"You...I don't know, Seth. You're good. Like, really good. A great person. That's hard to find, or it has been for me for a long time. I mean, Yex and Seri are great. They're practically saints. But I also feel like they don't really have...a dark past they're running from, you know? It's one thing to be great, it's another thing to have once been terrible, and now strive to be great. And I'm not trying to say anything bad about you. I just...based on some of what you told me and some of the stuff you've done during our time together, I just get the feeling that you weren't really born great. You're trying to be great, despite some dark tendencies and maybe a dark past."
"You aren't wrong," he murmured.
"And you know my past now. I've done awful things. And I'm not trying to say you're as bad as I was, but I feel...connected to you, because we're both coming from a bad place, trying to be better than we were. And that connection, the amount I trust you, it scares me, because I haven't trusted someone this much in a long time. And that's scary. And I'm not saying I think you're going to betray me or something..." She sighed.
"Nova, it's okay. Really. I do actually get it. I understand what you're saying. And I know how you feel. I'm scared too."
"What are you scared of?"
"That you'll die."
"Oh. Well...that would be pretty scary. I guess I'm scared of that, too. That you'll die. But...I guess that's the price of investing in someone. You have to make yourself vulnerable."
"Pain has to be on the table when you care," Seth said.
She nodded slowly. "It does," she murmured. "I hate that, but...you might as well hate life. And I do care about you, but...does it make me a terrible person if I'm still afraid to commit to anything beyond this mission we're on?"
"No," he replied. "I still respect our agreement, and I'm not going to be difficult. I'm not going to demand more, I'm not going to spring anything on you. If our relationship continues or grows into something more, it will be with both of us openly and willingly doing it. But if it makes you feel better, although I'm willing to have you in my life a lot more, I am also nervous about what may come after this. I mean, I'll have to go back to the Army when this is over, I imagine. There's still going to be a war on, and this bizarre, interesting circumstance we find ourselves in can't last forever. So that alone will make it difficult. But even on top of that, I've gotten used to being largely alone..."
"I have too," she murmured. "I don't know if I can go back. Or, if I even want to." She sighed. "Ugh, I feel awful saying that."
"It's okay, I know how you feel. We're loners. We don't do relationships well. But I'm glad we're talking about this."
"Me too."
"So basically, I figure we keep on the current course. We finish this out, then figure out where to go from there."
"Sounds good to me. And in the meantime, enjoy each other as much as possible," she said, grinning at him.
"Yes. That. Definitely that," he agreed.
She leaned in and kissed him, and he kissed her back, and they would have continued if it wasn't for the wall-mounted comm unit chiming, indicating an incoming call. Seth groaned and Nova sighed explosively.
He reached over and hit it. "Yeah?"
"Seth? Are you and Nova okay?" It was Seri.
"We're okay, Seri. Is everything okay on your end?" he replied.
"Yes. We received that shipment of kolto the two of you liberated from the base, as well as the parts for the thermal unit. Yex is installing them now."
Seth blinked in surprise. They must have landed while they'd been doing it a second time. Well, at least they'd taken him at his word and not bothered him. He wondered if anyone was actually still onboard besides the two of them.
"That's great. How's the base?"
"It's okay, but the man in charge wants to talk to you and Nova. He says it's urgent. Another mission has come up."
Seth sighed softly. "We'll be right there."