Concord Dawn's Open Terrain

When Vee woke, Sven was already gone. Kal was cooing in a crib on her side of the room and she could hear someone moving around inside the house. She drowsily forced herself up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Half asleep, she hauled Kal out of his crib, changed his nappy, then placed him at her bosom to eat. A few minutes later, someone knocked softly at her door. Vee? It's Drika.

Vee sighed, covering her naked form with the bed's blanket. Come in! she softly called. Her former MIL and one of her only remaining family members entered with a tired smile. She was still in her robe and her hair was messed from sleep.

Good morning, dear...how did you sleep?

Vee sighed again. Alright, I suppose...She frowned sadly. I'm just not myself. I'm so sorry Drika, you've been doing so much work-

Drika held up her hand, a silent demand for Vee to stop talking. Dear, you just moved across the galaxy with three small children and a baby to a place you've never been before. I am happy to do whatever I can to help. She gently rubbed Vee's foot under the blanket, her kind smile brightening a bit. Now, Sven is already out helping his father in the fields. If you're hungry, I can make you something to eat before the boys wake up. We have some porridge, fruit, and caf...what do you say?

Vee shook her head, feeling like she wanted to sleep for a week. I'm alright for now, I'm just going to finish with Kal.

Drika nodded. Alright dear, finish with him and go back to sleep if you want. I can take him for you and I'll feed the boys when they get up.

Thank you...Vee whispered. Drika, I don't know what I would do without you.

Drika stood and crossed the short distance to brush Vee's mussed her back from her face and kiss her on the forehead. It'll get better love...I promise. She took Vee's face in her hands and looked directly in her eyes. You hear me? It will get better. In the meantime, you need to rest. Don't worry one second about me or the boys.

The odd SOS did bring a response befitting the minute notice response by the local forces of Concord Dawn. A detachment of the Journeyman Protectors, the police of both Concord Dawn and the greater systems of the Mandalorian Assembly, came on two armed skiffs from the capital about thirty miles from where the signal was coming from. Jasper was shortly found where he had fallen. A medical crew was called for rapid deployment upon the examination of the young Mandalorian. In even shorter time, a shuttle came with the necessary means to tend to Jasper.

=Journeyman Commander=
What do we have on file?

He asks as his visor watched a droid and two medical personnel bring the young male to the shuttle on a hover stretch.

=Journeyman Soldier=
A certain Jasper Fett. Seems he is from frontier town along the equator. Local magistrate files doesn't indicate any immediate family. He was declared an orphan about three years ago. Went missing... last week.

The datapad is handed to the commander who reviews it silently.

=Journeyman Commander=
Boy sure is lucky. Let's get him back to the capital then for treatment.

The soldier salutes his superior and relays the orders to the shuttle pilot via comlink on his helmet. Within a few seconds, the shuttle touched off and zoomed back to the bustling capital of Concord Dawn, Jai'galaar.

Smoke hissed off the fire blackened hull of a recently crashed hyperspace capsule deep in the country outside Concord Dawn's major settlement, landed somewhere in a farmer's field in the dead of night, as it cooled amidst burning crops immolated by its flame wreathed landing. Nearby the door to a farm house creaked open as the owner of this particular plot of land awakened to find his field ablaze. An elderly devaronian raced out the door and hopped on a hover-bike, speeding towards the scene as he struggled with the sling of his shotgun-blaster, swinging the time worn weapon over his shoulder. The bikes repulsors came to a stop as the farmer, Jax Kreegar, put his foot down on the scorched earth and stepped off his bike, unslinging his blaster as he looked at the carbon scored hull of the rather large pod with a confused looked writ upon his wrinkled face. "My crops!" He cursed, stamping a foot down as he turned his horned head from one side to the other, observing the damage. Jax was definitely not going to meet his quota now thanks to this.

A metal creak sounded as some mechanism turned inside the smoke wreathed object's blistered hull, followed by a steaming expulsion of gas as a rectangular panel on the side facing Jax Kreegar unsealed, flipping open with a long groan of rusted joints. A strange green emulsion poured out, luminous and lethal as it wilted the stalks of crops it came into contact with, causing the farmer holding his shotgun-blaster in two trembling hands to take a few steps back from the glowing green fog. Shadowy forms moved in the strange spectral mist, screeching and chittering like fiendish imps as their forms began to take shape, waddling out of the capsule's opening on two squat legs. There were dozens of them, these short xeno-forms, that might have once been Xamsters from Xagobah. Now their scaled bodies were largely covered in a disordered and tangled mess of electronics and cybernetic enhancements. The natural paunch they possessed had bloated to the point of bursting as their bellies extended out, full of nanogene spore, as their stomachs had actually been designed to produce the darkside twisted nano-bots.

These squat cyber-goblins were a sinister invention of the Reaper Prime, what he called his Brothlings, plague carriers that would spread his techno-virus across all of Mandalorian space.

Understandably the farmer panicked and squeezed the trigger of his shotgun-blaster, spraying a spread of hot tibanna at one of the brothlings that caused its belly to explode in a green trihexelon cloud that splashed nanogene spore across the grass. That caused the other brothlings to cease their mad screeching as the mood changed and silence took hold. Jax held the stock of his rifle nervously, taking another step back, biting his lip as the fire consuming his field reflected in his dark eyes. THUMP! A resonating thump sounded from within the confines of the pod as something else still inside made its presence known. A large clawed foot stamped down, followed by another as the powerful saurian legs of an ubese thorn-back war dragon stalked out of the large capsule. Its scaled flesh had been visibly altered, covered in leprous sores that wept pus and filled the air with a carrion aroma, as maggots wriggled from between exposed ribs. Sulphuric wisps blew from flaring nostril slits on either side of its snout replete with glistening fangs dripping diseased saliva.

Seated in a filthy saddle strapped to the plagued drake's backside was a towering bloated form in soiled armoured plate that barely covered the bulbous rolls of diseased flesh that spilled from beneath his chest piece. A tattered cape hung from barbed shoulder plate oiled in a pungent ichor, buzzing with swarms of flies drawn to the scent of grave-mould, the fire emblazoned eye it used to depict had long since rotted away. Festerbile Bubonicus, Plague Knight of Runnelsore Keep, let out a wet chortling laugh as he led his diseased mount off the pod that carried him from the Excruciator to the farmlands of Concord Dawn. By this point in time the farmer was shaking in his piss drenched boots as the hideous sight of the Plague Knight was too much for the old man. As the poison clouds dispersed in front of Festerbile's fat face, his leprous lips stretched as wide as a hutts hungry maw, as a bloated black tongue slithered out to sop up the diseased yellow sputum staining his chin.


Two swarms of stinging blaster bolts sprayed from the end of ol'Jax Kreegar's gun barrel and scattered useless across the Plague Knights chest, steaming harmlessly against the thick Sith iron plate crafted in the hellforges beneath Runnelsore Keep. Festerbile's jowls shook as he laughed, reached behind his bloated backside to wrap pudgy sausage fingers around the haft of his gnarly flanged mace, thumbing the trigger on the handle to awaken the arcane science contained within the head of growling maul. Sorcerous green lightning crackled around its head and green trihexelon gas belched from a burning brazier at the core of the dread weapon. Snapping the reigns, the Plague Knight ordered his mount forwards as he marched over to the farmer and swept the snarling mace underhanded, connecting with the devaronian's mouth full of crooked teeth. The single blow pulped and cooked Jax's skull instantly, sending his horned head flying across the field after it was unceremoniously ripped from its body by the sheer force of the strike. Brothlings pouring out of the hyperspace pod danced and played in the pool of blood spilling from the farmer's neck stump after Jax's headless corpse toppled to the ground.

"Laugh and be merry, Brothlings!" Boomed the gargling wet voice of the bloated Plague Knight, shaking the steaming bits of mushed face from his rumbling maul. "We have reached our destination. Now we may spread the Reaper Prime's blessing to the people of Concord Dawn! Go forth and share the Plague Lord's gift!"

The cybernetic Brothlings shrieked as they waddled away in all different directions. Some were headed towards other farms, while others headed for a river that fed a nearby settlement with clean drinking water. Everywhere they went, the plague carriers spread nanogene spore, transforming any living creature they came into contact with into a ravenous techno-beast.

A perimeter was set up around the pod, including the body of a strange cyborg like creature, or what was left of it. Vera took the lead, inspecting the large pod. Hyperspace capable, explained how it got to the planet without a larger ship triggering orbital defenses. And judging on the size of the cyborg body outside, this thing could hold dozens if not a hundred of blasted things. Vera's attention was called back to the outside and field as one of her squad calls for her. She exits the pod, seriously considering if it was time to change her helmet's filter, even if the HUD read it still had 50% expected lifespan left. Crossing over to the one who called for her, Vera was shortly shown a large footprint that had survived the comings and goings, and general decay. The thing that made it was massive. Saurian or possibly Avian based on the shape of the print, Vera had it documented and decided to send a pair of her squad to see if they couldn't find more of these tracks, but with strict orders not to engage unless absolutely necessary. Her attention then turned toward the cyborg body. The body showed signs of being hit by the scatter blaster, but not enough to cause it to seemingly burst open. Vera also noticed that the decay and rot seemed to be particularly bad around it's body. Perhaps this is how the plague was being moved, inside these creatures. The young Mandalorian shuddered at the very thought. Contact Galaar, tell him we've located the crash site and that we've found what the carriers of this plague are... Just still looking for the why.