Terminal Condition

Posted on Mon May 4th, 2026 @ 3:45pm by Kalen "Rex" Vickers & Mentis

3,575 words; about a 18 minute read

Chapter: Chapter IX: The First Verse
Location: GalactaWerks Spaceport, Mos Entha
Timeline: Dusk

"This hyperdrive, failsafe thing!" Mentis panted, wide eyed at the bedraggled Human, "Where do we find it?"

Rex staggered a few steps in and dropped onto a low crate, dragging in air that did not quite fill his lungs. Sweat ran freely down his face as he shrugged his duster off and let it fall, one blaster slipping from his hand to the floor with a dull clack. Behind them, the barricade creaked under growing pressure, not a full breach yet, just bodies leaning, testing. He glanced back once, then forward again, forcing himself upright.

"Reckonin' they’ll get through that," he muttered. "Not quick... but..."

He looked down the corridor, eyes adjusting to the low emergency lighting that traced the curve of the terminal. The air was cooler but wrong, filtered and stale, carrying that same rot beneath something chemical.

"This place ain’t standard," he said, voice steadier now. "Should be open, simple layout. Docking ring, admin, maintenance below. Easy to read." He shook his head slightly. "They’ve sealed it up. Built over it. The data didn't have clear floorplans" Rex wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and nodded vaguely ahead. "Failsafe’s either tied to their executive docking bay or buried down in whatever they’ve built underneath, I'm thinking. Problem is, we’re guessing."

Another heavier thud hit the barricade and he pushed himself to his feet, grip tightening on his blaster. "So, uhh, we pick a direction and move, yeah? Slow gets us dead!"

Mentis rubbed a hand over his face, smearing sweat and dust.

"I really hope it's in the executive bay and not some maintenance crawlspace," he muttered. "We're far more likely to get out alive if we're somewhere with a ship on hand."

He stepped forward, scooping up Rex’s duster and tucking it under one arm. With the other, he offered Rex a steadying hand.

"And I'd really like to get out of this alive, Rex."

He held Rex’s gaze a moment longer than he meant to. something unspoken passed between them: something about sunrises and second chances, before he cleared his throat and looked away.

"Come on," he said, voice tightening back into something practical, "Before my flimsy barricade falls apart."

Rex took the offered hand and hauled himself up, steadying for a fraction of a second before his eyes dropped to the duster tucked under Mentis’ arm. He snatched it back with a tired, automatic motion, shaking it out once.

"Yeah, nah," he muttered, pulling it over his shoulders despite the heat. "Not your colour."

The corner of his mouth twitched faintly as he stepped past, starting down the corridor with one blaster low at his side. He made it three paces before slowing, then stopping altogether. Something in his posture shifted. He glanced back over his shoulder at the faint glow of the unstable blue blade, weighing it, then jerked his chin forward.

"Actually... you first," he said, more quietly. "That thing’s doing more for us than I am right now."

Mentis shrugged his answer back.

"Fair."

The corridor curved with the structure, narrowing slightly as they moved, the emergency lighting thinning out until it became intermittent strips of dim red and amber. The sound of the barricade behind them faded, replaced by something else carried through the walls. A low, uneven murmur.

They passed two bodies in GalactaWerks Marine gear slumped against the wall, helmets split, visors blackened from the inside. Another lay further on, half dragged across the floor, a smear of dark fluid marking where it had been pulled. Rex slowed as they approached the first bay, one hand coming up instinctively, blaster angled toward the partially open door.

The blast doors had been forced apart from the inside. The metal was bent, pried back just enough to allow passage, edges warped and darkened as though something had burned or eaten through the locking mechanism. Blood had dried along the seams, thick and dark, dragged outward in streaks across the floor.

Rex edged closer and leaned just enough to look in. The bay beyond had been gutted. It no longer resembled a docking space. The floor was obscured beneath a sprawl of cables and improvised conduits, strung between frames and makeshift supports. Vats had been installed in rows where ships should have rested, tall, cylindrical things filled with thick black fluid that moved sluggishly within them, disturbed by no visible mechanism. Shapes floated inside.

Workstations had been assembled around them in crude clusters, screens dark or flickering, tools left where they had fallen. Bodies lay between them. Dozens...most of them still.

The smell hit a moment later. Heavy and wet, rot layered over something indistinct and from somewhere deeper in the bay, beyond the nearest row of vats, came a low groan.

Rex did not step in. He stayed at the threshold, jaw tightening slightly as his eyes moved across the scene, taking it in piece by piece without comment.

"...Yeah," he said under his breath. "That’s not docking."

A shape shifted somewhere within the rows. Then another. A faint, wet movement followed by a low, dragging groan that did not belong to anything properly dead.

Rex raised the blaster a fraction higher.

"Research, huh," he went on, quieter now.

"Oh kark," Mentis sidled up to the other side of the door, blade now retracted, silent and waiting, "They had all this right in the middle of town?"

He swallowed, the sound muted and dry.

"I mean, I’ve seen some of Axion’s experiments first‑hand," he went on, still quiet, "But they always felt like they had purpose. Twisted, dark, galaxy‑breaking purpose but purpose all the same."

I mean, I've seen some of Axion's experiments first hand, but they always felt like they had some twisted purpose. Like it all made some kind of sense to the galaxy. This..."

His gaze tracked a shape drifting inside one of the vats, its outline barely humanoid.

"This…" He shook his head slowly, “This is just playing with people’s lives to see what sticks. And if it doesn’t?" his jaw tightened, “Oh well. Just blow it up and start again.”

A faint groan echoed deeper in the bay. Mentis didn’t flinch, but his voice dropped further.

"But they miscalculated this one. Their dirty secrets got loose."

Rex did not answer as his eyes stayed on the vats, on the bodies, on the slow, drifting shapes suspended in that black fluid, taking it in with a tight, quiet focus that said he was already filing it away as something he did not have time to process. His eyes drifted over ones that were empty or broken, too.

"Yeah," he said at last, low. "That tracks."

He shifted his weight slightly, about to step in, when something cut across the background noise - a faint hiss. It was not from the bay but further down the corridor. Rex’s head turned a fraction, eyes narrowing as the sound came again, closer this time. It was wet and alive in a way the others were not, even the hulking undead rancor Mentis had killed outside. His grip tightened on Cindra as he leaned back just enough to glance down the curved passage behind and ahead of them.

The emergency lighting flickered once, dipping low before returning, and in that brief falter something moved above the line of sight. Fast and wrong. Rex’s gaze snapped upward, tracking along the ceiling just as Mentis’ blade flared briefly back to life, the unstable blue glow cutting a sharp line through the dark.

It caught it, clinging to the upper curve of the corridor like a spider, a thing that dragged itself forward in uneven, stuttering pulls. It was thin to the point of collapse, limbs elongated and stripped of anything that might once have been healthy tissue, yet thick cords of exposed muscle still flexed beneath torn skin as it moved. Its head hung low, the upper skull partially open, slick with something that reflected the light in dull, wet glints. Something clear and viscous dripped from it in slow strands, its mouth slack and a sharp tongue lolling inside. An intravenous feed of some manner trailed from its back, half-torn but still attached, the bag bouncing uselessly behind it as it crawled.

The hiss came again, louder now, venting from somewhere within its chest or uneven mouth as it drew itself forward with a sudden, jerking lurch that was far too fast for its state.

Rex stared at it for half a second before his nature reasserted itself.

"Uhh... nope."

His hand shot out, grabbing Mentis by the shoulder as he shoved them both hard through the doorway into the bay, boots scraping across the floor as he drove them inside. He twisted as he moved, bringing the blaster up toward the corridor in case it followed, body already angling to clear the threshold.

"Creepy bay it is," he muttered, breath still tight, eyes flicking once toward the ceiling again.

He released Mentis a fraction inside the room, stepping forward just enough to make space, blaster still raised, the dark interior now suddenly the lesser of two problems.

Mentis staggered slightly at the sudden push but righted himself quickly and shot an arm back to close the docking bay door. It groaned as it inched a little over before groaning to a halt, something jamming the mechanism.

Through the small opening, they caught sight of movement in the flickering light of the hallway they had just left - pale and inhuman.

"What was that?" the Rattataki gasped mere moments before a clawed hand burst through the gap and began wrenching and tugging furiously at the metal door. Scratching gashes into the surface, the claw slowly undoing Mentis' attempt to force it closed and the metal itself began to bow inward under the great strain. A wet, rattling sound echoed through the gap and into the makeshift lab.

Rex flinched, clutching Cindra even tighter and Mentis jumped back, lightsaber ignited. His boots splashed into a pool of the dark liquid that had escaped from one of the shattered tanks. Surrounding them now were blackened, desiccated bodies but, for now, none gave any sign of re-animating.

Mentis' eyes flitted between the tanks and machines, dark shapes still floating in some. They were seemingly inert as well but the dark water and flickering light made that a flimsy assertion to bet one's life upon.

"Reeeex?" Mentis drew out the query as he crept back slowly, holding his blue saber up at every angle to be sure not to be surprised, "You seeing that failsafe anywhere around here? Or, at least, another way out."

Rex edged back, keeping his blaster trained toward the door as the claw tore deeper into the seam, metal screaming under the strain. "Yeah, I’m seeing it," he muttered, voice tight. His heel struck something solid and he turned sharply, only to freeze as the tank behind him shifted. Suspended within the dark fluid was a Bith - or what remained of one. Its elongated head was warped, its body truncated to a cluster of exposed organs, lungs still expanding in slow, mechanical rhythm. Then it turned. Not drifting, not passive. It turned to look at him. "...oh, that’s wrong," Rex breathed, recoiling a step.

The door slammed again, harder. Through the widening gap, the emaciated thing clawed forward in violent bursts, but something else staggered into view closer by, inside the room. It was a figure in a white coat, soaked black and red, one arm missing, the other dragging along the wall. Its head lifted just enough to show a face not yet gone, eyes clouded but present, clearly a GalactaWerks scientist.

Rex’s gaze flicked between them, the calculation collapsing into something more immediate as the metal bowed further inward.

"Yeah, alright," he said quickly, backing off the tank, blaster coming fully up. "You’ve got that... whatever it's, uhh..." He gestured sharply, frustration cutting through the fear. "The Force. Use it. Find us a way out, a way down, anywhere that ain’t this room."

The door tore another inch, the claw forcing through as something wet and ragged hissed beyond it. Rex took the chance to shoot the scientist straight in the head, and sound of the blaster fire echoing through the chamber - and more groans rose in response in the bag... and the shriek of something else.

As Rex turned, more infected began to morph into view, some rising from the floor where they had been seemingly inanimate, while others wrenched and squeezed their way in between the coolant pipes that had been installed in the room. Some were more scientists, others marines and others were covered in that blackened substance indicating they were once subjects of the experiments here.

But what concerned him most was whichever one had shrieked with such fury.

Behind him, he heard Mentis' blade swinging again - plasma meeting sticky flesh with an unpleasant sizzling char.

"Ugh, these ones aren't dead either!" his voice rang out amongst his grunts of exertion, before the final thud of felled corpses gave him some reprieve, "Okay, I'm going to press on up to the bay control centre and see if it connects back into the rest of the terminal. Hopefully the main door holds a little longer..."

Rex had opened his mouth to respond and immediately regretted it. Whilst the smell had been bad out in the streets, it was leagues worse inside, and this was compounded by the burnt dead flesh being thrown around by Mentis' new weapon.

The smuggler followed his nose again, quickly reacting to one of the faster lurching forms, causing two bolts to smack into the back of the skull of another uniformed figure, but another went wide and sheered off the leg of an emaciated Nautolan worker, who collapsed but immediately started crawling onward.

As Rex finished that poor creature off, the background worry that ticked in his mind rung its alarm, and he turned his attention back to the main doors - which were now conspicuously silent.

Before he could warn Mentis, another shriek rang out from high above - looking down from the roof of the docking bay was the faint silhouette of the lanky panting beast that had hung before Rex in the corridor. It's splitting facial flesh hung loose around its head and its jaw hung low as though permanently locked upon.

Then, with a lurch, it leaped towards the upper platform Mentis was ascending. The light of the bay caught its slick, wet flesh for just a moment before it came crashing down.

The Rattataki grasped the handrail firmly to stop himself from toppling as the whole structure was wrenched askew. With his other hand, he raised his bright blade up, preparing to strike down at the monster. But, before he could complete the motion, a whip-like tongue shot forth from the creature's gaping jaw. It encircled and tightened around Mentis' arm with lightning speed.

Rex saw the man's grip loosen slightly, but fought with all his strength to hold on to his newly crafted weapon. Snarling with a gurgle as its tongue hang out, the creature brought up a great claw from its hold on the bending stairwell and went to swipe down at Mentis' body.

Desperately throwing forward his other hand, Mentis cast a blast of Force energy at the lanky monster, sending it toppling to one side, tongue still wrapped about his arm. He was pulled aside too as the knotted tongue around his wrist tugged him over the side. He barely had time to grasp the railing again with his free hand to prevent him tumbling away with the weight of his opponent.

Rex watched, horrified, as Mentis now dangled off the side of the railing, with the creature clinging on to a lower section just beneath him.

He rushed as fast as his tired body would let him. The distance between them vanished in a rush of boots on metal and slipping traction as he hit the platform hard enough to jar his teeth, one hand shooting straight past the railing to seize whatever part of Mentis he could find. It caught on the back of his collar first, then shifted, fingers bunching into fabric and flesh beneath as he hauled, not cleanly, not controlled, but with everything he had left.

"Don’t you dare," he snarled, breath tearing in his throat, more command than encouragement, more refusal than fear.

The creature below shifted again. Its limbs tightened along the lower structure, those stretched, ruined muscles drawing in with a sudden, unnatural cohesion. The slackness left it and the tremor steadied. Its head tilted up, that hanging jaw parting wider as the tongue flexed, tightening fractionally around Mentis’ arm as though bracing for the next motion.

"Up," Rex forced out, voice low and vicious, dragging again, boots slipping against the slick metal as the railing bit into his forearm. "Now, Mentis, now-"

The answering force came not from below, but through.

Rex felt a sudden shift in weight that should not have been possible, Mentis’ body lightening in his grip for the briefest, impossible second as the pull from beneath faltered, some use of the Force he did not really understand. The tongue slackened.

Rex took it and he leaned back with a raw, unmeasured effort, every muscle in his back and arms screaming as he hauled upward, dragging Mentis over the lip of the railing in a graceless, desperate motion that caused the tongue to release and ended with both of them collapsing hard onto the platform in a tangle of limbs and breath and impact.

"Move," Rex rasped, already twisting and getting his gun - because the monster had not stopped.

It rounded the lower curve in the same instant, recovering with a speed that made no sense for something so ruined, limbs hauling it upward in a violent, skittering surge. The tongue lashed loose with wet slaps, recoiling back into its gaping mouth as it came on, claws scrabbling.

Rex’s back hit the metal hard as he fell away, dragging his blaster up in the same motion, the barrel snapping toward the shape as it crested the edge.

He fired three times in quick succession, the shots almost merging into one as the muzzle flash lit the thing up. The first caught it high in the chest, punching through what little remained of its torso. The second tore across the exposed ruin of its head, snapping it sideways. The third hit as it came forward still, point blank now, the bolt burning deep into its upper body with a violent flare of heat and smoke.

Its body struck the lower structure with a wet, heavy impact, bounced once, and then tumbled down the stairwell in a broken cascade of limbs and slack flesh, disappearing into the dark below with a final, distant crash, where groans and the sound of shuffling feet could still be heard.

Rex kept the blaster trained on the edge for a second longer, chest heaving, arm trembling with the effort of holding it steady.

"Heh," he muttered under his breath, voice thin and breathless, not quite a laugh, not quite disbelief. "Ha!"

He swallowed hard, forcing air back into his lungs as he pushed himself up onto one elbow, eyes flicking once toward Mentis, checking, counting, confirming.

"I won?"

Breathing deeply, his own eyes still fixed on the mangled mess of the creature Mentis answered, "That's great Rex, but let's not get too confident yet!"

He grabbed Rex's shoulders and moved him further along the now-askew stairwell.

"Let's keep climbing to that control centre before more join the party!"

The pair clambered up the remaining steps and forced their way into the control centre, sealing it tightly behind them. The room was quiet and dim, the wide observation window casting faint light in from the outside. However, what lay inside was not the standard setup for a docking bay control centre: various terminals and connection ports had been disassembled and had numerous wires connected into them. On the far wall, one of the central power conduits had been ripped open and a great reinforced cable now ran from it to a round device that lay at the heart of the weaved wiring at the centre of the room, like an egg in a synthetic nest. Small diodes blinked on and off in a lazy fashion indicating there was at least standby power flowing into it.

Mentis held up his blade again, carefully stepping over cables to try to get a better look. As he approached, his blue light caught the shadow of the corridor from this chamber that connected to the other docking bays and fed back into the main terminal. For now, no sights or sounds emerged from the corridor.

Attention turning back to the strange equipment, Mentis spied a secure container in the floor beside the central machine that had been left curiously open. Within it was a cylindrical container plastered with about as many warning labels in as many languages as it seemed theoretically possible to support on one container.

"Hey Rex," Mentis glanced back, voice breaking nervously, "I'm no expert on explosives, but I think we might have stumbled onto that failsafe device."

TBC

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