Medical Frigate NX-375 (Colton)

[Colton Hunter]

Colt glanced over for a moment, then sighed softly.

"Every member of my clan is a skilled engineer, take a look at the controls, Undant, I'll make my way to the engines, see if there's anything I can do to get them powered up," he tapped his com as he swept from the room, his dark cloak billowing behind his golden form as he left the room and made his way down the corridor. "Sevenate, start restoring power, you're in the systems, got someone who is, as of this moment, a friendly, see if you can assist him on the bridge, if there is any physical issues preventing systems from coming on line, let me know and I'll work on repairing them," he promised.

There was a flicker as the emergency lighting went off, and the normal lights came back on. A soft hum rumbled throughout the ship as life support systems came back online, but there was no sounds from the engines. Colt sighed softly, that meant there was an issue. Sevenate beeped a reply, telling him there had been a breach. Great, so he'd need to carefully work in vacuum as he made the repairs... he locked the door behind him, cycling the air out to prevent a pressurized backlash, then opened the engine room... he paused there, staring out into the engine room. He hit his coms again.

"So I have some bad news about the engines," he said simply. The view from the door into what was once the engine room was beautiful, he had to admit to that at least. Stars shone brightly here, that was the access to the engines proper, where the engines were still present, it was easy to miss on a fly by, but seeing the gaping hole here... there was only one conclusion Colt had on the situation. "They're irreparable, looks like someone set off an explosive device, best I can do is salvage parts here," he grasped onto the edge of the door, and swung himself out into open space, checking the mangled terminal there, he plugged himself into the system, accessing it through his wrist computer. "I may be able to get thrusters up and running," he added, "It'll take some doing, think you can last that long, Imperial?" Colt asked. He had noticed his coughing, had sensed something was wrong... they needed to develop a cure fast, for the three here on the ship, and for the people on the planet below. If they crashed without a cure, the virus would spread, fast.

He began to pull wires, and material from the wall, rerouting power to the thrusters. They wouldn't be able to traverse, but they could alter their course...

"Thrusters online, Undant, once you have control, see if the thrusters are enough for escape velocity," Colt said, moving back for the door, letting it close behind him again. There was also the chance that the thrusters could rip themselves from their awnings, not something he wanted to witness up close. "And be careful, the thrusters may be unstable, if you start getting warnings, heed them," he added.

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden's new compatriots went their separate ways and Rhoden set to work, muttering to himself and staring with wide eyes at several beakers. Rhoden pulled up the files on the cure which had been developed, "Oh, most intriguing." he said, "Most intriguing indeed..." Dot beeped a question and he noticed it was softer than it should have been. He glanced at the droid and saw growth creeping over the audio devices it used for its speech. He swiped the growth off, "No, no. It's nowhere near ready just yet, but it seems they were trying to cure all of their nasty little diseases while keeping the cure," he swirled the contents of a beaker, "Valid in a liquid capable of destroying our nanofriends." he said.

The lights went out, "Oh, no, no, no." he said, looking around and holding his hands out to the side as though awaiting an attack--he realized he was sweating. "Don't give up on me now." he called to the ship, "I need your facilities!" the lights came back on.

"So I have some bad news about the engines," the Mandalorian's voice came over the comm, "They're eirreparable, looks like someone set off an explosive device, best I can do is salvage parts here, I may be able to get thrusters up and running. It'll take some doing, think you can last that long, Imperial?"

Rhoden smiled, "Oh, most definitely, I've never felt better." he said. The lights in his helmet flickered and went out, he opened his mouth and looked around as though for answers. He tapped the side of his helmet, "I can't work under these conditions!" he tore the helmet off and through it away, as Dot beeped in alarm. Rhoden licked his lips, his hair was matted with sweat, "Now... that's better." he said.

He looked up and received a shock, he was pale--even by his own standards--and his veins were becoming pronounced, darkening. "Well that's not good." he said, he shook his head. He was wasting time. What had he been doing? Ah. yes. He smiled, he didn't know why he was smiling, he didn't feel remotely happy, but perhaps it was his way of facing death.

[Neive Undant]

Neive walked to the controls and turned a knob on his saber before igniting it once more, the blade now much shorter. Neive slowly removed the growths from the panel, not all of it destroyed but most of it vaporized by the blade. Neive stood and looked over the controls, booting them up.

"Controls on the bridge are up!"

Neive looked at the system info, diagnostics rushing in.

"Reverse thrusters are at 40%! I think if we face the ship towards the planet, we can at least pull back into orbit rather than letting the ship fall into the atmosphere! It'll take time, and while I do that you two can figure out a way to get rid of these vicious pests on board!"

Neive started pulling the nose towards the planet, priming the reverse thrusters.

"They can be destroyed by light weapons, if there's any larger growths, a lightsaber or lightstaff could do the trick!"

Neive looked forward, seeing the planet coming into view. He started up the thrusters, feeling the ship gradually slow its descent into the planet.

[Colton Hunter]

He felt the thrusters activate, causing them to slowly push to one side... then there was a small hiss, then a pop. A much smaller explosion sent pressurized gases into space, causing a violent tremor to shake the ship, sending it listing as the thrusters cut out abruptly, but as Nieve had hoped, it stabilized, placing them into-- well, it was still a decaying orbit. But at least the decay was much more gradual than the fast burn that they had entered into. It gave them a few days at least. A week or two at the most. He drew one of his tonfas, activating it's silver blades, swiping across the growth on one wall. His eye whirring softly in his head as it scanned and magnified. The air quality had changed, drastically near him...

"Don't do that too much, Undant, they are nano machines, you'll need a microscope to see them, individually, if there is enough to create a growth like we've been seeing, there has to be a lot of them... hundreds of thousands of millions... perhaps more," he explained, "All you'll wind up doing is letting them rise up in the steam our weapons create, putting them into the air," he warned, moving from the ruined engines, perhaps he could do something with the shields. He paused at a ladder, than began to climb upward, brows knitted.

"Imperial, your laughter does not bode well for assuming you are well," he mused, "Try and stay focused so we can find a fix for this," he added, reaching the upper levels of the ship, where there were several subsystems. The shield generator was still intact, it seemed, though it had been deactivated manually. That worked perfectly for Colt. He walked toward a panel, popping it open, and began to rewire the interior. A blue glow soon surrounded the exterior of the ship, neatly locking it in place. They wouldn't be able to do much outside now. The shield wouldn't allow anything in or out. It would be a bit of a draw on power, but that was his next spot... right now, the disease, if it could survive in vacuum, couldn't leave, and neither could they.

[Rhoden Carbine]

"Oh, believe me, I am focused." Rhoden said genially, picking up a tool and holding it to the light. He pursed his lips and gave a firm nod as though in appreciation of the equipment. He raised his other hand and batter Dot away as the droid tried to tug on his arm. "Not now, Dot. I have important work to do." he said.

"Hmm. Ah, yes. The biological components all respond well to this particular agent..." he muttered, "Now what about our mechannical bits..." he brought out another device and flicked on the light, swiping more sweat out of his eyes.

He gasped and doubled over in pain, holding onto the device for dear life--there wasn't a second piece. He set it on a table and curled into a ball, taking several gulping breaths. There was a sharp pain in his chest and his headache had brought a new meaning to the word 'migraine'. As he stood he felt as though his veins were bulging more than normal, and looking at a reflective surface he was proven correct.

"It appears, Dot, that I have new accessories." he said, running his hands--themselves now sporting black veins--across his neck and up to his cheeks, where his veins were pronounced and darkening. He opened his mouth in a silent snarl. He couldn't think straight. "Now, don't bother trying it--my mind is, well, mine!" he said to no one in particular, "Besides, you wouldn't find it a worthwhile endeavor."

He seized a comlink, as he turned on the device and tossed in some of the black growth. "Now, how are my favorite little Force users doing?" he asked in a falsely sweet voice, fighting back a grunt of pain as his lungs burned briefly.

[Neive Undant]

Neive sighed, as the ship returned to orbit. He deactivated the reverse thrusters and looked at the computer, thinking as he looked over the log. He listened to Colt's words before acknowledging.
"Alright, I'll avoid it. Just needed to get the larger growth out of the way. Even if it isn't destroying them, it can at least move them aside."
Neive looked at the computer, seeing a different log.

"I found a biologist log. Hopefully it has some useful inform-"
Neive went silent as he heard the pain of the infected man. His pain had sounded like he was being digested by a sarlaac... just louder and less muffled by the creature's insides.

"I think I've had our first breakthrough to getting rid of these things rather than stalling them..."

Neive looked over the log.

"Black wing... there's a distributor near the engine room, it can spray the cures of the diseases throughout the ship. That along with an EMP blast can probably do the trick. But we'll be in space at the time..."

Neive thought for a moment.

"How about I use the reverse thrusters to get us moving towards the atmosphere and we use the EMP just before we enter? Personal life support systems can be used until we enter the full atmosphere, and the systems should filter out any remaining viruses within the air before we enter the planet's atmosphere."

[Colton Hunter]

Colt froze for a moment, he was about to start sprinting toward the medbay again, to see if he could help the Imperial, but froze at Neive's words. He nodded, though no one could see it.

"It's something we can try, but we'd need our ships to continue functioning to escape the wreck, perhaps we could have them do a sweep if you guys have any Arex droids," he mused. "I'm near the engine room still, I'll see if I can find the device, it's most likely damaged from the explosion in the engine room, but if it's still there for the most part, I can cobble together something to do some repairs," he mused. "Make sure it's a cure and not an inoculation, if it's just an inoculation, it won't help us much at this point-" he paused, there was a buzzing in his ears, his eyes flicking toward his readouts. There was a suit breach... A soft curse came across the coms momentarily, as he focused on the Force, reaching inside. He took a deep breath, and expelled it.. a flash of dark energy beginning to vibrate within him... and slowly spread...

"-Undant, the Imperial is already showing signs, keep an eye on me as well, my suit has a breach and I'm sensing some of the virus in my blood stream... I can slow the effects, but..." he glanced back toward the room, making his way inside... the place was a mess. He sighed softly, moving to start looking around, he found the controls for the device easily enough, the screen was busted. With another sigh, he moved to begin peeling the screen off, and pulled out the wires, plugging them into the computer on his wrist. The read out came over his feed, systems were offline...

"Alright, I'll need to walk you guys through this, there's three nodes, they need to be repairs, there's one up near the bridge, and another near med bay, I have one here, picking up general locations, sending them now," Colt added. The three would have to repair them together.

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden was beginning to shake, but his work was largely done now that his allies had come up with a plan. He began heading for the location the Mandalorian had sent him but doubled over in pain again and began coughing violently--his head was really pounding now and he continued to sweat.

"Oh believe me, we've all been exposed. And if this doesn't work we're going to die exceptionally painful deaths." he said, yelling the last words as he coughed again. He ignored the taste of blood in his mouth. He reached the location, "Now what do I... wha--what do I do." he panted squeezing his eyes shut as a spike of pain slammed into his brain.

No. Go back to the medical bay... He heard inside his head. He frowned and shook his head, Destroy the cure! "No!" he bellowed grabbing his hair and ripping tufts of it out. He fell to his knees but tore off the panel on his node. "Standing by." he growled.

There was a weak beep from behind him and he turned one eye to Dot, whose lights flickered briefly. He gave another weak beep and fell to the floor deactivated. "No.. no.. Dot..." he said, abandoning his position and crawling to the droid. He shook it, "Dot, Dot!" he said with growing desperation.

He looked around. What was he doing? Where was Jorvan? "Jorvan.. Dot... need help..." he said weakly. I'm here. said the voice. "No... you're not.. can't be.." he muttered. Trust me. Something clicked inside Rhoden's brain, and it took him a second to realize what it was.

He struggled to his feet, "I'm... stupid..." he ground out. "The droids--they're controlled by a central computer. If we can reprogram it or disable it as we dispense the cure we can stop the mechanical components." he said. His eyes glazed over briefly and he fought down the urge to smash his commlink and draw his blaster.

He rolled his neck and kneeled by the node again, he pulled a laser scalpel and tore away at the black growth, "Node is clear, I can't tell if it needs repairs from here." he said. It was amazing, he thought, how much pain he could actually feel. Not even the... accident... had made it feel like his bones were red-hot.

[Neive Undant]

Neive thought for a moment as he heard rhoden's voice.

"Central computer..." He walked away from the bridge, the thrusters set to keep them in orbit as long as they could. Neive walked back and what turned into a jog to the science lab... In the middle, was a functioning computer. Neive walked over and looked through the files, thinking as he looked, before he saw the orders. He went into the console for their program code, thinking. He found the commands for the viruses and deactivated their activity... they went dormant, though they were not destroyed. The computer would be able to handle them, but if the computer was destroyed, most likely they would release the diseases within them. Neive got on the comm again.

"Alright rhoden, how are you feeling? The virus' mechanical functions are dormant, they should be safe now, once we find the cure for them, we can spread it through the ship and we'll be golden."

Neive spoke again, to colt.

"Were you able to find the distributor? I'm on my way to the med bay to get the cures for the diseases now. We shouldn't need the EMP now, we can probably destroy the computer after we distribute the cure and they'll deactivate once the diseases are released." Neive walked towards the medbay, looking at his suit. No breaches, besides a small tear that didn't go to skin. He should be clean, he thought. But he couldn't be for sure.

[Colton Hunter]

He stared at the device before him for several moments, before he nodded.

"I'm there, it should look like a long strip of metal, with four bumps, each bump has a cylinder inside, and there's a panel to the right of them, you need to pop the panel open," Colt said, moving to do just that. The panel screamed in protest, as it seemed like it had been welded into place by the trauma inflicted to its systems. "You may have to force it open, don't damage the bulges, but the panel isn't necessary for us," he added, "Inside, there should be three canisters, do not touch those, my guess is that they contain what is needed," he mused, shifting his attention to the wiring, "There are a series of blue, white, and red coated wires, do your best to sort them out and find any that have been burnt or severed, you're going to need to cut off the damaged ends, and expose some good length, be careful, the side furthest from the bulges will might be hooked to power sources, whatever you do, don't let that touch anything conductive on your body," he added.

"If it doesn't kill you, the shock will send you across the room, trust me on that," he added, reaching to his belt, he found a wire stripper, pulling the casing back a bit to expose the metal wiring underneath, trimming the bad pieces off. "Next, hold the power end steady, make sure you have an insulator between you and it, you need to wire the two sides together, make sure the colors on the casings match," he explained. His gloved hands helped, they were designed with a cortosis weave to keep his arms and hands safe from the blades of his tonfas, they also acted as an insulator against the energy that ran through the ship. To some extent anyway. He still felt the sting, but then, as an engineer, his fingers were well singed that he barely felt it. He braided the wires together, connecting them to the power supply. A soft hum ran through the machine, the bulges began to glow with a faint blue, as the cylinders surged with green.

"Once you're done with that, there should be blue and green lights," he paused as he noticed a few red blips deeper inside the panel, "If there's some red--" he paused, looking them over, then sighed, there was a couple of breaches into the cylinders, a glowing green fluid running over the glass-like surface. "--Remember when I mentioned not touching the cylinders? Forget that, if they're leaking, they need to be plugged up, you'll need to find something-" he paused, looking at the shaving of plastic material he had cut... "-the casings you already cut," he popped open his visor, then sighed into the com, "They need to be ground and a bit on the soggy side to work for this... chew up as much as you can and start to plug up those holes..." he mused, sticking the pieces of casing into his mouth and he began to chew, he felt the pieces break apart, as he ground them down, and withdrew a mangled plastic piece, which he split apart and began to spread over the cracks, cramming them into the gap the best he could. Several red lights winked out on his panel, popping back up yellow. Not ideal, but functional. A few others remained red, but he realized those were the others.

"Once all the lights go green, Imperial, you need to get back to the medical bay, and start getting the software up and running, this should handle the hardware, for now... it's makeshift, but should work short term," he added. "Undant, I'll meet you back in the med bay, we need to work fast, the shields will keep the virus in, but the thrusters are going to give out soon," he warned.