Title: The Deputy
Author: Bishop7707
Characters: OC
Genre: Suspense, Noir, Pulp, Survival-Horror.
Timeline: Thirty-Five Hundred Years after RETURN OF THE JEDI
Summary: A remnant of past horrors in the war against a long forgotten Sith Offshoot that has mysteriously re-emerged is forced to come out of retirement...
Notes: N/AChapter 1, Part 1.
THE GALAXY HAS KNOWN PEACE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS THANKS TO THE JEDI ORDER.
MORE DECENTRALIZED AND FLEXIBLE THAN EVER, AND HAVING LEARNED FROM THE OLD JEDI ORDER'S MISTAKES, THE JEDI PATROL THE STARWAYS AND THE PLANETS AS KNIGHTS ERRANT, ASSEMBLING ONLY WHEN THE THIRD GALACTIC REPUBLIC HAS NEED.
HOWEVER, THAT DOES NOT MEAN COMPLICATIONS DO NOT ARISE. FORCE USERS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES WHO CANNOT BE CURED, PERMANENT ROUND THE CLOCK TREATMENT AT THE ANAKIN SOLO ASYLUM FOR THE MENTALLY AFFECTED IS OFTEN THE BEST OPTION.
UNFORTUNATELY FOR ONE OF ITS PATIENTS, EVIL HAS COME TO SEEK THEM OUT...
ANAKIN SOLO ASYLUM FOR THE MENTALLY AFFECTED, CORUSCANT...
3500 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF DARTH SIDIOUS
FOUNDATION DAY.
"And how are you feeling, Knight Udinia?"
Uri Udinia, a young, lithe, athletic woman with tan skin and messy chocolate hair that stopped at the neck glanced up at her examiner, a young female Twi'Lek Jedi healer with green skin. They were in a room with eco-architecture inspired aesthetics, working terrariums into the walls, floors and ceiling to create as soothing an atmosphere as possible. It was this way throughout the whole facility.
"Oh...Peachy, I guess," Uri said, bound in white medical scrubs and a straitjacket, seated in front. of the healer. She focused, trying to ignore the voices. The images that were not there.
"Has the different medication mixture helped in any way?" The Healer asked.
"The imagery is less disturbing but has become more bizarre." Uri answered.
"In what way?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Uri answered stoically.
"Knight Udinia..." The Healer said patiently with a sigh. "If you do not tell us, we cannot help you."
"You can't help me anyway. What I got can't be cured. It's hereditary."
"Just because there is no known cure yet does not mean that your condition cannot be managed." The Healer countered quietly. "And the only way to do that is to talk about it."
Uri remained silent.
The Healer sighed.
"Are you at least having less nightmares?"
"Yes. I actually got through three nights in a row without waking up."
"That's great to hear, Uri..." The Healer replied warmly. "We are hard at work finding new ways to improve your medication. I estimate it may only be a matter of months before our understanding of your neurology improves to the point that we can give you something that can allow you to think more clearly for longer periods. We may even be able to finally remove the straitjacket for longer than an hour. You may even be able to finally have unsupervised recreational periods."
"But nothing that will allow me to ever finally leave this place."
The Healer shook her head. "I'm afraid not, no."
Uri's head hung down for a second before she caught herself.
"I understand."
She couldn't blame them. She had been here four years. Her condition had been much worse when she had arrived.
Once more, they went through the motions of pretending their treatments went anywhere, could actually make her better. Once more they went over their various exercises, dancing around the fact it would only delay the inevitable...that eventually her condition would become untreatable as well as incurable.
Eventually once the pantomime was over a Jedi Knight in a blue and white tunic set with bronzium arm and shin guards was summoned to escort her back to her cell, and Uri found herself being led to a very small platform with raised legs which she stepped on and she hovered in place, restrained by force fields. Still hovering, Uri and the human Jedi began the long trek back to her cell, along a long, terrarium integrated passageway.
"Hey, Uri! What's the doc's prognosis?" asked Wyatt, a pale, lanky human with red hair in white medical scrubs through his transparent cell door as her repulsor-stretcher walked by.
See AlsoPhysical activity and exercise in the treatment of depressionSave Your Scalp! 5 Expert-Approved DIY Scrubs For Fresh, Flake-Free HairHusband of Boston Nurse Lindsay Clancy Speaks Out Following Tragic Incident Involving Their Children8 Best Over the Counter Acne Medications, According to a Pharmacist"Whadyya think, Wyatt?" Uri grumbled. "More pills, same as always."
"Stay positive! They're making progress in medicine all the time!" Wyatt called back.
She saw others in their spacious cells, Knights, Masters, Padawans, all damaged beyond repair, beyond even the reach of round the clock therapy, some catatonic, sitting alone save for when they were tended to by droids. Someday she would end up just like one of them, walking around, muttering to themselves, or staring blankly into a wall while every physical need was tended to by Droids.
Uri tried not to think about that fact as she was led to her cell, a spacious, clean room with an automated, personal greenhouse, along with a transparent floor that gave a view of a bed of exotic flowers. The Bed was circular, recessed into the floor itself and accessed by a small staircase.
Just as she was about to be led across the threshold however, massive quake hit the entire facility, with an earth-shattering rumble that knocked her to the floor and her Jedi Escort into a wall headfirst, knocking him out cold.
Her stretcher device was disabled as the alarm sounded, and the lithe young woman in her late twenties used a natural athleticism to leap to her feet...and go into her cell, where her medical android, styled to look like a slender young blonde woman with fair skin named Agatha, clad in a sky blue gown that covered everything and stretched down to her ankles, stumbled out.
"Uri? What was that?" Agatha asked in a faint Coruscant accent.
"No idea. Force, this place got messed up bad..." Uri breathed, observing cracks in the walls and floor. She saw brown garbed security teams rushing by with heavy scatterguns set to stun. Normally used only if patients became violent. She heard blasterfire, violent screaming in the distance.
"What is going on?" Uri wondered.
Agatha twitched her head a bit.
"Wireless bulletin just went out on automation by the security system. General Assault is in progress. Sensors...sensors have detected some kind of Sith Spawn on the property...and response teams are reporting Mandalorians in white armor..." Agatha said in stunned, horrified silence before refocusing on her duties.
"Uri, my directives are clear. Me and every other android is to escort the patients to evacuation if its within our power to do so...while the response teams can still buy us the time. Please, come with me. If we don't leave now, we never will. The invaders are pressing to this area..."
"Cut me loose!" Uri begged, referring to her straitjacket.
"I'm sorry, but protocol is very clear on this," Agatha replied with a shake of her head. "After your recent fits, it was judged too dangerous to remove it until you fully adjust to the new medication."
Uri swore under her breath but shrugged. Agatha took her by the arm and led her quickly down one passage as the sound of blaster fire grew louder behind them. She saw other Androids, each wearing the same gown but looking completely different from Agatha, releasing panicking patients, some desperately trying to lead out the catatonic from the slaughter catching up to them.
"They have their problems, and we have ours..." Agatha said firmly, though it broke her artificial heart as her digital mind calculated projected losses.
The ceiling started to give, and Agatha shoved Uri out of the way as chunks of it came crashing down between them.
"Uri, GO!" Agatha yelled through a hole in the chunky debris between them. "I'll find another way to you! I got a lock on the tracking beacon in your wrist! RUN! Head to Emergency Booth four in Sector F2! They'll take you to the departure rail! Stay out of sight! The system says they's shooting everyone they come across. They spot you, you're dead!"
Uri nodded and bolted for her life...
...
Uri Udinia, as she progressed through the facility, knew it was very bad. She kept coming across bodies, they were exterminating witnesses, whoever they were.
And she was still trapped in her bloody straitjacket.
The lights were flickering on and off in some sections. Power conduits seemed to have overloaded, there were fires in some spots.
She spotted an abandoned security booth and stepped over dead men with blaster burns, heading inside. The whole place had been riddled with blaster fire. She saw one dead security team member next to one of the patients, who she noted through the adrenaline and fear with great sadness was an ex-knight she regularly played cards with.
She noticed the wireless key on the dead guard's belt and pressed it with her toe. The mechanism that kept her straitjacket bound instantly came loose and she dove behind the cover of the already shot up security booth as a squad of white armored Mandalorians came by to do a secondary sweep. Their helmets were somewhat bullet shaped, and they were all armed with wrist mounted assault blaster rifles and shoulder mounted rocket launcher swivels. She hid behind a large chunk of what was left of the scan proof security barrier, knowing if she was in the open the notoriously ultra high grade sensors found in all Mandalorian Helmets these days would allow them to spot her otherwise.
Uri listened.
"The thing that hired us had better have our credits ready..." she heard one of them grumbled. "This kind of work is always grotesque..."
"It's paying us to shoot, not talk..."
It? Uri wondered.
That was when she saw the hallucination of Darth Vader, leaning against the interior booth wall with his arms folded, his deep rhythmic breathing echoing.
"I'd get a move on if I were you..." Vader said very casually in his legendary baritone. "These sorts? Not the type to mess around..."
Uri rolled her eyes, but a glance to the side made her realize a security screen was still functioning, and she crept up, making certain the patrolling squad had left the area first.
Uri examined the live feed of the sector she had just fled.
On it displayed a team of blue and white garbed Jedi and a team of brown garbed regular Republic Security surrounding something that looked like a humanoid female, albeit somewhat obese, with barbie doll like anatomy that lacked true physical detail, but otherwise appeared completely nude with lavender skin, and a set of Togruta-Like all purple head tales. It had no face, just a smooth avoid of lavender flesh where a face would normally be. It was barefoot, and Uri's eyebrow raised when she saw random areas on the surface of its obese body bubble and shudder like a mass of rats were moving underneath the skin
"I will give you one chance..." it said in an unnatural hiss, the blank, featureless mound of flesh where a face should be rippling like water was underneath as it spoke. "As in, the first on to tell me where Uri Udinia is, will be the one who lives..."
Purple lightning arced around its bulbous body.
One Knight struck with a saber staff, and shredded it to pieces with a few quick, devastating spins, but its tissue did not burn nor cauterize as the lightsaber struck it. Nor was there blood or gore.
It seemed it was just one solid mass of endless purple flesh, almost like silly putty in its consistency as it fell to the floor in wet splotches, each piece bubbling and shuddering on the floor where it fell.
And each piece emitted a VIOLENT burst of purple lightning that the other Knights barely blocked with their sabers, but successfully killed the one that had sliced it apart. The lavender colored, silly-putty like pieces of tissue sprouted tendrils as they advanced on the Knights, constantly emitting powerful purple lightning or jets of flames, one jet smothering a Knight and setting him ablaze, a bolt searing through the chest of another after hitting his lightsaber with such force it was ripped out of his hands. Only the four surviving Jedi manifesting a unified Force Bubble with all their combined strength prevented the powerful discharges of Force Lightning from killing them as well.
The shredded tissue pieces gathered themselves, reforming the obese, faceless, Torgruta like monstrosity, and it cackled as it held out clawed, veiny, unpleasantly wrinkled hands ending in ugly yellow talons and emitted powerful jets of red flames with a shriek that rapidly burned through their bubble, forcing them to break apart when the heat became too great.
Two knights charged while the others were smothered in red flames that cooked them to the bone, and then cooked the bone to ash, in seconds as the faceless monstrosity dodged their swipes with an unexpected alacrity, losing its shape to become a chaotic mass of lavender flesh that pulled away from the strikes, going between the legs of its opponents, forming spikes from its flesh to try and stab at them from behind, this succeeded with one, and he went limp as the spike of lavender tissue went through his spine, while the survivor flipped away as the mass reformed into the faceless creature, who held out one of its hands in a clawed grip, and the Jedi clutched at his throat, hanging suspended from the air as his esophagus was slowly, sadistically crushed before he was flooded with Force Lightning, then flung away like trash with telekinesis.
Uri's mouth hung open and she began running as she realized the thing must be mere minutes away from her...
...
Uri ran for her life down the bloodied Asylum, turned from serene and peaceful into a nightmare. She couldn't use the Force, due to the medication, and wouldn't be able to for some time.
She spotted a dead Jedi, who had been riddled with blasterfire, and saw his lightsaber, still slick with blood and clutched in his hand, and knelt down, examining it. A ceremonial weapon mostly, no special settings beyond heavy stun or lethal. Its design was a simple cylindrical hilt with the blade symbol of the Jedi Order emblazoned in silver near the top of a slightly bulbous hilt with a simple activation switch, its surface a glossy black finish. It would be useful for her escape, but she was far from being in a position to actually fight with it. The Medication left her dizzy on even the best of days, and from what she had seen, she knew she stood no chance of surviving a straight encounter, even if she WASN'T degenerating neurologically and was in her prime of skill.
All that mattered was getting to Sector F2, reaching that emergency booth (Provided it had held out against this slaughter, which was looking increasingly unlikely) and hope the Mandalorians hadn't gotten far enough to destroy the Rail Tunnel in their invasion.
Uri could still hear blasterfire and the clashing of lightsabers in the distance. She knew in her gut that monster was getting ever closer.
No choice. She needed to be able to hide from this creature, but that required her to purge the medication from her system. She had no choice but to divert to the medbay,
Uri made a right into the medical section, saw patients that had been shot in their beds as she headed into the emergency room, dived in as she heard footsteps, hiding behind the Cylindrical Deep Anatomy Scanner because of its radiation proof barrier, hearing a Mandalorian come into the room. Uri froze, knowing there was nowhere left to hide if he didn't stop getting curious fast.
The completely white armored Mandalorian (Save for their black, T-Shaped Visor), his cuirass, greaves, shin guards, and bracers of a scale-type design, stepped closer, looking for any sign of disturbance. Uri didn't even dare breath, slowing her heartbeat down as much as she could to avoid tripping the audio sensors in her foe's helmet. She forbid herself to sweat, to avoid tripping the chemical sensors in the helmet as well. She dared not even move one muscle, lest she trip the helmet's motion sensors.
After a moment, the Mandalorian looked around, shrugged, and left. She waited thirty seconds. It was an old tactic of theirs. Don't move until you hear them walk away.
After a minute and thirty seconds more, she finally heard footsteps. It was another thirty seconds before she dared draw another breath. She came out from cover and began emptying the cabinet, looking for the detoxifier vials...
"So, what's the plan?" The Hallucination of Darth Vader asked as she rifled through the cabinets. "What if the railway is completely cut off? You'll be almost in the heart of the facility..."
Uri closed the cabinets, trembling.
"I think you know what the solution is. You gotta go loud, Uri. Get back on that Rancor." The Vader Hallucination advised.
"Quiet." she replied as she looked for the vials, the knot in her stomach growing tighter.
"You're probably cut off already," The Vader Image advised. "You're gonna have to get desperate if you want to escape."
Uri turned to the Hallucination.
"Cell 21..." Uri said under her breath.
"It's a section beyond this one." The Hallucination mentioned, giving her a double thumbs up.
"They always said don't go near Cell 21." Uri muttered, folding her arms.
"Nobody but Masters in Cell 21." The Vader Image said. "That means whoever is in there is dangerous."
"It's a very bad idea." Uri responded.
The Hallucination folded black clad arms, imaginary respirator breathing ever steady.
"Like there are any good ones right now." The Image responded with a level of sarcasm the real Vader would never have dared let creep into his voice.
Uri shrugged. "Ya' got me there. First thing's first though."
Uri finally found the detoxifier vial and injected the cleanser into her to get the medicine out of her system, gritting her teeth and gripping a rail, shaking involuntarily but without pain as every last trace of the medicine was erased.
Her ability to sense came back first, and she fell to the floor, shaking as the numbed away sensory input came back and she felt the suffering and death, and worse...
The Abomination was extremely close, as in, RIGHT ON TOP.
"Uri...leave the room. Now." The Image advised.
Uri began to desperately crawl, fighting the sensory shock as something began to punch through the ceiling. But it was a tough structure, but Uri's shock was bad, and it took a titanic effort just to move her arms.
Pulsing, bubbling lavender tissue finally punched through the ceiling, just as Uri desperately crawled to the storage counter for injectable medicines and disinfectants, pulling herself to the surface of the marble counter, her legs almost useless, the lavender flesh piling up on a gurney at the end of the room, reforming into the faceless, obese Togruta-female like abomination, sitting on it, taloned hands resting to her sides on its surface, its legs crossed, clawed toes wriggling.
"Why, Uri..." it hissed, the featureless front of its Togruta-like head rippling once more as it hissed at her...
It hopped off the gurney, striding confidently towards her, hips swaying.
"How fortunate I could catch you before your flight..." The creature hissed, its cold voice rattling her skull and making her spine feel like it was next to ice as it got closer.
"What do you want from me?" Uri choked out.
"Oh, so much...allow me to introduce myself..." the creature said, taking a short bow.
"I am The Phalanx..." Phalanx said. "One Body. Many voices..."
"Whatever it is you want...whatever it is you THINK I know, trust me...you won't get it. My head is a mess..." Uri said desperately, revolted by its very presence. "Shrodinger's Syndrome. Hereditary Schizophrenia...no cure. Degenerative. Any info you could tear out of my skull simply can't be trusted, no matter how authentic the memory seems."
"I know. I seek to hasten your journey to madness." Phalanx replied, body wriggling like rats were under the skin for a split second.
Uri's eyes widened.
"Why?" Uri whispered.
"Your insanity is key to the Glory of The Dark Side..." Phalanx hissed... "You shall make a fine apprentice for the horrors I shall teach you..."
"I'd like to see you try..." Uri snapped defiantly.
The monster chuckled sickeningly as its blank head rippled.
"There is no Try...not with me. I do. Or I do not..." it replied, Force gripping her by the throat and dragging her towards, it, neck sliding into lavender fingers which felt cold and clammy to Uri as they tightened around her esophagus.
"This is a time to rejoice, Uri."
A hypo slid out of her sleeve into her hand, filled with emergency tranquilizer, and she jammed it into the creature's arm, making it drop her as it stumbled back, flesh rippling and shuddering everywhere as it lost its ability to maintain its obese female form, breaking down into a mass of lavender flesh that bubbled and rippled, spreading everywhere. Uri shrieked in fright as she saw various faces of women in the mass of spreading lavender tissue, the faces all screaming and twitching silently.
A burst of pure adrenaline gave Uri back her legs and she ran out of the room for her life.
The writhing mass of lavender flesh eventually purged the tranquilizer from its system and reformed into its humanoid form.
"And here I was, starting to have doubts..." The Phalanx chuckled, genuinely trying to be a good sport when it came to its profession...
The Phalanx calmly pursued a fleeing Uri Udinia out of the medbay at a walking pace. No reason it couldn't enjoy a little game with its new intern...
