Chapter 13
Once the creature had been a male, and had a name, but it had been in this chamber for so long, constantly fed with its horrible drug that all that remained had faded long ago. It existed now to feed it's unending hunger and for no other reason.
It sensed this new group. They seemed stronger than average and it wanted to sample them. It sensed two pairs and three singles. Pairs could become a problem because they sometimes sensed each other so until it could taste one and discover from where they came it went with its usual and called one of the single males.
The whole allure of the planet was to bring as many single males as possible, although the creature fed without concern to gender. The males were more isolated, less social, and that made their disappearances easier. It had done this numerous times before. In the morning light the others would assume the male had taken advantage of the hedonistic delights available, by the time they discovered differently it would be too late.
It was Alpha that initially saw the problem. She was monitoring from the ship and she saw that Rocker was up and moving. She was about to contact him via the new comms when she saw that his learning chip was currently in use.
The learning chips were genius tech, no doubt, but they only worked when the recipient was in REM sleep. The fact that he seemed to be moving across the city at the same time caused her to send out an immediate alert to the rest of the team and to contact Darby's back up team as well.
Had the creature responded differently the next few hours events might have gone much, much better. It hadn't been challenged in so long that it discounted the risk, however, when the rest of the group was awakened and it sensed their alertness it simply controlled them too.
Now Alpha noted her whole team was headed across the city and no one was responding. She passed the information to the backup team and prepared to exit the ship.
Alpha was in full gear when she came down the ramp, and the security team had almost no time to react. She stunned them in series and then took a moment to lock down the ship before heading off.
Darby and his team were inbound as fast as the yacht would travel but they had been lurking at the edge of the system so as not to tip off the locals and their arrival time was nearly an hour. Everyone onboard tensely watched the feeds that Alpha had set up and hoped to make it in time.
Alpha tracked the team to a worn down looking factory on the outskirts of the city. She had been forced to take down two more security teams with stun blasts.
Meanwhile, Rocker had entered the chamber where the creature lay. He removed his helmet of his own free will and approached the pale, jellylike humanoid figure reclining on a filthy pallet.
The figure was entirely naked, its clothes having rotted off its flesh long ago. Once caught up in the constant cycle of consuming and obtaining more soup the needs of the body had faded to almost nothing.
Several attendants were there to tend to it. The creature had figured out a long time ago that it was possible not only to drink the soup from its victims but to put a little back in, enough to make the victim a drone like servant to the master. These drones used valuable soup to create and maintain, however, so only at the highest levels of the planetary government were such placed.
The attendants existed to bring in new victims and dispose of the old. They also infrequently were ordered to clean their master of the drippings and secretions and the built up filth.
Rocker knew none of this. His brain was completely under the control of the master Anzat and he calmly walked to his fate.
When he stood in front of the thing it immediately latched on with its two feeding tentacles and began drinking in all that he was and ever would be.
The fluid removed seemed to be only partially physical but the fresh source and high quality made the creature moan in pleasure. It was happy now that the others would be feeding it soon.
It only took approximately a minute to drain the poor clone dry. The husk dropped to the ground in front of the Anzat and it absently ordered one of its drones to dispose of it. The drone picked up the corpse, stripped off its armor and clothing and deposited them in piles near the chute, and then threw the body into the incinerator. Above ground a new puff of dark smoke rose from the stacks.
The rest of the party had arrived and the Anzat chose to next feed on Terla. The choice was made for no particular reason other than Terla was not in armor. The rest, not confident of their safety here, had all gone to sleep in it.
The twi'lek was drained as well. The Anzat was very pleased with this new group and had already seen that many more were likely to come looking. As it ordered the rest of the team to remove their armor and helmets it absently monitored the yachts approach, more food would be arriving soon.
Aboard Darby's yacht a second indicator turned red and blinked out. Not interested in wasting any more time the clone sent out a class 1 alert. Every ship in
the Legion and Mandalorian fleets, as well as both headquarters received an immediate alarm. Help would be on the way now.
Alpha took out another security team as she rocketed down the stairs. She had already lost two of her team and she was terrified she would lose more.
The creature next latched onto Tinker, which wound up being the single largest mistake in its thousands of years of life.
The creature ordered the former clone to approach, then attacked with its tentacle like feeding tubes. The instant the tubes touched the clone, however, that neurological oddity that had almost got him killed saved his life. The creature felt something odd with its prey and then was suddenly engulfed in pain, a sensation it had literally not felt in over 3000 years.
The random synapse in the malfunctioning organic chip caused the Anzat's control to slip for only a second but that second was long enough. Tinker extended the punch dagger in his right vambrace and slammed it to the hilt in the creatures soft throat.
The tentacles caught on either side of his head and began to dig in but then were severed by two blaster shots. The creatures pain had temporarily released it's hold on the party and Kitten and Gavin were both armed and shooting almost immediately. Rounds began pulping the creatures head as it thrashed wildly. Tinker was completely out of control and just kept stabbing his blade in over and over. Unseen by the party all over the planet the elite that were previously in control dropped to the ground and unceremoniously died. A mucus like fluid oozing out beneath their heads.
Had it happened during the day it would have been an utter catastrophe. Luckily most of the residents of Eros were soundly asleep.
The Anzat died quickly beneath the epic punishment but the whole team was so unnerved that they kept going until long after it was needed. Finally when the blasters started to overheat the two stopped firing at the pulpy, burnt mass and Tinkers arms became too tired to keep hitting it.
They finally looked around and saw the body on the floor and the armor in the pile. The chute made the location of Rocker's body self evident. They approached the attendants lying on the floor but when they saw the oozing fluid they opted for a verification blaster shot rather than touching any of them.
Alpha arrived then, literally blowing the entry door to pieces as she hurtled through it with weapons at the ready. The team heard Darby and his people screaming to them through the restored comms.
"What in the correllian hell was that thing!" Tinker hollered.
"I've only ever heard of them in stories but I think it was an Anzat, a vampire creature out of legend." Gavin theorized.
"I've never heard of such a creature," Jazzy chimed in.
"I have records on such a creature but nothing ever substantiated. They normally are extremely careful not to get caught." Alpha said.
"Judging from these piles and the condition of this place that thing has been here feeding for a very long time." Kitten pointed out.
They gathered Terlas remains and took her back to the ship, along with Rocker's effects. Once they had taken care of them the whole team just sat and gathered themselves for a bit.
That had been horrible, and entirely too close.
By the time the team was ready to face anyone Darby and his team had landed and there were numerous other people already in the system and on the way. Some quick questioning and checking around discovered all the corpses of the people in charge.
The Mandalorians wound up taking the lead in getting the planet somewhat organized and running. It was much more familiar tasking to them
than it was to the Legion.
Darby had suggested that Kitten's team be permitted to stay on and run the place but after seeing their horrified faces at the idea he had relented. None of the survivors were interested in spending any extra time on Eros at all.
Eros was going to be a problem. It became quickly obvious that the Anzat had manipulated the entire society with its mind power, once that power was removed things deteriorated quickly. The population began to seethe with the desire to rebel or to escape.
They finally gave in and just allowed emigration into their formerly closed worlds. This drained much of the excess population and allowed things to calm. The clones, having the highest population, also sent many settlers to the world and those settlers helped influence the remaining population to stay calm and allow methodical changes.
All this really didn't affect the team. They returned to Nathea and spent time together discussing what had happened and getting over the shock and horror of the experience.
One positive actually came of the incident. Kazumi was so horrified that she almost lost Tinker without ever really sharing intimacy that she renewed her efforts to overcome her past. The two began to date in earnest, which helped raise everyone's spirits.
Kitten and Gavin also spent more time building their relationship. They took many walks together and discussed their plans and goals. Both were interested in a position where they could be teachers and provide guidance to the young. The legion academy would be the perfect place for them, they decided.
Rocker and Terla came out of the cloning cylinders right on schedule. It was very jarring for the whole team to attempt to explain what had happened but the two actually handled it better than the rest of them because the versions that were decanted did not have the experiences the others did. Slowly the team reintegrated.
All in all the team spent a month in rest and recovery before being ready to resume their duties with the exploratory teams. This was no problem for anyone in the legion because even after that long they were still working on getting Eros under control and making it a useful part of their growing partnership.