Sah’ra had never thought she would ever return here, this place that had contributed to stealing away her only parent and inadvertently setting her on her course in life. Perhaps if her father had been around more then things would have been different. They could have been a true family. Instead, he spent every waking moment in this forsaken lab working with that wretch of a creation. She hated him for picking that abomination over his own true born children. She hated him for focusing on some ancient oath made by their ancestors instead of realising the achievement he sought was doing her homework in his own living room or being left to guard her fool of a twin brother from getting himself killed. As Sah’ra stood waiting for the hidden turbolift to arrive that would take her down into the laboratory, her anger festered below the surface. Her father still had a role to play in her future and she hated that she was here.
As she stepped into the elevator, she immediately took notice of the massive hole cut cleanly through the floor and peered down into the shadowy depths of the tower. She’d seen work like this before. She’d done similar work, in fact. Only a lightsaber was able to make such quick and clean incisions as these. ”Father, what have you gotten yourself into,” she muttered as she reached into the folds of her disguise to draw her own weapon in preparation of what lay in waiting below.
”Father?” Sah’ra called out calmly as she stepped from the lift, lightsaber hilt in hand, only to find the facility deserted. Blaster marks decorated the area around the entrance with the long destroyed remains of what was once Tristan’s security attachment. The picture was becoming clearer as she continued to walk through the long corridor of quarters but as she rounded the corner to the stairs that would descend into the lab portion of the facility, she would discover the truth of the matter. Motionless she stood above the remains of numerous skeletal remains, the flesh and tissue decayed over years of laying here undiscovered. Slowly she would crouch down to take a closer inspection and locate the blaster hole through the man’s skull that had killed him. She knew by the clothes that remained on the boney remains that it was not the man she had come to seek but her expectation of reuniting with her father were immediately slashed to nothing. More and more bodies were discovered as she pressed on, cementing it in her mind that none of the staff yet lived. This place was wiped clean years ago. She could feel the imprint of fear left in the Force as the scientists and technicians tried to fle. If any survived, she’d be shocked.
Was it Sith? Jedi? Some sort of rogue element that had purged her father’s lab? She needed to reach his office if she was to discover the truth. Fortunately, she would continue to find the place deserted though a massive hole in the floor that would have once been the classroom for the new clones her father had created. She remembered coming here once as a young girl, watching that thing he loved so much working on her assignments. Even then, she wanted nothing more than to walk up to her and yank every strand of hair from her head for stealing away her father. Knowing she couldn’t just stand here and dwell on these feelings of resentment, she carried on until she finally arrived at what was once her father’s office and prepared herself for what she might see.
Children. Two dead children and nothing else. Cold, emotionless eyes stared down at the skeletal remains, the irony that they weren’t the first pair of children her father had failed not lost on her in the slightest. Yet as she scanned the room expecting to see his remains, she found none. Nowhere in this facility had she located her father and she needed answers. Rounding the desk and taking a seat in the chair, unbothered by the child corpses in the corner on a blood stained rug, Sah’ra activated the terminal and brushed the dust from the screen.
Loading….
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Password…?
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Password…?
Sah’ra leaned back in her seat, staring at the screen as she pondered. Once more, she found herself dwelling on her resentment for not knowing just who her father truly was. If she had, perhaps she would have had an inkling on what to type in but alas she was forced to feed answers blindly. Failure after failure, on the verge of giving up, a possibility occurred to the Sith.
”Sah’ra…” she typed. Failure. ”Tren…” Failure. ”Risa…” Her mother’s name. A name she hadn’t spoken in years. Failure. "AC-004..." she growled resentfully as she typed it in, her fingers coming down harshly on the keypad. Accepted.
What she found was beyond anything she had suspected, watching in horror as the AMS infected scientist broke free from her restraints before proceeding to infect and kill everyone that she came into contact with. She watched as her father, with two identical young girls of whom’s face she knew only too well, sealed themselves in this very office. She looked over to the bodies, devoid of pity but rather satisfied knowing they didn’t survive, before returning her attention to the feed. Fast forwarding through the time the infected held the facility, she finally came to a stop as a lightsaber wielding woman emerged from the lift on the floor above. Another face she knew only too well…