Frack they're tough...

? - ? Republic Reckoning

It had been three days, and no sign of the Jedi, or any TCV-zombies. The townsfolk, one of the more vocal being Nepente, were getting impatient. Keldic Uldamanth had set out to see if the town of Brighton's Landing had been infected yet, and was sneaking around down there. A group of the Heroes consisting of Zara, Kurgan, Vandur, and Charlie? went to a nearby mining camp to check on the miners. Upon arrival, they noticed that things were not quite as they seemed.

The barracks were empty, although there was a fair number of footprints leading back and forth between the barracks and smelting building and the mine. Vandur discovered signs of a struggle, where someone had lost some hair while being beaten up in one of the barracks. Investigating the smelting facility, it was seen that the computers were partially smashed in the control room. The smelting room proper, had someone moving around inside. Charlie snuck in, and saw a humanoid hovering above the door, waiting to pounce. He proceeded to fire a warning shot, which the person took as a sign to attack, leaping the ten feet across (and eight down) to attack Charlie in a single bound! A glancing blow and Charlie barely managed to dodge the attack. Kurgan leapt at the zombie and buried his Sith Boarding Axe? into its back. Although it was an excellent hit, all it did was cause the zombie to turn around quickly, tearing the weapon from Kurgan's hands! A desperate brawl ensued, with Zara watching on, waiting for a good shot, while Charlie and Kurgan attempted to stab, punch, and otherwise subdue the zombie. Kurgan barely avoided having his fingers bit off during a poorly executed eye gouge. He then flailed with a shovel at the creature, but a few parries dislodged the blade, and separated it from the handle, causing a strong swing to otherwise miss. Zara shot it clear in the chest, with no apparent effect. Charlie grabbed the handle of the boarding axe and used it to pry the zombie into the coker face first.

Meanwhile, Vandur had pulled his one surviving Resurrection Parasite out of his bag and quickly slapped it onto the zombie's back. As it burrowed in, he shouted "Pull him out of there!" and was completely ignored by a bewildered Charlie and Kurgan. The zombie threw off the two of them, then collapsed. It appeared that the resurrection parasite was able to cleanse the body, but it quickly went into cardiac arrest and died. Zara recognized it as Bill, one of the miners. Kurgan disconnected the fuel cell from the power lines by physically cutting the line with his axe. Bill went into a regenerative cocoon and was taken to one of the barracks.

The group rushed to check on the rest of the miners, calling down on the crank-operated mine phone. They received an answer from some of the remaining miners, who had collapsed a section and were listening to two more zombies of their former coworkers slowly dig their way deeper underground. It was quickly agreed that the objective should be to lure the zombies topside, where the party could render them harmless. Vandur was in favor of capturing them so that they could be saved via resurrection parasite when the Jedi returned. Zara thought that something with a pit would be the best option. Kurgan was thinking about sending dynamite down the tunnel, but deemed it too unsafe in conversations with the trapped miners. Vandur then suggested that they lower him into the mine, welded into a mining cart where he'd be safe. After some debate, it was settled on as the plan, and parts were scavenged, the doctor was welded in place (after being supplied with some rations, a canteen, and lots of padding, including a fireproof blanket for the welding sparks. Zara had to jury-rig the fuel cell back onto the power lines for the camp. They then sent him down with a phone, laying cable behind him.

It wasn't long before he bumped into the collapsed section, and the zombies began beating at the cage. The welds were holding, but for how long? While the cart was quickly derailed, it continued to be pulled up the mineshaft by the electric motor, but much slower. The zombies then began using rocks to get better impact. Smashing a particularly large one against the cart, it was dented and the Doctor got a nasty gash. He was beginning to think that killing these things may not be such a bad idea... Then they broke one of the welds, and his shrieks were cut off as the phone line was cut.

Kurgan dashed into the mine after him, failed to sneak up on the zombies, but did manage to run away from them, luring one up to the pit, where it fell right in, and he and Charlie? each emptied 20-30 rounds into it before it stopped moving. They then went back down for the other one. By then, the creature had grabbed a mine tool and was beginning to pry open the welds. It had just reached in, and Vandur, in a moment of cornered panic, beat its hand into a bloody pulp with his canteen, and was now certain that he was going to die.

Charlie shot the zombie to get its attention as Kurgan again went into melee combat with it. A series of vicious blows were exchanged, but between a few swings by Kurgan, a few shots by Charlie, and finally Charlie jumping on the thing's back with both his vibroblades, it went down. The frightened doctor was still thinking that the next thing that went anywhere near him was a zombie, and smashed his cracked and dented canteen against the top when Kurgan attempted to sit on it. He was cut out by Zara up top, and the group was soon met by Keldic Uldamanth bringing supplies. However, they quickly took Bill and whatever they could scavenge from the mining camp, loaded it onto sleds, and rode back to Canton.

There, it was determined that the Jedi fleet elements were leaving system due to Dark Swarm Activity. However, they were sending a minifac which could either make 2 years consumable supplies, or a starship capable of moving 50-100 people to a nearby planet. While the town was wondering what to do with that, Ildio rode up saying he had locked two people in his barn, and didn't know if they were zombies or not. The heroes and other townsfolk quickly went to the barn, where Trai Sihanouk and Thirith Nosaven were discovered. They had apparently escaped the city, and reported that the Jedi had sent "hundreds of ships" (a few dozen, according to Thirith) to pick up those with the Resurrection Parasite, then flew over the city with loudspeakers telling anyone left to run for the outskirts as they were going to destroy the city. A few hours later, they fulfilled their threat, and the Big City was destroyed, leaving a semi-sphere crater in its place. Apart from some frostbite and minor hunger issues, they were in remarkably good shape. Vandur had even treated Trai at one point, although he skipped out on the bill...

The next evening, Noven J'taal led the town meeting to discuss what to do with the Jedi minifac. While some were reluctant to leave everything they had worked so hard to build behind, others were eager to be rid of the new nightmares on this planet. After four hours of debate, Noven called off the meeting and said the town would vote the next day. The next day, after a few quick speeches for each side (strict one-minute time limit observed), the vote was cast. The end result was in favor of the starship, by a margin of 3-1. The Heroes were relieved. Zara was ecstatic. The minifac was sent to the mine, where it could utilize the raw materials in the ground to best effect, and a detail of a dozen people were sent to guard it. Others began building a defensive perimeter around the town.

Two days before the ship was due to be completed, a radio from Brighton's Landing reported that they had been overrun and the zombies were now using blaster weapons and intelligent tactics. They had taken out the observers with blaster fire, then attacked from the flank as the town rushed to defend against the snipers. The transmission was cut short by a blaster bolt, and a hissing, clicking sound was heard over the radio. Kurgan determined that the town was lost and it was imperative to get everyone to the ship as fast as possible. Again, some began to resist, but it was decided that any staying behind were to retreat to a hilltop outside of town if overrun and the rest were going to try to get on the ship as soon as possible. Bill suggested that he scout south, but concerns over the new intelligence of the zombies led to that being scrapped.

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