//------------------------------//
// The Bridge 
// Story: Bounty Hunter Anon 
// by Sunny Solaire 
//------------------------------//

According to what Fluttershy said, the bridge should be just up ahead. As you run down the hallway, you bring up your comms again. "Maud, I need you to catch up to them in case they'll need your help. I'll remotely lock down the ship so nothing gets aboard."

"Of course, Anonymous. I'm leaving now." She replies.

You press a button on your gauntlet to remotely lock down your ship before you continue running toward the bridge, following the yellow line on the floor as you do. As you approach the small corridor on the far wall, you holster your rifle and take out your pistol in your left hand and your lightsaber in your right.

You ignite the blade as you enter the corridor, turning everything around you red. It whooshes and whirs as you run down the corridor and make a left. You keep an eye open for Rakghouls, but don't see any.

You make another right and continue down the corridor as fast as you can before coming up on a large set of blast doors. You've reached the bridge. You look around for a terminal or something to open the door, but you can't find anything. It must be locked down from the inside. Looking at your lightsaber though, you realize that you have a key to get in. 

You get right up to the doors and plunge the blade directly into them to start cutting through. It takes a bit more effort than you thought it would. It looks like it should cut through like it's hot butter, but you're almost surprised by the amount of resistance the steel door is putting up. Eventually, you manage to move the blade up through the door, leaving a glowing hot trail of melted steel behind.

You arc the blade up and around before bringing it down to the ground and arcing it down and under to connect it to the other end of your cut, creating an oval in the doors. Once it connects, you pull the blade out and kick the metal door a couple times. The cut piece slides back and falls to the floor on the other side, making an entrance for you.

You smile as you look at your lightsaber. "Man, I love this thing."

You crawl through the opening and see another set of blast doors in front of you. These ones have a lifeless Rakghoul's arm poking out of the center. He must've got stuck in between them when they closed and they crushed him like a bug.

"Wait a minute..." You're about to cut through them again when something occurs to you.

If there's a Rakghoul arm right here, then that means that they've been able to get in through here. There's more of them inside.

You activate your comms again. "Fluttershy, I'm at the main entrance to the bridge. Is there any other way to get in at all?"

"Um, no there isn't. That's the only way in." She replies.

You groan as you stare at the arm. "Alright... Thanks..." You deactivate your comms and poke the arm with your blaster. "So there's a bunch of you bastards in here too that I've got to deal with, huh? Fine."

You plunge the blade into the door and start cutting again. This cut will be much smaller than the last one. You move the blade down about a foot before you cut a horizontal line over to your right. You cut up and move back to the beginning, making a rectangle.

You push the cut forward and the piece falls to the floor on the other side, making a loud clang as it hits the ground on the other side. Immediately following, you hear numerous roars and snarls from inside.

You grab your rifle and rest it on the opening and quickly scan the room for movement. You see a few flashing lights on the consoles that were still active and a few flickering lights from above illuminate the room slightly, but it's mostly dark. Blood is everywhere, and body parts lay scattered about. It's disgusting.

Up ahead, you see a pale figure move to the left of the nearest console and hear it growl. You point your rifle at it and fire. The shot hits and the Rakghoul yelps in pain. More of them roar in response from within. Three more Rakghouls come into view and start lumbering toward you.

You growl as you turn your rifle on them and fire as well. They get hit in a few places, but one lucky shot hit the nearest Rakghoul in the head and he went down. As you continue firing, they quickly close the space between you and them and you're forced to back up away from the door. A second later, two of them slam into the door and try to crawl through the hole together toward you. You stick your lightsaber through the hole and swing it around, slicing through the monsters like paper.

Limbs fall to the ground and cries of pain are heard as you continue to massacre them. As one falls, another takes its place as it tries to crawl through to you. This continues for a few seconds. Finally, the last one falls. You can still hear a few weak whimpers and growls from inside though. They must not all be dead yet.

You look through the hole to see about ten Rakghouls laying about. All of them are missing at least one piece of their body, but a few of them are still alive. You move your arm through the hole and press a button on your gauntlet, activating your flamethrower. You hear a collective scream and cry as the monsters cook. Their skin is resistant to flames, but obviously not immune.

A few seconds later, you deactivate your flamethrower and step backwards. You holster your rifle and take out your lightsaber to cut a bigger hole in the door for yourself. Once you push the piece through to the other side, you raise your blaster and lightsaber again in case you missed one. All you see are the burning remains of the dead Rakghouls on the floor.

Satisfied, you head through the hole and into the bridge. You step on or over a few body parts and head toward the very front of the room. Out the window, you see your beautiful Mandalore in all her glory. Her yellowish hue lighting up the bridge somewhat. It's a scene that could make you cry, but you have no time for that right now.

You head toward main console and hit a few buttons. You close the "Red Alert" notice on the screen and look for the emergency options. It takes a few seconds of thumbing through the various settings until you see a self-destruct option. You click it and the screen goes red.

<"WARNING. SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED.">

You look around the bridge for a moment after that announcement but you continue to navigate your way through the options and warnings until you see an option for a timer.

Sunset starts talking in your ear. "Anon!"

"I'm setting a timer!" You say. "Where are you?!"

"We just reached engineering!" She replies. "Maud helped us when we got to Twilight and we're just about to head back to the ship!"

"How much time do we have? Uh... Twenty-five minutes. That should be good." You say out loud to yourself. You set the timer for twenty-five minutes and start the countdown.

Suddenly, everything goes red as the emergency lights flash on and off. The alarm begins sounding all through the ship. <"WARNING. SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. T MINUS TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES TO ENGINE CORE OVERLOAD. ALL PERSONNEL ABANDON SHIP. ABANDON SHIP.">

"Get back to the ship as fast as you can! I'll meet you there!" You deactivate your comms and look back at the console.

There's some text next to the countdown timer that says all the security doors have been opened. Including the cut through blast doors behind you that are currently in the process of opening.

You get back on your comms. "Sunset, stay sharp. All the doors in the ship are open now, so expect some trouble."

"Noted." She replies.

You look back at the planet Mandalore for a second before turning around and running back through the open blast doors. 

The alarm continues blaring through the ship as you make your way down the corridor again. You make a left at the end and then a right, backtracking your steps from before. As you reach the main hallway, you can see everything in front of you now. The emergency lights flashing on and off make everything look red, but it's all illuminated now.

You run past the medical center and head back toward the hallway you came through on your right. But just before you enter, you hear another monstrous roar from inside and skid to a stop.

A single Rakghoul comes bounding out of the hallway and charges directly into you. You try to jump out of the way, but you're too late. The monster knocks you off your feet and you fall to the ground. You try to get back up after a second, but you're a second too late. The Rakghoul roars and pounces on you. You hold it back with your feet but it lurches forward and sinks its teeth into your left hand.

"NO!" You scream in pain as you feel and see blood trickle off your hand and onto the floor.

The Rakghoul releases your hand as it prepares to bite again, but you jerk it back and punch it in the face with your right. The Rakghoul yelps and moves back a bit, leaving you room to kick him off of you. He falls backward and you grab your lightsaber. You let out an angry war cry as you activate the blade and bring it down upon the Rakghoul's head, decapitating it. Its body goes limp as its head bounces off to the side.

After a second or two, you deactivate your lightsaber. It's then that you feel the pain surge from your hand and spread out through your body. It stings. More than anything else you've ever felt before in your life. You groan and grip your head as you begin to hear an intense ringing in your ears.

The pain from your hand also intensifies as it spreads through your body. The ringing is now stronger than ever before. Even more so than when you chased Adagio on Nar Shaddaa. It's maddening.

You start to shake and convulse as the pain begins to throb everywhere with every beat of your heart. You can feel it pulse through you. You fall to the ground and shake uncontrollably. You start to hyperventilate as everything suddenly feels hot. Unbelievably hot.

In desperation, you take off your helmet and drop it to the ground. Your vision blurs a bit as your breathing quickens. You feel a little prick in the back of your head. It slowly grows and you get angry.

Anger. Anger and fear: two of your most primal emotions. It's all your body wants to feel right now. The infection is getting stronger by the second, and you gave all of the serum to Sunset! To make sure she was safe!

Stay calm, Anon. Don't give your heart any more reason to pump the infection faster. You refuse to die like this. You will NOT become a monster.

You take a few shallow breaths in a sorry attempt to calm yourself down before you slowly reach to your gauntlet and shakily press a button, activating your comms. "S-S-Suns.... S-Sunset! H-H-Help m-me!"