Jul 9
It has been so long since I've done planetary quests, I've just been blowing through doing class stories, I completely forgot about this on Taris Pub side.
Reminds me of the Flesh Raiders on Tython, just treated like monsters.
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It has been so long since I've done planetary quests, I've just been blowing through doing class stories, I completely forgot about this on Taris Pub side.
Reminds me of the Flesh Raiders on Tython, just treated like monsters.
The Rakghouls are one of those things the Extended Universe stuff just throws in there without thinking of the implications that really should be a bigger deal in the wider Star Wars universe. There's an immensely hostile alien lifeform in star Wars that works on zombie rules where the wounds left by their bites or claws infect you with a disease that mutates you into one of them in a matter of hours and for some reason nobody talks about it? Yeah okay, by the start of Kotor they've very recently developed a cure for Rakghoul's disease but right up until that point we had a potential universe ending threat lurking in the undercity of Tarris a matter of metres away from a gigantic population center and we're really relying on a few understaffed guard checkpoints to keep it contained? Have there actually been any Rakghoul Apocalypse Star Wars AU stories because that would be so fun.
So I decided to be a usual jerkwad and Force yeet a Rakghoul off a platform. It survived. And then proceeded to run off and grab some friends to come gang maul me lol Not sure if its an NPC glitch but its definitely interesting lol
Taris Sucks
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #27 (2008)
Art by: Dustin Weaver
So stage 3 of the rakghoul plague is Fucking Exploding.
Nice to know.
Good reason to stock up on vaccines.
Delirious
PUT A WORD IN MY ASK AND I WILL WRITE A HEADCANON ABOUT IT FOR MY CHARACTER
Because of the experimentation by Intel, Blakk doesn’t have a strong immune system. Intel scientists can only speculate this is why he was left with what they’ve determined to be a chronic form of the rakghoul plague after a second direct exposure to the virus (the first he only barely survived). They’ve termed this condition Chronic Rakghoul Fever, and Blakk is the only person known to Intel, at this time, to have it. It is non-communicable and generally not a hindrance, but does cause greater fatigue and periodic low-level fever. At times, the condition flares up, resulting in more typical symptoms of the classic stage one rakghoul plague - high fever, weakness, coughing - but does not progress past this stage, and scientists don’t think it’s fatal - yet.
Proximity to rakghouls seems to be a contributing factor. Blakk has reported what he believes is the ability to sense nearby rakghouls. In his more delirious moments, he thinks he can see them, as if through their own eyes.
There is no known cure.
❝ The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math. ❞ Major Disaster Area
This has been sitting in my inbox for months and now I’m finally taking a crack at it (b/c im sick and it’s too early to sleep and also i lack the attention span for any gaming so writing it is anyway i digress and blame the rambling to the fever)
Orannus never did anything half-hearted. He was an all-or-nothing sort, the kind who were either yay or nay and didn’t wait to see what others did before he went and acted.
And so he was now fully committed to a retreat. He’d also been fully committed to clearing out a nest of rakghuls, but Mother hadn’t raised a fool. Or a quitter. It was a dangerous combination and he was now paying for it. The fool part, in retrospect, was defintely arguable.
A leaf whacked him in the face and he twisted, firing blindly at the rakghouls chasing him.
“Shit shit shitshitshit SHIT!”
The rakghouls chittered. More and more joined in, until it sounded like the whole jungle was laughing at him.
He nearly tripped over a tree root. Orannus swung his rifle back around. Using it wasn’t doing much in his favor, and holding it was slowing down his sprint. With free arms, he pushed on faster through the undergrowth.
The chittering was still growing louder, and-
A horrible raspy shriek split the air.
He swerved right, seeing the path back to base. He was close, so close-
Something landed heavily on his head, the impact padded by his new lucky hat. Orannus kept sprinting, seeing the Republic banners getting closer and closer, and soldiers-
A rakghoul leaned over the brim of his hat and leered at him.
“CRAPPIN’ SHIT!”
He uncerimoniously grabbed it upsidedown by the neck and chucked it blindly behind him.
“Lieutenant, Sir.”
“Sir?”
Orannus slowed to a halt and realized that his legs were turning into jelly. “Yeah, I’m…” He tried to catch his breath. “I’m good.”
A pair of soldiers left the squad guarding the barriers. “You sure, Sir?”
“Yeah.” He slumped against the wall that seperate civilization to jungle. “Peachy.”
The other soldier passed him her canteen, frowning. “Looks like you riled up a whole fuckin’ nest.” She paused. “Sir.”
“I did.”
“Why?” asked the first speaker.
Orannus’s legs were now finished turning into jelly. If he wasn’t leaning against anything, he was pretty sure he’d be wearing duracrete on his face and use it as a pillow. “That’s classified.” He turned to the canteen and started to open it.
His wrist exploded in pain. With closer inspection-
“Crap.” Orannus frowned at the bite mark on the outside of his wrist. He hadn’t swatted any away by the nest, or used his knife-
It had to be from the one on his hat.
He returned the canteen unopened. “Get back to your squad.” What else was he supposed to say? This wasn’t Balmorra where he could stand around and pretend to do something while chatting up others. And he’d been bitten by a rakghoul-
Elara raised an eyebrow at his expression, keeping her thoughts to herself as Lieutenant Hallow weaved throught SAR’s command central. She plastered on a neutral look as he got closer. “Lieutenant, Sir. Mission a success?”
He silently lifted a sleeve and showed her a bloody wrist. He was pale, eyes a little too wide… But he didn’t want to alarm anyone.
She nodded towards the hallway. It would be harder to be overheard there.
Lieutenant Hallow walked awkardly, almost like his legs weren’t quite alright.
“Sir?”
He looked around for eavesdroppers. “I- Okay, so I tried to clear out a rakghoul nest.”
Elara had a large amount of things to say about that, and settled for one that wouldn’t have an opinion that would result in a reprimand. “That was risky.”
“Yeah, and…” Hallow was staring at his wrist again. “The risk I took was calculatd, but man, am I bad at math. I didn’t get the nest, and- and- I think one of them bit me- OW!”
If he’d been bitten by a rakghoul, there was no time to wait. Especially if he’d been infected. Elara frowned at the puncture marks. “You need medical. Now. With me, Lieutenant.”
He didn’t have a choice in the matter.
Sergeant Dorne was a medic.
Orannus tried to focus on anything but what she was currently turning her medical knowledge onto.
His whole wrist was red and itchy and starting to swelll. A lot. While he was ready to hack it off, consequences be damned, the Sergeant sat silently by with various syringes and magnifing goggles on.
Slowly she was making tiny cuts and peeling back swollen skin, sometimes clipping red bits off and depositing them into a kidney-shaped disk labeled ‘hazardous materials.’
Orannus couldn’t look anymore and instead tried to focus on the hat on his lap. The lucky hat. A couple claw marks scratched up the new durasteel, but other than a small spot of dirt, it was impossible to tell that anything had used it as a landing pad. If the rakghoul had landed on his head…
Well, he figured Sergeant Dorne would be peeling back his skull or something.
“Sir, this might hurt.”
“OkaY OUCH! Thanks for the warning- OW!” Orannus watched her pick up the final syringe. “Is that-”
Sergeant Dorne raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to have a medical droid hold your arm still?”
“Yeah- SERGEANT!”
She’d gone ahead and injected him with the purple stuff anyway. “Very well, Sir. I expect you to make a full recovery. No kolto until tomorrow. The vaccination needs time to work.” Sergeant Dorne began cleaning up her supplies. “You’re lucky. If you’d waited an hour, it could’ve been too late.”
“Too late for what? I’d’ve lost my arm?”
Her neutral expression slipped away. “You would’ve become a rakghoul, Sir.”
Oh. Oh crap. He-
Orannus open and shut his mouth a couple times, processing her words. “I- Thanks, Sergeant.”
She nodded. “If I may suggest, Sir, next time take backup when you go to clear out a nest. And don’t get bitten again.”
He smiled crookedly at her. “I’ll take it under advisement.” Orannus’s legs protested as he stood up. The room spun and his heart skipped a beat. Everything felt weak, he couldn’t hold himself up-
“Lieutenat!”
Orannus waved Sergeant Dorne away. “I’m good. Just left-over effected of some bad stims I took a while back. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just point me towards the barracks and if you see Jorgan, tell him not to wake me.”
“If you say so, Sir.”
He could hear the disapproval in her voice, and ignored it. He just needed some shut-eye and to give his legs time to recuperate after that prolonged sprint.