Buy a Little Mercy [Open; Potentially Graphic Material]

[cityship]

Less than an hour after the ship leaves Agrestic's orbit, an announcement is broadcast throughout Stacy.

|| Attention, crew. Your crewmates, Howard Bassem and Charles Merriman, have been apprehended attempting to desert. They will now be given Punishment. According to established guidelines, you are all requested to report to the Observation to witness the Punishment. Attendance is not mandatory, but highly suggested. This will serve as a reminder of the consequences of treason and desertion. ||

On the observation deck, Archon Yavek, Archite Rekkti, two other Daligig and a handful of Kessek soldiers stand outside a spherical force field. Inside the bubble, Orc and Howard are suspended by tentacles looping around their wrists. Orc's ceased thrashing around and struggling against his restraints; rust-colored fissures have developed around his shoulders and forearms from the strain, but now he simply hangs there, looking defeated. Howard's nose is bleeding, and every time a drop falls to the bottom of the forcefield there's a small sizzle. He's weeping and begging the Daligig with every plea possible, but they act as if they aren't listening. Instead, they wait for an audience.

Comments

Re: REACTIONS

[meat_mooks]

A tentacle sweeps down and smacks Yavek out of the way, but not fast enough. The shot hits, taking a chunk of Yavek's shoulder with it and splattering gore across the ground. Yavek curses in pain as a Kessek lunges for him and scoops him up in her great arms.

The other Kessek leap for Zouichi as one coordinated unit, aiming not to kill him, because Stacy would stop them, but to do as much damage as they are physically capable of doing up to that point. With their superhuman strength they grab at his arms and throat, with their impossible speed they try to knock his legs out from under him.

Rekkti, already moving as quickly away from the action as she can, yells up to the ceiling. "That is enough!" Her voice carries over the sounds of fighting.

"Warden program, implement Code 12 immediately."

Re: REACTIONS

[zouichi]

Zouichi managed to dodge or turn aside the first few blows, but confronted with multiple opponents at once, each with superhuman strength of their own, even he knew that the battle was a losing one. He forced himself to continue all the same, even as the damage reports began rolling past his vision, getting off a shot or two with his gravity gun and hoping it hit someone.

There was a time to hold back one's strength, and that time was not now. Bracing against the incoming blows and grabs with the left side of his body, he aimed a skull-shattering punch full-bore into the face of the nearest Kessek bodyguard. Little time for strategy now; instead he focused himself on keeping his limbs free as long as he could, aiming as many vicious blows as he could at the incoming Kessek before they inevitably took him down.

Re: REACTIONS

[meat_mooks]

The Kessek throw lightning fast jabs at his torso and the back of Zouichi's head. One goes for a hammer blow to Zouichi's shoulder - another attempts to take out his kneecap after the gravity gun loses it some fingers.

|| Code 12 has been activated. ||

The one Zouichi aims his punch at doesn't dodge fast enough, but it doesn't have to, because Stacy senses the imminent death and intervenes. Tentacles descend from every organic surface and wraps around Zouichi and the Kessek both. The Kessek cease struggling, but the tentacle tips turn to needles and start pumping sedatives into Zouichi.

Not enough to knock him out. Enough to let him still watch what happens next while immobilized.

Re: REACTIONS

[zouichi]

Zouichi managed to bring up his arms quickly enough to provide some protection to his torso, but the blow to the back of his head was hard enough to make his vision flicker, knocking him off balance.

The blow to his shoulder knocked him halfway to the ground; the follow-up hit outright dislocated one of his knees. Angry red messages about the freshly torn ligaments were added to the injury list crawling through his vision, but Zouichi tried to get back up all the same.

Not Howard. He wasn't going to let this happen to --

When the tentacles injected him, he felt his limbs go slack. His vision seemed to be swimming in some kind of fog, but he was still conscious, still there. It would take his system time to figure out how to deal with the alien compound.