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

[mythoughtsoncloning]

Fighting two Kessek at once after getting slammed to the floor by the cape? Yeah, not easy. These things are tough.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he shouted at the soldiers as he tossed punches. "Don't you see how screwed up this is?"

[soulinherfists]

Snap.

The sound was part of a chorus of thuds, chops, and thumps that all told of fighters being taken down. They weren't Kessek. And now the inside of her arm had been broken clean in two.

Allenby had felt this before during her training. Broken arms, broken ankle, popped shoulder. It happened. But nobody had ever kept pushing down on the limb before. Pain entered the rage, sending the pitch of her yelling up into a scream. Still livid, she tried to wrench her arms free again and her voice cut short as the pain blazed white-hot in front of her eyes.

She was down. Broken. Helpless. And it hurt, oh God, yes it did. But she was just pinned down, not strung up on puppet strings made of DG cells. She forced herself to stop screaming long enough to work saliva into her mouth and spit in the Kessek's face, just as she heard Simon and cape kid start up again.

[aboutthatevac]

As soon as Kerrigan heard about the Punishment she had found some place out of the way to get ready. Cloaked, and with a sniper rifle, she took position and waited for the inevitable fight that would break out. And when it did she would be ready.

She waited for the Kesseks to be distracted. She had her rifle aimed at Yavek's head. Her finger tightened on the trigger. And then she felt more than heard the scream in her head. She turned and looked at Allenby and for a moment she saw herself in her place, arms and legs broken but still cursing them.

Damn it.

Kerrigan switched targets, aimed at the Kessek who had attacked Allenby, and squeezed the trigger.

[meat_mooks]

One of Kon's punches sends a Kessek flying into the forcefield and bouncing back off. It lands, but it retreats from the battle, too injured to stay in the action. Kerrigan's bullet hits the one attacking Allenby in the shoulder.

The Kessek attacking Karis starts bleeding from her claws and tosses Karis aside as if she were an bag of empty fast food wrappers. It rushes over to help the one attacking Allenby, looking to intercept Simon. A mighty fist slams into Simon's ribs.

From overhead, a voice:

|| Code 12 has been implemented. ||

A mass of tentacles descend from the ceiling, forming a barrier between the crew and the Kessek and Daligig. Anyone that dares make any move to attack, or to move closer to the force field around Howard and Orc, is restrained. Those that continue to struggle are jabbed with a needle full of sedatives.

And Archite Rekkti, in the corner of the room.

"I understand your anger, and personally, I would rather we used other, less painful, methods to make our point, so I will forgive your attacks. This time. There's only so much torture I can stand in one day."

[teethofneedles]

Karis still struggles against the tentacles, even after the sedative. She stares at Rekkti, her good arm straining as she tries to break free.

"I'm going to kill you one day. You and all of your daligig friends, you hear me? You're all dead!"

And then she starts fading, still spitting fire, invective and curses.

[punchedoutdestiny]

And thus, Simon hits a metaphorical brick wall - the fist of one of the Kessek stops him cold. Air and blood leave his mouth as he makes a strangled noise of pain, then collapses in a heap.

It's several moments before any movement comes from him - a shaking arm trying to drag him forward before tentacles and sedatives take effect.

If he needed more proof that blind anger and determination alone weren't going to help him here, well. He had it now.

[mythoughtsoncloning]

The ship shined red sunlight on him and kept it fixed on him so that he could be injected and so he didn't burn through the sedative.

And he did need the sedative because he didn't stop fighting when the tentacles came, trying to throw them off with his telekinesis, and then just trying to pull his arms free through sheer force of will alone when the red light dampened his powers.

"You can't do this! You can't! You...you..."

His eyes rolled back into his head and then he was out, drugged like the others, the red light fixed on him so he stayed that way.

[aboutthatevac]

Kerrigan didn't fight back. She was still cloaked but the window of opportunity had passed. All she could do was hope that bullet wound in the one Kessek's shoulder hurt as badly as she wanted it to.