---Roadblock---
---Chargan’s perspective---
I level my pulsegun at the blank faced monster, charging towards me down the alley, and let loose, the kinetic shots leaving rippling wakes behind them as they rip through the air.
He dodges and weaves effortlessly through my fire, seeming to be teleporting out of the way of my shots while the woman barrels through that of my comrades, simply tanking them!
‘Leave the Terrans to the Terrans!’ Captain Yensuh said ‘Do not engage! Just maintain position at your roadblock!’
I scoffed, mistaking her prudence for cowardice!
I thought the War veteran must have been overestimating them based on her memories of how Terrans fought in battle!
‘Sure!’ I thought ‘Armed Terrans decked out in battle armour and supported by thousands of their comrades may be formidable but just two unarmed, unarmoured ones? Against more than half a dozen Class 7s and a Class 8, armed with pulseguns!?’
Now I understand that she was the one being realistic!
I was being cocky and naïve!
Right now, I understand, in a way I never have before, just how utterly terrifying it is to have a deathworlder charging towards me with violent intent!
The fire haired man reaches a little further than my own height away from me and leaps into the air, exhibiting flexibility, speed and power no creature should be capable of as his right leg whips up to above his head and screams through the air towards the left arm I’ve raised in defence.
The impact breaks two of the three bones of my forearm and causes my pulsegun to smash into my face, shattering into useless pieces as I fall backwards.
Luckily, as an Ulat, I’m more resistant to cardiovascular shock than most but I still need to deploy the breathing techniques to calm my hearts and reduce the risk of death, just as I was trained when I joined the Force.
The pain of my broken arm, smashed face and where my back hit the ground are all excruciating!
Dully, I register my comrades being knocked over like [bowling pins] by the stocky woman.
It’s only been around [10 seconds] since we first spotted the trio and they’ve already utterly quashed all resistance we could have offered them!
The sounds of Terran violence subside to be replaced with only the soft whines and moans of me and my compatriots.
Then…*clack*…*clack*…*clack*…*clack*…*clack*…*clack*…*clack*… come the slow steady footsteps of the woman in purple who sent the other two to crush us.
I turn my smashed face to look at her as she saunters into view.
A bad move!
Having attracted her attention, she snaps her fingers and points the digit II of that hand at me, calmly ordering “That one… Get him on his feet…”
The mesmerised man (who can’t be as much as ⅘ my height and maybe a ¼ my volume but who’s, regardless, still probably heavier than me) closes a pair of powerful hands around my lapels, using them to hoist me up to standing before throwing me against the side of the alley.
I pant and blubber as I cradle my broken arm with my unbroken one, desperately trying (and failing) to hold it tightly enough to prevent gravity from asserting itself, to worsen the break, without holding it so tightly that the pressure itself causes me pain!
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Three Terran faces stare up at me; the two redheads blank faced, the purple woman giving me a sweet smile that is, nonetheless, terrifying!
“Hello there, boy… What’s your name?” asks the only one of the trio in possession of her faculties.
“Ch…*huff*… Char*huff*gan… *huff*…” I answer, the thought of lying not even crossing my mind.
“Hmmm…” she simpers “…Do you have any family on this planet, Chargan?”
In horror, I answer “N-no! *huff* You…”
But she interrupts “Hurt him.” simply, directing the order up at the large man.
Unhesitatingly, he reaches out to the wrist of my left arm, applying steady pressure to make the fragments of my ulna and paraulna grind against eachother, blinding me with worse painthan I’ve ever felt in my life!
I scream from the agony.
“Stop.” she orders, nonchalantly, like making her puppet torture me is boring to her.
The pressure is removed immediately.
The slender woman in purple, the only one of the three whom I might be able to hurt in my current state, steps to well within the range of my unbroken right arm and two columnar legs, clearly not at all worried about the possibility of my trying to!
“Let’s try that again, shall we?” she smiles up at me as I blubber “Do you have any family on this planet, boy?”
Completely out of my control, the answer tumbles from my mouth “Yes! *sob**sob**sob**sob* Yes! I have a mother, a father and a five siblings!”
She closes her eyes and bobs her head up and down in satisfaction before asking “Wife? Husband? Significant other?”
“NO! NONE!” I answer, immediately, emphatically and truthfully.
Seeing there is nothing to torture out of me there, she instead asks “What about someone you’re sweet on? Someone you’d like to become more… involved with?”
My mind immediately drifts to Captain Yensuh…
…An Ulat woman twice my age and many times my rank!
A woman I’d never be good enough for.
I think about lying but… I’m sure she’s already seen me hesitate… the only reward would be more pain!
“There… is someone…” I answer, ashamed.
She parts her lips baring her teeth, somehow a lot more predatory looking than I remember Terrans’ being, as she asks “Do you ever want to see them again?”
“Yeeeees!” I quail.
“Good!” she chirps, cheerily “Then you’re going to do exactly what I say… Aren’t you?”
“I am!” I sob.
“Goooood boooooy!” she patronises, reaching up to tap the side of my jowl with a solid deathworld palm before proceeding to instruct “In a moment, this little toy…” she taps the man holding me up on the shoulder “…is going to give me a piggyback out of here. Once the three of us are gone, you are going to slow count to 100 before calling for help… Before you ask for reinforcements or medical attention, you are going to pass along this message verbatim: ‘You know what I want, Bright Plume. Send it to me at this comm address…” pulling out a [10cm×6cm] rectangle of card with lenticular text printed on it (in an alphabet I can’t read) and sliding it into a breast pocket “…and nothing happens to your friends!’” gesturing to the two other Terrans currently acting as her henchman and henchwoman “You will do nothing I’ve not instructed. Are we clear?”
I hesitate as I mentally run down her instructions, needing to spend a moment problem solving about how to pass on a comm in a script I can’t read, then I ask my only question “May… may I sit down once you’ve gone? I think I’m quite likely to pass out if I need to stay standing…”
The purple woman throws back her head and lets out a high, cold laugh before answering “You may sit down, boy! Well done for asking! It’s good that you know your place!… Just keep being a good boy and don’t forget any of my other instructions, alright?”
“I won’t, Ma’am!” I pant, as emphatically as I can manage right now.
“Good!” she sparkles before patting the big man on the shoulder again and ordering “Down.”
He bends down into a crouch and she hops onto his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, her impractical shoes dangling at his knees.
“Onward… and make it fast…” she orders the two redheads before they disappear away down the alley, outside of the containment zone.
I slump to the floor, looking at my companions.
For the briefest of moments I look to my colleagues, lain out on the floor, all in much worse shape than I am.
I consider disobeying the purple woman’s orders and just calling for help now…
Then, my families’ faces swim into my mind along with Captain Yensuh’s… I think of dying here in this alley and never seeing them again… Or, so much worse, the woman fulfilling her threat by leaving me alive but finding and killing them!
No matter how outlandish the possibility of her finding out that I disobeyed her order, or actually bothering to punish me for it… I need to take it seriously!
Slowly, I start to count “One… two… three…”