Lust for War (Part 3 of 4) [18+]

Posted on 23 Aug 2015 @ 12:46am by Queen Regent Lirha Saalm & Commander (La) Flektor Stace & Lieutenant Commander (La'Hom) Gerrin illm Warraquim & Lieutenant (Sogh) Andreus Romar & Lieutenant JG (SoghHom) Jynn & Ensign (Lagh) Cyrin Fel & Warrant Officer ('etlh Suvwl') Tinaro Cyi
Edited on on 23 Aug 2015 @ 12:57am

2,209 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: IKS Saalm - Deck 10, Briefing Room
Timeline: MD 01 - 1655 hrs

Previously, on Lust for War (Part 2 of 4)...

The body on the table, which had been writhing about a bit and certainly looked as though it was also being tortured in some way, had come to a stop. Straaaange, Jynn thought to himself. He knew what to think when you where dying, or at least he thought so from the dying minds he had listened to and felt, but this had suddenly become different. Unnatural. The man had clearly started to almost enjoy himself as he sawed away, but it couldn't have been his own thoughts. Just moments before their was manic dread and now excitement and anticipation? Clearly the man was being deprived of feeling his own last moments and to Jynn that was worse than any other torture that could be inflicted.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Gerrin shook his head. This was more than unnecesary. He was dealing with barbarians here.

Unable to look on any longer, Tyrion stepped forward and stayed Taliesin's hand, feeling blood spatter on his hand, face and even stain his black leather skinsuit. "Please stop," he begged.

Andreus Romar couldn't help himself either. At the sight of Tyrion begging for a prisoner's emotional wellbeing in the deep-winter of the prisoner's life, Romar let out something that was halfway between a scoff and an incredulous laugh. The audacity of the slave surprised him. As little as Romar appreciated the excesses on display, he had zero intention of coming to cross-purposes with the Queen Regent. Romar slapped a hand down on the briefing table --narrowly missing Jynn-- and then he remarked, "Is the servant volunteering to take the Terran's place? Our Queen Regent must be satisfied, no?"

"Please end his suffering," Tyrion begged, though now he realized his life was on the line too. Again. But he had nothing to end Taliesin's suffering, would not take his blade from him and end them like he had his sisters.

With an acrid taste in the back of Stace's mouth, one of blood and anger, he leant over the table and spat at Tyrion. "I agree with Romar!" he hissed, looking back to the Regent. "Compassion is one thing, but defiance is another. 'You may only slow the train by first lying down on its tracks'" he rhymed; a singsong type of melody that added to his malice.

"Enough!" yelled the queen regent who suddenly stood from her seat and looked upon her staff with scornful green eyes. Her light yet powerful Orion accent cut through the conversation like her knife that Taliesin was currently using. "Disruptor!" she demanded with an open hand, waiting for the nearest warrior to donate his weapon to her cause.

Stace's eyes widened as the clash of Lihra's voice cut through the room. He sat back in his and reached into his waistcoat as it hung around his skinny chest. He pulled out his firearm and then with a bow, lifted it up to her.

When the grip of the weapon was placed in her hand, Lirha swiftly snatched the pistol and pointed it squarely at the prisoner's forehead. A quick and steady pull on the trigger ensued, resulting in a loud woosh as a single green pulse of disruptor particles surged from the barrel and tore through Taliesin's head at high velocity. The disruptor technology itself was genius, and uniquely disassembled the molecules in his entire head as it tore through his cranial cavity and ejected remnant brain matter from the back of his skull leaving nothing but a disfigured ball of humanoid matter where the man's head used to be.

Lirha then turned her attention towards the rest of the present officers. "Bring me another prisoner. One with less...emotional attachment to his handler." The Orion's sharp eyes then stared threateningly at Tyrion as she raised her weapon and pointed it at his torso. "Unless this is a problem?"

White-faced, Tyrion shrank back though he dared a look of gratitude at the powerful Orion woman. "No my queen," he whispered, glad that Taliesin's suffering had ended. That he was covered in brainmatter, didn't seem to phase him at all. He chanced one look at Taliesin's remains and gagged before tearing his eyes away and returning to his priorly occupied corner.

Gerrin shook his head. This was something appalling and with a touch to a device on his uniform disappeared from sight. The tiny device worked a lot like the technology in the Fold Ships. It functioned like a miniature personal transporter but could fling one across the entire galaxy if need be. He had not wish to watch unneeded barbarity. Perhaps he thought to himself as he reappeared in nanoseconds in his quarters that if Akkadia had been through what the Alliance had with the Terrans he might feel differently. As it was though he could see little merit to either side.

The mind of the man Jynn had become so involved with over the past few minutes had suddenly silenced. He was astounded at the new way this person had died. Strange was a word that barely began to describe it for him. With the focus off of the prisoner he withdrew his focus entirely to allow all the emotions in the room to barrage him once more. He grinned a bit as he plugged his ears. The words where becoming quite boring. He'd just have to sense their intentions by the emotions thrown about the room. And then one disappeared. Not dead, just gone. Weird. He peeked over at the empty seat before closing his eyes once more to feel the conversations and the thoughts behind them.

Though the demonstration had been cut short by the Queen Regent's mercy, it had gone exceptionally well. She had seemed pleased by the weapon he'd presented her, almost as much perhaps as when he'd presented her with the first working Varon-T disruptor. Fel gestured for Beaumont to return to his side, and the two of them could lapse into watchful silence for the time being. The Trill could watch and listen to the others as they gave their mundane reports and such, while Beaumont could defend him against any unwanted probing of his mind. Such a useful tool.

"Someone clean that up," Lirha said, then placed the weapon down on the table in front of her and gracefully returned to her seat in her large chair before continuing to address the current staff -- this time with a more pressing matter. "What progress has been made to find this rumored Terran outpost near our borders?" she asked. "Our informants have suggested there is possible enemy fleet activity in the Nimbus system, but none of our long range scans have detected anything."

Although Andreus Romar had brought a portable interface device to the meeting table, he had little need to refer to its contents. The contents of his report came to mind all too easily, because the contents of his report was terribly bare. Romar raised his eyes to the Queen Regent, directly, for the first time since entering the room. "Nothing resembling Terran Empire technology has come within our scanner range on this patrol route," Romar said evenly. He didn't shy away from his failure. Romar limited his words to facts backed up with documented observations. He kept his report brief. "Further, our own outposts along this border report no definite sightings."

Lirha stared with scrutiny at the dark-blond Argelian. Not so much because of his appearance or demeanor, but rather for his lack of competency.

"You have found...nothing?" she replied, her eyes narrowed and voice now menacing and full of disapproval while she looked from him to the other officers. "And has everyone else found...nothing? You have time to play with prisoners but no one can find the Terran's forward base?!" she demanded of the entire room.

Tyrion just shook his head. Not one of his prisoners had any information regarding this, none he'd performed memory extractions on. Hirad didn't want him to report anything but his loyalties required that if he had any information he'd offer it. And he had no loyaltie towards his tormentor at all. "Nothing about bases my queen," he replied submissively, "but I did find something about a small fleet..."

"Yes, and...?" asked Saalm, wanting to know as much as possible even if it wasn't necessarily regarding the the most pertinent target. Perhaps there would be an opportunity to ascertain the necessary information to prosecute the primary target...if her current crew was competent enough.

"My subject didn't have that many details but I can go back and try to extract more. It was a Terran fleet, about three ships of unknown class." Tyrion tried to remember more but the subject had been strong and getting this much had already been difficult.

Lirha squinted scrutinizingly at the man. Any information was better than no information, but if he had had the opportunity to continue his interrogation, the Tyrion-man should have already pursued that path. Did she need to explain such procedures and work ethic to the entire crew?

"Three ships?" she stared at him intently. "In our vicinity? And you are here telling me this instead of extracting the rest of the details from your prisoner?!" Her light green eyes were now glittering with anger. "Go, now!" she commanded.

Not having expected this order, given that getting this much had already been exhausting, Tyrion mumbled an acknowledgement and bolted from the room. Praying, that Hirad would leave him alone so he could get what the Queen-Regent wanted.

Jynn was thinking to himself. He was still sifting through the last strange thoughts of the dead man in the room. He had begun to wonder if anyone else had bothered to dig deep enough into his mind's grave as he died. Perhaps no one had sensed it, not even the puppeteer? With Tyrion's report past it was now Jynn's turn. He blinked nervously a few times as he slowly rolled himself along the table towards the Queen Regent. It certainly seemed she was fond of shooting the messenger. He stopped just inches away from her and peered up into those beautiful green eyes. With a whisper heard only to her he said "I think he knew, dear," he started, his eyes darting towards the corpse on the floor. "But... Well, you know... Dead men tell no tales."

Lirha looked towards the Deltan, then to the dead body, then back to the Deltan. "And if he knew...you said nothing?!" Her hand discretely slipped towards her ceremonial knife which was on the table, and she tilted her head to the side waiting for answers from the telepathic man who apparently was happy to speak up after a prisoner was dead but not before.

"I was," Jynn began, his eyes darting about before rolling to the back of his head for a few seconds as though to search for something that was not there. He then looked back to her, thinking of a way to explain what he felt had happened to him. "I was dying, my Queen." He then peered deep into her eyes, as though he were to direct his next question to her very soul and not her mind. "What words could possibly come to your mind while you feel yourself shuffling off this mortal coil?"

Scrutinizing him closely, Lirha took a deep breath and frowned. "Perhaps next time...you will voice your final thoughts before you are unable to?" It was what a proper warrior would do, after all. At least, she thought so.

With a slow nod Jynn replied, "Yes, Queen." He then rolled back to the center of the table with a depressed look on his face. He felt most glum for failing his master had no longer felt the need for further words. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to get lost once more in all the other emotions throughout the room, whisked away from his own.

Fel shook his head slightly. Tyrion was certainly going to get himself killed soon, for his weakness. The Deltan might not be too far behind, though the Queen Regent seemed to like him a whole lot more. It was hard to tell at times where her favour lay. Fel was confident, however, that he had once again impressed her and in the end, that was all that mattered.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Queen Regent Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Saalm]

SohHom Naois Mercy
Interrogator
IKS Saalm
[pnpc T'Vanna]

Tyrion
Hirad's/Grayson Jones' Servant/Slave
IKS Saalm
[pnpc T'Vanna]

M'Ressa
(dead)
IKS Saalm
[pnpc Min]

Sogh Andreus Romar
Gunner
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Kohl]

SoghHom Jynn
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Jynn]

Commander Flektor Stace
Second in Command
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Stace]

LCmdr Gerrin illm Warraquim
Military Observer
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Allyndra]

Tyrien Cyi
Son of Tinaro Cyi
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Charles]

Beaumont
Telepathic WMD
IKS Saalm

Cyrin Fel
Weapons Designer
IKS Saalm

Taliesin Cynwrig
Terran Empire Officer & Captive
(Dead)

RSS Feed