"I regret having to do this to you, but you're just too integral to our cause."
A deafening thwack boomed through the room, followed by a harrowing shriek of pain.
"I do wish we'd been able to stamp this out before we reached this point. Do you know how much damage you almost caused?"
The booming thwack rang out again, then another tormented scream, accompanied with the soft dripping of liquid, pattering against the floor.
"You're a damned fool, but I understand. How could you not fall for him? I've felt the doubt in you, seen it play out in its infancy and watched it blossom into conflict as it peaked into maturity. He was the catalyst, wasn't he?"
The same arrangement of haunting noises played once more, like clockwork. Within the prison of Moltezz's quarters, her Marks remained glued to the bars, staring at the door where the noises were coming from, some staring in horror, others in amazement. Their cell doors had even been left unlocked, following Trent's and the other's escape, however none of the Marks inside dared even attempt to leave.
"Be truthful, you only wanted to impress him, didn't you? Oh, and on that note, he's left you behind. He's gone, Seeth, he escaped not too long ago. And don't kid yourself into thinking he's coming back, either. A Node spotted him and some others, including Plasia of all people." The malicious mistress shivered at the thought. "That's what they do when you don't break them in. I tried to help you, but you locked him away with Plasia... You should have given him to me. Your selfishness has cost you everything."
The scream was even louder this time, drenched in agony and echoing through the cold stone corridors endlessly.
"Honestly though, I really don't want to do this to you. Not to you. Doubt is understandable, I really do get it. But we're made to be something greater, and you need to accept that. No one else will accept you for anything else."
The brutal sounds of torment continued to ring out. The impact noise was so great that it rumbled through the floor and shook the very walls themselves, making the hanging lights sway gently.
"You must own it, Seeth. We're monsters. Stop tip-toeing around and stride like you should. We're made to rule, to separate the weak from the worthy. Until you accept what you are, you will always be conflicted and fragile. Let your inner empress out and rejoin us. I will always make room for you at my table when you're ready to accept your place."
Seeth was strung up right in the middle of Moltezz's main chamber, her arms bolted to the ceiling with huge chains. She hung there, weakly, barely able to raise her head. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth as she limply raised her head to respond.
"I... won't... be that... anymore..."
Moltezz smiled a knowing smile, power surging through her arms and the massive chains she was wielding began to glow with heat.
"I really appreciate you not lying to me, Seeth. But, it appears I still have work to do."
She went to raise the chain, but stopped suddenly. The two met eyes for a second and confusion swept across the room. Moltezz looked across, and then back, trying to place the faint sound they both could now hear.
"Most... unusual... You stay here, my darling, I will find out what is interrupting our one-on-one."
Chains still in hand, Moltezz strode out from her chamber and into the connecting corridor. She could feel something… strange through the floor, something was happening close by. There weren't many people left in the dungeon at the moment, as most had been pulled up to help with the assault on the freighter, but the few remaining Nodes were picking up on something as well, looking around the corridors in a confused manner.
Moltezz's confusion would not last for very long.
Right at the back of the dungeon, down one of the dead end corridors, the far wall began to glow red hot, the stonework spitting and fizzing loudly, turning into a molten amber slurry and dribbling out over the floor, revealing a massive tunnel and a squad of armed figures within it, weapons primed and ready. A single Slave stood before the tunnel, looking at the group, perplexed, but was swiftly cut to pieces by a few precise rounds fired by the squad, blue tracers barely visible as the vulcan rounds shredded him instantly.
"Team A has breached, Team B is on route, ETA thirty seconds. Proceeding with the primary goal; re-acquisition of The Zion Knight."
*
Diego was met with very little resistance as he approached the abandoned factory. A few Slaves hovered idly within the walls and hadn't yet noticed him, even as he came right up to one of the broken windows and peered in, the Slave didn't react. They looked like all the other ones, grey skin, purple eyes, a zombie-like demeanour, looking around the room open mouthed and vacant.
"I can't let anything stop me... These things are pretty much dead, anyway." He reassured himself. "Killing them would be a mercy."
Kicking off the ground, he smashed through the window and rolled into the room, drawing the attention of the Slaves instantly, who both looked at him with that hungry, empty gaze before shambling towards him.
Diego heaved his blade, five foot long and built like an elegant cleaver with a single sided razor sharp blade and an enlarged tip, perfect for cutting into heavy armour providing the wielder was able to wield its heft. With a single swipe left, and another right, he parted their bodies instantly.
"I'm sorry this happened to you." He bowed his head for a moment, then continued on.
The bodies slumped apart, oozing with blood and acrid purple goo that spilled out from their sheared bones, but Diego was already charging back towards the door he kicked down earlier. He could hear groaning and shallow footsteps coming from the staircase, and cautiously went to investigate.
The staircase was mired with Slaves, upwards of fifty, easily. He tapped his blade on the wall to get their attention, the metallic clang causing many of them to suddenly look upwards and fixate on him.
"You want my ass? Come get it!" the lizard yelled defiantly.
The sound of naked paws and feet scraping on concrete grew louder. Diego retreated back into the factory, if he was going to fight his blade needed space. He waited in the middle of the room with his hands resting comfortably on the huge sword. The rumbling of hungry, desperate creatures enthralled to their instincts filled the room, screeching, panting and aching for his body.
The Slaves spread out inside the room and charged straight for him, a group of seven first, they lunged for him but were met with a great sweeping arc of metal that cut through them effortlessly, bodies only briefly slowing the blade as they were severed in the same gruesome fashion as their two allies. More arrived, eighteen this time, spilling out onto the damp flooring and quickly leaping over the chunks of their former brethren.
Once more, Diego hefted his blade, slashing left and right with brutal precision, stopping perfectly in the air and swooping through the crowd with devastating effect. Limbs and bodies were carved and separated, heads decapitated with precise slices, and their stumbling assaults were parried and counter attacked. Diego's stance remained perfectly planted the entire time. The next wave arrived and faced a similar fate, now struggling to move past the bodies that surrounded him, the arcing assault from the lizard only grew even more devastating as he cut through his would-be rapists in seconds.
A final two figures thudded up the stairs and arrived, a larger, equine Slave, just taller than Diego, with a horse's head, a man's torso and two solid hooves for feet. Large muscles ripped across its body, and it was equipped with, of course, a long, heavy penis, hanging between its legs, erect and ready for what was to come. Behind the creature, a slightly smaller but remarkably more intelligent-looking creature stood, a wolven Node, clad in low tier military gear and wielding a purple energy whip that flickered on as she entered.
"Oh, nice! I get a Mark to play with whilst the Controllers are all busy... OH SHIT, you're the one that they've been looking for! This is gonna be so much fun!" She grinned, unable to contain her excitement. The equine Slave surged forward with unexpected speed and dexterity, stamping through the dead Slaves on the floor and launching a fist right at Diego. As he did so, the Node circled around to the side and lashed out with the whip, attempting to catch it around the lizard's neck.
He dodged the whip and swung the blade at the Slave, but it nimbly dodged back and avoided the cleave, before surging forward and grabbing the lizard with one of its massive hands. The Node cackled in joy and pre-emptive victory, but then a sickening crack rang out as Diego uppercut the Slave's arm and broke its elbow. He jabbed his sword's handle into its chest, knocked the Slave back a step and finally swung the blade vertically from low, slicing the creature in half, right up the middle.
"Oh you son-of-a-bitch, that Slave was useful! You'll pay for that, I'm gonna fuck ya til ya ass bleeds, prick!" The Node hissed angrily.
"That's a little fucked up. Not entirely surprising though." Diego murmured, resetting his stance for her oncoming assault.
She lashed out once more with the whip, but Diego shifted out the way and threw his own arm forward. A bright yellow energy whip materialised, seemingly out of nothing and lashed out, cracking through the air and wrapped around the Node's shoulder. With a firm yank he pulled her forward, and she stumbled, head first towards him and his blade...
One final cut through the air separated her head from her body and she collapsed to the floor. The blade had cut through her, but Diego couldn't help but notice the blade had hit something… harder, more solid in her neck compared to the Slaves.
The whip he'd formed faded away, and he surveyed the room quickly, confirming the immediate threat was neutralised.The room was now filled with severed parts, mutilated bodies, blood and foetid purple ooze coming from the bones of the Slaves… and Diego, still standing in the centre of his massacre.
"Such a warm welcome." He sighed, quickly making his way into the stairwell, which now appeared empty. Forty floors stretched down into the depths and he wasted no time, descending them quickly and holstering his sword on his back. As he descended however, he could hear fighting in the depths, and a familiar noise - vulcan firearms. The DA's weapon of choice.
His hair was standing on end, sweat thick and dripping across his brow as the repeating, rapid sound of vulcan fire and combat grew louder, and a distant explosion rippled through the stonework. His thoughts jumped back to the two assault craft he spotted earlier.
"What the fuck is going on?"
*
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"
"NILE! NILE! NILE! ANCHOR US OUT! UNKNOWN TARGET HAS ULTRA-CLASS PSYONICS!"
Team A's squad leader desperately reached for his belt, but a length of chain thicker than his thighs whipped through the air and exploded his entire upper torso on impact, with a thunderously heavy crack. The remaining squad members scrambled for their weapons and opened fire on the furious alien that towered over them.
Moltezz, her piercing ruby eyes sparkling from the glare of the fire which coated her skin, stared down at the scrambling marines, with pity, annoyance and fury. She prepared her chain, ready to lash out again. The air around her was scorchingly hot, the very stone-work around her was turning amber, and the needle-like vulcan rounds, usually perfect as shredding through any armour, were melting in mid-flight before they reached her.
She whipped the chain through the air and it impacted another squad member in the chest, obliterating him through his mesh armour and plating as the red hot metal slammed into him. His punished frame rapidly dumped its blood and organs over the floor and walls, which on contact immediately began to hiss and burn.
There was only one soldier left now. He drew a grenade from his belt, which primed in his hand with a couple of beeps… and then displayed an error light on its head. Its payload was dead, the heat in the air had warped the metal and the only thing that was preventing him from burning alive was the envirashield built into his armour… Hand shaking, he slowly glanced up from the grenade, to Moltezz. He met her eyes. Those bright, startling eyes. For a moment, all was still, the only movement being the grenade's gentle flashing light.
She flicked her hand forward and projected an explosive fireball across the room, detonating with tremendous force and blowing him apart.
Among the molten rubble stood Moltezz with a satisfied twinkle in her eyes. The entire squad lay around her in chunks and ash, pasted across the walls and floors, having not laid even a single scratch on the demonic queen. There was, of course, some collateral, dead Slaves here and there, and a single Node who'd been cut down by vulcan fire, but what mattered, is that this enemy was eradicated. With no time to lose, she prepared another fireball and hurled it down the corridor, exploding in the tunnel that the team had breached through, causing it to cave in. She could see through her Slave's eyes that a second team was already in her dungeon, they had just breached on the other side, and she would deal with them in the same brutal fashion.
She quickly made her way across the dungeon, cutting through her quarters and watching them through the eyes of her Slaves. They appeared to be heading towards Leech's lab.
*
"Team A has gone silent, we're going to proceed to the pre-identified lab, take what we can and get the hell out." Signalling to his team, Scyler glared down at his communicator, his white scales bristling beneath his armour in frustration. His figure was more akin to that of an eel rather than a dragon, with a long white fin riding down the back of his head.
Weapons drawn, Team B slowly made their way through the labyrinthine corridors, gunning down the occasional Slave and watching the corners closely. After a minute or so of tense marching, they arrived at their intended location. There were large cracks and holes in several of the walls, and the main room was a mess of blood, fluid and smashed equipment scattered all over the floor.
"Wow. Looks like we missed a party... Alright team, I need to search this, take defensive positions in the corridors outside. Chayter and Knarlen, you search the rooms with me." Scyler tapped a few times on his gauntlet, and deployed two small, dragonfly-like drones out into the air. Rifle raised, he went into one of the back rooms, which revealed a series of medical beds in a dark room, one of which held a large crocodilian female, who was lying completely still. There were various scribbles and drawings on the whiteboards which were pinned to the wall, showing detailed sketches of body parts and ideas. Scyler jotted a few notes onto his tablet, while his drones' eyes clicked and flashed, taking photos of the scene.
As he searched through the desks lining the walls for anything useful, vulcan gunfire rang out again, followed by the sound of screaming and the crackling of ashen flesh.
"Scyler! She's using high-tier heat psyonics! Our needles are melting before they hit her!"
*THWACK!* "Oh fuck... she just whipped him into bits... Scyler! She's coming! We need to retreat!"
"Negative, take her out." The dragon spoke back sternly. He did not even so much as glance over at the paralysed crocodilian on the table, nor the fear in her eyes.
"W-WE CAN'T!" *THWACK!* "FALL BACK INTO THE LAB!"
"NEGATIVE! Cancel that order and hold the line, we're the DA for goodness sake, you can hold a single aggressor off! Or do these scaleless mule-bloods have more fight in them than the lot of you?" Scyler sighed in annoyance at his team's apparent incompetence, then continued his search without a second thought.
The initial cool-headedness of the squad was rapidly falling apart as their weapons proved to be useless against the creature, and their armour absolutely worthless. Their chain-mail mesh armour was usually effective against bullet based weapons, but the sheer force of this thing's attacks were pasting them, and the heat... The DA marines weren't used to this, hadn't been expecting or even been prepared for a situation like this, they were so accustomed to having the upper hand in their universe. Never had they felt so powerless in the face of danger, as the overwhelming Moltezz made chunks of the squad's members one by one, a whip here, a fireball there, her mere presence was rapidly degenerating the shields of those close to her. And once that happened, the soldiers promptly burst into flames. Within the space of a couple minutes, Team B had been systematically purged from the corridors.
The dragonfly drones returned to their leader. As Scyler began to skim through their data, he plucked a bright green vial from a nearby test-tube rack, rolling it through his fingers as another explosion rumbled through the dungeon. He glanced down at his gauntlet, at his team's vitals, to see all but four of them were dead; one soldier was left outside the lab, the two searching here, and him. He went to return to the main room, but the sound of approaching combat made him stop. Instead, he peered around from behind the door. The last soldier stumbled back into the lab, drawing his side arm and firing several rounds with loud clacks through the doorway. The massive frame of Moltezz appeared moments later, unamused and unaffected by the display. The heat around her scorching the floors and walls, she held her hand out and a massive lance of flame shot out from her palm, bathing the scrambling soldier in a sea of crackling, fiery waves that drowned out his dying screams. His armour, suit and body quickly became a molten fusion on the floor.
The alien stood for a second and checked around the room, Scyler kept back, not daring to peek back around the door; that pile of molten flesh was not something he needed to see ever again. Quietly, the comms on his gauntlet crackled with a voice.
"Scyler! It's just me, you and Chayter alive. We'll flashbang her and come over to you, can you anchor us all out?"
"Negative."
"What?! Why not?!"
"Too risky. You'll lead her straight to me." He stated blankly. Without a moment's hesitation, Scyler grabbed the orb from his belt and shattered it on the floor, causing a demonic screech to ripple through the walls as a wormhole opened and swallowed him through. It pulsed with black and purple shockwaves for just a second as it closed, as quickly as it had opened, teleporting Scyler back to the safety of his ship and leaving his other two soldiers behind.
"SCYLER! YOU FUCKING CUNT! I HEARD THAT! YOU'VE LEFT US FOR DEAD, YOU COWARD!" Knarlen screamed down the comms.
"Easy now, Knarlen. She'll hear you." He replied, body still crackling with arcs of otherworldly purple energy from the anchor stone.
That sickening *thwack* played out over the comms as Knarlen's vitals ceased on Scyler's gauntlet.
"Told you. What about you, Chayter? What's your play?" Scyler walked up the main chamber of the ship and straight into the cockpit, preparing to leave the dead soldiers behind.
A new voice, female, suddenly cackled over the static.
"Pathetic man. At least you have the brains to recognise defeat." Moltezz scoffed, spying the cowering DA soldier in the back of Leech's lab, huddled behind some storage tanks and trying not to be seen.
"I-I surrender... Please... take my equipment and permit me to live!"
"Fine. If I'm lucky, you'll replace my Node that the other squad killed. I hope you're a resilient one." Moltezz rolled her eyes and with a snap of her fingers, the flames around her rapidly flickered out, and the air cooled off.
The comms went silent and after a few seconds, Chayter's vital signs flicked and the display changed to unknown; not dead, it seemed that he'd been stripped of his gear.
"Wimp." Scyler scoffed, sitting in the pilot seat and assessing the situation. "Command is going to need to see this." He flicked some switches and pressed his gauntlet up against one of the scanners at the helm, allowing him access to the piloting commands. He quickly prepared the assault craft for launch, then rocketed back into the sky, alone in his vessel.
*
At the front face of the dungeon, a slightly out of breath but still pumped Diego came down the final set of the stairs and emerged into the stone corridors. The path in front of him was all but deserted as he made his way towards the Controller's bed chambers. He passed by Seeth's room, and couldn't help but take a peek through the door, still ajar as Leech had left it. The room hadn't been tidied or changed either, furniture lay about the place from his and Leech's struggle, and the bedsheets still smelled of him and Seeth, together. He sighed to himself, dropping his guard slightly as he took their scent in. The room still had a pleasant warmth to the air, despite the cold stone underfoot.
"Am I seriously feeling sentimental about a shag room half a mile underground?" He asked himself, out loud as he questioned the feelings pumping through his chest. "Yeah... huh, guess I kinda am..." He gently brushed his hands across the bed sheets. He'd grown very attached to Seeth in a very short space of time, and now that he was alone, it was difficult to tell how much of that attraction was the simple primal, overwhelming pleasure of the best sex of his life, and how much was genuine connection. She'd hurt him, betrayed him, but he felt drawn to her nonetheless. He sighed again and glanced around the room, taking it in one last time - he wouldn't be coming back here again.
Diego paced quickly through the corridors, the air quickly fading from pleasantly warm into scorchingly hot; his psyonic shielding was the only thing stopping him from igniting on the spot. He encountered a few idle Slaves on his way down, cutting through them one by one. As he drew close to Moltezz's chambers however, he slowed down to survey the state of the place.
The corridors leading to her chambers were absolutely wrecked, with stonework blasted to pieces, and half melted corpses sunk into the floor. Despite the damage, he recognised the design of the armour and weapons; these soldiers were definitely DA. Further on he spotted a corpse, a team leader by the looks of the white markings across his helm. His torso was in pieces, but his arms intact, as though they'd been ripped from his body. He took a second to pry the tech gauntlet off the amputated limb and search through it. Still as arrogant as ever, minimal security on their tactical gear, Diego couldn't help but note, as if no one else would be smart enough to do basic interface hacking, or strong enough to even get the opportunity. Diego was able to breach it easily, and he scanned quickly through their mission data.
He sighed in dismay as it became blisteringly obvious that this team had been here for him, only confirming his earlier suspicions. As he scrolled through the mission details however, he noticed that the gauntlet also held the data key for the ship they had landed on... presumably, if the team leader was dead, and the gauntlet was here, then the ship was still on the planet too! Diego clicked the gauntlet onto his arm, a smug grin teasing at the corner of his lips… but it quickly disappeared once he'd turned back to the ruins of the corridor, and its ruined corpses.
Cautiously, he entered into Moltezz's main chamber. It was large and spacious compared to Seeth's, compared even to the rest of the dungeon, with more effort put into its design and craftsmanship. It looked like the fighting had avoided the room for the most part…
"D-i-e-g-o...?"
The voice took his breath away, and left him feeling like he'd just been punched in the gut. His heart wrenched in a way that none of this madness had made it wrench since this nightmare began.
"Y-You... came... back...?"
She barely looked alive. Strung up by her arms in the middle of the room, dripping with blood and barely able to hold her head up, Seeth wearily stared across the room. Despite her grievous wounds, a pained smile spread across her face.
Diego sprinted across the room, right up to her, staring at her naked, beaten body, desperately running his eyes along her wounds. Her legs had practically been torn to pieces, chunks of her thighs and calves were missing and losing blood. Several deep lashes and burns whipped across her back, and were also bleeding.
"Seeth! How are you awake?! Holy fuck! I gotta get you out of here!" Diego exclaimed, mortified by the extent of her injuries.
Tears welled up in her eyes and Seeth started to cry, shaking the chains weakly as her emotions poured from her.
"You... came back!" Seeth could barely stumble the words out as blood and tears dripped down her face and rolled off her chin. Despite the overwhelming pain she was in, her big beautiful eyes were staring into his with nothing but pure love.
"Of course I did!" He placed a hand softly on her cheek as he calculated how best to get them both out of here. "I promised you I'd help."
"- Well, isn't this wonderful." Moltezz's laugh echoed from the doorway and around her chambers, filling the room. She made her way inside her quarters with long, definitive steps. "You actually came back for her. And here I thought you'd run and save your own hide, especially after the DA turned up. Oh don't worry, I took care of them for you. But this is... unexpected, I must say." The sound of heavy, rattling metal dragging against the floor bounced deafeningly through the chamber. "But this ends… now."