10-13-2016, 07:32 PM
What are you going to do now?
The question, for some reason, sat in his mind. The Novan turned it over in his head again and again, simulating different responses.
A Knight of my people. Yes. That’s what I once was. Or at least, after a lot of blood was shed that didn’t need to be. I was a true Furtumin for a brief moment in time, wasn’t I?
Ratione felt a sense of pride build inside him. A pride he had not felt in a long time. A feeling that had long since abandoned his body, replaced by regret. Guilt.
Perhaps dying for his people, defending his homeland, perhaps that had reignited that small ember in his chest. That tiny flicker that had hung on through all of that first war. Then it had burst into a roaring flame at the climax of his final battle.
What was that roar he let out when he died? What was that sound? The cry of a people never to be contained again, never to be held down by the world by monsters. Never again.
But here he was. Contained. Held down.
“You said you had something that could break these locks?”
Janna paused for a moment, watching as the tall alien stood up and stretching his arms over his head.
Slowly, a wide grin spread across the yordle’s face. “You betcha pal!”
“Now here’s the pla-“
Without any sign of hesitation, the girl brought her strange tool to her arms, the object disproportionately large in her hands. After fitting some foam plugs in her large ears, Janna aimed the metal road, with a hollow opening at the front, at the lock, sliding back a bolt and pulling a trigger.
Click-clack-BOOM!
The device roared with an explosion of heat and energy and sound. The top of Ratione’s head chipped some dust off the ceiling as he jumped in his spot, eyes wide and pupils the size of pins. His ears started ringing like they had never before.
There was a second blast of sound, but the Novan barely reacted to it. All that was going through his head was a massive migraine and the fact that the guard was limping his way to the door. No doubt everyone in the damned city had heard that, but it would buy them a lot of time if the guardsmen had to figure out the source.
Ratione ripped his cage door open, taking a single stride to the second and throwing himself through. Right as Rholand got his fingers on the handle, the Furtumin was on him.
A long leg swept out the wooden one, the human collapsing to the ground and cursing. Ratione got on top of him, threading both his arms under the old man’s own, locking his fingers together at the back of the head. Lifting the whole body back up with ease, the Novan hauled the struggling guardsman back over to the cellblock. The other prisoners had remained in their cell, held there by Janna’s loud and terrifying contraption.
The Novan threw him in with the others, confident they would not dare attack a city guard for fear of a harsher sentence. Stepping back, his eyes still wide and his ears still carrying that long and sharp whine, he could barely make out a mumbling below him. He looked down to see Janna’s lips moving, but nothing came out of them.
“What?!”
“W… otta… out… now!”
“Q-qe meria?! What was that just now! What did you do!”
“I fired my rifle dumbass!”
“What in the galaxy is a rifle?!”
“It’s a gun! What the hell kina guns do you guys have?”
“We don’t have anything like that!”
“I thought you were an alien?! Like with space stuff!”
“Why would that mean we had something like that?”
“I dunno! Space people usually do!”
“I need to get my armor.” Ratione dropped the conversation, neither willing nor capable in the current moment to understand why a machine like that would ever need to exist. With a massive headache coming to climax, he made his way to the back of the cell block and where his jump suit and power armor lay in a heap.
Janna opted to stand guard as the Novan dressed himself first in the padded jumpsuit, then hefting each section of his armor. First his legs, then torso, then arms. The entire process without assistance took around twenty minutes to complete before all of the artificial tendons and energy-hydraulics linked up. Last came the helmet, which he slipped on with practiced ease, a HUD display temporarily popping up with a quick diagnostic’s check.
“I am starting to run out of power.” He broadcasted to his newfound ally, who turned around with a frustrated look.
“What does that thing run on, anyways?”
“Raw energy.”
“How do you get that?”
“I don’t know. Only the harvesting corporations know, and even then the knowledge is limited to the highest-ranking engineers and researchers.”
“So if that suit runs outta juice we’ll just use omnilium! No biggie!”
Ratione decided to ask about whatever that was later. Commanding the HUD display to clear with his voice, he stomped over the little blue woman.
“I am thinking that perhaps the city guard could be centering on our location by now.”
“Yeah. Got a plan?”
The Novan shook his head. “Beyond getting out of the city, no.”
“…..right. Well-“ She turned to face him, smiling with a mischievous glee, “Wudoo-we-do, big guy?”
The Novan let slip a tiny smirk himself, before scooping up the yordle in one of his arms. “Right now, you need to hang on tight.”
The yordle let out a yell, “Hey! Careful!” as she cradled the boom stick in her arms. She squirmed in the improvised seat. “Normally I’d put a bullet through your skull, but this isn’t normally.” Then she pointed a finger at the expressionless visor, “You don’t talk about this to anyone and you never try it again without my permission!”
“Understood.” Even as the tiny blue girl chastised the Novan, he made his way to the door, commanding his HUD to display a short range radar.
When it came up, there were two dots in the center, followed by a thick line and thin a barely visible fuzz beyond that line. This told Ratione that they were to meet some resistance the second he breached.
“Janna, I’m going to have to squeeze you tight with both arms.”
“Why?!”
“So you don’t shift around too much. We are going to be accelerating and decelerating rather quickly. Make sure you loosen up your body too so you do not hurt something.”
“Oh, right, okay uh…” The yordle shifted around as Ratione brought his other arm up to wrap around her, fixing her whole body in place. Janna wrapped both arms around her loud tool as it lay across the Novan’s chest.
The Furtumin put his should against the door, angling his body sideways so that the tool could fit through. He bent his knees and put his weight on the balls of his feet.
“Are we ready?”
“No.”
“Good, here we go!” At the utterance of the last word, Ratione grunted as he forced himself through the door. The entire thing came off its hinges, splinter on the spot where he dug his shoulder in and flying forward.
The second the Furtumin’s eyes and mind processed the half-circle of guards with large tower shields surrounding them, he gave a command to burst upward.
The question, for some reason, sat in his mind. The Novan turned it over in his head again and again, simulating different responses.
A Knight of my people. Yes. That’s what I once was. Or at least, after a lot of blood was shed that didn’t need to be. I was a true Furtumin for a brief moment in time, wasn’t I?
Ratione felt a sense of pride build inside him. A pride he had not felt in a long time. A feeling that had long since abandoned his body, replaced by regret. Guilt.
Perhaps dying for his people, defending his homeland, perhaps that had reignited that small ember in his chest. That tiny flicker that had hung on through all of that first war. Then it had burst into a roaring flame at the climax of his final battle.
What was that roar he let out when he died? What was that sound? The cry of a people never to be contained again, never to be held down by the world by monsters. Never again.
But here he was. Contained. Held down.
“You said you had something that could break these locks?”
Janna paused for a moment, watching as the tall alien stood up and stretching his arms over his head.
Slowly, a wide grin spread across the yordle’s face. “You betcha pal!”
“Now here’s the pla-“
Without any sign of hesitation, the girl brought her strange tool to her arms, the object disproportionately large in her hands. After fitting some foam plugs in her large ears, Janna aimed the metal road, with a hollow opening at the front, at the lock, sliding back a bolt and pulling a trigger.
Click-clack-BOOM!
The device roared with an explosion of heat and energy and sound. The top of Ratione’s head chipped some dust off the ceiling as he jumped in his spot, eyes wide and pupils the size of pins. His ears started ringing like they had never before.
There was a second blast of sound, but the Novan barely reacted to it. All that was going through his head was a massive migraine and the fact that the guard was limping his way to the door. No doubt everyone in the damned city had heard that, but it would buy them a lot of time if the guardsmen had to figure out the source.
Ratione ripped his cage door open, taking a single stride to the second and throwing himself through. Right as Rholand got his fingers on the handle, the Furtumin was on him.
A long leg swept out the wooden one, the human collapsing to the ground and cursing. Ratione got on top of him, threading both his arms under the old man’s own, locking his fingers together at the back of the head. Lifting the whole body back up with ease, the Novan hauled the struggling guardsman back over to the cellblock. The other prisoners had remained in their cell, held there by Janna’s loud and terrifying contraption.
The Novan threw him in with the others, confident they would not dare attack a city guard for fear of a harsher sentence. Stepping back, his eyes still wide and his ears still carrying that long and sharp whine, he could barely make out a mumbling below him. He looked down to see Janna’s lips moving, but nothing came out of them.
“What?!”
“W… otta… out… now!”
“Q-qe meria?! What was that just now! What did you do!”
“I fired my rifle dumbass!”
“What in the galaxy is a rifle?!”
“It’s a gun! What the hell kina guns do you guys have?”
“We don’t have anything like that!”
“I thought you were an alien?! Like with space stuff!”
“Why would that mean we had something like that?”
“I dunno! Space people usually do!”
“I need to get my armor.” Ratione dropped the conversation, neither willing nor capable in the current moment to understand why a machine like that would ever need to exist. With a massive headache coming to climax, he made his way to the back of the cell block and where his jump suit and power armor lay in a heap.
Janna opted to stand guard as the Novan dressed himself first in the padded jumpsuit, then hefting each section of his armor. First his legs, then torso, then arms. The entire process without assistance took around twenty minutes to complete before all of the artificial tendons and energy-hydraulics linked up. Last came the helmet, which he slipped on with practiced ease, a HUD display temporarily popping up with a quick diagnostic’s check.
“I am starting to run out of power.” He broadcasted to his newfound ally, who turned around with a frustrated look.
“What does that thing run on, anyways?”
“Raw energy.”
“How do you get that?”
“I don’t know. Only the harvesting corporations know, and even then the knowledge is limited to the highest-ranking engineers and researchers.”
“So if that suit runs outta juice we’ll just use omnilium! No biggie!”
Ratione decided to ask about whatever that was later. Commanding the HUD display to clear with his voice, he stomped over the little blue woman.
“I am thinking that perhaps the city guard could be centering on our location by now.”
“Yeah. Got a plan?”
The Novan shook his head. “Beyond getting out of the city, no.”
“…..right. Well-“ She turned to face him, smiling with a mischievous glee, “Wudoo-we-do, big guy?”
The Novan let slip a tiny smirk himself, before scooping up the yordle in one of his arms. “Right now, you need to hang on tight.”
The yordle let out a yell, “Hey! Careful!” as she cradled the boom stick in her arms. She squirmed in the improvised seat. “Normally I’d put a bullet through your skull, but this isn’t normally.” Then she pointed a finger at the expressionless visor, “You don’t talk about this to anyone and you never try it again without my permission!”
“Understood.” Even as the tiny blue girl chastised the Novan, he made his way to the door, commanding his HUD to display a short range radar.
When it came up, there were two dots in the center, followed by a thick line and thin a barely visible fuzz beyond that line. This told Ratione that they were to meet some resistance the second he breached.
“Janna, I’m going to have to squeeze you tight with both arms.”
“Why?!”
“So you don’t shift around too much. We are going to be accelerating and decelerating rather quickly. Make sure you loosen up your body too so you do not hurt something.”
“Oh, right, okay uh…” The yordle shifted around as Ratione brought his other arm up to wrap around her, fixing her whole body in place. Janna wrapped both arms around her loud tool as it lay across the Novan’s chest.
The Furtumin put his should against the door, angling his body sideways so that the tool could fit through. He bent his knees and put his weight on the balls of his feet.
“Are we ready?”
“No.”
“Good, here we go!” At the utterance of the last word, Ratione grunted as he forced himself through the door. The entire thing came off its hinges, splinter on the spot where he dug his shoulder in and flying forward.
The second the Furtumin’s eyes and mind processed the half-circle of guards with large tower shields surrounding them, he gave a command to burst upward.
"Our fear is our weapon."