06-13-2017, 11:44 PM
Kelly retrieved the darkling sergeant's body, tendrils of invisible force dragging it over to rest beside his boots. The dead man's uniform slithered and hissed as it slid over the soft, lumpy soil.
Satisfied with the set-dressing, the traveler turned to face his audience, gripping his staff in his left hand and resting it squarely against his shoulder while he gestured with the axe, leveling the double-blade squarely at the lone uninjured Nebula soldier.
"You. You're name is Steve?"
Steve nodded, swallowing nervously. "Uh - yes. Yes, sir."
A thin, humorless smile crept across Kelly's face. "Hello Steve. Can I assume by the resemblance that the fellow whose health you've been so preoccupied by is your twin brother? A simple yes or no will be fine."
The blond young darkling was silent for a moment, looking around at his fellows. A faint smell of buster-shot ozone cut through the wet air, clashing with the wet, healthy scents of the forests. The two sporty machete-wielders sat in the dirt, and did their best to give him dirty looks as they burbled and gasped through the ruins of their sinuses. One lay motionless, whimpering, and another was still slapping at spiders, delirious from venom and babbling under his breath.
And, of course, there was the late sergeant.
"Quite so- uh, that is, yes."
The traveler let the axe fall prone, holding the weapon casually at his side. He tightened his grip slightly, forcing the muscles in his forearm prominence, and narrowed his eyes in a way that he knew made them seem to sink deeper into his face - two little blue pools, alien and distant within their shelters, studying their subject like a bug on a slide.
He stopped fighting out of concern for his sibling , even ignored his commanding officer. There's probably a very strong bond there: typical for twins, highly exploitable.
"Excellent. It speaks well of your faculties that you've held on to that connection. Keep it in mind - a man should always value his relationships, especially here. I'm going to ask you some questions now, Steve - but before I do, there are some things you should know about me. First, I'm a very potent psychic, and I've been doing this kind of thing for a very long time: Lying will get you nowhere fast. Second, I don't enjoy killing, so if its at all possible I'd prefer you and your unit survive this little encounter. Cooperate, and you'll all get out of this alive. Third, while I'm not a bloodthirsty monster, I am a very practical man, and time is a factor - so if you hesitate, or try to dissemble, or absent gods forbid actually lie to me, I'm going to break your brother's arms. Do you understand?"
"What?" squeaked Steven, lying where he'd fallen. "What did he say about my arms?"
Kelly watched Steve carefully, observing the fluctuations in his body temperature, the dilation of his pupils, the play of tension, anger and fear across his sallow face. The man twitched, tensed - and relaxed.
"Yes," he sighed.
You're mine, kid. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to be a jerk about it.
The strategist sensed his android ally moving behind him, advancing to stand near his shoulder. The machine's mood was hard to read, the radio-spectrum glow of a power-core and energy-distribution systems frustratingly opaque. It made Kelly very aware that although his extrasensory perceptions had returned, much of his high-resolution processing capacity was still limited.
Water pattered on leaves. Somewhere in the near distance, a bird departed the soggy canopy, squawking loudly amid the rustle of disrupted foliage.
"Let's begin then," Kelly said. "First, tell me about Nebula's stronghold in the Green. Where is it located?
Some of what they learned was old news, but much of it was fresh intelligence. Nebula's local base was located several kilometers further into the 'verse, among the stone ruins of an ancient jungle civilization, and included some kind of portal to a pocket-dimension, which was their actual stronghold. The outer defenses were, as Regal had led him to expect, relatively light - a small garrison of fairly mundane troops supplemented by a perimeter made of tiger-traps, deadfalls, net and noose traps, jungle beasts, and other assorted unpleasantness.
Steve had never been inside the portal.
The prisoner hesitated only once, when one of the other darklings interrupted him, snuffling through her broken face to tell him he should stop talking or he was going to get them all poisoned and left to rot.
Kelly allowed himself to look mildly surprised. "Really? Poisoned? Is that a typical punishment, or somebody's favorite? No, don't strain yourself miss. I want to hear it from Steve."
As it turned out, she was afraid of the garrison-commander. Steve didn't know his name, but he was supposedly viciously fast, and liked to use poisons.
Finally satisfied that he'd get nothing more out of the bony young Nebula trooper, the psychic turned his attention to X.
"Well. That was productive. Thank you for being so patient."
"No problem," responded the reploid, "but we still have the same issue we did before. What are we going to do with them? We certainly can't trust them. Were you lying when you said you were going to let them live? "
Kelly smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes, and knelt down, beginning to strip something off the darkling sergeant's corpse - a harness for the battle-axe, slung across the fallen soldier's back. The psychic had decided to take the blade with him.
"Oh. That. A simple solution - Steve is going to help us tie up his brother, and his friends, using some of those sturdy vines that were giving me trouble right before you showed up. We'll leave them in the hollow left by that horrible tree's root-system, at the top of the crumbling temple over there - it should keep them safe from any prowling tyrannosaurs until our business here is finished, though I imagine they'll have to deal with the occasional spider."
X looked puzzled, and an ancient servo whirred and clicked as he tilted his head to one side in confusion. "So what about Steve, then?"
Kelly stood, his new weapons stowed across his back, and blew a stray strand of dark, wet hair out of his face. "He's coming with us. After all - he knows where all the traps are."
Satisfied with the set-dressing, the traveler turned to face his audience, gripping his staff in his left hand and resting it squarely against his shoulder while he gestured with the axe, leveling the double-blade squarely at the lone uninjured Nebula soldier.
"You. You're name is Steve?"
Steve nodded, swallowing nervously. "Uh - yes. Yes, sir."
A thin, humorless smile crept across Kelly's face. "Hello Steve. Can I assume by the resemblance that the fellow whose health you've been so preoccupied by is your twin brother? A simple yes or no will be fine."
The blond young darkling was silent for a moment, looking around at his fellows. A faint smell of buster-shot ozone cut through the wet air, clashing with the wet, healthy scents of the forests. The two sporty machete-wielders sat in the dirt, and did their best to give him dirty looks as they burbled and gasped through the ruins of their sinuses. One lay motionless, whimpering, and another was still slapping at spiders, delirious from venom and babbling under his breath.
And, of course, there was the late sergeant.
"Quite so- uh, that is, yes."
The traveler let the axe fall prone, holding the weapon casually at his side. He tightened his grip slightly, forcing the muscles in his forearm prominence, and narrowed his eyes in a way that he knew made them seem to sink deeper into his face - two little blue pools, alien and distant within their shelters, studying their subject like a bug on a slide.
He stopped fighting out of concern for his sibling , even ignored his commanding officer. There's probably a very strong bond there: typical for twins, highly exploitable.
"Excellent. It speaks well of your faculties that you've held on to that connection. Keep it in mind - a man should always value his relationships, especially here. I'm going to ask you some questions now, Steve - but before I do, there are some things you should know about me. First, I'm a very potent psychic, and I've been doing this kind of thing for a very long time: Lying will get you nowhere fast. Second, I don't enjoy killing, so if its at all possible I'd prefer you and your unit survive this little encounter. Cooperate, and you'll all get out of this alive. Third, while I'm not a bloodthirsty monster, I am a very practical man, and time is a factor - so if you hesitate, or try to dissemble, or absent gods forbid actually lie to me, I'm going to break your brother's arms. Do you understand?"
"What?" squeaked Steven, lying where he'd fallen. "What did he say about my arms?"
Kelly watched Steve carefully, observing the fluctuations in his body temperature, the dilation of his pupils, the play of tension, anger and fear across his sallow face. The man twitched, tensed - and relaxed.
"Yes," he sighed.
You're mine, kid. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to be a jerk about it.
The strategist sensed his android ally moving behind him, advancing to stand near his shoulder. The machine's mood was hard to read, the radio-spectrum glow of a power-core and energy-distribution systems frustratingly opaque. It made Kelly very aware that although his extrasensory perceptions had returned, much of his high-resolution processing capacity was still limited.
Water pattered on leaves. Somewhere in the near distance, a bird departed the soggy canopy, squawking loudly amid the rustle of disrupted foliage.
"Let's begin then," Kelly said. "First, tell me about Nebula's stronghold in the Green. Where is it located?
***
The interrogation took almost an hour. Kelly coaxed, intimidated and cajoled, cueing off a combination of invisible biophysical tells, facial expressions, and vast, hazy experience to squeeze every drop of information from his darkling prisoner. All the while the azure android watched, wondering about his fellow liberator. If it came to it, would the man make good on his threats? Some of what they learned was old news, but much of it was fresh intelligence. Nebula's local base was located several kilometers further into the 'verse, among the stone ruins of an ancient jungle civilization, and included some kind of portal to a pocket-dimension, which was their actual stronghold. The outer defenses were, as Regal had led him to expect, relatively light - a small garrison of fairly mundane troops supplemented by a perimeter made of tiger-traps, deadfalls, net and noose traps, jungle beasts, and other assorted unpleasantness.
Steve had never been inside the portal.
The prisoner hesitated only once, when one of the other darklings interrupted him, snuffling through her broken face to tell him he should stop talking or he was going to get them all poisoned and left to rot.
Kelly allowed himself to look mildly surprised. "Really? Poisoned? Is that a typical punishment, or somebody's favorite? No, don't strain yourself miss. I want to hear it from Steve."
As it turned out, she was afraid of the garrison-commander. Steve didn't know his name, but he was supposedly viciously fast, and liked to use poisons.
Finally satisfied that he'd get nothing more out of the bony young Nebula trooper, the psychic turned his attention to X.
"Well. That was productive. Thank you for being so patient."
"No problem," responded the reploid, "but we still have the same issue we did before. What are we going to do with them? We certainly can't trust them. Were you lying when you said you were going to let them live? "
Kelly smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes, and knelt down, beginning to strip something off the darkling sergeant's corpse - a harness for the battle-axe, slung across the fallen soldier's back. The psychic had decided to take the blade with him.
"Oh. That. A simple solution - Steve is going to help us tie up his brother, and his friends, using some of those sturdy vines that were giving me trouble right before you showed up. We'll leave them in the hollow left by that horrible tree's root-system, at the top of the crumbling temple over there - it should keep them safe from any prowling tyrannosaurs until our business here is finished, though I imagine they'll have to deal with the occasional spider."
X looked puzzled, and an ancient servo whirred and clicked as he tilted his head to one side in confusion. "So what about Steve, then?"
Kelly stood, his new weapons stowed across his back, and blew a stray strand of dark, wet hair out of his face. "He's coming with us. After all - he knows where all the traps are."
Quote:I am, in fact, buying the axe as a move.