A Boomer's Woman
on board a hard at work torture barge, a Boomer was seated on a crate within the barge's inner room where prisoners were kept. Torture had been enacted only an hour before and the whimpers of pain from the humans mingled with their spilled blood attracted this particular Boomer to this room every day. Half of the cells were filled with still alive humans, while the others housed the corpses the Locust had not bothered to remove. Boomer was seated in the middle, his large bulk giving him an imposing figure that most of the humans strayed away from, hiding in the far corners of their cells in the shadows, as if hoping the extra distance would stave off the Locust longer.
Every human did this almost instinctively, save for one.
Boomer's mundane mind could vaguely remember the woman being forcibly dragged in, her mouth open with monstrous screams that seemed to make the whole room rumble. Boomer remembered that his peaceful rubbing of his Boomshot had been suddenly interrupted by the noise, and had almost knocked the head off of a Drone with a reactionary lash of his arm. Once things had settled down, Boomer had seldom noticed the woman for a day or two. At the time she had seemed to be just the same prisoner as all the others until on the third day, his dull instincts registered eyes directly on the side of his head and he had looked up to see the woman staring at him, enraptured. After three days of torture, her clothing had long since been ripped off, and the skin underneath scarred and damaged beyond repair. The wounds had weakened her to the point where she had been forced to wrap her arms around the bars, and her face was pressed up to the bars with her limp legs hanging beneath her.
Her tired eyes and his beady, black eyes connected for a moment, and she reached out with her arm as if to try and grab his hand, "Teddy," She cooed sweetly, her arm shaking as she stretched vainly for him.
Intrigued and also more than a little confused at the unusual title that had been applied to him, he had stood and trundled over to the cage, leaving his Boomshot safely against his usual crate. He had come within distance of her hand, and as soon as he had come within range she had reached down and tugged his hand playfully. Almost on complete instinct he had immediately slapped the feeble organ away, and he heard the distinctive snap of bone as the slight impact of his hand bent her fingers out of place. Her high pitched scream made him cringe back out of surprise, and he had to resist the urge to simply punch the woman in the face through the bars. The torturers liked their pets kept alive as long as possible, and as such only liked it when they used their own techniques. Quickly, he strode away back to his crates and continued to play with his Boomshot while the girl whimpered in the background.
The next day, unexpectedly, after she had recovered from her torture session, she had started asking for him again despite how he had treated her yetserday. Part of him had wanted to ignore him, but the other part of him, the overly curious part of him, won out and he found himself walking over to her again. The woman had reached for him again and captured one of his fingers with her hand. He had flinched, but managed to not react as violently as before, instead anxiously waiting for her to remove her fingers. Except she didn't, and when it became clear she wasn't going to budge, Boomer had started to get nervous. He had doubted he could remove her fingers without harming her again, and since he wanted to avoid punishment for messing with their prize prisoner he had instead decided to simply allow her to keep her fingers where they were. "Teddy," She whispered, "My fluffy Teddy." Her glassy eyes looked up at his face with awe and admiration, an action that required her to crane her neck to its limit.
"No," He had grumbled back in his heavily accented ground walker language. His eyes focused on her starved body, noting her small breasts, thin waist, long legs and pretty face. Her blonde hair was cut short and grimy, but also looked incredibly soft. She might have been what the humans would describe as pretty, but he wasn't entirely sure. He could remember dozens of females brought in, others that could be prettier or uglier than her, but she was the only one who had actually managed to draw his attention.
The woman tugged at his finger insistently and she said, "Hug Teddy."
Boomer's eyes had widened at her words and he fervently shook his head, "Noooo, no hug."
She nodded and grinned at him, her rotted teeth somehow managing to still beam at him, "Yes, want to hug Teddy, want to hold."
"No."
She pouted and nodded in defiance, clutching his finger desperately as if afraid he would disappear if she let go, "Please," She whined, her blue eyes alighting with tears that spilled down her cheeks, "I want to hug Teddy!"
She relinquished his finger and instead both of her hands groped at his arm. Boomer resisted at first, but at seeing her desperate tears, he felt his strength give way and he reluctantly allowed himself to be pulled up to the cage, close enough where his shoulder pad was bumping up against the iron door seperating them. It was close enough for the woman to slightly press her cheek against his rough, gray skin, her vein colored eyes closing with contentment. She began to mutter so quietly that Boomer couldn't hear her, but instead resolved to simply stand there and let her enjoy herself for the time being. He wasn't sure how long he stood there, but it must have been atleast a half an hour before he realized she had stopped muttering. He looked down and saw that she had finally succumbed to her exhaustion. Slowly he had pried himself away from her and allowed her to collapse to the hard floor, the impact making him wince for a reason he couldn't truly recognize.
The entire rest of the day, he had watched her while he slowly rubbed his Boomshot, his dark eyes unable to leave her soiled form. For some reason, he felt grief at seeing her.
000
She lasted another week before she died in her sleep.
That week, Boomer had become progressively closer to her, letting her rub against him without a fight. He became comfortable around her presence, not flinching away in fear whenever she touched him. It had become a daily occurence for her to call him over at random parts of the day just to seek comfort in his thick and admittedly uncomfortable feeling skin. He didn't know why she did it every day, nor did he really understand why he went along with it for as long as he did. He felt the slightest presence of feeling in his chest whenever he saw her, one that his sluggish mind could not properly comprehend. Humans were tyically regarded as disgusting and weak ground walkers, but she drew him despite the claims of his peers.
But one day, after another session of torture, she had never opened her eyes or beckoned to him. She remained coldly still, not moving and not reacting the the world. Worriedly, he had walked up to the cage and saw her body, and had not understood that she was dead. "Hug Teddy," He incentivised, "Hug."
She didn't move, and the idea that she was dead only entered his mind once every possibility he could think of was exhausted. Sadly, he had shambled over to his usual crates and sat on his usual block, his back slumping and his paws resting on his Boomshot. Sadness seemed to be drilling a massive hole in his used to be indestructible chest and as he focused on his Boomshot, and then felt anger move in with sadness as he stared at the massive weapon. Rage at the people who had killed his woman, the Drones, everyone on the torture barge. He had never stopped them though, and he felt the smallest feeling of regret. Emotion seemed to seize him like it never had, overriding his brain's control. He tightened his grip on his Grenade Launcher, eyes narrowing with rage and his jaw twitching. He heard the echoes of voices as the torturers began to return for another session, and at hearing laughter, Boomer felt emotion driven, primitive thoughts enter his mind.
They strode in, their devious eyes alight with unholy happiness. They ignored him as they always did and instead immediately high tailed it to the cage holding his now dead woman. They opened the cage and stepped inside, and began trying to wake her up from the woman's eternal rest. Boomer stared at their backs for several seconds as they kicked her corpse, and before he realized what he was doing, he was loading a grenade into his Boomshot. He didn't hesitate to fire into the cell, obliterating everyone inside the confined space in an instant. A flicker of happiness filled the hole in his chest for a moment even as Drones began hurrying down the stair toward the sound of the explosion.
Half a dozen of them ran into the room and surveyed the damage. They rounded on him, screaming accusations at them and pointing their Hammerbursts at his chest. He made no attempt to deny their screams and simply closed his eyes as bullets slammed into his bulk. He felt no pain as his life ended.
000
Hmmm, not sure if I hit the Boomer right in the whole emotional department, guess we'll just have to see. Not sure how Locusts deal with crime and punishments, but I'll just stick with my guess.