Everyone has their breaking point.
What happens, however, when someone reaches that point but instead of succumbing to it; embraces it?
What happens when that same person is able to utilize the rage and hatred that follows that point?
What happens if that person is able to grab hold of their last vestiges of shattered sanity and keep them together by sheer force of will?
And, possibly more importantly, what happens to all of those people who are stuck in between that person and their goals, innocent or otherwise?
Monster
The breaking point came swiftly; she would later describe it as being nearly painless. The only pain associated with it was the pain that caused her to reach said point. It was when she realized that the only things that mattered were what she decided mattered, and nothing else. It was when she realized that consequences could only affect you if you let them. It was when she realized that she would do anything to get back what she had lost.
It was also when she decided that the two Caldari guardsmen sent to keep her "under control" were not going to stop her.
Her eyes shot open, the tears that had formed and ran down her cheeks were batted away by her quick eyelashes. The dull colored metal plating that she was looking at was the floor of the station, she remembered. The dull thrum in her ears was from the ever-busy station environment, life support systems and fans running constantly in the background.
She was on her hands and knees; she had fallen to them when they took what was hers, what was so very rightfully hers. She did not know why they had, nor did she care. She did not care what they had said their reasoning was, she barely remembered; it was mostly a blur.
The next thing that came to her mind was that she was fast, fast enough to twist her upper body and rotate on her ankles, pushing up with her arms at once. Coming up face-to-face with one of her would-be handlers, the startled look in his eyes confirmed his surprise as this woman who had been crying not a moment sooner was now only a few inches from his face.
Her hand was closer still to his weapon, held across his chest.
She batted the weapon aside with her left hand, grabbing the man's neck with her right and pulling him down towards her. His groin met with her right knee and she grabbed the rifle as it fell from his grasp, pulling it up to aim at the second guard's head.
There was no hesitation as she pulled the trigger. His brain matter, as well as a vast majority of his skull, impacted with a faint splatter against the bulkhead behind him; his body collapsing lifelessly to the ground. She put her foot down onto the neck of the guard she had disarmed; aiming the rifle at his face.
She asked in a very sweet voice, "Where are they going?" She had a sly smile on her slightly tilted head.
Groans were the only sounds which the guard could make, she pushed down with her heel a little harder to coax a bit more out of him.
"Where are they going…? Please?" She asked, still with her sweet voice and deceptively peaceful smile.
The guard still could say nothing. She did not have time to wait for his voice to return. She shot him.
She noted his blood splattering across the floor in a rather neat fanning pattern.
Shaking her head, she quickly looked about her quarters, checking to see if there was anything she would need between here and her ship. She anticipated the potential for this to be a dangerous ride. She grabbed her favorite coffee mug.
She activated her phone as she strode purposefully towards her quarters door, jamming it shut. As soon as she received an answer she told her XO to put together everyone that he could on short notice for a potentially hazardous deployment.
Turning from her door she walked down the gantry towards her ship. The multicolored armor of the Vargur class battleship shone brightly in the lights of the hanger. She did not have time for a full hook up, glancing down at her Pod. Taking the platform shuttle to the ship, she quickly pressed the keys required to have her pod loaded into the ship's dock as she neared the airlock.
Stepping across the threshold she noted hearing the hanger sirens associated with an impending undock and smiled, her XO must have alerted Port Ops of their imminent departure while he was en-route.
He was worth every isk.
She walked quickly towards the bridge of her ship; she anticipated that it would not be long before most of the crew was onboard. The bridge lights were already lit, she noticed, as she stepped into the room. The command console where the Executive Officer normally sat was already occupied with said individual.
"That was fast." She commented.
The XO whirled around in his command chair and immediately stood at attention, "Attention on deck!"
"As you were, XO. My previous comment was mostly a question by the way." She asked as she proceeded through the room towards the forward windows.
"I was already on-board, Ma'am." The XO replied as he returned to his chair and start-up procedures for the ship. "May I ask the reasoning behind this impromptu launch?"
"Caldari Navy Marines just apprehended something of mine and are going to try to take it off of this station for reasons that are beyond me." She stared out of the window, watching the assortment of platform shuttles scurrying towards the massive warship. "Yes, XO; this is very personal." Her eyes would catch them as they approached, docked, unloaded their cargo, and proceeded back towards the walls of the hanger; her attention span suffering with each bit of movement her eyes could catch.
The XO perked up when he heard this, his hands stopped what they were doing and he looked at her, his brow furrowing. "Understand all, Ma'am."
He returned to his work with fervor. "Ship has met minimal crew requirements; we are ready to go as soon as you are, Ma'am."
"Get us out of these cold shackles, XO; we need to be after them five minutes ago." She turned from the windows for a moment and took the few steps to the XO's command console, placed her coffee mug down on the flat surface, and then turned and walked back to the front view screens.
"Yes, Ma'am." He replied, eyeing the mug. The ships announcement system started up.
"Attention all crew, this is an emergency undock situation, get to your stations and prepare for immediate launch." No sooner had he switched off the comms did the bridge blast doors slide open again, permitting a torrent of personnel onto the bridge.
Comm stations were manned, as were Operations, Weapons, Tactical, Defense and the Helm.
There was a barely noticeable hiss as the ship pressurized itself and turned towards the massive hanger doors. The doors themselves were sliding open to permit the ship through them.
"Helm, all ahead two-thirds." She commanded, still not turning away from the forward screens.
"Ma'am? The blast doors are not open enough yet." The helm informed her.
She said nothing at first, quietly looking outwards. "Helm, all ahead two-thirds." She repeated herself, very much in the same tone as her first command.
The helm did not protest, "All ahead two-thirds, aye Ma'am." He replied as he throttled up.
The warship lurched forward away from the magnetic grapples holding it in place, the internal superstructure of the hanger groaning as it tried to hold the mighty vessel.
The magnetic clamps gave way after a few moments of pause; permitting the ship to move from its docked position.
She moved her left hand slowly towards the windows in front of her and gracefully traced her fingers across its surface; forming twisted, incoherent shapes on the glass. She abruptly stopped, her facial expression changing from a serene, smiling face to a stern, angered expression, almost as if she had revisited a hated memory, or smelled something foul.
She snapped her fingers together quickly and immediately a number of holographic interfaces appeared in front of her, laid out across the glass.
Her orders were swift in passing as the ship emerged from between the bay doors, "Weapons, we will most likely be facing cruisers and above of various Caldari State design, I want Phased Plasma ammunition loaded and weapons cycled and warmed. Tactical, I want our tracking computer configured and booted up immediately as well as targeting configured onto any Caldari State ships that register on local scan as soon as we are free of the station interference. Defense, I want the invuln's cycled up and pumping into our shields, now."
Her hands moved deftly over the interfaces before her, moving between detailed read-outs of ship statistics and fine-tuning controls for the engines and weapons systems. She did not appear to notice the harmony of "Aye, Ma'am." That followed her commands.
She stopped abruptly as the stations hanger gave-way to the starry expanse beyond the hanger's confines. She moved her hand from the upper corner of the open holoscreens and brushed them all down to her side to better her view; her expression once-again serene, thoughtful.
She blinked and her expression changed back to a forceful, determined look. "Ops, I want you to work with Comms on getting us a jump package prepped to be sent to whichever gate the Caldari are aligned to."
The "Aye, Ma'am." Which was replied fell on deaf ears as she started visually scanning the area in front of the ship to locate her target.
Tactical spoke up just as the tell-tale pinging sound of a pending weapons lock broke through their consoles, "Ma'am, we are acquiring lock on four Caldari State vessels, they are in formation. " A brief pause, "We count three Caracal class cruisers escorting one Drake class battlecruiser."
"Get me a camera drone on that Drake!" she commanded, Ops quickly responded and a new holographic display appeared in front of her, displaying a much closer view of the drake. She took her hands to opposite corners of the screen and stretched it out, enlarging the screen and her view. She then grabbed at the holograph's center and moved her hand, manipulating the position of the camera drone, changing her perspective of the ship.
"The Caracal's are turning!" One of the Tactical operators announced, "They are locking!"
"Full lock acquired on all targets, Ma'am." Another Tactical operator reported.
"Wait for them to fire first, we do not need to commit suicide." She replied as she shrank her view of the Drake back to its beginning size with a scowl. Apparently unable to find what she was looking for; she moved the screen off to the side and focused her view on the tactical readout in front of her.
"Defense, when they start firing I want shield integrity reports at one-zero and two-five percent intervals."
"One-zero and two-five percent, aye, Ma'am." A Defense console operator replied.
"They have full lock," Tactical announced, "Missiles inbound!"
"Weapons, closest cruiser reads at," She scanned her tactical readout quickly, "one-four kilometers out, relative bearing Zero-Three-Four Horizontal by Zero-One-Eight Vertical." She waited half of a heartbeat and her serene smile returned.
"One-four kilometers at Zero-Three-Four by Zero-One-Eight, aye, Ma'am." The primary Weapons operator replied as the first of the launched missiles impacted onto the shields of the Vargur.
"Fire." She said in her sweet voice.
The only reply was the slight rumble throughout the ship's hull as the massive eight-hundred millimeter advanced autocannons released their payload. The effect was nearly instantaneous; the targeted cruiser began listing to the right and tumbled slightly on its axis before its core gave out and detonated, rending the vessel in two.
"First cruiser destroyed; Full weapon impact." The Weapons operator announced as the bright flash briefly illuminated the bridge through the glass panels.
Her smile disappeared, "Guns on next nearest cruiser, fire at will!" she commanded.
"Fire at will, aye, Ma'am!" Weapons replied. And a second shudder was felt through the ship.
"Second cruiser shields are down, scans show heavy armor damage, structural integrity likely compromised." Tactical reported.
"Ops, the Drake looks like its aligning to the Oichiya star gate, get that packet finished and get it to Comms. I plan on following that ship."
"Oichiya star gate, aye, Ma'am." Ops replied.
"Helm, align us to the Oichiya gate."
"Align to Oichiya gate, aye, Ma'am." The Helmsman parroted.
A bright flash signaled the death of the second cruiser. Her eyes focused on the final cruiser as the weapons cycled again, sending another salvo of large EMP rounds into its shields. The crippled cruiser started to slowly list to its right and turn away, vainly attempting to put some distance between itself and the obviously much more powerful battleship.
"Ma'am, the Drake is going into warp!" Tactical reported.
"Helm, warp us to the Oichiya gate now!" Her stern face had returned.
"Weapons lock lost on all targets." Tactical reported as the ship entered warp.
"Tactical, we are going to jump through the gate as soon as we can, once on the other side, keep a sharp eye on the local scanner for that Drake; I want a lock on that thing as soon as we spot it." Tactical's "Aye, Ma'am," was lost as her voice continued on, though it switched from her angered voice to the sweet tune she carried before, "Weapons, as soon as we get a lock on that Drake I want you ready to unleash hell on it. Its shields are going to be thick but I want that ship disabled before it can warp off again."
"Aye, Ma'am." Weapons replied.
"Dropping out of warp in Eight seconds, Ma'am." The Helm announced.
"Roger that helm, as soon as we land after our jump I want you to turn the ship to relative One-Eight-Zero to shake off the gate cloak so it doesn't mess with our sensors."
"Aye, Ma'am." He quickly replied before announcing, "Ship exiting warp, Oichiya jump gate coming into view."
"Comms, get me up with Gate Control."
"Gate Control coming onto comms, Ma'am." They replied.
"This is Oichiya Gate Control, go ahead." The female voice rang over the bridge's open comm system.
"Oichiya Gate Control, this is Republic Fleet Ship SHATTERER requesting expedited passage through to the Oichiya system, this is a priority red request."
"Understand request RFS SHATTERER, wait one please." Ten agonizing seconds passed before Gate Control came back online, "RFS SHATTERER, you are cleared to proceed through the gate immediately, pairing NAV systems, standby."
"NAV systems are receiving pair request, accepting request," Ops announced, "Pairing complete, ready to jump."
"Jump now." She said softly.
There was no flash, no strange bending of light and space or time. Everything simply changed; one moment the gate was in front of the ship, giving a commanding view of itself through the forward observation glass. The next moment they saw new star constellations and she knew that the jump was complete.
"Helm." She chirped, reminding him of her previous order.
The helm began his one-hundred-eighty degree turn, nullifying the standardized gate cloak.
"Tactical, report."
"No sign of any Drake class battlecruisers on scan, continuing scan." Tactical replied.
"There is no way they could have jumped through and warped off again by now, keep looking." She clenched her fists in frustration, they were only one or two seconds behind them in warp, and she knew Drakes to be no faster than her heavily upgraded advanced battleship when it came to warp speed. In fact she was willing to bet that even in sub warp speed the Shatterer could probably give the Battlecruiser a good run for its money.
"There!" Someone at the Tactical consoles yelped. Followed quickly again by that tell-tale sound of a pending lock.
"Ma'am, Drake class battlecruiser just broke cloak," The Tactical officer looked back to the screen, "Range three-two kilometers, bearing Two-Seven-Seven by Three-One-Zero! We have acquired lock!"
"Fire!" She nearly yelled.
The ship shuddered as the massive guns fired a salvo at the battlecruiser. "Target shields at approximately twenty percent, no visible armor damage."
"Fire again! Tactical get our tracking computer up and running again. Helm steer us straight at her, full afterburner!"
The two confirmation reports were mixed with each other and lost as the side-mounted turrets fired again at the Drake. "Ma'am, target shields are down, scans show seventy percent armor damage, no structural damage visible."
"Fire again…" She said slowly, almost seductively.
The ship shuddered again and the impacts were clearly visible on the Drake; the lower-right 'wing' portion of the ship was nearly torn completely apart by the heavy slugs and plasma, it was listing heavily to the right now and its engines had gone offline. "Target armor on the right side of the ship appears completely destroyed, structural integrity at approximately fifteen percent, air is venting through right side of the ship."
"Excellent! XO," Her face a twisted smile, "get a boarding team prepared and get them to the launch bay, I will meet them there." She ordered as she turned from the view screens, grabbed her coffee mug from the XO's console and proceeded towards the aft of the bridge.
"Yes, Ma'am!" The XO responded as he turned to his command console and got on the comm line with on-board security and started chirping out orders.
"XO, you have the Con and the Helm." She said as she exited the bridge.
"I have the Con and the Helm, aye, Ma'am" he replied as the bridge blast doors slid shut behind her.
As she stepped into the marine loading bay she heard someone yell "Attention on deck!" and immediately everyone in the bay stood stiff and rapt at attention.
She was in full vacuum combat gear, double redundant life support, weapon support, magnetic clips, and embedded armor plating with interwoven Kevlar body armor. Still though, she handled herself with grace and elegance as always. She purposefully stepped through the threshold and addressed her Brutor; whose stern faces greeted their captain.
"We will be boarding an enemy vessel; it is a heavily damaged Drake class battlecruiser. We are going to be going in hot into a hostile environment. We are going to be taking things slowly and doing it right the first time. I want zero losses here, especially against these Caldari weaklings! We are Brutor! We will get inside, we will retrieve what was stolen from us, and we will crush the skulls of those who stand in our way!" She paused and looked from one side of the bay to the other, skimming over faces as her determined eyes passed, "Is that clear?"
The resounding "Yes Ma'am!" that followed caused the ship to shudder nearly as much as the cannons.
Aboard the cramped boarding shuttle the Brutor waited impatiently for the docking clamps to engage to the Drake. It would take a few more agonizing minutes for the laser grapples to cut through the airlocks and admit them entry, no doubt the Caldari had stationed their own troops on the other side of the blast doors in an attempt to ward off the impending assault.
The captain stood one row back from the front. Halfway through the very short flight from the Shatterer two of the men with her had moved their way in front of her and refused to let her back in the lead. They would not let her take an opening shot as soon as the doors opened.
The tension was physical, the men were reflexively stretching their hands out and shaking and flexing various limbs to relieve the tension.
The captain was paying little-to-no attention to her surroundings as the lasers began grinding away at the airlock outside the cramped shuttle cabin. Her expression at first was emotionless and then began shifting with each thought with no real coherence or flow between them. She would move from an angry stern expression to happy, or quizzical; there was no way to tell what would come next, her mind was one step away from broken. What had been stolen meant so much to her, having it taken away so abruptly had taken its obvious toll on her psyche and her anger, frustration and determination were the only things that kept one foot in front of the other.
That saddening combination of events and consequences had occasionally, over the past hour, sparked various random outbursts from her; ranging from the subtle drawing of invisible, unknown shapes on the glass of her battleship with her fingers to the rather obvious murder of two Caldari guardsmen in her captain's quarters back on the station.
Her crew had stuck with her a long time, their faith in her abilities complete; their resolve like stone. They would travel straight into the depths of Hell with her if she asked them to, regardless of their chances at a safe return.
So when she, standing in full battle gear surrounded by her Brutor shock troops, started to sing; there were no strange looks. No questioning attitudes, whispers or condemnations.
She sang out loud, to herself and to others and to no one at once. Her notes were ever changing from soprano through to contralto. It was beautiful and haunting together. She formed no actual words that could be recognized by anyone save herself. And she seemed not to care, or notice that she was even singing, her song was ever changing in and of itself. At times it would cause the blood of those listening to race and seconds later it would freeze it in their veins.
All the while her facial expressions were still changing; happy, sad, angry, confused, surprised and more.
A hiss from outside of the cabin signaled the completed cutaway of the Drake's airlock. The following thuds heralded the jettisoning of the cut away pieces of blast door to space.
The singing stopped as the cabin doors slid open.
The Brutor unleashed hell.
The gunshots were muffled somewhat by the partial vacuum and the pressure suits, the two forward Brutor were struck solidly, multiple times. The magnetic clamp systems shutting off automatically with the flat line of the soldier allowed the bodies to be used as movable cover for the rest of their unit in the zero gravity environment. And used well they were, the following soldiers placed excellent shots into the airlock corridor of the Drake and they quickly followed through, gaining control of the entry way within moments.
"They will be keeping him either in the aft brig of the ship, or on the bridge with the Pod pilot." She noted over comms, "We will split into two equal teams, Charlie and Delta squad proceed towards the aft brig area and gain control, contact me if you find anything." She paused for the acknowledgment before continuing, "Alpha and Bravo squads are with me, we will head for the bridge and the Pod control center."
A staccato of "Yes, Ma'am!" proceeded through the suit comms and she nodded her approval before turning the corner towards the forward part of the ship.
Resistance was surprisingly light, the crew was mostly robotic. The few personnel they did encounter were not ready for combat and were taken down quickly. She saw this as bad news as there would be focused areas of resistance, either towards the rear of the ship or the bridge. And regardless she knew that the bridge would have at least a minimal security presence due to the Pod.
They approached the bridge blast doors and they opened without argument, gunfire immediately passed through the gap. The troops with her had held the sides of the passageway where there was at least minimal cover due to the blast doors slowly opening. Two flash-bang grenades were passed inside and shortly after the two distinctive 'pops' were heard, the Brutor rushed in. The bridge crew and small standing guard that did occupy the area were eliminated quickly.
She strode over towards the control console for the Pod control center and ordered the Pod be raised into the bridge. She stepped back as the raised platform she had been on slid open and the Pod was slowly elevated up from beneath the deck. When the Pod reached its full height, the deck plates slid closed around its base to lock it in.
She made a motion to the squads and they moved in quickly on the Pod and disabled its point-blank electrical defenses, then began forcefully prying open the seals.
Slowly but surely, the Pod's defenses were bypassed and the troops stepped back as their captain slowly moved forward to see the pilot; he was fully inserted, neural and biological hookups were present and it didn't seem like he was fairing too well since the biometric fluid had drained out as soon as the Pod had been breached.
She looked down at him, "Where?" She asked in her sweet voice once again.
There was no reply. She did not ask again as she held her hand out and the Alpha and Bravo squad leaders handed their fragmentation grenades to her, two each.
She looked sadly at the Pod pilot, his eyes glossed over as he leered up at her. This was the reason she kept a healthy crew, she thought to herself, they were so very important.
She stepped back again to the Pod control center panel and pressed the associated keys to have the Pod lowered back down again. The deck plates slid open and as the Pod began to lower, the confines of the deck slowly forced the Pod to close. Before it rescinded and closed completely, she stepped near it again and casually dropped all four grenades and her coffee mug down inside the Pod.
The Pod was still sliding into position as a muffled groaning and struggling began to be heard from the Pod pilot until the Pod was forced shut completely and the deck plates slid into place above it.
Four rapid, heavy thuds followed thereafter. She smiled to herself. The only way to truly kill a Pod pilot… Get to them without breaching the Pod; she knew it all too well. Pods would never register an abrupt hull breach and would therefore never activate the brain flash-copy process.
She keyed her suit comm, "Charlie and Delta squads, report." She said calmly, her face twisted with causeless rage.
"Ma'am, Charlie-One here, we have reached the brig but it is heavily defended. The Caldari have been dealt with however the automated defenses are armored and causing problems." Small autocannon fire could be heard in the background.
"Understand all Charlie-One, we have taken the bridge," She turned to the squads with her and made a twirling motion with her finger in the air, "We are working on disabling the autoguns, hold tight."
"Roger that, Ma'am." Charlie-One responded and clicked off the comm.
Her teams started to work on the various consoles around the bridge, "I have located the defense terminals, Ma'am." Announced one of her Alpha squad members.
"See if you can get into the systems and disable those defenses, the rest of Alpha squad stay here and secure the bridge against any straggling crew. Bravo, you are on me, we are heading back to the brig."
Another round of "Aye, Ma'am." followed.
The trip back to the aft area of the ship was short and uneventful, clearing around every corner ensured there were no surprises, however it seemed most of the crew had already been dealt with.
Upon arriving in the brig area it was quiet, it seemed the automated defenses had been diffused properly and Charlie and Delta squads had already moved into the brig proper.
Her breath held in her throat and her heart beat furiously as she stepped through the compression chamber which lead to the isolated brig area and then finally into the brig proper itself. Once she was inside however, sure enough, there it was. The thing that was stolen, the one and only thing in the universe which could cause her to lose her grip on reality completely, just by losing it.
Towering over her, dark hair, heavy build; typical Brutor.
The same Brutor she had always known, and always loved. Since the day she first set eyes on him. The day that he broke her out of that hell of an Ammarian slave-home and brought her to her homelands. The day she first set foot upon the grass her ancestors had lived on for generations. The first day her savior had brought her home.
And now it was her turn to return the favor.