Chapter 4: The Breaker of Chains.
It was pitch black beyond the airlock, the team switched to thermal imaging or night vision which gave everything a slightly eerie blue or green glow, the suits they wore had enhanced optics based off the tech located in a Yautja hunting mask, it gave them an unbridled advantage in the dark, especially if you added in the cloaking tech.
"Anyone else getting a really creepy vibe from this place?" Liam asked over the comms, other than the sounds of their boots on the deck plating as they all shuffled about awaiting orders from the clan leaders the ship was utterly silent apart from the creaking and groaning of the metal sub frame, but it wasn't just the general creep factor that Liam was referring to, Soul Knights are extra sensitive to the presence of death thanks to their strong connection to the Spirit realm, most of them describe akin to being able to smell death.
Jack nodded, getting the same strong vibe himself, the corridor stretched off ahead of them and already he could see the evidence of violence marking the walls, scorching and small holes pocked the surface metal where it looked like plasma based weapons had burned it, so that definitely lead credence to the forced bording and attacked theory, "Ok, people, weapons up and eyes on the swivel, this just became hostile territory, do not fire unless fired upon, we don't want to be shooting members of the crew that may have survived only to wind up being killed by the people who answered their distress call," Jack said, and there were nods.
"I'm detecting a breathable atmosphere, no chemicals, toxins, or viral contaminants detected," Analise said, checking her wrist comp, and Jack nodded.
"Ok, let's put Zed to good use, have him pan and see if he can pick up any scents that might lead us to the crew," Jack said, and Analise nodded, retracting Zed's helmet so that he could smell the air, he lifted his large head and began scenting the air and almost instantly growled, a deep, resonating noise that echoed down the metal corridors.
"He's got something," Analise said, her tone going hard and she released the big tiger who knew better than to run off, he moved in a slow, methodical gait, keeping his nose to the ground like an over sized blood hound, "Everyone, follow the tiger," Analise said, and everyone filed up on both sides of the corridor, hugging the walls single file on either side in case someone decided to start firing at them in the narrow space, the four Seekers were on point with the Hunters in the middle and the four Battle Angels at the rear.
In fact, it was times like these that Jack was glad that they'd gone with that white and pink armor for the Battle Angels as a Xeno appearing out of the pitch black right in front of you was the stuff of nightmares even if they were friendly and wanted nothing more than to help you, they'd probably end up having to fix your heart attack first before they got on to your real problem, at least looking like a giant candy striper they had at least a chance of avoiding that.
"Everyone switch on your motion trackers, if anything other than us is moving I want to know about it," Shena said, and both the Hunters and the Seekers stopped for a brief moment to switch on the motion trackers which were controlled in their wrist comps but displayed the output to their Hud's, a circular display like a miniature radar screen appeared in front of Jack's eyes in the lower left corner of his vision, every second it sent out pulses of infra sound like sonar which were calibrated to only repulse off organic matter, it created a constant low clicking noise in your helmet which to most people would be annoying as hell despite being very quiet, but to trained soldiers like the group here it was reassuring as it meant there was nothing other than them here, or at least in range of the scanner, it was when it started pinging like sonar that you had to worry.
Again, it was calibrated to ignore Hunters, Seekers, and Battle Angels due to a component in their armor which absorbed the waves, so with the reassuring clicking in their ears the team began to move again, heading deeper into the ship, Zed was leading them, sniffing both air and the ground as he followed the scent trail that he was focused on, fire tigers were incredible for this type of work, they were supremely good hunters who could track their prey over miles of open terrain and zero right in on it even in the most densely populated areas like jungles, picking a single scent trail out of thousands of different trails, suddenly Zed gave a low rumbly growl.
"He's got something," Analise said, going tense.
"Nothing on scanners, everyone tighten up, be ready," Jack said, checking his weapon, all the readouts were green, they moved slowly forward, checking the angles passing by other corridors branching out from the main ones, most likely leading to the cargo pods that lined the sides of the main part of the ship, that's when they saw it, dark liquid was staining the floor and walls.
Under their NVG's it appeared black and there was a lot of it, it was on the floor, the walls and even the fucking ceiling, "Is that what I think it is?" Jack said, looking at the huge pool of black on the floor, the marks on the walls looked like someone had used a brush and just flung it everywhere like a Jackson Pollock painting, what was on the walls and the ceiling appeared to be dry but what was on the floor most definitely wasn't by the way it seemed to shine and glimmer as the infra red light hit it.
"Well, if you think it's blood Patriarch then you'd be right, lots of it by my guess from multiple people, there's way too much here to be from one person, not even the biggest Yautja female has this much in her body, but using them as a base template I'd say three, maybe four, using a human I'd say double that," Analise said, kneeling down and scanning the pool's edge as Zed sniffed it.
"There's no way anybody survived losing this much, but that begs the question, where the hell are the bodies?" Liam said, looking around, the blood pool seemed to be located in a cross section junction.
"Look there, foot prints," Shena said suddenly, and they all turned to look down the right junction where she was pointing, there appeared to be a set of black foot prints and what looked to be drag marks leading away down the corridor towards one of the cargo pods.
This was not looking good, Shena glanced at Jack and even without being able to see her face properly he knew what she was thinking, "Alright, people, form up, let's follow the trail and see where it leads us," Jack said, stepping over the blood and moving into the corridor with the foot prints, the group moved to form up on him and Zed once again stepped past him to take point, the large feline led them down a narrow corridor, following the bloody footprints, this led them to a door that was like an airlock door, before they opened it Jack checked to see if there was an atmosphere reading on the other side.
It read clear and the team stacked up, Shena on the right, Jack on the left, she waved her hand and began to count down with her fingers, on zero, Jack punched the door release and it hissed open, as soon as there was gap enough Zed burst into the room beyond, moving fast, if there was one thing anyone on the other side wouldn't expect it would be an armored fire tiger moving at full tilt.
Nobody fired and there was nothing but silence to greet them as the team burst into the room and spread out in a fan shape, what greeted them was right out of a horror novel, bodies everywhere.
"Holy shit," Analise breathed, turning to look at the absolutely horrific scene that presented itself to them inside the cargo pod, in amongst the stacked and secured containers that looked like those that used to be used on cargo ships from Earth many years ago there bodies, hundreds of them, they were just sprawled out and they appeared to have been just dumped there by who ever had brought them here.
It was incredibly difficult to gauge what species they were as well due to the fact they appeared to have been skinned, quite possibly alive.
"By the great huntress," Shena exclaimed, looking at the gruesome scene before her, Jack knelt down and examined the nearest body to him, the species was humanoid, about five seven to five eight tall, though from what he could see some appeared to be taller and some shorter, so they seemed to have human range on height, he gauged that the one closest to him was female by the fact that she had wide hips, breasts, and what appeared to be a vaginal entrance, but her head was narrow and pointed into a snout, kinda like that of a lizard, a point further backed up by the long, thick tail that protruded out of her back above her buttocks, in fact, from what he could see around him they all appeared to be female.
"You think Yautja did this?" Jack asked Shena who had knelt down to examine one of the skinned bodies, Shena shook her head.
"No, my people use either wrist blades or a laser tool to skin and these bear none of the hall marks of that process, plus, if my people had done this the bodies would be hung up, and the work is sloppy, no Yautja would be this careless, there are large chunks taken out of the muscles in places, but I will admit that the process is similar, if I was not here to verify that this wasn't done by a Yautja this could easily fool someone into thinking it was," she said, her voice darkening with implication of this.
"A frame job?" Liam asked quizzically, looking rather green around the gills as he turned his head away from the grotesque scene of death behind him.
"Quite possibly, but without any evidence or reasoning behind it I can't be one hundred percent sure, it could be simply coincidence, but what ever the answer, someone went to a lot of trouble to not only kill the crew but to skin every single one of them, that in itself must have taken a great deal of time depending on how many attackers there were, we should continue investigating, who ever did this could either still be near by and be a threat to our people," Shena said, and Jack could see her husband nodding in agreement out of the corner of his eye.
Jack activated his comms, "Seeker one to Dreamer, come back, over," he said, and only a moment later Tik's voice came back to him.
"Go ahead, my love," she said.
"Possible hostiles still in AO, we've discovered a cargo pod full of bodies, they appear to have been skinned, possibly to make it look like Yautja handy work, Hunter Two confirms that it's not Yautja in origin but has possibly been made to look that way, we will continue to investigate on our end, but recommend going to red alert over there, over," Jack said.
Tik agreed with that assessment, "Be careful, my love, we'll up our guard here just in case and continue to monitor," she said.
"Roger that, my love, Seeker one out," Jack said, and he shut down their comms link, he turned to the group, "Battle Angels, see what you can find out here, Ryan, you and Liam stay here, help them out, see what you can find out, Analise, you and Zed are with me, Shena, leave a small group of your Hunters here to watch over our team while they work, everyone else with me," Jack said, turning back to the doorway as they saluted, he was going to get to the bottom of this if he had to tear this ship apart plate by plate.
Stepping back out into the hall, Zed once again took the lead with Analise following behind him, the remaining Hunters followed in formation, leaving the Battle Angels behind to autopsy the remains to see what they could learn and given that each one of them was not only a field medic but a fully qualified surgeon and coroner they would learn a lot very quickly, knowing them.
Rather than search the rest of the cargo pods, Jack decided to head into the main crew part of the ship to try and reach the bridge, he was hoping they could maybe crack into the crew logs or the captain's log and if they could decipher their language maybe they could figure out what was happening, he knew Liam would most likely be trying a commune now to see if there were any spirits lingering that he might be able to communicate with, where there were dead there were usually lingering spirits, mass graves and places like that always had a powerful link to the spirit realm, due to the strong emotional resonance created by the pain, ect.
Soul Knights with their talents could use that link to forge a bridge to allow what they called a commune to take place, it gathered any spirits lingering to them, it might give them some insight into what happened, if he could figure out a way to communicate with them.
The main corridor ran on for what felt like ever but eventually they came to a set of pressure doors that looked different to the rest, before opening them Jack stopped, he felt something, it was like a whisper in the darkness, Analise looked at him oddly, "Do you feel that too, Grand Patriarch?" she asked, and he nodded.
"There's someone alive in there somewhere," he said softly, then he looked at the Hunters waiting on his command, "Form up, we're going in," he said, and with that he cranked the handle to unlock the doors before hitting the release.
The area past the airlock was utterly different to the cargo area, gone was the cold, bunker like corridors, the area was wide and open, there seemed to be plants absolutely everywhere, on the walls, the ceiling, even the floor was covered in what looked and felt like grass.
"Oh, wow I-I can feel it, all this, it's real, this isn't a simulation, these plants are all real!" Analise exclaimed, looking around, something buzzed past her at high speed but rather than recoil she held out a hand and the little flying thing zipped back around and landed on her out stretched finger, it was a little four winged humming bird of some kind, or at least that's what it looked like, the little creature hopped along Analise's finger, hopping his way up her arm until it was perched on her shoulder, looking at it's reflection in her helmet visor, it was bright gold and yellow but as she watched it puff up its little chest it seemed to vibrate and suddenly it was blue.
She laughed in surprise and the little creature took to the wing again in surprise before buzzing around her head and landing on her other shoulder, hopping along to get close to her visor which it tapped with its tiny little needle like beak, making a slight click as it made contact.
"Oh, wow, this is incredible," Analise said softly as she watched the little bird like creature hop about, tapping on the glass of her visor, Jack spotted another one as it zipped around Zed's head and he couldn't help but smile as the little bird zipped around the huge tiger's head before hovering just outside of swiping range, the pair watching each other closely, the birds were so small they weren't being picked up by the motion sensors, but now that they were inside this little bio dome the life sensors were going crazy, they locked onto the little birds and and logged them, scanning them and logging their DNA profile once the birds were tagged lots of little shimmers popped up and the motion sensor recalibrated, allowing them to pick them up, they were all around them, hidden in the plants and the vines, it appeared that these two were the brave ones, or the curious ones, or both.
The team looked around and swiftly realized that there were seats in the dome, like booths you'd get in a diner with a central table and bench like seats surrounding them in a kind of semi circle, "Mess hall, maybe?" Shena said, looking around and inspecting what looked like a water feature crossed with a fountain.
"Or a crew recreation area, looks like these guys were big into nature," Jack said, looking at what appeared to be a tree growing right in the centre of the room, it seemed to be getting its water from the fountain like structure, but there was something very odd about the tree, well, other than the fact that it was growing aboard a star ship, it felt like the tree had an ethereal presence, one that shone through Jack's second sight like silver and blue wisps, as he reached out the wisps danced like ethereal tentacles, slowly they reached out and then like a snake striking they wrapped around his arm like lightning, causing his whole body to go ridged like a board and that's when images began to flash inside his mind.
He saw a huge swamp filled with villages and mighty cities, some above and some below the surface, of millions of people, all reptile looking in nature, some looked like the ones in the cargo bay, but then there were others that looked different as well, in fact, there seemed to be four separate groups, the images were incoherent and flashing things at random at him, but behind them Jack could feel the whispers of a consciousness, a very, very powerful mind was at work here, one that felt very similar to Paya in a way, that kind of overwhelming and dominating power that he felt when he was around the Yautja goddess of the hunt, was this their deity?
Jack pulled back long enough to beckon Analise over, as she came it was obvious that she was feeling it to, he was hoping a second mind and one more in tune with nature might help him filter what he was seeing here, no sooner had her hand touched the bark of the tree as his was he saw her go board ridged as the tentacles entwined her arm and linked their minds together, "What is this?" she gasped, her voice whispering through his mind.
But as they both struggled to see clearly the visions calmed like a storm passing over and ocean, that's when they both saw it, a huge city surrounding a great tree in the middle of a swamp, nature was everywhere, back again were the reptiles, humanoids covered in scales with pointed heads that looked sort of like the head of a raptor, well, except for the large horns that seemed to grow from their snouts, plus, they were on a humanoid body, well, except for the huge tails, scales in a rainbow of different colors, but somehow there seemed to be a sense of pain and sadness coming from the mind controlling the images, a series of rapid fire images of fighting and of what appeared to be battles and wars being fought for reasons unknown flashed through their minds, of people being beaten like dogs with fists and sticks, then, oddly, of people locked away and kept like what appeared to be slaves, the pain and sadness intensified.
Suddenly the image changed to another place, this vastly different to the one they'd just been shown, instead of flat water filled swamps this was a place filled with mountains that punched through huge rings of flowing clouds.
There were towns and cities just like on the swamp planet, but more spread out to adapt to the mountain terrain, but the reptiles here had obviously adapted, although they looked almost identical to the first group there were differences, like huge wings and narrower tails, they also seemed to have horns like the swamp dwellers, but once again there was more pain and sadness as more images of violence and oppression flashed through their minds, this time including both the reptiles from the swamp and from the mountains, again showing violence and oppression.
Once again the image changed, this time to a place of deserts and lush oasis, this time the people were very different, they instantly reminded Jack of snakes, but a snake like centaur if that made sense, a reptile human like body on top of a huge tail, they seemed to come in a massive variety as well, some that seemed to live around the large oasis like areas, some that seemed to live in the depths of the desert, some seemed to live underground, they looked very similar in part of their body that was humanoid, they had two arms, a torso, and a head, each was colored according to their scale pattern, some reminded Jack of Earth's python species and they seemed to live around their oasis, making their homes in the huge trees, the ones that lived in the desert were smaller and lighter in color, but when the images of these snake centaurs flashed through their minds there was a sense of joy and happiness from the powerful mind, it focused on a singular massive oasis that was more like a giant lake rather than oasis with a huge city built not only all around the surface but on it and in the water as well, revealing some aquatic variants to the snake people, it was incredible, not only was there part of the city that simply floated on the surface but some were suspended above the water on huge white metal beams, but there were also underwater bubbles on the bottom of the lake accessible by elevators, or as some appeared to do, by swimming, this city seemed to contain many different variants of them and it seemed that they had a peaceful life, no images of war showed up, they seemed to be a very technologically advanced people, the relations to the other reptilian races were obvious in the upper bodies, similar scales, similar heads, very similar horns.
The images changed yet again this time to an underground city, it appeared to be carved into the very rock itself, the vision flicked to the surface of a planet that looked like one big jungle, positively prehistoric with utterly huge reptiles roaming it that looked very much like the dinosaurs of Earth but bigger again, right in the centre of this carpet of green, standing tall, was a truly ginormous tree, the vision followed it down the trunk untill it dove into the ground, showing the huge cave spreading out in every direction and became one utterly massive city, lava flows surrounded it and made the whole thing which appeared to be carved from volcanic glass and rock glow with golden fiery light, here lived a much smaller species of the reptilian people, these guys stood only four and a half feet tall and they looked a little like mini raptors, they even had digitade legs and if it wasn't for the fact that they were wearing clothes jack would have sworn that they'd killed the inhabitants and just taken the city over.
But there they were working with tools and forging things using the lava all around them to make things of great beauty and to carve things, they were like reptilian dwarves.
The roots of the tree ran right down into the city and the lave flowed around it but didn't burn it oddly, again they got sense of joy and happiness from the mind, but now also a sense of worry and concern.
A ghostly voice whispered through their minds like a strand of silk, "Scalathor, Draconis, Serpentinus, Raptorlian, my beautiful children, all born of the same home, grown from the same seed, made their way into the vastness of the infinity, my children are in danger from both themselves and from an evil that pollutes them, it twists them and darken their hearts, they forget their father, their home, the blood that makes them and the roots that bind them, hate and bigotry has poisoned many hearts among two of them, the Scalathor and the Draconis fight and repress their own and it saddens my heart greatly to see my beautiful children suffer so, slavery, oppression, death, these dark stains spread like blood from a fresh wound across their worlds, and a poisonous evil seeps into the wound, poisoning their hearts, breeding mistrust of their sisters and brothers, they close their hearts from me and I cannot reach them, please, beloved ones of the great huntress, I beg of you, save my children from themselves and from this evil that corrodes them, makes them blind to the dangers, please, chosen ones, help them before it is too late," the voice said in a soft whisper before, just as rapidly as it came, the tentacles released them both and vanished back into the tree.
Jack and Analise stood there in silence for a moment and it wasn't until Shena touched Jack's arm that he snapped out of his stupor, "What was that?" she asked, looking at them both with concern plastered over her pretty Yautja face.
"Another deity just reached out to us and asked us to help its people, it mentioned a darkness and evil poisoning them, it could be the creeping darkness, it showed us four different worlds and four very different people that all seemed to have started in one place but somehow spread out to different worlds and evolved differently from one another," Jack said, and Analise nodded.
"it mentioned four names, Scalathor, Draconis, Serpentinus and Raptorlian, all reptilian species in nature, I think this ship by what we just saw belonged to the Scalathor," Analise said, and Jack nodded, thinking about the bodies in the cargo bay.
"Yeah, I believe you're right," Jack said, and suddenly something caught his eye, one of the little birds was acting very strangely, it had landed on the tree and now it shot over to Jack and hovered in front of his face and then flew towards what appeared to be a door on the far side of the room, then it flew back to him and then back to the door, it repeated the move three times before hovering near the door, "I think that bird wants us to follow it," he said, pointing at the little creature, everyone turned to look at the bird which once again flew to Jack and then to the door again.
"Let's see where it wants us to go," Analise said, moving towards the little bird, Jack followed her and so did the others, as they reached the door Jack touched a panel to the left of it that appeared to be glowing, the door opened with a whoosh and beyond it was a narrow corridor, it seemed that the plants hadn't moved beyond the door from the mess area, no sooner had they stepped foot into the corridor than they all got a blip on their motion trackers and everyone instantly went on alert and weapons snapped up.
"Contact, twenty meters, that direction," One of the hunters, a Yautja male by the name of Rel, said, pointing, then as he moved a little closer he stopped and swiveled on the spot, "Correction, two contacts, one in that direction, twenty meters, and one in that direction at twenty two meters," he said, pointing down two of the three prongs of the T shaped corridor, there appeared to be one to the right and one directly in front of them, by the the fact that there were doors equally spaced apart Jack had a feeling that this was the crew quarters.
Jack glanced at Shena, "Slow and quiet, one at a time, we'll take the middle one first," he said, and she nodded, motioning to her Hunters, Analise and Zed moved alongside Jack but stepped back because of the narrowness of the corridor as they moved, both of them felt a presence on the other side of the door, Shena motioned to one of the Hunters to step forward when Jack touched the panel to the side of the door and it didn't open, the Hunter placed a small, disc like object next to the panel and it began to attempt to disrupt the electrical locks, two LED's mounted on it flickered to life, one red and the other green, the red one pulsed while the green one darkened until with a click it switched colors.
Jack gripped the door frame and nodded at both Shena and Analise, then with a roar of strength as his Dream Warrior power was summoned to him he tore the door back on its motors and slammed it into its frame as both girls and one tiger rushed past him and into the room beyond.
What they saw stopped them all dead, the room was small barely more than a bedroom and a bathroom, there was a lone figure cowering in the corner of the room, Jack stopped as he joined the others and Zed was growling at the figure but he wasn't attacking because even the tiger could see the frightened figure was no threat to any of the heavily armed hunters or his mistress, it appeared to be one of the winged variants of the reptile people, what had the tree god called them, Draconis?
It appeared to be a male, he was as naked as the day he was born or hatched, which ever their people did, he had rolled himself into a ball and was gibbering in his language which none of them understood, but fear was a universal language, even without their Dream Warrior abilities to aid them fear was just rolling off him in waves.
He appeared to be wearing shackles around his wrists, binding them together, there were more around his wings, binding them tightly and what must have been uncomfortably to his back, there was a collar around his neck and this was secured to a chain which was secured to the wall, he was laid on a cushion barely big enough for him to lay on and even without a chance to check him properly Jack could see marks on his scales that looked like he'd taken a beating, if it wasn't for the collar and his location they could have been forgiven for thinking he was a prisoner but Jack instantly realized he wasn't looking at a prisoner, he was looking at a slave.
The Draconis male had blood red scales with a kind of rust red brown mixture on his belly which was barely visible as he was rolled into a ball, tucking his head in and by the way they were straining he was trying to wrap his wings around himself to protect himself, that's when Jack realized that the vocalisation he was hearing were begging, he was begging for his life.
He stepped forward and held out his hands to his sides and lowered them to indicate for the group to lower their weapons, casters retracted and rifles lowered, he stepped forward and slowly and gently knelt down to the frightened male and Jack could see him shaking so bad his chains rattled, "Analise, do you think your Soul Calming might work on him?" he asked, keeping his tone soft.
"Don't see why not, it's basically the reverse of the Soul Knight battle frenzy and that works on sentient beings," she said.
"Try it," he said, and she nodded, slowly she retracted her helmet and her gloves then very very slowly she knelt down next to the terrified Draconis who tried to tighten himself into an even tighter ball.
"Hey there, sweetheart, it's ok, it's alright, we're not going to hurt you, it's ok, you don't have to be scared," Analise said in her sweet soft voice as she slowly slowly reached out a hand and placed it on the male's scaly head, he gibbered something very quickly and now even his voice was shaking, it sounded like he might be crying.
"It's ok now, shhhh, its ok, we're here to help you, we're not going to hurt you, I promise," she said soothingly, and Jack could feel the energy flowing off her as she tried to reach into his soul to calm it, Tamers did this with the most powerful of beasts, they flooded their soul's with peaceful energy and thoughts to calm them down, it forged a bond of trust between them, other than Ryan, Analise was the best at doing this, that's why she was Ryan's second in command.
Slowly the trembling stopped and very, very slowly the male lifted his head as Analise kept stroking him, running her hand over his scales and his horns of which there were three, two on top of his head curving back over his head and one on the tip of his snout that curved back between the other two, "Hi there, pretty one, see? It's ok, were not going to hurt you, we might look scary but we're the good guys, we're here to help, here, let's get these nasty things off you, pretty one," Analise said very softly as the male lifted his head to look at her with the brightest golden eyes that any of them had every seen, he said something in his language as he watched Analise.
"Look, friend, see? Friend," Analise said, gesturing to Zed and the big tiger came forward and rubbed his cheek against her, then very gently she took the male's manacled hands and lifted them so he could stroke the big tiger, he gibbered softly and obviously nervously, but the big tiger understanding what Analise wanted pushed his head into the male's hands and purred softly in that deep rumbly way he did, this both surprised and seemingly delighted him, he said something and rubbed this big tiger's soft fur with his shackled hands, "There you go, pretty one, see? No one will hurt you, we're here to help you," Analise said, and using her Dream Warrior strength she reached between his hands and snapped the chain like it was made of paper.
The male looked at his hands and moved his arms apart and closed them again, looking at them in both surprise and disbelief that she'd just snapped a metal chain with her bare hands, slowly she took a plasma cutter from her utility pouch and gestured to his hand, he looked at it them held his hand out to her, with a quick burst she cut the lock of the first manacle off, causing it to drop, then the second one followed it and the male's hands were free.
He looked at his unmanacled wrists like he was a starving man looking at a loaf of bread that had just teleported into his hands out of thin air, he was utterly amazed by it, Jack could see that the scales under manacles were lighter like he'd been wearing them for a long time, kinda like the patch of light pale skin you get from wearing a watch, that indicates that he'd been wearing them for quite a while, "I detest slave takers, before I left my clan were debating whether or not to resume the practice, made me feel sick and also very sad," Shena said in a deep growl.
The male was thin, not dangerously so but it was obvious that he was malnourished, not that any of them really knew the comfortable weight or size for their species but something told Jack that it was all wrong, Analise leaned in and very slowly used her torch to cut the locks holding the chains holding his wings, she sat back and slowly the male unfurled his wings and by the way he was wincing it was obviously painful for him, "Let's get him back to our ship, he needs medical attention," Analise said, looking up at Jack and he nodded.
"Seeker one to any available Battle Angel, we need a medic up here, we've found a survivor here, he needs medical attention," Jack said into his comms.
"Roger, on my way," a mechanical sounding Xeno voice came through the synthesizer, they couldn't speak like most sentient races so for them to use the comms Yoshi's hive had come up with a Xeno translator, which translates both their screeches and hisses as well as their thoughts into vocal patterns, they could switch it on and off at will, fortunately, otherwise it would like being inside a giant bird cage.
Only moments later the young Xeno appeared in the doorway in her bright pink and white armor, the male Draconis instantly recoiled back into his ball upon seeing her, though this time his wings wrapped around him too, "Oh, wow, he looks like a dragon," the young Xeno said, her synthesizer adding a feminie note to her voice,.
"Hey, it's ok, sweetheart, it's ok, she won't hurt you, she's here to help you, she might look big and scary but just like Zed here she's a big friendly sweetheart who just wants to help you and make you better," Analise said, very gently stroking the frightened male's head, slowly she coaxed him to lift his head out of the wing ball on his long slender and graceful neck, he looked at her then at the friendly Xeno who approached slowly and crouched down in front of him, hissing very softly and reaching out a hand so he could see that she wasn't going to hurt him, the male turned his big gold eyes to look at Analise for reassurance, "It's ok," she said, gesturing to her.
Slowly, the Battle Angel placed her hand on the male's head and just like Analise stroked his soft scales and the male closed his eyes and leaned his head into her touch, Jack felt a wave of both happiness and sorrow, it made him wonder how long it had been since this poor male had felt a touch that wasn't pain inducing, slowly the Battle Angel stepped in close and in one slow, controlled movement slid her other long arm under him and scooped him up into a bridal carry, he looked surprised and looked at Analise for reassurance, she simply smiled at him and patted his hand, he didn't fight her, just let her carrying out into the corridor.
"Go with them, make sure he's kept under guard, but don't treat him roughly, or frighten him, he's been a prisoner long enough I believe," Shena said to two of her Hunters and they saluted before forming up behind the Battle Angel and escorted them back to the shuttle.
"Alright, let's see who else is alive here, shall we?" Jack said, and the remaining team formed up on him, they began to move towards the other blip on the scanner, this one was in the right hand corridor and no sooner had they entered it than they could see that this corridor was different to the other two, the doors were wider apart and they had some sort of symbol on them, half way down the corridor was a dividing door which split the corridor in two, they cracked the door lock and entered the second half, there were only four doors beyond this dividing door two on either side, Shena turned in a circle and calibrated her scanner, she pointed at the furthest door on the right.
"That one," she said, and they stacked up, suddenly Jack froze and he held up a hand.
"I'm sensing a lot of anger in there," he said, and Analise nodded, Shena silently gestured to her Hunters and they stacked up on the door, the door cracker popped the lock and with a roar, Jack tore the door open and the Hunters rushed in along with Analise and Zed, they were met with a counter roar, this one of pure anger, the Hunters instantly deployed their wrist mounted shields and dropped into a defensive formation, Jack moved in and stopped dead at what he saw, this was a prison cell, there chained to the far was a single prisoner, albeit a rather large one and she was not a happy bunny at all.
It was one of the beings the tree entity had called a Serpentinus, she was a big girl and it was blatantly obvious that she was a girl, she was chained to the wall much like the Draconis male had been, both her wrists were secured by heavy manacles, her throat as well, her waist, and the tip of her very long tail which had been mostly coiled under her, forcing her to sit atop it like a coiled spring, she reminded Jack of beings from Earth mythology called Lamia, half human, half snake.
She looked like a giant Earth python by the deep green and brown scales with diamond patterns running the length of her body, she had a rounded head with a snout like mouth that reminded him of a muzzle of sorts, she had bright pink eyes with narrow, slit like pupils and they did not look happy at all.
She also appeared to be wearing a muzzle that was wrapped around her head, she rattled her chains against the wall and she eyed the group before her, not with nerves but with caution and anger, but there was also curiosity in those eyes, the first difference that Jack noticed between her and Earth snakes other than the obvious was that she appeared to have eyelids.
"A Serpentinus," Analise said, looking at the angry looking female as she rattled her chains again.
"I don't think this one is a slave," Jack said, and Analise looked at him curiously.
"What makes you say that?" she asked.
"The eyes, those are not the eyes of a slave, those are the eyes of a prisoner," Jack said.
Analise nodded, "I think you should take this one Grand Patriarch, she seems to be focusing her anger on me, maybe because I'm female but I can't be sure but she seems less angry at you," Analise said, glancing at Jack.
"Oh, goody, so you get the scared pretty dragon boy and I get the angry snake girl," Jack said sarcastically.
"P-P-Pretty dragon boy? Why would you call him that?" Analise said, her voice cracking slightly, telling Jack he'd hit the right nerve so he turned and grinned at her.
"I'm not the one who called him pretty one," he said with a grin, patting her arm, Analise was always an easy read when it came to matters of the heart and the blush he could actually feel through her suit said it all.
Jack approached the big snake girl who reared up and he could hear hissing under her muzzle, her chains rattled as she tried to move and Jack lowered his weapon, letting it fall away onto it's sling, "Easy, big girl, I'm not going to hurt you unless I have to, and I really don't want to have to," he said, holding his hands palms up either side of his head to show a less threatening form, she watched his hands curiously and kept hissing at him, Jack stepped closer and closer and she reared right up until her chains went taught, "See? Not gonna hurt you," he said softly, opening his helmet so she could see his face, now her eyes went really curious and her head lowered to get a better look at him.
Very slowly Jack reached up and went to place a hand to her head but she saw it coming and reared back, angrily hissing at him, "Whoa there, big girl, not going to hurt you, here, let me show you," he said, and with a quick movement he placed his hands to her head and before she had chance to recoil he invaded her mind, as he did her pupils dilated, which was another odd thing for a snake.
Jack's mind entwined itself into hers like the tentacles from an octopus, gripping and holding on as she began to try and fight him, in fact, Jack was impressed by just how much of a struggle she was putting up, in fact, even Xeno queens who had incredible mental fortitude didn't fight like this, she had a very complex mind, but like everyone who goes up against a Dream Warrior, especially one as powerful as Jack, her mind broke, her body went slack as Jack severed her consciousness from it, it was the same method he'd used on h'chak to free her, it had other uses as well.
Suddenly the pair of them found themselves in a very white place and the snake girl reared up and looked around herself and then turned to look at her now free hands and body, then she hissed at Jack who stood a few feet away, she shot forward with incredible speed and tried to grab him, but she got a handful of air, she looked around and found him standing a few feet away and then tried again and again.
"You getting bored yet?" Jack asked after the tenth time she tried to grab him, but all he got was angry hisses, he was currently searching through her incredibly complex mind to try and piece together her language, she turned and hissed at him angrily which suddenly morphed.
"Stand fucking still you strange fucking little creature!" the snake girl yelled, and Jack grinned, vanishing as she struck at him again.
"Ahh, there we go, got it," he said, and the snake girl whirled towards him with confusion written in her eyes, she lunged forwards and this time he didn't move, he just let her grab him and like lightning she wrapped him in her coils and grabbed his head with her stong hands.
"Wait! How did you do that? You spoke and I understood you!" she yelled.
"Yup, you're language is very complex, got a feeling we're gonna need translators for this one, don't think my vocal chords can process your speech," he said, looking at her with a smile on his face.
"But I can understand you now, you're speaking my language now," she said, and Jack's smile widened.
"Actually, you're speaking mine, I'm still putting yours together, so I made you speak mine," he said, and the snake girl looked really confused now.
"T-T-That's not possible," she said, and Jack cocked his head with a smile.
"Just like this isn't possible," he said, before vanishing and appearing next to her and patting her coils as she looked at him in both confusion and disbelief.
"Wait...What? How did you do that? Who are you? What are you?" she exclaimed, examining her coils as if to see if he wasn't still really hiding in them.
"There we go, now, instead of jumping at me, you're asking questions and that's good, now, to answer them, I'm not really here and neither are you, this is inside your mind so I can manipulate it just as you could if you knew how, my name is Jack Mason, Grand Patriarch of the Clan Mason, and I am a human being, now, according to a talking tree god I met you are a Serpentinus, correct?" Jack said.
The snake girl nodded, looking dumb struck, "We're inside my mind...wait...talking tree god! You've met the great tree!? You've actually spoke with the great tree!?" she exclaimed.
"Ahh, so you know this talking tree, good, that's a start," he said, and she looked at him like he was insane.
"Of course I know who the great tree is, she's our god!" she said, looking stunned.
"Well, she is a he actually, but moving on, what's your name?" Jack said, and the snake girl looked at him aghast.
"A he? You think the great tree is a he? Are you insane? Everyone knows that she's a she!" the snake girl said angrily, and Jack smiled before waving his hand and taking them into his memories, replaying his conversation with the great tree and the snake girl's mouth fell open as she watched it happening all around her like she was actually there.
"T-T-This is impossible!" she exclaimed, and Jack waved his hand, making the memory vanish and returning them to the white area, she stared at him in disbelief, "W-W-What are you? The great tree called you the beloved ones of the great huntress?" she asked.
"I'm a human being, but more than that I'm what's called a Dream Warrior, it's how I can invade your mind like this, all of this is not real, it's an image I'm projecting into your mind so we can communicate, now, if you would be so kind as to tell me your name?" Jack said.
The snake girl drew herself up, "My name is Celia Diamondscale, daughter of Leeana Diamondscale, leader of the Jungle Territories," the snake girl said, drawing herself up and folding her arms over what was a rather impressive bosom and looking at Jack like he should know what that means.
"Ok, sounds important, next question, why are you in a cell chained up like a prisoner?" Jack asked.
"Becasue I am being held hostage, a group of fucking Scalathor managed to hijack my ship as I was returning from a diplomatic mission to Lethian Prime, the homeworld of the Raptorians, they killed my crew and took me before they paid off the freighter captain and her crew to take me to a set of spacial coordinates where they were to lock me in a cargo pod and jettison me into space where their cohorts were to pick me up and take me from there," Celia said, and Jack cocked his head curiously.
"Ok, they were either really shit kidnappers or they were really confident their plan would work if they discussed their whole plan in front of you," Jack said, and Celia shook her round, pointed head.
"Those Scalathor fucks forget my people don't hear like theirs, they think blindfolding me and putting an aural deadener on me will stop me from hearing, they forget my kind can hear through our scales and through ground vibrations, so when they spoke near me I could feel it," she said proudly.
Jack nodded, pursing his lips, "Useful talent," he said, and Celia looked proud and nodded.
"Not as useful as being able to tap right into someone's mind whether they like it or not," she said with a slight hint of accusation in her voice.
"Yeah, sorry about that, but with the language barrier it was the only way I could get a conversation going that didn't result in someone getting hurt through misunderstanding," he said, and that seemed to calm her a bit.
"I understand, we use what skills we have in order to get ahead, now, would you care to explain who you are and what you're doing aboard a Scalathor ship, are you the ones that attacked it? Are you mercenaries hired to recapture me?" she asked, and Jack shook his head.
"No, we were responding to a distress call our deep space system picked up, we're from a territory quite a few light years from here, we arrived, found this ship and when we saw evidence of battle damage and breaching we decided to board and see if we could render assistance, so far you and one other are all we found alive, the whole crew has been murdered and, err, skinned," Jack said, hesitantly adding that last part.
The look on her face told Jack of her shock, "Skinned?" she exclaimed, and he nodded, she looked rather sick then she locked onto the details of what he'd said.
"A survivor? Scalathor?" she asked, her face darkening, and Jack shook his head.
"No, a male Draconis, he was locked up in one of the crew quarters, I believe they were either planning on selling him as a slave or keeping him as one," Jack said, and that took her by surprise.
"They had a male Draconis? Bet that pissed off the Draconis, they are notoriously controlling over their males, flying fuckers have no respect, the Scalathor treat their males like shit but the Draconis are positively vile towards them, bigoted backwards animals, the lot of them, I honestly feel ashamed to share the birth world with those animals, enslaved Draconis males are prized among Scalathor females and visa versa, fucking animals," Celia said.
"Do you know who attacked the ship?" Jack asked, and Celia shook her head.
"I heard it, lots of noise, shooting, screaming, and then everything went very, very quiet, that was four days ago, or at least I think so, my kind are very good at time keeping but it's kinda hard to tell in here," she said, and Jack nodded.
"Alright, well, I have you're language down now since you've been speaking it for the last ten minutes, I've got no reason to doubt anything you've said as I've detected not a single lie from you, I don't like to reach into people's memories without their permission but I'm basically a human lie detector, so I'm going to separate us now, you will be able to understand my language thanks to the seed I planted and I'll be able to understand you, we'll transfer you to our ship as our guest until we get to the bottom of this but don't worry, no harm will come to you and we'll get you back to your people," Jack said, Celia eyed him curiously and then nodded.
"Then you have my thanks, Grand Patriarch Jack Mason," she said, and he smiled.
"Just call me Jack, ok?" he said, and with that he disconnected their minds, they still had a mystery to solve after all.