The Dividing Lines
When the Irken soldiers busted through whatever was left of the heavy metal doors, Pain did his best to intercept them.
Laes listened as the injured guard managed to haul himself to his feet... or foot... it was hard to imagine Pain without both of his legs.
Pain raised his voice to gain their attention, and a few of the soldiers stopped while others began to round up the now mostly freed prisoners.
Laes held on tightly to the device in his hand as he was pushed into the middle of the large hall or room or whatever they were right now.
Bann couldn't do anything as long as the power remained off... and he had no way of knowing how badly damaged the generators were. Everyone was being hauled or pushed into this room anyway, so no one would be able to get them working. At least not right now.
"What happened here?" One of the soldiers demanded. "Why are the prisoners outside of the bunkers? I thought the Tallest was clear about having them remain in confinement."
"The power was out... there wouldn't have been any air filtration... they could have died," Pain answered as quickly as he could.
There was an abrupt sound of clanking armour, and Pain let out a groan.
"That call was not yours to make!" the soldier snapped.
It sounded like the same Irken had just punched Pain.
"You're a disgrace to the Empire... just look at yourself, and you didn't even self-destruct!"
"I apologize sir..." Pain responded.
There was no emotion behind his words. Instead, his voice sounded hollow and almost robotic maybe?
"Why is one of my soldiers fighting with one of my guards?" a very familiar voice spoke.
"Sir! This guard did not obey your orders!" the same soldier shouted.
"And right now you're not following my orders either, considering I never asked you to beat up a guard if you found one alive."
There was a pause as the soldier thought over what he'd been told... then he let out a gasp and starting apologizing.
The Tallest was definitely the one speaking considering none of the Irkens would react that way to anyone else.
"Just go do what I told you to do," the Tallest insisted with more than just a hint of annoyance in his tone. He must have switched his attention to Pain, because the next thing he said was: "and you... What's your explanation for not following orders?"
"Vort was falling... communications were offline... I knew the Armada was on its way but I was unsure of how close it was, and there is a limited air supply for the prisoners... my superiors were dead so I made the call... I-I apologize my Tallest... I am prepared to face Judgment on Judgmentia for my rash behaviour."
"Yeah well, considering the high pressure situation I'm not going to make you do that, but I do expect you to follow my orders from now on, understood?"
Pain let out a sigh of relief. "Yes my Tallest..."
"Do you know how many are dead?"
"Both wardens and all of the other guards perished... as far as I know there was just one prisoner casualty in this section... but I haven't been able to check on the one hooked up to life support and the power is out."
Oh cripes... Laes nearly dropped the piece of the hologram device when he realized what Pain was talking about.
His dad might be dead or dying and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Soldiers, leave the prisoners," the Tallest abruptly told his followers. "We're leaving."
"What do you mean my Tallest...?" Pain questioned.
"There's too many of them now. We're done. Show's over."
It sounded as though the Tallest was moving back the way he and his soldiers had come in.
"But... we can't just leave the prisoners..." Pain spoke, his voice nearly cracking. "They'll die here... all of them... can't we do something?"
Everything became quiet for a moment, and the tension in the air became heavy.
"Guard... have you been talking to these prisoners?"
"My Tallest I..."
"Have you gotten friendly with any of them?"
"Sir... I just..."
"There's no time to talk about it now... but what you're experiencing can be fixed," the Tallest gave a very brief explanation that no one would really understand. "For now you're coming with us. Leave the prisoners. Whether they live or not isn't our problem."
Irk's leader sighed then muttered under his breath: "We've got a lot more important things to worry about right now."
"My Tallest... please..." Pain hesitated. He sounded very conflicted. "I can still..."
"That's an order," the Tallest told him strongly. "You can either come with us willingly or I'll have someone drag you with us. You don't have a choice."
Laes didn't want to speak. He was standing with a bunch of other Vortians around him. The Tallest wouldn't notice him at all if he didn't say anything... but the prisoners could all die in this place. Who knew how far away the worms were or if they would turn around and come back?
The prison was a wreck; it would no longer provide much protection for him and his people, especially if the worms decided to turn around and start attacking again.
"Tallest... um... Tallest Red?" Laes tried.
He could feel himself shrinking already.
"I uh... can I talk to you for a moment?"
He held his breath and squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for a response.
He could hear the Vortians around him start mumbling very quietly. A few of them stepped away from him.
"Soldiers, return to the ships and bring the guard with you," the Tallest commanded.
All of the soldiers began to withdraw. They were leaving.
The Tallest was probably going to ignore him then... oh well. At least he tried to do something helpful...
"And you."
Laes couldn't see who the Tallest was addressing but the heavy pit in his stomach and the lump forming in his throat was telling him it was probably him.
"If you want to talk, come over here."
Laes swallowed, but the lump remained which meant speaking was going to be more difficult. Hopefully his voice would still work.
The other Vortians gave him plenty of space.
They were probably wondering what he was trying to do. He was wondering the same thing right now. Oh Vort..
He was pretty sure he had a good idea where the Tallest was based on where he'd heard the Irken's voice coming from. He stopped, but before he opened his mouth to speak, the Tallest said: "I'm over here."
Oh... it sounded like Irk's leader was standing a bit more to the left. He turned that direction and took one more step.
"Is um... that right?" Laes questioned.
"Good enough," the Tallest responded.
What should he say? For a very long moment, Laes couldn't think of anything. There were a lot of things he wanted to talk to the Tallest about, but no words came out.
At this rate the Tallest was going to get bored and leave and then he'd never be able to ask about...
"The Invaders," he managed to say in a quiet voice.
"What?"
He sucked in a breath and raised his gaze to where he thought the Tallest's face might be.
"I know about the Invaders."
There was a pause, so Laes continued, "I mean like... the old ones... the ones from before..."
Cripes! Laes suddenly found himself hanging in the air with the Tallest's hand around his throat.
He struggled feebly.
Maybe bringing up the Invaders was a bad idea. He should have just told the Tallest he was a jerk like the other Tallest asked him to... wait. That probably wouldn't have gone any better.
He kicked his feet uselessly as he made choking and sputtering noises. He couldn't breath. The darkness seemed to be getting darker too. He was probably going to pass out.
"How do you..." the Tallest hissed, but then he dropped Laes who landed hard on the floor. "This'll have to wait... I've just been told the worms are returning... they must have heard our ships... dlammit."
It sounded like the Tallest's voice was getting further away. Was he leaving...?
Laes slowly propped himself up, and then he felt himself getting hoisted off the ground. He was being carried like a sack of dirt again...
"What about the others?" Laes asked, and he started to struggle a bit.
"They're worm food..." the soldier responded.
Oh no. Veena was still there... and his parents.
He couldn't just get carried off somewhere without even trying to escape at all.
He started squirming, hoping somehow he'd be able to get out of his captor's hold, but it was no use. He wasn't strong enough to escape the soldier's clutches.
At least he'd been able to keep his grip on the hologram piece. All he had to do was find the proper outlet, plug in the device, and Bann would be able to talk again.
The Irken program might even take control of the Massive or whatever the Tallest was flying nowadays. Could the Irken's data do that...? Bann made it sound like he could mess with the prison's security network anyway...
There was enough room on the Massive to fit a very large number of people... If they could somehow gain control of the Irken's flagship then they'd be able to escape the worms.
"They didn't stay very long..." Darden commented as he watched the Armada begin to depart. "Something doesn't seem right about it... the worms are probably returning."
Lard Nar nodded in agreement.
He'd been watching and waiting for the armada to leave. He thought he should feel relieved when the ships started to fly away. Instead a feeling of dread settled in his chest. It felt like his heart was being squeezed.
"I've heard there are bunkers on the planet," Darden spoke. He looked and sounded calm despite the situation. "It's your call. Do you want to leave, or should we land and hope the bunkers will hold?"
"I didn't come here to turn around and abandon my people at the last minute..." Lard Nar told the Irken firmly.
"Alright... then I'll bring us down."
Darden moved to power up the thrusters, so Lard Nar grabbed his arm to stop him. The armada wasn't gone yet... the soldiers might see them if they went now.
"We don't have a lot of time... the Armada is retreating rapidly. They will not turn around to intercept a lone vessel flying to a doomed planet." Darden assured him.
"You're sure...?" Lard Nar questioned.
"Yes. It would be illogical for them to risk the whole Armada over one rogue Spittle Runner."
The communications alert light started flashing. Someone from the Armada had noticed the ship and were trying to contact them. It might even be the Tallest themselves calling. He glanced up at Darden who was wearing a stoic expression.
"I have to answer this," Darden said, pulling out of Lard Nar's grip. He pressed the call-receive button.
The face of one of the soldiers appeared on the monitor. Darden's eyes widened a little. The former soldier seemed to recognize the Irken on the screen.
"Explain why you are out of formation soldier..."
"I'm banished," Darden responded in his usual blunt manner. "I have no reason to be in formation."
"Oh."
"I do not have any intention on following the Armada."
"You realize there is a pack of worms heading towards you, don't you?"
"Yes, but I have business on Vort."
"Well... alright. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
The call ended, and Darden returned his attention to Lard Nar who was sitting rigid in his seat.
"I told you they wouldn't be interested," Darden said as he boosted the thrusters and started them towards the planet.
His gaze returned to the desolate looking planet in front of them. Vort had already been attacked by the worms. The large gouges in the approaching building as well as the craters in the planet's surface showed this.
Darden landed the spittle runner in what was once the docking bay.
Most of the ships here had been smashed to pieces by the worms... and a part of the building had collapsed on one side so there was a lot of rubble covering the ground.
Once they were landed, Darden began entering something on his monitor.
Lard Nar watched him silently.
"I'm placing a lock code on this vessel so no one tries to steal it," Darden explained. "If we're lucky the worms might miss crushing it and we'll be able to use it again..."
"I'm sure there are enough supplies and able hands to fix up most of these ships," Lard Nar told the Irken.
"It's good to have options."
Lard Nar was the first one to leave the ship.
Darden followed him out of the side hatch. The Irken walked a few paces then stopped. His antennae flicked up, and he looked around. Then his eyes narrowed at something.
"If you are hoping to fly away from this planet, I would suggest waiting. The worms are going to return any moment," Darden told the person who was watching them from behind some rubble.
"Yeah, well you can't blame a girl for trying," Veena spoke as she stepped out into the open.
Most of the ceiling was collapsed, and the Vort Labs in the night sky were reflecting enough light to see.
"Veena?" Lard Nar questioned. "Why are you here?"
"The Irkens caught me on Foodcourtia," she responded with a shrug. "They confiscated my laptop and took all of my files..." Her expression hardened. "I'm sure they found a lot of buyers who were on their hit list even though I did my best to scramble the information."
"Have you seen Laes?"
Veena sighed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, I left him back there with the others," she said, gesturing through the partially collapsed passage which led further into the prison.
"You aren't just here to rescue him are you?"
"No," Lard Nar immediately responded. He cared about his people and his home planet too. He wanted to see them all to safety. "I'm concerned about everyone..."
"I'm only here for that purpose," Darden replied.
Veena looked up at the guard and frowned.
"You're that Irken body-guard who was with Laes on Foodcourtia."
"That's correct," Darden said, and his antennae flattened in annoyance. "It's stupid to talk here... we need to get underground. Now."
"Yes. We should, " Lard Nar agreed.
"Follow me then," Veena told them as she turned and began walking into the building. "I'll take you to one of the bunkers."
A faint but familiar screech sounded over head. Lard Nar looked up instantly to see a large worm flying through the sky above. Then there was another. And another.
"Run!" Darden snapped.
Review Responses:
Invader Johnny: Everyone was relatively happy until Tallest Miyuki was devoured. Thanks a lot Zim. I'm glad you found the last chapter interesting.
Guest: But what is your name mysterious stranger? Ha ha, glad I could surprise you with a quick update. I've been surprising myself too to be honest.
SugarCitrus: I'm glad you've liked the last few chapters. As for Pain, this chapter makes him a little more three dimensional I think. He's not just the jerk that tortures prisoners. He's got a whole other side to him.
animefairi: You're correct! Negi is just a little guy. Pain's comrades were the other guards, so Angry-Shiela, Buckram, Grumps, etc, are all dead. The Warden Slappy is also dead.