Location: Raeldra Fighting Arena
Icmod took a seat with the rest of the attending Albatross crew. The erected wooded benches surrounding the Raeldra fighting arena. The arena floor was dirt covered. It was a large arena, its appearance reminded the XO of the old rodeos that were once held on Earth. The benches were filled with Akritirians of all sorts some were making quite a ruckus.
Jillido saw opportunity hear if he could get in touch with some of his old Orion Syndicate bosses maybe he could do some business on New Enterprise Turned the natives in to slaves to be sold at auction and a percentage of the found they use for trade could get them back in the game
Shenara braced herself for the fight. She only wished she could get an opportunity to participate. The colonists all praised the Raeldra as a fearsome beast, one worthy of being fought by a Klingon warrior. She told herself it wasn't her place but somewhere deep downs her Klingon half yearned for a good fight.
Roquel looked around at all the activity. She was not fond of blood sport and she knew full well that what she was about to experience was going to be exactly that. Dealing with the Akritirians was her idea...she knew that. Not attending would have been a slight to them and it could blow the contract. She knew that too. None of it made her feel any better. "Why isn't the captain, here?" She asked, feeling that she was too much at the center of this. Underneath it all was a feeling of 'be careful what you wish for...you just might get it'.
Icmod leaned over, "The captain decided to decline such an invitation. He claimed to have more pressing matters to attend to."
"That's convenient." She replied, exasperated.
Before Icmod could respond, an Atritirian walked to the center of the arena. His voice boomed as he spoke. Speakers located around the structure emitted his voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, welcome to the weekly Raeldra busting competition. Tonight's fighters Vestria and Masula return from last week's fight. Our third fighter is Kalsetro, one of our newest colonists. He has claimed to be able to wrangle even the wildest of beasts."
As the fighters entered the arena, cheers erupted. Icmod could feel a wave of anxiousness enveloping him. He wasn't sure how to describe it, it was like nothing he ever felt. "Do you have the feeling something bad could happen with this?"
There was definitely a feeling in the pit of her stomach and she said so. "Actually, I feel like I'm going to be sick. I thought maybe it was the food from earlier..." Her face contorted as she searched her memory. "...but, I don't think so."
"We can head back to the ship once the fight is over." Icmod kept his eye on the area waiting for the event to start.
Noise erupted from behind a shielded corner of the arena. An animal, a heavy one and doubltess a Raeldra, fought against handlers out of eyesight. There was a scream and some increased commotion which probably meant that the beast had outmatched them, at least for a moment. "It's scared." Roquel said, softly. "It knows it's going to die."
The Akritirians in the stands started whooping and hollering for the spectacle that was about to commence. Many of them removed a boot and used the heal of it to pound on the the rail before them or the bench at either side. After 20 - 30 seconds those who had done so settled into a steady rhythm - the drumbeat of death.
"Looks like we're going to be testing this arm in combat very soon friends." Jillido said
The Raeldra broke free from it's captors and charged into the arena. By this time the announcer had made his way to safety and allowed the three fighters to enter the arena. The beating continued as the fighting started.
Jillido wished he had some money to bet on the game, but he lost that after the Borg incident.
The Raeldra charged, but not at the combatants. He tore for the fences. All the beast wanted was out. The prairie beckoned. Free open spaces were just out of reach. He knew it. He could feel it.
"He doesn't want to fight." Roquel said in a far away tone. "Escape." As the youngest and most inexperienced with the Raeldra, Kalestro ran at full speed to cut off the large beast. He raised his spear and challenged it. "HAH! HAH!" He cried as he thrust the spear menacingly towards the Raeldra's face.
It knew.
"It doens't want to die." Roquel declared, still in a sing-song tone.
"If this is too much, maybe we should go." Icmod tried to get Roquel to move but she seemed glued to her chair. For now the only thing he could do was sit by her and try to keep her comforted.
"This fight is the least honorable thing I could imagine." Shenara growled. Her urge to fight was no longer there; in its place was feelings of anger. "Fighting a helpless and scared creature is pitiful."
"No one's forcing you to watch I'm just trying to e enjoy the show" Jillido said
Focused on Kalestro, the Raeldra couldn't see what was happening all around it. It saw one of the other two fighters, but it lost one. Where did it go? Pain shot through it's back and side as the spear lanced down through it's body. It's mind lashed out in terror.
"Oh, no. Oh no." Roquel cried, tearfully. "I'm dying. I'm dying. Help me. Where are you? Why won't you help me?" She slipped to the ground and laid on her side feeling all the pain and anguish of the Raeldra.
Icmod tried to shake Roquel out of her panic. She no longer seemed to be fully in control of what was going on. "Roquel! You're alright; we need to get you back to the ship."
Roquel simply shuddered as the mental waves of fear and pain being felt by the Raeldra washed over her. She was totally elsewhere, unable to sense her own surroundings, only the projections of the beast.
The crowd roared in approval as a second lance penetrated the Raeldra's side. It didn't kill it, no...it barely entered its body, but the pain...the pain was there.
The Raeldra jabbed at Kalestro with horns large enough to spit him and it did. Kalestro was thrashed about by the whipping head of the Raeldra, until he was dashed and broken against the dirt.
"Booooo! Booooo!" The crowd called.
Icmod stood up; with some effort he got Roquel to her feet. He looked at the rest of the crew. "You guys can stay if you want but I need to get Roquel to Albatross."
"I'm fine here" said the one armed Orion.
Had any been looking they would have noticed that the Akritirians were also fine, although they were hyped up by the display of violence. If anything they fed on THAT rather than the any outer stimuli.
A pang of pain ran through the XO's body as the Raeldra was jabbed again. Whatever had affected Roquel was now affecting him as well. A wave of panic rushed over him, he had to escape, to flee. Panicked he fled down the stairs to the exit. He was no longer certain if Roquel was with him or not.
Roquel tried to run, stumbled and fell. Her face went almost to the floor but she caught herself on the palms of her hands. Her head turned and as it did she saw something completely unexpected. An alien, slight, grey, and primitive with antenae, lay on the ground beneath the stands. He wasn't more than 6 feet from her. He wept openly then curled in pain and agony. She knew that feeling. This creature felt what she had felt; the Raeldra's torment. The alien, one of the planet's natives saw her and when their eyes locked both knew that they were sharing the same excruciating experience.
Torn between being transfixed by the alien beneath the stands and terrified for her own life, Roquel pushed herself up and ran. "Icmod! Icmod, wait!"
One of the Akritirian fighters lunged at the Raeldra as it passed by him. The lance raked it's side, drawing an angry line of meat and blood along it's side.
The Raeldra had been struck again. It bellowed loudly and fell. The crowd roared. Roquel fell, once again. She coughed as though her own lung had been penetrated. She could almost feel the lance inside her. When she pulled her hand away, there was blood.
By this time the XO had collapsed against a wall. He could feel himself perspiring. With the sudden pain in his side Icmod could barely keep his eyes open. All he could see was dirt and blood, it was as though he was in the arena.
"Humans" the Orion shook his head.
Location: Tower overlooking the fight arena
It was a subtle, almost imperceptible change. Zoss only began noticing it when his heart rate began increasing, slowly but inexorably, the blood began flooding his extremities and making his trigger finger twitch.
Blinking his eyes and wiping away his rapidly accumulating sweat, Zoss adjusted his suit's temperature controls to try and slow down his increasing metabolism. The movement broke Zoss's concentration on the fight as he noticed that the hand that was reaching down towards the suit controls on his wrist was trembling as well.
Zoss shook his head and tried to fight his way out of a fog that had begun wrapping itself around his mind. He became irritated with the situation, hating being on that tower, hating the fight going on down below, hating this entire colony. These irritations slowly built into a rage, and his body began responding as if he were in a fight.
Alarmed, Zoss turned to speak to Zal only to find that the boy had dropped his weapon and was gripping the railing of the water tower in a grip strong enough to warp the metal and cause his fingers to bleed.
"Sir... Dad... I- I don't..." Zal could barely contain his rage and confusion. Zoss only looked on helplessly as the same emotions began overtaking him as well.
Little did the two know that the Dominion had long ago edited out the chemical processes responsible for emotions such as love, fear, compassion, or sadness from the Jem'Hadar genome. Therefore, the majority of the psychic emanations from the arena found no analogue emotion in the two silent observers in the tower above. The only thing Zoss and Zal were capable of experiencing was the Raeldra's rage and adrenaline-fueled exertions to stave off its impending death.
Snarling with bestial ferocity, Zoss picked up his scoped disruptor rifle and drew himself up to his full height, fully intent on peering through the scope and wiping out every last filthy creature in the arena below. But as his eye focused on the aiming reticle, he found his sights drawn to the thrashing creature in the middle of the arena. The beast looked upwards at Zoss as yet another lance pierced its leathery hide, drawing a fresh fountain of ichor.
The Jem'Hadar elder and the wounded creature locked eyes through the scope. A connection formed between the two that was far stronger than anything Zoss had previously experienced. There was... A need, a plea, slowly worming its way into Zoss's mind. It tapped into every noble emotion or intention that Zoss had ever been raised with. The strict martial code of honor and rectitude that Zoss deliberately suppressed throughout his line of work as a mercenary came to the fore, urging him to do aid the creature.
"There is no honor in this death." Zal whispered from behind him. It was the boy's voice but there was something more underneath, like a hushed chorus whispering somewhere in the distance. "Grant us peace. Grant us peace..." Zal's tone was like a metronome, hypnotically permeating every fiber of Zoss's being.
The trembling in his arms ceased. The sight lined up with the target. Zoss went through the firing drill he'd been trained in since the day he hatched from his growth tank, and took aim...
A single bright lance of light lashed out from above, almost as if from the sky itself. The beam struck the Raeldra on the forehead right between its eyes with uncanny precision and exited down through the creature's throat. The beam only lasted for a millisecond and left a clean, smoking hole the size of a pen in the Raeldra's cranium. The creature lumbered forward for a moment before keeling over, eyes staring vacantly ahead, heedless as its lower jaw hit the dirt and bit deep into its slack, protruding tongue.
Those nearby reveling in the waves of fear and anguish suddenly felt the emotions disappear, replaced with... relief? Gratitude? The change was only momentary. The empathic feedback quickly flickered out as the last spark of life left the tortured Raeldra's eyes. The abrupt cutoff of the endorphin-inducing high shocked the crowd and many fell to their knees howling in agony at the disruption. It didn't take long for mania and panic to set in.
Location: Raeldra Fighting Arena
When Icmod opened his eyes he first noticed that he was face down on the ground. The pain he had felt moments ago now seemed far away, like a dream. He sat up and looked around. He saw Roquel a few meters away, he made his way to her. "Roquel, Roquel are you there?"
"You are talking to me, so I guess so." Roquel answered. She was still sitting there in a daze. She wasn't completely clear of the experience, but almost. Seconds later she met his eyes. "The Vegone!" The exclamation sounded abrupt but also urgent. "Icmod, there was one here. It felt everything...more than I did I'm sure of it. The Akritirians are killing the Raeldra by the hundreds and they're killing the Vegone right along with them."
She stood quickly. Her strength came from conviction. "We have to stop them."
"I agree, the amount of distress felt by us and the creature was too much. I don't see how the colonists can handle it." Icmod stood up and then offered Roquel a hand.
Roquel looked at Icmod and then at the others. "I don't think they can feel it. At least, they can't feel it the same way. I think they get off on the brutality of it, actually. It's sick." She spit on the ground to reemphasize her feelings.
Maybe you should talk to the ship s doctor Jillido said
"Well we need to talk to a Vegone!" Roquel asserted. "Somehow... That is the only way to be sure, isn't it?"
"Let's not waste time." The XO nodded and looked at the Albatross crew, at least those who were around. "I'm not going to force anyone to go. This little sojourn is independent of our mission. We are going to find a Vegone and discuss the situation. Come if you wish."
Not sure what they can offer us? Jillido thought out loud.
"Explanations." Roquel said, simply. The encounter with both the Raeldra and the Vegone had her so off balance, she just wanted to know what the hell was going on. Helping the Akritirians no longer seemed like the great job that she hoped that it would be. It felt...wrong.
Shenara stepped forward. "You have my assistance. This blood sport is unfair to the creatures involved."
I admit I ve seen better but to each there own I guess. I could go with you. The Orion sighed.
Roquel looked around realizing that the two Jem'hadar weren't in the group. "Where are Zoss and Zal?"
Probably with Captain and the Doctor I m sure there fine Jillido said dismissively
Location: Overlooking Raeldra fighting ring
Zoss hadn't vomited since he was still eating solid food back in the Dominion cloning facility and yet here he was, emptying only moisture and blood off the side of a water tower on some trash world that enjoyed torturing psychic animals...
Hand still trembling, Zoss wiped the mucus and spittle from his chin and took a breath to regain his composure. Off to his side, Zal was passed out from the trauma of the suddenly severed empathic connection, slumped over his rifle cuddling it like a teddy bear.
"Zal..." Zoss called out hoarsely. "ZAL!"
"HERE!" Zal woke with a start and fumbled for the pistol grip of the rifle.
"Pack it up... we have to evacuate." Zoss ordered. He then picked up his own rifle while his son worked to dismantle the OP and peered down the scope, trying to locate the Albatross crew.
He spotted Roquel and Noluk together. Several other crewmembers were nearby, and the mob in the fighting ring was getting violent.
Zoss tapped his comm badge. =/\= XO, XO it's Zoss. Come in. =/\=
Icmod answer the call. He and the other members of the away team had gotten together. "Icmod here, glad to hear your voice. What's the situation?"
=/\= The crowd is becoming violent. They're ignoring you for now, but I would recommend we evacuate. Captain Noluk, are you listening? We need an evac. NOW. =/\=
Zoss's voice brooked no opposition. He was using his override authority as a security chief.
On the Alabtross Noluk sat at the bridge. He had been taking some time for himself while keep an eye on the away team's movements. "Noluk here, I can have transporters active momentarily."
"One second Noluk." Icmod interrupted. The group was at this point in the middle of mass chaos. The unexpected death of the Raeldra had angered the spectators. "Some of us want to stay. We think there's more to the situation than meets the eye."
Zoss's head throbbed from the mounting frustration. He peered through his scope and gritted his teeth at the rapidly deteriorating situation in the ring. Several of the colonists had broken down security barriers and were causing rampant mayhem. Brawls started over seemingly nothing and the overall aggression displayed by the colonists was staggering. Zoss paused as he considered the reaction he'd had to the Raeldra and wondered if he and Zal would succumb to the mass hysteria in the ring if they both went down there.
=/\= XO, from my vantage point, I am witnessing colonists literally tearing each other to pieces. We can investigate the situation AFTER everyone is safe aboard the ship! =/\= Zoss insisted.
"I understand your concern Zoss, you and anyone interested can get back to the ship." Icmod had no intention of forcing anyone to join the mission to find a native but he couldn't imagine not helping out someone in need.
=/\= Captain, I recommend transporting everyone besides the XO back aboard the ship. Zal and I will make our way to the XO and protect him. =/\= Zoss broke down his sniper rifle and strapped the remaining equipment to his back. =/\= XO, turn on your emergency tracking beacon. We're coming to find you! =/\=
"Captain this is Roquel's request. She and I will stay behind. Beam everyone else up." Icmod wasn't going to put any others in harm's way. "Zoss, you don't need to follow us we'll be just fine."
"The others are being beamed up now." Noluk's voice came over the comm system. "Icmod my friend you and Roquel are on your own. Please be careful. Noluk out."
With that, Zoss and Zal both leapt off the tower and broke their fall by deploying a microburst from two small maneuvering thrusters tucked into their boots. The two Jem'Hadar immediately shrouded and ran off towards the sounds of fighting and chaos.