Chapter 8: Captive
Shepard could finally will his eyes open, and when he did, he wished he hadn't. He was in a rudimentary steel bar cage, but he couldn't see anything else in the room. His cell was only about six and a half feet (2 meters), and only had a sleeping mat and pot for furnishings. They didn't even give him a toilet, just a pot. That was disgusting.
Shepard looked at himself, and was relieved to see that they had actually changed his bandages. Unlike his old bandages, these had been soaked in medi-gel to heal him faster. It wasn't too expensive, but it was still a surprise to see that the slavers had bothered. He also felt some sort of collar around his neck. At first he feared it was one of the slave collars, but he suspected it was a biotic disruptor to keep him from using his biotics.
He snapped his head to the left as he heard two voices down the hall. "I hope Cerberus just hand over the money for the boy. I know that dampening field will keep his biotics suppressed, but he still makes me nervous."
"You worry too much. He's probably up by now, why don't we go to his cell. I'm sure seeing the big bad biotic helpless will show you how weak all these humans are."
"Ya. Ya your right. As long as we don't damage him to much, I'm sure the boss wont mind if we borrow him for a bit." The Batarians finally came into view, both of them had their heads back, laughing cruelly as they thought of thee things they'd do to their newest prisoner.
The second Batarian said "Alright, so I'll open the cage and keep watch for any other guards while you rough 'im up, then we'll switch"
The other Batarian grunted, but kept his focus on the bandaged human, barely strong enough to stand.
"Ya, your not so tough now are ya? Let me tell you somthin', you aint never gonna get out of this cage. That's right, your going to die in here." The Batarian took a step forward, and slammed Shepard into the bars, and pinned him there with his forearm. Ya your not tough at all. Can't believe this thing has the crew worried." The Batarian struck him in the gut, and when Shepard doubled over, the alien brought an armored knee to his face. Shepard fell to ground as both the aliens laughed.
"Alright you've had enough fun, I think it's my turn."
The other alien came in the cage, and lifted Shepard up by the throat, jabbing his gut. Shepard choked, and started gaping for sir, but the Batarian's cold grip restricted air flow.
After a few more seconds, Shepard felt himself blinking rapidly to keep himself conscious. Finally, the Batarian let Shepard fall to the ground in a heap of reopened wounds with a final laugh.
Shepard blinked to clear his eyes of blood, and felt his blood boil with anger. He hadn't done anything the these fucking blinks, and they decided to beat him. It wasn't even torture, at least then they would have had a good reason to give him pain, but this... this was just mindless violence. The actions of an animal, incapable of thinking.
Shepard felt his muscles tingle as his body began to glow weakly. The original Batarian looked at him with four terrified eyes, and the one still in the cage looked ready to run. Shepard struggled to his feet, but was in to much pain to stay up. The Batarian in the cage walked up, and stomped on his head, obliterating his hold on reality.
As he drifted off, he heard the aliens arguing if they should tell the boss that he had used his biotics. Apparently the collar was supposed to keep him from using even the small amount of biotics he had used.
MEMEMEME
One Day Later.
One of the few human mercs stepped up to the bridge and saluted. "Tallid, sir, the Batarians that tortured the captive have been killed, and we are ready to attack the colony. Awaiting you orders."
Tallid smiled. While many humans, such as these colonists, were weak, his human mercs knew their place, and didn't challenge command. "Good. Change our ship IFF to Alliance, and get ready to block communications."
As he expected, the colony began to hail him. He motioned for one of the humans to take the call. This merc was wearing the fatigues of an Alliance captain, and had been ordered to alleviate the concerns of any of the colonists. Officially, they were here to make a quick inspection to make sure the colony was properly protected from any Batarian attacks.
When they landed, all the humans would depart, and integrate themselves into the colony defenses. Then the ships would return to orbit, and when the ground team signaled that they had sabotaged the defense grid, the ships would bomb the planet, as shuttles went planet side to crush any resistance, and capture survivors. It was a psychological warfare tactic, but an effective one.
The Alliance wasn't stupid, but it would still take them a good three days to investigate why the planet had gone silent. Plenty of time to capture some new slaves.
MEMEMEME
Shepard woke up on the cold metal floor. He didn't know how long he had been on this ship, but it couldn't have been too long.
He constantly felt sick, though he wasn't sure why. Despite the medi-gel bandages he constantly wore, his orange scars were widening. They didn't bleed much for some reason, but every movement was painful, sending jolts up to his amp. He wasn't really sick, but the medics that had examined him had said something about a dormant part of his DNA being mutated. The only visible results of this mutation were that his eyes had lost almost all of their color, and started to glow a faint white, and his skin and paled considerably, as if he had never been exposed to sunlight.
Despite his increased metabolism, the slavers had only given him a meager amount of some sort of slop that he had refused to eat. It may have been immature and stupid, but they wanted him alive, and he wouldn't eat if they refused to give him edible food.
Shepard heard the clank-clank of armored boots on the floor, and huddled in a corner. No one had beaten him since the first time, but he wasn't about to invoke any of the slaver's wrath.
One of the Batarians came into view, with an MRE. The merc grinned as Shepard looked longingly at the package of food. "Wow, you must be really hungry. A biotic, and you haven't had any food since coming here huh?" The alien ripped open the bag, and smelled the contents. "Bet you want some, don't ya?" He laughed as Shepard nodded his head. "Mmm, it does smell good. Too bad you can't have any."
The alien continued to taunt him, but Shepard finally ignored him. It wasn't like he was going to get any food from the Batarian. From the stories he had heard, Batarians were supposed to be evil, cruel, and ruthless. He couldn't deny that these aliens fit the bill just fine, but he could say the same thing for all the humans he had met here too.
Apparently the Batarian found entertainment in not only wasting valuable food, but also taunting him with it.
"Is the little slave hungry? Tell you what. If you can get the food, you can have it." The alien took two large steps from the bars, and dropped the food on thee ground.
Shepard squeezed his arm out through the bars, but couldn't reach any of the bag. Shepard finally gave up. It was pointless to try and get the food, and it was only serving to give the Batarian amusement.
Shepard curled up on thee floor until he heard the alien move away. As soon as he couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, he reached out the bars again. This time, he summoned his biotics. Sarona had taught him to use pin-point biotics to manipulate things accurately, and gently.
Shepard ignored the jolt of electricity that passed through his body from the collar as he lifted the package. It took him three attempts due to fatigue, and the distracting bolts of electricity, but he finally managed to get ahold of the small blue bag.
Shepard spilled the contents into his hand, and ate as fast as he could. No doubt, the slavers would be displeased if he managed to find any comfort. For the first time since being abducted, Shepard went to sleep with a stomach full of food.
MEMEMEME
Two Hours Later
Shepard woke up as the small prison frigate he was on shook violently. Shepard couldn't make out what the alarms were saying, as it was in Batarian, but he could make out 'm'kraza' or danger. No shit.
One of the human mercs opened his cell, and dragged him out. "Your expensive, so don't get any cute ideas about escaping."
Shepard was feeling dizzy from his 'disease' but the merc refused to slow down, instead, he dragged Shepard whenever he staggared
As they passed an armory, one of the consoles to their left exploded. The merc yelped and dropped his gun as the shrapnel pierced his suit. "Fuck that hurts. Hey kid, get some medi-gel from that cabinet." He said, jerking his head towards a red container.
Shepard snatched up the gun and pointed it at the merc. "Wait, wa-" Shepard closed his eyes, and felt hot tears leak out as he fired, ending the man's life.
Shepard stared down at the body. He was horrified at how easily he had killed. He had not hesitated to kill the man who had saved him from his cell. He didn't feel remorseful for what he had done, he only felt pity for the man who stood in his way. What kind of monster disregards life?
Shepard looted the body, and grabbed the omni-tool. It was a standard bluewire, but it had basic translations, and he would be able to hack into the Batarians radios to listen in on their plans.
"Mark!" Shepard jerked his head up, and saw another human merc with an assault rifle. "You bastard you killed him."
The human merc shots were wild, and inaccurate. Shepard dove behind a small wall, but a bullet caught him in the shoulder.
The merc seemed to think he was dead, so he stopped firing.
Shepard knew he was no match for the armed merc without his biotics. He had tried to study the collar while he was in his cell, but hadn't figured a way to disable it, and he didn't think he could hack it with the omni-tool. Shepard closed his eyes, and touched the spot were a key-card was supposed go to unlock the collar. He took a deep breath, and sent a blast of biotics through the device. The shock, painful as it was, was short lived, as the collar overloaded, and shut down.
As soon as he was sure the collar had been deactivated, Shepard launched himself at the guard, firing a warp the size of his fist at the man's head.
The merc sidestepped the biotic attack, but the warp exploded against a canister behind him. The canister erupted in fire, and showered both Shepard and the merc with shrapnel.
Shepard held his left arm. Fortunately the shrapnel had passed through his arm, so he wouldn't have to dig it out.
Shepard limped up to the merc's prone body. The body still had a pulse, but was unconscious. Shepard sat down, while alarms blared in the background. He could easily kill the man right now. He had been planning to attack Mindoir, his hom- his old home.
Shepard grabbed the sheathed knife off the merc's belt. He could easily slit this man's throat, and he wanted to do it.
Shepard drew the knife, and pressed it to the human's neck. Shepard smiled sadistically as he pressed the knife in harder, finally drawing blood.
What are you doing? A small voice in the back of his head asked. Your better than this. Do you want to become a monster? A killer?
Shepard looked at his hand, preparing to kill the merc. "He deserves to die." Shepard snarled out loud.
Ultimately the little voice won out, as he threw the knife to the side. "But I'm not a murderer."
Shepard ran for one of the escape pods. As he rounded the last corner, he saw a couple batarians getting in one of the last pods.
Neither one of them saw him until it was too late. Shepard raised his hand, sending the mercs headlong into the opposite wall.
Shepard jumped into the pod, just as the ship began to crumble under the disruptor torpedoes. The hanger bay exploded, just before his pod jettisoned, sending his small shuttle spinning down to the ground.
MEMEMEME
This mission was going from bad to worse. They had been told that the colony was small and expendable. It was a simple moral qualm, and few of the Cerberus operatives had problems with allowing a colony to be destroyed for the greater good.
Unfortunately, most of their ships had been destroyed in the dog fight above Mindoir, and when they finally boarded the ship Subject 42 was supposed to be in, they found an empty cell, and logs that confirmed a pod had been launched with one human occupant.
Normally, they would call for backup, and storm the planet, killing the slavers that got in their way to reclaim their property. Unfortunately, by that time, the Batarians would be gone. However, they also lacked sufficient troops and transport to go down to Mindoir and find him.
He turned on his FTL communications, and linked into a comm buoy. "Have you secured Subject 42?"
He felt the weight of his boss' blue eyes on him. "No. It seems he escaped to the planet below, but we lack the necessary forces to pursue."
His boss thought about this as he took a drag of his cigarette. "Does he seem to have any control over his biotics?"
"We did find evidence of some biotics, but nothing on par with what Subject 42 should be capable of."
"His mutation seems to be progressing faster than we thought. I have just received some new Intel. You needn't worry about it's content, but despite your... failure, we believe it is possible to salvage this operation. We've locked on to your coordinates, and we should be there in two days."
"Sir? If you don't mind me asking, what of the colony?"
"Its destruction will prove valuable to humanity. I trust you have no problems with this plan."
He swallowed with some difficulty. "N-none sir." He said, punctuating it with a crisp salute
His boss cut the communication. He had lied. It was difficult for him to accept the destruction of an entire colony, but he wasn't about to tell him that.
MEMEMEME
I realize this chapter is a little short, and I apologize. Next few chapters will be wrapping it up, and then I can devote more time to my other story. As always, please review. Your words are like a drug that allows me to make chapters faster. Hey, so I like to know people are actually reading, and enjoying my story.