Internal Affairs worked quickly. T'daali Correctional Facility, lightly damaged amidst the Empire's initial invasion, had a thorough renovation to bring it up to IIA standards. An average prison meant to house Federation criminals now became a palace of pain and torment whose walls and measures rivaled the most impenetrable of fortresses. A base of operations for Internal Affairs as much as it was a semi-permanent home to the lingering resistance across the planet and their own undesirable refuse of failing soldiers stationed on Vort.
Oppressive, stifling, and mercilessly cold backed and enforced by legions of faceless officers beneath their visored helmets and unmistakable armor and equipment. Genuinely a force to be reckoned with, despised by ally and enemy alike. At least they had the decency to keep the alien population separate from those under evaluation for Imperial Standard violations.
Major General Inz was chewing on a candy bar, singing like a canary. Truly a loyalist to the Empire. She laid out her entire situation to Internal Affairs. Her increasing weight from being pampered used to taunt the other prisoners combined the meager rations they received from their continued lack of cooperation. Especially so in front of High Marshal Zha and the recently demoted Captain Saro, the two who wronged her so greatly.
Colonel Niz was known among IIA as "the meanest rat in the shithouse" to use an alien phrase. A record of relentlessly pursuing cases no matter who got in her way. Also known for her brutality and methods in extracting information from uncooperative prisoners, she was eventually put into the detention system. She was given the prestigious honor of being the first warden of T'daali Correctional Facility under Irken management.
"Come now, you all see how well Major General Inz is being treated! If you cooperate, you will be treated well! Hot water, fresh clothes, medical attention if you so require it. It can all be yours but only if you cooperate and tell me what I want to know."
Saro, isolated in the blindingly bright interrogation room, sat across the cold metal table from Niz. His Irken Elite uniform gone. In its place, a bright orange jumpsuit with a simple identifying number across the back and chest. Restraints had him tethered to the floor by his ankles and wrists bound, attached to the table itself. The intense questioning and meager rations left him weary. The days running into one another seamlessly.
"Colonel, I have told you everything that I know and am aware of," He tiredly, if not annoyingly, spoke. "What I stated in my initial questioning upon arrival has not changed."
"You continue to insist you know absolutely nothing of General Vaukt's treachery? You worked closely with him and the High Marshal. They both spoke extremely highly of you. You must've heard something."
"I worked with General Vaukt briefly during the Siege of Tallum and only saw him in passing thereafter. Nothing he said or did that I readily observed hinted at anything amiss." Saro earnestly answered. "The High Marshal transferred me to her command staff until a suitable replacement could be found. I have done nothing but follow the orders I have been handed without question. Why am I in this place for following orders?"
"That's a load of rubbish. We know all about the High Marshal and the General. Those two are thick as thieves. And you, Saro, should have been demoted to Captain and sent back to the Front. Instead we find you still wearing a Major General's insignia on your uniform, over your replacement, because both Vaukt and Zha saw it fit to keep you instead of her as per orders."
He sighed, leaning forward to rub his temples in frustration.
"Again…until a suitable replacement could be found. Major General Inz was not suitable at the time of her arrival. I was acting in an advisory role per High Marshal Zha's orders. What else am I expected to do? Defy direct orders and end up here anyway?"
"Clearly I need to be more…persuasive." The Colonel leaned back in her seat and rapped her fingers together.
Saro threw his hands up, chains rattling taut at the extreme of their limited motion.
"What do you want me to say, Colonel?! I have been nothing but compliant since I've arrived!"
"No you haven't. You're close enough to the High Marshal that I know you know something and I'm going to get it out of you even if I have to break you on the rack to do so."
"If you aren't getting the answers you're seeking, try asking a different question!" He snapped, his patience running thin and composure withering. "I will tell you whatever you want to know. I was only following orders in service of the Empire. I am the last type of soldier that belongs in a place like this, Colonel."
"Well perhaps let's start with something small. The General's very non-standard issue armor. Where did he get it? Devastis never received the schematics for what he's wearing. Is he using filthy alien technology? Is he lowering himself that much by breaking the Imperial Standard like that?"
"I don't know where he got it from. Yes, I agree, it is non-standard issue. He is also Special Operations. I don't know how Special Operations handles equipment acquisition. I have seen several teams with non-standard equipment or prototype equipment in the field. I could only make the informed guess it was a similar situation. Again, since Vort, I have only seen the General in passing during the campaigns of Onrek and Jakri."
"Have you noticed anything suspicious? Sudden arrivals or departures, enemy resistance suddenly giving way in sectors he was in charge of?"
Saro gave pause, recollecting events mentally.
"...we all found it…unorthodox at how rapidly Onrekian resistance deteriorated and were willing to accept Empire occupation. I chalked it up to coincidence or the Onrekians being so intimidated they conceded in favor of mercy. Otherwise, no, I haven't personally witnessed anything abnormal or out of the ordinary."
Niz checked her notes. "Was General Vaukt active around the region of Orenk that belonged to Clan Turo before their general surrender?"
"Almost exclusively, yes." Saro answered truthfully. "Clan Turo was one of larger clans and most powerful at the time of invasion. Special Operations focused on reducing their capabilities through subversion, sabotage, and assassination."
"And yet their chief survived and surrendered to Imperial occupation under a planetary governor that came recommended by the General…" Niz mused. "Doesn't that seem the least bit suspicious to you, Captain?"
Being addressed by his "correct" rank after putting forth so much time, effort, and energy into serving the High Marshal in a capacity above his station was a slap to the face. He knew she did it on purpose. To demean and insult him.
"I was tasked with strategic command, not diplomatic relations, Colonel. You know more of the arrangement than I do."
"Maybe you should've been paying more attention if the strongest resistance folds and then its leader becomes very chummy with the man who was just killing them moments ago. Not to mention all the rumors among them. Funny. Vaukt always prattles on about OPSEC but forgets that pirates and vagabonds like these Orenkians won't keep their mouths shut once they get drunk."
"I placed the pieces on the board. I cannot control how they choose to move." Saro reasoned shortly, not taking kindly to being criticized in the aftermath of events with perfect clarity. "High Marshal Zha tasked me with securing Imperial victory. I achieved it. I have no more control over General Vaukt than you do, Colonel."
His tone saw her reach across the table and backhand the Captain. "So not only do you forget your height, little boy, but you forgot exactly who you're speaking to." She signaled to the guards. "Take him back to his cell. But show him some Internal Affairs hospitality first."
Several days of intense questioning and earnest attempts to be compliant, gone. Not out of spite or defiance, but the supposed slight of respect or lack thereof to someone lording over his fate, chasing after non-existence witches in a joke of a hunt. Despite the mild sting of his cheek and rough handling of the IIA handlers preparing to take him back to his accommodations, he only smirked at Niz. Challenge accepted.
The guards brought him back to his cell across the corridor from the High Marshal's. Reduced to common lockup despite her station. IIA at least allowed her the 'dignity' of keeping her uniform, albeit ripping the epaulets from her shoulders. Back in his cell, Saro received a lengthy, rhythmic beating of baton blows courtesy of the IIA guards, slamming the barred door shut and activating the energy shield in front of it. They left behind them in their wake a battered mess of a man without second thought.
"Hey, Saro, you all right?" Captain Aiks, a typical red-eyed Irken that commanded Zha's personal bodyguard, called out to him.
He remained on the concrete floor, seized up in a half-curled ball of agony. Nothing felt broken, but it most definitely was bruised. A handful of blows slipped past his arms and shoulders to his his head and face, fresh spatterings of blood a result as he coughed, wheezing with seething breaths.
"I'll…live." He eeked out in a groan.
Only the second worst beating of his life, but not by much.
"Thank Irk." The Captain sighed,"High Marshal, why are they doing this to us? Why? What did we ever do to deserve this?"
"I…don't know," She hollowly answered, still reeling from replaying events of how this came to be.
One moment, leading an earnestly successful campaign against Jakri. The next, humiliated openly for supposed charges of obstruction despite being nothing but cooperative…and subjugated to the same savage treatment they tended to show their deserving enemies. Vaukt had…disappeared, unreachable, and the claims of him turning traitor resonated in her thoughts. All she could think back to was their conversation on Onrek and his admittance of intentions. She knew…and would seal her fate if she spoke openly of it in any capacity. Not doing so would lead to great suffering of all involved. A difficult decision she was left with and unwilling to make it.
"Major General? Saro?"
"P-present." He coughed, attempting to sit upright despite his body's protest. "Don't let Niz hear you call me that, Ma'am."
"I will call you what I damn well please." Zha defiantly spoke, sighing. "...but if it earns you more attention like that, I may have to reconsider."
"Please do…that wasn't as fun as it looked." The infamous Irken Elite commented, attempting to make light of their predicament.
"They waterboarded Corporal Pia yesterday just because she's regularly guarding your quarters and she said she didn't know anything." Aiks shook his head in frustration. "And they let Inz go, putting her in front of us as she gets fatter and fatter with all the food they're showering on her for being 'cooperative' as they like it. Oh, Irk, I don't know if we're ever going to get out of this."
"Now her appearance matches her personality…and get a hold of yourself, Captain." Zha pointedly spoke across the way. "If what they say is true of Vaukt, they cannot confirm or act without testimony. They can't question corpses."
"No…but they can make us wish we were corpses, Ma'am." Saro darkly reasoned, picking himself up off the floor to tend to his wounds.
"...if it means your release from this, you tell them whatever you must…even if it means I'm not leaving." Zha directed with conviction.
"B-but, we swore to defend you to our dying breath. That's our duty in the Empire. You're the one who matters here. We're all more easily replaced."
"That is an order, Captain." She glowered. "...when you are interrogated, you will tell her whatever grants you your freedom and return to service. I am just as expendable as the rest of you."
The Captain sat silent for a few minutes before smacking himself across the face a few times. "With all due respect, Zha, take that order and shove it. I know what I'm meant to do, I'm going to do it even if it kills me before you." The brief moment of bleak realization out of his mind with the resolve typical of an Elite back in pure form. "I will die before I ever surrender you. You're one of the best of higher command I've had the privilege to serve under; and I served under Miyuki before she was Tallest."
"I am trying to save your life, you idiot!" She snarled in frustration at him, desperation in her lime-green eyes.
"The head of your security detail, meant to save you…and you're telling him not to?" Saro questioned, puzzled.
"He can't save anyone from anything in here!" She exclaimed in exasperation, the truth gnawing at her. She couldn't speak a word of it, especially not here. Not now.
"Then we're doomed." One of Zha's own Lieutenant Colonels spoke from the upper tier. "If nobody knows anything they're just going to kill all of us. I know the reputation of this one. We're all dead, only a matter of time."
The Captain sighed. "Well, if that's the case, it's been a pleasure serving with all of you, but I'm not going to make it easy on that bitch."
"I can't believe the both of you, whimpering like smeets fresh off the robot arm." Saro scolded, huffing. "You're Irken Elite, act like it! This is another conquest! Another hill to take! We are the final defense before the High Marshal…we will endure, no matter what. Are we going to lay down and cower beneath their terms or stand tall on ours?"
"I said I'm not making it easy for the bitch, Saro." Aiks slammed his fist forward, only to get zapped by the energy shield from his outburst. "...Ow."
"I'm a Trooper, not an Elite!" the higher ranking officer yelled from above. "We're all gonna die! They're gonna kill all of us and then they're gonna kill the High Marshal!"
"Hey!" One of the IIA guards yelled over the loudspeaker. "Shut your c'hurtas in there or I swear by Irk I'll make you all visit the infirmary! Every single one of you!"
"Come make me, bootlick!" Saro challenged. "Want a reason to feel tall? Come get it!"
"Saro! Enough!" Zha yelled at him, already hearing the door down the hall cycling open. "You're only going to make it worse!"
He grinned at her.
"Worse for me. Not for you."
"I warned you! Everyone, thank Captain Saro for the beating all of you are about to receive!"
The energy shields on the cell doors fell as a group of IIA officers rushed in with full riot gear. They went cell by cell, delivering a severe beating even to the bystanders who kept their mouths shut. Zha herself wasn't exempt and Saro, being the instigator, was the last to receive a beating and the guards lingered longer delivering one to him before leaving.
The energy shields went back up, various groans of pain throughout the block.
"Now, I'm not gonna say it again after this or we'll just do this song and dance all over again. Shut up!"
Despite his persisting pain, Saro coughed, eeking out a weak chuckle. Even after a second tune-up…he found humor in it all. IIA reeked of desperation in the matter to coincide with their superiority complex.
Zha, her disgraced uniform now sporting tears in the aftermath, nursed the inside of her bleeding mouth. She spat the awful-tasting ichor near the drain at the center of her bleak cell.
"What…did that accomplish?"
"Everything." He uttered, coughing with a seethe.
"What does that even mean?" One of the officers nearby asked in a whisper.
"Defiance…unbroken…unwilling…undefeated. Never surrender. Not now, not ever."
"He's right…" Aiks whispered. "...We'll never give them the satisfaction. We'll stand to the end, even if it kills us."
"That's the spirit." Saro chuckled through his pain. "The angrier they get, the more frustrated they become…another victory in our favor. Wear the scars as badges of honor. This "Captain" knows a thing or two…about pain…endure it. Embrace it. Become numb to it…and watch them crumble."