"Make, ready!"
A clacking of magazines into mass driven Type 223 rail rifles resonated throughout the yard, the racking of charging handles followed, the squad of Internal Affairs officers stood ready for their next order with rifles resting on their hips. Ahead of them, Lieutenant Colonel Klorb, the one who broke early on in their stay, but he had the fortitude to look his executioners right in the eyes. No blindfold.
"Aim!" Silence for several seconds followed. "Fire!" The thunder of ten mass drivers sounded as the slugs tore through Klorb's body, the man falling forward in a slump. "Stand!" The officers returned to attention.
"Sergeant Wiza."
The next victim would be none other than one of Zha's closest assistants. Though a shorter enlisted woman, she was proud to serve so closely with a High Marshal rather than at the front. Considered by Niz to be one of the closest confidants of Zha, but she never broke, not during waterboarding, not electrical shock, she never betrayed the High Marshal, and now she would die much the same as Klorb. She took his place as a pair of Vortian prisoners were made to drag his body away.
"Make, ready!" The soldiers lifted their rifles once more, Wiza declining a blindfold as well. For a Trooper who never saw combat, she faced death with just as much resolve as any member of the Irken Elite. Saro would be proud if he could've seen her.
"Aim!"
But the entire morbid spectacle was meant for only one fully intended viewer: High Marshal Zha. The executions were performed in full view of her cell from the exterior window.
"Fire!" The rifles rang out once more, Wiza falling to her right side, dead before she even hit the ground. "Stand!" Once more, the Vortian prisoners came, putting the Sergeant's body into a tarp and carrying it away. That only left one execution left.
"Captain Aiks."
The man forcefully shook the grasp of the IIA officer from his shoulder as he walked willingly to the mound of sandbags, facing the IIA squad. They may have had visors, but he was staring them all dead in the eyes.
"Make ready!"
The Captain smirked.
"Aim!"
"I HONOR THE HIGH MARSHAL!"
"Fire!"
Once more the horrid thoom of the rifles sang out as Aiks fell back. The man was gone, his stand made. His mission was fulfilled…and another victory IIA could not lay claim to.
"Safe! Stand!"
Vaukt and the others on recon watched the sight themselves but were powerless to do anything about it. Recon was their first priority. Help was so close and yet so far…and yet how the General couldn't be there to help the High Marshal in her most certain state of grief as those under her command died for him…for her…their secret.
But there was no time to grieve the loss of those stalwart souls. Zha, weeping as she may have been for those lost, refused to break. Their sacrifices were not in vain. Their defiance until the bitter end, loyalty unwavering in service to her, gave her all the resolve she needed to endure. They did not bend to IIA's will. Neither would she. No matter what.
Like clockwork, the itinerary of pain and torment continued. Routine physical compliance, electroshock therapy, and any other sick, twisted little mind games they could conjure up in an effort to draw out the supposed truth or a plea for mercy that could be passed off as a confession. All they were met with was obstinate silence or continued repetition of basic facts and information they had given thus far.
Another sleepless night, wracked in agony from a withering, battered body denied rest and recuperation taking its toll. At sunrise, an ice-cold "bath" of a bucket of dingy water thrown into every cell woke them to do it all over again.
Zha, pale, sickly, and sporting a myriad of fresh and healing wounds all about her body, sat in the interrogation room yet again. She'd lost count of the number of visits to this plain, uninspired, featureless void of containment. Only that it was blindingly bright and often shared with the likes of Colonel Niz and whomever was appointed with doling out whatever punishment she herself did not want to partake in.
"So, tell me, Zha," Niz sipped from a juice box from across the table, "tell me about this idea Vaukt had of promoting by merit instead of height." Dispensing with other playful games, Niz cut right to the heart of the latest information against her. Zha may not have broken but someone closer to her had. Even if only slightly, it was a crack in the wall to pound with a hammer until it all crumbled.
"Self…explanatory." The High Marshal hoarsely answered, struggling to hold her head upright.
"Why didn't you shoot him right then and there? Why didn't you report him to IIA? Why didn't you at the very least slap that defective General's guts out?!" She demanded with a slight pause, "Unless you're in on it with him."
"If I were…I wouldn't be sitting here…now would I?" She challenged with a huff. "...I didn't shoot him…because my pistol was in my other pants."
Niz replied with a swift left hook from across the table.
Despite the familiar taste of her own blood in her mouth and spattered across the table, she looked back to the Colonel with a grisly, green grin.
"...smeets hit harder than you-"
Zha pursed her lips, spitting a gathered mouthful of saliva and blood at Niz.
The Colonel withdrew a handkerchief and rose from her seat, wiping off the putrid mixture before walking behind Zha, grasping her head and forcefully introduced her face to the table before grabbing her antennae and yanking, hard, fully intent on doing damage but not quite tearing them out, yet.
"You aren't the first to resist and struggle. You will not be the last. I will break you all the same in the end and all of this rebellious posturing will have been for nothing."
Uncomfortable as the stunning blow to the table was, the instant, sharp pain throughout the sensitive sensory organs attached to her head immediately elicited a cry of agony. Her bloodied face screwed tight as she struggled against the Colonel's grasp.
Grin and bear it. Endure it. For Sergeant Wiza. For Captain Aiks. For Lieutenant Colonel Klorb.
"I'm tired of playing games. I'll kill my way across your command staff. Inz may have been innocent but the rest of you? Statistics. Even you." The warden then cut open the top of her juice box to pour its contents atop the High Marshal's head in response to her silence. A pair of claps signaled the guards to enter the interrogation room.
"Prepare another firing squad detail and take the High Marshal back to her room, tune her up like you would if she were Invader Zim."
"As you wish, Colonel." The Guards grabbed Zha and dragged her from the room. Niz donned her cap and followed, walking down the block, waiting for the guards to depart from Zha's cell after delivering yet another savage beating. Niz's patience was wearing thin. She knew how to get to Zha: Saro.
"Since the High Marshal refuses cooperation yet again, we're going to do another round of executions!" Niz cleared her throat. "Lieutenant Kuru, Staff Sergeant Lit, Ca-"
The Colonel was cut short by an interruption. A tall man in an Irken Elite uniform entered the cell block, clad in a shade of violet, a tail coat that formed a partial skirt adorned with gold lacing and buttons, high waisted gray trousers, black gaiters, and polished black shoes underneath. The ensemble finished off with black leather gear and a black stovepipe style cap adorned his head emblazoned with a brilliant gold Imperial insignia alongside that of the Elites. Crimson eyes that burned with anger and a scar across his face he gained at Praxxus during Impending Doom I. His sidearm and saber noticeably absent, standard procedure in a prisoner area.
"General Cagir? What are you doing here?"
"You forget, Colonel, that this is my planet and you're the guest. Remember, I am the military governor of Vort."
"Be that as it may, General, what is your official business here?" Niz pursued. Superior officer or not, Internal Affairs was not to be trifled with or interrupted in carrying out their duties. Doing so was an infraction in itself. One the Colonel took extremely seriously.
"Don't tell me, tell her." The man gestured over his shoulder.
Confused, she looked past Cagir to see none other than High Marshal Xilch entering the room.
"High Marshal?!" Niz delivered a closed fist salute across her chest and bowed. "I apologize, I did not anticipate your arrival. I was preparing to execute more prisoners to try and convince the High Marshal to spill her guts."
The Director of Internal Affairs did not immediately answer her subordinate, surveying the scene. The command staff of Zha, weakened, battered, and anemic missing numbers from their ranks. Zha herself in an equal state of affairs, hallowed by the ever-crushing weight of guilt feeling responsible for all the suffering imposed upon them.
Xilch's unnerving, icy-blue gaze slowly tracked back to Niz.
"...you're executing prisoners after having no success extracting information? Counterintuitive, don't you think, Colonel?"
"Not entirely, High Marshal. The first three executed yesterday were to show to the High Marshal that unless she spills everything General Vaukt told to her, their blood would be on her hands. Today's executions I was going after those closest to her, forcing her hand and having her spill everything to save their lives."
"The information you've extracted…was it worth the lives exchanged or are you shorting yourself, Colonel?" The High Marshal pointedly questioned, critiquing Niz's progress sharply.
"Actually, High Marshal Zha's personal secretary cracked after the executions. She reported that the two of them have been spending a great deal of time together in her quarters. One time she passed by she heard Vaukt through the door. She said she forgot many of the details but she remembered hearing him mention 'promotions by merit' within our system. Such silly notions, can you believe that? It certainly leads me to believe Zha knows more than she's letting on."
"I'm relieved you've managed to figure the obvious out on your own, Niz. Your vigilance has ensured the Empire's eternal rule." Xilch unkindly chastised with a sharp tongue. Her displeasure manifested into a crisp backhand of the Colonel's cheek with a sneer of contempt. "I know Zha is withholding information, you imbecile…that is why she is here. To extract the withheld information from. You have produced none. Do I need to do your job for you, Niz?"
The Colonel's hat landed on the floor from the backhand. She didn't pick it up, only looking back to Xilch. "No, High Marshal…I'm absolutely certain she'll crack and spill her secrets when I mention the third name on my list."
Outside, a transport arrived through the main gate under heavy guard. The Warmaster stepped out of an APC outside the main gate, lighting a Vortian cigarette procured from local stocks to have a smoke while the others ventured inside. The prison was in a flurry, messages back and forth, people trying to find the warden but to no avail. It would be too little too late.
Honor Guard, armed Honor Guard, stormed into the block, at least three each to a single IIA prison guard. Cagir was confused at the sudden display of force until Red and Purple themselves floated into the room. If he wasn't amused before, he was even less amused now. "What is this, unannounced visit month? Not that I'm not happy to see my Tallest but can a man have a little warning to prepare a banquet first?"
Just as Xilch was to lay into Niz again to make her displeasure known, the commotion to her rear garnered her attention. The gates being thrown open and Imperial Honor Guard storming through to outnumber and out-intimidate IIA at their posts brought about equal measures masked confusion and dread. Were the Tallest onto Grimm? Onto her? Why were they here, unannounced?
"There you are!" Red casually drifted over to the trio of high-ranking officers with Purple at his flank. "Does nobody respond to hails anymore? Was beginning to wonder if the defectives were running this place."
"It cleaned up nice, but it defeats the purpose of a prison if there aren't any guards." Purple concurred the obvious. "We let ourselves in….so what's goin' on in here? Looks like a party."
Niz blinked. "My Tallest, I was about to arrange an execution to force High Marshal Zha to release more information about the conspiracy General Vaukt was involved in. Also, how did-were you in official transports and they opened the gates for you?"
Red leaned down, hands to his hips in challenging fashion. "Far as I'm-"
"We're!" Purple blurted out much to his disdain.
"...We're concerned, this facility and this planet belong to us. We will do as we Irk well please whenever, wherever, and however we want. "Do either of you have a problem with that?"
"Of course not, My Tallest." Xilch chimed in, refusing to let the Colonel dig both of their proverbial graves or turn them into literal ones. "All of the universe belongs to the Empire, making this place yours as well."
"Yes, yes it does." He nodded in approval of the High Marshal's answer. "I'll keep this brief since everyone appears to be extremely busy…but we need you to let High Marshal Zha and her command staff go."
"WHAT?!" Niz exclaimed in total shock.
"Ah, ah, ah, the tall ones are talking." Purple gestured patronizingly to the prison's warden. "...y'see, Jakri's campaign has…well, it hasn't collapsed-"
"It's stalled out. Completely ground to a halt." Red interjected. "I refuse-"
"We refuse!"
"...We refuse to permit it to become a defensive conflict. Zha had the campaign well in hand and whatever…this is, has thrown everything out the airlock!"
The IIA High Marshal stood there, blinking, absolutely astonished and dumbfounded at what she was hearing from none other than the highest authority of all the Empire next to the Control Brains.
"My Tallest, she is implicated in a very serious accusation of sedition and possibly an accomplice to General Vaukt." Xilch pursued, wary of her tone while remaining cordial in her duties.
"Right…can you…postpone whatever this is until Jakri's conquered?" Red queried, motioning to the gathering of prisoners and guards alike. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job…but I'm…"
"Recommending!" Purple chimed in.
"Yes, thank you, recommending an alternative. We have the Vaukt situation well under control as we speak. He'll be dead by the end of the week should everything go according to plan. We just don't want another Vort situation to happen again. Things were fine before she was brought here. Now they're…not as fine."
Whatever was going on, it didn't sit right to Niz. While the Tallest were busy with Xilch, she made her way to the guard station and picked up the telephone, quietly ordering IIA armed response to storm the block immediately, everyone. The Tallest of all people interfering in an investigation against the Imperial Standard? What was this? This was absurd, treasonous even. She intended to do something about it as her station demanded.
Cagir, meanwhile, stayed quiet. This was all strange to him having so many high ranking people on his planet and concentrated in one place. Especially without warning.
Niz then made her way back to Xilch and whispered to her. "Backup's on the way. I can't let this insult to the Imperial Standard stand unanswered, High Marshal." Her head gestured to an open cell down the block on the tier, right next door to Zha, Captain Aiks' former cell. Vacant and open for new prisoners.
"Hey, hey, hey," Purple butted in, gesturing to Niz and Xilch. "What're you two whisperin' about there?"
"Nothing, My Tallest. The Colonel was only relaying her progress in dealing with High Marshal Zha's ongoing interrogation."
"And? Is she a traitor or are we wasting our time that could be better spent conquering Jakri?" Red queried, arching a brow with arms folded across his chest. 'We don't really have the time or resources for games, you two…is she a traitor or not?"
Xilch cast a single glance to Niz before speaking once more.
"Colonel Niz is confident she will produce a definitive answer by the end of today, My Tallest." She gestured down the open block lined with cells. "For the time being, would you like to tour the recently-renovated facility? I will be your guide."
"Ooh! Ooh! A tour!" Purple seemed ecstatic. "Can we take a tour?! Pretty please!"
Red let out a long breath coupled with a facepalm and a shake of his head before nodding.
"Yay! A tour! Please, High Marshal, show us your facility!"
Xilch, ever charismatic as she was cunning, smiled with a courteous nod.
"I would be honored, My Tallest. Right this way, if you would be so kind…"
As she ushered the pair of hovering leaders into moving forward, an unseen hand behind Xilch's back gestured for her to follow the entourage. Whatever she intended to do, she needed act decisively and with tact. The presence of Honor Guard certainly complicated matters.
Niz wasn't too far behind as Cagir waited by the door to the cell block. As Xilch began her spiel to the Tallest. Armed IIA guards with shotguns and PDWs stormed the block in full force. Two standing next to General Cagir to make sure he didn't try anything as the others quickly descended on the Honor Guard on Niz's signal and forcefully disarmed and detained them. Three of them for each member of the Honor Guard. Overwhelming force, shock and awe, there wasn't a chance the Tallests' own guards had.
"Heeeeeeeey! What is this?!" Purple asked at the spectacle of their own bodyguards being disarmed and cuffed.
"There had better be a good explanation for this, High Marshal." Red, rather unamused, asked curtly.
"Oh, just part of the demonstration, Almighty Tallest! To show you the response time of our fine guards!" Niz intervened with an answer that seemed satisfactory enough to Purple who shrugged.
"Well, on with the tour then!"
As the members of the Honor Guard were taken elsewhere in the prison to be put into a cell, Niz and Xilch continued on until they reached the cell that once held Captain Aiks. The Colonel disarmed the energy shield and opened the barred door within.
"Feel free to have a look inside." The Colonel gestured to the cell within.
"Okie dokie!" Purple and Red floated inside to have a look at the accommodations prisoners had within the facility. Niz quickly slammed the bars closed and locked the door behind them.
"Oh! They're testing the door for us!" Purple grabbed the bars and shook. "Let me outta heeeere!"
"I couldn't help but notice there's…bloodstains in here." Red gestured, either not quite grasping in full what had transpired or was too distracted.
"An unfortunate result of dealing with unruly occupants, My Tallest. Internal Affairs treats all prisoners with diligence and intends to remain cordial. Unfortunately, they tend to not agree with our…methods and wish to express their displeasure." Xilch casually explained as Red continued to inspect the cell while Purple began reaching for the shimmering field around the bars as it activated. "Don't touch that."
"What? Why?"
"It will hurt, My Tallest…a lot. Please refrain from touching the bars."
"But-"
"You do so at your own risk." Niz added.
Purple, undeterred, reached for the energy shield and screamed as it delivered a massive shock to his system.
"Oooooowwwwwwwwww!"
"I…warned you, My Tallest." The High Marshal did her best to not find amusement in his plight, nor the realization that with Colonel Niz's paranoid assistance, managed to apprehend and secure the leadership of the Irken Empire.
"By Irk that was easier than I thought it would be." Niz blinked in surprise.
"Hahaha…idiot." Red laughed at his co-ruler's misfortune, sighing. "Well, this is certainly impressive and I don't think we could have had a better candidate for the job of managing this facility."
"Colonel Niz is among the best within Internal Affairs, My Tallest." Xilch placated, looking to her subordinate. "I believe you have left quite the impression on our glorious leaders."
"I aim to impress and deliver results, High Marshal."
"Speaking of delivery…" She responded, turning her attention back to Red and Purple behind the energized bars. "I believe you were to inform me of rather dire information moments ago. What was it?"
"Di-...whaaa?" Purple queried, dumbfounded as he looked between the two IIA officers. "What're you talking about? Is the tour over?"
"For two violators of the Imperial Standard? Yes it is." Niz flatly answered.
Tallest Red, the more intelligent of the two, immediately caught on to the Colonel's implications.
"Violat- We're the leaders! How can we violate rules we make?"
"Is this some kind of joke?" Purple interjected.
"Must be, a poorly-timed one in bad taste…okay, you two, you've had your fun. Let us out."
"Yeah! Really funny…We gotta get back to the Massive!"
"No, no you don't. You two are interfering in an ongoing treason investigation. The Imperial Standard demands your immediate arrest, even if you are the Tallest."
Red looked from Niz in disbelief to Xilch, gesturing to her subordinate.
"You're just gonna stand there and let her arrest us?"
"...your earlier statement of making the rules is factually incorrect, My Tallest. The Control Brains dictate the rules, including the Imperial Standard…not you. None are above the Imperial Standard. Colonel Niz is well within her authority to arrest you on such charges and it is now her responsibility to provide the burden of proof to determine your innocence or guilt. As the Director of Internal Affairs, I must support the actions of my subordinates in line with the Imperial Standard."
"Y-you can't do this! We're the leaders!" Purple exclaimed. "We have you do this to other people, not us!"
"You will shut up…Great One."
"No I won't! I'm the one who tells you to shut up!"
Niz blinked. "Okay, punishment time it is." She whistled for several IIA guards to come down and stand nearby, intimidatingly.
Realizing what she was intending to do to the Tallest with her forces, the High Marshal felt it prudent to intervene before things spiraled out of control. She saw Zha and her command staff's state-of-affairs. The same treatment of the Tallest under any circumstances could not be permitted. Not without great risk or retaliation.
"Niz." Xilch unkindly spoke, garnering the Colonel's attention. "That is unnecessary and you will have problems with me should you feel inclined to challenge my authority. Proceed with your investigation."
She put her hands up, dispersing the guards for now.
"Very well, so, you're both told of High Marshal Zha's implication in the plot against the Empire as an accomplice of General Vaukt, but you insist on releasing a traitor into our midst. A traitor who will command a legion of troops and ships who will easily turn them against the Empire. Explain yourselves."
Red blinked, processing Niz's accusations from behind the energized bars.
"...you just said you didn't have anything actionable to go off of with her! How can you know she's a traitor if you can't prove it?! Since when did Internal Affairs assume things?! If anyone is in violation of the standard-thingy it's you! We have an empire to manage and a conquest to run!"
Already sensing matters complicating themselves further, Xilch unkindly gripped Niz's shoulder to pull her close and off to the side to speak low between them.
"Go finish dealing with their protection detail and file your report. Now."
Report first, things later, right.
"Of course, I'll go file the report immediately and come back to deal with Zha after that. General Cagir, you're now my impromptu guest for the interim."
"Fucking joy…"
"Guards, status." Niz asked over the radio as she walked to her office with the General in tow.
"Facility's secure. Warmaster Burgg's out front looking rather impatient."
"Detain him. He resists, weapons free, standard procedure."
"Consider it done."