Ravens of Eternity

295 Vicious Payback, Pt Freya then jammed her spear deep into his abdomen, just under the core. Then she fired her coilgun and tore off the upper half from the lower, and kicked away all the parts and pieces around him.

As the other Ravens came up, she continued to jam her spear around That Idiot’s core, and cut him out of his chassis bit by bit.

“But feel free to continue begging for your life,” Freya continued. “Not sure about the others, but I’m definitely enjoying hearing you grovel.”

Despite the clear insult, That Idiot did indeed keep begging for his life. He began to snivel and blubber as he did, perhaps increasingly so.

“Stop, stop, please!” he pleaded. “I’ll tell the Peacekeepers to stop chasing you. We’ll leave you alone forever, I promise!”

“It does not matter,” Raijin said.

She skated up to the others and joined them as Freya wrenched open his mecha.

“Your destroyer is now completely blind,” she continued. “It is unable to continue the chase, even if it wanted to. My engines have completely overtaken its targeting intelligence as well as its sensor circuits. All operators have been locked out as a result.

“It is only a matter of time until they have complete control of the ship itself, as they have begun to spread across the other circuits.”

.....

The destroyer itself began to slow down as panic overtook the bridge. There, the commanding officer gaped wide at his screens as every single sensor cluster on the ship shut down. They were literally flying blind, and had no choice but to completely stop.

And when he attempted to reach out to That Idiot or even headquarters back on Helios, found that their communications network was behaving incredibly erratically.

Then their comms went dark altogether.

Raijin pointed her stun pistol at That Idiot’s now-exposed core, and fired a single shot. The slug dented it inward slightly on impact, then released its charge. Electricity flared out and completely shorted the core.

She then injected her engines into it as it began to automatically reboot, and completely took over the whole thing.

“The core is keyed to Amelia’s teleport signal,” Raijin declared. “We can go now.”

Although That Idiot was pleading for his life, nothing went through. And no matter what controls he hit, nothing happened. Even his emergency controls no longer worked, and he couldn’t even eject as normal.

Dread filled him as images of being tortured for an eternity danced in his mind. He had lost all control of his own future, and sat in his core stewing in abject fear.

“I’ll grab that,” said Kali.

She stepped forward as she holstered her pistols into her thighs, then tore the core out of its chassis. A few cables that were still attached snapped off and dangled from the core itself.

Then, the Ravens leapt off the destroyer and blasted off towards their corvette. They only took a few seconds to catch up as Amelia slowed down and stopped.

“Calculating port destination,” said Claire. “And we’re outta here.”

“Teleport Drive engaged,” said Amelia. “Please maintain zero velocity and acceleration for a minimum of fifteen seconds. Thank you.”

The other Ravens circled her as the port module connected each of them, That Idiot included.
“Teleporting now,” said Amelia.

With a flash, they disappeared from Federation space altogether.

~

It was hours later when That Idiot’s core opened up. His screens suddenly came on, and its panels opened up in front of him. Light flooded in from the outside and made him squint from the sheer brightness of the sky.

His vision adjusted slightly, but he quickly realized he was on some planet, somewhere. He seemed to be in the middle of a lush valley, at one of the many backwater planets in the galaxy.

When his sight came back into focus, all his blood drained from his face. All seven of the Ravens stood in a semi-circle in front of him. Scattered behind them was their ship, and all their mecha, which sat idle as they performed full repairs.

The Ravens themselves were armed and armored, though none seemed particularly threatened by his presence.

“Get out,” said Freya. “Or I’ll drag you out. With or without working arms and legs.”

With absolute trepidation, That Idiot unbuckled himself from his seat, and climbed out of his core. He stepped out, but slipped on something and stumbled to the ground instead.

No-one helped him as he picked himself up onto his knees. And instead of standing up, he stayed there, as though to beg for his life. The fear was completely evident in his voice.

“Wh-what’re you gonna do with me?” he asked.

“Patience,” Lucifer answered. “You oughta enjoy what time you’ve got left.”

That Idiot’s heart beat madly in his chest thanks to Lucifer’s provocations. He imagined that they were going to beat him to death out in the middle of nowhere, then leave his body to die. Or let him get eaten by some vicious and wild beast.

He gulped down nervously at the thought.

“If you’re gonna kill me,” he cried out, “then just fucking do it already!”

“It’s not that easy,” said Azrael.

She walked towards him with eyes filled with sorrow and regret and anger and trepidation. She seemed a mix of apprehension and excitement at the same time. As she neared, her drone arms folded out from behind her, and their tips formed into wicked talon-like needles.

Her voice wavered as she spoke, but evened out by the end.

“You’ve killed so many people,” Azrael began. “You and all your thugs. Who knows how many thousands. And if you didn’t kill them outright, you killed something deep inside instead. A future they could’ve had, a life they would’ve enjoyed.”

She stopped right in front of him and trembled slightly. Her face was twisted with an internal agony that he could never understand.

And never would.

“Just what kind of justice exists for someone like you?” Azrael continued. “Someone so obviously unrepentant about who they are, and the harm they cause... Do we kill you? Confine you? Set you free? It seems like no matter what we choose, you’ll never change. You’ll always be... damaged.

“I could genetically alter you, you know. I could take away everything that makes you, you. I could revert you back to who you were, before you were transported here. The ‘you’ that used to live on Earth.

“I could take away your immortality, and give you back your old lifespan. What would you have left? 20 years? 25? 30, at most, that’s for sure. I could maybe even accelerate your aging so you only last 10 years.

“And while you rot alive, you would get to watch as we Ravens fly higher and higher up, way out of your reach. You would waste away, bitter and alone, with nothing and no-one.”

Azrael’s drone arms hovered above her like a couple of scorpion tails, massive stingers included. It seemed to That Idiot that they could stab him at any time, and he stared at them wide-eyed.

He was certain they would be incredibly painful.

“But giving you even that much time to live is way too good for you. Not after how much you’ve taken away from so many others. Whatever punishment we give you wouldn’t come close to making things right.

“And worse, you’d probably find your way back. Your benefactor could easily restore your body, your ledger, your ships, your people. You’d be back eventually, stronger than ever. And you’d happily do what you’re best at – destroying people’s lives for no reason at all.”

That Idiot’s face froze in shock the moment Azrael mentioned his Benefactor. He was absolutely certain that their special connection was secret. He or she had promised him as much, but it was clear that things weren’t as secure as he was led to believe.

“How’d you know about the benefactor?” he stammered. “No-one knows... no-one! It... I can’t... there’s no way! You’re bluffing!”

“We know all about your secret association,” lied Freya. “Your communications, all the promises they gave you, everything. And don’t worry – we’ll take care of things. Not that you’ll be around to see it.”

That Idiot slumped where he knelt. Defeat filled him completely.

Everything had been completely taken away from him, and there was no going back now. Not while he was at the mercy of the Ravens.

“The benefactor’s afraid of you, did you know that?” he said sullenly. “If I... introduced you... so you could kill him... would you let me go?”

Azrael huffed at his proclamation. She shook as she spoke, partially out of fear. Partially out of the traumas she had experienced. And partially because her body couldn’t handle the raw emotions that flooded her.

She recalled Dareon, the life she could have had with him. And she recalled how he was killed like a dog, and how Jionna was taken like an object over and over. She recalled her own violations, and tightened her fist subconsciously.

“There’s no way you could do that,” she said. “And even if you could, it wouldn’t absolve you. You wouldn’t change. There’s no curing you, or people like you. I can’t even hope to cure you. Like Freya says – it would be a waste. I’d be better off using my life to heal those who deserve it.

“And you don’t.

“No matter what promises you try to dangle in our faces. You don’t have anything to give us, or to the galaxy. Truth is, you’re truly a cancer to humanity. You’re something that exists to corrupt it, destroy it.

“The only way to heal humanity is to cut you out.”

One of her drone arms swung downwards suddenly. It stabbed him through the bottom of his neck downwards. It pierced through muscle and bone with absolute ease, then punched right through to his heart.

He screamed in pain, and tried to struggle. But found his body completely unresponsive.

Azrael filled his body with a modified version of Commander Chase’s genetic suppressant. A far finer, and far more potent version of it. She had spent weeks fine-tuning it and developing it, just for this moment. The mutagenic drug filled him, and began to strip away his abilities.



He felt his strength ebb, even as the stabbing pain coursed from the inside out in powerful waves. And he was completely helpless against it all – his body simply didn’t respond, and sat there powerlessly as Azrael drained his lifeforce.

Her other drone arm shot forward and pierced him through his chest. This went straight through the bone and pierced him in his heart’s other ventricle.

His screams filled the air as the enhanced amount of pain filled his body. But no-one heard him. Not on this completely empty planet. And certainly, no-one came to help.

Azrael pulled both drone arms out, then stepped back from him. Her body shook from the act, and was on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Killing someone wasn’t easy for her, but this was something she needed to do.

She felt it was something she was destined to do.

Her drone arms folded back into her back as the other Ravens came up around her. They held her up, even as her knees started to go weak. They all watched as the blood drained from That Idiot’s face, and out the hole in his chest. It poured out unceasingly and pooled around his knees.

After a moment, he fell face-first into the ground as the last of his breath left his lungs.

Then, darkness took him for the rest of eternity.