The Warrior

Issue 4- The Mechanic (Part 1)

"Keela has been a slave ever since

she left home. Sold a dozen or so time. And not once

did any of them ask who she was, what her story was.

They just took her story for themselves."

--Maldwyn Budd

Keela let out a gurgle of a sound from her throat, the most her body could manage past the exhaustion and agony that wracked her body. Her legs hung limply beneath her, her body held aloft by the shackles around her wrists and another around her neck.

   The heads-up display inside of her helmet flickered weakly in front of her every now and then. They'd damaged her systems first. She knew she had several suit ruptures all over, a small blade still embedded in her left leg.

   She was surprised she was still conscious at all. The moment they dragged her into the small metal room with chains and a table of sharp implements she expected to have passed out within minutes. Perhaps she was tougher than she thought.

   They'd left her alone, her torturer. She wasn't sure for how long. Could have been hours. Could have been seconds.

   They'd been a Skrull, a small thing whose green skin had a grey tinge to it. They didn't speak or gloat. They didn't ask any questions. They just worked.

   Started with electrodes, then moved onto blades. They had just turned towards what her hazy eyes saw as some kind of drill before they stopped and walked out of the room. She could only hope that when they returned they brought her death with them.

   She swallowed as her eyes drifted down towards her feet, and squinted as she focused on the purple blood that ran down her legs and dripped off her pointed toes. The blood of her people. The last blood of her people.

   Words echoed through her mind. Her own and those of others. Chants and promises and vows.

   The metal door slid open with a HISS and a CLUNK as her torturer returned, their eyes narrowed as they read a holographic pad in their hand. She turned her head sluggishly towards them and tried to read the hologram, though could make out nothing from the back even if she did know the language.

   "Trouble?" she coughed out. "I could... Nnnn... Help..."

   They looked at her with cold eyes and shut the pad off as they tossed it onto the table of instruments. Their hand grasped the drill once more.

   "Please... Pl-please don't. I can... pay her back. By Ekar, I w-will."

   Their green-grey finger flicked a switch and the drill-head began to spin with a whir that seemed to vibrate inside Keela's very head. She groaned as the sound grew into a migraine that tore at her.

   They cupped their free hand around her left thigh and positioned the drill. THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! Three heavy hits upon the metal door caused the Skrull torturer to stop. They cocked an eyebrow as they turned to the door, their shoulders rose and fell with a sigh.

   They released Keela and moved to open the door. It hissed open and Keela let out a weak scream as accelerated metal ripped through the Skrull and splattered green mess across the metal room.

   "Keela!" Budd shouted as he moved inside, a rifle of the Empress' men in his hands.

   "Told you I'd bring you to her," Aimee muttered from outside the door. "Now get her so we can murder the Goblin."