The Yuthara Pact

Chapter 5: Captured

The floor was hard. The metal grate below him pressed hard into the side of his face. His body hurt, his muscles tingling in pain. The electricity that had coursed through his muscles left them feeling weak and fatigued. His mind was foggy, unsure of what precisely had happened to him, but he remembered the pain. A dart had magnetized to his armor and then the pain had begun, leaving him unconscious on the floor.

Then he thought of Caara, how she slumped to a floor pulling a dart from her throat.

Ethrosor opened his eyes, but the world swirled around him and it took a few moments for his eyes to focus. With a grunt he rolled onto his back. His armor clanged against the floor. He could tell that some systems in his armor were fried from the electricity attack because it was hard to move about. The armor was heavy, so moving within it swiftly required installing systems that responded to his own body movements, allowing him to move within the armor as if it was weightless. But his armor was heavy now, those systems not functioning.

"You're awake," came the whisper of a woman. It was Caara.

Ethrosor turned his head and peered through the energy field of his holding cell. Caara was in a similar holding cell right next to him. She looked at him with concern etched on her face. She crouched down to get a better look at him.

"Can you move? Are you badly injured?"

"I'll be fine," he replied. His throat felt like sandpaper. Speaking was difficult, and he needed a drink; preferably something like whiskey. "Where are we?"

"I woke up an hour ago. From the look of this room we are no longer in the sewers."

"Who's holding us? The Yuthara Pact? One of the gangs?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen a soul. Can you move?"

Ethrosor lifted his head. He wondered where his helmet was. Whoever had captured them had removed it. Luckily the rest of his armor and his droid arm were still with him. Escaping shouldn't be too difficult. Sitting up was hard, but he managed it. He lifted his chin to each side, popping his throbbing neck satisfyingly.

The room through the energy cell was simple and clean, more like a giant steel box. A single metal table stood in the center of the room with nothing on it. He didn't see a doorway, but that just meant it was hidden. He saw his helmet laying on the ground in one corner. In the left corner near the ceiling he saw a camera pointing at them. There also appeared to be some sort of computer terminal on one wall, most likely the controls for the energy cells.

"Good. You're not paralyzed," Caara remarked. She rose to her feet, and Ethrosor did so as well, his muscles shaky and throbbing. Apparently electricity was not good for the body.

Ethrosor tapped on the control panel on his droid arm. Nothing. All the software and hardware in his suit was offline, including that of his droid arm. That was disappointing.

"Not just electricity," Ethrosor mumbled to himself. "Ion."

Ion, in large enough charges, even affected his armor. It was the perfect attack for anything electronic.

"Your fancy armor isn't working?"

"No. Escaping will be much more difficult, now."

"Leave that to me," Caara said confidently.

But before she could do anything, a doorway appeared in the east wall, a metal panel sinking into the floor with a metallic click. A man entered, his attire and armor a mismatched collection of antique junk from several planets, producers, and time periods. His head was bare, though, shaved bald with a dark, jagged tattoo leading from the crown of his dead, down the side of his face and neck, and disappearing beneath his clothing and armor. He was a big, muscular man, and his face was twisted in a satisfied grin.