Hyperdrive

Chapter Three - Ralsqath

The ship touches down, the planet Ralsqath having no genuine landing strip, a dry clearing on the edge of the marshlands their only point of touchdown for miles, they would have to walk from here. 

K'aarn and Arya step out of the ship's small cargo area, no fast entry/exit hatch to and from the cockpit, a feature suggested by a friend of theirs, makes them much less likely to be hijacked in the middle of space was his reasoning. Arya still without a helmet, a thick scarf covering her breathing apparatus, the carbon concentration on Ralsqath so high the atmosphere is unbreathable to all but the cockroach-esque Q'ataar. she turns to K'aarn, the combination of the breathing apparatus and a large green hood obscuring most of his face, they are wearing green and dark brown combat clothing, K'aarn's armour currently in for repair as he recalls he left the broken pieces to Mokuura, possibly the galaxy's best smithy, on his home planet of Sire. Wearing only a prototype of a second set that he and the smithy designed for functionality that he spray painted to blend with the dense forestry on the planet. Arya would be positioned in the trees, and as such wore only lightweight clothing, the clinking and clunking of armour "would only give away my position" he distinctly remembers her saying.

The duo check their gear one last time, K'aarn's pistols strapped to his legs, his long curved blade and the pole strapped to his back. Arya checks the chamber of her rifle, loaded. It was time to move on.

"Right, we've got twelve miles of swampland to cover in a day, if we start now we could make it in about 2 hours. Are you ready?"

"K'aarn you don't have to ask me like a kid, we wouldn't be here if we weren't as ready as we'll ever be now shut up and come on, the way you keep on talking it'll be night before we even start walking."

"Don't you ever get bored of taunting me?" K'aarn asks, with mock hurt in his voice.

The trek through the swamplands is harder than they expected, patches of quicksands and mud littering their route, the heavy rain causing the mud to become slick, K'aarn has to drive the pole hard into the floor to stop himself slipping over multiple times. They begin to run into patrols and guard posts about an hour and a half half in. Arya quietly slipping a blade into the back of the skull of any guard they see. They were getting close, they could feel it. The tree line opened out into a large clearing, a huge freighter ship visible now, despite the rain obscuring their vision. Codeus and his people must have stopped down on Ralsqath for emergency repairs, the planet being completely uninhabitable by anyone except their native race. 

"There he is, up there on that platform." Arya points to show him. Raising the scope of her rifle to her eye level, she steadies it. However, the sound of a twig snapping alerts them to the presence of about fifteen Q'ataar soldiers behind them, their guns pointed steady at their heads. Arya checks the platform where Codeus was standing but he is no longer there. A voice over the Q'ataaran's radios instructs that they are taken prisoner. K'aarn tries to charge up some lightning but he isn't held down, one of the mercenaries takes great pleasure in putting a couple of bullets through his arms, mocking him with his croaky, sharp voice "the thunderstorm's over." The last thing Arya sees is K'aarn thrashing about as he is beaten by the soldiers before the butt of a gun slams into her temple. She blacks out.

"Ah, so the woman lives after all." The thing's voice a harsh gargling sound, not that of a Q'ataar, but neither that of a humanoid.

Arya looks for K'aarn, she catches a glimpse of his beaten, bloodied body before she feels a sharp pain in her scalp as the creature grabs her hair, yanking her head back to face him. His face humanoid, but a blueish-purple hue, his body completely naked, the natural armour of the insect-like Q'ataar covering his body, hiding important things, like his genitalia, behind plating to prevent damage during battle.

"Your man is alive, don't worry, I wanted to keep him alive for this." A sickening grin crosses his face as his Armor plating retracts in certain areas, including two long, sharp, pronged claws extending from his wrists.

K'aarn writhes and screams in agony, as he watches the thing perform a variety of sickening acts in front of him, powerless to stop any of it as his body is restrained by the group of mercenaries, the holes in his arms stopping him from fighting back. The disgusting ritual lasts about an hour, with the masochistic Codeus cutting and slicing at the helpless woman's flesh as he mocks the pair, shouting insults and obscenities, describing his sensations and committing his sins. He leaves her near-naked body on the ground, battered and bruised. He and his intrusion grinning and insulting the two of them on the ground. 

"Before I leave you on this disgusting planet, if you ever hunt me again, I can guarantee you that today will seem like a playdate in comparison."

Before the two are knocked unconscious they share a collective thought: "He is going to die for what he did today" and from that day forward they searched.