Ravens of Eternity

307 Liberating Force, Pt The Dark Market, Minor House Weir

Shadows stirred deep below the bustling city’s surface. Down here, the rather spacious multi-floor auditorium was equally abuzz with activity, albeit a little more subdued in excitement. Here, hundreds of well-dressed people stood on a number of floors, along dark balconies that wrapped around, and looked down on a well-lit platform at the bottom floor.

Some peered over the edge at the sight below, and grinned at what they saw.

The large platform stood roughly a meter up above the bottom floor, and was surrounded with a dozen men and women. All seemed young, virile, attractive, and completely docile. Each wore thin simple translucent robes, which hinted at their bodies underneath.

One of them was led up onto the platform by a couple of gruff-looking armored men, and placed right next to a well-dressed auctioneer in the middle.

“And now we’ve come to lot #13,” exclaimed the auctioneer. “This one is a prime specimen – she comes with a certificate that guarantees age and virginity. We’ve trained her up since childhood for any of your needs.”

As the auctioneer spoke, the robed girl next to him spun slowly in a circle, and gave the crowds in the balconies above a good view of her from every direction.

“Kneel,” the auctioneer told her.

She immediately stopped spinning, and lowered herself down to her knees. Obediently.

.....

“Open your mouth.”

The girl quickly closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide. She even stuck her tongue out slightly, as though to accept some kind of object.

But instead, the auctioneer patted her on the head like a dog.

“Very good,” he said. “Stand back up and show everyone your assets.”

Just like the other commands, she quickly stood up without protest. Then she loosened her robe and let it fall off her shoulders down to her feet.

She stood naked in the very middle of the platform, then spun slowly in a circle once again. This time, she also posed her arms and legs as she spun, as though she was a living statue.

Up above, hushed murmurs spread across the balconies. The wealthy dilettantes eagerly discussed amongst themselves, and gauged the quality of the slave below.

“The bidding may now begin,” said the auctioneer, “at 250,000 ducats.”

Many among the crowds immediately raised their datapads and put in their bids. It didn’t take long for things to get incredibly heated – many were immediately taken by the slave. Some were convinced that they had to have her, and telegraphed their lust using their robust ledgers.

~

The slavers behind the scenes watched as the bids climbed higher and higher, far beyond their expectations. And their grins widened further and further as a result. They congratulated each other quietly from the sudden jackpot they fell into.

And in the staging area all around them, in the room adjacent to the auditorium, the rest of the slavers prepped a number of other slaves.

There were multiple sealed containers spread around the staging area, with two of them already open. Each of them were guarded by a handful of lightly armed slavers, who watched over everything like hawks.

One of the slave handlers walked up to one of the open containers with a datapad in his hands. He scrolled through the list, tapped on a few names, and quickly scanned the bios that popped up.

Then he pointed to a handful of of the naked, shivering slaves inside.

“That one,” he said. “That one, and... that one. Bring ’em out for prep.”

His assistant immediately went into the container and grabbed the first one roughly by the arm. But he was quickly chided by the handler.

“Hey, take it easy with the stock,” he admonished him. “These ones are going for a premium. If you bruise ’em, you’re gonna end up chum for the dogs, you hear?”

The assistant grunted in understanding and eased his grip. And though he wasn’t rough, he was certainly still aggressive, and pushed the three slaves out.

He led them to a booth next to the exit towards the auditorium, where one of the slavers prepped the slaves themselves. There, the three were cleaned up, slightly perfumed, and dressed in robes.

As the handler and his assistant watched with lurid eyes, a BANG shot out from the far side of the staging area. There, one of the secure doors was blasted open by a simple charge, which tore into a few slavers standing guard.

White smoke began to creep across the room and swallowed up everything all around at the same time. As it did so, slaves huddled further into the containers in fear while the slavers backed up away from it.

Out of nowhere, a rifle shot echoed throughout, and pierced through a handful of slavers standing in a row. They were all blown back from the force, even as the bullet embedded into the thick titacrete wall on the other side of the room.

The other slavers immediately responded with their own gunfire, and sprayed their weapons into the creeping smoke blindly. Fear of being the next to go down swept through them, and they unloaded everything they had.

The smoke itself swirled around as their rounds punched the air.

Just as one of them reloaded his SMG, Lucifer leapt out from between two containers and threw a palm strike right at his face. The slaver’s skull CRACKED from the force of the strike as his body was flung into a number of his compatriots.

They were tossed around like dolls.

At the same time ze had struck him, Lucifer grabbed the SMG out of his hands, spun it around in hir grip, then sprayed bullets casually into the slavers. Their own bullets tore through their armor, and shredded their bodies underneath.

While Lucifer handily tore apart one group of slavers, Kali jumped out from the smoke with her hammer held high. She charged the next closest group of slavers, then slammed one with a devastating downward swing.

He cried out in abject pain as her powerful blow crumpled him to the ground and pulverized his shoulder.

But she didn’t stop there – she stepped over his body and swung her hammer laterally at the next one. She slammed it heavily into his side, which snapped a number of his ribs and threw him into the slaver next to him.

Both were sent sprawling to the ground, one in far more pain than the other.

Just as a couple of the slavers raised their SMGs at Kali, Xylo fired another sniper round. Her single bullet tore through the first one and pierced through his chest from the side. It punched out the other side and ripped into the second one, just above his elbow.

It utterly obliterated his upper arm, which flung his weapon to the side. He screamed in pain as he clutched at his bloody arm, while its lower half hung on with strands of muscle and skin.

Kali shut him up permanently when she slammed her hammer right on his head, and caved it halfway in. His body fell unceremoniously to the ground after swaying back and forth for a couple of moments.

While the Ravens polished off the rest of the slavers in the staging area, Azrael crept through the smoke and entered one of the open containers.

There she saw the terrified slaves as they huddled in the far corner of the container itself. She noted their dirty bodies and disheveled hair, along with the utterly barebones container they were in. It was clear that the slavers treated them like animals, and her heart broke for them.

“It’s okay,” she told them quietly. “You’re all okay now. We’re here to save you, take you home, back where you belong. And if you don’t have anywhere to go, you can stay with us.”

The slaves only looked at her with frightened eyes. Though they understood what she was saying, they could hardly believe it. They had been prisoners for far too long.

A few were suddenly struck with the concept of freedom, the very idea of it. They fell to their knees and began to weep.

~

Everyone inside the auditorium was utterly stunned at all they had heard from inside the staging area. Though most of it was muffled, it was absolutely clear to some that gunshots had erupted from back there.

The auctioneer looked around nervously, unsure of what to do – whether he should run, or simply keep going. He prodded the slaver next to him, who proceeded to escort lot #13 off the platform and back down to the floor.

And just as the girl stepped off, Freya came down from high above. She had leapt off the highest balcony and dropped down the center, right in the middle of the platform itself.

She slammed down on the titacrete below, which caused the ground to shake, and toppled the auctioneer off his feet. And in the Ra’ventrii armor, she straightened up proudly, which caused a wave of fear to ripple through the crowds above.

Some froze in terror the moment they saw her matte black power armor with its menacing, aggressive lines and lavender glowing eyes. The crowd ran out of sheer panic, and practically trampled each other in order to escape.

The auctioneer was utterly frightened by Freya’s sudden and violent entrance, and immediately clambered away as fast as he could on all fours, but Freya quickly snagged him by his ankle. She squeezed her grip, which shattered his bones and caused him to scream in blinding pain.

But before she could do anything with him, two of the slavers jumped up on the platform and sprayed her down with their SMGs.

Streams of their bullets peppered her armor all over, but she was hardly bothered by them. Instead, she let go of the auctioneer, and turned unperturbed at the two slavers.

“You done?” she intoned.

Her voice modulated out of the armor’s sonic emitters, which gave it a somewhat cold and mechanical tone. It caused them to shiver deep in their cores.

She quickly drew her handcannon from its magnetic holster and fired two quick shots in succession. The massive slugs blasted into each of the two slavers, threw them back, tore their armor to shreds, and blew them apart from the force.

Chunks of meat and bone and blood splattered all over the place, and decorated the auction hall’s walls grimly.

Freya turned her head at the auctioneer, who was crawling away from her out of sheer terror. He was panting and raving and begging for his life as he inched further and further away. But she hardly cared. It wasn’t as though he was going to get very far.

She casually holstered her handcannon, then turned to look at the slaves all around the platform itself, who had crouched down on the floor defensively.

“Let’s get the fuck outta here,” she told them.