This week's prompt is from Mikhail with "blue", but during the editing process, the 'blue' reveal got pushed back to if/when this story line continues. In the meantime, I suppose you could say the other characters are pretty blue right now, right? That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
The next chapter will be posted later tonight or early tomorrow. It was going to go up last night, but I got distracted by Dark Eldar. Sorry for the wait, but it'll be up shortly.
~
Final Boss:
“Across the entire galaxy, filled with every type of sapient life that you can imagine, we learned one lesson. Nobody hates humans more than us humans. But the rest sure gave it their best shot.”
~
If you wanted to be brief, everything started when Earth (not humanity) developed faster-than-light travel. If you wanted to be accurate, then it began a few hundred thousand years before that. Someone, known only today as the Propagators, took a cross-section of all the known sapient species and scattered them across habitable worlds, changing many of them in the process. Every species had at least a half-dozen children, known as Scions. Some were little different than their parents, some were so altered by their environments and the Propagators that they might as well have been completely different species. Some of these child races had surpassed their parents, others never advanced beyond the most primitive of societies before they were discovered.
At last count, humanity had eleven different descendants. First among them, to everyone else’s eventual regret, were the Vale.
The Vale were Earth-born humanity’s most closely-related offshoot and one of the most advanced races in the galaxy. They should have been glad to meet their long-lost parents; whenever a ‘Progenitor’ found one of their Scions or vice versa, it was usually a time of celebration. Not so between Terran humanity and the Vale.
The Galactic Council gave a permanent seat to every Progenitor race. For centuries, the Vale had occupied that position. Whether they’d lied to get that position, truly believed that they were humanity’s Progenitor or had come to believe that lie made no difference. Earth’s arrival on the galactic scene, in their sphere of influence no less, cost them the prestige and power they’d long held and damaged their reputation as others wondered if the Vale had deliberately tried to impede the development or cover up the presence of Earth and its people to hold onto their position.
The Vale never forgave their parents for existing and what that existence had cost them. The divide between Vale and Terran became so great that no one dared call the former ‘humanbreed’ and when the war against the latter had begun, there had been no question upon which side the Vale would fall. They had set upon Earth and the other humanbreed – the very races that they had once championed and represented – with a ruthlessness and cold savagery that made even their own allies look in askance upon them.
In the aftermath of the war, it was the Vale who had the best ideas of what to do with all the survivors. Kalvyr was their world. Its games and pleasure domes were renowned across the galaxy and everyone loved a good show. Its pens were stocked with hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, humanbreed to entertain the crowds and the most enoyable shows, David and his people had been told, all involved Terrans.
David’s group had been twelve when the doors opened. Nine lines later, nine-tenths of the way across the arena and it was down to six. David himself, Agatha, Kelli, Tony, Ben and Andy. The best fighters and luckiest survivors remained. Everyone else had fallen, their bodies staining the sands. Two of their people had tried to run during the trials. A young woman whose name David couldn’t remember right now and Kenji, a private from his platoon. Both of their corpses were being gnawed on by the fae hounds. The woman had been lucky. One of the animals, probably young and not as well trained as the rest, had accidentally broken her neck when it clamped down. She’d died instantly. Kenji had taken a lot longer. He’d been alive and screaming as they ate him, starting from the arms and legs to make sure he didn’t bleed out too quickly, letting him flop around with broken, savaged limbs until they pounced on him again to the laughter of the crowd.
“Our spirited combatants are doing well, don’t you think?” The announcer’s voice blared across the stands. Cheers and jeers swelled and then faded. “They’ve nearly conquered the Ten Steps to Freedom challenge, facing down such obstacles as wild mire beasts, a crawling horror of Deneb, Surety Construction’s standard arena units, a pair of Urnugg’s novice hammerers and more, only losing half of their number. Can they make defeat the final challenge? We’re about to find out after a brief intermission and trust me, sapes – this is the round you won’t want to miss!”
Holographic timers went up, showing the audience how much time they had before the start of the final round. David could read Galactic Standard. Not very long at all.
“What do you think they’ll have for us?” Kelli asked. Her voice was shaking. Her arms and legs were covered with scratches and cuts from the feeder thorns in round four. They were still bleeding; the carnivorous flora secreted an adaptive anticoagulant that ensured that any prey that escaped its spiny embrace wouldn’t get far. The wild versions were slow moving ambush predators. The Kalvyrian special was a lot more aggressive.
“Does it matter?” that was Ben. “If we do beat it, so what? It’s not freedom on the other side of those doors. It’s another arena, and another and another.”
David pursed his lips. They’d known going in that making it to the other side wasn’t actual freedom, just a reprieve. The survivors would be auctioned off to slavemasters and fighting rings to live and die here in Kalvyr’s coliseums. “It’s another arena,” he agreed, checking the dented face of his shield. “But it’s another day we get to see. And every day is a chance. Every day is a bit of hope. We give up on that, then we’ve got nothing at all. Getting to the other side really won’t matter if we give up.”
He got tired, frightened nods. Andy, the former Marine just gave David a choppy nod of approval.
“And now,” the announcer called as the timer ran down. “It’s time for the final round of the day! Our combatants are only one step away from safety, but the last challenge is the best! You’ve seen what the Axos Quarter Arena has to offer, but we’ve been promising you something a little special and it’s time for the reveal! Guests new and old, visitors of fresh faces and regulars who’ve stuck with us... it’s time!”
The crowd fell into a hush as the doors at the other side of the arena, so close to the group of humans slowly opened. There was nothing but darkness inside and.. movement. The figure inside stepped out into the light and as they did so, David realized that they were all going to die.