I am Thentarix Stormtalon! A Chimeran member of Ash Vow, captured by Kar Virellian, sold back Kar Dravenn where I was rebranded as Thenvrax, and sent down to the Sanguine pits. Here the rich nobles of Elystra get their excitement, watching powerful warriors kill each other for their entertainment. For ten years I fought for the Varkh, for fifteen years I fought against the Varkh. Now, the Ascendancy has me fighting again, but not for land or glory, but so Ulkh Tharn can win Karn Marks, a fitting name for the value they bring to their bloodline.
I sit on the bench surrounded by other warriors, each of us with chains on our necks, the air reeks of death, fear, and anger. The floor is sticky with the blood that drains from the sanguine pit above us into a set of pipes that will bring it to the butchers shop they call a hospital as the guards pace around us smiling. The sounds of a fight above us can be heard, Bjornvrax, the Chained Breaker, versus Bronvrax, the Rootbrute Enforcer. It was a brutal fight that lasted the full five minutes with each man cutting off pieces of the other to the jeers and excitement of the Ascended Colonials.
Afterwards they are brought down to the Sanguine Hospital to repair their wounds and prepare them for the next round of fights. The blood from the pipes is brought in to bring any warrior back from death, and if they can't, then their body will be used to bring the next warrior back from death. As the cheers begin to die down and the excitement begins to wane the guards grab me and three others, a fellow Chimeran and two Molari-hybrids, they chain me to a Molari and bring us to the airlock between the lockers and the arena where we have but moments to select our weapons, I choose a Phase Whip and a Buckler, while the Molari chooses a Pulse Pistol and a Scattergun.
The floor begins to rise as the fight is announced, a battle to the death to determine the better fighter. All four of us come from Kar Dravenn, so they seek a way to thin their ranks for the entertainment of the Ulkh Tharn. We are introduced as Thenvrax and Drathvrax, Lightning Claw and the Synthetic Stalker, versus Nyreshvrax and Kausvrax, Acidmaw and the Wretched Warrior. The field before us is a sterile battlefield with various debris for us to use in the fight. Above us I see hundreds of jeering faces glinting behind a shielded dome, made to protect them from any debris, or stray blaster fire. I grip the whip and buckler tight and examine the options before us, waiting for the announcer to signal the start.
The fight begins and I immediately jump to the right dragging my Molari along with me, we get behind a blocker and I tell Drath to give me covering fire. I lift the buckler up and we both see the opponents closing the distance, I know Acidspine, so I quickly use my whip and smack his Molari off balance, he falls and immediately gets hit by a glob of acid spit. Drath, while the Acidspine is caught off guard, discharges the pistol into the Chimeran. The fight is over before most of the spectators are able to finish their drinks, but we leave the pit together and head back to the bench to wait for the next fight.
The rest of the fighters on the bench pass through the pit and the night ends with the survivors being brought back to our cell to wait for the next day of fighting. Within the cell is a microcosm of the universe, on the walkways above are the Colonial Guards watching us with pistols intended to knock a person unconscious, they don't want us dying for any reason but entertainment. All the fighters have accepted the grim reality of the situation so no aggression occurs, just a sense of collectivism by hundreds of people who are forced to undergo the same punishment each day. I watch as Bjorn and Bron are sent back to the cell, each assisting the other with the walk back.
Some of the prisoners prepare for their fights the next day, others simply wish to find some small escape, playing games or telling stories. I instead choose to sit and watch, I watch the guards circling above like vultures, I watch the prisoners trying to feel a sense of normal in this hell. The night passes and I barely sleep, I process. I must escape, but how, the Varkh Ascendancy has thought of every method of control and amplified it here. I must survive, that is most important if I am to leave this place, I must be alive to do so. The rest of the plan will come later, perhaps with allies, I will speak with the others tomorrow.
At the morning meal, I sit by Bjorn and Bron, while Drath follows me like a puppy. I sit at the table with the Orclan and Gravari, both of them towering over me with their massive frames, and both of them scarred by decades under the thumb of the Ascendacy in the Sanguine Pits. I speak first, asking about any potential ways of escape. Bjorn, never looking at me, just staring at a blank patch of wall, detached from reality. Bron quickly snaps him back to attention and says to me “There isn't any chance we get out of here, so just accept your fate and you’ll be happier”
Then the gate buzzes as we watch the new prisoners enter, among them Burrowskin and a Mycos Fluidic both from a Severed Fold Cell. Behind their truly alien forms is what looks to be a pureblood colonial, each of us confused by their appearance in the cell. Some of us feel a genuine anger as we stare at what now appears to be a potential fighter walking out among the condemned, he immediately runs to a bed and attempts to hide from his fellow prisoners. Bron stands up and walks over to gently comfort our new cell mate
I would later find out this was a nurse who discovered a way out of the pits through the Sanguine Hospital and assisted a prisoner with escape. He was thrown down here to “close the loop” and the fighter commissioned to close it was me. As an Ash Vow the Varkh knows I want to destroy any Ascended Colonial, but I also see him as a prisoner. Brought low by the system he upheld, and clearly unfamiliar with martial combat. It was his first fight and typically those are non-lethal, just to give the prisoner a sense that this is the new normal. However, I was given the option to arm myself with blades and a pistol. I would instead choose to forgo weapons, I would relish the opportunity to take a colonial with my bare hands.
The fight ends rather quickly, but I do not kill the nurse, instead I knock him unconscious and send him to the hospital, broken and terrified. The guards are unhappy as they watch their victim brought back into the cell, but I will not do their bidding for them. When the nurse comes back, he looks at me with utter terror in his face. I look back with the same resigned guilt that all the prisoners have. We are not opposing forces on a battlefield, we are victims, joined by this uniting cell. He and I talk as I learn more about him and we discuss the potential for escape.
The nurse will need to learn to fight if he is going to survive here, not everyone will restrain themselves in the pit against a colonial. I entrust Bjorn and Bron to train him while Drath and I attempt to find others that will assist us in our escape attempt. We must be sure to find people that will not waver in this mission, I need to think like an Ash Vow, we must take down this whole pit and leave nothing standing, and only the most dedicated warriors can commit to that.
Several more days go by as we attempt to find recruits, unfortunately most of them just wish to be free of this place and don't wish to die just for a chance that a small portion of the Ascendancy burns. They are right, we can't take down Elystra with 10 men, we couldn't take it down with 1000 men. No, we need to escape, then we can get to the Pact and only the devoted can return. The nurse, given the name Zithvrax, the Unclean, by our captors have tried three more times to assassinate him, but the training from Bjorn and Bron has kept Zith alive.
After a week of shows we are given a free day, we are allowed to walk outside of the cell and the guards are only there for pacification. This is when we plan, the guards are watching, but they only care when we look aggressive. I remedy this by turning the plan into a story, assisted by Drath.
“Long ago a group of warriors were imprisoned on a long dead moon by an ancient and evil uncaring god. These beings were only allowed outside of their prison once a day, where they could attempt to defeat the gods' champion and gain freedom. Many tried to defeat the god, but all who did failed, left broken and defeated by the champion. But the god was not entirely cruel, he fashioned a room that would allow the defeated warriors to revive, bringing them back for the next day. Where the cycle would begin again.
Well, one day after attempting to defeat the champion, one of the warriors noticed a small section of the revival room would allow for someone to sneak past the prison’s defenses. So he got the group of warriors to attempt again to defeat the champion, but in doing so they would be sent to the revival room, in that room they would find the means to escape, a tunnel out of view of the god and his champion. The god never saw this plan for the god was arrogant and confident in its power, but it never foresaw that a collective group would be able to out-think and escape an eternally cruel fate.”
All who heard the story understood its meaning and would participate in the mission, signalling their approval by willingly allowing themselves to be injured in the battle.
The next day’s battle was intended to be a group affair that would take most of the day, they brought all the fighters up from the Cell into the Pit and we were each assigned a Mask that we would have to wear during the fight. We were instructed to recreate the capture of the first Chimeras. I was naturally assigned to portray the original Storm Talon and other Chimeran prisoners were assigned their matching Chimera, while the other non-chimerans would roleplay as those early colonials that pacified the Chimeras.
The fight began with many of us suffering surface damage, so that we would be sent to the hospital regardless of what happened, but that was when much of the planned escape began to spiral. Not everyone had heard the story, not all were fighting to escape. One fighter lunged at Zith hoping that he could take out a colonial within the pit. Bjorn, crushed the man's skull with his hammer while Bron attempted to take out two of the Chimerans that were fighting. It went on for several hours with many fighters being too exhausted to lift a blade, but the Ascendancy got to achieve their victory over the Chimera, while we, brought to the hospital, worked to escape to freedom.
A chute meant for the waste that couldn’t be reconstituted into fighters on Vexus Prime or into food for the Sanguine Cell. Each fighter would descend in the chute before the “doctor” came in. The tunnel descended about 60 feet into a dark pit that contained all the other deceased champions parts that couldn't be used. While in the darkness I heard a low rumbling growl that shook me through to my spine, this wasn't just the waste disposal, it was the prison for an even larger beast, one the Ascendancy couldn't control or defeat., the Last of the Chimeras. Fed a diet of dead prisoners.
The beast, with its five heads, attempted to keep each of us in view. While we searched around attempting to find a potential escape. The Chimera spit a line of acid that nearly caught Drath, while its second head spat lightning that crackled the entire space, filling it with the scent of ozone. Its other heads, each breathing fire, poison, and ice lit up the room, but none of us were damaged. It was clear that the creature was trying to protect itself from cruelty and lashing out against all who came near with the same violence. A trait that the Ash Vow wields with great efficiency, but to see it in a wild creature inspires sadness. It knows that it cannot escape with violence, and yet, it persists as it only knows to use violence to protect itself.
We find controls within the room for a containment field that is powering this elemental prison for the Chimera. Drath uses his knowledge to disable the field and we attempt to communicate that the chimera is free. We leave through an exit near the controls and head towards the prisoner transports, there we can commandeer a ship and escape to a Pact safe world. As we arrive at the docking pad, we see a small token force, meant to act as guards. Each equipped with the pacification guns, we prepared for this, taking grating and metal from the Chimera’s prison we shield ourselves from the blasts, and then we hear it. The sound of collapse behind us as the entire wing of the building is torn apart and lightning and flame reach into the sky.
The chimera has escaped, which sends the squad of guards into a complete flight as they run from the beast few ever knew existed and fewer still thought could be tamed. We find a ship and we some help we commandeer the ship and head off towards the Pact. I hope one day to return, though maybe not to burn it all, some of the people left here might be in prisons of their own, each lashing out the only way they can.
