You close your eyes, opening them once more and finding yourself less than a step behind the soldiers, who look around, confused, not noticing you. Time to strike.

You charge them with psychically-enhanced fists

You charge forward, as psychic energy floods into your fists. You grab one, yanking her head off and flinging it with all your psychic strength at another. You grab a lasgun, breaking someone's neck and beheading two more with the bayonet. The guardsmen panic, falling over each other to escape, but you don't give up, finishing the rest of them with relative ease.


"Alright, he's shed some blood. Perhaps we should give him a break," Kyros says, before laughing cheerfully. "Or perhaps... we should give him a real challenge. Bring out the Champion of Davial!"


The final gate, the one behind you, opens. You spin around on the balls of your feet, prepared to kill, even through you're exhausted. You can here your psychic defenses begin to falter as the voices come back, thousands of voices screaming, laughing and howling in your mind. Physically, you're tired from this heavy exercise, and just want to pass out. You watch in terror as a massive figure clad in huge plates of armor walks forward. Two sharpened tusks come out from his helmet, and in one hand he holds a massive warhammer, while in the other, attached to his arm, is a bolter. By either side of the massive Champion is a nearly naked slave wearing rags, trying to polish the armor while the Champion of Davial continues walking forward.


"Begin!" Kyros shouts.


Suddenly, you hear another familiar voice.


"Hello, my dear Karth. I see you're outgunned here. Need some help?" Meliodas asks.


The Champion raises his bolter and it fires. You quickly form a shield, barely absorbing the massive amount of power behind the bolter. 


"I can help you, but you're going to need to get your hands dirty. See those two slaves? Go for them. Boil their bloods with your mind, and help draw the psychic beings that are trying to enter."


"What?" you ask aloud, teleporting out of the way of another burst of bolter fire as the Champion of Davial continues to advance.


"Kill the slaves. I'll offer their souls as a... summoning gift to two potential allies for you."


This presents a moral dilemma. Can you wipe out the two slaves in order to win this battle? Can you even trust Meliodas? You do have other options. Through teleportation and levitation, you can easily evade the Champion, and you can wait to tire him out. You can attempt to wear down the Champion's armor through fire and psychic bolts. You can also attempt to teleport atop the Champion and try use your psychic powers to tear this bastard's head off.

You kill the slaves for Meliodas

You nod, raising your hands and directing a blast of powerful psychic flames towards both slaves. The slaves are hit by the stream of fire and engulfed entirely, their existence ending with a powerful scream. The fire engulfs them, but while the bodies falls apart to ash, two new shapes appear in the fire. You watch, as from the engulfing flames step two daemons. They're humanoid, half beautiful women and half horrifying crab-monster. Their face are stretched and gaunt, like once beautiful women whose faces melted, with long black hair, pale skin changing to black shell in patches over their bodies and a massive claw having replaced their right arm. They eagerly turn to the Champion of Delial, charging forward. They bounce, picing and attacking and cutting through metal with their powers. You fire a stream of fire at the Champion's armored head as the two daemons repeatedly pince and cut at his head and chest. He fights valiantly, but he doesn't last long fighting two powerful daemons and a psyker. He falls to his knees, before collapsing onto his face. The space marine guards begin sending bolter fire down at the daemons, who quickly with under the fire before collapsing back into the flames, disappearing, leaving you in an arena, empty except for the corpses of your enemies. 


"Well," Kyros says. "That was interesting. I didn't expect daemon summoning to be in your inventory. None the less, well done."


Kyros levitates down towards you as the shield evaporates, before ending up less than two or three feet above you.


"Well done, noble warrior! Look and behold the powers of the Warp!" he says, in the opening of a speech.

You kill Kyros

You take a deep breath, preparing all of your reserves of psychic energy. Quickly, you manifest it in your most powerful bolt yet, before firing straight at Kyros. The energy drained from you, you collapse to your knees. You feel your collar flex, beginning to choke you.


"Ha! You have balls, my little ally! I love it!" Meliodas cries.


Kyros rises up quickly and brings the shields up full force, and they explode, barely managing to contain your psychic power. Kyros watches as the collar chokes the last ounce of psychic power from you, dropping down to his previous height with an enraged snarl.


"Is that how you want to play this, you little cunt?" he snarls.


You search your mind, but your entire psychic reserve is gone. You can't even make a spark. You do have a ounce of physical strength yet, before you collapse from exhaustion, and you intend to use it.


The entire audience of slaves, mutants, soldiers and thousand-year old warriors watches as you arch your head back and spit in Kyros face, before collapsing.

The Familiar Oblivion...

After going through another sparse of evil dreams and horrifying nightmares, including getting chased by tentacle abominations through tunnels, watching your tribe being flayed alive by men infested by worms and covered in a solid sheet of pus and staring into the eyes of beings of pure, unending hate, you awaken in a small room. You're lying on a metal table, completely naked, while Magos Cern stands nearby, drilling holes through a large blob of meat on another table.


"Ah, the good Techpriest is looking after you. You'd have been safer if they tossed you in a pit of deathworms," Meliodas says.

You speak up

"Hello?" you say.


"Ah, look whose woken up," she says, her head swiveling around mechanically to stare at you


"What happened?"


"You passed out from fatigue. I brought you here, left you to sleep for a while, injected you with a few shots of adrenaline, gave you a full cleansing of your blood and burned off a few layers of your skin to remove all Chaos taint."


She emits a long burst of static energy, before staring at you.


"Kyros has been informed of your awakening. He'll be here shortly."


Magos Cern immediately goes back to working on the chunk of meat, clearly not in the mood to converse. After a few minutes, Kyros enters, covered in blood. He seems quite calmer then before.


"Ah, look who it is, the traitorous bastard."


"You invaded my world, burned my villag, killed half my tribe and enslaved the other half. What did you expect?" you say.


"I suppose. I just assumed you were intelligent enough to know that that would never work, or even a little grateful at the fact that I had given you the gifts of power.


"It's quite hard to use the gift of power while bound by chains."


"Perhaps," Kyros says. "You're to be escorted back to your cell. Let's go."


Your four guards enter, as stern as ever, and you stand, following them along the halls.

A Week Later...

The week goes by. Your guards give you no chance to even think about escape, let alone actually making an attempt at it. You practice fighting in the arena everyday, facing hordes of mutants, failed attempts at creating super-soldiers, thankfully none of them from your tribe and a few slaves thrown in there for you to kill. Kyros is prone to sending out enemies that can cause painful wounds such as those that utilize painful poisons and toxins. It seems he's still bitter about the fact you tried to murder him. Understandable. After that, you have meditation, to calm the storms of your mind and give you a chance to keep the demons, and more literally daemons, at bay.


You spend time with Kyros as he attempts to indoctrinate you to serve him willingly, although after your attempt at his life this time mainly serves as a time to check on the wards for your collar and make sure you haven't circumvented them. You give him the idea that you're buying it, but you know he's just a madman. His ultimate goal seems to be regrouping with several other Chaos war-bands of various sizes to topple the Imperium of Man and take Terra, although the whisperings from other men tell you that that is an impossible goal.You're still not allowed to see Fay or anyone else com your tribe. You shudder at the thoughts of what Kyros is doing with them. For all his friendly gestures, kind deeds and grand ideals and plans, Kyros is but a corrupted mad man who is willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone in an attempt to gain power.


Under the Magos' orders, you've spent a lot of time sleeping from either the fatigue of constant fighting and training to expand your mind and permanently trying to ward off the daemons that scratch at your mind, or from various drugs and chems to put you under. Sleeping is painful, for the most part. You get a few brief bit of oblivion, which is a peace incomparable to anything you've ever had to deal with, but these states still being you deeper into your mind and the theWarp. Then the nightmares start. In the waking world, you have classes with the teachers. Kyros teaches you meditation techniques for controlling your powers as well as new ways to utilise the psychic energy flowing through your mind. Taj teaches you military tactics and how to lead everything from a small unit of hardened men to a massive army of garrisoned troops. Magos Cern teaches you a bit about mechanics, the various technologies of the galaxy and gives you a broad, general education about the galaxy and its inhabitants.


One day, you lie in bed, having emerged from the state of horrified dreaming but not yet having fully awoken, in a blissful, thoughtless state. The door opens, as two of your space marine guards enter. One uses a small device to make your collar tighten quickly before releasing again, a small threat to make sure you know whose boss. The fucking collar. You could turn him into a thick pink mist inside that armor if the collar wasn't stifling your abilities. 


"What?" you ask, annoyed to have been disturbed from your bliss.


"Kyros wants you," one says.


"What does he want?"


Kyros appears in the room, leaning against the doorway, seemingly manifested out of thin air.


"Come on, let's go," he says nonchalantly, picking his nails.


"Where?" you ask.


"Well, as a... reward for your long week of work, I have a surprise. We're going to go see Fay."


"Really?" you ask.


A surge of emotions rising up inside you. Joy at the thought of seeing your friend, surprise at Kyros' kindness, gratitude for the gift, fear at what could've happened Fay, all these manifest into an overwhelming feeling of both exhilaration and dread.


"Well? Let's go!" Kyros says, walking out of the room.

You follow Kyros

You stand, walking along after Kyros. You're at a point where your psychic growth has overtaken your physical growth to such a degree that it'd be easier to float along the ground rather than actually having to walk. Unfortunately, the collar prevents you from even firing out some sparks without Kyros' permission. You arrive in a metal door, which opens, revealing the booth from which Kyros and the others watch down at the fight. You walk along, looking down at the arena, which is empty.


"I thought you were bringing me to see Fay," you say nervously, despite knowing what this is.


"I brought you to see her fight!" Kyros says with a smile.


You stare down, as one of the gates opens. You watch as an abomination stumbles out. Stumbling on four insect-like legs, with it's eft arm replaced by a long tentacle of coiled pink muscle, the very end of it studded with bone outgrowths to make it a more formidable weapon. In it's right hand is a short, rusted axe stained with blood and gore. It's head is monstrous, with an oversized mouth filled to the brim with teeth, overflowing with acid that drips onto it's chest with a sizzle, and a single, blood-shot eye. The creature looks up at you, it's eye flinching, before it lets out a miserable howl.


"Shit... that looks miserable beyond belief," you say.


"Yes, she does," Kyros says, grinning from ear to ear as half a dozen more beasts just like the first walk, stumble or crawl into the center of the arena. 


"She?" you ask.


Now that you're not fighting them, you can have a long look and see what these mutant abominations really are: disgusting, pitiful creatures that should receive a quick death.


"You don't recognize her?" Kyros says, clearly suppressing laughter. "This is what remains of the Uwais Tribe, and the first one to come out, the pack leader, is Fay."


You look at monsters underneath, trying to see any resemblance to your friends as pure horror overtakes your mind. You collapse to your knees, puking over the banister and onto the monsters underneath as Kyros bursts into laughter.


"He's done this to provoke you. He wants to get you angry, to see how powerful you are even with the collar. He's under-exaggerating how powerful you are, so you might be able to harm him, but..." Meliodas advises, but you don't pay any attention, too filled with anger.


You stand, holding onto the banister to pull yourself up. Your knees shake, but you take a moment to regain your strength. Then, you launch yourself at Kyros. You grab at his eyes, your fingers going straight for his eyes. Kyros stumbles backwards, unprepared, before you feel your collar quickly tightening as you start to choke. You continue to scratch and gouge, even as the air is choked from you. Finally, you're dragged upwards by invisible hands, floating a few feet away from Kyros. Your weak body has done practically no damage to Kyros, who seems surprised and a bit amused rather than angry.


"Hmmm... I under-exaggerated how angry you'd get, or how stupid you are if you think trying to fight me is an option."


"I'm going to kill you. I'm going to break you. I don't care how long it takes, I will destroy your very soul," you say, staring at him.


Kyros chuckles softly, before forcing you around to stare down at the arena.


"Watch the match," he says.


"We will have our revenge, Karth. Not today, not tomorrow, but we will have our revenge, " Meliodas says.


You watch for about a minute as the abominations sit there, wandering around in confusion, falling to brief bursts of violence and self-harm and a lot of screaming and howling. Finally, the second gate opens. You watch as hooded figures enter, holding swords and small, circular shields. The trio charges forward, diving into the air. The beasts charge forward, attacking with fierce brutality. You watch as the lead one, the thing that used to be Fay, is almost beheaded by one of the trio. The trio fight with ease, diving, ducking and weaving out of the way of tentacles, axes, biting and stomping. Within a minute, the last of the abominations stumble forward and hits the ground as its front two legs are hacked off, and one of the trio leaps on top of the monster and impales it through the head.


"What a display!" Kyros says with a smile. "Shall we see the victors?"


Before you can say a word, Kyros releases you and you fall through the air, smacking into the dirt with a pained yelp. You moan in pain, looking up at the fighters. They walk forward, staring at you.


"Karth?" one of them asks.


You look up to see Fay standing there, her hooded robes covered in blood, alongside two other Uwais tribals you vaguely remember from your trips accompanying hunting parties, the Jakar Twins.


"Fay," you reply, staring back at her, not knowing what else to say.


Fay tosses her sword aside, grabbing you and embracing you tightly. Even though you feel yourself being turned into a fine powder from the strength of her hug, you're just so happy that you've found her that you don't care, hugging back. Kyros drops down, staring at you from over Fay's shoulder, as Magos Cern joins you.


"Ah, what a happy reunion!" Kyros says.


"You said she was dead!" you shout angrily, pushing Fay aside to point an accusatory finger at him.


"I did. I lied," Kyros says, smiling.


"Never trust a psyker, Karth. Not even yourself," Meliodas says.


You shrug it off, trying not to bow to his attempts at emotional manipulation. You grab Fay, looking at her properly as she takes off her hooded cloak. She's tall, standing over six foot tall, and she's a lot more muscular than you remember. Whatever Kyros has done to her, it's had a serious affect. Her arms and legs are quite muscled, and you doubt you could find an ounce of fat anywhere on her. Still, she has the same coy smile, the wild, adventurous look in her eyes, She's pretty much the same Fay.


"So... what's with the hood?" you ask, struggling to find anything else to say.


"Um... it's so the mutants can't grab my hair and drag me down, Karth. Was that the most important question? How are you? What are they doing to you?"


"Come on, out of the arena. I have a captured Squig the boys want to have some fun fighting," Kyros says. "Jakar twins, back to the dorm. Karth, Fay, follow me."


You look at Fay, before grabbing her hand and walking after Kyros and Magos Cern.


"Hmm, walking alongside me with my hand held? Where's the old Karth that I would piggyback around the village?" Fay asks.


"Pffh, if I didn't have this collar I'd be floating around the place," you say.


The stress of being kidnapped, having your tribe enslaved and murdered, your village burned down, your mind and soul forced through the very depths of hell falls away as you talk to your old friend. You recount your story as she tells hers. Apparently, she spent much of the time in a coma, having her body hacked apart and remade. Her blood now contains vast amounts of chems and combat drugs, she has several new organs and stronger bones, faster blood clotting and much more. She's trained extensively both with swords, guns, explosives and infinitely more, as well as team tactics. She's been chosen out as Team Leader for the Uwais super-soldiers.


"So basically, you've become a super-soldier?"


"Super-soldier?" Magos Cern says, her voice flooded with the most emotion you've heard from her the entire time you knew her. "She's a failure. A disgrace. I had access to geneseed, space marine test subjects and untold resources. What did I create? A mockery. These "super-soldiers" couldn't take on multiple space marines each like I had hoped. They couldn't take on a single fucking space marine like I had planned! They're barely worth half a space marine! I've failed!"


"They'll do fine, Magos," Kyros says, arriving at another set of metal doors, which open to reveal a large table, where various figures are sitting.


There's Kyros, Magos Cern and Taj Suenage, as well as Kyros' daughter, who sits in the corner. There's also many more who you don't know. One is a tall, gaunt looking woman with pale skin and black hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing a long coat that disturbingly, appears to be made from human skin. Another is a girl with a shaved head wearing heavy combat armor who is sharpening a long machete, another is a... person whose gender you can't tell, wearing black leather armor and lingerie in an odd attempt to look sexy at a war meeting, with long, curly black hair and excessive make-up. The person smiles at you, licking his... or her... or its lips. Then there's a young girl, younger than even you, wearing hooded robes and reading an ancient, dusty tome. Finally, there's a barely human monster. An obese man covered with rotting pores, boils, sores and pus-filled, infected wounds, with its arms replaced by long, rusted spikes. Kyros and Magos Cern take a seat.


"These are the leaders of the fleet, Fay and Karth. Some introductions are in order. First is me, the supreme leader of the entire fleet. Magos Cern leads the Dark Mechanicus on the ship and maintains the vessel itself. Chapter Master Taj Suenage leads the space marine chapter on board, the Undying Reapers. Then we have Calpurnia the Ravager, leader of the 22nd Istanford Regiment. "


The one with the human skin coat stands up, extending a hand to shake.


"Pleasure to meet you," she says, shaking both your hand and Fay's. I hope you're... efficient during your stay here."


"Then there's the Staine siblings. There's Rebecca Staine, the leader of the Bloody Claws, a war-band that worships Khorne the war god."


"Fuck you, psyker. You're weak and pathetic. Your parents should've left you to die," Rebecca growls, pointing her blade at you.


"Fuck you," Fay snarls, shoving her blade point away from your throat.


Rebecca stands, brandishing her sword, before the plague-ridden man stands, blocking Rebecca's path forward with one of his spike arms. 


"Hey, hey! There's no need for violence! We're all brothers and sisters here!"


Rebecca sits back down with another growl.


"Alright, next we have Elios, leading of the Shrieking Harpies, a war-band that worships Slaanesh, the god of excess," Kyros says, pointing at the person clad in leather and lingerie.


"Pleasure to meet you, darlings. For slaves aboard a Chaos vessel, might I say you're looking... delectable," Elios says in a deep, masculine voice, licking his lips as he stares at both you and Fay.


"Keep it in your pants, Elios," Kyros says. "Next we have Elizabeth."


Elizabeth, the hooded girl reading the book, doesn't look up.


"She's risen to the position of leader of the One-Eyed Crows, a war-band that worships Tzeentch, the sorceror god. She easily reached the position through her amazing social abilities. Tell us about yourself, Elizabeth."


"Move along," Elizabeth says, making a circular motion with her hand without looking up.


"OK, Elizabeth. Finally, we have Durge, leader of the Black Rats war-band that worships Nurgle the plague god."


"Hello!" the diseased man says, waving his spike-arms. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I hope you're being treated well. I hope you're being fed enough. If not, it's probably because I've eaten all the food aboard this vessel!"


The man, Durge, breaks into laughter as several maggots burst from his skin. You try not to get sick.


"You're here to meet the leaders of this fleet so that you know who you'll be answering. We want you both to lead the slave army."


"Slave army?" Fay asks.


"The Uwais tribe soldiers, the previous batch of failed test subjects, the gladiator slaves and whatever else we can muster up. We'll hold the detonators to your explosive collars, but you'll hold a copy of the detonators for all the men under your command."


"There was a previous batch of failed test subjects?" Fay asks.


"Yes, there was. They were quite strong, but their minds were easily broken. Most weren't sentient, the sentient ones were insane. There was only one who you could even have a conversation with, the one I appointed leader. I'll show you to them some time after this. I assume you'll take the position?"


"It's not like I have much choice," you say.


"We'll take it," Fay says, answering for the both of you.


"This slave army, ot whatever you want to call it, will give us the strength advantage to become a serious military power in this tiny little sector. We could conquer ourselves a little kingdom from the weak and undefended worlds. We could become a raiding fleet that could have us living a life of luxury. But one little slave army wouldn't even give us a chance against even the defenses on Pluto!" Calpurnia says.


"I'll tear out your soul and devour it if you show anymore signs of cowardice!" Kyros yells. "Magos Cern, take Fay and Karth to see the previous batch of super-soldiers."


"I'll have to let the galaxy witness the shame of my failed creation when we release them on the galaxy. I might as well let the two adolescents have a preview of my sickening failure," Magos Cern says.


"We're not finished here!" Calpurnia splutters angrily. "I'm not launching my army on a suicide mission!"


"My army! As long as you serve me, it's my army!" Kyros screams.


"We take a vote, then," Calpurnia suggests.


"Fine, raise your hands if you don't want to go through with the assault, if you're a coward, if you're not loyal."


Calpurnia defiantly holds up her hands. Elios holds up his next.


"Sorry, Kyros. I'm not dying.. I'm too young and beautiful to die fighting an unwinnable war," he says.


Durge holds up a spike, looking ashamed.


"I'm loyal, Kyros, but I'm just as loyal to my men as you, and I won't see them die for nothing."


Elizabeth slowly raises a hand, looking up from her book for the first time. 


"This plans suicide, Kyros. We both know that."


Kyros snarls in anger, looking around.


"That's me, Cern, Taj and Rebecca for attacking, and Elizabeth, Durge, Elios and Calpurnia for not doing so," Kyros says in a low growl.


"The slave leaders are the tie-breakers, then," Calpurnia says. 


Kyros looks at you with a stare, holding onto the controller for your collars. Well, this seems like an obvious answer, even if it is a suicide mission.

You support the assault on Terra

You keep your hand at your side, and while Fay raises an eyebrow, she does the same.


"Cowardly... but smart," Meliodas says. "Perhaps you'll realize your potential after all."


"Good... good!" Kyros says, his voice flooded with relief. "The slaves are loyal! Now I must question why my own allies aren't."


An uneasy silence fills the room, before Magos Cern breaks it.


"I shall take Fay and Karth out to inspect their new troops, the old generation of super-soldiers. Is that acceptable, Kyros?"


"Yes, yes," Kyros says, his mind clearly focused on other things. "Go then."


Magos Cern walks out of room, and you quickly follow, followed by Fay. You walk along empty hallway, heading towards the super-soldiers. Magos Cern is clearly not interested to talk at all, so you and Fay have time to talk.


"So, what just happened?" you ask. "Were we just given an army?"


"We've went from slaves to masters of a slave army, in five minutes," Fay says.


"Well, to be fair, we're still slaves. We're slaves who are also slave masters of a slave army," you point out.


"Alright, I suppose so. Anyway, are you OK? We've walked a lot," Fay says.


"I'm fine," you smile. "I don't know whether to be thankful you're looking out for me, or insulted you think I can't even walk that much."


You walk on, eventually entering a large, metal elevator. The elevator quickly begins descending down the ship.


"Alright, children. Listen up. We're going to wake our super-soldiers from their cyro-sleep. Don't make any sudden movements, don't make any loud noises, do nothing of the sort."


"Got it," you both say.


The elevator doors open, revealing hundreds of metal tubes lining the walls, the cyro-pods. Magos Cern walks forward, extending a metal tentacle that grows from her spike. The tentacle presses onto the consoles attached to the many pods, and three open. Cold air quickly floods out, and you watch as three lumbering monsters walk out. 


"Behold, my failures," Magos Cern says.


The super-soldiers stand at eight feet tall, and are made of massive coils of muscle that makes them nearly twice as wide as even a normal man, without any armor. Their mouths are filled with hundreds of carnivorous teeth, like a shark's. They have short, four-inch bone claws extending from their wrists. Their skin is dark and misshapen, like someone tanned human skin to make leather and then stitched it over their bodies. They walk forward, grunting and growling. The first looks around, before stumbling back inside it's cyro-pod.


"Sleep... sleep... sleep..." it mutters, walking back inside.


"Size isn't everything... but it sure as fuck counts for a lot," Meliodas remarks.


The other two immediately begin head-butting each other with grunts, and you hear the sound of heavy bones smashing against each other. Magos Cern takes out a small data pad, pressing it. The two super-soldiers grunt, wandering back to their cyro-pods.


"These are the super-soldiers. The guards here have given them the nickname "Goliath's". I suppose it's fitting. They're not smart, but they fear the lash and the electro-collar, so they follow orders easily."


To prove her point, Magos Cern pulls out a small datapad, quickly tapping it. The pair of super-soldiers roar in pain, backing up into their cyro-pods. Magos Cern quickly taps on the pad and the cyro-pods close. He strides forward, to another tank.


"Let me introduce you to Specimen 401245. It goes by the name Cain. It's the most intelligent of the beasts, and the most friendly. Now, here he is."


The cyro-pod opens as Magos Cern taps quickly on the datapad. You see another massive, lumbering Goliath wander out of the cyro-pod. It looks almost the exact same as the others, the only differences being a pair of bone growths sticking out of its forehead like horns and its oversized lips held up by hooks to allow it to breath. It steps out, taking in a deep breath, before staring at you. There's a brief silence, that Fay quickly breaks.


"Does... can it talk?" she asks.


"It can definitely hear," the beast grunts in response.


"Um, hi there!" Fay says. "I'm Fay. What's your name?"


"Cain," he responds, his voice a low, rumbling, guttural growling sound.


"I'm Karth," you say.


"What time is it?" Cain asks.


"Time?" you respond. "I don't know. A little after noon, probably, or what the ship uses as noon."


"I don't care. What time is it for me?"


"... uh... the same time?"


"I am awake. I always sleep in the cold pod until I'm needed. I'm only needed to be cut up, drugged, poked and prodded, or to kill. What time is it for me to do? Kill, or be torn apart?"


"Neither. I'm here to introduce you to Fay and Karth, the new leaders of your men."


"My men? First time I've heard them called men," Cain says, running his claws against each other absent-mindedly. "Well? They've met me. What else is there? What do you want to know?"

You ask a question

"What?" Cain grunts.

You say "How did you get your name?"

"Found it scrawled in a tome that was dropped out in the trash, back when they let us be rather than freezing us. "Cain" is a lot easier to remember than the Subject however many numbers," Cain says.