Slipstream: Subtle? HA

Back into pulpy space opera! Here's last time.

Recall that last time, Oola sacrificed herself to prevent a Primal from blowing up the ship. Iris and Zeenia are now stuck on the Achilles, self-piloting through the Barrier and to the slave mines of Radios, with a bunch of prisoners, all of whom are too weak and subdued to fight...except one.

That one, a Lion Man named Abus, is ready to join them. He's a victim of Queen Anathraxa's predations as well, having lost his family in her raids...and he learns, now, that his home fragment has been poisoned and his king slain. He snarls in rage and pledges his claws to the heroes' cause, and they continue on through the Barrier (Iris, an attentive pilot even on a ship that doesn't need piloting, memorizes the way through). 

The Achilles lands, and the door slides open. Two remote sentries - flying metal spheres - come aboard and demand that all prisoners follow and stay with in the red zone (because the white zone is for loading and unloading only). The heroes, however, have no intention of being smart taken prisoner. Zeenia strikes the sentries, damaging and stunning them, and Abus and Iris finish them off. 

But now the characters aren't entirely sure what to do. They leave the ship and walk down a walkway to an imposing metal door, but just as they're thinking of how to open it, three more sentries float up! The heroes fight, but Iris gets zapped into unconsciousness and Abus and Zeenia get a missile fired at them, stunning them both. The heroes surrender their weapons and armor, and they and the other prisoners are marched into a big hexagonal room. Six Primal soldiers, armed with pain sticks, standing around them chuckling.

The Primals' captain laughs at them and tells them that whatever they were planning, they're prisoners now! All prisoners get beaten when they arrive, just to set expectations. The Primals advance, activating their pain-sticks...but they don't know what they're in for.

Iris spins low and floors two of them, while Zeenia lashes out with her tentacles and kills one (the captain, however, is too fast for her). Abus roars and lunges, while the other prisoners cower against the wall. The battle is swift but brutal; Zeenia and Abus kill most of the Primals, but Iris is felled by a laser blast from the captain and both Zeenia and Abus are badly wounded. Finally, the remaining Primals, the captain included, leave the room, and an intercom crackles to life. 

"Attention, invaders! This is Handmaiden Erif Strange! Your heroics aside, you are still prisoners here." A panel on the wall opens, revealing unpleasant looking metal collars. "You will affix these collars to your necks or I will fill the room with toxic gas!"

Zeenia tenses, thinking of stacking Primal corpses up to get to the gas dispensers, but then one of the prisoners, a Rurite (like Oola) gets her attention. "Please, don't," she says. "Don't let us die." 

Iris is still unconscious, and Abus examines her (he has some basic healing skill, but nothing like Oola). He sees that her back is throbbing visibly, and her bones appear to be...changing, somehow. He isn't sure what happened, but Iris is in no condition to fight.

Zeenia stands down, and the heroes place collars on each other. Their remaining possessions are taken, and they're given prisoner uniforms. Is this the end of their heroic saga? Are they doomed to live out their days as slaves on Radios? TUNE IN NEXT TIME!