"<Please. Drink.>"
They were seated at a lengthy table, something that clearly was not pulled out very often from the state of cleanliness it had over virtually everything else in the room. It seemed that Zobek did not entertain guests nearly so often. The serving staff poured them drinks.
"His Excellence Zobek invites you to imbibe." Pirc said, standing to the left of his master rather than being seated as they were. Briemi raised her glass.
"To our gracious host. May this be the beginning of a wonderful relationship between he and the Empire." She toasted.
"<Most kind.>" Zobek raised his own, larger glass that was filled with liquid from the same bottle. They drank, Calen imbibing the subtle sweetness of Coruscanti brandy.
"Reminds me very much of home." Briemi said. "Wouldn't you say so, Commander?"
"Yes, Inspector." Calen nodded in agreement.
"<I thought that a taste of home would help to smooth things over in the worst of cases.>" Zobek stated, trails of brandy dripping from the corners of his mouth as Pirc translated for him. A Twi'lek woman, clad in clothing so skimpy it might as well be rags wiped at the pudgy slug's mouth. "<It does help to smooth things over, does it not?>"
"My superiors were very interested in your proposal, your Highness." Briemi said. "In fact, if we could discu-"
"<Oh, you will get to see it and more in the demonstration.>" Zobek gave a bellowing laugh. "<After dinner, I will be happy to show you everything that we have to offer. One should never attend the arena on an empty stomach.>"
"How true." Briemi intoned.
"<The Empire is not so different from our ways, Inspector.>" Zobek said. Calen, cutting up a bit of some kind of steak, raised a brow. Briemi seemed to catch the facial expression and responded with a subtle glance or her own that more or less said 'no'.
"Your chief of staff has been quite quiet, Inspector." Pirc spoke up for the first time, using his own words.
"Commander Symmach is a man of few words, I am afraid. Aren't you, Commander?" Briemi asked.
"Yes, Inspector." Calen said.
"See? Man of few words." Briemi gestured with a fork.
"<So it would seem. So it would seem.>" Zobek intoned.
"Open the hatch!"
"Open the hatch!"
Several more voices cried. The normally packed arena had been opened only to a chosen few who now sat or stood within Zobek's personal box. The Hutt looked most pleased with himself as the gate on the far end of the arena floor below began to open up.
"<Doctor S'alzarri should be on approach.>" Zobek intoned.
"There he is, my lord." Pirc pointed out, revealing the serpentine alien in question. The man was dressed very much as he'd been in the hologram that Calen had seen at his briefing. A forked tongue darted out at the air a few times, the long, thin pupils of the eyes darting around to anything that looked as though it might move.
Next to the Sluissi scientist was a blue-furred, wolf-like humanoid with its body covered in intricate tattoos.
"<The Nelvaanians are a proud warrior race,>" Zobek said, "<Very apt choice for a test such as this.>" The group watched as Sluissi said something to the Nelvaanian, who extended his arm.
"I don't understand..." Briemi started to ask.
"<All will become clear.>" Zobek assured, pointing a flabby finger toward the arena once more. By this point, Dr. S'alzarri had produced a large syringe filled with a reddish liquid and was currently injecting its contents into the arm of the furry humanoid. "<Behold, Inspector...the key to ending your struggle against the Rebels.>" S'alzarri pulled the syringe from the Nelvaanian and slithered away back through the hatch the two had come from, which shut swiftly just as soon as his tail was through it. Unseen, though heard due to the lack of noise from around it, the opposite hatch opened up. A quintet of Gamorrean guards came charging forward.
"He's unarmed..." Calen said, noticing that the Nelvaanian had nothing more than the scrap of cloth covering his groin section. The Gamorreans, however, were quite well armed, each with a melee weapon. The one who first reached the wolf man, however, was in for a nasty surprise. The warrior grabbed the first pig-headed guard by the throat, squeezing and lifting with terrifying strength. As the Gamorrean dropped his vibroblade, the Nelvaanian picked it up and slammed it into his opponents' stomach, tossing him into the next nearest guard before tackling into the next.
The rest of the guards were dealt with in surprisingly short order, but not kindly. When he'd lost the vibroblade into the meaty flank of one of the Gamorreans, the Nelvaanian took the fallen creatures spear and proceeded to messily decimate the next one.
"As you can sssssssee, the sssssserum'ssss effectsssss are quite pronounced." The hissing of Basic came from behind the group as Dr. S'alzarri had apparently come to join them in the box with surprising speed. Perhaps Calen had lost track of time watching the bloody melee beneath them, but it hadn't been that much time since S'alzarri had injected the serum...had it?
"<Indeed, Doctor. Your serum does quite well.>" Zobek said. "<Explain to the Inspector it's particulars.>"
"Of courssssse, your Highnessssss." S'alzarri hissed. "The concoction is a chemical compound that wassss extricated from the blood of the Tatooine-bassssed krayt dragon. With a veritable cocktail along with it, the sssssserum enhances physssssical attributes by ssssseveral magnitudesssss."
"Impressive." Briemi said. Calen looked to the woman, seeing that she was either completely impassionate about what she was seeing or was playing her role well. By now, the Nelvaanian was frothing at the mouth, stabbing and crushing the bodies of the Gamorreans until the weapons he held had broken. Then he kneeled down and frenziedly started beating them with his bare claws until he realized they were indeed dead. Then, he started moving about the arena looking for a new target, foaming at the mouth all the while like a rabid animal.
"Any sssssubject that is injected isssss alsssssso extremely durable, able to take even sssseveral direct hitsssss of blasssssterssss at full power." S'alzarri said.
"<A soldier that destroys whatever is in front of them...and then whatever is behind him!>" Zobek gave another belly rumbling laugh. To Calen, as he watched the blood-eyed wolf creature roaming around the arena below searching for another target to destroy, it wasn't something that he felt like laughing over.
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