Why? Why!? He was going to make things better, Primus dammit it all! Who had hired her? What senator had he fragged off? The retaliation for the mines already?

It...didn't look like he was going to have a chance to find out, and his spark pulsed helplessly with the infuriating injustice of all it.


"Nnn..." It was only the slightest of ventilations, more breath than voice; objection and the beginnings of pain as the needles began to penetrate.

And it was all he could manage. Somehow, impossible as it seemed, he was helpless in the middle of a room filled with bodyguards and consorts-protectors.

And he was going to die.