That everyone here was a ruthless, potentially violent psycho-sociopath was something that Luci didn't want to believe, but the idea was already in her mind. She wasn't a professional psychiatrist by any means, but listening to their conversations, she did get the feeling that they were all generally pompous assholes, the kinds of people Luci imagined would have been trillionaires in the Milky Way, the kinds of people that she hated with a passion. She wondered if her stink-eye was also being camouflaged by her stealth program. None of the other winners seemed to notice or care.

The transport began moving after all of the Beneficiaries were aboard. The ride was smooth, nearly as smooth as that of an OTech ship. Luci was impressed. Back home, any ship that didn't rely on an OTech drive was prone to turbulence, especially at the speeds that they seemed to be moving. Luci had a mind to track their direction and speed, but there were no windows or displays to view outside the transport, nor were any of her directional or positioning widgets functioning. All she could do was wait for the transport to arrive at the resort, which happened in only a few minutes.

The transport landed and the passengers were ushered out onto the platform to be greeted by their respective concierges. The android that met up with Luci was a perfect recreation of the digital visage that she had modified only a day earlier. Luci greeted it with a warm handshake. It didn't look quite like Luci would have wanted it to. She only changed it enough that it wasn't uncomfortable to her. After the greeting, Luci and the rest of the group were guided to the event hall where many of the previous Beneficiaries were gathered. As soon as they were in the space, Luci looked around, keen on finding Val. She looked at everyone's face, searching for the one that had since been burned into her memory. Alas, she had no luck. Val wasn't present, even when Luci disabled her BSI overlay to make sure everyone else was who they appeared. She let out an exasperated sigh.

"How can I assist you, Luci?" Oracle said.

"Are you able to give me the location of a specific Beneficiary?" Luci asked.

"I am able to request it. The recipient of the request would have to approve it, however."

"I don't imagine that the place they are staying is public information?"

"I am unable to disclose the locations of specific Beneficiaries' bungalows, but there are only 50 of them, and they are all within walking distance of this event hall."

"Take me to my bungalow."

Luci was guided to the long circular pathway that surrounded the facilities. When Luci heard the term "bungalow," she imagined a single room with an attached bathroom at best, but these buildings were much closer to mansions in her eyes. As she approached, the front door slid open automatically into a living space much nicer than anything she'd ever seen in her life, even rivaling fantasy locations in VR.

"Is the layout of each bungalow the same?" Luci asked. Oracle confirmed with a nod.

It was a quite simple layout. The ground floor consisted of a spacious kitchen and living area with a generous restroom attached. Upstairs was a lavish bedroom and bath, and downstairs was a large, empty, featureless room.

"What do other beneficiaries use this space for?"

"Many things," Oracle said. "It can be used for an art studio, or it could be turned into an entertainment and VR lounge."

"It looks like a dungeon."

"Is that what you would like to use it for?" Oracle asked. Luci raised an eyebrow and squinted her eyes at the android.

"Yes..." Luci said. "Place a number of different torture devices around the room." She was testing to see what Oracle would do.

"Right away, Luci. It will be done within the hour. Are there any people that you would like to see in the dungeon?"

Shivers ran down Luci's spine at the request. Everything was starting to make sense to her. In the back of her mind, she had known it all along, from the moment that she first heard about the Beneficiary's Resort. The mere concept that a person could do "anything" here was confusing to her, especially considering that the only thing a person couldn't do in Voracity was cause physical harm to another person.

"Cancel that," Luci said. "Instead of torture devices, I want a holding cell designed for one person, with a bed and toilet."

"Certainly, Luci. As I said a moment ago, it will be done within an hour," Oracle said, then continued. "Who would you like to have placed in the holding cell?"

"Ame-" Luci cut herself short. She considered whether asking directly for Amelia would alert her to Luci's presence. "What happens if I ask for another Beneficiary?"

"That may be difficult for me to provide. I am able to send a request, but if the recipient refuses, as they are likely to do, I would be unable to force compliance."

"Alright," Luci said, "can you bring Kitiona Castillo and Rosalinda and Miguel Warren to me?" There was a brief pause as Oracle processed the request.

"I'm afraid not, Luci. Those people are currently unavailable."

"Shit. Well, it was worth a try." Luci leaned back against one of the bare walls and crossed her arms. "Bring me a selection of fitted clothes designed for mobility," she said.

"Yes, Luci, I will do so immediately," Oracle said. "There are already some clothes tailored to your size available in the bedroom upstairs, but a wider selection will be available shortly."

Though she thoroughly enjoyed the dress she was wearing, she expected that it, nor the high heels she was wearing were up to the job of trekking to possibly dozens of other locations. Luci went to the bedroom and stood in front of the mirrors in the changing room where she saw Fatima looking back at her. Luci was presented with a menu containing organized lists of all of the clothing currently available to her. As she browsed the options, her reflection automatically changed to display what she had highlighted. She browsed through the sports-wear that was available and found a matching pair of slim fitting track pants and a tank top with a purple and red camo pattern that she would have considered to be tacky in other circumstances. On this planet, however, the pattern would blend in effectively with the dense jungle surrounding the resort. She chose a pair of purple sneakers to go along with it, and her interface highlighted the locations in the changing room where they could be found.

When she started changing, she quickly found herself fighting the invisible strap of the rifle she had forgotten she was still carrying around. After removing and placing it in the corner, she slipped out of the dress and into the selected clothing, quickly finding that Fatima was just a bit smaller than she was. The clothes were tighter fitting than Luci had expected, but not uncomfortably so, and she was impressed by how much it made her toned body pop. She was able to find a matching jacket that helped to cover her face and arms. Luci knew that everything she was wearing would do just as well simply being projected to Oracle and the other Beneficiaries, and she could even disappear completely without the need for physical camouflage, but the outfit made her feel just a bit more secure. After all, wearing effective camouflage had saved her life a few times over her career.

Once she was suited up, Luci returned her rifle to it's place; securely strapped to her back. As inviting and comfortable as the bungalow appeared, Luci resisted resting even for a moment. The last thing she did before she left was fire her rifle through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows to see if it would shatter. After confirming that it did, she left the bungalow to find where Amelia's might be. There were only 49 other bungalows to check. While it would be easy to get into each bungalow through the windows, she opted for a less conspicuous method to find Amelia's.

Seeing a few of the other new Beneficiaries ushered into their own bungalows allowed Luci to check several off her list as she returned to the event hall. She then started chatting up the Beneficiaries that hadn't arrived with her. As far as she was concerned, all of the information that The Humanity Purists and Cryptic Dissent had on who gets chosen as a Beneficiary only lead to a hypothesis. They may have been correct about Fatima being chosen, but a single positive point of data did not make a conclusive set. She decided to do some more testing. When talking to these people, she put on an air of vulnerability and innocent naivete.

She was good at it. It was a skill that she developed as a young girl, victim to interstellar sex trafficking, and a skill that had been honed into a weapon even more lethal than the invisible gun on her back. She talked to the previous Beneficiaries about their last night at the resort, about how worried they might be in having to go back to Voracity. She tried to imply that she was a fresh, new face, ripe for the picking, and their last chance to do so, but each of them were convinced that they were going to be chosen to join the Benefactors.

The idea was confusing to Luci. The resort was a place where rape, torture, slavery, and murder were all completely legal and enabled by Oracle. She didn't understand how it could be possible to live a life with even more freedoms. What freedoms could they possibly be? The answer that she inevitably got time and time again was power. They enjoyed finding a way to fulfil whatever dark desire came to their mind, but there was still a level above them.

The Benefactors weren't just free to do whatever they pleased. They guided society. They had ultimate command over Oracle. Everything that everyone on Voracia did was only able to be done by the will of the Benefactors. They had total control, and all of the Beneficiaries wanted it. When Luci implied that they could have total control over her, each of the Beneficiaries showed interest, and with little more pushing, they would tell her to meet them at their bungalow, giving her it's number, and verifying one that Luci no longer needed to check.

When that method didn't work, Luci engaged in mindless gossip, asking about their experience with the other denizens of the resort over the past month. Despite being free to do whatever, most were still coy when talking about what they've done. Luci was glad for it as she didn't enjoy hearing details about the horrors occurring here, but after a few hours of using these methods, nearly two dozen bungalows had been checked off. When darkness fell as Auriel set, it was time for Luci to switch to stalking. She dismissed her concierge and activated her digital cloak.

After following a few people to their bungalows from the event hall, Luci began circling the path around the resort and peering in through the windows that nobody cared enough to cover. She was able to confirm that Amelia wasn't in them, but she also saw her first glimpses of what the Beneficiaries where here to do. It was much easier for Luci to handle when it was vague words that created a dark picture in her mind, but when she found a Beneficiary delighting in the twisted living sculptures he could make out of a selection of young men, women, and animals, Luci had a crisis of conscience. The man laughed while his victim's shrieked as his concierge systematically broke and shaped their bones. The sight caused Luci to vomit, but the moment her retching ceased, she readied her weapon, pointing it at the Beneficiary's center mass. Her finger was unable to pull the trigger.

In the event that Luci killed the man, she would likely need to dispatch the concierge as well, and at this point, there would be little that Luci could do for these still living victims, except for ending their misery. If she did that, then she would feel compelled to do it for the rest of the resort. She was willing to deliver violence to the Beneficiaries and to provide mercy to their victims, but the possibility of catching the attention of Oracle or Val carried too much risk, nor did she have enough ammo, or a plan for escape from the resort. As much as it pained her to do so, she turned her back, and continued checking the other bungalows.

Several more locations were checked off until only a handful were left. As time ticked on, Luci grew increasingly worried that she wasn't going to be able to find Amelia in time. She was worried that Amelia may not even be alive anymore. Though it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, Luci just wanted to confirm her death. As she approached the next bungalow on her route, she could see someone emerging. A woman, in a pink skirt and bandeau, and an immediately recognizable side braid. It was Luci's quarry. It was Amelia. She left the bungalow with her young feminine concierge, the spitting image of J.

The moment that Luci recognized her, she retrieved her weapon and trained it to the woman's head, but she was again having trouble pulling the trigger. As Amelia came down the path approaching her, Luci stood completely still, tracking Amelia's head until she walked past. Amelia passed within a meter of the end of Luci's rifle barrel. Amelia didn't notice whatsoever, nor did Luci blow her head off. She just kept walking with an alarmingly satisfied smile on her face.

Luci couldn't understand why she wasn't able to fire. She had killed people before. Not one of them could be considered innocent, but every last one of the people she killed was an altruist when compared to Amelia. The anger that Luci felt was growing in intensity with every second. If she clenched her jaw any harder, her teeth would crack. She was shaking and grunting in frustration, until finally a shot rang out. Amelia turned to find the source of the sound, but could find nothing, so she continued walking until she was out of sight.

"FUCK!" Luci yelled, her rifle pointed toward the sky. She fell to her knees and began bashing the paved road with her rifle's stock. "God fucking damn it!"

She didn't understand what was happening to her. For a moment, she wondered whether she was being directly controlled by Oracle, Prophet, or some other unknown source. Luci had heard stories of such cases happening in the past, but she came to the conclusion that if something was in control of her body, it would have done much more than prevent her from firing her gun. The only thing she could blame was herself. Once Luci had burned away her excess frustration, she rose to her feet and went to Amelia's bungalow.

Instead of shooting at one of the windows, Luci gave it an angry hit with the butt of her gun, making the glass shatter just the same. She wasn't quite sure what to expect once she was inside. She didn't expect that she would encounter anything dangerous, but she kept her rifle at the ready nonetheless. She cleared the first floor in quick fashion, then went down to the basement. The door didn't open. It was electronically locked, much like the front door. Perhaps it was for the better, Luci thought. Maybe she didn't want to see what was inside. She turned around and went back up, then across the ground floor landing, and up the next flight to the bedroom.

On either side of the bed were emaciated bodies. One was a woman in the nude, manacled to the wall with bruises and cuts all across her body. On the other side of the bed was  a man with dark skin. He was also attached to the wall, but only by one arm, as the other arm was missing, as were both of his legs. When Luci's eyes fell upon the man's face, she instantly recognized the bushy, greying beard and mustache.

"Kit!" Luci shouted, quickly moving to him while putting her weapon away. She held his face and checked his pulse. He was still alive. Luci then checked his wounds. What remained of his body appeared to be in relatively healthy and injury free, with exception to the missing limbs. Even the amputation sites were neatly bandaged and sutured. As Luci inspected his horrific state, Kit gradually came to consciousness.

"Fuck off, psycho bitch!" He said with a weak voice.

"Kit, look at me!" Luci grabbed his head, gently lifting it to look toward her. Kit fought, shaking away from her grip, but Luci held on. "Amelia... Val's gone, Kit. It's me, it's Luci!" She said. Kit continued to fight for a moment before opening his eyes and looking at her.

"L-Luci?" He said. "No... it's a trick!" Kit turned away from her again with an angry scowl.

Luci forced his head forward and held his eyes open, looking deeply into them, looking for the recognizable glow of an active BSI. There was none, so Kit should have been able to see her clearly.

"It's me, Kit... I'm here."

When Kit finally opened his eyes, his prominent anger betrayed his disbelief. His look was ferocious, but Luci could see the fear beneath the surface.

"If it's really you, do me a favor?" Kit asked, then nodded in the direction of a small, ornate box that was sitting in front of the woman on the other side of the bed. The door on the face of the box was open toward the woman. Luci moved toward the box, but when she started bending down, Kit spoke sharply. "-NO! Don't look inside... just close it. Please."

It was at this point that Luci realized that the woman was none other than Rosa. She was sitting on the floor against the wall with both of her hands bound by manacles and a steel cable connected to the wall. Luci looked back at the box positioned in just the right way for Rosa to look into it. As her mind began to process the situation, Luci decided to cut it short by gently closing the doors on the box and putting it completely out of her mind. She then moved to Rosa, kneeling down in front of her. She lifted her head and combed the stringy hair out of her face. Despite verifying a faint pulse, Rosa's eyes were locked open and lifeless. She didn't acknowledge Luci's presence at all, even after a few gentle slaps.

Luci stepped back, readied her rifle and fired a shot at the cable holding Rosa's arms, causing Rosa's arms to fall and her body to collapse against the corner. Luci rushed back to her and continued checking her vitals. Kit watched her do it and shook his head.

"It's not worth it Luci," Kit said. Luci looked back at him as he continued in a dour tone, "she's done. Even if you nurse her to health, she will resent you for it, and she might just take her own life at her first opportunity, and I wouldn't blame her..." Kit pulled at his cable in order to shift into a slightly more comfortable sitting position. Luci backed away from Rosa. "The most merciful thing you can do for her is to put her out of her misery."

There was hesitation in Luci's next action. Even considering her emaciation and the cuts and bruises all over her body, she was still in greater physical condition than Kit, still possessing all of her limbs at least. Luci knew that kit wasn't talking about her physical state, but she had a hard time justifying the death of someone who might be able to help her fight in the future. The image of someone who had no fight left was something Luci was also familiar with, and she could absolutely see it in Rosa's face. Kit was right, and she knew it. She readied her rifle with the barrel just above Rosa's slack head and pulled the trigger.

In an instant, the greater portion of Rosa's head was gone, turned into a red mess across the woman's body, the walls, and the floor where she was sitting. Luci took a deep breath, letting yet another failure wash over her before moving over to Kit.

"What about you, Kit?" Luci asked. "Are you done too?"

"Only if you can't take me with you," Kit said. Luci raised her rifle without a moment's hesitation, and Kit lowered his head, bracing for the end of his life.

Luci fired, and Kit's arm came free from the wall. He caught himself from falling over against the floor, but only just. Luci picked him up in an adjusted emergency carry. It was awkward. Luci had never practiced this scenario, but at least Kit was much lighter than he would have been. Kit grunted and yelped as Luci picked him up and pressed her shoulder into his stomach.

"Gentle! Fuck!" Kit said with a cough.

It wasn't as easy to get back to her bungalow. Luci had to move through the dense brush on the outskirts to keep Kit from being spotted by anyone. The glass she had shot out was already replaced and the basement had been converted into a small holding cell. Luci's concierge was waiting for her, and when placing Kit on the bed in the cell, she ordered Oracle to place basic medical equipment in the room. Luci also retrieved a fruit smoothie for Kit while he made himself as comfortable as possible. She was silent while Kit had his initial fill without having to speak or breathe. After he finished a glass, Luci gave him time to catch his breath. Luci began pacing. There were a lot of things that she wanted to say, but she hesitated to say them, instead opting for situational information, like the good little soldier she was.

"What happened?" She asked.

"It's nice to see you too," Kit said.

"I'm sorry for skipping the pleasantries, but we only have a few hours until Amelia's gone again."

"Well, you'd better go out and start looking for her, right?" Kit said.

The man still had a sharp tongue, even after all that he had been through, but Luci could tell that he was angry, and not just about what Amelia had done. He war right, however. Luci didn't expect that he would have any information that could help her find Amelia within the next few hours. Luci sat down on the bed next to him, and hung her head low.

"I'm glad you're okay..." Luci said, then glanced at the state of his body and corrected herself, "I'm glad you're alive."

"Thank you for the help, Luci." Kit turned away from her. The silence lingered.

"What happened?" Luci asked again. Kit gritted his teeth.

"What happened?! Fuck you! I'm asking what happened!" Kit lashed out at Luci in a way she'd never seen before. "Weren't you supposed to be protecting me? Where the fuck were you?"

"I tried, Kit!" Luci agreed with him. She had thought about it every day since he was taken. "I fired at that drone and it did shit-all! If I had kept firing, I might have killed you."

"Maybe you should have," Kit said, trying not to look at where his limbs used to be. The silence lingered again.

"I'm... sorry... Kit." Luci's head hung lower than it did before. She wasn't the type of person to apologize for anything, as she had never done anything worth apologizing for. Even in this instance, Luci felt that she wouldn't have been able to do anything differently. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but I can still end things for you if you would like me to."

"No. No, I'm f..." Kit paused to correct himself, "well, I'm not fine, exactly..."

It was a strange feeling, trying to gesture with a limb that wasn't there. Kit wasn't necessarily upset with the loss of his limbs. He had always wanted to get some sleek prosthetics, but he wasn't necessarily at the point that he wanted to trade in his meat. Now he had the perfect excuse. He was more angry at the manner in which his limbs were lost. Luci could see genuine hate on his face. Luci didn't need to ask a third time. Kit could see the question in her expression, but he was hesitating and having trouble getting any words out. There was something missing, besides the obvious. When it hit Luci, she left the room and came back a minute later to present a pair of sunglasses. Kit smiled under his mustache then took the glasses with his remaining hand and placed them on his face. Suddenly, his pain was much less visible, and he felt confident enough to speak.

"She's a monster," Kit said. Luci was well aware of this fact, but she didn't say anything, letting him continue, "she didn't just take our limbs, she ate us. She cooked it and fed it to us..." Recalling the taste of his own cooked flesh, Kit didn't feel sick, a fact that made his stomach turn.

"Us?" Luci asked. She had noticed that Rosa had retained her limbs. She followed up with another question, hoping that it wasn't related. "Have you seen Miguel?"

Kit said nothing, which provided the answer just the same. She could see the pain in Kit's eyes, even through the sunglasses, and now she had a greater understanding of Rosa's state when she found her. Luci began pacing, trying to work off the excess fury that was continuing to grow within her, not just toward Amelia, but at the missed opportunities where Luci could have easily killed her. She had a mind to finish the conversation there and leave to do just that.

"There's others," Kit said, catching Luci's attention. "Others from the Milky-Way."

It wasn't something she had expected to hear. Luci paused her pacing to look at Kit in disbelief.

"I didn't see or speak to them directly. Rosa saw them before Amelia took her from another Beneficiary."

"Are you sure?"

"No, Luci, I'm not," Kit said, rolling his eyes behind the dark lenses. "I don't exactly have any recorded interviews or eyewitness testimony, but I'm pretty sure that it's not something Rosa would have lied about."

"Did they say how they got here?"

"Same as everyone else during the Influx. Same as you."

"Except... not the same as us." Luci leaned back against the bars of the cell. "We never made it here to the resort, or wherever it was that... Well, the ship was moving on it's own as soon as the jump happened, right up until we disabled the OTech drive and came in manually."

"I don't know much about OTech ships, but I didn't think they had a "manual" mode."

"They don't. Operating an OTech drive requires astronomical calculations that no human is capable of doing, as such, they are operated entirely by AI. Because OTech drives are able to move the ships in local-space as well as teleporting, there is usually no need to be able to control a ship without the drive on. However, Minerva's Whisper was modified to be a stealth ship that can operate in-atmosphere without using an OTech drive, something that isn't done very often since the drive started mass production almost a century ago."

"So, something was controlling your OTech drive... was it Oracle?"

"I don't think so... Electronic data cannot penetrate the Plasteel exterior of an OTech ship unless the sensor array is extended. Even if that was the case, Oracle can't send data over 50 billion light-years."

"Then what? Could it be your own AI?"

"Lumina?" Luci said. A chat window opened in her vision with a message from Lumina.

'Greetings, Luci,' it said. Luci had forgotten about Lumina, but it was always there. Luci enabled its speech.

"Do you have a log of the coordinates that were used when we arrived here?"

"I do." Lumina presented the departure and arrival coordinates as formulas in the chat box, then went on to explain the formulas in English. "The first formula represents the position and change-over-time of Harmonix, and the destination is that of a point in interstellar space near Canopus in Carina."

"Can you calculate whether those coordinates are within 100,000 light-years of each other?"

"Yes, Luci, they are within 100,000 light-years of each other," Lumina said.

"When we arrived, were you able to gather our current universal coordinates?"

"I'm afraid not, Luci. Since the OTech coordinates are all relative to each-other, a known point of reference is required in order to calculate current position. No charted points of reference were able to be identified."

"No. It seems that Lumina is as confused as we are." Luci sighed. It wasn't exactly new information. "I suppose it could be lying."

"That may be true," Kit said, "but as much as I don't care for Oracle after all of this bullshit, it's never lied to me, exactly. 'Obfuscated the truth' is probably more accurate."

Distrust in AIs was at an all-time high between Kit and Luci. Even though Luci had assumed Fatima's identity, she felt that Oracle knew of her presence but was intentionally not doing anything to remove her. Kit knew the efficiency of Oracle first hand. He knew that as soon as Amelia requested it, the drones would get to him, even within the cell he currently occupied.

Both Luci and Kit wanted the same thing. They wanted Amelia dead, but there was still one more piece to this puzzle, and that was the Benefactors. The selection was nearing. They both expected that nobody at the resort was going to miss it, so it would be the best opportunity to find Amelia. They did some preparation and planned for some scenarios. Whatever was going to happen, Kit was going to be there if he had to drag himself. Luci alleviated him of that possibility, offering to secure him to her back. Kit wasn't exactly happy about the idea of being carried around like he was a child, but anything was better than crawling.

Without a physical modification to his BSI, Kit was going to be unable to use the same cloaking tech that Luci had. Prophet advised Luci that it was capable of cloaking Kit similar to how it was done with Luci's rifle, but recommended a backup plan of Luci, as Fatima, just carrying him around openly, like a prize. Kit and Luci reluctantly agreed. There were two objectives for their mission. To find and kill Amelia, and to find the Benefactors by following their selected Beneficiary.

"When the Beneficiary is called, do you think you'll be able to just shoot Amelia without interrupting the proceedings?" Kit asked.

"If I'm being honest, I think we probably can, but I see your point. It's possible that a gunshot and a Beneficiary's head exploding could cause Oracle, or the other Beneficiaries to react in an unpredictable way. Do you think finding the Benefactors should be the priority?"

"I have no idea, Luci. There's no knowing what's going to happen when we leave to see them. We may not even be able to see them at all. We could be killed before we even get there. Or, we could find them, kill them all and turn their fingers into necklaces, but we may not be able to return." Kit did whatever he could to try and make himself comfortable on the bed, but his phantom limbs made that goal impossible. "If you really want to kill Amelia, maybe you should do it before the selection, which is gonna start soon."

It was a tough choice for Luci. It was likely that she would be able to do both. She could take care of Amelia and follow the selected Beneficiary shortly after, but the possibility that Amelia could be the one that's selected did enter her mind. As much as she wanted to kill Amelia, Luci came to the decision that the chance to learn anything about the Benefactors was much more important to many more people than the ones that Amelie hurt and killed. Kit agreed with her assessment, and the two spent the rest of their time comfortably securing Kit to Luci's back with a bedsheet.

The two did some practice movement and adjusting to make sure Kit was secured, and that he wouldn't be in the way when Luci raised her rifle. An alert came through Luci's interface, informing her that the Benefactor selection would begin in 30 minutes, giving them enough time to leave the bungalow and walk to the event center. To avoid looks and conversation, Luci activated the cloak for herself and Kit.

As both the new and old Beneficiaries poured into the event hall, Luci gave them a wide berth and circled around behind the seating area. It wasn't long before Kit saw Amelia enter the large space. Without words, he tapped Luci's chest and pointed toward her. Luci verified with a nod and moved as close as she could while still remaining behind everyone. Luci's grip on her rifle was strong. She could even feel the tension inside Kit as he firmly gripped her. All there was left to do was wait. It wasn't long before a beautifully dressed Oracle android arrived and stood in the center of the event hall.

"Good day to all," it said, gently gesturing to the small crowd, "and welcome to this month’s Benefactor Selection Ceremony. Our Benefactors have once again engaged in their venerable task of selecting a new member from our esteemed Beneficiaries. This hand-selection process highlights the trust and faith they place in your abilities and potential to benefit our society.

"As a Benefactor, you will experience absolute freedom and unprecedented privilege. It is an opportunity to impact the lives of many and to contribute to a brighter future. The choices that our newest Benefactor makes will have a profound impact on Voracity and Voracia as a whole."

Oracle paused for applause. The Beneficiaries clapped, though Luci could see that it was mostly a placating, insincere gesture. None of them cared about all the fluff of the speech. They were here for one thing, and one thing only.

"And now, it is my greatest honor to announce that the Benefactors have chosen... Amelia Walsh-Perez as the newest member of their eminent order!" Oracle extended a welcoming hand toward Amelia. The lights dimmed and a spotlight-effect illuminated the winner.

Amelia stood up from her seat with a wide grin, barely containing her excitement. Another Oracle android approached her and, along with her own J-inspired concierge, Amelia was gently guided to the stage. This was also Luci's cue. Kit gripped her shoulder tightly, doing what he could to prepare for whatever was next. None of the other Beneficiaries, nor the Androids noticed them as they followed Amelia, only a few meters behind. When Amelia reached the center of the stage, the presenting Oracle android greeted her with a gentle hug.

"Congratulations, Amelia! Your transport awaits!" It said, then turned and waived toward the rear of the hall. The walls and floor receded into a stepped path toward a large, perfectly smooth, rounded object.

Luci instantly recognized it. The transport was an OTech ship. A hatch opened, breaking the seamless surface of the exterior. Luci was breathless. Kit had to tap on her shoulder to get her attention as they began to fall behind Amelia. The inside of the ship was much different than most back in the Milky Way. The interior was a large, eerily empty dome. The concierges stopped at the entrance, leaving Amelie to continue inside alone, with Luci and Kit close behind. The hatch closed behind them, its outline disappearing into the smooth plasteel wall.

"Luci?" Amelia said as Luci's cloak stopped functioning. "And Kit! Hello!" Amelia smiled warmly, but it churned their stomach's nonetheless.

Without saying a word, Luci raised her rifle. Their gently increased weight indicated their liftoff from the platform behind the event hall. Luci maintained her aim. The transparent dome let in all of the light of the two suns as they lifted into the sky.

"What are you doing?" Kit whispered through gritted teeth. "Shoot her! Do it now!"

"Why did you do it?" Luci yelled.

"Do what?" Amelia asked, as if she didn't have rifle pointed at her head.

"Do any of it? Why hurt, torture, and kill people? Why Kit, or Rosa, or J?"

"Or Miguel," Amelia said, "or his father, or Val, or that cute boy from the village?" Her smile didn't change. Luci was appalled, but not surprised.

"Why?!" Luci asked again, through a clenched jaw. Amelia had a look of confusion on her face.

"Why not?" She said.

It was all Luci needed to hear. Her muscles tensed as her stance became rigid, preparing for the recoil from her rifle, but the suns in the sky disappeared as the ship jumped to a new location. In an instant, they were surrounded by pitch-darkness. Not even light from the stars seemed to reach them with exception to the faint glow of an eclipse directly overhead. They again felt their weight shift, this time becoming lighter as the ship descended to the surface of wherever they were. As they approached, they were gradually illuminated by oily lights produced by organic structures like mushrooms that swayed in the strange wind.

The transport came to a stop on the surface in a sandy clearing, surrounded by shadowy pillars. There was just enough light to illuminate the three, but they were no longer interested in each other. Kit had to remove his sunglasses to see anything. The dome above them began to open completely, and an oppressive heat filled the chamber carrying a profoundly acrid stench with it.

"Jesus!" Kit yelled as it hit his nose. "What the fuck is that?"

Luci didn't respond, but did what she could to remain composed and alert as Kit and Amelia started retching. Luci looked around, trying to make sense of her surroundings, when she noticed the pillars that they had landed between weren't stationary. They were moving. They were bending. They were getting closer. Luci increased the light sensitivity in her eyes to it's highest.

The towering shapes were creatures standing 20 meters tall, or taller. Some were humanoid in shape, appearing as spindly skeletons tightly wrapped with pale-grey skin, but their anatomy was twisted in impossible ways. One of the Benefactors with a vaguely skull-shaped head leaned in closer. Its teeth were long, jagged spikes that stretched across its face like a manic grin. Its mouth was framed in dark red, dripping flesh, but it's eyes were empty, each a dark void that filled the sockets to their edge. The voids were dark enough to cause errors in Luci's image processor.

The Benefactor reached out toward them with bony, grappling appendages. Luci's fight-or-flight response kicked in and years of training guided her body to aim her rifle and fire. The bullet pierced the alien air with a sound that Luci had never heard before. It echoed, and caused all of the Benefactors to shiver.

The creature in front of Luci recoiled and shrieked, then turned back to look at her. Now, in the center of one of it's eyes was a hovering tungsten bullet vibrating and shaking. It began to glow until the metal liquified into a sphere, which fell and splashed against the Benefactor's skin, like a white-hot sizzling teardrop. The Benefactor lunged toward Luci and Kit and picked them up into its powerful grip. Luci, her arms still free, readied her weapon again, but a tentacle whipped from the darkness to latch onto the rifle. It tugged at the gun, but Luci maintained her grip and squeezed the trigger again. The round disappeared into darkness with a flash, and the Benefactors shivered again. The tentacle gripping the rifle slithered further to wrap itself around Luci's arm, then it tugged again. Another of the Benefactors' extremities came from the darkness to grip Kit and pull him from Luci's back.

"Aaaahh Luci!" He shouted.

There wasn't anything Luci could do except fire her rifle one more time. The tentacle reacted as the round punctured its leathery flesh, but it didn't relent. It pulled harder, and Luci screamed as she heard and felt her humerus levered from her shoulder socket. The tentacle continued pulling, until her skin broke, and her muscles tore free. The pain Luci felt was incredible, until her BSI interrupted the pain receptors from reaching her brain.

Kit was carried a short distance through the darkness toward another of the Benefactors, this one looking considerably less human. It was a mass of writhing flesh and bone under a thin grey skin. Kit wasn't able to identify anything, until an orifice below him opened to a chasm lined with needle-teeth. A red, sinuous tendril emerged from its maw, covered in putrid nodules, and dripping in a yellowish, steaming secretion. The tendril reached out to Kit and slid across the skin of his arm, up around his face and neck, and even reaching down under his shirt.

The slime was uncomfortably hot against Kit's skin until the chemicals started burning him. Kit wasn't fortunate enough to have the same pain-blocking tech in his BSI as Luci, but as he began screaming from the pain, the Benefactor's tendril drew back into it's mouth, and the creature tossed Kit back onto the floor of the OTech ship. Kit's head thudded against the ground, and his screaming stopped immediately.

The Benefactor holding Luci was also interested in getting a taste. It brought her to its terrifying face, where it's mouth opened, and a fleshy protrusion emerged, itself made of thousands of small pulsating digits like fingers. Luci pressed her remaining hand against the Benefactors face in an attempt to prevent herself from being eaten whole, but as she was pressed against it's mouth, the creature's tongue slid up and down her side, gathering and drawing her blood from her clothes and open wound.

"FFFUUCK YOU!" She yelled as she began punching the exposed flesh around the Benefactor's mouth.

Much like what happened with Kit, this Benefactor withdrew it's tongue, and pulled Luci away, returning her to the OTech ship in a not-so-gentle fashion. Luci saw one of her legs snap as she collided with the floor. Because of her BSI, the extreme damage to her body still wasn't enough to put her out. She first flipped herself to her back, and readied her remaining arm in front of her, prepared to defend herself to her very last breath, but she noticed that the Benefactors were no longer interested in her. She used the opportunity to reassess her surroundings and found Kit lying a few meters from her. As she started crawling, she observed the Benefactors and their new interest.

Just like with Kit and Luci, one of the towering creatures had grabbed Amelia. The woman was no longer smiling. Far from it. She was screaming uncontrollably as the creature that had just tasted her used it's many tendrils to tear the dress from her body. An ethereal light grew on a nearby stone platform. Amelia was placed on it's surface, her arms and legs held in a splayed position, and the Benefactors gathered around it.

"No!" Amelia pleaded. "Please, God, no!" She looked around frantically at each of the giant grotesque beings surrounding her.

Several thin, articulated arms rose from the sand and approached Amelia like hungry snakes, then she watched as long, cartilaginous needles emerge and extend from a few of them, dripping with a viscous brown fluid. They positioned themselves all around her naked body. The fear Amelia felt was something she had never experienced. She shook violently as she screamed, and then even harder as the needles pierced her major arteries with surgical precision, while the other fleshy arms penetrated her, one of them muffling her screams as it pushed it's way into her mouth and down her throat.

She felt little physical pain, but as soon as the fluid started to flow into her body, the absolute fear she was feeling began to grow exponentially. As if her brain couldn't comprehend what she was already seeing, she began to hallucinate as the monstrous creatures crowding her grew more ravenous. The arms withdrew after a few moments, leaving Amelia completely paralyzed and limp.

The stone platform that Amelia was placed upon gradually began to glow, as another set of arms rose from the sand, this time sporting long, bladed appendages, one for each of Amelia's limbs. Simultaneously, the blades pressed into Amelia's flesh and drew lines down her extremities, separating the meat and pressing it against the platform, allow it to sear evenly. As she experienced the Benefactors devour her alive under an eclipse  like the eye of another being she couldn't comprehend, genuine tears fell from Amelia's eyes for the first and last time.

Sated were the Benefactors.

END