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“Prisoner 60537, enter the corridor.”

The convict would only let out a grunt in response to it, adjusting their arms due to the large, heavy shackles that bound the wrists of them together. The order would repeat after half a minute yet would go ignored, the figure letting out a yell when an electrical discharge struck their body and thus forced them through. A deathly growl slipped from them before slowly trudging forward, down the aforementioned area, lit up by a series of lights in either walls and the ceiling. Perfectly polished panels lined the corridor, their cleanliness being violated by the rugged convict’s path, each step slow and minuscule due to the shackles that held the ankles close to each other as well, just with a little more give in comparison to the ones on the wrists.

A brute they were, reptilian in species and with scars to match for what parts of their body were visible, the more striking part being their lower jaw having been replaced with a cybernetic equivalent for vastly increased biting strength compared to their original one. They would not be able to help them escape from this, as the shackles they had could attest, having tiny, near-unnoticeable dents from earlier attempts to break them, nor would sheer strength work. The thick tail of theirs would balance out the weight of their frame, swaying to and fro with each step they took.

It would take only a couple minutes to be up against another bulkhead, this one opening to a chamber that looked just as pristine as the corridor before it. It wasn’t barren, as some furnishings can attest, along with a subtle, rhythmic ticking sound of a metronome once the hissing and whirs of the bulkhead opening subsided.

“Prisoner 60537, enter the chamber.” that intercom voice sounded once the bulkhead came to a stop, the convict letting out another grunt as they reluctantly stepped through. Once they were past, the bulkhead would start closing behind them, the tail adjusting itself out of the way so as to not get snagged by it, the head of the brute looking around.

The chamber was just as pristine as the corridor, that was already noted. What was new to them was a figure resting in a chair that was looking off to the side, almost like they didn’t even notice the machinery that was at work moments ago. They were seated across a desk that was made of some premium type of wood, a metronome resting at a corner and continuously ticking away as a means to breaking the silence aside from the brute’s breathing.

“Ah, you’re here.” the seated figure spoke up after a minute of near silence, righting himself and spinning the chair around to face the comparatively larger brute, leaning himself forward and propped up on his elbows on the desk.

Avian species, short beak of subtle red coloration and light-brown feathers on his face, four eyes that were focused solely on the reptile, overall height nearly less than half the size of the brute’s own in comparison if he were to be standing as well. Dressed in attire that would be far more suited for a meeting with higher ups, certainly not something that would be used for meeting with a convict. The avian didn’t look all that bothered by how he was practically dwarfed by the much more intimidating reptile that had walked in.

“Please, have a seat.” the avian calmly added after a pause, moving one of his hands to gesture to a spot on the floor, the panel moving down and under a neighboring one to let a chair similar to his own float up, albeit with a hole at the base of the back to account for the brute’s tail, the panel replacing itself after.

Silence would be the larger reptile’s response, only giving a glare at the avian that was before them, not budging from their spot at all, even if it meant having a moment to rest.

“Well?”

“Why should I sit?” the reptile finally responded, deep in tone and hinted with anger towards the avian.

“Why not? It’s only fair that I show a little bit of hospitality to those that are brought here.” the avian replied as he sat back in his chair, elbows propped on the armrests of it. “To give them a little sense of comfort, given the…conditions…required to–”

His speech was cut off by the brute rearing his arms back and slamming them into the side of the hovering chair next to him, sending the furnishing flying and crashing into the wall a short distance away.

“Am I some kind of joke to you!?” the reptile growled out, the glare he had turning into a more dangerous one. “I was ripped from my throne vessel, from MY. Armada! And ferried halfway across the galaxy. I was expecting death once I arrived at that station, but no…I was locked away like some animal, some…mindless vermin!”

The reptiles hands would gesture to the avian, one palm facing up with an expression on his face that relayed exasperation.

“And now? Instead of a firing line, I’m brought before some kaashlic and expected to play along with some act? Is this a way for your kind to humiliate those you triumph over, after crushing their fleets and empires to dust?”

The avian wouldn’t reply immediately, but would open his beak to let out a sigh, moving to stand up from his spot and arms moving behind his back. He would indeed be dwarfed by the reptile’s own bulk in comparison, barely reaching up to the pectoral area of the larger figure if he was right next to him.

“Well? What is this then?” the reptile barked out, demanding an answer from the smaller bird, whom remained unfazed by the show of hostilities.

The lack of a response though was angering the larger one, a growl coming from them before letting out a roar, only needing a couple steps to close the distance and raise his arms up, ready to slam them and the shackles onto the avian’s head…only to feel his movements come to a screeching halt once he started to swing downward. The sudden halt would elicit a grunt from him, his gaze snapping up to see what it was that stopped him, only to find that nothing was holding onto the shackles. Trying to move his legs would have the same result, instead finding them moving to be spaced similarly to how his wrists were.

“Shame…I tried to be nice and hospitable to you…” the avian spoke after a few of the reptile’s attempts to break free have failed. “And while you have full justification for your rage, I thought that someone such as yourself would have some semblance of restraint.”

The reptile would only grunt more as he tried to fight against whatever was holding him in place, being moved away as well as the avian stepped around the desk to approach him. His left arm would come out from behind his back, showing that it was holding onto a device, proving its control when it let up on one spot and thus the reptile’s movements stopping as well.

“Now, since it seems that you aren’t going to play nice for this, I think it’s only fair that I repay the favor.” he added, suddenly throwing the hand that held the device to his right, then back the other way. The convict’s body was quick to do the same, rocketing and slamming into the wall back-first. All air escaped from the reptile’s body due to the slam, landing roughly and gasping for it, along with gritting his fangs due to the eruption of pain.

“Prisoner six oh five three seven. Great Khan Athratic of the Zishrin Khanate.” the avian recited, the reptile snapping his head up to glaring at him.

“Instigator of the Khanate Offensive of twenty-four eighteen, destroying at least seventeen other stellar empires that failed to surrender to subjugation, enslaving forty-three others that did surrender.”

A roar managed to come out from the reptile as his former glory was being recited to him in the form of a list of crimes, managing to go into a charge despite the ankle shackles, swinging at the avian only for him to sidestep with ease. This earned another slam into the opposing wall, right next to where the destroyed hover chair laid.

“Despite having your khanate defeated in twenty-four thirty by a combined forces assault, with your flagship suffering critical damage, you managed to escape the system you lost in, regressing to conduct raids on numerous hyperlane trading routes to try and rebuild your lost empire. This resulted in thousands of civilian fleets falling victim to your raiding efforts, complete with purges of those who were of the same species as those who fought against and destroyed your empire.”

Another charge and the avian would only step back from a swing, arms folding behind his back as he maintained a stoic expression on his face, still easily dodging the former khan’s attempts to bludgeon him.

“Total casualties are around fifty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty-four spread out among eight thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight ships destroyed. Based on feeds from your ships when you were finally captured, approximately twenty-eight percent of those you personally killed when they were lined up for execution.”

The tally would only get a grin from the reptile, even as his body ached from the slams and exhaustion of the swings he missed.

“If the amount I’ve killed is impressive, I think I can cram one more onto that. Just…need you to hold still!” he ended with a roar, rearing up for yet another swing.

The avian wouldn’t even move from his spot this time, instead just watching the reptile approach. The shackles and fists would easily swing towards him from the side…only to miss him entirely along with the shackles feeling significantly heavier to the reptile, enough so to throw him off his feet and land a short distance away due to how much force he threw into it initially. Regaining his senses from the disruption, the reptile would try to get up again, only to notice the increased weight of the shackles around his wrists…no, forearms now, and his shins instead of just his ankles. The arms were spaced further apart, but this only raised more questions as the reptile turned to glare at the avian, only to quickly turn to confusion when he was now staring at eye level with him.

“Surprised?” the avian said with a small smirk on his face. “Something that has been in the testing stages for well past a galactic decade at this point.”

“What did you just do to me?!” the khan yelled out once he regained his composure, hands balling into fists.

“Showing what lies in store for you.”

Before the reptile could respond, the shackles would pull him up into the air again thanks to the controller, the avian reaching his unoccupied hand to the collar of his suit to tug at something. The item in question was a necklace, one that was accented with golden metals and had a near perfectly spherical amulet at the end of it, the avian holding it with a few digits of his hand.

“This, is where you are going to. I won’t explain everything leading to its creation, but the gist is that physical constraints regarding ones size, even celestial bodies, is something that we can freely control thanks to recent breakthroughs. That number that you have been given, six oh five three seven? That isn’t a random number. That’s the soon-to-be current population on this once you have been fully processed.”

“You…y-you…!” the reptile tried to stammer out, only to be cut off.

“And you are not the first to have made an attempt on my life, nor will you be the last. While I could easily reduce you down to the size of a pest and simply crush you, that would be not only be against protocol here, but would be considered merciful for scum such as yourself.”

“How in the hell is being on that thing worse?!”

“Hmm, one of them manages to ask for once…” the avian muttered before clearing his throat. “It’s simple. You’re going onto it and never coming back out. No amount of planning or strong-arming while there is going to help you. Every inmate to have ever set foot on this is separated and kept into their own twelve by twelve cell, no chance of cell mates. No way to contact the outside galaxy at large, no plans on ever letting them leave even after death. The only exception to the complete isolation is a very brief period into a ‘gathering area’, only for five minutes, after which it’s back to your cell. Does that clear things up enough, or do I need to go on?”

The reptile would only stare back at the avian with jaw agape, snapping shut with fangs baring once he regained his composure.

“You damn kaashlic! I’ll kill you before you even dare try to make me some kind of pe–!” he yelled out, only to have his size cut in half again. The restraints that held his arms still held tight due to whatever inner material they were made of, adjusting for the loss of size, but the reduction into them not only made it so his arms were almost fully bound by them, it also caused his head to slam up into them, his legs having the same issue but thankfully the shackles having moved closer so as to not tear him apart.

“And that, Prisoner Six Oh Five Three Seven, is where you fail to fully grasp the gravity and severity of your situation.”

The convict was about to bark out another question, only to feel the bindings become even larger for him, which then abruptly released, a yell coming out from the reptile as he dropped a comparatively significant distance and landed on the floor. It didn’t hurt him as much as the earlier slams, but it did knock his senses through a loop. Just as he got up, a trio of large objects slammed down around him, knocking him off of his feet and also causing his sense of hearing to ring, clamping his hands to the sides of his head. Once the ringing subsided, he would look around and notice metallic walls around his spot, nearly waist high to him, quickly realizing that they were the bindings that were previously on his body, now far too large for him to wear. The realization made him dip his head like as though he was struck from behind, slowly looking to where the avian was at…to see that his eye sight was level with the knees of the well-dressed bird, only a quarter of the standing height of the ‘giant’ before him.

The avian only folded his arms, hand firmly clasped onto the device that was not only one that controlled the shackles that formerly bound him, but also apparently the cause of the khan’s reductions in his stature. Rage was on his mind, but seeing the scale of the avian compared to him now and what had happened was making reality dawn on him. Thus, he would do the one thing he had never done in his life, not from any fight, not from any conflict.

He ran.

He turned around and broke into a full sprint towards the bulkhead that he had emerged from into this chamber. The once proud khan of an almighty armada, one that have ruled the stars with an iron fist, reduced to a whelp that would barely fend off a feral animal. His senses would easily cloud him of the avian’s actions, who chuckled at the sight of such and merely walked around the path of the reptile, easily stepping in front of him. Once the reptile caught on, he tried to get himself to stop, falling to the floor once he managed to turn around. He only managed to get a couple of steps away before something would slam into his back, sending him flying through the air.

After what felt like minutes of flight when it had only been a couple of seconds, he landed harshly on the floor, the momentum of the impromptu flight causing him to tumble over himself multiple times before coming to a halt when he crashed into a wall. Once again, his senses clouded due to the abuse he was being put through, and being almost on his head wasn’t helping matters, though there was one thing he could register; Rhythmic shaking, only getting stronger as he laid there. Flopping onto his side was enough to get back on track, only to feel his heart sink when he saw the avian again, even larger than before, now only able to reach up to the middle of the bird’s shins if he himself managed to get himself to stand.

At least, until he saw the bird’s hand holding the device compress on a button on it, and watched in real time as everything surged larger around him, doubling in size in only a few seconds when it was actually him being halved in size. His senses would be overwhelmed thanks to him witnessing the event in full, and only more so as he was hit with the reduction again, and only after a few seconds of rest, a third time in fairly rapid succession. Fear grasped the tiny reptile now, more so as he saw the avain starting to reach down towards his spot, going into a Flight mode and scrambled to find something, somewhere, to use and hide from the menace that was tormenting him.

He wouldn’t get far, feeling a vice clamp around his tail, howling as he clawed at the floor in an attempt to escape, which turned into flailing as he was lifted up from his spot, slumping once the vertigo was starting to set in. Dozens of meters to him would zip past, when it was only a couple dozen centimeters he was being lifted up into the air, not helping the matter is how he was subject to yet another reduction in his stature, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut. It’s only when the movements halted is when he opened them, being greeted by a reflective surface that showed his form perfectly.

A reptilian brute stared back at him from the mirror, with muscles to match, multiple scars across the parts of his body that were not covered by the jumpsuit that he wore and had been going down with him. Even the cybernetic jaw he had was relatively untouched by what all had happened, at least not scaling differently, but the surface he was looking at moved, snapping him out of his own thoughts to try and comprehend where he was at, and once he did, terrified him.

It was an eye. One of the avian’s eyes. And not an organic one at that.

Had he been back at his normal size and not acted like he had done, he would have been excused for thinking that the avian was wholly biological, but now? At a size that most pests wouldn’t even notice? The eye was mechanical. He could see the lens focusing solely on him, and even a flurry of information popping up and vanishing on differing displays, no doubt scanning his tiny, insignificant, frightened form for cataloging. He was about to open his mouth to say something, anything, only to be cut off as the eye blinked, a message forming on the lens.

“Don’t waste your breath.” the initial line of text read, being quickly cleared away for another message forming.

“While I’d still be able to hear your squeaks thanks to the augments you are no doubt thinking of, I’ve since turned off the receiving end of the translation components. I’d only hear your species’ native tongue, but you’ll still hear mine being cleared up to yours. Well, that’s if I chose to speak. Doing so would render you deaf at this size though, so the text will suffice.” the text stayed for a moment before clearing itself after another blink of the gigantic eye.

“Now do you understand the situation you are in, Prisoner Six Oh Five Three Seven?”

Near paralyzed nods of fear would be the reptile’s answer, knowing that he would not be able to do anything at this point.

“Good.”

With that, the reptile, now having resigned to the imprisonment that was mentioned before, would see his view changing from the eye to the feathers, being moved down and towards the amulet that was shown before. He did have to squeeze his eyes as another reduction of his size occurred, feeling the grasp of his tail letting up. The event would have gotten a yell from him had the pendant…no, systems of the prison planet below…not kicked in, bringing a halt to his movement and also causing him to go even further down, now unable to comprehend just how minuscule he would become.

The avian, all the while, was controlling the process that would bring the former khan into the amulet. He had already done enough, but his urge to putting the hostile reptile in his place was something he had enjoyed. For now though, it was time to let the amulets systems sort him out. The process entailed the reptile being reduced to such a point that the penal colony planet within would be comparable to an actual world to him. Then he would be put through further systems that would lock him away in a wing of the prison complex with others that were of the same severity as himself.

No hope of escaping, no ways of going back to his former glory. Reduced to something utterly insignificant and thus to be forgotten, being only a number for the amulet. Such is the fate of those who have come before him.

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Saph'Eak: View

Yeah, been a bit since I last made a full literature piece, hasn't it?

This was a rather random, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, which was sparked thanks to one convo in a Discord server I'm in, doubled with thoughts of my playthroughs of modded Stellaris, in which both characters here are based off of the race portraits from there. Took less than a day or so to write out this 3.6k word blurb, and twas with procrastination and even sleep factored in.

That aside, the avian here, whom is named Crim'Eak (albeit wasn't actually mentioned in the story itself), is to be a character that I'd be keeping, and rather obviously going to be using hard sci-fi related things. There's also an alternate version in the works, so it'll be linked once it goes up as well.