With her suit's strength reinforced by the jolting electricity, Alexandra's throw is enough to bowl both Preta over, sending them to the ground in a tangled mess of yipping slaver and clattering armor. It's a move immediately followed by the clicking of staves as they power down, having spotted the ineffectiveness of the electricity - the Preta are nothing if not adaptable. Her follow-up shots score one prone slaver in both knees, him being an easier target when prone, but even as he yelps in pain he rolls over to provide an armored wall for his partner, turning his back carapace to the agent and sheltering his packmate's legs from the withering fire as he scrambles back to his feet.

A loud bang echoes, and from behind the corner the first slaver had crawled he throws himself out, swinging his stave and the tangling wires in it at the ADD agent. His leg still doesn't work, but pack instinct holds strong, and he attacks to cover his kin no matter his own weakness. Without their charging electricity, the stave-cords are nothing more than delicate whips that lash out at the agent's gun arm, yet it might be enough to foul her aim and toss the weapon away.

The pod at the end of the aisle approaches, dropping to all fours and abandoning the staves entirely, intent on overwhelming the agent with a brute wave of armored flesh if their usual toys do not suffice to drive her down.

Another Petra had his movement hindered while it used his body to protect his partner. The russian agent stopped firing and immediately backed away. There was no point at firing at armored targets. It would take more firepower than she had to punch a hole in those metal plates. A loud bang revealed the first Petra was still trying to provide support. Thankfully, Alexandra's tour of the area gave her a reasonable mental layout of her battleground. She shifted back and to the side towards one of the nearby booths, letting the wires wrap around and entangle a post.

The agent grabbed the wires and attempted to yank the staff out of the Petra's hand. If she could, she would take that with her as she retreated further into the booths. With two injured in the legs, she could hopefully spread her targets out a bit more before the next three arrived. Alexandra would round a corner before slowing down and waiting. She would welcome the first one to come by with a sharp kick right to the Petra's sensitive nose.

With the wires tangled about the post, attempting to yank the stave loose proves futile, even if the Petra hadn't been hauling back on the other end. He snarls and tries to climb down the staff to Alexandra, but she is gone in a black blur before he can reach her, and the dog-slaver is left scrabbling on the floor, snarling out his frustration.

That leaves four actives, as the other pod finally arrives - they group up for a moment, glaring warily around, before one of them spits and hauls up his wounded packmates, one on either shoulder, and retreats back along the outer ring towards the ship. It's a bad tactical decision, but the same pack instinct that drives the Preta will not allow them to leave casualties behind. That leaves the second pod, and now they are particularly annoyed.

Rather than advance, the pod leader flicks on a headset and growls something in his native language into it. A moment later, all the Preta present withdraw minature spheres from a compartment beneath their thick greaves and hurl them into the stalls; those spheres detonate like a thunderclap at waist level, and release an invisible tranquilizer gas, strongly scented of that billows out through the complex maze. The gas won't stay for long, given how the station circulates air and the warm gas rises, but in the meantime the Preta drop to all fours, beneath the cloud level, and track the agent. Her scent is fresh now, and they move with purpose.

Of course that stance means that Alexandra's greeting kick punts the first Preta's nose fully back into his skull, and he collapses in a bleeding mess, nigh-unconscious as his teammates snarl and lunge forward low, trying to take the agent's leg out from underneath her before she can recover from her kick.

Alexandra managed to get some distance beween her and her pursuers. She was not aware that they had stopped to deal with the injured, leaving only one group behind to hunt down the agent. Their presence was made known though as loud explosions were heard throughout the marketplace. Either they were trying to knock her out with concussive grenades or trying to gas her out. Neither were successful as there were only so many grenades compared to the number of hiding places. The gas would gradually spread though, forcing Alexandra to move eventually.

The gas was perhaps more helpful to her as it forced the Petra to walk on all fours again, making it very easy to kick the head of the first to come into Alexandra's view. The low kick meant she could drop her foot to the floor much quicker as his two comrades rush her. She followed the first kick immediately with a second towards the next Petra's face, hopefully knocking him away while the third came crashing into her.

"Ooof!" The russian woman toppled over, landing hard on the metal floor. She knew she did not have time to grapple this foe as more could arrive at any moment. Alexandra grabbed one of the Petra's ears and twisted as hard as she could while punching with her other arm. Her legs kicked, trying push the creature off of her so she could roll back onto her feet.

Having already seen how his packmate dropped from the brutal kick, the Preta Alexandra kicks at turns his shoulder into the blow, taking it dead on into the thick muscle there. It'll bruise, badly, but the slaver is far from incapacitated, even as his comrade bowls the ADD agent over and knocks her to the floor.

The canid upon Alexandra bears her assault with remarkable discipline, even though his eyes redden with rage. The ear-twisting extracts a yelp, and the punch a second cry of pain, but the dog's bulk is enough that he doesn't reel back, especially considering the agent's lack of footing. The slaver drops his armored bulk atop the woman's torso, nearly a hundred pounds of metal plus the Preta's own weight, then grabs for the hand twisting his ear - not so much to pry it off, but to pin it in place, and bind Alexandra down further while preventing more twisting.

The slaver she had most recently kicked shakes it off, snaps off a loop of metal wire from about one shoulder, and then tosses it about Alexandra's wildly kicking feet, tangling them. With a sort of practiced expertise he begins a knot to bind her legs together.

Alexandra had both dogs piled on her. One attempted to bind her arms while other went to work on her legs. The agent was in trouble. With that armor and those metallic strands of fur, the agent's options were limited. Twisting that ear again, Alexandra's free hand clamped down on the Petra's nose. There, she would release an electrical current right into the creature's skull in hopes of bypassing his resistance. Her legs fruitlessly kick, trying to keep from having those metal coils bind her legs and ankles together.

Alexandra's attack is effective - too effective. Steam rises from the Preta's head and it releases a choked gasp as the artificial lightning forces its way through resistant nerves and flash-boils the creature's brain inside its skull with a wet pop of energy and a crack of thunder. It collapses bonelessly, smoking from eyes, ears, and mouth.

The Preta tying up the agent's feet twitches at the demise of its packmate, but doesn't stop his work until he pulls the wire and the knot collapses in on the woman's legs, binding them tightly together at ankle and knee level. At that point he retreats just a step and circles to where the agent's blaster has fallen, then makes to kick away her last hope.

The howls of the last pod answer their packmate's demise, and the rumble of their steps over the stall-tops announces their imminent arrival.

Alexandra did not mean to kill the creature. But, it was either that or be captured and put to slavery. There had to be at least a rule that allows someone to defend themself in this bloody place. The agent pushed the now dead Petra off her while the other finished tying her legs and backed away. Backing away was a mistake as Alexandra immediately drew her blaster and shot out the slaver's knees. The agent immediately followed with firing her blaster at the knot of wire holding her legs together. If she could break free, she would get back to her feet and immediately retreat to another area of the stalls.

The Petra falls with a scream at the quickdraw, but it manages to foul up Alexandra's attempt to escape with the bloody choice of blocking the blaster's shot with its own arm, drawing another screech of pain as the blaster cooks the flesh of that arm. It seizes the wire with its unburnt hand and drags the ADD agent closer, then tries to backhand her viciously with the burnt limb, the metal still smoking slightly from the blocked shot.

Around the struggling pair, the last pod drops to the ground from the stalltops, the floor shuddering under the impact of their weight. One immediately kneels to check on the doomed Preta, while the other two bound towards Alexandra; one promptly throws itself across her upper body, trying to prevent more shots or at least catch them with its thick chest armor, while the other unspools another set of wire and circles behind the agent.

The last Petra threw himself on Alexandra, preventing her from freeing herself with her blaster. The two struggled for a bit before a metal fist came across the agent's jaw. Her head snapped to the side as her vision flashed black and white. Groaning, the female agent was in a daze as the other pack arrived to finish things up. One piled on top of the beautiful russian, forcing the air from her lungs as the heavy armored body crushed into her. Her arm was easily pinned, preventing her from firing any more shots at them as another Petra arrived with another set of cord to bind her with. Stars flecked across her sight as Alexandra was left groaning with three large dog men grabbing hold of her.

The two Petra atop Alexandra keep her thoroughly pinned until the last manages to loop his wire about her hands and bind them tight. A shockwave of relief runs through them as the agent's blaster falls to the floor, its barrel still steaming with heat from its constant use in the last few minutes.

The rest is cleanup; the dead Petra is bourne away on a packmate's shoulders, and the slaver who'd managed to bind her legs (albeit at the price of a blaster bolt to both knees) is evidently hero of the hour, if the hooting calls and headbutts to his shoulder are any indication. The Preta don't carry translators, which makes their lingo unintelligible to the agent, but from their dark glances and slavering jaws, her fate is to be unpleasant. As the binder appropriates a shock-stave to tie Alexandra hand and foot to it like a hog, the slaver she had crippled limps over and leans down face to face with Alexandra.

He snarls something, undoubtedly obscene, then rears back and throws a knockout haymaker at the woman's head.

Disarmed and bound, Alexandra could do little more than squirm now as the pack of Petra celebrated. One dead and three with injured legs to catch one lone agent was perhaps not the cleanest mission for them. As the others tie her to a shock-staff, the Petra that had managed to stop her at the cost of his legs decided to repay the agent with a vicious strike to the head. The heavy fist slammed right into her face, bouncing the back of her head off the unforgiving metal floor. Her vision flashed white then there was nothing but darkness as Alexandra layed there limp in her bonds. The mission was over, the agent was captured.

The pod leader keys his headset and snarls into it as the agent slumps into unconsciousness.

"Good to know." Cambian replies, unsurprised. She'd been talented but underequipped. A lack of resources was a crippling blow to most agents. "You want to handle interrogation? I have a Navim on board that could handle it if your equipment's too occupied already - I understand you came here with a full hold."

The Preta's response is pleased, by the crooning tone, but it shakes its head, and makes some kind of a counteroffer by its gesticulation.

"Fair enough." Cambian replies, pleased. "Twenty-four hours each, then we drop her with the Congolmerate. If any of your pack requires medical treatment, swing by the lab, I'll treat them as best I can. Good doing business with you."

Clicking off his headseat, the slaver barks out orders, then leads the troop at a march back to the Black Ship, the last hobbling alongside.

______________________________________________________________________________

The Taming Hold. Cold, mechanical, full of static electricity that arcs from metal to metal. This is what the slaves dread, and they watch with pitying eyes as Alexandra is carried past the iron doors and into the darkness. There they cut the wires and peel the suit from her body with thin knives, carrying out samples for the researchers back home, before they clamp her to the Bull.

The Bull is the primary taming instrument of the Preta; a manacled chair with plastic sheets over it to aid in sanitation. The arms and legs are spread wide, the better to expose the victim, and a pair of trays nearby provide a wide assortment of tools for either punishment or reward. Beneath the chair waits the Bull itself, a humming engine with lubricated prongs.

The crippled slaver limps forward once Alexandra is secured and slaps her awake disdainfully, a wide grin upon his canine lips.

The slavers carried the unconcious agent back to their ship. Unable to find the seal for the woman's suit, the Petra wasted no time resorting to blades as they cut and peeled away the tight material. The woman's full breasts flowed out from their confines, her nude form wearing only a thong underneathe that strange suit. The russian woman was easily stripped and bound to a chair with an engine underneathe. Alexandra's day had only just begun unfortunately for her.

The harsh slap caused her to stir. "Uhhnn..." she blinked slowly. Her head was throbbing from the fight before. She was still alive, for better or for worse. It did not take long to realize she was naked and bound to a chair. Her eyes focused on the grinning mutt that she injured before. Alexandra said nothing though as it was not like she could communicate with these creatures anyway. It was apparent what they wanted to do to her especially after what she did to their comrade. She could guess she was onboard the slaver's ship. It would take time for the ADD to realize she had been captured and by then, this ship could be anywhere.

Limper sniffed over the woman's body - her collarbone, her neck, shoulders, the strands of her hair - the light puffs of his breath cool aboard the stiflingly hot ship. He pulls back then, and turns to the tray beside Alexandra, from which he takes an ice cube, stored within a cooler.

He raises it up before Alexandra's eyes, letting the chilled ice and slowly dripping water from it affix itself in her mind, before he lowers it to her neck, slowly tracing the cold cube down the vein in her neck, over her sternum and down her belly, then slides it into the agent's navel. As the ice cube continues to melt from her body heat, the cool water will trickle down between her legs and over the lips of her sex, a fine torment.

The Preta withdraws a second ice cube from the chest, which he sets at the back of Alexandra's neck, running it down her spine with equal patience.