Orb Horizon
The whip nearly hit me. At least it felt that way. But of course it can't cross the barrier. Nothing can.
To my right, Jorgan looked down at the arena with a vacant stare, his long knotted hair pulling towards the gravity orb that contained the arena. He looks so different now. Beaten down. I'm sure I did too. We all did. A lifetime on this rock will do that to you.
"Do you really think they can't see us?" Jordan said, his eyes fixed on the fight closest to us.
"Yeah..." I said with a sigh. "Not for any good reason though. I think he just finds it funny." I vaguely gestured towards the silhouted figure looming high over the arena. Jorgan knew who I meant.
He grunted in acknowledgment. The fight closest to us was now inches from the orb horizon, the faces of the fighters distorted slightly by the horizon's field disruptor.
"1 minute." Jorgan said suddenly, standing upright, regaining that strength I knew back in the mines.
"Kara, you ready?" I said.
"Yes, tell me when", came her reply through my ear. Kara was the strongest of us all. Always ready, never giving into the exhaustion.
I activated wide-band comms. "Everyone, it's time. Are we a go?" I said.
"Go" came a voice. "Go" came another. 7 more gos and we were ready. 3 years it had taken us to get here. To this moment. I hope to God the informant had given us the right encyption key.
I grabbed the railing with both hands and braced.
"3... 2... 1!" I shouted.
High up above, Kara sliced through the emitter's cable, quickly replacing it with our hack. Suddenly the gravity orb holding the arena in place began to pulsate violently. The encryption key was right! All together the fighters within stopped and turned to look at the audience through the orb's horizon. With each pulsation I could see the fighters more clearly. They could see us too, the audience, for the first time in their lives.
I lept over the railing down the box below. Before he could realize what was happening, I grapped the mayor and threw him through the horizon into the orb. To my right, Uuri Belga, the enforcer of the syndicate, flapped about in the hands of Jorgan. He lifted the enforcer above his head and threw him into the orb. A fighter floating close the horizon, waiting, grabbed him and began tearing him apart.
All around the arena, the same was happening to other members of the syndicate. Gamblers, financiers, breeders, we threw the whole fucking lot of them into their pit. Standing in their place where the women and men of The Retribution. My people. We had done it. Now we watched.