PRISONER OF WAR
This excerpt is taken from data-rec "L01 by 'Internee R265-8572-c' at Shellaka Military Penitentiary under the supervision of warden Brenner and Governor warden Bloyce.
I can remember the first episode of elimination. In those days the Arenas were all on earth and s-com syndicated it to only 1300 sectors. It sounds strange now, but in that first series the prisoners were reprieved if they beat the odds and actually survived. They'd be released back into the community, their name intact, their liberty assured.
Their only burden was a new one: fame for surviving elimination guaranteed celebrity status. Everyone wanted to know what it was like to be a contestant, to don the armour, to operate the craft, to enter the Arena and blast their way to freedom. And some were willing to pay vast fortunes for their story. Surviving elimination guaranteed wealth.
When the civil war began, elimination went off air - naturally. But now I find you guys have resurrected the show for your own propaganda machine, using us to test your weapons. It sickened me to see it screened on the Digi-net in the detainment confine. My Government would treble its war effort if it knew you were executing prisoners of war in the name of entertainment.
Before the war, elimination was all about heroism, all about bravura, all about freedom. Now it's all about blood, all about suffering, all about justice. The justice of no escape. The justice of a legitimate death. The justice of a televised death.
I was elimination's biggest fan - I bayed for blood, I joined the fan-club and, like every other viewer, I was engulfed by the overriding feeling that the bloke inside the craft deserved to die. It never crossed my mind that the prisoners may be innocent. Elimination was essential viewing, but I never thought I'd take part in it myself....
Governor Warden Bloyce's Data-Rec "AA1"
This excerpt is re: data-rec "L01 with 'Internee A26S-8572-c' at Shellaka Military Penitentiary.
It was at this stage of his confession that the Internee became irrational and once again, unpredictable. Refusing to collaborate with the state in the testing of our new weapons, the Internee repeatedly accused us of misconduct.
When warden Brenner threatened to brand him as a deserter and a traitor to his side, the Internee sprang from the detainment confine. It took five tech-guards to haul the Internee from warden Brenner's prone body. The brutal attack was unprovoked and without precedent at Shellaka Military Penitentiary.
In respect to the memory of warden Brenner, I recommend that the Internee should be disqualified from entering the divine ritual of elimination. Execution by Lethal injection would be quicker and more cost-effective.
SURVIVOR
The survivor is the perfect craft in a dogfight or tight situation. If it's speed you're after, this is the craft for you. Not recommended for trainees or beginners.
ELIMINATOR ARENAS
MESSAGE FROM Union COMMANDER DAVOR SINE
Before the civil war, there was only the state. When the union splintered from the state, each side established prisoner of war camps. We, in the union, have respected the Shellaka covenant ensuring state POWs have had their rights maintained.
However, new intelligence reveals the state have begun a wholesale slaughter of union forces held within their confines. In light of this new information, we will target the state's munitions plants and weapons-test facilities. Of these targets we know little, but what we do know has been learnt at a cost. A cost of union life.
THE PENITENTIARY
Shellaka Military Penitentiary was recognised as the most dreaded prison throughout the galaxy - before the civil war. Its image hasn't changed since, but its inmates have. The prisoners of war held at Shellaka can expect no mercy from their state hosts.
THE MAZE
Built during the early part of the civil war by the state as a strategic fortification on the border of union territory. After years of attrition, enough land was captured to cement the maze's position within state territory. According to our sources, it is currently being transformed into a military weapons-test facility.
THE ASYLUM
Our knowledge of the Asylum confirms the depravity of the state. They imprison society's drop-outs, what they would label as freaks and street-rabble, within its walls. Sickeningly, they test cutting-edge technology and chemical weapons on them to gauge resistance.
THE CAGE
The cage is unknown territory to us. As most of this super-prison is submerged beneath the sea and tightly guarded, the chances of meeting a watery grave are high.
THE CHASM
State forces who disobey orders or go AWOL are ruthlessly incarcerated in the chasm. Few return to the armed forces, even fewer survive.
THE MONASTERY
The ice-cold, frozen jail where temperatures rarely rise above -20. Isolated in the bitter Northern plains of state territory, frost-bite will be the least of your worries.
THE TOMB
Originally built within territory belonging to us, the Tomb was a symbol of union military success. Early state victories included the taking of the Tomb. Prototype weapons are tested within this Arena, so it would prove a crucial target to neutralise.
THE FORTRESS
Most of the space-prisons were shot down during the early years of the civil war. The Fortress, however,