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+--- Thread: Into Dante's Inferno (/showthread.php?tid=2243)
Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 08-07-2015
Quote:
I had once been told that, given enough time and not enough to do, that any man could be driven insane. "Idle hands are the devil's playground", or something to that effect. I had through it was bullshit. So long as there was something, a person could strive off boredom and keep themselves sane from the ever present questions we don't want answered. But it had been a day since I left Lieutenant Jones' office and had not yet heard world from him or any of his lackeys, and since then I had spent my entire time focused on the mission. I took a local apartment for a room (they were happy to have a "celebrity" staying with them) and locked myself in. Maps and manuals were printed and penned to the wall, equipment vital to the operation laid uselessly in a pile in a corner until needed. With three years of experience as a glorified mall cop for for the UAC's waste processing plant on Mars, I tried to map out all the logical guard routes on the blue print as well as where possibly heavier reinforcements could go through, but every small detail soon ballooned into a life of it's own. As I sat there on the end of bed I saw the extent of madness that happened over the course of several hours: that was one a single map and a few pages turned into a collage of notes, drawings, maps, and more pins and string that I thought I would ever need in a life time. It dawned on me that it wasn't boredom that would get you. People always preferred to do something, even if it was nothing of value. It was the obsession that consumed you. That you trapped yourself into a maze of thoughts until you have shunted yourself into another reality of your creation, and real life lost meaning. it was the not enough that would get you, because although it could not sustain your sanity it was enough to force yourself into its entirety. Enough rope to hang yourself, as it were.
I tired to shake it off. Told myself to go out and get some fresh air. Spend a few quarters at the arcade I saw across the street. Turn on the TV and watch some midgets wrestling. Anything to unwind myself from my self inflicted prison. But the mission took precedent. This would be just like any other briefing: absorb information, follow the plan, completely ignore the plan when everything inevitably went awry, then fight your way out with or to the objective. Simple, really.
Unfortunately, despite my efforts to go in with as much knowledge I could gather, the map I had stolen under the Empire's nose was incomplete. Or rather, it seemed as if parts of it were intentionally left in flux. Detailed drawings of the first few levels included every wall, cell, and security measure. Nothing left to the imagination. But as you went farther down increasingly large swathes of the blueprint was large generic blocks labeled as "containment area". Not even as censored blocks for certain eyes only, this was intentionally done by the architect. Were these areas just one giant room that they dump the prisoners into? That seemed so unlikely, as much of the structure around the areas were designed for supporting equipment inside them. Worse still, in the margin notes were mentioned of motorized walls and moving access points. It wasn't just some trumped up prison the Empire had at the horizon, but a hellish labyrinth of fiendish medieval torture mixed with modern day security.
It might have seen daunting to those used to the idea of what a prison is normally considered as, but to me it would be the Deimos Base all over again. A metallic, claustrophobic, and shifting bundle of tunnels and room where around every corner and behind every wall and door was something out to get you. If it had less demons that Deimos did, then it would be far less stress on my part.
But it did not leave me confident that I would find Sheila's sister. If prisoners weren't separated, then she may very well have been killed, shanked or beaten by insane primes or powerful enemies of the state. If Impel Down was as dangerous as everyone said, she could be nothing more than a smear on the ground at that very moment. If the Empire was as cruel as I suspected, she may have just offed herself. And if in spite of all that she was still alive, I would not have a clue where to look across the levels and many hiding spots there in. And that's before I had to figure out how the in the Hell I was suppose to make my way out. I could get in by myself with not a whole lot of problem, but if I had to drag her back out that was a massive hitch in the plan. Choprot was suppose to make it easy by parking outside, but he's gone dark. Can't rely on him. Not that I did in the first place, to be completely honest.
Break in, find the girl, get out. What could possibly be hard about that? Nothing. Everything.
After what seemed like the long wait to death and the third I checked my equipment, I got the call. Jones sent the message himself over the radio in quick spurts.
"Job's Done. 5th level. Good Luck" After that was only radio silence. I didn't have the chance to say goodbye myself, but I just took that as our chance to part ways a never see each other again. I took everything I needed, a headed down to the docks.
----
The late night sky was as clear as always, stars and a waned moon shined down and reflected upon the rippling surface of the Vasty Deep's unending ocean. Waves crash upon the shore, sea foam pushed up as far as it could go before finally pulled back into the whole again. Although the bright light of Costa Del Sol still dance behind me as the inhabitants partied into midnight, the docks themselves are largely abandoned. Only late arrivals, night fishermen, and moonlit romantics walked the wooden planks. They didn't pay much attention to me, which was better off for everyone.
Rather than my usual gear and equipment, I wore the UAC's standard environmental suit. Keeps you dry and alive in terrible conditions, but more importantly it comes with its own air takes and has very little metal in it. Most of my equipment had been rendered down back into omnilium and my armor broken down into its component parts and stuffed into a water proof bag. A DPV was under my arms, which was going to get me across the water faster and less tiring that swimming. I looked out over the black water of the night and tossed the bag in first. A nearby fisherman moved from his rod for a moment to watch me with a look on his face.
"What are you up to?" he asked, most of his diligence still on his line rather than me.
"Late night cram hunting" I lied as I jumpped in. If he figured me out, he didn't seem to care.
"Well, don't head out that way" He point out to my destination in the distance "Empire has it locked down with who knows what"
"I'll remember that" I mentioned, and then headed out on my way.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 08-17-2015
Underneath the surface of the ocean, everything grew dark, and cold, and still. I could barely hear the churn of the waves above me, and the lower I sunk into the inky blackness the less that I could hear anything, left as only a white noise at the edge of my hearing. Once I was down far enough, I finally turned the little engine in my hands on and I was pulled through the water like a torpedo. Down I went, deeper into the nothingness that stole my sight from me, left only with a constant pressure as the water tried desperately to invade the sealed suit I wore and take my breath as well. I was surrounded by a hostile atmosphere and protected by about half an inch of rubber. Nothing I hadn't handled before, space is a far more fatal place and I managed to survive it in the middle of a war. But there was still always that thought that this might be it. It wasn't fear, the prospect of death had been dulled to me sometime ago, but it was an ever present niggling that I could only squish and continue on into the night.
With only a set of light amp visors to reveal my path, I soldiered on through the ocean. Nothing came close, although my HUD told me that I has surrounded by life. It seemed at first that they avoided me, as a stranger of the deep. But out of the corners of my eyes I saw black silhouettes in the farthest reaches of my sight. Massive shapes and eyes that reflected the little moonlight that reached this far, stared and circled around me until then finally noticed that I had spotted them and sunk back from where I couldn't see them. Either they saw me as not worth the risk or just waited for a better opportunity to strike, but they didn't have the chance before I reached my first barrier.
A net hung loosely in the expanse around the prison, long chains interwoven together with barely enough room between the intersections for an arm to fit through, let alone a whole human being. Bubbling around the chains themselves revealed that this was not just simply a simple 'stay out" warning but electric death to anyone who touches it. I was going the right way. I reached into my bag of tricks, pulled out a bolt cutter, and sniped the links at one interception to make a hole big enough for me to wriggle through. The thick rubber and lead padding of the suit let me pull myself and my equipment through and I sailed onto the next challenge. Not everything from beyond this point would be as easy, however, and I knew it.
Further inside the defenses seemed far more still. The enemy detector made not a bleep, creep, or sweep compared to before's constant activity. As I swooped down closer to the sea floor I saw why: where there had once been a vibrant landscape of plant life was now nothing but the skeletons of coral and a thick cover of white powder in every direction. Even the corpses of fish I unearthed when I passed by them with the propeller seemed untouched by the usual scavengers. A shiver ran down my spine, as I wondered what could have caused this. It seemed obvious that this was the effect of the Empire's presence, but the cause seemed to have not leave any trace to it's identity other than the destruction it left. What could do this, I wondered...
Then I realized the chill in my spine never left.
I quickly spun around, to try and get eyes on the haunted presence. I spotted it, and soon many others, nearing my flanks in a hungry wave of ghostly light. Specters, dressed in torn, body obscuring, black ropes, advanced towards me with outreached finger bones. That was enough of a reason to get the hell out of there and not deal with that shit. I turned the DPV to max and zoomed away as quickly as the little propeller allowed and from the ghosts. Not exactly the most intimidating thing to a man who's face demons, nor when you've out sped them with a little diver's toy, but now I went on with a constant sweep, vigilant (and very paranoid) for more of them. I had no intentions to find out what they would have done if they caught me.
What felt like hours floated by, the vast expanse between the outer rim of the prison to the installation proper stretched on for what may very well have been a mile. Although life did slowly filter back in to the area the further I got away from the barren wastelands of the specters, but there was definitely a harder breed of sea creatures around here, many predators and what has managed to survive them. If they thought of me as a potential snack then they weren't quick to jump at the me, but they didn't stray far from me either. The two of us kept our distance from each other, and I continued on my way until I metaphorically hit a wall.
Which was also a literal wall.
A unnatural sheen cut through the water, a slight bend that cornered inwards around a cylindrical structure I could barely see in the distance. That was my destination, but I had to deal with this new problem before I could get there. It looked like a glass panel that circled the whole place, but I doubted that it was something so pathetic as that. More likely that it was hooked to something else that would vaporize me or unleash undead sharks or something that would have killed me horrible and/or put the prison's guard on alert. I needed a way through, but not put myself under the backlash I would get if I just broke through.
I glanced around the area for any kind of opening, or perhaps some other weakness. There was a patch of the same material over another section nearby, which meant that it wasn't indestructible. I just needed a big weapon, or an explosive.
Or a battering ram.
I looked back towards the group of fish behind me, which has left me alone in my thoughts. I scoped out the biggest, meanest looking motherfucker of the bunch. An armored beast lizard like in shape with its four legs and long neck, with webbed hands, large wing like fins, and tall but thin tail, gunned after its less than formidable prey. It certainly looked like it could stand a few hits. I tracked its movement, raised my little assistant propeller up, jammed the accelerator, and let it fly on collision course with the apex predator. It aimmed true, as moments before the beast could rear its massive head and chomp on the swimming dinner the machine slammed into the side of the face, the beast whirling around at the sudden attack and the food swam away. It finally found the source of the projectile, and starred at me in beastly rage.
"Yeah, how do you like me now!?" I taunted the creature, two middle fingers waved around for added stress relief. If it understood was beyond me, but it did look pissed and it lunged at me. I only had one shot at this, otherwise I'd find myself back at the Nexus with a really embaressing story. As it got in range, it opened its massive toothy jaw, large enough to swallow me whole and more teeth than my chainsaw.
I pushed myself through the water as hard as I can, now just facing the side of that dreaded mouth instead of getting chomped down the middle. With one last desperate effort, I swung a punch with my entire body, and it connected with the head. It wouldn't have hurt it, but it had the desired effect of that it pushed me just enough away that all limps were left accounted as the vice grip of a jaw missed, but close enough that I could reach onto the fins across the head, and ride the monster's necks.
It inevitable tried to buck me off, a titanic struggle as I gripped with all my strange while it thrashed and writhed in anger. With one tug of one side of the fins I could get it to turn, though getting it to go straight like was a pain. Not that I need to work for long, as I eventually managed to wrangle it at the see-through barrier. With one final boot to the jaw, I got it to shoot forward in another attempt to throw me off, only for it to shortly ram head first into the dome.
It shattered, only a brief moment of possible doubt as the beast's head was pushed back at first but the wall could not hold against such power and weight and rage. I could hear the thump as the forces met, and soon after felt it rattle through my bones, but I still held on for dear life. Pieces few everywhere, momentum cleared it away and pushed me through. Not a few seconds later angry red beams of lights shot into every direction to try to kill my temporary steed. I managed to avoid lazer death, but a random glance hit the tail of the dragon fish and sheared a huge chunk of it off.
That did not discourage it. If only made it angrier.
It bolted away from the weapons (with a little directional help from me), and we both rushed to the last obstacle in my way: the physical wall of Impel Down that separated me from my goal. My HUD beeped, the auto mapper signaling the tracking device I handed to Jones. He did pull through after all. I decided when this was done, I'll mail him a fruit basket. Assuming he was still alive at this point. A few more directional changed and I aimed my living siege weapon at my target.
I clutched myself around the neck of the sea monster and braced for impact just before we smashed through the wall of Impel Down.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 08-25-2015
What happens when a dragon fish and the marine on its back tries to plow through the thick walls of an Empire super prison at high speeds? It was not as clean as I would have hoped, not was I unscathed on the way in. I knew it was a gamble from the start, but I was already riding the lightning and it was too late to get off. As the beast speed towards the heavily reinforced obstacle, it turn its head at the last second in an attempt to try to dodge, but at the speed we were at it only just switched a heads on collision with a shoulder tackle. A thunderous crash pulverized the mortar, tore re-bar beams, and reduced the man sized concrete blocks at the center of the hit to rubble. It was a hole barely big enough for me to fit through, but the pressure of the many leagues under the surface did the rest. Water forced its self through at the bars were torn from their place as if they were little more than toys.
"That's my cue" and I let go of my ride to be pulled in by the rapid current of water that forced it's way into the prison walls. The wyvern snapped at me, but I was already out of its reach after its momentum bounced it off the wall. I tumbled through the current, light inside told me that I had broken through but there became a serious complication as I felt a searing pain rip through my leg. A piece of rebar had torn my evo suit and ran a deep cut across me that went from my knee to my side. Water rushed into my suit and blood was pushed out, a frigid chill gripped me as the suit started to fill up. I reached down to try and clamp the hole to save it, but I slammed into the floor off the room I had entered.
I was inside Impel Down. And it was fucking cold.
I grabbed onto the chest of the rubber suit and torn it asunder with a pull, water than has spilled into it gushed out onto the floor. I was left in just my pants and shirt, my actual armor stuck in the bag over my shoulders, and inside what looks liked the world's largest walk in freezer. I felt my skin shiver under the sub zero temperatures and flakes of water that still covered my skin freeze, but this wasn't exactly the best place to change while the hole I came in through grew bigger and water still forced it's way in and alarms started to blare. Sections of the floor opened up like hanger doors, and form them spindly robotic arms, large square plates of unknown material hoisted up from somewhere deeper beneath me and moved into place to try and plug the opening and trap the water. with me along with it.
I rushed ahead, ducked under the careless machines as they continued their work, and kept on the run as more and more plates we put into place. The thicker walls previously several yards away enclosed on me, they slide on the ground as if run on invisible rails. Although the cold tried to steal my breath with each bound towards safety, I juked between the closing walls, nearly avoided being crushed between the concrete and mortar, and made it into a relatively safe spot with the grinding machinery behind me.
Alone and about to freeze my ass off, I opened the bag on my back, bits of armor spilled out onto the floor and clattered into a neat pile. Each piece was put on with a remembered grace, years of wearing this armor allowed a superhuman speed as I requirement it and build myself back up to the true form of a space marine. Once I was down to only my helmet left, I looked into the visor from the ouside, a small smile crept on my face as I it was as striking and powerful as always, and then placed it over my head where it belonged. Systems rebooted, my HUD light up and feed me all the information needed, and the build in heating flared up and kept me a a room temperature comfortable and away from a disappointing death at the hands of hypothermia.
"Now I just need a weapon" I told myself as I already started to collect the omnilium, my mind focused on the image of my shotgun, when I heard footsteps to my side. I glanced over to see two men, each in the ragged and torn remains of what I assumed were the prison's uniform, and the one in the front with a zip gun pointed at me. I glanced down at it, then back to the man, and gave him a sadistic grin hidden behind my helmet.
"You're joking, right?"
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 09-06-2015
So who where these two clowns in the the ruined orange jumpers and with about enough self preservation as a chronic drunk? The guy with the gun looked to be your classic military human adult. Short hair, slightly buffed, thousand yard stare, he held his rickety pistol with a steady aim and the intent to kill. Sores around his mouth and blood shot eyes indicated some kind of drug use, but it looked more like the side effects of combat stimm rather than any kind recreational drugs, which meant that he wasn't addled by their use but still probably in some stage of withdraw that put him on enough of a edge that he wasn't going to tolerate my bullshit for very long, and the narrow look he gave meant that I had already spent more of his patience than he wanted to give. It was probably only because of my armor that he didn't shoot me right off the bat, and while I felt confident that I had the situation under control the last thing I needed to do was piss off the first person I met. We had a brief stare off before I broke away to look at the other guy.
The features that stood out with the second guy was the hot pink skin and the four arms slim that were jammed through the two sleeves of the orange suit that was clearly not designed for him. He had no hair on the top of his heavily wrinkled head, but at least ten people's hair on his face in a giant white beard that started from the back of the jaw and hanged down to his waist. He looked far more calm that his gun trotting friend, both sets of hands folded over like a priest in prayer. His milky white eyes watch me with neutral curiosity with no outward hostility, slightly unnerving but I didn't seem him as a threat. I put him as a low priority and looked back to the gun aimed at me.
Between the two of them, several strips of fabric and bandages were wrapped around any exposed skin as an ad hoc thermal suit, and around their necks were a very familiar metal collar, the same kind I had the displeasure to have around my neck barely a few days ago.
"Fucking Karl Jak" I blurted under my breath, which the gunman responded with a raised eyebrow, but I just shrugged it off "Look, I'm a prime and I can still summon stuff in here. Put the gun down and I'll whip up warm food and a heater" I figured the offer wound solve the stand off, but nothing to it. "How about you don't put it down and I'll make those things anyway?" I mentioned before that it was cold in here, but that was a major understatement. As someone who grew up in the southern parts of the US, this felt like what I thought it felt like living on the north pole. Everyone in this little pow wow was shivering, and the parts of me that took a dunk in the sea were already numb and stiff. That finally got a slow nod from him and I started to concentrate.
"So, you two got a name?" I asked as I though of a space heater like one I've used before and three hot plates of food.
"I'm Mike" I finally got out of him, he answered in a heavy red neck accent "He's Al'ter. He doesn't talk much"
"You don't need to point that at me" I glance at the zip gun. It wasn't exactly the most threatening thing, but a lucky shot could rip though my neck and I'd bleed out on the fridges floor in a matter of moments. It was far more likely to explode in his hand, but I didn't want to press my luck. "I'm not exactly armed"
"Way I see it, only a crazy person would break in here" Mike explained, his little accusation about my mental state rubbed me the wrong way "And I know who you are, seen you on the tv, you're dangerous even without a gun."
"Then you'd also know shooting me won't do a damn thing" I flipped tactics, a not at all subtle attempt of intimidation. Really, just anything to have have a gun pointed at me. It's irritating, like a lethal version of "I'm not touching you". I thought about my chances and considered that if the prisoner got me any more annoying then I'd just bull rush him and beat him the submission.
"You seem to be able to bleed" and he looked at the bit of blood that seeped out of my leg armor. That wound was largely closed off at least party sealed by the pressure of my armor, but it still got out where it wasn't air tight. And if hurt like a mother fucker). "Just a question of if you twitch the wrong direction" I just stopped talking to him after than and once the omnilium solidified into the plates of foods I handed them over to them.
While I clicked the heater on, Mike shoveled everything into his mouth that he could hold in his off hand, he finally pointed the gun away so he could hold the plate. It was mostly finger food to begin with, but it was still a disgusting display. I wasn't nauseated, but it did make my idly wonder if they actually fed people in this place. Al'ter was much more graceful as he picked at the offered rations, even so far as gave me a bow once he had a hold of it. A bubble of heat expanded from the space heater, not quite canceled out the unbearable cold but at least dulled the wicked edge, and I started on my own meal.
"I'm looking for someone. Lizard person, girl, goes by the name of Jen'lak. Met someone like that?"
"Nope. Probably dead" Mike barely even choked down what he had chewed before he answered. God, I hated that fucker. I wanted to just reach over and punch him in the face. Almost did, but I just wanted to eat and find my target.
"How about you?" I asked Al'ter, not that I expected much. There was a brief moment of contemplative though, before he whipped his head to the side, as if he heard something from that direction. He calmly put his plate down onto the floor and looked out through one of the walls of the little nook we hid in.
"What are you-" and then I heard it. A wolf's howl pierced through thew walls, reverberated off the walls. It sounded loud. And it sounded close. Mike dropped his plate as his eyes grew wide in panic, and lifted his gun back up.
"Fuck, they're back" He said, and glanced over to me as if I was his only hope of survival. "Well? Get a weapon!"
"What do you think I was doing when you showed up, you asshole!?" I yelled, fist raised and I flipped between the idea to deck the guy and steal his weapon or try to quickly pull my shotgun from the Omnilium. But I didn't have the chance, as it came into view.
It was a wolf, clearly. Never seen what in real life, but if you lived on Earth, then you knew what one looked liked. But it was huge, big as tank, tall as I was and from snout to tail it was easily twice that long. Long, grey and black hair was matted with ice and blood, thick enough to not just survive in this winter hellhole, but thrive. And a single yellow eye stared down at us, the other gouged out by some previous battle. It stepped closer to us, silent and cautious at first then is bared a snarl with teeth as long as my hand. And behind it, in the icy fog, more pairs of yellow eyes that reflected off the space heater's dim light.
I raised my fists up and prepared to defend myself. Not barely a few minutes in this dump and I was already about to fight for my life.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 09-14-2015
As both sides stood their ground, heavy breaths and adrenaline fogged the air around us as we sized each other up, I had grown silent in contemplation. If I had my weapons, if I had the smooth tools of death I was so used to in my hands, this would be a cinch. Even if it was just the less than impressive weight of my pistol at my side, I felt like I could have easily splattered the pack's brains out onto the frozen floor and been on my way. But all I had were my bare fists and the grey meat between my ears to fight with. Some people would say that's all you need, but I knew my limits. Maybe I could have beaten one down without serious injury, with the help of the other two I definitely could have. But we stared down three of the salivating, monstrous, teeth filled walking rugs, and I doubted that they were the only one. There were two ways into our position, if if these beast were as clever as their smaller cousins, then we'd be flanked from the hallway behind us in moments. It was a decision that had to be made now, I couldn't wait and see if it would turn out better.
"Don't waste that shot" I told Mike, who has steadied his aim on the lead wolf. It was probably the only thing that kept them from an initial blitz, although the three brutes started to wise on it and one started to slowly advance to test us. He pointed it at the smartass, but the monster saw the lack of response as proof that their prey was took week to fend them off and all of them started to creep forward. They packed in close together to fit in the hallway, like a wall of fur and bad attitude.
"Once he fires, get ready to run" Although these two didn't look like the type to listen to orders, certainly not from guy they met about five minutes ago, they seemed to have thought it a good idea as they leaned forward and readied to sprint ahead. Although that was probably because they already had the plan to run for it, it was just that now we were on the same page. I steadied myself, shifted my foot until i had a good grip the floor under me, and waited for the loudest starter pistol to sound off. I had my route, and it was time to see how our hands turned out.
A zip gun sounded less like a pistol firing as it did a hammer hitting a barn nail, a loud metallic pang than the definite bang of a real handgun. Despite the lackluster effect, it did the job: a red explosion of blood where the lead wolf's remaining eye was splattered across the rest of its thick fir. In a sudden instant, chaos broke. In fury and blindness, the lead wolf fell and thrashed at the darkness it was plunged into. Tightly packed between its two follow monsters, the alpha dragged the others into a brawl and their massive form wedged them in the hall. Snarls and and blood flew, and a general ball of pain stood in our way.
Our opening was through them. I threw away any fears I might have had and bolted head long down the corridor. Nothing gets in MY way.
Al'ter sailed over all of us in a single bound, his bald head nearly glanced the ceiling and he landed somewhere behind the wolves with ease. Mike went to the side, slid under the legs of one of the beasts as it was distracted by its berzerk comrade, and quickly scampered out form under it and back into the main room. I headed straight at one of the beasts, one that was a little more on the ball as it saw me and it snapped at me with foot long teeth in an attempt to get at least one meal. I swerved out of the way, balled one hand into a fist, and threw an uppercut right into its jaw with a loud thump and it reeled back from the blow. I vaulted onto the side of the beast, then pushed off and I was clear of the obstacle. I sprinted away and caught up to the others, and just didn't stop running.
The sound of rapid footfall behind us told us that we still had the large canines on our heels, and we picked up our pace to match. Although the pain in my leg jolted with each stride and the cold bit at us, it was still better than being chewed up. The massive super structure of the prison floor became more apparent as we got into the open. You couldn't see the roof of the level as a grey fog hung overhead like clouds, the building was big enough to have its own weather. Monolithic walls broke up the large area, thin layers of snow crunched under our feet, and the only thing that broke it up were metal gates build into the walls that looked to lead into clusters of cells. There was a brief sight of other prisoners within these cells, but I didn't have the time to chat with hungry monsters on my back.
Eventually the walls parted ways, and in the new space... were trees. They were frozen solid with ice, but they were there, still green with pine needles and covered in rough bark.
"Why is there a fucking forest in here!?" I yelled out loud, dumbfounded as it was one of the last things I would have expected, but fuck me if I wasn't going to use it to my advantage.
Al'ter was already up one tree, his super jump made it up easily, and by the time I had gotten to the nearest tree he had already pulled Mike up. A slightly upturned tile pushed up by underground roots made a perfect ramp for me to run across and jump to a high enough branch. I grabbed onto it with a death grip and used the momentum to swung my legs up and caught the branch next to it. I pulled myself upright, just moments before a set of teeth nearly took my head and clamped down on the first branch I was on. I climbed up the tree away from the bloodthirsty wolves underneath us and I didn't stop until I was far beyond what the beasts could reach. They jump and clawed at the bark and tried to get at us with their hanging tongues and crazed eyes, but once the realized that they couldn't reach us they stopped. They waited at the trunk and laid siege to us, rather pointlessly since I was already in the midst of summoning my weapons.
"If you interrupt me, I'm kicking you out of this tree" I threatened Mike as Omnilium started to form in my hands. He shoot me an evil eye as he took the tedious task of reloading his slapdash pistol. Al'ter was silent and just watched as the multi colored orb straightened out and solidified until what I had in my hand was my favorite shotgun in the entire universe.
"Ah, my arm is complete" I joked, and started to load shells into it and chambered one with a single pump. I looked down at the hungry wolves with a smile and imagined as I shattered their skulls and splattered their brains onto the white snow. I would have loved to do that, but as I thought more about it I considered that, if this prison was as high tech as everyone outside made it out to be, then the sound of a shotgun shell firing off would have clued the guards immediately I was here. I was downhearted to not get payback , but I couldn't afford to be caught. I let out a sigh and put the shotgun away and started on the next weapon.
It was at least half an hour up in that tree, froze our asses and with wolves under us that waited for one of us to go dumb and drop out of the tree like a dead bird. I had gotten my full arsenal back and I finally got to patch up my leg wound. I the wolves didn't want to leave anytime soon, but I passed around a few cups of soup to the other two and we just waited them out. I thought they would eventually leave on their own, but when we all heard the loud stomp of a massive thing draw closer, the wolves left in a panic. The three of us hid within the thick pine as it came into view.
A metal head walked through the forest on thin chicken legs, the large angular box of a cockpit driven forward with each thunderous step and guns that swept its path that could have vaporized a man in a single shot. It was something I saw back on Costa del Sol, a walker the Imperials seemed to have at least some fondness over to look past its ridiculous construction. An AT-ST. Not something you would have considered a threat just by looking at it, when in battle the armored walker looked like death incarnate if you lacked the anti-vehicle weapons to bring it down. That's probably why it was popular to the Empire: it was a bully, something that could route insurrections and riots just from its arrival. Not that it skimped in the fire power department. Nor was it completely without support, as a patrol of stormtroopers flanked it on each side, their own blaster awaited a chance to spill blood. Unlike the usual armor, these had some sort of white cloak and their helmet had a cloth like covering that covered their necks integrated into it.
They also seemed intimidating. Almost.
If they noticed us, they certainly didn't care as they walked by us without even a glance over. Considering that their job was to keep the prisoners in line, they likely didn't see us as a threat nor noticed that I was armed to the teeth. They just went by, in the direction that I had come from. Send to inspect the leak I caused, I expected. They knew something was up, but I still had the element of stealth on my side, and I was going to milk that for as long as I could.
But what exactly was I going to do? I needed to find my objective, and searching witlessly through the entire prison was about as effective as bashing my head into a wall. If she had the collars like Mike and Al'ter, then perhaps there's a way to track those, or I could fight my way into the control room of this place and find a security camera that seen her, or...
I felt a hand on my should as I readied to jump back down, I looked behind me to find that it was Al'ter that stopped me.
"I know how to find her" He told me.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 09-26-2015
What exactly would you do when someone you've met just a few minutes ago walked up to you and told you that they have the answer to your questions? I think I was rightfully suspicious, when you consider what I've been through already and where I was, but then there was the question of motive. What exactly would he have gained from misleading me? If I got caught by the guards, then it was unlikely that he would get anything from it, or from my death, considering he knew I was a prime and I would have just come back for him. There was just also the complete genuine surprise Mike's face that led me to believe to believe that Al'ter was being honest, although I didn't rule out some kind of trick that I just couldn't think of.
"You can talk?!" The other criminal seemed flabbergasted to have learned this. I didn't know the two's history (still don't), but I question how you'd know his name if he never talked.
"I am sorry, friend, but I speak only when it's needed" Al'ter apologized with a good deal of regret, and you could tell he told the truth. His voice was raspy and slightly off-putting it sounded like he very rarely spoke if at all. Why he felt this was the thing important enough to break his silence was a mystery to me, but if it could make this mission easier then I wasn't going to dismiss it.
"Alright then, tell me, how do I find her?" I crossed my arms as I expected an answer, although I already expected there to be some sort of catch. Well, I also crossed my arms to try to conserve body heat, but that's beside the point.
"Before my power was sapped away" He put one hand around the metallic collar around his neck with subtle contempt for the inhibitor, "I was a powerful psychic. I could sense minds, and if-" I raised my hand up in order to stop him as I already saw what he wanted me to do. I realized that whether or not he told the truth didn't matter, I still would have had to find some way into the interior of the restricted areas the stormtroopers used at the backstage to this Hell on Earth. I planned to get out by essentially turning the rest of prisoners loose and ride the riot of the surface, so it was already going to happen. It would have cut down one step in the plan, but finding my target wasn't even the hardest part of this plan. The offer wouldn't help me at that moment.
"Assuming you're not bullshitting me, and I'm not saying you are, that's not going to help me get to the control room. If you want me to get you out of that thing, then I need something that's going to get me there" Well, that's not entirely true. I did think he was bullshitting me, when you consider that these collars were designed to stop a prime's abilities and generally weaken them and, well, why wouldn't you convince someone to get rid of it? I know I would have, although thankfully I only had to drop dead from decapitation to lose mine...
Al'ter stroked his chin in thought, as he tried to figure how to answer my request with as little use as his voice as possible. Even this small conversation made his voice hoarse, and I could see the strain it put his body. Cared, not so much.
"Look for where the frozen go. There you will find those who'll help you"
"The fuck does that mean?" I asked, but I wasn't going to get any more answers as the alien rest back on a frozen branch. Mike looked between the two of us, dumbfounded and a little bit concerned for a myrid of things before he finally decided to stick to his spot. I was frustrated at the cryptically, but it was something to go on. Anything was better that blind stumbling. Well, except for walking over lava. That's pretty terrible.
"Alright. You two keep somewhere where I can find you later. Try not to get killed before then" I told them and then let go of the branch I hung onto and fell feet first back onto the lightly dusted floor underneath me. I didn't expect them to actually stay, but at least they would be easy to find as quick check over to the mapper told me that Mike was the unlucky bum that Jones sent with the tracking device. Although that did raise the question of how he got a gun so quickly.
The ever expansive maze around me seemed to stretch out in every direction, and between the low fog and ever-frost across every surface then it seemed to blend together. And I didn't want to have the misfortune to run into another pack of wolves. Or whatever the Empire thought made a good Minotaur replacement. It wasn't really something I thought of when I first got in here, I thought this was just a normal prison with the gimmick of being underwater. For once I undersold the insanity of a militant megalomaniacs with delusions of grandeur. And I got myself trapped in a literal labyrinth because of it, which could have had a real Minotaur. While the building style was very different from the Empire's usual plain concrete meant it was summoned rather than built, but that it was here at all meant they wanted something horrifying and deadly. And not very practical.
My wondering though the frozen forest, past the dense walls, and around the sight of cameras, finally yielded something. A corpse. Well, A corpse and the exposed skin of my arms and neck going numb, but the corpse was bit more important. I didn't think it was Al'ter had in mind, but at least it was something different to look at. There was barely enough skin left to tell what it once was, but as I unraveled some of the tattered cloth to wrap around my neck. Unfortunate for them, but I needed it more. A glace across the site for anything else saw a trail of foot steps that lead away deeper into the halls. Not boot treads like my own or of stormtroopers, but some kind of civilian shoe pattern.
It wasn't much, but it was something. I bundled up to let the feeling slowly return in my arms and trekked onward.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 10-08-2015
As I continued to track what might have been either my key out of here or a massive waste of time, I started to wonder why there tracks were still around. I don't mean why some made them in the first place, that's fucking obvious. But rather I noticed that there was some effort to cover them up, someone raked over the path to break up the prints. But this wasn't outside in real snow, there wasn't going to be any new snow to cover it up, the rake marks were blindingly obvious to anyone looking for them. And perhaps that was the point: just enough to not been seen by someone that's just bumbled around them but drew in anyone who was on the look out. Who ever made them wanted to be followed. So the question became: was it a trap? Not that I expect there to be much of a threat, but then the people down here would not have assumed that who'd they attracted was a heavily armed space marine. But if there was some other reason, what could it have been.
It was a moot point either way, as the trail decided to disappear through a wall.
"The fuck?" I asked out-loud as I saw the tracks seemed to go through the heavy steel wall in front of me. This wasn't exactly new, since I saw the walls move to block the hole I made in the side of the prison, but now I needed to get away around and pick up the tracks again, which for all I knew could have made an L turn somewhere. Frustrated, I looked long the length of the wall and saw a hallway that cut inward not too far away. Wasted time, but if I move a bit faster I might just be able to avoid detection.
And then all hopes and dreams of that were snuffed in an instant when I saw the massive shadow grow on the wall ahead of me as someone drew behind me.
I didn't cover my own tracks. I knew the risks of that, I hoped that speed would off set the need for caution, and it didn't pay off. I spun around and in the same motion drew my shotgun to face it down. What I saw contrasted greatly with the bleak and grim faced wall of the prison. It towered over me with a found body on little legs that had no right to hold it up, a short fur across most of it's upper body that didn't look like it could survive the cold yet was completely unfazed by it. And yet it was the face that caught me off guard. A big red nose with snot dripping out of it, cutesy small beady eyes that gave an unfocused stare, and small wing like ears that came out of the side of its head. It was almost pathetic in how comical it looked.
Which was offset by the long-spiked brass knuckles that it clenched its fists around.
"Minotaur. Right" And in the next instant the both of us struck.
Quote:
My shotgun rose up as I pulled it from the holster on my hip, and leveled it at the bigg'un's face. I fired it without brace like a pistol, and the force of the explosive buckshot threw my aim up and my arm back in a violent lash. It threw one arm up to protect itself, puffs of blood sprayed where the pellets hit. It seemed more surprised that I was actually armed that hurt from the attack itself, which was a downer for me. It countered with a left hook, a fist like a wrecking ball nearly crushed my rib cage as I jumped back, the long spikes scratched across my chest armor and pushed me even further away.
With no one shot kills, we readied for the long haul brawl. I brought my shotgun down to my shoulder and held it properly as I pumped another shell into the chamber. The second shot rang out, wounded the beast's stomach, and I was in the middle of ejecting the empty shell onto the frozen floor when it let out a roar that shook the walls around me. It charge, and I made the sensible decision.
I ran like Hell in the other direction.
When faced with a superior force, facing them head on is the quickest way to get your head caved in. Even someone as badass as me could get in over their head. It wasn't brave, but survival was more important than a brave corpse. It was nothing I haven't taken on before, but a glance at my map HUD told me that I couldn't waste my time: red dots swarmed towards my position, hostiles heard my shotgun and I was about to be neck deep in trigger-happy stormtoopers. If I could fend off mister runny nose then I could find junction to loose him in, but I had to get to that corridor first.
Numb legs were forced forwards, blood and adrenaline pumped though my heart as I raced down to the safety of the corner. I was close, my hand nearly grabbed the end of the wall as I reached out for it. But a blunt force caught me on the side, long spikes pierced the underside of the armor, and I was sent flying away from where I was trying to get and down into a dead end. I skipped across the floor, snow and ice thrown into the air where I landed, until I finally skidded to a stop. It's a feeling that started to feel old hat by that point. I flipped back up to my feet and loosened the death grip I had on my shotgun before I lost any more feeling in my fingers. The furry dipstick across from me looked pleased as a smile spread cross his fat lips.
"You like that, you overgrown rug?" I asked as got into stance, which only made the jailer's smile grow wider. I grimeced at the sadistic bastard, but I quickly replaced it with my own toothy grin as I reached down to my belt "Oh so do you understand me. Well, smile at this" In one motion I slipped my shotgun back into its holster with one hand and pulled out a grenade with another. A quick twist of the primer armed it and I flung it right at the assload's feet.
It jumped away from the explosive, smart enough to know a bomb when it saw it, a very distraught look on its face made up for the punch earlier as it fled away. The explosion rocked the area, shrapnel ricocheted off the walls in a storm of death and the pressure wave swept it of its feet. I exploited the opening and busted through into the corridor. If the Imps didn't know I was here before, they did at that point.
A dead sprint that made my body hate me got be me pretty far before I heard the minotaur (although it didn't look very bull-like) restart the chase. I had a good lead, but its longer strides meant I wasn't going to keep ahead of it for long. Mixes of cobblestone walls and flat steel barriers flash by me as I run as fast as my marine training would allow. Maybe I could out have outrun it if I didn't have a hundred pounds of death dealing destruction on my back, but i'd sooner cut my own arms off than abandon my weapons (I wasn't even a fan of melting them down into OM in the first place!). I kept my eyes out for something to get me out of shit creak: hole in the wall, rafters that could support my weight, even a chest high wall to hide behind. All I saw was cell doors, blank walls, more twisting hallways- tracks!
They reappeared out of a random wall down a corridor I had nearly passed by,and I spun around to dive into it, a near miss from tubby as he didn't expect the sudden turn and zoomed past me into a wall with a satisfying "bonk". I followed them as my body strained, my skin pricked as the freezing cold and my overheated body fought, and my heavy breath threatened to fog up the inside of my helmet. If it was a trap, at least now I was going to being my own trouble with me and I'd get to see that shit-show go down.
Unfortunately, what I was led into was another dead end.
"Oh come on!" I yelled fury at the wall, the sound of mister bigg'un still after me. Not to mention what else was about to descend on me "There has to be a secret entrance or something" it was either that or fight my way back, and fuck that idea. A glance down at the wall that blocked my path and I noticed something was off about the bottom of it. I flattened myself on the floor and saw that there was a gap between it and the tile. Just enough to fit your fingers under. It was a long shot, if I could move it then maybe I could get under and behind it, but it was the best option I had.
I grabbed the wall with an iron grip, put myself in the right stance and prayed that my dead-lift training paid off. I pulled up and pushed with my legs, hundreds of pounds of metal inched up as everything on my body bulged from effort. Every part of me was focused on this, I couldn't even look back to see if the supersized guard was about to splat me on the wall. My muscles already burned from no rest, my wounds felt like they were about to rip open, and the all-encompassing cold sapped my strength.
But I would not allow failure. My teeth grit with determination, every iota of will destroyed the weakness in my body. The wall may have been a ton, but it moved. I forced up from its spot until it was up to my waist. The risk was that I was about to be cut in half like a guillotine through an oversized sausage, but it was either that or turned into a fleshy toothpaste. I limboed as far under it as I could support, then threw myself forward as the wall crashed back down into place. And in the next second another crash came when a really big, really dumb jackass smashed into the wall I just got under. I laughed at the fatso from the safety of the new room, swing both middle fingers up and down, and skipped away as important rage slammed into the steel wall.
Where I found myself was still a cold as everyone else, darker without a proper set of lights, but what stood out was the natural rock face that the opposite side of the room was. And carved into it was a door, no door knob or handle but a slide window at head height. This had to be the place, whatever that place was. I walked up to the door, one hand on my pistol, and knocked.
The slide opened up to reveal light, and what stared out from it was a large robotic eye.
"Password?" It asked. And I felt my stomach clench.
"Password?" I parrot out of confusion. Al'ter didn't say anything about a password. But then, perhaps he didn't expect me to find it by myself
"Iiiiiiiiiii'm surethat'snotit" The robot eye responded, and the display of his eye replaced with a countdown timer. The plate underneath me sunk an inch, and suddenly the rest of the floor shot up to surround me. I reach down to the mystical dagger at my side, but I didn't want to waste it. While this looked bad, I had to save it for when I couldn't avoid death otherwise. I wracked my mind as I tried to think of something
"How about a hint?" I asked. Worth a shot.
"Oh, that's original. How about: no" it answered, and I gave it the finger "That's not it either"
I had to think about it, I needed to find something. The timer grew closer to 0, and I didn't want to find out what it had in store for me if I didn't have an answer. Anything, just something that might work.
"45th Marilyn Street" I blurted out, and I smashed my head into the wall to save the robot the trouble of telling me I was wrong. The prophet's cryptic message had been useless so far, why did I think it would work here?
There was a snap. The walls receded back into the floor, the plate I stood I bumped back up, and the slide closed. I stood there dumbfounded, not sure what happened, when the door stung open. I stepped back, and out walked two large body builders. Sculpted features and tiny speedos walked up to me until one was at each of my sides. The wrapped there arms around mine, lifted me by my arm pits, and I was dragged into the brightly lit room.
"Welcome to Newkama Land" The robotic voice told me, and the door slammed shut.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 10-19-2015
In a complete mix of dumbfounded and annoyed that I was dragged into this hidden area like a sloshed friend, I looked down the short tunnel I was going through. A mix of hewed stone and cobblestone that patch up some of the rougher areas, it lacked the uniformity of either the Empire's utilitarian design nor the intimidating and dungeon-esque look of the original foundation. It looked like someone's attempt at a escape tunnel, although the fact that we weren't underwater meant either someone game up before then or the intentions of the place wasn't a literal escape from the prison. A light shown brightly at the end we were headed to, blocked only by a gaudy rainbow bead curtain. I was halfway decided on kicking one of my carriers in the ankle when we passed through the entry way and I was greeted with a sight that I am clearly not qualified to describe to the detail it deserved.
A rainbow of colored lights and clothes covered the walls like a toxic swirl of eye searing tackiness. Prisoners wore whatever seemed to have suited their fancy, more than those that stuck to either orange jumpers or even more old-fashioned black and white striped ones, just as colorful as the decor. Men wore dresses, women more suits, some wore things no one should wear and others wore nothing at all. The only thing they had in common was that they were crowded around tables, drunk on moonshine and cheering on a group main a fool of themselves on a raised stage in the back of the room.
It was what soccer moms through the inside of a gay bar looked like. It was eight shots too far into a costume party on valentines. It was the Rocky Horror Picture Show with better lighting. And I, hung by the arms from two beefcakes for everyone to see in my dayglo green armor, was the weird one out as attention slowly drifted away from the show and onto me.
If there was ever a moment I was more embarrassed about standing in fronting in front of a bunch of people before then, I couldn't remember it.
One of them at the "rustic" bar stood up from their stool, an ambiguous fellow who stood out as even more flamboyant than everyone there. I would say that was a surprises, but this guy took effort to make what looked like the corruption of magical girl outfit, and a hairdo straight from a glam rock drummer with a shade of blue I didn't think existed. It sort of reminded me of the asshole admiral that threatened me back on the island, but that jackass had more of a "I don't give a fuck" type of fashion, where as this guy was at least be commended for time spent, thought not for actual aesthetics.
"Ah, a newcomer" He announced, more to everyone else's benefit than my own. He gave me the look over, his previously happy look turned briefly serious as his examination ended at my neck. It would be dead fucking obvious that I was armed and armored, and none one here seemed phased by that. But he noticed the lack of a inhibitor collar and there was some serious brain activity under that puffball of hair. He went back to the smile soon after "Care to introduce yourself, hon?" Most of the bar now had their attention on me, and the entertainers unhappy at their stolen audience
I gave my sudden host a raised eyebrow, rather useless behind my helmet, and raised my arms up to slide out of the body builders' grasp.
"I'm Doomguy, I'm not staying here for long" I answers with the appropriate lack of enthusiasm, and the room responded with a welcoming cheer before they went right back to drinking. A few tried to give a bit more personal welcome and swarmed me, but they stopped when I stiff armed one of them "I'm looking for someone" I told one who introduced me, as I assumed he was at least around before the summon into the Omniverse as he too lacked a collar.
He (it got really obvious when he got closer) walked up, a slightly glum look. Well, glum and slightly pitying.
"Hon, can I call you Doomy, if you're here for a bounty then you're really missed the point" I answered with a middle finger, but he seemed only amused by it.
"I'm not a bounty hunter, I'm here to break someone who doesn't belong here" That got the attention of a few, as the leaned in on the conversation. I tried to stare them down, but they only smile and chuckled in response. It was hard to think of it because of their odd mannerisms and fashion, but they were still hardened criminals and my attempts at intimidation was a joke to them. "Bring this place down, if I can. And don't call me Doomy"
'You've broken into one of the greatest prison known in the multiverse, under the eyes of the Empire, to save someone from inside and destroy the building?" He summed it up, one hand rest on their chin. "Ambitious. Dangerous. Exciting!" Each word was more ecstatic than the last, completely with a lean back with wonder in their eyes. I just wondered why everyone I met in the Omniverse was either over-dramatic or a massive asshole. "Let me properly introduce myself. Call me Larenzo." He held a hand out and I shook it almost on instinct "I look after the place, in a sense"
"Then you'll help me? I can break everyone else out as well if I had help"
"Now, why would I do that?" Larenzo answers with the same smile as he dismissed the two hulks. My visor might have blocked the glare I gave him, but my balled fists or the step forward I gave a good idea on what I wanted to do to his face after he shot me down.
"What?!" I yelled, only to have a knife point suddenly at my neck. In the time it took me to just raise a fist up Larenzo had pulled two knife, one from each hand, and I felt sharpened steel dig into my skin. With out a collar, he was not restricted like the others and I had underestimated him. I hesitated, and a few of the hanger-ons reached for their weapon, the friendly attitude turned hostile and contrasted the silly music and drunken revelry around us. "I'm offering a way out. You wanna just stay in this shit hole?"
"Shit hole?" Larenzo asked with an amused inflection. He didn't seem insulted at all, although he tried to act as such "This is a heaven! Hidden inside Hell, no fear from the Marines or the Empire or whoever might own it, we are freer than anyone outside these walls" He waved to the bar, and started to move back there. A push from the back told me to follow, despite the fact that there was still a knife about to wedge itself into my jugular "Have a drink on me"
A shot was put in front of both of us by the man-sized octopus of a bartender with a clear liquid inside the cups. Yep, moonshine, you only need a single whiff to tell. I tipped my helmet up just enough so I could drink it, which only got more amused looks from those waching. Larenzo was about to say something, probably a warning or a teasing joke, but he failed to find his words when I downed the shot in one go. It left like I dropped a sword on fire down my throat, and my stomach grumbled in anger like it remembered the last time I swore off the stuff, but it was a neat party trick that shocked everyone.
Although no more for me. Last thing I needed was to be poisoned by prison toilet booze.
"Look, here's the thing" I explained as I slipped my helmet back into position "I'm fighting my way out of here. I can't just sneak back out, so it's the only chance I have. And when I smash the Empire defense, all the other prisoners are going to take that chance for freedom, even if you don't. And when those plastic soldiers clean up the mess I left, your little party here is going to be alone. Maybe they don't find you, but there's not going to be a whole lot between you and them"
The drag queen shrugged "We'll take our chances" I didn't have much to go on, but when a glance around and saw one of them prisoners chew on some nurti-sludge a little spark of a thought jumped.
"How about this: Those collars. The fact that you still have people with them on mean you haven't found a way to take them off, right?" the cross-dresser confirmed with a nod "So they restrict a person's powers and a prime's ability to summon things. And since the Empire wants to keep people down here, then if a prime dies the collar should respawn them somewhere in this prison rather than back at the fountain. So there would have to be some kind of computer than controls them. And if I smash that, you and your drinking buddies won't have to scrounge for food anymore"
Mr flamboyant paused just long enough to process what I said until that stupid smile grew wide. I had him, and now this mission was about to get a lot easier.
"Then we have a deal"
"Good. Now get your fuckin' dagger off me before I forced feed you them"
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 10-29-2015
It wasn't exactly a war room, but the little storage area in the back of the bar was enough for me to fan my stuff across a board balanced on a table. Larenzo and some grim faced prisoners gathered around the map on my PDA, next to a hand drawn one and a few notes that had been stored away. Mine was more detailed, but theirs had all the secret tunnels and hidden caches the Empire's blueprints wouldn't have.I had a complete plan of the prison, all of my own obsessive planning might have been unhealthy but it now paid off as mental changes to routes in an instant. That intel was vital if I wanted to shut this place down without throwing myself right at the stormtroopers.
Not that I couldn't, but I had a job to do. Work now, fun later.
"Her name is Jen'lak" I start as I wrote down all the other details he sister had given me before I came here. It was surreal that I was briefing a group of criminals in a moonshine cellar under like it was some kind of world war 2 movie. Only in the Omniverse, I guess. "She needs to be secured before I take down the prison's suppression network. Problem is that even if I shut down the collars, that leaves the rest of the security online, which can still shut down a riot before we get to the surface. From what I can tell," I looked over the map, for for their benefit than mine "the best bet is either take down the reactors, and hope the other prisoners can get out of the mechanical fail safes on their own, or take over the control center" I pointed out the room where almost all of the electronics either originated or had to pass through.
There was a sudden shudder from a few of the crooks, some worse at it suppressing it than others, and that caused a shiver of worry to dig into my mind. What had them spooked?
"What?" I looked at each an everyone one until one answered, a bald, muscle bound thug with with more ear rings than sense.
"That's not a control room. That's where the real warden of this prison lives. Siege thinks he runs this place, but he's a fucking idiot with a big stick. It's some kind of machine that runs all security, moves the walls and watch us with the cameras. It-" Had enough of the man's devolution into mewling coward, and I cut him short when I grabbed the make-do table and trusted it right into his gut. I've seen far too many missions fail because someone lost their nerves and brought everyone else down.
"Can it" I ordered with a guttural bark. He backed down with a grumble, but said nothing in return but just clutch his new boo-boo. The others chuckled among themselves, which meant I'd nipped that bud "That just means our only option is taking out the power. Take out the reactors, the machine goes down. Get me? Good. Lets get her"
"Oh, but I think you're forgetting something" Mr fancy pants Larenzo stopped leaning in the corner to join the conversation "How exactly do you plan on getting out of the prison? I'm sure you think you'll be the first to get out, but I've met plenty others who've thought the same. The only people I know who've done it before had the benefit of the devil fruit, and that was when the World Government ran the place. No one's gotten out since the Empire started running the asylum"
"What about Behemoth? He got out with some red headed dude" Another criminal pointed out, a woman with black hair that would normally reach down to her ankles if she wasn't using it as clothing. Larenzo shot her a deadpan look and she playfully stuck her tongue out in response.
"He doesn't count, he hid in the surface level cells. If he was down here with the rest of us he couldn't just mind fuck the guards and escape" The crossdressing rogue sniped back, and I brought attention back to me with a knock to the table.
"I got a man with more balls than brains and a ship to get me out. A riot will be the perfect backdrop for me to sneak her and any hanger-ons out, and as long as I don't run into that red nosed fucker again I should be clear" Unfortunately, that last bit seemed drop the mood of the scene like a rock into the ocean. Did I say something wrong?
"Yellow fur, small beady eyes, wields knuckle dusters?" The brute described the monster I had faced back in the catastrophic halls of the prison.
"...Yes?" It slowly dawned on me that I had fucked up.
"That was Minokoala" Now see, I don't think he looked anything like a koala, but that wasn't exactly something I could sit down and argue about at that point. "If he saw you, he's going to go straight to Sadi and we maybe have half an hour before they lock the whole place down and looking for you"
Panic and pressure are the greatest enemy to a commander, even more so than the enemy itself, for if your carefully plan fell apart then there was always the feeling that you weren't going to recover, and the responsibility of all your men, those who you're protects, and the entire war effort would crush you like a grape. But I wasn't some greenhorn right out of ROTC, and if there was one thing I could say I was good at was working on the seat of my pants.
"Alright, you guys get her now, and I'll take out the generators myself." And before there was any objects, and I was already twenty feet down a roughly hewed tunnel, PDA in one hand and a orb of omnilium slowly turning into explosives in the other.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 11-05-2015
I think I've gotten far too used to secret tunnels and secret entrances, as I was completely unfazed by the obstacle course through the prison's rugged support systems. The vent that I had to get through barely big enough to fit my backpack through, let alone the rest of me, and the climb up a steel beam tower was done with the same mindless routine as most would going up stairs, and when I got to a dead end when the map said it would be the way out I instantly noticed the wall was on a hinge, and with a kick to the bottom corner the hidden door swung open into a small unseen alcove above a massive, extremely bright room. The only thing that was missing was a cache of ammo and a med pack waiting for me at the end. Instead I got punched in the everything by a wave of heat.
In contrast the winter horrorland I had just left, the fourth floor was a boiling sauna with that twangy metallic taste of copper in the air like the world's worse air freshener. The room was giant, a welcome change from the claustrophobic maze of the floor before, but it was completely sours when I looked over the side. A vast pool of molten metal took up the entire floor (I would be told it was originally filled with blood, but the Empire was more pragmatic than the original owners), and cells instead lined the walls and hung from the ceiling by massive chains, along with a few small individual ones that hung a few unfortunate prisoners or skeletons of previous dead. Rings of catwalks encircled each level of cells, although none of them reached high enough to the hole in the ceiling that was how prisoners were kicked down.
Did I mention how fucking unbearable the heat was? It was un-fucking-bearable. And as someone who's lived in a part of the US that gets to 120 degrees during the summer, that's a high hurdle to cross. Only about ten minutes ago I was freezing my ass off and then I felt like I was about to suffocate under the humidity and melt in the heat. I had sweat already pooled in my armor's padding and the areas of my body that had previously been numb from the cold now prickled as feeling came back; far worse was where I was cut from my clumsy entrance and my the chase through the icy halls by a serial killer's idea of a teddy bear. I glanced down at the pouch on my belt filled with stimm, and then thought better of it. What I had was annoying, but I could soldier through.
No pain no gain, and all that dreck.
I clambered out of the cubby hole, only a few feet above one of the wall mounted cells, and flattened myself out avoid the attention of a few red, heavily insulated stormtroopers. The metal cells were hot to the touch, like a car thats been out in the summer sun all day, and I got that nasty surprise when I pressed my armed against it to crawl to the edge. I just had to crawl on my elbows to avoid burning myself too badly, but getting down was to be the hard part.
Each cell was just car enough away from each other that a prisoner couldn't reach into another, at least without touching the metal bars. I just had to slide down the side of one column of cells until I reach the bottom, but it was a long drop and I couldn't afford to take my time.
"Why didn't I bring a grapnel? That would have been the smart thing to do." I cursed myself as I grabbed the edge hoped my gloves would be enough. To be fair to myself, I expected to just summon new equipment when I needed it and not be on a strict time limit.
I slid down in a barely controlled drop, friction ate chunks of fabric from my gloves, and prisoners whipped their heads in surprised when they saw a green blur zoom past their little cages. As I neared the bottom of one I had to let go and grab the next set of bars to keep my speed, my heart stopped for a moment each time I did that. And I had to do it twelve times. Imagine that: in the span of less that half a minute, I had to ladder slide on twelve different sets of extremely hot metal bars with a three foot gap between each one, a five story tall drop underneath me, and I had to jump out into free fall to not slam into the floor of each one and cause a massive racket. If I had missed one, I would have gone too fast to control myself and splat like a sack of cement onto tarmac
But it felt awesome when I got to the last cell, and I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
I finally let my boots hit solid ground, a much more sturdy support jutted out of the wall to help support the cells above, and heard the impact gel in my boots hissed in anger as it took most of the fall damage and I buckled to disperse the rest and finished with a crouch under the catwalk. It felt like someone just sent lightning through my shins and my feet would hurt for days afterwords, but it was a far better outcome than broken everything. The prisoners I landed next to jumped five feet into the air when they saw me, but thankfully they kept their cool long enough to realize that I wasn't a stormtrooper and pretended that I wasn't there. A hot second as I waited for alarms to go off lead to nothing as it seemed my stunt had gone unseen.
The exit would be far less quiet, I mused with a smile.
A peek over the edge revealed that I hadn't quite reached the bottom. Under the massive pool of molten metal, centered around a decommissioned wood burner that the plate laid balanced on, was a full-on refinery. Metal was melted by the reactor's run off heat, churned and shaped by massive machines manned by the prisoners held here. The Empire's iron fist laws created the slave labor that would also feed its war machine.
I felt my teeth grind together as I wondered just how much damage these self serving bastards have done, rage threatened to boil over as parallels to evils that once plagued my own world formed in my head and I thought to break cover and strangle the nearest stormtrooper I could get my hands on. But I held it back and held the plastic explosives with glee of the destruction to come.
The ten foot drop down to the tallest machine I could reach was far easier than my previous trick, and it was a quick climb down the moving parts and various death traps until I was finally at same level as the workers and guards, all of them too busy trying to not lose a limb to a set of gears or a runaway flick of melted iron to notice the heavily armored human being move through the gaps in the machinery. My targets were in sight, windows in the wood burner revealed where the main reactor was, a massive arc generator that would go off nicely with a few misplaced blocks of C4. Two doors at opposite ends hid the two back ups, their own private furnaces in order to melt more precious metals.
The main one was heavily guarded, safer to set the other two with explosives first and then bull-rush through into the main reactor.
A locked door and a camera blocked my path. Although unguarded and sparsely secured, There was no way I could get in personally without someone noticing. The other way in was either to smash a window in or through the chute that carts full of ingots were driven through. It was obvious that there were sensors along the walls that would detect any lifeform that tried to escape through it. But I doubted they would be designed to detect something, like, say, a bundle of dets. If the Empire cut corners, and I was sure they did, then I just needed to toss it in and no one would be the wise.
Of course, throwing an explosive like it was a football was as obvious as, someone throwing explosives like it was football, and I needed the guards to be busy with something before I lived my middle school dream in being a quarterback.
It was easier than I thought I would be. Two prisoners, a man made entirely of rocks and a cat person, manned a wire cutter right next to me. A few fingers clicks caught their attention, rather mellow about the man in green armor and an entire arsonel on their back, and I tried to convey they they should fight with my two fists hitting each other. Rock man was slow on the uptake, but the cat took it immediately as he walked over to a third prisoner of no importance and decked them across the face.
As the fight grew into a crawl, I launched the bundle of (thankfully stable) C4 and rushed to the other side to doe the same thing. Stormtroopers came down on a the brawl quickly, but I still manage to lob the next payload into the second reactor room. That left the big one an,d despite that I could still hear the sound of blows and shock mauls rain down on the other side, the guards did their jobs with admiral professionalism as they stayed rooted to the ground.
Admiral, but I had to get through. And there's nothing in all of the multiverse, no wall or big guns, that could stop me if it got in my way. I pulled my shotgun from it's holster and charged into the open.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 11-08-2015
Quote:
The first shot let out a ferocious bark as I vaulted over the my cover, the dulled senses of the guards cost them the initiative as military pellets splintered the chest armor of one of their own, the soldier fell backwards in a cloud of broken red shards. Not dead, but he wasn't going to fight as hard with broken ribs. Pandemonium ran wild as prisoners scattered in every direction and the guards tried to rally themselves from the sudden loud gunshot in their midst. The three in my way that still stood spotted me instantly as the guy with the shotgun in his hands and raised their blasters to retaliate, but I already had another shell chambered before they pulled the trigger and I got a knee shot off on other. Blood sprayed out of gap in their joint and he fell down to his other leg, leaving the other half the be the only ones to fire back.
Fair dues to them, their accuracy were no where a terrible as their shiny armor implied them to be. Both managed to let out a bust of laser fire while I was still trying to pump a third shell in, and I felt them rake across my stomach and chest. The security armor took the bolts like a champ, but each hit exploded from the laser's heat and I felt each blow pulp the flesh underneath, and throw my run off. Enough that my next shot only managed to hit the wall behind my target.
But what did that matter? I am an unstoppable train of raw grit and anger, and I just kept on going.
As long as I kept on the move they couldn't bring their full firepower on me and they had no cover. Electric whine of blasters filled the air and the lasers flew past my head, I let the shotgun slide in my right hand until I gripped the pump and I drew my trusty pistol with my left. Hip shots from both sided whizzed past each other, the stormtroopers tried to dodge as best as they could with their backs to the wall while I came right at them.
A forceful thrust on the shotgun's pump loaded the next shell, a useful trick I learned from watching movies and perfected from far too many close calls, I grabbed the stock and wrapped my finger around the trigger again as I got into spitting range of one of the guards. I let loose a hidden smile as I fired one handed with the shotgun right into his face. While the recoil threw my arm back and whipped me around, the same happened to the enemy soldier's neck as his helmet exploded and chunks of gore leaked out of the underside. The soldier I had hit in the leg earlier tried to get up to fight me back, but a well aimed shot with my pistol sent a bullet through his shoulder and he fell back down screaming in pain before I finished him off with a pistol whip across the forehead.
The last stormtrooper dropped his gun and grabbed for the shock baton at his belt, lighting arced down it's length as he charged. Smart on him, since my hands were full and I didn't have the time to pump another shotgun shell. He hit me with that stick once and I'd be flopping like an idiot on the floor to be added to the prison's population. I jabbed forwards with my shotgun to keep him off while I tired to holster my pistol, but he was having none of that.
He swung with a hard right hook to catch me across the side with the baton. I ducked under it with barely any space between my head and it, and I made an aggressive step into his threat range. He tried to get in the back swing, but I forced my left arm into the path of his right and held him at least for a while as I tried to get my shotgun put away. He wouldn't give me the chance as he jammed his foot into my knee, and spun in a tight circle to get full control of the fight again. As I stumbled, he thrust forward to hit me straight on, but I countered with a pistol whip that knocked his shock maul away, only for him to grab my left arm and try to hold me still.
He was stalling for time, he just had to wait until reinforcements arrives. But there's something he didn't consider: you don't get into melee with a marine.
I stepped my foot behind the trooper and rammed my shoulder into his chest, and he tripped backwards onto his back. I jumped back, shoved my guns back into the spot and and reached down to the stormtrooper's shock baton. He tried to keep his grip on it, but I easily ripped it away, turned it to max, and stuck it into the bottom his helmet.
It was worth the pain and blood from the rapid blaster fire to watch the soldier spaz out on the floor and limps smack his fellow wounded, but the blare of alarms and the sound of thunder like the gods riding out from Mount Olympus above my head to remind me that I was about to have a hundred of them on my ass.
The keypad on the door meant I wasn't about to get in that way, but the window in the door itself was just big enough that I could toss the explosives into it. There was no way it wasn't bulletproof glass, but I pulled out a grenade and looked down at one of the stormtroopers and a terrible, awful idea pieced itself together.
"Is it okay if a borrow you for a second? Thanks" I picked up the man I shot first, still kicking but had kept to just keep on the ground with his broken rips. Him in one hand and the grenade in the other, I twisted the primer, shoved it against the glass, then pressed the soldier up against the frame. "Now don't squirm too much"
"Wha-?" he had a faint idea of what was about to happen, and then it all hit like a sledgehammer. Or a grenade going off "NononoOHGODNON-"
The explosion ripped through his body, the fireball sent both of us flying back. Well, it sent me flying back, while the guard was more showered around the background. The front of his torso was destroyed, the armor only did so much before it compromised and what was left as a pile of gobs, the head and arms sent in separate directions. I came out largely fine, the back of the stormtrooper armor took the shrapnel and fireball well and I only had a bit or ringing in my ears from the concussion. I think I was bleeding from said ears, but everything was understandably blurry at that moment.
I staggered back to my feet and to the door, a hole was punched through the bulletproof glass with just enough space that I could fit my arm through it with only a few cuts. I pulled the last bundle of plastic explosives off my belt and with a little fling it sat conformable within blast range of the massive reactor. I imagined how big the boom would have been, and I was in equal parts giggling in glee at the wanton destruction and very sure to not be in the radius of said destruction.
"Freeze!"
Not that I'm ever really given the option.
I didn't even need to turn around to know that I was surrounded. Why didn't just gun me down on the spot was probably out arrogence: I couldn't take ALL of them on, right?. Well, this is why you don't underestimate your enemy. I slowly raised my fist up, the back of my hand to them, and I raised my middle finger as I pushed the detonator.
And all my senses were drowned out by the massive fireball.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 11-19-2015
It wasn't so much the first explosion that was the problem. The explosives might have been impressive on their own, but were contained into the rooms that I threw them into. It was the secondary blast, from the critical failure of the reactors themselves, that reduced everything around it into scrap metal. I barely had enough time to run into cover before the whole thing went off with a boom. Well, "a boom" isn't really a good description. It was more like a steam locomotive and an electric train that smashed into each other, fused into one public transport monstrosity, that exploded with he force of a supernova. The original furnace ballooned out wherever it didn't ruptured, and fire and shrapnel spewed out of any structural weakness. Doors were ripped from their frame and thrown through the wall on the opposite end while anything near a window how hatch were fried instantly. I managed to get my ass (and everything else) behind a lathe before my insides turned into my outsides, the pressure wave alone felt like I got hit by my own BFG (again) and I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I was out in the open. I laid out on the floor, and waited for what would happen next to happen and the ringing in my ears to stop.
Everything was plunged into darkness, the only light was the hostile glow of molten goop, the basin above pierced through by the reactor going off and it now leaked through the roof in glowy, burning columns. The world was silent, ringing aside, as for a brief everyone still alive were in shock.
Then the red emergency lights turned on, revealed the full extent of the damage, and chaos broke out.
A war cry went out along the convicted as they realized the vicious blow done to their prison. Those that had previously been put to work at the machinery now found themselves in far more equal levels to their oppressors and charged the guards that survived the explosion with whatever they could salvage as weapons. Those still locked up took this four lane underpass of opportunity to slip or break out, and the stormtroopers found themselves under a wave of angry rabble.
I would have been happy to just lie there and wait for everything to cool down so that I could slink to the level below and regroup with the pantyhose patrol, let all my organs to settle back into place and and get over the splitting headache. But unfortunately the later wasn't to happen, as beside from the riot above me I could hear the grinding of gears inside the walls like a poorly tuned engine about to rattle itself apart. That was bad enough when you're trying to sleep off a hangover in the maintenance hanger, but what in the Hell made that racket.
In an instant I realized that the movement meant that something still powered the machinery hidden inside the walls.
I barely had enough time to get to a sitting position before the walls and floor itself turned into a violent storm of mechanical arms and tools. The wall panels shot out of their place, prisoners and machinery were crushed under the weight and velocity of the arms. Even the storm troopers weren't spared, ground into the floor as the walls indiscriminately smashed and swiped at anything in reach.
I was almost a bloody pancake when the wall closest to me tried to flatten me across remains of the wood burner's hull. I climbed up the lathe I used as covers a seconds ago, and when the servo arm threw itself at me I vaulted over it. The landing was sloppy, I landed on my bad leg and tumbled to the floor with a jolt of hot pain down my already jostled bones. It was a temporary annoyance, as I got back up, told myself that pain was just weakness leaving the body, and looked back to the core. The reactor had been barricaded and between the cracks I could see the whirl of massive tools cut and weld parts pulled up from out of the floor. It was rebuilding the entire reactor.
I wasn't about to let that happen.
My mind slapped back to the briefing room. If the AI was controlling the automatons, then it may very well had it's own separate power source so that it could repair the main power grid should it fail as back up. It was not enough to take out the reactor, I needed to send that computer sky high as well before it undid all the damage of gone through. Not too mad, just a slight hiccup, get another chance to blow everything up.
And it gave me a VERY big hole to get to it. Behind the walls were the maintenance tunnels, and from there, I could get to it.
I jumped in through gap left by the servo arm, where I found underneath was a massive drop into the space between floors, crisscrossed rails made to transport material where needed, now held still by the reactor's destruction. And down not too far was a catwalk that should lead me to the core. I jabbed a stimm into my neck, felt pain wash away and replaced with chemical energy, the combat drugs would keep me going for a little longer.
With the arms frozen in place they made for convenient platforms down to the catwalk, and from there I sprinted down to where I figured the center to be. It was a long distance through the void, nothing but frozen machines for scenery, but at the end was the wall that separated the core from the rest of the prison, a final protection against invaders. And the door was wide open.
It was a trap. An obvious trap, as obvious an obvious trap could obviously get. The door would shut as soon
And I was going to jump right into it. Because the best way to break a trap was to set it off on your own terms.
I walked in with the rocket launcher in my hands, a cautious sweep revealed nothing blatantly hostile, and I walked in. The room had columns of servers stacked up to the ceilings, wires coiled around everything in bundles that let to a center cylinder that contained a liquid of some sort withing, some movement seen through the armor plates that surrounded it. The door closed behind me, as expected, and a voice played over the PA system.
"So you are the rat who's walked into my maze" The voice made no attempt to hide it's origin as mechanical, but unlike my previous run ins with AIs this one made no attempt to be user friendly. it sounded almost like a meat grinder someone stuck a motherboard through, neither masculine or feminine sounding but just words forced through the universe's angriest speak 'n' spell. "It is admirable that you have gotten this close, but you will not get any farther"
From the ceiling turrets revealed themselves, each armed with two miniguns slowly whirling and aimed right at me.
"The Empire's secrets stay here"
"Or I can just shoot you to death from over what"
"Wait, wha-" and I answered back with a rocket fired straight at the core. Rocket fuel burned light a a flare in the night as the projectile traveled down the barrel of the launcher, an otherwise unassuming and perhaps even underwhelming weapon to look at and hear yet packed a dangerous payload. The shot picked up speed as it traveled closer and closer to it's target until it slammed into the armor and exploded with a forced that rended the metal into shards and the resulting shrapnel turned the electronics under it to shreds.
A electric scream pierced the air, and a moment later another explosion when off as something crashed through the plates from inside the core. I couldn't see what it was, but it had no problem with the containment wall and punched a hole through it, then only the sounds of more metal on metal violence of it's retreat. Then more explosions as the core broke down in a violent matter.
"Whelp, that's someone else's problem" No point sticking around to solve that mystery I decided, turned around and just kicked down the door and went back to where I came from.
Now I can rally with the others and finally work on escape from this far too familiar hellhole.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 11-23-2015
The walk back was at lot calmer, it was serenity in the midst of chaos caused by my own destructive tendencies. Yet another reminder to my unfortunate double tour of hell, particularly the last moments before I was napped by the assclown that ran this mad show. Just another reason to get out of the prison and back to the sun. The sounds of repeated thumps above me was a sure indicator that the Empire hadn't yet got it's shit into working order, and sending all the king horses and all king's men couldn't put Impel Down back together again. I gave a laugh to myself, a tiny bit of the warm and fuzzes rose up in my heart as I imagined just how much the pencil pushers back on Costa del Sol were going to freak when they saw the new renovations I made. With all the mechanical obstacles now taken care of, I just had to pick up my objective and punch a hole through the guards and wait for Choprot.
Assuming she was alive. I stopped in the middle of the catwalk and considered what I would happen if the sister was dead, or missing, or if the prisoners couldn't get to her before the riots reached her.
I shook my head and kept on going back to the hidden bar. I'd cross that bridge when I reached it, I decided.
Through a few more tunnels and down a maintenance tunnel later I was back down to the fifth level, not at all happy that I was back in the world's largest walk in freezer but at least this time I knew where I had to go. Thank you, auto mapper. No run in with wolves, or giant ugly koala man, even the cells were empty of life as the prisoner inside had figured out they were free and took the opportunity to flee. And they all went to Newkama Land, if the footprints in the snow were any indication. And sure enough, when I returned to little bar at the corner of mardi gras and neverland the place was packed wall to wall.
Despite the destruction of the reactor, a generator had been summoned to power the gaudy lights that had doubled since i was last here. Along with everything else. The place was almost blinding, the prisoners no longer restricted to salvage from the remains of the guards and now the decorations were in full force. Which I kind of regretted, but then I didn't have to stay for long. The little dancing troupe before was now a full on band, the bar was stocked with real booze, and primes were summoning their personal vices left and right.
And when I walked in, dayglo green armor slightly flecked with blood, I was immediately swamped as everyone tried to hand me a drink all at once and I found myself picked up and crowed surfed across the room. I was left to wonder if this was how rockstars felt all the time, and I could then see why they liked it so much.
"Larenzo!" I shouted out over the drunken prisoners as someone tried to force feed me what I think was a cosmopolitan. The blue haired rogue looked up from his own activities, a little too engrossed to notice the space marine lifted up on a crowd of people. I noticed that he had the time to change into leather armor that was much more practical than his previous outfit, and I hoped for his sake that he had actually saved Jen'lak or he was about to find out how much that armor protected him from my fists. "Where's the girl!?"
"Doomy!" He shouted and wave of people repeated him. Maybe I'd just punch him anyway "Yes, this way. Come on, you bunch of sweets, being the sour puss this way" I was surfed over to the drag queen and dropped onto my feet in front of him, where he led me into the side room. A quick pat down by self revealed, to my surprise, that I still had my wallet. The benefit of being MVP, I guess.
The side room was thankfully more bare bones that the main floor, the only thing of note was not what but who was inside: along with Larenzo's two fellow goons was who I presumed was Jen'lak. She was at least the same spices, a sort of reptilian humanoid with fins going the length of her head, back, and tail, similar color and only slight bulkier that her entertainer sister. Whether that she was the objective was to be seen. She still wore the orange prison jumper, gouged repeated with the wounds to match underneath, and that was enough to glare at the fool who's job was to get her down here in one piece.
"Okay, there was a struggle" Larenzo admitted, although the guilt on his face was about as painted on as his hair "But not with the guards. The second level has monsters on it. You would think the Empire would have gotten rid of them, but apparently they're just as crazy as the Marines" That didn't lift my glare, which made the drag queen shiver uncomfortably in his boot "It's her, love, I promise"
I took his words on it. I took an empty seat and scooted it right to her and sat next to her and face her head on. She seemed more content to watch a patch on the floor, and when I gave a closer look into her eyes I saw a far too familiar sight. An unfocused stare that saw something miles away yet seemed unable to see anything in between. Soldiers unprepared for the savagery of war who'd return home broken, and victims of amoral tortures. The thousand yard stare. I looked back to Larenzo, not because I felt that he was to blame but rather that I had to know if it was caused by the prison itself.
I think he wanted to pretend that any prisoner that found themselves in this shithole could handle themselves, but his glum expression and slow nod told me everything. I hung my head at that. I would just have hope that once I got out she would recover.
"Jen'lak" I only got a small flicker of the eyes as a reaction, but it was enough "I've been sent by your sister to get you out" THAT actually got her to look me in the eyes, but it wasn't hope and admiration that I got as it was a long entrenched wariness. I couldn't blame her. Trust was in short supply here, and I'm sure what she's gone through would force her to only imagine some con or just a new torture by the Empire. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but this place is FUBAR and that's because of me. And I did that because Shea'lak came to me and begged me to save you" I'm sure I mispronounced that name, but a small twinkle in here eyes told me she knew that I told the truth.
"But it's safe here..." she started, and I leaped out of my seat in a flash of rage. Maybe I should have been a bit more understanding, she had gone through a lot. I could have considered that a more diplomatic approach would have convince her to gone on her own accord. But I was not about to let my hard work be all for nothing. I towered over her, one fist slammed into the table. The others jumped back, but she looked at me dead on. Unflinching.
"I promised to get you out of here, and I keep my word. Whether or not you want to is not my concern. If I have to drag you out, I will" But she remained unphased by my intimidation and straight through my helmet's visor.
"Do you always make promises behind a mask?"
That made me stop. It threw me off and knocked me out of my anger. It seemed like nonsense, but when I looked down my HUD to see my own confused face reflected back I realized that She wasn't talking to me, the person, but a helmeted hardass with more guns than sense. Since it's a image I've cultivated for so long, I guess I occasionally forget that I need to turn the heat back for the benefits. It was no wonder why she didn't trust me. I grabbed the sides of my helmet and pushed up, revealed my hardened features and left us both actually eye to eye with each other for the first time.
"Then let me promise you this: I swear on my life that I will keep you safe. Neither Omni nor Hell itself will make me break that. But I need you to follow me." There was a long pause after I laid myself out bare. She watch me, to try to catch the moment of insincerity, but she eventually softened and nodded.
"Alright then." I answered as I put my helmet back and rose up to my full height. "Then lets get you out of here"
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 12-05-2015
While Jen'lak gathered her things and "mental prepared herself" (her words, not mine), I went back into the lobby to get a few more drinks and say my final "good bye"s and "fuck you"s. The party had started to die down, although not for lack of trying. It seemed like in the couple of minutes I was gone the primes among the prison population had frivolously spent their omnilium, the room even more packed than before with entertainment. At least, I was pretty sure that there wasn't a 72" screen tv there when I first walked in. Nor the ice cream dispenser. Whatever. As I found myself halfway through a glass of real rum and coke the flamboyant Larenzo sat his glitter covered ass next to me.
"Here to say goodbye, or did you change your mind about staying? I always welcome another set of fists in a scrap" I offered, but I knew he wasn't going to take it. He was very explicit the first time and the little hideaway "heaven" had only improved since then. He gave a full laugh and slapped me on the shoulder.
"No no, darling, I'm very much staying. Just here to say good luck to you. Not that you need it" I couldn't help but smile a little, and for once someone could actually see it. Briefly, anyway, as I slammed back the rest of my drink then put my helmet back on when he smiled as well in response. "Feel free to drop by at any time."
"If I ever come back here, it would be too soon" I joked "But thanks for the offer" I shifted my backpack back onto its spot and got off the stool to stand back to full height. One last look around the place to find nothing I wanted to take, and the exit that would lead me out of the dump as the only place I wanted to be "I got an appointment with that white colored bitch that brought me here"
"Leaving so soon?" I heard a familiar voice in my head. In a brief moment a chill ran down my spine as I thought this sudden intrusion was something far more sinister or my mind finally snapped, but the sight of the pink skinned man I met before walked into my sight and I rested my heart a little. It was Al'ter, same as I saw him before sans the metal collar, and beside him was who I presume was Mike, in thick body armor and sported a jump pack and a gas mask across his face (or at least I assumed that's what that was).
"Al'ter!...Mike" The armored man gave only a nod in response while the four armed psychic nodded "Seems you guys found your way here safe and sound"
"Indeed, Doom Marine" Al'ter answered with his mind. 'Doom Marine' was a new one "I apologies that I could not help you to the capacity that I could have" He genuinely looked disappointed, his already wrinkled face furrowed even more and he let out a short sigh.
"Don't sweat it, you helped enough" I consoled him with a light pat on the shoulder and just a hidden weak smile. I could only wonder what he's been through "I'm just glad to finally be able to get out of this shithole" I could feel the mascara covered eyes(lashes) peer at the back of my head "I stand by what I said, Larenzo" I told the drag queen off without even a look back before I refocused on the two in front of me "You can join me, you know."
"Thank you for the offer" Al'ter bowed again "But I still have a duty to withhold in this world" I nodded, a slight bit of respect for the man grew in my mind. Who am I to tell another grown man what to do, and certainly if he chose to stay and help people that was his business. "And you are not quite done yet"
Everything in my body stiffened when I heard that, and my face when from small joys to stone cold and glares at the smaller pink alien. What did he mean by that? My mind jumped back up into that familiar soldier's mindset, left on edge and in search of any threat. What did he mean by that?
And then the rumbles started.
"What was that?" Larenzo asked with a bored expression. This seemed like old hat to him, but I, ol' paranoid Doomguy, was already in the middle of picking apart everything. It felt consistent in strength, a constant mechanically precise rhythm that reminded me of a rain of artillery barrage had had the misfortune of being under in a fight . If they were explosives, then the Empire wanted to kill everyone still under the surface. Kill the secondaries, have the primes respawn all at the same time in a convenient package. Sore losers.
Perhaps the far more damning evidence was when water started to rush in form the front door and got the bottom of everyone's shoes wet.
"Uh, not to alarm anyone" Yelled the mechanical door man from his post "But there there seems to be a bit of a leak outside. Kinda important, I think"
"No shit" I yelled back, although it went unheard as arguments broke out throughout the prisoners as they all simultaneously wondered what they were going to do now and whether or not to panic (with a few colorful words sprinkled in alongside it). I looked to Larenzo, who had taken a serious turn for the glum, likely with the same thoughts churned in his head "Looks like you're leaving anyway. That's not an earthquake out there, the Empires going to turn this place into rubble. Cut its loses and try to take as many as us as possible." He looked pissed, he had to listen to what he already knew but didn't want to admit it. He finally broke down, turned to everyone else and let out a loud whistle to catch their attention.
"Alright, you little dandies, Newkama Land is closing down. We're getting our before those imps sink us. Get your stuff and follow us" Every hardened criminal and con man jumped up and scrambled, snatched whatever weapon they could find if they didn't have one on them already. Everyone else prepared themselves, with varying degrees of success, for the climb back up to the sun. Larenzo stared me down, an unhappy mix between losing his pride and joy and the unfortunate situation that he now had me as the closest thing to a hero. "So you wanted to get out? Well then, lead the way, hon."
I grew a smile, my much more familiar wide, toothy grin that I loved to grin whenever things went my way. I pulled up my shotgun, and stood on a bar stool so I could be seen, and yelled out for everyone to hear.
"Last call, you motherfuckers. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!"
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 12-20-2015
Quote:
A surge of bodies rushed out of the bar as everyone with even the littlest sense of self preservation made a beeline to the floor above. It was like metaphorical bilge rats trying to jump off a literal sinking ship. While some took the tunnels in order to scout ahead, that still left a large group to pile into the halls. By the time we slogged our way through the rising water it was up to my waist and the ranks had swelled into a mob. The hole meant to toss prisoners laid above is as a taunt, normally unreachable due to the restraining collars. Now, whether by flight, magical might, or just plain ingenuity, many mad their way up and carried those less fortunate up with them. All of us were united in a hunger for revenge and a determination to be free. Well, at least, we all wanted to see this place burn down.
When I was shoved up to the fourth floor (literally, there was line on the rope ladder someone put down), I poked my head out over the edge and found the damage I had leveled upon it had gotten worse since I left it. Partly cooled molten metal spread out across the floor from the holes in the basin above, melted machines and limp mechanical arms submerged halfway through the hot sludge. The entire floor was just as hot, even with the generators in ruin. The prisoners had taken up the mantle in my absence, the towers of cells toppled over and dropped into the basin and work area, where the surviving scum and what was left of the red armored stormtroopers duked out between each other on the remains of the sky walk.
They didn't last very long as the reinforcements, aka us, poured out from below and laid waste under a storm of very projectile thought possible. The survivors swelled our ranks and the horde worked its way up the toppled cells to the next hole.
The first wave of enemies was pathetic, but I didn't expect to be this easy from here on out. With the unbearable considerations and a presumption that they're restricted by their need for the heat resistant equipment, then as we reached closer to the surface the Empire could bring their full might to bare. Not to mention they could still flank us, or whatever nasty surprise they had.
We'd just have to punch right through them. We couldn't afford to sit around for a better solution, and another set of quakes under us reminded us that we still had go.
The next level was a desert. That's not a metaphor, it was literally a desert. Dryer than stale cake, sand everywhere. I don't know where it came from or why it was here, but it was, and it littered along the masonry and steel bars that made for the prison's cells. Along with the wizened husks of the dead, mummified by the lack of moister in the air. Along with the almost mummified living, shriveled men and women who had been left unfed, barely able to lift themselves up to fight even with the removal of the inhibiting collars. But the sound of firepower off in the distance meant someone was still fighting the good fight.
The street further down from the hole was packed with laser fire and bullets as both sides took cover in cells at opposite sides of each other. It wasn't exactly a fair fight: the armored, blaster wielding and actually squad trained stormtroopers were faced of against malnourished, unequipped rabble. Rabble can do quite a bit, but you need a lot of them.
Thankfully, I brought a lot of rabble.
Shots rang out as along the walls as an encore from the previous performance, which sent the stormtroopers to scamper with their plastic toy guns under their leg. They actually managed to weather the storm hidden under cover, but they where then set upon by the more melee oriented fighters to flush them from their hidey hole. Blood and body parts littered the streets afterwards, pent up aggression let out in a horrifying display of martial prowess and years of minutely planned vengeance thrown out for just killing a motherfucker. The malnourished fighter joined the mob, what little of them still fighting.
"Think that's all of them?" I heard an errant voice out among the mob, and I just shook my head.
"Not a fucking chance. Keep your eyes out, and for fuck's sake spread out a little" Not that I expected them to follow any orders. This particular herd of cats had a chip on their shoulder against authority a mile wide. And their aversion to an semblance of military tactics only degraded when the head of one prisoner not three feet to my left and the scream of "sniper!" rang out.
"Get to cover" I tried to yelled out, but it was for my own personal benefit that for any of the prisoners, who reacted with a mix of some actually going to cover, some panicked on the spot, and others charging forward at the source. I glance back behind me and saw Jen'lak still alive and in the middle of an internal debate if she should charge as well. Something I immediately cut short when I grabbed a bundle of her prison jump and I dragged the both of us into a nook big enough to get her out of sight of any more sharpshooters.
"You do NOT get out of that hole until it's safe, you got that?" I shouted than ask, and before there was a single complaint I had bolted back out the the fray. I came back to a scene of carnage as those who charged ahead were already sent back running for cover under a hail of laser fire.
Down the road from our position, under the hole to the next level and our salvation from soggy wet death, the stormtrooper had set up a heavy fortification the encircled a crossroad, barricades made from a material that was obviously sturdier that whatever the prison architecture was made of (or their armor, for that matter), with a raised platform in the middle of it that let down a suppression fire down on anyone who got close with their specialist over the heads of the rank and file blaster. It kept the everyone out, and that didn't include any of the troops that couldn't be seen behind the corners.
Case in point, as we tried to move in closer through the meat grinder, out from behind each corner came the loud crash of large metal footsteps and we found ourselves in front of a pair of the bipedal armored boxes with guns I saw back in Costa del Sol.
We were rocked when the ATSTs opened up with a volley of concussion grenades, the high explosive blasts sent prisoners flying, if not dead by having their organs rendered into a fine pudding then left to the sidelines puking their guts out and unable to stand with the world spinning around them. Any who managed to keep in the fight then got a face full of the chin mounted laser cannon. Most people stuck back, trying their best to ward off the warmachines, but anything thrown at the hard shell of the walkers uselessly. Normally I would say it was comical, but it wasn't funny when several gigavolts of energy buzzed pass me and skimmed the very top of my helmet. I stumbled, my helmet HUD went dark for a second, and when I grabbed onto the helm I felt the bit of residue heat from my near vaporization.
"That tears it" I shouted to myself. I grit my teeth as I stared down the walker closest to me, ripped a grenade from my belt and tossed in front of the walkers. Great plumes of smoke spewed out of the smoke grenade, a solid wall of the stuff now between us and them. The stomps and the electric scream of high powered energy weapon stopped, as they seemed to follow the normal military protocol to not send your expensive vehicles into an obvious trap. It gave everyone else a brief pause to rally while I pulled myself up the side of the wall, the screen let me reach a ledge big enough to support me without the gunners putting holes in me.
By the time they noticed the dayglo green armored marine come at them, I leaped out at them and gripped onto the face of the ATST with a grenade in one hand.
This time the kind made to paint walls.
With a flick the grenade was primes, and I threw my fist into the ports of the walker. The flimsy glass meant to protect the pilots when the armored panel wasn't down shattered, and I dropped the explosive into the lap of the shocked driver. I bounded over onto the second one, and as I heard the muffled bang as pillars of fire and shrapnel erupted out of the "eyes" of the first chicken walker I held out the super shotty with a grin that reached ear to ear. I slammed the barrels into the cockpit and let loose one into the driver's head, then turned my arm to the gunner and the second shot reduced him into gibbets.
From the top of the inert mech I pulled the rocket spewing death dealer (all my weapons are death dealers), the whirl as the loader placed one of the ranged explosives into the chamber with a satisfying click. With me angled above the protective walls of the barricade I rained down pain inside the storm trooper's midst, each red rose of death send parts of stormtroopers everywhere. With a renewed assault in swing, the front line the ground pounders caved. Those on the raised platform then started to float up, grave plates on the bottom hummed louder, and the more important troops retreated into the second floor.
"After them!" I heard the general cry across the mob, but I killed that quickly when I beaned the shouter with an empty shotgun shell
"Fuck that" I yelled back as I climbed down from the walkers now modern art display and landed next to an annoyed Jen'lak "You all nearly got routed by two armored units and a few guys behind chest high walls. You'd get slaughtered by the full force" There was a murmer of anger as I questioned the abilities of the prisoners, but I just shrugged them of "You can rest here for a bit. There's elevator shafts that I can access on this level, I can climb up that and I'll signal you when it's clear to flank them."
Most of them weren't happy about my plan, but if they wanted to slam their head into a brick wall I wouldn't stop them. They milled about for now, so I headed to where the map I stole showed the secret elevator that went down to this level.
And when I heard the loud hiss underneath me and saw clouds of stream rise up from the level below, I got my ass in gear and ran for the way up. Wet soggy death wasn't about to wait on me.
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 12-28-2015
You would think that a power and corrupt government would have spend the couple extra dollars to hide their hidden elevators a lot better. I mean, they didn't make the colors match the wall. That's the kind of laziness I expect from the UAC, but apparently obvious secrets are universal. I peeled the sliding doors open to reveal the long climb up ahead of me and the drop I would get to experience face first if I misstep. No emergency ladder, no counter balance on a cable. It was designed to keep prisoners from escape rather than employee safety. OSHA would have had a fit. Only groves meant to guide the elevator from sending its passengers sideways through a wall was the hand holds offered to me. a low growl rumbled in the throat, but I shut it and hoisted myself up.
It was not hard, relatively speaking. A hundred foot yard, compared to a hellish invasion, was nothing. But when you had to inch yourself up little by little, where a single unfortunate position could send you screaming down a black abyss to meet gravity face to face? Terrifying.
But not hard.
I eventually I hit the end of the line, here represented by the grav lift stuck in front of the door I needed to exit. Thankfully the space between one side of the box and the wall was big enough that I could squeeze through, and an unlocked hatch on top that I easily slipped through into a empty room with unlit controls and another set of doors. A scan across my HUD map showed no one on the immediate other side, and when I pulled the door apart I was left without anyone in sight.
Thank god for small favors. And big firepower.
I found myself in the remains of a security room, left empty by its previous operators when its function became mute with the power gone. the only light came from a few emergency lights and what sunlight bent around the blinds, which gave it an almost sad look of an abandoned office. Complete with a plate with a half eaten breakfast burrito on one of the desks. I'm not too proud to say I didn't finish it off, I hadn't anything all day and it was at least still warm. I couched over to one of the windows and peaked out to see what the forces on the surface was.
It was exactly as packed as I thought. The entrance to the first floor was underneath a very well reinforced building, which itself was situated in the middle of a large no man's land. No cover to speak of between the small concrete shack and the inner walls, where an almost uncountable of guns were aimed inwards. It was a kill zone, there was no place that wasn't in the firing lane of several high powered, anti-infantry weapons (and a few anti-vehicles ones), and more ATSTs guarded the sole exit, alongside whatever might have been hidden on the other side. The prisoner force would have been flattened, presuming they even got past the other levels.
But while their attention was focused on the potential (and currently halted) escape, there was only a token force on patrol, massive holes through routes that I could have driven a truck through in broad daylight, let alone drag my green armored ass in the misty sea morning under a sun barely over the horizon. Beyond the death hole, between the port that lead into this prison and the compound likely meant for far less important crooks was the keep. Medieval in fashion, but hid the same Empire technology behind the old fashion style. Like before, their guards were scattered and unaware, and I walked in through a door left unpowered and and through the hallways with nothing in my way.
My destination was the top most room, where the building's previous control room was before the Empire took it over and inserted their own doodads. The idea was that they would still have some emergency power that let them communicate with the mainland in such a situation, and likely where they had remote controls of the explosives that flooded the submerged prison. So the plan was to go in, kick ass, and get a message out to Choprot. And the complete lack of obstacles to that top room never gave me the impression that wasn't going to work.
But, if you're been reading this far, you'd know that a plan never survives contact with the enemy.
The final door held little resistance as I kicked it down, and I entered the room boot first, shotgun ready, and with a head full of mad. the door smashed into the nearby walls, the snap of cheap wood sent four of the five people inside to jump out of their boots. The room was largely empty, electronics lined up against the walls with windows above them that looked down onto the entire prison. It was like one of those air traffic control towers, if with no where near as complicated equipment. Men in the drab black a grey uniform in domed helmets spun around and reached for their pistols, only to stop when they saw it wasn't some hapless prisoner that stood in front of them but a full on combat machine. These weren't fighters, they were technicians and radio operators, people's who job it was to keep everything running smoothly. They knew they couldn't win against me.
"If you know who I am" and if they knew anything about Dante's Abyss, they would have "then you know how this is ends. But I'm feeling generous right now. Here's a chance to turn a new leaf and put this all behind you. Run, and never come back" There was only a second of hesitation before they bolted, the four flew past me and i heard their patter of boots to tile as they descended the stairs I had come up from and around the corner.
That left the last guy. His dab olive uniform immediately put him as a officer, and when he finally turned to from his intense stare into the ocean his shirt had an impressive amount of pins on the front of his chest. His face seemed paralyzed in a perpetual scowl, a steely stare that burned into the front of my helmet that might have cowed the prisoners but just told me he took his job VERY seriously. He reminded me of my old drill instructor
"Warden Siege, I presume. Here to die for your country, or do you honestly think you can take me?" He didn't back down, or really move at all, except for the slightest grin. If anything the threat only encouraged him. He
"So you're the weakling who's invaded my prison." Considering he didn't address me directly, I got the impression that this speech was rehearsed well in advance. "You think that you can stand against the greatest power this universe has scene?" Insert evil laugh here. This guy took the job of being an Empire goon a little too seriously "You're a fool. When I break you, i'll make sure your personal Hell will-"
"Been there, done that" I cut him off, which pissed him off to no end as he turn a shade of red I normally associated with fire hydrants "Can we cut the speeches short? I got a call to make"
His response was a very animalistic growl as he pulled out was seemed to be a modified taser and an intimidating mace that sparked with red arcs of electricity. He held the melee up high, ready to bring it down on my head with a fury that he may have thought was impressive. In an instant he leveled the taser at my chest and let lose the two prong that sunk into my arm in an instant. Red lightning arced across the wires towards my body.
It did nothing, as the electricity defused in my armor and failed to reach the skin in any real capacity. It did mess up my HUD, but that was about it.
I raised my shotgun and blasted his melee hand to counter, blood splattered across the side of his head as his fingers were mangled by the military grade buck shot and his weapon sent flying to the back of the room. Surprise caught him, a moment of shock struck his face, but he recovered quickly and charged right at me. I pumped the next shell in, but he reached out and pulled the gun up, my shot emptied into the ceiling. I forced my fight arm forwards, the shotgun swung in his grip, I clocked him in the face the butt of the weapon and forced him to let go as I ripped it back. Blood smeared his face as it dripped from a cut in his cheek, and the anger rose in his body.
But rather than attack me again, he rushed past me. I shot again as I tracked his movement, but the door he left through took the shell for him.
Oh well, at least he was smart enough to know when he was beat. I cocked another shell, and walked over to the radio. It was a little old fashion, but it was powered and that's all that mattered for the moment. I dialed in the frequency Choprot gave me when I first left his company, and hoped he didn't lie to me.
"Choprot, this is Doomguy. If you're getting this, I need your help now. Meet me there and hurry it the fuck up. Over" If he got it, I didn't know. I got no response, so I'd just have to put faith in Choprot.
Yes, that sounded just as bad to me then as it does to you now.
I switched over to the number the cross dressing idiot gave me. His radio was a snail. I didn't ask.
"You're safe to come up that shaft, there's no one on that side. You better hurry up, I'm about to-"
Those only thing that warned me of what came up behind me was the slight whine of servos, and when I ducked in that instant a set of mechanical claws ripped through the radio with unnatural ease, like a blow torched through paper. I kicked off the wall and rolled away from the attack, and when I jumped back to my feet I found Siege had come back far better prepared than before.
Previous about the same height as me, he now towered over me inside the massive set of power armor he was nestled inside. Thick plated armor stuck onto a brick house of a frame, pauldrons bigger than my torso covered his shoulders and arms, and I could hear a full on power plant hummed on his back as it powered the impressive hulk of plasteel and anger. Far more intimidating was the set of claws welded to his gauntlets, four sharp, foot long digits leveled out ion front of his fingers. A power field surrounded each claw, a distortion effect sizzled the air around them and the sound of electricity popped and cracked and threatened a painful death when run through my chest.
"Well, weakling. I should thank you. I hadn't had the chance to use this suit until now. in reward, I'll show you some mercy and just banish you instead" Siege threatened from a communicator in his thick helmet and blasted out from a speaker. He took a heavy step forwards, the floor creaked in protest, and his arms were thrown wide as he readied a strike.
But I stood there, a smile on my face. I put my shotgun back in its holster, and brought my chaingun to bare. I reached back to my backpack, pulled an ammo belt oot of a flap, slammed it into the chamber and pulled the slide back. I held it out right, aimed it at the armored sadist, and waved him over with my off hand.
"Bring it"
Re: Into Dante's Inferno - Doomguy - 12-31-2015
Quote:
A thunderous stampede rang out as the armored warden rushed forwards, claws at his side as he winded up for a swipe across my chest. I waited, the barrels of my chaingun spun to firing speed but I held my finger way from the trigger as I looked for an opening. As I predicted, it when for a horizontal strike to tear me in to, but I jumpped and rolled under his swing and was now behind him. Unfortunately, his backside was just as well armored as is front. The entire armor was built like a walking bunker. But I wasn't about to psyche myself out , and I unleashed a storm of bullets that raked across the metal hide, a rain of empty shells ejected onto the floor. He wasn't even annoyed by the firepower, and he made a quick spin and tried to catch me with a power roundhouse punch. I stepped back away from the claws, raised my chaingun just enough for it to not get in the way, then brought it back down and fired off another long burst to his helm. Bullets and sparks ricocheted off the armor, unable to penetrate the thick plates or any lucky hits through the eye pieces.
Siege rang out a laugh and followed through with a lunging attack, the sudden burst of speed from the otherwise clumsy looking armor caught me off guard and I felt the tips of the blades rip across my stomach as the powered claws went through my armor they it wasn't even there. The health number on my HUD dropped a few points, but I didn't need that to know that when I felt the skin across my abdomen start to flay apart and blood dripped down across it. the warden followed through with an attempt to run me through.
I turned my chaingun up and rammed the stock into the inside of his arm, the attack knocked away and I countered as I drove the hot barrels into Siege's face. Even in the impenetrable armor his reaction was to back off from the disorientating hit and I finally had some breathing room. I let the chaingun fall back its place and I pulled something with some real firepower from its spot.
The plasma gun. A technological wonder, death incarnate, the weapon that struck fear in the hearts of men. Even with just a glance at it one could hear the screams of pain and smell cooked flesh, and when I started to flood its firing chamber with energy from its cell a familiar, perhaps even reassuring, heat permeated across the hull of it. I was cooking with plasma, the sweet feel of heavy ordnance. And I leveled it at Siege's stupid armor. I held down to trigger, and a electric scream filled the air as rapid fire gobs of plasma slammed into his chest plate.
"Feel the heat" Oh com'on, I can come up with better than that "If you like pain so much, then let me give you a taste of it" Much better.
The superheated gas didn't so much slam as they did splashed once they hit their target and were no long effected by the magnetic field that held the rounds together. Bits of armored plates dropped down from the impact spots, heated from the plasma as it was absorbed into the nearest object. but a slight flickers of a forcefield integrated into the suit itself. I still held down the trigger in an attempt to reduce it to slag, but it only made Siege go into another laughing fit.
"Do you really think your weapons will-" I cut him off again as I fired a single shot into his face, his scream of surprise warmed my heart a little.
"Quip when you actually have the upper hand, loser" I shouted when the familiar, and maybe even assuring, warmth from the plasma gun turned into a painful, and definitely burning, hot potato in my hands and I had to let it go before I ruined it. I reached around my back for my rocket launcher, perhaps the concussive blast could get through that thick head of his, but the warden exploited that window of opportunity and loomed over me like a baron of hell with a chip on its shoulder.
He no long went with the giant, wild swing and instead went with shorter but faster strikes. He finally learned that trying to kill me in one blow wasn't going to work and I was beset under a whirlwind of quick blows, shards of my armor thrown from side to side as several near misses turned into honed in hits. With not much wiggle room to spare, I ripped my pistol from its holster and unloaded shots into the partly melted chest plate. I hoped that the structure of the armor had been compromised to get one lucky hit in, but even the one time I saw a squirt of blood dribble out from a crack it didn't slow him down. I felt more and more hits slice at my skin, one deep hit across my hit forced me back in the hope to get out of the way for the follow through.
But my back hit a console lined up against the wall, and I found myself pinned as the warden's power claws were rammed straight into both of my shoulders.
I let out a howl of pain through my clenched teeth, fists balled in response as I felt my bones jostle in ways they're not suppose to and my muscles split. He poked holes in my shoulder blades (and if you're ever broken a bone try to image breaking it four different places at the same time), and that was before he decided to twist them in the wound for added effect. He pulled hit arms to the side, and it felt like he was about to pull me apart. I kicked him repeatedly, but as you can imagine that had even less effect that the pistol. In response he made a quick jolt to the right, and I felt the same arm pop out of its socket. I ground my teeth together, my vision distorted as it started to swim from the pain, but I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream.
"Oh, I'll enjoy this, you piece of shit" I could only imagine Siege saying this with a wide grin, as he stood over me like a doctor over a helpless patient "And when I'm done with this break out, I'll spike you to the wall as a warning to everyone else"
But I wasn't without one last ace in the hole.
With my one good arm left, I reached down to the black pack at my side, and pulled out the syringe filled with the volatile cocktail of combat stimms known by those in the Marines as Bezerk. Before Siege could react, I plunged the needle into my neck, and pushed down the plunger down. I felt the sludge dissolved into my blood, and in the next instant my sight turned blood red. The burning pain across my body dulled until it was merely an absent reminder of the real world, my heart beat with the force of a bass drum and a feeling of invincibility washed over my mind.
All that wouldn't have meant anything to my drug addled mind, long pretty words that would have distracted from the single minded goal.
Crush him.
I threw the empty syringe into the floor where it shattered, and I grabbed onto the gauntlet of the armor. I fingers wrapped around the edge like a vise and I pushed. Squeaks started in the servos of the arm as my new found strength overpowered the warden's powered armor. I heard the scraping of metal on metal as the claws were pulled out the controls I was previously pinned to, and with another burst of strength I had it out. Siege lost his words as he found his armor being pushed back, and he doubled his attempt to skewer me. But I held firm, grinding gears the herald of my victory, and I drove both feet into his chest.
He fell back, his plate sported a new crack down the middle, and I was free from his grip. He hesitate to attack again, which gave me the time to grab my useless right arm and pop it back into place.
"Who...WHAT are you?!" Siege couldn't comprehend the world of hurt he out himself in.
"Me? I'm bad. I'm super bad. I'm 12 on a 10 point scale of badness. That's really bad" I can only imagine what Siege's face looked like when I started to sprout like the rage induced space marine I was. "I broke the mold when they made me. Too many mes would break the world. Just like I'm about to break you"
The armored moron brought down another fist in some fleeting hope that I could be brought down. I brought my own up and we hit each other's strike. Something shattered as the two forces collided, and Siege pulled his hand back as he found his fingers mangled and bent. I could see my own knuckles bloodied, but it was no more a pain than a knock on a door, and I kept on knocking.
"Dig the capacity for violence, unbridled fury married with a man that can't be stopped. I got more lives than a cat, certainly more than you" Another haymaker to his chest "I'm the real mean, lean, fighting machine. You should ask the cyberdemon a few tips on how to fight me. Or you could if I didn't tear him apart!" he tried for a side swipe, but I glanced it above my head and grabbed the offending limb, pulled it to the side to keep him off balance, and then ripped of his shoulder pad. And smashed it over his head.
"Shut up!" Siege managed to choke out between the punches. He pulled his arm back, but I didn't relent as I landed a blow to him helmet. He went through the motion and caught my arm with a long gash. But it felt more like some had run a razor over my skin rather than the deep wound that it was. I kept up the assault, his chest plate imprinted the the blood on my fists but now the armor fell away into shards.
"I like the way you think" I reached out for his helmet and in a single stoke ripped it off and left his frightened face for the world to see. I threw a hook right for it, but he managed to get both arms into a cross block to take the blow. But I grabbed onto the arm in the back, the powered blades singed the skin where they touched, and I pulled them forward to reveal his face unprotected. I swung again, the fist connected with the jaw and shattered with a snap.
He held back the pain well, but his words turned into garble with half of his mouth hung uselessly. He backed off, terror clenched his heart, but you can't stop me.
"Here comes the night train! Chugga chugga chugga BOOGIE!" I let lose one last full powered straight punch to his chest and the armor there crumbled as it could no long weather the assault, and his torso was left unexposed. He shot his powered claws at me to try and impale again, but I grabbed his hands and held him in place. With the advantage over him, I twisted his arms upwards until he found himself unable to get himself out of the hold. Then with a yank, metal twisted and wires snapped as I pulled of his gauntlets and his only means of attack.
In desperation he threw a punch, a pointless hit that was like egg to a brick wall, and I swung back with a gut punch that knocked the wind out of him. I dove for the kill, my hands had an iron grip on his rips and I pulled. Screams filled the air at the snap of his bone, another as I pulled again and heard the tear of flesh, and with one last tug the warden was free of the armor.
Without his arms or legs.
I held the dying above my head like a prized boar by a hunter, and when I pulled my arms apart he was torn into two pieces, his screams of pain ceased as his insides were let loose onto the room. Blood and guts splattered across my helmet and shoulders, warm viscera spread across everything and painted my armor a deep red. I dropped the piece to the floor below me, and still fueled by the bezerk I roared a guttural laugh as I saw my enemy finally ended in little more than a pile of entrails. The corpse of Siege offered no comment nor threat, and the only sound his armor made was a slight hum as its power pack kept on making energy without any master.
I rushed over to the windows, not done just yet. The morning mist was still thick, but you could still see the silhouette of the ships that blockaded our way out. I reach behind me and hefted the holy grail of weaponry into my hands. The Big Gun. The BFG 9000. It was always a blessing when I had the chance to use this weapon, although I knew the target would never feel that way. But it would be a short lived experience for them. I spotted the largest ship within the fleet, stationed right in front of the main gate into the dock of this artificial island, and I aimed the BFG's targeter right at its deck. With a slight adjustment to pierce straight down into the inside I pulled down the trigger.
The iconic charge as plasma flooded the inside of the BFG was like the sound of angels, and when the fire light sounded off I unleashed its payload onto the unsuspecting Empire toadies.
The massive green plasma ball soared through the air, majestic in its path if not quite in shape, faster than such a massive projectile had any right to be, then slammed into the ship for the force of an angry god.
A miniature green sun went of in the middle of the deck as the magnetic field collapsed and unleashed the plasma into the surrounding terrain. The initial explosion decimated everyone it touched. The secon, bigger explosion was from the magazine of the ship as it was breached by the plasma and the ship was torn in two. Men and equipment were thrown overboard, the superstructure of the bridge went up like a fireworks launcher, and smoke billowed out of the whole thing as it sunk down to Davy Jones' locker.
In an instant the thunder of ship cannons went off as the other navy boats fired back straight at the tower I was no longer hidden in. I would have been pulverized by the artillery when it hit, but I reached down to the dagger on my belt and held in tightly. The world slowed down, the shells of the ship cannons barely a few feet away from the castle's wall, and I had little time to avoid destruction. Running down the stairs would not have been enough time, as even if I got away from the initial impact the building would have crumbled down on my head. The only "safe" way out was to jump. I pelted full speed in the frozen time frame and out the window I went, glass shattered away from me before it was once again trapped in a singular moment while I fell down to the ramparts below.
Even if the high-impact boot and still under at least some effect of bezerk, it was a long fall to go. When I finally hit the floor the pain was like lightning up my shins and knees and I collapsed onto my ass. I was behind two unsuspecting troopers, still time stopped, and I rolled over as close to the wall as possible.
Time restarted just before I hit the ground, explosions above me sent bricks and mortar onto everyone below. the two guard in front of me were belted by broken bricks and then crushed by a particularly large piece, and I only avoided the same as I crawled into a small alcove.
In the next few seconds, a lot happened.
The tower was not the only thing that got shelled. Either in fear that Impel Down was taken by the inmates or just under orders to make sure nothing escaped, the entire surface was bombarded by artillery. Caught in the friendly fire, the stormtroopers inside broke rank and tried to get to cover even as the floor below them started to break.
Out from the elevator the prisoners finally caught up to me, the mob swarmed of the building the secret passage was hidden in and the soldiers found themselves assaulted from both sides as the criminals fought their way to the docks.
And over the din of everything, of the fighting and the explosions, I heard a single noise raise over everything:
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Out from the mist came a all too familiar rust bucket ram straight into a smaller support boat's side and split it in two. Cannons rang as the ork captain surprised the Empire Navy, whom were too busy trying to knock the prison over to see the pirate up in their face. Normally equipped for long combat, an enemy ship right in their grill was an unwelcome guest. When the pirate ship pulled up next to a bigger ship that its big guns couldn't hand, even from this distance I could see the green galoot charged over as his crew boarded. The ship split off and reduced the front gate into splinters. It headed inside, and now we had our way out.
I dove over the side of the ruins of the castle and landed next to the docks to fight my way through. There wasn't much in the way, and the stormtroopers that did see me bolted in the other direction when they saw my armor's new paint job. I joined up with the prisoner, confirmed that Jen'lak was still with them (after I nearly shook Larenzo to death), and we burst through the last door that separate us from freedom. The stormtropers didn't both to fight us, already trying to fend off pirates, and they just scattered into the winds rather than get hit from both sides. We piled on board, those who didn't just fuck off on their own, and I had a certain first mate walk up to me.
"I see you've been busy. Can you not destroy anything you make contact?" Perry askes as he threw me a towel
"Perry! Good to see you" I tried my best to hold back in innate comment I would have normally said while on the combat stimms, since I still kinda needed their ship. The rather unamused look told me he didn't believe what I said. Fair enough, I didn't either "Lets pick up your dumbass boss and lets get out of here before we're up to our assholes in Empire reinforcements"
We zoomed out the broken gate and passed by the boarded ship on our way out. We didn't even slow down, instead Choprot and his crew simply jumped back over with whatever loot they could carry in their arms (which is a lot for orks, apparently). Almost instantly the flash git saw me and grew a big smile. I felt in my bones what he was going to say next, and I just let out a preemptive sigh.
"Doomy!"
"GODDAMN IT, WILL EVERYONE STOP CALLING ME THAT!?"
Quote:----
We did slip out of the combat zone without any troop following us. Between the fog and the vast number of primes with varied powers, it was easy to slip out from under the radar and towards someplace away from Empire space. Once we were safe, a fair decent amount of the prisoners fucked off, either summoned their own vehicles or left under their own power. Many still stayed, but it was hard to tell who did so willingly and those who just didn't have the OM to do it.
I crashed hard after the bezerk wore off. As one would expect from getting in a fist fight with someone in power armor I broke both my hands, knuckles ruined and the skin split across my fingers. My arms didn't want to move with my shoulders as they were, their were more cuts across my body than I remember and far deeper than I first thought, and the wound on my leg during the initial break in reopened from the long jump off the control tower. I was stuck in bed rest for a while, swimming between consciousness for the first day or two, and the next week I just didn't want to get up. I was visited fairly often by everyone, even if only to check on my condition, but at least it was some company.
Still, I had a lot of time to think about what I've done so far. Despite a far great focus on working with people and one hundred percent less demons, my mind couldn't help but slip back to what had happened to the Phobos base, even if they were a little fuzzy. I had fought my way through tough enemies and made it through, closer to home than ever before, but a nagging in the back of my head wouldn't stop and I asked the same questions I did after I killed the bruiser brothers and walked into the hell portal: Once you beat the big badasses and clean out the enemy base, you're supposed to win, aren't you? Where the fat reward and the ticket home? Was I really finding an escape or was I about to find myself on the shores of Hell yet again? Unfortunately, I had about much answers as I did last time, and my only solution was to go through. If it didn't turn out the way I wanted, then I'll just find a different way.
Choprot did eventually visit me so we could catch up, and share a few new battle scars over some of his fungus beer. This time I didn't bother to fake it and just told him no thinks. He didn't care, more for him.
"Ya got the fight in ya, oomie" Choprot bellowed, which didn't really feel like a compliment when I was basically trapped in my bed until the prime healing factor did its job "Didn't fink ya could do it, but now ya 'ere and even brought some of me crew back! Next time ya ask a favor, I'll jump right on it"
"I don't think there'll be a next time, but thanks anyway" I told him, sipping on some bottled water I summoned minutes ago " How the hell did you get your ship back? Last time I saw it, it was stuck on a sand bar in a thousand pieces" Up close, it even looked better than before, but I could still seem someone the places where the sea beast had torn it to shreds"
"OH! A prime 'elped put it back together. 'E could ben stuff together with 'is 'ands, and fix me ship on da spot! Generally don't like weirdboyz, but he was go in a fight too. Yellow 'air, red coat, kinda short git. Named Edward. 'Ave you 'eard of 'im?" I shook my head at that. I never met a prime named Edward, but I decided if I did I would have to thank him. He did save my life, even if indirectly.
"Everyone is kinda short compared to you, Choprot" And he let out an uproarious laugh that echoed across the room.
"Dat's true!" He agreed and took another gulp of his beer "So, where ya headin' from 'ere"
"Blue Flame Island. I have some unfinished business to attend to" I glanced over to the otherside of the room where Jem'lak was sitting. Mostly because I ordered her to, but then I expected her to not listen. Thankfully she had been on the ball for the most part.
"We'z headin dere anyway, so you'ze in luck. Take us a few more days before we get to land, enough time for ya to get your sea legs back" he chuckled, and I nodded in response.
"Good. Thanks for visiting, but" I held up my PDA which now had a pair of ear buds dangly from it "I'd like to get some use out of my much deserved R'n'R" The captain nodded with a big toothy grin and left to go back to his job.
I pluged the buds in, turned Iron Maiden up to max, and I drifted off into the closest I've been to rest in what felt like a year.