09-26-2015, 12:09 AM
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.
"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.
![[Image: oGzCtPC.png]](http://i.imgur.com/oGzCtPC.png)