- Another Time Skip -
The muscular men must have knocked me out, as I regained consciousness in a prison cell. It was a gray box with a metal door. There was a small hole in the door, so I wanted to look through it but realised that I was tied to a chair, so that was out of the question.
- Why didn't they kill me? - I thought. When we were in the trash compactor, it seemed like our enemies really wanted us dead, so why didn't they eliminate me when they got the chance?
Obviously, I wanted to live, so that was for the better. There was a singular light bulb hanging from the ceiling, so the cell seemed to be even darker than the Junkyard. As I looked around, I saw an old, dirty bed and a disgusting looking toilet that I wish I'll never have to use.
The events from before my capture replayed in my head like a movie. I realised that we made little to no progress, since the "supervisor" we were tracking was a mannequin that lured us into a death trap we barely escaped from. Moreover, my friends were gone, so I was all alone.
Suddenly, the light bulb got brighter and I heard a gentle click. The metal door ahead of me opened, revealing an angry, muscular man standing behind them. As he entered the cell, I noticed that he was the one who shone a flashlight into my face. He had a familiar scratch on his right cheek. He also had black hair, icy blue eyes and a contrasting red t-shirt along with black trousers that really didn't fit with the rest.
- How much do you know about our plan? - the man, who I nicknamed "Bruise", asked me in a menacing tone.
- Uhh... what plan? - I asked back. I didn't know if he meant the plan to kill us or something else.
- Don't make jokes, as you'll regret it - Bruise replied, clenching his fists.
- If you mean your plan to lure us into a death trap, we absolutely didn't expect that. We actually thought that it was the real AI supervisor and decided that you guys just knocked him out... - I replied slowly, shaking with fear.
- As pathetic as is, I don't mean that plan. I mean the other one and I demand answers, so give them to me straight! - Bruise exclaimed.
- We think that you wanted HISS to go rogue and kill everyone, so you got rid of the AI supervisor so that HISS won't be restricted by anyone. Along the way, you'd put us out of commission with the decoy so that we cannot thwart your plot - I made up a fake plan. I knew that lying wasn't a good idea, but we seriously didn't know anything about a second scheme.
- That sounds like a movie plot, not a criminal scheme. Are you lying to me?! - Bruise seemed even more angry than before.
- No, why would I? We studied the supervisor's job and learned that one of his goals is to keep the AI from doing anything malicious and shutting it down if it does. We deduced that if the supervisor is gone and nobody replaces him, you might hack into HISS's systems and tell it to kill everybody aboard the Hyperspace, as there isn't much else HISS can do here - I came up with this explanation on the spot, but it seemingly worked.
The guy was about to leave the room, but suddenly turned back and knocked over my chair, making me fall back and directly face the lightbulb. It was bright enough to harm me, so I closed my eyes. Then Bruise left the cell and carefully closed the door afterwards.
- Hello, hello? Can anybody hear me? - somebody asked. As I turned my head away from the light bulb and opened my eyes, I noticed that the voice came from the room's security camera. It looked like a sphere with a creepily hollow eye mounted onto a rail. The rail stretched around the ceiling, allowing the camera to move and observe the prisoner from different angles.
- HELLO??? - the voice asked again. It appeared to belong to a young person, so I had hope it was one of my allies.
- I can hear you. Are you going to torture me for "lying"? - I asked, still afraid.
- No, I won't. I'm not a bad guy - the mysterious voice replied.
- Than who are you?
- I'm Yasha from the Russian Moon Base? You remember me? - the voice asked. Luckily, I did.
Yasha was a young boy working in Russian Moon Base, specializing in programing. We met him on our previous mission, during which we initially supected him of being the mole, but he turned out to be innocent. Despite being infuriated by our suspicions, he helped us out when we discovered that Dawn was the real mole. I didn't know what happened to him after we left the Moon.
- Yes, I do. How did you connect here? - I was still suspicious, assuming that someone might be inpersonating him to gain my trust.
- I hacked into the security camera, simple enough. You're on floor 0, aka the Prison. This is where criminals aboard the Hyperspace are detained before being sent back to Earth. It seems like whoever caught you is pretending to be the police. Anyhow, the rope you're tied with isn't really a rope, but a machine that looks like one. It's made of several segments and wraps around you like a constrictor snake. It's much stronger than a regular rope, but I think I can hack it to release you. Wait a second - he paused.
I heard some muffled typing before the rope magically turned into a straight line. As I looked at its ends, they had metal inside, so what Yasha said was true. I got up and looked through the window, just like I initially wanted to. I truly was on another floor, as the giant garbage piles were replaced by prison cells all around me.
- Thank you, what now? - I asked.
- The cell is unlocked by a holographic ID card, much like the airlocks in the Russian Moon Base. I got a fake one that I can use to free you, but be careful; that man may still be there - the camera fell down, revealing a wire - Take it with you and plug it in whenever you can, that way I can infiltrate the systems.
I grabbed the camera as the door suddenly swung open. It was small enough for me to hide it in my pocket, especially since my pockets were empty, because the bad guys took everything from there, making sure that I won't have any way to communicate with the outside world.
I slowly snuck out of my cell, looking around and fearing an ambush. The walls weren't as musty as those in the Junkyard, but they surely were darker. All of cells were exactly the same and all of the ones surrounding mine seemed empty. I walked out, trying to be as quiet as possible. For every cell, there was a socket next to it. Unsure of what to do next, I plugged the camera into the socket of the neighbouring cell.
- Good. There seems to be a vent nearby, so that's where you should go before the bad guys return to check in on you - Yasha told me. A vent popped open.
- Oops, wrong one. That one ends with a fan that would shred you. Here's the right one - another vent popped open.
I grabbed the camera and ran into the vent. Crawling through it was uncomfortable, but was definitely better than being stuck in a cell. I stopped when I heard a conversation beneath me.
- So, how's Chris? - one voice asked.
- He told me that they were thinking about a robot takeover. Idiots! - another voice laughed. It was Bruise.
- Okay, he's useless, so we'll dispose of him - the unknown voice chuckled. They didn't know about my escape.
I heard them walk away and I followed them until I reached a grate through which I saw the source of the unknown voice. It was the detective guy from the hospital, so that whole investigation was fake. They really are plotting something, and I have no idea what it is.
The detective's real name was Vladislav Kilov, but the other bad guys just called him Vlad. Their Russian nationality suggested that they are members of the Perseids.
I followed Vlad and Bruise for a bit, until I suddenly bumped into someone's head. It was Arika.
- Hi! - she said.
- Uh... hi? - I replied quickly.
- I was on my way to your cell to free you, but it seemed like that was unnecessary. I'll lead you to where I came from - she told me. She had to back away from me as I followed her. It was a bit weird, but ultimately, we made it the the exit. It was next to another cell, presumably Arika's.
- How did you get out? - I asked, getting up.
- The cells are controlled by holographic ID cards, so I just programmed a fake one and broke out. How about you? - she asked back.
- A friend from our previous mission helped me out - I was honest.
- Okay, you'll tell me more about them later. For now, we need to hide - Arika went into a room and I followed her. She used her fake ID to get into what turned out to be the security room.
- I have a few things to tell you - I started.
- Than tell me.
- Firstly, our enemies are plotting something besides killing us. One of them interrogated me and asked me about this plot, but I know nothing about it, so I made up a fake. He knocked over my chair and left. Secondly, the detective who was investigating the AI supervisor's dissapearence was a fake and he works with the bad guys - I debriefed her on my interrogation.
- I went through a similar process in my cell, but wow. I did not suspect the detective guy - Arika replied, processing the news - Before you ask me, no, I don't know anything about their scheme.
- That's fine. Do you know where Claudius, Sebastian and Amber are? - I continued asking.
- The only thing I know is that they're not in here, because I checked the other cells through their cameras. Anyhow, I have an escape plan, so listen up...
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.