Look Down (open)

[Velok the Younger]

Hellgotha. Worst name ever.

Way back in the Dark Ages, some social engineering eggheads made a prison colony with no rules, just to see what would happen. The messed up bit was the generation thing. Near everyone here was born here. There's heavy weapons between the prison caves and the surface, and guards that don't mind shredding anything that moves. Sometimes the guards throw in new blood with the food. They last just about as long.

I can see the wall-marks in my mind's eye, groups of five like people make to mark time. I've never made them; I don't need them. I don't forget much. I've been here five thousand, seven hundred and twelve days, not counting the days I spent outside the first couple of times I made it out.

There's a platform coming down, repulsorpad with an octet of armed guards, and I join the crowd. The platform stops about twenty feet above the cave floor and the guards start tossing out food and a couple bodies. New arrivals, maybe, or people that tried to make it to the surface. I'm fething hungry.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

You hear the stories. Hellgotha: prisoners world, place where scientist run rampant and do all sorts of crazed schet. Never thought I would find myself in this cesspit, never considered what I would do if I got thrown in the middle of it all. I stepped out of the transporter, got immediately hit by the stench of the place, mud mixed with blood and sweat, it smelled of despair.

That and plain fecking misery. Didn’t like it, I stumbled, tried to regain balance and failed landing on my knees. One of the guards barked at me and I looked up, wanted to do punch him in the throat. He didn’t like that look and repaid it by a baton to the face, broke my nose, blood everywhere. Good start, I kept silent, didn’t cry out - law of the Jungle, appear weak and you get eaten.

I endured and eventually it paid off. Got pulled up and pushed into the masses, bodies crowded around me, looking, staring… they wanted a piece. Felt it, felt the hunger and the consideration.

When that hulking mass of muscle and scars stopped in front of me and grunted, I knew what time it was. Break the new guy and assert further dominance.

I just looked up, stared and waited.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

I know what I smell, and I'm not talking about emotion or sewage. The new one's got the spark.

More than that, he expects a fight. Sees me coming. He's waiting for it, but I'm not sure he wants it. Here's what I try to do, because nobody succeeds at anything anymore. I'm aiming to grab the guy, give him a shove to the side, and move past him. See, he's prepping for a fight and all, but what matters is the food behind him. There'd already be a dogpile if everyone else didn't think the same thing he thinks: that I'm aiming to wreck him.

Am I going to wreck him? I'll think about it.

 

[Arage Bao]

Breath rushed in, death became spark. I blinked and time slowed down.

Forty-five degree turn hip, foot planted in the soil; extra purchase in traction. Distance and time settled me back, fist lashed out and I cheated. Breath lived and increased the energy as it hit the ninth rib from above. False rib, weak, breakable. Bone punctured living organ behind it, man fell to his knees, slow death - agony.

Blinked again and [member="Seren Ordavo"] pushed me aside, moment came and went. I moved with the shove, retaining balance and moving my way past him. Momentum left the crowd, flight or fight settled in and the grumbles were audible. They went for the food, left me to my own.

The magnetic clamps of my wrist bracelets disengaged, offering my hands freedom of movement, I moved my way forward. Ignoring the stares, found myself in the courtyard.

Finally managed to catch a breath, shove a man around, break him, put him in a cage and eventually he changes. Turns into something less than he was, an animal, but you always have the choice.

I didn’t want to fight and wouldn’t, unless pressed.

Man’s gotta have values, even a broken man.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

Take enough food for three men, and three men'll jump you. Jump me, even. I'm not hurt, life's as good as it gets right about now, so I take what my pockets can fit, and the inevitable never arrives. Well, I say never. Someone'll always come for me, tomorrow or the next day or in ten seconds. No point in delaying it.

I find the new blood in the next cave over. We're about three klicks underground. No place like home.

"You've got the spark." I take a bite from one of the ration bars. There's waste reprocessors in the deeper caves, machines that make food out of sewage and bodies. It's not bad, but I like my bars when I can get them. "How much?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

By then the breath had already left me, dead to the world and invisible within the beat of life. Was becoming increasingly easier to let it go and grab it. Went from thirty to ten heartbeats, feel like I can do better than that though. I was simply looking around, trying to get my bearings - the place was dirty, grim, pain and blood had seeped into the ground and influenced all around.

I could almost see the fault lines running through the caverns, turfs owned by different factions, invisible lines keeping the gangs separated from each other to a degree. Take a wrong step, get cut down, is the way it is.

‘Enough to get by.’ Michael Sardun, Battlemaster of the Order. Nui Akona, Hound of the Goddess. Fierce names, names of power, but they mean nothing here. Neither does the spark as he calls it, some would have been able to get out of here with it. I ain’t a God, even with all the breath in the world I wouldn’t be able to punch through. Need a plan, a tactic, more information on the inner-workings.

I would have to start working again.

‘You?’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Enough that I'm not dead yet. High Inquisitor Seren Ordavo. Welcome to Hellgotha."

It's been more than a decade since I used that title. Hellgotha gets Forcers, but most of them are homegrown. 'Inquisitor' means nothing here. Then again, I've got no fething clue whether it means anything to an outsider these days. The Dark Age ended and I missed it. Who knows what the 'verse looks like now.

I don't feel like leaving my nook unguarded for too long, so I head down through a fissure. If the new blood follows, he follows. If he doesn't, maybe he'll catch up later. And maybe I've seen the last of him; Hellgotha has seven billion people who'd gladly chuck his body into a mulcher for food.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Two choices, follow or try and find my own way. A man has to realize his own limitations, this one was mine, I had no clue how this place was run. What the safe zones were, how you got neutrality, who ran the gangs and how to avoid them. Questions, a lot of them.

I could smell the stench of violence on Ordavo, a familiar scent, once I would have find it repulsive. Tried to ignore it and him, try do things my own way. I ain’t that man anymore, Sardun the High General was dead, didn’t feel like Akona was alive either.

So I followed the old blood, might be it is some kind of trap and I will get killed. Maybe I will catch a break, who knew these days.

‘Thanks.’ I kept on the look out for trouble, trying to wipe away some of the blood seeping to my mouth. Nose was still broken, clean though, and that made things easier. Ten heartbeats and the breath returned to me, with a grunt I set the break and felt the flow strengthen the bone.

Would need some time to heal and it hurt like a fether too.

‘Sardun.’ the name brought flashes from the past, the name meant nothing, not here at least, not with these people and that made it safe.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

I manage a grunt. Might be acknowledgement, might be the effort of going hand-over-hand down a rock face. Generations of convicts have worn out handholds, then worn them down, then chiseled new ones. Wash, rinse, repeat.

My nook is halfway down the crevasse, one of a dozen in this rock face. It takes something special to get in without falling another twenty metres onto broken rock. Not the most convenient thing if I need to limp back, and I still have to sleep with my eyes open, but there's room to stretch out, and it's dry. I've got a blanket that used to be human waste and flesh before the processor spit it out, just like the clothes we all wear and the food we all eat and the water we all drink. That blanket's just about all I've got to my name, apart from the shivs, my cup, my bowl, and a chunk of good coarse rock I use for a whetstone. I stash the ration bars in the back corner and sit down, back against the wall where I can see both him and the entrance. If he sits, that's his business.

"What flavor? Sith? Jedi? Nadd? Krath?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

“Was a Jedi once.” I leaned against the wall, pondering, wondering. Finally grabbed for the bag on my bag, didn’t keep my eyes off the man though, didn’t stop extending my feelers towards the entrance. Ain’t much in the bag, razor, some rations, couple of others ins and outs.

Real power wasn’t in the bag, real power came from the biots. Didn’t need no shiv with claws being able to extend themselves from my fists, cheap in a lot of ways, but effective.

Wasn’t planning on using it. Easiest way to get a trip up to the moon and get fethed-up scientist poking around.

Took one of the ration bars out, started chewing down. “Long time since then.”

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Down here, just about anyone with the spark is homegrown animal. Take the anger and frustration of someone born here, plug that into the Force, and you get about what you'd expect. No discipline, all mess. Sith Marauder's the word, even if none of these people have ever learned Sith skills. But we do just fine without them."

I shrug. "No lightsabres, either. Bad choice of weapon for a place like this anyway -- accidental cave-ins, plenty of noise, light carries for a long way. Same reason you won't catch me tossing pyrotechnics around, and if you're the sort to do lightning, fire, Force pushes, Sith powerblast dren, I'd put it away if I were you. I like my neighbourhood quiet and I like my ceiling solid."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

No lightsabers, no flashy booms. Just the way I liked it. Kids these days loved their storms, their magicka-fueled death fields, all that crap only made me wish for a simpler time, when peeps weren’t tryin-- who am I kidding here, that shet has been around for every generation even before the Gulag probably.

“I am just passing through.” wasn’t planning on staying here for very long, a few months at worst if the security proved to be tight enough. But spending the rest of my life in some cesspit with rapists, thugs and thieves didn’t really attract me.

That being said, rules had to be followed and he had just spelled them out. “But I will keep it in mind.”

Inmates were usually dropped with some fresh rations, for the guard’s pleasure, of course. Watching them be ripped to shreds by the oldies was a favorite pastime, I took out a thing, shiny circular object, smelled good, tasted better.

An apple.

Threw it to the hulk. “I will see ya around.” and then started towards the entrance to try and find myself a quiet spot.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Aren't we all."

I catch the apple and make a knife appear from somewhere. Glad he's going -- I can respect someone who makes his own place, and I hate hangers-on. Once he's gone I eat the apple slice by slice, then the core last.

***​

​

Next time I see the new guy, it's a couple days later. I've been on Hellgotha for five thousand, seven hundred fourteen days. It's not me seeking him out; either he's looking for me, or we've just run into each other.

"So you're still alive."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

There ain’t no coincidences in the world, that’s what I have been taught during my time in the Order. I hadn’t looked for him and there he was, meant something, at least it would have to Sardun. To me? He was just another face, one slightly less prone to try and cave my face in at the first opportunity.

Took me a while to get settled, which meant that it took me a while before people recognized the threat. Second time one of my botherers got found with their throat ripped off… people started to ease off. Was the only thing I wanted, peace, bit of silence and maybe a dry spot for the night.

“So are you.” took another bite from a bar. One thing you learn here, never pass up a meal.

Gotta keep your strength up somehow.
We were in one of the inner courtyards of the cavern, hadn’t been so big at the start, but when men band together and work on something they can accomplish things, things they wouldn’t be able to do alone.

Was a thought to ponder on.

“Escape attempts?”

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"I've broken out a time or two, yeah. Takes some doing."

There's a new one in the works, a tunnel, but I don't share my plans unless I think he's more likely to contribute than to screw it up or try to play me. This one might be useful, but I just met him.

"You got anything in mind? See anything new up top?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Edge of the eye, saw a couple of stragglers giving me the eye. Gassers. They didn’t fancy me ever since I dipped one of theirs into one of the ‘bubble baths’ you could find in the deeper chasms.

‘Nothing solid yet.’ getting out wasn’t the hard part, getting off the planet was. The planet’s only purpose was keeping us in, there ain’t no settlements, no colonies or smugglers’ coves around. Transportation was the name of the game and the guards had it locked down good, took a few looks, earned me a few bloody noses, but eventually I got the general gist.

New inmates, the sparse allocation of resources, shifts in the guard-population. Those were the times one could easily (relatively speaking) get their hands on a ticket off planet.

‘Been dodging gassers.’ Gassers were one of the more fethed-up gangs of the club. Lived deeper within the cavern systems - name came from the gas geysers littered around their homes.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

"Dren."

Doesn't help me much, not if we've been seen talking. My tunnel's not too close to Gasser territory, but it's not too far either. Their warrens have the best reprocessors for a long way around, and there's a couple women down there that aren't particular. If I'm thinking about reading Sardun in on my next way out -- maybe i am, we'll see -- him screwing around with Gasser pride isn't a point in his favour. Nothing I can't handle, though.

"I heard a rumble from down that way. You been tossing the spark around, Sardun? Remember what I told you about caves. No room in here to get concussive with the Force."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

It hadn’t been the breath that took their lives, as said before… biots were a thing of beauty once you were used to the pain of summoning some of them. My breath wasn’t loud, all the same the risk of trying to use it while they were already at a disadvantage? Postering and I didn’t appreciate that one bit.

‘No spark, Ordavo. Promise is a promise.’

Could hear anger, vibration, they were pissed. Would have been pissed too if my ass had been kicked twice while trying to bully my way to more respect. I could see them coming from my peripheral vision, wouldn’t be pretty, not pretty at all.

‘Best if ya get some distance, could get ugly soon.’

I was more comfortable here now than I had been a few days ago, knew a bit of the lay of the land. Wasn’t entirely cornered anymore, so I kept my relaxed posture and simply waited for them to make the first move.

Only rule I got, wait for them to start the fight. Once that happens? All rules are off.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nui Akona"]

He's holding back like he's waiting for them to start it, and I've got no such rule. But I'm in no hurry, no more than I'm leaving. I just don't care about moving.

"This schutta with you, Ordavo?" That's a Gasser team boss, name of Karsh. Big man, likes to play the big man. His claim to fame is a knife he ground out of half a greave, one he ripped off a guard. It's a really bad knife -- balance all off, asymmetric blade, just terrible. He's holding it like he means business.

"Nice knife."

"He with you or not?"

"Why? You looking for a piece on the side, Karsh? Not sure I'm your type."

The knife twitches up until he thinks better of it, but the twitch is all I need. My hand closes around the back of the blade and I twist, just right. The handle pops out of his grip. I spin the knife up, catch the handle, and chuck it. Throwing knives aren't my style, but there's not a lot of point in telekinesis unless you can make a knife, any knife, hit point-first. It hits point-first.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Seren Ordavo"]

Three guys. Karsh, two pups trundling along with ‘im. I don’t question Seren’s decision to help me out, swim or sink the usual motto goes and I ain’t much of a sinker. Eight inches, that’s around the length my claws can extend themselves, whiplike and all, but that would only get me attention I don’t need.

Learned early on that it’s all about control. Refinement if you will. I breathed in, time slowed and I moved, silently. As I reappear in front of the right pup his eyes widen, white shows, panic. Wanted to cut ‘im some slack, but he had his chance.

Right fist lashed out, aimed at the throat. One second before impact I contracted a muscle, fist met throat, throat met claw and penetrated flesh. Gurgle was all I needed to hear, I pushed him aside and my left hand drew my spare shiv.

Shouldn’t have bothered, second pup was already running.

Could throw it at him, but I would probably miss. ‘sides, can’t keep this secret… not with all those eyes on us. I made the shiv disappear and looked at Ordavo, scratching the beard, pondering my next step.