Titan Origins

Part I

 

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Chapter 1
 

"Prisoner B-329 step forward and put your hands behind your back." The warden was a big fellow, you didn't want to mess with him. How did I end up here I thought to myself. I couldn't keep a job so I joined the imperial military. But I still wasn't satisfied. In times of peace the military really doesn't pay well. I was too greedy, I wanted more. There are always ways to get more, illegal ways in my case. The warden escorted me to my cell or as he called it: "Your very own sardine can" He made it sound so nice...

 

Several days passed, I had a private cell so I had no one to talk to, I felt like I was going crazy. Eventually I was allowed to go outside for an hour a day. Of course there was no outside, I was on a station. Everything here was artificial, including the sun which was really just a big bright light. But I had never been so happy before. After days of solitary confinement it felt good to walk amongst people again. "Hey new guy!" it sounded. A big man walked up to me, as he got closer I noticed that the other inmates stepped out of his way. I figured that this man had to be the one calling the shots around cell block B. "Listen very carefully," he said "you are either with me or against me. In this prison it is mandatory that us, inmates, stick together. The warden doesn't care about us and neither do his guards. So you'll follow me, cause I can't have some new guy stirring up trouble and provoking the guards because then all of us will suffer." I explained to him that I only wished to enjoy the 'fresh' air and the company of others. He seemed satisfied with my reply. "Call me Garret" the big man said. "What do we call you, cause new guy probably won't be available much longer." I replied: "Hudson, I'm Derrick Hudson."

 

About a month passed and me and Garret had become friends. In this month I had also started to notice some strange things. Every couple of days a strange woman walked around the prison block. After she left there was usually someone missing. Almost Every time an inmate disappeared. The other inmates know it but they don't talk about it. When I asked one of the guards about it I received a beating and was told to mind my own business and that it was impossible for inmates to just disappear. I realized that my current approach wasn't going to be successful, so I decided to confront Garret with it the next day.

 

"Derrick! How's it going?" Garret asked with a big smile on his face. "Never better," I replied jokingly, "Listen, last night another inmate disappeared. I've noticed that this seems to happen quite often but no one talks about it." The smile on Garret's face disappeared. I realized that I could not have been more direct. Garret stood up and took me a few steps away from the others. He said: "We all know but if we open our mouths the guards respond with force, so we keep quiet and pretend everything is fine. Some advice, Derrick, when the woman comes back be sure not to attract her attention."
"They can't do this" I replied.
"Yes they can! They can because no one actually gives a shit if something happens to us. This is an independent prison, meaning that neither the Empire nor the Consortium can help us even if they wanted to. We are stuck here in this hellhole and there is no one to save us, so please Derrick just take my advice and lay low. The last thing you want to do is attract attention to yourself."

Before I could counter his words, our conversation was interrupted by a young lad.
"Garret, you won't believe what just happened to Mason! The guards came out of nowhere and just started beating him."
"Well he probably just attracted to much attention." Garret said, while looking me straight in the eyes.
"Derrick I'd like you to meet my little brother, James." I greeted James politely and then the conversation returned to its previous chit chat.

 

A few more weeks past and a few more inmates disappeared. I started watching the inmates closer and got to know them better. And then one day I realized something. The mysterious woman does not choose the ones that attract attention. She chooses based on skill sets. Everyone she picked was skilled at something. Her last victim was an engineer. Before he went to prison he was building ships for the imperial navy. Even in prison he came up with the most crazy inventions. The one before him had a great tactical mind, he beat everyone in chess. Another was skilled in martial arts and as soon as the guards noticed this the mysterious woman appeared and the inmate disappeared.
Based on this information I started predicting the next victim. I watched the other inmates closely to see which ones were skilled at something. Eventually I narrowed it down to three possible victims. The first was a doctor, Amelia Burton. She had worked at one of the best hospitals in the galaxy and recently started helping out in the prison's sickbay. The second was Evan, a negotiator. Every time a fight was about to break out he stepped in and talked the brawlers out of fighting. He once managed to get the brawlers to hug it out. Lastly a mathematical genius called Gail. Gail was special. He didn't talk much and was always calculating. Everybody liked him but he didn't seem to care about that, he was always calculating stuff. I narrowed it down to these three but I couldn't decide which one would be the next victim so I decided to talk to Garret again.
As soon as I opened my mouth about anything related to the mysterious woman Garret would tell me to shut up. Fortunately, on one of these occasions Garrets little brother, James, overheard us talking. James approached me and made it clear that he wanted to help me. He was young and ambitious, he wanted adventure most of all. With James being the only one even willing to talk about the mysterious woman, I decided to team up with him.

 

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Chapter 2

 

"So doctor Amelia, negotiator Evan or human calculator Gail... Well I don't think it's going to be Gail." James said. "I don't think that the guards even know he's a human calculator, you really have to pay attention to notice it, the guards rarely pay attention." There was truth in James' words, so we ruled out Gail. We decided that James would go find out more about Evan, while I went to talk to Amelia.
 

The easiest way to get to her was to end up in sickbay. I complained about chest pains to one of the guards and he took me to the doctor.
"Got another one for you doc", the guard said, "Prisoner B-329."
I greeted her, she asked for my name.
"Derrick Hudson" I answered.
"Well Derrick Hudson what's wrong?" She asked while she started her examination.
I quickly made up a story about my 'chest pains' but as soon as the guard stepped outside I explained why I was really here.
"Listen, the guard is right outside. We don't talk about the disappearances here."
"But I suspect that you will be next. The woman picks her victims based on skill sets. Right now you have one of the biggest skill sets among the inmates."
"Nonsense" she replied looking a bit shocked.
" There's not much time. Her last visit was 5 days ago, she'll return soon. Please tell me more about yourself so I can be sure that I'm not mistaken."
"If this is your way of flirting mister Hudson I can ensure you that it is not working. Now I'd like you to leave my clinic!"
As she waved her arms at me I noticed some scars. I asked her about it.
"I got them in battle"
"you were an army doctor?"
"Yes, now leave!"
 

I had over stayed my welcome but I knew enough, she would be the next victim.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. On my way back to my cell I saw the mysterious woman. There was nothing I could do for the doctor. The next day my fears became reality, doctor Amelia Burton had disappeared. I went looking for James but couldn't find him. Then all of sudden I saw Garret running towards me. He hit me a couple of times and yelled that is was my fault.

Once I had calmed him down he told me that the mysterious woman had taken James as well. Garret saw him getting dragged away. We talked for a very long time and came up with a plan. It was going to be very difficult but it had to be done, it was time. If we were going to save James, we would need to break out.

 

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Chapter 3

We had a plan, it wasn't exactly watertight but it was the best we could come up with. One of Garret's friends helped us design the plan. Raymond Locke had been in this prison longer than anyone else and knew all of its secrets. We had to do it soon to have any chance of rescuing James. The following day when all B-block Prisoners were in the garden we took our chances and decided to do it.

 

I was in position, the waiting was unbearable.

Through the garden ran an artificial river. The entry point of the river was protected by a force field. Garret was to sneak out and get to the armoury. Once there he would place a bomb, which he manufactured himself out of pretty much nothing, on B-block's power generator right next to it. It was only lightly guarded cause no one would expect that anyone could actually build a bomb to take it out. Once the power generator was down Garret would transport as many weapons as he could to the garden using the river. Locke had mustered a handful of brawlers to cover me while I convinced the inmates to pick up arms and follow me to freedom.

 

As I said, the waiting for that bomb to go off was truly awful. I looked around the garden and all I saw was pain and despair. They had all accepted their fate. How was I going to convince them to help me? Then the bomb went off. This was it. I rushed to the centre of the garden and addressed the inmates. The guards were taken by surprise, they didn't know what was happening. Locke's brawlers did their job well. They quickly got behind the guards and took them out.

"My friends! The road to freedom is open! The blast you just heard was a bomb that took out the power generator. Soon weapons will flow down the river and give us the opportunity to fight the warden and his guards."

 

I looked to my left towards the river's entry point and I noticed that the force field was still up. Could it have gone wrong? Did Garret misplace the bomb? Was the force field connected to a different power source? I looked towards Locke hoping for answers but in his eyes I could see that he had many questions himself.

Most inmates went back to what they were doing before the blast. Some kept their eyes on me hoping that my words were true.

 

Then it happened! The force field went down. I felt so much relief.

"Look towards the river's entry point and see for yourself! My words are true! I know that many of you have given up. I know that this prison is a living hell. Strange things have been happening here. You refuse to see it but deep down you all know that those who disappeared weren't released... It is time to rise."

 

I heard a loud rumbling noise and realized Garret had done it. A large amount of weapons came through the hole in the wall on an improvised boat. I now had to get the full attention of all the inmates, who looked surprised and were stunned by what was happening.

"Rise! Take up arms and fight! Together we can secure our freedom. Who wants to be free again?"

My speech was answered by a loud cheer. The inmates armed themselves. It was just in time, more guards had now arrived. A brief firefight took place.

 

"Derrick you actually did it." Said Garret who had just returned.
"Yes, but this is just the beginning." I replied.
I knew that we had a tough fight ahead.

 

The next step was to take over the control room. From this point the five cellblocks were managed. From here we could free the other four blocks. I knew that we would have need of the extra manpower if we were to take the docking bay.
We fought our way to the control room faster than we initially expected. We met less resistance because the other blocks were causing trouble as well, the guards were spread thin.
Once in the control room we suffered a setback. The warden had shut down the systems meaning that we could not free the other blocks. Garret went berserk. He knew as well as I did that our chances of taking the docking bay were close to none without the other cell blocks.

After Garret had cooled down we decided to try to take the docking bay anyway. After all, after what we just pulled off, there was no turning back.
 

Locke overheard us talking. "Go," he said as he looked through the window and saw more guard approaching.
"I'll make sure they won't bother you. The hallway leading to the docking bay is narrow. Just give me some ammunition and I'll buy you time."
"No, you have as much right as we have to get out of here." Garret said.
"I have been here longer than anyone else. I have always known that I was going to die here. Just go, nobody is waiting for me on the outside."
"Thank you Locke, it's been a pleasure working with you." I said.

 

We left Locke behind with a few others that volunteered to cover our backs. We continued towards the docking bay with a few dozen men and woman remaining.
If we had only known what was waiting for us at the time...

 

We arrived at the docking bay's door. When we opened it more than half of us were gunned down. The guards had set up a machine gun behind the door, waiting for us to open it. We fell back into the hallway. We started taking fire from the front and back, which meant Locke had fallen. We had no choice but to surrender. The guards swept in quick and used force to knock us down onto the ground. It was bloody. All I heard was screams. When I fell to the ground I stared into the lifeless eyes of Garret before I lost consciousness.

 

Chapter 4

When I woke up I was strapped to a chair. I was in pain. My ribs were hurting and I was sure my arm was broken. I was one of the few that survived. What followed was intense torture. The warden yelled at me: "You dare to escape, to undermine my authority?!" I was unable to reply. The warden broke my fingers one by one. Every time I passed out he gave me an adrenaline shot to wake me up again. The torture continued for what felt like eternity. Until I heard a woman shouting.

 

"Stop!"
"How dare you march in here and give me orders!" The warden shouted.
"We had a deal Morpheus! I get to pick anyone I want and you deliver them to me UNHARMED. Or do I need to reveal your terror reign to the galaxy?"
"Curse you woman. If you want this troublemaker so bad than be my guest and take him away."
The warden left the room an slammed the door behind him.

 

My eyes were a bit blurry but I was pretty sure that the mysterious woman, responsible for the disappearances, was standing right in front of me.
 

"Hi there, Derrick. My name is doctor Lacey Cole. I've been watching you closely as you led your fellow inmates to freedom. I am truly sorry for your failure. But if it's any consolation I highly admire the way you rallied the prisoners against the guards, it takes a lot of guts to do something like that."

 

She talked to me like I was a two-year-old.
I tried to talk but I only managed to mumble a bit.

 

"I'd like to make you an offer, Derrick. I am a scientist and I could use your help with one of my tests. So what do you say? Would you like to stay here and be tortured by the warden or do you want to help me achieve a scientific breakthrough? Uhm.. just nod your head if you want me to get you out of here."

 

I nodded.

 

Not because I wanted to get as far away from this prison as possible, although that did play a role, but because I promised Garret to find his little brother.

 

Doctor Cole gave me a sedative. My eyelids became heavier and I slowly went to sleep...