Jack stood there nervously, as the door cycled, he noticed the dust in the air. It was thick; if his helmet wasn't on, it would surely make him choke. Jack took a deep breath and went through the doorway once the doors had opened. He stumbled over a dead body. Jack froze at the sight of it. A prisoner who was behind him put a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, man, those thugs are back at it. Watch your back." Jack turned around as the guy left. This is a lot more stressful now. I need to find them fast. The first hurdle Jack had to face was which path to take. They could be down one of the three tunnels. After deciding on the first path, Jack had to adjust something tucked behind his backpack. Jack looked around and descended the stairs to the start of the tunnel.
As he went down the path, he passed a few inmates mining blue and pink ores on the wall. Jack heard a deep rumble behind him, loud enough to worry a veteran miner. Jack turned around and pushed one of the inmates away from the rock while simultaneously diving for cover. Once the rock had exploded, he looked over at the guy. He looked very young, probably late teens. Before leaving, he handed back the multi-tool the kid had been using. "So, hey, next time. Make sure the green bar doesn't bleed into the red. That's where the rock starts overcharging." The kid seemed sincere and rather timid. A thought flashed across Jack's mind, but he quickly dismissed it. When he turned to leave, he saw a group of three walking towards the exit. As they passed, one of the trio caught eyes with Jack. He was a grizzled man with a scar above his right eye. Jack probably shouldn't have stared as long as he had, but he realized his mistake, looked away, and continued down the path.
As Jack walked down the path, he felt a sense of unease. He went through the multiple large openings along the path and looked through the tunnels, trying to find a single familiar face. After a while, people's faces started blending together; he needed a break. He decided sitting down on a rock to catch a breather was a good call. His breath started to feel heavy. After opening up the health tab in his mobiGlas, he discovered his oxygen tank was getting low. After looking up, he saw an oxygen dispenser, which is what the prisoners who were down here for longer periods of time would use to top off their tanks. Jack grabbed a retractable hose from his pack and connected the transfill adapter to the machine.
While standing as the machine filled his tank, he realized that the trio of men he had seen earlier were in the same open area as him. They seemed to be looking for something or someone. A little beep from the machine caught Jack's attention back to what he was doing. He looked down to disconnect the hose. Afterwards, he looked up as one of the men grabbed him by the neck and pinned him to the wall. The man pulled out a shiv with blood on it, and he thrusted it forward towards Jack's abdomen. Without thinking, he managed to escape the man's grasp and dive to the ground. One of the other men kicked his gut, sending him flying. Since Klescher was located on Aberdeen, a low-gravity moon surrounding Hurston, this feat was possible. The kick didn't hurt as much as Jack expected, but the rocks he landed on did hurt. He heard metal clink on the ground next to him. Jack's eyes widened as he whipped his head to the side, and he grabbed what fell out from behind his pack. Turning his head back to the trio, he saw the trio making their way towards him, the man with the shiv being closer to him than the others. He had smuggled in an LH86, an automatic pistol made by Gemini. Jack raised his weapon and fired; it was hard to tell how many shots were fired. This was due to the massive blast and rubble falling from the ceiling.
The other two men looked around, then at each other, and down towards their dying comrade, then they bolted like scared cats. Jack lay there on the ground, frozen, still in the same pose after firing. He looked at the bloodied man crawling on the ground towards him, using the shiv as an anchoring mechanism to drag himself. He went to stab Jack's foot, which he avoided. That must have been the last bit of strength the man had; he lay there motionless. Jack's heart started to race, and his blood felt cold. "What did I… just do?"
Another explosion, this one sounded closer. Finally, when the third one hit, Jack snapped to. He picked himself up and put the pistol at his side, then ran towards the entrances of the mines. He wasn't used to running in low gravity, so his turns ended up with him slamming into a few walls. A fourth explosion shook the ground and knocked Jack to the ground. Rocks fell from the ceiling and covered him in dirt. Someone helped bring Jack to his feet, and he looked up at the person helping him. It was Landon. They both stood up, "Wait, Jack?! How did you get here?""I know my way around," Jack responded with a sly grin,Amos turned the corner promptly, followed by Mr. Grims, "Yo, Landon, we need to get out of here. Something is going on!" As they rushed down the corridors, Jack tried to explain how he got there and told them how he came to break them out and run. They exited the First pathway and ran up the stairs to leave the mines. Once they got to the main area, the guys led Jack to the rest of the group. He quickly explained that he has a way to get them out, and they should follow him.
The entire main area was in a frenzy. Jack jumped on a lunch table to get a better view of the area. While up there, he saw Jaxon, who waved at him. He seemed to have found his family and Fiddlestick's family as well. The two groups met up and went towards the vent system. Luckily, Jaxon had put a blockage to stop the fan from restarting. Almost everyone had gone through the vent's entrance when the fifth explosion went off at the entrance of the prison wing. Jack, who was the last person who was going to exit, looked to see what the commotion was. The door to the entrance was lying on the ground in a crescent moon shape with scorch marks. A crew of men walked through, clad in all black, some with graffiti on their armor. However, one seemed special, his armor was littered with graffiti, and his helmet was pure black with a Joker like grin painted across the face. Two men carried in a guard and threw him onto the ground. Jack couldn't make out what he was saying, but it sounded like he was pleading for his life.
"TESTING! Oop, sorry that was a tad loud." Joker chuckled; it seemed Joker had taken over the communication system. "Alright, sir, will you throw your badge aside and join Glitch? We have a variety of amazing benefits, even dental! The guard paused and shook his head no. "Sir, so you are declining our gracious proposal?" The man shook his head yes. "A man of principle and honor, I like that!" BANG! Joker took out a coda pistol and executed the guard. The sound of the shot reverberated through the main chamber. Everyone was silent, "Well? Who is next up for the interview?" He turned around to look through the entrance that they had just come through. Jack could barely make out a few corpses of other guards. "Seems like your previous 'employers' are no longer in need of your services."
Someone yanked Jack through the vent just before it spun back up to life. He looked over to see it was Jaxon, "Dude, we need to go now! I don't know what's happening out there, but this is our best chance to escape without being chased. Jack agreed that with this Glitch squad breaking in, all the focus would be on the entrance of the prison, and not the areas where they would be exiting.
The group quickly rushed through the labyrinth to escape, with Jaxon in the front and Jack in the back. They could help each person along till the end. When they got to the surface, a flurry of ships was battling above them. The security forces for Klescher were desperately trying to defend against the invaders, and they were losing. They loaded everyone up into the Ursa; it was tight, but they made sure the ladies and kids were in the seats when the guys lay on the floor. Jaxon got in the driver's seat and started off to where they had left the Valkyrie. Jack stood in the back holding onto a pipe to steady himself on the bumpy ride.
"Hello everyone, for those who don't know me, my name is Jack Thorne. It's nice to meet Jaxon and Fiddlestick's families; I really hoped it would be under better circumstances. So essentially, guys, what is going to happen is we are going to drive this vehicle back to a meeting spot to link up with Fiddlesticks, who is in a drop ship called the Valkyrie."
"YO Jack, connected with Fiddlesticks, and he is en route, sounds like it might be a bit spicy,"
Jaxon yelled from the driver's cabin. Jack did a head count, and he was one short. "How did I not notice this sooner?" He recounted for good measure, "Hey guys?! Where is Greg?"
All of a sudden, a blast rocked the Ursa. Jack turned around and ran into the front cabin. "What's happening?" Jaxon pointed an MFD with a feed from the back camera. A mantis was chasing them down; it must have been a member of the security forces. Seeing this, Jack promptly hopped in the passenger seat and activated the remote turret on the top of the Ursa. As he lined up the targeting pip, Jack thought to himself. "Did we make the right call, or will our actions today get everyone killed?"