Atrocitus opened his eyes. There was no light with which to see but he could feel himself pressed against something. Feeling around himself he could tell he was in a tightly confined space.
Of course, he thought as the fog began to lift from his mind, the sleeping pod those idiot Green Lanterns put me in for the prisoner transfer. But then how am I awake? Those fools must be even more amateurish than I had suspected.
Atrocitus pulled back his powerful fists as far as he could and punched outward against what he perceived to be the seal of the sleeping pod. No effect. He punched again and the seal rattled. Growling, he pushed his hands and feet against the seal and was gratified to hear a popping sound. The seal had cracked enough for light to get in.
Atrocitus grinned. A final punch sent the seal flying outward and he tumbled out after it, falling disoriented onto the ground as the light blinded him. He continued to slide downward, striking something with his feet and tripping over it, causing him to continue to slide downward headfirst. He reached forward with his hands and managed to brake his fall against something. A ledge perhaps?
Atrocitus carefully shifted himself until his feet were positioned against what he thought to be a ledge. He felt about with his hands to try to get a sense for where he might be but quickly gave up in frustration. He would have to wait for his eyes to adjust to the light.
When they finally did, Atrocitus understood his disorientation. The interior of the ship was illuminated with white, lighted conduits that ran along the ceiling while green-hued lights mounted on the walls slowly cycled on and off. He could see now that he had slid down along one of the ship's walls, and, looking toward his left, he could see the dining table of the ship's mess hall. Meanwhile, his feet were braced against the base of a hatchway.
Looking downward, Atrocitus could see all the way to the cockpit. The single corridor seemed to run unbroken through the entire vessel.
A poor design, he thought to himself before continuing his trip down the length of the corridor toward the cockpit.
Three points quickly became apparent to Atrocitus. The first was that the ship must have crashed, due to the disorientation of gravity. The second was that his Green Lantern wardens were unaccounted for, due to his unopposed absence from his sleeping pod. Finally, it was clear that if he wanted his freedom from captivity to continue, he needed to ascertain his position and find out if the Green Lanterns were nearby.
Atrocitus lowered himself down to the bridge. Though it was dark in the world visible through the ship's forward viewport, he could still see a gaping precipice over which the ship loomed. He inspected the computers. None of them appeared to be powered. Atrocitus huffed with contempt at the Green Lantern's incompetence. Had one of his own minions failed so completely he would have seen them flayed alive.
Then he noticed a sealed compartment located under a bridge console and tore it open. He grinned with delight to see a red power ring inside. Cackling he seized it and thrust it onto his finger then howled with delight as he fed his rage into the ring. Flames engulfed him as his prison garb was replaced with the uniform of the Red Lanterns. Refusing to be caged within the dead ship any longer, Atrocitus surged into the air and out of the forward viewport to survey his surroundings.
Crumbling derelict buildings reached up into the sky, painted a cold blue in the dim light of an azure sun setting over the horizon. It was not a world Atrocitus recognized. He checked the power level on his ring.
"Thirty percent." He frowned. With no way of knowing how far it was to the next habitable planet, he could very well run out of power in the vacuum of space. That was unacceptable.
Then, Atrocitus felt a presence, a Red Lantern Battery nearby. He smirked and set off in pursuit of the battery, hoping to find it in the possession of one of the traitorous wretches who had abandoned him to the justice of the Green Lanterns.
A diminutive blue figure floating just above the planet's surface witnessed Atrocitus' exit from the crashed prison ship and his abrupt flight away from it. She smirked, knowing that he must have divined the direction of the Red Lantern Battery.
The beast of rage was a predictable creature, and easily manipulated. He would soon serve his purpose or die in the attempt. The diminutive figure was not worried. Even if the beast failed she would find another way to achieve her goals. Time and patience were assets she possessed in abundance.