Chapter Two, Chapter two, Komak Undan

"Where a wolf's ears are, the wolf's teeth are near."

Martin was left in his cell, alone, tired, beaten, and hungry. His "Bed" was nothing more than a metal platform in the left corner of the room. "At least it has a toilet," He thought to himself. The room was dark and didn't have any internal lighting. The only light came from the door's five-by-five-inch window and a small gap at the bottom. His body was in pain from what the torturer did to him. His abdomen was bruised and scarred; it sometimes became hard to breathe. Soon, a slot in the door opened up, and displayed in front of him was a small tube and some water illuminated by the light of the hallway. A four-eyed face peered in through the window in the door blocking his light. "Eat," it commanded before walking away.

He didn't know what to make of the tube, but that water looked refreshing. He quickly walked over to the door and grabbed the tube. He opened the packaging with his teeth, and inside contained a pinkish paste-like substance. He dipped his tongue into it to judge its taste. He quickly pulled his face away from it. "Tastes like pasty cardboard," he said out loud. He took a sip from the water and laid back down on his metal bed. After a while, his stomach began to ache from hunger, and once again, his eyes fixated on the tube. Martin stared at it for a while, contemplating whether or not to eat it or how to eat it without tasting it. He needed something; the longer he waited, the more he felt uneasy. He continued to weigh his options but began feeling weak and tired. His hands and feet began to tingle, and he generally felt unwell.

"Fuck it"

Martin rushed over as fast as his injuries let him to the tube and quickly sucked it down, following it up with the water. After getting it down, he began gagging and dry heaving. "What the..." he dry heaved again. "FUUUCK was that!" He breathed heavily, hoping the air would eliminate that foul taste. He then shoved his finger in his mouth and rubbed his tongue to taste something else. He sat back down on his bed, hunched over with his hands holding his head. "I've eaten some questionable MREs before, but fuck, that tops everything." He thought.

Some time had passed before the memory of the tube had faded. His stomach was surprisingly calm. He felt his energy returning to him. Strangely enough, he also felt the clearest he had ever been. Now that immediate survival was out of the way. His thoughts drifted to his general situation.

"Where am I?"

"Did I just get abducted by aliens?"

"What do I remember last?" Martin thought intensely. He remembered he was back home running as an outlaw of a kind but couldn't remember anything after that. He checked himself for the scars he had acquired in combat during the war. The scar running up his left arm from a glancing sniper round was still there. The entrance and exit scar just below his chest he had gotten when his kevlar vest shattered from repeated shots were still there. Martin was convinced he was himself and he wasn't dreaming.

He got off his bed, walked over to the window opening of his cell door, and tried to look out of it. He had hoped the architecture would give away his location. But as he looked around, he didn't see anything that could hint at where he may have been. Defeated, he walked back to his bed and decided to get some rest, maybe tomorrow or whenever he could get more answers.

Loud banging sounds shook Martin awake. The entire complex shook, with alarms blaring and emergency lights flashing. The sounds of a panicked voice over a loudspeaker blared. Off in the distance, what sounded like gunfire could be heard. Martin sprang up from his metal bed and listened to a loud clicking noise. He ran to the door as it swung open. He cautiously peeked his head out. The coast seemed clear. He began moving through the hallway. The other cells he bypassed were empty. He turned a corner to find one of the demons lying dead on the floor with what looked like a pistol in his hand. The demon's brain splattered across the wall. Without hesitation, he picked up the gun and headed further down the hall.

Every doorway or corner he came across he checked before crossing. His years of military training were put to good use. Eventually, he came across what looked like a small armory or a gear room. He looked around, trying to pry open some of the doors to these cheap lockers with a metal bar he found in the corner. *Snap* One of the lockers had broken open. He forced the door to lower. He found a green camouflage jumpsuit in some sort of air-tight packaging. He quickly opened it. He figured that these suits had to be warmer than what he was wearing. The name on the packaging read Armax IV; he promptly slipped into the one-piece suit. Martin looked back in the locker to find a box named "Polaris." He unraveled the packaging and found a bracelet. He looked around the packaging to see if this thing was worth his time and saw the "Omni tool." Not knowing what it was but hoping it would be helpful. He placed the bracelet on his left arm. As soon as he did, an orange glow emerged from his arm, creating a hologram around his arm with a keyboard and a flip-up screen that greeted him.

"Welcome; thank you for purchasing your new Polaris Omni tool. Please follow the instructions for the first time setup." Martin, now panicked at the gunfire growing closer to him, tried to shut the device up. He closed the holographic screen, and the orange hologram disappeared. At that second, a strange blue tint flashed around him. His suit felt a tad bit warmer, "temperature regulation?" Martin thought as gunfire grew louder. He grabbed what looked like a rifle, holstered the dead demon's pistol, and took off down the hallway.

As Martin began running down the hallway, the complex shook increasingly violent. He didn't know which way to go and randomly started heading down corridors. This only managed to take him back toward the large warehouse where he began. As he turned the corner, he was suddenly confronted with a rifle a foot from his head.

"Drop the weapon." The voice commanded.

Martin brought his eyes in contact with the voice. It was the neighbor from the pod.

"It's you..." He lowered his weapon.

"Oh, now you understand me?" She dropped her weapon as Martin looked at her. He wasn't an expert on whatever she was, but he could tell she wasn't in great shape.

"You alright?"

She looked forcefully into his eyes. "No, but we don't have much time."

"Yeah, I know, this place feels like it's gonna come down on our heads any moment now,"

She looked at him questioningly, "place? Were you dropped on your head? This is a ship! We are in space!"

Martin looked back at her, confused. "I guess I WAS abducted by aliens."

She then shoved him in the opposite direction. "We need to go this way!"

Martin followed her through the ship, going down several hallways and open rooms before they were confronted by armed guards.

His mind went blank; all of the previous thoughts of worry emptied his mind. He could feel his heart thump with excitement. Goosebumps began forming on his body, and heat began pulsing. Just the idea of this simple act of violence made him happy.

Martin raised his rifle to his shoulder, slightly hunched into the gun, and began firing short controlled bursts of accurate fire into the enemy. After every shot, a blue flash would be emitted from the weapon's barrel. Even though these weapons were different from what he was used to, they were familiar enough for his muscle memory to take over active thought. She took his left flank and fired her weapon, feeling the remaining.

"These Batarians are pushovers once you level the playing field." She walked past their corpses, proud of their work.

"Batarians?" Martin quietly murmured while breathing a bit on the heavy side. The two exited the room and found themselves on a walkway overlooking a wide compartment.

"Those don't look like prisoners." She peeked over the side of the railing, watching the Batarians fighting an unknown enemy.

"No, look at them; they are well organized,"

"Probably best to avoid this fight if we can." She tugged on her weapon before moving on.

They moved further down the walkway, keeping an eye on the fighting below, just in case they were seen.

They exited from their pathway to a corridor, "We need to find a shuttle bay; it's probably the only way to get out of here. "

Martin agreed, and they continued. They came to a door at the end of the hallway and stacked up on either side. Martin had his weapon ready and pointed towards the door. The hairs on the back of his neck now stand on their end. A different feeling began to take hold. Not so much excitement as heavy caution. He looked over at her; her back was against the wall as she dropped her arm off her rifle. She hovered it over the sizeable green hologram of a button for the door. He followed her hand as it moved in anticipation. He felt out of place in this situation. Does she know how to clear a room? Does she know how 'I' clear a room? She looked up at him and signaled she was ready. Martin matched her head nod, and she pressed into the hologram opening the door.

Martin shifted his focus; his years of training back home and numerous room clearings he had done during the war made this the perfect opportunity to show off the skills he had acquired, assuming she knew what she was doing. Martin led the charge darting into the right side of the room. It played like a cliché, his mind hyper-focused on the room. The tension forced his heart to beat like it was on stimulants.

Strangely things moved slower than usual. He had experienced "slow motion" many times before, but not quite like this... this was too much. He could hear his thoughts in real time, but everything slowed immensely. As soon as he entered, he acquired his first target and squeezed the trigger letting out a three-round burst to the upper chest, neck, and head in what seemed like delayed seconds. One trigger pull, bang. Bang. Bang, the recoil of each shot. He could feel every pulse as it rammed slowly but forcefully into his shoulder: then changed targets to the second; another three rounds: bang. Bang. Bang.

She entered behind Martin, taking up the left side of the room following Martin's example. The unsuspecting Batarians were quickly dispatched, and his mind returned to normal. After the targets were confirmed clear, Martin shook his head as if to shake the feeling of whatever he experienced. She moved towards the big windows and control panels in the front of the room. "Well, there's the hangar bay."

"Now we just need to get down there," Martin approached her from the right; she was quiet for a moment.

He was nervous; he didn't know how to operate one of these shuttles, "You do know how to fly one of those things, right?"

"You don't?" She replied while looking down at him slightly.

"No, I don't... I'm not from around here."

She shook her head and began heading for the doorway. They exited the room and ran down to the lower level where the hanger should be. Martin pied one of the corners to ensure the area was cleared before checking the opposite direction, then bumped into a Batarian from that opposite direction. Martin quickly turned his rifle to the Batarian.

Click.

The rifle didn't fire. Fuck! The Batarian reached for his sidearm as Martin tossed aside his rifle and lunged at the Batarian. No slow motion this time, just the rage of survival. He managed to grab the arm heading for the Batarians sidearm now out of his holster. The Batarian dodged Martin's punch from his hand only to get grazed by his elbow. He lost his footing, and the two ended up on the floor. Martin scrambled to upright himself, a little dizzy from the slight shock of the fall, and established dominance. He began raining down his fist into the face of the Batarian. Martin unleashed several blows, each harder than the last, before the bloodied Batarian lost consciousness. With his fist still clenched, he stopped to look upon the idiot who decided to walk about alone; its face now marinating in its own sauce. Martin stood back up, grabbed his rifle, and continued onward.

They entered the hangar and closed the access door behind them. "That should buy us some time," She raced to the first shuttle and opened the shuttle's door, and He watched at it opened upwards. They both climbed in, shutting it behind them.

She jumped in the front seat and started getting the machine running, typing on the holographic keyboard and switches frantically. The shuttle began humming to life, and a high-pitched whirring sound reverberated from every direction.

"How nice of them to write down the access code to the hanger doors. I should be able to open them from here... or this will be a short ride."

Martin, now standing in the middle section of the small shuttle and grabbed onto the overhead bars. "I prefer long rides, thank you."

The shuttle's engines ignited as they began to hover off the deck and turn towards the massive door that had just finished opening. The air inside the hangar was vented moments before. The shuttle began moving out of the hangar, and Martin saw the darkness through the window, although only partly.

The shuttle picked up speed, and she piloted the ship away from the Batarians. As they cleared the large ship, three other vessels could be seen attached to it.

"I wonder who they pissed off."

Martin turned to her with a dismissive tone. "I don't know and don't care."