Alright, so this new update is a bit big. I spent I think....four hours writing it? This of course being writing while distracted with music and other people talking to me; I don't know what it is, but I can never sit down to do ANYTHING, without having something else going on as well. Oh, well...I suppose that is just me. Anyway, since this update was huge and the next update is going to set a lot of stuff into motion; I might be taking a hiatus after next week. During that time, I would be possibly training myself to draw, taking care of school work and learning HTML so I could possibly upload some little animations and shit like that. Any guys, thanks for reading, I wouldn't be anything without you.
What exactly could Nathan do in this situation? As the snow storm started to rage around him, the former janitor could only stare at the beast in front of him; rubbing his hands together for warmth all Nathan could do was slowly nod his head. Shivering desperately, the Captain could feel himself starting to freeze before his feet went out from underneath him. “What the hell?” He managed to say out-loud before the rush of air around him alerted to him to the fact he was now falling. Nathan’s immediate shock and surprise to this fact was ended as he collided with the permafrost beneath him, sending a wave of powder flying up into the air. Head and back repeatedly slamming against the surface as he began to roll rapidly down the slope, Nathan could do little but groan as he stared up at the Vorshilder now sitting in the spot he once head. “Son of a bitch….” He thought to himself, but realized the statement was too accurate to be considered and insult and grumbled trying to think of something to use against it. At least, he would have been if he wasn’t in mind numbing pain from smacking into the ice so many times.
Rolling to a halt at the bottom of the ridge, he was thankful the ride was over. Grunting and groaning in minor agony as he heard the sounds of rushing boots crunching in the snow; several mens’ voices were reaching his ears, but at this point, he had completely stopped caring. When the first one got close enough to make out his features, Nathan stood up brushing the snow off himself before noticing the guy was clearly alien. His cracked almost amphibian skin, the color of swamp mud and lily pads, came rushing over quickly. Whomever he was, his eyes were nearly the triple the size of a normal humans and his neck seemed to frill outwards like a parrot’s neck when excited. Groaning and staring at this odd creature, he noticed him bending over to try to help him up. Nathan slightly stunned went through the motions of pulling himself up and being walked along by the alien, whose race he had never seen before. After three months aboard the ship, he had thought he had seen damn near everything, but this guy was something he had never expected.
Taking inventory of his situation, he realized he had no weapons and nothing he could use to defend himself if something went sour in the mining plant. Sure, they were taking him in now to make sure he was all right and keep him from freezing to death, but the moment he started to wander about and start to fuck with their base of operations? Knowing well enough that this place shouldn’t even be here, they were sticking their necks out for not capping him the moment he arrived. Blinking slowly as he shivered and trudged along through the snow while the alien let him lean on him; the pair entered the facility. What Nathan could gather from the outside as they passed by was that it was growing extremely cold as the snow-storm outside was now raging, there were at least fifteen guards outside wearing thermal jackets and goggles, two workers were doing the same and working in large cranes that were obviously designed with defense in mind and that the compound was much bigger than it looked.
As he was hurried along into the work locker room, the scent of sweat, something akin to mud and someone’s lunch hit his nose. The mixture would have been completely foul if not for the warm scent of tomato and cheese soup next to him, the bowl lay there steaming brilliant, causing his stomach to let out a vociferous growl. Nathan’s face burned a brighter red than the soup with the tumultuous resonance in his stomach fading away, knowing it came from him didn’t excuse the fact that it sounds like a lion had just roared from inside of him. The alien who was standing next to him looked at him slightly confused for an instant, black lips pursing before it croaked out a slight laugh and pushed the bowl of soap into his lap. “Fill your stomach with my lunch, I can always buy something from the snack machine.” Every syllable came out hoarsely between borderline croaks in his breathing, yet to Nathan it was probably the most beautifully sounding person he had ever heard.
Due to his massive appetite and the fact that it was something warm sitting right in front of him, Nathan didn’t hesitate to take up the alien’s offer. Instantly beginning to slurp the soup greedily by just upturning the bowl against his lips and drinking it as he would water, coughing as he did so as he found the soup to be an almost condensed paste. The Captain loved it all the more for it as it sated his hunger and circulated warmth through him, using a proper spoon, the human relishing in each bite causing an explosion of gooey-melted cheese and ripened tomatoes to burst in his mouth. Causing him to almost tear up at the taste sensation that he feared he would never experience again; however, he did find it odd that an alien would happen to be enjoying the same delicacies that humans did. Staring upward at the back of the alien’s neck though; he knew that if he was to keep his word to the Vorshilder than it would mean he would have to get him out of the way.
“So what exactly is this place and what are you guys doing here?” Nathan finally asked leaning back against the cold steel of the dark green lockers. Feeling the frigid surface against the nape of his neck as his skin slipped into the perforations. Shivering lightly, he found the alien now looking at him, but could see, even through the alien’s jacket that it had trembled at the question. Not trying to show that he already knew, he just wanted to see what the reply of this guard was; maybe he was just some hired blood with no information. That claim was instantly dismissed when the alien simply said.
“It’s classified, the corporation that hired me doesn’t allow us to speak about it or even permit most of the knowledge about this place to be passed along to the lower reaches. So what I can tell you, I’m not allowed to and everything else is beyond me.” Nathan could tell the alien was being honest; however, he was slightly irritated by the bureaucratic answer. Letting a exhalation to pump through his nostrils, the Captain filled his mouth with the last spoonful of soup and stared forward at the alien before him.
“You’re telling me that. You’ve got no information you can share with me about that his place? Well…no problem, you’ve given me a warm place and a filled my stomach so I’m in no position to ask for more.” Saying this with a genial smile before setting the bowl down to the side; looking into it almost mournfully, while his hunger had been assuaged he still wanted more, but had no desire to pressure that on his current savior. Glancing back up to the bizarre amphibian alien whom was turning to walk outside, surprised that the creature was willing to leave him alone.
“I’ll be right back after my shift. Don’t go anywhere!” He called rushing back outside as what appeared to be the sites supervisor signaled him over. Nodding respectfully to the alien, Nathan sat still watching and waiting for the alien to completely disappear before standing up and stretching out. Thankful that his legs and face hadn’t been beat up too bad by his recent fall, his gentle smile disappeared as he began to walk around the locker room looking for anything that might be useful. Casually exploring the rows of green lockers stacked atop each other with benches lined in front, nothing particularly interesting about the place aside from the sheer volume of lockers there were. Just from a quick glance the locker room itself seemed to take up about two hundred meters, with at least two meters of space between each section of lockers. Browsing through the area took him a few minutes, but there wasn’t exactly much to see.
After looking down each row, he finally came to the back of the room where two doors stood next to each other in a symmetrical pattern with a water fountain between them. Walking over to the humble half-dome of silver colored material, Nathan bent over flipping the switch at the top of it and began to drink slowly. Refreshing liquid passed over his lips, allowing him to slurp at it quickly and wash down the after taste of his earlier charity. As he drank, his mind slowly mulled over what he was doing in the place; the vorshilder had requested help in taking it down, but was that really proper? The mine was supplying jobs to people that likely wouldn’t have one otherwise, it was probably stimulating the economy on other planets and the only things that would benefit from his actions were creatures that would likely be dad in a few years anyway. Cursing under his breath as he realized his actions were essentially dooming hundreds of people to a life of poverty and despair, he wished he could just leave. Yet, something in his head told him that he had to go through with it.
Huffing in exasperation once, the Captain fiddled with his coat buttons before glancing over the rows of lockers again, it was far too clean. No signs of any snow being tracked in, no wear and tear, the place reeked of being white washed so many times that the scent of bleach continually hit his noise. Yet, nothing really implicated them of doing some massive wrong; the planet was doomed to die in the first place due to another corrupt practice, so why should anyone care that someone was mining it? As these thoughts swirled around in his head, Nathan sat down on the bench letting his arms rest between his knees as he contemplated what the hell he was actually doing out here. Sure, the animal outside had dragged him out this far, but what had made him agree to do this in the first place? These people were likely his only hope of getting off this planet alive, but his word was pretty much the only honorable thing he had left in his life. Slamming his fist down into the stone he was sitting on. The Captain found himself looking up, no idea what to do, no idea how to get through the two doors in front of them as they required a key card to get through and no idea why the hell he even agreed to do this fool’s errand.
Brushing himself off, he figured he would just walk back explain how he had crash landed and that his crew was waiting outside in the snowstorm. Figuring that was the best course of action, Nathan began to move towards the front of the locker room again, placing his hands into his pockets. Walking about five meters away from where he was standing, the sudden click of the door behind him resounded in his ears. Turning his head slowly, he could have sworn he was staring into a mirror. The man who had just walked out could have been his twin; while his eyes were green to his hazel-yellow, their facial construction and body type was basically the same. As the pair stared at each other, the mine worker stared at him for a moment, whipping his bare hands against each other as chalk dust went flying off them. “Now, what’ve we got here? Ain’t never seen anyone look more like lost draxel than you do son, so what can I do for ya? Ya obviously dun work here, so I should be asking what you’re doing in my locker room.” Nathan, stunned by the resemblance between them hadn’t exactly gained his balance yet, but the guy in front of him seemed to care less and rubbed his stubble covered face without so much as a sign of being stunned.
“Well, you see I crash landed on the planet and ended up finding these place on accident. If it wasn’t for the generosity of one of the workers here, I probably would have frozen and starved to death. I’m not sure what else to say aside from that, he went back to work and let me in here to warm up. I was just exploring and moving around to speed up the process, you know curiosity and boredom getting to me.” Nathan’s docile, but sheepish smile making him seem more like a kid who got caught doing something wrong rather than an adult who had just been rescued. As the look alike blinked a few times, he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, plopping it into his mouth. Reaching into his coat pocket and yanking out a sophisticated lighter with what looked like a coat of arms on it, he lit up his cigarette before speaking between drafts.
“Hmm, well if you crashed we’ll be more d’in happy ta get’cha and your cru back ta Roshire. What’s your name stranger? Mine is Alexander Esquire, dun ask about it, I got no idea where it came from. Any who, I’m one of the supervisors around here.” Nodding sagely a few times as his Irish accent continually broke through bouts of normal speech along with streams of cigarette smoke. Stepping to the side, he looked out towards the space leading outside before turning back to Nathan expectantly.
“My name is Nathan Blackholm, I’m the captain of small crew that are waiting for my back in the wastes. We’ve been out there for about two days and finally I decided I had better leave the ship and try to find help. They’re currently waiting out there for me to come back.” As Nathan lied, he saw the perfect opportunity unfolding before his eyes, this guy looked exactly like him, he could easily pass off as him and get in deeper through the complex that was the mine. All he had to do was get his security card and clothing and he was golden; however, this guy could also be his key to getting off Waquil safely. All he had to do was wait, then he and his men would take him back to his crew and they would simply fly him off to Roshire; however, what did that mean for the creature that he had just shared his mind with. Blinking several times while Alexander had his back to him, he realized there was no way to save everyone, both the miners and the animal outsider were strangers to him. While he had some attachment to the beast outside from their brief encounters, what could it offer him? Gulping slowly, he knew he had to make a decision. Alexander seemed more than willing to help, but to go with Alexander would be going against his word to the creature.
Staring at the supervisor’s neck, he knew that it was now or never. He had to do something in the next few moments or else he wasn’t going to have another chance like this.
A. Nathan keeps his word to the Vorshilder and snaps Alexander’s neck.
B. Nathan keeps his word to the Vorshilder and renders Alexander unconscious.
C. Nathan breaks his promise to the Vorshilder and leaves with Alexander to pick up his crew.
