Titan 161: The Nutcracker

The Deathwish crew was framed for the deaths of archeologist Lavim Tamm and antiques dealer, Merez Alcan on Coriolis Station. The crew made a deal with a Consortium agent to clear out Hegemony presence in the Terenganu Valley in exchange for clearing their names.

The crew succeeded with their mission in the Terenganu Valley only to find that the mysterious agent they made a deal with was none other than the Deathwish crew’s rival, Captain Arina Chike, an exiled Hegemonist mercenary. The Consortium hired him to solve the problems in the Terenganu Valley, but instead used the Deathwish crew to carry out his job. Once the crew succeeded, it was Arina’s intention to turn them in to collect their head bounties and turn a profit.

Stripped of their belongings and ship, the crew find themselves in the Consortium’s high security space prison, Titan 161, nicknamed — The Nutcracker. It is infamously named for rendering the worst of the worst into blubbering idiots from the tortures they succumb from within. The Nutcracker hosts the Third Horizon’s worst of the worst; the criminally insane, murderers, rapists, political extremists, and icon defilers.

As the crew's prison transport ship docks into the prison, they find themselves in prisoner processing. As they enter the prison, they find that the station is falling apart; there is missing panelling on the walls, puddles of water on the floor, and live electrical wiring strewn everywhere. The crew goes through an aggressive body scan where almost everyone passes unharmed. The prison guards lead the crew to the General Population Unit (GPU) where most of the prisoners are. However, Wahil is sent to the Isolated Unit (IU) because of the supposed killing of fellow inmate, Chekov, onboard the prison transport ship. The IU is where the prison keeps the worst of the worst; the mass murderers, the terrorists, and the prisoners too far gone and dangerous to be able to be "rehabilitated."

General Population

The GPU is a 100 storey hollow tower of cells and walkways all around the perimeter of the building with a large common area of tables at the very bottom of it. As the crew file into the general population's common area, known as "The Yard," they are met with thousands of prisoners each in their cells up and down the tower, and out milling about in the Yard. They holler and catcall the new prisoners coming in. The prisoners size up their new prey and talk amongst themselves; possibly figuring out which of the new prisoners to take advantage of.

The new prisoners (including the Deathwish crew) are taken to the centre of the Yard by the prison guards and are left there to fend for themselves. A large group of individuals led by a man named, Mahar Nivrod meets them at the centre of the Yard. Mahar is a large individual with a large tribal-looking tattoo covering the left half of his face. Mahar greets the new prisoners and tells them how great is to have new "fresh meat." He yells out to the crowd that the bidding will start to take a "savour new products on the market" and singles out Amirah. He mischeviously yells out that the bidding starts at 2 arrash sticks for the beautiful lady on the floor. A prisoner somewhere in a cell above them yells out "2 boxes of Arrash!" The prison erupts in gaudy laughter at the sudden high bid for Amirah.

Before the next bid was placed, an unnamed woman from the new group of prisoners steps forward and tells Mahar to leave the young girl alone. Catcalls and whistles erupt all across the GPU. Mahar then questions who the sudden challenger is and smiles eagerly; hoping to put this naive challenger to her place. She introduces herself as Nos Ibaz Illamizra. Mahar and Nos Ibaz trade insults with each other until Mahar orders his men to grab two shivs to settle the matter in a knife fight. The men give the woman a small shiv, and Mahar receives a dura sword; possibly procured illegally through the prison's black market. The prison roars in laughter as they see the sword and the hopeless situation that the woman unfortunately placed herself in. As they start the fight, Nos Ibaz lunges and misses. Mahar seeing the opportunity takes his sword and hacks off the woman's knife arm. Her arm falls helplessly to the floor, and she falls to the ground unconscious. The prison guards seeing the fight, set off the alarms across the prison, and teams of guards flow into the prison. The prisoners are beaten with shock sticks and billy clubs into their cells. Izzaldin and Jabbar escape the beating unharmed as they are corralled into a nearby cell. Unfortunately, Amirah gets caught in the ruckus of guards and prisoners and is beaten unconscious by the guards and dragged into the cell with Izzaldin and Jabbar. Nos Ibaz is carted off to the prisoner's medbay in an attempt to save her life.

Medbay

At the Medbay, the prison doctor injects a stimulant into Nos Ibaz, and she immediately wakes up. She finds herself on an operating table surrounded by medical implements and an automated surgical arm. As she observes around the room, she sees that the room is not a regular medbay in the known sense of the word. In this prison's medbay, she finds that the medical equipment is not well-maintained, some are not even properly sterilized. She finds used medical implements all around her. It seems as if the medbay was used more for the torture of individuals rather than to save them. She sees "the doctor" sitting in his chair creepily smiling at her in the dark. He says to her, "you've got 4 minutes to live. I suggest you use that time wisely and try to save yourself from bleeding out."

She sees that her arm was not fixed. The doctor is using the situation for his own twisted enjoyment; watching prisoners die a slow death rather than saving them. Nos Ibaz thinks quickly and uses the automated surgical arm to stop the bleeding by cauterizing the wound. She howls in pain as she didn't use anaesthetic to do the job. She finds bandages and wraps it around the stub of where her right arm used to be. She glares at the doctor for not helping her.

"pity," the doctor says.

"guards, take her away"

The prison guards come in and drag her out and back into the GPU and throw her into the cell where the rest of the Deathwish crew are.

Isolated Unit

In the IU, Wahil is thrown into a dark cell. The cell has nothing inside it besides the 4 gray steel walls around it. A single pot light is dead centre of the ceiling and shining onto a naked man on the floor sitting cross legged. The guards push Wahil into the cell and teasingly say to the naked man, "we've got a new playmate for you." The guards close the door behind Wahil.

Wahil, sensing he's in another dangerous situation, cautiously observes him before he makes a move. He notices a tattoo on his chest of a key; a symbol of the Key Bearers. From what he remembers in his experience in the ancient Kuan Temple in the Terenganu Valley, the Key Bearers are a mysterious faction that have completely turned their back on icon worship as they see the mysterious aliens that built the portals as the true gods of the system. Because of that, Key Bearers have been deemed heretics and icon defilers and are immediately sent to prison if found out. Having met the Portal Builders briefly at the temple strengthens his resolve to talk to the Key Bearer. Wahil asks the man where he got the tattoo and if he knows about the Portal Builders. The man thinking it a ruse, insults Wahil and asks him to shut his trap before he gets killed. Wahil presses on and tells the man that he has seen the Portal Builders and would like help off the station. The man calls him a liar and attacks him. After a brief scuffle, Wahil manages to grapple him and hold him down and asks the man to play nice. The man obliges and is now more compliant seeing that Wahil is not as weak as he looks. Wahil manages to get information about the prison. According to the naked man, the prison is run by 3 factions: The Labrats, a group of the criminally insane; the Mystics, an extremist religious faction; and the Key Bearers, the group of portal builder worshippers.

Wahil tells him again that he has seen the Portal Builders on Kua and it was no lie. He tells the naked man that he used the portals in the ancient temple on Kua that the Key Bearers built to hide the portals and travelled through space and time to meet the Builders. He tells the naked man how he was forced to tell the truth about his life to the Builders and they let him go back to his time when he did. The naked man sees the truth in his story as he tells Wahil that the Portal Builders prize an honest heart despite the rights and wrongs that the person may have performed throughout his life. The naked man says to Wahil that he's been "Portal touched" and blessed by the Builders and that may play out well for him in future meetings with the Builders and or the Key Bearers. Wahil then asks how he may join the Key Bearers. The naked man replies that getting branded by the key symbol shown on his chest and going through a ritual denouncing his icon would officially mark him as a Key Bearer. The naked man warns Wahil that by joining the Key Bearers is a decision that one must not make lightly. Being marked as a Key Bearer will officially shun him from all known civilization in the Third Horizon as Key Bearers are known to be extremist heretics in the eyes of the Third Horizon. He will have many enemies and all doors that were once open for him in his life will soon be closed; only the Dark Between the Stars will be his friend. Wahil thinks hard about this, and decides to sleep on it.

Cell 138, Floor 45, Block D: General Population

Meanwhile, back in the GPU, Izzaldin, Amirah, Jabbar, and Nos Ibaz, the woman who instigated the riot, are sitting together in the same cell. They think about trying to break out of their cell and they notice that the energy that powers the prison cell's energy wall keeping them in is fluctuating. Knowing this, this means that if they deliver enough power to the wall or find a way to short circuit it they may be able to disengage the energy wall and they can simply walk out. Jabbar spends an hour observing the prison and notice that there are around 50 surveillance drones patrolling the entire prison that cycle through the floors at 5 minute intervals. Thinking that this might be too difficult to sneak through once they figure out how to get out of the cell, they think of other means of escape. In the lull of the moment, Amirah starts to sing. She sings an ancient but well-known song of when humanity was once united in their quest of exploration. Her voice echoes throughout the prison and struck a chord with the prisoners. Slowly, the entire prison joins in and starts singing along with her. After she finishes, a thunderous applause and banging of steel walls breaks out all across prison tower. Beside their cell, an old man suddenly whispers to them through the walls that whoever it was that was singing has a beautiful voice. The man introduces himself as Hamoud. He tells the Deathwish crew that he was once an officer in the Monolith, but disobeyed orders from his general 40 years ago and was sent here. He reveals to the Deathwish crew that the prison is built of two social classes: the factions and everyone else. If you are not with a faction, you are considered a "pet," a person that can be freely used and abused by the factions. He further describes that you are a pet until you can prove yourself worthy to a faction and or by gaining membership within one of the factions in the prison. The Deathwish crew decides to trust the man in the other cell and figure out a codeword that they can use to meet him in person. They decide on "Mustar" -- after the man that they left behind on Kua to be slaughtered by the Sogoi villagers. They rest for the night and plan to meet the man at the Yard.

Khalid, The Prison Warden

Inside the IU, Wahil sits and waits until the naked man falls asleep. Finally, when the man does, he takes out the cloth garrote that he hid during his time in the prison ship and decides to strangle his cellmate. He decides to do this to possibly attract the guards and or to attract the Key Bearer leadership so that he may gain audience with them. He waits for days in his cell, and during this time, he hallucinates the voice and presence of the serial killer, Toris. Toris explains how he is looking forward to killing him and his friends. He continues to taunt and berate Wahil until his presence disappears. Wahil wonders if Toris was physically there, or was a hallucination. Fortunately enough, shortly after that mysterious episode, the guards discover him and his dead cellmate. The guards immediately bring him up to the prison warden for questioning. Seeing the opportunity, he lets himself be lead by the guards blindfolded across unknown hallways, and through what seems like an elevator up into a separate tower. The elevator doors open, and he is shuffled into a dark, perfumed room. In the room, he meets the prison warden, Khalid. He is a bulbous, fat man with warts and boils all over his body from unknown diseases he has contracted during his stay at the prison. Khalid moves around in a hover chair as he is too fat and diseased to use his legs to support himself. The guards bring him to an examination table in the centre of the room and strap him in.

Khalid tells Wahil that he takes pleasure in torture, and from reading his records, that torturing Wahil would be his greatest pleasure to date. He tells Wahil that first, Wahil must confess to the crimes of killing Lavim Tamm and Merez Alcan on Coriolis Station. Wahil refuses and says that Lavim was killed by the Syndicate and that Merez was shot in self defence. Khalid reveals that he is part of the Syndicate, and the Syndicate doesn't care about what he says. The Deathwish crew had disrespected the Syndicate with the deaths of Merez; their black market antiquities dealer, and of their illegal weapons dealer; Mahdi, on the Monolith. The deaths of their two lieutenants have seriously disrupted their business dealings on both Kua and Coriolis Station, and the Deathwish crew must pay for their crimes. In order to do that, the Syndicate requires a formal confession to their deaths from the Deathwish crew as well as undergo torture to set an example for all who oppose the Syndicate. Of course, Wahil denies this again which prompts Khalid to shock Wahil with a shock stick. Wahil successfully endures the pain. Khalid asks Wahil again to confess or else he will shock him again. Wahil refuses again and decides to use his strength to break the straps that are holding him down. Miraculously, he breaks free, and Khalid in pure terror, tries to hit him with the shock stick. Wahil dodges his blow and manages to steal away the shock stick and shock Khalid until he falls off his hover chair, leaving Khalid immobilized. Wahil holds the shock stick to the prison warden's face and yells at the guards to not make a move or else the warden gets it. The guards don't make a move and stay in place.

A Killer Amongst Them

In the Yard, the Deathwish crew wait in one corner and decide how to signal the old man from last night among the hundreds of prisoners milling about. They decide to observe the Yard to see what the current environment is like among the prisoners. They successfully notice that the Yard is divided by factions with the Lab Rats grouped and sitting on one corner of the Yard, and the Mystics and Key Bearers in their own corners. The crew also notices a man with the Lab Rats that seems older than most of the prisoners in the Yard. Sensing that this was the old man they were talking to last night, Amirah decides to hum the tune that she sang last night while moving throughout the crowded Yard to see if anyone would notice, especially the old man. She does so, and while she is doing that, the crew sees that the old man notices her and looks at the crew as she passes by. Thinking that this was their guy the Deathwish crew prepare to go up to the old man when the time is right and tell him the codeword. Suddenly, however, they are met with Toris, the prison guard who goes up to them and asks them if they are the crew that massacred the Sogoi villagers on Kua. The crew refuses to give him an answer not knowing who this person is. Toris is annoyed and tells them that he knows who they are and if they don't answer his questions their friend Wahil will be tortured. The Deathwish crew think he's bluffing, so Toris produces Wahil's file on his datapad and shows it to them. As Toris shows it to them he radioes to the guards up at the warden's office to start torturing Wahil so that he means business. As silence is heard over the radio, Toris immediately thinks something is wrong. He then hears the voice of the prison warden, Khalid, asking the guards to bring up the Deathwish crew along with their gear. Toris mischeviously smiles. He realizes something is wrong. However, the Deathwish crew will be there along with Wahil to be massacred by his lust for blood, so he sees it as an opportunity to give into his cravings. He complies, cuffs the Deathwish crew, and takes them up to the the prison warden's room.

Top of the World

As the Deathwish crew, Toris, and two guards enter the prison warden's room, they see an incredible sight. Wahil is holding a shock stick up to the neck of the prison warden on the floor. Wahil yells out to the guards and Toris to drop their weapons to the floor or else the warden gets it. The guards comply fearing that their paychecks will stop with the death of their boss. Toris, enraged, decides to take matters in his own hands and takes out his knife and slices the throats of the guards for their weakness. The guards fall to the floor and the decides to kill everyone in the room. The Deathwish crew, unarmed, decide to try to tackle and immobilize Toris. Nos Ibaz goes in to try to grapple with Toris, but ends up being subdued with Toris on top of him. She loses an eye to Toris. Amirah and Jabbar picks up the shock sticks that the guards dropped and tries to stun him. With his free hand, Toris uses his knife to defend himself on the floor. Izalddin tries to grapple with Toris and succeeds ultimately keeping him from attacking. Jabbar and Amirah start shocking him with the shock sticks. Eventually, Toris is stunned and immobilized after repeated shocks by the shock sticks. Wahil seeking revenge, decides to decapitate Toris for the pain and suffering he's caused him. The Deathwish crew, look at Wahil in shock at this very dark turn. They realize at this point, they've taken over the warden's office, and possibly control of the station. With their weapons in transit to the prison warden's office, they are hopeful they can get out of the Nutcracker alive.