Chapter 1: In Storage

The pain of breathing woke him up. Torbus had curled into a ball on the cold cement of the empty storage room. He winced attempting to stretch, and carefully breathed in and out, deeper a few times until he was sure there was no grinding pain. Good. So, his ribs weren't broken. Torbus had taken enough beatings to know the difference. He rubbed his dry eyes and squeezed them shut until the kaleidoscope patterns behind his lids started repeating. When he opened them again, his mind was focused.

Dim LED light scattered through two pebbled plastic panes near the ceiling, painting everything in grayscale. He could still smell heated hydraulic fluid and the air had the same coppery aftertaste from the mech's laser. If they hadn't moved him far and it hadn't been long since the fight, that meant he was still at the Delian research facility. Roughing him up and tossing him in a spare room suggested one of two things: a Delian officer up the chain was on their way, or they were still deciding what to do with him. Either way this facility was more important than Lommar, the incompetent colonel who sent Torbus' team here, had thought, or the local Delian officer was indecisive. Torbus started thinking through both angles.

With a long rest propped on his elbow, he slowly sat up. Thick plastic packing ties dug into his calves keeping his feet half under a shelving unit. He wrapped his arms around his bent knees and rested his chin on his forearms, facing away from the door. With no smarfo and only the rhythms of his body—thirst, hunger, and waves of pain—Torbus gave in to sleep.

He woke to the sound of muffled voices, a beep at the electric lock, and the heavy bolt cycling. Torbus turned his head being careful keep his torso as still as possible. A stocky silhouette punctuated the doorway and waved his smarfo over the environmental controls. Strong LEDs overhead whitewashed the room and cast shadows under the wire shelves. Cheap, thick aftershave wafted across the room with the warm air from the doorway. 

His eyes struggled to adjust. Torbus had only a few moments to gauge how to best play his hand. The man was in a crisp Delian military uniform. As he stepped under the light, it glistened off his wide jaw and emphasized the greying around his temples. Torbus thought the face was familiar. The news? Lommar's shitty mission dossier? He was about to place it when the man spoke.

"I'm Colonel Eskin Jivo, Delos Military. We had trouble ID'ing the remains of your sugran colleagues, but you came up in the pop logs right away. Torbus Belgran. Born in Delos but now working for the Gurratan government, running ops on our labs. You're in deep shit Mr. Belgran. I own your ass as far as Delian law is concerned. But I'm curious to find out just how dumb or smart you are. You tell me how you see this playing out from here."

CHOOSE (Leave a comment or message me somewhere to vote for which scene comes next.)

A) "Jivo, yina? Is family like yers who siphon money from rest of us, make Delos turning to shit. Yu naga flex like that if yu see what Akis Blad got doin' down in Gurrat. Float off farside. I naga helpin yu."

[Torbus refuses to talk to or cooperate with Colonel Jivo. He bides his time, tries to minimize the physical interrogations, and looks for a weakness in security to exploit.]

B) "Yu got the rock. Black sorium? That why weall came today. That mean yu know it important, but from I seein' today, yu cannado nothin' like Blad cando.  Yu still just lookin' at it. Yu naga own my ass, Colonel Jivo. Yu naga stay me here. Yu gonna watchin' me walk out e door, and yu gonna pickin' up smarfo when Torbus call and payin' me for inteli on Gurrat." 

[Torbus attempts to leverage his access to the Gurratan government and parts of Akis Blad's consulship to act as a double agent for Colonel Jivo and Delos.]

UPDATE: OPTION B WINS. Click below to read Chapter 2!