For a brief moment, we just sat in the cell in utter silence, pondering our choices. Maybe we should have searched for Roby? Now, we can only try to break out of here, but I don't know if escape is possible.
With the base being built on a bunch of fragile systems, any crook can cause serious damage. This is why this Martian prison is so heavily protected. The colonists can't afford to let a criminal escape and since rockets come here from Earth every two years and two months, you can't just send every criminal to Earth as you please. You have to wait.
Suddenly, Dawn broke the silence.
- I may have something to confess... - she thought through some things.
- Yes? - Anthony heard her.
- Back when I was a member of the Perseids, I saw our schemes from the perspective of the one who gets the money, the power, the upper edge... I never minded the people we harmed along the way. I pretty much never saw them. The only thing that mattered to me was our success. Our gains. But now... I've been demoted into being a "normal" person. I'm not the one pulling the strings anymore... - Dawn continued.
- You never pulled the strings. It was either Leonid or Supreme. You were just a pawn - Amber interrupted.
- I know, but what I mean is that... perspective matters. Now, I get to see how people suffer from our schemes by being one of them. It truly looks... depressing, horrible, plain evil...
- Yeah, your point? - Amber just wouldn't let her finish.
- I regret... - Dawn cried quietly.
- Really...? It never seemed like you'd regret. Moreover, you seemingly enjoyed hatching evil schemes and putting people in grave danger - Sebastian noted.
- I was focused our point of view. For us, the evil masterminds, causing havoc and destruction was beneficial. That is the only thing I saw... The people we put in danger were just... there, for me. They were like dolls that could be thrown. I didn't care... But now, I see the... uh, humanity of humans. That they feel. That they suffer... I really do regret being evil... - Dawn responded.
Amber was about to make another comment, but Anthony did it before her.
- What happened cannot be changed, but the future can be shaped. There's nothing stopping you from being a better person. There's nothing holding you back. The Perseids were dissolved and the Martians rejected you. You can change, as long as you really want to... - Anthony gave her a good piece of advice.
- Is there something I can do to pay for my sins? - Dawn asked suddenly, after another moment of silence.
- Come up with an escape plan so that we won't sit here while the robbers escape the base? - I suggested.
- Yeah, good idea... - Dawn sighed deeply.
The cell was locked by a metal door with a small grate on eye level, acting as a fortified window. I looked through it and saw nothing but other cells. However, that's not to say I didn't hear anything.
- Those pesky Earthlings took our ice cream. They don't want us to be separate. They prefer us being a copy of them projected onto another planet... - one of the prisoners was talking with another one, but must have noticed us, as he turned to face me directly - Hey, you! Why did you end up here? You've barely arrived on Mars...91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaIzypaDaL
- How... how do you know that? - I asked spontaneously.
- We, prisoners, have our ways of knowing things down here. Nothing escapes our sight, even if we're locked behind bars. We know about the ruining of Ice Cream Day. You're the culprits, right?
- No, we were trying to catch the culprits... - Dawn replied.
- They're somewhere down here... but not behind bars... - Sebastian added.
- Oh, we didn't see anyone besides the guards... - the criminal ended the conversation. It seemed like he didn't want to talk to the "good guys".
- Maybe the guards are the robbers in disguise? - Amber suggested.
- That's possible... where are those guards, by the way? - Anthony turned to the prisoner from the cell parallel to ours, but he didn't respond.
- Guess we gotta break out of here - Amber shrugged.
- But how? This place is a high security prison... - I sighed.
- Maybe you could contact that IT girl? Alia, was it...? - Dawn suggested.
- Arika. Alia is your former ally - Sebastian corrected her.
- Oh, Arika - Dawn memorised the name.
Anthony tried to contact Arika, but he had no signal. We only heard a monotonous static. However, that soon changed.
Arika must have hacked her way past the prison's security system, because we soon heard her voice through the walkie-talkie.
- Oh, I lost connection... Where on Earth are you? - she asked.
- We're not on Earth... - Claudius grumped.
- We... broke our way into the prison, but we're stuck in a cell... - Anthony responded.
- Who knew that there was a cell beneath us? - Dawn added.
- Well, that throws us off course. I'll try to hack my way into the system and let you free, but I can't guarantee anything... - Arika replied before going silent, as she focused on the code.
- So... we sit here until Arika hacks us out of here? - Sebastian asked.
- Yeah... There's not much we can do - Anthony confirmed.
All of a sudden, the cell door quietly popped open. Whatever Arika did must have worked.
- We're free - Anthony informed her.
- That's good. However, I don't think I can do much more... Maybe find a lift or something? - Arika suggested.
- We'll have a look around - Dawn replied.
This prison reminded me of the one present on the Hyperspace, which we visited two missions ago (counting the current one). The two prisons are similar in structure, but with a key difference: one is aboard a space station and the other is deep underground. That aside, they're pretty similar: musty cells with giant metal doors, with gray hallways beyond them. This place, however, was much darker compared to the Hyperspace's prison. None of us was equipped with a flashlight, so we were wandering in the dark.
- How are they free? - a prisoner asked along the way, but nobody gave them a response.
Moving deeper into the darkness, we stumbled upon a guard. We were careful not to alert them, but to our shock, it was no ordinary guard.
This guard wore a familiar black and green spacesuit, with a dark helmet concealing their face. Whoever they are, they're a member of the Martians. The evil Martians.
ns216.73.216.182da2
and then Add to home screen.