"We need to be careful though," Tom said. "His 'death', the effort put in to keep his information confidential...I don't like this, I've got a very bad feeling we're missing a vital piece of information."<br/><br/>(excuse a momentary time jump XD )<br/><br/>Hours after Tom and Ix had returned to their cells two crew members were sat in the operations room of the prison, one looking relatively laidback, the other shifting uneasily in his seat.<br/><br/>"You sure this was a good idea?" the lazy officer, who operated communications, asked. "You know what the captain always says, when he goes to bed we don't wake him unless we've got a good reason to do so."<br/><br/>"I'd say this is a damn good reason to do so," the other, the science officer replied.<br/><br/>"It's probably nothing at all," the first man said, scoffing. "I can tell you now the captain will deem this a waste of his time and bump you down to janitor duties for the next year."<br/><br/>"I'm fairly sure I can think for myself Merrick," came a stern voice from behind them. The captain had entered the room, in a deep red uniform, a cap balanced on his head rather haphazardly the only hint he had been woken from his sleep. "You better have a damn good reason for this though Hawke."<br/><br/>"Sir, 40 minutes ago we detected an unusual energy spike-"<br/><br/>"Goddamnit Hawke," the captain said with a sigh. "We're based near one of the biggest space lanes this side of the Farine Cluster, if we went on red alert for every passing energy spike we'd be jumping at our own shadows."<br/><br/>"Sir, you didn't allow me to finish," Hawke said firmly. "The energy isn't coming from the space lane, it's coming from the surface of the planet. I've tried locating the source but we're suffering severe interference, I can't get anymore specific than an island chain off the main northern continent."<br/><br/>"What the hell?" the captain asked as he looked at the image on Hawke's screen. "That planet is lifeless, the whole damn reason it was chosen to host this station was prisoners couldn't just hide planetside if they escaped." Suddenly a beep came from the direction of Merrick's computer. "Merrick, report."<br/><br/>"There's a signal broadcasting from the planet's surface," Merrick said. "I ignored it at first because it was broadcasting in a language the computer couldn't identify, but it just started broadcasting in English."<br/><br/>"Patch it through," the commander said.<br/><br/>"<em>We are waking...we are waking...we are...</em>here!"<br/><br/>"That almost sounded like it came from in the room," Hawke said. "What do you suppose..." he started saying as he turned to speak to the captain, only to let out a gasp at what he was confronted with. The captain had a strange metal spike protruding through his stomach, his dead body hitting the floor with a thunk. As Merrick reached for the gun at his belt a similar device knocked him off his chair. Hawke felt panic rising within him, so he did the only thing he could: he reached for the red alert button, hitting it just before one last spike left him slumped over the computer screen. The room was silent, with no sign of the attacker anywhere.<br/><br/>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>As the sound of the alarm rang through the prison and guards and prisoners ran around, desperate for a way to escape, a young woman in a brown khaki uniform was heading in the opposite direction, deeper into the cells. She ignored the dead and dying around her, only stopping when she reached Ix's cell door.<br/><br/>"Ix, you need to wake up," she said, banging on the door. No response was forthcoming. "I don't have time to explain this, but it's Enigma. The prison is under attack, we need to find Tom and get both of you off here while we still can."