Iohanne finished his explorations of the fort, and set about forming some sort of escape plan just in case. He found numerous tunnels in the soil sections of the fort that could be used to exit the fortress proper, but anything that may cause him to face the Dwarven soldiery would probably end with these routes being blocked by the sheer number of dwarves he'd have to sneak by. He decided the some of the mine shafts could very easily be used for escape, but only into the highly dangerous subterranean caverns, which wasn't much better than being trapped in a fortress full of homicidal dwarves.
Basically, his escape routes were just as dangerous as anything that could cause him to require them. And since it took Command thirty minutes to link a wormhole to a specified location, this meant escape from within the fortress proper was a rather chancy affair.
Iohanne brooded on this conundrum as he went to the pre-assigned dead-drop location, a tiny closet that served no apparent purpose, just outside some workshops. In the closet was a nondescript brown package that, on further inspection, smelled faintly of ozone. Iohanne took the package into a more secluded area, and carefully pulled it open.
Inside was two small vials filled with a colorless substance. a tiny device that would spray the substance in a fine airborne mist, and a short piece of paper describing the effects of the substance. Iohanne skimmed it and grunted to himself. Hypnotics were never quite as effective as domination drugs, but it would do. The six hour wait for full effects to set in would also be somewhat of an issue, but thankfully the drugs stayed within the system for several days, so he wouldn't have to stress over a narrow window of oppurtunity.
Now all that remained was application.
---
Iohanne's tracking device indicated the subject was on the dining levels. Iohanne slipped out of his hiding place, mister strapped onto his wrist, and waited a moment. The soldierdwarf passed through the intersection Iohanne lingered at, and Iohanne followed him into the Spawn Research Center. The dwarf wandered down the hall, and looked in a couple of the cells. Then one of the Spawn smashed a clawed hand off the cell door, and the dwarf stepped back, surprised and obviously stunned.
Iohanne recognized his oppurtunity, and recalled some of the short history of this fortress. He stepped forward, within arms reach of the dwarf, and sprayed the mister above the dwarf's head. Then he said, "Surprised? Former militia members. Ashsaber and Softa. They got infected during battle, and so we sealed them in. Some of the other dwarves figured it would be good to research their foe." Iohanne felt a sneer creeping across his face, "Like RESEARCH will help understand them. They're an abherration. A mutation. Born from pure betrayal."
"You mean to say... That these were once your fellow citizens?" The dwarf turned slowly to face Iohanne, his face unreadable.
"Indeed." Iohanne said smugly, sure he would provoke the proper response.
The dwarf's lips twisted into a snarl, and he practically growled out, "You MOTHERFUCKER! YOU LET THESE BRAVE SOULS GET CORRUPTED? FOR WHAT?"
"I did not. They were injured in battle. If you had seen the previous state of our... Medical facilities, you would understand that this is practically a mercy." Iohanne thought that he'd put just the right amount of scorn, arrogance, and remorselessness into his words, and he was proven right a moment later.
The dwarf dived at Iohanne, and wrapped his burly hands around Iohanne's throat. Iohanne tensed his neck, but the dwarf was far stronger. Iohanne put the mister right in the dwarf's face, and emptied the last of its contents directly into the dwarf's eyes, nose and mouth. He felt blackness nibbling at the edges of his vision, but before he could pass out or incapacitate the dwarf, the dwarf came to his senses, and looked at Iohanne.
The dwarf dropped the asphyxiating assassin to the floor, a stunned look on his face. He shook his head, opened his mouth to speak, but instead he turned and stumbled out of the SRC in a daze. Iohanne wheezed for a few moments, trying to catch his breath, then picked himself up off the floor, and followed the dwarf out of the center.
---
Six hours later, Iohanne was shadowing the dwarf again. The dwarf bumped into the Overseer Splint, who ordered him to go down to the magma forges. Iohanne looked behind himself at the staircase, and sighed. He would have to hustle to avoid being seen. He hated running.
Iohanne dodged down the stairs, taking them two at a time to beat the dwarf to the forges. After several hundred flights of stairs, he was in the forges. He took a few moments to catch his breathe, and leaned against a nearby bin.
In a moment of curiousity, he glanced inside the bin. A wafer of gorgeous baby blue metal twinkled back at him from atop the pile of bars inside the bin. Iohanne's breathe caught in his throat, and his eyes dilated as the adamantine took him under its' sway.
He was lost in the beautiful glint of the red glow of magma off the wafer, the flickering of the torch reflected off its complex structure. His imagination spiralled wildly, the adamantine whispering radical thoughts of domination and glory if only Iohanne could acquire the power hidden beneath it. He pictured himself at the head of a legion of demons and devils, massive beasts of flame and ash and stone and bone flanking him as they marched across the multiverse plundering and destroying.
In that moment, Iohanne's mind was broken by the greed adamantine generated in all sentients that gazed upon it. Little did he know he was now a pawn of forces that ruled the underworld since time immemorial.
I don't think anyone has checked it out, but I wrote the titles for Iohanne's story in Latin, the coolest language on Earth. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2280025 times)