Deep Dive Ch. 08 - Break out

It seems that waking up is a lottery. Sometimes I roll a good one, sometimes not. Today was a bit of both.

First of all, I was in a holding cell. Not a great start, but I made some preparations for that eventuality. It was the same cell that I found earlier, and thankfully whoever carried me here didn't find the makeshift lock picks I left hidden for exactly the situation like this.

The get-away setup is all there, which is good. Now let's see how much stuff they took when they captured me. I opened the equipment screen and was ready to scroll through my long inventory list, but there wasn't even a scroll option available.

All I had on me was a few things I found in a cavern, a box of nails, a long cord, an earpiece, the yellow keycard, and a pillow. Everything else was missing, even my belt and shield. Not great. I would even go as far as to say that it totally sucked. All my weapons and all the ammo were gone too. In hindsight, I should have left a knife or a pistol hidden somewhere here, along with the lock picks, but that was a mistake I can only regret making.

Wait, what about the other card?

I patted myself on the thigh and got worried for a second, but was relieved when I felt a rectangular shape pressed against my skin to the side above my knee. It must have slid down, but otherwise was in one piece. At least that worked in my favor, going through the whole thing with the blue guy and not securing the keycard in the end would be a spectacular failure.

And what a thing we went through. I was ready to start daydreaming, but had to check one thing first, something that I suspected from the moment I woke up. I pulled up my menu and went into the stats tab. As I thought, my arousal wasn't at zero, not even in single digits. I was afraid that something like this could happen. It seems that the only way to completely relieve the tension I had to, well, max it out so to speak. Simply letting it drop made it stuck at a low, but not insignificant value.

I wondered if it was a universal thing, or if was it just me. With all the hidden perks and the very peculiar way my character was designed, I guess I should be happy that my arousal even drops down over time on its own. Not that I was curious how it would feel to be stuck near the edge for a long time, with no one to help it get down. Or even better, I mean worse, would be if someone were to take advantage of me in this state.

Nope, it never crossed my mind, what a silly idea.

But now as I was thinking about it, theoretically of course, I realized that there is a simple way to deal with that situation, should one, unfortunately, arise in the future. Something that Veronica also pointed out, but I guess I didn't want to think about back then, and for some reason also didn't want to think about it now.

I mean, I have two hands, and it's not like I don't know how my body works, so I technically could...

Even without a mirror, I knew my face was all red. What I didn't understand was why was I this embarrassed from simply thinking about masturbating. I have already done it once, in the bunker, and I had nothing against doing a striptease if my last 'fight' was anything to go by. So what was different now, from the time I did some exploring in the shower back then?

Well, almost everything when I thought about it. There I was safe, relaxed, with unquestioned privacy, I had no intrusive thoughts about any previous encounters and all my arousal was not only self-inflicted, so to speak, but also focused on myself. Now I was stuck in enemy territory, in open view, not knowing if someone was about to come to check on me, not to mention the reason my pink stat bar was not at zero was the same guy who put me here. Which only made it worse, in both ways.

This realization came to me far too easily. Like if I asked myself why my toe hurt after kicking it against a piece of furniture, it was obvious to the point I didn't even need to think about it. The game provided me with an innate understanding of how to use my rifle, sneak around, or use skills, so maybe this was also something I simply knew based on my selected character. Or maybe it had more to do with being a girl. Nah, probably another one of my messed up hidden perks, no point in trying to figure it out now.

Anyway, what time is it? Late afternoon according to the clock in my menu, so I lost only a few hours since they captured me. Not bad, certainly could be worse. What time was the sunset here? I think trying to sneak through the base would be easier if everyone was asleep. Maybe not everyone, but still, the fewer enemies the better. I'll wait a few hours, it's not like I'm in a hurry now.

I pulled up my menu once again, looking for some sort of alarm clock. There was one, where I could set the hour at which I wanted to wake up. Would 7 P.M. be too early? It should be fine, worst case I will find a broom closet or something like that and wait some more there.

I set up the clock and was about to start looking for a way to lie down comfortably when I remembered that I still had the pillow in my inventory. I don't know why they didn't take it, but I wasn't complaining. Setting down on the floor I went in my mind through my last fight. The blue guy was acting as a leader, but something felt off in how the regular mobs treated him, even before the incident at the end. I don't think that NPC mutiny was possible, but it would explain why there are so many abandoned areas here. There must have been more staff here previously. I should look for some clues when I get out of here.

I closed my eyes, resting my head on the looted pillow and the sleep came quick.

------------|V|------------

Beep, beep.

Beep, beep.

Shut up, I'm awake.

Beep, beep.

"I said I'm awake." I swung my arm to the side, wanting to turn off the alarm, as I always do, but instead, I hit the railing with my fingers. "Fuck!"

I sat up, massaging my hand, and clicked the pop-up to dismiss the beeping. Nothing to get you up in the morning like a solid dose of frustration. Well, night, in this case, not morning, but my point still stands. I checked the time again to see how long I had overslept, but it was only two past seven. In my book, I could easily snooze for another fifteen minutes or so, but maybe not this time.

I dusted off my suit, put the pillow back in my inventory, and started working on the lock. Having done it once already I had the doors open in just a few minutes. I never tried lock picking before in real life, so maybe my time wasn't that impressive overall, but at the same time, I thought it was pretty good for a first-timer using only a twisted wire.

Out of habit, I pulled up my quick access inventory, but this time it was empty. Right, no weapons. Could I use what I had on me to defend myself somehow? I had a box of nails, but aside from dumping them on the ground to slow down the pursuit I didn't see any other use for them. I also had a thin but strong cord of synthetic rope. If I had access to the Internet I probably could have found a hundred ways to make something deadly with it, but a situation like this was a lesson about why it's good to memorize things from time to time, instead of only remembering where to find them again.

I decided not to place anything in quick access slots. Trying to come up with a plan for how to use a rope in a fight would only distract me, so it would be more of a hindrance than any real advantage. And if I need to climb somewhere I can still access my full inventory as I normally do.

I opened the doors, was surprised that they didn't squeak, and took the same path as before, heading straight to the gates in the inner ring. I also grabbed an empty tin can, since there were no pebbles around.

I swiped the blue keycard and quickly moved back, hiding in a crevice in the wall to the right. Moments later I heard the hiss of the doors opening, and after waiting two more seconds I threw the can in the opposite direction to where I was, making sure that it would fly too high for anyone still inside to see.

As expected, I heard footsteps approaching, and two guards came out, alerted by the sound. I waited for them to get a bit further before I came out of hiding, slipped behind their backs, and through the gate, remembering to check if there were more guards on the inside.

Luckily for me, there was no one in the immediate vicinity, maybe because this time I hadn't used the wrong card ten times which alerted everyone inside. Still, better not stand and wait for someone to show up. The corridor split into three different directions, so I chose the one that led mostly straight from the gate, hoping to reach the center of the facility as quickly as possible.

Now, having crossed the internal ring the whole space looked much more modern and lived-in, not to mention that it was clean, to a reasonable degree, and all the lights were working, even if they seemed to be dimmed down, but that was probably due to late hour. Neat quality-of-life feature for someone focused on stealthy play style or forced into one, like I was now.

Sparse lighting helped me stay concealed, as I had to hide a few times from approaching guards. The doorways were recessed into the walls far enough that I could fit my whole body there, and the shadows did the rest of the work. With how infrequent the patrols were I was feeling quite confident, but I didn't let it get to my head, I knew that without weapons a single mistake would mean getting captured again.

All the rooms I passed had keycard readers, but they were all white, so I didn't even try to open them. It was somewhat annoying, feeling as if I always had the wrong key to every door I came across. On the other hand, there was a chance that behind any of them, there were sleeping quarters for the soldiers, so I wasn't too mad.

After crossing a few more corridors I arrived at the central point of the complex. There was no way to verify that claim without the map, but a massive vault gate in the middle of the room being guarded by four soldiers screamed 'I'm what you're looking for'. I didn't think that the trick with a tin can would work here, so I had to take a wide berth, no matter how tempting it was to take a closer look.

There were two notable things I picked out anyway. To the right side of the vault, there were three card readers, yellow, blue, and green, one of each. Good to know that my yellow card was useful for something, and there was no white reader, so I was missing only the green card. The second thing was something I also saw earlier but disregarded at the time. All the guards had big, white pistol-looking weapons in their holsters instead of the usual laser rifles the guys outside were using. I would need to check what was it, and if I should be more or less afraid in comparison to the rifle.

Anyway, I will have to check this place out later, once I get my stuff back. It was obviously the most important thing in this entire area, judging only by how much security it had. If I were to guess, the teleport out of here was not far behind the vault door.

I kept the wall to my left and moved on, quietly making my way further into the complex. Finally, I came across the section where I saw yellow card readers. I was about to go on a looting spree when I noticed that one of the doors at the end of the corridor, right before the stairs leading up, was opened. No reason not to check it out first, so I went to investigate.

Taking a discrete look inside it was a storage of some sort, but highly organized, with rows of black, metal lockers set across the room. A more pressing matter was two soldiers present inside, talking to one another over the gun one of them held. It was the same bulky white pistol I was everyone carrying. The other thing that was the same as everyone else here had was the armor, which I now noticed looked not as thick and heavy as the one the enemies outside of the complex had.

Melee was never my strong suit, but this was the best opportunity to get a weapon, any weapon really, that I came across so far. And it was only two of them with worse gear than I had dealt with previously, and no helmets on top of that, so I liked my chances.

I walked in, slapping the door panel on the inside on the way, activated my reflex boost, and rushed straight for the closer enemy as the doors started to close behind me.

The closer of the two aliens, the one holding the gun, didn't do as much as turn his head before I hit him with a haymaker straight to the face, sending him, and the gun, to the ground.

The other guy, to give him some credit, didn't take much time to think about what just happened and started swinging at me, but he was nowhere near as fast as the blue leader I fought previously, making me question if I even needed the boost in the first place. I took a few short steps back, keeping him just out of range while he pressed on, then dived under his left hook and replied with my right one, hitting him square in the jaw.

With my strength, it wasn't enough to knock him out, but I made up for it in a volume of strikes, keeping on the pressure and landing a counter-attack almost every time he tried to hit me. Having more experience with melee combat and being able to focus solely on the brawl instead of reaching for the gun made a night and day difference, as I wasn't just surviving the fight, I was winning it.

Until I heard the click, which had nothing in common with a fistfight. Taking a quick look around, trying to find the source of the sound I saw the first guy I decked, still lying on the ground, but now with the gun back in his hand, and pointing it at me.

There was no Geneva Convention here, so using the momentum of the missed punch of the guy I was fighting I spun him around and locked his arm behind his back, keeping him in front of me as a human, well, alien shield. The guard on the ground turned out to have even fewer moral quarrels than me, and I heard an electric discharge, as something struck my man-shield.

Good thing I let go of his body in time, as he started shaking. Giving it a little nudge with a kick I sent it falling forward, directly on the prone shooter. The impact was enough to make him lose the grip on the gun again, which I didn't hesitate to pick up, aim back at him, and pull the trigger.

The weird pistol shot a large, gray blob that attached itself to the body of my target and then flashed blue, emitting the same electric noise I heard once already. The guard's body shook a few times and went still. I checked both of them to be sure, they were unconscious but still breathing.

Cool, so a high-tech taser. Quiet, non-lethal, and if I were to guess with terrible range or maybe a small magazine size. I guess it made sense, you wouldn't want to shoot up the place where you live. More of a crowd-control weapon, suited for security guards. Looking at it I didn't even know where the damn thing even had the magazine. Maybe it was a limited-use weapon, intended to shoot it two or three times and ditch it. That will be a problem for future me to figure out. Now, it was time to check out the loot and see if my yellow card would be of any use.

Turns out, it was. Each row of lockers had a separate card reader, but all of them were yellow. I would call it a jackpot, but even after opening all of them, I found only consumables, but no weapons. Still, I snatched a few medkits, energy boosters, and some other vials and needles that I didn't recognize, but they were probably useful as well. Good thing I didn't have to wait too long before placing it all in my inventory since I literally had not a single pocket on me.

I also took the stuff the guards had on them, which amounted to a taser, a few oversized batteries, and a belt, which didn't fit me no matter how I set its length, so I improvised it into a thigh strap, wrapping it twice around my leg. I positioned it so I could still use the holster and two pouches that were attached to it. Looking at it I decided that it suited me even better this way, compared to my previous belt. Maybe I will have to reorganize it once I find my shield, but for now, I will add it to the list of problems to be dealt with later.

I opened the doors and took a glance if nobody was around, but the corridor seemed clear. Now I had to answer the burning question, should I go back to the other rooms and check them out or should I scout the upper floor first? I hesitated for a moment but chose the latter. I reasoned that if the guards needed supplies, they would choose the best they had available, which would mean that all the other rooms had the same or even worse stuff. Not to mention that no one here had a real firearm, so they must be hidden somewhere else. Of course, I could be wrong, but I was more curious about what was upstairs, so I had to rationalize my decision a bit.

Well, not much different at first glance, but at the same time it wasn't all the same. Just a wall with a bunch of doorways secured by card readers, but here instead of single-piece doors that slid to the side there were double doors, split in the middle. That of course meant higher security, which in turn meant better loot. Once again my gut feeling was right.

I walked to the first panel and pressed my keycard against it. It flashed green and made a loud beeping noise, then some mechanism whirred to life, and the doors made a grinding sound, but they didn't move. I tried two more times, even checking if I didn't use the wrong card by mistake, but the result was the same. A green flash, an annoyingly loud beep, and nothing. I decided to try the next doors before the noise attracted any guards.

To my disappointment, the situation with the second and third panels was the same: flash, beep, some grinding, no effect. There was only one panel left, so I didn't want to let my hope down just yet, there was still a chance that at least once it would work.

Green flash, loud beep. Whirring of pneumatics servos. Then another loud beep, a flash of a yellow diode, then one more beep and flash back to green. This whole process took a good ten seconds, but it seemed to work, as the doors slid apart. Whoever designed that should have read the definition of the word 'over-engineering', but I wasn't mad anymore, as I saw what was inside the room that opened before me.

Not only was it much bigger than the one I looted, but it was clearly someone's personal workshop. I tapped on the panel inside, which closed the doors behind me, and started walking around, taking in all the details. The left wall was covered by a large workbench and rows of toolboxes with pieces of scrap metal thrown around as if they were discarded after an unsuccessful experiment. To the right, there were two tall, metal cabinets, mostly empty, and another solid table with an assortment of screwdrivers and other smaller tools thrown around, alongside energy cells that I knew were used for the laser rifles the aliens outside the complex carried.

What was even more interesting, were two things that I missed at first glance. One was a weird contraption welded to the doors on the inside, it looked like its purpose was to keep to doors closed, but some parts were missing, since no matter how I moved the loose parts it didn't lock up. The other thing was a hole in the right wall, leading to the adjacent room.

Compared to what I saw there, the workshop was almost boring. The second room was made into a straight-up living room, with a beanbag in the middle, a hammock hung from the ceiling in the back, and other furniture completely mismatched to what I thought should be in a military complex. Not to mention what looked like a bathroom behind an opaque glass wall in the other corner of the place. Somebody made themselves a studio apartment right in the enemy's base.

On one of the cabinets, there was a large model of the complex, made entirely out of metal. And it went even further than the edges of the crater, with the outside area being started to be added, but whoever was working on it probably never got to finish it. A shame, they were very skilled with a welder by the look of things.