OOC: Here at last is my prison breakout from Threefrog. Carno has a copy of it and he'll let me know if anything's wrong. So to those who wish to protest or complain I say one thing: get in line. Oh and make sure to bring a year of supplies because it'll be a rather long line.
Threefrog
The sky was overcast this day, fit for rain that the world so often saw. The planet had once been home to more then twenty million Igadzra civillans, content with their existence.
That was before the Ediens came to the Milky Way.
Now Threefrog was more or less a slave world. Twelve thousand miserable slaves of various races labored endlessly and were brutally beaten and underfed. Their lives were, in a few words, a living hell. There would be a revolt if not for the pain collars attacthed to the slaves, the fact that the encampments were extensively reinforced, and that the Edien guards were well armed. Sadly for them, they lacked all but three BattleCrusiers. They barely had two hundered destroyers as well.
Every morning, every midnoon, and every night the slaves were thouroughly searched twice for anything that could be used as a weapon and beaten merciless for such acts. Not that they were beaten anyways. Food was scarce and water even more so, and many died of malnutrition as they did from abuse. Games were not uncommon, as they pit slave against slave. The reward was increased rations and water for a week or so.
In one encampment, there were 6000 Kisani and Igadzra slaves, all treated the same way. Ediens were wary of the Igadzra for the race was devious beyond doubt. The Kisani were less wacthed for the Ediens rarely encountered the now shattered race. It was by sheer luck that they managed to cacth 3000 Kisani, all of them of the warrior caste who had been captured in raids upon the Ediens. Only some 300 were Kiran, and their mission was almost come to light.
Rali Kaven lifted the massive rod to the new peremiter fence with ease. The Kisani stumbled back somewhat but held his ground and stuck the rod into the ground. Kaven was a Kiran commander, one of the last of the command crew of the Kiran Blade that had laid a trap for an Edien ship. That had been some time ago and since then he had lived the life few should do. It didn't matter much though for the Kiran were trained for such and the Kisani were a strong race. He looked over to see four other people, three of them Kisani and one Igadzra.
Kaven sighed and picked up another rod to put in place. They had been assigned by their master to work on the new outer permiter because some rival was going for a bigger one as well. Due to a lot of work, Kaven had managed to get his best people and one other into the assingment. They had twelve Ediens guarding them and all were armed. Small odds for Kiran special ops. Kaven stumbled quite a bit with the rod, on purpose this time.
At that point he felt a sudden sharp pain as the collar around his neck burst; he cursed as the pain went away and he turned around. A hulking Edien stood over him, grinning like a would-be slave master.
He stood over Kaven, holding his energy riffle in one hand and a control pad in another. In a gruff voice he said, "Next time don't stumble, slave. You're lucky I didn't kill you. I'm not in the mood today."
Kaven smiled hardly and replied, "There's a rarity! An Edien who is not in the mood to kill. Fates bless us with such a gift, but that's better then a peace-loving Voinian!" The guard grimaced as he saw his fellows look at him with odd looks. This greatly angered him and his finger raised up to press the button, his face in an evil grin. It was unfourtantly not to be, for that outburst was meant to be a code.
Quicker then the Edien guard could comprehend, Kaven lept up and kicked the massive brute in the chin. Landing on his feet, Kaven saw the guard look stunned for a moment before falling over unconcious. There was a long moment of silence as everyone apparently looked at the sight.
That was when the attack began
Kaven took up the rifle and the control and shouted, "Draven!" With that he pressed the release on the collars and his came loose. The Ediens were just coming out of the shock when Kaven dropped the pad and brought up the rifle to fire at three of the Ediens. There was a slight recoil that caused the Kisani to bounce back a bit, but the energy blast did its job. All three Ediens were hit by the wide pulse blast and droped dead, much of their upper torsos gone.
The other guards shouted and one of them used a control device of their own. Little surprise for the Kisani and the Igadzra, but the Ediens were again startled. That was when the other four struck; the Igadzra just grabbed the nearest Edien by his neck and snapped it with clean effeincy. The other three prisoners quickly overcame two of the guards and grabbed their weapons: two Anti-Proton riffles and two anti-proton pistols.
They were a amussing lot now. The Igadzra was former warship captain Lan'ras who's ship had crash landed on Threefrog and had been submerged partly in a swampy lake. He had been captured a month ago when he ws caught near the peremiter. The three other Kisani were Kiran Sava, the elite forces of the Kiran. One was a Kiran woman, one Jessa Dere who was the egineer of the former Kiran Blade. She was a master in her work, versed in many forms and areas.
The second Kiran was Trys Nael, Kiran scientist and soldier. He was a Kisani who had joined for revenge. The third was Kale Jaem, helmsman and systems hacker extrondiaer. He was extremly good at cracking any code no matter how complex. Kaven himself was second officer and weapons officer of the Blade, and a master of many weapons. He was able to examine any weapon and given just enough time, use it well. The Edien rifle was nothing new.
The five rebels started firing and the guards started returning fire. However, how could one take on heavily armed Ediens? Trys broke cover from a rise and ran across an area and was hit by a the edge of a proton blast that hit his chest. He fell over and started screaming something. "For the love of the Fates, run already!"
Kaven looked at the other three and they nodded grimly. No one would last long with an Edien rifle blast wound unless critical care was given. They all knew the stakes should one of them fall: leave them behind and hope they died quickly. "Move out! Now!
The Kiran qucikly let off a discharge of weapons fire, dropping two more before they ran over the ridge and past the peremitter. Now only three were left and as they converged on the Kiran, passing by the dying Trys. That was their mistake as the overcharged rifle exploded and took all four, Kisani and Edien, with it. At that it started to rain.
Four figures traveled quickly through the rain-filled morning on Threefrog. They were grim with determination to free their comrades and to get off this world. They did not fear discovery because the atmosphere of Threefrog held disturbance that caused sensors to be very much useless and worse when it rained. Where they were heading was a little known secret: Lan's Igadzra. It had been submereged in a marsh-like lake some distance from the camp. Kaven had known Lan and they were good friends, though they hadn't seen each other in twelve years.
For hours on end they walked and for a time, they feared they would have to stop. Kaven fell back in the ranks to walk near Lan, who quietly walked without saying a word. He carried the anit-proton riffle as if he understand fully how a riffle could work. "Tell me old friend, are you sure that the Egnigma is still in one piece?"
The Igadzra turned his head to speak, "Kisani, I was there when they built that ship. She will hold together longer than any Zidara ever will. Besides, that ship is our only hope of escaping."
Kaven nodded and dropped the subject. With that he headed up to the front to take lead again.
The small party reached the lake near nightfall. All were weary and tired, but they would have to go on. Their plan hinged on their success of reaching the ship. In the dim light they could see the massive ship sticking partly from the lake some hundered meters from shore. It was a deep lake and the ship was submereged about halfway, although the port airlock was at water level, making it easy to gain access.
"We've found the ship, yet the question remains. Can anyone swim a hundered meters?" The question came from Kale, who stood holding the riffle in his hands. All looked at him with some dawning sense save for Lan.
The large Igadzra merely walked to the shore and moved aside some reeds to show a large raft. "For a special task force, you Kiran are not very smart in considering that Igadzras have no love of marsh-water. Now will you come or stand there looking like some Zidagar fool?" The three Kisani just boarded the raft, not saying a word.
Kaven was the last to board and as he did so grabbed a makeshift paddle after starping the riffle to his back. As he stood next to Lan and started to push off he whispered, "Since when did you know a Zidagar who was a fool and not an idiot?" Lan looked over at the Kisani and grined silently then went back to padeling on his side.
Ripples were formed as the raft moved slowly through the marshy water. Creatures stopped to see this rare and rather unique sight, for no one came out this far. They ignored it and went back to whatever they were doing, leaving the four people to their jobs. It took half an hour to reach the airlock, mostly due to the marsh. As the group reached the airlock, which stuck just above the water at level to the raft, Lan placed his hand on a part of the airlock. There was a small noise as his DNA was read and accepted; after that the airlock started to open but stopped an inch.
Kaven looked at his engineer and said, "Jessa, time to " He was cut off as Lan held up a scaled hand. With a quick and rather strong strike, Lan hit the door and the airlock opened fully up. Jessa leaned next to Kale and whispered, "Kinda reminds you of a Voinian, doesn't it?"
Kale and Jessa started chuckling when Kaven turned around. He merely shook his head and motioned them forward as Lan had already entered. After Kale entered and Jessa passed Kaven, he grabbed her arm and said sternly, "Commander, whatever you do from this point on, do not mention the word Voinian to Lan'ras. That is an order." With that Kaven entered the airlock and vanished from veiw. Jessa's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at Kaven's order and perhaps even warning. Odd, but not important now.
Jessa entered the ship and closed the door. It was cool in the corridors and the lights were barely functioning, but they held steady. The artifcial gravity was still operational so walking would be easy. Up ahead she could see the other three overlooking something. Quickly reaching them she saw that they were trying to get a display console to work. Jessa quickly got through and without an explantaion went to work. She opened up a small hacth beneath the console and reworked some of the relays and wiring; soon enough the console came back up to life. "Never doubt what an engineer can do." Looking at Lan she said, "Captain, if you would."
The Igadzra came up besides Jessa and tapped the display, bringing up the skematics for the ship. Many parts of the ship were different colors and some indicated there were hull breaches to which the EM force fields had failed. Others were devoid of life support systems and some enviromental controls. For the most part though the ship seemed in good conditon. The captain took Kaven aside for a moment and they had a brief discussion. It was short and quick and soon they turned back to the other two.
Kaven spoke up, looking at his two fellow Kiran. "There are three places of import here: the armoury, the weapons bay on deck thirteen, and the port cargobay. The armoury is on this deck and that is where Lan and I will be heading. The cargobay is somewhat cooler then here, so that means Kisani can't go in there without envirosuits. Kale you got that place, so don't forget to get a enviro wristband on the way. Jessa, you have the weaponsbay because there's a engineering console there as well. Don't try bringing on the engines because the core would most likely overload. See what you can do however. Fates be with you."
With that they all broke up and went their separate ways.
Kaven and Lan walked quietly down the halls of the ship. They were alert, for even though the ship was unknown to the Ediens, but they couldn't be careless. They took their time and passed the time by recalling on old times. The two had met long ago as part of the Kisani/Igadzra secret ops mission. Lan had been a warship captain and part of the Council's secret ops force. They had infiltrated a Voinian Cruiser unusually close to the Sirabor and they had been captured and tortured. After that they had been rescued by a Kiran warship and that was when Kaven was recruited. Lan had gone his own way, and although they had kept in contact, it had been some time.
Soon they got to the door of the weapons' room and Lan entered the access code. Kaven figured that there would be a few weapons in there, enough for a crew of an Igazra. How wrong he was. As the door opened up, the lights overhead came on to reveal a massive room filled with many different weapons. Kaven and Lan walked into the room and Kaven gapped in awe.
There were so many weapons that it could fill an entire BattleCruiser's armoury. Lan looked at Kaven and said, "Help yourself, my friend. If you're wondering why I have so many toys, it's part of my payment for running missions for the Fedearation. That and any renegade ship that happens to get in my way is subject to boarding raids." Kaven nodded absently and looked around
Something immedatily caught his eye and he went to a far wall. Set on a small rack were four Kiran blast scepters in rod formation. They were of an older design, some fifty years old. That was a good thing because the staves were somewhat more powerful then the newer designs. "How the drake did you manage to get a hold of a Kiran scepter?" Lan looked over and just shrugged and grabbed a ion disruptor. Kaven looked as his own anti-proton riffle and back at the Kiran staff. Without a further thought he tossed the riffle down and took up one of the rods. "Finally, something that isn't crude as that Edien junk?"
Lan looked over at his friend and said, "You call that riffle crude even though it does massive damage and is high-tech? Over a rod no less ." The Igadzra went silent as Kaven shook the rod and it grew to form a staff.
"This rod is one of the Kiran's more pridefelt creations. They have a multitude of uses from quarterstaff to flashlight to a energy weapon as strong as a quantom field cannon. They might not be as wide ranged as a anti-proton riffle, but they can do have a hell of lot more energy reserve. Besides they're light and not bulky." Lan shook his head and went back to rumaging through the weapons. Kaven brought the staff to rod style again and placed it in the weapons holster of his now ruined uniform. He grabbed the other three and placed them in his belt and looked around.
All around were rare and even highly illegal weaponry. In one part there were out dated phase pistols and a few phase riffles. Next to them were blaze pistols and riffles, which were primitive in design but useful for armour piercing. In the center of the room was a sonic disruptor field piece, which was capable of great damage. Double blasters sat next to disruptors and plasma riffles while EMP gernades lay next to neutron blasters. Something however caught Kaven's eye, and he was drawn to it. As a weapons expert he prided himself on knowing all types of weapons, but this was one he was rather amazed of. Before him on a wall hung a trio of pistols that seemed to be more outdated then others. It was human in nature, dating back to before they had reached First Centauri. It was among their first form of enery weapons, capable of shooting energy and propelling it at great speeds; some settings even vaporized the target. He was impressed bt such creativity and had always wanted one, but they had long gone out of production. It was problematic as it required some material that was rather hard to synthsize then. He picked one up and checked the ammo reserve; it had about twenty-five shots, which meant a full clip. He holstered that and grabbed the other two as well as some extra clips.
Lan smiled as he gathered up a lot of weapons of his own, know his friend's passion for weapons. The large Igadzra took a large pack and placed started throwing in a lot of gernades and weapons and such. He himself wore the anti-proton riffle, an ion disrupotor riffle, many phase pistols and even quite a few neutron and EMP gernades. The sacks he was filling up held more creative weapons and he picked up Kaven's discarded riffle and placed it in a harness strapped to his back. Kaven started doing the same by gathering up many things in a few sacks. Soon the room was somewhat less empty then it had been.
"Well, Kaven, it would seem we have enough weapons to take on an entire infantry unit. Too bad it isn't enough." Kaven nodded and tapped a com panel near him. It fized and then went online.
"Ok, Kiran, we're coming to weapons bay. Kale, find all you need and meet us there." That done, Kaven and Lan left the armoury.
Kale entered the cargo bay port, his riffle raised for anything. So far after picking up a enviroband, he had run into many damn creatures that had rather big teeth. They were dead and gone by now and Kale's riffle was warm from fire. The air was rather cold, colder then normaly considered cold. At that tempature, Kisani were rather weakened and could die after several hours if not quickly warmed. Yet the band around his wrist was activated to protect him from such things.
He stepped into the bay and in minutes was looking around for things. There were a few anti-grav pads and a lot of cargo crates. Kale took a pryer and opened the lid of one such crate and looked inside. A grin spread across the Kisani's face as he said, "I owe you all one for this "
Jessa slammed her fist into the console as it died at the last moment. It would never work again and it was so much for the better. Sighing, she looked up to see a bunch of shadowed objects. Aiming a lamp over in their direction, she grinned at what had been discovered. They were SAE modules, all unfired. Some twelve were still there and Jessa was on it within minutes.
She was through the last one when Kaven and Lan entered the room. She looked up, her face lit with an idea. Looking at Kaven she said, "Sir, the console is dead but I did manage to find these. Only four modules are working and the others are mostly duds. One of them is still useful but somewhat unstable; we can still salvage the warhead to use but it'll be tricky to do. The problems are we need to find a way to move them."
Kaven nodded as he took a belt from his shoulder and tossed it to Jessa. On it was a blast scepter, two phase pistols, an enegy pistol, and clips for both guns. Jessa caught it and looked at it for a moment before strapping it across her waist. She smiled and said jokingly, "What no flowers or engineer tools?"
Kaven gave her a smile and said, "Very funny, Jessa, very funny. Now do you have any idea on how to move " Kaven was cut off as something loud sounded near the doorway. Igazdra and Kisani spinned around with weapons at the ready only to see Kale standing there holding a handlink.
Kale placed it on his wrist and said, "I missed you guys, too. Before you shoot me, I have gifts." He tapped the link and into the massive doorway came four long antigrav pads, on one of which were two crates. He looked at Lan and said, "You have some intresting cargo, Captain. It's not every day I find personal shield emmiters. Not to mention these And the visor works ." He reached into a crate and pulled out two devices, one a gernade and the other a visor-like device. Everyone in the room knew what they were.
One was a pulse gernade, akin to a small space mine. The other was a complex device, capable of controling many things with a complex signal, among these things a starship. The visor was a very rare thing and they were little seen. Both were illegal but the visor was somewhat needed.
Kaven looked at Lan and said, "It is amazing what one finds in a cargo bay isn't it? Not that it matters, now." He turned to Kale and said, "I want you and Jessa to load up the modules onto the device two at a time. Kale, you're an expert in your field so you can play with the visor when we get near the camp. Until then, you rig these pads to launch the modules as well as carry them."
Kale nodded and soon he and Jessa got to work. Soon the things were ready, and the rigging finished. It took less then half an hour and they had done one other thing as well; taken the unstable warhead and placed it inside one modual for a great deal bigger bang. With that finished the group moved out. They had a lot of ground to cover.
An Edien soldier groaned as the rain came down. He hated the rain but had to stand in it because it was his duty shift. He stood on guard near the barracks and wacthed as his fellow soldiers went inside barracks and the mess hall for lunch or work. It was the changing of wacthes for much of them and as well did their jobs accordingly. He yawned and looked up to curse at the rain that got him wet when the Edien saw a strange orange object come spiraling down towards the barracks. He stared blankly at it for a moment before it dawned on him that it was a SAE module and tried to call out a general alert. He was too late as the module crashed into the barracks and the world became fire. The barracks were, needless to say, blown to hell and back. Alarms went up almost instantly, but it didn't stop as three others came crashing down into the command area, shipyards where all the defense fleet for that camp were stationed, and the mess hall.
That was the beginning as the Ediens tried to figure out things in the chaos. Then and there, the slaves started to fight back admist the chaos.
It was time to take back their freedom.
"That was the last of them, Kaven. We charge now or never." The voice of Lan shook Kaven from his onlook of the explosions. The Kisani nodded and looked over at Kale, who in turn nodded and placed the visor on his head. All were now heavily armed and had personal shield grids about them, which would take a full blast of a anti-proton riffle before going out.
Kaven looked at Jessa and she said, "Better now then never. It's time we show that they can't take slaves." Kaven smiled and clapped her on the back. With a nod to Lan, all three went surging forth, weapons at the ready. They rushed down through the camp's borders, and had no worry of mine fields as the command center that controled them was nothing but ashes. Indeed they were nothing more then expensive paper wieghts.
The Ediens that stood guard over the inner borders never saw the three coming as their attention was focused on the explosions and riots. They quickly fell to the blasts of weapons fire as the three former prisoners rushed forward. At that point the three broke off and headed different directions. Kaven headed straight for the main battle.
He holstered his blast scepter and took up two energy pistols that he had been drawn to. He rushed two Edien soldiers and fired both blasters, which hurled bolts of energy and bore into them like so much paper. The soldiers were flung back and were dead before they landed. Kaven headed on all the while, firing his pistols as he went and taking down a good few Ediens. As he came up the side of a small rise, a blast of anti-proton energy hit his shield and it went offline. Before him was a rather large Edien who grinned wickedly. Kaven just smiled and with a leap, flipped over the now confused Edien, firing his blasters as he went. The Edien merely dropped and died then and there. At that point, both blasters were empty and Kaven merely flung them aside. Pulling his sceptar Kaven shook it and brought it to full size. He leveled it and fired at a large group of Edien soldiers. The blast fired was similar to that of a quantum field cannon and it shook the very ground and took out a good deal many Ediens.
Kaven suddenly jerked as he felt searing pain hit him. He turned around to see an Edien holding a riffle and grinning. At that moment, Kaven cried out, "For Draven!" At that point, he fell to the ground dead. The Edien grinned some more but he didn't last long as a sudden bolt of anti-proton fire hit him. Lan stood over the fallen Kisani and said, "Rest in peace my friend. You died for a good cause." At that the Igazdra went back into battle, firing two double blasters as he went.
The shipyards were in wreck as many ships suffered massive damage from the SAE, which happened to be equiped with the two warheads. Many would be unable to launch off and those that could would find a little surprise waiting for them. Onboard the only battlecruiser, the captain ordered launch off to put an end to this mayham when his helms officer said, "Sir, we have a problem."
The captain was about to ask when the computer's voice said, "Auto-destruct in two, one " A single scream was let out and then the battlecrusier was no more. There was a massive explosion in the shipyard as the edien ship exploded from core breach. It took a few other ships with it.
Kale smiled from afar as he veiwed the systems through the visor. He quickly blazed through many a dozen systems and taking down ships with a good deal of work. He then crept upon the idea of something and went into the systems of one destroyer and took off the life-support systems and sent it on a special course with certain orders. "This is just too much fun!"
The battle raged on with a stalemate in progress. That soon changed when the very world shook and the sky flared. If anyone looked up for a moment, they could see a jump point open inside the atmosphere. There was a few shouts as very few people dared attempt such a thing. The jump point closed and in the distance of the sky a ship appeared. It was of a design not seen in some ten years or more. It was that of an UE destroyer and she had been modified.
Onboard, the human captain looked at the veiw screen of the battle and smiled grimly. Turning to his weapons officer, a brawny Zidagar, and said, "Lieutentant, targer coordinates 12 by 7, mark 3 and fire subspace missiles."
That spot was a rather large gathering of Ediens some ways from the main battle. Without hestitaion the Zidagar nodded and hit the console. "Away missiles, sir. Impact about oh now, sir." Indeed they reached the mark and there was a big explosion as two missiles hit. Soon the smoke cleared and there was but a large crater where once there were Ediens.
The captain turned to the Zidagar and said, "Lt, open fire on any pockets of Ediens and target carefully with quantum turrets and forward cannons." The Zidagar nodded and replied, "Quantum fire, aye." With that, all hell broke loose on the Edien forces.
The battle was over and soon the camp was rid of all Ediens. The slaves had taken heavy casulties, but it was a small price for freedom. All remaining slaves were boarded onto the destroyer, which would become rather packed. Jessa stood on the bridge, her face spread in a sad smile. She had heard some good news from Kale that overcame the loss of many friends. Kale had sent a destroyer on a course for the other slave camp, which was also rebelling at the time. One other ship had jumped into the atmosphere at the same time the destroyer had. It had been a destroyer as well and the camp had taken similar casualites. Needless to say however, in the end the Kiran had beaten back and some many thousand slaves were free once more. Three rather packed ships, one of them an Edien destroyer stolen by a group of slaves, burst from the orbit of Threefrog and entered slipstream before taking any real enemy fire.
In that, the Ediens had taken a rather embarising blow and lost many men and slaves. The ships that had aided and rescused them couldn't be found at the time, and when they would finally appear, it would be deep in Federation territory
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(url="http://"http://pub51.ezboard.com/fquillzfrm4.showMessage?topicID=10.topic")A Pilot's memory(/url)
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
