The Escape

[KeCholo]

drip

drip

drip


Water dripped from the vent above Ke'Cholo's bed onto the floor below. There was a small leak somewhere in the air ducts, which caused a steady stream of water droplets to flow down during both day and night. Originally an annoyance, this sound (which was like clockwork) eventually turned therapeutic, at least that's what Ke'Cholo told himself it had become. He had to convince himself he actually enjoyed walking on the damp floors, the above average humidity, and splashing into the occasional puddle. He would've fixed this already, by simply cutting into the vent and tightening a valve or plugging a leak, but prison wardens aren't too keen on handing out plasma cutters to prisons. And that's what Ke'Cholo was, prisoner 1175-87 to the guards, the other prisoner's and the warden.

He thumbed through the prison newspaper he had received with his lunch, looking into the job positions, deaths, and other excuses for actual news that were in there. Bored, he flipped quickly through the last few pages when something caught his eye. He turned back a few pages and picked up what he saw. It was a solid white piece of paper, no bigger than a finger, with writing on it. ''A loose piece of news paper?'' he asked himself. Surely not, the newspaper was made of a flimsy, dingy, yellowish paper, the paper the note was made out of was white as snow.

He flipped over the piece of paper and read the inscription. ''Tomorrow, before lunch, stand by door, plug ears.'' Ke'Cholo stared at the paper, was this a joke? A false sense of hope or perhaps someone warning him about an inspection? Surely not an attempt to break him out of prison, Ke'Cholo was in a maximum security on Tatooine, or was it Coruscant? He had been bussed around to so many different prisons he had lost track of where he was at. If even he didn't know where he was at, how would anyone else know?

 

[KeCholo]

Day turned to night and night turned to day again.

Ke'Cholo woke up and began his work out routine. Other than sleep, working out and keeping his body in shape took up the majority of his time. He started with several hundred sit ups, several hundred push ups, and then delved into more obscure work out regimens. By the time he had finished, his wind up clock said it was 5 minutes until breakfast. The prison preferred old and outdated technology when it came to what the prisoners could use. Every prisoner had a wind up clock, two jumpsuits, a bed, and a calendar. Ke'Cholo ate up the slop and sat down for a moment to let his food settle.As he rested in his bed, his eyes wandered over to his calendar. Today was his ''weekly excursion'' (that is to say, today he was allowed in the enclosed prison yard for one hour. Every week, on the 5th day, one hour before lunch, he was transported by a guard to the prison yard for one hour.

Ke'Cholo still had an hour and a half to piddle around in his room. He worked out some more, flipped through some more old newspapers and rested on his bed some. After doing all this, he looked at his clock, one minute until the guard would arrive.

 

[KeCholo]

The door slammed opened and a figure stood in the doorway. Ke'Cholo was blinded by the light from the corridor, and was only able to make out a vague shape of the figure. The shape, for one reason or another seemed oddly familiar. The figure was silent and motionless, leading Ke'Cholo to believe it was a droid of some sort. ''Come with me if you want to live'' said a voice that sounded...overly robotic and very forced. Ke'Cholo's eyes finally adjusted to the light, revealing the figure to be ''Ed'' Ke'Cholo's EDG

Ed burst into laughter. ''I-I-I got you so good'' The droid continued to laugh, as Ke'Cholo became a mixture of confused and hopeful. ''I wish I could see that face again...oh wait...I CAN!'' the droid pointed to the photorecpetors on his head. ''Ed, what the kark are you doing here.'' Ke'Cholo inquired. ''Bustin' you outta this tin can-put these on.'' Ed threw back his cloak to reveal a large box filled with clothing and weapons. ''My stuff!'' Ke'Cholo exclaimed ''Where'd ya get it?!'' he said, unzipping his jumpsuit and almost diving into his clothes. ''Evidence locker, where else would you expect?''

In a few moments, Ke'Cholo had put back on his old rags and slipped his weapons into their proper place. ''How are we getting out of here? Let me guess, dive town the garbage shoot and wait to be shipped off world?''

''I'm not sure, to be honest. Qaeth tried to bust you out for the first year you were in the can'' Ed explained ''That's why they moved you around so much. Eventually he gave up and asked [member="Miss Blonde"] to help get you out. I've been in deep cover here for the past 8 months, they found a way to tell me to get you out of your cell today and be ready.''

''When are they coming?''

''Right now.''

 

[Miss Blonde]

Miss Blonde was retired, she lived a simple life with her kids, and she did her best to keep up with it. There was only one problem, she hated it. Slowly she grew to resent this life, to resent the choices she made and the person she had become. She was a lion who had been declawed, a savage who had been dulled and turned into an every day cog in an otherwise meaningless machine. But what she hated the most was the fact of how badly she needed the danger of her previous life. How she truly felt alive, as if she was queen of the Galaxy. Now of days she drove a minivan and changed diapers, but deep down she knew this wasn't for her. There was this ugliness splattered across her soul. A burning need to kill and destroy and see the world crumble from her actions. To take and steal, to walk up to someone and forcibly remove from them everything of value. Those emotions and thoughts scared her more than anything, but she accepted that they were real.

So when the call was made for her to bust out Ke'Cholo from prison, she took the opportunity. Truth be told she never really liked the guy, at one point she had even had a contingency plan to put a bullet in the back of his head if he had ever gone too far off the deep end. Though now she couldn't blame the man, she had become this twisted patchwork of abandoned morality and nihilism that had ended the lives of so many innocents for the sake of money and entertainment. So she wasn't about to leave the guy hanging if it meant she could get her fix of mayhem and destruction.

"I want this operation to be clean. We have the tracker on our inside man. Secure the package and then exfil." A cold and robotic laced voiced said over the comms.

Tatooine, the desert planet where KeCholo was being held. A maximum security prison located out in the dune sea where almost no life could exist naturally. But even still, intelligent life had to pump it's artificial life sustaining measures in order for a place like this to exist. Cold air, bottled water, the creature comforts of modern day society that allowed prisoners to be kept alive in a harsh environment.

Luckily for said prisoners it was laundry day and making its way out to the dune and pulling its way up to the security checkpoint in back, a large cargo van ground to a complete stop. Quickly a guard stepped up to the tinted windows and tapped gently on it. Slowly the darkened glass rolled down to reveal the barrel of a large caliber Slugthrower that took no time in discharging a round into the guard's face. Blood and gore splattered onto the ground behind him and pulling forward the Van made its way towards the rear of the prison.

Halting once more the door opened and a woman in a black suit and tie stepped out to adjust her tie and straighten her gas mask. Miss Blonde was on the scene and she was excited to break something for the fun of it.

[member="KeCholo"]

 

[KeCholo]

''Where's Blondie?'' Ke'Cholo asked, sprinting down the long, empty corridors. Ed had trouble keeping up, but did his best. ''[member="Miss Blonde"] has gained access to the facility, that's all I know.'' The two sprinted through the prison, darting between corridors until they arrived at a guard station. The door to the station was open and populated by at least seven guards, all armed with weapons varying from stun baton to rifles. The guards immediately noticed Ke'Cholo and Ed, and fumbled for their weapons. Ke'Cholo reached for his gunbelt and quickly felt all around it. ''Where are my karking grenades!?'' Ke'Cholo shouted at the absence of his explosive ordinances. Ke'Cholo glanced up and the guards with batons were already charging him while the ones with rifles took aim. Thinking quickly, Ke'Cholo reached for his Phrik Wester 34's. Pistols in hand, Ke'Cholo haphazardly sprayed the station with them, moving from the outside in.

click

click

click

click

He was out of ammo. Ke'Cholo pressed the eject button on the back of the gun, violently shook the pistols down to expel the spent ammo and then loaded two more power cells. He had raised his sightline quick enough to see Ed throw his electrostaff into the torso of the last remaining guard. Ke'Cholo walked over to the guard and aimed his pistol at his head.

''Wait!'' Ed proclaimed.

THOOOM

Too late, Ke'Cholo had already decided to pull the trigger.

''You didn't need to do that.'' Ed said, clutching his electro-staff from the now headless guard.

''Don't matter, already killed the rest of them.'' Ke'Cholo said, picking up a stationary transmiter.

''Frequency 7225''

Ke'Cholo turned the dial to the proper frequency number. ''Blondie, Blondie, you there? Can you hear me? We're in guard station 8, come get us.''

 

[Miss Blonde]

The words of the commlink echoed off cold and silent stone floors of the penitentiary. Silence reigned throughout its walls only to be broken by the cold and methodical footsteps of a woman on a warpath leaving bodies within her wake, and there were plenty of bodies left. Twisted necks and crushed throats coupled with the bullet riddled corpses of guards stained the pavement red as Miss Blonde paced down the cell block to get to the secondary guard station where KeCholo had found himself.

"We're on our way. Three minutes." She said with the utmost confidence.

As the woman made her way through the cellblock, the prisoners made no noise. No shouts of joy at the sight of the guard's collective and brutal deaths. No cheers or bodes of confidence towards Miss Blonde, only silence over the terror she had brought with her. A sinking and dreadful aura that filled them with the primordial instinct to remain deathly quiet for fear of being hunted down and slaughtered. And they were all very right to have that sense of fear, Miss Blonde was not one to be trifled with.

So [member="KeCholo"] would have to wait a bit longer as Blonde made her way to him.