Machine Story

Prison Break

The prison where the queen was held captive was located in the slums of Corrinth. This area was where all the lower class were kept. The living conditions here were less than ideal, infested with rats, bugs, and garbage throughout the streets. It was the ideal location to hide a prison where few would be brave enough to tread.

After maneuvering through the unsanitary roads, they arrived at the outskirts of the prison. The jail was massive and heavily reinforced with steel. There was a tall prison tower that foresaw the entire area. They knew their first priority was to take control of that tower in order to save the queen.

Shaan climbed to a high point on a building and used his weapon to scope out the layout of the prison. He identified where all the blind spots were, along with the number of guards surveilling on the outside. Everything else on the inside was completely unknown to him. Thankfully, Mya has had some recollection of the inside of the prison. She was taken there a long time ago as Shen showed her around for one of her birthdays. “Wow, some birthday gift.” Shaan commented.

Once Shaan was finished scouting the prison, Mya created a quick sketch of the interior of the prison. With this information they began to formulate a plan. They needed a way to get through the entrance. Once they were granted access, they would need to occupy the prison tower to prevent further reinforcement from being called. While the small force held the fort at the tower, a break-in squad could traverse into the dungeon to search for the queen and break her free.

They went over the plan again to make sure everyone knew their roles. As they were about to separate, David brought up an objection. “Um, I think you guys forgot something. What am I going to be doing?” Everyone scratched their heads, trying to avoid answering David but Niall pulled him aside.

“David, we didn’t forget you. In fact, we have an extremely important mission for you! While we are inside, we need you to protect Anaya! You never know who they will send after she helped Mya and Shaan escape. It's a tough task that I could only trust you with!”

After hearing Niall’s proposition, David felt encouraged and promised Niall that he would not let him down. He quickly turned away to prepare himself mentally and while he was gone, everyone else approached Niall. They were all impressed by how he handled the situation. No one else could figure out how to tell him that without his robotic powers, he could really put himself in danger or make their rescue mission more complicated.

It was a rainy night and a few minutes before midnight. Everyone was in position and ready for the moment to strike. The security light from the prison tower made its usual rotation and shone through the outskirts of the prison. As it continued its pattern, it revealed a lady traveling with her cart, appearing to make a delivery to the prison.

Two guards stood tall with their spear in hand ready to approach the stranger. One of them stepped forward and held out his hand, “Halt who goes there?” Atana stopped in immediately, “Special delivery! I’m here to bring an important package to the warden. Direct orders from the councilor himself!”

The two guards looked at each other confused. They weren’t told about any special deliveries. One of the guards gave her a glare and commanded her to step aside. Atana moved away as the guard flipped the lid of the cart over to reveal a bunch of sugary goods.

“Look what you've done! You are getting all these sweets completely wet! We got to close it immediately!” Atana rushed to close the hatch but the guard firmly stopped her. He told her the search was not over, and he began to raise his spear up and run it through the content. Atana began to sweat as she didn’t know what to do, but right before the guard struck with his weapon, his comrade yelled, “Wait! Is that the famous Sugar Corn right there?” The guard halted his attack and Atana cheerfully replied, “Why yes it is! Would you like to try some?” The guard eagerly nodded and held out his hand to receive.

After the first guard was given some Sugar Corn, he passed some to his buddy who initially rejected it but caved in. They both enjoyed a handful of Sugar Corn and were very pleased with the taste. Once they were finished and satisfied, they allowed Atana to enter through with her cart so she could share the sweets with every guard in the prison.

She turned around to thank both the guards for allowing her to enter. Both the guards waved to acknowledge her kindness but as they were about to return to their post, they suddenly felt extremely drowsy and fell to the ground fast asleep.

Atana quietly walked up and poked them to make sure they wouldn’t wake up before knocking on her cart. Roop popped out of the cart and saw the two guards sounded asleep. He immediately moved towards the prison tower and waited for the right moment before throwing his chains up into the air.

As the clock struck midnight, the loud bell noise covered the sound of his chain hitting against the railings. Once he had a firm grip, he began climbing up to reach the top of the tower. While Roop was scaling up, one of the guards roaming around the prison tower spotted the chain. He moved towards the suspicious looking item but before he could make any movement to alert his unit, Shaan popped out of the cart and fired a tranquilizer dart on the guard’s neck This silenced him for good, allowing Roop to climb onto the platform and proceed into the control room.

Inside the control room, were two guards whose main duty was to make sure everything in the tower was operational. However, guard work could be dull at times and so these two guards were gossiping about the other guards and asking what their plans were for the weekend.

Before either of them could share their plans, Roop burst through the door and whipped his chains around both the guards. He made sure he fully restrained them to prevent them from alerting reinforcements. Once he pulled them away from the controls, he knocked them both unconscious and signaled everyone that the coast was clear.

Once Roop gave the signal, Shaan began to move up towards the tower. Meanwhile, Atana opened the entrance to let Mya and Niall into the prison. She then lockpick the door that led to the dungeon so the three of them could proceed to rescue the queen. That left Roop and Shaan to surveil the premises and prevent interference from getting in their way.

Atana, Niall and Mya continued through the corridor, avoiding unnecessary attention. There were guards throughout the vicinity and one false move could alert the whole fleet towards them. Mya continued leading them through the area until they came onto an area that had tighter security than the previous area they were in.

Just taking a quick survey of nearby guards, Atana counted a total of four they would have to take out without waking up the entire hornet’s nest. Niall directed Atana to follow him while Mya stayed in her current spot.

Once Niall and Atana were in position, Mya threw some rocks to alert the guards. The four guards argued before forcing one of them to check on the noise. The lonely guard approached the area where the noise was heard. He found nothing but then proceeded to turn the corner where all the other guards lost sight of him.

One of the three stationary guards called out to him to see if he required any assistance. There was a huge lag in response, “I’m okay!” However, the tone and delay raised suspicion to the other three guards. So the three guards began to draw out their spears and cautiously advance towards where their missing comrade went.

Right after they passed a certain point, Atana and Niall ambushed the two guards in the rear. The guard in the front immediately turned around and was about to shout for reinforcement but with his back now facing Mya, she bursted in and quietly covered his mouth. Simultaneously, Atana, Niall, and Mya knocked out their respective guards.

They were now free to continue their search for the queen but before they could advance, Mya told them to wait as she had something to say. As she was about to speak, the guard behind the corner with Mya earlier reappeared and put Niall on high alert. Niall dashed right at the guard with his weapon ready to strike but Mya jumped in between, halting his attack.

“Wait Niall let me explain! This one isn’t like the other guards! His name is Paco and he is one of the royal guards of Queen Samiya! We can trust him!” As he heard his name being called, the little guard raised his helmet to see, “Hello!” he said in excitement.

The guard’s innocent and calm demeanor allowed Niall to relax and withdraw his sword. Mya turned to ask Paco if he knew where the queen was being kept. Paco’s English was not very strong so he pointed with his finger at a jail cell not too far away from them, “Viraaj, help Viraaj!”

Niall threw his hands up, “Oh great he doesn’t understand us at all! We don’t have time to be rescuing random people right now!” Mya rushed to the cell and took a look at the small glass panel to see who was inside. She saw someone she recognized but he was chained up and heavily injured.

“Atana, can you break through this lock?” As Atana was inspecting the locking mechanism, Niall rushed in reminding them that they were on a time crunch but Mya stood her ground. “Niall the man in there is Viraaj, he is the captain of the royal guards and a trusted ally of the queen and me. We have to get him out.”

Realizing they were only wasting time by arguing, Niall allowed Atana to proceed to lock picking the door. It only took her a couple minutes before the door opened up and Paco rushed to check to see if Viraaj was okay.

Paco quickly gave them a thumbs up to indicate that Viraaj was breathing. Mya let out a huge sigh of relief but the moment of calmness would not last long. All of a sudden, the alarm in the prison began to sound.

Niall, Atana and Mya looked at each other confused as to who could have pulled the alarm. They looked at where they knocked out the three guards and saw that one of them had regained their consciousness and pulled the alarm trigger.

After the guard had raised the alarm, Niall ran up to knock out the guard in aggravation. “Oops, sorry that was my guard.” Atana said nervously. Niall was unamused. He tried to get everyone out before the place would be swarming with soldiers but it was too late. Guards throughout the prison were converging on their location from all directions.

Niall, Mya, and Atana quickly formed a triangle formation with their backs to one another. “So do you think they will let us go if we offer them all some candy?” Atana asked jokingly. However, Niall and Mya were not in the mood for jokes. Mya still wanted to rescue the queen but Niall’s priority was for them to get out alive.

They were in quite the dilemma and they weren’t given much time to think as a group of soldiers began to charge at them. Out of nowhere they were struck from the side and knocked out of battle. Niall, Atana and Mya turned their attention to the person who had helped them, Viraaj.

He had awoken from his slumber and slammed his fist, indicating that he was ready for a brawl. “Thanks for breaking me out, let me repay you by taking out these goons.” He spoke with confidence. “Uh, there are a lot of them, are you sure you won’t need help or anything?” Atana questioned skeptically.

Mya tapped Atana on the shoulder to let her know that Viraaj could handle the soldiers. He was given the title of captain of the royal guards for a reason. “The queen should be further down the hall to the right.” He told them. Mya thanked Viraaj for his help, before running off with Atana and Niall to where the queen was being held.

With the three gone, Viraaj turned around to face the oncoming wave of guards. He picked up two spears from the fallen guards and handed one of them over to Paco. “Cover my back Paco!” He yelled. And Paco followed closely behind with joy, “OKAY!”