Ask The Heart is an Arrow

[Song Wren]

The Muun looked up at Song and she could see the effort it cost him. The mere act of raising his head had nearly taxed him of every ounce of energy he had left in him. Some combination of the cold and Valeska’s punishment had driven the rest from him. But Song was glad for her partner’s invitation. She was still irritated at how poorly their mission had gone, and it was clear taking it out on Valeska wasn’t going to yield results. Perhaps this Muun would serve as a reasonable enough replacement.

“You don’t look any more capable than she is,” the Muun said, referring to Val. “You’ll have her luck too, then.”

That was all the challenge Song needed. “Very well. Let’s give it a spin, shall we? We’ll start with a name and work our way up from there.” She took a measured step towards the prisoner. He flinched, but said nothing. He was expecting another beating. Song smirked beneath her mask. “Don’t worry. I won’t beat you. That’s a rather primitive method of interrogation.” She cast a pointed look toward Val. “No offense.”

The Muun was watching her closely as she crossed the cargo bay toward him. He was still trying to give off the impression that he wasn’t afraid of her, what she would do to him, but Song could see the fear hidden beneath the bravado. Val had done a number on him, and Song looked stronger, more intimidating. Good. It wasn’t her style to beat a man, no matter how much he may deserve it; and she’d prefer to end this without getting blood on her armor.

“Last chance,” Song warned, and then for emphasis, picked up a nearby hydrospanner and thumbed the activation stud. “Believe me, I have a big imagination and a lot of ideas for how to use this.”

The Muun remained, but only for a moment longer. “Just a name?”

Song shrugged. “It’s a start.”

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

“Barxt.”

Val blinked twice under her helmet as the Muun uttered his name for the first time and immediately wished she hadn’t heard it. Some alien species had weird naming schemes, but, out of a long list, Muuns by far were the most exotic she had encountered. And that list included the Hutts. She paced over to Barxt, who flinched again the moment her armor glinted in the corner of his vision.

“For the record,” she said, pointing briefly at Song, “I didn’t know he was named that before I plucked him.” Then to the Muun, she added, “We need to know what security is like up at the Ice Court. Don’t spare any details.”

Barxt blanched at her, and for a split second, she thought he might laugh at her. “A name is one thing,” he replied, “but why in the Force would I give you all of that? I’d assuredly be killed if the banking council knew I’d talked.”

“Imagine what we’ll do to you if you don’t talk and use that to weigh your options.” For emphasis, Val nodded to the still-active hydrospanner in Song’s hands.

Barxt looked between the two Mandalorians, lingering too long on the hydrospanner, before sighing. “Fine. I’ll talk. But just to her.” He indicated Song with a nod of his head. “She had the good sense not to beat me half to death.”

Annoyed, Val shrugged. “She didn’t have to dive off a cliff to keep you from making Muun soup out of yourself. If she had, she’d beat you too.” Still, she knew what she had to do now, glancing at Song. “I’ll be in the cockpit. Wake me when you have something interesting.”

@Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

Song watched Valeska leave the cargo hold with quiet amusement. It wasn’t that she had an objection to using violence in interrogations; she was a Mandalorian after all. But there was some satisfaction in winning the Muun over with pure intimidation and winning against Val at the same time. Her smile disappeared, though, the moment she regarded their prisoner. He had been smug until now. Not anymore. “Alright,” she said. “Valeska’s gone. Tell me everything you know about the Ice Vault and its defenses, right now.”

The Muun took a long moment to answer. “It’s impenetrable. Even if you manage to get in, there’s no hope of you escaping.”

“Nope, wrong answer.” Song knelt, holding the business end of her hydrospanner to the tip of the Muun’s chin. “Would you like to try again?” Barxt was sweating. She didn’t know Muun’s could sweat. “Fine. If you’re so keen to die, who am I to stop you? But getting in is a lot harder than you think it will be. Guards patrol the walls, the towers, the grounds. There isn’t a blind spot.”

“There’s always a blind spot.”

“Oh yeah? Those TIEs your friend blew up? There’s more of them, and much more current models, in the air above the Vault. Your jetpacks are no use.”

“Wasn’t planning on using mine anyways.”

“Only Muuns can go in freely, since they’re the only employees the Vault hires. The only other intakes are prisoners.” Song sat up straight. A plan began to formulate in her mind as the Muun continued, “The Ice Vault has a prison wing for those caught trying to enter. It is the highest security prison in this sector.”

And she and Valeska had just blown up a small town on its outskirts. It was perfect. They could get “caught” for their crimes and brought right into the Vault itself. Escaping would be hairy, since Song didn’t imagine they’d be allowed to keep their armor, but that didn’t mean it was inescapable. “Noted,” Song said. “And now I want you to tell me every last detail you know about the prison sector. No detail is too mundane.”

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Val sat in the co-pilot’s seat in the cockpit of Song’s clunker of a starship, wondering out at the white wastes and waiting for news from below. All things considered, this was the most fun she’d had in many months. Song wasn’t like the other Mandalorians she’d met in her life. She was easy to be around, and she was a killer in battle, even if she didn’t want to beat up that punk ass Muun. Being left out of the interrogation smarted, but Val hated talking anyways. It’d be fun when she got to blow shit up again.

The thought had no more than left her mind when a trail of white smoke out the front viewport caught her eye. Ahead, a pair of much newer TIE models were sailing down on the prisoner village they’d just assaulted. Song might have taken out their comms, but it had been too little too late. Someone back at the Ice Vault had heard what they had done.

Val launched out of her seat and swung down the wobbly pole that led from the cockpit into the cargo bay. She found Song there, much closer to the Muun prisoner than she had been when Val had left them, holding her hydrospanner to the prisoner’s neck.

“Look,” she said, “I don’t mean to interrupt… whatever this is, but we’re gonna have company soon. TIEs just went down back at the prison. We have minutes before they’re patrolling this area.”

@Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

“Minutes are all we need,” Song replied. “Barxt here just gave me some very important details, and we’ll need our TIE friends to see it through.”

She walked Val through what she’d learned. The bit about prisoners being taken in, how they could use their unfortunate wanton destruction of the prison itself as a ruse to get taken into the Ice Vault, and how the ship getting impounded could help them escape when they finally had what they’d come for. It was a crazy plan, but the one most likely to ensure they both made it out of this mission alive.

“You’re entirely mad,” Barxt said when he’d heard her plan. “There’s no way you’ll ever escape the Ice Vaults!”

“That is the second time you’ve said as much, and it is just as ridiculous as the first time you said it. Why don't you be quiet and leave the logistics to the professionals?” She looked at Valeska. “Are you in or out?” Of course the other Mandalorian would be in. Valeska was more prone to prison riots and breakouts and heists than Song had ever felt the predisposition to be. More importantly, there was no surviving this, as the Barxt had said, unless the both of them worked together simultaneously.

After all, one Mandalorian could crack a safe. But two? They could crack open a fortress. The Alternative had no idea what was coming for them.

 

[Valeska Kryze]

“Of course I’m in,” Val said flippantly, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “But like I said last time—I get the fun shit this time. And that means I get to free the ship from impound once we’re done in the Vault.”

“Do you really think that’s going to happen? Do you understand the layers of security between the prison block and the Vault? Between the Vault and the impound bay?!” Barxt sounded furious, but Val replied by drawing her blaster.

“And another thing,” she said, switching the blaster to stun mode with a flick of her thumb. She fired once, sending a blue circle of energy into their prisoner’s body. “Next time stun him when you’re finished. We don’t want him talking if our plan is to get this ship impounded.”

The Muun slumped over, unconscious. Val had no idea how long it too for Muuns to wake up from a stunning, but it was better than just leaving him there to bark on the ground.

“Help me get him into the brig cells,” Val said, sinking down to snatch the prisoner up around his ankles. “We don’t have much time until the party arrives.”

They had no more than done just that when the familiar whine of TIEs sounded in the distance. The patrol was on its way. There was no going back now.

@Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

“Gods,” she muttered as they carried the Muun into the brig. “He weighs about as much as a log. Couldn’t you just have tricked him into the cell then stunned him?” She sighed. There would be no answer as they heard the distant whine of approaching TIE fighters, clearly targeting their position. She’d prayed the ship was camouflaged enough among the snow, but there was her poor crash landing to blame.

Once the Muun was secure in the brig, and the sound of enemy ships were practically echoing off the canyon walls, Song turned to Valeska and said, “Remember, we have to make this look real. If a couple of Mandalorians surrender upfront, they’ll know we’re up to something.” Not that Valeska needed to be told twice to raise hell. It looked like she was salivating at the idea of shooting at more Muuns, and for once, Song had to agree.

Besides, the more eager she appeared, the more convincing their capture would be.

The whining died down as the enemy fighters landed nearby. Song counted a beat, two, three. She got to ten before she heard shouts coming from outside. “Unidentified craft, lower your boarding ramp and prepare for inspection!”

Song drew her weapon, preparing for the ensuing boarding fight, but stayed silent. Val was the type for bluster, not her. She’d trained to hunt in the icy wilderness on Krownest, tracking animals in the dead of winter, where even the smallest, muffled step could signal her location. So instead, she lurked in the shadows, the barrel of her weapon trained on the ramp, bracing for the Muuns to forcibly enter. All the while, she cast a sideways glance at Valeska, nodding at her only once.

The one and only signal they shared. Let them have it.

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Unidentified craft, lower your boarding ramp and prepare for inspection!

“How about fuck you!” Val shouted at the Muuns knocking at their ramp. She had intended to rile them up, force their hand. She might as well have fun doing it. “I’ll bet you don’t even have a boxcutter in that ship of yours. No way you’re getting in here!”

“We can vaporize you if you’d like,” another voice shouted. “After what you did to the village, you more than deserve it!”

Val smashed the button to lower the ship’s loading ramp with her fist, then reached for her own weapon. “You can damn well try it!”

The moment the ramp had lowered enough for Val to see her soon-to-be captors, she opened fire. Her first shot caught the nearest one between the eyes, killing him instantly. She wasn’t sure how real Song wanted this shootout to be, but she was determined to make it as real as possible. Killing one or two of them would really sell the criminal element, and relieve some of the steam that had been building in her.

The Muun pilots returned fire, one shot ricocheting off her beskar armor and frying a hole into the ceiling of the cargo hold. Val shot that one too, this time in the shoulder. He went down screaming like a baby. “They just don’t build soldiers like Mandalorians do,” she remarked to Song before continuing fire.

@Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

Song had to admit, the Kryze seemed a little too eager in antagonizing the Muuns, considering the slurs and insults she hurled their way. She suspected it had to do with the prisoner currently facedown in the lower brig, which was perfectly reasonable, but the last thing either of them needed was to be vaporized on the spot. If they wanted to break into the Ice Vault, they’d have to be captured alive to do it. Not in body bags, and especially not as ash in the snow.

“I know what I said, but maybe you could tone it—“

Almost immediately, Val had shot one of the Muuns between the eyes. They fell limp into the ground, followed by another, and another. A full-blown firefight had broken out, one she seriously doubted would see its end anytime soon. Song let out a ragged breath. A quick glance up at the ceiling also told her the ship wouldn’t survive this either, but she supposed that was a good thing. At least now, she could finally have it replaced for something actually useful.

Once the Mandalorian had mentally prepared herself, she joined the Kryze in fighting back the enemy pilots, only for another blaster bolt to ricochet off her armor and shatter into a nearby crate. “Well,” she said over the din of violence. “I suspect our armor has something to do with it.” Beskar was a luxury afforded by Mandalore alone, and compared to those without, it was no wonder their people had once ruled the galaxy.

Maybe that was why they’d survived the Great Purge, too. With hard heads and harder helmets.

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Shots whizzed passed Val's armor, striking various upholstery, the ceiling, anything the enemy could hit. Anything but her—or Song. This was Val's first time actually seeing Song in action, and it was immediately apparent that her bark was equal to her bite.

The Muuns, for their part, did much better than she had expected them to. After seeing two of their comrades fall, the dove behind whatever obstructions they could find. For one of them, that mean a sharp bolder jutting up out of the snow. For another, it meant behind the rectangular solar wings of his TIE. Every time one of their heads popped up, she took a shot at them, only for them to disappear like meerkats into their hiding holes.

Finally sick of missing, Val aimed for the fuel tank on the bottom curve of the TIE's cockpit ball and fired. The explosion was legendary. Not only did it vaporize the Muun beneath it, it also sent the other scrambling out of his hiding place away from the shockwave. Beyond the roar of the explosion, Val heard him desperately screaming into his comlink for backup. Which was either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how badly they wanted to get caught.

"So, the bad news is I might have gone a bit overboard," Val shouted to Song above the noise. "The good news is that we are definitely going to prison now." @Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

“Understatement of the century,” Song grumbled. The explosion had violently rocked the ship, the shockwave vibrating through her armor, rattling her eardrums. The Kryze seemed to have a passion for blowing things up for no reason, but she was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. What Mandalorian didn’t take joy in battle?

Other than Song, because right about now, she would have much rather surrendered and be shipped off to prison. They were wasting time, and there was always the risk of—

A shot suddenly crashed into her left shoulder. Most of it had been absorbed by plated durasteel, but she could feel her skin ignite and scald at the bolt’s very touch. Song reeled, clutching the burn, and hid behind cover. The remaining Muun must have hit her while she’d been distracted.

Beginner’s luck, she thought bitterly.

Instead of picking the soldier off at a safe distance, Song, in her fury, stepped out of the ship and marched through the snow toward him. One shot after the next, she aimed at the Muun who was now cowering behind another boulder, screaming for backup. Just before she finished emptying her clip, they stuck their head out only to be instantly blasted away. Nothing was left of their face except for a cloud of smoke and the reek of burnt flesh.

Song lowered her blaster and grimaced. “Not so lucky, after all.”

She turned back to the ship, mostly in order to heal and recover before enemy reinforcements arrived, but froze to the spot. The glacial mountain they’d parked by was moving, shifting. Layers of snow had begun to slide away like water, growing and collecting into a massive flood Song was all too familiar with. She locked eyes with Valeska, who had stayed behind in the ship.

“I’m going to kill you, Kryze.”

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Val opened her mouth to reply but the deep rumble of the nearby glaciers were enough to shut it for once. She too could see snow and ice and rock cascading down the nearby slopes. She stared at it for a long moment before breaking off into a run towards the interior of the ship. The ground rocked as the impending ice wave approached, and Val struggled to stay on a straight path as she tore towards the cockpit.

There was no way Song would make it onto the ship before she lifted off, so Val simply engaged the engine and began to turn around so that she could retrieve her companion, leaving the ramp lowered to allow Song to use her jetpack to access the ship. From the viewport, she saw the wave growing in size. It wouldn't just swallow up their ship at this rate, but the village below the cliff, and much of the prison too.

Val ignored all of that and focused on steering the piece of shit that was Song's ship towards her friend, who by now was probably running at her like a mad woman, wondering whether or not she was being left to die. "Get your ass in here!" she shouted, though there was no way the other Mandalorian could have heard her.

Nor was it likely that she could see the reinforcements that were coming. But Val knew. The ship's scanners lit up with incoming Muun ships. Now, it was a race to see which of them—the avalanche or the angry bankers—would reach them first. @Feng Mian

 

[Song Wren]

Song didn’t waste time. She leaned over, using the shattered boulder as a springboard, and activated her jetpack. Then she sailed on. Slicing through the air like an arrow, she tried to angle her body toward the opening ramp, knowing the last thing she’d wanted to do was crash headfirst into a wall. Although flying would still require some much needed practice, she was already growing used to the heavy weight on her back and the cold wind whipping past her shoulders.

So, closing the gap between her and the ship was easy. As for landing? That was up for debate.

Song thudded into the ship. Stars exploded in her vision, but she rolled and shot back up again, ignoring the pain, and slammed on a button to shut the ramp. Smoke hissed as it began to inch close. Not like it’d change very much. If the ship didn’t move, the avalanche would simply carry them away like a fishing boat on a raging sea and right over the cliffside. They’d die in either a fiery explosion or by the sheer impact of the fall.

Considering Song was not very keen on dying right now, she didn’t bother staying to watch. If there was one icy wasteland she’d rather die on, it was Krownest.

She marched into the ship’s cockpit and slid into the main driver’s seat. She already expected Val to have taken the role as co-pilot, so she began switching levers and turning dials madly, trying to get the transport off the ground. Only when the engines roared to life did she seize the yolk like an anxious old man and yank it forward. Metal groaned and the ship tilted forward. Clumps of snow continued to barrel toward them, closer and closer, enough to make her cheeks clench.

She couldn’t tell if it was the Muun screaming or Valeska. Maybe both. Song didn’t know because she was too busy shouting as well, crying out, “Come on, you piece of shit!” She smacked the dashboard hard. Finally, as if in response, the ship lurched forward and careened into the sky. Just narrowly, they avoided the bulk of the avalanche, and Song thought to cry. Somehow, by some miracle, they had managed to escape.

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Their victory was short-lived.

Yes, they had cleared the avalanche and spared themselves a pulverizing death. But this flying calamity wasn’t making it passed the Muuns. A cluster of ships appeared outside Song’s viewport and almost at once the light on the communicator in the cockpit was blinking incessantly. Val hit the button despite her best judgment, opening the link.

“I swear we have a good explanation for this,” she said into the comm.

The response was muffled. Val realized too late that it was because the Muun on the other end was cursing them out. So enraged was he by what they had done, he was having trouble cohesively forming the words to express his outrage. Decidedly not the right time to mock him, but Val never really had a right sense of these things. “Well, that’s rude,” she said into the comm. “Is that any way to talk to offworlders?”

His response was much clearer. “Land your ship at these coordinates.” The coordinates in question sprang up on the touchscreen in front of her. “Do it now, or I swear to all the gods dead and alive that I’ll blow you out of the sky.”

“That would not be preferable,” Val replied and just before cutting the link added, “We’ll do as you say.”

Then she was flipping switches and locking in the coordinates the Muun had provided her. They were getting what they wanted. They were going to prison. She just hoped they didn’t bury the two of them so deep in solitary that their heist plan didn’t work out. Val didn’t fancy long stays in prison. @Song

 

[Song Wren]

Song felt strange without her armor on. Since surrendering to the Muuns in the aftermath of their battle, they’d been stripped of all weapons and anything that could possibly be used against their captors, leaving her and Val without so much as a shiv or a pointed pen. Getting processed was worse. She’d never felt so humiliated in her life, examined by the prying eyes of the guards, before she was forced into a plain, orange uniform and tossed into the prison’s main hall.

At least they didn’t touch her hair. Otherwise, someone would have died, and it wouldn’t have been Song.

She sighed and stared down at the plastic tray of food she’d been served. She had been in the prison for, what, a day? And already she wanted out. Unfortunately, they needed a game plan, a clear path from the prison to the vault, where the supposed Sword of Wren was being kept. She already had some idea on how to escape, she just needed to make sure Val was on the same page. Because, for some reason, she seemed to be enjoying their current conditions.

Just in the span of hours, Valeska had managed to bring much of the prison to heel. How she did it, Song had no idea. She’d been busy investigating the prison hall—counting the number of guards and surveillance cameras—to bother worrying herself with the other prisoners.

At the cafeteria table, she sat across from the Kryze as a male prisoner fanned her with an empty tray and the other hand-fed her sweet plums and grapes. Song felt the urge to ask how they’d even smuggled that kind of food into the prison, especially as she looked at her own rations, but instead she sighed and glared at Val, waiting for her to finish. “Are you done yet?” she said, tapping an impatient finger against the table. “Because if you recall, we were captured for a reason.”

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Val was at home.

Shocked the hell out of her to learn it, too. She had thought she would hate prison life, and she did. Being confined was so terribly restrictive. But that wasn’t to say it came without perks. She had her feet up on the cafeteria table and was being fanned by a man she had only met yesterday. And fed. Sweet plums and grapes today, but yesterday, when an entirely different man had treated her this way, it was orange slices and some sort of minty plant from Thyferra. Not her favorite, but she didn’t complain. It gave her good breath.

Song was less successful with men. Less successful with life in general, really. Her tray was full of some unrecognizable goop. From the looks of it, it either tasted like nothing or tasted really, really bad. Song hadn’t touched it, so Val guessed it was the latter. Either way, it made her bitter, so she sat there scowling at Val, urging her to hurry up. “Trifles,” she replied. “A good warrior knows that patience wins the race.”

She was lying of course. Since when had she been patient about anything? She just didn’t want to give up her army of pamperers and servants for… what? A sword? A sword that wasn’t even hers, at that.

But she supposed they had lived like this long enough. It couldn’t go on. “Oh fine,” she said to Song. “Let’s hear your plan, then. Neither one of us have our armor so unless you know how to get the whole cafeteria’s attention at once, and keep it off of us, I don’t see how we’re getting that sword today.”

Of course, the answer was obvious. Start a riot. Kitchen riots were notoriously easy to provoke, but Val wasn’t thinking about that. She was thinking about sliced mango, which was the next fruit she was about to be handed. Who knew prison could be so comfortable? @Song

 

[Song Wren]

“I think we both know what needs to be done,” she answered and folded her arms over her chest. A prison riot was just the distraction they’d need. The bigger, the better. As long as the guards were distracted, she and Val could slip out from the prison sector and to the vault, hopefully retrieving their armor and weapons in the process. Her fingers were itching for a gun—and good food.

Just before the mango was handed to Val, Song leaned over and plucked it from the other prisoner’s hands. He shot her a disgruntled look, but clearly unwilling to fight her to get it back, he conceded and brought up another bowl of groups to spoon-feed his new master. “Now, as I was saying,” Song continued, peeling the mango back by her nails, “from what I’ve gathered, there is an incinerator on the second floor, through one of the guards’ barracks.”

“Chances are, that’s where our armor and weapons are being kept. Since it’s only been a day, I doubt the prison guards have already recycled them, or had them processed to the main vaults.” Which made sense. A Mandalorian’s beskar’gam made for fine trophies. “Of course, the difficult part is actually getting to the roof undetected.” She split a piece off the mango and stuffed it into her mouth. “Are you much of a climber?”

She raised an eyebrow at the Kryze. Song didn’t have much of a problem on that front. She’d scaled steep ridges and mountains during her many hunts on Krownest. By the time she was twelve, she had reached the planet’s highest peak on her own. And yet, she knew the incinerator would not be the same. She had lived and breathed the cold for years, to the point where not even the harshest winds could chill her bones, but if the incinerator was running—well, she was in for a world of hurt.

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

“Depends on how you define ‘climbing,'” Val replied, glancing sideways at today’s male-servant with a crooked grin. Then, she sighed, because she knew what Song actually meant. “I suppose if I’m needed on the roof, I’ll be able to get myself up there.”

She reached across the table then and snatched the mango out of Song’s hands. “Now, give me that.” She hurled it at a burly looking Trandoshan sitting directly behind Song, where it split against the sharp scales of his skull. The Trandoshan rose, suddenly infuriated. Val flashed a shit-eating grin at Song. “Good luck.”

The Trandoshan whirled, aiming to smack Song across the back of her head with his lunch tray. But Val wasn’t worried. Song had quick reflexes. She would be fine. So, she used the opportunity to shout at the top of her lungs, “Lunch fight!”

And then chaos erupted.

The man who had been feeding her was the first to be tackled, but Val skittered over to the opposite side of the table to avoid being caught in the dogpiling. By then, the cafeteria was in an uproar. What few guards were around to stop what she’d started were trying to fight their way through the ravenous crowd of rowdy inmates. They wouldn’t be able to stop a few from slipping out. This was the best chance they had to sneak out and head for the roof. Song could fill her in on the other details once they were in the halls.

“You’re up,” Val shouted at her, and then she was beelining for the nearest door, ducking and weaving around fighting prisoners and struggling guards, until freedom was nearly in reach. They had to hurry. It wouldn’t be long before reinforcements arrived. @Song

 

[Song Wren]

“Good luck?” Song repeated, then realized. “Oh, you mother—”

She felt the air shift behind her as the burly Trandoshan swung his tray at her skull. Song ducked right, and as the tray sailed harmlessly over her head, the prisoner had followed, carried by the momentum in his swing. She decided to help him along, seizing their arm and using all of her strength to throw him over her shoulder. Surprisingly, it worked. The Trandoshan, for the briefest moment, soared before he smacked into the table, the blow enough to break it in two.

As if on cue, the rest of the cafeteria fell into chaos. Trays were flipped. Tables upended. Punches thrown and jaws smashed. It was like everyone had seen this as a chance to go crazy, let loose, or use the confusion as an opportunity to enact revenge or stage an escape—just like Song and Val. Already, several prisoners were attempting to get past the influx of guards, beating against riot shields and stun batons. Most were not lucky enough to slip by them.

But she and Val were not like most people.

Song moved like liquid lightning. She dashed under a table in order to evade a guard’s eye, then she tripped another, watching as he face-planted into the tiled floor. She used that chance to snatch his identification card, figuring they’d need it to enter the barracks. She didn’t waste time to see if anyone else was watching—she simply pushed on, trailing after Val into the exposed hallway, as the riot continued on behind them.

Red Protocol sounded through the prison. In less than two minutes, an army of guards would swarm the cafeteria and the rest of the sector, so she and Val had very little time to get to the incinerator upstairs.

@Mockingjay

 

[Valeska Kryze]

Val thrived on chaos.

As the lunch room erupted, oxygen filled her muscles and she exploded forward towards the doors. It didn’t take much to slip past the advancing tide, but they were hardly the ones she needed to worry about. She punched ahead into the hall and broke into a run towards the nearest set of stairs. Already, echoing shouts were filling the tunnel. The guard reinforcements were coming and if they came now, she would not be able to escape them. Nor would Song. And then their little heist would most definitely be over.

“Incoming!” Val shouted, and then she ducked sideways into an open office, sliding the door shut behind her.

There was a man there—well, some sort of alien, definitely not a Muun—eating a sandwich. His mouth was still open around it when she brought her fist down hard on his temple, knocking him clean out. Then she hid under the desk until the fresh wave of guards had come and gone, leaving the corridor blessedly free of obstacles. Once she was out of the office, she merely followed where the guards had come from right to their barracks.

“I’m assuming this is the place,” Val said as they walked inside. Sure enough, a small ladder leading up to the floor above was at the back of the room. “We’ve only got a few minutes before someone snitches on us. Less than that if they’re smart. Why don’t you try getting that hatch open?” Val nodded to the closed hatch where the ladder at the back of the room stopped. “I’m gonna try to find a way to jam this door.”

She had options here. Build a barricade, shoot the door controls with one of the guard blasters hanging on their racks… Decisions, decisions. @Song