Private Lamb Hunts a Wolf [Sam Rodarch]

[Cassus Akovin]

Continuation of Welcome to Denon...

That was a few days ago, CorpSec locked down the area, drove out some of the "sewer rats" from the nearby pub, and Cassus was caught in the middle. The man watching him from across the street crossed his mind briefly but seemed to be of no importance to him after being taken into custody by CorpSec due to "affiliation to public danger". Cassus thought it was over at that point, that his short tenure "on the lamb" would be ended, with the boy being extradited to the CIS for execution... Despite the info of his escape from CIS custody over his failed attempt to kidnap the Counselor to the Vicelord reaching the Denon news cycle, it didn't appear that the rank and file of the Denon CorpSec cared much. Perhaps it was too expensive to transport a single prisoner off-world for what he was worth?

Obviously, for a Bounty Hunter, his head might be worth their time, but corporate interests rarely took much interest in individuals, even profitable ones. The paperwork would probably stave off most from pushing the issue up to the bureaucracy of the Fat Cats that ran the place, anyway. All of this leading to his imprisonment across from a female prisoner. Apparently in this particular district, they didn't care about gender segregation enough to have separate wards, just a dividing hallway between the cells. At one point he was able to have a conversation with her, figure out what brought her to Denon, like himself. Turned out they had been after the same mark on Geonosis. When he asked about it though, she had been rather terse and uninformative about her particular exploits.

Nonetheless, Cassus came across a rather strange visitor, one that felt strangely familiar... the man from the night of his arrest!

"Hey kid," For some reason, the man's (their?) face was indistinct, despite not wearing anything to obscure it. It was a face that was just simply, non-descript. "Nice show earlier, if not for a little mistake in your choice of partners, you might have had it made." The person made something that probably resembled a smile, but Cassus could not place it. "I'm gonna give you the opportunity to try again," There was something grating in the voice, possibly frustration, but just like their (its?) face, it was difficult to tell for certain. "Not the same target though, something a little more... local neighborhood. Before that, though? I want to see what you're made of, what you're both made of." The entity probably winked by the look of its briefly contorted face, "Fill her in, we'll get you started, you'll do the rest. Is that clear?" Cassus didn't know what to say exactly, and before he could get a word in edgewise, the alien figure nodded and placed the phone line down to walk away... and just before it turned the boy could briefly, ever so briefly it might have been imagined, see the face of his mother.

With his memory of the encounter disturbed into his mind, he tried to brief his fellow female prisoner from across the bars in the brief moments they were able to as best he could, and then awaited her reaction...

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

This wasn't the change of scenery she had been expecting.

Sure, shockboxing hadn't been working out so well but it had been a damn sight better than this. Incarceration. Being shot at. Sewers. Naked sex offenders. Sewers. As she lay in her cot, hands intertwined behind her head and legs crossed with an impatient tick a scathing inner-monologue happened.

Oh, sure, Soloman. Thanks for lettin' me tag along. What harm can there be in bounty huntin'? See the sights. Make a bit of scratch on the way. Yea', sounds fun, Soloman.

Eye twitched.

To make matters worse, she had been placed in a cell opposite another hunter, who in a twist of wicked fate had also been upon Geonosis and while he had been willing to talk about his experience of failure, Sam had sat tight-lipped and foul-faced through the entire conversation, just about the only scrap that he got out of her was that she had been keeping Hacks safe from harm while the slicer worked her magic.

Funnily enough, no mention of wolf perverts and eating literal shet.

Then silence, as Rodarch buried herself in the noble art of silently scowling like a possessed kettle just waiting to whistle in frustration. Okay, it wasn't all so quiet and dignified. There had also been some pacing. A lot of muttering and sudden cursing. Not to mention when she kicked the bars of her cell, which effectively did nothing bar hurt her foot.

This had inspired her to sit down and shut the feth up, at least until the bounty hunter in the cell opposite hit her up with, well, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

“I dun' get it,” she grumbled to him in a moment where they were free to talk, the creases upon her forehead deepening in confusion, “there's a new bounty? Fer us?”

She had never been the sharpest tool.

“...but we're locked up, bud.”

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

"Yeah, well, I got the impression that wasn't going to be an issue for whoever it was that visited me... 'No-Face' I guess we'll call them. I still have no idea what that's about either. I can't tell if its some trick of technology or if we're dealing with some kind of creepy... alien? I don't know, is that racist to say?" Strangely, the topic of race had never come up being raised alone with his mother and his Zeltron "uncle", even when they visited worlds. Obviously Cassus was able to see the other species of the galaxy, but they were never an arms reach away before now (even if only through a pane of reinforced transparisteel). Well, other than Crol, but he looked human enough, and from what he heard about his father, Cassus was technically a quarter Zeltron, so all in all that was just normal. Right?

Banishing the weird thoughts away, particularly of the stranger only momentarily stealing his mother's face (which was too weird to say out loud), Cassus tried to reign in the conversation again. It was time to plan. On what, exactly, was a larger question but not one he had the resources to answer.

"Whatever, assuming these bars were no object, what would you do to get out? My first priority, personally, would be to reacquire some of the equipment they took from me, I don't know about you..." Cassus gave a little shrug as he went through an imaginary exercise where he ran out of his cell, and then promptly get beat up by guards. The boy was good with hand-to-hand combat, as an amateur, but even if he were some kind of backflipping martial arts genius he still had the physique of pre-adolescent. That was something he could make up for with armor and weapons, but separated from them he was rather vulnerable. Maybe his companion could change the tide a bit? It was difficult to say so far...

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

Sam blinked several times as Cassus mentioned 'No Face' not quite understanding what her fellow hunter was talking about. Had she been napping? Was she really so oblivious?

“I'd fight,” she answered bluntly, holding up both of her fists to display proudly mottled knuckles, “don't use any fancy tech, jus' these hands.”

In a situation like this not having an arsenal came in handy, the people that locked her up didn't know that she had been fighting for years, in more ways than once. There were so many ways to debilitate a person with only the use of two working hands, and sometimes in this galaxy, such a thing was overlooked. Just took one mistake, and it was time for a nap.

On the other hand.

What were mere fists to do against the frightening arms race they lived in? You can't punch them if you can't get close to them. Can't hurt them if you can't get through their armour. Let's not even talk about all those space wizards running around.

Rodarch chewed the inside of her cheek, brows furrowing as she was fully aware that I'D FIGHT was not a satisfactory and fully realistic answer. They were armed, and they had numbers.

“I guess...if I couldn't fight my way out...”

What about stealthily escaping through the sewe-

NO.

“...I'd try to nab one of them guards, put'm to sleep, steal his uniform an' shet an' just mosey on outta here.”

The Mandalorian frowned, she'd never been an ideas woman, which perfectly explained her close proximity to being enslaved by her stim peddler/loan shark (oh, sweet summer child) prior to meeting Soloman.

“Do ya know where they're keepin' yer stuff?”

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Cassus gave a sort of snort when the woman immediately and proudly declared her intention to just straight-up brawl all the guards as her method of escape, and he smiled until he noticed her unironically brandishing her fists to demonstrate her choice of weaponry. The look he gave her must have said, Surely you must be joking? because a moment later she seemed to reconsider her answer.

"Heh," He gave an approving little laugh, "That isn't a bad idea, for the most part. I was thinking more or less the same thing, actually. It worked for me on Geonosis," Cassus cringed a little bit after mentioning Geonosis, "Well, until it abruptly didn't of course." After finishing his sentence the door down the hallway opened as a guard walked through for a routine patrol.

"Hey quite you lot, chitterin' lizard monkies..." The Devaronian guard walked through banging on bars with his blaster rifle, checking for their integrity and also more probably to annoy the occupants of the cells. Strangely, the guard looked to be of a similar size to Sam Rodarch , his uniform would work in a pinch. The ID wouldn't pass scrutiny by live guards of course, but she would be uninformed if they could get their hands on it. Cassus made a note of that in his head as the guard came passing by their cell.

Stranger still, a few moments after the guard came passing by the hallway door opened again and a smaller more lithe figure came walking through. It was definitely another guard, possibly higher ranking position judging by the unfamiliar emblems he saw on her uniform. She was near-human with a pinker complexion, perhaps a partial Zeltron like Cassus. Strange, I could probably fit in that uniform. Cassus made another mental note.

"C.O. Loth, stand at attention!" The short woman seemed to have fury in her, and for Mr. Loth in particular for something. The Devaronian seemed to scramble back around to face her, and then the small woman started giving him a tirade to answer his communicator and check in to work properly. The hapless guard seemed rather confused by this briefly trying to pull out his communicator before being chewed out again for moving out of the position of attention without permission. He tried to stammer out a response but quickly learned better of it.

Interesting. Cassus studied the interaction and determined with a bit confidence, that the Devaronian was genuinely confused. As if he had done those things, but for one reason or another they did not register or failed. The boy also took note of that, and not unfamiliar with professionals capable of hacking into devices like that with ease, he made the intuitive leap that perhaps this whole display was organized by his outside help. That way they could see what uniforms they could take and that there was a breach in the prison's security already, waiting to be exploited. When finally the pair left for some correctional counseling away from the prisoners, Cassus glanced back over to Sam.

"I'm not sure if you noticed, but those uniforms look like they could fit us, and this might sound crazy, but I believe in Loth," Cassus said the guards name with a dumb face and a weird mocking accent. "I think our friends on the other side are playing games with the guards for us." The boy winked at the woman with a rising level of excitement.

Now they would just have to sit and wait until the moment was right... whenever that moment was.

 

[Sam Rodarch]

Eyes flashed bloody murder at the mere mention of Geonosis but were instantly redirected away from Cassus and onto the guard as he loudly clanged the bars of the bounty hunter's cell. Nose twitched, as her tongue had to be bitten in that very moment to prevent a furious outburst.

Didn't stop her from staring at the Devaronian so hard that it seemed as if Rodarch was trying to melt him with her eyes.

Of course, somebody came along and did it with words. Another guard. Higher ranking from the way she was shouting at him. Seemed like he'd kriffed up, or at least that's what his superior thought. Sam was somewhat more focused upon enjoying C.O. Loth's dressing down, although it wasn't nearly as satisfying as smashing his face in would be.

Once the pair were gone it was back to business, and Cassus had thankfully been putting the puzzle pieces together instead of having visceral revenge fantasies.

“Be a lot simpler if they just broke us out,” Rodarch remarked with a low grumble, her hands grasping the bars and twisting around them as if she were thinking about trying to bend metal, “why kark with the guards?”

Brow furrowed as a typical frown crested upon the woman's features (as if it had ever even left).

“They testin' us or somethin'? I don't like bein' tested.”

She didn't like the idea of that very much, preferring blunt simplicity to complex schemes but hey, they were locked up, what else could they do but go along with it?

“Bagsy Loth's uniform.”

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

"I think they are testing us, so I guess take your pick of being imprisoned or being tested, which are you gunna hate more?" Cassus said before Sam "Bagsied" Loth's uniform. Cassus did not really know what that meant, but given they were on the subject of uniforms and using them to exfiltrate out of here, he took it to mean a claim on the uniform. So after a curious look, he shrugged.

"As for your question earlier about the location of my gear, not really. I'm hoping whatever rank that woman was will have enough credentials where it won't be too difficult to find out. Trust me, if we get my gear this will go a lot more smoothly than trying to punch every goon out of here... as much fun as that would be for you, I'd just be in the way and probably get you locked up again." Cassus said frankly. It was a little embarrassing that he depended on his gear as much as he did, but his mother was pretty much the same way. Although in her prime, Triam was probably of a similar disposition as Sam Rodarch , so the boy felt like his excuses were unwarranted. He was young, but he could still do a lot more to be more effective without his weapons or armor. At some point, he would have to rectify that, but for the moment the only thing he could do was wait and hope that he was right about all of this.

Hours went by with nothing going on, Cassus might have tried to initiate further conversation, and Sam may have brushed him off. Then, eventually, it was mealtime, the second and last one of the day.

"Ayyy ahah, look who's on chow duty, boyz!" An older prisoner in a different cell announced with various snorting C.O. Loth's entrance into the cell block hallway, pushing a cart full of meal trays. The Devaronian snarled but said nothing, as the other prisoners hollered and derided him, clearly enjoying his remedial punishment for whatever transgression he had done to piss off his superior.

"DEMAND: QUITE." An enforcer droid followed in behind Loth, its deep reverberating monotone voice made to unnerve and intimidate, easier and cheaper to enforce peace through fear rather than calm. "STATEMENT: DISOBEY AND YOU WILL BE RELOCATED TO THE HOLE. COMMAND: MOVE TO THE BACK OF YOUR CELLS. REITERATION: QUITE." The beast of a droid lumbered forward, its ocular sensors sweeping past each individual cell as if targeting its next victim.

"REITERATION: CORRECTIONAL OFFICER LOTH, BY ORDER OF LIEUTENANT RUHT, YOUR ARE ON KITCHEN DUTIES FOR 30 DAYS; THERE ARE 30 DAYS REMAINING OF YOUR ORDERS. COMMAND: DISTRIBUTE THE FOOD." The droid pointed to the first cell, and Loth dutifully through frustrated grunts placed their tray on the floor underneath the bar doors as the enforcer droid watched his every move.

"ASSESSMENT: CELL ONE IS UNSATISFACTORY. COMMAND: REPEAT TO REGULATION KD-054-1." It became clear that this "Enforcer Droid" was being used less for the prisoners in this ward, and more so to cause a constant annoyance to Loth. In fact, the Devaronian looked back to the droid incredulously.

"Wah, what do you mean-" Loth was cut off by the droid pulling him away from his cart and back towards cell one.

"REFRESHER: REGULATION KD-054-1 STATES..." And the droid droned on the entire section much to everyone's universal annoyance. When it was finally done, Loth was fumbling with keys to open each cell door, a blaster drawn, while simultaneously placing the food tray down the floor, all of this while barking commands at the prisoners that they had to follow. Each cell was like a ritual, and each time Loth dropped the keys while trying to keep hold of his blaster, the droid had him do it again. It seemed the droid was programmed with regulations that were either severely outdated or the product of senseless bureaucracy, and each was just as likely. It was an extremely inefficient protocol the droid had Loth execute like a battle drill without a shred of mercy. Each time Loth relocked a cell, the droid ensured lock integrity by smashing it with its reinforced metal club of a hand. It was a grueling exercise that made everyone's dinner cold. One guy midway before Cassus or Sam was actually relocated to wherever "The Hole" was and delayed the whole process by an extra half-hour with the droid dragging both Loth and the mouthy prisoner together...

"Jeez, I'd hate to be Loth right now..." Cassus said, still trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how his outside help was going to give them an opening. Once the droid and (a clearly miserable) Loth returned from the Hole the whole ritual started again right where they left off... even though the prisoner was now relocated. It felt like hours before the droid finally reached Cassus' cell, and then it was his turn to partake in the bizarre ritual the droid had them dance to through Loth's clunky yet now well-rehearsed commands. Just as Cassus was turning around though, something unexpected happened.

"Prisoner of Cell C130-" "WARNING: CHECKING LOCK INTEGRITY." The droid spouted in interruption before an unusually loud clang echoed throughout the hallway, followed by a few smaller metallic clinks on the ground.

"What the hell!?" "WARNING: CHECKING LOCK INTEGRITY." Again, the sounds that followed were similar, and Cassus was fully tempted to turn his head and see what was going on. He was glad he did, as no sooner had the guard made the exclamation the droid swung its arms and struck the alien against the wall.

"WARNING: CHECKING LOCK INTEGRITY." It echoed one last time before assuming a neutral stance looking down at an unconscious Loth.

"STATEMENT: UNACCEPTABLE. GUARD SLEEPING ON DUTY. THIS WILL BE REPORTED TO LIEUTENANT RUHT FOR FURTHER REPRIMANDATION." Then, as suddenly as it had gone berserk, it charged back down the hall and disappeared behind its blast door. When the moment of shock died down Cassus finally turned all the way around and saw that the lock to his cell had been completely shattered, along with Sam's across from him, the pieces of the physical lock scattered across the permacrete floor. That droid was scary.

"I think it might be time to go!" Cassus shouted over to Sam as he pushed his way through the cell door, and scrambled for the blaster. "Mind if I handle this?"

 

[Sam Rodarch]

He had a point, but she could still be mad about it. Why was everything in the sphere of Darkwire so convoluted. Well, in truth the entire galaxy was overly complicated. How much could be solved with open intentions and a good right hook?

So they waited. Every movement within the cell giving way to shifty side-glances and furious knuckle flexing from Rodarch, who held the subtly for this kind of thing in the same way a flatulent bantha did. Of course, nothing seemed to be happening bar bottom-of-the-barrel scum making a racket in their cells.

That was until their dinner had arrived.

The Mandalorian didn't think that she was capable of feeling pity for the guard that not-so-long-ago had given them mild grief for conversing but there she was, watching the bar-clanging devaronian forced to do a menial role in an overly complex manner. At first she took enjoyment in his struggle but after the fifth cell, the woman somewhat softened. He'd be suffering enough over the next month, after all.

“Ah, kriff 'im,” Sam muttered to Cassus, her pity now having swiftly waned only to be replaced by impatience in the face of this overly long and humiliating process.

She hadn't been facing away when they came to their cells, and so when the droid suddenly shattered the lock upon Cassus' cage the woman began to ready herself, bouncing up on the balls of her feet as if the bell had just been rung. Her lock was next and well, while she didn't appreciate the test, she did appreciate the obviousness of their apparent escape plan.

Unfortunately before Sam had the chance to deck Loth into next year the menacing droid of rule and regulation did the job for her.

A pity.

No time was wasted on her end as the malfunctioning metal sped away to give its report with Rodarch dragging Loth's unconscious form into her cell before she unceremoniously began stripping herself and then the alien. This was a popular move in the hallway, eliciting further cheers from those who revelled in the guard's misfortune.

“Knock yersel' out,” she responded to Cassus as he scooped up his blaster before kicking his keychain across the floor and towards the bounty hunter, “might need these 'n all.”

Turns out Loth's uniform was a great fit, even if it didn't exactly smell great. Weirdly floral. Not to her tastes. The finishing touch might have been unnecessary as the shockboxer used her own discarded clothing to hog-tie the unfortunate soul but hey, this was as much revenge as she was getting.

“Alright!” Sam declared amongst the hollering, looking both ways as her brain tried to calculate which way to go. Following the droid seemed to be the dangerous solution (not smart to punch without gauntlets), but if it was going to see the Lieutenant that would lead them to their next uniform mark. The other way, well, it was uncertainty. Maybe safer. Maybe more dangerous.

Ah feth it.

“Let's pay Ruht a little visit," Sam said (rather menacingly) to Cassus, as she bounded off down the hallway in the direction the droid had gone.

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Cassus picked up the blaster quickly, almost jealously, and was quicker to start looking at the ins and outs of the weapon instead of looking anywhere remotely in the direction of the undressing Sam, suppressing the hoots and hollers from the other prisoners from his mind. Cassus made a few adjustments and filled his mind with mechanical bits of information until Sam was ready and spoke.

"Agreed, lead the way, I've got your back." The boy said with confidence, and after familiarizing himself with the settings on the blaster, he turned towards Loth's unconscious body and blasted him with a stun bolt just to be sure. Didn't want anybody waking up and potentially attacking them from the rear, or setting off some alarm they weren't aware of in the cell ward.

"Hey wats goin on, wattabut us?!" A voice, the same older one from before derided. A few other voices pipped up, clearly disappointed they weren't in on whatever plan they had managed to pull off.

"Sorry, you all get to stay behind to babysit Loth and watch my back." Cassus sneered as he yelled through the hall, and approached the blast door the droid exited from. It was closed and hopefully unlocked...

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

“I'm sure ya'll will figure somethin' out,” Sam added dryly on as they approached the blast door, not giving much more consideration to their fellow prisoners. After all, they were just a couple of bounty hunters caught up in some great layered mess, they weren't actually criminals like the rest of the scum locked up in here.

Right?

“You ready?” Sam asked with a nod to Cassus as they primed themselves for whatever stood on the other side of the door.

Three.

Two.

One.

Thankfully unlocked, the door slid open revealing another empty hall, the sight of which caused Sam to exhale the breath that she had been unconsciously holding. There was an attempt to be subtle as the Mandalorian stepped into the new hall.

No cells here, just rooms with grimy plaques on the doors. Rodarch's head darted from side-to-side as she glanced at each door. Teeth now gritted. She wasn't about to turn around to Cassus and tell him that she couldn't actually read. At least the signs for the staff toilets were universal and easy to understand but that didn't help them find Ruht.

Before she was forced to ask him which room he thought she would be in, two things happened.

From inside the male bathroom door to Sam's right, there was the unmistakable sound of a hand drier bursting to life. Somebody had just finished their business in the toilet and was about to come across the pair of would-be escapees.

At least they washed their hands.

At the very same time came a loud and familiar voice, as it exclaimed in hideous outrage a little further down the hall on the left. It would seem that Lieutenant Ruht had just found out about C.O. Loth's little nap. The sound of a chair scraping across the ground erupted from the room as Rodarch looked to Cassus with a little more urgency in her stare.

The woman pointed at herself and then at the bathroom door as she positioned herself for the toilet ambush before pointing at Cassus and then towards the room that Ruht would be no doubt be emerging from in mere seconds, indicating that he could deal with that her wrath.

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

The first hallway opened to them seemingly without incident, a series of labeled rooms which Cassus took for supply rooms and the offices of the lower rank officers like C.O. Loth. It was likely where he took breaks and other such recreational proclivities when not directly observing prisoners or handing them out food at the behest of an insane, security compromised, enforcer droid. Sam observed the rooms carefully, or it seemed as much while Cassus briefly scanned the room for threats.

Sam picked it out first, but noises from the nearby latrine brought his focus directly to Sam, who sent a quick series of hand signals the boy was able to pick out intuitively. With a curt nod as the boy rushed to hug the corner just before the intersection. Cassus heard the door open and her footsteps, and as his ears ached for more information, he hoped no further heavy footfalls would follow. Deciding that rapidity of assault coupled with surprise was worth exposing himself rather than waiting for that possibility to materialize would be the best solution, Cassus stepped briefly out of the corner and opened fire with a pair of wide stun bolts down the hallway just as the bathroom commotion took place...

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

The bathroom door swung open and with the element of surprise firmly in her pocket, Sam pounced, the hapless prison worker would find the Mandalorian practically pouncing upon him, one hand to wrap around his throat, the other around his mouth.

Lieutenant Ruht, however, with a great fortune in her timing and office location glimpsed what seemed to be one of her staff assaulting another in the bathroom which effectively halted her advance into the hallway just as two blaster bolts whizzed past her door.

What was this utter madness?

Instinctively her internal fury was already being directed at C.O. Loth, who had somehow managed to fail spectacularly at even the most simple of tasks. How could one even take kitchen duty and turn it into an apparent break-out? Incompetent fool. He would be unemployed by the end of the day, she would make damn sure of that.

Protocol dictated the woman's first move: sound the alarm and there was little hesitation in the way her pink-hued palm slammed into the panic alarm button inside her of office, a staple of all incarceration facilities.

No alarm came, causing Ruht to swear under her breath.

Shoddy craftsmanship, or sabotage? It could have honestly been a mix of both, as the low-security prison was often the victim of cut corners and budget restrictions, but her inner-grudge against Loth suggested that the pathetic devaronian had orchestrated this event. Had he been bribed? Or was this some ridiculous revenge plot?

She could handle this. Whoever was out there surely wasn't aware that the alarm system had been disabled.

Her own blaster, set to stun fired a blind warning shot down the hallway, her arm arcing around the doorway as the Lieutenant was forced to think on her feet.

“Drop your weapons, lay face down upon the ground and there will be no consequences for you!” Ruht barked, that last part definitely a negotiator's lie, “Otherwise, I will be forced to sound the alarm. You will be surrounded, subdued and then transferred to a maximum security facility to await further charges!”

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Tom was the new guy, recently hired after getting fired as a personal security guard at Sakedo Tower in the Seven Corners District. He'd only been here a week and was intending to relieve C.O. Loth from day shift when Lt. Ruht told him Loth was going to be running late due to some correctional training. She told him to take some personal time and to some training in his office while he waited for Loth to clock out. At some point, Tom went to the latrine to take a break from the mind-numbing boringness of the training material.

As he was leaving his night got much more interesting. For some people, it was a treat to have a woman's hand on your throat, but for most and Tom included, both the woman and the hand on his throat was not pleasant.

"Fe-" Tom's eyes bugged out as this woman was essentially trying to strangle him, and he wasn't sure what was going on. The only thing he wanted, was out of this situation, so Tom started swinging punches to his assailant's ribs while trying to bite the hand around his mouth.

Meanwhile, Cassus laughed loudly down the hall.

"Something must be fethed up if you can sound the alarm and haven't yet LT," Cassus called back, "My accomplice here is beating the shet out of one of your boys, Loth is unconscious, and I am armed. I hope you weren't looking at a promotion any time soon, because no matter what you do here, you're soooo karked. All I want is your uniform, if you let me have it, we won't break your knee caps. How's that sound?" So, the LT wanted to play diplomat, huh? Cassus could play that game too, and so far it felt like he was the only one with any leverage...

Cassus took another peek around the corner with his weapon, a real quick look to see if the LT were trying to advance or not. If he saw anything, he'd duck behind the corner and fire a blind shot down the hallway.

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

Tom's fists collided with the woman's ribs with varying degrees of accuracy. A couple of teeth-clenching stingers in there for certain but that wasn't the main attraction as the guard's teeth sunk into the flesh of her hand.

“HE FETHIN' BIT ME!” came the furious roar of Rodarch, echoing out the bathroom for both Cassus and Ruht to hear.

With her other hand still around his throat, she observed the teeth marks in her hand with ever-growing fury. Even when the rules got broken in the squared circle, it wasn't terribly often that people resorted to biting.

His errant blows were still flailing, some hitting, others merely glancing but they only served to make the brick shethouse of a woman even angrier. She wasn't smart, she wasn't pretty but at the very least, Sam was tough. Bitten hand curled into a fist that she decidedly aimed at his kidneys, all the while the woman pushed poor Tom by his throat, hoping to slam the back of his head against wall-mounted hand driers.

On the other side of things, Ruht remained in her office with gritted teeth as one of the escapees, instead of doing what he was told laughed and decided to engage in counter-negotiations! The bloody cheek! All the woman could do was attempt to glean information from the prisoner's words. There wasn't one, but two and from the sounds of it, there was biting?

This was completely shambolic.

“You're making a huge mistake,” Ruht hissed from her office, slowly creeping towards the door with her blaster still drawn, “I suppose it would be too much to ask that criminal scum would see sense.”

A precautionary head peeked out into the hallway and was immediately greeted by a stray bolt fired in her direction, causing the woman to immediately return to the safety of her office. It was a stand-off, and if his accomplice was truly 'beating the shet' out of another guard then she was soon to be outnumbered.

Ruht would have to go it alone, or not quite alone as she looked to meaning enforcer droid who had reported Loth's unsurprising failure to her. It was her time to be a hero. Maybe stopping an attempted break-out would get her out of this hell hole and onto brighter and more competent things.

“Apprehend them."

“CONFIRMATION: MOVING TO APPREHEND PRISONERS.”

The droid moved with little hesitation, and Ruht along with it, the pink-hued woman following closely behind and in fact using the machine for cover as it stomped out of the office and into the hallway with little concern for errant stun bolts that would be heading its way. The moment she caught sight of the little threat-spewing bastard would be the moment that the Lieutenant would step out from behind the droid and fire a volley of her own stun bolts.

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

There was a kind of animal-like satisfaction when you resorted to biting someone and it worked, that and a crap ton of adrenaline. Tom let out a short yell that almost sounded like a laugh or a cough until the back of his head collided with a hand-drier. Between that, getting chocked, and getting hit in the kidney hard enough to piss blood, it wasn't long before the weight of his body started toppling over itself towards the ground. Tom was getting limp and things were getting dark, hazy, and numb with pain...

“CONFIRMATION: MOVING TO APPREHEND PRISONERS.”

Feth. Cassus yelled in his head. He'd forgotten about the droid and was maybe kind of secretly hoping it wouldn't come up again. Additionally, he had the misfortune of having a blaster which only seemed to have a stun setting. Which made sense, they likely weren't allowed to damage prisoners so severely, and wanted them alive to finish their sentences... and maybe also to prevent the security staff from getting hurt or killing in the event a prisoner like Cassus managed to get his hands on one.

If he had some time, he could probably configure it to explode in a way that might damage the droid, but considering how little time he probably had before the two of them were on him, he had another plan.

"Sam! We've got company!" The boy yelled as he bolted out of cover blasting as rapidly as his weapon would allow down the hall towards the droid and LT Ruht. He was hoping he could lead the droid and the woman to follow him to the adjacent hall, allowing Sam the opportunity to rush Ruht from behind as they turned the corner. The droid can't apprehend them both, so it would have to make a choice of who it was going to follow, and seeing how Sam handled "Tom", he was confident she'd be able to get a handle on Ruht. Nevermind that she was armed, if her attention was on him she'd never see Sam coming...

How he was going to handle the droid afterward might be a bit tricky, but maybe it would recognize the rank of Lieutenant and not the person it was usually attached too?

Sam Rodarch

 

[Sam Rodarch]

There was a sick kind of satisfaction that came when the guard's skull connected with the hand-drier. It all came in the sound of the impact, that hard crack that told all the stories it needed to tell. It spoke of blood, and in turn, it gave cause for Rodarch's teeth to clench in violent victory as she dropped the man like a sack of spuds.

She wanted more, and with the call of her companion, it seemed as if she was going to get it. Turns out it wasn't such a shetty day after all.

Ruht, on the other hand, was having a considerably worse day as she hid behind the advancing droid, every so often firing out a very stray stun bolt at the little wretch that had taunted her and exposed the inadequacies of her operation (although most of these inadequacies were still firmly being pinned upon Loth).

He had called out for his partner in crime as he darted down the hall, his errant shots causing the pink-skinned woman to shrink behind the larger enforcer droid as to avoid being completely humiliated by the troublesome escapees.

When his accomplice, this Sam, didn't immediately make themselves known she perhaps foolishly assumed that at least one member of her squad was not entirely useless and had pacified the criminal and was not in fact, getting the shet beaten out of him. Yes, had to be positive. If she were to gain long-sought promotion she needed to take a positive mindset, as was advised in her last appraisal.

It was the wrong mindset, as still waiting in the men's bathroom lurked a disguised shockboxer, ready for blood or, as fate would have it, bolts.

Rodarch didn't think, and the moment movement flashed by the door the woman charged at the first thing she saw, which just so happened to be the imposing (if not somewhat suspect) droid. A short running start was all the woman needed as she leapt, yelling with rampant ferocity as she collided with the droid, inexplicable choosing to headbutt it as they collided.

It might have seemed entirely stupid, and it was. However, in her wild assault, Sam managed to knock over the droid as the pair went to the floor, leaving Lieutenant Ruht firstly dumbfounded and secondly without cover.

Cassus Akovin

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Cassus almost didn't notice the fact that Sam Rodarch headbutted a droid on its ass, as his adrenaline had him focusing only on Ruht'ss blaster. There was hardly a moment of hesitation before his blaster was raised and sending a blue stun ring through the security officer. Then, there was a moment of hesitation as his mind collated the rest of the details of this encounter.

"Did you just-?" Cassus started to say, before quickly rushing towards the downed droid and blasting its head point-blank. A stun bolt may not do much to a droid in general, but a blast from point-blank on any setting should be enough to damage most electronics with enough blasts. Feeling secure in their situation, Cassus started to drag the woman's limp body into the men's bathroom. He tries not to feel weird about taking off a woman's uniform in a men's latrine while another woman he just met stands watch for him.

"Alright, I got my uniform so let's get the feth out of here... are you bleeding by the way?" They'd probably have to bandage that up or otherwise obscure it... but maybe it would be worth it to just book it out of here before they encountered any other nightshift guards...