Josh knew he had to hurry up if he wanted to escape that prison alive, but his mind was stuck on whether he should release the Great Khan that wanted to help him, or just make a run for the exit. Releasing the Great Khan would mean he would probably have to open all the cells, and he wasn't sure he wanted to release the assassins and murderers that were in this place, but hey, they might do some harm to the NCR, and who would the infamous Courier be to judge them anyway, right?
He just took the guard's guns and ammo. He thought about taking his armour, but he would rather die than using the Bear's armor.
He ran for the way that had the least soldiers. He couldn't afford to be found and pinned down.
But where to go? 3 magazines of service rifle ammo and and 1 and a half of 9mm pistol won't take me very far. Armory? Nah, that's probably too guarded.
Should release prisoners, then go to the armory while the guards try to control the situation.
But where can I release them... Maybe the controls are on the Warden's office.
But he didn't remember where the Warden's office was...
Then he noticed the vent to his side on the wall. That should at least help him not get spotted.
So he climbed inside the vent. The vent was completely dark, but big enough for the Courier to fit inside.
A few minutes after he started crawling, he heard a loud alarm. They had found the guard. In a few moments they would have entered full lockdown and probably have called the NCR Army too.
Rob just hoped this vent would lead somewhere useful.
After a few minutes of crawling he saw another vent door. He looked out, he saw soldiers running around. Lots of them.
Too many. Lets just keep moving and hope this leads somewhere else.
It took 2 minutes tops to find the end of the vent, with no exit besides the one he had already seen.
Fuck.
How was he going to remove the vent door without alerting every guard in that room?
"Hey, we've got a riot in the cafeteria!" The Courier heard, and saw almost every soldier but 3 in that room leave.
He kicked the vent door and ran at a soldier, and grabbed him by his neck while going behind him, holding the soldier like he was a hostage. He went for the soldier's holster, took the .556 pistol that was in it, and shot the other 2 guards, each in his head, that were wondering whether to shoot or not. He looted the guards. 4 more magazines for the Service rifle.
Now, he planned his next move. Should he head straight for the warden's office, or should he help with the riot the guard talked about?
He chose to help the riot, but he had almost no idea where he was.
He checked the pip boy. When he was in the prison, he made sure to keep the local map updated. Now it was going to be helpful.
The cafeteria was east from here, farther than he would like.
As he was sneaking to the cafeteria, trying not to be seen, he was starting to see more and more chaos. Lots of corpses lying in the ground, dead, both from the NCR and from the prisoners, but with the latter far outweighing the first.
In the cafeteria though, that was real madness. Both sides trading shots at each other, some prisoners wielding improvised weapons, bashing soldiers with fire extinguishers and trash cans.
Since Josh had been silent in the way in, he had the NCR's backs to him. He took full advantage and within a few minutes and magazines, all soldiers had been taken care off.
"Who are you?!" A prisoner asked.
"Another one of you. I'm coming in." Josh said, and showed himself, with his hands up.
"Well, if it ain't the Courier." Marshall, the Khan smiles.
"Missed me?"
"You can't imagine." Marshall replied, grinning.
The Courier observed the rag tag defence set up by the prisoners, surprised. They can fight better than expected.
"Although I would love to stay here and keep chatting, I believe we should start talking about an escape plan." Josh finally suggested.
"That's easier said than done. What do you have on your mind?" The Khan asked.
"Well, we have two choices, none easier than the other. We can, either try to head for the exit as fast as we can hope that the guards haven't organized a good defense, or we head to the warden's office, open all cells, and then try to escape with the rest of the prisoners, with risk of having to fight a more organized defense." Josh explained.
"So its either time or numbers?" Marshall asked. A few seconds later he said: "I say we get out as fast we can, before the reinforcements arrive."
"Ok, speed it is. Remember, we are trying to not attract attention. That means only shooting we have to." He looked at Marshall "You have been here for longer than me. You will know your way around here better than me."
"I'll lead" Marshall said as he nodded.
The other prisoners looked at them and one said "What about us?"
"After I get to Vegas, I'll rescue you. I promise you." The Courier said
"And for now?" The prisoner asked, visibly annoyed for being left in the prison.
"For now, I will leave you here. I'm sorry. I would advise you to either organize a force to open the rest of the cells, or honestly, give up on the riot. Either way, act fast." And the Courier left.
And the Courier and the Khan acted fast and silently, hardly encountering any resistance from the guards, most of whom we busy trying to stop the riot.
When the Courier first came to the prison, he thought the prison looked like a Vault. Now he realized he was probably more right than he thought, as he watched the exit of the prison across a corridor. It was clearly based on a Vault. It was nearly identical to every other Vault, with the giant metal door (although this one didn't have the same shape that other Vaults had) with it's opening mechanism. The door was open, the room, scattered with bodies.
Someone was faster than me.
As he stepped outside, it took a while before his eyes could get used to the brightness of the sun. He saw 3 bodies, wearing prisoner clothing. He looked ahead and cursed his bad luck.
Ahead of him was a field with about 500m with no cover, surrounded with watch towers.
How he was supposed to cross the field without getting shot was beyond him.
He heard "Fuck" as Marshall looked outside and realized the situation they were in.
"Now what?"
The Courier was nearly about to start panicking when he got an idea. A desperate one, but the best one he got yet.
He ran inside, told Marshall to dress NCR armour and did the same.
The Courier explained the plan to Marshall and did his morning prayers. If this works, I'll be worshipping Lady Luck everyday to the last day of my life.
The watchtower guards were on orders to shoot on sight anybody since the riot began. But when they saw a soldier carrying another one on his shoulders, they couldn't shoot.
"Soldier! Stop right now or you will be shot!" The guard yelled
"Don't fire! He's injured, we barely escaped the prisoners. You have got to help James! Please, he is bleeding!" One of the soldiers yelled.
After that, there was silence.
"Do you believe them?" Said one tower guard to his partner.
"Of course!" The partner replied
"Should we really help them? You know our orders, shoot on sight"
"He is bleeding! We have to help them!"
"What if their just prisoners in disguise?"
"Look, I'll go check their ID's. If they check out, we help'em, if not, I'll nod to you and say: They are ours. If i say that, shoot them."
"Ok, but if you end up dead, I'm not taking the blame for it."
"Do you think they believed it?" Marshall asked
"Let's hope so"
Then they heard the guard yell: "I'm sending my friend down there to check your ID's. You better have them, or you are ending with more holes on you than swiss cheese." And they saw a guy go down the watchtower's ladder.
The guard walked up to them, as the Courier saw his face, he felt it was familiar..
"Sargent Miller, Omega Squad. Who are you?" The guard asked. The Courier felt butterflies in his stomach.
"Omega huh? We're Alpha" The Courier answered.
"Is that so?" The soldier laughed and blinked an eye. The Courier started wondering how lucky he could. Omega and Alpha squads were the callsign for the Courier's spies to recognize each other. If one were to say something about Omega, the other one would answer something about Alpha. The first spy would then answer: Is that so?
He heard his spy yell to the guard "HEY JIM, HELP ME WITH THESE GUYS". As Jim came down the ladder to help them, the spy stabbed him in the back with his Combat Knife.
Wow. Even the Courier expected that to be done in a... cleaner way. And he blew up a president.
"Walk about 50 meters forward and wait a bit, just going to tie up some loose ends, make sure they don't trace this back to us." Miller said
Rob and Marshall did as requested, although it took the spy was taking his time.
"He isn't going to betray us is he?" Marshall whispered to Rob."No. I think. I don't know. This has already spiralled way beyond plan, so right now, I know about as much about whatever he is doing as you do." Marshall answered. Is he?
Finally, after what felt like an hour, Miller arrived.
"Sorry for taking too long, i just had something i needed to do a long time ago." He said. Rob looked at him, and saw a detonator in his hand. Is he?
"I'll make the waiting worth it though. Turn around" And the spy blew all of the other towers up in a "beautiful" display of pyrotechnics. Nobody would suspect the dead guard, and Miller's disappearance. "I was wondering when i was going to be allowed to do that. Finally."
