-Swarm-Part 4-Battle of the Prison Base-
Captain Tigershadow stood beside the Captain of the S.M.A Lyric, a massive air cruiser, flagship of the Sakhmet air fleet. "Tell your men to watch for mine, Glimna," the red Jetsam didn't look at Tigershadow, they both just stared out the window of the busy bridge. Glimna replied, "This assault is prepared enough to watch their fire," then she hesitated, "your people may not be alive anymore." Tigershadow still stared out the window grimly, "this may be the hardest mission the entire war," then Glimna turned her gaze to Tigershadow, "no, it isn't, I can feel it." A few moments of silence passed, and was interrupted by the First Mate, Hralek the blue Lupe, "we are closing in on the prison facility, you should come with me, Captain." A hand gesture showed he was referring to Tigershadow. Glimna watched Tigershadow a bit before he and Hralek disappeared into the bustling movement of the bridge, "I can feel it."
In the warship's bay, battalions of neopets loaded equipment onto gunships, fuel onto gunships, and themselves onto the gunships. Tigershadow and his temporary assistant Hralek walked onto one of the many ships. Tigershadow walked onto the gunship while Hralek stayed and loaded supplies onto the blade-propelled aircraft with the two other temporary soldiers, both Gelerts, twin brothers, Ksayy, the ranged professional who carried a large sniper rifle and only pistols as sidearms, and Yyask, the melee user who carried a longsword, shortsword, and several knives. As Tigershadow dropped into a crew seat, the two late arrivals, Trideli and H'dans, came into the cramped gunship. Trideli wordlessly sat into the pilot's chair, while H'dans made a witty remark about the small interior of the airship and sat directly right of Tigershadow, strange how people acted before other people die.
"Yyask!" screamed Ksayy as a sniper bullet pierced straight through the swordsman. An explosion incinerated Yyask's body before his knees even buckled. The assault had begun and the sounds of war were all around them. Tigershadow suddenly had an incoming transmission through his helmet, "Tigershadow, come in Captain Tigershadow," Tigershadow tossed out a SNOball and answered, "Tigershadow copy, Admiral Glimna, what's our situation?" A sudden explosion behind them signaled the gunship they came in was destroyed. Glimna answered, "Captain, you need to take your team and make your way into the building. Scans have shown that there is an entrance in the landing platform behind it, however, a substantial enemy force is gathering there to launch air defense, you need to disrupt or destroy the enemy aircraft before they can launch or else the bad guys go up one point." Captain Tigershadow waited a moment then signaled for TTS (Temporary Trident Squad) as they now called it, to sprint to the treeline farther into the large mesa. H'dans nailed another group with his slugger and then fell into the trees. They moved through the forest for a tenth of a mile until they actually reached the back of the prison and went up the stairs to the landing platform that hung over the edge of the mesa, suspended by two large poles attached to the top of the building. Just before TTS reached the end of the stairway, Tigershadow signaled for everyone to stop behind him. He peeked up and saw an entire platoon of bug pilots preparing their gunships. Tigershadow looked at the poles, then at his backpack which contained a pack of explosives, easiest decision he'd ever made. He began unfolding his legs to attach an explosive to the pole on this side, but what about the other one. He came up with a plan. Tigershadow threw the other pack as far as he could so it landed close enough. "Go! Go! Go!" Temporary Trident Squad rushed out onto the platform and inside the building before anyone could notice. Once safely inside, Tigershadow squeezed the remote activator. Ka-blamo! Ka-Ka-Ka-blamo! There was a loud whining of metal as the platform fell off to the bottom of the canyon. "Could've had another explosive," suggested H'dans, "but impressive." "No time for chit-chat soldiers, Let's go." They had to find the master button, which immediately opened all cell doors, which was likely in the control room, which was probably up. The control rooms were always up, in fact, it would be a good idea to put it in an underground basement so no one would think it could be there. Tigershadow lead TTS through the narrow corridors of the prison until Ksayy pointed out a door on the left side of the wall, "hey, a stairwell" sure enough, inside was a stairwell with more doors at each floor until it reached the top floor. Basic definition of a stairwell. Temporary Trident Squad hustled up the stairwell, Tigershadow gripping his SSMR-v21 (Standard Sakhmet Militia Rifle version 21) as they got higher and higher and higher until Tigershadow ordered H'dans and Trideli on each side of the door to the control room. At Tigershadow's signal, H'dans kicked down the door so Hralek and Ksayy could go in, shooting each bug. When Hralek and Ksayy were fully inside, H'dans and Trideli followed doing the same. Tigershadow came last but looking like the tough, skilled commander he was. "Trideli, disable those anti-aircraft towers! H'dans, open all cells and armories! Ksayy and Hralek, get onto the roof and support our men!" ordered Tigershadow. While everyone was busy obeying their orders, Tigershadow walked to a desk and picked up the thick folder which contained info on all captured prisoners. He flipped to the Ws.
Name: Wajing
Species: Xweetok
Color: Green
Status: ESCAPED.
Tigershadow looked out a window as he put down the folder, ESCAPED. "Get Hralek and Ksayy." H'dans and Trideli looked up from their work and set eyes on Tigershadow, "Why?" inquired Trideli, "Wajing isn't here," answered Tigershadow, "well yeah, I don't see him" said H'dans. Tigershadow began moving to the ladder that lead to the roof, H'dans and Trideli followed. "No, I mean he isn't in the prison, he escaped." Now Tigershadow climbed the ladder while H'dans and Trideli absorbed the information. When he reached the top, he saw Ksayy and Hralek lying prone and still raining fire onto the losing bugs. Tigershadow didn't order them to do anything but get up while he ordered a small transport to pick them up.
Hologram Conference Room onboard the S.M.A Lyric.
"You're telling me your neopet isn't there?" yelled Queen Amira quite unformally, "Your highness, he already escaped and might even be at Outpost 6B waiting for us." Suddenly, Tigershadow looked down at a notice of an urgent hologram message arriving at Outpost 6B coming from Shenkuu. "Your highness, I may have to put the discussion on hold, there is an urgent message coming" "go ahead, captain." Tigershadow plugged his message machine into an outlet and, amazingly, the form of Wajing appeared "Captain" said Wajing, "Do not worry, I am not hurt and am in Shenkuu. But there is also some bad news," and Wajing told Tigershadow all about the planned attack on Shenkuu. The message ended, and was replaced by Amira "Your highness" mumbled Tigershadow, "we need to move our forces to Shenkuu." A frown appeared on the queen's face, "may I ask why, captain?" Tigershadow bent down and put his message device into another outlet to send it directly to Amira's room. That should be information enough.