~Chapter 7~
Mushroom Castle, Toad Town
Anger, sadness, and hatred where all things that Princess Peach felt right now. Toad Town had been completely annihilated. Countless diplomats had been taken as prisoners. And worst of all, the Koopa Kingdom had revealed itself to be more powerful than ever. The Great Mushroom Kingdom that had stood for 1000 years was at its knees. The rest of the Military would continue to fight but it was clear that they would be easily defeated. Slowly but surely parts of the kingdom would be captured and become a part of the Koopa Kingdom.
Peach, Mario, Daisy, Chancellor Toadell, Toadiko, and a handful of Peach's Aides had been locked in her suite. It was only a matter of time until they would be transferred to one of the Airships and interrogated. Peach had wondered why they hadn't been sent straight to the cell block on one of the Airships, like Rosalina and the other guests had. But she was glad they hadn't. It was likely they would force her to sign a treaty of some sort. She wouldn't do it. She could not let her people's lives be in the hands of President Para. Peach had changed out of her evening dress into a comfortable, long, pastel pink night robe. Although she would likely be required to change out of it and into something more formal soon.
"We have to get out of here..." She muttered for the umpteenth time.
Mario and the others were in the living room. Peach had gone to the bedroom to get changed.
"Anybody thought of anything?" She said solemnly as she glided through the doorway.
"No... But we will soon. I'm sure of it." Daisy replied. Her makeup smudged from excessive crying.
Peach glanced out the large windows. Toad Town was a burning mess, barely recognizable to what it used to be. A nice, pretty, happy city was now reduced to rubble and ash. Just the thought of all the displaced civilians made her feel even worse.
Peach sat down on one of the couches next to Mario. He wrapped his arm around her.
"We'll get out... I promise." Mario said.
Then something in the back of Peaches mode lit up.
"I know how we can get out!"
"How!" The whole group said somewhat excitedly.
"Somewhere in this suite is a secret passageway leading to one of the hallways somewhere in the palace. We'll have to shut down the castles defense systems and then steal a shuttle and get out of here. I would go but I'm afraid it isn't very fun running while pregnant."
"I'll go!" Mario stood up.
"I'll go to!" Daisy piped in, "what about Rosalina? She's in one of those Airships! We can't just leave her!"
"We'll steal a shuttle and some flight suits and fly to the Airship and free her and the rest of the prisoners and steal another shuttle for them to have safe passage to Toad City," Mario said.
"Okay, then we have a plan."
...
40 or so minutes later they had found the passageway. Daisy and Mario had yet to return from disarming the defense systems. The rest of the group sat anxiously in silence awaiting their return. Suddenly there were voices coming from the main entry door.
"We have orders to take these prisoners to President Para himself." A generic sounding voice said.
"We haven't received these orders yet? What are your ID numbers?" Said another generic voice.
Peach sat in fear. It was a matter of time until they were sent down to Para and then to one of the Airships.
The ID numbers where given.
"There Valid Numbers. Where your orders verbal?"
"Yes, they were issued by the President himself."
"Then you may proceed as planned."
Two figures in the standard Koopa Flight uniforms entered the suite. They shut the door. The figure on the left removed its helmet. It was Daisy!
"Daisy!" Peach shouted quietly so the guards would not hear.
Mario took off the helmet.
"Peach, get changed into something more formal," Mario said, "and wear flats. Be quick we don't have much time. We found out Rosalina and the others are being kept on the Dreadnought."
Peach got changed into a sleeveless black jumpsuit with a white tunic on top. She wore black knee length boots. Once back in the living room Daisy told everyone the plan. The plan was for Mario and Her to escort the group to a shuttle. They would then fly to the Dreadnought and free the others by telling the guards they were to transfer the prisoners to the Palace for President Para. There were some major holes in the plan but it was better than sitting here.
Mario and Daisy put cuffs on everyone.
"Here goes nothing," Peach muttered.
Mario took the lead with Peach, Chancellor Toadell, and the aides walking two by two with Daisy taking the Back. They walked through the castle, mainly taking less used corridors and stairwells. They had made their way to the front entrance of the Castle. Outside, it was no longer raining. Well, it was but the Airships were blocking the rain from hitting the ground. Mario was approached by another in a flight suit. He explained the "orders" and then marched everyone onto one of the parked shuttles.
They got inside and had closed the entrance ramp Peach let out a sigh of relief.
"We're not safe yet." Chancellor Toadell said.
"I know. But at least it's half over," Peach replied. "Mario, Daisy, Do you know how to fly this thing?" She then called into the cockpit.
"No, but it seems simple enough. We've both flew similar vessel in the past. The controls seem similar to our own shroom shuttles." Daisy said.
Peach walked to the cockpit out of the plain grey cargo/troop area.
"Right. Aren't you going to remove our cuffs?"
"I would, but you'll have to put them on again for our trip to the prison block."
...
They had safely landed in the landing bay of the Dreadnought. Daisies heart was beating abnormally fast. She was nervous. The plan has worked up to now but how much longer will it last? She and Mario put their helmets on and round up the "prisoners". This time it was Daisy who took the lead. In the past, she had studied maps and cutaways or Airships. Although they had never come in handy during the past, they sure did now. Once out of the Shuttle they were greeted by a squadron of soldiers.
"Halt!" The leader of the squadron said.
Oh-oh Daisy thought, now was the end. But it wasn't.
"What is your ID number?"
She gave them the number.
"Carry on."
Few! Nobody had thought to ask President Para about his "order" yet. Rather foolish.
Once out of the Hanger Bay they headed aft, toward the cell blocks.
"What cell block are they in?" Peach whispered from behind her.
"E deck, cell block number E501. They're in cells number E50113-E50120"
"And we're on J deck?"
"Correct."
Airship Dreadnoughts had 11 standard floors and 4 half floors above the main deck, like where the bridge was located. J deck was the second lowest deck. K Deck was mainly an engineering floor, there was barely any access to it. The Dreadnought class airship was much larger than standard class airships.
Daisy gulped. They were going to be caught. Sooner or later.
...
They had safely made it to the Cell Block on E deck. It wasn't as heavily guarded as Dasiy had expected. There were two Officers sitting at the command desk and three guards scattered around the Cell Blocks Foyer. But they probably weren't planning for a surprise break out.
"Where are you taking these prisoners?" Asked one of the officers.
"We have orders to transfer these Prisoners to this cell block, issued by President Para himself," Daisy said.
"I'll have to check on that-"
BANG! Mario ran up next to her and shot the Officer. The other officer grabbed his pistol. The guards also retrieved their weapons. But Daisy was faster she grabbed the gun off of the flight suits utility belt and shot the other Officer. BANG!
"Mario, Try to hold off these Guards. I'm gonna take the cuffs off everyone." Daisy said urgently.
Peach and the others were crouching on the ground. Daisy quickly un-cuffed them.
"Don't move!" She said to Peach and the others.
Then, she was back crouching behind the front of the desk again. This was the most action Daisy had experienced in the past 10 months. She didn't like it, but it definitely beet doing nothing. She and Mario had shot down two of the guards. The other was running down the hall of the cell block.
"I'll go stop that guard!" Mario yelled.
Daisy walked around to the back of the arch-shaped desk. She grabbed the key ring off the belt of the dead Koopa Officer. Peach, The Chancellor, and their aides stood up.
"Take these!" Daisy said as she threw the Officers Pistols towards Peach and Chancellor Toadell.
"Peach, Chancellor Toadell, stand guard. Two of your aides can have these Guards guns. I'm going to unlock the cells." Daisy was already down the hall.
"E50113-20." She said to herself while looking at the numbers on the doors. "13!" She had found the first cell.
Swiftly, she began unlocking the doors one by one and then ushered the diplomats into the hallway. There had to be at least 5 of them in every single room. These were the lucky ones. The only ones that could be saved. It was likely others were still hiding in the castle and even more had run out of the castle into the bombardment. She opened the last door.
"DAISY?!" Rosalina was surprised. "How did you get here? How did you find us?"
"We'll explain later. Hurry!" Daisy bellowed. "Follow me!"
Daisy gestured for Rosalina to leave the cell and join the rest of the diplomats.
"Everyone, Hurry. Princess Peach and Chancellor Toadell are waiting in the cell block foyer. We're going to steal a shuttle to get you out of here." Daisy called back while walking.
The large group reached the end of the hallway.
"Your all safe!" Peach chimed. "But we still have to get out of here." She then said in a lest cheery voice.
"Now we just have to escape."
…
