Chapter 22

Most of the prison guards were dead. Buck knew that it was mostly due to Zacks fearless and ferocious attack that took most of them by surprise. Even with the odds against them, Zack was able to cut many of them down. The Cloubit also took out a fair share of the guards with a spear in one hand and a blaster in the other. During the fight, Buck began feeling like he was the only one who had not gone berserk but he did his part by shooting down anyone who had gotten into their blindspots.

At the end of the skirmish, it was clear that the rebels were the victors. One of the last remaining guards was crawling away from Zack who approached him with his lightsaber carving a line along the ground and a cold expression on his face.

"Please... please, don't kill me." The man begged, raising a hand as he fearfully tried to slide back. "I'll tell you anything you want."

"How do we free the prisoners?" Zack said, still approaching the fleeing man.

"You need to go to their prison lock pads..." The man began.

"All of them... at once..." Zack added.

A look of fear and recognition passed his face as he realised what they wanted to do. "You... You need to go to the control room. The switch board at the forefront on the left is the one that controls the cells."

"Any guards?" Zack asked.

The man nodded, "Yes and a few personnel."

"Nothing a grenade or two won't clear out." Zack said glancing at Buck. "Thank you for your service." He said raising his lightsaber.

"Wait, I told you everything!" The man said. "You said you wouldn't kill me if I told you!"

"I never said that!" Zack said, before bring the lightsaber onto the man's face, ending his life.

Buck wanted to complain about Zack's actions but considering he had just killed a few guards himself, he felt like he would seem like a hypocryt if he did. But that did not stop a feeling of unease at seeing Zack dispose of a defenceless man.

"Let's get to the control room." Zack said, with his eyes hooded in darkness.

Buck could have sworn that he saw a flicker of yellow light in them.

/

Saza stepped into the control room, followed by some of her men. Amongst those men were Kisto.

"Warden, the electricity of the outside wall has been turned off." A woman in the control room said, looking at the instruments in front of her.

"Yes and we haven't heard from the guards that investigated the distress call in the engine room." Another said.

The warden was about to say something but Saza spoke over him. "There was a distress call in the engine room and then the electrified wall loses power." Saza said. "Doesn't sound like a coincidence to me, Warden."

"Yes, obviously this has been well planned." The Warden bitterly remarked.

"Sir, we're... we're getting reports that the guards outside are being attacked!"

"What?" The warden said in surprise. "Bloody Rebels!"

Canoe now knew it was true. The rebels had come and Buck was most likely going to be with them.

"Sir, it's... it's not the Rebels who are reported to be attacking." The man continued.

"Than who is it, man?" The Warden snapped.

"It's the natives of this land."

The Warden looked pleadingly at Saza. "Inquisitor Ripper, please assist us to fend this attack off."

"Of course, Warden." Saza said. "That is after all why I am here, to cover your incompetencies." Saza turned to her men. "Major Pado, I need you to take most of the men outside. Make sure whatever is attacking the prison is repelled. Canoe, you and the rest are coming with me to investigate the breach into the facility."

Canoe nodded, hoping that he would not see his friend.

/

Kisto looked around as the monster worms and the Cloubits scaled the wall. A Cloubit stepped beside him and made sounds that he did not understand. Before his eyes, the Cloubit grabbed a hold of one of the worms and hanged on as it speedily crawled up the wall.

"He say you climb wall with Wyrmbin." Rubit said.

"Wymbins huh?" Kisto said regarding the worms passing by him. "Well, you only live once." Kisto shrugged before grabbing a hold of one of the worms and hanged on for dear life as it slithered up the wall. On the other side, he held onto the Wyrmbin as it climbed down to the ground below where he stood on its back and drew his two handgun blasters before shooting at the guards.

The prison guards had been taken by surprise by the initital attack but in time recovered. They were now putting on a defence as they slayed most of the Wyrmbins with their multiple blaster shots. The smaller Cloubits were able to take advantage of their focus on the giant beasts and kill some of the guards.

Kisto stood on his Wyrmbin and shot out at the guards, taking many of them out. His monster worm ate most of the guards it came across. "Awww! You're a good boy aren't you my Wyrmbin." Kisto said in a baby voice. "I think I'm going to call you Lassie."

/

Buck walked into the control room, trying to look inconspicuous. A few people glanced at him, noting his dirty armour but said nor did anything as he continued walking further in. Whenever he was sure that no one was looking, he would drop a spherical ball as he made his way deeper into the room. He did this five times before shouting, "Grenade! Everyone get out!"

Everyone looked at him quietly, not believing him. That is until the explosions rang out. The people in the control room screamed as they ran for the exit in a panic. Buck ran to the control room table that controlled the cells while Zack ran into the now vacated room with the Cloubit behind him.

Buck pressed a few buttons and was able to get the cells to open. This caused a loud alarm to ring out and the air was saturated in red emergency lights. Prisoners suddenly found the energy walls that kept them bound to their grey cubes suddenly flicker out of existence.

"We did it!" Buck said as he continued to look into the computer.

"Good!" Zack said. "Why are we not leaving?" After Buck did not moving from his place.

"I'm trying to locate Ru'Bik's prison cell." Buck said as he looked through the records. "Got it!" He said before he led the way outside.

There was already a few guards waiting for them who fired on them. The group jumped behind some cover before returning fire.

"Buck, you go get Ru'Bik. We'll eliminate these guys." Zack said.

"Like I would leave you to deal with this alone!" Buck said before firing a volley of return fire and diving back behind his cover.

"Buck! You need to go and anyways, your suppose to arm the rebels remember?" Zack said. Zack could see Buck's reluctance to go. "Trust me, Trooper. I'll meet up with you later."

Buck took a moment then nodded before he left. Zack threw a smoke bomb and he and the Cloubit charged into the fray.

/

The prison halls were becoming chaotic. The few guards that were left inside and were not dealing with the Cloubits' attack were trying to control the prisoners but to no avail as they were being loud and uncororative. Buck ran through the halls with a holo-disk in his hand, trying to identify any rebels. He switched from face to face but Ekadi prison was a big place and the belief that he would stumble upon any Rebels on his way to Ru' Bik's cell was shrinking.

He finally stopped and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Rebels of Ekadi!" The multitude of prisoners and any near by guards swiveled their eyes to him. "This is a prison break!" Buck said taking off his backpack and placing it in front of him and reaching into it. "Arm yourselves and escape!" He shouted before throwing most of the bag's contents into the air.

Guns splattered on the floor. Then a true prison riot began. Prisoners scrambled for the weapons while most began to overpower the few guards that were there. Buck found himself running through the chaos, avoiding both prisoner and guard on his way to Ru' Bik's position.

He got to the upper floors where his cell was and rounded a corner before he stopped in his tracks. Ru Bik's cell was now in front of him and he could see the Vultan lying on the prison floor looking at the open door weaky.

In between Ru Bik and his freedom stood a slender female human with ginger hair and an inactivated Inquisitor lighsaber in her hand.

She looked up at Buck with a disarming but sinister smile. "Awe, you're not the one I wanted to see. I was hoping that Canoe would get to kill you but I guess I'll have to do it myself." Saza said before a menacing blade of red energy erupted from her lightsaber.