Captain Stanley Nelson - Prisoner of War

[pbrione]

--Lower Access Corridor, Level 3, Fuchu Prison, Shikoku System--

A man in the uniform of a KNF Commander walked briskly along the corridor leading to the Central Security Control Room. In his left hand he clutched the handle of a heavy black briefcase, in his right hand, hidden inside his jacket pocket, was a laser blaster. As a couple of Kusari guards walked past, saluting him, he tensed slightly. He had already had to stun 3 of them who had asked too many awkward questions, he did not want there to be any more. People might start noticing the bodies.

He walked strait past the Control Room, and turned instead to a small door next to it. Finding it to be locked, and irritated that his access card appeared to be insufficient to open it, he subtly pulled out his blaster and burned a small hole through the locking system. Kicking the door open, he hurried inside and closed it again behind him, hoping that nobody would have cause to examine the door in the next hour or so. The room he found himself in was a small maintenance room, stacked with munitions, many of them highly explosive. To his satisfaction he saw that the stolen blueprints had been correct - there in the wall was a small air vent leading into the Control Room next door. Placing his breifcase on a crate just below this, he opened it to reveal a considerable array of electronic equipment. He flipped a switch, and inserted a small black vaccuum tube into one of the slots. It was a low-yield antimatter bomb, almost impossible to diffuse as the antimatter would annihilate on contact with anything once the magnetic field suspending it in the vaccuum tube collapsed. He carefully closed the case again, and looked around at the room. Before leaving he rearranged some of the munitions so as to direct the blast sideways into the computer equipment next door. Finally he left the room and hurried off down the corridor.

After a few minutes navigation he reached a disusued computer terminal in a deserted maintenance corridor. Hacking into the system took him a little over 5 minutes, but once he had access to the prison's control system, he merely contented himself to stand there, his back to the terminal. He stood stock still for nearly 20 minutes. At one point a KNF Officer approached him to ask him a question, but he stunned the man before he could get more than a couple of words out, dragging his body into a nearby storeroom. Then he returned to his post. Waiting....


--D Wing, Level 5, Fuchu Prision--

Nelson too was waiting, he had been for close to a day now, his small kitchen-knife concealed in his right sock. There was little else for him to do in his cell all day, and he preferred to keep his mind focused on the task before him. Finally, as the evening began to draw in, Komatsu came, exactly on time. Nelson could barely conceal a grim smile of satisfaction, though he drew no pleasure from what he was about to do. His cell door was unlocked, and Komatsu stepped inside with his two burly henchmen. As ususal, he dismissed the rest of the guards outside Nelson's cell, preferring that nobody should witness him at work.

"So Mr Nelson, I see that you have recovered from your brief spell in medical hmm? Enjoy it did you? I assure you I will not allow Dojo here to be so careless like that again. We wouldn't want you permanently injured now would we?"

Nelson said nothing, his face blank, but his right hand began to reach slowly down his side...

"Not much to say, have you Stanley-san? Well, we'll soon change that. I have a new batch of truth syrum here", snarled Komatsu, reaching forwards towards Nelson with the syringe, we'll see how you reac-"

Nelson struck quickly as the Captain was standing over him, lunging at him with the knife and stabbing him in the stomach. Komatsu keeled over, bleeding heavily and screaming in pain. The guards were slightly too slow to react, and foolishly decided to try and tackle Nelson by hand rather than drawing their pistols; a major mistake. By the time the first one was made a grab for him, he was ready again, catching the man a glancing blow to the arm with his knife. The cut was not too deep, but the guard staggered back, as Nelson felt the other man's arms close around his neck from behind. As he choked for air he swung the knife round desperately behind his head, scrabbling blindly at the man behind him. The second guard was slowly making towards him again, but Nelson kicked out, and as he did so he felt the pressure on his neck dissappear as the other guard sank to the floor in agony, his face covered in cuts and his mouth torn horribly. Moving quickly to grab the blaster pistol from the screaming guard's belt, he shot the other man twice in the chest, before running from the cell. He had no idea how severely injured Komatsu or the others were, and frankly he did not much care. His only aim was to get out of here as quickly as possible...

...suddenly he skidded to a halt, and ran off down a corridor to the left of him. He had nearly forgotten about Sam, who he hoped was still lying in the medical ward where he had last seen her. Whilst Komatsu had helpfully dismissed the guards in his own corridor, however, Nelson was not so lucky here. Two KNF guards stood outside the door to the medical ward, and the sudden appearance of a well known prisoner, clutching a gun and covered in bloodstains did not make it likely that Nelson would be able to bluff his way past them. Fortunately for him, the 2 men were so taken by surprise that Nelson had the first of them down before the other had even drawn his weapon. "Thank god for BAF small-arms training" He thought, as he narrowly avoided a laser shot from the guard, before shooting the man squarely in the chest. Running into the medical ward, he found a male nurse running towards his communications transponder. Rather than shoot the unarmed man, Nelson opened fire on the communicator, blowing it up in a flash of fire. The nurse, clearly deciding that his duty did not cover trying to wrestle with an armed prisoner, chose to hide under a nearby bed, shielding his face with his arms. Looking around desperately, Nelson spotted Sam, the only patient in the room, wide awake from the sounds of the fighting, and staring at him looking shocked and confused.

Nelson ran over to her, helping her out of the bed, "Can you walk?" He whispered hurridly,

"Yes, just about..." she replied in a hoarse voice, still sounding confused.

"Come on, we're getting out of here!" he said, grabbing her by the arm and half-dragging her out into the corridor. At that exact moment, all across the building, the alarms began to sound....


--Disused console, Maintanence corridor 12B, Level 4, Fuchu Prison--

The man known as Michael Richardson to his friends, and White Rose to MI7, saw the alert message before he heard the alarms sound. The message had just appeared seconds ago on the screen, emergency priority. Komatsu's body had been found by a patrol guard - the base commander was badly injured. And Nelson was not in his cell. White Rose had attempted to block the message before it reached the control room, but he was not quick enough. He had barely started typing when the alarms began to sound across the building. Cursing heavily, he knew that there was only one thing for him to do. If the officers in the Control Room had sounded the alarm they would now be rushing to activate the base's internal security systems. Nelson would have mere seconds before plasma cannons decended from the ceiling of every corridor, and the blast doors sealed off all the prison exits. White Rose pulled out his data-pad from his pocket, and pressed a small symbol in the corner of the screen. A confirmation request appeared on screen. Pausing only for a fraction of a second, he reached out and pressed "Yes"......


--Medical Corridor, Level 5, Fuchu Prison--

Nelson hesitated as the alarm rang through the empty corridor, but it had been sounding only for a few seconds when a huge explosion was felt several floors below them, knocking them both to the floor. Jumping up quickly before helping the weak Sam Windsor to her feet, he looked around for any sign of approaching guards.

"What was that?" asked Sam, "did you do it?"

"I - I don't know..." stammered Nelson. "Come on, let's go quickly, before more guards arrive"

Taking her by the hand, they began to run towards the shuttle hanger.


--Security Control Room, Level 3, Fuchu Prison--

Chusa Sukenori, commanding officer in charge of prison security, was in total confusion. His Control Room, with its supposedly unbreachable doors, lay in ruins around him. The computer equipment was all wrecked, totally inoperable, and much of it was on fire. It appeared that a huge hole had been blown in the wall from the room next door, and most of his staff officers lay on the ground bleeding in various states of injury. The escaped prisoner had left his cell only minutes ago - he couldn't possibly have gotten all the way down here and done this! What was going on? Sukenori reviewed his options - he knew that Base Commander Komatsu was severly injured, possibly dead, which left him in charge of stopping the high-security prisoner from escaping. Unfortunately he had just lost all his communications equipment, and the nearest backup terminal was 2 floors away, with an unknown number of potential enemies lying in wait for him. Ah well, it would be disonerable not to do his duty. Sukenori took one last look at the burning room, drew his gun, and set off at a run down the corridor.


--Disused console, Maintanence corridor 12B, Level 4, Fuchu Prison--

With a smile of satisfaction, White Rose looked at the computer terminal informing him that all communication with the Central Control Room had been lost, and that the security turrets had not yet been activated. Still, Nelson was alone, and the building was swarming with guards. He was going to need help. White Rose typed rapidly onto the keypad, and after around 20 seconds, every cell door in the entire prison suddenly swung open. With a few more instructions, he persuaded the computer system to jamm all the lifts between floors. Nelson only had to get to the Hangar Bay on the other side of his floor, and he would be safe. With a parting shot from his gun to blast the terminal into oblivion, White Rose set off to join him.


--Main hallway, Level 5, Fuchu Prison--

Nelson and Sam hutled down each passing corridor until they reached the main hallway. The warning alarm was still sounding, but this was now joined by the sounds of the fire alarm ringing, and the sprinkler systems pouring water down from the ceiling of every coridor. The entire prison was now in a state of total chaos; the last corridor they had passed Nelson had seen what appeared to be a huge crowd of Blood Dragon prisoners wrestling 2 KNF officers to the ground, as more guards were backing away from them, shooting down the prisoners with stun guns one by one. With escaping prisoners seemingly everywhere, and unarmed prison staff running for cover from the erupting fighting, Nelson and Sam were able to make it to the main hallway almost unhindered. Nelson had had to shoot a couple of guards, but this floor seemed to be almost entirely devoid of KNF. At the end of this main hallway was the door into the Hangar Bay, where he knew that a fighter would be waiting for him. With Sam almost fainting from lack of strength, Nelson picked up her frail body and began to carry her towards the exit. As he did so a tall man in KNF uniform rushed out of a side corridor; Nelson fumbled with his blaster, but the man held up his arms and cried in clear English,

"Don't Shoot! I'm with you!"

Nelson lowered his gun cautiously but the other man ran up to him and shook him firmly by the hand. "Captain Nelson. Michael Richardson, MI7 agent. Glad too see you and your friend here made it. Now let's get you out of -"

As he spoke the sound of many running feet could be heard behind them. Turning quickly, they saw the figure of Chusa Sukenori at the head of a huge squadren of KNF soldiers rushing up the staircase from the lower levels, at the opposite end of the 100 yard hallway.

"There they are! The prisoners - and our traitor! Stop them! Shoot them!" He cried, as they began firing wildly along the length of the hallway, blasting large chunks out of the shiny metal walls.

Running for their lives, the two men sped down to the end of the hallway and into the Hangar, firing stray shots behind them and trying to support Sam Windsor between them. As soon as they had cleared the doors, Richardson used the manual controls to seal the Steel Blast doors behind them, trying to buy them some time. Looking around at all the Chimerea fighters lined up in the cavernous room, however, he knew that Nelson would have no chance of escape if the KNF fighter pilots managed to get after him.

"That's my ship, there" he said, pointing towards the small GMG logo'd Griffin fighter near the center of the room. "Here's the starter chip, you get her into the cockpit, I'll be along in a minute."

As Nelson helped Sam into the tiny cockpit, he knew that there was barely room for two people in there, let alone three. Suddenly the sound of shouting made him look round - Sukenori and his men had breached the door and were firing at their ship. The MI7 agent, meanwhile, was running into the open airlock towards the huge plasmasteel Hangar door that seperated the room from the vaccuum outside...

"Go! Start up the ship and get airborne! Quickly!" he cried back towards them. As Nelson obliged, sealing the cockpit and starting the fighter's engines, White Rose prepared for his last act in the service of the Bretonian Crown. Pulling from his pockets a pair of yellow plasma grenades, he removed the pins and threw them, one left, one right, at the foot of the giant Hangar Door. Standing smartly to attention, he pulled a crisp salute and shouted "God Save the Queen!"

At the last second Sukenori realised what the man was doing, and dived back out of the Hanger screaming "get back! BACK! SEAL THE DOOR!" but most of the men were far too slow to react. The huge explosion ripped a gigantic hole through the centre of the 100m wide Hangar Door, and with the airlock open the entire hangar was suddenly open to the black void of space. As air, people and ships were sucked out into the vaccuum, and across the base the blast doors finally began to close, sealing off the corridors inside from the loss of air pressure, the small Griffin fighter sped out through the hole into deep space, and freedom...

---

Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>