The March Conspiracy

[Craines]

Within the Asylum, a bustle of activity could be seen. Nurses, doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists all ran about, trying to cure the incurable. It was within this nest of confusion that an old man in a white lab coat slipped in to the facility.

Making sure to keep out of sight of the ample security that had been placed within by keeping his head down and pretending to read a large clipboard, the man strode through the halls with an almost intimate knowledge. Finally, he reached the room he was looking for.

There were two armed guards outside the door, but they weren't expecting an old man. Saluting them both, he walked next to them. One of the guards clamped his hands onto the shoulder of the man. "No visitors. Doctor's orders."

"My dear sir," the old man began, his arms patting the guard's arm gently, "I am a doctor. Now, the patient needs..." He rifled through his clip board. "His medication and treatments soon, unless his condition deteriorates." The other guard began to pick up his hand-held communicator, but both slumped gently against the floor. "Morons," the old man said, picking both guards up and heaving them into a corner. "Thank Jehovah, God, whichever embodiment You may wish to take, thanks for making Liberty so stupid as to not place cameras on this particular cell."

The door had a double-deadbolt keeping it closed, and an old-fashion lock-and-key were required to open it, along with a password and key card. Chuckling to himself, never raising his head, the old man traced his finger across the edges of the door. A few short moments and a terrible hissing sound later, the door's defenses had been compromised. Still chuckling, the man entered the room.

Tannik Seldon sat huddled in his room. Glancing around cautiously, the man in the white lab coat made sure that there were no electronic devices in the room. Finally sure that his identity was safe from the Liberty Government, the old man spoke.

"Seldon, Tannik, once a proud member of the Southern Alliance, now confined due to schizophrenia. Tut tut tut, my good fellow, electroshock therapy? Have we no shame? Well, come along then. We haven't much time. The guards outside are dead, poor fellows, and I don't think we'll be in the best position when they are discovered. So! Let's just get you on this gurney... there's a good chap. Now, we'll just be going, get on my little craft outside, and be done with it. Okay?"

Seldon was too heavily drugged to respond, and did as he was told. Moving the gurney down the hallway at a hurried pace, the old man cried out warnings. "Gain way! Look out! We have a Class Nine dash Four! Nine dash Four, people! Get out of the bloody way, there's a good girl. Open the stupid door, your moron, before he wakes up and tries to kill us all! NINE DASH FOUR!"

No one really knew what a nine dash four was, but it sounded pretty official, and so they moved aside without delay.

Busting through the doors, the old man wheeled the still-groggy form of Tannik Seldon over to a transport ship. Placing the 'insane' man into a cryogenic tube, and then sealing the capsule, the old man placed it into the back of the transport. Activating his ship's engines, the Dirigible lifted off, sailing through the cold night sky. Armed guards swarmed the area, and panic swept the asylum. The bodies of the guards had been found, and after reviewing the tapes, no one could tell who that old man was, except that it was he who had caused the deaths and removed the high-security patient from the facility.

"He was a Nine dash Four! What do you expect me to do?" Dr. Fraltdorf demanded over the communications array. "Actually... how dare you! Of course I know what a Nine dash Four is! It's... it's a murderer or treason patient. Yep, that's what it is."

With the near-riot raging on within the Asylum, no one noticed the glowing armor of the Phantom Shock Troops as they landed silently, preparing to fulfill the ultimatum...

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