E02: Escape (April 6, 2016)

March Challenge Entry

{Early March, 2096}
{Orris Prison Facility, Earth's Moon}

For nearly two weeks, Jerry had been held in the Orris facility. His only complaints were the lack of real beds, and showers, but three meals a day provided by the Galactic Imperium's taxpaying citizens was enough to keep anyone happy.

There was no one else to speak to in Solitary confinement, even the guards only grunted when he said anything. It didn't make much difference, Jerry liked the silence. It allowed him to think, and thinking allowed him to plan, and planning could, of course, result in escape.

Before long, the door unlocked and creaked open. Presently, Admiral Madison appeared accompanied by two security guards.

"Get him on his feet," Madison barked to the guards.

"Are we taking a trip?" Jerry asked, a sly grin on his face.

Madison rolled his eyes and motioned to the two guards. They each grabbed Jerry by one arm and hauled him to his feet.

Though neither Madison nor the guards would speak to him, Jerry gathered from passersby that a few High Security prisoners had escaped recently. That couldn't bode well for Madison.

Jerry himself had been held prisoner at the Orris Facility twice before, and he had escaped both times, which meant that Madison was probably taking him to a more secure cell deeper in the facility. He knew well enough the layout of the facility--he had even seen some schematics and blueprints of the place during his Military service--and if he could only get away from Madison and the guards, he might have a fighting chance of escape.

Jerry's thought's of escape were interrupted by a violent quaking of the facility which knocked everyone to the ground, followed by various sirens and alarms. Madison switched on his wrist communicator and shouted into it: "Report! What just happened?"

"Bombs in sectors three and four, sir; two Javelin hangars were taken out," came the static-filled reply

The Admiral swore under his breath before barking into the watch: "Get all the other birds airborne! How long before we can get the fleet on this side of the rock?"

"Thirty minutes, sir," the voice came.

"You've got fifteen," Madison said and switched off the watch.

Madison pushed himself to his feet and brushed himself off when another round of bombs knocked him down again. The lights suddenly flickered out and the Orris Facility was completely blacked out. Jerry didn't have much time to formulate a plan, but he knew this was the time to act. He leapt to his feet as best he could with handcuffs on, and dashed back down the hall.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Jerry took several passages and doorways, hoping he hadn't made a mistake; rumors had their way of bouncing around the System, and he had heard that some prisoners had gotten lost in the facility while attempting to escape. It's labyrinthine status was legendary amongst the galaxy's fugitives of justice.

Finally he found the doorway he thought he was looking for, turning in, he found himself in the holding room where all the Prisoner's belongings were kept. For a long term prisoner like himself, the items were usually auctioned off, or stolen by the various guards and the prisoners never saw them again, but his stay had been short enough that there was a fair chance of his items still being available.

A few minutes of searching and he found a box labeled "Evans, J." That was his. After rummaging about for a few seconds, he found his flight suit; though the helmet was nowhere to be found so it turned out to be useless anyway. He cast the suit aside and there underneath it was Ron, his personal Robot.

Poor Ron had been switched off by the prison staff and had no idea of the events that had transpired after their capture.

Jerry flipped a small switch and Ron's interface slowly glowed to life.

"Statement:" he said, "Greetings, I am Ron, your personal CHEVRON Robot." Since the CHEVRON Models were so small, a voice inflection chip could not be added so the robots were programmed to simply state the emotion before they began speaking.

"Ron!" Jerry shouted, "We need a way out of here!"

"Exclamatory: It is wonderful to see you, Jerry," the robot replied.

"Good to see you too," Jerry said, "but we can save the pleasantries for later. What's the quickest way out of here? And get these cuffs off me."

A small flap opened and an arm protruded from the opening. The tip started glowing blue and a laser cut through the links of Jerry's handcuffs before the arm retracted and the flap closed.

"Statement: Readings show multiple Javelin-class starships being prepared for takeoff," Ron said, "Suggestion: If we hurry, we might be able to commandeer one, so to speak."

"Good idea," Jerry said.

Jerry grabbed his gun from the box and, after briefly wondering why it hadn't been locked away, stuffed it in the pocket of his prison attire. He ran out of the door and back up the hallway. Getting lost wasn't quite as much of a danger with Ron guiding him. It didn’t take long for the two to find a hangar with a ship still in tact.

"Let's get those engines primed," Jerry said.

Jerry climbed into the cockpit and started flipping the necessary switches that would engage the engines, but there were no switches. Everything was operated via touch screen.

"OK, this is new," he muttered. He touched the screen and a voice came out of the four inch speaker.

"Please enter your seven-digit Military ID," the voice said. Apple's Siri VI. Jerry entered his old ID into the touch keyboard. "Invalid ID. Please enter your seven-digit Military ID," Siri said.

"Jerry!" came a voice from across the hangar. Jerry looked over to see Admiral Madison with two guards. "Give it up, you're surrounded!"

"Looks like the Admiral finally decided to show up. Ron get rid of this AI and get the engines warmed up," Jerry said and climbed down from the cockpit.

"Give it up, Jerry," Madison said.

"I'm flying out of here, Madison, you can't stop me," Jerry said, smugly.

"It doesn't have to be like this Jerry. Come back for a trial and we'll make sure you're treated fairly," Madison said.

"I've got a mission, Daniel," Jerry said. "If you only understood."

"I understand that you killed my daughter! You're a fugitive of justice, and you belong in a cell," Madison growled.

"And you belong in a museum," Jerry said softly, taking a step back.

Jerry turned and jumped into the cockpit of the Javelin Fighter as the security guards opened fire.

"How are we doing Ron?" Jerry shouted, fumbling the pistol out of his pocket. It wasn't as easy as it might seem, firing a gun with handcuffs on, but he managed to get a few shots off, forcing the security guards to take cover.

"Franticly: I am working on a solution, sir," Ron said.

"No restaurants in your area with that name," Siri said. Jerry only groaned and blindly fired two more rounds.

Jerry heard a grunt followed by shouts of: "The Admiral's been hit! Get a medic!"

He lifted his head up to see that Madison had taken one of Jerry's bullets to the shoulder.

"System Override successful. The terminal is open," the voice came out of the ship's computer system.

"Finally!" Jerry shouted. The engines roared to life. "Statement: The engines should be primed in 30 seconds," Ron said. The guards opened fire once more but Jerry only closed the cockpit and prayed that the engines would be warmed up before a bullet could pierce the ship's hull.

After about 45 seconds, the VTOL thrusters activated and the fighter slowly began to rise. Jerry strapped himself in and assumed control of the ship. A few taps on the touch interface and the ship blasted out of the hanger.

"Joyous Exclamation: We're free," Ron said.

"We're not out of this yet," Jerry said. "Aurelian Bomber inbound!"

Sure enough, an bomber bearing the red markings of Aurelia was on an intercept course for Jerry's ship. The Aurelian let loose with its twin laser cannons, while Jerry took evasive action.

Jerry brought the Javelin around and put the ship on a crash course with the Aurelian. Both ships opened fire, but only the Aurelian did any significant damage.

"Worried Statement: Sir, I am detecting fuel leakage in the starboard engine," Ron said.

The Javelin began to spiral and drift, nearly colliding with the Aurelian. Jerry frantically clicked away at the touch interface before he was finally able to compensate for the lost engine. He regained control and once again turned the ship about.

"Gotcha now," Jerry said quietly as the Javelin's on-board targeting computer locked onto the Aurelian bomber. A few clicks on the touch screen and two shells fired from the ship's twin cannons. The shells ripped into the bomber's hull, causing the vessel to burst into flames. Jerry burst into laughter.

"How do you like fried Aurelian for lunch, Ron?" he asked, still chuckling.

"Jokingly: I prefer duck myself, sir," Ron replied. Jerry only chuckled more.

No one seemed to notice the Javelin quietly slip away in the chaos of the bombing attack, Jerry finally relaxed a bit.

"Ron, patch us through to Papa Bear," he said after a few seconds of silence.

Ron said nothing but presently another voice said, amidst the crackling of static: "Jerry, glad to see you made it out of Orris."

"No thanks to you," Jerry said, obviously a bit unhappy.

"I know you're resourceful, I had guessed you would have escaped without counting on an Aurelian bombing raid," Papa Bear replied.

"Maybe so," Jerry replied, "but it would be nice if I didn't even have to go to prison in the first place."

Papa Bear sighed, "You know that's the only place where the Javelins are readily available. If you prefer, I could have sent you to steal one directly from Baltic?"

Jerry growled and Papa Bear continued: "Now I need you to finish the mission, get this ship over to Zarus, ASAP."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Jerry sighed.

"Me too. Papa Bear out." The comm channel crackled and shut off.

"Slightly Worried: Sir, with fuel leakage and engine failure, we won't make it to Zarus," Ron said.

"Where CAN we get to?" Jerry asked.

"Disappointed: Due to its orbit, Rerador is on the opposite side of Tirunei. Statement: It seems Earth is our only option," Ron said.

"No," Jerry said, pausing, "What about the other moon of Tirunei?"

"Perplexed: Fuyoria is within range. Discouraging: May I warn you, sir, that Fuyoria's inhabitants have not yet matured and are incapable of space travel. They will not be able to help us."

"Well we can't go back to Earth, I'm sure we'll be captured on sight if we go there," Jerry said. "No, this is perfect. Ron, plot a course for Fuyoria."

Author's Note:

Finally got this thing posted! Really sorry about the photography, one of my lamps died and I haven't had a chance to replace it :| Also you may notice that there are two pictures missing. That's because it totally slipped my mind to build the scene for that....scene...? Let's go with that. Anyway, yeah. Hope you enjoyed, maybe the next one will be better in the photography department =P Don't forget to rate, comment, etc