Left to rot (Tal/Open)

[Ryan Sharpe]

On the outskirts of Thani, deep under the industrial sector of the city, Ryan Sharpe, Imperial Intelligence Agent, opened his eyes to behold the ceiling of his dark, cold cell for what could well have been the the millionth time. He had no idea how long he had been here, or how long he had been bounced from medical frigate to medical frigate as he recovered from the injuries he sustained on Tokmia. Fragments of metal were still buried deep within his scarred torso, courtesy of the explosion that had crippled him and allowed him to be captured by his former Devil Dog comrade, Sam Wesvar.

Up until a month earlier, Ryan's body had all but wasted away, unable to process the pitiful food that he had been receiving during his incarceration and left weakened by the time he had spent in 'recovery'. His captors had helped him feel welcome with the occasional beating of course. Dressed in clothing that could only be described as bloody rags and covered in bruises, he had begun training himself. First, to walk again. Then push-ups, sit-ups and the like. Now, while he was not back to full strength by any means, he was getting there.

The cell was bare, to say the least. Only a rusty, old, wire-frame bed and a, thankfully, functioning latrine and sink. Sitting up on his bed, which sagged to one side slightly, he could hear one of the two guards moving in the corridor outside. He stood up, before doubling over and collapsing to the cold, hard floor with a thud. His entire body began to shake violently, as though suffering some severe form of fit. A guards face appeared at the small window in the door.

"Get this frakking door open!!! We need him alive!! Bring the medkit, now!!"

The door unlocked with the sound of mechanical whirring and a heavy thud and the guard rushed inside, rolling Ryan onto his back. The look of panic on his face was quickly replaced by confusion as he looked down at the Imperial Agent, who was... grinning?

"Oh sh-!"

Ryan's palm covered the man's mouth as his other fist, wrapped in the thick, rusty wire from the base of his bed, slammed into the guards throat. Pieces of the wire, deliberately left protruding like some crude knuckle duster, stabbed through the flesh repeatedly, leaving Ryan's victim choking on his own blood. The agent just had enough time to snatch the blaster from the belt of the soon-to-be corpse and fire three shots into the man now appearing in the doorway.

Dragging the body into the cell, he changed into one of the guard's uniforms, careful to wash as much of the blood from the collar as he could before doing so. Slipping the blaster back into it's holster, he walked calmly out of the cell, locked the door behind him and made his way toward the elevator.

[Tal Kote]

-By military standards nothing really got past the High General. All information regarding that of Imperial's and other known enemies somehow always reached the military leader's desk. Granted, that kind of info would sometimes move over to the Intel department before coming to the military. But it really all depended on what was occurring. Tal had received the information of an Imperial who had been captured and brought to Telosian soil. What he failed to understand was who this "bucket head" truly was. Best way to do something like that was to pay the prisoners cell a little visit, and ask questions. However, the last time that the mandalorian did that; it wasn't at best to open the cell and allow for a clean escape. And well the last person that did such a thing was in fact a sith. Imperial's had to be pretty smart to find a way to fool NR guards. First hand, Tal understood they weren't as dumb as many lead to be. They had their own government, their own military with both army and navy, and even an Intelligence department. So it was nothing to different then that of the New Republic.-

-Either way you always had to be prepared when facing a captive. Tal knew that much after escaping from the Imperials a while back. This time he was a little more prepared in case something did happen. A little odd as it may of seemed to be wearing a more darker version of combat attire. It was much different then that of the Army Rangers or even the Devil Dogs of the Special Forces. Just what was that anyways? Only a few knew of this and they were only lucky enough to make it far enough to see this attire and actually wear it. This moment; it was a way to make it seem like a mission was about to start up or something.-

-Within about thirty minutes the former Devil Dog CO had arrived at the complex where the prisoner was being held. It was much more different then the one that held a force sensitive sith. Upon arrival, however, he heard some kind of yelling going on. A tussle between guard and prisoner or was it just a guard throwing a fit after losing a game of sabacc? Hardly seemed like it considering it soon got rather quiet. Everything seemed to go into dead silence with walls around of the facility -- knowing that there was only one way in and one way out of here -- Kote was at that one and only entrance. Yellow eyes focused in a little more placing one hand on the door. Slowly it opened up allowing trapped air to escape and new fresh air entering into the room. It was rather dark for a place like this, but from the light outside and the darkness here his eyes were able to adjust rather quickly.-

-Down the hallway; the mandalorian took notice of a figure walking in his general direction. By the way he was dressed it appeared to be the standard uniform of a military guard. But he wasn't scheduled to go off-duty anytime soon. Arms at his sides and rather curious Kote stepped forward approaching the "guard".-

"As far as I am concerned the next shift change isn't for another three hours; is everything okay?" -He questioned in a heavily accented voice of mando'a. He kept his guard up to this guard ensuring nothing silly would happen. By any means no one could leave the facility without a proper pass code to the door. But that still didn't mean something could happen.-

((ooc: Tal's combat uniform minus the mask.))

[Ryan Sharpe]

"Everything's under control now, sir," Ryan said calmly, albeit inside he was cursing.

Of all the people he could have ran into, it had to be someone who knew him. Luckily it had been a hell of a long time since he and Tal had seen eachother; even then, the sniper had barely ever taken his helmet off. He had time, but not much. The dim lighting seemed to be helping as well.

"One of the prisoners had a fit of some sort, Sergeant Mendoza is with him now. The guy threw up all over the cell and it's knocked me sick a little if I'm honest with you. Sarge told me to go and get some air."

Feigning a look of sudden realization, as if he'd just made sense of who he was actually speaking to, Ryan snapped to attention, saluting in the standard New Republic fashion.

"Forgive me, High General," he said apologetically, dropping the salute but remaining at attention, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to see your ID, sir. I know very well who you are but procedure is there for a reason, especially when we're keeping Imperials locked up, sir."

Ryan had served in the Devil Dogs for long enough to pick up on standard NR security procedures already, which only helped his analysis of them during his time with Imperial Intelligence. Now it was only a matter of waiting to see if that knowledge, along with his acting skills, paid off and fooled the yellow eyed Mandalorian.

[Tal Kote]

-Tal wasn't the kind of man who could be easily fooled; in fact, he had his own experiences with Intel as well. The training he received Ronin had never gone to waist. Somehow, it all had paid off when something came up on a mission involving the very skills that he had learned. Not to mention that that short time with the Imperials gave the blond mandalorian a little more information then what he had initially bargained for. When this "guard" spoke; Kote simply crossed his arms. The salute was second to nothing a standard salute that the Devil Dogs gave each other; it was different then the standard salute that actual military gave to each other. It wasn't as if Tal didn't trust him... it just seemed like his words were straying a part from each other.-

"Interesting; usually there is a medical doctor here in case something like that happens. She should of at least come by to check on the prisoner?" -Yellow eyes refocused down the hallway. Everything seemed a little to quiet; a little more quiet then what this facility made out to be.- "Then again..."

He just doesn't seem right.

-He had paused for a moment after as soon as he requested to see his identification card. Tal seemed to be a little more on edge with this then that time Aram Kalast had threatened sending an imperial fleet to Manda'yaim in hopes of getting information out the New Republic. Granted, nothing happened but he would never forget the protocol that the Imperial's had along with who was entering and exiting the room. Imperials were completely different then that of the NR, and it seemed he was doing rather good with his "acting". Adjusting his posture his eyes now more focused on the guard he finally exhaled a calm breath of air.-

"You need air, and yet you seem well enough to stand here in front of me and ask to see my ID. I thought you weren't feeling to good or were you just trying to get out of a bad situation?"

[Jay Sin Quan]

...

[Ryan Sharpe]

"She's topside, sir. Sergeant Mendoza told me to speak to her when I got up there."

He's not buying it... clever little git. No wonder he wormed his way to the top.

"A bad situation?" Ryan asked, seemingly perplexed, "Not at all, sir. Me needing air is no excuse to ignore security protocol; Sarge would have my balls if I let someone past me without checking them. He can be a hardcase at times but he's fair and damn good at his job."

Ryan knew that this game wouldn't last forever. Either he was going to slip up or Tal would be fooled. Time was passing slowly and the silence wasn't helping the situation.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?""

[Tal Kote]

-Kote raised an eyebrow towards the 'guard'; from all his time in Intel he was able to spot several differences. Of which case when someone was lying, and others when someone was buying time. In this one, however, it was more of lying to get out of here. Not many had actually realized that the blond mandalorian spent a lot of time with the SpecOps to learn these kind of methods. It was part of a good reason why he was often called Spectre by many of it's members. Crossing his arms he adjusted his posture -- while at the same time keeping his own guard up -- and watching what the guard was doing.-

Let's see where this lands you.

"Permission granted," -Tal responded calmly.-

[Jay Sin Quan]

Oh for fraks sake...

[Ryan Sharpe]

Frak it.

This was going nowhere fast. Fast was needed. Time to change the game.

[I]Ehn.
T'ad.
Solus.

A smile appeared on Ryan's face.

"Usen'ye, vaar'ika."
Frak off, runt.

What happened next happened very quickly indeed. With one hand, he drew the blaster pistol he had 'borrowed' from his first victim and aimed it skywards, blowing out the light above Tal's head. The already dark corridor was now plunged into total blackness, something which would help greatly. His eyes had adjusted to the lack of light in his cell, so he could make out objects in the murk much more easily than normal. He just hoped it wasn't a sunny day on Telos; that would sting.

As the shattered glass rained down upon the pair of them, his other hand drew a combat knife from the back of his belt and he rushed at his former comrade, darting from side to side randomly to avoid any fire. Closing the rather meager gap quickly, he aimed to stab the yellow haired Mandalorian in his left side*, just above the pelvis.



*OOC note: Tal's left side. Ryan's wielding the knife in his right hand and the pistol in his left.

[Sam Wesvar]

In his mind, it was quite simple: his prisoner, partially his responsibility. The Imperial - former Devil Dog Ryan Sharpe - had killed members of Sam's squad on Tokmia before being captured, and that made him even more responsible.

Today wasn't the first time he'd visited. Even as an Special Forces Lieutenant, even as one of the men who had captured this guy, he wasn't allowed to take a weapon inside. He didn't mind, that was SOP. He was barely allowed to view the vid feeds from the cell. He had been very surprised at the conditions presented, however. A bare cell was to be expected, but how thin he was and the bruising were not. The camera had shown the man doing pushups and other exercises later on, which wasn't unprecedented for incarcerated soldiers. Today when he'd arrived however, he'd seen the inside of the cell...and been shocked. Security hadn't been watching - there was a swoop race up on a datapad they were all crowded around - so he was the first to see two bodies, neither of whom were Sharpe. No alarm had been sounded yet.

"Sergeant, you have a breach. Camera A3. You need to seal the place down!"

The sergeant was slow to react, obviously more focused on the race than anything else. When he saw the camera feed though, his jaw dropped and he simply froze. One person didn't, an ensign. She began flipping through camera feeds. On one, Sam saw General Kote walking down the hall, a guard walking towards him. The ensign left that one up - a 'guest' in the prison was something to keep track of - then continued going through others. Thus Sam was able to see the guard and Tal stop to talk, then the "guard" pull a blaster and shoot out the light. The screen went black for an instant before the computer recognized the darkness and switched to infrared.

"B6, guard uniform. Lock down that section, full alert, now! And someone get me my blaster."

Once again, the sergeant was slow to react, turning to face Sam in a combination of shock and anger that he was getting orders from a visitor. Staying on form though, the ensign listened and slapped the lockdown button. The entire prison except the command center instantly went on lockdown, blast doors slamming shut and sealing, lights dimming, and alarms flashing and blaring. Nobody made a move to give him his gun, though a rictus of anger made its way to the sergeant's face.

"Lieutenant, you are out of line! That is the High General in there going to..."

"Yes, Sergeant, that is the High General in there. He's in a hallway with a former Special Forces operator turned Imperial who's attacking him. This is the man who is suspected of terrorizing Tyrena on Corellia, who killed several Devil Dogs on Tokmia. You do not want him escaping. Now get me my gun, and get the rapid response team in play!"

Sam had no problem cutting off the other man. It was unfortunate that it was Tal in that hallway with Sharpe, but the General was far from defenseless. A former Special Forces operator himself, the blond could take care of himself. Though security here was more lax than it should have been, this was still a prison built to exacting specifications. Once lockdown was initiated in a non-drill setting, the areas were sealed. Special response teams had overrides to unlock a section at a time, but those override codes were compartmentalized, nobody except those teams knew the code and said codes changed three times a day. Once the alarms were triggered, it would be exceedingly difficult to get out. Nothing was impossible of course, but the odds were heavily stacked against escape.

[Forse Dirum]

"Lieutenant. You better take a look at this." A man said, looking over at Forse from the screen he was looking at."

Forse had been tasked to find Intelligence Operative, Ryan Sharpe, at all cost. Forse took special interest in this case, as Ryan was a man that he had a hand in training before he decided to take the intelligence route. Like all of the men he trained, Forse made sure that his boys were all right. When he had been captured, Forse had been the first to volunteer to help the man escape from bondage. The hard part was finding out where the sniper had been taken.

Forse had been visiting Imperial monitoring stations for months. The Republic's laws allowed Forse to act with near impunity, given that they required "due process" hearings and other bureaucratic nonsense that prevented the Rebel intelligence to act in the same way the Empire was able to. It had been easy. Forse would find citizens who were disillusioned with the Rebels for one reason or another, and form them into different cells, all feeding information to Forse, who would forward it to Intel. Forse's skill in gathering intelligence had not decreased. If an intelligence cell was captured, it was of no consequence. The republic and the Empire were already at war. The Empire wasn't attempting to avoid any sort of attention on that front.

Forse just so happened to be on Thani this very day. It had been a fortuitous decision.

"Sir, comm traffic picked up some chatter from the Jail." A man wearing a headset told him.

"Play it for me." Forse says.

"Yes, Sergeant, that is the High General in there. He's in a hallway with a former Special Forces operator turned Imperial who's attacking him. This is the man who is suspected of terrorizing Tyrena on Corellia, who killed several Devil Dogs on Tokmia. You do not want him escaping. Now get me my gun, and get the rapid response team in play!"

"Well I'll be." Forse says.

He takes his weapon and fires a volley of shots, killing all of the people in front of their viewscreens. They had exhausted their usefulness. He had to kill them so that the Rebels wouldn't be able to interrogate them for information. Forse downloaded the information in the listening post to a datapad, and primed a highly explosive bomb to go off in ten minutes. Forse did this for two reasons.

On the one hand, it would prevent Rebel intel from recovering any of the information he had gained, which up to this point, was nothing major. On the other, it would provide a distraction for local security forces. It would divide their resources. Forse quickly put on his Imperial Raptor armor, which was just black and red stormtrooper armor with a cape and a differently shaped helmet. The armor set had been pioneered by Warlord Zsinj during his short reign over the Empire.

Forse checked his A280 Blaster Rifle and made sure he had enough grenades for a firefight. The A280 had an attached grenade launcher. Forse walked out of the house, and uncovered a speeder bike that had a tarp thrown over it. Forse slung his rifle over his back. Forse would have to stop the rapid response teams somehow. They were probably already at the prison. Although since the prison was on lockdown, they'd have the access codes to get in to the prison.

Forse revved up the speeder bike and took off towards the prison. He'd intercept a response team, and retrieve those codes, even if it meant...persuading one of them.

[Tal Kote]

"Usen'ye, vaar'ika."
Frak off, runt.

-It all happened rather quickly; so fast that the blond mandalorian hadn't even noticed the protocol going into place. With everything shut down all he could really do is prepare for a defense. The room had seemingly grown much darker then usual save for a red fading light within the several hallways of the facility. Kote's eyes had quickly adjusted just in time after the light above the two of them went out. While at the same time his left hand grabbed a hold of the hand wielding the knife. It was enough time so that the weapon wouldn't break clothing or skin. His veins bulged and arm tensed in a desperate effort to hold the attack off.-

He's no New Republic guard, that's for sure. -Tal thought calmly to himself.-

-But the stance and moves were rather familiar to the High General. They still showed some flavor of SpecForce mixed with the fighting style of a regular Imperial. Something that had learned rather well when fighting alongside several SpecForce members... including a one Ryan Sharpe. He only gotten to know him for a small amount of time, but recognized the style of fighting rather well. Yellow eyes refocused on the facial appearance of the "guard" before him.-

"Your moved are impressive," -Tal said calmly.- "But you can't fool me with those sloppy knife wielding skills." -Tal knew as he had utilized a vibro-style blade within his prosthetic arm that was well hidden. So no one knew of it. It was part of the reason why he was so good with melee based weapons.-

[Ryan Sharpe]

"I already have, Tal..." Ryan replied, equally calm as the still warm barrel of the pistol pressed itself against the underside of the General's chin.

"I remember your fondness for knives. I remember a lot of things about the Dogs. Makes it much easier for me to kill them. I'm sure you can guess how pleased the Empire were to get your personnel files and evaluations."

The lockdown was in full effect now, throwing a wrench into the gears of his plan, but right now he had given himself some time.

"Seeing as we're going to be here a little while longer, why don't we have a nice little chin-wag before I add another*Dog to my list, hm?"

Backing away slightly and keeping the blaster trained at Tal's face, Ryan leaned against the wall of the corridor. There were two reasons for this. One, he could rest and conserve energy. Two, if Tal made a move, it gave him something to push off from and gain a little extra speed.

He was completely unaware that help was coming, of course. As far as he knew, he was still well and truly alone.

[Sam Wesvar]

Without warning, a door in the back of the office opened and two people stepped out. One was a commander, obviously in charge of the prison, and the other was a lieutenant, most likely an aide. The lieutenant went to a console and silenced the alarm in the room, then the commander - who'd been giving Sam a look - started talking.

"Who triggered that alarm and why?"

"Ensign Arkmem, sir. Prisoner escape caught by cameras A3 and B6. Lockdown has been triggered, call for response teams initiated."

"I see. And why is he here?"

"I captured the prisoner, sir. He's my responsibility in part. Former teammate turned traitor."

"Odd. Ensign, ETA on the response team?"

"Average time from alarm to arrival is four minutes. Two remaining."

"Sergeant, you'll stay here with Ensign Arkmem. Buzz the Lieutenant through to this side."

The sergeant clearly wasn't happy about that, but he did as ordered. The commander led Sam back into the hallway he'd come from and opened a secure door, revealing a small armory, four of each of the basics needed for prison guards in a situation like this. The two of them suited up: basic torso armor, gas mask, knockout gas grenades, blaster pistol, stun baton, and riot gun. Sam wasn't allowed to have a weapon besides a stun baton - despite his rank and posting he was an outsider - but was given armor and a gas mask. The Commander questioned him while checking over the equipment.

"You say you've fought him before, Lieutenant. Analysis?"

"He's Special Forces turned Imperial, sir. Excellent shot, good with blades, smart, stealthy when necessary. Explosion damaged him enough for us to capture him. I don't know how much the med techs fixed, but he'll have scarring, maybe more. Fast-acting gas would be the best way to contain him, since he's got the General with him."

"How did he plan to get out?"

"Unknown. He stole a guard's uniform and was seen wearing it before he shot the lights out, maybe he had a keycard as well. Maybe he has someone on the outside prepping a hole for him?"

The other Lieutenant gave Sam an arch look. The Commander caught it and explained.

"We're almost a kilometer underground and under lockdown to boot. That'd have to be one big hole. Besides that, once the alarms went off the military received an alert and should be watching the surface closely. This isn't a normal prison."

As they walked back out, they saw that the response team had already arrived. They checked identities - keeping each person covered as they did, then left a comlink and moved further into the prison. Four minutes to arrive meant they either had a very fast turbolift available - it had certainly taken Sam longer than four minutes in that blasted thing - or had a dedicated ready room and direct tunnel that cut in somewhere. No doubt it was sealed from both ends now: were anyone to figure out where it was and it happened to be unlocked, they'd have access to weapons and a direct line into the prison. Either way though, they'd have to go through the administration level, which was why the four of them were gearing up. Just in case.

[Forse Dirum]

Forse knew he didn't have long. When such a facility went on lockdown, it usually meant that surface security would increase as well. Forse was keeping low, pushing the throttle as fast as it would go. He was confident that his speeder bike would be able to out run any pursuing aircraft, as the only thing on land that could catch a speeder bike is a starfighter, and those are too fast to be useful on ground engagements. And Forse doubted they'd carpet bomb their own city just to catch him.

Forse was a little behind the rapid response team, who had arrived ahead of him. Forse managed to see the door close in front of him before he had a chance to enter. This was going to throw a wrench in his plans for the time being.

Forse began looking around. The easiest way to infiltrate a place like this was to find the person who was the lowest on the totem poll. A working man who had no real stake in the security of the place beyond his job. Someone who would be given the necessary clearance to do their job, and nothing else.

Forse stashed the speeder bike in nearby shrubbery. It was a long shot, but he could always find another way out in the likely event his speeder bike was discovered. Forse planted a remote explosive on it, just in case. He could always deactivate it when he came back out. He planted it on the inside of the motor covering to prevent it's easy discovery.

Forse made his way around the blast doors in front of him.While security had been increased on the surface, no announcement had been made to the general populace about the security breach. They certainly didn't want any panic in the capital of the Republic. That would make the security issue worse.

Forse saw someone nearby whom he thought he could use. A man in a gray jumpsuit, holding a bag of trash. He was making his way to the incinerator outside.

"Excuse me sir." Forse said to the man.

The man looked startled as he approached. Forse was heavily armed. That sort of armament usually wasn't used in prisons.

"Y-yes?" The man stammered.

"My name is Lieutenant David Campbell, 98th battalion, Corrections Division. I've been instructed by Thani High Command, under directive 708, to be granted access to the prison. I was specifically told to find you." Forse began, lying through his teeth and hoping to overwhelm the man with official sounding lingo.

"I'll need you to let me into the compound. They don't give clearance to anyone outside the prison for security reasons. We wouldn't want the Empire gaining any sort of access to this facility." Forse continues.

The man nodded emphatically.

"Oh, ok then. I can't let you in the hanger, but the service entrance is over this way." The man says, taking Forse with him.

Forse had chosen well when he had picked Raptor armor to wear. Due to it's rare use, it wasn't as easily recognizable as Imperial kit. Forse followed the man, reaching down to his blaster pistol and switching the setting to stun. The man raised a datapad to a reader while pressing his eyes to the retinal scanner. A red light flashed with the words, "ACCESS DENIED". A lump caught in Forse's throat.

"Dang thing. These codes changing every few hours is some bantha fodder. Why not just keep one code? No one will ever get in to this place. It's the republic capital, for Pete's sake." The man says, waiting on the codes on his own datapad to change. A sound goes off, and the man presses his eyes back on the retinal scanner while waving the datapad in front of a scanner.

"There we go." He says. "You should be good now."

"Thank you sir. You've done me a great service. You should be proud." Forse says.

Forse walks past the man into the service entrance. He pauses.

"Did you invite him?" Forse says, pointing past the man back outside.

The man turns, and Forse fires a stun bolt at close range to his lower back. It probably hurt a lot, but there would be no lasting damage. Forse pulled the janitor back into the building, and allowed the door to close behind him.

Forse unslung his A280 blaster rifle, and made his way forward. Forse doubted that this service entrance would lead directly to where he wanted to go. He'd have to make some logical decisions on where to go next. Forse made his way into the room that the Janitor had occupied. It was a round room with a series of chutes lining the walls. Some were for trash, but most were for laundry. Forse looked at the labels.

Using what he knew of how military prisons were laid out, Forse made his decision, and made his way into one of the chutes. He doubted any more laundry would show up due to the lockdown. Forse took off the small cape on his armor to reveal the jetpack of an Imperial jumptrooper. It would have enough fuel for a few uses. He wouldn't be using it just yet anyway. Forse strapped his A280 to his chest and began shimmying up the laundry chute with his arms and legs, doing his best to make as little noise as possible.

Things hadn't went according to his plan, but he'd improvise.