[M] The New Vanguard (IC)

[InfraredHero]

Rated [M] for violence, gore, sexual themes, strong language

The Vanguard was a busy station. Almost every hour, prisoners were being transported to a different part of the station. But only ever in groups of twenty, with double that in guards. Since these prisoners were so dangerous, a riot here would be worse than any other prison. So only a fifth of the prisoners were ever out of their cells at a time.

At the moment, Cell Block A was in the commissary enjoying some gruel that was biologically engineered to provide all the vitamins and nutrients a 31st century human adult needed, with the added benefit of tasting like literal crap. It's all the prisoners were fed, but it was enough for them. It gave them all the proteins they needed, and it was dirt cheap. The good food was kept for the station staff.

While the prisoners ate their gruel, station staff and guards began rushing through the facility, seemingly with a big problem on their hands at the pace they were going. And all of a sudden, what they were worried about came about. A dark yellow light surged through the entire station, passing through people and electronics alike. While the people would only feel a slight tingle, anything and everything running on even just the slightest bit of technological power shut down.

Alec Crane was one of the prisoners in the commissary when everything shut down. While he'd seen this type of thing happen before, this time was different. The station staff was in a big panic, trying to solve the problem. Seeing that the station was as vulnerable as it would probably ever be, Alec decided to take advantage of the situation. He tapped the shoulders of two inmates sitting next to him, then led them to a group of guards that were barely visible in the darkness. With the element of surprise on their side, they easily took out the guards and took their weapons.

Now armed and even more dangerous, Alec and the other two inmates quickly began shooting down the other guards in the room as the other inmates sprung into action, stealing weapons from the downed guards. It didn't take too long for the power to come back online, but by the time it did, there was twenty fully armed inmates being led by someone with a mission.

Alec led the others to the bridge where one of the more volatile inmates immediately shot down the Warden as the others took out the guards. Within a minute the bridge was cleared of any armed guards. They were either disarmed or dead. Alec took control of a speaker system to get a message out to the station: "The Vanguard is under our control now. Station staff and guards have five minutes to get to the commissary, where you will be safe. If you resist, you will die. Everyone else, report to the bridge." Alec looked around at the armed and extremely dangerous inmates. The police side of him told him he just made a grave mistake. Only time would tell if it was.

[Yggdrasil_Hugger]

Evelyn was eating her gruel when it happened. She rarely payed attention to the rest of the lunchroom when she ate, save for when she needed to snap some bones. It was funny, how short everyone else was. Not only was she a giant, she was a giant in a land of dwarves. She was busy with her gruel, when the entire station flashed yellow. Her insides felt electric, though not in a painful way. She looked up, confused.

The lights were off. So was gravity. And the steady hum of fans was silent too. Someone next to her elbowed her in the gut. She nearly hit him back, but then she realised what he was trying to say. The station was vulnerable. For once in what will probably be the next thousand and half years, she realised, the station was weak. Her every instinct screamed to pounce on this oppurtunity. She followed him and another inmate to a group of guards trying to regain control in the darkness. She snapped a neck in a single movement, and grabbed the weapon before it hit the ground. With the other two's help, it was a breeze walking through to the bridge. As they walked, she noticed more and more people falling in with them.

They were twenty strong when they hit the bridge. A few well-aimed bullets took out the Warden. In moments, the bridge was clear. She studied the few surviving guards. They sat there, struggling, as she studied their every feature. None matched what she was looking for. She turned back to the man who has elbowed her before, who was now saying something into the speaker system.

"So what's the plan, big guy?" Her Trapp accent was thick, similar sounding to a Texan drawl, though the h sounds were more prominent. "You just decide you wanted to do this, or do you know what you're doing?" She looked down at him. Older. Average hair. Average size. He looked Terran. He looked average. But of course, he was on the Vanguard, in bright orange, so he was far from average. Her hand rested on the gun at her hip.

[Quetzalcoatl]

White…white…more white.

Adara tapped her head against the wall feeling the softness of the padded walls, a swift annoyance hitting her just as quickly. ‘How long have I been in solitary again?’ Her brain was fuzzy. ‘It’s too damn white in here.’ between that and that terrible sterile smell well it was simply driving her mad. Solitary was for those who were extra aggressive or those who were extra clever. Adara had never acted out, but then again…her grin twisted into a dirty, sadistic smile when she thought about the small explosion she had made from a collection of random things in the building. Her smile fading slightly though… "It really was not that impressive…but considering what I had…well I’ll give it a three out of ten.” It killed one guard…but that was enough. Enough for this…stupid treatment.

Adara wondered to herself, ‘How much longer will I sit in here?’

A sudden pulse? No maybe a wave? A woosh? Adara was unsure. She got up though knowing that something was off. She skipped her way over the door and looked at it…neither green nor red…

“Ohhhh, oh, oh, oh…what does this mean?” Adara was a cautious sort. ‘Maybe, maybe, maybe…this is a test? Ohhhhh, it most certainly could be.’

“HEY! It’s rude to test!” No response though…Adara decided it better to sit and not push her luck…though she sat close to the door, just in case. Waiting for what felt like hours. It was actually only a few minutes but certainly this test could not last that long, right? A small flutter of hope…the sweet taste of freedom tempting her into making the wrong decision.

As her head tapped faster and faster against the wall behind her she was about ready to scream when a voice came off over the intercom. "The Vanguard is under our control now. Station staff and guards have five minutes to get to the commissary, where you will be safe. If you resist, you will die. Everyone else, report to the bridge." An exclamation mark appeared over her head. “Wait, wait, wait…really, really, really!?” New management? All the guards are being killed or shipped off? This could only mean one thing. “I NEED TO GET IN GOOD WITH THE BOSS OR I’LL BE STUCK IN HERE AGAIN!”

Quickly she stood up and reached for the door only hesitating slightly… “Trap…maybe still a trap? Not a trap…take the risk!” As she pulled open the door she quickly poked her head around…no one? Not a trick then! “Tee hee hee!” With that the Hellfire Fairy quickly skipped her way towards the bridge.

Once she got to the door outside the bridge she decided to pat herself down and make herself presentable. Solitary had not been kind and she probably looked like a wreak. As she opened the door she exclaimed, “Pardon my intrusion!” A little more loudly than she had intended. Hopefully there was enough talking or things going on that she did not stand out too much. She would begin to push and move her way in so she was close to the people near the speaker…assuming that she could guess who new management was from their voice. Her nose crinkling at the smell of...well not properly bathed sweaty people. No one smelled good...probably not even herself now that she thought about it.

‘Careful Adara…careful…you can begin a new life here…a new life…a new…fire…’

[Aki Shinome]

"Right eye please"

Apollo sighed as he tilted his head to the left as a pair of gloved hands cupped the right side of his face, gently forcing his eyelids further open. He was in the medical ward having his annual eye exam/security screen to ensure that his retinal implants only corrected his vision and nothing else. Apollo grew to both enjoy and loathe the time he spent in the ward, being the few times he was let of solitary confinement while being poked in his eyes by a prison doctor at the very least was a change in pace. "Okay, now were going to do some tracking tests." The doctor pulled out a laser pen and pointed it at the opposite wall ,"You know the drill just keep your ey-" Suddenly, a nurse rushed in the room, clipboard clutched to her chest, "Doctor! We have an issue!" As the Doctor stood up to speak with the nurse, Apollo raised an eyebrow and stole a glance out the door the nurse left open. He could feel a tenseness in the air as medical staff were hurrying around the ward while he could heard a lot of...switches?

Then his eyes started to skip all over the place as Apollo could feel a faint tingle run up his spine. He hissed in pain as his head started to throb and his eyes shook even worse. Before he could realize it, Apollo was on the floor clutching his head in pain. After a few moments, he was able to stand Wait...I'm…free? Apollo looked to the gurney he was electronically cuffed to. They had released. Then he took in his surroundings, all of the electronics had failed, even his eye implants weren't working. Then a swarm of clicks filled the room as the electricity came back on and Apollo knew he only had seconds to act, he went and hid in the supply closet as the Doctors came rushing back in, "Find him!" Apollo clicked his teeth softly as he looked at the small incision tool he grabbed, Not enough for a general strike, I have to be accurate. He steeled himself up as a guard neared his position.

"Hello, Apollo, it has been 798 Standard Days, 9 Hours, 14 Minutes and 49 Seconds since your last software update would you like to update now?" Shit, Apollo burst out of the closet, knocking the surprised guard backwards into the nearby counter, scattering medical supplies and tools everywhere. With deadly accuracy, he sank the incision tool into the other guard's eye before stealing the first guard's assault rifle, killing all three guards in rapid succession. He held the Doctor, who only a few minutes ago was examining him, at rifle point while gaining his bearings. It seemed that the EM pulse or whatever disrupted the station had reset his implants and inadvertently gave him root access to his implants, including the illegal Gazer mod he had installed into them. However, the settings and data stored in them were still locked away in a server somewhere on the station. Looks like that's my next move.

He forced the Doctor out of the exam room and into the Ward's main meeting room and made him open the door to the prison hallway. It was in chaos, inmates and guards were fighting everywhere, Apollo had to pull the Doctor back in the Ward to save him from being killed in case Apollo still needed him. His ears perked upas he heard an announcement over the intercom

"The Vanguard is under our control now. Station staff and guards have five minutes to get to the commissary, where you will be safe. If you resist, you will die. Everyone else, report to the bridge."

Looks like someone wasn't wasting time. He looked once more at the doctor and the remaining staff and pointed his finger straight down, motioning for them to stay put. One of the nurse's started to protest, "But he said-" That was all the nurse was able to sputter out before Apollo put a round straight through his arm. Apollo pointed to the machines and then at the staff and then at the ground. The doctor understood and marshalled his staff to get the machines back up and running, there was going to be alot of wounded and they will need treatment. Apollo took what he could from the dead guards and started to make his way towards the bridge.

A couple of minutes later and some inmates could hear the sounds of somebody struggling in pain and pointed their guns and the Bridge's main door. A few moments later, Apollo kicked the door in, holding a struggling officer by his uniform collar and drenched in blood. He proceeded to drag him through the a hole made by the stunned inmates who wanted nothing to do with a guy bold/crazy enough to drag an officer who knows far through a rioting station. He took one look at Alec before turning his attention to once of the terminals nearby.

He wrestled the officer to his feet before slamming his face into a recognition scanner. IDENTITY CONFIRMED : WELCOME CAPTAIN GRAYSON. Apollo dropped the bloodied officer to the floor and began typing commands into the machine. The officer looked around in fear hopelessly outnumbered and tried to plead with Apollo, "Please, you have what you want yeah? Just let me go to the commissary. I promise I won't be-," Ugh so loud, Apollo mercilessly put three rounds through the poor souls skull and returned to his typing, a loud thud from the officer's dead body ringing out before a chorus of beeping filled the bridge.

[InfraredHero]

"So what's the plan, big guy? You just decide you wanted to do this, or do you know what you're doing?"

Alec looked at the woman towering over him by almost two feet. He recognized her as one of the two inmates he started the riot with. Keeping in mind her fighting skill and the fact she was already asking about an actual plan, he knew she would be a valuable ally. "We take care of all the guards, then we commandeer one of the ships docked at the station and get away from this godforsaken place." He didn't tell her the only ship currently docked at the station would only fit at most half of the inmates, and anyone else who knew that would hopefully keep that to themselves. Fighting over who got to leave would have to wait.

Alec turned his attention back to the computer terminal. He brought up a cameras view of the commissary and a few hallways leading to it. A few dozen station staff and guards were already there setting up defenses with tables and benches. When he looked back up from the computer he noticed a new inmate in the bridge. He only noticed her because she was a few feet shorter than the woman he was just speaking with. He didn't know much about the girl, other than she was one of the youngest inmates, and she was involved with explosions.

Alec went back to watching the cameras as several more inmates joined the crew in the bridge. Even as a man brought in one of the stations officers, he kept his attention on the computer, only looking up to briefly find out why there was a sudden burst of gunshots in the room. The chaos didn't surprise him. This was the prison with some of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy, afterall. And while he didn't want to admit it, he probably deserved to be grouped up with all these people.

Finally taking his attention away from the computer, Alec went over to a group of five men guarding the bridge entrance. "You guys, patrol the hallways here to the docking bay. Shoot anyone not wearing orange." While the men didn't look like the type to follow orders, they still complied, obviously excited at the sound of shooting someone. As the five men went out Alec motioned for another group to take their place at the entrance.

Alec went back over to the computer terminal with the cameras on. Most inmates were making their way to the bridge, but some of them went around doing their own thing. As the bridge started to crowd up, Alec turned his attention back to the tall woman. "It's Zhang, right?" He addressed her. "What do you think, do we leave the staff and guards alive, or do we destroy this station and kill everyone still on it?" Her answer would help him figure out what kind of ally she would be.

[Yggdrasil_Hugger]

She considered him for a moment. He had sprung an ethical question on one of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy. Either he was very dumb, or very crafty. "It is. I think we should cut and run. Of course, we gotta cripple them so they won't be able to come after us for a while, but runnin's our best option." Her eyes darted over his head to the newest inmate, a fiery girl with a weird glint in her eye. "What do you make of her? The red one. Heard she burnt a guy alive."

She caught a couple guys staring at her, and she flipped them the bird. They dispersed, but they kept glancing at her. Let them. I could snap their spines in a moment if I had to. She folded her arms, taking a more defensive stance. Her attention returned to Alec. "And by the by, I never got your name. What is it." She phrased it more as a command than a question.