Scene 2: Release

Labor was often cut off in late autumn in the Sepam Gulag for something known as “Hell Week” to stop the prison guards from getting bored. It was essentially an array of fighting matchups between prison gangs to see who would not only come out on top, but not be assassinated afterwards as a revenge act by other gangs. This was the worst for Stavikk, since he was only unofficially part of the “Reaper” gang, he would have no idea who he was fighting. His best hope was to be against some of the Reapers so that they could work together to escape the Suicide Stadium.

As chance would have it, however, Stavikk was actually not put against the Reapers, but instead a member of “The Hounds”, nicknamed “The Nighthawk” by his inmates for his gothic appearance, and eerie silence. Stavikk went into the fight confident that the Reaper gang would be working behind the scenes in his favor, but was concerned about what consequences angering the Hounds would entail for him later down the line. Sizing up his opponent, Stavikk noticed very particular things about “The Nighthawk”. He was a man who, while not particularly bulky, seemed to have all of his muscles toned to his physical peak. He appeared to have Asian descent, and he had jet-black hair that was spiked going forward. He was wearing a wife-beater undershirt, as well as brown pants that were covered in pockets. He also wore arm-wraps used for boxing, his possessing a black color. While Stavikk still wasn’t sure, “The Nighthawk” seemed like he had the capacity for many tricks up his sleeve.

The fight began with both fighters meeting at opposite ends of the ring, with the highly intoxicated referees vaguely suggesting when the fight was to begin. Finally, both fighters got the message and began their own routine. Stavikk used the fighting style that worked for him before, rushing towards his opponent, trying to end the fight quickly. Stavikk wasn’t about to kill the man that easily, though, as he dodged just out of the way before reaching into a large pocket, pulling out 3 sharp, knifelike pieces of metal, which he threw at Stavikk as if they were a volley of kunai. 2 out of the 3 hit Stavikk, one in the stomach, and the other in a shoulder muscle. “The Nighthawk” was then always going to the back of the arena, avoiding Stavikk. When Stavikk first felt slightly drowsy, he realized that there must have been some sort of poison in the knives, sapping away his energy.

Evan Scorchfield and the Reapers went to work at causing mayhem within the Gulag, eavesdropping on guard conversations, and whacking guards foolish enough to travel alone. After hiding the corpses in the air vents, the Reapers took on the uniforms of the guards. They were then able to spread misinformation about technical issues in the prison, intentionally putting guards in terrible positioning for the next stage of the plan.

“The Nighthawk” took the opportunities he could, punching and kicking Stavikk in the stomach without opening up any vulnerability with himself. As he kicked Stavikk in the stomach, a little bit of his stomach acid flew out and hit the stone brick floor. The acid melted through some of the stone, but not all of it. This gave Stavikk an idea: since the acid melted through some of the material keeping the brick in place, he could easily remove it and throw it at his opponent, which would give him a huge range advantage. While his opponent continued to avoid him, Stavikk reached down, and pulled the brick out of the floor and threw it at “The Nighthawk”. “The Nighthawk” was quick, but he wasn’t quite quick enough. The brick hit him flat in the head, stunning him from blunt force trauma. Meanwhile, Stavikk rushed at him and clawed and punched at the man, eventually finishing him by smashing the brick over his skull. Stavikk had no nickname before, but the crowd of zealous prisoners started shouting out “Ogre! Ogre!” as his new name. Stavikk wasn’t sure how he felt about being a beloved prison gladiator.

The Reapers continued their creation of chaos, deliberately pulling alarms and sprinklers to confuse and disorient guards. With no idea what was happening, the guards as a collective unit would be much easier to disrupt and making it far easier to escape. Dolph went to work on hacking the computers, to disrupt their communication systems, and Alyce prepared any materials the group may have needed once they escaped.

While Stavikk executed a very impressive maneuver, it cost him time. Alarms were going off in the building, and he could already feel water from the sprinkler water pouring from above. The prisoners saw their opportunities and started fighting the guards, who shot back with automatic rifles. While the guards did all that they could, they were no matches for the mob’s overwhelming force. Stavikk had a riot, which he needed, but he needed more than a riot. He needed a war. Stavikk then served his main contribution to the plan. He quickly moved towards the main cellblock and busted open some of the holding cells with brute force. This bought him and the reapers a lot of time.

Now, Nexactus military personnel were arriving at the scene, which was actually a good sign for the escapees. Their escape plan wasn’t to go by unnoticed. But rather, it was to hide in plain sight. The Reapers went back to their prison cells to get all of the materials that they stole or forged before. They used a brown bag, long clothes, and fake handcuffs to disguise Stavikk as a regular prisoner, and used the guard uniforms to disguise themselves as guards. They took the most obvious route, the main enterance, to the first truck in sight, and explained to the soldiers there that they needed to move a prisoner outside the gulag, but didn’t know where to move him. The soldiers, suspicious of their activity, asked whom the prisoner was, as Stavikk was now 6 feet and 4 inches tall, making him stand out to the guards there. The Reapers had to think quickly, and Evan said the best thing he knew. He said: “We couldn’t Identify the prisoner, sir”, pulling off the brown bag to reveal Stavikk’s less than ideal outlook. The soldiers stood there in awe, as they had never seen anything like Stavikk’s appearance. Before they thought to say anything, Evan said, “This is why we couldn’t find a matching Identification.” The soldiers in the squadron actually found this to be quite believable, and no other convincing was needed.

Scene 3: Rising Action

Before they knew it, the Reapers were already driving through the “Scorching Prairie”, the arid desert plains to the southeast of Crescendurn, on a very clean and new road that passed through the area. Alyce had made sure to seat herself between two other guards. Evan had already called shotgun of the van, giving himself an excellent view of the area. Dolph was more of a shy man, and sat himself at the left end of the soldiers, not wanting too much attention, or having to make up more stories. He wasn’t a very good liar, after all. Evan looked in the glove box, checking to see if there was anything of value or usefulness that could help later, finding a pair of binoculars, as well as gun attachments and microchips. “You’re not supposed to be using those, said one of the soldiers. They’re for our team only.” “You should know this”. Evan immediately put the supplies back into the glove box, not wanting to cause too much of a scene. The drive continued in awkward silence until another 2 armored vans showed up behind them, with alarms screeching like banshees. Evan, noticing the driver was starting to slow down, quickly shot him in the side of the head with his burst fire pistol, killing him and breaking the windshield. Evan struggled at first, but was able to get a hold of driving the vehicle, and putting the pedal to the metal.

Meanwhile, in the back of the van, two other soldiers beside Alyce drew their firearms to waste Evan, only to realize that their guns wouldn’t shoot. Stavikk Instantly broke free of his fake handcuffs and started getting into fisticuffs with soldiers in the van, punching one of them to death. However, Stavikk took two bullets, one in the stomach and one in the chest. Dolph drew his handgun and shot one of the soldiers in the eye, killing him instantly, but was, however, shot in the leg by another. Alyce stabbed one of the soldiers with a makeshift knife. The two other soldiers that were still alive didn’t last much longer. One was also shot by Dolph. The other soldier was disarmed and picked up by Stavikk. He signaled for Alyce to open the back doors of the van, and Stavikk threw the man forward, crashing his flailing body into the windshield of the first van behind them.

Evan was driving like a maniac, taking detours and side routes to try to avoid both the vans, as well as the prison they were first headed to. The vans they were trying to avoid, however, were not far behind. Stavikk did his best to gun-down the drivers, but they were clever enough to hide under their windshields. Hope was running out. The Reapers were running out of fuel, and therefore running out of time. They were upon a cliff face when Alyce found secret openings under the benches, each with locks, and walls meant to resist even the strongest force. Alyce reached into her large bag and produced a lock-pick. She was able to open 2 out of the 6 boxes without her pick breaking, because she was under the pressure of her group. What was in the boxes however, was enough. It had to be. They found duffel bags, of which Alyce noticed 2 grenades, a sniper rifle, a medical kit, and a jetpack. Dolph was the one to come up with the plan this time, and it would have to be executed with precision to actually work. Stavikk checked the jetpack to make sure it was fully powered, and then Evan executed the first move.

He immediately stopped the van, making the two vans crash together, and then Stavikk leaped out the back door and through the broken windshield of the second van, killing the driver, and other soldier in the second seat. After that, the two vans started moving again, but Stavikk’s driving was very strange, as he drove the van off the cliff. Since the gravity was weaker on Pharavanna than on earth, the van fell slightly slower, giving Stavikk ample time to exit the side door, and then activate his jetpack to not die from the fall. Stavikk though, made a slight mistake, but one that would not cost him his life. He accidentally set the jetpack in overdrive, consuming way too much fuel way too fast, and he ended up flying incredibly fast just over the surface of the desert. He eventually managed to slow the jetpack down, but he still had a very rough landing, flipping over 3 different times after the initial ground impact. Stavikk emerged from the landing relatively unscathed, as his newly improved thickened skin allowed him to not get too much rashing because of the landing.

Meanwhile, on the van with the other reapers, they only had one enemy van remaining, which would be the target of the remaining 2 grenades. Dolph shot multiple holes in the windshield with the sniper rifle, while Alyce threw a grenade into the front of the van, exploding and killing the driver and the soldier in shotgun. The van stopped, crashing into the cliff face, but the units inside still lived. The back doors swung open, revealing a squad of Nexactus soldiers and commandos, as well as a terrifying super-soldier. The soldier possessed artificial and armored arms, waist, and legs, as well as having a cybernetic eye, projecting a harmless red beam forward. The Reapers, jaw dropped, instantly recognized the soldier as a cyborg, equipped with some of the most advanced weaponry and armor that Nexactus could afford. In the soldier’s right arm, he carried a normally two-handed chain-fed automatic machine gun with uncanny ease. After all, it had a huge strength and stability advantage with the cybernetic arm. The man looked to be in his mid 30’s, and his facial hair suggested a strong Greek-descent. However, since age affected cyborgs as well, his beard had just a touch of grey.

Stavikk, from where he was, barely spotted what looked like an old farmhouse in the distance. He figured that him and the Reapers finished off the remaining troops, and decided to investigate, before hearing a noise from the crashed van, which seemed like a plea for survival. Stavikk opened the back door of the van to find all of the soldiers dead, except for one. Stavikk dragged the soldier out of the van, and onto the hard, dry ground, removing his helmet as well. Stavikk would have killed the crippled soldier, too, if it weren’t for the penetrating glare of desperation in the man’s eyes. Stavikk decided otherwise, seeing as he was no longer a threat, and decided to save the man’s life by carrying him towards the farmhouse. He got within reasonable distance of the farmhouse, too, before being shot in the shoulder, causing him to fall over, and dropping the man he tried to save. A woman emerged from the farmhouse, wearing tattered clothing and sporting a cowboy hat, and carrying a long rifle in her hands. She possessed a small frame, dark complexion, round face, and straight black hair. As Stavikk cried out for help, she paused, as this was obviously unexpected to her. She investigated further before going back into the farmhouse, leaving the rifle leaned against the doorway, before coming back out with a roll of bandage and a scalpel. She did her best to do surgery in the burning heat, and removed most of the bullet pieces out of Stavikk before letting the two inside the house. The Reapers tried to drive away, but they were no matches for the cyborg’s utility weapons. From his shoulder, he launched a small, self-flying drone after the runaway van. The drone, carrying C4, crashed into the tire of the van, slowing and eventually stopping their escape route.

If there was one thing that betrayed Stavikk’s appearance and outlook, it was his voice. Normally, for what Stavikk looked like, most would expect a deep and rigid barking voice. However, his voice, after all he had been through, stayed relatively the same. His sweet, slightly raspy voice, in every interaction, made him seem more human than ever. Stavikk said, in the most basic of terms, “I need your help. This man needs surgery, bad, and I need weapons to save my friends. If you can grant me those two things, I will give you enough medical supplies to save you from a shotgun blast to the chest, and enough money to get yourself a decent bodyguard, or whatever else you want to do”. The woman nodded, and urged her two frightened sons upstairs. She then pointed to her sniper rifle, and went out through the backdoor. She came back in, brought in a chainsaw, looked at Stavikk in the eyes, and suggested: “Maybe this could be of some help to you”.

Stavikk leaped up the cliff face, with a boost from his jetpack and the chainsaw already revved up, sliced through the heads of two soldiers before making his landing like a hot knife through butter. Luckily, he was given sniping support from Evan, while Dolph and Alyce approached the fight with firearms in hand. Dolph was burned, though, Stavikk noticed, and he started slicing apart more of the soldiers, but taking heavy fire in the process. The cyborg was the main target for Evan’s sniping, but his shots were to no avail. His shots were accurate indeed, but they seemed to disappear into thin air before they killed the cyborg. Stavikk, realizing this, shoved his chainsaw in the back of the cyborg, hoping his allies would cover him, and the chainsaw got stuck at first, but eventually broke through the invisible armor around the cyborg. Dolph and Alyce killed most of the Nexactus soldiers before the cyborg turned around and knocked Stavikk off his feet. Dolph and Alyce were lighting the cyborg up with gunfire before the cyborg shot Alyce through the chest multiple times with his machine gun, killing her. Stavikk killed the remaining Nexactus soldier before starting to chew through the cyborg’s shielding, while Dolph and Evan focused him. Right before the cyborg was about to shoot Stavikk in the face, he himself was felled by a headshot at the hands of Evan.

Stavikk investigated the van, noticing it had fallen to one side, had a very wrecked appearance, with holes going through the whole back and sides of the vehicle. Evan was standing beside it, obviously disguised by the flames, and with a very sobered appearance once he heard the news about Alyce. Now, the Reapers were intent on only a few things: Investigating the surviving soldier in the farmhouse, figuring out a way to stop Nexactus, and burying their fallen.