Chapter 8
Summer Lightfall glanced around as she and Sprocket made their way into the antechamber of the cell block. She walked along the concrete floors with a light step as a small group began to gather.
That was when she saw him. The enigmatic Viktor Karkov. He was a grey coated pony, a little larger than the average earth pony, just like all Cossacks, who were all pretty homogenous. The average was a light grey coat with a slightly darker grey mane. Karkov was no exception, though he did sport a scraggly looking beard. It was his eyes that caught Summer’s attention. A deep, piercing blue, that had just enough insanity in them to let the observer know that his plans had just a chance in hell of working.
That seemed to be enough, a crowd of sixteen had joined them in the antechamber, all of them knowing they had but one chance for freedom.
Karkov smiled as Sprocket and Summer joined them, and spoke softly, and in a calm voice. Odd, considering they were all about to march to their deaths.
‘And we have now, our secret weapon,’ he said, pointing to Summer as she walked in. ‘We have been waiting for you for a long time, Summer Lightfall.’
Summer blinked, looking oddly at him. ‘Me?’ she asked. ‘Why?’
Karkov merely chuckled at her. ‘Your reputation precedes you, Summer Lightfall, the guards spoke of your arrival. You radiate hatred and malice. The perfect soldier for our liberation!’ he called out.
‘BRING FORWARD THE HORNED KNIGHT!’ the other prisoners called out.
Karkov grinned and waved for the group to follow, as they moved into the next room. Several more workers from the steel mill joined them. She looked over and spotted the cybernetic minotaur join them. He grunted at her as he looked down. He towered over the rest of the group, and was carrying a shovel over his shoulder.
‘Months of careful planning, Miss Lightfall, we have awaited your arrival, now that you are here, it is time to put our plan into action.’
Karkov and the group stopped before a pair of double doors. ‘Never lose faith, my friends! We will not falter! We will be free! Or dye trying!’ he called out and kicked open the doors.
Behind the doors were two guards who were caught by surprise by the group. The minotaur stepped forward, and swung the shovel, knocking the guards square in the head, and sending blood flying as they fell to the ground in a heep.
‘URAH!’ The prisoners shouted with glee as they all ran through the door. Two more guards came, responding the commotion, pulling weapons on them.
Foal’s play. The guards were wearing Storm Harnesses with pistol arms raising up. Summer enveloped their pistols in her telekinesis, yanking them free from the harness, and turning them on their former owners, firing a round from each into their heads. She grinned as she took her new dual pistols. It was time to put them to work. She stepped forward, leading the group as they left the antechamber, and into the main cell block. Several more guards noticed the growing uprising, which had swelled to nearly thirty inmates. Summer put shots down range to them. Downing them effortlessly.
Oh how Summer was enjoying this. They weren’t Woolsey, but they’d do, for now.
Karkov turned to the cyborg minotaur and grinned. ‘Iron Will, go to the guard station break open the arms locker there!’ he ordered.
The minotaur nodded, taking up the shovel like a sword as more guards formed up to stop them. ‘When somebody tries to block! Show them that you ROCK!’ he cried out, charging them down at breakneck speed.
One of the guards, who had enough sense panicked and ran, and hit the button for the alarm, which would put the entire prison on alert.
Summer turned her way towards the metal stair case leading up to the second row of cells. She had spotted the cell that would have been above hers. She felt the need to gloat to TANTALUS about how well that things were going. Those part of the uprising were swarming around. Breaking open as many cells as they could. Summer reached the top and looked in the cell and stopped. She was surprised. Standing before her was not what she was expecting. A tall, slenderly built reptile that stood on two legs looked back at her. It was purple in colour, with green spines running down its head and back. The creature looked back at her with emerald green catlike eyes. He folded his arms over his chest, and tapped impatiently with his foot.
‘TANTALUS?’ she asked.
He nodded his head.
‘You’re not what I was expecting,’ she admitted.
‘For the record? This is a damned fool idea, we’re all going to get killed,’ TANTALUS said simply. ‘Step back,’ he commanded.
Summer nodded her head, and moved back away from the cell door. TANTALUS took in a deep breath and spat out flames of green dragon fire, melting the lock on the door, causing it to swing open and walked out. He looked at her and shook his head, and held out his hand.
Summer nodded, and handed him one of the pistols. Which the dragon looked over closely. ‘I’d give anything to have my old revolver back, but it’ll do,’ he admitted and turned and walked down the stairs with her.
‘How long have you been here TANTALUS?’ Summer asked.
‘Since before the Great Patriotic War,’ he admitted. ‘I’ll tell you about it later, assuming we don’t get killed in the process of escaping.’
Summer nodded, and rejoined Viktor Karkov and Sprocket. The two were watching in abject glee. More guards had showed up, and the other prisoners, had engaged them in hoof-to-hoof combat.
Karkov took in a deep breath. ‘Forward! Comrades! Take the fight to these dogs!’
‘ASCEND FROM DARKNESS!’ the prisoners called out in an echoing chorus as they beat down the unprepared guards.
They made their way over towards a service elevator. Iron Will had returned holding a KV-74 rifle in one hand, and grabbed the door with the other, and pulled it open to allow them to board.
Karkov nodded to him and boarded the lift with the group. He looked over to TANTALUS and smiled. ‘You are the one they call TANTALUS?’ he asked.
‘Don’t ask me questions you already know the answer to, Karkov,’ TANTALUS said disdainfully. ‘It’s a waste of time.’
Karkov chuckled, and nodded his head. ‘Very well, Executor TANTALUS, I know who you are indeed. My father was the one who took you prisoner when you tried to sneak into our lands.’
TANTALUS rolled his eyes. ‘I imagine he was rewarded for it,’ he said sarcastically.
‘Da, he was promoted to Polkóvnik after the affair,’ Karkov said with a nod as the service lift reached the top floor.
The lift opened, and they were outside in the cold November air. The guards were waiting for them. One of the guards in the lower level must have been able to get off a report, as three guard towers that surrounded the prison’s courtyard opened fire on them. Overlapping fields of heavy machine gun fire fell on them like a hot knife through butter, and many of the inmates fell in the first few seconds.
‘I told you!’ TANTALUS cried out as the group began to scatter. Summer, Iron Will, and TANTALUS dove behind one large rail car filled to the brim with coal that was on a track leading up from the mines. Sprocket and Karkov took to another one as more prisoners poured out from other buildings in the complex.
Summer glanced around her cover. They were safe for the moment, but they’d have to get moving soon. Summer looked to Iron Will, who nodded his head, understanding immediately what she had in mind. The cyborg minotaur through his weight against the rail car, pushing it along the track, allowing them to advance with relative safety.
Karkov saw what they were doing, grinning at Summer’s ingenuity, and waved over more prisoners as they began to push the car they were using for cover ahead.
These tracks lead to the complex’s rail depot. If they could commandeer an engine, they would be free. The actual town of Nagadan was a mere fifteen kilometres from the detention facility, directly on the Occidental Ocean. If they could reach the port, they could slip aboard a ship bound for the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms. Afterwards, it would be a simple issue of smuggling herself back into Equestria through the Dominion of Kanata, of which the Republic enjoyed few, if any, boarder checks.
That was something to wait on though. They had to fight through these fools first.
The guards weren’t really anything to worry about. They were members of the Internal Troops under the broad auspice of the NKVD, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. Though the NKVD was primarily known for its intelligence service, it also had jurisdiction over the Militsiya, the civil police, and the fire service, as well as the Internal Troops, responsible for dealing with security matters, and guarding facilities like Nagadan.
Basically, they took anyone who wasn’t suitable to serve properly in the Red Army. Summer figured that they could take them without too much trouble. She, however, did start to figure out TANTALUS’ concern. If this uprising got much bigger, there was a good possibility that the Præsidium could deploy Spetznaz groups against them. If they didn’t escape soon, and they showed up—
Iron Will had pushed the rail car just under one of the guard towers. She stopped, an idea forming in her head and she slipped out from behind the rail car, pointing her pistol forward and quietly climbed the staircase to the top of the tower, peering up to watch as two guards worked the machine gun.
Typical. They’d not even bothered to watch the stair case for someone doing exactly what she was about to do. She lowered her pistol and placed two shots in the back of each of their heads.
‘Fools,’ she muttered as she grabbed an ammo belt for the machine gun, draping it over herself, and enveloped the HMG in her telekinesis, ripping it from its tripod mount with a grin. ‘Let’s see how you like this you fuckers.’
She re-joined the group. Iron Will nodded his head in approval as they got to the end of the track in the courtyard. Summer turned the HMG down range, up to the second guard tower, and opened up on it. Firing off twenty rounds or so to knock out the gun emplacement. She turned to the third tower, and did much the same, though the guards having seen what had just happened to their comrades, abandoned their post in panic. Knocking their gun off the tripod mount and allowing it to fall onto the ground.
Iron Will grinned, dashing over to it and picking it up. ‘What a generous gift you give to Iron Will!’ he cried out at the fleeing guards, before putting a few rounds down range after them.
Resistance to them was faltering. With Iron Will and Summer both covering the prisoners with heavy machine gun fire, the guards broke, and ran for their lives as they reached the rail depot.
The prisoners had gathered some explosives from the armoury, laying them at the walls and blasting several holes in the concrete walls of the prison complex. Now thousands of prisoners as part of the uprising poured through them, letting collected political prisoners, murderers, and all sorts of violent criminals loose.
‘They will swarm like locusts over the countryside,’ Karkov said. He had other plans for escape as he, Sprocket, Summer, TANTALUS and Iron Will boarded a train engine. They would ride the rails to their freedom before Spetznaz could be deployed after them.
Sprocket let out a sigh of relief. ‘I never thought I would be free again,’ he admitted.
‘We are not free yet, my friend,’ Karkov said. ‘This was but step one.’
TANTALUS nodded his head in agreement. ‘The NKVD is sure to be setting up road blocks and check points at all the major roads and rail stops away from here. Most of the prisoners who escaped today will be hunted down and killed.’
Karkov nodded his head. ‘Most, but not all, such is the heavy price for freedom. It is paid for in blood.’
The engine began to move forward, slowly at first. Summer sighed, and looked to TANTALUS, studying him for a few moments. ‘Who are you? Really?’
TANTALUS sighed. ‘I’d prefer you stick to using TANTALUS—but if you really must know, my name is Spike.’