Cassandra & Rosette: Escapades

Who: Cassandra, Rosette
Where: Dwarf sewers
When: About 30 minutes after the last post
<snip>
They lapsed into silence for a while, Cass eventually drifting into a fevered dream
</snip>
...
It was a while before Rosette made another noise. The pipe she was chained to was most definitely weak enough to be pulled out, but it was unlikely that Cass could pull free so easily; being wounded would have severely affected her strength and so for her, it would be a much harder ordeal.
Then it came to Rosette: The Scyther that had trapped them here had some augmentation of its limbs. More specifically, this one was designed for close combat. Conveniently, to reinforce this idea, the Scyther had returned to check on them. The sound of the maglock depolarising and releasing itself was enough to wake Cassandra from her reverie, looking blearily around to see if anything had changed.
All she could see different was that Rosette now had an evil grin on her face, and the water level of their 'cell' seemed to be higher. Of course, this was rectified by the Scyther as he drained it enough to enter properly.
This worked perfectly for her plans. Unit 221 noticed the grin on Rosette's face, and headed straight for her.
"What's with the grin? Are you having too much fun in here?" 221 asked angrily.
"Oh no, I was just so happy to see you again." She responded, flirtatiously.
"I'm not your type." 221 replied, leaning in with one of his clawed arms held up towards her face. It was a cutting claw, perfect for what she needed.
"Well now. That's a huge shame." Rosette said, pulling the chains through the damage she'd already done. The water pressure of the bursting pipe gave her a boost to wrap her legs around his head, quickly moving to add the chains she had been so nicely given to his throat.
With one quick movement, she pulled on the chains as hard as she could, and squeezed with her thighs, suffocating and snapping the Scyther's neck with a loud cracking sound.
"Are you smegging insane!?" Cass shrieked as Rosette released the Scyther, letting him fall, twitching, to the ground "He could have gutted you with the hardware he's packing!"
Rosette smirked in triumph at her and crouched down over the Scyther's corpse to begin digging the claw out of his arm
"I have to admit, though: That was impressive" Cass continued above the grisly popping and wet meaty noises
"Although I do have to wonder how many unfortunates have died between your thighs for you to be certain you'd be able to break his neck quick enough not be torn a new arsehole..."
"Do you want smegging releasing you or not!?" Rosette snarled, not looking up from her work
"Well, the maglock's are the motivating factor there aren't they?"
"Huh"
"After that I imagine you're likely thinking about ditching me" Cass croaked after a moment "I've got a proposition though..."
"Ha! Got it!" Rosette grinned triumphantly, as she finally exposed the claw and began using it to saw through her chains
"So what's that proposition of yours?" she asked absently
"Well..." Cass paused to wince with pain "Remember that massive Hymenoptera mothership that got destroyed during Jay's swan song?"
Rosette stopped and looked up at Cass
"Oh, that was you, was it?" she asked in surprise; she hadn't been there, but had heard rumours about what and how it had happened from the drive room crew who were on duty at the time
"Yeah, I created a singularity by recalibrating the wormhole drive" Cass smiled at the memory "I murdered the damn thing..."
"Anyway, smegging lethal, yeah?" she continued "Technology's yours if you keep me alive; it might prove useful in the future, you never know what's going to happen with the JMC..."
"Rufus would be able to figure that kind of thing out" Rosette said proudly, turning her attention back to her work "He's a genius"
"Yeah, maybe..." Cass tried to hide the doubts she felt "He's pretty bright..."
"I'd hurry up with what you're doing there, though" she continued, quickly changing topic "Once that Scyther's lackeys realise he's not coming back, they'll probably just flood this chamber"
"Yeah, alright" Rosette snapped "What do you think I'm doing?"
She stood after a moment, the remnants of her chains dangling from her wrists, and regarded Cassandra evenly
"I still need that maglocked door open; although for what it's worth: I'd have tried to keep you alive regardless of the information you're offering; but yeah, I'll take you up on that bargain"
Cass smiled wanly
"See?" she murmured rhetorically "Expect the worst of everyone, and just occasionally you're treated to a really pleasant surprise..."
She wriggled her hands in her handcuffs
"Better get sawing, toots... The cuffs, that is, not my fingers!"
Soon, both of them were free of their bonds - at least mostly; the remnants of their chains still dangled from their wrists, but now wasn't the time for delicate removal work - Now, they had to escape.
Taking the blade from Rosette, Cass struggled upright as soon as her bonds were severed and hobbled over towards the Scyther's corpse to begin hacking her way into its chest cavity
Rosette eyed her from behind as she worked, appraising the scorched and tattered back of her jacket, wondering just how badly wounded she was and how hard she would be to keep alive if it came down to it
"Anything I can do there?" she asked
"Nope" Cass murmured, making a final incision between the man's dermal plating and sliding a hand into his still warm guts "I'm looking for a power cell"
A moment or two passed with Cass working her hand ever deeper into the Scyther before, with a sucking slurp, she triumphantly pulled a bloody lump of gore out from the corpse
"Gotcha" she smiled, wiping some of the blood off the item's plastic casing "This little bugger'll make our lives easier!"
Hammering the power cell against the wall, Cass cracked the case open and gently removed several of the components
"Here we go" she murmured, twisting a dirty fingernail in the phase modulation mechanism and inverting a couple of the components, before finally slipping everything back into the housing and limping away down the access tunnel towards the door
"You might want to get ready for a little action" she called over her shoulder to Rosette as she held the power cell up towards the door
The cell sparked angrily against the metal and blew out, causing Cass gasp in pain and drop the thing into the murky water at her feet
"Smegging shit" she hissed, sandwiching her hand between her arm and her ribs "That hurt way more than I thought it would!"
"Oh, for smeg's sake" Rosette muttered under her breath before addressing Cassandra directly "You're in a bad enough way without doing more damage to yourself! What just happened there?"
"I blew the coupling solenoids out" Cass explained "We're lucky we're in a sewer : The doors down here fail safe rather than fail secure when their power's disrupted; anywhere else and we'd likely be here for an hour or so longer while I manually dug my way into the electronics "
"Anyway, the door's open" she continued, stepping away and pulling her hand out to inspect the burn on the back of it, finally motioning at the door "After you..."
"Why thank you." Rosette said with a small curtsy, ducking through the door. Manners always went a long way, regardless of where you were. She was sure Cass didn't pay any attention to it, but that didn't matter. From here on out it was essentially smooth sailing: All they had to do was to find a service hatch and make it back to more civilised areas and their escape would be complete
"To answer your question, by the way, that brings me up to two." She said, motioning to her thighs as they trudged through the tunnels "It's not something I like to make a habit of."
"No wonder. You'd get some kind of reputation."
"You don't wonder why I didn't go back to Earth at my first opportunity?" Rosette said, laughing at Cass's comment about a reputation.
"You know" she continued after a moment's silence "not everyone is out only for themselves..."
"So I've seen..." Cass said absent mindedly as they trudged through the tunnels. It was obvious that she was in pain.
"So, where to when we get out? My vote says the medibay - You're going to need looking at." Rosette said, changing the subject.
"Yes, medibay then Parrotts. Quick as we can." Cass replied, as both of them heard footsteps behind them.
"There they are!" called a voice
"Let's go." Rosette said, pulling Cassandra along after her trying to get them away as fast as she could.
Cass stumbled along behind Rosette on unsteady legs, her vision swimming with her exertions as they dashed through the tunnels, but it was futile; with them both being worn down by their imprisonment, and Cass being wounded on top of that, it wasn't long before the JMC Loyalists were able to catch up with them
The first volley of laser fire opened up just as the two women emerged out into an intersection chamber with Cass catching a lucky shot through her shoulder, causing her to stumble, crashing face first into the mire covering the floor of the chamber
Whimpering, she managed to roll over onto her back; she was in a lot of pain and it would be nice if she could sleep, she mused distantly as her consciousness began to fade
Perhaps when she woke up, this would all be better...?
Everything seemed to go in slow motion after that, Rosette watched the barrels of their assailants laser pistols light the gloomy tunnels up with the energy that was about to be sent her way.
<tbc>