Fatty imagined it for a moment and exclaimed, "Damn, that harsh?"
The Doctor interjected, "Yeah, last time a guy from our prison who argued with the guards got locked up. By the time he was let out, he had already gone mad. That place, the longer you lie down, the more you want to stand up, but the ceiling is sealed tight, there’s no light or sound around, it’s no wonder people go crazy!"
Fatty shook his head. This is the difference between the Imperial Countries and the Federation. The benefits of democracy shine through even in these places. Although Federation Prisons also have their share of the strong preying on the weak or severe punishments, if there was ever such solitary confinement, it would have been exposed long ago. At that point, no one could resist public opinion. The officials in charge of the judicial department and the prison system would have no choice but to resign.
After chatting for a bit, the few of them grew a bit closer, and the Doctor and others grew bolder. They discovered that Fatty, as long as he wasn’t provoked, wasn’t as terrifying as they had imagined. Maybe having someone like him in the cell could even be beneficial for them! Fatty was probably already famous after that brawl yesterday. Even Andre suffered at his hands. After today, if Andre didn’t try to undermine Fatty, he might try to recruit him. At that point, Rex’s status might not be higher than Fatty’s.
The signal light for work lit up, and a sharp bell rang. With countless sounds of "clang, clang," all the cell doors in the massive dungeon area automatically opened! Inmates walked out of their cells in twos and threes and headed toward the main gate through the corridors. Guards, holding electric batons, stood at the stairs and corridor entrances, coldly staring at the inmates passing by. The guards didn’t carry guns at this time for fear that if an inmate suddenly rioted and snatched a gun, it would create an uncontrollable situation.
Fatty followed Tou’er and others out of the cell. The Doctor and Big Plane were workers in the laundry room, while Tou’er worked in the mechanical workshop, which was the same place as Fatty. Little Lingtong’s job was the easiest; he was responsible for cleaning in the prison administration building and often picked up some information. Hence, everyone called him Little Lingtong. Maybe it was a long-standing habit, but in the prison, any inmate with a nickname usually had their real name forgotten. Fatty walked out of the cell door, watching the dense crowd of inmates moving silently in one direction and thought, "I wonder what nickname I’d get for my sleepwalking habit. Crazy? Sleepwalker? Damn, as long as it’s not ’wet dream’."
Following the crowd, crossing the D2 cell area’s boundary and merging into an even larger crowd, Fatty went downstairs to the ground floor, walked through a hall the size of a football field, and out the main gate of the cell area. The 9 AM sunlight wasn’t too glaring, but Fatty still squinted his eyes. Since he was brought in the night before last, he hadn’t seen sunlight again or thoroughly observed the massive prison’s layout.
Outside the square-shaped prison cells were ten circles of wire fences, each over ten meters high. Some of them were evidently electrified. Around the prison cells stood eight tall towers at the eight corners, each manned by guards armed with live ammunition. Although he couldn’t see it, Fatty knew that in the central circular room of each tower were surveillance systems. Besides the mobile monitors that covered the entire prison, these systems included biological and electronic radars covering a five-kilometer radius around the prison area.
In this prison built in the western suburb of Tanville, a five-kilometer radius around the perimeter was a military restricted zone. Outside this enormous area were several security lines and mobile patrol posts. Anyone entering without permission would be detected and shot on sight. If an energy scanner detected someone carrying an Energy Burst Device entering the area, it would issue a warning. Electronic radars, along with Tanville’s anti-air radar and space vehicle management system, would also issue warnings to any aircraft approaching this area. The Anti-detection Interference Devices around the prison would blind any unauthorized aircraft entering the airspace. Moreover, there was an Armored Group’s worth of mechas, an anti-air missile unit, and a garrison stationed less than forty kilometers from the prison. This prison was, without a doubt, highly secure.
For an unarmed prisoner, or even one who had managed to snatch a few broken guns, escaping Abnosk Prison was nothing but a pipe dream! Without the Freedom Front’s reception, even if Fatty were killed... Fatty didn’t want to be locked up here!
"Damn, if it really comes to that, I’d prefer to be killed before getting imprisoned," Fatty spat angrily and caught up with Tou’er, who was leading the way ahead.
The blueprint of this prison was top secret. If it hadn’t been for Russell scheming against these political prisoners, the Freedom Front alone would never have acquired the entire prison’s blueprint. Fatty had engraved these blueprints into his mind, knowing everything about the prison’s layout, construction materials, structure, guard distribution, patrol routes, shift schedules, monitoring diagrams, radar maps, and wiring diagrams.
However, Fatty had no idea what recent changes had occurred in Abnosk Prison. This operation was a huge gamble, with the assault plan and escape route spanning three months, covering thousands of kilometers across four Star Domains, utilizing almost all of the Freedom Front’s resources. They had to escape with dozens to hundreds of prisoners and join the Freedom Front’s long-range engagement. Both the timing and situation had to align with Russell’s military operations in Galileo and the international situation, increasing the difficulty from two stars in previous escapes to five stars.
Moreover, plans are plans; the more meticulous a plan, the more likely something would go wrong during execution. No one knew what could happen. A minor accident could abort the entire plan, leaving Fatty imprisoned for the rest of his life.
If it weren’t for Ann Lei, Fatty might have already gone into hiding or simply gone home.
Who knew that what was supposed to be a heroic rescue of a beauty would turn into walking straight into a trap? This turn of events was disheartening.
Sighing, Fatty had already walked into the machine-processing workshop on the southeastern side of Abnosk Prison. This workshop processed parts for the fully mechanized infantry division’s self-propelled guns and transport vehicles. The parts processed here were simple in technique but labor-intensive. These processed parts were taken away daily by transport convoys entering the prison after work hours and sent to military manufacturing plants for assembly.
A Mechanic assigned to such simple work was somewhat underutilizing his talents. However, Fatty knew that working such jobs was already a result of Bruce considering Ann Lei and the Mythical Army. If Bruce suddenly changed his mind, Fatty might not even get this kind of work. After all, the prison system was tightly controlled by Bruce’s Royal Investigation Bureau. Between controlling political prisoners and nobles, playing with someone as foolish as Fatty was a piece of cake.
Now, Fatty could only rely on the Prince George, not Reinhardt. As his frontrunner and the link to the Mythical Army, Fatty had become a catalyst in this almost public conflict. George couldn’t afford to ignore someone like him. Otherwise, anyone with some sense would be disheartened by George’s actions. Moreover, given George’s character, he wouldn’t just swallow his anger and watch Stephen and Bruce, one playing the good cop and the other the bad cop, mock him.
The inmates in the workshop lined up, passing by guards armed with live ammunition at the gate through a detection gate one by one to receive their tools. Fatty followed behind Tou’er, passing the detection gate under the guard’s cold gaze. As he was about to follow Tou’er’s example and collect his tools, an inmate dressed as a foreman kicked Fatty out of the line.