War: The Meat Grinder

[Gypsie]

War: The Meat Grinder

Chapter I

Jean gripped the documents tightly, walking as fast as he could to the bridge, anxious to leave the royalist capital. Monsieur Naville, a banker who had business at Sarcelles, had cut him a good deal for a Lucullus Liner.

You will be transporting people Jean, not wildlife. Although I couldn't care less for the lives of a few thousand Council refugees, I do believe that if you are going to move them to Sirius, you better do it with a suitable ship. It's a long way my friend. You know that better than I.

The man was a wealthy swine to his working class eyes, and every word he spitted out of his shaved face was a challenge Jean had to endure not to smack him good.

Besides that, this one is pretty resilent. When you find yourself in trouble, and you will, it will give you a chance to at least defend yourself.

He was right there. It was going to get rough frequently, and it would not be like before, when all that was at risk was his own life and a bunch of supplies. He would be in charge of the secure transportation of hundreds of civilians, whole families loyal to The Council who were forced to leave their homes and seek refugee within Sirius. He would be responsible for the lives of thousands, so failure was not an option.

As he got closer to the bridge, he washed off these thoughts from his mind and started thinking about his place in the ship. Back when he flied the sluggish Pachyderme train, it was him and a handful of technichians roaming the skies. Now that he had become a Liner Captain, he gave orders to dozens of men and women, each and every one eager to support the cause.

These were not soldiers though. Intelligence had suggested that no armed personnel was included among the crew, so if the ship was ever aprehended by the royalist forces, it would be able to claim to be fulfilling a humanitarian mission. This was in part good news for Jean, since he was not military himself. He did carry a sidearm though, and it was the only weapon on board the recently baptized La Soiree, which would recieve it's proper tagging and callsign as soon as they entered deep space and got out of the police patrols' reach.

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Malaclypse Freeport