Hans merely noded in acknowledgement before moving closer to the table. He had a seat and made himself comfortable, a firm handshake between him and Erich before he moved to help himself with a cigarette madam Sachs offered him "Danke." he said, drawing a small robust lighter from his jacket's chest pocket, coated in green, specific to the Rheinland Military, with the stamp 'Stein' on one side. After puffing out the first smoke he took a moment to recollect what he said back then.
"Nothing pritty ever came out of those types of missions, as I have already said. Since Mr. Erich here will probably have more to say than I do, I'll go first and be done with it quickly."
The man leaned back on his seat, puffing out another smoke, eyes fixed on the cloud of smoke slowly forming above him, as lifeless as the cold sensation the man's overall stance brought in most occasions.
"It was about two years ago, when we were summoned near Oder. A small contingent, no cruisers or anything big to attract attention, but we had enough firepower despite that. Orders came directly from the top, and we were all as surprised as anyone else when we were told to ..simply head forth and abuse, for lack of a better word.. a simple bunch of children...the oldest among them couldn't have been more than 22 of age. They were part of a larger group of political activists, well educated and armed with devotement towards the cause of establishing better leadership in Rheinland."
Hans tilted his head slightly both sides, a few cracking sounds coming from his neck before he once again puffed another smoke from his cigarette and resumed.
"Pardon. As I was saying, their goal seemed far fetched..but considering their way of doing things, they immediatly syphoned the public's admiration. The Chancelor didn't like this, and the activists' methods could simply not be stopped through conventional means. That's where we came in. Three gunboats to act as prison transports, each with a small fighter squad as escort. Our orders were to take them all in, and stomp any resistance under the weight of our guns. Simply put...placing children in prison or killing them if they refused to comply. We were a very organised bunch...but even we needed a few minutes to actually comprehend what we were asked to do. Eventualy, we managed to accomplish their capture without any casualties. The luck that we all carried that day was that a Bundschu contingent moved in on the convoy that day. Official records state the fighting was bloody, but in truth, those men did nothing more than reason with us. We figured we could cover it up, so we relinquished our objective to their safety and they accepted to take the blame in exchange for being given the prisoners. To my surprise, it all ended with minimal bloodshed, but the fact that it actually happened was enough to make most of our stomachs turn."
Throughout his story-telling, the man seemed as calm as ever, although from his sayings, the event was nothing short of despicable.
