The Treason of Lady MacDuff - The private diary of Nesrin Khan

[Enkidu]

Entry 1. 23rd July, 823 AS.

---

This log has been a long time coming - perhaps several years coming. If I had a diary with me before Pygar, maybe I’d remember more. Maybe it’d just be more atoms for Di’tarau to stitch to me, like a load of misshapen sheets into a poor man’s trousers.

So. Everyone on the ship, seemingly - Miranda, William, Aria, Raven, Hunt, have been off at Honshu for only a week and I’m already going mad - the COC net feels like someone set off a nuke. The workload hasn’t been light, of course… I’ve been sweating my way playing diplomat with an ESRD Commander for the Liberty Navy - some Avery Reeves. Mild mannered man - adept at his job and kind enough. I kept my poker eyes squared away and I think I sold him - he’s on our side, anyway. Makes me dry-retch when I think about the consequences of failure; how can I fight Libertonians? How can we forget the price of war in only twenty two years? I worry about the safety of the Eidolon through Magellan, through to Kansas, worry we’ll have to crawl back to the Commonwealth if the Republic stitches us. But I trust Avery - he sang me enough real talk to make me think he’s in with the good guys, fighting the good fight. He’s no misanthrope, the man’s a patriot, you can see it in his soul and he knows the Republic’s in twilight if it doesn’t get conciliatory sometime, but if I can’t gain traction with him, I’ll change my attack vector and go for the moral throat - I have to. Whatever the price of peace.

Allah protect me. I’m about a panic attack away from wishing Saffir was back around, traipsing around the halls nearly getting her head blown off, or relaying vague half-orders through her robot myrmidons. I almost miss her paranoid eyes staring everybody down over the security screens - it felt maternal, at least. Good thing is I won’t have to go stir crazy any longer - the man himself summoned me directly over the FTL for some project. Guessing by my skill set, it’s going to be some real skunkworks shenanigans since Aria wasn’t enthusiastic about having me play guard dog. If there’s one good thing about this N-diplomacy nonsense, I can take my work with me, providing I don’t get pranged by the Republic’s finest on route - good Darwin irony, if I wasn't at the bottom of the feed line.

Foulke messaged me over the N-net, just an hour after Hunt. Told me to head to Kamakura space port before burning to the blacksite - over fleet standard comms, which puts his “we may be watched” statement into acuity. If there’s any way of attracting signals intelligence filtering, it’s happening - partly why I set this whole thing up on a private server. William’s paranoid, but it must be major enough - I don’t know if he knows why I’ve been summoned to Honshu yet - I know I don't.

Which gives me an interesting crises of faith. Hunt or Foulke. Duty or friend.

I’ll have plenty of time to pick an order on route. Carting two of dragoon wing with me on escort detail - it’s as much as I can spare without drawing attention to myself. Don’t want to get caught violating the sovereign territory of the Republic mid negotiations like an asshole.

Put the right word out for me.

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)

Information | Recruitment | Message Dump |
Feedback | Diplomatic channel

(Links pending redevelopment).