The Tower of New London

[bluntpencil2001]

"The best? Maybe. Maybe if you follow the goddamn manual, you old fool."

Stuart was angry. They should have listened to him. He'd downed three of the KNF's elite from the controls of a Hussar before, completely ignoring standard flight procedures.

"We're sticking to the book too much, chief. Wars are different these days. Get the kids out in light fighters."

He called his pilots 'kids', in spite of half of them being his senior in age.

"Templars aren't built for taking down their so-called 'ultimate' fighters... they're the ships that should be used for, you know, scanning for drugs and junk like that."

He let the irony sink in as the uniformed nobleman nodded, understanding. Sir Andrew, Knight of the Realm, convicted criminal laughed.

"Yeah, the bobbies, the cops are flying what the military should be piloting... and vice-versa. Kinda funny, eh?"

Richard sighed, not appreciating the humour in the situation. The privateer, pirate, or whatever-you-wanted-to-call-him reached under his seat and pulled out a bottle of what looked to be some damn fine whiskey, offering a glass to his visitor.

"Where did you get that? Isn't this meant to be a prison?" asked a now-amused Windsor.

"I have my ways. I don't even like whiskey... but, you know, it's nice to be hospitable if one has guests."

He smiled and continued in a conspiratorial tone.

"Right. You know I'm an avid student of unorthodox strategies... be it shield-killers and mines or robbing 'civilian' transports..."

Somehow he managed to make it sound like his targets throughout the war weren't actually civilians. Valid targets or such like. A lot of them did carry military equipment... it was just like him to insert such doubt into the conversation.

"I've a new plan to deal with these nippy wee buggers, boss. Sure, it isn't original, but it'll work."

The privateer may have been locked up, but he was far from idle. He poured himself a measure of whiskey and sniffed it with distaste before downing it, wincing as he did so.

"Well... that wasn't such a great plan, but the other one's brilliant..."

---