Lost to the wind

[Serpentis]

Docking at Northeim was a battle in itself, as he got close he sent the code over direct communication, what came back was a hail. “F*ck.. Here we go again…” And tapped the comm panel. “Guten tag, Heinrich. Hope all is well?”, Sergei exclaimed with enough charisma it could buy a Kusari wh*re at a discount. The voice that came back over the channel was less appreciative. “Sergei.. I hope you bring the credits you owe me for the last time you ‘visited’ in a hurry. You have them, right?”- The man’s question turned into a weird threat at the end. Sergei chuckled into the channel. “Heinrich, Heinrich, whenever have I tricked you? Look, I don’t have any assets on me right now. But..” Heinrich stopped him before he could continue. “Nein! NEIN! Sergei! You either bring me the credits or I will tell the patrol that is coming to open fire on your ship!”. Sergei sighed hard and nodded a few times. “Fine, I have this lovely frigate here.. It’s worth way more than what I owe you, how about.. We trade? You give me a fighter or a freighter and you get this beauty in return, ja? Sounds good, comrade?” Heinrich was silent on the other end for a few minutes before he responded. “You can dock, ‘comrade’ and then we talk, ja?” and with that the All Clear signal came through and minutes later, Sergei had docked with Northeim.

Sergei grabbed the stuff he actually wanted to keep, the weapons, ammo and a few knicknacks he found onboard. He casually exited the Frigate, meeting with the man named Heinrich, a Red Hessian lower administrator of Northeim, nothing big, but big enough for Sergei to barter with and get some help. Hopefully.
“Heinrich. Look, this is a fine ship, f*ck, it’s a great ship.” Sergei offered the best smile he could muster. Heinrich on the other hand, he just stared at Sergei. “Where did you get it?”. Sergei sighed out long and hard. “Navy Impound. New Berlin.”. Heinrich looked up at the ship itself and Sergei wasn’t wrong, it was a great ship, well worth more than the four hundred thousand he owed Heinrich.

“Fine, It covers your debt, I will clear it with the others.” he sighs and rubs the back of his head and motions to Sergei to follow him, which he did. “How did you end up in a navy impound, Sergei?”. Sergei chuckled a little. “To be honest, I'm not sure, implant is on the fritz.” Heinrich looked behind him. “I’ve told you to have it checked out.”. Sergei shrugged and continued walking.“I know it’s important, from..”. Heinrich nodded. “From being in the Coalition, yeah?”. Sergei nodded. “I’ve tried to get the backup up and running, even got my hands on some old Zoner tech that would help fix it or at least.. Well, anything.”. It’s true that Sergei had done a lot of sh*t to get his old database back from his days as Commissar in the SCRA. It’s not like he doesn’t remember anything, he knows a lot, but he has no idea what happened to him around at the end of when Katz was head honcho. It’s all cloudy for him, he remembers that he went deep undercover and that required him to get some things f*cked in his head. The Implant was supposed to help him remember things a lot clearer and allow him to transfer and copy data from his memories to an external storage device. But, of course, something happened and he ended up in a psych ward in Rheinland.

“Yeah, I get that Sergei, but. We both know you have a Coalition history, why not go to them?” Heinrich asked, with almost pity in his words. “F*ck you..” Sergei thought to himself. “I have been there, once.” He admitted.
“It felt like.. Being home and not at the same time?” Sergei shrugged and Heinrich chuckled. “I get it. I know you also do not tell anyone the full truth." They rounded a corridor and Heinrich led them into his office, sitting down on the other side of the table and nodding at the free chair in front of him. Sergei took a seat and let out a sigh of relief. “So.. What’s your next move, ‘comrade’.” Heinrich grinned at Sergei, who sighed again in annoyance.
“Not sure, not even sure what I was doing before the impound. Remember I was at Kreuzberg doing some business with a Junker named Jack, he had some leads on some interesting tech they found out in the Omicrons. But that was.. Months ago.”
Heinrich nodded at that and as Sergei was about to talk he pulled out two glasses and a bottle from a drawer and filled the glasses up. “What’s the last thing after that you remember?”. Sergei took the glass and downed it, whiskey, cheap Molly whiskey at that. “Gun to my face, accepting death and then killing a few navy guys and then, well here I am.” he shrugs and puts the glass down onto the table, Heinrich fills it up again. “How many did you kill? Cause that might end up with you on a wanted poster, especially if you got caught on camera.” Heinrich downed his own glass and refilled it as well. Then Sergei said with a grin. “It’s fine, will just have to pay off the bounty or something.. Or, you know, get a new ship with a new transponder?” He winked at Heinrich, who just groaned. “Ja, ja. We’ll get you something.”. Sergei smiled and nodded.
“Danke, Heinrich, I owe you one. And look, I did finally pay you back? Right?”. Heinrich sighed and shook his head. “Look, take the frigate, we’ll get new paint, transponder and such. You instead do a few jobs for me and the Hessians, we’ll call it even. Ok?”. Sergei just stared at him for a while. “But why? You could get it all now?”. Heinrich shook his head. “Look, I need a freelancer for some drops in Bretonia and Liberty. I know you might get some attention with that frigate in general, but, just a freelancer, trading some general wares, it should be fine.”. Sergei raised an eyebrow at Heinrich. “And what am I dropping off then? If I am carrying other goods?”. Heinrich waved hand at him. “Nothing that shows up on scans, just a number of storage devices and a collection of pads. They’ll all be marked and the payments have been transferred, all you need to do is get to Dublin and then Rochester and meet these specific people and give them their items. That's all.” Sergei did not buy it and squinted. “And on the way back?”. Heinrich chuckled and nodded. “You’ll get some sealed communications that I need back as soon as possible, for the movement. See, nothing too big or dangerous. But, I don’t trust most other freelancers that are around, so. Why not use you?”.
Sergei accepted this. “Sure, sure, thanks for all the help, but this isn’t enough to pay yo-”. Heinrich shakes his head. “The deal is, you do this and maybe a few other jobs for the cause as a Freelancer and the debt is paid in full. And.. I’ll send the word out to look for some people that can help with your implant, ja?”. Sergei froze, he couldn't believe what Heinrich was doing for him. “Danke.” is all he managed to get out and he downed the whiskey again. Heinrich nodded then he clicked a comm panel. “Sven, get Anna and get started on the Frigate attached to port Two right away, transponder and ID to Freelancer and..” He then looked at Sergei. “Name?”. Sergei quirks an eyebrow and thinks for a moment. “Lindwyrm. That works.” Heinrich chuckled and said. “Change the Transponder name to Lindwyrm, then take a look at the rest of the equipment and change what you feel is bad enough.”. There was a small pause and probably Sven said. “Alright, we’ll get on it. Will take a few hours though.” and Heinrich nodded. “It’s fine, tell me when it’s ready.” then clicked off the comm again and looked at Sergei. “How about you grab a cot in the crew quarters and get some sleep?”. Sergei got up, nodded and then offered his hand to Heinrich. “Danke, really. I’ll get to work when the ship is up and running.”. Heinrich smiled and sat down to continue to work.

Sergei took a last look in the office before heading to the crew quarters. So, it would seem that he had something to do with his time from now on, well, again. Maybe even will get some information on fixing his f*cking implant. Then he found a free cot and crashed hard.

---

Abadan and the Arcadia | Sergei, The lost | Feedback Thread