The Eventide

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
24.01.836 AS

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"Project "Eventide", entry... Actually, no number this one time. Just some thoughts of an old man."

The man slowly sipped the foamy beer from his glass.

"They sure know how to make beer here, I have to hand it to them. People do enjoy it. It's nice that the girl shows her concern for us with more than just the usual supplies. Honestly, she brought us more alcohol than we could drink in a couple of months..."

"Although after the Bundschuh pulled me out of that mess on the Seliger cruiser, I can barely taste it. It's like it almost evaporates before it even reaches my tongue, leaving me with only a distant ghost of what I should have tasted. Every miraculous rescue has a price, I suppose. Though I still don't know exactly what they did to me to drag me out from the clutches of death. From that... Thing. I won't ever be the same. None could be."

"Part of the reason the old name no longer matters. Although the past sometimes comes back to haunt me."

"The other day I was doing some transport business and met a couple of Coalition patrolmen. It warms my heart to hear names that sound familiar. Lieutenant Gromov, callsign Stepnoy. And his comrade, callsign Ermak. They're good lads, loyal. With a spark."

"I barely resisted the urge to speak Russian again. They shouldn't know who I was, that I was born at Volgograd. It'll be better for everyone. All that's in the past. My place is here."

"I just hope I won't have to take up arms against my fellow comrades one day. Not something I'd want to do. So far, there don't seem to be any grounds for that. And we have plenty of common enemies. But Sirius is a nasty place. You never know."

He sighs, raising his glass.

"Well, to your health, lads. May the fruits of my labor never be pointed at you. Because sometimes... They scare me."

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