Snubnose

[Unseelie]

Forty five million credits.
Bit much, for a battered pilot and a wreck of a ship. Damn snubnose, can't even use the ugly thing....turns worse than a freighter. Pilot is cute though.

Hessians contacted me...using radiation to encrypt their comms...

"Madam Kietan? Ma'am, we may have.....you may......Erich Hart...."
"You have a what?"
"A pilot Ma....nland pilot."
"Don't you get a lot of those? In your line of work, they just come looking for you."
"Nien....tenant, ma'am" moving around the star now, clearing up their gibberish.
"Sure, you have a Rheinland Lieutenant, why do I care?"
"Nien, not just a lieutenant ma'am, a bomber ace lieutenant. Captured at great cost"
"And you're trying to shoulder that cost onto me, why would I take him?"
"Because otherwise he'll die" ...what? I pay for these people's heads
"You know who your talking to?"

---

[bluntpencil2001]

Richthofen was furious. Some dirty Hessian scum swarmed his best goddamn Lieutenant, one he considered a friend, in some foolish heroic rearguard!

Apparently the M.I.A status had just been changed to 'Captured by hostile forces'. That was a relief, almost. Those bastard Hessians were known for enslaving captives in the worst of conditions. Jan tried not to think of the sickening mines, people used like cheap, expendable robots...

He was going to get him back, if he had to kill every Hessian in Rheinland.

As he demanded information from the pilots that Erich had saved, his comm. unit beeped. Looking down, he had a holo of a dogtag, with the message 'Proof of puchase'. He inhaled deeply. He knew who had him Lieutenant Hartmann now, so he could contact some old friends... friends in the Order. They had spies everywhere.

Within an hour, he had Juno Kietan's details on screen...

A Cardamine addict, but not a drug smuggler. Registered pilot in the Bretonian Armed Forces (Exemplary flight record, zero fatalities caused and high mission success rate like the rest of her Privateer wing.). Golden Chrysanthemum. Pilot of the Unseelie. Born on a freighter in Hokkaido, unknown to her most likely, since she was brought up as a Samura slave. Escapee. One of the richest women in Sirius, depending upon the stock exchange. Lover in the Liberty Navy. Social security numbers, many false. Real one provided. Favourite colour, manner of speech...

Very interesting. The Order were damned efficient at intelligence, that was for sure. Their network was still as tight as ever.

However, this would not free Hartmann. She could still kill him, even if she did seem soft, couldn't she? She had the upper hand and both she and Jan knew it.

---

[Locke]

I was leading a wing dispatched to escort a Rheinland diplomat from Bretonian space. Her safe return was priority one, as she was the Chancellor's niece and she had valuable information concerning Bretonia's most recent dishonourable war practices. The planned route was through Liberty space, but no sooner had we entered neutral territory, Hackers and Outcasts swarmed our location. I had no choice but to turn the convoy back to Bretonia.

"I must return to Rheinland with my report," she said, obviously frustrated.
"I understand that ma'm, but the situation is too hot in Liberty right now. We'll have to wait it out."
"I won't stand for this. We're taking the route through the Omega's."
"Ma'am, report's show a recent surge in Hessian activ..."
I was cut off, "I am of the Chancellor's blood and you will do what I say, Lieutenant."
She must have sensed my unease.
"What's the matter? You can't fend off a few out-of-work miners?"

Against my better judgment, we passed through Cambridge and plotted course to Omega-3. My stomach turned as we neared the jump hole. Something was not right.

---

[Unseelie]

"Excuse me?" regulations are always getting in my way....and costing me money.
"I. Want. My. Suite. Jettisoned."
"You realize its an interior suite, don't you, miss?" condescending bastard.
"So move it." this couldn't have been handled over the comms, either, had to do it face to face, a seventeen year old girl demanding ridiculous things from station managers. Could have used comms...could have masked my voice, seemed older at least...instead of looking like a Kusari schoolgirl.
"I am aware of all the limitations involved, Mr. Walton, and I am also fully aware that you have done it in the past."
"Freeport 5 does not jettison living space for just any reason Miss Kietan, and, might I remind you, that as a significant, fixed part of the station's mass, it is zoner property."
"I commissioned that suite, I imported wood for that suite, I had the building it's sitting in designed and built for that suite, and freeports can't have property, because They Aren't Legal Entities."
"No need to yell...Zoner property, then."
"Mr. Walton, my lawyers are the best Cambridge educated firm that money can buy. Don't make this a bloody legal debate over who possesses what. I don't want the rest of your station. I want my suite pressurized and jettisoned."
"Pressurized? Absolutely not girl. I will not condone you jettisoning anything with live inhabitants. We're sitting on the neutron star. The radiation will fry anything." which wasn't true...lined that thing with niobium
"They're is nothing in there...I don't want my things blown around...do you know what vacuum does to wood?"
"Jettison my suite, pressurized, or my lawyers will tear this station apart."

---

[Locke]

Things went smoothly and uneventfully as we travelled the old mining trade-lanes. I was relieved as we left the borderworlds behind us. Soon, we would be home.

Just as we entered Stuttgart a hail of red lasers pelted the convoy, dropping the armored transport's shields in seconds. I had little time to react. I ordered the transport to retreat back to New Berlin with the rest of the wing in defensive escort "bump-and-run" formation.
One by one, I began mechanically placing perfect nova blasts into the incoming dozen Hessians, and space became thick with shrapnel. My eyes were glazed over, my actions were swift, and my mind was set on protecting the convoy's retreat at all costs. The Hessians, angered by the felling of their comrades, turned their attention to the counter-attack. With three of them left and my hull already damaged, the odds did not look good.
Before I could pull off another nova pass, my mine-launcher malfunctioned. The live mine was still in the launcher, and it didn't take long before another missile blast knocked it around enough to discharge. My left wing was immediately blown off and I was sent spiralling into Breisgau's atmosphere.

I awoke, shivering. My cockpit window had cracked. It was freezing cold and almost completely dark.
At first, I was sure I was dead. It appeared I had crashed through the planet's surface into some sort of vast underground ice-chasm. The last thing I can remember at this point was seeing what appeared to be a spotlight slowly decending from the roughly bomber sized hole above. It had reached the floor, and bounced as it travelled closer-- becoming brighter with every passing second. I hoped for the best, but expected the worst. The light was blinding, as it must have now been only a dozen meters away. I heard the sudden loud clap of a gunshot which echoed in the cave as my cockpit suddenly shattered. I looked down at my chest to find a small dart. I began to lose consciousness... it looked like the worst was yet to come.

---

[bluntpencil2001]

Richthofen smiled. He wasn't happy, but he smiled anyway. It scared the living daylights out of his captives.

"Look, he's in the mines, we don't have any con- yurk!", the Hessian was cut off by Jan clubbing him with his pistol. Standard issue Order side-arm. Never leave home without it.

"And you put him there, pilot. You condemned my friend to slavery. I will not tolerate such injustice." Jan's smile didn't waver. The three Hessian prisoners looked around in terror, tears welling in their eyes.

The second spoke up,

"Please, we can pay you! I have contacts with mill- YARGH!!!", The man's scream was almost as loud as the gunshot tearing through his kneecap.

"I don't want your damn money, scum! I don't care for such things! I want my gods-damned pilot free, and I want you pathetic excuses for 'bounty hunters' to stay the hell away from my people!"

A medic scurried across the deck, making sure that the prisoner would be kept alive. He was still of use.

"Now, you dirty scoundrels will wait. I have made contact with the new... 'custodian' of Lt. Hartmann. You shall be punished tomorrow for your use of slave labour. The penalty for such a sickening attack on the equality of the people of Sirius is harsh, but terribly fair..."

The three men looked at each other, mute with fear, excepting the whimpering from the man with the missing knee.

"Your execution is tomorrow. Your final supper is tonight. I hope you like steak, gentlemen..."

---

[Locke]

This time I awoke in sweltering heat. A voice was angrily screaming, but I was still too groggy to understand the words. I took a kick to the chest-- the pain amplified by the healing dart wound. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, dirt, and decay. People were dressed in near to nothing, and were chipping away the mountainside with vibro-axes and drills. I realized where I was. I got to my feet, as a tool was shoved into my arms.

"Dig," was all that was said, and that's all that I did.
Looking around revealed how gaunt my fellow diggers were. Occasionally, one would fall to the ground nearly dead with exaustion. They were then carried off by armed guards to a different kind of dig site. Now knowing the source of the decaying smell made me want to vomit, but my stomach was empty, and I needed to conserve what little energy I had left. I began planning an escape. Not just for me, but for every slave here.

I learned that shifts lasted nearly 20 hours a day, and often extended much longer for those who were incooperative. At the end of the shift, we were served "dinner" which consisted of a small hunk of bread. Hungrily, I bit into the stale bread, only to find my mouth writhing with moggots. I had to choke it down, gagging intermittently. There was enough time at the end of the day to finish my dinner and get a few hours of rest-- locked in a cage that kept me in, but did little to keep the environment out. Blowing sand and insect stings kept me awake most of the night.

The next day came quickly-- the constant labor accelerated time. A guard approached mid-shift, weapon in hand, aimed directly at me. With a familiar clap, I felt myself again lose consciousness.
"Well, I guess you're worth more than you look... Lieutenant..."

---

[Unseelie]

Casablanca Base was always pretty. Holly was raised here. The halls were clean, air fragrant, and the engineers were topnotch. So were the accommodations, beautiful rooms, full bath, even my own kitchen. Not that I cooked...but it was a nice touch.

They asked me here for negotiations. You always call it negotiations. I was leaving with that pilot, if I had to tear the place apart for him....money would do, though.

She was an old Hessian a bit wrinkled, but reasonably well preserved. And she wanted eighty million credits.

"No. Noone is worth that"
"You want him, we have him, and you can afford it."
"I could storm this base, steal him for half that." this made her chuckle
"Hardly. Eighty."
"No, a mine slave is worth fifty thousand, and his ship might be worth ten million...for parts." I hate slavers. Especially Samura. The Hessians are hardly better.
"He is much more than a miner, you know this. The ship is a fully equipped Rhienland Bomber....the armaments alone are worth thirty million."
"Yeah, if it were intact, sure. now, after you dug it up, nothing will work."
"You are hurting me....seventy million, surely, he is worth this."
"He's worth dirt. I want his ship, and I need him to open it....ship's worth, thirty million, only, and its broken."
"You are trying to take my property...you come here, insult my people, offer a pittance for the prize we gained in blood. I shouldn't sell to you at all." So I stood up...
"You don't want to be reasonable, I'll get it myself." Which she did not like me saying.
"No...no Madam, fine.....fifty million." never take what they offer.
"Forty, or I walk."
"Forty eight, for the widows."
"Forty five, done." she was old....try something.
"Done?"
"Done, forty five million credits, untraceable. I want him drugged and in my ship, now." and, I left, gotta run with these things, or they fall through....

Hells below, he's beat up...slumped on my bed like a drowned cat, bruised, cut, half starved, and still wearing his flightsuit...what was left of it...gotta see about getting him checked...before he wakes up...can't keep him drugged, either, the state he's in.

---

[Locke]

I dreamt of a palace of fine silks and treasures. Perfumes hung heavily in the air. Bright yellow light filled the room with warmth, and I saw my mother. The dream was a stifling parody of my reality. Reality? What was going on?

'Wake up,' I mentally told myself.
I shook my head, and tried to clear my thoughts.
"Wake up," this time aloud.

I looked up to see the hazy image of my mother fade and transform into a small Kusari girl. She appeared to be young, but her eyes looked weathered, like she'd seen several lifetimes already come and gone.
"Who... who are you? Where am I?" It hurt to talk. Dehydration blisters on my lips cracked, and I again felt dizzy.
"I'm a GC... and you don't need to know where you are."
My head swam. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach grumbled, empty.
The girl seemed to have anticipated my hunger. She passed a nearby tray holding synth paste. I was suspicious, but instinct took control as I eagerly grabbed the tray and consumed the contents. I wasn't able to finish half of it before, with a groan, I again began to feel ill.
"If your gonna be sick... do it over there," she said as she pointed through a door to the bathroom.
"Thank you, I'll be alright." It felt strange thanking my new captor, but she had shown a kindness that was a relief from the Hessian courtesies. "What would the Golden Crysanthimums want with a Rheinland soldier?" I frowned, "Or is my next stop to a Samura facility?"
She bristled, "Im a GC... not a fracken Hogosha."
It hurt to think, and even more to move. "Water." was all that I could manage.
Her expression changed to concern, "Oh... here."
I choked as I guzzled down the glass of water, only just noticing how ornate my surroundings truly were. Even the very glass I held was of exquisite quality crystal. The gold-leafed edges sparkled in the light as I emptied the contents down my throat. I tried to get up, but my legs were bound with Syntech medical restraint straps. "You're a GC. What do you want with me?"
"I bought you because you're RM. The Hessians seemed to think I wanted you."
"Bought me? Why? Who are you?" I was getting impatient with her dodgey answers.
"Well, because otherwise they'd have worked you to death... and maybe I can get consessions."
It was clear I was only going to get the answers I wanted with force. I quickly shuffled to the side of the bed from which I proceeded to clumsily slip off and slam onto the floor. I lay motionless, my eyes closed. I heard her footsteps as she moved closer, and then tapped my shoulder.
"Are you alright?"
I spun and grabbed her wrists with speed that surprised myself.
"Who are you and what do you want with me!?" I angrily asked. As I held her wrists tightly, I noticed the horrid scars along her arms. Aghast, I loosened my grip for a split second. The agile Crysanthemum's innocent eyes went thin. She pushed off my arms at the same instant that her toes connected with my jaw, and she flew backwards, away from me.
"Don't. Ever. Touch. Me, you RM bastard," she was furious.
Her speed and sudden change of mood was shocking. I had misjudged my captor and paid for it with a split chin. It was obvious this girl had something against Rheinland. Why did she look so familiar?
With that, she turned and left me alone in the suite. A buzz followed by a slight clank let me know that she had locked the intricately carved redwood door from the other side.

The food and water had given me a newfound energy and clarity. I got to my feet. My eyes focused, and my surroundings sharpened. The bed was in the center of the room, and through the canopy of fine red and purple silks, I saw two glass doors leading to what appeared to be a large atrium. The syntech straps were not going to be broken easily. I hoped I would be able to find something to cut through them.

Hopping into the next room revealed an entire kitchen and to my surprise, a complete set of razor sharp ceramic knives. One flick easily cut through the straps and I was free. I tucked the knife into my belt.

Exploring the atrium took longer than expected. It was a large garden complete with exotic fruits and vegetables that looked of Kusariian origin. Trees that I did not recognize curled up a dozen meters towards the ceiling which radiated bright yellow natural light. The light dimmed as I explored. I could only assume the girl had it synced to some planet's time frame. It became twilight, and the chirping of various insects became audible. My mind flicked back to the long night at the mines, and I could almost feel the pests biting me again. It was clear that the noises here were all simulated. The twilight eminating from the ceiling became transparent, and revealed a vast array of stars which left enough light to still easily find my way around. I didn't recognize many of the heavenly constellations, but the blue hue told me I had to be somewhere in Kusari. My heart sank. I was further from home than I had ever been. Could it be that I was on some planet in Kusari? Was the Kusari government involved in my kidnapping?

I refused to believe that the Kusari would band with the Hessians, but the thought still troubled me. I kept my mind busy on trying to find a way out. The eight walls of the atrium were hologrammed to look like more trees, and it was painstakingly obvious that the only exit I would find, was the one I had entered.

Exploration of the other rooms brought me to the same conclusion. I couldn't help but admire the ancient artifacts that lined the walls and hallways. Some of the artifacts perched on stands looked to be particularly expensive. The rugs that marked all paths looked ancient-- easily a hundred standard years old, possibly from the Xiang Dynasty.

---

[bluntpencil2001]

The arrangements had been made. The Chancellor's administration had approved Jan's plan to retrieve the hostage.

The Jaeger would meet the Unseelie by Freistadt base in Omega-7. The pilot, Juno Kietan, would then release Erich to Jan, in exchange for being allowed access to Rheinland space in posession of several pounds of medicinal Cardamine.

Jan ordered the crew to be wary of treachery, this one wasn't to be trusted, even if reports only showed her to be seventeen years old.

He transmitted various messages to Erich's custodian. He knew her well, he had access to a lot of apparently secret information. In some regards, he knew even more about Juno Kietan than she did. His agents were efficient, and he had the opinion that in spite of her calm speech and position of strength, she was caught off-balance. Jan was crafty for a Rheinlander.

He projected an impression of fearlessnes and strength, despite being afraid for his friend's safety.

"You will drop my pilot here, in exchange for the predetermined allowances."

"I don't trust you, how do I know you won't betray me?"

"You have my word as an officer of the Rheinland Military. I understand that you are as much a victim as Lt. Hartmann. A victim of Outcast trickery. That isn't your fault."

An abnormally large pod was then dropped from the Unseelie, scans indicating life aboard. Tractors activated...

On the Jaeger's transport deck, a medical team awaited Erich. The doors on the huge pod opened automatically, revealing a soldier sitting in the lap of luxury, surprised to see his comrades-in-arms awaiting him. Of note were what appeared to be windows showing Kusari space. Very clever hologram use, indeed.

The chief medic opened communications, "Sir, he's safe and well. Hell, he's much better than last time we seen him! That lass treated him well..."

Jan smiled with relief as he contacted Juno again, the Order were right on the 'soft heart' piece of information...

"My thanks...and Rheinland's."

He then received an incoming transmission from Admiral Hiltraud Kaiser...

"Open fire!"

He was aghast. Targetting a civilian transport vessel wasn't his idea of fair play, especially one so cooperative.

"The target is no threat ma'am. I was authorised to conduct the mission as planned. Plus, she'll raise that bounty on us."

Kaiser cut communications. 'Silence betokens consent' was what Thomas Moore would say.

Jan then switched to his own, personal, private line to Juno. He sent one million credits her way from his personal account, which the practical Commander had kept secret since joining the Order.

"For the toys en-route to Ainu that were destroyed. My apologies."

Before she could respond, he switched to an open, military channel...

"Now, I have the three Hessians who captured Lt. Hartmann aboard. You may wish to view the Jaeger's airlock..."

Jan ordered the execution to go as planned.

The three screaming prisoners were herded into the airlock...

From the Unseelie's scopes, Juno watched in mute horror as what appeared to be three men dressed in Hessian fashion were ejected into hard vacuum. Without any protection. It was disgusting to see them splatter across the hull of the Jaeger in such a terribly painful and undignified way.

She lost track of thought and barely heard Richthofen on the comms speaking to her,

"Hard vacuum does horrific things to a man. There's the zero-pressure that causes, well, explosion of the lungs and eyes and then there's the radiation out here... which literally boils the blood. Horrific. That's what happens to thugs that take slaves on my watch. I'm glad you took another approach, girl."

He might have been brutal, but he kept his word at least and he did seem sympathetic... maybe he knew who the real villains were? No shots were fired from his gunboat at least...

---