Planet New Berlin is always known as a nice place to visit. Between it's countless ski-resorts, tourist concourses, and seedier nightlife, any visitor would find some way of entertaining themself. The inside of the Rhineland Federal Police holding facility near docking terminal #74 was not an ideal tourist destination, unfortunately for it's current resident. One Udo Ackermann, pilot of the Landwirtrechtbewegung.
From inside his Padded cell, Udo could only lay on the floor and could only stare out of the indistructible transparisteel doorway at the Guard, who was sitting idly at his desk, drinking a mug of hot chocolate and reading a news magizine. As much as Udo would love to have access to hot chocolate, there was no way he would be able to escape the sealed room. Realising this, he curled up into a fetal position, his thoughts returning to his LWB comrades who presumably missed him.
***
Udo's journey from the cockpit of his Eagle to the jailcell was swift, but in his case, routine. His day had started off well enough, politely asking for donations from his perch on a large metal superstructure of an old depot outside the Frankfurt Jumphole. He struck up conversations with several of the locals, including a leutenant Malexa Malte of the Rhineland Military.
Previously, Lieutenant Malte was responsible for getting Udo locked away in Vierlande prison for about two weeks after shooting him down near Brandenburg. Apparently Udo had not learned his lesson. That, combined with the presance of several enticing female RFP officers and merchant ships, who he belived possessed delecious pastries, inspired Udo to fly out to New Berlin.
The result was him being blown up by the local patrols and ejecting, As happens regularly with Udo. However, with the presance of the RFP, juristictional priority fell to them. Hence, Udo was not immedietly taken in as a political prisoner, but instead placed in holding on New Berlin, awaiting Trial.
***
However, there was no possible way for Udo to comprehend the Rhineland Legal System in his current state. He did not fear the courts or prison, but was afraid mainly of being alone, away from his fellow LWB members...
Away from Eva.
Udo was also hungry, cold, and bored, trapped in a jail cell with nothing to do and nobody to talk to. He kept up hope that someone would come along and bail him out, or atleast take him somewhere more interesting then where he was. He waited, and waited, and waited, for about an Hour before dozing off to sleep.
Little did he know the tourment that was to follow...
In the cell next to Udo, another man sat against the wall, also thinking of fate. As he sat there, he noticed a small crack in the wall of the cell. From the size and position of it, it looked to Daniel McKay, the occupant of the cell, as though the previous detainee had attempted to pick a fight with the wall.
He stood and walked over toward it and peeked through. It appeared to connect to another cell. Though it was only just big enough to see through, McKay had hopes that he might at least be able to find someone to speak with.
"Hey, hey you," he said, in his Bretonian accent, "Anyone over in that other cell? Psst, psst, hello?"
________________
Meanwhile, back on Darmstadt, deep in the heart of Stuttgart's Ostnebel, Eva Morgenrot sat at her desk doing paperwork. She had been surprised to find the amount of paperwork required when she took her current position. Today, though, something was different. Usually there was at least one official complaint about Nurse Olga, or an attempt by Udo to get her attention - today, that wasn't the case.
Eva rubbed her chin and thought about it. Where IS Udo? I haven't seen him around lately. I'll go check the Biergarten.
She stood and began to walk down the many hallways of the station, eventually reaching the makeshift lounge area that had been set aside. Work was still underway, but most of it was quite usable. Eva looked around for Udo but was only able to notice Lorette and Karl. She waved to the two of them and began walking back to her office, a look of worry on her face.
"Gah!" Udo yelped as he heard the voice from the wall. Initially not seeing the small hole, he though the voice was a Wilde in his head, as he was farmiliar with.
"Oh... erm... Hallo again?" Udo replied, not looking for the source of the voice, as he was sure it was from space
Udo, still thinking McKay was a Wilde trying to rape his brains, responded shyly.
"Ja... I am Udo. I fly for die LWB. But everyone hates me..." He said, a pang of sorrow in his voice.
"I do not know why I am here either. I want to go home... I cannot go to Jail again. Vierlande ist horrid! Dey do not give me food und do 'things' to mein bottom..." Udo began to tear up at this point.
***
Meanwhile, Back on Darmstalt...
"Uuuuudooooo! Ist time for a blood sample!" The loud, and subtly terrifying voice of Nurse Olga went through the halls of Darmstalt.
The Heavy-set woman made her way through the base, checking all of Udo's normal Hiding places. She seemed to enjoy hunting him down, as she was armed with a Net-gun and a tranquilizer pistol. However, Udo was nowhere to be found. His room was empty, his hiding place in the air vents was empty, and he wasn't in Wesley's room.
Olga wasted no time in making a Beeline for the Biergarten. Upon entry, she realised Udo was not present, and appeared displeased. "Hey! Have any of you bodies seen herr Udo around? I need him for somethink..."
She cared not to elaborate, as many of the patrons sympathised with Udo, having had run-ins with Olga themselves.
"Come now, Tell me where he went! Or should I do some interrogations, Ja?"
The Bartender, Wenzel Ranis, concerned for the safety of his patrons, walked over to Olga. "Well, Nein. I think he went out on Patrol today. He may have gotten his ship blown up again. I don't know, but I keep telling them NOT to keep giving him replacements! Just give him a Desk Job."
Olga frowned. The prospect of her favorite... pet... disappearing mysteriously was not particularly appealing. "Ja, sounds like him. I will go search for his pod beacon."
She pivoted on her heel and made her way swiftly to the Hangar deck. Her Hessian Sabre was quickly moved to the launch pad, as most on the station could agree that wehenver Olga leaves, it is a good thing. Wasting little time, Olga climbed aboard her ship, and flew out into the Ostnebel.
She followed Udo's usual route, through the Jumphole to Dresden, past Vogtland, and to New Berlin, and began scanning the region for Udo's customized pod beacon.
A young lady would often been send around and spend her days among the Independent Miners Guild on Freistadt. Only the day to day bar visotors would notice her constant presence at the second table from the bar. The lady would communicate with newcomers, previously unseen freelancers, IMG officials and even an occasional Hessian who would land for a short resupply run.
It was no surprise, though. This lady would be known as Miss Olsen - mediator for the Red Hessians.
***
12 hours later, Freistadt base...
Miss Olsen received a message on her communicator. It read:
-beggining of message- This is Eva Morgenrot STOP Nurse has told me of trouble STOP Udo is missing STOP Check all possibilities. -end of message-
Miss Olsen had previously met this individual. She met Udo in space circling Darmstadt, when she was on a diplomatic assignment. The conversation between them took under 3 minutes, but Olsen would remember Udo anyway. After all, he tried hitting on her... If the Major had known it wouldn't have ended well...
It was a usual assignment really. Olsen would do what she could. She quickly contacted her informator on Freistadt. He provided quite a lot of useful information. A friend of the informator has flown back from New Berlin recently. He saw a man taken away by the Federal Police. He would be described as Udo. Good thing he was only on a trail so far.
Olsen came up with a plan. She contacted a Rheinlander journalist in Omega 7, who would later post an article concerning Udo's arrest. It would describe Udo as a largely misunderstood person to have pity on. The article was transmitted across the system. Rheinland officials had little authority here and the journalist would be safe. It has been done before.
With some luck, someone from Daumann or Kruger maybe would pick up this story and carry it on to Stuttgart. It would be a short run from there. Miss Olsen wasn't sure if it will reach ears of Rheinland house, but you had to hope for the best.
"Oh, everyone hates you?" Dan McKay responded. "I can relate. There are these Wild creatures who are always trying to kill me!"
He cringed at the memory and covered his face with his hands. He certainly didn't want a Wild surgeon to remove it!
"What's that place called? Fearland? That sounds like a really bad place..." he said. "Do you think we can get lawyers or something?"
McKay stood and walked to the overly-dramaticly barred entryway of the cell. Banging on the wall, he demanded he speak with his lawyer. Unfortunately for him, the guard on duty just laughed. Apparently a message to Planet Cambridge was out of the question.
With a sigh, he walked back to the crack in the wall and sat. It was then that he heard a sound. It seemed like laughter, but was contained entirely within his mind.
"Oh no!" he cried out, "those Wild monsters are trying to get into my brain again!"
"Wait, Ich thought you were a Wilde! Silly me..." Udo replied, a bit relieved, but also depressed knowing that his newfound friend wouldn't use their Wilde powers to break them out of Jail.
Udo looked around for any possible way out of this predicament, and made his way to the previously unnoticed crack in the wall.
*whispers* "We need to get out of here. Dey will send us to Vierlande, und it ist horrid dere!. Und dey only feed you horrible synth paste, and even that they barely give any!" Udo was not excited about this prospect.
Having nothing better to do, Udo settled down next to the hole in the wall and talked to his newfound friend.
"So, what ist your story?"
***
Meanwhile, In New Berlin orbit...
The lone Sabre made it's way in high orbit over New Berlin, far out of range of the scan sweeps and police patrols. Olga sat in her cockpit seat, monitoring local communications, consisting mainly of several traders bantering, and what appeared to be a pack of Wilde camping the Sigma-13 Jumphole. Conviniantly occupying the local defense forces.
She had tracked down Udo's pod beacon based on comm echos, and tracked it's inital location. Based on the debris field she encountered, she was sure Udo was shot down by the RM and taken into Custody. Though she had to figure out where. As she was flipping through the local news broadcasts, something outside her ship caught her eye...
What appeared to be a single small asteroid, well outside the system's normal asteroid belts, and apparently in a geosynchronous orbit with the planet. Olga turned her ship and brought it closer to the object.
"Hmm... now just what are you, I wonder?"
Curious as to this stray asteroid, Olga fired a burst from her ship's laser cannons at it. Immedietly upon impact, the asteroid's surface appeared to expand and turn transparent, and disappear altogether. Underneath, was the shape of a Somtaaw Heavy Fighter, which turned to face Olga's ship.
The small vessel bore a scrambled transponder and identification code, preventing Olga from identifying it. However, before she could hail it, the Fighter powered up it's main weapons and opened fire on her Sabre...
"Synth paste?" McKay asked, a slight tremor to his voice. "But that stuff is horrible tasting! Plus I heard it makes your hair fall out. I'm trying to grow a beard to hide from the Wild, so that would be very much not good!"
In the midst of his story, the guards outside began speaking to someone McKay couldn't see from his current position. A moment later though he was able to see a man in a business suit standing in front of his cell.
"Mr McKay, might I have a word with you?" the man asked. Dan looked around nervously.
"That isn't a question," the guard said as he opened the door and pulled McKay to his feet.
"Oh no, they're taking me away!" McKay cried out.
The man chuckled as they walked down the hallway. Half way he stopped in front of Udo's cell and said, "Mr Ackermann, we'll speak soon enough."
The man escorted McKay, along with a pair of Rheinland police guards, down several hallways. Eventually they came to a small room. The man gestured to a chair, which McKay sat in.
"Don't worry," the man said. "My name is Clark White. We're both business associates of Roger Thompson. Don't worry, I'm here to help."
Dan let out a sigh of relief. "What's going to happen?" he asked.
"It's just a minor thing, we'll get it taken care of," Clark said, reassuringly. "I'm not sure about Udo there, that's a bit more severe. When you go back, will you tell him I'm going to get in touch with the LWB and tell them what's happened? When I am able to at least."
Clark stood and walked toward the door. Dan nodded and followed him, hoping to calm his new found friend down a bit, even if he wasn't sure about those LWBs.
Udo listened to McKay's fascinating tale until the guards showed up. He became scared, fearing that he would soon have alien eggs laid in him, his orifaces would be probed with electrodes, or he would be severely beaten as usually happens when someone with a suit shows up. However, Udo was slightly relived when the guards went for McKay instead of him...
However, the man in the suit stopped next to his cell and spoke, directed at him.
"Mr Ackermann, we'll speak soon enough."
Udo was not reassured by this. Quite the opposite, as he began twitching in fear of what was about to befall him. Soon enough, McKay and his escort returned, which Udo interptreted as it being close to the end...
"W... what are you going to do to me!?!?!? I'm too young to die!"
***
Meanwhile, in space.
The battle between Nurse Olga and the mysterious attacker had lasted a full twenty minuites. Both ships were damaged severely, running low on regens, and Olga's Sabre was falling apart at the seams. The small craft had proven slippery, and evaded as Olga fired another Natterturn salvo at the finicky target.
The somtaaw heavy fighter was damaged, much of it's equipment failing, but it doggedly continued to engage. It's weapons were of a previously unseen configuration, charged well above normal safety levels. The small ship wheeled around and fired another burst which narrowly missed Olga, who changed direction to come around at it.
Olga wheeled around and had the enemy ship dead in her sights long enough to pop off a Firestalker missile, which knocked out the last of it's shield batteries. However, the bogey dropped a Nuclear mine, which depleted her own shield. The bandit wheeled around and flew directly toward Olga, firing it's main weapons as it did so. With nerves of steel, Olga charged into the onslaught and fired her last Sunslayer torpedo, before suddenly activating her strafe thrusters and pulling away at the last second.
The explosion ripped through the Somtaaw heavy fighter, blasting it into thousands of pieces. Olga relaxed suddenly as the encounter drew to a close. Muttering an impresive string of Rhinelandic curse words, she activated her tractor beam and brought in whatever was left of the ship, looking for any sign of the pilot. However, she found only burnt metal and hardware.
Her own ship was in pieces, and the battle would surely have awoken the local RM or RFP, who weren't tied up with the nearby Wilde squadron. Using the few Nanobot packets recovered from the attacker, she managed to restore full engine power, and made her way into the Harzfield, heading back to Darmstalt as quickly as she could.
***
Minuites Later
Olga's return heralded great fear and unrest throughout Darmstalt. However, stating that she had been ambushed and her ship was damaged gave good reason for fear to be overwritten. What remained of her Sabre touched down on the Darmstalt hangar, as fire crews went to spray the ship down with foam.
Olga emerged from the cockpit, uninjured. However, she was quite displeased at the whole state of affairs.
"Ich am goink to feed die Repair bill for zis to whoever it was who did zis. I will jam it down their throught with mein bare hands!" Olga went on as the contents of her ship's hold were disgorged. She watched carefully, looking for any sign of a Pilot.
Strangely, nothing even resembling an escape pod was found amongst the wreckage. Either the pilot had been vapourised in the impact, or Olga hadn't tractored it in. However, Olga was suspicious of the ship's loadout and transponder code, not to mention it's weapon systems.
"Hmmm... Herr Weeenzeeel!" She yelled toward the bartender and chief mechanic, who was overseeing repairs.
"Ja, Fraulein?" He replied
"I want to know who zis ship belongs to. Reassemble what ist left of it, und try to find die Identification system und black boxes." Olga demanded, before looking back at the pile of debris that was once her ship. "Und send a transmission to Vogtland. Ich would like dem to deliver for me, an Odin heavy fighter. Ich will transfer what ist left of die Weapons from mein old ship to it."
"Sure thing, Fraulein." Wenzel said affectionately.
This sent chills down the spines of most of those who overheard.
Olga shrugged. "Now where ist Frau Morgenrot? Certianly she needs to know about zis..."
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