SCRA Recruitment Centre

[Omi]

Listening to the explanation, Meiling nodded slowly. That all made sense. Hans, meanwhile, was worried. Clearly, from the conversation he'd overheard, they had some pipsqueak interrogating him rather than someone experienced in the art of extracting information. That wasn't what was worrying him, though; the alarming way the shotgun in front of his face was lurching about was his main concern. The holder was nervous, Hans thought, and nervous people didn't mix well with guns.

Meanwhile, Meiling poked the man with her foot, rolling him over onto his back.
"Ni hao, Hans," she began, as the slaver glared back at her. "You and I are going to have a chat, okay?"

Hans spat on her boot by way of reply, and received a prompt kick in the face for his trouble. Meiling crouched down over his bound figure, jamming the shotgun roughly below his chin. She leaned in to whisper in Hans' ear, softly enough that she was sure no one else could hear.

"Listen," she hissed, her voice shaking slightly. "You can tell me what I- the Revolution needs to know and save yourself a lot of pain, or I can-" she paused to think of a suitable dire consequence, but came up blank. Hans sensed her hesitation, but it didn't make him any less apprehensive. The shotgun was both frightening and very distracting.

Meiling was getting nowhere, and she could feel the officer's gaze boring into the back of her skull. Now getting desperate, she renewed the force behind the shotgun, forcing Hans' head back even further.
"Hans," she muttered, beginning to get frustrated. "you can still get off this cruiser alive. All you need to do is answer my questions truthfully, and the lieutenant here -" she gestured towards Mei "- will help you. Honest work in a factory or on a farm for the good of the people, how does that sound? Better than this -" she dug the shotgun in a little further to encourage him "- or being fed out the airlock, yes?" For her part, Meiling doubted he would get off so easily, but kept that to herself. She imagined Hans would probably enjoy a session with the Coalition's experienced interrogators at some point anyway, just to make sure he'd told them everything.

Hans was a little torn. The offer was so bad it actually sounded realistic, given his situation. If she'd said he'd be allowed to go free, he would have suspected a trap right away. Going to work on some strange communist planet for the rest of his life sounded crap. Being drilled (literally) for information by burly Coalition members sounded even worse. Anyway, he thought, he didn't owe Deiter or Heinz anything. He would probably never see them again, and he'd never liked Deiter's smarmy grin anyway. In any case, he had nothing to lose by looking out for number one: himself.
"Ja," he muttered, once Meiling held back on the shotgun's pressure slightly to let him speak. "I will cooperate."

Meiling felt a surge of relief. He'd bought it. She hoped.
"Good," she said, easing back even further on the shotgun. She kept it in position, though, as an incentive to encourage prompt and truthful responses.
Glancing over her shoulder, Meiling found that lieutenant's expression was unreadable. She forged on regardless.
"You are Hans Schweinhammer?" she queried, receiving a sullen nod in reply.

...

"Think again, more carefully," demanded Meiling, who was getting into her stride by now. She still felt like she was going to be sick with nerves, but the brazen facade got easier and easier to maintain with every answer she wrested out of the slaver. "Why did you operate out of a Junker base?"
Hans was confused. When had he mentioned Junkers? He'd only talked about basing from New Berlin, hadn't he? He was interrupted in his thoughts by Meiling's shotgun, which once again prodded him painfully. "I asked you a question, Hans."
"Kreuzberg, yes," he spat, wishing for the thousandth time that he'd been quicker with his cruise engines. This place sucked. Was this what the slaves had felt like when he'd loaded them into his transport?

...

After finishing the questioning, Meiling turned around slowly, leaving Hans where he was. Presumably, the officer had been noting everything down. Maybe they already knew the truth of everything she'd asked, and it really was purely a test of her capabilities. She set the shotgun down gingerly, visibly shaking. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she felt terribly apprehensive. It had almost gone too well, especially considering her lack of experience. Maybe she had been lied to without noticing? As she waited for a verdict, she held her gaze fixedly on the desk.

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