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Graineater · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2024, 08:02 PM by Graineater.)

In search for redder soil
★ Roter-Lehm ★

Born among freedom fighters and yet concept of freedom feels as something foreign, something never truly experienced. How to fight for freedom when all the key-holders to your chains - insist you are free? How much can we win, how much we can loose?

815 A.S.

Reading Guide

Prequel

Next to cockpit of Rheinland prison ship
Captain of the ship salutes the co-pilot and the crew.
Fist held to the heart
"Glory to Kaiser, Glory to his army, Glory to Rheinland"
Oh god why it hurts so much? Did I accidentally salute....
With a knife held in my hand?
A quick peek down says no. Uniform pristine, not a single hole or taint of blood.
Model captain for all of military police to look up to.
Yet it hurts so much, yet there's still a hole in the heart.

Why...
Again the memory, just from couple minutes ago.
Inspecting Schwarzwald's human cargo. Bandits, Hessians, Scum.
One yelled out. "We're human just like you. Only want best for my daughter. It's her birthday!"
Sting of pain makes captain fumble the startup procedure.

Since when do pirate scum
care for others more than self?
Never will they see their daughters grow.
Mirror faces of old fool.
Missed twenty birthdays in a row!

Which of us deserve to be labeled human scum?

Twenty years ago I started..
Service in my love for Kaiser.
Twenty years of asking...
Is he worth the hurt of those I truly love?

Why must we deny
Them and selves what we want?
Is space not enough for all?

Greta, Anna why I left you?
Ones I truly love!

Now a tear stays on my cheek, blurry eyes from all my pain.
Unbefitting for the captain of a the prison ship.

"copilot, the bridge is yours, old man needs a break"
Codes entered, control passed securely.
Only for a visit to toiletries.
"I'm sorry Alfred, I can't be like you, I need to see my son grow"
you too?
"Adelheid!"
Bang Bang
A hole now in my heart
Hurts all the same..
Greta.. always loved you more..... Always worked.. for you...
Not for Keiser but for you...

::this is Adelheid Ostmeyer, prison ship - Schwarzwald. Calling any Hessian patrol. We are defecting with your comrades aboard! Escort us!::

.
.
.

"Careful Nicklaus. These controls weren't exactly designed for two in pilots seat. Look up. That's how we came to Vogtland."
10 year old child looks up, amazed at the sight of wreckage of an Oasis-class liner. Yet moments later again squirming. Wanting only to run around.
"I know I know. But hey, two weeks work, we can pressurize and play hide and seek."
"Dad tell me more, what happened to it"
"maybe when you're older. It involved bad people, who obey the Kaiser without a thought what's right. But I got us out, and uncle Fritz too. And she was stripped for parts. But we can restore her, bring her to duty carrying all the important people. That includes us too, we are important too, we can travel more. That sound good?"
"Yes daddy"
"What we should name her?"
".... Vivandel. A flower on earth documentary"
"Vivandel.. it is then"

The Present: 833-834 A.S.

Chapter 1

My father was a hessian and I'm a hessians son, and I'll be with you fellow workers until this battles won.
Which is likely never...
Hessian movement is now hundred thirty four years old, long enough for a hessian child to have a hessian grand-grand father. All got to another day by lying to themselves. 'This year workers of Rheinland will be liberated.' They don't even want to be liberated!
Ever harder metallic hits follow, heavy wrench hitting over mangled panel. Young mechanic working under Mark 2 Odins belly, working to pull out its flight computer. And only after wrench slips out, rings across the metal flooring that he realizes he got too loud.
Go away.. go away.. I'm fine. Just doing my job.. nothing is WRONG.
"Niklaus, everything alright in there?" - Voice responds from inside of parts storage room.
"Yes DAD I'm FINE!"
Shit... will I ever learn to lie?
His father comes by, getting a better look and leaning against Odin's wing.
"Doesn't sound like it's fine. It's every day now, do you just not enjoy mechanics work?"
"It's fine.. everyone has to take part of their day to contribute to greater... Actually, no, it's not fine! Remember watching that film? Showing how Liberty relies on prisoner slave labor? Oh how terribly mistreated these prison-slaves are, sleeping in coffin like pods - their only private space. And from every morning move to factory to work producing ship parts or consumer trinkets. Never seeing light of day. Well that's how WE live. That's how I always lived, and everyone here in Vogtland too. And we somehow convinced ourselves that we fight for freedom. By now I'd gladly pay ninety percent of my earnings to corporation or land owner and the state. To have sun on my back, real air, wind and oceans.. and travel to see every living thing on Stuttgart, then I'd feel free."
To both a dedicated revolutionary and a loving father, finally hearing is quite the punch in the gut. He was willing to leave all the comforts of rheinland worlds behind when choosing life of a freedom fighter, but over two decades later it's a reminder he did not choose this just for himself.
"...I'm sorry you feel this way"
..Sorry you feel this way?! That's the least apologetic statement, Does anyone who says this really think this makes it any better?
"I hope however you'd still agree living on Stuttgart would be better yet, together with a caring community like one we have here, instead of a crushing corporation that holds people as mere drones, a form of resource, just yet another input good in the production line."
"I don't know dad, I never been there. Maybe I'd find it not too bad? ..Most seem not to...."
Niklaus quietly responds, finally pulling out Odin's flight computer. Finding it splattered with metal droplets, alloys that once been part of the hull. Melted by plasma gun, Firekiss most likely.
Working through father's ever-sadder breaths.
"Nothing, nothing of the sheise propaganda Rheinland comes up with... Breaks my belief in communist ways, than seeing you doubt it. The possibility that only those who felt the chains can ever see them.
I'm sorry.. I really thought I'm leaving my son the greatest gift, one of freedom.
..
..
..
So, is this what you want? To live a... 'normal' life as a rheinlander?"
Geez... what do I even say at this point?
"We both know should I leave for Rheinland, police would question me for all of hessian secrets. Accept and throw everyone I knew into fire, reject and I'll be an outcast among them. If not imprisoned outright. And I'll never give up hessian secrets."
For which dad can smile and nod to himself, even if he could not raise a happy son, at least he raised a hessian.

"...So what now?"
"I'll get a ship, see more of the galaxy than Vogtland.. and a fleeting glimpse of Tangier. I want to explore."
That too makes dad grumble. So many young pilots fly out seeking glory, only to add to clouds of wreckage. On the station, working as a mechanic, it is relatively safe.
But he wouldn't dare speak against it now.
"You know your rights as a hessian, and how to get it."
Well that's off the chest. Enough staring at an empty shell of a fighter. Sorry dad I know you fear for me, but I have to...
Niklaus crawls out from under Odin's belly, taking his time to leave.
"Kudos to the pilot though, to return without any avionics... miraculous"

Following dimply lit tunnels Niklaus makes his way toward the council chambers.
That's right, it is my right as a hessian to request it. After whole life putting in the work to common pot, I deserve to take some back. No, not just for me.
Everyone is sick of this shit!
Sick of being cramped up in an asteroid hidden in a toxic cloud!
Sick of fearing for our lives, sick of going hungry when piracy returns no prey!
What I do, I do for us all. To bring fame to the hessian cause!
Bulkhead opens towards empty halls. The place where flame of revolution burns the brightest. Where even cruelest pirate must remember the cause Hessians fight for.
Now empty, not in session.
Local representative left to tend to common needs.
Annegret, a known face - as much as his teachers and friends.
Tapping away at a terminal to manage usual administrative duties.
She turns to face him.
"Niklaus! what can I help you with?"

Steeling his nerves, reminding himself he deserves it and hessians need it, Niklaus raises voice.
"From my fellow Hessians, and for the sake of bettering the community. I wish to ask to provide me with a starship. Specifically, The 'Corvo' design."

Chapter 1/end

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