Evangeline Anastasia McDowell

[Bazza]

Entry#: 071
Date: 21 - 02 - 818 AS @ 10:44 SUT
Title: I think I'm a Rheinlander now.

This entry is being written from - and I don't quite believe this myself - the private residence of Katrina Mitzi, of the Rheinland Military Valkyries, Planet Stuttgart.

Putting the details aside, I, for the first time in my life, have a "home" on solid ground. It occurred to me earlier that I've lived in space my whole life, barring the odd holiday or excursion planet-side.

Katrina very graciously allowed all five of us to shack up at her house on Stuttgart. In spite of the fact that I'm sure we make horrendous guests, being a collection of loud, offensive teen-and-tween -agers.

Everything has just been piling on top of me lately, since I went and got us all involved in a war we really had nothing to do with prior. Getting the Maelstrom back to Puerto Rico without being detected was akin to running a gauntlet of fire. I did manage to get back unharmed, but not undetected - I detected a Liberty patrol consisting of some sort of bigship and a handful of fighters prowling around looking for me in Texas. Luckily they never caught up with us - Maelstrom was built for laying siege to other large vessels such as destroyers and battleships. It's actually very weak against a swarm of fighters, especially if they are carrying torpedoes.

I dumped my abducted crew of Junkers and chucked everyone into my two fighters, myself and Misaka in the White Devil, with Fumika flying the bomber. Together we flew back to Hamburg being sure to give the patrol a wide berth.

There wasn't any one reason for going back to Hamburg, I just felt that I can't really stay in Liberty any more. Rheinland seems the next best place barring returning home to Bretonia. But I doubt anyone there would appreciate a Scylla floating around - it's of the same design as what the Mollies of Dublin use.

In all honesty I have no intentions to support Rheinland in this war. I don't think very highly of the government here - the effective dictatorship imposed by the Chancellor and those who support him.

With that said and in line with what I've always believed - I can't and don't dislike the people here. In the short time I've been inside the borders I've had nothing but positive encounters with the local population - from the dockworkers on Alster to the farmers of Stuttgart. The place has its problems, for sure, but overall it's not bad.

That all might be the Rheinlander in me talking. I've never associated with my Rheinland heritage much, but I think it's tampering with my thought pattern now. And for all I know my father is still running around here, somewhere. Wonder what would happen if I ran into him....

On the other hand, Liberty doesn't look like a great prospect right now. The cat's out of the bag, as it were - the Navy is fully aware of Maelstrom's existence and I'm probably wanted for destroying the LNS Tyrant.

For the time being I have a safe haven here in Rheinland. Once we've all had time to rest, I'll decide what I'm going to do with the Alsatia, my salvager and the other ships within the McDowell Company Fleet.

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