Marlene was leafing through the morning edition of the 'Neu Berliner Zeitung' in the cantine of the Isis, with the usual bored an nonchalant expression and a cigarette graciously held in her hand. The FCS Citizenship was moored and her crew unloading food rations and bodybags for the Order soldiers, wine and cigars for the admiralty. When she reached the obituaries, her eyes widened and jaw dropped. Udo had been killed! She barely knew him, but he had always been so charming and helpful when she was trading tobaco with the LWB. She wondered if he ever noticed how much she liked him, but now she will never know. Her lower lip began to quiver, she quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth, and left the cantine in a rush.
Karlotta had almost reached here sisters table when she suddenly stood up and stormed away. Marlene had always been a strange one. Karlotta put on an sceptical and embarassed expression to signal her disapproval of her sisters weirdness, and sat down at the deserted table.
She crushed the disgusting stinking cigarrette in hte ashtray, and started reading the obituaries that lay open on the table. That always cheered her up.
Udo Ackerman... Ackerman... that name rang a bell.
Oh yes. That was the peasant that approached her asking for money once. At the time she urgently needed an inconspicuous non-Order pilot for an assignment concerning that daft Corsair. She had also hired a bounty hunter to kill Udo after the errand was complete, so she wouldnt have to keep her part of the deal. But as far as she knew he never completed the assignment, nor did the hunter claim the bounty. The later had worried her to some extent. But now he must have died otherwise.
'Silly peasant', she thought. She couldnt help but shudder at the thought of what Udo had wanted in exchange for killing Montezuma.
She felt that her mood had been slightly raised when she put down the newspaper and returned to her duties.
Josef Marks was preparing for his daily broadcast of Volksradio when a paper was handed to him. Quickly scanning it's contents, his eyes opened wide in shock. Looking at his script on his desk, he decided that the plight of the Rheinland people could wait. Ripping it up, he grabbed a fresh sheet of the paper. Boldly writing out a new headline, he marshalled his grief and prepared a furious elegy.
Vladimir awoke with a start at the controls of his Collector. A horrible dream! Herr Udo calling for help and then burst into flames! Sobbing with his head in hands, he finally wiped his eyes and looked up.
The Udo bobble-head doll stared straight at him with its large head bobbing a mindless and macabre, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!". If it were possible, Vladimir Tinkerbell's hair stood even straighter.
"Wait, AAAAAAAAAAA! Who are you!??!?!" Udo screamed in surprise at the man's presance...
"It's not so bad, really," the man said, "Why, I've been dead for a while now! Leopold's the name, Leopold Morgenrot. Nice to meet you."
Udo seemed puzzled as the man talked, but listened to his words of wisdom. As he continued, Udo came to a realisation...
"Ja, ich guess das makes sense... wait, Morgenrot? Ist das like Frau Eva? Do you know her!?" Udo asked, curiosuly.
***
Elsewhere, in space
The pilots of the LWB were silent at the statement of the RM pilot. Udo... Dead!? The most beloved Terrorist in all of Rheinland. The voice of the LWB and the Farmers of stuttgart...
"Dead, mein herr?" Wenzel asked, not entirely beliving the man's claim. Hoping he was infact lying... "Ich hope das ist not a trick... Udo has escaped death many a time before..."
"Ja Herr Wenzel. How many people you know can survive a station's main turret going through their cockpit? An idiot left the automatic defenses up on Vierlande, and the station's cannons tore his ship to bits. It was horrible!"
Thea Bauer was laying in her hammock on Bruchsal listening to some music and reading a book on the history of the Bretonian language when Volksradio came on the air. Josef Marks began a tear-inspiring eulogy of Udo Ackermann. And while Thea was mostly annoyed by the man, she was deeply saddened by his loss. She thought she would fly to Darmstadt and see what was going on and if she could help.
***
Meanwhile, in the Biergarten...
"Ja, ich guess das makes sense... wait, Morgenrot? Ist das like Frau Eva? Do you know her!?" Udo asked, curiosuly.
"Oh, ja," Leopold replied. "She ist my daughter. Well, she was, until my ship was exploded. I'm not sure which word really works for ghosts."
"You're her friend, right?" he asked. "Because she talks about you whenever she calls her mother. You should ask her about that if you ever manage to speak with her again. If not, well, you can stay in the Biergarten."
Just then, Karl entered the Biergarten and sat at the table which just happened to be closest to Udo and Leopold. As he sat down, he glanced at Udo momentarily. Then he did a double take.
"U-u-u-do!? Is that you?" He asked in a scared tone. "But but but you are dead!"
The news of Udo's fate caused a stunned silence. Faces were bleak all around, the Vaterlandish music was cut off suddenly. After half a minute silence Johannes Farb stood and said:
"Men and women of revolution. Udo has paid the ultimate price. A price we might all have to pay one day. Remember him. Remember his deeds. The lager our brothers in LWB have made is drank for the remembrance of our fallen compatriot. Rest assured this act of cowardice on Vierlande's gunners will not go unpunished."
"U-u-u-do!? Is that you?" Karl asked in a scared tone. "But but but you are dead!"
"Ja, it ist nicht fun. Nobody can see me! Neither can Frau Eva!" Udo cried, saddened by the fact that perhps his one true love was probably out of reach forever.
Then he came to a realisation.
"Wait, you can see me!?"
***
Elsewhere
"Ja Herr Wenzel. How many people you know can survive a station's main turret going through their cockpit? An idiot left the automatic defenses up on Vierlande, and the station's cannons tore his ship to bits. It was horrible!" ~Said the Military Pilot protecting Vierlande...
The tone of his voice suggested that this was unlikely to be a lie. Even the RM were charmed by Udo's lovable demeanor, happy, and care free attitude in a time of such bleakness...
"So... he ist really dead?" Wenzel said, his voice still showing a tone of disbelief, as the realisation began to sink in.
He looked around his ship, finally noticing glittering bits and pieces of wreckage. This, plus the fact that Udo's comm frequency echos ended hear were enough. He, and the rest of the LWB pilots could hold out a glimmer of hope, but were gradually struck as the reality sank in.
"Ich habe nothink more to say. Squad, about face. Head back to Kaiserslautern." He said, in a tone sadder then anyone can likely ever remember. With that, the LWB squadron turned away from Vierlande and it's defences, and headed back to New Berlin.
The flight back to Kaiserslautern was remarkable by how quiet it was. By this point, word had gotten through the RM and much of Rheinland about what had happened. While the RM could have easily plotted the LWB squadron's vector and intercepted, no one dared to do so.
On arrival at Kaiserslautern, Wenzel hung his head low and walked back to his room. The rest of the pilots struck with sorrow. The rest of the LWB dock crew, seeing the state of the pilots returning, realised immedietly the situation.
Wenzel would have to summon up all the courage he had to break the story to Olga and Eva...
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