New Dawn

[jammi]

Bjorn rose to his feet, put away the sabre and slung the crossbow over his shoulder, and finished off last bits of kebab, tossing paper wrapping onto one of the corpses as he passed over it on his way to new recruit.

"Comrades, I will leave you to clean up that mess, and Gorodetsky, get back into the closet, or at least take some care of yourself, Weise, clean up the ammo and guns." He turned to face Julio, measuring him from head to toe.

"You, "amigo" are going with me, I would like a cleaner place to work at. Follow me" With that he passed Julio and went for room across the hallway, unlocking the door with his ID card. Wandering inside, he moved behind the desk and peered at Julio, who was standing in the doorway. Julio himself was painfully aware of the sabre at the Captains side and the heavy crossbow on his back.

"So, tell me, Quinetillia, how is Crete and those high nose elders these days? Do they still only quarrel between each other while the people suffer?" Julio stood to attention beside the chair until Captain Thorvaldsson motioned for him to sit, at which point he did, his hands clasped on his lap. The Revolutionary Youth had taught him the merits of chain of command and self-discipline, along with the inevitable death of the Capitalist Past and forging of the People's Government through the fires of the Proletarian Revolution.

"Comrade-Captain, the Elders of Crete still maintain their rule of idiocy over the peoples of Crete, bickering among themselves rather than serving their people. I myself come from the city-slums of Heraklion and have seen the suffering. The Elders care for their own familia's and disregard all others around them as insignificant and worthless. The people yearn for the uplifting freedom of a new order, despite the fact many of them scorn the Coalition and it's ways. I pity them, but I know that eventually they will be converted, once the misconceptions that blind them are brushed aside.

"I myself, and the Banda de Revolucionarios attempted to bloody the wallet of the class-steeped regime by bombing one of the city's outlying Artifact mines that belonged to the Riviera familia. The mine was severely damaged, but my Revolutionary compadres were all either killed or had their belief broken and fled with their task incomplete during our mission's execution. Once I returned to the city, one of the Revolution's agents picked me up and sent me to Ronneburg for processing."

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[jammi]

The Captain nodded slowly, before unbuckling the sabre and laying it flat on the desk before him. "In comrade Weise's office, I noticed you had been trained in foot drill. Where did you learn that?" He asked the question authoritatively, and Julio jumped at the opportunity to please. Any information he possessed belonged to the Coalition, true saviours of a free Sirius, as did his life.

"I belonged to 14 Detachment, The Revolutionary Youth, which was a cadet organisation created to enlighten the young men and women of Crete as to the wonders of the Communist way of life, and prepare them for a life in service to the Coalition as vanguards and guardians of the Revolution. I achieved the cadet rank of Serzhant before the Council outlawed the Coalition and the spreading of any materials related to it." At the mention of TRY, Bjorn wrinkled his nose is distaste.

"I am well aware of TRY on Crete, as I am well aware of its leaderships foolishness. You see, even if I wasnt born there, I served my time with Corsairs, long ago during Rheinland and Dragons war. Had an estate near Jerez. But I digress. Anyway, tell me, why shouldnt I kill you on spot as corsair spy?" Said Bjorn with grin, clutching the sabre menacingly. Julio panicked for a moment, scrabbling for an answer. Then it clicked, and he slipped back to calm collectedness.

"When I was young I was enthralled by a speech I overheard in the streets, made by none other than the Cretian People's Hero, Comandante Adrian o Jovem. After this I began to study the ways of Communism, and recognised the failings of the Elders that ruled, and how true governance of the People by the People could be brought about.

"I have since had an unshakable faith in the righteousness of the cause, which lead my enlistment in the TRY. This introduced to me the concepts of true justice. The law and justice system of the Coalition is so effective, that if the Commissariat deems fit to place someone on trial, it is almost certain that they are guilty. The mere fact that the Commissariat has accused them cries out their wrong-doing.

"Because of this, if I was a spy you would already know my employer, purpose and contacts, and I would more than likely already be dead for such treachery. Due to the fact that I am still alive I can deduce that the Commissariat knows I am not a spy - however, if I have been affected by subliminal lies of the Capitalist pigs, I would beg that you execute me now, lest I suffer from the moral degradation that so many of Sirius' people are afflicted by. This was of course a bluf, to show the confidence he had in his own words no-one wanted to be executed. Not even the most hardcore extremist.

"I live for the Revolution, and if needs be Comrade-Captain, I will die for it. My only goal in life is to free the Cretian people from the grips of the bourgeois, the rich and powerful familias that herd the People into the slaughterhouses of oppression and slavery."

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[jammi]

"Very well then, recruit," Bjorn rumbled, as he moved his hand off the desk and started to search for something in a drawer. There was rather unpleasant "click" sound, followed by the commissar mumbling, "no, dont want that for now...". It lasted for few moments, but in the end Bjorn produced datapad and offered it to Julio. "There we go, now fill this out. I want to see how you fare with it." Julio accepted the proffered pad and quickly read the data on the screen. It was a questionnaire.

Ten minutes later Julio had almost finished filling out the questionnaire, which he had done to the best of his abilities. He hoped he'd given the correct answers, because to be frank, some of the questions were bemusing. He supposed that the seemingly innocent queries might have been designed to paint an in-depth mental portrait of him after his answers had been analysed. Similar thoughts chased each other around his head as he filled out the last question, then saved the file to the data-pad's memory.

He handed it to the Comrade-Captain, understanding the grave importance of the moment. This was it! This would decide if he would be permitted to fight for the moral liberation of the Corsair people!

Bjorn started to read the answers, taking note of their relations to each other and the model answers hed been provided wiyh. Then he reached for sabre with dazzling speed, unsheathed it and in a flash the flat side was on Julio's neck.

"You, comrade... excuse me, Sub-Lieutenant Quinetillia, should go to the third deck. Its lunch and I believe Muhadrem or whatever hes called is still handing out these delicious kebabs," he said, removing the sabre.

"Oh, and I believe you should look for your uniform and gear in 9th barrack. You are now member of Gold Wing, under my command, your partisan is being constructed as we speak." Rising up from the chair, he put sabre back in the sheath at his the belt and put the questionnaire into the machine behind him.

"Welcome to the coalition comrade. Its not something we can say often, you should be proud." Fear melted and was replaced by the fires of triumph on Julios face.

"The Coalition's trust is a true honour Comrade-Captain. I shall do my best to bring news of the Red Dawn to the people of Crete and strike down the Alliance aggressors that oppose us! Viva los Coalition! Viva los Revolution!"

Then, with a smile so broad that it might have caused the top of his head to slide off had it been any wider, Julio stood, saluted crisply, took a step back (for it does not bode well to turn your back on one of the People's Officers. Only etiquette of course) before neatly turning to the right and marching out of the office. As the door swung shut, there was a distant echoing cry of "Woohoo! Get some!" from the corridor outside.

END

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