New Berlin. Unknown location, night side of the planet.
The woman stepped out of the military hovercraft, immune to the bitter cold of the planet despite her light uniform. Berliners took pride into their so said immunity to harsh winter.
There were, 6 of them left of the 100 chosen for this. Some abandonned, but most were expelled against their will. To be morally endurant was good, in all military service, but here, it wasn't enough. Skill, talent. Agressivity, physical might. Intelligence, stealth. Rare were those capable of fulfilling all these.
They stood at attention, 6 lieutenants, fresh out of the Academy. Most of them barely began to fly for a single year. But they were chosen for their exceptional performances so far. It was necesary to pick them, young and strong. They didn't tend to last long, on the field, usually winding up dead despite the best training available, or, mental breakdown was a more common cause of exit.
"6? not bad."
"Ja." the woman simply replied, watching.
"But we won't have enough captain to train them, all 6 of them. We expected less. Much less." the man emitted a half muted laughter, mostly because a storm was raising and breathable air became scarce, flying at high speed.
"By our time, if one succeeded, it was already, a great miracle..."
"Ja. It was." she answered, then,
"How many more instructors do we need?"
"Only one, colonel."
"I'll pick one in my personal charge."
"M.. ma'am?"
The woman chuckled, staring straight forward, her icy eyes warming up just slightly, as if some real emotion finally found some place in her.
"I can manage."
"Very well Colonel."
The two officers saluted each other and parted their own way, the man back to the recruits, the female colonel, back to her hovercraft.
--
The recruits nearly sighed in relief when the hovercraft departed.
For the past few months, they went through some of the harshest training ever. Many of the candidates didn't made it. The demoralising sight of brave soldiers leaving everyday because they couldn't handle it anymore was by itself the cause for many more to abandon.
But these 6 who remained had nerves of steel.
Nerves pushed to their limits, but definitively indestructible, having passed the test of fire.
"Section! Stand easy! Easy."
It was nearly with shock that these 6 survivors saw their torturer in chief (as they came to nickname the instructor-captain) actually smile, somewhat with relief too. The test phase was hard, both for candidates and instructors, and everyone was glad tonight.
"Congratulation lieutenants. The first step of your qualification, is, over."
--
"Katharina... Hildegard."
The captain nodded.
"She's probably the most promising in the lot."
"Her academic performance seems satisfactory. Reputation, satisfactory as well. Tell me more of her performance during qualification?"
"She's as bright as the Academy reports her to be. She can be focused even into stressing situations. Her aim is quite decent. She's got the nerve - perhaps more than enough, to become one of ours."
The captain smirked,
"Female personnel tend to have giant ego. They refuse defeat!"
Kathryn smiled lightly in response. Yes, she was a bit... nah, she was like that. There's no defeat, only death.
There was also no victory, only justice.
"I will see her personally tomorrow moning. Have her transferred to zentralen Befehl. Put her to comfort, she deserves the rest. I want a lucid person by the morning, not a half zombie."
"That will be all."
--
"Katharina Hildegard!"
"Yes instructor-captain?"
" Come with me. You have been transferred to zentralen Befehl where one of our agents will be seeing you in the morning, I advise you get some rest."
"Yes instructor-captain."
--
The following morning...
Katharina had woke up early again being used to the constant performance checks that always had started early.
She wasn't used to the comfort of a proper bed only that of a inflatable bed and freezing cold temperatures.
"Ah I may aswell get ready, No idea when this agent will come and see me." Katharina muttered to herself.
The intercom of Katharina' room produced a little alarm, announcing an incoming message.
"Lieutenant, you are to present yourself in conference room 181."
Katharina acknowledges the incoming message and proceeds to get changed into her outfit.
"Right time to get going..." Katharina walks towards her door, making sure she has everything she needs and starts to walk towards conference room 181
The door of room 181 slides open sharply as she presented herself in front. The room was brightly lit, perhaps a bit too brightly lit. The room itself was of a pure, artificial white, disturbing a bit by its total lack of imperfection, as if suggesting only truth could be spoken in this room. A single woman awaited in the middle of the room.
"Greetings, lieutenant Hildegard."
"Guten Tag maam."
" You wished to see me?"
"Ja." "First, my congratulation. You have been qualified for further training within our ranks."
"Now, do please take a seat. We have some matter to discuss..."
The colonel took a seat, a quite separate one, and offered the one in front of her with a gesture of her hand.
Katharina takes the seat that is indicated by the colonel.
"Good. Let us begin with presentation. I am colonel Kathryn Eva, for the Eisatzkommando, as you might have noticed by now. Because our organisation is so small, I am in charge of much of the organisation by myself, and along with comrades of equivalent rank. My task, among other things, are to supervise the new recruits."
"The further continuation of your training requires that a single instructor-captain be assigned to each recruits. However, all our personnel are currently deployed, leaving you, with no instructor. I will be direct and frank on the matter. I have no time to recall my agents from the field."
"Your case is not urgent, nor is that of any other. The mission will always be more important."
"But I hate having people linger about uselessly while they wait. So, I will personally take you under my wings. Do you have any problem with this, lieutenant?"
"No I do not Colonel."
"I wish that I could of been chosen to fly under someones command not because of the lack of agents available but because of my skill and determination... maybe in time you will come to see that."
Kathryn smiled lightly again.
"Maybe. Tell me, what were your reasons to accept being part of the selected RSK recruits?"
"Nothing but hoping to bring justice to those who attack our homes, but also the challenge of such a job."
She nodded slightly
"I see. Did you have any particular reasons to join the law enforcement forces of our nation? Bringing justice is a reason we've often seen of these days, but it often comes as the result of anterior events in one' life."
"To defend our nation. Liberty have been getting cockier by the day and every man and women can do their bit for it."
"Good. I was afraid to find myself with a Gott Kanzler fanatic or something along these lines. If you do not mind, but what are your stances on the Church of the Green Eagle?" Kathryn spoke of these delicate subjects with no apparent fear, oblivious that denial of the state religion was in itself a crime punishable by death...
"I personally do not tend to bother with religion while Im doing my job. One has to keep focused on the matter at hand, and in a job where you have to keep fully focused on what is going around you, I tend to leave religion for the few times I have to spare"
The colonel nodded in approval.
"I'm glad you think so. I thought you'd be a more independent soldier than the others. This might be why I've chosen you to fight by my side."
"I want a soldier that fights professionally, with no hot blooded desire of vengeance, and no fanatical bloodlust for either nation or religion."
"A few last questions. Have you ever killed before?"
"Not yet maam. I have yet to encounter a time and a place to do such a thing. I am only just out of academy and so I have had barely any time to put into practise what I have learnt"
She nodded silently, her air much more serious
"What do you think of death? Are you afraid to kill? How do you think you will react faced with death?"
"Death is something that is inevitable, something you cannot run away from. No point even denying it to yourself. Hence why I am not scared of such a thing. But about killing, I have no problems with doing such a thing, if it is called for in a mission it would be done. As you said before 'The mission will always be more important' "
"Really? You aren't afraid of death... good. Please follow me, lieutenant."
The colonel stood up, and put her beret back on her head, a beret with the dark green insignia of the RSK, and she left room 181 at a normal pace...
Katharina stands up and follows the colonel.
"What you are about to see should remain for your eyes only, as it was during all your qualification.
I expect no leak of intelligence from you. Is this clear, lieutenant?"
"Yes Colonel, not a word shall be spoken."
"Good."
They went in an elevator cabin, which went below ground, its speed virtually ever accelerating. At a certain point, it was obvious they were now well below the surface of the planet... just as it felt like the elevator would fall for eternity, it suddenly stopped, its gate opened. there, a single corridor to go.
"Follow me."
Katharina nods and walks out straightening her jacket after the sudden stop.
Kathryn pushed her hand against a section of the wall, and a little beep was heard. She walked in, and opened the light. A light of pure white... just like the conference room.
Here, only truth could be spoken.
There, dozens of corpses, tied to tables, some in advanced state of decomposition, some others with horrible injuries were displayed in a circle in the room, many with rotten skin... some had their bones sticking out of dismembered areas.
Kathryn didn't spoke, observing the reaction of her young apprentice.
Katharina was surprised by the endless amount of injuries on the former humans, but not disgusted.
"Those who wished not to hide what they knew I take?"
Kathryn smirked.
"Enemies of the state. They are still alive."
"They are kept alive until further interrogation. But I doubt they will last long."
"Still alive? I never knew anyone could hold and survive pain that they obviously have had. "
She nodded, amused.
"Yes, hard to believe is it. They are kept on drugs. So they don't die by sheer pain. But their physical appearance is by itself, a terrible weapon against themselves... why, I..."
She opened the mouth of one of the victim, and with no effort, pulled out a couple of teeth...
"If I did that to you, how would you feel?"
"I would probably be shocked and disgusted. Despite the amount of training, I doubt anyone could last long like that."
The colonel nodded darkly.
"Yes. Only the most hardened members of the RSK works here. Because more humane one is, worse it is to cause pain."
"But nowadays, we are in the era of super soldiers, of complex and intricate web of intelligence warfare. What we can't get out through chemical, only the most sadist and primitive method can do. Pain, and fear. Come, let's go."
She led Katharina outside, back to the elevator, shutting down the light of the torture room.
She nodded understanding, " How long has the RSK by doing things like that? I wouldn't of thought it would be that easy to hide things like that. Especially getting rid of the bodies... or do you cremate them?"
Kathryn simply smiled, darkly,
"Sometime. There are many ways. A clean method, we carbonise the bodies, then we put them through industrial pressure tanks, which creates synthetic diamonds, which are simply pushed along with other diamonds on the Rhineland' market. That's the clean way of doing thing. Sometime, we send back the body, cryo-frozen, back to the "sender", if you get what I mean. As a warning."
Katharina nodded. "Synthetic diamonds huh? I wonder how many of those are in Kusari now..." She chuckled, then remembering her place stopped sharpish.
Kathryn came out of the elevator, apparently oblivious to her comment.
"From now on, you aren't in the Militar anymore, but made a transfer to the Eisatzkommando. We still have ranks, and I still prefer it when people call me Colonel. But we are also doing the hardest, dirtiest job there is for the country. For that, I can understand if we let our emotions flow freely. Just remember, that being laid back does not mean relaxing discipline."
"Yes Colonel. And thank you for giving me a chance."
"Good. You are dismissed for now, but I'm afraid you won't be able to see your home for a while. Communication will be allowed with your family members, but be aware all conversation are recorded."
Kathryn nodded her head,
"Welcome among us, lieutenant."
Katharina salutes. " I take it I will be going back to my room where I was staying last night?"
"yes lieutenant. I hope the accommodations are satisfactory?"
"You are over with qualification course. No need to sleep half naked in a blizzard anymore." She added, amused.
"Yes, they are more than satisfactory, especially with what the qualification course throws at you, you get used to being less than comfortable"
"Good. If you need anything, just contact me by intercom. As I said, we are a very small organisation. You'll get to see familiar faces around here. We are much like a family." she smiles," I am glad with your performance so far, lieutenant."
Katharina Salutes again and starts to walk back to her accommodation.
"Time is too precious to be idle." - Saigo Watanabe "Death is something that is inevitable, Something you cannot run away from." - Katharina Hildegard
Now going under the gaming name: Seraxia www.twitter.com/Seraxia
Arguably one of the deadliest units in the intelligence and counter intelligence world. Their numbers are estimated to turn around 2000 active members. Their existence traces back somewhere during or after the Popular Revolution.
They are specialized in a wide variety of operations, going from assassination, sabotage, intelligence gathering to standard police patrol. For they are impossible or so to distinguish from the standard federal police forces.
The Einsatzkommando, unlike the BMI, which is under the command of the Military and acts exclusively within the Rheinland borders, is a division of the Federal Police Supreme (or Central) Headquarter, the powerful organization in charge of the national security. Einsatzkommando acts both as internal police and external field agent.
The men and women part of the Einsatzkommando are selected for trial at the age of 25 or 28 (with some exceptions), and were either previously in service as a pilot officer within the Military or Police forces. The training is of the harshest; of known data, we know these soldiers underwent various physically and mentally hard tasks. In one instance, they must resist interrogation techniques that involves the use of harmful instruments to the body.
The effects on each agent' mental balance is unknown at best. Scarce intelligence collected suggests burst of emotions from time to time, often unexplained. Among male personnel, it is generally sudden explosion of violence which passes away after about 20 minutes. For female personnel, we would mainly witness great moment of depression, including some recorded attempt at suicide, which lasts around 1 hour or 2.
As such, Einsatzkommando members are at all time kept under close surveillance, generally living close or within Central Headquarter itself, on planet New Berlin, where multiple psychologists and medical teams are ready to assist at all time.
A few rare case of the Einsatzkommando personnel have been known to suffer none of these syndromes. The reasons are yet unknown, as too many factors might be implied.
Most of the syndromes listed appears during the final phase of an agent' training.
Her full real name is unknown. In fact, whether this is truly her name or not is debatable.
Only one single files of this personnel seems to exist in the database and archives of the Federal Police.
First name: Kathryn Eva
Last name: --
Age//Birth date: --//??/??/???AS
Gender: F
Birthplace: N/A
Actual domicile: N/A
Affiliation: RSK
Kathryn Eva seems to be in her earlier 40, of average size. Her face is relatively unremarkable, that of a very generic Rheinlander woman. Nothing marks her out of ordinary in her manners or her physical appearance, although there seems to be a certain lack of emotions when she seems to be alone.
--
"Once, a Hessian asked me why I fought for the corrupted corporations of Rheinland.
I answered,
I fight for the Rheinland people."
--
My name is Kathryn Eva von Branstein. My family history goes way back to the Rheinland Reich' imperial family, which, out of luck or some exceptional turn of event, managed to survive the Popular Revolution.
I am 38 years old.
I began my childhood on planet Hamburg, and finished my earlier education, from beginning to end in the Starport city of Hamburg. I am a graduate of the Hamburg Rheinland Military Academy, and made my studies in biological chemistry. I graduated as a Military Starforce first lieutenant. My flight qualification fulfill all Rheinland starfighter class; light, interceptor, heavy, very heavy and bomber. I have succesfully qualified as well for basic fleet command training.
I have been selected at the age of 24 while I've achieved the rank of first lieutenant to be part of the Police Special Forces rank, as counter intelligence agent. 24 was the average age back then for the counter intelligence recruits, although the age is now higher of these days.
My training has extended from advanced fighter tactics to ground warfare as well. I have been qualified to all Rheinland firearms and exotic firearms known. I am qualified for SpecOps, spatial and ground-wise.
It is now 14 years I've been with the RSK.
I have participated in over 56 major operations with the RSK.
My reasons to fight an endless war are simple. Rheinland raised me. Rheinland people helped me.
Rheinland, today, suffer.
Today, I help the Fatherland.
The screen displayed various data, flickering, disappearing, replaced by new ones, or corrected a few seconds, minutes later...
It was the collection of intelligence and situation reports of all active RSK agents and other intelligence units associated with the RSK, being updated on real time.
Generally, the data would receive new updates every few minutes, or every few hours. Sometime they get deleted; decoy, traps, such things were numerous in the shadowy world of the top secret.
There were a couple of these data files, represented by little squares over the board, that were flashing with a soft green light. The intelligence reports that were considered relatively reliable.
Classified E
0200: 29 ALG corporate crafts landing at NB SE district SP.
-20 escort crafts. CIV EAG mk 2 types.
-9 transport freighter. RHE HUM XVII types.
Cargo: clear. Type: copper, industrial quality.
0245: clearance from SE district SP for crew to disembark and unload cargo.
0250: all crew disembarked. Total of 38 personnel unloaded.
0251: confirming unknown number of personnel left aboard ALG RHE HUM, serial 0394XX-V12
0257: confirming 0394YX-V12, previously missing ALG RHE HUM craft.
0600: SP personnel loading new cargo, proceeding as according to planned schedule. 20 personnel. All clear.
0630: one SP personnel has stayed aboard 0394XX-V12 for 4 minutes. Reasons unknown. Said personnel didn't seemed to be carrying anything.
0812: interrogation of suspected SP personnel reveals nothing.
1234: ALG crew returns. Lifeform aboard 0394XX-V12 is still aboard.
1348: ALG crew opens cargo holds of freighters to check merchandise. only 9 personnel came out.
1512: 2 ALG personnel of the above 9 went inside the SP to the restroom.
1528: a civilian comes out of restroom.
1530: said 2 ALG personnel returns to freighter, along with their comrades.
1532: a civilian comes out of restroom.
1545: ALG crafts take off.
1602: confirming 2nd civilian was very probably the unknown life form aboard the freighter through multiple scans.
Confirmed: Unknown target.
Full name: Albert Frank
Affiliation: Unionist assassin
Kathryn entered the name of Albert Frank in her database for further information. Over 28 extremely high profile assasinations were attributed or were suspected to be committed by this single man. Barely any data exists on him. Albert Frank wasn't his real name either, so nothing can be concluded upon his background. No, he was too dangerous to be taken lightly as a training exercise.
--
Ah, there was better.
Karl Schumacher. Rising politician of the ultra nationalist at the Reichstag. He was traveling to Stuttgat for a party rally.
Schumacher. Involved in multiple open protestation against the Gott Kanzler in the recent years. Conflicting political goals.
Kathryn didn't gave much of importance on political goals. Politicians minded their own war. She was more interested by other, much more grave charges that were recently confirmed by her agents over the last few weeks.
The Rheinland Ultra Nationalist Party was known in the past for being an incredibly disruptive faction, organising giant protestation marches against... just about everything. They hated the other houses. They hated the actual government. They hated the military, the police. They were relatively popular, for they absorbed various socialist ideals, while at the same time keeping a racist, fascist concept of power. Rheinland people, still holding an immense grudge for their catastrophic defeat of the 80 years war, wanted to feel themselves above.
Hence, the RUNP gathered immense power, for a small political party.
It has been recently confirmed this group was dangerously armed and went as far as assasinating key political opponents. It also proceeded to lowly methods such as blackmailing.
Smaller underground organisations were also recently found to be linked directly or not to the RUNP. Many weapon dealers, suggesting the RUNP had a considerable armed branch. And what was suspected to be a slaver network, wretched people who captured non-rheinlander people within rheinland, and sold them as objects on the black market...
It were disgusting facts that if exposed, would probably serve to nothing. Schumacher might be discredited, but he was powerful enough to buy his freedom. The justice system, as well intended as it was built for, wasn't perfect. Credits could buy anything.
Schumacher and his conspirators were dangerous and enemies to the Rheinland people...
-But just dangerous enough.
Kathryn pushed a button on the integrated keyboard of her desk.
"Lieutenant Katharina Hildegard is required at the room 101. Room 101."
When the younger woman arrived in the conference room, Kathryn proceeded to brief her on the nature of her first target within the RSK...
Academy Awards: Basic Piloting, Advanced Piloting Techniques, Weapons Tactics, Energy Optimisation, Law Enforcement, and Covert Operations.
Katharina Hildegard was one of the youngest ever members of RSK, and one of the least experianced. She however was very controlling of her emotions for her age- not letting things get to her easily, trained well. The face was smooth and looking vaguely like it came from Rheinland- it lacking anything that made her seem like are fighter despite the slight -dusty- look.
------------
I was born to the average usual family- with normal virtue's on Planet New Berlin- and so i had my early education there and went to academy there aswell and studied for the above awards.
Things was going well throughout- Top of my class in every subject, staying true to my beliefs in doing my bit for defending the fatherland, debts payed off.
Then Kathryn Eva invited me to a secluded camp and on the letter it told me it was the opportunity of a lifetime within the security profession.
I accepted it- and had to endure the most harsh environments i have ever known. Fortunately i was given the charge of being Kathyrn Eva's personal student!
That is where i am now, In the shadow of the Legend that is Kathyrn Eva.
"Time is too precious to be idle." - Saigo Watanabe "Death is something that is inevitable, Something you cannot run away from." - Katharina Hildegard
Now going under the gaming name: Seraxia www.twitter.com/Seraxia