How heroes of the people fall.

[Lanakov]

The Coalition Lieutenant Nitchiev Lanakov liked to consider himself as a "soldier of the people".

Born in Rheinland from parents whom ancestors were saboteurs among the Rheinlander sleeper ship (the name passed on but was hidden behind a false name,to avoid suspicion) , he had two brothers , Boris and Andrei.
One day , the family was "visited" by an agent from the SCRA shortly after the parents were arrested and sent in Vierland for obscure reasons . Nitchiev and Andrei decided to enlist whereas Boris preferred to stay as a free-lance philosopher.


Life was risky , but better than ever. They were given food , clothes and a place to sleep.
Most of all , they were given the opportunity to fight for a noble cause : the people.

Andrei worked in logistics whereas Nitchiev was a member of the fighter wing.


Everything was just fine.


Until one day.
A routine patrol mission , in fact. Nothing unusual ,corsairs spotted out of Cadiz.
Hessian friends were here to help,too.
The fight went on as usual. The superior tactics taught by the SCRA trainers helped alot,and the opponents did not stand a chance.
Again , as usual.

There was no hint that something would go wrong , really.
Until a ping appeared on Nitchiev's radar.
It was north of Ronnenburg , near a jump hole he hadn't charted yet.
The power signature was no corsair. A hessian perhaps ? No , neither.
Neither enemy nor foe. What could it be ?

One of the corsair vessels went into fire and exploded.
The battle would obviously be a victory.
As usual.

Considering that the battle was unfair enough, he decided to go and see the source of this unusual ping.Probably a "new" wreck ? There could be survivors.
It would be nothing but a rescue operation then. Plenty of people to interrogate or to recruit.
As usual.


Nothing came from that ping.

Until he arrived in visual range.





THAT was unusual.
A big, hellish flying object,covered with guns he had never seen before.
And a voice was coming from it. A human voice, although quite altered, and Nitchiev wasn't sure whether it came from his radio or right in his head.
The voice knew him,obviously.As if it had been waiting for him.




Nitchiev was torn apart between fear and wonderment.
Power readings showed an increase in the unidentified contact's weapons. It was about to fire.
The Lanakov's family motto was "There is a time to think , and a time to act".
Thinking was over. Time for action.
He opened fire, and, all guns blazing, circled around the object as if it would have been a gunboat.

Repeating those moves as he executed them dozens of times reassured him.
Whatever that was, it had to be destroyed.Probably some new Alliance-made money-eating stuff.

"For the People !" Nitchiev yelled in the comms.That attracted the attention of his comrades , who requested his position.
Strangely enough , he couldn't give it away.It was not fear, it was not pride.It was...impossible.

The voice didn't quit talking to him.
It whispered about Wisdom, Eternity, and expressed itself only in plural forms. As if there were several...things using that voice to communicate.
It seemed to know quite a bit about the Coalition goals.




Nitchiev was puzzled , and started to lose hope.
Of course, this sounded as the average Alliance propaganda trash,the likes of which he had heard billions of times,but this time, capitalism wasn't added to the speech.
And , worst of all , despite the huge amount of firepower it absorbed, the object was still flying. And it was also shooting.
Blue and purple rays. Very dangerous and harmful.
Nitchiev noticed , a bit too late, that it was targeting his engines.
Usually, military patrols didn't bother with capturing pilots of the Coalition. No need to shoot the engines.

That was unusual.

The fight went on as his fellows kept searching for him.

Nitchiev was angry. Sweat ran down his back.
The last hits he took had disabled his engines.
He would still be able to fly , but not for long.Perhaps long enough to fly to Ronnenburg , as an object thrown into space just doesn't stop like that.

But he failed.The object somehow attached Nitchiev's ship to it.





Hopeless, he waited, and sent more distress calls.

The object dragged him to that hole he didn't know about.

Omega 55.

Part of the avoid at all costs systems.

A hessian ship had managed to grasp Nitchiev's signal and was hurrying to him.
The object stood here and waited for it.
Nitchiev tried to warn the hessian about the threat,but in the meantime,something dragged him through the hole and past the system...



He learned a lot. And he became...
Unusual.

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Feedback, insults, marriage proposals and declarations of fealty

If everyone was a bit more like Lanakov, the entire world would be more positive. Including pregnancy tests.