Chapter 59: Front 30 – St.Aardig’s Day – Part 1/3

 

Recording Start; 6:15, TA424 25/10

Alright so, been putting this off but feels like I can't wait much longer - See I wanted to do one of these logs, its not an actual Will exactly, but it only feels fair ya know?
 Hoki and Una shouldn't get left in the lurch if the worst happens, they're good girls. Sabban, well I don't talk to him all that often but I respect the lads skills as pilot for his age! And Kolme Nilas, ah well - I give him a pretty hard time I know, maybe too hard of a time - I just see too many people in him I guess? Reminds me of times in my live, of people long gone - It's really friggin annoying ya hear?!

Anyway, see back in the war, when we started to lose, drafting of new recruits shot out of control - Many of them were too unprepared or just didn't realise the value of a Will right? So lots of officers with a bit more experience, started telling the kids to record something, for their families kind of deal - Then to upload that straight to their machine's black-box, that way it'd be like a Will - Not officially binding but it was hardly like these kids had anything to leave behind, t'was just a nice thing to do for the families, I think.

Now IAFS aren't the best group but they've got lawyers and business types in spades so getting a proper last Will & Testament done up is borderline compulsory - But ya know me, I like to bend the rules a little here and there.
 And besides how would my Will work? No one knows my name, my age, I've no home address, certainly no ID - Nah, I think just recording a little something for the others and putting it on my black-box is the best I can do in that area.

 
See normally I don't think much about the future or any a' that crap - But when we were in Bannerman, I managed to get some messages from my contacts, just small hints of things but enough - By the way Kolme and Sabban have been acting since we got back to the ship, I reckon they got info from somewhere too. And when I talked it over with Hoki, she seemed to agree with alot of my guesses.
 And then there was that stupid elf-woman - Not that I'm saying she got under my skin at all with her vodo-bullcrap - But, ehhh, ya, levelling with ya, it's not looking great.

Rumour on the vine is that HQ ain't happy with the Tristian groups 'progress' - They've gotten this idea that we should be sinking and hunting multiple submarines all the time, not just chasing the Curadh - It's Bullshit of course, most of the military staff apparently sided with us, but the financial supporters apparently ganged up on Cap'ain Nate - Usually the Duke arbiters between the military and Financial sides, but that old fuck was busy with Aardig's day prep, or so I hear.
 But that's not what's got everyone stirred, people always demand unreasonable results - 'Go invade the neighbouring planet, do it faster, hurry up' - Nothing new - No it's what's coming next.
 There is talk of a new TSU-s weapon, something stupidly big, an impractical and deadly dangerous toy, spending through the roof, massive resources being moved that even the Union can't completely cover up - The IAFS reserve fleet is being gathered.

Then there's the party - We've agreed to a truce for the holiday season with TSU-s, and as part of that, as a show of goodwill - We, the idiots we are, are going to trade POWs and have a little party. The Fluchtig is going to host the people of the Curadh.
 Yup, world's gone to shit.
If I were to guess, come the new year IAFS is gonna order us to ram into the Curadh all guns blazing, maybe take them by surprise a day before the Truce ends or something - TSU-s are probably planning the exact same thing - And if we survive that we'll all be redeployed to fight whatever this new weapon is in my view.
 And so here I am, talking to myself in an empty room, heh...

Not that I'm planning on getting killed or anything, but it's gonna' be messy - Thing's will start moving way faster and well, I dunno', maybe you guys will need some words-a-wisdom from ol' Scarlet at some point soon.
 Ah, but first some house keeping - There's this gir--

 Ummm, Miss.Scarlet, the door was open?

Oh hey Una, didn't hear ya coming. You need something?

 Sorry, did I interrupt your daily log?

Ha! Do you really think I'd be keeping one of those Rookie? Heh, you should smile like that more often, its pretty on you.

 Wha, ah, I-i am sorry! I didn't mean to be rude.

Pah, I got'ta teach you a bit of attitude some time. Anyway, what can I do for ya?

 Ah umm, lieutenant Nilas asked me, to ask you, if you could come see him.

What for?

 Strategy meeting about the party he said.

Strategy? It's a party, I'm going to get drunk, then drink some more, then make sure I drink every last person from TSU under the table twice over! Tell Nilas I'll be there shortly. Ah actually never mind, I'll walk back with you, lemme just flick this off--

 

Recording Ends

 

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7:15, TA424 25/10
The large space of the Fluchtig's under-hangar was swamped to bursting, a gathering of a few hundred people selected as the least inflammatory from across the four gathered ships. The Neo-Cs normally housed down here had all been moved upstairs out of the way - In their place were folding tables filled with paper cups, party food and kegs of cheap alcohol. 
 Across the usually boring metal panel walls of the space, were spread colourful fairy-lights, bunting and anything else of a 'party-nature' Commander Nate's staff could get together on such short notice. 
 And the mix of people were a sight for sore eyes - A loud arrays of the somewhat informal uniforms of IAFS, side by side with the pitch black attire of the visiting States-Union soldiers.

Scarlet of course knew well she was right at the top of any list of 'most-likely-people-to-start-a-fight' but after Kolme had failed to politely ask her to be nice - No one else had the nerve to try and dissuade her from attending and so the Scourge stepped out from the doorway and into the cavernous room filled with party-goers. 
 Glancing around she let out a small grin at the site of the hangar all dressed up for the occasion - Her brief 'meeting' with Kolme had waylaid her by about half an hour but she felt that was a fair handicap for everyone else attending -
 Locating the nearest drinks table, Scarlet began her campaign.

Seeing her approach, a couple of low ranked IAFS engineers quickly vacated the table, giving Scarlet free reign - She picked an empty cup and filled it heartily from the keg. Happy with her first haul of the night, she perched herself against said table and looked out among the crowd to start getting a feel for the atmosphere. 
 The music playing over some distant speakers was nothing remarkable, some cheap selection of festive tunes - A karaoke bar seemed to of been promptly set up in a far corner of the room - Honestly that's what Scarlet took note of most, the sheer size of it. With the mecha and all the repair equipment removed, the under-hanger really was a very large space, it could well of been the largest Aardig's day party in Scarlet's memory.

Feast days were something of a non-sequitur to the veteran Ace - Having been in active service for so many years now, most had gone by the wayside, their wasn't time to stop and have much more than a drink or some good food on such days - But St.Aardig's Day was speical. 
 Even in the First War, they had always consciously celebrated it, when pirating she had made time to atleast drink a glass of something 'nice' and sing a tune - She'd attended parties in the freezing cold that was the Remembrance HQ - For whatever reason, Aardig's day had been one of the few constants of her adult life and by comparison to alot of those experiences, today's shindig actually seemed pretty lavish.
 As she moved to fill the cup again, a familiar figure approached from the side with a smile; 
"Heya Scarlet."

"Yo Hoki, you got a drink?" Scarlet grinned back.

The two clinked their plastic cups together playfully before Hoki took a place standing next to Scarlet, staring out at the crowd - "You doing ok?"

"What makes ya ask that?"
 Hoki paused a moment, allowing a wave of laughter to spread across the room from some event the two couldn't see; 
 "Well, you just seemed a little harsh to Kolme today is all."

Scarlet flinched, "Ya I guess - But come on, this is a party! We should just enjoy ourselves, what's his deal, trying to 'gather intelligence'."

"Well it is his job to keep the peace tonight, the Tristian group doesn't exactly have military police or anything like that - And a party like this is... delicate - No harm in us keeping an eye out for anything useful is there?"

"Ya, ya, maybe. Well and how are the guests of honour?" Scarlet sighed.
 The Guests she spoke of were 11 individuals attending the party tonight - They were part of the Truce deal, the party was simply a show of good faith, but the real manoeuvre as Scarlet saw it, was the trades. 
 Others were being done elsewhere - But 11 were taking place right now.
In exchange for the prisoner Scarlet and the others had captured back at Station 9, Major Moncha - TSU-s were returning 10 men & women in their keeping.
 10 people for one, that was how valuable TSU saw Moncha - There had been upheaval across the ship, including from Scarlet herself - In the weeks since Moncha was captured, rumours of who he was had spread - They would be giving back an Ace among Ace's, not to mention the Curadh's combat commander, a man donned 'Vijaik knight' - He had a very real, downright numerical combat value. 
 And who were they gaining in return? 10 nobodies.

Scarlet knew that was a harsh way of putting it but it felt like the truth.
 The 10 were a selection of randoms, a couple only arrested for tangential involvement with IAFS - Maybe one or two would stay on the Fluchtig as engineers or mechanics, but most would be sent on a shuttle back to Bannerman. 
 The entire flotilla had almost gone into full blown riots yesterday, when someone had realised the value of the deal - Of the 10 nobodies, one was the cousin of a somebody - The cousin of one of IAFS's board directors - TSU seemingly not having drawn this connection were in effect giving back this potential hostage 'cheap'. 
 This did nothing to satisfy the soldiers of IAFS, but orders were orders - By morning the 10 would mostly be gone back home, while Moncha would be returned to the Curadh, making the submarine even more of threat come the end of the truce...

"Fine so far." Hoki said back politely, "The VIP was quietly moved to the Rinie when no one was looking, the other 10, that Moncha person included, are still milling around here."

"I see."
 A silence fell between the two, though filled with the corny music and sounds of a few hundred rapidly growing more intoxicated. Scarlet didn't like being at odds with Hoki - She knew they in reality agreed, Hoki too knew they were making a tactical mistake with this trade - But as the squad's vice-commander Hoki had to go along with it - Scarlet knew she was the one being selfish by causing a stink over the whole thing, taking advantage of her lack of responsibility to be a pain - She honestly felt quite guilty about it; 
 "Any fights breaking out?" Scarlet added to try move off the sour subject.

Hoki let slip a slightly devious smile, "A few here and there, they've been handled fine you'll be happy to know."

"Ha! And here I was hoping you'd leave me some arse to kick." Scarlet grinned.

The mood settled again between them and they continued chatting for a few more minutes, while enjoying some people watching from their secluded spot. That was until a scream, or perhaps yell of anguish cut through the room. It wasn't loud enough to reach all corners, the far end of the hanger was still filled with mirth and song - But in a small circle nearby to Scarlet and Hoki, a sudden silence had formed; 
 "I know that voice." Scarlet murmured unhappily.

Hoki too stood up to go investigate but Scarlet was quick to call her back; 
 "Let me go, you've got stuff Kolme asked you to see to right? I'm freelance tonight so I'll sort it."

Hoki frowned, "If its her then shouldn't we both go?"

"Heh, imagine how embarrassed she must already feel after drawing this much attention, she ain't exactly a diva normally is she? How's she going to feel if we all come rushing and crowding her?" Scarlet smiled.
 Hoki face lit up in understanding and she nodded her agreement.  

"Let Sabban know the same if ya bump into him." Scarlet added before wading into the crowd.
 A radius had already formed around the source of the scream and people were quick to open a path once they spotted Scarlet marching fourth on the warpath. 
 Before long Scarlet found her charge. She could hardly believe it. Standing with her hand raised as though to slap, if not punch the young man in front of her, was none other than habitually timid, Una O' Conchabhair - And looking like he was actually having to strain himself, was Kolme Nilas, desperately holding the small woman back.

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