NationStates Jolt Archive

Dortmund, a small town in northern Lavenrunz

A white and blue helicopter came thudding over the soft rolling farmlands of northern Lavenrunz. From above, the cottages and villages looked like play-pieces on a diorama. Dr. Gerda Lang sighed. It looked peaceful, but appearances were deceptive. She looked up at the crew chief who signalled two minutes till landing, and she nodded to her team. They were all wearing orange racal suits with independant breathing apparatus. They were accompanied by a security operative with a slung submachinegun that he was ripping the plastic sealing off as the helicopter dove towards a large farm outside of the town of Dortmund. Dortmund was a farming town, had been for centuries, and in spite of the additions of recent years, including a gas station, a Porkwich's, and some slightly more modern homes that had been built it could have been a picture from the 19th century.

Near the farm they could see that a local army unit with an armored car and an apc had sealed off the roads leading to the farm, and that soldiers in MOPP suits were standing nearby. Somehow...true peace was lacking. She could see livestock lying around as if recently slaughtered.

The helicopter battered at the stubble of a recently fired field as it came down to land, signalled in by one of the soldiers. Gerda leapt out, ducking as she did, and shouted through the filter on her suit, "Have you seen the victims?"
"Negative, Doctor." replied the man, who looked like a huge humanoid insect with his helmet and mask on. "This way, towards the guest house."
She could see some evidence of more violence than from above. The wide staring eyes of the livestock, foam around the mouths, bloody mucuous, and horrible wounds; evidence that they had tried to flee, had kicked at their stalls. She shuddered and went towards the guest house, where two soldiers were waiting, as well as a civilian wearing an old fashioned gas mask that must have dated back to the Sorrow Wars.
"Are you Doctor Lustig?" she asked politely.
"Yes, and you must be Doctor Lang from the Imperial Communicable Disease Administration." he appeared to be rather young, in his early thirties at most. He was polite in spite of what must have been fear and strain.
"Shall we, please?" she suggested.
It did not occur to either doctor to act hurriedly; to a Lavenrunzian calm and thoughtfulness in the face of stress was imperative. To act otherwise was uncivilized, shocking. They both went in, followed by the officer. They could see a naked man there, his eyes staring horribly, the irises a strange red color. He roared and lunged at the bonds that held him to a sturdy oak chair, and the chair creaked ominously. Smeared on his body was blood and excrement.
"Who secured him?" asked Gerda Lang, shuddering but maintaining a calm voice.
"I helped the farmhands and his father secure him. Apparently he was perfectly normal this morning. He went to check on some varmint traps and then..." the doctor spread his hands helplessly. "Do you have some idea of what this is?"
Lang took a deep breath and lied. "No. I have no idea." the naked man, the son of a gentleman farmer, howled like a tormented beast and lunged so violently that the chair's legs left the floor. She nodded to one of her support techs, who put the silvery looking case he was carrying on a table, and opened it. There was a hiss and a hint of vapour as the cool products inside, mostly glass tubes in padding along with syringes in their wrappings were exposed. She said to the other two techs: "Check the main house, please. Doctor Lustig, I must ask you to accompany them, as my assistants may need the advice of the local physician."
Lustig hesitated, and his forehead creased in a frown, but he bowed politely and said, "Of course, Doctor Lang."
When their footsteps could be heard to recede from the house, Lang said to the officer, "Could you please hold the back of the chair steady, and make sure he does not jerk his arms excessively, Captain?"
The officer gave a curt nod. He was doubtless, Gerda Lang thought, not happy about being asked to do this. However, she wanted as few people as possible to see what she had to do. The naked man snapped and snarled, the chair rocking and creaking as he tried to get at the officer, who stepped neatly around him and braced, grabbing him tightly.
As the man shrieked and reddish looking spittle flew from his lips, Gerda Lang stepped up to him and grabbed one of his arms in her gloved hand, the other poised to deliver the needle. As it slipped into the vein his neck muscles bulged and with an inhuman bellow he burst from his bonds. The startled officer flew back, stumbling in the heavy awkward gear, and Gerda Lang in alarm rose from bending over only to have him on her like a tiger. Snarling, he ripped at her mask and hood, and they both fell heavily to the floor, him tearing and her screaming for help as her horrified blue eyes looked into his, which were red as a devil's.

{OOC: It wasn't marked closed, so I hope you don't mind me posting. If there's a problem I can delete and go about my business. :) Just bored, and this RP bears a striking resemblance to one I did a few months ago, I can dig up the ling in a moment...}

The shrieking of the 'wight' was terrible as it ran forward, the scabby skin of it's face distorted in a thoughtless, inhuman mask of sheer hatred. Though it's gait was slightly lurching, there was no clumsiness in the way it shot across the lumpy terrain of the schoolyard, it's mindless fury driving it forward, forward.

The man watched in horrid fascination as the thing came closer and closer. The pistol seemed to catch in his belt, and in that one instant, the wight had leapt the bright yellow bench and was among the children who had huddled near the armed man for protection. With tooth and nail it set upon them, shrieking and wailing it's anguish...

He woke in a cold sweat, clawing wildly for the gun that wasn't there. The feeling of terror in his chest made him gasp for breath, and he lay there for several moments, panting. The dread finally receded, but the shrieking of the dream remained. It took him a sleep muddled moment to realize it was the telephone.

Reaching a shaky hand toward the nightstand, Graff Breakspear cleared his throat roughly and spoke into the reciever,"Breakspear... No, that's impossible. The last of the wights were torched months ago."

His heart seemed to skip a beat as he listened to the frantic voice on the other end. Finally he broke in,"Whoa, whoa... Easy, then. Give me a few minutes to gather my shit and I'll get something together for them.... Hold on now, who do you think you're talking to, sonofabitch? Noone knows this evil like I do. Half an hour."

And half an hour later, true to his word, Breakspear pulled into his offices in Toke, and tossed down his written report, which was soon faxed to Lavenrunz:

URGENT COMMUNIQUE FROM:
Graff Breakspear
Deptartment of Disinfection
Toke, Pantera

It is the recomendation of I&D that all inter-Panteran/Lavenrunz travel be suspended until further notice. Word of minor infection has been heard from informants abroad, and it seems the wights will soon overrun a population center, size unknown at this early juncture. With the incidents in Pantera so recently concluded, I feel it would be a mistake to allow any chance of Lavenrunz wights, or 'infected', to corrupt the now pure lands of Pantera.

Advice to Lavenrunz is as follows: Immediate and total lockdown of infected areas to prevent the -insanely- rapid spread of the virus, followed by a rapid wipe of the area, preferably with a high-yield weapon of some sort. In the aftermath, the area should be regularly swept and 'disinfected' by flame.

Death-toll estimates on the recent infection in the Panteran city of Frappan were put at eighty-thousand infected, twenty-thousand related, but non-infectious deaths.

Authorized by the Lord Reaver,
Graff Breakspear
Panteran I&D

Baron Shein coughed and felt like his lungs were tearing out. His doctor had advised him to quit smoking--in particular the rather nasty cigarettes he favoured--but he found that a nice Gitane soothed him long enough to keep him going. For years he had been the head of the Ministry of Information, and for years before that the virtual head while the ailing Prince von Schoenburg had held the position. Now he read over the reports that were coming through to him and his eyes burned with weariness.
"We must take what Graff Breakspear has sent us, this information, seriously, Excellency." said Colonel Zimmermann, who was facing him across his desk. He looked sourly at the green eyed young woman. She was not exactly pretty, this Zimmermann, though she was athletic; strong featured, prominently nosed, with a squarish chin. But striking, authoritative, and the most recent Imperial Censor, responsible to his office but mostly working directly with the Monarch. But the Monarch was still a teenaged girl...
"And what will we say? That we had been working on a similar disease warfare program? While our conference on WMDs is still taking place? Are you mad, Colonel?" he demanded in a nasty tone.
The handsome sleek relatively young looking Director of Information Retrieval raised his eyebrows. This Walther Eisner was always dapper in his dress, which irritated Shein, who regarded this as a lack of seriousness. Either uniforms or his own rumpled careless look showed a serious regard for intelligence, in his opinion. Eisner cleared his throat and said, "I can only agree, Herr Minister. To reply in a positive sense to the letter admits our involvement. We can look after it without broadcasting it to the world. However, there is another problem altogether: the fact that they claim to know. We need to act upon what knowledge we have of their operatives. We need to make sure that they don't leak this information. I think if we handle things properly we can guarantee controlling the situation. As for some of their advice...I think it is perhaps a bit extreme."
Zimmermann knew when she was beaten, but she simply narrowed her green eyes and said, "In that case, I would like to recommend mobilizing special warfare units to contain the situation. And that we brief Her Majesty."
"This is a minor outbreak." Eisner said, barely hiding a sneer. "And it will be contained. How on Earth can it reach the proportions that they suffered in Pantera? The Panterans are barbarians. We can handle this."
Shein nodded. He didn't like Eisner but the man was talking sense. "Very well. Contain it, but discreetly. Don't make it a grand opera, for Heaven's sake. That's all." he nodded brusquely as they went out and began to write a letter.

To: Graff Breakspear
Deptartment of Disinfection
Toke, Pantera

There has been a minor incident recently which involved an outbreak of what we believe was ebola. This is alarming but frankly your claims seem somewhat extreme given the circumstances. I do assure you that we have excellent disease research agencies that are containing and controlling the situation. If you wish to prevent people from travelling to Pantera that is unfortunate, but we will respect your wishes. What we do ask is that you do not print or publish any alarmist views by any form of public media. I am sure that this discretion will come naturally; as peoples sharing a common heritage we must work at times to mutual benefit.

with greatest respect
Baron Shein
Minister of Information
Hofburg, Lavenrunz

At the city of Carlsbad's airport, the cargo ramp of a large airplane was rolling down what appeared to be a giant moth made of metal and wood, its wings raised to touch closely together. The handlers moved it carefully; it could be seen to have been put on a cargo roller and had been bound to it by elastic cords. Prince Andreus looked on, with a dubious expression on his face.

"It can really carry two people?" he asked his gorgeous young wife.

Not far off, a local army officer neatly saluted as a Colonel of the Imperial Jaegers strode up. "What's this? Some kind of test?" he asked with interested.

"As far as you're concerned, yes." replied the Colonel. "You and your troops are dismissed for the moment, Major."

Disappointed, the Major saluted again, clicking his heels, but not before he caught a glimpse of a fair haired young woman in a flying suit coming out of an executive passenger plane not far away. His heart racing excitedly, he determined to keep the secret, but he was both thrilled and chagrined...could it be the Empress, or merely one of Her doubles?

Aurora, who was wearing a leather flying suit, a matching helmet and a blue scarf, turned and smiled. Her lovely strawberry blonde hair was tucked under the flying helmet but a few wisps escaped it. "Of course it can. This is my third model, and this one I assure you is fully tested. Except for a continuous flight that is..." she smiled with pleasure, turning to look at it. Thirty Camelias growled disapprovingly. For once, the Despot of New Constantinople agreed with the leopard.

"But aren't we about to take it for a continuous flight?" Andreus asked, arching an eyebrow with alarm.

"Yes. That is...well if you are not up to coming Andra, then of course Carlsbad is a fascinating and beautiful city, which has many colleges and other places of interest in it." Aurora replied, no malice in her blue eyes.

"I couldn't let you go up there by yourself, Aurora!" Andreus protested, placing an arm around her shoulders.

"Anyway, we'll have the SAR bird following us, you know." she jerked her thumb at a Fledermauss helicopter whose rotors were warming up. "I'm glad you're going to be coming, Andra. This will be lovely."

"Well, I'm glad I'm coming..." Andreus said. He really would be glad had continuous flight already been tested. "What an amazing machine... you're incredibly clever, you know."

With a blush, Aurora inclined her head and led the way to the ornithopter, which was being set up on its launch ramp. "I think our discretion worked," they heard one of her aides remarking to Baroness Toll. "No one seems to be aware that we're here."

Aurora patted Thirty Camelias, who was going in the SAR bird. The she-leopard rumbled unhappily but went padding off to join the group of Jaegers while her mistress climbed into the pilot's seat.

"Well, I should probably get my flight cap on." Andreus said. He had resisted so far because he didn't want to mess up his hairstyle. He looked around for the servant who was carrying his flight gear around earlier. In fact it was part of Aurora's personal Air Staff, a young neat looking sergeant, who clicked his heels, bowing, and handed him his helmet. Andreus pulled the flight cap on and fastened the chin strap. He left the goggles up on his forehead for the time being. He pondered something as he pulled the cap on, and turned to Aurora with a look of distaste on his face.

"We won't get bugs in our mouths will we?" he asked her.

"Don't forget your scarf. You're Lehrer, yes?" said Aurora, glancing at the sergeant as she reached for her goggles.

The sergeant smiled and flushed. "Yes, Your Majesty!" he exclaimed, pleased to be recognized.

"Well, wish us luck." she said happily, snapping her goggles on and wrapping her scarf around her mouth. Andreus pulled his goggles on and was handed a scarf by the sergeant, and caught Aurora by the elbow before she got onto the ornithopter. He unwrapped her scarf again and kissed her on the lips before wrapping it up again.

"For luck." he smiled, before wrapping his own scarf on.

Breathless, Aurora found herself almost trembling, and her eyes looked deeply into his for a moment. Then she said, "Thank you Andra."

Andreus winked at her through the goggles.

"Shall we, then?" he asked, offering her his arm and gesturing to the aircraft.

Aurora waited a moment till the sergeant had reported that the power was fully turned up, and saw that her rather simple instruments indicated this. Andreus could now feel the delicate frame of the ultralight/ornithopter vibrating somewhat. "Alright." Aurora said. "make sure your feet are snugly in the stirrups, and put your belt on." Once he had done this, she said, "Lean forward...alright, releasing now!" and with that, the plane began to flap its wings, so swiftly that they both felt fanned. Andreus could now see why they needed leather suits to keep warm. Andreus waited with baited breath for the ultralight to take off. If not for his scarf and goggles, Aurora would've been able to see his palpable excitement, and even the tiniest hint of fear.

As she called out "Release" there was a click as the plane was unhooked and they went thrumming up and into the sky! It was so much like flying, and Aurora absolutely loved it. Her sense of control was far better over this machine, and they went soaring like a bird swiftly over the fields and farm country that was nearest the base and the airport...

At the city of Carlsbad's airport, the cargo ramp of a large airplane was rolling down what appeared to be a giant moth made of metal and wood, its wings raised to touch closely together. The handlers moved it carefully; it could be seen to have been put on a cargo roller and had been bound to it by elastic cords. Not far off, a local army officer neatly saluted as a Colonel of the Imperial Jaegers strode up. "What's this? Some kind of test?" he asked with interest.

"As far as you're concerned, yes." replied the Colonel. "You and your troops are dismissed for the moment, Major.” Disappointed, the Major saluted again, clicking his heels, but not before he caught a glimpse of a fair haired young woman in a flying suit coming out of an executive passenger plane not far away. With an expression of joy and chagrin struggling to dominate his features, the Major went back to the jeep he had driven up in. Meanwhile, the flight crew of the Fledermauss were gearing up. Apart from Captain von Hotzendorff, the SAR bird's commander, there was a small unit of Jaeger's specializing in search and rescue, and also they could see that the Empress' leopard was joining them. Hotzendorff turned to his new copilot, who was part of the officer exchange program from Resurgent Dream.

"It's a good day for this." he said, glancing up at the sky. A few clouds, mild winds could be seen. The countryside was wooded here and there but was mostly farm country.

Katei Arthurs smiled, going through the checklist. "Yes, sir."

"Alright, let's get going." he did a last minute check of his own instruments and then said, "All clear, Lieutenant?"

"Clear, sir." she replied, smiling a little.The machine began to lift from the ground. Below they could see the Empress' mothplane fanning its wings. Thirty Camelias, crouching at the back of the helicopter growled softly. The Fledermauss flew up from the tarmac and hovered a distance away so that they could watch the progress of the mothplane. The little ornithopter suddenly released and flew up into the air like a great bird, wings glittering in the sun. "Is this one of the ones Her Majesty made herself, sir?"

"Yes, it is. Extraordinary little thing is it not?" exclaimed Hotzendorff. The Jaegers laughed and clapped approvingly. She had come to be aware that they considered the Empress 'theirs' in the sense that they were her personal bodyguard.

"Yes, sir. Quite an impressive machine." she said with a grin on her fair face. For a time they followed the ornithopter over the farm country. Then, as they passed near a stretch of forest (which one of the Jaegers told the exchange officer was a national park) she noticed some smoke on the horizon. "I've got smoke at twelve o'clock, sir." She said.

"Let's take a closer look..." answered Hotzendorff. "Wait a minute.." he could see a couple of vehicles, a jeep and an armored car, moving rapidly below. "It might be just part of an exercise. Let's get on the radio." At that moment, they saw someone fire a rocket from the back of the jeep which streaked up towards the helicopter.

"Incoming!" Arthurs yelled as she rapidly tried to evade.

The rocket streaked up with a terrible howling and seemed to hone in on the Fledermauss; the evasive action prevented a direct hit; Jaegers were bracing themselves so as not to be flung about; as she made the turn the rocket clipped the tail rotor; sparks flew and one of the blades went whirling across the sky. Immediately the machine began to spin, alarms going off. "Keep her steady!" shouted Hotzendorff. Arthurs obeyed, struggling to keep the helicopter level and not able to do much more yet. "We're going down. Mayday, mayday, Kingsnake going down..." chanted Hotzendorff into the radio, trying to keep his voice calm as the ground seemed to tilt and rush towards them. With a terrifying hurtling they met the earth within sight of the trees, and blackness came upon all within.

They could see the Fledermauss shadowing them, but from a distance away so that the gust of its powerful rotors would not blow them around. As Aurora flew they came close to a forest that spread like a shadow around the fields. Beyond, to the distance, lay a small town. There was a brief glimpse of haziness but then the sun blocked it out. Aurora laughed then warily concentrated as they came across a flock of birds. As she was drawn upon this Andreus could hear a howling and then a sharp BANG! Something whizzled and whirled towards them and smacked into the mothplane.
Aurora shrieked, and the plane was whirling over and over, sending them tumbling down towards the woods; with a jarring crash one of the wings caught and tore its way down several branches before leaving them hanging from it.

Andreus pulled the scarf away from his mouth, and started to pull Aurora's scarf off too.
"Are you OK?" he asked her.
Aurora moaned. "What happened? How could this happen? Ooooohhhhh..." she peered anxiously down at the ground, which was several feet away from where they dangled. The wreckage and the branch creaked ominously.
"We need to get out before the branch breaks and this whole thing comes down on top of us." Andreus said. He unhooked himself from the downed aircraft, and dropped to the ground, before looking up at Aurora. "Let yourself out, I'll help you down."

She felt reassured by this; he was a grown man, and strong, and he would look after her. Aurora unbuckled and dropped, daring to trust him, having to. Andreus caught her, and set her down gently, although he held onto her wrist tightly.

"Run!" he said, pulling her away from the ornithopter as fast as he could, in case the branch gave out and the machine fell on top of them.
In fact it did not, though it did show signs that it would do so at any moment, creaking and swaying, and the branch cracking slightly. And just a few seconds later it came tumbling down, with a loud sound of tearing and snapping, falling in a chaotic heap a few feet away from them. Aurora burst into tears.

Andreus pulled off his own goggles, then pulled off Aurora's.
"Hey, hey!" he said, holding her head in his hands reassuringly. He kissed her on the forehead. "We're both OK. No harm done! It was a very, very complicated machine! You don't have to cry, Aurora."
Feeling safe for the moment, Aurora trembled and nestled against him. For a moment she just let her tears flow. For the first time in ages, she felt she could lean on someone else.
Andreus undid her chin strap and pulled her cap off gently, and then took off his own, and hugged her reassuringly.

"It's just a machine." he said to her in a soothing voice. "The important thing is that we're both OK." I knew that thing was a deathtrap the second I saw it. he thought to himself as he stroked her hair.

Lieutenant Arthurs came too, feeling an aching head and body and herself at an angle in her seat. Her face felt hot and sticky. There was a stink of burned electronics and blood in the helicopter. She looked around to see if anyone else was moving.

Hotzendorff seemed to have taken the brunt of the smashing of the window. Blood was pooling around his broken form. Nearby, one of the Jaegers moaned. Another looked up at her, wincing as he sat up. "You okay, your Honor?" he asked polite in spite of having to yank a piece of metal the size of a guitar pick out of his arm.

"I'm fine. Is there a medic on board?"

Thirty Camelias growled and moved towards the door of the machine, pawing at it.
"I'm a medic your Honor, I'm Sergeant Klausner." he replied moving up towards her. "Are you injured?"
"No, Sergeant. Not seriously." Arthurs looked around to see if anyone of higher rank was still moving around.
"I think you're in command, your Honor." said Klausner. The other surviving Jaeger was a Corporal. Both looked sturdy, in only slightly damaged camouflage gear, combat webbing, sporting G-11 rifles but also emergency medical kids.
"Sergeant, see to these men. Corporal, guard this helicopter. I'm going to go try and determine the condition of the ornithopter. Hopefully, it's flown clear but I doubt we were the primary targer." With that, she forced the door and stepped out of the helicopter, looking skyward in the vain hope of seeing the ornithopter still in the air.

Thirty Camelias immediately streaked past her and was sniffing, her round tufted ears alert, her tail lashing, yellow eyes baleful.
Arthurs readied her gun, moving swiftly behind the great cat as she looked for any sign of the ornithopter.
At that moment they heard the sound of branches breaking as if something huge was pushing its way through the tree canopy, from somewhere nearby in the forest. The Empress' leopard bodyguard swiftly began to bound towards the forest, moving low to the ground.
Arthurs ran after as fast as she could, staying at the ready but not sacrificing speed for stealth.

They could see the Fledermauss shadowing them, but from a distance away so that the gust of its powerful rotors would not blow them around. As Aurora flew they came close to a forest that spread like a shadow around the fields. Beyond, to the distance, lay a small town. There was a brief glimpse of haziness but then the sun blocked it out. Aurora laughed then warily concentrated as they came across a flock of birds. As she was drawn upon this Andreus could hear a howling and then a sharp BANG! Something whizzled and whirled towards them and smacked into the mothplane. Aurora shrieked, and the plane was whirling over and over, sending them tumbling down towards the woods; with a jarring crash one of the wings caught and tore its way down several branches before leaving them hanging from it. Andreus pulled the scarf away from his mouth, and started to pull Aurora's scarf off too.

"Are you OK?" he asked her.

Aurora moaned. "What happened? How could this happen? Ooooohhhhh..." she peered anxiously down at the ground, which was several feet away from where they dangled. The wreckage and the branch creaked ominously.

"We need to get out before the branch breaks and this whole thing comes down on top of us." Andreus said. He unhooked himself from the downed aircraft, and dropped to the ground, before looking up at Aurora. "Let yourself out, I'll help you down."

She felt reassured by this; he was a grown man, and strong, and he would look after her. Aurora unbuckled and dropped, daring to trust him, having to. Andreus caught her, and set her down gently, although he held onto her wrist tightly.

"Run!" he said, pulling her away from the ornithopter as fast as he could, in case the branch gave out and the machine fell on top of them.

In fact it did not, though it did show signs that it would do so at any moment, creaking and swaying, and the branch cracking slightly. And just a few seconds later it came tumbling down, with a loud sound of tearing and snapping, falling in a chaotic heap a few feet away from them. Aurora burst into tears. Andreus pulled off his own goggles, then pulled off Aurora's.

"Hey, hey!" he said, holding her head in his hands reassuringly. He kissed her on the forehead. "We're both OK. No harm done! It was a very, very complicated machine! You don't have to cry, Aurora."

Feeling safe for the moment, Aurora trembled and nestled against him. For a moment she just let her tears flow. For the first time in ages, she felt she could lean on someone else. Andreus undid her chin strap and pulled her cap off gently, and then took off his own, and hugged her reassuringly.

"It's just a machine." he said to her in a soothing voice. "The important thing is that we're both OK."

I knew that thing was a deathtrap the second I saw it. he thought to himself as he stroked her hair.

Suddenly Aurora gasped as they both heard something large approaching, and saw Thirty Camelias approaching...or a leopard at any rate. However, Aurora closed her eyes with relief and exclaimed, "There you are." Andreus could see a person approaching, following after the leopard.

Behind Thirty Camelias ran a remarkably short, fair-skinned woman with dark hair. She carried a gun at the ready, looking from side to side, and wore a flight uniform with a lieutenant's ensignia.

"Your Majesty?" she called out.

"Oh good, Thirty Camelias is here." Andreus said without a great deal of enthusiasm. His one-track mind was already constructing romantic scenarios for being alone in the middle of the woods.

Aurora looked at her curiously, she didn't look that Lavenrunzian. And she had an accent that reminded her of Agwene. "Yes, Lieutenant. We should get going, people will be worried."

Aurora gave her a glorious smile. All was well again.

"How did you land that thing of yours in the woods?" Andreus asked.

"We didn't exactly land it, Your Highness. Your Majesty, the bird is down, all but one guard and one medic are down, and there's an unknown number of hostiles in the area, probably aiming for you."

"The...the bird is down? How?" gaped Aurora. "Is the radio still working?"

"Wait, what does that mean, hostiles?" Andreus asked.

Thirty Camelias in fact seemed to be agreeing, she was now close to Aurora and looking very alert.

"I'm not sure, Your Majesty. I headed for you as soon as we landed. We probably should move there immediately. If either of you can, you might need to carry arms personally." the lieutenant said to the Empress before turning to the Despot. "People with guns trying to kill us, Your Highness."

"People with guns?" asked Andreus in an incredulous tone. "What the devil are people with guns doing try to kill us?"

Arthurs shook her head. "I don't know, Your Highness. I don't know how any hostile power would have had intelligence that you were here."

"I see." Aurora said. "It doesn't matter Andra. We both have enemies." she felt suddenly exhausted. It never ended. It wasn't all good again. "Let's go. And if there isn't a radio working in the helicopter, we can find a ranger station; this is a national park after all." with that she began to walk along the path Arthurs had come along. Arthurs moved in front, gun at the ready, nodding to Thirty Camelias to take the back and keep the royals safe in the middle.

Aurora was thinking as she walked, No one knows where we are but the others we left back at the airport. But if we don't report in soon they'll send another search and rescue team out.

"Wait, people are trying to kill us, and we are looking for the park ranger?" Andreus asked, the incredulity in his voice not fading.

On the bumpy gravelly country road, the armored car was shaking up the soldiers inside it, while those in the jeep were only a little better off. However, they were all screaming and shouting, shocked and frightened at that idiot Uwe who had accidentally launched a Stinger when they went over the area full of potholes.
"You moron!" shouted the sergeant. "Why did you have it set?"
"Hey, those things...we can't be too careful!" protested the youthful soldier.
"Come on, pull yourself together. I think we hit a helicopter or something." snarled the sergeant. He didn't really care; he would rather be court martialed than...than suffer the fate of what had happened to his troops.
As the armored car, in the lead, swerved round a corner, the curve wooded and farms only faintly seen through the trees, they suddenly came upon the wreck of a 3/4 ton truck, half turned over, and a horde of...people...red eyed and snarling, swarming over it, just before the armored car crashed into it. The jeep followed mere seconds later.

With a hint of annoyance, Aurora replied, "We need a radio, Andra, in order to get rescued." Geeze, I feel like Piggy in "Lord of the Flies" she thought.

Arthurs murmured quietly. "Your Majesty, Your Highness, I would highly recommend we travel in silence, given the situation."

Hey, don't get angry at me, I'm not the one whose stupid machine crashed into the middle of this place. Andreus frowned to himself.

Aurora felt like a total idiot at that point. Unlike her mother she had not had a lot of survival training. Mind..she was still only sixteen. She felt angry with Andreus for provoking her. It conflicted with her recent lovely memory of how good his arms felt around her.

They could see the wreck of the helicopter. Klausner was zipping Captain Hotzendorff into a bodybag. The third soldier was bandaged around the head and was checking his weapon. They stood up, all of them, as the Empress approached. Around them, apart from the forest, they could see faintly through trees and a bit of meadowland and farm country the distant road from which the rocket had been fired. There was no sign of a vehicle.

"Lieutenant, if you were the commander of these hostile types, wouldn't you try to lay in wait for your target at places you thought they were likely to go?" Andreus asked as he followed the others along.

"Probably, Your Highness. But we can't just starve out here and I'm not leaving you unguarded." As they approached the helicopter, Arthurs spoke to the soldiers. "Do we have an operational radio?"

"Not with any decent range." reported Sergeant Klausner. "We just have our personal ones, which have a range of about five klicks. We couldn't raise anything."

Andreus rolled his eyes in response, and looked at the helicopter wreckage. Strange how they got shot down exactly where Aurora's stupid plane crashed... he thought to himself. ...unless...

"Well...that looks like farm country within walking distance..."

"Excellent. Let's find a farm then." said Aurora. "I would like to compliment you all. Well done." though looking very young, her face a bit bruised and scratched, she looked undaunted.

Andreus made his way over to Aurora's side and took a hold of her hand in a gesture of quiet apology and reassurance.

"Petite, what do you think it was that made your ornithopter crash?"

Aurora smiled and took his hand. "Look at the tail rotor. I would guess that the helicopter was shot and part of it hit us."

Arthurs turned to Andreus. "Can you use a gun, Your Highness?"

"I'm talking to Her Majesty, lieutenant." Andreus scowled at her. "But yes."

"Lieutenant, what is your name?" asked Aurora, a slight smile upon her lips.

"Katei Arthurs, Your Majesty."

"Very well. Andra, we must place our confidence in Lieutenant Arthurs to deal with this circumstance." said Aurora firmly.

"Absolutely, Madame." Andreus replied to his wife. "Carry on, lieutenant."

Arthurs handed Andreus the deceased captain's service revolver before turning to the men. "Place the body where the enemy can't desecrate it and we'll retrieve it for proper burial upon arriving at a safe locaton. Take up a defensive position around Her Majesty and His Highness. I'll take point. Sergeant, take the left flank. Corporal, the right. Thirty Camelias, could you take rear?"

Andreus held the pistol distastefully. He had only shot with hunting rifles before. Nevertheless, he was vaguely familiar with its operation.

"Yes, your Honour." said Klausner. He and the others began to get the bodybag and move it to cover it with some rocks. Thirty Camelias moved into the correct position as though trained to do it. Arthurs moved to take point, waiting for everyone else to get into position.

"I've been thinking," Andreus whispered to Aurora. "We might have been lucky that we crashed. If these people shot down the helicopter, they might have shot us down next."

When Klausner returned, he reported quietly, "Your Honour, we have about 12 clips each plus 180 loose rounds for the G-11s, and 3 clips for the Glock. We also have emergency field rations and water, some emergency flares, and we also have a spare .38; perhaps Her Majesty may consent to carry that..."

"Your Majesty?" Arthurs asked. "Would you also be willing to carry a weapon?"

Aurora glanced at him. She whispered back, "Possibly. But we don't know anything yet. My Mother always said to wait till you knew for sure." she squeezed his hand. Andreus' only reply was a smile. He was mainly just trying to allieve any guilty feelings Aurora may have been having.

Turning back to Arthurs she hesitated only a moment before saying, "Yes, I will." Klausner handed her the thirty-eight and the two speed loaders that came with it.

"Move out." At top alertness, Arthurs began to move towards the farmland.

"Do you know how to shoot, petite?" Andreus asked Aurora quietly, watching her hold the revolver.

"I know how to target shoot..." Aurora replied, feeling heat rising to her cheeks.

"You've never used a pistol before though?" Andreus asked her.

The countryside was pleasant; they could see that ground had been tilled, and not far away was a large farm estate. It looked peaceful and quiet. As they approached, Aurora admitted "Just once."

"I've only ever really used hunting rifles." Andreus admitted.

As they reached the edge of the woods, Arthurs held up a hand. "Stay under cover, please. I'm going to check it out first. Close ranks."

Sergeant Klausner made a swift signal and the three Jaegers fanned into a protective pattern, rifles ready.

Arthurs ran up to the farm house at a crouch. Crouching against the back wall, below the back window, she called out "Army Air Corp! Is anyone in there?"

There was a large main farmhouse and a barn, clearly equipped to be large enough to stable a number of horses. Arthurs could see no horses visible, though the paddock gates were open. As she shouted she could hear suddenly footsteps racing down the stairs, several pairs of them. At the lack of verbal response, she backed up to have a clear shot at anyone coming around the house and so as to be too well beneath the windowsill to be easily targetted from there. She listened to the footsteps, ready to move accordingly if they should approach the window. The front door burst open, and a strange figure came out, a ragged looking man wearing the remains of a face mask, his thin face gaunt, his eyes red and staring. He was panting harsh gasping pants.

"What odd attire." Andreus remarked to Aurora, squinting slightly to see things in the distance.

Behind him bustled others, moaning and gabbling unintelligibly.

Arthurs spun, holding her gun at the being. "Identify yourself!" she yelled as she took a step back, tightening her grip on the trigger.

"Well they're not going to be any help if she keeps waving her gun in their face!" Andreus murmured to himself.

"AAAAAAAAARGGGGH!!!!" howled the man, his eyes widening; he rushed at her, his hands up like claws. The others roared and followed, five wild looking crazies charging at her.

"Shit." muttered Klausner. "Hold fire." he ordered the others, and sent a quick controlled burst at the doorway.

Andreus resisted the urge to chastise Klausner for using such crass language in front of Aurora, mainly because he almost said the same thing. He held his pistol up and prepared to shoot at one of the assailants himself, although for the time being he held his fire.

Arthurs opened fire, shooting to kill at the heart and head. The man's head and body jerked, with blood holes punched in him, and staggered off the porch with a bestial groan. The others kept coming, leaping down off the porch and running at Arthurs.

Klausner cut another down, firing a burst at the man's legs. "Lieutenant! Fall back, we'll cover you!" he shouted.

Arthurs turned and ran as fast as she could, diving back into the woods. She paused a moment to gather her wits. "What....are those things?"

Helplessly, Klausner shook his head. "But here they come again, they're crazy!" He nodded to the troops and they opened fire, controlled bursts cutting down the remaining three as they crouched and began to run. Thirty Camelias growled ominously. Aurora was shaking, her hands to her mouth. Andreus put his left arm around her shoulder and held her tight, and took aim with the pistol in the other arm. He fired a few rounds, fairly inaccurately, although one bullet hit one of the assailants as his legs were being cut out from underneath him by the troops.

Arthurs raised her gun and fired as well. "Alright. That might or might not be all of them but we need to take that house and get communications. We storm the building and behave on the assumption that it contains enemy units until proved otherwise."

In spite of her horror...Aurora clenched her jaw. "Alright, Lieutenant." she said. "Do what has to be done."

"Through the front door." Arthurs said. "Move." She rushed the door at a running crouch, spinning around with her gun drawn as she entered the front room and opening fire at the head and heart of anything that moved.

Klausner was a bit annoyed; who the hell was this flygirl, that she was leading Jaegers in like this? He had to admire it, but he thought she was taking a big risk...he signalled: you take left, I take right, you take center. They covered the Royals as they followed.

Andreus stuck close-by Aurora, and moved along with the troops, hesitant to go inside the house.

"Why would they just run at heavily armed troops like that?" he asked, shaking his head in disbelief as he passed by the bodies.

"They aren't even armed." murmured Aurora. "And...look at their eyes! Their irises are red!"

"Just who are these hostiles anyway?" Andreus replied.

Inside, Arthurs could see and smell bodies. The place had changed from being a peaceful farmhouse, particularly in the living room, to being a place of death. And beyond, in the back yard, where there was a large open area, she could see a civilian truck, which appeared to have rammed into a large electrical pole, and an APC. There were bodies of soldiers in MOPP suits strewn like dolls. Masks torn off, faces bloody and torn. Arthurs led the men in searching the house for hostiles, room by room.

"Can you men find the radio?" Andreus snapped. "We shouldn't be here any longer than we have to be, there's something very wrong about this place."

"Yes your Honour!" said the Corporal, snapping his heels together. He went to the kitchen and found the phone had been used to pound someone's skull in.

"No phone, Highness." he said. "But there is an APC, maybe the radio works in there."

"Maybe isn't very good to us, is it?" Andreus replied, agitated by the house. He put his arm around Aurora's shoulders again. "Find out, will you?"

Arthurs frowned slightly."Alright. Approach with caution, men." She stepped out the door, heading towards the APC.

The Corporal trotted out first, alert, watching left while the Sergeant watched right. The APC, which was an eight wheeled Vogelhund, looked a bit odd to Arthurs, who had had a vehicle recognition course like all exchange officers. For one thing, instead of a 25mm turret it had a strange dome, and its hatches looked very solid, while the firing slits were entirely absent.

Arthurs made a note of the differences. She wasn't sure what they meant, but they did mean no one would be shooting at her. Keeping to cover as much as possible, she led the men to a position facing the open rear of the vehicle. "On my mark." she said, looking closely at what was before her.

Klausner and Private Grunwald moved to the doors. They looked at her, ready for her signal.

"I wish they'd hurry up..." Andreus murmured to Aurora, his voice sounding on edge and his fingers tightening around the pistol in his hand.

Aurora gave him an approving glance. "She's doing her best." she said gently.

When they had opened the doors, she saw that inside was a rather sophisticated setup which included a fridge, a computer array, and a control panel towards the front. On the side of the vehicle on the inner wall they could see a keypad. A voice began to say quietly "Warning--atmosphere penetrated. Please enter your keycode NOW."

Arthurs frowned more. "Mark." She moved first into the vehicle, looking at the control pannel carefully and trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

She suddenly gasped. Just at the same time as she saw it, so did the Corporal. A figure in the ruins of a radiation suit came staggering out of the barn. It was a woman, in her mid thirties perhaps, with disheveled blonde hair.

"Warning. Atmosphere penetrated. System will shut down in T-minus thirty seconds." said the calm voice.

"Lieutenant, we got a live one out here." warned Klausner, tensely nodding to the Corporal to cover the person.

"Hail her. If she doesn't respond verbally, shoot to kill." she ordered, opening the refrigerator.

Inside, she could see a number of vials of fluid, as well as bags of what appeared to be blood.

"Hey! Identify yourself!" called the Corporal.

She checked to see if there were a working radio in the vehicle.

The woman gave a weird choking sound, and staggered towards them. "Akkkkkk..." she said, as if choking. Her eyes, they could see, were red. With a snarl distorting her features, she crouched and ran at them. Bullets were punched into her.

"...twenty seconds..." said the voice. There did indeed appear to be a radio, however.

Arthurs grabbed it. "This is Lieutenant Katei Arthurs requesting immediate evaq. Does anyone copy?"

Klausner was about to check the barn when he noticed something else past the barn. He clenched his teeth, swore foully and leaned into the APC. "Lieutenant, what is going on? Because..."

He explained quickly what he had seen. Several more things, distant now but running and crouching, ducking and moving rapidly through the fields of a farm across the road.

"This is Airbase Tannenbaum, over..." crackled a voice over the radio.

"Request IMMEDIATE evaq." She gave her coordinates. "Her Majesty is in danger. Arthurs out."

"Now shutting system down." reported the calm voice. The power went out in the vehicle.

OOC: I'm new at this, so delete it if it's no good. Just thought I could add to the story...

IC: Jospeh Baxter reclined in his ergonomic chair and looked out the window. He'd had trouble with his back for a few years now, and his wife had insisted he get a new chair. Joseph, somewhat begrudgingly, complied. After all, he thought, I work from home, I may as well get a new chair...

He'd just started to contemplate getting up for a cup of coffee, when something else made him. His fax machine started going crazy, and Baxter hated the noise that machine made. Something about that ringing sound just angered him. He wasn't sure if that was part of the reason he quit at the office, or if he just couldn't stand the people.

In any case, it didn't matter now. Baxter knew that, annoying as the sound of his fax machine was, it was the sound that meant more work and money. Being a freelance journalist often meant weeks without any income, and as a result the sound of the fax machine took on an almost surreal state for Baxter - both annoying and sweet at the same time.

But this fax was unlike anything Baxter had seen before. It was a press release from the Coquetvian Authority for Disease Outbreak (CADO), and it was issuing a travel warning to Lavenrunz...


_________________________________________________________________
Coquetvian Authority for Disease Outbreak (CADO)
Extreme Travel Warning to Lavenrunz

The People's Republic of Coquetvia, and the Coquetvian Authority for Disease Outbreak (CADO), have issued an extreme travel warning to and from Lavenrunz.

Acting on advice from the Lavenrunz Government and it's relevant ministries made public yesterday, it has been brought to the attention of CADO that a small but now controlled outbreak of what appears to be the ebola virus appears to have taken place in and around the town of Dortmund. Despite the assurances of the Lavenrunz Government, CADO advises all Coquetvian citizens to avoid travel to Lavenrunz at all costs.

Any Coquetvian citizen attempting to return to the People's Republic of Coquetvia from Lavenrunz will be held in quarantine for an indefinate amount of time, or may not be allowed entry into the country at any stage in the future.

The People's Republic of Coquetvia will not take risks with it's citizen's safety.

Signed,
Theodore Howard
Representative for the Coquetvian Authority for Disease Outbreak

_________________________________________________________________


Baxter knew he would regret this, but the allure of a very large paycheck was too much for him to fight against. Besides, he figured that he might be able to write a decent story and get some good pictures. He'd been waiting a few years for a story like this, and wasn't about to let this one get away from him.

After asking questions to the relevant Coquetvian authorities and coming up with nothing, he made a bold decision.

He was heading to Lavenrunz.

He said goodbye to his wife as he boarded the final plane to leave his homeland for the troubled destination, unsure if he would ever return.

Little did he know the trouble he was getting himself into...

OOC: not at all, nice insert
IC:

Baxter had found after some initial turbulence that the flight to Lavenrunz was fairly smooth, the atmosphere over the South Atlantic being fairly tranquil for the time of year. The other travel advisories stated that northern Lavenrunz would be warm and dry, while central Lavenrunz was experiencing some rains. The international airport at the city of Carlsbad was the only one that was sufficiently close to Dortmund, but the brochures stated that it was a decent sized city with plenty of car rental places.

Carlsbad, supposedly, was a college town, hosting two major universities as well as several polytechnics. A great deal of research for corporations and the government was done there.

As they came to a landing, Baxter could see that there was tough but not absurd security; some soldiers with submachineguns, looking neat and disciplined, were nearby but blue uniformed air port officials quietly and efficiently processed people through customs.

Archbishop Kronstein had just returned from a meeting with the Foreign Minister when his Secretary, a Jesuit Brother, entered his office grave-faced, and handed him a sheet of fax paper. The paper was blank, except for eight rows of eight numbers. Nothing in that to make anyone turn pale, you would have thought.

Kronstein nodded to the Jesuit, and waited for him to leave the office. Not a word passed between the two men. When the door was closed, he turned to his dataviewer, and brought up the communications console. Entering his personal retrieval code, sure enough, there it was—the double-blinking icon of a secure message. He’d only ever seen it once before, but he knew what to do.

First, he initiated the protocols that would disconnect his dataviewer from the local network. Then he physically disconnected the network cable. Then he unlocked a desk drawer and removed a small item that fit neatly into one port of the dataviewer’s console and scrambleshielded it from wireless snooping. Then, he called up the double-blinking icon and entered the eight rows of numbers. Finally the prompt blinked on the screen:

Personal validation required

A countdown clock began ticking fifteen seconds away until the message was destroyed, but Kronstein entered his own personal validation code in plenty of time. At last the message displayed on the dataviewer.

Some minutes later, the screen blanked, and Kronstein’s face was, if possible, even paler.

“Lieber heilige Mutter!” he murmured softly.

Dortmund! There were two monasteries in the nearby countryside, a community of Franciscan Sisters, and a Trappist Monastery. The Franciscan Sisters, in their big old converted manor, were practically right on top of whatever was going on in the countryside around Dortmund, the Trappists were not far off the main road to Carlsbad.

And what was going on there?

Pantera and Coquetvia had both quietly issues travel warnings to Lavenrunz. Other disturbing rumors were flying—military activity, smoke, quarantine, personnel in containment gear… Truly scary stuff. Should the monasteries be evacuated? Kronstein pondered. The communities were cloistered. Nothing official from the Lavenrunzian authorities except a rumor about an ebola outbreak, apparently contained. Perhaps, for the moment, a watching brief was best. But it would not hurt to inform the Superiors of the religious communities involved.

With a frown of concentration, he activated the “encrypted communications” template.

As Baxter stepped off the plane, he heard the sound of helicopters.

He glanced up, and saw three relatively new looking choppers heading north. Baxter knew nothing about planes or helicopters, but the one thing he could tell is that they appeared to be in a big hurry.

I wonder where they're going, he thought...

As he entered the airport proper to collect his luggage, Baxter suddenly felt strangely chilled. It wasn't really that cold in the building, but something made him feel cold nonetheless.

Baxter continued on his way to the luggage terminal, but was stopped by a rather chirpy airport assistant.

"Excuse me sir, where are you going?" she asked chirpilly, but politely.

"I'm going to collect my luggage..." Baxter replied.

"I'm afraid that as a result of an unexpected - but controlled - viral outbreak throughout portions of the country, it is now Lavenrunzian Government policy to personally brief visitors to our country to advise them of any possible safety risk. Please follow me!" she said chirpilly once again, almost on the verge of annoyingly so. Baxter wished he could go one day without being annoyed by noises.

As he followed the annoying woman to his briefing room, he noticed the men with machine guns once again. He wasn't sure, but he thought one of them looked at him as he entered the interview room.

_________________________________________________________________

After several minutes of waiting in what Baxter believed to be the world's most uncomfortable chair, the door at the other end of the room opened. A short man wearing a traditional black and white suit combination enetered the room. In direct contrast to Baxter, the man appeared to be sweating profusely.

"Please excuse my tardiness Mister... Baxter is it?" said the man. Baxter nodded.

"My name is Peiter Luutgart. This is just a standard breifing to ensure that you are aware of possible safety risks when travelling in our country."

"Haven't you got a brochure or something?" Baxter asked. Luutgart appeared to ignore him.

"Due to a recent viral outbreak in our country, there is a slight yet highly improbable risk of possible infection when visiting certain areas, most notably in the Dortmund area. There is no real danger, we're just legally obligated to to advise you that there could be a risk of ebola infection..." Luutgart said.

"Now Mr Baxter, are you here for business or pleasure?"

"Can't it be both?" Baxter quipped again. Again, Luutgart ignored him.

"Ok, I'm here on business. I know all about your ebola outbreak, I'm here to do a story on it."

"I see," said Luutgart, his serious demeanor all of a sudden appearing even more serious.

"I can see you are in no need of further advice, Mr Baxter. However, for your own safety, I would advise you steer clear of the Dortmund region until it is declared safe. You never know what might happen..."

With that, Baxter was told he was free to go. Baxter got up, took one final lok around the room, and walked out the door towards the luggage pick-up.

Baxter was well aware that he was being filmed during the 'briefing', but there was little he could do about it. For all he knew it could be standard thesedays. Ebola needs to be handled seriously, after all.

One thing Baxter didn't know, and couldn't possibly have known, was what Luutgart said to the camera after he left.

"We should watch this one, Baron Shein..."

OOC: Coqevita, I almost hesitate to complain when you wrote such a good post, because it is very well written indeed. However, I need to point out a rule of etiquette for this forum. Unless you have permission, never never write contextual material on the behalf of another nation.
For instance: Lavenrunz has certain peculiarities. No one named Hollingsworth would be in a position of authority. Lavenrunz is a german nation. Second: such an official would almost certainly when speaking to Shein say 'Minister' "Excellency' or 'Baron'. Lavenrunz is a nation fussy about politeness, as you may have noticed in earlier posts.
It may have seemed that I was doing the same on your behalf but I was actually just telling you what the flight was like and where you would be likely to arrive.
This is not really a big deal. I would have preferred to telegram you about this but for some reason that function is not working. Apart from this I'm enjoying your part in this thread and hope you'll continue to enjoy it.

IC:
Carlsbad International Airport
There were not a huge number of travellers returning; many of them had the look of academics or students who had been on holidays. A few business travellers and military personnel were among them. Baxter overheard a middle aged woman with a kerchief around her hair clucking disapprovingly as a young woman wearing a slit dress walked by. This meant that her smock had a slit up the back that hinted and gave peeks of her smooth bare back and bottom.
"There's always someone who dares take the nudity laws as far as they can." muttered the woman to her somewhat roly poly husband, who was frowning and saying, "Now wait a moment, I think that might be ours, my dear, but it's lost its tag..."
Not far from the luggage arrivals Baxter could see advertisements for car rentals and taxis, with translations into english, french and a rune based tongue.

OOC: Hmm, well this seemed like an interesting thread. Hope you don't mind my character starting out 'in-country' but if my government notices anything, well it won't say anything about it anyway.

I will now give a lecture on "the Use of Thermonuclear Warheads for fertilization of barren rock in the nude…
The electronic buzz of the alarm blew the dream out of his mind. Nathan looked up at the ceiling for a moment as his right hand attempted to find the off switch.

Where the hell…. Nathan turned his head and looked in the dim light for the alarm off button. His head began to pound, protesting the short night. Nathan snarled out an expletive as he tore the slide off the battery compartment and attempted to pry out the battery.

Finally Nathan, his eyes narrowed in pain and anger, whacked the clock against the edge of the nightstand. The battery went bouncing across the carpeted floor and under the bed. Nathan issued a groan, his mind noting through the cobwebs of fatigue that he likely need to retrieve the battery before a maid swept it up.

"The way people are around here, I bet the staff does actually give the room a thorough cleaning." He said to the small picture in the silver frame on the nightstand. Nathan smiled at the face of the attractive women looking back at him, now some two thousand miles on the other side of the world.

Nathan stood up and placed the picture back down. Then he looked at himself in the nearby mirror. It showed a man of medium height, medium build with dark brown hair, an unremarkable face, and blue eyes looking back. It also showed someone who was getting a bit paunchy around the middle. How the hell did that win her? Nathan shook his head and regarded the figure looking back at him in the dimly lit room. It was quite nice for a generic hotel room. Sometimes being a civilian can be quite nice Nathan thought as he recalled his quarters back on the Thunder Griffin were tiny in comparison to this space.

Nathan he walked across the room and pulled the curtain back from the window. He winced at the harsh glare of a day already in progress filled the room. In the Navy you would have been on your watch if your plane had two layovers in hell and you were twelve hours late in arriving. Yup, Commander Hassenbach would have no quarter from his superior officers for other people's mistakes. Doctor Hassenbach, Assistant Professor of Chemistry gets to sleep a few hours before doing the guest lecturer from Torrhall University bit. Discuss research with a few of my international colleges, present a paper to a bunch of half bored graduate students, and get on the flight home…Oh God

Nathan winced again as he realized that he still had to fly home on Deyllian Air. The doctor picked up the folder left for him at the front desk to distract him from pondering that horrid fate. The glossy blue had Willkommen Carlsbad in nice bold red letters printed on the front.

Nathan opened it and pulled out the altered schedule that some hardworking graduate student had typed the day, or night, before. Now all I have to do is remember that students are not supposed to salute me around here and I will be…damn…based on when I set the alarm…I've got twenty minutes to shower and dressed. And better wear something comfortable too, looks like I am going to be visiting both Universities today.

Nathan headed for the bathroom, pulling a bottle of aspirin out of his suitcase as he went by.

Sergeant Klausner was kneeling by one of the bodies near the APC, and picked up an HK-CAW shotgun. "We might as well scavenge some better arms than they give us for SAR. Lieutenant..."

No sooner had he said this than the doors of the APC swung shut with a clang and clunk of bolts locking it firmly.

"Dammit!" Arthurs ran to slam against the door as hard as she could, trying to get out. The door however felt solid as a bank vault, and did not respond. She could faintly hear shouts from outside.

Inside the farmhouse, Thirty Camelias growled impatiently, pacing about. Aurora frowned, peering out. "What is going on out there?" she wondered aloud.

Arthurs walked back to the control panel, desperately trying to get it to respond.

Andreus pulled Aurora back protectively. "They're just looking for the radio."

Outside, the soldiers could be seen to be slinging their own weapons and picking up weapons and ammunition from the dead. One of them was shouting and banging on the back doors of the APC. There was a warning cry from one of the soldiers and a burst of fire from a seized battle rifle towards one of the fields, where several hunched figures could be seen to be rapidly approaching.

Meanwhile, inside the APC, Arthurs found that the keypad would not come on save to show an error message on its little screen. Arthurs cursed under her breath and started examining the contents of the refrigerator. Inside the refrigerator were a large number of glass vials. One shelf in particular was all bottles with the same label: FMA-36. Others were labelled with 'morphine' 'thorazine' and so on. Arthurs closed it with a frown.

"What could be taking them so long..." Andreus grumbled. He appeared to be quite agitated.

With a frown, Aurora said, "I think that Arthurs might be stuck in there. I think the doors closed by themselves. We should go out and help!" Thirty Camelias tried to move against her legs, giving her a warning soft growl.

"No, we should stay put." Andreus replied to Aurora, keeping a firm grip on her. "They'll work it out for themselves. They know what they're doing."

By this time, the other two soldiers had respectively picked up a G-3 and an M249, which they had used to great effect on the lurkers in the field. They were alert, tense and wary.

"Holy Mother of God, Sergeant," exclaimed the Corporal. "There's more, from our left flank, round the barn!" Indeed, there they came, ragged, bloody, mad eyes blazing, howling in rage at the mere sight of the Jaegers, and even as a thunderous rattle of opposing fire began to cut them down, they still kept coming. Klausner, seeing out of the corner of his eye some who had snuck through the tall grass of the field come clambering to their feet, reached for a grenade and wondered if they were perhaps crazy but not stupid.

Aurora exclaimed, "Andra, let me go! I really think she's trapped in there!"

"Fine. She's trapped. But you're not going anywhere." Andreus growled to Aurora. "I'll go."

Aurora gaped at him, but said nothing for the moment. She wondered what he was going to do...and indeed, what she had been about to do. Thirty Camelias seemed satisfied with the situation, however.

Andreus cocked his pistol for the umpteenth time and made his way out of the farmhouse towards the APC.

"Drag me out here... stupid death trap ornithopter... now I'm rescuing rescuers... knew we should've stayed at the palace." he muttered under his breath along the way.

Not knowing what else to do, Arthurs tried to shoot out the lock. Ping! Zam! Zoom! Ping! went the bullet, chasing around the inside of the APC.

Arthurs sighed, leaning against the wall. "Well, shit."

Outside, the soldiers were still firing at oncoming infected, one of them warning Andreus to watch for the enemy.

"Thankyou, I CAN see, you know?" the Prince replied in an angry, disdainful manner. "The enemy are your job, not mine."

"ARRRRGH!" screamed a wild eyed woman, a few feet away, leaping over a fence before being shot through the throat by the corporal. The field seemed to be attracting them; a nearby road had a pack of several of them, who went charging into the tall grass.

Andreus, still muttering under his breath, got to the APC door and tried to open it. The APC door did not respond. The sounds of firing were a cacophonic thunder around him along with savage moans and screams and muttered curses and shouts in German. Inside, Arthurs could hear someone trying to open the door. She tried each hatch, one by one. The hatches, however, did not respond. The calm voice now said, "Please enter the correct password."

"Putaine merde!" shouted Andreus indignantly, outside. "C'est quoi qu'elle veut pour moi pour faire? Bah!"

Arthurs walked over to the door, yelling as loud as she could. "Does anyone have a password?"

"What?" Andreus shouted back into the door, switching back to German.

"Your Highness, I need a Lavenrunzian password for this thing!" Arthurs shouted.

"What?" Andreus shouted back. "Something about a password?"

"I NEED A LAVENRUNZIAN PASSWORD!"

"There's never any need to abandon good manners you know." Andreus complained back into the door, before turning to the soldiers. "The lieutenant needs a password. Does this APC have a password?"

Inside the house, Thirty Camelias whirled as someone came banging in the front door. Streaking down the hall, she roared and tore down the first of the infected there. Aurora cursed and began to follow, cocking the pistol carefully.

Outside, Klausner, who was shouting, "Loading!" as the Corporal was firing a controlled set of bursts at infected people snarling and bursting out of the grass near the edge of the farm, "Ask the Empress, damn it!"

"Does nobody in this God forsaken place have any basic courtesy?" Andreus complained. He looked back at the door. "Sit tight in there!"

He made his way back to the farmhouse. From inside, he heard the chest shaking roar of Thirty Camelias and a loud crash, then a sharp report of a pistol.

"Merde... AURORA!" he shouted, racing in the door, pistol in hand. "Aurora!"

The infected were in the hallway, one of them grabbing at Thirty Camelias only to be ripped open at the abdomen as the leopard whirled in fury to strike with her huge claws. Aurora, behind her, was reloading, while a woman with the shreds of a nightdress snarling tried to move past two other bodies already bleeding thickly over the hall carpet. Andreus emptied the three remaining rounds in his revolver into the snarling woman, and raced past the carnage around Thirty Camelias to grab Aurora.

Aurora screamed just as she had clicked the speedloader home and whirled, aiming the barrel at Andreus' throat, then with wide eyes nearly collapsing. "I...n-nearly shot you!" she exclaimed, horrified.

Andreus caught her when she nearly collapsed, and hugged her quickly.

"The important thing is that you didn't." he said, intending to sound cool, although his voice was more than a little shaking.

The firing outside was nearly constant; clearly the soldiers were under continuous attack. Thirty Camelias remained twitchingly alert near the front door, ears moving like sonar arrays.

Andreus' eyes darted nervously about the farmhouse interior. Clearly this wasn't the safe haven he thought it was, but he had no idea what they should do.

"Arthurs... needs a password." he mumbled, trying to think of where Aurora could be secure.

"The PC requires a password?" Aurora asked. "Well...we should go out and take a look...oh my God, they're everywhere! Come on, we have no time to lose!" she flung herself from his arms and dashed from the farmhouse, running up to the APC.

"Crap. Come on, Thirty Carnations!" Andreus said needlessly to the leopard as he ran after Aurora.

Thirty Camelias flattened her ears but did follow, remaining by the back door in case more tried to come in through the front. Meanwhile, Aurora, frowning, searched around for an outside keypad.

"Loading!" shouted the corporal. He had to briefly lift his pistol to put a stop to one of them that was trying to crawl with useless dangling bloody legs. Klausner growled, "The sound is attracting them!"

Flipping open the keypad, Aurora punched in her Mastercode, hoping it would work. Inside, Arthurs heard the voice say, "Thank you, your Majesty" and everything began to turn on again. The bolts on the doors clicked, and the doors opened.

"It figures that the most courteous thing around here is a machine." Andreus muttered, looking inside.

Arthurs started to get out before pausing. "Your Majesty, as long as you have the password, we would be safest waiting for the evac inside the vehicle."

She leaped to the ground and began firing immediately at the zombies, covering Andreus and Aurora so they could get in.

Aurora jumped in and said, "Sergeant, the APC's working, we need to go!"

"Roger that, Majesty," muttered Klausner. "Alright, Private, fall back! Corporal, you go on my signal! Let's move!" With that, the Jaegers, firing steadily, moved towards the APC, getting inside just in time.

Arthurs jumped inside last, slamming the door and getting in the driver's seat. She grabbed the radio. "This is Lieutenant Arthurs. I have Her Majesty, His Highness, and three Jaegers."

"I'm moving along..." she gave the exact coordinates and requested the evac to pick them up, not where she originally asked, but in transit, as she drove at full speed away from the zombies.

Andreus grabbed Aurora and squeezed her reassuringly, although whether it was to calm her or to calm himself was unclear. It was probably a mixture of the two.

"Are you OK?" he asked her.

Several bumps and squalls from outside were heard as they rumbled out of the farmyard and towards the road. Aurora felt her breathing slowing. Thirty Camelias growled and lashed her tail, glaring.

"Yes, I'm fine... oh, Andra, this is an NBC vehicle of some kind, so we're quite safe in here. We have no weapons on it though." Aurora exclaimed, thinking quickly.

Andreus glanced at the growling leopard and wondered when she'd give it a rest. He was only hugging her for crying out loud! Arthurs waited for the conversation between the royal couple to die down before speaking. Andreus gazed at the leopard, and held Aurora in silence. He wondered whether Thiry Camelias could sense something bad about to happen.

"Your Highness, your humble servant apologizes most sincerely if she caused offence." Arthurs said to Andreus, keeping her eyes on the road. Her tone was polite and deferential, though she could hardly be called actually contrite.

"...understood," the radio response came. "We will rendevous you where Autobahn 11 meets Statsstrasse M-2. Over."

"I copy. Over." She drove that way.

"Be advised, you have hostiles in large numbers on your route. Over."

Arthurs frowned, keeping an eye out for hostiles, trying to dodge them even though she didn't see what they could do to the vehicle. "Understood. Over and out."

"Can she..." Andreus murmured to Aurora, ignoring Arthurs and indicating to Thirty Camelias. "...smell something, sense something, do you think?"

"Yes. We're not out of the woods yet." Aurora replied. She frowned. "Why are you being so touchy with my people, Andra?"

"I'm not being touchy." Andreus replied simply. "She's just acting like... I don't know... like she smells something inside the APC..."

From the driver's seat, Arthurs could see wreckage on the road, and scattered, startled looking crazies here and there, red eyes blazing. Arthurs dodged the wreckage and the zombies, pretending not to hear the conversation for the moment, or most of it anyway.

"No, really, there's nothing." said Aurora, who was starting to get a bit freaked out. "Leopards...all cats...do this when they are calming down."

Although he was on edge himself, Andreus realised that he was scaring Aurora with his talk, and so shut up again and gave her a rather embarrassing hug in front of the Jaegars. Arthurs just kept driving in silence towards the rendezous point.

OOC: Hmm, well this seemed like an interesting thread. Hope you don't mind my character starting out 'in-country' but if my government notices anything, well it won't say anything about it anyway.

I will now give a lecture on "the Use of Thermonuclear Warheads for fertilization of barren rock in the nude…
The electronic buzz of the alarm blew the dream out of his mind. Nathan looked up at the ceiling for a moment as his right hand attempted to find the off switch.

Where the hell…. Nathan turned his head and looked in the dim light for the alarm off button. His head began to pound, protesting the short night. Nathan snarled out an expletive as he tore the slide off the battery compartment and attempted to pry out the battery.

Finally Nathan, his eyes narrowed in pain and anger, whacked the clock against the edge of the nightstand. The battery went bouncing across the carpeted floor and under the bed. Nathan issued a groan, his mind noting through the cobwebs of fatigue that he likely need to retrieve the battery before a maid swept it up.

"The way people are around here, I bet the staff does actually give the room a thorough cleaning." He said to the small picture in the silver frame on the nightstand. Nathan smiled at the face of the attractive women looking back at him, now some two thousand miles on the other side of the world.

Nathan stood up and placed the picture back down. Then he looked at himself in the nearby mirror. It showed a man of medium height, medium build with dark brown hair, an unremarkable face, and blue eyes looking back. It also showed someone who was getting a bit paunchy around the middle. How the hell did that win her? Nathan shook his head and regarded the figure looking back at him in the dimly lit room. It was quite nice for a generic hotel room. Sometimes being a civilian can be quite nice Nathan thought as he recalled his quarters back on the Thunder Griffin were tiny in comparison to this space.

Nathan he walked across the room and pulled the curtain back from the window. He winced at the harsh glare of a day already in progress filled the room. In the Navy you would have been on your watch if your plane had two layovers in hell and you were twelve hours late in arriving. Yup, Commander Hassenbach would have no quarter from his superior officers for other people's mistakes. Doctor Hassenbach, Assistant Professor of Chemistry gets to sleep a few hours before doing the guest lecturer from Torrhall University bit. Discuss research with a few of my international colleges, present a paper to a bunch of half bored graduate students, and get on the flight home…Oh God

Nathan winced again as he realized that he still had to fly home on Deyllian Air. The doctor picked up the folder left for him at the front desk to distract him from pondering that horrid fate. The glossy blue had Willkommen Carlsbad in nice bold red letters printed on the front.

Nathan opened it and pulled out the altered schedule that some hardworking graduate student had typed the day, or night, before. Now all I have to do is remember that students are not supposed to salute me around here and I will be…damn…based on when I set the alarm…I've got twenty minutes to shower and dressed. And better wear something comfortable too, looks like I am going to be visiting both Universities today.

Nathan headed for the bathroom, pulling a bottle of aspirin out of his suitcase as he went by.
According to his schedule, he was to visit Saint Elizabeth's College first, which was a college specializing primarily in sciences and arithmetic.
On the news, Nathan heard that there had been some sort of biological outbreak, rumored to be ebola, somewhere near a small town called Dortmund, and that roads were being closed off by Statspolizei and the Army. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health reported that there was no cause for panic provided that people listened to public service announcements and obeyed proper authorities.

Nathen was quietly sitting in the taxi when he heard the news report over the radio. "Did they just say ebola?" He asked outloud.

The driver nodded and continued to take Nathen to Saint Elizabeth College Ebola, in Lavanrunz? What the hell? Nathen wasn't an expert on biology at all, however his dissertation had been on development of a reusable system for gas and biological attack based on using chemical absorbants placed between two plates of metallic fibers. By passing electricity through the fibers they had regenerated the absorbants with the resulting heat. Ebola had been one of the example biological weapons he had studied.

Ebola either has to have a human or primate host. So how in the hell did it show up in a country with no known primate population?

The taxi had stopped and the driver indicated Nathan should be getting out.
The doctor opened the door and handed the man some local currency, before turning and walking away. He was in his absent proffessor mind, trying to figure out who in the local area might be doing either primate research or deadly disease research. Unless the unthinkable had happened.
"Someone has weaponized ebola..." he said it quietly but out loud.

To: Imperial Communicable Disease Administration, Teutonic Empire of Lavenrunz

From: Ministry of Technology, Holy Empire of Excalbia

Subject: Contagious Disease Outbreak in Dortmund

Excellencies,

We have been monitoring the reported outbreak of an Ebola-like disease in the Dortmund region of the Teutonic Empire. While we have every confidence in the Teutonic Empire’s ability to deal with this emergency, we would like to offer our assistance.

The Imperial Institute for Disease Control and Prevention, operating under the Ministry of Technology, has had considerable experience in combating new and evolving communicable diseases. Our researchers, utilizing our advanced artificial intelligence network – known as D.A.I.N., successfully developed an antidote to an infectious spore deployed against Pantocratoria as a bioweapon. We have every hope that we could assist your own experts in containing this outbreak.

If you would like to accept our assistance, we would be prepared to immediately dispatch a field team of the IIDCP, complete with a mobile level-5 containment laboratory and an embedded D.A.I.N. Five.

Sincerest Regards,
Dr. Phil Howard,
Minister of Technology

Doctor Anna von Bradow, the Director of the ICDA, was agitated as she read the report, and nervously sipped from her coffee cup. This was people practically coming out of the woodwork. She called up Baron Shein.
"Shein," she said, after the opening pleasantries, "The Excalbians have offered the services of DAIn to help us. Have you briefed the Vice-Chancellor?"
"No." he replied tersely. "My advice is to delay and deny. We're still getting ready for our move."
"Ebola, Shein? For God's sake, of course people are offering to help...we can't keep this tight forever." protested Bradow.
"My dear Anna, you must calm down. I know you are relatively new to your office but consider: every case of ebola outbreak has simply...ended...in spite of all efforts to stop it. While we must do all we can to contain..."
"But Shein..." Bradow felt sweat beading her forehead. "You and I both know that this is not ebola."
"Yes." Shein said. "All the more reason to take my advice. Accidents happen, Anna, but it is how we respond to them that counts. I take it you have not briefed anyone...like your minister, for instance?"
"Sweet Mary, no." exclaimed Anna. "Good day, Shein."
"Anna."


Dear Doctor Howard

I am very grateful for your kind offer, which I have forwarded to my superiors in the Ministry of Health. Naturally a number of significant decisions have to be made at the highest levels of government to support any action we would undertake. I will be in touch with you and will make abundantly clear what will take place.
sincerely

Doctor Anna von Bradow
Director, ICDA

Baxter stood at the Taxi Rank of the Carlesbad Airport, waiting patiently in a line that seemed not to be moving at all. As he stood with his luggage, he found his thoughts drifting back to the woman with the open-backed dress.

Well, at least some things are the same as home, he thought.

In what seemed like no time to Baxter, he was almost at the front of the line. He wondered how long he had thought about the woman, and wether or not it was right to at all. Oh well, he wasn't in Lavenrunz to question his own morals, he reasoned.

Baxter was beginning to notice a few things about Lavenrunz. Everyone seemed so polite - not at all like Coquetvia. By now someone would have tried to push in to the taxi line, or offended someone or other by arguing about the price of the taxi, or the flight, or something just as tedious.

Not that Baxter minded his home country - not at all. A smart man like himself was able to make some good decisions there. But every so often, Baxter felt like he needed a break. Lavenrunz was clearly not a holiday, but Baxter already felt more relaxed.

"Where would you like to go today?" asked the taxi driver, politely as was now to be expected.

Baxter hopped in the car, and tried his best to be polite himself. "Dortmund, please."

"I'm afraid we're not allowed to go to Dortmund at the moment. Still off-limits due to that disease thing..." the driver said.

Baxter looked at the driver's licence display. Roger Palmington. Clearly an immigrant of some kind - all the locals have German names, Baxter thought to himself.

"Look Roger", Baxter said. "I want to go to Dortmund. How can I get there?"

"You can't I'm afraid. We are not allowed in that area. I can't drive you there," the foreign driver said. His patience and politeness obviously didn't stretch as far the average local.

"OK, OK. Just take me to the nearest hotel then..." Baxter said. The rest of the trip proceeded in silence.

Baxter found himself thinking what an odd place this Lavenrunz was turning out to be.

Citadel Excalbia, Captial of the Holy Empire of Excalbia

Dr. Phil Howard carefully set the letter on his desk and looked around his office. He let out a slow, painful sigh. Howard truly enjoyed being Minister of Technology. He had been a decent research scientist; steady and determined, but not creative. Once he moved into administration, however, he found his true calling – organizing research, setting goals, and collecting resources. In that way he always felt he was doing his best to advance the cause of science.

Now, sitting in his office with the Director of Imperial Intelligence and the Minister of Defence he felt incredibly out of place. He usually had few dealings with the “national security” side of the cabinet and it made him feel out of his depth.

“So,” Lady Gwyneth Hapsgaard said in an almost casual tone, “Dr. Howard, how do you read Dr. von Bradow’s reply?”

Howard slumped in his chair and scratched at his balding scalp. “Taken on the surface it certainly indicates an attachment to bureaucratic niceties over public health that one normally does not expect to see in someone holding Dr. von Bradow’s position.”

The Director of Imperial Intelligence nodded. “However,” she said, sounding like an attorney and former prosecutor, “the Lavenrunzians are known for holding to protocol. So it might not be so surprising.”

Lord Yornis Halton chewed his lip anxiously. “You said ‘on the surface,’ Doctor. Looking below the surface what do you see here?” The Defence Minister leaned back in his chair and fumbled for the cigar he knew he could not smoke in the Technology Minister’s office.

Howard tried to think around what he wanted to say, but soon gave up. “If such a statement came from my Ministry, it would mean only one thing – something had happened that we wanted to keep from international attention.”

“And what sort of a thing might that be, Doctor?” Lord Halton leaned forward to wait for Howard’s answer.

“It could be many things,” Howard said, scratching the back of his neck. “It could be an accidental release of bioweapon, a breech in containment at a disease research center or something unknown to them.”

“If it were unknown to them, Doctor, wouldn’t they ask for help?” The Defence Minister held his unlit cigar as he posed the question.

“Lord Halton,” the intelligence chief spoke before Howard could answer, “if some unknown contagion were afflicting the Holy Empire, would you throw open the gates to any and all nations offering help? Not knowing whether it was a natural occurrence or an attack? Not knowing whether they might be involved with the perpetrators? Not knowing whether you might be exposing them to an incurable disease?”

Halton stared at director for several moments before looking down. “You may have a point, Lady Gwyneth.”

“I know I do,” she said with a smug but charming smile. “In any case, there is nothing for us to do now except to monitor the situation and issue a travel advisory for the affected area.”

“We have issued a health alert, my Lady,” Howard said, “and we’ve asked the Ministry of State to issue a travel warning. I believe they’ll be issuing it later today.”

“Good. Let us know if there are any new developments.”

The Volksraad, Hofburg, Lavenrunz (also heard on the radio by Baxter, Archbishop Kronstein and Nathan)

The President glanced up and intoned, "The President recognizes the Leader of the Official Opposition."
"Thank you, Madame President." said Helga Dresden, removing her spectacles and rising. "Madame President, the Government apparently has a crisis going on in the north, near Carlsbad...around the town of...Dortmund. The crisis has been stated to be...ebola." she looked around ironically. "Ebola. And I would like to know if the Minister of Health would answer this question: how did this happen?"

Doctor Erich Frank, slightly portly, round faced, grave as a walrus, rose and said, "Madame President, unfortunately we believe the source may have been foreign, but we are investigating at this time. Agents of the ICDA supported by the War Department's NBC Special Response Force are on the site right now."

"This has nothing," said Helga in acid tones, "To do with the Minister's appalling record, cutting out what little remained of Lavenrunz's healthcare system and public watchdogs on medical and biological research?"

Doctor Frank's brow was beaded with sweat, but unfortunately it often was and so this indicated nothing. "I should like to remind the Leader of the Opposition, Madame President, that the economic state of Lavenrunz has been an entire mishmash since the so called government of Mirbach, and that in the necessary steps taken by Chancellor Schlabel, taxes have been reduced by more than 68 percent. The social programs' loss that you deplore was a confusion of UN insistence and Mirbach's incompetence. We are responding to the needs of the people. Will the Leader of the Opposition kindly let the government get on with it?"

Carlsbad, Lavenrunz

Baxter found himself driven up to the Landgrave Hotel, which was a handsome stone and brick building facing an area of pleasant looking shops. A young man in a dark blue uniform hurried out from the awning and stood near the taxi, politely bowing and offering to help with luggage. The taxi driver, foreign status notwithstanding, had shrewdly assessed the hotel most affordable by Baxter. However, Baxter could also soon see that he would have no trouble getting a room; a number of university professor types who had booked into the hotel for a series of lectures were leaving, crowding the lobby with luggage and nervous glances, calling for taxis and demanding to use phones.

Escaping from the farm in the APC, Andreus, Aurora, Lieutenant Arthurs and the Jaegers passed down a tree lined boulevard, when something heavy thumped onto the roof of the APC.

"What was that?" Andreus murmured.

"Brace yourselves." Arthurs said, waiting only a few seconds before slowing abruptly to throw whatever was on the roof off and in front of the vehicle, though she didn't come to a complete stop. They could hear a snarling cry as something went tumbling, and Arthurs briefly saw through the lexan window of the APC a body flailing tumble past her eyes. Thirty Camelias growled. Arthurs gave it just a few seconds to give any sign that it was a living person. They could at that moment hear hands pounding on the sides, hear weird moaning wails and cries.

A red eyed face appeared suddenly as the person, in stained combat BDUs leaped up onto the nose of the APC. Arthurs slammed on the gas, driving away from the hands on the sides a good distance before slamming on the brakes again, this time following that action by quickly running over the thing. There was a bump and rumble of the APC as it rode over something lumpy under it, and they heard a terrible cry as they did. Aurora winced and put a hand to her mouth. Andreus squeezed Aurora reassuringly. "Go, Lieutenant, go!" encouraged Sergeant Klausner.

"They can't get us in here." he told her, glancing at the sergeant as if for confirmation.

"No, Highness, they can't. This is part of the nuclear arsenal!" said Klausner nodding firmly.

Arthurs slammed on the gas again, getting out of there as fast as possible.

"See? We're perfectly safe." he told Aurora.

Aurora looked at him, and then at the Sergeant. "Sergeant? Are we perfectly safe?"

Andreus mouthed the word "Yes!" to the Sergeant.

"Er...no, Majesty." said Klausner. "There are always possibilities that we need to consider, which is why I have the corporal doing an inventory of the contents of the APC."

Andreus sighed a little. There was such a thing as being too dedicated. A little white lie would make everybody feel a lot better. He gave Aurora another gentle squeeze anyway - he couldn't really do much else to reassure her. Arthurs sped down the road, heading for the rendezvous.

As Arthurs drove, and Aurora was saying, "Well, what do we have?" she heard a rather irritating beeping sound from near the dash. Arthurs looked for the source of the noise.

"Do you have any more rifles?" Andreus asked the sergeant. "I'd be rather more comfortable with one of them than this revolver..."

"We have our G-11s, Highness, though they lack stopping power." Klausner blushed, it had been one of the attempts at saving money for the War Department made by Claudia der Waal's government but he hoped the Empress heard his oblique criticism. "However, we do have a SPAS-12 shotgun in here, as well as an MP-5. Maybe Your Majesty might like the latter?"

As he spoke, Lieutenant Arthurs could see that the gas was in the red.

"Just lovely..." Arthurs said sharply.

"What is it, your Honour?" asked Klausner in a tense voice, going up to the driver's section.

"We're almost out of gas." she answered, grabbing the radio. "This is Arthurs. We might be running out of fuel short of the arranged rendevous. Request rendezvous closer to our current position. Over."

Andreus rose from his seat to help himself to the shotgun - it felt a lot more like a hunting gun. He overhead the conversation up in the driver's section, scowled and shook his head. He sat back down next to Aurora and checked how much ammunition he had.

"Lieutenant, you are within about seven klicks of rendezvous position, over." came a voice amid crackles and hissing.

"We'll see if we can make it. I'm not sure how low we are or what kind of mileage this thing gets. Over and out."

Klausner looked over her shoulder and growled, "Lieutenant, we are coasting on fumes. We need to find a safe place to get out and hump there."

"Wait, is hump there gorilla for walking?" Andreus said, getting to his feet urgently. "We can't walk there in the middle of these... whatever they are. Get back on the radio and tell them that you have the Empress on-board, dammit!"

"There aren't safe places around here, Sergeant. I intend to get every inch of safe travel for Her Majesty out of this thing before we have to leave it." she answered, knowing that was another minute or two tops.

"Corporal, get all the gear we can scavenge from this thing. We are going to leave the vehicle in two minutes!" said Klausner in a ringing voice of authority. "Majesty..." his voice softened but was firm. "Time to go."

"I told them, Your Highness."

The Jaegers' faces closed as they heard the Prince's comments. The Empress frowned. "She's doing her best, Andra." she said in a disapproving voice.

"I know she's doing her best." Andreus nodded. "But I'm sorry, there is no way that the best option is us walking the rest of the way, out of the protection of the APC! Why can't they send another APC in to pick us up?"

"If they had another APC in the area, they would send it, Your Highness."

"Lieutenant." said Aurora in her clear young voice. "Can we simply wait in the APC until they pick us up here?"

"Well, Your Majesty, that depends on how smart they are and how numerous. They could knock over or move an immobile APC and possibly even breach one."

"Well, lieutenant, can you get on the radio and find out what they do have?" Andreus asked Arthurs. He glanced at Klausner. "Taking the Empress outside isn't an option."

Arthurs grabbed the radio again. "Do you have any means of directly extracting us from our present location? This is a personal inquiry from the Prince Consort. Over."

"What is your current position on the grid? Over." came the reply. "We have sent AWACs up and require your confirmation."

Arthurs gave their exact position.

"Very well...we are keeping you in site. Evacuation unit will be there in ten minutes. Out."

"So they do have something then." Andreus sighed in relief, sitting back down next to Aurora.

Arthurs released the now useless controls to the vehicle with no fuel, readying her gun and waiting. In the tense quiet that followed, Klausner advised them not to make too much noise. The infected people might avoid them if they just seemed to be a big object. Thirty Camelias had her ears moving back and forth, listening but now sitting quietly on the floor of the APC. Arthurs glanced back towards the royal couple, smiling reassuringly. Andreus nodded to her. She'd almost got them out. Almost.

Aurora smiled back at Arthurs. What a good person. To be so loyal to a sovereign not her own. How can I reward her? she thought. She squeezed Andreus' hand discreetly. Andreus squeezed back, and gave Aurora a knowing look, and a wink. Arthurs waited in silence as the minutes passed, relieved but a little worried that no zombie activity seemed to be taking place outside. She could see a number of them moving in the fields, but as she saw them she also saw three helicopters hurtling through the sky at a distance, heard the deep thwapping of their rotors. Aurora's face lit up. Arthurs waited for it, moving one hand to the latch as she watched for the helicopters to land.

Andreus lightly set aside Aurora's hand, and made his way over to Arthurs. He put her hand on her shoulder and whispered to her.

"If something happens to me outside, get the Empress onto the choppers. I don't trust Sergeant Gung-ho Moron here to not get her killed." he whispered to her very quietly. "I want you to personally take charge of her safety."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to either of you, Your Highness. I promise."

Andreus nodded to Arthurs and made his way back to Aurora's side, shotgun loaded and ready. The two Valkyr Attack Helicopters, lean and deadly looking like giant metal insects, began to open fire on the zombies in the fields, gatling guns sending bits of them flying.

Meanwhile the Fledermauss send a cyclone of dust up as it began to land on the road near the helicopter. The radio crackled. "This is Herzog-3, Lieutenant. Bring your people out!"

Arthurs flew open the door and came out first. Taking point, she ran across the field, gesturing the soldiers into flanking positions. When they arrived at the helicopters, she moved to the side, covering the royal couple while waving them in first. They could see the tailgunner had jumped out and was also covering them with an HK-21 gpmg, grim looking in his helmet and goggles waving them in. Also a pair of Imperial Jaegers were assisting, covering the other side. Andreus took a firm grip of Aurora's hand and kept her close by. It wasn't clear how he intended to fire his shotgun with only one free hand, but he held it in the other hand anyway as they made their way into position.

Aurora got in, pulled by the hand of Colonel von Paderborn, who looked pale but relieved. "Thank God Your Majesty is safe! We must leave immediately."

Andreus climbed in after her, setting the shotgun aside once inside. Arthurs hopped in after Aurora and Andreus. The helicopter took off once the crew were inside, and they could see the abandoned vehicle soon to be swarmed over by shambling lurching forms before a barrage of rockets blew them to hell, then smoke veiled the scene.

Sweeping off towards Carlsbad, the helicopters began to veer away... Aurora murmured, "When we get back I want to know what is going on."