As the convoy was approaching its first check-in point of the day, Cade cast a glance over his left shoulder at the new CO who was still busy familiarizing herself with the equipment on the bridge. When he'd digested the manifest the evening prior and seen that their assigned officer hadn’t a day of field service to their name, he’d been tempted to write them off. The cynical boy holed up in his mother’s workshop threatening to rear his ugly head. But then he’d just as quickly changed gears and tried approaching the unexpected development from another more positive angle.

That an influx of young prospects into the least desirable sector of the LCF could jumpstart much needed changes for the organization down the road. Changes that would otherwise take an agonizingly long time to pass under the purview of the many old men and women entrenched in the CoT&C. A big leap to make based on one possibly misinformed girl, but Cade was making an effort to be more optimistic. Anything to help balance out Lux who had to be the most cynical person he knew after himself.

In an effort to reel in his suddenly lofty expectations for the girl behind him, Cade returned his attention to the task at hand. On this day that task just so happened to be piloting the Crusader. Something that admittedly gave him the slightest bit of unease, but only because it had been a long time since he'd taken on the piloting aspect of this job.

According to LCF guidelines every Crusader making up a convoy needed to meet a basic crew requirement before being cleared for departure. That meant two engineers per Crusader, one to serve as pilot and another to oversee the engine room downstairs. They’d then work in unison by using the speaking tube that connected the bridge and engine room respectively.

The need for Cade's unwonted presence on the bridge this time around stemmed from his field service qualifications and work history, or more accurately his counterpart's lack of a particular qualification. Because in spite of the LCF's desperate need for personnel in general, many convoys still carried qualification requirements for some of the positions on crew rosters. This convoy requiring its pilots to carry at least a class B operating license, not uncommon when it came to convoys carrying heavier cargo. More so if the route being used had stretches of hazardous terrain that required delicate maneuvering.

Although in this instance Cade held a healthy suspicion that the class B license had more to do with optics than procedure. Yes the trees were heavy, really fucking heavy actually, but on this route that added weight would work in the convoys favor. As a brief look at the upcoming region's topography would show, a steady decline awaited them beyond the third check-in point. And Crusaders, being FWD, would have been at a disadvantage going downhill without the added weight. That weight also offset any potential problems related to the Crusaders handling by eliminating the issue of understeering.

So while on paper a sound argument could technically be made, in reality Vedmann's class C operating license should be more than qualified for navigating this route. But that wasn’t the main issue here. That real sticking point arising from the current leadership’s recent shift to isolationist persuasion. A fancy way of saying that the heads of the church took issue with the ongoing inundation of "nonconformists" taking advantage of a chance to relocate to the Commonwealth's newest city. That chance being the presence of a Crusader Station and a spot under the Luridian umbrella.

As efforts had been made to appease the church and tone down discussions of withdrawal from Luridia, it would be troublesome if city officials found out the engineer with a higher operating license had been designated to the engine room. A decision if skewed hard enough that could be interpreted as putting the cargo at unnecessary risk. With that in mind Cade could only imagine how thoroughly the condition of the timber would be scrutinized upon arrival.

Long story short, Cade was piloting and not happy about it. Not one to hide his frustrations very well, he briefly considered if his negative aura was the reason for the new girl's relative silence up to this point. And while he was comfortable with silence, he knew that a bulk of people associated silence with unspoken unease or tension. Not how he remembered or would have wanted his first convoy going.

"Villard was it?"

The girl jumped slightly at the unexpected ice breaker before turning in Cade's direction. He on the other hand remained facing forward as he did not subscribe to taking one’s eyes of the road for non-emergencies, let alone idle conversation. Sensing he had her attention and confirming with the reflection off to his side, Cade continued.

"We’ve got a little time before the first scheduled check-in, feel free to move about the Crusader. Maybe explore a bit. If you’re concerned about time you can always take a headset or leave one with me."

She hesitated in her response.

"Sorry, are you trying to get rid of me or would familiarizing myself with the Crusader at this stage be beneficial?"

Cade broke out into an unexpected fit of laughter at the forwardness of her reply. A full genuine laugh normally reserved for downtime before or after convoys, never during. He wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"To answer your question, a little bit of both."

Discerning she required a more thorough explanation to justify leaving her post, Cade explained.

"As you may have already surmised, I'm not much of a people person. Thought I'd spare you from being cooped up in the bridge with me. And while familiarizing yourself with the Crusader is all well and good, I'd recommend you go familiarize yourself with the people first. Don't even need to speak with them if you don't want to, although I sense that won't be problem for you. At any rate, it'll be good for you in the long run to see how the other divisions go about their jobs, even in the preparation stages. Trust me."

He watched in the reflection as she considered his words before nodding in agreement.

"I'll be taking the headset then. And thanks for the advice.”

Striding purposefully toward the doorway the young CO stopped prior to exiting.

“Oh, and as someone with plenty of experience with the reputed ‘non-people persons’, you're plenty competent per current social standards."

"Alright, get out of here. I've already reached my quota for laughing today and I don't intend on working any overtime."

With that Cade watched as she exited the bridge and ventured out onto the back deck. He imagined she’d linger there for awhile, a way to ensure she could return quickly if anything did come up.

"Heh, maybe both of our first convoys won't be so different after all..."

*

It was quiet, but an acceptable amount of quiet, the kind field service personnel wouldn't take issue with. That was because, courtesy of the aeriform engine, Crusaders were relatively silent. It didn't matter how many of these suckers you lined up for a convoy, the overall noise level would always remain around 60-65 decibels.

People with very little experience around Crusaders often found this disturbing, that such large vehicles could produce so little sound. Whether or not some sort of apparatus should be implemented to intentionally make Crusaders louder would on occasion make its rounds at LCF council meetings. Not that it ever went anywhere.

A good thing, since Lux and a majority of field service personnel welcomed the silence of Crusaders. Not exactly a controversial opinion given ease of verbal communication was imperative for the survival and success of understaffed crews. Hence the creation and regular application of callouts to better combat visits and approaches by raiding parties.

But that silence, paired with the often-monotonous scenery between stations, also tended to afflict Lux in a unique way. And even after a year of symptoms she hadn’t the slightest idea what it was, only that it started shortly after joining field service and that it was growing in frequency. It would crop up on occasions when Lux found her gaze wandering above the horizon, she’d suddenly experience an emotion akin to anticipation so strongly that it threatened to overwhelm her. The sensation would come and go in an instant, but it often left her needing to process her surroundings all over again. Like all the context she needed to operate needed a moment to return to her.

Somehow it didn’t impact her work much. If anything increasing her vigilance as whenever the inclination struck it felt as if all of her senses noticeably sharpened. Or maybe widened was a better way to describe it. Whatever it was it didn’t look all that impressive to bystanders, having been accused by an assortment of colleagues of spacing out on the job. A serious offense for security officers on rotation. Lux supposed she should just be glad everyone was on top of things enough to notice and complain. Even if their misplaced concerns were promptly squashed by an immediate reaction on her part.

Speaking of crew members liable to call Lux on her shit, Cade was piloting today. Something she’d only ever seen on one other occasion. Wanting to take advantage of this rare opportunity she approached the front window from her current spot on the front deck. Naturally she couldn’t just tap the glass like one would a fish. No, Lux wanted to be more creative in her attempt at peering through and harassing him. Did she say harass? Lux would never harass Cade, this was more like teasing or subtle flirting between close friends. After all, if he really was piloting in there he must be unhappy about it. Might as well lift the man's spirits before next rotation.

Lux began her impromptu endeavor by going around to the side of bridge, escaping Cade's immediate field of vision, and in a show of equal parts athleticism and maneuverability used the railing as a launch point to grab the top edge of the bridge with both hands. She proceeded to effortlessly lift herself on top of the bridge, taking care to hoist herself up without making any obvious noises.

Glancing around she saw that aside from her the only other thing to speak of was the antenna for sending and receiving transmissions. Making a mental note of its position, in case shit went south when she was up here, Lux shifted her attention to the rest of the convoy. Without thinking she found herself assessing the current positions of all the other Crusader's security personnel. And apart from the dumbass currently slinking around the roof of bridge, was happy to report that everyone was in position.

It was as she began bear crawling her way towards the front of the bridge that Lux felt a pair of eyes watching her from the convoy. Turning towards the source, she made eye contact with another security officer aboard the adjacent Crusader in the formation. Sensing his internal debate over whether to report her antics, Lux gave the universal "zip it" motion and stared a few daggers for good measure. When this didn't seem to register as a convincing argument Lux resorted to pulling rank and yanked her sharpshooting qualification from her belt just to gesture towards it.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The idea being that crawling across the top the bridge was actually a strategic move to gain a better sharpshooting position. To emphasize this hastily put together ruse she even gestured toward the rifle on her back with her thumb. Either not wanting to make something out of nothing or deciding it best not to draw unnecessary attention, the officer opted to humor her explanation and offered a thumbs up before resuming his own responsibilities.

With that settled Lux expeditated her efforts, realizing Cade will have noticed her prolonged absence from the front deck and begun forming theories. Alas, he turned out to be quicker on the uptake than her today. Just before she could lower herself far enough to make her presence known through the front window, several bangs reverberated from under her left leg.

"Lux, get your ass in the bridge! HC wants to hold a group call!"

Lux made sure reach down just far enough that she could give Cade the finger before retracing her crawls and dropping down onto the back deck instead of the front. Nearly landing on Esma who’d been making her way back into the bridge, probably also in response to Flan’s transmission. Poor girl fell backwards and hit the deck butt first, more startled than anything.

"Look alive Esma, the current position of the sun should have given my shadow away for a second."

Reaching down Lux pulled Esma up with one hand while using the other to grab the headset from around her neck. Hopping over the ladder way, she strode into the bridge fiddling with the headset as she got it into a comfortable position on her head.

"Stop sowing chaos aboard my Crusader woman."

Cade said as he removed the headset he'd been wearing and gestured for Esma to take it.

"I don’t see your name on it, man."

Lux waved off his protests and got comfortable at the communication equipment. Retrieving the headset from Cade, Esma rubbed the portion of her rear that had taken the brunt of the fall.

"I know I told you to see how the other divisions conducted themselves during convoys, but go ahead and disregard blatant rule violations based on misplaced sympathy."

Esma glanced at the security officer commandeering her equipment from the corner of her eye.

"I don't think I'm bold or skilled enough to replicate the violations Lux just committed."

"Both those things are subject to change, give it time!"

Evidently Lux felt it necessary to yell that since she had an ear inhibited by one side of the headset.

"I think I’d rather aspire to staying on my feet for the duration of a convoy. Fall just now aside, I wasn’t confident enough in my footing to even attempt crossing the platform."

"Baby steps."

Cade’s version of encouragement, although it would have carried more weight with a touch of eye contact. Esma appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

"Literally."

*

"Before I get started, are all comms officers and security representatives present in the call?"

A wave of confirmations rang out over the appointed frequency as Flannery retrieved her notes.

"Then let's get down to business. Now it goes without saying that the church wants its cargo delivered intact. They're also acutely aware that a vocal portion of the citizenship is actively trying to undermine this objective. As such the new joint government has instituted martial law in areas leading to and surrounding the station. To take things a step further they've placed temporary travel restrictions on the entire city. No doubt an attempt to prevent direct negotiations between the growing number of anti-faith circles and raiding party's or mercenary groups.”

"And when did these travel restrictions take effect?"

[Breccan Yulent, 24, Communications Division]

"Day before yesterday."

"Lot of good that does us, I don’t know why they even bothered."

"None whatsoever. On that note we’ve already gotten confirmation that two separate anti-faith factions made arrangements to have members whisked away from the city nearly a full week ago."

"Care to explain why we're only hearing about this now? And how could they have prepared so far in advance?"

[Youn Sigurd, 20, Security Division]

"As I'm sure you're aware the Council of Mitigation is hardly transparent when it comes to explaining its methodologies, and an order this large would’ve had to been placed months ago. Plenty of time for information to leak to the public through unofficial channels."

"Don't go biting Flan's head off Youn. Or did you miss the part where we established it was the church's fault for being too naive."

The saying “don’t shoot the messenger” came to mind.

"Glad to see you're here Lux, I'm sure you can tell us a thing or two about the CoM's methodologies."

"That’s enough both of you. Now pay attention. We've been informed that one of these two factions has been in contact with the raiding party Quiet Murn. By all accounts it seems the two sides came to an agreement of sorts. Whether that agreement includes a joint ride along remains to be seen."

As everyone digested the new information Breccan spoke up once again.

"Such information could only be made available if the CoM had a person on the inside, but placing someone among the newly sprouted factions in advance is next to impossible. Meaning they must of taken advantage of an established member who’d begun to question their groups means to an end."

"That would make sense, yes. And with all the rumors of New Kantler pushing the Commonwealth to secede from Luridia, it should come as no surprise that the Council has resources operating within the city capable of swaying a member or two."

"Any word on the other faction? I find it unlikely the CoM wouldn't cover all its bases."

"As of yet we have no word on the other anti-faith faction. With so many in the city to keep tabs on it’s not impossible they lost track of them."

Youn was beside himself at the mere implication.

"Lost track of them?! What did they sneak out the back door?!"

In stark contrast to C384’s security representative, the CO beside him spoke with composure.

"Any updates on recent party activity outside of what we discussed this morning?"

[Quoral Reefe, 30, Communications Division]

"Hey now, not all us attend comms officers anonymous! Fill us in on this recent party activity first!"

"Reefe, I need you to reach over and throttle Youn. For my sake and the sake of getting through this call quicker."

"Lux that’s not helping."

Flannery was beginning to remember why group transmissions were so few and far between.

"Reefe, if you could share the main points from earlier before we continue."

Esma perked up over comms, also curious about the contents of the earlier meeting. She really should have followed up on that during her introduction with the HC.

"Of course. According to recent reports from convoys in the region, the raiding party Needless Frenzy has been especially active. Seems they aren't picky when it comes to choosing targets."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about any raiding party's that aren't up to speed on the current political fiasco. More so since words already out that we're transporting Cinnabark."

"Breccan's right, the dimensions and weight of the cargo make grabbing it and escaping more trouble than it's worth."

"All the more reason to be wary of Quiet Murn. If they did in fact get hired by the anti-faith faction, then theoretically they only need to worry about destroying the cargo or turning us around."

While keeping tabs on the sway of the conversation, Esma simultaneously focused on wrapping her head around each of the main players and their respective motivations. Her first thought being it was unwise to dismiss Needless Frenzy or any other supposed uninformed third parties as a direct threat. It also didn't sit well with her that one of the anti-faith factions remained unaccounted for. Both factions had predicted and escaped the impending restrictions placed by the church, which meant their leaders were at the very least forward thinking. And it would be naive to assume that either faction would have expended the necessary resources to escape without a plan for afterwards. Esma’s attention was then pulled back into the group transmission when a new voice made its presence known.

"That's enough speculation for now, whether it’s one of the factions or a raiding party doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is how we respond to it."

Flannery side-eyed the man stood beside her.

"With all due respect Commander Heenan, our responses will need to vary depending on if any of the groups collaborate in some way”

[Heenan Larkspur, 35, Convoy Commander].

She’d correctly assumed he'd barge into the conversation at some point. Even considered turning off his headset just before the group transmission started.

"Any aggressors that meet the rules of engagement will be dealt with all the same. If anything I'd consider it a boon if either faction proves foolish enough to ride along. Let the raiding parties believe it will offer them protection."

The implications of the Convoy Commander's words left little to interpretation, and while some crew members already anticipated the possibility, it was still a discomforting precedent everyone present preferred to avoid.

For starters, the security representatives couldn't just tell their colleagues they had the green light to shoot indiscriminately, but they also had no way of knowing if it would be possible to differentiate combatants in the heat of a raid. Assuming they did manage to confirm civilian casualties after the fact, it’s not like the current New Kantler administration would make a fuss about its opposition dying. Whereas it would most definitely be a bad look for the LCF. In other words, any degree of faction involvement would be a win-win for the new joint government.

"If you're telling the security officers it’s OK to kill civilians then say it directly please. It would be cruel and impractical if they have to decipher your expectations of them amidst combat."

Lux looked on in mild disbelief at the source of the voice coming from beside her. It took some serious guts to talk that way to a superior your first day on the job. Not that she was one to talk.

"Officer please identify yourself."

The Commander's voice sounded more annoyed than angry, but still carried an edge to it.

"Esma Villard, communications officer onboard C248."

A brief pause, most likely the Commander needing a moment to do a mental run down of the crew roster. For what it’s worth, Esma sure didn't seem too worried from Lux's vantage point. More locked in than anything.

"Miss Villard, for future reference I'd advise you to show more care in the way you address your superiors. You may find you don’t agree with what’s being said but understand it comes from a place of experience far greater than your own."

"With all due respect sir, my intentions revolved solely around clarification. I'm well aware of..."

"Miss Prentice, I think it best if we skip ahead. Please inform those present of the decision passed by the new joint government moments ago."

"..."

Flannery had hoped the group could come to a consensus regarding the possible involvement of the anti-faith factions without having to share this bit of troublesome news. In hindsight her choice of security representatives may have been counterproductive to that cause.

Sensing and not appreciating the hesitation of his HC, Commander Heenan took it upon himself to repeat the recent bit of news.

"Henceforth, any civilians who attempt to impede the import of state-owned resources or act in accordance with raiding party's and mercenary groups with the intent of carrying out similar actions will be denounced as terrorists and stripped of their protections of state."

Heenan let that bit of news sink in before continuing.

"The new joint government has also reaffirmed the stance that neither the LCF nor the city of New Kantler will be negotiating nor acting in the interest of said terrorists."

Lux watched as Esma removed her headset and uttered a few choice words under her breath. Turning to Cade, who she knew had been trying to follow along from the controls, Lux summed up the course of the group transmission in three words.

"I hate politics."