Written by Angel of Death. Posted on Feb 3, 10:36 PM.

Come Aboard the Vagabond: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The doomsday meeting.

As Helen Corben exited Drez Naval Headquarters, she whore an unreadable poker face. But behind that, she was thinking very fast, about the situation and what she could do. She had just been told that even thought the country was being invaded, those assigned to the Victory Project were to continue working as usual.

“What to do? What to do?”

Thinking that, she headed towards the HQ’s parking lot.

Clad in the Drezdean green Naval uniform, Helen had long light brown hair that went to the middle of her back. It was arranged so that it covered the left side of her face, already mostly covered by a large black eye patch. That left her with her right brown eye. She had three long scars running vertically across that side of her face. She had gotten these scars during a skyship battle. In that same battle, she had also lost her left arm. She had gotten a replacement shortly after thought. You couldn’t see it because of the gloves she whore and the uniform, but her left arm was a nerve connected and fully mobile prosthetic, made of a very resistant composite alloy. With it, she could easily crush bones, but she kept it tuned down to match the strength of her real arm.

When she got into her red car, she propped her forehead on the steering wheel, her poker face changing into a frown, and continued thinking for a bit. She wasn’t fighting, and she wasn’t going to prepare to fight either. For Rosbar to make such a move, the rumors about how far they were with their own rearmament program must have been more than just rumors. Frederick Anastasius, Rosbar’s Fuehrer, wasn’t known for bluffing. And it was improbable that the Northern Alliance was going to come to their aid: Drezdea wasn’t worth it, even if its citizen would like to think otherwise.

So, the country was going down, she would probably soon found herself without a job, maybe worst, and there was nothing she could do about it… if she stayed a good little captain, that is. Luckily for her, she didn’t feel like it anymore.

“Maybe it’s really time to get the hell out of here.”

She had been thinking about it since this morning, when Rosbarian fleet movements had been noticed. She knew the right people, and with the army mobilized, there were only a handful of soldiers left in the capital as a security force. If she wanted it, she could do it. Did she want to do it?

…

A shark smile appeared on her face. Damn right she did! She was going to steal that ship!

But first….

“Let’s go have a talk with that Chief Engineer!” she said out loud, a big smile plastered on her face, while starting her car. She took the direction of the Guevlar Sky Shipyards.

***************

Nicolas Stalin was having a nice day. Even when his neighbor told him that the country was at war, again, his mood didn’t falter. First, is bike engine didn’t act up like it usually did when he went to the store that morning. Also, since the plumber had finally dropped by yesterday, he had been able to enjoy a non ice-cold shower in his own apartment this morning for the first time in, what, two years? Even the music on the radio was less crappy than usual. Finally, even though he wasn’t outside right now, the weather was great, and that was always a plus.

Nicolas was rather a nice person when you considered how much shit he had to put up with in his 17 years life. First, his mom died during the pandemic when he had been two years old, leaving him with his father, who hadn’t been really that successful in relationships to begin with. His mom had been the real thing to him. Thus, the closest thing he had to a mom was his best friend’s sister.

Then, three years ago, his father had to leave the country, abandoning him, when he was found out to be helping smugglers getting their cargo inside the country. Their house and most of their belongings were seized. Having no family left in the country, he was left in charge of the state until his 18th birthday. That meant they paid his apartment rent and that he received a barely sufficient monthly allowance, as long a he was in high-school. School was another of is problems. He was all good when it came to mathematics, but when it came to reading and writing, well, he couldn’t write an essay to save his life. The way things were going, he would end up being a janitor or something. There was another option he could take, join the Battle Armors pilots academy. He had taken the selection test last spring, and somehow had done pretty well. But he didn’t like the army enough to join it. Being a janitor was going to have to do!

As crappy his life was, there were good things too. He had his sky board. He liked, no, loved the feeling that flying with it gave him. Then, there was also the Corben family. They were the closest thing he had to a family, and if he really needed someone, they were there. Victor Corben was the one who paid for his bike, thought he suspected he did it so that he could drive his youngest daughter around.

Speaking of Victor’s youngest daughter, she was one of the most flagrant cases of irony that Nicolas had been given to live with. She was his only friend that was a girl and she was far from ugly, in fact he considered her quite cute. She also had a nice personality. His problem was that she liked girls more than boys!
He could swear that every time he thought about it, he could hear laughter coming from somewhere.

But still, having Illie as a friend was nice.

Other than Illie, the guys he hung out with were all boarders like him.

That day, around 3 pm, he was sitting in his living room, zapping through the few channels he had, when his cell phone rang from somewhere in his room.

“Haaaa, damn. Where is it!?”

“Come on, come on, answer!”

“Maybe he’s out and he left his phone home?” Horatio said tentatively.

“I hope not.” Illie said, pouting.

Just then, Nicolas answered.

“Hello!?”

He sounded a little out of breath.

“Hi Nick! Did you… just arrive home?”

“Hey, Illie. Herrr, no, my cell phone was nowhere to be found, had to look for it. Say, how did that little hunt go?”

“Could have been better. I got bitten in the face.”

“Well, I can think of worse places to get bitten. Is it going to leave a scar?”

“Probably. Had to go get stitches since there was a small chunk missing. Wouldn’t have been a good idea to try and heal it with magic. Are you doing something for the rest of the day?”

“I was thinking about going to the boarding spot after diner. Other than that, I got nothing planed.”

“Do you want to come eat diner at our house? Nathan is going to make lasagna.”

“Sounds ok! Can I come over right now?”

“Yeah. We are on the road, but we should be there a few minutes before you.”

“Ok. Bye.”

“Bye.”

**********

Victor Corben’s house was in the outskirts of Drez. It was a one-and-a-half story house with an L layout. The house wooden siding was dark green, and its roof was brown. There was a roofed gallery that spanned the entire front of the house. On the right side of the house was a large stone chimney.

The Corbens had no immediate neighbors. The house was encircled by a thick ring of birches and maples. At the back of the house there was a swimming pool of decent size, while in front there was a large plain dirt alley with enough place for several vehicles. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was comfortable.

Nathan’s jeep drove up the entry way a few minutes after Illie had called Nicolas.

“The way you talk about it, I sound as if you only care about your money.” Nathan said as he opened the front door of his father in law’s house, carrying a few grocery bags. He was followed by Illie and a slightly annoyed Horatio.

“I just meant that you could have done this on your own perfectly well, and I could have been doing another job. It was a waste of my time, that’s all.”

“Well, you did help me with that bat.” Illie put in.

“Nothing Nathan could not have done. Any how, next time, take a more paying job or leave me out of it. And get going on that lasagna, I’m starting to get hungry.”

“I’m right on it. Hey, Victor!”

“Victor isn’t here; he’s gone into town to do something or another.” A voice said from the living room. The man who spoke then limped into view. He was rather tall, with shoulder length brown hair and big round glasses. He was holding himself up with a walking cane.

“Hey Henry, what are you doing here?”

“I was just taking a walk, and I decided to drop by. Victor told me you planed on cooking diner, so I invited myself. Is that alright?”

“Sure. Where are my kids?”

“In the pool. Boris is watching over them. Did Helen call you about the invasion?”

“Called me while we were at the grocery store. She said she wasn’t mobilized. Ship is not ready. She’s going to come here later.”

While Nathan got started on his pan of lasagna, Illie went upstairs to take a quick shower. Luckily, the bandage on her chin was waterproof. After cleaning herself, she decided to join her nephew and niece in the pool. Leaving her clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor, she didn’t bother to put a change of clothes; she just swung a towel over her shoulder.

(A/N. For those who it bugs, swimwear does not exist in that world. )

As she exited the bathroom, she literally walked straight into her adoptive father.

“Ho, sorry dad.”

Victor Corben was a 6 feet tall, grey eyed man in his mid fifties. His short brown hair and two weeks beard had quite a few grey strands in them. He had retired from captain duty shortly after Helen had been wounded during the last war.

“Nothing to it, no hurt done. You’re going into the pool?” he asked, looking at her state of undress.

“Yes, since it was kind of hot today.”

“Tell me about it. A whole lot of hanks to who ever invented air conditioning! Enjoy yourself, summer is almost over. I am going to go take a nap.”

“Ha, hem…I invited Nick her for diner. He should be here soon.”

“I am going to put my earplugs then!” He said in an amused tone he headed towards his room.

***********

When she got to the pool area, she immediately spotted Boris. It wasn’t very hard. With a large straw hat that looked like a sombrero on him, the two foot tall and heavily mustached Yusaf stood out quite obviously while sitting at the base of the fence surrounding the pool. Other than the hat, he was only wearing a pair of jean shorts. He was drawing something on a sketch board. Six year old Lewis, who could swim like a fish, and three year old Shirley, who still needed floaters, were playing in the water. They stopped what they where doing when they noticed her.

“Hey, aunt Illie.” Said Lewis with a wave

“Hi.” Simply said his sister.

“Hi you two!” she said to them with a smile as she went towards Boris. “What are you drawing?”

Boris looked up at her, and then resumed his drawing.

“It’s a tattoo design somebody asked me to do.”

“And that somebody likes snakes and skulls?”

“I hope so for him, cuz if he gets it done, he’s stuck with this forever.” He laid his sketch board beside him, and picked up a bottle. “Want me to put sun lotion on your back?”

“Thank you, yes.”

“Then sit down.”

**************

Illie was in the pool a few minutes, playing with the kids, when she heard that familiar engine rumbling. Weak at first, it slowly got louder as it approached. Finally, the sound stopped with a series of exhaust’s crack.

“Loud piece of crap!” Somebody, probably Horatio, said from inside the house. A minute later, Nicolas entered the pool area. The sun shined down on his short dark blond hair. He removed his sun glasses, and it took a moment for his green eyes to adjust to the light. He was wearing a white and some blue jeans, along with biker boots.

“Hi there.” He said.

“Hi.” Said Illie.

“Hey Nick!”

“Yeah, I saw you, Lewis.”

Illie swam towards him.

“Want to join us in the water?” She asked with a joyful smile.

“Sure. Do you have a spare towel?” He asked while removing his shirt.

“Here’s one.” Boris said, throwing him a towel.

**********

Helen arrived at her father’s house at around 5, directly from the shipyards, and she was in a very good mood. If all went “well”, she would be out of there by noon tomorrow and she would have her own skyship. All she needed was the call of confirmation from the Raoul. She had talked to the members of the crew who she trusted, and they said that they would go along. After she received confirmation from the goblin, she was going to have a word with her family and the rest of her entourage, to see who would be on.

The sent of lasagna assaulted her the moment she entered the vestibule. Her husband sure knew how to cook good stuff. Judging by the sounds coming from the dining room, they had already started.

“Didn’t bother to wait for the last person, as usual.” She said to herself as she removed her boots.

When she entered the dining room, she was greeted by a series of hi and hey. They were all sited around the rectangular table.

“Well, hi. Sorry if I’m late.”

“Ho, no problem.” Victor said. “As you can see, Horatio made sure we disregarded your absence.”

Before sitting, she went and gave a quick kiss on the cheek to her daughter and son, who were sitting next to their grandfather, and then ruffled their brown hair. As she passed next to Nicolas, she playfully ruffled his hair too.

“Hey, I’m not your son!”

“That’s why I didn’t kiss you, boy!”

Illie, who was sitting in front of Nicolas, giggled lightly. She had changed into a knee length dark-navy blue skirt, and a black shirt.

Helen seated herself next to Nathan, and leaned towards him to give him a kiss.

“You’re right.” Nathan said after the kiss. “You are late. What were you doing? I thought you said you weren’t doing anything related to the invasion.”

“Ho, I was doing something on my own. Speaking of which!”

She took out her cell phone, and placed it on the table.

“I’m waiting for a confirmation call.” She said to answer Nathan’s questioning look.

“Is there something we should know?” Victor asked.

“You don’t need to know it until I get the call and it’s been confirmed.” She said with a wink, and then went for the lasagna pan. “Now, fooood!!!!”

**********

Diner was usually a pretty laid back thing at Victor’s house. And ten people like that usually made a lot of noise. They cracked jokes, messed around, laughed, and most importantly enjoyed the food. Victor had opened a couple of wine bottles.
Then, at 6, Boris came from the living room.

“The chairman is going to make his speech.”

They all gathered in the living room. The TV was on the National news channel. It was showing a tribune with the Drezdean flags on the background.

After a minute, Chairman Stanislaw Philips stepped on the tribune. He was a man in his early 60’s, with a full head of grey hair. Even if he looked relatively calm and composed, there was something about his body language telling you that he was feeling pressure.

“People of Drezdea. As you know, our country is at war, once more. This time, against the Confederation of Rosbar. In the past, we were able to come to agreements with them before such a situation developed. But this morning, at 10, Rosbar’s ambassador simply handed to me his country’s declaration of war.”
He paused for a moment.

“I then communicated with the Northern Mutual Defence Alliance, in hopes of enlisting their aid. Half an hour ago, I received their negative response.”
He paused once again.

“This means that those brave men and women, who are fighting out there as we speak in the skies and on the border, are the only hope for this country to maintain its independence. I wish them good luck. Now, for the questions of you fine ladies and gentlemen.”

As soon as he said that, there was a ruckus off screen in the room, the sounds of a crowd of journalists getting up.

“Wow, that’s awfully depressing for some reason.” Boris said.

Just then, Helen’s cell phone rung.

“Ha, Raoul!” she said as she answered. “I take it you watched the old man?”

She exited the house by the kitchen’s door, Victor following her with his eyes.

“Raoul!?” he thought, “Isn’t that the name of that goblin chief engineer who’s working on that ship?”

“Ho well, I’m going to the board spot.” Nicolas said to Illie. “Want to come with me?”

“Yes. It’s alright with you dad?”

“Go ahead.”

“I’m going to go pick up a thing or two.” Illie said while going upstairs to her room. When she entered it, she picked up her handgun belt that was hanging from a chair. Beside her gun and its several ammo clips, that belt also had in separate pouches attached to it her wallet and cell phone. After she attached it around her waist, she was quickly downstairs and out the door after Nicolas.

********

Barely a minute after they left, Helen entered the house, a very content smile stretched on her face.

“Dad,” she said to victor, “some other people are going to come over, and I got to talk to you guys about something… herr, where is Illie?” she asked looking around, not finding her younger sister.

“She went with Nicolas to…”

“Ah, shit!” She smacked her head. “I thought I heard his bike start. No matter, we’ll tell her when she gets back.”

“Tell her about what?” Horatio asked.

“In a minute. Boris!”

“Yes?”

“Take the kids to take a nap in my old room, they look tired.”

Indeed, Shirley was starting to nod off, and Lewis wasn’t much more energetic.

“Roger that, ma’am.” The mustached Yusaf said. “C’mon kids.”

“Now, the rest of you,” she said to the three others, “sit down, and shut up until I am finished!”

*********

Nicolas’s bike was what Nathan called a “classic”, meaning it was older than him, and it showed! Not that it had much rust, but the engine had seen much use. After he had purchased it, Victor had taken the bike to a mechanic, who changed many pieces of the engine, but apparently, that same mechanic had been right about the bike. It didn’t need new parts; it needed a new god damned engine!

But the dull grey colored bike and its sidecar took him to places, and that was already nice. For his sky board, Nicolas had installed a rack between the side and the bike (a lockable rack, since his two meters board was much more likely to get stolen than the bike itself!). That evening, they got to the spot without problems.

The “boarding spot” of Drezdea was a large ancient parking lot that had been stripped of its tarmac, and whose surface was now covered with a relatively soft material designed to cushion falls from a reasonable height. Most cities built them so that boarders had the opportunity to practice with less risks of killing themselves: For beginners, that meant learn how to control and balance yourself on the thing, and for more used boarders, that meant practicing tricks, like turns and flips and such.

Even if she wasn’t a boarder, Illie liked to go to the “spot”, mainly because there was an ice-cream parlor that was the only one in town to have her favorite flavor. So, as Nicolas and the others flew around the place, she sat next to the bike while quietly enjoying a large ice-cream cone.

After a while, Nicolas went back down to join Illie, and he was followed by another person, James, a black haired, yellow eyed guy who was a few years older than them. They talked about a couple of various things, but eventually they fell on the subject of the invasion.

“So,” James said to Nicolas, “you’re not worried about what’s going on, the war and stuff?”

“Nope,” Nicolas said, “There’s nothing I can so about it. Even if I worry, what’s to happen is going to happen.”

“Well,” Illie put in, “my dad said during diner that if the country looses, Rosbar would probably just put a “military protectorate” on the country.”

Both boys blinked at her.

“Yeah,” Nicolas said, “he said that, but I have no idea what a military protectorate means.”

“Ehm,” Illie said, “I think it means that they would let us have a large amount of independence still, but they would replace our armies with their own.”

“We would still be the Fuehrer’s lap dog” James said.

“Maybe.” Nicolas said. “But that protectorate thing sounds a million time better than what they did to Cormas.”

“For some people it isn’t.” James said simply. “I heard there are some protests going on in downtown I heard. They have signs that read stuff like “Freedom or death”.”

“What do you think of all this?” Illie asked James.

“Me… well, my life won’t chance much as long as I have jobs to do and a board to fly on. But if I had the guts, I would go on a board trip outside Drez. You know: nothing but your board, what you can fit in a backpack and the stuff on your back, and with that, you travel around. There are a few people who do it in the Federation.” Then, James sighed. “But outside of Drezdea is not like inside the Federation. You got a whole lot more pirates and monsters, not to mention we’re in the fucking hurricanes season…”

“Then why don’t you take a Skyship to Nasika, or Zeppelin?” Illie asked.

“I don’t have the money to buy a ticket that far. Even if I sold my board I wouldn’t have enough.”

“Hem, eh, sorry.” Illie said sheepishly.

“Hey, it’s not your fault if I’m poor. At least your folks help this guy out.” James said while elbowing Nicolas.

Illie smiled, then:

“Ho, it’s getting late.” Illie said, looking at her watch while getting up. “I think we should go back. See you later, James.” Illie said with a wave.

“You guys better not go crash into a tree or something, you hear?”

“Are you saying my driving is crap?” Nicolas yelled back.

“No, I’m saying your bike is crap.”

******************

By the time they got back at the house, it was past height and the sun had almost disappeared on the horizon, and the blue rings of Aura had started getting clearer in the skies.

When they got back to the house, they immediately noticed the additional vehicles. Instead of four, there was now height cars parked in the driveway.

“Did your father mention something about other people coming?”

“Nope.”

The only lights that were on were the ones of the gallery.

When they entered the house, they heard people speaking on low tone from the kitchen and the dining room. Apparently, these were the only lighted rooms in the house.

“Hey, Illie, Nick.” Boris said from up the stairs.

“Boris, what’s going on?” Illie asked.

“Shhhhh, the kids are asleep.” Boris said as he descended the stairs without making a sound. “Come on, Helen will explain.”

They removed their boots and shoes, and followed the Yusaf. As they got nearer, they could understand what the voice was saying. It was Helen that was speaking.

“…and Raoul has something that should guarantee us that the ass hole lends us some money so that we can… Hey, look who decided to drop by!” She said when she noticed them.

The dining room was full of people, some of which Illie had never seen. There were not enough chairs, so there was a few people sitting on the kitchen countertop.

“Errrr, sis, what’s going one here?”

“Simple.” A red haired male elf sitting on a chair responded in place of Helen. “This is a doomsday meeting!”

“Yeah, sure, but what’s its purpose?” Nicolas said. “You guys look like a bunch of conspirators.”

“That’s because we ARE conspiring, boy.” Helen said. “We are conspiring to steal the prototype next-generation sky dreadnaught Victory!”

**********************

Yup! And that’s that for the second chapter.

Tagged as Angel Of Death, Critique.

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