Author: Cyhirae
Notes: Whee..long time since an update but that's just the way it goes sometimes... And here we have a hint of why some soldiers were willing to stick with Galcian, setting the stage for later in the game.
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-The Second Entry-
It's been awhile since I could get another entry in- it's been a hell of a time, let me tell you! Last entry, I'd written about those damnable supposed 'do gooder' pirates right? I pretty well vowed at that point I'd never do it again: because guess who came calling after I stopped writing? You guessed it: THEM. And just like usual- they took our cargo AND whatever it was that Alfonso had been after. Isn't that just our luck?
Still, for once...we actually had some good luck. And it had nothing to do with the rogues suddenly growing brains and realizing what they were doing to us...much as I'd love for that miracle to come to pass. Alfonso gave us a little miracle in proving just how little a brain HE had and bailing in the middle of the raid. It's a shame his second died though...He was a pretty good guy. It's not everyone who can make working under an idiot's command tolerable.
Wherever you found your rest, my friend, know you're not a nameless footnote to those who were under you. Valua may not've cared about your fate, but we did.
And amazingly- so did Galcian. I was with the party that reported the goings on when we got back to Valua. We expected more of the usual: report to the dock officer, then sit and wait for the bill to land in our laps. It never did, though. We were instead called up to HIS office- and we gave our reports to him directly about what happened. I don't really remember most of what was discussed- something about an escaped prisoner or the like...I honestly had a single word he said burn everything else out of my brain.
Promotion. If we did well in the next operation, thanks to our honesty in this report, we could get a promotion. And somewhere after that, a notation that Alfonso would be the one footing the bill for the lost equipment, since he ran away before the battle was even finished.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to jump up and down like a moron, crowing my head off. Instead, I saluted as crisply as the rest and marched with every ounce the staunch dignity they were showing...
When we got aboard and below decks again...THEN we crowed and danced about like a pack of morons, yelling the good news to our comrades. We didn't have to pay, and the commander of Valua's forces was offering promotion, if we did well in the next operation. They could probably hear the cheering a dozen docks away, but we didn't care.
The next morning- we got the orders for the forthcoming operation. We nearly all crowed again: Galcian had uncovered the Blue Rogue base! Finally, we were going to get to repay them for years of raids and show THEM what it was like to have someone sweep out of the blue and then leave you to pick up the pieces. And given our crew's past exposure to the escaped prisoner- Galcian wanted us to especially keep an eye out for her.
Now that I felt rather bad about; she was hardly more than a kid. But if I have to choose between sparing someone else's kid whatever Galcian's interests in her were and getting a promotion to secure a better line of pay- a better LIFE- for my kids? Sorry, but my family wins out every time. Besides, the commander of Valua didn't seem nearly so bad in person- the only other person who's ever been even half way fair to us in the past that I could recall was Gregorio.
Then it came time to hit the island. And let me tell you- we were first to disembark our ship compared to everyone else- promotion was our 'war cry' and a reason for fighting beyond just another paycheck. The downside...we lost a lot of good men that day. Finding the prisoner before the others meant being on the front lines; we got the best chances...but we also had the best chances of getting killed too.
Still...we did it. And not only did we capture the lost prisoner- we also destroyed that damned ship, captured the pirates and recovered quite a bit of stolen goods.
And Galcian, Moons bless him, declared them already paid for by the men of the armada. He took the equipment, of course, but those who had a hand in the retrieval were granted some claim to the financial worth.
Not even Gregorio would have done something like that for us. I don't know what's made him start taking such an interest in us, but I thank the moons every day for it. Still, though we did keep a good bit of what we were rewarded...we also agreed to pool some of it and give it to the Valuan families of those who lost members in the attack. There had been a hard side to that battle that made us unwillingly to be so utterly greedy, after all.
We'd never thought the base was an actual village. There'd been more than just pirates there- there'd been children and the elderly, young men and women just like in any village. Still, there wasn't much help for it. They'd plainly been harboring the pirates- they treated them as heroes, even. The adults hadn't been so hard to take- they'd made a conscious decision in regards to all of that after all.
It had been the children who'd been hard- growing up all starry eyed with the idea that their raider mommies and daddies were doing good things by robbing Valua, and that Valua was bad for taking it back. Beyond bad, really, since they were taking their mommies and daddies to task for it.
I really wish I could see my children grow up with that kind of blissful ignorance and that whole innocent black and white view of the world. But they won't- and I hate to have to ruined those kids' dreams about it. It hurt, but I simply kept my visor down as they howled and screamed about us taking their parents away. I hate it when kids are involved in matters like this. We've just got another generation of supposed do-gooders there now, who're going to grow up daydreaming about getting revenge and never pay a thought as to why this even happened.
Still, done's done. And Galcian is a man of his word. For those of us who made it through the operation- we've all been promoted. The damage to our ship and the loss of so many crew though means we're going to be merged onto another ship. Apparently there's some new admiral or the like- a man with really pale hair named Ramirez. Everyone says he looks too young to be an admiral, but who am I to judge? I haven't even seen him.
And the nurse'll be coming by soon, so that's it for this entry. Glad I remembered I had this though- it sure helps pass the time in the infirmary. For any other armor wearing men who read this: Remember. Your shoulder joint is vulnerable, and women with nasty, sharp little knives can figure this out real quick.
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