There was a different kind of bustle in the Armistice Station, now that the Armistice had been extended, pending a formal permanent ceasefire being signed by the UFE and it having already been signed by the Martians. It was expected that the UFE would have it signed by the end of the day — and people were gathering in the cafés and bars around the Armistice Station, waiting for the formal signatures to be announced, and the whole war to have been declared over. Yuki and Jessamine had spent most of their day already in one such bar, waiting for the signatories to do their job, but also just finally getting a chance to relax around one another. For the last few weeks, the two had been under non-stop work, and even arriving back at the Armistice Station, Jessamine had been undergoing treatment for her gunshot wound, while also being debriefed by several officers above her rank — including those who were in departments that she had never heard of, but came bearing official orders and ID cards that mandated that she was to debrief with them. Yuki, on the other hand, had more traditional debriefs, with her superior officers, and then with some of those same officers from departments that she'd never heard of, all asking the pair of them the same questions.

All were shocked to find out that the civilian response to something like a surrender of territory, came with admissions of "fighting even without the UFE" and "not wanting to leave behind the homes that they had."

It was fortunate, then, that these people wouldn't have to worry about surrendering territory. That the UFE was to sign this new Armistice, and then would the Landing Castles remove themselves from the Terran territory, and begin their long journey back towards Mars, in lieu of the Hyper Gate. And then the long, arduous process of rebuilding what was lost, could begin. But that was to say nothing about the death toll.

Marito had been right, that day, when questioned by the Armistice Council — about the death tolls, and how much this war had cost in just human life alone. Earth had come out far worse for wear than Mars had, but that didn't mean that the Vers Empire was unwilling to be gracious in what had become, their honest mistake. Mars (and most Terrans) viewed it as an honest mistake to have trusted the word of Slaine Troyard, and putting their faith in him to find the Princess, when all along, he was the one hiding her — stoking the fires of war for his own gain. Mars had pledged whatever resources the UFE saw fit to help rebuild Earth, and restore some of the ecological and infrastructural damage done to Earth, to find themselves in a position of equals, rather than having been smothered down by the rain of the Landing Castles onto the Earth, killing upwards of two billion people of the seven billion estimated citizens of Earth.

There were rumors, even, of the fact that the Princess having been retrieved by the Martian ground troops loyal to the Emperor, having found her in a state of being nearly awake — the healing done by the automated hospital that Yuki and Jessamine had found, having nearly finished its treatment of her, and once she had been returned to a real hospital, where real people could examine her state, found that she was nearly at the trailing edge of a coma that seemed to stem from a gunshot wound that was being treated along her spine. The automated hospital had done its job valiantly, but without real people to treat and examine her, the prognosis of her state when she was retrieved was not looking good. The rumor mill now, however, was talking about something different. About how she was due to wake up any day now, and be on one of the fastest transports back to Mars, in order to make sure she was there in her grandfather's final days.

So truly, there was a different kind of bustle aboard the Armistice Station. Between the Princess' state, the fact that the Vers Empire was uneasy with the diminishing health of their Emperor, and the overall state of things on Earth — things were different. And not in the worst kind of way, at least from Jessamine and Yuki's perspective.

Things were looking up for them.

So they sat, across from one another at a table in the back of the lounge-turned-bar that they had been sitting in, poking at things on their tablets and conversing among one another all day. A quick glance at the time would reveal that it was almost 4pm standard time, almost time for when they expected the UFE to formally sign the new Armistice. It wasn't like either of them were doing much work either, nor did they have much work to do — so they made the logical choice, following suit with all the UFE and Versian staffers who had piled into this bar — they ordered a couple drinks while they waited for the formal announcement.

It took a while for their drinks to show up, mostly due to the number of people all ordering drinks at once, all trying to get ready to celebrate the work that they had all put into this Armistice being signed. The Versians were just as likely to celebrate with their beers and cocktails in celebration that their Princess had been returned unharmed, as the Terrans were to throw their hands high in celebration that this bloody war was just about over. Meaning that there was something to celebrate on both sides.

Eventually, Jessamine's beer, and Yuki's cocktail both were dropped off at their table, and the earnest celebration between them could begin. It was something more than just the end of the war that they had been hoping for — it was also the start of something new between them.

Much to the surprise of both Yuki and Jessamine — Yuki had been the first to ask Jessamine out. Mostly out of a desire to spend more time around her, but also because there was something there, between them. Something that had sparked, and then caught ablaze between them during their time on Earth together. Something that Jessamine had been thinking about, but didn't know how to bring up to Yuki — she didn't even know if Yuki's romantic tendencies swung her way at all. Much less did she know if Yuki had any form of reciprocation for the feelings that Jessamine constantly found herself tangled up in. At least with Yuki bringing it up herself, without Jessamine's prompting, there was an answer to that.

The twos hared conversation, talking about their pasts, and their time together, and everything in-between, their moods given levity the impending Armistice, and the alcohol in their drinks.

They were so deep in conversation, that it about almost shocked them when people started cheering in the bar, loudly. Yuki looked at her tablet, and a notification from a news feed flashed across it.

"Armistice Signed by UFE Delegates."

Yuki looks up to Jessamine with a grin.

"It's done?" Jessamine asks.

Yuki nods.

Jessamine smiles, and raises her glass to Yuki, who raises her own glass, and the ding that rings out between them is nearly silent underneath the din of everyone else's cheering in the bar.

They don't talk much after that moment, it's hard to get words across this space with everyone cheering and celebrating the work that had been done. It was instead, for them, a moment of silent celebration, in the work that they had done. In the blood and sweat of what work they had accomplished on Earth, and what it meant for the future of relations between the two nations.

Eventually, however, the noise did die down. But their conversation didn't resume. It didn't need to, there was a comfortable kind of silence between the two of them, that was only moderately interrupted by someone stumbling against their table, and nearly knocking it over. After righting their table in a panic, and Jessamine wincing at the sudden movement that she had to do, they both looked at who it was who had stumbled into their table.

"Marito!" Yuki calls, as the man mutters an apology, and starts to stumble off again. He turns to look at the two women, confused before he realizes he recognizes them.

"Oh hey, Yuki! Miss Jessamine!" He walks, this time, with a little bit more control over his body, as his whiskey tumbler nearly sloshes over the sides as he does. The man surely had been drinking all day, and only had consumed more alcohol in the time since the announcement had made the rounds. "How's your little date?" He grins, knowingly.

Yuki turns full flush almost instantly — and Jessamine grins too. Neither had been aware that anyone else knew about their feelings for one another, although in hindsight, that proved a little obvious to those close to them.

"Its great. Even better now that the Armistice has been signed." Jessamine smiles, turning her attention back to Yuki, who is still completely red. "Just about makes getting shot for it, worthwhile."

"Good to hear… How about this, rumor has it that the Landing Castles are already pulling out. Anywhere in particular you two are thinking about trying to help rebuild?" Marito asks. "I'm thinking Shinawara, but I'm open to suggestions."

"Dunno. Haven't gotten that far in my thinking yet. Gotta get over my leg first." Jessamine points out, and Marito shrugs at this as if to say 'fair enough'.

"I was thinking Shinawara too, but I'm honestly not sure yet… I'll probably stay with my brother instead." Yuki admits. "Is he still on the Deucalion?"

"Yeah, I think they're planning on moving him back to the Zero-G ward at Luna-two, but I'm not sure yet." Marito points out, taking a swig from his tumbler. "All depends on if they want to keep him in a military hospital or not."

"I see… Well, hopefully he'll wake up some time soon. It'll be a nice present for him to wake up to the war being over."

"It should be." Jessamine says, cheerfully.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone now. Congrats on being some of the big players in all of this."

Jessamine tilts her head and smiles. "Just doing my job, sir."

Yuki doesn't look up from her drink. "Thanks, Marito."

Marito gives a wave as he leaves again, heading towards his spot at the bar once more.

"You okay?" Jessamine asks Yuki.

"Yeah, just. Anxious, I guess."

"What about?"

"What comes next."

Jessamine laughs a bit at this.

"What comes next is that you and I finish our drinks, and then find somewhere quieter to hang out. But after that? Who knows. We'll just have to play it by ear."

Yuki smiles a bit at the levity with which Jessamine talks about what is going to come next. Making whatever it is that comes next, following this peace, feel that much more comfortable, that much more possible for her to handle.

Slaine, of course, did have more to say, but wasn't able to find the words for it, until well after the matter. His trial had been quick, done through the Audience Chamber of one of the other Landing Castles. Where he had been branded a traitor, and then from there, had been brought to an inner cell of this landing castle, to stay as prisoner until the Landing Castle made it back to Mars, and he could be transferred to a prison there. Which meant that for the next several months as the Landing Castle made its transit back towards Mars, a five meter by five meter cell was what he could call home.

It wasn't the waiting that got to him, or the small cell. It was the fact that he didn't have anyone to talk to. There was no one else who was accused of the same crime he was. Even with what he had been told, that most of his soldiers were completely deemed to be innocent, having no idea of what they were doing, or having been found of only petty crimes during their time serving Slaine. Meaning that he was well and truly the sole traitor to her Highness and the Emperor himself, having been the only one to have committed this crime.

He thought, a lot, in the days that went by. He didn't waste his voice. He had always been a silent thinker anyways. No need to externalize thoughts when they were pertaining to the internal anyways.

He spent almost all of his time thinking, not moving from the barebones cot that had been levied to him for his former status of "count", except to take meals, and to use the restroom. Asides from that, he lay, sometimes with his eyes open, sometimes with his eyes shut — thinking.

He had been so sure that everything would work out for him. That every plan he had created, and that every thing he had set out to attain or to accomplish had been for a singular goal, to see the Princess happy and safe, and if that had meant waging war on the Terrans, even though she held the Terrans and their planet so close to her heart, that's what he must do, and what must be done for her sake. And yet, he had failed in that. Maybe if the Armistice weren't so long, he wouldn't have been found out, and he would've been able to 'find her' on Earth, in the ruins of the city where she had been allegedly martyred, sparking this whole war to begin with.

Part of him wishes that she had never come to this place at all, a place that he had tried so hard to run away from, had turned into her personal obsession, and it had — through what seemed to have been entirely his own fault — failed her, and failed that vision of hers, leading to his own ruination. Maybe if he had stayed truer to her vision, he wouldn't have found himself in this space and time — maybe he would not have ever become an Orbital Knight, but in some manner, still have been able to protect her and her vision for Earth. Maybe in some way, Rayet Areash was right, and he had overestimated his position and lot in life, and he was instead doomed to forever be just a pawn in some grand, cosmic game; rather than being a player of it himself. He'd stepped out of line, and tried to play the part of something that he wasn't, and it had ended up with him found out, his plans laid bare, and now he was seemingly doomed to spend the rest of his days inside a prison both of his own making, but of the making of the system that he'd tried to play. There was nothing else for him at this point in time, asides from waiting for the day when his natural life would end, and his prison sentence would be fulfilled.

He waited, day in, day out — for something. The day bled into one another, and eventually passed in the same fashion that each moment of every day did. He didn't bother counting the days that he had spent aboard this Landing Castle, he didn't bother asking — when he was awake — the guards how many days he had been in the cell. It didn't matter much to him, since keeping record of the time that had passed would only serve as a reminder of the time yet to come. And in that, was its own kind of torture.

So instead of all of this, he thought about what he could control Whether or not he was awake, what thoughts he would think about, if he thought at all.

It happened when the Landing Castle was well free of the gravity well of Earth, and well on its way to Mars. An alarm throughout the entire Castle sounded. Something shrill, something that he hadn't heard before outside of the training and drills that he had idly gone through in his time both as a servant, but as a Count of his own Castle. A decompression alarm.

The sound roused him from slumber, and he shot up in his cot as soon as he realized what it was that he was hearing. He scrambled around the cell, looking for some kind of oxygen mask, or something to give him air in the case that his cell lost pressure, but there was none. So much for the security of prisoners aboard the Castle.

He spent his time in wait, eventually calming down from the initial shock of adrenaline and panic that had set in during the initial sounding of the alarm, to the point where he was able to sit on the side of his cot. He waited, and the alarm kept sounding — at no point did it cease.

He waited, and waited. Until eventually there were noises that echoed from the other side of the door to his cell. There was a sound like knocking, and then the door opened. Slaine stood up at the knocking, only to be knocked off his feet when the door opened — as the air rushed out of the room, and into the hallway beyond. The cold immediately bit into his skin, and threatened to make his eyes water. He was quickly caught by those on the other side of the door, and shoved into an emergency airlock — something made of flexible plastic and resin — and was sealed behind him as he was shoved into it.

"Sorry for exposing you to hard vacuum, Master Slaine." A voice, presumably that of someone who had to do with why he had nearly been pulled into the hallway beyond by just decompression, spoke. "But time is of the essence. If you'd be so kind as to cooperate with my colleagues here, they'll be sure to get you safely away from this Castle, and into friendlier environments."

Slaine shivered as his body recovered from the cold of outer space. "Who are you?" He asked.

"Who I am is not important, we'll be meeting soon enough, however. For now, please put on that atmosphere suit near your feet. Welcome to your jail-break, Master Slaine."

To be continued in " "

2024

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