The Ice Duchess of the Federated Commonwealth - Frozen/Battletech

[Chris OFarrell]

This was not Galen's first rodeo.

His introduction to the world of high nobility had been back in the day on Sudeten. Barely three years past and yet feeling like a lifetime ago now. Morgan Hasek-Davion, Marshal of the AFFC and Lord of the Capellan March had used the planet as his forward operating base during the Clan War. He and Victor after the destruction of their RCT had withdrawn there, to meet up with the reinforcements swarming into the theater. And with a number of elite units moving in, more than a few members of the upper nobility had shown up from both sides of the FedCom too - Kai Allard-Liao, then Heir to Saint Ives (and now Sian), among them.

But Sudeten had been very much a ‘business meeting’. The niceties of social protocol had been put to the side in favour of the AFFC trying to come to grips with the terrifying unknown enemy chewing up any unit thrown at them as they implacably advanced from planet to planet. His first real taste of court life thus had been after Twycross. First on Tharkad, then Outreach, New Avalon…

Yet he still couldn’t help but feel more than a little out of place as he stepped past the bowing palace servants behind Victor and Kai, bracing himself for the wave of people expected to come at them. Even though they were here a good thirty minutes before the Duchess herself was due to show up and so the main ballroom was only half filled, the entrance of the Heir to the Federated Commonwealth unsurprisingly caused a sudden surge and people started to round towards them.

Tonight however luck was with him. By chance or design, the first person in Victor’s line of sight past the grand doors was Arendelle's ComStar Precentor. Happily, it turned out he was in fact a Tukayyid veteran; a Mechwarrior promoted to command of the local HPG station. Such a position was long considered the ultimate reward ComStar could give a member of the order; this man had clearly earned it through exemplary service on that massive battlefield.
Or, the cynical part of Galen interjected, he’s part of Focht and Mori’s cleanup of the old guard after Myndo Waterlys ‘retirement’; replacing someone just a little too loyal to the old order…
He knew better than to ask of course. The true scope, impact and consequences of Operation Scorpion were still being kept mostly secret from the general population of most Inner Sphere nations. But especially after Kai had shared one or two stories of his time on the run from the robes on Alynia, Galen couldn’t help but be somewhat more wary around Blakes followers these days. ‘New vision’ or not.

Still, on balance, it was an auspicious enough start to the night. It only took Victor ten seconds to determine that the man was ex Com-Guard; a former member of the legendary 104th Division. And inside a minute, the Precentor was delighted to start telling war stories, enthralling both Victor and Kai from ‘...and there I was jumping my Highlander out at thirty thousand feet …’
Of course, said ad-hoc tactical review quickly gained a crowd of the military and ex-military types that tended to dominate nobility in the Federated Suns, all very eager to hear of the famous battle from a first hand participant. Taking his chance with the opening, Galen slipped away through said crowd, making for the balcony that circled this part of the castle and swiping a flute of champagne from a waiter in passing as he made good his escape.

The Balcony ran along the outside of the grand ballroom, connecting two wings of the palace. Large floor to ceiling French doors were closed against the night air, but a smaller door to the side was available, with a palace guard in their green/purple uniform standing unobtrusively by it. For a moment as he approached, Galen thought the woman was going to try and deny him exit, but she hastened to open the door as he got closer with a nod, most probably recognizing him as part of Victors entourage.
Although he noted that she did quickly close it behind him.
Mentally shrugging at that, he stepped outside and took a deep breath, finding the crisp evening air filled with the scent of roses and flowers from cunningly placed planter boxes and hedges that divided up the balcony. Making it almost an outdoor garden, and quite a charming one too.

Now this was more like it. No-one out here but-

“Good evening Kommandant. Can I help you?” a voice asked from his right. Sighing slightly, Galen turned to see yet another plain clothes security type. Not one of Victors - the man was missing the tiny silver and gold fox pin his bodyguards wore; this was clearly someone from palace security.

“No, just coming out here to get some fresh air” Galen replied with an easy smile, nodding at the stone railing that marked the edge of the balcony.
The bodyguard seemed to hesitate for a split second before smiling and nodding back, fading back to his previous position blocking off the upper third of the balcony in an unspoken message that it was off limits.

Mentally ignoring the odd behavior, Galen strode forward towards the railing in front of him, casually sipping at his champagne and finding it pleasantly agreeable for a local vintage. The balcony faced north, situated on the opposite side of the Castle from the main gate and the grounds were only softly illuminated, so he had to wait for his eyes to adjust.
The immense egg shaped silhouette of the Barbarossa, Victor’s command dropship, was immediately visible though, by virtue of being both the size of a small skyscraper and having its running lights on. She had flown across from the spaceport earlier today and now sat placidly on the Royals private dropship landing pad that jutted out into the fjord - probably the largest dropship to ever use it. Beyond said fjord a heavily forested bank rose quickly towards the sky with mountains looming close behind, forming a natural Northern barrier to the Arendelle city regional area. One distinctive peak in particular, only a dozen or so kilometers away, stabbed into the sky and vanished into the clouds like a spearhead..
The North Mountain he recalled after a moment, one of the key geographical features on the AO maps he had studied purely out of habit on the flight in. He admired the the distinctive knife like profile and noticed the hints of snow on the upper regions, reflecting that the one thing he really missed from Trel-I was its sphere-class ski resorts...

“Next time, I’m bringing skis” he promised loudly to the mountain with a smirk, raising his glass in a mock salute to it-

“Excuse me?” a slightly surprised and muffled woman's voice came in and Galen felt his face go red as he turned to the right. The box hedge there that blocked off the eastern third of the balcony was reasonably thick, but squinting through the hedge he could vaguely make out a figure standing on the other side.

Well that was embarrassing.

“Oh … Sorry” he apologized, feeling slightly sheepish in the way one did when caught talking to yourself. “I was just talking to myself - I thought I was alone out here”.

“Oh” the other -a young woman he determined after a moment - noted. “Then … I’m sorry for disturbing you”.

“No, no it’s fine” Galen hastened to clarify, not wanting to offend her. “I’ve just been cooped up indoors or in vehicles pretty much all day, wanted to get some air. Well that and” he admitted with a slightly wry smile to himself, “these kinds of events are not really my specialty”.

There was a brief pause and then the other voice came back again, this time tinted with just a hint of curiosity.

“I would have thought … that is, surely you have been to far grander celebrations than this on Tharkad and New Avalon? With the Archon and First Prince?”

Galen raised an eyebrow at that. Clearly this person knew who he was.
Then again, it wasn’t exactly a state secret, was it?

“Oh, far grander” he admitted with a shrug after a moment of thought, turning back to step up to the balcony and lean against it, admiring the grounds that stretched out towards the fjord. “Peter Steiner-Davion’s 18th Birthday party back in February had something like two thousand guests and some of the best bands from the Federated Commonwealth doing live performances ... and that was pretty lively”.
Even more so, Galen silently reflected, when Victor had suddenly approached him on the sidelines and hurriedly told him that he had just been given a heads up from a friend in palace security that Yvonne had snuck into the ballroom incognito - with a little help from Arthur running a diversion. And if Hanse Davion found out his precious youngest daughter -who could pass for sixteen with a little effort- had slipped into a darkened room filled with alcohol and young men?

Well, no-one wanted the 1st Davion to crash the party...

Yvonne had refused to talk to him for months after he had been the one to track her down and firmly pull her out of the room and away from the three young men who had been far too interested in her for his liking.

“Still, I’m not a blueblood” he continued as he leaned down against the stone ledge of the balcony. “At a big event on New Avalon or Tharkad I’m just part of the crowd. Everyone who is anyone brings along aides and people of all sorts, so I’m not anyone special three. But here” Galen jerked his head back to the palace before remembering that the other couldn’t see him, “I’m a tad more conspicuous next to the heirs of the Federated Commonwealth and Capellan Confederation as the only other member of their offworld delegation. More than a few people probably look at me and conclude I’m the greatest social climber since Cinderella”.
There was something of a half gasp, half amused laugh from the other at that quip, which rapidly strangled off into an apologetic clearing of the others throat.

“Yes … I suppose there is an advantage in being ‘nobody’ at these events. No pressure. No expectations…” the other's voice trailed off and Galen frowned, cocking his head slightly in thought.
He had always had a bit of a knack for getting a handle on other people's moods and insecurities. More than one NCO he had served with had bemoaned the fact that he had chosen to ‘waste’ his talent by becoming an officer instead of the Master Sergeant he was meant to be.
And right now, those instincts were telling him that this young woman was wound up tighter than a furled jumpship sail.
Pausing, he took another look through the planter box at her vague silhouette as he wondered who she was ... and this time caught a shift of one of the guards out of the corner of his eye - and then it finally clicked who this person had to be.

And why she was out here instead of in there.

Well, it was a nice party while it lasted Galen sighed to himself as he idly considered a new career as a life coach for young nobility. So far he had held Victors hand through his first war, slapped some sense into Kai on Outreach and even run interference on Victor's parents when he had wanted to go and ‘say goodbye’ to Omi...

“Perhaps. Although I have something of an understanding of what it's like being trapped into social situations like this with unwelcome attention” he admitted to her, before letting a smirk come across his face as his mind flashed back. “I remember one night, back during the war, when Victor and I returned to Tharkad after Twycross. It was getting late and Vic decided we’d just grab a bite before crashing for the night - it had been a long high-G burn in after all. So,” Galen chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning against the balcony railing, “he took me to a room in the Triad and knocked on the door … and moments later I found myself dragged inside by Katherine Steiner-Davion. Victor ‘neglected’ to inform me that this night, by pure coincidence was ‘family dinner night’. And while he and his siblings ran into the kitchen to help Yvonne and Arthur cook, I spent the most terrifying fifty six and a half minutes of my life trapped on a couch opposite Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner”.

Galen paused for a moment at the memory. He had thought he had known terror on the battlefield, terror that never truly went away but could be mastered … but that hour had made the desperate fights for his life on the Clan front seem like a cadets training exercise. Even eating Yvonne and Arthur's ‘creative’ attempt at Spaghetti Bolognaise had been a minor thing afterwards.

Yet after surviving that night, hanging around and dealing with the events of the Royal Courts had become almost casually easy for him, putting everything in perspective …
Just boring as all hell.

“That...must have been intimidating” the other noted after a moment, now sounding mildly amused rather than anxious. Which was progress.

“Very” Galen admitted. “But I learned a rather pointed lesson that night kid. “One” he added, “that I think might be somewhat relevant to your situation, kid”.

There was a slightly startled silence from the other at that and for a nanosecond Galen wondered if he had genuinely overstepped the mark … before he heard the soft but sharp sound of a heel striking stone and caught a flickering of movement off to the side. On instinct his gaze came up ...
Galen had seen Elsa before, of course.

Well, at least he had seen her image several times.

Her photo in the MIIO file Victor had forwarded to him for review as part of his briefing packet had been striking enough in a formal sort of way he supposed, but had no warranted more than a glance. And while on base overseeing the auditing of the local militia, one of the vid-screens in the briefing rooms he and his people had been using had, naturally, been turned to the live coverage of the coronation and he had seen her image more than once in passing in between data files and noted her beauty in an equally distant sort of way.

Face to face barely a meter away he found himself frozen as he met her gaze across the balcony.

The first thought that flew into his mind was that Elsa had a wash of freckles across her face. Unlike her sisters, they were incredibly faint and only visible close up. And yet they seemed to suit her skin perfectly, while also with their presence linking her to her younger sibling in a way he found entirely appropriate.
The second thought a few milliseconds later was that she was gorgeous.
Her hair was a rare shade of blond, with a light enough mix of colours that it seemed to all but glow in the dim lighting like a precious metal, shimmering in a way that made him irrationally annoyed he was utterly horrible at poetry given how it took his breath away. Not so much as one hair was out of place in the bun that swirled up onto her head, her fair skin - that he knew many ladies of the court would have happily murdered for - contrasting perfectly with the deep colors of her dress and dark eyeshadow; colours that lent her a mysterious mature air despite her youth.
But all of that was nothing as his eyes locked with hers.

Some people like Hanse Davion or Jamie Wolf were rather hard people to hold a gaze with. They had such a presence that it took constant conscious effort to not find something far more interesting in the shoes they was wearing. Other people like Elsa’s sister, were so innocently honest and friendly in their gaze without any guile or deception, that you could talk with her all day without the slightest hint of self consciousness. Even bloody Curtias hadn’t been able to help but smile back when Anna had given him chocolates yesterday - even if the smile had looked like his facial muscles were frantically looking up old books to try and remember how to do it.
And then you had Melissa Steiner who with a smile and a wink could make you feel that your life was complete … and it was all downhill from here the second she turned away.

But Elsa…

Her eyes danced in the dark like twin sapphires. A deep blue whose shade Galen couldn’t name that held his gaze that he couldn’t have looked away from even if he wanted to. There was just such … depth to them, infinite facets that hinted she was so much more than she seemed; removing all thought from his mind and leaving him simply staring at her as that gaze seemingly drew him deeper and deeper ...

“...Yes?” she asked him after a pause - and just that like he blinked … and the moment was gone. Now he was just seeing a slightly confused looking young woman waiting for him to finish his thought.

Get a bloody grip Galen! She’s twenty one ... and a Duchess!

“Just remember” he said, managing to fight off his faces desire to flush bright red through sheer willpower, wrenching himself back on topic. “You are the Duchess of Arendelle. Short of Victor and Kai, you are the most senior member of the nobility in that room” he jerked his head backwards slightly towards the palace, but didn’t break eye contact “and you the one that most people have come here to see. So take it from someone who has been in their position recently; they will be far more terrified of screwing this up than you could possibly be of making a bad impression of them. If you just shake their hands, smile and nod at them for ten seconds before moving on, they’ll leave tonight telling everyone that you personally gave them a tour of your castle and passed on your personal phone number. If you make any minor faux pas, they’ll be falling over themselves to claim that it's entirely their fault and beg your forgiveness”.
He paused for a moment to let that sink in as he judged her intent expression before he shrugged.
“But, if you need a diversion to get away for a moment, just catch my eye, brush your collar and I’ll have Anna crash into Victor again”.

There was a brief moment of imperiously raised eyebrows - at his last comment … but then came the snicker. Then a second as she fought to keep control … and then with a strangled snort, Elsa broke out into pure laughter, letting her head slump and just letting it go.

And it was one of the most charming sounds he had ever heard in his life.

[Chris OFarrell]

Kai was, to his mild surprise, having a pleasant time at this ball.

So far anyway.

Of course to be fair, the fact that it had started out not so much a ball as an impromptu and highly entertaining tactical analysis of anti-Clan tactics had helped greatly. He and Victor had managed to stretch that out for a good fifteen minutes or so, with Precentor Richards entirely happy to walk them through the famous hot-drop his division had made that had broken the back of the Jade Falcons at Robbins Crossing - with several dozen other current and retired AFFS and Militia officers ‘casually’ joining them, all eager to listen in on a story about the single biggest battle in the Inner Sphere since the 2nd Succession War from someone who had been there.
However soon enough, the dread secretary and protocol officer Mavis Williams, wearing an exactly suitable gown for the evening had materialized and ‘politely’ broken up the group, not quite dragging Victor further out into the room where masses of VIPs were forming a receiving line of sorts to greet him. Kai had taken the chance to break formation as Galen had cunningly done earlier (without either he or Victor noticing), despite the look that said ‘Traitor!’ on Victor’s face as he did so, to circulate on his own. Understandably, most of the locals were gravitating to the Prince of the Federated Commonwealth so, for now, Kai was alone - and happy to be so in this casual pre-ball mixer.

He had been a little uncertain as to what reaction he would get tonight. His clothes were of the finest quality, but clearly not the current fashion inside the Federated Commonwealth. No, the cut and colors of his formal dress were all the rage on Sian right now. Part of his mother's Xin Sheng (or ‘rebirth’) movement as she worked to restructure the Capellan Confederation along the lines of the major changes she had made to Saint Ives over the years - to great acclaim. Granted, she was getting almost unprecedented support from the population as she worked to rebuild her people's pride in her nation … but his cynical side couldn’t help but reflect that after Aunt Romanos reign of terror an inanimate flower pot may well have gotten just about as much support on the Celestial Throne....

Even so, the Confederation remained the Confederation and thus his clothes had been chosen with the same considered political calculus that governed all his Mothers decisions. They clearly identified him as a Capellan - but more than that as a new Capellan. Modern and vibrant, standing with the Federated Commonwealth rather than against it. Refreshed and dynamic yet proud and unashamed - and being worn by a man respected and trusted by the upper realms of the Federated Commonwealths nobility.
So … could the Confederation pretty please have a cut of the local resources to build Clan weapons technology?

Frankly; Kai felt a bit like a giant billboard.

Angling off to the side, he started to make for the very impressive looking line of drinks on a table at the back when a voice suddenly hit him from the side.

“Ah my Lord Liao - I have been looking for you!” a voice suddenly cut into his mulling and Kai pivoted to see … no one.
Until he glanced down slightly.
A much older man in an oldschool Lyran uniform was standing in front of him, bespeckled with various medals and rank signals. None of which, Kai noted, were for military service, but for noble rank and position. Honorary ranks and the like from his worlds militia most likely alongside political awards. A shockingly bad toupee on his head shifted slightly as he clicked his heels together and offered a sharp bow before he looked up with a shrewd gaze through an almost caricature monocle.

“It would seem you have found me,” Kai said in a friendly sort of way, with a bow that was almost a nod. “Can I help you, Mister…?”

“Ah, ‘Duke’ actually” the other corrected him with the briefest flash of irritation passing across his features before quickly vanishing as the other caught himself. “Yes, err, forgive me for not introducing myself; the Duke of Weselton at your service” the other said, almost shoving his hand into Kai, shaking vigorously (very vigorously) as soon as Kai took it. “And I’m hoping that I might be able to help you my boy!”

“Oh?” Kai asked politely as he wracked his brains - and managed to untangle his hand. He knew of this man by reputation - his mother had said many unflattering things about him and his actions in the Sarna March in the aftermath of the 4th Succession War. ‘Carpetbagger’ being about the nicest. He also knew he was here to win contracts with Duchess Jorgensson for Arendelle's massive mineral wealth. Kai in fact had already spotted representatives from Achernar and Corean, Defiance and Universal Air moving towards Victor, based on the company logos they were unabashedly wearing on their suits. And, from the way several others were sharing in the polite glares with them and each other as they jockeyed for position to talk to Victor, he suspected many others were also present tonight.
He also knew that Victor would pretty much ignore all of them - and suspected this man had come to the same conclusion.

“Oh it's simple. Quite simple indeed my friend!” the other boldly reached up to take his upper arm … and ignoring the pointed look Kai gave it steered him off towards the less crowded part of the room, Kai deciding to tolerate the other for now. “Your mother wants access to the raw materials to begin building Clan technology, materials this planet possesses. Well! As it so happens, my company Weselton Industries -I’m sure you’ve heard of us- is of course well known to be the frontrunner for winning the local resource extraction tenders. Frankly we’re the only logical choice” the other sniffed before sighing. “Sadly, many other companies are here to try and push their way in and slow things down and drag things out - possibly for years or even decades! I’m sure as a soldier who fought the Clans, you surely want your comrades to have access to comparable weapons as quickly as possible, do you not?”

“Well, of course, but-” Kai started to say as he pointedly removed the others hand from his arm-

“Exactly!” the other talked over the top of him, his impressive moustache shimmering with pleasure at his ‘agreement’. “I knew I could count on you my boy! So, if you were to speak with Prince Victor to arrange shall we say an expedited meeting, hmmm? We can get started immediately! After all, who knows when the Clans will attack again eh? And I would not forget such … friendship when deciding who is first in line! Enjoy the evening!” and with that, before Kai could say anything, the Duke clicked his heels together and bowed sharply (the toupe looking dangerously like it was about to come off) before he was up and striding happily across the floor and leaving Kai standing there working his jaw.

Kai shook his head slowly, catching himself from the sheer speed at which the man had appeared and vanished.
That was the man's idea of subtlety?

“He’d last a day on Sian” Kai muttered as he wanted the other strut (yes, strut) away to join a large group of offworld nobles busy plundering the drinks table.

On the other hand, perhaps the man had simply played to his audience, not wasting time with innuendo or double talk. His mother did want the mineral resources, having made it clear that it would be a huge benefit for the Confederation to lock in such a supply of materials. And, with new export agreements in place soon with the FedCom-CapCom treaty signing, it would indirectly mean so for the AFFC too.
And if he didn’t play along...

Kai shivered. Politics was something he truly wanted to avoid at all costs, yet he knew that it was an impossibility now more than ever. He and Victor were both trapped; both warriors who had to become politicians. Perhaps as the heir to the Saint Ives Compact he could have gotten away with abdicating to his sister and remaining a soldier, but his Mother since retaking the throne of the Confederation had been full speed ahead plowing the way for him to rule after her; rule a full scale Successor State and he could no more abandon that fate than Victor could. Even if unlike Victor he could still put it off for some time yet...
And as he was want to do, Kai started to second guess himself. It annoyed him because he knew he was second guessing himself, but he couldn’t help it. Should he in fact look to bring this up with Victor with his support? Get the Confederation their ‘cut’, ensure the mines were up and running as quickly as possible by doing an end-run around the other companies? Or should he ignore the man - who if he then did win the contracts (which he recalled was actually quite likely) might well decide to punish him by working to ensure the Confederation was well down the priority line? Or should he back another bidder no matter the merits of the bid from the Duke? Or Play them off against each other?

With no easy answers, Kai turned away and drifted away, his body language and motion clearly dissuading the other people heading towards him as he shifted into one of the many adjoining rooms, this one thankfully empty of people right now, just off the ballroom with wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the palace grounds.
And he stopped in front of the windows … and started brooding.
He got away with it for exactly six point two seconds.

“I know that look” a voice cut into his thoughts and caused his eyes to inadvertently widen in shock. He knew that voice. A voice that froze him in place, as it continued with a tone that was clinical … and yet tinged with amusement. “That’s the ‘I’m going to start second guessing myself and fret into indecision, so I’ll go and sulk in a corner and hope it all goes away’ look”.

Slowly, very slowly Kai raised his slightly shifted his focus from the outside to the reflections on the glass, seeing now one of a woman roughly his own height. Her dark hair was cut short, just resting on her collar and a sleeveless white gown hugged her figure extremely well, leaving her clearly well toned arms free, crossed in front of her. Swallowing hard, Kai turned around.

“Is it really that obvious?” he asked, unable to help the faint smile that came across his face as he took in the woman in front of him.

“Yes” Diedre Lear noted with a thin smile - but a smile all the same- as she slowly closed the distance, making him feel like he was under a microscope as she looked him up and down for a moment, before her expression shifted. “It’s … good to see you Kai” she said continued more softly than he might have expected as she halted in front of him with a whisper of sound from her gown.

“It’s good to see you too” he replied, fighting the urge to step closer and brush back the hair from the side of her face … or snark back and note that that was not what she had said the last time he had seen her. “You look ” -Kai frantically searched for a word- “great”.
Damnit, I should have said beautiful he promptly cursed himself for wimping out. Like always.

“Thank you” she replied, her polite smile briefly softening in a way that gave Kai the uncanny feeling she knew exactly what he was thinking, before she nodded. “And I have to admit, you’re actually pulling off that look rather … dashingly I suppose?”

“Well it beats looking like a complete idiot” he shrugged feeling slightly sheepish as he stared at her, lost in memories of flowing back across his mind. The weeks on the run, dodging bounty hunters, ROM agents and Elementals. Their skin-of-the-teeth escapes, the chaos as allies became enemies and enemies allies. The heated nights when their bodies had moved against each other, the tension of months or years finally exploding. And almost unwillingly, the way he started to come to understand her on a level he had never understood anyone.
And then that painful moment when he realized he had fallen in love with her … then but a moment later realized that they were simply too different as people for it to ever work. That when he had finally accepted who he was and what he did (mostly due to watching a point of Elementals break down, rolling on the ground laughing so hard they couldn’t breath when they realized who they had been chasing) … it became clear that he was not someone Diedre could ever truly come to accept.
So he had gone to her, prepared to break her heart to force her to let him go … only for her to come to him with what he had later realized was exactly the same plan to break his.

It had still hurt like a gauss slug to the heart though.

And so they had separated, leaving Alyina on different dropships. She heading towards the Crucis March, he diverted down a command circuit to Sudeten where Morgan Hasek-Davion had gently informed him of his Father's death and his mother's -then secret- survival at the hands of a Capellan assassin.
Ironically, as horrible as news of his father's death had been, he had in some way almost welcomed it for the numbing effect it provided to his own pain.
But free of those events now and face to face with her, Kai couldn’t help but feel that same pain at the way things had ended between them, long buried, start to rise up again.

“I …” Kai paused, took a breath and rallied as he pushed past the memories to focus on her; here and now. “I thought you’d returned to Odell after finishing up in the AFFC?”

“I did” she admitted, looking down briefly at her hands crossed over her stomach before looking back up. “I took some time to decompress from … well, everything I suppose. But I was looking for a new challenge and after asking around, I was headhunted to consider a job offer forwarded to me via New Avalon”.

“On Arendelle?” Kai asked, tilting his head in curiosity. While it wasn’t exactly the beating heart of the Crucis March, Arendelle was a well established and prosperous (soon to be extremely so) world. As he recalled, she had been dreaming of a challenge once her AFFC service ended, making sweeping medical improvements on far less fortunate worlds than this one...although at the time she had not so subtly hinted that it was to try and counter the sweeping destruction caused by armies and Battlemechs.

“For now, yes” she nodded once with a nod as she slowly stepped around him to start drifting towards the back of the room, Kai standing and watching as she moved. Beyond her, he was amused to note one of the CID agents on Victor's detail had quietly taken position at the door, partially to keep him safe but far more he bet to keep people away from them - as it finally hit him that the clues Victor had dropped earlier today meant he had known she would be here.
And now he wanted them isolated together in a room.
Subtle Victor, very subtle. Not that I’m complaining...
“To be honest I’m actually just passing through, waiting for my team to arrive next month. I’ve taken a position as joint director for regional medical affairs development in the Periphery March, part of Prince Davions push to finally start to bring the health care out there to the level it should be”.

Ah, Kai thought to himself, that makes sense. The Periphery March of the Federated Suns had been created as a framework to allow massive development of the region successive Princes had ignored for centuries, leaving it a far cry from the core of the Crucis March - and on some worlds honestly little better than Periphery outposts in quality of life. Kai had seen the economic modeling that an economic chain reaction could start in less than twenty years that would have the region cease being a net negative for the Federated Commonwealth economy. And in less than fifty, probably the massive driver of growth as populations, technology and industry exploded. The Clan Invasion had diverted a large chunk of the planned funding into crash military-industrial programs by necessity, but even so it was still a hotbed of activity for the first time in far too long … and that neatly explained Diedres presence.
A chance to shape and set the foundations for medical policy for an entire March? A massive possibly impossible project to save lives by the millions?
Sounds about right.

“They couldn’t have found anyone more determined for the job” he said - honestly. Hubris or not, he knew she would never stop trying.
Now she did blush - ever so slightly - as she turned back to face him, raising her chin, her eyes boring into him as if daring him to make a comment on her reaction as she started to moved back towards him.

“Thankyou, Kai” she almost shyly replied before clearing her throat and setting herself again. “Anyway; while I’m waiting I’ve been teaching and consulting at the children's hospital in Arendelle City. I’ve also been helping out directly with a number of charity clinics the Duchess was, I found out later, quietly a patron of. So she invited me …” she said trailing off and looking a little uncertain. She didn’t actually say ‘before I found out you and Victor were coming’ - but he heard it none the less, causing him to break her gaze to glance off to the side for a moment.

“I … didn’t know you were coming tonight” Kai clarified. Thank you very much Victor … although he might have thought I would just run away screaming rather than risk facing her … and damn it, he might have been right “I didn’t even know you were on the planet in fact”.

“Indeed?” she raised an eyebrow for a moment before seeming to nod and accept his answer. “But … I’m glad you’re here tonight” she admitted, surprising him and causing him to turn back to face her, noting the uncertain but honest look on her face.

Kai started to open his mouth to say something to that, when he caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye. Acting quickly on impulse, he quickly took Diedres arm and edged her backwards, feeling her stiffen at his sudden action before she seemed to relax and move with him. Just in time too as Anna Jorgensson cleanly slid to a halt where she had been standing, a tall and rather dashing young man being half dragged along with her.
As quickly as decorum would allow, he let go of Diedres arm and stepped back with a muttered ‘sorry’ and earned a smile back as she regained her composure, she turning to face the new arrivals and he following suit.

“I think they may have polished this floor a little too much” Anna complained with a frown directed at said mahogany floorboards.

Kai couldn’t help but snicker at the observation, feeling the somber, conflicted mood around he and Deedress lift as the younger woman casually crashed into their little corner of the room - straight through, he noticed, the MIIO agent who must have been steering people away from the two of them.
Had they tried to stop her and she just ignored them? Did they recognize her as the second highest ranking noble in her own house and decide not to?
Or, based on the sudden startled look said agent was giving the three of them, she had just phased through time and space, again, to mock their security.

“Good evening Anna” he bowed to the other as the other with great interest poked at the floorboards of the ballroom with the tip of her incredibly expensive looking shoe, with a complete indifference for where she was or who she was with.
His greeting however drew her attention back and she quickly beamed at him.

“Hey Kai!” she replied, her eyes shining (they seemed to be more green than blue this evening - might be the dress?) perfectly happily. “Uh, welcome to my home and all that? Wow, did someone actually paint the windows in here?” she suddenly switched topics without reason, her head whirling like a Rifleman's targeting dish to take in the floor to ceiling french doors before shrugging and coming back to them with a huff to blow her fringe out of the way. “Anyway” she continued before anyone could even think about trying to get a word in, “so I was out in the courtyard and traveling with my hood up when I came across some people laughing behind my back at how I was the biggest social climber in Arendelle's history-”

“Wait, what?” Kai broke in at that, a sudden almost reflexive jolt of anger coming from nowhere at that statement that cut through his own troubles as he fully focused on the younger woman. Feeling a touch of guilt as he recalled his jokes earlier today to Victor about Anna being madly in love with him according to the local scandalvids.
It seemed far less funny now as he realized the consequences on Anna’s reputation among her peers...
He could almost see his mother rolling her eyes at him as she mentally criticised him for only now thinking of that possible blowback. With Uncle Tormano next to her shaking his head and making him down on some giant report card as he weighed the skills of the heir to the Celestial Throne...
“Who said that?” he demanded instead, pushing that picture out of his head to focus on Anna.

“Oh just some stupid kid and his toadies” Anna shrugged it off - but Kai could see the hints in her body language and face that suggested she was putting more effort than normal into her carefree attitude on that topic, before she turned to her companion and her smile rapidly became more genuine as the other blushed slightly. “Anyway, they’ve been sent home for the night thanks to - wait have you met Hans?” she asked as her head snapped back.

“Uh, no I don’t believe so” Kai replied, amused as ever at the rapid changes of subject Anna could speed through. He made a firm mental note though, to follow up tomorrow on the disturbance outside before Victor heard about it. If Anna was being given a hard time by some local people for daring to be open and genuinely friendly with him as a human being first and Prince a very distant second, the odds were about even Victors first instinct would be to power up Prometheus and go for a ‘walk’ without Katherine here to slap him on the back of the head.

Perhaps a slightly more nuanced approach could be used to help ‘correct the narrative’ as his mother might say?

Putting the issue to the side for now to focus on the present, Kai extended his hand and let a well practiced smile cross his face as he fouced in on the young and rather dashing man Anna seemed to have taken a distinct interest in. “Kai Allard-Liao” he said, leaving his titles out - on the not unreasonable assumption that most people would probably know who he was.

“Hans Westerguard - of the Southern Isles” the other took his hand with a firm shake - but no silly contest of strength and thankfully taking his que to also drop the titles - before in a twist shifting in a precise Capellan bow of exactly the right duration and depth as was appropriate for a distinct subordinate to give to a superior in a casual social situation. “A true honor Lord Liao - your reputation precedes you - even out on the Rim” he said as he rose back up and let go of his hand.

“Thank you” Kai replied as on pure reflex he returned the bow at the depth expected, before turning to his side. “May I present Doctor Diedre Lear? A former … colleague in the 10th Lyran Guards during the Clan War with Victor, Galen and myself”

“Doctor Lear, also a true pleasure” Hans offered her a more Federated Suns style bow, taking her extended hand as he came down to gently kiss it - in a way that was respectful and very proper.
Kai was still hit with a completely unworthy spike of possessive jealousy at the visual. And then rather embarrassed as Diedre’s eyes caught him for a split second, a smile smirking out from the corner of her mouth for just long enough to say that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

Hans however didn’t seem to have the slightest design on his ex, instead stepping back to Anna and exchanging a smile with her as she casually eased back into him and clamped onto his arm - like Battle Armor riding an Omnimech.
For some reason, that entirely innocent gesture and way the two kids were smiling at each other with very little in the way of thought in their eyes, flagged the attention of the part of his mind his mother had painfully trained in the intrigue and intricacies of the Capellan Court.
Mentally, Kai rolled his eyes and told his mind to shut up for once. He was here to get away from the paranoia capital of the Inner Sphere and he would not start jumping at shadows.

“My Lady Anna” Diedre continued, shifting slightly to give a curtsey to the younger woman, who half-detached from Hans to return it looking rather … what was that word Galen used?
Oh yes, ‘adorkable’.

“Oh, just plain old Anna will do Doctor” Anna greeted her with a guileless smile and similar gesture before immediately starting to quiz her. “Sooooo, medical Doctor?”

“Surgeon - and call me Diedre dear” Diedre smiled at her - clearly surprised yet pleased to be asked - and falling right into the Anna trap. “Although I’ve been doing a lot of strategic health care policy development recently, I’ve also been busy working and lecturing at the local hospitals on Arendelle while I wait for the rest of my team to arrive before I head to Filvet for a March directorship”.

“Wow” Anna blinked, looking impressed in that completely guileless way of hers that said she really was impressed. “That’s, well … that’s  incredible. You’re an amazing woman to be able to do all that”.

It amused Kai that not even Diedre Lear, a woman who generally hid her emotions under an utterly professional persona that made the walls of Troy look weak, was immune to the simple honesty of Anna’s response. Anna said she was an amazing woman - so she was amazing woman. It was that simple.
It also happened to be a sentiment Kai was in full agreement with so perhaps he was just biased?

“I … thank you, Lady Anna” Diedre managed to get out before Anna suddenly changed targets as was her want, giving Diedre previous time to regain the composure she had lost for a moment clearly touched at the casual given yet genuine comment.

“Hey, has anyone seen my cousin?” Anna wondered aloud, walking to the threshold with everyone following her, seemingly automatically, to take in the increasingly crowded room, her eyes narrowing slightly as she searched. “She’d better not have missjumped off that diet plan again, so help me God...”

“I think I saw your Aunt up by the dias at the front of the room” Kai hastily jumped in before Anna went off on a tangent. “I’m guessing she’ll be around there somewhere?”

“Really? Thanks Kai! Oh and it was really nice to meet you Doctor Lear - I hope we can talk later but I should let you too get on with your date. Come on Hans, I wanna introduce you to my relatives!”

“Uh - sure, of course” the other blinked before smiling at her, then turning back to nod to both he and Diedre . “A true pleasure Doctor, Lord Liooooooo” his voice shifted into something of a startled huff of air as Anna was off again, Hans seeming to bounce along behind her like a child's balloon behind an excited child … leaving Kai and Diedre Diedre struck silent in their absence at her casual identifying of them as on a date.
Quick Kai … think of something to say he mentally yelled at himself as the silence became deafening…

“So … would this be a second date? Or do we count the Hatchetman on Twycross?”
The words escaped his mouth before he even stopped for a nanosecond to think … and now the mental image of his mother and uncle simultaneously facepalmed as Diedre turned to face him...

...and laughed

It was not a bellyache or a roof shattering laugh by any means, more of a low snicker, but it was an incredibly endearing and honest chortle as she clearly struggled to compose herself, closing her eyes and covering her mouth with her hand for a good five seconds or so, before looking at him and offering a slightly wry smile and left Kai feeling as if he had just dodged an AC-20 shell whistling past his cockpit by half a millimeter...

“You need to get out more if you think ejecting from a Hatchetman as the world explodes below you is your idea of a date” she noted dryly, brushing her fringe back as she eyed him with a considering expression for a long moment that Kai didn’t want to even consider interrupting before she finally seemed to mentally make an important decision and nod slowly, once. “But … if you can find time … Friday … perhaps we can have lunch?”

Kai’s response, he knew full well, should have been that he had a lunch with a Victor and a whole hoard of local business leaders, with several guest speakers ready to make long speeches no doubt about sharing the wealth around and investing in the future - preferably their company’s future.

“I’d really like that” he didn’t even hesitate to respond with a smile that she returned before glancing off.

“Okay then” she agreed before a slight buzzing interrupted. Quickly she reached into a small clutch she was carrying to pull out a cellphone, looking at the caller ID on the small screen before up at him, her face somewhat serious yet apologetic. “Excuse me Kai, I have to take this”.

“Of course” he nodded. “I’ll see you Friday then?”

With a smile and a nod she moved off, flipping open her phone and taking softly but quickly to whoever was on the other end of the line as she vanished into another antechamber.
Kai managed to resist the urge to pump his fist in the air as soon as she vanished. Barely.
Instead, he turned around and walked out back into the main room - noting it was suddenly near full, clearly Prince Victor’s arrival had hastened that of others. Victor himself had shifted to the slightly raised dais where Elsa’s throne now sat at the front of the room. Catching his eye, Kai couldn’t help but shoot him a very discreet ‘thumbs up’ and Victor clenched a fist in triumph before he schooled himself back to formality as the loud bang bang bang of a staff of office being pounded on the floor sounded from the side of the front of the room.

[Chris OFarrell]

“Presenting Duchess Elsa Jorgensson of Arendelle” Victor Steiner-Davion loudly proclaimed through the room and with that, Elsa Jorgensson made her entrance, her long purple cape trailing behind her as she glided in.

It was quite an entrance indeed; looking every micron from her head to her toes the perfect Duchess. Anna dared to simply stare and drink her in from her position off to the side as Elsa took her place rightful place just in front of her throne. As was protocol given their respective noble positions, Elsa first offered Victor a curtsy. Then as she rose, he fully faced her and -accompanied by the crowd as a whole- offered a bow, the entire room showing their respect and homage to their new liege. As was proper.

Off to the side of the crowd standing with her relatives and Hans, Anna also rose from her curtsey (held just a tad deeper and longer than others around her) and regarded her sister with no small amount of awe. Her sister's presence was again suddenly overwhelming, leaving her somehow feeling caught by surprise all logic, despite being rather more focused on other things.
Rapunzel, for example, hadn’t stopped prying from the second she and Hans had shown up, with only the occasional look from her aunt holding her cousin's curiosity -barely- in check.
Hans though had proven to be astonishingly good at engaging her cousin in polite conversation while also deflecting her questions with an ease so smooth that Anna would have completely believed him if not for the fact that she had actually been there.
And yet he did so without actually lying even once.
Clearly someone had spilled the beans about the little confrontation outside but with remarkable adeptness Hans had quickly downplayed it as a bunch of probably half drunken idiots making stupid comments with him overreacting just a tad and Anna showing incredible maturity in handling the situation on her own.
That had earned her beaming smiles from her Aunt and Uncle - and let her hope that perhaps it wouldn't be a media disaster tomorrow once news got out.

It had also earned her a suspicious look from Punz that clearly said ‘You’re not telling me everything’ which she had returned with a roll of her eyes that said ‘Duh!’. With an implied promise she would tell her the truth later.
Well. Most of it.

All of that however had fallen off to the side as Elsa had entered the room, her heart hitting her throat as once again Elsa materialized before everyone, the moment seemingly having snuck up on her despite everything else-

“And her sister” Victor continued, shattering the moment of stasis in her mind, “the Lady Anna Jorgensson of Arendelle!”

Anna’s eyes bulged for a moment as Victor turned to look at her.
Me?! she mouthed at him.

A clearly amused Victor nodded - and then she felt two hands (one clearly a young woman’s and one clearly a young mans) on her shoulders push and she skidded out from behind the pillars on this side of the front of the room barely biting back a curse, walking up onto the dais, waving with a nervous smile at the masses of nobles who in turn offered her bows and curtseys as she came to a halt a respectful distance away from her sister.

Okay, a log distance away from her sister.
Victor raised an eyebrow at her - before shifting to look at someone behind her and nod. Moments later she felt the iron hands on her shoulders that she instantly recognized as Gredas and was not quite frog walked her across to her sister. Her fear spiked to the point that she was utterly unable to resist as she was dumped right next to Elsa, shoulder to shoulder - although Elsa simply continued to look out at her people and smile gently as they were both given a round of applause and Anna nervously waved and smiled back.
As the clapping died down, Victor stepped several meters in front of them, continuing to speak to the crowds (and for the cameras she could see subtlety in the back of the room), leaving them more or less alone for now. Anna managed to rally just enough muscle control to ease a footstep or two away from her sister, suddenly terrified that she would feel her personal space had been invaded by her presence.
Beyond that, she suddenly felt once more, frozen in place.
It was not quite as bad as in the Great Hall this afternoon, but not that far away either as she stole rapidly several glances at Elsa, her mind spinning at a significant fraction of lightspeed as she nervously reached up to brush her fringe back, and glanced off to the side at her relatives - who were all looking at her with encouraging smiles and utterly unhelpful happiness that ignored the fact that she felt on the verge of a panic attack-

“Hi”.

One syllable. One gentle, softly delivered word pitched to reach her ears alone. It made Anna’s muscles twitch and bounce in place ever so visibly as if someone had just touched her with a live electrical wire as her head whipped around to her sister … who was looking directly at her.

Anna considered it a major miracle that her voice actually sounded normal as she opened her mouth to speak to her sister for the first time in well over a decade.

“Hi … hi me?” she managed to say like an idiot, touching her chest as if in confusion over who her sister was talking to as the moment she had waited for most of her life, finally started, her entire world narrowing to the woman across from her who nodded gently - almost as if afraid of startling her.

“Oh! Um … hi?” she replied, before breaking her gaze away for a second to cringe at her utter awkwardness and study the floorboards. A moment she had dreamed for so many years and this was the best she could do-

“You look beautiful” Elsa observed with that perfect voice (seriously was there anything about her sister that wasn’t perfect?!) and Anna at once felt the need to correct her - feeling perhaps irrationally- as if she was trying to downplay her own unearthly beauty by praising hers and needing to correct her at once!

“Thank you” she blushed at her sister's words. “But you look beautifuller!” she insisted, before horror hit her as she realized what she had said. “I mean not fuller” she rapidly rambled on, falling over herself to correct the error. “But more beautiful!”

Her sister gave a tiny laugh at her rambling, her smile turning genuinely affectionate at her as she tripped over her tongue and Anna firmly shut up.

“Thank you” she said kindly and they broke eye contact to look at out at the crowd, Anna suddenly very grateful for the touch of rouge Edna's people had applied that hid her blush as Elsa continued smoothly even as Anna found herself lacking anything to say.
“So … this is what a party looks like” Elsa noted, as off to the side music started to play and couples squared off to start dancing, leaving the two young nobles subtly screened by a number of palace staff to let them talk alone for a moment - with no doubt who had organized this interlude as Victor caught her eye and smiled before shifting off to the perimeter of the crowd, Galen and Kai both in tow with him (and both in turn also shooting her supportive smiles) as they dragged away a significant chunk of people in their wake as the dance got underway.

There was a wistfulness in Elsa’s tone that fascinated Anna just as much as the words - as if Elsa had never been to a party before?
So many questions reared their heads - and she beat them all back down violently with a mental club, knowing this was not the time.

“It’s more crowded than I thought” Anna admitted as she realized just how many people were squeezed into this part of the castle.

“And what is that smell?” Elsa wondered with a tilt of her head, Anna sniffing and closing her eyes as she sought out the scent, her eyes going wide as her taste buds tingled.

“Chocolate” they both breathed in simultaneous delight before opening their eyes to see they had unconsciously turned to face each other - and both of them broke into a giggle of laughter at the synchronized delivery; enough to actually have Elsa raise one gloved hand to cover her face as she laughed. It caused another jolt to Anna as she felt her sister's formal polite mask slip for just one second to see what she dared to name affection in her sister's eyes before she composed herself once more.

“Rita is in the kitchen making some of the deserts - but she did make a few super mix caramel truffles for snacks before dinner” Elsa explained.

“Really?” she gasped, “they’re my…” and Anna paused to offer Elsa and shy knowing smile. “My favorites”.

“Mine too” Elsa admitted, her eyebrow raising in slight surprise.

Why do you think they’re my favorites Anna mentally thought - and, oddly, from the way Elsa’s expression again softened, she had he oddest feeling her sister could read her mind...
Turning away, Anna watched the crowds of people dance and mingle with her sister, the two of them simply standing and watching the dance progress … but it wasn’t awkward.
If anything, it just felt right as she stood there with her sister.
Or perhaps the fact that she felt enough emotions right now to keep seizing up her throat prevented her from chattering nervously away … but in either case, she firmly kept repeating the advice everyone had been telling her for days now.

Small steps Anna. One day at a time, one conversation at a time.

Presently, the first dance of the night ended to applause and the crowd started to move, Elsa immediately putting what Anna was already calling her ‘Duchess’ face back on as Victor again started to make his way back towards them. Anna suspected that he was going to ask Elsa to dance as would be the kind of protocol of these things - and part of her squeeed at that idea- but before he could approach Kai Brevik did so from the side with a man in tow.

“You Grace, My Lady. May I present his Grace, the Duke of Wesealtown-”

“Weselton” the other snapped back at him before quickly turning to face Elsa and affect a smile on his face that just looked … wrong. “The Duke of Weselton” he again stated as he approached and offered a short bow, the kind that one equal peer offered another, Elsa returning it politely. “Your Grace - as your soon to be closest partner in trade and peer, I thought it only fitting that I should offer your first dance of the night as Duchess and welcome you to our ranks!”

With that, the man sharply bowed deeply, extending his arm to Elsa … and causing his toupee to partially detach and flop down, barely held in place.

Anna’s hands flew to her mouth to firmly muffle the explosion of laughter that desperately was trying to escape, turning to look with wide eyes at Elsa - who to her delight, was also clearly trying incredibly hard to not break down laughing. The moment of shared joy resonated between them for a second as they desperately worked to get themselves under control, Elsa clearing her throat and forcing herself back under control.

“Thank you” Elsa bowed slightly at him with an easy smile. “But I’m afraid I don’t dance”.

The Duke rose (his hair neatly flipping back into place and threatening another giggle from her which Anna managed to restrain to a slight snorting sound, as he made a disappointed noise.

“But” Elsa quickly added as she turned to look at her with something that looked suspiciously like a smirk on her face, “my sister does - very well”.

Anna was so struck by the sudden unexpected smile and praise from Elsa that it took her a good two seconds to realize what had just happened - which proved to be more than enough time for the good Duke to brighten up and seize her elbow, hurrying her towards the dance floor that was starting to fill again for the next dance. Startled as her mind finally caught up to the fact that Elsa had just outsourced her dancing duties to her, Anna had just enough time to shoot her an astonished look - and get a clearly laughing Elsa shoot her a mouthed ‘Sorry!’ that made everything better, before screeching to a halt with the Duke.
Who started strutting like a … a … she didn’t know what. With absolutely no self-consciousness at all - despite the double takes increasing numbers of people were doing of him as the music kicked into a fast dance.
Well this is … different she thought to herself in a slightly bewildered way as she placed her hands on her hips and started to move to the music as best she could.

“Like an agile peacock!” the other pronounced as he strutted around her, Anna doing her best not to gawk as his energetic movements caused his toupee to jump around hilariously. “If you swoon, I’ll do my best to catch you!”

Well … he’s certainly spry she noted as she tried to make heads or tails of what he was doing, it not being any dance she had been taught.

“Uh … thanks?” she managed, feeling more than a little off balance.

“Hmm. So good to be here though, with the gates open and your sister visible. Such a … reclusive’ figure he noted before suddenly he leaned in close to her. “You wouldn’t happen to know why she has been so hard to get a hold of, would you?”

The absurdity of this man asking a question -the question- Anna had been grappling with all her life shifted her from feeling off balance to feeling irritated. Especially with Elsa back, right here, right now.

“No” she said somewhat curtly before he took her hand.

“Ah, no matter” he smiled land with that she found herself flung in an absurd dip in a whirlwind of motion that stopped … with her upside down looking back at her sister across the room. Who was watching her and clearly trying not to laugh. Anna managed an upside down smile at her before she was back up and swinging into the dance.

Several minutes of … interesting … dancing later, Anna managed to stagger back to her sister who quickly smiled as she moved next to her.

“Well - he was … sprightly” her sister laughed softly as she adjusted her dresses straps.

“Especially for a man of that age” she agreed with a wan smile as she reached down to run her hands over a couple of points where the others steel tipped boots had crashed into her legs.

“Are you okay?”

“Actually … I’ve never been better” Anna said honestly as she set herself and looked at her sister. “This is just so … great. I hope it can be this way all the time now”.

Instantly, Anna knew she had chosen the wrong words.

Something in those words stilled Elsa, almost as if the very air had cooled between them. The affectionate smile slowly mutating into something almost … regretful before she broke eye contact to look out at the people, or at nothing in particular.

“Me too…” she agreed. “But … it can’t”.

“Well … why not?” Anna asked in confusion, stepping forward towards her sister-

As quick as a snake Elsa moved, sliding away from her a half meter, her body language suddenly screaming at her to stay back.
“It just-” she didn’t quite snap before the mask fell back in place on her sister with her back half turned.
“It just … can’t” she finished quietly.

Only meters separated them now, it was the closest she had been to Elsa for most of her life … and yet she was starting to understand that some doors didn’t need to be visible to be real as her heart sank. And against everything she had wanted to do for so many years and so many dreams … Anna took a step away from her sister.

“Excuse me” she said softly and slowly she turned and walked away into the crowd, fighting back a sudden surge of emotions that made her right on the verge of crying, her abandonment issues roaring up from nowhere and raging in her mind, leaving her desperately wanting to get out of the public eye now because she knew she was about to break down crying.
And thus she failed to see behind her, Elsa turn slightly to watch her walk away. Her mask slipping, just for a nanosecond, to show the anguish under it before her sibling forced it back on and turned to go back to work. As was her duty. But no longer with any joy in her expression.

Not paying any kind of attention in the packed room as she tried to get out it was probably thus inevitable that Anna caught the backside of an overweight man as he bowed to his partner at the end of the current dance, sending her careening to the side her arms uselessly pin wheeling with a yelp

Only to jar to a halt as a hand latched onto her wrist - her own hand instinctively grabbing onto the other's wrist as she gasped and looked up from her suspended position-

“Glad I caught you … again” Hans noted with a grin.

“Hans” she breathed - her angst flying off as her heart frantically beat from the adrenalin jolt of her near crash. Smiling with a level of class she would only have thought existed in her dreams, Hans simultaneously pulled her up, placed his champagne flute onto a passing waiter's tray without looking and pulled her in close against him as the music around them started up into a classic waltz.
“My Lady … may I have this dance?” he asked her with such gentleness it made her heart flutter again as her emotions swung from one extreme to the other.

“You may” she breathed, lost in his gaze - and with that, they were off.

They must have spun around the dance floor for a good ten minutes or so, Anna reeling with his physical proximity (and flushing bright red as she felt the rock hard muscles under the man's suit as they moved against each other) as they danced and spun and just let everything go except this moment.

It … it was like a dream.

This was the dream she had been having all her life. A strong, noble, beautiful man moving with her as one around the floor. And then around the castle. The two of them talking and laughing and sharing and joking and everything as the night deepened - with the two of them eventually finding themselves sitting on a balcony deeper in the castle, beyond the public areas - but the guards certainly hadn’t tried to stop her moving into her own house. Something about this man was incredibly mesmerizing; everything she had wanted to share with Elsa, stories and events in her life, now came spilling out to this man who she felt she had known all her life! It was incredible!

“So let me get this straight” Anna said, sitting on a table with absolutely no care for decorum, hugging her legs, with Hanse across from her having made a seat out of an antique dresser in this clean, but clearly unused room. “You have twelve older brothers?”

Dealing with one sister had been impossible enough.

“Sounds crazy doesn’t it?” Hans chuckled, leaning back with his eyes going slightly distant. “Although three of them decided to pretend I was invisible … for two years”.

“That’s horrible” Anna breathed in shock.

“Half-brothers anyway” Hans sighed. “My father married four times. The first four sons were to his first wife. The next two to his second. Five more to the third … and then there was me. The runt of the litter”.

“Don’t call yourself that” Anna scowled slightly at him and the offered her a wan smile, apologetic but not taking it back, seemingly having accepted the label.

“Well its part of the reason I try to keep busy offworld” he explained to her, shifting slightly. “I suppose it's sort of what brothers do with their pecking order to keep putting each other in place - Father was very supportive of having his children fight to win his approval and handing out titles and responsibilities based on some idea of who was most loyal”. Hans shrugged to her horrified face. “It’s a large part of the reason I spent as much time as possible offworld as an ambassador. If the brother want me to be invisible, well, that's what brothers do I suppose”.

“And sisters” Anna replied, her smiling face fading away as she returned to the fact of the night. Something in the back of her mind quickly warned her she was entering dangerous waters here, but she was just too exhausted around Elsa right now to care.
She needed to vent.
“Elsa and I were really close when we were little. Then, one day she just … well, shut me out. And … I never knew why” she finished, blinking back tears as she looked away … then looking up as Hanse took her right hand with both of hers, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand and sending shivers down her spine as he looked at her with such compassion, such empathy that it made her smile despite herself.

“That’s horrible. ’d never shut someone like you out” he breathed softly and Anna felt her heartbeat start racing again and that fluttering feeling in her stomach come back again.

“Really?” she asked softly.

“Really” he confirmed, his hazel eyes reflecting everything that she had ever wanted back at her as he reached out to gently ease her fringe back into place.
His finger felt like it was leaving trail of fire on her skin from the brief touch...

*******

“And I do look forward to seeing you later Councilor” Victor bowed slightly to the nth VIP to gushingly shake his hand in awe. This one, one of Elsa’s personal advisors, unfortunately could not be lightly dismissed as he would probably be sitting in several meetings with him at some point in the rest of the week. And it wouldn’t do to get things off on the wrong foot...

Still all he wanted was to just introduce himself and his plump but charming wife, which was more than enough.

Unlike the gaggle of industrial magnates who had all with various levels of subtlety, start to feel him out to support this or that proposal to turn Arendelle into a glorified strip mine.
Granted there were trillions of Kronor of materials at a minimum in the ground just waiting to be extracted, but he would have thought they could have at least given him one night before starting in on him!
Made worse by the fact that all of them were watching each other like hawks and instantly correcting the other. It had gotten to the point that Victor had flatly told them all that there would be no more talk about business tonight. And anyone who defied him would face a summery negative appraisal for their presentations from the outset.

They had scattered like Bugmechs having a Clan Assault Star drop into their formation after that. Sometimes it was good to be the Archduke and Archon-Prince designate.

“And I’m sure we will Marshal” the other addressed him before backing away with a bow, addressing Victor but his military rank given the uniform rather than his political one.

“And … that is it” Galen noted”.

“What is it?” Victor asked with only mild irritation, as he surreptitiously massaged his hand which had shaken one too many hands tonight.

“That’s it for the receiving - I think we’ve covered most everyone in the room”.

Victor looked up in surprise - indeed there was no one more seeming to want to converge on him through the gatekeeper of Mavis Williams.

“Praise be” he muttered in relief before turning on his friend with a glare. “Where the hell did you run off to earlier?”

“Outside” Galen shrugged with an utterly unsympathetic smirk. “As it so happens, I actually ran into Elsa out there”.

“Ran into …” Victor left it hanging with a raised eyebrow and Galen snorted and shook his head.

“No, not like Anna” he chuckled as his gaze went distant as he crossed his arms across his uniform. “Still, she’s … rather fascinating”.

“Oh?” Victor asked carefully as he studied his friend’s distant face with sudden interest.

“She’s unsure of herself and slightly insecure, but hides it almost as well as you did back on Trel” he noted, leaving Victor wanting to protest that he had not been insecure … until he remembered that, in fact, he had in fact been damn insecure about leading a Battalion right out of school even if he had been in denial about it at the time.
And that he had been incredibly lucky to have Galen assigned to him.

Well, incredibly lucky to have Galen assign himself to him, anyway.

“She’s smart” Galen continued. “She’s got a sense of humor. I think she genuinely understands the sheer depth of what she has agreed to do for the rest of her life -possibly too well- and takes herself almost too seriously…” he continued. Sounding, Victor noticed, remarkably taken with the young Duchess. Casually following Galens distant gaze, he found himself unsurprised to find that Galen in fact was looking at her right now as she conversed with a small group of nobility…

No. Victor thought in growing amusement, looking back and forth.

“And she’s hot of course” Victor carefully added as casually and neutrally as possible.

“Very” Galen nodded with a smile. Before blinking and hurriedly killing it. “Wait, what-”

“Oh my God you have a crush on the Duchess?!” Victor breathed in a theatrically horrified tone, grinning nonetheless as his friends almost iron composure cracked at the accusation.

“Don’t be silly” he said with a snort as he turned away to face him directly (but the twitch above his left eye gave him away delighting Victor even more). “She’s just a kid”.

“She’s twenty one” Victor retorted with his arms crossed, greatly enjoying this moment as he made Galen squirm for the first time in a long time. “You’re only thirty three. Lest we forget how old my parents were to each other when they married”.

“Victor, she’s a Duchess. I’m the son of a farmer”. And now Victor snorted, his mind starting to plot and scheme … probably in ways that would have had Katherine slapping him on the back of his head if she had been here.
But luckily his sister wasn’t present, so...

“And you’re a War Hero” he rolled his eyes. “You know, Federated Suns, mania for Battlemech pilots and all that? Plus if you want a noble title-”

Now Galen simply rolled his eyes, his expression back firmly under control, if slightly amused. Although Victor would have bet half of New Avalon that it was nothing more than a bluff.

“Victor” he sighed, “You can’t marry someone you just met!” he pointed out.
Then frowned.
A frown shared with Victor.

Not because of the context of the statement per se. But because they both distinctly heard the slightly raised voice of Elsa saying the exact same thing at the same time. Pivoting, the two of them turned to see Anna had reappeared from wherever she had run off to an hour ago (he guessed because ‘dinner’ was just about to be served in the informal way chosen) and she was now standing with a tall, handsome looking AFFC officer - no, wait, that wasn’t the new AFFC uniform. It was just cut remarkably close though.
At any rate, tall and red hair was standing off to the side looking somewhat ashen as Anna and Elsa started to argue openly on the dance floor, more and more people turning to face them as the volume slowly rose.

The two men exchanged a glance and without any further words, they started to drift towards the two sisters, Kai materializing from the side to join them as they moved in to defuse the situation.

[Chris OFarrell]

*******

Elsa felt miserable.

All her hopes. All her dreams of finding a way to start over had been dashed in but a moment. All her fears started to swirl around her again as she found herself once more completely unable to handle her sister.
Watching her sister, her shoulders slumped and a look of ancient pain in her eyes before she turned, walking almost listlessly onto the dance floor was almost more than Elsa could take. Her instinctive flinch away from her when Anna reached for her; a sudden compulsion of horror at the thought of her sister of all people touching her had caused her to just react. Her sister simply wanting to talk with her and being pushed away.

It’s not the time. It’s not the place Elsa repeated to herself like a mantra. When it’s right, when it's safe, then we can talk. Carefully.

The logic was as cold as the power thrumming under her skin, but she knew it was for the best.
It didn’t mean it didn’t ache. Didn’t hurt.

Elsa threw herself into circling the room, her face a mask of a pleasant expression as she greeted various people from onworld and offworld. Impressing all with her greeting them by name as she circulated, deftly pushing aside any questions about those damn rocks in her planet's crust and insisting that everyone simply enjoy themselves. Her sister had vanished deeper into the palace with that strange man - and she couldn't help but feel more than a little anxious at her being unchaperoned. Gerda bless her had clearly seen them leave and passed her a note, stating that she was having palace security keep tabs on them to make sure nothing untoward happened, which eased some of her stress as she simply threw herself into greeting guest after guest to keep her mind off it.

Somewhat amusingly, she noted that Galen had been perfectly correct about the guests. Most were falling over themselves to greet her and were happy enough with a brief handshake and needed nothing more than a smile and a few words she delivered over and over again. It didn’t make it much easier - especially with her stomach in knots over how she had already managed to hurt Anna again, but it was at least bearable.

And then her sister returned.

It was sudden. She was talking to a Baroness from New Fredrikstad on the other side of the continent when her voice called from over her shoulder.

“Elsa!” turning sharply Elsa faced her sister as she nimbly stepped through the packed ballroom floor towards her. Quickly she turned back to the Baroness and offered a slight bow the other returned and she shifted her full attention towards her sister - who she noted slightly uneasily was happily running hand in hand with that strange man.
But the deep, dark sadness that Elsa had seen in her sister's eyes was no longer there. So she smiled a little, if carefully, as she felt the tension pull back a little from her chest.

“Uh, I mean, Duchess” Anna quickly corrected herself, skidding into a cute kind of almost bow as she stopped in front of her. “It’s me again. May I present Sir Hans Westerguard, of the Southern Isles” she grandly introduced the man next to her, who offered her a perfect bow.

“Your Grace” he smiled at her … and Elsa offered him a minimal sort of nod back, suddenly for some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, wary of this man.

“Sir Hans” she simply said.

And then the two of them started to babble at high speed.

“Well, I would like-”

“That is to say we would like”

“Right! We’d like your blessing” and then the two of them turned to smile and look each other in the eyes before looking back with joy on their faces.

“Of our marriage!”

Elsa stared at the two of them for a long moment, her head not moving. Only her eyes flicking backwards and forwards between them in a stunned loop.
She could not have heard that right … could she?
Her eyes wide, all she could do was dumbly repeat the word.

“M...Marriage?!”

This … this was a nightmare. An insane nightmare.
Or a joke. Possibly a joke. Oh Gods please let it be a joke.

“Yes!” Anna squealed, closing her eyes and seeming to shiver with delight before turning to beam up at Hans … with terrifyingly little in the way of common sense or restrain flowing between them.
No.
To her horror, Elsa realize that Anna was not joking and the tension returned … and doubled.

“Wait” Elsa managed to get out as she struggled to control herself, her emotions paused in shock now surging forth. “I’m sorry, I’m confused” she managed to get out but Anna flew right on, not listening.

“Well, we haven't worked out all the details ourselves” she breathed giddily, her eyes shining with a horrifying lack of guile or deception. “We’ll need a few days to plan the ceremony” she considered, seemingly ignorant of the way Elsa’s frown was deepening the more she rambled at two hundred words a minute. “I mean we’ll of course have soup, roast and ice cream and then -” and Anna suddenly gasped and whipped around to look at Hans with wide eyes. “Wait, will we live here?”

“Here?” Elsa managed to choke faintly out as she slowly started to make her way out of shock into denial as Hans laughed saying that absolutely they would live here. “Anna-”

“Ohhh we can invite all twelve of your brothers to stay with us for the wedding! Of course we have the room!”

“No, No no no!” Elsa tried to get a word in edgeways - something that she had rarely been able to do with her sister since she had been born. “Wait!” she finally commanded and Anna in turn finally halted her uncoordinated rambling to look at her almost in confusion. Taking a deep breath Elsa tried desperately to find some kind of calm in the insane moment, putting a firm expression the like of which she used when putting her foot down in council meetings. “Slow down. No-ones brothers are staying here, no-one is getting married”.

She regretted her words, or at least the tone of them almost as soon as they were out of her mouth as Anna’s joy … drained.
It was not something she relished doing … yet bitterly, she realized she seemed cursed to do so.

“Wait … what?” she asked in disbelief and hurt.

A tornado of conflicting thoughts of what to do next stormed within her … and Elsa, as terrifying as the idea was to her decided that she didn’t have any choice now.

“May I talk to you please?” she asked Anna directly, unable to help glancing at Hans who was looking slightly hurt and unsure - but Elsa couldn’t even begin to deal with that now. “Alone?” she stressed to Anna, her voice ever so slightly wavering as she begged with her eyes for Anna to listen.

Her sister's eyes narrowed.

“No” she said, stepping back and holding onto Hans’s arm firmly, seeming to close in on herself in a way that Elsa had never seen before, as if she was pulling back the heart she always wore on her sleeve.
It was painful.
A dark voice in Elsa’s mind whispered that she had been hurting her sister to protect her all her life … what was one more time?
“Whatever you have to say” Anna continued, “you can say to both of us”.

That stubborn tone … now that brought back memories.
She pushed the thought aside and settled herself, putting her ‘Duchess’ mask firmly in place as she looked her sister square in the eyes.

“Anna, you can’t marry someone you just met” she flatly told her, not quite speaking down to her.

“You can if it's true love” Anna shot back with a not quite glare.

Elsa simply scoffed, feeling frustration now edging up from her normally iron hard control as her sister continued to insist on this insanity from a fairy tale! And her expression slipped with hints of exasperation and condescension creeping into it.

“Anna what do you know about true love?” she didn’t quite roll her eyes. The sheer absurdly over her sister deciding to marry the first man she had met?
Insanity didn’t even begin to cover it-

“More than you” Anna shot back suddenly, her tone turning hurt and even angry. “All you know how to do is shut people out!”

The words struck Elsa with the force of an orbital strike to her heart, leaving her speechless and stunned.
That … hurt.
It hurt a lot. Elsa found herself transfixed in place for a miniature eternity.

All the years she had isolated herself from her sister.
Everything she had done in her power to protect her.
Everything she had sacrificed to keep her safe, to keep her happy, alive and unharmed.
The life she had dreamed of night after night, the life she had denied herself to let her sister enjoy hers, free of the burdens she would have imposed on her with knowledge of her … condition.
All of that sacrifice for her flashed before her eyes as it was tossed back in her face by the person she had done it for.

Distantly some part of her saw the sudden deep regret in Anna’s eyes. An understanding that she had gone too far and didn’t really mean it. It was a statement made out of ignorance - a statement only made because she knew it would hurt because it was so false and was just her lashing out in anger.

That part of her mind was dismissed as she felt her heart pierced by her sister's words and felt her mask shatter to show the hurt in her eyes.

“You asked for my blessing” she said, “but my answer is no. Now” she turned, needing to get out of here as she felt her fanatic emotions, to her horror, start to reflect in her powers. A storm building inside her that she needed to calm down in peace. Now. “If you’ll excuse me” she started to walk away.

“Your Grace” Hans started to say as she moved off, “if I may-”

“No, no you cannot and I think you should leave, now” she said without pausing, suspicious of this man and wanting him gone as she moved off towards a nearby guard. “I’ll be retiring for now, I’ll return later” Elsa said as she moved off.


“Elsa! No, no wait!” she heard Anna say – but ignored her as she resolutely moved towards he doors.

Right up until her sister suddenly grabbed her hand.

It had been a very long time since someone had touched her like that. The pure shock of it, combined with her emotional state caused her to half jump and spin … and to her horror, she felt Anna’s grip yank the long glove from her hand. The horrible, horrible feeling of cool evening air wafting over her right arm as Anna staggered back with her glove.

“Give me my glove!” Elsa frantically demanded, with absolutely no composure, snatching for it with her left arm only for Anna to pull back, looking utterly miserable at her.

“Elsa” she gasped, her glorious eyes on the verge of tears. “Please, Elsa, I can’t live like this anymore!”

There was a moment of perfect silence as Elsa stared at her sister, mentally seeming to commit every part of her into her memory as she suddenly realized there was only one way she could truly protect her sister from her.

And that this whole idea to try and find a way to work with her sister had been a terrible, terrible mistake.

“Then leave” she said simply.

Elsa felt her heart crack as she saw Anna recoil in utter horror at her response. The two stared at each other for long, horrible moments until, unable to bare looking into those eyes that she knew would haunt her to the end of her days, Elsa turned away again, clutching her arm to her chest as she started to feel confined, almost claustrophobic.
The room was too small, the dress too tight and heavy; her powers without her glove raging under her skin and feeding upon her emotions in an unstoppable chain reaction.
She needed to get out. Now.

She made it two steps before the anguished voice of her sister started to lash at her.

“What did I ever do to you?” Anna almost sobbed and Elsa squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears well up in them.
Nothing Anna. You never did anything but love me – but it’s too dangerous to love a monster.
“Enough Anna” she said weakly out loud starting to edge towards hyperventilating. She knew more and more people were staring in confusion and shock but she didn’t care.

Out
She needed to get out.

“No! Why? Why do you shut me out?” Anna’s voice lashed at her and Elsa hurried on, clutching her arm.

Out. Get out!

“Why do you shut the world out? WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRIAD OF?” Anna all but yelled – and for the first time in close to two decades, Elsa’s control snapped as the stress of every single moment in the last day finally, perhaps irrevocably, pushed her past breaking point.

Outoutoutoutout-

“I said ENOUGH” Elsa spun and roared at her sister with raw pain, anger and grief.

And in that moment, the course of human history was forever changed as for just a split second, the raging storm under Elsa’s skin was unleashed as her arm whipped out to gesture for emphasis and obeyed her raw emotional state.

In a split second a blast of white energy ripped from her arm and described an arc along the floor, exploding upwards into a forest of long spikes and shafts of pure ice … one of which intercepted the forehead of Victor Steiner-Davion as he had approached to help deal with the situation, sending him flying backwards through the air to crash to the ground with a thump that seemed to echo across the Inner Sphere.

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

Yay!

So we've reached just about the halfway point in the story. Lets see if we can get going a tad faster...

[Sharpnel]

Well, it's back...finally.  :) :) :)

Here's hoping Elsa did not kill Victor.

[gladius]

Omake: Operation Keypunch II

Camelot Command, Dark Nebula,
Jade Falcon Occupation Zone,
May 10, 3053

It was 0320 hours when Andre Winters supported a staggering, giggling Juliette von Strang towards the Legion's quarters, passing by the Blazer-toting, black armoured guards who saluted their commander and liege lady as she past. Once around the corner, however, her strides steadied and she stopped leaning against Lt Winters, and straightened her spine as she visibly calmed. "Well, that was instructive," she said soberly as Andre produced several small pills from his belt pouch, which she dutifully swallowed dry. "I really would have thought that the Black Widow would have been able to hold her liquor better than that.

"Careful, milady, they may have taken the same sort of precautions you did," he cautioned, and she reluctantly nodded. Still, she considered the evening and morning a success. Taking the catalyser offered by the Legions' chief surgeon had been a marvellous idea, letting her pretend to get drunk while remaining sharp enough to observe the other commanders.

After all: did they really expect me to get drunk in a room with two crypto-Tankers and a Marik noblewoman? I'm brutal, not stupid.

*** *** ***

An hour, several stims and a hot shower later, she sat at a short briefing with her senior staff. "... they seem genuine enough, but I still don't trust them entirely," she concluded. "Marik seems solid, but her regiment is short of combat experience, let alone anti-Clan expertise. I intend to spend the next several months doing extensive simulation exercises in concert with the Krushers: let's give them the benefit of our experience."

Heads nodded around the table. She turned to her XO, Major von Strang-Cooper. "Michelle, our evening was interrupted by Adam Steiner's arrival to inform Snord of the shipment: did our orders arrive?" It wouldn't be the first time that supplies intended for mercenary regiments wound up being 'lost in transit'.

"Amazingly, we received everything on our list," her cousin-by-marriage reported. Older than her commander by two decades, she still wore the ring given to her by her husband, who had stayed behind to fight the Falcons during the fall of the Barony. "Six gauss rifles, two-dozen medium pulse lasers, a pair of heavy autocannon and a lance-wide C3 network, plus over a hundred tons of ammo. And that's not counting the six heavy 'Mechs we requested - two Catapaults, three Archers and a Marauder I've got my eye on - and the new munitions we were promised. And yes," she glanced at Major Kurch of the Damned aerospace group, "That includes the new Lance missiles."

That news was received with a rapping of knuckles on the table in applause, Juliette's included. The new anti-shipping missiles were heavy, bulky beasts, fully two tons each and taking up a half-dozen hard points on a fighter, but her heavy birds could carry two or three of them each. More, despite not having the seeking packages and manoeuvrability to chase fighters, they were specifically designed to hit space craft massing over four hundred tons, and carried a powerful warhead fully half again as powerful as the Arrow IV missiles the Legion already fielded.

Short of the 'special' munitions still carried on board the Nightmare (the new aero-carrier recently purchased and modified to Legion specifications), it was the most effective anti-capital ship weapon the Legion could get their hands on, and the Commonwealth was issuing them to all of Combat Command Tamar-Alpha's air wings. With that sort of stand-off firepower, the regiments under Snord's command could now, if confronted by a Clan WarShip, do more than cross their fingers and hope for a Golden BB fighter strike.

"Well, I may have to revise my original estimation of Komandant Steiner's attractiveness," she said with a smile, much to her officer's amusement.

*** *** ***

"Well, that went well," commented Rhonda as she knocked back a handful of painkillers and chased them down with strong black coffee. The three senior Colonels were gathered in her quarters for a late breakfast/bitch session. "I'm actually surprised she opened up that well."

"Bullshit," snorted Kristen, before wincing and touching her temple.

"Whacha mean?" asked Natasha, who seemed the least affected by the staggering amounts of alcohol consumed the night before as she leant back against the counter.

"I mean, she was faking it: didn't get more than tipsy." At the confused looks of the other two mercenaries, she shrugged. "I've spent a lot more time at epic banquets and heavy drinking contests between rival nobles and political factions: I know the difference between a woman sozzled out of her mind and someone who's taken something to keep her brain clear. I think Juliette wanted a chance to see us with our guard down as much as we wanted to see her."

Kerensky shook her head, sucking down her own coffee. "Clever little bitch. Paranoid and sneaky: just when I think I can't like her any more," she offered with a smile. "Reminds me of me when I was that age."

"But we're supposed to be working together," grumbled Snord. "I mean, we've had our techs helping to upgrade their 'Mechs and fighters, but they won't let our bondsmen anywhere near the equipment, even though they're a lot more experienced with Clan tech than ours Spheroid-natives are. I know some Periphery born can be superstitious, but it's not like our Clanborn carry diseases or curses: are they really that blinded by hate?"

"Think Draconis March, add in some Taurian, and stir with a dose of cold calculation," said Kristen. Despite being a mercenary for some years now, she was still a woman who had grown up in the court of Atreus, listening to the arguing of the Free World's League parliament. "Part of it is a strategy, keeping her people focused, keeping their morale up, and by making sure everyone knows she's more than a little crazy, she makes it less likely for people to screw with her. But a lot of it is genuine, pure, unadulterated rage. You've seen the same interviews and battle ROMs as I have."

The other women nodded, recalling the taut von Strang had used to drive a force of Falcons into mouth-foaming fury, luring them into an ambush.

"Alright, you inbred beasts, you want a fight? I am Baroness Juliette von Strang, ruler of the Barony of Strang, descendant of Gunthar von Strang! I know who you are, the children of Hazen the Terrorist, and Kerensky the Deserter! I came here to claim a Falcon skull for my collection: come, face me, you gutless cowards! One at a time or all at once, I'm going to kill you all!"

What little Clan-born pride Snord and Kerensky still possessed regarding their heritage winced at the characterisation of the Great Father, but they couldn't deny the way the scene had resonated with a substantial portion of the Commonwealth, especially in the wake of the Sudeten counter-offensive ... and to this day, certain bars still showed replays of the Legion Banshee picking up a Falcon Uller and swinging it about, smashing it against a canyon wall again, and again, and again ...

"No matter how good an actress she is, you can't fake that sort of hatred: believe me, I'm from the Free World's League. We take blood feuds seriously down there, and she's got more reason than most for hers: the Falcons have bombarded her world and are butchering any of her relatives they can find. They hung her father's body upside down in the main square of her capital, for Blake's sake. But she's sane enough, so don't go expecting her to start filing down her teeth and drinking Clanner blood anytime soon."

***

Followed by her bodyguards, Juliette stalked down the row of 'Mech gantries, casting her critical but fond eyes over the techs and pilots who were busily repairing old systems and retrofitting new ones. She paused at an elderly but still imposing Grand Dragon, painted the same light-drinking black as every other Legion machine. The armoured cowling for the right-arm was removed, exposing the internal workings of the Clantech PPC that replaced the older Lord's Light cannon, with multiple people in Legion blacks fussing with the advanced weapon. "Haddock!" she called, and one of the workers, a gangly young man with a thick mop of brown hair, popped his head up and pulled the welding goggles from his eyes. "How's Toothless doing?"

Lieutenant H.H. Haddock the Third (Hiccup to his friends) grinned, waving at his 'Mech, that had been part of his family since the Second Succession War back when Rassalhague had been a Combine province. With his world gobbled up by Clan Ghost Bear, the minor noble had led friends and family into exile, finding refuge and kindred spirits in von Strang's Legion. "Oh, he's doing fine, milday, aren't you, boy?" He called down from the rapair gantry as he fondly patted the 'Mech. "We're just seating the cooling jacket: these Tanker particle guns put out so much heat, we had to rerout coolant almost directly into the primary -" Another Legionaire pilot, a blonde woman, reached out and slapped him on the back of the head without bothering to look up from her tinkering. "Um, yeah! Going well!" he said, somewhat sheepishly. "We'll have him buttoned up in about seven hours, tops!"

"Outstanding," stated the Baroness, nodding sharply before marching on, her confident stride only marred by the shuffling motion caused by her magnetic boots. I just wish we could afford to outfit all of our 'Mechs with completely salvaged tech, she lamented silently. Unfortunately, except for her command lance, which was entirely upgraded, the Legion had to make do with only one or two Clantech weapons per 'Mech or ASF.

On the other hand, with the generous salvage rights the Commonwealth is offering for this offensive, that's likely to change, she thought in a much more cheerful manner, which was often the case when she looked forward to Operation Keypunch. Born and bred in the cold, harsh Periphery, surrounded by worlds that hated hers (for both good and bad reasons), she had been honestly surprised by the welcome she had received from the Federated Commonwealth. Oh, yes, there are those mindless critics and morons who couldn't see past my family name, especially among certain units, both House and mercenary, who hearkened back to their days as House Cameron's hired thugs, but the Davion - well, Steiner-Davion, these days - dynasty's public approval went a long way to smoothing things over ... not to mention the Kells.

Juliette suppressed a smile as she remembered spending Christmas on Arc Royal with the Kell family, despite protests from the Archduke's subjects and lesser nobles, but then she stopped herself.

I can't let myself start to think of Arc Royal, or even the Commonwealth in general, as home, she thought harshly. Home is the City, where thousands of people cried out my family's name. Home is the ranch where aunt Vicky taught me to ride and shoot. Home is the Barony of Strang, and I will free it, even if I have to bring my father's dying curse to every last Jade Falcon warrior who was ever hatched.

Steiner-Davion and I have a common foe. For now, that's enough.

A/N: Again, thanks to Chris for letting me continue this little side-story. I'm complying with his instruction to include a little hint of Disney in every omake ...

[ckosacranoid]

Nice to see updates of this story and more of the vampire from beyond. Love both series and thank you guys both for the updates with the main story and the side story. Are we going to be seeing more of the vampire storys soon?

[Dave Talley]

Well, it's back...finally.  :) :) :)

Here's hoping Elsa did not kill Victor.

nah, safest place to hit him, very hard head for a shorty

[Zureal]

So... goto wounder... is victor dead?  ???

[gladius]

So... goto wounder... is victor dead?  ???

Considering there have been quotes from him in later years, that's unlikely.

[Chris OFarrell]

Been a while :)

"Spectacular! The Steiner and Davion blood has mixed well in this one. Fire and steel. A little tempering and he'll be invincible. And this one, the quiet one; he's one to watch. You know back in the days of ancient Rome, they used to put a dwarf in the chariot with victorious generals. During the public parades, as the crowds lavished adulation on the general, the dwarf would whisper reminders that earthly glory was fleeting. An officer that carries his own dwarf with him, one that constantly checks to make sure he is right instead of just believing that he's right, that is a valuable man."

 - Major Sveng Ngov to Victor Steiner-Davion and Kai Allard-Liao, 10 November, 3050


The Foxes Den
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053
T = - 5 minutes


There was an impressive level of drinking taking place in the Foxes Den.
The idea that officers stationed in the primary strategic command centre of Federated Suns State Command would toss their work aside and start throwing down shots was, of course, almost unbelievable.
Or an indicator that someone had left the door open and a gaggle of Social Generals from their Lyran allies had staggered in with a case of schnapps.

Although to be fair, there was a persistent legend that Natasha Kerensky and Ian Davion had gotten into a rousing rendition of ‘One hundred bottles of beer on the wall’ inside, after a highly successful Dragoon raid on the Capellan border. Although if there was actually any truth to said legend, no-one knew. To this day, the Black Widow refused to do anything more than offer a knowing smirk when asked.
Irrespective of all that however; this Foxes Den was most assuredly not any kind of command centre … but it was filled with people in AFFC uniforms.

A bar on the corner of Dropship Drive and 14th Avenue just outside of Fort Akershus, the ‘Den’ had become the chosen watering hole of the Forts personnel ever since it was opened a century ago by a retiring AFFS Major. Accordingly, it had evolved the kind of ambience that most such places ‘adopted’ by a planetary garrison might well have. A central horseshoe shaped bar extruding from one wall was surrounded by a field of free standing tables while the walls were lined with countless booths. Setting it apart from all other bars on the planet, the brick walls were covered in oversized unit patches of the AFFS and AFFC units that had rotated through the planet over the years. All of them autographed by their units CO.

Today a new patch had joined the array in a solemn ceremony marked with the toasting of copious amounts of hard liquor. Said patch had been installed on the well illuminated back wall, where the most prestigious insignia were mounted, sadly displacing the 20th Avalon Hussars onto the right wall near the battered jukebox.
Steiner blue in colour, the new patch was dominated by a rather sinister looking skeletal figure that glared out from the crest with twin scarlet eyes. Its bonny left arm held a bronze shield in front with large ‘X’ painted in white. Its right arm ended not in a hand; but in an enormous metal gauntlet easily recognizable as the first of the Lyran Commonwealth clutching the sword Excalibur from the flag of the Federated Suns.

And the specter looked, frankly, downright eager to use said combination.

The perimeter of the crest was defined by two links of text that wrapped around it. The upper text proclaiming in gold that this was a unit of the ‘Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth’. While the lower text in blood red warned all that this unit was in fact the ‘10th Lyran Guards RCT’.

Or, as its members liked to call themselves, The Revenants.

Thus far, the large wooden insignia had not been signed by the senior officer of said RCT on-world - one Archon-Prince Designate slash Marshal Victor-Steiner Davion - but the officers of the 10th were entirely confident that he would swing by on the way out to do so. And with the crest now up on the wall (the bar owner had done it personally lest a drunken Mechwarrior make a mess of things), this most important impromptu staff meeting moved onto the next order of business.
War stories!

By long standing tradition going back to well before humans left Terra, when a military unit that had been in the thick of things rotated back to rear areas to be hosted by another unit, a brisk exchange of war stories for booze was considered to be in order. The local Militia, whose ‘combat record’ was pretty much limited to a handful of riot police actions, were understandably eager to hear all the stories from a unit that had been in the most famous battles of the Clan War and - unlike most others - emerged with both more victories than defeats on the books and a never ending argument with the survivors of the rebuilding 26th Lyran Guards as to who the best anti-Clan unit in the Guards were.
But that was a feud for another day.

The tales had already run through craziness of Twycross and dark day of Alyina, then onto the rescue of Hohiro Kurtia (while beating up the Nova Cats and taking their lunch money). But now the stories had switched to the conventional assets of the RCT and their moment of glory. As while the 10ths Mech and fighter Jocks had been off pulling Takashi’s grandson out of the fire, the rest of the RCTs regiments hadn’t been allowed to simply sit around and catch up on some light reading. No, after finishing their refits, they’d been shuffled up to Sudeten and attached to their sister unit in the 11th Lyran Guards. Just in time for the Jade Falcons to stroll into the glorious trap AFFC High Command had patiently and painstakingly prepared for them.
This story was being told by Staff Sergeant Kurt Adler, who had won the McKennsy Ground-Pounder's Medal for his part in the engagement. Leading a mixed unit of four Demolisher tanks backed up with a company of anti-mech infantry, some combat engineers and a couple platoons of power armor ‘borrowed’ from the Grey Death Legion, he (with some help from his Lieutenant it might be noted) had pulled off the kind of ambush most Mechwarriors had nightmares about (and conversely, most Tankers dreamed about). Ambushing a mixed Binary of Omnimechs and Elementals in a tight City battle, layering the attack so precisely and rapidly that the Falcons had been torn to pieces in less than ten minutes with only fragmented transmissions getting back to their Star Colonel as the trap was protected and then sprung.
At this point in his story, Adler paused to take a long sip of his beer, leaving the locals on the edge of their seats (some literally as the bar was packed beyond capacity) before he put the mug down, leaning forward with a gleam in his eye to start to lay out the obliteration Morgan Hasek-Davion had dished out in what had become known as ‘the mother of all killboxes-’

Then a loud beeping cut in.

Renny Sanderlin, squeezed into the corner of the 10ths booth frowned at that and with a little effort, managed to retrieve a small box from his pocket. Roughly the size of a cell phone, it was in fact a long range communicator - known commonly as the ‘killjoy’ by AFFC troops. Similar to an ancient pager, the ‘killjoy’ could receive communications via a variety of ways, including directly from the powerful transmitters on the Barbarossa herself directly or bouncing signals off the ionosphere or even SATCOM sets if they were around.
The system was also blinding with its illuminated screen, very noisy and incredibly tough with an impressive battery. So you couldn’t ignore it, destroy it or otherwise stop it from screaming at you when you were on R&R and more than a little loaded.

Renny, as the senior officer present, was carrying his little outings unit and slowly the conversation died down as he flipped the screen open and read the short text message printed on it-

“MARCHING ORDERS!” he yelled the code-word loudly in shock and heads snapped up and around -with varying degrees of muscle control depending on how much liquor they had had. Turning then to the massive crowd of militia personnel staring in confusion, he slightly moderated his voice - but kept a tone of iron command “All militia personnel who are on active service at this time, back to the fort - you may well be getting an activation order shortly. Everyone who isn’t drunk, help those who are. Move!”

Orders had been given. Questions could wait.

A chaotic exodus took place at that point as the soldiers (mostly kids in Rennys eyes) hastily started to vacate the premises, speculation exploding everywhere in excitement over what had happened. Luckily their officers took charge of the mob quickly enough and hustled them out as Renny managed to squeeze past the others to head to the bar. Returning a minute later with a number of empty mugs and a few jugs of water with the help of the barman, he poured the drinks and retrieved a jar full of white pills from inside his jacket. Putting one into each of the cups, the pills at once started to dissolve quickly. With the 10th Lyran crew looking at them with no small amount of distaste.

“Alright” Renny muttered when he was finished, picking up a mug. “Suck it up and suck it down” and leading by example in the way AFFC officers were encouraged, he gulped down the mixture as quickly as possible.
It tasted … horrible. Yet he had barely finished before he felt the fuzzy sort of cloud over his head start to dissipate as the ‘soberup’ did its job, rapidly.
The pills were something generations of troops across the Inner Sphere had detested - and secretly wished would become Lostech. Unfortunately it seemed that all the top brass on all sides of the Succession Wars loved them far too much and thus the officers would have the horrible taste in their mouths for days.
Along with a headache that would probably require light painkillers tomorrow for those who had drunk too much … but you didn’t screw around when a Level-1 recall was declared.

“What’s going on Boss?” Adler asked as he and the two dozen others worked their way out of the booths and stretched, their initially irritated faces turning increasingly serious as the horrid but horribly effective drugs kicked in.

“Level One recall, beyond that I don’t know” Renny shrugged, wondering what in the hell could be going on as he stepped outside the bar to the street, where the militia were hurrying across the road into their part of the spaceport, lights and sirens coming on all over the place as Victors bodyguard unit was called to action and the locals followed suit. An APC now roared to a stop with a squeal of metal on asphalt that would leave a mess to clean up for the local Government, its ramp dropping with the clang of a crash drop for maximum embarkation speed.
He frowned at the somewhat excessive gesture but said nothing as the Revenants officers and men piled inside the spacious yet cramped infantry bay, mentally counting each of them off until only he was left. Still, he made a final turn back to make sure no one was left - and was forced to shut his eyes as something sprayed into his face. Awkwardly he blinked and wiped his face clear to get a look at what the hell that was … and then he blinked again.

It’s … snowing?

[Chris OFarrell]

Arendelle Castle
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053
T = 0

There was a sound, a single sound, that haunted the Duchess of Arendelle.

Such ‘triggering’ was far from unheard of, of course. It was often the result of people who had been part of an event so horrifying, so totally consuming, that it became stamped on their very soul. To the point of similar stimuli then setting off anything from unease to full blown panic attacks.

For Elsa, the trigger in question was the sound of a human body slamming into a hard floor. An unconscious human body. Limp and unbraced, little more than a ragdoll as gravity took hold, yanking it down towards the core of the planet - only for a floor to get in the way.
The sound of Anna’s body crashing to the polished floor of the castle ballroom was forever locked into Elsa’s memory with perfect clarity, not having faded one bit in all these years. She had to but close her eyes and she could watch as her magic missed its mark to slam into her sister's head, snapping it back and leaving the unconscious Anna to, without any control or awareness, arc down and smash into the floor, bounce once and then sickeningly slide to a terrifyingly still halt that could still wake her in the middle of the night gasping and clutching herself.

And now ...it had happened again.

Archon Prince Designate Victor Steiner-Davion crashed to the floor in a heap, rebounding off the ice that had formed in front of him. A hideous cacophony of sound from the two events merging and filling the room to exclude all other noise.
The room seemed to shudder to a halt for a moment, to let everyone take in the horrible, impossible vista in seemingly perfect silence. To let reality itself soak in the sheer magnitude and gravitas of this event.

Then chaos took hold.

Accusations, panic and threats exploded into a senseless roar as people ran madly around in every direction - except towards the ice and woman behind it, who was utterly fixed in place, unmoving and unresponsive. Elsa could only stare in dumb denial of the truth her eyes were showing her, her gaze switching back and forth between her ungloved hand, the ice in front of her and her liege on the ground beyond it with Kai Allard-Liao now dropped to his side. Frozen inside and outside at the sheer enormity of what had just happened, as the horrible truth of what she had done hit her.
Too fast and too vast to accept, her thoughts scattered to the storm inside. Unable to think, unable to even breathe as her heart pounded frantically.
All of which ensured there was zero chance that she would notice as, of to the side, Agent Curaitis cleared the panicking crowd, smoothly bringing his needle pistol around and sliding his finger onto the trigger barely five seconds after Victor had been sent flying as he lined up on her head-

“HOLD!”

***

The order ripped through the chaos like the gunshot some had been expecting in that moment. Loud enough to be heard over all the noise it demanded obedience; freezing the security team in place and shutting up a rather large part of the chatter to boot as gazes were almost unwillingly drawn from the horrified Duchess to the source of the command. Galen Cox too shifted his gaze as he forced his way past the front of the crowd, knowing what he would see.

Victor Steiner-Davion, looking pale and unsteady on the floor, was staring directly at Curatis - with the help of Kai Allard-Liao holding him up. He seemed to be barely able to keep awake, his shaking face (including a nasty red mark on his forehead darkening as they watched) betraying how much that single shout had cost him … but his eyes blazed. It was a look of command to match the voice; an authority forged in the fires of some of the toughest battles of the Clan War that said he would be heeded; there was simply no other option - and Curatis froze in place.
The ISB bodyguards around the room to a person were handpicked soldiers. An elite among the elite, with fanatic loyalty to the Steiner-Davion line and the best training the Federated Commonwealth could give them. And despite the complete impossibility of the Duchess of Arendelle shooting ice from her hands, their training was to identify threats to their charge and eliminate them. Thus even as their principal had been flung away like a ragdoll, injured or dead, said training had activated without the need for any conscious thought. Compact but powerful weapons had come out and swung towards the threat with barely enough time to even register the impossibility of this - only a desire to deal with it the only way they knew how.

And then the voice hit them and they … hesitated. Until finally Curatis subtly lowered his weapons aim point not quite to the floor and so too did they. In that moment, their conscious minds caught up with their reflexes and discipline re-asserted itself as they took a moment to stare at both the shimmering wall of impossible ice and state of the subject of interest beyond it. Galen himself moved up, looking down in worry at his friend and boss as Diedre Lear pushed past him to slide to a halt next to Victor on the floor, with zero care for decorum or her stunning dress as she coolly started to examine the Archon-Prince designate. A bodyguard started to move in at her sudden presence next to his principal before a glare and gesture from Kai froze said bodyguard in place -  and then running down the room and shoving people out of the way, a team of paramedics from the rapid response squad encumbered with a full field medical kit hurried to join the Doctor.
Galen however barely noticed as Victors gaze suddenly connected with his.

“Galen…” he gasped loud enough to be heard, “take charge...” and with that Kai and Diedre carefully eased him back to the floor, Victor seeming to sag into it as thought he was now a spent force just fighting to just remain conscious.

Oh great Galen thought as eyes now turned to him but nodding at his boss and understanding what was both said and unsaid, Galen took a deep breath and turned away to redirect his attention to the pressing, somewhat impossible scenario confronting the room-

“Sorcery” some pompous tiny man flanked by two men in uniforms that screamed ‘Mercs’ said in a not quite hiss as he pushed to the front, his voice carrying over the silent tension far too clearly. “I knew there was something dubious going on here in this family, I knew it!”
At that accusation, all eyes in the room shifted back from Galen, to the lone figure standing behind the wall of glittering ice.

The naming of the impossibility on everyone's mind seemed to make the thick atmosphere in the room that much grittier and darker, with people again edging away from Elsa. Except for the bodyguards gripping their weapons tightly who had moved to shield Victor; leaving the entire room paused in a brittle sort of stasis. Galen took all this in in a moment of cool consideration before deciding the time had come for him to step in and start to take control of the situation …

But he was a second too slow as someone else moved in.

Galen froze as Anna stepped out in front of the crowd she had been swallowed up by initially after the chaos. Carefully, like she was approaching a wild animal that could be spooked into flight at any moment. Her own face was tight with emotion - but there was (unsurprisingly to him) not sign of even the slightest trace of fear. He glanced back to Elsa and in a moment read the absolute terror and panic in every clenched muscle and eye movement. Every part of her that had been so utterly confident and controlled was gone and what was left was screaming to him that she was sitting right on the edge of a major flight/fight reaction, as she jerkily managed a step away from the ice clutching and covering her ungloved hand tightly - Galen noticing Anna was still clutching her sisters glove.
Was she going to try and give it back?

Galen bit his lip before he called Anna off, wondering if that alone might trigger Elsa as he desperately tried to figure out a way to catch her sister's eye and tell Anna to just step back and give her room-

“Elsa…” Anna called hesitantly as she approached - and instantly Galen could see that it had been a mistake. Elsa's gaze jerked to Anna and her panic and eyes seemed to only widen as she saw her sister was moving closer. Something about that moved her beyond rational self control and brought life back to her as she clumsily stepped back to yank the door behind her open while still tightly shielding her ungloved hand … and then in a blur of motion she was gone.

“Kai-” Galen started to call only for the other to shake his head firmly.

“I’ve got it - go” the other urged and Galen nodded, everything that needed to be said passing between them with just those few words as he turned to face the chief bodyguard.

“Curaitis - with me!” Galen snapped an order, turning to glance at the bodyguards around his friend who had stepped back to let the medics work “Everyone else, hold with Victor and keep your safeties on!” he added before striding around the edge of the impossible ice. Reaching the door Elsa had vacated he carefully eased it open - only to find an empty corridor beyond.

Empty that is except for the glittering trail of frost on the wooden floor.

Exchanging a glance with the ISB agent who had obediently moved with him, Galen was about to launch into a sprint after the fleeing Duchess - only for Anna to fly past him at speed, yelling her sisters name. He debated for a quarter of a second trying to tell Anna to stay inside; that her presence might actually be frightening Elsa before deciding it would be both useless and time wasting. Instead he hurried after her in turn as Galen heard more people coming up behind him, one of them yelling ‘After her!’ like they were bloody chasing down a criminal.

Oh. And on that thought-

“Curaitis - relay order to all points weapons tight” he snapped, determined to get to Elsa before anyone did anything stupid. And as Curaitis relayed the order with short barks over the radio, he noticed Anna impossibly managing to outdistance them even wearing heels.

Bloody hell that girl could move!

Gritting his teeth, he forced his legs to go faster and cursed his very well polished but not suited for running dress shoes and far too tight trousers as he pursued the fleeing Duchess and her sister.

[Chris OFarrell]

Hauptmann Warren Vickers was not bored.
MI6 Commandos did not get bored.
He was an MI6 Commando.
Ergo, he was not bored.

Contrary to most holovids about MI6; the ‘Rabid Foxes’ and their peers around the Inner Sphere were not superhuman agents of chaos and destruction who could take out entire Regiments with a sidearm. Although of course they were superbly trained infantry, they were also cross trained in in everything from Battlemech operation to astronavigation to deep-sea demolitions making them too valuable to waste on missions normal infantry could perform. Their specialties were things like deep reconnaissance, asset recovery, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism - often missions where they never even fired a weapon despite their reputation as ‘trigger happy doom-commandos’. They fit into a unique middle ground capability of special forces; generally performing missions with limited personnel and support that required a wide array of capabilities. Things too violent for MI5 agents and too complex for more standard AFFC Special Operations units.

They, in short, got the ‘odd’ missions that fell through the cracks. Like this one.

Their mission orders were to provide invisible but rapid, heavy and precise support for the ground teams perimeter security. When they needed more than a ‘suit with a pistol’, but less than a Firestarter. To that end, each operator in the fourteen man team had been issued a new variant of Infiltrator Battle Armour specifically designed for this kind of work. In addition to its incredible sensor systems, the suit known as the ‘Waddle’ gave each agent a view of the battlespace that rivaled command ‘mechs - the better to let them spot, anticipate and eliminate any potential threats.
So far, the threats had been … limited. A few hours ago, it had looked like some entertainment had been about to start when one man outright challenged another to a duel over some insult but that had gone nowhere, with the second man slinking away with his tail between his legs. And since then, everything had been bland. The worst thing Vickers could see right now was a drunken lower ranked noble in the courtyard who was getting a little too handsy with the non-noble celebrity sitting next to him and causing her increasing distress.

He wondered if he had spent too long out in the field if his first answer to these things was to consider putting a HV slug designed to penetrate Elemental armour through the man's wrist ...

Sighing, Warren started to place a call to palace security to deal with the drunken ******, but even as he triggered his radio, it suddenly beeped with a loud override signal and a slightly breathless voice brought the nights not boredom to a screeching halt.

“Break Break! All callsigns, Angel down! I say again, Angel down”

There was a moment of stunned disbelief and then without conscious thought, Warren found his rifle in his hand and crosshairs sweeping for targets as all his suits combat systems went from standby to active, his heart starting to race.
‘Angel down’ meant that Victor Steiner-Davion had been attacked, status unclear and a million questions exploded into his mind.
However he and his people were far too well trained to start broadcasting and demanding information, focusing their attention onto their inner and outer perimeter zones around the Castle just looking for a threat to service-

“All Callsigns” the voice of Agent Curaitis cut in sharply onto the net next, the sound of boots running and heavy breathing making it clear he was on the move. “Angel is down - but secure” and there was an invisible but very real exhale of tension across the region as the words came through that Victor had been incapacitated, but, was alive and being seen to with the immediate threat controlled. “Immediate; the Duchess Elsa is the active subject of interest but something … well, something crazy is going on right now with her. All points orders are acquire and track - but do not, I say again, do not engage. Stand by-” and with a beep the voice cut off as Curaitis found something else to deal with

“What the ****** is going on?” Sandra, one of the other MI6 agents muttered on their dedicated squad frequency. “The Duchess? Attacked the Prince?!”

“I know as much as you do Three” Warren pointed out, pushing aside his own sense of dislocation at the unexpected events - and Curatis’s abnormally unclear response. The ISB agent had only impressed him thus far with his straight talking yet considered and intelligent leadership - for a civilian. “Curaitis doesn’t ****** around - everyone keep your eyes open for-” he started to order before ceasing to talk as he spotted the doors to the palace's main building suddenly open up.

Shit. There she was. He hit the command channel link.

“Command, Uptown One” he called out as he swung his massive Zeus-51-BP rifle around. “Target acquired, main exit into the courtyard”. With a blink and a chop of his fingers, his suits advanced optics zoomed down onto young woman who had just staggered out of the doors, down the stairs - and skidded to a halt as the civilians filling the courtyard started to round on her, cheering in surprise and pleasure at her presence.
She and everyone below naturally ignorant of the fact that she now had a half dozen UV laser beams from all points of the compass playing over her body and the snipers took aim on her.
He ignored them to focus on her face … which looked to be in a near panic as she tried to sort of work her way through the crowd that only closed in more and more until she halted next to one of the fountains in the square. Her gaze wildly flickered as she spun, seeing cheering and clapping civilians everywhere and looking to him like a cornered Razorback back home on Kathil, clutching one of her hands under an elbow...

She suddenly seemed to react to something and he panned back out as he saw the sister of the Duchess along with Curaitis and Galen Cox skid to a halt at the doors to the palace -stalemated by the huge crowd blocking them that had naturally coalesced around the Duchess. With another gesture he triggered the audio pickups they had placed earlier and scrolled through to find - there!

‘Your grace … is something wrong? Are you alright?’ the woman in front of her, holding a baby asked closing in and the Duchess seemed to recoil at that away from her. Overlaid on the tactical map in his peripheral vision, he could see the green transponders of the MIIO rapid response teams in more traditional SWAT style gear swarming into position through the periphery buildings lining the courtyard; out of sight, but ready to rock. Just in case things went hot.
But the sheer number of civilians in the area pressing in on her made anyone trying to do anything hostile an incredibly bad idea. All his counter-terrorism and urban combat training telling him of the kind of mess heavy anti-personnel fire would cause in such a situation, as he watched her flinch backwards against the fountain-

Warren Vickers had seen many things in his service with the AFFC.
He had seen a rare binary sunset on Niangol - which had been, frankly, spectacular. Pure luck his unit had swung through when it occurred. He had seen a Clan Daishi become a short lived Land-Air-Mech when a building his Joint SpecOps team had filled with petrocycline on Baker-3 had exploded, obliterating a Star of lighter units outright and sending the Cluster commanders massive Assault Mech on a short lived flight through the air, ending up smashing upside down into an empty warehouse almost forty meters away a tangled mess.
He had even personally seen First Prince Hanse Davion and Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita shake hands on Outreach as they had agreed to an informal, but real, truce with each other. Something he knew no-one would ever have expected before the Clans had invaded.

But this...

As the disbelieving snipers, crowd and hundreds of people beyond via his suits sensor feed watched, a blue wave of energy pulsed out where her ungloved hand touched the stone of the fountain as she stumbled into it. Frost rippled out from there with ice crystals radiating before she snatched her hand back, but it did nothing to stop the progression. The energy washed across the water of the fountain, solidifying it instantly into perfect frozen stillness. Warren felt his eyes go wide in a way they never had before as the energy seemed to leap up the fountain snatching the water that had been squirting into the air. In a split second, the liquid in the air solidified before his very eyes; the chaotic dance freezing into something that for all the world like a giant claw, arrested in the act of reaching for the horrified looking Duchess.

"Ty che, blyad?!" splurted the voice of Uptown Six - Rastov, a native of distant Tikanov ... and Warren found he had absolutely nothing to add. Not even a harsh rebuke for him breaking radio discipline as the impossible suddenly became possible.

The crowds around her gasped, although looking more confused and shocked than fearful or alarmed, probably thinking this was some kind of entertainment or something.
Warren knew with a glance at her face this was anything but entertainment.

“There she is! Stop her!” a voice yelled, audible given how eerily silent the masses had become and Warren snapped his field of view back. From a second door into the palace to the side of the courtyard, a silly little man covered in medals -flanked by a couple of big guys in poorly fitting suits- pointed accusingly at the Duchess, who turned to face them as the crowd rapidly melted out of their path.
Who the ****** was this idiot he wondered?

“Please” she begged the newcomers as she staggered backwards, holding her hands up as if warning them  - or pleading. “Just stay away from me - stay away!” she said … but as she frantically gestured, seemingly warning them, something happened and a bolt of blue energy ripped from her ungloved hand and shot through the air fast as a PPC discharge to slam into the steps the trio were starting on.
In an eye-blink, frost and ice washed over the steps and the interlopers were tossed onto their backsides as jagged icicles sprouted from the stairs and columns around them.

“M...Monster. Monster!” the man spat as he squirmed away in a wild panic on the suddenly slick ground, made more difficult by having one trembling arm pointed at the Duchess in accusation.

“Did...did she just-” Three started to ask on the squad chat in a shocked voice before Warren cut her off.

“She did, focus people” he snapped on reflex as the two hulking Elemental wannabes reached out to drag baldy with them into what cover was available and with them cowering, he switched his focus back again.

The young Duchess was now seemingly moving beyond panic into full scale meltdown as her gaze switched rapidly between the crowd (who had recoiled away at the blast with children starting to cry in alarm and clutch at fearful parents and more than a few screams of fear and terror) and her ungloved hand … and then something seemed to snap and she was off, running full bore for the wall of the courtyard nearest the fjord, the crowd scattering out of her way as she left a disturbing trail of frost shimming on the ground in her wake - before she was out of sight, fleeing her home into the night.
Cursing his suits lack of jump jets as she vanished through the wall, Warren threw his suit into motion and stomped across the roof to get a line of sight, ignoring the rather expensive mess he was making of the beautiful tile-work with his claw-like feet as he traded subtlety for speed.
“Subject of interest is moving through the North Gate!” he barked over the command channel -unnecessarily as he was sure his feed was being watched- as he navigated his power armor, trying to desperately not think about the fact that he had witnessed a woman projecting ice from her hand. “Six, do you have her?”

“Affirmative Lead” Rastov came back and a new video feed went live on his COM board.. “Subject is through the wall, now on the North grounds in grid six-bravo; she’s heading for the Fjord!”

***

Stupid.

So stupid.

She was such an idiot.

Such a stupid, moronic, ‘never think things through’ idiot!

WHY DID SHE HAVE TO BE SUCH AN IMPULSIVE IDIOT ALL THE DAMN TIME?!

A significant part of Anna’s mind was trying to tell her that she could always spend time later kicking herself up over so spectacularly failing her sister when she needed her the most. But the part of her that was locked into screaming at herself over how this was all her fault was awfully loud.

“Elsa!” she yelled out again as she pushed past the crowd and followed her, vaguely hearing people calling her name behind her but ignoring them, her one and only focus on getting to her sister as she charged through the side of the castle. Even if she didn’t know the place like the back of her hand, the glistening trail on the floor was a dead give away as she followed, briefly finding herself inside and pushing past bewildered guests who had clearly not seen what happened outside and cutting through a couple of doors, to the exit and stone steps that descended past the castle wall to the thin strip of land that extended out from the ground to the fjord.

Her sister was easy to spot from the top of the stone stairs, having run right up to the edge of the water-

“ELSA!” she shouted and her sister seemed to flinch again at that, but now turned to face her as Anna forced herself to stop at the top of said stairs, clutching the railing there as she looked out at her sister. “Please!” she begged.
And as in the Great Hall earlier today - and yet seemed almost like last year now - the two of their gazes met. Anna pouring everything into hers; begging Elsa to just stop and please let her come to her and calm down, that they would find a way to get through this...

But this time … this time Elsa didn’t make everything better with but a smile.

This time to Anna’s growing horror, she read only one thing in the gaze that met hers.

I’m sorry.

And with that, Elsa turned … and … and ran across the Fjord.

Anna gasped, staggering down the stairs, unable to tear her gaze away as she watched her sister running at a full sprint across the body of water. With every step her sister took, a glow of blue light flickered under her feet and the water froze to ice, supporting her weight as she ran further and further away, her purple cape fluttering behind her.

“Elsa, stop!” she screamed desperately and without even thinking she started after her - but almost instantly she slipped and crashed onto her backside on the perfectly slick ice. Or would have if not for strong arms grabbing her as she fell backwards, arresting her fall and helping her back to her feet.

“Are you alright?” Hans asked quickly as he helped her back onto solid ground as Anna found to her dismay that her heels simply couldn't get any kind of grip on the slice of frozen water.

“No” she replied hoarsely as she saw her sister, with surprising speed, moving across the frozen water, a mist or fog seeming to rise behind her from the solidified water that started to obscure her until Elsa vanished from her sight once again, a horrified part of her wondering if that would be the last she ever saw of her sister.

“Anna … the fjord” Hans said a moment later, seeming to stiffen - and Anna reluctantly refocused her attention … and sharply inhaled at what she saw.

The blue wave of … magic … that had pulsed out from her sister's feet with every stop was still spreading - no, it seemed to be accelerating up and down the waterway. Both inland and out of sight and towards the final curve around which the Northern sea waited. And as it passed, it left a chill in the air … and ice instead of water.

“She’s … freezing the fjord” she breathed, feeling more than a little overwhelmed and almost lightheaded. Hans, gripping her gently yet firmly started to pull her back. Anna almost wanting to fight him as she stared across the frozen water where her sister had vanished, before reluctantly acceding.

“Come on, there isn’t anything more to do here - let's regroup and figure out our next step inside” Hans said gently and Anna nodded distantly, her mind already leaping ahead to what she needed to do next.

[Chris OFarrell]

“She what?” Galen asked incredulously, sharing a look with Curatis.

“Some kind of energy materialized under her feet, causing the water to freeze and let her run across the fjord” the distant voice of Komandant Harrison came back over the radio Galen had confiscated from one of the ground agents, holding it up to his ear to listen to the chatter over the roar of the crowd. “The energy seemed to coalesce and build upon itself as she ran - no idea if she even noticed as she never looked back. But the energy has frozen the fjord surface solid in the immediate area and seems to be still progressing. And thickening too - looks like the ice is almost up to a meter thick at the initial point on our sensors”.

“Do you still have a track on Elsa?” Galen asked the only question he was concerned about right now. The castles private dropship landing pad jutted out slightly onto the Fjord and had thus given the massive Excalibur class ship a grandstand seat to this … this insanity…

“Negative - her thermal signature became obscured by the woodline once she crossed - although it was hard to hold her even at close range. At Last track her heading was zero two niner degrees and there are limited paths for her out of that part of the woodlands. Only a few trails up into the mountains behind and negligible human presence, although it's pretty open once you’re past the treeline”.

“Pull every map and start planning a sweep through those woods for my review” he ordered. “I want the NapFind’s launched as soon as humanly possible, we need eyes on her now” and with that he jerked his head at the palace, Curatis obediently snapping his fingers and causing several fully armed MIIO commandos to appear, their intimidating auto-rifles and black combat gear magically opening up a path through the nobles that had been converging to start demanding answers from him. “Keep your distance, but we need to track her location until-”

“Sir - I don’t think we’re going to be able to do that” the distant officer replied. “We’re starting to see some rapid local atmospheric changes in this proximity that would make drone operations extremely difficult”.

“What do you mean?” Galen demanded tersely. The drones carried by the Barbarossa were small, but surprisingly stealthy and loaded with sensors; ideal for keeping tabs on Elsa while giving her space to try and settle down from what Galen was suspecting was the mother of all panic attacks. Replaying the incidents in his head, he was increasingly confident this had all been a horrible accident, with things cascading out of control. And his gut told him she had fled less because she was concerned about her own life and more because she felt everyone else was in danger from her.

If she simply wanted distance and space, he was more than inclined to give her that space … but he didn’t want to lose track of her either - both for their safety and for hers. And now, this damn Mech Commander was telling him that his vaunted toys weren't working...

“Look up Sir” Harrison suggested and sighing, Galen did so … and blinked.

What had been a mostly clear night sky was now a wall of grey, with low fast moving clouds seeming to roll across the sky above them and a cold wind starting to pick up around him. And from those low clouds and illuminated by all the lights of the castle … he could see-
Oh you have got to be kidding me!

“It’s snowing” he observed flatly. Of course it was. Why not?

“Pulse doppler track shows a low altitude cloud bank has formed, centered on where the Duchess crossed the fjord - it’s already thick enough that low altitude sweeps with the drones would be dangerous and high altitude sweeps with IR through this kind of cloud is almost useless for finding a single person. And …

“And?” Galen asked with slightly strained patience as he and Curatis entered the palace and hurried back towards the ballroom, trying to ignore the staff and personnel running every which way in confusion as word steadily spread down through the ranks of what had just occurred. Mostly generating a lot of ‘what the hell are you on?’ responses at the idea that Elsa had just shot ice from her hands, knocked out Victor …and now had apparently kickstarted winter.

I have to be ****** drunk Galen told himself silently, able to appreciate the active disbelief of the staff they passed. That makes so much more sense! This is day three and I’ve gotten way too plastered with Renny or someone and if I just close my eyes for a half second…

Nope. Didn’t work. And his radio kept talking too.

“And its spreading sir; expanding both up into the higher troposphere and out across the region a hell of a lot faster than should be possible. I don’t think this is a natural event”.

Galen exhaled and focused, mentally shifting himself fully into crisis mode. Absurd as this situation was … it was happening and he was the man on point.
He had more than used up enough time marveling at the insanity. Time to get to work.

“Alright. Issue a level one Recall for the 10th - and put the Militia on alert for possible disaster mitigation deployment” he ordered, not sure exactly what they were going to be doing but wanting everyone at their posts and every possible asset and person ready to face this crisis, that he had a feeling was going to get worse before it got better. “Have the Militia contact the civilian emergency services and put them all on notice as well - wake up everyone. Then liaise with the Palace security teams and find Elsa’s High Council and bring them in. And someone bloody find Anna and get her in here ASAP before she does something ... 'Anna-ish'” he finished as the doors to the ballroom -now guarded by troops alongside the uneasy Palace Guards- were flung open.

The guests had been corralled towards the back of the room, with Kai Brevik seemingly on crowd control and doing what he could to keep things calm with the more senior nobility. There were several dozen people, bodyguards, medical personnel and others still clustered around where he presumed Victor was and while several noted his entrance, no-one immediately flagged him down, so he he presumed he could take a few seconds to study the impossibility directly in front of him.

Slowing down and letting Curatis move past him into the room barking orders, Galen took a good hard look at the arc of slender yet lethally sharp looking ice crystals that had exploded in an arc on the floor. It seemed hard to believe, even though he had seen it with his own eyes, that such a thing could have been created with a gesture ... with magic if he was going to use that word ... and yet here it was. The impossible now possible. Carefully, he stepped up to hover a finger just above the ice, feeling the chill in the air, but nothing spectacularly so. Very carefully using his shirt, he briefly touched the ice, then for longer periods before assuring himself it wasn’t dangerously cold and doing the same with his naked skin.

It was incredibly smooth to the touch, flawless ice one did not see in nature. The forest of crystals had narrowed to very sharp points that were solid enough and hard enough to have easily punched into a person and at the speed Victor had crashed into it, he should have been skewered.

And yet the thick one he was pretty sure had struck Victor was nothing like that. Instead of hard ice its consistency seemed to be loose, almost snow-like as it readily crumbled away at his touch.
What did that mean? He shook his head. Too many questions, no answers. Right, time to start getting some-

“...hey, it’s ole Doc Leir” a voice croaked and Galen whirled and strode to the cluster of people around Victor, not quite shoving his way through them.

Victor was on the floor still, his uniform jacket and shirt open and a bewildering array of medical supplies and gear around him. A dozen sensor pads similar to those used in Battlemech life support systems had been stuck to him with data fed to a noteputer being monitored by a medic. A high-tech looking bandage had been slapped on his forehead to cover where he had cracked his head and his eyes were sort of wandering around, but at least he was alive and no-one looked to be in a panic, which he took as good news. A stretcher was being unfolded rapidly next to him from memory foam and frameworks and a neck brace was being fitted to the semi-conscious Prince

“Glad to see you’re still with us Marshal” Diedre noted from her position on the right of his head, opposite Doctor González - the man in charge of Victors medical team who seemed entirely happy with letting her take the lead. Which wasn’t surprising given that, as Galen recalled, she had been the mans boss back when she was still with the 10th Lyran Guards. Right now, Diedre was running some kind of esoteric scanner over his bandaged forehead, looking into a monocle connected to it by a cable as if she was seeing through to the injury underneath.

In fact that's probably exactly what she was doing come to think of it. Another NAIS special it seemed.

“Its definitely blunt force, the penetration is only superficial, but we have a lot of bleeding we need to get in and contain swiftly before we start to see any pressure building up ... and a possible fracture” she observed, looking across at her opposite number as she handed the sensor thing back to another of the medics.

“I concur” Doctor González agreed smoothly, looking down at his charge. “Victor!” he said slightly more loudly than necessary to get his attention, “you’ve taken a hit to the head which is causing some internal bleeding. It’s no serious yet, but we need to treat it quickly. Do you understand?”

“Hey González” Victor happily drawled, his eyes focusing onto him. “Do you know that Kai and Diedre are still in love? I’m not sure they do. Someone should tell them!”

Galen killed the urge to facepalm … or smirk.

“Well that answers the question of if he has a concussion” Diedre muttered earning a ‘what is that supposed to mean?!’ look from Kai that she ignored - but Galen noticed a slight flush to her cheeks that he was sure hadn’t been there before. “It’s safe to move him - we need to get him into a trauma bed”.

“The palace hospital is fully equipped” González stated with a glance at her. “They’re staffed and waiting”.

“Alright, let's move him there now. Shift to the stretcher on three. One, two…” and with a single smooth motion, the medical staff very carefully lifted the prince onto the stretcher. His Liege, his CO … his friend was still with it enough to make a thumbs up gesture at the nobility corralled down the end of the hall who were frantically trying to peek over each other to get a glimpse of Victor as he was hurried out.

Alright. Victor was alive and being seen to by the best people in the business. That was good. Now …

“Uh Sir” a MIIO agent noted, stepping up to him as Galen took her slightly flustered face in, a powerful command radio in one hand that he offered, Galen accepting the swap for the more subtle unit he had been using. “We just got a report about the Duchess's Sister...”

Galen forced himself to take and exhale a deep breath somehow knowing this was not going to be good news.

“Yes?

***

“She’s what?” the incredulous voice of Galen Cox crackled over his helmet speakers.

“She’s on a horse Sir” Warren Vickers repeated his last calmly, the ridiculousness of this report pleasing him. It was tradition that each year on New Avalon, the best crazy story in the Rabid Fox division earned said commando a bottle of Northwind Glengarry Black Label, Special Reserve from their CO.

At this rate, I’ll ****** have a case of the stuff on account before the night is out he mentally thought as he tracked the sister of the Duchess as galloped away from the Castle, through the grounds of the estate in a way that only someone very familiar with them could as she wound her way to the frozen fjord and eased it onto the ice. He half expected the horse to lose its footing, but in no time she had it galloping across the frozen waters, heading for the far bank. Clearly she knew how to handle horses. “And now she’s crossing the Fjord on said horse, seems to be going after her sister” he added.

An expletive came from the radio entirely at odds with the professionalism the AFFC aspired to. Vickers cut Cox some slack on the grounds that he had come up through the LCAF rather than the AFFS … and besides, he could entirely understand why he would be pissed at the kid running off like some Junior Officer fresh out of NAMA with a compass and a map thinking they could take on a Warrior House.

Strike that, that wasn’t very PC these days. Hmm … 4th Wolf Guards Cluster?

“Do we have anything that can intercept her to hand?” Cox demanded, drawing his attention back. “She’s next in line with Elsa gone, I need her back here!”

“Charlie Lance is in position - but that ice is still marginal -at best- for the Mechs” Komandant Harrison warned - and rightfully so. After all, Battlemechs focused their entire ground pressure into the small area of their feet. Which made them surprisingly agile when combined with their Gyros and Neurohelmets … but it also mean on a surface like Ice you had to be damn sure about its thickness because otherwise it could crack right through even as Tanks of the same weight drove happily by.
Left unsaid of course was the fact that Battlemechs were hardly ideal for trying to safely bring back a person on a horse riding away at speed. Alive anyway.
He had to admit, the kid was rather good on that thing, guiding it at a gallop across the ice to the far bank, where snow was already starting to pile up…wearing a stunning looking dress and cape rather than winter survival gear.
Well she had balls, no question about that. Brains … perhaps less so. His suits environmental sensors showed the local temperature steadily dropping and with a long night ahead of them all, there was a decent chance she wouldn’t be coming back. Which was a shame. Her fierce loyalty to her sister, charging off after her like a Subaltern fresh out of the academy was something sadly missing from too many noble lines around the Federated Commonwealth in his view.

And yet …

Something in his gut had noted the look of utterly implacable determination in the young woman's eyes as she tore past. He trusted his instincts - in his business you had to or you died quickly ... and right now they were insisting that against all logic, the kid might just surprise him and everyone else by the time this crisis was over.

And almost against his cynical will, a faint smile came across the face hidden behind the mirror-glass visor as he nodded a salute after the crazy young woman.

“Go get ‘er kid”.


***

And that is the end of Chapter 9A. 9B hopefully by the end of the week.

[JA Baker]

As I said over at FF, that escalated quickly.

[Sharpnel]

It's back. Yeah!

[Terrace]

Is it wrong that I'm imagining Elsa and Anna on New Avalon while a diplomatic mission from the Draconis Combine arrives (to hammer out presenting a united front against the Clans), then Anna wanders off and collides with Omiko Kurita, then the two become best friends as they explore Avalon City, to the utter exasperation of Omiko's bodyguards?

[ckosacranoid]

cool to see this back. well, i have to say if we will be seeing frozen snowmechs fighting galen....or the walking talking snowman from no where.

[Chaeronea]

Is it wrong that I'm imagining Elsa and Anna on New Avalon while a diplomatic mission from the Draconis Combine arrives (to hammer out presenting a united front against the Clans), then Anna wanders off and collides with Omiko Kurita, then the two become best friends as they explore Avalon City, to the utter exasperation of Omiko's bodyguards?

No, it is gloriously right!

[Sigil]

 Thx!  Loved it.  Traded precious sleep for the chance to catch up on this rollicking tale!

[Chris OFarrell]

Sorry for the delay, I actually finished this off one night at Disneyland last month (hilariously I did a chunk of it in Calafonia Adventure Land wearing my Battletech hat inside the animation studio building right outside Anna and Elsa's digs on my iPhone while waiting for the next animation class ... felt like a total geek too!) but I never got around to posting it.

My bad!

---

Chapter 9B: ... run in circles, scream and shout.

“You know, it's one thing to step in during a battle when your CO falls. We’re trained for it. Prepared for it. But it’s another thing entirely to find yourself thrown into the deep end like Galen was that day. And yet, everything he did unquestionably put him on the radar. Well more on the radar; a lot of people close to Victor -including his parents- had already tagged him as Victors ‘Ardan Sortek’ or ‘Morgan Kell’ by then. But after Arendelle a lot more people started to take him seriously as something much more than just a social climber.

True Leadership I’ve long since learned is about gathering people around you that you can delegate to. People who you trust and who know you trust them so they can do their jobs without you breathing down their neck and wasting both your time and theirs. It said a lot about Victor even back then that there were so many remarkable people around him who stood up to be counted, as reality and fantasy smashed into each other in a way never before seen in human history.

Although as it turned out, having such incredible people around provided the perfect camouflage for other incredible but not so loyal people - which I think taught us all a valuable lesson.”
- Lt General Reginald ‘Renny’ Sanderlin (RET), ‘Walking with Giants’; Avalon Press, 3080


Arendelle Castle / Jorgensson Family Residence
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053
T + 16 minutes

“The APCs are gearing up, they’ll be rolling in fifteen. The Ready-5 Air Lance has been scrambled, they should be overhead about-
There was a dull rumble from outside the palace as the two Corsair Aerospace fighters ripped past overhead above Mach-1.
“-now” Harrison finished without skipping a beat. “With your permission, I’ll have them start running IR passes as low as we can get away with. We might get a break through the clouds to try and localize one or both of them, but at any real altitude...”

 “Understood. Weather status?” Galen asked as he watched the last of Victors entourage leave, hurrying him to the small but (thanks to the advanced team) lavishly equipped medical wing of the palace, pointedly closing the door behind them.

“Unchanged - the storm is expanding at the same rate, but the troposphere is still warm enough that the temperature is only dropping gradually at ground level. But that will change by tomorrow morning if the weather doesn’t and the snow is piling up quickly. I’d like your permission to bring in the local meteorology department to assist with this - even if it wasn’t magic powered, this is, uh, well outside my expertise Sir”.

“Granted” he said, Galen counting what blessings he had in this insane situation. The fact that the storm was still expanding against all the laws of physics was, frankly, terrifying given what kind of power it suggested had been unleashed. On the other hand, it wasn’t leading to an immediate snap freeze that could kill a lot of people unprepared for the sudden weather change, giving them a window to prepare the population for a summer winter.
Although secretly, it terrified him far more that the person in charge of dealing with this crisis … was him.
He wasn't a politician by even the most generous stretch of the imagination, but his boss in his infinite wisdom had dumped the problem onto him, so it was up to him to deal with the situation.
Until he could dump said situation on someone else’s shoulders anyway.

First though, he needed information. As Victor's cousin -apparently- said; ‘information was ammunition’ and right now he was running dry without an ammo truck in sight … and speaking of cousins...

“Stand by Harrison; Cox off net for five” he called into the radio before replacing it on his belt and turning its speaker right down as he strode to a young brunette in a purple dress. The young woman was frantically working a phone off to the side in an alcove away from most of the crowd and he made his way towards her swiftly, the remaining MIIO agents with him silently moving in a loose screen that turned away people trying to approach him with polite - but backed by a lot of guns - words. “Excuse me, my Lady Beaulieu?”

The other jumped slightly and turned to face him, looking slightly sheepish - but recovered her poise quickly. “Uh, no - I mean yes. Sorry. Just trying to ring … someone who isn’t picking up” she finished sounding so awfully like her cousin he couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“Anna?” he asked and Rapunzel hesitantly nodded once - the worry and tension in her face clear before she glanced around and lowered her voice as she stepped closer, clearly not wanting to be overheard - despite the fact that it was only various guards immediately around them.

“She’s not picking up her phone - and I don’t have a number for Elsa - if she even has a phone with her. I mean, haven't even had a chance to introduce myself yet! I’m worried sick. I just know Anna is going to do something…” she paused and her gaze seemed to lock onto his face and suddenly Galen felt entirely like an open book. “Oh God, what’s she done?!”

Galen debated for a full half second about not telling her, before deciding that A) she was surely going to know soon anyway and B) as Anna and Elsa’s cousin and probably Anna’s closest friend, she had a right to hear it from him first.

“She was last spotted riding a horse across the fjord, seemingly in pursuit of Elsa. With quite impressive skill too, by all reports” he added.

“Wait … what? She rode a horse across water!?”

“Elsa preceded her - I’m afraid your older cousin quite literally froze the water under her feet into ice as she fled the castle - and most of the fjord to boot. She’s since vanished into the Northern bank of the fjord with Anna charging after her after finding a horse from somewhere. And” he added as the young woman's jaw dropped, “it seems this release of her powers on a large scale has set off something of a major snowstorm that’s spreading out all over this region without any signs of slowing down”.

Rapunzel stared at him for a long, long few seconds without any change in her expression before finally closing her jaw with an audible click.
Frankly, she took the utterly impossible news rather well.

“I know I should be surprised, but…” she trailed off before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in and out, before looking at him, the young woman's face lined with tension and worry, but focused. “How can I help you Kommandant?”

“Given that I’m almost entirely positive Anna knew nothing, I can assure you Countess this isn’t meant as any kind of insult. But I have to ask; did you know anything about Elsa and her … abilities? Anything at all I can use here to try and get her back safely and deal with this crisis?”

“She doesn’t - but I might” a voice softly cut in from behind his shoulder.

Galen managed not to jump at the unexpected voice and he turned around to find Lady Karoline Iversen, the mother of Rapunzel and aunt to both Elsa and Anna, had snuck up on them. Standing just behind the line of agents -clearly she had excellent hearing- and Galen gestured for her to be let in to join them.

“You knew?” Rapunzel asked, shock and a hint of anger written all over her expressive face as she stepped around him to confront her approaching mother, her hands starting to clench into fists. “You knew and didn’t tell Anna-”

“Punz” the older woman said, silencing her daughter with but one word and a look. “Go upstairs to your room. If Anna contacts you, call me at once. I’ll be up shortly and I promise I’ll explain”. Rapunzel hesitated until her mother reached out to gently lay a hand on her shoulder. “Please dear”.
Impressing Galen, the young woman fought back the urge to ask questions she clearly wanted to ask and instead nodded slightly stiffly, turning and stalking away towards the exit as the older woman turned her attention back to him
“To cut to the chase” the Duchess Consort said after watching her daughter leave the room, “when Idun and Adgar died a holodisk arrived for me. One prepared for in the event of their unexpected deaths. It was sent via private courier and arrived shortly after we returned from their funeral”.

“Clearly they wanted to keep a secret” Galen observed. Private couriered holodisks cutting ComStar out entirely were not exactly cheap or fast, but they did have the benefit of security. And in hindsight, Galen didn’t even want to think about what someone like Myndo Waterly would have been tempted to do if ROM had found out about Elsa’s unique gifts...

“Indeed. In retrospect, there had perhaps been hints about Elsa in the regular HPG messages I received from both of her parents, but it wasn’t until the disk that they admitted she had special needs - unprecedented needs and gifts - that they had been trying to help her with all her life. Nothing more than that, they were annoyingly vague. The message was simply a hope, a plea even, for us to watch out for their daughters in the event that they both died. To make sure they knew they had family they could turn to, no matter what” she said, her face turning exasperated for but a moment. “As if we would do any less”.

“Given that you had already stepped in to look after Anna even before the disk arrived, your sisters faith in you seems to have been well placed” he nodded in salute to her.

The Lady Karoline just snorted somewhat contemptuously at that attempted complement.

“My sister was clearly a bloody idiot” she corrected him with rather charming directness. “She and my brother in law seem to have decided that isolating Elsa from the world was the answer to her unique challenges; a choice which clearly hasn’t helped anyone - least of all Elsa! Although … to be slightly fair” she added with a reluctant looking frown, “reading between the lines after this evening I now have a feeling something similar to the events here with Prince Davion must have happened in the past. Something specifically between Anna and Elsa”.

“Why do you say that?” Galen asked, eager to hear any insights into the girl's past that might help him in the present.

“Because by all accounts, in every picture and letter I have; the two sisters were fundamentally inseparable until Elsa cut her sister out of her life without warning or reason, roughly around when Anna turned five” the Duchess-Consort huffed. “Indeed, up until then Elsa seemed to be the far more adventurous and outgoing young girl - not surprising as she was the older sister. The two sisters shared a room, shared their lives with each other, always in the public eye. But then with no clear cause, everything just … changed. The two were isolated from each other, supposedly so Elsa could start preparing for her education as the heir. Not exactly unprecedented in the Inner Sphere, but never really seen on Arendelle mind. But Anna’s recollections to me suggests it was far more than simply schooling - Elsa’s entire personality and attitude towards Anna changed at the same time. Then a year later Elsa actually left the palace entirely and all contact between them was terminated until earlier today - even to the point of Elsa forcing her sister to bury their parents, alone”.
The Lady Iversen raised her gaze to meet his at that, her eyes hard.
“Something happened. Either my sister and brother in law went utterly insane and decided Elsa had to be locked away, or, Elsa was so terrified of herself that she pushed everyone away - especially Anna. Perhaps it was when she first discovered her powers and she came close to hurting Anna without realising it? Regardless, given that Elsa seems to have carried this separation forward well after their Parents died…” she sighed, shaking her head. “Fear and terror can have a far more profound and longer lasting impact upon children than anger in my experience, my good Kommandant. Often to the complete exclusion of rational thinking”.

“It makes as much sense as anything” Galen allowed as he mulled over it, trying to think back to what Anna had told him over the last few days. Elsa having a desire to protect her sister and everyone else in the only way she thought she could; cutting off and shutting out the world would neatly fit into what facts they had. And even her reactions tonight made sense in that context... but ultimately, it was still just speculation.
Then again, all he had to go on was speculation!
He wasn’t a bloody psychologist, he wasn't even remotely qualified to try and dig into this. But it was enough to conclude to him that given the extremes she or her parents had gone to to separate them, Anna chasing after Elsa when both were so emotionally charged … well, for all the best of intentions that could be a complete disaster.
Which meant in turn he had to get her back here now, because the last thing they all needed was Elsa being spooked into making this worse by Anna being … Anna.
Something of his thoughts must have shown in his face, because the older woman stepped closer, her eyes locked on him with the intensity of a Garret D2J that made him feel just a tad small, despite the fact that he was half a head taller than her.

“So, I must ask you, Kommandant. What are you intentions?”

The slight stress she put on his rank made her meaning very clear, as did her gaze which said clearly that if he gave the wrong answer, he could look forward to an enormous amount of problems in the immediate future.

“Elsa is the legitimate and lawful Duchess of this planet and Victor made his feelings crystal clear to me” he replied directly. “Accordingly, my job is to find Elsa and Anna and get them back home where we can work all this out. Together”.
Then he let his no-nonsense expression shift to a slightly irritated one. “Although I reserve the right to have Anna grounded for running off like an idiot, best of intentions aside”.

The woman simply nodded slowly, but Galen perceived the air of relief around her as he confirmed he was going to save them, not hunt them down.

“Then I will leave you to to your work Kommandant. Anna’s cell number” she supplied, holding up a small piece of paper and Galen nodded reaching to take it - at which point she suddenly grasped his hand in both of hers causing him to look up, slightly startled, to see the cool mask of the Duchess-Consort drop to only leave an aunt whose family had just been shattered into an unknown future in one crazy hour of revelations.
“Please … just … “ she paused for a second to catch herself. “Just bring them home safely” she said before she released him and spun away, striding with purpose towards the door her daughter had left through without waiting for an answer.

He took a second to compose himself before he pulled his radio and flicked it back onto the command frequency.

“Harrison, Cox. I need a track and triangulation on a local cellphone. Get me the DMI duty officer”.

“Stand by one Sir” the distant Mech Commander came back in his ear, several beeps followed by a pause of a couple of seconds before a new voice came onto the line.

“Agent Samuels here Kommandant, ready to trace on your command”

He unfolded the small piece of paper and relayed the local phone number, waiting as the agent on the other end worked his esoteric EW gear. Sometimes it paid to ride with the heir to the Federated Commonwealth whose command dropship got all the goodies NAIS could cram into it...

“We have an active signal” the DMI agent finally came back. “Triangulating … it’s moving. Track shows it's within fifty meters of your position Kommandant - and closing”.

What!?

Galen shot a confused glance at one of the guards near to him - who after a moment holding a hand to his earpiece, glanced up and nodded at the main door. Galen turned to face it just in time to see it open and a familiar man walked in to be stopped by the troops on guard.
Galen recognized him at once as the man who had been with Anna earlier in the night and a sinking feeling hit him as he stomped across the room, signaling the guards to let the man in, meeting him just next to Elsa’s impressive ‘ice sculpture’ still sitting on the polished floor of the ballroom.

“Kommandant Cox?” the young man asked as he approached, glancing briefly at the gleaming ice for a moment before looking back to him.

“Yes” he nodded once and the other man returned his nod.

“Sir Hans Westerguard” he said directly. “The Lady Jorgenson asked me to give you this” he said and with that conformation, the man handed over … a cell phone. Clearly Anna’s from the adorable picture of a Terran Sloth on its back cover. “Her instructions were that I give it -and the video she made- to you alone before she … well … “

“Got on a horse and rode off after her sister like a heroic idiot” he finished dryly as he accepted the phone.

“Ah … yes, that” he agreed looking more than a little uneasy before adding under his breath something that sounded an awful lot like ‘this is all my fault’.

“What was that?” he demanded, glancing up from his examination of the phone.
Hans blinked, startled as if he hadn’t realized he had spoken aloud and after taking in his unamused face, clearly decided to expand on that point.

“I, um, well” he paused and seemed to set himself, the look of a man who knew that there was not any way to make what he was about to say sound any better. “Just before everything happened, I proposed to Anna - that is, the Lady Jorgensson … marriage”.

Galen stared at the other.
Long and silently.
Said silence spoke volumes without actually saying a word.

“It all just happened so fast” Hans pressed on moments later, his face flushing a little but otherwise remarkably keeping his composure under a look that had broken Mechwarriors far too full of themselves. “I mean we only met yesterday but she’s so incredible and we kept running into each other, literally, then we were talking and talking and before I knew it, I couldn’t help but blurt out a proposal to her - and she said yes! I mean, on my world proposals like this are common, but then people hold a long courtship afterwards. Half a year or more before we really get engaged. I was trying to explain this to Anna, but she might have gotten a little, uh, carried away? And before I knew it or could really explain she was asking Elsa permission to marry me. They started arguing and ...” he tailed off.

“I see” Galen stated neutrally, glancing back down as he activated the phone.

He actually didn’t see, but he found the idea that Anna would leap off the cliff entirely ... unsurprising. It seemed that the debate over surprise wedding had simply become the trigger for unleashing years of tension and emotions between the sisters. And on any other night, on any other planet with any other family, such a shouting match would have at worst caused a moderate social scandal and intervention the next morning between various adults to calm everyone down and talk things through …
It was just everyone's bad luck one of the two sisters had been hiding perhaps one of the greatest secrets in human history during the emotional meltdown and lost control at the worst possible time.

I can’t deal with this shit right now he silently thought, dismissing any concerns about the events as he turned his attention back to the phone and booted its video playback utility, loading and playing the last file listed...

“-hing on? Oh, good” Anna appeared on the tiny screen, visible if not terribly clear in the low light outside as she finished putting on some kind of cape over her dress, drawing herself up looking disturbingly serious, her voice slightly static filled but clear enough. “Galen as you seem to be in charge now, I thought I should let you know that I’m going after Elsa. I know I can bring her back and sort all this out before it gets out of control. And I know you can handle things, but politically someone needs to look after everything, so, um, I’m declaring Sir Hans Westerguard of the Southern isles -my fiance- in charge until I or my sister return. Don’t worry - I’ll fix this mess and put everything right again, I promise!” she finished as she turned to a white horse -that looked slightly miffed to have been pulled out of whatever comfortable stable it had been in- as Anna with an admittedly clear competence swung up into its saddle and took the reigns.

“Anna” now Hans voice - clearly he was the one filming- came on from offscreen. “Please listen; this is a very bad idea. You’re not equipped for the weather, you’re not trained and your sister is clearly in a state of panic. You need to stay here and lead your people and let the professionals go out to bring her back! It’s too dangerous to-”

“Elsa would never hurt me” Anna retorted emphatically - and clearly that was that to her; the only thing that mattered. “And she can’t have gotten far. She just needs someone to talk to. Somehow she knows won’t hurt her and someone she trusts. So don’t worry, I’ll bring her back and we’ll solve this. Together” and with that said firmly, she was off, the horse she was on galloping away into the night with great strides to vanish from view, at which point Hans let loose a profanity, before the video cut off.

“I thought about just dragging her back here … but” he trailed off, clearly uneasy at the idea and Galen couldn’t really blame him. He wouldn’t have had any such compunctions over doing so, but then he was confident that Victor would back him up on such a call and he had relative field experience in dealing with senior nobility who were intent on doing very stupid things they thought were heroic.
Anna, he would bet his retirement pay, had clearly (correctly) concluded that if she had asked for permission to run after her sister, he would have denied it. So instead she had sent her fiance with her message in a video on her phone. Making her intentions clear while at the same time removing any ability for him to do anything about it … or track her by said phone.

He immediately upped his threat estimate on the young woman. Headstrong, determined and cunning … while utterly indifferent to the chaos she was causing? It was Yvonne Steiner-Davion all over again.

Presently he looked up from the phone to glance back across the room in annoyance as the background noise started to steadily build. Oh goody, now all the nobles who had been corralled into one corner of the grand ballroom were starting to argue with each other, with Kai Brevik trying and slowly failing to keep everyone calm.

“If that is all Kommandant, I really need to be off” the young man dragged his attention back from the brewing political shitstorm and Galen again raised an eyebrow at him as he started to edge away.

“And where exactly are you going son?” Galens voice stopped him cold, somehow knowing exactly what the answer would be.

“After her of course” Hans blinked as if surprised he asked the question. “After I get some survival equipment, a long range radio and-”

“Absolutely not. You’re staying right here” he cut the other off bluntly, meeting his gaze evenly, even as internally he begged God to save him from all these idiot kids who seemed to want to charge off into the freezing night after each other like lemmings!

“With respect Kommandant” the other replied - and Galen managed to not roll his eyes at the traditional prefacing of a polite ‘Go to hell!’; “I’m not a child. I’m from the Outback and perfectly capable of taking care of myself out there - and I can move fast”.

“You also don’t know the terrain, I’m sure don’t have ready access to the supplies you know you need, have no idea where Elsa and Anna are going and have an excellent chance of just sucking down my resources that should be looking for those two women looking for you instead” he pointed out in as blunt a tone as he could, feeling slightly exasperated that this man who had so very correctly pointed out the flaws to Anna of her decisions, was now ready to cheerfully do the same thing going after her like some giant conga line...

The other met his gaze directly for a long moment before sighing and glancing aside, seeming to slump in on himself.

“You’re … right. Of course you’re right Kommandant” he said, reaching up a hand to rub his brow for a moment as a look of extreme frustration came across said face before he got a grip. “It’s just that Anna and her sister are out there right now and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to help them - or anyone else around here for that matter! Back home I’d be in the thick of this organizing disaster relief teams and civil defense responses. Here I’m just a bloody tourist!”

Galen tilted his head slightly as the noise from the nobles roaring off to the side increased yet again … and in a moment came to a quick and convenient decision.

[Chris OFarrell]

Kai Brevik, the Chief of Staff to the Duchess is Arendelle had noted much earlier this evening that it was if a giant reset button had been pressed on Arendelle.
If that was the case, someone had clearly left the wrong disk queued in the vid-system to be loaded after the reset completed. The mood of stunned shock and confusion in the VIPs after the new Duchess had just exploded ice out of her hands and knocked down her Liege, was steadily wearing off and leaving only fear and confusion in its place. He had stepped in almost on instinct to take on crowd control duties, even as his subordinates worked to clear the ‘lesser’ guests out of the palace courtyard and organize to return them to their homes as rapidly as possible, with cars and buses now departing in a constant stream from the castle.
But the more senior nobility who had been present to see the astonishing events had made it clear as a whole that they were not going anywhere until they had some answers.

And he couldn’t blame them.  He wouldn’t want to leave in their place.

So he ruthlessly pushed aside his deep hurt that neither the Duke and Duchess, nor their daughter, had ever trusted him enough to bring him in on this secret, trusted him to help Elsa - mostly by harshly reminding himself that even Anna clearly hadn’t been let in the terrible truth. Instead, he recommitted himself to their service, to help out Elsa and Anna the only way he could right now.
Damage control.
There were a lot of very frightened people to deal with. People with enough power to make the situation much, much worse if they decided panic was the best response.

“As I said Baron, I had no knowledge of the Duchesses … unique gifts” he tried to explain yet again, marshaling his calm. The group of nobility had formed a circular cluster looking almost like a firing squad, each of them trailing a cluster of supporters or aides or family behind them who were pushing and shoving with glares for a place closer to the talking. MIIO agents had already quietly but firmly escorted Elsa’s High Council upstairs to where a crisis room was being set up to actually do useful things. Which left the rest of the most senior nobility on the planet and guests from offworld looking to him for answers.
Or for someone to take things out on.
“I can assure you that Duchess Jorgensson and her parents were very protective of her privacy and-”

“-and now we know why!” that ferret of a man who had stirred up far too much trouble tonight jumped in harshly. Unfortunately, as a peer to Duchess Elsa, Weselton had the nominal ‘right’ to rant and rave and he had little choice but to stand here and take it, the wonders of their neo-feudal society. “They gave birth to a witch who almost killed our Archon-Prince designate and has cursed this land!”

The accusation infuriated him, but he kept his rage hidden behind his calm facade as more than a few of the nobles muttered agreement with that. Thankfully the majority looked contemptuous of claims of witches and curses.
For now anyway.

“We must immediately send out all troops to find her and put a stop to this madness! Men willing to do whatever it takes to-”

“No” a new voice cut in and Kai killed the urge to sigh in relief as Galen Cox walked up next to him, that one word silencing everyone with the calm authority in it. “Gentlemen, ladies” he acknowledged the nobility in a tone that brooked no compromise. “We are not going to start forming mobs. Elsa is not in my view an immediate threat to anyone-”

“She almost killed me!” the tiny man spluttered in outrage, vibrating furiously at the newcomer.
Kai knew that Galen Cox was a Mechwarrior of no small skill, who had faced off against Clan Omnimechs with enough weapons in one arm to pulverize a city block. And won. A man who had been swept into the highest echelons of nobility of the Federated Commonwealth and thrived, even if he was as common as Kai himself was.
Accordingly, it didn’t surprise him that his response to the man’s angry denunciation was to simply lower his gaze slowly to the much shorter man and raise an eyebrow.

“You slipped on some ice” a new voice joined the conversation as Galen let the somewhat pointed silence linger, another familiar man moving up to stand next to the AFFC officer. “And that was after you chased her from her home, yelling to not let her get away, ignored her warning to get back and then called her a monster”.

Interesting. Hans Westerguard, the young man Anna had been apparently running into over the last few days. The man who had apparently overheard a bunch of people daring to insult her in her own home this evening … and challenged them to a duel on her behalf!
That was just a little shocking, but thankfully no blood had been split and the young nobles doing the insulting had learned a valuable lesson in manners. He wasn’t surprised that after such an intervention, Anna had then asked him to escort her inside, Kai had quietly ordered an eye to be kept on the two of them.
The man was far too handsome and dashing by half for his tastes.
Thankfully, it also seemed he was a gentlemen; nothing he had been worried about had happened … but then something worse had.

They had decided to get married!

It was something so completely out of scope of his concerns that he wasn’t at all surprised Elsa had reacted so badly - hells he even wholeheartedly agreed with her sentiment about marrying someone you had just met …  even if it said sentiment had been delivered somewhat harshly. Instead of a more measured response to cool things off and talk tomorrow, Elsa had flatly rejected her sister which had caused ten years of emotion in the tightly strung Anna to come roaring out all at once. Elsa then reacted in turn and like a fusion reaction heading to a runaway to a … what was that word … ah yes, ‘Stackpoling’; things had simply moved with the force of nature to an inevitable conclusion in a giant explosion.

Although come to think of it. If Hans and Galen were here … then where was Anna?

“That Elsa has remarkable abilities is not in doubt” Galen nodded in agreement smoothly, turning away  before the moustached man could reply to take in the gaze of everyone. “But let’s not go start throwing insane accusations of witchcraft around. It’s clear she never intended any of this to happen. Everything tonight has been impulsive, reactionary. When combined with unhelpful people yelling for her to be caught and calling her a monster...” he didn’t quite glare at the Duke of Weselton but from the way he actually seemed to flinch back -for once- he got the message, “it’s understandable that she panicked and ran as far and hard as she could. All of this” he pointed to the window where snow was clearly falling around the castle, “is probably because she has lost control of her … abilities. Mister Brevik, I take it that summer snowstorms in Arendelle City are not a normal thing?”

“Most certainly not Kommandant- this is unprecedented” Kai agreed quickly and Galen nodded confidently.

“Which suggests she controls her abilities - and if we calm everything down, can reverse all this. Ergo, it’s counterproductive to go chasing after her with pitchforks and torches” Galen smoothly and calmly drained some of the angsty tension from the crowd. “So no, we’re not doing that. Lest we forget” he added with a look because clearly some people had, “she is still the Duchess of this star system”.

“That’s all well and good” an young woman snapped at Galen, her dress and accent suggesting she was from somewhere in the lower Capellan March - probably here as part of the delegation from Kallon Industries. “But while we’re talking about getting her a therapist, her planet is starting to enter a new ice age! What are you going to do about that? What are we going to do about that?” she expanded, glancing at her peers who nodded in agreement before seeming to notice something and look around the wider room. “And on that topic, where is is her sister? Shouldn’t she be here in this discussion?”

That was a very good question and he couldn’t help but glance at Galen, his sense of of worry spiking as he saw the man seem to brace himself.

“She left the castle. On a horse. Going after her sister to bring her back” he said directly.

Kai was torn then and there between a sense of incredible pride that, despite everything, Anna’s first reaction to her sister's situation was to charge off after her to bring her back home … and a far greater surge of absolute terror that both of ‘his’ girls were now running out into the darkness of night.
Alone.
Unprepared.
He could almost feel the blood draining from his face at the news.

“So who the hell is in charge then if both of them are gone?” another noble demanded in a high pitched voice after the flurry of talk at that revelation ended, forcing his attention back. “We’re going to need strong leadership to deal with this crisis. We can’t afford to try and deal with this by committee!”

“Well if the Jorgenson sisters have … recused... themselves…” another of the men started to suggest, a faint smirk fighting to push its way onto his face and push off the appropriately serious look currently thereon, “it only stands to reason that we should appoint a temporary regent to deal with this crisis, no?”

“And who are you suggesting Charles” another man sniffed back. “You?”

“I can think of far worse people, Aaron” the first man sniffed with a look that said without saying ‘like you’. “And given I am the senior Count of record, I’m sure I’d have the support of the Court if-”

And with that, to Kai’s disbelief and growing anger, a new argument broke out around the group with people clearly starting to argue and jockey for position, seemingly to replace the Duchess they had sworn in only hours ago? One who had sacrificed everything for them, for so many years-
He jumped slightly as a hand landed on his shoulder and turned to see Galen standing there, giving him a tiny shake of his head.
The message was clear enough - and he felt slightly embarrassed that he apparently was so easy to read in his anger, unclenching his fists and stepping back subtly to try and marshal his calm as the mob ranted and raved at each other. He idly wondered if Cox was about to pull a sidearm and shoot into the air like most Vid shows would suggest. Instead, he lifted the large radio from his belt, pressed a button, raised it to his lips-

“IF I MAY HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?” Galens voice exploded into the group and shut them all up.

Ah. Apparently his radio had a ‘bullhorn’ mode.

Probably better than risking shooting someone on the floor above them come to think of it.
“For the record” Galen continued calmly into the silence as he replaced the radio on the belt, “I will be assuming primary planetary authority until such time as the Duchess or her sister return, or Victor relieves me”.
Kai barely held his composure at that quite brash announcement.
Very military - he supposed - but he was sure the nobility would … object.
Naturally, the Bluebloods didn’t disappoint.

“You? You’re not even a noble, Kommandant” Count Charles McNeill rounded on the AFFC officer with an outraged quiver of his double jaw. “The very … the very presumption! Granting yourself control of an entire planet? Without the slightest authority? No Sir, I will not accept even the idea of-”

“Actually, he does have the authority” a different voice corrected him stepping forward through the planet's nobility, Kai feeling some relief as Duke Iversen, Anna and Elsa’s Uncle from Corona, moved into the limelight with a hard look towards the arguing locals. “I heard -and I’m sure his bodyguards recorded-  Archduke Steiner-Davion’s final order before the medical team arrived” he continued. “Which was, as I recall, telling Kommandant Cox to ‘take charge’ ... which seems to be exactly what he is doing”.

“To take charge of the immediate situation perhaps” McNeill immediately tried to spin the orders, but now uncertainty was mixed into his tone as he glanced around at his supporters who suddenly looked slightly more unsure of themselves. Not surprising; contradicting an Archdukes orders (let alone those of the heir to the Federated Commonwealth) was an excellent way to end up in jail.
If you were lucky.
“But clearly, he would not mean for this man to lead the planet!” the other continued, trying to rally support. “He has no authority for that - he’s a junior officer, a commoner without any legal status!”

“And you’re willing to bet your title, lands and life on that?” Iversen replied with the precise tone of a wise old man wondering why the children were being such idiots today and refusing to listen to their elders. “When Victor Steiner-Davion wakes up and finds you defied his second in command and friend? My what courage you have gained since you started making all those … offworld friends” he added casually with a knowing glance at quite a few of said off-worlders, causing a subtle flinch to pass through several people in the room. Kai made a note of that as well and to have a chat with the Duke sometime soon. The girl's Uncle was clearly better informed than he about some of the maneuverings going on in that space, while he had been occupied with the preparations for the investment-

“So I suppose that you are going to name yourself as regent for your nieces?” McNeill narrowed his eyes in suspicion and no small amount of hostility.

“No-one here going to be named ‘regent’ for my nieces without the say-so of someone authorized to do so, least of all me” the Duke didn’t quite growl, stepping towards McNeill with a glare on his face that at least made the other guy flinch backwards ever so slightly, his bearing as a veteran Mechwarrior and ruler of a planet suddenly clear to everyone. “Elsa is the Duchess and Anna is her heir. Aside from Victor Steiner-Davion, no-one on this planet has the authority to appoint or become a regent without emergency powers being invoked according to Federated-Suns law”.

“And that is where I come in” Galen interjected before that conversation went any further in a placating tone before a brawl broke out. “An attack on Victor is automatically grounds for an immediate state of planetary emergency to be declared” he noted, neatly ignoring the fact that he had just previously noted that this event was hardly an intentional attack.
Then again, said laws Kai knew had been happily written by House Davion to give maximum flexibility around invoking them.
Technicalities could be wonderful things, at times.

“In the absence of the planetary ruler or higher nobility, if the senior military officer on planet declares it to be necessary the authority devolves to them to invoke” Galen continued. “Giving them total authority to deal with the situation until relieved. And suffice to say that given the situation” he nodded to the window where the snow outside was, if anything, thickening, “such a state will need to be declared, immediately”.

“Ah but my dear Kommandant” yet another noble, some idiot Baron, smiled as he stepped forward with an expression that said ‘I’ve got you now!’ louder than words ever could. “The problem there is you are not the highest ranking member of the military on planet, are you? Why, my nephew Colonel Thomas” and with that he stabbed a finger at the man in an older style AFFS dress uniform trying to look tiny at the edge of the crowd “outranks you, does he not?”

There was an ‘ohhhing’ through a small part of the crowd as if the man had just struck a mortal blow and, clearly reluctantly, Colonel Thomas was edged to the front of the group. Thomas White, the local militia commander was one of only a few full-time AFFC officers on the planet answering technically to both Theater command on Point Barrow and the serving Duchess. Kai had met with him many times and he seemed to be competent, but most of his job consisted of shuffling papers and attending various formal events...

“And this means that clearly he should make the call if such a state is necessary and grant such powers, is that not so?” the Baron asked with a broad and modestly condescending smirk. The Colonel glanced at Galen for a moment who looked entirely unconcerned, the AFFC officer simply nodding at him, the gesture causing the other to take a breath and start speaking.

“Count Abnett, Kommandant Cox is entirely correct that the highest ranking officer on-planet during a situation such as this has the authority to declare a military emergency and personally assume full emergency powers over the entire planet. And you are correct that strictly speaking I outrank him-”

“There you see?” the Noble preened to his audience who dutifully seemed to smile and make approving noises and even a couple of stillborn attempts to applaud at his wisdom. “Now, I propose-”

“However” the Colonel sharply spoke over him with a look of irritation at being cut off, silencing him. “Kommandant Cox arrived on Arendelle with verigraphed orders from Field Marshal Jackson Davion himself. These orders give him the simulated rank of a Flag Officer and full command authority of the same, placing his authority explicitly as only second to Marshal Steiner-Davion while he is on Arendelle. In short” he concluded, “he is in charge Uncle” he finished before turning away from the suddenly red faced Count glaring at him.

“Thank you Colonel” Galen replied, deciding to tactfully ignore the noble who had inserted his foot into his mouth as his supporters subtly seemed to shift away behind him, turning instead to face the Militia officer who straightened slightly. “Please assemble your staff and report to the situation room on the third floor of the palace. We have work to do”

“Sir” the other snapped a salute that Galen returned before the Colonel happily obeyed his orders to get out of the firing line as his red faced uncle continued to glare at him, picking up a handful of other militia officers who had gotten invitations to the now aborted ball and dinner and taking them with him.

“Now that we’ve sorted that out” Galen said, turning on the rest of the nobles and starting to issue orders in a tone that now brooked no arguments, “everyone who is not local, I need you to please stay out of the way -preferably by returning to your hotels or places of residence as soon as possible. Mister Brevik will organize transport as needed” he added with a glance and Kai nodded back quickly, already starting to work out the logistics in his mind. He couldn’t really do anything about the media packs outside screaming on every phone line at them for information and trying to interview every guest leaving about what happened, the unfortunate price of having a free press. But that was a problem for later.
“Everyone who is local, we have work to do. If we’re lucky” Galen continued “this storm will blow over and and we can focus on first finding Elsa and Anna and then sorting this whole crisis out.  But regardless, we’ll need disaster plans ready to execute tomorrow morning in case winter has come six months early. So I need all the senior local nobility to return to your landholds and be prepared to execute them. I will be leading a unit to sweep and recover both of the sisters - we’ll deploy within the next hour”.

“Kommandant, you can’t lead the search yourself - you need to stay here!” another Noble protested in mild shock, other confused faces around suggesting that some of the groups failed to understand why Galen had taken the steps he did to put himself at the top of the food chain … only to walk away from the position immediately afterwards.
He decided not to point out it was clearly to keep them out of the way so he could do his job.
Still, the point was true that someone needed to be in charge of this unfolding mess...and it had to be someone who would be accepted.

“With respect Kommandant” Duke Iversen agreed - reluctantly- “you cannot lead the search and rescue effort. You are needed here. Work needs to start at once on possible disaster plans - this storm outside is going to cause no small amount of chaos even in the short term ... and if it isn’t stopped…” he left the thought hanging in a somewhat more ominous tone before shaking her head. “We need someone in charge to coordinate the Government response”.

“Your point is well taken Duke Iversen” Galen offered a nod that was almost an abbreviated bow as he recognized the preeminence of the ruler of Corona and its blood ties with the Arendell ruling family. “But I won’t be leaving the planet without leadership in place. Elsa’s High Council is already assembled upstairs to coordinate civilian responses and your younger niece, as it so happens, authorized a representative to manage the crisis with them, whom I also grant . Until either one of the Sisters returns - or Victor himself is medically fit to relieve us of course” he added.

Iversen nodded slowly at that as others exchanged looks, most seemingly waiting for him to make a decision. “If Anna has made such a decision, I trust her judgement” he agreed after a moment of thought - exchanging a glance with him that all but screamed ‘I hope’.

“Then in that case, may I present Sir Hans Westerguard of the Southern Isles” Galen replied, turning to gesture to the man standing next to him.

The response from half of assembled nobility was exactly as measured, calm and considered as Kai had been expecting.

[Chris OFarrell]

“How is he?” Kai Allard-Liao asked softly, looking at Victor sleeping on the bed on the other side of the glass wall, taken slightly aback by the number of medical devices attached to him as a number of medical personnel fussed about the bed. It had been just under an hour since the ‘event’ - as people had taken to calling it - and this was the first time he had been able to come down to the castles small hospital after Victor had been hustled in. While waiting he had found his way upstairs to the palace situation room taken over by the CID team to help the team there start to come to grips with the crisis, liaising with the 10th Lyran for them as the locals started to try and wrap their heads around the situation. A public announcement was due to be made within the hour to calm down people, but behind the scenes one department at a time Arendelle was moving onto a full disaster footing as data started to come in faster and faster. The unnatural weather was continuing to expand at an impossibly steady rate, now reaching hundreds of kilometers from Arendelle City and approaching areas that rarely got any snow even in the middle of winter. Only the fact that it was late at night locally had kept things reasonably calm in the capital, but the rest of the planet so far unaffected was looking on with no small amount of shock and chatter over the impossible events.
So it would really help if Victor could get off his ass and onto Vid screens sometime tomorrow morning … which didn’t look likely to happen.

“Stable” Diedre noted from behind him, her reflection glancing up from a noteputer she was working on before noticing his focus and expanding on her two syllable answer. “He’s in no danger Kai. The impact was hard but we dealt with that quickly enough and stopped the swelling before anything happened. Thanks to the toys from NAIS he’ll be more or less back on his feet by some time later tomorrow and back to full strength within a day after that” she said, signing off whatever paperwork she had been working on with a stylus and putting the noteputer to the side to stand up and stretch in a highly distracting way in that incredibly sleek dress. “Letting him sleep this off lets the technology do its work”.

“And stops him giving any more relationship advice” he muttered under his breath, earning a look in the reflection in the glass that told him not to go there and he accordingly changed tracks as he turned back to face her. “Anyway, I uh, I need your help”.

The good Doctor simply raised an eyebrow at that.
Kai refused to let himself be intimidated by the look.

…

Oh who the hell was he kidding, of course he was intimidated by the look.

“Harrison is still pulling the data together, but the situation outside is deteriorating - quickly, much more than the Media realize yet” he started to explain. “The fjord, the harbor and even some of the coastal waters have frozen over and the impacted area is continuing to expand. Snow is coming down all over the damn place and the storm front is expanding. The other side of the Fjord from the castle is already near impassable trying to send people after the sisters. Seems like even a little snow is enough to shut it down for Mechs and Vehicles to move up and past-”.

“You’re sending Mech’s after Elsa and Anna?” Diedre looked at him like he was crazy and/or an idiot. “Just send people on the ground after them Kai! They can’t have gotten far!”.

Kai shook his head once grimly.

“Slight problem there; no-one bothered to pack arctic warfare gear for our infantry” he replied admitted, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the SNAFU that gave the 10ths provisional Combat Command two complete sets of desert warfare gear in the rushed ad-hoc splitting off of part of the unit as a Bodyguard for Victor.
He could almost hear the Cetti Hussars laughing their assses off at them from here.
“The Militia are trying to find which warehouse has their gear and unpack it for us, but who knows how long that will take. And without proper gear, it’ll be near impossible to put boots on the ground for extended periods away from vehicles, which just can’t navigate through that tangle. And we can’t wait given the way temperatures are dropping. According to Colonel Thomas, even a small amount of snow can shut down ground access fast through the region. By the time our people push in, it’ll be hell for anyone without jump infantry packs and cold weather gear. And Galen isn’t going to risk deploying people who could easily get bogged down and trapped”.

He then realized he had started to pace and forced himself to stop and face Diedre.

“So, Galens deploying our Battle Armor to sweep the other side of the fjord. But we’ve only got four Standard suits and there is an awful lot of ground to cover. Cloud cover and fog have shut down any air recon but if Anna and Elsa made it past the immediate tangle, which is likely according to the locals if they kept moving, the area becomes a bit more open. There’s quite a few hunting cabins and lodges nobles use in the winter that -we hope- Elsa is heading for and Anna following her to. So the plan is to cross the fjord on a bridge about a dozen klicks upstream and spread out to sweep all of those locations with APCs, then broaden the search from there if we don’t find them - bringing in air and extra ground support as it becomes available”.

“Alright” she shrugged after digesting the plan. “But what does this have to do with me?”

“We … err, need a Doctor for the MASH” he confessed, hastily pushing on as her eyes narrowed. “Elsa may or may not be able to deal with the cold. Anna I’m sure can’t and in either case neither of them are dressed for this. We’re talking risks of exposure, frostbite - and whatever else might happen as they stumble around in the dark. We’re going to need someone with us who can deal with the situation if the worst happens”.

“I retired from the AFFC Galen” she pointed out, crossing her arms. “If you need a Doctor, take González!”.

“González” Kai jerked his head past the glass wall to where the Doctor could be seen with several other staff around Victors bed, “won’t leave Victor. I think Curatis would shoot him if he even tried, he is the serving chief medical officer of the command after all and can hardly abandon his patient”.

“Then find someone else, surely the militia has field surgeons?” she insisted.

“Some yes. But none of whom have a fraction of the experience you do and, frankly speaking, none of them are in your league” he paused for a second feeling slightly taken aback at her resistance to his request. “Victor is in safe hands - he doesn’t need you. But there are two terrified young women who are the key to ending this … whatever this is” he fumbled for a description for a moment before pushing on, “fleeing into a flash-winter who might. And if I know you at all, I know that you would never walk away from people who genuinely need your help when we’re on the clock…”

That earned him a flare in her eyes … but it was not anger. It was something else he couldn’t put his finger on.

“Kai, I-” she started to try and explain - only for a sudden musical chiming to break in and her eyes to snap to a small cell phone that was merrily ringing and vibrating slowly across the desk she had just left. Her eyes darted back and forth for a second before she turned back, picked it up and after a quick examination of the number there she then glanced back at him.
“I have to take this - wait here” she all but ordered him and with that she stalked off into a tiny little office off to the side and shut the door, leaving him alone.

“I’ll uh…” he blinked and glanced around the empty room feeling nonplussed, “wait here” he agreed lamely.

With nothing better to do, he turned back to glare at Victor for springing his ex on him as a surprise. The bastard simply continued being happily unconscious and ignoring him.

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

“It’s me” Diedre said as soon as the door was closed and she opened her small phone, tension leaking into her voice against her will at the expected/unexpected call. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine here” the familiar voice on the other end of the line came back, calm and reassuring and causing her shoulders to slump slightly in relief. “David went to sleep several hours ago without a fuss, I just thought you would want to know”.

“I did, thank you”” she smiled faintly as she leaned against the tiny desk in the small office, some tension coming out of her at the news that her son was safe and well. “I’m sorry I haven’t called Fai. There are … some things going on around here that have held me back”.

“So I heard - the local media is going crazy right now Doctor Lear. Someone just leaked some footage of the Duchess freezing a fountain in the courtyard with her bare hands - no-one can really believe it, but then the state of emergency come through and reports of the militia and 10th Lyran Guards mobilizing … well, there are a lot of confused news people trying to figure out what happened”.

“Great” Diedre muttered to herself, knowing how quickly things could spin out of control in a crisis when the media was ‘helping’, having been through more than a few herself.
But how did you prepare the world for something like this?
“Any news about … Prince Victor?” she asked carefully.

“The media are searching for answers right now and crossing back and forth to their teams outside the palace, but it sounds like the people who really know what is going on are out of contact … hang on … the vid’s now saying that Victor Steiner-Davion was … my God! The Duchess attacked him with her powers?” Fai asked, sounding appropriately aghast as the news broke.

“Not exactly” she answered, before deciding to not even try and explain it all over the phone, hoping that the people in charge were going to go live quickly before the rumors exploded out of control. “But Victor is at least for now out of the equation. And with Elsa fleeing into the wilderness, a bit of a power vacuum has been behind”.

“But she has a sister does she not? Should not she step in as acting Duchess?”.

“Yes, but Anna ran after her sister. Now they’re both out in the middle of this snowstorm” she sighed before lowering her voice slightly. “Kai and Galen are preparing to go after them both, they want to bring them back safely and sort all this out”. She hesitated for second before pressing on. “And they want me to go with them as the sisters may need - will probably need- medical attention and the 10ths duty doctor is tied up watching Victor”.

“Then you may be assured my Lady that your Son will be safe until you return” Fai confirmed without hesitation, but with absolute surety. “You have my word no harm shall come to him”.

Diedre looked at her phone for a moment as if stung by the response slightly taken aback by the way Fai was so … sure … she was going to head out … and do exactly what she had sworn she never would.

Her late father had been away so often when she was a very young child. Off Fighting Hanse Davion’s wars and then running off to Solaris where he had eventually gotten killed … by Kai’s father as it so happened.
She had sworn when she had first held her son in her arms that she would not be the same. That he would always come first and she would always be there. That her service to the AFFC was done with honor and she would never head back there again.
Her resentment at her father so often leaving to serve Hanse Davion was thrown into sharp relief as she suddenly found herself trapped in the same fork of obligations. She had always dismissed as him choosing the glory life over family life and his responsibilities as a parent-

“Doctor Lear - is there a problem?” Fai suddenly cut into her thoughts on the phone. “Do you need anything from here before leaving?”

“No Fai” she replied as she leaned against the edge of the desk, a hand reaching up to her hair and running through it briefly, a bitter sort of brief laugh escaping her as she did so at a surge of guilt over the fact that she had been actually considering sitting this one out. “I’m just wondering how selfish a person I am for actually thinking about denying Galens plea for helping people in great danger, so I can go home to my son who is in no danger..”

“With respect Doctor, that doesn’t make you selfish, it makes you a mother” the other calmly corrected her down the line. “Your child is your first responsibility - as is proper - and it is understandable that you first look to his safety, no matter who is looking after him”.

“So if I then abandon my Son to go running off with ‘the boys’ instead of coming home, what does that make me then?” she snorted with again the image of her father walking out the door over and over carrying his kit bag and neurohelmet coming to the fore.

“Firstly, wrong because if you trust me, then you’re not abandoning him” Fei rebuked her in a way that among other employers would probably be grounds to start looking for a new job. “Second, it makes you who you are; a healer who goes to save the lives of those in need; someone your son will look up to with great pride in the future. And finally it makes you a loyal friend who stands by those who stood with her, when their need is great and they ask for your help. A friend whom I am confident had already made her decision before I called, no matter how hard it had been”.

Diedre was silent for a moment - but it was entirely down to her coping with the sudden surge of affection for the young woman who had become part of her family since she had shown up one night back on Odell as a last minute replacement babysitter, proving so damn effective she had made her an offer to be the permanent one on the spot. And then hired her on as a permanent nanny. Especially after it turned out that the young Capellan woman from the Sarna March was working her way across the Crucis March on a trip to see the Inner Sphere, taking on jobs here and there. When Diedre had pointed out she was about to leave for the new Periphery March via the Crucis March, Fai Mulan had all but jumped at the chance to come with them, becoming the third member of their family, almost like a kid sister most of the time.
And damn her, she was even right this time.
She was a Doctor.
There were people who needed her help - and it was utterly unworthy to try and use her Father as an excuse to fail to do what was right.

“Thanks Fai” she instead sighed into the phone. “As always, for everything. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can”.

“We’ll be waiting Doctor Lear” the other confirmed and with that Dedre snapped her phone shut, taking a deep cleansing breath to centre herself. Her son was safer than most other people on this planet and Kai and Galen needed her help.
Time to go to work.

Kai was still waiting outside and he turned to face her with an expectant look that said without saying that he knew what decision he had made.
It was both annoying … and oddly endearing that he had such confidence in her.

“Tell me at least you have something more suitable than this for me to wear?” she asked with only the slightest sigh in her voice and completely unsurprisingly, Kai simply smiled and reached back to pound his fist on the door to the room twice, causing it at once to open and an AFFC trooper to pass a kit bag through, which Kai turned to dump on the table in front of her. Dearie opened it to find that inside were indeed standard AFFC medic fatigues, a heavy field jacket and standard field webbing, identical to the gear she had worn during the Clan War and from memory she started to pull it out and sort through it.

“Welcome back to the AFFC” he smiled just a little too smugly.

It pleased her that it took less than ten seconds to remove the field uniform package neatly tied up inside before throwing the now empty bag back into his face with exactly sufficient force to send him crashing to the ground as she stalked back into the private office to change.

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

“Reactor; Online”.

Her real name had been Beatrice McAlister. But to every Mechwarrior who had sat in a cockpit since the first Mackie had walked off the production line, her name was - and would always be - ‘Bitchen Betty’.

An engineer in the Terran Hegemony’s advanced research projects agency, Beatrice had been behind much of the original coding for the Mackie voice command interface system, another one of the less well known innovations that had gone into service with the advent of Terras new superweapon. And when the time came to provide the voice synth profile for the mech computer to talk back, she had simply provided her own voice as a matter of practically, the super-classified research lab being somewhat short on voice actors.
Thus in a short space of time, Beatrice was busy chiding, exasperating and otherwise yelling at the first generation of Terran Hegemony Mechwarriors as they had unleashed their new superweapon against the Inner Sphere. Quickly enough the other Inner Sphere powers had started to produce their own Mackie clones from massive espionage and salvage efforts and in the rush to get their own onto the field, most of the software had been simply copied, spreading Betty’s ‘joy’ around the Inner Sphere.

It hadn’t taken too long for someone to change it of course. The Lyran Commonwealth had been the first to modify the voice interface, using a synth profile from their ‘beloved’ Archon Alistair Marsden Steiner after he had taken issue with the voice warning him he was overheating his mount, the update patch deployed to inspire his troops as they had gone into battle against the Draconis Combine.

“Sensors; Online”.

The patch had, of course, become legendary as a complete disaster. Despite only changing that one thing as far as the engineers could tell, Battlemechs had fallen over on power up as their Gyros seized up, weapons gone into diagnostic modes when activated and in one case, activating an ejection seat during a marching out parade right in front of the theater Commander on Buckminster. The Mechwarrior had landed mere meters away and, with an astonishingly straight face, had saluted his CO and begged leave to report that the Archon was trying to kill him. Techs had rapidly changed the software back and again the Commonwealth's Battlemechs had become powerful weapons of war, with attempts to rectify the bugs mostly successful, but never seeming to quite go away - thus leading to everyone in the field simply keep the older voiceprint package installed and suffer Betty bitching at them.
Very similar stories had come out of the next generation of design teams building the first ‘local’ Battlemechs in all the great powers. No matter how much programmers and engineers insisted it made absolutely no sense, mysterious glitches and gremlins seemed to emerge as soon as the voiceprint pattern was changed. A massive superstition had thus become entrenched in Mechwarriors everywhere over the centuries that you did not mess with Betty, even if the rest of the voice command software was now light years beyond those first examples.
Not even the Clans had dared to change said voiceprint (well, at least not after the first Prototype Woodsman had exploded when Nicholas Kerensky’s voiceprint had declared ‘Reactor online’), leading to the joke that no matter who you swore allegiance to; all Mechwarriors bowed before Betty.

“Weapons; Offline, safety interlock engaged. All systems Nominal”.

Galen smiled to himself as Betty gave him permission to ‘come out and play’, a counterpoint surge in the pitch of his Magna 260 fusion engine sending energy racing through his Crusaders myomer bundles. A final glance out his cockpit narrow earned a thumbs up from his chief tech, followed by a salute that Galen returned with aplomb as rotating yellow lights started accompanied by a klaxon to put everyone in the dropships Mech bay on notice that if they didn’t want to get stepped on like a bug, it was time to get out of the way.
His grin broadened slightly as he saw that across from him, Yen-Lo-Wang was already walking out of its bay with a fluidity in its motions that said a very special Mechwarrior was at its controls. Kai had been just that little bit faster in his pre-walk checks than he - although to be fair he had needed to first have a chat with the local ComStar Precentor. Kai with his usual foresight had pulled the man out of the crowd, correctly anticipating that he’d have messages to send about this whole situation. The Precentor had been happily no-nonsense and professional compared to most of the rest of ComStar people he had dealt with in his life, something he put down to his long service in the ComGuards.

As for what was in the message however …

Galen had toyed with the idea of sending an uttermost priority message, which would mean the HPG station would power up and bulldoze a message now across the network to New Avalon but had ultimately decided against it. While he certainly had the authority to do that, simply using the normal transmission window in six hours would have a message on New Avalon four hours after that with the ‘very high priority’ tag. Especially as such ‘damn the cost, they need to know now’ messages tended to be a message in of themselves.

On the order of ‘wake up the First Prince, his staff and start the coffee machine’.

Galen had felt a little leary about following such a wake up call with a message saying essentially ‘Oh your son was almost killed by an ice witch on a planet that may or may not be about to sink into an eternal winter’. Accordingly, he had left his initial report brief and kept entirely to the facts at hand, with a postscript that either he or Victor would send a follow up report within a day. He had also sent - and MIIO would surely be charged a pretty penny because of it - a medium resolution vid of Elsa’s actions in the courtyard as well as her flight across the fjord. Less to give NAIS something to work with and more to ensure that High Command didn’t first ask the entirely logical questions of ‘What the hell is Cox smoking … and where can we get some?’ after reading his words.

Shaking off the thoughts, Galen concentrated as he stepped out through the always seeming too small hatch, moving down the ramp and breaking into a jog as he cleared the dropship, automatically turning to follow the mech sized footprints in the snow Kai had left in his wake-
He blinked and the smile on his face at being back in a Mech faded as his mind caught up with what he was seeing, swinging his torso around to take in the view as he engaged his compressed holographic HUD … and felt a chill go down his back that had nothing to do with his cooling vest.

Only a bit over an hour ago the grounds of the palace had been covered in perfectly kept grass and hedge boxes, a summers delight with flowers and trees gloriously spread out across the grounds in a perfection of color and life. Now, in his Mechs low-light vision mode, the entire grounds that had once bustled were silent and muted, with snow falling to thicken the layer that had already coated the grounds a silent white, a low mist rolling in from the icy fjord behind the bulk of the Barbarossa.

My God. It’s gotten this bad already?

Galen glanced ‘back’ via the compressed holographic display, the imposing line of hills backed by the massive blade shaped ‘North Mountain’ all now also seemed to sport significantly more snow along their peaks, with a constant spray of flakes still falling from the sky and what seemed to be somewhat worse weather up in the higher foothills.
Something about that massive knifelike mountain drew his attention and his mind flashed back for a moment to that moment with Elsa - Duchess Jorgensson that is - on the balcony where she had for just one nanosecond looked almost longingly at the distant vista of isolated mountains and hills before the mask of the Duchess had fallen back over her face...
Shaking his head to bring himself back to the present, Galen glanced at his TACMAP. He and Kai were moving quickly to join the MASH track outside the palace where Kai’s ex girlfriend was swiftly putting herself back on the top of the food chain. Hauptmann Sanderlin was leading the convoy from the militia base in his Raven, which might just prove the edge he needed to find the girls with its advanced recon technology. With him was some militia Mechwarrior named Flynn whose Javelin was nothing terribly impressive, but he was very familiar with the terrain in the area making him a natural forth for their lance, as they escorted the dozen or so APCs carrying their infantry search teams from the spaceport. On the opposite side of the fjord, four green transponder signals showed where their four Inner Sphere Standard suits were scouring the ground where both girls had vanished from sight, but when placed against the sheer size of the search area...

Galen exhaled heavily. He had never wanted responsibility on this scale … but that was irrelevant. He was an officer in the AFFC and his CO had made his wishes clear.
More than that, his friend had placed his trust in him - and he would be damned if he let him down.
So he ruthlessly narrowed his focus, leaving Westergard and the High Council to deal with the planet while he did what he was best at; running to the ‘sound of the guns’ - or at least the biggest concentration of trouble for a few hundred light years.

There were two people out there who needed his help. One, a remarkable young noble with incredible abilities to defy reality, overreact immediately and cause trouble on a planetary scale while sending FedCom princes flying to the floor.

The other was her sister, the Duchess of Arendelle.

Kicking his Crusader into a run with Kai and his Centurion effortlessly keeping pace alongside, Galen charged head on into the storm.

-------

This is also FINALLY the last filler chapter, with everything signed off after Elsa just blew everything wide open.

Now we'll have the fun next chapter of WTF Ice Castles showing up, Letting it Go, sisters who redefine the term 'determinator', Reindeers proven clearly to be better than people and of course bigass jerks with a secret heart of gold, ComStar technicians wondering why chanting isn't working like it usually does and proof that Clan Wolfs ancient scientists were actually lazy SOBs.

[grimlock1]

Is it wrong that I'm imagining Elsa and Anna on New Avalon while a diplomatic mission from the Draconis Combine arrives (to hammer out presenting a united front against the Clans), then Anna wanders off and collides with Omiko Kurita, then the two become best friends as they explore Avalon City, to the utter exasperation of Omiko's bodyguards?

Victor:  20 Kroner says Takashi can't spend 15 minutes with Anna before he cracks a smile.
Galen:  No bet.


Though, this could end badly for said guards.  Hanse and Melissa are more likely to be forgiving if his son's security perimeter was breached via quantum tunneling, especially considering their personal experience with Anna's mother.
 The Otomo... lets just say that there will be quite a few requests to "use the garden."

[Vehrec]

First order of business: GALEN YOU IDIOT, STAY AT HQ, YOU DON'T HAVE S&R TRAINING.

There, now that's out of the way, we can get back to more important things.  Like-will Cassandra, 'punz's handmaiden and bodyguard/bestie show up to torment Flynn?  Also, you probably didn't know this when writing this, but Flynn hates snow if the Tangled TV series is canon to his characterization.  They had a christmas episode where just negotiating an icy staircase was a major trial, and he had a speach about how much he hates snow that was almost reminiscent of how much Anakin Skywalker hates sand.  Hate's snow, but also hates other things as well.  Of course, maybe she hasn't been assigned this principal yet.  Maybe she's only gonna show up and be a massive killjoy and hate his guts after the relationship gets underway. >:D  Or maybe she's already broken her leg and is all-

Victor:  20 Kroner says Takashi can't spend 15 minutes with Anna before he cracks a smile.
Galen:  No bet.


Though, this could end badly for said guards.  Hanse and Melissa are more likely to be forgiving if his son's security perimeter was breached via quantum tunneling, especially considering their personal experience with Anna's mother.
 The Otomo... lets just say that there will be quite a few requests to "use the garden."

See, this is where you need some of those Yakuza bodyguards who tell you to take a hike when you tell them to use the garden.  Or samurai so utterly devoted to duty and caring so little about their honor that their only request is to be allowed to resume their vigil with increased effort.  Or maybe both:

Red Oni:  "Hey, if you two princesses run away from me again, I'll cut your feet off, got it?"
Blue Oni: "Omiko-hime.  Anna-dono.  Please, allow me to accompany you, for your safety and so my companion does not burst a blood vessel from stress.  She does so worry about you both."
Red Oni: "You Bastard, take that back!"

[grimlock1]

I forgot to ask in the last post, but the candy 'mechs from Death By Chocolate, are we talking the size of table top minis or what?

[Chris OFarrell]

[[EJ]] “For the record, I did not actually sing and dance my way up the North Mountain-”
[[AJ]] “Yeah, that only happens in the shower. You haven't heard ‘Let It Go’ until you’ve heard Elsa ‘singing’ it washing her hairrrrRRRRAHHH!”
[[*Visual file Ref 3056-GMNA-PROD15788.12.56-34; Frame capture of manifestation of snowball striking Countess Jorgeson]]
- Duchess Elsa Jorgeson and Countess Anna Jorgeson.
Extract from transcript; ‘Good Morning New Avalon’, Production number 15788.
April 12, 3056


Château de Lagrange
Western Vestlandet, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Suns
T = -876 Days

Château de Lagrange was spectacular.

Built in a mountainous forest along the spine of Arendelle's second continent, the Lagrange Estate was built as the ultimate nobles retreat. Carefully designed grounds and gardens framed a charming Château built in the ancient French style which, in turn, enclosed the finest in 26th century luxury, convenience and technology.

The estate had been commissioned in the later 2500s by the Duke David Jorgeson. Constructed to entice First Prince Alexander Davion to visit, as part of a social climbing campaign years in the making. He and his backers dreams of a seat on the Federated Suns Privy Council had been shattered when the Reunification War broke out however; with the First Prince passing him over for a rather more martial candidate.
It may have brought his shade some satisfaction though that in 3034, no lesser personages than Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner had stayed at the place for a week during their two week vacation to Arendelle. And, although for reasons of privacy it was never officially confirmed, simple maths rather suggested that Peter Steiner-Davion had been conceived while they had stayed here - a somewhat unique claim to fame through the Inner Sphere.

Throughout history, the Château had mostly served as a sort of second residence or holiday house. It had found use by the Jorgensen family and close friends as a weekend retreat and conference centre; even the occasional Nobles Wedding had been held there on the grounds that uninvited media couldn’t get within a hundred kilometers of the place. Longer term use was not unheard of though, which meant when in the later half of 3042 teams moved in and a week later the Duchess Apparent of Arendelle followed suit with her Mother...

Well, it was unexpected, the news taking the planets nobility and media off guard … but not unprecedented.

And certainly not easy.

Given their positions as Duchess of the planet and Count of its largest city, the girls mother and father were forced to ‘rotate’ every two months - but they made the strange living arrangements work with judicious delegation and use of teleconferencing. As, unsurprisingly, the Château was equipped with the finest such facilities available.
But managing their jobs was one thing.
Managing their daughters?

Anna found her best friend in the world had been ripped away one night with only a cryptic letter and equally unsatisfactory excuses from her parents, finding this new life only held a long, deafening silence from her sister. But with the kind of stubborn determination that would become her calling card, Anna never stopped trying to reach out, accepting what crumbs of indirect news her parents would give her and clinging to the hope that one day, everything would go back to normal.
Meanwhile in the isolation and peace of the Highrock mountains, Elsa had the task of pulling herself together and picking up the pieces of her life. With Anna as safe from her as she could be, the Heir forfeited her childhood and started to prepare herself for the life ahead.

Alone.

Elsa counted no real friends among the staff at the Château, who all treated her with the expected courtesy and diffidence due the planetary heir. For sure, there was pride in her from her various tutors as she continually pushed her limits and exceeded their already high expectations. Then there were the long hours of training in courtly etiquette, protocol and knowledge with various people - but her social life was non-existent, with no peers in age or rank within hundreds of kilometers. A fierce desire for independence defined her now, with Elsa eschewing maids and ladies in waiting and desiring to look after herself. No confidants, no-one to replace - or even stand in for - Anna in her life.
She learned, she grew … and above all she bent all her energies to suppress the curse she had been burdened with that had so very nearly claimed her sisters life.

Don’t let them in.
Don’t let them see.
Be the good girl you always have to be.
Conceal, don’t feel.

This, was her mantra now.
This, was her life.

Such challenges and changes would have been enough to crush a lesser person - let alone a child - but Elsa found the strength to forge onwards; determined to become the heir she was expected to be - curse or no curse. Her strength surprised even her parents, but secretly she drew strength from far away. In the night sky she often watched, there was a star glowing for her alone she clung to jealousy. Perhaps even selfishly given how she gave nothing back to it for all the strength it gave with every letter and message that arrived for her. Anna glowing in her heart just that much brighter in her mind to light her way back home as her long term goal she never strayed from, no matter how far away it seemed to be now.

And so the seasons passed and a ‘new normal’ established itself as through the years Elsa continued to struggle despite truly herculean efforts; trapped in a never ending seesaw between new levels of control and discipline against her unwanted ‘gifts’ ever growing in power to test her constraints. Her trips to the outside world were brief and skittish, with fear ever lurking through her as she waved to distant crowds. Fear that continually worried her parents who saw how furiously she struggled yet how limited her control was, wondering if she would ever truly master her curse. Master herself...
Yet they too never stopped believing in their daughter or holding out hope that tomorrow would bring better. Some days were hard, for example when they had tried to even get Elsa to teleconference with Anna she had simply been unable to step into the room and fled back to her bedroom, leaving her sister blissfully unaware that she had been so close to finally seeing her again, to their parents heartbreak. But sometimes hope was closer … and never closer than when Elsa turned seventeen and fell in love.
Not with a person of course; the exactly sensible Elsa would have mildly rolled her eyes at such a foolish notion.
No, in her explorations of the grand Château, Elsa had fallen in love with architecture.

Angles and fractals and lines and curves and spirals and geometries in so many forms around the grounds had slowly re-awoken her the childlike fascination for such things, recalling as she had created with ice and snow as a child to simply will her fantasies into existence. Then on this birthday, a present from Anna had arrived. A set of almost three hundred of the finest watercolour pencils and sheets of the finest paper - perhaps a not terribly subtle hint that she could write or draw back to match the charming handmade card with the gift?
And yet idle in her room that lonely evening after a typically restrained Birthday dinner with her parents, Elsa had almost without thinking started to doodle … and then ‘moments’ later been taken aback to find she had been furiously sketching and designing and creating for half the night!

Then it clicked.

It had first surprised and then brought joy to her parents to see Elsa actually excited about something. Within days an entire studio had been created for her out of the ample empty spaces in the Château, filled with every possible thing a budding young architect could want. From drafting boards with charcoal and pencils to a high-end CAD computer and physical building blocks from styrofoam to clay. She had touched on all of them as she found an outrageously deep passion for design from the most sensible to the most stupendous. Finally, finally there was something filling the empty spots in her life and Elsa seemed to grow in confidence as, with a small smile on her face, she created and dreamed.

It was the opening the two parents had been waiting for. With their ideas near exhausted - and Elsa’s need to start engaging openly and publicly as an adult getting closer, they decided they could wait no longer. Despite the risks, despite the Clan Invasion whispering to their fears of what the beleaguered AFFC would see in their precious daughter; it was time to look for help.
And so it was that they had broken the news to Elsa that they would both be leaving to visit the First Prince and his Wife on New Avalon. Even with them insisting they would be back in two months and all possible political concerns were taken care of, Elsa’s feelings about being left alone were clear. The last words she had spoken to both her parents were an anxious question of it they really had to leave and their answer, a silent loving hug from both of them had done little to reassure her as they boarded their shuttle back to Arendelle City, where Anna had give them a far more energetic farewell before they had embarked on the dropship waiting on the pad for them.

It had also meant that Anna had been watching the Aurora Arendelle alone as a distant explosion caused the ascending star to hang in the evening sky, its engines flickering before the ship slowly arced off to the right and plunged out to sea and out of sight.
The boom of the explosion belatedly reaching the ground did little to drown out the screams of a young girl resisting all attempts by the equally horrified household staff to pull her away from the spectacle and inside as the flaming comet curved out to sea. Until an hour later when the the shattered Kai and Gerda had come into her bedroom to find Anna desperately clutching a doll in a blue dress … and after one look at their faces she had collapsed into inconsolable tears as it started to dawn on her this was real … and she was now an orphan.

Elsa on the other hand had been preparing to go for lunch when the ashen castellan of the Château had called her phone and asked her to immediately come down to her sitting room where he and several other members of her parents inner circle both present and on video links, had broken the horrific news to the Heir - now Duchess in Waiting of what had just transpired.
The words ‘stoic’ and ‘brave’ would later be thrown out all over the media for the next few days, with presenters gushing about how Elsa had taken the horrible news with a dignity and courage that would have made her parents both proud.
In truth - Elsa retreated inside her rooms for a few hours, leaving the local staff at a loss of what to do. Before any decisions had been made she had reemerged, taking everyone aback as she moved with a frigenting calm to her studio, ordering dozens of boxes to be brought there immediately.

Taken aback but bound by oath to obey their new mistress, the staff did so … and were shocked but silent as Elsa proceeded to systematically pack up her studio into boxes, leaving orders to dispose of it. The one attempt made by the castellan to talk to her had been met with such a look of icy command and blunt instructions that she would meet with him tomorrow morning that he had simply bowed and let he be, reasoning that she would grieve in her own way.
And so through the afternoon and into the evening, everything from fold out drafting tables to folios of ideas and dreams had been packed into boxes and taken away until finally the room had been restored to its original private office state. Only then did Elsa show any emotion past her placid mask, her facade cracking slightly as she knelt next to the master desk to open the bottom draw and carefully remove a manilla folder. Opening it, she flipped through glossy pamphlets, holodisks and brochures from the Neo Bergen Institute of Architecture … concluding in a three page application form for 3051 courses at the institute.
One that had been filled out with the most beautiful and careful calligraphy imaginable.

For a time Elsa remained motionless as her eyes slowly drank in the paperwork. Seeing it, but in reality seeing the end of the Child Elsa as Young Adult Elsa took her first steps out back into the world.
She saw friends made.
She saw her parents pride as she graduated.
She saw her working hard with experts as she learned until finally she started to create; leaving her mark on Arendelle with a whole slew of new public spaces and buildings as many of her ancestors had done through the years.
She saw herself shyly showing Anna around her creations one after the other, her sister running in every which direction and shouting a million questions a minute...

And then it ended. As all dreams do.
Because that Elsa between the Girl and the Duchess was never to be.

Smoothly, she rose and turned to toss the folder and its contents down a paper waste chute next to the desk. With that done, she had straightened her clothes, pushed a stray hair back into her fringe and headed back to her room to get what sleep she could.

Two days later, the study was restored - but now filled with books on law, economics, local nobility and the ancient treaties that bound the House of Jorgeson to the House of Davion - soon, Steiner-Davion.

The young girl was no longer present. And the young woman never existed.

Only the Duchess remained.


Arendelle Castle / Jorgensson Family Residence
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Suns
September 15 3051
T = -512 Days

“...continuing our live coverage from what is being called ‘The Mother of all Killboxes’ here on Sudeten. The devastation, as you can see now from the Bolan Bank News Chopper, is incredible. What’s left of most of a Galaxy -that is a Clan field army- is scattered across the valley and fields below. The AFFC under the personal command of Marshal Hasek-Davion have done what had been increasingly considered impossible by naysayers; ripping apart the massed elite of the invaders and repelling their attempt to seize not only this world, but every other Federated Commonwealth world the Clans attacked in this wave - with the exception of Alynia. Exclusive sources to TNN have leaked that Alynia was hit with significantly more force than expected in an attempt to capture Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, whose unit was forced to retreat offworld but not before inflicting-”

“Turn that thing off” Roger Landers ordered as he entered the castles council chamber, feeling tolerant exasperation at the group hovering around the large vid screen like a bunch of Solaris fans listening to a Championship halftime report. “I think we’ve all heard the news by now ladies and gentlemen”.

“True enough Regent” guffled Graham Turaken, the Count of Makana Bay as he and the others stepped away from the shut off screen towards their seats. “But it’s still damn good to hear the news. And today of all days!”

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the council as they sat at the rectangular table and Landers had to agree the timing was, at least, useful. Arendelle had been stable enough since the death of the worlds much loved leaders, but it was undeniable that there was a growing number of minor issues -read squabbles- between lesser nobles growing with time. Major decisions on infrastructure and policy; things a Duke or Duchess would look after normally that needed to be done in the near future. They were things that he could look after, but prefered to leave for the next ruler if at all possible given the optics of an ‘offworld Regent’ dabling in local politics. And the Clan War, distant as it was, only added to the feeling of uncertainty and even fear as they carved through the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine planet by planet.
So much the better then that today, they were leading off this new era with Morgan Hasek-Davion giving them a long overdue thumping. Jolly good setting of tone before his interviews this afternoon with the woman due about … now.

At exactly 10:00 Arendelle City Local Time, the door to the room opened and the path back to normalcy stepped inside as it closed behind her. Wearing a conservative Navy-Blue dress that could almost be called a business suit, long white gloves and with her platinum blond hair twirled up into a perfectly correct bun; the Duchess Apparent of Arendelle would have been a walking textbook for noble poise and precision as she crossed the polished wooden floor with a sotto clicking of her heels.

Doing so neither too fast, nor too slow.

Landers wasn’t really sure what to make of the ...exacting … nature of this woman. Why she kept herself under such tight control, or why she kept so much to herself - and to say there were question marks over her family situation was understating the matter rather greatly.
But then, his mandate only went so far as determining if she was capable of leading her world … and every noble family around the Federated Commonwealth had their own little excentricities. Even the big ones.
Especially the big ones.
So, to business then.

“Lady Jorgensson” he greeted her, offering a brief but respectful bow echoed by the others around the table as she reached her chair opposite his own. “My thanks for joining us”.

“My Lord Regent” Elsa acknowledged him with a precise incline of her own head, before her gaze flowed briefly around the dozen other people who had served her parents, exchanging wordless greetings of recognition before returning to him. “It is a pleasure to be here”.

“Please” he gestured and Elsa placidly sat, everyone else following suit moments later and starting to sort through the piles of paperwork the staff had laid out for them. “We have a full agenda for today and we’re going to begin with the economic situation, if you have no objections?”
Elsa simply shook her head once placidly.
“Your parents left Arendelle in excellent fiscal shape and we have kept the situation stable, despite Federal increases to the AFFC for the War effort” he started, earning another wordless nod of understanding from the Duchess.

“Some adjustments to fiscal policy will be needed soon though” Lady McNeill put in from the side.

“Indeed” Landers agreed quickly. “But before discussing that, my Lady Jorgensson, we need to talk about well, shall we say the greatest secret in the history of this planet?”

“Oh?” Elsa asked with a raised eyebrow at his theatrics, looking calm and composed … but there was something about the way her gloved hands shifted ever so slightly...

“It was thought by the Ministry of Information Intelligence and Operations that this secret may, in fact, have been a possible motive for an assassination of your parents. That their deaths were not accidental but a deliberate attack. However” he quickly added off her look, “an exhaustive investigation confirmed conclusively that the tragedy was simply a horrible accident as suspected. But given the sensitivity of this secret to Arendelle and your family, I’m sure you of all people can understand our caution.”

“I suppose I can” Elsa agreed - and again something looked … off about her body language.

Then again, she might just be cold - someone clearly screwed with the air conditioning settings Landers thought as he glanced up at the roof vents for a moment in annoyance, feeling the wave of cooler air suddenly wafting through the room and trying to ignore it.

“And this secret is?” Elsa prodded, drawing his attention quickly back, with a very direct, almost challenging look that he met squarely.

“Minerals” he stated directly … and now the young woman blinked, performing a double take.

“...Minerals?” she echoed carefully and he could see that this was not where she had thought the line of questions were going.

So, she had another secret she thought we were going to expose? Or perhaps she was just afraid mine would be much worse, about her parents deaths?
Well, at least the air conditioning has fixed itself...

“Mineral deposits across Arendelle” Lady Bourne continued to explain off his glance to her. The woman looked after primary industries and she swiftly drew Elsa’s attention away from him. “The first packet has all the details” she gestured at the paperwork neatly stacked in front of Elsa, “but I’ll background. It seems that the extensive surveys done across New Vestlandet during the later time of the Star League which confirmed its believed mineral composition as poor were … well, wrong. So wrong in fact that either the companies - who I may add worked for the Terran Hegemony - outright lied to your ancestors, or, they were incompetent on a level I find hard to believe-”

“Whatever the reasons” Landers cut back in given that the possible motivations of a long dead First Lord and defunct Hegemony were hardly relevant now; “an enormous amount of mineral reserves remained undiscovered. Until three years ago when a NAIS geology student happened to stumble over some rocks while on a family camping trip to a canyon there. She thought they were fascinating and took them back with her to New Avalon and did some testing. Then she called in her professor and he called his peers and so on until the College of Mining and Metallurgy were briefing Prince Davion personally. He and your parents after consulting via secure courier decided to do some -literal and figurative- digging and, well, the results of the surveys are in your hands”.

Unsurprisingly, Elsa’s eyes had been drawn to the neat little summary page in the folder she had opened, with tabulated 95%, 50% and 20% confidence numbers for how much of what was estimated to be in the ground. Equally unsurprisingly, her eyes widened slightly as she read the lines highlighted in very bold text very clearly.

“Germanium?” she breathed, her voice hitching ever so slightly as her eyes rapidly sucked down the cover sheet data. Her reaction said very quickly that she understood just how big this was - and that pleased Landers.

“Also large amounts of uranium and iron ore” he confirmed from memory - having been briefed on New Avalon before coming about why Hanse Davion wanted someone he trusted in place for the regency … just in case someone had decided to make a play for the materials. “A far from insignificant amount of gold of all things and considerable traces of other materials that have not yet been fully examined as we focused on the Germanium”.

“To put it into context” Bourne added, “the HCE - that is, high-certainty estimates- holding a ninety-five percent confidence are estimated to be greater than those that let Marius O'Reilly create the Marian Hegemony. IF we add in even half of the the fifty percent probable returns to that, we’d come close to doubling the known reserves of the entire Federated Commonwealth and Free Worlds League, combined. And I’m sure you’re aware of the primary use of this material?”

“Jumpship production” Elsa nodded - but continued to work through the report, her eyes flickering rapidly as she consumed the numbers.

“And that production is expected to steadily increase over the next few decades” Turaken added, leaning forward and, as always, almost vibrating with his eagerness to start moving on this. “It’s being kept quite secret - but I’m authorized to let you know that rebuilding and refurbishing work at Galax, Kathil and Alcaron is considerably in advance of where most people think it is - plans were accelerated after our finds were confirmed. The projections are for annual Jumpship production across the Federated Commonwealth to reach mid double digits within five years and triple by 3070 if we can meet the demand. And that’s not even talking about other … ” the minister then trailed off awkwardly as Landers looked at him with a steady gaze that said without saying ‘would you please shut up?’.
Elsa however impressed him again.

“Warship production?” she guessed with a shrewd look on her face that made her look so much more mature than her teenage years...

Long experience as a diplomat ensured his face didn’t show any reaction to her assertion - although the same could not be said of several others around the table who flinched like guilty schoolchildren.
“Suffice to say” he demurred, neither confirming or denying her question, “demand is expected to be high for a very extended period of time which has serious consequences for both Arendelle's economy and your own family's financial position”.

There was a pause of a few seconds as Elsa digested this news, skimming down the pages of text.

“The economic issues I understand” Elsa said finally, glancing back up. “The risk of ‘Dutch disease’ and a distortion in the economy or it overheating...” and Landers nodded at her considered tone, mildly impressed despite himself. In his experience, a depressingly large number of Inner Sphere nobles at this level wouldn’t have even thought of those issues until tactfully pointed out by long suffering staffers...

“But what consequences specifically for my family do you mean?” Elsa continued and Landers simply gestured again to Turaken.

“My Lady, close to ninety percent of the deposits discovered thus far are on unclaimed land that is directly owned by the Duchy - your Duchy” the darker skinned man explained. “The region was considered rather worthless until now so very few other landholds were issued in this region. Forgive my bluntness, but you are now head of theoretically one of the top ten richest noble families in the Federated Commonwealth after the Tharkad Steiners, New Avalon Davions, New Sytris Haseks and probably the Brewers of Hesperus II. After that, the list gets a little messy, but certainly you are absolutely somewhere in the next five or six. Accordingly, you need to start preparing yourself because you can expect that as soon as this goes public -which will be soon- a great many eyes across the Inner Sphere will turn to you”.

Now that had to be a rare sight Landers thought. Elsa Jorg’s face frozen in stunned shock and - damnit, was someone screwing with the aircon again?

[Chris OFarrell]

North Arendelle City National Park, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 10 3053
T = +4 Hours

The snow glows white on the mountains tonight...

Lacking a natural satellite in orbit one might think, logically, that nights away from Arendelle's inhabited areas could get rather dark.

They would be wrong.

For various esoteric reasons, the solar wind generated by the star Arendelle orbited was both much more consistent and somewhat more intense than Sols, manifesting in hemisphere wide auroras that could last weeks at a time even brighter than a full Terran moon. And although the cloud coverage prevented it from being directly seen here and now, more than enough light did push through tonight to reflect off the covering of fresh snow and bathe the region around the North Mountain in an ethereal light of great beauty.
Alas, the only person in the area wasn’t really in any mood to appreciate it.

A Kingdom of isolation … and it looks like I’m the Queen.

 
The woman in question had lost some of the elegance of the earlier night. Her stunning and expensive dress had frayed and torn in places, with twigs and various clinging foliage littering the cape that still fluttered behind her. A few hairs had come loose from her fringe too … yet her beauty and poise could not be denied.
Nor could the quiet despair on her face.
Elsa’s frantic need to flee, to escape from the horrifying and terrifying series of events had driven her almost to the point of exhaustion as she fled from her home up the banks of the fjord. Operating on nothing but fight/flight reactions and with her powers wildly flaring she had just needed to keep moving, to stay away from the people she might hurt-

No. The people she had hurt.


In all her nightmares - and she had had more than a few - Elsa had never truly considered that something like this could happen. Even now, replaying the events in her head, it was just too … big … for her to grasp and every time she tried she simply reeled away from the truth. Everything after that horrifying thud of the Prince’s body slamming into the floor was something of a blur. Her entire well ordered and disciplined brain had simply shut down so that the only things she really remembered were brief flashes of Anna getting close and a screaming voice, primal in its intensity, telling her to get away before she hurt her sister. Of being trapped like an animal against the edge of the fjord until she had -somehow- frozen the very water under her feet and plunged across the water into the darkness of the Northern hills. Everything after that was just a blur of motion that left her strangely detached from herself. Onwards and upwards through darkness and snow and panic until all at once she had torn into the areas behind the foothills, illuminated through the clouds above. The light and open space had somewhat snapped her out of it and with a faint cry she had collapsed to the ground, gasping for air that her lungs screamed for as her burning legs gave out from under her.

For some time she had simply remained there at a loss for what to do … before of all things, she thought she had heard someone calling her name.

An absurdity, but like a startled dear she had dragged herself back to her feet and kept moving, her mind numb and her body simply moving on autopilot even as behind her the snow built up and covered both her trail and blocked any possible direct pursuit as she continued to ascend.

The night grew long, with Elsa moving onwards in a sort of daze. Distantly she knew she was running to nowhere - but she didn’t care. The cold had never bothered her but as much as she was indifferent to the freezing winds, she truly felt numb inside. Her feet moving almost automatically as she wandered aimlessly; onwards and upwards until finally she took notice of her peripheral vision and glanced up.
And then up some more.

Finally, she just tilted her neck right back.

For years, Elsa had gazed out from the Castle at the knife-like peak of the North Mountain. First as a child and then as an adult, she had silently envied the mountain its strength, isolation and placid stability as it simply sat there, above everything she struggled with; be it her powers or politics. The view from the peak was said to be spectacular, but climbing it had been banned shortly after Anna’s … accident and access to the region highly restricted by her parents, supposedly for environmental concerns.

No-one went up there anymore.

And just like that, something clicked and she found herself taking the first steps up the mountain.


ComStar HPG Station FSCM-ARNDL-PRIME
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +6 Hours

“Blakes Blood…”

Precentor-II Richard Williams didn’t see who made the comment in the otherwise dead silence of the HPG operations room. And it said something that no shifting in seats or noises of disapproval from the more ‘oldschool’ people followed at what would have been considered, even two years ago, a mild blasphemy.

If that ‘something’ is that the secularization of ComStar is proceeding much more smoothly than I anticipated, or that the few remaining ‘true believers’ in the orders superiority over other humans are getting a brutal reality check in what a genuine ‘advanced human’ looks like … well, either is fine by me he thought with a ghost of a smile. One that faded quickly as he glanced back at the main screen.

“Storm activity at the front of the advancing cloud formation is remaining almost perfectly constant. Even as it keeps expanding in size, relative intensity and power is not diminishing at all” an acolyte in the outer ring of the room spoke up. Indeed, the main screen showed the orbital picture of a perfectly formed disk of a cloud expanding across the planet, almost like some kind of slow moving shockwave. ComStar -of course- hardly had a network of weather satellites in orbit. But ROM had long since hacked the downlinks to the orbital grids of Arendelle as a matter of routine, said routine not changing with the change in management on Terra.

‘Business’, after all, was still business.

“So there is no sign of dissipation” he queried over the direct link to her headset and the acolyte shook her head without looking away from her work.

“Not at the leading edge - in fact the total energy must be increasing along a steady curve if the leading edge is remaining constant despite the storm continuing to expand at the same rate. But it may have a limited depth; we’re seeing winds and snowfall pulling back at ground zero above us” and only now did she turn to face her ultimate superior looming above her from the dim peak of the amphitheatre like room.

“But with respect Precentor, I’m making a lot of guesses here. There is nothing in the database that comes close to … well, whatever this is”.

“I understood Acolyte” he assured her. “Keep monitoring and let me know if the situation changes” he ordered and she simply nodded turned back to her work, impressing him with her poise and calmness in the face of the impossible. He made a quick notation on his console to review her file with an eye for transfer; ComStar had a lot of slots to fill on Terra after Focht had gone through so much of it with a chainsaw in his little ‘culling’ and Hilton Head had standing orders to flag a quota each quarter for promotion.
That done, he turned his chair to face a figure only one tier below his station.
“Demi-Precentor Dykes” he intoned. “Status?”

“Estimate one hour, forty two minutes to transmission” the Demi-Precentor replied gruffly as he continued overseeing the teams he had scrambling all over the HPG; the man not even bothering to look back at him to report in more detail about what was going on.

They’re probably all just praying to the damn thing Richards snarked mentally, but he held his tongue knowing that undoing -or at least creativity rewriting- centuries of religious indoctrination was not something that would or could happen in a few short years. Focht’s moves against the extreme conservatives had been ruthless, merciless and happily welcomed (or at least accepted) by the bulk of ComStars wider family (not to mention the Great Houses). But it would nonetheless take time for this ‘new vision’ to truly establish itself.
Time and patience.
So he would be patient. And he’d try remember that even if he was a bit of a fossil far better with machines than people; Dykes knew his business better than most engineers in the order and he was damn lucky to have him.

“It could be quicker if we cut some of the steps we probably don’t need to go through...” the older man finally offered at his cool silence, turning to face him as if belatedly remembering the due respect that needed to be directed towards his Precentor even these days, but the look on his face suggested how bad an idea he thought that was and Williams bowed to his experience, simply gesturing him to carry on. The massive radio dish had been crash locked and HPG core hard shut down when a winter snowstorm had exploded out of nowhere in the middle of summer - correct decisions of course, utterly by the book. ‘The book’ also said to protect the HPG above all and to check the system top to bottom very carefully before using it again - and given that the HPG was almost literally worth its weight in gold...
Well, if nothing else, it gave him a little more time to get his report to the First Circuit in order as he tried to explain how a Demi-Goddess had emerged to smite Victor Steiner-Davion and set off an eternal winter.

It’s funny how that seems to sound less and less insane the more I say it in my head… he idly thought as he let his glance drift to the one and only other person sitting on his level in the control room. She wore an older style robe with only a singular decoration on it; a greek letter ‘Rho’ on her collar in gold and for all the intimidating power that normally commanded, the frazzled look on her younger than normal face rather ruined the effect.
But then again in rapid succession she had been hit with constant upsets to the quiet ‘backwater’ posting that had just climaxed with the revelation that the local Duchess was a sorcerer or something with genuine magical powers over ice, snow and weather on a planetary scale; something completely unprecedented in human history.

It really was a good thing Myndo Waterly wasn’t in charge anymore as such a failing of information gathering on the local ruler would have been more than enough ‘in the good old days’ to have orders come down requesting he and Margaret urgently ‘return to Terra for consultations’. Ending with an ‘extended vacation’ at Tierra del Fuego.

Even so he reasoned, it wouldn’t do any harm to grab every byte of information we can shove into the message so we don’t look completely incompetent …

“Precentor” Margaret acknowledged him, turning around to face him just as he was about to hit her call button on his board.

Some days he wondered if ROM personnel were all given cybernetic eyes in the back of their heads.

“I have the initial reports you requested” she continued, feeding data across to his console. “Mostly COMINT work, although my analysis team is still filtering through the media reports and starting to make quiet calls to various sources. The situation in the palace is … ah … confused”.

I’ll bet it is he didn’t snort out in favour instead of a simple nod, wondering where in Blakes Balls you even started with trying to get a grip on something like this with the chaotic free press of the Federated Commonwealth all but banging down the palace door. “Let’s start with the big questions” he said instead. “Any more news on Steiner-Davion?”

“Nothing directly from the 10th or his ISB people” she said sounding slightly disgruntled. “We still haven't cracked their encryption but the Militia are now getting feeds as they activate and they are rebroadcasting to regional command centers across the planet using datalinks we’re monitoring. Their reports square with what Galen Cox put in his message to New Avalon; Prince Victor will be fine and the expectation is he’ll be up tomorrow and back to normal within a day or two from there”.

“Well that’s one crisis down” Richards noted, feeling some relief that on top of everything else, they didn’t have to worry about the Heir of the Federated Commonwealth dying on ‘his’ watch and causing a Sphere wide crisis. “So then, all we need to deal with is a missing Duchess whose unleashed an eternal winter on Arendelle?”

“That and the local regency issue with Lady Anna AWOL” she reminded him. “We have a broadcast going live in ninety seconds, the pirate studio feed is on your console”.

“Good work” he thanked her and she gave him a professional nod before turning back to her board as he in turn brought up the feed in question. This ‘Hanse’ … no, ‘Hans Westerguard’ was about to go live in an address to a planet looking for any kind of leadership. So, Richards was naturally interested in what he was going to say. With a hand gesture the motion capture controls interpreted, the window ‘stretched’ out to fill his right hand side, a raw feed showing the man in question looking surprisingly confident, backed by what seemed to be the Duchesses Chief of Staff and High Council.
Very confident in fact and his gazed sharpened in consideration as the young man faced the media - and beyond it, a world in shock, confusion and probably no small amount of terror. He introduced himself - leaving out, he noted, his ‘engagement’ to the sister of the Duchess - before explaining the events and the ongoing efforts to deal with the situation … even as he admitted said situation was entirely unprecedented.
That kind of double talk was no small thing to pull off and this man was doing it with a smooth skill that took him aback given his age and what he knew of him. Not even needing a teleprompter visible on the raw feed...
Frowning, he waved the feed to minimize it to one side and opened a new holographic window to query the local ROM database; highlighting Hans with a twist of his wrist and pulling a ‘file’ out of his datatag that expanded on the second window into his ROM information package … and found it was barely five lines long and most probably copied word for word from Comstars public ‘Peerage of the Inner Sphere’.
It was almost enough to make him wish for the ‘old’ ROM who had a knack for gathering staggering amounts of data on the most unlikely people and having it to hand for the most unlikely of situations.

Almost.

Luckily his sanity promptly jumped up and slapped him in the side of the face and with a brisk shake of his head, he swiped the feed to the side and re-opened the link to his local ROM head.

“Margaret. Append to the Terra Flash. I want Cairo to forward their files on the Southern Isles ruling family in general and Hans Westerguard in specific. Family history, known associates, financial status; everything” he ordered as the feed rolled on. Westergard continue to encourage the people to look to their leaders and look out for each other in this fast changing situation … which was exactly what he should be doing as a leader; taking charge in a crisis.

So why, he asked himself silently as he regarded the man looking far more mature than his barely twenty Terran years, is the fact that we’re lucky enough to have such a competent person when and where we need them … making me as suspicious as a Liao receiving wedding invitations?

[Chris OFarrell]

The North Mountain
North Arendelle National Park, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +7 hours.

The wind died down.
The snow ceased to fall.
And past the suffocating fog of clouds, the sky was awake.

Elsa silently marveled as she ascended through the clouds into open sky, taking in the stunning wash of the Inner Sphere behind the undulating Auroras. Greens and blues of infinite shades and hues painted the entire region of mountainous peaks and sky in awe inspiring colours; a canvas on a colossal scale seemingly presented entirely for her and no-one else.
Because for the first time in forever, Elsa Jorgeson found herself alone.
Truly alone.
And it was one of the most exhilarating feelings in her life.

Distantly, she knew she should be exhausted - it wasn’t as if she had planned to climb a mountain today. And she had been awake for a long time … yet the higher she went, the lighter she felt. Up here in the cold thin air, Elsa felt as if she could finally breathe. And with each exhale, she felt her concerns, her worries, her burdens simply flake away, to fade away into the nothing below as she gazed out upon the snow covered mountains around her.
Truly, for the last year it had felt at times like she was carrying these mountains on her back, crushing her down under their weight day in and day out. The minerals buried in them and in others across the planet causing a stream of never ending HPG messages and petition after petition for an audience from locals, off worlders and even notes from other Great Powers! From the day she had taken her place in the Regency council till the morning of her coronation itself it had never stopped. The frequency in fact had only increased the closer she had come to today, with her Regent helping her, but insisting that these decisions would define the next century for Arendelle and thus they had to be hers and hers alone.

It had been just one more burden to carry as she struggled with her parents death, her sisters exile, her ascension to power and … her curse. Feeling so hopelessly lost some days without anyone to turn to that she had curled up under her blankets and let the tears flow where no-one would know. No-one would see …

But now she was free.

Almost free a voice in her head whispered as she felt her curse shiver through her body and with that, she felt some of her exhilaration start to fade as a decade of exhaustion crept back towards her, her gaze unwillingly drawn to her hands.

One gloved. One … not.

She had tried to keep her curse in.
She had tried so hard for so long to be the good girl she had to be.
To conceal, not feel. To never let it show … so they would never know...

But now they know she thought sadly to herself as she stared at her ungloved hand squeezing helplessly into a fist, feeling the curse, the power thrumming through her naked skin as if trying to get out and she instinctively started to try and suppress it … and then the revelation that should have been blindingly obvious to her struck home like a thunderclap.

“But … now they know?” she dared to whisper the words, feeling a shiver through her very being as she raised her ungloved hand up and simply stared at the naked flesh. Regarding the power rather than trying to ignore or push it back. Remembering how like water starting to tip over the edge of an overfilled dam, her power had simply started to leak out of her and then burst out of her earlier this night. Near two decades of rigid and iron clad discipline seethed against the slowly dawning revelation as she turned to look at her other hand, still snugly wrapped up in the tight aqua glove.

But now … they know-

Her other glove was flung into the air to whip away in the wind and leave her hands and arms bare. The wild, rash and utterly impulsive gesture sent a thrill through her as she felt the cold winds embrace both her arms and naked hands, the cold outside starting to energize the cold inside she would normally suppress utterly and immediately.
But … after nearly thirteen years of never ending efforts to constrain and control and suppress … Elsa, emotionally exhausted from the events of the day had finally reached her limit. And so she raised her hands, reached down deep inside herself in a way she had not done in a very long time …

And she let it go.

All at once Elsa felt as if she was fighting herself as she struggled to actually focus and channel the shockingly massive and immediate surge of power that rushed forward. Fear and terror tried to reclaim her; instincts screaming at her to stop before it was too late as the storm grew and grew and grew until finally it erupted into and through and around her and she didn’t know where Elsa started and the powers ended and oh God it was too much too much too much!
Every nerve in her body seemed to be both on fire and freezing, her awareness spiraling down to a tiny mote the size of an atom … and a power that loomed over the mountains themselves. She wanted to run and spin and fly at the same time but she couldn’t move so much as a muscle as they spasmed painfully! Couldn’t even breathe! Pure terror and wild exhilaration balanced on a knife's edge as her powers rampaged like nothing she remembered, coming forth both like a crushing pressure from outside and unstoppable energy from inside, leaving her soul trapped between forces that would surely rip the very planet asunder-

- and then she was falling and barely catching herself before she crashed to the snow. She staggered forward to stand somehow on shaking legs, her lungs gasping and heaving again for air they had been denied. Her hands trembled and clenched into fists rapidly for a moment as she came back to herself ... but it wasn’t because she was exhausted.
Just the opposite in fact.

She was exhilarated! Electrified! Ecstatic! She was power!

The titanic depths were still there beyond her ability to comprehend, but now like a key sliding into a lock everything just … fit. The power moving through her body was alive! It was no longer a distant ache or pressure leaking against her control but a roaring current swirling through and around her - with no-one around to get hurt it ran wild … yet it moved with her as perfectly and integrally as an arm or a leg. She could feel it as well as she could see the sky or hear the wind. No friction, no resistance but as smooth as the most pure ice. Her hands seemed to all but crackle with energy and with wide eyes, for the first time in forever, she raised one hand and…
Power danced through her and swirled into a flurry of snowflakes above her palm that spiraled into the air!

With a child like expression of awe she turned and sent a pulse through her other hand to the same result, watching as the flurry of snow danced away on the wind as she felt the power pushing out and around her like an aura to touch-
Gods! Elsa’s eyes widened yet further in wonder, wondering vaguely if this was sort of what it was like to feel electrocuted. Overwhelmed for a few moments until her mind seemed to adjust and remember...

She could feel the snow! All around her! Her flurry on the air! The flakes whipping through the wind and the whole world of ice and snow around her sang to her!
She couldn’t even begin to explain it, her highly intellectual mind was at a complete loss at how to quantify this … feeling, but she felt/heard/tasted/knew the ice and snow around her as her power rippled out. Connecting it to her and connecting her to it with an overwhelming feel of ...

Joy!

It was Joy!. That’s what it was! A blind person having their sight restored to a Coronan sunset or a deaf person's first sound being Duettino- Sull'aria; it was pure joy that she had not felt in so long she barely recognized the feeling! And with a exhaultant laugh she swung her arm … and a wave of snow and ice danced off the mountain! Crystals swirling into the air and singing to her by the millions as they caught the wind and drifted into the sky without asking to stop how she did it as she laughed openly in delight and amazement.

Memories? Instinct?

She didn’t know how she knew but she know she did! And with an energized wave and swirl of her arm, snow and ice danced around her as she walked forward. Gathering and collecting snow like a mini tornado around her and bringing with it scattered branches and rocks as something deep in this eruption of joy bubbled to the surface and her powers roared, spiraling into -

Hi! I’m Olaf - and I like Warm Hugs!

Elsas eyes bulged as her voice echoed from her memories she had always tried so hard to suppress. Jolting to a halt, she gazed down in awe and childlike wonder at what had formed next to her.

Olaf.

The imperfect snowman - the single most perfect thing she and Anna had built together that she could never forget. From that last day when they had truly been sisters and loved and hoped and dreamed and played for the last time.
Emotions swirled through her, mixing with her magic as she stared at the misshapen memory given form in front of her. One whose image had appeared on so many of the cards and pictures and letters Anna had sent to her over the years, no matter the silence she had been given in return.

'I love you Olaf!'

That was what Anna had yelled in delight as she had leapt up to hug the oddly shaped snowman smiling at her as Elsa waved his stick hands, his imperfections making him so utterly perfect because he was theirs as they danced on the ice with him…
They had made him with their hands - now he had simply … come to her. Without her realizing it; it was like her very imagination was wielding her powers … or her powers were wielding her imagination.
Dreams solidifying into reality at but a wave of her hand.

Distracted in her memories, she was brutally brought back to reality as the wind chose that moment to pick up again; catching at her cape and yanking her almost off her feet as it pulled her back. It almost in an irrational way felt as if something was trying to pull her back down the mountain and she almost angrily ripped at the clasp; releasing her cape to fly off down the mountain behind her. She didn’t spare it so much as a glance as she instead moved forward up towards the top of this part of the mountain, the horizon coming into view slowly as she reached the crest with the summit looming vertically over her.

It was funny really, how a little distance made everything seem small as her power swirled around her, almost part of the wind and making her feel like a titan striding across Olympus. Her power unchained and unfettered but not uncontrolled. She tested and pushed and pulled and flowed and ebbed and felt vague memories of what she had done so many years ago came back to her - but the difference was just night and day. Where she had been but a child playing with a trickle - she was now a woman grown who could with but a gesture call upon oceans! She exalted in the feelings - all of it - wondering distantly how she could possibly have been so tiny before! She could feel even before she saw, the way the snow ahead of her curved away and then dropped into a ravine - even as she could hear snow calling to her on the far side of the ravine with no way across. But as she stood there, the gap teased a memory.

There was a bridge back at Château de Lagrange. It had fascinated and inflamed her passion for architecture; seemingly like something from a fairy tail. Arcing across a kind of miniature gorge to provide a grand entrance for guests being dropped off to visit from the parking circle to the grounds propper. A far more humble structure would have done the job just as well far cheaper of course, but her ancestor had spared no expense when building his estate and the magical bridge sat there proudly. Seemingly so fragile that a good wind would shatter the lattice, like something from a dream...
She had spent days worth of time sitting on the lawns in the summer with Anna’s gift of a sketchbook, trying to capture what she saw onto paper with mixed results but had always been disappointed that she couldn’t get it quite right.

But now...

Her heart started to race in her ears and chest as she came to a stop near the edge and raised her hands. The power was almost eager in her as she somewhat timidly grasped it … and remembered the bridge and she felt/sensed/saw her power seemingly solidifying into such a framework to match her memory, so she pushed-

-and just as hastily pulled her power back, gasping at the wash of light that poured from her hands into physical form.

There, directly in front of her and shiming with power both visible and invisible, was the start of her bridge. She crossed the final steps to it, paused and carefully put her foot on it - and she felt it!
She knew it!
She understood it in a way absolutely fundamental .. yet it was so simple! And in that energizing moment of connection as her foot made contact her power pulsed and swept through her and the bridge; solidifying her creation into flawless blue ice; fuzing down deep into the rock under the snow as she looked across the chasm to the plateau calling to her. Then she looked back to the start of her bridge and again felt/saw/knew! the rest of was there, just waiting for her to will it into being from her dreams...

A dream is just a wish your heart makes Elsa.

She didn’t remember who had told her that … her Father perhaps? But right now her heart for the first time since her sisters accident knew what it wanted … and was going to get what it wanted. Her wish - her dream to build and sculpt and create and be herself all seemed to collapse in on here and now as she felt herself all but vibrating with energy. Without concern of how insanely dangerous an idea this was.

Not here, not now.

And with barely a second to take a breath, she sprinted as fast as her dress would let her up the first few steps, flinging her arms forward to call forth and unleash the power roaring through her -

And Elsa Jorgeson became one with the wind and sky as she ran across the hundreds of meters deep gorge on a bridge of magic and dreams.


ComStar HPG Station FSCM-ARNDL-PRIME
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +7 Hours

“Sixty seconds to transmission. Commence pre-transmission checklist on my mark … mark!”

And with that, a clock on the main screen - and replicated on every console in the room - started to count backwards from sixty.

“Planetary alignment confirmed. Weather conditions are in tolerance - no traffic in the no fly zone.”

“KF projector is armed. Switching to computer control.”

“Data burst is queued and ready for transmission.”

The calls continued around the room with a steady and smooth cadence under the sharp eyes of Demi-Precentor Dykes and indeed; the eyes of the Precentor himself for once. His rare but welcome presence causing everyone to sit up just that much straighter. And for all their new Precentor groused about discipline in the HPG branch not being quite as obsessive as in the ComGuards, there was no doubt at all (at least in the mind of Adept Mitchell Fitzmans) of the skill and professionalism of the HPG operations team. Even if Arendelle was ‘just’ a Class-B station, there was no doubt when ‘transmission time’ came everyone always gave their very best effort and was proud of it.
And today they were showing that for true. Arendelle-Prime had a very important message to get out - quite probably the most important it had ever sent, come to think of it. And come rain, hail, snow or irritated magical superwoman - the mail would get through!

Fitzmans gave himself exactly two seconds on the clock to smile at his joke and file it away to see if marketing could use it in a local campaign later, before devoting himself back to his board with a keen eye.

If everyone had done their jobs right, when the timer hit zero a K/F field would form directly overhead, born of the same physics used to hurl Jumpships from star system to star system. But focused down to a level barely ten centimeters in diameter rather than the kilometers of Jumpships K/F fields and far more energetic to boot. Space and time would be ripped open and ‘bridged’, a wormhole in lay parlance formed between Arendelle-Prime and Port Barrow-Prime twenty light years away through which a data burst would be transmitted and captured at the far end by the massive radio dish … if it was targeted correctly of course.
The ‘sweet spot’ for the transmission was ensuring the K/F field formed within a ten degree arc of the transmission element on the surface - twelve maximum. A consistent eight degree variance was considered the standard for an A-Class HPG team and Fitzmans generally edged closer to seven degrees - a considerable source of pride that he was told would ensure he would be transferred to a far more prestigious posting years ahead of the normal schedule of such things.

On the other hand, tonight they were ‘shooting from the hip’ as it were. Breaking half the rules in the ‘Not-Quite-Holy-Anymore-But-Still-Critical’ book in the process - but he tried not to think about what a failure here would mean for his future career prospects. Instead, he chose to focus on the familiar thrill of the sound of a K/F projector directly above them powering up, sounding exactly like it should until moments later, the field energized at a point two kilometers above the station and he expectantly looked at his board expecting to see the bright blue dot materializing within the ‘ten’ ring of the maximum acceptable standard deflection limit.

And it did.

Then it proceeded to stretch out into a thick line towards the North to a good twelve or thirteen degrees!

What in the name of Blake’s Balls-

[Chris OFarrell]

The North Mountain
North Arendelle National Park, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +7 hours.

Those who ‘knew’ Elsa would have been hard put to recognize the young woman crashing back to Earth from her impossible bridge. And not simply because of the previously unheralded magic flowing from and around her.

Which, to be fair, was a rather big change.

No, it was the look of pure joy on her face and lack of any hint of the walls she put up that would have had people in complete confusion. Indeed, of those still living only Anna, Kai and Greda truly held any recollection of a very different Elsa from the one seen before here and now. One who was, if anything, even more mischievous than her little sister and lived life with a child's innocence and delight.
No, to most of the officials and personnel who managed to drift vaguely into her orbit over the last half dozen years; their Elsa was an aloof woman who was unfailingly polite, propper and professional … and one who would never, even for one nanosecond, give herself to public displays of emotion beyond a politicians smile or gesture.
Or even, as far as they knew, give herself to private displays of emotion either.

Which went to show how little they truly knew her.

As she came to a halt in a spray of snow and energy, Elsa found herself gasping. Not because she was winded in any way, but just overwhelmed from the sheer rush of what she had just done. Her increasingly ‘benched’ logical mind was protesting the absurd risk she had just taken but it was ignored behind an ever growing certainty of just how deep her power ran and that she had never been in any danger. She had completely misjudged what she could do as she tested the limits, breaking through every preconception she had. All she could do was spin around to stare in open mouthed wonder and see what she had just created in seconds with nothing more than a wave of her hands and the power of her mind.

A fraction of the power of her mind.

Spinning back, Elsa took in the virgin snow ahead of her, untouched by human hands until this day. She shivered as her power ran through and down into the frozen water, feeling it vibrate with her in almost eager anticipation in the lee of the knife like peak of the mountain. It was like the most perfect blank canvas she had never been able to quite pull together when she was younger. Something far more raw than clay or paint with which she could let her imagination loose. No rules, no right or wrong. For lack of a better word; that it was destiny for her to be right here, right now.

Free.

“Here I stand and here I stay” she spoke up for the first time in hours as much to the world as to herself and with that said, she almost aggressively stamped her foot down. Power roared out and down into the ground like a dam burst; torrents of it spreading smoothly and evenly to place her mark on this, her realm. Sinking into the snow and down to fuze with the bedrock under the layers just like the iceberg she had envisioned; all in a form that from overhead was unmistakable.
The form of a snowflake.

Her snowflake.

It was one of those things about her powers she had always known but not really thought about; all of her snowflakes were identical. Other snowflakes of course would form around hers as the water in the air froze in their presence, but when she had created snowflakes, they had always been the same. For years she had feared that shape … but now ...

Now, she flaunted it!

Standing in the middle of the utterly flawless ice, Elsa let her memory pour forth as she closed her eyes. She had spent countless nights wokring over sketches and models and designs but none of them had ever quite captured her dreams. She had gotten better and closer as she practiced sketching or working with foam and what not, but she had always been slightly disappointed in the results that didn’t quite seem to fit together or flow together exactly as she wanted.
But tonight?
Tonight, reality and fantasy were but two sides of the same coin. And opening her eyes as her dreams seemed to solidify around her, Elsa reached down with her arms, took a moment as electricity rolled through her veins along with a deep breath...

And then she bit her lip in the most dreadful concentration, raised her arms … and Arendelle rose with her into the sky.


ComStar HPG Station FSCM-ARNDL-PRIME
Arendelle City, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +7 Hours

“Acolyte Mitchell - SITREP!” Dykes snapped from behind and Mitchell barely managed to stop himself from jumping, feeling the man's eyes - and those of everyone else in the room - boring into his back as a deep two-tone alert buzzer started to sound in the room along with yellow rotating lights flashing in warning.

“We are getting distortion in the field” he said as his eyes ran at haste over his console, his consternation growing as he rapidly rechecked status readouts and saw nothing out of place. This kind of warping of the field off to one side should mean that one of the K/F transmission or focusing elements was dead … but everything looked perfect … on multiple independent readouts! A nanosecond glance at the counter on his console - twenty seconds left, fifteen before automatic shutdown and hard power down!- and he switched over to the power draw indicators for each of the elements … all were equal! “It’s warping to the North, power looks okay-”

“Adept are we go/no go for transmission?” Dykes pressed pointedly as the counter continued to tick down and Mitchell heard the unsaid words. That if he called it off and they did a complete power down and diagnostic on the transmission array, they would miss the realy window. And all the consequences would be on his head if he had missed even the smallest thing in his checks - and worse, ComStars reputation would have taken a black eye when it was needed most.

So he swallowed and went ‘all in’ on his future career.

“I will try and compensate manually” he determined after a second as he switched to manual override of the transmission element. His mind worked furiously quickly as he gave thanks that their new Precentor had insisted on surprise drills and training scenarios for some of the more esoteric events that no other station would ever bother with.
It might have just been because the ComGuard vet seemed to have a ‘thing’ for surprise training drills, but he absently gave thanks to Blake for that fact as he started to adjust the settings. The ‘line’ on the screen wasn’t stable; it was stretching out then snapping back randomly, even with all the power readouts showing exactly the same energy levels in the K/F core. The only time he had seen anything like this had been in training when simulating using a HPG in the presence of another. Or using a mobile HPG right next to a jumpship engaging its K/F drive. But even then the interference was a steady factor that could be adjusted for -

No time, no time! he cursed as he eyeballed the range of distortions. It wouldn’t be perfect but if he could just push it back enough…

“Ten seconds to transmission” Dykes called as if he couldn’t see the clock and Mitchell tuned him out as he overrode the computer and pushed the power levels around, ramping up the Northern projector grid by a quarter and ever so slightly pulling the Southern side back-

Yes!

The crude correction did the job and the ‘line’ arc jittered and then shrank back into something much more circular, within the tolerance zone.
Barely.
The Northern edge was sort of ‘vibrating’ in place as if being physically shoved into a position it didn’t want … but the K/F field didn’t need to be perfect like in a jumpship. Radio bursts didn’t operate under the exacting constraints of transporting physical matter through hyperspace in exactly the same quantum state - and not inside out. But even so the tolerances were so small-

“HPG alignment is within tolerance Demi-Precentor - ready to transmit!” he didn’t quite yell as he demanded with his eyes for the field to remain thus so.

“Commencing transmission!” Dykes barked in agreement. “In three, two, one -”

And with a flash of lights across his board the elements ramped up to transmission power - with the Northern elements pushed to transmit far above their normal energy levels in a way that normally would cause the K/F field to form lopsided - a missjump in casual parlance - but Blake or luck was with him today because in a shockingly sudden and far more energetic than usual IR bloom and neutroni spike, a jump point … formed!

Nine point one degrees off centre. His worst rsult ever, but entirely workable-

No! damnit!

The jump point started again to drift to the North and without even taking time to think his hands blurred as he shifted the power up on the key elements close to their red line to stabilize it...

“Lock achieved, transmitting!” Mitchell heard and he instantly started counting in his head as he clenched his hand on the controls; not even blinking as he counted and prayed -on instinct- to Blake to hold it in place!

Three … two … one -

And with a deep thud again more felt than heard the K/F core shut down automatically as the computer finished the transmission.

“We have K/F core shut down” he managed to get out, his hands moving entirely on autopilot to bring up the post transmission checklist screen.

“Message check?” Dykes barked at the transmission team as Mitchell dared not look away from his screens, the room so silent you could have heard a pin drop as everyone waited for the analysis.

“Transmission scatter is … negligible!” the Adept finally concluded and there was a great sigh of relief, Mitchell falling back into his chair like a puppet with his strings cut. “The jump point held and the transmission was clean. We have a high probability of a success”.

“Dykes, Acolyte Fitzmans, excellent work” the Precentor called out at the news, sounding utterly sincere and Fitzmans turned with the exactly appropriate humility to face the boss and nod - and froze as he spotted the look on the mans face.

“Now, can someone -preferably without Gregorian chanting, explain to me what in the hell just happened?”


The North Mountain
North Arendelle National Park, Arendelle
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
May 11 3053
T = +7 hours.

Impossible columns of flawless ice stabbed upwards just under the summit of the North mountain in complete defiance of the laws of physics. The laws of man too, given that no building permits had been acquired or engineering assessments conducted.

Such things were of little concern to woman in the centre of the storm.

A tornado of energy lit up the entire region, spiraling first into the atmosphere and then into the ground; raising the structure up even as it was fuzed into and, indeed, became part of the mountain itself. A bewildering array of arches and angular geometries in equal measure flowed outwards from each of the massive columns, meshing and meeting to form walls, floors and rooms. All made from the same single structure of ice without hints of where part it started or ended; in a perfection of symmetry and fractals. Even the smallest facing of the smallest angle was a work of art in of itself - but every surface was almost inevitably part of a far greater whole that wove the entire structure into a majestic tapestry unequaled on a thousand worlds in a thousand years.

To its mistress, this perfection was simply brush strokes on her canvas.

Like a master conductor both leading and being carried along with the music, Elsa Jorgenson moved and flowed with the growing building as the massive snowflake under her finished rising to its position. All but glowing with power she spun dreams into reality and brought imagination into existence with waves of her arms. Great arches shimmered into place taking up the strains and loads with an exacting precision and understanding of forces that could only come to one who was part of this building. The tiniest flicks of her fingers caused power to swirl and skid along walls and corridors beyond her sight but not beyond her vision, leaving impossibly intricate fittings and fixtures behind. When she had found her love of architecture all those years ago, she had been forever frustrated that she could never quite put to paper her ideas and designs no matter how she tried. From pencil and paper to clay to foam to computer design software, it had never quite flowed right - although she would admit she was her own harshest critic and her skills had improved steadily with practice.

But on this night and in this place … everything was possible without such crude tools.

She spun around on her first floor, gathering power and then threw her arm up causing waves of power to wash up the perfect but unadorned load bearing columns to fix that very issue. Incredible detail simply flowed in the wake of her power; over it, under it, through it into three dimensional detailing that refracted light into rainbows that illuminated the entire structure.
The greatest poets in the Galaxy would have wept for the lack of words to describe the moment as Elsa became one; her sonnet written in the sheer glory that flowed through every square centimeter of the palace inside and out. Touched by her mind with love and joy, reliefs of scepters and snowflakes and crowns and crocus’ spun into being by the thousands, large and small on and through the structure. Tiny motes of light glowed and shimmered by the millions in the dark blue ice of the heavy walls, as if the night sky had been captured and spun into it. And everywhere one looked, impossible plays of light with no visible source illuminated her home and cast out any shadows anywhere.

Reaching the roof, her power spun around the open hole above showing the glowing aurora far above as she raised one arm and swirled her wrist faster and faster, a single finger pointing to the sky. And, in counterpoint, her energy swirled faster and faster; great triangular slabs coaxed out to a nanometer precise seal to fix the roof directly above her in the middle of her snowflake floor.

Then, she closed her hand into a fist and pulled down.

An an impossibly slender spar of ice shot out of the roofs center and along its length as it descended a flurry of impossible crystal geometries joyously spun out like flowers blooming from a stem. Layer after layer formed each building on the last until finally the chandelier hanging about this room was. A staggering construction of such breathtaking complexity yet seeming fragility for how delicate it looked with awe inspiringly intricate parts that a House Lord would have considered themselves lucky to have their home Palace adorned by such a creation.

And with it in place … it was done.

Her powers fell silent, leaving her standing alone in the Throne Room of her Ice Palace, the sudden end to activity almost jarring in its own way. Elsa turned to regard her work with wide eyes as she started to come out of the almost trance like state she had fallen into, druken with the power she wielded … and as she did, she saw herself in the reflection of a pane of perfect ice.

And she blinked. Not recognizing the person blinking back at her.

What she expected to see was her. Free. The power of ice and snow blazing through her very body as she felt and saw herself.

What she saw, for the first time since she had fled the Castle … was a lonely Duchess of Arendelle. Trapped back in Arendelle, forever cursed to be the leader everyone wanted her to be, the sister she never could be for Anna, the good girl everyone expected her to be as she desperately hid who she was.

“I’m never going back” she finally spoke up as she with but the briefest of concentrations felt her power resonate from her to the building and back again; almost being a part of her. Her home signing with her, claiming her as she claimed it! The one place she could finally be herself.
And although he declaration should have terrified her - all she felt was a raging exaltation she she embraced herself. The real herself.

The past is in the past!

And with that Elsa reached up and plucked the tiara that somehow had managed to stay on her head all through this night and after a brief look, she tossed it and everything it was off to the side before reaching up and almost violently untying her braid. Exalting as she felt the pressure on her head slacken as her braid swung free behind her in a way she never would have worn it - no matter how much she might have wanted to! THAT perfect Girl was gone!

Then, as she had raised her power against the mountain and raised a home, she raised her power … against herself.

It was a trickle where before she had used floods but it was no less perfectly controlled for all that as her magic washed around her, embracing her as she had embraced it. Her clothes disintegrated … and were remade at the same point as her restricting, conservative dress that was the epitome of how a modern, demure Duchess should look simply vanished into oblivion.

In its place … was only her. The Snow Queen, infused with her power.

And so the Snow Queen strode to the door of her balcony on heels of ice, the slit in her new dress letting a daring amount of leg show as the gossamer thin cape of ice that spun off her shoulders in a sparkle of light took form. Passing through the doors she finally looked out on her domain and the spectacular view it presented. The sky awake above in rapturous celebration with her and the snow covered mountain stretching away below singing as her power washed down and over it. It would be many hours until finally the sun would peak up over the mountains, as the storm continued to rage on, driving a cold wind across the region.

But she was unmoved. The cold had never bothered her anyway.

Smirking, Elsa turned and strode back into her home, the great doors closing with an effortless slam behind her as she turned her back on the world.