Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Four (section)

===A Little Exploration===


As the Thunderhawk flew back to the Fang, Freya removed her helmet and tether and walked up to the cabin, poking her head into the cockpit.  “Pilot, what time will it be local when we arrive?” she asked.

“Around 1310 local, Princess Freya, but it will be dark as coal,” the pilot said.

“Oh?”

“Aye, Princess, it’s late autumn in this hemisphere.”  The pilot nudged a brass knob slightly as the wind picked up.  “Only the top four hundred decks of the Fang will have natural light.”

“Any idea how many of the Brothers will be in the Fang when we return?” she asked, arriving at the question she had wanted to keep off the vox.

“Two Great Companies’ strength at most, at this point,” the pilot said, muting his microphone.

“Of course, thanks.”  Freya closed the cockpit and thought over her newfound insights.  She slowly ran a soft leather gloved finger over her lip, considering.

“Freya?” she heard someone ask over the engine din.  Alex was looking at her questioningly.

She padded back to her seat and slid in.  “Sorry, wanted to ask the pilot something.”  She slid her arm around his waist and smiled.  “You guys mind taking the afternoon off?  The Great Companies go off to join the hunt.  It’ll be a wild rush in the Fang to get the Brothers mobilized.”

“Sure, we can just hang out for a while,” Alex said as the others shrugged or nodded.

The gunship slid into a cradle on a mid-level dock of the massive structure.  All around them, dozens of servitors and skjalds were hauling massive racks of autocannon rounds to pallets, to be lifted into gunships.  Freya led the group skillfully through the chaos, arriving at a tiny passenger lift at the back of the dock.  With a tap, the started ascending into the core of the colossal fortress.

Jake leaned back on the railing, massaging his aching ears.  “How come the Wolves…Rout decided to make a single gigantic HQ, Freya?”

“No idea.  It’s cool though, right?” Freya asked with a smirk.  “I’ve never asked.”

“I’d kinda like to know,” Jake said, rubbing his fingers over his ears.  Alex was looking uncomfortable too.

“I can just ask,” she said.  She cocked her head with some concern.  “Are you all right?”

“No, the pressure differential in here fucking hurts,” Alex said.  He planted his hand over his nose and relaxed the muscles at the back of his mouth, popping his ears.  “How in the hell do the skjalds deal with this kind of pressure shifts?” he asked.

Venus and Remilia, their biology accommodating them far better, looked at Freya askance as the perky redhead shrugged.  “No idea.  It’s probably just like working on a shuttle, though, right?  You just get used to it.”

Jake shook his head.  “The air pressure in the underhive is half again what is in the spires.  I’ve been to both and I’m still in pain,” he said, aping Alex’s gesture.

“Well…sorry,” Freya said.

“I’m not faulting anybody.  You live in a building this tall, you pay the price,” Alex said, sniffing deeply.

The lift halted on the deck with their suites, and to Freya’s immediate notice, they weren’t alone.  She detected at least four other people where there had been none before.  Curious, she glanced over the piles of luggage outside the apartment doors.  The containers were all mil-spec plastic, with Imperial Aquilae on them.  A few skjalds were carrying them into the apartments, apparently settling in some new tenants.

Venus pushed her own door open and stepped in, noting that her previous assessment had been accurate: the room had not been cleaned.  She shrugged, tossing her fleece jacket over a chair.  She leaned back out of the room and caught the eye of one of the skjalds.  “Excuse me, where’s the laundry on this floor?”

The serf blinked.  “I beg your pardon, milady?”

“Is there one?” she asked.

“Er, yes, milady, one floor below,” he said, somewhat surprised.  “But all you have to do is leave something in the hamper by the door and we’ll do it for you.”

“Ah, thanks,” she said, sliding the door shut.

Jake stretched out on his back, weaving his fingers together behind his head.  “Hell of a flight,” he said softly.

“Wasn’t it?” Venus asked.  She unclipped her thermo belt – the only part of the outfit she had worn – and dropped onto the bed next to him.  “That storm cell was something else.”

Jake glanced around the room before ruefully shaking his head.  “Oh, durr.”

“What?”

“I started looking for a holo,” he chuckled.

“Right.  None of that on Fenris.”  She slid up next to him and listened to his tension fade.  The sound of him equalizing to the lower pressure on this floor was unusual.  “You’re all right now?  No pressure aches?”

“A little, actually.  My legs are tired,” he said.  “Not used to changing pressures that fast in an unsealed lift.”  He stuck out a hand and she obligingly shifted into his arms.  She may not have been Freya, either in regards to the sensitivity of her senses or her need for familiar environments, but it was still a comforting gesture.  She relaxed into his grip as he rolled sideways to look at her.  “How about you?” he asked.

“I’m great.  Looking forward to tonight.”  She closed her eyes to protect his.  “Freya’s little story-teller circle should be fun.”

“I hope we’re not treading on people’s toes,” Jake said.

She shrugged awkwardly.  “I don’t think we are.  Certainly the two guys on the flight today were pretty polite.”

Jake conceded the point with a silent nod.  She rose from his arms and started pulling a nicer shirt on.  “If we’re going to be dining with the actual leadership of the lingering Rout, though, we should look the part.  The jacket shirt from the ball back home should be good for you,” she said.

“All right.”  Both teens fell silent as they dressed for the evening.

Freya, who didn’t feel the need to change, was waiting for the others outside the rooms when a few Imperial Army officers stepped from a lift at the end of the corridor.  They were arguing vociferously, with all the wild gestures and veiled threats of an old married couple.  Freya leaned back against the wall of the corridor to let them pass, and they walked straight by and into their rooms without even stopping to acknowledge her.  Then, perhaps they hadn’t recognized her.

Freya stared at their retreating backs with confusion, but shrugged it off after a moment.  It was only when a muffled yell came from one of the rooms that her attention returned.  Curious, she made her way over to the open door, to see an officer cradling a hand, glaring at a dropped battery.  “Bloody cheap power cells!” the officer growled.  He caught sight of Freya and glared.  “Something you need, ma’am?”

“Sorry, I heard a yelp and thought someone was hurt.”  She ducked back, settling back against the wall outside her own room and waiting.  Moments later, Alex emerged from the room, smartly dressed in a navy blue vest over a light blue formal shirt.  Remilia emerged from her own room with Jake and Venus arriving moments later.

“Everyone ready?  We have an hour before the dinner, we should explore a bit,” Freya said.

“Sure thing.  You’re keeping the cloak and cowl look?” Alex asked.

“You bet your ass,” Freya said.  “I’m the only Fenrisian here, I’m gonna look it.”