“I’m not saying a damn thing to you damn ChingChongs!” *Sound of Spit being sucked in and then hitting the ground*
“What the…what did he just say? I’m gonna…” *Sound of swift movement, followed by heavy grunting and panting* “Let me go damn you! I’m gonna gift that bugger a new face before we turn him into a…“
“Enough! He will give us information first, if you “gift” him with a new face now, I doubt he’ll be able to do so any longer..” *sound of more strained grunting* “But Fu Bao, that idiot knows nothing anyways, we might as well get it over with now!“
“I said enough Sheng Jing! You will get your opportunity when it’s your time…but for now leave the room please.” *More sounds of strain, then a longer grunt, followed by footsteps slowly moving away, followed by a door sliding open and closed*
“Phew…..well, now that that’s taken care off….Mr…Mac Dougal…you claim you won’t tell us “a damn thing”….are you really sure about that? You DO understand that you are in the hands of the Yu Jing Imperial State Service right? Our reputation should preceed us even in areas as remote as Caledonia, we have made sure of that..“
“H…ha….ha…Imperial Sta…State Service…yeah right…who gives a crap about that? I have heard of you, but that’s all just ChingChong Propaganda! All Talk and no bite! And I know bite when I see it, I have fought alongside Cameronians! You don’t…scare me!“
“I see….well I’m sorry to hear that, I always prefer for things to go smoothly and without too much hassle…but if this is how you think, I guess we’ll go straight to business….please let me introduce you to your new best friend for the next few hours….Penyou…if you’d be so nice?” *sound of two people walking inside the room*
“Sure thing Fu Bao, you can leave this one to me….” *Sound of footsteps, slowly moving away, followed by a door sliding open and closed* “Sooo…hello there little fellow…I’m Tomo Penyou…you can call me Tomo if you want to….when you do howe...”
“Bwahahaha Tooooomo……Tooooomo….are you kidding me? What kind of stupid ChingChong Name is that? Aren’t you supposed to be intimidate..PFWUAH!“*sound of heavy impact followed by sound of two small objects bouncing off the floor*
“DID I ALLOW YOU TO SPEAK YET YOU FOUL PIECE OF CRAP? AND YOU EVEN DARE TO INTERRUPT ME!???” *Sound of more impacts, followed by sound of a few more small objects bouncing of the floor, as well as liquid dropping on the floor*
*Sound of coughing* “Ehem….where was I? Oh right…You can call me Tomo-chan, but when you do, I expect it to be in answer to my Question…anything else, and I’ll explain you how this works…AGAIN…..understood? Sooo…..why are you Caledonians here in the Neon Dragon….?“
“Pfwuck chou shlitpfle pitch!” *sound of more liquid dropping on the floor* “Chi wonkt te…” *sound of more heavy impacts*
With an amused smirk on my face I paused the Audio Recording of our Caledonian Prisoner’s Interrogation. Looking down at the written report that had accompanied the Audio file it seemed like the remaining 7 hours and 32 minutes of the Recording had yielded quite a bit of Information.
It seemed like the punky looking Pheasant Agent that I had met the other day had quite the talent for interrogations like this, and unlike the Spec Ops that I had also offered the job to, she was eager to have a talk with the Caledonian the moment she heard about the opportunity.
As I skimmed the report I had to shake my head in disbelieve. Apparently most of the Caledonian Operations in the area had been part of some oddball plan to secure a vast amount of Caledonian Whiskey that had recently been Confiscated by the local Magistrate of Trade. The Caledonians had apparently tried to ship it off to some sort of Caledonian Arsenal Ship near the Wotan Gate, most likely to raise troop morale or something. Problem was, the Atek Caledonians had forgotten to properly fill out the correct shipping documents, and clearing the “mistake” would have taken at least a few weeks of paperwork
Apparently a guy nicknamed “Mac Doc” had been very pissed about the delay though, and had ordered the local Caledonian group we had been dealing with recently to “Deal with it”. Why they choose to do so in such an odd way was beyond me, I’m sure it was supposed to somehow lead to them retrieving the Whiskey in the end, but apparently our interference with their plan had lead them astray quite a bit.
Anyways, flicking the report off my holo screen I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling of the command room for a few seconds. With the Caledonian Secret Base in the area flushed out and quite a few of their brutes taken care off, things would surely calm down in the next few weeks, and maybe I’d finally get some time to get used to this whole new situation.
Just as I was about to reminiscence about my time in The Neon Dragon so far, my wrist Holo Band suddenly started blinking blue. I couldn’t remember assigning blue as a colour for a caller yet, so it was with some confusion that I accepted the incoming call.
As I pressed the blue blinking light a holo image of a quite angry looking Yuki appeared in front of me, remnants of ruined trainings bots and scorched Tatami flooring in the background “Where the heck are you O-san??? I’ve been waiting for you for a whole day!!!“
Confused I bent a little forward to be closer to the Holo Image and replied “But…didn’t I tell you to return home after training a bit more??“
One of Yuki’s Eyebrows started twitching uncontrollably apparently in rage, a strange sight on an Automatas face for sure. “I did! But you didn’t give me access rights for the door you stupid old man! What was I to do? Blow the door open, compromising the safety of the one place I’m actually supposed to guard in your absence? So….I returned to that Dojo thing to kill some time until you’d return…but you didn’t! And now all the Trainings Dummies are broken and I have nothing more to do!“
Realizing what time it was, and that I had actually spent over 24 hours at the Neon-jo without going home, I just bowed in apology to Yuki’s Holo Image and quickly added, one hand held sideways in front of me “Gomen Gomen…I’m on my way now, wait for me outside of the apartment, I should be there in about 15 minutes…” and quickly pressed the button to end the conversation, before Yuki had time for another fit of rage.
Grabbing my Coat from the hanger next to the Command rooms door, I quickly dashed home, ending another day of work in The Neon Dragon….
In the weeks to come things did indeed calm down a little. Crimes remained on the level of drunken Nomads Crews or unsatisfied Haqqislam Traders unhappy with the services of their hired escort ladies, nothing that required any real operation. I finally got around to talking to some of my agents as well, which I shall elaborate on at some other time, and it turned out that I had inherited quite a good collection of subordinates indeed.
I even ended up establishing a sparring plan with the Crane Agent woman that had almost tried to kill me the other day, her name being Wei Rui by the way, and also found a solution for the problem of Yuki’s “free time”.
She obviously received the entrance code to my apartment so that she’d not end up trashing the Dojo again, and I allowed her to leave the apartment during my absence and explore the surrounding areas, claiming that “reconnaissance” and secretly establishing a psychological profile of the people around us would be an important part of her protection job….which apparently resulted in some local ghost stories about a freaky snow ghost woman wandering through the town in the middle of the night, asking people if they where evil, and apparently beating them to a pulp should they be foolish enough to answer “yes” or be rude to her…
So things seemed to be running quite well, and as I sat down on the bench opposite to the little bakery I had started to visit regularly once again one day, I actually started fearing that I had ended up in a boring position with nothing to do besides minor infractions and the odd crackdown on some drug smugglers…..not exactly the things I had had in mind when the Emperor sent me to The Neon Dragon to improve myself….maybe it had been punishment after all…I had heard that the Zhurong Powerplant on Flamia island had somehow, despite our efforts, ended up in Nomad hands, and that we had to pay extraordinary prices to keep operational control over it….
Just as I was about to ponder on that terrible possibility some more though, I could hear a familiar voice that I hadn’t heard for all those weeks from right behind me. “Gratulations General! You are a lucky man indeed!“
Confused I turned around to see the Dragon Lady Miyu Onigokko sitting on the bench on the opposite side of the tree, smirking at me with some hidden meaning that I couldn’t figure out at all “What do you mean? I didn’t…” PLINK came a sound from my holo wristband that indicated an important message of sorts and interrupted me.
Quickly I tapped the button and was stunned to see the message seal of the Jade Palace in the form of a coiling moving Jade Dragon pop up from my Holo Display. Knowing that I couldn’t open such an important message in public I shut down the holo display and rose my head up towards the Dragon Lady and uttered a stunned “What the..how did you?“…but she was no longer there.
The Neon Dragon Story Segment 1 END
the gentle winter 