Insect Charter: Arrow's Divide Chapter 8 part 1

             

 

Part Two:

The Fallen Mask

-Chapter 8-              

“Dearest Jorge,

 

Upon reading this letter, you would have departed from my care. I cannot go with you beyond those hills. I am truly saddened to see my child leave. Once your Mother had fallen ill with the cough, all of us had to leave our home and travel away.

 

 My treasured child the sickness has only grown worse among our family. Even before our rapid departure you have known that the help fearing for their health left, the labors under contract fled into the hills. Jorge my child we have lost so many among our family. I fear that my debt will be my end. For it is why I have departed with Copper Maiden. Her confidant Miss. Hayloft shall be trailing along. See to it that she pays for your logging and allowance. When this is over we shall be reunited in happiness and song. 

 

Still a child in my eyes it pains me having to see you leave into the world this way.

Yet I have faith that brighter prospects of the east will yield better rewards for our family. Achieve great wisdom of profession and gain a modern education.

 

I only hope that my confidence in my nephew has not been tarnished. Make sure that he does not spend your entire allowance on drink or social pleasures. Which I hope he has not exposed you to. Though I very much doubt that, as he may be a stubborn jack. He is not thoughtless, even if his remarks say other wise. I wish we could spare more coin for you, but the past is nearing a climax. Worry not, for I have a torch to help guide us.

 

I pray that the long roads and strange lands have not deterred your pursuit of personal happiness. It has been a nearly one month since our departure from our home in Tuxpan and season since we left Niebla. Yet it has been merely a season that I have seen you grow.

 

Fear not of my safety for I have taken a far nobler road to travel. It is a road of slow pace and long turns, however it is a path that has an end. Along your own, you shall learn of experiences and see the world in a different light than of others.

Work Hard my child, and do not let the world wear down your young innocence.

 

Take care my only child, and may the land bring you happiness

-Your Father, Lawrence Gill Rubin” 

 

On the morning of dark blue skies and distant storms, Rubin departed his only child. Among the rising orange and pink clouds, Miss. Hayloft arrived to greet both Jorge and Peter. Upon their agreement, she was sent to watch Jorge as insurance so that Rubin stayed true to his word. He had allowed of the practice so that the company would pay for Jorge’s minimum of expenditures and ensure his safety during the length of the expedition. Rubin took comfort in leaving the child with his distant nephew for he was family, however anxiety lingered towards his employer Klara. Regardless how he felt towards Fire Ants and his past influence dwelled in the shadow and kept it so.

 

Siegert presented a tone silent of worry upon seeing Marion’s arrive. Once her eyes met his, he looked away, suggesting their encounter was more than she was let on. Though Rubin truly wondered what had transpired in Arbo, pressing events triggered his mind to places elsewhere. Upon departing from his child, Rubin restrained from kissing him, rater he provided him with a handshake and kindly words.

 

Rubin’s child traveled east, towards a rising sun and into a new world of the unknown. He himself traveled back into the lands of past measures. He along side unknown faces crossed the splintered lands of open mines and its rising dust clouds. Surrounded by camps and its bound workers. They trailed along Joranda Del Muerto and its endless old highway of the dead. When they entered the Crescent Republic they followed a land that curved along a great river called the Vanyume.

 

In the midday sun, distant mounds of the old and long forgotten Sisterhoods lay silent and empty. Adobe bricks scattered along the hills as homes filled with sand and dirt. In the skies above, mounted birds patrolled and examined the land below. Watching for any sign of squatters that had built homes upon the claimed and forbidden land that not even nature could live upon without the fear of a flogging. Even if war had not entered the Republics, there was a sense of fear that became a daily reality for many living in it. That an undocumented group of Ants would warrant the mounting of police and volunteer regiments, for alarm that revolt was assured.

 

While traveling Rubin purposely retained an isolated state the unsociable Wasp is typically known for. Forced conversation was far in between with silence in its place and thought was all that he became. Around he felt an ever-growing abhorrence from being around the younger enlisted members of the expedition. He found their blunt and garish talk about everyone but themselves of the barren as savages and half classed annoying. Others in the expedition did not retain the same mindset yet held a sense of nationalism and ideal not typical held by a commoner. Even the worn held their own grooming of thought while the young, held a sense of divide that even the old cowered in its frustration.

 

Such resentment and buried pain transcended as the sight of blacken clouds raised among the towns and farms being burned across the Vanyume. A shared horror worried the Republics as they too had once succumbed to such a practice by Alberni in its past conflicts, that the ever-growing sight of smoke fueled the passion to defend the homeland.  

 

Passing lines of dust-covered militia groups and foreign volunteers, several members of the Expedition held sense of respect towards the Commandos of the Republics. Who had made a name for themselves during the ‘Freedom Wars’ against Albernian annexation. The civilian militia wore plan clothes, carried long rifles and where decorated in bandoleers of brass and lead. Along the Vanyume they passed the Crescent State Artillery regiment in their sky blue uniforms positioned themselves behind newly imported guns from the east. Overhead Mounted Patrols lined the sky in sections seeking a hidden enemy.

 

Weeks of travel the expedition’s current placement had been a reflection of its long journey upon entering the Alberni Colonies. Traveling by air was sluggish and full of stops. Given the constant dust storms looming across the horizon everything was paused. That it diverted everyone’s flying path. The expedition passed the massive companies and their hauled goods, fleeing groups circling around the endless dead zones further crowding the air.

 

Below the trains carried troops and supplies inland from the Fire Bird Sea. Rallying with the Summers Police became delayed that such a conversion of the two parties was to now occur in Louisville about two hundred miles from Fort Pierre that it begged the question on why they had to link up with them in the first place. Regardless the expedition traveled on as planned. This diversion in travel mirrored the displaced population from the neighboring states. Thousands journeyed along the hot and winding roads of the West Barren. Under the molten sun, goods such as clothes, personal belongings, and nonessential items were tossed aside. Its sight brought back an eerie image of settlers traveling during Albenri’s expansion inland. Around the forts and towns, Foundation and Charity organizations built massive barracks to shelter those coming across the Vanyume. A strong suspicion loomed as many distrusted as its sight paralleled the Reconcentration Camps the methods used by Jalisco and Cinturón during its conflicts with insurrection groups operating within civilian populations. Causing many continued their long travels westward.   

 

As the days grew, Rubin naturally found himself disliking everyone with an unhindered passion that the faces all blended in with one another that no detail was individual but rather a self appointed smudge. A few deserved a glace to remember ones name however there elevated status into memory fell short of the others. Even fewer warranted thought.

 

Mrs. Sandra Lochner however was something greater than a face. Referred to as Copper Maiden on the road. At first glance her appearance would have been called pretty by a fool. While as Copper Maiden her attitude was silent and became all watching. In privet she possessed an avian attitude that was avidly shown, however while in public she seemed to handle any task coolly and with reserve and often her opinion seemed to change with whom ever she was conversing with. She reminded Rubin of his own days, and the conclusion that she holds an unclear danger and a third motive hidden behind a mask.  

 

Her role in the expedition was clear she had enough control to make moves and decisions yet nothing too drastic as she looked to be pulled along by contract. Strangely traveling with the expedition it became clear, if not obvious that the trip felt more like a public secret. Joshua Plate better known as Golden Eagle was the face of the expedition, while Mrs. Lochner was the true leader of the operation.

 

Regardless, Joshua Plate’s lengthy career in the king’s royal services that it was the prime reason for his role in the Expedition. He held a face that still carried enough respect and mild honor to allow the group to pass without suspicion. The story of the small expedition was that he was motived towards cause and gains typical of adventurers in the Barren. That he and several retired officers formally of the king’s Aero-Calvary decided arrange a small relief force of professional privateers and freebooters from the many bars and brothels throughout the West Barren. Once assembled the expedition was to partake in the quelling of an uprising in the Dome Fortress Mountains.

 

Rather having just any random freebooter join the expedition, they too where part of ‘Operation Tinbox’ and had been waiting to be picked up along the way to support Joshua’s military expedition story. With the arrival of freebooters and privateers strange looking folks such as vigilantes too where apart of the mix. While it was easy to assume they where the kind known for burning and flogging, these vigilantes held mysterious names and persona’s titles that it became a show to see, and then forget about it. They where similar to the flashy mineral buyers and speculators, whose clothes and polished irons held a sense of spectacle over practical. Yet as cynical as Rubin could be towards the masked folks, he once sported a finely tailored suit, cape and ridiculous name. Both he and Mrs. Lochner retained a story that they where apart of the vigilante group traveling along with the expedition. With the amount of current conflicts in the region the sight a masked entourage was more common then one would think.

 

The Expedition’s size would either be considered small or large considering the mission. Golden Eagle was the only Assault Fortress in the expedition. They had six Flying Fortresses along with eight Gun Fortresses as support, each holding a crew of several dozen. Then a sizable group of porters carried all of the provisions. In total the expedition looked to appear as another adventurer group wondering the Barren.

Still the cover was to be maintained until they reach a point where they would depart and travel their own way and none would be the wiser.

 

During the trip Rubin noticed Mrs. Lochner messing around with several machines that would have gained wonder if reality proved how worthless they turned out to be. In concept the wireless telegraphy machines sent messages to several selected Pattern offices that possessed similar radio equipment that would then transmit their progress to a group called ‘Smokebox’ code name for the organization that had sponsored the expedition. However the mountains and cumbersome nature of the machines proved to be nothing more than expansive weights. That basic forms of communication where put in place such as coded telegraphs and messengers to name a few. 

 

When they stopped for rest typically when they needed to pay off a local official or Joshua engage in a long chat with military officials in the string of forts and towns along the Vanyume. Interesting enough during these stops, Mrs. Lochner was always seen smoking, no matter what time or moment of the day. She carried a large box that if might have been confused as a big lunch pale but was a box of pre rolled cigarettes that she was seen reaching into very often. Rubin suspected that while she slept would have like to have imaged she cradled the box. However humorous the situation was, he felt isolated from the world that his drifted along. Rubin longed for the comfort of his wife and child. Gone were the kisses, he gave out of long buried passion. As Rebecca held her comfort that filled his needs, so too was Jorge.

 

 The current conflict in Jalisco, while mostly contained within its boarders added by local affairs in neighboring states carried a sense of worry among the other powers. Spring fighting transpired from separatist, occupation, claim to right, and interest.

Partisan to Freebooter, from party to nation all motives and rights filled the air. Yet to Rubin, all frightened him as he was not immune from its call, as he once carried the flags of past relevance.

 

It would be this time along the roads that gave him reflection. As there was nothing else to think upon. Rubin remembered his beginning, as it was a time that would’ve only allude to senseless violence with context from his current thoughts to justify that time. It would be fair to think about at his revelation, as it would suggest that he would want to start were he found peace. Perhaps looking further away from that time ago would give better understanding, again perhaps not. Instead his deepest thought came to the middle of his life, on the day of silent springs.