Behind the building was a wooden shed. Parked beside the shed was a truck. Two legs stuck out from underneath it.

"Hey, Robert! Get your lazy ass out here!" The soldier escorting Darryl shouted.

"Yes, sir." A voice replied immediately.

Robert scrambled out from underneath the truck. He wore a simple cotton shirt and overalls. His face, arms, and clothes were all smeared with dirt and grease. The man's hair was mostly gray with some black peppered in. The deep wrinkles and spots on his face spoke of a long and hard life. On his cheek was the triangular brand that marked him as a Tech. There was a look of obvious surprise when he spotted Darryl.

"You got a new playmate, show him what to do and keep him out of trouble or it's a beating."

"Yes, sir."

The soldier was already heading back to the barracks without bothering to acknowledge him. Darryl stood there and gave an uncertain wave.

"Hey, I'm Darryl."

"Robert." The older Tech walked up to him and offered his hand. Darryl was happy to accept it and shake. "So what did you do to get sent here?"

"Huh?"

"The camps never get more than one Tech, and this place is the ass end of nowhere. You must have done something to get shipped up here. Did you fuck up a mecha? Stare a little too long at somebody's girl? Get caught talking about someone you shouldn't have?"

"Oh, nothing like that. I was wandering and saw this place. I figured I'd come in and work for food."

"Wait. You saying you didn't get sent here by the D.O.T.?"

"What's the D.O.T.?"

"Department of Technology, they assign and train all the Techs. If you've never heard of them you really must be an outsider." Robert shook his head in wonder. "So you were actually free and you walked in here totally on your own? You're a real idiot, huh?"

Darryl grinned and nodded. He could understand why the other man would feel that way. Every Tech dreamed of being free. "Freedom's not so great when you're hungry."

"Hmmm, I guess that's true. Though I'd have to get awfully hungry to see this place as a good option. Well, at least so far as that goes this place isn't too bad. They feed us the same as the soldiers, and we can eat as much as we want. Hope you like potatoes."

"Sounds good to me."

"I guess you'll be bunking in the shed with me. I'll get some straw and blankets for you later."

Darryl shrugged. "I've had worse."

"Yeah, haven't we all?"

Even though the two of them had never met all Techs shared certain experiences, and could understand each other in some ways. No matter where you went all Techs were a separate class. Always hated and despised by everyone else.

"So what's the story here?" Darryl asked. "I mean it's obviously some kind of prison."

"They call it a reeducation camp, but yeah, it's a prison. The W.A. ships people here to work the mine. Some of the prisoners even get to leave eventually, if they don't starve, or freeze, or die of sickness, or just drop dead from overwork. Compared to them we actually get treated pretty good. We just get beat from time to time."

"Fuck. What'd they do?"

"Eh, a few of them are criminals, thieves, muggers, that kind of thing. Most are undesirables."

Darryl gave him a blank stare. "Undesirables? And what's W.A.?"

Robert rolled his eyes. "You really are a virgin, huh? Okay, help me work on this truck's axle and I'll fill you in. People get upset if they see a Tech just standing around doing nothing. You have worked on a truck before, right?"

"Trucks, planes, Fox class mecha, I've worked on all of them."

"Okay then."

Underneath the truck they worked and talked.

"First off, the W.A. stands for the Western Alliance. That's the country that owns this place."

"What? The Western Alliance was destroyed in the Last War. Are you telling me some part of them survived?"

Robert snorted a laugh. "Fuck no. The assholes in charge just call themselves that, it makes their dicks hard. The flag out in front? It's the same as what the real W.A. used, they like to pretend they're the alliance brought back to life. Really though, it's just the city of Hannover and all the places they've conquered."

"Oh, I've heard of Hannover! They're the most powerful state in this whole region. Back in Turnersport there was a law, no one was allowed within two hundred miles of their territory. Not even to try and trade."

"Whoever was in charge was smart then. You want to try and stay as far away as you can. They'll trade with you, oh yeah, just long enough to know how many people you've got and where they are. Then the day comes where they tell you that you belong to them and you have to surrender. If you're stupid enough to try and say no, in go the hummingbirds and the eagles and the wolves and the bears. And you'll still belong to them, just a lot of your people will be dead."

"Huh, I'm glad we stayed away then."

"Yeah, but they'll come for you eventually. Hand me a wrench."

Darryl did so. "So who are the undesirables?"

"Whoever the Leader says. Some of them were guilty of disloyalty to the state, some were prisoners of war, and some were just unlucky. All the camps are around mines, and they need a set number of people to work them. However many people they need they'll find. Undesirables don't get paid any more than we do, and if some die no one cares. They'll just ship more up here. In a way it's kind of nice, seeing people who get it even worse than a Tech. I may get beat, but if I die who fixes the trucks or the presses?"

"Yeah, it's good to be useful." Darryl said with scorn.

"It is. Anybody can swing a pickaxe. Only a Tech can keep all their equipment running. They need us and they know it. Probably why they hate us so much."

"They stole me when I was a baby. Forced me to learn numbers, reading and writing, and how to make and fix. And then they made me work like a dog every day. If they didn't need Techs I'd have grown up with my family, had a woman, and maybe had a good life."

"And maybe it'd rain milk and candy, too. It's life, what are you going to do?"

If you were a Tech you knew all about accepting things and understood life was anything but fair. Even with Lord Mortem's sudden arrival that was still true. Darryl had been ordered to join the expedition with Cocytus.

"We'll go inside the camp from time to time, to work on the forge or the presses. Whenever we do a couple guards will come with us. Don't talk to any of them, and don't feel sorry for them. You can't do anything to help and you'll just earn a beating if they catch you. The women will do just about anything to try and get your help, and it's easy to feel bad for the kids in there."

"There are children?!"

"Yeah, about a dozen or so."

"Why?" Darryl asked. "What could kids do to deserve this?"

"The Leader believes in shared responsibility. If you're an enemy of the state your whole family gets sent here too."

"They can't do that! You can't send children to a place like this because of something their father or mother did."

"The Leader," Robert grunted as he loosened a bolt. "Can do anything he wants."

Darryl thought about Bloody Billy and about Greg Horrace who came before him. He also thought about Lord Mortem. "Yeah, I guess that's so. But it shouldn't be that way."

"Listen, Darryl, you can say that to me, and I won't tell you you're wrong. But don't ever say anything like that around anyone else. 'The state is never wrong.' Even when it is. Just saying something like that can get a regular person marked as an undesirable. They won't put you in the camp, but you'll get punched and kicked. Be glad no one cares what Techs think."

"Yeah, lucky me."

XXX

She aimed down the sight and gently squeezed the trigger. A beam of white light fired silently out of the secondary muzzle. There was no recoil against her shoulder. The beam hit the target down range dead center.

"Uwaah," Shizu said in a monotone.

"Amazing! You got the bullseye again. If you were a soldier you'd qualify as a marksman. Where did you learn to shoot?"

"It is a gift given to me by my creator." She brought the rifle down. Unlike her own weapon this one had a green bar showing its charge. Before firing it had been completely green, now a small section at the top was dark. "So I could fire the laser five more times?"

"That's right, after that you would need to plug it back in to recharge. It takes about four hours to fully recharge."

Shizu nodded. "This is a truly amazing weapon. The SR-4 Pulse Rifle, a dual use infantry weapon capable of fully automatic or semi-automatic fire of 6.46 millimeter rounds from a thirty round magazine or six concentrated laser discharges which can penetrate up to one inch of tempered steel." She looked at the weapon for a moment. "I may have just orgasmed."

"Uh… well, I admit I was kind of hoping to hear that, but not quite like this."

Captain Jeremy Conners was a member of the Second Wolf Mecha Regiment. Shizu had met him at the Defense Minister's party. He'd liked the leather eye patch that covered her left eye and the camouflage fabrics that were a part of her maid uniform. He had visited the maid café regularly and tried to get her to go out with him. Shizu had only finally agreed to a date when he promised to get her a pass to an army firing range. He had found the idea of such a pretty girl wanting to fire a weapon to be amusing. The captain had most definitely not expected her to handle the pulse rifle with such ease, or to be such a lethal shot. It was another reminder that she was a foreigner and that he didn't know much about her.

Captain Conners looked up and down the firing line. There were only four others present. He'd been careful to come here on a day when no units were scheduled for training. The other soldiers present were all part of the Light Infantry and getting some practice in on their free time. The men were all conscripts who weren't going to say anything to an officer. But it made Conners a little nervous all the same. He'd gotten a pass for Shizu so that she could enter the base, but according to regulations only active duty personnel were allowed onto the firing range. And letting a civilian actually use a weapon was very much against the rules. Being an officer and a mecha pilot he was given a certain amount of leeway, but it was never smart to be too brazen. The nail that stuck out had to be hammered down.

"So how about we get some lunch?"

Shizu ran a hand along the entire rifle. "Is there any way I could have one of these? I can pay whatever price it costs."

He gave a startled laugh. "You really have some strange ideas, don't you? Only soldiers can have firearms, they're forbidden for civilians."

She gave the weapon a look of pure longing. "What if I enlist?"

That made him smile. "You are too cute. A woman in the army! Women aren't made for fighting, they're for gentler things."

She gave him a look with her one good eye that could best be described as piercing. "That is an incorrect statement. Are you saying there are no women in the military?"

"Well… there are nurses with the medical services and comfort women. But no soldiers."

"I am familiar with the occupation of nurse, could you define what comfort women are?"

Jeremy could feel his cheeks blushing. "Ah, well, they help soldiers who are stationed a long way from home with their, ah… needs."

"What needs?"

"The, ah, needs every man has that only a woman can help him with."

Shizu stared at him for a moment. "Are you referring to sexual activities? Prostitution?"

"Well… yeah."

"So the only uses the military has for women are as nurses or prostitutes."

"We prefer to call them comfort women," he mumbled. She spoke in the exact same tone she used all the time and did not look even slightly embarrassed. "So how about we get going?" He held his hand out.

A slight expression of regret crossed her features. She was definitely not one for showing excitement or strong feelings, but he found that adorable. Shizu cleared the chamber, ejected the magazine and handed the pulse rifle back to him. They headed to the rear to the arms master.

"Will I get to ride in your mecha after lunch?"

Captain Conners stumbled and burst out laughing, he actually bent over he laughed so hard. Shizu halted and observed this in silence.

"Why are you laughing?"

Conners looked over at her and the laughter began to leave him. "Oh shit, you're serious aren't you?"

"Of course. You stated I could see your mecha."

"Sure, we can go by the mecha park and you can see it. But there's no way I could let you pilot it. That's just crazy."

"Because I am female?"

"Because you're not a pilot."

"If you instruct me I am certain I will prove competent in operating the vehicle."

"I'm sorry, but there is just no way. It's impossible."

Shizu considered him for a moment and he was worried she would demand he return her to the café. Then, without warning, she stepped up to him, grabbed him by the back of his head, and forced his mouth down onto hers. He was shocked by the sudden feel of her soft warm lips and the sensation of her tongue as it slipped into his mouth. She tasted sweet as strawberries and he felt more excitement than he had since being on the battlefield.

Then, as sudden as it had happened, it ended.

"Did you like that?" She asked him.

He had momentarily lost his voice and could only nod his head.

She leaned in and whispered in his ear. "If you let me pilot your mecha I will let you do anything you wish to my body."

He gulped and managed to speak with a squeak. "I'll see what I can do."

XXX

Late that night, Darryl sneaked out of the shed where he had been sleeping. He crouched down in the darkness and took out the pocket mirror he'd been given.

"I have a report," he whispered.

The mirror's surface glittered, and a skinless face appeared. "What can you tell us Darryl?"