Bonnie & Clyde

Chapter 1

Death Nail-Agent 453-21-768 _ played by Christoph Waltz (Colonel Hans Landa ** Inglorious Basterds)

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Agent 453-21-768 viewed himself one last time in the mirror. His dark, double breasted uniform shown well in the defused light of the officers cabin. The string of metals that adorned his chest glimmered and sparkled as they reflected their shine of gold and silver.

He put his cap on over a stock of thick, dark brown hair, graying at the sides a little, yet the officer cracked a smile at the thought of that touch of silver having the cadets and lower ranking personnel snap their salutes and hold their poses just a little more ridged as he walked by. He always got a giggle out of that, at least on the inside.

Commander Death Nail, always had the respect of every man and woman aboard ship. He couldn’t enter the ship’s galley without the entire room jumping to attention. Even with food in their mouths, not one of them dared chew until the commander was seated and began to dine on his own meal did the galley resume it’s normal activity of conversation an sounds of utensils hitting plates.

Commander Death Nail, an agent of Parliament, and an officer held in the highest regard had been ordered to the Alliance vessel “Sky Witch” for two reasons. The first was for discipline. Sky Witch, it seems had become less productive and more passive in it’s pursuit of keeping law & order in the 3rd quadrant of the Unification territories.

Admiral Sheer was being given his final chance at straitening up his crew, a crew that had come of age after the “Great War” so their discipline was nowhere near what a true soldier of the United Forces of the Allied Coalition should be. Agent Death Nails presents aboard vessel had not only had it’s crew garnish the respect for a war hero, his presents tunneled into the mind of their worst fears.

At only the expression of a glance, or the murmur of a spoken word, and any personnel, with or without rank would be removed from the ship. Their orders change so that the remainder of their military career may be concluded out in the furthest reaches of the Alliance Empire. That usually meant out on the edge on one of the rim worlds somewhere. Worse than that, maybe even near reaver territory.

Oh yes! It was known that reavers were real, at least they were rumored to be real. Just as in eons past when on “Earth that Was” there were rumors of a country having developed an atom bomb. A device so destructive it could lay waste to an entire city.

Anyway, Death Nail was there to restore order and regain discipline onboard ship.

He were, at that very moment on his way to a meeting were an officer had failed to perform his duty as seen by the higher authority. Lieutenant Vanguard, an office who’d been given the chore of guarding a trainload of medicine bound for Paradiso had let his guard down and the train had been robbed.

Although Vanguard had argued the point that his main mission was to bring his forces to a training exercise in the Gabriel mountains near Camp Powell. His second obligation had been to guard the badly needed supplies going to Paradiso. He had failed at one even before he’d gotten to the other.

Agent 453-21-768 entered the meeting compartment and all arose. They seated themselves as the commander took his chair.

“ Ok Lieutenant Vanguard, lets start with you. What went on during your mobilization on the train?” Death Nail began to question.

“ Well sir, as is known my force was there to head into the hills of the Gabriel Mountains to perform it’s bi-quarterly training of dealing with rebel guerrillas that still exist on many of the rim planets. We were in station car #23 when we heard an explosion coming from the rear of the train. I ordered my men back toward the explosion and there was gunfire. We went…….” The Lieutenant then continued to explain the circumstances and details of what he knew about the train heist.

He finally concluded that he handed the duty of crime investigation over to the local authority and that he and his men resumed their trip so that the regiment training could commence without further delay.

Satisfied with his explanation of the events and his final report on the incident, which was logged into TYE cortex security, the Lieutenant rested his case.

“ Well, Lieutenant, you seemed to have covered your bases rather well. “ Agent 453-21-768 spoke. “……It is my belief that you acted properly and conducted your military duty with the highest degree of respect and honor.”

Lieutenant Vanguard smiled at the agent’s words.

“ Still, it must be passed around the table for the judgment of all concerned whether you performed your duties properly.”

Agent Death Nail then went around the table polling each of the other five committee members to find out their thoughts and opinions of the ordeal. Each were in agreement with the what he‘d first stated.

“ Well, there you have it Lieutenant. Each of the judging officials agree that you acted proper in your handling of incident concerning the robbery of Paradiso .” Death Nail smiled while leaning forward.

“ Yet, it is not my judgment of your actions that I am ordered here to perform this inquiry. No, Lieutenant Vanguard, it is by the authority of a much higher level that I here represent. So, I must, in that regard find you incompetent of command and delinquent in your duty, and therefore request that you be demoted from your rank and given a new assignment yet to be approved.” Death Nail ended his decision.

Everyone around the table was in shock and disbelief, yet still, the committee members recovered enough so that they each agreed with his recommendation.

The trial haven taken the better part of agent 453-21-768’s day, he was a bit strained and needed somewhere to relax. He decided to explore the compartments of the ship’s library.

Each Alliance ship always contained a well provisioned library. An area stocked with shelves of written literature. Some people enjoyed the comforting relaxation of a good book at the end of a work day, other than going on the cortex and finding something of interest. This is what Death Nail enjoyed doing.

He entered the library and was greeted by the private on duty.

“ Good evening sir, may I help you?” She queried.

“ Yes, I am looking for a certain form of reading material.”

“ And what would that be sir?” The librarian asked.

“ Bonnie & Clyde. Do you have it?”

“ Yes we do……..Volumes!” She replied happily. She brought him to the nearest shelves containing the subject and pointed to the contents.

“ Several books as you can see.”

“ Yes, excellent!”

He pulled out a thick purple volume that had been shelved at about eye level.

“ Thank you private.” He said rather politely, and excused she moved back to her position at the counter.

Death Nail looked around. A pity, he seemed to be the only occupant of the library. Maybe he would do something about that later. Institute an order that all ship personnel must at lease twice a week visit the ships library and indulge in the pages of a book at that time. Yes, on the morrow he would do that. He would get with Admiral Sheer and have the order instituted.

For now though, he sat himself in a nice comfortable chair and opened the book to page one.

“ Lets see, “ he said lightly, “…….depending on their criminal activity I may have to open a new chapter on the two individuals that were involved in the heist of Paradiso.”

Unknown to the librarian. This purple encased volume of Bonnie & Clyde did not contain the exploits of the old “ Earth that Was” duo of crooks. What it did contain was a list of fugitives. A history of criminals still at large and on the run within the expanding territories of the Unified Alliance Planets. The thing about the lawless of this age and time was that they were categorized. Categorized within certain coded volumes consisting of the names of criminals and lawbreaker still out in the vastness of the black. Every military or peacekeeping force had these coded books within their realm. If someone knew where to look for them.

If the criminal element seemed to be run by a man and a woman, then their criminal activities were listed in the” Bonnie & Clyde” category, with a description of the male and female. This depended on the number of accounts witnessed by actual eyewitnesses or by recorded imagery feed. The description of the thieves from Paradiso was consistent with reports of other robberies.

“ It seems we may have a Bonnie and Clyde arising in this quadrant.” Agent 453-21-768 spoke to himself.

“Only time will tell.”

He pried further into the book, opening it to page 106.

“ Bonnie & Clyde” case 627.” Death Nail read.

“ Simon and River Tam, two fugitives on the run! Interesting.” He said. He read on about the brother and sister.

End Chap1