Elinor
Elinor had never been to the royal palace before. Although she had been to the world itself many times with her father. Her homeworld of Marhold was in the Kingsgate Sector but also the next major world to the south of Bastion along the Fabian Gateway Network.
Elinor had wondered why she was picked for such a duty. The Skreap had thousands of marines, and the Crown Prince had his own security detail. It took the wisdom of Vance Oakheart to ask her who her own father was. There were other nobles on the ‘Skreap’, although not as many of most Commonwealth Forces warships.
Elinor also knew that the meeting between the Crown Prince, and his father, King Oswald Gisking was likely to be a tense affair, and she was glad that she was not in the room, although she had thought it might be interesting to be a fly on the wall.
No one spoke of it, but the Crown Prince and King Oswald had not seen each other in person since before the ‘Ansgar’ incident. It had been hard to find details on what had happened on the ‘Ansgar’. People knew that something had something, it had been all the talk when Elinor was at the academy, but few knew what really happened.
Five hundred had survived the ‘Ansgar’ Incident. Five hundred out of five thousand. Some of the worse rumors spoke of the orders from King Oswald to have his own son and heir killed on the Ansgar. Elinor wondered how much was true. Her father never spoke of the incident as it was known in the Commonwealth Forces, although he had been the captain of that ship.
Elinor still didn’t know why she was there except the old private was right. There were more senior level nobles in the marine rank, but none of them were related to General Ulrik Grimmhart, not that she understood how that would help.
Oakheart had also said it might have been because she was good with computers. It was true, she was, but so were dozens if not hundreds of marines. She had combat training sure, but there were plenty better suited to the task as an honor guard. Again Oakheart had shrugged and just replied that perhaps he trusted her.
Elinor didn’t know how to take that. She served on the command deck most days, but she had hardly spoken several words to the Crown Prince on any given day. He knew her no better than she did him. There were dozens of members on the command deck, and all of them of higher rank than herself and the old private. Maybe that was why they had bonded.
Private Vance Oakheart was twice Elinor’s age, although looked much younger. He should have been a warrant officer, or even chief warrant officer, but remained a lonely private.
The Crown Prince exited the room with Sargent Drake, and Elinor followed the angry looking prince.