text: Captain Dieter took a long drag from his pipe whilst gazing upon the waters of the frigid Baltic Sea from the bridge. After the Armistice was signed and the Great War ended, the crew, once of the SMS *Swabia,* became pirates, changing the name of their ship to the SS *Fury of the Reich* and repainting the tricolor on their flag into a Jolly Roger. It had been two years since then and they had recently received a telegram from a supposed officer by the name of Alban Krebs, a major in the West Russian Volunteer Army and the commander of a battalion of 400 Freikorps militiamen that now sought to desert. When the ship docked at Ventspils, Dieter went out to meet Krebs and his men himself but found they were nowhere to be found. However, in the thick early morning fog, this made sense, as even with a kerosene lamp, he could hardly see ten meters in front of him. When, soon after, he heard the march of hundreds of men, due to this lack of visibility, he was only able to tell they were German as, in the same direction, he heard a similar number of men singing, "\[And when the day ended, we shook hands for the last time. She was laying on my, my arm, my heart was being so warmly, don't forget Maruschka, the Polish girl!\]" It was a folk song that, when he was on the ground, he had noted, the men often sang in place of the usual marching songs. After about a minute, the fog began to clear and the men came into view. Until regular officers, Krebs walked on foot ahead of the men, who were in remarkably good formation, for paramilitaries. "\[Not only are you late,\]" Dieter joked, "\[you were the ones who told us when you'd be here.\]" "\[Well,\]" Krebs replied, "\[plans change. Besides, it was only one minute.\]" "\[One minute for the Bolsheviks to arrive, execute me, and my crew to leave you here and sort out a new chain of command themselves. Now, come on, get on board. We best not waste anymore time. Besides, I need your men for something.\]" Krebs and his men marched aboard, most of the crew already there now having to share their quarters with the men, taking turns sleeping in the bunks and on the cold, metal iron floor in sleeping bags. He and Dieter looked over a map of the ocean to survey their next target and plan their next raid. Most of the time, this was done at night, when the rest of the crew was asleep and would not be bothering them. There was a war room, but they preferred to talk in the bridge as, if a British ship came along, Dieter could steer the ship away and hopefully remain unseen. On the first night, though, this did not occur. He let Krebs sleep in his quarters as, firstly, he was his guest, and secondly, he didn't sleep most nights anyway. "\[You're more important to this ship than I am,\]" Krebs had told him, "\[You should get some rest.\]" "\[It's fine,\]" he has replied, "\[I'll manage. After all, what else is caffeine for?\]" After that, Krebs accepted Dieter's offer and fell asleep in his bed. Captain Dieter took a long drag from his pipe whilst gazing upon the waters of the frigid Baltic Sea from the bridge.