“Well, preparations for the celebration of Ragnarok's first year of independence are well underway.” The telephradio blared as Kyanite set down the filthy filter. “We've got a special guest on the show for today, Captain Rook Pearlfolk! Rook, you were involved in the early stages of the process of the creation of the Independent State of Ragnarok. Tell us, from your point of view, how that went.”

“Thanks for having me on the show, it's a pleasure to be here.”

“Pleasure to have you.”

“I'm sure I don't need to remind your listeners of how tense things were back then. We were on the brink of a Third Line War—and I've been around since before the Isolation, so I know what I'm talking about when I say we should all be glad Kharlyria and the rest of us pulled off what we did.”

“Hey OC-1, Rook's talking about us on the telephradio!” Kyanite told her business partner as he came in with the replacement filter.

“Oh? Is he saying good things about us this time?”

“I think so.”

“With all the bombs the Red Wolves kept setting off,” Rook was still talking, “I didn't think it was possible at first, but after it came out that the Red Wolves were being supported by Ragnarok Habitational Services, the Republic promptly denounced them openly as traitors to the cause of revolution and raided their headquarters in Utopia, which gathered more evidence against them and built up some goodwill across the Line that helped set the stage for the negotiations that followed. Of course, I wasn't involved in that—but I was involved in the flurry of court cases involving RHS and Dawnseeker Arsenal's involvement with the Red Wolves. High-level cases like this can drag on for years, but public outcry was so huge both companies had to shut down, or sell assets to local branches which went independent. A lot of people—including myself—were outraged when the directors walked. We couldn't prove they were directly involved with the Red Wolves, but I can't say I was sad when most of them met with... untimely ends. Lots of people were mad when those guys walked, but nobody ever found out who was responsible for the assassinations.”

“Hey, he's talking about us too!” came another voice from the other end of the mechanical room,

“Don't say that so loud, Ferrous! You want someone to overhear you?” Kyanite hissed;

“That's Comrade Ferrous to you, Comrade Kyanite. How would you like it if I stopped calling you comrade, and just called you by your name?”

“I'd like that a lot, actually.”

“Bah! Back in the glory days of the revolution, you'd have been strung up for saying something like that!”

As they talked, Kyanite took a fresh filter and put it in place of the old one. She winced as her right shoulder protested having to lift something above her head, but she couldn't complain. If the gun had been any closer when the bullets left the chamber, or if he'd been using a higher calibre weapon than an SMG, the last bullet would've gone through her brain rather than getting lodged in her forehead, Travertine had told her. Compared to that, a stiff shoulder was nothing.

* * *

Standing at the edge of the sidewalk next to the rails, Travertine gazed out at what had once been the Armistice Line. Before the formation of the Independent State of Ragnarok, it had been two solid walls of bunkers facing each other, barbed wire in front, guns trained on the opposite side, soldiers staring each other down. Guards at checkpoints did thorough checks of every person and thing that crossed the border. Behind the bunkers had been stacks of rubble, the detritus of the war no one had bothered to clean up.

“Back then, you were just a private detective.” The telephradio host went on, “How did you become a captain in the newly-founded municipal police force?”

“I used to be in law enforcement under the Colonial Council. I was looking to leave Ragnarok, but when Kharlyria offered me a job in the new police force, I couldn't say no.”

“The chance to be part of building something new?”

“Nah, I've just spent too many years of my life in Ragnarok to ever really go anywhere else.”

“That's it? That's why you accepted?”

“I'm an ornery old man, I'm entitled to my view of the world.” Rook and the host both laughed.

Travertine took another look over the old Armistice Line. Most of the bunkers had been torn down, though some remained as monuments to the bloodshed of the past. Rubble that had lain untouched for a decade had been largely cleared and new construction was going up every day. Kharlyria had an excellent understanding of how to attract investors. Not to mention Ragnarok's mere geographical location at the heart of the rail network made it prime real estate—when it wasn't teetering on the brink of armed conflict.

True, a lot of people were hesitant to accept an artificial intelligence as the prime minister. She'd barely gotten into the position in the referendum. People were warming up to her though, with the new-found prosperity she was bringing the station, along with the old devices and technologies she was starting to re-introduce.

Some people were sceptical about a single independent station being able to act as an effective buffer between the Republic and the Union. Relations remained cool between the two. Yet, ten years of armistice now finally leading to a lasting peace agreement had warmed the ice a little. People could do business across the Line through Ragnarok—and now that they didn't share a border, they would have a harder time finding an excuse to upset the new status quo.

For now, it seemed, that was the end of that.