[ OT ] Sunday Free Write : Peanuts Edition

Captain Nathaniel Deshler flipped the small coin over in his hand, brushing a thumb across the worn image of a regal figure. He flipped it again to reveal a lion standing over an ornate crown between the number 1912. The small silver coin was over a thousand years old. 
 
 Deshler tucked it away in his belt, taking comfort in its presence. That coin had come from a kingdom long since absorbed into the greater Terran planetary government, but bits and pieces of it, like that same coin, survived. One of his ancestor, a young Lieutenant in the 59th Jump Infantry Division of the Star League Defense Force, had fought on Terra during the Star League Civil War. He bore that same coin in 2777, just as his ancestor did at the Battle of the Somme. 
 
 A knock came at his door, and he heard the familiar Russian-tinged accent of his XO. 
 
 `` Permission to come in, Captain?'' 
 
 `` It's open, Oleg,'' Deshler replied. 
 
 Lieutenant Oleg Federov looked more a schoolmaster than MechWarrior, with thin wire-frame glasses and a reedy build that even khaki coveralls could n't disguise. A former member of the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, the Tikonov-born pilot was an Electronic Warfare specialist at the helm of his RVN-3L Raven. A face that had saved Deshler's Light Lancers many a time. 
 
 `` Looking at that damn coin of yours again?'' he asked. Deshler frowned, leaning back in his rickety wooden chair. 
 
 `` How did you know?'' 
 
 Oleg smiled. `` You always get that glassy, far off look in your eyes when you admire that thing. You should've been a historian, Nate. It would've suited you.'' 
 
 Deshler scoffed, shuffling his papers to better tidy up his desk. `` Same way the RAF would've you; it would n't. What you got for me?'' 
 
 `` A couple of job offers,'' Oleg Federov said brandishing a pair of slim manila folders. He tossed them to Nathan. `` First one's from the Rim Commonality, specifically Nimakachi Fusion Products Limited. Apparently they're interested in a small mixed unit for an unspecified Extraction raid. Pays reasonable, benefits up to negotiation. Job's solid, Nate. 
 
 `` The second one's from Duke Ari Humphreys himself.'' 
 
 That made Deshler's brow rise. Duke Ari Humphreys, hereditary ruler of the Duchy of Andurien and one of the two remaining holdouts of the formerly dissolved Free Worlds League may have been a relative minnow in the large fishpond that was the Inner Sphere, but his marriage to Magistrix Ilsa Centrella of the Magistracy of Canopus and resulting status as brother-in-law to Chancellor Daoshen Liao of the Capellan Confederation made him a very big minnow indeed. Deshler templed his hands. 
 
 `` What's the job?'' 
 
 `` Unknown, but the offer comes with a letter written and sign by the Duke himself. The message also came with a statement. 
 
'He that planteth a tree is the servant of God, 
 He provideth a kindness for many generations, 
 And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.' 
 
 `` Whatever that means, sir.'' 
 
 `` It means, Oleg, that we're heading towards Andurien. Alert the men, and prepare passage on the next JumpShip off this rock.'' 
 
 `` Sir,'' Lt. Federov said, moving quickly out the door and towards his duties. Deshler felt his hand reach for the coin hidden in its pocket. 
 
 `` What do you have for me now, old man?''
