Contents
Chapter 43: Freedom
Overview
Niko leads a GSI ambush in Udain, disabling a suspected insurgent truck the Kekonese way. His Espenian teammates open fire, killing civilians, including a boy; a wounded girl dies despite Niko’s Channeling. Pressured to conceal the mistake, Niko capitulates, confronting the moral cost of his chosen freedom.
Summary
Niko lies in snowy concealment outside Hansill, Udain, reflecting on the anonymity and freedom he found with GSI compared to clan life in Janloon. With Teije Inno beside him and Espenian teammates Falston and Hicks across the road, he detects an approaching pickup believed to carry Deliverantist insurgents.
Rejecting a long-range engagement, Niko and Teije act as Green Bones: Niko rams the truck with Steel and Lightness, and Teije Deflects it into a snowbank. Falston and Hicks immediately unleash rifle fire, killing the driver and another man as a third armed passenger collapses outside.
Niko discovers children in the back seat: a boy already dead and a younger girl mortally wounded. Finding no weapons in the truck bed, he realizes the intel was wrong. He Channels desperately into the girl, but she dies. The scene reveals they have killed civilians, not hardened rebels.
Shocked, Niko confronts Falston and Hicks for firing without checking, invoking Kekonese discipline and aisho. The Espenians insist such tragedies happen in war and push to avoid reporting, citing contractor liability and “bad intel.” Teije suggests escalation, but Hicks, as team lead, refuses.
Weighing futile escalation against likely recrimination, Niko backs down, agreeing to the cover-up. As they withdraw to the rendezvous, he feels an oppressive, watching judgment—recognizing the moral consequence of his chosen independence and the distance from clan norms and accountability.
Who Appears
- Niko KaulGSI contractor; disables a target vehicle, attempts to save a wounded girl, and is forced into a cover-up.
- HicksEspenian team leader; orders and justifies suppressive fire and refuses to report civilian casualties.
- FalstonEspenian teammate; opens fire on the truck and argues collateral damage is inevitable in war.
- Teije InnoKekonese GSI recruit; helps stop the truck, is shaken, suggests reporting, then follows orders.
- Udaini girlMortally wounded child in the truck; dies despite Niko’s Channeling, catalyzing his moral crisis.
- Udaini driverCivilian man driving the pickup; killed by rifle fire when the team ambushes the vehicle.
- Udaini boyChild in the back seat; found dead after the gunfire, presumed the girl’s brother.