Near his hometown of Bielefeld were the mountains known as the Alpernes, tall and rocky mountains with snowy mountain tops. During the winter months, the mountains were a perilous place, and during the summer, quite tolerable place to go trekking. Kovacs remembered seeing companies of young [i]Jägers[/i] marching through Bielefeld and going to the Alpernes for training, returning a few weeks later.

Kovacs had spent a few weeks with his [i]Vater[/i], and had learned the basics of camping, mountain climbing and trekking in his teenage. He had learned more during the military training, and he had learned one more thing in the Guard: waiting was and is a pain. Especially when there isn't much to do.

And then there were the Lancers. Fancy, arrogant, polished and they smelled like ripe cheese. Literally, as Kovacs had often seen them enjoying plates of some blue or white cheese. Kovacs had had some contact with them during the weeks of transport. He'd played cards with some of them, to pass the time, though the Lancers had the air of superiority on them. They thought the Uzanian regiment as complete [i]Dummkopfs[/i].

Some of the lower ranked Lancers were tolerable, though. Kovacs had met a young officer, who had risen from a merchant family, and even him was looked down upon by the "proper" Lancer officers raised from that and that aristocratic family. [i]If you have the talents and the guts[/i], Kovacs thought to himself, [i]one should rise above his station[/i].

Kovacs was reading in the barracks. He'd been issued a couple new manuals on explosives before they had started the voyage. He had also a couple pulpy adventure books from home with him. He liked to read in his spare time.