Things really get rough when they are hired to undertake a dangerous mission in the skies of the Russian Empire.As the story unfolds, Hans' new life is further complicated by the romantic advances of the leader of the ship's gunner-marines, a ruthless and no-nonsense woman with a chip on her shoulder. Hans is taken prisoner and given the choice of joining the crew, or taking his chances with parachuting into the wilds of Europe.Thus begins the "diaries", detailing his travels - the reader is first treated to Hans' impressions of events and then gets to see what really happened.Hans and his new crewmates are hunted by the airship navies of Allied Europe, chased into hiding in Egypt, board merchant ships over Germany, and visit hidden black market trade centers.
His passenger airship is attacked by the legendary pirate ship the Bloody Rose. Large sections of "civilized Europe" cannot be traveled due to bandits, renegade armies, and rogue mad science experiments.Hans Sauder is the son of a German industrialist, on his way to University to study airship engineering. The Crimean War ended as a stalemate and Europe is divided along the Allied and Russian Imperial borders by the Scorchlands. As well, Hans is perpetually dogged by a deep conflict between his sense of morals and duty to his family, and the challenges and adventure of this new life he has discovered.The Sauder Diaries take place in an alternate-history Earth, in the year 1888. As the story unfolds, Hans new life is further complicated by the romantic advances of the leader of the ships gunner-marines, a ruthless and no-nonsense woman with a chip on her shoulder.
As he is given the kind of education no university could have prepared him for, Hans finds himself at the center of a paradoxical world, where the Captain conducts piracy with a gentlemans keen business sense, the most lethal crew members are the women, and the dark underbelly of a "peaceful" Europe is exposed at every turn. Confronted with a choice to either join the crew or be tossed overboard into the most volatile wilds of Europe, Hans reluctantly steps into the role of a pirate. While en route to University to study engineering, his airship is waylaid by the nefarious pirate ship The Bloody Rose. Living amidst this vivid, turbulent clockwork world is Hans Sauder, a gentlemans son and German expat. Airships and clockwork mechanisms are the technology of the future, mad scientists and engine-driven dragons run rampant, and Russia stands tall as the supermenace overshadowing the world.
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