It Begins Again
11 Jul 2021User319792
"They're testing me." The man in the black suit looked at me and then back to Coral, who continued to stare off into space. "They were civilians.""What do you mean they're testing you?" He looked at me then back to Coral, who continued staring off into space. I'd returned to Achenar after completing the gig for our man in Tionisla and taken a couple of special operations missions. The first was a contract to take down 30 civilians working for the Cartel of Alacagui. Not a huge surprise, considering the degree of trouble the Cartel had been causing for the Achenar and everyone else. It was the second contract that made me uneasy.
"The contract I took out with the Achenar Empire League: the contract was for the killing of 17 civilians, at random, from Liabeze Patron's Principles." The man in the black suit looked back at me without any recognition of what I'd done. I looked over at Coral, who remained lost in her own world. The man in the black suit looked toward her and we both sat for a few seconds before she glanced over. Her eyes widened and she fumbled with her comms panel.
"Sorry. I'm still over here outside of Wregoe. The connection is still pretty bad out here." She looked away, briefly, before continuing. "What?" The man in the black suit looked back over to me.
"Who are the Liabeze Patron's Principles?" I continued to look in Coral's direction and she took my meaning.
"They're a small faction exclusive to Liabeze. They're currently in lockstep with the Liabeze Patron's Party, which has a relatively small presence in about 3 other systems. Both are currently vying for a secondary role in leadership in the system, which is being exploited by The Emperor and under contestation by The Celestial Light Brigade and the Facece Empire Party. The system is functionally under the control of the 51st Death Dealers, a faction loyal to the Empire that also happen to be exclusive to Liabeze but have a huge presence amongst the settlements in the system." The man in the black suit shut his eyes tightly before opening them wide and taking a sip from his cup.
"So... so what's all this then?" Coral looked at me briefly and I nodded at her before turning to the man in the black suit. I saw her fumbling with her comms panel out of the corner of my eyes as I began.
"I took the mission with Achenar Empire League to kill what turned out to be 17 civilians from a minor party in Liabeze, which is being co-controlled by the Facece Empire Party and the Celestial Light Brigade, who are pledged to The Empress. The Liabeze Patron's Principles and Liabeze Patron's Party are currently amid elections for control over Hah Analytics Site and the Nwadike Mining Platform." The man in the black suit looked at me.
"... and your concern is that the Achenar Empire League is using you to produce tensions during the election in order to foment possible military action between the two factions?" I looked away from the holo for a short moment before looking back at him.
"Well.. yes and no. It's not that surprising to me that the leading faction in Achenar would be fomenting war amongst smaller factions in Empire space. There's no reason The Emperor wouldn't be continuously chipping away at potential threats to her rule. I'm not really so much concerned as-" The man in the black suit cut me off.
"Your concern is that this is so close the Princess Aisling's territory, occurring within a system thats controlled by one of Princess Aisling's main bases of power and that, if a war breaks out, it might weigh down the Princess." I looked away from the man in the black suit before looking back at him, again.
"Well yes." The man in the black suit looked back at Coral, who looked over and froze, fumbling with her comms panel, before looking at me.
"You're biases are affecting your decision-making and your reasoning, Cadence. You need to stop relying on what you already believe about Aisling before making any decisions and agreements and coming to any conclusions." She looked back to the man in the black suit, who stared back at her in wide-eyed surprise, a confused smile on his face.
"What in... where did that come from, Coral?" Coral opened the invisible box on her desk.
"I missed the last part of what she was saying and its a solid go-to response for anything that ever comes out of her mouth." I looked at Coral and she looked back at me, widening her eyes. I squinted before looking away, wishing I'd grabbed my hookah pipe before logging into the holofac meeting. The man in the black suit was chuckling, waving Coral off. He sighed,
"Coral, this might be something we can look into. Try to take this stuff seriously." She opened her invisible box again. "Where are you now?" Coral looked over at me before mentioning she'd still been drifting outside of Wregoe.
"I'm here at Dawes Hub." The man in the black suit looked back at me, nodding in approval. Coral glanced over and choked down a laugh. "The spec-ops missions dropped my reputation amongst Imperials and, oddly enough, with Federation pilots, too."
"Yeah, people tend to frown upon terrorist attacks, Cadence." The man in the black suit shot a look over to Coral and bunched his fingers in her direction. I wasn't sure if she was referring to the Federation or the Empire. I squinted my eyes and stared Coral in the face.
"The mission was handed down by the controlling faction in Achenar, Coral. How could it be a terrorist attack if it was authorized by the leading political faction at a station orbiting Capitol?"