Seeing the Green Light, Part 1
28 Dec 2023Rick Weston
“Here again”, Rick mused silently, as he slowly sipped his whiskey in Mad J Wagyar’s bar, the one-stop-shop starport in Eulexia. After early retirement from the Federal Navy’s team of senior officers attached the Federal Diplomatic Corps, Rick gravitated to Eulexia, with it being within his “area of operation” (AO) when in service. Eulexia was often a bed of intrigue for Alliance and Federal intelligence and paramilitary operations, where Rick often found himself in casual conversation with “diplomats” from the Alliance Elite Diplomatic Corps. It was, after all, where the FDC’s AO overlapped with the AEDC.
Rick had been working freelance for just over 18 months, leveraging contacts made across the Bubble in his 21 years of service for the Federation. One of those “green” contacts was a “gentleman ex-pirate” by the name of Flint Macrae. Rick had met Flint on the other side of his final “security contractor” job for a beloved unit he’d had the pleasure and honour of working within and alongside, as an former Federal Navy intelligence officer. That unit was the Federal Marine Corp’s “Marine Forces Special Operations Command” (FMFSOC), based out of Eta Cassiopeiae, the HQ of the 87th Fleet. An old haunt, one he'd made a call to step away from, for reasons he wasn't keen on making public. He could end up in a Fed prison if he did.
Rick started his military career as an enlisted marine in the FMC’s orbital assault squadrons, flying “drop ships” chock-full of fed marines off FMC assault carriers. He also had a knack for ops planning and coordination, which saw him rise quickly, to the point of being offered selection to join the FMC’s special ops “aviation” squadrons. From there he got the “spec ops” bug, his rep coming to the awareness of the Federal Diplomatic Corp, and was offered a Fed Navy commission, which he took without much convincing. A significant portion of Rick’s 21 years in Federal service had been spent supporting FDC operations as a military attaché, often posted on the border with the Alliance, making frequent diplomatic runs to Alioth.
Rick’s last off-the-books job for the FDC (aka a front for the Federation’s intelligence community) had “gone rogue”, an operation involving ex-members of FMFSOC, 1 year to the day that saw a change in Rick’s perspective on the Federation’s direction, since Zachary Hudson came into office.
Today’s meeting with Flint wasn’t just a friendly chat over an single malt Rick had imported from his old family distillery in Scotland, Earth. Rick was considering switching his personal and professional allegiance, wholesale, to the Alliance, as a fresh member of AEDC’s team of “diplomats with teeth”.
Remain loyal to the Federation, despite all the personal insights Rick had gained over his career, or “go green”?
Decision day.