Vindicta Conclusion
06 Apr 2021RedivivusCrowd
"Your order sir." Gustavo Tran looked up at the young waiter who had brought his order, a simple black coffee, no sugar, no milk. Others had told him his taste in coffee reflected his personality, bitter and lacking in expression. Gustavo smiled as he considered where many of those people had ultimately ended up. At the business end of a Legionnaire's gun. The cafe in question was located in the city centre of Qus, the capital city of the Alliance system Osira. Gustavo was a shorter man with bright blonde hair, today he had exchanged business attire for a casual outfit of shorts and an obnoxiously coloured and patterned shirt, typical of many of the tourists both within the cafe and out in the street.Gustavo had been informed that the city was named after an ancient city from Old Earth, in the land where the Osirans supposedly hailed from. Gustavo nodded and smiled as the cab driver had regaled him with tales of the original Osirans'
exodus from Earth in search of a new home in the wake of World War 3 as he was driven to his current destination. Interesting but irrelevant. Outside the Cafe was a city street where food stalls could be seen vying for the attention of the tourists walking along, many of said tourists being led along by a guide, many of whom Gustavo noted to bear a tattoo of a crescent moon surrounded by a enclosed circle.
Gustavo made it a point to try to become familiar with the customs and traditions of the various peoples and worlds where SAP CORP conducted their business, from what he understood most of the population of Osira lived in cities like Qus, climate controlled arcologies designed to spare the residents from the worst of Osira's at times extreme heat. Many of the people in this city simply wouldn't be able to survive in the deserts outside the city limits. Myself included. Gustavo looked up as a figure standing above him suddenly cast a shadow on his table.
A pair of calculating grey eyes gazed down at him from a weathered and sun beaten face. A face which bore a scar stretching from the temple down to the jaw on the right side. The feature that drew Gustavo's eye at the moment was the tattoo on the man's neck, a hollow triangle which contained another inverted solid triangle within it, located directly on the Osiran' throat. Gustavo had seen a few people, all of them native Osirans with these tattoos, in one location or another but currently he was ignorant to their meaning.
Curious. Gustavo took this detail in as Daminjo took his seat across from him, maintaining unblinking eye contact. Gustavo felt a chill that had nothing to do with the city's climate controlled air. Bet that's the same face he had when he gunned down those prisoners. Gustavo felt a small hint of satisfaction, as he recalled the mission he had dispatched the Legionnaire on a week ago. I gave you the choice and you chose to kill them all. Gustavo raised a hand in greeting before speaking. That's why I sent you Jabari.
"Congratulations on your mission, I've read the report but there were some things I wanted to go over with you." Daminjo gritted his teeth, "I believe I was thorough enough in my report Mr Tran." Gustavo waved a dismissive hand as he continued, "Yes quite but there were some matters that I was hoping you could clarify for me. In your report you stated that your teammate..." the man paused as he pulled out a datapad and checked something "Boris Kamarov displayed sufficient deduction and observation on approach to the target." Gustavo suppressed a smile.
Sufficient? High praise from you Jabari. "Well, you might be pleased to hear that his time as a reserve will be ending shortly, he's being inducted as a Legionnaire." Daminjo shrugged and brushed something off his leg, "Good for him, don't see what that has to do with me." Gustavo swiped on his dataslate as he spoke, "I'll come back to that, the interior of the warehouse, what was it filled with?" Daminjo breathed out through his nose, "Explosives. Mines, seismic charges, rockets, etc."
Gustavo arched an eyebrow, "That doesn't match the manifests of the ships that group hit, which means..." Daminjo finished his sentence, "that they threw away all of the cargo they looted from those freighters." The Osiran scowled at that but otherwise remained silent. "They wanted to lead the authorities to believe they were pirates." Gustavo consulted his dataslate before flipping it around and pushing it towards Daminjo who took a look at the screen's contents. "An advertisement."
Gustavo nodded, "Star Snakes." Daminjo rolled his eyes at the name as Gustavo continued. "They are... 'were' a small time merc outfit operating out of Madanyama, a system controlled by some Fed Merc Company." Daminjo activated his own data slate and searched up the system in question, his jaw clenching as he made a realisation. "That's Kumo Crew space." Gustavo nodded, studying Daminjo as he spoke, "As far as we can tell, Star Snakes was made up of all the fuck ups and rejects that this other merc group wouldn't take, standards and all that."
Daminjo frowned, "You emphasised 'were', I take it business isn't too good lately?" Business isn't good? More like you killed half of their contractors. Gustavo kept that to himself as he replied, "It would seem so, our agent on their station has informed us they've packed up their stuff and and scattered." Daminjo scowled as he took this in. "We have any leads on any of them?" Gustavo smiled, That wasn't hard, you wanted to go Jabari. You just needed an excuse.
"As a matter of fact I do, on their leader no less." Gustavo zoomed in on a particular system and station before passing the tablet over to Daminjo who looked at it before sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose."This place again? Why do people keep flocking to this place?" Gustavo shrugged, "I hear the station has some of the best databases and archives in the Bubble. You want to search for something?" Gustavo tapped the dataslate with his finger. "That's where to go."
Daminjo nodded and stood up to leave, "I'll put a team together then." Gustavo held up a hand, "No, if you take a whole load of Osirans you're going to stand out like a sore thumb. You need a mix, your team has already been decided." Daminjo gritted his teeth, not sitting down. "You're a desk jockey, you've got no business putting teams together..." Gustavo interrupted him, an open smile on his face now. "Hurtful comments aside, I'm not the one putting it together." Gustavo pointed a finger above them, to a point beyond either of their knowing. "One of the FM's has taken a personal interest in this matter, they made the call, also..." Gustavo's smile dropped and his voice became cold as ice as he finished. "...you can think of this as punishment."
Remember your place Legionnaire.
Daminjo calmy sat back down as he regarded Gustavo. He was silent for a few moments before he responded, "I don't know what y..." Tran interrupted him, "That prisoner you were interrogating... what did she say?" Tran's eyes were locked onto Daminjo's, unblinking and devoid of friendliness now. Daminjo held his gaze, his palms sweaty now, even in the cool cafe. "Like I illustrated in my report she didn't know anything worth mentioning and was summarily disposed of."
Gustavo stared at Daminjo for what felt like a long time before he smiled and leaned back in his seat. "Jabari..." Daminjo's eyes narrowed, "... I've known you to be a hunter, a warrior." Gustavo's went flat again as he finished.
"But I've never know you to be a liar."
Alright, enough bullying. He got the message.
Gustavo then waved his hand dismissively and continued on as if nothing untoward had happened. "Anyway, enough about that you'll be pleased to hear that you are being allowed to take one of your fellow Osirans with you. In addition the rest of your team will be people you are already familiar with. Legionnaires Colt and Kamarov have been assigned to accompany you for this mission. We don't want a fanfare so no Alliance ships that Cobra from you last op..." Gustavo's voice trailed before his face lit up in recollection, "... Vindicta. That'll do."
Kamarov needs more experience as part of a team and Colt can keep tabs on him.
"Your orders are to locate Wilson Gibson on Citi Gateway in the INARA system and bring him back to Thurston Dock. Alive." Gustavo gave Daminjo an appraising look, "Is that clear?" Daminjo scowled but otherwise didn't make any objections, "Crystal Mr Tran." Gustavo nodded and took a sip from his coffee, focusing his attention on his dataslate now.
"Good, then get out of my sight." Gustavo felt the man on the other side of the table bristle and the former had to make an effort not to break his composure and look up at him. He's probably thinking about smashing my face in right about now. A moment passed before Daminjo wordlessly stood up from his seat and walked out of the cafe, the people in his path endeavouring not to make eye contact or get his way.
Gustavo took a deep breath before taking the opportunity to relax, calling the waiter from before over with a well practiced smile and ordering another coffee as he tried to work out what could have led a loyal Legionnaire like Daminjo to attempt to lie to his superiors.
*End*
For now.