//The following thread is a joint writing project between myself and Outrunner.
It involves the Bretonian firm Black Gate Services and their dealings with Freelancers Ozei Ruousha and Alexander Soroy.
FILE: BG-PA-RD-N-05281
800-200-000-01-19
01SUN4
As soon as the elevator doors closed, the feeble whisper of smooth jazz reached Alexander Soroy’s ear from the speaker in the ceiling. The elevator’s weight shifted, and the sensation of increased gravity momentarily hit his legs as the mechanized room began its ascent to the tower peak. Soroy gave the men next to him a quick glance before going back to his own thoughts.
The two men in question were a nameless, black haired, shades-at-night security guard with his hands casually in his pockets, and Ozei Ruousha, standing beyond the suave goon and near the opposite end of the elevator. Ozei returned Alex’s momentary glance, but they both kept their silence.
With an arm crossed over his chest, and the opposite arm coming up to rest his knuckles upon the area below his lip, Ozei contemplated the reason for Black Gate calling them to meet up this evening. The black, mildly spiky haired Kusarian had a hunch, but he kept it to himself for the time being and decided that both he and Alexander would find out soon enough.
The sensation of floating overcame Soroy as the elevator reached it’s destination, and on queue with the sudden stop, the ding of a tinny bell filled the room. Mr. Shades stepped towards the door expectantly and, before it was even open all the way, he was in the grandeur of the luxurious conference room that now stood before them. Placing a foot through the elevator door, Ozei eyed the area, suppressing the urge to let loose an impressed whistle. Soroy followed suit, sticking his hands in his pockets as he looked about the room.
To his immediate left, a great vista of windows blurred by the constant New London rain, served as an overwatch of the gloomy city below. At each corner of the room in pots equally as gloomy grew well kept Snake plants. Mother-in-Law’s tongue, thought Soroy, how fitting for such a secretive organization. Opposite the great wall of glass was yet another great wall of glass, consisting entirely of large mirrors broken only by small black columns roughly every meter or so. After his initial scan of the room, Soroy pointed his eyes forward.
A gray tuxedo with it’s hands folded politely behind it’s back stood at the end of the conference table spanning the length of the room. Wearing this tuxedo was a man wearing also a cold and gentle smile, his eyes slightly droopy, giving the impression that perhaps he was not expressing his true feelings at the moment. He opened his arms with practiced machine-like precision, an attempted welcoming gesture, and pulled out the first two seats nearest him. Soroy threw Ozei another glance, who received an arched brow in return, and the pair make their way down opposite sides of the table.
“Misters Ruousha; Soroy, we appreciate that you could find the time to join us this evening. Please, sit, there are important things to discuss, and we have very little time to do so.”
Ozei offered a small grin and deep nod of the head toward the tuxedoed representative.“It is our pleasure,”Ozei spoke.“We were happy to oblige to this little meeting of yours.”Though he was still uncertain of why it was necessary for this convergence of minds, Ozei was nonetheless eager to get this over with. He was a mechanic and fighter pilot, not a business man.
“Then lets skip the pleasantries. I haven’t seen BGS encoding like that since I was working with Willow.”
Soroy gazed at the man expectantly as he pulled his chair out and sat, not bothering to scoot back in to the table as he draped his arm lazily over the back and brought his ankle up to rest over his knee. Ozei lofted both brows a little at the mention of Willow, slid his chair out to lower himself into it, and nudged it forward to lay his forearms across the table, his fingers interlaced as he leaned slightly forward.
The husk of a man who had welcomed them all but vanished with his smile as he promptly took his seat, folding his hands ever so slowly on the edge of the table as he began to speak.
“As I understand it, Mister Ruousha came into contact unexpectedly with one of our trading vessels earlier today. A distress call that was sent through military channels reported a pirate in Frankfurt using an unknown vessel to hold up the lane between planets Heidelberg and Holstein. No doubt this prompted action from a certain individual.”
The man’s head turned towards Ozei like it was rotating on a flat piece of metal. The motion was almost like a security camera sweeping across it’s programmed scanning arc.
Ozei did his best to hide his steadily increasing repulsion, and voiced his reply.“Hai, you would be correct. I was in Rheinland doing a bit of exploring when I picked up the Garrison’s distress signal. Given that it was on a military band frequency, I figured that it was quite urgent, and swiftly made my way to the scene. When I arrived, the captain of the Garrison informed me that I had just missed a group of Rheinland military personnel chasing off the pirate vessel in question.”
A smile crept itself back onto the man’s face, and the wrinkles made Soroy think of a centipede crawling out of the collar of his suit to sit on his chin in such a shape.
“Good, good. I am glad to see your altruistic dedication to our organization. The problem is the information diverged from the trader in question. We are aware of your involvement in Nomad affairs, and that is why you were asked to come here.”
Again, the mechanical head of the tuxedo swung it’s way towards Soroy, the centipede of a smile crawling back to rusty parts deep inside the aging business machine. He sat up, placed his hands flatly on his thighs as he addressed the slothful man to his right, unaware of the sudden tension in Ozei’s posture.“I am also aware, Mister Soroy, of you and the... ex-detective, Gerald Willow, and your unsuccessful investigation of the Nomad Infestation in Kusari.”
Returning the look of distaste, Soroy sat up and leaned against the table with one arm, retaining most of his posture. It was clear that Soroy had no intention of touching on the subject of the missing Gerald Willow, and after hearing Ozei’s story for the third time in a row today, what little patience Soroy initially had when he had landed his ship earlier was now completely gone.
“I thought we were going to skip the pleasantries. What does Black Gate need from us so badly that they had to spend more time inviting us here than it would have taken to simply send us a postcard?”
“Yes, straight to the point as always, Mister Soroy. Right then.”
Leaning forward again, his hands refolded themselves on the table like the jaws of death closing around the neck of a poor child. The representative’s raspy voice suddenly spilled out into the room, louder than before. Soroy could have swore the glass windows behind him, showing the dull vista of New London, were simultaneously scratching up and cracking from the man’s harsh voice. If it were possible, Ozei’s already tense posture became even more so, the hairs on the back of his neck pressing against his metallic space suit.
“Black Gate Services has decided that you two are the the most qualified pilots we have available for retrieving a number of rare materials and certain classified information in the systems in Omega 15 and Lorraine respectively. If you don’t know how to reach either of these systems I will contact my handler and inform them that you are not as well suited for the task as they thought. Do you accept?”
The grey man’s sentry of a head panned left and right between the two, waiting for the slightest twitch of movement to open fire and overwhelm it’s target with another swift barrage of harsh, grazing vocabulary.
Ozei steeled himself and decided to be the first to speak out.“Pardon my manners, but just how exactly would the two of us benefit from risking our necks going after information and materials that may or may not even be where they are expected?”Having taken to laying both arms across the table, Ozei’s expression had become hard and cold, daring this machination of a man to challenge his logic.
Soroy could have swore he heard gears screeching with pained labour inside the man’s neck as his head twisted towards Ozei. His rebuttal was short but decisive, almost as if his machine mind had already simulated this encounter beforehand.
“These materials have been floating listlessly for a good time now, but we have lacked the proper agents to retrieve them. I know you Freelancers are quite stubborn, but I would suggest you direct your efforts towards something more productive than creating counter-arguments towards doing something you should be fully capable of. Considering your service records, I would expect a little more professionalism.”
Ozei narrowed his eyes in reply, huffing lightly through his nostrils.“It was but a simple question, sir,”the spiky, short haired man stated.“All I wished to know is how we would benefit from this deal. In short: What is in it for us?”
Another calculated response slipped it’s way out of the crackled old voice box buried deep inside the machine.“A minimum of ten million credits to both of you for retrieving the first item in question. The materials, depending on how many are remaining, will be traded for at least two million per unit, as measured by Black Gate material standards. Should anything significant come of these items, you will share the benefits of what light they shed to us. Now do you accept, or decline?”
As he considered all of this, Ozei’s expression turned to one of clear contemplation. Ten million credits, plus a potentially equal or greater amount, certainly was a large haul. Maintaining an exotic space vessel ran up the numbers each month, and if they could pull this off, Ozei would be set for at least six months, maybe longer. The metallic suited mechanic looked across the table to Alexander, as if he was attempting to read his expression to determine the other’s take on all this.
“Accept. Any space jockey knows how to use a tractor beam, but I can understand if Black Gate wouldn’t want to draw attention to itself collecting suspicious materials. I assume both of these have something to do with the pirate encounter, otherwise we wouldn’t have lost five minutes going over it again.”
Suddenly, the mecha-man’s eyes lit up red, and the horrible noise of strained cogs and gears, rusted from years of disuse, began clacking about with great energy deep inside the silicone shell of the businessman. His head practically whipped itself off at the joint as he glared at Soroy, the remainder of his patience now gone as well, and his teeth chattered together like machine guns as he berated Soroy.
“You will find the coordinates for each item uploaded separately to your ships. The coordinates for the materials will be marked on your nav map, while your partner, Mister Ruousha, will be given the coordinates to the intel. You will collect both of these items in 48 hours and leave them at the specified collection point. Expect your payment within 12 hours of the collection.”
The grey man’s body suddenly shook to life as he pushed himself out of his chair and stood, his jagged fingertips rested roughly on the table before him, and Soroy was sure that at any moment metallic claws would splay open the flesh and dig into the flawless sheen of the table.“I believe we are done here. Good day.”
Suddenly, the machine went back to sleep, as his gaze rested exactly on the elevator opposite the room. All at once it was silent, save for the shuffling of chairs across tile, followed by the dull thrumming of liquid upon reinforced glass, and finally the harmonious clunking and pattering of boots, metallic and leather, across the room.
