Almost empty gray room with a dim electric light. Only table and a couple of chairs in the middle. Stirring a cup of green tea with her silver spoon, she's checking something at her PDA. Such lighting doesn't make a skin at her face to look any less pale. She makes a long sigh of the bored person who has waited for something, really unamused. Almost breaking into a yawn just as security system beeps, her look falls at one of the monitors, from which she can observed her guest that just arrived.

— Fucking finally.

She spoke to herself. Taking a warm cup with both hands she slowly sips, wetting her throat before something that could be a long conversation.

Ernesto's ship - Solitario - had undocked from the Salamanca who was briefly stationed on the horizon, a few kilometers away from Heaven's Gate, hidden behind one of the massive asteroids. Eventually, the Corsair landed, leaving his trusted M10-"Titan" in the main hangar as its engines were still humming for about thirty more seconds before shutting down.

—"This has taken way longer than expected."

He said to himself as he stared at his surroundings, leaving a silent sigh. Unwilling to let any more time to be wasted, he proceeded down Heaven's Gate hallways, Floor by floor until he reached the entrance to the room Loyola was waiting in. Just as he was about to open the door, something immediately stopped him from doing so.

—"Yes. Go back to Omicron Xi. No. Get back there will all forces."

The Corsair spoke again to himself, apparently. However, that wasn't mere schizophrenia setting in, or mere chatter with an imaginary friend. As he finished the sentence, All Corsair fighters who patrolled around Heaven's Gate had started to cruise away, rallying at the very same asteroid The Salamanca was hiding behind. In not even a few seconds, the Battleship began to move, leaving not only its tip to be visible, but the entire hull as it entered cruise speed, leaving the premises of the massive installation.

Ernesto opened the door slowly, with his left hand and holding a tablet in the other.

—Senorita Loyola in person.

Enma narrows her eyes, putting the cup down. it really doesn't seem like she's ready to provide any hospitality. Her voice sounds a little dry despite having a warm drink just now.

— Sadly you won't get a proper reception this time, as I don't have much time myself. You said you wanted to talk, to get straight to business.

She leans back into her chair, preparing to listen and making a attempt to relax. just a little.

Ernesto expected nothing less from a busy personality such as Loyola. He slid over the tablet to Loyola. It displayed the current status of Planet Crete, the converted Corsairs' numbers and holdings, and a map of Crete's region of interest. Determined, and with his "Buffoon" cover tossed out the window, Ernesto leaned on the table.

—"Planet Crete is in constant "war". Cretans battle eachother for survival and land. Corruption is very high. This presents us with the option to establish a holdout and just let loose on the overpopulated Planet. We can draw any supplies from conquered cities that can be directed to our case, as well as any captured civilians to serve as cannon fodder once conversion would be complete. "

He said with an unflinched, fixed sight on Loyola.

—"Siphoning the population is something we can take advantage on, and the current situation does let us let loose a bit compared to the stealthy approach we are forced to take in space. There are three problems, though. "

Added the Corsair, before resuming, looking at the tablet for a moment, then back at Loyola.

—For one, I need one's brighter mind to approve this course of action. Yours. For two, these civilians would have to go somewhere. The question is: Where? For three, The type of approach we take now will determine how things will develop in time. There are three ways we can pick. And by we, I mean you. Or, well. Lord Muramasa was supposed to take this decision at some point. But he is away. The tablet contains the choices in detail. This is the first topic of this little discussion.

The tablet's next 2 pages offered a brief description of advantages. Disatvantages, and opportunities with given resources.

"Imperio" was the first option, though the name is just for show. A modest holdout with the intention to siphon at a reduced rate the population of Crete with the focus on militaries, active pilots and some civilians. This would assure high quality in terms of usefulness of those who are to be converted, but the resources to do so would be higher, as cities and other holdouts on Crete to contain these targets would have fairly high defenses to deal with, and the unconverted population of "Imperio" would have to be kept well fed so their motivations and beliefs won't falter. The possibility of detection is somewhere between medium and high, due to the mass "recruiting".

"Nómadas" was the second option. There would be no fixed holdout, or land "Nómadas" would have. As the name implies, the converted Corsairs will roam one place to another in search for loot and human targets which can range from mere civilians to skilled pilots, marines, and so on. This movement would require no "misinformation" tactics at all, as "they can let loose and sow the chaos they were meant to do. Detection risks, however, are medium due to the possibility that the mobile prisons would not be 100% secure to keep hostages in, until the Freighters to pick them up would arrive. On the other hand, plenty of supplies and human targets would get to reach Aoi Iseijin.

She listens to this carefully, being a little surprised at first, narrowing her eyes as she maybe has some doubts about his plan. Slowly sliding down in the chair it may seem that she can even fall asleep. As soon as she speaks her voice matches with that impression, still being low and scratchy.

— Well, if I will be honest with you, this is way too ambitious to my liking. At the same time, you do sound pretty confident and almost as if you know what you are doing. And I don't feel like we are risking with something, we don't have a lot of Crete to worry about even if you fail--- So let's give it a shot, shall we?

Enma grins shortly, before rolling her head back and exhaling.

— As for the other things, I'd take time to plan them. For the population, I would set up some fake colonization project or something like this. The same goes for the further direction of this. I don't see a point in planning this far before you succeeded with the first stage. If we managed to get Corsairs to be even more aggressive against the Houses and draw attention away from the central Omicrons, that would be an enormous success. And Corsairs have that potential of being a plague, you know it better than me. So yes, you have permission to execute the first stage, as for the rest it requires proper planning, I don't think I can come up with something right here and right now. Clear?

Ernesto sighted for a brief moment, before opening his PDA with his left hand, sending a file to the tablet in front of Loyola.

— Setting up on Crete is easier than one might think. All you need is some firepower, money to bribe the respective entities with, and a target to steal their dirt from. But I suppose you have your reasons for taking it slower than I would. Regardless, everything is clear, yes.

He takes a quick breath, as he looks at the ceilling for a moment, then back at Enma to continue the line of topics which plagued him for a good amount of time.

— If we are done on this part, there is one more topic to touch on. That being Battleship Salamanca. It fell under our control not long ago, and has now returned to Omicron Xi before it raised any suspicions for the moment. However, I think of a greater role this asset might serve. Namely a remote testing ground for the hybridization procedures. The concept of Scorpions was a success for our cause, and I believe the time has come to look towards making smaller drones, or put wrecked assets back to use with The Light's spark within them.

Loyola rolls her head to the side, reading something on the datapad while listening,

— Battleship is interesting, we already have Lauren La'Row in the middle of a similar experiment. I believe that exchanging information and experience on a purely technical level would be a smart move. Developing warforms using traditional human metal frames could be proven useful and probably would somewhat help us. We need more testing drives before we do anything like mass productions. As for your ambitions on Crete, the bigger you get, the easier you are to notice. As I said I see the potential, but at the same time, all risks are at you, not me.

Ernesto maintains his posture, looking at the datapad, then lowering his view.

— I haven't seen La'Row in a while. Nonetheless, that shouldn't be a problem, provided she is still available over private communications. Have you considered any viable candidates for the hybridization process? A Guardian? A Sabre? Perhaps one of the Edge Worlds fighters could fit. I've obtained a set of them a while ago.