After the fun times in New York, and with the deal to meet up on Curacao; Darius left his ship in the orbit and took the personal shuttle to the landing pad. It is really obvious that the planet has seen much better days, but the reconstruction is actually going faster than expected. Orbital Spa and Cruise really are putting it all in motion, quite fast, but that did not catch his attention too much. The problem is that he promised to bring that Eagle-class Dreadnought back home and so far, he is not doing too god of a job. Hopefully, his secret deal with Fleet Admiral Cleveland will save the situation. He decided to wait for her on the landing pad, not wearing anything formal; just his regular worn out brown leather coat and his regular outfit with a guildkeeper insignia under it. His left, augmented arm looks much less augmented then before, looks like one of his augmentation experiments. It looks like a real arm at the moment. The dusk of the day was nearing and Darius was watching vessels only come and go, no sign of the Fleet Admiral. He was getting a bit nervous, but that feeling came to an end when he noticed a personal ship of high value landing near his landing pod.
Sophia left the Carrier in her fighter craft to land on Curacao for the meeting with Darius while Battlegroup Hornet was orbiting the Planet, staying close to the Mako-Class Battleship. After a while, Sophia manages to land her ship on a free landing pod near Darius. Her ship, an advanced Avenger-class Fighter of the Liberty Navy with at least twenty-five Fleur-de-Lys painted on the fin, would be an eye-catch for everyone looking at it. It doesn't take long until a woman leaves the ship, wearing a long, brown coat and some sunglasses. As soon as Sophia spotted Darius, she walked towards him. As she came closer, he would recognize her face and the Navy-Uniform beneath her coat. She had an annoyed expression on her face, probably because of what happened today in New York with the First Fleet.
Darius chuckled as the annoyed Admiral approached him. "You have to let the first fleet be what they think they are. They have gotten more annoying with out-of-Liberty relations since the 5th took the jobs that they could not do. Sadly, nobody is accepting that."
Darius offered his hand for a proper handshake. "Guildkeeper John Darius Guerra. I have to introduce myself properly. It is sort of common within the Core to do that. I also know a place that I always wanted to try here. I heard it has really good food, but my naval pay wasn't good enough for it. I would very much like if you joined me. We can talk details there." He smiled as he was talking to Sophia.
"You are right. The First Fleet makes themselves rare but as soon as the Fifth Fleet is doing something, they crawl out of their holes to keep an eye on us. I will not let them dictate what we are doing. Fleet Admiral Kazuo thinks he holds a higher rank than me, what a joke." Sophia sighed as she finished and shook her head. "Whatever. Fleet Admiral Sophia Cleveland," She said while she took his hand for a proper handshake, taking off her sunglasses in the meantime and smiling slightly. "I would regret it if I would decline this offer, hm? Of course, I will join you."
The guildkeeper showed the Fleet Admiral the way. About ten minutes of walk from the landing pads was spent in regular silence as the pair tried to remain in low profile. The place they arrived at looked rustic and homey at the same time. Darius remembers this place well from his navy days as he led an investigation here. The restaurant had its ground floor and much bigger basement floor. Wooden tables and candle like looking lights made the atmosphere inside look peaceful.
Upon entering he found a first free waiter-looking person. "A table for two below please." It could be noticed that this place had some serious reputation as the waiter looked more than proper for the job. "Ah, we have couple here. Please this way." Darius rose his eyebrow, but decided to follow the man below, along with the Admiral. Upon getting to their seat, they received 2 menus for food and drinks. Everything was quite expensive. "Pick what you want. Its on me today." He said as he flipped the pages.
"A couple, actually a good cover," Sophia whispered as she sat down at the table, looking around slightly. She took the menu in order to study it for a brief time. "How about an exquisite wine? Right. That would be perfect now, but nothing gallic, please." Sophia chuckled slightly, thinking about what she just said. "Food, right. A good old libertonian Steak would be perfect I think." As soon as she finished her sentence, she would put the menu down on the table, waiting for the Guildkeeper to finish.
Darius kept looking at the menu for a bit. "Ah. They still have it. I will have a Durango Steak. I like some good action in my food. I am good on the wine as well. Go by her wishes please and make sure it is not Gallic. Thanks." He put the menu down and sighed. "Ordering food like this is a drag. Nauru does not have good places like this. All I see are sucked up rich people, it makes me sick. But that aside. Your taste is food is... regular? I thought you would take something more fancy." Darius said in a teasing manner.
Her face expression turned from neutral to serious as she heard that her taste is regular."Well. I'm not someone who really needs to eat expensive or fancy. My parents were never rich or something. Well, not at the beginning at least. My father was in the Navy for almost his entire life. The payment of the lower ranks is horrible. You risk your life almost every day out there. Patriotism is one thing but in a house like Liberty, you need money to survive." She stopped in order to let out a small sigh. "Things changed when he got promoted to Captain. The payment was good and when I got promoted to Fleet Admiral of the Fifth Fleet, we for sure had enough. Neither I nor my father spent the money on luxurious things. Rich people become richer, poor people even poorer. I donate most of the money I get from the Government to orphan initiatives or medical research." Sophia chuckled slightly. "Sucked up rich people you say? Liberty is full of them. But that's how capitalism works."
"I grew up in a family of farmers on Erie. We always had enough for living. I went into freelancing and ended up in Omicrons somehow. Everything went crazy from there, but that is a story for another time." Darius leaned on the table and rested his chin on his arms. "Lets talk business, we can always hit some coffee, beer or dinner later. As we discussed, Core will give a Mako to 5th fleet R&D. After that, 5th makes an old dreadnought disappear, but I believe there is more to it. I noticed that another hole in Omicron Minor phasealigned. I looked at some old charts and I think it leads, you know where. What are your thoughts." At that moment, the wine arrived and the waiter did his thing.
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