The Arcana Group: Discard and Draw

[Thexare]

Just aft of the command bridge on an Oasis-class liner, there's a private lounge. On the original Orbital liners, it's a VIP lounge for special guests and celebrities who value their privacy. When turned over to police organizations, it's most frequently used as an isolated rest area for guards that aren't on active duty, giving them enough distance from the prisoners to properly relax.

Aboard the Zoner liner Rotella di Fortuna, it was used as a private place to discuss matters necessitating total secrecy. Extensive surveillance countermeasures were picked up from a black market vendor that's suspected to have landed a significant stockpile of liquidated IND equipment, which was a good supplement to the defenses Orbital already implemented. There was a small gathering there, but a distinctive one. Seated, with a sheet drawn around him, was a long-haired Libertonian man. Standing behind him cutting his hair was an albino woman with bright red eyes - colored contacts, one would assume. Seated across the table from the man getting his hair cut were two brothers, each with well-kept dark brown hair. Both maintained an athletic build, which was unusual for those living entirely aboard a starship. Off to the side, a man from Kusari sat with two blondes, one with glasses.

"You're with the Order and you don't know what had happened?" one of the brothers asked,, his accent immediately marking him as of Bretonian origin, probably one of the metropolitan centers on New London.

"Like I said, I had to go completely offline for a while. Please just explain."

"Alright, so, there was a bit of a... 'war' is generous really. A scuffle between the Zoners and the Order. Alien tech on a TAZ Nephilim." The man in the sheet cocked an eyebrow and opened his mouth to try to speak, but the words escaped him. The Bretonian continued, "It's exactly as stupid as you would think. Look, I've been out to Delta. Rule one of the Edge is that you don't touch the blueberries. Rule two of the Edge is that you don't touch anything related to them. But Zoner leadership at the time was made up of a bunch of bloody stupid bellends that thought they could win a fight with The Order."

"That certainly didn't work."

"Obviously. So they tried getting the Core to help out. You know, the amoral batshit mercs. Or whatever they are this year, you know how it is with the Core. Vini, volui, mihi est. That went even worse, because that got the Cretans involved. And no one thought the Zoners had the right of any of this. All their calls for help did was make the rest of us look like a bunch of morons."

"You know, it wasn't that long ago that The Order was the Freeports' best defense against the aliens," the man getting a haircut said, sighing. "A better time for us all."

"Agreed. So, I know you're with them, but let's just get everything properly hammered out. If I'm going to help you, I'd like the full story."

"Jacob Orine, callsign Mystic," the besheeted man said. "I'd stand up for introductions, but you know. The woman behind me is Melissa Blackwell. The serious one sitting with the blondes is Masayuki Minamoto. Alicia Nall is the one with the glasses, and the other woman is Lauren Ligon. Mia Santini's the other one that was with us-"

"- oh, the one with the tits?" the other Bretonian asked, the one who had been silent.

"... that's a fair description, yes. We were, and will again be intelligence rather than frontline combat."

"I'm not risking my ship on spy work." the older brother said flatly.

"Of course not. Passive intelligence. Basically, if we work together on this, we'll simply be sticking a few improved scanners on your ship and any others we recruit, and monitoring activity as you go about your typical travels. No one worries all that much about Zoners travelling between Freeports, making it a perfect way for us to passively monitor movements in Sirius."

"And you're not going to pull us into any fights?"

"I don't intend to. The Nomads are the enemy. Human hostilities are a distraction." Melissa had finally finished cutting his hair, and removed the sheet so he could stand up.

"Then I think we can work with your idea," the older of the two Bretonians said, standing up and shaking Mystic's hand.