The HFL Ichihara, a converted prison liner, idled on the dark side of the water world. The scene was a lesson in contrasts—a ship built for the horrors of imprisonment to confine the most hated criminals Kusari had to offer converted by those same criminals into a warm and comfortable home floating high above a planet whose name was practically synonymous with the sector's greatest heights of luxury.
A small freighter emerged from the ship—a Draugr, itself a picture of hideous utility—and dropped down into lower and lower orbits in stages. By the time it reached the day side of the planet, it had disappeared into the atmosphere.
Samson Resort, Curacao, Cortez system
Descending through the picturesque skies came the boxlike Draugr, cutting through the atmosphere with all the grace of a bulldozer. The home that received it stood out in its beauty, even amongst the white sands and deep blue seas of the paradise world: Samson Resort, the private residents of Orbital Spa & Cruise Chairwoman Cross. With its circular white-stone rooms and the palm trees so numerous they grew even upon the roof itself, the unfathomable price of the luxurious island resort was impossible to miss.
The freighter dropped to the landing pad where the delegation waited—called forth by Ichihara's most recent message—and landed gentle as a butterfly. The landing door hissed open and out strode two aides dressed in full military dress uniforms, accompanied by a short Kusarian woman in a similar uniform quickly approaching middle age. A cardamine breather tube led from her nose down under the collar of her uniform, and in her hand she held a small projector that itself had a wire connected to something in the back of her skull, though the connection was hidden by her hair. She stepped forward to offer her hand to the Orbital representative meeting them.
"Hi, I'm Yoko Mori, Adjutant to the High Logarch. He'll be joining us shortly—the projector is still warming up." As if on cue, the projector began to whir, then a moment later it issued forth a hologram of a far older man beside her. The family resemblance was clear in their near-identical noses and similar statures. The hologram, however, offered a bow instead."High Logarch Mori, at your service."