Agatha shook her head as she finished her stretch on the floor, slowly standing up as she declined his offer for a smoke while he spoke. "I don't smoke..", she grumbled as she began to twist her torso from one side to the other, repeating the process several times over until he finished speaking.
"You're offering me, in a sense, the same thing I was offered years ago when I was in front of the Overwatch, debating if they should've just killed me and dissected me on a slab to see how I ticked, let alone fly something that they had little of, but pretty much manpower is what both you and they had issues with, and more than likely still do.
Considering the information to date that I've given you all I'm pretty sure I don't have any other options to work with, and I'm going to take a guess that you already know what I'm going to say..
She took a slow turn and faced the wall, placing both hands upon the plating and went quiet for several moments more..
"I want my old clothes, freedom to communicate with family and crew, and my god damn glass eye back to start with. If you agree to those terms I'll work with you lot to start with. Oh. And I want access to my sleeping quarters on the Liberty Lost, not a damned cell.
She slowly turned her head back to look at the trio to wait for a reply, unsure if she was asking was too much or too little to start with.
With a somewhat serious, yet annoyed expression on his face, Daniels sighed and threw the cigarette butt on the floor.
Do not insult me, Agatha. I'm nothing like the pathetic overwatch that you speak of.
If I wanted you dead, I would've done it. I see a person that shouldn't rot in a cell because there's lots of potential in you.
Comparing me to the order, however, wouldn't really improve the situation you're in.
Scarlet cracked her knuckles, but Daniels gestured her to stand down.
You'll get your eye back and you'll get your "Liberty Lost" with your crew, or should I say...family?
Daniels lit up another one
Here's the catch, you'll be working for the Core. Not formally, though. Consider your assignment to be something like freelancing.
You collect info for us, aid our ships every once in a while but in general, you're pretty free to do as you wish, as long it contributes to the Core's goals.
Betray me, however, and we both know what happens. The Liberty Lost has been outfitted with more than a dozen different tracking devices, raging from standard issue to quantum entangled locators and communicators. Naturally, the ship is as you left it, but if needed, we can upgrade it. We've can cannibalize the Haven. It's an identical "Atlantis" class carrier so it should be pretty straight-forward.
The Guildmaster snapped his fingers and the door slid open. Behind it, there was a man waiting with clothes and a small box in his hands.
Clothing and eye, as requested. If you require any augmentations, we can arrange that.
A simple roll of her eyes were more than enough to respond without having to speak, looking down at the floor as she collected her thoughts, pondering as her guest continued to speak in her direction. It felt too easy for all of this to come together after been locked up for so long, knowing that the other options before her were far worse for just saying 'No' in return. Her thoughts came to a stop as the sudden opening of the doorway showed several personal items ready for her, as if he had known she was going to say 'Yes', slowly turning around and walked up to look down at the box.
"I have a feeling there's a catch somewhere in here, simply stating that my ship alone is tracked still feels like you're keeping me in suspense.."
With that being said, she reached into the box and pulled out her fake eye, spinning it in her hand before reaching up and tore off the bandage that covered her left eye, sticking the fake back into its socket and looked towards the trio as she took the box in full.
"A little privacy while I dress or do you three prefer to watch your captives?"
You'll have your privacy, don't worry. You've waited six months, you can wait some more.
The catch is, you work for me but if you get caught while doing something bad, we don't know each other.
All I want is intelligence and information I can't otherwise acquire.
Williams looked around, coughed loudly and said: Boss, don't forget about the Haven.
Ah, yes. The Haven. You and your crew have managed to patch up the Liberty Lost pretty nicely, yet there's more work to do. As I mentioned, we have a crippled hull at our disposal. The metal itself is fine, but everything else is completely devastated. As the Liberty Lost gets upgraded, I want you to relay technical data to the APM, so they can do the same to the Haven. You use our facilities to work on your ship, we use your data to work on ours.
The man smiled
Naturally, my engineers will find any and all malicious and false upgrades, so don't even bother. They know their stuff, but they don't have experience with that particular type of ship. That's why I need you.
When the project is complete, you'll be free to depart from the shipyard and do what you want, while acting as my eyes and ears in the meanwhile.
Until then, you'll still be, on paper, our prisoner. For your own safety, of course.
Daniels leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
As she went through the box of her clothes, she listened carefully for several moments before going through her overcoat's pockets. "Intelligence and information..." She slowly began to lower her coat as it showed her mood also dropped as several thoughts passed in her head. "I can't... There's no point in me gathering intel since I've been gone for so long to date. They'd figure out about such in moments if I just came back with a simple 'Hello' to them, and I'd probably be executed on the spot." Silence filled her lungs for several moments until she looked over and saw her wallet hidden by part of her clothes, pulling it out and opened it, looking at a photo of a christmas from long ago. She couldn't help but give a glimpse of a smile as she folded the wallet once more. "If there's one thing I hated about being in the Order, it was the lack of supplies and resources they would allow me to have and utilize. Being commander of the second largest ship in the entire fleet made them feel uneasy, or jealous if you prefer. But. If resilient is and admirable trait, I guess you can say I was lucky. All the Liberty Lost needs aside from weapon replacements is a working reactor, you probably noticed that the current one is jury-rigged from an older Resheph class that were were able to salvage to get propulsion, some shielding, and life support to run. Weapons? Not a chance. It wasn't permitted.."
"There's some data that I was able to procure from the Lane hackers quite a while ago on schematics that only I'm able to pull from the ship but.. In all truth there is not a chance that I would be welcomed back into the Order with my head still attached or so much security on me it makes Prison life seem like a dream.. There's no point.. After a few moments of thought, she began to let out a laugh as she folded her overcoat in her arms. "Before we surrendered all that time ago, I sent a message to the Overwatch, at the end of it I simply told Golanski to quote 'Burn in hell' unquote. He alone for that would have me tried for insubordination for that stunt."
Daniels coughed and pushed himself from the wall back in upright position.
Now now, I never said you'll be gathering intel on the order or working undercover.
That's out of the question, naturally.
What you'll be doing is far more simple. There's certain organizations and people who don't enjoy the Core's lifestyle very much. Or to rephrase, they tend to get violent when they see us. However, you on the other hand, you're not Core, so you can visit places where we would otherwise get shot.
The Guildmaster looked around the cell, as if he has just noticed how grim it is.
On the other hand, you can refuse this assignment and continue to reside in this fine establishment. I'm giving you two options.
Remain here for the rest of your days, or accept the closest thing to freedom you can get.
He smirked
It's a rather hard choice indeed. You get to fly around in your stolen ship, do whatever you want and occasionally send me status reports on any and all order and alien activity you witness. It's not much, but it's still better than keeping you here in this cell, spending money on food and water and other things one might need to stay just barely alive.
Of course, since I'm kind of a doing you massive favor and busting you out of prison, a day will come when I will call you to the Core's aid.
But I assure you, when that day comes, it's going be a matter of life and death. For both you, me and everyone we know.
War's knocking on our door, Agatha and you can't quite imagine the scale of it.
Daniels awkwardly looked the woman in the eye and tried to force a smile.
I feel this chat of ours, it's getting quite long and boring. Let's cut to the point.
Are you in?
Her mind raced about for several moment's before looking back to him. "Let' me dress... You already know my answer..", and waited for the door to close to give her privacy.
