"Don't worry. I think it should be obvious that I rather have you and your pilots unharmed." Elena would see him smirking at her for a moment before he turned around and moved closer to the windows, sitting down at the ledge of the window, looking back at them. "Coronade, Inverness, Cortez, Magellan and Kansas. Those are the five systems. I want full reports on them about anything you find there that is not plain space. I don't need a full analysis of the nebulae and asteroid fields in those systems, but I want to know if they contain something. Bases, anomalies, unusual objects, bigger asteroids and all that. Also, make a note about any encounters you have in those systems. Who and about what. Any encounter. Admittedly, it will be a bit of paperwork, but I'll make sure you get the reward for it." Looking around for a moment, he took a deep breath before continuing. "Predicted encounters are the following..." he began, raising his right hand, first balled to a fist, then raising the index finger. "Coronado, obviously the Crayterians. Weird sh.it happens relatively often in that system, and I blame the open-to-everyone Barrier Gate Station and the ancient nomad gate deeply hidden in the Barrier for it."
Raising the middle finger as well, he continued. "Inverness should be more quiet. According to my information only the Junkers, Auxesia and the Order have a presence in this system. I need you to update this information, though. There was an Order Battleship back then. Would be interesting to know whether it is still there. The Junkers two installations in Inverness, one of it is modular. Same here: Update me about anything. If you find any other modular bases in the systems I want you to map, add them to the report as well." And then he turned his hand around and raised the thumb as well. "In Cortez you will find all kinds of people. The system is protected by Liberty and Bretonia as per the Treaty of Curacao. Crayter has a strong presence there as well, and even the Hellfire Legion is protecting the system. Map everything in Cortez and then proceed to Magellan. For that you can use the jump hole at the Cortez coordinates at E6. It's faster than the common routes. The Liberty Rogues have the Montezuma base in that region as well, so you better watch out there and quickly slip through."
Pulling the thumb down again, he raised the ring finger and the pinky. "You need to be very careful in the Magellan system. Gallia recently destroyed the freeport there. Map everything there. I want to know everything about the current gallic movements. Also, be careful with the Lane Hackers in that system. Their pilots have some dirty tricks, so make sure they can't access the systems of your ships. Wear a life-supporting flight suit, as it wouldn't be the first time they drained the oxygen supply of other fighters to kill the pilots and get their ships."
Adding the thumb again, he took another deep breath. "Kansas is pretty much the wild west, so you will need to be careful there as well. My latest report about it is rather old. We know the Commonwealth has increased its presence there. Auxesia should be there as well. Don't drop your guard there, as Liberty doesn't have a good grip on that system."
Leaning back a bit, his lips formed a smile again. "Any questions?"
Elena couldn't suppress a small laugh, sure it was fake, but at least she wanted to act as easy as possible. She tapped on her upper arms with her fingers as she still had her arms crossed, and whistled slightly, having to take a few seconds to think about all the information the Operative had given her. Fascinated of the job she definitely was, as it didn't sound too hard at all and could become a good cash income.
In the end, she made a few steps forward towards the figure as he had sat down at the huge glass window, keeping his visor locked with her eyes. "Don't worry, with paperwork I had some experience lately." She sighed audibly for a moment, not sure how much more paperwork she actually wanted to do. "Okay, for serious stuff now. Let's go through it." She quickly stroke through her hair, fixing it a bit more. "It all won't be much of a problem I believe, or hope. Coronado, Inverness and Kansas should be relatively easy to do, as those are more or less safe space - at least by our standards. Magellan and Cortez might become a bit more interesting, but by no means something we wouldn't we able to handle."
As now, Elena stood directly in front of he Operative again, slightly tapping with her right foot. "As for Lane Hackers, we got some experience with them. If you can't shoot them down right away, just place a mine right in their face and hope you don't blow up yourself." The bad feelings inside her vanished for a moment, as she remembered a past job of hers, making her smile a bit. Good old times these were, she thought, when she had still been roaming around in Liberty together with Sarah only. "We also got some experience in mapping, so I think you just found exactly the right people to do this."
She stopped for a moment, as she got another thought. "However, I'd like to ask you one thing before I will agree with the job offer. Give us a hint who or what you work for. With mapping some of these systems, it could happen we harm organizations we don't intend to arm by passing these information to you. Hence, I'm wondering what you work for."
Taking a deep breath, she looked over to Sarah again, wondering what she would think of all this.
Sarah stood most of the time next to the window, looking at the person who talks at the moment.
Her emotions aren't visible to either Elena nor the Operative, she's just listening carefully and nods from time to time when she agrees with the answers Elena gave the Operative.
It was obviously Elena who was the person in charge here. Something was off about her, but he figured it had to do with Troy simply leaving the two women alone with a strange person they don't know anything about. Looking at her feet for a moment before he replied, he had to think carefully about what answer he could give her on that question. "The answer to that question is rather complicated, Knight Captain," he told her, his voice hinting a bit of conflict. "As you can guess, telling you directly would put you into the very same position as if I was showing you who I am. What I can say is: The organization I represent has no interest in fighting anyone openly. We do not seek to cause harm to anyone, not directly and not indirectly, no matter if lawful or unlawful, house-related or based in the Edge Worlds or Independent Worlds. That is pretty much the difference between us and other groups, Miss Voigt. However, to maintain a balance of power, information and logistics are required. That is why I need you. You and your friends have a certain reputation. People hire you for bounty hunting or escorts," the Operative said, smirking. "In space. So nobody really would bat an eye on you when you roam around in certain systems."
Looking over to Sarah, he eyes her for a while, not that it was obvious with the black visor hiding his face. Both women made a sympathetic impression. It was kind of a shame he had to meet them under the current circumstances, he thought, but after all, he wanted to hire them for a job, not asking them out for a dinner.
It was quite obvious from her reaction that Elena wasn't exactly satisfied with this answer. Of course, she didn't expect anything else than such vague, pretty much meaningless words from somebody who wanted to stay anonymous, but it still bugged her, not knowing what kind of diplomatic consequences could follow when this spook couldn't keep his mouth shut to certain parties. She wasn't convinced either, and the definitely audible conflict in his voice wasn't helping at all. Raising an eyebrow, frowning slightly and looking at the operative in a very judgemental fashion, she tenses her upper arm muscles slightly as these were still crossed before her chest.
She stared at the operative for a few more, brief seconds, thinking about what to say next, how to react on his answer, trying to withstand the temptation of just snatching away that helmet and seeing who's behind it - it would make a lot of things easier, she thought. Sarah wasn't much of a help either to decide this, as she had decided to back out of the conversation. So now, it were merely herself and this guy she didn't know at all ... or maybe she did ... who could know? Elena felt her curiosity kicking in...
She sighed before beginning speaking again. "What you told me is fine and all, but I must personally say it's very vaguely depicted by you. Not that you could do much about it in this situation, I know. However I'm wondering, which circumstances do make this helmet of yours necessary? You wouldn't have to hide yourself if you didn't have some skeleton in your closet, now would you?" She quickly turned her head around, having a brief gaze over the deck. Not many people were around anymore, in fact, she was quite sure they were the only three for now visiting this large room. Biting on her lips, she turned back to the operative, looking directly into his visor once more. "What would put us into such a bad position if we knew who we're working with, honestly? What would put us into such a danger you described not long ago?"
She quickly turned around again, scanning the deck for another time. "You know. I'm just saying this might be a good opportunity to just show us briefly who the hell you are. I'm hundred percent sure other people will visit us soon again."
"Information is power," the Operative told her, smirking at her curiousity. Indeed, nobody else was around, but the station had internal sensors as any other bigger structure or ship. And they were in a room full of windows. In his case, it was a healthy form of paranoia to not underestimate the situation. Having eyed her body language and listened to her voice and the way she spoke, it was some sort of evident that she was not too comfortable with the situation, if not even triggered by how she didn't know anything about the person she was dealing with. Scanning her body with his eyes, the man tried to visualize in his mind what Troy and Sarah were saying about her. According to them, Elena was rather promiscuous, with a weakness for what Liberty produces in thousands per day: Johns. Dyed hair, without anyone knowing the original color. Blueberry. Troy complained about the lack of professional appearance of the Knight Captains. There was probably a reason for Nick Stenn being the diplomat of the organization. There was a chance that Elena was pregnant, given that they mentioned a scar left by a certain John and the pronounciation of, in case of a sexual encounter between Sarah and Troy - at least the Operative remembered it as such - the use of anti-baby pills. Alternatively, that particular John could have hurt her either physically during the intercourse, or mental. Elena looked rather young, fit. The type of women he prefered. Given her position and especially her current position, she probably was usually better at acting than now. Something definitely was off, probably mentally. He would need to be careful and not play with her patience, or at least prepare himself for her patience running out. "Admittedly, I have my enemies. Some rather unlawful entities would prefer me to be dead. Do the job, show me I can trust you, and I will give you something you can trust in return. And money."
Figuring that wouldn't please her either, he looked down for a moment without moving the helmet, so it was not visible at all. What they would notice is a sigh. "I know things. People want me dead for that, and they will use any means to achieve that. The more you know, the more likely it is that you get somehow in touch with it. I would prefer to not drag you into this. I want you to do a rather easy job for me, with a good reward. That is the breakdown. After that, there might be more jobs. No suicide missions and preferably without any greater dangers than the usual threats you already know, the typical unlawfuls and probably even the more organized crime."
Standing up again, he made a few steps towards Elena. The visor still didn't spoil anything, yet he eyes her, standing intimidatingly close infront of her, and he was pretty sure he could prevent her from doing anything funny, given that he had to stronger body. "Three options. Either you leave and forget about all this and you will never ever see me again. Or you do the job without asking anything further from this point. Or you take the risk." Not wanting to imply too much, he lowered his head for a moment, still eyeing her closely to not get surprised. "But remember you are responsible for more than your own life."
Elena was indeed quite intimidated by the sudden proximity of his body to hers, not to mention he was without a doubt larger than her. Carefully making one or two steps back slowly, she eyed him as well, trying to judge what he was planning on or rather, why he suddenly was so close. After all, she had very bad memories with large men getting that close to her, so she preferred staying away a bit.
She looked at the figure, speculating herself what kind of person he could be. He obviously was a man who went through a lot of things, both good and bad. From his appearance and the way he smirked at her from time to time, she belived she could tell that he wasn't exactly dislking her. But he seemed to be a conflicted personality in whichever way, probably because of some decisions he had done that might had proved to be the wrong ones in the long run. Not exactly sure what to think of him. On the one hand, he acted like a person that could be trusted, and whatever he fought for, Elena guessed it was a cause she'd appreciate if she knew about it. On the other hand, he seemed to be somebody who was brooding much over a lot of problems he got, corrupted by his thoughts, just as she used to be from times to times.
She shook her head slightly, blinked into the visor of his helmet again, totally unsure what she should demand now. Her curiosity, like a child who badly wants to know what's behind some gift paper, was a true pain. For some time, she chew on her lips, carefully going through all the possibilities at once, judging how bad such a revelation could end.
In the end, she just said two words. Two words that were slightly echoing and reechoing in the otherwise empty room. Two words Elena wasn't sure whether she would regret them or not. But two words that just slipped out of her mouth, as they always had to slip out sooner or later, ever since they had met the disguised figure, they had just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape, and now this moment had come. "Show me."
A few moments passed before he reacted. The little bit of his face she was able to see was giving her a neutral expression, as the Operative was in thoughts for a moment. Then however, he smirked again. "You're as brave and bold as I was when I started." To a certain degree, that made her quite amicable. Slowly moving his hands up to his helmet, he pushed the little buttons to unlink it from the neck of the suit. A hissing sound later, he began removing the helmet, and she was able to look at his face. Clean-shaved face, the skin a bit pale. There were a few strands of long black hair dropping down to his chest and it was evident he tied most of his hair up to a pony tail, with only his front and side hair having managed to get loose again over time. His eyes were green, and there was a scar at his, from her point, left eye. It was somehow fitting, and probably the reason for him to keep the scar in an age where everyone and their mother had a dermal regenerator at home to take care of cat scratches or other wounds. Unlike Elena, there was not a single spot of sweat on his face and his hair wasn't sticky, so she could guess there was some sort of air conditioning system in the helmet.
The two Forlorn Hope Knight Captains would hear him taking a deep breath before he looked at them, first at Sarah and then at Elena. Again, his smirk. Somewhat self-confident. "Like what you see?" he asked her, his smirk getting a bit wider as he held his flight helmet close to his side. "I trust you can keep this between us."
Elena was just about to comment on the so called "braveness" when the operative suddenly followed her orders and began removing his helmet. It made her silent again, as she just stood there and watched, with one eyebrow raised, feeling her skin tingling slightly as she was no doubt excited to see which individual had been behind this mask all the time.
And Jesus Christ, what she saw did indeed fascinate her a lot. Her eyes widened a little, as she was merely staring at the uncovered face now, scanning every single detail of it. The long black hair that was hanging down partially, these somewhat pervasive green eyes, and top of it this quite imposing scar, obviously telling a story of a dangerous situation this man had been in. Together with his confident smile, he was able to free Elena of her thoughts for a few seconds, quite enchanting her with his presence.
However, after these few seconds of surprise had ended, Elena shook her head, clearly trying to get out of this hypnotized state again. As she looked into his real eyes for the first time, she couldn't help but grin slightly as well, as she still had to look upwards a bit to meet his look, him still standing quite close in front of her. "That's quite..." A faint whistle could be heard. "... something. I'd lie if I said this didn't impress me." She had to laugh slightly. As a very welcomed side benefit, the thoughts that had terrorized her deep inside up until now had vanished, her mind was straight cleared from any other emotions than surprise.
As some kind of instinct kicking in, she even began acting out the typical girl's behavior for a few moments. Toying around with her fingers, laying her head to the side slightly, embracing a somewhat shy look into his eyes. However soon she'd feel silly enough to stop it again, and became more serious again. "Alright, so now we know your face. A pleasure. But I still got no clue who you are, neither do I seem to know you. Now, would you also care to tell me if you also got a nicer name than this 'Operative Red' thing? Would feel weird to call you this way the whole time, wouldn't it?" She smirked slightly at him, secretly hoping his name would be as nice as his face already had proved to be.
Her reaction was sort of unexpected, but amicable. Reminded him of easier times. It was cute, the way she suddenly behaved. "I see no problem with you calling me just 'Red' for the time we're business partners," he told her, smiling at her and for a brief moment at Sarah. "Or do you need the name so badly?" Letting her rethink it, he lifted his helmet to his head again, in case of anyone else entering the observation deck. Fiddling around with his hair to keep it under the helmet, he used the moment to eye her body a bit more. When she would answer him, everything was where he wanted it to be, although his mouth was still uncovered.