Jack Crow set down his drink and stood up from the table as the large menacing figure walked into the room. Well, its nice to see such a friendly face again, he said as he extended his hand. Hannibal Bishop grabbed his hand and smiled.
This has been a long time coming.
The two men had been running the Junker Congress for some time now, but it was not often that they actually met face to face.
Jack sat down and picked up his drink again. Well, it finally happened. I was somehow hoping it wouldnt but here we are anyway.
Bishop took a seat at the table gave a brief glance at one of the attendants who began making him a drink. In any case, were going to have some fun now. We just need to make sure we can keep control of this.
Seated at the far end of the table and buried in reports, Stephen Cruz looked towards his boss, Jack, just how long have you known about this?
Long enough my friend, long enough.
It was a long kept and closely guard secret among the Junkers. Before Tinkerbell stepped down, he passed the secret on to the two arbiters. The Junkers had not originated in the known houses of Sirius. They had a much different past than anyone else knew about. A sixth sleeper ship had been built in secret in the Alliances great exodus. That ship established the Gallic House. The Junkers had been sent by the Royal Gallic House to spy on the rest of Sirius and gain information for the crown.
Things did not go quite as planned. The Gallic monarch did not have much interest in reuniting his house with the rest of Sirius. After being bogged down in a war with separatists within his own border, he soon lost contact with his shady agents.
This did not upset the Junkers at all. After a while they became quite fond of their new home. They found it ripe with opportunities and soon established a thriving economy virtually unnoticed by most. Those who knew of them paid them no mind and ignored them seeing only filthy scrap merchants. As the Junkers grew throughout most of the houses of Sirius, most soon forgot all about their past.
Some of the wealthiest families however kept the secret. Some even sent convoys to travel back to Gallia and maintain contact with the other Junkers unbeknownst to the Crown. This was rare, however. The secret continued to fade. Until recently, only the arbiters, a handful of trusted captains, and a few very old Junkers even knew the route to Gallia.
Soon, the Junkers had grown larger outside of Gallia. They were largely a freedom movement and had no trust in the corruption found in the house governments. They hid in their scrap fields where they could work unnoticed. Eventually, they made their home in Puerto Rico, a system hidden away, and out of that, the Junker Congress was born. There were rumors of their criminal activity, but it went largely unnoticed.
Well the day is here, Bishop stated, Its time to deal with the past.
Its ironic, neither one of us actually have any Gallic heritage but now were the ones engineering the reunion with our long lost brothers.
Im sure they will be just as surprised.
Well, Ill tell you what I know. Weve come a long way by doing our own thing and not trusting the houses. I cant see us taking up a roll like that again. Even if Junkers used to do that long ago, its just not us. What I think we need to figure out now is how we can fit into a world like that and not give up what we have here.