I watched as Commander Morrison looked around the room, a momentary gesture before she returned her gaze to me, “that’s a fairly cloak-and-daggers statement, Mr. Reaper.”

With a shrug, I answered, “It’s a fairly cloak-and-daggers operation, Commander Morrison. This goes beyond the relationship of the Legion and Basilisk, and a leak may well cause us… issues, in the future.”

She narrowed her eyes at that, “that toes the line very closely to being an open threat.”

I cringed at that, “hmm, poor word choice…” I contemplated for a moment before sighing, “what I mean to say is that this information is vital to a third party who may or may not put their boot on our necks.”

Clearly she tensed at that, idly clicking her fingers against the table in thought. Her two aides immediately beside her exchanged glances, and I watched as one of them leaned in towards her subtly. She sighed, turning her attention firmly back to the rest of us.

“Excuse us for just a moment.” She rose, her aides following her out. All but two of the guards did as well, more as a token gesture than anything else.

Derrick leaned in to me, a motion not dissimilar to what we just witnessed. Even as he did so, I could feel the deceptively relaxed posture he bore, as though he weren’t concerned at all about the information I wanted to provide.

Though, the tightness around his eyes, slight as it was, said otherwise.

“I’m still not sure how to feel about this situation. Relying on someone else’s understanding,” he shook his head, “especially with a potentially volatile bit of information isn’t exactly ideal.”

I nodded, “I know… We have no idea if she’s trustworthy, but we’ll have to bear with this. Likely, we’re going to need to talk to someone in command. And I doubt we’re going to be able to just push onwards easily now either.”

“They seem to be a fair bit more aware than that,” he assented, “their organization is clearly head and shoulders above what we ran into in Sunvilla, and more robust than Argedwall.”

“To be fair, Argedwall was doing everything it could to tread water,” a smile played across my face, “but I understand your point. You’ll have to be careful with the politics with them.”

He made a sour expression, though I could tell he was amused too, “Ah, alas, the trials and tribulations of a politician.”

The few of us here, myself and Derrick’s own aide’s, made small talk while we were waiting. Some things had been idly discussed already, much to my surprise, with some agents within Basilisk’s organization. Little more than a surface talk and a test of the waters, so-to-speak, but there was some interest in at least part of the organization in extending a hand of greetings for further exchanges.

We had to hope that was the case, because I doubted we’d get too far without some kind of interest generated from within the organization.

Ponderously the door opened again, this time only Commander Morrison and her two aides coming in. She glanced at the two guards and stated simply, “wait outside for the time being.”

Without hesitation, I noted, they followed her command sharply. Whatever position she had in the organization as a whole, the soldiers under her clearly respected her decisions.

Or feared her reprisals, either one.

“We’ve decided to hear you out under good faith,” she began, following swiftly with a warning tone, “but I won’t promise you that this information won’t go elsewhere. In the first place, I’ll need to talk to my superiors.”

Derrick and I exchanged wordless glances, before I turned my attention back to her.

“Of course.” I nodded, waiting for her to take her seat along with her aides. Looking at them more closely revealed little; they were nondescript save for the fact that they clearly had Morrison’s ear.

Without preamble, I began, “you may be aware of the UGC rapidly expanding their borders in the west?” I waited only until she nodded before continuing, “They and the NG have been wrestling with each other for months. While I’m more than happy to leave them to their devices under any other circumstance, it appears that their efforts against one another may have another consequence.”

“To be brief, the orbital defense network around earth is still functional, to an extent. So far we have no idea who is in control of the system. It could be that they both have control of parts of it, or it could be that it’s just not in use yet. The Legion has decided that, at least, we don’t want to have such a weapon system hanging over our heads.” I paused, letting that soak in for a moment before seeing if I should continue.

Which ended up being several seconds as Commander Morrison blinked and shook her head in bewilderment, “I see.” She stated finally, “And that has to do with Basilisk… how?”

“A potential location of interest exists that we’d like to examine. Which means we have to navigate around Basilisk,” I gestured off hand, “and, we didn’t especially want to go skulking around if we didn’t have too. Hence our presence here.”

I could practically feel Derrick’s internal groan at my handling of the situation, but we were both well aware that some straightforward honesty may get us more here than deception may.

“And, assuming that I believe any of this, that location would be… where?” She asked, staring at me all the while.

I noticed that, for all the aides controlled themselves, they both subtly shifted forward as they waited on my answer.

“Let me ask you a counter-question,” I leaned back in my chair, “do you have the authority to allow the Legion access through Basilisk uninhibited?”

“I could see what I can do.” She stated, “but the more information you can give me, the better case I can present.”

I shook my head regretfully, “I can’t accept that. You’ve been fairly gracious allowing us to even discuss this with you, but I need a guarantee. If you can’t give that to me, then I need to speak with someone who can.”

She frowned deeply at that, but didn’t refute what I said. To date, I doubted anyone liked having their authority called into attention specifically.

I half expected her to be angry when she spoke, but instead I felt only surprise as she decided on what to say.

“Under ordinary circumstances, on any other base, the Commander would be required to submit a report to Central and await a response. It would go just about as you’d probably expect; politicians getting their noses in where they shouldn’t be, a lot of back and forth jockeying between our two groups, probably nothing of note getting done for some time,” she waved her hand, catching a warning glance from one of her aides and promptly seeming to ignore it.

“Given the… sensitivity of the subject. There are some provisions that are allowed to me specifically due to my unique position within Basilisk,” she began, and quickly expanded upon the topic, “I’ve considerable political clout and social backing due to an outstanding performance in the military and AnLev ops. There aren’t many out there better than me, except maybe Kaiju-” she shrugged then nonchalantly, “-I’m not gloating here. I feel the need to explain that you may not want to go through so-called proper channels. Both for your sanity and seeming time-constraints.”

That was certainly not what I expected to hear, and taken aback as I was, I couldn’t help but examine the woman in a new light. Certainly, she seemed quite capable, but I couldn’t have expected anything of that sort. She certainly had this entire city locked down tight, and the way everything seemed organized spoke highly of a more precautionary and insightful mind.

Faux pas of nearly stripping me naked aside, of course.

Still, it was awfully convenient for this to be coming up right now, only after I’d mentioned talking with a superior.

Something of my thoughts must have shown on my face, because she simply nodded and said, “I don’t believe there’s anything I can do to prove my credentials to you, at least nothing that would mean anything. If you can’t trust in what I’m saying, I won’t hold it against you. I’ll write up a full report and request the moment I get back to my office. But, if you can lay all your cards on the table, I can guarantee that I can help you.” She then seized my attention with a particularly predatory grin, “For some, likewise, guarantees by your people, and a favor or two.”

For the first time in a very long time, I felt something of a challenge in her eyes. This was closer to her element, the same as me, and neither of us enjoyed dancing around the issue. Direct force was something I could practically applaud in someone like this.

And yet, at the same time, I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm considering what was at stake. I couldn’t imagine what she could possibly gain for getting this information out of me, aside from perhaps attempting to claim it themselves. While that wouldn’t be ideal, it would be far from the worst case scenario.

After all, at worst, we’d blow the damn thing up if we had too.

At the end of everything, though, something else made me willing to take the jump. If I had a normal gut anymore, I’d say this was a gut feeling.

“Alright then.” I cut through the silence, “Let’s talk. What are your conditions?”

She gave a sharp nod, “First off, assuming your plan even works, we need equal access to the orbital network.”

For an awkward few seconds, I couldn’t help but stare.

‘Yeah, I guess that would come up from this.’ I shook my head, ‘that might not be an issue, provided that we actually obtain an alliance from Basilisk. But if we don’t…’

“I suppose that’s not an unexpected request,” I clicked my tongue.

Derrick leaned into my side at that point, “I think we should take the offer. There’s nothing to be gained by backstepping here, and we never intended to use the Orbital platform as a leverage option in negotiations with Basilisk anyways. Too much risk for bad blood.”

That, I supposed, was quite true.

I sighed, “Alright, we’ll have to leave the how of that to later. Mutual control is fine,” I met her gaze steadily, “in the first place, it’d be in poor taste to have a threat we’re concerned about looming over your shoulder.”

“Mighty neighborly of you,” she replied with an arched brow, a tenor of amusement to her, “given that, though, I can’t say we wouldn’t have a vested interest in locating and assisting in the capture of whatever it is that you’re looking for. So, we’ll help,” she stopped me from even attempting to refuse the assistance by following up with, “if you don’t need the help, then call it a babysitter unit. I’m going to have enough of a headache dealing with Central, the least you can do is at least pretend to be under supervision.”

“That’s fine, but they’ll either need to conform to our structure or be good enough that we don’t need to worry about them.” If they couldn’t do that, then they wouldn’t be any good to us anyways.

“Fair enough,” she nodded.

“If I may interject,” Derrick spoke up, glancing at me to see if I had anything to say about it. Seeing nothing, and not being halted, he continued, “there are some other things that I would like to discuss. Very few within Basilisk, certainly the public, are aware of the Legion’s presence. This, I feel, would be a good opportunity to place yourself in front of any political pushback, and at the same time allow us to, for lack of any other way to say it, shamelessly ingratiate ourselves with the populace.”

Morrison was wary, but she did smirk at that statement.

“Given that this will be, overtly, the first contact that the Legion has with Basilisk, I believe it would be a good idea to have something of a… good public image, going forward. In the old world that would be a public event, a charity drive, free stuff, so forth. While not untenable, it doesn’t quite have the same impact nowadays,” for a fraction of a second a wistful look drifted across his features, rapidly vanishing once more, “For our time, however, I believe it would be prudent for the Legion and Basilisk to work together in the public eye. You’re already attaching what I presume to be a task force to us, why not go a step further?”

The commander bore a thoughtful look on her face, but instead of speaking, the aide on her left spoke up.

“In other words, you’ll simultaneously affix yourselves as an official presence - a positive one at that - among the population, while also attempting to engender relations between our militarized forces.” It was a statement of reflection and consideration, rather than a question, “That could work. We could certainly mobilize atop of that, use it to deflect bad politics.” He looked to Commander Morrison, “We can work with this.”

She and I exchanged a look that spanned time, one of helplessness out of our depth of field.

“Right, well, you two work that out then. Provisionally, I think we can say that we’ve come to an agreement,” the Commander nodded briskly, rising as I did, approaching - or retreating - as fast as was socially acceptable.

“Indeed,” I caught her handshake mid stride as we both started for the door, “Derrick, let me know anything else that you decide.”

They scarcely registered, used to such things from their respective commanders over much time.

Morrison flanked me as we walked through the halls, “Suffice to say that I know when I’m in over my head.”

“I’m still figuring that out, somehow,” I chuckled, “so, tell me, what are the actual odds of this going off without a hitch?”

She hesitated mid-stride, but quickly kept pace. There were a few seconds where her inner struggle was on her face, and it was only then that I realized that she couldn’t have been more than five years my elder.

Well, depending on how one viewed age anyway-

‘Shit… how old am I?’ The thought hit my sidelong, just enough that I didn’t notice when she started talking. I dragged my attention back in time to hear, “-will probably be fine. The locals never were too much of an issue, considering they needed help. Central might be… complicated. We’ve recently added on a lot of territory, and some new people from other areas that apparently had ties with upper echelons. They’re eager to make waves wherever they can, but if you ask me, they’d be better off doing it the honest way.”

“Have they been problematic?” I frowned, “Our political system is much more meritocratic now. Surprisingly little abuse, but we didn’t absorb as much territory, I think.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect some of the old systems to come back, but sometimes you take a little bit of bad for a lot more good,” she sighed, “honestly they’re mostly okay. There’s just a few bad apples that are souring the bunch right now. Some newcomers pointing fingers and placing blame at others feets. Problem is that they’re generally right, but they’re just abusing it to their advantage. You know, standard operating procedures and all that.”

“Ah, I know the type. Recently had an issue with Sunvilla, and had a few individuals that were effectively tricking the population into hating the other group. Disgusting, but effective, method of control.” Regret was clear on my face as I shook my head, “Never did actually find them. I guess they escaped.”

“Oh? That’s… unfortunate,” she stated carefully, “too bad, those kinds are never good to have around. Who were they, anyways?”

“Mack Thompson and Benjamin Hart,” I shrugged, “Nobody you probably know.”

I didn’t notice anything in particular about her response, but she didn’t say anything for a few, longer than normal seconds.

“Probably not,” she shrugged, “anyways, here, let me give you access to my OU in case you need to contact me.”

“OU?” I tilted my head at that.

“Obelisk Uplink,” she nodded to herself, a distant look in her eye as she navigated through neuro-messages, “that’s what we call it anyways. We route a lot of our radio chatter through the Obelisks. It’s a lot more stable, though I imagine the security isn’t much different from typical broadcasting.”

“Ah, we do something similar. We call it Reaper Net, for our purposes.”

She met my eye straight on and openly gawked at me. “You call it Reaper Net.”

“Yes,” I met the unspoken accusation, “we’re The Reaper’s Legion, and my Class is Reaper. Tends to match a theme.”

She snorted, “Is all that a theme?” she gestured to my body for a split second before visibly wincing, words marching forward faster than any sense of proprietary could kick in.

Outwardly, I smiled and chuckled, “It’s fairly unique. Dying seemed to require extensive overhaul.”

Perhaps she got the sense that she’d stepped fairly deep in it because she allowed the silence to linger.

As we continued to walk, though, she spoke up once more, “Sorry. That was uncalled for.”

I blinked, turning my attention back to her, “that was your apology?”

“Yes,” she grinned in spite of the genuine regret that still lingered at her eyes, “for what it’s worth, that’s partly the reason why I’m out here this rotation, rather than closer to home.”

“Bad manners?” I reasoned.

“Of a sorts,” she succinctly stated, “my mouth outruns my legs most days.”

As we neared the exit of the fairly nondescript interior a chuckle left my lips, “Well, I suppose I can accept that apology on the condition that your escort is good enough to keep up.”

We stopped near the doorway, an expression both thoughtful and mischievous alighting her features, “Oh, don’t worry, I think I have just the person.”