Chapter 19: 19

'So how long were you in the army?'

Krieger was sat opposite Erik at a small table in Hideki's bar. Her crew had long gone by the time they got there, Hideki mentioned that some were going clubbing somewhere and a few were just going home. The bar was pretty quiet later on in the evening once Sho stopped serving food and the customers went on their merry way to somewhere else.

'Oh I joined when I was eighteen, stayed in for a while after we became a part of the EMA too. How about you?' Erik replied as he swigged his pint.

'Same, was about to be ranked up before my unit ended up in the EMA. Then I ended up on the first vessel out here with Ronson and all that bad shit happened.'

'And now you're chasing convicts around for money.'

'And now I'm chasing convicts around for money.'

The pair smiled at each other and clinked glasses together.

That seemed like forever ago for Krieger as right now; she was stood alongside Ronson in a massive meeting room in some huge complex on Galleria belonging to the Galaxy Police, in front of four of the higher ups in the Human division. And the worst thing of the whole situation, was the fact they were all men. There was Commissioner Stevens the token Brit, Deputy Commissioner Maxwell who was American, another fellow American Commander Vasquez and finally Commander Harding from Austraila, representing the Earth Military Alliance. They were all older blokes that had that weird air of importance about them that transcended their positions and they were all the type that would totally condescend anyone given half the chance, especially if they were a woman, or a gay man. Which they had stood in front of them right now in the form of Krieger and Ronson.

'Please, take a seat.' Commissioner Stevens gestured for the duo to sit down.

'We'll stand if you don't mind.' Ronson replied. You may leave the military but sometimes military disciplines just don't leave you. Besides, Krieger and Ronson liked being able to leave as quickly as possible. Either way, while they weren't in the military any more it meant they didn't have to take any orders from anyone, unless they wanted to. But the chance of that happening wasn't even worth knowing.

The men behind the big desk raised their eyebrows at this comment but decided to carry on. Krieger and Ronson weren't part of the Galaxy Police or the wider EMA anymore; they weren't about to start acting like it just because they were summoned by the big bosses.

'Well go on then, you called us what do you want?' Krieger eyed the men, she was getting impatient now and she wanted to go home. It took the crew forever to get there as since the embargo on Tekana had been lifted, everybody with a ship was travelling and all the gates were backed up. Krieger had been told this meeting had to be face to face for "security reasons" as they didn't want to risk talking via vidlink. Ronson had told his friend they should bill the Galaxy Police for travel expenses. Deputy Commissioner Maxwell was the first to shed light on what the hell was going on.

'We'd like you two, to assassinate Ethan Müller of the OWLF.'

Silence. There was a brief moment of silence before Krieger and Ronson erupted in to a raucous bout of laughter. While these two were laughing away, the panel of very important men were entirely serious.

'You want us... US! The biggest liability in the entire galaxy, to take out the most heavily guarded man next to the fucking Federation President? Are you for fucking real?'

'Of course we're being serious Captain Krieger, we wouldn't have asked you other wise.' Commander Harding stated. The rest of the panel nodded in agreement.

Krieger slumped her shoulders down and held her forehead in her hand as Ronson just stood smirking at her. They were being serious.

'Captain Krieger, we have recently found out that Müller for some reason has decided to leave the OWLF's base planet in the Outer Fray for another he appears to be taking over and has since been advertising amongst their members for his own personal security detail.' Commander Vasquez said. 'He has a few bodyguards and aides when he goes about his regular business on planet, but as he never leaves it seems like he's trying to bolster his forces. The positions have however only just expanded to the mercenary community.'

'And you want me and Ronson to apply? I guess your plan is for us to get as close as possible to Yoghurt Boy just so we can slot him?' Krieger pointed her thumb at herself and Ronson.

'Yes.' Vasquez replied. 'We would like you and Ronson to apply as it would give you a better chance to complete the job.'

'But why us? Surely there's better actual hitmen out there who wouldn't even have to go undercover?' Krieger said belligerently.

'There's much more at stake than you could imagine Captain Krieger.' Commissioner Stevens spoke up. 'The GSA sent one of their best agents in undercover over seven months ago to report back on Müller as he's been increasing his activities as of late. Unfortunately, they haven't had any communications from this agent in just over four days now. But the last report contained information pertaining to what sounds like an attack in massive scale.'

'So you lot want him out of the way before he goes ahead with it?' Ronson asked.

'Precisely.' Commissioner Stevens said. He then continued.

'What worries us however, is the fact that Müller is apparently working alongside some other party, possibly a sponsor.'

Krieger and Ronson glanced at each other.

'I thought Müller left the OWLF's attacks up to his minions, it doesn't make sense them wanting to off him, surely someone would take his place as the head?' Ronson's voice sounded in Krieger's brain through their neural comms.

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'Yeah it seems like a dumb idea.'

'The dumbest.'

'We also have it on good authority, that Müller is quite the fan of yours Captain Krieger.' The American Maxwell stated. Krieger didn't look impressed. 'In fact, we were all quite surprised to find out that he hadn't contacted you to offer you the job.'

'Yeah well, my crew and I have actually taken out quite a few of his followers over the years, I'd think we'd be the last on his list.' Krieger retorted with a smirk.

'But we all agree;' Stevens spoke up, 'That Müller would jump at the chance to have you on his payroll if you applied.'

'Give us the deets then.' Krieger was getting irritated now and just wanted the panel to say their piece, so she and Ronson could get back on the ship; go home and take the next easiest job that came up. Steven's spoke up again.

'Anything Müller pays you is all yours. We're also offering cybernetic upgrades you may think you need to complete this task; obviously we understand you may want to have a technician of your choice install these and not our own.'

'Well that's a fucking given, our last employer put a load of broken shit in both me and Ronson that we didn't ask for.' Krieger folded her arms and glared everyone on the panel down.

'Either way, these would be included in your pay offer. Along with thirty five million credits... each.'

Krieger and Ronson stared at Stevens as if he had two heads.

'Cas, thirty fi...'

'Yeah I heard.'

'They sound desperate.'

'Push?'

'Push.'

'Make it forty million each and we might consider your offer.' Krieger bellowed out.

Stevens and the rest of the panel looked slightly uncomfortable. Krieger and Ronson were now grinning, but were laughing over their private comms.

'Okay, so we'll leave that with you. In the meantime we're gonna go enjoy what this lovely planet has to offer then skedaddle on home.' Ronson said as he gave a sickeningly sweet smile and grabbed Krieger by the hand.

'Bye for now babes.' Krieger gave her own diabetes inducing smile, but hers never looked nice at all; it was laced with and underlying threat. The pair spun round and casually skipped out of the room like a couple of children, as if to show how bothered they were by this proposition. It left the panel of men in slight disbelief; not just at the counter proposition from Krieger and Ronson but also at their weird little show as they just left.

'Well, they didn't say no.' Vasquez said sounding a little hopeful.

'Those two are literally the last on our list, everybody else has turned us down. If we don't get them on board then our plan will have to completely change.' Maxwell added. 'While we do not negotiate with terrorists, we apparently do with mercenaries.'

'We'll have to discuss this further and see what we do from here on out.' Harding added his two cents. 'But right now I suggest...'

'We go for lunch.' Stevens replied as he stood up from the huge desk. 'I don't know about anyone else but I could murder Italian.'

'Keep that up Keith and we might have you murdering Müller instead.' Harding guffawed. 

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