Chapter 12

“So, let’s begin with introductions.” A man stood at the head of the table, he smiled, the ink-markings on his face deforming as his muscles shifted. “I’m Soluna Acquisitions Agent-XF-37-82, I prefer the name… Sylvester Capone.” He was of lithe build, but his dress-shirt and business pants overlaid by his capelet made him look slightly wider, however his chromed arms poking out of his rolled-up sleeves showed the truth.

There was a very clear difference in status between the ones representing the government, which included Sofia’s group, Cassius Ironsides and his Ironsides Brigade, and of course the Soluna Consortium’s agent.

Then there were the ones representing the border settlement: An old woman layered in thick furs and fabrics with a hood drawn over her head, she resembled something of a religious figure but judging by the reverence her threes companions showed to her, she was likely the leader of these people. She introduced herself as Torai, and as expected she was the people’s leader.

On her left was a professional, calm, well-built man in a bullet-damaged brown cloak and hood, there was a patch on sewn into his cloak that she guessed was some kind of town guard insignia. He introduced himself as Finn, his role was to lead the settlement’s defensive forces, he was part of a smaller council but he’d been elected to assist in negotiations — and possibly to act in case of Soluna finding an excuse to take the town by force.

And on the old matriarch’s right sat a younger man, she spotted a similar patch with different colors on his woolen duffle coat, but the way he carried himself gave off an air of inexperience and anger. He gave no introduction at first, until the younger woman standing off to the side kicked him in the shins discreetly. He grunted, scowled, and then uttered in a venomous tone, “Oryn.” What his actual role in the town was potentially unknown.

And finally came a stocky, short woman with geometric facial markings along her cheeks, she wore a loose fur coat hanging over shoulder while a ring of polished metals hung around her neck, drawing the eye towards her own patch, much like the others, but also with a different color. She introduced herself as a representative of the commerce council, her name was Liruki.

“Alright,” Sylvester clapped his hands together, “So, let’s get under way shall we? As a representative of Soluna’s interests, we’ve written here an agreement that we feel-”

Torai held her hand up, silencing the agent. “Agent of Soluna… before we can begin these negotiations in earnest, there is a certain matter we must discuss.” She pointed in Cassius’ direction. “This man, not more than 30 minutes ago, beat a man to death in full view of the citizenry, just outside this building.”

The room was silent, of course they would bring that up.

“Before we can begin any negotiations in good faith, we would like to know… is this how your military leaders act? If a man such as he, one as I recall is a descendant of one of your vaunted Paragons, were to command a garrison within our territory… how could we possibly feel safe and secure when he brazenly murders people he is charged with protecting?”

The agent regarded Cassius with a complicated look, he cleared his throat. “We, of the Soluna Consortium, will open an investigation immediately and see to it that appropriate measures are taken.”

“An investigation?” The younger man muttered under his breath, “So what, you’ll investigate, decide that he acted in self-defense? Well let me tell you-” He was smacked in the back of the head by the younger woman, grunted, glared at her, and then quieted down.

Finn cleared his throat, “Agent, we’re willing to negotiate, but you must understand… this naked act of aggression, even in self-defense, is troublesome to these negotiations. We believe in the fairness of laws, so under normal circumstances, he’d be taken into custody-”

Cassius notably flinched.

“...take into custody, however… he is not one of our citizens, and as such this is more of a diplomatic incident. We can’t force you to punish him, but we cannot, in good conscience, negotiate a potential military outpost within our borders as long as this man is part of the negotiations.”

“I understand your frustrations, however… this man is the military representative of the 47th Legion, we cannot hold these negotiations without a military representative as protection of the territory will fall upon their shoulders. However, we are willing to offer you this concession: This man will not command the outpost, and his position in these negotiations will be demoted purely to observation.”

“What?!” Cassius advanced on the agent, but froze when their gaze passed over them.

“So the concession we offer is that after this meeting is concluded, we will have him dismissed from the proceedings, where our courts will take the matter into their own hands. Whether he’s found innocent or not, he will not be reassigned to another sector and will have no further business here. After which, a different representative will take his place in future negotiations. Is that acceptable?”

“Hah, so that’s it? He just murders a man and his punishment is that he gets moved somewhere else? What the hell is-” and once again, he was hit. HK was starting to think that this was normal.

Torai was silent for several moments, and then spoke. “As Overseer, I will accept this decision.”

“The Rust Guard will follow the will of the Overseer.” Finn held his fist over his chest, as a salute it seemed.

The woman finally spoke, “The Council of Commerce will also agree to this… um… what’s the word, starts with a C- COMPROMISE! Yeah, that’s the one!” She clears her throat. “The Council of Commerce will agree to this compromise.”

So now eyes were on Oryn, who sat there with his arms folded. “Well, I’m overruled so what does it matter what I think? Personally, I can’t agree with letting this man walk freely in my town, so in my authority as Director of the Ministry of Public Service, I’ll abstain from this decision.”

“Okay then, now that that’s settled,” he drags a screen from out of nothingness and slides it over to the representatives. “As outlined in the previous treaty, in exchange for autonomy and a policy of non-aggression in regards to your borders, all Starfall salvage that fell in the region was to be turned over to the Soluna Consortium, further-”

Torai raised her hand again, “Agent, I have lived for longer than many people these days and have been Overseer of this town for 50 years. I am well aware of the previous treaty.”

The wind was momentarily taken out of his sails, he’d clearly expected this to go on longer. “Right.” He adjusted his tie. “Of course. Alright, I’ll get to the point then. During the previous Starfall, after collecting the salvage, a previously unknown cavern was revealed. And if you look at these images we took, your people uncovered a massive supply of resources-”

Oryn smirked as he looked at the list of resources. “Including more Glow-Caps, in Soluna it is often harvested and manufactured for various medicinal purposes and combat stims. But its byproduct can be synthesized into recreational hallucinogens that many citizens use in concert with neural augments to induce programmed scenarios.”

“Yes, that is among the resources uncovered, as outlined in the report. We have reason to believe that you plan on selling these resources without regard for who acquire them-”

“As is our right to do.” Liruki interjected, cycling through the images carefully. “Guess your people have been spying on us a lot, eh?”

“That may be, but the Soluna Consortium would like to offer terms to acquire these resources at a fair price in exchange for certain concessions. So, as you’ll see in these documents over here…”