Lucendez paced down the center of the hall, hands behind his back and a sad expression on his face.
"The reason is this is your home. You go off into your little adventures and kill things and bring back loot and party, but your home will always be here. It's not technically treason, but it must be said you don't serve the Corsair nation. This is not a crime, but I would appreciate it if you stayed out of our politics and foreign affairs. This goes for the SCRA as a whole as well."
"Speaking of politics." Juan spun around to meet the Benitez delegates.
"You all have been playing a very good game. Congrats on the mud-flinging. The politicians in Liberty would be proud." At the end of his sentence he took a metallic orb out from his pocket and dropped in in the center of the floor. A holographic projection sprang up detailing system chatter and log entries for most of the Corsair zone of influence. Lucendez walked around the projection, eyeing Carlos all the time.
"We have received intelligence that a possible act of treason was performed yesterday concerning the double-prong attack from Outcast and allied ships. Unlike Ares, who has chosen his path and tries his best to not stray, you sir have secretly used our enemies to your own personal advantage and put the security of Crete in jeopardy because of this."
"I move for the other familias of Crete represented by the Brotherhood to strip the Benitez of all political and military power over Omicron Gamma and her sister systems. Under penalty of death. The Brotherhood is done playing games."
"I relinquish the floor."
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
