Musings [Escher]

[Thexare]

Seasons Base, Aquila Defense Systems Factory Wing, Office of Johnathan Jones

"So, Jones. Your employees have a history of doing a lot with little. I've got two ships here I need dismantled, AP series. Think you can use them?"

"How'd you get your hands on Hunter ships? Pretty sure most of Octavarium is blacklisted from Hunter bases..."

"Not important."

"I disagree. I'm not putting my people in danger again because I don't know what's going on."

Johnathan Jones was not a small man. At 6'1" and a well-built 165 pounds, he had several inches both vertically and horizontally on the spymaster. But still, Escher didn't blink. He was not normally one to back down, but he knew better than to take unnecessary chances - and keeping a shipbuilder was more important than keeping his secret, this time. He sighed and explained.

"Fine. Their pilots killed my parents. Said pilots are now dead."

"So what you're sayin' is, we're covering up a murder."

"Technically, I'm saying you're covering up two. But it wouldn't be hard to send them into a debris field; I simply don't like wasting resources."

"Whole damn sector's gone insane... Alright, what ships?" Escher handed him a datapad - a Manta and a Hammerhead. "Hmm... Yeah. We can work with these. Won't be hard to turn them into a pair of Crows."

"Glad to hear it. Do what you will with th-"

"What. The. F*ck?!" Kelly demanded, storming into the office. "Not only did you kill them, you're trying to rope civilians into cleaning up after you? You conniving, degener-

"No, it's fine," Jones calmly interrupted, completely unfazed by the remarkably angry blonde's sudden entrance. "Look, I'm not exactly happy about it, but we need to get some product out, and the materials are here. Don't count on it happening again, though. We're not your personal janitors." Escher silently stared into the distance in response. "Anything else, or were we done here?"

"... No. No, that will be all," Escher replied, walking out of the office. He wasn't quite accustomed to this kind of direct resistance. But his parents had a saying - "Adapt. Success follows." He'd just have to change his approach.

"I'm sorry about that, he's just... ugh, he-"

"Hey, relax. It'll be good practice; the Raiders will be getting into a lot of fights, I'm sure. We'll just make sure my people are trained in reclamations."