Guests to Corsica

[Stolt.]

The conference room at the facility was transparent. It was dark outside, with only a little light coming from the stars through the station's windows. The base was dimly lit, with most computers designed with LED screens so that information could be seen clearly in the dark, but not so bright that it would hurt someone’s eyes. The conference room’s walls were made of bulletproof glass, presumably so that those inside could see if a situation was developing outside. She glanced at the blonde woman outside once more.

She checked her briefcase once more for the intelligence report that her assets from Kusari had 'liberated' from Gallia. She didn't know much about the Maltese role in their fight for Gallia, all she knew from rumours was that there was a distant system which connected the territory of the National Council to the territory of the Gallic kingdom. She didn’t even know if this was true.

Perry came here to construct a meaningful relationship with the Outcasts. Several years ago she was within the =LSF='s leadership under its former Director Joseph Dawson. She had a somewhat public role back then, hence why never worried about sharing her real identity. A simple background check would've revealed her true name and history anyway.

Her method of intelligence collection was not to simply go around collecting data on enemy bases or planets but rather to develop relationships. Get someone to trust you, and they freely give you the knowledge you desire, most of the time without even realizing it. She had a number of false identities to "make friends" across several systems, but here, she was herself. And the Outcasts weren't going to give her any intelligence by simply blurting it out. But all she needed to do was to establish that trust. Most spies would consider that impossible, as realpolitik is a necessary skill for the job. But she didn't care. She always managed to find quality intelligence by building trust which went beyond simple photographs, videos, sound recording or stolen documents for the Bretonian Defence Intelligence Staff to analyse.

She checked her documents once more and waited patiently for her counterpart to present herself, all the while she thought about whether her history with the =LSF= would entitle her to a cold treatment from her hosts. She wanted to build a working relationship with the outcasts from 0, but she was afraid her history would have already given them reason to distrust her while she was in their territory.