The Serpentia where in orbit of Malta when the meeting had started, the impressive Ranseur had multitude of fighters circling it, sabre's and Falcatas, all moving around it protecting it's sole important inhabitant.
Don Set Ramirez, formerly Don and leader of the Venezi Syndicate, now one of the more influential Cardamine owners on the Planet.
He walked slowly trough the hallways of the Serpentia, his oldest ship, and containing his most loyal soldiers and most powerful slaves. Not that long ago he had underwent an extended physical operation, to alter his appearance, what not many knew was the reason behind this. An attempt on his life, an explosion at his mansion causes his face to be terribly disfigured something a man with his self confidence could not live with.
It took months for him to recover, but now, he was more determined then ever in his own plans, devious in design yet brilliant in their complexity.
As the hallway ended with a door to the elevator that would take him to the hangar bay, one single soldier walked by his side.
"My lord..", said the armored individual, as they stood in the transport tube
"Yes Dante?", said Ramirez as he looked into a datapad which contained the coordinates of the meeting
"You do not think the others will mind the late appearance?", he said as smoke poured from inside the helmet
"Perhaps, then again I do not believe they will have said much of importance before my arrival..", he said as he waved his hand to make the smoke disspitate.
They remained silent until they reached hangar bay 13, the hangar containing the heavy support ships.
They walked down the stairs towards one of the Tridentes waiting for them, two of Ramirez personal guard stood waiting outside, both saluting by putting their arms with closed fists against their chests.
He nodded as his eyes where completely fixed on the datapad, now having switched to his information gathered on Gallia so far by his information gathering group.
The Tridente left the Serpentias hangar bay and cloaked a second afterwards..
The Tridente came over the mountains as it turned to the landing pad close to the mansion, it circled twice observing the other ships that had landed, it's thrusters initiated and it eased down onto a empty spot on the pad.
Moments passed before it's hatch on it's back opened, Dante and Ramirez started walking towards the entrance of the glorious mansion, Set stopped in his tracks, looking up at the wonderful building. Shook his head twice and then continued walking besides Dante, his bodyguard and most loyal soldier.
---------------------------
They walked in trough the hallway, meeting at the end of it a weird looking being.. A man called Vulpe...
He raises and eyebrow, looked behind him at the door and opened it without really saying a single word to the man..
The doors opened, Set simply nodded at Dante to stay outside waiting..
Then he walked in towards the giant table, walking around the table once, looking at each and everyone, finally stopping at an empty seat, taking it without saying a word.
He smiled once, coughed and said ironically.
"Well, is this not a great day? Hmm? How does our Gallic 'Friends' enjoy Malta so far? hmm?`"
Samantha leaned back in her seat noticing the "new arrivals"
"I would like to bring a certain matter to your attention. As far as I am concerned we should not
underestimate the Colonials in Tau-23 and Tau-37. I believe that route will be the favourable one, considering
that the minefield in Omicron 80 is still pretty dense and Colonials tend to miss more. So the question is are
the Gallic parties ready to deal with this threat and are we ready to support them if necessary. "
Ramirez chuckles slightly, he takes up a small bottle and uncorks it, putting the bottle on the table in front of him, he removes a small glass from his belt, pours so that half of the glass is filled. Putting the small bottle back into his jacket.
"Underestimate the Colonials?", Set laughed "My dear, how can one underestimate the colonials? It's like saying we should be afraid of them? Please...", Set scoughs at the notion.
He looks at her, shaking his head..
Set takes a sip, then looking around, a slight smile plastered on his face..
"Oh but how rude of me, tell me, what where you discussing before I came in? Hmm?", Set looks at each person waiting for a quick review..
A smile appeared on Dominiq's face after he heard the newcomer's comments on Samantha's statements about the colonials. He rather liked the way the newcomer thought. suddenly dominiq took the word.
[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]We were discussing matters of transporation and Protection Senor. Some of us arent at ease with sending our nearly Defenseless transports with our Precious Cardamine trough a CR infested dense minefield. to put our minds to rest Senorita Samantha and the Legionaires have ensured us they would deal with the CR threat.The Legion has also offerd its own transports but skilled warriors as they are, they might not have the mercantile spirit we Dons have. But regardless of which party's transports will be used, we needed to determine the safest way first and were discussing so untill you entered the room. That would be about all the essentials
After several guests nodded he once again adressed the newcomer
[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]Before we continue discussing senor, would you mind sharing with us who you are?
A Psalm out of the outcast history books.
The dons are our shepherds; I shall not want. They make us live with a cause; They lead us trough the still vasts of space. They restore our souls; They lead us in the paths of righteousness For The Orange Dream. Yai, though we fly through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil; For the Spirits are with us; Your leadership and Your cardamine, they comfort us. You prepare a safe home for us in the presence of our enemies; Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us All the days of our life; And we will dwell in the house of the outcasts Forever
Samantha frowned for a bit then waited for Dominiq to finish what he was saying and added.
I've seen more than enough of them to know what to fear and what not I wasn't refering to millitary battles
but Galliic transports. I haven't seen a transport ship defeating a squadron of Nyxes, backed by Hydra and
Zephyr classes...
Set listens, and nods at what Dominiq has to say, listening to the short review as to what has been said, chuckles twice and then looks at Samantha, raises an eyebrow at her comment, snickers and looks back at Dominiq to respond to his query.
"I had forgotten, not many know me by this face..", Set laughs a little and stands up. "I am Set Ramirez, don, and formerly the don of the Council of dons, I used to be the same Ramirez that lead the Venezi Syndicate and I am still the same person that controls a vast majority of the Cardamine plantations on Malta..", Set looks around, seeing each person's reponse, then sits down again.
He looks to Samantha and at Domoniq.
"Blow the minefield.. With the CR in it.. Send in rabbits, bait, put a few tonnage of Cardamine on transports and send them in, load the transports with more tonnage of MOX, or some other high explosive materials and set them to blow in the minefield. That should create a diversion and an explosion to kill lots of CR.", Set laughs..
Ramirez scratches his chin slightly, then asks.
"So, why use the jumphole the Colonials are at all? Why endanger the transports? Since when can't we use the jumphole in Omicron 80? What you are saying is that we don't control the 80-jumphole? Right.. Since when did Genoa station not warn us that we don't hold the jumphole one jump away from Malta?"", Set laughs again..
Looking at each in the room..
"Why not use THAT jumphole? That would solve the issue with the Colonials..", Set leans back onto his seat..
Enzo, leaned back, listened to them. They had many questions...but soon his own would come.
Both routes have their advantages and disadvantages. Le Tau 23 has those Lo-lo-what were they called again.....Colololnials, or something like this. But they pose little to no danger to the Legion or Maltese, as proven in many battles fought. Howerer, le art de smuggling is the talent to stay invisible, despite everyone searching for you. It is a talent that has centuries of tradition amongst Gallic smugglers. Even the dense and tight patrols in Gallia are no match for the Legion and Maltese, so why should some mineurs and their lapdogs be dangerous? He laughs, sipping another drink after
Now, le second route is a safe one at start, but it leads directly to Lorraine, and the minefield there is very dense. Also, a Royal base is 10K to the jumphole....so speed is very necessary here. Both routes are very well passable for our pilots....I do not prefer one over the other.
He called the waiter to get him another drink when he was finished.
Set listens to this Enzo, chuckles a little at the end..
"'Le art of smuggling', you say? Is to be invisible? Yes, it is, very good. But the art of smuggling is also to use decoys and escorts, sure you can run along the median line of a system, staying exactly in sight of everything on that line in that system, but space is vast, you can always go.. Straight up and avoid detection all together, fly over and underneath the stations and regular patrols..", Set shook his head.
"When it comes to smuggling, which im quite sure you and yours do very well, the Outcasts have been doing for a long time as well, and I can assure you that if you take the route trough the Taus you will have a long way to go before coming to Malta if that is now where your transports will go.. But isn't the shorter route the best. Just send some warships, like the one I saw in orbit, I am sure you have many of it, no?", Set grins at Enzo. Then turning his head at Samantha.
"And if we the Outcasts are to support the Gallic's in their transport of.. I myself think that we should protect our 'wares' on the way there.. But if we are to send escorts, where those escorts to stay within gallia? Or are they meant to go to the border and head back? Well no matter.. I myself are interested in knowing how you'l spread the 'product' once within the borders of Gallia?", Ramirez looks at the others in the room.
As I have said, both routes are equally in terms of danger. However, this danger is small enough to commence a mass infusion of Cardamine into Gallia....
Your last question is one that I have answered already, before you arrived. But, I will answer it again. He looked around in the room. The Legion is only playing the role of the transporters here, which is the only way this business would work for both of us. Les others Gallic parties can decide for themselves, but our and our allies' populations will remain spared from le Cardamine. The great mass that remains will be our target group.....and as I have said, Gallia is not your typical little Sirian house....it is as powerful, huge, and economically advanced as all of them together, and maybe even beyond that. Which means that Cardamine will reach an enourmous number of people...higher than anywhere else you have infused it before.
He looked at everyone, and it seemed their questions were answered.
Now, mes amis, that we have cleared this - it is my turn for les questions. Basically, what will the Maltese Nation offer for the Legion's services? I would like to hear what you have in mind before I start speaking out what I have in mind.
Set listens intently, but waves his hand as to say "Stop" and starts to speak again.
"I do not believe the subject is closed mister.. I want to know how the Legion intend to spread the product, how exactly you intend to distribute the product among the Royalists?", he chuckles again and looks at the other dons and outcasts in the room.
"It took it's time to get parts of the unlawful elements of Sirius to begin using the drug, and over years it has made it's mark on parts of the general populace.. And if that shows us anything is that this won't go easier in Gallia, you will need a distribution network, people that aren't affiliated with your organisation to use the drug at social events and parties around Gallia. You need dealers and you need thrill seekers, people that believe they want to do the product, that want to be better then normal, cause that is what our product does, makes you better then normal people.", Ramirez looks at Enzo..
"I can assist your people in how to establish a spread of the orange dream, how to get people interested.. Even get them.. Crave it without even have seen it's effects! Cause.. Once they take it they know they will become all what they want to be..", Ramirez looks at Enzo again, this time with a slight smile..
![[Image: DanteImage.png]](http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/Casiuz/DanteImage.png)
![[Image: SetRamirezImage.png]](http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/Casiuz/SetRamirezImage.png)
![[Image: Serpentis.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Serpentis.gif)
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