. Vascoguoncellos, Pantalião Fontana Freeport, California System . .
He’d never quite enjoyed Fontana.
It had proven to be a useful enough place to move items here and there, to get information, to make contacts when needed. It proved useful by virtue of its location and its operators. Its location was just so to access Liberty, Bretonia, Crayterian Coronado, and now even into Ontario’s Liberty Free Republic. Its operators were notionally neutral, though the Xenos provided enough muscle, law, and regulation to the lawlessness that it was useful. If it were otherwise, he’d consider the location a lost cause.
And yet, he’d never quite enjoyed the Freeport. It was dirty and stayed dirty. It was stained and stayed stained. If anyone had tried to clean it they would find grime on paint on rust on nothing, cleaned it until nothing was left but ghosts and stories. It was watchful, too, always watchful. If he’d not trusted the Xenos, he’d never come in the first place. And yet, it was useful. If it were otherwise, he’d consider it another Montezuma.
Pantalião Vascoguoncellos had landed at Fontana before, in the past, though always under different names. That it was now far closer to his own name, or at least that name which he could now live under, was an abnormality born of that prior conversation with Cobra. The man seemed competent enough, even if he was a snake in the grass. Vascoguoncellos paused in his sip. It had been such a stupid way to end a conversation. Fortuna. As if anything was like that here. As if. A pang of regret at this misstatement. A pang of annoyance at his incompetence. It was very, very stupid. It was also something that would remain in that conversation and go nowhere else.
Now he was waiting on another. An associate of Michael Bartlertt’s, one he’d know would land by the word of the docks. At least, that was enough of the plan.
“Small crew and roots in the Commonwealth”, and the man captained an Arbiter of all things. It was curious and curious. What exactly did the man want with Bristol, that he could gain while not making mention of his resources so? What exactly did the man think Bristol was, that it would not look into him? It was strange and sad. He took another sip.
Yet, there may be something the man could say. All Vascoguoncellos could be certain of was that he would come, and they would talk, and something may come of it.
And there it was, a Prosecutor-class in landing sequence at bay. Not like it was a rare sight, in fact Fontana of all places was the best place to see one of these, its natural habitat now that many of them found their ways at the hands of pirates after the fall of Veracruz. This one had a rare distinction, though, the orange taint from its wings replaced with blood-red and the Legion-later-Insurgency crest hastily scrubbed, there was some effort put to hide the past history of the ship, albeit the shape itself would always remind of what it originally was.
The pilot emerged from the cockpit, in an unremarkable flight suit that bore no obvious marks nor declared any affiliations, anyone would confuse the guy with just some nobody, a gun-for-hire or smuggler, but that was precisely the intention, specially in the now former Hesperia full of people that had a bad opinion on the Legion.
As soon as he set foot on the station he began glaring around the bar, looking for any hint that could reveal if any of those bystanders could be the guy he was sent by his captain to meet, someone that would likely look out of place, and with a bit of luck and to make things easier for him, someone wearing a standard-issued Bristol uniform, a pin, badge or something like that.
. Vascoguoncellos, Pantalião Fontana Freeport, California System . .
He wouldn’t have noticed the man if he hadn’t been exactly looking for him.
It was something of a cat-and-mouse method; of course, Vascoguoncellos wasn’t wearing any Bristol insignia or methods, no flight suit issued from age-old company stock that descended from surplus out of Rheinland, surplus out of Liberty, retrofitted civilian suits from a dozen origins or even a suit hailing from the times of Veracruz itself. No, he was wearing his own suit with his own coat over it, a faded red with steel buttons. Of course, the other wouldn’t be wearing anything that’d identify himself as a member of a group that claimed descent from the Commonwealth, nor affiliation with Harmony, not at somewhere like Fontana. And so, then, Vascoguoncellos wasn’t looking for anything like that. No, he was looking for someone who was, well…looking for someone.
Something of a cat-and-mouse game. The man snorted as he watched people trickle in and out. Most went to the bar, some looked about briefly before seeing a member of their little groups, some drank at the gambling tables with strangers. One guy did just seem to stand there for a moment, his eyes staring about the room. No insignia, nothing of that sort or another. If he was looking for someone specifically, then he wouldn’t make much move on Vascoguoncellos waving him over. If he was looking for someone specifically, but discretely, then they’d have a tell or another that Vascoguoncellos wouldn’t give, and he would still not make much move. And if he was looking for something different, well…that could be beaten out of him by the station security. The Bristol man didn’t have many, but he did have a few reliable enough hands on Fontana. All told, Pantalião figured it was as good a bet as any.
The pilot still carrying his helmet on his left hand noticed the man gesturing towards him and discreetly approached. He grabbed a small terminal from his pocket, glared at the screen and back to him.
. Vascoguoncellos, Pantalião Fontana Freeport, California System . .
“He did. Please, have a seat.”
Vascoguoncellos motioned to the open chair across from him, taking a long drink of his glass. He let a brief period follow, setting the drink down off the octagonal coaster and considering the man. There wasn’t much to be said about him, all told, though he didn’t seem incredibly old nor incredibly weathered. He seemed, generally, a normal pilot. For now, though, it was best to be blunt.
He takes seat, dropping the helmet on the chair next to him and offers his hand for a handshake with small grin slipping away for a brief moment.
"Great! Mike sends me, I'm Norman."
All formalities out of the way he took a short sigh and continued.
"Alright, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, so we'll get the obvious ones out of the way first..."
He looked around, with mild concern in his eyes and kept his voice low before continuing.
"We're a crew from the now defunct Insurgency, Secondary Fleet. We've been laying low for a while until a recent change in command and M-O and we're in serious need of assistance. Our goals mostly involve the Liberation of Erie and removing Liberty influence from Pennsylvania. The problem? Our flagship is far from combat-ready, we need some patch-up, fortunately we've figured out how to do that ourselves, Bristol won't have to get their hands dirty touching Hellfire hardware... I'm sure they wouldn't look forward to it."
After a brief pause he grabs his terminal again and reads something for a moment, then resumes.
"What we need from Bristol is much more simple and more on their line of work... After the bigger problems are dealt with and the vessel's combat-ready, we want some modifications on its bays, currently they're suited to service mostly Prosecutors, which is fine if you ought to land those, but nowadays we need to be far more flexible, specially if we're going to assist Zoner irregulars on the frontline. We need special-built bays more suited to service all kinds of fighter craft, we're talking Eagles, Sabres, Prosecutors and even Rebels. So... Do you think Bristol would be interested in lending a hand to help us liberate the Zoners of Erie?"
. Vascoguoncellos, Pantalião Fontana Freeport, California System . .
Well that was a request. A flagship…he had heard that it was an Arbiter, but it was interesting that the man didn't pay the common courtesy to let him know the class of ship they were proposing to modify. Considering the level of danger that fact added, such omissions were probably on purpose, but they were also incredibly stupid and insulting. Unless they were proposing there would be modifications performed in open space or an asteroid field, both of which were incredibly stupid with all the added risks.
That the ship wasn't capable of servicing other ships was, also, interesting. What the heck kind of set-up were these near-insurgents running that they weren’t capable of a few modifications that every house - every house, to include the fool Gallics - had done on their ships and stations was a fool and a half time.
“And the class of vessel this ‘flagship’ is, senhor?”
He stands still for a moment and drops a nervous chuckle before answering his question.
"Oh yeah... It's an Arbiter-class, I know this might sound like something too hot and dangerous to get involved, but I think retrofitting two hangar bays to reduce the servicing time on all kinds of snubcraft should be far less headache than patching through fancy, high-tech military-grade equipment, also far more cheaper... I'm glad we got the bigger problem out of the table before getting in touch with your team."
A short pause before he continues.
If you think Bristol might be willing to assist us then I can explain how exactly do we plan on making this, I assure you we're not going anywhere close to your docks with the ship, something like this would bring unwanted attention, and I can bet DSE would love some excuse to try and outlaw the company over possession of 'stolen military equipment' or bullshit like that, so we've been planning the right approach to reduce liability and danger towards Bristol... So, interested?"
. Vascoguoncellos, Pantalião Fontana Freeport, California System . .
“That…”
He swallowed, letting the word hang. There was something about it all that made Pantalião interested, something for admittedly all the wrong reasons. Would such a ship be an interesting thing? It may well be, but it was too much in his eyes. To remove the crew would be too much, in his eyes. To renovate the ship would be too much, in light of Bristol’s capabilities. To betray the trust of even a worthless organization was too much, in light of the future trusts that may come Bristol’s way. To engage with all of it was, quite probably, too much. There were eyes in a great many places, and not all of them belonged to Pantalião. Some belonged to the organization that opposed all of it, LSF. Some belonged to the wretches of the Technocracy. It would all be a very poor thing.
And yet, there was something. Vascoguoncellos was interested in the whole of the matter on the issue of principle; more information was, generally speaking, always better than less. And so, he wanted to prod a little more about it.
“If this ‘thing’ is so simple, so easy, then…why do you come to us? Especially when you have greater issues than this, to make your ship combat-ready…I am thinking you are not merely coming to Bristol only, no?”
He nods as if expecting the question, ready to answer it.
"We're aware about the expertise Bristol has with retrofitting and designing hangar bays, we've also heard about that fancy new Bulwark-class transport pioneered by your people, and we've heard about the sympathies and interests your company has in aiding and liberating the Zoners of Pennsylvania, be to get rid of Liberty and DSE, politics or both. Given the past history Bristol has, are you truly surprised that we decided to try and get in touch with you? ... Besides, we didn't have many choices to go for at a domestic level, there's several groups that want to help us but lack the means, and several more that have the means but wouldn't help us, Bristol sits right in the middle of all, and we're looking for a long-term business partner."
![[Image: noWmfNS.png]](https://i.imgur.com/noWmfNS.png)
![[Image: 4M4UTts.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4M4UTts.png)
![[Image: IDgpvpG.png]](https://i.imgur.com/IDgpvpG.png)
![[Image: T5nJFSb.png]](https://i.imgur.com/T5nJFSb.png)
![[Image: R2wbzfN.png]](https://i.imgur.com/R2wbzfN.png)
![[Image: dAW1eot.png111]](https://i.imgur.com/dAW1eot.png111)
![[Image: OECngVP.png77]](https://i.imgur.com/OECngVP.png77)
![[Image: 7ODm3kk.png33]](https://i.imgur.com/7ODm3kk.png33)
![[Image: RKgpLfI.png88]](https://i.imgur.com/RKgpLfI.png88)
