Living in the Fray

Chapter Nineteen

'So how long were you in the army?'

Krieger was sat opposite Erik at a small table in Hideki's bar. Her crew had long gone by the time they got there, Hideki mentioned that some were going clubbing somewhere and a few were just going home. The bar was pretty quiet later on in the evening once Sho stopped serving food and the customers went on their merry way to somewhere else.

'Oh I joined when I was eighteen, stayed in for a while after we became a part of the EMA too. How about you?' Erik replied as he swigged his pint.

'Same, was about to be ranked up before my unit ended up in the EMA. Then I ended up on the first vessel out here with Ronson and all that bad shit happened.'

'And now you're chasing convicts around for money.'

'And now I'm chasing convicts around for money.'

The pair smiled at each other and clinked glasses together.

That seemed like forever ago for Krieger as right now; she was stood alongside Ronson in a massive meeting room in some huge complex on Galleria belonging to the Galaxy Police, in front of four of the higher ups in the Human division. And the worst thing of the whole situation, was the fact they were all men. There was Commissioner Stevens the token Brit, Deputy Commissioner Maxwell who was American, another fellow American Commander Vasquez and finally Commander Harding from Austraila, representing the Earth Military Alliance. They were all older blokes that had that weird air of importance about them that transcended their positions and they were all the type that would totally condescend anyone given half the chance, especially if they were a woman, or a gay man. Which they had stood in front of them right now in the form of Krieger and Ronson.

'Please, take a seat.' Commissioner Stevens gestured for the duo to sit down.

'We'll stand if you don't mind.' Ronson replied. You may leave the military but sometimes military disciplines just don't leave you. Besides, Krieger and Ronson liked being able to leave as quickly as possible. Either way, while they weren't in the military any more it meant they didn't have to take any orders from anyone, unless they wanted to. But the chance of that happening wasn't even worth knowing.

The men behind the big desk raised their eyebrows at this comment but decided to carry on. Krieger and Ronson weren't part of the Galaxy Police or the wider EMA anymore; they weren't about to start acting like it just because they were summoned by the big bosses.

'Well go on then, you called us what do you want?' Krieger eyed the men, she was getting impatient now and she wanted to go home. It took the crew forever to get there as since the embargo on Tekana had been lifted, everybody with a ship was travelling and all the gates were backed up. Krieger had been told this meeting had to be face to face for "security reasons" as they didn't want to risk talking via vidlink. Ronson had told his friend they should bill the Galaxy Police for travel expenses. Deputy Commissioner Maxwell was the first to shed light on what the hell was going on.

'We'd like you two, to assassinate Ethan Müller of the OWLF.'

Silence. There was a brief moment of silence before Krieger and Ronson erupted in to a raucous bout of laughter. While these two were laughing away, the panel of very important men were entirely serious.

'You want us... US! The biggest liability in the entire galaxy, to take out the most heavily guarded man next to the fucking Federation President? Are you for fucking real?'

'Of course we're being serious Captain Krieger, we wouldn't have asked you other wise.' Commander Harding stated. The rest of the panel nodded in agreement.

Krieger slumped her shoulders down and held her forehead in her hand as Ronson just stood smirking at her. They were being serious.

'Captain Krieger, we have recently found out that Müller for some reason has decided to leave the OWLF's base planet in the Outer Fray for another he appears to be taking over and has since been advertising amongst their members for his own personal security detail.' Commander Vasquez said. 'He has a few bodyguards and aides when he goes about his regular business on planet, but as he never leaves it seems like he's trying to bolster his forces. The positions have however only just expanded to the mercenary community.'