>>6057614“The Directorate, huh. Tch, tch, quite unambitious, little mouse. Why ask me when just a couple evenings reading through publicly available records would tell you everything you need to know?” Richard looks down on you, quite literally. “I'm not interested in that, lieutenant. They are outsiders, you are an insider. Surely there are some unclassified tidbits you can tell me?”
“Well, I suppose there's no point in hiding this, it should be obvious anyway.” Walking around the table, the agent bends his head in every direction, smiling, waving, taunting every cameras and voice recorders in the room, known and unknown to you. “The Director of Lighton is a spineless puppet, and the Directorate is still little more than the cackle of freebooters, separatists, and clanless it was 50 years ago. Everything has simply gotten a shinier coat of paint, is all.” Disgust bends low his every vowel and consonant, stress and pause, to a depth you once thought impossible for this shameless man.
He stops, a deliberate silence in the painstakingly rehearsed plan. His left hand curls into a fist. “And yet, we have broken countless attacks from these insects, and even driven them back. Kaskandir, Hac-thach, Birtoren, these victories are no coincidence. Nor are they miracles. For in truth there is a hidden strength at our core...” You interrupt the cat before his paws can pummel the innocent table. “I don't care for the idle philosophising of a lion, Richard. Facts, give me facts.”
Evidently surprised, the man does not even try to hide his satisfaction at the unearned compliment. “Well, then, you already know the major players in Liteian politics, at least?” Of course, Silas made you memorise them by heart. “Lightonians, New Cantonese, Hawaiians, Cubans, and Kinois. But how do you balance these petty republics against the Core powers they broke away from?”
“We don't. There are plenty enough existing rivalries to force their hands. For example, Tandong transnationals were spooked into lifting their embargoes against the errant salariats of New Kanton just from us ‘considering’ to expand the Shanghaian military concession alone.” He turns away, seemingly to hide his face. If there is anything this man believes at all, this is it.
“In any event, history has already shown the real value of overstretched Coreworld expeditions in the face of a determined foe. In their place, these ‘petty’ states are the only strength we could rely on. With their men and their valour rests our sole hope of a lasting victory in Liteia and a future for the Directorate.” His eyes rest on the cafeteria clock for a long time, waiting for the stumpiest hand to budge. “It would be unfair to call the foreign garrisons at Nghe-tae and Batavia anything but brave now, isn't it?”
