Starbound: A Space Odyssey 26 The Harsh Reality 2

"That man was called Mouro. A famous a.s.sa.s.sin around the Gamma Sector. He's usually very expensive to hire. His primary mission wasn't to kill you, but to kill a man named Clark. Tepei wanted to erase all pieces of evidence of his corruption before we were able to get him. That is why he also ordered the lockdown of the Lunar Base 12 and tried to make all the miners there to die. A lot of smuggled Erchius Crystals came from that particular Lunar Base, and Tepei was the one controlling everything from behind the scenes."

"Really?" John squinted his eyes and glared at the smiling Itsuki. He didn't know why, but he felt that she was lying. His senses were telling him that she was lying, and in his training to become a Protector one of the most important things he learned was to trust in his instincts and senses.

"Yes." Itsuki nodded and then gave a bow toward John, "I'm representing Letheia Corporation to say that we are sorry for the inconvenience that we caused for you and that we are willing to compensate you as an apology for our disgraceful mistake."

John hid his suspicions behind a very polite smile, "Oh, there is no need to bow. It isn't necessary to compensate, after all, gratefully, nothing bad happened."

"No." Itsuki shook her head, "It's one of our policies, to compensate wronged parties."

Esther interjected and said, "You should just agree to it, dear. You know how much Hylotl value honor and rightfulness. When they do wrong they should compensate, it would be impolite if you don't accept the compensation, it's like you don't accept their apology."

"Alright then..." John helplessly decided to accept it.

"I'm happy that had chosen so." Itsuki opened a drawer of her table and took a Data Chip from it, "This data chip contains an Interstellar Map of the Alpha, Beta and Gama Sectors. They are 100% complete. They have the location of all the Star Systems, Planets, and their Biomes. The Map also shows the location of Scientific, Mining and Business Stationary s.p.a.ce Stations. And it also has information about dangerous locations with meteor showers, black holes, spatial disturbances and places where pirates and outlaws are more frequents."

"This seems valuable and confidential..." John eyed the Data Chip at Itsuki's hand.

"Yes, it is valuable, but not that much. All of the confidential information had been extracted from it, so you can freely use it." Itsuki circled around the table and stopped before John. She took John's hand and gently placed the Data Chip on top of it, "I think you really need something like this, right?" Itsuki threw a side-glance toward Esther.

Esther bitterly chuckled a little.

John saw the silent exchange between them, "She knows...?" John whispered to Esther.

"I know a lot more than you think, Protector." Itsuki slowly returned to her seat, "Nothing in the Ark Outpost happen that I don't know..." She gently smiled.

That smile made John feel a chill down his spine. His instincts screamed that the female Hylotl in front of him was way more dangerous than Tepei. Not in raw strength or skill, but in something else. The difference was that he didn't felt bad vibes coming from her, just a mysterious atmosphere.

"From the look in your face, I can tell that have something to speak." She sat again in her chair.

"Yes... Why are there so many people around the Ark Outpost now?" John diverted his eyes from Itsuki's.

"Oh..." Itsuki lightly chuckled, "This isn't what really is in your mind, but whatever." She relaxedly sat on the chair and started to tap her finger on the table, "Before I can I explain that I have to tell you about the situation the Universal Hylotl Government and the Letheia Corporation os currently. The Hylotl people is currently divided, politically, in three sides, the Extremists, Pacifists, and the Centrals..."

John found sat down on the sofa that was in the room.

"Originally almost every Hylotl adhered to the Pacifist faction, or Sea Faction, but then came the war with the Florans. The savage Florans were strong enough to beat the pacifists Hylotl so hard that made us hide deep in the ocean. We lost our home planet to them. After the war the Extremist faction, or what we call Reef Faction, and Central faction, or Ocean Faction, they were factions more inclined to military and they took this opportunity to rise up. Their factions saw exponential growth. The Pacifist Sea Faction lost the power and the Universal Hylotl Government became the stage for a game of power between both the Extremist Reef Faction and the Central Ocean Faction. While the Extremist Reef Faction is complete warmongering and xenophobic faction, the Central Ocean is also militaristic, but they aren't xenophobic, on the contrary, they are very welcoming of other races and their cultures. But as the game of power on the Government was ongoing, the game in the economy also started. With the rise of the Letheia Corporation, created by the Sumeragi family, the head of the Central Ocean Faction, the Extremist Reef Faction also wanted a piece of this giant pie. To wage war, the most important thing is resources and money, the Extremist Reef Faction is mostly made of Military Personnel so they know they need resources to build up an army, thus they aimed for the Letheia Corporation. The Central Ocean Faction is mostly made of businessman and politicians, they know that war is extremely unfavorable for politics and economy, so they tried their hardest to stop the Extremist Reef Faction. The Pacifist Sea Faction is mostly made of scientists, researchers, philosophers, etc, they simply despise conflicts so they usually help the Central Ocean Faction, but they prefer to stay away from this game of power." She explained the overall situation.

"So... What that have to do with the current situation at the Ark Outpost?" Even though John was intrigued by the internal fight of the Hylotl, he was more interested in the situation of the Ark Outpost.

"There is a lot to do with it. When the Ark Outpost was discovered by the Letheia Corporation It was already populated by a lot of people. But the ones who discovered it was true members of the Extremist Reef Faction, they wiped out everyone here and wanted to make the Ark Outpost a Military Outpost that could be used to deploy soldier anywhere in the universe through the Ancient Gateways. The Central Ocean and the Pacifist Sea factions discovered their plan and decided to make the Universal Hylotl Government involved in the case to put a stop at their plans. After a long negotiation, the Extremist Reef Faction was able to have the Arm Outpost, but they weren't allowed to militarize it. If it can't be militarized they decided to transform it in an Interstellar Hub, whereas they would have the monopoly of the products here sold and also control who can enter and who can't."

"So... What you mean is that Tepei was an Extremist?" John asked.

"Yes. They implanted a ban in this place to control who can enter and leave. This was an economic and safety decision. They didn't want to have spies of other races and spies from the Central and Pacifist factions running around their territory. But even though they have a lot of military personnel, it was impossible for them to go around the universe and find all the Ancient Gateways and block them up, so they needed help to locate and secure all the Ancient Gateways. There is when the Terrene Protectorate enter the scene..." Itsuki gave a gentle smile and looked at John and then at Esther.

John's eyes sharpened a little and he glanced at Esther.

Esther sadly sighed and turned her head to the side, dodging John's questioning gaze.