-Strauss P.O.V.-

I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d expected from the leader of a bunch of people rumored to be little more than bandits and thugs. Perhaps someone gruff, a simmering personality that would just as soon crush someone for their insolence as to see it as a boon.

Whatever I’d expected, the mild mannered individual before me, milky white eyes who carefully moved over piles of paper methodically wasn’t one of them.

“Come,” Gerry smiled, “take a seat. They’re reinforced for people who want to keep their power armor on. I’m well aware not everyone is as… comfortable as I am outside of my suit.”

“I’d be much obliged,” I answered and followed up quickly, “I’m Jeremy Strauss, representing The Reaper’s Legion.”

The man quirked a brow at the name but didn’t comment on it, “well, Mr. Strauss, I appreciate you coming to see me. And your companions?”

He didn’t exactly look at each of us, so much as turn his head in our general direction, his eyes never moving.

“Adam, Allendra, Sammy, Denice, Jackson, Yomar, and our guide Timothy.” I gestured to each of them in turn, realizing afterward that I might have been gesturing for no reason.

As I moved, though, he had a thoughtful expression, “hmm, Timothy, aren’t you one of Mack’s men?”

“T-That was the case, yes.” The man stepped forward, “though, given new information that’s come to light, I can safely say that’s a thing of the past.”

The man smiled warmly, “well, that’s certainly interesting.” He gestured once more to the chairs, taking a seat himself, “so, we were told in some uncertain words that you seemed to have been holding my men hostage.”

Pat answered for us, “they released them as soon as we were in the city,” she said without concern, “they looked a little bruised, but nothing some bedrest can’t fix.”

I wasn’t excited to have someone speak for me, and with a grunt added, “they’d attacked us for our gear.”

Gerry’s expression never changed from that of patience as he considered that for a few seconds. “Some of our people are a little too happy to try to contribute to the general supply. I apologize, this isn’t something that we wanted to have happen when we set up here. I’m not excusing our actions, but there’s simply not enough to go around as it is. We do alright hunting biotics, but between keeping hunting parties armed and people fed, we’re spread thin.”

“We knew what to expect,” I said shortly, “and as Timothy was mentioning, that’s part of why we’re here today.”

I paused for a few moments, realizing he was listening only shortly after. “We come from Gilramore and Damond down south, we’ve gotten both cities up and running, and have access to two Obelisks. When we came here, we were informed of certain… peculiarities regarding the Obelisk.”

“Like the fact that communications are controlled?” Pat asked, having moved to Gerry’s side of the table.

“Just so,” I acknowledged, “from what we heard, you guys weren’t in Sunvilla when all of this started. You all had to leave your last city, I reckon?”

The first pull of emotion appeared on Gerry’s face, “yes, it was… a bad time for a lot of us. We’d held on as long as we could, but…” he shook his head, ridding himself of the painful reminiscence. “I’m expecting that you’re leading up to how we would have been able to see an unaltered Obelisk?”

My momentum halted abruptly there, focus sharpening on the man, “you’re aware of it?”

He let out a deep breath, Pat coming to sit beside him in a show of solidarity.

“Yes, or at least suspected. We didn’t have our own Obelisk for long, but we certainly had it long enough to know that food and bullets don’t cost as much as half of a biotic to get. On average, we get almost two dozen matter energy per cat. That doesn’t go far these days, and it makes no sense for there to be inflation.” He leaned forward, hands folded in front of him, his eyes somehow seeming to sharpen as he looked directly to me, “the problem is that we don’t know how to fix it. Now, I’ll admit, the reason why we’re talking right now is that I suspect that you all know just how to fix this situation we’re in. Am I on the right course?”

On the one hand, I was glad not to have to beat around the bush. On the other hand, I was a little concerned at how quickly he’d picked up the pieces. Then again, how many other things could we possibly be here to do? If we were here for a takeover, we’d certainly have brought more people.

“Thereabouts,” I shrugged, “from what we’re seeing, Mack and Benjamin are scamming the population. Our leader’s obtaining a biotic core to set the Obelisk right, and, to be blunt, we need a small army to get to that Obelisk.”

The man paused and waited for me to go on, and realized that was the only thing we needed. “And we’re getting what out of this?”

Confusion overcame me, “come again?”

“Just from what you’re saying,” he began, “you’re getting ahold of a biotic core to - I assume - recalibrate the Obelisk from whatever has been done to it. That’s all well and good, prices return to normal, the monopoly is broken… but then I have my people to look after, still. The situation evolves rapidly around Mack and Benjamins now fully outfitted elite forces; a new tyrant dictatorship in the making. We outsiders become the defacto ‘rebellion’ group as our new twin-tyrants desperately cling to the last vestiges of their power. The people who realize they’ve been duped, if they even realize it, come flocking to us, further threatening the new order.”

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“While I’m confident we could fight off one group well, if they both focus on us we’re in trouble. That’s not even including the Matter Energy they’ve been siphoning since the beginning of all this. Either they’ve been bolstering defenses around the Obelisk - meaning we’re paying a heft toll to even get a chance with your plan - or they’re pocketing it for a rainy day like that. Suddenly their elites are outfitted in some truly heinous weapons, and we’re left with no recourse but to submit to their authority. They reset the Obelisk as they want, and they never let that happen again. So, I’m asking you again, what’s in it for us?”

For several long seconds, I felt my jaw clench and unclench as I considered what the man was saying. It was a jaded way of viewing people, and as he spoke, I got the sense that he wasn’t angry that this was the truth he saw. This was just the way people were, in his eyes, cruel, conniving, greedy.

“I’m thinkin’ you’re focusing too much on the tidepool, when there’s an ocean next to you,” I said slowly. “It’s true that the situation’s gonna come apart at the seams, but you’ve got an opportunity to get out ahead of this. We’re askin’ your help now so we don’t have to bring an army through here, we have Argedwall to deal with first.”

He frowned as I spoke, gradually coming to his conclusions.

I continued, “the Legion didn’t tell me how they wanted this handled, so it’s in my hands how this goes down. Now, I don’t know how people are gonna react exactly, but I do know that we’re probably not going to let you guys govern yourselves after this… whatever this is.”

The man tensed as I said that, “so, we’re not even going to enjoy our own sovereignty?”

“After what’s been demonstrated here? No.” I leveled a glare at him, “not a chance in hell.”

Before he could say anything, I cut him off, “our governmental system is in three parts. The Legion oversees external threat management, resource acquisition, and, our primary goal, exterminating biotics. The second branch is The Bulwark, their job is to manage internal and last-line defenses, assorting matter energy according to need, and to a lesser extent managing the other two branches.” At this, I pointed directly to him, “this third branch are the Civic Orders. Any local governing structures in the city create an Order and are allowed to self-govern, so long as this doesn’t interfere with Bulwark or Legion tasks. They monitor and are monitored by the other two branches, and in our city that’s the people’s voice. The first and only required Civic Order in any city is the City Order, often hosting the leader, or leaders, of the city and their assorted people.”

“In other words, you can run your damn city how you please, but you don’t get to be a one-man system. We don’t have the time or patience for that shit. In case you haven’t realized, our world is being eaten alive by biotics, and they’ll get worse and worse until one side is dead and gone. So, when you ask what you get out of all of this,” I leaned forward, “you get to have a chance at surviving this crap and being on our good side when the Civic Orders get set up here.”

The man was silent for several, long seconds, his expression slipping between perplexed thought and exasperation, “you can’t actually reasonably believe that you can suppress a city.”

I shrugged, “we won’t have to. Our system works, it’s fair, people have thrived under it so far. I’m sure they’ll be jaded after everything these people have been through, but I ain’t alone in thinking that they’ll get over it, pretty quick too. You can get out in front of this thing, or you can try to catch up to it as it runs past you.”

Gerry looked thoughtful at that, but it was plain to see he was conflicted over this.

When he finally spoke up, I could feel bone-deep annoyance well up within me, “I appreciate the offer but-”

Pat put a hand on his shoulder then. Gerry paused, a confused look on his face as he tilted his head.

“Please excuse us for a minute, if you don’t mind. This is a lot to take in.” Gerry changed his tone, “would you mind waiting outside?”

I chewed my lip before shortly replying, “sure.”

My team and I rose from our seats, Yomar’s groaning in relief, as we left the room. The doors closed behind us, and I could only imagine what discussion was going on there.

“Think they’ll go for it?” Yomar asked on our own communications channel.

“I think they’d better,” Denice spat, “if they don’t, we’ll have to get the Legion down here. We signed up for biotics, not people problems.”

Allendra let out a weary breath, “these people are used to being taken advantage of. Of course they’re wary of some group they don’t know coming in and taking over.”

We sat in silence then, before Sammy spoke up, “I think they’ll take it.”

I turned my focus on him, “What makes you say that?”

“No matter what, they need to take care of the Obelisk. I think Gerry was putting on a strong front there, but the fact is that they’re not in a good place. He might have wanted to be the one on top, but I don’t think he cares about the power. Maybe he’s just trying to look out for his people?”

“I hope you're right,” Adam muttered, “but that still means that he’s not gonna be happy bending the knee.”

Jackson snorted, “it’s not like there’s a king or anything. Hell, if they figure it out amongst themselves, I bet the City Order can have one of those three in the lead. My money’s on Gerry, though.”

We looked at Jackson with varying degrees of amusement.

“What? I’m just saying, the guy is probably the most stable of the three. Why don’t we just install him as the City Order leader?”

I shook my head, “I really don’t want to be the guy who sets that precedent in the Legion. If Matt wants to, he can feel free, but I’m staying the hell out of that mess.”

“Though, I don’t dislike the idea,” Allendra clicked her tongue, “I’m not especially fond of him at the moment, but objectively he appears to be doing well enough.”

Any further conversation died off as the doors opened.

“We’ll help, but I want your word on a few things before we do.” Gerry’s voice met us sternly, though I could see Pat behind him grinning from ear to ear.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I responded, “what’s up?”

The man exhaled a long breath, before beginning.

Five minutes later, I couldn’t help but wonder at how exacting he was in regards to civil rights and how distrustful he was of authority. But, then, I supposed that was reasonable, all things considered.

Blessedly, though, I could hear Matthew’s voice chime in over the comms.

He’d finished his task and was on the way in. Which meant we had our work cut out for us...