Starbound: A Space Odyssey 115 Occasus Cult And The Vault 2

Asra slowly tapped her finger on the table before asking again, "What about the Floran Artefact? Didn't you sent a Floran mercenary to the Great Hunt?"

"This..." Elana dodged Asra's sharp eyes and embarra.s.sedly lowered her head, "My Floran mercenary failed to win the Great Hunt, but don't worry to much. His chances of winning were already very low. Against monsters such as Nuru and Peri, he would have no chance at all."

"Really?" The young man played with the gla.s.s filled with water in front him. He mischievously smiled and spoke, "From what i heard the winner was a Human, not Nuru and neither Peri. Peri didn't even partic.i.p.ated in the Great Hunt."

"Mao..." Elana frowned in displeasure at the young man spoke so suddenly before she could explain to Asra what happened.

Mao shrugged his shoulders and smiled wickedly.

Asra frowned and her piercing eyes focused at Elana that started to break in cold sweat by being stared by Asra's eyes.

"Explain yourself." Asra coldly commanded.

"Yes, ma'am." Elana replied as her back become filled with sweat and her body stiffened. "The information I received from my informant says that the winner was a Human, apparently. His ident.i.ty is still unknown and I have a feeling that my informant is still upholding the info, unwilling to disclose it to me. I'm still looking into it, and also trying to figure out why he's being so careful now. Once I have more information I will certainly report to you, ma'am."

"Why don't you give your informant to me?" Mao said as he casually looked at Elana. "He will spill the information in no time." Mao said in a playfully manner with a gentle and heartwarming smile plastered.

"I know about your methods, Lieutenant Mao." Elana threw a side glance at Mao and said in a flat tone, "b.l.o.o.d.y and ruthless. Your torture sections always leave a mess behind. The informant has a rather high profile on the Floran community, I don't want something to happen to him that could make the Greenfinger's Council set their eyes on us. We are already basically fighting against almost all Hylotls and Apexes, as we go head to head against Letheia Corporation and Miniknog, I don't want another race joining the frail of wanting us dead."

"*Tch*" Mao clicked his tongue in displeasure, "But you can't deny that my methods work, right?"

"Yes, indeed. They are effective. After all, you are better than us in forcibly taking information from people. Unfortunately you are way too occupied with the mission Great Leader Asra gave to you, if not I might have thought of throwing this mission at you."

"About my mission, don't worry too much. My Vulture Special Ops will deal with it in no time." He said somewhat proudly.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. You always complete your missions. Albeit, I have to say, I'm not fan of your methods. The last mission was a simple stealth operation to retrieve the target, but you went there, killed almost everyone, and tortured the survivors for the sheer enjoyment. You should always bring the higher officers of such locations to me and I'll extract whatever useful information he has, but you always have them killed." Elana angrily threw one complain after another at the unfazed and casually smiling Mao.

"But I completed my mission stealthy, no witnesses were left behind." Mao chuckled as he said playfully.

"You-"

"Enough." Asra interjected both Elana and Mao before the conflict between both of them escalate.

Elana immediately tensed up and returned to look at Asra.

Mao just lazily sat of his chair and switched his eyesight from Elana to Asra.

Knax stood by the side, silent and steady as a rock.

Once she saw that both has stopped bickering, she started to speak, "Mao and Elana, I-"

*Blam*

"MA'AM!!!" Somebody charged into the conference room while breathing fast and covered on sweat.

It was a middle-aged man with short black hair, full beard on his face, about 1.89 meters of height, and a rather fit body, not very muscular and neither slim.

He was wearing a miner hard hat with a flashlight attached, and an orange uniform.

His face filled with dust and dirt was flushed red because of the physical effort he did to get to the conference room and because of excitement.

Once he lifted his head and saw four pair of eyes menacingly glaring at him, his excitement died down a bit.

"I'm sorry about the intrusion, ma'am, but I bring important and urgent news." He said respectfully toward the cold middle-aged woman know as Asra Nox.

"Say it, Clark." She spoke with a flat and menacing tone, "If I deem to be an unworthy news, I will behead you because of this intrusion."

"Yes..." Clark broke in cold sweat as he straightened his back and spoke with his excitement rekindled, "We found it! The excavation was successful, we have arrived at the Ancient Vault." His eyes brightened with decor as he spoke.

Yes, this man was Clark, the same Overseer that was in Lunar Base 12 before the John and Lenny arrived there.

He was forcibly taken away by Occasus Cult troops that went to investigate the Base, but once they found that the situation was worse than they predicted, they decided to leave after kidnapping the Overseer, Clark, to question about some Letheia Corporate's secrets.

After spending some time with the Occasus Cult, Clark disclosed everything he knew willingly to them and also decided to join the cause.

He wasn't fighting for humanity and neither for hatred against another race.

When he saw Mao's methods and way of work, disposing of everybody that lost their value, he decided to make himself valuable once he learned that the Cult was leading an excavation in a far away planet. He convinced Asra to make him oversee the excavation process and thus save his own skin.