"Now, now," Adrian said slowly with a light smile crossing his fair face, "Don't look at me like I'm some sort of common terrorist…show a little more fear, at least." Chuckling, he raised his glass of apple cider and sampled the exquisite flavor with savoring gusto. "I'm at least an usurper, a rogue of kings rather than streets…try to be a little more tactful in your facial expressions."
But a few minutes before, the men he was speaking to were anything but enraged. To them, the esteemed Councilmen Bryx, Dante, and Corleu, this party was a success of surprising proportion. Certainly all were thinking of donating to the Ambassador's work here, and few had their minds on the flashy socialite Adrian who had idly edged his way into their cloistered circle. Indeed, the poor fools hadn't realized the tangible threat he represented until he spoke a single sentence…a shot fired into their collective hearts.
"Deydrich Ulysses is dead."
The implications of the phrase alone were staggering. Knowing the name of the infamous assassin was one thing, claiming his death in such a commonplace manner was something else entirely. A look of panic passed between the three men, instant, but unguarded…all the confession Adrian needed. So these gentlemen had been the ones behind the deaths of Councilmen Arrows, and Sing-La…both had been valuable assets to the tycoon and he felt their loss sorely. Normally he'd handle this one with tact and grace…but the look of panic, and the infuriation that followed was simply worth all the danger of revealing his hand. What did it matter? They wouldn't live to see the next solar cycle anyways.
"Gentlemen," he chided with a theatric sigh, languishing one hand against his forehead as if feeling faint. "I daresay you were diverting opponents at best, but the 'jig is up' or so they used to say."
"Preposterous!" Dante said with a laugh. To his credit it seemed genuine, but Adrian could detect the nervous tremor toward the end. "You're joking of course, a marvelous comedian you are!" He followed with a round of stiff applause, hardly enough to cover the edging fear replacing anger.
"Dante, you I will miss," Adrian admitted with an almost comical frown on his jovial face. "You were a promising politician, but your past acquaintances had betrayed you and a sloppy public figure is of no use to me." He had no reason to speak to the other two. Bryx and Corleu were nothing more then bought votes. They had no cause to champion and thus browned quickly, rotting to the very core. While corrupt men were easy to buy, they were poor support to build a tower from.
Adrian needed no such temporary support either, with the standing armies of almost fifteen Galactic Power class governments and a handful of others…he was more than prepared to wage war against the Galactic Council as a whole. Still…it didn't help that the resulting conflict would mire him in debt and destruction…a poor empire to inherit. No. He had to win by show of power alone, an armada so massive that victory was certain not just to him, but to everyone in the damned Alliance. For that he would need more time, an eventuality he had reconciled himself with.
Preparing to meet the placations of the politicians with polite but firm opposition, Adrian at first did not pay any heed to the speaker on the stage. Certainly, though, when a collective gasp rippled the crowd…Adrian broke off his gloating revelations to the walking dead men and turned his attention to the stage.
What followed was at best…intriguing. If it wasn't for the woman on stage grabbing the cat-boy with what was loosely passable as a fleshy tentacle, he would have written these invaders off as regrettable space trash if not for that delightfully interesting little talent. Shapeshifters…and from the looks of it, a whole crew's worth! Adrian could have giggled…but such was hardly the appropriate response for hostage situations and thus he remained silent and low as the Skarrathos brigands lay waste to a few pirates and more than a few unrelated lives. In his refuge behind the buffet table, the shot to eliminate the three councilmen was painfully simple. Three shots from the small firearm ended a probable hole to his devising…and the Skarrathos massacre created probably cause and a far more convincing excuse then he could have ever wanted to mobilize his political assets.
But although the events of the evening had more than furthered his ambition, somehow Adrian could not quite commit himself to the momentous joy of the occasion. Ziranova had been taken, and although he could rationally ignore her probably demise…somehow, the fact grated against his emotional composition. The only recourse was to create a use for her, and being the Ambassador, it wasn't exactly difficult. Up till he had met Ziranova, Adrian had been singularly a man of uncompromised drive.
There had been no attachment or obstacle that hadn't been created or maintained for the sheer purpose of appearance. Ziranova had begun as a tool to get closer to key politicians, and yet somehow she had become more than simply a means to an end…what she had become…he could not say. Having no particular fondness between him and his parents, love was a concept as foreign as peasantry. He would not call it love, no…he could not. To admit he was as easily led to folly as countless others in the annuls of history would be the equivalent of finding flaw in his grand design, or in his imagined view of his own grandeur.
He wasted no time in vacating the premise, signaling his own personal starship to home on his signal and teleport him on board.
Once within his luxurious cruiser, Adrian wasted no time in using the advanced array of sensors on his ship to pinpoint the individual teleportation of the pirates. Hmm…not more than a star system away but with the Overlord's battleship (leave it to the Skarrathos to bring a warship to a party) he couldn't very well just jet around them. Although his ship no doubt had the superior speed…the war-like savages had a talent for callously gunning down items that didn't concern them…it was like an ocular disorder.
Accessing the main feeds of the cameras within the party was simple…doctoring the footage to make the pirates appear more…savage…while singularly deleting the tentacle manifestation was not so easy. Not deft in data manipulation, Adrian had to rely on the superior programs in his ship computer to splice the data and save an unaltered file on his own hard drive. The doctored security footage would remain for the authorities…but by then it would have touched the screens of over a thousand communication devices…relayed by the best in Galactic transportation, only his personal allies would receive the addendum Adrian added below the video.
'As you can see, the Skarrathos have provided us with a unique opportunity for mobilization…see that all current negotiations with supplementary systems and planets are hastily resolved…we cannot let this opportunity pass us by.'
With that insurance in place, the ambitious tycoon could now fully devote his attentions to the rescue of Zenova…and random other individuals. Ordering his captain to maintain full engine capacity toward the last known location of the teleportations, Adrian regrettably passed up the opportunity to arrive via hyperdrive for obvious reasons…how could one use their advanced stealth system if they were moving too fast to maintain the field?
Patience would have to be maintained…
Or at least he assumed.
Ziranova had reached someone with her desperate ploy to garner outside allies. The Phantasm Zephyr (As Adrian fondly named her) Was a work of design and trillions of dollars…while not armed to the teeth, the Phantasm was certainly armed with the newest of destructive capabilities. The entire system and ship along probably cost more than several small moon planets…or one big main planet. Part of the wonderful package included information relay systems experimentally proven to be incredibly perceptive at capturing weak or wavering communications.
The phone registered as the one belonging to a certain CEO of a certain industry Adrian had been eyeing since its experimental foray into bioengineering…and also a certain captive.
"Can I help you?" Adrian answered the attempt to communicate, homing on the signal and replotting his course. "I'm surprised your kidnappers left you with an ability to contact the outside world…more the fortune to you though. Captain Adrian O'Malley-Shirou reading your signal loud and clear…can I render assistance perhaps?"
