By David C. Daoust
‘Serious Business. Everything is serious business in the Trade Consortium’. Major Sims never knew what the hell that meant. It was a thing his father said, so many times, that it echoed in his mind.
Most notably, his father said it the day he was packed up and sent to a military school. His father felt it was the best choice for him. Many of the ‘wealthier’ of the Crag felt the same way, private disciplinary schools, like that which Sims attended, were the place to go to learn your place. It taught you to follow orders- without question, for the sake of being able to follow orders- without question. All the better to prepare you for the military. This is what the Big Wigs liked. They liked to hire straight from the military.
The rest of the Crag was forced to deal with public education. Public education that was barely enough to keep the poor literate. Major Sims always had a sinking feeling in his gut, that these systems were built, or rather ‘left as they were’, because the system crippled the competition. The Trade Consortium was a competitive society, a society which bred competition. A viable way to win, quite simply, was to cripple the competition; Even better when the competition is crippling itself.
Major Sims family came from the ‘Middle Class’, this is what they called themselves, to separate themselves from the Crag. This seemed an illusion, another one of those sinking feelings he got, was quite simply, that no matter how high you got, the rung below you, is where the Crag started. To the Crag, it was all about getting to the rung you were comfortable, with who was above you. Major Sims spent enough years with the wealthy, long enough for him to see, that from the top, everything below was the Crag. The split was the ‘Big Wigs and the Crag’, the haves and the have-nots.
Sims stepped straight from military school, directly into service.
‘The Trade Consortium believed in a strong military’. Major Sims never knew what the hell that meant either, though enough of his Instructors had said it, that it too, echoed in his mind. He proved to be an exemplary soldier. He’d found his stride early on, and felt his life all fall into place. He served his years proudly and courageously, and yet then, suddenly, it was all over. He was pushed out the other side, with next to nothing, except of course the words echoing in his mind. All his life he was part of something greater, something he believed in, even if it was, at times, just protecting the soldier next to him. Now… he found himself in the Crag.
It was time for ‘serious business’. Private militaries were everywhere in the Consortium. It was notable that the Trade Consortium had a way of breeding Pirates. So many, in fact, each corporation seemed to need the very finest soldiers to keep their holdings in order. These Pirates were glorified to those in the lowest regions of the Crag, though the pirates frightened the ‘Big Wigs’, as though they threatened their very lively hood.
A job should have been easy for Major, he was well decorated, and the first of his class- in every class. He had seen more missions than anyone in his company. Despite it all though, he seemed to be turned away at every door. The frustration built, he found himself sinking lower and lower into the Crag, until finally he got an offer from Otomo Corp. It was the smallest of the big corporations, though it was still a big corporation. He scooped it up without looking back.
It did not take him long to smell something fishy going on in Otomo Corp. At one point, he thought, he was losing his mind, though as he delved into the corporation, investigating those around him… He discovered the truth.
He discovered the ‘Seaguard’, the Central Intelligence Agency of the Consortium. And with it he found himself back home, home amongst soldiers just like him. This was no ‘Private Military’ this was the real deal, the backbone of the Trade Consortium. It was the corporation that was the façade.
Major had been watched from early on, not only his early school years, he served unknowingly many missions for the Seaguard, directly, during his military career. And when he got shuffled in front of closed doors, those doors were closed by the Seaguard- to push him to the Seaguard.
Had he not been up to snuff to find the truth, he may have continued on all his years thinking he was a rejected soldier, working for some tiny corporation…
He was up to snuff though, and he rose far in the Seaguard. There were not many higher than Suzanne Otomo. In fact, he believed she answered directly to ‘the Board’. For which Sims had very little care to do. He felt about right where he wanted to be, he’d gotten a firm grip on his ‘rung’.
Of course, this was all before the tiny little blond, with the big mouth, got in the way. Dakota Sun was proving to be his downfall. He went from ‘lead field operator’, answering to ‘Seaguard Otomo’ herself… to where he was now, which according to his contract… put him on ‘bodyguard pay’, which could not be good. Though the fact Suzanne was using his full name, as though it was a rank, he could tell she was threatening to forget who he was completely…
