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Contrary to what Samus had been told there would be no resistance in the woman's path, either down the distant passage that led to the named hanger nor at its doors. There would be no individuals sporting the white and black of the port's homegrown security forces, but neither would there be anything resembling private security as there had been with a handful of the other hangers. Of even greater concern to the woman should she have been paying attention on approach was the vague notification that a craft had left the hanger in question - although upon arrival the door control panel in the hallway would still show it as reserved and occupied.
And should Samus step forward and either peer into the hanger or pass its wide open doors she would see that indeed was the case.
While the majority of the room would be shrouded in pitch black darkness of the sort you rarely found aboveground, Ramsey himself would be clearly visible in what would appear to be the center of the room. Dressed in his steel colored, blue-gray flight suit but covered in tactical rigging supporting a dizzying array of pouches, pockets and other gear that was clearly military in nature, the man sat atop a military hardcased crate, illuminated by a small computer screen set beside him. While by all accounts as relaxed as an individual could appear Ramsey was clearly waiting for someone and expecting a confrontation, even further illustrated by the grenade launcher on the man's lap as he casually fed shells into its rotary drum one at a time as one might an ancient revolver at a shooting range.
Samus warily narrowed her eyes as she approached. Eagle sharp eyes noticed that the hanger registry screen showed that the ship had already left. But then why was it still reserved? And showing someone was occupying the hanger?
Was she already too late?
She carefully looked into the doorway. Her hand carefully unlatched the safety catch over her paralyzer, though not drawing it quite yet. She saw him there, inside, waiting. A match for the holo-image she had, and judging from how he was attired, and slowly loading the grenade launcher in his lap, shell by shell.
Samus knew she had one chance to maybe get his trust. Just maybe convince him leaving with her was in his safest interests. And walking in with a gun drawn was not it. Not if she could use who he was to help her case.
A deep breath, her mind calming, and she stepped inside, holding her hands up to demonstrate no hostilities. "I'd ask if you were waiting for someone, but I think the answer is a little obvious." She needed to not be threatening. She was here to help him…mostly. It was true Confleet wanted Ramsey out of any kind of public eye, but they wanted him alive and safe. That said they needed him. "Look, I'm not here for trouble, I'm not here for a fight. I'm here because someone put a rather ridiculous sized mark on your head through GFP, and I was asked by a mutual acquaintance in Confleet to bring you home to Sol safe, alive, and not missing any limbs or extremities."
Another step, cautious of him and that grenade launcher. She was possibly fast enough to recall her armor if he moved to fire, but one shot would for sure drop her shields and cost her precious time finding cover to let them refresh. She needed to do this the easy way. Which meant the hard and long road of convincing him of her honest intent. "Sergeant Ramsey...I know you fought and lost so much in those twelve years of fighting the Kromus. I know afterward, it was not easy, and no doubt you had reasons you disappeared for twelve years. I'm here, I think, because I lost just about everything too only two years after it supposedly ended. And my parents had been out there with you, sergeant. You might have known them, a couple of ÆSIRs."
She mentally crossed her fingers, hoping he would listen. Not everything, she had learned in the last several months, was solved with a missile or shocking someone's body into cardiac arrest.
If Ramsey was at all aware of Samus standing outside the hanger he gave no outward indication of it - nor when she walked in through the doors, hands raised in a nonthreatening manner. It was only when the woman stepped in through the doorway that his head lifted from his work just enough for one eye to settle on the hunter, holding that gaze as he slid in the last shell the rotary magazine would hold before snapping the weapon shut and letting it settle across his lap. Hands settling on the gun and sitting upright, his body language relatively neutral but carrying the sort of self assurance you rarely found outside of career soldiers, Ramsey remained silent as Samus continued to talk. His expression, though, spoke volumes - tired, wary but marred with hints of both confusion and interest as his gaze remained on Samus' face.
"Someone at home has a sick sense of humor if you were the best they could do." Ramsey finally said, and while his words were less than welcoming they were conversational enough in tone to belay any potential sense of hostility. He'd knew that the previous incident wasn't going to be the last one. The Hole was only going to stay safe for so long, and when someone in the market had mentioned seeing someone that had stood out so readily the old soldier had trusted his gut. Sent the rest of them on ahead with the ship and every bit of cargo they could load aboard it on such short notice. There'd been no sense in risking their safety over another gun toting child who'd come looking for him, but this wasn't necessarily what he had expecting. On either count, really. He'd been reasonably sure that the Confederation had written him off after leaving service, and he was no AESIR. People like him were easy enough to replace provided you had the right trainers, nor did he have any illusions that he was mentally put together enough for the military to accept him back. Nor did he want to go back.
People like him had no place in civilized society. By all accounts he'd have been charged for war crimes, but that would make certain people in positions of power look bad enough that Ramsey never believed he'd make it to trial even if he turned himself in. And even if the Confederation took him back....
"Those 'reasons' are why I'm not going back. The offer's appreciated but turning myself in to Confed isn't going to get rid of that bounty on my head. What it will do is create complications. Problems they aren't prepared to deal with and that'll wind up in me going to the people who posted that bounty to begin with, I'd imagine." Ramsey said, gaze finally dropping from Samus' face to the sidearm at her side, notably the fact that the leather strap meant to keep it in the holster had been undone. A slight chuckle from the older man, before dropping the gaze further still to the screen at his side. Reaching over, he would lightly spin it around so that the display was facing Samus - and showing a number of camera views, all of the exterior hallway that led from the main communal area to the hanger they now stood in.
"Wasn't aware that John and Virginia had a kid. Must've happened after they left service, regs tend to frown on that kind of relationship among personnel. Wasn't sure when I saw you coming but I can't say I'm surprised by the revelation, you look just like them. Like I said, someone back home has a sick sense of humor." The old soldier continued, before looking back to Samus and making direct eye contact again.
"So, you've got two options. You can turn around and go home. I'm not going back. Confed's got no place for me and I don't belong anyways. Not anymore. I'm hoping you take that option. Or you can try and take me by force, which I don't recommend. I might be older and slower and I'm sure as hell not in my prime, but I still very much doubt you have what it takes to bring me back alive. Or dead. I can't say I'd mind the latter too much but I've still got matters to attend to, and it's not really my life to bargain with anymore."
The old Kilrathi had warned her he wouldn't come easy. But this didn't need to be a shoot out. And her hutch had been right. Her old academy combat instructor had always said the special forces were tight knit, no matter if you were ÆSIR or the normal humans. Everyone knew everyone there.
"To be fair, sergeant...the paralyzer isn't uncatched for you, it's in case I had to handle anyone dumb enough to go for the price on your head." A pause as she glanced at that monitor screen. So far, no one else was coming. Good. "And to be to the point, Admiral Dane is not one for sick jokes when it comes to the rank and file that gave life and blood for the Spur, and probably the galaxy, against the Kromus. A lot of beings in the Federation, I know, aren't as grateful as they should be. But I know the Fleet is, and I'm here to make sure you were kept safe...not dragged off in security binders."
She hoped revealing who sent her might help. To the point, she didn't want to abandon him for some other moron to try for. "It's been over a year, but I know sometimes no one really believes it, or no one cares until it hits. Chairman Kea'ton rescinded Vog'l's 'end' of the war almost a year and a half ago. The Federation is in a full state of war, and he even revoked all the military restrictions that have choked Sol, and every other member of the Federation that has any kind of militia or system defense fleet." Again, Samus paused, though it was more to choose her words carefully before continuing. She could already feel her right hand tense, almost twitching, to shoot for her left breastplate and hit the sigil to call her armor. But she had to suppress that for now. "To be honest, it's not so much turning yourself in, as it is accepting an offer. From what the admiral told me, FleetCom wasn't really worried about what you were doing until a bounty big enough to destabilize a small frontier world's economy was put on your head. That's when they decided someone needed to get you out of sight."
And as she waited, she breathed in as a thought occurred to her. Just in case. Because truth be told, it was more whoever put the bounty on him rather than Castor Dane asking to have him brought back. She could trust Dane's intentions. But if it came to it with whomever really wanted him and doing her job...well...she'd learned a long time ago that the galaxy wasn't very black and white. If she needed to bend some rules to do what she knew was right, then she did it.
Getting caught bending those rules was a different story.
To Samus' comment regarding the weapon holstered at her hip all Ramsey had to offer was a bemused frown and tilting nod of his head as he conceded the point in a nonverbal manner, but who it was for ultimately didn't matter. She didn't seem to be here for a fight but that still meant that the weapon could be drawn in the blink of an eye, regardless of whom the shot was intended for. Someone with his worst interests in mind, himself, anyone, bullets didn't really discriminate - the only thing keeping her from drawing that weapon on him were her own motivations and those could change at any time.
What he wasn't sure about, though, was where Samus was going with her words as she continued to speak.
The attempts at painting a parallel between herself and him were blunt and rather heavy handed, to say the least, and while he could sympathize and even empathize with her situation... they weren't the same. Not even close. And he wouldn't have tried to claim as such were their positions reversed. While Marin would never make light of her losses the simple fact remained that losing a parent was not the same as losing a child or partner, and it influenced people in different ways. And the Federation? Marin had never given a single rat's ass about them. They had been utterly irrelevant as a presence in his life before and after his military service, and he didn't care what they said or did. They were cleaning their act up? Great. But as far as he was concerned they were 22 years too late, and nothing they did from this point moving forward could make up for that.
"So I'm an embarrassment. Unsurprising, but I fail to see how that's my problem or how accepting their 'offer' frees me of my current responsibilities. They haven't signed my paychecks in years, I don't answer to them anymore. And they hold no more responsibility over my actions." Ramsey continued, leaning forward and resting his arms on the grenade launcher as he did so.
"Were this really about getting me out of sight it'd be so much easier to denounce me, burn me as an asset. They wouldn't be lying. No, more I think about it the less I trust that there isn't someone in Confed with vested interests in this whole affair. I'd never pin Dane as one of 'em but no government is squeaky clean and two of them that have ignored me for the last eighteen years suddenly come after me at the same time? Nah. You're welcome to stay if you want to keep going with the small talk or swap stories as the daughter of fellow service members, but otherwise I think we're done here."
Either he honestly believed he had nothing left, or he was gaming something else. But right now, Samus could not shake that twitch reflex she was fighting off. Maybe it was nerves from seeing Ramsey prepared to blow someone to chunky bits as soon as they had walked in. Maybe it was knowing this was not working, but she couldn't bring herself to attempting a takedown, especially not here.
But there was something he wasn't saying. And his stated view on "Galfed cleaning up" touched as a flag to her for some reason. And then his remark about someone in the Confederation being tied up in "the whole affair."
Then it clicked as to why someone in the Federation put such an insane mark on him, and why Dane had insisted Ramsey be brought home, safe and sound. It wasn't about bringing him home to help with the war, or someone who disliked him that much as to offer than kind of mark for him. It was because he knew something. And that something was far more sensitive than the things that were done in the war, or a violent mercenary career afterward.
Confed needed him to blow the lid off of something, and someone in the Federation needed him to disappear so he stayed quiet.
"Can I offer a third option?" The young blond shifted as she watched him carefully, also watching where his eyes were looking. "I get you out of here, and you tell me a long story about your days as a mercenary in this whole affair while we get you to a safer place?"
She could only hope he got what she was trying to imply. If he had monitoring gear for the halls and corridors, so could others.
Well, she wasn't a simple crayon eater, Ramsey would give her that much. Connections in Confed and an implied military background aside, he could see the gears turning in her head. A bit too aimless and her approach too clumsy to have been in Intelligence and he could only assume that DAW or Dane had given her his file in the hope that a combination of that intimate knowledge of his background and the girl's own parentage would be enough to convince him to return, though. But she was thinking, and he could only assume she was trying to figure out why he was so stubborn in his refusal to return. To accept the Confederation's 'offer' which Ramsey frankly trusted less and less the more he thought about it.
At the same time, though, she was keeping track of where his eyes were looking, but that was only half the equation. It was good enough for here and now, though.
Unfortunately it seemed she still didn't understand, though. And it was only due to his grace and sense of patience that Marin didn't find her insistence wearing thin, although he was growing increasingly curious as to who she was trying to prove herself to. Hunters didn't work for Confed first, and she was going out of her way to snub the Federation here. Why? Because she owed someone a favor? Or because there was someone she viewed as an authority figure worthy of more than just respect back home? John and Virginia had died years and years ago. A substitute paternal figure of some sort?
The frown on Ramsey's face deepened, although it remained one of mild confusion and deep thought.
"Still not happening. I'm not leaving this room until my ride comes back for me. Again, the offer is appreciated but I have my own responsibilities now that I can't just step away from, and I'm not exactly traveling light. Now, you want to tag along and risk the same bounty on your head for those stories, well, that's your choice. But once again, I would not recommend it. Powers that be would not be happy with the idea that I've been talking."
He was stubborn. And to be fair, he seemed to be trying to keep her out of whatever mess it was that made him the center of all this. Samus could appreciate the concern, but she was just as, if not more so, stubborn, and she had questions she wanted answers to.
Plus, she knew things that definitely would not have been released to the galactic public regarding the Kromus. Things that might at least make him understand how serious she was.
"You should be made aware, at least, if I do nothing else while we wait for your ride. The 'Cunning God of Death' is still alive."
Her eyes stayed on Ramsey, studying him, trying to anticipate. Her other senses, however, were staying aware for anyone else who might interrupt. But hopefully, her comment would make Ramsey have some reaction. Outside the highest levels of the Confederation, its military, Kea'ton's inner circle and the Sangheili Arbiter, no one was supposed to know of Ridley's continued existence, because of the sheer panic that could create. She had heard about how the news of the Cunning Death still haunting the starways had turned even the Divolu to beg the Confederation to unleash the full fury of the fleet. If it was known Ridley was still alive after being "killed" at Krom, plus the cracking of that planet…
"And I'm not sure how much it might mean to you, but the Banished aren't exactly sitting wherever their little corner is, and they're not exactly seeming to be too friendly toward the rest of the Spur right now."
That information might get her in a bit of trouble should it get out even further. But he deserved to know. And it might sway some information out of him on what the hell was going on.
There was little that got to Ramsey anymore, although two of the things that Samus said next did. The first and foremost being that she apparently had no intention of leaving. If anything it was the opposite - rather than trying to force him back to Confed or dropping the matter Aran seemed quite intent on tagging along with him to his next destination. That... was a bit more than he'd initially bargained for. To be completely honest with himself the offer had been a bluff, intended to dissuade someone likely quite comfortable with her current arrangement with Confed - whatever that might have been - from digging any deeper. Let her hold onto at least some semblance of civility. Ramsey knew she'd seen some carnage in her life, more than most simply due to the rather obvious fact she'd survived John and Virginia's death at K2-L, but life within GalFed's borders followed at least some rules. The very fact that the Hole could exist in a civil state was proof of that. Still, the offer had been made and his bluff called.... and while Ramsey was reasonably sure he could get rid of her in a nonlethal manner if it came to it he wasn't sure he wanted to.
If she was that dead set on digging into the mess he'd gotten himself into Ramsey wasn't exactly in any position to stop her, anyways. She was an adult who could make her own choices, his own reasons for wanting to keep her out of it aside.
The next piece of news, however...
"Not possible." The words were flat and his tone certain, but Ramsey's expression would shift to one of stone faced stoicism as he answered Samus' comment regarding Ridley - finally, a hint of the old soldier surfacing. Even if he were to believe that the AESIR unit that fought the monster on Krom hadn't killed the beast outright - and he very much doubted such - the planet itself was the first world to be truly destroyed since Kilrah and the handful of NOVA detonations centuries ago, things that made the history books. It didn't get much more certain than destroying a planet with your intended target on its surface. Even still, despite Ramsey's apparent certainty the man found himself needing to make an almost physical exertion of willpower not to look back over his shoulder at the darkness behind him - although a momentary twitch and the start of a glance back likely proving enough to cue Samus into two things. First, he wasn't quite as certain of his two word statement as he might have put on. And second -
It was the first hint that the two of them might not have been alone in the room.
The mention of the Banished, however, did a bit more to visibly shake him than the mention of Ridley. If one ghost wasn't enough, the mention of another was. While they had definitely existed as per the usual historical records the Banished had become so insular and isolated in the recent centuries since the Machine War that they were little more than urban legend for most. A collection of ghost ships that remained within a set region of space, the only one that seemed to have little to no fear of the Kromus during the last war twenty years ago. While it was one thing to claim that a single albeit key leader of a war previous had survived the impossible, something that Ramsey did not find he truly believed, the Banished were a different matter entirely. No one really knew what they were capable of anymore after being gone for so long, and if they were the reason that the Kromus had left the Border Worlds curiously untouched...
It was troubling news with the Kromus moving again. The Kromus were a knowable threat, and while monstrous they were predictable. There was no telling what the Banished might have wanted if they were moving outside the Border Worlds for the first time in centuries.
"... to be completely honest, I don't believe you. If he was still alive after Krom, which I very much doubt, the Confederation would have had contingencies to put him down for good. Everyone at Krom knows his flagship wasn't destroyed - it just disappeared - but he was on the surface when it cracked. It wasn't a simple glassing." Ramsey started, although his eyes weren't entirely on Samus anymore. Rather, they were staring off at some point elswhere, seemingly lost in thought as he spoke. At least, that was, until they found her again - and for a second time, a glimpse of the old veteran shone through.
"But if he is? Let him come. No one's been sitting idle since the war 'ended'. Whatever time he's taken to put himself back together? We've been building."
"Ridley led the raid on raid on K-2L, Sergeant." She didn't appreciate being roundabout being called a liar or a hallucinating fool. "This scar on my face was from his claw. I watched him eat my mother in front of me, and my father died trying to detonate himself with that bastard, and he still is alive after Zebes and leading the Kromus."
The girl hesitated a moment. She'd let Zebes slip, though it was fair enough that most people in the Orion Spur had never heard of Zebes, and those that had knew nothing of where it actually was. But to be told that what she had physically suffered was not possible? Reason, sadly, gave way to her anger when it came to that subject.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Sergeant Ramsey. The right people don't want it known that Ridley is alive. Surviving Krom is enough to cause a panic if the general population found out, but he also survived being ground zero in an alforaltite explosion sixteen years ago, and he survived an assault from a Chozo in a ten thousand year old war suit, and from me in an armor that's very much more modern." At this point, there was nothing really compromising in revealing that much. Her birth father was already known for using an ancient Chozo weapon in the latter half of the war, and anyone who had known him in person likely knew about his connections to the living Brood. "And even if our side has been building, so have they. And considering there are Kromus now aligned with at least some faction of the Banished, which I can personally confirm since I was out in the Large Cloud just a couple months ago and ran into them all, it's possible that they may have all made some kind of deal."
And it only would occur to Samus after trying to make a point that she was saying things that were supposed to have been classified and not talked about. Freelancer bounty hunter or not, she still had rules she needed to play by, even if she had a serious preference for bending said rules.
Then again, she could always argue the finer semantics of that with Dane later. Or Kea'ton. Or both.
Or, as it should have occurred to her, there was worse to deal with. Even Dane answered to others, and the realization that the Federation Chairman was not the most intimidating person to have to explain herself to was one that should have come to her before letting her mouth run in effort to get her point made. It also should have gotten her attention that Ramsey was shifting his eyeline, even briefly. Something that she was again overlooking because she was hyper-focusing.
The moment Samus opened her mouth again Ramsey found himself very much regretting his decision to invite her along for the ride. He might've been out of the loop ever since the end of Krom but Marin still knew "classified" when he heard it, and it seemed his disbelief of her claim had touched a nerve. He could understand why. But he also understood what he had seen at Krom. There was no surviving what had happened to that planet, and as Samus continued to list off encounters with the creature the old soldier would find his own ideas on the matter finding some traction. The Kromus may've liked to cut corners but they weren't stupid, and psychological warfare had always been something they delighted in. More than that it was common knowledge that they used some pretty advanced biotechnology to augment and modify their own physique. While Ramsey would discount Ridley's survival almost out of hand hee wouldn't have found it all that hard to believe that the Kromus might have cloned him, with or without his knowledge. Either as a contingency of sorts or an act of desperation without solid leadership in play anymore.
When he started to think about it the idea of a copy of Ridley - or one like him - returning to replace the original wasn't that far fetched. Nor was it that the Kromus would try to pass him off as the original given the weight that name carried.
What did have Ramsey's attention, though, was the sheer number of secrets this girl was spilling out. Loose lips sunk ships, and Marin found himself momentarily speechless. War hero's child or not, you separated work and family. She clearly hadn't seen active service yet, or more likely had been kicked out if this was the extent of her self control. And if she had... who was it trusting her with secrets this valuable? Samus shouldn't have been out in the wild - she should've been confined as any other civilian would have been if they came across similarly sensitive information.
Forgot the things he was doing, the things he'd done. Confed had bigger problems than him wandering around Federation space. Eyes fixed on Samus before shifting to the door behind her as she kept talking, Ramsey would mentally tune the girl out as he stood up from his seat and began swiftly walking towards her, past her, and upon reaching the door controls the man would slam a fist onto one of the buttons to seal the thick bulkhead door shut and plunge the hanger into pitch black darkness.
"You need to learn to keep your mouth shut. Because if you don't I can guarantee someone else will do it for you." Ramsey said, voice hard as he began walking back to the dimly illuminated crate, the pale blue light forming a silhouette around the man from where Samus stood. "And it won't just be you paying the price. I'm not the one Confed should be worried about here. You get involved in my mess with that kind of self control and you'll be dead or incarcerated within the next few weeks."
What the hell was his damn issue? "The only reason I'm telling you any of this," she hissed as the old soldier would shut the hanger door and head back to his preferred seat, "is because you are already involved in shit deep enough to drown a full grown mi'raki." Half a second later, it occurred to her that he wouldn't understand what a mi'raki was, but that was hardly the most important thing. "I don't know what you're involved in, but no one just gave me this info, pal. I was there, I'm the one who told Dane and Kea'ton about Ridley, and I was the one sent out to the Cloud to find out what a bunch of Border Worlders were doing out there, and that's how I found a bunch of Banished out there with Kromus trying to recover a four hundred year old Terran ship with its crew still in stasis."
And then it finally hit her what he was doing, and she mentally hit herself for not noticing and realizing soon. He had noticed something while she had gotten caught up in her angry rambling. She was trying to make a point of how little he really got was going on, but his behavior finally clicked as her earlier reasons for being wary, until he'd hit a nerve about doubting her information, came back.
They weren't alone anymore.
Her hand pulled the hefty paralyzer from its holster, finger triggering the output setting and causing a high pitch tone to echo from the firearm. "Sergeant MacUspaig always said I needed to keep eyes on everything once I had them there...were you expecting your ride back this soon?"
While Ramsey might not have answered to the Confederation anymore that didn't mean his loyalty to them was gone. Not entirely, at any rate. While it was true that he'd since moved on from service within their military there were habits not broken so easily, and it wasn't like he harbored ill will towards the government itself. Even during his time employed by other entities afterwards he'd never spoken of his time serving simply because it wasn't their place to know. Most of his time spent within the military had been classified simply due to the nature of his work, and it wasn't simply the fact that he could've landed himself in a world of trouble by blabbing that had kept his mouth shut the last twenty years.
And here Aran was, still talking. While Ramsey was unaware of specific terms the general intent of the young woman's words weren't lost upon him, and just like any fresh recruit she'd completely missed the point. As on edge as the girl's motor mouth was putting him it was nothing compared to the sudden movement she made behind him and the sound of an electronic powering up, and even before Ramsey himself knew what had happened his body seemingly moved of its own accord - pivoting and beginning to raise the loaded grenade launcher in response to Aran's own drawn weapon, and it took a physical act of will to prevent himself from firing on reflex. His movement in turn seemed to awaken something in the darkness towards the back of the hanger as well, a constellation of blue lights and the shifting groan of metal making itself known only to stop with an irritated look back from Marin himself. Whatever it was, it was big, well over two and a half meters tall and equally as wide, but even without a verbal command it would stop in its tracks with one look from the soldier - although one of the larger lights would shift slightly as if to settle on Samus.
"Dammit. Think. Before you talk or do anything else." Ramsey said, voice a stark departure from his casual calmness before and now laced with irritation - as was his expression. Forcing himself to lower the weapon he was holding, the man was step back before finally looking away from Samus to the monitor he'd been following her on earlier.
"... no. We're still alone. As best I can tell. But that's the point. We're in a public space, and even aside from that you don't know me. Classified means classified. Unless you know the other person is aware already or has clearance you keep that kind of information to yourself. I've no idea how important half of what you told me is in the grand scheme of things but I can very well imagine the sort of damage it'd have done if any random passerby had heard and then sold it to an information broker in a place like this." Ramsey finally said, slumping down to his seat again and looking as if Samus had sapped a number of years off his life with that one exchange alone. While he looked tired, though, the man's eyes never left the weapon that Samus had drawn, silent for another few moments as the gears turned in his head, evaluating the woman.
"... they'll come back when I call them back. I haven't done that yet. I didn't know you, or trust you enough to let them near you. I'm still not sure I do. And I'm not sure this is going to work. I've no guarantee that something important might not be said that should be kept quiet, or that you'll keep your mouth shut afterwards. Where's my insurance policy? And what's to keep you out of trouble if you mention the wrong thing to the wrong person? The people who posted that bounty aren't going to care who you are or what sort of connections you have. That only matters if they get caught and if someone can prove their involvement. Hard to do that when someone simply goes missing. Their ability to keep me off the radar for eighteen years doesn't inspire confidence they'll be caught if they decide you're a problem."
Old words came back to her as Ramsey would lecture her about knowing what and when to say anything of value almost like an over-exhausted instructor back at the academy. Words spoken by someone who'd had a far more complex relationship with her before they had died, violently; "never reveal what you are. Someone will want that and not care how much they have to cut out of you to get it."
She hadn't admitted to Ramsey what she was now, but Samus was starting to sense she was getting dangerously close to something very important slipping out, all because she was frustrated and having an outburst.
"You served with my father," she said in a hushed tone, slowly re-holstering her paralyzer, but leaving it charged to be safe. Something was setting off her sense of danger now. "You were there with him on Krom, and with how much your combat record is blacked out, I assume you were at Zebes twenty-three years ago as well." A sigh as she now was focusing her vision in the dark conditions. It was far better dark sight than any normal human, but she would need her suit and its sensor array to see in the Dark like it was day. "Sergeant, I'm far more concerned over what it is someone would use the Federation as a cover for this mark they put on you. I'm not intending right now to leave with you unless it's on my ship, but at the least, I wanted something to be able to give the Admiral if you won't come back."
Her ear twitched, certain she had heard something. And as she turned back toward Ramsey and his seat on the hard case crates, she noticed something else there in the dark. And suddenly realized putting her paralyzer away probably had been best for now. "Sergeant, I'm going to go back and tell them the lead was a dead end for now. Neither of us needs the trouble at the moment, but my gut tells me you know something that several somebodies with connections on Daiban want kept under wraps, and the Chairman isn't one of them." Perhaps still a bit idealistic about Kea'ton still, but she had her reasons. "I'm no idiot, I know there's rot in the system. We wouldn't be stuck where we are if there wasn't. But I still have to have faith in there being people who can make that change to clean the rot out."
Her gaze went back to Ramsey, her words pausing as she took a deep breath. She wasn't abandoning the job, per say, but right now was not the ideal time and place to bring Ramsey back in to Sol. Her worry was that there might be other hunters here who had less complications with the kind of damage that would be caused trying to capture him.
"But maybe I am still just a little bit of a young optimist who is trying not to let a cruel galaxy ruin her faith that things can be better if she tries hard enough. After everything I've been through in sixteen years, it's all I can do to keep from letting those demons eat at me."
The tired nature of Marin's posture would not diminish as Samus began speaking again, although the stern look would return as a very specific name slipped from her lips. Krom was one thing - in its haste to declare a victory the Federation had made quite sure that everyone had heard that one. Zebes, however, was another matter entirely. While it seemed that the girl was trying to take his advice to heart as she'd visibly worked to calm herself down following the last exchange, self control didn't seem to be one of her strong points. More than that, she was almost unbearably naive between her initial actions on arriving at the Hole and her comment regarding the Federation, something that earned a bitter but subdued laugh from Ramsey meant more for himself than her.
The Federation? Used by someone? No.
If Aran thought that was a big deal... well, she was going to be in for a rude awakening as time went on. From what Marin knew of her parents Samus likely had the potential and innate talent to make a fairly good living as a hunter provided it didn't get her killed early, but if she was that much of an idealist she was going to have some hard choices to make. The Federation, whatever it might have claimed, was not everyone's friend. It was a system put in place to keep very specific individuals in power without having to fight for it, and so long as that system existed people would find ways to use it, to exploit it for their own gain. And, by extension, the reverse also held true. It might've been symbiotic in some cases like it was with the Hunters but at the end of the day the entire point of the government was to serve itself - to continue existing by whatever means it could, and that wasn't always pretty.
And if you weren't a member of that Federation? You weren't in a position to complain and make things awkward until your problems were fixed, or a position to negotiate to a similar end. And if you were, all that meant was the Federation was little more than a tool to facilitate your own goals and aspirations.
But that was all beside the point. While Ramsey could debate these things all day, the girl's use of his former rank was beginning to wear thin. There were some individuals that liked to hold onto that status after being discharged, but not him. He'd long since lost the right to it. His frown would return again at the mention of a very specific word spoken by the younger mercenary, however, although there was no bite to it this time.
Right. That word.
"... never did like that word. 'Faith'. Find people tend to use it when they have nothing else left, and by then you're asking for it to be broken." Ramsey muttered, his own eyes still on the girl as her gaze turned back to him in turn. There was a lot about her that didn't sit well with him, although he had a feeling most of that would sort itself out with age and experience. Judgement, self control, for better or worse that almost sickening optimism... if he wanted organ failure there were better ways to do it than sugar coating everything, literal or otherwise. Likely far less painful, too, but she'd learn that one way or another.
Dammit.
"... understand that this comes with strings attached. You want a way to find me, fine, but the moment I catch the slightest whiff of more than just you or a lone messenger from Dane I'll be in the wind again, and I can promise you won't find me a second time." Ramsey finally started again, several seconds of long silence passing after Samus' own final remarks had been spoken - his gaze never wavered or faltered nor did the expression on his face, but there was something different behind his eyes as he spoke again. "Smuggler's Cove. Planet's got no real name since it's not all that different from this place, but neither the Federation or Confed have any say out in the Frontier. They don't need to hide, and by extension neither does anyone there. You want to talk, that's where I'll be."