Parker Selfridge sighed as the 'Liaison' entered his office; it wasn't that he disliked the man personally, he just hated the thought that those overpaid suits back on earth would send someone all the way out here just to make sure everyone played nice together. Like he wasn't half killing himself to do that already.
"You Harris?" he asked rhetorically as the older man nodded, "Thank god you showed up when you did, I don't know how we survived without your valuable input to this point," Parker said sarcastically as he waved out at the Hellsgate facility he had overseen for the last ten years.
Smiling, Xander nodded in recognition of the sarcasm. Sarcasm he could deal with, sarcasm was the tool of someone unwilling to press a fight.
"Yeah, I can see I've been thrown onto some feet here. Just so you know I was ordered out here because I probably pissed off the wrong stiff in Corporate HR, so they shipped me out to the middle of nowhere to play peace keeper with no authority." Xander shrugged, the lie now slid off his tongue with practiced ease. "So here's how I'm going to do this; I'm going to go play make believe that I'm on vacation for a year or so before heading back to Earth, you let me play make believe and I will head back with a glowing report on your leadership and general management skills. I'll even throw in a recommendation for rapid advance due to profitable policy management in a hostile workplace." Xander said as he laid the carrot out in front of the management peon carefully.
"On the other hand, should you make my vacation unpleasant I will document every flaw, concern and issue I see while planet-side and make up half a dozen more before I get back home. You will never advance, you will never get stock options, you will never get a raise and you will never retire to the manager's retreat. The rest of your natural life will be spent on this mud-ball planet breathing reprocessed air, eating dehydrated food rations and arguing with others on how to do your job." Xander explained the stick portion of the equation carefully, he knew that if he pushed him too far, the spineless little rat would likely lash out at him, but if he didn't push hard enough, he would never submit.
It was a tricky balance to achieve, but several centuries of practice were helpful. By this point, Xander knew the ruthless businessman ego, probably better then the man knew himself. Next would come the return volley.
"Fine, we play it your way." Selfridge said as he calculated the best way to keep this headache away from himself. "But if you interfere with my work I'll have Colonel Quaritch arrange an accident, I'll take the black mark on my record and you will never get a chance to report anything." The up and coming manager swore.
Xander nodded coldly.
"Then I figure we have ourselves an understanding," Xander said before dropping a box on the table. "Have fun." Xander said before walking out the door "Call me if you need me," He tossed over his shoulder before leaving the office proper.
Selfridge waited until the man had left before opening the small box; he couldn't help but smile at the dozen golf balls that were arranged inside on a neatly folded section of Astroturf.
"Nice"
--
Xander resisted the urge to smile as he walked down the hallway, he hated when he smiled, it usually meant he was about to be attacked.
His luck held true to form as he passed an intersection a blow came out of nowhere, crashing into his jaw and sending him to the ground.
"You sonofabitches think you can take me back without a fight?" the attacker growled.
Xander rolled away from the onslaught and was once again amazed at his luck. Twelve billion people on earth, an extra dozen or so scattered across the stars and he just had to run into the slayer.
And a slayer with a serious hate on for the Council no less. Yeah that was pretty much par for the course.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there, slayer." Xander tried as he retreated from the small woman with an ease born of long practice. "I'm not who you think I am."
The woman snorted. "Alexander Harris, Missions specialist for the Watchers Council."
For a moment Xander tried to formulate a reply before simply nodding. "Okay so I am who you think I am." He admitted before backing up again "But I'm not here for you." He explained and decided that the murderous glare was evidence enough that she wasn't buying it. "I swear, I was burning out and I needed to get away from it all."
"And they just let you go? Right pull the other one." She grated out as she moved to attack again.
Continuing to fall back, Xander tried desperately to explain "Honest, they had the option of letting me go and maybe getting me back someday or trying to force the issue, which one do you think they were going to choose?"
Finally stopping her assault, the slayer glared at him before taking a step back "You're really not here for me?"
"I swear, the first hint I had that you were here was when your fist impacted my face," Xander said before offering his right hand to her. "Alexander Harris, ormerly of the Watchers Council."
After a moment of hesitation, the slim form stepped forward and gripped his hand with the near bone crushing force only a slayer can achieve. "Trudy Chacon, the same." She said before nodding over her shoulder, "So, as it seems were not going to kill each other, want to grab a bite?"
Shaking his head at the rapid shift in thought processes that dominated the slayer's mind, Xander chuckled. "Sure and maybe you can tell me how you got all the way out here."
--
"So after getting away from the Council you ran to Pandora?" Xander asked as he sat down next to the only living slayer and stirred the rehydrated eggs into the ketchup he was using to mask the taste.
"Nah, I joined the Corps. They put me through basic and then flight school, I guess I did pretty well in the Canada Excursion, 'cause the next thing I know they're packing me and my Scorpion up and shipping me out here," Trudy explained as Xander nodded in understanding.
"That's how you slipped through, when the RDA first started up we didn't have anyone on the inside, took us nearly a year before we got someone in Human Resources that could check things like that. You probably slipped through before then," Xander said before frowning. "Wait a sec, you were in the Canada Excursion?" he asked and frowned at her nod "British Columbia or Québec?"
"BC, went in on the third wave, escorted supplies and heavy patrols out of Hercules Base for the most of it before they transferred me to Ares," Trudy said as Xander stared at her in shock.
"No shit? God, I hated Ares Outpost! They had the most obnoxious coms master," Xander said as the young soldier laughed.
"Yeah, with the nasal problems… What was his name?," Trudy stared off into space a moment before snapping her fingers, "Keef, that was it! Made you want to punch him every time he opened his mouth." She laughed before shaking her head at the memory, "Whatever happened to him?"
"Caught a Highrise two-twenty round on the tower, no survivors." Xander said with a shrug "We must have been within a hundred yards of each other," Xander said before laughing. "All that money spent searching for you and we probably missed each other in the mess line."
Laughing at the absurdity of it all, Trudy let the smile drop as the call went out for pilots to report. Shrugging, she pushed her unfinished food towards Xander. "I'll see ya around." She half threatened before jogging off to catch up with the other pilots.
Smiling, Xander watched her go before turning back to his food; his Avatar should be tanked soon. He really wanted to take his for a spin.
--
A\N in the first chapter I have Xander shoot Tom, this is a mistake as Jake says that his brother was stabbed, I apologize for the mistake.
Also, while the game may have some back story on Trudy Chacon, I have not played it… so I'm making it up.