Chateau Renaud

Outskirts of the city of Verona Beach

New Corsica, Ensee System

August 1, 2558

Chateau Renaud sat at the edges of the continent of Eiden, bordering the snow tipped peaks of the Lom Mountain range to the west and the metropolitan sprawl of the rapidly growing city of Verona Beach. Situated at the southern hemisphere of the colony, Eiden was the largest continent of New Corsica, however the most remote. Sprawling forests, vast fields and the largest borders with the ocean make it an ideal place for civilians, military and politicians to find solace away from the quick paced lifestyle back at their homes. Surrounded by a gate that enclosed nearly 2 square miles of private property, the chateau Renaud's exterior looked much more futuristic compared to the earlier stone and wood versions where its Earth origin had come from. Glass roofs would allow natural light to filter in at certain degree, providing illumination while keeping the glare and unnecessary heat out to produce electricity. The halls were decorated with the Renaud coat of arms that dated back to the family's French origins since Bastille Day, where among the oldest records of their lineage had been recorded.

On the perimeters of the high decks surrounding the house was a squad of private contractors assigned to guard. All nine men carried Misriah weapons and were all decorated veterans of the Human-Covenant War. However, for the meeting and its visitors, security was among the least of concern today.

A group of limousines sat on the semicircle driveway beyond the metal gates that led up to the chateau's entrance.

Inside, a party was held with people mingling, chatting with each other or enjoying refreshments served by the compliments of the host's wine cellar, many of the brands from New Corsica's finest wineries, the most expensive bottle costing over four thousand credits. The buyer got to choose the color of the diamond that came with the included bottle opener.

After the party, the guests headed back home. Some had their cars driven and others hopped back into their limousine to head back to their hotels or to Verona Beach's Sky Gateway Spaceport. However, the more important figures, drifted towards a long room at the end of the house. This room was equipped with a Faraday shield as well as a single recording device to monitor a meeting, tended to by two members of the chateau's security team. A long table was in the center made of polished mahogany. On the center, a long object sat, whatever was underneath was obscured by polarized plastic.

The table sat nearly a dozen men, all in uniformed black suits. Attendants placed glasses and poured water, being called back after the man at the head waved his hand. The armed guard that had accompanied them received a nod from the head man and he retreated through the side door to the eastern part of the house.

Emile Renaud was at the head of the table. Like when they settled on New Corsica, he was born just when Verona Beach started to undergo major growth economically. The Renaud's were an old and wealthy presence on the colony since its foundation in the 2200s. He was raised Catholic, but often sacrificed his religion to become a bishop in the financial world. Highly respected for his dedication, every day of his life went to the accumulation of more money. It was expected of him to have a wife as well as four children, three sons and a daughter because he'd allowed himself to sleep with her multiple occasions. He had considered them a distraction that was beneficial from his objectives and yet did not know any of their birthdays, or even when he last saw his only daughter, now twenty-one years old and a student at Stanford back at Earth's California region.

Renaud's hours were like clockwork six days each week. He arrived at his head office on the top fortieth floor of the UEG Finanical Administration's headquarters in downtown Verona Beach at seven every morning and left at eight each night. Sundays were the exception, with him on his datapad and personal computer nearly six hours. He had never smoked in his life and had only taken a sip of liquor once. Often because of his position, he had a Miami class yacht that he used for transport. Most of the time, his meetings required others to come to him.

Those who often worked for him had rarely ever seen him smile, only when he was really amused and even then it was usually not a warm one either. Only a serious problem in the banking world would reveal any emotion stored in his fifty-eight year old body, which was a gravitational pull on the corners of his mouth that arced downward. His finely combed hair was the color of snow, with empty eyes that many claim have never seen any form of jovial emotion.

Surrounding the table were men that were similar men, albeit younger, but not by much. Like him, their dedication to the cause of money was equally as hard. All the people at the tables headed the majority of the banks around the Inner and Outer Colonies. Their decisions affected billions of lives everyday and today, the foundation of the United Earth Government's economy was on the verge of destruction.

Renaud reached out to the plastic cover and removed it. The object underneath pulsed out a warm yellow color. This twenty pound gold bar was nearly ninety nine point nine percent gold, with her worth estimated at over two hundred and ten thousand credits. To those who have never seen one, before they would be awestruck at a high amount of wealth and would easily be scrambling and hitting each other to take possession of the valuable bar. The professional bankers around the table usually would not drastically react to what the object was, but some of them had emotions stirring on their faces. He even heard one of them draw a shallow breath before glancing nervously around those seated nearby.

"Gentlemen," Renaud's voice was crisp as the cold aura he radiated. "There is a crisis on our hands. Our estimates of months remain as humanity's colonies are now running out of its supply of gold. Demand right now trumps supply four times over. All because of greed."

The audience remained as stoic as they possibly could, but Renaud could see some of them going pale. A hint of anger was in one of their eyes, but he smothered it, knowing that this was no place to exert it.

"The process is simple; people would borrow money in loans and repay that with interest. The ongoing loaning and interest continued to cycle and regulate the economy without any flaw. By paying for a simply fraction of the worth as the gold sat in vaults with value unmoved as you gained more wealth, it would have been fine and contained."

"However greed has overcome all of you and without proper circulation, it has become worthless. Now it is now worn on the fingers and necks of women all over the place. Needless to say, your greed for more gold has become irreparable."

"Emile, you're aware of this because some of us are not able to be present in this room." A stern faced Italian interrupted, "Some of the former associates that you met had been previously shut down by their staff because of such problems you're talking about."

"I'm well aware of that Mr. Cardani. Now being shut down because of the greed is currently the least of our problems." Renaud shot Cardani a look that silenced anything the Italian had to follow.

"Now as I was saying, our trust in our…no your banks was ensued with maximizing all the possible capital that we are given with. Now once that trust is misused, the heads of the banks are canned and the new leaders have relatively little experience to lead them back from the holes that the conspirators have dug. Even if we pooled all of our funds, there isn't a fraction that can be covered on what we owe."

"Can we increase production?" The head of Reach's second largest bank asked.

"Not possible," This came from another man across the table, a representative of the only gold mining company on Earth, who was headquartered in Johannesburg. Unlike the other bankers, he did not have a jacket draped over his dress shirt and his tie showed signs of aging, from many uses from meetings like these. In contrast, he had worked to obtain all of his wealth, opposed to the others who were handed it to them on gem crusted plates. "Even if we were to level out all of our current mines, there wouldn't be enough gold to cover a fraction of the crisis."

"Would you care for an explanation Mr. Argovitz?" Emile gestured to the South African miner.

Argovitz stood up from his spot, eyeing every gold-hungry person in the room. "Our findings of gold are getting even slimmer as we head deeper into the mines. This has been much of an issue ever since gold was ever discovered in South Africa. Now with little being found, we can't make as much and all it takes is for the workers to rally against the managers for our industry and those who benefit from us."

"Is it possible to dig deeper?" A financer from the Outer Colonies asked.

Argovitz shook his head, "It is absolutely possible for us to go deeper, but we just can't. Think of the mines as a skyscraper. If you want to expand it, it can't be done by simply adding a floor, you have to reinforce the base of the structure to support the added weight as well as gas, water pipes and electrical lines. Same thing goes for our mines, only instead of the things I said earlier, we would need means of transport, accommodations and tools necessary to dig. That gold down there is very hard to get out and the equipment is costly. It can be done, but the expense is far greater than the profit."

"We are ruined!" The banker from Reach cried out, "Now the Reach economy will spiral out of control and there is nothing we can do but watch hopelessly!"

"It's not only yours," The banker named Cardani replied, "Especially interplanetary loans would decrease in value and we would have to draw from our reserves, which will already have also decreased."

Suddenly the banker heads were all pale as Renaud himself. He had watched the others at the table debate for nearly a half hour before whispering in Argovitz's ear. The other man nodded and quietly left the room.

"You called us here because you have a solution?" The head of Sigma Ocatnus IV's largest bank asked.

"That's correct." He responded, taking a noiseless sip from his glass. "Recently, my scouts have found one of the largest groups of gold veins ever found." He raised an eyebrow when the color finally returned to the other and some breathed a sigh of relief. "This discovery has gold deposits that the smallest one quadruple the ones found in California in 1849 and that's just the valley. Flint is much more remote after the Covenant had invaded and partially glassed it. Mines can be set up and new gold, which is high in value, can be within our grasp within the week."

"How do you plan to do it?" The Sigma Octanus man asked. In response, Renaud's palm datapad blinked and he slid an icon to the left. A moment later, the doors opened and another man strode in. He was a little younger than the men at the table. His frame was quite solid and he stood at nearly six feet. His swagger was one of confidence and relied on intimidation to tell others what he intended. A nasty scar on his left arm was visible from his short sleeved shirt. It was more of his undeniable presence that brought wariness to the others.

"I introduce you to Ryan Weld. He was in charge of the classified investors who had backed the CRF and the Beta Centauri Separatist Federation along with multiple other terror and rebel groups. He was imprisoned by the UNSC after the Centauri's final defeat at Dresden, but on my orders, I had him report to me for this specific assignment as a private consultant." The others had visibly hardened in the presence of a former Insurrectionist.

"I have been making moves to help counter these drops, seeing how something like this was coming for years. What I am about to propose to you can't be argued against or changed. Every one of you must agree with what Weld is about to outline."

It took Ryan Weld fifteen uninterrupted minutes to tell them how he would be bringing their banks back from the brink. The faces at the table went from confusion, anger and outrage. Cardani looked as if he was going to throw up and even the tough bankers from Reach, one of them Renaud knew had fought in the Human-Covenant War had whitened. Renaud looked at each man at the table, each of them all had conflicted expressions and the Sigma Octanus banker buried his face in his hands moaning, unable to bear what he had just forcibly agreed to.

"I will be making the moves." Renaud took over once Weld had finished, "There is no other way. We will never be meeting like this again."

"We'll meet again all right." Cardani shot him a glare, "In Hell."

Whatever the method of saving these banks consists of, it probably isn't going to be a pleasant one due to the last remark in the meeting. Enjoy the second chapter in a day.