[url=http://youtu.be/GX2vUR7_-g4]Music[/url]

"What's that in her glass?"

"I dunno, sure looks like sperm though."

There was a chuckle around the table before Le Marne, chief of the elites present, gave a swift slap on the stomach to the elite next to him as to make him shut up. They were in a stylish room with a marble floor but where walls or a ceiling were supposed to be, they seemed to be eating on the terrace of a French like Chateau, around them a vineyard stretching to a forest in the distance, the sky being of a perfect and infinite blue, like Earth used to be. They even felt the wind and the warmth of the sun. This was not real, all the walls in fact monitors displaying an image, the heat and wind were other trickery of technology. On the table, champagne, confit de canard, lobster and white beluga sturgeon caviar shared place with other items, the rarity of such making people doubt the species even existed anymore. Cloning was a marvel it seemed, even in culinary science. The Elites however did not eat for the moment, merely sipping their champagne in the wait of the principal interested and owner of all they saw before them. Veronika Cornikova Tolstoy, daughter of Cornik Orvchenko Tolstoy and great great great grand daughter of Ivan Petrenchko Tolstoy which was at one point the richest human on the planet and leader of the colonization of space. Tolstoy was indeed a respected name.

"Introducing Veronika Cornikova Tolstoy, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Tolstoy group!"

The elites quickly pushed their chairs back and got up in respect as a woman entered the 'room' by opening a door leading to the illusion of a french mansion behind them, followed by 4 secretaries behind her. There was of course a lot of rumor about the... physical and mental instability of the White Mantis, but she looked... good. Human, platinum blond at the point of being white hairs, white shirt under an expensive trouser suit. She seemed young, in her 20s maybe, but there was something off about this. It seemed too perfect in many ways, like it was Photoshopped, there was absolutely no imperfection to be found. Le Marne got up and pulled Veronika's chair for her, pushing it in as she was sitting. There was no look of thanks or appreciation. It wasn't a favor from a gentleman to a lady, it was expected and if Le Marne hadn't done it, someone else would have.

"Right. Sit down gentlemen. I thank you for being here today."

Well, not like anyone had a choice, when a CEO summons you, you bet your ass you answer to the summon, especially if it was the dreaded White Mantis. The Elites began to sit down and all looked at Veronika. It wasn't Le Marne's first time at this but he couldn't help, being at the immediate right seat of her, to feel at unease. The CEO took a sip of whatever the hell the white goo in her glass was and it seemed visibly to relax her. Veronika took the salt bowl and added a pinch, then another and another. A surprising habit, didn't all that remove the taste and the point of having such exquisite food? Le Marne looked in front of him to see another elite smile. He rolled his eye, the god damn sperm joke. Tolstoy took a bite and the others around the table saw this as their cue to begin eating. It was silent at first but after a few short minutes, Veronika spoke. 

"Gentlemen... Elites. Under our feet on a small planet that I frankly already forgot the name of, one of your co-worker, Elite Stevenson, is currently battling rebels. As I suspected, this woodland is diseased with this scum and as the gardener of society, I must now tend to this weed. You will remove it, burn it and salt the earth as no weed ever grow back once you are done. I put my confidence in you to achieve this. You have manpower, superior training and equipment and a dragoon unit on stand-by. Upon success you will all receive a sizable bonus pay check and upon failure... Well, I have no need to put in place diciplinary measure as after all, you will have failed should you die and the rebellion not be put down. This of course mean that I expect you to do your job as it is written in your work contract that I pay you to fight and possibly die on duty. Failure to win or die will be considered a breach of contract and thus, you may refer to the termination of contract articles in them."

Terminate your contract and we terminate you, basically. Although Veronika was right, the power they had was overwhelming, defeat was nearly unthinkable.

"As this blight spreads to other planets and the rebellion grows, so must our security forces. There will be a significant number of openings at all level of the hierarchy and thus, I will promote those that perform best in this operation. I will myself land my personal craft planet side and observe your work, of all of you."

Le Marne frowned, she'd be landing?

"Erm, madam, if I may interject... You will be landing?"

She turned toward him, almost instantly making him regret to speak up. Rule number 1 to respect when working for the White Mantis: Don't attract attention on yourself.

"Yes I will, is that a problem?"

"Well, sir, rebel activity on this planet is significant and while I have no doubt we can crush this scum, I cannot guarantee your safety if you are so close to the--"

He immediately regretted using these words.

"Cannot guarantee my safety?! Then, you..."

She struggled to remember the name of Le Marne. This always amazed him, he had been her chief of operations for 1 and a half year but struggled to remember his name. Then again, she always referred to her secretaries as 'Secretaries', even those who had been working for her for more than a decade.

"...Then why do I pay you? IT'S YOUR DAMN JOB! If this man cannot guarantee my security, is there no one here competent enough to do his job properly?!"

There was a silence around the table before at the other edge of the table one elite stood up.

"I can, milady."

The table was pretty much set up based on experience and service time. This guy, Cubric his name was, had been an elite for what, 2 months?

"FINALLY! This, this gentlemen!"

It was Veronika's turn to get up and point with enthusiasm at Cubric. The boy must have been 22 year old.

"This is what we fight for! The right of opportunity without the restriction of a 'State'! An organism stealing from the hardworking to feed parasites! In our system, our beloved corporatism, you and I are free to seize opportunity and be rewarded from our efforts, skills and intelligence! I have thrown an opportunity and someone at this table had the balls to seize it! You, my good man, will lead this operation! And all of you see him as a man to be emulated!"

"My lady, Elite Cubric is a good soldier, but he was promoted 2 months ago, he doesn't have the experience to handle such an operation and--"

"He sits at this table! He as the title ELITE for Christ sake! If he wasn't able to command he wouldn't have this title now would he? Or are you saying that you promote incompetents to such a role?!"

"No ma'am, but--"

"BUT NOTHING! What are you, 40? 50? Toiled all your life to get where you are now?"

She waved her finger at Cubric.

"Like I said, a man to be emulated, believe my experience as a CEO, only the weak willed who achieve nothing wait for life to give them what they want and this man... He had the guts to say that he could do your job despite being an Elite for only 2 months. And you know what? I'll allow him to show me if he can. He who risks nothing, gains nothing. I like to have officers that are willing to stick their neck out and that don't cower in front of the task before them. We need to be bold! Carpe Diem for the love of god, seize the day! This is the motto of this great corporation and it should be yours too!"

Veronika leaned back from the table before taking the napkin, swiping it across her lips and throwing it on her meal, which she had hardly taken more than 3 bites. "I am full and I have other matters to attend to. You drop in 2 hours, be ready."

__________________

On the corridor leading to the cafeteria, Le Marne walked up to Cubric. knowing what his senior would say, the young man sighed.

"Look, I know what you're going to say Le Marne but you threw me this opportunity and there's no way I'm passing this chance. I could retire before I'm 40, 30 even if I get this promotion. No hard feeling."

Le Marne shook his head and raised a hand to interrupt him. 

"Look kid. You're going to regret this, and I'm talking about even if you actually win the war down there. Life in security is a mine field both in combat and outside of it, you need to be slower to be sure you don't detonate something that will kill you."

"Yeah, so? That's exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing now. Think I can to keep being on the front line for what, 10 or 20 more years? Fuck this shit, I'll go through the damn ranks and get out of this business quicker than a street urchin with a stolen wallet. This discussion is over. Get your gear and go to your men soldier, I'm in charge now, not you, old man."

________________________

"Alright men..."

There was talking in the cafeteria, all going around the theme of 'Why's the new kid on the stage' and 'Where's Le Marne?'.

"Hey, HEY! I'm talking maggots! Right. So minor changes in the plan. I'm in charge and OH SHUT UP! And yeah. We'll keep to the established plan in all other aspects except Le Marne will take team one to replace team 6 and 7 to bring up the rear. Team 7 will be on reserve while team 6 and I will handle security of CEO Veronika Tolstoy.... That's right people, the boss lady is watching and I have great news for you. After this, the boss is planing to add a new barrack back on HQ, whole lot of new guys will enter and that also means a whole lot of officer and elite spots to fill in. I've been an elite for 2 months and working corporate security for 3 years and now, I'm in charge of an entire planetary operation. And you know what? I just come back from eating a meal with one of the most powerful person in the universe. There was caviar, and god damn fancy roasted duck and lobster and champagne and mead, all with super fancy french name like Hydromel and Canard Confit. Have you guys seen white beluga sturgeon caviar? This shit costs 500k the ounce and I got to EAT it!"

There was silence in the room and Cubric raised his arm, pointing at the assembly.

"This, people, this is in reach of you. You don't have to wait for 20 god damn years before having a more or less decent job and even there, you'd still have some jackass the age you have now ordering you around, no, you could be this jackass ordering people around from a corner office, or at least get a suit of power armor as fancy as mine. All you have to do is remember your training and put every ounce of yourself into this. I won't lie, there are risks to take, but remember that if you want, if you're willing to take these risks, the reward will be fucking sweet."