Into the Black

Walking through Section 8 to get to the bar ‘Dent’ had mentioned caused a little bit of a stir. Oh, it wasn’t like people were recognizing the Princess or anything like that. But a guy walking with four armed and armored ladies definitely made an impression, even on a station like this one. Thankfully, I hadn’t run into anyone who thought trying to harass a guy for having a harem was a good idea yet. (Being heavily armed myself probably had something to do with that.)

Mindy Lou’s Brew was run by a former soldier who had tired of the day to day grind of Army life. The fact that she had ‘issues’ with authority didn’t help any, and probably explained why she had never made it as a merc or private security, after being discharged. Still, she’d managed to get the credits together to open this bar on the shadiest station in Sol system, so it wasn’t all bad.

Mindy Lou was what people commonly called an Amazon. Augmentations were a big thing, and they came in many forms. The Amazon package was a set of mods that basically turned the target female into a seven foot tall avatar of walking death and destruction. Some bone lacing, genetic boosts, enhanced muscles, increased aggression, and so on. Only women could safely get the full Amazon package. Oh sure, you could stick it in a male, but something in the combination of mods screwed their intelligence up, basically turning them into feral berserkers. The first time they got in a fight, even in training, it became a deathmatch, and they wouldn’t stop until they died, or there was literally no one else to fight. Sometimes not even then. Any men who got the package were called Draugr, because they were dead men walking. In war, a Draugr would sometimes be dropped into an enemy formation, wearing heavy armor and carrying the nastiest weapons available, and would massacre the enemy until they were killed. Amazons at least had a chance of living past their first real combat.

Mindy Lou set the tone for the Brew and its patrons. You kept your business polite, and took any trouble outside, then there was no problem. Pretty much anything that didn’t leave blood on the floor or cause property damage was fine with her. All types came to the Brew, and it was basically treated as ‘neutral ground’ by everyone on the station. If you started trouble, however… well, you would be lucky if one of the other patrons kicked you out. The last person Mindy Lou had to throw out couldn’t handle their liquor, and ‘slipped’ on their way out the door, breaking both legs and suffering damage to their spine before they ended up landing in heap on the promenade. By the time the station patrol got there, he the pain had made him so delusional that he had ‘gifted’ all his possessions to passersby, so he was arrested for indecent exposure.

No one caused trouble at the Brew. At least, no one did it twice.

The girls and I ordered some drinks, and took a booth towards the back. We still had some time until the meeting, so I started by checking the job boards, seeing if there were any jobs heading towards Alpha Centauri. After checking the size of the Raven’s hold, I accepted a couple of the jobs.

Intellectual Property Shipment

The Drachen Group needs a shipment of ‘intellectual property’ designed for stress relief, including reading material, vids, and sims, to be delivered to Lieutenant Maxwell Black at Fleet Base Bagthara for redistribution. While not illegal, the material is considered contraband aboard military vessels and in the Mormon Colonies.

Difficulty

D

Task

Deliver stress relief supplies to Lieutenant Black.

Payment

10000 Credits

Neptunian Ale Shipment

The Officer’s Club at Fleet Base Bagthara is planning a wedding celebration for Captain Markham of the Endurance. Captain Markham, a native of Triton, requested Neptunian Ale as part of the celebration, but there are no local suppliers in Alpha Centauri.

Difficulty

F

Task

Deliver six cases of Neptunian Ale to the Officer’s Club at Fleet Base Bagthara.

Payment

20000 Credits

An Admiral’s Favor

Admiral Nimitz of the Second Fleet has a taste for certain rare delicacies from Mars. These delicacies are not easily obtained through official channels. The Black Sun Pharmaceuticals Group would like you to take a shipment of these delicacies to the Admiral.

Difficulty

C

Task

Deliver the crate of ‘luxury pharmaceuticals’ to the Admiral.

Payment

60000 Credits

Medical Resupply Run

The recent earthquake on Primo, orbiting Proxima Centauri, has caused a shortage of desperately needed medical supplies for some of the smaller towns on the tidally locked planet. Worse, we have reports that pirates are attempting to intercept relief shipments for sale on the black market. While the towns are short on cash due to the disaster, they are willing to offer goods in trade.

Difficulty

A

Task

Deliver four cases of medical supplies to the town of Todea on the Night Side of Primo.

Payment

200 units of Centauri Power Crystals (retail value 200,000 credits)

Mail Order Delivery

Samantha Hart, of the Hart Trading Company on Primo has purchased a ‘special’ package through an agent at the Choson Ring. Now, she just needs her new toy delivered to her residence on Primo so she can enjoy the Sunside’s heat. Discretion preferred.

Difficulty

D

Task

Deliver the stasis pod (unopened) to Samantha Hart’s residence.

Payment

50000 Credits (Bonus of 50000 Credits if delivery is not noted on local news networks. Bonus of 50000 credits if package delivered within 7 days.)

Black Don Ramirez

Pirate leader ‘Black Don’ Ramirez has been making a nuisance of himself in the Alpha Centauri system. Unfortunately, he has friends in the local Navy, so he’s been allowed to run rampant for far too long. Kindly have a ‘discussion’ with ‘Black Don’, and kill the bastard.

Difficulty

C

Task

Kill ‘Black Don’ Ramirez, a pirate captain.

Payment

200000 Credits

Some of the jobs were cake, honestly, but easy money is still money. And I figured that the Admiral’s secret habit would be a bit of leverage should things prove nasty when we delivered the Princess to him. But that medical supply run looked like something that would be a ton of fun. Fighting pirates should be some good XP, and will help keep my crew entertained.

Ok, so the A difficulty meant that there was probably more to it than that, but I liked to think that the Raven could surprise a few people. With both turrets manned, a mechanic in the engine room keeping us flying, and me trying to up my piloting skill as much as possible, it would be a fun ride. Key to it all was that I didn’t need to kill the enemy ships. I just needed to get away from them. Once we were in port, then we would be (mostly) safe from pirates. Unless they decided that they wanted to draw the Navy down on them from the nearby base.

Jaynie Cobb

Human Female

Level 15

Titles: Gunner, Sharpshooter, Fugitive

As I was considering the jobs we’d taken over a pint of beer (not the best I’d tasted, but certainly not the worst, and I could tell it wasn’t watered down, which was a plus), a woman decked out for ‘playtime’ just like we were came up to the table, and said, “M.Mollen? I’m Guns.”

I looked the woman over more carefully as I waved her to take a seat. She was short, about 1.6 meters tall, but had a bright pink mohawk that added another 8 centimeters to her height. She had on a long black duster like I did, and I could see that she had a plethora of weapons. I noticed at least two pistols, a couple knives, and there was the stock of a shotgun sticking out behind her back, ready for ‘easy access’.

“Yes, but call me Mirikon, or Captain while we’re here. So, you’re looking to be a member of my crew, right? What is it you bring to the party? No offense, but I want to know what your skills are before I consider hiring you on.”

The girl nodded, and said, “Sure, sure. Name’s Jaynie, by the way. I’m a gunner, plain and simple. Both handheld guns and ship-mounted, I’ve got perks that increase accuracy and crit rates when I’m shooting. I’ve already got my Pistols skill up to 12/100, and I’ve been working on increasing my physical stats.”

“Any notable Powers?”

“Yeah, I got a couple passive ones, that increase my eyesight and help me aim faster. Not much on the actives, though.”

I nodded, considering. That was actually really damn good for it being so early in the game. I looked the woman over again, and said, “And what is this I hear about you being a fugitive?”

Jaynie blushed at that. “Well, I had a bit of trouble due to one of the jobs I was doing down on Earth. It was a nasty bit of business, even though it was supposed to be a simple courier run. The reward was supposed to be a chance for some rare augments, though. Unfortunately, there was a doublecross at the end, when the guy who gave me the job thought it would be easier to pay off the local cops to put me away than to pay me. So I split, and now I got a bounty on my head.”

“Which brings us to why you were looking to get on my ship, I take it. Trying to find paying work to get out of system, and see where things go from there?”

“Pretty much. Plus, I saw on the chat that you’ve done some pretty wicked things in the last couple days. Figured you wouldn’t leave me being bored, at the very least.”

“True enough. Well, I do have room for a gunner, if you’re looking for work. It’ll be paying work, but I’m the Captain, so final decision on things is mine. You do anything stupid to put my ship or my crew at risk, we’ll have words, trust me.”

“Sounds fair. What’s the pay like?”

“Standard four-part split on the income from our gigs. One share for the ship, to cover fuel, food, ammo, and repairs. One share for the owner. One share for the Captain. And one share for the crew, split evenly between all the free individuals.”

She chuckled, “And since you’re the owner and captain…”

I nodded. “I get two shares, yeah. But it isn’t all bad. You’re the only free member of the crew, so you’ll be getting a good share of the spoils. Anyways, the reason I set it up like this is in case we find ourselves with more than one ship at some point.”

“Because you won’t be able to be Captain of more than one ship, but if you’re the Owner, then you still get a piece of their pie, whenever they complete a job, right?”

“Right in one. I’ve been under a rock, so to speak, so I haven’t had a chance to see what kind of banking services we got available, but I figure that if we get things to automatically distribute into people’s accounts, that’ll work best.”

Carissa broke into the conversation at that point. “Master, individual accounts are fairly simple. They link to your bracer, but if your bracer is lost, you the money is protected, at least a bit. But there are fees when using banks in other nations on individual accounts. Business Accounts, however, can be tailored in the ways you’re talking about, which would allow the automatic distributions for not only the Raven, but also any other ships you purchase and register under the business.”

I nodded, and looked back to Jaynie. “Carissa here is the ship’s doc, and my business manager.” Looking back to Carissa, I said, “Are there any banks you’d trust that we can access from the station? I’d like to set that up now, if I could.”

“Yes, Imperial First Bank should have a branch on the station.” I checked the station map with my bracer, and smiled when I saw that the bank was in this section. I looked up to Jaynie, and said, “Well, if you’re going to join the crew, let’s set up some accounts, and then get going. We’ve got a few jobs waiting on us already.”

“Sure thing, Cap’n.”