Into the Black

The Encyclopedia Galactica says the following about Hundeherstellar III:

A Type M planet in the Hundeherstellar System, known for its remarkably Earth-like atmosphere and similarly-sized land masses. The planet is governed by the Hundeherstellar Corporation, which was founded in 1983 on Earth, but then moved its operations to the Hundeherstellar system when it paid for a colony ship to take them there. Hundeherstellar III Is known for its fiercely patriarchal society, in which females are referred to as ‘domestic animals’ and are not considered citizens. Once a female reaches the age of majority, they are injected with mind and body altering nanites, turning them into obedient pets for their owners. Because of this, and other practices, trade with the Hundeherstellar system faces heavy sanctions, and many exports are illegal in most polities.

Basically, some jackasses from Earth decided the whole ‘equal rights’ thing wasn’t for them, and paid for a colony ship to take them somewhere that they could create their ideal society. And from all accounts, it is a pretty sick society, but it has been going on for so long that no one questions it. I don’t know where the idiots got these nanites, but they were contraband that made the nastiest street drugs look like toys in comparison.

And I didn’t want them in my possession for a second longer than I needed to. However, that left me with a couple problems. First, I couldn’t go to the authorities, for a ton of obvious reasons. Second, as a gamer simply throwing the stuff away was unthinkable. Which meant I needed to find someone to sell this shit to. Fortunately, we had just gotten off the tram in the seedy section of the station.

It only took a couple questions (and a bit of Mindread) to find a shop where we could sell off the trash gear and shit we didn’t want on the boat, and maybe find some cool additions to our current gear. That shop was located in a back alley in a run-down section of a deck that mostly seemed to house squatters and vagrants. But none of them troubled us as we entered the store.

The store was called Dark Net Connection. They offered a lot of legal, quasi-legal, illegal, and ‘oh fuck I can’t believe you did that’ items and services. Well, not them, exactly. From what I’d been able to gather, they were basically a front that provided people an introduction to the Dark Net, for a fee. Basically, all the same kinds of things you could find in the real world Dark Net, you could find here, if you knew where to look.

Selling the gear, drugs, and nanites cleared us a healthy 52000 credits, mainly from the nanites. Don’t know who the thugs killed to get their hands on them, but according to what I saw, those things sold at 100K, this far from the Hundeherstellar system. Getting 45K for them wasn’t bad, considering. After the split, the ship got 13K, Jaynie got 11700 (after the guild tax), and I got 23400 (again, after the tax). Not bad for short bit of work.

With a pile of coin in our pockets, metaphorically speaking, we looked at the items available, and considered what was both in our price range, and would actually be useful to us. I didn’t look over Jaynie’s shoulder to see what she was doing, instead concentrating on things that would be useful to myself, or my slaves. The first thing I came across was pretty cool.

Mental Amplifier

Type

Cyberware Implant

Rank

Uncommon

This implant, inserted at the base of the skull and attached to the brain stem, allows for increased mental throughput and gives a decent boost to intellect. However, the primary effect is that you gain impressive abilities with Mental Powers, both in Affinity and Resistance.

+25% Affinity to Mental Powers

+25% Resistance to Mental Powers

+20 INT

WARNING: Due to your unique nature, most cyberware or bioware implants will not be accepted by your system when you change shape, causing damage to your body as the implants are moved to new locations. The amount of damage depends on the extent of the changes to the implant site.

That warning, as you might figure, came as something of a downer for me. Another one of those hidden costs of going for the highest difficulty level. Some of the enhancements available to other players were basically no-go for me. Especially an implant inside my skull. I hated to think what that might do to me if I changed shape. Still, there were other useful things.

Power Infusion Pill

Type

Skill

Rank

Common

This pill contains the knowledge of a single Psy Power. Consuming the pill allows the user to learn the contained power.

Power Development Guide

Type

Manual

Rank

Rare

This guidebook describes the process of creating new and unique Powers designed by users. While the process of creating new powers is not easy, the results of creating a Unique Power can be substantial. Consuming this book unlocks the Power Creation Menu.

PsyInk Tattoo

Type

Psy Augment

Rank

Super-Rare

This tattoo uses nanocytes to create a tattoo made of psychoactive inks that enhance the user’s defense against certain Psy Powers. The design of the tattoo is set by the user and cannot be changed after use.

+100% Resistance to one type of Power

+20% Resistance to all other Powers

Tattoo’s Nature – Because of the psychoactive properties of the tattoo, a buff and debuff will be randomly selected based upon the tattoo design and your playstyle

WARNING: While this tattoo is compatible with your unique nature, the tattoo will become a permanent marker, appearing in roughly the same space on your body, no matter what form you take.

Psybreaker Pistol

Type

Pistol

Rank

Uncommon

Damage

10 – 20 (Stun)

Damage Type

Psychic

This weapon deals low Stun damage, but is a welcome partner to any who have to deal with troublesome Psy Power users. This single-shot pistol deals little damage, but has a high stun rate, and can short out a target’s ability to use Psy Powers temporarily. Duration of Stun depends on user’s Sp. Attack and target’s Energy Armor. Duration of Power loss depends on the user’s Sp. Attack and target’s Sp. Defense.

Durability 30/30

Stun – Stun target for up to 30 seconds.

Stun Shots – Deals Stun damage. If Stun damage equals current HP, target becomes unconscious. Stun damage heals at a rate of (CON/10) per minute.

Psyblock – Block access to target’s Powers for up to 5 minutes. Deactivate all currently active powers.

1 shot clip. (20 PP to reload)

Power Booster

Type

Psy Augment

Rank

Super-Rare

A highly illegal substance created by means most would not care to know about. Using a power booster grants the user an increase to their abilities, but such benefits are not without a cost.

+20 to all Mental Stats

+200 PP

+20 PP Regen rate

Lose a random number of skill levels.

Random Buff based on playstyle

Random Debuff based on source

Now we were getting into some serious shit. These were the kind of things that could make or break a character, especially if you got them early on. Of course, they weren’t cheap either. The Power Pills were 200 credits each, the Guide was a cool 2K each, the tattoos were 1K each, the Pistols cost 500 for a single one, and that booster cost a whopping 100K credits! Still, I was investing in my team’s future. I bought four of everything (well, five of the pills), except the Booster. Only got one of those, for myself. Cost me 80K after I finished negotiating, since I was dropping a shit-ton of credits on the man. Well, that, and I needed to get a shipment of ‘machine parts’ to a contact in Alpha Centauri for him. Another five thousand credits netted me a code key, allowing me to access the Dark Net myself, so I could browse and see what was available.

Negotiation increased to 10/100.

+2 CHA

Anyways, I let the girls pick which powers they wanted. Shearah picked up the Technopathy power, which apparently let her ‘communicate’ with machines. Damn useful for a mechanic, I guess. Carissa picked Empathic Projection, allowing her to influence people’s emotions. Cali picked something called Mindvault, which was a passive/sustained power that increased her resistance to Mental Powers. I guess the experience with the Stepford collar made her leery of mind control.

Me? I picked Charm Person, which basically allowed me to turn someone into a temporary ally, clouding their mind and making them very suggestible. Fortunately, that also meant their memories were pretty hazy afterwards. The second power was Alter Memory, which did exactly as it sounded, overwrite real memories with false ones. Of course, the bigger the change, the more likely it was that some disconnect would happen and risk letting them know they’d been played. I was planning on using these as a jumping off point for my Unique Power.

Tattoo of the Black Dragon

+100% Mental Resistance

+20% to all other Resistances

Draconic Presence – All Social skills treated as 10 ranks higher. +20% Mental Affinity.

Hoarder – While you are not keen on letting anything you get your hands on escape your grasp, this is especially true with certain things. Based on your playstyle, you hoard the following: Weapons and Slaves. You become extremely unwilling to part with either of them, and covetous of particularly striking examples of either you come across that do not belong to you.

Power Booster

Lose 1 Rank in the following Skills:

Heavy Weapons

Demolitions

Aeronautics Mechanic

Automotive Mechanic

Industrial Mechanic

Nautical Mechanic

Euphoric Fluids – Your body chemistry is addictive, literally. Those who come in contact with your bodily fluids (including sweat, saliva, blood, and other fluids) have a euphoric reaction. This acts as a drug, with an addiction rating of 8/10.

Empathic Unbalance – Your brain chemistry is out of balance. While there is no known cure (and it will continue, regardless of the form you take), the condition can be suppressed by intimate contact with another sentient creature, their empathic state helping to balance your own. The duration of suppression can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 48 hours, depending on the extent of the activity. After that time, suffer a -50% penalty on all mental stats, -50% on all skills, and +100% PP cost on all Powers.

Well, that was… interesting. The loss in skill levels was disappointing, but it could have been worse. Those buffs and debuffs, though, were going to make things weird, fast. Especially since I saw a countdown timer pop up in the corner of my HUD. Looks like the game wasn’t going to start the debuff off immediately. I had two hours to get things ‘in hand’, or I’d be in big trouble.

I saw that Jaynie had finished her purchases, as well. Looking to everyone, I said, “All right, let’s get to the ship, and get out of here.” Everyone nodded, eager to be up in the ‘air’ again.

Unfortunately, things weren’t going to be that easy, it seemed. While Raven had told me that all our cargo was loaded, and the ship was ready to depart, it seemed like someone had decided they didn’t want us leaving just quite yet. How could I tell that? Well, the eleven Asian men dressed in matching black suits, each carrying katanas made that a pretty safe bet, especially when they were blocking the main route back to the hangar.

As we walked forward, one of the men, who looked to be the leader, stepped forward, and said, “That is far enough! You have cheated our master in taking the Nomad at the auction, but he is merciful, and will give you one chance to make amends before your life becomes forfeit. Give us the Princess, and you may leave.”

Oh, good. I hadn’t had a villain monologue at me in a while. Unfortunately for him, I read a wonderful document called the ‘Evil Overlord List’. Monologuing was very much on the list as something to ‘not do’. Fighting fair was also on that list of things not to do. So I cheated.

In my hand appeared the SMG I’d kept hidden in my bracer. The leader’s eyes just had time to go wide as I pulled the trigger, unleashing a stream of energy bullets at the man. His armor stood up to three hits, but by the fourth, he was taking some good damage. And so were the guys around him. I heard the others firing, as well, but I just kept the trigger pulled, using my PP to refill the clip as soon as it was empty again and again, until the last enemy fell down. Surprisingly, they weren’t all dead, because the leader managed to choke out, “You have made an enemy of the Red Orchid Clan this day! You will all die a thousand deaths!”

I’m sure he had other, very important things to say, but I shot him in the head to keep him quiet while we looted their bracers and weapons. That was all we had time for now, as alarms were starting to sound. Looking around, I saw that the scenery was pretty torn up. I just might have gone a bit overboard.