Tunnel Rat

It was a strangely quiet group of Scavengers who met the next morning in the scrap heap, which used to be the Silver Shark. Most had small injuries from smashed noses and broken arms along with a good amount of slashes and stab wounds. Ambushing rival gangs and extorting money from merchants wasn't nearly as easy as it used to be. Mako was pacing back and forth on the beach, waiting for Beluga. Her mate should have been back hours ago. Her crew was keeping their voices low to not interrupt their Captains brooding. When Mako was like this, she wanted a target to vent her frustration on, and with the amount of frustration the leader of the Sharks had endured lately, whoever caught her attention was in for a severe beating.

The crew had endured just as much, seeing their fortunes fall so quickly. Mako's ranting about the other Captains and even the Engineers working to undermine them made sense to some. They were also looking for someone to blame. Others who weren't privy to the secret of the Captain's table blamed Mako, pointing out that betting the house on a cut of the cards went against everything their clan stood for. Playing fair was for idiots and shifting the odds in the clan's favor was just good business. Mako had played fast and loose with too much gold at stake. Losing once was highly unlikely. Losing twice in a row was a sign that her luck was broken. No one followed an unlucky captain.

And worse, while she'd been playing with the other Captains, and trying to win back the gold lost to the Professor, the Engineers had cleaned out the rest of the casino. It had happened too fast and these Engineers were a cut above the normal bunch they ran into. They were dashing and crazy, willing to take risks and bet it all on every hand. Many of the younger Sharks dealing cards had been mesmerized by how they took command and then took all the money at the table. Whatever had happened, the overall consensus was that Captain Mako had screwed up and the good days of easy money were over.

And then they'd lost the vault.

All of the clan's wealth was in that vault. Even underwater, it was locked tight. They had kept track of every ship in port, watching constantly and making sure no one tried to steal their loot. And yet, someone had. Someone had set up cables to pull open the door, and helped it along with a few hammer blows from a pair of strong arms. The dents in the hammer steel of the door told the tale. How they'd picked the lock was a mystery. Only Stickyfingers-Sally, Beluga, and Mako knew that combination, and Sally was sleeping with the crabs. A few crew wondered aloud about Beluga, who was missing after last night's raids. It was about an even split between the Sharks who thought Beluga had sold out, those who blamed a secret cabal of Engineers, and the ones who didn't know and didn't care to speculate.

Mako gave up her pacing and joined her crew, a brittle smile on her face, that fooled no one. "I'm not waiting longer on a mate who's off somewhere drinking or drunk. We'll be needing two people to step up and become mates. One of those will be the gal that brings in the most cash today when we shake down the merchants. Hit them all, and don't worry about going outside of our territory, we've got all the other gangs on the run after last night."

A few scavengers nodded eagerly, and a few scowled. Only a couple of gangs had been dealt with, and they'd had little gold on them. The rest had scampered before the Sharks showed up, leaving empty lairs and rudely painted messages on the walls. And twice the Sharks had shown up only to find that the gang was home, but drinking with a dozen Kulags. In those cases, it was the Sharks that turned and ran from 3 to 1 odds.

"Convince the shopkeepers to pay up, and triple the cost. Tell them they'll get a week off and tokens for free drinks and the buffet at the casino. Be on your toes, and get that gold! We start once you get some hot food and drink in your bellies and the sun comes up, so be ready and get moving. I want to hit the whole city, and tomorrow morning we'll buy back the casino and be back in business!"

With beer and breakfast in their bellies and a bottle or two of something stronger to keep their spirits up, the Sharks hit the town. The merchants on the docks felt the sting of their visits the hardest, having been hit many times before. But they were almost exclusively the bars and beer gardens set up to service the Scavenger clientele and payoffs for 'protection' were expected.

The other people who had been hit hard by the Sharks were the families that made their living from the fishing boats. Their homes, warehouses, and shops had been moved to the edge of town by the new docks as the Sharks had used every dirty trick they knew to acquire the land near the docks, and the docks themselves. Debts had been bought and payment demanded. Mysterious fires set. Threats were made against the families and their boats if regular payments weren't paid. With Squint's people spread thin, the fishermen had hired Captain Pike to guard the new docks and the ships when in the harbor. A squad of Sharks saw the Captain as they approached the area. He'd moved his chair and fishing pole closer to shore. Currently, he and his much smaller companion weren't fishing. The large platter of fry bread took up most of his attention, but he looked up as the Sharks got close and made a shooing motion with his hand.

"Be off with you. I'm not in the mood to play any games, I have some serious eating to do."

"Awe, and that's a shame, Captain, as we hate to interrupt your breakfast. We'll make it quick and short. Your employers are behind on their payments to us. Hopefully not to you as well. But we wanted to see for sure. Are you still gainfully employed as a guard dog to see after these illegally parked boats?"

"Yep, all paid up. You so much as look cross-eyed at a boat or these docks and I'll eat you raw while you scream." He nudged the small man next to him. "Go use some long words to tell these idiots to get lost. They like to be told multiple times."

Shrugging, the short Engineer in ragged orange coveralls walked over to the Sharks. "You're guilty of trespassing and should consider finding the motivation to relocate your bodily functions to other locales before said bodily functions cease."

The Sharks all smiled. He might be human, but this was definitely an Engineer. They always used three words when one would do. "Pretty words and we won't bother the ogre, but you should be careful you don't take a shiv in the back."

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He gave them the least of shrugs as if he didn't care to exert himself. "I've played 'surprise' with sneakier people. You make as much noise as a herd of sedge beasts."

"Ah, well, not everyone sneaks as good as an Engineer. We Sharks are straightforward sort of folks, not a sneaky bone in our bodies. But perhaps you could do me a favor and ask the fine Captain, at his convenience, just how far his current contract extends? Just professional courtesy and not wanting to step on his toes, or for him to eat mine."

"The Captain and I are guarding the docks and the boats."

"Oh, excellent. I have business at that fine warehouse and two shops adjacent to it. A hankering for salted cod is upon me. Good day to you, Mr. Engineer." The Sharks turned to leave, happy to have Pike ignore them.

"Be careful."

"Oh, and why is that?"

The strange Engineer smiled, "It's a dangerous world, why take chances?" And with that, he walked back to his chair."

The Sharks shared around a bottle and casually walked toward the warehouse. Pike looked at Milo, "You don't seem too worried. No complaints on my end, but I sort of had you pegged for the 'concerned hero' type.

"They won't go to the warehouse."

The Ogre looked in their direction, "Sure looks like they're heading that way. I'd bet you a fish taco that they make trouble for those folks."

"I'll take that bet. Want to make it a six-pack."

"Sure, never a time I'm not hungry for tacos. Especially free ones." Pike watched the Sharks as they got closer to the warehouse, and his keen eye noticed movement on the roof. There was a puff of smoke, a trail of fire, and then a huge explosion in the middle of the Sharks that scattered them. Three got up, put the other three on their shoulders, and ran. Narwhale let them get another 100', the extreme range of her new rocket launcher, and put another missile in the middle of them. She was using a low-explosive mix that blasted out hundreds of small pellets of rock salt. Boom-boom called them 'Varmint Rounds'.

Pike looked at Milo, horrified at the thought of buying someone else food. "You set me up! What sort of hero does that to a friend?"

Milo considered the question, it had several parts to it. "Well, firstly, I'm not a hero. Second, I just paid you a year in advance to guard the docks and boats. Third, I'm hungry for fish tacos."

That mollified the Ogre somewhat, but not completely. "You know they'll be back, and those trigger-happy dwarves won't always be testing out new guns. Maybe you should pay me to guard all that as well."

Milo nodded, that sounded good to him. "Is a year in advance OK? I can have Bernard put it into your sea chest at the Guild."

"Works for me. Now let's get breakfast. We can hit up the place that makes the friend dough with honey and then grab some tacos for breakfast."

The Sharks eventually woke up, their skin stinging from dozens of small wounds sowed with salt. They went back to the wreckage to sit and remove what they could, drinking heavily, then limped away to find some less belligerent merchants to prey upon. Surprisingly, those were in short supply today.

The Kulags were out in force, along with all the other gangs, most of whom were wearing an armband with Squint's emblem on it, signifying that for at least today they were on the same side as the Kulags. The Sharks found themselves followed throughout the city by large groups made up of the gang members and the occasional Engineer with a rivet gun and heavy armor. Other Engineers were sitting with a Scavenger on dates, as the couples enjoyed meals at the various eateries in town. Violence broke out only a few times, preceding a retreat by the Sharks as they found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. Any damage done to a shop or restaurant was paid for by the Engineers who had a lot of extra coins in their pockets.

Mako herself ran into problems early when she and her team extorted a small amount of coin from Marcel's Haberdashery, also stealing a half dozen of his best hats. Marcel begged them not to take them, claiming they were a special order. Mako laughed, "Good, tell them they can pick them up at my casino and pay for them there."

As they were leaving, a half-dozen adventurers were about to enter. They spied the hats and scowled. "Those are ours! We already paid Marcel for them." The two tanks shifted to the front with the Paladin, the Mage, and the Cleric to the rear, and the rogue disappeared into the shadows.

Mako was happy, she'd found someone to hit and charged the group, screaming. The Players were level 12-14 and could handle the other Scavengers, but not Mako. She put her Sharktoothed Cutlass of Burning Doom into the Paladin's gut, straight through his plate chestpiece. The tanks moved to assist, finding out that hitting the Scavenger Captain was like hacking at Ironwood. She took damage, but only shallow cuts. The rogue took out one Scavenger with a backstab, but she took him with her, strangling him as she bled out. It was a bloody and brutal fight that was over quickly, with Mako confronting the Air Mage who was using the last of his mana to hit her with a Lightning Blast. It didn't put her down, and his head left his shoulders.

"Bloody hell, a hardworking Captain can't get anything done in this town without someone picking on her. What's the world come to?" She picked through the bodies of her crew for their rum and started walking back to the Shark. She was half dead and needed rest, rum, and the last of her healing potions. She found out when she woke in the late evening that none of the returning gangs had done well, scoring only a few hundred coins. Minnow had managed most of that and gained the position of Mate.

"All right, get some rest. We have a deal to make tomorrow with the rat and you'll be working late when we open up."

Mako and her new Mate counted the swag and calculated the worth of golden spitoons and diamond-encrusted beard combs. Every bit of swag the Sharks owned was in the two bags in front of her. Minnow ventured a question, "It's enough?"

"Not for everything we owe, but enough for the casino. I'm going to make him a deal he can't refuse."