Boots moves the ship through the hole that Ben punches through the swarm, deftly swinging in and out as openings appear. "Woooooooweeee! Nice shootin', Cap! Ya gonna get me all hot an bothered again if ya keep that up!"
"Well done, Ben," Carolyn says, adding her own praise to Boots' declaration. "Should I be jealous of Pilot Boots?"
Penny's gathered crowd delays the Wintermourn even further and the Oliphaunt is clearly the winner.
You follow the directions that Tarika gave you and zero in on the meeting location. The site is a sprawling network of ancient ruins, recently excavated. Mangled pieces of sabotaged excavation equipment - drills and backhoes, all marked with the emblem of the Veskarium - surround the ruins. Near the ruins you see hundreds of tents pitched.
Landing near the tent encampment, you can see that the encampment is populated by ijtikris - sapient, squid-like creatures - that Carolyn informs you are native to this world. Closer up, you can also see a mass grave nearby the encampment, partially filled with more ijtikris.
Moments after landing, the Wintermourn touches down nearby and the crew of the other ship approach you.
"Well, damn, that was some serious flying," Niva declares as she gets close. "Now while I'm a woman of my word, I hope you don't mind if we tag along. Once you make your arrangements with the buyer, I'm gonna see if they want my cargo as well. I sure don't have use for fifty tons of necrografts."
She glances around a bit before pointing. "The buyer's probably in there," she says, pointing towards a set of tents that look as if they've been converted to a makeshift medical facility.
"I'd never recommend jealousy." Ben replies seriously. "And no, I don't believe so. She likes to tease and enjoys looking for an angle. I don't intend to indulge her."
"Cold showers Boots." Ben replies. "Take them daily. It'll help you keep your cool. If you get this excited over shooting then no doubt you'll propose the next time someone puts a hole through me in a bar fight and I'd prefer not to lose my pilot and my life at the same time." He seems to assume that he will get shot, but then again he has history on the side of that assumption.
-----------------------------------------------
"You'll be welcome." Ben says magnanimously to Neva. "Perhaps afterwards we can split a rather fine bottle of brandy I have? Having more friends in the 'verse is rarely a bad thing in my mind. Although that grave doesn't make me feel much like celebrating." He adds, gesturing. "Carolyn, keep security high. They seem to be taking the loss well, but after what they pulled on the Station I don't want any surprises."
He leads the way towards the tents, outwardly all confidence, although his longarm is firmly in place, currently disguised as a rather elaborate set of knotwork down his jacket.
"The magnetic pulse was very clever." Penny compliments the other captain with a smile, even though at the time of the pulse, she wanted nothing more than to send explosive ordinance up their tail end.
Wary as always of being screwed over, she opens her mind to sense the emotions of the other captain.
"It certainly doesn't look like they'll be having any big celebrations anytime soon," Niva says, eyeing the grave with a frown. When Penny brings up the magnetic pulse, the ysoki grins, showing her teeth. "Clever and useful," she replies. "And recognition is always welcome."
The red-skinned woman gives a slight hip bump to her captain. "It certainly is, Niva, darling," she says with a smirk. Niva looks up at the woman and rolls her eyes. "Yes, it was very clever, Nemelith. We're all in awe of your razor-sharp wit."
"No need to thank me, Niva, darling. Just being in your presence is reward enough," The woman says with a smirk before giving Penny a wink.
When Ben asks one of the ijtikris about a purchaser for the black hearts, the creature points towards the center medical tent with a limb covered in burn marks.
True to her word, Captain Niva waits outside with her crew as you enter the tent. Inside is a bustle of activity and it all seems to be overseen by a lime-furred skittermander. She notes your entrance as well and after taking a moment to wash her hands, she lights up a large cigar and approaches you.
"Heya, 'nufriends,' she says, turning the familiar greeting into a growl. "I'm Doctor Shazarad Quomp. You must have my organ delivery."
Penny's lips curve pleasantly at the wink. At the delivery, she holds up the datapad for Ben with all the proper paperwork, along with Katherine's meticulous notes on the condition of the organs. She knows the captain would want to woo this one.
"Indeed we do, Doctor." Ben replies, taking the datapad that Penny offers and proffering it to the skittermander with a fluid motion. "Fifty tons as ordered. You will find all the paperwork is completed - we simply need the transfer of payment and you can specify where you would like them."
While the conversation is going on with the furry four-armed friend, Boots looks back to the other crew and asked. "Where's ya pilot at? Wanna talk some shit to 'em."
"Naturally we have the highest quality merchandise!" Katherine adds, giving the comprehensive list of statistics that Ben really should have given but didn't, for some reason Katherine absolutely cannot fathom. The skittermander is a doctor! That means she will require detail and scientific information! Not generic charm and borderline flirtation, if that's what he's even trying to do.
Shaking her head in exasperation she continues her monologue.
Doctor Quomp takes the datapad in hand and scrolls through it looking over the manifest. "Yes, yes, all good. Just what we need," she says and then her eyes widen slightly. "Wow, someone really knows how to document a medical shipment." She gestures towards the ijtikris outside the tent with the device. "Not that they'll care." She presses her thumbprint on the pad acknowledging the shipment and authorizing payment.
"I admire the ijtikris," she says, gazing out the tent at the protesters beyond. "Standing up for what they believe in! But this place is gonna kill 'em. So, I figured I’d help! Necrografts may be a little squishy, but they’re perfect for this situation. Why, with a black heart inside 'em, my friends outside won’t even notice the radiation. Or the poisonous air. And, uh, maybe they won’t notice the fact they’re dead inside. I don’t know! But, I’m helping, and that’s what matters."
She hands back the datapad.
"I'll have some of 'em head on over and help you unload."
While the economics of the situation are being handled, Dizzy steps closer to Boots. "Jinx is back on the ship," he explains as he taps away on his own device. There's a tone as the resources he just traded show up on Boots' comm unit. "They always stay with the ship when we're topside. You never know what might happen and who might have nefarious motives."
"Doctor, since the situation is so dire, our companions on the Wintermourn did bring another fifty tons of hearts. If you have the desire to help further and the resources to do so, I am sure they would be willing to cut you a deal."
After the most recent debacle, Katherine is a little surprised Penny is being so helpful to their competitor but knows she must have a good reason.
"Well Doctor, rather you than I on this planet, it seems like an impossible situation with no true resolution. Why they don't all just choose to go elsewhere I cannot understand. We will be choosing to go elsewhere, won't we Captain?" Katherine requests, directly to Ben. "Somewhere less toxic and with less business competition?"
Chase remains quiet and alert as the others take care of business and banter.
"Huh." is Talah's response about staying on the ship. "What fun is that? I mean. I can run backta the ship to get 'er ready. Missin' all the action, though, eh?" she says with a nudge of her hip against Dizzy's.
When the tone chimes, she trills "OoooOOoo. There we are. Pleasure doing business witchya."
"It has certainly been a pleasure, Doctor." Ben says with a smile. "I'll leave you to my colleague here in case you care to barter further. Should you ever need anything else, please do get in touch and we'll be happy to supply for you." He sends his 'business comm' to her pad - investing in a secure and anonymised communications address was the first port of call when they came into funds - even before the crew got their shares. Secure communications for jobs benefits everyone afterall!
"Six hours ladies." Ben says as they head out. "I imagine staying any longer won't be good for us, but I'd like to investigate the net and see if there are any local jobs so there is time for a drink or two if any of you want it."
"No, thank you Captain, but I do not require any hydration at this moment in time. I am more than happy to aid you in your search however, maybe my assistance will speed up the process some and we can reduce our layover to 3 hours?"
"Going to check out any markets they have, looking for ingredients mostly, but I'll prod about a bit for any off-the-books jobs they might have." Penny informs the captain. She will stop at the other crew before they head in to negotiate to inquire about "Who cooks on your ship? Any interesting recipes you'd be interested in swapping?" Penny believes goodwill is a useful commodity when it cost nothing in return.
"Drinks sound great! You buying, Captain?" Chase inquires with a grin.
"Huh." is Talah's response about staying on the ship. "What fun is that? I mean. I can run backta the ship to get 'er ready. Missin' all the action, though, eh?" she says with a nudge of her hip against Dizzy's.
When the tone chimes, she trills "OoooOOoo. There we are. Pleasure doing business witchya."
"They might be missing the action," Dizzy says in response to Boots' comment, "But I'm happy that we don't have to deal with the 'Action' of having our ship nicked out from under us." He gestures around them with his datapad. "In places like this, it's not unheard of."
~~~~
"Who cooks on your ship? Any interesting recipes you'd be interested in swapping?" Penny believes goodwill is a useful commodity when it cost nothing in return.
"That would be me," Nemelith answers with a wink. "And I don't give out my recipes to just anyone. You've got to woo me with your wiles."
Niva snorts rudely. "Since when did wiles have anything to do with 'wooing' you?" she says with a chuckle. "All it takes is a nice pair of mammaries or a big ..." Nemelith gives the ysoki a shove that looks almost accidental.
"Be careful you don't fall, Niva, darling," she says with a steely gaze. "You wouldn't want to hurt yourself."
"Whatever," the captain says with a wave of a small paw. "We've got our own goods to sell." Dizzy follows her inside, but the red-skinned woman waits until they're inside the tent before tapping at her comm unit. A contact notice pings on Penny's unit with a portrait of Nemelith's smirk. "Message me sometime if you're really interested in swapping recipes," she says with another wink before joining the rest of her crew inside the tent.
~~~~
Doctor Quomp is thankful for Ben's information and tells him that she'll put him at the top of her 'Outsourced Jobs' list. As he's leaving the inside of the tent, he gets to hear the skittermander explain to Niva that she doesn't really have the funds to purchase another fifty tons of black hearts, but if the ysoki really wants to unload the lot, she can give her what amounts to a quarter of what she paid you.
~~~~
The nearest settlement that might offer the celebration options that you're looking for is a couple of islands away, but it only takes fifteen or twenty minutes before landing at a reasonably-sized city. The local info-sphere shows lots of places offering food, drink, as well as other entertainment selections. It seems that Vesk-2 is a popular vacation destination for vesk. Supplies are also easily obtained.
Even more than money, Penny loves food. So as she wanders spice shops, she is already planning various temptations to pull out Nemelith's secrets.
You spend half a day shopping and celebrating your latest successful endeavor and then post your skills and requirements on a couple of local contracting infosphere sites. It's two days before you receive anything that's remotely acceptable.
In the meantime, you arrange an evening of inter-crew socializing with the Wintermourn. Penny gets to show off her latest culinary creation to everyone and Boots spends the evening battling in a holo-game that Dizzy recommends.
You also get to finally meet the celebrated pilot of the Wintermourn, Jinx. Jinx is a reserved verthani. Over the course of the evening, you realize that Jinx is deaf, communicating through color patterns on his skin and sign language. He seems to read lips relatively well and his crewmates appear quite comfortable in translating his conversation into speech.
While some of Penny's dishes are dismissed as being too spicy by some of the gathered, Nemelith savors the heat with an exaggerated, "Mmmm, this is excellent, darling."
At dinner, Penny considers offering up her empath skills to Jinx, to explain the dishes mind to mind. An offer she dismisses quickly enough. While the two crews are on friendly terms for the evening, she knows they might be against each other in the future. Abilities unknown might prove the tipping point.
At the compliment, the blonde perks up. She is rather proud of her cooking. "Oh, I AM glad you like it." she smiles slyly "I took the initiative and sent that recipe over already, so... what do you have to offer in return?"
Chase spends the dinner cozying up to the Wintermourn's engineer and swapping technical specs of their respective ships.
Ben spends the evening drinking rather a lot and becomes somewhat vapid with it, chatting away merrily about absolutely nothing and asking all sorts of questions of the Wintermourn's captain and crew.
Boots enjoys playing against Dizzy, even letting him win once to make him feel like he actually stands a chance against her. She eventually excuses herself to make way to Jinx where to talk to him. Not having interacting with a deaf person before, she makes the classic mistake and begins talking slowly and loudly.
Pointing to herself, she says "HEL-LO. I'M. .
Motioning in the vague direction of the Wintermourn she continues " YA. DID. WELL. BACK. THERE. JUST. ,"
She takes her hands in front of her and begins to mime flying "-NICE. FLYIN'. AGAINST YA. " She finishes by placing her hands on her hips, leaning to the side with a cocky smile followed by a wink.
At the compliment, the blonde perks up. She is rather proud of her cooking. "Oh, I AM glad you like it." she smiles slyly "I took the initiative and sent that recipe over already, so... what do you have to offer in return?"
Niva laughs and slaps the table. "Oh, girl, you do not want to try one of her recipes. They don't call her the Lady Painbringer Nemelith Zydan for nothing." Nemelith glares at the ysoki. "Niva, darling? Kindly kiss my arse and grasp the chain." She turns to smile at Penny. "That's not why they call me the Lady Painbringer. I'll be happy to send over a couple of dishes that you could try if you're adventurous." Another wink follows.
Dizzy does his best to split his time between games with Boots and debates over engine designs with Chase.
In response to Boots' attempt to converse with Jinx, the pilot watches her with a look of confusion that eventually gives way to incredulity. He finally turns to Dizzy and gestures rapidly. Niva snorts with laughter and Nemelith turns away, trying to hide a smirk.
"Uh, no. I don't think she's ... um ..." the dragonkin replies hesitantly as he gestures back in response. "I think she's just trying to talk to you." Jinx rolls his eyes and laughs before gesturing for another drink.
In spite of Ben's subtle attempts, they seem to be quite unwilling to give up too many secrets. All in all, though, the evening ends on a good note and there's a possibility that you've made new friends with the crew of the other ship.
=====================================================================
Pact Worlds Date: 321-08-26 AG
Location: Vesk-2
Ship Ident: COM-UPYOURSEJCORPXXX
Current Mission: n/a
=====================================================================
The recorded animation shows a dapper skittermander and a coal-black pahtra. The pair stand in a barn lined with high-tech monitors displaying the vitals of animals within - clumsy bovines called monoux - while drones hover about delivering inoculations. The pahtra crosses her arms and rolls her eyes as the skittermander speaks.
"Greetings, proprietors of the Oliphaunt! I am Baron Karmalar Gravender, though my dearest confidants call me Karm. Most beloved among these companions is my partner, Adani Samor, humble matron of Skitterhaven Ranch: Home for the Found. Now, you might be thinking, to what do you owe this unexpected but pleasurable correspondence? Well, our rangelands have been ravaged by a mysterious predator! This week we found the remains of three prize monoux, maimed and devoured! And Gumbembo discovered our ruthig flock drained entirely of blood! I fear it won’t be long before whatever plagues us tires of feeding on animals and comes for the whelps!"
"Our only hope is to respond as any soldier loyal to High Despot Cahan would: with overwhelming and decisive force! We must acquire animals so belligerent, so pugnacious, that no carnivore would dare desecrate our ..."
Adani sighs and interrupts. "Look, we need defrexes — a few adults to frighten off whatever's killing our livestock. But if we’re gonna do this, I want to do it right: start a whole operation breaking defrexes as mounts, training them for live performances, festivals, even trivids. Maybe even breed 'em when they mature. We need sixty head or so? I know you’re not professional defrex herders, but word is your crew is resourceful enough to make Niva Rovo crap her pants a little. That's good enough for me."
Checking the infosphere reveals that Skitterhaven Ranch is a 254-acre homestead 50 miles east of Morandomandrana, an ancient skittermander city. The ranch's infosphere site proudly proclaims it a "Home for the Found"; the ranch specializes in giving displaced skittermanders, vesk, and other youths a home as well as being a place to learn discipline, collaboration, and the trade of livestock farming. Skitterhaven Ranch has been owned and operated by its proprietors, Karm and Adani, for nearly 15 years. Herding and domesticating defrexes remain big businesses on Vesk-2 and Vesk-3.
In the message, Adani offers to pay a goodly sum for every 10 head of defrexes the crew can bring to Skitterhaven Ranch, and a bonus if the crew can deliver at least 60 of the creatures. The Oliphaunt can fit up to 100 in its combined cargo hold. Adani recommends the crew venture to Kahrudi Canyon to gather this many defrexes. The vast gorge, deep within the Yiti Preserve on Vesk-2, creates a natural barrier that isolates defrexes from other predators, protects their dens, and allows them to flourish.
Also included in the message is a copy of Taming the Herd: The Secrets of Kamazren Ranch. This is the infamous tell-all memoir, written by Tottarox Matrox, a skittermander who labored for years on Vesk-2’s largest defrex homestead, Kamazren Ranch. Tottarox reveals several techniques for herding and domesticating defrexes that he claims have been kept hidden as trade secrets. Though melodramatic and at times even racy, Taming the Herd does provide useful advice.
"We will deliver them for you as soon as possible." Ben replies, "Oliphant out."
With the connection cut he turns to his crew. "Boots, set a course. Chase, Penny, work on what we have available for setting up pens and so forth - this is going to be a dicey one. If nothing else waste is going to be a concern. Katherine, can you do some research on defrexes? We may need to tranq a few and I don't want deaths because we got doses wrong. Carolyn, transmit Taming the Herd to my pad would you flower? It seems I've got some reading to do. Anyone else want a copy? I'm sure Carrie can highlight the prurient chapters for you."
Penny opens her mouth to complain about the sheer amount of shit the defrexes will produce in the pristine hold of the Oliphant. But then she closes it again as the thoughts of the profit of carrying so many of them in their spatial anomaly of a hold.
Profit vs shit... the age-old conflict.
Well, for anyone other than Penny Etal. "If we construct shelving units, and allow Katherine to tranquilize them fully during transit we should be able to carry quadruple the load... hmmm, we should allow for walkways in case of emergencies, maybe only a third greater capacity. And we'll need to factor in the cost of tranquilizers vs additional bodies." Penny scrunches her nose in thoughts of risk vs reward, eyes glowing in the possibilities "I need Chase." none of her normal reluctance in her voice at the prospect of working with the mechanic in evidence. "Let's get to work."
Chase gives Penny a high-five. "Alright, let's do it!"
"Right. On it, Cap." Boots says, kicking her feet off the console and going to work on course plotting. Once everything is set, she sets Olly and her crew on her way.
Katherine's face shows clearly how delighted she is at the prospect of carrying a huge collection of omnivorous waste creators. Then Penny has the excellent idea of tranquilising them for the entire trip. "An excellent idea Penny!" She agrees. "I will ensure we have something potent to keep them out for the entire trip."
Carolyn points out that you may wish to acquire ground transportation before heading into Kahrudi Canyon. This could be achieved with either rented enercycles (70CR per day) or even trained defrex mounts (500CR per day). For those of a weaker moral character, either of those could also be gained without paying for it, but would require a certain ... skillset.
Herding is legal in Kahrudi Canyon as long as each crew member has a license; licenses cost 150 credits, and the crew can purchase them through the infosphere. Alternatively, the crew could forge a license with the proper computer skills.
The crew can purchase tools and aids to make herding easier; The Tell-All book mentions a couple of these. The scent of blood attracts defrexes, and a single-use blood lure can be purchased at the preserve for 50 credits; A sound file with a defrex call can be purchased for 50 credits, or a character might find one on the infosphere for free if they had good search-foo. Finally, defrex wranglers often use small reptiles known as flushing lizards; these creatures emit a loud, shrill bark that causes defrexes to retreat. A flushing lizard can be rented for 100 credits per day.
"Betcha I can just hack togetha a defrex sound for us to use instead of us buyin' one. Hold tight." Boots says, hacking away at her pad for a few moments.
"Check this out!" she says smiling as she punches a button.
The sound of two vesks engaged in some strenuous activity with much roaring places through her comm. Her eyes go wide and she quickly presses buttons, "Uhh. No. No, that's not quite right. Not sure what happened there..."
"That appears to be the audio track to the seventh edition of 'Vesks On Summer Break' from your personal files, Pilot Boots," Carolyn offers helpfully. "You'd asked for a reminder to remove it when you were finished with it, but you haven't indicated having done so yet. Should I remove it now?"
”Step aside,” Chase says, engaging her custom rig to help guide her through the hacking process. Soon enough, she has downloaded the proper audio files, along with forged licenses for all of the crew members.
Ben doesn't bother to hide his grin at Boot's mistake and Carolyn's 'helpful' interjection.
"That's a good start." He agrees. "I'll talk to some local vendors, see if I can convince them to let us use some enercycles for a little less than market price."
It takes a lot of sweet talking, but Ben gets his way.
"That appears to be the audio track to the seventh edition of 'Vesks On Summer Break' from your personal files, Pilot Boots," Carolyn offers helpfully. "You'd asked for a reminder to remove it when you were finished with it, but you haven't indicated having done so yet. Should I remove it now?"
"GAh!" Boots exclaims, moving her hands to her face to cover her eyes. "Yes! I'm done, I'm done!"
"Very good," Carolyn replies. "I would also remove Lusty Lashuntas #3, however someone else has requested that particular file, so I've kept it in our systems."
With licenses 'acquired' and enercycles on loan, Boots brings the Oliphaunt in to land at Yeti preserve. Exiting the ship and mounting up on your individual vehicles, you move further into the wilderness. You quickly find tracks, dens, scat, and other signs of defrexes before eventually finding several of the animals themselves, many of them adolescents.
Moving further in, reveals even more of the creatures and it's not long before you're moving a fair-sized herd of the cantankerous creatures back towards the ship. As you prod the beasts along, a group of adolescent defrexes attempts to flee, heading straight into jagged rocks that jut from the ground.
"Hang on, y'all. This is gonna be a bumpy one!" she declares as they set off.
Talah is having difficulty managing the terrain here. It seems that every rock and crevice is calling to her and she manages to provide an extremely bumpy and slow ride for the group.
Deciding she's had enough of this, she speeds things up and pushes a little too hard and gets ejected out onto the rough terrain.
Pulling herself back up she proclaims, "Katie! I think I broke ma pancreas!"
Seeing Boots flailing, Chase revs her enercycle to ride beside her, bumping her bike away from the jagged rocks.
With a kinetic assist from Chase, Boots manages to avoid face-planting against some of the less forgiving of the rocks and manages to gather back the fleeing beasts. As she returns to the rest of the group, you all see a trio of vesk on enercycles move in close. They're wearing shoulder-harnesses with an official looking emblem on it.
One of them holds up a large, clawed hand and calls out something in Vesk. Seeing the confusion on most of your faces, he calls out "Halt!" in common. "I'm Wildlife Protection Agent Vagodo. We must verify your licenses to herd."
The other two vesk circle slowly as Agent Vagodo closes with Ben and raises his datapad to scan Ben's face. "Hold still, please," he says.
"Of course officer. You'll find our licenses are in order." Ben replies. He's no judge of whether their badges are genuine, but best to consider them that way until the shakedowns start.
Penny eyes the large scaly men warily. Having never spent time in Vesk ports she has no idea if they are legit or not, so she makes sure to put the captain between her and them, just in case they start shooting.
"Thanks, babe!" Talah shouts to Chase after she keeps her from a rather bad spot.
Back with the group, she racks her brain to figure out whether what's going down with Ben is legit or not, but cannot make up her mind either way.
Ben keeps his calm as the vesk examines the results of the scan on his datapad and waves to one of his companions to approach. A second vesk circles in close on her enercycle and comes to a hovering stop next to the first one who shows the results on the device to her.
"That's the older N3 format," she says in a bored voice. "They're still valid but they're being replaced with the N5. That one was too easy to forge." She turns to Ben. "You should pay a visit to the licensing office as soon as you can to update to the newest version. This one won't be valid after the end of the year." The other vesk shrugs and stows the device in a holster at his side. "Have fun," he says as he spurs his vehicle away. In a few moments the trio has vanished over the nearby hill.
The crew urges the herd back into motion and makes good time with nothing eventful happening for the rest of the morning. As the day is nearing lunch, however, the distractions of hunger begin to set in. As Penny readies to send a message off to Ben pointing this out, the patch of loose brambles she was steering her cycle over collapses underneath her vehicle revealing a spike pit no doubt set by poachers. The cycle noses down at the sudden elevation decrease directly towards the rough side of the pit.
As the cycle starts to slide, most normal people would jump off immediately. Penny, though, suddenly remembers the repair fee the helpful vendor repeated with glee as Ben borrowed the bikes. The always frugal one tries desperately to save the bike to save the fee and ends up gored by spikes.
Penny finds herself surrounded by jagged plasteel spikes that are coated with rotting entrails which she assumes are there to attract defrexes. One of the spikes has ripped open her arm and one is still stuck in her leg. Once the others arrive at her location it's relatively easy to extract the woman from the hole in the ground. Getting the enercycle out is going to be a little tougher.
”Penny! Be careful! That bike is expensive!” Chase chides. She quickly rigs up a pulley with some cord and branches to haul the enercycle out of the pit.