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"You are now officially deputized. Under the Pact Worlds bail enforcement code, you must clearly identify yourself as a bail enforcement agent when making the arrest, and may not offer lethal violence towards local law enforcement at any time, though you may use lethal force in self defense against non-LEOs, as appropriate to local law and custom. Any contract offered up will specify the terms of the recovery, and 'Dead or Alive' is not a phrase that should ever pass your mouth while working to collect civil fugitives. The goal is always to bring them back alive."
"This doesn't seem as entertaining as I thought it was going to be. Can I at least say 'Dead or Alive, you're coming with me'?" Chorizal says as Rastar provides information about being a bounty hunter.
"I saw that in a vid about a cyberborn steward one time."
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"Ignore him. I think it's an autonomic response, like breathing, for him. He inherently has to give orders. As for the cover story, I am a licensed bounty hunter in the Pact Worlds. My credentials certify me to have a team of up to five for bounty operations. I say we use that and go for a flat our snatch and grab, based on an outstanding warrant for...tax evasion."
Vyviane gives a nod, "That works for me. I can be the tax agent that was sent along with you, and everyone else would need to be deputized. Given you have the most experience in these matters, I'll give you the lead for this mission." She reaches over and fumbles with her armor, trying to get it to blare out that line she's learned to loathe from J'Shun, She seems to fail to get the armor to respond in the correct manner and instead pulls out a voice recorder and plays the line that J'Shun just said instead.
She gives a nod. "Let's move"
~~~~~~~~~~
At the bar, Vyviane has added a fake pair of glasses to her outfit and done her hair up into a tight bun to appear more like a tax agent. She gives one look at the bar and quietly palms out her normal cred stick and then a cheap burner stick, then with an untraceable transfer pad, shifts exactly 20 creds over to the burner. If this place was going to possibly use the data from her stick to hack into her accounts later they were going to be sorely disappointed. She gives over the stick and then palms it until she can find a trash bin.
"Right, Mr. Rastar and crew, where is this man we are hunting down again. Remember he owes Eox quite a lot of money in taxes!"
The sounds of blaring music, throaty singing, cheering, and jeering erupt from inside the bar, and the odor of smoke and stale alcohol spills out into the street.
A large bar top divides the room into two sections, with private booths on one side and open tables on the other. The floors are sticky with spilled drinks, and the air is hot and stifling in the windowless building. Most of the patrons gather around a stage in the back watching a performance. A vesk dressed in a sparkling, skintight bodysuit with vibrantly painted scales belts out a popular song. He performs a dance routine as he sings, and his choreographed moves are reminiscent of combat. Occasionally a patron throws an empty can or bottle onto the stage that the dancer crushes with his tail, showing off bulging muscles in the process. A few scattered patrons hunch over the bar or relax in the booths.
The bartender, a scarred female hobgoblin, offers a gruff greeting: “Buy a drink if you wanna stick around. We don’t do charity here.”
Signs on the backstage door and the first three doors to the west read “personnel only.” The northwestern door bears the universal symbol designating it as a restroom. The patrons are an eclectic mix of about a dozen different species. Most glance at you all, obviously taking stock of how combat-ready you seem to be. Quickly identifying you are off worlders, the patrons keep a cautious eye on you.
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Chorizal goes up to the stage first. He watches the show for a bit, nodding to the music and clicking his thumb and forefinger claws together.
Only then, does he head to the bar. "What my friend meant to say is that he'll have a vodka tonic on the rocks. Put the tonic and ice in one glass and give it to him and put the vodka in another glass and give it to me...and another glass of vodka," he revises J'Shun's order.
J'Shun can't see anyone who resembles the mark, but then the dancing muscle-Vesk in the bodysuit is pretty distracting.
The muscular, intimidating-looking barkeep grunts First rule is don't break anything, and second, pay your tab or else." she starts pouring out the first orders "Drinks range in price from 1 credit for barely drinkable swill to 20 credits for something decent, or up to 50 credits for a shot of something rare"
She puts the first two drinks down and starts running the tab for your group, it reads 30 credits. The barkeep looks at Bodo sitting down and asides to Chorizal "Is your pal ordering up or does he think he's just going to sit there drinking in the ambience or something?" - a few patrons snicker quietly, clearly happy someone else is the subject of the barkeepers natural charm.
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Rastar moved up to the barkeep.
"Ice Water is what they call Viridian Spring vodka on the Iadara. I'll have a glass of that as well, if you have it. The short one will have bottom shelf whiskey. He doesn't appreciat the good stuff. We're looking for someone. Maybe you've seen him around? This should cover the drinks."
Rastar shows the barkeep the picture of their target, and slides him a credit stick with 200 credits on it.
The barkeep pockets teh stick and gets the drinks on the table "I like the way you do business.They call me Keeper, happy to have you at the bar." she moves some of the other patrons away "Don't crowd the VIPs" giving you all some space, and her some privacy as she talks. "I've seen that guy, he spent some time in the bar recently and spoke with both Domakayo the vesk performer, and one of our regulars, Bolgin - probably the guy you need to talk to" she gestures to an unkempt hover-trucker wearing grubby overalls, a trucker cap, and a three-day growth at the edge of the stage who is pretty transfixed on the performance.
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"Name's Rastar. Thanks for the drink. Too bad I'll have to tell anyone who asks that I couldn't get any information from you." Rastar raised his glass and tossed back the drink in a fluid motion. Man, he loved Viridian Spring.
He waited for a song to finish, then started drifting around the room. He waited until another break in the performance, then sat down near the trucker. "Name's Rastar. I'm looking for someone that knows people. Guy outside said to talk to Bolgin. That you?"
Bolgin looks at Rastar with a slightly startled look, trying to place the face, "Yeah that's me, needing something moved? I got a decent-sized truck" he enquires over the music as he half watches the stage - he looks pretty fatigued and strung-out like he has been working endless shifts.
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Vyviane keeps her eyes on J'Shun like a hawk, well aware that the man and his 'white knight' personality would likely go over as well as a gas leak in a fire factory. She gives a small mental sigh as he stays back. She decides to keep her burner cred stick instead of tossing it, transferring a few more credits onto it again, before she approaches the bar. "I'll take something light. There aren't rules about drinking on the job but I don't want to be the reason they get made, if you know what I mean." She the sits back and watches the professional work, taking a few pointers she could add to future bounty hunter disguises. She moves up to the stage trying to disappear in the crowd for just long enough to drop the office employee look and roughen up her image some instead, before popping up again later near the trucker and kasathan.
Keeper grunts as she passes over 'something light'- which Vyv suspects is just moonshine and soda water with a little umbrella in it for decoration. The trucker notes Vyvs arrival but doesn't connect her to Rastar.
He looks at the photo for a moment "I may have spoken to that guy I speak to a lot of guys, the trucking business is pretty hard, people want things moved but always trying to shave credits off the price - you need to move house or something?" he still looks pretty strung out but he's certainly paying a lot more attention to the discussion all of a sudden.
"Yeah I catch your meaning - look I got my own distractions here buddy, I'm 140 credits in the hole on my bar tab, and if I pay that I can't fix this" he dumps his work datapad on the table, the home screen comes on and it is visibly rammed full of cruddy apps and other dubious-looking freeware games "Thing isn't working straight anymore"
He hands it over with some reservations - you can see his hands are slightly trembling, he's jacked to the eyeballs on Red-Nuar energy drink. "If you could get it working that would be a load off my mind"
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Vyviane pops up next to Rastar, "I hear you talkin' 'bout me, Bossman?" She takes a look at the device and mentally sighs, but gives a small smile. "Normally this'd cost a few thousand credits to fix. Ya sure you want me do it free, bossman?"
She gives a small sign of not quite trusting the idea and picks it up, trying to covertly delete all of the unnecessary free ware apps that must be clogging up the system.
The trucker raises his eye at the price mentioned but says nothing. Vyv finds it a pretty easy task to clean up the datapad, removing the heaving mess of nasty freeware (malware!) from the device, deleting all the horoscope and dating apps, and updating the operating system to the current release.
Bolgin flicks through the datapad, able to access his previous tasks lists and other vital information. He then looks at the photo of Firiz. "I talked with that guy about my deliveries. After we discussed my delivery route, the guy left to meet with someone in the back rooms of the club" he gestures to the staff only areas "We then took a ride to a drop-off point in the middle of the desert in exchange for paying my bar tab"
"I don't know if it helps, but the bouncer runs gambling side gig out of the bar in his off-hours and he has keys to the back rooms"
With that, Bolgin gets to admiring his shiny restored datapad, "Hey this game lets you be a virtual farmer and invite your friends to come and water your crops! What a time to be alive!"
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Before Vyviane hands back the device she secretly installs an anti-virus app that also alerts people to the dangers of whatever further app they might install.
She looks over at Rastar gesturing to move away before he possibly gets pissed over that and to talk in private. Back at the bar she pulls him aside and actives the comms for the party. "So we should talk with the bouncer about getting into the back, eh? Any ideas on how to approach the situation? I could dress up some. I love a good disguise. Might also need to change up my look before trucker man gets pissed about me trying to protect his device."
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"As much garbage as was already on that thing? You did him a favor. He seems happy enough. I think we should talk to the bouncer and see what he knows. Balgin said he ran a gambling side biz. You any good at cards?"
Rastar moved over towards the door and waited for a break in the incoming customers before speaking to the bouncer. "Hey! Bolgin over there tells me you might know something about this guy I'm looking for. Said he went into the back to meet someone. Was hoping you'd know more about it, maybe help me find him. What do you say?"
"Was your friend a card player or something?" the Bouncer looks around surreptitiously.
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J'Shun, moves into position to assist Rastar, should something go awry. Commander Mahpu and him stand side by side and try to act as casual as they can sipping their non alcoholic drinks, but they look totally out of place in the club.
An attractive kasathan female approaches J'Shun and starts to talk to him, but he awkwardly brushes her off and even spills some of his drink on her in doing so.
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Chorizal doesn't join the others as they talk to the trucker or the bouncer. He remains near the stage and watches the show but keeps an eye out on the rest of the group and watches for any trouble.
He also checks out the lady J'Shun turns away, shaking his head in dismay. "That guy needs a hobby," he mutters.
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"As much garbage as was already on that thing? You did him a favor. He seems happy enough. I think we should talk to the bouncer and see what he knows. Balgin said he ran a gambling side biz. You any good at cards?"
Vyviane gives a grin that could only be described as evil by even demons themselves. "Depends on the game. I'm an absolute terror at poker!"
She adds a few layers of smudge to her outfit and pulls out some tools from her engineering kit to add to her belt and truly fit into the role as mechanic of the bounty hunter group, before following Rastar to talk to the bouncer.
The bouncer looks at the photo, "Don't really recognise the face, they kinda blur, that is what I have security cameras for - those things capture everything the patrons do, I mean everything - amazing what some people will try keep covered up"
"Anyway, you looking for a game? I can set something up - you don't look like the regular high rollers but hey credits are credits"
"That's a big call, I'll set up a table, you win then I'll show you the security system"
ten minutes later you are sitting around a smoky table with a bunch of bored mercenaries blowing their latest payday on rounds of cards and drinks. They may be casual spenders, but they seem like pretty serios card players.
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Vyviane gladly sits down at the table trying her best to appear an eager innocent technician whose read all about the rules of poker and thinks she knows how the card game works but is therefore easy, easy prey.
She leans back and shadows her face as she talks to J'Shun, "Sweetie , I could win the Starfinder Society from First Seeker Ehu in poker. Don't worry about me."
Though she talked a good game and seemed super confident, the lack of actual ability brings her down.
"Looks like it isn't your lucky day" the Bouncer sighs as Vyv gets taken to the cleaners.The sound of chits clinking and playing cards shuffling is the soundtrack to Vyvs loss.
"Look I know the deal was that you win you get to see it, but you took the loss in good stride and I can respect that"
You get to go through the archives. The footage shows a man matching Firiz’s description receiving a communication device from a hooded figure, then talking to the vesk dancer in a private booth. Firiz then goes into the restroom for a while. The vesk dancer enters the restroom shortly after he leaves. Eventually, Firiz exits the bar and the dancer retreats to the back rooms.
"You need an introduction to the dancer?"
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"That would be great, thanks."
While they wait for the dancer to finish his - her? - set, Rastar pulled Bodo and J'Shun aside. "Firiz and the dancer spent some time in the bathroom together. Check it out. Maybe it was a tryst, maybe there's a message drop. See if you can find out while Vyv and I talk to the dancer."
The bouncer takes you back to the bar, "The dancer needs a few minutes to freshen up". He pours each of you a drink - "My expense, it has been a good night" and takes a seat with you waiting.
J'Shun goes into the bathroom and has a look around, it is not a nice bathroom.