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Seeing the robot approach a bystander, Del decides to cast a spell rather than tend her own wounds. "Get away from them!" she shouts at the robot. With a grunt of effort and a twist of her wrist, Del tears open a hole into another reality—the most terrifying, caustic vinegar volcano ever crafted for a science fair appears beside the robot, spewing bubbling acid all over the robot before vanishing again.
"Hoo'ey, Del, that there done STINK! "
But with the junkbot so close, Strek focuses on spinning up his combat tracking for a point blank shot .
"A'ight GUMBI, let's get her done."
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Having worked his way around the back of the truck, Lars spots the junkbot.
"Time to shut this machine down." he growls and sends another flight of malignant universal viral code at the enemy.
Jaraduk hops over the connection between the cab and trailer, appearing on the near side. Firing at the junkbot makes him nervous for an inevitable explosion.
We need everyone to back away from it NOW. It's going to blow once we've damaged it enough!
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Guess? throws off the robot's groove as it attempts to dodge his "fire breath". Del and Strek lay into the robot, the acid and fire blast eating away at it's structural joints. Much to Jaraduk's relief, the robot doesn't explode but instead slowly teeters in place before crashing to the street below. Pieces of burnt out electronics and rusted components scatter across the road and petrol slowly leaks out from the robot's compartment.
COMBAT OVER!
Jaraduk SP 7/7 HP 13/13
Akh SP 5/9 HP 11/11
Lars SP 5/5 HP 9/9
Strek SP 7/7 HP 12/12
Guess? SP 6/6 HP 7/7
Del SP: 0/5 HP: 3/9
Blue Goblin sneektheef 12 damage, Unconscious, Stable
Yellow Goblin sneektheef 11 damage, Dying (2)
Red Goblin sneektheef 12 damage, Dying (2)
Orange Goblin sneektheef 8 damage, Dying (2)
Green Goblin sneektheef 9 damage, Unconscious, Stable
Purple Junkbot 23 damage
Some of the bystanders clap, while the majority turn off their phones and walk back to their daily routines. Being the energetic entrepreneurs that you are, you loot search the goblins. Two of the goblins are taking nice little taclash-inspired naps while the other three appear to be bleeding out from the wounds suffered. Their armor, if you can call it that, is just a tattered flight suit. However, each has a tactical semi-auto pistol with 9 small arms rounds, a goblin junkcycle, and a credstick with 50 credits on them. You deal out the credits among you immediately, as recompense. The junkbot, unsurprisingly, is a heap of useless parts.
Unfortunately, you don't have much time as the wail of sirens begin in the distant, clashing discordant with the other sounds of the city. You look around frantically. You're surrounded by goblin bodies, the truck is penned in by petrol cans and parked or stalled vehicles from both the petrol spill and now the combat. Del feels like she might be able to pilot through the mess, if someone can find a side street to hide in before the authorities arrive.
"Hide? Aren't we tha victims h... Oh right our Cap'n's a goblin. And them rubber neckers filmed him sayin' he's tha Chief."
[OOC] Depending on what the group wants, here's his Perception:[/B]
Akh transfers all the crates back onto the truck, hesitates, then does the same for all the junkcycles. By way of explanation he just comments "Strek had that gleam in his eye again." As the situation with law enforcement suddenly becomes clear, he takes a few floaty leaps to get to the front of the truck.
"Easier to disappear than to explain." He channels his old partner "Sorry to deal death and dash." and snickers - an echoing noise from deep inside his body. He leaps around picking up petrol cans and stowing them in his mouth.
At the sound of the sirens Jaraduk gets nervous. Shifting as he slings his hailcannon back over his back he makes his vote known.
Uh... I don't want to talk to the cops. Do you guys want to talk to the cops? Is anybody good at it?
He moves to help Akh pick up the scattered cans, focusing on those in front of the cab.
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Guess? scrambles to search all unsearched/unlooted bodies and take anything that is even remotely of value.
"We've got a time sensitive delivery and hiding from the cops is probably faster than dealing with police department red tape. But recordings of our faces are everywhere already." Guess? points to the bystanders previously recording us.
"I've got my forgettable face on so I ain't fussed but if we hide, all of you may become persons of interest next time we're back in town. If that worries anyone, then we explain our innocence to the cops now - lemme do the talkin and back me up.
"My opinion? Time is money friend! Let's go go go!"
Del quickly drinks her healing potion and rushes to load the berries back up. She beckons a bystander (who's still lingering) close. "Hi! We've got to split—sensitive cargo and all—but would you mind letting the cops know when they arrive that they can contact our employers, EJCorp, if they'd like to speak with us? Employee relations division. Kay, thanks, BYE!"
"Let's roll, crew," she announces, happy to see some of the others are already hauling petrol out of the way. Then she hops into the truck and winds through the mess to get the heck out of here.
As Del displays mad skills by pulling off crazy fast death defying maneuvering, Guess? happily sticks his head out the window to soak up the wind against his face - similar to certain canine species that, ironically, goblins typically abhor.
Jaraduk nods at Del's initiative and hops back up on top of the cab.
Strek STRETCHES his arms and legs and ties them into a knot around all of the junk cycles so they don't fall out of the back of the crowded trailer.
"Need to pick up one a them UPB grinders and blend these puppies up inta somethin' useful!"
When he sees an excited look cross Guess?'s face, he adds, "not THOSE kind of puppies..."
As the bot falls Lars quickly assists the crew in gathering the stolen crates and getting the trailer sorted before heading back to the truck.
At Guess?'s call he agrees and taps a wrist where a watch would be, if he had one, and agrees, "let's get moving, gotta keep our schedule." and piles into the truck cab.
When he sees an excited look cross Guess?'s face, he adds, "not THOSE kind of puppies..."
"Why not? Dogs are a blight on all existence! At least this way, they can be made into something useful!
"Hmmmm... Speaking of which, do these goblins have dogslicers?? Lost my last one..."
Guess? takes a second look to see if the downed goblins are carrying this iconic goblin weapon and if yes, grabs them.
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The group grabs the goblin weapons and hop into the truck! Del whips around the parked cars and away from the collision! After flying through a series of narrow alleys, you come to a stop and park the trailer. After a few minutes, the feeds begin to light up, with various sides of the story.
GROUPS OF OFFWORLD GANGS FIGHT IT OUT IN SHIPS END.
GOBLIN CIVIL WAR IN THE STREETS?
ANOTHER ROBBERY IN SHIPS END AGAINST EJ TRUCK.
Each of the feeds shows bystander footage of your fight, all of which prominently feature the Evgeniya-Jaimisson Corporation logo. Some of them even feature an interview with the local police chief. The stodgy damaya lashunta growls out, "The goblin outlaws that have been plaguing the back streets of Ships End appear to be infighting with their leader, "Cheef"." The screen flashes to a grainy zoomed photo of Guess?'s face. "The battle appears to have been centered around the loot from a recent truck heist gone wrong. The employees manning the truck killed three of the gang, and will be brought in for questioning. If you see any of these 6 suspects, please call the number at the bottom of your screen."
You wait about an hour before making your way back to the ship. Luckily, the local police seem overworked and there are no active traffic stops. It's been a long day already, but you've got a lot of work ahead of you. The cargo hold is not large enough to accommodate the entire extended trailer, so you can't just drive the rig into the hold and park it. With only a few grumbles, you get to work unloading the crates of yaro berries.
You're exhausted, but it's time to get off Castrovel. Del pulls off planet, maneuvering through the local traffic. After about 2 hours you break orbit, the system around you bleeds into purpley pink and you head into the Drift!
"That was even more eventful and more work than when we were shipping crates of living hyperbees." Akh rests across the counter in the ship's galley, his joints creaking. He reaches into his mouth and pulls out the containers of petrol that he'd picked up earlier "Do you think these'll be worth anything?"
As the days pass on ship without snacks and without any further surprises, Akh falls into what appears to be a statue-like meditation. He Maintains Readiness, as he once was programmed and conditioned to do.
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On the drive, Del thinks about Akiton and Hivemarket...
Del plots a course through the Drift to Castrovel...
On her downtime on the ship, Del stays glued to the cockpit, determined to shave off as much time on this trip as possible—for the yaro berries!!
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"Great pilotin', Del! I'll see about makin' sure our cargo is comfortable."
Strek will Secure Area on the cargo holds, but rather than arm explosives, he'll maintain the environmental settings, check for pests, and otherwise just keep an eye on the berries.
Guess? activates his morphic skin, altering the shade of his skin to a darker hue, lengthening and making his ears, making his cheeks chubbier, bringing his chin to a more tapered point, enlarging his nose, changing the color of his eyes from a dull red to a deep beady red, adding a scar across his forehead, adjusting his height up several inches and slimming his body build down noticeably.
Pointing at the grainy zoomed photo of Guess?'s face on the news feeds, Guess cackles, "Doesn't look a thing like me! Amirite?!?! kekeke!"
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Once the ship has broken orbit and in deep space, Guess? remarks with a shrug, "Y'know, considering that shootout footage showed the EJ logo on our truck so clearly, you'd think the police woulda put a departure hold on all EJ ships. But perhaps we're just lucky!"
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Guess? spends most of his downtime performing taunt drills. Whatever location Guess? happens to be on the ship at any given time, he continually repeats the same taunt for hours on end, varying intonation, pronunciation, adding growling noises, and a myriad of other variations to the exact same set of words!
"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of yaroberries!"
"I FART in your general direction! Your mother was a HAMSTER and your father smelled of YAROBERRIES!"
"Ah fart in YER general direction! Your MUDDER was a hamster and your FUDDER smelled of yaroberries!"
"I faaaaaart in yeeeeer general direeeeeection! Yeeeer mother was a haaaaaaamster and yeeeeeer father smelled of yaroooooobeeeeeeerries!"
"I fart in your general direction! GRRRRR!!!! Your mother was a hamster!!! GRRRR!!! And your father smelled of yaroberries! GRRRRRR!!!!"
And so on.....
But as he typically does on the last day before arrival at any destination, instead of practicing combat taunts, Guess? spends his time researching potential smuggling leads and contacts at the Hivemarket and/or immediate surrounding area.
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For the first part of the trip Jaraduk sits near the cockpit marveling at Del's talent.
You're quite good at this. I could've used a pilot like you back in the Diaspora.
However, he quickly gets the idea that due to the tight space and her relatively large frame that he's perhaps not appreciated taking up extra room. He heads back to the Smuggler Compartment (where he feels most at home) to research Akiton.
Jaraduk starts to search around on his datapad, but he keeps getting distracted by new newsfeed items related to their shootout. Perhaps that saved search that forwards all new results was a bad idea...
Deciding he needs a break from screens, because his focus there is shot, he heads to the cargo hold area and scopes it out alongside Strek. He looks for potential hiding places, and thinks of ways that a space pirate would quickly unload their cargo should they be boarded.
Seemingly as tho to have read Akh Xi's mind, Guess? says, "Whenever anyone asks you anything, just remember these three magic words: 'It wasn't me.'
"No wait, is that four words?"
Looking confused, Guess? counts his fingers multiple times while silently mouthing 'It wasn't me.'
"You mean, 'It wasn't US'. Musta been another EJ truck."
"Thanks, Jaraduk! BD here is easy to handle." she pats the starship's dash affectionately. "Remind me, what did you do in the Diaspora?"
Mishearing Guess?'s words, Del yells back, "Quit farting at the yaro berries, Guess?! People have to eat those!"
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Mishearing Guess?'s words, Del yells back, "Quit farting at the yaro berries, Guess?! People have to eat those!"
Confused, Guess? thinks to himself, 'Hmmm... I guess I need more practice...'
Guess? redoubles his efforts and increases the time spent practicing his taunt...
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Earlier...
"Remind me, what did you do in the Diaspora?"
As he slinks away from the cockpit he gives the most minimal answer that he can. Oh, you know. More cargo running... nothing special...
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Seemingly as tho to have read Akh Xi's mind, Guess? says, "Whenever anyone asks you anything, just remember these three magic words: 'It wasn't me.'"
"Three words, yes. I think EJ won't have any trouble deciding that even if it wasn't us, it doesn't like looking bad." Akh mulls it over "We're going to be fired in no time. Again."
"Oh, don't stress, Akh. That's what they've got media relations for, isn't it? To give everyone the run around? Anyway, we've got this. Whatever comes we've got each other, right?"
Quieter, to herself, Del makes a mental note for her future unemployment, "I just have to figure out how to pull a starship out of thin air..."
"Yah, don't you worry! If HQ tries to pin this on us, we use the three magic words and point the blame at their other cargo team with a goblin crewmember! Eezy peezy!!
"Besides, The Company will just use this incident as yet another excuse to one, not pay the promised bonus and two, cut our near-non-existent salary even more. They won't actually fire us if they can still squeeze some profit outta us...
"Believe me...I know from personal experience..."
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Del works hard in the cockpit on her shifts, managing to squeeze an extra day out of the predicted flight path. The Drift can be tricky, but she managed it well and you pop back into real space in just three days.
Jaraduk and Strek undo their impromptu defenses of the cargo holds, thankful that a Drift monster didn't pop out to harry the craft. A typical EJ craft, any room that could have been used for gun emplacements was filled with cargo room instead.
It's 4th shift when you come into view of Akiton, and you wake up a groggy Del and Strek. You all gather in the cockpit to look at the planet. From orbit, Akiton is an uninspiring image of red rock and desert sands; it’s easy to wonder if there’s any life there at all. Appearances can be deceiving, however, as most of you know; despite the scorched surface of this dying planet, life indeed thrives below. Everyone except Jaraduk, who recently joined the crew, has been here several times doing runs for the EJ corp. Soon after the ship emerges from the Drift, the ship’s comm unit lights up with a waiting transmission. You nervously open it, afraid it's a message from Human Resources about the incident on Castrovel. Thankfully, it is from your longtime Company dispatcher, Tarika.
The little brenneri with sleek brown fur appears on-screen, smiling as always, wearing an olive-green flight suit emblazoned with the EJ Corp logo and fidgeting with a worn wrench. Your Company dispatcher and, for some of you, an old friend. She’s based on Absalom Station, so this transmission must have been sent days ago. Tarika looks anxious, and her image is barely visible before she blurts out, "Howdy team! I’m just checkin’ in on y’all. If you’re receivin’ this, you must have arrived at Akiton. Your drop-off site is in Hivemarket. Now, you can’t miss that place — just look for the biggest damn mountain on the entire planet. That’ll be Ka, the Pillar of the Sky, and Hivemarket is around its bottom. There’s a business there called Ka Imports, and Siski, the manager, is your contact. You can collect payment from her and maybe get a nice little bonus for rapid delivery." She smiles sadly. “Contracts are simpler on Akiton, that bonus might be more possible than your usual EJ ones. Be careful on that dust bowl of a world, though; there’s no real law on Akiton, and the desert is no place to go explorin’. I’m lookin’ for your next job, and I’ll send a transmission when I have somethin’ for ya. If you haven’t heard from me by the time you’re done on Akiton, come on in to Absalom Station.”
Jaraduk and Del remember only a little about the planet in front of you. Akiton is a desert world with thin atmosphere and low gravity. Its economy was based on thasteron, a fuel used in sub-light space travel; when the Drift was discovered, Akiton's economy crashed. Thankfully, Guess? knows quite a bit more. Akiton is home to red-skinned humans known as Hylki, ysokis, four-armed shobhads, lizard-like ikeshtis, and many other species. Hivemarket is located at the base of Ka, Pillar of the Sky, but it also extends through subterranean lava tubes into the mountain itself. When dust storms strike or raiders attack the city, the market's merchants take cover in these tunnels. Khulans, the spectral beings who patrol Hivemarket, appear to be ghosts but are in fact a rare kind of fey; they do not interfere in legitimate business dealings in the bazaar but protect the market and enact justice on
those who break the rules.
With a destination in mind and a deadline, Del hops into the pilot chair and takes you down to the surface. You get a very different experience as Castrovel upon entry, with no traffic controller or other bureaucratic challenge to your flight path. As you break atmosphere, the Ka spire comes into view with the Hivemarket around its base. Hivemarket isn’t large enough to be a city, or even much of a town, but its status as the mercantile center of largely lawless Akiton makes it a perfect place for traders and caravans to acquire and unload cargo and you have made deliveries and pick ups here before. Most of Hivemarket’s population is transient, but various corporations and other merchant interests have permanent buildings here, and, between them, they settle disputes, maintain order, and provide some basic services. The most distinctive feature of Hivemarket is the khulans—floating incorporeal beings who enforce the law in Hivemarket but do not interfere in legal transactions, no matter how immoral. The closer the ship gets to the massive sandstone walls that mark off Hivemarket proper, the more the sea of sand beneath you becomes littered with visiting starships. Beyond the walls, market stalls of every imaginable color, with all manner of strange symbols, crowd each other along haphazard pedestrian paths and a few narrow roads. Amid all the colorful chaos stand dozens of permanent buildings, most made of the same sandstone as the settlement’s walls. There are no official landing facilities; Del just needs to claim a piece of desert outside the walls. Once you have landed, you can walk or drive into Hivemarket.
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Del lands the ship on a sand dune and you grit your teeth. Time to load the cargo back up onto the hover truck. Eight hours of hard work pass and you're starting getting real tired of the smell of yaro berries. You pack your two personal crates in the cab, where you can keep special watch over them. You pack into the vehicle (or alongside it, in Akh's case) and head into town. You traverse the desert and pass under the city's walls without challenge. Occasionally you see the silvery glint of a humanoid form leaping over the top of buildings in the distance.
Ka Imports is a large, square, three-story building (made of local sandstone) with oval windows. There’s a wide double door up front and a loading door in the rear, away from the main street. The building’s metal parts long ago rusted over, and as you arrive, a handful of Hylki construction workers lower to the ground a neon blue sign that reads Ka Imports LLC. A new sign that reads, Ichihara Imports leans against the building, ready to take the original’s place. The business is currently closed, and most of the interior is dark. When you talk to the ikeshti construction workers, they shrug. Their boss growls out, "No clue, we're contractors. Don't know nothing about its operations. Knock on the door or somethin', somebody was in there earlier. Might 'ave left through the loading door though." He gets distracted by a worker mishandling the new neon sign and walks away to give them a talking to.
You identify Ichihara Holdings as a well-known corporation in the Pact Worlds.
[spoiler=DC 15 Culture roll (same check)]
You also know that Ichihara is based on Akiton and has ties to the Golden League, a prominent crime syndicate.
There’s no response at the front door. When you knock at the loading door a large shobhad opens it up. The armored hulk carries a huge pike and has a large cannon strapped to his back. He asks, “What you want?” in Common. The massive shobhad is armed and armored, more so than most you've seen around town, and speaks around two huge tusks.
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When the dispatch runs on the screen everyone is huddled around, Jaraduk lets a rare, comforted smile creep across his face.
Good 'ol Tarika. She'll definitely find something good for us next. Without her we wouldn't have a friend in the company.
Then as their current reality returns to his mind, a much more irritated look. Time for another shift loading up the trailer... I wonder if next time she could get us a job protecting and shipping something... smaller.
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As the construction workers lower the Ka Imports sign, Jaraduk stares and blinks, processing the scene for several moments.
Ichihara Imports... it sounds vaguely familiar but I'm not recalling it right now he says plainly to deflect from the horrible possibility that Ka Imports may be out of business. He's certainly thinking it.
As the talkier members of the group knock on the front door, Jaraduk turns to head around back. Let me see about the loading dock. I suspect they speak "impatient laborer." Akh, why don't you join me?
The nuar smiles when the large shobhad answers.
Ah, yes. We're looking to make a sizable delivery to Ka Imports LLC. I can see that they are ceasing operations at this location. Is there any chance you could tell me what presumably nicer, larger building they've moved to as a result of their resounding success? We wouldn't want to keep them waiting, and I can have them tip you for helping us afterward!
Strek quietly texts his knowledge to the rest of the group. He knows he's not the face of the operation, but maybe his information can help.
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The shobhad grinds his teeth, the thick blue tusks shifting around. "Don't know no Ka Imports. I don't like you, cow-man. You gotta small brain like me." He bellows a loud guffaw before squinting back at Jaraduk. "Don't. Like. No matter, 'bove my paygrade. Come on." He turns around before Guess? can interject with a smooth and convincing speech and leads you into the darkened building.
The rear of the darkened Ka Imports warehouse is filled with crates and boxes stacked over ten feet high. The shobhad leads you to a rear office, its large windows the only source of light in the whole building. A second shobhad stands outside the door, glowering and brandishing his twelve-foot pike. “Miss Ainsley,” says the first shobhad, “This ugly cow man and his friends are asking a lot of questions.” Inside the office, a crimson-skinned human woman reclines in a chair with her boots perched on the edge of a large desk cluttered with stacks of paper, unopened mail, and some empty coffee mugs. She looks up from a printed spreadsheet and exhales an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Thank you, Grandmother! I am bored out of my mind and could use a distraction. What is it?”
You can identify Ainsley’s exclamation of “Thank you, Grandmother!” as an invocation of Lao Shu Po, goddess of assassins, rats, spies, and thieves, known also as Grandmother Rat.
With the warning from Strek, Akh immediately connects the dots between the woman's exclamation and her allegiance. "We... are a distraction." Akh is rather a touch stiffer in his behavior than normal "We would like to sell some yaro berries, but not surprisingly find the business that was going to buy them is completely missing."
"You must have had a big success recently." He creaks "That is good for you."
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With this being (supposedly) another routine transaction, Guess? will again modify his appearance to be a generic, non-descript goblin with no identifying marks, no scars, average sized, average build, etc.
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Guess? follows along and takes in all the info provided by his teammates. When the party meets the human in charge, Guess? slips right into character:
"It seems Grandmother is looking out for us all today by having brought us, her grandchildren, together for a mutually beneficial arrangement!
"Miss Ainsley, my name is Hugh and like me, I'm sure you prefer getting straight to business, so I'll speak plainly.
"Ichihara has ties to the Golden League which probably forced out the former company located here, Ka Imports LLC, against their will. Then this Ichihara Imports office was set up as a front for some illegal activities - which appears complex judging by your frustration with the details." Guess? points to stack of papers, unopened mail, empty coffee mugs and spreadsheets. "In short, you're in charge of some criminal enterprise here but, honestly, we don't care.
"We are cargo transport specialists for EJ Corp and we don't care about illegal activities here because, again to be perfectly frank, my crew and I occassionally perform special, under-the-table deliveries (within reason) at exhorbitantly high fees."
"So! Now that all of our cards are on the table, let's talk about how we can help each other today! And what I propose is, ironically, perfectly legal and above-board! We have a delivery of in-demand, premium, top-grade yaroberries. Yep, you heard me right - impossible-to-find yaroberries have landed at your doorstep! These were originally to be delivered to Ka Imports. But seeing as they've moved on, Ichihara Imports can now benefit from this sudden turn of events!
"Ichihara pays us for this shipment and not only will Ichihara make a respectable profit off these yaroberries (at retail, this stuff goes for ten creds a bowl, minimum!) but it also cements the optics behind this new office! Nothing makes an illegal front look more legal than an actual legal business transaction, amirite?!? Not only that, but this shipment is large enough for you to launder a significant amount of money. Now, I'm not saying money laundering is solely what Ichihara Imports was set up to do but I'm guessing that's part of what this office will do, amirite? Don't answer that one...
"And when Ichihara Import's books show a sizable, perfectly legal transaction between Ichihara, a well-respected, family-owned local produce supplier on Castrovel with no criminal history - Prat's Produce - and a known transportation middleman corp with impeccable credentials - the Evgeniya-Jaimisson Corporation - well, the legitimacy of this office will be beyond question! Everybody wins!
"You earn actual legitimacy for this office, generate real profits on the yaroberry shipment (remember! ten, probably fifteen creds a bowl considering the freshness of this particular shipment!) and a chance to clean some dirty money.
"We get paid our standard fee of X,XXX,XXX credits for this shipment and Ichihara Imports becomes a special friend who may someday decide to pay exhorbitantly high fees to us for a special delivery!
"And there it is - Grandmother bringing her grandchildren together today to the benefit of us all. What do you say?
"Help us... help YOU!!"
At the sight of the corporate take-over, Del's eyes widen. She crosses her arms, tilts her head to the side, and taps one foot, giving this matter some thought. "Well, I've heard of Ichihara Holdings... Maybe they'll want the berries?"
At the shobhad's insults to Jaraduk, Del shakes her head and clicks her tongue in disappointment. "Well, that's not very nice. You should be ashamed of yourself."
Despite the rude greeting, she heads inside with the others, muttering "Highly unprofessional..." under her breath. She smiles politely at Miss Ainsley, then her eyes widen and she pales a bit as the woman mentions 'Grandmother.'
Del, who is certain she's a legitimate delivery pilot and not a smuggler at all, pales further at Guess?'s colourful description of the Ichihara Holdings and their delivery services. "Oh, dear..."
Despite her misgivings, she decides she'd best stay quiet. Guess? had the best chance of getting them out of this quickly. The only addition she makes is a quick summary of the delicious yaro berry and its many uses and high value.
Strek again texts the group chat, "Next time we comm our contact before spending 8 hours loading up".
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"Miss Ainsley" seems taken aback by Guess?'s upfront summary of the situation. "Well, uh, normally I'd give you the run around but I suppose that won't be necessary." She shuffles the papers around, arranging them in a neat stack where the goblin's prying eyes won't be able to pick up more details of the operation. "The old owner, Siski, is gone. Left town. Health emergency, I'm told."
Yeah... She's lying, or at least hiding the truth. She has something to do with Siski's disappearance.
The red-skinned akitonian purses her lips. "As for your assumptions about Ichihara Holdings, well, keep those to yourself.” She nods the shobhad guard, who had crept up closer to Guess?, back to the door. “All of Ka Import’s outstanding contracts were canceled when the change of ownership occurred. I could say I’m sorry, but honestly, I really just don’t care.” The woman stares at Guess? for a few seconds, sizing him up. Then, having made a decision, she pulls out a piece of paper and starts looking it over. "Yes, I see these yaro berries were going to make the Ka company a load of dough. Interesting." She pulls out her datapad and makes a few calculations. "Here's the thing. I'm not a berry buying business. Costs go up, you get it. I can give you half. No more. And you're only getting that because I like your spunk, Hugh." She smiles and puts her hands out, palms up.
With only half of the payment, you would only be able to pay Runo Prat or cover the Company’s expenses and expected profit margin, but not both. Guess? feels like he may be able to find a different buyer in the Hivemarket, but that's not guaranteed. Any any buyer he could find would know of the berries' sensitive time frame before souring and would demand a steep discount.
Del eyes the others, considering the pros and cons.
She'd leave Guess? to decide whether to take Ainsley up on her offer or try to sell the berries in Hivemarket—it was his salesmanship they'd be putting to the test and she trusted him to know his limits. But half?
Oh, poor Runo! No... Poor us! If it came down to. it, Del would rather give the cash to Runo and take a hit for the company than leave the poor retiree without his payday and richen EJCorp's coffers.
You can tell by the paler-than-usual look on his face that Strek doesn't like where this conversation is going. When the Shobhad sneaks up to the Goblin, Strek places a hand on his weapon, but when Miss Ainsley orders him back, Strek likewise relaxes.
"Hmmm. I see. Please allow me a moment to consult with my colleagues."
Assuming Ainsley doesn't object, Guess? will pull the party over to the side to discuss.
"If we take the offer, I vote we wire it to Runo. What's The Company gonna do? Fire us? I'm guessin' they'll just slash our salary and withhold our bonus... Which they always do anyways! But at least Runo gets his retirement, amirite?
"If we don't take the offer I suppose we can look for another buyer. But time is ticking. We've got about a day and a half? We'd be rolling the dice with Runo's retirement. I'm okay either way since it ain't my retirement at stake.
"What does everyone think? First, do we take offer of half payment or not? Second, if we take it, do we have payment wired to Runo or to The Company?"
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"We ain't heroes," Strek grumbles.
"Cap'n I'll go with whatever ya say, but we gotta look out for us first. If six of us get fired for one guy ta retire, how's that helpin' anyone? Better for us ta keep our skin now. Then, hey, if'n our next gig pays off, we send tha bonus to Runo. Besides," Strek brings up the contract on his datapad, "He didn't buy your insurance."