Galactic High

Once the meeting with their client had concluded, the group were able to extract without any issue, claiming the rest of the food and stuffing their bags as much as they could, before Sephy quickly wiped the local cameras of their presence. While the group was open to jumping the wall, Alora overruled them, not wanting to attract any kind of attention when they didn’t need to. Nobody spoke as they passed through and out of Corvin Enterprises territory, only speaking of the job the moment they got home and slumped down on the sofa with warm cups of calming tea.

“Alright, so what the hell is scrip exactly?” Jack asked as they all settled down. Now that the meet was over and they were away, Jack was a lot calmer, and as he took another sip of the delicious wine with some of the delectable slices of fruit they had taken back with them, he was now wondering why he had even been so worked up in the first place…

Scrip is a type of exclusive currency issued by a Megacorp or other similarly powerful organisation that will only be accepted as payment by them, Chiyo told him. In this case, Corvin Enterprises.

“So the dude literally just gave us fucking coupons?” Jack asked amused, looking at the strange green bands the Johnson had given them as their advance.

“It will suit our purposes for getting some gear,” Alora pointed out. “And using it will give us a discount on their products. Say what you will about them, but Corvin is one of the more diverse Megacorps we have. We can get some shopping done before we go.”

“Our next move is planning,” Nika announced. “As well as finding out what we know about ‘Mr Johnson’. How much do you want to bet she isn’t actually his mother?”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, slightly confused.

“It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes the client’s actual objective isn’t the one they hire for,” Sephy told him as she lay down on the sofa, throwing bits of fruit into the air before trying to catch them in her mouth. “Basically Shadowrunning 101. I reckon the guy cares much more about the pendent than the mother.”

“But what would be the point of not just outright telling us to get it?” Jack countered thoughtfully. “He’s offered a two for one trade on it, unless you think that’s a bad deal?”

It is a good deal, Chiyo confirmed. A very good one that we would go for if the opportunity presents itself. He did really seem to want it!

“I didn’t get that impression speaking to him.” Alora shrugged, sipping her wine thoughtfully. “My impressions haven’t always been correct, but they’re the same species and look similar enough.”

“To be honest, even if he just wants the pendant and spun us a story, that’s not our problem,” Nika pointed out. “A job’s a job, and this one’s gonna pay well. Sephy? You cracked his stuff yet?”

“Probably.” Sephy shrugged, not getting up, and throwing another bit of fruit into the air. “Cloning his commlink and quickly isolating any outgoing signals was the hardest part, and I won’t be able to access everything, but I’ve had a brute-force program going ever since we were in the clear.”

The Skritta threw another piece up into the air, and barely had time to register it briefly hovering in the air before Chiyo pinged it against her forehead. “Dammit Chiyo!”

Let’s see the information you have on the client first, The Ilithii insisted. We need some kind of insurance against him if he tries to betray us.

“Fiiiine…” Sephy grunted before she shifted around into a seated position and began typing away. “Lemme check out what I have and I’ll project it on the table.

“Also Chiyo, you said during the meet this guy was magically active? Did you get anything from that?” Jack asked, though admittedly he was completely out of his depth with the arcane.

His aura was calm throughout, though he can likely mask it. I mean he was talking about the death of his mother, and from what I saw it was like he was just talking about the weather. I did examine him thoroughly though, and his astral signature shows signs of nature magic of some kind.

“He didn’t come across to me as your average wagemage,” Nika pointed out. “If he’s not outright one of Corvin’s mysterious executives he’s probably close to it.”

“Okay, I’ve got some stuff here,” Sephy told them, pointing to a fresh projection on the table. “All I’ve got are a few recent messages that were received while I was cloning the commlink. Even though the rest of it is so heavily encrypted and I don’t want to touch it, it’s definitely a burner.”

“Well done Sephy, I’m sure you did what you could.” Alora nodded. “Though the client wasn’t foolish enough to take his actual commlink, I assume he needed to remain in contact with certain people and set up a forwarding system.”

“Now let’s see what we’ve got and we can work from there…” Jack added, grinning as he patted Dante, who was watching with keen interest.

Look at the name of the sender here. Chiyo pointed at one of the messages. The way the client is respectful and deferential to this ‘Lux’ individual indicates that they’re probably his boss.

“I’ll run that name, see if anything comes up.” Sephy nodded, quickly typing away on her commlink.

“What about this?” Jack asked, pointing at the content of the message. “The word ‘Sojourn’ is capitalised for me, like it’s the name of something?”

“Oh yeah…” Nika noted, seeing where Jack was pointing. “Name of what though?”

“Probably the name of a project they’re working on or something.” Alora reasoned. “But it’s difficult to tell from the context. Something about projects outside of the city.”

Hopefully it gives us enough to find our insurance, Chiyo agreed. But more importantly we need to plan the trip. The client said he’d sort out transportation, right?

“Yeah…” Jack nodded. “But that’s a hell of a lot of trust we’re putting in this guy. How does he want us to get there?”

“Looks like it’s a two stage journey, but not as bad as you think,” Nika pointed out, reading through the files the client gave them. “For the first stage, the client gave us an open express ticket for a Covrin shuttle to get to a border town that’s the closest point of civilization before you hit the frontier.”

“Right…” Jack raised his eyebrows, not convinced that this was somehow good. “Where do we need to go and what’s the departure time?”

“There isn’t a departure time, we can go when we want!” Sephy grinned. “Basically if we go to any shuttleport Corvin Enterprises operate from and show the ticket, they’ll then put us on the first convenient shuttle out no-questions asked, though it may mean we end up in a cramped cargo bay.”

“If it’s an open ticket can people still use it to track us?” Jack asked, still concerned about the potential problems. He hated to be ‘that guy’ but he knew it was important to ask the unpopular questions.

No, I don’t think it’s likely, Chiyo confirmed. Of what is known in their company culture, many are in circulation within Corvin Enterprises and they’re used by either powerful figures or their agents.

“So the run-of-the-mill employees don’t ask questions.” Jack nodded in understanding.

“From what I can tell our ones don’t have any unique markings either,” Sephy noted. “So we should be alright as long as we don’t hang around.”

“We’ll need to work out where we want to travel from too, and how long the journeys are gonna take,” Nika added with a sigh.

“No worries, I’ll run a filter overnight and we can pick the one we like the most.” Sephy shrugged. “But that won’t be the only legwork we have to do. We have some time before we want to leave on Frostday at least.”

Jack nodded with the others, knowing that ‘Frostday’ was the local equivalent of ‘Friday’ here.

“Don’t forget that we intend to pick up the armour Clan Bharzum promised for us,” Alora reminded them. “And with luck we can sleep on the first leg of the journey, since I’m more worried about the second part.”

“Yeah, I’m not familiar with this ‘Cypherport’ place,” Nika stated, checking the files. “Other than it’s the last frontier town before you hit leagues of mostly untamed wilderness. Once we get there we’re to secure passage down the river towards a very remote outpost that Corvin Enterprises has some influence over. I don’t know if it’ll be the best course for us, but the client has indicated that there’s a tribe of River Giants there who Corvin Enterprises have a working relationship with that we can talk to about securing passage for the second stage of our journey.”

“River Giants?” Jack asked in surprise.

I must admit, this species is unfamiliar to me, Chiyo added thoughtfully. Though I am familiar with other species of ‘Giants’. What do you know of them, Nika? Anyone else?

“I don’t know much, but I once stowed away on a River Giant ship to get here,” The Kizun admitted. “They seemed to be traders of sorts and they never caught me. They were pale-green skinned and I’d say they’re about double Jack’s size on average.”

“I know just as much as you,” Alora added, with Sephy nodding to indicate the same. “We’ll need to do some research if we can, maybe if they have certain customs we can ensure their cooperation if we make sure to adhere to them?”

“Something else to add to the list of things to check.” Sephy shrugged. “If they have a working relationship with Corvin Enterprises they should accept our coin at least.”

“Then we have the third stage of the journey,” Jack added, wanting to contribute. “A remote outpost along the river to the target area. What kind of terrain are we dealing with?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Alora admitted. “So we’ll need to see if we can find maps of the area as well as any records from travellers.”

“If it can be accessed by river, it shouldn’t be anything too extreme,” Nika pointed out. “Especially if Corvin Enterprises have some kind of minor outpost there. Wonder what they use it for?”

Perhaps there’s remote communities out there that trade with them? Chiyo mused. Or maybe it’s a staging area for something.

“If it’s a quiet outpost, are we going to have problems getting ourselves a return trip?” Jack asked, taking a swig of his tea as he got more confident in asking these kinds of questions..

“Depends how long it takes to get back,” Sephy said. “Surely if it were a busy route then they’d want to make it a quick stop, but if there’s nowhere else to safely rest I imagine a boat crew would want to take a day or two to rest and exchange cargo. We could always ask and bribe them to stick around for a bit.”

“That means we’ll need to set a cutoff point for when we head back.” Alora clarified. “Though we won’t know how long we have until we get there. What do we know about the place we need to head to?”

It’s been described as a Shrine of Elphil, Chiyo reported. Though what such a place dedicated to ‘The Nurturing Mother’ is doing in such a remote location is beyond me. You would think a goddess of the hearth that’s a protector of children would be closer to where the actual children are located?

“Maybe it’s a historical holy site?” Jack suggested. “Plenty of those exist on Earth. Had a bunch of wars happen over them too!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Nika pointed out, the Kizun clapping once to get everyone’s attention. “Right now we have legwork to do. We need departure locations and your best estimates for travel times so we know how long we have and plan when we rest.”

“I can check departure locations and we can pick the one we like most,” Sephy told the others before grinning. “Does the express ticket we have give us an all-you-can-drink at a first class bar?”

“You’re not drinking on the job,” Alora warned the Skritta sternly. “And I’d rather get to this ‘Cypherport’ place without attracting any attention. If we get some hidden space in a cargo hold we can try and catch some sleep there.”

“Maybe get some homework done too while we're at it?” Jack grinned.

“Dammit don't remind me!” Sephy groaned. “We better not have anything bad!”

I believe the teachers are going easy on us after the last two weeks of double school, Chiyo speculated. However I would recommend we complete everything we can before Frostday.

“Agreed.” Alora nodded. “Though I'm sure we can clear it up during the day and before we get ready on Frostday. I'd rather not be distracted during a Run, or carry more things than we need to!”

“That brings up a good point,” Nika interjected. We need a list of things we're taking with us, and from there work out a shopping trip.”

“And keep it light with enough space to take stuff back with us I'm guessing?” Jack added.

“Yep, told you you're a born Shadowrunner!” Sephy grinned. “Though I think we need to know more about where we're going so we know what we'll need. Doubt there'll be any need to take my cybergear to the middle of nowhere.”

In that case, tomorrow after school I shall go to the Great Library and find out what I can about the local area, Chiyo reasoned. Jack, perhaps you can come with me and help?

“Um…sure!” Jack agreed. “Unless you guys think I might be better suited helping with the shopping? If we get some of those really lightweight sleeping bags then maybe we can swap out the bedrolls for hammocks or something?

“Hammocks?” Alora asked thoughtfully.

“Yeah, like a lightweight sturdy bit of cloth with hooks that hangs off the ground that you can sleep in?” Jack added in.

“I know what a hammock is!” Alora laughed. “But that's a really good idea if there's going to be places to hook them up.”

“Could the fabricator spit a few out?” Nika asked, causing everyone to think hard on that one.

Hessia thinks she can use it for curtains, Chiyo reasoned. I suppose we would need to see if it can be done first, otherwise we should just stick to our bedrolls.

“I’ll ask her tomorrow,” Alora told them. “And a hammock would be much easier to pack into a bag at least, just stuff the thing.”

“Might be easily replaceable too,” Nika added. “Depending on what we need.”

“About time we used the fabricator for other things instead of solar panels.” Sephy grinned.

“Like fixing up the shuttle,” Jack agreed. “Right now it’s just sitting there like a piece of modern art.”

“Yeah, hopefully we can fix it up after the Run.” Nika nodded. “I guess while you guys are all doing your thing I’ll make sure we’ve got our MREs sorted for the trip, since I’d rather not eat stuff in the field if we can help it.”

That’s the shopping list sorted for now. Chiyo nodded thoughtfully, wanting to bring something up. But what do we think about what actually could have happened? The client lost contact with their mother and now assumes that they’re dead for a reason, after all.

“It could be an offshoot of Klowns.” Nika shrugged. “I know a bunch of groups are tracking the path of what they think of the main group but there are always offshoots that branch off and cause chaos by design, usually Klownifying any species they find on the way to replenish their numbers.”

“But Corvin Enterprises has a special hatred of the Klowns,” Sephy pointed out. “Surely they’d know if it was them if they have the closest outpost to that area.”

“The problem is that the shrine we’re heading to is so remote it could be anything,” Alora told them. “So that’s what we need to be ready for.”

“So load up to the teeth.” Nika nodded.

“Sounds good.” Alora nodded. “In that case, let’s all get some rest and sleep well. We’ll have the others doing guard duty for now, so tomorrow we can come back after we’ve done our tasks and work out where to go from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Jack nodded with a slight smile as everyone got up to go to bed. He was glad that their group was taking the appropriate steps to prepare.

He was almost starting to look forward to this…

*****

“We've got our next game coming up in two weeks!” Vaal told Jack with a grin, plonking his lunch tray down beside him. “The school's reconfirmed the schedule. Don't know who we're facing yet though!”

“About damn time!” Nika grinned, as Chiyo rolled her eyes and turned away from the conversation. “We've got to get our reserves up to scratch!”

“Hey, they'll be totally fine!” Kritch spoke up a little too quickly.

“You sure you're not just looking at things through rose-tinted glasses?” Jack teased with a grin.

“Yeah I didn't get a chance to say it on the day but you're an asshole for doing that Jack!” Kritch pointed at the human, shaking his head. “You could have at least warned me before you randomly chucked me onto Rayle’s float!”

The entire table erupted in laughter at that one, with Plooderoo thumping the table several times.

“Hey, it worked out well in the end!” Jack defended himself with a grin, with Kritch nodding in agreement.

“That's true!” The Lizta grinned back. “I'll remember that next time your favourite dragon comes by…”

That set the table off again, and this time it was Jack who was red in the face. The fact that Kritch was planning some kind of payback did not bode well…

“Alright, we're changing the subject!” Vaal told them all. “Team practice every day starting next week, train yourselves up in the meanwhile!”

“Every day?” Sephy asked incredulously. “Really Vaal?”

“Why not?” The Eladra smirked. “We can get a winning streak going, and I want to make sure we all work well as a team. Last game our coordination could have been a lot better!”

“Speaking of,” Jack spoke up. “How are Kizzarith and Arlox doing?”

“Better,” Plooderoo told them. “Kizzarith is mostly awake and in good spirits, and he'll be fit enough to come back to school soon, but he won't be able to play Deathball for a while. He's still thinking about his options for his missing…parts.”

“He hasn't got long to think about it,” Nika warned. “There's a window of opportunity, I think he should see if they can be cloned and grafted.”

“I can't imagine making a big decision like that easily,” Jack pointed out. “How long does he have?”

“Still a couple of weeks I reckon,” Karzen added from where she and her sister placed their trays down and added to the row. “Still, maybe some time being up and about’ll help.”

“Arlox has some time to go, I think,” Bentom added. “Dream therapy helped correct the course but he's still adjusting. I tried to talk to him via the drone link and it's like he wasn't completely there.”

“His wounds aren't physical.” Vaal sighed. “This is healing of the soul. It's not a perfect science but once he's with us I'm sure he'll get better quickly. It's just the initial readjustment that can take some time, that needs to be done as flawlessly as possible.”

“And how’s Crill handling it?” Jack asked, looking around for their Squarri friend, and not seeing him. “Have you guys seen him outside class lately?”

“He’s devastated.” Kritch sighed. “Blames himself for not being with Arlox when the attack happened. Spends as much time as he can with him.”

“He couldn’t have known what would happen, surely he knows this?” Alora spoke up, having overheard the conversation. “I hope he holds no ill will towards me…” The Eladrie sighed. “I was the reason they split up while they were helping me…”

“I don’t think he blames anyone but himself” Jack spoke up again. “Though I wouldn’t know how the hell we snap him out of it apart from not leaving him alone for too long to wallow in his depression.”

“I think we’ve all been doing our part.” Vaal sighed. “He probably just needs more of a distraction to shake him out of whatever’s going on with him right now. He told me he’ll be fine for games but I’ll make the call to switch him out if he isn’t. I’m hoping the Deathball practice will keep him focused on something else. I’m thinking we can head to the Cathedral of Merriment the weekend of the next game, Arlox should be able to join us by then.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Nika nodded. “And since you want to wear us out before our next game’s on, what do you want us to try and work on in the meantime, oh Captain?”

“Hah!” Vaal grinned. “As a team we need to work on our tactics. Luviannestixxx was able to bottleneck us and trap Jack during our last game, so that’s something we need to work on. Sephy, since you’re a Charger now, we need to train you up for that, and our two new members need to be brought up to scratch. Jack, you need to learn more about playing the game, so if you can watch a few on TV or something, that’d be awesome!”

“Well that doesn’t seem so bad.” Jack shrugged with a smirk. “Though I don’t exactly have PirateBay or whatever over here.”

“I’ll hook you up with a few videos to watch,” Sephy told him. “Bunch of classics you need to see!”

“Alright, I’ll watch what I can.” Jack agreed.

“But I’m kinda tied down tonight…”