Into the Black

To say that Don Veta was pleased to see us was only partly true. He was, of course, very happy to see his daughter again. He was less pleased to see Jackson still drawing breath, instead of having his accident. That changed when I informed him of how I found his daughter, and what had been done to her. When I told him that I brought Jackson to him for a father’s retribution, he smiled at me, just barely covering his rage. “You have done well. Whenever you are on Primo, come and see me. Do you know where you will be going next?”

“Well, I’m looking for a quiet yard where I can have some improvements made to my ship, and maybe another I ‘found’. After that, I’ll be heading through the Gate, probably out of Imperial space.”

The Don nodded, and said, “Well, as thanks for bringing this scum to me, I will do two things for you. First, here are the coordinates of an outpost where you can get the work you need done. My name will allow you into the shipyards, since they usually only work with trusted clients. Second, I will give you a letter of recommendation. Take it to Elnaril Triswynn on the knelfi world of Diymia, and he will know you are a trustworthy sort. He may also have work for you, should you be interested.”

I bowed my head to the Don, and said, “Thank you, sir, and may your ‘discussion’ with Mr. Jackson bring you everything you wish to hear.” The Don laughed at that, and had one of his men bring us a bottle of wine on our way out. Just so he could say to his men that he gave us something for our trouble. The real rewards were, of course, the stuff we’d stolen, and a place to get our ships modded, if I decided to keep Jackson’s ship.

Said ship, when we found it, was a pretty sweet little thing. As the title said, it was a light shuttle, but that hardly did it justice. This little beauty had been put together for the sole purpose of moving about as quietly as possible, and then making a loud noise when you got there. It was as much a ‘light shuttle’ as a battleship was a ‘large boat’. This was an Imperial Navy assault shuttle. Checking the files I had access to, it seemed that this was an old surplus model that had been sold, unarmed, after the last war, twenty years ago. I don’t know where Jackson got his hands on it, but he’d updated the shields and engines to current military specs, and he’d gotten a full stealth setup on it. The little thing wouldn’t carry much, but it was small enough to fit within the Raven’s cargo bay.

We’d stopped by the Raven before heading this way to unload the goodies (and the new slaves) and pick up the package for the Sunside bigwig. I put the package in the shuttle, and told the others to head back to the ship, except for Shearah. A We’d meet them in orbit, after flying the shuttle, which I named Stiletto (instead of the Willing Wench, as it had been named), to make the delivery.

Mail Order Delivery

Samantha Hart, of the Hart Trading Company on Primo has purchased a ‘special’ package through an agent at the Choson Ring. Now, she just needs her new toy delivered to her residence on Primo so she can enjoy the Sunside’s heat. Discretion preferred.

Difficulty

D

Task

Deliver the stasis pod (unopened) to Samantha Hart’s residence.

Payment

50000 Credits (Bonus of 50000 Credits if delivery is not noted on local news networks. Bonus of 50000 credits if package delivered within 7 days.)

We got the full payment, since there was no news about Ms. Hart getting her new ‘pool boy’, who happened to look a lot like the new Emperor, and we beat the seven day timeframe. Pretty clear where that doppleganger sold at the slave auction back on Choson Ring went now. But the kinks of rich business women didn’t concern me, so long as I got paid for helping to service them.

The shuttle flew like a dream, and soon were were docking with Raven in orbit. While I was gone, the crew had taken the initiative to lock the two gravcars we ‘appropriated’ to the ceiling, leaving plenty of space clear for the shuttle to land. Because it was so small, it only took up a quarter of our cargo space. According to Shearah, the shuttle was fully functional, and hyperspace capable, so I just had to find some weapons and install them.

Once we broke orbit, we made our way to the outpost given to us by the Don. Smuggler’s Reach was, as the name suggested, a haven for smugglers, cutthroats, and ne’er-do-wells. Not the kind of place you’d want to take your family for a vacation, unless your vacations included the possibility of getting stabbed for your wallet, but it was a sight better than some of the places you might end up when you needed to find contacts on the less than legal side of things.

The outpost was based in a series of hollowed out asteroids, linked by several permanent walkways. From what I had been told, the authorities knew about it, and so long as things didn’t get out of hand, they were content to let it remain. The reason, of course, was because it served to concentrate anyone they probably wished to keep an eye on in one area, so if there was a time where they did need to intervene, they’d have a target to hit. Kindof like how RL cops know which clubs the local Mob owns, but they don’t do anything to rock the boat unless mob violence is getting out of hand.

Anyways, we docked in the shipyard, which they let us into once we gave Don Veta’s name as a reference. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting all the upgrades I wanted to both Raven and Stiletto. And let me tell you, it was one hell of a price tag. Even stretching my Negotiation skill as much as I could, I still ended up draining most of the money out of not only my account, but also the ship and corporate accounts! No one complained, though, since I was in charge of the Corporation, and it was going to make our ship the nastiest smuggler around. Did manage to get them to chop almost 20k off the final price, though.

Ship Upgrades

Mk VII Armor Plating (Concealed)

25000

Using advanced materials to replace the hull plating with composites that have greater strength than the original. Repairing hull damage becomes more expensive as a result. Requires 2 weeks in a shipyard.

NullScan Hull Paint

4300

Replace the standard black paint job with a ‘darker-than-black’ scheme that disguises the ship’s lines, and passively absorbs sensor radiation, making the ship much harder to detect while not using gravitic engines. Requires 4 hours in a shipyard.

Mk IV Reactor

200000

Provides a 25% better power output at 13% better efficiency than the current Mk III reactor. Useful for keeping weapons, engines, shields, and life support all working at peak levels simultaneously. Requires 48 hours in a shipyard.

Military-grade shields

125000

An upgrade to the shield emitters allowing for military-strength shielding from attacks and impacts. An improvement of 125% over current civilian model. Requires 12 hours in a shipyard.

Enhanced Thrusters

3000

Minor physical adjustments to thrusters, combined with enhanced control software, giving a 10% better performance rating, with 40% better efficiency. Requires 4 hours in a shipyard.

Mk V Gravitic Engines

400000

Replaces the current Mk IV Gravitic engines with the Mk V model, giving 25% greater range, and sublight speeds up to .5c. Requires 96 hours in shipyard.

Shuttle Upgrades

Mk VII Armor Plating (Concealed)

2500

Using advanced materials to replace the hull plating with composites that have greater strength than the original. Repairing hull damage becomes more expensive as a result. Requires 2 weeks in a shipyard.

NullScan Hull Paint

2000

Replace the standard black paint job with a ‘darker-than-black’ scheme that disguises the ship’s lines, and passively absorbs sensor radiation, making the ship much harder to detect while not using gravitic engines. Requires 4 hours in a shipyard.

Mk IV Reactor

25000

Provides a 25% better power output at 13% better efficiency than the current Mk III reactor. Useful for keeping weapons, engines, shields, and life support all working at peak levels simultaneously. Requires 48 hours in a shipyard.

ID Spoofer

1500

Special device allows for switching between real and false vehicle identification signals. Quality of fake depends on Forgery skill.

Military-grade shields

100000

An upgrade to the shield emitters allowing for military-strength shielding from attacks and impacts. An improvement of 125% over current civilian model. Requires 12 hours in a shipyard.

Enhanced Thrusters

1500

Minor physical adjustments to thrusters, combined with enhanced control software, giving a 10% better performance rating, with 40% better efficiency. Requires 4 hours in a shipyard.

Mk V Gravitic Engines

40000

Replaces the current Mk IV Gravitic engines with the Mk V model, giving 25% greater range, and sublight speeds up to .5c. Requires 96 hours in shipyard.

Since both the Shuttle and the Ship were getting worked on, and they were doing multiple upgrades at the same time, that meant we only had to wait on the longest upgrade, the two week armor replacement. That was to be expected, since they were literally taking the hull apart.

That meant we had two weeks on station, with nothing to do. Fortunately, that drone body we stole from Jackson was one of those really high end models, that were almost impossible to tell from a normal person. OK, so it was a sexbot body, crafted in the likeness of one of the hottest women in the world. And it was Raven’s brand new physical avatar.

This meant we had Raven actually with us, instead of just talking through our bracers. I shared the cost with the ship account to get her equipped with weapons and armor, so she could go ‘have fun’ with the rest of us. Seems she really didn’t like that she had to remain behind when everyone else got to go get into exciting gunfights and the like. I also ‘invested’ 10k on two copies of a hacking suite so she and I could get into enemy systems if when we needed to.

The slaves we picked up from the gambling hall were all pretty much worthless, as far as a ship’s crew went. None of them had any marketable skills, other than serving drinks or fucking clients. And I didn’t want to settle down and start a brothel, at least not at this time. Even if my debuff let me, I couldn’t free them in Imperial space, since they were all non-humans, and would get enslaved again immediately. This left me with seven extra mouths to feed while we stayed at one of the local hotels, which was draining my account further, and I hadn’t even armed the shuttle yet!

That, of course, meant that I would have to make some money, somehow. Fortunately, when you’re on a station with a bunch of underworld types and spacers, there’s always a few things you can count on to be present, no matter what: alcohol, hookers, and gambling. I had my girls, so I didn’t really care about the other two, the gambling was a profitable venture. If I could win.

OK, so I might have cheated a bit. And maybe hacked a few systems to get free booze. Or a few other minor things. And seduced a few people while convincing them to make stupid investments in a mine on Ganymede. And maybe I practiced forging IDs. But is that a crime, really? 66000 credits in profit isn’t THAT much.

Analyze has increased to 12/100.

+1 WIS

Seduction has increased to 12/100.

+1 CHA

Con has increased to 10/100.

+2 CHA

Computers has increased to 4/100.

+3 WIS

Software has increased to 4/100.

+3 INT

Hardware has increased to 4/100.

+2 DEX, +1 WIS

Hacking has increased to 4/100.

+2 INT, +1 WIS

Lockpicking has increased to 4/100.

+3 DEX

Forgery has increased to 4/100.

+2 WIS

Judge Intentions has increased to 6/100.

+2 WIS

Gambling has increased to 8/100.

+3 CHA

Of course, then I heard about the all station Poker Tournament.