Krombach's final letter

My good friend Glen,

I know that that we have embarked on a dangerous path and I am older but not perhaps wiser than a few years ago, so I am preparing for the worst.  If you are reading this then something has happened and I am dead.  I think that you will have landed on your feet however.  Do not be sad for me.  I have had an extraordinary life.  These adventures we undertake are very exciting and the potential for learning is great, however I think that one of the greatest rewards has been your friendship.

I have left my affairs in good order in preparation for boarding the plane tomorrow.  I did not wish people to know but I tell you now - most of my money has been spent testing my theories on shared memory, and I have had many setbacks.  I have few beneficiaries, most notably my brother and his wife, die Möwe.  I have never liked her.  Fitz will inherit what little money I have and what income I make on this adventure.  I am also leaving them the only investment I have left - 61 shares of Abbott Laboratories preferred stock.  Perhaps they can use it to line a birdcage.  

I am leaving you my Durant.  Never drive it to Toronto.  I also leave you what things you may wish to have from my apartment before it is all auctioned off.  There is a lock box in my desk which contains my notes on the lotus and what little remains of it.  If you see Dr. Peasley, please return his silver cigar cutter which he must have dropped at some point.  Also you will find the pocket watch you lost some years ago.  I had found it and had been meaning to tell you.

Abschied und gute Nacht meine feiner Kerl!

-Wilhiem

Captain Thornside's tale

We were on the return leg of a deep patrol and station holding for position transmissions. We were the advance of 3rd fleet and pathfinding so we needed to recalculate.  This was just after what’s he saying I didn't catch that so everyone was set to lethal and moral was pretty low.  We were skirting a nebula when Oligar - he was the hailer on the Casanova - he had something on long range and he called Skip here and asked if we were picking it up too.  We slipped into low EM and waited.  It was a nevermind its not important.  Our orders were to find a route around them, but if we could pinpoint their location without tipping them off - that was even better.  We knew we had to get a message back but here was no way we would hit translight or get signal off without being discovered.  We waited and we just watched them.

It looked like they were hanging around for something to happen, and sure enough after two days a durugh ship dropped out of translight.  Well that just changed things up since we had intel that the duruhg were engaged with the 7th and 23rd at would you get to the point.   They must have been staging up for a sneak attack!  Now we had to try to get word back to fleet, even if it meant getting caught.  Skip here set up a crypto pack and we pulsed it out and at the same time we fired up our transwarp.  They must have had some kind of spike or counter-measures up though because as soon as we broke translight there was a huge feedback surge and all our the systems went dead.  It took too long but we got life support back up and when we rebooted the nav and tried to position - well we were here in The Bottle.  I was pretty banged up and we had lost Sven and McMurphy and over on the Casanova they lost Kt' l' ak, their medic, and Captain Bonner.  We tried to figure our position, but there just wasn't anything out there - you know - not even any stars but the dwarf.  Skip picked up the wreckage and a signal beacon on the rock - that's the one you picked up in the other crater.  We didn't recognize the code so we assumed it was oh my head hurts and so we went silent.  I think that’s what saved us since a lot of of those wrecks out there look to have scoring like the Casanova got so I figure they hailed the beacon and the squids took them out.

I don’t know who they are.  Rex here says his people have heard of them and they are called Ged.  Says they are ravagers.  Says their ships land and they spill out and lay waste.  The Woodies have been here longest of us and them squids were here a long time before they came.  It’s hard to pin the Woodies down on that, but they have a way of talking that makes me think their idea of a long time is a bit bigger than ours.  I figure a couple hundred years at least judging from the damage on some of those hulks out there.  That ship they have is some sort of carrier/dreadnought and the crew are all in cryo with just a few out slinking about keeping a big ol eye on things.  Its a good thing too because they are nasty business. Fast moving and hard to see.  One of them kraken bastards took out half my people and ripped Woody 2's arm off before we drove it off.  He was out hunting.  They like to hunt.  It's a big ship, there must be thousands of them on there, but like the stickman says, they are sleeping.  They are just as stuck here as the rest of us.

News Net Nine Special Report

The following blog post contains some pretty big SPOILERS concerning the Ashen Stars supplement Dead Rock Seven.  This post is primarily supplemental material for my game group but may be of interest to you if you are running Ashen Stars games or have already run or read the Dead Rock Seven materials.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE A PLAYER OR WANT TO PLAY ASHEN STARS OR ADVENTURES FROM DEAD ROCK SEVEN.  Seriously it will spoil it for you.  It will even spoil it if you don't play this adventure because your GM might rip off some of the ideas.  Don't even peek if you are curious because THESE ARE SOME GOOD ADVENTURES AND YOU WANT TO PLAY THEM. Go buy the PDF or something.

If you are still good to go then scroll down for the post.  If you are playing in my game then please dig in.





















################ LAST WARNING HERE BE SPOILERS. #########################

"Hello Capitoline and the Bleed.   Th-Kurst here with a News Net Nine flash update.  The infra-web has been well cooked with speculation when it was discovered that former lazer Denna Bonner had been taken into custody and implicated in the destruction of the Princess Beatrix starliner.  Bonner is well known as being one of the first wave of licensed effectuators, a delicious career that came to an end with her resignation two years ago immediately following the acidic conclusion of the Mo'toka trial.  Bonner has been a staple feature of conference circuits since her retirement.  She is also outspoken critic of Combine policies regarding the Bleed, a tasty side-dish that has not gone unnoticed on the forums.  Officials from Ossa One have neither confirmed or denied rumors that Bonner was working with a highly placed official from the Caver government on Pioneer, an historical synthculture in the Darrian Colonies.  News Net Nine's own Abbi Longren has secured a rare interview with Pioneer's Minister of Security.  Are you there Abby?"

"Yes, hello Th-Kurst.  I have here on holo Fina Rossi, the top Minister in President Caver's cabinet and the head of Security and Internal Affairs.  Minister Rossi, can you shed some light on this troubling news linking your government with the destruction of the Princess Beatrix."

"Thank you Abby, and greetings to all gentlebeings of the Bleed.  Before we continue, on behalf of President Caver and myself, I want to express my heartfelt and humble condolences to the families who lost loved ones in that terrible terrible accident.  The Caver government wishes to offer our full cooperation into this investigation.  I believe it was Kima who said ‘There are none of us so vast that can not be brought low by our sorrow.’"

"Minister, can you speak to our listeners about the allegations that one of your own staff is implicated along with Denna Bonner in this criminal investigation.”

“Yes Abby, I believe you are speaking of Mr. Vos, a junior security officer on my staff.  It makes me very sad and distressed that Mr. Vos is implicated in this alleged crime.  He was a good man and it pains me to think that his generous and open nature may have gotten him into such trouble.”

“Excuse me Minister, I’m not sure I understand.”

“Ernst Vos was an ardent admirer of Denna Bonner and had followed her career with great interest.  This was during the rebuilding, a time when emotions were very high and we were all glad to be survivors. Almost everyone had some hobby or passion that helped them get through that dark time. However he was a quiet man. He did disclose his interest in Bonner when he asked to be assigned to her personal security during her recent visit, however his psych records showed no indication that this might cloud his judgement."

"Are you saying Vos was in love with Bonner?"

"Oh Abby, no. I believe he was infatuated with her however. Perhaps he imagined himself on her crew, a Laser himself, when she was ambushed in a dark car park. Perhaps he thought himself her savior when he opened fire upon that crew of bounty hunters?"

"So is it the position of your government is that Vos was acting on his own?"

"It is our position that the situation was handled very poorly. Although the Caver government is willing to extend full support to agents of the Combine, we were not informed of their presence on Pioneer and we were not extended the courtesy of learning that Bonner was a person of interest. Perhaps if Ossa One had deigned to work with our people we could have settled this matter without violence and the death of two of our officers. We realize that one of ours, a minor but good officer, may have overstepped his authority, however we hope that these extenuating circumstances are taken into consideration in the coming days."

"Minister Rossi, why was Denna Bonner on Pioneer? Did your government know she was a fugitive? Did Ernst Vos know?"

"Miss Longren, Denna Bonner was to be the keynote speaker in a conference being hosted on our planet.  Many other prominent speakers were also in attendance, many of whom incidentally have spoken out against Combine policies in the past. If we had any knowledge that Denna Bonner was a fugitive we would have taken appropriate action. However we did not know. In fact it is apparently still unknown what the status of Miss Bonner is by anyone except Combine agents. What Mr. Vos did or did not know is not mine to say, he alone is responsible for his actions. But is that not all any of us want? To be responsible for our own actions, to make our own decisions? And how can we do that if we are not given all the information? I think that we in the Bleed need to seriously consider where we stand in the eyes of Ossa One and the Combine. Thank you."

"Thank You Minister."

Welcome to Pioneer

News Net Nine

"Good Morning Cappers!  Abby Longren - News Net Nine and I'm here with your Mid Morning Info Dump."

"The market closed lower yesterday, continuing it's recent slide.  Hardest hit were the industrials, but investors also seemed skittish on Agra and Chem.  Losses were slightly offset by soft rally in the financial sectors, fueled by rumors that the Council will once more be pushing back the final voting deadline on Prop 14, the insurance reformation bill.

Joloca/Beta Tarsus president Sheel Augustine met again this week with members of the pheromone manufacturing industry from across the Bleed to draft formal submissions addressing the controversial Olfactory Regulatory Agenda Bill, more commonly called the Sniffer Law.  Should the ORA bill gain traction in the Conference, use of pheromone based personal enhancement products will be subject to tighter regulation and higher liability.  Augustine has stated publicly that should this bill  pass it would cripple not only the highly controversial Stimulust market, but all phero based industries.  She cautions that the bill is a slippery slope that could cause far reaching impacts through out all scent based businesses, from perfume and to food preparation - even your morning coffee.  Yikes! Better savor that sweet morning cuppa while you can folks."

"And now on to our top story:
Recovery teams from Knossos are still working to gather the remains of passengers and crew of the Princess Beatrix, the luxury liner that was horrifically wrecked en route to the Aldebaran system.  Eighty-eight bodies were recovered from the wreckage, confirming that almost all hands were lost in the accident.  The Lazer crew first on the scene managed to rescue three passengers but immediately left the scene in pursuit of the single lifeboat that launched.  Why no other lifeboats were launched and why the Lazer crew left the scene so rapidly is still not yet clear.  Family members were quick to condemn the actions of the rescue crew and are demanding an explanation why no attempt was made to recover the remains.  Salvage crews arriving quickly after the accident report that they have not seen such devastation since the wa-- incident.  I have with me Lloyd Thornside, owner and operator of Lloyds Lazers.  Good morning Lloyd."

"Why thank you Abby, and top of the morning to you and yours."

"Thank you Lloyd.  As a Laser yourself, can you perhaps pop a spot on these events for our viewers?"

"Well Abby, I think what we're dealing with here is a new crew and you know they gotta be looking to prove themselves.  I mean I'm not condoning sloppy work but I've been there, and when the money is tight it's hard to have the patience to really hit all the marks.  Not everyone can follow that hard path like I did. Now you might expect everyone to provide top notch professional like you get with Lloyd's - you know Lazers with that personal touch.  But I have to tell you that kind of service only comes after years of experience.

"But Lloyd, why would they leave the wreckage so quickly, and with only a short broadcast beforehand?  Was this because of the SVC?"

"Right you are Abby.  A SVC or Standard Vengeance Clause is a very attractive incentive.  That is why some shipping lines still use them.  However in my opinion these type of contracts only serve to encourage people to get into the effectuator business.  People who might not be dedicated to Law and Order or those looking for a quick payoff.  I think that the industry needs to work towards a licencing model rather than these kind of open ended incentives.  I don't blame these fellows for putting their thrusters before their processors, but I also think we can do better.  The public deserves better."

"Indeed they do.  Thank you Lloyd.  We've been speaking with Lloyd Thornside, founder and owner of Lloyds Lazers, about the recent wreck of the Princess Beatrix.  Stay tuned to News Net Nine for all the details on this terrible tragedy.

Bode's story

I wanted to get this taken down and I hope that you write what I said because I’m going to have someone else read it to me and so it better be right.  
My name is Bode Pförtner which means porter or doorman and my family were fetch and carry men for the coach lines.  I grew up poor but not as bad as some folks. I would have been a porter too but my papi was a lucky man and once found a nobleman’s bag that had walked away on him.   It must have been an important bag because that man said now he owed Pa a debt and so Pa said you take my sons to the army to be soldiers, and not two penny men nor diggers neither.  And so my brother Cole and me we went off and became soldiers.
I had steady hands and was a real good shot, better than most, and so I went into the Crossbowmen and then the Handgunners.  My brother Cole was better than me even, and smarter too, and he made a scout and even got taught to read and do sums.  I caught on that he wasn't just a normal scout either because he knew things and the guys he ran with were not regular soldiers.  One time we were up in the Fallow Hills and Cole told me I should be sick that morning and when I told him no I’d stick by my crew he threw a punch or two and got us both in the stocks.  So in the morning I missed my post and sure enough there were gobs that had got past the lines and killed 9 guys in my unit.  Cole knew it was coming, but what makes me cold sometimes is that the brass must have knew too, and they sent us there anyhow.  Cole never said what he did and I never asked.  A soldier knows how to keep their mouth shut though and I’m saying too much, even if I’m not in the army anymore.
It was pretty good being a Handgunner and we got early mess and dry beds because the guns.  I’m glad I had good hand and eye because I never had to try to sleep squatting in a bog with my sword across my knees like I sometimes saw infantry doing.   Then again, I knew lots of infantry who’d rather kit out in a bog than sleep beside the powder.  We sometimes got overrun and had to get in with sword and board, or had to form up to break a charge, but mostly we were out of the boil and somewhere high up spotting and taking shots.  I think those were the best days of my life, back before the Third, making the Silvers and getting my Hochland.  I’d kill a man for a Hochland, but then most people would likely.  I wouldn't sell it though so that's different.
I don’t remember a lot of the actual war, just a flash here and there.  I know I was covering the Greatswords and it was going our way until they just left position.  I remember feeling that something wasn't going right and wondering where Baerfaust had gone and seeing the Mad Count’s banners flapping alone on an empty field.  Well not empty because there were suddenly gobs and squigs everywhere and we couldn't load fast enough or pull back before they hit us.  I took an axe to the head and that was all I remember until I woke up in the Shallyan temple and couldn't understand why couldn't talk or move my arms or legs.  So that’s how I found out had been knocked out for some eight months and so all my muscles were soft and also that I had a piece of brass in my head to keep my brain covered up.  Thats also how I found out I was out of the army and all my wages had gone for my care and to pay the chirurgeon and healers.  I likely would have wound up in a hole as well when the money ran out except for Gravin Clothhilde who kept a fund going for some of the more pitiful cases.  She came to the hospice too, she didn't just pay for our bread like she was buying off a lively past, she came to the temple and she helped bring us our meals and she helped us eat them.  She read books to us.
I got better fast once I woke up.  It took me another month to get my strength back after being in bed so long and I spent that helping feed and care for those ones worse off than me.  There was a man there who had lost both legs at the knees and an arm and he was the most cheerful fellow in the place and always said he was just happy he still had his prick and one good hand to hold it.   So I felt I was a lucky man like my papi. I had lost a lot of things though, and not just my trade and my money. Most of the Third was just a blur to me and I had a hard time with names of guys I used to know or remembering faces. I asked about Cole and someone said he’d been to see me while I was asleep. He had said he was doing a job down by the docks and I should look him up if I woke up. But I hadn't woke up and when I finally did he wasn't anywhere around the dock anymore.  At least I think he wasn't, I’m kind of worried that I don’t remember his face anymore either...

The New Crew

My opinion on setting up for a run is that you need to be light about it but you need to think it too and if you go too light or too ready it's no good either way.  I had a long time to consider things while healing up and helping out them Farthrow missionaries, and I figured that I was pretty used to setting up and working a plan and maybe that's where I had that problem before.  Plans were like wishes and you could get attached to wishing instead of seeing what you got.  I was just about ready to get back down in The Cut and maybe find some folks and join their crew and I decided to go lighter the next time I did a run, less thinking it.  I was putting it off mostly, I knew I was on top of things again from a physical angle but I wasn't too happy about having to be low cat on the scrotum pole and having to smile it up or fight all the time anymore.  So it was lucky me when the Dubliner pilot Patio came looking for me in the creche.  I kind of considered old Patio a decent guy because he represented himself very well when we jacked his shuttle that time.  I was kind of surprised when he said he knew a fellow that was looking to get a crew together because I thought offworlders were kind of like them adams and all businessmen and workers and all tubes and cubes and stuff.  But I should have known there was crews out there in the other worlds too cause people need to get by, funny ways or not.

I kind of figured that I'd have to prove myself and so right off when Patio introduced me to the crew boss I made myself useful and hooked him up.  He said he needed to do a run for some data and I knew I could help out and make some points with him because I still had a line on access chips.  He sure was a weird guy though and I couldn't figure his tell or if he was playing me or not because he set me right up with some really fresh gear for that find.  It was really fresh gear too, way too good for some old finder share.   I watched him real close but couldn't figure him so I suspected he was working it to see what I would do.  I made he was running a test on me but not like the usual fight or beatdown, he was running my personality.  He asked me what kind of trade he'd need to get a decent corp chip so he could tap their terminal and when I asked what he had, he pulled out some real quality meds and food bars.  We were in a pretty crummy dive and he was waving around some real flash and attracting lots of attention which I also couldn't figure.  And sure enough one really big old mutie comes over to mess with him and then I knew what was going on.  This was a set up so I could call this guy out and he did it because I was so small and all and he figured I'd back out and he'd get back all that gear anyhow.  Well he didn't know that I was Eloi, and that was really some quality gear.

The mutie was really big and he had some kind of skin thing that made him look pretty tough and hard to cut.   He was touchy about it too and tried to give the boss a hard time over it.  There was a small gang with him but he was a bit spooked and cooling off a bit too and also a hard guy in the bosses crew had give him back some spine while he was sniffing around.  He started walking away and so I didn't want to miss my chance so I called out 'Hey you forgot yer skin cream' and sure enough then he comes at me like a storm.  I figured I should play it a bit cause this was my show, so I waited for him to close and then jumped up at the last when he took his swing. But factually I was still a bit tight and I botched it up.  I hadn't done much slash and tumble in the cloud hugger creche, so I was way out of practice.  I jumped too slow and he clipped me pretty good and I was on the floor.  Ugly's buddies step up too thinking maybe they'll score some of our flash, but the rest of this new crew is all moving in on them and it's back and forth a while and everyone in there except the boss. Then I saw my chance to put this guy out and quick as tunnel snakes I jump up and drop the guy.  We lit out of there pretty quick after that.

I thought the boss would be all perturbed because I botched it, but he was still playing it really fresh.  I couldn't figure him out, either he had a wicked hard scheme running or maybe he was just all tell and didn't care. He wanted to know the best way across town to my chip guy and when I told him we could go below and use the tube he was all for it, till he found out we'd have to walk.  I guess on his planet they have trains running in their shit tubes or something.  Anyway he wasn't hot to walk so we got a rickshaw and I made a good trade with some of them food bars to get us there without any shakedowns or jacks.  I was all tweaked too and feeling very fine because this crew seemed alright and wasn't mean or stupid either.  This crew were almost like folks, and we were on a run.

The worst thing

The worst thing that ever happened is when I got shot.  I can kind of remember my mother, and it was pretty bad when she went away, but that was a long time ago and it's hard to remember that time.  I still remember every part about getting shot though.  I can remember jumping down from the window. I can remember the dusty air pulling against my arms as I slid out my knives to take the guy out.  I can remember the merc and how his visor reflected the flash as he stepped out from the cargo door and the weight of the thing as it slammed into my chest.  It didn't even hurt, it just slammed into me and spun me in the other direction.  I can remember not being able to get a breath and then blood in my mouth and I couldn't see anymore, just white.  I can remember hearing folks and guys yelling and more shots but I don't remember what they were yelling.  I remember being surprised that Cross was there and not up watching the window and then he picked me up and there was so much pain.  I don't remember after that, but he said he thought I was capped for sure and he just grabbed me so he had something.  He thought he was capped too.  He got out though.

I figure that it was Lad that tipped them off, and that's how they knew we were going to do the port run and how they set up for us.  I don't know what he got for it, but folks never saw him again so he either got a lot or they tossed him in the cycler.  He wasn't on the run, but almost everyone else was because I had planned it out forever and it was going to be a real good one, real big.  I had the stock lists and all the right gear and even some suits and chips from their corp fuzz.  I got it all together after we found a guy that had keycode for InterSee, a low grade shipping corp that had warehouse at the port.  I used those credits we had and it was planned out and we were stocked legit for a run on them.  The list said there were only a few guys on security and we had a perfect run getting in, but that was all sour because when we got in they had mercs set up for us.   They got a lot of my crew right off, most of my crew capped or caught, and even the ones that got out went deep after that. I didn't see those folks again.  They could have killed everyone, they could have changed the chips too so we couldn't even get in, but InterSee wanted to make sure our gang did get in and was busted up, and they wanted some folks to get away too.  They wanted folks to know.  It was pretty smart if you think about it.

I was laid up for a long time, like just a month just trying to not be dead. Cross always said he knew a bunch of adams up in the city that were as good as folks and ran some kind of crew that helped out muties and bents.  They lived in ships or something and were all deep thinkers and holy rollers who came down to G4 to  be good and helpful or something.  I didn't figure any of that, and I used to say they must want something but now I don't know because they took us in and didn't flag or turn sour on us either.  Not that I had a choice trusting them, I wasn't going to make it in The Cut the way I was busted up.  I always figured Cross was angling to be boss of the crew and that he didn't much like me cause he always got on me about things, but he was good folk and he took care of me even though he didn't have to.  I didn't figure it back then but now I think maybe he didn't care about being boss as much as he wanted it to be good for the crew.  He took care of me because I was all the crew that was left.  Anyway these adams did patch me up and were all pretty chuffed to see me and they even knew I was Eloi and that was pretty important to them for some reason.  They knew a lot about my mutie though like how I didn't look old and how I could live with a broke heart for so long.  They even seemed kind of sad about it, like when you owe someone for a trade but you can't make good on it.

The adams were from some place called Farthrow which wasn't in any of my code or even the files I read from that datacore.  I wanted to run some searches or navsim  and check that out cause I was laid up with nothing to do.  They didn't let me use their gear though, and mine was all spragged and no way to fix it.  I didn't even have any of those old audibles to listen to and all the stim these adams had was like clouds whispering or something.  I was nearly out of my mind bored except that Cross would come by and tell me a joke or blow some dust up some adams back for a laugh.   They were so easy to dust and they had a really bad tell so you knew just how to twist them up too.  He would tell me about some folks we knew or if he saw someone from the crew or what he heard going on.  He stopped coming though.  The adams let me stay with them for a couple months more and I kind of helped around the place while I got better.  I was itching to get out of there though, I thought I might try to find Cross or maybe see if I could get in with a new crew.

And then that pilot showed up.


next: The New Crew

Working

I copied that datcore before we swapped it.  I had to do a lot of trades to get that gear too but I think I'd gone nuts without it.  Most folks have a basic set of hookups or they have really solid gear cause they are working code, but I never worked much code.  I could have if I wanted to, but if you want to be good you have to work it all the time and working code all the time is pretty stale.  My gear was pretty good cause I like running more than just vidstim, but I had to up it to copy that core though - it was pretty dense.  I traded a bunch of stuff to this old adam for some old work gear which was still pretty solid and I did run a lot of nav code on it so you know it was better than regular. I spent a lot of time with that nav stuff, and I was really hitting the search too.  That core had some files that went back way far and had lots of info about New Eden and Dublin Core and other systems in the cluster, even some really old stuff without interact or stim or anything.  I found it really interesting actually.

Some folks got on me about why I was wasting my share on gear if I wasn't working it or hacking on me about running  nav sims while sitting on some pile of old bact tubes.  They called me Er Highness and stuff.  I told them there wasn't much difference between a ship and a tunnel really since it's all simstim, but they were pretty stupid mostly and couldn't figure that.  I didn't even tell them most stuff I found out because they would just make fun of it.  They did like it when I played some of the old audibles though - no one had ever heard any songs like that before.  I did a lot of trades on the songs, so whatever I was still laughing.

I even went up to the city a few times looking for trades and gear.  I don't like the city because its hard to get around without a chip and even if you can spoof one you can't tell most people apart anyway. It's not like with folks where you can see who's what and who they run with, there's lots more clones up in the city and city people look all the same even if their mutie has a tell.  They still dress mostly the same, like for their job and stuff.  Eloi isn't really a mutie, and it's a hard tell cause we mostly look like kids and folks don't much look at kids - good ones anyway - so I get by fine in The Cut.  The city is worse though cause Eloi don't look so much like clone kids and most places you want to be up there won't let kids in anyway so you stick out.  I went by myself one time to scope some gear and then I had to extricate some old adam that wanted to play games - he would have been surprised anyway.

A couple times I went with Tom and played his boy while he got some code I wanted, but he's not good at trades like I am and so I had to watch and keep shut up and I know he loved it too.  We saw that pilot one time too.  Tom needed some stim and we went to this place and there's the guy.  We were all hot to run but he didn't do nothing and I saw he had a good drunk going so we don't and then he drops his hat and says "Hey you mind my hat!" So I run after it and sure thing there's a Qkey in there so I pocket that, and when I hand the hat back he's all "O such a fine lad!" - he's from Dublin Core so it's all Lad and Langers with him - but he gives me a quick wink too so I know he's working it.  A couple times after that he tipped us for a run too - good trades and no hard feelings.

So I was busy keeping my mind on things and didn't have it too hard for a change.  For a long while there before it was hard going for me, lots of fights and never getting enough of anything.  Even when folks are folks it's hard to get enough food in The Cut, but it got a bit easier after I proved I could use my knives and I could do runs.  If you're running you're working, and everyone respects that, even if you are small you get a share.  Once I was boss it got easier for the whole crew cause I played it right and we always had something good going.  I should have known that even when things are good though some folks will still be all hot and sometimes you can't make it work for them though.  We did some real big runs then too, stuff that no one else was doing - well at least no folks we'd heard of.  We ran a hit on a bact farm one time and offlined the whole thing for days, which was stupid if you think on it because a lot of folks went hungry too.  But someone paid good to do it and I wanted to see if we could do it.  I was thinking more me and less us that time.  We usually didn't deal with credit or do runs without loot and I didn't slice off shares of it either.  I rolled that credit into some gear that could get us into the port because I thought we might be able to do a real solid run on some import.    That would be some kind of run, not just old gear and seconds but some really fresh stuff.  Some of the crew couldn't figure that though and they didn't figure running for credit either, and I guess someone noticed I wasn't paying attention to every detail  like before either because I thought all the crew would work their parts.  I should have seen those tells but I wasn't looking.

Next: The Worst Thing

A Good Time

There are some tunnels that lead up to the surface that are mostly forgot.  A lot of these are sealed so unless you have a way to cut them, and you can do it without getting noticed, those are no good.  Others have sour air and those are hard to run unless you have good gear - and no one has good gear.  There are some that still work and that aren't monitored though.  The best ones lead into the bact farms because no one wants to go there and they change up so much that no one knows anybody, so even if they see you no one gives a fuck.  If you can find some of these then it's easy getting places you can find some good stuff.  If you do find a good one then you have to sit on it and probably there's lots of fights over it.  It gets pretty rough too.  One of the worst fights we had was over a choice tunnel that Lad found.  He came back from a splunk all tweeking but trying to not tip anyone - he lost a finger one time cause he's got a real bad tell - but everyone knew he found something.  We punched it up and it wasn't in the files so we knew it was a good one.  Anyway that one was sweet and we made a good run off it, but we got jacked on the way back and it was real bad.  Some folks got hurt really bad, some folks got dead.  It's easier to jack a crew on a run than make a run but it's sour doing that and I never let us do it unless we had to. Sometimes you have to do stuff.

Sometimes you get lucky though and one time we got a tunnel that went all the way up to the surface.  That time was a good one, we spent a lot of time up there even though there was just sand and stuff mostly and nothing to grab or eat or anything.  I liked just looking up at the sky.  Most folks can't stand that because it feels like anyone could see you out there and a few folks really don't like looking up at the sky because it gives them a bit of a freak, but I liked it lots although you can't really see the sun or nothing with all the dust.  You can see the patterns in the dust though.  The code I got off that pilot guy says that the dust is suspended in atmo and that goes real high so that even when it's not blowing on the ground it is still floating up high in the air. It gets hotter up there and that makes it move around more so you can see it and the parts that are hot or cold and the light behind it and it's really interesting to see how it moves. I think so anyway.  The code says it's only around the equator that you can even breath cause the atmo is hot enough and moving enough to lift some of that dust so anywhere else you go you'd choke on it all.  What a shithole planet.

That was the time that we found that pilot too, and that was a really good time.  The ports are all totally locked up and you can forget about ever finding a way into those or even seeing any ships unless you have a chip in you.  Some times some crazy bastards will land outside the ports though - it's not really hard to sneak in because you'd be crazy to do it.  The dust really messes up with sonics and EM sniffers which means its hard to find someone landing.  It's not as hard to spot them as it is for them to land though.  This crazy pilot we found had really messed up his ship anyway and we got a lot of good stuff that time.  That was the time that I was boss too, and I wanted to run it really cool and not rush it because I figured that he'd be ready to bust us up some and he wasn't going anywhere.  I knew he'd be sweating too because of the stories you hear and I was going to work that.  Some of the guys got rough with me because they wanted to just run it fast and they thought I was scared or something, but did a beat down on Cross and they remembered that I was Eloi and not some punk kid.  He was cut pretty bad but I didn't kill him and no hard feelings.
Anyway my way played out and it turned up good because that pilot guy was smart enough to deal fair and so everyone got what they needed and I got what I wanted too which is plus.  We brought him to the city and he let us have the core and anything we could pull off that ship before someone came.  Some of the folks wanted to cross him but I did it fair and I got a lot of code that he probably would have flashed if we were playing him, and some of that was really interesting too.  That all turned out really good for me actually.

Next: Working

Life in The Cut

People think it's bad on Gladian 4.  They think it is bad on the surface in those sprawling crowded dust bowls they call cities.  The soil is crap for farming and what little light gets through the atmo is barely enough to keep the plants alive.  People say on Gladian 4 its so bad they use bullets for credit, and that's true enough, but that's not bad.  The Cut is bad.  Down in the Cut they don't have bullets.  Down in the Cut they use people for credit, and parts of people too.

In my understanding G4 has always been a penal colony, hundreds of cycles of dumping crooks and crazies and people not wanted in the garden of New Eden.  Who ever first found this place coming in from those beautiful green worlds must have wanted to eat their blaster.  What a shit hole system - BLAMMO.  The boss men must have figured they had found the shittiest system ever spun because they didn't even try building nothing, they just started dumping.  And at first it was just crooks that were dumped, and maybe some unlucky  bastards who didn't know when to keep their traps shut.  Later it was experiments.  That’s when the Eloi got dumped, and some other things too.  Life was hard back then but it wasn't the hell that came after.  Maybe it wasn't even that bad really.  Eloi are pretty tough - not strong or anything but really tough.  We can eat most anything, we don’t get sick, we can take a lot of rads.  And we’re quick - quicker than most food anyway.  Sure there were some other types that were pretty messed up, but mostly folks were folks - even those giant ropey fuckers were folks sort of.  Ya I think back then it was tough but it was probably OK.  Once the Garden Wars started up though, then it got pretty bad.  Once the wars started rolling even shitty little G4 must have started looking pretty good, and that's when they started coming.  And they just never stopped coming. 

They had changed too, all those new bloods, they weren't like people so much anymore, more like parts of people - more like termites all working together in those giant crazy mounds.  Just like those termites they started digging too, that’s when they started the cuts, all those holes and tunnels that became The Cut.  Whatever piss poor rocks and oil they could find below they started digging it up - and it was buried pretty damn deep.  I guess poor G never had much for the heavy mins, and the places where there had been enough water or plants together to make oil and coal were pretty spread out, pretty deep.  Still there was some there, and they wanted it.  They treated people like bugs too.  They made everyone work and work and if you couldn't work you got dumped. Sometimes you got ate.

The more they came, the deeper they dug, and the more the folks kind of melted down into the tunnels and cracks to get away from them.  And the more they crowded their way in after us. We're in there pretty deep now,  I don’t think I even saw the sun till I was like eight or nine cycles.  I don’t remember being too impressed with it either.  Some people say the Garden Wars ended a few hundred cycles ago, but if it did no one told anyone out here on G4.  Maybe things are a little better up top, there might be some fancy folks up there in the cities now buying and selling and washing their toes.  Nothing’s really changed down below though.   It’s always been bad down in The Cut and it gets worse all the time.

Next:  A Good Time