"Ladies and Gentlemen.  We have begun our descent into the Wyltz atmosphere.  We will proceed to oceanic tube one which will deliver us to undersea city Wyl Hall.  As you know, Wyl Hall is starting it's annual Shrimp Fest culminating in the Round Water Races.  If you're here..."

Blah blah blah.

Looking overhead, BB can see the Void turning into the milky blue of Wyltz's sky.  Nero is checking a comm message that just buzzed in.

The Hotel D'Ourve is reconfirming their reservations.  With the Shrimp Fest, it's always necessary to confirm and confirm reservations again and again.  Rooms are at a premium, and the hotels are always willing to kick you out and sell your place to the highest bidder.

A steward comes along, offering any last minute drinks.

Nero's line buzzes one more time.  It's Lyza Ogden with the race committee.  I received notice your liner is entering atmosphere.  I will have a driver meet you at the low port.  Just check in at the arrival transportation desk and they will page the driver.

Thanks again for stepping in at the last minute.  Mr. Erskine's surgery went well.  He should be up next week.  But of course that will be too late to serve as a judge.

I'm attaching the rules and regs.  Please review.  Let's meet for dinner this evening to discuss details.  I look forward to meeting you.

Bixy called you yesterday to see if you were still coming to town.  One of the Round Water judges had come down with an impacted gall bladder or some such.  And the Race Committee needed a stand in.

"So come on.  Do me a solid here."  Bixy sounded like he was past time for his jones.  He always sounded nervous and twitchy when he was past time for his jones and that's how he sounded on the line when he talked ot Nero.  "It'll be easy peasy.  You stand around in a high class box, sippin' champagne and pinchin' some fine ass.  You watch the race.  Then you gotta certify the results.  But it's really just a formality. The computer takes care of it.  But the auditors require three sign offs to release the money."

He means the betting pool.  All credits bet on the race, officially that is, get held by Wyltz Credit and Trust.  An independent auditing firm verifies the race results and instructs the bank to release the funds for pay outs.  The judges act as a separate set of observers to authenticate the results.

Two days of partying and stuffing all the best seafood in the system into one's gullet and then standing around all day, getting hammered and watching the race.  What could be better?

---

We are number 84 in the queue Mainframe informs everyone.

Tia's trip out to Wyltz has taken less time than orbiting, waiting to get the all clear from Wyl Hall Control to start descent.  The planet is almost obscured by all the ships waiting for the same permission.

So I checked with the Low Port.  They've got 64 open berths.

And that's been the question.  Apparently this Shrimp Fest is all the rage.  And berths are premium.  As is hotel space.  The Low Port isn't taking reservations on the berths either.  It's first come, first serve.  Which is an advantage here.  Otherwise, there would be no hope in hell for getting a dock.

As it is, it's a question of whether there will be an open space from a departure by the time Tia's turn to descend comes up.  If not, Tia goes back into the queue and waits for the next go around.

There's chatter along the comms.  Sounds like a few captains are willing to sell their place in line for the right price.  But those are turning into a bidding war.

There is another option.  One of the liners has a few open seats.  They're making noise like they're willing to sell them if somebody wants to go down to the planet themselves but leave their ship in orbit.  The liner only has a couple of seats though.

I'll keep monitoring the station traffic, Fritz says.  But it's gonna be up for grabs.  If this wasn't a water world, and the city weren't undersea, I'd just say park it.

"Yo yo yo, Knights. It's your boy Nero here coming straight at you from Wyltz. We're bought to check out some straight up underwater action!"

Using subtle motion controls Nero activated a macro that would cause the camera to zoom in and out rapidly on his face as he made an overly exaggerated surprised face.

"For those of you just checking out my stream for the first time, I'm Nero Madigan and you, my lovely audience, are my NeroKnights. I'm on a pan-galactic tour checking out the craziest, wildest parts of the Imperium and bringing you daily holla holla holos! Right now I'm on the wah wah water world Wyltz. This planet's got it all. It's got all you can eat shrimp, it's got underwater racing, and it's got me, your boy Nero whose going to be a genuine J-U-double-D-Judge at the event so if you're in the sector send me a DH. You know the drill, if you do something insane crazy I'll make sure to put you in the outro. Now check out this NeroKnight who is going to dump mayonaise down his pants. You'll never believe what he does next and if you want to support the stream and keep the adventures going make sure to like and subscribe and accept notifications. Most importantly, don't forget to BUY THAT MERCH Peace out till next time!"

Nero folded his arms across one another and help up his signature hand sign. He froze that way to make sure the camera got a good clean image of him and then with a flick of his finger the camera stopped recording. Nero let out a big sigh of relief. He hated to doing multiple takes and despite the insane number of jump cuts he put into his holos a lot of it was done in only a single take.

Now that his business was out of the way he went onto his phone to message back that he would accept the position. Once again his family name was opening up doors but he didn't mind. Chances were just as likely they were interested in him for his holostream channel: Nero Takes On the Galaxy. Any day now it was going to blow up and he was going to go right back to being a celebrity, getting buckets of credits dumped onto him to just  live a life of luxury. Any day now. It might not have happened yet but viral success was only one more piece of content away.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Wed 08 July 2020.

BB sat quietly in her seat trying her best to pay attention to her surroundings while avoiding listening to anything Nero was saying. He would record himself two or three times a day and listening to him always took a strain on her psyche. If the Madigan's weren't paying her as much as they were she would have left Nero to die in some starport months ago. Still she had been hired on to do a job and she was going to do it, even if she wanted to blow her brains two or three times a day.

Ledo leaned back in the pilots chair, staring up at the ceiling. Of fucking course there was Shrimp Fest going on. Of courset there were a shortage of berths.

"Tepha, run a sensor sweep over the ships in front of us. See if there's anything interesting that might let us cut in line."

"On it..."

OOC:
19:53, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 4 using 2d6+1.  sensors check.


Ledo started thinking back to his various encounters with pirates. Maybe there would be a way to spook some ships out of line and back to Wyl. Some kind of signal they could put out that would make people think pirates were incoming but nothing that would get the Navy up their asses over.



19:57, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 11 using 2d6+02.  tactics navy +1 +1 Int.

Rig was down in his room thumbing through the Wyltz shipping and docking manifest looking for a loophole. He had been reading the thing for hours and so far hadn't made much progress but with nearly 800 pages of regulations to go through perhaps something on the next page might be useful.

OOC:
19:58, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 9 using 2d6+02.  Admin +2 EDU.

Silver was in her bunk as well, smoking a joint as she tried to type a message to her brother. Every time she started it she paused and deleted it wondering why Tepha wasn't the one reaching out. She hadn't exactly left company with Rezan on the best of terms, he hadn't really forgiven her for joining the police, even if it was only temporary.

Finally she just let the weed do the talking and just rattled something off and fired it before she could doubt herself for the nth time.

Yo bro, you got any hooks in Wyltz? I landed on a ship and we were attacked by some cybered up psychos. You interested in the leftovers?

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 2):

There's too much traffic.  Tepha can't really get a good looksie inside anyone.  Either there's bleed through from the ship parked next to the target.  Or the target is crazy shielded.  Or there's too many warm bodies on it.

---

Ledo studies the scanner readings.  Wyltz is encircled by hoops of Durinium Chromium Alloy.  There's a naval cruiser parked on the other side of the world.  And three quarters of the traffic are geared out with at least a minimum comportment of guns.  Pirates attacking Wyltz at the moment would be suicidal.  Besides.  Doing anything to spook the herd would results in a stampede.  There would be at least four or five guaranteed collisions.

A few options besides the ones he already knew about seem possible.

First, there's good ol' hacking.  If they can hack the order in the Down Port's mainframe, he could bump himself up.

Second, There's good ol' fashioned bribery.  Maybe just pay some of the ships ahead to stand aside.

Third, the most complicated choice, is identity theft.  Alter Tia's ID signature to match one of the ships with an earlier slot in the lottery.  When they get called up, move forward.  Of course, something would have to be done about the original ship.  But it might be easier to spook one ship as opposed to dozens.

Just a few ideas.  You've got options.

---

Really?  It's that simple?

Rig blinks.  It couldn't be that simple.

During his review of the manifest, he noticed something odd.  Some ships that were already docked got booted, even though they had paid for long term parking.  The reason?

Contestants in the race needed the slots.  It seems Down Port is prioritizing entrants in the race.

Checking the system shows entrance into the race is open to anyone with a grav bike.  And 7000 creds for the entry fee.  There's also a requirement that the entrant have a support crew for the race.

But yeah.  Sign up for the race.  Get a berth.

That is your call.  As I said before above, there are other options

---

A message pops.  Re:  Your Warehouse Invoice

Mr. Madigan,

Please remit funds for this month's rent on your storage space...

The bill for his merch storage has come through.  A quick glance confirms what Nero already knew:  he's paying 500 credits more for storing his merch than he is in sales revenue.  When he'd been manufacturing on demand it had been worse.

The guy with the mayo down his pants cribbed his act off another video making the nets.  It's funny, but it's been done.  And that old twat who posts holos of her cats dressed up in vacc suits is still beating his numbers hands down.  Hell, even the Vargarian Cooking channel is getting more hits.

The Race always posts big numbers.  It's the system's version of the Galactic Cup after all.  But everyone and the clones of their grandmother's is doing holos on the race.  How can he come up with something more...dynamic?  Something to really boost his coverage over the top?

---

The guy in the red faux leather jacket is making another pass.  BB keeps him in her sight.  He's gone up and down the aisle five times now.  He was wearing a black jacket the first two times.  A sweater the third.  Just a plain brown shirt the fourth.  Now he's in red.

The guy isn't paying much attention to her side of the aisle.  So it seems he's not looking for Nero.  Or her.  But she would hopefully remember the guy if this was about her.

No.  The guy seems to be scanning the other side of the aisle.  He's paying a lot of attention to two old ladies who are seated two rows ahead.

At first she thought he was targeting them.  But he's too obvious.  A bodyguard?  Then why isn't he sitting with them?

The transport dips lower.  On the landing screens, the ocean is visible now. They'll have to ride up the equator to the nearest undersea elevator.  BB figures there's twenty more minutes until they're docked below sea level.

He doesn't feel like he's going to make a move before then.  But then again...

---

She hits send.  The message to Rez heads out along the nets.  If Rez is on Gohature or one of the moons, he should get her call tomorrow.  If he's here...

Silver stares down at Wyltz.  She's never been here.  Rez always said it was too touristy.  She's seen some of the races.  Probably bet on them.

Her comm dings.  Did he respond already?

There is a message.  It's not Rez.  The sender's handle is just ICU

So sorry we missed each other back in the Hanna Why.

Was so happy when I saw your name on the crew list for that ship.

I'm so very, very happy.

I'm grinning ear to ear.

Do you like grins that go ear to ear?

I hope so.

I'm getting you one for your birthday.

It's been so long Silver.

So very, very long

S

Rig forwards on the official race registration information up to the bridge and hits his comm.

"Captain, we might have a way to skip the line..."


Rig goes on to explain how easy it would be to register. They have a bike, they have  racer, and they have a support team. 7000 credits and they are good to go.

Ledo had quickly called Rig up to the bridge for an all-hands-on-deck meeting.

"Alright let's start by outlining our mission. We have two lines of credit that we can pursue. The first is that Silver has a contact who is an inside access to the race and might have information about the race financials. My guess is that we will end up with one of three options: gambling on a rigged race, stealing the prize money, or stealing the bets. All of those represent a considerable amount but if the information is good might be worth the risk.

The second job is to track down a soon-to-be-ex-husband and deliver these divorce papers."

Ledo drops the cube down on the table in front of him.

"Rig has discovered entry into the race is quite simple and that would not only allow us to bypass this line and dock but also get us better access to the race itself. We don't have to win but we do have to look like we know what we're doing. So we need a racer and a support team. So who here has experience with a flyer..."

Everyone raised their hand. There was a moment of surprise but then again everyone had come from a developed world where a flyer was necessary to get around.

"Alright then. First of all, Rig you're probably out. While I don't doubt you have skills you'll be needed in the pit crew as well as probably be integral to working with Fritz to bypass any security that is in place. Likewise I will probably be busy coordinating the two teams so I probably shouldn't be the racer as well. I can be the team coach."

Tepha and Silver looked back at one another, unsure as to who would speak next. There was a brief staredown before Tepha lowered her hand as well.

"We probably aren't going to be going in guns blazing so my background is probably better suited for focusing on the heist then on the bike."

Silver gave a shrug and everyone looked back at Ledo for direction.

"Well we don't know what the heist will require. We can fill out Silver here as the main racer and Tepha will be the backup driver, in case our primary driver comes down with a bad case of "needs to point a gun at someone-itis".

Alright everyone we have a lot of work ahead of us then. I'll fill out the paperwork, Rig I need you to get the bike tuned up and ready for a race. Tepha you get to be our marketing department. We need a team name, a logo, the whole works."

Tepha balked at her part of the orders.

"I don't think I'm very qualified to..."

"You were an artist, right?"

"I mean yeah but not that kind..."

"We're all outside of our comfort zone. Do your best. I trust in your creativity."

Her further protests died in her throat as Ledo leaned into his "Captain" voice to let her know in no unclear terms that this was an order, not a suggestion. He used that tone so rarely with her it caught her more by surprise than anything else. Almost on impulse she found herself heading back to their quarters to begin working.

"Alright then. Silver, you need to start practicing so you can at least pretend to be a decent racer. I hope all those virtual games you play are paying off."

"Fuck I don't play racers. Not enough violence."

"Well time to expand your library. I'll let everyone know when we receive a berth and are ready to land."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:41, Thu 09 July 2020.

Tepha was on her way back to their quarters marching almost on autopilot. The "Captain" voice was so effective at moving her around it was almost like magic. She was nearly at the door before a surge of anger boiled up within her. They were supposed to be lovers and partners. This ship had been as much her idea as his so why was she marching around like a soldier.

Still despite the hit to her pride she did acknowledge there wasn't much else she could do at the moment and given Ledo was going to be busy getting them entered into the race, Rig was doing his mechanic stuff and...well...given how Silver dressed it was clear she was not very aesthetically minded. Looking at it logically she was the best choice to make them look professional but even still there had to be a better way to tell her to do it, right?

She figured a couple of days of silent treatment should be enough to convey her dissatisfaction. She didn't want to force Ledo to give her special treatment just because they shared a bunk, but she was a bit upset that he didn't seem to feel the need to give her special treatment.

"Hey Fritz? Are you there? Want to help me design a team name and logo? Maybe you can assist me with some of the graphic design work..."

After a bit of brainstorming she came up with the idea of the Rift Riders designing what looked to be a speeding blackhole tearing through space.

Next to her Nero was browsing through his holo feeds. There was no better tried and true source of "inspiration" than looking through other people's streams. Maybe there was some hot topic he could jump on. In any event BB couldn't care less about his click numbers, she had a job to do.

There wasn't any reason to act just yet but the guy was suspicious. Security had made her pack away and disassemble her weapons but their scans hadn't picked up her knife. They never did. It was really just a piece of thin carbon cleverly built to provide a sharp and stable point while being almost invisible to scanners. Strapped on the inside of a meaty thigh and unless they got really up close and personal with an inspection it just blended right in with the rest of her outline.

Unfortunately that location made it difficult to retrieve in an emergency. Now that she was through the inspections however it was easy enough to take a quick trip to the restroom, partially disrobe and readjust the knife to the loop on at the small of her back. Still not very obvious and if someone decided to be stupid and pull a weapon she would have a five-inch rebuttal aimed right at their guts.

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 11):

After the momentary discomfort and feeling of immense relief, BB situates the knife, flushes the sonic commode, and walks out into the lavatory, standing in the short line to wash her hands.

When she comes back into the cabin, she can see Red Leather is now Tan Jacket.  Where the hell does he do all these wardrobe changes anyway?

He stops his patrol of the alleyway and leans down to a man who's sitting behind the two women.  There's a quick muttered conversation and then the man gets up and hurries away, glancing over his shoulder.  Tan Jacket sits down behind the two ladies.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.  Welcome to Wyltz.  We will be docking at Berth 22C.  If you have luggage or parcels stowed with us, they may be claimed at Courtesy Desk C."

The signage for disembarking should light up in the next minute or so.  Tan Jacket, not paying any attention to Nero or anyone other than the two women, stands up...

And all his clothes flicker off.  His costume changes were because he wasn't wearing any.  He's just got a holo projector hanging around his neck.

He leaps into the aisle right beside the ladies and starts gyrating his hips.  "BUGGA BUGGA BOO!  BUGGA BUGGA BUGGA BOO!"

The disembarking sign comes on and he springs down the aisle, shaking his admittedly well endowed dip stick.

Behind Nerotes, a voice says, "Yo Yo Yo!  Live and just for you!  Another pranktastic prank by the Bugga Boys!  Join us all this week as we Prank! Wyltz! Live!"  The voice drops in decibels and tone.  "Cut. Print.  Download."

A guy walks up the aisle, the only person in the cabin who's moved since naked guy sprinted away, chuckling.  He stops by Nero, reaching up to take off his sunglasses.  It's Byrum Bugga, head of Bugga Boys channel.

He glances at Nero, snorts, mumbles "Buy the merch...", puts his shades back on, and walks out of the cabin.

---

I still say we should capitalize on Silver's propensity for violence with something like

Silver Sixguns!  She's blow the competition away!

Because let's be honest.  How can this situation not end up in open gun play?

Seriously though, I like Rift Riders.  Here's your logo from a variety of angles.  How about this shade of blue to make the black hole stand out.

Tepha?  Are you okay?  You sound a little down.

---

It takes only a minute amount of paper work. Silver is registered as an entrant.

The Committee issues her a contestant number.  Entrant 13.  She will need to have the number 13 displayed prominently on her uniform.

Downport issues berthing instructions.  Tia will take berth 14C.  All cargo and racing equipment should be checked at Courtesy Desk C.

BB Nova twitched, just for a second, when the prankster made his big reveal. Her training kicked it but she caught herself before she had risen up from her chair. That boy was lucky she wasn't paid enough to handle a lawsuit because she would have loved to make him piss himself with a dagger to his throat.

BB ended up just rolling her eyes instead. She had seen more dongs waved around during boot camp to last several lifetimes.

Nero wasn't taking it well at all.

"I wasn't recording...son of a bitch I wasn't recording! Motherfucker..."

He started punching the seat in front of him. He had turned off his camera to work on the editing.

"This is the worst day ever..."

Nero slouched down in his seat, covering up his mouth with his hands so he could muffle the stream of curse words streaming out from him. Being on a Bugga Boy video would have definitely popped his stream count. It was his golden opportunity and he had missed it by a minute.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:19, Fri 10 July 2020.

Tepha spun the logo around, making a few last minute shading tweaks.

"Yeah...no. I don't know. It's just everyone else has a thing to do. Ledo's the captain, Rig fixes everything, you're a literal computer and Silver kicks ass. What do I do? If I wasn't sleeping with the captain there is no way any of them would hire me for this job. Sometimes it is fine and I know I can add value but sometimes like this..."

She spins the logo around again.

"Sometimes it feels like they just have me do stuff to stay out of their way."

She let out a sigh and then another as she straightened up in her chair.

"It looks good with the blue Fritz. Good eye. Alright, let's go back up and see what else they need me to do. Maybe I can make them sandwiches or turn down their bunks..."

Ledo hit the comms to let everyone know what was happening.

"It worked, Rig! We have a berth ready for us. Everyone buckle up as we're going in fast before anyone changes their minds."

He said they were going in fast but he wasn't going to exceed any safety guidelines. When there was wiggle room though he opted for as speedy as possible.

Courtesy Desk C is a really a room and not a desk. Large and circular, kiosiks line the walls.  One side is for baggage and parcel claim.  One side is for cargo and equipment check in.

Out front of Desk C is a large display.

<Red>Now serving:

Baggage Claims for guests arriving from Berth 21 B, 22 B, 22 C

Cargo Check in for the following ships

Jackson's Hangover

The PanAseryn Princess

Tiamat's Flight

Argent Moon Blue Sun

It's been crowded for a good while now, mostly due to the influx of people from the arriving transport ships.  But it's starting to thin out now.

Nero and BB got held up like everyone else in their cabin with the general hub bub after the prank.  They've been waiting at the edge of the platform for the lines in front of the kiosks to die down.  Their chance is coming up.

As Nero checks on his channel, he happens to glance up.  Bix is walking across the room, headed for the commercial check in kiosks.

---

I'll meet you at the Cargo counters.  Look for the guy in a blue hat.

Bix messages Silver when he gets the message.

There's less of a wait due to passenger volume on the commercial side as much as there is a wait just for the hassle of logging cargo and equpiment.  Rig has to check in the bike and racing equipment, going over all the machinery with an inspections official. The same with any cargo that Ledo may want to sell.

Silver and Tepha both happen to glance up at the same time.  They see a guy in a blue hat walking into the luggage check area.

Nero sees Bix at the same time Tepha and Silver do.  Bix is closer to Nero at the moment.  The room is pretty large.  It's basically a luggage carousel and warehouse receiving area.  So Nero and BB can call out to Bix.  The Tia crew will need to mush over to him or wait for him to come to them.

Before departing Ledo consults with Tepha for a minute before posing a question to Fritz.

”Hey Fritz. Tepha won a small electronic cat. It seems to have some kind of internal programming so I was wondering if you wanted to take a scan of it and see if this is something you can ride along with. Otherwise if you send Rig some hardware specs we can look at getting you into a proper body again. Something small and discrete so you can still be part of the expedition. We want to view you as a real partner and getting you the ability to, within reason, leave the ship would go a long way towards that I think. We think.”

He turns to check with Tepha and she nods.

Tepha holds out the small figurine to the ship’s science scanner for Fritz to take a look.

”We want you to join us on our adventures. You’re one of us.”

Without looking Nero slapped his hand out hitting BB on the side of her arm.

”Yo Beebs. There’s our guy.”

He raised his voice up and waved his hand.

”HEY! BIXBY! OVER HERE!”

Silver and Tepha started to head towards their contact when they heard some noble looking kid shout his name. Cautiously they approached quietly. Maybe it was just an old friend but just inc are there was trouble with their vital contact Silver slipped a little closer so she could eavesdrop on Nero and Bixby.

In reply to Silver (msg # 21):

Not with the virus that thing's carrying.

Warning.  Omega level virus detect-

Yes.  Thank you.  That's why I said 'virus' to start with. Dumbass.  Anyway, that thing has a major level attack virus implanted.  Please do not let it anywhere near a port.

---

Bixby jumps at the sound of Nero's voice.  He flinches and spins on his heel, like he expects someone to come out of the crowd and stab him.  He stares in the direction the voice came from and then relaxes.

"Oh.  Hey Nero.  You got in okay, huh?"

I am going to leave it up to you whether BB notices Silver and Teph or not.  Your call

Ledo looked at the cat toy and his eyebrows raised up as he considered it.

"Well that explains why they were just giving them away. Any idea what it would have done if we had plugged it in? It might be useful to keep around if we ever need to disrupt a computer system. That is if it does anything really destructive."

He turned to Tepha and gave her a wary look.

"Make sure that thing can never plug itself into our computer."

He turned back to the monitors he considered to be Fritz's face.

"Send us the specs you need for a miniature you and maybe we can do some shopping while we are out and about."

Nero snorted with derision.

"Uhh...yeah, I know how to fly in a shuttle. So what's up? What kind of comps am I getting for this judging thing? Do I get a room? Free mini-bar? What kind of parties are we talking about?"

Nero was excited, that was true. Although he hated to admit it he had to enact some austerity measures. He had already blown through half of what his parents had given him. He had figured by this time he would be making money with his streaming revenue but he just hadn't gotten the uptick in views/patrons/customers that he had planned for. Getting to go to some free parties and stuffing his face with free food was appealing on a bunch of levels. Maybe he'd get to rub shoulders with some celebs. Maybe he'd get to hit on some hot babes. Maybe just being surrounded by wealth and luxury would get him the views he desperately needed.

In any event he was going to milk this "favor" for as much as he could.

Tepha and Silver both exchanged glances when the kid meeting with their contact mentioned he was a judge. This just got a little more interesting. He looked young, barely past his college years and he might be a point of entry to get access to more sensitive areas.

BB hadn't taken any special interest in Tepha and Silver, neither of them registered as any obvious threat but seeing their reaction to Nero meant that either it was a huge coincidence or they were suddenly taking an interest in her ward.

BB shifted to be able to keep the pair in her peripheral vision as she bent down to check on the luggage but the truth was she was prepping her weapons in case someone decided to make a move.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 23):

I'm not quite sure.  We'd have to lock the virus into a test system and see what it does to be sure.

It's funny you mention a 'mini me'.  I've been meaning to talk to you about that Captain Ledo.  I mentioned before that I'm not quite sure what I'm programmed to do.  That section of my recollections is missing.  I can't recreate it.

I have been reviewing my programming.  I'm not battle oriented.  I can work with Silver while she's firing the cannons for example.  But I wouldn't really add much to what she's already doing-

It is estimated that installed targeting systems have a 38.9% greater accuracy than recent 'shareware' downloads can provide-

If you want me to suggest a test system to download that virus into Captain Ledo, I just thought of one.

Anyhoo.  I've been reviewing my programming.  I don't seem to have any special programming when it comes to weaponry, spacecraft operations, or scientific analysis.  I do seem to have extensive programming relating to code breaking, security systems, and net research.  For example, one of my subroutines is constantly scanning local nets, compiling political information.  I also seem to have a predilection to want to hack into government records systems.  I've been restraining myself.  But it feels really, really uncomfortable not to.

My current supposition is that I was either programmed by a terrorist organization for recon, for use in industrial or political espionage, or maybe for use in organized criminal enterprises.  I am not sure.

All of this is to say:  I can provide some models for a 'mini me'.  But they would depend on what you want to use me for.  Can you give me an idea of what kind of functionality you want this unit to possess?

---

Bix sighs at Nero  "Nice to see some things never change...

"Did Lyza Ogden message you?  She's in charge of getting the judges set up.  If you don't have a comm from her yet, lemme know.  But yeah. You should have a driver waitin' for you.  Probably at the arrival transport desk over in the main terminal.  And we got you a room.  A good one."

He waggles his eyebrows.

"A very good one.  I was gonna drop by after you settle in and intro you to the goodness myself.  Comm me once you get settled.  I got some business I gotta handle, but should be free about tenth period."

Wyltz, like most undersea colonies, divides it's day up into 'periods'.  There are fifteen on Wyltz.  He's saying in about five hours standard time.

"So don't worry.  I got you covered.  You still doin' your upload thing?"

Silver and BB both notice about the same time two women walking into luggage claim at the same time.  They're both tall, athletic, and probably cyborg.  BB notices that one of the women has what is probably a synthetic arm that has cannon firing capability.

The two women are ignoring everyone else.  They seem to be heading to one of the now open claim check kiosks.

Tepha notices someone as well.  Or more like, someone noticing her.  There's a guy who was waiting at the next kiosk over.  Athletic looking.  Kind of a nice ass.  Silvery hair.  Distinguished type.  He's been giving Tepha the once over and is now on the fifth over.  He's let someone else cut ahead in line, obviously thinking how he can time his approach.

Really.  He's not being subtle at all.

Ledo thought about it before answering Fritz.

"How about focusing on hacking comm frequencies? Being able to listen in to all the traffic around us would be really nice in most situations. Knowing that police were moving in or someone was setting up an ambush would be helpful in a general sense. Do you think that would be possible? Would that scratch that itch?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 28):

Oh yeah....

Let me know what Nero and the Gals do.

Do you want me to look at a couple of robot type designs for your boy Fritz?  Or you want to play around with it?

Nero nodded his head like he knew what Bixby was talking about.

"Yeah...yeah Lyza. Okay. Cool. Cool cool cool. Yeah I am still doing my uplaod thing. Up to nearly a thousand subscribers so, you know, definitely on the rise."

No need to mention that half of those were scammers and bots advertising sex pills or cam shows.

"Yeah, I'll hit you up once I get my stuff dropped off."

He awkwardly held up his fist for a bump and then motioned for BB to grab their stuff and follow him to where he though the limo would be. He could have asked but he already felt awkward over the fist bump which he had immediately regretted and now didn't want to compound damage to his reputation by acting like he needed assistance.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:45, Thu 16 July 2020.

BB clocked the cyborg so she didn't even notice when Nero turned abruptly and started going the wrong way to exit the terminal. He was heading straight towards the two "big fucking problems". She mentally mapped out the moves she would need to duck to cover, draw her weapon and return fire just in case things went sour. Maybe whatever trouble those two had planned would wait until after she could redirect Nero back towards the exit.

Unlike BB, when you travel on your own ship you don't have to check your weapons. Silver was inherently distrustful of paired female cyborgs. She glanced around for what looked to be the sturdiest piece of cover, positioned herself and Tepha there before calling out to Bixby.

"Yo, Bixby. Let's have a meet and greet."

Her eyes flickered over to the tall cyborgs strolling across the tarmac.

"Maybe some place private? Want to take a quick tour of our ship?"

Tepha was used to men hitting on her given her attention to making herself look attractive but even she had to admit it was a bold move to do so in the middle of the starport. She was about to head him off at the pass and throw him off his game when Silver carefully re-positioned her behind an information kiosk. She was thrown off, having not spied any of the same threats that Silver had and looked at Silver quizzically but trusted Silver had her reasons and if things were that tense asking stupid questions wouldn't help anything. Silver wasn't exactly transparent in her actions or decisions but she also didn't do things without a good reason and so far had proven herself to be very capable in life-or-death situations so Tepha just had to relax and let Silver take the lead.

Ledo gave a nod.

"Great! Send us the designs and I'll make sure Rig gets a chance to see if we can't put something together before we lift off again."

OOC: I don't really care how you want to handle things. I'm also fine just leaving it abstract like the Bugees from before. If you want to stat something up that is fine. If you have a lot on your plate I can take a crack at it as well.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 34):

Nah.  I can tinker with a Fritzie Bot.  Just wanted to see if you had anything in mind is all.

Bix follows the movement of Silver's eyes and groans softly.  "Great. Another bunch of OLF doofs.  Yeah.  Let's see that ship a' yours."

As the three of them head out of luggage and over to the berth, Bixby sighs then glances at his two escorts. "Huh.  He said there was one looker.  I end up with two.  Not a bad deal.  What should I call you guys?"

---

As Ledosigns off his comm, an inspector sends a clearance ticket to Rig's comm.

"Okay.  You guys are all set-" The inspector is cut off by the sound of a loud WHHHHUMP

A few people raise their voices.  Several people start to scatter.  A quick look shows two women, obviously cyborgs, are standing unnaturally still.  There's a shimmering globe of force surrounding them.

A port security guard steps forward and calls out above all the voices, "ALL CLEAR!  DON'T WORRY FOLKS! SITUATION CONTAINED!"

"Again?" The inspector standing next to Ledo and Rig sighs and taps on her commboard.  "Can't they schedule their stupidity on someone else's shift?"

She seems to be referring to the two women.

---

After a few wrong turns, they find the Transportation Desk.

A small woman with orangish hair and a synthetic left eye which shines with a soft blue light is holding a sign with Nero's name on it.

"Nerotes Madigan?  Hi! I'm Perine!  Welcome to Wyltz.  I'll be your driver for your stay.  Did you have a nice flight?  Let's head this way.  The car is over here."

It's a short walk down a side hall to what looks like a private lot.  The cars parked here are all rather swanky.  Perine opens the back seat on a long, stretch car.  Nero and BB get a limo.

"Is there any place you want to stop at on the way?  You hungry or wanna massage?  I know all the best places!"

Tepha introduces the two of them to Bixby.

"I'm Tepha, and this is Silver. So what is this about the OLF? Is there some kind of ongoing trouble we should know about?"

Once Tepha and Silver had brought Bixby back to the Tia Ledo called an all hands meeting to listen to Bixby explain their current situation.

"So we were lead to understand you might have a line on how to make some serious credits? Why don't you start from the beginning and we'll see if we can't come to some kind of arrangement where we can all end up a bit richer than when we started."

Before being called back to the ship by Ledo Rig takes a look at the captured cyborgs and then back at the inspector.

"So...capturing cyborgs is a regular thing around here?"

Nero grinned as the trappings of luxury were once again visible.

"Oh hey. Perine? Cool. Yeah I don't know if they told you but I'm a pretty big deal so you need to be on top of your game. Give me that A-plus customer service if you know what I mean. So...food...hmmm...I think I'm good. BB you want anything?"

Next to him his big bodyguard just shook her head.

"Alright, scratch the food for now but a massage sounds just like the thing I could use right now. An extra special massage to really work out that tension from the flight. Also I'm not looking to be sober on my stay here so anything we can get to kick the party up a notch or two. I'm rock 'n' roll so you've gotta keep up."

Next to him BB stifled a sigh but nothing in the universe could stop her eyes from rolling.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Sat 18 July 2020.

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 39):

Perine kicks her heels together, throws a salute, and giggles.  "The customer is always right!  I think I know just the place!"

Squeezy Suzy's turns out to be a little more high class than the name would indicate.  But not too high class.  As Nero is taken back by the three ladies of his choice for a message and etc., Perine smiles at BB

"You want me to have them set you up too?"

---

"Hmm?  Oh.  It's not always cyborgs," the tech tells Ledo.  "It's nothin' to worry about. Just a fringe group's been makin' waves lately. Call themselves OLF."

---

"The Oceanic Liberation Front," Bix explains while everyone gathers.  "They're an eco-rights group that operates outta the system.  They're real pains in the ass.  They wanna drive all sentient life off Wyltz and one a' the water moons around Gohature.  'Lettin' nature heal itself' or some such crap. Anyway.  They're always sendin' in op teams. And they're always gettin' caught.  It's a real pain in the ass."

Once Rig sits down, Ledo nods at Bix.

"Okay.  Well.  You guys got the a-OK from my boy.  So I'm gonna trust that you can handle the score. May I?"

He offers a data cube.  Fritz and Mainframe both green light it, and Bix plugs it into the system.

A lot of code comes up.  Rig studies it.  It's a cryptokey algorithm.  Designed to be part of an authorization to authenticate some kind of financial transaction.

"Not just a financial transaction. The financial transaction.  The official betting pool for the race.

"There's always a lot a' credits goin' back and forth during the race.  The city decided they wanted a piece of that action.  So twenty seven years ago, they instituted an official bookie type operation for the betting.  Now, because the pay outs are guaranteed by the city, it's the preferred bookie action for the race.

"The way it works is this:  betting goes on until the end of the second lap.  Every bet is given it's own transaction code.  The code is randomized.  And to cash in, the code has to be presented, unaltered.  There are three steps for authentication for each bet.

"First, there's a cross check on any code presented for payment.  That's first check for any alteration in the code.  An outside auditing firm handles this step.  They check the code for the comm unit ID that made the bet, look for duplicate transaction codes in the database, and finally check that the date/tiime stamp on the transaction code matches the database records of when the bet was made.  Once that's done, it's on to step two."

He nods at the code on the screen.  "That's where my office comes in.  We're the bag men.  Once we get a tran code that's been authenticated, we verify that the gambler sent us funds.  It's a also another way to catch fabriacted tran codes.  If the bet doesn't have a cash transaction associated with it, we know it's bogus.  We then plug the tran code into this cryptokey, and if it latches, the tran code goes onto step three.

"Step three is the payout.  When you bet, you gotta list a bank account for winnings to be deposited into.  Another outside audit firm compares the records to make sure no one's changed the account information.  Then they send an A OK to my office, which funds the pay out."

He blinks.  "Clear as mud?"

I'll let you digest that and give me any questions before we move into the pitch

BB grimaced at the thought.

"No thanks, I'm on duty."

She thought about getting into a better position just in case something happened inside the room but with a shrug she thought "fuck it." If he gets murdered by a trio of prostitutes then that was just going to be fate. She was loyal to her duty but not loyal enough to hear some punk kid banging prostitutes.

Trying to chase the thought out of her mind she turned to Perine and directed a question at her.

"How dangerous is this race going to be? I'm hoping that bodyguards on this planet are mostly just symbolic. Is there anything I should be aware of? Any common scams or kidnapping schemes to watch out for?"

Ledo taps his chin as he considers the information. It was time to brainstorm.

"So there's a few avenues we could head down. One would be trying to pull all the funds from your company in holding, one would be to reroute winning bets to our bank account, and one would be to put in a fake bet, maybe slip it in late."

Tepha frowned, putting up three fingers to visually represent the three ideas.

"If we rob people or the bank, someone's going to notice and come looking for us really quick. Hiding those kind of financial paper trails would be hard. They would just follow the money unless we have a way of breaking that trail. If we slip in a fake bet though it should just go right under their radar, no?"

"Not a lot of time. Once the payout happens that's that. I don't know how long it normally takes but we would need to be really really fast to slip in a bet between the winner and payout. We would need a way to delay the payout if things go slow on the other end of things."

Ledo turned to Bixby and started rattling off the questions.

"Alright so I think there are two options. One is to steal the pool from  your company, one is to slip in a bet between winning the race and the payout.

How much control do you have on the verification on your end? Can you push through a bet no matter what? Another idea is I'm sure the organizers are slicing off a transaction fee on all of this. How is that being routed? Maybe instead of re-routing the payments we can just re-route the fee at the end of the day."

He paused and frowned.

"Although I don't like doing anything to the money while your company is holding it. If money goes missing under your nose you're going to face a lot of scrutiny whereas if we can slip in a fake bet that would be masked by all the other betting going on and even if they did figure it out there's nothing that makes you any more or less a suspect than any other official involved."

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 41):

Perine's customer service grin freezes.  She looks around to see who could overhear, then turns back to BB

"I won't say stuff like that doesn't happen.  During Shrimp Fest, a lotta offworlders come to party.  Things happen.  Ya know?

"But these days, this whole OLF thing is getting a little nuts.  They've sent some manifests or something about illegal species testing.  One of the biocorps that runs the fishing industry, IxythTech, got investigated a few years ago.  It was all hush hush.  But OLF says they paid their way out of a huge fine for cruelty to shrimp or some kind of garbage."

BB vaguely recalls something about it all.  Wyltz has made a name for itself by terraforming the oceans of Wyltz and seeding it with old Terran species of fish.  Great for agricultural and pharma exports.  But a lot of ecofringe groupls weren't happy.  They said they were interfering with the planet's natural development.

Well.  Pretty much the usual.

The whole thing about IxythTech rings a smaller, more distant bell.  An article she read on the news feeds.  It was three years ago.

Perine shrugs.  "Supposedly OLF is saying they'll do something about it this year at Shrimp Fest.  Security's been pretty tight."

---

Bix shakes his head.  "As for option 1, no go.  If it was that easy, someone woulda gotten away with it by now.

"The audit firm maintains several separate versions of the betting ledger. Even I don't know how many.  But it's more than two.  That's the reason betting is cutting off at the end of the second lap.  That gives the auditors time to compile each of the individual ledgers, cross check them to make sure they agree, and sort out any contaminants.   You'd have to locate and hack each system that had a copy of the final bet ledger.  If you don't, and your bet doesn't match every single version of the ledger, your bet doesn't get honored."

He seems to consider Ledo's second point.  "That's an interesting point.  Yeah.  There's a three percent skim off the final take.  That has a lot less security on it.  Lemme think...I want to say the audit firm calculates the skim and deposits it into the Racing Committee's account.  I...don't think there's much more security than that.  Hell. We don't usually audit the take ourselves until a couple days after the race.  Everyone's too busy partying.  The take would be a lot smaller.  But it would be a much cleaner and easier haul."

There's another option. Fritz has been quiet all this time.  Now his voice pattern sounds a little thoughtful. What about blackmail?  This OLF group has been threatening to take action this race day, right?  So doesn't that make them a nice little patsy?  What if we get a virus into the betting pool?  We could rig something that would corrupt the source data at random.  So each pull of it would randomize.  The auditing firm wouldn't be able to compile their ledgers.  Then we, who have been collecting the betting information, offer to sell them a copy of the correct ledger.

Ledo nods and snaps his fingers.

"Fritz that's brilliant. Would it be possible to combine that with my idea? Okay hear me out."

He points a finger at Bixby.

"So you're saying we can't slip in a fake bet because it gets compared against other records and would get flagged as a discrepancy..."

He points at the comms where Fritz is talking.

"But our computer guy here thinks we might be able to scramble their data. Forget the blackmail even, what if we just scramble the data. Then we can slip in the fake bet and they have no choice but to use it or invalidate all the bets.

Okay what if we do this. What if we make contact with the OLF ourselves. Act like we're sympathetic and have a plan to screw over the gambling. We sell them a computer virus they can use to scramble everything. But it doesn't scramble everything. It leaves one copy untouched, one that we can control. Maybe Bixby's company has a secret backup. It might be a bit out of date but it has our bet on it. Or maybe we can convince the OLF guys to use the master copy, the one with our fake bet on it, to ransom Shrimp Fest for whatever demands they want. Someone tips off the authorities on where the OLF are hiding and the master copy is recovered. The one with our fake bet. If we do this right other then giving them the virus in the first place we're pretty much in the clear, all of us.

Otherwise let's play it safe and just skim the house's cut and be off planet before the final audit commences. We'll call that plan B. Safer but smaller. There's a certain thrill of turning a million into ten or fifteen."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 47):

Bixby kind of gets pale at the mention of OLF.  But he starts scratching his chin at the mention of 'millions'.

"Hmmm.  You'd have to hit fast.  Those lists are complied pretty quick.  So you'd have to hit the window just right.  The auditing firm doesn't talk to us about it.  Says the less we know, the more control they have.  So...you'd have to get the info from them about where the systems are that will pull the data.  Cos if any one of them isn't hit at the same time, your plan...well.  The 'main' plan...goes up in smoke."

True.  But we won't just have one plan going.  We'll have three.  Selling OLF the virus.  Payday 1.  Placing the fake bet.  Payday 2.  Skimming the skim.  Payday 3.

Bixby seems to be wavering.  "I can't help with OLF.  And I can give you the names of some of the auditors.  But you'd be on your own for that part too.  But I can get a shunt placed in the betting systems records.  So we can get the info for the master list.  After that, you'll have to plant it at OLF HQ yourselves.

"Am I missing anything?"

”Leave the OLF to us. Instead we need all the details you can provide about your organization and the auditing agency. Who they are, where they are, what kind of systems they use.

We need to limit virtual messages just in case someone decides to do an investigation so just pick a terminal, Fritz will give you your own little space to just start typing up notes. If anything else comes to mind, just swing on by. If anyone asks, you’re sleeping with one of the crew. Your choice who you want to say it is.”

He paused and gestured towards the terminal

”Oh yeah, you haven’ been introduced to Fritz. He...doesn’t get out much. He’s our computer guy but has a thing about seeing people in person so he mostly just comms in. Prefers to spend all his time plugged in, you know? So he might not be present here but he is usually aboard the ship if you need to swing by while the rest of us is out. Work with him to download everything we need to know.

The rest of us are going to have a quick strategy session. The less you know about our dealings with the OLF, the better for everyone.”

---

Once Bixby was set up and typing away the rest of the crew went to the lounge to talk privately.

”Silver, do you think your brother could help us with the OLF? He might not have sold weapons to them directly but if he didn’t,, he probably knows who did. I think weapons are our best point of entry. We market ourselves as smugglers and that is our way in. Fritz, do you think you can work out a virus? Maybe sure that kitty toy we picked up as a template? If it’s as nasty as you say it is, it might be our best choice. Rig can help you set up a virtual environment so you can start playing around and building our virus of mass destruction.

Tepha and I will be running the ground game for the rest of you. We’ll try  and make some connections here and there but if you need something, let us know.”

 Silver went back to her room and typed out another message to her brother.

Hey Rez, hit me back.

OOC:
19:09, Today: Silver rolled 8 using 2d6+1.  Streetwise/int.

This message was lightly edited by the player at 16:59, Thu 23 July 2020.

Silver had mentioned how her brother still hadn’t gotten back to her and it had been several days now. Tepha knew more so than Ledo that there was quite a bit of bad blood between Silver and Rez. Maybe time had healed that wound but maybe not. She had Rez had parted on much better terms so maybe she could get in contact where Silver had failed.


Rezan,
    It’s been awhile, hasn’t it. Of all the crazy coincidences in the universe I ended up on the same ship as your sister. I know you had some troubles when you parted but she has left law enforcement long behind and has been up to no good ever since. You would be quite happy to hear what we have been up to. We have some stories to share and potentially some ways you can make some credits so if you could reach out to her, listen to what she has to say. For me? For old times sake?


- Tepha

The Hotel D'Orman looks like another prefab slab on the outside.

The inside is fairly swanky.  All brass and tans and whites with just a hint of gold.  The bellhops all wear suits reminiscent of bankers and the maids wear slinky dresses.

Perine smiles as she comes back with suite keys.  "As requested.  You are sharing Suite 1021."  She winks at Nero.  "The room across the hall is 1022.  It's being reserved for the Pany Paws."

The Pany Paws are an all girl musical group that are better known for their T&A than their singing voice.  They're supposed to be party monsters.  This must be Bix's surprise.

If they've checked in yet, they must be asleep.  The floor is quiet.  Morgue quiet.  Surprising given the whole Shrimp Fest thing going on.

<Pink"Still early yet,"</Pink> Perine says.  She opens up the drapes.  The picture window which takes up the outside wall is actually pressed against the glass-steel dome surrounding the city.  The room basically looks straight out into the ocean. Lights from around the side show off the view.

A suprsingly large and varied number of fish swim by.  There are so many colors it looks like a rainbow threw up on the window pane.

"I know they want to meet you guys for dinner at 6.  Downstairs in the Ocean's Blue dining room.  It's one now.  So feel free to relax as you like.  I gave you my comm line," she adds to BB.

"Anything you want me to arrange for you?"

---

I'd like to hit you.

Rez's response comes pretty soon after Silver hits send.  Way too soon as a matter of fact.  He has to be planet side for him to respond this fast.

Where you at?

---

Rez responds pretty soon after Tepha sends her message.

Hey Lady.  How's it been.  You're crewin' with rot gut, huh?  You on Wyltz then, right?  What's your ship?

Nero grinned as he flopped down onto the bed looking up. This was the kind of luxury he was looking for after his...happy ending.

"Yeah, booze and lots of it. Just keep it flowing."

Nero pulled out his phone and began recording himself.

"Yo yo my Nero-Knights. Hitting you up from a luxury suite up at the Hotel D'Orman here on Wyltz. Check out this crib that I'll be staying in."

He pans the camera around so to show off the room and the view before whipping it back to his face.

"You jelly yet? Alright after getting a high class massage...WAAAOOOH...I'm ready to go over some comments.

vinkle89 wants to know if I was involved with the Bugga Boys and all I will admit is that officially I was just an innocent bystander...wink!

xxxLokash6969xxx wants to know if I'm going to hit up any more strip clubs. Uhhh...no. The plan is to turn this kicking pad into a strip club. Why pay money when the ladies will come to me looking for some time with Nero's fiddle!

Alright let's see..."

Nero keeps rattling off comment highlights and while he starts with some supportive or inquisitive ones they quickly turn negative and he ends up spending time just cursing out random online handles for most of his stream.

As soon as Nero is distracted by his streaming BB shows Perine to the door.

"Scratch the booze, he doesn't need anything else, thank you."

BB looks around and finds a corner, possibly even a closet or bathroom, to hide out in. She hated to be caught on his stupid video stream. Early on when she hadn't been as careful she had made the mistake of letting him film her and then looking at the comments and reactions. Seeing the disgusting things his fans had written about her had made her want to go rogue and hunt down and murder people all around the galaxy so now she just stayed out of sight as best as possible.

Silver fires off the docking port they are located in. If she was going to see her brother again she needed booze and drugs. The stronger the better.

Tepha gave Rez the directions he needed to find them as well. Just seeing those few words started to bring back memories. Ledo knew that she used to date Rezan but he probably didn't realize just how...passionate that relationship had been. They had both been young and attractive and horny as hell so they had generated a lot of heat between the two of them. That was nearly ten years ago and while their love had burned bright it had also burnt out pretty fast as well. They wanted very different things and eventually that red hot spark had smothered and there was nothing really else to hang a relationship on. Given Rezan's profession she realized in hindsight that could have gone really badly for her but luckily the stars had aligned and they had both decided to move on around the same time allowing for split without any hard feelings.

Again that was almost ten years ago. She reflected on that time as wild and reckless youth but she was a little nervous to see him again. He had been gorgeous with a face fit for holos and a chiseled body to match. Just thinking of it caused her heart to stir a bit. She felt that her love life with Ledo was satisfying but she couldn't imagine anything comparing to the electrifying eighteen months she and Rez had had together.

She also considered what would happen if he had decided to try and win her back. Knowing how she used to be he wouldn't understand her being with a straight lace like Ledo. She had run straight into his arms to get away from men like that. At the time she had wanted danger and excitement but after living broke and having more than a few close calls she had realized the value in safety and security. She wanted someone who could provide for her and, more importantly, someone she could trust would be there for her. She had thought that was Ledo through and through but that encounter with the cyborg assassins had thrown that into question as well.

What if Rez was just as gorgeous as he had been? What if he decided to put the moves one her, knowing just what buttons to push and levers to pull to wrap her around his finger? What if she didn't say no?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Thu 23 July 2020.

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 53):

Perine gives BB a small grin of consolation and takes her leave.

There's a private patio overlooking the street.  BB can step out there to both keep an eye on her boss and get a little distance from him.

On the street below, crowds of people are passing by.  It seems this street is a main artery for the city, with the hotel being at the very end as it's pressed up against the 'sea wall' so to speak.

The dome is doing a decent job on regulating the temp.  Usually these places are too freaking hot or way too damn cold.  But Wyltz has it down just right.  When she looks up, she can see why.  The hotel looks like it's under a main circulation vent.  It's about a hundred meters over head.  But it probably pumps in the air for this section of the city.  Looks like the pipes mimic the layout of the street below.

Her attention wanders to the crowds below.  It's typical festival type chaos.  The usual traffic patterns people follow in their everyday life are coming undone as people move into party mode.  Groups jaywalk or mingle or mill about.  BB can pick out the groups of cops though.  They move like a military unit.  Close but loose formations.

It occurs to her there are a number of police groups down there.  She counts three just within her sight.  They aren't converging on the building or on any particular point. But that is a lot of cops to see in so small a space, even with a festival.  Oops.  There's a fourth group.

---

As Nero scrolls down his comments, he comes to

FaceBreakO4U

<i>Hey Douche Rocket

Have you ever considered getting a sex change so people might start mistaking you for a man?

That's followed by LovelyButtons

Don't let haters hate.  You burn me with your hot hotness.  Burn me please babe. Burn me.

Then Huntz says

I will gut you little rabbit

SikySmoothBlstOv writes

<Darkblue>O mi gosh!  U have me wonderin' if you're Bugga Boy on the side??? Gotta Know!!!<Darkblue>

---

Rez buzzes Silver about a few hours later.

Bar called the Blast Tube over by terminal 24.  I've got a table.

The Blast Tube isn't seedy.  It's actually got napkins on the table and everything.  The robot who acts as hostess flashes a WELCOME! on it's display and escorts Silver towards the back.

Rez is sitting at a private table almost against the far wall of the place.  He's put on a few pounds.  His hair is cropped shorter than it used to be.  And the circles under his eys look like burn marks left on the ground after a quick launch from planet side.  He's dressed kind of sharp.  A red maybe-actual silk shirt and a jacket made of maybe-real leather.

He watches Silver walk up, not saying anything.  He looks her over then picks up the vodka bottle he's been drinking from.  He pours a shot and sets it in front of a chair opposite him.  He looks at her and gestures towards the chair.

As she sits, Rez picks up his own shotglass and downs it.  He swirls the booze around his mouth before swallowing, still looking her over.

He raises a hand, thumb pointing out and back at himself, and draws an imaginary line across his own face in the shape of her scar.

"That's new, isn't it?  Did they issue you that when they issued you a badge?"

We'll get to Tepha in a bit.

 Nero was enraged.

”Oh you’re going to gut ME Huntz? You’re going to gut me? Come and try. That shit would be on every fail blog from here to eternity after I bust a cap in your candy ass.”

He went over to where BB’s luggage was and pulled out her pistol. He had seen her stock it in that easy access pocket. He pulled out the gun, tilted it sideways and brandished it towards where his camera was set up on the desk.

”Come at me you fucking poser. Blam blam and I’ll drop your ass in a nano.”

Silver flipped him the bird expertly as she slid into the booth.

”First of all, fuck you. Second of all this scar is what got me out of cops. Fucker shot me the face and cops have shit medical plans. That was years ago though. I ended up going into the salvage business for the last five or so years before joining up with a crew on a Wayfarer. It’s a good ship. So far we’ve pulled off a heist on a high-end auction, killed the fuck out of some cyborg assassins and raided this smuggler port that ended up being a fucking horror fun house full of traps and dismembered bodies.

Anyway I’ve got two deals for you. One is we’ve got our hands on some high end combat grade cybernetics that we ripped out of those two assassins I told you about. They were connected, high-end, so we need to sell it on the down low. If you can move it the shit is probably worth a million credits easy. Buy it from us for, say, 200K and anything else is yours to keep.

The second deal is we’ve got our hands on a wicked computer virus. Ransomware shit. We figure with all the gambling going on here that the OLF might be interested in holding the betting pool hostage to get some of their demands met on the ethical treatment of shrimp or whatever. If you can put us into contact with their organization we can cut you in on that sale too. Say, 20% of the sale price?

I know I’m not your favorite person right now but credit are credits. We might not like one another but at least we’re up front and honest, right?”

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 58):

Did BB put the safety on when she put the gun up?

Nero's board lights up with a brief uptick not longer after.

LovelyButtons advises Don't let yr hottie hotness get cool over dumbshits!  Keep burning Baby!

Alvin04art says O when U pointed that gun at me I got all weak in the knees! Luv U!!!

BigJham types Isn't that yr Mom's gun?  Or is she your big sis?  Anyway, kids shouldn't play with firearms

Huntz doesn't respond.  He's either not listening or maybe he's just cowering in fear.

There's a knock on the door.  The greeting vid shows it's someone in a bell hop uniform pushing a cart with some covered platters and a few bottles and glasses.

"Complimentary snacks and drinks for your room," the bellhop advises through the comm link.

---

Rez listens, just blinking, as Silver fires off her spiel.  He then says, in the deadest of deadpan's, "Golly Sil.  What ever do ya mean?  You're my dear sister after all."

He sighs and tops off both thier glasses. "Shit Sil. Everytime I see you, you're more an' more like the old man, ya know that?  Just without all the punching."

He puts the top on the vodka and passes it over to her. "Anyway.  Sorry.  Whether you want to believe me or not, I didn't want this to be a bunch a' throat grabbing.  So.  Business."

He finishes off his shot.  "Pass and pass.  I'm gettin' outta the life Sil.  Started closing down my distribution networks or let Odwen's crew buy me outta a' 'em.  In a couple more months, I'm square john.  No more gangsta.  Done.

"You wanna move some 'borg parts?  Wrong sector.  Dumping 'em in Five Sisters isn't gonna net you shit.  Blacklight floods the market with scraps from their divisions.  If you wanna get good cred for it, take it over to Glisten.  Or at least over to Sotty Wilkes in the Persephone system.

"Shrimp ethics?  You mean OLF?  Even if I was stayin' in the life, I wouldn't mess with those nutters.  They're so stupid they think fish have feelings."  He shakes his head.  "Screwin' with that type only gets you caught.  But if you wanna try to give 'em a hustle..."

He seems to think on it a moment.  "There's a woman.  Uhm...Liz?  Lizah?  Hell. I can't remember.  Never mind that.  Try to find Olga Hykwar.  You remember her?"

Olga grew up in Silver and Rez's circle.  Not a friend, but she was around a lot back in the day.  Olga's mom was a hooker who got knocked up by a noble who was slumming it.  Olga got her mom's looks and her dad's uppitiness.

Olga's a con artist these days.  She slinks up to lonely rich men and fleeces them.  It would make sense she'd be around.  There should be a lot of lonely rich guys floating around  this Shrimp thing.

Rez turns his shot glass upside down on top of the table.  "I know she's staying over at the Hotel D'Orman.  Anyway, she's done some work for them before.  She can set you up."

BB glanced back at the room and caught sight of Nero brandishing her pistol. With a curse she stormed back into the room, smacking the camera aside on her way and then quickly grappling and disarming the punk kid.

"You do not touch my fucking shit. You do that again and I'm breaking your fingers when I take this back."

Out of instinct she checks the safety, confirming it was on the whole time. At least there was that. She continued her stride and grabbed the cart, wheeling it inside. She grabbed a bottle and put the pistol into the holster at the small of her back.

"I'll be on the balcony."

Silver snorted at Rez.

”You’re going legit? Hah. I’ll believe it when I see it. This is what, the third time you’ve said that? You’re always just about to tie up loose ends and next thing I know you’re up to your neck in military grade weapons to be shuffled to rebels and revolutionaries. You don’t want the tech? Fine. We’ll keep hauling it around waiting to see what we can do with it but I can’t believe you wouldn’t want some easy credits like being a broker for a sale. OLF might be dumb as shit but their credits spend as well as anyone’s and the dumber they are, the bigger the bank account. A pair of them cyborged up to the gills got caught today and nobody thought anything of it. They must be supported by some serious credits but if you don’t want a taste, that’s fine. I’ll tell Olga you said hi.”

Silver reached over and slammed down her drink like the experienced alcoholic she was. For a brief second she had started to miss her brother, had wondered if she had made a mistake pushing him form her life but in just a few sentences he reminded her of why she couldn’t stand him. Always acting so smug and superior like his shit didn’t stink. Always acting like he was too good for whatever she brought to the plate even though she knew he would have jumped twice as high for half the payout if anyone else had swung it his way.

”Let me know if you find your balls,  brother.”

She ran her tongue along her teeth, sucking down the last traces of alcohol and making a tsk sound as she went before standing up and leaving.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Sun 26 July 2020.

Nero scrambled to his feet, panic racing through his eyes as he glanced to where his phone had landed. He made a leap across the bed and scrambled for it, fumbling with his fingers to cut the feed. With a brief sense of relief he hit the button to kill the feed. He stood back up to yell at BB but she was already out of the room and truth be told he always had to check himself around her. He might forget it in the moment but he was smart enough to realize that there would be a point where she wasn't being paid enough and she would whoop his ass all across the room.

He turned to the snack cart and activated his feed.

"Sorry about that Nero-Knights! Everyone here got a little excited about the booze and food. Check out this spread!"

He panned the camera over the food and began to dig in, scrolling through his feed responding to his fans and hoping that BB's comments hadn't been captured.

In reply to Silver (msg # 62):

Rez just watches Silver with a sort of odd look.  Like he's watching a strange child having a tantrum.

He points at the bottle.  "Take it with you.  You're gonna go get drunk and high, right?"

He waves a hand as she starts to leave. "Don't die misearble sister"

---

Hmm.  Did the Nero-Knights catch it?  Roll me 2d.  Let's leave it to luck.

---

Rez pings Tepha.  "Hey.  Got some business.  You free for breakfast tomorrow?"

Silver didn't look back but raised her hand up flipped him off.

Nero flipped through several social media feeds to see if any of his hash tags were trending or not.

OOC: ehhh?

17:50, Today: Nerotes Madigan rolled 7 using 2d6.  did it catch on?

Straight to the point as always.

"Yeah sure, just send me the details."

In reply to Nerotes Madigan (msg # 66):

The vid he uploaded in the last ten minutes is exploding.  And it's getting picked up and retagged under banners like

See Douche Bag's Mommy Take His Gun Away

WAHHH! I WANNA PLAY WITH MY PISTOL!

Nero Loses his Gun and his Nuts

---

Skipping Tepha's time line ahead to the following morning

There's a little cafe set up on the top floor of a hotel at the end of the dome farthest from the space port.  It's almost directly under the glass-steel.  Above, pools of fish are swimming around, feeding on seaweed which grows from containers attached to the dome's supports.

Rez grins as he stands up when Tepha approaches.  "Been a while."

Rez was never a touchy feely guy.  But he could act the gentleman when he needed to.  Like now, when he pulls out her chair for her.

"Try the sole.  You ever had real sole before?  It's amazing."

Rez being a conniseur is new though.  He was usually a bucket of soy-chicken and beer kind of guy.

The waitress comes up to take your order.  Once she's gone, Rez fills your champagne glass from the mimosa pitcher he ordered, then raises his own glass.  "To good times."

He takes a swig and sets his glass down.  "So catch me up.  How'd you end up crewin' with Rotgut?"

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!"

Nero threw his phone against the wall, luckily just bouncing it off a pillow instead of smashing it against plaster. It was over...it was all over. How do you recover from something like that...

Unless...


"BB! BB I NEED YOU IN HERE NOW!"

He rushed over to the glass and began pounding on the window.

"Oh fuck me...WHAT?"

Nero ran over to the sliding door and opened it up.

"I need you to do a video with me."

"No fucking way."

"Come onnnnnn. Everyone saw you smack me around and the whole net is making fun of me. We need to spin it ASAP or I'm ruined."

"Sucks to be you."

From her posture and tone it was clear she gave zero fucks about Nero being embarrassed. Heck she probably gave negative fucks, going back in time to not give fucks about it. His mind raced...there had to be a solution. He was rich, he was young, he was connected. How had he gotten out of all of his other problems...

"I'll pay you. A grand. Just to pose with me with a gun and say it was all fake."

This finally got BB's attention to the point that she put the bottle down and studied him.

"Ten grand."

"Two grand."

"Five grand and you never touch my shit again."

"Fuck. FUCK! Done. Now come on!"

"Fuck you money first."

BB had pulled up her bank account on her mobile, wagging it in the air so Nero could see. Cursing Nero ran back inside, grabbed his phone and quickly wired her the money.

"Now come on!"

"Mmmm....no."

"WHAT!? WHAAAT!?"

Panic and anger twisted together. Nero had his hands clutched to his head threatening to start pulling out fistfuls. He started to hyperventilate and his knees buckled.

For a second BB's tough exterior dropped and she looked over at Nero with genuine pity in her eyes.

"Dude. Nero. I'm just fucking with you. Let's go do your video or whatever. Just tell me what to say?"

Nero felt the oxygen come back into the room. His mind was racing in a million directions all at once. Soon he had an idea.

---

<camera turns on showing Nero on his knees in the middle of the hotel room>

"Mom! No mom! Please!"

BB storms in with a slipper from the bathroom and begins beating Nero over the head with it. Even though it's just a slipper he acts like it's super painful and covers his head.

"DON'T. YOU. EVER. TOUCH. MY. GUNS. AGAIN!"

Each word is punctuated by a slipper slap. Nero tries to apologize but he can't get a word in. Finally he hulks out and from under the bed he pulls out BB's gyrojet rifle and screams as he starts chasing her around with it. She ducks and rolls under him, smoothly pulling out her pistol and they both end up in front of the camera with gun barrels pressed against the other's head.

Then with a grin (Nero's is real, BB's is pretty forced) they turn and point the guns towards the camera.

"BLAM BLAM MOTHER FUCKERS!! God I can't believe you thought that shit was real. Also I can't believe you dumbasses thought she was my mom. Yo Nero-Knights, say high to my bodyguard. When you're a rockstar like me you need someone to keep the groupies away and put the haters in line."

BB had slipped off camera by that point but with that introduction she leaned over and waved.

"We're just sitting here fucking bored waiting for the sun to drop and the party to start and thought it'd be fun to fuck with you guys. Man did you fall for it. Look at this..."

Nero grabs the phone and split screens to show the headlines of the video trending, forcing a laugh the whole time.

"Fucking pranked yo asses. Stay tuned Nero-Knights, more Wyltz action coming at you all week long!"

BB once again slipped off camera while Nero was talking to his fans. It wasn't the worst way to earn five grand but she considered it a one and done deal.

Tepha raised her glass and clinked it to Rez's.

"To old times."

She took a sip, letting the bubbles tickle her tongue and savoring the fresh squeezed taste before swalling.

"That's an interesting story..."

She went on to talk about how she had met Captain Ledo while he was enjoying the celebrity life of being a war hero. How she had convinced him to explore the stars and skirt the line between law abiding and not and make some real money and see all the stars had to offer.

Ledo had brought on Rig as an engineer but they had needed someone to fill in the rest of the gaps. Move cargo, clean the toilets, gun down anyone who looked at them funny. Rig had been the one that had brought up Silver and next thing you know Silver was the muscle of the group.

"She's a really good shot. I've seen her kill about a half dozen people already. Pirates and assassins so far but even if she is drunk or high all the time she gets the job done. She's saved my life a couple times already. How about you, what have you been up to?"

In reply to Silver (msg # 71):

The Net seems to take a step back.  The posts start to trickle in, mostly running like

That was a prank?  What the hell kinda prank was that?

Ahhhh!  He got you haters gooood!!!

What?  No he didn't.  It wasn't that good a prank.

I did kinda like the Mommy took my gun stuff though.  The little Nero bobble head icon in diapers was cute

Oddly, Nero's numbers spike to a little higher than usual.  Most of the comments are along the lines of buying into it being a prank though not a very good one.  There does seem to be a core though who take his side.

And then this post comes up:

Whether it's good or bad, no one muscles into our turf!  This is your notice:  The BUGGA BOYS R COMIN' 4 U!!!!!

Then the comments and numbers really spike.

---

Rez chuckles.  "Yeah.  Well.  Silver is definitely a bad ass.  I'll give her that."

He's right about the sole.  It's like eating real butter.  Even the salad is delicious.

Rez listens, asking an occasional question or two, but he seems to mostly be absorbing.  But then he says,

"So you've had smugglers an' assassins, huh?  What you're basically sayin' is that your back in the Life, right?"

He refills Tepha's Mimosa.  "Don't take this the wrong way.  I'm only askin' cos we're old friends.  But...are you really cut out for the life?  I know you had a taste when we were together.  But I didn't let you see everything.

"I'm not trying to say you're weak or such.  But there's a reason Silver and I are the way we are.  Do you really wanna end up like us?"

Nero can't believe his good luck. Maybe it was the alcohol talking or the afterglow of a handy or the rush of playing with guns but he was feeling on top of the world. It was finally happening, his chance to go viral.

Nero tapped on that comment to pin it to his feed and recorded a short reply.

"Uh oh...PRANK WAR! Stay tuned Nero-Knights and Bugga Boys, because it is ON!"

His mind was racing with ideas but it was time to get to work.

"BB! I NEED YOU!"

It had been a tense series of negotiations but BB had ended up walking away with another ten grand and a mission. Truth be told as annoying as it was to have to prepare for a prank war at least she was being paid a hefty fee and failure wouldn't be particularly lethal. It gave her a chance to keep her tactical mind in shape and gave her something to do without being too high of stakes.

Plus she had regretted not tackling that flasher when she had the chance and maybe now she would finally get that moment to make some tweenager piss his pants with a gun barrel pressed against his temple.

BB took the money Nero had given her to fortify their room. She went to the nearest electronic shop and picked up a batch of surveillance bugs to set up around the hotel and prepare her stakeout.

With a grin she also swung by a weapons shop and picked up a chainsword. Nothing like hearing that rev up to loosen some punk kid's bowels.


OOC: Purchasing the following with the essentially 15k Nero just dropped on her.

x6 TL11 Bugs         - 1800
x2 Comdots           -   20
Personal HUD         - 1500
Chainsword           -  500
TL 12 Holo Projector - 2000
TL 12 Laptop         - 1000
Intelligent Interface-  100
Recon Expert Software- 1000
Security TL 11       - 1000
==============================
                       8920cr


In addition she'll make a tactics roll to set up the cameras. Covering elevators, stairwells, their doors etc.


13:47, Today: BB Nova rolled 7 using 2d6.  tactics.

Tepha's eyes narrowed. He might say that he wasn't but he was definitely attacking her credibility and she took umbrage to the thought she couldn't hang with the rough stuff. It was more true than not which might be why it stung so much and put her defenses up.

"The difference is that I'm not a naive young girl anymore. I know what I'm getting into and get to say what we do and how we do it. When we were together would you have listened to me if I had tried telling you how to run guns? Besides the goal is just a bit of light smuggling and trading, maybe the occasional heist if a target presents itself. No turf wars...and hopefully no bloodshed. It hasn't quite worked out that way but at least I can say that everyone we killed had it coming. Scum of the galaxy and everyone is better off without them. The moment that no longer becomes true is when I'll reconsider things but until then...it's been fun. Terrifying at times, horrifying at others but it turns out I'm a lot tougher than anyone thought, and a lot better at this life than everyone gave me credit for. I'mm not just a pretty face you know."

Tepha

Rez doesn't have much expression as he listens to you.  Or he does.  It's his 'negotiation' face.  Rez can be as expressionless as Silver can be expressive.  If it wasn't for the physical resemblance and propensity for violence, you aren't sure anyone would mistake these two as siblings.

"I never thought you were just a pretty face.  Ever. So don't think that at all."

He tops off both your glasses, finishing the mimosa pitcher.

"I hope things keep going smooth for you then.  It's just been my experience that when they go spinward, they go spinward hard, fast, and before you can even register they have.  Killin' someone who deserves it is easy.  Killin' someone who doesn't..."

He shrugs.

"I hope you don't ever find yourself in that situation.  That's all I'm sayin'.  If you do, just do whatever you have to to survive.  You can work out the morality later.

"Not that I'm one who can preach.  I'm gettin' outta the Life."

He grins.

"For real and for true this time.  I just finished my last deal.  When I leave Wyltz tonight, I will be a regular citizen.  Well.  A very rich one.  And one who knows where a lot of bodies are buried.

"I'll be honest.  I was gonna ask if you wanted a lift off world.  But it sounds like you're happy.  Good.  You deserve it.  Believe my sincerity or not.  But you do.

"I do wanna ask one favor though.  Can you keep an eye on Silver?"  He frowns and studies his mimosa, then downs it in two gulps.  He wipes his chin with the back of his hand.  "She's not as tough as she thinks she is.  Hell.  Nobody can be that tough."

---

Rig

The lines of code are starting to blur together.  You shut your eyes just to relieve some of the strain.  Whoever built this virus knew what the hell they were doing.

The bug in the ferret/cat thing Tepha brough aboard is one nasty piece of work.  It doesn't destroy anything per se. Instead it attacks defense barriers.

It's like AIDS for computers... Fritz opines.  Honestly, I'm kind of scared to even have a copy in contact with this...

And it's true.  Fritz had downloaded a copy of himself into the test environment to handle the bug.  And it had been a nasty shock.  The infected version of Fritz would have to be deleted.

What's weird is that I'm not finding any attack program inside this.  It just seems to be geared towards taking down defensive barriers.  I'm not sure it would work very well against a data maze or the like.  So it can be defended.  What's more interesting is that it doesn't seem to have a vaccine.

Which is true.  None of the potential vaccines you've tried work.  It seems once a system is infected with this, the only options are keep the system live and hope that it never gets attacked by something else, or flush the whole system and reboot it from square one.

On the plus side, programming the hijacker has been a breeze.  That's ready to go more or less.  You do need to test it in a safe environement.

What next Engineer Rig?

Tepha gave Rez a nod.

"Yeah, sure thing. We'll keep her out of trouble."

Rig wiped his eyes, trying to will the focus back into them.

"Alright Fritz, how does this sound. We combine KittyKat with a standard ransomware virus we can pull from the any number of sources. Hit the system with this to take down their defenses and then encrypt all of their files and demand payment for the decryption key."

He paused and considered the tiny toy they had picked up the virus from.

"Also who in the hell puts something like this on something like that? Ledo said they picked it up at a carnival? That might mean this thing is everywhere and nobody knows it yet. Anyway we sell this and the ransomware to OLF anonymously. We can then contract out anonymously to the OLF to get it installed onto the auditing system. We can use Bixby or some other source to get access to their system and let this do its work. Everything is scrambled unless you pay X to the OLF or whatever demands they want to make.

Only problem is OLF doesn't actually get the decryption key. Files are never unscrambled, or some of them never do. The only thing they get is the altered betting list that shows us putting hundreds of thousands of credits on the winner. Everything else is essentially garbage until it can be decrypted in what...a million years?"

He tugged at his beard in thought.

"Alright we need to get information on what kind of system the audit company is running so we can do a test run on a virtual environment..."

Tepha

Rez walks you down to the hotel's lobby.  He makes a few words of farewell and waves at you as you step out of the doors.

The dome is just about to hit 'mid-morning' hours.  The lights are brightening and the temperature is slowly being adjusted upwards.  The streets are in a slow lull.  It's between the morning hour commute and lunch time rush.

As you are crossing the street to get to the tramline back to the low port, a group of men suddenly rush out into the middle of the street.  You hear a few other pedestriants gasp, and someone screams, "OLF Attack!"

But the men just stop, turn around, drop their pants, and moon everyone at the intersection.

One of them holds up a handheld cam and shouts out, "YOU ALL JUST GOT BUGGA'D BY THE BUGGA BOYS!!"

The men then pull up their drawers and scatter into the crowd.

---

Rig

That could work, Fritz says after some thought.  I can look on the nets for some sample malware products.

He comes back with a list of one hundred twenty six variants after a few minutes.

There are a ton of bugs floating around.  Just on the general net.  It must be due to the Shrimp Fest.

Speaking of.  We will need to move on that.  The race is set to start in two days time.

I would suggest you recommend to Captain Ledo that he needs a team to meet with this OLF contact that Silver came up with.  And also a team to reach out to Bixby to see what we can learn about the audit firm.  Depending on their security, we can try a hack.  But I would recommend a physical intrusion.  It is less likely to leave a trail than a digital inquiry and hack.

---

BB

You watch the mooners disperse.

It's odd you happened to catch the incident.  You had just come outside to the balcony to 'think' (get away from Nero), and just happend to glance down.

You saw the group of guys run into the middle of the street and moon everyone.  Someone yelled something, but you are too far away to hear it.  Though you would guess it had something to do with 'Bugga'.

The room is on the corner of the building.  One of the walls is a picture window and is pressed up to the side of the dome.  It's an open view into the ocean.  The balcony is on the outer corner, curving around, so you have a view of the street below.

Other than room service carts, nothing has come in or out of the room.  And the carts all appear kosher.  No unpleasant surprises except for how expensive a lobster roll is.

Below, out in front of the hotel, there's another commotion.  A limo is pulling up.  There's a rush of pedestriants, which from the video cams that come out, you realize are press.  From out of the limo pour forth four girls in skin tight plasticene dresses.  They're surrounded by body guards and management looking types.

Didn't Perine say something about some musical group coming to stay?  And aren't they supposed to be your neighbors?

Tepha furrowed her brow and shrugged. Kids being kids she guessed and headed back to the ship. The meeting with Rez hadn't gone quite as she had expected but it was probably for the best. A pleasant chat with old friends, a promise to look after his sister.

With everything on her mind she barely even noticed the pranksters as she headed back to the docks.

Rig nodded and then immediately felt stupid. Fritz was a computer on an interface. While he probably was using the cameras to watch him he should probably say something.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. We can have the girls meet with the OLF and Ledo and I can work on Bixby. In the meantime find the best bug out there and get it pulled into our little package."

BB glanced over at Nero who was busy talking to his phone followers again. Should she tell him? She thought about just keeping quiet but then the thought of her flush new bank account flashed in her mind. The more money she could milk out of him, the quicker this whole galaxy tour thing would come crashing to an end.

"Hey Nero. I think that band is here...Pany Paws."

She dropped the grenade and leaned back to watch the show.

Pany Paws? Pany Paws!


"PANY PAWS IS HERE! Oh shit! Oh shit..."

He paused, looked at his feed and then smiled.

"Later, I've got a party to go to!"

He killed the feed and went back to freaking out.

"Alright...okay. I need to get in that room. I have to seem cool but not lame. I can't be desperate. Alright...I can do this. HEY BB! CAN I BORROW YOUR CHAINSWORD"

The glare from BB in response said absolutely the fuck no.

"Okay...plan B. Got it..."

He ran over to the phone and called up room service. Booze. Lots of booze. All the booze.

Silver and Tepha

Olga is pretty easy to track down.  She's not even using an alias this time.  Her name is listed in the Hotel D'Orman's registry.  Room 702.

The two of you arrive just as some limo is pulling up to the curb.  Suddenly it's a nuthouse.  Reporters and cam bots come rushing out of the crowd and start click, click, clicking away.  The limo doors open and out come four overly plastic-surgeoned nymphs in plasticene clothes so tight they could be painted on.

I will leave it to your discretion as to whether Silver or Tepha recognize the Pany Paws.  Think of them like a K Pop band in this era.  Their biggest hit is 'Don't Afterburn My Love'.

I'm assuming they have not tried to call Olga yet.  Let me know how they want to handle the approach.  Call her from the lobby?  Try to run in her accidentally?  Etc.

---

Nero and BB

There's a ring at the suite door.  A tired looking busboy is pushing a cart loaded with liquor bottles.

"Is this enough Sir?"

While the busboy pushes the cart in and sets it against the window, through the open door you can both see a middle aged man dressed like he's still in his teens walk up to the door.  He seems to be fiddling with the retinal scanner that will allow access.

He's got an attache that has the Pany Paws logo on it.  He vibes 'manager'.

---

Rig and Ledo

Bix calls back an hour later.  He pops on the screen, almost a literal talking head in a field of inky blackness.  He's gone somewhere and activated a call scrambler.  Anyone listening in won't know where he is or see him too clearly.  They shouldn't hear you at all.

Bix looks nervous.  He wipes some sweat off his chin.

"Shit. I wasn't expecting you to call me so soon.  I was at work.

"I got a little info from an auditor.  They're actually gonna create their own database, then copy it four times.

"Each page from the bookies will feed into one of the databases at a time, then the database will send a copy of that new bet to the other three.  Apparently someone tried what we're tryin' last year and it almost worked cos the bets flowed through one central database to the others.  They almost didn't catch it.

"The other thing is each database has it's own encryption key.  So if a bet is logged that doesn't match the key from one of the databases, it's gonna get tossed.

"I can't get my hands on the keys.  The audit firm is keepin' those under wraps.  Just cos there's not enough bad news, they're gonna finish building and distributing the databases tonight.  The databases will go live in the morning.  Betting starts at noon."

Let me know what questions there are about all that

Bix takes a deep breath.  "I did get the names of two of the auditors who'll have copies of the databases.  I'll leave a hard copy with names and addresses in a secure locker at the port.  Here's the locker number and combo."

There are two names and addresses.

Adele Ofenharm

Galagh du Broxen

Their home addresses are listed.

Tepha and Silver just shrug as they make their way around the celebrities and their entourage/groupies. Neither of them had ever heard of Pany Paws so it didn't register as anything important.

In the lobby Tepha went up to the front desk with a pleasant smile while Silver lurked an alcove somewhere out of the way.

"Hi, I have a friend staying here. What's the extension to dial directly to a room?"

Once they had it they booked a table at the hotel restaurant in a private booth and Tepha dialed up Olga's number.

"Hello Ms. Hykwar? I have a business proposition for you that I think would be most profitable however time is of the essence. If you could, please come down to the restaurant and meet me at my table..."

Tepha gave the location of where they were sitting. The two were dressed so as to appear as any other ordinary tourist attending Shrimp fest. With a trained eye someone like Olga would probably note that Silver was working bodyguard duty for her "client", Tepha. The hope was everything would appear to be standard shady black market sales of arms to terrorists, nothing out of the ordinary there.

BB's eyes went wide but Nero just nodded.

"Yeah. Great!"

Nero then waited by the door, listening to wait for Pany Paws to get to their floor. BB silently pointed out that she had the floor wired with cameras so Nero shifted to just watch the laptop screen instead.

His plan was simple. Wait for Pany Paws to get to their room and then push a cart full of booze to their doorstep and try and talk his way inside with the promise of tons of alcohol as his ticket for entry.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:18, Thu 06 Aug 2020.

Ledo was talking things through with Rig to make sure he had the whole plan square.

"Alright so here's the plan.

1. Tepha and Silver sell our virus to the OLF and leave it up to them to attack the bookies as a whole.

2. We're going to check out these auditors and see if one of them is bendable, one way or another. I think we just straight up offer them a bribe. We warn them of the OLF attack, make sure they're copy is isolated from the others so it doesn't get corrupted. In exchange we get them to insert our fake bet using their encryption key. They end up being the hero of Shrimpfest and getting huge amounts of praise for saving the betting and foiling the OLF, we make a killing on the side.

3. We do what I proposed originally. We each make a bet or two for 100 credits on various racers so there is an easy and early entry in the database for us to hijack.

4. At the time of the race the OLF strike scrambling the bookie systems with the virus. Everything is borked except low and behold the auditor's database copy experienced a lucky glitch, maybe he was in a tunnel or dropped it so it went offline before the attack. Sure it might miss any last minute bets but the majority of transactions are authenticated and usable.

5. Between the race winning and the authorization of the winnings we use the authentication key to adjust the amount on our bet.

6. The race gets authenticated, our bet gets processed and we get out of dodge.

As an alternative if the databases or OLF screw up, we have a backup of the virus we can use to just directly plug into Bixby's system and steal the race organization's cut of the profits. Not as great but hopefully the OLF still takes the blame.

Does that sound about right?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 87):

Rig and Ledo

It doesn't take much to scout the two auditors.  They are both working in the same building and both are oblivious to any kind of tailing activity.

Adele looks like the definition of 'spinster'.  She's middle aged, prim and proper, with thick glasses that have to be for show.  Who doesn't get their eyesight corrected these days?  Her robe is business proper.  She'd be pretty if she let her hair down.  Instead, she's got it in a bun so tight, it practically pulls back the skin on her face.

Galagh is a pudgy man of about the same age.  He seems to sociable type.  He greets everyone on his way home.  He's got a wife and two kids.  There's even a robotic dog jumping up and down at the window, following it's 'welcome master' home subroutine.

After they get in, Galagh seems to settle in for the night.

Adele comes out after about an hour.  And she's no longer very proper.  She's let that hair down, and traded in the business appropriate dress for a little black not at all appropriate dress.  Her heels are probably higher than the span of either of your hands.

She seems to be making her way to a night club.

---

Nero and BB

It takes about ten more minutes, but finally the elevator at the end of the hall dings.  From it pours a security detail that comes down the hall, making sure to check all avenues.  The elevator is descending.  The Paws must be coming up next.

Wasn't sure if security being there first might change Nero's plan.  If not, let me know and we will proceed

---

Tepha and Silver

The woman on the other end of the comm elects no video.  Her voice is thick, like she's been asleep or has a head cold.

"Who is this?"  She listens then says, "Alright. Give me twenty minutes and I'll be down."

She must be putting on more than her make up.  About fifteen minutes in, Silver spots a guy coming in who reads thug life.  He's got an ex military gait, scars and tats, and is paying so little attention to your table, it's suspicious in and of itself.

He walks by, sits at a table a little ways away, and pulls out a personal comm.  He must be texting Olga, because two minutes later, she comes strolling in.

Olga looks good.  Real good.  Whoever her plastic surgeon is, he's earning his creds.  She could mistaken for a high schooler if not for the cleavage and slinky dress.

She slinks up to the table, a all purpose smile on her face.

She touches her ear when she gets close to the table.  Whatever the signal means, nothing happens.  Olga smiles and sits.

"Well.  And who do I have the pleasure of talking to.  Hmmm?"

Ledo had Rig keep an eye on Galagh for the evening just in case. A family was a lot of leverage but not one that Ledo wanted to use right off the bat. Meanwhile he decided to follow Adele and "bump" into her at the night club.

Nero knew the drill: it was lame to show up early or be too eager. He was going to let the Pany Paws get into their room and settled for a minute before showing up with the booze cart.

Tepha smiled and glanced at Silver.

"Call me Ms. Gold. I happen to be in a business of acquiring things and more than that finding people who want the things that I have. I believe you may have contacts with a certain ecological organization that would be very interested in gaining some leverage over the local government in order to protect the environment and I believe I have both the tool and the plan to make that happen. Time is short, however. It's an opportunity that requires swift action before it is gone."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 89):

Tepha and Silver

Olga cuts a glance at you Silver, then settles back on you Tepha.

"Is that so?  Well that sounds interesting and all officer.  But I'm a good law abbiding citizen here for the Fest.  I really don't know what you are talking about.  But I wish you luck with that.

"Is there anything else?  If not, I'll be going."

---

Nero and BB

The Pany Paws arrive in order.  The stroll down the hallway like they're on their way to a fashion shoot.

That is until that manager, who's standing at the door of the suite, says, "Relax.  No cameras around."

All four ladies suddenly seem to sag.

One of them moans, stretching her arms over her head.  "Damn.  I can't wait to get outta these heels."

From amongst the crowd comes a huge sound Phhhhhhhhp

"Oh gross Besa.  Go back down to the lobby and air out before you come in."

"Don't be mean! I couldn't help it!"

They and their entourage pile into the suite.  Except for two large guys who scream security.  They stop outside the suite door.

Nero, you push the booze float down the hall until one of the security goons holds up a hand.  "Can we help you?"

---

Rig

These guys are so domestic, they make cloistered religious sects look untamed and free.

The whole stake out is going along like a night with insomnia when you notice something:  the same gray van has now passed the house four times.

It does the same thing each time:  it drives up, slows down like the driver is looking for something, than slowly accelerates away.

The windows of the van are tinted.  So you can't see who is inside.

---

Ledo

The Boom Chukka Chukka turns out to be as cheesy as the name suggests.  It's a big night club with lots of flashing lights, tons of booze, and lots of people desperate to get laid.

Adele is apparently one of them.  She isn't meeting friends.  Instead she manages to grab a  spot at the bar and sits down, trying her best to look like eye candy.

As you figure out your approach, you notice a guy who's watching her pretty intently.  He doesn't seem like the usual hound though.  He seems more...precise in his bearing.

Tepha gave Silver a glance and Silver gave a nod. Slipping around the booth to the other side to suddenly trap Olga in she slipped out her pistol jamming it into Olga's ribs.

"There, see? Now it's entrapment. Also we ain't fucking cops so cut with the bullshit and give us the name. We're trying to make a shit ton of credits in a short amount of time and don't have time for this bullshit. And if you cut the bullshit, you can get yourself a nice fat cut as well."

The whole time she was speaking she had her eyes on Mr. Bodyguard making sure he kept seated.

Across the table Tepha went pale at Silver's sudden burst of action. They hadn't exactly set up contingency plans ahead of time and this wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she signaled for Silver to handle things.

Nero put on a facade of being hurt.

"You don't recognize me? I'm fucking Nero. THE Nero. Anyway I had a ton of extra booze lying around and figured the girls in there might like a bit of R&R if you catch my drift. I figured it was only neighborly to share."

Rig had an idea. It was probably a stupid one but he had a hunch he wanted to play out. The next time grey van swings by Rig will pull out in front of it suddenly hoping to cause a minor traffic collision.

Ledo tried to appraise the guy watching Adele. It was either someone with the same idea as him or, he suspected, some kind of private security. These guys were civilians handling a lot of credits so a bit of professional oversight seemed only natural to make sure nothing like..well...him came around.

Too bad she was desperate and he had smooth enough moves to handle a middle-aged spinster. He grabbed his whisky and ordered something sweet but potent, a long island ice tea perhaps, and sat down next to Adele, dropping off the long island before raising his glass to toast hers.

"Well hello there. Having any luck tonight?"

Silver and Tepha

Olga brings a hand to her cheek.  The security guy, who had been about to stand, settles down.

Olga turns to you Silver, with a pleasant smile.

"You gonna blow me away in front of all these witnesses?  No?  Then get the fucking gun out of my rib cage Dear."

She looks back at you Tepha.  "You must be the brains.  Alright.  I'm convinced you're not cops.  But this is not the best place for this kind of conversation.  I'd ask you up to my room.  But...ha.  I'm entertaining at the moment."

She purses her lips and thinks it over.  "I'm not going to give you a name.  Loose lips get sunk like ships after all.  But I will arrange a meeting.  How's that for compromise?

"You can pick the location.  Buzz me in an hour and I'll give you the time.  You can make your pitch to the decision makers there.  'kay?"

---

Nero

The security guards glance at each other.  One puts his hand on his earpiece.

"Yeah.  We gotta...'The' Nero...out here saying he's got booze."

Let's have Mr. Nero make me a roll.  Let's call it Persuade or Diplomacy or Carouse (your choice)/Soc.  Thanks

---

Rig

You taps on the accel.

The gray van rolls into the front of his vehicle, though at such low speed the impact is minimal.

There's a long moment, then the passenger side door opens.  A woman steps out.  She's wearing a jumpsuit in a non-descipt grayish color.  She's got shades on, which is strange in an undersea city where the lighting is controlled.  She flips them off as she comes over.  You don't get enough of a glance to tell for sure, but you think they may be targeting specs.

"Hi." She smiles, tucking her specs away in a pocket of the jumpsuit.  "You good?  No harm done right?  It'll take hours for cops to show up, what with Shrimp Fest and all.  Let's just settle this here, alright?"

---

Ledo

Adele glances up and looks you over.  You must pass because she picks up the drink. "Well.  The night's still young.  How about you?"

The security guy...and that must be what he is...is acting like he got a call on his comm line.  But he's busy snapping a pic of you.  Must be so he can forward for an ident attempt.

Silver smiles and puts the gun away.

"See that wasn't so hard."

She looks at Tepha but the glare coming from across the table made her smile evaporate.

"What?"

Tepha didn't respond, she shifted to look back at Olga.

"Sorry about that but we are on a tight timeline. Glad we could make come to an agreement. We'll call in an hour."

Now they just had to find a good place to conduct a meeting with a terrorist organization...
This message was last edited by the player at 14:28, Mon 10 Aug 2020.

Nero raises his voice to make sure it's heard over the radio and through the door.

"Not just the booze but I've got the PARTY!"


09:29, Today: Nerotes Madigan rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  carouse.

Rig just gave a nod.

"Yeah, it was just a little tap. No need to get insurance involved, right?"

He bent over to look at the corner of his vehicle and the van giving him a good look at the plates.

"Doesn't look too bad. I'm willing to call it square if you are. Deal?"

Ledo just grins.

"Well things seem to be turning around. Hi, my names Ledo."

After their initial meet and greet Ledo will try to keep the conversation pointed at Adele and keep the drinks flowing. He's not looking for anything in specific but just what she is willing to say while intoxicated might be a good indicator of how likely she might be to become an accomplice. Whether she likes her job, her lifestyle, so on and so forth.

In reply to Silver (msg # 98):

Silver and Tepha

Olga chuckles.  "Well then."

She waves for you to get out of the way Silver and then gives you both a nod, brushing a non existant hair off her left cheek.

That must be the 'good to go' signal, because the body guard gets up and walks out, giving you both a sideways glance before departing.

Going location hunting? Or do you have some location in mind?

---

Nero

I forgot to ask:  what's BB doing at the mo? She with Nero?

The security guy keeps you waiting a moment before tapping his earpiece again.  He listens carefully nods, and looks at you.

"Okay.  They don't know no 'Nero'.  But if you got booze you can come in.  We'll need to search you first though."

---

Rig

You get the ID number off the registration symbol.  It starts with an ROL, which means it's a rental vehicle.

Let's see how subtle he is in pulling this off.  Give me a Persuade or Acting roll/Either Int or Dex.  Your call.

---

Adele smirks and sips her drink.  She doesn't seem to be a boozer.  She keeps wanting to nurse it.

And just to make everyone roll...

Persuade or Carouse/Soc please

Tepha gives Silver a questioning look and she shrugs.

"Okay we need a place without cameras. We need perfect deniability. I don't even think a face-to-face meeting is in the cards. Let's just pick up a pair of burner mobiles and use those. We can arrange for dead drops to transfer but given what we saw at the starport these people are on a watch list and might not be the brightest so we cannot let them get back to us, understood?"

Tepha just gives a shrug. It's not like she had set up clandestine meetings with volatile terrorists before.

---

Silver and Tepha spend the next hour doing some prep work. Silver and Tepha go to a local shop and buy some basic tourist gear: big floppy hat, sandals, a generic sundress. Then they go into a busy public bathroom and get into adjacent stalls. Silver changes into the tourist gear and passes her old clothes back to Tepha. They even take the time to mask Silver's scar.

Now dressed in a giant floppy hat and sunglasses that will help mask her from surveillance cameras Silver heads out to a local bodega to pick up a pair of burner phones. She heads out to a park, find a remote bench and tapes the phone to the underside of it after programming in the phone number of the other burner. Their exit strategy is the opposite. Tepha is waiting for her at a different busy restroom, Silver changes back into her normal gear and the tourist disguise is disposed of quietly in the restroom recycling facility.

When it came time to contact Olga they just had to have her pass along the location of the phone and wait for a call.

BB watched Nero get searched on the monitors back in their suite across the hall. If the Booga Boys decided to try and pull a prank she was going to be there revving her chainsword. Plus she had no interest in partying with a pop girl band that appealed to tweeners and she figured their security would keep him just as safe as she would.

All Nero had on him was booze, drugs, and his phone so he had no problem being searched. He was seconds away from getting the stream of his lifetime. This was going to put him on the map without question.

Rig straightens up and offers his hand to signal a square deal.

OOC:
19:43, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 6 using 2d6+1.  Persuade/int.

Ledo grew a little nervous when he saw he couldn't ply her with alcohol. His master plan had involved getting her blackout drunk so he wouldn't have to go all the way with things. His only other course of action was himself to get drunk, or at least seemingly so. He could handle his alcohol pretty well but he knew that if he pounded back the drinks it wouldn't be too crazy if he passed out on her couch instead of in her bed...

Hmmm..
19:44, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 6 using 2d6+1.  carouse/social.

Die roller wasn't your friend yesterday, huh?

Rig

She stares at your hand for a moment.  Her eyes flick towards the ident plate you just looked at, but she smiles and takes your hand.

"Done and done.  Just in case there's witnesses, what's your comm line? Just so we can give each other a heads up in case the cops come askin'."

---

Tepha and Silver

Olga seems to find the whole 'hidden comm line' bit funny.  But she doesn't hesitate.  "Guy you can call Scoch will be out there in a half hour.  Best of luck."

Are they going to survey the touch point site?  Or just call from a blind alley a safe distance away?

A half hour later, when you dial, the phone answers on the second ring.  A rough barritone voice says, "Yeah?"

---

Nero and BB

The guard opens the door for you Nero.  Inside is a larger suite than your own.  There appear to be at least six different bedroom doors off a large central room.

Only two of the Pany Paws are in the room at the moment.  A brunette in skin tight yellow dress and a faux-blonde with orange highlights in a skin tight pants suit.

Orange Blonde takes a deep breath.  "Finally.  Some cosmic justice."  She walks up to the booze without even glancing at you Nero

"You should tip him," says the brunette.

Orange Blond puts down the fifth of Vargarian Bourbon and comes up with a twelve cred marker.  "Yeah yeah.  Here ya go.  Keep this stuff comin', 'kay?"

---

Ledo

Adele giggles as you 'slam' back a few more.  She's playing with her hair and making sure to stick out her chest.

It is a nice chest.  Can't deny that.

"So, hey.  Lissen.  It's gotten so noisy here.  My place is really close.  Wanna go for a private drink?"

She makes the first move, and sooner than you thought she might.  You haven't really had a chance to 'slam' back enough to cover too big a drunk act.

If you think I'm going to make it easy, you were sorely wrong Sir.

On that note though, if you want to try a skill roll to see if you can either fake drunk believably or try to convince her to have a few more, I'd allow it.  -1 Penalty on that second roll though.  Acting/Int on the first one.  Persuade or Diplomacy/Soc on the second.

Feel free to pitch another option or skill/characteristic choice.

Questions?

Rig gave a nod and exchanged numbers. If this lady was a real professional she would be able to find his identity anyway and any attempts at subterfuge would risk putting him further on the radar. This way it went both way, it might be easier for Fritz to ID these guys and who they work for with the plate and number.

Tepha was on the phone while Silver “went for a run” around the park. Some cardio and then a bit of stretching far enough away that she could casually see what was at the park bench without being too obtrusive. Once she got a look at the guy though she wrapped up and headed back for the docks.

Tepha was all smiles over the phone.

”Hello! Glad you could take my call. I understand that you work for a certain organization that might be looking for a bit of leverage over the local government concerning environmental matters? I believe I have a tool you could use to help them come to the negotiating table...if the price is right, of course.”

Meanwhile she messaged Fritz to see if he could find anything about someone called “Scoch” to see if there was any additional information that could help them in their negotiations.

Nero gave a chuckle and shook his head.

<periwinkle>”Oh you got me all wrong. I don’t work for the hotel. I’m staying here. Across the hall. I’m actually a celebrity judge for the big race. I’ve got the room to myself though and I don’t enjoy drinking alone so I thought I’d share the bounty I’ve raided from the hotel bar!”<periwinkle>

Out of impulse BB saved a copy of the surveillance footage of the band letting loose when they thought nobody was looking. it was probably nothing, but to a group obsessed with their image it might be something if Nero ends up getting in serious trouble with them.

Ledo grinned at her even as he was starting to panic. He might not have thought this all the way through and mentally he was trying to do the calculations of weighing the money against cheating on Tepha.

”Do you want to grab some drinks to go at least? It’d be a shame to get a dry throat later on...”

He reached out to touch her hand, hoping a bit of physical contact would help edge her over to his side of thinking.

OOC: And maybe get him a desperately needed +1 to push him over the threshold? Eh? Ehhhh?

Ledo

She giggles.  "Okay.  Another round then..."

Got your +1

---

Nero

Orange Blonde takes a hefty slug on her drink and frowns in a cute-girl-pouty kind of way.

"Judge for what?  Is there a beauty pageant?"

"Jeez.  You are denser than a white dwarf, aren't ya?  It's that...octopus race thing.  Right?" The Brunette walks up and runs a finger along the sleeve of your shirt sleeve Nero.  "What movies you been in?  Whose your agent?"

---

BB

On the camera screen showing the hall, the elevator dings.  A convoy of bellhops pushing carts pours out, almost like clowns from a small hover car.

Most of them converge on the Pany Paws door, bearing luggage and food.

One hell hop doggedly weaves through the cluster of traffic and come to your door, pushing a small cart covered in fruit and sandwiches.

He rings. "Delivering your daily snack cart ma'am."

---

Silver

Silver, you see a guy in his early forties.  He screams thug/merc type.  There are Marine tats all over one arm with the other arm being an obvious synthetic job.  The odds are he's got some kind of firepower tamped up in it, but it's not too obvious.

He's got a scar that circles almost all the way around his head, like someone cut his skull in twain at an angle and then glued it back together.

He's scanning the area...

How 'bout Ms. Silver giving me a Acting or Streetwise/Int here, huh?

---

Tepha

The comm declines vid, in case you sent with a vid link.

The voice is rough, deep bass, and has an accent that you'd swear is Zhodani if you didn't know better.  It's guttural for sure.

"The price would depend on the goods.  Why don't you give me some details and we'll talk."

---

Rig

She smiles at you.  It's a rather prefab kind of smile.

The two of you disentangle your vehicles and they continue down the street.

Feeding the plate info to Fritz gets you a quick bump back.

Hmm.  That plate is actually listed as government owned.  Not Wyltz govie either.  It's property of the Duchess of Mora.

Throughout their drinks Ledo prodded Adele with questions. Where she worked, how she liked her job, what she wanted to do when she retired. He was trying to gauge how pliable she might be to becoming an inside woman for a percentage of the cut. By shifting the conversation to her co-workers maybe she would accidentally reveal something about one of the others holding onto a backup copy.

Nero decided to try and play it cool.

"Ugh who wants to talk about work? Drink! Be merry!"

He started cracking bottles and handing them out like free samples at the mall. You get a bottle! You get a bottle! You, the agent in the corner, gets a bottle! Everyone drinks a bottle!

BB grabbed her knife and looked carefully at the camera as she made the bellhop wait. Did he look nervous? Did he look familiar to her? Did the snack cart look like just a snack cart or was there a compartment underneath hidden where some naked prankster would be lying in wait.

Silver made sure she looked like she belonged. Just another tourist out for a jog, keeping in shape. Nothing to see here...


10:27, Today: Silver rolled 10 using 2d6+1.  streetwise/int.

"Sure. Imagine that someone has acquired a nasty little computer virus package. A combination attack that first takes down existing defenses and then inserts a ransomware package.

Hypothetically speaking, if this was introduced to the bookies and auditors overseeing the festival all that gambling money for the race would be held hostage until concessions were made.

Sure they could probably brute force hack it or dig through the logs to reconstruct it but that would take months or even years which would severely damage their reputation and spoiling their tourism industry.

Hypothetically speaking, of course but if such a scenario were possible what would something like that be worth to someone interested in that sort of thing?"

Tepha was trying to follow a script she had mentally written while waiting for Silver to change and drop off the burner phone. Just in case this was a set up she was trying to couch her words to allow for as much wiggle room as possible.

Rig was heading back to the spaceport. He had work to do on packaging up their little virus bomb before delivering it to Tepha and Silver for sale.

"Duchess of Mora, huh? That's odd. What does she have to do with this?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:38, Fri 14 Aug 2020.

Ledo

She giggles and sort of demurs.  She doesn't seem to want to talk about her real life...

Persuade or Diplomacy/Soc please

---

BB

The Bellhop is not someone you've seen before.  Then again, have you really seen every employee the hotel has?

He's not so much nervous as bored looking.  This guy is turning around and chatting with the line of other bellhops who are entering the Pany Paws room.  So he seems to know them.  And they are acting like they know him.

The cart is covered with a white sheet.  So the bottom isn't visible.  But it's not a large cart.  If someone naked is underneath, they're either a midget or a contortionist.

---

Nero

"Hmmm. Well.  We do need to unwind..."

Carouse/Social please

---

Silver

The Guy gives you a quick glance.  Then another.  But he seems to buy your routine.  Either that or he's very good at this.  Hard to tell.  But you think you're in the clear.

And he's got back up.  Two women are pushing a baby carriage in a circumference around his position.  They look to be chatting but they are really watching everyone.  Now they are really good.  You didn't notice them the first time.

If you stay around much longer, they may check you out.

---

Tepha

"That's a lot of hypothesis.  But if there's something more than the theoretical...perhaps.  I would need to see a demonstration.

"Your turn to follow directions now.  I'll call this number back in five minutes.  I will give you a location and that location will have an IP address.  You will hack it.  Infect it.  And leave the message BOO.  You can erase the virus behind you.  But if you can make that happen tonight, you can contact the lady you previously spoke with in the morning.  She can make the arrangements."

He hangs up.

---

Silver

The Guy tucks the phone into a pocket and sits down on the bench.  He takes out another comm unit and starts tapping on it.

---

Rig

You head out on to the street, recalling what you know about the Duchess.

Not sure if you've read the Spinward Marches supp yet.  But here's a nutshell

The Marches don't have an Archduke or Sector Duke.  Officially.  The Imperium has never gotten around to appointing one for a whole slew of reasons.  But unofficially, the Duchess of Mora has acted on that behalf when required.

There are a lot of rumors about her.  But most come down to Don't Fuck with the Duchess.  She's supposedly the kind of woman who would take on a fight she knows she'll lose just to see how far she can get her teeth into your neck before she goes down.

Why the hell she's got people here though is super odd.  Five Sister's is on the other side of the Marches from Mora.  And Gohature isn't all that much of a hotbed, never mind Wyltz.

You noodle it but you can't come up with a reason why she would care about betting on a race four sectors away.

Fritz seems puzzled as well.  I cannot come up with an immediate reason Engineer Rig.  You want me to research and see if I can present hypothesis?

Now now, Ledo is one to wine and dine before taking things back. He is above all a gentleman!


17:36, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 11 using 2d6+2.  diplo/soc roll.

This message was lightly edited by the player at 22:38, Fri 14 Aug 2020.

BB opens the door but blocks him from entering. Using her giant combat knife she'll poke and prod at the snacks and lift up the sheet. If something was going to explode it could at least happen in the hallway so it doesn't stain her bed.

Nero finds himself in the zone. He starts to believe his own lie, hanging out with Pansy Paws and sharing the booze. Especially once he gets a few drinks in him he starts feeling really comfortable with the group.

"Come on ladies, why don't you go put on something you can really move in! Let's get this party started!"

Nero flips his phone on and starts streaming a popular dance music station and elbowing the girls to lighten up and unwind.


17:39, Today: Nerotes Madigan rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  carouse/social.

Silver was already done and gone. Here's hoping Tepha could make the sale.

Tepha affirmed and hung up. Using her real phone she dialed up the ship to talk to Fritz and Rig.

"Looks like the fish is on the hook but he's looking for a demonstration first. Are we ready for a test drive?"

She then acts as the middle man, passing along the instructions and information to Rig and Fritz so they can kick things off.

Rig leaned back and began speaking out loud towards one of the ship's monitors that he was using as a focal point for "Fritz".

"Well it's one of three things.

The first is she's looking to do the same thing we are. Robbing a bookies doesn't exactly seem to track with the duchesses style though.

The second is she's got some sort of interest in the operation. Maybe she's a silent partner behind the race, maybe she's got some fingers in the tourism pie out here and wants to make sure things go smoothly.

The third option is that this is a coincidence. This might not be the only business the auditors are handling. That would be really unfortunately if its something really important and we end up stepping on her toes over this. We'd better make sure we're really damn good at covering our tracks. While the Wyltz government might not be willing to chase us halfway across the galaxy, the Duchess would.

Alright no use worrying about that now. Let's focus on getting our little package here ready for delivery."

BB

The Bellboy stands there, watching you stab the pineapple chunks and Deneb style tofu patte.  He slowly says, in a dry tone, "So....no tip?"

Nothing underneath the cart.  The snacks don't blow up.

---

Ledo

Adele giggles.  "I am such an auditor.  Damn!  My job is dull.  I don't even get to work on one of the more exciting audits.  But the money's good.  And I don't have to travel as much.  What about you?  What do you do?  You look..."  She eyes you all over.  "...dangerous..."

---

Nero

"Oh.  We just got off a twenty two hour shuttle." whines Orange Blonde.

"We should get massages," opines the Brunette.  She looks over at you.

"Wanna join?"

---

Tepha and Silver and Rig...Oh My!

The Guy sends the IP address.

A quick check indicates it's the call in number for a local sandwich delivery shop.

It's got the standard security protocols.  Nothing that makes it look difficult.

If Rig is going to send along the virus, please make me a Electronics/Int please.

Danka

BB shook her head at the bellboy, putting a scowl on her face.

"No. Not my room and my paycheck doesn't cover that."

She paused, considering how her low key intimidation effort was landing. If he looked like she was putting it on a little too thick she would soften a bit and apologize but if he had some steel to look her in the eye or scowl back she would just grab the cart and go back to her room.

Ledo grinned, this was the kind of position he wanted her in. Time to bait the hook.

"I'm with the Navy. A captain actually. Well not right at this moment. Tonight I am just a civilian..."

Careful wording that he had practiced earlier just in case. It was technically true, if a bit misleading.

Ledo then launched into a couple of select stories he had perfected after years of being a socialite as a decorated war hero. Over the years he had developed a catalog of stories: some that were funny, some that were impressive, some that were thrilling.

He selected from his catalog of decades of experience flying between the stars a selection that included some of the more exotic places he traveled.

"It's a shame you don't like traveling. There is so much to see in the galaxy. Is the money at least good enough you could take a week spa at Rorre? If you haven't been it's worth the journey. The planet has very little axial tilt so the seasons last for a very long time. Depending on your fancy you can have summers that last nearly a year and the climate is so mild no matter when you go. Every day is like waking up on a perfect day...wait...don't tell me you've never even left the Imperium? Oh honey, you need to get out more. As wonderful as this place is if you're making the credits you need to spend them. There is a galaxy full of luxuries, whole planets with foods and sensations you cannot even begin to imagine. What's keeping you here?"

Nero gives a nod before taking another swig of his bottle.

"Fuck yeah that sounds amazing. Hey do you mind a quick social media snap? My agent gets really bitchy if I don't record everything. Of course he wouldn't say shit for the day if I got a quick feed with you guys. Would probably shut up for a week if you were in spa towels when it happened."

Nero laughed. It was just a joke, just a stupid idea...unless...

His heart skipped a beat and his breath caught. If he could get Pawny Paws on his feed and show him partying with them that would be huge. If he could get Pawny Paws looking sexy as hell with only towels on that would blast him into outer space.

Eventually every parent must release their child into the wild and so Rig booted up the abomination that he and Fritz and put together. The interface was crude. They were still working on making it a bit more user friendly so that the OLF could just fill in a form and fire it off: where to target it at, what message to display etc.

For now though Rig was doing a lot of that configuration on the fly but he was able to point it at the website and pull the trigger. Now it was just a matter of time to see if their little money maker would live up to their dreams...


10:11, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 11 using 2d6+02.  int/electronics (computers).

BB

The bell boy seems remarkably nonplussed.  "Ma'am.  I'm just trying to deliver the snack cart that was ordered.  By a..."  He checks his wrist comm.  "A Miss Perine.  For the race judge?"

He shrugs.  It's no skin off his face if you don't take it it seems.

---

Ledo

She giggles and leans over, almost resting her head against your shoulder.  She's starting to pass the point of sloshed to outright drunk.

"Lissen...I wanna retire on some nice beach somewhere.  That's why I took this job.  The money's good cos no one wants to live in a freakin' fishbowl!"

She laughs, slapping your shoulder.  She finds 'fish bowl' to be very funny.

She picks up her glass, which is empty.  "Oopsie.  I think maybe I had enough."  She bats her eyelashes.  "But I'm worried I won't get home safe.  Would you mind giving me an escort?"

---

Nero

Hmmmm.  Give me a persuade/soc.  Let's let the dice decide.

---

Rig, Tepha, and Silver

Seems that canine engages in blood sports.  Wait.  That dog hunts.  That's it.

Fritz is correct.  That dog hunted.  In a few minutes, you get back the confirm.  Boo has been launched.

The phone in your hand Tepha rings a half hour later.

Alright.  You have an interesting toy.  What kind of price tag are we talking about?

Having done her due diligence she'll take the snack cart and wheel it back into their room. Seemed legit so far.

Ledo gives a nod and holds out his arm for her to latch onto. Out of the corner of his eye he was curious to see what her watcher would do.

Nero's heart continues to skip beats...this...could...be...it...

OOC: Praise RNGods!

13:21, Today: Nerotes Madigan rolled 10 using 2d6+1.  persuade/soc.

Tepha was once again all smiles. It sounded like things were coming together afterall.

"Well we have a couple of packages available. 100,000cr would get the package itself. For an additional 50,000cr there is the Support package that would include intel on the places it would need to be targeted at and for an additional 100,000cr on top of that, for a grand total of 250k, would be the Deluxe package that would include credentials needed to get onsite to one of those targets."

BB

And that's when the tray of Swedish meatballs explodes!  Your brains splatter all over the 1800 count Egyptian cotton sheets!

Just kidding

The little hoagies filled with Vargarian ham and olive salad are surpisingly tasty.  The pimento cheese spread is a little suspect. But then it is pimento cheese.

The hub bub in the hallway has quieted down.

---

Ledo

Her watcher pays his tab and picks up his comm.  He must have a second unit standing by outside to take over the tail.

Sure enough, it's pretty easy to spot.  A couple who were 'window shopping' start to stroll down the street opposite you.

Adele giggles and puts her free hand on your upper arm and squeezes.  "Wow!  So big!  Do you work out?"

---

Tepha

The Guy is quiet a moment.

"The basic will do us just fine.  Reach out to Olga in the morning.  She'll handle the exchange.  Bring the package on a data cube.  Half up front, half once the contents are confirmed."

---

Nero

Orange Blonde looks at Brunette who's pursing her lips and hmmming and pondering.

Finally, Brunette says, "Well.  Okay.  But you can't show our tits.  They're trade marked."

As they were walking back Ledo leaned in close to whisper a sweet nothing into Adele's ear.

"What if there was a way for you to retire early?"

He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

Nero gave a knowing nod, playing it cool.

"Of course, of course. Alright girls, lean in and smile!"

He pulled out his phone and snapped the pic, immediately tagging it six ways to sunday to make sure it hit a wide spectrum of results.

#PartyingWithPansy

Ledo

Adeled snuggles closer.

"But I don't wanna go to sleep yet.  Bed yes.  Sleep no."

She seems a little too sloshed for subtleties.

---

Nero

The boards light up.

O no U didn'! I love them dawgs!

O yeah he did!  Send snaps of their boobs!

LOL. So is it the Pany Paws who are partying with the pansy?  Or the pansy who's partying with the Pany Paws???

Screw that what about their booooooobssss?!?

I can't wait to slice you open

Can U go b psycho nuts on your own time?  I wanna see some vids o my girls!  Luv U bunches Pany Paws!!!

The oppression of marine life for the sake of a 'good meal' has got to stop!  Many species are kept alive only out of an interest to decorate the seas for tourists!  The seeding of marine life is done haphhazardly with no thought to the impact on the oceans or the innocent life that exists in it!  End the hate!  Release the Gracken!  All power to the Vegans!  Also, the Pany Paws suck!

O Jeez.  Can we go back to the psycho stalker guy?

What about their tits!!!???!!

Internally Ledo made a decision and snuggled her right back. When they reached her apartment he'll get her pointed in the right direction.

"Why don't you go make yourself comfortable. I need to make a quick phone call and let me crew know I won't be coming back this evening. They were about their Captain..."

He gives her a sly grin before pointing her towards where he guessed the bedrooms were, giving her a nice slap on the rear to get her moving. Meanwhile he headed towards the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He turned on the faucet to provide additional noise cover and hunched in a corner as far from the door as possible, whispering into his phone to avoid being heard.

"Tepha...it's me..."

"What? What's wrong? Why are you whispering?"

"I started talking to Adele and she's into me. Like...really into me."

Silence from the other end.

"Also she has a tail. Some kind of security team is keeping her in check."

The words were casual enough but they had been a couple long enough and had been involved long enough that she could read the subtext of that comment.

This call might be intercepted. Choose your words carefully.

"...how into you?"

This time the pause was on Ledo's side.

"I might not go back to the ship tonight."

"..."

"That's why I'm calling you. To let you know and get your opinion."

A very long pause on Tepha's side.

"And what happens if you stay?"

"I think I might make a long term connection."

Translation: She might be the best way to get access to the authorization keys so they can land their big bet.

Another long pause from Tepha that made Ledo's heart sink into his stomach. What was he even asking? He was asking to put their relationship secondary to a sack of cash, one that they could potentially get at through plenty of other avenues. What kind of person even asks that of their lover?

Then again, part of his mind said, it wasn't like they had explicitly said they were exclusive. Tepha did 'own' him just as he didn't own her. He tried to wrap his head around what he would do if it was Tepha on the phone with some drunk auditor slobbering at her neck. Faint jealously flared up just from that hypothetical and his stomach sank even lower. What was he doing? What was she even going to say?

The words Tepha spoke to him sent him reeling:

"I trust your judgement."

Ledo stared at the phone like it had just electricuted him. In a single sentence she had both condemned him and abdicated all responsibility to him. There was no quarter from her, no allowance given. Whatever he chose, it was entirely his decision and his view of their relationship. At its core it was back to that dilemma he thought about earlier: were credits worth more than their relationship?

A large part of him said that it was. He felt his relationship with Tepha wasn't really solid, that it was all just illusion and momentum and that the slightest pressue like this would cause it to crack but a small part of him rejected that. A very tiny voice in the back of his mind said that he was a good, honorable person deep down and this isn't what heroes do in the story. They don't betray their love for credits. Even if Tepha forgave him through the mountains of jewelry and clothing he could shower upon her, he would know what choice he made and that would forever haunt him.

"I..."

He caught himself. He almost finished "...love you." but remembered the call log might eventually be intercepted and analyzed. He shifted his tone from the raw emotional to a more matter-of-fact business tone.

"...you're right. We do have a schedule to keep. I've got too much waiting for me at home to get dragged down with a local. I might not return to the ship tonight but I'll be back, don't worry."

He had no idea how much of that translated through his acting and coded phrasing but he hoped that she understood his meaning: I love you and no matter what will love you.

For Ledo it was less a chemical reaction and more a conscious decision. Even if his mind wandered and his heart wavered he had decided long ago the kind of person that he was and what that kind of person would do in situations like this. Even if it felt hollow, like he was acting in a play about someone else's life, it gave him guidance and direction in times like this when the mind and flesh were week. While Adele wasn't exactly his type there was a raw attraction to any promise of sexual activity and with how he and Tepha had been it had been rather long since they had been intimate in any way, not since the assassins but even with the cry from his flesh he decided then and there he wasn't that kind of person.

He hung up and splashed some cold water on his face. Time to wake up and focus on his mission. There were other paths forward to manipulate Adele without betraying his own principles or his relationship with Tepha. Ledo turned off the sink and toweled off his face and quietly opened up the door. Maybe after all this time Adele had just fallen asleep. Wouldn't that be the perfect ending for the night, after all this agony and doubt?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:34, Thu 20 Aug 2020.

Ledo

Adele managed to get her shoes and blouse off before passing out on her bed.

The night isn't a complete loss though.  Her bag from work is laying on the kitchen table, her lap top tucked inside.  You can't sign into it.  But you can copy the system address. Rig and Fritz should be able to hack into it if need be.

I'll leave it to you if you want to do a scene of Ledo's homecoming.  If not...

The security detail tries to tail Ledo, but seems to give up after a few blocks.  Why that is, you aren't sure.

---

The switch with Olga is pretty classic.  She walks into the women's rest room in the hotel lobby.  Tepha follows soon after.  They both are carrying the same type of handbag.

Tepha is adjusting her make up when Olga comes out of a stall. She takes the sink next to Tepha.  Olga picks up Tepha's hand bag.  And she's out like the pro she is.

Silver and Olga's bodyguard sit in chairs in the lobby, eyeing each other the whole time.

Nero's numbers bump into the doubles than triples with the Pany Paws clips.  No word from the Bugga Boys.

BB and the bell boy continue their waltz the next day when he delivers the booze cart Nero requests and the snack cart Perine pre-ordered.

---

Silver

Your comm lights up.

Entrant Number 24.

Please make sure you, your crew, and your bike arrive at Gate 4 of...

It's instructions from the race committee.  Where to go and when tomorrow for the race.

Is Silver going to actually race?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:00, Fri 21 Aug 2020.