"Si, senor." She nodded. "We land there because they buy our artifacts for a reasonable price. I do not know anywhere else to get a better price for them where the likes of us is tolerated."
The corsair noticed the tiredness of her generous hosts and kept her answers brief respectfully as to not uncomfortably prolong the conversation for them.
"Of course that we can land there at all is valueable for us as well as there are not many who let a corsair land on their base."
Jake strolled into the bar, he had stayed out longer than the rest of his patrol on the hunch of bounty hunter's being about by the Kepler jump hole. He was right. The bad thing was his wing-man was already heading back to Ouray leaving him alone with two hunters. Luckily he managed to disable one of their ships before the other gave up the fight but leaving his own ship in a bad state with most of his systems offline.
"The strongest drink you have got" he said parking his butt on one of the bar stools. While the bar keep was away fetching his drink he turned to see some of the others with the liberated Corsair fighter pilot. As he heard his drink be placed down on the counter he reached his hand behind and picked up drawing it closer to his mouth and gulping it back.
The conversation between the group must have been going on for some while as they returned almost straight away once they got the female pilots ship back up and running. Jake didn't notice at first but as he saw the reflection from his metal beaker he noticed the cut just above his eye and rubbed the blood quickly away. "Urgh, Damned Hunters" he said to himself as the blood continued to tickle out of the wound. Eventually the blood ceased it's attack down his forehead allowing Jake to order another drink.
"And those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be laid low and made unto dust."
"Please, call me 'Ronnie'. I'm no... 'senor', just an old space rat"
Ronnie smiled slightly and when the bartender came with a pot of fresh, black coffee and two more mugs, he leaned back in his chair. He quietly filled the cups with aromatic beverage and glanced at the general direction of the bar to see if no one else is listening to them. "Hey, boss, what do you think about it? We could use our guys planetside to distribute the artifacts... That would surely let us make some cash we need."
Sipping the hot coffee, Lancehead meditated over this idea for a moment. "What do you need there on your homeworld, Valeria? Food? Guns? We can get those. It's a bit harder for us to lay our hands on some tech... As you can see around here... hardware is pretty expensive in Liberty and quite hard to repossess... Oh, but we can get you some cheap software."
He grined and emptied his mug. "And this way, you wouldn't have to land on Junkers' bases... and to let them make cash on you."
He then turned to Death Adder, nodded and asked his old friend: "Whatcha say, Jonathon? Sounds like a neat idea, huh?"
The corsair noticed the man who was having a drink at the bar and looking over to them. She offered a brief smile but then turned to respond to Lancehead. "That sounds muy bien, we really could use those single use hacked lane codes. It would allow us to travel a trade lane exactly once for each such code we have and in a .. situacion, that might come in muchos handy."
Jonathon nods his thanks as the coffee is brought over. As he takes a few sips of the coffee, he collects his thoughts...
Money!!! It all boils down to money! The without work need money just to stay alive. The LPI arrest those same people and send them to the work camps. To make consumer goods at a low cost, so the government can make a large profit!.
Only a few heads turn to look in Jonathon's direction. They know his rants well. They turn back to their own drinks with satisfaction, knowing the responsibility that he has also put upon his shoulders.
Yes, Ronnie. This does sound like a good idea. The boys on the planet could make some money for themselves as well as for us. Besides, It would piss off the LPI to no end. That is a bonus you can't get with money.
He then nods at Miss Benitez. Then says, Ronnie, make it happen. This will help in alot of ways. Having more money for us, and an added bonus of keeping the money out of the Junker's filthy hands......
Hearing Adder's words, Lancehead straightened on his chair and pulled out a small personal terminal out of his pocket. Noting something, he started to talk - partly to himself - partly to Valeria and Jonathon. "Allright... We will need... mhm... we will need some transports. IFFs hacked so that the pilots could safely land on planets... our own transports also, if we're to ship some cargo back."
He got so occupied with his thoughts, he didn't even notice that his cigar was burning on the ashtray. "What else... we will need to get the people planetside coordinated... they should start preparations as soon as possible... and fighters! we'll need fighter cover for the operation. I wouldn't want some LPI Liberator to come too close to our transports..."
He mumbled for a moment noting down some numbers. "Okay... Canebreak will contact our cells on planets... transports... y'know, Bobbi harassed me for a permission to fly the Black Rock... I think we can let that happen... mhm... but we'll need more... I know. Jake. He'll gather a team and capture a few freighters and transports. The Ames brainiacs should be able to fix the IFF... mhm... yep... that should do the trick. And the fighters... Ava will take care of that... why is that girl never around when needed?"
Ronnie put down the device, and lit up his cigar back. He noticed the others staring at him. "What? Did I forget about something?"
He seemed a bit confused for a moment but he soon realised: "Oh, right... someone's gonna have to go with our Corsair friend..." he smiled to Valeria "to finalize the deal"
Valeria rose from the chair and looked around the bar for a moment, spotting Jake and maybe a few others who might look over before returning her eyes to Jonathon and Lancehead.
"I am sure I can also fit a few other things to a correo that might be especially needed here."
It's been a while since Sonya's last visit to the bar. Her vessel took some friendly fire while being on patrol and after her rescue she was brought to the sickbay. One thing was for sure now, she wouldn't fly with rookies again.
Entering the bar she spotted the usual people but there was a new fave talking with Jonathan and Lance, a face she wasn't familiar with. Before she went to the table she took a detour to the barkeeper.
"Give ma a coffee, plain black and strong. Keep any extras out of it or we're gonna have a problem here," she told the man behind the counter. "Bring it over to the table where John and Ronnie are sitting."
Without any other words she turned around and went for that table.
"If this aren't my favorite people on this damned rock, hope you're enjoying the company you brought here," she said while looking at the new face.
When he noticed Sonya coming towards the table, Ronnie nodded to her. "Miss Benitez, meet Sonya Mosby, one of our... intelligence officers you could say... Rink, this is Miss Valeria Benitez. One of the Corsairs. I'll tell you the story about how we've met one day..."
Ronnie supressed another yawn, filled his coffe mug again and continued: "Shame you didn't show up a bit earlier... I was just about to offer Valeria our guest quarters... it's been a really long day"
He then turned to Valeria saying "I was thinking that maybe we should get some rest today and launch towards your homesystem tomorrow... what do you think?"
"Buenos dias, senorita." She offered a smile and bowed her head respectfully to the xenos pilota as they are introduced. "It is muy bien to meet you." Then she nodded to Lancehead in agreement. "That is very generous, muchos gracias."
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