Jimmy came into the small bar that was The Den onboard Oyster Creek, nodded to the barman discreetly, and cleared a table. He began pulling up different system screens, with large maps indicating certain areas.
He had been out surveying, looking for places where the Xenos could get some valuable raw resources and make it profitable. Encouraging pilots to go back to similar jobs that were lost to Kusari all those years ago and ushering in a rare period of prosperity for the Alliance, Jimmy's actions had built up a small fleet of various utility ships, the largest of which was the DV.Dallas, 1 of only 2 Hegemons Jimmy had been able to acquire and get crew for. It was on strict instructions to remain within the Pequena Negra now, bringing in scrapped panels and servicable parts in a steady stream, keeping the workshop workers busy. This formed the backbone of the current economy.
But Jimmy knew the Alliance could not survive on scrap alone. The other fruits of Liberty were still there, and just because the jobs had been outsourced to foreign interests didn't mean that the sovereign ownership had changed. He believed all of Liberty belonged to the Xenos and no one else, including the various ore deposits within her borders. As the logistics officer it was Jimmy's job to find these Xenos jobs, jobs that could pay.
He downed his drink quickly before inputting the information into the Oyster Creek mainframe. This would make it accessible on the main panels as he had done with the Oyster Creek Revenge Board. Loading Survey Results... Done.
Callsign - XA-Pit.Viper.
Ship type - Rhino Freighter
Equipment - Offensive loadout, rear turret replaced by light mining lazer.
Helium can be found in the large cloud behind Planet Eire. While inert and not very useful to Xenos unless we can mix it with Neon, it can be very hilarious in small amounts for party tricks and small gatherings.
Platinum can be found at the northern edge of the Alberta system. However any yield was painfully slow as our lazers are simply not calibrated to this ore. It is valuable but we simply have no market for large amounts of it.
Entry Three - Copper
Priority - Medium
Yield rate - 1.5 minutes/100u
Accessing date...
Copper can be found in the remote Humboldt system, and is very useful in the construction of many basic electronics, ship components and as a potent power conduit. While it requires some refining from its mined state to become useful, as a basic material we will never not have demand for it.Both Ouray and Oyster Creek buy this.
WARNING - HAZARDOUSSilver is also found in the Humboldt system, however it is not only slower to mine than Copper ore but is protected by a large well-armed station by the name of Saltese [UPDATE - DESTROYED]. As such I was only able to mine near the edge of the field.
WARNING - RADIOACTIVE AREA Premium Scrap can be found in abundance in the Texas system. Not only are there remnants of the equipment used to build the failed jumpgate, but years of ships straying into the Negra and perishing provide a steady stream of spare parts that can be refurbished for Xeno vessels. The scrap is easy salvaging for even the lightest mining ships and can be sold at Oyster Creek before being loaded into larger ships for the journey to Alabama system. This commodity provides the majority of revenue for the current Xeno economy.
Another fine day for Legionnaire Snow, Fleet Captain of the Hellfire Legion and friend of Jimmy Predsman. Today however she walked into The Den, her body and head hidden below the black hood and only two strands of her white hair could be seen. Katherine for sure isn't the tallest person around, but quite average woman, 163 cm(5'4 ft) tall female looked around for familiar people and Jimmy.
Few seconds later she took a seat in the corner snd raised her hand in order to call someone who's taking care of drinks and meal around, while her other hand is tapping a rhytm on the table.
Jimmy finally entered the bar, late. He had wanted to shower and at least make an effort, but after finding that the only functional airlock on the ship had failed. This had meant another 2 hours sweating in his suit with the plasma arc welder, and costing an entire deck of the Stork to now act as airlock.
He watched as he entered as some of the other men eyed the woman suspiciously in the dimly lit corner. They didn't see many women. Jimmy allowed a slight smile, know that this seemingly harmless young lady was more useful than any of them, or all of them combined. Not to mention that the Legionnaires were rumoured to undergo rigorous physical training. She could probably knock out any of them, he thought silently, maybe even me if she wanted.
He slumped down in the chair opposite Katherine, exhausted. Now clad in jeans and a drab-grey T-shirt, his distinctive mask hanging at his hip. He was tall, a bit lanky, with lean muscle born of a naturally fast metabolism. His blond mullet was out of control, he tried to slick it back out of his face with his hand.
"Hey, uh, sorry! Hope I didn't make you wait too long. I got, uh, stuck. Thirsty? Hungry?"
He motioned to Harold at the bar - "Bring us something good, not that gruel, something with a flavour."
Looking back to the white haired woman, he then suddenly remembered something. A small smile appeared on his tired face.
"Oh, hey, I got this at Freeport 2. You can keep it if you want."
He suddenly produced a small metal sphere from his pocket and looked her in the eye. "I thought it might help, uh... " he let the sentence hang awkwardly, looking away sheepishly.
He placed it in the center of the table and pushed a small depression at the top. there was a slight blue flash of light, as the small sphere projected a blue keyboard of light through small apertures in front of each of them seated at the table. Between them a slight blue hazy square appeared, like a dull blue window pane of glass, translucent, representing the screen. A cursor appeared, flashing a dull blue on each side of the see-through holographic interface projected in the air between them and on the table.
"It works, try it out."
He suddenly looked away again, thinking, hoping he hadn't embarrassed her.
Kathy watched people passing by, walking in and out giving her some weird looks like they've never seen a white haired woman. However a slight smile appeared on her pale lips as a well known face walked in, Jimmy. Katherine never liked Xenos, she never knew why or how she gained this hate and anger, maybe they were a bit cruel in her eyes. However Libertonian girl like her should be okay, though Jimmy is more than okay for her, sympatic, nice and maybe the most favorite Xeno in this bunch.
Kathy watched Jimmy's body falling down into the chair lazily, maybe a bit more exhausted. Her face however showed she is sharing same feelings and she knows well how must he feel now.
Thirsty or hungry? Thirsty yeeees, hungry maybe a bit and thanks to his form of the asked question she could give him a slight nod and reward him with a warm smile. However a metal sphere he's put on the table caught her attention, her brown eyes observed this object carefuly and shortly after Kathy gave Jimmy a questionable look.
Kathy gave Jimmy a smirk and took out a datapad from her pocket and slowly, carefuly put it down on the table, before she pressed some keys on the screen. Shortly after a green hologram looking like board appeared between Jimmy and Kathy. She with another smirk reloaded her finger like it's been a shotgun, placed it onto the green hologram and started to 'draw' letter by letter, making word by word untill she had managed to create a sentence.
"Thankies Jimmy, it looks awesome and for sure I will try it as soon as possible. I am also sorry if my 'health issue' is... uhh making it a bit slower and quieter than a normal meeting would be. How are you however, all fine?"
Smilling again she pulled his metal sphere closer to her and observed it a bit more carefuly while listening to Jimmy's answer.
Jimmy watched as Katherine used her own datapad. He suddenly felt very foolish, of course he should have known she would have her own methods of communication. He felt awkward, like a young boy trying to convince another child to play with him by showing off a little bit.
He was so tired. Giving his head a little shake to clear his mind, he refocused on Kathy again.
"Uh, yeah, everything is good. Or as good as I can make it I suppose. Milford more or less acts as a supply depot for this place now, as a middleman between us and the sympathetic Zoner population in Pennsylvania. We get the essentials, but not much else. They got people watching them too, y'know?"
He was getting sidetracked again. Where was that food? He could smell it now.
"As for our pet Stork, she's a different ballgame. We've been patching it and repressurising where we can, but each attack, usually from those Junker scrap-ponies , makes the next trip more dangerous. It actually has its own B.O. I fly it in a full suit now, safety first, right?"
He flashed the white-haired woman a cheeky grin as the drinks came over. He knew it was bad. Real bad. The Liberty Ale though, it tasted like pure gold, perfect as a full roll of duct tape.
Kathy kept a slight smile on her face while Jimmy was talking to her and informing her about Milford and Xeno Stork. She leant forward, put hands on the table and slowly rested her head on them. Soon a hologram appeared again and Katherine began to draw letters on it, slowly creating words and sentences.
"That's more than good to hear, Jimmy. Armed Forces are keeping an eye on the Zoner station, because some random low IQ Rogue Rat docked in front of them... But what can we expect from them, they are too dumb."
Kathy rolled her eyes and noticed his eyes were looking for something around. She didn't bother that much at all and resumed writting.
"Your silly pet is naughty? I should have a look then, hm? But you wanted to ask me... Something about Commonwealth?"
"Yeah, yeah I did mention them didn't I? Well mostly because I just want to know about them. Or more to the point, want them to know about me. And this place."
Jimmy took another sip of his ale. Harold rushed over with two plates of steaming food. Wow, this actually looks OK, Jimmy thought silently.
"Oh man, I've been looking forward to this."
"Careful, still hot. Don't worry, it ain't rice..." Harold muttered as he turned away, hurrying back to the bar. Jimmy let out a little laugh at the Xeno in-joke. He didn't know if Katherine had noticed. He caught himself distracted again.
"But yeah, I don't know really anything about them, just that they are working with the Legion to secure some space. But it sounds like it could be good for all of us. With y'all out there and us in here, we could really put the squeeze on, if you know what I mean."
He blew lightly on his food. The steam coming off of it made the green screen much brighter and easier to read.
"Yeah the Serpentis train, you're gonna have to see it to believe it. I know what you're thinking, that I was careless, but I did what I had to do. Took the risks I had to take. It's probably going to need a full retrofit of most systems."
The food looked almost cool enough to bite. Should he risk it, he asked himself?
Katherine was listening to him carefuly, some times taking a sip from her glass of cold milk, but her eyes are still observing his moves and people around.
"The Commonwealth, let's say is a state created by Legionnaires and Vespucci civilians for those who wish to live in the Vespucci and support our Legion. The Commonwealth claims Vespucci, Magellan, Kansas and Humboldt for now, Jimmy. Don't worry though, Xenos are on the friendly list. "
Kathy gave him a smile, but raised her brow as Harold came to Jimmy and put a bowl with some meal in front of him. Rice?
"I guess it has something to do with the origin of rice uh? Anyway, I am more than sure you would like to know more about The Commonwealth. Here, I uploaded some files, have a look."
Kathy wrote down and slowly moved her datapad to Jimmy.
Posts: 2,970
Threads: 180
Joined: Nov 2009
Staff roles: Systems Developer
Oyster Creek, Texas
A man named David Rose walks into The Den. He looks around for a second and takes a seat at the bar. A minute later the bartender comes.
"G'day. Never seen you here before. New around here?"
"Hello. You can say so, yeah. I've operated mostly in Colorado."
"Oh, alright then. Is there something I can do for you?"
"There are 2 things actually. First, give me a bottle of the finest Whiskey you got, I haven't had one in a while. And second, could you tell Mr. Predsman I'm here?"
"Sure thing. I'll let him know you arrived. And here's the Whiskey for ya."
"Thank you."
David takes a seat in the right corner. He sips a bottle of Whiskey and starts drinking as he waits for Jimmy to appear.
Looking over the info on Kathy's datapad as he ate a few mouthfuls, he nodded a couple of times, in agreement or approval, it was hard to tell which with the mouthful of food. He chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, and glanced up from the plate.
"It's good to see things getting more organised in the Borderworlds. As your own cause gathers momentum, so does ours. We have more active pilots now than we have had in years, not just Alliance pilots but also independents that can see our activities are ramping up. I can't keep track of them all, but they play their part."
It was true, Jimmy was more excited than he was letting on. He tried to suppress it, with only partial success. His curiosity sated for the moment, he slid the datapad back across the table.
"When the time comes, and you are ready to move against our enemies, the Alliance, in fact all Xenos I think, will be ready to do what they can."
Harold shuffled over and whispered in his ear. He gestured to a man at the end of the bar in the corner, and when Jimmy glanced over the man gave him a slight nod. Jimmy didn't recognise him straight away, but that was becoming more common these days. He lowered his voice and spoke to Harold in a murmur.
"Tell him to give me a few minutes, and I'll come and see what he wants shortly. In the meantime give him a couple of drinks and put them on my tab. He looks like a fit pilot, find out what ship he arrived in."
Turning back to Katherine, he continued where he left off.
"See? Every day I find myself with more able men. If this keeps up I'll need another Negra to expand into."
He smiled again, that cheeky smile. His charms were for naught, he knew, glancing absently at the ring on her finger, but he needed the practice, with the divorce and all. His fingers twitched towards his own ring, one that was no longer there. His mind had wandered again. He seemed to snap out of it suddenly.
"So, I know we can't really work on the Stork here with all this debris floating around. You want to come on board and check it out? You brought a suit, right? Looks like I've got just a little business to attend to first."
He watched Katherine intently, knowing this woman was the only one that he could reach out to to give any real and accurate idea of the state of his station's primary transport. Without it, well, he didn't want to think about that. The food had made him feel a bit more lively, his focus returning.
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