The Cave | Niverton Base Bar & Lounge

[Crazy Lou]

Lou watched as the young captain left the room. The guy was really eager to get his Liner moving again. A year ago, Lou would probably think that it was all about profit and loss, but since he started flying in the Side Effect again, he understood it better. Ted must be very attached to his Slave Liner.

After finishing his spliff, Lou left the bar and went up to the main level. He walked up to the docking bays, where he found Burt, the Niverton Rogues mechanic and docking master. Basically, he was the only one that really knew what he was doing.

"Hey, Burt. Prepare the two freighters to launch. We will depart in about three and a half hours..." - said Lou.

Burt was working on some old parts canibalized from another ship, to make them usable again. He turned back to face Lou.

"Ted was here, told me you were flying. I arranged him a small apartment on the upper level. The boys are refueling the bactrian now, and your rhino is good to go. I only need to know if you want any cargo to be loaded." - answered Burt.

"Good. I have some weapons I want to move. This is a good opportunity. I will send you the cargo manifest when I get to my room. I will sleep for a couple hours first."

"Hey, boss? Why don't you get a new ship? You have the money for it. And that rhino has been patched so many times that it's a mistery how it still holds together. Besides, it must be the only ship on the station that has a big Liberty logo on its side, instead of a Rogue one."

"Nah. Leave it like it is. That's the ship I stole when I escaped from Huntsville, almost four years ago. I like it that way..."

Lou took a last look at the ship, before going up to his room, to rest before the flight.

[Crazy Lou]

Niverton Base - Pennsylvania System
January 3rd - 823 A.S.

After a long run back from Omicron Alpha, via the Sigmas and Rheinland, finally the NR-Side.Effect was arriving at Niverton, carrying a full load of cardamine.

"Niverton, this is the 'Side Effect'... open the front door, please?!"

"Welcome back, 'Side Effect', you are cleared for Bay One..."

After parking the small freighter, and arranging for the cardamine to be moved, Crazy Lou went down to his office, the bar on the lower level of the station. He was greeted by Moe, the bartender, the only other person in the big hall carved in the asteroid rock.

"Hey there boss, how's it goin'?" - said Moe, the same ugly, angry face as usual.

"Well, I can't complain... It was a pretty smooth ride from Malta down to here." - answered Lou, lighting up a spliff - "If we keep this thing going I can finally start to recover my losses from the last year. Get me an ale, will'ya? Oh, and did Ted show up here yet?"

Moe picked up a glass cup from under the counter, and said while serving the ale: "No, I haven't seen the kid today." - he put the glass in front of Lou - "There ya go, boss."

"Thanks... Ah! Didn't I tell you we met one of those blue jelly aliens, this time? Right in orbit over Malta. And it was one of the big ones... It had at least the size of a Liberty battleship!" - said Lou, picking up his ale.

"Wha...? You're saying you two met one of them nomads?"

"Ya, we did![*] First I thought it was going to blast us right there, but I think it liked the fact that we were hauling the orange. The alien even dropped a couple bottles of cardamine in liquid form. I have never seen liquid cardie before. Ted says it's the best thing ever!"

Lou walked to his usual table and sat down. Placing his cup aside, and the spliff in the ashtray, he picked up his NeuralNet datapad, to check up on any important messages. The only thing of notice was a message from a local freelancer group, the 'Archangels Fighter Club'. Apparently they were organizing a race in Tau-31. Lou had heard of them in the past year or so, and even saw a couple of their pilots at Freeport 2, always in their club jackets. He knew they were involved in some shady business as well. That could be an opportunity to check up on them. At least it was a good excuse for Lou to do something different.

But he would need a fast ship. A light fighter with a powerful engine. Lou used the datapad to open a comm channel with Burt, the mechanic and dock master.

"Burt, this is Lou. I will need a cheap light fighter. Soon. Do we have anything around we could fix?"

There was loud engine noise in the background: "Nah, we don't have anything. No rogue ship could be called 'light' anyway! Ha!" - answered Burt - "Well, the guys over at Allentown had a few old Gitanos the other day that were out of use. We could buy one and fix it. And it should be pretty cheap. They are made almost entirely of other ships parts...."

"That's the Junker light fighter, right? Good. Give them a call and ask how much they want on one of those, and let me know as soon as possible. Lou out."

Lou dropped down his datapad, and took a sip of the ale. He was thinking that a couple of light fighters could be of enormous help scouting ahead of the cargo ships. The junker ship was fast, but it did not have much firepower or armor. They would need a ship a little more 'combat able' for the escort duty. Lou continued smoking his spliff and drinking his ale, examining the possible choices he could think of.

[Stoner_Steve]

Ted entered the bar and signaled Moe for a drink before walking over to Lou and dropping into the seat next to him "Hey Lou, just got in, the boys are unloading the Daily Derby now. Looks like you beat me back by a bit..." Ted nodded to Lou's data pad "And whatcha up to here?"

[Crazy Lou]

Lou turned the datapad over to Ted, with the AFC message on.

"Say, Ted, do you fancy some racing?"

[Stoner_Steve]

Looking over the message and the requirements Ted ran his fingers down his jaw "You know, I was thinking about getting myself a Light Fighter just to have something to run around Liberty with" Ted paused for a moment while taking a sip of the drink that had just arrived for him "Although this might be a good chance to hawk some of the stash out, I don't know, gotta think about that." Taking another rather larger gulp Ted continued "But if your going to race I gotta get in on that chance to show you how to fly old man.." He chuckled and pulled out another data pad, pinging the local shipmarket in the process.

[Crazy Lou]

Lou couldn't contain a small laugh.

"Ha! You're funny, kiddo! Show me how to fly, ahn? Well, my reflexes are not as good as when I had your age, so I wouldn't risk a duel, but in a race? Racing is half equipment and pilot reflexes, but the other half is tactics and experience. And if there is one thing I can say I'm good at, it is running! Mostly from the police..." - said Lou, smiling.

Taking another drink of his ale, he continued: "In any case, Burt is contacting the junkers at Allentown to see if they have a few light fighter chassis for sale that we can use. We could buy one for you too, if you really want to race. In any case, it's a good excuse to get some info on those AFC guys, see what they are up to. Also, I was thinking that a couple light fighters could be useful as escorts. The junker ship is not really suited for it, so we will have to try other models..."

[Stoner_Steve]

Ted nodded along with Lou "I've seen them around Liberty but I haven't interacted much with their group, they gotta be dealing something though, no one is that insane without a little somthin' somthin' running though their blood." Ted giggled at his own joke while continuing to tap away on his data pad. "And I'm not really interested in the Junkers Light Fighter, I've seen one or two around and I don't think I'd have the patience to tolerate the jerryrigging, hell I don't even tolerate it on the Roach Coach, I let the engineers tolerate it for me, now what Ted wants is this right here..." Ted slid the data pad around to Lou

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Ted Continued, "Its a Jackal Light Fighter, built by the Mollies. The only dealer though is in Londonderry at the moment, so I got a little trip on my hands, pretty cheap too, shouldn't run more than a few million to upgrade"

[Crazy Lou]

Looking down to the datapad in front of him, Lou checked out the image and specifications of the nimble looking ship.

"Well, it's a little heavier than the junker ship, apparently. Could be a good candidate for scout. We should at least try it." - he looked at Ted - "So, wanna make a call to our molly friends asking for a couple of them? Oh, you better clean your ears for it..."

[Stoner_Steve]

Ted giggled "Clean behind my ears huh? Whatever you say boss." taking another drink and signaling Moe for another round "I'll drop them a line asking about the ship, but how many is a few? I couldn't see us needing more than 3 or 4 at the moment, and I suppose this means we need to get some simulator training, its been awhile since I've had to do any real protection work."

[Crazy Lou]

"I mean 'inside' your ears! I can't understand a thing what those molly folks say!" - Lou was smiling - "Well, we could start with two, perhaps, until we hire a few more pilots, whaddya say?"