Characters: All
NPC: Chuck & Simrii
Location: Miishakaal
System: Kaso
Miishakaal arrives in the Kaso system and immediately finds itself being
scanned. Return scans reveal a system of sensor drones and warships. Several
cruisers are plainly visible. It's tempting to panic but no makes any effort to
impede the ship's progress in system. Apparently the new transponder is working
properly.
The starport is hailed and an approach vector laid in. It's a large orbital
facility, and it resembles a small moon two kilometers in diameter. The world
itself isn't much different in appearance, though it's a thousand times wider,
with every square meter of its surface covered by dome, building, factory, or
landing field. Three billion people call Kaso home so there's no room to spare.
Gvarokh navigates the ship into the secondary landing bay (designated as such
for ships smaller than 1,000 tons) which appears to contain well over a hundred
ships. Meanwhile, Darrurz has been on the comm contacting the freight customers
that their stuff has arrived.
With the freight unloaded and paid for, life support refurbished, and fuel
purifying (why not save the money), Gvarokh declares shore leave for one and
all. Even Darrurz is free to hold off on cargo speculation until later, if he
so chooses.
A quick check of system rules (carried out by Gvarokh while the crew worked),
has revealed some things to keep in mind while in Kaso.
Although starships are not forbidden to land on the planet, however, the
congested nature of traffic there forces the government to charge a surface
landing fee of 25 credits/ton. They recommend that visitors rely on small craft.
If visitors don't have one, they can either use public transportation or rent.
Renting a Launch costs 100 cr/day. Bigger craft are more expensive. Smaller
craft are less expensive.
Shoppers do not have to step foot on Kaso to make purchases. They may use Kaso's
Infonet to do all of their shopping and ask the seller to ship their purchases
to the starport.
Considering the convenience of shopping from the relative comfort of the ship,
everyone chooses to shop via the InfoNet. However, Gvarokh announces his
intention to go for a walk about the highport once he's done perusing what's
available.
There's a flurry of activity as the shopping spree begins. Some are restrained,
while others unleash the purchasing power of their pocketbooks. TL-15 flex armor
is the most popular item. A couple of guys take advantage of the ship's new
mercenary license to buy strictly military weapons like grenades. All in all, it
seems as if everyone's appetite for gear is satiated, at least for now.
Characters: Gvarokh, Darrurz, Vincent & Lakir
Location: Miishakaal (initially), then the starport.
Gvarokh has wrapped up his shopping and decides that he needs to stretch his
legs. Donning his tailored cloth armor and grabbing his 9mm, he announces to the
crew that he's going for a walk around the starport.
"May I join you?" Darrurz asks.
"Yes!" Gvarokh barks amicably. "Anyone else?" he asks.
"I'll go," Lakir answers, "Just let me grab some gear."
"Me too," Vincent chimes in from his quarters. He arrives unarmed and unarmored
before Lakir returns.
A few minutes later, Lakir returns wearing his trademark utility vest. The
pockets are stuffed with enough of his personal gear to feel comfortable.
Darrurz goes unarmed and unarmored. "I should hope that it won't be necessary."
"You're probably right," Gvarokh replies, "But on a law level one world, there's
no way I'm going unarmed."
The group leaves the ship, turns right, and begins walking down their landing
bay access corridor. Signs denote a "scenic route" so they turn and follow it.
Small shops and restaurants line the immaculate glossy white corridors. Small
trashbots dart out of hidden panels to grab some errant detritus.
All sorts of people go by. None take any real notice of the Miishakaal
men. There are spacers dressed in vacc suits, mercenaries decked out in combat
armor, courtesans dressed in.... not much. Handguns and longarms are carried
openly, though typically holstered or slung. Despite all this show of potential
force, the quartet feels at ease.
They reach the "scenic route," a walkway along the circumference of this level
of the station. Floor to ceiling windows look out on the traffic going to and
fro. It doesn't look like the war has slowed things down here at all.
"Captain, have yooouuuu picked out ourrrrr next destination yet?" Darrurz asks.
Gvarokh takes a breath. "I'm leaving it up to you, in a way."
Darrurz cocks his head.
Gvarokh clarifies. "There are three worlds we can jump to without altering our
long term goal: Ami, Khunimman, and Shaia. I don't want to go to Khunimmam. It
is low-tech and unpleasant.
"Ami would be good. The crew could actually get outside in an actual atmosphere
and walk around for the first time in quite a while. Also, we might get a decent
cargo because of the tech level difference and the fact that it's
non-industrial.
"On the other hand, Shaia is yet another tech level 15 stop, giving more
opportunities for shopping. Then again, I imagine we are all now fairly well
tapped out.
"So, find the most profitable cargoes and I'll make my decision from there."
Darrurz sniffs the air for a moment, and his tail swishes briefly. "Ooooook,
I'll let you know whhhen I've had a chance to look through what's avvvvvailable."
Darrurz licks his lips with his tongue, and nibbles his upper left arm,
scratching an itch as he sets up an autonomous search routine on the cargo and
passenger boards for the destination worlds, as well and the commodity and
brokerage ones, and leaves it to run.
Darrurz smells the air while leaning on the railings and watches the ships and
boats moving in the traffic pattern. "Therrre's nothing like cleanly scrubbed
air. Apart from the facct that I can smellll your two." Darrurz nods towards
Lakir and Vincent. "Have you showwered today?"
Vincent rolls his eyes and Lakir grunts. Gvarokh stifles a laugh.
Darrurz' cargo search finishes compiling and chimes completion. Darrurz looks
over the list of potential cargoes and runs potential cargo profitabilities for
the worlds in question.
"Well, if you want to go to Ami, there are several lots of mecccchanical,
electronicccc, and ccccomputerrrr parts which we can get cheap and turn around
for big sales there. But if you want to go to Shaia, there's some software,
specialty coatings and pharmaceuticals that we can sell there. You just have to
tell me how much you'rrrrre willing to lay out.
"And don't worry about ffffreight. I should be able to fffffill up the hold."
Gvarokh says, "I think we arrrre all fairly well shopped out, so let's see what
Ami can bring."
Darrurz nods. "How much arrrrre you willing to specccculate with?"
"How confident arrrrre you that you can make a profit?"
"Verrrry confident!" His tail wags as he smiles a decidedly vargr smile.
"Thirty to fifty thousand."
Darrurz' tail stops wagging. He sighs.
He interacts with his hand comp some more, then says, "Therrrrre are ten pinkies
looking for low passage to Ami. I suggest that we pick up fourrrr of them.
It's easy money and no rrrrriskkkk to ourrr main mission."
"Agreed," Gvarokh replies.
"Very well." Darrurz hits a few buttons on his hand comp. "We should prrrobably
head backkkk to the ship to prepare for cargo and passengers. I'll grrrrrab us
some frrrreight on the way back."
Characters: All
NPC: Chuck & Simrii
Location: Miishakaal, docked at the starport
On the way back to the ship, Darrurz sent text messages to four of the low berth
passengers that Miishakaal would be giving them a ride to Ami. The four
in question are all university students who have finished up some coursework
that they couldn't take on Ami due to obvious technological facility
deficiencies. Chuck is loading them into the berths now.
For the speculative cargo, Darrurz has managed to obtain 2 tons of various
mechanical parts for a total of 50,000 credits. This complements a 40 ton
freight order of farm machinery. Darrurz also takes on another 15 tons of
freight in the form of processed aluminum cut to pre-ordered shapes and sizes
for some kind of construction. And filling the hold to the brim, he picks up
another 3 ton lot of starship engine parts.
His work is done.
Lakir, Vlad, and Simrii's work has just begun.
Slade is running through a pre-flight checklist in Engineering.
Gvarokh is doing likewise on the Bridge.
Vincent is overseeing the arrival of everyone's purchases. Chuck gives him a
hand once he's done putting the popsicles in the freezer.
Cargo loaded. Crew purchases sorted and placed in staterooms to be unpacked during jump.
Miishakaal begins to leave starport.
Miishakaal clears starport and heads to jump point.
Jump!
Next: Ami