Escape Velocity Nova: Gems of Fomalhaut

[Squishy Cheeks]

"not bad, this thing still flies like a brick, but what can you do." James said as he went through the post landing routines. He looked over the ships damage report. "Well good news is we may be able to fly with our current damage level and a few minor repairs. Most of the damage is superficial. However we still need to find a buyer for our cargo."

[Wolf99x]

"Leave it to me," Sev said as he headed towards the Bar. "I'll find us a buyer. James, you go look at the mission BBS and see if anything grabs your interest."

***

5 minutes later Sev was seated at a corner booth in the spaceport's bar, a pitcher of beer in his hand. He took a long swig until the glass was half full, then he set it down and slid it to his left.

30 seconds later a man in a hat pulled over his eyes and a trench coat sat next to him.

"It's been a while since your last communique to the Thurokiir," he said. "We were beginning to worry you had been compromised."

"Nope, just had to go into hiding for a while," Sev said in response. "But now is not the time for the past." He slid two datapads to the disguised Auroran. "The first pad is of the information i've gathered since i last contacted Herran. The second is of other interest to you."

The Auroran pocketed the first pad and activated the second. "Hmm...100 tons of rare opals, how does this interest me exactly?"

Sev sighed a bit. "Basically it's like this, you can either find me and my associates some buyers...or you can save yourself some time and buy the gems off of me, and then sell them at a profit. That Viper of yours has to be due for repairs knowing how you operate."

The man thought for a second. "Ok...I'll go with the latter. I can give you 1300 per ton."

Sev scoffed. "Not good enough, we went through a lot of trouble to get those gems. 1800"

"1400"

"1700, I'm not leaving without hazard pay."

"1500, do you think that the Empire pays me a fortune for this line of work?"

"1600, I know you do plenty of jobs on the side it's not like the Empire is the only one signing your checks."

the agent sighed slightly "Deal," he hit a few keys on a datapad that he slid to Sev. "There's the payment info, the money should appear in your account shortly. Below that there's the information on where the cargo needs to be unloaded."

"Pleasure doing businees with you as always, Devlin," Sev said as he pocketed the datapad and left the bar, heading back to the Charlotte. He took a roundabout way so as to throw any possible tails off of him.

[Squishy Cheeks]

James ducked into the stellarnet cafe portion of the spaceport bar. He swiped his license card into the card reader on one of the terminals.

"Welcome James Sullivan" the screen flashed. A window opened up with a series of minner freight jobs, nothing thrilling. A few bounties popped up as well, but being sans combat ship he skipped over those. "Unread message" a box said as it popped infront of the mission BBS window.

James stared at it for a moment. Only a few people in the whole verse would try to contact him like this, and even fewer knew he was going to try the serenity run. He tapped the box

To: Bogey face (James covered his eyes for a moment and smirked.)
From: Arseways Con

Hello Big Brother. I hear you bolloxed up and got your ship in lockdown. I also hear you went in with some friends you made on a miner. I was laughing me cacks off after I heard that. Wait till da finds out, He'll have your fecking bollox, you know that. Well I got a business proposition for you. Bring your boyos to my hanger on the Kane Band, and we'll see if going into business together can't get you right as rain. If not at least we'll have a flagon or four, on me no less. Hope to see you before February 1st, or I might have to tell Da about your troubles.

Love,
Connor Sullivan

[Wolf99x]

About halfway back to the ship, Sev realized he had forgot to check the scores for the starship racing leauge. He knew another covert agent who was in the league and was wondering if he had made it up the ladder beyond 10th this year.

Damn how'd I forget this? he thought as he turned around and headed back. Ah well, if someone's following me they'll be a bit surprised.

He made his way back without any incident, save for one person who tried to pickpocket his wallet. One broken arm and 5 minutes later and he was back at the bar. He noticed that James was there as well.

He sidled up to his ally. "So, did you find us a job?"

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Of sorts, but we need to get to earth to hear the offer. feel up to it?"

[Wolf99x]

Sev tried not to look too excited. Earth, heart of the Federation, maybe i'll get a chance to look into a few leads the Thurokiir gave me...

"Yeah that shouldn't be a problem at all." he said.

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Then let's see if we're ready to fly, and make the two jumps." James said. He logged out.

______

"So are we ready to take off Kalis?"

[Krylo]

Kalis was sitting in the bridge sipping at a hot bowl of Ramen with a spot of bedhead when James walked back into the ship.

"Yeah, we can leave whenever... but I don't suppose anyone thought to go grocery shopping while they were out... kinda like no one thought to wake me up when we landed," he said, reaching up to lazily run his fingers through some of his ill-managed hair.

[Squishy Cheeks]

James threw a bag full of canned ravioli.

"Think fast. That will last us until we get to the Kane Band. My brother has a job offer for us, and at the very least he'll buy us dinner. Let's get this heap in the air, and make off with our profits to a port with more services."

[Wolf99x]

"Sounds good to me", Sev said as he took the controls. "Tower this is Charlotte requesting takeoff."

"Charlotte this is Tower, takeoff is approved."

Sev engaged the engines and with a little bit of coaxing and cursing, the mining ship took off from Serenity and headed outsystem, engaging the jumpdrives once they were clear of the gravity field.