Story of Jason Bates.

[J.Bates]

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM, 1525 HOURS, DATE: 31/10

Jason looked at the reply he sent back to the message he received the other day about his uncle. "Heh. Well I hope I'm not intruding on anything where I shouldn't be." Ever since the other day when he received the message and ship a lot of Junkers being pilots, engineers and crewmen of Allentown had been more aware of Jason and often approached him with discussions on whatever seemed about them at the time.
He didn't find this bad all, life was a lot easier than it had been before. "It seems I have broken a social barrier down here with the Junkers." He chuckled at that thought. Climbing out of the cockpit of his ship he was approached by the commodity trader again. As he anticipated that Jason had returned with another haul of space trash. Jason smiled at that. "Got another load for you."

The trader smiled back. "Rightio... Let's have a look..." They walked around to the back of ship and Jason opened the cargo door. Once opened the trader approached the sheets of rusted metal, feeling the surfaces of each sheet. "Full load I presume... Hmm. I'll take it all for $15 grand."
"Only 15? Last load it was 50?" Jason questioned.
"Last load, you had a lot of better gear and that old engine which looked as though it had a few years left in it... 15 is my price and if you don't like it, take it somewhere else." The trader looked sternly at him.
"Comon... I gotta make a living here, at least 20 for this then." Jason looked back at him slightly anxious.
"Alrighty... Only cause your uncle was a good man." He passed over his PDA for the transaction, "And don't expect me to go lightly on fuel, we haven't got much of that lately either."

After the transaction had taken place and the cargo unloaded, Jason went up above to the bar to see if he could pick up on any more rumors about his uncle. Unfortunately not much was offered to him. A man did approach him about scrap metal. "I couldn't help but overhear your dealings below with the scrap metal. I have to say that you got a little ripped off down there." He sat himself down at the bench across from Jason. "Yea... I knew he was trying to get the best of me. Who else can I go to though for selling this Junk?"
"A few others... Forgive me allow me to introduce myself. Cameron Igar, I work for DSE." He offered his hand.
"Jason Bates, work for myself." He shook the man's hand.

"Ah the Rixus boy. I heard a bit about you. Markus was a great man to get along with. I'm sorry for your loss." Cameron said sympathetically.
"I'm sure he's out there still... Are you trying to sell me something?" Jason replied
"Heh... Well yea I guess you could say that. DSE and Junkers have been working with each other for eons now. I'm sure if you came to places like Baltimore with scrap like that we can offer you triple or even more for scrap like that. Also I hear Texas is where all the fun is at. The Rheinland and Liberty war has donated plenty of engines, hull panels and scrap alike to the fields down there." Cameron looked at him.
"Yea... So I've heard. Beaumont isn't too bad I hear."
"That's the spot. Listen I gotta head off. But it was good to meet you. I'm sure we'll run into each other again. Here's my card in case you need anything." He offered it on the table and began to stand.
Jason also stood up. "Why are you doing this? What makes you think I'd be capable of making you guys a profit?"
"Because Markus, you're uncle was one hell of a scrapper. I've seen you a bit boy. You've come into Allentown within the past 2 days with 8 loads of scrap and you've managed sleep and eating and gambling here at this pub into your agenda. That's rather impressive for a man who's new to all this. I'll be seeing you Jason." He turned and walked away, leaving Jason standing there with his card.