The Cave | Niverton Base Bar & Lounge

[Stoner_Steve]

Ted nodded and started typing away on his data-pad "Sounds good Lou, I'll send them something shortly, anything else on the agenda for today? I was tempted to make another run to Malta and spend the night there again, cheaper than stealing...I mean buying it from you" Ted giggled and continued to work on his data-pad

[Crazy Lou]

Lou smiled: "Don't ya worry, kiddo. As long as you keep the cardie flowing, I don't mind you sniffin' a little on the side." - he finished his ale and signaled the bartender - "Two ales, Moe! By the way, I still have that liquid orange the giant blue jelly gave us. It's in my ship. You can have it, just go easy on it, ok? I don't want'ya turning telepathic or something all of a sudden..."

Moe arrived with two Liberty Ales, and returned to the bar. As Lou was drinking from his one, the datapad beeped. It was Burt, the Niverton Rogues' chief mechanic:

"The folks at Allentown have an old gitano chassis laying there. It's only the hull, though. No engine or scanners, nothing. The owner wants 132,900 credits. It's almost free. They were about to melt it down..."

"Ok, I will transfer the money. Have it towed back here and prepare it to fly." - answered Lou, closing the comms. He then quickly tranfered the credits to the Allentown base vendor account - "And now we wait for the mollys to answer your message..." - he said to Ted.

[Stoner_Steve]

Niverton Base - Pennsylvania System
January 5th - 823 A.S.

Ted returned to the bar, a few days after sending the message to the Molly's, seeing Lou in his usual spot Ted dropped into his usual chair "Christ, can we work on getting something with a little back support? Oh and I boosted the signal to the message I sent to the Molly's. The communications network is a little strained by the distance to Dublin with the war and all." Ted paused thoughtfully "I wonder if they need drugs...."

[Crazy Lou]

Two days waiting and no answer yet. In the meantime, they had time to go all the way to Malta and get back again in their freighters. And still no word from the mollys.

"Ya, this thing is taking too long. I wonder how many messages they have to answer." - he observed his glass of whiskey while taking a sip - "With this liquid gold here, they don't need anything else! But I hope they need something, we could always use some extra cash. Well, I will see how the new ship is going..." - Lou finished his whiskey and stood up - "I will be back soon, going to check up on Burt."

Lou went up to the main level, and walked to the docking bays. In the repair and equipment room he found Burt:

"Hey, Burt. How's our little ship going?"

Burt was at the bench, working on some parts to install on the little fighter.

"Hey Lou! The ship arrived yesterday. It was basically only the hull. I already installed the sensors and most of the systems, this here is the energy induction system to the engines, I have to adapt it so we can install one of our engines. It should run at 75% of the core capacity at most, but its more than enough for the shield and the engine, since we will not install any weapons on it."

"Ha! Funny thought, to install a 2.5 million credits engine on a 130 thousand credits ship! When does it get ready?"

"It should be ready for a test flight tonight..."

"Good enough. Thanks, buddy."

Lou passed by the small junker light fighter on his way out of the repair shop. It looked really fragile. And being stripped of most secondary components, as well as having no extra armor installed, would make the ship fast, but very vulnerable. Extra care would be neccessary when flying it.

Lou arrived back at The Cave, and sat back on his usual table, were Ted was still drinking.

"Well, Burt says it will be ready tonite. Too bad those mollys don't answer that message. You can always go there with your freighter, to sell some and bet on the races. But if you want to race, Ted, you will need to find another ship..."

[Stoner_Steve]

Before Ted could respond to Lou his communicator flashed with a priority message "I uhh....hold on" Ted paused and opened the message a grin rapidly filled his face "Screw the race Lou, my engineer says the Roach Coach has its flight status again, lets go get her!"

[|nfrared]

A stranger entered the bar, skinny, prison-skinny, eyes sunken, the young man looking slyly to all corners of the room. It wasn't the worst bar he'd been into. In fact he had seen alot worse than this, it was simple, and that suited him fine.

He saw two men talking, they looked like they were getting ready to leave. Lenny wondered if the Anki was fueled and retrofitted with the hardware he had bought yet, that had been a nice little score at Freeport 2 after doing hard time. A fresh start. Honest, good living.

He had managed to get aboard the little freighter, civilian, generic, exactly what he was after. During the loading of food rations, watching the pilot as he came in, making sure his new clothes were going to fit and stowing in one of the crates marked "personal", taking the gamble that this one would go in the pressurized section. When the pilot came back - Lenny hadn't bothered to learn his name - he had been waiting to shank him as soon as the ship was off the station.

He shanked him good, messy, but effective. He made this one in prison, and kept it for this day, the fresh start. He could feel it now, strapped to the small of his back. Ready anytime, jail taught him that too... But that was enough reminiscing.

When he had docked at Niverton, he sold the food, it was his now anyway. The credits were enough for his fuel, maybe some cargo. But what to run? And where? Freedom felt so odd.

Dressed now in a well-fitting flightsuit and jacket, Lenny thought he was "the man". Eyeing the pair, he looked down at the floor as they noticed him. Was that blood on his boot? Oh no... His jacket had a nametag - Karl - on it. Lenny tried not to laugh. What a first impression.

Looking up so as not to draw notice to the blood smeared on his boot, he approached the two.

"Hey, uh, I'm uh..." He started awkwardly. Then he had a flash of inspiration. A codename? No, a nickname! He flashed his rep-card, showing he was in good standing with the Rogues. His sudden confidence came from seemingly nowhere.

"I'm Legit Lenny. You guys know where to get something worth runnin' here? Doesn't need to be legi- uh, legal, if you know what I'm sayin'?"

[Crazy Lou]

"That's good to know, Ted. That liner can be of great help. Let's prepare to depart to Freeport 10, then."

From his prefered table at the corner of the bar, Lou saw when the young pilot entered. It was obviously a pilot, judging by his clothes. As the man approached the table, Lou nodded to Ted, pointing with his head in the visitor's direction. The guy stopped in front of them, holding his rep-card so the others could clearly see it, while he introduced himself and asked for a job.

Lou smiled at he guy: "Legit Lenny, ahn? Well, this is a Rogue station, after all. The only 'legit' job here is already Moe's." - he said, signaling with his head in the bar direction, where Moe was watching the scene - "Moe, get us three whiskeys, will'ya? Ou, I'm Lou, by the way, and this here is Ted. And I don't need to see your card, kid. If you were not shot down when approaching the station then you're fine." - Lou pointed to a vacant chair - "Sit down, kid. So, are you looking for a job, or are you a freelancer? What kind of ship do you fly, by the way?" - he asked, while Moe arrived with the three drinks.

[|nfrared]

Lenny put the card back into Karl's jacket and smiled, taking a seat. This might work out after all.

"I'm fresh outta the slam, Got unloaded at Freeport 2 and told to leave Liberty for good. I ain't no 'Lancer, I got what you might call a prison initiation. I've gotten hold of one of those cheap Renzu rust-bunnies. Anki, yeah that's it. The, uh, previous owner no longer has need of it, and I do. It's getting a refit in the bay right now, some real Rogue hardware being mounted as we speak. It's no Bactrian, I'll admit, but it'll keep up. Why, you got a job goin'?"

He nodded at Moe as the drinks were set down, waiting to hear what the pair thought.

[Stoner_Steve]

Ted took the fresh drink and started to work it down while Lenny talked. "More or less. I have a Pilgrim Liner that was temporarily confiscated from me on Freeport 10. Luckily for me its back in my possession, now the actual fun begins. Tell me Lenny, do you have morals? " Ted paused and giggled a little. "After all the cardimine isn't free"

[|nfrared]

Lenny looked down at his hands, they had no blood on them right now, a few hours ago would have been different. He pointed at his name badge, then down at the crimson smear on his boot.

"Karl had morals, but they didn't do him no good, got to taste the pointy end up real close. Morals ain't never saved no one. You gotta be able to do two things right in this life - fly and fight. Screw either of those up, and next thing you know you're another Karl."

He let out a nervous laugh, had he told them too much? Oh well too late now...