The Bear's Cave - Sedona Station, Baffin (Formerly Freeport 14, Yukon)

[fencore]

The dim light that flooded through the bar's entryway was dimmed even further for a moment as another patron wandered in. A rather rough looking man - someone who knew what it was like to be thrown across a briar patch or two on the road of life. Recently. As in, possibly just a few minutes ago. He looked that rough. Or not. It really wasn't his place to judge. Maybe that was his custom. Maybe this was the best he'd looked in weeks. Maybe.

But Gheis didn't care, not a bit. The scotch was actually halfway decent, and that's all that mattered. That, and the lovely lady in the corner. Or at least he thought she was lovely. Maybe that was the alcohol talking.

As the new stranger paced up and ordered a drink, Gheis removed his suit coat and tossed it down on the vacant seat to his left. Rolling up his sleeves and returning to sipping his drink and idly gazing toward a Neural Net News screen, the slightly intoxicated businessman threw a casual greeting.

"And what brings you all the way out here, hm? A bit of a drive for a whiskey of debatable quality."

[Yaoquizque]

The young girl shook her head and sighed when the bartender replied all she could get with 23 credits was a synthtea.
She shrugged and then smiled softly "Well... Okay for a tea then... Not like i have much choice anyway!"

As he was preparing it, she turned around on her stool, and took a look at the people there.
Tilting her head, she said "Woa... This is a terrible bar you have there..." She laughed "Not a single cute boy in there!"

He coughed "Is that so?"
Turning around again, she studied him and bursted out laughing "I meant... Except you, hon'"
He just rolled his eyes, blushing imperceptibly, and handed her a cup of tea and a mug "Right... Here you go"
"Thank you" She poored some tea in her cup and took a sip. As she was tasting it, she pulled face and laughed "Woa... That's horrible!" Leaning forward, she whispered to him "Love... Couldn't you put some alcohol in it? Those synth things are just undrinkable"

He stared at her and chuckled "Nope... Besides, i bet you're too young to drink such a thing"
The young girl giggled "Ah! You must be kidding me!" She then pretended to be upset "And... You're not gentle with me... Can't you see i'm quite sad and i need something to hold on?"

He studied her and grinned "You? Sad? Sounds doubtfull"
"Okay, not sad..." She chuckled "Feeling... lonely, maybe?"

As she was about to speak again, a man entered in the bar, looking like an average business man.
She turned around and studied him for a while "Okay, that's better..." She laughed "I give him... 4/10..?"

The bartender shook his head "Aren't you a bit severe?"
She giggled "Ehhhh... I can see only his face... But if you can get him undressed, i will be glad to tell you my reviewed marking!"
Seeing his face, she bursted out laughing "Ah! If you could see your face right now"

He shrugged "Right..." He moved to the man's table to take his order, and shortly after, served him some scotch.
Returning to the counter, he saw the girl taking a mischievous face "He can drink and not me..? So unfair!" She laughed...

Shortly after, a second man entered in the bar. She stared at him with an inquisitive look "Ouch, this one seems to be tired." She giggled "Not sure he could stand more than a few minutes in a bed...."
The bartender thought a bit "He would need to sleep a bit actually..." He then rolled his eyes "Oh... You mean... Should have known that, coming from you..."

...

---

[Dusty Lens]

He took the tea and tasted it with a grimace. It might have been better without the shot. Maybe a bunch of folks floating out in the dark side of the ass end of nowhere had some other way of forgetting their troubles, because they sure weren't going to be shedding issues faster than they would be taking them on with a draft bitter as all that.

He looked down at his drink as he returned the greet.

Seemed like the best pit stop between where I'm coming from and where I'm going to, though I'm wondering if they're stocking your own bar with shed whiskey on purpose or if our boy here is keeping something a tad smoother out of sight and out of mind.

He shrugged and ordered a sandwich from the menu.

Hence the tea, which isn't half bad really.

[fencore]

"Well, I suppose if you're looking for a place where you're not likely to get shot, you've found it."

The reporter on the screen was recounting a story about "Renegade Jinkusu" in the Omicrons, Gheis felt sick any time he read a report about the debacle. The only reliable source of Iridium was in Delta, and now these cultists were plunking down and claiming that they owned an indefinite amount of space.

Why did it matter? The "Eastern" Omicrons had always been dangerous, but the Order had always been there to shore up the seawall and the Guild had always looked the other way. Gheis knew if he kept on this track he'd end up foaming-at-the-mouth angry once more, so he took a large swig of the scotch to calm his nerves. That didn't work, so he took a second. Fantastic, that was better.

"So, if you don't mind terribly, may I ask what your line of work is, hm?"

Small talk was never Gheis' strength, and with everyone coming and going on a Freeport, it wasn't often that anyone really wanted to talk anyway. Maybe he could get a new recruit out of this, though. The fellow looked like he could use a bit of consistency, a nice place to sleep. It was a shame that all the bunks on station were terribly uncomfortable. Dreadful, really.

[Dusty Lens]

He was watching the news feed in turn, curious if anything might come from another emerging war out in the Omicrons. That was a stretch of space a might far afield, but wherever there were resources and strife there were those as would pay to settle things down. Would be worth keeping an ear to the ground. With those thoughts in mind he off handily responded to the man the following betwixt sips of tea.

I'm in the private security contractor business, the proactive kind of security. Run the logistics and diplomatic face of one of the smaller companies.

You?

[fencore]

I'm in the private security contractor business, the proactive kind of security. Run the logistics and diplomatic face of one of the smaller companies.

'Private security contractor'? So the man was a bounty hunter. While there were many a strain of hunters, both freelance and affiliated, all that mattered was how many credits you had in hand, and whether or not the guy on the other end of the muzzle had more.

"I'll have to keep that in mind. OSI isn't notorious for making enemies, but I suppose it's always prudent to have someone on hand who can take care of certain problems before the become problems." Another swill, and the news changed stories to the Kusari-Liberty embargo. At this rate, all the houses were going to be warring with each other.

You?

"Nothing so...interesting. You see anyone with an OSI nametag on the station? I'm the guy who has to worry whether or not they're getting paid, and if any of them are taking Cardi-Candy from our sniffer friends up north."

The question had been hanging on the tip of his tongue since the man stated his occupation, which really didn't amount to very long, maybe ten or twelve seconds. Fifteen tops. But Gheis asked anyway. "So, you affiliated with anyone, or just a man alone?" He doubted he'd get a stright answer, but there wasn't anything to lose by asking.

[mtjsmith]

Ling finished docking with the Freeport and removed his Coalition uniform. He headed along to the bar. He had been ordered to find out more about the station which had now become an outpost of Katz's resistance. He found a number of patrons in the bar, all of whom seemed otherwise engaged and paid little attention to him. He walked up to the barman.

"Sir, do you have access to the LHF frequencies of the Omegas?"
"Well, um.. something.. I've never been asked before.. why?"

Ling took a look at a comms unit which was at the bar.

"May I?"

Ling quickly adjusted the tuner on the unit to match that of the Coalitions Sirius Wide Broadcast system and looked on in horror.

"Damn you Volkhan!"

Loyalist troops were shown hoisting flags above all major cities and Storm gunboats were flying past Gorodok displaying insignias of the Dictator.

"This will be harder than any of us thought."

He looked around the bar, in order to garner an effective resistance - The few troops and ships that had escaped to Yukon needed allies, assets and information. That was now Ling's job - to find out that information.

---

[Dusty Lens]

Chambers chuckled into his sandwich and pulled out a card, which he slid across to the nosy bastard sitting adjacent to his dryly amused person. Notoriety would never, ever, be his strongsuit.

Heh, in that case I'm already working for you. Copper is the callsign, with the company that you didn't hire by default. But don't worry, I wont hold it against you...

And just when the bit about the Omicrons was getting interesting, where the first Zoner whatsit was lighting up the first Core whatever, some jackass changed the channel. Which is all kinds of rude. Gosh darn.

Oi! Red! Some of us were watching the frakking news. You wanna watch the propaganda parade take it to a booth.

[Blighter]

She just walked in with her head low, looking at the sleeves of her flight-suit. She didn't have anything else to wear here. No casual clothes, no fancy parade uniform. Just that flight-suit of hers, making her stand out from the crowd. That small patch on her shoulder, the four letters, crimson on black, made it clear. SCRA. Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army. She should be proud. One and a half years of medical leave, marked unfit for duty, and now back in the Fighter Corps. A miracle. Those days should've been good and she should be walking with her head held high, but that wasn't the case. She just stared at her own uniform while walking to the counter, not even noticing comrade Ling nearby.

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#FFFFFF]"What will it be, dollface?"

The barman's voice silenced her thoughts. The endless wail of questions in the depths of her brain, all the "why"s stopped and got replaced by the desire for a smoke and alcohol.

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#FF9944]"Vodka. And a smoke if you have one."

He offered her the latter and she took it, reaching for a pack of matches to light it quickly. And then the barman pulled out a bottle from behind the counter. Fine vodka, crystal-clear and ice-cold, pearls of water running down the bottle's side, and the silver and red label in Cyrillic letters. First smile of the day for her.

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#FFFFFF]"You look like you could use it."

The faint smile was enough an answer for him. He handed her a glass and nodded towards a darker corner of the bar. She got up, glass and bottle in one hand, cigarette between her lips, and made off.

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#FFFFFF]"Here, catch."

Turning around she saw the man toss her a fresh pack of cigarettes. Catching it she flashed a wry smile once more before turning around again and making for the dark corner. And a moment later, with her drink before her and that familiar smoke filling her lungs, she was torn between getting mindlessly drunk and waiting for a particular man called Rhade.

Lost for a moment and thinking about what the man had told her earlier, when she was about to head to this bar, she muttered to herself.

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#FF9944]"Wonder if that will turn out to be bad timing again."

The contents of her glass vanished in one go.

[Daedric]

Closing the door to his room behind him he made his way down the corridor to the elevators entering the first one to open, "What floor, boss?" asked one of the staff from OSI's corporate office. "Six." he replied.

Entering his favorite bar on the station always put Victor at ease and today was no exception. Looking around as he entered he saw that Gheis was already enjoying Lev's little corner of 14. He watched as the bar tender tossed a pack of cigarettes to a woman wearing an SCRA uniform, muttering to himself, "Wonder what brought her here?" as she made her way to a darker area of of the bar. Moving Gheis' coat down another chair and dropping his own on top, Victor took a seat and ordered his usual, "Whiskey sour." Turning to Gheis and motioning at the rough looking man, "Whose your friend?"

---

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