The Realm of Ganoltir: Strife, Exploration, and Prosperity
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With little time to think, Cass draws the laser pistol from deep within his loose hoodie's pockets — though not without the slightest fumble. Fucking... no!
Eridas gulps and tries to compose himself. "N-no, my f-f-friends d-don't do drugs, and I'd appreciate it if you w-w-walked away." He says, trying to speak clearly through his anxious stuttering.
Hikaru stops in his tracks as the elevator door opens, laser pistol pointed at him and his companions. His eyes trace upwards, looking at the man holding the gun. Great, don't think I can smile and sing my way out of this one. Tess'll protect me, right?
Tess quickly turns to face the elevator, her pistol already at the ready. Damn, how could we have fallen for that? So stupid.
Tess immediately shoots at the man, eager to get out as fast as possible, and hoping that is enough to stop him in his tracks. After the shot she rushes out the door and off to the side, holding the door open for her companions as she makes sure to keep out of the line of fire. "Come on, we need to get out of here! Fast!"
Hikaru freezes for a moment as their assailant takes aim, feeling relieved that it went for Cass and not him. He'll be fine, right? Yeah, duh, he'll be fine. Shaking himself from the shootout-induced daze, he makes for the door, finding cover past Tess.
Hoping to alert their getaway driver, he quickly pulls out his compad and narrates a short text.
Cass yelps as he feels a hollow in his left shoulder go numb, with a tremor of burning pain following soon after.
"Fuck off, spook!" he shouts, firing his laser pistol at the man as he retreats for the door. He hardly notices the beam connect, much too focused on slamming the door behind him and getting into a safe position. I don't want to die here...
Cass breathes heavily, frantic eyes watching the door as he readies his pistol. "Not really," he says, unable to be anything but honest in this moment of pain and fear. "But my feet work. We got to move. Now."
He starts to run in the direction they parked, hoping Eridas takes the direct route back. C'mon Shakes. Get here, you bastard.
"Agreed," Tess responds, following after the man once it is clear he can still run without issue. She motions for Hikaru to follow as they head for their getaway car, hoping that he has not been found by those people. She is sure to keep watch over her shoulder every so often just to see if they are being tailed.
Hikaru doesn't say a word, simply nodding and tucking his compad back into his pocket. He kicks his shoes against the ground, the straps self-tightening as he starts running towards their escape. Guess that cardio training's good for more than dancing.
With adrenaline allowing him to ignore the pain tearing through his shoulder, Cass manages to keep up with the others all the way to their ride out. Splitting off from the other two, Cass opens the rear passenger door with a grimace as he hops inside.
"Goddamn," is all he can manage, still out of breath. He peers out the window to watch for a tail, though he knows they'd be idiots to follow his group so overtly.
Tess stays close behind as they race to their escape. She is greatly relieved when the car comes into view without any sign of further assailants. She moves after Cass towards the door and jumps in after him, turning to make sure Hikaru makes it inside too, and to keep an eye on any potential pursuers.
"We need to go, fast," Tess says once everyone is safely in the car. She then turns to Cass and looks him over for blood. "Are you bleeding?" she asks. "Because if so, we need to patch you up."
"O-on it, n-n-no problem!" Eridas responds and starts up the gravcar. As soon as everyone is in, he attempts to spin it around quickly and drive back out.
"No, it cauterized me." Cass carefully slides his arm from the sleeve of his zip-up hoodie, taking a peek at the fraying flesh on his shoulder beneath. "Hell, this is going to scar up. Great."
With his good arm, he reaches around his back pocket for some of the stims he made off with in their pad-searches so far. Looks like it didn't slip out during my run. One thing that's gone right today.
Flicking the cap off, Cass exposes the hypodermic needle, takes a deep breath, and then jabs it into his shoulder just below the wound. Letting off a weak grunt between gritted teeth, he depresses the plunger and injects the strange fluid, before pulling the stim out. Taking a few deep breaths, he waits.
And waits. And waits.
"Fucking dud! These idiots had a fucking dud stim in their bathroom. Are you fucking kidding me? These bunk-ass, idiot, fucking wannabe mafia clowns, with their piece of shit pharmatech. Good thing nobody got shot and needed a fucking stim! Good thing, huh? FUCK!" He throws the used stim to his feet, where it lodges under the seat in front of him.
He grimaces, embarrassed now by his outbursts, but hardly in the mood to apologize or rationalize. The adrenaline begins to fade and the pain rolls in.
Hikaru nearly stops in his tracks, grateful to see their car finally. He trails Tess towards the door, feeling immense relief. Let's never do that again. I'm gonna wear out the tread on these sneakers if this becomes a regular occurrence. He climbs in, shutting the door behind him and falling into his seat. He takes a deep breath as his heart beats intensely. He grimaces, looking at Cass's seared flesh.
He watches the injured man ready the stim, but jumps in his seat as the outburst pierces his ears. He looks on, eyes wide and mouth agape as the junkie screams. He pulls out his compad discreetly, sending a quick text to Tess.
As everyone manages to scramble into the car, Creed pulls out and races away. Quickly heading back towards the busier roads. The gravcar's navigation system blinks at you, asking for a destination for the vehicle's autopilot mode.
Cass notices the nav system awaiting a destination. "Straight to Bao?" he asks, exasperated. "Unless you think he'll put us in a grave after he's done with us."
"What other choice do we have?" Tess replies to Cass. "He knows us, our faces and names. If he could get us out of that prison with a few words to some guards, I am sure he can have them send an assault squad after us if we don't hold up our end of the deal. Guys like that really don't like when things don't go their way, trust me on that one," she says. I am not making that mistake again, I don't need to get fucked twice. At least not without getting paid first.
"Fair point," Cass admits. "If we're already meant for a dirt nap then we're unlikely to change any minds for the better. Let's just do exactly as this dickhead asked."
Nursing his injured shoulder, the junkie nods toward Eridas. "Let's get to Bao. If we're in luck, both of his lieutenants will still be there, which will make this more... fun."
Hikaru shrugs as the two talk about their next move. "If the old crime lord movies I've seen are anything to go off of, guys like that have a weird sense of... honor almost?" And ruthlessness. Note to self, use Cass as a meatshield if necessary. He rests his head against the back of the seat, taking a deep breath as the weight of the situation becomes more clear.
How the hell did I end up in this mess? I should've just stayed in Strocho. Then again... He pulls out his compad, beginning to type up the inspiration that had struck.
As if to try and cover their tracks, Eridas takes a slightly longer detour to get to their destination rather than let the auto path do its thing. "Bao is probably our best bet, for now."
"Keep driving, Creed. We don't know if those goons are still tracking us or not." He turns to the other two, his hoodie pulled back over his shoulder while he applies pressure to the wound. "Can one of you make the call to Bao? Not at my best, if that isn't obvious."
"Sure thing," Tess responds, her normal urge to banter stifled by the hectic and stressful situation they now find themselves in. She pulls out her compad and scrolls through her contacts til she finds Bao, hitting it to send him a call. Please pick up, please pick up.
Tess sighs as there is no answer, but the immediate buzzing of her compad gives her hope. She looks down, and, seeing the address, shares it to Eridas'. "That's where we're going, I guess," Tess says, frowning as she reads the address on the screen. "It's out of the way, at the edge of town. A warehouse. It worries me." This seems just isolated and out of the way enough to be a dumping ground, as easily as a discreet meetup spot. We should be prepared for anything.
Hikaru grimaces as Tess mentions the location of their meeting place. "Great! So we'll get to die among boxes and dust!" the pop star says with fake enthusiasm, his own worry growing as Tess's does. Then again, he'd gain more by ransoming me than killing me. It's not every day someone can ransom an interstellar pop star.
Eridas catches the co-ordinates and nods grimly, taking the car around a nearby block one last time to hopefully throw off any stragglers, and then he begins to drive towards the warehouse.
It takes about fifteen minutes to reach the address Bao sent you. As you drive the traffic begins to thin out, with the gravcars and gravcycles being replaced with autonomous cargo containers and other heavy duty cargo vehicles - either bound for the space elevator or returning from it. This does help you as you're able to more easily tell if you've been followed or not, with the answer luckily being the latter.
Here large smoke stacks and other pipes rise upwards towards the ice before disappearing into it on their journey to the surface. Much of the ice that forms the ceiling above you is a darker colour here than in the rest of the city, tainted with the years of pollution that fails to make it all the way to the surface.
You find Bao's warehouse on a side street by a large factory of some kind. As you near the street a sleek bright red gravcar tears around the corner before racing off down the road back towards the city, weaving in and out of the large slow moving trucks. Turning on to the street two people on gravcycles speed towards you before turning onto the main road and heading in the direction of the gravcar.
Bao's warehouse is relatively small, especially compared to some of the huge industrial buildings in the vicinity. A fence surrounds a loading area out side the front with is flanked by two large steam vents which periodically send large plumes of steam into the air as you can faintly hear the whir of the turbines deep in the ground beneath them creating power from the planet's geothermal energy.
The gate opens as you near it and another gravcar pulls out, this one dark blue and similarly expensive looking tot he previous one. The driver eyes you suspiciously as he pulls out. You drive into the loading area where you spot Bao talking to a man and a woman by one of warehouse's two large doors. A couple more gravcars and one more gravcycle are parked out front which you pull up next to.
"Worries me too. But it's the only option," Cass says as they ride toward their destination.
When they arrive at the warehouse, Cass takes note of the several gravcars and bikes in the area. "Lotta traffic. More eyes usually means more witnesses, but I don't think we're in the right part of town for that to be a good thing."
He peers out of his window, trying to take a headcount and suss out the situation. "There's our guy. I wonder who he's with."
Eridas takes a look around, then gulps. He says nothing, however, and just follows the others. He attempts to not look suspicious, but his near-constant head swivel gives away his definite lack of trust in this place.
"It just seems to be his meeting, and they all seem to be leaving now," Tess responds to Cass. "Hopefully that is all it is, at least," she continues, sighing in temporary relief.
"Yeah?" Cass says, a bit relieved at the thought of more strangers clearing out. Less variables.
"Let's wait a sec, hm? Don't want to upset any of his... dealings and all."
Hikaru grows tense as they approach the warehouse and notice the sheer number of cars but tries his best to remain calm. More witnesses at least, right? His nerves are further calmed as Tess identifies it as the meeting Bao had told them of.
The pop star nods to Cass's words. "Yeah, plus I'd hate for any of them to recognize me. Uh, or us. Who knows who those creeps were hired by after all," he says, recalling their extensive escape attempts across the city.
A couple of minutes pass before Bao and the others finish up their conversation and the woman and man make their way over to their respective vehicles before quickly leaving the compound.
As they start to leave Bao begins walking over to your car, running a hand through his neatly kept short, but greying, beard as he walks. He is dressed smartly, including a waistcoat like the mob bosses from the latest movies, however he wears his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, revealing his intricate tattoo sleeves.
"I trust everything went well?" He asks as he nears your gravcar. "Let's talk inside," he says without waiting for an answer to his question. He gestures for you to follow him and sets off towards the warehouse entrance.
Tess watches as Bao approaches, trying to keep from chuckling at how on-the-nose his appearance is. At his question she opens her mouth to respond, but then closes it again as he suggests they speak inside. She follows after the man, her nerves still not gone even with the departure of most of the man's lackeys.
"It went... as good as it could, I guess," Tess says, once they are sufficiently far inside the warehouse. "But there is definitely something shady going on. Armed thugs showed up at both addresses not long after our arrivals at each, which cut our hunt for clues short each time."
Cass waits impatiently until the other people clear out, leaving them, Bao, and whoever must be Bao's driver. He follows the man toward the warehouse, listening as Tess gets the first word in.
Once inside, Cass cuts to the point. "Yeah, so, both your men are compromised. League spooks is my guess. Ulven's terminal was spoofed, and Schaberg had this in his room." He reaches in a pocket and tosses the listening device to Bao in an easy arc, grimacing as he is reminded of the searing pain in his other shoulder. "Oh yeah. I got shot, too. Whoever these sloppy goons are, they have teeth and they're not afraid to bite."
Hikaru pretends to scratch his nose to conceal a smirk as Bao approaches, looking straight out of the films. I guess the movies had to get it from somewhere. Unless he got it from the movies... He follows the man into the warehouse, letting Tess and Cass give him the rundown of their day.
"Yeah, they did not want us snooping around for too long, it seemed like," the pop star adds. "Had to run for our lives from both places." At least teen girls don't try to maim or kill me. They just try to rip out strands of my hair!
"Now that I didn't expect," Bao says in reply to Tess as he leads you into the warehouse. The two large loading bay doors lead directly into the main room of the warehouse, which is about half full of shipping containers and other small cargo crates. Towards the back of the warehouse you can see a small building on a raised up platform with windows overlooking the warehouse floor.
Once a little ways inside Bao stops and half sits half leans against a waist high crate. He deftly catches the bug out of the air and examines it between his thumb and forefinger for a moment.
"Get some ice on it, that'll help with the pain. Laser burns can be no fun, trust me I know," he says to Cass looking up from his examination of the bug. "So League you say? Well it's good to know Juan and Ajani haven't betrayed me... They're just FUCKING idiots!" He says angrily, suddenly throwing the bug against the wall out of frustration. It unsatisfyingly bounces off harmlessly and goes rolling into nearby stacked cargo crates.
Bao takes a deep breath and sighs. "Sorry about that. I figured something like this was coming - we even spoke about it in our meeting just now. Things have changed in Idarete ever since the Diktat showed up. It was only a matter of time before the League decided to poke their noses in, but a another hot war like on Antheus probably wouldn't go down too well in the League Government on Strocho, so a more subtle approach it is. I thought one of my men betrayed me as one of our competitors seemed to always be ahead of our every move. Now I'm guessing the League are trying to strengthen one element of Idarete's underground at the expense of the others in order to cause the Diktat the most problems dealing with a single more powerful organisation," Bao explains, although he mostly seems like he's thinking aloud rather than explaining the situation for your benefit.
"It would have been nice if they'd picked me to prop up," he adds with a chuckle. "Anyway, your payment. This should be appropriate compensation given the circumstances," he says pulling out his compad, a couple of taps later your own devices buzz with credit transfer notifications.
Bao pauses for a moment before a look of concern flashes across his face.
"These League agents, did they see your faces?"
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