Setting up a Corporation (what this game called guilds) was
pretty straightforward. Since I was the boss, I unilaterally decided that the
Corporation would be called the Black Star Trading Company. I set myself as the
President/CEO, obviously, and made Jaynie the COO. Shearah got to be Vice
President of Operations, Carissa was Vice President of Accounting, and Cali was
Vice President of Public Relations. That caused the sullen sexpot to snicker
when I said she could ‘relate’ to the public with either her ‘talents’ or her
shotgun, whichever was more appropriate. Everyone agreed that the 10% guild tax
was fair.
Imperial First Bank was a pretty solid institution,
according to my reading. They had branches throughout the Empire, and were one
of a few banks that actually had branches in other factions’ territory. Their
coverage in areas outside the Empire was more spotty, but they at least had a
branch in the capitol of every major planet in ‘Known Space’. Which meant I
could access my accounts from most places. They also were surprisingly good
with client confidentiality, being a lot like Switzerland in that regard. The
flip side of this was that they had very strict identity scans, the interest
was low, and they wouldn’t open accounts for anyone who had a criminal record.
I opened a personal account, and gave each of my four
‘extra’ IDs access to it, so I wouldn’t have to worry about always wearing this
face when I needed to see a banker. None of those IDs had a criminal record,
and they all were issued by a legitimate source, so it only took a hint of
Influence to make it pass muster. Jaynie already had an account with a
lesser-known bank that didn’t spread past the Empire’s borders, but offered
better interest (and didn’t care about IDs). The other girls were all Property,
so couldn’t have bank accounts, naturally.
I opened two more accounts, one for the Corporation, and one
for the Raven. It took a little bit
of work, but finally I set up my ‘shares’ system for funds coming from
missions. One quarter would go directly into the Raven’s account, one half into mine, and one quarter would be split
between the free individuals on the crew, which basically meant Jaynie, for
now. 10% of what went into the personal accounts (whether mission-related or
not) was automatically deducted for the Corporate Tax. I planned to use that as
a fund for gear maintenance, or purchasing items for the guild as a whole.
Not wanting to keep a whole bunch of cash on my bracer, I
immediately deposited 464K credits into my new personal account, and nodded to
myself as I saw 46400 credits move into the Corporate account. Felt a whole lot
more comfortable not carrying around half a million credits just sitting there
asking to be stolen.
Now I had a crew, I had someplace to drop the Princess, and
I had paying work going the same way. So I was in pretty good spirits when we
left the bank and headed back to the tram. This time, we weren’t alone in the
tram. Six big, burly men, all wearing similar outfits, and carrying obvious
weapons. I pegged them as one of the local gangs, and slipped my hand to the
hilt of my energy blade, unclipping it, but keeping the device hidden inside
the sleeve of my coat. No sense in warning the fools. Especially since they
were Nomads.
Mason Scott
Human Male
Level 15
Titles: Thug
|
Dexter Ball
Human Male
Level 15
Titles: Thug
|
Bennie Owen
Human Female
Level 10
Titles: Thug
|
Ian Curry
Human Male
Level 15
Titles: Thug
|
Thomas Briggs
Human Male
Level 15
Titles: Thug
|
Nelson McGuire
Human Male
Level 20
Titles: Thug, Manslayer
|
Oh, my bad. One was a female, but so butch that I thought
she looked like the other guys. Anyways, I muttered softly to my group, “Get
ready for a party, girls. These idiots look like they’re going to try something
stupid.”
Sure enough, the toughs moved forward, with the biggest out
in front, and the five others backing him up. The guy in front at least
appeared to be a bit smarter than the others, and looked to be sizing me up.
“Listen, buddy, this here’s our tram, so if youse wantin’ to ride, you gots to
pay the toll, see?”
I smiled back, and said, “Oh, no. Don’t think that’ll be
happening. See, I just went and deposited all my cash in the bank, so there’s
nothing to pay a toll with.”
“Well, that’s gonna be a problem for youse. But since I’m a
great guy, you give us the girls, and we’ll let you walk outta here at the next
station.”
The ‘lady’ in the back said, “Yeah! We got some pretty
collars you can wear!” Apparently, they were too stupid to see one of the girls
already had a visible collar.
Another spoke up, “We’ll show those bitches how it feels to
be with a real man!” That caused a good bit of laughter between the punks. They
didn’t notice Cali and Jaynie shifting to get a better angle with their
weapons. They were used to their size and strength being enough to intimidate
people. Too bad for them, I wasn’t that easy to intimidate.
I unleashed a Mind Pulse, stunning the six idiots. It only
lasted for ten seconds, but that was enough to start the party off right. “Take
them out!” My energy blade snapped into existence, and I immediately went for
critical hits. Mr. ‘Manslayer’ quickly found himself sans head, as the blade
made quick work of his neck. Looked like they had decent armor (physical armor,
at least), but the physics of this game were pretty real. If you didn’t have
armor on your neck, you didn’t benefit from it. My bracers had an energy field
which surrounded me for energy armor, but the additional energy armor in my
coat wouldn’t do any good if someone didn’t me in a place covered by the coat.
Cali and Jaynie unleashed their attacks as well, a pair of
shotgun blasts catching two of the other guys. Their armor did indeed protect
them, in that they weren’t dead, but it clearly didn’t block all the damage, or
keep them from getting knocked on their asses from the close-quarters shots.
The ladies each got another shot off, just as the idiots were starting to come
out of the stunned state, sending the last two men to the ground.
The woman found herself on the wrong end of my Stunning
Grasp power, when I bitch-slapped her in the face with it, sending her down to
the ground, spasming with the electric shock. Cali and Jaynie joined me in
quickly dispatching the four guys. “Strip them of everything before they
despawn. We’ll split the loot after.” Working fast, I managed to strip the
still living woman and used a pair of manacles to bind her hands behind her
back before she was able to fight back.
Seeing how the situation had turned, she began cursing quite
fluently. I caught both English, two Imperial languages, and what sounded like
Russian. There was a lot of repeated curse words, and general ranting about how
she would do this or that to me, questioning my parentage by suggesting I was
descended from various cattle, and other fun stuff like that. After a few
moments, I took one of the collars that we’d looted from the thugs, and showed
it to her. That made her shut up, her eyes going wide.
My own grin got a bit devilish, I admit, since my Analyze
told me it was a Stepford tracking collar. I let her watch as I changed the settings on it,
and said, “Now, I honestly don’t know what this will do to a Nomad, but I’m all
for finding out. I’ve set this so that when I put this on you, you’ll be
property of my Corporation, and the Stepford protocols will turn you into a
nice, obedient whore. You’ll go to the nearest brothel and do whatever it takes
to get a job as a prostitute. You’ll keep yourself nice and fit so you make as
much money as possible, and 75% of the money you make will go automatically to
the Corporation, so you’ll have to do a lot of work if you want to eat decent
meals.”
I let that sink in for a second, before continuing. “Of
course, you can get a new character, but you can only make a new character
every three RL months. Even if you started on opening day, you’re only two
weeks into that three month period. That means you’ll be missing almost ten
months in game time, sitting on your ass, while your buddies here move on
without you.”
I mind-pulsed her again to keep her still while I locked the
collar around her neck, and said, “Or you can be a good whore, and when you’ve
earned my Corporation 1 Million Credits, I’ll let you stop being a station
whore. The choice is yours.” With that, I released the binding, allowing her to
stand. She was naked, unarmed, weaponless, and had no ID or anything but the
collar. Would be a nasty piece of work earning a million credits. I gave it a
couple days, tops, before she tried to get her buddies to free her. That would
have her branded as an escaped slave, and would be free for anyone to claim as
their own if they got a collar back on her. I’d get a 100 credit transfer fee from
the new owner, and they’d have a new slave they could keep or sell for a
profit. Bounty hunters actually had a decent side gig if they chased escapees,
and her face would be all over the station if she ran.
Really, there was no downside for me, and no matter what
happened going forward, this ‘woman’ was fucked. Best part, she couldn’t even
glare at me, as the Stepford collar was making her happy and obedient.
While we were in the tram, I checked the loot we took off
them. Some decent (if low-level) gear that could sell for some credits in
addition to what we took off them, including basic weapons and ammo, nine more
slave collars, and they had a lot of drugs. A LOT of drugs. There were thirty
doses of Kamikaze, ninety of XtC, and thirty of Jovian Fly. The leader also had
an injector of nanites that were just nasty, and were definitely something I
didn’t want on my ship. I was going to sell the lot of them before I got back
on the Raven.
Kamikaze
|
|||
Type
|
Drug
|
Rank
|
Common
|
This combat drug is designed with a
quick injector, for rapid effectiveness. It increases a combatant’s combat
ability, but can be very addictive if used often. Kamikaze addicts are prone
to be more aggressive, and get into fights more often.
Duration: 10 Minutes
+10% Physical Stats for duration
-5% Mental stats for duration.
Resist 10% of all damage for duration.
When duration ends, -20% to all Stats
for 1 hour, - 50% to all actions for 10 minutes.
|
|||
XtC
|
|||
Type
|
Drug
|
Rank
|
Common
|
A classic party drug that has been
improved over time. Used to induce a mild euphoria and increased sensations.
Can be addictive when taken over a long period of time.
Duration: 3 Hours
+25% CHA for duration
+25% to Seduction for duration
-50% Sp. Def. for duration
-50% to resist Seduction for duration
Increased physical sensations for
duration
|
|||
Jovian Fly
|
|||
Type
|
Drug
|
Rank
|
Common
|
A popular ‘Male Enhancement’ drug,
Jovian Fly is legal throughout the Empire. It is not habit forming, though
long-term users may suffer confidence or performance issues without the drug.
Restricted: Only works on males.
Duration: 1 Hour
+20% to END for duration
Stamina costs of physical activity
reduced by 50%
|
|||
Bitchmaker™ Nanites
|
|||
Type
|
Augment (Nano)
|
Rank
|
Uncommon
|
An restricted and highly illegal
augmentation from the unaligned world of Hundeherstellar III. These nanites
infiltrate the subject and create physical and mental changes in the subject.
Unlike the Stepford series collars, these changes are permanent. The physical
changes can be reversed with Cleaner nanites, but even with Cleaners, many
subjects never fully recover from the mental changes.
Restricted: Only works on females.
Pet – The victim is unable to stand on
two feet, or speak except in barks and growls like a dog. Mental changes
reinforce the canine behaviors.
Remodel – Allows owner
to change physical aspects of victim.
Master – The victim imprints upon a
male Master, set by the nanites, becoming devoted to them, insanely loyal,
and eager for any attention from them, whether signs of affection, or abuse.
Conditioning – The victim’s mind is
subjected to intense mental conditioning to reinforce the nanite’s commands.
The psychological trauma ensures that the victim remains docile and obedient,
even when the nanites are cleansed from her system.
|
|||
Oh, and I leveled up, too.
For killing or subduing six enemies of
higher levels than you, you gain 30000 XP.
+2000 XP for fighting alongside your
Crew in battle against higher-leveled enemies.
+2000 XP for fighting alongside your
Corporation members in battle against higher-leveled enemies.
+1000 XP for fighting alongside your
Slaves in battle against higher-leveled enemies.
You are now Level 10! You have 10 Stat
points to spend.
You have defeated six other Nomads in
combat. +300 Fame
Blades has improved to 2/100.
+1 STR
|
When the tram opened in section 16, I slapped Bennie on the
ass, and sent her on her way. Sheila just shook her head as she looked at me.
“You’re quite evil, you know that?”
I shrugged, and said, “Well, she and her buddies were being
stupid thugs, and they picked the wrong crew to mess with. That collar was one
of the ones we took off them, so I think it is delicious irony that she is now
wearing it. Anyways, their leader had some nanites from Hundeherstellar III
which makes what I did look like child’s play.” Sheila shuddered at the mention
of the place. Seems it had a bit of a reputation, probably with good reason.
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