The Princess looked up at me, looking like someone
desperately reaching out for something, anything, to hold on to, because their
whole life had gone up in flames. Probably for good reason, she’d had a lot of
shocks this last week. “A decision?”
I nodded to her. “Yes, you have to decide what you will do
from now on. Your sister, it seems, if forming a government in exile. But we
have no clue on where she’s gone, or where she’ll set up shop. And if your
friend here is any indication, the Fleet will mostly side with the new Emperor.
Chasing after her will definitely put us in the path of the fleet, and may lead
the fleet to your sister. But that’s a choice, and you’d be able to help build
a resistance against your brother.”
“Your second choice is to be a good little pet to this
‘friend’ of yours, and pop out a few kids so that he can try and get more
power.” She shuddered at that thought, and I didn’t blame her.
“Third choice, you join my crew, at least until we can make
our way out of the Empire. Won’t be the easy life you’re used to, and you’ll be
paid a crew wage, and expected to learn and pull your weight, same as the rest
of the crew. It will be tough, and it’ll be dangerous, but you’ll be alive and
free.”
Sheila considered that, and then sighed. “Captain, I would
like to formally join your crew.”
I smiled, and nodded. “We’ll deal with the paperwork when we
get back to the ship. For now, I need to persuade the Admiral here not to tell
anyone about us.” Turning back to the Admiral, I concentrated on the power I
wanted to use. It was the first time I’d used my ‘Alter Memory’ power, and I
decided that I’d keep the changes simple. I just changed the last couple of
minutes, from just before the Princess started talking, making it so that, as
far as he knew, the conversation never happened, and there was just a
black-haired woman of moderate attractiveness, along with a hot Asian chick
that grabbed most of his attention.
I decided to have a bit of fun, and filled the time he would
have missed with the conversation being gone (and the long amount of time
needed to alter his memory) with a false memory, where he paid me a good sum of
money to bend me over his desk and show me just how manly he was. Naturally, I
had him both transfer the funds to my bracer, making me 20K credits richer, but
also erase the camera logs. I waited until we were well out of the office
before releasing the Charm.
Once we were out of the Admiral’s office, we didn’t talk
again until we were back on the civilian side of the station. I checked the
ship’s datanet, and saw that the others had already completed their jobs, and
the money had already been deposited in the various accounts. We swung by the
bank to set up a dummy account for Sheila, and add her to the crew, the
Corporation, and the automatic pay splits, as part of the crew.
Boring stuff, but best to get it done now, before we were
actually running for our lives and needed it. She had some money, being a
princess and all, but after discussing the fact that her brother would probably
have someone inside the bank looking for transfers on that account, it would be
best to not use them until we got outside Imperial space.
After that boringness was over with, I declared that some
retail therapy was in order, both to get Sheila out of the dumps, and to make
sure she had all the supplies she’d need if she was going to be a permanent
member of the crew. We swung through the marketplace on our way back to the
ship, and she picked up some new clothes, as well as the other necessary
supplies of daily living. Along the way, I saw a few things that caught my eye.
Oh, sure, it wasn’t bunches of new weapons and armor, couldn’t expect them to
sell that on a military installation, but there were some things that would be
useful.
What could be more useful for a fledgling smuggler and
ne’er-do-well than weapons and armor, you ask? A wide range of entertainment
options for those long hauls through hyperspace, that’s what. I dropped 5K of
my own money on various games and vids (only a few of them were porn, honest),
so we would have something to do on board ship. The ship account paid for fresh
supplies (including a store of alcohol).
Katch’mall Capture Ball
|
|||
Type
|
Tool
|
Rank
|
Rare
|
This red and white orb is about the
size of a baseball. Only produced in the Slyph continent of the planet Kanto,
the Katch’mall is a novel variant of a slave collar specifically designed for
combat slaves. Upon hitting a creature with the Capture Ball, they are sucked
into a temporal prison. Creatures with a high Sp. Defense may resist the
effects of the Capture Ball, and escape. Each Capture Ball can only be used
to capture a creature once, regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or
not. Damaging a target or mentally incapacitating it may increase the chance
of success.
Once captured, a creature may be
released from or reimprisoned within the stasis with a simple press of a
button. When released, the creature remains enslaved for up to 24 hours,
after which time, it may refuse to obey orders, or even attempt to escape.
Returning it to the stasis field resets this counter. All damage and adverse
conditions suffered while released remain when returned to the field, though
effects like poison damage are suppressed until the captive is released
again. Captured creatures requiring extended medical care should be sedated
as much as possible until they can be returned to their ball.
Warning:
Cannot be used on Nomads.
|
|||
Anatomical Guide to Slave Species
|
|||
Type
|
Tool
|
Rank
|
Common
|
An academic-looking guide to the major
nonhuman species one might encounter as slaves of the Terran Empire. Useful
for training medical professionals, as well as teaching guards and
interrogators about the differences in the various slave species.
Requires: 90 INT
Negates -10% unfamiliarity penalty to
all first aid, surgery, healing, subdual, and interrogation efforts made with
nonhuman species.
UNIQUE:
Because of your unique race, using this guide will allow you to shapeshift
into nonhuman forms. At Shapeshift level 25, gain the ability to perform
chimeric shifts (knelfi eyes in a human body, for instance).
|
|||
Profession Training Guide
|
|||
Type
|
Tool
|
Rank
|
Common
|
This guide downloads the necessary
information for a given profession into your mind, granting the first level
of skills associated with that profession (or +1 to a level of a skill you
already possess), and possibly a title to go with it.
|
|||
Torc of Dominion
|
|||
Type
|
Neck
|
Rank
|
Artifact
|
An artifact from Heruta II, this collar
is made of an unknown metal and is inset with a gem that appears to be a
ruby, but has yet to be identified. A relic of the Qyrfulm civilization, the
Torc increases the wearer’s mental abilities and their affinity with Mental
Psy powers. It also has the ability to mark a creature, allowing the wearer
to speak telepathically with that creature as long as they are within 400K
km.
Requires: Slaver title
Requires: 80 INT, 80 WIS
+20 INT, +20 WIS
+50% to Mental Affinity
+20 Sp. Defense, +20 Sp. Attack
Mark Minion – 1/day, mark a creature.
Costs 1000 PP. Enables two-way telepathic communication with the marked
creature until the creature dies or the mark is removed. Minion cannot resist
your Mental Psy Powers.
|
|||
The Torc I found at a shop that was selling antiques and
other rare items (we were on a trade station, even if the military was around),
and it cost a blistering 200K credits. You could literally buy major starship
parts for less. But given my limitations in the field of boosting my affinities
and resistances, it was worth it. The guide to slave races was only 500
credits, so I bought two, one for myself, and one for Carissa (she was our
medic, after all).
The Profession guides came in a lot of ‘flavors’, from the
basic to the rare, and even a few that were pretty crazy. Different professions
cost different amounts, no doubt due to the number of skills required. Some had
prerequisites you had to meet before you could pick them up. Very interesting. I
picked up the ‘Engineer’ profession for Shearah, and the ‘Starship Pilot’
profession for myself, totaling 2500 credits. My other two slaves had a couple
professions already. I saw Sheila grab the ‘Navigator’ profession. Glad to see
she was thinking about what she could do.
I had to try real hard not to laugh at the Katch’malls.
Someone on the Dev team had a twisted sense of humor, and I loved it! So much
so that I dropped 20000 credits to buy a hundred of the things. Might not use
them, but I’d had several windfalls early in the game, so I might as well give
props to the devs and support their joke. And who knows, I might need a
disposable minion sometime. I’d have to search for planets with vicious
monsters on them!
Nano-med Injector
|
|||
Type
|
Tool
|
Rank
|
Common
|
A simple hypospray containing nanobots
designed to repair injured flesh. Rated for all known sentient species except
X’thari. Specialty designs exist for other lifeforms. May overwhelm the
system of low-level sentients, causing further damage.
Requires: Level 15
Heal subject for 600 HP over 30
seconds. (10 minute cooldown)
X’thari only: Deals 600 damage over 30
seconds. Causes extreme agony.
|
|||
Nano-tailor Spray
|
|||
Type
|
Tool
|
Rank
|
Common
|
A simple spray containing nanites
designed to repair clothes and armor. Rated for most materials commonly used
in clothing and civilian armor. Not rated for military hardsuits. Not rated
for spacesuit or diving suit repairs. Not rated for radiation shielding.
Specialized sprays for those materials do exist, however.
Repair one garment, retaining specialty
functions.
|
|||
OK, so a bit more retail therapy before we hit the ship. It
cost me 50K, but getting a hundred packs of the nano-meds was worth it. Same
with the 10K for the hundred nano-tailor sprays. Being able to patch yourself
and your gear up away from the ship or dedicated facilities was a real bonus.
Bloodstains and tears in your clothes tend to let everyone know you’ve been
fighting.
Our bit of therapy done, we returned to the ship, where I
was happy to hear that not only had the crap we took from the Yakuza been sold
(the funds already distributed), and our other jobs on the station both
completed, but Carissa had scored us another job on the way to the surface. The
fact that the Princess was still with me, while we both had packages from
shopping, raise some eyebrows, but I simply told them that the Prince was now
Emperor, and the Navy was falling in line behind him. Turning to Carissa, I
changed the subject by asking about the new job.
Protein Pack Delivery
The recent earthquakes on Primo have
devastated food production for some of the smaller towns in the colony.
Protein packs may be tasteless, but they are well suited to being used as
emergency rations until production can be brought back online.
|
|
Difficulty
|
D
|
Task
|
Deliver ten crates of protein packs to
the Quartermaster at the relief station outside Primo, outside Todea.
|
Payment
|
20000 Credits
|
Not exactly a big ticket item, but we already had a couple
jobs going that way. Pulling in multiple jobs for the same destination would
definitely be the way we needed to run if we were going to make this work. And
I had no intentions of not making this smuggler thing work. I was having the
time of my life!
With all the formalities out of the way, I distributed some
of the ‘gifts’ I’d brought back from retail therapy. Shearah quickly learned
her profession, gaining the Engineer title, and increasing her skill ranks in
the repair skills. Carissa got her copy of the species guide, and used it.
Naturally, I used mine, as well.
You have gained a new title!
Starship Pilot
You are a qualified pilot for most ship
classes. Exotic starships may require additional training to pilot correctly.
Fighter Pilot has increased to 2/100.
+1 DEX
Shuttle Pilot has increased to 2/100.
+1 DEX
Small Ship Pilot has increased to
7/100.
+1 WIS
Medium Ship Pilot has increased to
2/100.
+1 WIS
Large Ship Pilot has increased to
2/100.
+1 WIS
|
When I sat at the controls of the Raven this time, I was pleased to see a small trickle of XP coming
in. Very small. Just piloting the ship wouldn’t get me much in the way of
levels, but I couldn’t deny it was nice to see gains for just doing everyday
tasks. It was an interesting system they had in DAtS. But I pushed those
thoughts out of my mind as we lifted off the station, and headed towards the
planet Primo.
Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/
Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV
Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D
LitRPG facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/
No comments:
Post a Comment