Mob #103: “What shamelessly poor choice of cargo…”
After the salvage colony security job ended without incident and I arrived home safely and uneventfully on planet Iytz, I immediately dove into bed.
I spent the next two days relaxing, then on the third day I prepared for departure, and the next morning I headed to the mercenary guild to take on work.
Luckily I didn’t run into Miss Dilopers and made it to Old Man Uncle Roans’s place.
“Seems there weren’t any pirate attacks this time. You got to relax, right?”
“Well, about 70%.”
“What was the other 30%?”
“A bit of junior mercenary drama. And seems they registered here too. I’d rather not get involved if I can help it.”
“That’s a disaster. Since you’d rather not be here, I’ve got a good job for you. Perfect timing.”
He seemed to sense something had happened from my terse words and showed me a job listing.
———————–
Duties: Escorting a transport fleet.
Term: Approximately 96 hours from Planet Iytz to the capital planet Hein via Planet Galostidar.
Two 12-hour shifts based on Galactic Standard Time with 12 hour rest periods in between.
Conditions: Free meals provided on the accompanying aircraft carrier – Fuel provided for spaceships – Docking during rest periods. No lodging facilities, so sleep in your own ships.
Requirements: Must hold Knight rank or higher.
Must provide own spaceship.
Any repairs for damaged ships during job will be paid out of pocket.
Compensation: 1.5 million credits – fixed. Hazard pay provided.
———————–
Looking at the details, this was a pretty great job.
For escort jobs, you normally work nonstop in shifts with the other mercenaries with no real breaks.
But here we can use an aircraft carrier, probably a converted large freighter. Being able to get proper rest is a blessing.
Best of all is the requirement to be Knight rank or higher.
“No rookies can take this one. They’re recruiting 50-70 people. Deadline to apply is today. They have 65 applicants now. Pre-departure meeting is early tomorrow morning at 6. Departure is right after that, I hear. Employer is Stardun Corporation – Distribution Division. Cargo is a wide variety of stuff. Luxuries like cigars, liquor, expensive fruit, etc. – Snow silk woven from the threads spewed by Snow Mosses from Planet Luluk – Plant and animal specimens donated to museums – Pure silver ingots from Planet Negora – Gold ingots from an undisclosed source. And more.”
“What a shamelessly poor choice of cargo…”
Why would they transport all these things that should be shipped separately in such a consolidated state?
“They’re rebuilding on various planets right now, right? The lords need money for that. Seems Stardun bought up a bunch of stuff cheap to sell at a markup on the imperial capital Hein.”
“Shrewd businessmen…”
“So, what’ll you do?”
“I’ll take it for now. It’s a good gig with nice conditions.”
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Plus it’s better than dreading running into that awkward person and being anxious about it, right?
After accepting the job, I immediately went to Gonzales to look into it, but only confirmed that Stardun was eagerly buying up goods to sell at a profit on the imperial capital Hein.
When I got home, I immediately prepared and went shopping to load up my ship with everything I needed.
I also did a full inspection and checked the fuel, water, and sewage tanks.
I’ll spend tonight at a capsule hotel near the guild instead of going home.
That way I won’t be rushing around in the morning and won’t be late unless I oversleep.
I’m not sleeping on my ship to conserve fuel, water, and food. You never know what might happen once we leave port.
The next morning.
When I went to the hall for the meeting, not only was no one there, but nothing was even prepared.
I guess arriving an hour early was overdoing it since I was wide awake.
About 20 minutes later, some people from the client, a few guild staff, and some droids showed up and started preparing.
As the staff and droids finished setting up chairs, the mercenaries started trickling in, so I took a seat in the back corner.
By 5 minutes before the meeting start, almost all the participating mercenaries had taken their seats.
And for some reason, gathered around me were Lambert, Miss Roseweiss, Arthur, Seira, the brash Moritz, and Dan the [Invincible Tough Guy] – acquaintances of mine.
Incidentally, Miss Roseweiss and Seira aren’t Knight rank, but are treated as partners to Lambert and Arthur.
You can become a partner even without mercenary qualifications. But you can’t officially accept jobs or payment.
As for Levin, who disappeared after the war with the rebels – I saw him yesterday chatting pretentiously with some friends at the open terrace cafe of a shady shop in the underground market, so it seems all my few acquaintances survived and returned.
Before long all the mercenaries had gathered, and when it was time, the explanation from the Stardun rep began.
“Thank you all very much for taking on our company’s request this time. As I must awkwardly explain, we noticed the lack of funding for nearby rebuilding territories, bought goods a little below fair value, and plan to sell them at a markup on the imperial capital Hein. You will be escorting the transport of those goods.”
A stereotypical salariman-looking man began explaining, and data was simultaneously distributed to everyone’s terminals.
“Making use of the advice of the guild staff here, as well as my acquaintance Rear Admiral Brezhskin, we went ahead and created shifts for all of you participating today based on your ranks and experience. You’ll be working according to these shifts for the duration of the contract. Of course if there’s an emergency you’ll have to work even during rest periods. Conditions are as described in the job listing. Any questions?”
Wait a minute. A nasty name just came up, huh?
Strange. Gonzales didn’t turn up anything about that in his investigation.
It’s unlikely he would lie.
Information brokers rely on trust, so deliberately providing false info would ruin their credibility.
I didn’t intend to doubt Gonzales to begin with though.
Still, I should contact him later.
With my worries that I’m being watched by the military because of Miss Dilopers, I don’t want to take military-related jobs.
But it’s too late to back out now, and asking questions would only draw attention.
Could there be military personnel among us?
Of course it may be totally unrelated.
But it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.
“Seeing there are no questions, I will conclude the meeting here. We depart in 40 minutes, so please ascend to orbit by then. We look forward to working with you all.”
With that, the meeting ended and everyone headed to the docking bay in unison.
As usual I watched the others leave, wanting to stay seated…
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