B2-17 - Pegarios (Patreon)

“Awesome,” Maya grinned. “This is system tech, not crazy mana channeling required crafting.” 

“They’re cheap and easy to build,” Bell said. “Although crafted pallets are sturdier and longer lasting.” 

“I’m all about cheap and planned obsolescence,” Maya smirked. “It’s the American Way.” 

Maya looked at the blueprint and it conveniently supplied a list of items needed in its creation. Maya pulled up the inventory of items and components that Yosi and Veskari had created and compared the two. 

“Nice. We have everything. I’ll just skip out and-“

“I will do that,” Yosi said. “I shall gather up these materials for you, Maya.” 

“I can do it also,” Tender said. 

“It is not difficult,” Yosi said, her eyes narrowing. 

“Then I can do it faster,” Tender replied. 

“Easy there, kids. How about you both go and do it and it’ll be done twice as fast?” 

“Sure, boss.” 

“As you wish, Maya.” 

The two scampered out of the dimensional cage, Bell had a wry look on his face. 

“You have showered Yosi with much in the last few days,” Bell said. “She worries that she will not live up to the pressure you have placed on her, even with the change in her occupational abilities and skills, she feels she has nothing to offer to you and your House.” 

“But she’s so cute,” Maya said. “Like a cartoon dinosaur.” She paused for a moment, glancing at the door they had left through. “I’m still not sure what to make of her or how to treat her.” 

“I would assume the same way you treat everyone.” Nan stated. “Actions speak louder than words. Treat her normally and she fill find her place among your odd collection of companions.” 

Maya smiled at Nan. “Under all that hologram, there beats a kind heart, eh?” 

“I am still trying to improve my empathy,” Nan said. 

“Personal improvement is the goal in life, not for anyone else, but for yourselft. Keep at it.” Maya summoned a pair of tablets and tossed them to Bell and Nan. “Start looking for things we need, weapons, foodstuffs, shelter, tools, and knowledge cubes.” 

Maya reconnected the Cage back to Haltor’s World, then checked the communications array for any new messages. Still nothing.  

It took Yosi and Tender an hour to gather up the materials needed for the pallet’s creation. They also brought along with them a stowaway. Roci. 

“Hey there, little person. Wasn’t Vesky supposed to be baby sitting you?” Maya said as the purple eyed mini Sullivan made their way toward her. 

“Vesky!” 

“Hey, you changed your voice, hitting puberty already?” Maya grinned as her ears didn’t want to scream in horror at the sound of Roci’s voice. 

“Vesky boring!” Roci cried.

“He is not,” Yosi said, coming to his defense. “He is a remarkable person, a being of high learning and wonderful stories.” 

“Now, now, Roci. If you’re gonna talk trash about someone, make sure their family members, loved ones, or friends aren’t in the room.” 

“That’s terrible advice,” Bell said. “If you wish to ‘talk trash’ about someone, do it to their face and suffer the consequences.” 

“Oh, yeah, if you’re looking for a round of fisticuffs, do that. But in all other situations, know the room and figure out who’s who and their relationships with people you wanna bad mouth.” 

Bell shook his head. Roci slithered up Maya’ shipsuit leg and then sat upon her lap, staring at the tablet in her hands.  

“There are sell orders for biomass,” Nan said. “The smallest sell amount is enough to produce more than two metric tons of ration bars.” 

“Yummy,” Maya deadpanned. “Add it to the shopping list. Alright, kiddo,” Maya picked Roci up and stood up herself. “You keep looking for items that we might need, alright? “ She set the tablet down in front of Roci and headed over to where Tender and Yosi were unloading the equipment they had brought. As another gift, Maya had given Yosi a dimensional bag, the same as she had down with Nan, Tender, and Bell. Although, everyone who survived the dimensional instability gained a Dimensional Inventory, having more space was always appreciated. 

Maya cracked her knuckles and began summoning tools. 

“Let’s make us a pallet.” 

***

Four hours passed and at the passing of every hour, Maya stopped and checked to see if Pegarios had responded. They were coming up to the end of the thirty MVT minutes, with only an hour remaining. 

“Holy crap, this blueprint is awesome?” Maya said in amazement as she began building the pallet. As she activated the blueprint, the view before her changed. Instead of the piles of components and material neatly stacked, Maya could see a blue holographic image that showed her where all the parts went.  

“They are impressive,” Bell said. “Crafting has a similar effect, allowing one to create and build things more easier.” 

“I cannot see what is happening,” Tender said. 

“Unfortunately, only SIL can use blueprints,” Yosi said. There were tears in her eyes. “I couldn’t see them before too, but now…” 

“Dude, you mean Class Twos can’t use blueprints either?” 

“Yes. We are restricted from crafting and building.” 

“What a load of shit,” 

“Blue!” Roci said, as they slithered up to where Maya stood. “Hologram?” 

“Yes, it’s a blueprint…” Maya paused. “Oh, shit, Roci. You can see this?” 

A stunned silence filled the room as everyone stared at the tentacle legged Roci.  

“That’s impossible,” Yosi said. “Roci is an AI, not SIL.” 

“Well it-“

A screeching noise filled the room and Maya jerked her head up. Something was happening. She immediately turned to the view screen that was still displaying a nighttime scenery on Haltor’s World. 

As she watched, the screen lit up as the external sensors detected something coming their way.  

“What the hell-“

“Close the threshold,” Tender said. 

Maya blinked and then threw herself toward the control panel. She recognized what was coming at them; it was a missile. 

She nearly tripped, her feet slipping on the scattered components, but she righted herself and staggered toward the control panel. Her hand slammed down on the emergency shut down button, but nothing happened. 

Maya turned to the view screen to see a blooming wave of violet light washing over the communications array and the dimensional cage door. She slammed her hand down on the shut down button again. Nothing. 

Dimensional Lock Engaged. Threshold Locked. 

“What the hell?” Maya demanded as she read the message that appeared on the control panel. “A dimensional lock?” 

“Is that possible?” Bell asked. “It shouldn’t be.” 

“We are trapped here?” Tender asked. 

“I can’t close the threshold and I can’t release us from this location,” Maya frantically began pulling up the menus and options she had basically ignored in the weeks she had the Cage. Now was a bad time to learn how to use the machine. 

“This is the same shit that Shen used on us to lock us out of our dimensional inventory, how can it be used against us now?” Maya paused and summoned a cutter/fuser from her inventory. “I can still use my inventory. How the hell did they figure this out?” Maya glared at the light that was coming off what appeared to be a harpoon stuck into the ground. She pulled in close to the object. 

Alawasaza Type 8 Dimensional Lock Harpoon; high-grade, Tier 1

Protect yourself against pesky dimensional instability with this fast deployable dimensional lock. Works 100 percent of the time 50 percent of the time. 

“Ah,” Tender said as Maya explained what the device was. “It is a common thing to have on hand, although some claim that it is a worthless piece of system tech, sometimes it does prevent dimensional instabilities from forming, for a while, anyway.” 

“We’re basically a dimensional instability,” Maya mused. “And we just got our asses locked down.” She walked back to the control panel and checked it. “We’ve got about sixteen hours left on the clock, who knows what will happen if that lock is still active when we run out of juice.” 

“We might all die,” Yosi said. 

“That’s nothing new,” Maya remarked and sighed. “Shit. I should have expected something like this, we don’t just waltz into a world and think we’ll get away unnoticed.”

“Zono will probably dismantle the ship and the Hangy for the material,” Yosi said. “I hope Veskari doesn’t blame himself for our deaths.” 

“Ease up there, Yosi. We ain’t dead yet and it looks like we’re having visitors.” 

Everyone turned to the view screen again and Maya highlighted a distant object their sensors barely made out. It was a ship, blocky and ugly, but barreling down from the sky so fast that flames were enveloping it. 

“Someone’s in a hurry to greet us,” Maya said. A moment later, her tablet pinged with the arrival of a message. 

I am coming. You better have a good explanation and my brother. 

Pegarios. 

“Well, now I’m glad I brought extra guns,” Bell said. 

“Me too, buddy.” 

***

“So you think we scan as a dimensional instability?” Maya asked Tender. 

“It would be my guess, based on the reaction and the fact that we are breeching void space.” 

“So, we’ll need to figure a way to counter these dimensional lock harpoons, any ideas?” 

“External weapons,” Tender said. “The harpoons are easy to knock down; we also need to increase our scan radius, we should not have been surprised by this attack.” 

“Some good ole point defense cannons,” Maya smiled briefly as she slid another component rack into the pallet she was making. 

“How can you all just talk so normally about this?” Yosi cried. The small dinosaur woman was nervously staring at the view screen, she constantly drummed her webbed hands together and made a clicking sound that Maya figured was stress. 

“You get used to potential life and death situations,” Maya said as she hooked the rack up to the mana supply. Power was being provided directly from the Cage, if it worked, then they could probably shave a few hours off their under the dimensional lock. The worse case senario was that they would all die when the mana ran out and the lock ripped them apart as the Cage tried returning to the dimensional plane. 

Even with her Dimensional Awareness at IV, Maya still didn’t get a feeling about what would happen. Sometimes, she thought, that the Skills only worked when it was convenient for them, not her. 

The only real option they had at had was to run outside and blast away at the harpoon. As Tender was the only one who could go outside, it was suicide. By now the ship that was barreling down at them would have a wide area lock on their location, any sudden moves and the place would be flashed fried.  

Maya wasn’t in a hurry to run just yet, she had to meet with Pegarios and if this is how he wanted to start things out, so be it. Bell had grumbled as he watched the incoming drop ship. 

Hollin Class 2 Multi-environment dropship mid grade, Tier 1.

Fast deployment of combat forces from low planetary orbit.  Seats 7. Upgradeable to Remote Piloting or Piloting AI. 

Then Bell had begun setting up a defense, taking Maya’s tablet and adjusting the Tier 2 tech inside of the Cage. The Cage itself took up nearly seventy five percent of the components that were moving around them, but that still left them with plenty of components to built with. He focused on defenses, as he and Tender had brought along a plethora of weapons. 

“Remind me not to bring an axe to a laser gun fight,” Maya said as she watched Tender and Bell set up a mid grade rotary thermal gun. Maya hadn’t been expecting a fight, instead she had her usual weapons, an axe and a sword. The rest of her Inventory was filled with tools and various items she had yet to sort. 

She took out a ration bar and began chewing on it, holding one out to Yosi who nervously took it and bit into it, making a face of disgust. 

“You eat this?” she demanded. 

“You eat the same,” Maya replied. 

Yosi pulled out a yellow brick from her own inventory. “Different dietary needs, it seems,” she said. “I’m a obligate carnivore. I cannot digest grains and carbohydrates or sugars.” 

“Oh, man. That sucks. Sugar is, like, the best. Carbs, yum.” 

“I will take your word for it,” Yosi said. 

“So you just eat meat and fats? What about alcohol?” 

“I can consume my species form of alcohol, in fact some of my compatriots used to brew illicit alcohol as a side hobby. The Masters allowed it because it kept us quiet and happy,” Yosi frowned. “You are distracting me.” 

“Yeah, totally. Look, we’re gonna be in a lot of fights, a lot of bad things are gonna happen, even if we play this whole thing safe. Don’t let the worry get to you and trust the people around you,” Maya pointed to Bell, Tender, and Nan who was setting up her aid station. Even Roci was eyeing a big gun and skittering around it. “These guys have been in fights with me that had worse odds. They know what to do and they know they can trust me and I can trust them.” 

Yosi nodded. “I did not bring a… weapon.” The last word was said with difficulty. “We were never allowed to touch weapons, even if it was to be carried for our Masters.” 

“Don’t worry about it. We all start somewhere, I never used a weapon on anything before, except my fists, but you learn fast or you die.” Maya smiled, softening the words. “I’m not gonna let you die, if I can help it. Niether are those two chuckleheads.” 

Maya turned to face the view screen. 

The dropship had landed in spectacular fashion. A blast of hot thrusters that had scorched this planet’s version of grass and vegetation, it had also knocked over the comm’s array. The boxy craft seemed to half land and half crash, dirt and flames blasting around it for several meters, that nearly killed the comm’s array.  

“Area clearance,” Tender stated. “It’s meant to clear any mines, mana lattices, or hidden foes around the landing site.” 

Once the ship had landed, a ramp clanged down and half a dozen figures in armor charged out. They were all big and they were all wore system tech armor, but nothing extraordinarly expensive. The black carapace armor she had in her inventory was probably a grade higher than what these shock troops were wearing. 

They weren’t high level, then. Probably the same [Adventurers] that Plaxar’s was serving before the instability sucked everyone away. They weren’t a military force either, as Maya watched several of them yell at one another and gesture for some of them to move, until finally a figure emerged from the ship to restore order. 

That was Pegarios, Maya realized. He was wearing a sleek gray and black armored suit, with an array of weapons on his hip and back. He moved awkwardly, as if he’d never done this before but he did set up a decent perimeter. 

The area was secured and the dimensional lock was reinforced with three more, of which two failed. A big gun was rolled out of the ship and set up to face the wall. Maya had removed the garish markings and designed a front that looked like a bank she had seen in some pictures from before Integration. 

There was a peaked roof about ten meters up and marble-like columns that were equally spaced along the fifteen meter wide front. Behind the columns was a wall of dark smoky glass that couldn’t be seen through, with the marking upon the front displaying Sullivan Survival Society. A large double door sat in the center of the whole structure. 

Maya had plenty of time, as everyone outside of the Cage was moving in slow motion. If she wanted, she could make it even slower, speeding up time in the Cage for her and the others, but Maya wasn’t going to do that just yet. To occupy her mind, she had continued to build the shipping pallet. 

It had been nearly three hours since they had seen the ship rocketing down toward them. Everything moved in slow motion so that Maya could correctly guess what they were doing and where the weapons were going to be set up and how they were going to plan their retreat if things got hairy. The drop ship blasted off, moving a kilometer away to provide a fast getaway and to be out of range of short-range weapons. 

“Find any good items to buy?” Maya asked as she moved Roci from her seat and onto her lap. The AI gave her a very catlike glare.

“I believe the biomass is the best buy,” Nan said. “The elemental analyst seems to be well within what is required to produce more medicine and fill up dwindling supplies, not to mention creating more emergency rations.” 

“How much?” 

“A thousand credits per metric ton.” 

“That’s pretty cheap.” 

“It is biomass, not industrial goods,” Nan said. 

“How much can this pallet handle?” Maya asked. The pallet was a three meter square. 

“These are pallet sized shipments,” Nan replied. “It is standardized and stored within reinforced duracloth containers.” 

“Cool. Tender?” 

“There are several items we should obtain. The most pressing is this,” Tender sent her the information on her tablet. “It is a Deep Scanning Module System, discounted because shipping costs out of the star system costs more than it is worth.” 

“What does it do?” 

“Its a scanning device, able to penetrate most materials to determine if there are easily accessible ores or if there are ancient ruins below the surface.” 

‘Ruins?” Maya scoffed. 

“There have been plenty of pre-Integration and post-Integration societies that have risen and fallen through out the multiverse,” Tender said. “Some of these ruins hold great treasures.” 

“Ah, so someone brought all this stuff in hopes of finding hidden treasure?” Maya asked. 

“Yes. With it we will be able to penetrate the trash piles and obtain a workable list of what lies within them, thereby allowing us to extract the more delicate pieces before Zono recycles them all.” 

“You got me sold, buddy. How much?” 

“Three hundred thousand credits.” 

“Ouch. But worth it. What else?” 

200 programable processors, low grade, Tier 1 - 60,000

2 metric tons, alchemical material, mana trace confirmed by System - 120,000

1 metric ton, ‘junk’ mana batteries, various grades, Tier 1 - 25,000

2 Auto Assemblers low grade, Tier 1 - 125,000

1 Auto Disassembler low grade, Tier 1 - 25,000

Alzonii’s Liquidation - various low grade, Tier 1 tools, machines, and components. Salvage from Kobono’s Town, hit by Dimensional Instability - 150,000

50 liters of System grade, Tier 1 Mana Conductive Gel - 100,000

500 kilograms of explosive gel low grade, tier 1 - 25,000

Yonnivolo Liquidation - Weapons, various low grade, Tier 1 ammunition, weapons, and defense drones for a low price. Salvage from Kobono’s Town, hit by Dimensional Instability. 100,000

“Well, this is exciting,” Maya grinned at the list. She felt a surge of giddiness at what they could potentially do with all this stuff. The processors could be used to program dumb-bots, not AIs, but simple machines to be turned into drones. Bell had come around on buying alchemy goods, saying his occupational skills were atrophying. And it seemed the town they had been visiting in VR and now in reality was called Kobono’s Town.  

Yosi had shown her new shrewd business savvy by digging through all the information and finding the liquidation sales. There were others too, but weapons and building equipment was necessary. The Alzonii Liquidation was exactly what they were looking for, salvage machinery. It seemed Alzonii had run a large salvage operation in Kobono, until the instability just trashed that business. Now, they wanted out and had sold off their stuff at a loss. As it was low grade, Tier 1 stuff, no one was biting. 

Nan had only wanted biomass, as the medical room on the habitat was extensive and well equipped. With Shen’s previous hobbies, Maya understood why he had kept a well stocked medical room.

In that time, Pegarios and his crew had secured the area outside of the wall. They fell into a defensive stance as they discussed their options, hands tapping on their weapons and probably wondering what horrors lay within. 

Maya made no move to try and welcome them. She could have changed the front to display a message to them, but everyone was trigger happy and cautious as hell. She preferred to wait, after all she had thirteen hours. 

“Should we buy it now, or wait until after?” Maya asked. 

“Buy now,” Bell said. “That way if we are killed, they will not be able to loot the money off your corpse.” 

“Good point.” 

“Wait,” Tender said. “Perhaps if we kill them all we will be able to loot more credits off of their bodies.” 

“Even better point.” 

Yosi let out a nervous chirp. “I think they’re heading for the door.” 

“ETA?” 

“I don’t know… one minute?” 

“Plenty of time,” Maya said, stretching and cracking her neck. “Alright, we’ll hold off on the buying for just a moment or three. We’ll see which way the wind blows before we make our final decisions. If Peg is cool with things, we’ll see if he’s willing to enter a beneficial arrangment.” 

“And what are we to do?” 

“Stand by with guns ready, of course.” Maya waved her hand and her shipsuit was replaced by a refurbished black carapace armor. Her pervious set was in the ‘needs to be fixed’ pile that was pretty much everything in the Hangy. “Oof, a little snug there.” Maya stretched again and dropped into a lunge. 

“Yosi, you wanna be by my side or you wanna head to the backroom and wait to see what happens.” 

Yosi twitched nervously, but then straighten and stood proudly. “I am a Sullivan,” she said. 

“Damn straight.” Maya waved her hands again and the Cage began reforming. A wall formed between Nan’s aid station and a metal door sealed the way. Maya concentrated for a moment and a sign appeared upon it, “Authorized Personnel Only”. She grinned and then began changing the room they were in. 

“You, little buddy. Go stay with Nan for a bit, okay?” Maya told Roci as the AI slithered away and went into the back room.  

Shen’s preprogramed furniture was useable, but nothing he had was to her taste. He like things garish and ornate, Maya preferred simplicity and straight lines. But this was a meeting that was meant to impress, it was meant to solidify who was in charge and who was the one making the deals. 

Maya went with ornate and gaudy. 

“Doll up, boys and girls. We’re making an impression.” 

Bell had the same Outfit device she had and with it he summoned forth his old armor. The last she had seen of it was during the fight when Shen first arrived, but it seemed although Shen deemed his weapons useless, his armor had been kept and repaired. Now he stood tall in his plate and chainmail, a sword and shield in his smaller hands, with a large rifle in his bigger hands. 

Tender didn’t change at all, instead he stood slightly behind and to the side of Maya, readying a mana shield and holding a rifle that was equal to Bell’s in size. 

Yosi didn’t have armor, but she had a set of clothing that had survived the twenty thousand years. Apparently, high tiered liked to dress up their slaves to show off how wealthy they were. She wore what Maya would have called a business suit, form fitting and complimenting her brightly colored scales. 

A table formed in the middle of the room and three chairs rose up from the ground. The table was an ornate wooden construct that screamed pricey, even though it was made of Tier 2 system tech components. 

Maya put away her armor. This would be a delicate dance between two untrusting people. There was power in looking vulnerable, she dug through her inventory and pulled out the best she had taken from Huvano’s wardrobe.  

Gold, silver, and purple, she smiled at the clothing. She looked terrible and gaudy, but that’s how high tiered rolled, it seemed. Maya sat down on one of the chairs and Yosi scrambled into the other, breathing heavily. She shook and let out small chirps of fear. 

“Steady there, Yosi. We’ll get through this fine.” 

“Alright,” she said still shaking with fear. 

The door to the Cage blasted open and three figures burst into the room, they staggered for a second as they entered void space, a place completely different from the multiverse they had originally occupied. 

“Hands! Hands! Show us your hands!” one of the figures screamed, their voice was like gravel. “Don’t move!” 

Maya raised her hands, showing them empty. Maybe if she acted quick enough, she could get her enchantment running before they blasted her to pieces. 

“You in the back, drop your weapons!” another cried. 

“No,” Bell responded. 

“Sweet Sword! That’s a rogue AI!” another cried. 

“Hi. I’m Tender.” 

Maya looked at the trio and sighed. They were jumpy, they were scared, and they were about to do something stupid because they were nearly shitting themselves at the sight of Tender. Rogue AIs were a thing to be feared; she hadn’t forgotten that, but she had hoped it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. 

“That one! She’s an Enemy of the State!” the gravely voiced once cried out. The barrel of their weapon swinging her way. 

“Gentle-SIL,” Maya said, raising her voice. 

“Oh, Sweet Sword, that bounty. She has to be Tier 2!” one of the trio cried out. 

“Blast this, I’m not dying to no Tier 2!” the gravely voiced man shouted before he turned and fled back out of the door. He was quickly followed by the two others, but Maya moved faster, raising a wall to trap the last figure. 

The SIL cried out in terror and tried to turn to use their weapon, but Maya encased them in a small metallic box and applied pressure until the weapon clattered to the floor. 

Maya got out of her seat and looked at Yosi who was shuddering in fear. “We got this, Yosi. Don’t worry.” Maya walked to the captured Adventurer and stared at them. 

Haxon Debble - Level 21

“Haxon, old pal. You okay in there?” Maya asked. 

Haxon stared at her, terror in their eyes. Maya looked at the SIL and noted they were roughly female. Big eyes, pouty lips, greenish skin and what looked like quills on the back on her hands and arms. Her arms were multi-jointed and ended in stubby talons. 

“Look, I don’t mean to scare ya’ll. I just need to speak with Pegarios. He’s with you, right?”

Haxon nodded, but didn’t say anything. 

“I need to talk to him, so I’m going to let you go and you’re going to deliver this to him. Got it?” Maya placed a tablet into Haxon’s hand as the captive nodded wildly. 

Maya released the box and Haxon raced for the door. 

“You forgot your rifle!” but she was already gone. 

“I was expecting more of a fight,” Tender stated. 

“Blessed Heavens,” Yosi breathed heavily, leaning upon the table. “I was so terrified.” 

“It’s fine to be scared,” Maya said. “As they say, bravery can’t exist without fear.” 

Maya sat down on her seat again and yawned. It was another waiting game as Haxon stumbled out just as the previous two did. There was almost no sign that she had been captured, but for the lack of her weapon. She immediately raced to Pegarios and gesticulated wildly, telling him everything that had happened. Eventually she gave him the tablet. 

Pegarios for his part, didn’t seem scared. He stared at the Cage wall and looked down at the tablet. She couldn’t see what he was thinking, but Maya understood the body language. He took a moment longer to stare at the tablet and then he walked toward the wall. 

His companions shouted at him to stop or turn back, but only two of them followed him. The rest stayed back and watched, fear welding them to the spot.  

“Am I that terrifying?” Maya asked 

“No. But everyone knows what an Enemy of the State means and as you increase in levels and tiers, the bounty grows.” 

“Wait, what?” Maya dug through her titles and brought up Enemy of the State. 

Enemy of the State

112,958,478,654 sovereign entities have signed the Multiverse Compact where they have deemed the use of dimensional bombs as an act of utter horror. Whole worlds have been destroyed and civilizations have been eradicated through dimensional bombs. Only the most evil of societies employ such weapons.  

-10,000 faction points to every Multiverse Compact signee.

500 million credit bounty.

“Five hundred million?” Maya gasped. “How?” 

“Your Tier upgrade,” Bell said. “I thought you knew that?” 

“No. Why would I?” 

“Oh,” Bell shrugged. “Common knowledge.”

“Christ, will everyone be trying to kill me?” Maya asked. 

Bell shrugged again. “Probably not. That bounty might seem huge, but there aren’t many people who are willing and able to tackle a Tier 2 SIL. Those who openly carry around such a title, well… they can handle themselves.” 

“It is only at the lower levels that one has to fear bounty hunters,” Tender said. “Otherwise, with a huge bounty, many will realize that it means there’s a huge level gap between them and you, so they’ll back off. The only real hampering is the your Title will effect your business relations, because of the faction points.” 

“Right, that negative ten thousand doesn’t bode well.” 

“You most likely will not be able to apply for a trader’s license in this area,” Tender said. “Which would make selling legitimate things far more difficult. The economic awards given by the System allows you access to the Networks, but it does not overcome the fact that you’re still considered a terrorist by the governing political bodies.” 

Maya groaned. “I guess we need Peg more than I realized.” 

“Indeed.” 

At that moment, the door opened once more and a trio of armored figures walked into the room. They were not shouting and one of them carried a tablet. 

The faceplate snapped back and Maya could see a face that she had recognized only from videos. He was similar, blue skinned, black stripes, red eyes, but also different, he looked more tired and his once plump face was a lot thinner than she had seen in the videos. 

“Good evening, Pegarios.” Maya said. “I am Maya Sullivan, these are my associates, Yosi Sullivan, Belmoro Domakun, and Tender.” 

The tablet clattered to the table as Pegarios snarled. “What is the meaning of this? What is this place?” 

Maya looked down at the tablet and displayed on it was: Life Insurance papers for Tommoth, for the equivalent of two million credits. It had been a surprise that Tommoth’s life went for that much, but it was most likely Pegarios’ efforts that had made sure if his brother died, he’d get something out of it. 

The only thing was that, like human life insurance, there need to be a body. Not just identified, but the mana trace on the body had to be matched, which was damn near impossible to fake. 

Maya summoned a box from her Inventory and set it on the table. Bell had been correct that the dimensional plane did not like dead organic things. She had buried the corpse less than two months before, but when she had gone to exhume the body, it was nothing but bones. Which was fine with her, but also disconcerting, because what happened to the organic flesh?

“I thought you might like to have your brother’s remains. I know losing a family member can be difficult,” Maya said. She kept her expression calm and unworried, although her heart was pounding and her hands were about to begin shaking. “You can check the mana trace. It’s him.” 

“How?” Peg asked, there was anguish in his voice. Maya felt her facade crack a little. She held on tight. 

Peg pulled open the box and saw the bones within. They were neatly stacked and cleaned to a purplish green color.  Peg looked at the bones and sorrow filled his face. 

“He was a damned fool, but he was my brother,” Peg said. 

“I understand,” Maya said. 

“Do you?” Peg snapped. “How did you get his bones? How did you get my comm passwords? Everything was destroyed in the instability!” 

“Sit down and let’s have a chat.” Maya smiled.