When I waked into the Rambler, my good mood was definitely tainted by that encounter and I needed to figure out how word had gotten out about my interest in the claim. I nodded to Ralgau but before really speaking to him I made my way to the bulletins. I pulled up the market information and checked some asteroid miner groups to see what they did for defense.

There was a lot of information and once again it came down to price. There were various ways to assure your claim wasn’t bothered. Most of them centered around claim jumpers but one or two of the discussions also centered around corporate bullying and pirates. And the range of suggestions went from manned defensive posts to hired mercenary groups all the way to automated defenses.

Now with the small claim operation that I had planned mercenaries were right out of the window. Just too expensive. There was no way that I would be able to float the bill for that. That left me with automated defenses and manned posts. Both seemed reasonable and to be honest I wanted both. I was sure that the Red Moon clowns would try to make trouble. So I wanted to have both in place.

However, a basic defense turret with kinetic ammunition ran between 9k and 12k whereas a laser version was around 15k. The missile variant was actually only around 8k but each missile was around 1 grand. Good thing: If you didn’t fire them you could just sell them back. However the idea that every shot cost me a day of mining wasn’t appealing.

But in the end I had options. And that was what mattered. I also looked into the personal arms sections. This running around unarmed needed to be rectified ASAP. And here the options nearly overwhelmed me. Pressurized air pistols that fired anything from stun to shredder darts, slug throwers, lasers. And that were the pistols or what was categorized under small arms. Which I assumed my skill was good for. Then there were rifles which came in all the above variants but also as handheld mini-missile launchers, EM accelerators and plasma launchers. Although the latter apparently sucked against anything moving and smaller than a tank.

Okay, again, I had options.

I disconnected the bulletins and finally made my way over to Ralgau.

“What’s gotten you so worked up?”

“I had an encounter of the unfriendly kind. Got something to drink for me?” I asked my favorite soon-to-be-ex-bartender. He in turn put a green bottle in front of me.

“How did the mining go?”

“Not bad. Actually went off without a hitch and I have increased my skills. Also got a notification that I can now mine Pyzite.”

He whistled softly. “Nice. That is a tier two mineral. With that you can actually start making real money. I think it sells around two ICU per unit.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “Yep. From what I understand, this is when mining becomes profitable. But then again I have never been a miner myself.”

I chuckled. “Well, you are about to earn some firsthand experience when we get out there. How are your finances looking?”

“4000 and a little.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “How soon can you walk away from here?”

“As soon as I want. My cube is already on a day to day basis and I notified the owner that I will be walking out of here as soon as the case is paid off.”

I flicked my interface open and set 21k aside for quick transfer. Then I lifted my left hand and wiggled it around. Ralgaus eyes became wide and he in turn put his arm palm up similar to how he had done when we spoke first. I waved my wrist over his and the transfer was completed. I was suddenly 21k poorer. But I had a partner.

“Go take care of your case and then let’s meet our new friends. And I need to tell you about the friendly people I met when got back to station.”

15 minutes later I had finished my drink and both Ralgau and I walked out of the Rambler.

* * * * *

“So, where are we meeting our co-miners?”

“There is another bar and inn called ‘The Rocket-Wrench’. The Youngaaarrings have a room there. Same for Bredic. And Ygglog is meeting us there. I already sent him a message.” The way he said the name made it clear to me that I would never be able to pronounce it and I decided right then and there that I would think of them as the “Youngs”.

“Ah, the luxury of having a connector,” I joked.

He raised one of his not really existent eyebrows at me. Okay, point taken.

“On that note, how well do you know these folks?”

“Why?”

“Because I was approached by a group called Red Moon. Have you heard of them?”

His sharp intake of breath and him stopping in his tracks was all I needed as an answer.

“See, I find the timing a little too… coincidental. We find four people to join us and shortly after someone is already trying to shake us down.”

Ralgau scratched his chin. I didn’t even know why I trusted him with this. Maybe it was him who sold us out to get the ship back and out of debt with me. Or he had invited a Red Moon mole. Knowingly?

Bah..., I shook my head. I could not start thinking that way or everything was already over and the claim would never get off the ground.

At the moment Ralgau spoke up: “I don’t think it was any of them. I know the Youngaaarrings, they have been customers and were part of a co-op before. And the reason they left this one is because the claim holder ran off with their money. Brelic has been around this station for a few standard years. He grew up on a claim but prefers engineering over mining. Now he sees his chance to do both on our co-op. The only one I don’t know too well is Ygglog. He just arrived at station with a transport and he put the word out that he is looking for work. Similar to you when you asked me. The thing is that his kind are nothing if not straightforward.

“No, I think that they got their information from some other source. And to be honest, op-sec wasn’t something either of us was thinking a lot about when we came up with the plan for the claim. I wouldn’t even be in if not for you lending me the money to pay off my case. The thing is, any kind of administrator that wants to make a few ICU on the side will leak information. The bulletins are not as secure as everybody wants you to believe. So after that is said I have no idea where the leak came from but I am rather certain it wasn’t intentional from one of us.

“Now the Red Moon group is a known issue around here. Are we still going through with it?”

“Well, I will inform our new co-miners of all of this and see how they react but yes, I still want to go for it. If I would step aside every time someone bullies me I would never have gotten anywhere!” I spoke with conviction. Neither in law enforcement nor in professional gaming you went far if you gave in to bullying or trolling.

Ralgau watched me as his forehead scrunched up. “And where have you gotten? Memory coming back?”

“Ah… uhm… not exactly. I just have a feeling that in the past I have stood up to my fair share of people like this. Maybe that is how I ended up here. But I’ll be damned if I get stuck in a mining system in the ass-end-of-nowhere.”

Ralgau nodded. “Count on me to have your back,” he said with conviction.

* * * * *

When we got to the The Rocket-Wrench I was stumped again. How can a shitty station like this have so much diversity? Everything about this place looked all messed up. And while the bar wasn’t in much better condition it looked like it was straight out of some steampunk enthusiasts wet dream. Cogs and Wrenches were everywhere. Even the tables and seats were made of them. If I had to guess where to find an engineer or tinkerer or a crazy inventor, I had found the place.

We made our way to a table that already held three people. Two were Quirt, which meant I had no idea what they looked like because they were covered from head to toe in a vac suit. Like me. Thinking of it, I actually had no idea what I looked like either. I mean so far that hadn’t even popped into my mind even though I had seen many Quirts on station. But I guess it was different when you were expecting to build a relationship with people. I was used to looking people in the eyes when I talked to them. But now two slightly purple tinted faceplates turned my way. The voices I heard when they introduced themselves seemed modulated and their names were Mrk and Krn.

Yeah, I admit it. Right there I rolled my eyes. And I was happy that I also had a tinted face plate showing to them. Mrk Youngaaarring and Krn Youngaaarring. Mark and Karen Young. There we go. Much better. I mean I had no problems pronouncing their first names but thinking of them as Mark and Karen made me instantly more comfortable with them.

The other person was another Fell. He looked like ‘Gimli gone scifi’ including the braided beard and long hair. How that worked in a vac suit I had no idea but then again, that wasn’t my problem to deal with. He was introduced as Brelic.

As Ralgau made introductions another person joined us. He or she, I couldn’t tell, was an insectoid. Somewhere between ant and praying mantis with four legs and two arms, covered in a shiny black carapace that looked like chitin. It’s face… stop… don’t think of people as it. Their face was slightly triangular with slit-like eyes and no chin but mandibles. Yeah, I would not now how to read any expression in that face. Plus that individual made me shiver when their eyes stared at me. They were just so different. Everyone else I had met so far had at least appeared humanoid.

His voice was somehow raspy and smooth at the same time and it made my teeth hurt when he introduced himself as Ygglog.

Ralgau and I took a seat at the table and Ygglog just bent his legs a little to be at the same height as us.

“Sooo…,” I started. “As Ralgau said, my name is Solo, Malcolm Solo. And I am planning to start an asteroid claim co-op. I surveyed the rock I want to set up on and it has an 11% Endritte concentration.

I looked at two nodding faceplates, a smiling Dwarf… uhm… Fell and the expressionless face of an insect. Great.

“I am a huge fan of putting out all information directly. With that being said, neither Ralgau nor me have any experience running a mining claim and we plan on figuring it out as we go along. We have some ideas but the lack of real experience will not make things easier.”

Mark’s modulated voice cut in. “Both Krn and me have experience on asteroid claims. We can definitely advise and make sure that the co-op get set up and working quickly and correctly.”

Ygglog tilted his head to the side and then addressed me: “Will you be the leader?”

I hesitated for a moment. I had read up a little on the different races as a matter of figuring out my place in this universe. From what I understood of the Drak, hierarchy was important to them.

“While I will not make decisions alone, in the end my word is what we go with. However, as I said, my experience is lacking and I will welcome input to make the best decisions possible. I want this claim to work. I assume we are all interested in making money. So this is going to be my second highest priority. Along with making sure that the claim will be safe.

“Sadly we already attracted more attention than I would have liked and I was approached by an organisation calling themselves the Red Moon who encouraged me to work with them. Meaning paying them so they leave us alone.”

Ralgau looked at me. “What did you actually say to them in response?”

“That I will keep them in mind. I didn’t feel like rejecting them when they cornered me but to be honest but I don’t plan on paying them either.”

“Good thing you don’t. These leeches will just suck us dry and we end up working full time for ‘em. I have no interest in that,” Brelic chimed in while the Youngs faceplates turned to each other and I had a feeling that they were discussing this new development among themselves.

“The strong will always try to take from the weak.” Ygglog added his ‘helpful’ commentary to the discussion.

I looked at him. “I know. So the thing we have to make sure of is that we are not weak. Which means that apart from the setup for the claim, we also need to plan a setup for security.”

Ygglog wiggled his head in a way that could mean agreement. Or not. I had no clue. However Ralgau and Brelic nodded to my statement.

“Mister Solo,” Krn’s voice chimed in. “We are not fighters and we do not look for confrontation. We desire to work on a claim and establish a small industrial base. We are both intermediate asteroid miners and my husband has skills in industry and production while I have skills in trade and business.”

I nodded to that. “Believe me, I do not want any conflict with anybody. I want to make money and do it well. So I would be more than happy to take your advice on any of the things you are skilled in. I have some experience in dealing with these types of people and as far as I know Ralgau also has some skills around making sure we keep everybody safe.”

I turned my head to Brelic and Ygglog. “What about you?”

“I have no skills in asteroid mining. I have skills in combat. We will be strong.” the insectoid replied to my question.

“Yep. I do have intermediate mining skills and like most of my family I also have some skills in defensive systems.”

“Defensive systems?” I asked.

“Comes with the territory.” Brelic shrugged. “I am from a family of asteroid miners. I grew up on a claim. When you are out there sitting on a rock there are always some people that think they can take advantage of you. So you make sure that you are in a position to not been taken advantage of.”

“Oh, that’s good to know. I need to pick your brain later.”

From there our discussion turned to the logistics of setting up the operation. We discussed the setup, the needed supplies, the direction we wanted this claim to go. And while I was totally sucked into the planning and setup of the business, I had the ship inside the asteroid in my mind.

In the end all of us agreed to give the operation a go. I offered to use Rustbucket to ferry people and equipment back and forth but was quickly convinced otherwise. It would take way too long to transfer people and material out there. Plus some of the equipment would be too big. It was easier and quicker to use a transport service from the station. It would be more expensive too. The one good thing was that everybody was responsible for their own equipment and I only needed to take care of myself and Ralgau.

We agreed that we would spend another 24 standard hours on station to take care of arranging everything and then would get going.

After that I took some time and talked to Brelic about what security systems he had experience with and what his suggestions were. During that discussion we also got some food and then Ralgau and I took our leave. He heading back to his cube. I went back to Rustbucket via the concourse of the station where I stopped at a personal security store and after some shopping, discussion with the Grelic merchant and a test firing I bought a mid size compressed air flechette pistol, two extra tanks and twenty magazines of ten flechettes each plus a holster. I also got the manufacturer’s maintenance guide. After strapping it to my side and throwing the extra magazines into a backpack I was 1850 ICU poorer but I felt a lot better.