The next two cycles fell into an easy routine again. We mined, we filled up containers and we got ready for the next pickup. I was pulling my weight again and it felt good. It sounds stupid because honestly, you would think its more like some kind of labor camp duty. But I actually enjoyed the feeling of working physically. I always had this thing that I didn’t like going to the gym. The main reason was that it was work with no point other than staying fit. I think that if you want to do physical work you can as well do physical work. Dig a hole somewhere, carry building materials… whatever… mine an asteroid.

The other thing was that this work allowed the mind to relax a bit. It wasn’t exactly high stress. Sure, you needed to pay attention to some things but it wasn’t difficult. Especially with skill assists. And it also allowed me to observe the others on the claim.

Mrk and Krn were still very tense about it all and I thought that they would really be better off on the station. The only thing I was worried about was that they would get a visit like I had. So we needed to find a way around that. I would send Brelic or Ralgau with them but I did have a feeling I needed them with me when the excrement hits the air conditioning. And Ygglog… well, I had no idea what was going on in his head at the best of times. After the shit at the ship I had no clue whatsoever. So it was a coin toss. Do I want him with me when I need someone to watch my back or do I want him with Mrk and Krn to watch their backs - when either one was just as likely to backfire?

“Ralgau. That woman that you had me meet in the bar. What’s her deal?” I asked the person that I trusted most.

“Hm. Oh, Nirazera?”

“Yeah, that one. Short, green, white hair.”

“Hm, as far as I know she is a Fixer and a decent one at that.”

Fixer. I wondered if this was the cyberpunk kind of Fixer, as in middle man, or the earth kind of fixer that made problems go away.

“A bit of both. Fixer is skill evolution. It can come out of negotiation, certain other business skills, strategy and others. There is no clear progression on that. But someone with a high level fixer skill is best described as a creative problem solver. That can be in person or through hiring others.” was Ralgau’s explanation.

“Wait what? What is skill evolution?”

“You don’t… nevermind.” he shook his head. “When a skill reaches 50, 75 and 100 points, there is a chance that the skill evolves into something that is more… uhm… suitable or useful based on the way that you lived your life and used your skills.”

Woah, that was huge. First time I heard of it. There was no mention of that in the numbers brief they had given on my last logout. So it must not have happened before or they did not want to spoiler it. Awesome stuff. I want that. But I had no skill anywhere near there and the only higher level skills were for mining. So not interesting right now.

“Do you know if I can contact her? Actually, can you contact her?”

“I can leave her a message and see if she gets back to me, sure.”

“Please send her a message. For now, I would like to organize something for Mrk and Krn, you know, making sure, nothing happens to them when they are on station.”

Ralgau nodded and a short while later he simply stated: “Done.”

Okay, need to see what that would cost and what she could do. I was contemplating if she could help me with the whole ship salvage but that would mean even more people knowing about it and I really really didn’t feel like sharing that information too much. Whatever, had to see if she would get back to us in the first place. In the meantime, we had money to make.

* * * * *

Belt Trade Services would like to thank you for using our services.

As specified during negotiations, you have received partial payment as a member of the mining co-operation in the amount of 168.128 ICU.

For further details see the attachment.

Ore pickup was on time and completely problem free. Which was a good thing. Having some more credits available could not hurt. I guess the Red Moon really didn’t want to mess with the Trading Corp. And I was back to over 300k. Yay for that.

Krn and Mrk had been picked up with the Tug and would be brought to Belt Station. Not really a ride in style but the quickest way out of here. The Tug had also delivered a container that contained our three new turrets. Which, as soon as the Tug was on the way, became the priority.

We discussed positioning for a moment. Opting for moving two of the turrets to create a big laser turret pentagon. That would mean we still have the overlap of three firing arcs at any point and could cover a slightly bigger area. The launcher turret went in the middle of them, which was also the middle of the shelter - mining area - storage area triangle.

We fortified them as much as we could with rocks that we piled around them instead of tossing into the processor. Then we strapped all of that down with some mining nets. The problem was that while it would give the turrets some cover from fire close to the horizon, if a ship passed over them, there was nothing we could do since any cover above would also prevent them from shooting in that direction.

On the other hand, there were systems that could be used to create shield bubbles around the turrets. But the power draw as well as the price tag for these systems was pretty astronomical. So we did the best we could and hoped it would be enough. The missile turret was covered in five overlapping fields of fire which would afford it the best protection.

Now the issue was that missiles had a lot more effective range than the laser turrets. Sure, the lasers were much faster but they degraded relatively quickly. There were bigger ones that had either higher range or more yield but the same was true for missiles. The question however remained on how to use them effectively.

“I’d say we use all at the same range or even hide the fact that we have missiles available until we have to show our hand.”

“Not much of a deterrent then.” Brelic grumbled in response to my suggestion.

“No, not much of a deterrent. However, when they come in close for the flyovers you guys described, they will expect to take a few laser hits that their shield can withstand and then to be out of range, correct?”

“Hm hm.” Ralgau nodded.

“So what happens if they suddenly get a missile shoved up their afterburners?”

“They go boom.”

I nodded. “They go boom.”

“Yeah, but I can tell you from my time with less than legal organisations that they don’t like losing ships and respect. If we cost them a ship, as dumpy as they might be, they will come harder after us.” the Sorren told us.

“Directly or will that cost them time?”

“Hm, depends on how many ships they have in total, how many in this system and how many nearby. But even if they don’t have many nearby, it won’t take them more than a day or two to pull other one’s over here.”

“So you think it’s not a good idea?” I asked him.

“No, I think it is a good idea but there might be other repercussions...”

Brelic waved to him in a go-on gesture.

“What I have experienced is that most organisations like this are split. They run on profit / loss calculations like a corporation. Just with more permanent repercussions.” he explained.

“For example, the organisation I was a not entirely voluntary part of in my younger years was structured like a pretty standard corp. You had one CEO that oversaw everything. Then you had directors, each responsible for different income streams. There was one guy that ran smuggling, another ran piracy, et cetera. Each one of those had several people underneath them that ran their own crews.”

“And what does that mean for us?” I asked.

“Assuming we are dealing with a similar structure here, we can assume we are dealing with the group that runs protection rackets.”

Two assumptions in one statement but then again we didn’t really have more information. So it seemed plausible. Brelic must have come to the same conclusion as we both nodded.

“Okay. From there we have seen certain movements from them. There is a part of that group that deals with people on station. I don’t think they are the same ones that show up in ships.”

Again I nodded. “Yeah, the voices of the people I have dealt with so far have been different. Although I can’t bank on it.”

“If that is true, I think we are dealing with a group that has four or five civilian size ships and potentially a frigate or two. They are probably assigned to this area of the system. The more ships, the bigger ‘this area’.

“If we manage to take out one of those ships, I think that area leadership will rather cut losses. Might have to make it two ships. But I think they will just push on other areas more to make up for the losses and leave us alone. However, we take out more, upper management will take note. They will replace the area leadership and either put new people in charge to bring us under control or wipe us out. Worst case scenario, they will come themselves.”

“So you think we should hide the missiles and then blow up a ship as a surprise?” Brelic asked, arms crossed in front of his chest.

I was not an expert on Fell body language but that was the universal sign for I don't like it and don’t want to hear more.

I turned to him. “What’s your suggestion then?”

He shrugged. “When they come in we launch a missile at optimum range and show them that we mean business.”

I looked to Ralgau. “What’s your take on that?”

“Could also work. If they see that we mean business without any financial loss, they might just stop coming here but they will try to find other ways to put pressure on us. On station, by pushing deliveries and pickups or other things.”

“They tried the pickup harassment already.” Brelic threw in. “Not sure why but they stopped that real quick once they figured out who our broker contact was.”

“My point is that missiles cost money and I would rather make a point with them instead of firing chunks of 1500 credits into space in the hopes that will convince anybody.” I replied. “However, you guys have simply more experience than me. And you already heard me, I would prefer no bloodshed but I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”

Brelic and Ralgau conferred for a little longer but in the end it was decided to go with Brelic’s suggestion. Basically another warning shot, just a more meaningful one. While missiles at optimum range meant that they would have no problem taking out a normal civilian vessel, I had to assume that these guys either had a point defense weapon system or countermeasures for missile defence. Which meant that they would get out just fine after we had given away our biggest surprise. Here is to hoping it works!