Cities of the Future

[PurpleXVI]

The bouncers merely gave him a glance as he entered, verifying that he didn't look likely to cause trouble and was too big to push around for kicks.

 

Once inside, Knocko spent thirty seconds coughing violently as he was unprepared for the heavy smoke which hung in a twenty-centimeter thick layer from the ceiling. Anyone who was too tall, like him, had to walk stooped over to be able to breathe. Most of the people there were heavily scarred and armed, dressed in rags or passed out under tables. At a second glance, it turned out that there were very few people passed out under the tables, most of the others lying around on the floor were dead, some in an advanced state of decomposition, which wasn't exactly helping the place smell better.

 

Buying, and unfortunately also drinking, a few glasses of something that tasted like it was 98% wood grain alcohol got the bartender to point out the only man in the bar who looked civilized and unarmed. Dante Adriano. The business man was sitting in a corner, dressed in a business suit that was already looking like it was never going to be entirely clean again, and gave Knocko a wave as he looked his way.

 

In a nearby alcove sat two large men in body armor, shoulder patches proclaimed them as part of Zanzara Industries' local peacekeeping forces. Judging by rumours, they kept the peace locked up in a closet somewhere and instead dispensed large amounts of rubber bullets, pepper spray, non-lethal shocks, crippling beatings and, when they were far enough away from the local law enforcement, very lethal gunfire. At the moment they appeared unarmed, but since modern assault rifles could be folded up to about the size of a Backgammon board, that didn't mean much. Their faces were hidden by gas masks, but he could feel their gaze on him.

[Stampede]

What a place...to hell with a thrashing. If Kate knew he was here...she would kill him.

 

He'd been an engineer for a long time, he'd been to a lot of...heavily industrialised places. Not to mention his time spent with his old gang "Total Hogs", but in all his years, he had never smelt or seen anything like this.

 

He extended a hand to Dante.

 

No need to be rude.

 

But kept the bodyguards in his field of vision the whole time.

 

Then he cut to the chase:

 

"You look like a man of intelligence, so allow me to compliment you by getting straight to the point. Who are you and what do you want with me?"

[PurpleXVI]

Dante, who looked vaguely Hispanic, smiled at Knocko as he shook his hand and pointed to a seat on the opposite side of the table he was sitting at.

 

"Well, Mr. Jones," he began, "I'd like you to take a quick extra shift at your terraforming station. I'm afraid that due to the highly illegal nature of the job I have in mind, I can't really inform you of the details until you're there, though I can tell you that getting caught while doing it would result in the both of us either getting executed or shipped off to the Tau Ceti ship yards to work as slave labor."

 

"It'll be a highly illegal job. If you perform it satisfactorily, you can name your price. In money or goods. The supply convoy should still be waiting up in the entry bay, if you intend to accept, you need merely head up there and get back in. Once you're back at the station, we have a contact who'll inform you of the next stage. You may, of course, inform your family before you go."

 

He stood up and signalled to his guards with his hands that he was ready to leave, "Of course, Mr. Jones, once you're at the station, there will be no turning back. If you attempt to inform the authorities or bug out, we'll have to choice but to terminate you." Before heading off he took a credit card out of his pocket and threw it unto the table, "No doubt this will calm your wife if she intends to protest, it's a Zanzara account card, the credit limit is half a million Universals*. Whatever she uses will be paid, with interest, once the job is completed."

 

Then he left, his body guards walking ahead and shoving a path through the people in the bar.

 

(OOC:

 

*Universals is the currency used on all human planets, by all traders and all nationalities. What you can get for one Universal varies from planet to planet, but on Silver Rock, half a million Universals would be enough to lead a highly opulent lifestyle for over a year. One Universal breaks down into a hundred Solars. If you don't care about luxury, you can live for about 1000 Universals a day on Silver Rock.)

[Stampede]

Knocko was stunned. The frank nature of Dante's manner when referring to his proposal as 'illegal' was incredible. He stared down at the credit card...how was he going to explain this?

 

What was worse, Dante knew he was married, he also seemed to have some insight into the nature of his wifes taste. That frightened him as a family man...and also angered him. Knocko made a silent promise that he would find out just as much about Dante, as Dante knew about him.

 

Still...maybe it was all worth it...unless of course, there came a double cross. Perhaps he could send his family away and take care of the task himself...he decided he would weight it all up on the way home.

 

Now, only two things were for certain: Kate was going to be as mad as all hell...and he was going to go through with Dantes proposal.

 

He would stop by the florist on the way home.

[PurpleXVI]

(OOC: Introducing Travis Reid to the timeline.)

 

 

Travis Reid

 

It had started a few days ago when Travis had found an anonymous post on the Galacti-web which asked for a hacker on Silver Rock to identify himself. That was it, nothing more, no identifying data or mail address at all. Most of the local Web-Nerds shrugged it off, decided it was just an anomaly, and ignored it. Travis didn't, though. He scoured some local records, found some IP addresses and made some discreet enquiries.

 

He was rewarded. He soon found who had posted the notice, it was someone within Zanzara Industries. Further digging found that it was actually one of their high-ups, Dante Adriano. He tried to find out more about the person, perhaps some way of contacting him, but hit a solid wall of perfect server security, went out for some pizza, came home and collapsed on his bed out of exhaustion.

 

The next morning, the searcher had been found.

 

Two anonymous Zanzara goons in body armor, holding assault rifles and wearing gas masks were waiting outside of his door on the 18th level. They informed him, in no uncertain terms, that he was going to follow them. The trip took them all the way up to the 2nd level, where most of the city's subterranean farms were located. A pleasant young man, who identified himself as Dante, congratulated Mr. Reid on figuring out the trail, he was the first to make it that far past their server security.

 

It was a very simple, and very illegal offer, he was going to head up to Entry Bay #14 the next morning, find a large, tattooed man who was boarding a transport and follow him. Once they arrived at their location, all would be made clear. Of course, after boarding the transport, Reid would have two choices. Comply, or suffer an.... Accident. Corpses in the burning desert were rarely found.

 

Currently it was the morning where Travis had to make the choice. During the night, someone had shoved a note into his mailbox which reminded him of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knocko

 

Kate had reservations about whatever it was her husband was headed off to do.

 

Something which paid that well could only be illegal, she said. Something illegal could get him killed or locked up for life, she said. Where would the kids be without a father, she said.

 

Knocko's wife said a lot of things. But eventually, the phrase: "Half a million Universals, and MORE." was the decisive arguments. A large bouquet of her favourite flowers only served to hammer the point home.

 

She fuzzed over him before he left, reminding him to be extremely careful, and did her best to explain to the children that their father was going to be missing for another while. But when he got back? Things would be different. Very different.

 

Once he reached the bay, the transports were still there, as Adriano had promised. Seems they'd gotten delayed by some small equipment malfunctions and spare parts which were slow to arrive. No one seemed to pay him any attention as he found a transport with room to spare and got in, doing his best to make his bulk comfortable in the cramped space.

[Captain Andy]

Travis let out a sigh as he woke. He didn't really want to take on this job that Dante appeared to be sending him on. He showered up and got himself dressed. He had his morning coffee and went through the morning routine before holstering his gun, placing his PDA in his pocket, and placing his Baulwe Wolk around his waist. He stepped outside and read the note from his mailbox before folding it up and shoving it in his pocket. His stomach was churning and he had no idea how he'd be able to do this. As a hacker, he usually knew a lot of stbefore something happened. Not this time. He took a few more breaths before starting out to his destination to meet up with the man mentioned. Once he had made it where he was told to go, he noticed the man described by Dante stepping into one of these convoys. Travis followed after him and stepped into the same one, taking a seat in whatever empty place he could find. He decided he'd wait a moment before striking conversation with the fellow.

[Stampede]

Knocko did his best to act like it was just going to be another day at the grindstone. He tried to act casual, but not too casual...blending into the crowd was never the easiest thing to do and with all these people it was going to be tough to notice if he was being followed.

[PurpleXVI]

No one seemed to be following Knocko until he reached the bay. As he headed for one of the transports he noticed that someone who had been waiting near one of the doors came after him. The man, a pale, skinny guy who apparently hadn't shaved that morning, hopped into the same transport as him and took a seat a short distance away. It didn't appear as though he was going to say anything.

[Stampede]

Maybe he was just being paranoid, but did he not have a right to be? This was not a regular morning. A stupid phrase kept repeating inside his head:

 

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

 

He would stare down the newcomer until he got some sort of reaction.

[PurpleXVI]

As the two sat around, each of them waiting for the other to speak first, the cargo compartment sealed itself. It was dark for a few seconds before the lights went on, and there were some moments of discomfort as the compartment pressurized itself. Slowly, the old machine lurched into action, and through the small windows they could see it rolling out of the bay and up into the desert.

 

Once the thing was moving over level ground, the driver entered the cluttered storage compartment from the cab. He looked like a stereotypical trucker and seemed surprised to see Knocko, "Taking another shift so soon?" he said, "I can't imagine the missus being happy about that." He sized up Travis for a couple of seconds, then ignored him.

 

Knocko had talked with the convoy driver a few times before, on other long runs back and forth, as a way of passing the time.

 

(OOC: The trucks are relatively flat things, almost wider than they're long, and definitely wider than they're tall, to minimize damage from sand storms. Usually each truck has two drivers, taking turns being asleep. Even though most of the trip is automated, it's vital that the trucks have drivers in case the GPS system is damaged or something else makes manual driving necessary, possibly in the case of having to avoid large sand drifts caused by storms, or any rifts in the terrain caused by Silver Rock's active geology. The trucks also have limited armaments in the form of a single turret mounted on the cab, on the off chance that someone should attempt to raid them for their supplies. In case of an emergency, the cabs can also seperate from their storage compartments.

 

Most of the equatorial desert and that which lies between the equator and the poles is standard sandy desert. Lots of dunes, little solid ground. Near the poles, the sand is usually replaced by large rocks and cracked wastelands full of craters, rifts, valleys and caves. Due to this, several illegal organizations and full-blown pirate groups are hiding just on the edge of the restricted military zone on the northern hemisphere.)