Kelvin took a glance as she laid it out on the desk and saw nothing but a mess of lines and words. “OK, I'm not even going to try to figure out what all that means.”
“It means you need to take the engineer specialization and then use it,” Bailey said. “One of the automatic perks is being able to read more and more complicated schematics the more you use it.”
“That's going to take too long. Why would I do that when I have you around to explain it?”
She shook her head and looked down. “Hm, looks interesting. And if this list is right…”
“It is,” Jocelyn said.
“Then it's doable with what we have, it looks like. Only problem is that we're probably going to need to put it in dry-dock to do some of the mods.”
Kelvin glanced over at Alex. “And that's going to be trouble if we need the ship for another mission.”
“Actually,” Alex said, “you might not need it. We're making a shipment from Kromus back here.”
“Why wouldn't we need our ship? Are we sending it across the rail line?”
“Too expensive,” Alex said. “And it's not actually our shipment. We're temporarily putting another guild's vessel under our control and sailing it back here. Once it's back in port we'll hand it back to them.”
“Any reason for that?” Shane asked.
“Simple. They've done their fair share of smuggling, and the Iron Guild is starting to take notice. Hidden compartments won't do you a lot of good when the patrols are looking for them and willing to take your ship apart to find them.”
“So we're taking control of the ship because we're above suspicion, then sailing it back here for them and handing over the cargo to them. We're taking all the risk here. What's the benefit for us?”
“The money, of course. And then there's the added bonus of having someone owe us a favor. The guild in question isn't the biggest, but it's large enough to help us if we need it. So we should take advantage of the opportunity.”
“What's the crew going to be?” Teresa asked.
“Hm, that's a good question. Do you want to upgrade your ship while you're on the mission?” Alex asked them.
Shane nodded. “That would be a good idea, yes.”
“Then Bailey should stay here to do that. And Jocelyn as well. That leaves you three, and I'll send Teresa with you as well. And to round it out I'll add Gordon and Will. That gives you six crew, with two pilots, a lookout, and an engineer.”
“And we're getting there by rail, I assume?”
“Yup. We'll do the mission as soon as possible. There's no hard and fast deadline, so long as we get it done this week. So whenever you can arrange a time will be fine.”
“We're generally free in the evenings,” Shane said. “Just give us a time and we'll see if it can work.”
“I'll get with the others and let you know,” he said. “For now get whatever you need together and focus on getting your ship ready. We'll need it later.”
The next evening the Rho crew met at the train station and departed for Kromus. Shane took a window seat and watched the forests fly by as the sun began to sink lower in the sky.
The rest of the crew had given them quick greetings but lapsed into relative silence, and Shane wasn't sure what to say to them. Brandon and Kelvin seemed quiet as well, and for some reason he felt a sense of foreboding.
He didn't know why. This was a relatively routine run, just taking a different ship through the edge of the southern sea and making their way back to Beylan. He had traveled the route several times before, and Rho Trading Company had their contacts and agents. They were above suspicion, at least from the Iron Guild.
He knew that, but as he looked through the train car Shane spotted many others going about their business. A few wore the emblem of the Iron Guild, but those weren't the ones he was worried about. No, it was the ones that hid their allegiance, the ones not officially affiliated with the Iron Guild, but willing to sell them information at the right price. The guild hadn't gained control by just using force, after all. Subterfuge, bribes, turncoats, and above all else, paranoia and fear.
It wasn't just a matter of them gaining information. It was the mere possibility of it, the fear and paranoia that anyone could be an enemy, or at least willing to sell the other out for the right price. More than one alliance had broken up when the members began fighting amongst themselves, convinced the others were Iron Guild sympathizers.
That was probably why they were keeping their mouths shut along the way, he realized, and why he felt such a sense of foreboding. They were on their own, and couldn't speak freely until they were safely aboard their ship or back at the guild office in Beylan. A few words at the wrong time that got back to the wrong person, and they were in serious trouble.
The train continued to rumble through the forest. And even with no overt threats present, Shane felt like they were surrounded by enemies.
Chapter Seven
Night had fallen over Kromus by the time the train pulled into the station. Brandon followed the rest out of railcar and onto the platform.
“OK, so our contact should be around here somewhere,” Gordon said. He hat a tall, lanky build and brownish-red hair. According to Alex he'd be in charge of the mission.
“What are we looking for?” Brandon asked.
“They didn't give us much detail. They're supposed to find us, so we can wait for now.”
Their group moved to the station wall and made idle conversation. Shane and Kelvin made idle conversation with the other three, but Brandon remained silent. He didn't know the others at all, and he still wasn't completely sure they could trust them. He had no doubt that Rho's interests aligned with their own, but there was no telling if one of them might be a double agent.
The minutes ticked by, and they still had no sign of their contact. Brandon grew more and more worried by the second. The possibilities began to circulate through his head. Had they been left in the cold? Was their contact spooked? If so, was the guild onto them?
Brandon was still considering them all when someone moved past them, their face obscured by a hood. For a moment he didn't think anything of it, but then out of the corner of his eye he saw Gordon holding a piece of paper…
“Let's go,” Gordon said, motioning for them to follow.
He tried not to sigh. More intrigue on what should have been a simple mission. Brandon wondered about the wisdom of taking on the job. It didn't seem risky, but who knew what kind of trouble the other guild could have brought with them? Rho had to take whatever they said at face value, but would the other guild tell them the whole truth?
The entire situation had started to sour him on their new guild. He still wasn't sure he had much faith in their guild master. Alex had a magnetic personality and seemed to know what he was doing, but Brandon had begun to sour on him. Something about him seemed… put on, almost fake. He didn't know if he had picked up on something, or if he was just paranoid, but…
The group stepped out onto the streets and headed down one of the main boulevards.
“I assume we have directions now?” Will said, his hood up.
Gordon nodded. “You could say that, yes. But it looks like we're going to need to do some legwork before we start.”
“Why?” Brandon asked.
“Because that wasn't our contact. Just a messenger.”
Brandon tried not to groan. “Just a messenger. Does that mean what I think it does?”
“I can't read minds and I'm not going to speculate out loud on the open street. But I think it's a pretty good bet,” Gordon said.
For a moment he thought about suggesting that they take the next train back to Beylan, but after a moment Brandon thought better of it. They had a job to fulfill, and he didn't think the others were willing to go along with him. They'd try to accomplish the mission they had been given, even as just a matter of pride.
They passed grey stone buildings lit up by the faint glow of street lamps. Brandon kept a watchful eye out,
glancing at every alleyway they passed and frequently looking up toward the rooftops for any signs they were being followed.
The others showed little concern, but Brandon felt uneasy. Their contact hadn't arrived as planned, and that could only mean they were spooked. Were they just panicking, or was the Iron Guild on to them?
Kromus felt different from Beylan, even during the daytime. Brandon had been here a few times before, and he always noticed a dampness hanging over the city. It always seemed to be raining, or when it wasn't a thick fog hung in the air. The weather always seemed dreary, most of the buildings dilapidated, the players trying to finish their business as quickly as possible so they could leave.
People came to Kromus for the trade goods, but few of them wanted to stay. Brandon had to commend the designers for making this place have such a drastic effect on everyone, but Kromus was wretched, an entire city like the worst parts of Beylan, only with worse weather.
And the worst was the feeling that someone was always lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting for the right moment to pounce. Even the seediest parts of Beylan didn't have that kind of aura.
Isolated in the middle of the night, in a city that held a long list of dangers, and now their plan was already going awry. Once again Brandon felt extremely vulnerable.
“Are you ready?” Jocelyn called to her.
Bailey gave her a thumbs up. “I'm ready.”
“Good then. Watch your head.”
“You can't die in this district,” Bailey said.
“Never mind. Force of habit,” she said.
Bailey understood why she had given those instructions. They were in the process of lifting the old expansion unit out of the engine room, and normally one slip could send thousands of pounds of metal careening into an unsuspecting victim.
But this was the port district, and death was impossible here. Bailey wasn't about to test those limits, but she imagined that the unit would just bounce off of her, maybe knocking her to the ground at worst.
With a groan and some creaking the expansion unit lifted away, pulled up by a crane into the open sky.
The ship's deck could be easily removed in spots, even if that meant having to unbolt it, and they used that capability to their advantage. Without it they would have to dismantle the entire unit and carry it out piece by piece, leaving it as little more than scrap metal. This way they could at least sell a complete expansion unit, and someone would be in the market for it.
Jocelyn walked down the stairwell. “So the harbor drones will get that to the warehouse. Our concern is getting the rest of this set. We can sell off the expansion unit later to help defray the costs.”
Bailey nodded and looked around at the engine room, now seemingly in comparison to its normal state. She had only traveled in it for a short while, but during that time she had grown accustom to the way it worked. Now she'd be going through changes once again.
“So that's the expansion unit. Are we doing anything with the furnace?” she asked.
“Nope, that stays. There's no reason to mess with it right now, not with what we're doing,” Jocelyn said. “You picked a good unit for that, by the way. Its burn capability is ridiculous. But the single expansion cylinder was always going to hold it back. This means you'll be able to get more power. Or, if you prefer, you'll be more efficient with your coal.”
“Either one is a good thing,” Bailey said. “So what's that going to cost us?”
Jocelyn waved a hand. “Come on, this dry-dock unit has a workshop that comes with it. And its roof opens, so we can use the crane to lift whatever we build and place it where we want.”
Bailey fell in behind her. “I assume you got the materials?”
“Of course. And we're going to have to do a lot of work to get this thing done. Might be several days. But the effort's worth it, right?”
“I think it will be,” Bailey agreed. “And I like to tinker.”
“Is that a hobby, or a profession, or what?”
“Both, I guess?” she said. “My dad was a mechanic and taught me a lot about it. I didn't go into the field, but I guess I was always interested in it at some level. At least I'm capable of changing the oil on my car and rotating the tires.”
“Ah, I see. Well, virtual reality is always good to play around with things that you'd never get the chance to in the real world. I don't know anywhere that I could screw around with a steam engine and take it apart, but here? Here it's just business as usual.”
They stepped into the workshop, and Jocelyn flipped on the lights. Bailey was greeted by the sight of an assortment of metal parts spread out on a sheet, along with another stack of nuts, bolts, and tools on a workbench.
“We're following the schematic, right?”
“To a degree, but we needed to modify it for your engine. Like I said the boiler can pump out a ridiculous amount of power, so we want to make sure that we're using it all.”
Bailey walked over to the sheet of metal parts. “This looks like… a lot of smaller units. Aren't these the expansion units that you'd put in a mini engine? Like the one you'd put in a motor-launch?”
“That's the one. A few in various sizes. Remember that we're separating the unit into four different parts. They only need to handle a small amount of steam at a certain pressure before it moves on to the next chamber. But the finished unit should be about the size of the old one. Maybe a little bigger. But it will fit.”
“Lot of welding and bolting to do.”
“There is, and we'd best do it right. Otherwise it's going to be you that's getting broiled if anything fails.”
Bailey nodded. “Better do it right, then. Though sometimes I think it's safer to just buy pre-made stuff off the market. At least that's guaranteed to work up until the components need replacing.”
“Where's the fun in that?” Jocelyn said with a smile. “And anyhow, the pre-made stuff has its limits. That's why the free crafting system exists. Heck, I've heard of people building their ships entirely from scratch. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try it, but it might be a fun project.”
“Till your hull springs a leak and then you get to ride all that money to the bottom of the ocean,” Bailey said. “But I see your point. And I like the free crafting system too. There's so much stuff to play around with.”
“It's great, isn't it?” Jocelyn said.
She nodded. “So where do you want to start?”
“First let's try to get the frame together. After that we can work on getting the major pieces in place and then connecting them together.”
“Alright then,” Bailey said, pulling off her jacket, “let's get to work.”
The note led them off the main streets into the back alleys, through twists and turns. Without the guidebook Shane would have been completely lost, but with the map contained inside they were able to navigate their way through Kromus.
Shane tried to keep a brave face, but inside he was becoming more and more worried the further they strayed from the main roads. They hadn't seen anyone back here so far, but that didn't mean there weren't eyes tracking their progress. And the fact that their contact wanted to meet with them so far away from their original rendezvous concerned him as well. They might be walking into a trap.
He felt the hilt of his cutlass and gripped the pommel for a moment. None of them had brought their ranged weaponry, because none of them suspected that they'd be doing anything more than getting to the ship, pulling out of port, and then sailing back to Beylan.
Shane had a feeling that something had gone very wrong, but he didn't want to say anything. If there was a spy following them his words could very well tip them off.
“Well then, here we are,” Gordon said as they stopped in front of a three story brick building, faintly lit by the surrounding lamps. “Looks like it might be abandoned.”
“That's unsettling,” Teresa commented. “So, are we just going to walk in there?”
“Of course. What else is there to do?”
S
hane looked at Brandon and Kelvin, and then all three pulled their blades. “We're going in armed, that's what,” he said.
“I know this isn't a safe zone, but is that really necessary? There's six of us.”
“And we have no idea what might be waiting in there for us,” Shane said. “If they take offense to it, too bad. They're the ones that are jerking us around.”
“Still...”
“You can go in there with your hands empty if you want. I'm going in with my blade drawn, or I'm not going in there at all.”
Gordon shrugged. “Suit yourself. But try not to cause any problems. We can't afford to start a brawl we could have avoided.”
Shane shrugged back. “No trouble with me. This is strictly defensive.”
He didn't want to say anything more to cause a divide with his new guild-mates, but Shane wasn't about to back down. This place seemed like trouble, he could sense that much, and walking in without a way to quickly defend himself seemed like the perfect way to get a blade through the throat.
And at the very least they needed to be able to get away from a fight without getting killed. The enemy could loot their corpses for their guidebooks, which showed the player's name, affiliation, and other important information. If the Iron Guild had found out and set a trap for them then even a single death could leave Rho Trading Company red-handed.
“If someone dies we're going to try to get them away,” he said to Brandon and Kelvin as quietly as he could manage. “Or at least get their guidebook.”
“You have a bad feeling about this too, huh?” Brandon said as they stepped up to the door.
If the other three heard their conversation they paid them no heed. Gordon reached down and opened the door, then stepped through.
Shane followed them in, blade at the ready to deal with any signs of trouble. He heard the floor creak underneath them as they stepped through the entryway. Either Kelvin or Brandon shut the door behind them, and they found themselves inside a dark hallway.
It was difficult to tell in the dim light, but the floor appeared dirty, the wallpaper torn and ratty. This building hadn't been used in a while.
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