With Friends Like These

United Reclamations - Central Processing Site - Beylix
Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the ship settles on the ground at the Unified Reclamation site, there was some damage from the buffeting the ship took outrunning those missiles. The port has five large hexagonal pads. On one of which is the large blocky UR ship. Val orders Poco to give the ship a once over and check for readiness to fly... just in case.

The site sits in the middle of an enormous field of trash as far as the eyes can see. On the outskirts to the south are the skeletal hulks of hundreds, perhaps thousands of wrecked space craft. Between the space craft and them was a veritable sea of trash. The trash is combed through by thousands of people for anything of value, Which is placed on highway wide conveyor belts that head into a large complex that resembled a monstrous concrete volcano, smoke and all. The trash is separated into different forms, salvageables, recyclables, organic, combustibles, dangerous, and 'other'. The workers are carefully scrutinized by guards. The place stinks, it is noisy, and it's uglier than sin.

Speaking of which. Poco, alone checking out the damage from their landing, notices two ugly people in UR uniforms approach him. He edges around some landing gear for cover and a chance to scope them out. He recognizes them as Luka and Benny, two guys he worked with on an 'independent' (illegal) salvage ship called "The Daisy." Their captain, Mustafa Mounous, thought the name was hilarious. You see what Poco was working with. In the brief time before they closed the distance between them, Poco wondered whether they might harbor some resentment about their last job together. It was an illegal salvage, a nice one, big freighter loaded with supplies for some Border world, easy to fence. Only problem, a UR ship showed up and sent a message in the form of a missile barrage asking them to "kindly cease their operation". Captain Mounous ordered them to bugger out. Poco was at the airlock closing up for their escape. Luke and Benny got to the airlock just in time to see Poco seal their fate and shut the airlock.

"See Benny, I told you I recognized that bloke" Luka, the bigger one mentioned to his smaller, but meaner friend. "Why, if it ain't our bosom buddy, loyal to the core, Poco.”

Benny eyed Poco and glanced around.

Poco leaned forward lazily against the landing gear, resting one hand on a stabilizer and surreptitiously giving it a good twist. As he suspected it was loose enough to nearly pop loose. It wasn't the Baron, but it'd make a serviceable club if it came down to it. "Well, good day to you gentlemen!" he said with a cheeriness that he did not feel. UR uniforms were bad. It meant that they had a semi-reputable front for whatever shady dealings they had going, which meant they had some amount of authority. Poco's authority only reached as far as his stabilizer could swing. "You're looking mighty......not dead? How's business?" Maybe if he could trick them into revealing any part of their organization, he'd have some way to weasel out of the situation. He needed them pissed off and stupid. Luckily, he happened to know that they were both.

The two looked at each other. Then back at Poco. "Yeah bout that." Benny says. "No thanks to you..."

Luka moves to tower over Poco, "maybe we should get some pay back."

"Now fellas, we can go and pretend that we were some big band of brothers with secret handshakes and all," Poco said as he tightened his grip on the stabilizer, "but we all know that roles reversed, I would've been out that airlock 'fore I could blink.”
"Let's put all that behind us and go have a drink. I'll even buy the first round."

Luka looks like he is going to pound a new dent in Poco's head. But Benny calms him down. "Yeah Poco. Water over the bridge. Let's a drink, you're buying”

They lead Poco into the Commons and down into a seedy looking bar. The place is packed with other UR workers.

"Ah, what a colorful establishment," Poco says without any enthusiasm. He makes his way to the bar, trying to keep Benny and Luka in front of him, or at least in sight. Pressing his belly up against the bar, he motions for drinks. Once the drinks arrive, he downs the glass before gesturing to their UR uniforms. "Looks like you two got a pretty sweet deal going here. Worked your way into the system, eh?"

Benny takes his drink and walks back to a booth near a foul smelling restroom. Luka grabs Poco by the scruff and drags him along. They sit him down in the booth, and Benny looks like he is trying to think through something. "It ain't too bad, steady work, and all. But.. there is the matter of.. your betrayal..." He sort of half smiles and half sneers. "Now how are you going to pay that off?"

Poco sputters in disbelief. "You're joking, right? I've been turned upside down by half the crews in the 'verse. Sometimes you get betrayed, sometimes you do the betrayin'. If I hadn't've flung your asses out the airlock, I would've been shot by Captain Moron, and you damn well know it. I bet you've stuck it to half a dozen chumps since. I ain't exactly happy that we parted ways via an explosive decompression, but I'll be damned if I'll be guilted over gluttony by two hyenas. So what's really going on? My gut says you've got a job, a Real Paying Job. Now if you've got some action, I could be on board with helping you out with that," Poco finished his tirade emphatically by stabbing his finger into the table and pounding back another glass of swill. As he wiped the "liquor" from his chin, he casually added, "You know, for old times sake. And only because I feel bad for how we left off. So long as it pays, of course."

Benny looks a little chagrined. "Your gettin us the job. I reckon you got something on that ship of yours worth something. Right? You bring us on board, you loot the safe, hand it over, then we's all even... just like you said."

Poco remembered Benny being dumb, but more of an endearing sort of stupid. This was an entirely new, as yet undiscovered level of idiocy, and it set him back for long than he'd like. Maybe going out that airlock had addled the man. "OK...." Poco started, and then stopped. "Well...." he tried again and again trailed off into slight confusion. "Ah.....and.....er.....just what do you imagine is inside the ship?"

"Ships carry cash for to pay the crew, pay port fees, fuel and such. Ship that size probably carries a bit. We ain't greedy, are we Luka?" Luka smiles knowingly. "A couple hundred or two will make us all to rights"

"I'm going to level with you two. The only thing tighter than my captain's purse is his puckered--ahem. The ship is a pile of junk and he keeps his money in his own pockets. One of the meanest sons-'o-bitches I've ever worked for, so I wouldn't want to cross him noways. The hold is empty, the vault hasn't seen anything but dust in years, and as for parts....we walked by nicer engines in the heaps on the way here." Poco leans back, trying his best to appear lost in thought, "It really is to bad, really," he mused. "I would've help you too upstanding gentlemen out, if you had a line on some legitimate work. But Delilah? She's a dead end." In so many ways, Poco added mentally.

Benny smiles broadly. Luka looks confused. "Honestly Poco? I was hoping you'd say that." Luka looks even more confused. "Let's take him for a walk Luka." They proceed to push and pull Poco up out of the bar, grabbing a couple bottles on the way out. They take you to their ship (the blocky one UR453) and Benny sits drinking and smoking while Luke uses Poco as a punching bag. After he is properly tenderized, they drag him out to the trash heaps, strip him bare, and leave him there passed out.

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