Both the sweltering heat and local fauna seemed to find a small joy in trying to outdo each other in annoying the crew of the Chrysalis. One by burning down on them, while the other swarmed around them, biting and stinging any exposed flesh.

The Chrysalis moved along the coastline, dwarfing even the enormous trees that called the Empire home.

The problem of the ship’s size was evident when it had to pass into the bay, where the only inlet was a too narrow gap.

Neither Kaba nor the ship’s crew saw an issue, violently crashing through the beaches and permanently altering the coastline without a second thought.

Loudly it scraped, forcing its way through to the wider water behind it where it started the ordeal of turning on its axis until the starboard battery aimed for the shore.

Kaba headed for the shore by rowboat, taking only a handful of men with her, quietly rowing up to the shore. A shore that made her nervous as it lacked the sounds of birds and other mammal life that were common to the rest of the world. Only the soft buzzing of the giant insects was there for company.

Creatures that made the hair in her neck rise.

“I’ll be glad when we’re headed home,” she said to nobody in particular.

There was no response. Her crew, five hard-faced men and women, were scanning the area for trouble. The ones that weren’t rowing had their rifles trained, just in case one of the monstrous bug decided they were to be its meal.

Even Kaba, who normally showed little what was bothering her, kept her hand in her jacket, nervously fidgeting with the butt of one of her pistols, which she drew when something heavy slammed against the boat.

She aimed it and relaxed when she saw it was just a large fish that was surprised to find something bigger than itself in its watrs.

“At least something normal here,” she laughed nervously, then hopped off the boat when it reached the beach shallows.

Her knee highs splashed through the water for a few steps, then sank into the soft beach sand. Looking around, she found nobody. It didn’t bother her as that was part of the plan. She took a small whistle from her pocket blew it and waited for a response.

For a moment she thought she had the wrong place, seeing only a group of startled butterflies head deeper into the jungle.

A moment later her rendezvous arrived from the trees. A small group of soldiers who regarded the foreigners just as warily as they did them. Surprisingly, they were led by a familiar face.

It was a woman who wore the local fashions of Choukishi, which showed off her body just enough to be enticing, but it took a moment for to Kaba to recognize the woman behind her face paint. It consisted of a sweeping line, which had other lines attached to it and it occurred to Kaba that it might be a stylized centipede.

Kaba stepped closer to the woman and the native soldiers immediately reached for their weapons. The woman stopped them with a wave of her hand.

The captain put her arm around the centipede-masked woman’s waist and smiled and leaned in, stopping only a hair breadth from the woman’s lips.

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“Shirosato,” she said softly, “If I knew I’d see you here, I would have worn perfume.”

The woman pushed her away and let out a sound that was reminiscent of a hiss.

“That’s Lady Nidekamu to you, foreigner. Hands to yourself.”

She added some words that Kaba was sure were insults.

“Where are the weapons?” Nidekamu continued.

“Well Shi… lady Ni-something. Let me answer that with a question of my own. Where’s my payment?”

Nidekamu jerked her head and two of her men headed into the trees to produce a chest, a beautiful lacquer thing decorated with red and green butterflies that would be worth a fortune back home, even if it was empty.

“Open it,” Kaba demanded.

“You don’t trust me?” the Lady pouted.

“Open it.”

Nidekamu took the key from one of her solders and opened the chest herself to reveal it filled to the brim with marubu. It took all Kaba’s self control to not let out a squeal of delight.

“We’ll start unloading then,” she said and took out her pistol to fire it in the air once. She counted to three, drew another one and emptied that flintlock into the air as well.

When expended, she gave the weapons to one of her subordinates, took out her spyglass and contently watched the unloading process start.

By the time the guns had been unloaded, the sun was setting and the bay bathed in a beautiful palette of purples and oranges.

Kaba was watching the woman formerly known as Shirosato eat something from a linen bag, arching a brow when she saw what she was eating.

Nidekamu offered her the back and Kaba politely held up a hand to decline the sugared ant eggs. The Lady offered her a tin smile and continued eating, making noises of content to annoy the foreigner.

“Twenty crates of the finest firearms,” Kaba said, having some trouble hiding her relief when the last was brought ashore.

“Just curious though. How are you going to move all this?”

She gestured to the twenty crates, “There’s only six of you.”

The native woman tossed her bag of sugared eggs to one of the soldiers, smiled and raised her hand.

There was a soft rustling in the woods, then the thundering sound of at least a hundred feet, punctuated with the sound of weapons being drawn.

“I have some help,” Nidekamu smiled, “Oh and about your payment. These rifles… They’re not up to our standards. There will be no payment. “

Kaba sighed and drew both pistols from her jacket, pointing one at Dekamu and using the other to sweep over the enemy soldiers.

“You have only two… pew,” Nidekamu said smugly, “You can only pew two of us.”

“Do I?” the captain asked, then shot a single bullet into the air.

“Now you only have one pew,” Nidekamu smiled, she was about to order the attack when the dreadnought’s broadsides roared to life, thundering their charge, accidentally widening the gap to the bay even further.

Kaba raised her other pistol to the air, cocked her head at Nidekamu and smiled with raised eyebrows.

“Fine,” she said, “Take the marubu, but you should know that I was only trying to have the best deal. Your people understand that.”

Kaba rolled her eyes, gestured for her crew to collect the large chest of Marubu and with the gun still aimed at Nidekamu, she slowly walked backwards to the rowboat.

“Have a safe trip!” the local woman called after them.

After they made it back to the Chrysalis, Kaba put a foot on then railing and watched the pinpricks of native soldiers in the distance.

“Captain!”

“Mister Zand?”

“One of your, erm… passengers, demands to know what’s going on.”

Kaba sighed and turned to meet the woman who had explicitly ignored her orders to stay sequestered in her quarters.

“Getting a larger paycheck?” the woman asked calmly, “Don’t make that face. I’m not going to report you to the company and the locals deserve what they get.”

“If I share a bit of the spoils with you?”

“Depends what the spoils are.”

Kaba kicked the chest open and proudly gestured to the large collection of Marubu. Her face fell when the woman started to laugh.

“I’m afraid you’ve been had, captain. I don’t know what this is, but it’s worthless.”

“How can you tell?”

“Their money, marubu, clumps together, forming bigger balls. That’s why all merchants carry special knives to get them loose. I’m afraid the chest is worth more than the contents.”

“In that case,” Kaba said, taking out her spyglass to inspect the beach, “Have mister Knal turn the bay into firewood. We’ll recover the merchandise after.”

“Understood, captain.”