ARC2/C28 – Business as usual

They were in the west of the Empire of Tartris, which was heavily populated with a standing government that had previously taken a neutral stance. This had allowed for it to be a flourishing trade hub.

Sam found himself in travelling via taxi to a very expensive part of the city where the main trading companies for cores existed. The trading house was more like a luxury hotel on Earth where the guests were wined and dinned.

As Sam had had little luxuries since the merger on Earth he saw no reason not to furnish himself of the few luxuries available. He did feel a bit guilty that Sarah and Maria what not there with him thought. Next time he thought, not that a next time was a given.

He was ushered into a private waiting room as soon as he deposited the cores at the front desk. And was told that any large donors of cores would receive their top service. Shortly Sam was joined by a woman in a grey business suit who asked him where he had managed to get so many cores from.

Sam decided it best not to say that he had wiped out a large number of Seracian soldiers as making Vivec a target probably wouldn’t go down to well. So Sam just said these were the spoils from a months levelling.

Back when he had been in the basecamp on Earth cores had been sold for around a measly few hundred credits only, so he couldn’t really see the fuss. Were cores that rare now? or they so desperate to increase their strength? He supposed having credits was not much use with a Seracian attack imminent.

But looking around at his opulent surroundings Sam knew that was not the case. This was an establishment founded on wealth. He had also of course wondered if it was a trap. But then these days he wondered that 24/7.

The woman, then started talking again this time looking at some kind of AI globe like his own only a bit more swish looking aesthetically.

“Ok. Mr Slait we see that you have deposited 452 cores, of Tier-F and 15 of Tier-E”

Sam guessed the flightships must have contained the Tier-E cores and felt he should probably check to see if they contained any good abilities before he handed them over. He also pondered internally if he could get hold of an ability to be able to check the cores himself. He could only guess at the Tier level by inspecting cores individually which was of course to time consuming. And had no clue how to ascertain the abilities contained within a core.

Seeing Sam had drifted off into his own thoughts the woman, coughed and then continued.

“Which and how many were you planning to sell, Mr Slait?” said the manager politely.

Adding. “We can give you a very competitive rate and would happily take all cores off your hands”

Sam had not bothered with an alias and had just given his real name at the desk. The resistance had given him a name he could use but he thought at this point hiding was a waste of time. Obviously he wouldn’t say “Hi, I’m the vore” but playing games just gave him a headache, being a straightforward kind of guy.

Sam then looked up then immediately schooled his face when the lady said the amount.

“That will be a total of 904 thousand credited to your account. And please feel free to make use of all services here. Also can I ask you if you may have future dealings here in Vivec Mr Slait? As we have establishments in all major cities around the world.”

“Um yes sure. Miss? Is there a way I can get the Tier-E cores evaluated?” said Sam not really interested in service except finding out about cores.

“Just call me Valaria, Mr Slait. Does that mean there may be a possibility of exclusivity? I can assure you of preferential rates.” Said the Lady, evidentially still in sales mode despite the impending war.

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“I don’t see why not” said Sam, wanting to hurry this lady up. He would say yes to just about anything if they could evaluate the Tier-E cores for him. And especially if they could do it without eating into his credits. He had about a million now. Would that be enough for a super rare skill like Traksis’? Probably not yet, he’d have to work on that and real soon.

Running down to the lobby with the platinum card the manager Valaria had given him in hand, he smiled at the stocky man at the counter, in the smartly tailored uniform of the hotel.

The man looked at the not so smartly dressed Sam then down at the proffered card and immediately smiled “How may I be of service Sir?”

“I need the remaining cores deposited with evaluated.” Said Sam waiting expectantly, mentally crossing his fingers that it wouldn’t cost to much.

“Certainly Sir, and would there be anything else?”

Before Sam got a chance to reply the man looked up again.

“Done, may I have your AI so I can transfer the information?” he said politely

“Oh, yes of course” Sam said passing the floating AI orb over to the man.

Sam got his AI back and quickly scanned through the information on the fifteen cores and also surreptitiously looked at his credits 919,504 credits. No deductions as yet, good.

The abilities were lacklustre to say the least. He guessed that made sense as the cores just needed to provide enough psi-energy to power the Seracian mechanoid creations. Among the abilities listed there were some that improved toughness.

What a long title for an ability and the explanations sure did get shorted for these Tier-E abilities. “Artificial” made sense, he guessed as it wasn’t a real life form and so had been adapted somehow to use the core’s energy.

Well regardless of the name, it would certainly prove useful. So he asked five of the cores containing this ability to be set aside to be sold. The transaction took place straight away and he was given a flat fee of 20k each bringing his total credits to over a million now.

As his comrades couldn’t necessarily make use of the Tier-E cores yet, as spreading their resources on such high level abilities would be wasteful, currently. To that end, while he was sitting in the lounge, he enquired of his AI (which he decided to refer to as AF – artificial friend) whether there was something on the market like the protective equipment, from the faction that he had stolen then sold.

It turned out that there was lots of equipment that was marketed by the Seracians, as the main producer of tech psi gear. As that is exactly how the Seracians had become the main power in the multi-verse – they were Technological Psionics able to replicate just about anything that other races would need to do using their own psionic abilities.

There were also some cheaper versions of things produced by other organisations. AF said there was no quantifiable difference in quality. So Sam picked up some protective tactical suits and extra armour for Sarah and Maria that would be delivered to the hotel within the next twenty minutes.

So he sat and got a drink at the bar while he was waiting. Looking around he saw a few more guests, some eating together but a few just drinking by themselves so seeing the opportunity he headed over to the nearest one.

It was a lanky guy with swept black blond hair and an expensive suit, reminding Sam again that he stuck out like a sore thumb. Would he really need to take make a shopping trip when he was about to enter a war zone? Sam had a better idea and used his [Telepathic Illusions] to create a decent looking suit for himself to wear. It would have to do.

The man in his late thirties, looked up at him and remarked “Ah I see, a not untalented Constructor. We do not get to many of them in here. I am a Modder myself.”

Sam laughed finding his little ruse was quite pathetic.

“New round here sorry. I was wondering if you could give me a little information.”

The man eyed him then seeing his platinum card raised his glass “Here’s to a little extra business. In this trying times any business is good business.”

The man was able to tell Sam that he was not at all the person to ask. For what he wanted to know he needed to ask a Tracker. Having no idea what the price of such small information was he just bought the guy a drink and went over to a table where he could talk out of ear shot to the person whose number he’d been given.

It appeared that a big difference between the multi-verse and back on Earth was that all information was pretty much a commodity. So you couldn’t just look things up on their version of the internet unless you paid through the nose. So many things were closely guarded secrets.

Sam felt it was just as well he was talking on the phone to this Tracker as remembering back to the Star Corps building, he knew his whole lifestory could be an open book to a Tracker.

AF had got back to Sam on his progress at tracking down Traksis’ [Absorbing Regeneration]

ability. It turned out that the ability was too rare to show up in any public listings. There were of course other listings. Privately held listings, held by auctions houses and alike. That was what Sam needed a Tracker for. Not to look for the core but because Trackers were the main information brokers in the multiverse.

“Mr Kensal, I’m after some information about rare cores, very rare cores…”