Inside the battered kitchen, Ampli Darthik, a toned adult Martian man with vibrant green skin, cropped light-blue hair, black eyes, and slender antennae, keeps working.
Ampli Darthik
You crossed worlds for a recruitment conversation. Give me a moment. This dish punishes impatience more reliably than most employers do.
He lifts a shallow metal bowl from the burner. Fermented pepper foam trembles over seared protein, releasing a sharp chemical heat as the kitchen sensors flash warnings.
Ampli Darthik
Volatile fermentation. Edible, controlled, and impossible to fake. The loan shark’s representatives monitor my supplies, inventory, and accounts. Every purchase reaches them before it reaches my stove.
The Martian guide remains beside the pressure hatch, one hand near her emergency access panel. Beyond her, a camera pivots toward Darthik’s workbench and records the dish’s temperature.
Ampli Darthik
Your people stayed behind on Anita, yes? Corin manages construction, Captain Vey and Rellan Voss handle the vessel, and Saro Venn guards your supply line.
Ampli Darthik
So prove your salon is more than another promise. Show me what protects a chef when the accounts, ingredients, and future all belong to someone else.
“Then let us deal with the loan shark captain vale and i can handle them.”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Delia
Then let us deal with the loan shark. Captain Vey and I can handle them.
Darthik lowers the metal bowl and studies Delia across the steaming preparation line. The guide immediately opens a secure communications channel through her wrist display.
Ampli Darthik
You would confront the lender before hiring me? That is either serious business or an expensive misunderstanding.
Captain Vey
I have the debt records and vessel authority. Send the lender’s identity, account trail, and current claim. I will establish contact under Elfhart’s corporate protections.
The guide transfers Darthik’s debt file. Captain Vey’s authenticated channel accepts it, separating the lender’s claim from the chef’s monitored supply accounts and opening a formal negotiation route.
Ampli Darthik
The lender is called Korr Vask. He expects intimidation to work because everyone here needs tomorrow’s ingredients. If you remove that leverage, I can leave tonight.
Captain Vey
Korr Vask’s representatives will receive a documented settlement offer and a warning against interference. Your recruitment can proceed under a clean, auditable contract.
Director's note
The offer is refused
“its time to resort violence. You approach the loan sharks office your wand at the ready captain vey beside you with his photon pistol.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +2)
Captain Vey leads Delia through Ablicc’s lower pressure exchange. Her wand is ready at her side, its amplifier lattice glowing, while Vey keeps his photon pistol trained low.
They reach Korr Vask Vask’s office, a reinforced glass-and-steel room built into the transit wall. Surveillance lenses track them, but the sealed door opens under Captain Vey’s authenticated vessel authority.
Captain Vey
We are inside. Keep the wand visible, but do not fire unless the room gives us a reason.
Korr Vask Vask, a broad middle-aged Martian man with dark green skin, a shaved scalp, gold ocular implants, and a charcoal pressure suit, rises behind a transparent desk.
Korr Vask
Captain Vey. The off-world proprietor. I expected a settlement offer, not an armed visit.
Captain Vey
You will release Ampli Darthik’s accounts, supplies, and movement rights. Any interference becomes a documented corporate violation.
Korr Vask’s implants flick toward Delia’s wand, then the photon pistol. The debt file appears across his desk, while his security feeds remain frozen under Vey’s vessel override.
Director's note
Vas fires at you
“you dodge then you launch arcabe blast.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +4)
Korr Vask
You should have brought a contract, not a threat.
Korr’s gold implants flare. A compact energy weapon snaps from beneath the desk and fires across the office. Delia pivots aside as the shot scorches the glass wall.
Delia
The weapon is concealed beneath the desk.
Delia’s wand amplifier surges. Her arcane blast crosses the room as a concentrated force pulse, striking Korr’s weapon and wrenching it from his hand into the ceiling track.
Korr Vask
What did you just do?
The blast fractures the desk’s projection hub without harming the debt archive. Its exposed memory core decrypts automatically under Vey’s vessel override, revealing inflated fees, forged supply seizures, and Korr’s hidden claim against Darthik.
Captain Vey
Excellent. The archive now proves criminal interference, not merely a disputed debt. Korr Vask, release Darthik’s accounts and movement rights, or face immediate corporate seizure.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Korr Vask’s release of Darthik’s accounts and movement rights
“With magic you telekinetic pull the archive to your position captain vey holds a pistol to vasks head daring him to move.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +1)
Delia extends her hand. Telekinetic force locks onto the exposed archive core and draws it across the office, sliding it safely into her waiting grasp.
Captain Vey
Do not move, Korr. My pistol is trained on your head, and your security override is gone.
Captain Vey raises the photon pistol, holding Korr Vask in place. The weapon remains steady while the decrypted archive projects its evidence across Delia’s console.
Korr Vask
You think a stolen archive makes you untouchable? Ablicc has its own laws.
Captain Vey
These records show forged seizures, illegal fees, and deliberate interference with a contracted chef. Corporate law now outranks your local intimidation.
The archive verifies each transaction against Darthik’s supply accounts, identifying the original debt and stripping Korr’s inflated claims from the ledger.
Korr Vask
Fine. Darthik’s accounts and movement rights are released. Take the chef and leave my office before this becomes more expensive.
Quest Complete
Secure Korr Vask’s release of Darthik’s accounts and movement rights
+ New Item Acquired
Decrypted archive core