Lords of RPG

An encrypted message arrived on Cam’s compad.  He left the bridge, where he had been hanging out with Striker, and retired to his personal cabin.  He opened the message.

“Okay, Kid.  This is going to sound a little weird, but it seems to me your group’s specialty is going after weird stuff.  If I’m wrong on that, I’ll stand corrected.  But there’s a pretty big payday on this one.  Big risk, big reward.  On Abyssal’s moon, Zephyr...at one time there were pre-tech floating factories suspended in the middle atmosphere.  We couldn’t build something like that today, but pre-scream they did some pretty fucking weird shit.”

“You don’t hear much about Zephyr these days.  It is a desolate moon with a very thin atmosphere, but reportedly there are these airborne organisms resembling glowing jellyfish.  A whole ecosystem of floating creatures, of different species...just doing their thing.  Eating each other… fucking… dying… whatever.”

“So, back before the Scream, these settlements and factories were built on these floating platforms in the atmosphere, and reportedly they were able to harvest these jellyfish things, and use these things as a resource to sustain their settlements.  But… and this part is sort of a mystery… over time, the situation was unsustainable.  I’ve heard different stories.  But essentially, these jellyfish things were unpredictable and caused a lot of problems, and the situation just didn’t work out.”

“Regardless, it is believed that these airborn platforms with their settlement and factories have all crashed to the surface over time.  Lost power, or whatever the fuck held them up, and fell.  No radio signals come from Zephyr, and scans tend to confirm that no one lives there today.  That’s the good news of this job...no witnesses...no one to stop you.  Just you, the moon, and the jellyfish.”

“And now to what you are retrieving for me.  There was a floating factory there that manufactured virtual artificial intelligence robots.  Did a good business for awhile, based on records my people have dug up.  Robots that did all sorts of things.  Raised your kids for you.  Cleaned your house.  Policed the streets.  Performed surgeries.  Whatever.  And, these records my people dug up...they suggest that a big shipment of VAI machines were ordered pre-Scream and never delivered due to the utter chaos that dropped on us when all the spaceships blew up.”

“I want you to try to find this floating factory.  Maybe it is still airborn.  Maybe it is in pieces on the surface.  Whatever.  But, I want you to find it and see if you can retrieve some of these VAI machines...these particular machines that were ordered but never delivered.  If they are there, I want them.  And when I sell them, I’ll share the payday 50/50.  Your legwork, my information and contacts, we both get a little richer.”

“The on-moon coordinates for the floating factory were 02.00015-032.59700-199.07123.  If it ain’t floating no more, then scan the ground underneath those coordinates for the wreckage.  You are looking for manufacturing lot SR123.002.  Sex-worker VAI robots.  Primo shit.  And don’t wear them out on the way to bringing them to me.“

Cam finished reading the encrypted message, and just stared at the screen.  Sex robots?  Like hot chick fleshy AI sex robots?  In his wildest and weirdest fantasies he’d never even dreamed up such a thing, but now that the idea had been put in his mind, this mission sounded a little more important than finding a lost spike drive.  Cam laughed.  It was like the universe was trying to distract him.  Mad Morgan’s words returned to Cam.  They were locked in a prison...stuck in a box.  But, if you’re going to be locked up somewhere, there might as well be sex-bots involved.

Cam’s wandering mind was shocked when a second encrypted message arrived.  Tony Gold again.  He had probably sent these messages about 45 minutes ago, but the 2 messages had been sent about 5 minutes apart.  Cam clicked the button.

“Cam, I was just told you’re wanted on Veridian.  Decent bounty too.  Watch your back kid.  There’ll be Blackstar Hunters looking for you...maybe a few independent bounty hunters too.  I hope you trust those guys you are with.  Any one of them could make a pretty penny turning you in.  There are smaller bounties out for all of them, but I’m sure one of them could get their charges waived if they turned you in.”

“For the record, I ain’t no snitch...and on principle, I never do the law’s work for them.  So, for my part, that bounty just raises my estimation of you.  If you are meeting with me or my people, that bounty means nothing to us.  But, when you retrieve lot  SR123.002, send me a message.  We’ll figure out an exchange off world.  I wouldn’t come back to Veridian any time soon.”

Cam turned off his compad.  Ah fuck he thought to himself.