The air was filled with the smell of cooked greasy food, overly sweet baked confectioneries, assorted caffeinated beverages, smoked nac leaves and the body odors of various different alien species. It was all enough to make Captain Allen Brekk feel at home as he stood along the entrance of an eatery of which was simply called Raxk's.
A holovision screen was located above the bar area where it was tuned to a more "respectable" news station like LNN which was reporting live from the front lines of some battlefield where the Unorians were fighting. The Captain did not put much stock on what LNN reported for it tended to be heavily biased to the extreme in favor of the Stars Alliance while trying to portray them as some type of paragon of liberty and freedom in a galaxy full of warmongering despotic tyrants.
Oh the irony thought the Captain who knew how much of it was merely propaganda to increase the station's ratings. Quickly surveying the many booths and tables, the Captain was soon able to spot his fixer who was busily reading from a holo-tablet
Moving towards the booth, the Captain gently navigated around the patrons and servers where soon he arrived at the fixer's table. Looking up from the handheld electronic device, Allen was greeted by a pair of bright black orbs and an alien face that could only vaguely be considered somewhat human-like.
"Captain" greeted the deep, throaty voice of KhoThi'var who was a green scaled, reptilian creature who had no hair but rather a series of bony horns which were sharp to touch. Bearing a heavy build like a very well fed man, he was dressed in a black open fronted jacket which exposed much of his broad chest which was also covered in scales that formed a natural sort of armor.
"Mind if I sit? Asked the Captain and the alien nodded with a soft grunt and Allen took a seat across while a robotic waitress carrying a platter came towards them.
"What can I get for you sweetie?" asked the waitress, a robot called Ava who was designed to resemble the female symbol used in human establishments for the women's restroom while moving about on wheeled feet. The robotic waitress was designed to with a flat face, a pair of bright yellow eye lenses and a dull grey metallic skin which showed signs of rust here and there.
"Just Caf&Nac" reluctantly replied the Captain where a part of him was quite willing to give up something like kidney for some actual food like actual Terran pork bacon and chicken eggs.
"Coming right up" responded Ava as the Captain handed her a cred-rod and the mechanical waitress took the proffered instrument where she inserted it into a slot along the side of her head which processed the transaction. After getting back the cred-rod, the Captain turned his attention back to his fixer who was now casually plucking from a steaming platter filled with deep fried Shi'zhan Carrion Grubs.
"So what do you have for me?" asked the Captain who was tempted to try some of his fixer's food but he knew well enought that the corpse eating worms were extremely poisonous for humans.
"Take your pick Captain" spoke the fixer as he went back to his holo-tablet while tapping its screen. "Got a salvage job, two cargo runs and if your feeling adventurous, got a hunt job as well".
"What's the first?" asked the Captain who was brought a cup of coffee and two Nac leaf cigarettes.
"Some CTN warship got wasted by the Uroks, all hands lost" replied Kho with a tone of amusement in his voice which did not bother Allen for he hardly considered the Commonwealth of New Terra to represent him, despite their claim to be the legitimate successors of the old Unified Terran Federation and thus representing humanity as a whole. "Lot of military grade hardware aboard that could be worth something for the right client."
Definitely not this one thought the Captain for if his fixer knew about this job then other fixers and their clients would too. It was not unusual for salvagers to get a little trigger happy when they found a good claim and the Captain was not desperate enough to take a job where he was at least eighty percent certain that he would get shot at.
"What about the runs?" queried the Captain as he lit up a cigarette and was soon filling his lungs with nicotine and his gut with hot coffee.
"The first is just a cargo shipment bound for some plantations on Zheres" explained the fixer. "Tankers packed up and ready to go"
"Sounds simple enough" nodded the Captain as he began to feel more alert for the caffeine had begun to spread in his system. Part of him though was not comfortable with the idea of transporting people as cargo, even if they were tank-grown clones that would be have been born and bred to perform specific jobs.
"And the other?" asked the Captain as he exhaled a puff of smoke away from Kho.
"This should be an easy one, the pay is the smallest of the lot though" said the Fixer as he took a bite out of one particularly large and juicy fried worm with an audible crunch as his sharp teeth tore into its crispy skin. "Chem shipment from here to Veza IX"
"Wait, isn't the Veza system totally uninhabited?" Questioned the Captain who raised a curious eyebrow.
"Some archaeologists started digging around on the ninth planet" replied Kho with a shrug. "Guess one of them has a taste for Stardust."
"I will take it" then said the Captain for this seemed to be the safest option and the fastest to complete.
"Got it, I will have a courier deliver the chems to your ship" nodded Kho as he tapped some keys on his tablet and the Captain heard some heavy booted steps coming towards them as a shadow fell over them.
A brief moment of panic came over the Captain as he looked up and saw a heavily armored figure towering over them. Clad in a suit of iron grey military grade combat armor worn over a body suit with numerous built-in weapons, Captain Allen Brekk saw his own reflection on the glassy black face shield which covered the newcomer's visage.
"Captain" nodded the helmeted head of the infamous Bounty Hunter, Morhus the Incinerator and the Captain resisted the urge to void his bowels on the spot.