So much bureaucracy. I love it. 

Right after that last ECHO I went down to the crates and I could not, for the life of me, get any of them open. Must have been some sort of complex security system at play. Definitely not an issue with basic manual labour on my part, right?

Nah, couldn’t be. 

The cargo was definitely unmarked, though, which was going to raise a lot of suspicion. We had a long talk with Cap’n Min about what we should do about all these crates. The crew settled on  a few options:

• Dump the cargo and lose the five thousand in pay, which we needed, or,
• Take our chances with the customs check and hope, or,
• Bribery. Bribery is always on the table with most folks, ya just need to know the price to make them look away.

If I recall, I think you and I figured out my price was about 2 crates of the good stuff. I just cannot resist those Gingerbread cookies from Frost Bottom! I gotta get back there some day. I wonder if Gingerton still has that shop?

While we were in flight Zoe used her little computer whatzidoozits to get a read on what we’d be looking at when we got there. Between the two of us we were able to figure out bribery was off the table as an option. Based on who is working the desk these days, the likely cost for that approach wasn’t going to be  worth the cargo contract. There was a chance we might get lucky going through the checks with a junior officer, but we were risking something fierce for this payday. At least we could honestly claim to have no idea what is in these things.

When we arrived in orbit for the cargo check, these Hyperion folks were by-the-book on everything. Not knowing what was in the crates was bothering me, though, so Kaylee and I went against the orders and snuck our way down to the cargo hold. With Kaylee perched high in the rafters, I did my best impression of a barrel in a mine cart and just listened in. A couple of officers came in and checked one of the crates. Just rations, apparently! Whew! That’s a load off. From what I could tell, they didn’t notice Kaylee. Good girl!

I don’t know how that officer hacked through the security on those things, though. They must have some kind of doodad for this because it just opened right up for them. However, the air must have been pretty bad in the cargo crates, I guess, because the officer took a bit of a wobble right after popping off the top. Very strange. They still hadn’t noticed us and it seemed like we were in the clear and going to pass the scan!

We then got cleared for arrival and landing. Just some final security steps left between us and tracking you down. I overheard on the feeds that you and your friends are driving good business for the Hyperion New U stations. These corporations have a mighty keen sense on how to capitalize on any given situation.

Fin has been quiet during the trip, haven’t seen him much. He didn’t even come on down for the security check! Min, Zoe and I are heading down now with Max, Deathtrap and Kaylee to check in. Should be easy, if we play ball and follow instructions. This type of check is cursory at best. I’ll have to check in with Fin later and let him know where we are. He’s not going to want to miss this!

The checkpoint looks very orderly. Seems like friendly folk, I’m going to go say hello…

Image credit:

• Cover image: From Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel by 2K Games, (sourced from: https://www.supersoluce.com/sites/default/files/logo1/station_de_lancement_lunaire_0.jpg