Guess who’s coming for dinner | A Tale from the Borderlands

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Jason St-Cyr

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Slightly overprepared

This place is a little cramped, but it’s nice to be resting someplace that isn’t on a ship for once. While I’m not used to the smell of the Kraken yards yet, it sure beats the industrial scent of refined air being pumped through your quarters for the millionth time. I really hope Penny is okay, I did not want to leave her behind. I’m going to be checking on her right after I get these thoughts down.

It has been a busy evening.

On my last log, we had figured out a fairly complex and overly detailed plan with multiple backup scenarios that would help us get Min out of the Jakobs HQ. Then, things started falling apart real quick. Penny’s vitals started taking a dive and Cicero offered to stay and see what he could do to help Dr. Kael keep Penny stable. Our Jakobs HQ infiltration plan had basically entirely revolved around sending him in to talk his way through whatever the Lieutenant had prepared.

Without much choice, Zoe and I decided to take on the front door role and got ourselves ready. Our droid companions would be joining for the trip, but Kaylee was going to stay here with Penny. When Zoe and I got to the JMHQ, you could easily tell the place was using minimal modern tech. The portcullis was an old-fashioned manual one, and no security cams that I could see. There seemed to be some motion sensor systems in place, but nothing too advanced. It reminded me a little of Lynchwood, with a lot more seawater. And that smell. Always that smell.

We didn’t get much pushback at the gate checkin, as it seemed we were expected. We were able to get to our meeting with Dubois without much of a hassle. When we did get to Dubois, though, things did not go as planned. It seems our friend the Lieutenant had kept Min tied up in this room and by the time Zoe, myself, and the Creeptastic duo arrived she had been cut free by a large, potbellied, self-important, politician who we would later find out runs the place. Beauregard Jakobs. 

Ahem, my apologies… HARBORMASTER GENERAL Beauregard Jakobs. Apparently that’s important to specify.

Jakobs seemed intent on making Min a guest at dinner, but Dubois was not having it. The Lieutenant seems to have a bit of a rigid sense of justice, but at least it seems his heart is in the right place. He and I might have got along well under other circumstances.

Meanwhile, Jakobs seems to be a bit more liberal in his interpretation of the law. And possibly a bit lonely. Our arrival threw him for a moment, and he had questions for why we were there. Now, while I ain’t able to lie through my teeth like Cicero, when it comes to weaponizing the truth, you won’t find much better. It’s all in telling the truth, nothing but the truth, with plenty of helpful omissions. However,  I did not have to evade his questions for long before I had scored Zoe, myself, and the Mopheads a dinner invitation. 

The way it was drawn up, the plan had been for Fin to work his way in through the underwater pipes, but we never heard from him and I’m not certain if he ever got my message about having eyes on Min. I later checked in with Cicero quickly and heard that Fin had stopped by and hung out with the Baby Kraken, but Fin hadn’t exactly filled him in on what was going on. I wonder how he wound up back at the lab?

A mystery revealed

Dinner was a cozy and awkward affair. It was clear that the Lieutenant did not enjoy the situation and would have much rather had us all tied up and being questioned. I don’t even remember what food was served, my focus was completely on Jakobs.  Zoe and I avoided directly interacting with Min as much as possible, attempting to keep up the pretense of being from separate crews. The Harbormaster General was very interested, initially, in what Min’s crew were up to and why Zoe and I were here. I let him know just enough details to imply that I was here to help my wife, but nothing more. I’ve found if you get awkwardly personal and share too much information, people have a habit of changing the subject. I do think Jakobs mostly just wanted to talk about himself, though, which was fine by me. Listening and finding out more information was what we wanted out of this!

Mister Very Important Person seems to be quite proud of the work the Jakobs corporation has been doing with the Kraken, and the considerable credits they are pulling in for the oil. I notice Min took a bit too much interest here and this might turn out to be a problem. But ultimately it seems the Jakobs corporate profits are getting cut into by costs, meaning prices need to go up. Jakobs is losing a lot of the hunters, even the ones who should be coming back through the New-U system. Jakobs seems to be more than a little paranoid about modern tech, including implying that there is some sort of infection in the New-U system. He even wanted to know if we had registered for the system.

Honestly, I can’t remember if I have anymore. I must have registered at some point, everybody I know does. I know for a fact Penny was registered, for all the good that was, but I’ve been spending the last two years doing everything I can to avoid going through those things. If there is an infection, and it’s tied to Hyperion and Junpai-7, and those slugs… that would explain a lot.

Although, I wonder: what if the hunters are actually controlled by the slugs? Given the kraken are their natural predators, it would make sense for the slugs to want to take as many of the kraken out and set up an entire operation around overfarming them. Actually, they wouldn’t even need to control all the hunters, just the ones making the decisions to fund the farming. 

I think I might be hanging around Fin too much!

There seemed to be an opportunity here. With the right suggestions in place, it wasn’t hard to convince Jakobs to hire us all to look into things. Without corporation attachment, we can go places Dubois can’t. He seems to be very well-recognized in these parts. I am a  bit surprised Min didn’t ask about payment, though. If I’m being honest, though, I might be willing to do this one for a song. I have a feeling this will help me get to the bottom of what happened to Penny! 

Lieutenant Dubois took us on a little tour of Port Laroche to see the different lodging options, and the local population practically parted ways for us as he walked through. We could have stayed at the HQ, but being closer to the lab is definitely my preference. The Upper Quarters certainly had that “You must be this rich to take this ride” vibe to it, definitely not a good place for our crew. There would be too many questions. However, I have a feeling this “Salon de la mer”  might be where we need to talk to some folks about what is happening. 

There was also a decent place in the center quarters, and a real sketchy dive called the “Oily Barrel” right in the center of the yards, but we eventually settled down at “The Siren’s Song”. The stench is strong here, but we’ve got easy access to the yards, the lab, and the HQ. The walls are a bit thin, though, but the sign outside the door is just the right type of tone for this crew to not raise too many eyebrows.

Tomorrow morning, Zoe and I will take a look at the files and notes from Dubois’ crew, but for now we need to settle in. First, though, I’ll check in on Penny and then see if I can find some quick notes on this Lieutenant before I tuck in. We might need to exploit a weakness with him, given his more strict interpretation of regulations. That could actually wind up helping us! Hopefully, us looking into this New-U issue will help us also solve the overfarming of the kraken to keep the slugs from multiplying. If we want to really take a stab at Hyperion, taking away their brain slug supply would be very satisfying. But will it tick off the Jakobs corp?

A greedy shadow growing

Before I log off, one last note for myself. I know that folks need to get fed, and sometimes you have to bend the letter of the law to make sure justice happens, but I think that talk of oil value has gotten out of hand with the others. Min is trying to plan out a heist to take a bunch of the oil, purely for the credits. That means taking it offworld, finding somebody willing to pay for black market oil, and also not getting dead by the Jakobs corporation. It’s not impossible, but I’m not seeing the upside here. Jakobs hasn’t done anything to us, and from what I can tell the Jakobs corp are keeping a lot of people making good coin and living good lives. They genuinely seem happy to be doing this work, even risking death, although it could be because they’re getting paid so well. Things might go south here, real quick. We may not be safe much longer in Port Laroche if Min pulls this off.

I’m going to take a walk down to the lab and check in with Cicero, Dr. Kael and Penny, hopefully she is stable again!  

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