“So. Who knows what the hell just happened?” I started off the meeting with a question, clapping my hands. “And would like to share.”

Lee raised an eyebrow at me but stayed silent.

Rayna stood up a little straighter. “Gobb attack. Someone bombed pods, bugs got warped in, gobbs went feral. Tollya run good defense though, no weapons, ammunition, or fuel lost.”

I nodded. “Okay, so the gobbs attacked us specifically because we were distracted? And thank you Tollya, good work.” She nodded at me.

Axle raised a paw, index claw extended. “I would like to point out that their d’jhz tower was destroyed in the suicide bomber’s attack. It was likely a tipping point in their collective decision to attack us instead of finishing out their contract. D’jhz shortages are often at the heart of gobb attacks, outside of Storage.”

“Okay, that’s good to know. They came close last time, when we nearly ran out of d’jhz, so if we keep using them we’ll have to keep it safer,” I said, scowling at the concrete floor. “And that’s a big ‘if’ at this point.”

Axle nodded. “Unfortunate that it was our new tower, but easily repaired. I took the liberty of finishing out the failed contract. We received forty percent of our initial fee back, down from fifty for the amount of gobbs killed,” he paused, looking at me for a reaction.

I stared back at him and blinked, so he continued.

“Da Gobbs affiliate expects this kind of event, so there are penalties and refund policies already in place. Of course, they always win out on the contract, but if we do decide to use them again we’ll get a discount on our re-order,” he said.

When the Knowle finished speaking, he raised his paw again, staring at the stacks of books behind Lee’s desk. He glanced at me, and I nodded.

“I was hoping I could discuss borrowing some, or preferrably all, of those books at some point,” Axle said.

Lee’s mustache twitched and he leaned forward. “I don’t typically loan things out, and that’s when there was a system of law to help me get it back. No offense, but I don’t know you, and books are precious.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should explain. I would like to borrow them only briefly. See, I set up a Knowle library,” he said. Jada squeezed his paw. “Well, half a Knowle library, before the gobbs attacked. The point is, I would like to borrow them to include copies in my library. I’d return them right away, or you would be welcome to join me to have them copied. My kiosk will do the copying, and so long as I can afford slurry, I’ll happily print more copies of them anytime. Think of it as making a saved record of all your books, that can replace any that are damaged or lost on command.”

“Okay,” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s stay on task. You guys can talk about your book collections later, I’m sure you’ll work something out. Dearth hit us with a suicide bomber. Who’s got something on that front?”

Lee raised a hand. “I do. Saw the whole thing. Went into BuyMort to do some snooping, while you all were chasing around little green men. Bomber’s name was Roslin Parker, from Storage. No previous experience as a mercenary but showed up in a BuyMortMercMart beam from Storage and hitched a ride out of Prescott on an outgoing ship. Of course, Dearth is operating an open spaceport there now, so that’s not a direct link to them either. I have the ship’s information, if you want it, Tyson,” he said, pausing to glance at me over his spectacles.

“The ship appears to have been uninvolved, aside from dropping her off for a fee from an anonymous third party. That whole thing was framed as a rescue op. Dearth did not pay the bomber directly, of course. Three of her children were given small, but safe positions working for Dearth on other worlds, in their vast associate network, as part of an obviously rigged employment lottery theoretically run by the church,” Lee continued. “There is no direct way to prove that Dearth was behind the attack, which makes me doubt any kind of church intervention because of it. Even if they wanted to do something to help us, which I doubt at this point.”

Everyone in the room stared at Lee in stunned silence. Finally, Axle broke the spell by snorting a laugh.

“Well thanks for saving me the work. You found all that since the attack?” he asked.

“A-yup. Forensic accounting wasn’t exactly my forte in the agency, but it isn’t particularly difficult with BuyMort’s interface either. Like browsing the internet.” Lee said. “Just gotta figure out what to ask, and how.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at the rest of us, clearly finished.

“Oh. Okay then. Well, thank you, Lee. At least we know what happened. Now, what are we doing about it?” I asked.

This time, Tollya perked up. “I organized defense and recall effort. Got all bugs and gobbs. We were hit with lot of aggropedes, those common from bombs. Also a jellyskirt. Those dangerous, but everyone smart and group together, keep it still.” She paused, looking up before continuing, “Nobody even die to jellyskirt! Well, except stupid gobb, but that not really count.”

After a moment of stiff silence, Tollya seemed to notice we were waiting for her to say more. “Oh, only lose eight. Three hobbs, five humans. All aggropedes. Lot of gobbs dead though, that humans fault. Should tell them to hit, not shoot. Gobbs easy to knock out, and they all wear helmets.” The hobb woman finished with a shrug, hugging one knee as she sat on the desk.

Rayna pushed off from the wall with her shoulders, stepping forward again. “I was at Storage, negotiating BlueCleave out. All our tribe here now. Four-hundred strong. This new home, but out of morties.”

I nodded. “We’re going to fix that now, Rayna, thank you.” I took a few seconds to think it over, then looked at Axle. “Axle, I want you to set up a series of changes to our affiliate page please, for me to approve when we finish here.”

“Rayna and Tollya. Tribe BlueCleave is offered twenty-five percent of all income from Silken Sands, to run security, and otherwise be an indispensable part of our affiliate. This is your home, you’re fighting for it, so you deserve a piece of anything it produces,” I said. I turned and stuck out my hand at Rayna to shake.

The hobb stared at me in open shock. Tollya did too, for a moment, before she whooped and raised a fist to the ceiling, nearly falling off the desk in the process. Rayna finally blinked, swallowed hard, and then reached a hand out to shake mine.

“Thank you, Tyson. BlueCleave seek home for generations,” she graveled, shaking my hand. “Now, for first time in thousand years, no BlueCleave in Storage!” Her voice rose, exultant. “Dearth learn to regret threatening BlueCleave’s home!”

Tollya slammed her chest with a fist and got down from the desk, to approach Rayna. “Twenty-five percent!” She squealed. The women embraced, tears evident in Rayna’s eyes.

“Never think possible,” Rayna agreed. They touched foreheads briefly, before pulling apart.

Tollya stayed near Rayna, leaning on the wall by her side. “BlueCleave home again,” she whispered.

Axle nodded, swiping at the air in front of himself. “Done. Once BlueCleave accepts, income will automatically transfer to the security fund when traveling through the affiliate.”

I looked at Lee, and then back at Axle and Jada. “I’m happy to offer percentages to both of your affiliates as well, to become more than just associates. Not twenty-five, but we can talk about how much when you’re ready. Standing offer, and until you both make your choices, we keep on business as usual. Agreed?”

Lee nodded. “Fine with me. I’ll consider it in the days moving forward and let you know once I’ve talked it over with Suzanna.”

Axle and Jada muttered back and forth in their own growling language for a moment before Axle stood up and faced me. “We would be pleased to take your offer and become an official part of Silken Sands. Two percent would make us more than happy, we just need enough to run and expand the library.”

“Done,” I said. “But I reserve the right to talk you up to five at some point, when funds allow.”

Jada blinked, licked her nose, and then nudged Axle. The Knowle reached his paw forward, and I grasped it, to shake.

“Okay, we’re good on that front,” I said. “Now, who can accurately describe our problems?”

Rayna nodded. “Yarsp attack tomorrow will be big. Too big. We need plan. Especially if you taking Phyllis and Doof. Our three best fighters, all away for attack.”

As she spoke, Afflqwst popped up unprompted and presented me with its ‘thinking’ icon. When she finished, it dropped a quest in my HuD.

Quest – Prepare your affiliate for an upcoming wild animal attack, scheduled to take place during your absence.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Draft plan of battle. (incomplete)

2. Modify structural defenses. (incomplete)

3. Affiliate must survive attack. (incomplete)

4. (Optional) Say final goodbyes to important affiliate members before leaving. 0/1 (incomplete)

PROBABLE OUTCOME – Heavy affiliate casualties, loss of affiliate infrastructure. (50%).

POSSIBLE OUTCOME – Affiliate morale boost and food surplus. (50%).

REWARD – Credit level upgrade.

I read over the quest and sighed at the same reward I’d gotten last time. Still, I needed a higher credit ranking to even hope to survive in a fight against Dearth, so I closed it and turned back to my crew.

The way Afflqwst worked was essentially cheating. It could read the BuyMort scanned data from anyone attached to the network, and could potentially tell me a great deal about my enemies and allies, but the only way it would communicate with me was via quest.

It was also connected to the strange affiliate I had gotten my starfish suit and power blow perk patch from. Anything that affiliate had, I wanted, so more quests meant more chances at another killer item.

The more quests I could get it to spawn, by clearly identifying affiliate-based objectives, the easier all of this would get. Part of the reason I called the meeting in the first place was to farm some quests.

“Okay, got that one. What else?” I asked my crew.

Axle shrugged. “We need the construction up and running again. Most of our projects are incomplete, and we need repairs where the bomb went off. Some better ways to fund everything too.”

Afflqwst activated again, and another new quest was dropped into my view.

Quest – Complete affiliate upgrades and produce appropriate income. Act like a real affiliate.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Collect twenty-five million morties worth of income from affiliate products or services. (0/25000000 incomplete)

2. Complete all construction projects in queue. (incomplete)

3. Effect repairs on damaged affiliate structures. (incomplete)

4. (Optional) Install a memorial for fallen affiliate members.

PROBABLE OUTCOME – Affiliate upgrades completed. (78%).

POSSIBLE OUTCOME – Affiliate income requirement met. (6%).

REWARD – Item coupon.

That reward still wasn’t what I was hoping for. But now that I had a method to farm Afflqwsts, I just shrugged and tried again.

“Excellent addition. Anybody else have anything?” I asked, peering around the room.

Lee sniffed, loudly. “What are you going to do about the multi-dimensional megacorp that is currently gearing up to swat us like bugs?”

A final quest arrived from Afflqwst.

Quest – Craft your affiliate to withstand the full economic and military force of the Dearth Conglomerate.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. (Optional) Significantly increase Silken Sands power within the BuyMort system.

2. (Optional) Significantly decrease the Dearth Conglomerates power within the BuyMort system.

PROBABLE OUTCOME – Dearth absorption of Silken Sands. (99%).

POSSIBLE OUTCOME – Silken Sands absorption of Dearth Conglomerate Arizona board. (1%).

REWARD – BuyMort affiliate rank increase recommendation.

There it was. For all of us to survive, this affiliate was going to have to grow, and fast. If I wanted to take down BuyMort itself, I would have to start by taking it apart piece by piece, and Dearth had volunteered to be the first significant piece. I smiled and closed the quest.

“Right, that’s my to-do list filled. I’ll answer each concern in reverse order, I think,” I said.

Pointing to Lee, I started, “I have a couple ideas that I hesitate to say out loud just yet. I am working on that, in a serious way. Anything you can do to help is welcome, especially if it involves information. The board is our enemy, but we only ever see their grunts. I need a way to get to them directly.”

Lee nodded, his mustache bobbing. “Yup, understood. I’ll see what I can do.”

Next I pointed to Axle and Jada. “Okay, construction. What do you got for me?”

Axle blinked and shrugged. “Well, we should make another gobbs contract and get the work complete. They’ll offer us a discount because of the attack, and it will be a whole new troop of gobbs.”

I shook my head with a frown. “Yeah, but then we’d have gobbs here again.”

Jada snorted. “Gobbs are the cheapest option,” she growled with a shrug.

“Well, how expensive is the next option?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Gobbs unique. They build fast, for very little pay, and their work is good. No other affiliate does that.”

Axle nodded. “The next comparable service in terms of building strength and speed of construction combined will be dramatically more expensive than the Gobbs.”

I snarled at the ground. “Of course. I really do not want to put our people through that again, especially not with it all so fresh. There’s dead people out there, there’s scared people out there. Some of them with family that vanished, because gobbs sold corpses before we could police them! I can’t have gobbs back here, not if my people will ever trust that I have their interests at heart.”

“Hobbs will build,” Rayna said, quietly. “Many with no work assignment right now anyway. Many eager to prove themselves. To prove they good workers. Eager to build a home.”

Tollya nodded. “Hobbs good builders. Not as fast as gobbs, but we more careful. Not stupid like gobbs either.”

Axle blinked and nodded. “That would work.” He turned to face Jada. “We should prioritize the external defenses though, yes?”

Jada nodded. “The yarsp push will come from the north, but we should make sure the trenches are all around the compound. If enough of them come, they will surround us. We should install burners, too. Plenty of Mo-gas to run them. Spear platforms will save us some morties on ammunition if we could get a few of those installed outside the walls as well.”

Rayna uncrossed her arms and stepped forward. “Tribe BlueCleave will build your defenses, Knowle. Guide our many hands, as was the way before. We will build our home and defend it, with joy and pride.”

Jada slowly stood and turned to tower over Rayna. She slowly extended a paw, claws sheathed, for Rayna to shake. “We stand together,” the Knowle warrior woman said. “As was the way before.”

Axle smiled and wagged his tail, and Tollya turned away to wipe at her eyes without being noticed. Something important had happened, and I was being left out.

“As was the way before?” I asked, peering between both Rayna, and Jada.

Axle raised his claw again, facing me with eager eyes. “Hobbs and Knowles have history. There was an affiliate, long ago, much earlier in BuyMort. Hobbs and Knowles ran it together, and it brought great prosperity to many. I believe its founder may be our Rayna’s namesake.”

Rayna glanced over at the seated Knowle, and he smiled up at her. “You have large shoes to fill, but I believe you shall indeed fill them. I am honored to be working alongside BlueCleave, as was the way before.”