Deliveries (C 2.1)

Location: Downtown Archipelago
Time: afternoon

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Canary,

Turns out, saving those two sailors wasn't the worst idea. Foster is a skilled Boater, even if his luck is dren. While you recover from swallowing so much sea water and being battered around the sea, he shows Dinero some of the finer skills of tying knots and maintaining the Refuge. The older man is quiet, but he tends to you as you rest in the pilothouse. He steers the ship when you let him, or he helps you out if you don't. It feels like a full crew on board. It's not as good as when it was you and your mother, but it's close enough time to time to remind you of those better days.

There's a storm coming soon - you feel it in your bones.

The Vault is up ahead. You radioed for Jay Pee to send someone out to pick up the cargo. You see it now - a piddly little rowboat with skinny Barska sitting with her rifle over her bony knees as she watches you. Some broad-backed fellow is rowing the boat ever closer and Barska is watching for trouble. She has a keen eye.

What does she see on the Refuge that might draw her attention, Canary?

What do you do as they approach?

I let the old-timer help, and appreciate the lessons for Dinero. Probably do him good to hear advice from someone other than me, though I keep an ear open to account for what he's learning.

I do let him steer, but I can't help but lurk at his elbow, like I might need to take over at any moment. I stay close, but he can have hand-on. I'll probably have to do this for Dinero soon. Can't have him aboard like this and not know. He may need to.

There's more than a few little boats around. I like that I kind of tower over them, actually... but I wouldn't poke fun. Like is as it is here.

The keen-eyed lookout from the Vault might notice that I've had the gun loaded and uncovered. I'm ready to defend myself if necessary at a moment's notice. After the rough day I'm not taking any chances. The guns aren't aimed at the boat or anything, they're sitting facing nearly straight upwards at the moment, but it would take only seconds to get someone behind them and ruin someone's day.

"Oy," I call out to the boat. It's clear that they've been sent by Jay Pee, of course. But doesn't hurt to be clear about it, "here to shuttle cargo? Who's your boss, then?"

Oh yes. And a storm? Maybe we pass the night at the Vault. We'll see.

I puzzle a little. How many bosses? Got to remember every port works different.

"Come aboard then," I say, the cargo is in the hold beneath the deck in the rear, "aft."

I return to where Foster and the old-timer wait (did I ever get his name?) and watch the unloading. "Feels like a storm..." I pause a moment, I wonder of the castaway boaters feel it too, "we may spend the night here. And if anyone doesn't want to debark here, you're welcome to stay aboard to another port."

"Not forever, D," I confide to Dinero. Yeah, I've started calling him by his initial. Familiarity, yes, but also three syllables is a mouthful to keeps saying all the time, "but the Vault ain't the kind of port you wanna be abandoned to. We'll find them a friendlier place."

I watch the crew unload, "easy on the rail, fellas." They should carry the cargo over, not slide across.

I walk over to Foster as he helps out, "that works for me, Foster. You stay on 'till we find a better place for you."

I stand back and watch, unaccustomed to having a crew... if even temporary... handle stuff for me. Normally I'd be on the pulley there myself. I think a moment, then nod, "I suppose I do, Argyle... who is it you're lookin' for?"

Canary,

You've never heard of a Corvine. Where do you normally go to find folks?

Shake my head at Barska, "naaw, just what ya already know. This here's the goods from Jay Pee, couriered over clean and fast by Canary."

I think for a moment but can't come up with a Corvine, "afraid not, Argyle. Another old timer huh? What's the need to find 'em about if you don't mind me asking?"

Barska's finishing up with the cargo when her walkie-talkie beeps and you hear a few different people yelling on there. Suddenly, you hear a big explosion like a grenade going off. Looking around for the trouble, you see smoke billowing out of a set of windows in the Vault - looks like the fourth floor. Glass is showing down from the hole to fall into the water below. You hear more yelling on the walkie-talkies and see people run out to the dock to try and get an angle on the building.

What do you do?

"Stations!" I call out before anything else. With this randomly assembled would-be crew, though, it's not like we've practiced this.

I point Argyle towards the shelter of the pilot house and get on the gun personally, "Dinero, load for me!"

I wheel the fifty-cal around to face roughly the right direction, without yet taking actual aim at anything, while doing so I call out to Barska, "what's the deal, Barska? We takin' sides in this here?"

Your erstwhile crew hops to and heads to stations. Dinero loads up the big gun quickly in hopes that you'll actually use it. He seems excited to see it in action. As you move to the turret, you see someone appear in the room with the broken-out window - a tall, athletic woman. She has someone slung over her shoulder. The carried person has long black hair. As you line up the sight, you see the larger woman toss a line and climb up on top of the Vault. She moves as fast as someone could fall from the same height.

Around the perimeter of the Vault, you see several gun placements moving their turrets around, but nobody seems eager to actually fire on the Vault.

What do you do?

What is this, a kidnapping?

"I'll see what I can do, Barska!"

I keep the gun down, I'm not going to be seen firing on the vault, but if this is some kind of abduction, then there must be a way to escape. A boat?

"Take us 'round, Argyle! Everyone lookin' out for boats at the ready... crews outta place!"