Back Where I Belong

If the locals weren't pissed enough before, they certainly will be when they get the wave Lily sent before we ran off. I decided I'm takin' her to see Old Otto, see what he makes of her. Otto's an old fogey, but he's got wisdom 'bout stuff I never even heard of. Maybe he can even do somethin' to help Lily.

The real trouble is gettin' there without a ship since my fighter only fits one. So we decided to do things proper and old fashioned: stow away on a cargo barge. Those things are so gorram huge, you don't even gotta hide when you're on board. Hell we coulda started a fire and roasted marshmallows and still nobody woulda known we was there. The barge was headin' to Ariel, not the ideal location, but still closer to where we needed to get.

We realized a little late that we didn't have any money to get around, so I took Lily to meet my contact at the local bar. A'course.. the first thing outta Lily's mouth when I introduced her to him was "You fat mister". He was so pissed I thought he might pull a gun! Though likely that woulda ended a lot worse for him than us. Anyway, after I buttered the guy up after Lily pressed what apparently was his hot button, he finally gave me some intel on a job.

It was a trip taking Lily out for a bounty. If she wasn't so dead set on goin' to the Wastes, I'd ask her to permanently team up with me. The job was pretty in and out, but she still did a damn fine job. Hell for a moment it was like workin' with... well... it was like old times. The target was, to my surprise, a Browncoat. Turned sour, but still.. Guess after spending time with the Cap and Pod, my vision of your typical Browncoat was that of a righteous do-gooder, protectin' the weak, overly generous, all that. Well this guy was a true blue prick. He'd been swindling cargo captains all 'round the world. Apparently he ran off with the wrong guy's cargo this time, and he wanted it back. Accordin' to the contract, there'd be a shiny bonus if'n we reclaimed the stolen cargo along with the guy's head.

What would normally be a tricky job turned out to be a breeze. The target wasn't surprised that bounty hunters were after 'em, so we ended up givin' chase out of the building we found him in. He led us on a merry jog all 'round the alleyways, the little fella. He weren't a big thuggish type, but rather a tiny little guy faster'n a damned rabbit. He was too quick fer me and I started fallin' behind, but then here comes Lily zippin' right past me, laughin' like she was havin' the time of her life. Lily caught the guy and took him down easy. By the time I caught up, she had him out cold on the pavement, holdin' his suitcase, which held the client's cargo apparently, in her paw. She wanted to take a peak inside, but I told her it was better not to know. That's usually the case with these kinda situations. By the weight of it, I reckon it was some black market drugs or some such. Whatever, our work was done.

With the bonus for recovering our client's cargo, we had enough to bustle out of Ariel and sail one step closer to Otto. Lily seems pretty thrilled now that she's an official bounty hunter... I'm thrilled too.