Although I was excited at the prospect of meeting an original character, I had more important things to attend to.
Well, I'll find out soon enough, but first let's grab some lunch because, holy shit, am I starving. I'm sure my pups are too after that nearly 3 hour-long trip across the badlands, so that's only more reason to grab a bite now.
"Hey Trev, you wanna put a pause on this walk around, so we can get a bite to eat?"
"Yeah, why not, I could go for something to eat."
Easily getting my guide on board, we headed into the "best" eatery in Fyrestone, which was also the place serving the best food in all of the Arid Badlands, but I would only come to learn of that later. Entering the store front moments later with my pups in hand, I scanned from one side of the establishment to the other and what I saw was a large square-ish open space filled with booths along the walls and tables in the center, many of which weren't original, and towards the back was a sort of fast food counter. And upon further examination, this fast-food restaurant was the cleanest place I've seen to date.
"This is the best restaurant you guys got?"
"Of the 3 that we have, yes, this is the best we've got. I know it doesn't look like much compared to those you find off-world, but I guarantee you're not going to find anything better nearby... At least I haven't, even back when Dahl was running things."
"If you put it like that, I guess it's a hell of a lot better than eating tins of baked beans and MREs."
"Is that what you've been eating lately?" Trev asked, not all that surprised by my diet.
Nodding my head in response, he added one last bit before we reached the counter. "That's rough, but it could've been much, much worse."
"I don't doubt it."
The two of us browsed the old-time black and white menu they had above the counter, and after placing our orders, we grabbed a seat at a nearby booth. Once I sat down, I placed the pitch-black skag pups on the inner part of the booth and kept them under control there whilst I made small talk with Trev. "I noticed quite a few empty buildings on our trip through town, so how many people are left, if you don't mind me asking?"
He paused at my question, but only for a couple of moments. "It's a good thing you asked me because that is quite a touchy subject for a lot of the townfolk." He paused again for a moment as if reminiscing and continued. "We're down to 971 people. We originally had numbers in the 4,000s, but that was years ago."
The man was pretty forthcoming with information, so I kept the conversation going while I drew some more intel out of him every now and again. We talked and talked, and after getting quite a number of my questions answered, our food arrived at our booth, releasing streams of visible steam.
"Man, it's been a minute since I had a piping hot meal." I commented as I hungrily stared at the fried food in front of me.
"Enjoy it because this place is expensive."
Maybe for you, but I'm loaded right now.
I thought to myself, not minding the $200 I splurged for a table full of food. Having waited long enough for a halfway decent meal, I didn't waste another second and first handed off 5 separate baskets of grilled meat to the pups along with some water dishes courtesy of the staff before directing my focus to the succulent bucket of fried drumsticks. It must've been a while since Trev last ate something decent as well because he dug in even before me.
As we ate and chatted at the quote unquote best eatery in town, which was surprisingly a chicken place, Trev started opening up. "When Dahl was doing business on Pandora, things were far better, but shit has only been going downhill since they left us stranded on this garbage planet. And the bandit raids are just making everything worse and further accelerating our decline that much more." My tour guide complained angrily, obviously still pissed at having been abandoned here like many of Fyrestone's residents, most of whom I've come to learn passed away from the innumerable dangers one faces day to day here on Pandora.
"Is there no way off planet? Surely there is one."
"There is only one spaceport to my knowledge, but most of the people here don't have the will to face the dangers out there nor the means to reach it. And that's not even mentioning the surrounding bandit clans have our only real viable route entirely blocked, so even if we wanted to, we would all be long dead before we could even make it to the next part, which would be somehow getting a ship off world."
"How much does something like that cost?"
"Depends. If you want to make sure you make it to your destination, you're going to have to shell out at least $10,000 per person; otherwise, forget about it. And since we're all the way out here in bumblefuck, no ship is coming out our way unless you've got a shitload of cash to spend, probably something in the millions to tens of millions."
"That much, huh?"
My dark-skinned friend across the table nodded and added. "And then you have Atlas to account for, who has control of Pandora right now and has the entire planet practically locked down, so nothing is coming or going from this planet without their approval. So even if anyone had the cash, there's no guarantee you or anyone else is making it off this rock."
"I guess I'd better get comfortable then, aye?"
"Well, after you bought me such an extravagant meal, you're welcome to stay as long as you like... Oh, that reminds me, do you got a place to stay at all?"
Shaking my head, I replied. "I don't, actually."
"If you need a place to crash for a bit, you're more than welcome at mine, or I can get you set up at the inn we have in town. They haven't had much in the way of business since the bandits took over the area, so I'm sure they would love to have a paying guest."
"I appreciate the kind offer, but I was actually interested in acquiring a place of my own, if that is at all possible."
"Yea, that's not out of the realm of possibility; we'll just have to pay a visit to the mayor."
"Okay, sweet."
"The properties are pretty damn cheap overall, especially the ones on the outskirts; the mayor practically gives those away to anyone who wants them."
"You don't say." I said last, happy to hear I could get a place of my own for cheap.
I might be able to set myself up pretty well in Fyrestone if the properties are as dirt cheap as he's saying they are... It honestly might be worthwhile grabbing a lot of them while they're cheap and planning for the future. I mean, if I make this town a safe place to live by slaughtering the local bandit clans and start my business ventures here, the safety and economic opportunity should be enough to draw people in. Which will in turn increase the value of my assets as the area becomes more desirable and more and more people move in.
And when I open up that Vault and dispatch The Destroyer jailed within, the value of those properties along with the value of the Pandora as a whole will increase exponentially with the release of massive amounts of Eridium across the planet, that all corporations across the galaxy will be salivating at. Though now that I'm thinking of it, I'd probably be better off just taking over and claiming the entire planet as my own. It's not like anyone has any rightful claim to anything here; hence, the smarter move would be to do that, claim all mining rights, and run things like a corpo-dictatorship with me at the helm.
Alternatively, I could lease the mining fields and tax a good percentage from whoever I allow to mine on Pandora. However, that also open's me up to security risks because why the fuck would anyone pay some upstart when they can knock him off his block and take the whole pie for themselves... Human greed knows no bounds, thus this only gives me more reason to get my hands on Atlas, so I can take full advantage of its established military and the other resources it has at its disposal.
There's no way I'm going to be able to keep hold of such an enticing pie like Pandora without the power to back it up; hence, I'd be better off putting my money away and saving most of it till Atlas drops in value, so I can gobble up shares of Atlas for a fraction of the price. Maybe I should look into shorting the corporation whilst it's on its way down too, so I can multiply my money supply and pick up more shares for even cheaper. Though we're still talking about billions and billions of dollars here, so I'm going to have to come up with some sort of quick money business or scheme to get my money up otherwise I'll miss out on a huge opportunity to cash in on their downfall.
Regardless of all that, I'll at least be able to recruit those that get left behind here on Pandora, so I'ma try my best to keep the Atlas casualties as low as I can. I mean every death they face is one less troop I'll have at my disposal and seeing how my enemies will be intergalactic corporations, I'm going to need as many forces as I can get my hands on if I want to make this planet mine and keep ahold of it.
As my brain was working overtime and planning for the future, I quickly downed the remainder of the food and drink since the rest of my party was stuffed.
"Ahh, that was good." I commented as I continued brainstorming in the back of my mind.
"Mm, I told you it would be."
"You sure did, Trev." I nodded in agreement.
With stomachs full of surprisingly good food and drink, we chilled out for a few minutes in the mostly empty restaurant while shooting the shit. After we had settled our meals somewhat, I gathered the pups back up in the pack and exited the establishment once again, following Trev, the leading guard of the settlement. From the Popeyes rip-off, we set off for the town's main building and entered through the set of metal double doors.
The moment I entered the place, a sort of hall and lobby-like space came into view, and further in at the end was a set of stairs that led to the next level. As soon as we stepped foot into the place, my guide, who I had gotten much friendlier with, began making a beeline for the stairs, so I followed right behind him and ascended the concrete stairs. The second floor wasn't our destination, apparently, so we climbed to the third, where a bunch of private offices were located, though many of them were unoccupied nowadays.
"The mayor's office is just at the end of the hall."
Returning a nod of acknowledgement, I proceeded down the hall alongside Trev and made it to the door. My dark-skinned friend gave it a round of knocks, and several seconds later an older man, who must've had 2 decades on Trev, opened the door.
"Oh, hey how's it going at the gate, Trev?" The man asked initially before spotting my massive 7 foot 3 armored frame beside him. "And who might this be?"
"It's quiet, and this here is Vic. He's looking to set up shop here while he looks for that Vault from the legends."
"Is that so? Well, it's nice to meet you, Vic." The old but still spry mayor said.
"Likewise, mister..." I responded whilst grabbing hold of his presented hand.
"Arnold, Arnold Ventura."
Having found out his name, I gave his hand a solid shake and let go. "That's quite a firm grip you've got there, Vic… You have any interest in becoming a guard whilst you're here?"
"Not really, but if you have any bounties or similar lines of work, I wouldn't mind picking them up. Though that's not to say I won't get my hands dirty if any groups of bandits decide to stop by the town."
"Well, you're in luck because we have quite a few problems we've been wanting to deal with for years. You can find everything on the lobby's bounty board." The man paused for a second and continued. "And if you contribute to the defense of Fyrestone against bandit raids, I'll make sure you're rewarded adequately."
"I'll be sure to check it out later then."
Trev coughed to get our attention and get us back on track. "Circling back to our original reason for coming here, Vic is interested in buying a place or two, probably around the outskirts."
"Ohh, alright, here are the keys to all the empty properties." He said prior to heading back into his office for a second. "And here is the list. Just let me know which properties he's buying and send the money later to this ECHO account."
"Will do." Trev responded curtly.
"Alright, good luck on your property hunt. I hope you find what you're looking for."
"I hope so too." I replied last before I departed with Trev and the pups, who were sound asleep at this point.
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I caught a bug and just gotten over it recently, so releases should be picking back up again.
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