We follow the basic pn: Alice sets herself up as a private investigator, the rest of us set up shop making UPBs. They're wonderful little things, those Universal Polymer Base units. They're about the size of a grain of rice, and are essentially programmable matter: They can be configured to act as diodes, transistors, conductors, insutors, or just about anything else. Combine them with rge amounts of inert matter (like sand), and they can make bulkheads, support struts, paneling, and so on. They can also be converted into food items, biological components for impnts, or even magical reagents. Basically, they are the final word in home manufacturing.

  …or just zy writers that didn't want to deal with the question of where someone is getting the materials to craft items in outer space.

  Still, they are tiny little things that are worth exactly one credit each, and are essentially usable as cash… as in, banks will trade them for you, or you can buy things with them directly (rather than using them to make stuff) with most merchants. Actual manufacturers use different methods, and so make a profit taking them… which is also why there are some differences between items made via UPBs and purchased items (things you make yourself are both easier to repair and slightly more durable), and why mining, mass manufacturing, and long distance transport of goods and materials are still things.

  Regardless, we use the basic tools of our trade to make a living while looking for better work. We also wander down seedy alleys, baiting low-life crooks to come at us with knives and small arms. It works scarily well; police here are virtually nonexistent while the rulers are more interested in pursuing their own pleasure than doing their jobs, and so basically everyone has private security... and those that don't are prey. A few basic street toughs aren't worth much experience, but they will add up eventually.

  Our expenses are close to nothing: We don't eat, and can wash up, change clothes, and rest (but not sleep) in the ship… we do need to purchase a little fuel for the reactor, but that's cheap. I mean, we should probably be paying rent on a nding pad somewhere but… eh, whatever.

  After a week, we do get a paying gig… as private security. Some foreign socialite (a Hologram, which is an actual race in the game) is hosting a party (which apparently happens a lot) and wants to keep the uninvited guests to a minimum.

  We visit the venue… a rented hall that has exactly three doors: The main, the kitchen, and a fire exit (which is very much exit-only, it's armed and doesn't even have a handle on the outside).

  We sit down to pn…

  “How do we want to py this?” Alice begins.

  “You and I have the best Perception,” Brenna signs, “so I should probably watch the main door while you get the kitchen.”

  “You can't talk, though,” Charlene considers, “Tell you what: I hang out in the main room with my pets, visibly watching over the crowd, and act as the floater to deal with anyone who needs a tap on their shoulder so nobody needs to lesve their posts normally. Brenna, you hang out invisible at the main entrance, and act as a backup floater, primarily watching the incoming guests. We have David and his summon in one of the mechs, standing at the front door for the intimidation factor. Alice takes the kitchen door. If anyone sees anything, we all text each other pronto to let each other know what's up. If a fight breaks out, we all get in on the game. Thoughts?”

  “We should sweep the facility just before the event…” Alice considers.

  “We'll need some setup time anyway,” I shrug, “and… if I'm with a summon, we can use the big mech and thus bring all four in case we need to split up ter… plus the really big one has Intimidate down pat.”

  “That it does,” Charlene agrees.

  “Let's get this done, then…” Brenna signs.

  The day of, I'm in my humanoid form, along with my summon, piloting the big mech at the door… it's pretty boring, actually. I watch the procession of people coming in: Androids, Holograms, SROs (Sentient Robotic Organism, a catch-all phrase for manufactured life forms that aren't one of the other common categories), a few Shirren (they're locust-like insectile humanoids), several of the rat-like Ysoki… huh.

  I text the group, “Is it my imagination, or is there not a single party-loving native on the list to this ‘party’?”

  “I was just asked to step outside…” Charlene types back as she joins me out front with her pets, “this is less of a party and more of a meeting with food and drinks. Nobody's here to have fun.”

  “You picked up on that too, huh?” Brenna sends through the text interface.

  “Okay, so…” Alice adds to the chat, “I know we've really only gotten two paying gigs as a group, but so far we're batting a hundred for deceivers.”

  “Well…” I consider, “...it could be an above-board work party… given that we're all outside now anyway… who's up for making this a mech party? We can use the individual ones’ reconnaissance array to listen in.”

  “Yes…” Brenna texts back, “Let's do that.”

  They all pile in, and we split the mech into the component parts… which are also mechs. I try listening in… but mostly end up reading Brenna's typed transcript:

  “So, call to order… any new business?”“Yes… what's up with the mercs handling security?”“My regur boys are busy dealing with a minor matter uptown. The mercs are disposable, their only paycheck is going to be a bomb… but they're taking the job very seriously.”“Fine, fine, just make sure it isn't traced back to us.”“Pfft. With how this city is run? The cops won't bother, and the mercs don't have the kinds of connections with the corps to have anyone looking into their deaths. It's going to be fine.”“True enough. All right, so onto important matters…”

  I quickly text, “You are recording this, right?”

  “Oh yes,” Brenna responds.

  “Good…”

  The transcript continues… looks like they're discussing pns for espionage and sabotage for a few of the high tech corporations that have branches here, plus a few assassinations and kidnappings of folks involved in the same. Hmm… could sell that… I mean, our contract has a confidentiality cuse, but they're not exactly pnning to make good on their end, so why should we…

  “Pity this won't pass muster,” Charlene texts, interrupting my musings, “...because the recording in a comm unit it isn't high enough resolution to be verified by experts.”

  Oh, right. I forgot that the basic comm unit has that cuse. It has a camera, yes, but in order to be good for court, the recording needs to come from another (more expensive) source. Ugh. We can't sell the data… ah well. At least we know our employer is going to try and kill us. Hmm…. “So, now that we know we're not getting paid, do we alpha, bail, or con?” Yes, also ABC.

  I'm using shorthand, because we've been gaming together for a long time. “Alpha” here means “Alpha strike” - hit them first, hard, and unexpectedly. Four mechs going full auto on a crowd in business suits will do some serious damage very quickly. “Bail” is just your basic “cut and run” pn: We know they're coming for us, so we simply get gone. The ship has a cloak, the mechs have cloaks, we can all just fly away invisibly with no one the wiser. “Con” is for… well, conning them: Pretend we don't know, wait for them to commit to the betrayal, and try to make the betrayal blow up in their faces.

  Alice goes first, “They are calmly discussing murder over financial matters. I don't really have a problem with going full Alpha on them.”

  Brenna types out her response, “While the city doesn't have much of a police force… that many bodies may pose a problem, especially if they have connections. Let's just bail.”

  Charlene is up, “I don't know… our employer could just be talking big to calm down the others. I'm thinking ‘Con’ is the best bet here.”

  “Which leaves me as the tiebreaker, huh?” I consider, “Well… we could certainly use the experience points more than the money, and these folks are certainly dirtbags, but the police angle isn't something I want to ignore… how about Alpha then Bail? Find another pnet to set up on and quit worrying about it.”

  The others mull it over for a while, and eventually, Charlene fills the chat, “Okay then.” Brenna and Alice soon follow suit.

  Now, we all have summons in our mechs (I have mine, everyone else got one from Charlene: She went full minion master), so the Alpha Strike goes simply: First person kicks in the door, goes full auto on the crowd, and steps back… then everyone else does the same, taking turns. When it's my turn… I go through with the pn, but… ugh that room is a nightmare of fire and burned flesh. The walls are burning from the missed shots, most of the guests are down, and I let loose on the remaining crowd, having my minion handle basic footwork for the mech while I take the weapons, adding my own carnage to the mess.

  It's a good thing I don't sleep.

  There's not much left of the building by the time we're done. Then we bail - turn on the invisibility cloaks and run away through the sky, heading for our invisible ship. The… I'm going to go with ‘proactive self-defense’… wasn't exactly quiet, so we fully expect police forces to look into the matter… but we don't want to be around for questioning. Hopefully they'll just think “Hit by a rival organization” when they dig up some dirt on the deceased, and leave it be. We listen in on our comms for news chatter as we fly… we don't hear a single thing about it on the main stations.

  We're still going through with the “Bail” portion of the pn, however.

  We board the ship, and we all hustle to tie down the mechs (really looking forward to having a proper mech bay, but we have other priorities) with the help of the summons, except Alice, who runs off to the bridge to begin the unch sequence. I keep the comm in my armor listening in on news stations as we work… still nothing… and we just barely manage to get it done before Alice finishes firing up the engines, enabling escape from the pnet.

  I calmly switch to weapon form and direct my summon to the bridge, sitting down at my station, and continuing to listen to the radio chatter… nothing as we lift off. Nothing as we leave orbit. Nothing as Alice plots a course somewhere. Nothing as we hit full stop to start engaging the Drift Engine. Nothing up to the point where we enter the Drift, and that rainbow py and churning stomach effect hits… possibly harder than normal, with the stress of… okay, that may have technically been murder… that we just committed. And then we're in The Drift, and I can breathe again.

  Not that I need to.

  This also, of course, gives me time to think, “So… where are we headed?”

  Alice shrugs, “Elytrio. Most of the pnet is a radioactive wastend, but they do have a city where we should be able to purchase supplies and things… assuming that the shield doesn't go too far below ground. It's in The Vast, so the trip will take a while.”

  I nod, “and there's probably wandering beasts and things to sy. That should be fine.”

  “We should probably change up the appearance of everything when we next level…” Charlene muses, “Redesign the ships from the ground up, new mechs, and so on.”

  “When I was going through leveling up, Ferdinand mentioned I could change anything I liked,” I consider, “We could change our base races, too.”

  “That would certainly make for a clean break,” Brenna signs, “...especially as we're in very little paperwork as it is.”

  “Okay. So the next time we level, we redo race, ship, and mechs,” Alice agrees.

  “Sounds good to me,” consents Charlene.

  Hmm. “Hey Ferdinand,” I begin as our resident ghost materializes to our senses, “How close are we to leveling?”

  “You're there,” he shrugs, “the next time you take a long rest, you'll be good to go.”

  “Well… course is set, we can re-cloak, and the computer can set an arm off if anything comes within range,” I shrug as I set that up, “Let's go… sit and do nothing until we get drawn into the waiting room?” No, I don't know what I was pnning when I started that sentence.

  So we all sit down and rex….