Z
Zack
ON> Bar, Osman City Ragna-City
A few days ago, the city's main printing presses had been just a pile of burnt wood covering the metal presses that had once been used for printing.
Now, they were a bunch of char-covered metal presses, being tended to by work crews doing their best to scrub them clean. The charr'd wood had been moved away into a pile, and new logs had already been placed in posts around the printing presses. They had come a long way since the project started, and it wouldn't be much longer before the new walls were in place.
"I don't think it'll be too much longer..." Josward reported, setting his coat aside as he took a break from his work, the local man taking a seat near Arccos, "... Though, we could use a hand bringing the wood in from the forests. It would be a lot easier if your power armor......" His voice trailed off, as another one of the power armored soldiers from another world walked into view. The locals had been getting quite used to Arccos, and only Arccos.
"Hey Arc!" Uso shouted over the general comms, "You've been busy... Hell, your guys are looking better trained than the unit Raph's putting together... got a moment to spare from your current project to talk? We got a new crew member and I think you two will work well together... Namely, he needs a clinic, and you've got a construction crew."
Caught between two different conversations going on in the same head space, Arccos just held up her palm to Josward; mumbling the words 'one moment'.
"I'm finishing up out here shortly. Going to give my boys a break from woodcutting to head home, then go out and haul some construction supplies in. How long is this going to take, your Grace?" she replied over the comms
"Your grace? Is that what you're supposed to be called around here boss?" A familiar voice would call out from the vocals of the power armor and over the comm. net, as the helmet cracked open and Rips face would appear from within it, the giant ID-SOL smiling broadly, "Long time no see Arccos. This is where you and the guys from Ragnorak have been holed up since we last met up?" He asked cheerfully. The titan of a man, over 9 feet in height, would wave in a friendly manner at Arccos and her companion. "Unless the boss has something more to tell you, it should just be introducing me, from there we can figure out the best way to set up a hospital/clinic for the area."
"Ambitous and motivated!" Uso sounded quite happy, clapping her hands together once, and watching the scene unfold.
From her seat by Josward, Arccos popped her helmet from her own armor off, seemingly only just now noticing these people were right there. Her chalk white hair somewhat messy from a long day's work, 'Well. Doc Hardbody, looks like you finally made it to the back end of the galaxy... Thought you were still at the palace, sorry..." her voice echoed both in the present sense and from the comms, causing a slight echo. "Glad to see these folk are going to start living to a hundred and fiftieth birthdays."
"Josward, meet Dr. Torr, he probably brings space medicine." she nudged her own personal general in the shoulder with a power armored elbow, "Rip, this is Josward Braith, he's been helping me out."
"I do bring LIMITED space medicine, but that's for emergencies until the infrastructure gets put into place to replicate it," he says, offering a power armored hand with delicate carefulness to the man, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Josward. I'm Dr. Rip D. Torr." he says smiling jovially, the crows feet at his eyes scrunching up as the smile reaches his eyes, genuinely happy to be meeting any friend of Arccos'. If the man had the guts to actually shake hands with someone in power armor, he'd find that Rip was overly gentle with the motions, obviously knowing just how much force could be put into one of these things, and still getting used to finer detail motions while inside of this set of armor. "I'm sure we'll be speaking more in the future, I've got plenty of questions as to the limits of medical science here on..." he actually scrunches up his brow, "I just realized... no one has actually told me what you folks call your own planet? Everyone's just been referring to it by the number designation in the stellar registries."
"Another one of your friends from space.... he is.... big..." Josward responded, looking up at the hulking space-man before him, his hand extending to shake. "We got a lot of names for it... The Osmans government called it Osman... Some of the towns around here just called it Mire... I've heard a few other words used for it, Glebe, Loam... but I ain't exactly been around enough of this place to know what everyone else calls it." The locals spoke a language that was very similar to trade... and the software provided by Ragnarok was able to fill in the gaps here and there... which made conversing with them very easy.
"The Elysians called it 188604, I suggested it be renamed Here Lies, and a lot of the Ragnarok crew thinks it should be called Ragna-rock. But it's "Home" to a lot of people so..." Arccos just shrugged, not bothering to complete her explanation. "Right now we're just working on fixing up communications, manufacturing and housing for the city. If we're talking blueprints for a clinic you've got a waiting line. Right behind everyone homeless after the fire."
"Then I'd better set up a field clinic, we brought the supplies for that... we can triage the worst cases and save a few more folks, those who wouldn't otherwise live..." he sighs, "There was some kind of big fire then? How many hurt?" He knew how bad fires could be, even in advanced cities if parts of the infrastructure meant to defend against them failed, it was especially common on Nepleslia leading up to the unification, as the street wars had often made emergency services impossible, so if a fire started in some high rise and wasn't cut off locally, and then more started, well it could get bad. That was thankfully far less common these days, but even now Arson was on the list of 'Blues won't look too hard at any lynch mobs stringing up the perpetrator' list of acceptable Nepleslian mob justice.
"Around the time we landed, someone set fire to a warehouse full of something called 'black powder'. Took a good chunk of the city, but we got a lot out, and we stopped it from spreading." she blinked a few times in thought, "So far most people are too afraid to come out of their homes, since a lot of us just sort of... Lurk around in power armor up at the palace. I'm the only one who comes out. Not many have come forth with information on wounded."
"Seriously? That's the stupidest thing you guys could be doing, you have to get out and lias with the population otherwise you turn into the other, and the other is just another word for 'an enemy we've not killed yet'. There's no point in uplifting this place if it's just gonna turn around and nuke us to hell and back."
Arccos just looked aside to where Uso was standing "Yeah, might not want to tell the Empress here that her people are being stupid. I'm working on it anyway... Getting out there, making all this normal... For everyone."
"Good, well we should try to get our own folks mingling if nothing else... I have to get in amongst the population, find out who the doctors are..." he pauses, then looks at Josward, "Excuse me Mr. Josward? How are doctors normally looked on in your communities? I've read historical accounts of them classically being, well, one step removed from butchers on some primitive colonies. I'm worried I'll have to move against that preconception here as well."
"I suppose our doctors would seem like Butchers to you... they do sometimes need to amputate... If you are worried about superstition, then you are in the wrong place. This is the largest city on the planet, not some small backwater town. We don't believe in ghosts or evil spirits. We have anti-biotics... and a few medicines made from local plants. But we've seen how our weapons compare to yours... I suspect our medicine compares in much the same way." He replied. Of course, his idea of a large city might have been a bit funny to Rip. What used to be Osman city stretched out for online a few miles, made of densely packed wood and stone buildings that never reached more than 2-3 stories high.
"Yeah, you haven't really spent enough time with Ragnarok... Probably going to end in disaster if you let them mingle." Arccos said, standing and walking over to Uso; one part to let Rip get his info, two parts needing to get stuff done, "A moment, your grace?"
"Oh... you," Uso said, though Arc couldn't exactly see the smile on her face, "Whacha need? ... you've done a good job here so far... and we need to fill the two cargo containers on the Queen's Slave with Algaeia and water as soon as possible. I think your men here would be great for that."
She looked over at the printing press for a moment... not quite knowing what the machine was, though it didn't seem to hold her interest for more than a moment,
"We trade the first batch of Proteins and water to the spacers, we get a bit of money and some industrial level concrete production. We can start laying foundations, maybe make some apartments out of more cargo containers. I would like it if you helped with the development plans."
Arccos nodded a few times, just as a way of showing she was listening. Her eyes however seemed to be looking slightly to Uso's left. Wasn't like she could see through the helmet to go for expressions anyway.
"Well you're going to have to worry about more harvesting than for trade. A few days ago these guys were going on about how the city was running out of food. We're housing the remnants of two armies, and have a big-ass civilian population... Your grace." The honorific came as an afterthought. "You'll have to tell the rest of Ragnarok to claim whatever algae trawlers they can out on the sea there."
The taller spacer looked around for a moment, making sure not many were around to listen in on this.
"As well most of these guys don't really know what they're doing. I've just been getting them rounding up local craftsmen to see what they got. Josward says most of 'em only know how to stand in line and shoot a gun. This is more like... I dunno. I'm sheriff of Usoton and these are my deputies and headbusters."
"Got any heads to bust around here?" Uso asked, "Those guys can just eat the green stuff in the water... I assume the food this place has will last a few more days right? We just have to get the Queen's Slave fitted for Green-stuff harvesting in that time. The planet is FULL of the stuff and it is edible. We can harvest it like no one on this planet has ever seen and the Spacers will buy whatever we can't eat.... Wait... craftsmen? What can they craft?"
"They use this wood stuff. There's a few gunsmiths, I have some people out looking for engineers. The wood shit is weird, they took me to where it grows. Huge pillars of the stuff, they bled on me when they cut them with saws..." Arccos looked slightly disgusted just by the mere thought of wood-blood.
"I was working with the idea that they'll be more useful if we teach 'em stuff. A lot of them are really willing to learn, bunch of 'em went nuts at the idea of growing real food. Problem is that if th' city starts to starve you'll have a real uprising on your hands. That's when head busting comes into play."
"We should see about making this place self sufficient before we even begin exploiting it for direct profit, poor money back into the local economy rather than just taking and selling it elsewhere, once this place is building its own orbital infrastructure, then it'll be self sustaining on an interstellar scale, able to compete with all but the most resource focused colonies... well... we could boot strap it faster, but it'd take a lot more money, and importing pretty much every bit of machinery and infrastructure we can... rather than trying to get them to the point of making it themselves."
"These people are stacking sticks together and calling it a home, orbital infrastructure is a ways away for them. The way I see it we need to focus on the biggest gains we can get with our next purchase. Concrete for foundations, upgrades to the Queen's slave to harvest more material from this planet. If we can fill the containers up maybe once a day, 6ish hours to the spacer station, another six back... we can start bringing in some real gear. Construction bots, farming.... whatevers... I can't feed or self-sufficient this place with what we have now." Uso replied.
"Fill the container, haul it out to orbit, freeze the water, then pull it out of the container in a block. Don't know how your ship works but it's good for hauling more ice in chunks. Bigass block will stay frozen for six hours, though you may want to mop out your cargo holds afterwards." Arccos suggested, rubbing her power armored finger and thumb to her eyes, suggesting that... Well yeah, that Rip wasn't exactly making sense to her either.
"And Rip? We're worried about everyone going into a blood fury over not eating. Immediate concerns, yeah?"
Rip rubs his chin, "Ah, that's kinda what I mean by 'bootstrap the infrastructure', food is up there with what you need. I read the people here eat processed algea? Any idea on how they go about doing that? The best way to help might be to just set up more and better such processors for the time being until something better can be put in. They'll be familiar, easy for them to figure out how to operate even if they're more advanced than what they got now, and will provide a familiar food source. What I'm getting at is that you don't want to just... I dunno, it sounds like boss you want to start getting money out of this place like a pinata... you're talking like the gang bosses back in Funky City do when they get some new neighborhood under their control. They don't worry about repairing the damage the gang war they were in to claim the damn place, they want their protection money right then you know? What I'm getting at is that 'profit' is probably not in the equation in any personal sense until the whole 'able to support themselves' thing." He shrugs, realizing his musings had completely lost his audience, "you know what, forget it. Just tell me where you need to me to do shit and help out, and I'll let you two braniacs do the planning and worrying about funding and what needs to happen next."
"YOU!" Uso shouted, pointing at the soldier that Rip and Arc had been speaking to earlier, "How do you prepare and eat that green stuff?"
"Me? I'm Josward... Josward Braith."
"Don't care, not learning your name. Just wanna know how you make the green stuff into food." Uso snapped,
"Well... it is edible almost immediately... it kinda needs to grow just a little bit so we have these pans with strainers that we can use to sift out the too-small ones. Then you can just eat them like they are tree-fruit, or leave them out and let them dry out like Jerky for use later. I like mine with a little salt... some people cook em once they've dried em." He said, starting to go on about the different ways one could prepare the food, only for Uso to cut him off again,
"Great... so we just need to gather the stuff, and drop it off... City: Fed." Uso said, "Maybe put some scoop-things on the bottom of the Queen's Slave? Some filters on the back, just skim the stuff out of the water and dump it here. The Freezing thing is a pretty good idea too Arc. Though I'm going to need to take a few of our power armored soldiers up there to do that work EVA... That leaves you Rip. "
Uso would turn toward Rip and address him directly,
"Frankly, I really don't care what happens to these people for the time being, I want to get paid. The faster I get paid, the faster I can use that money to build this place up. Right now we're on the clock, eventually someone is going to find us and either we have this place up and running, or they are just going to take it from us.
What I need from you is that clinic of yours. Get people healthy, find something for them to work on that turns a profit, then we turn that profit into something that uplifts this whole place... Right now I'm the devil you know."
Arccos would just stand behind Uso the whole rant at Rip, eyes closed, and gesturing as if to say this is why I don't mingle them. Although she quickly stepped from that and rejoined the whole conversation deal.
"We know, you're the devil. Don't worry, everyone's still terrified of you." Arccos' own power armor scraped on Uso's as she slid an arm around her shoulder, "I'll get some people who can make nets to make something to skim from the sea, and we'll bring in the engineers to see what they can do with more of the shipping containers."
Rip just raised an eyebrow at the whole thing, "Alright, sounds like a plan, I'll get a field hospital set up in the city once we get back," he turns to Arccos, "You need help carrying big heavy things right now right? Do you want to talk and walk as we go so we can get this ball rolling?"
"Problem solving skills are cute... " Uso said, "I might need to see more of you later.... Go have them start making nets. The containers are just big rectangles... it shouldn't be hard for them to figure out how to put nets in them and drill some holes.... Go forth, figure shit out. I'll grab some of the other guys and start loading the containers... That leaves the two of you with a few hours to decide what I need to get next for the greatest benefit."
Arccos leaned slightly against the Empress, putting the weight of herself and the industrial power armor she wore on her for just a split second before pulling away with a slight swagger. Whatever the actual action was, it was lost through layers of armor and servos. But there had been some sort of her pressing herself against Uso. "Nets will be sent to the pay docket, and I'll have to see about dealing with the blowback of the ship putting their algae farmers out of business... If you need to see me, my room's in the old palace's attic..."
Stepping over to reclaim the helmet of her armor, Arccos stomped across the room towards Rip. It was hard not to in full metal regalia. "And you might not need to worry about setting up a clinic as a physical building, Doc Hardbody. Most of the burnt out part of the city was warehouses and tenement housing towards the desert side. Important stuff seemed to be close to the water and palace, more fully in the shadow of the mountain to protect against the sandstorms. Biggest city on the planet probably has a Royal Osman Hospital or something you can take over."
"Alright, I'd still like to set up an aid station for the damaged district, but it can be a simple tent afair." He considered as he began to follow her, "Besides, contacting the local medical professionals will be critical, so it's a good idea to start at the local hospitals if they actually have them."
Uso didn't quite know how to take Arcco's movements, and just played it off for the moment, "... Good point, though I don't think we have any tents here... none the size you're probably wanting. I expect just about everything's a tight fit for you."
"Uh... We do have a hospital," Josward added, "... there are lots of wounded there from the battle before you guys showed up... I mean, it isn't like many of our people survived being shot by your weapons. There is barely enough of them left to burry."
"Its a war, people die." Uso said, "But thanks for that... Maybe you and hardbody should go check it out.... Arc, figure out what your title is going to be. Mistress of the interior, Empress of internal affairs... Whatever you like. I'm gonna be using your skills a lot as this goes on."
"My actual designated title is 'Codebreaker'... But that sounds bad..." Arccos scratched her head ineffectively, before looking confused at her hand... Her head wasn't itching. "Mistress is better for other stuff, and Empress implies I want to be equal rank to you, Your Grace."
The helmet would be replaced, and resealed over the 'spacer's head. "Just call me... I dunno. I'm keeping order around here, just make me High Sheriff or whatever. Lady High Sheriff Arccos..."
"Mmhmm.... I suppose I should get you a tin-star to wear on your armor," Uso said, wondering for just a moment was Arc was up to.
While those two were discussing titles, Rip was busy talking with Josward, trying to get a feel for how doctors were thought of, survival rates, the types of medicine commonly used, things like that. "I've also got Medical data readers," so saying he pulled out an example datajocky from a slot hung from his field surgery kit, "Like these, I've brought about a hundred of them to distribute to any local medical professionals, translated according to Uso, so once I set up shop I'll be distributing these. Can you make sure one of them makes it to whoever is incharge of the hospital? Or should I talk to someone else about that?"
"Well... I'm not exactly a doctor. I have a bit of battlefield medicine... like I can stop bleeding and such but I'm not so good at the longer term illnesses." He would take a look at the Datajockey, moving side to side a bit to get a better look, "Does it transform or something?"
"I don't know who's in charge of the hospital either, but I can take you there. Last I heard it was overflowing from the battle earlier... but things may have died down... though people who have the cough might be needing your help sooner rather than later." He would pause and look at Rip for a moment before realizing that the space-man had no way of knowing what 'the cough' was. "Nearest of what I understand is that all this dust in the air gets into peoples bodies and starts building up. Sometimes you just cough a lot and maybe go visit the sauna at the hospital to help clear ya out. Sometimes you end up coughing blood, and in those cases you usually die in a month or so."
Rip considers, plugging in the symptoms described to him into his own Datajockey, letting the AI run them for similar disorders, pulling up several things, but he'd need more information before he could narrow it down from the dozen or so possibilities.
Josward would slowly make his way around to Rip's side, standing up on his tip toes so that he could have a look at what was going on. The Datajockey itself seemed to fascinate him, the man quietly watching as the massive ID-Sol used the device. It wasn't hard for it to come up with possible explanations... the problem was clearly some kind of respiratory infection. The high amount of grit in the air was the likely culprit too... but he'd need to examine some people directly in order to get a better understanding.
"Tin star, fancy hat, maybe some spurs..." Arccos shrugged, her armor whining, "I may as well play the part I'm going along with, before we apparently all die of asbestos in the sand... Anyway, me and Rip have some boring work to do, anything else I can help you with before I get to lifting wood poles? ...Your Grace."
"Maybe if that's all you're wearing I'd have another job for you." Uso said, "... I do appriciate your initative here... come see me after you're done."
There was just a small shift in the angle of Arccos' helmet outwardly, as inside it her expression twisted into one of utter confusion, and a little bit of panic. She at least managed to keep about half of the reaction from her voice.
"...Alright." she gave a shallow, but overly flamboyant bow, "I'll see you at the ship, your Grace."
Armored boots stepping along the dusty street, Arccos carefully opened a secured comm link to Rip alone. Even making sure to monitor the signal it for any eavesdroppers, "Rip... Uh. I... Think our employer that would be Empress wants to fuck me. I'm not used to having a client-boss but this is a... Bad thing right?"
"You're asking the person from a planet where protection rackets have legalized themselves as a form of government about good employer-employee relationships and boundries?" Rip asks, well aware that Nepleslia's culture and ideas about what constitutes good business is not at all like what other planets tend to believe. "Back home it's usually how businesses become family businesses. But other places generally consider it a bad idea?" Rip shrugs, "I mean I generally consider it a bad idea as well, but I've seen it work."
"Are you suggesting I... 'Gold dig' the boss?" Rip could practically hear the clank of a power armored facepalm, "...Just, get Josward to take you to the hospital, I'll work out what's going on there after I move a wood shipment."
"I'm not suggesting anything, I'm saying I've seen it work out, I wouldn't do it, but it can go bad or good, just like anything else." He shrugged and nodded to Josward, "Lead the way." He said, and took after Josward, he was careful to keep his face mask open, he did not want to appear to be some strange walking behemoth, though he absolutely was, but to seem at least PARTIALLY human.
"You're just so damn reasonable, aren't you Rip? Never telling me what I want to hear! ...Guess I'll have to find some other reasonable excuse to turn down Empress Black Law..."
A few days ago, the city's main printing presses had been just a pile of burnt wood covering the metal presses that had once been used for printing.
Now, they were a bunch of char-covered metal presses, being tended to by work crews doing their best to scrub them clean. The charr'd wood had been moved away into a pile, and new logs had already been placed in posts around the printing presses. They had come a long way since the project started, and it wouldn't be much longer before the new walls were in place.
"I don't think it'll be too much longer..." Josward reported, setting his coat aside as he took a break from his work, the local man taking a seat near Arccos, "... Though, we could use a hand bringing the wood in from the forests. It would be a lot easier if your power armor......" His voice trailed off, as another one of the power armored soldiers from another world walked into view. The locals had been getting quite used to Arccos, and only Arccos.
"Hey Arc!" Uso shouted over the general comms, "You've been busy... Hell, your guys are looking better trained than the unit Raph's putting together... got a moment to spare from your current project to talk? We got a new crew member and I think you two will work well together... Namely, he needs a clinic, and you've got a construction crew."
Caught between two different conversations going on in the same head space, Arccos just held up her palm to Josward; mumbling the words 'one moment'.
"I'm finishing up out here shortly. Going to give my boys a break from woodcutting to head home, then go out and haul some construction supplies in. How long is this going to take, your Grace?" she replied over the comms
"Your grace? Is that what you're supposed to be called around here boss?" A familiar voice would call out from the vocals of the power armor and over the comm. net, as the helmet cracked open and Rips face would appear from within it, the giant ID-SOL smiling broadly, "Long time no see Arccos. This is where you and the guys from Ragnorak have been holed up since we last met up?" He asked cheerfully. The titan of a man, over 9 feet in height, would wave in a friendly manner at Arccos and her companion. "Unless the boss has something more to tell you, it should just be introducing me, from there we can figure out the best way to set up a hospital/clinic for the area."
"Ambitous and motivated!" Uso sounded quite happy, clapping her hands together once, and watching the scene unfold.
From her seat by Josward, Arccos popped her helmet from her own armor off, seemingly only just now noticing these people were right there. Her chalk white hair somewhat messy from a long day's work, 'Well. Doc Hardbody, looks like you finally made it to the back end of the galaxy... Thought you were still at the palace, sorry..." her voice echoed both in the present sense and from the comms, causing a slight echo. "Glad to see these folk are going to start living to a hundred and fiftieth birthdays."
"Josward, meet Dr. Torr, he probably brings space medicine." she nudged her own personal general in the shoulder with a power armored elbow, "Rip, this is Josward Braith, he's been helping me out."
"I do bring LIMITED space medicine, but that's for emergencies until the infrastructure gets put into place to replicate it," he says, offering a power armored hand with delicate carefulness to the man, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Josward. I'm Dr. Rip D. Torr." he says smiling jovially, the crows feet at his eyes scrunching up as the smile reaches his eyes, genuinely happy to be meeting any friend of Arccos'. If the man had the guts to actually shake hands with someone in power armor, he'd find that Rip was overly gentle with the motions, obviously knowing just how much force could be put into one of these things, and still getting used to finer detail motions while inside of this set of armor. "I'm sure we'll be speaking more in the future, I've got plenty of questions as to the limits of medical science here on..." he actually scrunches up his brow, "I just realized... no one has actually told me what you folks call your own planet? Everyone's just been referring to it by the number designation in the stellar registries."
"Another one of your friends from space.... he is.... big..." Josward responded, looking up at the hulking space-man before him, his hand extending to shake. "We got a lot of names for it... The Osmans government called it Osman... Some of the towns around here just called it Mire... I've heard a few other words used for it, Glebe, Loam... but I ain't exactly been around enough of this place to know what everyone else calls it." The locals spoke a language that was very similar to trade... and the software provided by Ragnarok was able to fill in the gaps here and there... which made conversing with them very easy.
"The Elysians called it 188604, I suggested it be renamed Here Lies, and a lot of the Ragnarok crew thinks it should be called Ragna-rock. But it's "Home" to a lot of people so..." Arccos just shrugged, not bothering to complete her explanation. "Right now we're just working on fixing up communications, manufacturing and housing for the city. If we're talking blueprints for a clinic you've got a waiting line. Right behind everyone homeless after the fire."
"Then I'd better set up a field clinic, we brought the supplies for that... we can triage the worst cases and save a few more folks, those who wouldn't otherwise live..." he sighs, "There was some kind of big fire then? How many hurt?" He knew how bad fires could be, even in advanced cities if parts of the infrastructure meant to defend against them failed, it was especially common on Nepleslia leading up to the unification, as the street wars had often made emergency services impossible, so if a fire started in some high rise and wasn't cut off locally, and then more started, well it could get bad. That was thankfully far less common these days, but even now Arson was on the list of 'Blues won't look too hard at any lynch mobs stringing up the perpetrator' list of acceptable Nepleslian mob justice.
"Around the time we landed, someone set fire to a warehouse full of something called 'black powder'. Took a good chunk of the city, but we got a lot out, and we stopped it from spreading." she blinked a few times in thought, "So far most people are too afraid to come out of their homes, since a lot of us just sort of... Lurk around in power armor up at the palace. I'm the only one who comes out. Not many have come forth with information on wounded."
"Seriously? That's the stupidest thing you guys could be doing, you have to get out and lias with the population otherwise you turn into the other, and the other is just another word for 'an enemy we've not killed yet'. There's no point in uplifting this place if it's just gonna turn around and nuke us to hell and back."
Arccos just looked aside to where Uso was standing "Yeah, might not want to tell the Empress here that her people are being stupid. I'm working on it anyway... Getting out there, making all this normal... For everyone."
"Good, well we should try to get our own folks mingling if nothing else... I have to get in amongst the population, find out who the doctors are..." he pauses, then looks at Josward, "Excuse me Mr. Josward? How are doctors normally looked on in your communities? I've read historical accounts of them classically being, well, one step removed from butchers on some primitive colonies. I'm worried I'll have to move against that preconception here as well."
"I suppose our doctors would seem like Butchers to you... they do sometimes need to amputate... If you are worried about superstition, then you are in the wrong place. This is the largest city on the planet, not some small backwater town. We don't believe in ghosts or evil spirits. We have anti-biotics... and a few medicines made from local plants. But we've seen how our weapons compare to yours... I suspect our medicine compares in much the same way." He replied. Of course, his idea of a large city might have been a bit funny to Rip. What used to be Osman city stretched out for online a few miles, made of densely packed wood and stone buildings that never reached more than 2-3 stories high.
"Yeah, you haven't really spent enough time with Ragnarok... Probably going to end in disaster if you let them mingle." Arccos said, standing and walking over to Uso; one part to let Rip get his info, two parts needing to get stuff done, "A moment, your grace?"
"Oh... you," Uso said, though Arc couldn't exactly see the smile on her face, "Whacha need? ... you've done a good job here so far... and we need to fill the two cargo containers on the Queen's Slave with Algaeia and water as soon as possible. I think your men here would be great for that."
She looked over at the printing press for a moment... not quite knowing what the machine was, though it didn't seem to hold her interest for more than a moment,
"We trade the first batch of Proteins and water to the spacers, we get a bit of money and some industrial level concrete production. We can start laying foundations, maybe make some apartments out of more cargo containers. I would like it if you helped with the development plans."
Arccos nodded a few times, just as a way of showing she was listening. Her eyes however seemed to be looking slightly to Uso's left. Wasn't like she could see through the helmet to go for expressions anyway.
"Well you're going to have to worry about more harvesting than for trade. A few days ago these guys were going on about how the city was running out of food. We're housing the remnants of two armies, and have a big-ass civilian population... Your grace." The honorific came as an afterthought. "You'll have to tell the rest of Ragnarok to claim whatever algae trawlers they can out on the sea there."
The taller spacer looked around for a moment, making sure not many were around to listen in on this.
"As well most of these guys don't really know what they're doing. I've just been getting them rounding up local craftsmen to see what they got. Josward says most of 'em only know how to stand in line and shoot a gun. This is more like... I dunno. I'm sheriff of Usoton and these are my deputies and headbusters."
"Got any heads to bust around here?" Uso asked, "Those guys can just eat the green stuff in the water... I assume the food this place has will last a few more days right? We just have to get the Queen's Slave fitted for Green-stuff harvesting in that time. The planet is FULL of the stuff and it is edible. We can harvest it like no one on this planet has ever seen and the Spacers will buy whatever we can't eat.... Wait... craftsmen? What can they craft?"
"They use this wood stuff. There's a few gunsmiths, I have some people out looking for engineers. The wood shit is weird, they took me to where it grows. Huge pillars of the stuff, they bled on me when they cut them with saws..." Arccos looked slightly disgusted just by the mere thought of wood-blood.
"I was working with the idea that they'll be more useful if we teach 'em stuff. A lot of them are really willing to learn, bunch of 'em went nuts at the idea of growing real food. Problem is that if th' city starts to starve you'll have a real uprising on your hands. That's when head busting comes into play."
"We should see about making this place self sufficient before we even begin exploiting it for direct profit, poor money back into the local economy rather than just taking and selling it elsewhere, once this place is building its own orbital infrastructure, then it'll be self sustaining on an interstellar scale, able to compete with all but the most resource focused colonies... well... we could boot strap it faster, but it'd take a lot more money, and importing pretty much every bit of machinery and infrastructure we can... rather than trying to get them to the point of making it themselves."
"These people are stacking sticks together and calling it a home, orbital infrastructure is a ways away for them. The way I see it we need to focus on the biggest gains we can get with our next purchase. Concrete for foundations, upgrades to the Queen's slave to harvest more material from this planet. If we can fill the containers up maybe once a day, 6ish hours to the spacer station, another six back... we can start bringing in some real gear. Construction bots, farming.... whatevers... I can't feed or self-sufficient this place with what we have now." Uso replied.
"Fill the container, haul it out to orbit, freeze the water, then pull it out of the container in a block. Don't know how your ship works but it's good for hauling more ice in chunks. Bigass block will stay frozen for six hours, though you may want to mop out your cargo holds afterwards." Arccos suggested, rubbing her power armored finger and thumb to her eyes, suggesting that... Well yeah, that Rip wasn't exactly making sense to her either.
"And Rip? We're worried about everyone going into a blood fury over not eating. Immediate concerns, yeah?"
Rip rubs his chin, "Ah, that's kinda what I mean by 'bootstrap the infrastructure', food is up there with what you need. I read the people here eat processed algea? Any idea on how they go about doing that? The best way to help might be to just set up more and better such processors for the time being until something better can be put in. They'll be familiar, easy for them to figure out how to operate even if they're more advanced than what they got now, and will provide a familiar food source. What I'm getting at is that you don't want to just... I dunno, it sounds like boss you want to start getting money out of this place like a pinata... you're talking like the gang bosses back in Funky City do when they get some new neighborhood under their control. They don't worry about repairing the damage the gang war they were in to claim the damn place, they want their protection money right then you know? What I'm getting at is that 'profit' is probably not in the equation in any personal sense until the whole 'able to support themselves' thing." He shrugs, realizing his musings had completely lost his audience, "you know what, forget it. Just tell me where you need to me to do shit and help out, and I'll let you two braniacs do the planning and worrying about funding and what needs to happen next."
"YOU!" Uso shouted, pointing at the soldier that Rip and Arc had been speaking to earlier, "How do you prepare and eat that green stuff?"
"Me? I'm Josward... Josward Braith."
"Don't care, not learning your name. Just wanna know how you make the green stuff into food." Uso snapped,
"Well... it is edible almost immediately... it kinda needs to grow just a little bit so we have these pans with strainers that we can use to sift out the too-small ones. Then you can just eat them like they are tree-fruit, or leave them out and let them dry out like Jerky for use later. I like mine with a little salt... some people cook em once they've dried em." He said, starting to go on about the different ways one could prepare the food, only for Uso to cut him off again,
"Great... so we just need to gather the stuff, and drop it off... City: Fed." Uso said, "Maybe put some scoop-things on the bottom of the Queen's Slave? Some filters on the back, just skim the stuff out of the water and dump it here. The Freezing thing is a pretty good idea too Arc. Though I'm going to need to take a few of our power armored soldiers up there to do that work EVA... That leaves you Rip. "
Uso would turn toward Rip and address him directly,
"Frankly, I really don't care what happens to these people for the time being, I want to get paid. The faster I get paid, the faster I can use that money to build this place up. Right now we're on the clock, eventually someone is going to find us and either we have this place up and running, or they are just going to take it from us.
What I need from you is that clinic of yours. Get people healthy, find something for them to work on that turns a profit, then we turn that profit into something that uplifts this whole place... Right now I'm the devil you know."
Arccos would just stand behind Uso the whole rant at Rip, eyes closed, and gesturing as if to say this is why I don't mingle them. Although she quickly stepped from that and rejoined the whole conversation deal.
"We know, you're the devil. Don't worry, everyone's still terrified of you." Arccos' own power armor scraped on Uso's as she slid an arm around her shoulder, "I'll get some people who can make nets to make something to skim from the sea, and we'll bring in the engineers to see what they can do with more of the shipping containers."
Rip just raised an eyebrow at the whole thing, "Alright, sounds like a plan, I'll get a field hospital set up in the city once we get back," he turns to Arccos, "You need help carrying big heavy things right now right? Do you want to talk and walk as we go so we can get this ball rolling?"
"Problem solving skills are cute... " Uso said, "I might need to see more of you later.... Go have them start making nets. The containers are just big rectangles... it shouldn't be hard for them to figure out how to put nets in them and drill some holes.... Go forth, figure shit out. I'll grab some of the other guys and start loading the containers... That leaves the two of you with a few hours to decide what I need to get next for the greatest benefit."
Arccos leaned slightly against the Empress, putting the weight of herself and the industrial power armor she wore on her for just a split second before pulling away with a slight swagger. Whatever the actual action was, it was lost through layers of armor and servos. But there had been some sort of her pressing herself against Uso. "Nets will be sent to the pay docket, and I'll have to see about dealing with the blowback of the ship putting their algae farmers out of business... If you need to see me, my room's in the old palace's attic..."
Stepping over to reclaim the helmet of her armor, Arccos stomped across the room towards Rip. It was hard not to in full metal regalia. "And you might not need to worry about setting up a clinic as a physical building, Doc Hardbody. Most of the burnt out part of the city was warehouses and tenement housing towards the desert side. Important stuff seemed to be close to the water and palace, more fully in the shadow of the mountain to protect against the sandstorms. Biggest city on the planet probably has a Royal Osman Hospital or something you can take over."
"Alright, I'd still like to set up an aid station for the damaged district, but it can be a simple tent afair." He considered as he began to follow her, "Besides, contacting the local medical professionals will be critical, so it's a good idea to start at the local hospitals if they actually have them."
Uso didn't quite know how to take Arcco's movements, and just played it off for the moment, "... Good point, though I don't think we have any tents here... none the size you're probably wanting. I expect just about everything's a tight fit for you."
"Uh... We do have a hospital," Josward added, "... there are lots of wounded there from the battle before you guys showed up... I mean, it isn't like many of our people survived being shot by your weapons. There is barely enough of them left to burry."
"Its a war, people die." Uso said, "But thanks for that... Maybe you and hardbody should go check it out.... Arc, figure out what your title is going to be. Mistress of the interior, Empress of internal affairs... Whatever you like. I'm gonna be using your skills a lot as this goes on."
"My actual designated title is 'Codebreaker'... But that sounds bad..." Arccos scratched her head ineffectively, before looking confused at her hand... Her head wasn't itching. "Mistress is better for other stuff, and Empress implies I want to be equal rank to you, Your Grace."
The helmet would be replaced, and resealed over the 'spacer's head. "Just call me... I dunno. I'm keeping order around here, just make me High Sheriff or whatever. Lady High Sheriff Arccos..."
"Mmhmm.... I suppose I should get you a tin-star to wear on your armor," Uso said, wondering for just a moment was Arc was up to.
While those two were discussing titles, Rip was busy talking with Josward, trying to get a feel for how doctors were thought of, survival rates, the types of medicine commonly used, things like that. "I've also got Medical data readers," so saying he pulled out an example datajocky from a slot hung from his field surgery kit, "Like these, I've brought about a hundred of them to distribute to any local medical professionals, translated according to Uso, so once I set up shop I'll be distributing these. Can you make sure one of them makes it to whoever is incharge of the hospital? Or should I talk to someone else about that?"
"Well... I'm not exactly a doctor. I have a bit of battlefield medicine... like I can stop bleeding and such but I'm not so good at the longer term illnesses." He would take a look at the Datajockey, moving side to side a bit to get a better look, "Does it transform or something?"
"I don't know who's in charge of the hospital either, but I can take you there. Last I heard it was overflowing from the battle earlier... but things may have died down... though people who have the cough might be needing your help sooner rather than later." He would pause and look at Rip for a moment before realizing that the space-man had no way of knowing what 'the cough' was. "Nearest of what I understand is that all this dust in the air gets into peoples bodies and starts building up. Sometimes you just cough a lot and maybe go visit the sauna at the hospital to help clear ya out. Sometimes you end up coughing blood, and in those cases you usually die in a month or so."
Rip considers, plugging in the symptoms described to him into his own Datajockey, letting the AI run them for similar disorders, pulling up several things, but he'd need more information before he could narrow it down from the dozen or so possibilities.
Josward would slowly make his way around to Rip's side, standing up on his tip toes so that he could have a look at what was going on. The Datajockey itself seemed to fascinate him, the man quietly watching as the massive ID-Sol used the device. It wasn't hard for it to come up with possible explanations... the problem was clearly some kind of respiratory infection. The high amount of grit in the air was the likely culprit too... but he'd need to examine some people directly in order to get a better understanding.
"Tin star, fancy hat, maybe some spurs..." Arccos shrugged, her armor whining, "I may as well play the part I'm going along with, before we apparently all die of asbestos in the sand... Anyway, me and Rip have some boring work to do, anything else I can help you with before I get to lifting wood poles? ...Your Grace."
"Maybe if that's all you're wearing I'd have another job for you." Uso said, "... I do appriciate your initative here... come see me after you're done."
There was just a small shift in the angle of Arccos' helmet outwardly, as inside it her expression twisted into one of utter confusion, and a little bit of panic. She at least managed to keep about half of the reaction from her voice.
"...Alright." she gave a shallow, but overly flamboyant bow, "I'll see you at the ship, your Grace."
Armored boots stepping along the dusty street, Arccos carefully opened a secured comm link to Rip alone. Even making sure to monitor the signal it for any eavesdroppers, "Rip... Uh. I... Think our employer that would be Empress wants to fuck me. I'm not used to having a client-boss but this is a... Bad thing right?"
"You're asking the person from a planet where protection rackets have legalized themselves as a form of government about good employer-employee relationships and boundries?" Rip asks, well aware that Nepleslia's culture and ideas about what constitutes good business is not at all like what other planets tend to believe. "Back home it's usually how businesses become family businesses. But other places generally consider it a bad idea?" Rip shrugs, "I mean I generally consider it a bad idea as well, but I've seen it work."
"Are you suggesting I... 'Gold dig' the boss?" Rip could practically hear the clank of a power armored facepalm, "...Just, get Josward to take you to the hospital, I'll work out what's going on there after I move a wood shipment."
"I'm not suggesting anything, I'm saying I've seen it work out, I wouldn't do it, but it can go bad or good, just like anything else." He shrugged and nodded to Josward, "Lead the way." He said, and took after Josward, he was careful to keep his face mask open, he did not want to appear to be some strange walking behemoth, though he absolutely was, but to seem at least PARTIALLY human.
"You're just so damn reasonable, aren't you Rip? Never telling me what I want to hear! ...Guess I'll have to find some other reasonable excuse to turn down Empress Black Law..."
