Eve’s fixer, Erich, lets her know a bit more about this “Core Dump” hacker on Mercury. He lives in a city called Az-Zukhruf in the Arab-controlled area of Mercury. He has been retired for about a year and a half and is now “legit.” Erich says that though he is retired, he’s taken a few jobs since his retirement (ones that he won’t get shot at for).
As we are approaching Mercury, we are notified by Bengal that the spam levels dropped off for about 4 hours then resumed, and now are no longer coming through ClimaStat’s servers.
We arrive at Mercury, and Eve contacts Core Dump on the public access board. She asks for help with some computers and he seems shocked that she found him. He explains that he is no longer in the biz and generally doesn’t do computer work anymore.
Eve mentions that she was referred by Erich and Core Dump says that he could probably do it since Erich is an old friend. He invites Eve to come to a club with him and then go back to his place afterwards to take a look at things. Eve asks if he is still talking about computers.
Raptor inquires about how legal it is to carry weapons openly on Mercury, and finds that firearms especially are restricted almost everywhere. He settles on bringing only 4 guns and 2 knives.
We land and immediately go to a high-end clothing store. Eve negotiates the price on three armored suits for Cam, Stitch and Raptor. They are reluctant to buy and wear them, but Eve’s wiles win them over.
We go to the bar, a place called 39 Thieves, and as we come into the entrance area there are several security guards checking everyone for weapons. As they scan Raptor, he looks very agitated and does not want to give up his guns. He warns the guy that he should take his hands off of him. The guy says that he is just doing his job.
Eve sees that Raptor is about to go crazy and slaps two tranq patches on his neck. He passes out almost immediately. Cam and Stitch catch him with much difficulty so he doesn’t fall to the floor. Stitch explains that he has had too much to drink. The security guard says that he can’t come into the bar if he’s passed out. Eve explains in low tones to the guards that she tranqued him so he wouldn’t go nuts, but he should be okay now. The guards let him come in.
We come into the bar and Eve meets with Core Dump, whose real name is Yusuf. She gives him a kiss in greeting and says that the club looks nice. He says that it will get more exciting later as the place gets busier.
Eve spends most of the night socializing with Yusuf and his crew. Raptor wakes up later and demands to know what happened. Eve says that he was about to get everyone in a lot of trouble and had to tranq him. He asks what happened to his gun and Stitch says (lying) that the gun fell out of his holster when he passed out and he was holding on to it for him.
Raptor goes back and orders something to eat, but finds that everything is too dainty and upscale for him to enjoy. We decide that we should go since none of us really fit in except for Eve. She says that she is fine on her own and will accompany Yusuf to his place. Raptor asks her if she will be okay (if she has guns) and she says that she has 2.
The party, less Eve, comes back to the ship. Raptor complains that he hasn’t been in a fight recently. Cam, intrigued, goes on the internet and finds if there is an underground fight club in the area that Raptor could participate in. In a surprising stroke of luck he finds one in the area and convinces Raptor to go. Stitch goes with them.
They arrive at the fight club and Raptor signs up to fight. They put him in the super-heavyweight class and he is to fight against a big looking dude. The fight lasts for several minutes as it seems that they cannot hurt one another. After a while, the other guy is being worn down and finally puts up his hands and gives up. His friends are at the fence yelling for him to be taken out of the ring, while Cam is yelling for Raptor to kill him. The man tries to get away but Raptor takes him down from behind.
The crowd goes nuts, and start chanting “Garignak! Garignak!” They bring out another guy with shiny dermal plating and a girl on each arm. He is pointing to the crowd and smiling. The announcer asks Raptor if he will fight again, and he agrees. He manages to wound the guy, which surprises him, but soon Garignak overpowers him and lays him out. Cam and Stitch bring him back to the ship and heal him up, as he is near death.
The next morning Eve calls us and asks to know what is going on. We explain about the fight club, and don’t ask for any details about her night. She asks for Cam to bring the laptops to Yusuf and he comes down in a short while. Raptor goes somewhere to get a steak, and wanders aimlessly afterwards. Stitch follows him to make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble.
Yusuf begins working on the laptops and Eve and Cam go to get groceries. Eve buys a side of beef and Cam gets a bushel of corn. They take them to cold storage on the ship. When they return, Yusuf has cracked the first server and says that he has recovered some company emails and financial information, but nothing incriminating yet.
Raptor eventually stumbles upon a sporting goods store and purchases a paintball gun. He does not buy any paintballs.
Everyone reconvenes for dinner with Eve and Yusuf. Unfortunately Raptor is dissatisfied at the cuisine here and makes a scene, then storms out. Eve is embarrased at the scene but Yusuf seems not to care. Stitch goes to follow him but Raptor says that he is going to kill him if he tries.
Several days pass as Yusuf is working on cracking the servers. He calls Eve one day while we are out and says that he has news. We meet up with him and he says that he recognized a bit of code on one of the boxes. He said that he was working with a guy a long time ago who created the “Shitstorm 3100” which is a terrible spamming software. The guy went by the name “Freewire” and was a notorious hacker. He actually spent some time on Mercury, addicted to BTLs, before he went back to Pallas, and that’s where he probably still is. The program itself took him at least 2 years to write. It is rumored that he sold the code to a chick named Overclock, who Yusuf doesn’t know much about. The code, unfortunately, would take months to pick apart and longer to do anything to stop it.
Meanwhile, Raptor books passage on a shuttle to go to the other side of the planet where he will be more comfortable. Unfortunately they don’t hire there, and he needs to go back. He does so and gets a job as a “laborer.”