When we last left off, the Agents of House Viracocha had arrived on Gamont, and attended the first day of the mercenary trade show. They had identified a free company, the Watchers, as a likely candidate for the procurement they'd been assigned to oversee: recruiting a mercenary army to help their parent house, House Runasimi, defend itself from House Orlok in a War of Assassins.
The second day of the Trip to Gamont dawned, and the Agents of House Viracocha found that nobody had attacked them in their sleep. Lydia stayed behind to make sure Mentat Joe didn't choke on his own vomit from his drug bender, while the rest of the group caught a shuttle back up to the trade show. They recalled Mentat Joe's incomplete warning that, while their deal with the Watchers would be successful, something else bad was going to happen.
The second day of the Trip to Gamont dawned, and the Agents of House Viracocha found that nobody had attacked them in their sleep. Lydia stayed behind to make sure Mentat Joe didn't choke on his own vomit from his drug bender, while the rest of the group caught a shuttle back up to the trade show. They recalled Mentat Joe's incomplete warning that, while their deal with the Watchers would be successful, something else bad was going to happen.
They shared the shuttle up to the flying convention platform with some familiar faces and some new ones. They recognized the delegation from House Rashomon, the leader wearing a pair of heavy sunglasses to combat photosensitivity from his hangover. There was also a new guy, which they recognized by the flashes on the collar of his Hawaiian shirt as the colors of House Rust, a House Minor from Giedi Prime with a controlling interest in the Eyeflash Miracles, one of the mercenary outfits at the expo.
On arrival at the floating platform, the Agents noticed more slaves than the previous day. One of them handed everyone a pair of goggles with tinted oil lenses, for the upcoming "demonstration". The accompanying pamphlet explained that House Clavier would be demonstrating its budget nuclear deterrence options later that day - family atomics at family prices.
Sister Victoria noticed Deaconess Varvara of House Nuntius and an accompanying cadre of priests, talking with Lady Thoss and her entourage of Iron Maidens. Thoss wouldn't be trouble after the discussion the previous night, but Deaconess Varvara was a servant of House Orlok and could make serious trouble. Fortunately she was to engrossed in conversation to notice the House Viracocha delegation.
Other slaves distributed small cubes of a gelatin like mix, with tiny animals suspended inside. These were hangover cures, for people who had overindulged the previous evening. Dr Ichuri decided to give one to the guy he saw on the shuttle, who obviously needed it. The Rashomon House Guards stopped him, but let him through after inspecting his genuine Suk tattoo and passing a snooper over the cube holding the little frog. Sir Rhineland Rashomon was happy to accept the offered treat, but it did nothing for him. Dr Ichuri deduced that Rashomon had mixed alcohol with prescription intelligence enhancers, and devised a quick shot that would counteract the effects of mixing the uppers and downers.
The Watchers had packed up their arena display and were conducting business in a booth outside their tent behind the fighting pits. Tost and Ichuri sealed the deal by offering the mercenary captain Jumping Spider the formula to synthesize the anti-rejection medication for his cybernetic eyes, ending his dependency on the Tleilaxu. In exchange, Jumping Spider agreed to provide the Watchers' service at a price point within the budget House Runasimi had allocated for the procurement. The exchange was witnessed by a trusted human distrans notary, so that he could report the contract to the CHOAM registry after the conference concluded.
With their mission accomplished, the group decided to leave as soon as was practical. Jasper was missing, and Victoria went to the bar to get him. Dr Ichuri noticed that one of the slaves was implanted with a bomb organ - an implanted suicide weapon created by a drug that converted adipose tissue into chemical explosives. Nobody else at the trade show had Dr Ichuri's medical knowledge and he was the only one who realized this was a problem. The slave was headed for the maintenance area under the suspensor platforms that held up the convention. Huascar ran after him.
The underside of the platform was a series of catwalks and maintenance gantries suspended hundreds of feet over the open ocean. With nothing to break his fall, Huascar swung out and leaped across open space to catch up with the suicide bomber. The maula pulled out a knife. Huascar wasn't fooled, he knew the blade wasn't for him. The slave tried to cut his own throat. Huascar yanked his weapon hand and threw the man off the edge of the maintenance platform, out into empty space. The bomb and bomber exploded a good hundred feet below the platform.
Up top, Sister Victoria recovered Jasper. The explosion went off below. The rest of the slaves, realizing that the platform wasn't going down and they were going to have to get to the next screen the hard way, drew an array of stolen and improvised blades. Several things happened at once, before the melee became general.
- Lady Thoss assumed that someone was trying to assassinate her, brandished a laspistol and swore to the Great Mother that she would do it.
- MacAdder at Tam savagely attacked Hetman Alan Nomad of the Bomb Knights, not going to miss an opportunity to kill one of House Orlok's servitors.
- The House Rashomon House Guards closed ranks around Sir Rhineland Rashomon.
- The House Nuntius priests shouted that they weren't involved and hid.
With no ability to fix the shuttle, the Agents tried to meet up with the Watchers. The escalator up to the arena platform was occupied by four maula, carrying a big suitcase. Tost tried to stop them, but they ignored his angry shouts. The group went up to the platform, but were pursued by Alan Nomad. The Hetman of the Bomb Knights was furious with Huascar for interrupting his duel with MacAdder. He scuffled briefly with Huascar before the stuntman pushed him down the stairs. The old guy broke a couple ribs, and Dr Ichuri decided to help him. Huascar followed him down to take Alan Nomad (who, it must be remembered, was the leader of House Orlok's mercenary armies) as a hostage. Tost and Sister Victoria went on ahead to the arena.
The arena was a battlefield, the tents and bleachers full of brawling mercenaries, fighting both the slaves and each other - a slave revolt is a golden opportunity to settle scores and blame it on someone else. The Eyeflashes were fighting the Minor Irises, and the Bomb Knights were engaged in mortal combat with the Eels. Sister Victoria and Tost dashed through the melee to the Watchers' booth, where the defenders had piled up tables and benches to form a barricade. Jumping Spider asked if they'd seen a group of slaves with a big suitcase. They had. He told them to immediately put their oil lenses on.
Luckily, Dr Ichuri and Huascar were facing away when it happened, because they got no such warning.
The explosion from the House Clavier suitcase nuke wasn't enough to instantly vaporize the suspensor platform hosting the convention. The slaves were prepared for this. They deliberately set the blast off inside one of the shielded demonstration pitches so that all the force of the explosion would be contained and directed downward - causing the suspensor platform to tip dramatically on one side until it was almost vertical. With a horrible shearing sound, the platform separated from the suspensors beneath and plummeted toward the ocean below.
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