Mauser

Zhil called Tex over to the Colonel's Pride and the two of them set about trying to hijack the far trader, using the incapacitated Captain Johnson's eyeballs and thumbs to try to get into the bridge, but the door refused to budge, and an alarmed AI called Ralph started asking difficult questions and getting alarmed at their behaviour. Not long after, a passenger arrived back at the ship, saw the horror show unfolding before him and tried to run before being gunned down by Tex. Considering the cameras on the ship and the difficulties they faced, the two wouldbe hijackers decided to cut and run and were soon in orbit.

A jump to Arunisiir found a mostly lawless planet of a few hundred thousand inhabitants. Zhil and Tex took the opportunity to acquire some explosives from some enterprising miners (not minors).

Another jump to Pandora put the crew in the same town as Brakk T'Voss. Zhil made a call and after a brief discussion, the two met up, with Brakk inviting Zhil to meet his employer Mauser at the Nine Lives Hotel. Some investigation by Ernie and Tex discovered that Mauser owned an entire wing of the hotel. Tex disguised himself as one of the staff and managed to bluff his way past the guards into Mauser's wing to be on hand for Zhil's visit. When Zhil was invited in, he found himself before a genetically uplifted talking cat, Meeoowser. Zhil's version of events was accepted by Mauser and Zhil was paid Cr250,000.

Mauser warmed to Zhil and offered him some work retrieving some cargo which was currently being held up at Cordan highport by the port authority there, backed by the shipping corporation PRQ. Tamarin Vos is a smuggler working for Mauser and some his cargo has been seized on false pretenses by the authority. An aslani trade delegate, Riyath Hrassal, has been asked by Mauser to help assist Vos in extricating his cargo. The crew met with Hrassal first, then Vos and discovered that Vos had hired a docker worker, Strake Norven, and hacker, Erv Danzen, to help him hide the cargo with fake tags in the freight terminal. But when PRQ found out, they went after Danzen and he was shot trying to escape.

Zhil and Tex went to visit the hacker in the medical bay in the starport and discovered two roughs questioning Danzen. Refusing to be intimidated into leaving, Zhil confronted the two by filming them on his comm and pretending to be Danzen's lawyer! The tactic worked and the two left. Shortly after, the crew spirited Danzen away to a safehouse and he gave them the location of the missing containers...