All of this for a real cup of coffee.
Halcon Corporation has kept a tight grasp on the tropical planet of Hestia during their rein as steward of the Miranda system and have been milking the populace dry in their attempt to increase profits. It has been 50 years since the last alien attack, and they still have have the shiftgate out of Miranda locked down tighter than a frog's asshole. They stop freetrader ships from entering Miranda so they can artificially inflate the price of goods with their own monopoly of company stores, and as a bonus, Halcon can fix the price of outgoing goods produced on their tightly controlled planets. I still can't believe the kind of crap Halcon Corporation gets away with in this system.
Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash
It really sucks that they own the perfect plant to grow Earth-cultured coffee bushes in the Outer Systems. There is something about the artifically produced sythcoffee that just tastes off...something unnatural and sterile about the flavor. It lacks the nuance of beans caressed by volcanic earth and sunlight, which the jungle plant Hestia has plenty of.
I pitched the throttle on the old dropship and keyed the shipwide intercom to give the 5 mike out warning to the battle-hardened mercenaries ferried in from out of system. They were an odd bunch of former Federation military and a few overmodded freaks hired by the Hestian rebels to help steal the latest outbound shipment of coffee beans from their Halcon overlords.
One of the mercs is kinda cute, I hope he doesn't die.