START TRANSMISSION

Hands off the gears and clear your ears, it’s time for another installment of Clean Shot. As always, Craig Burton here to ship you the news you need to know. We’ve got a lot to cover today, but that doesn’t mean we need to get right to it. Sometimes it’s about enjoying the drift, not just the drive.

Today’s show we’re gonna dig into one of the tips presented earlier in the week in a TroubleZone segment. We’re extra lucky because it took a lot of work to get our guest on the line. Hats off to Skinny for getting it all set up. Don’t know how you did it and, honestly, don’t know how I’d do this show without you, buddy. Y’all can’t see this but, right now, Skinny couldn’t be redder if he was caught in the Haven sun. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bring you on air again. Just letting the good folks know who does all the hard work around here.

Anyways …

We all know that nothing is more comfortable than home. So find yourself at home all over the ‘verse at Kel-To convenience stores. Your Hydro-Froz headquarters from here to the horizon and beyond. Kel-To convenience stores — It’s a long road out there; we make it a little shorter.

You know what? That ad is appropriate, considering the circumstances. Not too long ago, the Missus and I celebrated Mia May’s second birthday. There’s no denying that watching my little lady grow has got my head spinning. Every big run I’ve ever done ain’t nothin’ to what I feel when I look at her. At this point in my life, getting home to my two girls is the most important thing I can do. I’m sure there are plenty of you coasting through the drift, right now, that know exactly what I’m talking about.

So, let’s get started —

Today we’ll be headin’ to the Nexus system. Now, I made my feelings clear before: avoid the place. Period. As my mom would say, “no use doing business where no good business gets done,” thanks to all the pirates entrenched there, but the UEE is still trying to establish some law and order.

The efforts to clean up the system mean folks are offering high-risk, high-reward hauling contracts to bring in what’s needed. I’m sure a lot of you young haulers looking to make a name for yourselves might be tempted, but before you go risking your neck for a few extra credits, you’ve got to hear about the new problem plaguing the system.

Thanks to Skinny, we’ve managed to secure a line to Admiral Yeseda Finch. She’s a retired naval officer living on Reis. Hopefully she can enlighten us on what’s going on.

Yeseda Finch: Thanks for having me.

Just to be clear, you’re no longer associated with the UEE Navy, but since your retirement, you have taken an active interest in protecting the Nexus system.

Yeseda Finch: Correct. I’ve been living here almost twenty years now. Didn’t take me long to see that the outlaws wouldn’t leave the system until the people demanded it. It’s going to take some time but we’re on the path to achieving a safe and secure system for all.

Mighty admirable of you, Ms. Finch. But, recently, haulers are having some major issues with Nexus. I’ve gotten reports from folks who risked their lives to bring valuable goods and materials into your system, only to land and discover the TDD would not honor the prices that had been offered at TDDs outside the system. What in the heck is going on?

Yeseda Finch: Well, a few days ago, our local TDD noticed that a number of haulers were delivering goods for prices that were completely unreasonable. At first, we thought they were just victims of information decay.

Some of them were not very happy with how they were treated.

Yeseda Finch: Yes, that was regrettable. Reis’ TDD office is understaffed, as is. As more and more haulers brought the same products into the system, it only exacerbated the issue.

So let’s circle back to my initial question. What in the heck is going on there?

Yeseda Finch: The TDD began to look at their price quotes for the previous few months, suspecting that the problem was an internal calculation error. The Reis TDD numbers were accurate, but branches outside the system were receiving inflated values. I enlisted some of my friends in the local militia to take a look at some of the comm-relays in Nexus to see if there was a connection.

And what’d that do?

Yeseda Finch: We discovered that the relays had been modified. Incredibly sophisticated work as it turns out. It seems some of the local criminal element had installed a remote module of some sort that would scan for TDD encryption sequences as messages were being downloaded into the drones. It would isolate and modify the prices then send the message out.

To put it together, someone was raising the purchase price remotely to draw more business into the system.

Yeseda Finch: More haulers bringing bigger hauls meant —

Juicier targets for scumbags. If I didn’t wanna punch them out, I’d kinda respect the plan.

Yeseda Finch: I have alerted the local UEE authorities, but, after spending years in the Navy, I can assure your audience of one thing — bureaucracy is a slow beast.

Any advice for haulers until that’s done? Hard to plan for a run when you don’t have any price certainty.

Yeseda Finch: So the Reis TDD has frozen all prices until the issue with the relays is fixed. Before bringing any goods into the system, haulers need to make sure they have the price rates dated 2945-04-21. Above all, please exercise caution when entering the system. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

You heard it here, and only here, haulers. We’ll make sure to keep you updated as the situation progresses. Thanks to Admiral Yeseda Finch for joining us today.

We need to go to a quick break. Then we’ll be back with more on Clean Shot.