>>5465877The first two shops you visit have nothing at all of interest to you. In fact, they barely have anything of value, or even of use.
It's all old, rusted scrap barely fit to be thrown into a crucible for the raw metal. A few working parts here and there but that's it.
Apparently anything even remotely good gets snatched up almost immediately for ship repairs, or for resale on some other pirate station.
You did ask the shopkeeps about a fab, but you get the feeling they'd have laughed you out of the store if you weren't so intimidating.
The third shop is much the same in regards to useful inventory, but the owner actually has a lead for you.
"A nanofabricator, hmm?" He says, scratching his long, paper-white beard.
The shopkeep is... ancient, that's the only way to put it. A skinny, gnarled hunchback, twisted by time and, if looks are anything to go by, space radiation or worse.
But his mind still seems to be sharp, at least.
"You'll find no such thing here, child. Not amongst these sort. However, i may know where such a thing might rest."
<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">"Where?"</span></span>
"Oh? And i suppose information is free on your world, is it?"
...Well, you'd prefer if it was.
You slip the old man a latinum bar. A thousand credits worth.
"Hmm. A paltry sum, but i suppose i've little need of it now. It will suffice."
Ffff-! Then why did he ask to be paid at all?!
It seems he noticed your irritation even through your armor somehow, considering how he responds.
"...It's the principal, child. I have been a merchant for longer than you can imagine. It would not do to start giving away my wares after all i've learned. Now then..."
The old man hobbles over to a shelf behind his counter and pulls out an ancient-looking holopad... actually, no? This is a pad with an actual, physical screen.
He wipes the caked-on dust off it and rubs the screen relatively clean with his robe before powering it on and swiping through it.
"It was here somewhere... ah, yes. Here, in this system."
He turns the holopad around to show you what's there. It looks like a 3D map of a solar system.
One planet in particular is highlighted, but it's also marked as "Dangerous". Nothing specific, just "Dangerous".
"This planet was once lush and green. In the distant past, it supported a population of billions... but they disappeared. No-one is sure what happened to them. More importantly though, they left behind a treasure."
The old man taps on the planet he'd highlighted before and brings up an image of the surface.
Hey, wait a minute. Isn't this...?
"A fertile, living planet. Or at least it was, some hundreds of years ago. Supposedly something happened, and the environment became unstable. However, i'm certain the atmosphere is still breathable."
No, this is definitely it. You recognize those trees. This is the dodo planet!
"There was a colonization effort, at one point... which failed, spectacularly. The whole colony disappeared without a trace. But their fabricator yet remains."
