He sat down heavily, wearily, upon the steps of the Dragon-class transport, setting down his pulse rifle with a sigh. It was odd how he always felt so groggy after a long, hard bout like this. Despite the adrenaline rush that came with getting shot at, immediately after all he wanted to do was take a nap. It was funny - maybe it was because being a part of the Brothers had never afforded him the luxury of napping. He remembered always yearning for a moment of peace to close his eyes and lay on a cot somewhere. Now as an Independent, he finally could.
He got up, shaking off the drowsiness, before stepping a few of the bodies. He made a mental note to riffle through their gear later, see if they had any servos to pump up his own armor. Sometimes these Clade goons had a few good pieces worth pilfering, but he could only take so much back with him, and finding a buyer for some of it wasn't always easy either. Even the cargo was going to be tough. It was lucky he'd brought the transport down on Agora IIV. The Inner Systems would get awfully nosy about that kind of thing.
He picked his way through the ship to the hold, trying not to get blood on his boots as he bypassed the remains of the crew. He, of course, had given them the option of giving it up, but the Clade were too fanatic for their own good, not to mention they loved calling a bluff. The holograph trick apparently didn't fool them into thinking he had a few buddies. It figured - things could've ended a lot better for them.
"Hope your Tree God's good to you, buddy," he muttered as he skirted around a headless corpse.
He finally reached the hold. Inside, massive plastic-covered blocks lay on top of one another, held by crashweb to the transport floor. He whistled to himself with eyebrows held high as he walked towards the blocks, which were a deep, almost throbbing red. He put his hand on the blocks, judging the weight just by sight alone, and his stomach tangled around his ankles.
He pressed a hand to the comm unit on his armor and said, "Eva, you there?"
"Yup. Broker online."
"Cool. They said the transport was worth a lot, but I didn't realize how much."
"Yeah? What's the cargo this time?"
"Saffron. Literally thousands of pounds of the stuff. Probably the real thing, too."
"You're kidding me. They were hauling cooking spices?"
"Eva, this stuff is worth billions of credits. It's a couple hundred creds an ounce. Can you find me a buyer?"
"I... guess. Caval, what is the Clade even up to?"
"Not sure," he murmured as he looked about him at the towering blocks of blood-colored spice. "Not anything good."