text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction, humor]
  
  The food you're picking up is more important to the organization than wasting time confirming a dead body. You manage to reach the destination. It's a small, fenced area with two crates side-by-side, in the shade cast by the side of a storage shed. You can only lug one back with you at a time, but if you go fast through the jungle, you might be able to get the other.
  
  You get back early, managing to double your speed without drawing attention. Bonoli comes up to you with some clear confusion.
  
  "I've got one of the crates, and can go back for the other. There was trouble on the road leading to the crates. A truck slammed into Beatrice's hovercycle and sent her flying. She wasn't carrying the crate or anything from here, so I don't think they can link it back to this operation. The crash was a mess of splintered metal. She must be dead from that."
  
  Bonoli cycles through anger and sadness. "Damn it all. I believe you, too. I was close with her. Don't go for the oher crate anyway; it's too late to pick it up. If we don't shuffle these around, we'll start leaving a suspicious trail of arrivals and pickups. You'll make an extra trip out for that one later. I need a moment." With that, he shuffles away.
  
  Years pass by. You're pretty important to everything, now. Crate runs only happen once every few days, and on the downtime days, Bonoli sets you to a wide variety of tasks. He stopped finding little ways to pick on you, in fact, he became a tad apathetic since the incident. So it's no surprise after a while when he announces he wants to retire. He crowds everyone together to deliver the news one month ahead of time. Then he pulls you aside.
  
  "Hey Matchstick. You know I'm retiring. I want you to carry out my job when I'm gone. You would get paid money for it. Actual, real money that you can spend on whatever you want. I cut out a month before I leave to train you for it. What do you say?"
  
  Well, you haven't stuck around this long just to say no. The responsibility is a lot greater, but there's a retirement at the end of this road. You agree and shake hands. He announces you as his replacement, and to your surprise there isn't as much as a grunt against it, even from the fighters you know the least. Everyone has been satisfied with your help.
  
  Over the next month, Bonoli glosses over the jobs and all the moving parts to managing the fighting rings. You know almost everything already; it turns out he wasn't just putting you on random jobs the whole time. He even explains some of the gambling ring details, mainly keeping track of who's fighting who and all the tournament details.
  
  He bids everyone goodbye when the day comes. Apparently he's going to take a rocket to a place called Disneyplanet, where he'll be trying all the rides in a brand new "little people friendly" zone of the theme park. He babbles something about the era of the talls coming to an end, and everyone claps.
  
  Years pass. The entire camp had to be moved again as AimFire was hired a second time to take out Raoul's midget fighting rings; this time to a different planet. It's unreasonably hot on the surface of Vant, but you are getting much better bids now that you're kidnapping midgets off-world and bringing them here to fight. These fights always reign in a much higher amount of coin. All of the old fighters you knew when you first found Raoul are either dead or injured to the point of forced retirement. It's a lonely life on Vant, but you do a good job.
  
  Years and years pass by, and even though it was clearly coming, nobody was ready for Raoul's overnight retirement. He just disappeared one day, with no more than a message about working on his mustache for a galactic competition.
  
  You start to wonder about training someone else into the organization and retiring. You probably have enough money, and the organization isn't going to last long without someone managing the clients, which sounds like a hassle.
  
  > Don't retire yet
  Why retire when the most important and lucrative position just opened up? You have no idea about the bingo games, but if you could find clients for the underground fighting rings, you get to keep half of it all (without splitting to the fighters).
  
  You get into a rocket and blast off for Noghtagratplas, a yellow planet full of people with nothing better to do than bet on midgets fighting. The rocket lands on a sparse plain of stubby little crops, and you step out to the acrid stench of sulphur. The whole planet smells like ass, but you press on. Why do people even live here? Why?
  
  You don't see roads around here as much as little pieces of concrete over the barren, flat ground to indicate where you should drive. How strong are the sandstorms that they can do that? You walk into a sketchy-looking restaurant and start asking about fighting rings here. A few tips lead you to a red-roofed building, its doors wide open.
  
  "Hello there," a hulking figure greets you. "What's it going to be today?" Shunk! He cleaves the head off an oversized rodent and starts to gut it. Hooks decorate the building like a horror movie, each wearing a meat carcass. "Well?"
  
  > say "Nothing, sorry."
  "Come in any time. It's only so long before the delicious smell gets everyone to buy!" He laughs heartily.
  
  After that encounter, you decide maybe you'll find contacts on another planet, but you keep coming up with sketchy, unclear situations. It's not really your fault, afterall. Raoul had some pretty dangerous clients. What more can a normal person do than steer clear for their own safety?
  
  The business wanes, but it doesn't die for years, being financed almost entirely by two clients who apparently don't care what's on video. You can access their gambles and work with it that way. What used to be a decent operation is now little more than amateur fighting, and you're not really making anything. What you do make, you put back into the maintenance costs. You give the bad news a few days later. Nobody was surprised, except for Dave. But Dave was really stupid.
  
  You've got just enough to eke out a sad existence on Vant, working for a business where you make dirt (physically and financially). It's the best job you can get. You meet Lin along the way and hit it off for a couple years, but ultimately, she leaves you. It's not you though, it's her.
  
  You finally get to retire, and promptly hit the dirt three years later.