- Two out of three, - I muttered.

  My new acquaintance Mordecai was kind enough to give me a couple of sniper lessons in exchange for a bottle of booze. Not that I was going to specialize in it, but it was always good to learn from the masters, and this guy was definitely a master.

  Though, of course, a couple of lessons wouldn't do much, even considering that I already had the general skill to use any weapon... especially considering that. It was not bad to aim at a target that didn't notice me, preferably a stationary one, but to shoot at bandits running at me...

  - You spent six rounds, - the hunter said with the same husky voice, kicking the corpse. One of those three. - It wasn't worth it. Better to shoot them with a revolver.

  He patted the gun on his hip, which he had used to shoot the last of the three. One bullet, from a couple hundred meters away.

  And yes, he was completely right - ammunition blocks for a sniper are not cheap, only grenades, whether hand or rocket-propelled, are more expensive. The life of a nameless bandit on Pandora with no bounty on his head is much cheaper.

  - That's why I have a shotgun in the second ECHO slot - I noted. - A pistol is nice and economical, but I'm nowhere near your skill. And shotguns are also inexpensive.

  - That's true, - Mordecai agreed, looking up at the sky; he put up his hand and the Wing fell on it. - Basically, it's enough for your style. When you can't prepare turrets and you're caught in close combat, you'll still use a shotgun or assault rifle. And if you can get ready, your precise shooting skills will suffice, I suppose.

  - I hope so, - I grinned. In principle, I was planning to put a freshly acquired skill point into 'Basic Military Training', which should improve my marksmanship as well.

  - But for now, practice with a revolver - added the hunter. - Wing had just noticed another group.

  Actually, with Mordecai we had formed a rather strange partnership. We didn't hunt together anymore (he was a loner...), but I gave him a ride every now and then, for which he paid with some ammunition (he always said "sometime later..." to my offer to buy an ECHO), and we helped each other with small things. For example, I fabricated a coffee maker for him... it seems to he have become the last one in Yellowrock and the surrounding area.

  My own coffee maker, by the way, is built into the buggy, hooked up to the reactor.

  Anyway, we didn't usually hunt together, but for a shooting lesson, involving not so much even direct aiming skills as Mordecai's philosophy on gun use, he chose one of the gangs he'd taken a mission to clean up. He didn't share the money, but threw in some useful information about the habits and weaknesses of Pandorian fauna. And flora. (I once thought that even on Pandora grenades don't grow on trees; well, I was wrong. Fire melons, necrophages... The flora on this planet is just as crazy as the fauna - which should include bandits).

  While I didn't get any money for these bandits, I did get some trophies in addition to knowledge and experience. Ammo, mostly, and one grenade. Mordecai had collected all the guns this time, since the fact that I was giving him a ride in the buggy meant I could haul them all away (I'd attached a trunk to the car; it seemed a waste now).

  The hunter who slammed the lid shut turned in my direction, saw my wistful look, and hummed. And then tossed me a... Huh.

  A shield. A better shield than mine, even if not by much.

  - Here, - he said. - I couldn't have gotten this much without you.

  Huh again.

  "New message received with file attached!"

  Well, that was sudden, especially about the file. Good thing ECHO messages are almost distraction-free, feeling... background, I'd say. Otherwise, I might have missed.

  After shooting the skag - Mordecai had recommended shooting them in the mouth, preferably when it was wide open, but you could also shoot it in the gap between the jaws when it wasn't covered tightly, and it was really effective - I looked around, made sure the horizon was clear, and opened the message.

  "From: Vladoff Corporation, Social Department.

  Subject: Happy New Year!

  The Vladoff Corporation wishes you a Happy New Year. In addition to your standard rations, you receive a bonus and gifts. Vladoff Corporation cares about its employees! Good luck and success in the new year, make us proud!"

  That was... somewhat strange. I even looked around reflexively, but there was still no snow around - just sand, dust, and, the closest thing to a Christmas tree, some sort of cactus. Ahem. On what planet and in what region is this New Year's Eve?..

  A closer look at the situation clarified things somewhat. It was the anniversary of my - my "character's" - work for the Vladoff. And it also turned out that the Vladoff gave me not only an ammunition ration, but also a food ration with bonuses for holidays. Specifically, this set included, in addition to a set of basic products, two bottles of vodka, two kilograms of tangerines, and a large bag of coffee.

  No, you don't get it. A really big bag of coffee beans, very similar to what Santa Claus would carry.

  ...It feels like coffee has some kind of special meaning in this setting.

  To be honest, the generosity of the corporation was suspicious, but since I didn't know what was wrong, I couldn't do anything about it, and the coffee was quite decent, I just accepted it as it was. Knowing the Vladoff, they might just have an overabundance of tangerines and coffee in their warehouses and need to get rid of it somehow.

  Definitely, a mug of hot coffee makes even a day on Pandora quite bearable.

  Boom! I shot the skag running at me and took another sip. I'd need more milk, I'll have to look for it in Echonet - I'm sure I can get some... In principle, it's really possible to live on Pandora.

  Boom! The head of another skag was blown to smithereens. I bit down on the edge of the mug, holding it with my teeth, and reloaded the shotgun with my free hand. I'm running out of sugar, too, but that's no problem - I already know where to buy it....

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ...Hmm. I think I've really gotten used to life on Pandora, in just a couple weeks.

  Basically, it's not so bad. Another level up and an increase in Technical Competency allowed me to build - a combination of digital construction and normal assembly - quite acceptable sleeping pods, and a set of household appliances, so that combined with shopping - and paying for work - through Echonet, I was effectively self-sufficient and self-supporting. Ammo scarcity was still a problem, but I'd more or less learned to deal with it - saving money, looting bandits, and skagging. I may not be as tough as Mordecai, but I was more than capable of standing up for myself, so the danger was reduced to a reasonable level....

  ...Of course, that didn't mean I was willing to live on the damn planet. Even if the ECHOnet partially solved the problem of communication - although the public on Pandora, well... - and even with the amenities were not so bad thanks to the ECHO and my "skills", but the conditions were far from ideal. And let's not forget the assignment from the corporation...

  That remained a problem altogether. After getting two artifacts with relative ease, I had a stalemate. Probably, the problem was that most of the found Eridian weapons were immediately sent "upstairs", to the technical departments of corporations, and only the things that got to the bandits were preserved, and those hypothetical mutagenic "relics"... well, they are too similar to the fragments of Eridian buildings for the bandits to be interested in them, so the easiest way is out. Me need to look in other archaeological camps, but... even the closest one is far away. And there's no guarantee that they'll be found there (or that I'll be able to find them, which is not the same thing), so going nowhere on what remains a planet far from safe with no guarantee of success... Not a good idea.

  Moxie, unfortunately, couldn't help either, and neither could ECHOnet. According to the femme fatale, she "keeps her ears open" and I had no doubt she wasn't lying, but so far no luck. I also told Mordecai that I would buy or trade if he came across something like this, but the hunter had not been seen at all in the last few days.

  That's why I took Claptrap along for the new job. The robot was still as insufferable as ever, but I did manage to discover one dubious virtue: he was a natural-born, if you can say that about a robot, looter. Or is he a shmon-ach? In any case, his words "This is what I was born to do!" proved to be true: he regularly managed to find something of value where I seemed to have already searched everything, so whenever possible I took him with me, leaving him a share of the loot - at least when there was supposed to be something to scavenge. In this case, the job was to clean out the den of another small gang (which, as it seems, have something in common with mushrooms: cut a bunch, and in a week a new one would take its place), so there would be an opportunity to search.

  The road to the place went smoothly and without events (Claptrap's chatter and a pack of skags by this point in my mercenary career don't really counts...). But on the spot... It was quite a sight.

  I'm not sure if this place was formerly a small farm, or maybe a motel with a homestead, but almost certainly the skeleton on the pole belonged to the former owner. However, that wasn't what caught my eye at all.

  As I quietly - a little work on the engine - rolled out from behind the hill, a very strange confrontation came into view. Standing in front of the open farm/motel gate was... well, if up to this point the phrase "bear/cabinet hybrid" would have broken, or at least dislocated, my brain, I now knew what it looked like. An almost angular big man with powerful, thick arms and shoulders, short haircut, with a completely beastly expression on his face, and with some kind of a stick in his hands... I mean two sticks.

  And there was a buggy coming at him, engine roaring.

  I saw the gunner turn his turret to point it at the big guy, but he didn't move. Instead, he threw one of his drones at what appeared to be a metal pipe.

  The pipe, spinning like a helicopter's propeller, slammed into the buggy's turret and cut it down, along with half of the gunner's body.

  The second pipe followed the first one like a spear, hitting the driver; the car swerved sideways and crashed into the wall.

  I stared dumbfounded at what was happening, but that wasn't all. Another buggy appeared from behind the buildings; the big guy looked at it and pulled a rock out of his vest pocket.

  It didn't hit the turret, only bent it, but now it couldn't fire. The thrower bent down and picked up a - rail? Or a construction beam, I'm not sure. Swung it in his hands... is he gonna throw that heavy thing too?

  Nope. Without moving, he swung the rail over his head like a weird sword, and then, when the buggy was right in front of him...

  ...a crushing blow sent the machine flying into the air, flipping over and flying over the big guy's head.

  The beam bent.

  Uh-oh.

  - Wow... - Claptrap said mesmerized. It seemed that even he was stunned.

  Meanwhile, the big guy noticed me - or rather, my buggy, which I had stopped at a distance. He looked around, threw away his bent weapon, and pulled a post with a "no trespassing" sign out of the ground.

  I got out of the buggy. No, in another situation I would have tried to get away, but there were two factors that made it a moot point. First, there was definitely something familiar about the type - the same feeling I'd had when I'd met Mordecai. And second, in the augmented reality of the ECHO, he was marked green.

  Still, I raised my hands, cautiously approaching and tensely preparing to leap aside. And by the way, ECHO, how do you label it?

  "BRICK," came the sign over the road sign above the big guy's head. Uh, I can see the "brick," but how do you label the man?

  The inscription blinked and confidently changed to "Brick" with a "wave" across the letters.

  - Uh... Brick? - I hesitantly said aloud.

  Suddenly the big guy grinned widely, lowering his weapon.

  - I didn't know I was famous, - he informed me.