The head of the militia decided to receive Jace in a meeting room that overlooked a central shopping area of the mining colony. It looked like something that they would typically receive guests of high standing. Much to the Governor’s chagrin.

It only took walking through the colony and eavesdropping to learn that the Governor only held power because he had the restricted codes for system functions in case something went wrong. Jace could fix that, he just had not decided if he should do that just yet. For now he would wait and maybe make the offer if this went well.

Jace sat in a chair and relaxed while simultaneously watching as a group of people tried to investigate his fighter craft. But each attempt just resulted in broken scanning gear that they used to check out his ship. While they had yet to try it yet, when they eventually moved onto something more invasive it would trigger the shield and send everyone nearby flying. He was watching them through a camera that was in the hangar.

Which he could do now because of his ability to operate electronics at the same time without struggling. Although seeing through two different views at the same time was a bit distracting it was good practice.

"So, Mister Gladiator. You said you have something to trade with us?" The head of the Militia started off their side.

"Why are we not just taking what we want from him?" The Governor grumbled in annoyance. He gave up when none of his weapons worked and now he was pouting while also somehow behaving entitled.

"Because, I do not want to fight someone who stared down a bunch of weapons without flinching. Not to mention he somehow drained the power from your weapons without even touching you." The head of the militia told him before turning to Jace.

Jace smiled, "you are right. I could take you and the rest of your people which is why I appeared before you unarmed to assure you of your own safety." Jace informed them before clapping his hands together. "I bring technology, just the designs. You will have to install and manufacture it yourself."

"What do you want for these designs?" The head of the militia asked.

"Spirits, any cards, or games you have and some food." Jace explained as he leaned back in the chair he was occupying. He glanced out the window for a moment to see a commotion down in the open market.

"Food will be a problem. But we do have some alcohol, actually we have a lot of alcohol." The head of the militia sighed as he leaned back. "Some intrepid individuals decided to brew a new type of alcohol. One that is high in alcohol content. They were able to pull it off because we have an excess in terms of water from the ice asteroids that are around."

"How high in alcohol?" Jace asked, paying much more attention now.

"High enough to be explosive."

"Perfect, and games?" He tapped his fingers together in excitement.

"We have several unopened card boxes. The basic diamond, heart, clubs, and spade deck. Then a few other game card decks. Then the last thing is a boardgame. Do those work?" The man asked as he glanced at a person who quietly moved into the room. It appeared to be whatever version of police they had on station.

Jace nodded his head and answered as he looked at the police officer. "Those work for me, you said you can’t do food?"

"No we-" He stopped as the officer moved forward and started whispering in his ear.

"Sir, I apologize for interrupting but we just discovered several of our food stores have been compromised. The spare fuel that we took from that freighter has leaked down through the ground. We only have enough food for one more month and that is with rationing in effect." The officer explained.

Jace watched as the head of the militia seemed to run through all his options. While at the same time he saw for a moment as the governor slightly smiled for a moment before schooling his expression. It seemed that the governor set up this problem.

The head of the militia seemed to think of this too. Because he whispered back to the officer. "Break open the governor’s stores and take all the food he has secretly hidden along with anything else of value. Seems our hand has been forced, make sure we send that request to the revolutionaries." The officer nodded before walking out quickly.

The head of the militia turned to him. "We cannot spare the food. But we can tell you where we get our food. Mars might be in the midst of a civil war just like every other part of this galaxy, but it was converted into a farm planet and has been producing meat and grains en masse."

"Thank you for the information. If you can get a digital storage device I can provide you with the schematic and design for an atmospheric barrier. It is a barrier in space that can be made to keep the atmosphere on one side and space on the other." Jace began explaining. "If done correctly you can fortify your colony against possible breaches into space."

"Something like that does not exist. If it did I would have heard of it." The governor scoffed.

Jace ignored him as he watched the militia head’s reaction. He seemed to contemplate it for a moment before his eyes lit up and Jace could not resist the smirk that graced his lips. "I see the idea. We accept. I will have the games sent to your ship and as much booze as we can fit in. I do not know how big your ship stores are."

"What?" The governor asked in shock as both Jace and the head of the Militia stood up and shook hands. "What is going on?"

"It seems we are going to become a trading port." The militia head declared before calling for someone to bring some data storage units. "We trade the designs or installations to freighters and similar ships in exchange for goods and or services."

"I will be the judge of that." The governor declared. "You may have the support of the people. But I have codes for the security systems, the atmosphere control, and the power center."

"Actually, we have all of those codes. We have been slowly acquiring them over the last few months and have been waiting for the opportune moment." The head of the militia declared. "This seems like that moment." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"You are a traitor to the empire!" The governor declared as the head of the militia whistled and then motioned toward the pair of militia members that walked in to grab the governor. He started flailing in anger as he was dragged out.

"Well that is entertaining." Jace chuckled. "Shall we go to the hangar?"

"Certain-"

Crash!

They could hear the sound of glass breaking and they turned to the window to see some liquid spilling down. They looked down to see a riot taking place. "Actually, I think you might have to go assure your people." Jace pointed out as he watched the chaos unfold before him.

"Indeed. I also have to negotiate and apologize to the people from the freighter as well. Then I need to reach out to another trader to request more food." The man started.

"Why not reach out to Mars directly?" Jace asked.

"Our long range communication array was damaged a few months ago and we do not have the parts needed to repair it." The head of the militia explained as they moved to the door.

"Give me the part schematics and I will see what I can do about it." Jace told him as a person ran up with a block of electronics. It only took Jace a moment to touch the device and transfer the designs he promised. "Done." Jace told them and started walking back along the path to the hangar. "As far as I can tell, you have all the technology and means to manufacture this tech I am giving you using the surrounding asteroid’s metals."

"Then it was a pleasure meeting you Gladiator." The head of the militia called out before turning and whispering to the guards and the person holding the data cache. "Get that to an interface and check the contents. You two, follow him. Make sure he does not stray from the path to the hangar."

They saluted and followed his orders as Jace looked through the colonies’ cameras. Now that he was actually looking for it. There was clear evidence of an attempt at a coup on the station. But from the behaviors of the others, he was guessing it got stopped in its infancy by the head of the militia.

It seems there was more going on here than he expected. Hopefully it would not draw too much attention before they left.