Membership - H&C 4

The pilots head out from crawler after a week of downtime to the southwest. They overhear a transmission in Spanish and trace its origin to a heavily fortified compound and its adjoining small village. A data stream is underneath the communication and Ironsides downloads the files. Oilslick makes contact with Dr. Julian Castillo. They have a pleasant exchange of cryptic threats but ultimately end on a friendly note. Castillo invites them for dinner the next time they pass through. He also warns them of the raider gang to the northwest.   They continue south and pass into Amelin Resources's territory. A transmission begins informing them of this and warning that they are now under corporate jurisdiction. Several ads follow detailing the services offered to visitors and then the entire broadcast begins again in French. On the way in, they observe haulers moving from the mining site to the processing center and the numerous layers of security - cameras, vehicle mounted weapons, and Little Sestra mechs and drones.   They park outside and walk through the security screening. They are photographed and subjected to a brief questioning but pass inside. Taxman notices the town seems to be underpopulated for the number of living quarters and sneaks off into an abandoned structure. The occupants left quickly and some of the possessions have been left behind. He finds 3 pieces of TL 1 scrap, several newspapers (printed newspapers are rare for this area), and a few books. He oversees the security forces harassing a teenager.   He speaks to the youth who says he has been trying to find information on his father's disappearance about 1.5 years ago. His father was a town council member and an opponent of the town's annexation by Amelin. The pilots then cause a scene at a corporate chain style restaurant before heading to the Excavator's Enclave, a pub just outside of the town near where all the vehicles are parked.   They meet Ella, a trader from the Union Crawler Fat Turtle who tells them about salvaging opportunities with the pirates of Port Kali and the bio-titan to the south.