#2 by Carnifex

Further down the cardimine hill, on the borders of Liberty, Carnifex was enjoying the benefits of chaos in Kusari. Any hold on Ames Research Station that the Kusari Naval Forces used to have before the Outcast/Dragon invasion quickly faded away with their manpower and the vultures had moved in. The first had been corporate types looking to trade, then freelancers looking for a base to supply from. The pirates had been next and where there were pirates there were bounty hunters. The station had in effect become the freeport it had once been. There were few real Zoners left though; few had the stomach to return after the "loss" without a trace of the entire population of the station that had been taken by the old Kusari.
With no peace keepers patrolling the lanes the pirates had been getting bold. With almost all bounties in Kusari being politically sticky hunters were looking elsewhere. Carnifex had gotten back from a small patrol along the outskirts of the Denko cloud just half an hour ago, holds laden with loot from kills. Many pirates were getting sloppy now that Kusari was focused inward.

Another reason for their success was cardimine. With the Outcasts in every corner of Kusari cardimine had become as cheap as fuel and more widely consumed, almost every pirate that a hunter got a hold of had been virtually swimming in the stuff. Many criminals simply weren't used to it and over did it when they were attacked, making them irrational fighters. They were often easy picking for a skilled hunter. This combined with the ‘no questions asked’ attitude of those running Ames were what Carnifex was enjoying most; he’d been addicted to card since he fell in with the Lane Hackers in his disillusioned youth and did not often get a chance to enjoy it openly.
He let the euphoria filter through his body as loud music filled his small private quarters aboard the station. Already in his mind his next hunt, the battle for the death of the very pirate on whose cargo he was dependent. This was the line that Carnifex walked every day, his life inseparable from both the highly structured society of the houses where he earned his living and from the dirt that they stood on that would sometimes try to suck them down into the mire and often succeeded.
Carnifex let all of this slip from his mind as the smell of cardimine filled the room and the low rumble of the music grew more distant in his mind.