Starfield:Companion - Sam Coe/Story SG05

Quest:	COM_Companion_SamCoe
Scene:	COM_SamCoe_Story_SG05

Sam Coe:

"I know I yammered on about my... unfortunate past. But really, this isn't about me."

--

"I don't have many friends, and I figure I have to level with you."

"My past keeps showing up. I should get ahead of it before I get behind it."

"Oh, hell, this is tougher than I thought it was going to be."

...	Player	Response
	Just take the leap and start talking.	Right, right.
▲	No matter what happened, Sam, I'm in your corner.	That... That means a lot.
	Uh oh. I don't like the sound of this.	Oh good, now I'm not nervous at all. *sigh*
X	Now is not a good time. Maybe later.	Of course, of course. When you have a chance, then.

"When I turned 18, my dad used one of his many connections to get me my first real job."

"That plus the magical "Coe" family name meant I was shipping freight out of Akila. If there is a way to take the wonder out of space it was working for that outfit."

"Every milligram of Helium-3 accounted for, timetables down to the second, too busy to ever really appreciate anything or even look up. Ugh."

...	Player	Response
	That sounds truly terrible.	And the pay... Well, it paid for my apartment - but that's about all I could say for it.
	For a first job you could do a lot worse.	That's the way Dad looked at it. On paper, I see your point. But it was rough.
	All the charm of accounting wrapped up in bureaucracy. Joy.	Haha. That's about the size of it.

"So, an opportunity comes by from the boss man - run this job, don't ask questions, and there's a bonus."

"Hell, I was still just a kid. I jumped on it."

"I knew what I wasn't shipping some dried mangos, but... suddenly, God help me, it was fun."

...	Player	Response
	Oh, this will not end well.	Haha. You think?
	I could see the appeal.	And you're a hell of a lot smarter than I was.
🗣︎	What was fun about it?	Up until then I tried my best to be the dutiful son, hated it, but man I tried. But this... It was a rush, a thrill. Lying through my teeth to customs, even that shady delivery guy. It felt like I was finally truly living.

"So more jobs started coming. And everywhere I went suddenly dangerous people were much better armed."

"I'd hear about armed conflicts and civilian casualties... Innocent casualties... And I'd pretend that wasn't me."

"Maybe I wasn't smuggling weapons. Maybe I was carrying something else."

"As long as I never opened the boxes, I could keep pretending."

...	Player	Response
▲	[+Gangster?] That's the way they rope you in. Don't think, get rich. All too soon you're in over your head.	Yes. Exactly. I'm glad I'm not alone.
	You know you didn't kill those people.	Not directly. And I'd tell myself, they'd get guns from someone else. But in my heart, I knew blood was on my hands.
	Go on with your story, Sam.
	What you did was reprehensible. I'm shocked.	I was young, I was stupid. Anything you say... Anything you feel... I feel all that and more. *sigh*

"Soon the boss man's relying on me, and the pay... was nice. We also started partying a lot together. Hard. There are whole weeks that are blank."

"Never had a lick of trouble, until I did."

...	Player	Response
	Sounds like your boss took advantage of you.	Yeah, but it takes two to tango.
	You can't keep playing with fire without getting burned.	You're right, of course.
🗣︎	Didn't you know you were walking a very dangerous path?	I had booze enough and drugs enough to never really have to look too hard in the mirror. I knew if I did, I wouldn't like what I saw or where it was going.
🗣︎	Were you that good at it?	At the time I thought I was the bee's knees. But looking back, a lot of it was dumb luck. I swear my damned name got me out of trouble most of the time. "Oh, you're a Coe? Like Solomon?" Then they'd just wave me through.

"To this day I don't know what I was running that last job, but it was tasty enough a whole mess of Crimson Fleet jumped me at the rendezvous."

"A sane man would've been scared, but I looked at my pissant trading skiff's dual cannons and shouted, "Oh, this is on!""

"I blew up one of the pirates before they realized that I was out of my gourd. I managed to get them down to two left before every system I had was fried. I was done."

"That should've been the end. But that's when the Rangers showed up."

...	Player	Response
▲	[+Ballistic Weapon Systems?] Taking out Fleet vessels with a skiff's cannons is impressive as hell.	I don't even know how I did it. Pure instinct. But it wasn't enough.
	You must've been incredibly relieved.	*chuckle* You think?
	I could absolutely see you doing that.	*chuckle* Well, I don't flinch from living life on the edge a little. Anyway.
▼	You are crazy. Literally crazy.	Hey, I'm not proud of it, OK? I'm not that same punk anymore. *sigh*
🗣︎	With those odds, why did you even try?	It just felt right. Like this, this is what I was meant to be. And I was young, no care in the world, and I thought - what, there's only 7 of you? I like those odds.

"And then, dependable and straight as an arrow, Lillian Hart came on the comm, and well... it was like hearing the voice of an angel."

--

"The Rangers took them out, no problem. All of that's fuzzy, though, see I passed out and when I came to Lillian was there. Seems the Rangers were impressed with me."

"Offered me a job. By all rights it should've been a prison cell, but Lillian... She saw something in me. I took the job."

"And that's it. All my cards are on the table."

...	Player	Response
▲	You aren't that kid anymore. You're probably a better person for it.	After I hit bottom, I learned a lot. Fast. [QE505]
	That was some real stupid stuff you did.	I know, I know. [QE510]
▲	If you haven't done anything you're ashamed of once or twice, you haven't really lived.	That. Well, that. [QE515]
🗣︎	And Lillian knew you were a smuggler?	Officially my cargo was destroyed by the Fleet. Unofficially, hell yes, she knew - she jettisoned it herself. I do not know why she did it, but she stuck her neck out for me. And after she helped sober me up, and put the mess I was back together.
🗣︎	So that's it? Nothing more?	Look, I'm guilty as hell of smuggling who knows what. And there are people I dealt with, bad people, and would recognize me. But I swear I did more questionable stuff for the Rangers, under orders mind you, than I ever did as a smuggler.

"But the thing that scares me... Is Cora. I mean, I gotta tell her some day."

"Sometimes the way she looks at me... I'm not worthy of that. But to see that look gone..."

...	Player	Response
	When she's older, and the time is right, you have to tell her.	*sigh* Well, ain't that something to look forward to.
⏫︎	She thinks the world of you. It'll be fine.	That's easy for you to say.
	That's a toughie.	Understatement of the year.
	[Flirt] Just know I'm here for you, Sam. With all my heart. Always.	That means a great deal to me.

"Just so you know, all this, this is why Lillian is... something else."

--

• [Q+305?]

"I know you're right, I need to let her into Cora's life in a big way."

"I just need to get up the nerve to talk with her."

• [Q+310?]

"And I really need to own that, and have a tough talk with Lillian. "'

"Tell her about that follow through you mentioned. Cora's at an important age right now, every visit really counts. You can't flake on her."

• [Q+315?]

"You were saying Cora's better off traveling with us, but Lillian knows me - the good, the bad, and the really ugly."

"When she calls bullshit, it's hard to fight back."

• [or]

"I know, I know - more Sam Coe and his 'complications' as you put it."

--

"Well, for now, let's do something more cheery."

"Like getting a root canal."