#8 by Carnifex

Carnifex continued to stare for a few moments, his expression becoming more quizzical, not feeling in any hurry to answer the question.
“My name is Roy,” he said slowly, “But everyone calls me Carnifex. And my problem,” he paused, “Is your problem.”
The Kusarian woman broke out laughing, attracting glares from the rest of the room and nearly spilling her drink which hadn’t made it to her mouth yet, “What makes you think you understand my problems?” She made the remark as cutting as possible.
“Well everyone in Sirius is aware of the tense state of the houses, and how bounties have dropped as they start to reinforce their militaries and train them more. Some hunters are starting to take any bounty they can get. I was just talking to my friend here,” he motioned to the bar tender, “about the... negative... effects that could have on the Hunters Guild.”
The Kusarian hunter scoffed, “That doesn’t help my kills.”
Carnifex straightened, “No but it might make things worse for hunters in general, and like you said, it’s hard enough to get a job as it is these days.” Carnifex paused to allow a change of tack, “What is the Bounty Hunters Guild?” all he got in response was a look suggesting she regretted beginning the conversation. “A bunch of mostly unorganised hunters and ex-criminals who’s only common skill is shooting stuff? That might be what gets us the job but what keeps us in business is our reputation. Bounty Hunters are more brutal and more uncompromising then an ordinary soldier, we go further and don’t do things half-assed. We’re also supposed to be reliable, trustworthy to an extent. I mean we are hardened killers, it doesn’t matter how good at our job we are, if the houses don’t trust us to point our guns in the right direction then they won’t be giving us work. At Sheffield in Manchester it’s not as big a problem, the hunters there don’t have the same issues that those at Deshima do.”
“Maybe we should all move there then,” joked the woman sceptically.
Carnifex knew he was pushing this girl’s patience and sounding stupid, “The SDN is already posting reduced numbers of bounties and pooling resources to strengthen their hold on their space. If hunters continue to work for criminals then the SDN might cut off bounties all together. What makes it a critical problem is that The Empire is becoming stronger, exerting more control over a ravished Kusari. They’re a house in their own right now, why should we shun business from them? Add to that the fact that the BHG still does a lot of work against the Outcasts and the...”
“What’s your point hunter?!” her patience for the story had run out.
Carnifex continued without worrying who else would be listening, “If nothing changes then the Empire will start targeting hunters and the SDN will likely trust us less and less. When the Empire decides to exact revenge for the deaths in its ranks Deshima will be the first target and the Hunters Guild has nothing that can match the battleships the Empire can field and the SDN won’t support us until they’re ready for an all out war which could take a year.”