Deviation Actions
Description
Prologue: dustygrafix.deviantart.com/art…
Chapter 1: dustygrafix.deviantart.com/art…
Chapter 2: dustygrafix.deviantart.com/art…
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Chapter 4: dustygrafix.deviantart.com/art…
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Interstellar travel. I won’t pretend to know all there is to know about it. It baffles my mind.I will explain what little I do know about it since I had experienced it for the first time.
First of all, the freighter we had been on isn’t the ship that goes between star system to star system. All passenger and cargo ships fly out to a point just out of gravitational pull from the northern or southern pole of the star, where it docks with a jumpship. A jumpship is a large, needle-like ship that houses the jump drives. Using all the energy the ship has stored, it instantaneously jumps up to 30 light years towards its destination. Then the jumpship uses its solar sails to charge its jump drives, which can take days before its next jump.
From Sierra, our destination took several jumps to arrive at Solaris. All in all, it was a little under 6 weeks. During this time, each member of our crew experienced the trip slightly different from each other.
Rusty and Kagen spent most of their time playing cards. They grew up together. When they both reached their early teens, Kagen went his own way to work at a maintenance facility for local militia’s mobile ground units on Sierra. Rusty left for the inner planets to find his future in mercenary life as a tech. He found some temporary work on Outreach. The inner planet focused on mercenary contracts. After scrounging up a poor reputation for drinking on the job, he found his path ended up with a short one year career on Solaris coincidentally. Life was cruel while he was there. So he found his way back to Kagen on Sierra and now they are inseparable.
Ogden and Tashi spent the majority of their time in the cargo bay with Kaya. The freighter wasn’t built to hold a standing mech, so with the cargo cable rigs, we had been able to lay her down, and drag Kaya into the bay pretty easily. They used their time trying to modify Kaya’s CPU in any way to find any way the Andraste system in the helmet could sync my brain waves. A few times, I threw up during the helmet-to- brain handshake protocols. This made Ogden visibly frustrated. Tashi had to stop Ogden’s persistence in getting me to sync with the helmet. At times, we felt we had been making progress, and I wouldn’t feel nauseous, but Kaya would still stop short of a “all systems nominal” status.
Drexel spent a lot of time reading up on Solaris. Any current events and histories that might help us out. He wasn’t a “connected” individual on Solaris, but it seemed like he really felt it would be necessary to become someone connected. Drexel also spent a lot of time with me building up my confidence while I would go through combat simulators within Kaya’s CPU.Something I admired about Drexel was he was able to keep you motivated through his optimism. When you are such a large man, and the rest of your friends are much smaller, I guess there is always a point of view from above that keeps you positive.
Freya also spent some time with the prone Kaya. More or less tightening up power couplings and structure connections. Probably to keep her occupied. She didn’t socialize too much with the crew, outside of Drexel. I spoke to her a few times in passing. Learned she has a family that she would really not want to talk about. Her left shoulder showed a tattooed Marik symbol. So, her loyalties are pretty apparent. But Freya’s history was something that she would never really open up about.
One of the jumps took us to a very rare charging station. These rare stations could charge the jumpship for its next jump within hours, not days. This one was owned by Comstar, which carried a Hyperpulse Generator, or HPG. Technology developed centuries ago to send communication “almost” instantly across lightyears to another similar HPG. Freya spent a few moments at the HPG station while we docked for the next jump. I had seen her after she finished with her session. She did her best to hide the annoyance and anger from her eyes, but her tearful expression gave it away. I never really asked her what happened. I had assumed it was a family death or something similar. I wouldn’t pry since my conversations with her had been short.
Our final jump took us to the Solaris star system. It would take our freighter about 5 days to reach the 7th planet in the system. Rusty knew a lot about Solaris 7. He educated our crew on some of the ins and outs of Solaris City. It really didn’t brighten our mood when we heard about how money is government of Solaris 7. The holovids of the battlemech fights televised throughout the galaxy showed the glory and excitement of these games. But getting to participate in these fights take a bit more than just a battlemech. Lots of money will make it easy. Something we didn’t have an abundance on.
As we approached the planet, I spoke to the freighter captain. We both witnessed several ships on a holding pattern orbiting the planet. He explained to me that most of these ships are passenger or tourist arrivals. Solaris City space port usually only allowed ships to land during its night cycle. This way, the bright lights and splendor will make great first impressions on new arrivals. Since the spaceport has identified us as a merchant and cargo vessel, we are allowed to land immediately in the day cycle.
He smirked at me from his command chair, “If you want to romanticize the glory of Solaris City, you may want to avert your eyes while we land in daylight.” I strapped in to the empty chair next to him, and we approached atmosphere entry. He spoke up so I could hear him in the noise of the captain’s bridge, “The space port officials don’t want people to see how ugly this place is during the day. But where you are coming from, Sierra isn’t pretty either. So, I guess you won’t turn tail once you arrive.”
He was right. The city was covered in a thick haze of industrial smog. Factories, smoking chimneys and burning fields covered the inner city. Tall buildings with hundreds of floors shot up through the web of densely packed streets, that is, if you could see any streets. I could also see that there had been some very large covered structures that must have been some of the arenas. Some of these structures must have been 4 times the size of Cassidy Valley.
By the time we approached the space port, the city stretched beyond the horizon.I am sure the townsfolk back home couldn’t even comprehend the size of this place.
After landing, we began to prep for Kaya’s debut on the game world. As the bay doors opened up, the hot air and the noise of the city filled the interior. The tech crew and I reviewed our first day before exiting the freighter. We had to rely on Rusty’s knowledge of the city as well as some feedback from Ogden.
Rusty explained to us that we will have to spend some time in Montenegro. The district in Solaris City that represents House Marik. This would be the easiest way to find warriors that would be semi-loyal to the House. Unfortunately, the thing most of these warriors are loyal to is fame and money.
We would need to purchase a fighting license to use Kaya in the arenas. We also would need to rent a repair hanger to store her between fights. We would need to find an armor and ammo supplier that would sell at a reasonable price. All in all, this would be an expensive endeavor, and it would not be easy.
“But,” Rusty explained with some optimism as he lit a long awaited cigarette, “we could bypass all of those steps if we can convince a stable to hire us to fight for them.”
“A stable?” I asked.
Rusty took a long drag of his tobacco. The freighter captain didn’t allow smoking on his ship, and 6 weeks without his tobacco fix got him edgy, “A stable is a team of mech pilots who fight under the same organization. Some are very famous here. They usually number from 10 pilots to over 100.”
As Drexel worked the cargo releases for the beef supply we brought, he spoke up, “Well, that is fine and dandy, but you have to remember, any stable ya work for’s gonna take a share if ya win. That is, IF ya win.”
As we spoke, a uniformed man, I assume he was a spaceport official, approached the open hanger door. The freighter captain intercepted him with a small chipset. He handed the spaceport official the chip. A quick scan from the clipboard, and the captain shook hands with him, turned to us, and said, “well, I have some business to take care of. Just make sure to clear the cargobay in 5 hours.” A half-hearted salute and he disappeared into the crowd of port workers and merchants.
“Welcome to Solaris City, you may call me Mr. Rafton,” the man said as he checked the info downloaded onto his clipboard, “I see you have a shipment of beef and produce for our markets. You will find several buyers at the market district in city central.”
Ran his finger down some information, and then glanced up past our crew deeper into the bay, “Oh, I see you have a battlemech,” he noticed our Phoenix Hawk prone in the cargobay, and with a hint of sarcasm, he continued, “ Very exciting to see. You will need to store the ‘mech, and here are a few locations you could inquire about storage expenses.”
I heard a gunshot. It was very distant, but none the less, it was in broad daylight. I looked at Mr. Rafton. He seemed to have ignored the sound as he continued, “Here is some basic information and some contacts for you if you are interested,” He handed us a thin tablet with a basic info screen, “ Room and board are also listed on the information, as well as a schedule of our annual events.”
We stood there in silence. Some of it was in awe, and some had been because this was a lot to take in. Mr. Rafton stood there in awkward silence, “Well……if there is anything else you need, my contact information is listed right there. Good bye,” he glanced at our prone ‘mech in the hanger, “and good luck.” He was off and disappeared in the crowd.
After Drexel finished unloading several crates of our frozen meats and grain onto an awaiting transport, we all worked at getting Kaya delicately removed from the freighter. We prepped her while Tashi piloted Kaya to a standing position. Drexel then spoke to our group, “I’ll be taking Kagen with me to the markets to get a good price for these. Rusty, I need you to take Raymond and Freya to the inner city to find us a stablemaster. Reckon it ain’t gonna be easy, but finding a stable will me much more affordable for us in the long haul. ”Drexel looked up at Kaya with Tashi piloting her, “Tashi, I need you and Ogden…..” he glanced at the ground, and we noticed Odgen was putting on a heavy brown hooded cloak. Crossing his trunk like arms, Drexel inquired, “prepping for cold weather, Ogden?”
“No,” Ogden stated, “I just don’t like crowds, and would rather keep out of the sunlight.” We looked up. The grey clouds mixed with industrial smog blotted out the whatever setting sun there was. Soon it would be dark, and the city would come to life. Ogden seemed ok on Sierra’s sunlight, but what was I to debate on specifics of star system’s light on a planet.
“Get Kaya prepped for storage,” Drexel spoke after a silent pause, “if we cannot find a stable, we might either be renting an expensive hanger or spending the next few days under the shadow of our ‘mech here. We all meet back here with Kaya in 4 hours. Tashi and Ogden will stick with her.”
Nobody had any questions while we departed. One thing to note, I had witnessed Rusty strapping on his sidearm. He glanced at me with a smirk, “Get your sixshooter, partner. Solaris City will not welcome you with open arms.”
Rusty, Freya and I began our trek into the depths of the metropolis. I had to get used to the thick humid air here. Sierra was a dry planet, while Solaris was about 70% covered in water. The people walking the streets had been from all parts of good and bad luck. Richly adorned patrons wearing latest trends in half capes and head dresses walked among grovelers who seemed to be so down on luck that they had no shoes or shirts. Guessing they had sold them off. I felt so bad. I reached in my pockets to find some money, only to have my arm firmly gripped by Freya, “Don’t!” she said in a stern glare, “each person you see here chose this life. It is unfortunate some didn’t get the future they wanted, but it was their choice. We cannot afford to give kindness and charity out to everybody we see. Understand?”
She loosened her grip, and I continued to follow Rusty. He seemed to know where we needed to go.
After a taxi, we arrived at what Rusty said we can find our next stablemaster. It was called Shinkickers. The logo, a flickering neon sign, had two generic looking battlemechs, one getting its leg kicked off by the other. Rusty looked back at us while we entered, “This is where a lot of arena pilots go before and after battles. They spend a lot of their winnings at places like this. The three D’s. Dames, drugs and Drink.”
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Chapter 4: dustygrafix.deviantart.com/art…
