Chapter 13: Chapter 13: [ANGEL] PerceiVing the Sky!

“Cargo loaded. They don’t suspect a thing, slinking off now.” “Good, White Knight has just sent the rest of the payment. Get changed and go meet up with Saturn, she’s negotiating a weapons deal with the Sicarios in the lower quadrant. Might need a bit more muscle in case things get… Hot.” “How hot? Should I swing by and grab a couple of grenades or?” “No. Let’s not leave a trail of bodies again. We want them on our side so play nice Harls.” -Intercepted transmission captured and cataloged by Pandora.

Chapter 13: [ANGEL] PerceiVing the Sky!

 

Shaking the officer’s hand Jack tried to compare the man’s face with what he remembered from the memory.

This isn't him. His chin is too wide and he walks with a limp. Jack pointed out to Sahaqiel before addressing the officer.

“Sorry, I was just... uh, admiring the pin on your chest.”

“Oh this?” The Captain pointed at the Gold Crescent star medallion on his uniform with a smile filled with pride. “Good eye recruit, it’s an Imperial Hero emblem. One of the highest honors a man of the Empire can achieve, maybe you’ll earn one one day.”

“Let’s hope not, he’s far too young to earn one of those.” Colonel Potter interjected, patting Jack on the back to usher him towards the gargantuan landship.

“Never know Sherman, war brings out the best in us.”

"And the worst."

The Captain scoffed at the Colonel's reply. "Ain't that the truth."

While the two men were making small talk Jack pondered the ramifications of the medallion and how it tied in to the smiling man.

If the emblem is a reward from the empire, then the smiling man could very well be an officer or someone powerful in the Imperium. But...didn't you come out of a Corpo lab?

[Yes. A Cordell facility to be exact. I remember the name. From my former host's memories there was never any discussion about the Empire, but the smiling man did repeatedly show up wearing the medal.]

From what little Jack knew of the state of the world, the Empire and the Corpos hated each other. Which made it even more puzzling that the smiling man would be in Corporate Alliance territory so often despite being a decorated officer of the Empire.

If we find a list of all the medal receipts, maybe we'll find out who the smiling man is. Then we can create a goal and plan our steps accordingly. There's no telling how far up this goes. Until then, can we try to maintain some composure?

[Perhaps.] Sahaqiel sighed as a sense of embarrassment touched Jack's mind. [Jack… I'm sorry about what happened.]

It's fine, just don't let it happen again. The last thing we need is for me to be thrown in jail for assaulting the wrong guy.

Deep in thought, Jack hadn't realized he was now inside the bronze land vehicle, absent mindedly following the Captain around through the packed loading bay with Colonel Potter now nowhere to be seen.

"Alright recruit, we've got you and your sister situated in a room on the second deck aft starboard." Skirita said, signing a clipboard a female deckhand handed him.

"S-starboard sir?" Jack replied, snapping himself from his thoughts as he ascended the steps closely behind the Captain that led to a balcony overlooking the cargo bay.

"Right side of the ship near the back. You'll learn soon. You carrying any weapons on you I need to know about? Any augs? Cybernetics?"

"Uh. No cybernetics or prosthetics sir. Just a GM-2 pistol in my jacket and two mags."

"Good, that saves me a lot of trouble. You trained to use it?"

"Yes sir, my uncle Mike taught me."

"Then he taught you well." The Captain patted Jack on the shoulder before leaning over the railing to direct his crew.

"Alright! Button her up!" Captain Skirita called down, waving an arm to signal the buzzing crew below. As the ramp began retracting, the middle-aged man turned to look at Jack with a wide smile on his face "Hey lad, you want to see something cool?"

After many twists, two elevators, along with several flights of stairs, Jack was now standing in the middle of the command deck-the control room of the landship. He peered out of the massive viewport on the side, standing in awe as he took in the extraordinarily view of the billboard-infested underground skyline.

“Whoa!” Jill cried, her face pressed firmly against the viewport glass.

Jill was already there when Jack arrived, listening to Lieutenant Belfusa and another officer sitting behind a terminal who pointed out the various weapons and equipment that decorated the hull of the ship.

“And what does this button do?” Jill asked, pointing at a big red button locked inside a container on the woman's console.

"This little girl, opens the Mechframe launch bay so that our pilots like Lieutenant Belfusa here can fly our Mechs out."

"Whoa! Like Mechframe Exia!" Jill said, brandishing one of her mechframe action figures. ”Do you shoot big guns and go vrrr! Vrrr! With a plasma sword?”

“I do shoot big guns.” Lieutenant Belfusa bent down to Jill's eyeline and smiled. "You want to see my mech?"

The little girl's eyes went wide at the question before erupting into an excited glee. "Really?! Does yours have a name? I heard all the famous Pilots have their own names!"

"It does."

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"Alright, all hands stand to!" Captain Skirita barked, turning the heads of everyone in the room and interrupting the duo’s conversation as he sat in the large Captain's chair that was centered in the middle of the room.

Lieutenant Belfusa patted Jill on the head "I'll introduce you to her later after this ok?"

"Yeesh!" Jill made a victory gesture that made Jack smile as he stood off to the side watching the interaction.

Suddenly the walls around Jack began to vibrate so violently his teeth started to rattle in his skull. Stumbling about, he barely managed to grab hold of a nearby handlebar to stabilize his footing as the vibrations began to crawl along his skin.

"You feel that recruit? No other machine purrs to life like a Landship. Take a seat over there lad and enjoy the show." Captain Skirita pointed at a nearby empty console before pressing a button on his chair. In the next moment the surrounding walls melted away to provide the Crew a full three-sixty-degree view of everything around the landship. Jack’s jaw stood agape as he stared out the window of the bridge- now turned observatory.

Well that's fucking cool.

[Humanity sure has come a long way.] Sahaqiel agreed.

"Captain, power levels are green. Mana reservoirs at full, pressure stabilizing… Stable. Crew is battered down and engines are hot and ready to motor sir." A female officer reported.

"Good. Comms, get the TC on the horn and let them know we're casting off." Captain Skirita ordered, causing the bridge to break out in a flurry of orderly movement and button mashing.

"Tower control, hears us five by five Captain. Lift is prepped and ready for us to move." Another officer sounded off, her eyes focused on her terminal as a voice echoed from her headpiece. "Also, an incoming message addressed to Lieutenant Belfusa from the Mayor and the CCPD."

"What is it?" Skirita cocked an eyebrow.

"Uh..” The officer cleared her throat. “Lieutenant Belfusa’s license is hereby revoked and she's no longer allowed to drive in the city, sir."

Captain Skirita chuckled before shaking his head at the lieutenant in question who remained stoic. "Tell them we hear and acknowledge. Helmsman, you’ve got the conn. Take us into the lift."

"Aye sir."

Suddenly the gray slab graffiti surroundings outside of the viewport began to shift, with Jack nearly stumbling as the massive vessel abruptly lurched forward.

"Whoa, Captain! Sorry! She's got some kick to her."

"Just bring her in gently, we’ll get used to her as she goes. SWO, how’s our weapons?"

A lady walking around the bridge with an intellipad looked up from her tablet. “Everything is working, Captain. AI integrated systems returning green across the board.”

“Alright. I’m not a big fan of automation but we’ll make it work. Keep me updated in case anything goes wrong.”

“Expecting trouble sir?”

“No. Just being cautious. We have a long trip ahead of us and I got this funny feeling in my gut. Could be indigestion.” The Captain replied before lying back in his chair and eyeing the teen staring out the viewports.

As the bronze war vessel crawled forward, Jack began to wonder why he and Jill were given such a privilege to be on the command bridge. Turning to the Captain, Jack asked where all of the other recruits were and how come they weren't watching the cast off like he and Jill were.

"Colonel Potter didn't tell you?" Skirita asked. Jack's look of puzzlement told the man all he needed to know. "Huh. Well, you're one of two recruits we managed to pick up this round, figured you’d like to see the show. I’d offer the other lad but he’s asleep in his cabin."

Jack blinked at the response, a sense of worry building up in his chest.

I thought Colonel Potter was just being selective! Why are there so few, the Empire can't be that bad? Can it? Otherwise why would Mike tell me to sign up?

[Mike did say their culture is different, I mean look at male to female ratio. Thats certainly abnormal]

Now that Jack thought about it, there were a surprising amount of women. In fact, out of the several dozen or so soldiers and crewmen Jack had seen so far, he could count the number of males he’d seen on both hands.

The Empire is a matriarchy right? Maybe it has something to do with how their government works.

[No clue Jackie, the world was a lot different ten thousand years ago.]

Tabling the thoughts for later, Jack peered out the plexi-glass viewport where he could make out a gray wall that was beginning to move. Except it wasn’t a wall, but actually a massive reinforced gate that led into an empty chamber, a space he could only assume was the lift.

“Navigator, how’s our route?”

“Still green, Captain. Watchdog-Gamma-Station-Four is monitoring a demonspawn migration moving east away from our designated route. They seem to be following behind a dust storm. By the time we catch up to their current position they should be long gone.”

“Good.” The Captain replied as the vehicle came to another abrupt halt, almost making Jack fall forward. Looking over to his sister he could see Lieutenant Belfusa holding Jill’s wheelchair in place to prevent her from moving.

Maybe I should buy her a new wheelchair with brakes. Jack thought to himself, thinking about what he’d do when he started earning money. Or one of those mana powered ones.

Without warning, the world around Jack seemed to shake, as he suddenly felt himself ascending. The Landship was on the move, being propelled upward by a lift as massive doors above them began opening. Almost immediately after the gate began to separate, a bright, iridescent golden light began to peak between the cracks, illuminating the inside of the chamber.

Jack shielded his eyes, the brightness too much for him to take as his entire world was bathed in white.

When he opened his eyes, they took time to adjust as he looked up, shocked, to see the most beautiful wide expanse of bright blue and white amorphous specks dotting the vast open space. It was the sky. Something he had only ever seen in TV shows and magazines. An open air of endless possibilities that spelled freedom from the confinement of the subterranean city. Everything he had ever watched or seen could never convey the majesty of seeing the real thing.

Jack felt an indescribable heaviness in his chest he had never felt before, he could hear himself swallowing, hear his own pulse in his ears as he stared at the endless blue landscape that seemed to stretch into eternity. And yet, despite the magnificents of the view, and his sister gasping in amazement. Jack felt one thing and one thing only.

 

Overwhelming sadness.

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