'Who was that?' Jordan sighed to himself again as he knelt down to pull off his boots and scanned his hole.

The rectangular space was broken up into three parts by shoji screens that sat flush with the extension centered on the left wall. At the front was a lounging area, completely barren of furniture or decor. Within the left extension sat a small AutoChef with the corresponding eating area depressed into the in the center of the room beside it. At the far end was a thick floor mattress set in the corner that served as Jordan's bed. Opposing a lavatory closet and open shower unit in the corner.

'Oh well.' Jordan stepped from the small, slatted entryway onto the main, matted floor. Tossing any concern from his mind as if it never existed. 'Not my problem.'

Now able and eager to finally enjoy a moment of silence, Jordan planted himself in the dining area and gazed, absent-mindedly at the surrounding walls to clear his mind and gather his thoughts.

"Five days." Jordan chuckled dryly to himself. 'Feels like a lifetime ago.'

Five days since he was helpless and terrified of terrestrial mammals during his trial. Four since his lust for Merit led him to beg his older brother to migrate to Ganymede. To Campaign. Only to end up abandoning him and flatlining.

Only to end up losing what little Merit he had.

It was more humbling to Jordan, than sad. He felt no rage nor regret for his actions. Only a harsh understanding of his mistakes and the willingness to immediately learn from them.

[Contents: 1 x 22 kg rice. 48 x large egg. 1 x young chicken. 2 x whole rabbit…]

Jordan continued staring distantly at the ongoing scroll of fruits and vegetables lingering above his refrigerator door until he rose from the dining area with a weary groan and toppled himself down onto his mattress to drift off into a deep slumber

***

Waking before the daylights outside had time to warm up, Jordan took a long shower before deciding to go over the fine details of his new, and old, implants over a breakfast of eggs and rice.

While the carbon nanotubes that made up the bulk of his suit were highly resistant to being punctured by blades and bullets, they weren't immune to them. And blunt force trauma was still a major issue.

Despite the former, the Knight's final blow managed to impale Jordan on Ganymede's surface. Destroying his stomach, liver, pancreas, right kidney, upper colon and more in the process.

"Randy wasn't kidding." Jordan whistled low. Seeing the moments of his end replaying in his optical scanners. His hand subconsciously placed itself on his gut as a cold shiver was sent down his spine from watching the knight wrench the spear into Jordan's gut again. "I really got fucked up."

The Law of Campaign stated that damaged bodies on Campaign were to have their damaged parts replaced with implants free of charge. Befitting their rank, if possible. But still only enough to permit stable operation of their bodies. Anything further would have to be paid by Merit.

Although Jordan held a negative balance, he was still considered an E-Rank citizen of the Powers. Thus relegating him to the lowest tier of implants available in the Powers. Despite belonging to the bottom of the crate however, Jordan's new digestive system was monumentally better than its biological counterpart in every imaginable way.

The liver could process pure alcohol. And, along with the kidneys, could filter out additional toxins that'd otherwise prove lethal once ingested. His new stomach and pancreas had an improved efficiency that both limited his need for sustenance, and almost entirely negated his need for bowel movements or urination.

Almost.

While basking in his amazement, Jordan couldn't help but wonder about the types of implants the Saturnian Empire bestowed upon their knights. Augmented muscles and bones were the obvious choices. But, Jordan was certain the Saturnian Knight hosted more than he could begin to imagine.

As the wishes to see their secrets played a purposeful symphony within his mind, Jordan found himself grinning madly in anticipation.

"Soon enough." He chuckled to himself as he continued reading through his standard sensory suite.

The optical scanners were the centerpiece of Jordan's communications hub. They contained the servers for his personal network and data storage. And, in addition to visible light, could see across the EM spectrum, so long as a source of whatever wavelength he wished to view were available. Additionally, they were capable of macro and micro magnification, independent virtual and augmented reality, and feedback via his other sensory implants.

After remembering his exercise from the night prior, Jordan decided to skip reading about his respirocytes and rose from his seat to put his newfound lung capacity to a true test.

The moment Jordan's door resounded shut behind him, a beckoning motion in his peripherals caught his attention. An impatient wave, fluttering as quickly as it had the night before.

'Oh yeah.' Jordan sighed to himself while hesitantly turning towards the neighboring porch. 'I forgot about you.'

Deciding that rudeness would get him nowhere, Jordan shrugged away his apprehensions to introduce himself to the overbearingly friendly stranger.

He lazed against the fence, studying Jordan closely under tainted-red eyes as the Astros approached. He stood perhaps a few centimeters shorter than Jordan himself. Dressed in a heavily pocketed, rust-red camo vac-suit with the upper half pulled off and tied around his waist to expose a plain, black t-shirt. He had golden-brown skin, like that of a light potato, with a head of loose, curly hair pulled back tightly against his scalp in a failure of a ponytail.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

[Name:???]

[Merit: 0]

All in all, he seemed as baseline as a modern human could get.

"How'd you know my name?" Jordan asked after positioning himself on the fence.

"Come on." The guy said with a friendly grin and a shrug of his hands. Then nodded to Jordan's right shoulder with his chin. "Everyone knows what that means. Two concentric circles of orange and blue; Jupiter and Ganymede. With a griffin and a dragon in the center. Orbiting sword and shield. The Astros Clan." He snorted. "All of the Galilean founders are infamous around Mars."

'Mars?' Jordan thought to himself before snorting out a dry chuckle. "Congrats. You know more about my family than I do."

The guy only tilted his head in response, as if Jordan's words were completely lost to him.

"Blame my elder brother. He was supposed to teach me these things." Jordan shrugged again. Then stood up straight to give an introductory bow. "My name is Jordan Astros, the 27th child."

"Igris Gelos." He immediately erased the confusion from his face and returned the gesture. "Gelos is my given name."

"Alright, Gelos. What do you want from me?"

Gelos immediately responded by bulging his chest out and resting his fists proudly on his hips. "To be friends!" He bellowed.

'Pretty straightforward of you.' Jordan chuckled to himself. Rolling his eyes.

"So, where you going?" Gelos asked without pause.

"Training." Jordan shrugged. "On a run to test my limits. Then, wherever the spin takes me, I suppose."

Gelos nodded to himself as his eyes trailed away like he were suddenly disinterested.

"Well." Jordan waved before stepping off towards the path. "See you."

As he left the neighborhood easing into a sprint, Jordan heard rhythmic steps approaching from his rear. He glanced over his shoulder and nearly tripped after seeing Gelos jogging lightly behind him. Amiable smile pressed on his face from ear-to-ear.

Jordan grinned to himself and increased his pace as he entered the fields surrounding their neighborhood and continued to sprint with Gelos in pursuit all the way around the outskirts of Bronio until the returned to the point they'd started at.

Despite the kilometers passed, Jordan's breath never rose above a rhythmic rising and falling of the chest. His muscles didn't fatigue or burn, even as he emptied his lungs and sealed off his breath for the last leg.

After 18 minutes of breathless sprinting, Jordan's legs began to tingle and his head became light. He rolled to a stop just as the tunnelvision peaked, gasping out sick cackles of celebratory laughter as he fought to catch his breath.

"You're a weird one, huh?" Gelos asked from the perch of his small mound.

Jordan followed his gaze to the outskirts of the city, barely visible from under the upper lip of the curved horizon and took a few deep breaths before continuing. "It's safe to assume we can run indefinitely, right?"

Gelos stayed silent as he pulled himself to within arms reach of Jordan before pulled something out of his pocket and handing it to Jordan.

"Thanks." Jordan smiled as he graciously accepted some type of pastry from Gelos' hand.

"Well, a marathon would be a cakewalk, that's for sure." Gelos laughed through a mouth full of dough.

Jordan chose not to reply and instead, split his attention between the pastry Gelos in his peripherals.

It was strange. He was definitely around the same age as Jordan. Old enough to have just gotten his freedom. But, he had exactly zero Merit. A rarity, as far as Jordan was aware, in the almost three years of the Powers' history.

"You-" Jordan started, then swallowed his remaining pastry lingering around his mouth before saying. "Where are you from?"

"Ahah!" Gelos' laugh echoed over the hills as he spread his arms wide. "What gave it away? My clothes?"

"They are strange." Jordan admitted with a nod. "But, no. You have no Merit."

"And you have less." Gelos pointed out with another laugh. "But to answer you, I'm Martian."

"Ah!" Jordan rocked back in understanding. "You're an immigrant! Now it makes sense why you have zero Merit. And that explains your comment about my Parents' infamy. But, why would a Martian move to the Galilean Powers?"

"You kidding?" Gelos recoiled as he let out a loud scoff. "To be free! Why else?"

"Couldn't you have moved to Earth?"

"Hah!" Gelos rocked back. "And be trapped on that gravity prison? Subjected by their endless laws? Live my life trapped in an arcology, surrounded by wilderness and untamed beasts?" Gelos paused and watched Jordan's otherwise indifferent gaze curl into a curious stare after his last point.

"Earthlings live in self-contained societies." Gelos explained. "Buildings very much like orbital habitats, only constructed on the surface. They call them, arcologies. Mega-buildings, essentially. Venusians are the same, only floating in the sky. You wouldn't exactly want for anything if you lived there. You wouldn't have to go outside unless you wanted to. But." He let out a heavy sigh. "You wouldn't exactly be able to do what you wanted either."

"Understandable." Jordan nodded. "It sounds tribal. Almost."

"Well, they're connected by transport tubes." Gelos laughed. "But, I get your point."

"So then," Jordan said. "Now that you're here, what are you going to do?"

"Weren't you listening?" Gelos shook his head, chuckling. "I wanna be free! Go wherever I want. Do whatever I want. Not have some suit looming over me, giving me orders. The founders of the Powers all left Mars to build the kind of lifestyles they wanted. Well, the wild, unpredictable lifestyle I'm after requires no planning. And the Galilean Powers is the only place in the Solar System where it can be a reality. After all, this place is famous for being lawless."

"Not exactly true." Jordan snorted. "There's the Law of Merit and the Law of Campaign. Other than that, there are-" His eyes trailed upwards as he searched for the right way to phrase it. "Unspoken rules."

"Such as?" Gelos squinted and leaned closer.

"Well." Jordan shrugged. "Say you wanted to go smoke some stones in the diner you got those pastries from. Or rob the owner for all their sweets. There's no law stopping you from doing it. But, there's also no law to keep the owner from blowing your brain out. Same principle applies to every other situation. Our society checks itself."

"I see." Gelos nodded. Then leaned close to Jordan with his brows wrinkled in serious determination. "And about the calendar? Your months have hundreds of days. What's with that?"

"That's easy." Jordan chuckled. "Jupiter takes twelve Earth-years to orbit the sun, right? Well, just like there's twelve months to every Earth-year, we have twelve months to ours. Only ours are 361 days long."

Gelos' jaw fell to his knees, revealing a rows of uncomfortably perfect, straight teeth. "361 days!"

"Except February, it has a day less.." Jordan shrugged dismissively.

Gelos spent a few seconds laughing to himself and shaking his head repeatedly as he made it make sense in his head.

While Jordan watched, the few similarities between himself and the young Martian became more than apparent to him. As he was trapped in the bubble of New Bran throughout his youth, surrounded only by his extensive family and their army of caretakers. Gelos grew up in the Martian industrial bubble. And now found himself alone in an alien environment by his own volition.

Regardless of their differing backgrounds however, they both had the same goal. To live free. Influenced only by their own whims.

"What about you?" Gelos nudged Jordan with his elbow after a moment of companionable silence. Bringing Jordan's thoughts back to the present. "What are your ambitions?"

"Same as you, mostly." Jordan shrugged. "Built Merit. Gain freedom. Do what I want." He paused to looked up at the distant ceiling. Where a gathering of clouds were thick enough to reduce the overhead lights to glowing halos that loomed over the peaceful, rolling plains. "'Least it was."

"So." Gelos shrugged. "What is it now?"

"I-" Jordan gasped as the knight's spear flashed into his mind's eye once again. Bringing with it, the cold drips of fear that ran down his spine. "I-" Jordan stammered again and gulped down what felt like a wad of hair as he forced out the words.

"I have to slay a Saturnian Knight."