Author’s Note: So the prologue finally ends. I’ll post the next chapter tomorrow but after that I’m going to start posting them two days apart. Also, I’d like to thank the various Den members, Karami, Ultrabenosaurus and ArchmageNaoki for their help PRing. Please enjoy the chapter.
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Prologue 3
As I felt my body begin to rouse, I was brought to full consciousness by a cheerful voice. “Mistress, good morning!” I opened my eyes to find Lynn’s small hologram floating over me.
“Morning Lynn.” I responded and sat up, stretching my arms above my head and yawning.
“Mistress, we arrived at Felicity approximately two hours ago. I handled the routine docking procedure and we docked about an hour ago, so you’re set for your shopping trip. I’ve also prepared an outfit and gotten one of your hover vehicles ready, so you just need to clean up.”
A quick glance told me that the outfit Lynn had chosen for me looked like something a very sophisticated businesswoman would wear, short skirt included. I shrugged, wearing feminine clothes was something I had long since grown used to, and letting Lynn play dress up with me was one of the things that kept her happy.
I got out of bed and let my nightgown slip off my body before heading to my bathroom. In the bathroom I removed my underwear and then walked past the bath and hopped into the shower. Five minutes later, I was once again lamenting the fact that my shower in the real world didn’t have all the features that my onboard ship one did. It was blissful to just stand under the torrent of warm water while letting Lynn handle all the actual work of washing and drying my body.
Returning to my room I got dressed in the clothes prepared for me. After getting dressed, I wondered for a second whether to put on some makeup, but decided why not since it went with the outfit. I never wore anything extravagant, just some basics and maybe perfume tended to be enough for my purposes.
Fully dressed, I walked over to my nightstand to grab my terminal and shield equipment. Felicity might be a very safe station, but it always paid to be careful anyway. As one of the most well known mercs, I’m quite a valuable target for any idiot that thinks he has a shot and wants to make a name for himself. Usually to his deep regret when he learns how big of a fish I am from first hand experience. The last one that tried, I knocked out, stripped him and then took him and hung him upside down from the tallest structure I could find. Of course the idiot didn’t learn his lesson and tried again and this time I simply killed him. If they don’t understand the warning the first time, then I’m not going to bother trying to teach it again.
Fastening the shield collar around my neck, the bracelet around my left wrist, and then the last piece around my left thigh under my skirt. I tapped the hidden button on the collar, and there was a short tingling sensation as they began to power up using my psi. I wasn’t in the habit of actually using my psi for combat, I rarely needed to so using a few thousand points of it to power the shield was, in my opinion, a no brainer. A few seconds later, the three completed their activation and provided me with what was probably the best personal shield in game.
The three piece shield set had cost me a fortune with gathering the materials and then finding craftsmen and technicians skilled enough to make them. The shield was immune to any kind of outside tampering effect, and having it negated my critical weakness of being unable to take blows from even someone half my level. The only way to bring it down was too many powerful blows in short succession, but the chance of that happening was slim since I’d retaliate long before anyone got a chance to strike my shield as much as that required. The extra bonus about the equipment, and another reason why they had been so expensive, was that I had designed them to look like fancy jewelry which added an extra layer of protection since most personal shields were quite noticeable, being somewhat bulky belts or vests or backpacks in appearance.
I attached the terminal to my right wrist and then checked the purse Lynn had provided with the outfit before nodding with satisfaction. Lynn knew me so well, inside the purse was my favorite handgun and plasma knife. I slipped the knife out and strapped it around my right thigh out of sight. It wouldn’t do to have both my weapons in my purse after all.
I left my bedroom and started walking to the small hangar where the vehicles are. “Alright Lynn, I’m going, I’ll try to be back in three hours or so, the shopping shouldn’t take too long. Also just a heads up but Carson begged me to let him come aboard with us when the new systems exploration is authorized. He’ll meet us in the Gamor system at the end of the month.”
“Should I prepare a room or anything Mistress?”
“Of course not. We’ll just throw him in the junk storage where he belongs. He only asked to come with us, he didn’t ask for first class service.” I said derisively.
“Mistress is always so harsh with Carson.” I merely waved my hand lazily in response to that.
Reaching the hangar I saw the door was opening and my hover car was already started. “Anyway Lynn, just make sure the ship is ready to accept the goods when they get here.” I said as I opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. Lynn gave me a small salute before waving me off.
Speeding off down the tunnel that led into the city from the starship docking area, I made my way to a material trader that I frequent. It’s owned by an old man NPC I know pretty well and I get some discounts shopping there on account of rescuing him and his granddaughter from pirates about a decade or so ago. It doesn’t hurt that his granddaughter is quite the beauty too.
As I arrived at the shop, I cursed a bit when I noticed there didn’t seem to be any spaces to park. I circled the building a bit in slightly larger rotations before I noticed an open spot a block or so away. I might have sped a bit getting there, but oh well. Swinging out of my car, I took a moment to appreciate the colony. It looks a lot like an earth city would if you ignore the fact that it’s inside a giant space station and there are flying vehicles and robots and beings other than humans walking around.
Well, nothing for it. I walked along the pathway taking note of some new businesses that had opened since my last visit to the colony. One looked like a restaurant that was advertising a large variety of confections which reminded me that Seri at least hadn’t really eaten anything in quite a while and gave me an idea for how to fill up some of my time.
Some people took note of me, I do have an appearance that stands out after all, but from the looks I could tell it was more for my odd features than because they were actually recognizing who I was. Somehow that made me feel a lot less famous and I could only smile bitterly at the thought.
I reached the store and stepped inside. The shop here was pretty simple, just a large office really with some desks where people were conducting business with employees, after all there’s no way the old man would keep tons of material in a place like this. No, the materials owned by the trader were all in various storage bays the old man owned that were down below in the station innards. They’d be shipped from there to the docking bays. I saw the old man standing off to the side of the room, leaning against the wall, holding a mug and generally looking out of place compared to the atmosphere of the shop and his employees. While they were wearing nice suits, he was wearing what looked like an old flight jumpsuit. I went straight up to him.
“Yo, old man! I see you’re still kicking.” I greeted him.
“Oh, if it isn’t the little missy. It’s been awhile since the last time you stopped by. Buying or selling?”
“Today I’m buying.” I opened up my terminal, adjusting the display for him to read. “Can you fill this order?”
He skimmed the list before nodding. “You’re in luck, we just got in a new load of etherenite a few days ago. The rest of the order is easy by comparison. You stocking up for the exploration approval I assume?”
“Of course, it pays to be prepared. Unlike a certain someone who thought they were fine until their ship broke down with not enough parts to repair it and got himself and his granddaughter picked up by pirates.” I grin at him.
He scowls back at me. “Don’t go bringing up an old man’s follies whenever you feel like it youngster. I’m tempted to revoke your discount and charge you double!”
I affected at shock at his words before replying “Then I’d have to spread word about how much this shop is a rip off. I’d spread it far and wide across the known galaxy.”
Stolen story; please report.
“You’d run me out of business! Oh my poor orphan granddaughter would be homeless!”
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t let that happen to Holly, I’d gladly take her.”
“I’m sure you would.“ He gave me a look. “Well that’s enough jokes, I assume you’re paying all up front as usual so this order would run you 113 thousand credits with your discount. What docking bay is your ship in?”
“Let me check, oh it’s in docking bay 82. On the topic of Holly, I don’t see her around today, did she finally get fed up working for you?”
“As if, my granddaughter is a dutiful and loving granddaughter. She’s upstairs studying today. She’s been taking piloting and technician classes.”
“Really pilot and technician training?” I was surprised by this news “Mind if I asked her out for lunch? I saw that new restaurant around the corner and thought to give it a try.”
“That’s up to her not me. Just don’t keep her out too long, she has class later.”
“No worries there, I need to be back at my ship in a few hours and I still need to purchase food supplies as well.”
“Then go on with you, you know which room is hers.” He waved me off with a resigned expression.
I got some weird looks from the other customers as I walked to the back of the office and through the door there. Walking up the stairs, I stopped at the first door and knocked. “Hey Holly, is it alright if I come in?”
“Ehhhhh, Seri?!? Please don’t open the door! Give me a few minutes!” I heard a frantic voice followed by the sounds of frantic activity.
Grinning evilly “What was that? It’s fine for me to open the door? Alright I’m coming in!” Pushing open the door I got to see the delightful sight of a nineteen year old girl that could pass for a pure human if not for her light blue hair and slitted eyes wearing nothing but a small shirt and panties rushing as she tried to pick up the books and clothes scattered around her room. She was looking at me frozen in shock so I took note of some of the books in her hands. Books about piloting with an emphasis on frigate class ships huh.
Holly started to come out of her shock and angrily shouted at me “Seri you’re so mean! I know you heard what I said!”
I decided to divert her with some direct attack tactics, smiling at her “Holly do you want to go out on a lunch date?”
I enjoyed the look on her face as she started blushing and smiling a bit giddily. “Really? I need to get changed then.” She dropped what she had in her hands on to her bed and turned to her closet before noticing I was still standing in the open doorway. “Umm, Seri can you step outside?”
“It’s fine, we’re both girls after all, no worries.” I was grinning broadly.
Holly’s shoulders started to shake and she picked up one of the fallen books before throwing it at me “I said get out and let me change!” I caught the thrown book but did as requested and stepped back into the hallway and closed the door.
About ten minutes later Holly stepped out wearing a dress that accentuated her figure. A quick glance behind her showed the room even more of a mess than before as if she had thrown about half the contents of her closet out of it while looking for a certain outfit.
“You look very nice.” I say to her and her blush reappears. “Then shall we depart?” I offer my hand to her and she takes it.
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I returned Holly home two hours later. We simply chatted about recent events though she wouldn’t answer my questions about her reasons for studying piloting. I would have loved to make it a longer date, but I am on a timetable sadly. It was fun though, and the cakes for dessert were so tasty.
Sending a quick message to Lynn from my terminal that I’d be back at the ship in about thirty minutes, I decided to take care of the food shopping. This was much easier in comparison to shopping for materials, though I could have handled that in a similar way, if I had wanted to. But then I wouldn’t have gotten to see Holly. It just required me to send an order request to a shop from my terminal and paying with my account. <((This series is only officially posted to royalroad.com. If you are reading this series on any other website, then you are doing so without the permission of the author, Xacual. If you have paid money for this story, please file a report and request a refund as it has been stolen and is being sold illegally.))>
Upon returning to the ship, I saw the maintenance droids loading the cargo with Lynn’s floating hologram directing them. I gave Lynn permission to leave the colony when everything was loaded and to head to the Gamor system so we could gather the quasigen. By my reckoning I didn’t have long until my lunch break ended so I hurriedly got undressed and back into my bed.
I was in a very good mood as I logged out, with the shopping taken care of all I had to do was wait for the update to hit and then I’d get to have all new, exciting planets to explore.
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“What do you mean your shuttle was delayed and you’re not going to get here in time!?” I was in a very bad mood listening to a certain robot’s excuses.
“Like I said, there was some kind of engine error so I’m a few days behind schedule. I know I promised to be there by now for the update but there really wasn't anything I could do about this.” Carson said trying to placate me.
“A few days means that I might miss out on laying survey claims to habitable worlds! A few days is huge!”
“I realize that, so you don’t have to wait for me. Go ahead and do some initial reconnaissance of the nearby systems if you want to. I’ll be there in a few days and you can then come pick me up, that shouldn’t take too long. I’m willing to wait there at the station if you’re too busy to pick me up right away too.”
“Fine, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Don’t complain when your metal butt sits around for days waiting though. I’m not making any promises about how long the recon will take.” I ended the call. “Damn that Carson, being a pain like always.” I reclined back in Lullaby’s pilot seat.
Lynn appeared over me “Mistress, there’s approximately ten minutes to go until the authorization arrives. Have you decided which of the systems we should check first?”
I brought up the galaxy map which showed the section of the galaxy that would soon be available for exploration. “Based on our current location, and the need to pick up a certain idiot later, we’ll check the nearest twenty systems starting with the system labeled CX-10. From there, well, we’ll see how it goes. We might get lucky and find a habitable world or moon on the first try.”
“Affirmative Mistress. I’ll set the destination into the navigation computer for the drive.” A brief flash of Lynn’s eyes. “Do you wish for me to pilot the ship?”
“No, I’ll handle it myself today, I’m too excited to rest.” Sitting up and putting my hands on the controls. I activated the startup sequence and prepared the ship to leave orbit around Gamor VI which we had been maintaining for the last week. The nice thing about updates in M:SP is that the bulk of the update would download ahead of time and the data would roll in so you could allow the game pod to apply the files without requiring the player to log out for the process. This meant that as soon as the update time signalled the game pod to activate the files, it was time for adventure. “How much time left Lynn?”
“One minute, thirty-five seconds.” Came her prompt reply.
“That’s just enough time for us to reach a safe distance to jump from, so perfect.” I activated the engines and maneuvered the ship out toward open space and away from the gravity well of Gamor VI. Out of habit, I double checked the navigation computer destination even though I knew Lynn wouldn’t make a mistake like that.
“Mistress just ten more seconds!” Lynn was sounding just as excited as I was feeling. I noticed with a smile that she put up a countdown on the view screen.
Five seconds.
One Second.
After it hit zero, I gave it an extra second before activating the drive. The ship entered hyperspace and we were now traveling at faster than the speed of light.
Not even a few seconds into the jump the ship bucked as if it had been hit with a tremendous impact. That absolutely shouldn’t have happened. I scanned the systems but nothing seemed to be coming up.
A second even larger impact came. What in the hell was going on!?
“Mistress! There’s something happening in the -”
Whatever Lynn had been about to say was interrupted by a third impact, and then everything went dark and I knew no more.