Ethan let his body wake him up whenever it wanted; he wasn’t very pleased when he had to force himself awake for one reason or another. Looking over at his bedside clock, it was 7 AM. The earlier he ate a good breakfast, the faster he could play Galbadia Prime Online. It would be his first whole day in the game, and he planned to spend all of it soaking up the world and its gameplay like a sponge.
His goal today was to ultimately decide if the game was for him and whether he wanted to live there. Though the real world shunned him in every possible manor, he still questioned whether throwing his real life down the toilet and putting a new one in the hands of a corporation was just as equally foolish. He sat down at his gaming rig, got comfortable and tapped the view-screen.
Julian faded into view, right where he was when he slept for the night. He was in his very small, very cramped shuttle control room that only had the size to fit one person. Sure, another person could tag along, but there’s no point in doing so at all. Julian simply powered on his new toy by pressing power on the console. A low rumbling could be heard from the bowels of the ship as it powered on, and Julian got the distinct impression that mostly everything was automatic. The ship computer told him that everything was online and fully functional. After that, he didn’t need any help to know that the “launch sequence” button was to initiate takeoff. He pressed it and the ship obeyed without question. It was when he got into space itself when his sight got completely overloaded with stars, what he assumed were other planets in the distance, and countless pieces of space debris.
Julian read the help information on starship movement, the activities listed, and lastly, salvaging. It was referred to by trash collecting by most players because it is a bit of a grind to get the points needed for the next resource activity, Asteroid Hauling. Salvaging was quite simple really. Scan the current sector of space, tell your ship to move to the debris, and press salvage. The ship uses salvaging lines to tow the item into the cargo hold. Rinse and repeat until the cargo hold is full. Shuttles unfortunately had only 25 units by default, making it a piece of cake for Julian to salvage 25 small pieces of debris.
Consulting help again, Julian read that he has to land at a spaceport to transfer the debris to get his reward for the activity. The closest planet was, Galbadia Prime. He instructed autopilot to take him back there. In the distance, Julian saw a ship he couldn’t quite make out and something just in front of where ships to stop to land on Galbadia Prime. It looked like this ship was looking for a fight, simply because whoever this person was had blocked ships coming in for a landing. Julian guest it was that he wanted to fight. Julian knew this ship was incapable of any fight. Looking at his weapon status readout, he had only a short range laser that didn’t output much, if any damage at all. Against a ship with even the poorest armor available would probably be able to best him.
Regardless, Julian needed to land. He had cargo to transfer, and he needs the credits. He instructed autopilot to bring him to Galbadia Prime, and suspected nothing would get transferred on this day.
As suspected, his ship didn’t crash into this ... barrier, but it had stopped one damn inch from where autopilot deemed safe to land. A ship, a standard basic fighter was blocking incoming ships from landing on the capital planet. Julian waited, but the ship didn’t respond. Via his ship console, he sent out a sector wide communication.
“Why are you blocking ships from landing here? I need to transfer cargo.”
Sector Communication [Fighter Prime] “Oh, nobody told you? Let me be the one to inform you that you need a salvaging license for that. I can easily issue you one, provided you hand over 1,000,000 credits immediately.”
Julian encountered his first scam. Scammers still exist in space huh? There’s no law here?
“Oh, you’re just one of those thorns in my side. Care to tell me your name instead of hiding behind the mask of your ship?”
Sector Communication [Fighter Prime] “I could, but I could also lye to your face. Look, this matter could be resolved by just doing what I say and business can continue here uninterrupted. Otherwise, I’ll have to shoot you down, in accordance with a Galbadia Prime law.”
“What law? There doesn’t appear to be any law here of any kind. I suspect a fleet of patrol ships here, but nothing.”
Sector Communication [Fighter Prime] “That makes my job a whole lot easier ... Salvaging licenses is a good thing. They restrict people from just being able to salvage anywhere.”
“It doesn’t say that in my help information that ships are restricted from salvaging. The Galactic Administration encourages it because it cleans space.”
Sector Communication [Fighter Prime] “They just informed me that it changed, and now all new residents to Galbadia Prime require a salvage license. I can supply you with one, as I’ve said repeatedly now.”
Julian could see that a cluster of ships was gathering behind him now, probably wondering what was going on and curious what the holdup was. Unfortunately, none of these ships were the fighting type. Two shuttles probably coming back from salvaging, an Asteroid Hauler going next door to Galbadia Alpha to haul a huge rock in, and a frater, which was a shuttle with more cargo space and salvage lines.
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“I don’t believe you at all. Let me land.”
Sector Communication [Fighter Prime] “Thanks, but no thanks. Since this is your first fight ... I’ll let you land, but it won’t be pretty. You’ll also have a few broken bones.”
Suddenly, Fighter Prime’s external lights flashed red, indicating Red alert. Julian also turned his ship to red Alert status; noting his single laser was operational. It wasn’t meant for combat, and he knew he would lose, but Julian is not just going to take this laying down.
The fighter Prime did get the first shot in. Pulling up the damage readout, Julian saw the hull was now at 80 percent integrity. The fighter Prime didn’t even move when Julian locked on to his fighter with a cannon and two torpedoes, because he knew the weakness of shuttles. They aren’t combat ships. Julian’s puny laser, meanwhile, locked on and fired at Fighter Prime, but it missed. The fighter Prime got a second hit in, taking his ship down to 60 percent. He had just over half of his ship remaining. A third hit would knock it below half. Julian’s laser finally hit, but it’s not as though it did any good. It did only two points of damage, leaving Fighter Prime at 98 percent.
Julian continued to fire with his useless weapon and Fighter Prime continued to prevail. When the shuttle had been finally destroyed and he was ejected into a rescue pod; he understood what Fighter Prime meant when they said that they’ll let him land. The rescue pod headed to Galbadia Prime. Unfortunately, even the pod was blocked by that damned ... whatever the hell it was that Fighter Prime put up to prevent people from landing on the planet.
There was no way to communicate in the pods, so Julian simply waited. It took a long time, but that thing, whatever it was, was destroyed and Julian’s pod continued unabated to the landing pad of Galbadia Prime. Once the pod had ejected him, he was happy to note that he actually didn’t have any broken bones.
Julian now decided that the first order of business was to get a new ship again. Unfortunately, finances weren’t the best right now. Sure, he has five million in the bank, one of that he could’ve given to Fighter Prime dude and surrendered; what would be the point in that? Julian was a fighter, not a quitter. He resolved that he would buy a ship in a while, but first, he contacted Kim via his private link to see what she was up to.
“Kim? How are you?”
Julian gave her the nickname Kim so her full name wouldn’t show on-screen. Makes it easier on him at times.
Private Communication [Kim] “Julian! I’m about to run a combat mission. Do you Wanna come along with us? We have four gunnery spots open, and one of them can be yours.”
“Sure, I’m in. My ship was just destroyed by someone who thought it’d be a good idea to scam people out of credits. I’ll need a pickup from Galbadia.”
Private Communication [Kim] “I surely will. I would do that regardless anyhow. After a few of these missions, you should be able to manage the next shuttle which has more cargo space.”
Soon enough, Kim’s huge, armored to the teeth battleship landed.
“It’s unlocked, come in.” Kim’s voice blared over the ship’s external PA system. Julian stepped into the airlock, followed by the ship proper. He was highly overwhelmed by the size of it when he noticed a sign point him to Weapons Deck 1. That taken care of, he noticed four weapon areas on deck. Three of them were already taken, but the fourth one was empty. He sat in the comfortable seat and proudly announced over the PA that he was ready in Weapons area 4.
PA [Kim] “I already got us a mission of moderate difficulty. Julian, I know it’s your first time. Don’t worry if you get stuck, we’re working as a team here. I’ll take you on an easier mission with just the two of us if you can’t figure things out here.”
“Thanks for the offer, Kim. I appreciate it, but I feel right at home using this weapon’s console here. If your scanner sees ‘em, I’ll do my best to kill ‘em. I did read up on this stuff before you picked me up.”
PA [John] “The noob has got this. Let’s go!”
Kim finally launched the ship. Julian had never been through a wormhole before using the jump drive in his ship; so the process the first time around was jarring to say the least. G-forces made him fall on his ass as the world seemed to warp around the ship at blinding speed. Since he wasn’t the pilot, he had no idea where they were. Today, he fired weapons. It wasn’t his job to be navigator.
Julian felt the ship land ... somewhere. They waited for a while, as Kim just told them she had already accepted a mission from Golgard.
“So, what are we doing?”
PA [Chris] “Kim went to top off missiles. Relax man.”
Sooner rather than later, they were in space again. The ship was moving, but as Julian wasn’t in the control room, he had no idea where. He felt the ship go through a current. The ship was moving, but something felt different; it felt like some other force was pulling the ship to a new destination.
“What was that?”
PA [Kim] “That is a jumper, Julian. We have to fly to the Argons, our enemy. Either that, or they’ll come to us, and that’s a bad idea.”
Julian nodded to himself, feeling no need to respond. The explanation was sufficient enough. Eventually, the first Argon ship came into view. Julian locked onto it, and fired his first missile of many. The fight was on!