Chapter 3 – Some Call Him Jack

Speckled Brew, A Bar in Haldwake A City Built into the canyons of the Southeast border -9:30am, Date 122, 516 P.A.

"Order up Jack" A robed Skeletal figure calls out placing what can only be described as a potentially dead rat covered in a orangeish sauce between two stale buns in front of a Off White Fractal who is sitting alone in the corner of the candle lit bar.

"I still don't know how you actually like this stuff" The Skeletal man jokes his crystallized bones glimmering in the candle light "then again id kill to taste anything again." he laughs.

"Its all in the sauce." Jack reply’s eyeing the ratburger

"whatever suites you, can i get you another drink?" The Skeletal bartender asks, taking Jacks empty glass.

"A 1st Blood, and bring two I'm expecting company." Jack says as he takes a bite out of the horrible approximation of food, a fitting meal for an approximation of a man.

Jack the Magpie is not a good person by any means, his title given for his propensity to take what isn’t his and knack to leave a mess when he does, wanted in Crimson Soul for many robberies he only lives free because the law dares not too touch Haldwake, that isn’t to say he is a bad person either, he simply takes what he wants, his unkempt hair and motives matching the white and black bird called magpie.

despite his reputation these days jack finds himself well behaved, after scoring big on an airship heist a couple decades ago he lives in as much luxury as one can in a den of thieves, outlaws and unstable Fractals.

As the Bartender brings Jack his drinks, a faintly glowing silver fluid made of gin, whisky, a little cactus juice, and the condensed psychic energy known as Ichor, One of jacks co-conspirators enters the bar.

A Dark Blue skinny, tall, and lanky looking Fractal, wearing a thin grey leather jacket and tan cargo pants, Spinned the Crow is the closest thing Jack has to a trusted friend in the Soul, being Jacks partner in crime the two share quite the bounty.

Spinned makes his way too the corner table silently taking one of the drinks a downing it in a single motion as Jack finishes his burger.

"So whats the plan" Jack asks before downing his drink aswell

Spinned puts a marked map of Crimson Soul on the table and begins to explain "Really quite simple, we will head west from here too the small farming town of Pearlin, there we will wait and act like we belong there until exactly 2:30 when the MagRider arives then we will make a scene and get onto the Mag rider and use the override codes I got to take it too a predetermined point where we will cut the rail and drop the Rider onto the sand, then we simply drag it home with a couple heavy Sand tows."

"And how exactly are we getting over there?" Jack asks standing up from the table leaving a stack of LCD’s on the table.

"I got us a couple of Do-Not's, they wont be missed. Maka, Stran, and Kisla will be joining us too" Spinned reply’s standing up, before the two make their way out of the bar onto the busy streets of Haldwake.

Crimson soul's locals are varied as they are red, that is to say they are very red and no place is as varied and red as Haldwake. Created by the psychic energy species of Fractals some time after the awakening and long before Terracorp founded The Soul. The city is a layered web of cables, buildings, roads, walkways and, tunnels in a massive network of canyons stretching well past the official boarder of the Soul deep into the uncharted warped wasteland that lies to the east, despite being officially recognized as a city after the Red Wake, Haldwake is entirely independent from the rest of the already independent state of Crimson Soul with order being maintained by whoever is strong enough to impose their ideas of order, because of this Haldwake is well known as a den of thieves and outlaws making itself a home for those who aren't welcome anywhere else.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Now outside of the Speckled Brew its only a short walk to the large garage complexes at the edge of the city, after greeting a heavily armed and armored security guard the two Fractals make their way to a personal garage at the end of rows of identical garages some open with people working on various vehicles.

“Zup” A faded orange fractal named Kisla The Blast yells waving at Jack and Spinned while working on a Dune-Naught “Maka and Stran are getting the tows ready they will meet us there, we should be ready to go when im done here, hopefully these engines make it, I supercharged them to get us over there fast but since we are leaving them behind I didn’t leave much longevity in them”

“you really didn’t need to touch them, we aren’t in a hurry” Jack says walking over to another Dune-naught.

“Stock Do-nots are no fun” Kisla reply's putting his tools away “Besides I wanna see how much air we can get off these before they get trashed”

“Right im riding with Jack” Spinned chuckles grabbing a red duffle bag from the back of the garage “I don’t expect much trouble on this but I got something special just incase”

“What is it?” Jack asks starting the Dune-Naught it makes a loud banging noise before roaring to life

“Last time That flying city Laputa came by they where having a weapons expo” Spinned explains with the most sinister of grins “Shes Serial One.”

Speed limits in Haldwake are enforced at gunpoint making leaving a slow affair, after the gang makes it out of the city through the long canyon tunnel that separates Haldwake from the rest of the Soul they blast off into the blood red sand, Kisla taking the lead and flipping his Vehicle a couple times before they arrive at Perlin parking just outside of town in Jacks Dune-Naught as Kislas stopped working after a particularity epic jump off a sand dune.

Calling Perlin a town is a bit of a stretch its more of a street with the basic necessity's ending in a large mag rail station, the town is surrounded by cactus farms and processing facility that turn the cactus into Ichor through a process called “Trans-mutational Psychic Injection”. Most of the humans in the town are here for this purpose as it cannot be automated. Unsurprisingly the town is deserted it being midday, and the gang make their way to a building Accurately labeled BAR.

Inside its empty aswell save for a rather bored looking barman who greets the gang with a prompt “Hello.”

“Greetings!” Jack exclaims “me and my pals are traveling the sands and need a couple drinks, you know how to make a 1st blood?”

“Sorry we are out of Ichor.” the barman emptily reply’s.

“Don’t you guys make Ichor here?” Spinned asks, the gang taking seats at the bar.

“Production isn’t meeting demand so we are short, can I get you anything else?” The barman says his tone unchanging.

“Gin and tonics then.” jack says

“Understood.” the barman says as he prepares the drinks.

The crew spend's a couple of hours sipping drinks silently in the empty bar the barman sitting on a stool looking extremely bored

“its almost time where are they?” Kisla whispers to nobody in-particular

“they probably got held up, we go regardless, I told them to get back to the tows if they cant make it in time” Spinned whispers

“Should've let me fix up their do-nots” Kisla reply's chuckling halfheartedly

“Maybe its a setup” Jack comments as the gang gets up from the bar

Spinned smirks patting his bag “thats why I brought insurance”

“Have a nice day.” the Barman says as the group leaves the bar back into the silent town

“Right time to get to work!” Spinned exclaims leading the group into a alleyway and opening his bag.

He pulls out two fold-able armor vests and ballistic masks and hands them to his comrades, Jack and Kisla Put them on as Spinned fiddles in his bag before turning around holding what looks like a short and long black box with gun parts welded to the bottom and a cable coming out the side connected to a VR headset sitting cleanly on Spinned's head.

“you got a smartgun?” Jack says sounding disappointed

“Its not just a smartgun, it fires a self adjusting rocket round linked too the headset, the headset can identify targets and see through most cover, this thing will literally shoot people around walls before they even know your there” Spinned says petting his gun “and the best part… its completely silent”

“I thought we where going for shock and awe” Kisla says brandishing his automatic rifle

“Seems useful for spotting trouble” Jack comments unholstering his revolvers

Spinned's evil grin returns “Exactly, now lets go make some trouble of our own.”