Spacecraft

"Are all of those spaceships?" Heian Ciemnosc asked out loud as he looked around, especially at those that hung from the ceiling and were only approachable by floating up. From behind, the Vice chairman made some steps and then said, taking Heian Ciemnosc's attention away from them with a transparent yet lazy and dull tone. "Most of them are, those in the small numbers are spacecraft for 'recreational' purposes.

“Follow,” Vice chairman Elyor made the same gesture as before, only now with strictness and an attitude of reprimanding Heian Ciemnosc. The latter didn’t say anything and followed, faster than before, as the Vice chairman picked up his pace. “This is a hangar, and you’re not the boss. Since you’re learning here, obey. Don’t wander. Don’t overstep your boundaries. And don’t stick your Spirit Sense in everything you see. You are a mere Auxiliary Soldier that made his way into a spaceship of the Crimsonbreaking Faction, nothing else.”

“... mnn,” Heian Ciemnosc nodded and quietly agreed. He kept his feet moving fast despite the pain in his body, and that was when the Vice chairman noncommittally slowed down but did not stop moving quickly. All around, he saw spaceships that would let about a dozen, more or less, in it and have quite some room to move about.

“What is that one?” It was of a dark green color and had a cylindrical structure at its center, acting as the main body and layout overall. But it had spheres on its left and right, where weapons similar to what he saw, read, and learned of the ordinary folk before used to defend their cities and the like.

Heian Ciemnosc has never had problems with his Spirit Sense being detected. But he obediently kept it to himself as he looked at the spaceships and that one in particular… after a couple glimpses with his Spirit Sense. The Vice chairman rolled his eyes and slightly shook his head before elaborating on that spaceship.

“That’s a fighter spaceship, Bulldog style. They are tanky and can carry more weapons than the other 2 styles. It is for a crew of 8 people, always the vanguard in battles.” Vice chairman Elyor gave a quick answer before asking the last few steps to arrive at something much bigger quicker than the rest. Heian Ciemnosc looked at it before hearing the Vice chairman speak again as the hatch from the more oversized spaceship began to open.

“It’s said that Lord Fallen, the last of the Lords to appear before the Great Sage and before the great rulers of each Existence territory disappeared, used a much contemporary Bulldgo spaceship, a version so old that it would probably be less useful than a speeding spacecraft.” Heian Ciemnosc listened while the Vice chairman saw the hatch finally land on the floor and went in without signaling Heian Ciemnosc to go in.

“...” Waiting behind, Heian Ciemnosc turned around as if he was dancing and looked all around to his heart’s content. The Bulldogs had only glass at their front. While the spheres were made of a bulky-ish material similar to metal, or metallic for that matter. The main body was also metallic but looked smoother and could effortlessly go through space, which had no gravity, as he was told, and through the air without a problem. Even if it had an ‘erroneous’ design, with 2 Synergized Equatrend Mobilizers, it would function at best capacities all the same.

Step, step, step, step.

The Vice chairman returned, this time with a few dozen following him and presenting themselves to Heian Ciemnosc with uniforms only a Soldier, one which only the crew members of a spaceship could have. They each looked at Heian Ciemnosc, and after stopping in front of the lowered hatch, without being told anything, a few of them stepped up and stood half a step behind the Vice chairman.

On the other hand, the Vice chairman looked at him with his hands together in front of his lower body, his green lagoon eyes. As he looked at Heian Ciemnosc, who no longer spun about, he nodded upwardly, then began saying while gesturing to the young men and women standing with their backs straight half a step behind him.

“In 2 days, our Carrier will begin a mission to retrieve stolen, rich and fancy crystal for some artistic snob who would pay us tens of thousands for every ton of those crystals we recuperate for him. And should and casualty occur, it would be 4 thousand more. As for the currency, you only need to know that you’ll have difficulty getting info from us. We are not your nannies. These young people will teach you how to pilot a Fighter Spaceship at the very least.”

“But it is up to you to learn how to pilot,” Vice chairman Elyor stared straight at Heian Ciemnosc’s face. Strictly and sternly. Heian Ciemnosc could only surprisedly look up and down with his eyeballs moving in confusion before nodding as glints of excitement flashed nonstop in his darkest eyes. The Vice chairman and the young men and women behind him seemed to smile with their eyes seeing his reaction. Who didn’t grow dumb and stupid when they were told similar words?

“Whether you learn in those 2 days, you’ll come along to the possible battle. And you better learn, at the very least, how to escape with your life.” Elyorsaid, leaving the 4 people who stood right behind him to get to the front and start surrounding Heian Ciemnosc. He could feel their Spirit Sense even before they surrounded him and began going round and round with him at the center.

His entire body structure was laid before them as they owned him. Heian Ciemnosc felt sensations that, with such high up-close and scanning Spirit Sense, not only his organs, veins, and blood were seen through, but even his age was read. And though they couldn’t tell the fluctuations of his Power Energy from the impossibly fast speed it was going, his cultivation base was all theirs to know as long as he didn’t purposely hide it.

“Good body,” one of them said, teasing the shit out of his ears as their voices began traveling all around him as they smoothly moved around him and appeared to do some casual strolling. “Good soul! Wow…” - “Good body.” - “Not that, you horny bitch.” - “Good foundation… tsk, let’s be rough. Really rough… with him.”

After they were finished giving Heian Ciemnosc a scene, even incorporating him slightly, they made a little group to the side. Elyor kept his gaze fixed on Heian Ciemnosc, who felt a bit of pressure forming from just that. Heian Ciemnosc felt as if, as soon as Elyor wished to harm him, such pressure could destroy his bones, just for starters.

The little group pointed around and made some hushed words audible to Heian Ciemnosc, toying with him as they were forehead to forehead against each other. When they were done, they walked up to him again, but this time faced him properly and like civilized people. There were 2 males and 2 females, the males were both Elves, who had blue skin, but Heian didn’t know shit about Elves, so he couldn’t tell which sub-race they were.

“We’ll be teaching you in a Bulldog. Those are the slowest and less agile. So we’ll put you to make maneuvers in high, intense gravity that only a General or Sweet Carolina style Spaceship can do easily. It will be slightly difficult for you,” a pretty girl with a bun on each side of her head and tied so that her actually-really long hair was picked up, yet those buns remained small, said with a smile.

She gave Heian Ciemnosc the same kind of familiarity he had with Beasts, not Humans, and… well, he didn’t remember how he felt when in front of Hong Mei. He was too busy being kissed and sniffed around by her.

“Yeah, only expert pilots can do such things, and it costs them some mental fatigue after just a few maneuvers. Do your best, buddy.” One of the blue Elves said, his neck extended as he looked down at Heian Ciemnosc slightly.

“...” Heian Ciemnosc became wordless. He felt as if he had fallen into the hands of monsters… monsters worse than Tania!

“Over here! Take a look at them. These are the 3 Fighter Spaceships the whole world uses! It’s but the most perfected versions of anything in the past. Some were perfected from a combination of other previous and successful products, or completely original and wonders of all Craftsmaking!”

Heian Ciemnosc was dragged by the other young woman, his forearm right before his elbow taken as he was walked to a place where many Fighters were. The General style Spaceship was more normal looking. It had a steep cabin and tip, with a wingspread that was way too thick to be considered just a wing. And though it had fewer weapons than a Bulldog, it looked threatening enough than anything Heian Ciemnosc had seen before as a vehicle.

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“This one’s for up to 10 people. It's a bit longer than the Bulldog, but in any case, it is faster and a bit more agile than the Bulldog. That one over there is known for its stealth, speed, and agility. But very agile too. They are the most fun to shoot at but most annoying to destroy. It’s difficult without missiles.” The young woman grabbing his right arm, said as she let go of it and stood on his left, her chest sticking out as she looked at the Fighters with reminiscence.

“Which one do you fly?” Heian Ciemnosc probingly asked. The young woman turned to face her right, and her eyes met his without trouble. A smug barely-visible smirk formed on her lip as she spoke with slightly lofty. “I command a Cruiser, not a little Fighter.”

Saying that Heian Ciemnosc was left with his mouth open, which he closed as fast as he could before turning around, where Elyor was standing with his arms crossed and looking up at the Fighters. Taking enough steps forward to stand right before him, the Vice chairman kept his arms crossed as he elaborated, his voice stern.

“Boss’s orders. You are being taught, not given a tour. The people teaching you are the best of our Faction. Pilots, management, strategies. It won’t be like before, where you just learned something and then improved it. You will be here learning and learning until you start getting the hang of it. For you, only a few days will be given. We’re busy and have no time to ‘see if’ a kid can or can’t do something. You’ll learn these things regardless.”

Pshift~.

With that, Elyor flew up, bringing Heian Ciemnosc with him at a speed Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t go even if he tried with all his might and capabilities. It was a vast difference between their cultivation base. In but a moment, Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t prepared as he came crashing against the seats of the Bulldog with its front and only windows opened. His back hit against the backrest before falling on the seats’ cushions. Brash sounds were heard even below.

On the other hand, Elyor was on his feet outside the Bulldog’s cabin. Pointing to the left and right as Heian Ciemnosc immediately sprung to his feet in the cabin, the ceiling where its windows should be half his size still above him didn’t allow him to see, but Elyor spoke regardless.

“See those controls? Buttons, levels, and tools connected to the Fighters’ systems? There used to be fewer, but even these most-basic warring spacecraft have been changed. You know why?” Elyor asked him after pointing to the sides, whereas Heian Ciemnosc could only look at the Bulldog’s panels. Heian Ciemnosc looked up after hearing the question, his face at ease, not squinting nor trying to hide behind his eyelids.

“It’s made for citizens, too?” As soon as he responded, the Vice chairman looked down at him after staring up to look at the other Fighter hun on the ceiling. With a slight pause, the Vice chairman answered, then elaborated further. “... Yes. Those hung up there are for us cultivators. And most of those below it’s for citizens. We don’t have any weird stuff happening, like in some backwater planets or failed Kingdoms.”

“I understand,” Heian Ciemnosc said in return. Looking at each other, one barely knowing what the fuck he could do with so many buttons and stuff, the other looking at the young boy, expectation growing in those green lagoon eyes.

… Days went by fast, really fast. And even perhaps too fast for Heian Ciemnosc's liking. The first day he started, he wasn’t put in a cabin to know the controls. Instead, he wasted half the day in a gravitational array formation where his body would be rotated, forcibly pulled up, down, to the sides, and at any angle. By the end of that half a day, his body hurt so much that he lost most of his energy and had to be helped here and there for the rest of the training.

The remaining half of the day until midnight was spent with his body being placed in a cabin, where he sat on his own for a bit before one of the young women had to sit with him and help him not fall off to the side. Knowing that everyone’s pay would be canceled for the next several months, the team in charge of teaching Heian Ciemnosc the basics of a spacecraft and then the basics of the Fighters.

Heian Ciemnosc was first placed on the Bulldog and taught its every function, from the panels to individual names of ‘things’ he would do in the next few days, to even the little nooks of the spaceship that everyone used to hook up or showcase their true love to their beloved. And after being told everything at once. Heian Ciemnosc was asked to recite them in the same order and with their function.

He didn’t fail and successfully repeated everything he was taught, even though he looked about to faint the next second. His training wasn’t just that. He was next shown which combination of buttons, levers, and other tools and devices would be used, some had names, and others were simple terms like ‘turn and deploy’ or ‘onwards 200 kilometers’. To which the meanings were not the same as they sounded. Nonetheless, they remained simple.

There were some others that were pretty complex. But every single one of them was learned instantaneously by the bedridden-looking Heian Ciemnosc, who recited everything he was taught to the letter once again. Later, Heian Ciemnosc was placed with the other Fighters and did the same as with the Bulldog.

The first day ended, leaving Heian Ciemnosc barely awake as he was picked up by Alyona and her vehicle. That night, Heian Ciemnosc was even bitten. He slept soundly and was massaged in strange but very welcomed methods.

… After learning things he needed to, Heian Ciemnosc was only required to become familiar with making those movements and coded actions. He was placed in an actual Bulldog, within a pilot training module and not the hangar, much less space. The Carrier was still in movement and traveling to its current mission. They had already gone through portals a couple times since he woke up. But each time it happened, Heian Ciemnosc was asleep, which was rare.

All he knew was the Carrier moved through Kingdom’s spatial territory to arrive at its portal that led the fuck away and wouldn’t need more than a year to arrive at their destination, the Academy Heian Ciemnosc was being sent to.

The portals were in the Kingdom’s main cities, where the portals covering the ñargest distance possible were only available to those like the Crimsonbreakin Factio who could use them publicly. After crossing through one, they had to travel to the next Kingdom. They appeared for a while, as those portals couldn’t allow anyone to teleport in the middle of the city. It only brought them to a general direction, anywhere within the Kingdom. From there, anyone would have to head to the spatial territory of the Kingdom and travel through there.

All he also knew was that Spaceships such as Carriers couldn’t travel in Kingdom’s aerial territory, but they could be teleported to them. However, remaining unmoved for a minute is the same as being seen to declare war on the Kingdom they would teleport, and attacking just once to the ground was straight away publicly declaring war on the Kingdom in question.

Heian Ciemnosc voiced his doubts. Though the ‘rules’ seemed powerful and strict, to the point of leaving no empty holes accidentally, he felt anyone with a brain would figure out a plan to not be discovered. But Alyone tapped his back several times and told him to sleep and to stop nagging like an old lady, lest he wanted her to grow a dick or something.

Every time it happened, Elyor managed the administration to communicate and pay their fee, presenting himself to the people in charge of the Kingdom, which were more powerful than them but only protected the large-distance portals.

Each time, Heian Ciemnosc was held by Alyona. And though she said nothing, he felt she was protecting him from the portal’s teleportation tunnel, which she only spoke about briefly during their mornings. Like a couple of a young teenager husband and a 1.2k+-year-old wife, they slept together without anyone’s notice and had breakfast together. Although it was more realistic to say it was Heian Ciemnosc having breakfast with the dishes she made.

And she feasted on watching Heian Ciemnosc eat and enjoy life so much. One could say she had voyeur potential for her future hubby.

… When the day came for the mission of some crystal, though it appeared not to be about drugs, but for artistic ‘needs’ of a rich person. Heian Ciemnosc went out… in a speeding spacecraft. But at least he finally went into space, where he had strict orders to remain at the back and not do anything, just observe. Additionally, he was given a tablet as wide as his torso and as long as half the length of his torso.

The tablet’s screen showed dozens of red dots and a few slightly bigger red glowing dots. Those were the Carrier’s Fighters and a few Frigates, which he got to see after he went out in space, like parading out, yet actually setting off to battle.

Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t told a thing about them but figured out they could hold a few hundred people each. They had more weapons than the Fighters, and that was for sure. It wasn’t just missiles that were more in quantity and diversity than the General and Sweet Carolina style Fighters. They had more of those ‘cannons’ he saw in the ordinary people’s hands back at the long-gone Sinvononia Kingdom.

There was a difference of 400 kilometers between the Carrier and the mission’s location. Even then, the tablet they gave Heian Ciemnosc allowed him to unquestionably see and hear everything. Elyor was leading the charge in a defensive Frigate while another 4 offensive Frigates were behind his,

Then, a bunch of smallish spacecraft surrounded them up and down from their current direction as they closed in on an asteroid, halted and blatant installations showing from a distance close enough for even a Fighter to see. Just as Heian Ciemnosc wondered what it was with these thieves not worrying about secrecy, the asteroid had a bunch of Bulldog, General, and Sweet Carolina style Fighters. They were half a hundred, and they looked ready to defend.

…