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Star Hawk Rises
CHAPTER 26: USURPED!

CHAPTER 26: USURPED!

“What do you mean it can be usurped?” I screamed as I whirled around to stare at Zeo.

She took a step away from me at my sudden movement before sighing and continuing to walk as she motioned me to hurry up.

“Relax girl, you are stress-walking and that's not good for your skin. Besides, it's not as bad as it sounds, and it's easy-ish to fix. The ships we came in on have raw minerals in the cargo holds. Like iron, copper, steel and other stuff for the space dry dock to build the ships with. If you take the resources from the boy's ships and use them to build mining barges you can then use them to collect more resources to construct a refinery with, and I strongly recommend you do that before you try to build anything else, it will make it easier. You will of course need to bring clan members up here to fly them. But perhaps you should first take the minerals from my ship that I was going to give to you for you to build a third mining barge and instead use it to build a C9 skiff. It's kind of like our basic drop-ship, but it can only transport four people and a pilot. It also looks sleek and sexy instead of boxy. It can get you across this solar system in about two hours.”

I looked up at the towers’ sign as I passed under it and entered the tower.

“Wait up, Zeo, Kenna. I noticed this city literally has nothing, maybe you should take the resources I was going to give you for the mining barge and build a warehouse to store the ores inside. It comes with some really neat features at level one, like self transportation to the work site.” Travis called out.

Brendan quickly shook his hands to indicate he wanted no part in any offering, as I turned to look at him.

“No-, you don't want me to suggest anything. Trust me, you most definitely want at least one mining barge, or you are going to be boned.”

Zeo nodded her head slowly as she considered what the boys were saying before slowly turning to look at me again and as she stepped inside the tower.

“They are right, you are definitely going to need the skiff and the warehouse. Then your best option is to use the mining barge to collect resources to build the furnace factory, and then you will be able to start building your city, without those you kinda will be boned." I could hear the slight reluctance to admit it in her tone.

The doors to the elevators opened in front of us, as I considered what they had said for a few seconds before following them into the elevator. I turned to admire the view of the empty city for a second before I heard the ding.

“Top floor, Blossoming Terranova Guild Hall.”

“Why do I need the skiff?” I asked curiously.

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Zeo slowly turned to look at me like she was about to reluctantly pop the one bubble I held before she firmed her resolve and spoke.

“You said you were a planetary Baron-Tak before you suddenly jumped to a Solar Tak. Well, the reality is, you are not a Solar Tak at all. What you actually are is a Guild propped Solar Tak, and you can be usurped if someone of your clan has a stronger tie to more land and challenges you for guild ownership, the system could recognise them as the guild owner and transfer all control to them. Your clan would still be a guild propped Solar Tak, but you would not be in charge of this station anymore. The other option is you let someone else into your guild that is not of your clan, if they own more land and are recognised by the system as being higher ranked than you, they can also challenge you for ownership of the guild and take it from you. The worst part is, they don't even have to tell you they are doing it.”

I felt my stomach drop out and fear run rampant in my body as I took a step away from Zeo shifting my eyes to the boys in hope they would tell me it was some kind of sick joke. Neither of them would look me in the eye, though.

“You are joking, right?”

“I am sorry, Kenna, but I'm not. However, there is a solution, and that solution requires you move the ore from Travis’s ship and build a warehouse. It also requires you to purchase a licence and a blueprint for the C9 skiff and then build it.”

The ding of the elevator reaching the top floor interrupted Zeo as the doors slid open. We all slowly walked out into the reception area as I glanced at my status to see how many credits I had.

Name: Kenna Rowan Mackenzie

Clan: Mackenzie

Clan rank: Solar Tak

Military Rank: Flight Lieutenant

Military Position: Pending

Galactic Credits: 6,961

Class: Void Pilot

Guild: Blossoming Terranova

Guild Position: Guild Mistress

Guild Level: 1

“How much is the licence and the blueprint?” I slowly asked.

“Uh… we will need to move to your command table so we can access the galactic market. Oh, and don't worry, only Guild officers and yourself can actually interact with the table. It will completely ignore us.”

I nodded my head slowly and then led them through the extensive guild hall with its training rooms offices and who knows what else that I hadn't gotten around to finding yet until we reached the door with the word Guild Owner on it. They stood there and stared at me, not moving to open the door for me, until Travis suddenly spoke.

“We can't even open the door to the room without being guild officers. That's how tight the security is.”

I blushed slightly then opened the door letting them in and closed it behind us before walking over to the table that was still being hailed by the carrier. We ignored the hail, and Zeo talked me through accessing the galactic market and filtering what I wanted to search for. We soon found a listing for a C9 upgradable skiff licence that was priced at three thousand credits. The blueprint was thankfully a lot cheaper at the price of two hundred credits. I purchased both and then exited out of the galactic market, but before I did, I noticed there were a fair few other things I could purchase. There were listings for everything from civilian clothing all the way up to military hardware. I shook my head thinking I should look into that later and listened to Zeo as she directed me to the next step.

“Alright, Kenna. We now need to tell the dry dock to start building the skiff. The dry dock has cheap standard droids. They will unload the ships and carry the ore to the dry dock. They will then use that ore to build the ship, but if you don't want to carry that ore yourself to the warehouse construction zone, then I suggest you start the skiff construction but designate the warehouse construction zone as the drop-off point for the ore. Then open the city construction tab and tell it to build a warehouse with the provided resources. That way the droids move the ore to the right location and then the warehouse will be built before the droids are instructed by the warehouse to take the ore from the warehouse to the dry dock to build the skiff.”

I nodded my head in understanding and then began to manipulate the command table to do just that. When I was done, I turned back to Zeo, deciding I had a question I wanted to be answered.

“You still haven't told me how to prevent myself from being usurped with the skiff, are you going to tell me?”