Chen’s POV

Chen stared at the fabricator. A small box, all things considered, but it represented hope and freedom for the four of them. He checked the pod’s sensors again. It had enough power to operate even the high-intensity LIDAR systems for almost a year. Currently, it was set up so that all of the sensors were scanning all the time. It still took time to process the results, however.

“Carver, Chen.” Chen radioed.

“Go.” Carver replied.

“Sweep reports all clear. How’s the mining op going? Find any diamonds yet?”

“Oh, sure, I found a dozen just sitting here.” He said flatly. The miners are satisfied by Lilith’s coin but the merchants smell more than just a profit. Have you talked to them yet?”

“No.” Chen replied, “I’m still guarding the fabricator, I can’t leave it alone.”

“You’ll have to go and meet with them. I’ll be back to take over soon, I need to see if I can optimise the schedule a bit, anyway.”

“Sounds good to me. Heard anything from Lilith about this ambush?” Chen asked.

“Not much. They’ve got feelers out but my understanding is that no one knows anything.”

“I hope Ed’s having better luck.”

“Yeah. Hey, listen, I’ll be back soon. You know where the Trade Quarter is, right?”

“Yeah. I know where all the bars are, too.” Chen grinned.

“Of course you do.” Carver sighed. “Try not to get smashed, at least not until you talk to those merchants for me. Carver out."

The channel disconnected and Chen checked the pod’s sensors again. It wasn’t long before Carver arrived, making good use of his augmented speed. The two exchanged a few words and Chen walked out of the pod into the waning sunlight.

As Chen walked out from under a raised portcullis he twisted slightly, turning to a nearby guard. The man wore a full-face helmet that obscured his face and was clad in steel plate from head to toe. It was relatively thin from the look of it, but crusted with runes.

“It’s alright for me to head over to the Trade Quarter, right?”

The guard seemed to think that over for a moment.

“Yes, my lord. Our orders are to guard you and provide you with whatever you need. As long as you don’t go into the slums or any of the more run-down spots, you should be fine. Should I have guards assigned to you?”

Chen instinctively stamped down on that idea. He couldn’t do his job or get to know the locals with a couple of chauffeurs along for the ride, not that he didn’t see the merit in having protection along.

“No, I’ll be alright, just going to negotiate for some metals we need, and you don’t need to call me that. We’re soldiers, just like you, brothers-in-arms you could say.”

The guard chuckled “As you say then. A word of advice, from one soldier to another?”

“I’m listening.” Chen replied, eyes flicking to the other guard who seemed the perfect statue.

“Those merchants tend to treat you a lot more reasonable if you can prove you’re no stranger to coin, and haggling is the rule, not the exception.”

Chen nodded. Just like the orbital markets in some of the seedier ports he’d been through then. The life of a freighter crewman didn’t always lend itself to the cleanest or most reputable of places and he'd had to bargain for a desperately needed replacement part more than once.

“Got it, thanks for the tip." Chen stopped, just before his foot left the ground, instead settling his weight onto both feet again. "Listen… do you two want to get a drink after all this is over? We just got here and I’m dying for a beer after everything that’s happened.”

“Are you sure that’s…”

“Allowed?” The other guard finished. “Sure, why wouldn’t it be, as long as we’re not on guard?”

The second guard shrugged to himself. "As long as no one gets mad at me for talking to the city's latest strangers."

"Ah, you worry too much, that time in Porjar was just bad luck. If anyone asks just say you’re strengthening our new alliance.”

The second guard snorted at that, turning to Chen. "I bet you've got a lot of stories to tell, am I right?”

Chen smiled. “You know it. Where am I meeting you two, and when?"

"Down at the Black and Blue in the Trade District. Dorothy's the barkeep, she’ll open shop in an hour. I'm Deran, this is Kazakhildahin, but we just call him Kaz.”

"Kaz and Deran at the Black and Blue.” Chen repeated, “Alright, guess I’ll see you boys there.”

Chen gave them a stern and serious nod which would've been utterly ruined by his unprofessional grin except that neither man could see through Chen's helmet. Striding off into the distance,

Chen emerged from a series of fortified and connected compounds into the city proper. Paved stones were the norm inside the Military Quarter, which seemed to be less of a 'Quarter' and more of a huge fortress squished into a section of the city.

Outside, Chen's boots met cobblestone. His head head swivelled left, then right. The street outside the Military Quarter was a busy one, the Mage Quarter and the Military Quarter bordering each other filled the streets with prospective mages, curious youths and all manner of thrill-seekers and fighters.

Brushing past stalls and customers, Chen quickly found a sign denoting the major areas of the city. The large sign hanging off a stone tower said the building was 'Hawk Library', but below that was a simple 'Merchant Quarter' with a simple arrow pointing down the street.

Chen set a sedate pace and passed by men and women in all sorts of clothes. Many of them wore simple leather attire, one or two had steel over their chests and others were draped in robes which he'd figured by now was the sign of a mage. The colours of the robes eluded him for the moment, but he was sure there was some kind of system behind it. As Chen made his way through the expansive city, he began to get a sense of its scale.

It was no New York City or London, but it was still impressive, easily six kilometres to the wall and half that in the other direction. He hadn't seen it from the outside just yet and he wondered whether it was some kind of square or something more interesting. He wasn't an expert in castle construction or defensive architecture, he could build a trench or a ranger grave but a city? That wasn't his area of expertise. He'd be surprised if it was an area of expertise for any of the Marines.

Chen was used to the staring. His hulking form wasn't a common sight on most worlds, ships or stations. It only half-registered after a moment that the people filling the streets might be staring because of his armour and not his size. His eyes caught furtive glances, concealed staring and several wary expressions.

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"Is he... father is that a metal man? Surely that's just armour right?" A boy asked as Chen brushed by a group of men. Chen smiled to himself. Then he stopped. Something felt off and his body tensed, mirroring his instincts. He could swear someone was watching him.

"Proc, scan for threats."

No Threats Detected

But the feeling didn’t go away. He resisted the urge to look around, and kept on his original path. As Chen passed under a large stone archway into the trade quarter, the clothes changed. Fewer were the stalls peddling trinkets, baubles and smaller items. More commonly, arms and armour could be seen, each merchant trying to outshine their competition with dubious claims.

Chen walked a little bit until he spotted a young bare-chested man selling what looked to be several sets of plate armour and swords that were nearly as tall as Chen. Just looking at the man wore Chen out, he seemed to put a ridiculous amount of energy into yelling out one sales pitch after another.

“You look like the smart sort!” the man called out to Chen, “What can I interest you in today?”

Chen approached the man’s shop, really more of a large bench flanked by four free-standing shelves, though Chen did see a more extensive shop behind the man.

Chen reached behind his back, noting the man tensing for a fraction of a second. When Chen’s hand came back with an unfamiliar block of steel, the man stared at it, then at Chen.

“You looking to barter?” He asked, unsure what to make of it.

“I’m new in town and I’m looking to buy a large amount of iron and some other metals. You wouldn’t happen to know someone who’d be interested, would you?”

The man’s expression changed instantly, less wary and more intrigued.

“I’d be interested, how much and how soon?”

Chen paused for a moment, he hadn’t considered having to explain the metric system to anyone. In the end, he decided to go with a rough estimate. “Can you do that?”

“Depends, are you going to buy anything?” The man questioned, almost accusingly.

“Don’t have much to trade right now.” Chen admitted.

“Then get lost.” The man scoffed, his expression souring.

“But… I do have this.” Chen lifted his hand to give the man a clear view.

“A chunk of steel? That’ll barely pay for a meal. Unless you have coin, I’m not interested.”

“What if I said this ‘chunk of steel’ can purify water?”

“So? A runic array can boil water in seconds.”

“Not boil.” Chen said. “Purify. This’ll make any water clean and safe to drink and I’m betting that runic array is a lot bigger than this.”

The merchant eyed him suspiciously. Chen needed an opportunity to win him over.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get one.

“Nice try.” The merchant shook his head. “Your trick’s not going to work on me.”

“Oh for— Just tell me where I can find someone who is interested, alright?”

Amusement turned to wrath and irritation. “I’m not telling you a damned thing. Get. Lost.”

Chen frowned, stepping away to one side as he opened a channel to Carver. “I thought you said the merchants smelled more than just a profit.” He scowled.

“Well, they should, if they’re smart. The ones I talked to were eager to have their own fabricators when I described what one could do.” Carver said.

“Yeah, doubt that’s happening without the go ahead from Ed. This guy won’t even let me sell a WPU to him, just called me a trickster and refused to sell me anything or give me directions.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t help you there. Just find one that’s interested.” A moment of silence passed as Chen resisted the urge to berate the man on the other end of the call.

Carver naturally filled that silence quickly. “Was this just a social call or did you need something important?”

Chen growled, mentally slamming the comms channel closed. He was back square one. “That little bastard.”

He decided that if his first attempt had failed, he’d just have to try again somewhere else, with a different approach this time.

He walked along the long street, eyes peeled for someone who might actually have raw material to sell him. Unexpectedly, Chen saw a man tucked away in a shop, no stall out front and seemingly no customers at all. Intrigued, Chen diverted to investigate.

The shop was quite small and cramped, but it had the look of a place that was built to be used, not to impress. Chen wouldn’t have been surprised if the man lived in the place, crammed into a tiny room somewhere in the back of his shop.

Approaching the elderly looking man, Chen noticed he was actually selling bars of iron, silver and copper, which was much closer to what Chen was looking for. There was also a variety of weapons and even tools around the place, everything from felling axes, to swords and shields. They were tucked away behind security shutters and locked up, but that didn’t surprise Chen. Mining was probably a dangerous job when the outside world was reported to be a dangerous wilderness.

“Beautiful armour, sir, what brings you to my shop?”

“Looking to trade, same as you I suppose.”

“Oh? Judging by that armour you must be wealthy beyond belief. I can’t imagine what you’d need to buy my wares for.”

Chen shook his head. “Don’t be so harsh, you’ve a fine establishment and you’re much more pleasant than the last man I talked to.” Chen bit back a sharp insult before it crossed his lips.

“Ah, pay him no mind. What are you looking to buy?”

Chen decided to try a different approach. “Got a scale or something? I’m afraid I don’t know your measurement system. I’m ah, new in town, you could say.”

“We get foreigners from time to time, it’s no trouble. I’ll be just a moment.”

The old man retreated through an open doorway further into his shop. Returning a moment later, he wheeled out a large set of scales on a trolley, alongside which sat a shallow wooden box.

Chen wasted no time in placing his water purification unit on side of the scale.

The old man looked at it for a long moment before retrieving a bar of iron from a shelf behind him. He placed it down on other side of the scale and made an appreciative grunt as the scales failed to shift. Lifting the lid from the box, he began attaching counterweights to Chen’s plate. After several adjustments he stood back.

“It’s light, whatever it is.” The man said.

“It’ll filter any water that runs through it. It needs to be charged with sunlight, but it’s meant to be easy to carry. No sense in having it weigh you down if you’re travelling with it.” Chen explained.

“A water cleanser? In that little thing? Impressive. So how much are you looking to buy?”

Chen pulled up a calculator.

“How much does that bar weigh?”

“Seventeen nukrats, give or take a few.”

“Huh. Seventeen ‘New Krats’, alright. Then I probably need about eight thousand nukrats of… well, a lot of things.”

Chen didn’t put much faith in the word ‘neodymium’ being in these people’s lexicon, but he’d figure that out later. He rattled off the list Carver had given him.

“Oh, and we’ll need about eighty-thousand nukrats of iron, by my reckoning.”

The man stared. “You’re serious?”

“Sure am.” Chen nodded.

“That’s… not a small order. It’ll take me a few days to get it together. You can pay for all this, I assume?”

“Well, not me, but the Crown’s covering it, or so I hear. Lilith… someone, I believe.”

“Lilith Shroud? You’re working for the King then?”

“I am, I suppose. Haven’t met the guy yet.”

The shopkeeper hesitated, offense and shock rippling across his face as he heard his ruler referred to as ‘that guy’ by a complete stranger.

He recovered admirably, expression returning to normal after a moment. “Well, I’ll have to chase this up with the Guard then, but if they pay for it, it’s yours. Will you be picking it up yourself?”

“No reason why I shouldn’t, right? Say, uh, how do you keep all this safe from thieves?”

“Thieves?” He laughed. “I’m Ruthan Gorekson. Any thief steals from me and he’d have half the sellswords and guards on him before the next chime of the bell.”

“Ruthan… sorry, who are you?”

“Right, not from around here.” The old man chuckled. “I’m something of a local legend. No adventurer mind you, but I’ve forged swords and armour for the finest over my years. Now I’m retired, well, I like to think so.”

“You don’t look retired to me.” Chen replied, looking around the shop. He spied a large bow hanging above the man’s head. It didn’t look like it had been engraved with magic runes, but the sheen of it gave the Marine a clue.

“That bow there, one of yours, I take it?”

“This old thing?” The man looked up, jerking his thumb towards the bow. “Sure is. The woman who ordered it fell in battle and left it to me. Tried to pick the damn thing up and it burned me, it’s really more a showpiece than anything else.”

“It burned you?” Chen asked.

The sound of a bell chiming filled the air. One after another, ten in all. The air was ringing with the sound, but it soon faded.

After the sound passed, the man nodded. “No idea what enchantments the lady put on it, but I can’t move the damn thing without tongs and I doubt anyone can use it if it burns whoever touches it.”

“I’m guessing you can’t sell it, either?”

“Not a chance.” The old man laughed at the idea. “I’m going to have to close up shop early today. I should have everything you want in… six or seven days.”

Ruthan smiled, likely at the thought of the obscene amount of money he was about to make.

“I’ll see you in seven days then, and thanks for taking me at my word.” Chen said, by way of parting.

Chen figured haggling wasn’t necessary, not if someone else was footing the bill. That was probably the reason the old man was so happy, he could set whatever price he wanted.

Chen left with a slight but definitely satisfied smile on his face, now he just needed to find that bar.

It was only a few minutes later that Chen’s good mood evaporated, thoughts of beer and chatting to the two friendly guards gone in an instant.

Threat Detected

“Shit.” Chen drew his sidearm, conscious of the oblivious crowds of shoppers around him. He scanned the building around him, noticing very quickly a threat marker in the distance, just below the peak of the bell tower he'd heard earlier.

He was no expert on whatever the analog was for pre-gunpowder sniper rifles, if such a thing existed, but a man aiming a crossbow down into the city from a bell tower fit the definition cleanly enough. One look at the broken window on the floor below the bell and the man’s masked face was enough for Chen’s judgment.

“Carver, we’ve got a situation here.”