Ludus “Sea Of The Outlaws”
Third Quadrant
Threat Levels: Extreme
Biome: Severely Contaminated Sea And Aquamarine Life
The Cherry's Bottom, a threateningly enormous ship housing a crew of seventy with a twenty tonne vault crate carrying enough currency to purchase three other Cherry's Bottoms.
Jax was part of the seventy pirates that were unimaginably drunk below the decks, their screams and laughter, along with the obnoxious music found its way onto the upper deck. Jax hung from the masthead of the ship, his hands clutching the metallic chain that held the Cherry's Bottom's flag high in the air, a pink skull with several obscene symbols and sentences written on it. The radioactive breeze of Ludus sent Jax's black heap of hair flying in the wind, making it messier than it already was.
Jax was a child of Ludus, born and abandoned in the ports of Ludus, which were once tropical islands that knew no such thing as pollution. The ports served as the central locations for the black market and every other kinds of illegal business. He had been found by an organs dealer in the gutters near the dealer's den, Jax was naked and exposed to the toxic air of Ludus. It was a miracle that he even made it alive without developing a tumor in his lungs. The organs dealer, being the kind man that he was, provided Jax a proper breathing kit to prevent damage from the polluted air, food and water--- and then he tried to cut Jax's limbs.
Jax ran. Once again he was abandoned, he had no name nor currency. The next ten years of his life, he spent as a thief, an outlaw of the outlaws. Ludus had barely any forms of clean water, only the rich could aquire them via travelling to the outside. Clean water was scarce but water was not. Well, most could afford a purifying system that took painful hours of waiting to attempt to cleanse the acidic ocean or the liquid that contained a mixture of urine, faeces, blood and water found in the sewers. The water that came out from the machinery was barely clean and you could see specks of dirt here and there.
However, this was a historic achievement for the seven year old Jax who had acquired a system from a pawnshop that was parked near Radon, the busiest port in Ludus. Jax had scavenged and stole for this first ten years of his life, developing a talent that was envied by many in Ludus-- pickpocketing. The boy was a natural and Jax took whatever he could, crime had granted Jax's survival but that was the way of life in Ludus, the residents lived on crime. Thus he gave himself a name: Jax, which meant the Witching Hour in Hasseltongue, the language spoken by some Ludus warlords.
His next two focused on his physical body, it was pain beyond his imagination, Jax increased his body strength via a punching bag he purchased with whatever credits he had. This went from a bag to mutated rats that patrolled the sewers of Radon, they were the size of a five-year old child. Jax pushed his physical limits and found himself in barfights, in which he had always won.
There were no forms of education in Ludus, the children of this planet were left to survive and scavenge on their own, a feat in which Jax was proud to have. Jax did find someone to teach him arithmetics and other simple forms of academic subjects needed for him to get the hell out of Ludus and to the Outside. Crystalsmiths were the most intellectually talented individuals in the galaxy, their jobs required a vast amount of knowledge to crystallise relics and sell them. Jax had encountered Vorick, who was an augmentee that made his job easier than ever, a photographic brain and memory. Vorick sailed the dived in the abyss of Ludus, in search of sunken relics and treasures. Jax did the physical work in exchange for knowledge of the Outside, the vast galaxy he wanted to explore so much. While Vorick crystallised and took apart these relics, in search for the essence of an augmentation, Jax continued training his body to its limits. While the three suns of Ludus set and their subvessel emerged from the waves, Vorick tutored Jax on everything his brain knew.
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Ludus had millions of relics in the deep sea, while there were merely three known relics identified by a long destroyed geiger map to have traces of augmentation essences. This did not mean business was failing for the Crystalsmith, Vorick, a child of Ludus was no stranger to crime. He had scammed the gullible ones of Ludus into the middle class by selling falsely crystallised relics uncovered by Jax, who snatched any objects he believed were worthy to be "relics". Jax did attempt to search for the lost relics of Ludus to no avail, there were thousands of hunters that come from all directions of the galaxy to uncover them but none has ever found any of the three on their geigers.
The crystalsmith and the hunter had made enough credits for Jax to purchase his own raft. A 14 year old boy who could afford a raft, that was royal status. Of course, such dreams were crushed when the Cherry's Bottom stopped in front of Vorick's subvessel. The towering ship blocked the the twin Moons of Ludus as a rowdy crew of fifty pirates glared at them. Their captain, a bulky giant of a man belched his belly filled with alcohol and bellowed a fantastic deal:
"JOIN OR DIE."
Without much choice, Jax and Vorick were forced onto the crew of the Cherry's Bottom. And so, the crew only grew larger, their augmentee captain, Shotgun Shell, threatened the seas of Ludus. They merely knew his nickname that stuck due to his augmentation, though loud and arrogant, the man was an enigmatic force of terror in Ludus. Shotgun Shell too searched for the three relics for an extra augmentation, gathering a crew that were a jack of all trades. Unless you had enough Augment Bonds, most individuals would collapse under the force of two augmentations. Shotgun Shell was different, his body stored an endless pit of AB, it made him crave for more. Soon,the Cherry's Bottom would be near their goal.
Today, Jax, an eighteen year old cabin boy who acted as a pathetic cabin boy and the sirens of the Cherry's Bottom, he could only watch from the mast for enemies in the day and dim the lights of the cabins in the night. It was an extremely tedious task, the many years of training both physically and intellectually were gone to waste. Jax was overshadowed by another skilful hunter and there was nothing to do about it. There was nowhere else to go anyways, Shotgun provided Jax with ample food and clean water.
He glancing around, there was a bandit cruising nearby, eyeing the surroundings for potential victims to rob. The sea was bubbling as usual, it was oddly calm but the silence was eerie. Then, the roar came. It came as a slow rumble at first and Jax dismissed it for the Cherry Bottom's exhaust engines. But the roar grew louder, then, came the jeering and cheering. The bandit turned his speedboat in a circle and stared at the location of the roar. Jax followed suit, his mouth gave an audible gasp.
There were thousands of speedboats, ships, cargocruisers, subvessels and rafts. There were literally thousands. The acidic waves swept up as the incoming fleet charged towards the Cherry's Bottom. The roar had now grown unbearable, there was a chant to be heard too. Voices from all directions joined and were screaming something Jax could not make out.
"You seeing this too?" the bandit yelled at Jax who shrugged, it was a sight to behold.
This was not a mirage, this was real. Leading the front of the entire fleet was a ball of light, it glowed dangerously purple and was heading straight towards Jax. He was frozen in place, Shotgun Shell was below the decks and so was Vorick. His two sources of protection were drunk and probably unconscious. Jax stared, his mouth agape at the ball of light which was speeding miles ahead of the fleet. He squinted for a clearer sight and what he saw jolted him back to life. That was no ball of light, it was a man, an augmentee. The augmentee's eyes were glowing a shade of violet, his body was wrapped in some kind of purple aura which was erupting from all parts of the man's body. His face was expressionless but he too, joined the chant. The chant made Jax reach for his siren, its ghostly wailing jolted the crew below awake. No matter how unconscious you were, the siren would wake you up. Jax's heart was pounding, he swung off the mast and sprinted towards the trapdoor that led to the party below. Before he reached it, the door swung open as Vorick and Shotgun Shell climbed abroad, their faces trembling with annoyance.
"What is it, boy?" Shotgun Shell growled, he glanced around for an enemy ship but there was none.
"WOULD YOU SHUT THAT SHIT OFF?" he shouted at Jax who immediately punched the siren obediently.
The wailing cut off and the chant resumed, this time, it was fully audible. Vorick's eyes grew as they too knew what was happening.
"The first relic has been found and we will not be the first to get it." Jax announced as he hastily added, "Sir."