Landing pad sixteen transmitted landing clearance to the mid-sized personal vehicle, The Rhapsody, which immediately began landing sequence. The sleek, somewhat nondescript ship blended in rather well among the staggering amount of traffic shuttling to and from Kallerish City’s gargantuan space port.
Nondescript might have been a strange way to describe the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy’s fully armed and fully capable fighter craft. Bristling with enough armaments to defend itself when push came to shove, it was also one of the fastest models Zenith Space Corp ever produced. But among the truly staggering cargo ships that supplied the city’s AstroBlocs, many of which truly blotted out the sun upon approach to the spaceport, some of which could have been entire cities unto themselves, the Rhapsody slid into the commuter parking virtually unnoticed.
Lupis donned his Phantasm model 3 armor and helmet and cut power to the engines. So far, his flight and landing codes had proved valid returning to Titan after a substantial absence. He knew however that after having been taken into custody and narrowly escaping being left for dead at the edge of the known galaxy at a work camp, it did not make sense that his access would still be valid. This contradiction did not sit right with him, and the bounty hunter decided to be on guard in the chance this was some plot to lure him in.
When the bay doors overhead clanked safely closed and the landing bay was not suddenly overrun with armed security robots or Zenith battle drones ordering him to surrender, he grew bolder in his decision to make planetfall on Titan once again. Though Zenith was controlled by the most advanced AI ever programmed and shared an oppressive consciousness with billions or perhaps even trillions of worker and battle drones, automated flight drones and countless system infrastructure across the planet and entire galaxy, the truth was that it wasn’t all that difficult for a single Titan to lose himself among the cracks. With the countless billions of Titans scurrying across the face of the planet, living in cramped Astroblocs, overpriced tenements, scattered across the countryside in roving bands of warring apocalyptic clans, or soaring across the solar system, it could be easy to lose oneself within the immeasurable crowds.
The rear hatch of the Rhapsody hissed as blast plates moved aside and pistons moved to lower the ramp to the cold concrete landing pad below. A moment later the imposing figure clad entirely behind the enclosed Phantasm armor system came down the ramp and into the medium sized ship bay. There were no distinguishing features visible through the armor’s completely enclosed plating, or the helmet’s impassive mirrored surface to give any clues to the wearer’s identity. The shape of the helmet was deceptive and amorphous as well, as it appeared to an onlooker’s imagination equally that a Canid’s long maw and snout might be hiding equally as validly as a Catus’ relatively flat maw, or just as likely a herbivore face behind that featureless exterior.
“Welcome to Kallerish City SAGA Spaceport.” A pleasant female automated voice announced over an intercom system that either through neglectful maintenance or poor placement and acoustics echoed somewhat distantly. “Upon leaving your bay, you are required to leave all personal firearms, energy blades and/or weapons of mass destruction secured within your personal transport. Kallerish City does not allow private citizens the means for personal offence or defense. That is what the Kallerish City Automated Police Brigade along with the Trade Alliance Security Force is for. They are watching you. Violators shall be prosecuted. Enjoy your stay in the Trade Alliance capitol of Titan.”
Lupis stepped up to the large double gate sensor and waited for the doors to open, then stepped through. There was a tiny hallway of sensors that he had to make his way through next. He was not eager to put himself back on the radar of Zenith Corp after having just escaped it so he decided to play by the rules, leaving the majority of his toys back on the Rhapsody. His armor did feature a small cavity in the thigh for a personal sidearm, which he brought, but left his rifles and more advanced weaponry behind him for now. The Phantasm armor platform, along with its remarkable stealth capabilities, also protected its arms cavities and weapons systems from Zenith’s scanning technology.
The bounty hunter found it rather silly that they would ban personal weapons but mostly overlook armor systems, some of which had truly formidable warfare capabilities akin to a walking tank all on their own without any additional rifles or sidearms. But then like most things in any society, it all came down to which side of the class divide one fell on. The commoner of Titan would likely never be able to afford such an outlandish luxury such as battle or work armor, so little security was devoted to them. Titan was a place where personal liberties were only granted typically to those that could afford them.
Stolen story; please report.
The end of the tunnel led to a confusing series of holo screens that appeared within the viewer’s Net-comm granting directions to the various locations within SAGA Spaceport. After a moment navigating the myriad interactive viewscreens, he was soon on an elevator which in turn, opened up to the concourse. He continued past a few scanners with complete faith in his armor’s shielding capabilities and was soon walking into the main terminal, where a clustered gaggle of Titanity pushed and shoved to get to their destinations.
“Attention please, galaxy class interstellar transports to Io, and the Strawberry Cloud Nebula ready to board on gate seventeen.” Came an announcement from the spaceport speaker systems.
Lupis followed a crowd of Titans onto Kallerish City’s Mass Transit system and found purchase at the front of an elevated mag-lev train that was soon accelerating across the sprawling city. He got a fair share of wary looks from the crowds of mostly downtrodden workers and lower-class citizens. Many eyed the walking weapon with suspicion, not quite sure if he was some form of Zenith officer, unhinged lunatic, or something in between.
Lower Market Street District soon came into view, an enormous cluster of mostly slums and low rent tenements, with a few towering Astrobloc arcologies that reached high into the clouds.
As the train slowed to temporarily dock at the Lower Market Street District platform, Lupis pushed his way through the crowds to the exit. He was given as much of a berth as could be expected in the crowded train cab. Most of the Titans were from the lower class, and most of them had never seen an armor suit up close, nor had they ever been exposed to the certain intimidation factor inherent to such a being that could likely reach out and crush a skull should the mood hit just right.
As the bounty hunter reached his destination and found his way off the train, many Titan passengers watched him pass in awe of the largely featureless suit. But there were a few that had spent considerable time on the Titannet in various hidden forums and corners that eyed the mirrored helmet with a different kind of suspicion and fear. And that was because there were few places that the bounty hunter could go on Titan or within Titan space that there were not urban legends whispered nervously about the great mysterious killer of Titans, Lupis.
After making his way down from the train platform he stopped in a commons area, which was filled with Titans coming and going. Overhead, a chaotic riot of holo ads, each one louder and more obnoxious in their blatant attempts to grab attention appeared in his suit’s Net-comm. Flashing, strobing undulating, along with some nearly pornographic images begging for male attention, these were hovering in air inside the assigned ad zones the city’s Net-comm space was divided up into. Each of the towering buildings were also covered in gaudy holo ads, enough to make Lupis long for the solitude of space suddenly.
He brought up the news articles and had his armor’s AI scan through them. In moments he had the information that he needed to continue his investigation. He turned towards the Towergrove Astrobloc and made his way in that direction. According to the articles, there had been a recent firefight there, one that had involved hundreds of Trade Alliance drones and several upper floors of the Astrobloc seemed to have gathered together in open rebellion. The true casualty rate had of course been covered up by Zenith but it had likely been fairly high given the crowded nature of these Astroblocs, some of which could house hundreds of thousands of residents, enough to be a city unto themselves.
“Begin all scans.” Lupis broadcast the thought into his suit.
He immediately picked up hundreds of different metrics, but he quickly narrowed it down. He had a suspicion that such a rebellion would have benefited from some level of coordination. It followed logically that there may be some kind of insurgent cell located somewhere inside the building. Since there were no official reports from the Zenith media about a successful dismantling of such a cell, it stood to reason someone was still here. Planning, coordinating, plotting some sort of rebellion.
Zenith would have first scanned the Net-comm space for transmissions. If Zenith’s advanced AI did not find anything to track that could only mean one of two things. First, they could have found some way to encode their transmissions and keep hidden. This was unlikely as the Zenith AI could run through millions of possibilities in seconds and would quickly defeat any type of encryption. That left only one thing, something Lupis would be surprised if the all-powerful brother eye in the sky never thought of…ancient technologies.
“Scan for microwave and radio frequencies.” Lupis forced into the EEG function of his armor.
“Detected.” His suit’s AI replied nearly instantly.
“Trace signal.” And the hunt was on