The party walked through the massive white and gold halls of the Golden Mile, an aesthetically beautiful environment seemingly fit for royalty. Each and Every surface was softened into a curve or unnaturally spherical in nature, the only edges in sight were the doors, and even those seemed to fold perfectly into the walls. Massive trees with orange and red leaves dotted the center of every pathway, illuminated with radiant white light, seemingly enriching the dimly vibrant colors of the leaves. On either side of the main path were walkways leading to various rooms and vending machines. Dozens of bamboo shoots decorating the walkways, each a deep crimson, and pulsating with life.
“Welcome to the Golden Mile!”
Pious spun around happily, displaying the grandiose architecture of the place.
“Now we are going to go through the most direct pathway through here and answer as many questions about this place as you like. Along the way I should be able to introduce you to the bulk of the crew with the exceptions of Ikari, NightBringer and Austarion. Are there any questions before we begin?”
Anaya raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“I must relieve myself immediately!”
Pious sighed heavily, a musing smile on her face. “Ah yes, the trappings of organics. Right this way.”
Several minutes passed, while they waited in the small public grove for Anaya to finish. The stunning beauty of the quant, piece of nature amongst the golden halls was a breath of comfort for CAL. The grass was a vibrant emerald shade, the trees held autumn colored leaves. A small creek, artificial though it may be, brought an air of tranquility to the entire area. CAL found himself standing atop the rustic wooden bridge overseeing the creek, watching the blazing orange and gold leaves hit the near placid surface of the creek.
“Pious, would you mind answering a question?”
“Of course! What do you need?”
“You called yourself a Sanctus, and I’m guessing Wahno here is one too, right? So that means I’m a Sanctus as well? Would you mind telling me what a Sanctus even is?”
Wahno spun himself around, zooming right into CAL’s face.
“Wait, you don’t even know what you are? Naught was spitting truth when he said you were on a backwater planet.”
“Hey! I take offense to that! It was not a “backwater planet,” just simplistic.”
Pious placed a finger on Wahno and pushed him away.
“We can discuss the technological state of your planet later. You asked a very good question, allow me to break it down in the most basic way possible. Yes, you are a Sanctus, like the rest of us. We are a species of techno-organic humanoids, not quite cyborgs, but not androids either. Take Wahno for example, externally he’s pure machine, but cut him open and he will bleed just like any other organic. We vary heavily in shape size and abilities, but primarily have the same three key features. A mechanical body, whether that be actual machinery or metallo-flesh, with blue, white, black or green blood. The ability to absorb Drenlin, a hyper caustic, semi-solid material into our bodies to rapidly heal damage. Lastly, we are all capable of extreme power outputs. Naught, being debatably the strongest amongst us, once obliterated a moon in a single punch. Though our origins are… vague at best, I can assure you we are native to this universe unlike the Humans, and are not experiments like the Zard.”
CAL sat in silence for a moment, absorbing all of the information just thrown at him. His attention never wavering from the peaceful flow of the creek.
“Are there a lot of us? My experiences with the pirates on Durst would say no, if they saw me as such a valuable commodity.”
Wahno, still orbiting them, spoke before Pious.
“That’d be the long and short of it. A plethora of wars and disputes happened some thousand years ago, resulting in many of us Sanctus dying, and the remaining ones being sealed away until we are needed. Or in my case until the freaking mountain I was in got nuked and I was hurled smack dab in the center of a town. Nevertheless, that is not important to the question at hand.”
“Yes, Wahno is correct. We were all sealed for many decades before being activated. Currently, I believe there are 70 or so of us running around in the galaxy. You should ask Quen when we get to the main deck, he will more than likely have the approximate number. On the topic of being sealed away, its’ actually funny, Naught was th-”
Kicking the restroom door open, Anaya yawned loudly before stomping over to the group.
“Let’s get the tour going!”
Pious shrugged, turning to CAL with a smile, “We’ll continue this conversation later.”
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“As a proper introduction, we are known as Tetra’s Blades, named after our founder and the Sanctus who brought us all together and guided us to this wonderful station, Tetratus. While the bulk of the station is used as a public trade post and market, the Golden Mile is our home sweet home. It has built in accommodations for food, medical concerns, technical repairs and lodgings for sleep. All weapons and defenses are controlled from here, as well as the station's prison.”
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The group traveled across the entirety of the main path as Pious spoke. Careful to pay attention to every detail she pointed out along the way.
“Our first stop is here, the kitchens.”
Entering the massive door in front of them, the party was blasted by a wave of frigid air, and the aroma of fine meat and delicate desserts. Over a dozen machines were buried behind nearly twice as many tables and shelves, each holding an assortment of tools, utensils and food in various states of use and cleanliness.
“This is where all of our finest dishes are prepared daily. We Sanctus consume an extraordinary amount of food per week, meaning it’s imperative that we have a consistent flow of meal ready at all times.”
Entering from the opposite side of the room, two humans carried in a cart full of meat.
“And it’s our job to make sure it’s organized and ready everyday!”
“Excellent timing you two, CAL and Anaya, this is Amber and Yuri. Our chefs and primary nutritionists.”
Amber, a young, stunningly beautiful woman walked towards the party. Fairly petite in stature, her booming aura compensated for it. From her sparkling blonde hair and power walk, to the sheer ease in which she navigated the maze of the kitchen, her confidence was plain as day.
Shoving her hand in CAL’s chest, she shook his hand vigorously as she spoke to them.
“Nice to meet you CAL! I’m Amber and that sad sack of pudding over there is my brother Yuri!”
Yuri on the other hand was like the rain cloud to her rainbow. Shockingly tall and well built, he refrained from even glancing at the party. Though it was hard to tell through his long black hair and tilted baseball cap. Though his disinterest in the situation failed to belie the quiet strength of his stance and aura.
“Imma guessing you’re going to be the new mouth to feed Zav was going on about the other day.”
“I guess I am.”
“Great! I’ll be looking forward to seeing how you like the grub!”
Looking to Pious, Amber handed her an envelope. “Hand that off to the big boss man, would you kindly, boss lady?”
“I’ll drop it off when we arrive at the pinnacle.” Pious bowed politely, gesturing for the others to follow her.
Leaving the kitchen and traveling down the adjacent hall, they walked past another towering door.
“This is the training arena, ordinarily Austarion is in there and willingly accepting challengers, however he is currently on one of his honor hunts. So let’s move onto the next room, the…”
Turning the corner they immediately entered another massive room. Appearing as a merger between a clinical surgery center and a hyper advanced mechanic’s garage, the clashing design was nausea inducing to an extent.
“...Medbay!” Pious said loudly, continuing to describe the room. “This is where every major bump, scrap, cut, gash, and total limb replacement will take place. It’s manned by our favorite psychopathic RepDoc Dustin!”
“And dis RepDoc would appreciate gettin’ some fuken’ silence in ‘is shop.”
The raspy, Trini accented voice bellowed out from the haze red haze of smoke choking the ground floor of the Medbay. Looking over the railing, CAL could just barely make out the shape of the man lying on the operating table. Wearing tattered, black mechanics pants and stained gray wife beater, it was the man’s deep purple skin, piercing red eyes and metallic shaggy hair which made him visible in the red haze. However, what was far more eye catching than the obvious wasted man on the table were the three beasts surrounding him. A man sized tarantula, a miniature hydra and a cyborg raptor. All were Hard Constructs*, all intensely staring at CAL, each seemingly more fearsome than the last.
* Hard Constructs are living data given physical forms. A speciality of technomancers after crafting their cyberdiscs, they are the technomancer’s A.I. fragmenting into separate entities to better assist their users. True masters can control up to 8 at a time.
“Dust! Did you forget what I said about getting plastered without me?” Wahno slowly floated above the haze, watching Dustin light another entire 12 pack of cigarettes. Inhaling them all in nearly a single pull.
“You know Wahno, I ‘member what ya said ‘bout gettin’ high just before I lit the first one, and then I ‘membered, I don’t givafuck. Now ged da fuck outta my shop, and take ya tourists wid ya, ‘fore my beasties have at ya.”
Wahno floated sadly out of the room, rejoining the others as the door slammed behind him.
“So, any questions so far?” Pious asked nicely, genuinely curious and ready to answer any questions.
Anaya threw her hand up immediately. “Why was he purple? None in the village were purple unless they were dead.”
“I was about to ask that same question… but a bit more tactfully.” CAL looked at Anaya with a smile, knowing she means well.
“Ah yes, I suppose you wouldn’t have seen one in Negas’ portion of the Pirate crew considering how far south he was. Dustin is a Guul, they are a race of small insectoid beings, which burrow into their host species, The Drool, gray skinned animalistic humanoids and assume control over the host. Upon Assuming total control, the skin of the Drool turns a deep purple, their hair becomes pale and their naturally blue eyes sharpen into an iridescent crimson.”
“That seems uh… wrong and invasive, on so many levels.” CAL slowly visualized the process, feeling sick the longer he dwelled on the image.
“We don’t question it, they’ve been doing it for millennia, why stop them now? Besides, the alternative is culling the host species, and you really don’t want to see that.”
After regaining his composure, he continued with the rest of the party down the hall, seeing the Weapons room, the defense room, the Hall of Rest and the dining hall, all before finally stopping at the Prison.
The party walked through the Prison cafeteria, careful not to bother any of the prisoners when one of the blue skinned females got up and approached them, her familiar voice caught CAL’s attention immediately.
“Hey, uh CAL. Not Sure If you remember me but I’m… Uh, Izsabella. You know, the Raider you spared down on Durst.”