Derid could hardly catch any sleep the whole night. He twisted back and forth in his bunk and could not seem to be able to relax enough to fall asleep. With a sigh he got up from his bunk and the cramped room he shared with two other “VSE MK 1 Operators” and thought for himeslef. “Why not just call it sweating slaves and get it over with.” He grinned for himself as he dressed and brought his Settler armor to the outside to put it on there so he would not disturb the other ones, they needed their sleep to handle another day in the fields, with the clicking sounds when he put his armor on. Once he put the facemask on he lifted his bag with the supplies he had bought for the last PEDs he had. It was a big investment for him but he preferred to come overstocked and not need something instead of needing something and not having it with you. “What the frack, I can always sell it back to TT for same value I bought it for.” He had bought rookie gear to cover his own needs, at least he hoped it would be enough, for this trip. But he did not know for how long he would be gone and the rest of the PEDs he spent on buying other supplies from the TT that might come in handy, if nothing else, perhaps he could sell them to someone else when he reached the target of the trip. Maybe it would be worth TT plus a little fee for him brining them there. He took the teleport to Port Atlantis and went down to the water to wait for dawn and the transmission from his ride that it was time to go. The hours till dawn went fast as he pondered this adventure he was about to begin. He was leaving the comfort of the areas he knew to test his luck somewhere new, he would be back of course, but it might be a while before he would set his foot on the well known ground around Nea’s. The thrill of seeing new places, new adventures and new colonists to meet outweighed any comforts of home he might have. “You ready?” The message came and he quickly headed over to the portal and teleported to the roof of the Port Atlantis Mall. There it stood, a quad, ready for him to board and his nerves started to flicker. He stood staring for a moment before he realized that Serica was waiting for him with a curious smile. Quickly he boarded and got into the passenger seat and waited for Serica to climb into the pilot seat. “Nervous?” Serica asked. “Not at all chief!” He lied and laughed a bit at himself. “Let’s be off then.” Serica started the Quad and they took off towards the skies. With big eyes he looked down on Port Atlantis as it became smaller and smaller the higher they got up in the air. His eyes looked over the landscape below him that he had wandered so many times. It looked so different from up here, so distant and unreal in a sense. He recognized spots that he had stopped to enjoy the view from and before he knew it the ship internal systems warned them that they were about to enter space. “We will go through the space station and from there to the Starfinder.” Serica instructed. “Understood.” Derid replied with big eyes as he saw the space station closing in. He never got to see space as he was in a capsule without windows when he arrived at Calypso. He was bubbling when he walked in the space station. He lingered a bit whilst heading for the teleporter to enjoy as much as possible of the sight. He was in space, on a space station and far above the fields he daily sweated on. A laugh came out as he focused on the teleporter and ported over to the Starfinder where Serica was waiting on him. He had done his basic studies, read all the information he could get his hands on and still he was not prepared of the size of the Starfinder. Serica guided him around the ship and he tried to retain as much of what she said as he could, but the bubbling feeling inside of him made it hard to focus on her words. “Let’s move then, might take some time this and we need to see if we can avoid some pirates tagging along us when we leave the spacestation. Arkadia next!” Serica sat down at the helm and he quickly found one of the gun seats. Once in the gun seat he felt comfortable, like he had done this before, but it was all new for him. He panned around, learned the angles and the speed of the movement of the gun. He changed seats a few times to get an understanding of what gun pointed where, its angles and tried to remember what seat was for what specific target area. He suddenly panned back and saw the space station disappear as it was already far behind them and he sighed with relief, he was actually on the way now. The travel was quite long and Derid enjoyed learning more about space from Serica, the different ships, the politics and some pointers. Suddenly Serica woke him up from his day dreaming and he almost chocked as he saw a Cosmic Horror Alpha not far from the ship. His pulse increased but calmed down when he understood that it was out of range to hurt them and with fascination he tracked the monster with his gun. Maybe one day he would be able to fight these space monters? But to do that he would have to enlist on a mothership crew, a ship that would sponsor him with ammo as a gunner or a Quad as a defensive pilot. A farfetched idea but he could not let it go, perhaps he should try to get into contact with a mothership captain, discuss the matter, and see where it leads. He had nothing to lose by doing so and who knows, maybe someone would take him up on his offer. After scribbling a few notes down to recall move further on this point he returned his focus to his gun. They were closing in on the Arkadia space station when it happened. A Quad flew quickly past them and he knew that they would be in trouble if that Quad would return, they had no ammo to protect themselves and was not equipped for space combat. He hardly had time to hear the warning from Serica before the pirate was on them, he heard the impacts of the attacks and knew that they were toast. Luckily they were close to the spacestation and should be able to teleport there. The Quad got in the last hits and the ship started to buckle and he knew that they were seconds away from being in space. With panic hidden away in his mind he got into the emergency suit and hoped it would keep him alive until they could teleport to the space station. They flew out through the airlock just as the ship was about to explode, the impact of the explosion sent them flying away from the ship and he could see the teleport counter counting down until they would be safe within the spacestation. The pirate was returning to finish them off, it was a battle against the clock and with a heartbeat he thought the pirate would reach them before they teleported to safety. He sighed when he stepped off the teleporter on the Arkadia spacestation. “Hows the pulse?” Serica grinned at him. “Its been lower!” He laughed quickly and then smiled. “Wonder if he will enjoy the one dung that was left for him to loot?” He grinned back at Serica. “See why I told you not to carry anything valuable.” Serica replied. “That’s why you are the chief and I am the nub.” Derid answered. “So, should we head down to the planet?” Serica lifted her eyebrows in a question. “Thought you never would ask!” Deris pulse rose again. What happens to Derid in Arkadia? That only the future knows. Thank you Serica for making this possible.
