Zeo ran up behind me and pushed me around the corner and kept pushing me until we were two blocks into the city, and she was shoving me through a door into a building. I turned to see lefty, righty and Corwin carrying Jasmine in as Travis and Brendan hauled Trevor inside the building and kicked the doors closed. I looked around and saw a lobby of some kind with plants lying around, couches on carpets, there were even pictures hanging on the walls and a curved desk with reception on it. Zeo had paused here as she frantically looked around for something before shoving me towards a door with a symbol on it that I didn't recognise. When she opened the door, I saw a ramp heading down into the ground. Zeo quickly pushed me in and held the door open for the rest before slamming it shut and running down the ramp after the rest of us. The ramp exited Into a huge room that had a ten-foot by ten-foot blast door, sealed tightly shut.

  “Get it open now!” Zeo almost screeched as she stopped and observed the door.

  The boys ran forward and started searching the door for any way to open it. I stood next to Zeo watching, a few moments later my hand moved up to the side of my head as I started to scream in pain. I then found myself kneeling on the floor as the headache pounded against my skull. Breathing heavily, I noticed a little window informing me I had been forcefully disconnected for exceeding my shift time and was not allowed to uplink back into work for twelve hours.

  “Fuck!” I screamed as I jumped to my feet and started trying to shove the card back into the plate, only for nothing to happen. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I screamed again. I stormed out of the uplink pod, intending to go to the command table and see if I could force my way back in. I spotted hundreds of people standing around the gaming room, chatting, snacking or stepping in and out of uplink pods. I stood there rooted to the spot, feeling confused, until I remembered Timothy was meant to be bringing up thousands of people.

  “Oh, hey Kenna, is that one?”

  “Ashley?”

  “Yea! How are you?”

  “Splitting headache, something about exceeding my shift time. You?”

  “Oh, yea, I'm good, found out why the planet is referred to as a bug planet, killed a bunch of them and took ownership of the cities, ya know for the good of the guild and clan. Hey, speaking of which, did you know the planet is referred to as a bug planet because everyone lives underground and the cities on the surface are just left over from when the settlers tried to settle the planet.

  “No, I did not, and my team just went down a ramp and found a huge vault door…”

  “Oh yea, they found an entrance. That should be fun for when you log back in… if they can open it. If they can't then there should be a panel in the room hidden behind a false wall panel about the size of your hand. The code is made up of the only numbers in the lobby, you need to figure out what order they go in, though. Your radio app should still be able to relay this information to your team, I think.”

  I quickly checked my app and saw the channel was still active, so I relayed the information to Zeo making sure they would be able to get inside. A few minutes later, Zeo thanked me profusely and informed me they had managed to get inside and had dragged my body in and sealed the door just before the storm hit. She then speculated that because the storm had been created by an explosion that big, the likelihood of that city now being under a lot of pollution and covered in sand was extremely high. She said we would have to find a new exit because this door was most likely buried. I let out a drawn out sigh and turned back to Ashley, happy one problem was solved.

  “Hey, ash, I wanted to talk to you about something, but I can't quite remember what, I know it has something to do with a server virus, and then I got arrested then a lot happened, and now I can't remember.”

  “Ah, it will come back to you, and if it doesn't then it probably wasn't that important.”

  “Yea, that makes sense, so what is happening around here?”

  “Oh, uh, well Timothy is an amazing pilot he piloted something like two thousand people from earth up to the Cradle, and before you ask, no, I didn't nickname the station that, but it seems to have stuck. No, I am not happy about it either, yes, I still do think blossoming station is way better. Anyway, he got them all up here and humans being humans, they began exploring and soon found the empty city. They decided that wasn't good enough, so, after complaining a lot and another guy hijacking a ship to get lumber, a few who made a living in construction started building houses around the city themselves. Then, metal robots showed up and started taping off the construction zone for citizens safety. After that the construction guys lost their bloody minds and started raving how they wish they had this level of technology back on earth and then construction rapidly sped up. Don't ask me how or why, I didn't care enough to find out.”

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  She glanced at me before turning to look around the room as she waved her hand in the direction of all the people walking and just hanging around the game room.

  “Everyone was invited into our guild, of course. Then these nut jobs found my little oasis and my stupid ass card's top left corner changed colour. I got some symbol that looks like a bird with stars on it, and suddenly everyone was coming to me to activate their stupid cards. I'm not salty. Now we have people forming teams and trying to get down to the planet from the Terance. However, interestingly, about half of our clans teams also ended up on the Lorrah, which is the other ship hanging over our bug planet. Isn't that interesting.”

  “Yea, actually it is, now no matter who wins, we do” I laughed as I looked around at all my new favourite people that were going to make the guild rich.

  “Eeeh, that just made me feel shallow… whatever, we can really use the money to get this place up and running, then we will need to upgrade so we can do it all again.”

  “Yeaa, upgrades and stuff, super important, hey just a thought but why don't you go and relax, a bunch of people brought up gaming devices and have set up an actual gaming room, you should go there and rest or something while you wait for your timer to run out. You have been running head long into problems and are starting to look burnt out. I mean, you haven't even stopped to process all this yet. Oh, a bunch of books got brought up as well, and someone thought of a way to snatch an internet signal from a satellite so now we have the internet, you could game online or read an ebook.”

  “Oh, you know how much I love reading on kimple, maybe I should go sit down for a while and just relax, thanks ash!”

  “You're welcome! See you later, okay.”

  “Yes, see you.”

  *******

  Arthur Cilterian was sitting in a command chair on the bridge of his dreadnought ship. His crew Manning their stations around the room on the main screen was the carrier he had chased out of. It had surfaced in a nearby solar system owned by the elves Celestial Duke, and he had to tread carefully, least he started an argument or worse a war with them. The carrier had fearlessly approached the orbital station and docked with it. The damn thing had refused his entry into the solar system and was still telling him they needed to acquire approval from their clan head. It was a bullshit reason to make him stand and watch while they made themselves look important and powerful. He had considered launching a ton of missiles at the damn carrier while they were on their way to the station, but he reluctantly stayed his hand. He was not given the order to launch missiles inside the territory of another Celestial Duke.

  “This is bullshit!” he screamed suddenly as he thumped his fist on the armrest of his chair.

  “Yes, My Lord, I agree fully, but there is nothing we can do about this, the Twiddles Carrier seems to have sought refuge here, and we are going to have to give up the chase. On the bright side, we might be able to charge Clan Mistress Dee Twiddles with treason against the federation.”

  “That will never work, you know those cockroaches are too careful, and they seem to vanish when ever someone turns a light on anywhere near them.”

  “I know, My Lord, but one can dream. On a side note, this outpost of the Mackenzie clan, why are you defending it personally?”

  “Because the Scion of their clan is stationed here personally, if they are a Celestial Duke-Tak then getting on their good side would be the best idea, yes? Of course, that is my official response. Unofficially, I just really wanted to hunt a cursed twiddles ship so I could watch it explode, and a golden opportunity popped up in my lap. And I was close enough to wack it, and of course the damn thing runs. So annoying.”

  “Haha, yes, of course. My Lor-”

  “My Lord! Contact! Two more carriers have surfaced from subspace and are already heading into the Solar System, one of them has a hole in its side and is listing. It looks like a stiff wind could sink it.”

  Arthur let out a chuckle as he glanced at the weapons systems, thinking what he could use to give the ship that little nudge it needed to sink. He let out a soft sigh a moment later, knowing if he sent anything, it would violate so many oaths and treaties. Not to mention a few federation laws.

  “Bah, whatever, maybe something will blow up suddenly, and I can just watch happily.”

  “If only, My Lord.”

  We both watched the two ships approach the station, the one with a hole in it turned at the last few moments and headed towards what appeared to be a space dry dock.

  “This shit is unjust and unfair!”

  “It is what it is XO, no point in complaining and complicating things but airing our personal thoughts while on duty.”

  “Right, yes, I apologise My Lord, shall I give the order to submerge and head home?”

  “Yea, there is nothing left for us to do here. Document everything and submit it to His Imperial Highness the Emperor, now submerge and head home, we are done here!”

  “Yes My Lord! Heaving too and heading home!”

  *******

  I closed the book I had been reading and put the tablet down as I stretched and yawned.

  “That was a great book, loved it, truly I feel so much better now.”

  I looked at the cover of the book, a black haired man with his back to the viewer wearing some sort of metal armour with straps overlooking a landscape with a few mountains. It looked like lava was involved, or a lot of fire. I smiled, then put the tablet back on charge as I stood up and headed for the uplink pods. I had enjoyed a long cry and with ice cream after I had stopped long enough to freak out about everything that had happened. Then, once I was exhausted, I had found this book and read it. Once I reached the uplink pods, I entered a free one and walked around to the plate and slid my card in. It's time to get back to that stupid job I had somehow acquired. I couldn't help smiling, I had made some great friends because of that job.

  BIG MILESTONE! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY 21 CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE END OF THE BOOK.

  YES, PATREON HAS THE END, OR WILL DO 12 HOURS AFTER THIS CHAPTER RELEASES!

  DON'T GET DISHEARTENED, I AM ALREADY 12 CHAPTERS INTO BOOK TWO! GOING STRONG AND WILL NOT PAUSE ON MY RELEASES!

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