Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 07

As the engines started to kick on, Sam checked the navigational charts and found that they were on a course that would bring them to Kalsgard in about fifteen days...nearly two weeks of sailing.

"Sooo.. who wants to see if we can use the holographic system to simulate a dungeon crawl?" Hana said, grinning playfully.

"Do we get to make the characters bone?" Rakain asked.

Hana snorted, "Glad to see you have a myriad of interests that all involve fucking."

"Hana's expression and tone indicate Joking, but it may not actually be a bad idea," Xata noted.

"I feel like that would be meta on some bizarre level." Nora hummed, leaning back in her chair while giggling. "I think you easily could though. Tell Alfie which system and work with her to detail sculpting and a play table."

"Well, we can also get a proper target range setup so you guys can practice your shooting." Sam added, teasing the group.

"Elven Girls in skimpy outfits to hold snacks," Nora murmured, playfully.

Ami chuckled, quietly. "Hey, hey, hey, Hana doesn't need to practice her shooting. She needs to practice using her cool swords!" She nodded, sagely. "We need more cool swords in the group, if you ask me."

"Nah, meta would be if we made characters who made characters." Hana said, smirking slightly as she tapped her controls, summoning up a nerdy looking human girl sitting at a table, painting a miniature, of a person painting a miniature of a person painting a miniature."

Alfie winced, slightly. "O-Ow..." She whispered, rubbing her temple with one finger, biting her lip slightly. "Okay, that actually does...kind of hurt..." She admitted slightly. "Not like pain, but a faint headache."

"Sorry!" She dismissed it quickly, "Didn't realize it was that taxing." Hana said apologetically.

"It's the multiple levels of recursiveness..." She said, nodding slightly. "But I can begin to simulate a dungeon..." She paused. "I could be a...kind of Dungeon Master?" She nodded sagely.

"Oooh, and build the game yourself? That..." Nora leaned back in her chair, eyes wide. "Yeeeeeeees." The excited mechanic seemed to take the thought and began to key and type away at her console in a sudden flurry.

Hana smiled, "Seems like it would be a fun way to spend the trip."

Xata nodded. "Definitely."

"Alright, you got me interested," Sam said, chuckling.

Rakain cracked his knuckles. "Let's do it."

***

The two weeks of the travel passed in a pleasant haze of roleplaying and spoiling Brash. The young dragon was petted more than he knew what to do with, and was often given candy or snuggled - though he only occasionally had sex with anyone. The group would often forget to wear clothing as they walked around the ever shifting phantasmagoria that was the internal layout of the ship. Some days, it would appear like their home Rustpoint. Others, like a fantastical castle. They could live or have anything they desired, and it made the days melt one into another, so that the trip itself seemed to take no time at all...

But, like all good times, it eventually had to come to an end.

After fifteen days, the Sunwolf reached the end of its voyage and dropped from the Drift and into the vastness of realspace. They had arrived at the solar system that their starcharts merely named as D9-8221.

A cold red star blazed in the heart of the system, casting a blood red brilliance outwards among the planets that ringed it. Several gas giants dominated the outer edge of the system - one of them quite near to their exit point from drift space. That planet, looming huge on the screen, was colored in hues of blues and greys and golds and browns and was surrounded by a haze of moons. As they soared towards it and towards the lonely ping of a navigational beacon, Ami shivered and rubbed her shoulders.

"Is it just me, or...does it feel colder in this system?" She asked - then trailed off.

All of them gaped as they looked behind themselves. Most solar systems had an infinite sky around them - endless stars, glittering and gleaming. BUt this solar system was right near the edge of the Crown of the Galaxy, a nebula of ice dust and ice crystals more than five hundred light years wide. And so, vast and implacable as a glaciar magnified thousands of times over, the Crown stretched behind their ship, cutting off the stars along an entire hemisphere of the horizon. Immense tendrils of ice-dust the size of whole solar systems reached from the massive nebula, creating an eerie, reaching feeling - as if the Crown wanted to take D9-8221 into its massive emptiness...

"That...is creepy..." Zai whispered, queitly, and BRash immediately turned into a small kitten and leaped into Xata's lap, quivering with fear.

Rakain put a hand on the harpy's shoulder. "Ami's right, it does seem colder here."

Xata stroked him soothingly. Though she was in truth rather appalled herself. She sang a comforting song under her "breath," as much for her own benefit as his.

"Can't understand why you'd think that, Ami." Hana snickered slightly, shaking her head. "It seems like such a warm, loving place." She shook her head.

"Yeah-" Sam started in agreement, "for being a vacuum this area of space seems to have a foreboding atmosphere."

As she spoke, the Sunwolf continued to soar over the gas giant...and then, rising above the horizon, came a station. It was a vast looking triad of towers, each one connected by vast bridges. It was surrounded by a haze of holographic signs and corporate logos, and as they flew towards it, a crackle came through and a bored sounding voice through the com system.

"Welcome to Kalsgard Station," he said. "What is your buisness here?"

"We're investigating potential business opportunities with individuals on the station." Hana said cheerfully.

There was a short pause, then a laugh. "Well, you'll be popular here. Name and designation?" the man asked, sounding amused.

"Hana Song of the Sunwolf." Hana said cheerfully.

"Got it. We've got a berth free - number 38." The com link clicked off.

"Well, they seem friendly enough," Ami said, nodding slowly as she did so.

"A bit too friendly for my tastes," Rakain muttered.

"They don't know who we are and assume we have money. Why wouldn't they be friendly?" Hana snickered, "Not that we shouldn't be prepped for an ambush."

"Always be friendly to potential clients. Or to those you're selling out." Sam noted. Despite her comment Sam brought the Sunwolf around to the designated berth and started the docking checklist. As Sam took them forward, the station grew larger and they could see the design of the place was different from Absalom station...there were three sections, but each one seemed slightly different. One of them had a great many draconic designs worked into the slanted rooves, and Tian symbols in the signs...like it was part Tian. Another one appeared to be more similar to the Pact world's kind of design, with straight buildings and broad, open areas of the station underneath force fields.

The third was designed to look somewhat like a mixture between the Pact World designs and ancient, almost war-like structures. There were crenelations used as decorations, and some of the tall buildings had shields mounted on their sides - circular ones, decorated with axes and dragons and other such iconography.

The signs proclaimed dozens of corporations. Ragnacorp, Loki Inc, MCP, and more...

"Old meets the new here apparently," Rakain noted.

"Sooo, I THINK we might find some information about the Tian empire here." Hana snickered, "Clearly they've got a fondness for dragons, but who doesn't?"

Brash giggled. "I don't!" He said, cheerily, waving his paw in the air. "Cause I am a dragon!"

The ship slowly, smoothly came around to one of the station arms, docking into Berth 34. As they settled into place, Ami stood, grinning. "So..." She said. "We find this Fynn, or whatever his name is, figure out if he knows anything about the ship that brought me to the Pact Worlds..." She sighed. "Maybe we can learn about who set those Tengu up to keep an eye out for me, and why I was flown away from there in the first place."

Hana nodded, "Sounds like a good plan to me. Wonder if there's some kind of personnel directory we can use.." She said, trying to access the planet's network.

Zai sat up. "W-Wait!" She said, holding up her hand. "Should we bring Ami into the station?" she asked. "What if there are people on the lookout for her here now?"

"A fair point." Xata agreed.

Rakain patted his gun. "We can deal with them like we've dealt with most of our other problems thus far."

"We.. really.. ugh.." Hana grumbled, unclipping her holoskin and tossing it to Ami, "There you go, problem solved."

Ami blinked, then flushed. "W-wait...I don't just want to steal your holoskin!" she said. "I could just stay on the ship..."

"You can borrow it and we can pick one up for you later." Hana said, smiling.

Ami nodded slightly as Xata tapped onto the computers. Sam gave an apologetic shrug to Hana. "It's not paranoia when they are really after you. And the ship is literally the safest place on the entire station right now, so Brash and Zai should stay here. I don't trust the security out here to have your best interests at heart."

"This port is very active," Xata noted from her computer skimming. "Despite its forbidding location. We could disguise ourselves as other people and reduce the chances of drawing attention. It would make it safer to bring Ami with us."

Zai and Brash nodded, though Brash looked nervous. "I'll protect the ship, and Zai, and Ami if she stays..." He said, nodding his head eagerly. Rakain held out his fist for the dragon to bump. "I know you can handle it, little buddy."

"Brash, you are literally in a castle that can change it's design to suit your protection. Heaven help anyone that crosses Goddess Alfie," Sam said, ruffling Brash's head gently.

"Agreed," Xata said, her voice solemn.

"Wait a minute." Sam started, "Nora, were you watching bad horror movies when coding this? You didn't put in a Red Queen protocol to deal with invaders, did you?"

"No! Nono." Nora shook her head. "I mean, Goddess Alfie would be waaay more accurate. She gets all angry like that pretty elf queen does in those Ring books."

"Given the awesomeness of that hologram and the nudity on display I'm going to have to argue that is not a bad movie." Hana said, smirking.

"Hmmm.. well, I found Flynn's address, but he's an old dude living in the Amber Decks. Got us an address if you want to head out now?" Hana smiled.

Ami frowned. "He didn't seem old in the vision," she said, frowning slightly as she stood up.

"That vision was probably from the past," Rakain said. "Almost two decades ago. He's probably aged quite a bit since."

"Well, you were a baby when your ship crashed, and he probably sold the sword before then, right? So, age happened," Hana said.

Sam nodded. "Well, let's give him a visit and see what we can find."

"Disguising Ami remains a good idea," Xata reminded. "Are you using the holo-skin, Miss Woodwise?"

"And...I was in cryogenic storage for a bit...and yes, yes, I will," Ami said, tapping the holofield on - transforming into a rather cute looking girl with skin almost as dark as Xata's. Then, shaking her head, she nodded and stood. "Come on!" She said. "Lets check out this station!"

As they headed for the airlock, Zai and Brash waved after them, Brash becoming his devastatingly pretty humanoid form to wave even better. The airlock doors opened and they stepped into the station.

Spices. Chill. Dampness. These things and more were the smells that filled their noses as they stepped through the airlock and onto the station proper. A large security check point - gleaming with neon lines and harsh lights - separated the berth from the main section of the station itself...the whole station appeared to be built narrow and tall, with a great deal of bridges between main sections. The air was chilly enough to fog their breath, and the scent about them was that of an air recycler barely kept running.

It was a bustling trade town...but it was definitely on the lower end of the wealth scale.

Walking towards the security check point, they found themselves facing a pair of exotic women. They were both blond, with incredibly pale skin and bright blue eyes, and were dressed in fusions of sleek second-skin armor and ancient furred clothing, with furred pauldrons and longswords strapped to their hips.

The one on the left spoke in slightly accented Common. "You're new arrivals?" she asked. "From the galactic north?" She asked. "Do you have SINs?"

Rakain hooked his thumbs into his pockets. "SINs?"

"A list of so many it would make you faint," Nora said with a smile. "Joking aside, Assuming you mean some form of ID though? For here or any world?"

Hana smiled, "Lust, envy, maybe a bit of wrath." She shrugged slightly at the women.

"Here," the woman said, sighing, reaching up and sliding the sleeve of her armor down, revealing a set of numerals printed into her wrist. "Social Identification Number. You immigrating, or just here for trade?" She asked as her partner started to take out a set of bracelets.

"Just here for trade." Hana said, nodding. Sam nodded in agreement.

The woman nodded right back. "Well," she said. "Take your bracelets." She said, gesturing to them. "Short term accounts will be made with them - so you can buy from the corporations, go into corporate areas, and so on." She said, waving her hand casually.

Hana nodded, taking bracelets and handing them out, "Alright, thank you very much. Are there any non-galactic standard laws we should be aware of?"

The woman smirked slightly. "Stay out of the shadows, I guess," she said. "There's lots of crinimals who do jobs around here. Dangerous assholes, I call them." She spat. "They can call me a wage slave, but at least I don't shoot my way into private labs and steal their shit."

"Private labs? Rakain inquired.

"Corporations like nice little places away from the public to conduct horrible experiments," Nora said, lightly patting Rakain's arm.

Hana nodded, "Don't worry, we'll keep an eye out for ourselves."

"They sound like lovely people." Sam said, her tone dripping in sarcasm. "I've done security before, I do not envy you if that is the environment."

The gaurd nodded. "Yeah, most corporations have their own private territory. The old Thane system broke down two, three centuries ago..." She said, nodding. "The merchant guilds survived, and they corporitzed, then they nationalized." She sighed. "But I should shut up before Rangacorp gets on my ass." She stepped to the side. "Enjoy your time on Kalsgard."

Hana muttered to Nora, "Read the room, hun." She nodded to the women, "Thank you very much." She took Ami's hand and began to slowly pull her away.

"Try to stay sane. Maybe we can exchange card games on the way out." Sam offered. "I could teach you how to play Sumo."

The woman grinned at Sam. "Maybe..." She said, then saluted to Sam with one hand - casually. Ami walked with Hana, pursing her lips - and it was very strange to see Ami as a black girl. As they walked through security, they found that the station population did seem to be mostly these blond and blue eyed folks. There were dozens of shops that they walked past, and a few large maps...

They could head to the Amber District fairly easily.

"Just hyperbolic joking." Nora said, holding her hands up. "I'd be shit to run around screaming that." Nora added as she looked out past the guards.

"The amber district is...amber..." Rakain said, tapping one of the maps. "I should've seen that coming."

Ami snorted, quietly. "It is pretty shocking..." She said, nodding. Xata felt wary at the descriptions of weaponized mercenary corporate espionage. Hana moved over to one of the maps, looking for the Amber District.

"Sorry, just.. private cops do not fill me with faith they are all about the right to complain or joke.." Hana muttered as she tapped her chin. Xata was on edge as they walked, nodded to compliment Hana's statement.

Rakain shadowed Hana. "I hear you," he muttered to her.

Ami frowned as she fiddled at the braclet wrapped around her wrist. "Anyone else notice these lock on?" she asked, her voice soft as Hana noticed a few scruffy looking Tian men leaning on the wall near the map. They had glowing tattoos and brightly colored hair. One of them had an implanted, cybernetic rat tail which twitched from side to side. He smirked.

"You lookin for something?" he asked. "Somewhere to scurry too, cutie cutie?"

"Mmhm," Nora commented lightly, not really giving the men against the wall as she keyed a few things on her wrist. Hana spoke to the men in Tian, memorizing the place on the map.

The man blinked, looking at Hana. "N...ani?" he asked, sounding like he wasn't entirely sure if he knew what he was saying - he had worse pronunciation than some people back in the Pact World.

Hana frowned, "I said you should just move on for the best of all of us." She said, her tone stern, but polite. Sam nodded to Ami's comment and gave an indifferent shrug. As Hana brought the conversation to another language, Nora just casually tapped out a message to be sent to the comm units of the group.

Yup, locked on. Your ID, biometrics scans, and likely a tracking suite and recording software. Always be nice to security.

The man with the rat tail lifted his hands. "Fine, fine," he said, then stepped back, then turned - and as he walked off, Ami snorted quietly.

"I love that you speak Tian better than them..." she said.

"Feels like I should pick up the language sooner or later," Rakain said.

Hana snickered, "It is kind of amusing. Starting to think it might not be the super useful skill I assumed it was." She shook her head, "So, shall we head out?" She said cheerfully.

"Tamper locks, don't mess with them at all if you can help it," Nora noted as she stared at her arm.

"To be fair, it'll be useful once we actually get to the Tian Star Empire," Ami said, grinning slightly, then nodded. "Got it..." she bit her lip.

They walked together, coming to one of the shafts leading to the higher levels. The elevator groaned on and a quiet voice muttered: "Enjoy your ride - this elevator brought to you and maintained by Savastapol Transport Incorporated. Travel in Savastapol Style."

Then an insufferable tune started to play from the speakers.

Rakain's fingers danced around his pistol butt. "I wanna shoot the speaker. Does anyone mind if I shoot the speaker?"

Ami snorted, quietly. "You break it, you buy it," she said, grinning.

Xata winced. Nothing pained her like bad music. "I feel your pain."

"Depends, how do you want to leave this station? On your feet or on a slab?" Hana snickered slightly.

"Yes, I do mind. We are not paying the fine for damages and dealing with an unauthorized weapons discharge." Sam noted seriously. "Though you have my sympathy, we hurt too."

"This is bad enough they could charge to end the music," Sam muttered.

"Do not give them ideas," Rakain muttered, wincing and plugging his ears.

Nora folded her arms and shifted as they stepped onto the elevator. She took her time, waiting a few moments, but carefully keyed a few buttons. After that she brought her wrist to type a few things on the group comm net. No Reaction. We're being watched by a raven with a false eye. Somebody knows we're here I think.

Hana snickered, "We could try just playing out own music louder." She said cheerfully, fiddling with her ring. Awesome. Well, guess we should just keep an eye out for it for now...

I suppose we should have expected that, Xata replied.

Ami frowned, then typed a few more buttons to send a text to the group as well. Lets see if it shows up again on the Amber deck... she typed, quietly - as the elevator doors showed that they had arrived in a slightly nicer part of the station. But the doors remained shut and the chirpy voice spoke.