In the beginning ...

[ravensfire]

This is a serial story that I'm working on, outlining the events leading up to the start of the actual game.

This post will contain an index to all the story posts, which will be posted this thread. Reader comments are greatly appreciated!

Chapter 1 - The Light Dims
Chapter 2 - Building the Future


-- Ravensfire

 

[ravensfire]

Grand Hall
Juhan Island
Pan-West Alliance Capital

Guan-Lo Josep walked through the hallway, his footsteps echoing in the silence. Bodyguards cleared the way in front of him, and ensured his privacy. Unfortunately, he thought, they also kept anyone away to talk about the future. Just me and my thoughts. Small comfort there. 2nd decade of war with the Son-Com Confederation, and both sides growing more and more desperate. Growing more destructive. More intolerant. A continent was just razed with kinetic weapons, where do we go next?

His head snapped up when he heard sharp voices behind him. In the quiet hall, the strident tones of his Public Minister was clear, despite being at the other end of the hall.

"I must speak with him! I must! A mistake is about to be made, and he must know about it!"

Guan-Lo sighed, it was the same arguement from Minister Arthal. Every meeting. Every press conference. Every Net-gathering, the same arguement. Too expensive. Too risky. Too few saved. With a gesture to the commander of his bodyguards, he decided to talk to Arthal, hopefully to prevent an interruption of the speech he was about to give. THE speech, he mentally reminded himself, The one that outlines his plan, the project of 5 years work.

"Yes, Minister Arthal," Guan-Lo said in a tired voice, "what is it this time."

A small man, walked rapidly towards the Governor. Dressed fashionably, as always, there was just something off about him. Something odd, that Guan-Lo couldn't quite read from him.

"Governor - you simply cannot make this speech! It will cause panic, chaos and destruction! The people will believe that you have given up! We have not lost, we can and will still win this war!"

"Arthal, we've gone over this many times. The war has taken a deadly turn, with both sides nearing development of weapons capable of destroying worlds. Something will happen, one side will get desperate, and then life, all life, will be destroyed. We must act .."

"NO! I will NOT let you!", shouted the man. "For ALL people!"

Arthal's hand emerged from his coat, holding something. It was almost the outline of a gun, with memplatic and crytal. As the barrel rose impossibly fast toward's Guan-Lo's chest. Time seemed to crawl as the hall filled with the shouts of the bodyguards, turning their weapons on the Minister, but slowly. A bright light flashed from the weapon, turning Arthal's hand into the energy for the weapon, and pulsing that light towards Guan-Lo.

The bolt struck his chest, penetrating his protective vest. As Guan-Lo fell, his thoughts turned towards his project, ARC. He could here the shots from his bodyguards, trying to stop Arthal, but too late. He wanted to tell them to forgive the Minister, but his body just kept falling. The darkness began to cover his senses and thoughts as he hit the floor.

"... must launch ..."

 

[ravensfire]

ARC Construction Site
Fransin Bay
Othetican Island

Even half a mile away from the main site, the sound of hammers was deafening. The darkness was lit up by the flashes of arc welders, attaching modules to the growing ship. This was the main construction site for the ARC. Modules and components were built elsewhere, shipped here, and then installed. The idea was to spread out the construction, so there wasn't one main site, just in case of attack. The logistical nightmare from this nearly overwhelmed the transportation system, even with a grav-train line specifically for the components.

Muffles commands and shouts came through Tlannin's radio. He sighed, put down his tools, and turned the radio up. Sounds like Donnie fracked it up again. Time to go stop the kid from getting tossed out of the 10 story work deck. Sure enough, the voice on the radio was loudly and creatively berating the new kid. Tlannin got up, and headed over to the other side.

"Hey - guys - knock it off, okay? What the heck is going on here?"

A dark, stocky man slightly shorter than Tlannin turned, face red with fury. Oh hell, though Tlannin, the kid's pissed Mac off.

"Dis little scuse for a welder got no brains. He just trashed last week's work! I don know if he an idiot or a spy, but I don wan him near me no more!". Mac turned and pointed where Donnie was working. "See dat? Dis idiot's been here for four weeks. He know dat the modules aren't all da way standard. He know dat! But did he look? Did he check? NO! He just start welding away, and cut through ALL de wire we layed last week. In five places!"

Tlannin walked over, crouched, and looked where the gang-boss was pointing. The modules where supposed to be standard in design, all alike. But installing a new module never went right, regardless of what the suits thought. Each yard, each shift built them different, used different parts. So when you dropped a new module in, you looked things over, and adjusted as you needed. It took about two weeks for a crew to install each module, run the wiring and get it ready for the next one. These modules were big - 300 meters long, 100 meters wide and deep. They were just finishing up this module, closing it up and sealing the panels. A wrong cut or weld could easily cause damage, and Donnie screwed up more than anyone else. 2 more modules, and this section was ready to go over to the ARC.

He sighed, and walked over to Donnie. "Hey, kid, let's walk a bit."

Not more than 20, the newest member of the crew walked with Tlannin, shoulders slumped. His voice cracking, he tried to explain what happened.

Tlannin just cut him off with a gesture, and kept walking towards the personel lifts. He heard a low rumble, and paused. It sounded almost like a ship lifting off, but he didn't know of any scheduled. He then heard the popping of gunfire from below, and shouts on the radio about attackers. He turned back towards his crew, thinking to get them to safety, when the kid's voice stopped him.

"Sorry, Tlannin, but we just can't let you finish this, and allow the "elites" to abandon all of us!" Donnie pulled a small box from a leg pocket. Small, with just a light and a button on the top, Donnie gave a small, sad smile, and pressed the button. His face grew puzzled as nothing happened, and he pressed the button again.

Tlannin recovered from his shock, and lept at the saboteur. He clawed for the box, trying desperately to get it away from Donnie. They both slammed into the metal planking, but Donnie held on to the box, still pressing the button, not fighting back. Tlannin rammed his elbow into Donnie's face again and again until he stopped moving, and picked up the box. He slowly got up, and turned to see Mac running towards him.

"What de hell is goin on here? What's dis?", pointing to the still figure of Donnie.

"Kid was a bomber - he had this, but it didn't set anything off." Tlannin held up the box in his hand, the light a steady red. Mac looked at it, and held out his had. Not thinking, Tlannin handed it to him, and turned to see if there was any more violence on his level. From the sounds of it, quite a bit was still going on below. An odd voice caused him to turn back around. Mac's voice, but not his voice.

"Oh yes. I see. Lex was always careless, he just forgot the safety switch." Click. "Sorry, Lannie, you were a good man, but you just can't be allowed to finish it." Press. Flash. Unending thunder. Darkness.

"mmmmm..... mmm... MMnnnnMnnn." He came too, hearing voices near him. He couldn't feel his legs, but from the pain of the rest of his body, that was probably good. The explosion must have collapsed decking onto him. Tlannin began to panic - he was trapped 500 meters up and he was smelling smoke. Suddenly, one of the beams on top of him began to move. He could hear muffled voices, getting louder. He tried to shout, but it wasn't much louder than a whisper. He waited, as more and more debris wa moved around him. Then, light hit his face from the side. A face blocked it, covered in soot.

"Don't worry buddy, you're going to be alright. We've got you!"

Fade to darkness ...

 

[dutchfire]

Nice story , quite a long read though
One thing, the code for italic is [i][/i], not [i][i]