Age of Space

- “As humanity began spreading across the stars, our internal division became greater than ever. By the time we began colonizing moons, planets and asteroids in Sol, our first home system's internal divisions already threatened to wipe us out on numerous occasions. Nuclear weapons, stealth-cloaked asteroid strikes and bioweapons were all used, lending support to the great filter hypothesis. It was widely believed at the time that the lack of alien contact stemmed from intelligence either not forming, or, if it did, they wiped themselves out when they reached a sufficient technological threshold.” - Gavenic Merle, PhD.

[Planet Concordia - Manufacturing planet, Lobar sector 54B]

[Ironglades City]

[Year 3421 A.I. (After Interstellar exploration)]

Ronin woke up with a spring in his step. This was the day! He had actually gotten accepted into the Space Force Academy, and this day, was the first day of attendance.

He turned on the government issued optical implant and looked over the class schedule:

MAT 1002: Mathematics of orbital dynamics.

PHYD 1032: Introduction to sub-light propulsion.

PHYD 1045: Introduction to FTL (faster than light) travel engines.

And finally, the course behind all of his excitement!

SPD 101: Introduction to spaceship construction.

Spaceships! Whether it be designing them, constructing them or driving them. Anything related to spaceships was maniacally obsessed over. Not only was it the only way off world. It was the best path to riches, into the military or into becoming a celebrity in the racing circuit. With a gleam in his eyes, he glanced over the numerous wallpapers draping the room he was living in. Every single one of them depicted a spaceship of some kind. This was his future now! He put on his secondhand school uniform which had taken the better part of half a year to save up to, gulfed down a cold meat-flavored stick of synthpaste, closed the door and entered the gravity assisted jet-bus heading off to school.

“Hey Ronin! Right on time. We’re just about to take off,” Dino the bus driver said.

Ronin had gotten free rides on the bus for over a year after helping Dino out with navigating the city. He’d always been good at that. After seeing something once, no matter where or what, he remembered it. Even the entire enormous 3D-metropolis which was Ironglades was firmly imprinted onto his mind. All he had to do was look it up on the holomap and bam! He remembered it. He was the only one in the neighborhood without an augmentation implant who could do it, well, not like anybody had those implants. Those things were for the rich gods up high, living in the upper zone.

“Yeah, can’t miss the first day! The academy is my ticket off this planet,” Ronin laughed back at the bus driver.

A flash of acknowledgement shone in Dinos's eyes. Everyone knew this was a shithole, especially where Ronin lived. Generally, the only way out of the suburbs was in a body bag.

“Best of luck,” Dino responded as the bus took off, rising up from the megacity digging deep into the planet.

As neon lights, brothels, casinos and industrial facilities passed by the bus window, Ronin mentally nudged his optical implant, turning on the local news channel of Ironglades.

“..Mayor Brunstein denounces the recent terror attacks on transport lines. Quote: If these individuals actually cared for our planet's independence, they would not commit these atrocious and heinous acts against the civilians of this city. This is barbarism with makeup on and not legitimate in any way. If these terrorists are serious about change, they should turn themselves in…”

Ronin yawned. Those CLM roughnecks aren't letting up at all I see.

The news screen shifted and the latest spaceship model ready for commercial sale came up on screen. A man in a lab coat adjusted his safety goggles as he began commenting on how his company had achieved a 3 % increase in sub-light speed without increasing neither the mass of the ship, nor the cost...

Ignoring the chatter, Ronin began planning out his new academy life: The scholarship should pay for mostly everything, but as for leaving my apartment and moving into a college dorm?

No. he wouldn't do that. The apartment was all he had left from his parents. He'd rather continue to pay rent and preserve what little remained, than leave it behind for a government sponsored dormitory.

As the light outside the windows changed from artificial light to the red tinted natural light of Concordia's sun, the bus exited the deep planetary trench and began speeding up. Ronin checked the time: 10 min before the ceremony starts. The jet engine of the bus began to ramp up as a soft female voice started counting down: [Strap yourselves in, engaging thrusters in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.]

VHROOOM!

The g-forces rapidly doubled as Ronin was squeezed deep into his seat. This is it, the rush!

As the bus soared through the city, it quickly reached the academy, but time was tight.

Still high in the air, Ronin opened up a nearby side window on the jet bus, then jumped out before the vehicle could begin its own descent. He couldn't wait. This was pretty much the only day the academy required mandatory attendance, and if he waited for the bus to dock, he'd be too late.

As the gravity of the planet pulled him down, he quickly sped up, activating the academy suits miniature jetpack before landing in the assembly area.

Immediately people began to stare, and Ronin could see guards coming over. This did not bode well.

“Hey you! Stop!” One of the guards shouted, pointing directly at Ronin.

Another guard quickly followed up, “what the hell are you doing you maniac!? Jumping in with a jetpack on school grounds?!”

As the principal of the Space Force Academy began the opening speech, Ronin was busy getting fined. How was he supposed to know? There were no laws against jetpack assisted landings where he grew up.

“...As you all know, your enrollment into this academy makes you the best and brightest in Ironglades City, however out of the 5000 of you who have enrolled, only 900 of you are expected to finish. Pilots in training flunk out the most, but to you future spaceship designers... a diploma is not enough, for a future career worth something, you must excel in…”

As the Principal continued on, Ronin had thrown the issue of earning credits to the back of his mind and began looking around the assembly area. Grass! there was actual grass here. And not only was there grass, but trees as well, something so rare, he'd only seen those on the Concordia network before. Looking further ahead, various buildings appeared. One building in particular, being several kilometers long, looked like an enormous rectangular block. That's the ship hangar! Ronin inwardly exclaimed, his hands shaking in excitement.

“...”

As the opening ceremony wound down, the students were led towards their respective classes…

Ronin followed along the other students, eventually arriving in front of the lecture hall. As he walked through the door, his optical implant pinged:

[Ding! Student Ronin confirmed for attendance, access to syllabus granted]

Great! Now that I have access to the syllabus, I can learn it by myself. Until I manage to earn the credits needed to pay for that damn fine, going to class is a big no go from now on.

Planning to only show up for the semester exams and practical's, Ronin began reading the book: Introduction to spaceship construction.

Hmm, scrolling through the book, the actual requirements needed to begin constructing a spaceship became clearer.

This was going to be a lot of work, just obtaining the necessary baseline knowledge would require years of work. Never mind the math, physics and materials science involved in spaceship construction, the amount of stuff he'd had to know just to do the computer programming, was already enough to make him balk.

The dream of designing, let alone crafting a spaceship by himself went down the drain. Spaceships, especially the larger ones, were enormous. Hundreds of people normally cooperated on the relatively small models, such as a corvette. Larger models however, such as a cruiser, would require at least 10 times that. Seems I will have to start with the smallest models out there, maybe a pod or a shuttle?

Ronin began pondering... The media never portrayed the difficulty behind actually getting a viable spaceship company up and floating. When digging into the details, doing something like this alone was pretty much impossible. The licenses, finances, the logistics involved, heck, just finding a market was not something a street rat from the slums could do. Most likely, even if he did well in the academy, he’d be slaving away for years for another company, fighting for scraps and building competence while the big shots at the top raked in all the payout from his hard work.

This won't do! If it's my work, all the funds should belong to me!

Ronin scrunched up internally, his outlook on society turning more cynical.

I need funds, I need a marketing strategy, I need a gimmick! But beyond anything else, he needed credits. It was the only way he'd be able to pay for the equipment he'd need to make ships on his own. He knew he had to be realistic, but at this rate he’d never achieve his dream. His eyes turned bloodshot as he steeled himself: By hook or by crook I’ll get those credits. For now, the best path forward is patents. If I can invent something groundbreaking, I can rake in the capital needed for both a factory and the licensing costs.

“Mr. Ronin! Are you ok?”

“Huh?”

Startled, Ronin exited his internal world realizing the whole classroom was staring at him.

“Uh, yes,” he responded, laughing awkwardly while scratching the back of his head.

“Dude, if you need a toilet break just say so,” A brown haired spinkly student beside him helpfully reminded.

“What toilet break would that be? I’ve never seen someone so tense before! Even his eyeballs were about to pop out of his face!” Another commented, causing the class to erupt into laughter.

“Alright, that's enough, quiet down,” the teacher interrupted, before continuing, “the next one making noise will have their points subtracted."

The students quickly quieted down after that, and the teacher pulled up another hologram, continuing the lecture, “now onto the different engine types produced by Ironglades…”

As the lecture went on, some extra reading materials were recommended. In addition, the various localities for practical work, as well as some general information on where the pilots and designers usually stayed was also mentioned.

Most of the information could actually just be downloaded with the implant so Ronin decided to just head home. Now that he had a student pass, he headed for one of the communal shuttles.

“Free of charge,” He hummed in contentment as he boarded a shuttle, a slight smile spreading across his face.

As the engine on the shuttle ramped up, a student walked up and nervously sat himself down besides Ronin.

“I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't think they’d take that comment and make a joke out of it”

Ronin took a closer look at the student. That's the spinkly fellow from the first lecture.

“You mean the toilet comment, right? No problem. If I’d really had to go, you’d smell it, not see it,” he quipped back.

“Hehe, name is Marvin by the way,” the spinkly guy chuckled back as they shook hands.

“By the way, that opening ceremony sure sounded ominous. It didn't exactly make our future look optimistic. Not if we want to make it as spaceship designers,” Marvin continued.

“Yup, most of us will probably end up as simple mechanics working under the real designers in the future,” Ronin agreed.

“That's why networking is so important! The more friends and connections we develop during our time at the academy, the more access to both logistical channels as well as potential manpower we get. Where else but here can we find so many people involved in the industry? This is a golden opportunity!” Marvin began, turning more and more excited as he talked.

"Right! That's actually a good point!" Ronin nodded in agreement.

As the two new students got to know each other better, the shuttle began leaving the lonely singular green patch of the academy grounds behind.

In a dark corner of Ironglades, a crooked figure stood up, his old technology radio buzzing: [We are a go, commence Operation Lightfall.] Half man, half machine, no eyebrows, half his scalp covered in metal plates and black-market electronic chips, Reaper loaded up a rocket into the launcher.

He’d been Alex before.

Alex had been weak.

Alex had been naive.

Alex hadn't known.

Something emerged when you tore the veil and looked behind the facade. Something cruel...miserable... hopeless. This planet should have been called Purgatory, not Concordia.

He was Reaper now; he was part of something bigger. He was awake and this operation would wake others.

“Tyrants of Concordia. Let's see what you do when you lose your precious space force academy!” He spat. He’d been unnoticed, irrelevant, thrown to the wolves. Every time he tried to make something of himself, the state had stopped him, the state had monitored him, the state had suppressed him. He was supposed to stay down like the irrelevant dog he was.

But all this did teach him something. When he broke the law, they cared… When he broke the law, they noticed. They would notice now; they would care now! As the countdown over the radio reached 0, he, along with many of his brothers in arms picked out the most vulnerable buildings and shuttles, got a target lock on the scope, then launched the first payload. The first of many more to come!

“Fall!” he cursed along with many others over the radio.

As Ronin was well into a discussion with Marvin, he suddenly caught sight of something outside the window. It can't be, can it?

BOOM!

A nearby shuttle exploded into flames! Missiles, hundreds of missiles were coming up from below!

BOOM!

He saw a nearby building shake from the blast as another missile hit. The building began collapsing.

The shuttle began swaying, he could hear the shuttle driver panicking. Ronin briefly looked over at Marvin. He was unresponsive, shocked into fear. All Ronin saw was fear and panic everywhere.

He cursed. None of these people would be of any help! He steeled himself, and began looking around for a solution… There!

The emergency exit! He legged it, firmly grasping the door handle, and pulled with all his might. The door wouldn't budge!

He tried again. Come on!

He dug deep, deeper than ever before and-

POOF!

Both Ronin and the door flew out of the shuttle. Free falling through the air, he glanced around. He saw the shuttle he'd just escaped from... he also saw the missile heading directly towards it. Jumping off the door to gain more distance from the shuttle, he glanced up again, only to see both the shuttle and Marvin go up in a ball of fire. The shockwave propelled him downwards. Below, more rockets were still coming.

Activating the jetpack, he tried to maneuver out of the way but took a glancing blow from one of the rockets. Fortunately, the academy suit’s single use energy shield activated, saving his life. No longer caring about where he was, he burned the jetpacks fuel supply, racing towards Ironglades more distant megastructures. As long as it was in the opposite direction of the missiles, the direction didn't matter!

“...”

After gaining some distance, the missiles were still coming, but they were now further apart, and he could dodge them as long as he remained vigilant. However, another issue arose.

BEEP! BEEP!

His implant alerted him of his academy suit's critical fuel supply. The installed jet pack was only supposed to be used in short bursts to assist landings. Ronin had been using it to fly around in the air like some kind of bird and it had never been designed for that. Crap!

He immediately turned off all the functions of the suit. Gritting his teeth, Ronin reached for the only idea available: Looks like I'll have to dodge missiles while free diving towards the ground.

Adjusting his body, he altered his fall trajectory by moving his hands and legs, somehow still dodging the missiles. Fortunately, the missile barrage had tapered down by now, making them much easier to maneuver around.

He quickly reached terminal velocity. Buildings flashed by on both sides as he reached further and further into the deep artificial metal valley. The sides of the valley began closing in on him, beginning at 70 km from one side of the valley to the other, it narrowed to 50 km, then 25 km, 10 km.

He could see the ground now, and at this speed, if he activated the jetpack too late, he’d end up as a flat stain smeared across the rocks below. Too soon however, and the fuel would run out before making landfall, pretty much killing him just the same. Oooh, maaan, I wish I had some goggles, this wind blasting my eyes is not making this any easier!

Waiting until he didn't dare anymore, he activated the jetpack on full blast.

VHOOM!

BAM!

Finally landing on the ground, Ronin felt an uncomfortable electrical signal travel from the bottom of his feet into the depths of his spine, then braving even further, it went all the way into the core of his soul!

That was a hard landing, too hard, hopefully nothings broken, he thought as he began slowly circling around the area, trying to straighten himself. His gait was awkward and bowled, his back was also strangely crooked as he tried to walk himself back into shape. Ugh, don’t think I broke anything, but I feel like a cripple.

Organizing his thoughts he sighed inwardly, what in the world was that… Who could have committed such a strike? It couldn’t be the government... The only ones that stick out are the CLM, but weren't they just some small-time terrorists? All he'd heard about this group, was them doing some minor damages to transport lines, some use of 2nd grade incendiaries–basically fireworks, –and a couple of hacks of unimportant public institutions.

This was a military scale insurgency, not some small-time crime anymore!

Oh, and Marvin, the first friend he’d made that was NOT a slum dog, was killed only a few minutes after their friendship started.

Dammit!

He began looking around trying to figure out where he was…This… I remember pretty much every area from here to my home, but this valley should have ended 10 kilometers up. Nothing of what he saw was recorded anywhere on the Concordia network.

The valley further up looked like a combination of housing units and an abandoned mining site merged into one, at this unknown lower level however, it looked like a mining site heavily fortified for combat. In front of him there was an entrance further into a dark mine. Behind him there were fortifications, weapons and people? Hang on, why are these guys carrying rocket launchers!? They are looking my way now too... aaaand now they’re pointing at me

Not thinking any further, Ronin hobbled his way towards the mine shaft as fast as he could. This was not what he signed up for at all, he just wanted to become a ship designer!

As Ronin entered the mine shaft, he began regretting not buying a light source addon for his now, battery drained academy suit. His optical implant was not of much help either. There seemed to be some sort of interference in the valley stopping any sort of signals from getting out. As he felt his way ahead in the mine shaft maze, the path he was on began to slope downwards. Stumbling his way ahead, he continued on.

Time ticked by in the monotonously quiet tunnel. Ronin, alone with his mind, began pondering: Such a deep channel, entirely abandoned and without light, how many of these were there on Concordia? Also, how was it that there was enough air to breathe down here? He didn’t mind, but he’d heard of people suffocating in much shallower mines. Was it due to the width of the tunnel? Why did these people attack on the very first day the academy opened?

It struck him then…

Mandatory attendance.

Each year, the very first day the academy opens, everybody has to show up for the ceremony. That means more people to kill and-

There seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel! After what must have been over an hour of stumbling downwards into the abandoned mine, how could there be light down here?

Is this the path out? He wondered. Did I walk all the way through the mountain over to the other side? No, this was not the red tinted light of the sun. This light was golden, it was something else, something unnatural.

As the source of the light revealed itself, it bafflingly turned out to be a large rock fragment, placed right in the middle of the tunnel. The thing had to be at least 10 meters high and in addition to the golden light, it emitted a strange sort of pressure. It was almost as if the gravity around him increased. The tunnel widened around the rock but stopped shortly after.

It's almost as if the people responsible for digging this channel, just dug around the rock but stopped shortly after… was it this pressure maybe?

Could this be some sort of exotic material!? Ronin thought excitedly. But then why had this rock not been excavated?

He had heard about these materials before. Supposedly, high technology often needed extremely rare and expensive materials in order to work. This was, however, only relevant to powerful organizations nested deep within the heartlands of humanity.

Walking closer to the rock, the pressure kept increasing and he was finding it harder and harder to walk. Flashes of… something… seemed to appear at the edge of his vision, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. I'm getting the impression of something fighting...

Not wanting to be found by whoever was carrying those rocket launchers, he tried to maneuver around the rock, but as he got closer, the pressure increased more and more. Feeling the incredible shift in gravity, Ronin gritted his teeth. Just one more step!

There was a sudden shift in the direction of the pull. The pressure from the rock was not pressing down anymore, it was pulling him directly towards it!

As he tried to get away, his feet couldn't maintain friction. He was now, unintentionally moonwalking towards a suspicious, possibly dangerous, massive boulder!

In a final gambit, he tried jumping away, however as he was in the air, the gravity increased even more. Ronin, still airborne, stopped, then began flying towards the rock!

BANG!