Restless - Chapter 16

As the shuttle left the landing bay, I got my first look at space and all its majesty. Staring out at the endless stars--at the gargantuan planets and the massive Dawn’s Glory--really had a way of making me feel small in a way I’d never felt before. I was a mere speck of dust, if even, amongst massive celestial bodies.

I felt small, and yet? It lit a fire deep in my heart. A fire to get out there, to see all there is. Oh, what it must be like to explore freely! To travel the countless systems teeming with life and adventure through the galaxy, each step to uncovering the mysteries of eons long since past. 

It was something I would’ve never dreamed of being a simple courier back on Voth Prime. Now though? It was an incredibly attractive thought. My heart yearned for the vast openness of space in a way I wasn't used to.

The shuttle flew, humming as Arch-Scient Steiner worked on various machines. I, alongside most of the Gloomguard surrounding us, ignored him. They seemed used to his antics. They were all in favor of napping or checking their equipment as they stayed out of the way.

Three of them even discreetly played cards, hiding what they were doing with their bodies. If their superior officer were anyone other than Arch-Scient Steiner, such a move wouldn't have worked. As it were, the old man was too focused on research to notice- or rather, to care.

The Dawn’s Glory looked so, so very massive from the outside. I was bad with distances, but it was truly gargantuan in a mind-boggling way. How had humanity built such a massive ship? If I had to guess, I saw less than one percent of it during my time aboard. Maybe even less than point one percent. Truly gargantuan, with several superstructures sticking out of the main body. 

And it wasn’t just a single ship set up out here. Several escort ships surrounded it, the biggest of which was about half the size of Dawn’s Glory. Had they been there the entire time? I mean, it would make sense that the Dawn’s Glory had escorts. How did the Lyzar board an assassination party with so many eyes then?

It wasn't just the Dawn's Glory and its escort fleet of black ships either. There were dozens of such ships all around. Small ships, looking like micro freighters, and shuttles moved back and forth in a constant flow from the planet's surface, mostly coming from a spaceport at the top of the planet that dwarfed even the Dawn's Glory. It practically looked like a small moon.

Assuming all of them were here for the same reason as the Dawn's Glory, there were probably likewise shuttles full of Fledgling Heralds from all over the Republic. Of course, such an assumption was entirely baseless.

The shuttle shifted, twisting to reveal the planet down below us. It was a vast, green expanse covered partly in blue. If I had to say, somewhere around sixty percent of the planet looked to be ocean. It was at complete odds with the only home I remember considering Voth Prime was a hundred percent ocean. At last, not counting artificial landmasses.

It looked so very green. A pink shell encased the planet as the system’s orangeish sun radiated across its atmosphere. I felt my heart palpitate just staring down at all the different things. Course, I knew what the basics were. Why the land was green, at least. Grass and trees, although I’d never actually seen them with my own two eyes, were taught to us in the church’s schooling.

“Quite beautiful, isn’t she? Gibor is one of the few Garden Worlds left in Republic hands.” Steiner said as he approached me with a large mirror-like device. “Underneath all that beauty, though, lies a planet full of danger. Ninety-nine percent of the biomes on Gibor are home to vicious creatures. The last one percent? North City, located on the North Pole. The people there can still be quite vicious though.”

I followed his pointing finger to the top of the planet. Even from here, I could see the massive city that took up an entire section of it. It looked like a blob of grey, with a few dozen superstructures I could make out even from here. It must’ve been truly gargantuan to be seen even with the naked eye from space. So many people, so many places. One percent of the planet, eh? Is that what Voth Prime looked like from space?

I noticed, as we approached the planet in the shuttle, that we weren’t heading for North City. “Where are we going?”

“You lot are supposed to be dropped off at Zeta Research Base, around the planet’s equator. Mostly used for biological research on the varied plants and animals, it's now a temporary base for the selected Instructors to train the Fledgelings.” Ever the talker, he didn't miss a chance to share his intelligence with me. He offered me a black ball as he spoke.

As soon as I grabbed the ball from him, he turned off the harness that kept me in one piece. The hollowing chills were much, much worse this far from the Reality Anchor. I felt my entire body tremble as parts of me disappeared in a flash before I could truly focus on staying together. On not drifting through the gaps in reality. “A little warning!”

“Fascinating.” The Arch-Scient watched me, carefully writing down something in a notepad. My focus slipped for a moment as I tried to see what he wrote, causing the hand that was holding the black ball to flicker out, taking the ball with it. 

I shifted in my seat, feeling the eyes of several people on me as I tried to stay together. Just like the last time, it was deeply uncomfortable. Thankfully, that faded as the short old man turned the harness back on. 

The man grabbed the black ball from my hand as all of me came back. “Deeply intriguing, my young friend. Tell me, how is it that you stay… together? Without the help of an Anchor, that is?”

”I don’t know. I- uh- I guess I just focus on being whole?” I scratched my head, eyeing the Arch-Scient suspiciously. I was ready for more attempts to turn the harness off. I logically knew he was trying to help, but still, I didn’t like feeling like a lab rat. And I especially didn't like getting thrown to the mercy of my Instability without warning.

”That implies you have some level of control, yes? Hmm… and you must have some kind of, hmm, film? Yes, let's call it a film. Some kind of film must wrap your phased-out bits, keeping them safe from the ravages of other dimensions.

“And my analysis suggests that your organs still work flawlessly while phased out? How peculiar.” The doctor’s speech turned into a mass of ramblings I couldn’t make out. Thankfully, the short man stepped away from me, running a hand through his thinning white hair. He went off to focus on other sensors.

I still felt a little unsettled with Steiner as he wandered around the cramped space, working with various pieces of equipment. Eventually, though, I managed to peel my eyes away from him and take a look back out of the viewport. 

It took me by shock once more as I stared out at the vast expanse of space. It felt so clear, so empty. So completely different from the tight, cramped spaces of Voth Prime. From even the dim halls and factory-clogged districts churning out products. And, of course, from the smaller apartment I managed to get a lease for…  Really, from home.

All my stuff was back there, huh? I’d- I’d probably never see it again. Not that the stuff in there was worth much, if anything. Still, I had a picture of Vayne, one of the last ones I took with my brother. Even if I could go back, it’d all probably be thrown out by the landlord by then. He was a curmudgeon like that.

My vision shifted, losing focus on the vast sea of stars as I looked at my face. I looked tired, completely drained with bags under my eyes. And pale. So very pale. I never noticed on Voth Prime since almost everyone was pale, but amongst the voidsmen and Gloomguard I’d seen so far? I was horribly pale. 

I barely held in a sigh as I refocused on the planet far below. I can’t forget that while yes, I was now a Fledgling Herald in training, I’d been kidnapped and torn from my home. This wasn’t necessarily a good thing. At the end of the day, while they may be exalted, Heralds were just another cog in the machine. Willing or not.

— — —

I don’t know when I could start making out individual features of the planet as we descended into its atmosphere. It was a while after I almost knocked myself out due to intense turbulence as we entered the atmosphere, and well before we landed.

Our shuttle’s altitude steadily dropped until the blurs of green and blue turned to vast forests, lakes, and rivers. And then it all came in even sharper focus as we neared the ground, revealing the individual trees and plants of Gibor. 

I greedily took in the scenery, entranced by such much beauty. All my life I’d known the cramped grayness of a city, never having seen anything quite like this. There was so much variety, so much distinction between not only each tree, but the several different places we flew over.

And the color! Oh so much color! People in Voth Prime tried to have color, of course, but the dulled paints and tattered colored cloth couldn't compare in the slightest to Gibor. Even the sun, the symbol of the Lord, cast deep beautiful pinks across everything.

I, unfortunately, didn’t know enough geology to point out what was what and which biomes we flew over. That kind of knowledge wasn’t really taught all that much since most people the church taught lived and died on their home planets, never having left the cities. All I could say was that it looked to be a forest of some kind. Then again, I was only saying that since there were a lot of trees.

Our speed dropped a bit as the camp came into view. Really, calling it a camp did the place a disservice. It was made up of hundreds of buildings, looking like a city in its own right, albeit nowhere near as large as North City. Most of the buildings were short, maybe three or four stories tall. There were very few of them that stood out taller than that. 

Lots of oddly shaped buildings too, from half-domed shapes to weird glass structures. Steiner did say it was a bio-research camp, so they were probably various labs. It would make sense, at least.

Everything had a vaguely militaristic vibe to it. Then again, it may have just looked as such since a massive wall covered in gunnery emplacements surrounded the place. Or maybe it was since everything was brutalist without the fancy flame and sun engravings I was used to seeing? 

Still, I noticed a dozen or so altars of flame and fire scattered about, as I would expect of any kind of Slarin Republic emplacement. They were still present, just not as much as I was used to.

The shuttle descended toward the backside of the Zeta Research Base, settling amongst about a dozen other varied ships on a landing pad. The ship shook harshly as the four block-like thrusters on the sides tilted, shifting from a horizontal alignment to vertical. They slowly lost power as we descended, eventually setting down on the landing pad.

”Ah, we’re here! Will one of you take… Jasper? Yes, Jasper! Take Jasper to the Orthus Hall? Initiation should be starting at any moment! Can’t be late.” Arch-Scient Steiner called out to the entourage of Gloomguard. “The rest of you, help me carry all this back to my lab.”

A silent war seemed to break out amongst the guard. I caught subtle glares, shaking of fists, and… scissors? Were they playing rock, paper, scissors? Eventually one of the groups seemed to win, keeping their elation silent so as not to catch Steiner’s attention. Not that anything seemed as though it could pull him from his research.

”Follow us, sir.” A duo of guards called out to me as they moved toward the lowering ramp triumphantly. I got the feeling they were happier about not having to pack mule for the Arch-Scient than anything.

I hopped off my seat after them, momentarily taken aback as I got hit in the face with this planet’s air. I was used to the wet, salty, and mixed with factorial pollutants and artificial atmosphere of Voth Prime. Here though? Clean, so very clean. It stung my lungs as I tried to get used to it. Even the atmosphere in the Dawn’s Glory had an artificial tang to it, so this kind of thing? Took me completely off guard.

It took a few moments to get used to it. As I stepped out of the shuttle and looked around, my attention snagged on the hustle and bustle of several landing pads all around. People moved with purpose, running checks on the various ships, moving cargo, or otherwise looking busy. 

Guards moved in between the dozens of pads- no, guards weren’t quite right. They didn’t have the typical arms and armaments that I’d grown to associate with the Gloomguard and Emberguard. The Gloomguards' shocks of black and purple under-armor didn’t match, nor did the Emberguard’s relatively cheap plate carriers.

Instead, the groups were fully armed and armored, wearing helmets with built-in filtration masks. Their helmets looked like a combination of an armored ball cap, headset, and face mask. The armor itself seemed a little less refined than the Gloomguard’s, looking almost as though it were a heavily porous metal painted over in dark green paint.

The armor covered their chest, shoulders, elbows, and knees in dark green. Under the armor, they wore forest camo. It was useless out here amongst the urban backdrop, but such armor was perfectly suited for this planet. And, of course, they were armed. Half of them held vi-rifles and the other half had some kind of auto-rifle.

They were legionnaires. How could I not recognize them? The main fighting forces of the Republic were quite literally the poster boys for the Great War. In the Republic, not being able to recognize legionnaires was reason enough to evoke suspicion.

First time actually seeing one in the flesh though. It took me a little off-guard. Why were they here? Legions were typically on the front lines, leaving planetary defense to Emberguard regiments. And why did I feel a certain… animosity between the patrolling legion and the Gloomguard? 

I didn’t have much time to think about it as I hurriedly followed the two Gloomguard leading the way forward.