Age of Space

-” ...Corruption, scholars agree, blunts good government and corrodes the public faith. Yet, corruption is often a matter of political perspective. It can be functional. Stable, developed star systems view corruption as nothing but a burden, but developing systems depend on it. The Great Dyson Swarm of DH Tauri, for example, was only built as a result of the Halifax conglomerate first, illegally buying the system. Furthermore, it was only affordable due to the unethical employment contracts signed to construct it, and the illegal weapons trade done to fund it. It therefore stands to reason that the exponential expansion of humanity, like an axiomatic principle itself, has led our species to higher levels of corruption than ever before…” - Benedict Aufstar, Professor of economics.

[Planet Exodon - Prison planet, Bright sector 54D]

[Compound 37]

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

In an acid atmosphere, so depleted in breathable air, it would strangle a man in minutes, a colossal explosion erupted out, piercing the skies. As the eruption cast out guts from deep within the planet, the contents of its newly discarded waste interacted with the air, causing lightning to strike.

The sun had long been rejected in these lands, the black ash permanently shielding it from entry. But where the sun had failed, lightning had risen to the occasion. As far as the eye could see, magma violently broke free, summoning innumerable bright trees of voltage, thundering into the ground, announcing their arrival.

Amidst this forest of light, flew a ship. Having thick shielding, it was well protected from the furious heavens above. The high gravity did not take hold either, as the old and reliable Westein Drive continued giving its guests all the power they needed to reach their hosts.

The ship, covered in black ash, had few distinguishing features besides its exhaust plume. But there was one thing that stood out. On its side, in big white letters it read: "Prison Transport".

“Why are we out here for just one convict?” A man fully clad in an exosuit questioned.

The ship creaked and lights flickered.

“This is what’s called a special mission Gabba. It’s a sensitive job. Meaning, the higher ups trust us.” An older man answered seemingly at ease in the shaking ship.

“Still, I don’t understand the point of this. The ship shakes more every time we come here. And now? All this just for a single kid? There's room here for almost a hundred people!” Gabba replied.

“Relax, that's just the nerves getting to you. The ship's shaking just as much as the last time you said that. Which, if I remember correctly was 3 days ago?" The older guard chuckled.

"We were hauling over 130 inmates that time! The ship is just not built for that!" The younger guard complained.

"This old bird has many more trips in her before she needs retiring. And you asked why we have to go through all this trouble for one person? The term: ‘special mission’ is not just a word Gabba, it means something. Someone very important pulled a lot of strings to put this kid here, it would not do us well to question it.” Said the older guard, glancing over at the chained boy, resting inside the nearby cell.

The shaking ship seemed to stir the boy, but he quickly relaxed again, as if still asleep.

Ronin had pretended to be asleep for a while now and had learned much. Not only was he not in Ironglades anymore, he wasn’t even on planet Concordia. His captors, probably revealing more than they should, had also spoken frequently about how unusual this transport was.

The newest addition to his memory palace, this so-called term "Special mission" opened up a whole new perspective on his situation.

The fact that a whole ship designed for mass transport has been set aside for a so-called sensitive transport job at the request from a higher up can only mean one thing, Ronin thought.

Someone is trying to keep my transportation secret… I don’t have the type of connections that would warrant this level of care, which could only mean… There's foul play involved.

The ship continued on, swerving in between Plinian eruptions as it made its way towards darkness. When the volcanos finally grew sparse, it descended, entering an inconspicuous cave entrance, before finally coming to a stop in front of a huge metallic wall. The lights, previously used to guide its way through the cave system, bounced off the metallic surface, revealing a name. In big yellow letters, it read: "Compound 37".

“They really should update this tech, you know Petro, the guy who left for the private sector? He’s talked about much less invasive ways to do this.” Gabba said as he tapped on his exosuit, extracting the authorization key.

“They’re never going to change it. It works and that's all that matters. Our comfort was never a part of the equation.” Grunted the older guard as they both had their blood extracted by the key. After the bioscan was confirmed, the key was placed into the transmission array, the wall rumbled, opening up to reveal the hangar bay beyond.

Ronin felt the ship landing, shortly after he also heard the sound of a hatch opening and the following echoes of heavy metallic steps.

He tried to move; his body felt heavier than normal.

Am I still this exhausted? No, I feel heavier because I AM heavier. Realization struck him. There was only one planet in the system with more gravity than Concordia.

“Fresh meat for the work? Why’s there only one?” One of the new voices spoke.

“This one’s a special case. Supposedly he blew up a skyscraper, killed over a hundred people.” The older guard said.

“Ooo.. A terrorist then? Quite the high profile inmate you’ve brought” The new voice questioned.

“Not sure what he is, there was no trial, no nothing. Apparently he’s part of the Ironglades Spaceforce Academy too.” The older guard replied.

“No trial?" For this place!? A political case then?” The new voice exclaimed in surprise.

“I have my orders, as have you. Won’t do any of us any good to be asking questions like that.” The older guard said, making clear that this conversation was over.

“Whatever.” The man shot back before ordering his men to pick up the prisoner.

So that’s how it is…

Ronin saw it clearly now. The planetary guard was corrupt. Whoever had ordered his assassination and placed a bounty on him, had also paid off the planetary guard. He’d been a fool to trust in the authorities. He wasn’t here because they thought he was guilty, not at all. He was here because of credits.

As the men dragged him out of the spaceship and into the compound, the black bag over his head finally came off.

“Rise and shine sunshine!" The new voice called as a bucket of ice-cold water splashed his face.

With his body spasming from cold shivers, he was dragged across the hall.

He could see new ships coming in from other cave systems, likely carrying more prisoners. Men covered in tattoos lined the walls. Row after row they stood, chained as bots stripped and scanned them.

“49th rank, 1st row, ready!” Someone called as his captors dragged him along, placing him on the newly freed up spot.

His chained hands were placed on a pressure plate sticking out of the wall. Holes began opening along the metallic surface and tentacle-like steel alloy appendages reached out to grab him. A bot then began cutting apart his academy uniform, before finally removing it. The bot continued removing fabric, not stopping until he lost everything, dignity included.

A new bot then began scanning his body, stopping at his right eye. Piercing pain followed, as a beam of radiation blasted his precious Uninet-2000. He felt himself losing connection to it. Next, the bot moved onto his neck. Several black needles began protruding from it as they began injecting a thick black liquid into his artery.

As the tentacles locking him to the wall, finally retracted, one of the prison guards monitoring him, slapped him on the butt and threw him his new clothes.

“Welcome to Exodon!” He laughed.

It was that place after all… He knew of this planet. Known as the place without sun. A hellscape the kingdom of Tar only sent its very worst. Prison Planet Exodon.

Looking down at his new clothes, in big black letters, he saw the name they'd given him:

Inmate 5348.

Nagata Maximus was getting worried. He’d tried to contact Ronin the moment he heard about the explosion. The news had tried to downplay what had happened, but Nagata wasn’t known as Psyrat for nothing. He’d quickly found out that the entire building burned down. Not only that, the explosion began at the 5th floor, where his nephew's apartment was.

Ronin’s implant was untraceable. He also couldn’t see whether or not it was active. He’d gotten a short message from the kid some time after the incident, but now? Nothing. He was at a loss on what to do, he was a hacker, not omniscient. There was also the bounty placed on the kid the moment the explosion happened. That nasty thing brought just as much relief as it did worry. As long as the bounty was still up, it at least gave some hope he was alive, but the lack of contact was worrying…

I can’t lose more family, not now, not after we’ve finally begun to talk…

Wait!

There was still a place he hadn’t looked.

He had scanned the surface records of the planetary guard. It's where he’d expect to find the relevant information. But what if that wasn’t the case. What if Ronin wasn’t missing nor dead? What if he was involved with something classified, not only kept from the public, but also from the rank-and-file members of the planetary guard?

Adjusting his bohemian style floral long coat, he got himself ready. He’d probably burn his carefully built backdoor into the deepest layers of the planetary guards information network, but he’d be damned if he didn’t try everything when it came to finding his nephew.

He’d swore off these kinds of hacks after he and Ronin stole over 800 million credits worth of cryptocurrency from the CLM. This situation however… There was simply no other way. It was time for Psyrat to make a comeback.

He loaded up whatever protection measures he had and began the hack. He was in! Time was of the essence, the was no telling how long it would take before they discovered him snooping around.

Rapidly scanning every single folder and file available, he finally found what he was looking for. It seemed someone had tried removing any digital trace of it, but they hadn’t gotten this far, yet. The internal, last resort backup still had it. A file with the name Ronin Maximus attached!

He quickly snatched it.

Grabbing a piece of cheese, he now focused entirely on downloading anything and everything sensitive. Whatever they’d done to his nephew, they’d pay for it! Dearly.

Ronin walked along cell after cell feeling incredibly uncomfortable. This place was really the home for the worst of the worst.

“Come here young meat, come here!” A man from one cell called, his face rabid.

“Look at that fresh butt!” Another shouted, whistling loudly.

For every cell he passed, there seemed to be at least one of these twisted creatures clad in human skin shouting obscenities at him. He passed by another cell and, predictably another man began expounding on the value of his backside. With cold intensity, Ronin looked him dead in the eyes.

I will remember you. I will remember every single one of you! He thought.

He didn’t know what the bot had injected him with, but the living black fluid that made up his new Inmate ID tattoo had also begun healing his body. He could feel it moving along his veins, making minor adjustments as it passed.

The one thing that would give any of these prisoners a chance against him was healing a little bit more with every step he took. All he needed now was time, which it'd seem he’d get more than enough of in this place. Besides, these convicts did not have laser guns, they’d have to subdue him with their own hands, maybe a shiv if they came prepared. He could deal with that, in fact, if anything, he’d welcome it.

Glancing up, he spotted that the top floor only had prison guards, in lockstep, they patrolled around the complex, armed with laser rifles. From what he could see, this building had no kitchen, no common hall, no nothing. Instead, the big open bottom floor only had what looked like an enormous cage. His improved eyesight could see what looked like blood staining its metal bars.

Is that some sort of fighting arena?

The prison complex had over 30 floors of which, about 500 cells lined each and every one of them. With each cell holding 10 inmates, there were over 150 000 inmates locked up in here. Since this place was called compound 37, that meant there was a compound 1, 2, 3 and so on. In other words, there were probably millions of people locked up on this planet.

“Inmate 5348!” a guard called.

Guess that's me now.

“We’ve got a nice and cozy cell for you here kid.” The guard chuckled, his mouth opening into a large, wicked grin.

This cell… What in the world was this? There only seemed to be 6 people here.

“Stop diddling! Are you disobeying orders!?” The guard shouted, raising a baton and clicking a button causing red electric lights to flash across it.

Ronin gritted his teeth in anger. He would remember this. All of this. How he was framed, hunted, the bounty. That guard, should he just… No, one day, if he made it out:

I will make them feel it. Every single one of them. They’ll feel it all.

Fuming, he entered the cell, spotted a free bunk and began placing down his things.

“Hey!” Someone called.

“Hey! Hey you! What’s your problem? The man called again.

Ronin turned around, facing the bionic man covered in metallic machinery, he asked: “What do you mean problem?” A little puzzled at the strange behavior.

“The fresh fish doesn’t even know!” Another inmate with a big black CLM tattoo covering his chest laughed.

Ronin, a little annoyed at this point, was about to ask what their problem was, before:

“When you enter someone else's home, don’t you at least greet them first? What you just did, in this place, is seen as a very disrespectful act. I’ll forgive you this one time since you don’t know any better, but don’t expect such charity to come free.” A deep voice spoke.

From within the blanket on the bed to his right, huge muscular arms and legs emerged out, elongating into a long and lazy stretch. The huge man, over 2 meters tall, yawned, tore off the blanket, then looked at Ronin.

“You owe me a favor now. That's how the rules work down here.” He spoke.

“Now, now” One of the older inmates interjected, reaching out for a handshake.

“I will teach you the ropes of this place, no favor needed. Void knows, it’s hard enough just to live here when you already know the rules. No need in making things harder than they need to be. Deal?” He asked, his lips emerging into a friendly smile.

“Deal.” Ronin agreed, grasping his hand.

“Great! Name is Marvin, but in here people just call me Marv.” The older man spoke.

That's the name of the friend I made on my first day at Ironglades! Ronin realized, shuddering a little at the thought of what happened that day.

“Name’s Ronin” He answered back, feeling better already. Even in this place, called the place without sun, there were good folk like this.

“...”

As time passed Ronin quickly studied the ways of prison.

“Never be a complainer, don’t whine and just do the time. You have to mind your own business. If you see someone do something that doesn't jibe with you, might be drugs, a beatdown, could be anything. Heck, even if you like that stuff, stay away. Never talk about it, don’t bring attention to it. Also, always stick to your words” Marv continued, still listing up more rules after what must have been 20 minutes by now.

“But I really am innocent, the guard is so corrupt they only locked me up because someone paid them off.” Ronin began defending himself.

“Hey man, we’re all innocent!” Laughed the man with the big CLM tattoo.

“Alright, alright.” Marvin chuckled. “Now listen, and this is important.” He said, palming his fist to emphasize the point.

“The most important rule in this compound is to always wear the cuffs. If you figure out a way to remove them, don’t. Also, every morning, when the doors open, walk out, immediately. Don't ever oversleep.”

“Why? is it because the guards will shoot me if I do?” Ronin questioned.

The big muscular man whom he supposedly owed a favor now, chuckled. “Fish, heh, you will find out tomorrow. Let’s just say, getting shot would be a luxury if you take off those cuffs.”

They chatted on, sharing stories of anything from prison life to funny personal stories long before their life behind bars.

Ronin joined in as well, and before long, it was time for bed.

Ronin had trouble sleeping that night. Partly due to the sleep he got on the ship, but also, because of how different this all was. This was his life now. A completely different world with all kinds of ridiculous rules. They might not make much sense but could be deadly if he didn’t follow them.

His mind spun, over and over, he thought about what he’d done to end up here, of all places. He could blame the planetary guard for their corruption. He could blame the person who placed a bounty on him, then sent assassins. He could blame the alien artifact, but it was ultimately he who chose to fight the rooftop bandits. It was he who chose to enter district 101. As his mind kept spinning out into the night, eventually, sleep took him.

Looking at the transfer order, Nagata didn’t quite know what to do, not yet at least. To have been sent to Exodon without justification was certainly not a good fate, but the kid was alive. The file with the name Ronin Maximus, had been opened, but how to deal with this was another matter entirely. The name behind the transfer order was not someone Nagata could deal with.

“Wing Commander Julius…” He spoke the name slowly.

Nevertheless, even if Nagata himself couldn’t deal with a man of such status, it didn’t mean that no one could. He’d been snooping in on Ronin, including the academy he went to after he came over and began talking about the CLM and the alien artifact. Recently, he’d been quite surprised to find his nephew's name in a report to the board of education. If they truly valued him this much, perhaps they could deal with the Wing Commander…

Making sure his message would be anonymous, he made a file, then filled it with every single negative thing he could find. If the guard had poached a student? Perfect! Into the file it went. Some evidence of incompetence during the terrorist attack on the school? Even better! Put it into the file! The illegal prosecution and transfer of Ronin, their new darling genius to Prison Planet Exodon? That went straight to the top of the file! Finally, to make sure no one could bury the story, he sent it to every single person of relevance connected to the academy, including the teachers and the board.

Hopefully this will get the ball rolling. I can't imagine them ignoring someone they value this much being sent to a prison planet. Especially now, everyone will know about it now.

A loud booming alarm broke the cellmates up from sleep.

“Ronin, get up, get out of the cell now!” Shouted Marvin.

Half groggy, he pushed himself out of bed while covering his ears, trying to dampen the loud alarm.

Stumbling out of the cell behind the rest of his cellmates, he felt his cuffs moving upwards as his entire body began lifting itself from the ground. The thick black fluid circulating his body, also began moving as Ronin lost his footing and began floating above the railing, then further beyond, over the area with the arena cage.

I must be floating over a hundred meters above ground by now. Seeing as it's the cuffs that's moving and not me, this whole complex must have been installed with magnets! Heck, with the amount of weight and volume these things are carrying, I bet they are supercharged! He thought in amazement as he looked down.

Around him, he could see prisoners all over the compound floating in the air just like him.

“If not for the cuffs, that black fluid would not lift you up.” Said his big cellmate, flashing a big grin. Ronin secretly just called him Bulkster now, not his real name, but the big guy hadn’t shared, and it was as good a name as any.

“Seen it before, the black gunk just got ripped straight out of his body, was blood everywhere man!” Bulkster described, eyes wide in excitement.

Something that can heal the body and is attracted by magnetism…That black fluid I was injected with… It has to be nanites! The small mechanical machines fit those properties to a tee!

Still, he didn’t see what the cuffs did to stop the nanites from being ripped out of his body. Perhaps they coagulated the nanites somehow, preventing them from being piercing the body? After all, a bigger, flatter thing didn't pierce, it pushed.

He looked over at the bionic man from his cell. His entire body seemed to be in agony.

Noticing his gaze, the man answered as if knowing what he wanted to ask. “Yeah, it's just as bad as it looks… Every piece of metal tears… ugh!...Think they made this prison for people like us, just to make us hurt.”

Ronin along with the 150 000 other prisoners began lowering down towards the ground floor.