Age of Space

Ronin was once again greeted by the familiar grey landscape of deep valleys and high rises as the ship approached Ironglades. As it was still early dawn, when the ship pierced the smog filled clouds, Ronin was greeted by a glittering sea of neon lights. The electrically charged noble gas illuminated countless, closely stacked, gray skyscrapers. The familiar buildings, built so closely they often merged into each other, made the entire city look like a jagged amalgamation of concrete and metal. The pattern was only broken by the large factories and important structures elevated on tall plateaus, occupying the city's very center.

[Ding! Connection restored.]

His optical implant was finally accessible again, as unread message after unread message began announcing their arrival. His holoscreen became increasingly cluttered. Messages of various levels of urgency began sounding out:

[Message from “Real-World-Gaming”: Due to a lack of further contact, we have installed the Virtual reality chamber at a location of our choosing in the designated spaceship factory, Maximus Solutions at district 13, street 25.]

[Message from “Real-World-Gaming”: Urgent! Confirmation of acceptance of VR installation is required.]

[Ding! Message from “Real-World-Gaming”: Urgent! See previous messages. If no response is given, all current contracts will be voided.]

There was also a slew of messages from others, including his uncle, Simons, the academy as well as some older friends. Waving away the messages for now, Ronin got up and headed for the bridge. After passing through a couple of painted passageways, he reached an open door. As he walked past it, an electronic voice stemming from somewhere on the bridge sounded out.

[Confirmed entry, Ronin Maximus, disabling neutralization protocol.]

Good thing they wrote me in as a guest, he thought.

He could see the captain sitting down, leisurely drinking some sort of black colored hot drink.

“Oh, the man of the hour. What brings you here?” The captain asked.

“Any chance you could land the ship at my place?”

Jarski scratched his beard. “Hmm, if there’s space, sure, but wasn’t your place destroyed by that attack a few weeks back?”

“I work at a place called Maximus Solutions, It's a spaceship factory. It has a runway so there should be plenty of room for you to land.”

“Well… I can’t see why not. Let me check in with the boss.”

The captain's eyes began flickering as he started texting the professor.

After a short while, he nodded. “Alright, seems Mr. Ravent’s schedule still has enough room for a short pit stop along the way. Just don’t forget to pick up your new academy uniform outside his office”

The ship altered its path before eventually settling down onto the runway. Ronin’s runway. He still couldn’t get the thought of it out of his head. When he looked at the factory he owned, he almost couldn’t believe it. For something as grand as this to actually be owned by one man. The fact that he was that man, gave him impostor syndrome every time he thought about it.

As the gangway was lowered down, some assistants, with the help of a trolley, brought out the war suit.

Roneus Ravent, seemingly completely done with Ronin after his comment on how his ship was perfect, opted to stay in his cabin for the entire trip, not coming out, even when Ronin went to pick up the suitcase containing the academy uniform. All he’d heard from the man was a grunt and a short comment on how this new uniform “didn’t have that ridiculous jet pack module installed”.

After saying goodbye to assistant Pablo, Ronin watched the beautiful ship fire up its thrusters, then begin to take off. What would it feel like to design a spaceship like that? Not just a shuttle but a real ship, a ship which could travel the stars, a ship with an FTL drive, a corvette.

“...”

After having transported what little baggage he had into his factory, which basically was just his two new suits, he began clearing out the virtual mountain of messages on his Uninet-2000. First, he dealt with the company “Real-World-Gaming”, scheduling a final appointment at the factory so as to finalize the agreement.

He then checked in with Uncle Nagata. Ending up composing quite the message, he informed him of everything that happened. From the treachery of the planetary guard, further details concerning the ruddle filled abandoned part of the city he’d entered, as well as what had happened in prison on Exodon. He’d left out anything related to the Potentia Panorama. Anything related to that technique was simply too dangerous to share over the Concordia Network.

When that was over and done with, he messaged Simons. He’d just written a short message claiming he’d been on an important company meeting off-world. Simons didn’t need to know. He also decided on a time for them to start working together and set the date to sometime next week. He needed to get his bearings first.

And on that note, there were his two new suits. The academy uniform, now without a jetpack, was really only made for lab work. There were much better options out there if he wanted something for his own protection. The war suit, on the other hand offered plenty of protection but was illegal to use in civilian areas. That meant, unless he retrofitted it, which he did not know how to do yet, he’d be stopped by the planetary guard.

I’ve still got a bounty on my head, and until I’ve got the war suit dilemma sorted out, I’ll need something to wear in case of another attack.

When he’d gotten ambushed in his apartment, he’d been helpless, having to rely purely on instinct to dodge the sniper fire. Laser fire, however, for all of its speed, was relatively weak against shields and armor. He accessed the net and began scanning the public database.

With my newfound wealth I can disregard the cheaper options.

With a wave of his hand, Ronin eliminated over 90% of the suits listed.

Now, what do I truly want?

A jet pack was a must. He’d also need something that could withstand laser fire and the sort of explosion he’d been subjected to in his apartment. After carefully eliminating more and more of the suits listed, he was eventually left with three options:

Black Hawk-38D: Bodyguard suit.

Armor: Can withstand sustained level 2 delta energy

Shield: Double layered shield. Stable for up to level 4 delta energy and level 2 type explosions. Battery life: 50 hours in standby mode, 30 min in sustained combat.

Extra: Jetpack

Weight: 35kg

Cost: 1.5 million credits

Frontier-XM13: Exoplanet suit.

Armor: No value

Shield: Triple layered shield. Stable for up to level 3 delta energy, level 1 type explosions and level 1 type radiation. Battery life: 130 hours in standby mode, 2 hours in sustained combat.

Extra: Jetpack, poison filtration, oxygen conversion.

Weight: 20kg

Cost: 2 million credits

Heromaker-99: Luxus suit.

Armor: Can withstand sustained level 2 delta energy

Shield: Triple layered shield. Stable for up to level 4 delta energy, level 2 type explosions and level 1 type radiation. Battery life: 100 hours in standby mode, 1 hour in sustained combat.

Extra: Jetpack, sound dampener, poison filtration, audio system, light projection, exoskeleton, dance routine.

Weight: 160kg

Cost: 5 million Credits.

Ronin considered his options. The Black Hawk suit was cheap and offered good protection. The armor alone would protect against most common laser fire. A sniper rifle would break through, but that's what the shield was for. On the flip side, its shield didn’t last long and didn’t offer protection against more esoteric types of threats.

That's what the frontier suit was for. However, it had no armor and weaker shield protection in general. Compared to his academy suit, it would still fare better against the types of explosions that took out his apartment, but was it really worth the risk?

Especially when there was that last entry on the list…

Heromaker… Even the name is downright ridiculous.

Still, it did offer the best overall protection. Being stuffed with so much gear it needed an exoskeleton just to be wearable, it was halfway in between a civilian suit and a war suit, but instead of being equipped with weapons, it was filled with all sorts of ridiculous modules. Light projector? Dance routine? The suit seemed more like something a rich playboy would wear to a party than something actually made for self-defense. It also looked ridiculous, having been painted red with black- and gold-colored flames streaking across the entire thing. There was also the jetpack, which had impractical wings sticking out. To top it off, the suit had a suspiciously shaped gold colored giant codpiece right between its legs.

Ronin hesitated for a moment, then grumbled inwardly... He knew he had to pick the heromaker, it had better specs, but still...

I'll guess I'll have to look like a clown for a bit, there's no helping it.

[Confirm purchase of Heromaker? Yes/No]

[Yes]

“...”

After being away from the academy for over a month, there was a lot of homework to go through… He looked further and noticed his latest message…

[You have hereby been accepted into the genius program for spaceship design at the Ironglades Space-Force Academy. These following courses will now be added to your current curriculum: INF: 1003: Introduction to Spacecraft programming languages. MAT: 233: Partial differential equations. PHYS: 220: Introduction to materials science...]

The list went on. Yeah… He’d be getting really busy from now on. His academy workload had, with that simple message, more than doubled. There were also the instruction manuals for all of the machines in his new factory.

He ordered some sweet tasty nutrient packs from one of the nearby delivery companies, then got to work:

The mathematics of orbital dynamics had become surprisingly easy. He knew how well he did in this field, but now… He’d gotten faster. The problems he’d have to think about a bit before were now solved on the spot. Even equations with new concepts were easily solved by reading up a little on the textbooks. He'd gotten much better, and it went beyond him just having a good day or something like that.

Is this a side effect of the Potentia Panorama?

He thought about how far he’d progressed in prison. He’d advanced from the middle of the 3rd stance of the Kalvrakian Embrace, all the way to the end of the 8th. This technique, from what he could tell, improved every part of his body. His bones strengthened, his muscle fibers were empowered, and his mind got a little bit clearer after every new stance. If almost everything about him was strengthened, it stood to reason his mind would become better at doing calculations as well.

Then there was the Battle Soul technique… For all the damage learning it had caused, it had proven remarkably effective at limiting the subconscious brainwashing effect of the alien artifact. But what about the power of the brain itself? Could his Battle soul technique be helping his problem-solving abilities?

The technique did help him repair his mind… He’d have to study this more closely later. Regardless, he was burning through math equations like no tomorrow, and he couldn’t wait to see how he’d fare in his other subjects.

"..."

Turning on the news, Ronin's surroundings lit up in various holograms showing news anchors, describing, in the pompous false authoritative voice all news casters do, the current happenings of the day:

[Just in, the recently accused Wing commander Julius denies any involvement with the range of unlawful arrests that have just come to light. With us on the ground is reporter Andrea.]

The hologram shifted onto a scene of a man dressed in a ruffled uniform, adorned with numerous medals, being dragged out of the planetary guard station by several armored men.

A blond haired female reporter with a large badge spelling out the word “Press”, stood in front of the scene.

[As you can see, right now, the previously esteemed commander is now being dragged out from his office, towards the shipping station, likely after having been questioned about the recent revelations.]

The reporter walked up to the bedraggled commander.

[How do you respond to the recent allegations and what it does to the public trust in the planetary guard? Do you have anything to say for yourself sir?]

The bedraggled commander looked back at the reporter, his eyes desperate.

[I didn’t do it! If it's about those arrests, we all do it! It’s just common practice-]

The holoscreen abruptly cut back to the newsroom, cutting off and silencing Julius before he could say more...

[Ahem, it seems we’ve experienced a bit of a technical malfunction there,] one of the news anchors cut in, his eyes rapidly shifting back and forth, likely texting his superiors.

The other news anchor followed up:

[You will have to excuse us for that, but while we wait for the technical issue to be solved, let's discuss the second topic of the day. Now, onto the ruddle menace roaming our city... The employment of flamethrowers has proven remarkably effective against larger swarms. Here we have Mayor Brunstein giving the medal of honor to guardsman Harold.]

The holoscreen shifted, showing the mayor and a uniformed man standing on a podium in front of thousands of people.

[It’s reported that Harold not only stood against a swarm of tens of thousands of ruddles, but he also stayed behind after the swarm left, helping civilians, quite the brave individual don’t you think?] The female anchor questioned.

[Indeed, I sure know I wouldn’t stay around if a horde of those poisonous animals were heading my way…]

Ronin couldn’t help but chuckle darkly.

Seems this wing commander Julius revealed a little more than he should. Unlawful arrests though… could he have been involved in with what happened to me?

What had happened to Ronin was an unlawful arrest after all. It might not have felt like it at the time, but he did have an alibi when they shipped him off. They’d also been rather quick about sending him away, no trial, no nothing.

Beep, Beep, Beep

His implant signaled an incoming call. Picking up, he was greeted by the bohemian styled room of his uncle. The next instant, he was greeted by a gaunt face with dark circles under his eyes.

[Did you see Ronin!? We got him! Did you see!? He hid himself well… but I found him. He tried to delete the evidence but now look at him!]

[What do you mean? Are you talking about that guy in the news? Wing commander Julius?]

[Yes, Yes, Yes, didn’t you read my message on it?]

So it was that Julius guy after all, good, hopefully they send him to Exodon.

[Haven’t found the time yet, got a mountain of homework I’ve got to get through. So…It was you?]

Nagata’s hologram nodded eagerly. [Indeed, found him and what he did to you deep in the planetary guards internal database… though I couldn’t find whoever paid him to go after you-]

[It was Specter, known as the ghost butcher. Got a guy called Argus working for him as well. Heard of them?]

Nagata's face made an abrupt shift, turning grave as he questioned.

[You're not joking with me, are you? Don't tell me you've been to district 101?] His tone, now, was completely different.

[Uh, yeah. That's how I got the bounty. Don’t worry, I'll find them all. They’re not getting away with this, I'll tell you that.]

Uncle Nagata turned silent, only after a long while, did he finally speak:

[Ronin… Be careful… I’ve heard of him, true to his name, that man is a demon. Out of everyone out there to anger, for it to be him…]

[What do you know?]

[Let’s just say that much of the reason no one goes to district 101 is solely due to that one man. It was brutal before, but at least you’d find other shadowy groups going there every now and again. Adventurers would sometimes go there, seeking wealth from the wrong side of the law. You'd also find desperate people there, hiding from debt or persecution. Take the Concordia Liberation Movement for example. From what I’ve heard, they were quite active there some years back. Now though… They don't go there anymore. They all left due to just a single man. The ghost butcher… That is the type of man you’ve angered. There are plenty of stories... Entire buildings full of people, all just vanishing overnight. It’s horrible. No blood, no shouts in the night, they all just suddenly disappeared, never to be heard from or seen again… One man did that, and nobody knows how. Nobody even knows what he looks like.]

Nagata shuddered through the holoscreen.

[What?! They just disappeared? Does he have access to some kind of restricted technology or something?]

Nagata shrugged. [If he does, I’ve never heard of it.]

Ronin had always repaid his debts, but this debt might be a little bit too tough to pay back right now.

[Doesn’t matter how dangerous he is, he put a bounty on me Uncle… But I will be careful, ok? Thanks for the info.]

Nagata sighed, [alright, I’ll see if I can find some info on Argus. If you want a chance at finding the ghost butcher, your best bet would probably be by finding Argus first.]

After hanging up, Ronin burned through the rest of the math exercises. As the skies outside turned dark, before calling it quits, he read up on the design studio instruction manual. He'd have to learn how to use the studio sooner or later, might as well learn it now. Besides… if he was going to modify the war suit, why not use the design lab? It was made for ships so a suit shouldn’t be an issue.

As to how he was going to use Argus to find Specter...

Perhaps I should check the Potentia Panorama for stealth techniques. If I could place a bug on Argus, he’d lead me straight to Specter- No! Ronin forcibly closed that line of thought. If he looked into stealth techniques, it would be after he fully healed his mind. Argus would have to wait. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.