Chapter One

Former Solaris System

Inside the Iron Maiden, Fighter Corridor, Room 13

"It is now 0500 am of Antique Earth Standard Time. Repeat: it is now-" A hand shot out from the covers, smacking the clock as a groan echoed from the bed, rolling over to illuminate his room by the bright neon green of the wall screen. It depicted his vital signs, an image of his current license (showing his job, alliance, and his home system), and even the temperature of his home planet: Alpha Horahkty of the Ra Solaris system. He grumbled low, sighing as he rolled back over, running a dark tanned skin though his bright silver hair, ruffled and wavy from wearing it in braids. He sat up, the black sheets slowly pooling around his waist to reveal a built body with gold tattoos pulsing softly along his back, neck, and arms. On his home-world, these tattoos were set into his skin by a laser and hot scalpel made from a meteorite, giving Akifa the blessing of the sun gods to pilot his way through the star system. What most didn't know, it kept his health in check (gold for healthy, orange for not well, green for ill and contagious, and black for dying), and also acted as a tracker for him. If Akifa did something to upset the Elder Council, they sent out assassins from his family's planet to execute him, saving his family's honor and allowing them to save face in front of the Elders of the system.

Akifa Dbakarem, from the Set Alpha tribes, was the only system resident to get out of the Ra system, even intact with his gold runes, and became a mercenary to the Iron Maiden. Originally from the last military outpost posted by the Earth's military next to Charon of Pluto, the Iron Maiden was piloted by a mysterious woman claiming to be the "last Earthling" from the original, antique Earth. While Akifa had never really seen the woman, only once when he was first initiated into the service of the Maiden, he only caught a glimpse of a hologram featuring a woman with pale skin, long flowing violet hair, and bright lilac eyes with a red marking on her forehead. Akifa didn't quite want to believe in her fully, never really having a complete faith in authority figures in his life, but this one seemed to be a bit too mysterious, even for him and his superstitious upbringing.

However, having complete control over his personal fighter, having at least 20% of all loot when he went on missions, and being able to control which missions he wanted to take: salvage, rescue, or fighting alongside/with a neutral enemy, he couldn't complain. As essentially a pirate, he loved having a safe place to lay down for the night, completely healing and feeding himself safely without worrying about being killed or back stabbed during the night. Rubbing his eyes, Akifa slowly got out of bed, scratching away on his arms or chest as his head desperately tried to clear the sleep fog from his brain. He headed over to the door, pulling on a black leather jacket over his chest before heading down to the chow hall, ignoring the pilots stumbling out for breakfast. For a mysterious boss, she loved being punctual about everything, even installing a miniature electromagnetic pulse to disrupt everything for "curfew" hour. He hated that the first night it took out his latest gaming system he managed to snag, but he quickly found a way to resist the pulses with some boredom and tinkering. One thing his mother loved praising others to about her son was his technical tinkering, being able to upgrade something with simply a box of scraps and maybe a couple candles.

"Morning Anubis!" chirped a cheery female voice, causing his ears to twinge in pain as he turned to face a young woman with synthetic skin to match an Antique-Earthling Japanese girl (some new fad in the Andromeda system was grafting synthetic skin of Antique Earth cultures to match the various ethnicities). Oracle was her codename, but that's all they were able to say, their captain saying it was forbidden to say their real names to each other in case one of them was taken for ransom. Akifa smirked softly, seeing her skip up to grab her food in the same bright, halogenic pink suit she adored with vibrant green light coursing over her suit.

"Hey Oracle... what's on the mission board for today?" he asked, scratching his neck as he ordered some easy eggs, bacon, and toast with a large helping of black coffee. Oracle sat at a table, pulling up a holographic screen displaying various missions coded from "Platinum" to "Chrome". In that order system, Platinum was War-aligning, Gold was Rescue operations, Silver was salvaging nearby destroyed planets, cities, stations, etc. Bronze meant patrol duty and reporting to allied pirate stations nearby, and Chrome simply meant a day off, given every ten missions as mandatory for a couple weeks.

Oracle hummed, clicking through the missions quickly as Anubis felt his coffee cup shake from a sudden drop next to him, nearly lifting the bench as he glanced over.

"Hey...what's going on big guy?" he asked, chuckling as another fighter pilot sat next to him, his tray heaped with pancakes, potatoes, and an even bigger steaming mug of coffee. This pilot was built like a mountain, hulking muscle and hairy red all over with a thick rich beard braided with orichalcum rings. He sat with a heavy furrowed brow, pierced with two pewter rune rings, and grumbling in a deep, Irish Gaelic brogue.

"Marnin' ye two. What're ye doin' there, Oracle?" he asked, his voice seeming to echo within his chest as Oracle giggled softly, picking a Silver mission.

"We three have been recommended by the captain to investigate a museum! Some ancient Earth museum floating in space near what was once Jupiter, but it's long dissipated since apparently someone decided to dig into its core and remove all the minerals," Oracle chirped, pulling up a picture of the floating museum, seeming to float while pulled apart to reveal all its exhibitions. Akifa furrowed his brow, leaning forward as he whistled low.

"That says Xenobiology... what would she want from there? Don't we have enough odd balls here?" he asked, stirring some cream into his coffee as Cam, short for Camulus, chuckled deeply, draining his small pot of coffee by himself.

"We know better than to ask our captain what she means, let's just go see what it is! Besides, that money will be enough to spoil my wee baerns and my lass for the next Haul-A-Way in Yuletide," Cam chuckled, finishing his meal quickly as Akifa grumbled, clearing up his plate with the toast.

"Ok, OK, gods help us... we'll take the mission. Tell the Hangar to pump our fighters and put in the coordinates to help us fly over easily enough," he muttered, gathering their trays to head over to the counter. Setting down the trays, he watched the robot arms gather the trays, starting to clean them and disinfect the dishes as he headed back to the table. Cam had already left, going over to the hanger as Oracle smiled brightly, wiggling in anticipation.

"So... wanna hang out?" she asked, winking lightly as she tried to push up her "lack of" curves against his chest, Akifa barely containing his eyes rolling before heading to the hanger.

"C'mon Oracle, you know I'm not into you... maybe if you were taller, more muscular, and oh... yeah, a guy?" he asked, smirking as he heard Oracle stomp her foot and huff loudly, whining loudly in Japanese before chasing him down the halls towards the hanger bay. Just before the hanger, a massive door sat in anticipation, humming lightly with a stool shaped with two foot molds for a pilot to stand in. Akifa went over, standing in the foot molds as beams shot from the doorway, implanting nanites along his skin to form his fighter pilot suit. Shaped as almost a second skin with minor armor that was completely customizable in its digital makeup, pilots can reconfigure the armor to their exact liking, allowing them to add holsters, extra ammo, supply packs, and more. Akifa's was stylized with ammo cartridges, charging holsters for his plasma rifles, and a couple hidden daggers up his sleeve with minor radioactive grenades in the front vest of his suit. Colored black as night with the gold matching his own runes pulsed with his heartbeat, lighting up his fighter ship with the same gold light along the black color.

"Perfect..." he grinned, going over as he took the helmet from its resting pedestal in front of the fighter craft, carved with the skull of his call sign's namesake, along with the gold headdress and outlining, he slowly pulled on the helmet. Inside, it lit up with his vital signs, linked with Oracle and Cam's com-lines inside their crafts, and even mini displays of their ships to show they were fully fueled and loaded for weapons to start their mission. In the corner of his visor screen, a tiny person appeared, dressed as an air hostess chatted in a high pitched voice: Please buckle up and begin launch sequence. Coordinates are put in, and fighter crafts Aaru, Mad King, and Kawaii-hime will depart in minus 10...9... Akifa took a deep breath, hopping into his cockpit as the craft tightened and shut itself in, buckling himself in against the plush chair as he held the controls. Displays showed his ship fully armed and "glamoring" with the Void paint he used on his craft and uniform to hide himself in the deep space environment as the countdown ended.

Akifa pushed on an ignition handlebar, firing up the thrusters as his fighter suddenly launched forward, spitting his craft out into space as he flipped it around, facing two craft following him. Oracle's bright pink and green ship light up with various drones and probes along its wings as Cam flew his infamous carrier into view, loaded with planetary weapons ranging from bullets to missiles capable of taking out minor planetoids and meteors. Essentially Cam worked as a meat shield while Akifa ran recon or sneak flank attacks to help even the odds. Oracle worked as their navigator, and essentially, ambassador in case they came across natives of different worlds. In this case, she took point as they raced off with the coordinates. Let's just hope this will end quickly so I can turn in and hibernate for two weeks, Akifa sighed, leaning back in his chair as he put his craft on autopilot before taking a nap.