1 Welcome Commander
"Huff, huff!"
A young man was gasping for breath. He was strapped to a chair, leather-like straps preventing him from floating away. Yes, floating. The chair was bolted into a small spaceship that was itself, floating in space.
"Haa, what, where..?"
[Booting complete, welcome Commander!]
"Commander? Where, that, that voice? Space Fleet?"
[Please choose your Fleet occupation!]
"Shit. I'm in the game. If there is a God, I'd imagine it be laughing its ass off right now. Fuck me sideways! Wish stupid things and they shall be granted, is it now?"
[Please choose your Fleet occupation!]
"Shut up, you dumb program!"
The young man's name was James. He was, or at least used to be, an 18-year old high school graduate. He lived a fairly average life in an average family, had average grades and average friends. The biggest passion of his life was a bit unusual though. Sci-fi strategy games. He wasn't of any special talent but enjoyed them nonetheless.
The game that had come to his fancy in the most recent of times had been a new much broader game. It combined various aspects of FPS, MMORPG, Strategy, Sandbox and Base-building games. You could have individual levels and faction ones. Everything in the game was 3D and explorable, yet each player made a faction of their own.
Like in every other game, a player also had a class, unlike other games, factions had them too. You could be a mercenary fleet, the tech tree of which let you be the "jack of all trades, yet master of none". On the other hand, if you choose to be a military fleet, your tech tree would only allow you to research better weapons. If you choose a merchant fleet you would lose a lot of the firepower, but have an easier time making connections and transporting goods. Very standard stuff.
The only type of fleet you couldn't have was the so-called kingdom fleet. The devs had decided that for balancing's sake the players should always remain secondary characters.
[Choose your Fleet occupation!]
"Fine! Jesus, can't even have a flashback in peace."
James didn't really need to dwell on his options. He had always played as the [Mercenary Fleet]. The freedom to do anything, even at the cost of never reaching the top was too enticing for him.
[Class [Mercenary Fleet] has been chosen! Congratulations! Please select your first base!]
"Right. The Tutorial base. This means I'm in the Dead Belt."
[Warning!]
[You may upgrade your fleet class. Do you wish to do so? (preview is unavailable)]
...
The Dead Belt was a huge asteroid belt that separated the Androway Galaxy. It had been created when the old Milky Way had crashed into the Andromeda Galaxy. The Dead Belt sprung into existence when the main civilisations of their respective Galaxies had a war.
Nowadays, with the war over, the Dead Belt continued to serve as a reminder of history. For the small and the poor, however, the Ring held great treasures. Bandits, mercenaries, militia groups, and even new civilisations have sprung up in the more well-maintained parts of the Belt.
The Tutorial region was one of the many "no man's land" regions between various factions. If you choose the [Military Fleet] class, you would go for the local "nation" named "Eleven Suns Belt Federation". As the name implied, the Federation held 11 suns.
James had selected the [Mercenary Fleet] class, however. This gave him an option to either build an outpost on one of the many asteroids or seek refuge and employment at the hands of one of the factions.
"Since all my neighbours are shitty, I'll just make my own base. Not to mention the hidden stuff I'll get that way."
The small, van-sized spaceship turned on its engines and set out to find the perfect location.
Since James had already played the game and reached a decent standing in the international community as one of the minor "kings of mercenaries", he did know quite a bit about the hidden quests and items in the game.
The first one was also the one that allowed him to grow as strong as he did in his previous life. It was the so-called "Hidden Belt", an asteroid belt that was connected to the Tutorial zone via a wormhole. The Hidden Belt itself wasn't located outside the Turorial zone. It was just hidden by a constant revolving storm of rocks that made it unreachable unless the wormhole was used.
Inside this belt, there were 3 suns and two planetary systems. Spacious and full of resources, yet cut off from the rest of the world it was a perfect base location.
The small spaceship slowed to a halt in front of a huge asteroid that floated right in front of the other end of the wormhole. The asteroid looked like the moon crescent, just rounder and with a bowl-like depth. The spaceship touched down.
"Haha, I'm back. Now I just have to do it all again. At least before 3 years pass, I need to be able to command three ships. I'll miss it otherwise, the new war."
James put on his spacesuit and turned towards the exit hatch of his ship. He pressed the big red button and soon heard the ships AI in his ears.
"Warning. You are opening the main hatch."
"Please step into the decompression chamber."
A door opened and James entered the small locker sized chamber. He pressed another button, and the door behind him closed. He could now hear the pumps sucking out the air. Soon there was only silence since sound doesn't pass through the vacuum. He could still feel the subtle vibrations of the reactor.
The hatch above him opened and James ascended with the help of a retractable ladder. He then stood on the roof of his bulky spaceship and started his first steps in this new life of his.
