3 Chapter 2 - Arrival
Loop Trade Space Station
Situated inside a solar system at the edge of the civilized area of the galaxy.
Known in the region as 'The Frontier', the station prospered as numerous ships came in and out towards both the civilized and the unexplored regions. Mercenaries and explorers tried out their luck with high-risk high-reward missions from large corporations, who in turn sold equipment and supplies to those who pioneered the unknown regions and bought any information of rare resources they found.
With a little bit of luck, a resource deposit will be discovered. prompting these large corporations to mobilize, sending a sizable fleet of miners to slowly extract the mineral deposits' contents.
....
...
..
.
A few hundred thousand kilometers near Loop Trade.
*Crack!*
Space rippled as a Red rift appeared and a cone-shaped crystal spacecraft came out of it at high speeds. Making its way towards Loop Trade station and leaving a red blood-like trail behind as the rift slowly disappeared.
*Ding*
A soft chime echoed inside the craft before a neutral voice followed.
[Sire, we have arrived at the designated destination.]
The man inside the craft opened his eyes.
Three days have passed since his transmigration and learned things that broke his worldview over and over again.
The man looks horrible with dark eye bags as the result of having almost zero hours of sleep, and to make matters worse, he discovered days ago that the craft had no food, making him feel weak on the entire journey.
Fortunately, this body of his is quite sturdy, getting injected with mysterious nutrition shots concocted by the system, as well as having water to drink that kept him hydrated and made him last till now. But still, he could not stop the occasionally growling noise coming from his stomach as well as the call of nature that followed him from time to time.
"urg... Finally." said the man in relief and a bit of irritation.
'Damn, I was about to fall asleep too, I feel sick as well, I wanna take a bath...'
He was unable to move even a little bit during the journey as the cockpit was just right for his size. (Un)Fortunately, his hunger kept him preoccupied, otherwise, he would have died out of boredom a few times over.
He looked toward his arm which had the now broken arm-brain that he destroyed, out of fear that people might be able to track his location.
Oliver Evans, after all, should've died, along with his lackeys at the uncharted system.
'Oliver Evans needs to disappear.' There was no other choice.
After all, If he did go and returned as Evan's. He would most probably receive questioning and suspicion from the Golden Ring army's upper brass' as well as other authorities.
What happened to the star system?
How did he survive?
His mind is very unstable at the moment.
So many questions he would not be able to answer.
An entire star system mysteriously vanishing without apparent reason is no small matter. And having no idea how to explain anything will not help at all.
As such, he decided to hide.
"Activate stealth system and get inside the station. " the man steeled himself.
[Yes, Sire.]
A multi-colored mist slowly covered the craft before slowly vanishing out of sight. The craft then began its acceleration towards the station.
It took only a few dozen seconds to get to the port, covering tens of thousand kilometers per second, and made a quick work of the hundreds of thousand kilometers of distance.
"This... this is crazy..." the man gasped as he saw the tiny dot which was the station getting larger and larger very quickly.
He knew of the crafts' speed capabilities but failed to comprehend what it truly meant due to previously not having any external object of reference.
"Damn, is this what a caveman of the Paleolithic era would feel if it gets to ride a plane for the first time?" he grips his chest as it kept on pounding due to his pure excitement.
"Huu~... I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack." he unconsciously began to grin as he joked.
****
Loop Trade space station is a neutral zone, run by businessmen with no military installation from any government and have their private forces to keep the order instead. The station is situated on a large asteroid, with complete infrastructure and facilities to accommodate a large number of people as well as resources.
An artificial atmosphere covered the asteroid allowing people to live on its surface. A Sanctuary-type shield that's commonly used in space colonies.
With a defense-belt structure outside its atmosphere spanning a few thousand kilometers. It surrounded the station and served as its defensive insurance against pirates and rogue Comets that might threaten its security.
The stations' entry point is a large ring-shaped gate equipped with a blue shield that prevents air from escaping.
A long procession of ships of different sizes waited just outside the gate for entry clearance.
The crystal craft drew near a large unmanned cargo hauler and went past the hull of its cargo bay like a ghostly apparition, unhindered by its disabled shield. As the station's authorities mandated its deactivation for the scanners to thoroughly inspect the ships in and out the station.
The craft landed on top of a shipping container as it waited for the cargo hauler to go past through the gateway.
The person inside has already grown numb at the crafts numerous capabilities. And now that he's thought about it...
'Evans memories didn't know of any technology that has the same effect as this craft. There are crafts as fast as this one, but the design and materials that this craft have are completely foreign to other existing craft in his memories.'
"I'll have to dig through a lot of questions after my situation gets a bit smoother."
The system has been refusing to answer any questions he asked the whole journey and always told him to wait, which made him feel helpless.
"..."
He noticed the craft separating with the cargo hauler after it crossed the gate and flew towards the metropolis below.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
*Humm~*
The invisible crystal-craft, with a length of an average Porsche, slowly landed on a deserted alleyway. In between a few large buildings located in the commercial sector of the station.
A beam of light quickly swept the surrounding area, searching for any surveillance equipment.
The light vanished, before the craft disabled its stealth, completely revealing its crystalline exterior that would most likely steal every people's gaze. If there's anyone in this alley that is...
The side of the craft formed an oval-shaped opening and the man slowly stepped down the spacecraft.
He staggers a bit, not used to using his legs and the pulling force of the station's gravity. but still managed to hold on to the vehicle, saving himself from face planting into the hard metal ground/surface.
He looked at his foot as he felt the cold surface.
"ah... Right, my clothes... "
He remembered that the suit he's wearing is in a tattered state with both his legs exposed and having his tops riddled with a few fist-sized holes.
Thankfully, his savior's voice was heard.
[Sire, the system has taken the liberty to scan a few articles of clothing in the vicinity, please stay still while the system puts it on you.]
A sudden feeling of sand-like texture engulfed his body. Prompting him to look back down and saw a transparent liquid appear all over him.
"What's this?" he asked as he poked the translucent mass on his chest.
[Nano-crystal Bots, commonly used for patching holes on damaged spacecraft' in case of emergencies.]
"..."
[Apologies' sire, the system currently has no other materials for making clothes inside its warehouse.]
"huh? Uh no, This is fine too, Thanks."
The Nano-crystals by then slowly settled down.
He looked at the spacecraft's surface and found his reflection wearing all black cyberpunk-ish clothing, without the eye-catching neon lights on it of course, but still looks quite good on his well-built body.
"Cool, thanks."
He turned side to side, inspecting his familiar, yet foreign getup, before noticing his face. Red hair that goes down almost to his shoulders and a good-looking face with well-defined features that will make eight out of ten women look in his direction. In his 21st century standards of course.
Evans' bloodline is mostly that of a human and looks very much like a European man in terms of body built and facial features.
"Damn... That's one good-looking face...Hmmm. "
'Evans would've been a top model back on earth with his looks and build...' he couldn't help but click his tongue at Evans' looks.
But he then remembered something...
"Oh right, Evans' supposed to be KIA, can you do something about my face? Either changing or hiding it with a mask would be good." and asked the AI.
[Understood]
A cool sensation crept onto his whole head, prompting him to close his eyes for a few seconds, waiting until the disguise is finished.
[Task complete, please take a look.]
"ohh~ not bad... Nothing should be able to recognize my face now... But uhh."
His facial structures changed quite a bit. He became a slightly above average-looking uncle in his late forties, with shoulder-length black hair and a magnificent handlebar mustache.
But the cyberpunk clothes, paired with 17th century looking facial hair, made a comical combination that made his lips twitch as he tried his best to stop himself from laughing.
"*Ahem*... Can you change it to a different one? No, just remove the beard and no need to change the hair, as well as the face."
[Undertood] The AI replied and made the beard disappear.
"Thanks." he nodded, satisfied with his current getup, and turned away from the craft. He looked around the alleyway and asked...
"Let's get out of here, shall we. Oh right, We should first hide the ship before we..."
The craft flashed with a soft light before disappearing out of thin air.
"?"
He noticed something different with its disappearance.
' It's not a multicolored mist like last time...'
A colorful mist covered the craft as it turns on its stealth system earlier, is what he remembered. But this time's different and just straight up vanishing...
"...Alright, let's get out of this alley and find ourselves a hotel or something to stay at." he decided to ignore the mysterious things the system does for the time being and picked one of the two directions that are available to him. there are only two things in his mind right now. Lots of food and a night of long sleep.
Thankfully, he is familiar with the layout of the station because of Evans' memories, as well as being able to see the area from above earlier, and got out of the alley not long after.
The number of people and different noises became larger and louder as he came closer to one of the main roadways.
He could not help but look at everything around him with curiosity. As a person of the 21st century, everything looks alien-like to him as he saw a lot of high-tech gadgets, infrastructures with holographic displays, and many other objects that are normally found in fiction.
A sudden aromatic smell assaulted his senses, prompting his stomach to growl, making him stop.
He looked at the building in which the smell was coming from and found out a restaurant with a fair amount of patrons inside.
His feet unconsciously changed their course towards the restaurants' direction. But he was stopped from his tracks by a stern thought that erupted in his head.
"Hey system, do we, by any chance, have money?" he reached towards his pockets and found them empty before caressing the now broken arm brain.
[None, sire.]
A reply that doused his grumbling stomach to silence came.
He found a bench with an ample shade, beneath a blue tree for shelter against the artificial sun up above the sky, and sat down to look through Evans' memories for any useful information regarding his financial situation.
A few minutes passed before he found what he was looking for.
"Right! He had a sto...." He suddenly felt a strong grip on his shoulder, stopping his sentence mid-way, followed by a threatening voice in front of him.
"Retard, I'm speakin to ya, which f**kin group are ya from, and what're ya doin in our turf?!"
The man gasped as he found a couple of thugs with the same cyberpunk-ish clothes he's wearing, looking menacingly at him.
"huh?"
