Meet The Team

The purr of the engine came to a stop, Eron stepped out of the vehicle. To his surprise a moderately sized spacecraft was greeting him. A pair of people walked from an opening while discussing something.

T closed the door to the vehicle, "First order of things, introductions."

After a long drive they finally arrived at their destination. T stated that he would introduce the Mercenary squad he was in charge of while they plotted the next course of action. One thing he was careful to remind him of was how busy Eron's days were about to become.

The two walked up to T and Eron. One of them outstretched a hand, "Eron right? I saw your test."

Eron shook the hand with an eagerness to prove himself, "You are?"

"You can call me Ars. I'm the mechanic of this craft, I also manage and repair any equipment."

Ars was nothing like a human. He looked thin and lightweight. His skin was pale green, hair baby blue, and three esca with faint neon green lights. Such an individual was commonly referred to as 'Journeymen'. His sea green eyes reflected the sunlight, making it look like the sea itself.

Placed upon his head was a pair of interesting looking goggles. Several buttons were laid on either side of them, designed for quick access with either hand. However Eron could not tell what they did. Dressed in simple clothing the only thing that stood out besides the goggles was the belt he wore. More specifically the strange device holstered on it. It looked like the handle of a screwdriver, that was all he could tell. Next to the device was several small cylinders. They looked like fuses, but was much smaller than the ones Eron was used to.

[Journeymen: A mostly aquatic race, however they're hybrid in both land and sea. They refer to themselves as 'Artizna', meaning explorer in their tongue. Mostly peaceful by nature the Artizna prefer to develop themselves technologically. Boasting an incredible memory and dexterous ability with their hands, it makes them highly sought after for recruitment in research teams. Despite this they lack physical strength and require the assistance of machinery. Due to them living underwater a majority of the time they have light frames but compact bodies.]

"Pleased to make your acquaintance.", Eron said.

Next to Ars was a human lady. Outstretching her hand she introduced herself, "I go by Remedy. I'm the medic of the team."

Remedy was small, but not incredibly so. With brown hair, green eyes, and tanned skin she seemed quite outgoing. What caught his attention was the lab coat she wore. It seemed out of place compared to it. Perhaps it was similar to that of a doctor's coat? Additionally a pair of thin framed glasses rested on her face. A strange thing, for getting your eyesight fixed was a simple task. Or so Eron read.

Taking the hand he shook it as well, "Eron, I'm hoping to learn what I can."

"You aware of what we need you for?"

"A shadow of sorts."

"Ha! A funny way of putting it."

T stepped in to interrupt, "You all can talk more later. Where's the other two?"

Placing her hand into her pockets she maneuvered herself around everyone and behind T, "Rex is resting, her recovery is almost done. As for the other. . . he's on a call right now."

"Can't come and greet the rookie? Ah whatever. Ars show him around the craft would you? I'll chat with Rex."

Ars nodded, "On it. Come along Eron, let's start with the basics."

After a quick glance in T's direction Eron sped up to match Ars' pace. Gesturing towards the spacecraft he asked, "How much do you know about the craft in general?"

"I don't understand."

"Hmm, old technology is still rampant here. . . Okay so what I'm asking is what do you know about spacecraft. We usually refer to them as 'crafts'. Just so I know what I'm working with here."

Eron shook his head, "Rarely see them, this is the first time I've ever been so close to one before. I've only ever seen them in the sky."

Ars looked at Eron with a pitying expression, "Backwaters, you'll be thrown for a loop then."

"Sorry."

"It's what you're here for. Learning that is."

"Right, so spacecraft are commonly called just craft. Got it."

"Spacecraft are divided into different categories. Since there's simply too many to go over I'll send you an information packet later. For you to study in your own time. For now just know that they're ranked by letter. Such as Grade A, or Grade B."

"How many Grades are there?"

"Four, for now. A is the worst. The further you are from A the better the craft. Also the more expensive it is."

Eron frowned at the knowledge, "A is the worst?"

"The first Grade is designated as A. It was to symbolize 'Point A'. The beginning of it all. Since it was the first level of craft to be made, naturally it has many a flaw."

"Okay, so A is the worst, D is the best."

"A very simplified form, but yes essentially."

Pausing at the opening of the craft Ars tapped the plated exterior. An incredibly faint metal tang sound was created, "This is a Hybrid. You'll learn more about the types later in that information packet I mentioned. This one is a mix between a carrier and a battleship. With some modifications from me it's more of a homebase now."

The spacecraft was larger than Eron's home. Two large doors were on both ends, with Eron at the leftmost door if you were facing the same direction as the spacecraft. The back of the spacecraft also had a ramp that lowered, or raised to close. A step ejected beneath the doors to allow easy boarding. Ars entered the craft and waited for Eron to stumble his way up.

Through the doors he was greeted by a lobby of sorts. More specifically it was a somewhat empty space in the center of the ships. To his immediate right was the loading dock, along with the ramp previously mentioned. What was clearly designed to hold some small vehicle was instead modified to hold several different workbenches and gadgets. Ars gestured towards it, "This is my station. I complete my repairs and management all right in the back. It's here to also tinker with any vehicles I can get to fit."

"This is what you meant by modifications?"

Eron explored a bit. Two workbenches were on one side, cluttered with devices he failed to recognize. Tools hung on the wall above for quick access, but Eron couldn't recognize the tools either. On the other end was a series of shelves and heavy chests. Bags of various pieces of equipment lay rested haphazardly. Ars coughed, "Ignore the mess, I was experimenting recently. A method to spend the sudden increase in free time."

With a shake of his head Eron explained, "It doesn't seem all that messy to me."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Walking towards the front of the craft Ars gestured towards a few things, "There's the steps to reach the upper layers. You'll be spending most of your time up there, at least that's where everyone is most of the time. If we pass that however we reach the maintenance room."

"Is it different from your workshop?"

"Of course. While I can access a few things from the workshop, a lot of the power of the ship is here at the front."

"Is that not dangerous?"

Ars tapped a flat pad on the wall and a pair of armored doors split open, a bit of steam formed as the doors slowed to a stop, "That's an odd question. How about a question in response—consider it part of your training here. Is there any place on a craft that's safer from the rest?"

Eron's first thought was the center. After all it would be the furthest away from all points. However upon further thought he found he couldn't provide a reasonable answer. Shaking his head he chose to respond with, "I don't think there is one."

Ars smiled, "Not bad, you have a decent head on your shoulders there. Your answer is correct. If at any point we're faced with a threat that can pass through our shield, every single point in this craft is in danger. A missile pierces through the hull and you become a victim of the vacuum of space. You can section off rooms to prevent yourself from becoming a victim, but it's all temporary. Without the shields it becomes a matter of time before the ship becomes shredded."

Gently caressing a hand across the hard metal walls Ars murmured, "That's why battles with crafts last moments."

Through the armored doors was a large room of several things. Against the walls on both sides were several access points. Latches to open metal hatches were accompanied by bright yellow painted arrows to provide rough instructions. Underneath the hatches lay metal boxes, all tightly sealed, and several thick cylinders

Ars caught Eron's gaze and explained, "This is where most of my attention lies. These latches access the reload points of our ballistic weapons, and above those are the cells for our thermal ones. If you direct your attention forward you will find the heart of the craft."

A massive spherical machine lie at the end of the room. It hummed a neon light blue through a small viewing window. Several tubes connected to it spread apart and sunk into the walls, all thoroughly sealed to prevent any leakage. Ars tapped the giant sphere and said, "The source of all our power. A hydrogen engine, although furnace would be a more fitting name."

Pointing to the tubes he explained, "These transfer the energy to our thrusters, which in turn make the ship move. In return for burning all that hydrogen we get quite a bit of heat. That is cooled in the vacuum of space, this in turn causes us to harness that via thermoelectric generators that we use to power everything else. Of course we use coolants because we can't always be in the cold degrees of space, so we can still harness power while being grounded."

Crouching down he opened a hatch Eron failed to spot previously, "Here is where our defense lies. A lot of that energy is stored and used here. Using the vast amount of power we can power our shields. Using a series of Myriad Projectors we can form a spherical shield around the craft. These naturally require an incredibly amount of power to maintain, especially under pressure. Thermoelectric power is far from enough to power these. Which is why a majority of the power comes directly from the furnace."

Pointing up at the generator he continued, "In the process of burning Hydrogen a lot of spare energy is created. While it's used to power thrusters, it would be incredibly inefficient to use it solely for that. So all the spare energy is used to power the shields along with the thermoelectirc generators. Any excess is stored in these cells here."

He tapped a section of handles. Each handle was connected to a circle embedded in a neat 2x5 pattern. With a flourish of his hand he pointed back at the cells previously mentioned, "And it all circles back to these. While the shields are inactive, these things charge fully and then are wasted just sitting here. So we swap them out to charge empty cells, and use the spares to power the thermal weapons. Making this beautiful condensed area of sheer power."

With a shrug he also mentioned, "Additionally in the scenario we run out of spare power they can be used as batteries to fuel the shields for a little while longer."

Eron struggled to keep up with it all, but he dedicated the majority of it to memory. He felt that it all would become natural as he continued to work with this crew however.

Ars closed the hatch, "I'll teach you the method of maintenance and the details in the future. In the case I'm out of commission it'll be up to you to make sure we're still running."

"That's a bit of pressure."

"Don't worry, I'm rarely on the front lines anyway. Combat is not my specialty. I'm the least injured among all of us here. Now let's head up to the upper layers."