travel were wearing synthetic clothing made for warm weather. They finally reached the information kiosk, a narrow post that had been plastered over many times by animated and non-animated advertisement postings.
'All right, we're looking to buy food, survival supplies, and find somewhere to move to, right?' asked Jenny as she pulled at advertisements covering the front of the information booth.
'Right, food first,' Ayan confirmed.
Jenny managed to pull an advertisement for skin pigmentation modification pills called Sliskin off the main panel and gave it a withering look as it declared; 'insert five UCW or equivalent credits' with a colourful holographic projection.
Ayan dug in her messenger bag for a moment and presented the three GC pennies she’d gotten for change. “I think the exchange is pretty brutal for UCW credits.” She said as she dropped two of them into the slot that was easy to find, thanks to a large green, bouncing arrow. The machine said; “Thank you, your information is being prepared.” A rotating dish appeared on screen and animated for several seconds before it was replaced with a message that read; ‘MORE PLEASE’ before the bouncing green arrow appeared again. 'What the?' she asked no one in particular.
A traveller with a salt and pepper beard stopped and tapped her on the shoulder. 'Most of these have been hacked, miss. You just paid someone somewhere whatever you dropped in the slot. You could wait around and shoot whoever ripped you off when they come along to empty the machine or you can get on with things. What are you looking for?'
'We're looking to buy food wholesale, and survival gear.'
He reached over her head and pulled a plastic page from the post with two hard jerks. 'You can't access the free net through that thing. Not since the H virus. Look for open postings.'
Ayan took the sheet and smiled at the stranger. 'Thank you,'
'Your welcome. One thing; are you the folks that landed in the Dower Wastes a little while ago?”
“Maybe,” Ayan answered with an upraised eyebrow.
He pointed over her head and behind her; “Word’s out.”
A flickering projection displayed footage from her speaking to the customs officer in the rain. It began sending audio to her proximity radio the moment she looked directly at it. “…can say why this controversial, known associate of Freeground and Jonas Valent is here, but judging from her companions, their armament and level of combat readiness, we’d best hope they’re here to help in the fight against the Order of Eden,” said an excitable narrator’s voice. “This woman, simply known as Ayan, an old Earth name that means ‘Sheppard’ or ‘bright light’, is the re-inception of Ayan Rice, a Freeground Military Officer who is said to have been present when Jonas Valent allegedly released the base code of the Holocaust Virus into a base ship nearly a decade ago. The Carthans maintain that Regent Galactic and the Order of Eden have not gathered enough evidence to warrant the arrest of the memory transfer clone, Jacob Valance, or his cohorts. According to records we obtained only moments ago, Ayan is the registered owner of a small armada of combat ready ships, and even claims to be a commanding officer of the Triton, the ship that Regent Galactic claims Jonas Valent was most recently seen on. She has been given a privateering licence by the Carthan government, whether they believe Jonas Valent is secretly pulling the strings as we do, no one can say. What matters now is that they are here, and they have been given permission to move from the Dower Wastes to a recognized port.”
Ayan realized several people were watching her and looked away. “I can’t believe this, Regent Galactic put us right in the middle of everything and they’ve got so much of the story completely wrong.”
“They also have some of it right,” Laura told her. “This could work to our advantage.”
'Best of luck, you’re on two out of five news streams. Hope you’re here for the right reasons, and if Valance is really with you, tell him he’s got a few friends on the ground. Good luck, miss,' he said as he fell in step with the crowd headed to the shuttles.
Ayan watched him disappear into the press of bodies. 'Let's get out of here so we can take a better look at this.'
They followed each other as though they were moving through a grand melee. Ayan had instinctively taken the lead and regretted it almost immediately. Vic passed her a moment later and she stepped in behind him as though she were riding his wake. Laura was behind her with her hand on her shoulder and everyone else followed.
They made their way up an incline and through the doors, emerging onto the edge of an expansive circular courtyard. The star and sword emblem of the United Core World Confederation was the main feature in the centre of the circle, and it looked as though someone had come along with heavy equipment and had tried to scrape it clear, denting it in places and smoothing the indentations of the lines out in others. Wandering across its surface was a man stripped to the waist. On his chest the words; HATE FATE had been written in tall black letters. “The Order is everywhere! Look to the ones who stayed alive, stayed rich and never met a bot they didn’t use! They are the foothold, they will make the beach head, and while the war rages in the stars our children will buy into the promise of paradise, and become the new consumers! Tear away the devices! The trappings! Grow food! Live in the jungle! Turn away from the paradise they promise, make your own!”
The energy and conviction he put into the words pushed more people away than it attracted. Several by passers watched and listened from a distance, however, it was impossible not to. Ayan didn’t want to make her attention obvious, however, and turned her attention to the structural surroundings once again, looking up. There were fifteen storeys above them, each with their own balconied open air walkway looking down into the courtyard. Along each railing ran a myriad of departure and arrival times, current news items along with the current position of each moon.
The courtyard wasn't nearly as densely packed, and the going was easy as they quickly made their way to a pair of unoccupied benches. 'You know, I thought I had seen a lot after taking leave on other worlds, but this is just beyond,' Ayan said as she watched a family of four wrapped in black and green robes casually stroll into the transit centre.
'I know the feeling. It's just like the movies set in the core worlds after the Third Fall.' commented Jenny as she watched a flock of pigeons peck at seed scattered by an old woman.
'Pandem was like this in some places. Always busy, just barely enough room to move,' Victor said quietly.
'Ima gets busy around crop time, but not this busy. Didn't like it much there either, it gets hard to find a quiet place,'
'I think I know why the Carthans are giving privateer permits out to anyone with a ship registered to them,' Ayan said as she watched a pair of men in business suits carrying long weapons cases emerging from the transit station.
'They're afraid of what a ship Captain can do if they're based here,' Laura finished.
'What do you mean?' asked Victor.
Ayan held up the interactive advertisement sheet in her hand and pressed SHOP. Several smaller ads appeared around a query button. She pressed it and said; 'List all postings for ship to ship weapons sold from a local slip.'
'Local slip?' asked Jenny.
'It means from a ship mooring or landing area,' Laura explained.
Everyone's eyes went wide as the list appeared; it contained over ten thousand results. Ayan set the system to list the cheapest first and wasn't surprised to see a mixture of electromagnetic and particle pulse weapons. 'Okay, these look like rebuilt Vindyne weapons, so I'm thinking a lot of Captains have cargo hold operations where they strip and rebuild whatever weapons they manage to take from their captures. I'm pretty sure any of them would be arrested or at least fined if they tried selling this stuff in Greydock, but here it's pretty much open season as long as they are willing to make it look like they're making an effort to hide the fact that these guns come from a Regent Galactic or Order of Eden ship.'
'Wait, you said Vindyne?' Laura asked quietly.
'These pulse weapons, their stats, they look Vindyne. Regent Galactic bought up a lot of Vindyne territory and whole fleets while they were collapsing. It was in my, um, predecessor’s journal.'
'Oh, I didn't know Regent took their fleets.'
Ayan began a new search for food and started browsing as everyone looked on.
A thought donned on Laura then and she smiled. 'Wait, we know how to track Vindyne ships, or at least I
