Maximus’ guild base was in front of them – allegedly. The clouds were still thick as ever. Everything was a swirling fog of orange and tan as Kaiden strode across the pad with the others, struggling to catch a glimpse of the shadowy structure in front of them.
The pad was wide and flat. A bridge at one side led toward the hulking mass of some sort of building. And then, all at once, the clouds broke.
Sunlight poured in from above, and for a moment Kaiden could see everything around them.
A seemingly glass-domed building stood in front of them at the end of the bridge they were on. Except, it wasn’t standing at all – it was floating. Or flying. Whatever was keeping it up, it wasn’t the ground. Kaiden glanced down into an eternity of swirling gas and howling winds before remembering there was no ground. Not on Kyraxis. It was a gas giant, after all.
The clouds began to close in again and Kaiden snapped his attention back to the view in front of him, taking in as much detail as possible before everything was smothered again.
The bubble-like building in front was circular at its base and topped by a transparent dome. Inside, he could see smaller, squat buildings scattered throughout. Each structure looked to be modular, the same four smooth metal walls used to create a basic cube. In some places, larger buildings had been created by attaching several cubes together.
The clouds settled in and Kaiden glanced beyond the dome for a moment, straining to see more of the base. In the distance, he could just make out the silhouettes of more domes. They were connected by a latticework of sky bridges, their outsides reinforced with thick support columns. The bridges spanned between the domes, creating a web that stretched off into the distance. One particular dome caught Kaiden’s eye. It was open on top, unlike the others. And inside there were explosions and flashes of light. An arena of sorts? With a fight going on inside?
A blast of wind hit the bridge and Kaiden stumbled to the side as the whole thing moved. Except, it wasn’t just the bridge. The domed building in front of them moved as well. And the landing pad. And, as Kaiden watched, each bridge and domed building in the distance moved with them, one by one as the wind pushed through the interconnected web. Eventually, the entire base was drifting, driven by the harsh wind.
“This whole base is moving,” Kaiden exclaimed.
“Free-drifting,” Zelda said with a nod. “Pretty much the only way to exist in a place like this. No reason to waste resources fighting the winds. Instead, just let them carry you. It’s not like you’re going to run into anything in this atmosphere besides more wind.”
“Yeah. It’s a cool sight, but what are we going to say once we’re in there?” Thorne asked, nodding toward the domed building waiting at the end of their bridge. “Let’s not have a repeat of the conversations with Recruz, yeah?”
Kaiden set his eyes ahead and strode forward. “We’ll say whatever we have to. Whatever it takes to get a meeting with PlayaSlaya.” They’d all sent him friend requests on the off-chance he'd accept. He hadn’t, of course.
A few more steps and the Veritas II had disappeared behind them. All Kaiden could see was the bridge beneath his feet and the domed building rising at the end of it.
Transparent doors made of the same material as the dome slid open as they approached. Kaiden led the way inside, then paused, taking in the surroundings. With a fully see-through ceiling the building had little need of artificial light – at least during the day. The light from the system’s star, reflected and softened by the swirling clouds, lit up every inch of the space with a shining brilliance.
“Nicer digs than I expected from a PVP guild,” Titus said.
“King Street’s building isn’t bad either,” Zelda replied.
“Yeah, don’t let the decor distract you,” Thorne said as she followed them in. “This is all built on PVP spoils. Might look luxurious. Fragile, even. But the players here are anything but.”
“This way,” Kaiden said, leading them toward the interior building marked ‘Processing.’
There was a doorway on the front of it, but no door, and as he stepped through it, he realized there was no ceiling either. The walls stood tall and strong, but where a ceiling should have been there was only open air. He stared through it and up to the dome a good two hundred feet above. It was almost as if each of the little buildings inside the dome was a glorified cubicle, partitioning space off for specific purposes without being fully cut off from the atmosphere of the rest of the dome.
“Crew of the Andronicus, right? Pumped to have you!” an excited voice said from behind the front desk.
Halicar
Class: Cybernetic Knight
Faction: Maximus
Level: 55
Kaiden read the information and looked the player over. He wore a black and red suit of power armor, similar to their own but for its color and mass. It was a bulky thing, reinforced in the chest and neck such that Halicar looked less a man and more a walking combat suit. Which, considering he was in a PVP guild, probably wasn’t far off.
Level fifty-five, huh? They’re not playing around here, are they?
“He’s the highest-level player we’ve ever encountered,” Kaiden said, speaking through comms so only his party would hear him.
“Private communication isn’t allowed in the base,” Halicar said, rising from his chair and leaning across the desk. “You have something to say, you can say it in proximity chat.”
“Ah, sorry.” Kaiden winced. “Didn’t know.”
“All good, all good,” Halicar said with a wave. “You’re new here. So, you’ve come to join up, yeah?”
“Actually, no.” Kaiden focused on speaking confidently. He’d been uncertain when talking to Recruz, and everyone had seen how well that worked out. There was no room for indecision.
