Due to the direction we flew in, I was unable to see what the planet looked like. I could have asked, but I didn't want to be a bother, more than satisfied to just watch the stars and the peculiar things that were around the planet's atmosphere.
I knew the planet I was on was most probably Earth, billions of years in the future, which was why I was surprised to see that it actually had rings of it's own. And the there were six of those rings, each made of some sort of polished limestone like meteorite. There were a couple of black meteorites amongst them too, and they seemed to share one trait in common; they had runes, just like the space gate or whatever we just went through to get here.
"This are the rings of Mignerfir. They serve as one of the primary defenses for new Gaia. Keeping the planet safe from not just foreign space invasions, but also foreign dimensional invasions."
I understood what he was talking about: this was basically a fire wall and a password encrypted lock screen. The lock screen would keep unwanted shoppers away from the planet, and the firewall would keep hackers away to. Of course it might work an entirely different way than what I envision.
"Initiating Hyper Drive. Calculating long distance jump, coordinates acquired. Powering up, activating spatial influx shield. Jump!"
I felt as if my stomach was completely excavated and the urge to vomit came over me. I held it in, but Sky had no such disposition as she poured the contents of her previous meals on the floor of the ship, I could even see the handle and string of my old bow.
I looked up to see that we seemed to be moving really fast, as lights ran past us like an illusionists light show. I've read and watched enough sci fi materials to know that this was probably hyper space.
My discomfort aside, I felt really happy to be out here. I've not been to space in real life, and to suddenly have a chance to do so here in the game was really satisfying. But my satisfaction came to an abrupt end as we came out of hyper space abruptly, making my stomach feel as if it was filled with lead and shaken very hard. This time I could resist, and whatever was in my virtual body was deposited speedily on the ground.
"So sorry Master Aaren, but this is the first jump. We have to initiate the second while the hyper engine is still hot. Sorry!"
"uhhh, wait! Oh fuck!"
"Jump!"
VOOOOOOM!
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
I had no idea how many jumps were made. The only thing I was sure was the fact that my virtual and maybe even my real stomach was now completely empty. I was feeling dizzy, even to the point that I was not even aware that we had arrived. Because of that, I couldn't see what the planet we heading to looked like.
"Now entering stratosphere, initiation heat shields and preparing landing gear. Head for quadrant seventeen, it's right at the edge of M.A.S, we should be able to deduce and come up with a plan of action from there."
Next there was almost five minutes of intense turbulence, I could see flames licking the side of the ship as we entered the atmosphere of the planet. The first things I noticed were the clouds; rather the fluffy white clouds that I was used too, all I was seeing were thick black clouds rife with thunderstorms.
Soon we were past the clouds and the planet wad spread our in front of me. It was like a scene from a apocalyptic steam punk movie. Massive refineries that constantly belches out smoke. Air ships shaped like dirigibles, with their massive air bags and metallic frames, and then the small patches of buildings or cities that had lights shining within them.
But one thing that I had to say I hated was the darkness. Due to the intense amount of smoke being released, the clouds had grown black, blocking any and all light from the sun. And next were the lands around the cities: all I could see were massive trash heaps the size of cities.
Ships, cars, boats, satellites, battle ship and even space stations! Were all over. This place truly was a burial ground for machines. But then how was he supposed to choose what he wanted from among this literal planet sized trash.
"We're heading to quadrant seventeen, there's a broker who sells a special kind of high quality scanner compass with abilities to trace energy signatures and learn the composition of a machine. If we can get one of those scanners, our search time would be cut down, and you'll be able to find the perfect ship sooner."
"Wait!"
How could I have forgotten! Though it's not really my fault since I've been through a roller coaster ride of events, and to be fair I've only had a chance to use it once. I looked down at my chest, and there hanging leisurely was the mythical compass of Jack Sparrow.
I opened the compass and watched as it's dial spun around haphazardly. To use it, I had to ask it to lead me where I wanted to go. And I had to be specific about my question, or it would be completely useless. The elven clones looked at me with confusion etched all over their face, but never the less they still chose to wait for me as I stared at the compass.
"Lead me to the best sea faring ship, that's very fast, resilient and has very good battling capabilities."
The compass shook in my hand, and lit up, creating a huge holographic display of itself. But it went beyond that, the compass had its form placed over a map of the planet, and it was pointing north, with a red dot appearing over what I could only call the dead center of the planet.
"That's Quadrant 1! Nobody goes there, not if you want to live M.A.S alive. That part of the planet is filed with pirates, smugglers, murderers, thieves, and infernal creatures that were born from the amalgamation of metal and flesh, by a cursed magic no one knows about. It's suicide!" one of the elves said to me with panic all over his face.
"Don't worry Zack, I won't put you and your brothers in danger. Just take me to the closest and safest placed there, and then I'll find my way towards where I need to be." I said to them, as I strapped myself back in.
"Absolutely not master Aaren! We were ordered to look after your safety, how can you expect us to abandon you. We're going with you, even to the gates of hell itself. It's our duty, so don't worry."
"Thank you Jack."
I really couldn't differentiate them from their looks, but I could from their characters. The one who worries a lot is Zack, their leader and the most loyal is Jack. Their silent brother and also the main pilot of the cargo ship was Darke, and finally their talk active co pilot was Mack.
We all settle into a quiet atmosphere as the ship made it's way towards the fabled quadrant 1. They were nervous, and I could also feel the same nervousness because of them. I wasn't really sure about what made them so wary of this place, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Almost an hour later, the ship came to a stop in a dock, right at the edge of an expansive city. It was huge, made completely of metal, and incredibly crowded. As we made our way of the ship we were stopped by a hulking grey skinned man or ram?
He was exactly like the minotaur's from earth's mythology, but instead of being a cow, he was a ram. His pitch black horns curved backwards over his bald head, which had bionic implants on one side of it. One of his arm and leg, were metal prosthetics; prosthetics that moved like the real thing.
"Halt! You have to pay a total to get into the city….elves. (Ptui!) I hate elves."
Well congratulations I hate you too. He actually just spit at me, of course a spit flying in slow motion could not be allowed to touch me, but still how dare he. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but seeing how subdued the clones were being, I suspected that this was not the place to raise a fuss. Jack moved forward and asked.
"How much is the toll?"
"50 gold dollars each." The Ram man said with a nasty grin, showing a pair of yellowed teeth that made me cringe.
"but that's too much. I just saw you let in someone else for 1 gold dollars, why would you increase the price by 50 times?" Jack asked with an aggrieved expression on his face.
I really want to say something, or even make a move on this brute. But Darke had his hands on my wrist. And he shook his head slowly as if to tell me that any threatening actions won't end well for us.
"Well I'm the gate keeper, and this gate keeper hates elves. So if I say you money is 50 gold dollars, it's fifty gold dollars. If you don't like it, you dainty skinned elves can carry your gigolo faces and get off my planet."
I raised an eyebrow at that. Gigolo? Seriously. Somebody let me kill this mutton. I'm sure he's going to taste bland on my mouth, but food was talking back at me, and I didn't like it. Damn! I seem really irritated about something, don't really know what though.
Jack sighed and paid the toll, and we walked past him and into the city proper. Thankfully Sky was in her bow form, so he didn't give us any problem about that. Though I wonder what her staff form looked like, I bet it's really cool.
The city was like new York at night, only much dirtier, crowded, lawless, and smoky. Of course it wasn't as big as the real world city, but they gave off the same feeling. However this place was crazy, if you ask me, this was a stoner's paradise. I can't pretend that I knew what sort of effects drugs used in a virtual reality game had. But I could see people using them around every street corner and all with smiles on their faces.
Though in other corners, someone was either getting stabbed to death, or beaten to within an inch of his or her life. And others...…..we're getting really hot an steamy as intense moans and loud smacks echoed from alleys and even right on a side walk, uncaring of who or whatever was passing by. Suffice it to say, this was not the kind of place you would bring your kid.
We followed the compass as it led us on a straightforward path to the center of the city. At the end of our journey we came to a square that was filled with a lot of people. There was a set of fountain, and right on that fountain was a ship.
This ship was weird though, because apart from being dilapidated, it was completely made of a pitch black metal. It was shaped like the normal battle ships from earths early 1800 hundreds, but there were scratches on it's hull and sides, and it's anchor was rusted and hanging helplessly on the square of the floor.
But the weirdness didn't end there, as there was a file of people paying money to go into the ship. I looked at the compass and saw that it was pointing exactly at that ship, and I even had that same tugging feeling I had from last time when I found the tree of revelations.
"Are you serious master Kael! That's the most famous ship on this planet. We can't just take it! And even if you beat the dungeon and take the ship I doubt the pirates that have been making money of it would let it go easily." Zack said as he whispered furiously, scared of others hearing him.
I gave him a look that said I didn't understand what was going on here. But Mack came to his rescue.
"That ship has had many names after it was owned by numerous captains from the ancient eras, when the universe was just reborn. First it was called the Nautilus, captained by a merman who fashioned it into a submarine. This captain was called Nemo. But after him, it belong to another captain, a pirate of intense evil called Blackbeard. And he called it Queen Ann's revenge, giving the ship the power to ride the wind and even become sentient as he controlled it with a special saber. But even he wouldn't last long enough as it also fell into the hands of a cursed man. One of the first who discovered the curse that could change the race of a person. This man gave the ship the ability to travel through multiple planes of existence or dimensions. But he only ever visited the land of the dead, and the realm of the sea goddess Calypso who was at the time his lover, he named the ship the flying Dutchman. And after his tragic end, with the ship being taken over by a simple young man who didn't change it's name, and chose to ferry the spirits of the departed to the land of the living. And finally the ship fell into the hands, of the most incongruous, selfish, greedy, insane, but yet known as one of the greatest pirate that's eve lived. He was the last captain of the ship which he renamed the Black Pearl, and he made it the fastest sea faring vessel in all of history. The name of this captain of this man was......…."
"Captain Jack Sparrow." I finished with a whisper.
"You know about him?" Mack asked confused.
"I don't just know him Mack, I have his compass. It led us here; which means this ship is my destiny. Tell me, how do I get to become the captain of the greatest ships in the history of earths media."
"What?"