Sitting in a chair facing the window, Mr.

Arkridge meets with one of his engineers. "What is the report from

maintenance?" he says, staring down at Vara-590. "One of our solar panels is

damaged. We are 5% behind our normal output. Something is wrong with the

hardware." The Engineer says, standing in front of Mr. Arkridge's desk. Slowly,

he turns his chair around, asking, "Which panel is it?" in a menacing tone.

"I…it's panel three, sir," the engineer replies. "Show me the panel," Mr.

Arkridge says. The engineer puts a small, squared device on the table. Pressing

a button on it, a holographic image of the space settlement appears in front of

them. "As you can see, I highlighted the four panels in red. Panel 3 here on

the tail end is damaged on the underside." Mr. Arkridge sighs and replies, "How

long until we have it back at full capacity?" Someone knocks on the door before

the engineer can respond.

"Come in." walking through the door, a

woman in a suit appears. "Mr. Arkridge, you have an incoming transmission from

Vara-590 in the control room." Mr. Arkridge replies, "Alright, here I come. You

gather some people to help you handle that panel. I will check with you later."

Leaving his office, Mr. Arkridge heads to the control room, and about 15

minutes later, he arrives. "Answer the transmission!" Mr. Arkridge shouts.

"Yes, sir," a control room worker replied. Moments later, a screen appears in

front of him with a middle-aged man on it. "Hello, Mr. Arkridge; there has been

a problem with a shipment of fragmented soil. Around 0900 hours, space pirates

near Nars hijacked our shipment. [Nars: 8th planet from their sun] They hide in

the rock cluster in the planet's rings."

Enraged by the news, Mr. Arkridge shouts,

"What!!! SPACE PIRATES!!!" he answers back. "Yes, we are sending A.E.U

inquisitor ships after them now, Mr. Arkridge." Starting to pace back and

forth, Mr. Arkridge responded, "Why am I only being informed now it's 1300

hours? Now my fragmented soil is in the hands of space pirates!" "But sir, the

pirates somehow knew our transport route." Sitting silently, Mr. Arkridge

thinks, "It seems that other factions are starting to move against us."

"How many space pirate ships are in orbit of Nars?" He asked the man on the

screen, "they have five ships, sir." "Tell the A.E.U inquisitor ships to engage

with intent to kill. Keep me updated."

Mr. Arkridge ends the transmission and

storms out of the control room, returning to his office. when he arrives at his

office, Mr. Arkridge grabs his Spirit-13, a thin, advanced glass phone with an

A.I system. "Connect me to the Cuorox cluster. I want to speak with Scientist

Sofia." He says to the A.I "…. beep..beep sending. transmission to Cuorox Cluster waiting for it to be received…Beep..beep..

Transmission received connecting…" appearing on the screen of his phone Sofia.

This scientist works in the Cuorox cluster. "Hello, Mr. Arkridge; how may I

help you?" Sofia answers the call. "Yes, the shipment of fragmented soil was

hijacked, and I want to know if the special cargo was onboard that shipment?"

Mr. Arkridge asks. "Mhm, I would have to check the logs for that, sir….um, no,

it wasn't in that shipment we sent at 0400 hours. We only sent normal fragments

of soil." "Good. I will call you back after I deal with this problem."

Mr. Arkridge hangs the phone up, sitting

down in his chair. At Nars, in the main pirate ship, crew members talk amongst

themselves. "How long are we going to stay here for? You know the union is

readying their ships." Entering the corridor with heavy footsteps, Zaid, a

notorious black-market trader. "Stop giving me the cold shoulder. Your captain

agreed to work with me to get one of those Union ships." Zaid tells the crew

waiting in the corridor, "You want one of their ships! How are we supposed to

do that?" one member tells Zaid. "Yeah, they will blow us up before even

talking to us. We stole a shipment of fragmented soil." Coming in, Captain Kai

stops them from arguing. "Calm down, everyone. Zaid and I have come up with a

plan. When they arrive, we will enter Nars, baiting them with a fake

transmission; using that, we will fake a coup d'état saying we want to return

the resources." Captain Kai explains to his crew, letting them know the plan.

"The union should be arriving soon." Twenty

minutes later, in the pirate ship in the cockpit, the Union ships appear on

their radar, letting out a siren through their intercoms. "We are the A.E.U

Inquisitors sent by the Union. You have stolen the property of the Union.

Surrender now, or we will fire our phase cannon." Aiming their cannons towards

the pirate ships, they wait for a response from their warning. Back on the main

pirate ship, Captain Kai prepares their trap. "Alright, let's begin our

response plan to the transmission."

The pilot of the main ship responds to their warning, "Hello, this is a member of

the crew. We have staged a coup d'état and have taken over the ship. Our

captain is locked up. We request to land on Nars for a transfer." Sitting in

the orbit of Nars, eight ships and 5 Union ships, with 3 being space pirates.

The union ships communicate with each other through private coms. "What do we

do? Mr. Arkridge was very clear to destroy them." One of the Union pilots says.

"Just follow orders. Everyone activates their phase cannons and begins to

charge."

Watching the radar, the pirates notice their

sudden change. "Captain, the Union ships are moving into attack position while

readying their cannons. What do we do?" Zaid walks into the cockpit. "It seems

the higher-ups don't care for the resources when they lose them." The captain

shouts instructions: "Begin evasive maneuvers and tell our comrades in the

other ships to get into formation T30!" The pilot puts in the coordinates,

sending instructions to get into formation T30. Slowly moving into position,

the three pirate ships get in a triangular position, and then, the ships

release an electrical pulse, creating a force field covering them.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!!" suddenly, a loud

crackling noise goes off as the Union releases their cannons, firing at the

force field. The inside of the pirate ship begins to rumble, shaking the ship.

"The shield is at 80%, a few more hits, and we are sitting ducks." The pilot

shouts, holding onto his seat. Suddenly, Zaid shoots Captain Kai and the pilot

with a blaster and kills the remaining crew on the main ship. "Since the plan

isn't going well, I should just take the resources. There should be an escape

pod somewhere."

Zaid hurries to the storage room to grab a capsule of fragmented soil. An alarm

sounds off as the shield malfunctions. "I need to hurry up." the Union ships

charge another shot while the force field for the pirates dissipates, opening

holes in it. "FIRE PHASE CANNONS!!!" shooting another volley of blasts at the

ship. right as some of the blast hits the shield, it fully disappears. detaching from the main ship, an escape pod falls, then shoots off, flying away from the Depix System. "What was that!!" one of the Union pilot's shouts.

The rest of the blasts destroy the pirates without their shields. "Mission

complete. Report to our commander that someone escaped in a pod, probably the

captain." Turning around, the Union ships head back to Vara590…

4 hours later, passing the Canaan settlement, getting into Vara's orbit, and

preparing to re-enter the atmosphere. "Confirming re-entry Inquisitors

squad-74HG request clearing." "…beep…beeeeep... received transmission…information confirmed re-entry allowed." The Union ships re-entered, landing back at the A.E.U headquarters. All five land on a large airstrip. Walking up to the ships, Commander Clark waits as the pilots get out of the

ships. "Mission report!" Commander Clark shouts, "The space pirates are dead,

but someone escaped in a pod. We think it may be the captain, sir." The squad

leader replies to Commander Clark, "Okay, go clean up. I'll report this to Mr. Arkridge. Pilots leave, and the commander pulls his phone out, calling Mr.

Arkridge.

"…. beep…click... waiting to be received…...

received… Hello, commander. I hope you have good news." Mr. Arkridge asks

Commander Clark. "Yes, I do. we had to kill the pirates, but there is one

thing." Mr. Arkridge cuts him off before he can finish. "What else is there?

You said that you killed them, right?" he shouts at Commander Clark. "Someone

escaped in a pod heading out of our System. The pilots couldn't pursue them. We

think that it was the captain." Commander Clark tells Mr. Arkridge. "Okay, that

is fine. It was only a regular shipment of fragmented soil. Keep up the good

work," ending the call with commander Clark.

Back in the Space settlement, Mr. Arkridge

goes for a walk throughout the Canaan settlement. Leaving his office and going

down a long hallway, Mr. Arkridge approaches a door. Pulling out an ID card, he

slides it into the module "…. Access granted." The door opens into the main

Equatorial regions. A road leads from the door, which connects to the first

Island Drywood. Going down the road, you can see on the horizon the cylinder

walls as they stretch far, also buzzing with life. The inhabitants of Canaan

fly around in advance vehicles. Mr. Arkridge lets out a satisfying sigh. "This

view never gets old."

along the road. A pod center for the Sky

cycles [a small pod that holds 1 or 2 people connected to a track for

transportation] passes under a viaduct into the pod center. "Oh, hello, Mr.

Arkridge, how are you?" a lady at the front desk asks him. "I am fine, and I

would like to register a pod one seat, please." "Okay, one singular seat pod

coming up. Go ahead over to your left." Mr. Arkridge steps into the pod,

sitting in a seat with an A.I panel on the armrest. "Take me to Eagles Keep."

Mr. Arkridge says to the A. I "...alright, Mr. Arkridge…loading destination…

Please stay seated for the duration of the ride." For the next 30 minutes, he

rides the pod heading home.

 Sometime later, Mr. Arkridge arrives at Eagles Keep, his private area for the Arkridge household. a large platform with a

mansion on it. Getting out of the pod, he goes to a gate; as he nears it, it

suddenly scans him. "… Scanning... Scanning…. Identity confirmed. Welcome back,

Mr. Arkridge." The gate opens automatically, letting him in. Inside the

property, there is a water fountain. Rushing towards him are two small kids,

Tristan and Xavier, his twin sons. "Father, your back!" "Dad, look what mom

gave me." both of his sons shout to him, being excited to see him. "Where is

your mother?" Mr. Arkridge asks his son's. "She's inside."

At the same time, flying through space in an escape pod, Zaid enters The Visrock

Sector. "I need to contact Evelyn. This mission was a bust…Send a transmission

to the Visrock sector to Evelyn Mistspire." Zaid says to the A. I Transmitter "….

connecting to The Visrock sector…. waiting for transmission to be received….

Received." "Hello, who is this?" a woman says through the transmission. "It's

me, Zaid. I am calling about the mission I was assigned. The pirates are dead,

and the Union destroyed their ships. I escaped in a pod. We could get a hold of

fragmented soil even though it wasn't our main target." Zaid responded, saying

to Evelyn.

"Oh, it's you, Zaid. I was wondering why I was getting a transmission through an

unknown channel. That is fine. Bring me that fragmented soil, and I'll pay you

half of what I was going to pay you." Evelyn tells Zaid, "I am on my way there

now, but it will take me a day or two. I'm in open space right now with nothing

around." Zaid expresses to Evelyn. "Okay, I will let the others know you are on

your way." Two days later, arriving in the Visrock sector, an enormous

meteorite home to the black-market faction. Living within the tunnels of the

meteorite, an underground network of Black-market traders thrives. Zaid flies

in, approaching a tunnel inside a large metal wall that blocks the way.

the pod is scanned. "…. Code required for

entry." Zaid puts a number code into the modular on the armrest in the pod: "….

Received code…verifying…. code confirmed." the metal wall rises, opening for

Zaid to let him in.