As morning dew drops and the sun rises through the clouds after a night of heavy rain on Veridian. The air, still damp from the overnight deluge, carried the earthy scent of petrichor and the faint, sweet aroma of the flowering sky-vines that climbed the walls outside his window. A lone sky-bird called out in the distance, its song a melancholic counterpoint to the distant hum of a repulsorlift vehicle. An alarm clock blared from his desk, a jarring intrusion into the peaceful morning. A series of knocks followed, echoing through the room of a guy in his early twenties as he is sleeping on his desk with the terminal open displaying graphs, data and design of what looks like a mech.

"Wake up, Caelum! How long are ya gonna sleep, today's an important day, you have to catch the shuttle." A voice of a middle aged lady, warm and slightly exasperated, came from outside the door.

Caelum groaned, pushing himself up from his uncomfortable position. His terminal's screen glowed with complex graphs charting material stress tolerances, schematics of a new leg actuator assembly, and the half-finished 3D model of a light skirmisher mech. Coffee rings stained the desk's surface. His rest of the room, a chaotic mix of organized chaos and outright clutter, reflected his current state of mind. Sketches of mech designs were pinned haphazardly to the corkboard above his desk, interspersed with photos of his family and a small collection of rare earth samples.

"Coming, Mom!" Caelum says waking up fully as he comes out of the room cracking his sore back and neck after falling asleep on his desk.

"You slept on the desk again? I think I should sell the bed, as you clearly don't seem to need it." Caelum's mother, Elara says in amusement as she sees him getting out of the room massaging his back and neck.

"C'mon, mom I don't want to sleep on my chair." Caelum says while groggily walking up to the sink to freshen up while engaging in idle talk with his mom.

While talking to his Mom, she says, "Dad called last night and wished you good luck."

Listening to this, Caelum smiles and says, "I'll certainly try to do my best, as it is one of the only ways to get mine and the Boutique's name out in the market."

After Caelum gets ready, he asks his mom while eating his breakfast, "Did Kieran say where he'll meet?"

Elara looks at Caelum with raised eyebrows, "why don't you ask him yourself, you guys should have decided all this before."

"He said he'll meet at the spaceport, but I will need to confirm. You know how he is." Caelum says dialing up Kieran.

As the call picks up, the face of a guy with a light scar running across his right eye and slightly tanned look appears with slickback hair and donning a suit, a true gentleman like appearance. Seeing Kieran's look both Caelum and Elara share a deadpan look Kieran's voice comes through the comm, his language totally in contrast with his appearance. "Heya, Cal, Am I looking killer or what? I am sure, I am gonna bag some baddies with this look right?"

Both Elara and Caelum sigh after which Elara replies giving him and encouraging smile, "yeah, you are totally going to impress a lot of girls, Kieran."

"Don't support it, mom." Caelum says sighing as he asks Kieran, "you are at the spaceport right?"

Kieran gives a confused look and asks, "Where did we decided to meet?"

"Veridian Spaceport", Caelum answers twitching his eye.

"Then, where would I be?" Kieran asks rhetorically.

"The ship to Bentheim is arriving on time as the weather today is quite good, so light fire under your place where the sun doesn't shine and come quickly."

Caelum ignores his jabs and focusing on the crux of the matter. "Be there in 30 minutes. Have you brought your mech?"

"Man, you gotta stop asking dumb questions." Kieran answers with a deadpan look. Looking at the banter of Caelum and Kieran, Elara chuckles and shakes her head, "C'mon, Caelum get going."

Caelum finishes his breakfast and starts getting out of the house wearing his water proof boots and picking up his luggage. "Bye, mom." He says as he gets out and starts leaving.

"Bye and All the best, son" Elara says as Caelum boards the aircar for the spaceport.

The ride to spaceport in Brightwood city was uneventful with only the scenery of the forest with wet roads.

As he reached the spaceport, Caelum spotted Kieran leaning against his dark blue and red light skirmisher model "Meteor," the luminous runes etched into the shoulder and chest armor glowing softly in the pre-dawn light. The runes, a series of stylized glyphs his grandfather had used, seemed almost to pulse faintly. Kieran was regaling a female attendant with a wildly exaggerated tale of single-handedly defeating a pirate crew... 'Sure, Kieran,' the attendant chuckled, 'Just don't forget to board the ship, or it will depart while leaving you to fend for yourself against the pirates,' she added with a wink.

Boarding the ship is uneventful, the ship as most of the ship leaving Veridian is half-empty, with most of the people preferring to live on Veridian rather than go to Bentheim with the only people boarding who need to go for some business especially with the recent news about a mech wreaking havoc in Ricklin family compound.