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Throttling Up, Pt 1
The doors to one of thousands of Helios’ Police & Security Stations opened with a SWISH. Like most of the other government buildings in Helios, these were relatively nondescript. Large, unassuming, and plain, they didn’t do much to stand out among the rest.
Eva, Miko, and Amal all walked out, followed by a middle-aged man wearing a pressed business outfit. His polished Helios Megacity Police badge hung visibly from his belt, almost like a mark of honor, or pride.
On that same belt, on his right hip was his standard-issue sidearm. It didn’t look particularly dangerous, but it was certainly lethal in its own way.
Eva turned around to the genial, bespectacled cop, and gave him a smile.
“Thanks for your ti
CeritusOrbisSomeone asked me a while ago to expand on Claire, and I promised I would. Honestly though, I was always going to have her join the Ravens at some point, just not this early. I can be a really impulsive writer at times, and things like this happen, lol.
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The Toymaker sat hunched over his workspace in his quiet little shop and tinkered with one of his many delicate toys. With a jeweler’s loupe in front of one eye, he gently aligned springs and sprockets in place with unwavering precision. His hands, aged as they were, held onto his delicate tweezers and tools with unwavering steadiness. He slipped a thin brass gear in between two larger ones, and tapped it into place neatly. And as he added more and more parts back in, his steadiness never wavered. As though he himself was like clockwork. He barely even stirred when his shop bell rang and three people walked through his door. Two sets of footsteps were familiar to him, but couldn’t place the third. He didn’t even look up by the time they reached his corner of the shop.
Ravens of Eternity Throttling Up, Pt 3
A salesman in a wonderfully-pressed semi-formal outfit slapped a hand on the hull of the used ship next to him. “This bird can fit up to 900 cubic meters of standard goods,” he said, “such as your traditional flour noodle dish with delicious homemade red sauce poured on top.” Eva, Miko, and Amal all gawked at the beautiful frigate in front of them. It was sleek and held organic curves, as though it was a seed with short wings. Miko scanned it with her baton, pulled down its base operational data points straight to her brain, and shared what she found with the other two. According to what they saw on their DI, the ship was slightly larger than most frigates of its class. It sat at 150 meters long, 68 meters wide, and 42 meters high. It had a robust, flexible str
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Ravens of Eternity Throttling Up, Pt 5
Amal slid her environmental suit’s helmet shut with a solid CLACK. Air vented out of little ports from the side with a loud FSSSH. Inside, its HUD lit up on the heavily tinted glass in front of her face. — Oxygen: 96%, stable Filter Degradation: 1% Antimicrobial Shield: Active — Amal sighed deeply as resolve set deep in her bones. After a moment of reflection, she curled an open hand into a fist. “Okay, here I go,” she said. “Wish me luck.” “Ganbare,” said Miko. Amal fired up the plas
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The Spirit of Amelia blasted out of the hangar tube and out into space with ridiculous velocity. Eva’s face was etched with a wide grin as she felt gravity press her into her seat. The g-forces ebbed when the ship reached terminal velocity, and lifted completely once they left Helios’ vast gravitational pull.Eva pulled the throttle down to the minimum, idled the thrusters, and set the ship drifting lazily through space.Then she received a notification in her DI that wiped her smile right off.“Can you believe they ticketed me for speeding just now?” she said. “They sent it straight to my DI. I even got fined 10k for it - which they automatically took!”Amal giggled.“Maybe you
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The Spirit of Amelia slowly descended down towards the ground and touched down on a flat patch of grass incredibly softly. Her landing gears’ legs creaked a little under her weight, but ultimately held firm.There were a few muffled CLICKS accompanied by a long HISS as the ship depressurized deep inside. Vents all around the ship expelled some of its stale air.It quickly normalized its inner atmosphere and let the crisp Venusian air slip deep inside. Every compartment and every passageway drew in the sharp scent of fresh plants, the ripe scent of human sweat, and the pungent stench of animal dung.The side door slid open into a ramp and came down towards the ground with smooth precision. Up top were the three Ravens, who laughed and chatted as they walked down the ramp and out towards a vast and busy fa
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