Prologue

Day 1 on Pandora

The people on this planet were less than amiable to reasoning as I have figured out over this first few hours here. Pandora truly houses the worst of the worst on its forsaken crust. Landing as planned, Brother and I set out to only be attacked by a group of low-life bandits. No real damage to Brother besides his pride but the bandits are in bloody pieces. I won't look at the bodies or rather Brother won't let me. So I decided to forget about it. In my research I found that Nakayama made a copy of my father into a memory drive that would let me know him better. So I found myself on Pandora looking for this memory stick in the house of curiosities, wherever that was in this town.

Hysterically enough, a little girl on a large armed loader bot makes a good enough warning to leave and let be. So getting into this town was easy, although the hard part was trying to get my tracker to stop glitching out. I know the house of curiosities is here because a bandit Brother tortured said so. Though I must ask myself, why then is the tracker saying hundreds of miles from here. I saw the place gated up as I pointed at the gate with a small child-like giggle, "Brother, I think you have the key. Would you mind?"

"My pleasure, little sister," he said as he grabbed the door by its rails and yanked backwards. With ease, the small door pulled right out as Brother threw it at some incoming bandits. He put me on his shield arm and walked us in. He kept his shield just in front of me to protect me as I scanned for Nakayama's drive. It had to be here but why wasn't I able to scan for it anywhere. Brother set me down and looked at me wary, "I cannot fit in that hallway. I'll meet you around it. The scans show another room ahead that is big enough for me."

I nodded yes as I watched him fly out to find the next room. Pistol at the ready I watched the surroundings around me cautiously. I stepped into the hallway as a display lit up to show some bandit hanging as a statue almost. It was terrifying to think that I was alone, if not for the moment. These statues reminded me to be on edge as I took a few more steps as another empty display lit up. I just looked around as a stranger grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I screamed as he just smiled with the look of a mannequin.

"Easy there little one. What is a little girl like you doing out here alone?" the strange man told me as he let go of me. I slid back to the door that wouldn't open as hard as I pulled or pushed it. The stranger just stepped close and grabbed the door handle. He twisted the handle with a key in hand as he let me fall backwards. Fortunately brother caught me with a missile aimed at the stranger immediately. The man just smiled on, "Oh you two must be together. We're under renovations but it seems like you might need a helping hand there, little one."

Shaking my head furiously, I found myself hunting down the possibilities of shooting him myself. Instead I calmed myself with a deep breath, speaking casually to hide lost nerves, "I'm looking for the world of Curiosities if you know it? I need to find something there from a Professor Nakayama. Do you know of any place or thing like that?" I kept my hands wrapped on my pistol cautious as he seemed to delve deep into thought from my comments.

He pulled me from Brother's arm as he stopped me in front of the stuffed embodiment of Professor Nakayama. His smile was as unsettling as before, "This here is the Nakayama display. I reckon this is what you want but if it was something he had then I'm afraid you missed the fella who took it. It was a small device like a stick right? Well he took it and ran off. I know his name though, Hyperion guy… Names…. Ris, Ritsy uh…"

That name was familiar as I remembered a memo of a lock out. It said Rhys I think. So that little schemer took the thing that was going to be easy to get…. I can't believe that. I just walked to Brother and got his help up to his shoulder, "Rhys… Brother it's time we paid a visit to him. By my map, he's past hollow point. I won't let him get any further than that single point for stealing that drive. I want that drive. Let's go."

Taking off without a second thought, Brother flew to the coordinates shown as he stopped a few meters back. He took great pains to hide me behind his shield as the steps grew closer to an abandoned transport. Who knew how long they had been gone but I won't let them get far. So I took the option provided ahead of me by whispering to brother, "Keep going. The signal is still there. We have to get it no matter the cost." I just couldn't take this any longer as I had traveled too far and planned to far ahead to lose this now.

So I found myself jumping off of Brother's arm and holding a pistol ready. I ran ahead to the vehicle as I waved for him to stop and be ready. I opened the door silently as I aimed around to find nothing. Well nothing except an unconscious person on the ground with Hyperion on his jacket. So I pulled him out with ease as my mechanical arm did most of the work. I dropped him in front of brother and climbed up onto his shoulder, "We got the signal. It has to be him. He had to have downloaded the drive. Let's go."

Brother grabbed the unconscious Hyperion employee without another look as he took off. A few cries from what might be his friends were heard as another half-beaten loader bot called out. Luckily its flight systems were toast as it could only reach out calling after like the others. Now was my time to understand why this brown haired, bird-brained idiot downloaded this drive or took it in the first place. It was time I found this drive because I wanted to meet my father whether he was a hologram or not.