Note: This is a slice of pure fiction based upon Phantasy Star on DC/Gamecube Episode 1. I'm not following the story line, I'm writing one, so please don't complain if many of these things didn't happen in Pso such as the Namo dragon leaving the boss room. Copy right stuff; couldn't be bothered to write it so sue me now j/k. Oh also excuse the bad spelling, I can't spell, but life's a learning game left?

"So where do you wanna go miss?" asked a gruff voice, it came from the hover taxi that was parked on the roadside.
"Hunters guild please" she replied looking back at the shuttle, the most strangest looking force you would have ever have seen. Well, that would be saying something so lets not go that far... but little lady Arifia was a little different from the rest of the crowd. Blue pig tails blue eyes blue shoes blue dress and legs like a stick insect. She had a white pale face with those pointy ears that all Newmans have, sticking out like lightning conducters.
"Yes Miss, can you be a bit more detailed? That's like asking me to take you to the bus station, what hunters guild do you have in mind?"
Arifia gave a giggle and sucked her finger "Oops, hadn't thought about that, you got any good ideas?"
The taxi driver frowned his patience trying already "Well, there won't be many vacancies in the hotels in the usual areas, but if you don't believe any of the rumours about Ragol, I could take you to the one next to the hunters gate"
"I thought only hunters were supposed to know about that?" returned Arifia sucking her finger more.
"Yeah, well I am one now get in"
She opened the back door and sat down, her pigtails touching the hovercraft roof. The taxi driver put the foot down on the acelerator and the ship took off with a blast cruising through the space station. City blocks and areas passed her by; looking out the window she saw the long streams of trafic on the highways passing slowly through. The hum of the ship brought her back to reality.
"I'm a hunter in my spare time, if it's anything to you, you could always employ me"
"Really?" returned Arifia "So your a Taxi driver and a hunter, that kinda doesn't go together very well, how did you get them to give you the license?"
"Well with the lack of hunters round here, the guild's acepting anyone who can hold a weapon, I'm driving on the week days, and on weekends I see if anyone's hired me"
"Didn't you need any qualifications?"
"Heh, lady if you're looking for a good hunter you should have brought one with ya, the good ones are keen, and that's why the good one's get killed, you don't know what it's like down there on Ragol, just take my advice, if you see a hilder Bear, you run your ass off"
He paused flicking a switch so that the ship switched to autopilot, and glanced in the mirror "So what are you doing coming here to Ragol?"
The endless streams of trafic stretched out down below with the lights of the space port. Everything was a glow of green and yellow lights blurring through dark space.
"Just looking for something different to do" she smiled wiping some dust off the windows "Wanted to get away from it all"
"I know some freinds of mine who'd say the same thing" chuckled the driver "Ragol however would be the last on their list of holiday vacations"
"Where would you go if you had a holiday preference?" asked Arifia turning back to the taxi driver. He smiled looking in the mirror.
"That's an easy one, Empirior of course, or maybe the red and blue duo, you know where the humans origionally came from" he sighed and rested back in his seat "space travel's expensive though I doubt I'll ever be able to afford the tickets"
"What's wrong with Ragol?"
"I dunno" he sighed "Ragol just ain't my thing, there's too much going on here, a lot of it I don't like, things have never been the same since the principal's daughter went missing and numerous others"
"Who is the principal's daughter?" asked Arifia curiously
"Geez! Don't you know anything!" snapped the driver turning back suddenly, he grumbled and sat back in his chair sullenly "Everyone knows about Rico, everyone on Ragol that is, when we found out about the explosion she was the one on the screens telling everyone to calm down, she was the one who got the hunters guilds to stop licking up to the federation and acept other people into the system, she got us all together and then one day, she went down onto Ragol and didn't come back"
"Does anyone know anything about what happened to her?" asked Arifia looking wide eyed into the mirror. The driver's dark eyes caught her sharp "No, well there are a couple, she left a trace of messages I found some myself but nobody wants to share the imformation so we only get discorded pieces of what she said, a message here about Goombas a message there about poisen lillies, apparently they tracked her messages down even into deep depths of the mines"
"Some people think she's still out there leaving those messages behind in some strange plot to bring more hunters out into the buisness, but I think that's wishfull thinking, personally I think it's much more likely she met her match with some monster, or found out too much, either way she's probably dead... or worse"
"That's horrible!" exclaimed Arifia "Didn't they send out search parties?"
"The principle sends out a new hunter every day, the search for his daughter goes all over Ragol but to no avail, he gets worse as the days progress. Rico's absence seems to gnaw at him from within, and yes, origionally they did send out search parties, 10 of them... for your imformation there's only 3 left the Phazars, the Principle's personal guard PPG for short and the Ironskulls one word apparently, they haven't found anything as far as I know acept more of those messages, none of them will share the contents with each other though, they've turned it into a competition to find her"
"Why was she called Red ring rico?"
"How many questions were you planning on asking today?" grumbled the driver.
"Well, not that many more" Arifia looked at the glare "Well none actually yeh I'm done" she hurried with a pleading look. The driver glanced out of the window.
"Good, cos we're here already, now get out"
Arifia nodded hurriedly and climbed out of the taxi closing the door quietly behind her. With a roar that made her jump back the taxi sped off in a long arc and dissapered behind the distant buildings a long blue beam of light flickering it into sight for one moment before the vehcle was gone.
Looking arround her she appeared to be on some kind of large terrace. A large platform that had shops and buildings sticking out on one side of it, the other was a huge Abyss that lead down into space. She walked worringly over to where the taxi had pulled up and put one hand over the edge. It wouldn't move. She looked curiously at her small hands, a blue static light appeared underneath them an electrical charge. She took her hand away and it dissapered. Some kind of forcefield... she leaned against it and the area sprung up into a glow of blue neon light, electrical charges springing across the surface.
She should have guessed, people wouldn't be living in such a dangerous area unless there was some kind of shield. She stepped back and giggled as the lights dissapered.
"It's just a force field" said a voice behind her, she turned arround to see a small kid with dark black untidy hair and a green top and bottom with small bits of yellow "The forcefields old news nowaydays, everyone wants to know about the room behind the secret wall"
"What do you mean it's old news?"
"Well, we used to play arround with it, but that's just dull now, you can attach things to it to make images, the older kids used to get spray paint cans and write rood words all over it"
Arifia widened her eyes and looked critically back at the void.
"I used to like doing this" he said hurriedly and with a jump he hopped forward put his hand on the surface, and with a crackle of blue flickering light ran along the long platform a huge streaking blue glow following the every move of his hand. It sprung up spreading in a long stream so that a huge portion of the forcefield flickered with blue lightning before fading to nothing again.
"Kaji will you leave that forcefield alone!" shouted a warning voice from inside a red door over at the far end of the platform. The red cross was on the front, the biggest clinical company in the universe.
"Yes mother" he sighed kicking at the dust on the metalic surface he walked away solemly slowly. His mother in a white lab coat hurumpthed and walked back inside the doors closing behind her. Arifia looked back at the forcefield for a second and then with a snigger turned away to a large desk. It was obviously a bank. She walked slowly over to it passing a man in a blue t-shirt on the way. A lady in federation uniform met her gaze. She was firm and unmoveable.
"Hello can I help you?" she asked.
"Yes" returned Arifia leaning on the desk "I should have a new Ragol account transferred freshly this morning"
"Ok dokey, can you hand me your clearence card please"
Arifia fumbled arround in her nap sack, and drew out a small silver bank card. The women took it and swiped it across a small machine and then brought it back with a wide eyed look.
"Is that all yours?" she asked inquisitively.
"No no!" chuckled Arifia "Of course not, I recently took out a large number of Loans to cover my stay in Ragol"
The women eyed her suspiciously and then pressed some more buttons on the pad. A message came up on screen that flickered and reflected green off her federation uniform.
"Do you want to withdraw or deposit? Items or Meseta? I'm sure you know the drill"
"Meseta please, thirty thousand" she returned. The women paused slowly looking at Arifia critically as if waiting for something "Oh Withdraw of course" chuckled Arifia "Silly me I forgot"
The lady took up the silver card again, pressed some buttons and then swiped it. She handed it back to Arifia who put it back quickly into her napsack.
"Thankyou for using this bank, we hope to see you again" smiled the lady.
"Thanks" nodded Arifia fiddling with the sack, and she turned arround to go. The only thing now was to figure out which of these buildings was the hunters guild, that and accomadation for the night. She looked arround her hoplessly at the great curving edge of the platform. She walked into the nearest door and came into a large room. There were four desks, each one had a person at it with different coulers to represent each type of goods.
Green blue and orange and purple, people wandered arround anxiously looking at things, and thinking about what they were going to buy. Arifia stepped out of the shopping centre and back onto the platform and faced the strange wall at the far end of the platform. Perhaps that had something to do with the hunter's guild? There was a large noise of roket thrusters and a taxi pulled behind her, the noise of a great metal door clanged open.
With a whoosh of wind a great purple android walked passed, he was tall and headed off towards the far end of the platform, a large gun was in his hand over his shoulder, compared to the gun however he was surprisingly thin and agile. He was so obviously a hunter getting ready to do a mission, that Arifia was so certain of it that she followed him imiediately.
He walked with a prowd air about him as if everyone else were below him unless they could face him squarely in a battle. As they came close to the room with the red cross on it they passed a curious looking green teleporter, then curving right the hunter entered into a room that Arifia figured to be the hunter's guild. Metalic doors slid open and the android walked on into a small but well lit room. A large pillar was in the middle and at the far corner was a window that looked out into space. Arifia gazed round her for a few seconds and then walked in, the doors slid shut quietly behind her.
The first thing that Arifia noticed about the people in this room was that they were all taller than her. Large hunters were smoking cigarrettes and standing over the top of her, by the window a huge muscley man with a skull and cross bones tshirt stood leaning against the glass. A cigar was in his mouth and a huge chain of bullets was strapped across his chest alone with a belt and multiple pineapple handgrenades. A bald head, he was armed so much to the teeth, that Arifia wouldn't have been surprised if she had been told that he had some plan for attaching a gun to the skin of his fore head. Someone wistled from the corner of the room.
"Hey cutie" he smiled a cloud of nicotine smoke rising from him and his hunter freinds "Nice dress"
"Thanks" returned Arifia with a smile, she looked unsure back for a compliment "Nice jeans" she chuckled. At that the guy and his freinds bursed out into a howl of lauthter, and the smoke drifted further across the room.
"Will you people shut up!" came a voice from across the room, it was the purple android. He stopped talking to the women at the desk and stepped away. She seemed to be having problems breathing under the smoke as well, with a grumble she pressed a button and the noise of fans and air ventilation sounded up.
"What!" mocked one "We're just complimenting the young lady over there, she don't mind do ya?"
"Young?" muttered Arifia to herself
"Yeah well you're giving me a headache so quit it, some people like to earn a living rather than sqaunder all our pay on cheep cigarettes"
"Hey! Cigarettes ain't bad" said a big guy with a mohawk red hair cut and low voice "You wanna try one miss?"
"Sure!" smiled Arifia stepping forward, she felt a thunk on her shoulder and turned arround to see the android towering over her.
"You ain't givin her nothin over my dead body" he growled "That stuff's poisen miss, now I think you took the wrong turning, you must want the hospital wing, that's over the other side, do you want me to take you there?"
Arifia noticed his large metalic hands, they could crush lead if put to it, and much much more.
"Oh no, I was looking for the hunters guild actually" smiled Arifia "Do you know where I can find that place?"
The android frowned "This is the hunter's guild, if you want you can hire me for half my usual price at nine hundred and fifty messetta, I can see that your in a bit of a trifle, lost a freind on Ragol?"
"Oh no no no!" giggled Arifia "I was aiming on becoming a hunter not hireing one!"
The android frowned even more if that was possible, Arifia had the distinct impression that his metalic eyebrows were going to snap. He looked at her critically up and down.
"Become... a hunter?" he repeated as if it were a shock to his system.
"I got a couple-a rats in my apartment" chuckled the grunty voice and his freinds bursed out lauthing again, the smoke came in great waffs and made Arifia cougth under the haze.
"Quiet you!" shouted the android and then turned back to Arifia, he raised he eyebrows with a smirk "You want to become a hunter?" he repeated again as if he were about to bursed into a lauthing fit.
"Yes!" chirped Arifia "How do I go about doing that!?"
"Listen miss, I... er ... strongly recomend you to find another well, profession, you see a hunter's job is tougth work, and well you have to be built for the job like I was"
"Oh that doesn't matter" smiled Arifia "I'm willing to give it a go, in fact I've got my heart set on it"
"Is there anything I could say that would make you change your mind?"
"Nope!" returned Arifia defiantly
"What if I told you people get killed?"
"Nope"
"In very nasty ways, like having sharp hot iron rods stuck through their chests...?"
"...Nope"
"Or that people fell off chasms into roaring hot lavery furnaces...?"
"......Nope"
"Or that some people who were really lucky got both and then returned assembled, afflicted with a strange virus and died moaning horribly in the hospital wing before gurgling and drowing in their own bile and blood...?"
".........Nope"
"Or say that there's a tale of one person who went into a room and the lights turned out, and when he fumbled his way to the doors he found that they were locked, and in the pitch black of the darkness his freinds outside only heard the horrifying screams of his tortured soul within? And that some say... he lurks there still, waiting for any fool hardy hunter to come in, so that he can lock the doors ....and get his revenge!?"
"............n n Nope!" shivered Arifia feeling her knees shake.
The hunter bent his eye brows again and paused in a long firm frown that seemed to last for ages, it was a long wait before he next spoke "What's your name?" he asked.
"Arifia" replied Arifia
"Mine's Kireek, pleased to meet you. Go up to the desk and ask for a hunters license" (this seemed too easy)
Arifia nodded and walked over to the desk. She looked across at the lady at the counter, she had another of those formal federation suits on like the lady at the bank, thankfully for Arifia she was talking to someone of her own height and didn't have to keep looking up all the time. The bald man with the bullets kept glancing across over with his large cigar doing circles in his mouth, he sniggered and then turned away to look at the stars.
"Yes?" asked the lady.
"Can I have a hunters license please?"
"Sure, what's you're fighting style?"
"Oh er... kung fu" returned Arifia with a shrug.
The women scribbled down on a piece of paper muttering slowly "Kung... Fu... that's unusual, what's your name?"
"My name's Arifia"
"Is that Ariefia? A - r - i - e - f - i - a?"
"No without the e"
"What is your weapon?"
Arfia fumbled about "Oh, my fists" she smiled.
"You don't have a weapon?" questioned the lady at the council resting her specticles on the tip of her nose. She seemed quite taken aback by this, Arifia shook her head sadly "Then do you have a Mag? Under Red Ring Rico's act RRR42 Hunters can be acepted if they have either a Mag or a weapon"
"Oh dear" sighed Arifia "I'm afraid I don't have either a Mag or a weapon, what should I do?"
The women at the desk raised her eye brows. After a few seconds she closed the book with a small cloud of dust and said two simple words "Get one"
Kireek smirked and walked out of the hunters guild with a satisfying hiss of the double doors. Arifia frowned at being defeated so easily, she walked out of the room morbidly and decided that for now the best thing to do would be to find a room to stay in for the night. The doors slid open and she stepped out onto the platform, she could feel the cold metal surface under her shoes. She sighed and looked down at the floor.
"Didn't go too well eh?" said the familiar voice behind her. Kireek was leaning against the wall. The huge gun hoiseted up in the air.
"I'm gonna be a hunter, I'm not giving up yet you'll see!"
"Get yourself another profession lady, this ain't the one for you" yawned Kireek "I have to replace a different part of my body every year, one day it's going to be my head, I don't wanna see that happen to you"
"I'm not giving in!" growled Arifia "Where can I get a weapon?"
"At the weapon store" returned Kireek Arifia's eyes lit up "But they don't sell weapons to people who don't have a hunters license"
Arifia sighed "Ok what about a Mag? Where can I buy a Mag whatever the silly thing is anyway"
"You can't buy Mags" yawned Kireek his mouth going even wider than before "They're living creatures that sometimes decide to help hunters, they join you"
"Is there no way I can get a Mag?" sighed Arifiea dropping her arms low in despair.
"Well I guess there is one way you could buy one, no names mentioned... but you wouldn't want to do that, it's cruel, and inhumane to Mags, and the mags aren't of a very good quality"
Kireek closed his eyes with another large yawn, he felt tired and was irritated that he hadn't received any jobs, when he opened his eyes again Arifia was standing directly in front of him leaning up to him.
"Where did you say?"
Kireek raised his large eyebrows again "You're not serious about this are you?"
"I am I am I am!" complained Arifia "I want a ruddy mag!"
Kireek yawned again and slowly got up, hefting his weapon slowly so that it pointed towards the floor "Alright then come with me"
Arifia turned towards the platform, but found instead that Kireek had walked back into the hunter's guild. She followed inquisitively back into the smoke filled room. The smoke was beginning to clear now because of the ventilation. She could still hear the chuckles of the hunters though as she entered. And one of them wistled again but this time she ignored it. Kireek came over to the window and there met up with the tougth hunter with the shaved head. The skull and cross bones t-shirt seeming ever more menacing.
"Any chance you could sell this lady, a... you know what?"
The big man clicked his gun and looked down at Arifia with a piercing gaze. On closer inspection Arifia realised that his left eye was a little bit slower than the right. Infact more than that, it made an electronic hiss as it moved. The pupil focused and unfocused wildly.
"Lets take this outside" he murmered after ahwile "Don't want anybody snoopin in"
They withdrew from the hunters guild and stood outside on the platform. The doors closed with a hiss and they withdrew into a corner near the forcefield. Kireek eyed the people suspiciously at the strange looking wall but nothing happened. When the large man felt he was safe he turned to the two figures before him. It was hard to imagine but he was even taller than Kireek and almost twice as wide. Great large jeans with a chain hanging out the side stretched down to big twin army boots.
"This is Bob" said Kireek and all of a sudden Arifia felt she couldn't have imagined the huge menacing hunter before her being called anything else.
"So you want a you know what do ya? What sort?"
"The biggest and best you've got" smiled Arifia the man smiled with a grin, Arifia almost felt that she heard a *kaching* of a till come from the man.
"Well it's gonna cost ya of course, as long as you got the meseta"
"Don't rip her off Bob" interupted Kireek "Go easy on her alright she's new"
Bob gave Kireek a strange look "You got a thing for her?"
Kireek's eyebrows shot up in the air like fireworks "What do you think? I'm an android!!" roared the purple robot. Arifia was lost on why he'd gotten so angry. Pioneer was such a strange place to be, she'd never imagined things would be so different.
"Oh yeah, sorry" murmered Bob "Yeah alright, if it pleases ya Kireek, so you want a big Mag then... lets see"
He withdrew a little booklet from his poket and turned some pages, he turned it to face Arifia what she saw was a photograph "That any good to ya? It's the biggest one I've got"
Arifia staired at the picture, inside there was a large steel cage, the spaces inbetween the bars seemed to be slightly blue as if there were a force field there. Inside the cage Arfia could see a large round blue thing like a bowling ball, it was hard to estimate the size from the photograph because the camera was so close.
"What Mag is that?" questioned Kireek "I've never seen a Mag like that before... where did you get it?"
"Some guy brought it in from Zuros, he didn't say much about it, he was in a hurry to sell it for some reasen, I think the feds were after him my self, still the mag seems healthy if a bit inactive, it's a big brute surprising the size of it even for me"
"Size is irelivant to Mags" returned Kireek crossing his arms.
"Yeah I know, but still it surprised me how big the thing was, you won't find one of these on Ragol, here have a flip through miss, see what you can find"
Arifia took the little black booklet, she was amazed that Bob's huge clumsy fingers could open the pages with such ease. Pages and pages of dull looking Mags passed her by, some of them hovered others rested against the bars. Quickly she turned back to the page with the huge blue orb thing on it. There was a light blue line across it.
"I'll have the one you picked first" she said handing the booklet back.
"That will be thirty thousand Meseta" smiled Bob taking the booklet and fumbling with his poket.
"Ok" shrugged Arifia. Kireek widened his eyes "What the! Give me that!"
Kireek took the booklet back and staired at the Mag "Oh come on Bob! You joke! You can't charge thirty thousand for that!"
"Kireek!" moaned Bob "Get out of it, I was gonna charge sixty until you came along"
"Yeah and you wouldn't have had a customer if I hadn't come so lower the damn price already, I know you, you probably scammed some poor soul and bought that Mag for two hundred Meseta or something like that"
"Twenty five thousand then" grunted Bob taking the booklet and stuffing it in his poket.
"Fifthteen thousand!" countered Kireek
"What!?" gasped Bob "You must be joking for this huge Mag! Listen I'll lower it to twenty four just because you're my freind"
They argued and they argued, Arifia looked from one to the other her head spinning as the two people haggled and haggled. It went on and on and on, for a moment she thought Bob was going to wallop Kireek over the head, and for another moment it looked as if Kireek were going to pick up his huge gun and start firing, but the argue continued until they finnaly decided on the obvious price of twenty thousand meseta, which really to Arifia didn't seem like much of a difference. Both of them shook hands which Arifia really felt it should be she who should be shaking hands with the trader not Kireek, but that's the way it worked out.
"Meet me by the bank tommorow, and we'll exchange" said Bob "You'll ruin me at this price" he looked pleadingly at Afifia "you can spare a bit extra can't you Arifia? For a poor old hard up man like me?" he put his hand on his skull and cross bones chest pleadingly.
"Don't listen to him" interupted Kireek shoving Arifia out of the way.
"I'll sell my home to pay the rent but don't worry I'll do it for you!" he called over Kireek's head as he hurried her away.
"Will he be ok?" asked Arifia as she came back to the bank.
"He's a black market Mag salesmen who owns two homes and enougth weaponry to blow up a small moon, don't you worry he'll be alright, besides I'd hate to think how much he origionally payed for that Mag of yours"
"Is he a hunter?"
"Yeh, he's in with the Ironskulls"
"Oh of course!" hurried Arifia snapping her fingers in concentration "They're one of those search parties aren't that?"
"Yeah, I'm in the PPG myself, we get a bit more respect than other hunters if you're in one of those groups, but don't you worry about that, you've got enougth to think about already, I shall wait patiently to see what becomes of you and your new Mag"
Arfifia stopped next to the bank "Thanks for helping me out and all" she smiled "I probably would never have got this far without your help"
"Don't let it go to your head, I had nothing better to do, and besides you entertain me. I can't wait to see what happens when you go down there and meet a hilder bear, it will be something to lauth over for months" and with that he walked off chuckling to himself with his large gun over his shoulder. Arifia frowned after him and went crimson with suppressed rage but he didn't see.
"When I find that hilder Bear I'll blast it's a*s to kingdom come" she spat. A noise came from the darkness passed the forcefield. Looking to her left a ship drifted over passed the blue light and came sawing down towards the platform. There was a blue glow as it passed through the force field blue thrusters pulling it down slowly onto the platform.
"Where to?" asked a deep voice inside.
"I need somewhere to stay for the night, do you know anywhere you could take me?"
"One of the normal Motels should do the trick, I'll take you to one"
***
Pioneer was little brighter or darker when Arifia awoke from sleep, it seemed as if the day before had never ended. The sun lamps did little to brighten or even hint at what it was like to be on a sun lit planet. The room was dark and the shutters were closed leaving a damp green eery light coming through the gaps. A brown carpet with no pattern lined the floor the motel room, she presumed it was the same in all the other rooms. Throughout the night and day all you could here from the darkness outside was the constant stream of hover craft as taxis and people roamed about their dayly activities. Pioneer had never been designed to be a settlement in space, there were space colonies out there but this wasn't one of them.
She stretched once with a muffled yawn and then reached to the ground for some clothes. Her nap sack lay discarded to the side of the room with all her belongings in. The covers felt warm, but she felt dirty from travel and walking around the day before.
The day seemed much better after a shower and an attack with a good hair brush, she re-made the pig tails in the mirror pulling each side of her hair in turn, it seemed reluctant to respond. She used to leave it down in long streams but she much prefered her hair back in twin pigtails, it gave her something to do in the mornings. There was a small window through which the shutters were closed, she opened them with a quiet shuffle of sound and peered out onto the city lights outside. Hover craft streamed across the sky outside, she put a hand close to the window and a blue flicker of light appeared on the other side, mimicking her hand pattern. The forcefield was a bit close to this motel, there wouldn't be any leaning her head out the window here that was for sure.
She had an appointment to keep, and she needed to get back to the platform. Bob said he'd get her a Mag and Kireek had said this and that, she groaned and put a hand over her fore head. She was too tired to think over the events of the night before. Instead she took up the nap sack and made for the door, it opened with a quiet hiss of pistons. The corridoor was dark and equally spaced electronic doors lined each side. Taking out the silver card she swiped down a pannel and the door closed and locked it'self. Electronic doors had been a big fashion thing about ten years previously, it resulted in structres dating that period all over the universe looking utterly ridiculous, with round doors square ones, vertical sub-doors side sliding doors oblong doors everything the craze could come up with. These doors had interlocking rectangles in the middle, a sign that the motel had been hit by the door craze.
***
The taxi pulled up by the platform with a great blue glow of electrizity as the force field parted. The hover craft landed with blue flames and the door sprung open. This one was a lot like the metalic craft that Kireek had been in. The taxi driver swiped the card and handed it back to Arifia. Taxi's were cheap, they only costed about 10 Meseta a go, the same price as a check over in the clinic.
Bob was by the bank already, his head rose above the top of the gap in the building where the lady looked on bemused. From her view point the suited bank assitant couldn't even see Bob's face.
"Here he is" said Bob pointing to a large parcel by his foot "Well if ya can give a Mag a gender how shood I know? He sleeps alot but he shood be alright for gettin ya yur hunter's license, just don't mention ma name, the cover story; just say ya found him down a drain"
Bob took out a small metal machine he handed it to Arifia "I set the ammount to twenty thousand, you can check it yur self if ya want to make sure I'm not rippin yer off, Kireek told me ta be nice"
Arifia looked the machine over half heartedly seeing twenty thousand in red digital numbers, she took out the silver card swiped the machine and handed it back to Bob depositing the card in her nap sack.
"Right, I'll be off then, good luck with ya new Mag and remember to feed it" said Bob walking away hurriedly.
"Feed it?" said Arifia "Eh?" (this was not a good start)
She put two hands round the parcel and tried to lift, she groaned once and with a strain she fell over backwards "It's heavy" murmered Arifia getting back up. Quickly she tried again, with a method tilting it with her foot she managed slowly to loft it into the air on it's side. There was a quiet clang from inside and a groan that sounded like someone who had their nose clipped together with a wooden peg. Taking the parcel quickly away she slipped behind some disused barrels an tore open the rapping. Inside was a card board box. A thought suddenly hit her; if this were a living creature, wouldn't putting it in a box with no air holes and sunlight be a little mean? She prized open the box and found inside yet another blue container. She hefted it out and put it on the metal surface, there was another groan only this time it was louder.
"How many pacages does this thing have?" she asked her self. The container was round and extremely heavy and large, to put it in perspective the width of it was a little longer than the length of your keyboard. Moving it round she found a small light blue spherical slit in the pacagaing. Getting her hands she tried to prize it open. A huge groan came from inside but the gap wouldn't budge. She leaned her elbows on it but the thing wouldn't budge.
"Stupid thing won't open!" she complained and gave it a kick; it rolled to the side and hit the barrel with a clang. The package groaned. She set upon it again with both hands straining to get an edge over the spherical monster, her hands prized and her face went red but nothing happened. Leaning her head close she shouted "Open damn it!"
Suddenly the slit sprang open and a huge red wet tongue came out and licked her face, she fell backwards in shock and looked up at the hover craft flying above. "Ergh"
The huge package hovered up into the air circled once round her, zoomed in and then gave her huge wet lick on the face. Looking up understanding filled her mind, the package was the Mag. That was a big Mag, and she'd never seen a Mag before.
"That's one big Mag" muttered Arifia.
***
When she finnaly got up she started to walk away to the hunter's guild, the Mag followed doing circles round her head. It finnaly stopped and juts hovered behind her, listening she tilted her head to hear a quiet snoring in the same tone as the groan. Looking arround she noticed that the Mag had fallen asleep.
"Wake up! I need to make a good impression on the lady at the hunters desk" it groaned and the slit opened briefly dropping the wet tongue, a huge bob of saliva fell to the ground.
"Ew!" said Arifia walking hurriedly on "On second thoughts perhaps it would be better if you stayed asleep" the Mag gave her face a huge hungry lick and fell asleep again. The hunters guild was just arround the corner, she entered through the double doors and walked up to the counter. Surprisingly it was empty today. The women at the desk was reading a magazine with a green light sword across the front. She looked across with her glasses tilted against the rim of her nose and then put the magazine down beside her.
"It's you again, what do you want?"
"I've got a Mag, can I have a hunters license now?"
The women sighed and idally pulled out the book she had had open the day before. She yawned once and pulled out a pen.
"Hard night?" asked Arifia
"One of my kids zondered me" she replied holding up a bandaged arm. She turned the page "Arifia wasn't it, yes here we are, and how did you get hold of your Mag?"
Arifia paused and opened her mouth and then closed it, she glanced back at the huge menacing thing behind her, it was asleep, and hovered slowly up and down.
"I... I....I found it down a drain" said Arifia closing her mouth and saying the words in a monotone.
The women raised her eyebrows and said one word "Bob?" Arifia nodded. The women turned back to the book and scribbled down some writing, peering over Arifia noticed that the women was writing ditto marks. She yawned idally opening a draw and took out a small plastic folder. She then took out a small silver camera and pointed it at Arifia.
"Say cheese"
Arifia said cheese with a ridiculous grin and the camera flashed, the photo came out the top of the camera perfectly sized and the lady stuck it onto a piece of card and wrote in some details. She then withdrew it into the small plastic container and handed it to Arifia "One hunter's license"
"Thankyou very much" smiled Arifia "Now to get some jobs"
The lady looked up suddenly as a fax machine behind her flashed, she turned round and withdrew a piece of paper, tearing it from it's pirch. She read it slowly as Arifia looked on. Quickly the lady turned round and adjusted her spectacles.
"You've been employed on a job, two hundred Meseta do you acept?"
"Bloody hell! That was quick!" gasped Arifia
"Subject Kireek; he wants you to come down to Ragol and find him, once you do return here and collect your meseta"
Arifia raised her eyebrows "How do I er... get down to Ragol then?"
"Oh that's an easy one" replied the lady at the desk fiddling with the bandaged arm "Just take the secret teleporter through the secret wall next to the hunters guild, you can't miss it it's straight on your right. If the guards ask just show them your license" and with that she sat back down and withdrew to her magazine.
"Come on you" said Arifia to her huge blue Mag and walked away towards the door. It parted and she walked briskly away to the secret wall.
"Do you have a license miss?" asked a guard to her right, he had red spikey hair and blue garments..
"Hunter's guild" boasted Arifia briskly shoving the license in the guard's face and looking the other way like a detective who just hitched a taxi in the pursuirt of a wanted criminal. The wall lifted and Arifia stepped inside.
"Kung Fu?" murmered the guard. Arifia staired at the card in embaressment. Inside was a dimly lit room, the wall closed behind her with a dull thud and she walked over to the blue teleporter. Rings came up from it in blue light and lit up the whole room a bit like the reflection off a crystal clean swimming pool. She pressed a button and the room dissapered from site.
***
Imiediately grass matirialised in it's place, it was slightly wet, she could feel it sinking through from the base of her shoes. The forrest seemed to go on for ever, to Arifia it seemed as if she had just passed through the wardrobe. Sunlight glimmered inbetween the trees which stretched up high into the sky. It was hard to see anything from where she was, carefully she started to climb up a great mossy bank. She could feel her knees getting dirtier as she got heigher, and thought that she couldn't possibly imagine Bob or Kireek haveing such problems with a simple moss bank.
She passed a broken stump on the way up, it was charred all over as if a lightning bolt had hit it, scorch marks were all over the ground and patches of grass were missing. Bits of twigs fell inbetween the gaps in her fingers as she reached the top, she stood up carefully rubbing the bits off of her smooth knees. The climb had gotten her out of breath, she leaned dizzily against a tree, behind her the Mag was still snoring in that nose clipped tone.
"Don't you ever wake up?" she panted. There was a good view from here, as she finnaly looked up she could see the forrest stretching out for miles and miles. In the centre she could see the central dome of the origional pioneer's settlement. Several other buildings poked their heads out of the tree tops. Her neck itched, she swatted it with a squelch, withdrawing her palm she found the deceased remenants of a mosquito. From the looks of things it would take a long time to get to the central dome, let alone find Kireek where ever he was. He could be anywhere in that huge forrest. With a grunt she decended the slope, one hand forward to steady herself and one hand back.
The slope seemed to decend for everywhere, several times she slipped and got twigs everywhere. When she finnaly reached the bottom of it all she found the forrest floor to be littered with debris and foliage. Bits of twigs were everywhere and the canopy above was a lot darker than the one at the other side of the ridge. It was extremely thick, which restulted in the forrest floor being extremely dark. Even though it was a lot darker on the forrest floor and there were bukets more of moskitoes, it was certainly a lot more horizontal and easy going. Being a hunter was far more physical than she had imagined, she also never realised there would be so much travelling in it.
The mag snorred behind her and ocasionally did a little flip in some dream or other, if Mags dream. The ground started getting very wet as she went, some kind of strange sap like substance. It was yellow and on a less profitable curiousity of Arifia's stung the hands. As much as she tried she couldn't get all of the yellow sap off her hands, it clung their like wax or a sugary soft drink. The thing about the sap was that it hurt and stung, when she'd scratched her head, her fore head stung as well so that she had to do everything instead with her left hand.
When she finnaly heard the sound of trickling water Arifia was some what relieved, she could finnaly get this stuff off. It was all over the ground now, it seemed as if many of the trees didn't like it either, the stuff seemed to rot through their roots. Some of them were actually dead.
Upon finding the small stream she hurriedly bent down to wash her fore head and hands. The Mag drank as well. She hurriedly washed her hands, rubbing the palms with her thumb and pouring water over her fore head. It was at that moment that she noticed a curious sensation in her ears, a buzzing sound like a nest of bees. She looked up, across the river was the strangest plant she'd ever layed her eyes on. A dead animal lay near by, she knew it to be a booma, it was half rotted already and was disgusting to look at, so she didn't. She did however, if somewhat unwisely approach the plant. It was a huge thing taller than she was, a great red leafed thing with green vines stretching out into the ground. Huge bugs the size of her arm buzzed round the rim of the huge plant like huge may flys.
"What is this?" she murmered looking up. The Mag was still firmly asleep, she couldn't see why a hunter needed one, let alone be able to have one instead of a weapon. The bugs just seemed to ignore except for the small ones. She felt an itch on her neck and swatted it, wiping it on a nearby tree trunk. The plant moved, this was unusual, Arifia didn't know anything about moving plants. Another itch on her arm, she swatted it, and legs, she swatted them as well, it was extremely satisfying hearing the squelches. The plant moved again, this time though ferociously. Arfifia stepped back swatting another bug, the mosquitoes were everywhere. The plant moved and suddenly a huge number of huge mosquitoes sawed out towards the force. For a moment she was in shock but a sharp cut in her arm brought her back to reality. She needed to remember her teqniques or she was in dead trouble. Quickly she fled holding her bleeding arm, the mosquitoes were behind her. She shouted out in panic and anger and turned round with a flare of electrizity. Several of the bugs fell to the ground dead but the others kept coming.
This was why she felt she should have brought a weapon of some kind. She backed off as a bug took a swing at her but felt a sharp pain in her heel as she tripped over a stone. She could hear the trickling water and landed with a splosh in the stream. That hurt, there was little to water to cushion the blow, she ached all over and the bugs were all over her. She could hardly see through the haze of flies, feeling a pain in her leg she let out a high pitched scream and lit up with ekectrizity. She rolled over squashing the bugs in her path and let out another flash of lightning, the stones cut into her back. The bugs fell dead. She lay in the water and groaned.
There was something wet on her eye brown and it wasn't water, a trickle of blood ran down her face. She didn't want to look at her self. This was crap. She lifted her hands up slowly to find the shoulders ached like heck, she moved her legs, nothing was broken though she knew that she was bruised all over. Cuts and nicks were all over her body where the moskitoes had bitten, and the big ones had caused several large gashes in her arm and leg. Pushing up with her hands she tried to get up. Her clothes were soaked through, but slowly she brought her self to a sitting position. Being a hunter wasn't such fun after all.
A big bug came flying over from the flower, the last one by the looks of it, it was obvious to her now. It was those huge plants that were producing the yucky sap and the bugs, something blue whooshed passed and with a chomp the bug was gone. Looking at the Mag in discust she saw several sets of teeth closing round the bug, and that huge tongue pounding the thing to pulp. There was a hug crunch, and then the Mag swalloed the thing whole and burped.
"Well I guess they're useful for something" murmered Arifia getting slowly to her feet. She felt awful, at least she hadn't gotten more of that sap on her. She held her arm limp and clambered out of the river, trying to get her numb legs to respond. There was one thing she wasn't going to have, and that was seeing that plant continue to live. Pointing her hands forward she frowned in anger and a huge fire ball leapt up exploding the plant into flames. Dead bugs crawled out of the burning foliage flapping charred and burning wings to try and survive.
Finding a mossy tree root Arifia sat down as best as she could and withdrew her nap sack. Taking out a small rectangular bar she opened the silver foil and bit into a yellow rectangular cube "Mmm Monomate" she murmered. She felt some of her wounds start to close, and her back softened. She took another bite and the her forehead and arm stopped bleeding although her leg still dribbled. The more she ate the more she felt better, these things were addictive, all recovery items were.
The wounds closed and she held out the rememaing chunk of monomate with the foil curled round it "I'll save the rest for later" she muttered to her self absently. A tongue shot out and the rest of the monomate was gone foil and all. The Mag burped "Perhaps I won't" she growled frowning at the blue bowling ball. The aqua line curved and the tongue shot out and licked her face with a big wet slobbery kiss. She didn't know whether that was a sign of gratitude, hate, or sarcasm.
***
Really she new she should have gone back, but she was determined to complete her first mission and show that over confident android that she wasn't just a complete failiure. He seemed so confident that she'd fail, perhaps he was right? She was continuing through the undergrowth now, she hadn't found any more of the strange flowers, and the sap had certainly lessened up since she'd left the stream. The plants must need lots of water, she had a half hearted thought of sneeking one past customs and planting it in her garden. She'd never get it through, and keeping the thing alive would be another problem along with all that horrible sap and bugs that the thing seemed to spit out.
As she made her way on the canopy seemed to brighten a little, a good sign that she might just possibly be getting closer to the central dome. Mosquitos still plagued her but that was to be expected, they weren't nearly as bad as they had been down in the lower parts of the forrest. Her clothes were a wreck now, although the monomate had healed the damage to herself, the dress was another matter, there were tairs and tatters everywhere. She couldn't wear this kind of thing in futere, she'd have to get a tougther matirial.
There was a fresher breeze now as she came closer, and to her great relief she found the first signs of civisalisation, a lazor fence. A great wall was cut in through the forrest, or was it the other way round? A red lazor fence was in place with a machine next to it. This would undoubtedly lead to some part of the central dome, if not the part where Kireek was, she'd at least be able to find a healing machine and rest for ahwile. Taking up the silver bank card she swiped it a cross the machine *error, card not registered*. That obviously wasn't going to work. Ragol must have had it's own key card system, trust them to be different from the rest of the universe. With a grumble she walked up to the wall and hoisted herself up a vine. She could feel some of that yellow sap on it, but not much, all the same it made her hands sting, and made getting a grip a lot harder.
With a huge effort she scaled the wall and got to the top. Over the other side the canopy had totally parted, sunlight streamed down onto the grass below. She could see the central dome much closer now, pirched on top of the wall, she had to guard her eyes from the blinding sun rays. Imiediately below was a small grassy compound, there were likely many like this arround the dome. Parks and gardens owned by the establishment, yet now they were all run down. Nature ruled here, vines assaulted the walls and there was sap stains on the white walls that had chips in places and were crumbling to the brick within as if a hundred years had passed. There was another door ahead and in the corner of the room she could see a sleeping booma. It's chest moved up and down slowly, she'd best not desturb it.
She sat on the wall for ahwile and admired the view, she looked over at the central dome. Was it her or was something moving? This was strange, as she focused her eyes, and guarded them from the sun resting her hand to her fore head she noticed that there were several figures moving about over there.
Suddenly a round red explosion bursed out near the tip of the dome and lazer fire roketed into the sky, a shout came distantly from the dome, something moved above flying across the sky; it was a Namo dragon.
In the distance she could see small lines of green and blue photon blasts shooting up into the sky, the ground rumbled as a red explosion roketed up into the air. The dragon came down in a swoop and breathed on another layor of flame and then sawed up into the sky and away from the people. The ground rumbled, and Arifia had the distinct impression that the creature was getting very close. Far too close in fact for comfort.
Arifia's eyes widened as the creature cork screwed in mid air like a fighter jet and passed streight over her with such a blast of wind that she was knocked streight off her pirch with a shriek and landed below on the soft mossy ground. Her head flopped to one side the last thing she heard was the screech of the Mag, she blacked out as her head hit a tree root.
***
It was a long time before she awoke, she was in the midst of an unconcious dream. A waterfall was pounding down on her face in a green place far away. For some reason the water irritated her, and she wanted to get away from it. The only thing it cleaned was her face, the water seemed to rush off the rest of her body in some insane plot to irritate her further. She tried to find the exit to the waterfall, a way out but as far as she turned she couldn't find it. She remembered having dreams like this before, except being trapped usually happened after eating too much cheese before bed. She pinched her self to make sure it wasn't a dream, it hurt, she must obviously be awake.
"Hang on that never works with me" she mumbled in her sleep turning her face to the other side. Walking through the waterfall she came to the other side, taking her hand out behind her she brought it round hard and gave her self a slap to the face. She woke up.
It was darker now and colder and the lazor fence was still up. The huge blue Mag was over face licking her to try and get her to wake up. The full weight of the thing was rested on her fore head, and it hurt like heck. Imagine having a bowling ball rest on your face for a couple of hours. She could here voices in the distance yet much closer now, words scattered in and out of her ears "Lock, Open, Dragon, Door"
She wasn't sure if she was hearing them or thinking them, she pushed the Mag off her with a groan and looked about her. She had a bad headache and felt slightly hungry seeing the ammount of meals she'd missed. At the thought of food her stomach complained and she got to her feet. The air began to clear slowly as the blood stopped rushing and she heard the voices more clearly. A door opened over the other side, and she heard soft foot steps on the mossy ground over the other side.
"Oh great another lazor fence" said a deep voice "Hey Pox can you open this one?"
"I'm sick of these bloody doors" said a familiar voice, she knew it at once but couldn't name it. Straining she managed to remember it to be Kireek and tried to call out. Her throat was dry and she had to wet her lips to get the sound out.
"Alright alright" said a femenine voice "Give me a minute and I'll open the thing, but it's gonna take me ahwile, in fact you might wanna start a fire"
"Over here!" called Arifia dryly, her voice was quiet but audible in the darkness. It was getting darker every second, and the sound of mosquitoes and crikets (or what sounded like crickets) filled the air.
"What did ya say Pox?" said a squeaky voice "I thought I heard ya say something"
"Geez are you death?" replied the girl "I said it's gonna take me ahwile to get this damn door open, so you guys might wanna amuse yourselves"
"No, that wasn't it" said Kireek "I think there's someone out there"
"Hello!?" called the deep voice "Is anyone there?" he boomed
"It's me! Arifia" she called through the darkness, for it was now quite dark and hard to see a thing.
"My word, it's her" muttered Kireek "I didn't think she'd make it"
"Do you know this person?" squeaked the squeaker
"Yeah he does" said the deep voice "He met her this morning, he told me all about it"
"Damn it" muttered Kireek
"What's the problem Kireek? Can't stand to see a girl get somewhere? Now hand me that spanner you lazy android" said Pox, with a loud beep from the other side.
"I'm just stuffed that I'm gonna have to pay the 200 Meseta that's all" said Kireek sheepishly "And anyway who's captain here?"
"You are" returned Pox
"Exactly so get on with it"
This was rather iritating, every one of them seemed to be ignoring Arifia. With a frown she called out again "Are you going to sit there all night or what? Give me a hand already"
"We would love but the lazor fence won't budge" called back Pox "Do us a favour, can you tell me the registration code on the machine? It should have one on the other side"
Arifia grumbled and walked over to the machine, there were some white letters on top in old flaky paint but she couldn't read them "I can't see a thing" she called back "It's too dark"
"Give her a light" said Kireek
"Here catch" said another completely different voice, that sounded slightly gritty to it, as if the low voice were trying to cougth. A torch flew over the wall with the light spinning round in all directions. Arifia failed to catch it, but managed to pick it out of the undergrowth. Moving back over to the machine she carefully picked off the inscription "DC45PQ3" she called over the wall, leaving a short pause between each letter.
"You got that Pox?" asked Kireek
"Give me a break, some androids do have ears ya know, D C 4 5 P Q 3, good this should only take me a minute or two now"
"Who the heck's this person Kireek?" squeaked the squeaky voice again "Is she a hunter?"
"Yes I am" shouted Arifia over the wall before Kireek could reply
"Well sort of" mumbled Kireek "I met her yesterday in the hunters guild, she's called Reef or something"
"Reef eh?" grunted the other "Sounds like a force to me"
"Well you wouldn't have known it but she is I think... are you a force Reef?" called Kireek over the lazer fence
"Yes" called back Arifia "And my name's Arifia not Reef!"
"Pleased ta meet ya Reef!" came the squeaky voice, I'm a force as well, mi name's Icky"
"How's the fence coming Pox?" interupted Kireek, a dark shadow passing by through the lazers.
"Almost done" she grumbled, "it's lucky your freind was here or we'd be stuck down here all night, does anyone know where the nearest teleporter is? I hope we can find it in the dark"
"What about the dragon?" questioned the deep voice "How are we going to find it tommorow, after the explosion it just took off away into the forrest"
"Oh stuff the dragon" returned Pox with the turn of a spanner "I've had just about enougth of trying to track that thing down, chance would have it, I bet that thing has nothing to do with Rico at all, we're waisting are time here, we should go back to the caves"
"I hate to contradict you Pox" said Kireek crossing back across the fence "But we're still on a mission, the Principle sent us personally to kill that thing so it would stop taking out all the hunters, it's giving Ragol a bad name"
"What wouldn't" she replied irately "How does it sound in the holiday brochure? Come to Ragol and have a totally awful time, get killed by many different monsters with several sets sharp pointed teeth, book now and we'll give you your emergency leaving ticket free"
"I have to say I'm getting fed up with the whole Red Ring Rico thing myself" grunted the other "It's a bit selfish of the principle to set all of these hunters out to find her, there aren't many hunters out there, it's not just Rico who went missing you know"
"If they'd just stop a moment and think, they'd try and find an antidote for this weird virus" mumbled the deep voice
"I think they did though didn't they?" questioned Icky "They were experimenting with a new type of Sol atomiser, which might have cured the virus, but the chief scientist who was working on the project went missing before it could be finished"
"Back to square one" sighed the deep voice "There's so many things wrong with this place, I don't know if we'll ever fix it all. Personally I'd just get a god damn nuke and blow the whole f--"
"Greg calm down" said Kireek "That's totally irational, there's still tons of civilians and hunters lost down here, do you remember when anyone was aloud down on Ragol? We're still suffering from the effects of that, your talking about mass murdering all those people for no apparent reason, they're still finding survivors"
"Yeah I guess" he mumbled in agreement
"I got it" called out Pox with a click. The lights died down with a huge tone of sound sinking down to quietness. The lazor fence dissapered and there was nothing but space instead. The hunters came through in the darkness, it was almost too dark to see them at all, but Arifia's eyes were getting used to the light.
There were five hunters in all as they came through the gap, Kireek, Icky who was a tiny weeny FoneWm with purple hair and a pair of goggles over his head, he had a red costume with spiky black shoulder pads and silver boots. Shorter than Kireek another in blue armor stepped forward followed by a Ramar almost as tall as Bob. Pox was clearly recognisable, an android from the conversation, but incredibly human like. The way she moved was perfect, her hair was life like and so was her body, if Arifia hadn't over heard she would have never have guessed that Pox was an android. Her hair was put forward so that it almost covered the right side of her face in a great blond mass. Her clothes were yellow with touches of silver, and a pair of black shoulder blades that were attached just below the shoulders, rather than on them.
Only two of them were holding weapons, that was the two unknown humans. Kireek stepped forward at once his purple armor looking black in the night sky.
"God Reef you look a wreck" he said louder than he meant "This is Pox (she waved) Icky, (he nodded) me of course, Greg over here, he's the tall one, and Huss. Huss was the one with the gritty face and voice, he had a fairly dark complection and very dark greeny hair. His hair was positioned so that it totally covered the right side of his face, she couldn't see clearly in the darkness, but there was something funny about the right side. Photon hand guns were on his belt.
Greg was tall and strong looking, with deep red hair and silver armor that flashed under the darkness, or as a poet would put it, under moonlight, in the night so bright what a load of etc. His pelvis was black along with his knee pads, he seemed almost like a night in shiny armor yet without any of the thees and thous, his acent completely spoiled the effect though.
"Your pretty" said Icky before he'd known what he was saying with a squeak "What she is!" Greg was wistling madly and Pox made barking noises. Arifia blushed "Where are all you guys going?" she asked. There seemed to be an air of discomfort in the question, glances were exchanged at each other in a questioning glare.
"Really I'd like to say that we would continue to track down the Namo dragon" mumbled Kireek steeling a glance at Pox, she glared "I don't see why your complaining, you don't need to sleep, these three do"
"My battery power's slightly low" she mumbled indifferently
"Yeah right" said Kireek hurrying on "But I get impression, that my decision to continue to look for the dragon in this darkness would perhaps course some disagreement throughout the party, so instead I say that we head down to the Pub and call it a night"
Greg put a hand on Kireek's shoulder with a thunk "You made the right choice" he said with a grin "You coming with us Reef?" he said turning round to Arifia.
"My name's Arifia, and yes alright I'll come"
"Come on Reef, lets have a girl talk" said Pox putting her arm round Arifia's shoulder, and the six of them set (discluding the Mag which of course as always hovered round Arifia's head completely asleep).
***
It was quite ahwile before they came to a teleporter, there was a lot of fumbling about in the dark and cursing. They had to cut through several bushes and plants to get where they wanted to, and several times they thought they were lost, but Kireek brought out a holegram map he'd marked out himself, it showed everywhere the party had been in the forrest, and of course the teleporters. Arifia wanted one the moment she set eyes on it, she'd deafinately need one of those down in the forrest, if she hadn't come across the hunters then she'd likely never have gotten back.
She also remembered and was told again who they were. The five hunters were all members of the PPG, or princples personal guard as Kireek put it. To her surprise Kireek was the captain of the team, something he had neglected to mention when he was in the hunters guild. She also found out all about the Phazars and their rotten habits, and also all about the Ironskulls who were lead by an old man called Zade. They were a hard core bunch of hunters were very much into brute force, hence there name. The Phazars were lead by Charlie, they were all expert hunters with top gear and a lot of cash and history behind them. But they were all so caught up in their ego and name that they were horrible people to be arround, they all wore black clothing including the robots. All the groups that were sent down onto Ragol were made up of a team of five hunters with at least one force ranger and humar.
The PPG it'self was a very good bunch of hunters, though not as good as the phazars, they didn't have the money or the backing for it. A constant salery was brought in for all five from the Principle who hired them permanently origionally as a group of body guards. Combined with what each of the PPG could earn on their own privrate missions, each received a siseable salery that gave them enougth to live on buy weapons and more.
The Phazars were extremely expensive and were hired out personally this time by the goverment, they were if you like strong rivals of the PPG. It was a competition to find which one could do the better job, the Phazars attempt being to disgrace the principle as much as possible and ultimately get him out of office. The Ironskulls you would have thought would fit into the three way triangle, but in fact they had virtually no contact with the three at all. The only small contact was through Kireek who happened to know Bob, it was the only way that the PPG found out anything at all about what the Ironskulls were doing.
The Iron skulls did not have a permanent salery, they were hired by anyoneone who had money, but not enougth to hire one of the other groups. Jango from the Phazars called them the local garbage group, a comment that had spread and made the Iron skulls mortal enemies with the Phazars. Zade was the only one who kept the two groups from tearing each other to smithereens. The Ironskulls were freelance and surprisingly had made it unlike the other seven free lance groups that had all dissapered over time.
Of course Arifia wasn't sure how much of this was said in the pub and how much of it was said out of it, they eventually got out of the forrest and took a hover bus to a nearby Pub that the PPG often went to. It was a red tapered quiet little place with a large six armed robot bar man who all he ever seemed to do was stand there washing dishes. He was still in his tem years service.
"What is this ten years service thing?" asked Arifia sipping at some alkahol, she didn't like the taste of it at all.
"You don't know what the ten years service is?" questioned Pox with a surprised expression on her face "It's quite simple really, origionally all AI androids were the property of their owners or manufactorers, but one day YX609, a militery inteligence unit went on strike and with the help of a humar loyer took the universe to court over the matter, human rights came into the legal battle a lot, it was a struggle that lasted several decades until it was finnally agreed upon that all androids with an IQ above 70 would spend only 10 years as a worker, and then be free. Of course then there was the whole issue about some robots not needing to have freedom, like the cleaner models who only had an IQ of 71 and just went out into the world to break, and then some people said they should have state benefits and others said they shouldn't, the law is still being written today over it, the whole matters very very complicated"
"Quite simple really?" laugthed Kireek "I never knew you knew so much about the legal history of Android rights, when did you learn all of this?"
"I thought it was common knoledge really" returned Pox with a shrug "What did you do for your ten years service Kireek?"
Kireek's eye brows firmed in embaressment "I was a garbage loader" he mumbled. Greg and Huss bursed out laugthing.
"Our mighty captain Kireek, a garbage loader? Now that's a laugth" chuckled Greg. Arifa sniggered and Icky squeaked until the Mag licked her face and brought her sharply back to reality.
"That's not so bad" returned Pox "I was a waitress in a fast food restaurant"
Icky chuckled "You were a waitress? How did you end up becoming a hunter?"
"Got beaten up by a couple of junkies" replied Pox "After that I used my freedom grant to install bio pistons and I took a carreer as a hunter"
"Everyone is new to the job some day" muttered Huss. Arifia's suspiciens were corect, Huss was only just across the table and from the side view, she saw that the right side of his face was a scarred wreck. It looked like the flesh had been burned some how. When nobody was looking Arifia tipped the glass under the table. It seemed that Huss had grown the right side of his hair particuarly long just to hide that horrible scar. That wasn't all of it, his other eye was a strange couler, ir seemed to be red.
Arifia tried not to think about it too much and changed the subject, she was sure he wouldn't want to talk about it "So what are you guys going to be doing tommorow?"
"Hunting dragons I suppose" grunted Greg with a bored look on his face as if hunting dragons were an every day mundane thing to be doing.
"Why don't you come with us Reef? We could do with a hand killing this thing" asked Pox "That is if Kireek doesn't mind"
Kireek frowned hard and rested his chin on his hand. Arifia got that distinct impression that his eyebrows were going to snap again.
"I'd like to of course" smiled Arifia
Kireek sighed "You know the rules Pox, it's ilegal we're under a goverment policy and under Ragol law registered groups are only allowed five people in their team, the other problem is the need of an extra salery of Reef here, and also Reef simply isn't ready for us yet, I know you people think that killing Hilder bears is nothing but Reef is a new hunter and... Reef please don't take offense but I don't think we'd ever be able to take you with us"
"No it's alright" smiled Reef a little sulkily "I understand, you can't have me because I'm just not good enougth yet"
"No that's not it at all! I didn't mean that" hurried Kireek
"Yes you did" sighed Reef "And it is my first day... you'll see, I'll improve" with a sigh she got up from the table.
"Reef! It's ok, you can still tag along or something, can't she Kireek? It's not exactly breaking the law" pleaded Pox. Kireek sighed and slowly shook his head.
Arifia walked away hearing the muttering behind her, tommorow morning she needed to get some sersious hunter gear, this time there would be no way she was going to run out of monomates, she'd also get one of those magic maps or whatever they were, get her clothes repaired and perhaps get some kind of weapon. The Mag followed her away snoring with that same old nose clipped groan. Before she went back to the motel she dropped off at the hunters guild and collected her 200 Meseta.