Chapter 5: Short Respite
Folkvangr docked at the designated area with haste and the captain quickly puts the reactor at minimum power to prevent further damage. "That is too close for comfort." Callan says it to the captain through the ship com. "Yeah. Do me a favor Callan?" She asked. Callan nods away. "Handle the stuff for most of the essentials supplies." He nods once more after hearing the task and turns off his communicator. Atlas walks out of the reactor room full of sweat, the room was boiling hot enough that nearly causes some of the engine crew to pass out. As always, he takes the route to avoid people to see him this tired returning to his room. Without thinking too much, he takes a shower and departs from his room after wearing his backup uniform. Thinking for a way to chill off at the space station while on guard, Callan is in his eyeshot of a view as he waved over at him. He goes to him at the cargo area.
Callan points out the item to trade for the fellow people that wanted to trade with him. He sees Atlas walking to him. "Atlas, you don't look so good." He eyes him out of concern after Atlas stopped in front of him.
"Yeah, I need some R&R. The reactor almost cooked me and the engine crew. Luckily we don't taste that good for the reactor to eat us." He makes a joke out of the situation. Callan scoffs hearing it and brief some of the situation to him. "Sauna reactor; that's one of the nicknames it got by the engineers. Speaking of the reactor, someone give two high tech looking reactor to us for installation. We are opening the reactor room outer hull to install it." Callan scratches his head of the situation, not knowing the one that is assisting them behind the curtain.
"Give me 2 hours to install it and were gone from here." A familiar voice speaks at the two of them. Paul gives a wide smile as the two of them turned to see him. "Shit, our head engineer have revived from the doc room. How was your day dream?" Callan says it to him. Paul gives him a light gut punch to him. "Yeah brah, not that easy to bring me down. Haha!" Paul brag at Callan. Atlas know that the two of them are close friends with the way they are talking. He leaves the scene to the space station. Callan sees him in doing so. "Hey commander, where you're going?" He asked Atlas. "Exploring!" Atlas answers while waving his hand before disappearing into the crowd. Callan quickly transfers some credits to Atlas com watch using his inventory tab while explaining the situation to Paul.
Casually making his way to the main part of the space station, Atlas sees the blinking light of his watch com. He briefly checks it. "This is too much…" He says it while seeing the money that Callan puts in numbering over hundred thousand. Atlas notices the bar sign near the club area. He grinned in his face covered hood over seeing other people enjoying themselves of the entertainment given, they even have a small row of arcade machines and pole dancers. With the opportunity of an empty seat at the bar, He did not put his hood down while sit at the empty chair; scanning the drink rack before ordering. "Give me one infused redline xtreme mixed with chardonnay." He says it to the bartender. The bartender acknowledges his order even though it is hazardous mixing energy drink with wine. "Here you go sir, medical facility is at the front row of the station in case you started to feel weird." The bartender says to him out of concern.
Atlas smiles at him of his worry. "Nah, this body can handle it." He answers back before gulping the drink down. The strong taste surprises him at first, but it quickly dissipates. An anthro that sits beside him is surprised by it. Trying not to get too much attention, he stays there hearing out some news from people nearby while drinking a fresh cocktail that he just ordered. News of the Estcallian have fallen were heard from some of the conversation including the Draconian have absorbed some of the parliament countries, making themselves stronger.
"Atlas aren't you?" a warm voice that sits at his right side of the bar speaks to him. "What, did the Draconians come to send their greetings in blood?" He did not turn in response while questioning while remaining on high alert.
She laughed a little while ordering her drink. "You are the only one in this space station with that unique set of clothing." She says while looking at him. Atlas quick to point his bracer guns on his left arm to her, it glows in warning to take the shot. "Easy now, we don't want a mess here at this place. There are a lot of people here." The lass gets her drink from the bartender and sips it slowly. "I know where you are going; taking refuge on the other side of the void, you need to go there fast before the draconians and that one angry brother of a certain family wanted to take vengeance and hot in your trail."
Atlas scoffs. "I don't care about the pursuers, they can fall to the full might of the ICE forces swallowing this part of the galaxy." Boasting out of his own confirmation.
She is surprises of Atlas knowledge who is on the other side of the void, it was never explored before by the others. "Ice? Wait, you know what's on the other side of the empty void? You mean there is civilization on the other side?" She peeks into his hood, ignoring his personal space. A human with blonde hair enters his view of his focused glare. She quickly back away after catching Atlas yellow eyes out of fright. "Odelia, remember that name alright; the one that give your ship the two reactors. Maybe one day we meet again." She transfers some cash for her drink and Atlas's to the bartender and leaves the bar. Atlas takes two minutes before turning around to see her leave through the main door. "How much?" Atlas says to the bartender. "Sir, she already pay it for you. Should I transfer the excessive balance to you?" The bartender inquired.
"No, keep it. I give your 500 creds more." He does the same leaving the bar shortly after to waltz around the upper floor of the space station. Finding a nice spot to view the activity outside the port platform from above is what he often do; a quiet enclosed lounge with that view is where he is heading to. Lenora finally find him at the intersection, he looked over and also surprised to see the princess is not on the ship. "Atlas, you were here?" She shortly asked. He looks at her ranged weapons holster.
"I just got here, out for shopping Lenora?" Atlas confirming his guess of her new handgun. She walks by his side to the lounge. "Umm no, the handgun is from the ship's armory. I am here to find you after getting some information from the stationmaster." Atlas stunned a little hearing her able to gather Intel and to recover her loss quickly. She smiles a little while taking a peek first into the lounge. It is empty and both entered the lounge, she quickly locked the door as she explains what the information she obtains. "The Draconian are massing their fleet to clean up the rest of the parliaments including this sector. They will arrive here tomorrow to subjugate the planet and later this station."
Atlas entertain himself with playing his knives while hearing her out. "Princess, how are the appearance of the draconians?" he asked without a clue of what they are. "Don't call me that anymore; Atlas. Not you too…" She says with a sad voice while looking at him. Lenora takes a brief moment to answer his question while scrolling her digital pad; showing it to Atlas while she explains. "Well the high rulers are dragons that can shape shift into any species they wanted. Kind of hard to tell the difference once they changed their form, except for their sharp eyes like yours. Some are half human dragon like my species of mostly human anatomy, you know the difference of human and demi human's right?" she says to him, Atlas nods of it and turns his attention on a docking ship. She remains quiet for a while.
"Atlas…" Lenora says his name to grab his attention. Atlas only answers with a short hum. "Where are we really going to?" she hesitatingly asked him. Hearing that, Atlas throws a few confinement anti sound disk at the corners of the room; preventing others from hearing outside. She is startled of him doing it. "Relax, those are for noise proof for any others overhearing our conversations. It's about time I explain everything to you and you must accept it no matter what." She relaxes a little of his sudden behavior. Atlas grabs a beer from the dispenser machine. She patiently waits for him to answer while bracing for the information. "Were going to wake up the zealous empire from its dormant slumber by giving it a glorious purpose and fuck up this side of the galaxy with the aggressors." He said it with a nasty evil grin. Lenora eyes widen as she accidentally drops her digital pad on the table with her tail puffing. "A-atlas, y-you're messing around; right?"
"Nope." He says proudly while drink down the still cold beer. "The story that I talked to you about is where I come from. The empire's name is the Imperial Cybran Empire, with a massive armadas that can chew nations and planets for breakfast. Fortunate for us, they know that we are going at them." Atlas explained. She takes a few minutes to soak it all in, Lenora thinks deeply of what will happen to them after they arrived there; worrying they might become slaves or even worse. Atlas sees her holding her head down in deep thought. "Who is the real you Atlas?" she questions out of not knowing the truth. Atlas picks up his phantom blade. "You said this sword chooses its master right? It actually chooses the soul of that person to become its master. Just hand over this sword to someone else there and it will glow in its flag color. Make sure it is well covered, it will not harm the royal blood in you."
Lenora confuses of his statement like he is going to die, she shudders of losing the only person she have now. "What are you going to do?" She look over to him again. Atlas snickers of what pops in his mind while throwing away the empty canister and says it aloud to her. "Giving this vessel a glorious death."
"NO!" She yelled out and ran onto him, hugging him tight. "You liar! You said you will be with me till the end of this journey! I put all of my trust in you while you play suicide?" She started tearing up while knocking at his chest repeatedly. Being half drunk, Atlas playfully pulls her cheeks. "Ow ow ow!" Lenora whimpers, as she about to say something to him; Atlas cups her muzzle. "You idiot, you loved an empty vassal and not the real one?" Atlas says it bluntly. Rejected, she drops down while hugging herself. Atlas crouch down to her level. Lenora hold back her tears while looking at him straight in the eye; not satisfied with his decision. "Find the 'real' me you doof and hold out being alone just for 30 days alright. Promise me Lenora, I won't forgive you if you did not make it there or else; I will tell the ruler to just crack open all the planets in this side of the galaxy and take its cores for experiments." He stated it to her. She bumped her head over Atlas's neck and Atlas rubs her hair. "My life will tie up to your trust, I cannot escape it now. You lead me this far and I will not back down." She bites his neck lightly out of her anger for his methods, Atlas flinched of the pain and just patted her head.
The ringing sound of Atlas communicator disturbed him from pulling Lenora's cheeks again. He quickly answers it. "What's up?" Atlas asked while turning on the speaker a little. "Atlas, is the princess with you?" Callan asked. Lenora answers with a simple yes. "Get back here right now, Draconian vanguard ships pops into our radar and we need to go. The reactor is fully functional now." Hearing that, Atlas pulls the disks back into his hand while Lenora picks her tab. With Lenora, both of them darted off to the ship in haste.