Songs: Foreign Air - Free Animal; Meshugga Beach Party - Polyushke Polye
I had no idea what I imagined Aeres to be like, but it was different from what I had thought. I didn't really have much of an idea, honestly, but everything I saw of it so far still felt somewhat unexpected. It was difficult to describe, really. Most of all it felt surreal to be on Aeres.
Starting with us being ready at the shuttle hangar, with all our documents at hand (even the ones we made ourselves for Tina, hoping it would count, since there was no sort of formal government on Pandora). We weren't going down to the surface with a shuttle from the cargo ship we travelled on. What happened was that there was a shuttle being sent from Aeres with a bunch of customs officers on board.
They checked everyone's identification and our invites and visas and then let us board that shuttle. It was a really surreal experience and very different from Artemis. The shuttle ride down to the planet wasn't what I'd call smooth, but then again we got there fast and no one got hurt. Sure, a few people looked a little green in the face, but there were no accidents or serious injuries.
It felt really surreal to be on Aeres. Maybe also, because I hadn't really heard much about the planet before coming here (except the few bits that Anouk had told me). Vladof wasn't very vocal about what was going on on their planet, to be honest. So maybe it felt weird, because none of us had any idea what to expect.
But here we were, in a very clinical looking hall. It looked functional, much more functional than any other place
"Oh, there you are! Did you have a delay or something? The shuttle's usually never this late. How was the journey over here?" I heard someone call out. I turned in the direction the voice came from and saw Anouk walking towards me. Her hair was curly and voluminous and standing off in all directions, only held back by a narrow headband with a beautiful pattern. It still felt so surreal to know that this was my daughter.
"Oh, hi! The journey was good mostly. Not much to do on the way here, so I read up on all the stuff you sent about the Vault. How are you?" I asked her.
"Man, this place is huge..." I heard Brick comment in the background. He was carrying Tina on his shoulders. The little girl was taking everything in with big eyes. I wasn't used to her being that quiet, especially not since she became a teenager.
"I'm good. I'm so excited you're here! I can show you around my workplace and where I live. And you're gonna hunt a Vault, that's wild!" Anouk replied and gave me a hug. It all sounded so easy when she said it. Made me feel old. She went on to say hello to the rest of the group.
"Okay, Anouk, where exactly on the planet are we?" I asked her, when everyone was done catching up for a while. We had read through all of the information and there were a good few hints in all the data that Anouk had sent on.
The Vault was supposedly in some small ruins of a steppe city, if we had come to the right conclusions. There were three pieces of the key all over the planet and we had found a lot on two of the pieces. One seemed to be somewhere out in the wilderness, whereas the second one was in one of the main cities.
"We are in Luvenga at the moment, pretty close to the north pole of the planet. It's a smallish enough harbour town, most cargo that arrives here would be loaded onto ships or trains going out from here all over the planet. I hope you brought some warm clothes, though, the first bit of the journey is going to get cold." Anouk said to us. I sighed. I had somewhat expected to be met with some cold weather, but I couldn't really say that I was prepared for it.
"Well, we got as many warm clothes as we could. It's not like there is much of a need for it on Pandora. We looted a few good coats off some bandits in the Southern Shelf, but that was the best we could get." I said. It really wasn't that easy to get warm winter clothes on a hot desert planet.
"You'll be freezing." Anouk warned us.
"Well, I suppose, first chance we get to get ourselves some proper warm clothes, we'll take it." Mordecai replied and shrugged.
"We should probably have a look around town then. There are trains leaving every two hours, so we have time to look around if you want to." Anouk told us. I nodded and tightened the straps of my backpack.
"Alright, let's go then. Don't be disappointed, this place isn't very fancy. Most of the towns on Aeres are very industrial, with loads of factories and what not."
While Anouk was explaining how the planet worked to us, I looked around as we left the shuttle hangar. Everything did look really industrial, it was as if we were in one big factory. It was a stark contrast to Aquator, at least judging from what I remembered of Aquator. Most people working here were wearing simple overalls while the people travelling all wore pretty simple and practical clothes themselves.
When we left the hangar, there was a cold wind blowing in my face. I don't think I had ever experienced such cold temperatures. Growing up on Aquator the temperatures had always been pretty high. It was a planet that was mostly water after all and most of the islands were in the tropical zone. That was literally the only reason why it was such a vacationing planet. It was just hot all year round.
But this here... there was actual snow. The only snow I had seen was in the tundra on Pandora. And that was just some hints of snow. I probably would have seen more if I had ever ventured further into the Southern Shelf, but I never really did. This was the thickest cover of snow I had seen in my entire life.
"It's summer time here right now, so the snow cover is not as impressive as usual, but I suppose if all you know is Pandora, it is quite impressive. Where are you all from anyway? I know you're from Artemis, Mordy. And I know that Nova is from Aquator. But where are you actually from, Brick?" Anouk asked. Hold up. This wasn't even the most snow they'd get? I kind of felt like I was missing out.
"Am from Menoetia. Was kind of a shitty place to begin with." Brick said. Tina was jumping up and down excitedly.
"I've only been on Pandora, so this is like super exciting! This is the most snow I have ever seen in my life and it's wild. Can I... can I touch it?" she asked excitedly. Anouk laughed and shrugged.
"Sure. But be careful, it's really, really cold." she said. Tina looked at Anouk in awe and then carefully stretched out her hand to touch the snow on the ground. Once she had actually touched it, she quickly pulled back her hand with a loud and shrill shriek. Anouk laughed when she heard it.
"Ugh, it's like super cold! What the hell? And it's wet! Yikes!" Tina exclaimed, shaking her hand.
"Yeah, snow is kinda weird. Anyway, I think I know a good place to get some warm clothes. Most of the second hand stores here have really good stuff and it's pretty cheap, too. You did get your currency exchanged, didn't you?" Anouk asked and looked at me. I nodded and pulled out a stack of bank notes.
"Got it all sorted. It wasn't easy, to be fair. No one seems to want to trade currency with people from Pandora. Especially not a currency as specific as the one you guys use." I replied.
"Yeah, it's not too easy to find our currency. And I suppose around Pandora it would be even more difficult. Good thing you managed it, though. You can exchange more while you're here, but it is pretty useful to have something when you come here first, just to get something to eat or to drink." Anouk answered.
I noticed that there were quite a few people looking at us in the streets. We did kind of stand out, since we were all more or less wearing rags and had loads of luggage on us. Aeres didn't seem to get too many visitors from what I heard, mostly because most of the big corporations were boycotting Vladof.
"This feels really weird. Never thought I'd get to Aeres of all places." Mordecai mentioned. Tina seemed pretty excited, which meant Brick was at least as excited as her. I could barely believe that we had made it here.
"Yeah, it's not that easy to get onto the planet. I was glad my parents... my adoptive parents... could manage to get me an invite for all of you guys. I suppose, people have a very positive image of the Crimson Raiders, since you guys stood your ground against Hyperion." Anouk mentioned and walked into one massive building. It looked like a big storage building, but there were loads of piles of clothes. It was like a massive market full of winter clothes.
"This is it. Go wild, I guess. You should be able to find all the warm clothes you need in here." Anouk said with a big smile on her face. I let my eyes wander over the massive piles of clothing. There were warm combat boots, long woollen coats, coats with fur that seemed like they were waterproof, sweaters, hats, gloves, anything you could imagine. I just stood there and tried letting it all sink in.
"I don't think I ever owned a hat..." I mumbled. I heard Anouk snickering next to me. This was probably really strange for her - a bunch of people that had never heard of temperatures below 0 degrees.
"Follow me, I've got just the thing for you!" she exclaimed and took my arm. I just followed her while still trying to process this new place. I had spent the whole journey here trying to process that I wasn't on Pandora anymore and now this was a whole new experience. It felt just as strange as first setting foot on Pandora.
"Here, look at this!" Anouk said and gave me a big black hat that was completely fur inside. It had long earpieces on the sides. I had seen these kinds of hats before, but not in real life. I felt the material and the fur was incredibly soft.
"They're called ushankas. Try it on!" Anouk said, looking incredibly excited. I smiled a little and put the hat on my head. It felt really, really warm and I wasn't sure if it's suit me, especially with my dreads.
"Well, it's a look. It's different, but it's a look. You should get it, even if it's just as a souvenir." Anouk said and started pulling me over to some woollen coats.