Well, after an agonizing week of trying to get a system to work, we finally had to call it. Considering we were only there to observe, rewiring half the system was a little beyond our role. Still, we did what we could, and now it's up to the contractor to fix their crap. Nothing like wasting eight days of work for nothing. A broken sump pump at home just added to the chaos.
Such is life. On the bright side, I get a few extra telework days to make up for the ones I skipped to be in the lab. Also excited to actually start the new story arc here. Finishing a chapter is always nice, but finishing an arc feels so much more rewarding. I'm also getting ready for a very busy May, as my streamer Discord server is celebrating its third anniversary and I head their events team. Lots of special streams to prepare and not much time to do it. Gonna be a lot of fun if it all works out, though.
"Welcome to the SDC." The woman behind the counter fit far too perfectly. Like practically everything else in the lobby, she looked polished and perfect. Not a single platinum blonde hair dared deviate as they flowed down her shoulders in waves. Her pristine, white outfit practically shone in the bright light, nearly blinding him. "How can I help you today?"
Adam didn't know much about the SDC beyond what he'd heard on the radio. He knew they were the primary supplier of dust to all four Kingdoms, making them the largest company on Remnant. He knew they were headquartered in Atlas and had close ties to the government and military there. He knew they employed thousands of workers in every Kingdom.
He also knew they were the most sued and protested entity in history. He knew they had a veritable army of lawyers at the ready to go after anyone who dared oppose them. He knew they had very little competition, squashing any challenger with ruthless efficiency.
But most of all, he knew they were always hiring, human and faunus alike.
"I'd like to apply for a job." The words hurt as he rushed them out. While the SDC was easily the largest employer of faunus on Remnant - a fact they touted in countless press statements - there was a reason faunus rights groups went after them nine times out of ten. Most of their faunus laborers worked in mines that had a nasty habit of caving in. An inherent risk of the industry, the SDC always claimed, backed up by numerous inspections and investigations that always went in their favor. Then again, when you had your own law firm and most of the world depended on you for their entire infrastructure, it was hard to imagine it going any other way.
Under any other circumstance, Adam would've avoided this place like the plague, but desperate times called for desperate measures. With charges of murder and arson likely coming his way, Adam needed to get out before things heated up any further.
"Excellent." Adam did his best not to roll his eyes at her fake enthusiasm. The woman handed him a clipboard and a pen before pointing to a nearby set of chairs. "Feel free to take a seat. If you could start filling out these forms, I'll send someone to collect you in a few minutes."
"Collect me? We're leaving now?" He needed to get out of the city fast, but that was ridiculous! Good thing he had all his stuff with him. Granted, everything he owned fit in his backpack. The grip of his sword poked out a little, but he'd wrapped a cloth around it to make it less obvious. Anyone looking closely could tell, but it was better than carrying it on his hip in public.
It took the woman a second to understand what he meant, then with an easy laugh she clarified, "For the interview. They'll go over your paperwork with you and see what we can do."
"Oh." Adam felt a little silly now. Of course that's what she'd meant. "Thanks." Adam took a seat close to the door and began flipping through the small stack of forms she'd given him.
What the heck was this?
The first few pages were crammed with endless boxes, each requesting more and more information. Some of them were simple enough. Name. Age. Contact info. He'd expected those. But they wanted past addresses, heritage, previous employment, medical history, and a thousand other things. And that was just the first page! Adam flipped ahead, hoping for instructions, only to find more forms to fill out. When he reached one talking about taxes and deductions, Adam's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Math! Why did it have to be math?
Catching his breath, Adam sheepishly went back up to the counter. "Um, excuse me?"
"Is something wrong?"
"I…" This was so embarrassing. "I don't know how to fill these out."
The pitying look she gave him only made him feel smaller. "I'm so sorry. The employment agent can help you read through the forms if you want."
Read through… "No, I mean I don't know what to put for half of this stuff." Did she really think he couldn't read?
Her smile didn't falter. "Just fill out what you can and we'll help with the rest afterward."
Knowing he wouldn't get anything else from her, Adam returned to his seat and started adding what few details he could figure out. He'd done enough applications to know the first part easily enough. Anything else he just left blank. He'd barely made a dent in the paperwork when the receptionist called him back up.
"They're ready to see you now." They? Who? Adam looked around, but no one was there. "Down the hall to your right. Third door on the left. Good luck, and thanks for choosing the SDC."
Choosing? Adam wouldn't really call it a choice so much as a last resort. Still, he followed her instructions, timidly marching down the hall until he reached a door with the words "EMPLOYMENT SERVICES' printed on the foggy glass. Just to be certain, he looked back and recounted the doors before knocking.
"Enter."
The creak of the door was the only sound Adam made as he timidly slipped inside. Whatever tiny bit of confidence he might have been clinging onto fled before the single worded command. The cramped office he entered was dominated by a simple desk and practically nothing else. The barren walls seemed to close in as Adam stepped forward. The slow, steady clicking of a keyboard served as the only sound in the isolated space. Adam stopped a few feet in front of the desk and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The sole occupant of the room continued typing away, steadfastly ignoring the new arrival with his eyes locked on a monitor. Adam stood awkwardly with papers in hand as he took in the man before him.
Like the receptionist, he wore a pristine white uniform without so much as a wrinkle visible, making him almost blend in with the wall behind him. His black hair lay flat in an almost haphazard manner, nearly reaching his square-shaped glasses. Here and there, the grayness of age wove through his hair, hinting at an age that didn't fit his young-looking face. He wore a serious expression befitting the space he inhabited. The office hardly looked lived in. If not for the single framed photo and steaming mug of tea - some cheap, store-bought crap that Soji would've thrown a royal fit about - Adam would've thought the room unoccupied.
After what felt like an eternity, the man finally adjusted his glasses and swiveled his chair forward to face Adam directly, holding a hand out to the lone unoccupied chair. "Take a seat." Adam shot into the chair. "My name's Kent. I take it you're here to apply for a job, correct?"
Why else would he have come to Employment Services? Adam bit back on his sarcastic response. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Did you have time to complete the application?"
"About that," Adam hedged as he handed the forms over. Kent started to look them over, but considering how few boxes Adam had been able to fill out, it didn't take long. "I didn't really know what to put for a lot of them."
"It's fine," Kent assured him. "That's what I'm here for." Kent's job was to fill out the forms for him? Then why even have him try? Or why not just have less confusing forms? Adam wondered if every business followed the same model or if it was just the SDC. "Now let's see what we've got so far."
Not much.
Maybe this was normal. Maybe Kent had seen even worse. Or maybe he was just good at hiding it. Whatever the case, he wasted no time in going through it with Adam. "First, let's confirm what you have so far and then we'll tackle the rest together. So…Adam," Kent read, "happy early birthday."
"Thanks." He'd almost forgotten it was coming up. Not that he had much to celebrate. Yay, I'm not dead! He'd love to see that printed on a balloon.
Kent paused a moment later, looked up at Adam, and then back down at the application. "It says here you're nineteen?"
"Mmhm." Legally, he could work already, but he didn't know what kind of policies the SDC had for young employees. Would fifteen be enough? Sixteen? Eighteen? He'd almost put twenty-one, just to be safe, but that seemed like a hard sell. At nearly sixteen, he felt he could pass for eighteen or nineteen, given his height and build.
Kent disagreed. "You know you only have to be seventeen to work for the SDC, right?" Adam didn't, but that wasn't what Kent was asking. Kent was calling his bluff. "You still want to claim nineteen?"
"I'm nineteen," Adam stubbornly claimed. Even if Kent was giving him an easy out, Adam refused to back down. He had no way to prove Adam a liar except through Adam himself.
Kent's deadpan stare went well with his labored sigh. "Fine. Have it your way." Adam could've laughed at that. Since when had anything ever gone his way? "Under parents, you wrote none."
"I'm an orphan," Adam answered.
"But you had to have parents at some point, didn't you?"
Adam felt a flash of irritation. What business did this guy have digging into his past? And why did it matter who his parents were? Call him petty, but Adam wanted to make this guy squirm. "My dad abandoned me as a baby. The local priest raised me."
Kent didn't look overly comfortable with the first part, so he latched onto the only lifeline Adam had offered. "Oh! The priest. What's his name?"
Big mistake.
"Father Bernard," Adam replied.
Kent jotted something down. "Does he have a first name?"
"He did," Adam acknowledged before zeroing in for the kill. "Before he died."
Kent hesitated, then set his pen down. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize-"
"You didn't," Adam agreed, far too satisfied as he gave a final twist to the knife. Still, he needed to get this over with. "What else?"
Kent seized on the escape like his life depended on it. "Ad-" His voice squeaked a little. Kent coughed and tried again. "Address?"
"None."
This time, he knew better than to push. "Any previous employers?"
Finally, something relevant. "I worked with the Yama caravan for a couple years."
"The…Yama?"
"Yama caravan," Adam repeated before remembering that most people in the city knew next to nothing about the traveling merchants that were the lifeblood of most of the Kingdom. "They're a merchant caravan from out west. Mostly tea, but we handled a lot of goods, including Tsubaki oil." If Kent knew anything about that, he sure hid it well. "I helped with the loading and unloading and was trained in sales and security."
"Security?" Kent locked onto the last word with interest. "As in fighting? Against what?"
Commander Barca's warning came back in full force before Adam could answer. If he said Grimm, they'd start asking about aura. Bandits would mean fighting against actual people. Either way, it made him a threat, meaning both were unacceptable. "Not much," Adam tried, backtracking as best he could. "Mostly just an extra set of eyes for watches. Let the real fighters get some extra sleep that way."
He did help with watches at night, of course. He also did a lot more. Killing Grimm. Using aura. Fighting a bandit from the Branwen clan…twice. Sparring almost daily. All things Kent and the SDC didn't need to know. Hopefully, he wouldn't dig any deeper and just assume Adam had been overstating things to sound impressive. People did that all the time in job applications, right? Sales associate sounded better than cashier. Facility manager instead of cleaning crew, janitor, or repairman. Any job could be given a shinier label.
"Probably helped that you're a faunus," Kent commented as he made some more notes. "Night vision must've been pretty handy out there. So let's go over some of your recent history."
What followed was an agonizing hour or so of reviewing every detail of Adam's life and converting it all into short answers for an application. Everything from where he'd visited to when he got sick as a kid was fair game. Adam did his best to recall, omitting any reference to his time in Katai along the way. If Kent looked closer, he might recognize a bit of a gap there, but he didn't seem all too invested.
The tax information all went over Adam's head. He could get more each paycheck, but then he'd have to pay a penalty later. On the flipside, he could pay more along the way and get some back later. Adam asked if he could just do the exact amount to avoid a penalty, but Kent just laughed and told him it wasn't that easy. It all seemed needlessly complicated, so Adam eventually just told Kent to put down whatever made sense to him. He had to know more than Adam about these things.
Next, Adam was ushered into the back to a small examination room. It didn't actually look that different from the rest of the building. Every room had the same sterile white look to it. This one had some basic medical equipment, though. The nurse took every measurement she conceivably could, poking and prodding him all along the way. He shied away from her hands constantly, grateful they didn't ask for a full physical. Getting naked for some unknown woman had visions of Alyssa creeping back in. Thankfully, she didn't go that far, saving him the embarrassment and her the potential black eye.
Was this normal for getting a job? He doubted it, but then he'd never gotten further than a basic application in most cases, so it was hard to say. In fact, he'd never gotten hired the traditional way. Work at Katai's sawmill came from something closer to a cattle auction. The stable had been mostly Madam de Thom's doing, arranging everything behind the scenes for him.
When they finally finished, Kent delivered the good news. "Well, Adam, I think we may have a perfect fit for you, as long as you're willing to travel."
Adam kind of assumed as much. Doubt they'd give some random faunus kid an office job. Plus, he sort of needed to leave the city. "Travel's not an issue."
"Great! One of our new mines opened up in the south and could really use some help." South? Well, it sure beat going north to the colder regions. East would've been pretty rough, too. He hadn't been out that way before, but other merchants spoke of deserts and even volcanoes if you went too far. Civilization didn't extend anywhere near there, though.
"When do we leave?" Adam asked, instantly regretting how desperate he sounded.
"What's the rush?"
Dang it! Telling him he wanted to avoid the cops seemed like an obviously bad answer. So why would he want to leave for a mining job so quickly? Shouldn't he want to take his time before signing his life away?
An answer popped into his head. One that actually made sense, too. "I don't have anywhere to go," Adam admitted with a shrug. He'd been living in a warehouse, but even that wasn't available anymore. The sooner he got out of the city, the better. "City life didn't work out. I'm just ready to start over. That's all." Well, yes and no. He didn't really have a choice on starting over or not. Either a new life in a mining camp or one in a cell. Some might claim them the same, but one came with a paycheck and an option to leave.
Kent seemed pleased with his answer. "Makes sense. Our mining facilities are almost like small towns themselves. Food and lodging are provided, of course, along with many other amenities for our employees to take advantage of. Everything you need is readily available."
Really? He'd assumed they'd provide housing of some sort. Food, too, given how remote most of the mining camps had to be. No one wanted to live near something like that. Meals, shelter, and a job? Why hadn't he signed up sooner?
Kent led him to reception, chatting with the woman there for a moment. Adam only caught a few bits and pieces, but it sounded like they were just discussing his departure. Eventually, Kent turned around to address Adam. "You're in luck! We actually have an airship heading out that way tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" He thought he could leave today. Every hour he stayed in Mistral, the police got closer to figuring out he'd killed that guy. He might not have until tomorrow. "B-but…what do I do until then?"
Kent smiled easily. "We provide housing at our facilities for all employees. While you aren't there yet, we can set you up in a spare room here for the night. Is that okay?"
"Yes!" Adam didn't mean to answer so loudly. "I mean, yes. That would be great."
"Do you need to go gather your things?"
"These are my things," Adam answered.
"Oh." Kent ducked his head in embarrassment, but only for a second. "I…I see. Well, then if you're ready, I can show you to your room."
The room, as it turned out, wasn't much bigger than the office earlier. Somehow, it looked even brighter. Adam swore the entire room glowed. The clean, white sheets on the bed certainly didn't help.A single, white chair claimed the other corner, while a small television hung on one of the walls.
"Bathroom is just down the hall. There's some coffee and snacks in the break room, too." Free food? Now he was talking Adam's language. "Airship leaves at eight tomorrow, so make sure to wake up early."
"Not a problem." Eight was early to these people? Adam couldn't imagine sleeping in that late. So much of the day would already be gone. Sleeping in to him meant missing sunrise by minutes. How could they sleep so long yet still cling to caffeine to get them started? City life didn't just make people soft, it made them lazy.
Kent left him on his own with instructions on what to expect in the morning. Basically, one of the airship crew would come collect him around seven. It would be a long flight all the way out to a large island in the south where a survey team found a large deposit of both plant and water dust. He'd be assigned to one of the mining teams, naturally, and help extract the precious crystals after some intensive training on site.
Adam waited a few minutes after Kent left, then booked it to the break room. Like Kent said, there was food and coffee readily available, not to mention a few vending machines. Adam ignored those. Why pay for food when there was free stuff? Loading up on some fruit and even a couple donuts, he hurried back to his room and barricaded himself in with his haul. Eating on the bed was bad manners, but Adam didn't care. If anything, the small smudges and stains he caused were cathartic, sullying the pretentious white of the room just a hair.
He didn't dare venture out into the city like Kent recommended. For all he knew, they were looking for him right now. Better to hide away in the last place they'd think to look for a faunus. Besides, after a few months of constant scavenging and job hunting, it felt good to just lounge about without a care for once. He hadn't realized how draining it actually was until he had a moment to catch his breath. Instead of combing the city endlessly, he got to sit back, eat and watch the news for once.
Was this what working for the SDC was like? Sure, he'd have to do some manual labor every day, but big whoop. Working hard wasn't new to him. Plus, his aura would keep him going way longer than anyone else. If he could end his day like this, though? Adam couldn't really see what everyone complained about.
So far, everything seemed to be working out just fine.
/- - - - - - - - - -/
As expected, Adam woke up way before he needed to the next morning. He didn't really have much to pass the time, either. Most of the building was locked up until the staff arrived. The break room had a hot water tap on the coffee machine and some bags of tea. It wasn't very good, but it sure beat coffee.
With plenty of time to spare, Adam soon found himself back in his tiny room watching the morning news. Pretty boring stuff, but it passed the time faster than staring at the clock. Several checks of his bag didn't do much. It was hard to spend much time looking at a mostly empty backpack. He couldn't help but wonder what they'd think of him having a sword. Maybe he could sneak it into his room at the mining camp. He'd have to keep it hidden, of course. The SDC probably wouldn't love the idea of him keeping a weapon around, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. It could, actually, but that wasn't the point.
By six thirty, Adam made his way to the lobby and claimed a seat near the door, just in case the guy from the airship got there early. He impatiently drummed his fingers across the bag in his lap as the seconds ticked by until the door finally opened.
"You the kid we're transporting?" A middle-aged man asked as he poked his head in. Adam breathed a sigh of relief at the man's mostly brown outfit. After a full day of nothing but SDC white, seeing normal colors felt like some kind of blessing.
"I am," Adam answered, jumping up and sliding his pack on his back.
"Good. Let's get going." Punctuality. Adam appreciated that. Too many people in the city treated time as more of a suggestion. Everything was done in approximations. If someone told you seven, they might show up a little early or half an hour late. People that had all the time in the world tended to waste it the most. "We're a little behind in loading cargo, so we'd best hurry."
"I can help," Adam offered. With all the sitting around this morning, he was practically bursting with energy right now. Loading an airship couldn't be that different from a wagon, right?
Or maybe it could. When Kent said an airship, Adam had imagined a bullhead like he'd been in all those years ago with Team SPVC. Instead, Adam found himself in front of a behemoth. A massive cargo ramp led up to the belly of the beast as crate upon crate of supplies were loaded by forklift. The airship was basically all storage with a ladder leading up to a small cockpit and nothing else. Even with all that space, they were packing things in as tight as possible, leaving only a narrow aisle down the middle and a small gap on either side as a full crew rushed to and fro, lashing down stacks of crates at a frankly ridiculous speed.
Adam's offer to help seemed silly now. He'd imagined everything being done by hand, but he doubted they'd get very far trying to lift the massive boxes themselves. Instead, his new friend hurriedly led him through the center aisle and up the ladder.
"Got our passenger," he announced as they entered the one place not crammed full of boxes.
"Good." The pilot, or so Adam assumed with where he was sitting, grunted an acknowledgment as he flipped switches, tuned knobs, and did a million other things with the complicated control panel before him. Adam didn't know what any of them did. As far as he knew, you just turned it on and went. This seemed way more complicated. "We're airborne in forty. Thirty if those fools pick up the pace."
Adam wasn't sure how they could go much faster. Then again, it wasn't really his place to say. Instead, he figured he might as well introduce himself. "I'm Adam," he offered alongside his hand.
"Seat's over there," the pilot answered, using his free hand to point out an empty chair behind the co-pilot, even as his other hand blindly flipped a trio of switches. "Get comfy. Gonna be a long ride. You get airsick?"
Adam shrugged. "Not that I know of." He hadn't exactly done a lot of flying.
"Barf bag's under your seat. But if you do, you'll be holding it all the way to camp" That sounded like a miserable ride. Adam doubted he was just saying that to be cruel. They didn't really have anywhere to put a bag of vomit. Chucking it out a window might work, but he pitied anyone that might be below when it hit.
Adam strapped himself in, even if he knew he had plenty of time, and kept his bag clutched tightly to his chest. As soon as word came over the radio that everything was loaded, Adam could hear the giant ramp closing. The airship shook as it rose, straining to get off the ground at first with so much extra weight. Adam watched out the front as they gradually rose above the city. Higher and higher they went, slowly tilting forward as they angled away from the horrors of the city and out over the seemingly endless wilderness of Anima. That eventually vanished, too, as they passed even the clouds themselves and broke through into something straight out of a dream.
A crystal blue sky hung above them, carrying on in every direction without a single speck to tarnish it. Below, an unmoving sea of white waves cut them off from the rest of the world. Up here, there was nothing but sky and clouds. And them. The airship sped through the open air without a care in the world, speeding over Remnant at what had to be frightening speed yet seeming to go nowhere at the same time.
Up here, they escaped the grasp of even time itself. The cares of the world couldn't reach them past the vaporous barrier below. Adam didn't have to worry about a dead thief or a burnt warehouse this far up. Whatever waited for him at the mining camp seemed a million years away, too. Right now, they were in the midst of some strange new world. A place where one could be truly alone yet feel anything but lonely. He had to wonder how much more magical it looked at night when the sky danced with starlight and the shattered moon claimed dominion over this alien land.
Adam closed his eyes, exhaling all the worries of Mistral and letting them drop back down to Remnant where they belonged. As he relaxed in his seat, the constant hum of the engines seemed to change. He felt himself drifting back to a place long forgotten. Water crashed beneath him. The clouds rose back into their hallowed place above. Sunlight streamed through treetops as birds whistled merry tunes and drifted from branch to branch. He was back in Shizukana. Back at his waterfall. No one else in Remnant mattered for a moment, because nothing outside of his refuge existed. All that mattered lay within those trees. The wind caressed his face as he basked in the beauty of this place.
Only it wasn't wind. It was air conditioning.
"You fallin' asleep already?"
Adam jolted awake, his mind letting out a quiet whine as the image shattered and the cold confines of the cockpit returned.
"Leave him be," the co-pilot insisted. "Not like there's much else to do up here."
How could they be so blasé about their surroundings? Neither of them seemed to care about the scenic vista ahead. In fact, neither of them were even looking forward at all. Wait a second. "Shouldn't you be watching where we're going?" Adam asked as the pilot chuckled.
"Not exactly much to hit up here." He was right. This high up, they could go for hours without seeing anything, let alone running into it. "Computer does most of the flying nowadays. I just gotta get her pointed in the right direction."
"That's it?" Adam always imagined piloting being a lot harder, but they were flying without anyone steering. You couldn't even do that with a wagon. At least not for long.
"And landing. Wonder how long until they automate that too."
"We'll always need pilots," the co-pilot insisted. "No way to replace something like that."
"You keep tellin' yourself that," the pilot shot back. "Mark my words. Someday, we'll be replaced by those robots from Atlas. We barely do anything now. I spend more time watching this thing fly itself than I do actually flying it."
"Don't listen to him," the co-pilot said, waving off the words of his counterpart. "How you holdin' up?"
"I'm fine." Adam's stomach felt completely normal after the initial pressure of accelerating suddenly. It had been smooth sailing ever since. "I didn't know airships could fly this high."
The pilot ignored them, leaning back in his seat with a bored expression. The co-pilot seemed more keen to pass the time with conversation than sleep. "Most don't. Easier for us this way, though. Who needs evasive maneuvers when there's nothing to evade?"
Imagining this thing dodging was laughable. A bullhead could zip through tight gaps with ease, rapidly changing direction and speed at the drop of a hat. A cargo ship like this, though? They'd be lucky to avoid a mountain, let alone other airships. "Are there other airships that fly this high?"
"Plenty. Mostly big boys like us, though. Especially if you're going any long distance."
What followed was a lesson on all sorts of things Adam never knew he wanted to learn. Flight paths. Thermals. Radar. Radio communication. It all seemed so fascinating. Maybe it was just the newness of it all, but Adam followed along eagerly as the co-pilot bounced from one subject to the next. He probably appreciated the chance to distract himself from the lengthy flight, but not as much as Adam did.
Like all good things in life, however, it couldn't last forever. "Better take your seat," the pilot ordered as the radio crackled with some garbled message. Adam hadn't even realized he'd gotten out of his seat in the first place. "Orostachys, this is Mistral one niner zero one echo requesting permission to land, over."
The static came to life once more. "Roger that. You're clear to land at platform two. Crews are standing by to unload, over."
"Platform two," the pilot repeated. "Touching down shortly. Always a pleasure, Orostachys. Mistral one niner zero one echo out." Suddenly more focused as they began to descend, he commented. Say what you want about Atlas, but they sure don't waste time."
"Bit formal for me," the co-pilot complained.
"I'll take formal if it gets me back in the air in under half an hour."
Breaking through the clouds once more, Adam got his first look at his new home. He didn't know what he expected a mining camp to look like, but what lurked below looked more like a miniature city to him. Thick walls dotted with a few gun emplacements traced a large circle below, beginning and ending against the base of a small mountain. On one side, a tight cluster of squat buildings stood alone. The opposite side boasted a pair of landing platforms, one of which had men and equipment standing by to receive them. Sporadic buildings and cleared out spaces littered much of the southern edge, while the top was dominated by what had to be the mine entrance set against the foot of the mountain. The forest around the camp didn't dare approach, cleared out for a good ways in every direction.
"Camp Orostachys," the co-pilot advised. "It may not look like much, but this is the finest mining camp I've made deliveries to."
Not look like much? The place was huge! Not like Mistral huge or anything. Heck, even Katai was a little bigger, but for a single mine, he hadn't expected so much development. The airship spun as it lowered, cutting off any view of the world outside as the wall rose to meet them. The ship shuddered as it touched down, heralding the end of their flight and the start of Adam's new life. He just hoped it would be a good one.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
Love when I go to research a name and find a perfect result right off the bat. Orostachys is a flowering plant that grows on the surface of mountain rocks and translates loosely to "mountain spike." Seems fitting for a mining camp digging into the base of a mountain. There'll be a lot more explained about the camp in the coming chapters, but imagine everything you'd need for a remote camp like that. Housing. Mess hall. Offices. Security. Supply delivery. Storehouses. This place is a force to be reckoned with and reflects the value of the dust deposits it was built around.
Not a ton of stuff to go over here beyond that. Next chapter will start laying out a lot more details that'll impact the arc ahead. This arc is where we start dipping our toes in canon a little, but I've still got plenty of wiggle room to mix in my own plans before we start having to fit in the confines of established lore. Thankfully, that's a ways off still. For now, sit back, relax, and prepare for suffering.
Next chapter: Adam learns about his new employment arrangement.