Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; VS Stargazer

Before we can proceed with our plans, I visit Vic in her cabin and ask her if splitting up right from the start is even allowed. Luckily, she approves, and so we start our final preparations, which leads to shuffling a lot of people around between starships.

Dave, Toby, Fabio, Lena, and Kylie temporarily move in on Jack's Hunchback, while Lisa and her team move back to her smaller ship. Vic joins them there. That leaves my own squad consisting of Tim, Nick, Lucy, Lydia, and Alina back on the Stargazer. Not that we're planning to stay there… Therefore, we're currently loading up the yacht for a prolonged stay down on Earth.

In the end, there's even enough time for a little shut-eye before everything starts. I lie down on my bed and close my eyes. It's crazy, so much preparation and now it's finally starting! I wonder how everything will play out…

One and a half hours later, it's time. Vic contacts me with a Communication spell that shakes me out of my short nap.

"It's go time, Sara. Good luck! Go, get them all and show them who's boss!"

I let out a short laugh and am immediately out of my bed. It's starting! "Thanks, Vic! And have fun over there at Venus. I'll be visiting soon."

I left my clothes on, so I teleport straight to the bridge without delay. "Go time," I say upon arriving, which spurs the others into action. Tim nods once, then teleports my friends over to the yacht, which is already waiting outside the hangar bay.

A few seconds later, the drive ignites and the small ship heads for planet Earth. I watch our sensor feeds and see a lot of other ships also flying toward the planet. Most of them are shuttles, but I also see two ships that are slightly bigger than the Stargazer heading for Earth. That must be special survey ships or something… Otherwise, no one bothers with making bigger ships capable of entering the atmosphere around a planet.

I file the thought away for later… It's not important, and I focus back on things that are. A short message goes out to Maja and Jack, giving them the green light for their trip to Venus. Vic has probably already informed Lisa, but for completeness' sake, I send her a message too.

That done, I wait for them to start moving. As they're all eager to begin too, I don't have to wait for long until the three ships move away from the Stargazer on a hard burn.

Now onto the final part before I can join the others in the yacht… I cast a Starship Jump spell and aim straight up, out of the ecliptic plane. Upon arrival, I cast another spell and link it to the Stargazer's Magitech emitters around the hull. The ship vanishes from sight, the Cloaking spell has latched on smoothly.

Now I just have to complete one final step to make my ship as secure as it can be without anyone aboard. I have to reactivate the gravitic lock that anchored the ship in space for 11,000 years and also prevented objects without the right clearance from approaching. Two taps on my console and a few hidden steps done by Clara later, and it's done. The Stargazer is now not only fully cloaked but also anchored at a place where normally no one should even come close to. I can't think of any idea to make the ship more secure except maybe stationing Lucy aboard for additional security, but that would be just cruel to her.

I take a deep breath and lean back for a moment. Earth is calling my name, and I'm just a single jump and a few minutes of flight away from being down on humanity's origin planet again. Even now that I'm so close, it still feels surreal…

But I don't let myself get distracted again and start casting my Teleportation spell. Clara constantly feeds me the ever-changing coordinates she gets from the yacht, which let me jump straight into one of the cabins.

Doing such a jump while the ship is entering the atmosphere of a planet is no easy feat, and most Mages shy away from it… At least that's what I read while visiting FBC's library.

Luckily, I'm no ordinary Mage and with the help of Clara and my Space Sense, I arrive exactly where I aimed at: On top of the bed in the cabin where I slept while living on the yacht more than two years ago.

I get up and look into the mirror. My Sara Green face stares back at me, and I flash my reflection a short grin. Then I walk toward the door and enter the main room of the yacht.

The conversations die down when my friends notice me, and they all get up to greet me. Tim speaks up smugly. "Told ya, that I felt something!"

Lucy flicks his ear. "You felt that too? Don't act so smug, mister Space Mage."

"Ouch!" Tim rubs his ear, and I lose it and start laughing.

He glares at me, but I can't help it. The fact that Lucy just casually flicked the ear of the Silvani heir is just too funny.

I get myself back under control shortly after and address Tim. "Did you get stronger, or how did you manage to notice my arrival?"

He nods. "Yeah, I'm pretty close to reaching Senior. Just one or two more power advancements, then I have it. With my latest enhancement, I started to get a lot more sensitive to Space magic being used around me. It's nowhere near as potent as your Space Sense, but I'm getting there. Just you wait!" He smiles at the end, his glare forgotten.

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"That's great! It's just a shame that we can't find enhancements here on Earth, but maybe we can have Jack ship a few here once the wormhole is established."

"Are you sure there aren't any?" Lydia asks from the helm with a slight frown on her face. "I think I've read somewhere that they managed to reach up to Senior level with artificial cores back then."

Hmm, she might be right… I vaguely remember Conor Valterion grumbling that Ferdinand Benson didn't manage to make the final leap to artificial Master cores yet. "You might be right, Lydia… But that raises the question of whether we want to use such an enhancement if we find it… I mean it's more than 11,000 years old at this point."

Both Lydia and Tim nod. "Yeah," Tim replies. "That sounds too dangerous. Sending Jack on a supply run is the sensible solution."

Lucy, on the other hand, gives me a look that says, "Are you serious right now? You of all people used such old technology!"

Our flight continues, and we watch the planet below us on the hologram provided by Clara. I start to make out the landmass. Lydia calls out from the cockpit, and I imagine her grabbing the controls a bit tighter. "I'm detecting some heavy winds. You all might want to sit down, I don't know how much the yacht will be able to compensate."

I immediately follow her advice, as I remember how bumpy the last time flying above old Shanghai was. Luckily, there doesn't seem to be a thunderstorm today. The yacht starts shaking a bit, and the others follow my example and strap into their own seats.

A minute later, it's already over, and the yacht stabilizes. We're now low enough that we can make out different structures on the ground – or what's left of them, I guess… Anyway, Lydia continues with our descent and we cross the ruins of the old Shanghai metropolis. I even catch sight of the planetary headquarters of Song Medical located at the city's outskirts.

I smile slightly at the view, thinking back on how clueless I was back then. Thanks to Lisa and her mother, I've learned that the place I've visited was only the headquarters on paper because the management of the company had their offices in the now destroyed tower. The giant buildings around the tower I falsely identified as shop floors, were just warehouses.

That's why we're currently flying further inland and leaving the coastal metropolis behind. Looking closer, I notice something odd on the projection before me. Lydia is basically following an almost straight line on the ground. It looks a bit like rusted metal…

Nick's question interrupts my thoughts. "Are those… Train tracks?"

He points at the line I noticed, and I blink. I think he's right! "Clara, can you show us a map and highlight the line of metal below us?"

"Of course, and I think Nick is right. Here, look, it starts at the city center, passes by the Song warehouses, and goes straight inland afterward."

The yacht's holo projector highlights the path the tracks are taking. I put my hand to my chin and think for a moment. "Hmm, this could be the connection between the two Song Medical locations… And with the continuation to the city center… It also looks like an efficient way to ferry the workers back and forth."

Nick nods. "Yeah, that could be it. I guess we'll see if the line leads us to our destination… Maybe we even find a train car? Would be interesting to see how they worked back then. I mean, if there are tracks, they probably weren't grav trains."

Nick's guess seems to be pretty accurate, as Alina points at the projection some ten minutes later. "Guys, I think I see something!"

We gather around her and look closer. She's right, there appear to be structures located on the horizon. Lydia must have heard us, as she gives the yacht an extra burst of speed, and we quickly approach the relics. We also cram ourselves into the small cockpit so that we can all see the real thing instead of just a projection.

Conveniently, the train tracks also terminate there, which pretty much confirms our theory. Also, the ruins cover a larger area than I guessed. There are pretty much structures as far as the eye can see. And I thought the Song Medical facilities close to Shanghai were big…

"Where do we even start?" I whisper silently. Clara obviously heard, as she marks something far off to our right before speaking up.

"I ran some preliminary scans… the location I marked seems to have the most intact structures around here. I suggest we start there."

No one has any better ideas, and so Lydia turns the yacht smoothly and sails over to where Clara placed her marker. My eyes widen a bit upon seeing what's in front of us. There, among all the ruined structures, is a complex of buildings that looks like it defied Mother Nature for millennia.

"That looks promising," I call out and look at Lucy, who has taken the second seat in the cockpit. "Lucy, can you find us a place to land safely?"

She nods and taps her console a few times, then her face brightens. "Found something, it's half a kilometer away, but it's a big open space that looks like it was once a small park or something. Anyway, there are no ruins close, and it should be very easy to land there. I've sent it to your console, Lydia."

"Got it," she replies. "Yeah, it looks good. I'm heading over there."

The yacht turns, and I soon see the place Lucy mentioned. Ten minutes later, the yacht is on the ground, and the engines die down. We're on the planet, I'm back on Earth!

We leave the cramped cockpit and enter the common room, where six crates are lined up against the wall. It's our specialized suits that we received for the Earth Adventure. They're as elastic as a shipsuit, but offer way better protection without being as bulky as a spacewalker suit. I pull mine out of the crate, it looks actually rather stylish with deep black colors and silver highlights.

There's also no helmet, but a there is a Magitech device that filters the air we breathe. I already know that the air here is completely safe to breathe from my last visit, and we were also informed of the fact before we traveled to Earth. The suits are just a precaution, for example, if there is very stale air in underground structures or similar things.

The suits also feature a combat feature. They make our bodies lock up when we're hit with a spell, just like the shield rings in the Improvised Combat course. The only difference is that the suits don't project a shield that can fail if the battery is empty. Instead, they feature a masterpiece of Magicon engineering… A Magitech device that specifically targets incoming A&D magic and neutralizes it.

It's obviously not foolproof, as it would make a person completely invincible, but it does counter specific spells across the whole A&D power spectrum. All A&D Mages were given a list of spells they are allowed to use against other people.

And yes, we are allowed to fight against other people… It's a competition after all. If we "kill" someone, they enter a death timer and can return to the competition after 24 hours. This time increases with every "death."

That's also how we will fight against Prince Kai and the others during our Challenge Sundays. The losers enter their death timers, and the winners earn their previous locations.

Anyway, we finish putting on our suits, and before we leave the yacht, I pull out another crate and set it down on the table. "Just one more thing, then we can start," I say, and open the crate.

Inside are six bottles of a shining red liquid. "I've got us some Star Juice, and I think now is the perfect occasion to drink some."

I grab a bottle, open it, and hold it up. "Cheers, let's rock this competition!"