Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; En route to Venus; MD Hunchback

Everything still feels a bit surreal for Dave Rowlins. A year ago, he was just a random student starting at FBC – a tremendous achievement for the young corporate scion, especially considering the problems his parents had faced with multiple Noble families at the time.

One of them even followed Dave to FBC and made his life a living hell because he thought Dave was somehow guilty of getting the Junbun family fined. Not that Dave had anything to do with it… That was all the Junbun's mess.

Then the obvious thing happened: Dave and his friends sought help because what normal person has direct access to a powerful Space Mage? Well, it went as expected, and the Young Master Junbun immediately tried to cross Dave's plans by throwing around his money and buying out the Space Mage to whom Dave made his pitch.

But things progressed differently! Sara, the Space Mage, gave a living shit for Young Master…

This time, Dave stops himself.

No, not Young Master Junbun… Just Charles… Sara made that possible too.

She gave a living shit for Charles's money and influence. Almost as if she didn't know how hard displeased Nobles can make one's life… No, she went even further and teleported the former Noble out of the room! Dave couldn't believe his eyes back then… He isn't even sure if he can believe his eyes right now…

Turns out this random pitch a year ago led to where he is now. In the flippin' Solar System! The birthplace of humanity. The place where Magic and subsequent interstellar travel were discovered. And now Dave, an aspiring archaeologist, is here to dig into the old ruins!

He enters the common area on the mid-sized freighter Hunchback – piloted and owned by yet another group of Sara's friends – and greets his team.

Just who is this woman to get that kind of influence? She even has direct access to the Big Five.

"Hi, Dave! Lena calls out. The blonde woman and her twin sister, Kylie, are two of his best friends. Dave hugs both girls, then proceeds to shake hands with Toby and Fabio.

"Hi guys, can you believe it? Our first archaeological dig is at the ancient Valterion Shipyard!"

Toby chuckles. The slight movement has his muscles rippling. It's still a mystery how he manages to be so ripped while barely doing any sports. "No, not at all… Hell, I still can't believe we're on the Earth Adventure team. I mean, have you seen who's here with us? Just crazy…"

Everyone else nods in silent agreement, and they sit down to discuss a few things. A few hours later, they have a rough plan of how they want to approach things at the shipyard.

That sounds like a solid plan… But it can all change when we're there for real. Long-distance scans are never perfectly accurate.

A door at the side slides open, and one of the owners enters the room. "Hey there, how are you guys? Do you need anything?"

Dave shakes his head in response. "No, we're all good, thanks. Jack, right?"

The young man nods and sits down next to the group. "Yeah, that's my name," he chuckles for a bit. "Do you want to explain a bit what you're going to do at the shipyard? I don't really know anything about archaeology… But it does sound interesting."

Lena nods eagerly. "I'd love to! What do you want to know?"

Jack scratches his head. "Well, as I said, I know nothing about archaeology… So if you could explain the basics to me like you would to a child, I'd be more than happy. Oh, and what's different from what Sara is doing down on the planet?"

That's what I'm asking myself sometimes too…

Lena lets her gaze wander, but as no one else seems ready to explain things, she starts explaining. Dave listens closely with a slight smile on his face.

Lena's always so accurate with her explanations. It couldn't be better described in one of our textbooks.

When Lena is finished explaining, Dave chimes in. "As you can see, there's much overlap with what Sara is doing. The main difference is that we're not going to look for groundbreaking technology or fancy magical stuff. If we find some, we'll obviously be happy about it, but our main focus is on the more mundane things, like how did people build their stuff back then? Are there any major differences? We look for cultural influences and stuff like that.

"I think the shipyard will be very special, as from what I've heard, Valterion starships mostly stayed the same in their design. That's going to be interesting… Maybe we discover a reason why they kept their design or even the original inspiration for it."

Jack nods along. "That sounds cool! If you need anything, let me know and we'll try to get it for you." He lets out a short laugh. "That's what we're here for after all. Anyway, I actually wanted to ask you if you want to join us on the bridge… We're about to get close enough to Venus so that you can start making out the shipyard."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fabio and Toby immediately jump up. "We'd love to!" Fabio calls out, and so the group of aspiring archaeologists follows a grinning Jack through the door toward the bridge.

Dave and everyone else gasp upon seeing through the big window in the front of the starship. There she is, Venus in all her glory, with her cloudy cover that reflects the sunlight so much that Dave has to blink multiple times after looking at the planet for too long.

"That's brighter than expected," Kylie mutters and looks away.

A female laugh sounds from one of the stations on the bridge, and the front-facing window darkens a bit to keep out the bright light. "Sorry about that, but I wanted to show you the raw, unfiltered thing first."

Dave chuckles. "No problem, Alex. I probably would have asked for the raw view if you hadn't done so already. That reminds me that we'll need some filters for our spacewalker suits when we're out there."

Fabio shakes his head. "No need. They have the function included already. I checked yesterday morning… FBC gave us the premium models."

Huh, is that because we're on one of the teams with an actual chance to win?

"Oh, okay, thanks, Fabio," Dave replies and sits down on an empty grav chair. "How long till we're there?"

"We're taking a slow approach as we're coordinating with the other two ships, but let's say round about three hours," replies another male voice. Dave looks over and recognizes Greg, the final owner of the small company, MARA Deliveries.

Location: Solar System; Above Venus; MD Hunchback

A bit more than three hours later, Dave and his friends return to the bridge of the freighter. They have arrived at their destination, and a quick glance out of the window has Dave's jaw dropping. The Hunchback is in a parking position right next to an enormous construction in space. He struggles to find the right words.

"This… I… Uhhh…"

"Impressive, huh?" Jack's words shake him out of it.

"Yes… I don't know what to say."

A hand lands on his shoulder, and Jack's voice comes from right beside him. "Then save your words, you'll be inside soon enough."

Unbelievable! I knew where we were going, but now that we're here, it feels like so much more.

Dave shakes his head and picks up his jaw from the ground. "You're right… Let's get a move on. Can you set up a conference call with our other ships?"

Instead of Jack, his wife Alex answers. "Sure thing, give me one moment."

The window in the front turns opaque, and the giant shipyard vanishes from sight. In its place, a split video feed appears, showing two women in Peacekeeper uniforms on the left and Lady Lisa Song on the right.

Dave can't help himself and gives a short bow. His friends do the same, while Jack, Alex, and Greg just wave a greeting.

The Song heiress groans before returning the greetings. "How often do I have to tell you to treat me like a normal person?"

"Sorry," Dave mutters.

She waves him off. "Don't worry too much, I don't care… I'm just doing it for your sake. You don't have to do all that extra stuff just for me. Anyway, that's not the topic of our meeting. No, I want to talk about how we're going to approach this hunk of a shipyard before us. I've got an idea, but I'm open to your suggestions. That means you as well, Maja and Ellie."

Both women in uniform nod while Dave looks at his team.

That's way more freedom of choice than I expected… So how do we want to approach this?

He clears his throat. "We must find a good place to enter the yard… I've got a few ideas, but I don't know which of them are viable. That's for you ship people to decide," he lets out a short laugh. "The first one is trying to fly into one of the bays where the ships were actually built and start our survey right where the action took place. The other one is aiming for some kind of command center and starting things there."

Lisa nods. "Both are good plans, but as one of our resident ship people, I unfortunately have to say no to your first idea. Not because it's a bad idea, no, because, well, take a look yourself."

A third picture joins the other two video feeds, now showing a live stream of the outside. Dave immediately notices the issue.

The bays are closed off! Damn, here goes our first option.

"This brings us to your second idea. I think it's viable as there is an open hangar bay pretty close to what we think was the command center of the shipyard. You'll have to take a shuttle, though, as the Hunchback is way too big."

Dave considers her words and looks at the location that's now highlighted on the shipyard feed.

I think she's right… That does look like a command center, and if not, it's at least offices or something similar. Also, if it's indeed the command center and we miraculously find a way to power the shipyard, there's a good chance to open up the bay doors!

"I like that," he replies with a smile. "When can we start?"

"As soon as Maja has the area around us secured. How is that going by the way?"

The smaller blonde Peacekeeper with a student captain emblem on her uniform holds up her hand. "One second…" A minute passes before she continues to speak. "… And done! We've just completed our scans and found nothing that might endanger our mission. That means green light from our side. Just one more thing. We'll be sending you a squad of Peacekeepers to keep you safe inside the shipyard."

That's reasonable. We don't have any A&D Mages with us anyway.

Dave nods. "That's alright with me. Will they meet us here on the Hunchback or at the shipyard?"

The captain thinks for a moment before replying. "At the shipyard. But please give them half an hour to secure the landing area. I'll have someone notify you when they are ready to receive you."

"Got it, thank you," Dave replies.

Lisa finishes the meeting by wishing everyone good luck, then the video feed cuts off, and the window shows the outside again. Five minutes later, a shuttle exits the Peacekeeper ship and heads for the shipyard.

That's our security squad! We should get ready.

Dave thanks Jack again for the ride and turns around while beckoning his friends to follow him. "Time to get things started!"

Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

Dave's shuttle slowly enters the hangar bay Lisa picked earlier and sets down on the ground. While the engines spin down, Dave and his friends put on their equipment and grab the things they are going to take with them.

Those new suits really are something! Way less bulky than the normal spacewalker suits while providing the same level of protection. Well, they actually provide more protection as they'll protect us from a select number of A&D spells... Hmm, protect is the wrong word. They prevent harm, but still take us out of commission. But that's nothing for us to worry about… We're too far away from all the action, and we have a protective detail! Let's go meet them.

Dave presses the button to open the shuttle's airlock, and the group of young archaeologists exits the shuttle. A squad consisting of six Peacekeepers greets them. Their leader is a woman who introduces herself as Shay and, apparently, is another one of Sara's friends.

Just how connected is she?