“Well you can tell everyone I’m a down disgrace, drag my name all over the place, I don’t care anymore…”
Our cutesy little ship closed in on Eue, slowly descending toward it, a feeling of anxiousness rose from within me as I glanced out the window, observing the place. There even appeared to be a chunk of the planet, ripped off like a cookie in space, loosely orbiting the broken chunk of rock. It amazes me how any species would want to live here. Of course, I can’t say much because I spent god knows how long on Abaddon. Kyar’eil, the capital city of the place, and the only decent looking area, was rather large. This place was nowhere near the size of either Earth or Abaddon, so, in terms of proportion, Kyar’eil was the size of Russia. According Squiggles, that’s only a city. I don’t think I’ve ever felt fear from looking at a landmass until now. My hands shakily rested on the dashboard, and Squiggles noticed this, looking at me.
“Stop lubricating the center console.” I picked my hands up and looked down, and sure enough, I was sweating like I’d run a marathon. In the brief realization, I looked at Squiggles, frowning.
“Ha, yeah, yeah, very funny. Laugh it up, bug eyes.” Shaking my head in disappointment, I turned off Phil Collins and grabbed all of my belongings, stuffing them in a bag. We got closer to the planet by the moment, I’d guess it was time to collect Elisa and Claus. After a short, careless stroll down the hall, I entered the medical bay to find the two chatting it up, everything in their places. With a sigh of relief, my attention turned to Claus. The little racoon thing looked back at me, and noticed the shotgun in my hand. He pointed at it shakily.
“What kind of kinetic pulse weapon is that?” He asked, his breath and voice wavering. I held it up. Elisa knew what it was, but still looked a little spooked at the sight. Not many guys go around wearing the skin of a space dragon, shades, and toting a shotgun like a kid’s toy. I nodded briefly at Claus, steadying my vision.
“This is my Boomstick.”
Claus didn’t really know how to interpret that, and to be fair, I didn’t really give him much to go on. With a simple pivot, I returned to the bridge, where Squiggles was attentively bringing the ship down on the outskirts of Eue. Squiggles began to speak to me without turning around.
“Human, you might want to hide that weapon of yours. Customs may not allow us entry.” Oh man, has he been forgetting who he’s been travelling with? I chuckled a bit and holstered the gun in the waistband of my pants (not much else to put it.)
“Squiggles–“
“Li’vhen.” He interrupted.
“Squiggles, have you forgotten who you’ve been travelling with?”
Squiggles wound up just stared at me in disappointment and disapproval. Then he opened his mouth.
“You plan to intimidate customs into letting you in? Do you even comprehend how stupid you are? Can you?”
“It’ll work you little asshole.”
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The ship hit the ground, and from what I could understand, it was night. The trail to the border enforcement office was lit up by lights sticking out of the ground, just going up a hill. Immediately I was disoriented trying to walk, the gravity was so unusually low, it set me off balance. Squiggles and Elisa came out after me, both stumbled a little (Squiggles gaining his balance much faster). Elisa also had Claus on restraints, which were actually just medical bed straps tied together into a line-like leash. Might not be enough for a space Racoon.
I was the first to make it to the office, the alien in the booth was the same species as the Giraffe that kicked me in the chest back on that Pirate ship. He looked down at me, and solemnly scooted forward.
“Papers?”
Nope, that was not a he. My bad, that was a lady space Giraffe. “Oh, sorry, I forgot them back on my home planet. Do you happen to possess the ability to just let me in?”
“Not without papers. Forgot em on your home planet? Go home.”
Alright, I’ve dealt with these asshole space Giraffes before. Their very existance made me somewhat upset, and I was filled with a kind of anger that I don’t think I’d ever experienced before.
“Let me the FUCK in before I–“
Elisa tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see Squiggles nodding in disapproval. Their slow asses just got here.
“I’m Li’Vhen of Splinter Pavillion, he’s with me. Here’s my papers.”
The Giraffe was a little taken aback. “Splinter Pavillion? Those bio-terrorist Cortis?”
Squiggles stepped up, nodding a little as he did, likely just imbalance. “No, I’m a whistleblower. I’m on the run.”
“Oh… Well, if you’re against them, you’ve got my support. I simply can’t deny you entry now.” She looked down at me. “My apologies.”
Squiggles tugged on my shirt, very clearly angered. I followed him through the lobby and by a customs office, and at the desk was a space Racoon like Claus, who looked at us in curiosity.
“Anything to declare?”
I unbolsted my shotgun and waved it at the Racoon. He looked surprised, but shook it off briefly to question me.”What is that?”
“It’s a gun.” I don’t think he would expect such a simple answer.
“Kinetic Pulse Rifle? Sure is a weird one.”
“Actually, can you mark this down as a Shotgun?”
“A Shotgun? That’s an idiotic name, guns already shoot.”
“It’s not idiotic, it’s telling you that it’s going to blow you apart.”
“By what, shooting? Doesn’t that come with the gun part?”
“Don’t fuckin’ sass me, Space Racoon.”
There was a long moment of silent staring, before he motioned for me to holster the weapon. That easy? Huh. I put it away, and Squiggles stepped up, Elisa at his side.
Squiggles began to speak. “I have two Humans as my security detail, this being one of them,” he pointed at me. “And… This is a Racoon, not a Gaoian like you. Close cousin.”
He showed Claus to the desk operator.
“They’re violent, so he’s on a leash.”
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Once it was all done, we stepped out of the relatively low security office and laid our eyes on the sprawling cyberpunk city of Kyar’eil. It was quite the walk, but after nearly an hour and a half, the city itself was barely even slightly larger in our view, which gave us an idea of how damn large this place was. The architecture and infrastructure wasn’t even too different from Earth’s, there were “streets” that were actually basically just electromagnetic rails for these hovering, self driving vehicles that all looked more or less the same.
“Squiggles, how are we going to make any money in a place like this?” I looked down at the Roswell Grey, who looked back up at me.
“You’re strong, aren’t you? Look to the left.”
I followed as instructed and found a holographic poster on the wall in plain sight. The first words I read were “Wanted – Dead or Alive / Reward Offered!”
I had a dislike for most Aliens until I read that.