Asterians

Chapter 3 - Flying into the ground

I awoke to a start when I heard the voice in the cockpit announcing that I'm breaching the atmosphere. That was faster than usual. I thought to myself, but if I thought it was fast, the Boss would think I took a light year to get here. I glared at the base from afar, knowing the debriefing was going to be utter hell for me. Usually I can keep my calm while in debriefing, but recently he has been getting on my nerves more often than not. He just couldn't keep his mouth shut on what I did wrong and what I needed to improve on during missions.

I mean I got he meant well, but I couldn't stand when he kept going on and on for hours on end. I just wanted to get to my cold floor to sleep and get on to the next mission already. It was a vicious cycle of just getting a longer mission than multiple short ones. The one I did earlier today was a bit longer of a mission, so I didn't have to ship hop. Ship hopping was a common occurrence for assassins that were off duty and could give the younger ones a lift. My ship broke down on an assignment once, so I got to experience the beauty of begging a girl name Phyllis a ride to the next one. She was pretty nice, but sometimes she got on my nerves. I breathed out calmly. Gotta keep cool, or I'm off to the Doctor again. I thought to myself, placing my hand on the air to ground communications button.

I slowed the ascent to the base, waiting for the usual "Pilot 4869, are you there?" Usual flight procedures, making sure the runway is available for me to land. Today, however didn't work like that. No one came across communications, so I sat up there for a bit, but I didn't mind. There were a few other ships in front of me, so it meant traffic was going to be pretty high compared to normal. This was a high mission and assignment day where it would be a gold mine for the base. When there's gold, there's always going to be thieves trying to get in. I personally didn't care for the thieves, as they were usually just trying to make a quick buck. Eventually a few kids came around here and there, so I would sneak them a few coins, because the Boss is not going to miss just a few coins out of the 60% of gold he earns from each successful mission.

A few ships went down, doing their usual procedures. I waited until my name was called, "Pilot 4869, proceed to the coordinates on your screen to land in your zone." My zone? Coordinates? "I don't understand. You must have the wrong chart, I'm only returning to the hanger to put my ship down for the night." I was utterly confused. Me, an assassin that isn't even ranked in the top 10,000 or even close gets their own zone? This isn't right. Something must be up."Pilot 4869, proceed to the coordinates now. Captain needs to see you immediately." Oh no, that means he's ticked off with me again. I braced myself for the scolding of how incompetent I was to listen to directions. I was in for a big earful, but the Boss knows what's best for me. He always knows what's best.

I flew in the directions towards the coordinates, watching the other pilots land their ships. The coordinates were heading up towards a cliff, a lot further away from the hanger. The landscape changed before me, shaping itself to be different around the coordinates. It seemed it was cloaked to be hidden from normal view, but it usually never was. Probably something happened and they were on high alert from some made up threat from another planet. With the guild Blazing Striders having a huge rivalry with us, I assumed that it was for some petty reason they threatened us.

Guilds are built under an Organization's watchful eyes. The bigger guilds are pretty famous and are hard to get into. My guild is semi popular, with the occasional view in the spotlight due to someone's performances. The guild I am in is called Scarlet Raven, after the founder of the guild Scarlet Mead. She was a warrior at heart, and when life threw her punches, she blocked them with one finger and stabbed life with a sword.

The same sword that I hold today was said to be handed down by generations and generations of her descendants. The last one died before she was ever able to give birth to a decedent. She was 12 years old when she caught the most deadly disease in the galaxy, known to kill and never let anyone survive. The girl fought it for years, and I even got to grow up with the honor of knowing her. Sadly, the disease finally took its toll on her, and ended up taking her life.