Citrine Zircon's Story

The craft was old. Rusted metal and jagged edges, from one two many close calls, screeched and groaned as Citrine started the landing sequence. She was by no means an experienced pilot, but she had grown up with this old freighter and she knew it's quirks.

The spaceport rushed upwards quickly in the view screen. "Come on," she whispered as she kept the craft from listing to starboard, as it was prone to do. The jolt of the land was barely softened by the worn out shocks. She felt the craft begin to wobble and she glanced at the status readout. One of the landing struts was only half out. She hit the button again. Nothing. Sighing she got out of the pilot chair and left the small bridge.

The walkway clanged and echoed in the empty storage hold as she ran across it. Arriving at the faulty strut she could find nothing wrong with it. Greasing it with oil she returned to the bridge and hit the button again. This time she heard the grind of metal and the hiss of the hydraulics locking in place. Her first solo landing had gone fairly smoothly.

Making her way to the port side, Citrine flipped open the keypad and typed in the four digit code. The ramp slowly lowered until it hit the spaceport deck with a thud. Sunlight flooded in from the open roof and she had to squint against it. Shouldering her satchel that contained her few belongings Citrine stepped outside. The large open loading doors seemed to be the only exit so she made her way toward them. Once outside the city loomed tall and foreboding before her. She took a deep breath and picked a direction, unfamiliar as she was with the city, she hoped she'd find someplace to work.

Citrine gazed at the pristine shop and walkways of the city. In her small farming village they had nothing this spectacular. She was so busy taking it all in that she almost didn't see the hoverbike before it was too late. Stumbling to get out of the way she tripped and landed on the street.

If one were to ignore and look past the loud noises of the city, they'd hear a desperate squeak emanating from a nearby manhole cover. A small fluffy fox-like creature had fallen in with no way to escape the dark tunnel system it was trapped in. The creature had brown fur, a cream colored scruffy mane and a brown poofy tail with a creamy tip. It bared a resemblance to a fox but it didn't sound like one. It desperately cried for help with a series of squeaks and squeals. "Eev! Eevee! Eev!" it yelled hoping to get someones attention.

Amber swallowed, walking down the street in her battered knee high converse. She looked around, taking in her surroundings as the hover bike gang came along. She watched them with a faint smile, secretly wished she could be part of something like that. It wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?

She waved at the hover biker, trying to get his attention before it hit her. He was... Just... Wow. How could she ask him without breaking down into a wreak. She didn't need that either.

Jack panicked as he found himself almost running over a young woman. He carried the hoverbike to a halt, one hand coming to his head. "OhmyGod!" he cried. "I, uh, I... s-sorry! Are you alright?" Hopping off his bike, he skittered over towards Citrine to come to her aid.

Yet another hoverbiker flew up, stopping beside Amber. He carried a slight resemblance to the first, but with longer hair perched into a ponytail atop his head. His bike was thinner and more sleek than Jack's. He gave the girl a grin. "Found somethin' you like?" he teased, poking a thumb towards Jack. "He's a real heartbreaker, so you know."

And a third flew down, this one a woman with a stockier, armored bike. The girl had heavily tanned skin and hair with pink streaks running through her side-swept bangs. She reached down from her bike to lift up the manhole, then reach for the small creature by the scruff. "The fuck? How'd this guy get in here?"

"I-I'm fine." Citrine said, pulling herself to her feet. "I guess I'm just not used to this big a city. It's amazing!" She dusted herself off then offered her hand to the young man. "Citrine, by the way." She smiled.

Her satchel had fallen off her shoulder and lay behind her on the street, the contents spilling out. Not used to carrying the bag Citrine didn't notice.

Three soldiers walked through the main street. Asking people the same question over and over, they showed images on holographic screens and were still left with negative results. "Ugh, this is becoming a pain. Are we in the wrong place? or planet?" One of the soldiers groaned while following the others. "Shut it, there's some people, let's ask them." Another bit back also out of annoyance.

The three approached the group of 5 people and some... Creature. It didn't matter anyway. They didn't have time to evaluate everything. "Excuse us." One of the soldiers spoke out to the group. "We have some important questions to ask of you guys. Mind if we do?" They all stopped at the group. Two soldiers were holding plasma assault rifles, the main one who was the leader of the group had a longsword clipped to his waist and a device attached to his arm. It was a plasma shield, one of the Shadonian Empire's show off technologies. Allowing a large body sized shield to form from the device, the shield can deflect nearly all attacks. The tests only shown that the shields could resist Shadonian and enemy attacks. In this side of the galaxy, it was unknown.

"So, can we begin?"

Amber swallowed, looking up the the hover bike guy who had stopped next to her. She whined, struggling to say anything while she fixed her hair, "But... He's not..." She whined, looking over at Jack, "What's his name?" She blushed, struggling. She touched his hover bike, energy starting to transfer. She was giving it a boost with her electrical powers that she still didn't understand.