Jack felt his boots clank on the metal floor. He couldn't lie; he felt cool. On their way to the spaceport, Jack and the three pilots engaged in a bit of chitchat. Jack didn't tell them that he was from another universe; obviously, that would make him look like a crazy person. However, Jack did tell them that he and a group of friends were stranded in Lorville. "Dang dude, please let us know if you need help. Here I'll send my contact info and you give me a shout if or when you need anything." Nicholas Verse pulled up his mobiGlas and typed something into it. Jack was unsure of what Nicholas was doing, he looked over at Big Red. Red gestured for Jack to raise his arm. Jack indulged and lifted his arm up, Nicholas met his raise and tapped his mobiGlas against Jack's. Three quick vibrations came from Jack's wrist. "There ya go! Again please reach out if you need help with anything." Jack and the others reached the trams. Upon arrival they had to wait for the tram to arrive, Jack looked around the station and saw a broadcast being projected onto a wall. "Dope, Time to get some lore" Walking over he took off his helmet to hear the broadcast better.
"Thank you for the update Janet, for the new listeners this is the UEE network, I'm your host Matt Sparrow and today I have the pleasure to update the public about the rising tensions in the Stanton system and other surrounding systems. At this moment the UEE hasn't disclosed who the aggressors are, but they have shared that there is a group of violent individuals who have been causing trouble in the system. They believe that they are in cahoots with Xenothreat. In response to the rise in tension, the UEE will be checking citizenships. Local authorities will deal with those who don't have citizenship."
Jack looked over at Nicholas, "Hey, how do I check my citizenship?" Nicholas gave a confused look as the tram pulled up. "you can log into the security terminal at the checkpoint of the spaceport." Jack was nervous, his anxiety was shown by bouncing his knee when sitting on the tram. When the tram arrived at the station Jack was the first one up and out the door. Letting memory get him to the checkpoint, the whole way Jack's mind was frantic. "What if I don't have citizenship, will I get arrested, deported, or killed?!" Everything was a blur until he noticed a Hurston security guard reaching his hand out. "Sir please slow down when walking through the scanner." The guard's tone wasn't cold, it sounded like he was just tired. Jack started to walk through the scanner cautiously, he took a deep breath and continued through. The Blue lights above slowly turned green. "Your good to go, sir, thank you for your stay." Jack walked through the scanner and went to the ship terminals. "Do I have any ships here, all my items were, hopefully, I do." He placed his hand on the terminal and it showed the ships and vehicles registered to him. "My Starlancer Tac, Corsiar, Vulture, Nursa, normal Ursa, and Atlas. Yep, everything is here, strange..." Jack made his way to the security terminal to verify his citizenship. Once logged in he realized that he was a verified citizen. Jack gave a breath of relief, but that was cut short by a call. Jack patched it into his helmet.
"This is Jack."
"JACK YOU NEED TO GET EVERYONE OUT NOW!!!"
"JP?! What's going on?!"
The radio started glitching out: "Police... get them out... meet in pyro..." The transmission fizzled out after a loud bang. A shiver ran down Jack's spine. He glanced toward the window behind the terminals. A cutlass blue flew past, making the window rattle. In response to seeing the cutlass blue fly past, he started sprinting back toward the station. "Please, please don't let them get to my friends."
As Jack rushed back to the apartments, he was slower than normal. "Dang it, why did I decide to wear heavy armor?" As he turned the corner, he stopped and saw two men escorting a man into the back of the cutlass blue. "That's Mr. Grims. Now I think about it, he was among the nine people that I waswith."
"Yep, that's the last of them," one of the men said. The two men locked him up in a containment pod and closed the back of the ship. The engines flared to life and the ship lifted up and started flying away. His heart sank, they were gone. In anger, Jack punched the nearest pillar causing it to break a chunk off. He quickly pulled his mobiGlas and tried calling JP. After a small wait, he eventually answered.
"Hey Jack, were you able to get everyone out of Dodge?!" JP's voice sounded a little frantic, but he was glad to hear from his friend.
"No, the police got back to where I left them before I could get back. How about you? Based on what I heard from the call, it sounded pretty hectic."
"Yeah we made it out of there in one piece, the UEE were trying to board us, and we decided to make a run for it. We were able to run and get to the pyro system, they didn't follow us at that point." JP sounded exhausted, understandably.
"Wait, so you guys are in Pyro now?! That was only just released into the PTU when we entered this world. Do know if you guys think you can stay safe there?"
"Honestly, I don't know, right now we have set up shop at the Checkmate station. Things seem to be pretty chill right now. Also, the other groups from ArcCorp and MicroTech will be here soon, they just entered the system. What are you going to do about your group?"
"I'm not sure. Do you have any idea where they might have taken them?"
JP paused, "Before we left I heard from someone that at the beginning they were just deporting people, but now they are putting them in the mines of Klescher. I need to go, one of the groups just arrived, please stay safe!"
They said goodbye and ended the call.
Jack walked back to Teasa Spaceport, with his head hung low. "I don't know what to do." Upon Jack's arrival at Teasa Spaceport, he had to wait in line for access to the ship terminals. "The spaceport never looked so busy when playing the game." Jack thought, "Wearing this suit amongst this many people makes me feel super claustrophobic." Jack always struggled with large crowds of people, but the heavy suit he was wearing made it worse. He decided to explore his mobiGlas while he waited. It all felt the same, with a few changes here and there. One of the changes is a music tab. He opened it, and to his discovery a message popped up saying "New tracks detected, return to the app in an hour to listen." Luckily enough when he turned off his mobiGlas it was his turn anyway.
Looking at his ships he decided to take out his StarLancer Tac due to it being his favorite ship. "Your ship will be waiting at: Jack Thorne's Large Hanger" As Jack walked towards the elevators, he noticed people sitting on benches, Jack laughed to himself, "The first time I walked through Teasa the NPCs were standing on the benches T posing. Looks like this world is different." Jack stopped, "With that thought in mind, do I call this place a world or a whole universe? Eh, I will worry about that later." Jack never thought about it again.
He faced the elevator with a bit of worry, he pushed the button. The elevator appeared promptly and without showing a black void before randomly appearing. Jack rode the elevator to his hanger. "I hope my ship isn't glitching through the hanger floor." Jack put his hands on his hips when he saw his ship sitting on the pad. "So this is my ship! It looks so much cooler in person." He took off his helmet to see it with his own eyes. "Well buddy, let's see if we can get my friends back, what do you say?"
Jack walked through the Starlancer Tac, everything looked like he remembered it. Everything looked so fresh and clean, once he reached the bridge a deep feeling swelled from his chest, like a little kid excited after seeing a superhero movie. Sitting in the pilot's seat he felt a new type of power arose when he powered on the ship's engines. The roar sounded like ten giant and powerful lions roaring. "I need to focus, I need to save my friends. It's my responsibility to protect them, and so far I've failed that duty." Jack flipped through the MFD in front of him. These screens gave him the ability to see different information about his ships and tweak things as he wished. Once reaching the communications tab he hailed the Teasa Spaceport air traffic control. "You have joined the hangar queue. Your place two. Max estimated wait…" Jack tuned the rest out, "Ugh, some things don't change. Dang, queue."
As he sat there waiting for his turn, he tapped his hands on the yoke of his ship. "Maybe I can see the music tab." Once opening the music tab he was shocked to see all of the music he had downloaded to his phone transferred automatically to his mobiGlas. "The change from one universe to another must have changed my phone into a mobiGlas, that's the only explanation I've got for this." He clicked on his current playlist to start playing his music, a screen popped up prompting him to transfer the music to his helmet or current ship radio. The bass shook the ship, making Jack grin from ear to ear. A message appeared on the MFD saying "Hangar request complete." The sound of the hangar doors opening could be heard faintly over the music. Luckily for Jack when he played Star Citizen, he used a flight sim gear, so he could leave the hangar with relative ease. Jack flew the ship into the atmosphere and sat on the edge between atmosphere and space. "So now what…"