Paula had wandered about the hallways. they were lit so well you'd think you're outside.  She passed all kinds of shops and restaurants . many offering products she'd never seen. She wandered down some stairs and came across a room with benches, strange machines and glass doors on each side of the room. behind each of the glass doors. was what looked like a tunnel. Paula looked at one of the machines portraying something that looked like drink cups and bags. “What is this?”

Clara showed up on a screen “this is a vending machine where you can exchange credits for snacks, drinks or depending on certain location other items. for example the swimming pool had one that also dispenses swimwear, towels and other swim related items.”

Clara was a strange thing for Paula. but she could not deny she was helpful “are you always watching me?”

“sort of i'm paying special attention to you and other locals we brought on board for now. After a while I'll only respond if you call my name on the ship or over any connected device.” 

Paula sat down on a bench “weird”

“You get used to it. humans get used to many things.”

Something rushed by behind the glass door. Clara noticed Paula staring at it “That’s our rail system. It's like a cart that transports people around very fast. this one is coming from the army barracks.”

“Knights and guards come from there?”

“Close. security 'aka guards' have their own station in most districts. This tram is more for soldiers on leave that want to visit family or head to the shopping district. entertainment is another station.”

A cart arrived at the station. The glass door opened when it came to a stop and let several people in uniform out. Among them were some with different uniforms. 

“Are you waiting for someone?” a uniformed man asked. 

Paula shook her head and ignored him. A Brawny man exited the tram followed by a slender woman. she noticed Paula and pointed her out to the man “you're the chiefs kid aint ya? I was looking for you. You can call me Rainor.” 

the woman sat down next to her “Clara gave us a heads up you might be a bit lost. I'm Bertha by the way.”

Paula noticed they attracted the attention of more people now. She stood up and prepared to leave when she was stopped by Rainor “Listen, I know things are difficult for you girl. you want to do something, maybe we can help.”

Paula remembered seeing images of them on the way. sometimes accompanied by a strange machine. she'd heard her father talk about once.they were probably leaders. while they kept insisting they weren't gods, they sure were worshiped as if they were. Besides, if these people had any bad intentions it was not as if she'd be able to stop them. She agreed to follow them.
The place they brought her was a bright lit shopping district. Lights and colors danced across the area as each store tried to grab the attention of the people passing by.

“Let's see. snacks or just a drink?”  Rainor was pondering what establishment to visit.

Bertha on the other hand was enamored by Paula's hair “Is that really natural? I wish the tips of my own hair would color themselves. that would be handy.”

Paula noticed her black hair and the tips of her small ponytail were coloured with hints of yellow and orange. it almost looked as if the tips of her hair were on fire. Paula recognised someone from her village talking to what turned out to be the guard in this place or security as they called it. Apparently the man had assumed he'd need to start begging. she heard the guard explain “there's no need to beg. there's plenty of jobs and Clara can point you in the right direction.”

Paula wondered how they'd have so many jobs. Bertha had noticed her questioning look “technically there's no real need for jobs but it helps clear some of Clara's systems and you can get paid for that”

 “She can't do everything?” 

“she probably can but the more people she needs to support the slower her system gets. heck after the crash she was needed by worried people everywhere. At least she didn't have to use her maneuver software anymore.” 

Paula looked around and saw Clara on several screens assisting some people. she was truly everywhere in this place. 

Bertha looked at Paula expectantly “Tell me, is there more magic on this planet? like explosion magic maybe?” 

Rainor immediately leaned his hand against his face “ I knew that was coming.” 

Paula remembered visiting the adventurers guild in dagos “I guess so. I've seen some mages but not so much the spells they use.”

Rainor finally decided on a simple bar. while sitting down Paula asked “Um, can i ask what kind of jobs you do?”

Rainor picked up the tablet and pressed a few times before he answered “looking out for the future huh? Smart.”

“I just want to find a way to help out my mom and dad”

A man came by bringing several clear glasses one had a yellow coloured liquid the others were dark coloured making paula unsure whether to drink it. Bertha took a sip from one of the dark ones before getting back to their conversation “right, you were the big chief's daughter right?”

“My dad was planned to... no nevermind, all that was a farce”

“wanna get back at his dad? you could join the troopers.” Rainor suggested. 

Paula wasn't sure “what exactly are the troopers?”

“Basically like a knight I guess. no wait that'd be us. they're more like soldiers.” Bertha responded. 

Paula used to love sneaking out to watch the soldiers train when she was younger. 

Rainor leaned on the table towards her “listen. we could use a person among our troops with local knowledge and as far as we see. you might be interested.”

Paula drank from her glass while she considered the offer.her drink felt tingly and it tasted both bitter, sweet and sour all at once “But isn't it a dangerous job?” 

Bertha patted her head “That's what the training is for pinkie. Besides, everyone is trained to look after each other there.” 

Paula had heard many stories of soldiers deserting rather than help their fellow soldiers. This sounded too good to be true. but that had been the case for a lot of offers since arriving here and they turned out to be true. “Alright, I might try that.”Paula announced “might as well try to become this place's version of a guard.” She then realized “mom and dad might not agree”

“Hey, it's your life. but if you wanna keep contact i have an idea.” Bertha said.

They finished their drinks and Bertha guided Paula to a shop labeled phone styler. When entering the room she saw all kinds of different products. a woman that wasn't Clara was talking on a screen about how she liked her phone style and something called data storage. There were phones that were just small slabs but they had wristbands, helmets, glasses and more with screens in varying styles and sizes. even glass ball ones. Bertha recommended a type that would have a camera. so she could show her dad how she was. She settled on a simple slab like the one she saw from Rainor. even after opting for a sturdy version she had the option to pick something to decorate its background with. one picture stuck out to her. 

“This looks like a strange bunnyman.” she said as she pointed out a pink ball of fluff with bunny ears.

Bertha looked over “Oh! A bunbun. Pretty cute things, they were advertised as the ultimate pet.”

 “Does it even have a mouth? how does it eat?”

“it doesn't. It uses photosynthesis. That means it just needs sunlight like plants. I heard when they first discovered it. They compared it to a creature called the dodo. Calling it easy prey. Until they started a hunting session. Those bunbuns started ramming into their hunters causing serious damage. That's how they found out they ward off predators by ramming into them with extreme speeds. turns out there's a sturdy skin under all that fluff.”

Paula liked it. She picked a version where it was wearing a knight's helmet. While they were picking out additional decoration the man behind the counter informed them that it was done. All he had to do was make the machine decorate the back. When she had her phone Bertha dragged her around to get some new clothing. Some of the clothes she saw were a bit revealing for her taste. Bertha suggested keeping it simple like her phone. They picked regular jeans and a shirt for her. 

leaving another store paula asked “so what will you people want from me?”

“We just expect you to do your best. besides, I wonder how you'll react to triggering c4.”

“See what now?” seeing bertha's excitement made her second guess her decisions.

***

After the army organized an escorted trip to the old town for the locals a few days passed. Several adventurers had been detected near the old town but none came close to the citadel yet. While her father was still unsure about Paula joining a recruit program he had no idea what the star people would do if he refused. so he had meekly agreed. She learned a crash course in using their weapons and fighting techniques. Her training was not as difficult as she imagined. one day she was brought to the border of the desert behind the mountain range. The army had set up a camp with a practice range. Jack had brought some wooden swords.  “Alright let's learn those mana skills.”

“You do realize I never properly learned how to perform them.” Paula noted.

Sniper was setting up some scanners for Clara. “Doesn't matter. From the survivors we picked up the bearmen were the only ones knowing a skill and it was strength enhancement.”

“Besides pinky, you might remember another one.”' Bertha shouted from a bench she and Rainor had set up at the side.

It was sitting near the dropship they came with. Some soldiers had gathered since everyone was hoping to see some magic. The bearmen were there to assist too. Paula thought about the instructions the bearmen had and what she had heard knights shout at their recruits. something about letting mana flow and stuff. She also heard from Yoshiko that this mana is coming from the core everyone had. Paula could not imagine never having had a core before. “I'm going to try something.”

She remembered a knight mentioning to a recruit to focus on his core more before pulling mana out and letting it flow to where it was needed. After explaining to Jack what she remembered they both tried focusing on their core. pretty soon they felt a warmth welling up from their core. It felt like it was asking what they wanted. Paula decided she wanted to be faster and tried guiding it to her legs and feet. Jack wanted to try strength and attempted to spread it to most of his muscles. Jack had a burst of mana that spooked paula causing her to back off. when she realized she backed off further than she expected. rushing back to the sparring area jack was lying on the ground exhausted.he smiled looking up at paula and everyone that gathered to check on him. 

“That didn't work. Yours did though.”

 “ I think it was called rush ability. what did you try?” 

Bob hovered over him “You tried focusing on too much. You’re only supposed to focus on your arms for strength.”

Rainor scratched his head “won't his legs collapse if he tries lifting something bigger than him?”

Bob shook his head “you only focus on the muscle that encompasses what you want to do. the rest will follow naturally.”

Bertha poked Jack “Ok i guess that makes sense. But what happened to Jacky here?”

“Mana backlash. He'll be fine, just exhausted for a while.”

They decided to stop trying things before more accidents happen and practice with the rush ability. While Paula pulled ahead of the regular soldiers using rush the pilots were surprisingly faster even without it. Bertha slowed down to Paula's pace “confused? we’re a bit surprised by you too.”

“How..so?...” Paula gasped out while running.

 “The soldiers trying to keep up with you all got a medical enhancer when they enlisted making them stronger than average. seems you would've been the same without your rush skill.”

“Why didn't I get that?”

“We're not sure if they would work also you didn't have your dna scan yet.”

“I have an appointment set for tomorrow.”

“Be prepared, it'll feel weird.”

Bertha and Paula chatted a bit more when Bertha's ringtone went off. When she pulled her phone out Clara appeared on screen “There's something approaching the bait you set out”

“sweet. Pinky, follow me!” 

Bertha pulled Paula along and rushed to a shelter tent at the edge of the camp. Bertha picked up some binoculars. She saw an orange teethy lizard heading for a direwolf corpse. The wolf had approached the citadel and was taken out earlier that day. Bertha had begged the commander for hours to use it as bait in the desert.

“awesome.” Bertha handed Paula a small device with a single button “only press it when i tell you to.” They waited till the  desert lizard was close to the bait. Suddenly the ground shook and a giant worm ate both the bait and the lizard.

“Well... I didn't expect that… press it whenever you want now.”

Paula pressed the button. The sandworm swelled up and blew apart with a loud bang. Bertha laughed loudly while Paula  just looked confused and surprised. “This button did that?” 

Bertha wiped away some tears of laughter “Yeah, kind of I stuffed the corpse full of explosives. In the future you'll learn how to handle them.” she sighed, " explosions are so much fun.”

 Paula could not deny the excitement of taking down a sandworm like that. They did a few more exercises and headed back home to the citadel. While walking through the parks in between the apartments, Paula passed a few memorials for the people lost during the day of the crash. that included some names of people lost in the direwolf attack. Paula left a few flowers she bought for her friend Penny . she had not turned up amongst the survivors. *she would've loved this place.* All that was left to do was go home for dinner and talk to mom and hope she gets better.