Chapter 1 - Trial Ranger Quin

The dark-skinned man was huffing heavily. The blood trailing from his head streaked down to his arm. The weapon in his hand started to crumble to dust. He reached into his little-room and pulled out a new one. This time it was a straight sword.

How many weapons had he gone through like this? Quin had lost count.

He turned his head around slightly and spoke to the child behind him, “Hey, shouldn’t you start running away by now? There was something that you wanted to do, right, Quin?”

Quin stared blankly at the scene in front of him. The man was facing down three people of different races, all of whom were wearing white armbands with a certain symbol on them. They were Rangers. Even though they were trying to capture his friend and mentor, Quin couldn’t help but admire them.

The Rangers, all holding weapons that were bursting with power, moved forward to attack the man.

“What are you waiting for?” the man said to Quin, “You don’t want to be caught up with this. Go, now!”

Quin furrowed his brows, then silently turned around and ran. As the loud sounds of metal clashing and grunting began, the run turned into a sprint. Pretty soon, he couldn’t hear the chaos at all.

He never did learn what happened to the man.

**

Quin opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling for a moment. He turned his gaze towards the window out into what seemed to be just empty space. He sighed a little, then leaned his chair back to an upright position.

“We’re taking a little turn here,” he said as he gripped the handles of the control system.

“Huh?” said the burly, red-skinned man, “Gaia should be a straight shot from the way we were going.”

“The currents are stronger this way, Kaaran,” Quin replied as he moved the ship to the left, “What’s a Tothan pirate lackey like you know about navigation anyways?”

The Tothans were just one race of many in the vast expanse of the galaxy that Humans know as the Milky Way. The members of this race in particular were characterized by dark-red skin and large, typically muscular frames.

The pirate’s eyes shifted his eyes to the right as he replied, “Well… that’s…” he squirmed in his restraints then continued, “Anyways, when are we gonna be there? This ship is far too stuffy for a guy like me.”

“Don’t worry, we’re just a little ways out with this route.” 

Within an hour, Gaia, the first and only interstellar space station manned entirely by Humans, came into view. It was massive. There were multiple large discs spinning around the core of it. 

“We’re here,” said Quin, “I hope your next cell is even smaller.”

“Can’t wait,” the Tothan grumbled. 

Gaia looked even bigger up close. Spanning an entire 4.3 kilometers tall, it was difficult to imagine the effort taken to create it, but with the help of the Galactic Coalition, it was more than possible.

Quin slowly approached the entrance to the hangar. The door slid up into the station; there was a thin blue veil keeping the air in. The ship passed through it and the veil remained undisturbed.

The room was filled with docks all connected to each other in a three-dimensional grid pattern, supported by thin pillars. There was enough space in between them to allow for ships to pass through. The room would normally be nearly full, but due to recent events, there were plenty of vacancies.

Quin carefully drove the ship into one of the ring-shaped docks, and a robotic voice was heard.

<Please stand by while the docking process is underway.>

Four cylindrical latches extruded out from the ring on all corners and moved the ship into place. There was slight shaking, before a satisfying clicking sound was heard.

<Docking complete. Please wait for the lift to arrive.>

A small machine was riding up one of the pillars, and when it reached the ship, panels unfolded from it, creating a platform on the back end of the ship. A hatch released, creating an opening while also forming a ramp to reach the platform.

<Please watch your step. Thank you.>

“It’s time,” Quin said as he released the shackles that restrained Kaaran to the walls. He hooked a chain onto the cuffs on his wrists and grabbed the end of it, pulling the Tothan up onto his feet before saying, “Let’s get going.”

He dragged the pirate onto the platform, which started slowly descending. 

“Don’t try anything funny,” Quin looked to the left side of his own waist where his pistol was holstered before continuing, “You should know that I’m armed.”

“I know. I’m not that stupid,” he looked through the windows surrounding the hanger and saw numerous people in white uniforms, each holding rifles, “It isn’t just you, either. This place is armed to the teeth.”

“I’m glad you understand,” Quin said as the platform reached the floor, “Just be good and follow me.”

He began walking with the Tothan, over a full head taller than Quin, in tow. They got into one of many tube-like elevators. There was a list of floors to travel to. They were on the floor labeled “small vessel hangar,” but there was also the large vessel hangar on the top floor, the centrallobby just below, and a variety of others.

“Central lobby,” said Quin, and the elevator started to move down.

When the elevator doors opened, they were in a large, bright, but tastefully arranged lobby. There was a staircase in the center of the room. The room was full of researchers, soldiers, workers and people of various other professions, all of them walking to some destination. Even when there was a big event that would have half of the staff sent away, there was never a time that Gaia wasn’t busy.

“We’ll take him from here, Trial Ranger Quin,” said a voice coming from his right. It was a tall, light olive-skinned woman with green eyes and wavy black hair. Anyone who had worked at Gaia would recognize her as Mariah Sampson, one of just three Trial Rangers stationed at this facility. There were two armed guards in white uniforms standing behind her.

“Reliable as always, Mariah,” he handed her the chain that he had been dragging the prisoner with. “By the way, is the Lieutenant…?”

“The Lieutenant is awaiting your report in her office,” she replied, “and watch your tone. Trial Rangers or not, we still have to act professionally in this space.” 

The prisoner snickered as Quin snapped into an upright position with his arms behind his back.

“Ah! Of course. My apologies, Trial Ranger Sampson.”

“Very good. We’ll be on our way, then,” Mariah said as she yanked the chain in her hand and began walking towards the holding area.

Quin did his best to keep an appropriate posture as he walked up the stairs in the middle of the hub. As he approached his destination he read the sign in front of a door.

[Lieutenant Ivory]

Quin sighed as he prepared to knock and muttered to himself, “This is going to be fun…”

He knocked on the door, and heard a voice say, “You may enter.”

Quin slowly opened the door and was met by two people, rather than just the one that he expected. The person that he first saw was a Human woman in her mid-30s sitting at her desk with the light of her monitor reflecting off of her pure-white uniform. This was the Lieutenant that Quin had dreaded seeing. 

The second person was more concerning. He was clearly over 200cm tall, had long, bright blonde hair and long, pointed ears. It was as plain as day that he was a Yujunoan. The beautiful fabric that his clothes were made out of showed that his status was not trivial.

Quin looked nervously at him for a couple of seconds, before the Yujunoan spoke with a grin, “I’m just here to observe, no worries.”

“Uh, right,” Quin cleared his throat, “Trial Ranger Quin, reporting.”

“Do you know how many protocols you violated?” Lieutenant Ivory spoke.

“Three, I think,” Quin replied. 

“Oh? So you know already?” There was a look of frustration on her face, “Yes, that’s absolutely right, it was three of them. Would you care to explain yourself?”

“Well, as far as holding an improper posture goes, I can say with full confidence that I forgot.”

“You forgot? Very well. What of you not awaiting approval before deboarding your ship?”

“Does that really make a difference? Mariah-” he cut himself off, “Trial Ranger Sampson was probably waiting in that spot for a whole 20 minutes before I arrived. This place has eyes everywhere, it’s not like you don’t know what I’m doing.”

The frustration on her face surfaced further as she asked, “You understand that you would probably have been court-martialed for a response like that by now if you were under the Coalition Regular Army’s jurisdiction, right?”

“But he’s not,” the Yujunoan interjected, much to Quin’s surprise.

“There’s no need to defend him,” her brows slowly unfurled as she sighed, “I guess this is how Rangers are.” 

She stood up ceremoniously with her arms behind her back, “Then, on behalf of the Galactic Coalition, thank you for a job well done.”

Quin was taken aback by the sudden change in attitude, only able to respond with, “Really?”

“Why not? Normally we would send a small team of people to do a job like that, but Gaia is short staffed as it is, given that the Unending Promise goes into effect within a few months. It was nice to have a backup like you to handle it, and all things considered, it was satisfactory.”

The rank of Trial Ranger is one of several ranks in the Ranger Corps of the Galactic Coalition. It’s very normal for Rangers to undergo extremely dangerous missions given their strength and talents, so Trial Rangers are not yet fit to act as a full-fledged Ranger, and as such, are often given off to the Regular Army, the Research Conglomerate, or various other public service sectors to gain experience. 

“Speaking of the Unending Promise,” Lieutenant Ivory pointed to the tall man, “this Yujunoan here is awaiting his escort team to said event. His name is Eizik Vath, one of the nine Ranger Lords.”

“Ranger huh?” Quin’s eyes widened.

A big grin overcame Eizik’s face as he approached Quin and grabbed his hand with both of his own, shaking it vigorously. “Yes, that’s me! You can call me Eizik, it’s very nice to meet you, Quin!” Quin couldn’t get a word in before he continued, “Hey, I’ve been curious, the third protocol that you broke was not following the standard route right? I’ve heard that you have an easy time reading currents, is that how you made it here so fast? Humans really are interesting!”

Quin was truly flabbergasted. Any sense of dignity that he saw in this Yujunoan vanished in an instant. What’s more, the man shaking his hand, crouched over and smiling from ear to ear like a fool was a Ranger Lord, one of the ten most powerful individuals in the entire Coalition. 

“Uh, well…” Quin started to reply, looking off to the side, “It’s not really a Human thing, I just have an easier time with it than most.” He paused for a moment as he freed his hand from Eizik’s grasp, who wiped the grin off of his face and cleared his throat as he regained his composure. “In fact,” Quin continued, “the prisoner even accused me of going the wrong direction multiple times. I guess he didn’t know much.”

With this statement, both Lieutenant Ivory and Eizik had a look of shock overcome them. They glanced at each other before slowly turning their gazes towards Quin.

“Quin…” said Eizik, “This station is more or less free-floating and constantly changing directions.

Its location isn’t easily disclosed to outsiders.”

Quin raised an eyebrow nervously as he spoke, “So what is it that you’re trying to say?”

“Kaaran is the first mate of an uninfluential pirate crew,” Lieutenant Ivory added, “how would he know the location of this place?”

“Ah?”

A powerful shockwave was felt as the sound of an explosion filled the station.