The moment the portal spit out Marc and his ship he immediately made out Mita Station below him, a dim blob of light on an otherwise dark planet.
He wasn't sure what to expect, only that it would be great. It had to be, after all he had worked hard for one of the sought-after scholarships over the past five years. He knew he was incredibly lucky to get in, even though he had always given his best there were thousands of others who had as well, maybe better even. But somehow the luck of the draw or whatever had decided in his favor and now he received landing instructions for one of the most elite military academies in the civilized galaxy.
Slightly tipping the nose of his little scout ship he directed it towards the landing bay and set it to auto-pilot, this standardized landing bay needed no manual steering.
The silence inside the cockpit was a surefire way to calm his nerves, he could find the buttons on the dashboard without looking at them and the small size fit his preferences perfectly because it made him so agile.
The landing bay approached quickly, he had arrived at a good time when the planet's rotation brought it near to the portal. He switched the controls back to normal again, both because he had little interest in dying because of a software error and also because he loved the attention to detail and skill needed to land smoothly.
Not that he needed much of it this time, the landing bay was cleverly built to prevent surface winds from pushing him around and it even had these fancy magnet systems safely guiding him down once they had grabbed his ship for the first time.
His little Buzzard sure wasn't much compared to the Stingrays and Hurricanes he flew past on his way to his designated landing spot, but it was affordable and featured some very practical choices which the stupidly expensive ones forewent in favor of raw speed and weaponry.
The cockpit opened and Marc climbed out, patiently waiting for the small ladder to descend instead of jumping down like he normally would have.
A door opened in front of him and he saw two people approaching him. One was dressed in dirty plain clothes and Marc assumed him to be a mechanic that would take care of his ship. The other was wearing an uniform even Marc marveled at despite his usual disdain for fancy, impractical clothes.
Marc walked up to them and nodded, unsure of proper greeting rituals. Apparently a handshake was perfectly fine as the uniformed man extended his hand and Marc shook it. Firm, but without this annoying tendency to break the other's hand to establish dominance.
"Marc Avory, I assume?"
"Right, Sir."
"Commander Salem, I lead the station. Glad to see you made it here in one piece, any troubles on your way?"
"No Sir, a couple times my shield generators had to work overtime to reflect meteorites but I got through just fine."
"We'll take care of that soon, as well as putting some proper hardware on those wings."
"That would be amazing."
"Anthony here will take care of your ship if you don't mind, you won't need it for a couple of days."
Marc nodded and shook hands with Anthony as well, who smiled at him and then left them without another word.
"Come with me, I'll show you to your room, then I'll have some other business to attend but I'm sure your teachers will show you all around the station tomorrow. You are free to explore for yourself as well, there is nothing really off-limits other than the administrative areas - but you'll notice if you reach them."
"Thank you, Sir. I am really glad for the chance to be here."
"I looked at your file and I think you'll fit in just fine. It's hard work, but for the ones who make it here that shouldn't be unfamiliar."
They moved through a deserted corridor, since it was the middle of the night here there was not the slightest activity apart from the two of them. It always amazed Marc how one could lose orientation in a seemingly simple layout of straight corridors, but by the time they had made the third turn he had not the slightest idea how the station's layout was supposed to make sense.
"Here we are, 107 is yours. On your desk you'll find an organizer, if you ever get lost it can show you the way to each room in the whole station. Classes start at eight, so you better catch some sleep while you still can."
"Thank you Sir."
"Always. Good night, and I sincerely hope you'll enjoy your time here."
With that he turned around and left Marc to himself, his steps quickly fading as he moved down the corridor they had come through.
Marc put his hand on the reader next to the door and it opened with only the slightest of delays and closed a second after he stepped inside.
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