“The first body that I ever saw was my mother’s, after my father beat her to death.

I grew up in that place. Ten years later. I beat my father to death and I fell in with a bad crowd. Though, I guess you could say that, given the situation, that’s a relative thing to say, right?

In that first year, I killed four people.

A year after that, I killed nine.

After that year, I stopped counting how many people I killed. There were just too many.

Eventually I was caught by the guard and scheduled to be executed. But the military grabbed me in an emergency draft, along with the other scheduled to-dies. We were put in the most dangerous front lines.

And honestly, I didn’t care. I was just there. I just killed more people and this time, I got medals for it.

Now, back then, back when it happened, I couldn’t help but wonder -

Why him?

Why would the gods intervene directly in the life of an already rich man, a noble man, who had lived his best years in peace? Why him, when the rest of us lived like rats? Why didn’t they intervene in my life? Why didn’t they stop me from heading where I was going?

After that night however, after that light tore through the sky and that drake fell to the ground at our feet, I realized something.

— They already had.

After I got out of the service and my crimes were forgiven because of my merits, I started planting flowers. One for every person I killed.

But since I don’t know how many that was anymore, I just keep on planting them now and every time that I do, I pray.

I pray in thanks and I pray for forgiveness.

I pray so that I can see my mother again.”

~ Memoir of the high-gardener of the holy-church. Some fifty years after the happenings of the drakefall.

New Ability - [Ranking {2}]

Allows you to open all doors on the station that are marked with a clearance level of {2}.

New Ability - [Strongman {1}]

STRENGTH is your primary stat. All other stats will rise to always meet at least 25% of your current STRENGTH.

Gottlieb nods, satisfied with his selection of abilities.

Taking the prior ‘ranking-one’ ability hadn’t been all that useful, honestly.

In total, it had gotten him a blanket, a bad memory and some snacks. But he has a good feeling about the second one. Hydroponics behind a door marked with a ‘two’ and so is security. If nothing else, he can snatch a farming robot and some guns and what else could any man really want in life?

As for ‘strongman’, he figures that since he’s going to be investing himself fully into his physical health, he may as well get some other stats too.

Having some more intelligence and wisdom will let him be able to fix or save parts of the station when something inevitably goes wrong. He’s just one person and there were forty-seven others up here with him for a reason. Maintenance is usually something that has to be done every day. It’s only a question of time before the first thing explodes in his face.

Kai has really been holding everything together here.

He gets up from his chair.

“I’m taking a walk, Kai,” says Gottlieb, ignoring the beeping monitor. He assumes Kai is giving him grief for leaving his post during what should be his shift.

The man yawns to make a point out of it and strolls towards the tube, climbing over the chairs he had piled there to block it off.

Gottlieb hums as he walks down the buzzing metal corridor towards security.

The door has a crude ‘two’ painted on its surface and he still isn’t really sure who could have done this or why. But, well, in a world where magic and dragons are real, a sloppy paint job is hardly a big concern.

“Knock knock,” says Gottlieb, tapping against the door and looking up towards the blue light above it.

It budges, sliding open very slowly, as if something was trying, but unable to stop it from opening. Gottlieb can’t help but think that Kai is trying to interfere here. But it looks like Kai is being outmatched by whatever system governs the rules of this universe.

He smiles a smug smile, waving to the blue light as he steps into the small security room.

Security on the station is a cramped space, to say the least. It’s essentially an office, lined with several monitors. In the middle of the room is a table with some chairs. The design is somewhat of a panopticon, but with monitors instead of an open space.

Gottlieb wanders through the rooms, looking at the monitors.

All of the camera feeds from every blue dot on the station are visible here, including his own desk at the firing console, or the ones inside of the cryo-tubes.

He spares a few moments to look around the station. Some of the monitors seem to be on the fritz, however.

“Kai, what’s up with the security feed?” he asks, looking up at the blue dot, inside of the room.

Kai does not respond. Gottlieb taps the fuzzy monitors again. The labels say they’re different places. Ventilation. Hydroponics. A few different shafts. A few odd rooms here and there. That’s strange, he supposes. But it doesn’t seem like a real problem.

— Probably.

It could be an issue if ventilation stopped working right, though. He does need air, after all. But so far, apart from the broken camera feed, everything seems okay. He’ll ask Kai about it later.

Anyways, most importantly.

Gottlieb turns to the large, metal cabinet against the wall. It also has a ‘two’ painted on it.

Whistling a jaunty tune, he wanders over towards it and pulls it open. The weapons locker.

There are only a few people on the station who have access to live munitions. Given the fact that a stray bullet could cause the whole station to go haywire, most of the weapons are of non-lethal sort. The captain himself, the ranking officers and the security team that consists of three people are the only ones with access to them. Gottlieb always thought that the security dudes had the easiest job on the station.

— Who even needs security up here? Who’s going to get up here? Nobody.

Following that reasonable thought, Gottlieb reaches into the cabinet and pulls out a small, single-fire, bullpup rifle. It’s about the length of his forearm and is pretty light.

(Normal)[Mark IV NGE Rifle]

The non-gravitational-environment rifle, mark IV, is a short range, carbon polymer printed, single-fire rifle with a piston-kit made specifically for use in low gravity and high-caution environments, such as orbital stations.

It fires non-lethal, high-velocity, blunt, rubber munitions.

Weight: 2.8 kg Ammunition: 28/28 Value: 100,000

Gottlieb whistles, looking the gun over. The last time he fired an actual rifle was during basic and it was a different model than this. Actually, this one feels lighter. But he might be misremembering.

Shrugging, Gottlieb continues to whistle, making a point of showing Kai the gun as he slings it over his shoulder and leaves.

— He does consider shooting one of the blue-lights out, just for fun.

But he doesn’t.

Maybe next time, when Kai is being a dick.

Gottlieb stands before the door to hydroponics.

It slides open, rising with less resistance than the door to security had.

Hydroponics is a longer module and from the outside of the station, it kind of juts out at a somewhat strange angle. Hydroponics is a mostly automated place, with a few robots who take care of the plants and the fish. There were one or two people to supervise it, but Gottlieb feels like they also never had much work.

The first thing that he notices is that it’s kind of a mess in here.

Long, rectangular fish-tanks line the space in rows. Above them are tall shelves of many different plants, lined with piping and tubing. The plants are watered with the ‘fertilized’ water from the fish-tanks and the fish are fed with the nutrient paste flakes made by processed, grown plants. Plus some additional nutrients to help keep the whole system going.

But a few of the shelves are bent and broken, as if something had tried to climb on them. A section of the resistant glass of the fish-tanks is scratched and marked, as if something had tried to get into them.

One of the robots lays on its side, deactivated.

— Broken.

Gottlieb lifts the rifle, stepping inside and looking around.

“The hell?” he mutters. Was there some kind of impact? Did hydro just get shaken up a bunch?

He looks down at the broken robot. It’s really just a long cylinder with treads on either end and with four grabby appendages.

The cameras on its face are smashed in and the panel on its back is ripped open. The wires are torn out like the entrails of a hunted animal. Bending down, Gottlieb looks at the cabling.

“Are these… bite marks?” he mutters, nervously looking around the room.

What should he do? Is there someone else here on the station after all? Someone who is weird enough to be willing to bite a robot?

This is a problem.

He needs hydro to survive. If this place collapses, then he’s going to as well. It’s the only source of ‘food’ here. Even if it is a very generous term.

So unfortunately, the idea of just locking hydro back up and leaving isn’t an option.

Gottlieb lifts the rifle back up, not sure if he’s holding it right, and wanders through hydroponics. The fish continue to swim around in their tanks, mostly unbothered by the looks of things. Gottlieb wanders down the long row of tall planter shelves, full of fruits and vegetables.

Something hisses and moves to his right as he reaches the end.

Gottlieb spins towards the noise, ready to shoot.

— Another robot idly drifts by, rolling past him. Its arms reach out, tending to many of the plants, as it moves on with its work.

He sighs.

It doesn’t look like there’s anything or anyone here.

His eyes wander up towards the ceiling, towards the blue-light that was once there and has been smashed in.

Next to it is a small ventilation shaft, broken open from the other side. It’s far too small for a human to crawl through. Maybe a teenager at best, if they squeezed themselves together. “…Shit,” mutters Gottlieb, looking at the trail of leaves and foliage that goes into the shaft and around the bend inside of it.

There really is someone else here.

He needs to talk to Kai about this, though Kai likely already knows. That jerk could have said something.

Didn’t he ask if they were alone up here before?

Gottlieb hisses and swears, his paranoid eyes scanning the area as he makes his way back out into the corridor.

“Kai. Lock hydroponics off again!” he says, turning to return back to his console, the gun clutched against his chest.

The door clicks shut behind him, locking tightly once again.

But it might be too late.

Gottlieb looks down at the floor, seeing the strange, small, dirt-caked footprints which weren’t there before, leading down the corridor.