One day later…

I took the air-borne atmospheric transport system to the space elevator, traveling mach 7 through a shield bubble enclosed mag-lift railway. In the rapidly approaching distance, I could see the space elevator. A tall metallic, shimmering tower stretching up into space, and as my eyes followed it upwards, I saw the Karlsson Ring that looped the planet. Designed by one of the most ingenious engineers to ever grace the UG, now 237 years old, was Stephan Karlsson. He had helped to create one of the most important architectural discoveries, ever. The ring was completely self sufficient, with immense and numerous shipyards and docking stations dotted throughout, and each housing roughly one billion people on average. They held schools, food dispensaries, everything. Not only that, they were donned with innumerable plasma beam turrets, kinetic rammers, and the most powerful shields the military could make. It was often given the prize of the largest reason the Jhar invasion was a complete failure, and why nothing similar has ever been attempted. The worst that has been attempted are the occasional attempts at stealing technology and other quick raids by the Guillom. However, they cannot withstand some overwhelming attacks, and cannot fire on the surface. In addition they take over 50 years to construct, and cannot fire upon any planets, their own included. The expense of one is simply immense and truly inconceivable.

“Sir. Please.” Shaking my head, I throw away those thoughts and pay attention to the real world. I’m a fucking idiot. A small droid is tapping my shoulder, with mild concern in its voice.

“I’m sorry, excuse my daydreaming.” I stand, and leave the public transport. As I glance around, the ‘small’ lip protruding from the immense tower supported the thousands of people standing on it exiting the multiple trains. All the way up here, the air was far clearer, essentially being a near-completely transparent gold-like color. I began to jog over to one of the enormous elevators. Within the hour, I was launched upwards. The elevator tore through the vacuum in the lift chamber, going insane speeds, about 1/100 the speed of light. In only a minute or so, the passengers aboard were at the Karlsson ring.

As I stepped out, I opened my fist. In my palm was a small disk that was surgically implemented in my hand. I watched as it flashed a hologram in front of me, that only I could see. It showed the directions to my space port, only cleared for military personnel. In the thick haze of people, I didn't want to walk. Using my training from the military, a thin, rainbowy film stretched over my body. I tuned out of my Strand sight, and took off flying towards my port. The tens of thousands of people I passed over set their eyes on me. This was a rare sight, something only military or ex-military could train you to do. Stunts like this were permitted by the military only because it made more people enlist.

Within ten minutes I landed down at my port.

“Fuck.” I pushed out of my mouth like trying to spit up that feeling in the back of my throat as I felt Strand exertion tug at my frontal lobe. It was a sort of firm pulling sensation, sort of like the second after one sneezes except worse and it sticks around for much longer. A Cellic walked up to me, giving me a hand up.

He was an old friend of mine, Cellic were far more common in the military, having only recently come out of the tribal age, they still had strong militaristic traditions. He was taller than any normal human, 7’ 7”. He was bipedal, like humans, with knees that bend both ways. He had four thin toes, all having short claws on the end. Cellic didn't really have soles of their feet, their feet more looking like the body of an octopus. They split evenly in four directions, and stuck to the ground. Strong, smooth scales covered their bodies, and protected them well. However, they had far weaker skeletons, and were thinner than humans. Cellic rarely wore shirts or upper body wear. His bare chest revealed black traditional markings on his scales, and more of his maroon scales that camoflauged him in the jungle world his species evolved on. Cellic arms were thin, but dense with muscle, although humans were stronger pound for pound. Cellic heads were thin and crocodilian, however their muzzles more resembled dog muzzles, more squat and thick. He had the most common color eye of a light red background, and yellow pupils. Their heads were hairless, although they did have short fins on the top of their heads that stretched down to their 3 foot tails that were very thin and flexible, like a mouse’s. The tail of a Cellic split into two ends halfway through, and helped them balance, but also made them seem larger, probaby to scare off predators.

I gave him a firm, quick hug. Cellic had similar vocal cords to humans, although their voices were considerably deeper and naturally had trouble with l’s, although a little help and focus quickly fixed that issue.

“Ah, my old friend, coming off leave, yes?” He asked, his voice reminiscent of the russian accents of old. We had been friends for some 20 or so years. I was 42 years old, but it was like I was 23, thanks to some advanced and high-tech age slowing. “Our squadron is being deployed to the Ul’Katoin front again. I must tell you,” He lowered his voice. “That a new portal has opened in Epsilon Indi, thankfully they only attck that one system. This time however, it is on Fytlin, and they are launching a ground campaign to not only take the portal, but attempt to set up a permanent outpost on the other side.”

“Shit. How long will the journey be?”

“It should only take a week, we are using the Mag Highway to get there.”

“Well, I’ll notify some friends, see you on the ship in 20.” We parted ways, and I told S’Kay and a few other friends that I would likely not go on leave for a while. I also held back my tickets to Io, which was allowed for military personell in rare circumstances. I then had to race back to our ship, and it lifted off.

The ship resembled a 3-D oval with two large engines near the back, and two large fish like fins that helped with manuverability and extra speed, solar sails. It also had a large disk on the ‘top’, which allowed it to access the speedy trasportation that was the Mag highway. The ship only had one large plasma lancer, and two kinetic batteries.

The engines began to burn, and suddenly we were launched off, inertial capacitors keeping us steady. The ship began to quickly spin as well, and within the hour we had gravity. I roaed around for a bit, talking with the other occupants, and noticed something.

We were all top notch, highly experienced veterans of combat. Something was wrong. Something horrible had happened. The UG never put all their eggs in one basket, at least not since 8 years ago. Since the Ul’Katoin brought in new soldiers.