Gulliver and the group were crowding over one of the small pedestals in a hall. Images of rotating elongated ships can be seen projected over it. After introducing themselves to the owner, they were lead to the "shopping room" where displays of ships and catalogues can be found.

"This is a standard Tier 1 medium corvette. Tier 1 shield and armour, 4 missile tubes, and Tier 1 thrusters" Gulliver was reading out the specs. Before he could go on, the controls were hijacked by Helix and he navigated his way to the heavy battleship.

"Now that's more like it. 40 missile tubes and three main gun" Helix said. Turning to his friends, he added, "We should get this."

Horn rolled his eyes and pushed Helix away, not bothering to reply to Helix's antics at all. He made some swiping gestures and pulled out the next model of ship that was a Tier 2 Cruiser. "What do you guys think?" he asked. "Since its only the four of us, we can splurge on comfort and depots with the extra space. Since we planned for extended voyages, it wouldn't hurt to have better comfort".

Phoenix looked at him weirdly and said, "We can always just log off. No reason to splurge on comfort when we can better use the money and space for something else"

"True. True. But think about living the luxury sailor life. Fancy wine, served with a nice juicy medium steak with black garlic sauce and a lightly charred brocollini. Delish." Horn replied with his eyes closed.

"Ew, steak should be rare to medium rare. Anything more and it's gross. I should reevaluate if we should be friends Horn" Gulliver said to Horn.

"No it's not, trust your friend who's a foodie" Horn defended himself.

"Uh, how about no?" Phoenix replied. "Anyways, stop wasting time, let's get our ship. There should be one that fits our criteria."

Gulliver performed an elaborate swiping motion to bring up the next model. "This is a more expensive ship and its Tier 2. Other than adding the few upgrades you guys wished for, it doesn't require as much work as the previous models we saw. Bonus is that the ship is already constructed. We can even have a tour" he added as he was scrolling through the specifications of the ship.

"The specs seems better, the loadout seems more spacious too. That's a plus. Though the ship looked older. I'm curious how the interior looked like up close. Let's pay this ship a visit?" Helix asked after he compared the load out of the two medium cruisers he was reading while his friends were bickering about steak.

Mutters of assent quickly filter through their mouths as they head out. "Berth 3" Phoenix said as she browsed through the details sent to her holowatch. "It's second-hand, seized from the rebel fleet after the PDF disabled her engines. Sent here for repair and reselling since the PDF were using newer models. That explains the price."

"It has 6 PDCs, 15 missile launchers, and 2 railguns as the main battery. It doesn't lack firepower. Its older than what the PDF were using, but it was state-of-the-art during her time and only one generation behind." she continued blasting out the specs for the boys.

"But does it look good?" Asked Horn.

Gulliver turned to look at Horn, staring at him for a moment before saying "From someone who is traumatised by pink and rainbows, your concern over appearance sure is fascinating"

“It’s because of my trauma that I take exceptional care to appearance. Imagined having bought a car and only to realise that its pink..” Horn shivered.

As they approached Berth 3, a ship in glistening black greeted them. It reminded Gulliver of an egg, but only longer. Despite signs of wear and tear, the ship looked majestic. The soft curves that covered the various weapon bays and sleek angles to maximise armour gave the spaceship a sense of lethality and majesty. The aura exuded from the ship instilled respect and awe but not that of fear.

To enter the ship, the party needed one of the two bridges connected to one of the air gaps leading into the ship. The brightly lit interior corridor was similar to the ones they had at the station with long rectangular panels lining up the wall and curving up to the ceiling. The rooms they passed were bare, waiting to be outfitted and furnished by ship's new owner. The corridors lead up to the empty mess hall/crew lounge located at the centre-front of the ship. It was a wide circular space that can easily fit more than 20 people comfortably, 30 if they squeezed. Connected to the wall of lounge was a large window with a door next to it. Looking past the window indicated the space to be a kitchen. A rather large kitchen.

Gulliver imagined a full fledged industrial kitchen, some sofas, dining tables, and perhaps fitting a small bar or games table and the space could still comfortably fit 10 people without a problem. Smiling at the layout of the common area he had in mind, they proceeded to the bridge. Unlike most movies or the small shuttle they took during their first tutorial mission, the bridge of warships weren’t located at the front or top of the ships with windows but at the middle of the ship behind layers and layers of heavily reinforced armour. The only other place that warranted such protection was the reactor rooms which were located to the left and right of the bridge. No windows were present but screens and a large holographic display table in the middle. Each seat had a few dedicated screen with the pilots having the most. It made sense as that was how they navigate and operate the ship. If it weren’t for the decently lit room, Gulliver would have felt claustrophobic.

The gang continued touring the ship and was quite impressed. They visited multiple decks and the various ammunition storage rooms. The display panels were quite dated but the party has accumulated enough SC and contribution points so upgrading them was never an issue. Overall, they identified four components that needed significant upgrades. The sensor suites, onboard AI, the various equipment in the bridge and the power generator to support the upgraded electronics.

“So, what do you guys think? I quite like this ship myself” asked Gulliver when they reconvenned at the mess hall.

“I have no problems with this ship. It feels surreal, it's as if I'm buying my first car” Horn said. Phoenix gave Horn a look and said “You are buying a really fancy car. I have no problems. As long as the equipment is good, I’m more than happy to fly it”.

Everyone turned to look at Helix, waiting for his decision. Looking around, “As long as a weapon's lab is installed, I’m good" grinning, "I say let’s buy it and start pimping it out."

***

Tilly skipped along the side road, humming to herself feeling very happy with her discussion with a local holowatch manufacturer. She had just closed out a deal, netting her a stable and sizable income of SC, putting her income on par with some mid-sized guilds in the game.

She noticed the road was more crowded than usual, especially at this hour when it was just right after lunch time. Cars hovering above in the sky weren't the usual cargo haulers but large vans and busses. As she looked around, Tilly noticed there were multiple groups loitering around in jackets too large for the current climate of late spring.

'Something's fishy' Tilly thought to herself. Just as she was about to raise her right hand to contact the city police with her watch, explosions rang out across the old industrial district. 'Oh boy, Jupiter is going to be so smug and i'll have no excuse to deny her request to put more armaments on the compound' she thought.

Swivelling her head around looking for the nearest way out of the district, she ran into the alley on her left and away from where she heard the explosions. Looking back, she saw the busses that were hovering above started dropping men and women. Vans were being driven directly into factories followed by magnificent mushroom clouds. Tilly almost tripped and fell from the constant tremor of explosions as she appeared from the side alley and into the adjacent street. Casual players and NPC alike were screaming and running around. Sirens can be heard in the distance and she immediately head towards it.

A suddenly flash consumed Tilly and she felt her body thrown backwards into the wall next to her hitting her head hard. She found herself unable to move and disoriented. Her vision was swimming and everything turned into an imitation of the painting of Munch's Scream but with movement which Tilly found amusing.

'I heard people describing Concussed Status, but experiencing is so different. Its so trippy' she thought to herself while trying to wait out the effect. Gunshots can be heard nearby and she was beginning to worry. She felt herself getting dragged into a warehouse and she instantly felt relieved.

As Tilly was about the mutter a 'thank you', she felt her hands pulled behind her followed by what she assumed were cuffs. 'Oh dear' was all she could think to herself.

"You're back. Good. Let's get started" a man called out from behind her. She tilted her head left trying to get a look at who's speaking. She found a young man dressed with a leather sleeveless jacket. On it was emblazoned with a purple trident, the symbol for the rebellion.

'Ah shit, am I going to lose my outfit? I'm not even a combat player. What's this bullshit! This outfit is expensive! I spent so much to look good for that stupid meeting!' Tilly sulked in her head. 'If I die, I'm going to be so mad."

"Now, what are you doing here at this hour? Hmm?" The man asked. He dragged a chair, placed it in front of her and sat down. "No comment? You're not a mute are you?"

Tilly sighed. 'Might as well get this over with'

"No i'm not. Just admiring the old architecture. Got to admit, like the remodelling work you guys did to the area. But I wonder if you guys apply for permit? I don't think it's legal to just willy nilly remodel a place, let alone the whole district. Also, I believe you guys got the steampunk vibe all wrong. The steam is suppose to be white, not black soot?"

Tilly was surprised at herself. 'Hey I can be snarky if I want. Let's enjoy this to the fullest'

The man arched his eyebrow and stared at her. Shaking his head, "I don't expect you newbies to understand the true meaning behind our revolution. We didn't want to do this, but the PDF forced our hand"

"You meant by retaking the shipyard that you stole?" she quipped.

"By stealing the shipyard that was lawfully donated to us" he snarled.

"Yea, sure. Donated. I'm sure. A lot of politicians say that too but they all end up in jail eventually" Tilly replied sarcastically.

"It was donated. Willingly. We just wanted better working conditions, fairer pay, more modern equipment. Do you think Pallanium mining is safe? Do you know the mortality rate of the occupation?

"What we asked for were completely justified. But what happened in the end? Nothing. Instead, we were fined, beaten, and put in confinement for breach of contract. What you see and hear on the surface is a lie. The planetary government is a corrupt and lying entity"

"Which government isn't?" Tilly scoffed.

They stared at each other in silence. "I guess you're here to recruit me then? To be honest, I don't find the speech inspiring. In fact, it's very underwhelming. You're not a good orator nor are you charming. So unfortunately I'll have to decline." Tilly said.

"I'm not here to recruit you. I'm just a low miner that is sick of the poor working conditions that we had. Day in day out we were stuck in a dark asteroid with explosives blowing our ears or limbs apart."

He took a deep breath and looked Tilly into her eye. He whispered, "We're just doing this to get our story out there to you freshies who calls yourself players. Now that you heard our story, good bye". He raised his gun and shot Tilly in the forehead.

Everything turned grey and then darkness enveloped her. Three words in red materialised,

YOU HAVE DIED.