Do you ever have a dream?
A dream that felt so real, it almost felt like it's from another lifetime.
Maybe... Maybe not.
One had a dream that seems to last almost a month.
A dream about a war in the heavens, a dream that is filled with the sensation of dread and despair with the sensation of cold sweat, as if it was a losing battle. The dream shows a lot of starship-like constructs, beams and explosions appear in rapid succession, and at the background of space, the stars... its losing it numbers as each stars fading into the void, like the light itself being snuffed out by an unseen force.
Then, the dream also included a strange spherical construct slowly appearing into his view, it almost looks like a celestial body. The details of this construct is blur but whatever it is, it radiates something, a strange sense of ease...
No.... hope, maybe?
Then, there is a voice.
A disembodied feminine voice close to the ears, speaking softly, almost a whisper, a voice that can only described as "angelic".
Whoever that was, it somehow repeats the same message. The dream ended with...
"Find Me... Find... ARGO"
----------<<<[ ---< @ >--- ]>>>----------
"WAKE UP!!!" Said the gruff man annoyingly. "You didn't come here just to take a nap in this dusty place".
The young man whose taking a nap against the rusty halls, awaken in a jolt. "Sorry..." said the young man while standing up and dust himself up.
"Give him a break, man. He may be low rank, but at the very least he doing his part in carrying our shit." Said the young woman with neon blue hair, walking towards the young man and the gruff man.
"Still, sleeping defenseless in this spooky-ass derelict place like this only invites unseen dangers. Like parasites and worse...chesty cough." The gruff man responds back, walking away from the conversation to continue his work.
The young man felt awkward but the neon blue woman talked to him. "Don't mind him, newbie. He may be an ass but he meant well. But seriously, don't just take a nap anywhere in place like this. Just power yourself thought until we find a safe place to rest". The young nods his head and said sorry, then carries his large and heavy backpack at ease and follows her to another spot in this "spooky-ass" derelict station.
He was accompanied by two others: Corrin Wade, a gruff, middle-aged veteran, and Lennie "Lynx" Roue, a laid-back young woman with striking blue hair—both ranked B among the Marauders. Corrin carried himself with a no-nonsense pragmatism, the hardened edge of a man who had once served as a colonial marine under the NUSA before retiring for reasons no one dared to question. Lynx, by contrast, was closer to Lio's age, her casual demeanor offset by the sturdy, box-shaped cybernetic arm she bore on her left side. She claimed it was the result of grueling labor work in her past, and though she never offered details, she carried the air of someone unafraid of hard effort.
Together, they've taken on a job to explore a recently discovered derelict mining station, stranded on the remnants of a shattered planet. The station, once looted by countless Marauders and megacorporations, still holds untouched sections. These remain unexplored due to the infestation of previously unknown, flesh-hungry insects.
Their primary task they had taken is to harvest a rare bioluminescent fungus and gather the corpses of the insects for study. However, they are hoping to salvage anything of value they can find—old tech, hard drives with recoverable data, and whatever else might fetch a profit.
The ESMG – Exo-Space Marauder Guild is a vast network of legalized mercenaries-for-hire, taking contracts from a wide range of "legalized" sources—ranging from the galactic government of the NUSA – Neo United Stellar Alliance, to alien royal empires, and even greedy megacorporations. Its members are known collectively as [Marauders], a catch-all term for those who accept jobs through the guild in exchange for payment. While the work offers excellent pay—scaling with both the mission's difficulty and the mercenary's rank—the vast risks and dangers of the galaxy make the profession equally perilous, yet highly attractive to ambitious newcomers.
The young man is Helios Ryner, nicknamed as "Lio" or in this case as "Rookie", is a young man at the age of 18, who recently joined the ESMG - Exo-Space Marauder Guild few months ago to become a Marauder. However as the newbie with Rank F, Lio makes what is essentially the Marauder's equivalent to a minimum wage. Luckily for him he joined a group of higher ranked Marauders as a mule, carrying their gears, resources, loot they find. Its not a lucrative job but he is happy take on the job.
As Lio walked with Lynx through the rusty hallway, thick with dust and the stench of long-dead hostile insects slain well before their arrival, he trailed after Corrin—yet a thought refused to leave his mind.
The dream... the dream he had. It wasn't the first time, and though its details were faint and fragmented, it felt as if it was trying to tell him something.
A calling? Perhaps. He couldn't be sure.
But one line echoed clearly, etched into his memory:
"Find me. Find Argo."
<<<[ Act 01, Ch 01 : END ]>>>