Colonial Mars: The Outer Kingdoms

Chapter One

The gunship was approaching the planet; it had a precious cargo: information. Everything out here cost money; especially information. The Great Empires had forgotten out here, the Outer Planets. Some people called them 'the Giants' for the gas giants but the colonies and outposts out here were anything but.

"Approaching Nassau Base," Wally announced to his crew. There were only a couple of passengers on the gunship with him. But they didn't really matter. Wally was the one with the information that needed to get the Admiral, the Antihero of Jupiter. The Admiral was the one in charge of all the pirate gangs and business around Jupiter and its moons. He ran a tight ship and was often on the main bridge of Nassau Base, the orbital station around Europa, the main colony in the Jupiter planetary system.

"This is the B-16c gunship 'Red Dragon', and pilot Wallachy Novus, approaching Nassau Base on Vectors sine 20 degrees, cosine 270 degrees, r-minus 1000 meters. Transferring the landing fee and waiting more orders." Wally had to communicate with the base bridge to get aboard and get an audience with the Admiral.

Finally, the 'Red Dragon' had clunked to a stop with its front guns and wings folded up to take as little space as possible. The sliding ship door opened just in time as Wally sprinted out of the ship and made for the hangar exit, opposite the almost unbelievable view outside the hangar—the planet Jupiter, staring right at Jupiter's red spot. But Wally ignored it. He had seen that view a couple times before but this time he needed to get to the Admiral of Jupiter, the strongest of the pirate gangs roaming throughout the Giants. When he got to the door to enter the station, he was stopped by a tall, bulky Martian, with dry, scaly skin, a head and half taller than Wally (and he was already above average for a human male) with some horns sticking out of his cheeks. The Martian put his armadillo-feeling arm out in front of Wally. "Entrance fee needs to be paid," he grunted in a deep voice. He then stuck out his surprisingly long and thin hand and fingers while motioning for some Marks to be put into his palm.

"But I already paid the landing fee," Wally explained in a semi-panicked voice. "You know what? Fine. I'm going to be a rich man anyways after I talk to the Admiral." He took out a handful of crumpled German Marks and pushed them into the Martian's hand. "A little extra for a tip!" Wally then shoved past the Martian and ran into the bazaar that was in all the Outer Planet designed stations. Loads of weird aliens from the moons and planets of the Solar System were bustling about the bazaar haggling, yelling, singing, burping, farting, and making every noise in between; it was teeming with life small and large. But right now, none of that mattered to Wally.

Wally ducked and weaved through the crowd to get to the main elevator system that ran through the whole station. He had the code to go to the command bridge and get to the Admiral. There were so many people to get through in the crowd. There were tall, slender creatures with pudgy skin, centaur-like creatures, gigantic slugs, and so many others in between. There was also a multitude of smells that ran from the most vulgar to the sweetest. Though as Wally ran through the maze of the people and creatures there was absolutely nothing that would get in his way from becoming one of the richest men in known existence. Finally, he had made it to the dirty metal doors that would lead him to a life of luxury. He pressed the flickering call button that indicated for the elevator to take him up and after a few seconds, the doors lazily slid open. Wally rushed inside the rickety old elevator and rapidly pressed the code in for the bridge of Nassau Base. When he finished, the elevator almost took a moment to think before the mag levs on it fired and shot him surprisingly smoothly up. After about a minute of just staring at a grey wall and machinery, he reached the windowed upper levels of Nassau Base.

The view was incredible. Wally took a moment to take in the view of the biggest of the gas Giants. The oranges, reds, beiges, and yellows on the surface swirled together as gas-collecting frigates went down to mine the gases. There were old shipyards that had been transported out here and they were in a lazy orbit around the Europa colony itself. Massive cruisers and old colony ships ran around the orbit between the colonized moons, the Inner Worlds, and the stations throughout the whole Solar System. It was a beautiful sight that not many people got to see and experience.