Star Wars: The Earthling Gamer

Chapter 15 - Exploration and the Operation

When I woke up, it was around 5:30, and I stretched, getting up. I quickly got ready for my day, and wrote a note, explaining that I was gonna explore the complex here, and that I'd be back by noon, leaving it taped to my front door.

I took the elevator to the main floor, where we entered from, and just started exploring. I conjured the minimap, and started looking around. A lot of this was just luxury stuff, which makes sense, considering Mana said this was the level for VIPs and retired folk. After spending some time here, a lot more people were roaming about, and I noticed it was around 9, so I went down another floor.

Once I got down there, I saw a lot more serious things. I saw a couple weapons shops, a shop for armor, whether it be like Kevlar or ancient full-body armor. Another shop was, quite literally, selling poison and drugs. I looked a little critically at that, and noticed a sign explaining they did license checks for anything illegal or lethal, as apparently they had licenses for those things down here.

This floor was cleared on my minimap in about 30 minutes, and I just went down another floor, where I found pristine living quarters spanning maybe a mile in each direction and a parking garage, which was impressive, in consideration of how much space it takes. I figured it probably goes into other floors for living quarters.

I figured I didn't really need to explore there, so I went another floor down, and narrowed my eyes a little as I saw worse homes than the ones I saw above, though not by a large margin. I saw where this was going, and I didn't like it at all.

I came to the same conclusion with that floor as I did the previous one, and I audibly snarled when I saw that there were broken down homes on the next level down, and people were sleeping around fires, in sleeping bags or tents. I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and I tensed, flaring my power. I whirled around to find Mana, Hazel, and Kara.

Kara and Hazel were looking past me, taking in the surroundings with distaste in their expressions. It was clear they didn't like what was going on here, either. "Mana. Explain." I said warningly. "I can explain, but we need to step away from everything first. Come on." She said, her expression unclear, as she dragged me back into the elevator, as she brought us to the surface via the elevator.

I frowned at Mana, and sent a small shock through my arm to get her hand off of me, and she yelped, releasing her death grip on my hand. "Sorry." She said apologetically. "Explain." I growled, Bloodlust activating at the thought of what the Canadians are doing to those people. "The government doesn't want to seem like America's. It keeps some of its homeless population in bases like these around the country. Calo, myself, and a few others have expressed our dislike of letting them continue to suffer down here, when we have the resources to help, but you see what happened there." She explained.

"That's what you meant by your operation last night, right? You're rebelling, too." I pieced together, as my Wisdom stat increased by another point from the realization. She nods carefully. "Only the involved people and you three know, so don't go running off yelling about it." She explains.

That's when another thought arrived. "Your government doesn't know we're here, do they?" Mana's expression morphed into that of a deer caught in headlights. "It explains why I could tell you did know more than you let on, and why I could tell that despite that, the offer was genuine to let us come here. Your minister doesn't know we exist, does he?" I ask.

Hazel and Kara were looking between us like we were in an intense game of ping pong, settling on staring at Mana. "That's preposterous. How would he not know? How would I have got the job to get you?" She shot back. "I'm sure I don't know, but there's something missing that would tell us if we knew it, most certainly." I say, relenting a little.

"I trust you, Mana, but I don't trust how you came to get us. You were under the radar, otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed to find the homeless populace for fear I went against them, too. But whatever the origin of this may be, I want in on the rebellion. As soon as America's done with, Canada's getting fixed next." I promised. At that, a smile graced Mana's face. "Thank you." She said gently, clearly happy that I seemed to abandon the original train of thought for now.

"I'd like to talk about how you flew under the radar again at some point, so don't think I'm just gonna forget, Mana. But I'll leave it for now." I warned her. "I understand, Cyrus. But for now, our organization meets once a week. Our next meeting is tomorrow evening, in the arena, at 18:30. Be there." She said, trying to regain her composure.

I nodded, and walked to the elevator, Kara and Hazel in tow. Admittedly, it took me a second to translate 18:30 from a 24 hour clock to what I usually use. The elevator doors closed, my last view of Mana being a look mixed between annoyance, interest, and fear.

"You trust her after she was hiding that from us?" Kara asked me. "She has an influence meter, K. She's an ally." I reassured her. She made a dissatisfied noise, but didn't argue. "Are you sure they don't know we're here? They built so much for us." Hazel asked, frowning.

"I'm not completely certain, but that's a strong suspicion of mine. But her look after I mentioned it confirms it, in my books." I answer. The elevator dings, as we arrive at our homes, and I walk forward. I breathe in, and walk into my house again. This time, I go to find the firepit, and I light it with Force Lightning.

I wasn't too concerned about the smoke, as there was a way for it to go, and even then, I wouldn't find it unlikely that I could contain it, or even dispel it. I hear Kara's light footsteps, and I call out to her. "Well, welcome to my humble abode, K. Hope it isn't too much of a mess." I say, not really apologetic for the mess in the house.

"Since when did I become K, huh?" She asks, sitting beside me on the couch. I hesitated. I didn't really know. After my silence, she must've realized I didn't know, because she laughed. "It's fine, don't worry. I like it." We settle into a comfortable silence, and I turn to look at her.

I wanted to talk with her about her meltdown yesterday, but I didn't want to ruin this moment with her. So I just slung an arm behind her, and gave her a side-hug. She reciprocated, and I couldn't help but smile.

We sat there for a while, probably an hour, and apparently Hazel came in at some point. She broke our silence with a cough. When I turned to look at her, she mouthed "Sorry." I shrug, and only then notice Kara fast asleep on my shoulder. She does that a lot, huh?

I put out the fire by levitating a nearby bucket filled with water, and dumping it on the fire, and settled again next to Kara. Before I knew it, I was falling asleep, and oh boy, do I regret falling asleep.

~~~

This one's kind of a short one, too, but I promise the word count per chapter starts to go up soon.

Anyways, I've been experimenting with Minecraft commands lately. I've been stuck with using Bedrock Edition, but I've made some cool stuff I'm pretty proud of. This has overall just been a pretty good week and a half for me. So woohoo.

In other news, I still am on my break, I just figured I should go ahead and post again, since I feel bad I haven't posted, and it's been a little while. Expect a 4th of July update, then after that, I should be back on track.

Well, I hope everyone has a great day/afternoon/evening/night, wherever and whenever y'all may be reading this!