Piercing the Top - A Blazing Pace

Chapter 3 - In the Streets of the City

The Exterior Ahten City train proved to be a confusing experience for the group. The train is designed as a meter tall black brushed metal tube and about one arms span thick, but as long as the eye can see. The walls of the tube open up every two meters or so to reveal a very reclined seat set at such an incline its closer to laying down than sitting. Underneath the chairs are small baggage compartments. Even at such an incline it's still a tight fit for Rori, while the other two find it quite spacious.  After setting themselves reasonably comfortably in their seats, and fastening their belts, the train begins to move.

For the first few seconds the train starts at a steadily increasing roll, before picking up to an unimaginable speed. When the train gets up to full speed, a console appears in front of the passengers, each with different settings for the journey. Things like fan control, temperature control, seat softness, music option, and conference calling with other passengers. Ellie takes note of the opacity slider in the corner set to 100%. They lower it to around 60% and the walls around them become invisible. Mesmerized their eyes widen. The train was solid metal on the outside before, how are they able to see through it? A light begins blinking on the dash board, the two seats ahead are inviting them to a conference call. Ellie answers

"Dude are you seeing this?!" It's Ilka

"The sky you mean?" Ellie says

"Yeah the walls are clear!" Ilka says "This shit's so cool! I have it set to 0, it's like I'm flying"

"I think I read about this a little while ago" Rori says "The train is made of this kind of omega infused gel that when electricity runs through it the gel becomes darker."

"Honk shoo" mocks Ilka

"That's honestly pretty cool, Rori" says Ellie "Not that I really understand it."

The train barrels towards Ahten through a lush open plain, and past another small town on the left, larger than the last.  The train then approaches a giant stone wall like something from a medieval castle. The train zips through the wall and the massive city of Ahten unfolds all around. An automated voice interrupts the music inside the train.

Arriving at Tokaibo

"Tokaibo, the military district" Rori says through the conference chat

"This is where the military trains and dispatches from right?" Ellie says

"Ahten Police too"

"How do you two know all of this stuff?" Ilka asks

Simultaneously Ellie and Rori respond "History"

"Rrrrright, shouldn't have asked"

The train whizzes through Tokaibo and into the station. The right side of the train opens wide as it had before and the three step out, finally making it to the big city. They decide to take the inner city train first to the Ahten City Core to register for the training camp and the tryouts.

The Ahten city core is a historical area of the much larger Ahten. The core was the original Ahten independent of the surrounding cities and was the largest in the area. Over time as it grew, it began to encroach upon the smaller surrounding cities. Eventually the surrounding cities agreed to merge into one metropolis reaping provincial benefits as well as a general better situation for tax income for most of the smaller towns, while also being able to share benefit from already standing institutions such as the Tokaibo military academy, and the Pythas academic institute. As part of this union, the inner city train was built to connect the towns. This allowed the towns to focus on their individual niches more and no township had to focus on covering all of the needs of their populace; it is now easy enough for food to be imported from another town, infrastructural repairs and contractor work to be outsourced, etc.