Legacy: Beyond the Veil

On the Rings: Part one

[[[Within the Veil ]]]
> [[[Arcel Sector]]]
> [[[Sindrion System]]]
> [[[Sindrion III orbit]]]
> [[[Aboard RAL-port FJ-13]]]

Three centuries ago, the Sindrion system was first colonized. The Runora had pushed further and further outwards from their Birthworld until they reached the small neutron-star system on the very edge of Veil-covered void.

The hyper-dense corpse of a red giant doesn't make for the most welcoming of suns: Instead of the infrared rays that warm so many worlds circling "normal" stars, the 14-kilometer wide marble spits out a lethal spectrum of X-rays that has long since scorched away anything that survived the star's Supernova rebirth, but the Runora make do.

Thus Sindrion had become the 258th system the Runora may call their own. It wasn't much of a homely home, mind you. The entire system more closely resembled an enormous industrial complex, employing some 70 billion laborers who just also happened to live there. Their task was simple: To strip the Sindrion system of every last sliver of her natural resources and turn them into all manner of technologies to feed the Runoran march of progress.

And of those resources, there were plenty. When fat 'ole Sind blew her giant guts out a rough 150 million years ago, a significant amount of those innards was pulled right back in by the remaining gravity well, creating millions of asteroids consisting of nothing but valuable metals. Those asteroids that didn't band together in belts had rained down on the three rocky planets that maintained a stable orbit, covering them in a metal-rich outer crust a few kilometers deep, ripe for the taking.

The system was a treasure trove no expanding species could hope to resist. Even now, with war on their doorstep, the Sindrionites diligently worked their shifts. The blueish engine flares from their mining and transport vessels were visible from the armorglass window, untold thousands of them breaking apart Sindrion III's rings bit by bit.
At these distances, the ships' torches outshone the star the very system was named after, rendering it virtually unfindable against the backdrop of endless shimmering specks that dotted the deep dark of the infinite void.

Cai watched them go about their work with wide eyes. He'd planned to act indifferent to the view; let the other Accies think he wasn't like the usual Mole, but after catching just a glimpse of the grand inky expanse he had been hooked.
How long had he been staring already?
Five minutes? Ten, perhaps? And that was just this morning, he spent the better part of last night looking out into the abyss as well, entranced by both its unique beauty and its grim lack of hospitality.

Who cared if the others called him a bumpkin for it? Petty insults like that would usually get his anger up to a boil, sure, but that all seemed so insignificant now that he could finally witness the stars with his own eyes.

On his home planet, far below, they would be impossible to see. Always hidden from sight by the thick clouds of dust that perpetually shrouded the skies. It had taken him years of training to be allowed to see something so many others took for granted.

Well– he wasn't quite detached from the planet yet, but being aboard a Ring Array Lift sure was the closest he'd ever gotten. He finally managed to tear his eyes away from the window and resumed the path he was on, following the curve of the Voidlift's central structure with the soft thudding of his padded boots on the deck accompanying him. The port smelt like stale air –recycled a thousand times over– and the slightest undertones of oil, undoubtedly originating from the dry docks where dozens of vessels were currently being serviced.

He brought a thumb up to his temple and swiped it forwards, conjuring a small holographic display projected in front of his right eye.

He took one glance at his chronometer and swiftly accelerated from his relaxed stroll to a hurried stride; he had been looking out of the window for too long, after all.