"Ahh, Dustport," Sighed David, "the only city where you have to watch your step, or else fall 200 metres into a ravine."
The crew of the Investigator had set out almost immediately after the fight at The Rusty Motor, despite the fact that traveling in the Endless Canyons at night is incredibly dangerous. They flew for around 2 hours until David decided it was a good choice to stop for the night.
They left in the morning and after an hour of flying, they finally reached Dustport.
The capital of the country.
Dustport, being located in the Endless Canyons, is built around the intersection of the two main ravines that happens to have a massive Column in the centre. The city is split up into 5 zones and 7 levels, all in all 35 different areas. The five different zones are:
-The North Ravine, or The North. The main industry district.
-The East Ravine, or The East. The recreational and public services district.
-The South Ravine, or The South. The business district.
-The West Ravine, or The West. The largest ravine, and the housing district.
-And finally, The Centre Column. Or, The Centre. This is the home of both the city's government and the government of the entire country.
Each of these sections are split into seven levels, with each level down becoming more and more expensive and exclusive.
The first three levels are open to the public, with varying prices going down. The next level is only available to citizens and regular visitors. Essentially, no homeless or visitors.
The fifth level gets more exclusive. You need a certain ID that they only give out to people who have been a citizen of the city for at least a decade. Once you have reached a decade, you enter a queue. The line's usually very long.
The sixth level essentially off limits. Only V.I.Ps, members of the government and anybody with a higher enough clearance can get in.
And then there's floor seven. More commonly known as 'The Non-Existent'. Nobody, no matter what job or level clearance they have, goes down there. The stairs to it are boarded up. It's below the mist level, and anybody who has tried to get down have been either arrested or never seen again. There's also an incredibly large amount of theories about it. Some say it was an experiment gone wrong. Some say it was a secret club for illegal activities. Some say that it really is non-existent, and that it's just something the government put in to add a little bit of mystery to the city.
The most accepted theory, however, is that it's access to the bottom of the canyon, and that they boarded it up to keep civilians up in the canyon. Or to keep something down there.
Either way, Dustport is certainly a unique city.
David steered the Investigator past the massive, towering Centre and flew the ship into The South. He levelled the ship down to the second level and pulled into a General Ship Repairs shop. He payed the mechanic the fee and the crew set off. Their first stop was the Centre to see Marcus off. His had insurance on The Rusty Motor which covered bandit/pirate attacks, so he was going to collect a claim and rebuild his Inn.
"I should have just enough to make a smaller Inn, if my insurance company doesn't screw me over. I can rebuild the rest of it once I've collected enough profit," he said as they shared their farewells on the bridge between The Centre and The South, "I know the right people and have the required savings. I'll be fine."
"Good luck in your future endevers, Marcus. It was nice catching up again," responded David.
"Well, it wasn't all that great. Because of you, your crew and your heroic actions, I guess I owe you another favour."
The two friends shared a gentle natured laugh before Marcus set off towards the towering Column. David waved as Marcus entered inside.
"Now that we've seen Marcus off, it's time to get what we came here for," said David, turning towards the crew, "Alex, you're with me. We're going to upgrade our weapons. Mike and Mitch, find a nice restaurant for us to eat at. I'm starving."
The crew split up, with David and Alex heading towards the stairs down and the twins moving towards the district with many exotic and delicious smells coming from it.
David and Alex moved downstairs, showing their Dustport ID cards to the guards on level three. They were stopped by two guards on level four that looked a lot more dedicated to their cause than the previous guards.
The first guard addressed David with a heavy accent, "Sorry, no entr' unless you got'a real special 'ard."
David showed him his DDC card to the guard, who quickly snatched it off him and pressed it up against his eye.
"I 'uess you can 'ead down, but she ain't not comin' down with ya'," he said, staring at Alex with a fiery rage like she had murdered his entire family.
"I think you will that my DDC card can allow up to one other visitor," David cooly responded, taking a glance at the second guard as if to back him up.
"He's right Steve," the second guard said,stepping aside, "Regulation Decade Dustport Citizen cards can allow up to one extra person when heading down to floor five. Let them pass."
The first guard, who was apparently named Steve, stared at Alex for a few moments before cursing and stepping out of the way. David and Alex went down the stairs into a dimly lit space with a heavy atmosphere.
"I feel like I should be relishing every moment of this," said Alex, trying to look interested at the environment that was being failed to be seen.
"Well, we don't have to stay down here long. We're already at our destination," replied David stopping at the entrance to what was clearly a garage. He opened the door and they both went inside.
The twins were on their way back to the ship to meet up with David and Alex, after finding a souvlaki vender who's dipping sauces were delicious (they had both ordered chips with every kind of sauce as a 'test'.)
On their way back, they came across what seemed to be a stereotypical preacher standing on a soap box, lecturing anyone who would listen. He was standing on the edge of the walkway, with a decently large crowd around him. Mitch stopped to take in the sight. For some reason, he seemed to like the way preachers went about, not caring who would insult them, and being glad of anyone who would listen. Even though some of them did try to get you involved in something, they were still honest people living an great life.
Just then, something flew from the deck of a nearby ship. The shell was packed with ECF, designed to ignite ipanything it hit. The shell hit the preacher who was in the middle of reciting a passage directly in the back. It exploded, sending flame and shrapnel everywhere, killing the preacher instantly.
Mike and Mitch both instinctively ducked as the shell hit. They looked up to see the ship had formed up with four other ships, and had started waving a flag that they had both seen before.
"Sharpwind," said Mike, watching as the barbarians started their raid on Dustport.
YOU ARE READING
Journal of a Captain
Fantascienza'David was the captain of the airship Investigator, and had so been for 5 years. Over that time, David had learnt a lot about being a captain of a ship. He learnt to respect his crew, as that would improve their quality of work and decrease the chan...
