RIPE & DRAGGERS

CHAPTER 13

The Gakuran border is a large asteroid cluster outside the boundary of the Quant system. This cluster is actually a very large belt around one red sun, and inside the belt you can find three satellites.

One of the satellite, is a fertile colony of the Rikish tribe of Gradagel, Ahahmar, and the Kiranos Clan.

This colony, they claim is the lifelike of their origin planet called the Quantasi-ica, before the black hole swallowed it whole. This moon that they now call Ica-2 is full of green and blue forests, and that bright yellow-pink skies because of the red sun.

The Rikish has been here for ten centuries ever since their origin planet died, and the five clans of the Rikish-Quantasi was divided into two major factions.

The Rikish-Gakuran and the Quant.

There are many speculations as to why the original five clans of the Rikish Quantasi would be sub-divided into two factions now; but Bob knew the reason very well.

In its simplest form, the Quant is the liberal and the Rikish-Gakuran is the conservative. But Bob knows better than the usual division, the simplest answer is that during the relocation of the specie, the possible colonies they found at the time was not enough to contain all of the population. Although the choice of society whether to be liberal or conservative was present at the time, still the practicality of choosing which colony to live in was the dominant alternative for each of the major faction.

And, Bob knows very well that even if the major factions now exist as separate entities, but still they are one and the same.

Both factions do not fancy war, nor recognize the Runkan's superior sovereignty that was attained thru a series of wars.

This is why the capital and some up-tight classes like Pedro Katana consider them as potential threat.

An opposition, per se.

In the back of his mind, Bob always wondered how amazing it would have been to observe the specie as a whole in its home planet. Although the reproductive rate is not so abundant compared to its neighbors; but the sophistication to both technology and the almost Amish way of life is quite intriguing indeed.

Unlike the Brahm who indulge themselves in gargantuan architecture and exquisite clothing and armors, the Rikish prefer plain clothing, small huts for shelters and bonfires for night gatherings.

But make no mistake, they have very advanced defenses from ground to outer-space layer like the one that Bob is looking at now.

Hidden on the asteroid belt of the Gakuran border are thousands of probe droids equipped with 1-giga-ton seismic bombs. If you try to destroy or de-activete any of it which you will surely fail, the bomb will explode in massive proportions creating a chain reaction to the asteroids all around. The intensity of impacts and the number of debris will grind any star-ship into granules within minutes.

So the smart way to deal with it is to prove to the droid that you mean no harm.

"This is sentinel 301, you must identify on approach." The round floating droid said.

Bob took the comms. "Hoa-binh, 301, this is Bobby Pluma, Rikish-runa."

"Hoa-binh, Rikish-runa Bobby Pluma, please state your log-number."

"Hoa-binh, 301, its '1:1.618', confirm."

"Hoa-binh, Rikish-runa Bobby Pluma. You are cleared for entry." the sentinel said, that afterwards slowly disappeared in front of them. Like a round mirror twisting and reflecting all around, then ultimately gone at a blink.