241 cha Central One
All six Ravens walked through the makeshift city that was built near the tournant grounds. It was erected specifically to support the tournant itself, and housed the pilots and their crews throughout the month-long event.
Eva likened it to Olympic Villages. However, unlike those back on Earth, cha Central One was a small city that was filled with more than just the competing teams. It also sported doctors and technicians and rchants and artisans.
So unsigned crew and pilot hopefuls also found their way here, in hopes of being recruited to the top teams. Or in so cases, any team at all.
There were multiple districts inside of the small city, each one targeted for specific purposes and comrcial burdens. There were hangar bays, hackerspaces, parts shops, relaxation venues, dical buildings, a couple of concert halls, and a single huge food-based district that linked all the other districts together.
Claire couldn’t help but wow at everything around her. She had been born and raised in Helios, and her whole life was defined by that single massive city. MC1 felt incredibly quaint to her. Cozy, even.
She found it cute. The others also found it wondrous in their own way.
Kali, who was brought up in literal seclusion from the rest of the galaxy, had never seen or experienced anything like it in her life. She was like a kid in a city-sized candy store, and her eyes bugged out at every marvelous thing that passed them by.
Eva, Miko, and Amal all felt overawed by it. It made them feel like they were Olympic competitors themselves. Of course, they were in their own way. But being in the middle of it all really hamred that feeling ho.
They all felt the energies that coursed through the entire place, of all the people who brought life to the city itself. And they all made sure to capture everything with their EyeCasts.
.....
“Look at those two!” said Claire.
She pointed to a couple of people wearing cha costus. But they weren’t just any cha – they represented the cha piloted by the captains of the 1st and 2nd seeded teams.
Hilariously, the two “randomly” saw each other as they walked down a street, and began to get into a ludicrous argunt. It soon devolved into a shouting match that ended in an all-out mock battle.
The two wailed at each other with their soft-ish weapons as onlookers cheered them on. They began to leap on tables and other obstacles as they sparred, which only drew them more attention and cheers.
“I kinda wanna go shopping,” declared Eva.
Amal turned to her, eyes wide as saucers. She could hardly believe what she had heard.
“You?” she uttered. “Shopping? You break up with one guy and suddenly you’re a normal girl that wants to go to the mall? If you aren’t careful, you’re gonna end up getting your nails done too.”
Eva laughed heartily at Amal’s teasing, and shook her head at the sa ti. She was never going to be a normal girl, and was proud of that.
Normal was overrated.
“I an, for cha parts,” she replied. “I heard so people say that so are only available during chageddon. And even then, they’re only offered to competitors. I wanna go drool at them... And maybe buy one?”
“I am for this,” said Miko. “I have also heard that there are celebrated parts builders and cha engineers in the city. I wish to find them so I can study their bespoke designs, and steal their knowledge for myself.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Xylo. “Gonna need sothing to dampen my Phantom’s signals. Maybe sothing for my gun, too, like make it more robust. I’ve got a feeling that only a custom maker would have a solution.”
“And I’ll go with Eva,” said Claire. “I’m a normal girl and I wanna go to the mall! And besides, we all know how you can get when it cos to cha. I’ll make sure you don’t overspend, alright?”
Everyone laughed as she dug into Eva’s weakness, though Eva herself took Claire seriously. She knew she needed soone to keep her in check, and imdiately gave her certain permissions to her ledger.
“I agree,” said Eva. “Any purchase I wanna make, I’ve gotta run it by you first.”
Claire gawked when she realized Eva was being completely serious.
“Kali and I are gonna go to where the food is,” said Amal. “We can sll all that deliciousness from here, and seriously, it’s making our stomachs growl.”
“You don’t even need to eat,” countered Xylo. She turned towards Kali, and continued chiding the both of them. “And you barely need to eat.”
“Doesn’t an we can’t enjoy it,” Kali replied.
“Besides,” added Amal, “food heals the soul.”
After figuring out their individual plans, they all split up and went their separate ways.
Amal and Kali headed straight towards the food court, where they began to salivate nonstop. Eva and Claire went to the main parts market, where they pored over every cool weapon they could see. Miko and Xylo sought out the engineers and designers in the Builder’s District, which was the closest to their group.
The overall design of the district was relatively simple – most of it was a wide-open expanse. But it was populated with countless multi-story, high-tech hovels. Each one was utterly unique in nature, which reflected the mind of the designer or engineer who worked inside.
So were incredibly space efficient, or were simple to build and take down, or were incredibly sturdy despite the materials. Others were heavily decorated and eye-catching, and easily attracted people towards them.
The two of them ended up walking into almost every single one of the hovels and chatted up the owners inside, even while they worked.
Xylo sought tirelessly to find a way to reduce her overall signatures even lower, and chatted up every signal engineer in the district. She eventually found soone who had an incredibly simple and elegant solution for her, so she imdiately contracted her to do the work.
Miko on the other hand chatted with every single designer she ca across, especially if their work caught her attention. But she never bugged them about any specific design, and instead asked about their habits and processes.
Not that she ignored their work, in fact she downloaded their schematics as they talked. She wanted to hyper analyze their work later. By combining their opinions with their actual designs, she could derive the techniques they used to make them.
It was in her nature to understand the creation in tandem with its creator.
To her, they were more than just parts. They were physicalized expressions of the people who made them, and the only way to truly understand the design was to understand the designers’ philosophies as well.
If Eva sought empowernt through constant practice, Miko sought it through constant study. And so, she absorbed everything she could and grew that much more powerful as a result.
~
In an adjacent district, Eva and Claire entered the rchant’s Corridor. Unlike the Builder’s District, this was composed of multiple large buildings. Each one was filled with a number of shops and kiosks, all of which varied in size.
So were large, so were small. Either way, every building was packed with goods and people.
It was basically a campus-style supermall. Except instead of departnt stores filled with clothes and appliances, it was filled with weapons and armor and modules of all kinds. There were small boutiques lined up with huge stores, and nurous kiosks, stalls, and booths in between.
Eva was practically in heaven as she pored over part after part, weapon after weapon, shop after shop.
She was never the type to sink herself into consurism, and wasn’t here to wantonly satisfy so urge to purchase. There was another itch that had bugged her, and it began ever since she started piloting cha professionally.
Her loadout never satisfied her, and that started to beco a real pain point for her.
She had switched her loadout throughout multiple skirmishes and fights, and yet never once did the loadout feel right to her. A few did stand out, of course. The beamcannon was certainly one of her favorites.
And those electrolances from back in the day were a joy to use.
Otherwise, nothing really stuck out to her. Even her CryoBlade – she assud that since she was great with her beltknife, she would also enjoy using it with a cha. But it just wasn’t the sa.
She felt as though she was constantly seeking the perfect loadout, but never actually found it.
It occurred to her that she might only be sated if she had multiple combination weapons on hand. Like a shield with a cannon built into it. Or one of those goofy sword guns. She always felt that those things were utterly ridiculous, but now she understood part of their appeal.
Another thought that crossed her mind was if she could get Admiral Chase’s particle disintegrator cannons sohow. If she had a rifle or shoulder-mounted version of it, she was sure she could dominate any fight in the tournant.
Then realized it would have been too much for the tournant to deal with. After all, S-ranked weapons, armor, and modules were restricted in the tournant, much less overpowered experintal ones. This ensured that nothing could penetrate the S-class armored cores provided by the tournant organizers.
It was the only way to protect the pilots and cent their safety. Most of the ti, anyway.
After a couple hours of browsing, she finally ca upon the Myrmidon Technology store, where they had their most recent product showing right on the main floor. Eva couldn’t stop drooling at it.
She realized she absolutely had to have it, and imdiately begged and pleaded with Claire to let her buy it. Eva practically harangued her into submission, despite the hefty price tag.
In the end, Claire accepted, on the condition that it was her only purchase.
Eva agreed happily, high on the impulsive purchase. Then she frowned as she watched her ledger shrink by hundreds of thousands of credits.
~
At the center of every district was FoodTopia, and it was perhaps the largest of all of them. Amal and Kali walked around in wonder at the sights and slls. Especially the slls. The two let their noses guide them as they wove through the alleyways and salivated at every food stall.
Many were cozy little sit-downs with colorful and beautiful signs that led people to them. But that wasn’t all. Beyond the stalls were multiple restaurants of all kinds and sizes. So were lavish and grand, while others were large and voluminous.
Each one promised flavors beyond compare, and various mouth-watering slls emanated from them.
The whole district was a veritable garden of cuisines.
And neither of them recognized the vast majority of cuisines that were offered. The most popular dishes from all over Federation space found their way here, and it was incredibly overwhelming.
Kali was especially affected. When she was in the family, all she ate were simple rations and tasteless alBars. The first ti she had actual, real food almost a year ago, she cried.
Amal was in a similar boat. The last ti she had eaten Syrian food was way too long ago, and she was dying to have a taste of falafel and shawarma and halawat. Her mouth watered as she thought about the flavors of her holand, and missed them terribly.
But she knew that she would probably never taste them again. The flavors of the distant past had long since disappeared, or diminished, or evolved into sothing new.
Here at FoodTopia, she hoped to find so semblance of what she used to love. Or at least find evolutions of their flavor profiles.
The two of them looked at each other with ravenous and devilish grins as they headed towards their first pick. Then, over the course of a couple hours, stuffed themselves silly with so of the most delicious food found in Federation space.
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