Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

===Snacks and Tourism===

Venus paused outside the café to don her own mirrored sunglasses.  They rarely worked, but with her hair back in a sheet instead of a braid, she looked little enough like her regal appearance in the speech that she occasionally went unrecognized.

Jake held the door for her and the others.  As he looked back at them, he pointed across the street.  “If we want something to do tonight, let’s hit that bar.”

Venus shrugged.  “Want to go after dinner?” she asked.

Jake laughed again, shutting the door behind them.  “Why not?”

“All right.”  Venus walked up to the counter and started placing their orders as Freya grabbed a table.  As she returned with the food, Venus opened a map of the city and glanced it over.  “Huh.”

“What?”  Jake looked up from his soup.  Venus was staring at the map intently, looking vaguely puzzled.

“The city basically doesn’t have a tramway outside of the industrial and residential areas.  How surprising,” she murmured.

“Well…trains on a mountain,” Jake shrugged.

“Yeah.”  She looked up at him and quirked an eyebrow.  “So…mountains.  You got used to that pretty fast.”

“Hah!  Well, this one more than most.  So many people live in it and on it…it’s like a hive, really,” Jake said.

“True facts,” Alex chuckled.  “Home at last, huh?”

“No, home has a broken heater and a parking lot on the roof.  This has nicer air though,” Jake said.  He dipped some flatbread in the soup and munched.  “So how about you, Remilia?  What do you think of a planet with actual terrain?”

“Incredible place.  The way the technology of the Imperium and the harshness of the world blend is very interesting,” she said between bites of her sandwich.

“It is.”  Jake finished his soup quickly and stood.  “I think I want to go see what the terrace looks like.”

“Okay, we’ll meet up for dinner,” Venus said, pausing her own meal to peck him on the cheek as he passed.  Alex and Remilia grabbed their own bags and stood, heading in the opposite direction.  Freya and Venus lingered over their food, still looking at the map.

Outside, Jake adjusted his sunglasses and walked up the terrace.  The brilliant afternoon sun glared down on him from above, and he shifted his collar, glad he had taken to applying even more sunscreen after burning to a crisp in Hesiod.

Arriving at one of the large switchbacks in the mountain road, he paused, slowly removing his sunglasses to take in the view.  The Ash Deltas stretched out to infinity before him.  A thousand tiny rivers of glacial meltwater flowed towards the mountains, around them, under them, even through them where the Mechanicus had built culverts.  The glistening water poured over hard-packed volcanic ash in rivulets that looked no wider than a hair, but in reality were the size of cars.  Larger lines of red and silver denoted thick streams and rivers, each the size of the road he was standing on or much larger.

“Absolutely magnificent,” he said under his breath.

“Ain’t it?” someone said.  He glanced back to see a Nocturnean walking along the sidewalk behind him.  “You never get tired of the view.”

“What does it look like in the Time of Trial?” Jake asked.

“Actually the same, only the water’s shallower.  It’s after that looks different.  The whole plane turns bright white from the volcanic snow.”  The local stood beside him at the low stone balustrades.  “The whalers and prospectors come in and line the streets, looking for food, while the plains outside get a new layer of ash on them.”

“Cool.  Where does the water that reaches the base of the mountain go?” Jake asked, peering down to the next terrace.

“Eh, it just kinda pools at the base of the mountain and sluices through the tunnels.  How do you not know this?” the man asked incredulously.

“I’m not from around here,” Jake said.

“Oh.”  The man looked at him askance.  “Well…enjoy your stay,” he muttered, walking away.

Jake rolled his eyes and put the glasses back on.  The simmering hostility he’d sensed throughout his entire visit was even more pronounced here.  He wondered how many Terrans there even were in the city.