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

===Family===

Alex and Freya huddled around a table in the shade, staring out at a waterfall three kilometers high.  The meltwater from the glacial peaks of the mountains coursed down the side of the razor-sharp obsidian crags that lent the waterfall its name, fanning out over the mountainside until it fell into the sea.

The crowd here was almost all off-worlders, in contrast to the rest of the planet.  Groups of sunscreen-coated offspring of visiting merchants and vacationing rich stood up against the railing and gabbled about the spectacle.

Freya sipped her water bottle and watched.  “I’ve seen two attempted pickpocketings so far.  Enforcers were close enough to spook off both, though.”

“Shit.” Alex grimaced and took a pull on his own drink.  “How did things get so bad?  Open theft?  Attempted murder?”

“Who knows,” Freya asked rhetorically.  She craned her head back and stared at the astounding waterfalls.  “Hell of a view, though.”

“It sure is,” Alex said.  He chuckled to himself.  “You know, growing up in Startseite, you think you’ve seen it good when you go into the hives.  You see how people live there, then you go back up to the surface and you look at what you have.  You think to yourself ‘man, I have seen it all.’  Then you fly to Nocturne, and hey!”

“Yeah.”  Freya nodded her assent.  “Magnificent world.”

“Sure is.”  Alex looked over his shoulder and noted an approaching figure with interest.  “Eyes on, Astartes.”

“What?” Freya asked.  A Salamander in full Power Armor was marching up the street to the scenic overlook, parting the throngs of people with no effort whatsoever.  Alex spotted waving mechdendrites behind his shoulders – a Techmarine.

The people at the railing spotted him and erupted in awed whispers.  The Nocturneans around the Marine, however, barely even reacted to his presence, simply walking around him with a respectful nod.  The contrast amused Freya.

“Hmm.  The Wolves don’t do that,” she said.

“Huh?”

“On Fenris, the average Fenrisian is scared shitless of the Space Wolves,” Freya said.  “They swoop down in Assault Packs to break up clan wars that get out of hand, abduct gifted sons to serve as warriors, fight monsters in the wastelands…here, they’re friends.  Kin.”

“Which system do you think works better?” Alex asked.

“Can’t compare them.  Fenris doesn’t know about the rest of the Imperium.  They sure as hell don’t have this kind of technology and awareness of the greater universe.  If they did…” Freya trailed off, thinking.  “I suspect the Wolves would treat the Fenrisians like the Salamanders treat the Nocturneans, only a bit more judgmental.”

Alex cocked his eyebrow behind his glasses.  “Judgmental how?” Alex asked.

“The Salamanders think shared burdens and common struggles make them stronger.  The Wolves think competition and survivalistic outlooks make them stronger.”  Freya flexed her bicep, rippling the Wolves tattoo on her left arm.  “Raw skill and ferocity, not community and generosity.”

Her boyfriend nodded.  “Fenris will be very different.”

“It will.”  Freya saluted to the Techmarine as he passed.  He noted the clearly Fenrisian girl and deduced her identify with a flash of his bionics.  Rather than stop to acknowledge her, however, he simply nodded quietly and continued on his way.  “Techmarines, however, are a breed apart everywhere, I suspect,” Freya said once he was well out of hearing range.

“I wouldn’t know, I defer to you,” Alex said.

The plainclothes serfs behind them clearly wanted to acknowledge their master, Freya’s magnificent eyes observed, but kept their cover in the moving crowds of people.

“Good on them, keeping their heads down,” she said with approval.

“The guards?”

“Fifteen more than two nights ago.”

“Fuckin’ A, that’s a lot of muscle,” Alex murmured.

“Surprised?” Freya asked drily.

“Not at all.”  Alex sipped his water again and stood, brushing his legs off.  “I want to go see the feeder falls.”

“Sure.  You know how to get there?” Freya asked.

Alex jerked his head at the broad spiral staircase to the side of the rows and rows of tourists.  “Just up the stairs, yeah?”

“Should be.  Have fun.  I'mma find a little girl’s room,” Freya said, making off in the other direction.

Alex started up the stairs, maneuvering past the crowds of tourists on the tall, reinforced stairway into the sky.  It ascended nearly twenty stories, and was cored with solid bars of reinforced iron, embossed and decorated with pictures of snapping drakes and breaching whales.  The crowd petered out as the gravity and heat took their toll on the off-worlders, until only Alex and a few brave souls were left on the spiral.  The stairs halted at an observation platform with a thick wrought-iron bannister and railing, and Alex stopped to lean on it, breathing heavily.

The ocean spread out to eternity under his gaze.  The spiral staircase stood out from the steep mountain face like a tree from an open field.  Behind and below him, and even above, the magnificent cragfalls shimmered blood red under the sun.  Alex sank into a stone chair and stared out at the view.  “Hell of a world,” he whispered.

His vox beeped.  He started and immediately muted it, blushing as the other tourists glared at him for disrupting the moment.  He yanked it out and flipped it open.  “Hello?” he asked quietly.

“Alex!  How ya doin’, kid?” he father asked.  Alex closed his eyes in sudden apprehension.

“Fine.  Yourself?” he asked, scanning the skyline for any approaching aircraft.

“Much better, now that the blasted generator’s fixed, I’ve done a bit of work on the surface, and the Salamanders are clearing me to leave.”

“Good to hear.  When are you heading out?” Alex asked.

“Not before I see you, don’t worry, I haven’t come this far to turn back now!” his father said.  The plastic of the vox creaked in Alex’s hand.

“Dad…the point of a road trip is to get away from the elements of the familiar.  I knew the Star was heading this way before we left Earth, I would have just had you bring us here if I wanted to bring you along,” Alex noted.

“Alex, you sound like you don’t want to see me!” Lord Carlin said, hurt.

“How old were those girls hanging off your arms at the graduation?  What were their names?” Alex asked under his breath, standing up and making for the least crowded part of the observation deck.

“Alex-”

“If you want to see me before you go, fine, I can’t stop you, but leave my friends and Freya out of this,” Alex said coldly.  “Where are you?”

“Skarokk Starport, dock four.”  Alex groaned.  He was already in the city?!

“I’ll drop by and say hello, alone, as soon as I can.  Wouldn’t want to hold you up,” Alex said curtly.  “Bye.”  He hung up halfway through his father’s farewell and dropped the vox into his pocket after removing the battery.  “Douchebag,” he muttered.




[[Category:Warhammer High]]