NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sammael99" data-source="post: 634582" data-attributes="member: 1157">Prelude (Part 1) - In EnglishCumulus…One of the most extraordinary places in the Known Worlds. A huge orbital station topped by a translucent atmospheric dome, it houses a genuine city whose skyscrapers are visible from Byzantium Secundus when the night sky is clear … It belongs to the Merchant League and is considered a den of vice by the Church and a paragon of luxury and civilisation my many forward-thinking nobles. Life is fast on Cumulus. In the lower sections of the station, spaceships come and go around the clock. Several times in each UD, shuttles carry passengers to and from Byzantium Secundus, Imperial capital, center of the Known Worlds…Today, as most days, the spacedocks are overflowing with people. Amongst them, a few Stigmata veterans, ex-soldiers of the «Red Devils», a section of the 11th Legion. They have been demobilised four months ago and, like university graduates who wonder if they will ever meet again, they decided that those of them with whom civilian life didn’t agree would meet up at the « Charred Symbiot » on Byzantium Secundus on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of Alexius’ coronation.- I keep telling you I’m a Stigmata veteran. !- I know, you were a pilot of atmospheric transports bla bla bla… That doesn’t tell me what this packet of Selshakah was doing on board your ship !- How should I know ? I’m not in charge of checking the goods in all the transports I use !- Faz, cut the bullsh*t ! Your record isn’t exactly clean !- I have been cleared of all charges, and you’re going down the same road as last time. Just because I’m independant, I must be guilty, right ?- OK. Let’s go over this again…Lamar Faz didn’t pay much attention to what the Cumulus Customs officer was saying. The League owned the place, but they couldn’t let just any merchandise pass through, especially this close to the seat of Imperial power. Faz wondered who could have hidden the drug on the transport. For once, it hadn’t been him… Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the sudden agitation in the office.- FAZ ! Are you listening ?- Yeah, yeah...- Sign here, you’re free to go !- Am I ?- I just told you we found the culprit !- Thank the Pancreator !When he left the room, Faz heard the voice of the customs officer shouting at his secretary : "I’m soooo p*ssed off with these Stigmata veterans, I am soooooooo p*ssed off ! Eliz, send the next case in ! ». Faz left the Customs station slowly. He picked up his large bag full of memories of his old dull life and his recent, more thrilling one… Stigmata had changed him…He wandered to the « Ur Gate », a bar in which Charioteers liked to hang out between trips. He had spent a lot of time there at the time when ha was second in command on Lt. Hivot’s SpaceCorn cereal transport. He pushed the heavy wooden door and sat at a table next to one of the outside windows. The place was quiet, probably due to a few transports being late. A couple of Charioteers were discussing the political troubles that made trade between Criticorum and the Decados homeworlds more complicated. In a quiet corner a nobleman (a Hazat, maybe ?) was negotiating a transaction with a shifty looking guy, probably a Scraver.Faz lifted his arm and the owner, recognizing a regular immediately served him an Ishtakr Hemp Beer. Faz thanked him, admiring the memory of a man who hadn’t seen him for over two years and still knew which was his favourite drink…Faz threw a Claw on the table and started sipping his beer. The station was at the end of a rotation, and Faz took in the sight. Down below, eating half the view, Byzantium Secundus looked like an enormous deep blue sphere on which you could barely distinguish the brown spots of the ever- receding continents.« Tomorrow night», thought Faz, « I’m catching the 19 UT to BII, and the day after, I look up the «Charred Symbiot»... I wonder who’ll be there... »</blockquote>

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