Welcome to Nirce (A Nircean Tale)

Welcome to Nirce

(A Nircean Tale)

By Joshua Barrow

 

         “Get off my boat you sad sacks of ruddin’ garbage!” The Crew Chief hollered as the ship broke into the planet’s atmosphere. I, along with a dozen other immigrants, left earth in search of a “fresh start” and all the propaganda pointed toward Nirce as a ‘salvation’.

The Crew Chief barked while pacing the catwalk, shoving each of us into our respective drop pods. “Have a fun ride girls and welcome to Nirce!” He kicked a release lever at the end of the cat walk, closing all the drop pod doors and dropping us from the ship.

         Peeking through the window pane in the pod, I could see the other pods veering off in their own directions. From that height, the planet looked ridiculously similar to earth.

         Seconds passed and my drop point became clear. A few intercepting mechanical arms, the size of industrial cranes, prepared to pluck the drop pods from the sky. Once close enough, an arm extended and pinched my pod. It jerked slightly, however, the arm was loaded with springs to emulate a gradual descent. Thank God. I thought, imagining my own death via whiplash.

         The arm pulled inward, connecting to a central station and my pod door popped open. I prepared to shake off the shock of my arrival, but instead was rushed by three men; two medics and an armed guard, all garbed in hazard prevention suits. Not once was this kind of rizz mentioned in the travel pamphlets!

         In French, “Hold still boy, we’re taking your vitals.” The doctor grabbed my face and glared into my eyes, but all I could see was the reflection of them in his visor. “Clear.” He said, before grabbing my arm and hauling me down the corridor.

         He whipped me into a room with another immigrant that had dropped in.

         “What the rud is going on?” I asked.

         “They have to check us all for Pandementia.” He said, adjusting his glasses and resting his back to the wall. “Too much time in dead space ruds with some folk’s minds. They don’t want any psychopaths getting through.”

         Before I could probe any further, the armed guard returned and led the three of us down the hall. We came upon a door that read, “Holding Cell”. The guard shoved the guy with glasses in and before the door shut behind him, he began screaming out threats of violence against the guard. The guard shuttered and kept us moving.

         The guard pushed me forward, directing me to head into a small cubicle where a woman in a lab coat sat.

         Looking up from her desk, she gestured that I sit.

         “I’m Dr. Romiska. We’re to go over a few details before you’re released to the Public.” She pulled up a hovering screen with my information reading through, verifying it.          “Alright, Arden Fisher, head to the blast doors at the end of the hall, and welcome to Nirce.” The woman was beautiful, and she punctuated her sentence with a well-rehearsed smile.          

         I turned away from her and found a long and empty corridor, which presumably was my exit. Then, as if out of nowhere, two nine foot tall suits of armor emerged and began walking my way. You’ve got to be kidding me.

         The one on the left was hulking and painted midnight blue, the one on the right was slightly shorter and shaped femininely, sporting a black and pink paint job.

         They approached me and the male spoke out in a gruff, German and robotic sounding voice, “We’ll walk you out.” Not wanting to upset these mechanical monsters, I simply nodded.

         While walking, I could hear the steady and rhythmic thrum of the inner mechanics of their suits. Studying them, I noticed the male’s right shoulder guard read, “Paladin” and the female’s read, “Harpy”. It was safe to assume they were of the Elite Mobile Armor Division on Nirce.

         “This is it.” The female said, her voice equally robotic sounding with a womanly echo behind it. “Have fun, build a life, and don’t be stupid.” She said nudging my chest with the pummel of her standard issue saber.

         They thrust the giant doors open, revealing a bustling city street and pushed me out, slamming the doors behind me.

         Buildings pierced the sky, vehicles raced through traffic, people and androids walked quickly atop overpasses and the air reeked of spent fuel rods.

         The wall next to me had been covered in wanted posters and a man with a brown overcoat stood there, applying more.

         “Excuse me, what’s all this?” I asked, examining the vast wall of wanted criminals.

         “A lot of rizz that needs to be cleaned up, pal. Here,” He said extending his hand with a card. “Name’s Detective Weiker. See any of these faces, ya might want to collect the bounty.” He gestured toward dollar signs on the wall, and walked away.

         I looked closer at one poster with the face of a lovely woman with dark hair and even darker eyes.

         From behind me, “You’ll need an army to take down Sahir.” I spun around quickly, damn near snapping my neck.

         “I’m sorry?” I’d been caught off guard, as I didn’t recognize the voice.          

         “That, my friend, is Sahir Illitari.” The stranger said, pointing to the piece of paper with the dark haired woman on it. “Whether you want to join bandits, or kill ‘em, you’ll need one of these.” He opened his jacket to reveal a few pistols, obviously peddling them.

         “Whoa, I’m not interested man.” I said, stepping back.

         “Fresh off the Boat kids like you don’t last long.” He paused to chuckle. “Slavers, bandits, security forces, the government, and even run of the mill thieves need to recruit, and kids like you join one of ‘em or die.” He handed me a light pistol. “It’s empty, so I’d hurry and find something to put in it.” He chuckled once more before turning away and saying, “Welcome to Nirce.”