Arrows fling by my head. Atleast what is OUR  head. Gil and me that is. 

Temp is what my closest vessels call me. Mainly Gil but I will get to that part when it feels right. 

Bonds. 

What are they except meaningful interactions with one another? The more you have the tighter they grow, inseparable and insatiable in the end. 

In this world we live in who knows what is really going on. We live knowing the past and hoping for the future. Knowing this I tell a story. A story of love, heroes, and adventure.

none of it mine; for good reason. However, it is still a story worth telling. 

Now back to the beginning. arrows.

As arrows fly over head Gil jumps to the adjacent roof top. This ass of an antagonist swiftly meets his god. Either his right side or left... honestly cannot tell from the carnage. What I can tell is he was left handed. decent aim. Bad close range reflexes. 

In the end his skill would be passable for an empire skumbag. Sadly he was just another angry, jealous nave of a man. Destined to open the door of destiny.

Poetic I know.

"Sooooooo.... not too bad"

Gil side eyes me with that classic look only the closest of couples have. His annoyance is obvious to even the most untrained eyes. 

"If only he would have talked first."

In agreement I stare onward. Unscathed myself I show my leadership with no response to Gil mending his wounds; which he had few.

Off we went to the brewing house we had agreed upon. The others no doubt were waiting.

Our escapades were met duefully with ale and communion; we ate and drank our problems away. It was a joyous reunion of our little hodgepodge group.

Ani looked like a bitch though. Made some backhanded comment about me... us taking so long. If he had shorter legs, "or a bow", we would have made it sooner. 

Besides rudeness we were the life of their establishment.

In time, as things wound down, a new party disrupted our claim to life; actually someone else's including themselves. 

In terms of brewhouse fights this one was underwhelming until we joined in. I mean an arrow to the head? Lame. Al’s knife to the left eye made much more of an impression. in haste we were swiftly shown out. shown with shouting and the ends of spears; shown swiftly. 

There was a short diversion while finding suede. suede sight that is. home. the fastest ship I've been on. 

"the only one temp"

Excuse me while I beat Gil’s ass: mentally. 

Ah suede sight. the name deriving from the sights we see... or is it the eye decal… couldn't tell you. 

Something to do with optical matter propulsion. according to Gil that is. that smartass. 

suede obviously luxury. built got the royalty of the SEGA tribe; now in the custody of the TEMP tribe. Here in our humble tribe we ignore the storm; embrace the tranquility of the eye of the storm. 

Fully holo racetrack, stocked brewbar, and gravity compensated hot-tub. only the best for the Aladdin of space.

Our leader, Gil, Stardate 11.249.73 SEGA. Blood Type: 1

6 foot 2 inches

160 pounds (kg)

"Temp. Please not all of our personal info"

Yet another side eye moment. 

We then have Ani the beautiful; Al the psychotic; and Wulf the muscle. There are many other bits of info I will  leak as our story proceeds.

Better?

Not a happy response.

The tribe, mid fight, are told we must control our powers. Specifically, I cannot even talk! Not to release a flex so soon. Our adversaries, capable of similar abilities, can hone in on us the more we use. Like the term implies this is difficult. These vessel abilities are similar to ecstasy or medical grade nicotine... addictive. 

As Gil explains this to the crew he breaks whose ship it is. Ours. 

In great robinhood style me and my mate Gil here swiped our own ship. Of course the imperialistic swine were outraged. Meant as a royal getaway; the other parties left are surely sore. I personally feel the tribal leaders got whatever they deserved. Gil and Ani disagree.

The tension between the universal governmental system (UGS) and our former tribal communities has grown to extreme places as of late. Leaving was the only kind of hope we could provide. Hope is obviously an uplifting word for cause of abandonment issues. Civilization will prevail regardless. 

On the off chance it does not... we have a sweet crib for the extinction of all life. At least ours if we get caught.

This UGS in the past had complete control over all tribes. Now we have the chance to turn that table. They dropped what we picked up. Life. Freedom. The technology and responsibility to solve all problems in this universe. 

Diagrams. Note to self: add diagrams of tech.

Now why are we running? The UGS (Universal Governmental System) has been mining isotope 738 for some time. In times past this meant capture or enslavement of peoples. Until our current situation this had been a minor thorn in our sides. With the current collapse of whole planets; this conflict came to reality. 

This specific isotope revolutionized many aspects of life as seen in things including our ship; the ai assistance and industries like mining and warfare. Giving us the main predicament. 

Mining had gotten to  an ungodly level. The collapse of the last planet we passed had created one I heard. Mostly likely too much for the poor being to handle. Blew into the infinite. 

That's one thing about vessels; too much juice from an isotope and they go boom. There are many factors to the potential for failure.  Like Al could definitely handle a god class vesselhood from a planet. Type 0 can do that as well as types as low as 2 sometimes. 

Mainly to do with isotope saturation in their air vacuum. Also known as lungs in combination with the heart and blood. The body can resist only so much. Too high and you get strange effects. 

Last guy I saw take in too much he vaporized a whole squad of multi maskers. One go too. No pussy shit and not finishing the job. A true vessel. 

Back at our ship contact had been made. 

A TETR localized squad ship entered our visual space. Sending us all into an alert frenzy. Shelter was not an option. suede burst into action. Suede being an S class luxury rider we were near offenceless. Shielding and evasive maneuvers were our only option. 

Shooting right Suede narrowly misses a direct hit. This specific squad ship having low visibility, was easy to evade into a blindspot. Once we had their porting lock number, we were able to board their ship. 

blows where exchanged.

no one was hurt.

AI defense.

The squad ship was set adrift after some lite looting. mostly fuel. their food supply. then alert systems set for distress. finally cut power.

It is always an eerie sight seeing a ghost ship. One you make even more so. Moving and at the same time seemingly motionless. A treasure trove for the brave scavenger. For our crew; yet another marker in the deep abyss. Pointing to our escape as plausible if not inevitable. 

Now in a place of seeming safety we finally settle enough to realize something astronomical. We had received the coordinates we needed. The supposed safe haven for those of vesselism and any who oppose the UGS. Not only was this planet part of a safety sector; they held information we greatly needed to exchange for the sake of all vessels. Information pertaining to NeoUruk.

This information indicates that sector MUMU possessed leads to the forbidden, or lost (I forget which), vesselism center. That center being an entire planet, the original vessel settlement. 

Vesselism being a pseudo religion and culture, depending if you look at the traditional or new age following. The traditional vesselism focuses on the rituals and rites that are required to use and grow your vessel handling. While the more modern view is almost explicitly concerned about the environmental impact of the UGS misusing their search for more vessel power. 

During the revolt of the SEGA sector the NeoVesselism sect attempted to secure a holding as a governmental power. This revolution, having failed, pushed the sect underground. Scatter