"Requesting takeoff on pad 15." Selestia spoke into a mic. She scanned her cockpit displays. "Modules look good. Navigation says I have enough fuel for the 2 jumps."
"Request approved. Cleared for take off on pad 15." A robotic voice replied with a slight hum of radio noise. Huge metal doors opened up slowly to a starry background around a distant white star and glowing curvature of a planet. The star's light shone onto a sleek blue and white space ship docked in the hanger.
"Requesting takeoff on pad 8." Yuya spoke through muffled radio. "Looking forward to fighting the space war Selestia?"
Yuya and Selestia were sitting in gamer chairs in front of a computer each. Each had a headset with rainbow cycle glowing branding. Yuya had a taro bubble tea with tapioca pearls on a mounted cup holder. Selestia had a red coloured drink with green jelly rectangle bits at the bottom. Both had wider straws than usual.
"I want something to test out my newly tuned gimbals aims-for-me ship weapons on." Selestia replied. "I tried the fixed ship weapons for stronger damage. But I saw you use the gimbaled weapons to take out so many more ships than I did."
"I want to SEE you use gimbaled weapons. You're a far better combat pilot than me in this online game." Yuya laughed. "I'm the one who taught you how disabling the flight stabilizer can let you do some cool moves. Now you're the one flying circles around me." Yuya took a quick sip of his drink and sighed. "The teacher is being left behind..."
"Don't worry! I still have plenty to learn in this simulator." Selestia tried to cheer up Yuya. "There is exploration, commercial passenger fights, trading... even making factories to produce goods! Not to mention programming!"
Two mid-sized space ships left the space station's central shaft. The metallic cyan ship was more angular. The blue and white ship more sleek. Behind them? A few enormous large rings that were extremely slowly spinning around the central shaft. The inner surface of the rings were transparent revealing the buildings, parks, and farms inside.
"Cleared the station. Ready to warp to the war zone. Ready Yuya?" Selestia asked.
"Ready! Can't wait till I see you in action Celeste! Engage warp!" Yuya pushed the throttle and the stars streaked into a blur. A grin crept on his face as the two ship disappeared from sight.
---
An even expression appeared on Yuya's mouth. An orange warning saying "Warning! In warzone!" shines on his face. Several mechanical drones with tiny thruster manuver a tiny debris field of twisted metal. They bring back to Yuya's ship whatever is useful in a streak of a tiny glowing thruster. Yuya sighed. "You good over there Selest?"
"I am doing great!" Selestia's ship zipped around the space battle field. Three enemy craft with red strips were following behind closely. Her ship turned left then spun 180 degrees. She started flying backwards with her guns pointed directly towards the enemy ships. "Firing laser cannons!" The laser blasts struck one of the ships. The enemy ship exploded. "That's one..." She started firing on the other two ships.
"The day you discover shards would be a dark day for your foes." Yuya... laughed. "Not much for me to do while you take on the entire enemy fleet yourself."
"How alluring! Definitely interested in hearing about shards. What are they?" Selestia asked with a perked up voice. An enemy ship exploded in the background.
"Does massive damage but only effective at really close range. Think a shotgun for ships."
"Ah... I must try these shards out! Perhaps I can take out 3 ships every 10 seconds than just 1 ship! I'm so excited!" The last enemy ship exploded as her last laser shots landed. "Phew! That was exhilarating! Now to collect... wait..." Selestia fiddled with her screens. "I can only launch one drone and only have very tiny cargo space. There really was not much space to put more non-violent ship parts."
"That's the problem with specialist ships. They are quite poor if not unfeasible doing stuff outside of their specialty." Yuya shrugged. "You either play as a team with different roles for each ship, or you get a multi-role ship. Multi-role ships are effective in many roles. But still weaker than specialist ships in the specialized role. Blah blah game balance... I usually try to make up the difference of a multi-role ship with skills."
"A tough lesson to learn... I'll be leaving all this wonderful cargo behind." Selestia pouted.
"No worries... I got you covered. I do have a multirole ship that can help you pick up all stuff floating around." My swarm of drones were sent out and collected everything in 10 seconds. "I'll give you your share when I sell them. You want 70%?"
"My word... that was quite fast! But is me getting 70% fair?"
"I don't quite need the money as much and you worked harder for it. Hmm..." Yuya put his hand on his chin. "I know!"
"Sir... your time has expired. Would you like to add more time?" Yuya took off his VR helmet. Yuya and Selestia were seated beside each other in a chair with red stripes on black leather. There was a multi-color-cycling glow coming from well-lit computers on the desks in front of them. Monitors in front of them were equally well adorned with RGB lights on the back and sides.
"Hmm... I'll take a drink to go actually."
-----
"Are you sure me telling you more about my... isekai story that I'm writing... worth your share it?" Selestia asks Yuya walking beside him on the sidewalk. The twilight fills the skies with the lights of various shops bring a little light on the ground and pavement.
"Haha... I got enough money in that game already. Not to mention more ships than I know what to do with." Yuya looked to Selestia. "Now before we reach the train station, tell me a little bit more about your story! Especially where you think the story is going!"
"Alright... I guess if you have that much money then information is more useful. Give me a second to ponder." She looked to her walking feet. Then she looked to Yuya. "I think I know where I shall continue."