Legends of the Halcyon Era: Celeste’s Preparations

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Legends of the Halcyon Era

Celeste’s Preparations

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

At their apartment on the edge of the town of Monroe, Nytetrayn, Fenix, and Celeste had all but finished their preparations for the Digging excursion that awaited them with their friend and colleague, Adam Powers. Only one question remained.

“Anyone know where Janine is?” Fenix asked, as he looked up from packing his ammo.

Celeste shook her head.

“No, I figured you’d know,” Nyte said. “We were supposed to meet up with Adam a while ago.”

“She said she was going for a walk, but I thought she’d be back by now,” the masked Digger said.

“I’m ready,” Celeste said, “so I’ll wait outside for you guys, okay?”

“Sure, no prob,” said Nytetrayn, as he adjusted his hat in the mirror. Fenix gave him a sidelong glance.

Celeste grabbed her pack and went outside, where a returning Janine accidentally ran Cel’s face right into her cleavage.

“Oh, goodness! Sorry, Cel, I didn’t see you there!” She backed off, and Celeste’s head came out of her cleavage with a small “pop”.

“UFF! Um, it’s okay…”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay…”

As this was going on, what appeared to be a walking trash can came clanking up, and bumped into the wall next to them.

“There you are, Jan,” said Nyte. “We were wondering where you ran off to.”

Nytetrayn came out, hat and pack on. He was now wearing the new jet-backpack Xenos gave him, while Celeste was using his old one, which had nowhere near the amount of gear in it.

Fenix was next, lugging his own pack. “Hey Jan, how goes it? And what is that ungodly clanking noise?”

A beeping sound like that of a Reaverbot activating rang out.

Janine’s eyes flashed orange, as she turned towards the trash can. “What in the hell is that?!”

“I recognize that voice from the audio logs,” said a surprisingly proper-sounding voice from underneath the receptacle.

“What the…?” Nyte said.

“Erm… excuse me, but Adam sent me to lead you to the ship,” said the voice.

“That works, I suppose,” Nyte said with a shrug. “So what’s with…” he asked, gesturing at the whole of the trash can.

“I’m wearing a trash can so as not to alarm the general public. Are you all ready to depart?”

“Okay,” Fenix said, before turning to Janine. “Jan, no killing.”

She growled softly. “I don’t trust Reaverbots…”

Nytetrayn and Celeste just sort of looked at Jan incredulously.

“Jan, you ARE a Reaverbot,” said Fenix.

“I mean other Reaverbots! That damn centipede just went straight for my skirt! No question what was on HIS mind…”

“I can assure you, I possess no capacity for things of that nature,” the voice from the trash can stated.

“…centipede?” Fenix asked.

“Oh, yeah, I ran into a giant centipede Reaverbot on my walk. Guess I wandered too close to a ruin. ‘Tis okay, Steel killed it. He was even nice enough to buy me a new skirt!” she said, twirling.

“Steel?” Nyte asked.

Janine nodded. “Yup.”

“The nutball with a tea fetish and a leg humped by four out of five kangaroo Reaverbots? That Steel?”

“Yes! Dear God, do you have to mention the friggin’ kangaroos?!”

“Sorry, but we met him in the same ruin we met you. His brick broke, and he got caught up in a stampede, as I recall.”

“Erm, another passenger?” asked the trash can.

“No, just an acquaintance of ours,” Fenix reassured it, while also patting Janine on the shoulder as her eye twitched.

“Ah, good,” it said, seemingly satisfied by the answer. “Well, considering that I’ve never really met any of you, time for acquaintances will come later, I suppose.”

“I’m gonna grab my backpack, ‘scuse me for a sec,” she said, going into the apartment, her eye still twitching.

“Anyway,” said Nytetrayn, as he turned back to the trash can. “So, what do we call you? TrashMan? R2-D2? What?”

“Call me ‘Alpha-Red’.”

“Is it just me, or does this set an ominous tone for the rest of this expedition?” Fenix asked.

“I beg your pardon?” said Alpha-Red.

“So, what else is new?” Nyte replied.

“Good point.”

Janine reemerged, now carrying a duffel bag and wearing a relatively conservative long sleeve shirt and a long skirt, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. “Alrighty! Let’s get to it!”

“Er, you’re wearing that to a ruin?” asked Celeste.

“It doesn’t matter,” Janine said. “Pretty much anything I wear’ll get torn off halfway through, anyway.”

“Er… okay,” Celeste said. She already looked nervous about the dig, and hearing that didn’t help.

“Everyone is ready to depart, then?” asked Alpha-Red.

“You betcha!” said Fenix, as he locked up the apartment.

“Excellent. Please follow me.”

“Lead the way, Alfred!” said Nytetrayn.

The trash can paused, then continued along its way, clanking along toward the edge of town. He attempted to stay off the main pathways, as a walking trash can would likely draw too much attention. Eventually, he led the group to the airship dock where a black ship was moored. It was shaped somewhat like a saw shark, and had flame deco running along its sides.

“Wow,” said Fenix, who hadn’t seen the ship in regular daylight before. “I like it.”

“Not bad,” added Nytetrayn.

Up on top of the ship, Adam Powers was putting the finishing touches on a refit, doing a bit of welding with a laser built into a finger on his mechanical arm. He stopped welding, and looked up from his work.

“Hello!” he shouted. “About time! I was starting to think you weren’t coming! Welcome to the Sky Shark!”

Janine waved. “Howdy, hot stuff!”

As Adam jumped down from the top of the ship, Alpha-Red removed his trash can, which revealed what looked like a Hanmuru Doll – a Reaverbot that traveled around on the six stumpy legs which surrounded it, and possessed large, pointed “hands” at the end of arms that could extend. Only Alpha-Red seemed much smaller – practically miniature, by comparison. He looked a bit more kept-up than the ones seen in ruins, and a little less pointy, as well, including “hands” that could actually open and close.

Fenix did a double take upon seeing the Reaverbot

“Ah, as I expected. Good job, Alpha.”

“Thank you, Adam. I shall now prepare the ship for departure. Please excuse me.” With that, Alpha-Red clanked over to the ladder and extended his arms up to the top rung, then pulled himself into the ship.

As Fenix watched all of this, he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Yo, Adam,” said Nyte. “How goes?”

“Good! Ready to do some digging?”

“You betcha!” said Fenix, now snapped out of his Reaverbot-induced trance.

“Great!” Adam said, as he walked over to the ladder Alpha had just ascended. “Well, I suppose we shouldn’t hang around here much longer then. Follow me!” He quickly made his way to the top, and waited for the others as they climbed past the ship’s three decks.

“There won’t be any marsupials, will there?” Janine asked, once she reached the top.

“Hopefully not.”

Nyte let Celeste go first, and followed after, with Fenix right behind them.

“Nice, big sucker,” said Fenix, as he took in the ship.

“Indeed,” Adam said, as they reached the top. “Nearly too big, for my needs.”

“How long’ve you had it?” Nyte asked.

“Oh, probably about four or five years.”

“Ah. Get a good deal on it?”

Adam rubbed the back of his head a little. “You could say that…”

“Cool,” Nyte nodded, not really interested in pressing the issue. “Maybe someday, we can get one like it.”

As they ventured inward, Janine and Celeste looked around and took note of everything. From where they’d entered near the back, Adam led them to the front of the ship, and opened a door before he gestured for them to go through. The other side beheld a large, semi-circular room lined with control panels and large windows, while numerous radar displays and other data analysis instruments lined the walls. On the floor near the front of the room was a small hatch. And scurrying back and forth to different consoles around the newcomers was Alpha-Red.

“Wow,” Fenix said.

“Ooh, what a view!” Janine said, as she and Celeste looked out some of the windows.

“Impressive,” said Nytetrayn.

“It was originally designed for a crew of three humans and 20 helper robots,” Adam explained, “but with the modifications I’ve added, it can now accommodate at least seven humans.”

“Cool, we have room to spare,” said Nytetrayn.

“Yep,” said Adam. “And we don’t have to worry about pirate attacks, either. The ship is fairly heavily armed.”

After a moment of glancing around, he asked, “What about the helper robots?”

“Well,” said Adam. “That’s kind of tricky to explain. Let’s just say I found a way to reduce the number of operators necessary. Maybe I can show you sometime.”

“So, which way to the rooms? I’d sort of like to drop my gear off for the duration, y’know?”

“Hmmm…. so we don’t have to room together?” Fenix asked. “Damn, what would have been Jan’s last chance…”

Janine appeared to Fenix’s right. “What the hell?”

“Well, if you’d been able to share a room with Cel, you might have– AUGH!” Fenix cried out, as Janine stomped on his foot. He hopped up and down on his good foot, holding the other and muttering to himself.

Celeste looked on at the turn of events, and asked Jan, “What was that all about?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” she said, with a too-innocent smile.

Celeste shrugged.

“Right,” said Adam, with regard to Nyte’s question, as he led the way to the next deck down from the top. “This is the crew quarters.”

Eight doors spread out before the group, each one opening into a comfortably-sized room with a bed, save for the last room, which was for storage.

Nyte stepped into one and set his stuff down, and tossed his hat on the bed. Fenix picked another and carried his and Jan’s bag with him, since they’d likely be rooming together. And Celeste took another, putting her stuff down there as well.

“I’ll leave you guys to unpack,” Adam said. “Meet me on the bridge when you’re done, and I’ll tell you more about the ship and what’s on the decks.”

“Sure thing,” Nyte told him, as he started unpacking his clothes, so his load would be lighter when they hit the ruins. He also unpacked his armor, so it would be ready to put on prior.

Meanwhile, Janine stayed on the bridge, muttering to herself as she enjoyed the view while Alpha scuttled around behind her, seemingly chattering to himself in machine code.

Adam headed back up the ladder and to the bridge, then settled down to work on a console himself. He caught a few sidelong glances at Janine, even though his shades seem to obscure his eyes. “I take it you’re rooming with Fenix, Janine?”

“Yeah, probably…”

“Ah.”

“Makes it easier, considering we most nights we – whoops, that was probably more info than you needed, I’m sorry.”

“Umm, I’d kinda figured it out for myself, dear, so don’t worry about it,” Adam said with a smile.

Janine smirked. “Thanks.”

Celeste didn’t have much with her, so she left her stuff in her bag and headed back up. As she arrived back on the bridge, Adam said, “Done unpacking? That was quick.”

“Well, I don’t really have much to unpack, actually,” Celeste said, a bit sheepishly.

“Oh.”

Soon after, Nytetrayn and Fenix arrived back on the bridge, the latter polishing a long rifle. “Well, when does the killing of robots commence?” he asked.

Alpha wept at that.

“Okay, now that everyone’s here, I’ll tell you the rest of the layout of the ship,” Adam said. “The other doors on this deck lead to my room, storage, and the galley. You’ve already been to deck 2, so you know what that is. Deck 3, the one below deck 2, is recreational areas, the bathroom and the engine room. Deck 4 is storage and my lab. There are other access points around the ship, but please stay out of them for now. They lead to the wing gun turrets, the topside turret, and some vital areas of the ship I had to have access to during the refit. Also, if you visit the engine room, please don’t touch any of the consoles down there.”

“Alrighty,” Nyte said.

“You don’t have a short-circuit TV in the bathroom, do you?” asked Janine.

“No, I don’t. And I’m not planning on adding one, either. Running that sort of wiring through the crawlspace on a ship is a major pain unless you tear the whole thing apart.”

“Good, that means you’ll be safe, Cel,” Fenix said, as he and Janine patted her on each shoulder. Celeste started to turn a little red, which prompted a chuckle from Fenix and a smirk from Janine.

Nytetrayn just gave the two a look that sort of said, “Now, cut that out…”

Janine smiled impishly at Nyte, and gave him an erotic wink.

“Alpha, are we ready?” asked Adam.

“Any time you wish, sir.”

“Good,” Adam replied. He then pressed a button on the console, and a wheel rose from the floor, which he walked behind.

“Main engine online, sir.”

Fenix walked up beside Adam, and watched the liftoff procedures.

Adam took hold of the wheel. “Adjust thrust output to 60 percent.”

‘Aye-aye.”

Nyte watched as well, albeit from over by a window, as the ship began to rise and the engines started to whine as they wound up.

“Forward thrust!” called Adam.

“Forward thrust, aye!” replied Alpha, and the ship lurched forward as it began to move.

“Repeated short thrusts!” shouted Janine.

“Aye-aye!” Fenix replied, before both collapsed into laughter.

Nytetrayn gave a smiling eye roll at the pair, and Celeste just smiled nervously.

“Adjust altitude to cruising height, and raise thrust to 80 percent,” said Adam.

Alpha warbled and pounded away at his console.

“Say goodbye to Monroe Island, folks!”

Nyte turned to look out the window he stood by, and waved.

“Woohoo!” shouted Fenix.

“Thank God, I don’t have to do a private stream for the landlord this month!” Janine said happily.

“Actually, I don’t think we’ll be gone that long,” said Nyte. “And if we are, you might have to give him extra. Or one really good one…”

Janine gawked at Nytetrayn for a moment before she turned around and started to cry.

“Smooth, Nyte,” said Fenix, as he smacked him upside the head.

“Hey, at least now she can prepare hersel– OW!”

Janine cried on Celeste’s shoulder, and Celeste, with a deer-in-headlights look, slowly patted Jan on the back before Fenix gently led her away. “Come on, kiddo, no need to scare little Celeste…”

“Setting course for the ruins in the sea,” Adam said, as he turned the wheel. The ship headed east, then north. Eventually, he pushed a button on the helm, and the ship seemed to be flying itself.

Alpha finally turned from the consoles and clanked out the door, muttering something about making dinner.

“Well, now we sit back and wait,” said Adam. “Lovely thing, the autopilot on this ship.”

“Indeed,” said Nytetrayn. “Now, have any sort of training facilities on here?”

“Umm, not really, short of the observation deck… and it’s too windy up there to do anything but hold on.”

“Hmm, okay.”

“Why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Ah,” Adam said, before he turned his attention to the bridge’s other current occupant. “Has Celeste ever been on a dig before?”

Celeste shook her head.

“Nope,” Nyte said. “This will be her first.”

“She’s a virgin!” Fenix announced upon his return. Both Nytetrayn and Celeste’s eyes widened. Fenix chuckled.

“You did get her some armor or some weapons, right?” Adam asked.

“Um,” Nyte said, as he looked at Fenix. “…I knew we were forgetting something!” he said, sheepishly.

Fenix smacked himself in the forehead of his helmet.

“Oy,” Adam said nervously..

“Well, I’ve got any number of guns she could borrow,” Fenix said.

“Yeah, I’ve got some gear as well,” Nyte added. “Not much in terms of armor, though.”

Fenix tapped his chin. “Or, we could just go skins…”

“I’ve got something in my lab that may just be the ticket,” Adam said. “It’ll give us something to do while we’re on the way there. Even as fast as this ship is, it will still take several days for it to get to our destination. What all gear do you have, Nyte?”

“Lessee… cannon kit, splash mines, Gatling buster…”

“That she could borrow?”

“Oh. She can borrow any of it, if she can carry it. I did let her use my old backpack. I was kind of figuring on us taking point, so she’d be okay.”

“Yeah, but you can’t be too careful.”

“She could just stick close to Janine,” said Fenix, “though that could potentially be even more dangerous…”

“Anyway,” said Adam, “was she able to carry that well?”

“Carry what?” asked Nyte.

“The backpack.”

“Oh. She seemed to carry it okay… Cel?”

“Yeah… I can handle the backpack alright…” she replied.

“’Course, there’s not much in it right now…” Nyte noted.

“I’ll tell you what, Celeste. You follow me down into the lab – and you, too, Nyte – and we’ll see if we can get you outfitted for digging.”

“Alrighty,” Nyte said, as Celeste nodded.

“What about me?” said Fenix.

“You come, too, Fenix,” Adam said. “And bring some of your smaller guns.”

“Okies… hmmm, now that I think about it, I have something that might help,” Fenix said. “You guys go on down, I’ll be right there.” With that, he headed back to his room.

“Follow me,” Adam told Nytetrayn and Celeste, and they followed him down to deck 4 and through a doorway. Inside was a largish development shop, with tools and machines for making many things. A large cannon hung from the ceiling, with an energy cable hanging down. It seemed to be a rack for the weapon.

“After you,” he told the pair, as he allowed them to enter first, then followed. “Welcome to my workshop.”

Adam wandered over to the far corner, where several large plates of armor material were stacked up against the wall. “I have some left-over armor plating, and I was thinking that we could maybe make her an armor suit out of it.”

Nytetrayn and Celeste looked them over. “That works,” he said.

“But I need to know if she can lift it herself or if it needs to be self-powered, like an exoskeleton.”

Nyte looked at Celeste, who replied, “I… don’t know…”

“I’ll tell you what,” said Adam. “I’ll build a couple of the lighter pieces first, then you can try them on and get a general idea of how heavy it will be.” He then pulled what looked like a sewing tape measure off the wall, and went up to the girl. “Hold out your arm for a sec, please, Cel.”

Just then, Fenix arrived, carrying a large, white bundle. “Here you are. Come ‘ere, Cel, I wanna see if the length is right on this thing.”

“What is it, Fenix?” asked Adam, as he finished taking the measurements.

Fenix shook out the bundle, revealing it to be a cloak, which he wrapped around Celeste’s shoulders. “It’s a cloak that’s resistant to small arms fire. It was meant for me, but they sent me the wrong size… and color,” he said, disdainfully. “Now, this thing never fit me, but it might do the trick for you. More importantly, if you can’t handle the armor, then this should help keep you safe down there. The length seems good.”

“Thanks,” Celeste said.

“I need to see if Cel can handle these guns I brought for her,” Fenix said.

Nyte gave him a questioning look.

“A girl’s best friend, guns are.”

“Cel, you go ahead and play with Fenix’s guns,” Adam said. “We’ll work on this stuff.”

“C’mere, kiddo. I’ll teach you how to pistol-whip someone.”

Celeste nodded, and somewhat reluctantly went to join the masked Digger, who handed her a long, slender pistol.

“Here, tell me how you like the weight on that one.”

Celeste tested the heft of it, never having held a gun before. “It’s not too bad…”

Fenix helped Celeste practice drawing the gun smoothly until she seemed to have the hang of it. “Perfect. Between that and a beam saber, you should be able to take down anything that moves.”

With that done, Fenix started off to find Janine. “Lemme know when you two are done dolling her up,” he told the others. “I want to teach her how to use those guns.”

Adam and Nytetrayn continued their work. At one point, Adam tried to get measurements without seeming too invasive, while at another, he asked Nytetrayn to look over some of the work they’d done. Nytetrayn tried to examine her without actually examining her, and quickly turned his focus elsewhere.

Celeste kept her chin up throughout the whole thing, though she seemed a little more wobbly initially than she was willing to let on. As Adam left to find some lighter material in a store room, Celeste stood still, as if she was having second thoughts about everything.

“…you okay?” Nyte asked.

“…yeah, sure… I’m fine,” she said, a little reluctantly with her eyes cast downward, but she soon gave in. “I… I just don’t know about this,” she said, her voice trembling. “Everyone seems so… so confident, and I don’t know if I can do this. But I don’t want to let everyone down, either. But I just have this feeling of… dread.”

Nytetrayn looked at her, and wanted to give her some sort of reassurance, but wasn’t sure what to do. After a moment, he finally said, “I’m sure you’ll do fine out there. You’ll have us with you, after all. And if anything happens…” He paused. “I’ll help get you out. And don’t worry, I’m sure the others will understand, no matter what.”

Celeste looked up to face him. “Thanks, Nyte,” she said. She still seemed worried, but maybe a little less than before.

Eventually, Celeste was fully outfitted in her new armor, and seemed able to move around with less trouble than before. Parts of it shined with an ultramarine blue color, while the others had a white contrast, and her new cape flowed over it.

“Great!” Adam said, as he smiled contentedly. “Now, I think Fenix wanted to see you, so why don’t you go show him, Cel?”

Celeste nodded, and went to find Fenix. At the door to his room, she knocked.

“Eh? Just a second! Hold on Jan! … Aah! My eye!”

Fenix opened the door, helmetless, holding his eye. His mouth was noticeably moist.

“Oh! Hey, Cel! Got your new armor, I see!”

“Uh… are you alright?” she asked.

“Just fine! Come on in! Jan and I are eating grapefruit.”

Behind him, Janine was sitting cross-legged on the bed, and held a plate with what indeed appeared to be a large grapefruit half on it.

“Ah,” Celeste said. “The others wanted me to find you about the saber.”

“Ahhh, yes, the saber, hold on a sec,” he said.

“Hey Cel! How goes?” Janine asked, as Celeste entered.

“Hi, Jan,” the younger girl responded.

Fenix rummaged around in his backpack, and pulled out a cylinder of silver metal set with tiny blue gems, and a strangely-shaped hilt. He handed it to Celeste.

“Here, ’tis small and light, so you shouldn’t have a problem handling it. That flat button near the top turns it on.”

Celeste nodded. “Do you have any way I can store it?”

“Hmmm…. sure, lessee… Ah, here it is!” Fenix pulled out a slim, black leather belt with a loop on it, which was obviously designed to hold the saber hilt.

Celeste put it on with the rest, and placed the saber inside.

“You should be all set, now.”

Celeste again nodded.

Together, the two went back to Adam’s workshop, where he and Nytetrayn were discussing something.

“If you want a lot of power, get a bazooka. That’s my opinion.” Nyte said. “Power and speed are great, but you need a balance between the two, or just one or the other, or else your equipment is more likely to overload on you…”

“I’m not looking for something as strong as a bazooka,” Adam said. “I’m just trying to make this thing work. I’ve been trying to push the envelope on what that balance should be, though. That’s why this thing is a test bed of sorts…”

“Hey, nerds!” Fenix called from the doorway, with Celeste in front of him. “We’ve got her all sorted now, so we just need to practice a bit when we land.”

Despite now being fully armed and armored, Celeste still looked uneasy, but if she was nervous about what was to come, she kept her thoughts to herself.

To be continued…

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era is a work of fan fiction set in the world of Mega Man Legends. It is largely adapted from a series of freeform RPG sessions, combining ideas from several contributors, and further fleshed out here in a prose format.

David Oxford, also known as LBD “Nytetrayn,” is a lifelong Mega Man fan who, along with his wife Nadia, has co-written the Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide and Mega Man X Maverick Hunter’s Field Guide from UDON Entertainment, and runs The Mega Man Network (themmnetwork dot com). You can also find him on Twitter @LBD_Nytetrayn and @themmnetwork, and on Twitch and YouTube under the name “Nyteworks.”

You can also find Legends of the Halcyon Era as it updates at Archive of Our Own.

Character designs by LBD “Nytetrayn” and Victor Campan. Character art by Victor Campan. Logos by Tabby Ramsey. Arrangement by LBD “Nytetrayn”.

Thanks for reading!