Tales Of The Rocket Patrol 2

Chapter 1

     As the second sun rose into the sky, the skyline of Capital City became that much brighter, informing the more lazy residents of the city that the morning was already half over. The sky of Earth Colony Gamma didn't always have two suns, but a star in a galaxy several light years away was close to going nova. It didn't post a threat to their galaxy but prior to dying out the sun in that system expanded to more than ten times its original size, which made it visible to the residents of Earth Gamma as they liked to call it. When it had started to expand, colonies that were located on the planets in that system were evacuated as the people barely managed to escape before the planets were roasted by the enlarged sun. There were still scientists on those colonies, watching and studying the enlarged star, which was a gigantic gamble since there was no way to tell when it would explode. The people studying the planet would change up every two months, limiting their risk to being killed without notice.

     Yet to the residents of Earth Gamma, it was a sight to behold and one they have gotten used to over the last few years. The second sun in the sky wasn't as large as the one in their system, less than half the size, yet it was a dark orange which made for quite a site. People often came to visit this system, just to see what it would be like to look at two suns at the same time. After a few years the fad began to fade and life returned to normal on Earth Vega. The people on the planet had gotten used to having two bright orbs in the sky and when the second one eventually faded out, which was only a matter of time, it would missed by the residents of the city who had grown quite fond of the sight.

     As the orange star rose into the sky, Amanda Star rolled out of bed and finally got her arse in gear. Usually when the second sun came into the sky it meant she only had a few hours to get ready for her shift. Watching the Capital City was a lot more daunting than patrolling the colonies as the tech of the city made crime much more prevalent, which meant more arrests, more paper work. In the end it also meant quicker promotions, which was why she didn't mind being assigned the Capital of Earth Vega. After a scorching shower to clean herself up after a night out on the town with the girls, Amanda slowly prepared herself for work as she the machines whipped up her favorite breakfast and played the morning news to get her up to speed on what was going on in the system while she was dead to the world after drinking up a storm. Usually she was more responsible than that the day before a long shift but she had good reason to celebrate. A friend was celebrating a birthday and Amanda didn't have too many friends so she made an exception and partied deep into the night. Despite not having too much sleep, she had recharged enough to get through the day. She would likely crash early tonight, unless something big came up at work but she doubted that would be the case.

     After cleaning herself up and eating breakfast she tossed on the city uniform, armed herself with the usual weapons needed to do her patrol. As a member of the Rocket Patrol, one of the duties of the force was to guard the Capital of the star system. Most colonies and cities outside of capital were responsible for their own security, which was coordinated by the patrol but the Capital was always watched and enforced by the patrol. By guarding the Capital, it made the big city the home headquarters for all members of the Rocket Patrol, whose jurisdiction was this one solar system. It had several planets, but most of the colonies in the systems were on moons which were more inhabitable than the planets themselves.

     There are two planets in the whole system that command deemed fully inhabitable, Earth Vega which was about two times the size of Earth Alpha, the world where all humans came from. The other was called Nero Delta. It was similar to mars, red in colour but has an atmosphere that was breathable and carbon based. It was half the size of Saturn but without the rings. It had several moons, three that were home to colonies. The red planet had several of its own colonies as well and the population of the large planet has already swelled to a few million. The population of Earth Vega was a paltry several hundred thousand, but it was a comfortable number. Moon colonies were never allowed to swell beyond fifty thousand to avoid potential famine disasters. Planets were allowed to hold a lot more people because they were more capable of providing more resources which allowed them to thrive and grow at an acceptable rate.

     With so many people in the star system, the twenty-second system to be taken over and inhabited by the human race since the race first started expanding to the stars. Not all star systems are selected for expansion. Any systems that had a single indigenous species already naturally evolving in any of its planets was automatically disqualified it from being expanded into. After humanity's long history of colonizing indigenous peoples throughout their history on Earth Alpha, it was not something people wanted to repeat when expanding to other planets. There were countless star systems in the universe, so there was no need to encroach on other people's home worlds if they could just move on to the next system.

     After centuries after being complete douches, Amanda was relieved humanity had finally learned from their numerous mistakes. She dressed into her uniform, armed herself and then left her condo to get to the station. As a defender of the capital, Amanda didn't require a ship capable of interplanetary travel, merely a small vessel that could get her from one part of the city to another promptly to take care of domestic issues. She had what was called a land speeder, which looked more like a flying ski-do than a vehicle. It was like an airborne motorcycle, but she had the option to sit down or stand. Given her preference to jump off at a moment's notice, Amanda was the kind of office who preferred to stand, which she did often knowing that the ships autopilot would kick in the moment her weight was no longer detected on board. It was a fast and very reliable machine, and Amanda preferred it to the spaceships that the other Rangers used. Sitting down in a cockpit and being sealed in like a sardine didn't appeal to her one bit. She enjoyed standing straight, with good posture and the wind blowing in her hair. She felt free on her speeder and wouldn't trade it in for anything. Seconds after reaching the helipad, Amanda had boarded her speeder and was zooming between buildings towards headquarters. In order to fly around the city through the streets, you needed a special license so traffic in these parts were light but that still no reason to not keep any eye out for others zipping around. It took her speeder less than ten minutes to travel to the center of the capital and to her destination: Rocket Patrol Central.

     This was the central hub for the Patrol. Every member of the patrol worked through this building, which was a staggering eighty floors high and even had its own prison twenty floors beneath the building. While there were other buildings in the capital and others on two other planets in the system, they all answered to the capital building. Amanda loved working in the capital as she got to work under the people who were in charge of the patrol throughout the entire galaxy, something she thought might increase her odds of moving up sooner rather than later. When approaching the building, Amanda always chose to use the upper landing bay, unafraid of the heights as she loved landing and departing through the higher zones rather than staying close to the ground. He lack of fear with regards to heights made her more effective at her job, as many disputes were often in buildings higher than Patrol Central. If you were afraid of heights, being a part of the Capital Patrol was definitely not the position one would want to take when signing up. As she approached the landing bay, she was stopped by the machines guarding the doors.

     "Identification." One of them called out.

     "Sergeant Star." Amanda replied. "Badge number eleven, two, five."

     "Voice print verified." The robot replied. The machine then proceeded to do a scan of the Sergeant's head. "Retina scan complete. Good morning, Sergeant Star."

     The big doors opened and Amanda moved her speeder in gracefully and then landed on the same spot in the landing bay she had been using for months since starting her career as a Capital member of the Rocket Patrol. Once parked, Amanda realized she had arrived earlier than expected and decided to get something to drink from the break room before attending the morning briefing. Something told her she was going to be the kind of day that might require her to get as much energy as she could get.