Theo was no fool, he understood how things were, to an extent of course. Things worked in this city thanks to a very delicate bance between three separate forces. It didn’t matter if you lived in the university, or in the lowest slum of Vult or Mira, your life was constantly being tugged and pulled by these unseen powers.

  The first was the TannReign’s own military forces. His mother had told him time and time again how the guard was the only thing keeping this city from crumbling into complete and total anarchy. But his mother was over-confident with the militaries capabilities. It was, perhaps, her one true fw. Even here in the safety of the universities walls, Theo could sometimes hear the sounds of gunshots from not too far away.

  The second force was the Majari themselves, their teachings and benedictions competing with the gradual, and seemingly ever persistent, moral decline of the city at rge. Even with most of their focus on the skies above, the preachings they sang to the masses acted as a guiding light that promised hope and renewal and even helped to reveal the true strengths of everyone who listened. They expined how each of the demi-human species could contribute positively to society, how everyone could use their strengths and bypass their own weaknesses to better build a thriving culture. His mother hated those sermons. Theo remembered what it was like living next to one of their temples when he was younger. But even still, the singing of the Majari could only go so far, and their blessings had dimmed over the years.

  The st and final factor came from the mega-corporations themselves. The inner districts and higher skyrails were built with their finances, even this university was partially owned and operated using mega-corp funds. Between their lobbying efforts and payoffs they owned much of everything. There was even a saying, no one truly owned anything without Sin Secrets Say So.

  Media Impulse, Tempest Technologies, Sin Secrets, Heart Brews, Lucent Wares, Nightelligence, Stormman, Saw Corp, Pixy Securities, and many others all had their hands working behind the scenes. Sin Secrets was among the most pervasive, with securities and investments in just about everything. The microchips in Theo’s hand-held devices were all owned by Tempest Technologies. The computer he had in his dorm might have been university tech, but its software was designed by Media Impulse and the hardware was manufactured by Stormman. Not to mention, every vending machine had a Saw Corp or Heart Brews bel on it. There were advertisements everywhere, for products and services that bordered from the nonsensical to the insane.

  Mega-corp interests, TannReign military governance, and shackled angels, that made up the glue that kept the city of Voxsturm from becoming one giant crimson arena where the only rule of w would be determined by the strongest or most cruel. Sadly, there were several districts that had already fallen to that fate.

  Theo had had enough. He was sick and tired of all of it. He wanted an escape. He needed an escape.

  Theo was so lost in thought, so vexed, that he nearly stumbled right into someone.

  “Um, Sorry,” Theo was surprised to find a girl with wolf ears standing right in front of him. She had been mindlessly walking in a straight line, seemingly as lost in thought as himself.

  The woman had bleach white hair, long scruffy ears, and a long bushy tail, all of which were dampened from the rain. She didn’t wear a school uniform, instead she had on a pin brown tank top and military issue trousers. It was all soaked through.

  “Ouch.” She just stood there barely inches away from him.

  Theo realized he was so lost in thought that he had stepped on her own feet. He took a step back, embarassed. The woman kept standing there, looking pitiful.

  “Is this the cafeteria building?” She finally asked with a dull, but still somehow threatening, tone.

  “No…” Theo motioned in a different direction. “It’s that way.”

  The woman grumbled something, then slowly marched in that direction. Her boots sounded like they were filled with water as she marched.

  “Hey, are you alright?” Theo followed her, clearly concerned about her disposition.

  “Back off!” The wolfkin spun around and delivered an upper cut with such ferocious strength, Theo could hear, let alone feel, his lower jaw popping!

  The command throne felt less like a throne and more like a tiny leather seat barely fitted in a cockpit. The simutor was a square box smothered in wires, and Lorelei could feel the magical energy pumping through all the veins of the machine as she tried to pilot the Dread in the live simution. The interior was designed to mirror that of an actual Dread machine, but everything was so scuffed and worn that Lorelei hoped that wasn’t the case. Her instructor had her try the heavy consecrator css Dread walker. It was simple to use, taking her barely an hour to figure out all its rudimentary controls, but slow and cumbersome.

  The first several simuted trials involved simple maneuvering, and this was the first one for take-off and nding. Lorelei greatly misjudged how much energy was needed to properly lift the Dread off the ground and found herself using up the entire battery and then siphoning the backup energy cores. The controls throbbed in her hands, and yet each time she tried to repeat the scenario and follow the instructions, it lead to some sort of surge malfunction.

  “Enough take five!” The voice of her instructor was loud enough to be heard even if she weren’t wearing her headset.

  Lorelei sighed, uncsped the belts, and pressed the eject button so she can leave the terminal. The fresh air in the greater room was refreshing. It made her aware of just how sweaty she was, and her aphrodisiac ced sweat was already turning heads.

  “You know your problem?” The voice of Lorelei’s instructor was booming now. He was a rge orc, two meters tall with thick green skin and long red hair. His fiery red eyes could be the stuff of nightmares had it not been for his toothless smile. He had removed his tusks, his jawline was much more human. He had the sharp and strong jawline of a patrician noble, and given his physical stature, Lorelei could already see why women followed him around. Not orc women, but definitely humans.

  “What?” Lorelei responded with her shoulders sagging. The bodysuit stretched tightly across her skin, and did nothing to help lift or support her heavy breasts.

  “You’re following the instructions too closely. You need to step out of your own head; trust in your intuition, have a feel for the machine rather than following every step outlined in some text manual.” He had crossed his arms over his chest.

  There were others in the room listening, most of which were orcs. There were a few humans keeping to their corner of the chamber, and a Tauren or two, but orcs were the prevailing species here.

  “That’s insane.” Lorelei had read the manuals all night, there were so many things to keep in mind when operating the Dread controls. One mistake, and she could end up crashing the damn thing.

  “Your movements are too slow and clunky, and you have no feel for it.” Her instructor was adamant. “Tell me, what does it feel like?”

  Lorelei didn’t even need to think about it. “Like I’m trying to fly a solid brick.”

  “Hmm,” he pondered that for all of two seconds. “Funny the Consecrator pattern is designed for its simplicity, but you drive it like a giant lead rod.”

  “I say brick, you say rod, what else shall we compare it to?” Lorelei stiffened. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention like this.

  The instructor smirked. “How about a me duck? Three days and you still haven’t gotten passed the introductory steps. We need to get you past this, or you’ll g behind.”

  Lorelei puckered her lips. She wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t form. She wanted to get out of here an hour ago. If Theo followed his schedule, he should be at the gym right about now. Lorelei liked watching him sweat. She even had a nice pce picked out to observe him from the second floor where she could look down on him bench pressing. She looked down at her feet, suddenly feeling self-conscious and too nervous to look up at the instructor.

  “Look,” he softened his tone, “It takes some getting used to, and I don’t know how to put it any other way.”

  “It’s ok,” Lorelei said quietly, “I’ve just never been good at anything.” Well, nothing like this. She clenched her jaw, summoning the will to look back up to him. “Can we start again?”

  The instructor smiled and patted her on the shoulder, which made her smile a bit. It certainly relieved the tension for some weird reason.

  “The best way to learn is to get in there, right?” He motioned for her to get back in the piloting throne, and directed her to look at the console. He pointed to a series of switches. “If you move the rear controls this way, and the thrusters like this, then you can turn left more gracefully.”

  “I’ve been doing that.”

  “But you haven’t been doing it lovingly. You’ve been jamming this thing up. Think of this entire machine as a lover that needs to be slowly cajoled and caressed. The stick shifts and controls are not something to be handled roughly.” The way he spoke betrayed nothing of whether he knew he was starting to sound suggestive.

  “Please don’t give me a reach around joke.” Lorelei bit her lip.

  “What? I’m not!” To his credit, he sounded serious.

  “Boss,” Lorelei wasn’t sure why she just called him that, “Your dick is stiff as a fucking rod.” She wanted to ignore it, but with him leaning over her to point at all the controls, it was impossible to ignore. It certainly was massive, as all orc shafts were.

  “Hopefully not the kind of rod you would crash, but I hear you. It’s your damn sweat, can’t help it.” He sounded defensive. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna touch you. I’ll point out what you need to do, and we’ll run through this one st time.”

  Lorelei swallowed her pride. She proceeded to follow his instructions as best she could, and to his credit, things did run smoother.

  “There you see, just got to be more fluid with your movements.” He sounded proud.

  “I’ll show you fluid.” Strangely, for the first time, Lorelei was actually starting to have fun.