"So this is what a space station looks like from the inside." Susannah's eyes glittered as her head swivelled around as the group made their way through the foreign trade district.

Large shops advertising ship parts, smaller ones selling souvenirs or local foods, and even places catering to entertain ship crew in between jobs, whether they were pubs or more exotic establishments.

At a glance, aside from the particulars of the stores and what they sold, things looked reasonably normal to the four. The layout was akin to that of a typical mall. Stores set in side by side in an organized chaos sort of way.

The main difference though, was that many of the larger stores didn't have their products in the stores themselves, but rather holograms that represented the products being sold, as much of them were far too large or it was pointless for them to be placed within the store itself.

The stores themselves geared towards travellers and ships, as this area was separated from the residential areas of the station.

"I wonder if there's anything good?"

"Be careful. We can make most of the things we need once we can get the nanofabricator on the Blue Steel online, so let's avoid wasting any money and only go for the essentials. We don't have much in the first place." Hawkins warned Kelly.

"Oh! There's a clothes shop there!" But just as Hawkins barely managed to get his words out, Susannah pointed at a particular store.

The store was displaying mannequins wearing womens' dresses and lingerie.

"I just said we needed to avoid wasting any money."

"Clothes are essentials!" Susannah argued back.

"You already have clothes. And like I said, the nanofabricator can make more once we get antimatter for the Blue Steel."

"It can barely make more than flight suits and combat outfits! It doesn't have blue prints to make cute dresses! And Sherry and I need underwear as well!"

"The underwear I understand. Hell, Kelly and I need that too now that you mention it. But you don't need dresses."

"Yes we do! Don't you want some dresses Sherry?"

"Huh? Umm...m...maybe one or two..." Caught staring at the outfits displayed in the store's windows, the black haired woman's eyes dropped to the floor as if to hide the rosy glow on her cheeks as she fidgeted nervously.

"See? Sherry thinks so too! Anyways, I'm the wing commander, so I say it's a necessity!"

"Wha...?!"

But as Hawkins tried to formulate a counter argument, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Give it up. She is technically the commander, and I can't see you stopping her without pissing both Susannah and Sherry off."

"A dress. I can wear a real, cute dress..."

Despite the noise of all the people wandering around the area, the two men were able to clearly hear Sherry's mumbling. And even if they didn't, it was impossible for them to miss the twinkle in her eyes as she started to stare at the store's products again.

"Okay, fine. Two dresses..."

"Each!"

"...Two dresses each, plus underwear. Try not to spend more than four hundred credits, alright?"

"Mmmm! If the prices are anything like on Earth, it'll be hard...but I'll try."

Taking Sherry's hand, Susannah lead the way while the two left behind watched at how excited the pair was.

"Four hundred is hard? Didn't it say somewhere that you can buy a decent meal for only one or two credits in Stella Nova, but four hundred is tight for only four dresses and some underwear?!" Kelly practically whispered, fearing that the two women might overhear him despite the distance.

"I hope they're not going to buy this place's equivalent of Gucci or something." Hawkins whispered back.

On the other side, both Susannah and Sherry was too excited to see what they would find to even remember about the two they left behind, let alone hear what they whispered.

 

"Ah! There you are!"

Susannah called out from the entrance of a cafe Hawkins found.

"Geez, you guys finally done? We've had to buy six drinks cuz the staff kept getting pissed we were staying for so long." Kelly didn't even try to hide his annoyance as he got up from his table.

"Umm...sorry. I couldn't decide..."

Sherry peeked out from behind the taller woman, but before Hawkins nor Kelly were able to get a good look at her, she hid behind the other woman again.

"Ah, that store was great. I was surprised at how much variety they had. It was so amazing how they used holograms to show you what you'd look like wearing the outfits they sold."

"It was amazing. Like a preview window in a game!" Again, Sherry peeked out for a moment before realizing what she had done and hid herself again.

In contrast to how tired the two men were from all the waiting, the two women were energized beyond what they were used to seeing.

"Alright, we got it. So that's what you ended up buying?" Wanting to stop things from dragging on, Hawkins lead the conversation towards what he thought would be the fastest route.

"Ah yea. What do you think?"

Putting down the pastel pink tote Susannah carried on her shoulder containing everything the two weren't wearing, she pinched the side of her skirt and twirled around a little, Susannah showed off the outfit she chose. A loose fitting sky blue half sleeved top held together by a ribbon around the waist that ended in a large bow hanging off of the hip, together with a matching floor length wrap skirt that flared out, almost as if defying gravity. All of it was finished off with a pair of shiny black open footed heels.

"Can't complain. You look great."

"I think so too."

With only the thought that not complimenting her was the worst idea of the century, but unable to actually come up with anything suitable to say, both Kelly and Hawkins ended up giving the sparkling woman a safe commentary.

"Hrmph. Well, the real show's next anyways. We spent most of our time coming up with something for Sherry. Hey, stop hiding and show them!"

"Ah! Umm...how...how do I look?"

Being forced up front, the shorter Sherry stood there, fidgeting as her eyes flickered from place to place, as if she was looking for somewhere to hide.

Sherry's outfit was vastly different from Susannah's, which was something that one could conceive of a person wearing to an actual party on Earth. Sherry's outfit composed of a layered dress. The outer layer was a black dress, matching her silky hair that hinted at her thin frame here and there while billowing to hide other parts as if to tease the viewer. A low neckline that ran into a corset tied on top rather than underneath the dress, sleeves that started close to the skin before a cut below the elbows allowing the ends to billow freely. The skirt was composed of a series of wings loosely held together with ribbons crisscrossing.

Underneath the outer dress was another snow white dress, hiding everything that the suggestive outer dress was trying to expose. The chest, the lower arms, the thighs, all were covered with fluffy white frills as the skirt continued most of the way to the floor. At the bottom, her feet were firmly contained within what appeared to be shiny leather low heeled shoes over a black hose. And to top things off, the bangs which normally hid half of her face was held up with a hair pin in the shape of a pure white rose.

Hawkins and Kelly sat there silently as they stared at their wing mate's new look.

"I...I guess it doesn't suit someone like me, does it?"

"What? No! You look adorable! Right you two? RIGHT?!" Susannah tried to simultaneously comfort her friend while threatening her other friends.

"Uh, ummm...yea. You look great."

"You do. Umm...really good..."

"..."

However, rather than make Sherry feel better, she was on the verge of tears.

"I guess...what they say is true...it's what's inside that matters..."

"What? No! No no no! Sherry, you're cute. Both inside and outside!" Susannah turned to her close friend again while staring daggers at the other two in between words.

"You, umm...Susannah's right. You're really cute."

"I think so too. It's just...I was surprised how cute you ended up looking."

"...Really?" Sherry weakly looked back at the two, her upturned eyes glistening still.

"Really. I'm totally into gothic lolita but...I've never seen someone do it so well. My brain just melted."

"While I don't have such a fetish, I do have to agree that it suited you so well I was surprised into silence."

Finally able to compose their thoughts, Kelly and Hawkins gave their real, unvarnished opinions.

But hearing such compliments, even from people she trusted, Sherry couldn't help but doubt her ears, so she turned to the last of her friends.

"Really. To be honest, you look so cute like that, I just want to drag you back to my ship and eat you up."

"Eheheh."

Sherry started to fidget again as her cheeks grew rosy, but her smile this time was something the other three could only describe as angelic.

"But you know, as nice as those outfits are, don't wear them while flying around. No matter how unlikely it is that you'll be shot down, the flight suits still include a full set of life support for emergencies." Hawkins warned the other two.

"You don't have to put it that way, but you're right."

"O, of course! We only have one life. I can't let myself die before trying out so many cute dresses!"

"You really like it that much huh? I don't think I've seen you this excited since you finally finished optimizing your Valkyrie."

"It's been my dream for so long!" Without any hesitation, Sherry explained herself to Kelly.

"Well, nothing wrong with that. But I'm getting tired of hanging around at a cafe. Let's look around the place a bit more before heading to the station's PAFE office."

"Oh yea. We'll have to register there before we can take any jobs."

"Exactly. They won't even let us access any of their services before going to their offices."

The four of them left the cafe, and after touring around the station for a while longer, they arrived at their destination.

"The Federation of Independent Pilots offices. It's kinda..."

"...dirty..."

Sherry voiced what Susannah hesitated to finish.

The four pilots looked on at the installed facility in between two larger offices of other corporations built into the side of the station's passage. But more than being small, was the fact that this office seemed to be pretty unkempt. Stains left uncleaned on the walls, one of the windows boarded up and repeatedly taped over as if the owner had no intent in bothering to actually fix it, the office more had the appearance of a company that was just barely staving off bankruptcy rather than being a branch of the galaxy's largest international organizations.

"Is this really it?" Kelly openly asked.

"Both the sign and the map says so. Though how much of it is the same as Stella Nova's PAFE is a different issue."

In the game, the Pilots Association of Free Enterprise was the organization that coordinated pilots unaffiliated with any major powers to work various types of jobs. Mining resources, moving goods, engaging in combat, and countless other jobs too small or irregular for a major corporation to handle was what the organization specialized in, and was the foundation of every player's interaction of the Stella Nova universe.

Due to that, it was a significantly powerful organization that had a presence in every location large enough for a player to dock their ship at.

However, from what Hawkins found while killing time at the cafe, was that the Pilots Association of Free Enterprise didn't exist on this station. Instead, the closest organization he could find that served a similar role was the Federation of Independent Pilots. The description was quite close, so it was likely to be this universe's equivalent. He had decided that it would be the best place for them to earn money in until they better understood how this universe worked.

"Well, standing around isn't going to do anything. Let's at least check the place out."

Leading the pack, Kelly boldly strode inside.

The interior of the facility wasn't much better than the exterior. The best thing they could say was that at least they didn't find any scrunched up newspapers scattered around the floor. Though that could more be suggesting that physical newspapers didn't exist rather than this place's workers actually putting that much effort in keeping the place tidy.

In the small lobby, a scruffy man was sleeping at the sole cut out counter, oblivious to his surroundings.

"Sir! Sir! Can you wake up?"

Hawkins boldly stepped up, shaking the figure's shoulder as he called for him.

"Hmmm? Wha'dya want?"

"We're pilots interested in registering. This is the Carkul Station's Federation of Independent Pilots' office, isn't it?"

"Ah, yea. That's us. And you want to register? Really?!" The dishevelled man shot up as his brain caught up with what Hawkins said.

"That's right."

"Really? Really? Ah, it's been so long!"

"So long? What has?" Kelly perked up at the unexpected words.

"Since someone came by here. Carkul Station's in the ass end of nowhere, so this station don't get many people who aren't part of one of the big corporations based in the area. We get the occasional pilot that stops by for a few jobs in between something else, but they never stay long. Even if you three end up leaving, the fact that you even registered here'll make this place at least a bit more appealing to other pilots!"

"I...see...wait, three?"

Hawkins turned back, only to realize that one of their numbers wasn't around. Or rather, she was hiding herself well enough that nobody would notice her at first glance.

"Sherry, stop hiding. We need to register."

The smaller woman nervously peeked out from behind Susannah.

"Ah, ain't you some lucky guys, getting to fly with not one, but two cuties!"

"Cute?!" Sherry's eyes lit up at the word.

"See? You are cute! What did I tell you!" Susannah turned and hugged the monochrome figure to her chest as they smiled to each other.

"Oh, that's how it is, huh? My condolences."

"Well, we're used to it." Hawkins gave the receptionist a wry smile. "Anyways, is it safe to assume that what's written on your web page is accurate?"

"Ah yea. All that's how things are."

The man glanced at the FIP page displayed on Hawkins' terminal and confirmed what was there.

As part of his research, Hawkins made sure to confirm that not only the organization's operations but its rules and regulations were mostly the same as Stella Nova's PAFE. The details that were different weren't of particular issue for them either.

What was important was that they would be able to earn money doing the things they enjoyed, and there wasn't any troublesome strings attached.

"If all's fine, then I'll need you to fill out these registration forms."

And with those words, the receptionist tapped his wrist and a holographic display appeared over his forearm. With a few more taps and swipes, he flicked his fingers. Each of the pilots wrists beeped faintly. Kelly and Hawkins checked their sleeve mounted terminals, while Susannah and Sherry were forced to do something different due to not wearing their flight suits.

Instead, they touched a tattoo that wrapped around their wrists. A row of vibrantly coloured lilies for Susannah and a string of modestly shaded amaryllises for Sherry. By tapping on the tattoos, a holographic screen flowed over their forearms, acting in place of the physical terminals built into their flight suits.

Both Kelly and Hawkins also had similar tattoos, black lines of organized chaos akin to tribal tattoos for Kelly, and a row of blue feathers for Hawkins.

All four accepted the transmission from the receptionist and started filling out their forms.

"Oh yea, do you guys have your own ships, or am I gonna have to get you some Sparrows?"

Sparrow was the name for the ship all players started Stella Nova with. It was a low spec ship that boasted low cost and versatility as its primary attributes. However, it was more easily said that it was equally bad at everything rather than simply being an all-rounder. But Sparrows were supplied for incredibly cheap to every pilot due to its low cost and high availability that every pilot could pay off the initial loan within a few hours of game play.

"No. We already have our own ships."

"Oh? You're established pilots then?"

"We are. We used to work for a corporation, but it went under recently so we figured we'd try our luck as free pilots."

"I see. Well, not so unusual of a story." The poorly kept man accepted Hawkins' quickly made up story without a shred of doubt. Though the real reason could have been that he simply didn't care enough to think about it.

The four quickly filled out the few lines of the forms and sent a copy back with a quick swipe of their screens.

"Right. Looks like they were approved. Welcome to the Federation of Independent Pilots! I'm Gregory, the supervisor of the Carkul branch!"

Sitting up a bit more straight, the man gave the four a strong nod. Though trying to clean up his act only made his dishevelled hair and unshaven face stand out stand out more.

Out of basic courtesy, the four chose not to mention that they thought he was some low level receptionist until then.

"Now that you're all members of FIP, you'll be able to connect to our mission board. You can access it whenever your ships are docked at any station or base with a FIP office. And here. This is our manual. It'll be good to familiarize yourselves with it, though 90% of it is just common sense regulations."

"Oh wow! There's so many listings on the mission board!" Susannah exclaimed.

"Yea, but they're all low value stuff." Kelly scoffed.

"Yea. Since FIP pilots don't show up often around here, the corps in the area just pay for permanent staff to handle the stuff that normally pays well. Because of that, there's no high paying jobs to give out, which means that there's no reason for FIP pilots to come to this system unless if its for a mission from somewhere else. Instead, these small jobs that nobody wants to do just keep piling up."

"Hmm...alright. We'll clear out these outstanding jobs."

"Really? You guys'll really do it?" Gregory's eyes lit up like a light bulb.

"Hey hey, is that really fine?" Kelly asked Hawkins skeptically as the four formed a huddle.

"This problem of a lack of FIP pilots can't be only in this one system. There's a G type star here, but all the surrounding stars are dwarf stars."

"Yea, that's the entire reason why we even picked this system in the first place."

"The chances of a dwarf star system doing significantly better than a local G type is pretty low. Also, the industries in this system are pretty underdeveloped."

"Ah right. This does feel like a frontier system now that I think about it." Susannah remarked at Hawkins' reasoning.

"It's not like the chances of another system having a better selection of missions is zero, but we could easily go around wasting time and money and not find anything half as good."

"Low but reliable pay's way better than risking getting screwed is it?" Sherry asked.

"Especially when we don't have much leeway with our wallets." Hawkins nodded.

"Well, jobs like this, if we split up, we can get them done pretty fast." Scrolling through the dozens of listings, Sherry thought about their difficulty and the time needed to complete them.

"Yes. Since there's no high difficulty jobs, so we should be able to solo them all."

"Alright. Let's do it! There's a lot of jobs, so even though the pay's low, we'll be able to earn quite a lot all together."

And with Susannah's approval, the four sorted out the available jobs on the mission board and each went their own way, intent on clearing them all quickly.