[center][b]| The Mantle -- Acheron, North-Eastern Hemisphere |[/b][/center]
"-- sounds good. I'll see you then." There was a momentary pause, nodding, then he spoke again. "Mm. Yes, goodbye." There was a tone to his voice that made him seem robotic, and blank. One of those tone's that you use to be polite when you're speaking to an acquaintance, or co-worker. Someone you haven't exactly clicked with. Yeah, it was one of those conversations.

Domn stood beside the floor to ceiling windows in his office. It was sleek, and 'retro modern' if you could get past the slight contradiction of those two words. Retro-modern. But very white and neutral to the point that it was annoying, and made him feel like he was working in solitary confinement or something. His only solace was this little red lava lamp his nine year old son gave him for his birthday some years ago, the lamp didn't seem to work though.

Reaching up to the corner of his face, he slid off his glasses, blinking several times thereafter. Domn's eyes adjusted as the heads up display no longer filled his vision, and he began to see things as they were naturally. Outside was a tumble -- no, that's not right -- a jungle of shimmering lights, skyways, noise, and steely skyscrapers which hugged the outer districts of the great Mantle. Domn tucked his glasses through the collar of his regulars, and folded his hands against the small of his back as he gazed out.

For more than a kilometer in diameter stretched the maw of the Mantle, a giant gap cut into the center of the city in the shape of a three pointed star with rounded edges. This was [I]the bay[/I], as his colleagues had adequately named it. It was even more stunning with the inner partition that wrapped around the bay, separating it from the city that hugged around the Mantle. It was a wall flush to the ground about a hundred feet thick that became a marvel of engineering. They didn't want it to be completely ugly though, so with some landscaping the city officials put a tiny park along the length of the wall that you could walk through. Nice touch.

But, even if you tried to surround it with beautiful trees, sidewalks, and fountains.. It was still a giant hole. A distracting giant hole too, in both the good and bad ways. While absolutely stunning as it was, there was a constant buzz of drilling and construction echoing from the depths of the Mantle. A metallic hum of ships coming and going from the bay area, cranes and hydraulic platforms hauling and groaning, a constant flickering of flashes and sparks.. It was definitely not prime real estate, at least not now. Deep down though, the inner kid in Domn exploded with excitement over the thought of watching the first caravels descend from the stars upon the Mantle -- and disappear into the veil of a Jump Gate, off to discover whole other star systems. Wouldn't that be a sight?

Domn thumbed a glowing console at the waist of the window, bringing up a small display before him. He flicked through an option or two, checking recent emails that were being imparted from his desktop computer. He glanced at the time, and was disappointed at how slowly the day was going by. It was late evening, and the last light of the sun was finally disappearing from the edge of the sky.

A small alert came on-screen in front of him, and with an indicative wave Domn activated it. Domn's mouth dropped and he reached for his glasses as he read the briefing; it was a critical subpoena from his project manager, summoning him to head down to the bay. With consecutive 90 hour work weeks, it was supposed to be his day off.. But then Domn saw it out of the corner of his eye. A decorated Confederate Flagship cruising over the city. He knew who's flagship it was. This was why he hated politics.

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