Asoriasylum / ASORIA

Background

During the Xi’an cold war, the man known as TnT (Terry Tom), took a leap of faith and decided to take his family away from Earth in 2537. He was disillusioned with the constant fear of the unknown and of the new alien races they had discovered. Since humans were witnessing a cold war with the Xi’an race, Terry took matters in his own hands and left with one of the older Explorer type RSI ships he bought a few years prior.

Settling with other settlers on Terra, he established a local engineering company, working with a few other friends and his family to fix ships and make components. It didn’t take long before he had established a decent company. Not too big, but enough to keep the company going for generations.

Earlier in the century, A man and his wife (recently marrried), Barton and Sue Dellaware, had joined the Eastern Expansion Program as an electrical engineer and planetary surveyor respectively. Having been part of the group that discovered Terra, they were among the first to settle there only three years after it’s discovery, in 2519. They started a co-owned company together, Asoria Research, doing simple surveyor and engineering missions, trying to find out how best to utilize the natural resources of Terra to manufacture parts and technology for the future.

Present Time

The Tom family steadily grew, amassing much money, but little fame, leading to the present day, where Timmy Sherydale Tom was out on a bounty-hunter mission to increase his standing in the verse and build a network he could utilize for future endeavors.

Around that same time, Cor Altuir Dellaware was putting a few Zs in, hidden in an asteroid field, the Hedge Cluster. Timmy had just been shot by pirates, and ejected close to the same asteroid Cor was hidden behind. With little oxygen in his suit, Timmy knocked on the hull of Cor’s ship, startling him awake from his prescious slumber.

“What the…” Cor exclaimed, thinking the worst case scenario at the outset. But after a few seconds of panic and more knocking, he recieved a call on his mobiGlas.

“Timmy Sherydale Tom, requesting assistance! Pirates have shot my ship, and I am losing oxygen fast.” could be heard over the comms.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Cor cursed, scrambling to get up and open the side door of his Aurora. With ease, Timmy propelled himself in, as Cor locked the door and re-pressurized the interior. Timmy’s vision was beginning to blur from lack of oxygen, only to breathe a much needed breath as his helmet was opened.

“Pirates, eh?” Cor said, grinning. “I guess you’re one of them bounty hunters? ‘ts cool and all, but why go through all the trouble?” he said, scratching beard. He was aloof, seemingly no worries on his face.

“It seems you haven’t experienced the thrill of shooting down a Cutlass Black or Caterpillar after seven days of searching, have you?” Timmy retorted.

“Nope.” he said straight. “I prefer the comforts of the bed and the pleasures of women. Oh, and the feeling of a multi-tool in my hand, giving my ship a few extra lightyears on them.” He grinned as he was reminded of something.

“O…k…” Timmy said with a raised eyebrow.

“The name is Cor Altuir Dellaware, research analyst, electrical engineer, superb pilot and damn good at gardening. To whom do I own the pleaasure?” Cor asked, presenting his hand.

“Name is Timmy, I need to get back to Borea.” Timmy rushed, not even shaking Cor’s hand. Understandable under current circumstances, but duly noted by Cor.

After a long and arduous quantum travel and shaky jump through the wormhole in silence, they arrived at Borea, the main planet of the Magnus system.

“So what’cha here for, Tim-boy?” Cor asked playfully.

“Sorry I was so rude earlier, I’ve been pumped to the limit by adrenalin for almost seven days. I’m here looking for my uncle Fredrick ‘Turbo’ Sherydale. He lives at… well… Sherydale.” Timmy said with a smile.

“Ah, so you live here! And here I thought you wanted to get a new wreck from the local shipyard. Why not just get one of those research organizations going? Easy money, ey.” Cor prodded.

“Not a dumb idea, fellow citizen. I might take you up on that offer” said Timmy with a uplifted spirit.

“But count me out. I have a plan all layed out. I use my family’s money to buy food, ship supplies and clothes, and then I have fun until I die. Perfect plan, ey?” Cor laughed.

“That sounds like wasted potential if you ask me, but I guess you wouldn’t ask me anyways. Do you know what happened during the Xi’an cold war? Thousands of people, dissilusioned by the constant barrage of racist remarks about aliens all around, took to the sky in droves. They traveled with little to no plan, but with a single goal that would eventually lead to the human race taking their place among the stars. And you want to just laze around, eat food, have sex and leech off your parents wealth?” Timmy said passionately.

“Yeah, pretty much.” was the response, delivered with the most deadpan voice and expression you could imagine.

“Well then, thank you for the lift, I’ll send over a few thousand UEC for the hassle, and I bid you adieu.” Timmy said sternly, leaving.

Later that decade

Timmy was on microTech, refuelling and fixing his Freelancer after a specially difficult mission, when he recieved a message on his mobiGlas.

“You still up for that offer?”