NORTHERN MARKETS EPISODE 22
Spud gets fired & goes to KErning

UMT NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HQ
43 Government Way, Parliament Zone district, Orbis

Unlike most of the buildings in the politcal center of the city, the building was plain- built out of bricks.
The National Law Enforcement HeadQuarters was the center of GM activity for the southern territories of the UMT (United Territories of MapleWorld). This was mainly the administration center. It was also where GM’s who worked poorly were fired…

GM Spud stood before their diciplinary board, in a room that was all grey; getting chewed out for his actions in the Free Market. As they talked, he stood at attention, his beret had under his right arm, and not a stain on his white uniform.
“…you failed to ensure the safety and security of GMs Ice and Zeke. Zeke has been confirmed dead, and Ice is confirmed missing. Rather than call for assistance, you abandoned your duty, took attire of a noob and left your position” the old man with a beard was saying. “On top of that, you allowed numerous crimes to slip, and several other GMs you summoned to the baby market were killed.”
“Sir!” Spud cut in. “We were severely limited in resources and man power, there was nothing we could do! The GMs based in the North hardly did squat to help us-“
“Silence! That will do,”
“Yes sir” Spud said grudgingly. He was pissed they won’t hear him out as he tried several times to explain the problems that overwhelmed him during their tour of duty in the FM. They always twisted facts around and tried to come up with a story that holds a GM accountable for everything that went wrong, wether he or she really was or not.
“…your violation has cost us two GMs and several more have been hacked or injured! They were euthanized! We had to put them down because of the hack! Its an expensive process and it grieves the guild and family which they are from!”
Spud wanted to say that they were all ill informed of the hackers they ran into.
“…to decide your punishment- You are hereby stripped of your status as a GM officer, and all related credits including school and training. You are to surrender your badge and weapons immediately!”
Spud said nothing, took off his badge and slammed it onto the table infront of him. Then he un hooked his belt which had a hook for his crossbow and arrows and let the drop to the floor. The crossbow was personally his own, but the council would hear none of it.
“Rather than have you roam, you are being sent to Kerning City. The wannabe police force needs aid in keeping their people in check.”

Spud, level 47 crossbowman, walked out of the building, ignoring giggles and other rude remarks cast in his direction from suddenly former GM colleagues. He was now wearing his old set of clothes- white jeans, orange shirt, gumoshin shoes and his skullcap he used to wear when not training. On his first day, those clothes were put in a locker. Now that Spud was fired, he got his old stuff back. They gave him a razor, not that it did much.

Spud caught the crystal powered hover bus that took him accross town to the city center and to Orbis Station, the largest terminal in the country. The bus was fancy- built of wood, glass and crystal ore. The Station- simply put was gigantic. The terminal was on a giant elevated platform where long runways were being built- reasons undisclosed.
But the docks- where the ships to Ellinia and Ludibrium were close to the ticket center and the stairs down to the bus loop. Spud made his way up the grand stone stairs, got his ticket and got on the next flight to Victoria.
The old wooden-metal ship was crystal powered, but used jets to propel it accross the sky and sails to stabilize it in flight.
The ship’s jets fired up and it hovered in the air as it slowly flew from the docks until it was over the Victoria Runway- 3km long stretch of limestone pavement. The runway was used for the blue 747 jets that took off for Riprey. The ship would hover above the runway and when the pilots got the all-clear signal from air traffic control, the jets fired up as it flew over the runway, rising above the land (made of superdense cloud and rock). The ship flew over Orbis and when it was passing through the outskirts, the pilots were given the OK to fire the jets at full speed and the ship then blasted off for good, making it’s way to Victoria Station.
Spud had to sit on a crate inside the ship as the pasengers were informed the ship would be flying over the forbidden Balrog Lands. This was called the combat flight path or CFP. CFP flights were constantly packed with high levels eager to kick some rog ass.
After departing Monday at 16:30 Orbis Time (13:30 Victoria Time) the flight was about 8-17 hours pending flight path and weather conditions. This one was 17 hours. It would land on Tuesday at 6:30am in Ellinia. It was still dark out but all the ship had to do was reduce speed, and use the jets and sails to slow it to a hover speed and bring it safely to the wooden gantries that held it by the docks.
As Spud got off, he was dead tired. He got no sleep. The noise of jet engines, winds and balrogs fighting the high levels killed any attempt he made for sleep. As he walked on the wooden platform fighting the freezing ocean winds Spud realized again the whole terminal was built on the edge of the cliff, overhanging 3000 feet above the ocean below.
The buses were waiting, and he boarded the one bound for Kerning. The old school MCI Classic bus took off. The engine was loud so he still couldnt sleep, and Spud was bored as hell for the entire 6 hour ride to Perion and another 7 hour ride to Kerning City.
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sorry i am so dead right now. My mom was being a bich and i got locked out of my house for 3 hours (cuz i left forgetting my keys). This is just filler as the DC date is coming up. Figure since SPud had such an exciting time in the FM in my earlier chapters, i figured more surprises waited for him, so i wanted to see him.