“Woah dad, what is that?”, “Well, that’s our destination, a big crawler named The Ironclad“ The little kid is fascinated watching big mechanised legs moving at a slow pace while carrying a city above. Those legs were made of big and thick metal alloys with their superstructure and hydraulics being inside. There are multiple layers of metal plates covering the inside of the legs. It seems like these legs are not only made to withstand extreme loads and weather.

  The father and son’s crawler slowly approach the Ironclad. The engines roar as if it was being pushed beyond its limit just to approach the titan. A black smoke trail follows the exhaust of the crawler as if the fuel are burned beyond its boiling point. Hydraulic pumps are singing in the background, pumping in and out to move all 4 pairs of legs of the crawler.

  As they approached even closer, the father contacted the mooring operator in order to dock their crawlers and come aboard the Ironclad. “Operator, (radio buzz) . . . , this is Mary, (radio buzz) . . . , we are requesting docking onboard on level D.”, “This is Ironclad, You will be docked on D3 and 4 on the starboard section 1, over.”, just a few seconds later, ”Dad, what does the level means?”,”Well, it means our docking location. The lower the level, the cheaper it is as the location becomes even further from the core.”,”so what does it . . .”, The father moves towards the control wheel and starts to orchestrate the instruments.

  The control room was a chaos of blinking lights and tangled wires. Buttons of every shape and size covered the panels, some labeled, some not. Cables snaked across the floor like roots, and the whole place smelled faintly of ozone and old oil. The scent of a machine that had seen too many repairs and not enough rest. It seems like hell for those who got some problems with too many buttons and messy chaos, as the entire room looks like it was built by a half drunk novice engineer.

  Some moments later, as the kid looked at his father silently doing his job, a giant claw started to come down from above. The crawler suddenly shuddered as the magnetic clamps engaged with the anchor points and a deep metallic thunk reverberating through its frame. “Woah, it's very shaky dad.”,The kid fell down to his knees due to the sudden shake. ”Hahahahaha, well kid try to balance yourself as this process will take quite some minutes”, the father said. Outside the viewport, the docking port level started to appear. A crane made of a lattice of steel and carbon struts, with the operator inside controlling it, comes up above.

  “Badumm…” A loud metal clanking sound echoes as Mary reaches the port level and docked to the Ironclad. The little kid looks around, but there’s nothing but walls of rusty metal plates, and dim lamps. It feels as if they are in an underground bunker. “Kid, let's go, we need to go to the first level.” The father said. The kid took his little pouch bag and started to follow his father as he carried a bag full of something.

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  “Refuel the tanks with grade D until full and here’s the money.” The father talks and throws a small bag of Velmarks to an operator located near the lift that brings them upstairs. Upon entering the big metal box, some gangster looking person also comes in. They have tattoos showing off their gang’s fierceness to every eye that sees. One of the tattoos shows a white skull with swords behind it, a classic logo for pirates. “Hey little kid, stop looking at us or you’ll get some problems” Said by one of the gang members with a red mohawk hairstyle and black leather vest on his torso. The little kid walked back and got close to his father.

  The elevator was a cavernous chamber. It looks more like a freight platform than a passenger car. Other travelers stood in clusters: traders with crates of goods, engineers in grease-stained uniforms, children clutching stuffed toys shaped like gliders or burrowers. The father and son are standing right on one of the elevator’s corners.

  The boy clung to his father’s coat. “How big is this city?”“Big enough to swallow ours so many times over,” the father said. “It’s not just a crawler. It’s a hub. A place where the freelancers come to trade, refuel, rest. Wanna know something amazing? I’ve seen some crawlers 5 to 10 times larger than this in size”. The boy looked up. “Woah. . ., but do they have toys?” His father chuckled. “ Of course, they have almost everything that we need.”

  “Ding”, The elevator opens the door revealing a world of color and sound.. They have reached the very first level of the city. Stalls lined along the wide concourse, as they walked through the city main road. Merchants shouted over one another, selling wares from every biome of the twilight belt. There were racks of thermal cloaks woven from linens or leathers. There are crates of exotic fruit packed in dry ice, jars of fermented moss paste, and coils of insulated wiring that glow faintly with stored charge.

  The boy’s eyes darted from stall to stall, overwhelmed. He tugged at his father’s sack, “Can I look around?”,”later on kid, the store we need to go to is just 5 more stalls away.” Right after that moment, they reached their destination: a wide, low building with a sign etched in glowing neon lamps. The letters read: “Korrin & Daughters”

  Inside is a gloomy looking store with a somewhat dim lamp being used on purpose. The air is cooler than the outside but a little bit dusty. Racks upon racks are placed very tidily showing rocks being categorized into each racks. “Welcome, how can I help you?” The store clerk said. “Well I've got loads over here, maybe you can check it.” The father said in return. “Hmmm, these are interesting rocks” The clerk says as she opens the sack on the table. “You’ve got some grade C’s and 3 Grade B’s rock chunks. You’re lucky.” She continues. The father chuckled and said “Well it’s a good run for this one”. “So, do you want to do it with cash or credit?” she asked, “well split it into both””Alright, that’d be 3474 Velmarks” She replied.

  The father and son continued to walk down the street as they finished selling all of their rocks.