Clear and the Hopeless (Story Arc)

Template:Story arcClear and the Hopeless (Story Arc) shares its title with the main series header, Clear and the Hopeless as it was never meant to encompass multiple chapters upon original creation. This first chapter sees its protagonist, Clear, swept away from her homeworld, Mars, and left chasing her runaway ship, The Hopeful, as its A.I.'s systems corrupt due to centuries of decay. After escaping The Boss and Kaptin Kwanza, as well as the death of her friend Hebedee, she enlists the dubious aid of Warlord Strang in getting her ship back. More TBA

History

Page 1

_{Main article: CatH Page 1}

Page 1 introduces Clear, the last of the salmitton species of Mars as she lives a very lonely existence aboard a derelict space ship named The Hopeful. The ship is in such a state of disrepair that she has to salvage materials from the abandoned towns and cities of her people on the world below, helping Note, the ship's A.I., to repair the damages. When alone she often speaks with Icer, the ship's former captain who has been mysteriously frozen in time within the Command Deck of the ship. However after a salvaging mission with her robot ALEX, she returns to speak to Icer but is interrupted when Note forces the ship to jump through space and takes them into the Perseus Arm. Hebedee, the mechanic who has taken up residence on the ship, believes this happened because the Earth disappeared from the Sol System and Note wants to find it. When they run out of fuel Clear and Green, a third crew member and wielder of magical plants, must go to a local space station to trade. Some narrative exposition is given that the humans settled Mars after wiping out its natives, the Martians (including the salmittons), and created a massive spacestation, complete with sky hook, called Saffron 5. Following this, Clear and Green meet a group of pirates willing to trade, led by Kaptin Kwanza. One of the humans in the crew, however, realise Clear's a Martian and they decide to kidnap her. They escape the Kaptin Kwanza, and his ship The Jolly Wanker, in The Bug and make an instant jump in The Hopeful. Clear then, as usual, resorts to drinking to drown her sorrows. After she rages at Hebedee and Note for nagging her about salvage she eventually sobers up to discover that Green and Hebedee have gone to a mysterious ship to get fuel. Clear travels to the ship too, called the Oh My Love! where she meets a man named The Boss, who owns the ship. She eventually locates Green and then Hebedee as he is chased by armed guards. After rescuing the Hebedee from the guards, thy are confronted by The Boss who demands the return of the power source that Hebedee stole from the engine room. Hebedee throws the device and it causes an explosion that knocks everyone over. In that distraction he tries to grab the energy core but it absorbs him into it, converting him into fuel. Clear escapes with the device, avoiding both the Oh My Love! and The Jolly Wanker as it jumps into the system. After Note asserts that Hebedee is dead, she reluctantly puts the device into the power core of the engine room. Note instantly begins jumping again but is stopped by an anti-warp generator on the planet Ledus. Clear travels down to the world to shut it down but Note doesn't wait for her to return and jumps away, stranding her.

Clear is then picked up by Captain Londris, a Stormtrooper captain, and taken aboard a ship where she's interrogated by Deonal Strang. Strang turns out to be a Warlord of the Perseus Arm in conflict with the Rebel Alliance, a trap for whom Clear had stumbled into. He initially believes that she's innocent of being a rebel but when her Bug comes flying up from Ledus he realises she's lied to him about having no ship.

Notes

TBA