orto plutonia



In orbit over the swirling white marble of Orto Plutonia, I stood tall upon the viewing catwalk. I stared at the snowy planet below with a mix of expectance and trepidation in my eyes, knowing that what awaited myself and the girl standing at my left was something not many had experienced. I could still remember the last time I'd seen the old Besalisk. He'd cursed life and the Empire, and laid Dan out like the old man was nothing but a piece of generic flimsiplast. Ain't ever seen Dan look so surprised or angry, but I guess that was par for the course when dealing with Phrexus Krale. And the damned thing about it? Dan had let the raging cyclone of four-armed grit and steel leave. I guess he'd known that it was for the best, even if I'd not known it till years later. A being scarred beyond recognition was one you couldn't really keep around; you had to let the wounds heal, and that was apparently what Phrexus was doing ever since that day.

I still remember he told me he was going to an old home, of sorts. I guess it was home for him, but for me, living on some snow-swept wasteland wasn't exactly 'home'.

I was a backwoods boy, but even I knew that wasn't home for Besalisks. What it was though, was where one of our old overrun bases had been. Long abandoned after the Empire routed our little band and drove us off-world. We lost a lot of boys when that happened, and I guess Phrexus felt more at home with the dead than he did with the living.

Couldn't blame him for that, after what we'd all been through.

I let out a sigh as I felt my lips press together, presently looking down to the girl. Raifaani. What a wisp of a thing. She was tough, but in the same motion I was fairly certain I could send her tumbling if I looked at her angrily enough. She was infuriating, but I guess she was learning, as well. She'd at least been respectful enough for the trip so far for me to invite her to the bridge when we exited hyperspace over what would be our home for the next month.

I'd pooled my collected leave time, and decided to cash a majority of it in for this little 'vacation'.



Behind us, Captain s'Ilancy sat in her chair, and I could hear the faint tick of her fingernails tapping the armrest as she no doubt had buried her eye into a datapad. She'd not been exactly happy, but she'd also not denied my request.



My attentions went fully to Raifa.

"There's no safety net here. We go down there, and we are committed."