On the planet of Ver’æth lived a young farmhand by the name of Alex Masters. He had a simple life at the age of 27 working for the man that was the only father figure he had. He only knew a little of his heritage. That his father was a great Warrior King and his mother was one of the greatest healers in the 100 worlds dominion. It was called 100 worlds because of the governing planets. There were 957 governed but few as developed as the 100. A race known as the Nidhoggr - lizard like beings -controlled 20 of the planets. The Aner - of which Alex was one - at one time controlled 30 of which Ver’æth was one and considered the jewel of the galaxy. But after the war of a thousand kingdoms it was said that the Lords and the King as well as their families were all killed and with no one to claim the thrown the Nidhoggr would rule for a thousand years.
Alex wanted to see the Galaxy but he felt as if it was wishful thinking. Without the proper data passes and authorizations, he wasn’t going anywhere. Because of this he spent a lot of his free time studying other planets of the galaxy. The Nidhoggr were strict with anyone who wasn’t one of them. Only the rich who were willing to spend a sizeable portion of their wealth were capable of this. And then there were the smugglers and bounty hunters. They were revered by to Nidhoggr because of the perspective on life and the law. Very few could get away with murder. There were the Nidhoggr and there were bounty hunters and smugglers. Alex felt that his best bet was to become a smuggler but without any connections he knew it was a longshot.
It had been nearly 50 years since the fall of the 100 worlds dominion and the enslavement of the galaxy and 23 since the murder of his family. He was the last heir to the thrown hidden from the galaxy. The Nidhoggr were ruthless and Alex wanted vengeance.
He went to the spaceports bar every weekend to meet smugglers and bounty hunters to know what it’s like on other planets and space itself. He was finishing his mead when a koghoptich’ bounty hunter - a shark-like being - caught the corner of his eye. How long he had been staring at him he didn’t know, what he did know was he might be a bounty. Only those with access to the bounty network knew who was on it, but something didn’t feel right when Alex was blindsided by a smuggler named Ju-long from the planet Is’agu. He walked up and drunkenly bumped into Alex asking for a refill of his potent drink called Dragons Fire. It was powerful stuff. Alex had it once and didn’t remember much after. The good thing was that the bounty hunter sat back down, unfortunately he still was locked on to Alex with his hand on his plasma pistol. As soon as Ju-long got his drink he was gone and the bounty hunter was coming for him. Before the bounty hunter got to Alex a flame came over him, knocking him down dropping his weapon. It was Ju-long with a lighter in his hand. The rest of the bar went on as if nothing had happened.
“You’re welcome kid” he said as he left.
Picking up the plasma pistol Alex followed Ju-long
“Wait” Alex said as he ran to catch up to him “it isn’t safe for me here anymore. Please, let me be one of your crew?!”
“And what do you have to offer?” Ju-long said as they rounded the corner to his ship.
“I’m a great mechanic”
“Already have one”
“Sir” Gilroy Flemming the crew’s brute said getting Ju-longs attention
“Yes Roy what is it?”
“Franks dead”
“Well we have our new mechanic then” he said gesturing to Alex “What happened?”
“He was killed in a bar fight”
“He goes for supplies and gets killed in a bar fight. Do we know who it was?”
“One of the crew of Thanatos”
“Who?”
“Runihura”
“We have some business to attend to” he said to Alex “we need to be ready to leave in two hours”
“Easy enough”
Taking a few steps Ju-long stopped and said “by the way I’m Ju-long and you are?”
“Alex”
“Alright Alex get to work”
Knowing he had two hours to get everything together he got the ship ready and went home to grab what he could of his possessions and go.
Arriving back at the spaceport heading to the corridor towards the ship Alex noticed a slave girl in the auction with ones just brought from the planet called Petr’Murt or dead earth. He could tell she was from there by the red clay that covered her and staining her linens a reddish brown. He knew that she had just come from Petr’Murt by the fact that she was still covered in sweat when it was fall on Ver’æth.
Jasmine Meili Petrala had lived her whole life on Petr’Murt. She had never seen the ocean and yet she was always told how her eyes were as blue as the oceans of Isagu. As they started the bidding an aged Nidhoggr burst through braking the chains to several slaves including hers. He handed her a bag and began to run with her as the shots rung out. One clipped the Nidhoggr in the arm while three of the other five slaves were gunned down and another hit in the leg unable to escape. Alex knew they had nowhere to go to so, he fired a couple of shots at the slavers yelling for the ones who could escape to follow him. They entered the ship with the captain and crew already back.
“What are you doing” Ju-long said angrily at Alex
“Saving some slaves, what’s it look like?” Alex replied
“Well everyone, strap in” Ju-long said as he gave Alex a stare of displeasure before heading to the cockpit “It’s going to be a long ride”