The Storm After the Storm

  Hayk stared as Taris passed by beneath him. Though it was long since it's golden age, the planet teemed with life as small lights flitted across it's sky. The lights of the city planet shone like a million stars, even though he was still on the light side of the planet.

  Hayk slowly sunk his spoon into his rations, then instictively moved it to his mouth and slurped. Though his mind barely gave thought to this. For the moment, his thoughts were fixed on everything that had happened in the past few weeks. ...And these thoughts felt dark.

  It had been some time now since what people were calling the 'Four Wars' had ended. Hayk wasn't so sure that this was the end of this conflict, and regarding Czerka's troops on Bakura, it had taken a few extra days for the corporation's beaurecratic, red-tape leadership to pass on the memo that the war had ended. In those last few days, hundreds, if not thousands of civilians had been killed. Hayk remembered watching as Czerka's troops went through the streets, occasionally rounding up innocents to instill fear in the rest of the population. At first, these were just taken as hostages, but as the war started to turn sour, and some officers became desperate, those hostages became victims, and those victims became casualties. Hayk remembered how, at first, he had been one of the few to make it through the blockade, and as one man, he felt helpless to make a difference.

  Hayk remembered other things too. How after the first weeks of the war, when Czerka Corp found itself on the losing side of a war of attrition, the company brought in mercenaries to fight with them, but these were a different breed of mercenary. They had some amount of honour, but fought like a cancer, as if the warriors' minds were being devoured by something dark. These hired hands were the only reason Czerka was able to keep control of the planet for so long. Hayk remembered facing their leader after stumbling across the area where his men were reinforcing a group of Corporation men.

  Hayk tried to push back the memories when he started to see the faces of civilians, the ones he'd seen strewn across a formerly beautiful cityscape. He tried even harder to push away the images of the ones who had been killed in the battle before he could get to them, the face of a Rodian who had died during the last week of the war, a child who was caught in cross-fire after running back to their parents when they were shot. Hayk remembered the empty feeling he felt as the family lay dead at his feet. He tried to focus on the people he did manage to save, which helped to ease his spirit for a while. Eventually, Hayk's mind began to wander, and again, by reflex, Hayk's spoon brought food to his mouth.

  This time, taste registered, and Hayk found he was eating some form of rather pleasant soup. After thinking for a second, he decided it was more like stew, and he took another spoonful. Then he glanced at a chair to his left. He'd heard from others here that these were some of the most uncomfortable chairs that had ever been on Morut Station. The delegate that he had talked to was glad they had moved the comfy chairs into the meeting room.

  Although the Mando'ade only secured the location for building the station after Naruun's death after the Battle of Bastion, Hayk hadn't been here yet. He felt a little bad now, as the station was built in Naruun's honour. Naruun's Teroch cruiser had been orbiting Taris when it was destroyed.

  The leadership of the Mando'ade was holding a meeting on Morut Station as an after-battle gathering. Hayk didn't view himself as a leader among his people... after all, he was just a man who ran a droid repair shop, but he had been invited by the Duchess after hearing of his exploits during the battle of Bakura. She had told Hayk that she was impressed with the ship he had secured, and was grateful for him giving it to the Mando'ade. Hayk had asked in return that all of the droid parts aboard the ship be sent to his shop on Celanon, which was a deal the Duchess seemed quite happy with. And that is how Hayk became the owner of an army of HK-assassin droids, which he mostly repurposed and reprogrammed to be more 'friendly'.

  The meeting was being held in sessions for a few local days, and the group was adjourned from today's session until the next morning, and it would likely drag on just the same. In today's session, the dozen or so leaders had been discussing the recent discovery of Unistar Group's involvement in the conflict. Hayk also mentioned Czerka Corp's hired men, which seemed to be a monster of their own.

  Suddenly, Hayk realized that the station was starting to move towards the dark side of the planet. It was time to find his bunk. There was a long day of meetings ahead.

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