Rutan
Vivenda Sector


The sky had been black for as long as he could remember. Looking up from his estate, Vice Admiral S. D. K. Dennison saw not sky or cloud - - indeed, Rutan had not been a planet in the traditional sense for six millennia. The texts of history claimed that a great and long waged war ended only when each enemy had shelled the other into submission using any and all munitions available. Even today one had to leave one's shields up when passing through the decayed surface and its swirling mass of raditaion into the habitated expanses below.


Vice Admiral Dennison sighed, knowing that his name was associated with the death of his world. It was Alfons Dennsion, Governor of the Tallaran Region, who had first suggested the use of trillennium as a weapon. It was that man who volunteered to command the attack at its baptismal use - - he was present to see the City of Ulster completely decimated by a blast twenty kilometers high. He was also killed in the weeks following by the growing level of radiation in the atmosphere.


For reality's sake, the Vice Admiral tapped a finger on the glass separating him from the vacuum of space. He felt the pain of generations long dead and the responsibility for his world's virtual demise. In his right, he had proven a fair and just leader in his time, but even when the population lauded him he wanted to tear the Seal of the Office of Governor of Rutan from his breast.


" A safe journey to you, Father."


Dennison looked from the glass to his young and enthusiastic daughter. He was proud she had inherited nothing from him - - he was tall, she short; he was a tad stocky, she as thin as a rail: he lamented the actions of the past, she took responsibility for the future.


Lord Governess Malinda bowed to her father in his newly-cut Imperial uniform. He smiled kindly, and, with a tear in his eye, departed.


- - -


Making a graceful passage through the surface of Rutan, the Lambda-class Shuttle Alferon twisted and turned to make a slow entrance into orbit. Its lone passenger looked back, clearly seeing the mass of windows pearing through the desolate surface. Most eerily of all, what remained of an expansive farm, now cloaked in dust and the wear of the ages, stood perpendicular to life underground.


Pleased to cast off a wealth of horrid memories, Vice Admiral Dennison looked away from his years as an officer in the planetary navy and forward to a career in the Imperial Fleet.