Our Darkest Days: Shadows of Shedu Maad

[Varon Farani]

The Miy'til Starfighter of the Royal Hapan Navy was one of the most beautifully crafted items of technology that Varon Farani had ever encountered. Perfectly balanced, and without a single atom of excess, it was more akin to a finely balanced blade than a starship, and when Varon settled himself into the cockpit, mere inches separating him from space, its light and responsive controls seemed to almost ghost over his very skin, as if it were a suit of armour he slipped on to go dancing amongst the stars.

Behind the controls of a Miy'til Starfighter, Varon felt alive.

As he eased his plane through the torturous maze that encircled the world of Shedu Maad however, that life felt in grievous peril. Bordered by inexplicable gravity wells, and littered with the scattered remains of shattered planets - and shattered ships - the system was as close to a fortress as nature could ever produce.

A microcosm of the Cluster itself, he mused, his fighter tumbling into a gentle roll that defly dodged around a swarm of meteor fragments. For members of the Royal Navy, the planet of Shedu Maad had an almost mystical reputation, and very few had ventured there; even fewer made it out alive.

The fables said that no one could survive an encounter with Shedu Maad. It was Varon's sincere hope that at least part of the fable turned out to be fiction.

Heart fluttering in his chest as adrenaline coursed through his veins, he risked an extra goose of power to his main thrusters, pulling ahead of the formation of fighters he had brought in pursuit of the fugitive Aaron Belargic - the Arbitrator meanwhile remained safely outside, free from the hazards the system presented.

Having served with him for so long, Varon knew how the former Commodore was thinking: no Hapan Commander in their right mind would follow them in here. A hollow breath of laughter escaped from him: clearly, too much time spent exposed to Belargic must have robbed him of all sense and reason.

Without another thought, he applied a little extra thrust, and sped off towards Shedu Maad.