"Well then," I mused when the silhouette of Sylkiir V loomed before us, "Turns out we were closer than I thought."

It took about an hour to reach the modestly-size planet. The good news is Sylkiir V had a fair bit of greenery to it. The bad news...well...

"Um, are those storm clouds?" Alannah inquired, pointing toward a dark patch near the planet's southern pole.

"I'd rather not figure that out," I murmured, focusing my attention on entering the planet's atmosphere.

I made the foolhardy mistake of believing it'd be smooth sailing if I avoided the dark patches that could be seen from space. However, the turbulence that racked my ship had other things to say.

"W-What the hell?" Ali demanded, gripping the arm rests of her seat while I fought to maintain control of the ship, "Where the hell did this come from?"

"I don't know!" I replied, scowling when I realized why things were so windy. Well then, looks like this planet has an abundance of mountain ranges...

"Holy...shit," Alannah breathed, "That's one hell of a sight..."

"No kidding...Hey, look on the bright side: at least Boreas won't complain about us going to another frozen hellhole."

"Yes, but let's be honest: this planet looks like nothing but one large highlands biome," she pointed out, "As far as I know, such a climate is not kind to human beings."

"Well, Sylkiir V looks perfect for a base," I began, scanning the horizon before me in an attempt to see if anything stuck out to me, "I'll probably keep us in the air for a little longer. I may get closer to the surface to avoid any excess turbulence though."

"Yes, please do that," my wife grumbled, "I'd rather not fly out of my seat..."

"You...have your seat belt on, though."

"Okay, fine: I don't want to get strangled by my fucking seat belt," she slung back.

Chuckling to myself, I tipped my ship down the slightest bit and started our descent toward Sylkiir V's s surface. When I reached a decent altitude, I straightened the Ravager and started to look for any signs of civilization on this planet.

"The reports said there were settlements here, right?" Alannah prompted me, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think this planet was uninhabited."

"There are settlements here," I assured her, "Apparently, this planet has several large trading centers in it. However, they're all hidden in the mountains and valleys that dot the landscape."

"Did Jackson even get in contact with anyone from Sylkiir V?" she pressed, "I dunno about you, but I'd be pretty damn tilted if someone came out of nowhere and said they were building their base on my home planet."

I huffed. "Good point. Jackson! Get in here!"

"Okay, okay! No need to yell, you prick!" my guildmaster snapped. A few moments later, he spoke again, "Alright, what's wrong?"

"Did you get in contact with anyone from Sylkiir V?" I prompted him, "I doubt you'd want to anger the locals by coming here and telling them we're going to set up shop without their consent."

"Don't worry, I did get in touch with an administrator of the largest settlement on the planet. He told me we could land in his city and scout out the surrounding land."

"You didn't disclose that information to us," I stated in a flat voice, "That's important to know, Jack."

"Fuck, I thought I told you."

"No, you didn't."

He ran a hand across his face. "Damn it...I meant to tell you that, but I guess it slipped my mind."

"I get that you're a busy man, Jack, but please try to keep us in the loop," I continued, "My crew is my responsibility, so please don't place me in a difficult situation because of a lack of communication."

"Understood–I genuinely didn't mean to forget. Let me call my contact real quick."

A few moments later, another voice could be heard: "Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Nathaniel Morrison?"

"It is. Who is this?"

"Jackson Delacroix. We talked a few days ago."

"...Ah, yes. Delacroix. Indeed we did talk. What brings you to Sylkiir V?"

"I'm here to see if we could check out the area surrounding your settlement, Mr. Morrison. As you may remember, I'm looking for somewhere to establish a base of operations."

"Yes...I remember our conversation."

"Is my ship permitted to land in your outpost?" Jackson prompted the other individual, his voice laced with concern.

"Yes. Just...Don't land at the space port. I have a private pad at my colony's Administrative building–land there. I'm patching the coordinates of my settlement to you...now."

"...Alright. Coordinates received. Thank you Mr. Morrison."

"Don't mention it. Just...try to be discreet about your landing."

Without further warning, the conversation was cut short.

"What...the hell?" Jackson breathed.

"Agreed..." Alannah murmured, "Something tells me we're dropping by at a bad time."

"Regardless, we should try to see what's going on," I chimed in, not looking away from the sprawling, ever-changing landscape before me, "If he's asking us to be discreet about landing in his colony, something serious must be going on."

"No kidding..." Ali tacked on, "Could it be the UTF?"

"God, I hope not," Jackson growled, "We've avoided all of the Federation-controlled systems, so we shouldn't have to worry about them being a problem here."

"The Carrus system is at the crossroads of several important trade routes," I mused, "So it'd make sense if the UTF decided to take over this system and use it for their personal gain."

"Good point," Alannah mused, "Well, let's not jump to conclusions. For now, let's land and figure out what's going on."

"Fair enough. Care to share the coordinates with me, Jack?"

"On it."

 After he punched the coordinates into my nav computer, I switched the Ravager to auto-pilot so it could take us to our destination.

"We'll be landing in roughly twenty minutes," I stated, turning in my seat to regard Jackson, "Let everyone else know."

With a nod, Jackson turned around and left the cockpit.

The rest of our trip went smoothly: the instant our destination came into view, I whistled.

"Damn..." Alannah mused, "I thought this place was going to be smaller."

"That comment can be taken out of context in a rather...crass way," Vi'karac pointed out.

I scowled behind my mask and sighed. "Vik, has Boreas been trying to explain dirty humor to you."

"Perhaps."

I groaned. Great...

"I take it Vik is being a handful?" Ali prompted me.

"I think he's finally hit puberty," I replied, "Either that, or Boreas has been feeding him braindead jokes."

"Mr. Octavius' humor is, for the most part, not braindead. It is merely...acquired."

"I can't believe we're having this fucking conversation," I growled, shaking my head in disbelief.

Slowly descending from the heavens, the larger than expected 'settlement' came into view: it appeared to be circular in shape, and it  was arranged in a tradition grid layout. I aimed my ship toward the largest building that could be seen. As far as I'm concerned, that's where we'll find Morrison.

Sure enough, I spotted a figure waiting for us by an entrance to the facility below us as I slowly landed my ship.

"Alright, let's get moving," I told Alannah, shutting off the Ravager's engines and rising to my feet, "We don't want to keep Mr. Morrison waiting."

"No, no we don't," she agreed as we both walked into the cargo hold, "For what it's worth, I'm looking forward to figuring out what's going on in this system."

"Yeah, you and me both," I murmured before raising my voice, "Alright everyone, let's disembark and see what we could do to help out."

"Part of me wonders if Damien should've tagged along on this first expedition..." Raphael murmured, putting on the helmet his brother had upgraded for him roughly a month ago, "He said he'd meet us down here when the shuttles touched down, but I'm not sure that's a possibility now."

"Not until we figure out what's going on," I replied, "Sorry Ralph, but we're not going to bring our people down here if a conflict is being waged."

"I understand. Let's just...get moving."

The instant we got off the boarding ramp of my ship, the howling wind graced my eardrums. While Sylkiir V wasn't as inhospitable as Vasilyeev, I was still reminded of that hellhole when the wind's mournful song rang around me.

Shuddering to myself, I approached the person that stood away from us with a guard on either side of him.

"You must be Nathaniel Morrison," I said once I stopped before him.

"I am. Hmm...Didn't expect to have a bounty hunter here. Certainly not one of your...standing," Morrison replied, shivering and pulling his heavy coat closer.

I huffed out a soft chuckle. "I'm not here to kill anyone from your settlement, if that's what you're worried about. Jackson didn't want to travel alone, so I brought my crew with me."

"Ah, that's understandable," he began, studying everyone that stood around me, "Well, let's head inside. It's rather cold out here, and I doubt anyone wants to freeze out here."

"At least we have decent gear," Boreas grumbled as everyone started to shuffle toward the steel door before us, "For once."

"Thank you for upgrading everyone's armor and tech, Boreas," I said when everyone made it inside, "I don't know what we'd do without your technological prowess."

"You're just trying to butter me up."

"Is it working?"

"...Kinda."

Laughing to myself, I followed Mr. Morrison as he led us through the facility we had just entered. I frowned when I spotted several wooden and steel crates lining the walls of the corridor.

"You'll have to forgive the mess. These...just arrived a few days ago."

"What's in the crates?" Jackson prompted Morrison when he reached the other man's side.

"Supplies–water, rations, lanterns, you name it. They all had to be smuggled in, and we had nowhere else to put them."

Understandably, Jackson was at a loss for words. "You...had to smuggle in supplies."

"Yes. I will explain everything once we reach my offices. You're in the administrative building of this colony, so you're under my protection."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

Morrison only looked back at me with a bleak expression on his face, and I was shocked to find a dull, hopeless light glittering in his dark green eyes. We just arrived on this planet, and things already seem to be getting worse and worse...

I didn't ask any other questions until we were led into a modestly size office. Much like the rest of this building, the steel and glass desk that sat at the middle of the room was lightly cluttered. However, I could still tell Morrison made an effort to keep this place clean.

Settling down with a sigh, Nathaniel threaded his fingers together and rested his chin on the digit-bridge. "Forgive me for not having enough seats. I wasn't expecting more than two or three people to show up."

I let Alannah take a seat while Jackson and Boreas took the other two free chairs.

"It's of no consequence," Jack began, his miscolored eyes glittering with a curiously sharp light to them, "Start talking, Morrison. Three days ago, you were interested in allowing my people to set up a base on your planet. Now, you're acting strange and telling me you had to smuggle supplies into your own planet. Did the UTF place a blockade around your system or something?"

Nathaniel's face drained of color. "Not the UTF, no.  However, it might as well be."

"Stop beating around the bush, damn it. Who's giving your planet shit?" Jackson demanded, steadily growing more irate as the conversation wore on.

"The bastard's apparently an ex-Commando of the United Terran Federation," Nathaniel began, idly fixing his short dark brown hair as he spoke, "He may have been a member of the Grand Chancellor's storm guard, but he went AWOL after Djarek died. That's what I've heard at any rate, but he's apparently gathered up enough forces to pose a significant risk to this system."

The room fell silent in the next instant, and I struggled to find my voice.

Well shit...This is a first...I didn't expect him to say that...