He was sitting on the ships railing as they made port on Jericho I.

A military station that roamed the galaxy freely, acting as a safe harbour for any navy ship to resupply before heading out into the great void.

He now was Straddus’ most trusted sword and spent most of his days training and sparring, giving away the lures of drink and wenches as he kept his mind focused on his original goal.

Finding his father. He knew he was still out there, roaming the starry skies upon the dreadnought.

The S.S Rackerman still kept its course towards the murky centre of the galaxy, picking off nefarious pirates one by one as it conquered more and more of the cosmos for the Royal navy.

One starry evening at a military port on trafalgar prime, Lucius was sitting on the portside railing, fiddling with his pocket knife in one hand and staring into the compass on the other.

Tinkle tinkle it went as he swayed it about.

Straddus approached him, he had just been in the naval command centre of the city and came back with fresh orders after his debrief.

“Now stop fiddling with your toys there laddie and listen up!" Lucius slowly pulled his gaze to his mentor.

"I've just heard it from the general, we're done playing childs games and toying around now boy." He began as he took on a theatrical strutt.

Lucius chuckled under his breath.

"Now I've heard it from the general himself, we're going straight for the blight."

Lucius stiffened in both excitement and angst.

The blight; a harsh, dark expanse of space with nothing but black holes, rogue planets and perilous pirates. The blackest of souls and the strongest most debauched of space faring ruffians traversed those cosmic doldrums.

Legend tells of an ancient pirate fortress, orbiting a slowly dying red dwarf in the centre of the dark expanse.

It was also the last barrier before the cluster that was the centre of the galaxy.

Lucius couldn't help but smile as he sensed a tingle through his soul.

He stood with a tinkle of his compass and a swift sheathing of his sword.

"Well what the hell are we waiting for, old man!" He exclaimed before trudging off energetically.

They left port not long after, headed for the cosmic abyss.

They had their first encounter not long into the journey and it was as hostile and brutal as Lucius expected.

The skirmish was won against an infamous pirate frigate but not without serious loss.

That was the first time Lucius had ever seen so much death on board. He himself was left brandished with slashes, cuts and burns all over, a definitive and abrupt reminder of his mortality despite his new found skills.

"Son thank god you've got the devil in ye because this is the land of the demons, god can't help us here." Straddus told Lucius as he bandaged his injury.

Both of them sat in the medical cabin as the nurses treated Straddus' laser burns.

The next few skirmishes tested the S.S Rackerman and her crew.

Brilliant yet brutal space warfare.

Laser streaks painted the black canvas of the void in brilliant bright red flashes of light and blood.

Lucius, lost within the beast that he'd built within himself, let himself run wild in a cosmic campaign of carnage but began to grow tired and weary.

They were half way through the blight, resupplying on a rogue planet that was frozen at the surface but held vast labyrinths of tropical underground forests beneath the crust.

Lucius, much for a want of a change of scenery, volunteered to head the ground team of a dozen sailors to go out and gather supplies.

With no sign nor lead as to where to find the legendary pirate fortress as well as the heavy losses, the men of the Rackerman grew anxious as morale dropped.

Talk of mutiny was whispered through the group as they ventured further and further into the jungle.

If not for Luciuus’ back-alley pedestrian charm, most of the crew would have already abandoned their position and found their way back to the security of the brighter parts of the Galaxy.

He was on a mission though.

With the thought of his father pulling him further into the unknown and the pain of love lost that accompanied the thought of Avery pushing him further out of the warm bosom of the civil galaxy.

He trudged on through the murky, dark alien swamp with grit, vigour and a wild, devilish determination in his eye.

The dozen only returned as half a dozen as the bioluminescent beasts of the jungle devouring three of the crew and poisonous fruits and fatigue reaping the souls of the others.

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The remaining picked their way through the icy surface of the planet, supplies on their backs weighing them down in this already heavy planet.

They emerged a couple of hundred yards away from where the Rackerman was moored, the returning crew's eyes widened in terror and surprise as they saw a gargantuan, red sail ship launching heavy fire into the hull of the Rackerman.

From accounts of legend, Lucius knew that ship.

The Dreadnought, his fathers vessel.

Crimson red flashes bled through the sky, illuminating the shock in the faces of the men.

Lucius steeled his nerves and began to give orders.

“Men! Leave the supplies in the ice! They won't spoil, we have to sneak on board the enemy ship! The Rackerman is a lost cause, but we could still save some of our men held captive. Come on!” The team gave a cry of vigour as they too steeled their nerves and gritted their teeth.

He led the charge as they manoeuvred their way to the anchor of the Rackerman.

“This will be our only way up! Keep your wits close and your swords closer.” He said as he held a knife in his mouth before he began to ascend the chains.

Each of his ragtag crew followed one after the other.

He told the men to hush as they neared the hull of the Rackerman.

They quietly clambered up to the hull only to find nothing but corpses littering the deck.

Lucius kept his guard up as he felt a tingle run up his spine.

Upon a second glance Lucius noticed that there were relatively few bodies, compared to the amount he knew to be on the Rackerman as crew.

He deduced that the pirates must have taken the rest prisoner and were preparing to disengage and make sail.

“Quickly lads! We can mourn later, right now we have to go and save the rest of the crew.” He whispered forcefully before beginning to stealthily make his way towards the enemy ship.

Just as they had reached the docking hole that was punched into the side of the hull by one of the enemies breaching cannons, the bulking monstrosity began to pull away.

“Come on boys!” He yelled as he quickly snapped on an oxygen mask and jumped out of the breach hole.

He lept a fathoms length into the void before clutching onto a mechanical breaching tendril.

Three of his team were quick enough to make it but two of his group were too slow and no matter how far they jumped, were now destined to float aimlessly in the blight until their oxygen ran out.

A jolt of guilt ran through Lucius like a knife to the stomach.

He felt responsible for their deaths but he knew he had to quell that in order to continue, so he steeled his nerves and kept climbing.

The ship's sails began to glow a bright crimson, signalling that the fusion generators had been activated.

Lucius and the crew had only moments before the ship blasted into warped spacetime.

Lucius and his gang quickly made it to the root of the tendril before it was docked back into the ship.

From the breaching tendril ejection compartment the team found their way into the purifying vents and manoeuvred their way through the ship from there.

They deftly made their way past patrols and guards.

Although one would not have to be very subtle, Lucius could smell a whole year's worth of alcohol simmering off of the recently victorious pirates.

They were stumbling, swearing and making merry in the corridors as Lucius and the team ducked, blended and snuck their way through the ships quarters.

He found that it was not too dissimilar from other military ships, with the living quarters and the bridge at the top-front of the vessel and everything else in descending order of practicality.

That means the brig is at the bottom!

Lucius thought as he led the other men through the ship and down to the brigg.

Him and the rest of his crew easily overpowered the few drunken guards standing watch over the new prisoners.

"Straddus!" Lucius nearly yelled too loud as he ran up to one of the overcrowded, under illuminated, sweat smelling cells.

"Lucius, my boy! Is that really you? My god I figured you had been left for dead on that frozen hellscape!" He replied with glee.

"Haha, not me old man! It'd take more than a little cold to get me." He said jovially as they clasped hands through the bars.

"Haha that's my boy! How did you get in here anyway? Where are the guards?" He began to ask.

"Never mind that officer, we've still gotta get you out of here first!" He said as he studied the bars.

"Something tells me you hadn't thought that far into your plan." Straddus said somewhat sarcastically.

"Yeah well I didn't exactly have much time for planning at all now did I… besides I'm more of a… by the skin of my teeth kinda guy." He said with a grin as the lock he had been working on clicked open.

Straddus chuckled and shook his head with a smile before moving out of the cell.

Before long the crew had picked each and every cell and the crew was free.

"What now sir?" Lucius asked Straddus who in return just smiled, clasping his hand over the younger man's shoulder.

"You tell me lad, you've gotten us this far." Lucius stopped for a moment, surveying the entire crew and the officer standing in front of him.

He himself curled his lips into a tight little smile.

"To the bridge! We'll take the ship! The Rackerman is basically dead in the water now anyway." He said resolutely, Straddus and the crew also seemed to mirror his conviction with a unanimous "Aye!"

And maybe my father will be here…

They had no other hope now, stuck in the middle of the blight on an enemy ship. This young strapping warrior in front of them, of whom had saved many of them in tight skirmishes over the past few weeks, was their only hope.

Even Straddus admired the grit of the boy who had come to him as a grovelling, scrawny dock rat.

"Alright lads, follow me!"