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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1861157" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 51: Awakening ImperialsSlowly, the blurred vision began to focus. Head hurt. Badly. It could be lived with, though. Arm likely broken. Legs alright. A few bruises. Voort blinked a few times, his eyes finally managing to focus through the daze. The shuttle was a mess. He couldn’t tell exactly how bad things were at the moment, but could feel a strong, and hot, wind that suggested at least one hole in the hull.    He was on his back, still in the pilot’s chair. It had been ripped out of its position and now rested against what the had been the ceiling. It was now the floor, and the transparent viewport had been shattered in multiple places, allowing a small amount of the sand beneath to coat the interior. Voort unstrapped the crash webbing, glad he’d strapped in and surprised he’d taken so little injuries. The rest of the cockpit was empty, though the door to the main cabin was open. Slowly standing up, Voort looked to the mess that was the cabin and found the hull breach. There were many, and some small fires that were burning themselves out. The cabin itself was only half the length it should have been, torn apart at an angle from the impact. The bright sun poured in through a large open gash through the hull, and Voort climbed up out onto the sand above.    The ship was buried to a point, and it was hard to tell how deep. Outside the ship, next to one of the large wings of the shuttle that had torn off, stood Landau. He was facing the other direction, looking off towards the rock formations to the north. The man looked in about as bad shape as Voort was in, and at the sound of movement, turned to see Voort, “Sorry I left you there...didn’t want to move you. Couldn’t tell how badly you were hurt.”    Voort nodded, understanding Landau’s decision. It was the correct one, and Voort took that moment to snap his shoulder back into place. It hurt, but one had to learn to deal with pain. A question came to his mind suddenly, “Where’s Jen?”    Landau sighed, wiping a red streak of blood from his forehead, “There are tracks leading to the rocks there. When I woke up, she was gone.”    “You didn’t go after her?” asked Voort sounding annoyed.    The other man shook his head, “Wasn’t going to leave you here to bake.”    Emotion drained for Voort face, and he simply nodded again, “It is hot out here.”    At that, Voort unsnapped the jacket he wore to get a little air. Annoyingly, the air wasn’t anything but more hot. From the look of Landau, he’d already attempted this and failed. Voort was glad he hadn’t worn the cloak. Though it was comfortable on other planets, it would have just helped to cook him here. The problem of not having it was that it revealing the weapons on his belt. The blaster pistol was no surprise, but Landau gave a long look to the large metallic cylinder. Voort ignore this as best he could, then looked towards the rocks again, “The tracks go that direction?”    “I followed them for a short while, but didn’t go to far,” Landau commented as the two of them started walking, “The tracks were well covered, but after a short time on this planet you learn to notice things like that. Boots. Which means it was Narani.”    “Why would they take her?” Voort asked after crossing the first dune. It was going to be a long way, and he was already feeling dehydrated.    Landau shrugged, “I’m surprised we’re still alive. They should have killed us.”    “Obviously, they had better things to do,” grumbled Voort, hating this long trek already. Nothing made sense.    “There’s movement off in the distance,” Landau said, interrupting the start of Voort’s thoughts. Arik pointed off towards their left, near a somewhat closer outcropping of the rocks. Of course, closer was still very near the horizon. Stopping on top of the second dune, Voort looked closely. There was movement. He knelt down to make himself at least a little harder to see, though the colors he wore would make him easy to spot no matter what.    Landau knelt beside him, pulling out a pair of electrobinoculars from the small pack of salvaged equipment he’d gathered while Voort was still unconscious. He focused them, then made a confused look, “Well, those aren’t Narani...don’t know what they are.”    Voort took the binoculars when Landau offered them, and zoomed in. The image was obvious. Alraxians. At first, he’d only seen Akan, looking tired but walking in a way that showed he was bored. About ten paces ahead of Akan, Shadow looked like she was sulking. Almost like a child told that play time was over. A grin grew on Voort’s face. That was probably what had happened.    He handed the electrobinoculars back to Landau and stood up, “Looks like the two of them made it out alright.”    “So that’s what they look like...” Landau commented to himself as Voort started down the dune to cut off the two Alraxians. Catching up, Landau raised an eyebrow, “You know how easily we can get lost out here, yes?”    Voort just nodded, “Think about this. We were shot down on approach without a word. Then, Jen was taken by a group who had to be waiting on us. Couldn’t have been unconscious for more than half an hour.”    “We were expected then?” Landau asked.    That got a shrug out of Voort, “It would seem that way. If not us, someone else was...but that still doesn’t explain why they took Jen. Or even where.”    “That one’s easy,” said Landau, motioning back towards the rock formations, “The Narani are the ones who took over Haladin after the Empire pulled out.”    “And Sadrak was one of them...” Voort said, thinking out loud as he tried to figure things out, “Just why Jen? And how did they know she was here? They had to be waiting nearby. Its Sadrak’s style to leave people alive to set a trap, so it hints at him being here like we expected...but...”    “But it goes back to the same thing,” Landau finished as the started on their fourth dune, hoping the two Alraxians would spot them so they didn’t have to walk the whole way and back, “How did he know we were coming?”    “Well, whatever it is, I know it wasn’t you,” Voort commented, alleviating a small fear in the back of Landau’s mind, “But that makes it even more complicated. I already don’t like this.”    At that, Landau laughed and patted his friend on the back, “Now you know how I felt when I was stationed here all those years ago. Consider this my revenge.”    “For what?” Voort asked, a smile creeping onto his face, “I only recommended you needed a better command than aboard a small Victory Destroyer.”    Landau scowled, “I had assumed I’d get an Imperial class after that, but no, they put me in charge of this rock. I’m so glad you made that recommendation.”    It was Voort’s time to laugh, but it was short and almost forced, as there was too much else on his mind, “You’re right, you do deserve revenge. Just next time, how about taking that revenge on a planet with some water? The dry air is getting to me already.”</blockquote>

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