The lifeless planet silently looked at me with the silent gaze of huge craters, which were a terrible reminder of the power of the weapons that once fell on this world. She was dead, but at the same time alive. People left this world long ago, leaving it to be loved by pirates and plundered by flocks of marauders. But they did not stay here for long, swept into outer space by the fiery broom of the united Imperial fleet. I looked down at the ground where the soles of my boots would soon tread, not even suspecting how this reconnaissance raid would change my life, dividing it into “before” and “after.” In the strange, sweeping swirls of the last traces of the atmosphere, I had not yet seen the storm that would sweep across the world years after the ramp flap swung open, letting streams of dark red light into the landing module and releasing us from it. I didn't know any of this yet. And I couldn’t know. I am Gleb Koshin, a former officer of the Imperial Navy, and this is my story...