Yronwode

Worlds Apart #7

by James Wittenbach

It has been almost two thousand years since the Old Galactic Commonwealth – an empire of more than 13,000 colonies spread across the galaxy – was wiped out by an alien race of even greater power. Only the most remote, underdeveloped, and overlooked colonies survived the Apocalypse. The Pathfinder Ship Pegasus is seven years into a 300 year mission to rediscover the lost colonies of Earth. Since leaving their home planets of Sapphire and Republic, Pegasus has discovered Meridian – A planet in the throes of conquest by a relentless race of alien insectoids; EdenWorld – A former amusement planet where the genetically engineered sideshow freaks took over after their human masters abandoned their world; Boadicea – A world where men are the property of women; the Aurelians; a species of immense power and beauty, bent on eliminating the inferior human strain from the galaxy; Aurora, a world inhabited by insatiable, lust-gorging hedonists on the edge of a thermonucleonic war. Pegasus has defied orders and jumped through a StarLock to arrive at a new world on the other side of the galaxy. Yronwode was one of the "Iron Worlds" of the Old Commonwealth; an escape-proof planet for the galaxy's incorrigible violent felons and war criminals. When Commander Keeler and his landing team went down to the planet, they didn't know about the "escape-proof" part. They are now trapped on the surface, and stuck in the endless war between the tribes of prisoners (Xirong) and the descendants of the missionaries (Redeemers) that followed them to the planet to save their souls. The war has been made worse by the intervention of the strange aliens called 'The Kariad.' The Kariad tried to resolve the conflict but their ignorance of the world's history made the conflict worse. Then, things get even weirder. After crashing his ship in the desert, Keeler becomes a warlord ("I am K-Rock") of a tribe of violent Xirong. He gives them delightful nicknames like “Gutbasher” and “Hardcheese” and prepares them for an apocalyptic assault on the last Redeemer stronghold; riding dragons and dropping bombs. On the Redeemer side, Eddie Roebuck becomes pontiff of the Church of Brian; the planet's dominant religion whose mythology involves time-travel and mutant space broccoli. Keeler and Roebuck are on a collision course for a violent showdown that could decide the entire future of the planet but then again might not.Also, Max Jordan has a girlfriend who is messing with his head... from the inside!

Unknown Binding