Far above the broad, terrestrial jungle of a large, wet pebble known as Enteni-4, a young man wept like a baby. His sorrowful tears fell like sparkling gems and stained his pants as he gazed at a holographic panel with a dark expression on his face.
Had anyone seen his expression at the moment, it would've garnered quite a reaction, but the young man had wisely chosen to view the letter he had been sent in the privacy of his own room.
Few had ever glimpsed sight of this infamous cadet as of late, especially after what he had pulled off last time. Some cadets even bet on whether he had been secretly murdered or discharged and imprisoned out near the edges of charted space.
Alas, he had not been slain in secret, nor had he been discharged from service, for that would have actually been a delightful reward for the cadet known as Aetna Erandeusi and the Imperial Instructors of the 1st Fleet knew that all too well.
So, the instructors charged with educating the young man went out of their way to deliver unto him a punishment worthy of his crime. The Commander of the 1st Fleet, Larfuc Telam, had sent a cordial message to House Erandeusi in response to Aetna's most recent stunt as a punishment.
Commander Larfuc had practically written a love ballad of praise about Aetna's performance as a cadet and wished the Count of Kolinto and his family the warmest regards.
And in return, the current Count of Kolinto and Aetna's father, Kaleb Erandeusi, had sent Aetna a tearful message telling him about how proud he was of him. That he was overjoyed that Aetna had taken to military service so well, especially since he had not been... very receptive to it in the beginning.
It was then that Aetna understood that Commander Larfuc wasn't going to let him leave so easily.
'That old bastard's lying to Dad! He's even covering up MY CRIMES to keep me here! This motherfucker's not going to let me go, huh? Well, we'll see about that...!'
So, Aetna set to do what he knew best in retaliation — he set out to cause some trouble.
It was beyond Aetna's capacity to understand why Commander Larfuc had not yet given up on him, especially after what he had done. He was sure that his last stunt had been more than enough to get him immediately discharged from the Imperial Forces, but it seemed that Larfuc was determined to keep him.
In desperation, Aetna had jury-rigged a false alarm — a fire in the sub-levels of the engineering section — that'd fool even the ship's onboard AI for a moment. Enough time for him to 'commandeer' an escape pod and flee onto the planet that the ship was currently orbiting.
To Aetna, even living like a primitive troglodyte in one of the wild jungles of Enteni-4 was a better future than being an expendable cog in the Imperial Forces.
As soon as the false alarm blared across the ship, Aetna set off to the nearest escape pod hatch while everyone else aboard the ship moved into action to contain the 'emergency.' He changed into a disguise, dyed his hair, and had even crawled through a carefully planned route inside of the ship's atmospherics vents to avoid detection.
For all intents and purposes, Aetna's plan had been perfect. He had fooled everyone and entered the closest escape pod as planned without getting caught by anyone...
Except for Commander Larfuc, who had already been waiting for him inside of it.
Like a ghost that wouldn't stop haunting him, Commander Larfuc darkly said, "There's no escaping me, boy. You'll never get off this ship, not while I still breathe. You're stuck with me."
Something was terrifying about the way Larfuc had said that. It was like something a psychotic lover might've told their lover before chaining them up in a basement forever.
Aetna felt his skin crawl at the thought of being Larfuc's captive for life and was about to back out of the escape pod... until he heard the doors close behind him.
He quickly turned around, only to find that he had been locked up with Larfuc inside the escape pod. Larfuc had turned Aetna's only hope of escape into his worst nightmare in a stunning turn of events.
"What's with that horrified expression? Isn't this what you wanted? And here I thought you wanted to escape this whole time," said Larfuc as he shrugged his shoulders in mock confusion.
"Not without you, you old bastard! Now get out of my escape pod and make yourself scarce!" said Aetna as he desperately tried to open the escape pod's door to no avail.
Larfuc sighed and said, "If only you'd put your talents to use for something productive instead of causing trouble for me. How many times must we go through this before you finally accept that you're not going to get away?"
"How about I cause the reactor to malfunction next time? Let's see you cover something like that up with your authority," said Aetna with a cocky, dangerous smile. "It might accidentally kill us all, but I'm game to do it if it means getting out of here."
That was when Larfuc's eyes lit up like eerie golden saucers, and he said, "Careful, son. I'm forgiving, but the next time you threaten the crew like that, I'll space you out of an airlock."
The air seemed to ripple around Larfuc as he coldly stared at Aetna with his alien, golden eyes, giving him an almost fantastical appearance. He was akin to a horrifying monster that could have only existed in fiction. Yet... here he was, staring Aetna down with a sharp, predatory gaze.
Genetic modification? Cybernetics? There was no telling what Commander Larfuc had done to his eyes. Still, Aetna knew that it was probably best not to test his patience further today...
Still, if Atena pissed him off enough, there was a slim chance that'd he finally get what he desired most — a dishonorable discharge sentence that'd release him from his mandatory service in the Imperial Forces.
As the heir of House Erandeusi, Aetna was obligated to protect the 'Domain,' or the appointed Starsectors that the Solastora Empire had entrusted his family with defending and managing.
In many ways, it was exactly like the ancient system that many kingdoms used back during the Sublight Era back on Mother Earth, except on a much grander scale. Where Aetna's primitive ancestors might've served as vassals for a powerful monarch on Earth, his family had been given the same job on an interstellar scale.
And since the Solastora Empire's territory encompassed over eighty percent of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, which held enough stars for every Imperial Citizen in the Empire to be given their own star with more than enough to spare, there was a lot of space that needed to be supervised...
Suffice to say, it was a plot of space so enormous that it could never be surveyed and owned by a single individual, let alone the sum of humanity combined.
Hence, the Solastora Empire — specifically House of Savugh, the royal family — needed competent individuals who could protect, control, and inhabit the mind-bogglingly vast domain that it had claimed for itself.
Thus, the creation of the noble houses was born. Intrepid families with the drive to attend for the Domain of Savugh were bequeathed a region of space for them to develop and protect on the basis that they would remain loyal to the Empire and its interests in perpetuity.
But all of this was an irritating burden to Aetna. He couldn't care less who possessed the title of Count of Kolinto as long as it wasn't him. In his eyes, a life of bureaucratic boredom was all that awaited those unfortunate enough to be bestowed such a... 'prestigious' title.
It was a cushy job during times of peace. Still, during outbreaks of wars, every noble was duty-bound to participate in the defense of the Empire.
After all, if the Solastora Empire fell, so too would the Domains they had been conferred.
There was no guarantee that an opposing empire or nation wouldn't lay waste to their systems and strip them of their resources. And it was all but certain that they'd lose all of their former rights as nobles if the enemy didn't outright kill them if the Solastora Empire fell.
That was the life of a noble; they were bound to their Empire by birth and would perish alongside it should the day ever come that it lost a war.
For some, it was a prestigious honor that was nigh unobtainable to acquire, but to Aetna, it was a waking nightmare that he found himself unable to escape.
While Aetna had enjoyed the many privileges that came with his Noble House being part of the Aristocracy, he didn't have any interest in maintaining the illustrious legacy it had shouldered for the last 300 years.
But more than anything, it infuriated him that he had been chosen to inherit the title, all the while his siblings enjoyed themselves back home in luxurious comfort.
'Ahh, fuck me!! I can't stand this anymore! If I can't blow the ship up, then I'll blow myself out of a damned airlock myself! ...Maybe if I display suicidal tendencies, I might be able to be discharged on medical grounds!'
If pushing didn't work, then pulling might work. To Aetna, anything was possible as long as one had the right mindset.
And as insane as that plan sounded, it hadn't been the craziest idea Aetna had concocted as of late, not by a long shot.
He had, after all, at one point rigged an intentional malfunction in the Heart Of Afante's propulsion systems during the height of his infamy a year ago... during a fleet-wide training exercise.
It'd been Aetna's magnum opus of all the stunts he had performed since he had been drafted into the Imperial Forces.
In the middle of a mock fight, Aetna had intentionally caused the flagship of the 21st Imperial Fleet, the Heart Of Afante, to unexpectedly lose control of its thrusters mid-fight, upon which he had "commandeered" a Melac-class attackcraft to escape.
The resulting collision between the Heart of Afante and the opposing foe, the 9th Fleet, led to an event later described as the 'most embarrassing' event for the Imperial Forces in the last century.
And it had all been orchestrated by a single Imperial Cadet too as if to add extra insult to injury.
Unbeknownst to Aetna, it was that stunt that had sealed his fate. Imperial Forces High Command took notice of him, something no one in their right mind would ever wish for.
After he was caught, he was... given a promotion by High Command and transferred to the 1st Imperial Fleet, a prestigious honor that many would've killed to obtain.
Since then, Aetna had tried his hardest to escape, but every time he had gotten close to escaping, Commander Larfuc had thwarted his plans.
False alarms. Intentional sub-systems failures. Sabotage of critical systems. Even the partial destruction of a section of the ship. Aetna had tried just about everything he could think of, but...
Nothing had fazed Commander Larfuc. It was as if he was made of reinforced titanium and pure testosterone. He had seemed completely unfazed by anything Aetna had thrown his way.
To some extent, it unnerved Aetna. The man in front of him would not budge, not for anything. He was running out of options that did not involve the potential destruction of the ship he was assigned to.
Was Aetna willing to kill people to escape his duty? To take an innocent life for his own desires?
Harming people? Sure. Destroying military property? It wouldn't be a plan if it didn't have some destruction. But being a murderer was a fine line that he could not step back from...
"Just let me go. Please..." said Aetna as he fell on his knees in prostration. "I'm willing to forsake my family, my inheritance, and whatever rights and advantages were afforded by it. I have no interest in being a cog for this empire, so please just let me leave."
If threatening didn't work, perhaps begging would do the trick— an emotional appeal from the heart to sway Larfuc into giving him what he wanted.
Larfuc's gaze narrowed as they peered into Aetna's eyes as if looking for something within them. Pride and honor meant nothing to Aetna; if a strategy worked, he'd use it without a second thought...
For a good minute or two, silence dominated the escape pod, and Aetna thought he had finally stumbled onto something that worked...
But in the end, Larfuc said only a single word in response to Aetna's plea: "No."
He would not allow Aetna to leave the Imperial Forces. Not now, nor ever in the future.
Suffice to say, Aetna was damned. There was no escape.