The desert outpost

As Kael stared at his display screen in awe, a new connection formed between his ship and an unknown location.

"Hey Kael." A calm voice was projected into his room.

"Hi sis." Kael said with a smile.

"Mother informed me about what's going on so I've also begun my own personal research as well." His sister said.

"That quickly huh, I guess since it is your controlled planet that it made sense to inform you." Kael replied.

"Anyway, from the time you entered Drayvoss' atmosphere, I was informed. I know you can see that giant tower off in the distance, it's not just for show." She added.

"Drayvoss, is that the name of the planet. You could have done better than that sis." Kael said teasingly.

"You try naming a planet and see how hard it actually is." She said, her voice cracking with agitation. "The tower belongs to the first and only outpost I created on the planet. The outpost is called Duskwatch Bastion. What do you think of that." She started calmly before bragging a little at the end.

"Meh, I would have gone with Ironhollow Bastion." Kael said.

After speaking did he realize that his sister had actually cut off the connection before he could reply.

"Sly fox. Anyway, oh God am beginning to speak like her. Let's check out the hype about this outpost." Kael said as his ship drew so ever closer.

As more was revealed on his display screen, Kael, who had gotten tired of waiting asked his assistant to contact his sister for a report on her outpost to which he gained a short reply. [Not a chance] was the holographic message that appeared in his workstation logs.

His second course of action was to order a scan of the entire general area to which he received an error. For some reason, his ship's scanners couldn't scan the outpost. He made sure they were working properly before he came to this conclusion.

The only thing Kael could do now was watch. The tower was surrounded by large mountains on all sides that abstructed the view of his ship's external sensors. Meaning all he could see on his display screen was mountains and a tower.

"Am starting to think the tower is the outpost." Kael sighed in annoyance and just went to lay down on his bed.

A few hours later.

The ship was finally over the mountains. Kael rushed over to his display screen and wasn't disappointed at all. Duskwatch Bastion was located on a plateau. The first thing he thought off were the strategic uses of such a location. It was an easy surveillance location, resources could be extracted from the nearby mountains and it had natural fortification due to being surrounded by mountains and cliffs.

The outpost itself didn't look that special but Kael had played a few games in the past and new how hard it was to build something like this. It was designed to be a small town rather than an outpost of some sorts. The buildings were made of an unknown but sturdy purple material that looked almost like absedian.

Kael was expecting heat resistant tents and a few sturdy structures of importance. He later realized why so much effort had been placed into the outpost when he couldn't find any ships nearby.

"Did these barbarians tear down an innocent ship to make this or did the ship just abandon them here?" Kael asked himself.

The more he stared at the city, the more he realized they were about to land and he wasn't prepared. Quickly tapping his overcoat's logo he ran out of his room towards the cargo bay where the ship's door was located.

He arrived to find his two bodyguards already waiting in their robes and gave them a slight nod as his robe finally finished forming. Hard for nanofiber to ship when one is running.

The robes and combat suits weren't just there for aesthetic purposes. Robes were the formal wear of the Shrouded hearts and were used for special meetings and occasions such as this while the combat suits were for combat training and actual combat for the daring enough masochists who didn't care about dying. Combat suits were simply their uniform.

The ship landed after a little bit of shacking. A few seconds after the shacking stopped, the carbo bay doors opened and Kael and his two guards were greeted by a group of five people.

"Good day, Young master Kael. I am the captain of this here operational outpost. My name is Veylan Duskbane. To my left, my assistant Renna Althier and to my right, my second in command, Cairn voss." The captain said with a smile.

Puzzled, Kael looked at the last two that were standing with the captain.

"Oh, Lady Murion didn't inform you of these two, very well. To my second in command's right, is my sister, Veyra Duskbane and to my assistant's left is Sariah Vos, the Event Horizon. These two are gifts that were prepared by lady Murion. She hopes you use them to your satisfaction." The captain said with a straight and eerily serious face.

"What the hell do you mean 'use them to your satisfaction."" Kael pulled the most disgusted look he ever pulled in his life as he spoke.

A heavy and deeply relieving sigh escaped the captain only for him to realize what he did at the last moment. He quickly straightened up like nothing happened and continued.

"Thank you Young master Kael for not being willing to do what she said. Although, she also requested that they join your party to show that she was sympathetic of your situation." The captain said as he smiled for the first time this entire conversation.

"Even if I wanted to take them in, my ship is already at max capacity, they'd have no place to sleep until I managed to scrounge up the funds to buy a bigger one." Kael complained, mostly to himself but still aloud.

"I was made aware, that you'd be staying in the outpost for a while until they can sort some things out. We have a few jobs that might require the might of a Murion, and we have a few funds to spare. Do you mind helping us out, young master?" The captain asked respectfully.

"Please, call me Kael." Kael said as he stretched out his hand. The captain took it and they shook hands. A new deal had been formed.