behind the man.

Brun was human, kind of; he looked like nothing so

much as a normal-sized male who'd been sat upon by
something large and heavy. His trunk was shaped like a
canister, and his head was almost wider than it was tall.

He was from some planet that Ratua had never heard of

before they'd met.

Brun had been on the prison world for years, and had
worked his way up to a position of some trust in that he
was allowed inside the compound to help in the loading
and unloading of cargo supplies for the dirtside guard
posts.

The only way off the world was by ship, and the guard
supply craft were the most likely conveyances. There had
been organized breaks in which whole ships had been
commandeered, but that was, in Ratua's considered
opinion, stupid past the point of suicidal. The Empire had
all kinds of firepower up there, and they weren't shy
about using it if they knew a transport had gone rogue.
That had happened six months or so ago, and there
hadn't been any survivors of that attempted escape.

If you couldn't sneak past, you weren't going to get very

far. And in a stand-up with Imperial warships, you were
going to lose.

Brun was not a man for pleasantries. "Krovvy me th'

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