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"In the infinity that is space, suns are but grains of sand. A white
dwarf is barely worthy of notice."
Alan Dean Foster
The Colonial Marines were on their return from a petty war on some backworld, DE-881. The inhabitants called it Ketta Ketta, but the place was just another nameless desert world as far as the soldiers were concerned. As with so many of their assignments, no shots were fired. The sight of the company's dropship and APC lumbering toward the poorly outfitted combatants was more than enough to settle the issue. The few farmers that had been raising hell returned to their
side of the river and the dispute was ended. Grateful for the respite, and having completed their mission way ahead of schedule, the men and women of the 4th Battalion 2nd Regiment lived it up... in
a tiny village called Sawyer. The following morning, the troops slogged back to the dropship and were ferried up to the Gaines, their home away from home and camel across the vast gulf of space.
The USS Gaines is a Conestoga-class strikeship, state of the art if only slightly battered from use. She takes a two-year tour of sectors 260 through 290, loaded light for fast response in case of emergencies. For the colonies out here, she's usually the only ship within a month's travel time. Now almost fulfilled of her
obligations, she was set for a faster than light course arcing toward Earth, and the pleasures of shore leave.
Most tours with only a couple of short months remaining will come to an uneventful close before returning Earthside. As far as the sleeping passengers of the Gaines were concerned, there would probably only be a few chores to handle around the ship, and the standard debarkation and overhaul prep for the ship, but then it's a month of downtime. That's what the Marines were expecting when the cryo capsules opened and they began to thaw.
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