Contruum's Open Terrain

The bead of each droplet of sweat dripped in rhythm to each beat, each homeward driven blow thumped into the rock face driven to eradicate sin, his sin. Here he would dead and would spend the remainder of his days in this place, this living he’ll where all the dammed souls were. Fear, fear could make or break a man, especially if the fear was a personal one. It always had been, his weakness was himself, fear of what the war might do to him. Haha! Ware, which one? There was no one, just a continuing line of them, yet this one had shown to be different, pushed to the brink he had almost broken, now he was broken anyway, just in a different way. He had died, so what did it matter. All that was here was his shame, his guilt and the rock, the rock which he could beat all his pains out on and it wouldn’t matter, and there was something guttural about it, a satisfaction one might even say. Oh, but how he wished for water, the thought of a single blissfully drop was agony, and bearing the pick like a personal cross as he did his calloused hands threatened to slip, yet to pause to wipe them on his trousers would to be threatened or to receive a cracking of the whip the overseer bore. Bore, haha, now he knew why they called it Borium. Steffo smiled at his own lame joke.

“Wacha grinning at Hall? You found somethin perty? “

“Chance would be a fine thing.”

Steffo replied not stopping or turning to address Fargas. He was a simple straight forward man. He spoke as he saw it and over the past years they had become something of acquaintances, friends were a luxury and down hear, they were a weakness that could be exposed, so no one ever formed friendships, but Staffordshire had never been one to always follow the rules, but forming friendships was something he doubted he would do easily again.

“Maybe usa smilin cus you gonna dig yawserlf outta here.”

Steffo grinned again.

"Well that would be telling now wouldn’t it.”

He responded playfully, although his thoughts drifted very far from escape, there was no escape....

“No, no, no, NO!"

He woke with a start his right arm still held outstretched grabbing an imaginary something or someone. Then slowly he gathered his senses around him, the quiet sliding of paper cards onto a wooden upturned box that served as a table. The noisy buzzing of the overhead light.

“Darn it, the four of towers, that ain’t never a welcome friend.”

Fargas stopped playing and Steffo could feel his eyes upon him. Steffo sighed.

“Go on, say it.” “I warnt sayin nuthin arn nothing. “ “You don’t need to.”

Steffo responded.

Fargas threw his hands up in mock surrender and then flopped them down by his side, he rose and slowly made his way to the window of the prefab.

“I en born yesteryear naw was I. I mightta naw nuthin but spit and sawdust, but I saen a lotta folk Hal. But none likes a you.”

He turned to look at Steffo.

“You donst belong. You ain’t likes all us folks, I’d a wager my foot you ain’t never murdered nor robbed a being, you probably ain’t never done no crime, yets you is ear wiv all of us. I mighta not know some things, but ai knows war when I sees it, and I seen plenty aw haunted men, and you sir, you haunted worst than a banshee. Gawd knows what yaw saw but yaw don’t seem tha type to fright to may. You gots to face it Hall, whatever yaw demons bae yous gotta face it, and yaw need to start with that dam box awv yaws.”

Fargas picked up some tobacco and began to chew it whilst eying Steffo out of one eye.

"Nothing gets past you does it,I thought I'd been careful, obviously not careful enough, look forget it, alright." "It ain't me who needs ta forget tho."

Steffo shooknow his head.

"It's the past, it's dead, you wouldn't understand."

Fargas slammed his hand down hard on the wooden window ledge.

"Your past! But it ain't tho caws you kept it, you ain't dealin wiv it tho, An like ell I won'the understan, I been thru wars, I lost people, and I no never keepin no box neither. I ain't never let my demons best me. You think your done Sony, but you ain't, sooner you wake up an realise that, sooner you gonna be right in yerself. Awwith hell Hal why does an old man care faw."

With that the great big man rose and stomped out of the room leaving Steffo with a myriad of jumbled thougts. He couldn't shake it dam it, what the hell did Fargas know, and yet, yet he couldn't unshake the reasonable seed of doubt that had now been planted. Steffo rose off the bed, he pulled the wooden box from out of its hiding place and ran, he left the room and ran, and ran, barefooted he ran, until he reached the drop, the edge of the cliff, wind rushing through his struggled hear. It pulled invitingly at him. He tried, he had run to the cliff face, but it was as though the box were a part of him. His arm launched but the box held rigid in his grasp. He collapsed and sobbed, placed shaking hands upon the box.

"What do you want from me?"

A voice replied, whether he heard it in reality or through some other medium he wasn't sure and never would be, but it spoke with his voice, and it asked him;

"Is this the way to honour my memory, is this what we were all to fight and die for, so you could try and run and forget. The weakness is not that you felt hate, nor sorrow, nor vengeance but that you were not willing to stand and be counted that you fled afraid to be tempted and to face temptation, you ran and by running the darkness succeeded. Now you must face it, now you must face yourself."

The stars slowed and his hands steadied. Two lines of the Jedi code surfaced 'Emotion, yet peace,'death yet the force.'He opened the box and looked warily at the cylindrical metallic hills, he closed his eyes and slowly extended his hand and brushed his palm upon them before planting it flat, he opened his eyes as though sight had been restored to him.


"I will do what must be done."

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to be a wise guy, but more than that I wanted to be the boss, just like my old man.

The Gallucci Family

My old man ran Champion City with an iron fist, nothing happened without his say so and everyone knew it. Everybody knew him and there wasn't a soul that challenged him, at least not that lived to tell about it. And being the boss's kid was nice, I did what I wanted when I wanted, I knew everybody and everybody knew me. I used to work down at the dock with Jimmy the Fish, following him around with a clipboard and keeping track of inventory. Mama Gallucci didn't much like me working the docks, in fact she didn't want me to be in the business at all but I lived and breathed the stuff. It was exciting, when kids my age were still asking their parents for an allowance I was racking in the credits, I always got respect when I went places, and I was just a kid, I was untouchable.

And I wasn't handed anything either, my old man believed in hard work, I worked my way from the ground up and knew that I was in line to take over the business when he kicked the bucket. I was the oldest son after all. My older sister didn't seem to mind much, we were thick as thieves, there wasn't anything I did that I didn't want her to be a part of. So naturally when my old man passed and I was in charge she became my right hand, my consigliere. I've been the boss for ten years now and I've done my best to live up to my old man's legacy.

Champion City, a sprawling city on the coast full of life and teeming with opportunity. No city in the galaxy is more prestigious than this and no city more diverse. It's a safe place to live and even raise a family, dad saw to that, go to Contruum Six though and it's as wild as any place in the Outer Rim and beyond.

On the outskirts of town lies the Gallucci compound. The compound consisted of a residential street that ended in a cul-de-sac, providing only one means of entry, surrounded by high hedges covering a durasteel wall, and lined with eight large two-story houses all owned by Tony Gallucci.

Three of the houses were rented at low price to several neighbors who had relatives in another part of Coronet, and lived under an agreement to vacate the premises, no questions asked, if the need arose. This was done as a camouflage measure during peacetime, and as a way to provide a garrison for soldiers in a crisis. Two of the other houses were used by Tony Galluci and Mama Gallucci. The last three houses were owned by good friends of the Don. The largest house at the end of the cul-de-sac belonged to Tony and serves as his base of operations.

The compound was equipped with several floodlights, making it impossible to move unseen at night. After the death of his father, Tony Gallucci further reinforced the compound by building an eleven-foot stone wall around the perimeter, installing an durasteel gate at the entrance and buying the property around the Mall and populating them with Gallucci soldiers and their families. Making him and his family possibly the most protected people on Corellia.

In his second floor office Tony waited for his next appointment, looking out the window observing some of the neighborhood children playing on the new playground equipment he had just had installed. The sight brought a slight smile to his face. His office was positioned just so he could watch over the interior of the compound from distant entrance right to his front door.