Another Day in Paradise

Cerannah looked up at the sky between taking bites of her dry sandwich. Not that there was much to see past the dome through the noxious mix of carbon dioxide and other thicker gasses that made up the atmosphere of her current home planet, but if she tilted her head and squinted her eyes just right...   There.   Another brief blast of light, still faint through the haze of the atmosphere but plainly visible, brighter than the foggy sunlight from their own star. The supernova of a capital ship succumbing to its wounds, the life support's carefully curated atmosphere igniting from the blast before dissipating into the unforgiving vacuum of space. So the battle was still raging, as it had been since before her shift. How many ships? And whose?   She didn't know.   Not that it mattered. Not yet, at least. The warning sirens reminded silent, signifying a battle raging far from the colony with no need to man their localized defenses.   Yet.   She washed down the last of her sandwich with a swig of liquor, a bold vintage from Fukokaa they'd smuggled away for a special occasion when volunteering to colonize this Void forsaken world in hostile space as part of the war efforts. This wasn't exactly the sort of occasion she and her fellow talented colonists had envisioned when secretly stowing it away in their food stores, and drinking on the job was typically forbidden, but with water prioritized for manufacturing, and the focus on the unknown combatants fighting over the tattered remains of Dorix III...   Well. Everyone had been too busy to ration out the portions for civilians, so they'd had to make due.   Still, she'd known what she was getting into when she volunteered for relocation to the Active Defense Legion's hidden military base on Dorix IV. Or thought she had, at any rate. In truth reality was never equal to imagination, but there was good in that, too. Aside from the weekly drills she hadn't needed to participate in any defense of the base or the large covert manufacturing facility where she and her fellow civilians spent their days assembling the advanced electronic scouts they'd use to monitor the Confederation's movements, waiting until the perfect time to strike. She hadn't even had to go full alert like the Legionnaires currently sitting in their fighters, ready to defend the evacuation should the combatants above discover them.   Not that Cerannah had time to worry, not with the tightly enforced delivery schedule. And besides, the base was almost invisible to Legion sensors and casual Sparnelli Necromancy alike, courtesy of the angry swirling atmosphere of the uninhabitable gas giant, orbiting an abandoned star deep in Confederation territory.   She raised her glass toward the dome, and the periodic bursts of light breaking through the gloomy sky. "Good luck out there. Glad I'm safe down here." Standing from the bench to gather the remains of her lunch she stole one last glance, just in time to watch the sky light up with a brief but fierce display of light.   "Someone just lost a lot of ships. Wonder if anyone'll come looking our way." She shook her head with a shrug. If today was the first time she put her finely drilled training to use... Well, she was ready.   Bzzzzzzt!   Returning to her post at the shift alarm she was greeted with a loud bang, a large grin, and a very untamed beard. "Just in time, Frankie!" she laughed back before rummaging through the new box of parts sitting on her workbench.   "That's m'job!" Francell returned, tipping an imaginary hat with a lopsided smile. "Gotta get these surveyors out the door. No such thing as too many eyes in the sky in times like these, you know. Never know where Sparnell will jump to next."   Cerannah watched as her coworker drove away, off to deliver the next batch of parts needed to install the surveyor's engines further down the line. Humming quietly, she returned to her work with the specialized solar panels meant to power the delicate electronic equipment at the heart of each intel probe, and the calm familiarity of the work beneath her skilled hands.   Just another day on Dorix IV. Just another day in paradise.