The Light Burns Brightest In The Darkside

Blissfully Unaware

Chapter 1
The Xander family home was all told a happy one. Zykes, lived there, quite happily, with his three brothers; Zarkx, Serx & Keller and his two parents, whose names Zykes never really recalled as he only referred to them as mum & dad, but being as he recalls being only about the age of 5 or 6, though that is a rough estimate, he never really addressed his parents by any other names than Mum & Dad.
Though Zykes didn't know exactly what his parents did, he did know that they were involved in politics. They were always relying on friends or family to look after Zykes and his brothers while they were in attendance at the Governance House, in the city centre or were entertaining guests at their large suburban house.
Where they lived, on a planet somewhere in the outer rim, Zykes couldn't recall either it's name or location, just that it was neutral during his childhood years. Both the Republic and the Empire had near equal representation on the government, save for a few other 'fringe' parties that represented the interests of various trading franchises, however, it was not uncommon for these parties to back either the Republic or the Empires interests, depending on which one best served theirs.
Zykes knew all this, because even from an early age, he followed the interests of his parents closely. He thought at that time that he would follow in their footsteps and himself become a politician, in fact he saw this as a near certainty as far as he was concerned. He admired politicians. After all he had a very one sided view of them, with his parents as his ultimate role models. Zykes was far from ignorant or stupid, in fact he was quite the opposite. For his age, Zykes was quite knowledgeable about politics, he was very interested in the subject and constantly asking his parents for information about the current political system that operated in their region and he was always reassured to know that they operated a neutral territory treaty, giving the Republic and the Empire equal stake in the Region. Also, given that politicians also seemed like such respectable and honorable people it seemed highly unlikely that this treaty would be broken.
That was however Zykes' downfall, he did not understand corruption and underhandedness. He had the technical knowledge of the political system, but no concept of the practicalities of it. Such things as underhand deals and bribes were an unknown concept to him. As much as his parents warned him of the pitfalls of corruption, he could not see how such apparently honest and decent people could behave in such an appalling way. Surely neither side would break the treaty, after all, they both gained from it didn't they? Well, Zykes was about to get his first lesson in greed. One that would change his life forever.