The Outlaw: Shattered Past Book Seven (Forsaken)

Chapter 1: A Perfect Gift

    It was a cold afternoon in the middle of December in Cirtugan, the city where most of the Eliksni population on Earth lived, at least until the newer cities were finished. Amid the sea of gray faces, black armored police officers, and shimmering Elik spires, there was one person who was working on a hand cannon in his apartment. The tools gently held in his mechanical hands as he etched by hand designs into the barrel of this ancient and powerful firearm. The Handcannon, it seemed, was one of the oldest firearm types still used today. The Exo knew the history of the weapon like the back of his hand, the first revolver was made in 1836, and became an icon of the time when the law depended on who had the fastest trigger finger. While it was normal for people, guardians especially, to just buy these weapons, he wanted to make it special. It was a gift for his best friend.

O"Alright, just a few more etches then it's done." He thought taking the silver etching pen across the barrel and scraping it. He stepped back and wiped his brow, his orange eyes locking on the metal object underneath the bright white lamp. He grabbed the weapon by the grip and rotated it to get a good idea of where the etching was made. "Okay, everything looks good now," He thought. He had been hard at work on this project for months, stress testing the hammer, seeing how much power the firing mechanism had, and having to rebuild it at least four times. At last, it was finished. It was a beautiful piece, a black pistol with a black walnut grip with silver engravings of owls and leaves on the barrel. The drum itself had an owl etched on it as well. The grip had a pattern etched to improve the hold that the user could have on it. Aaron liked the appearance of older revolvers, and he designed his to mimic that appearance.

"I know he's just gonna love this." The Exo thought placing the pistol in a black box with a red velvet lining, putting the top of it on and wrapping it with a silver bow. He stood up from his workstation and transmatted himself up to the ship that he had at the Cirtugan spaceport. "This is Aaron-14 requesting permission for take off,"

"Understood this is Cirtugan control tower Alpha you are cleared for take off along vector four,"

"Thank you Command I'll be back soon," He said pulling the Ascensor made jumpship out of its docking bay and into the midday sky. The Dawning had started a few days ago and everyone was celebrating, and he figured he might as well join in. He spun around in his chair as his ship went into autopilot looking to the back. His ship was destroyed during the last war, and along with it any of the Star Wars memorabilia that he had collected over the years. Except for one special gift that his friend James made him for his birthday, it was a bright red lightsaber that functioned as a normal one did. He seldom used it but he looked at as a memory rather than an actual weapon. This new ship that he got was curved around the outside and had a v shape with a curve for the engines which deployed the landing gear. It was white and black with some blue accents around the edges. Not to mention it was armed to the teeth with plasma cannons and multi-rocket pods.

The ship passed right in front of the Tower and transmatted him down to the snow-covered plaza. Blue, yellow, and white lanterns floated around the area while snow descended slowly from the gray sky. Aaron saw a bunch of things that were different about the festival this time of year. Children were playing with each other in the Tower Plaza of all different species. They were just picking up the snowballs and throwing them at each other and hiding just above them on top of the building that Tess and the Postmaster were working out of was the person he was looking for. A moment later, doing a spiraling horizontal jump off of the platform, hands full of snowballs charged with small amounts of Fryst energy, a blue Exo with a cloak and yellow boots tossed them perfectly at all five of the children playing below. All of them got snow on their jackets and just laughed as he landed perfectly on his feet.

"Looks like I win again," He chuckled before he got a snowball to the back of the head from another child. With his eyes blinking a couple of times he turned around to find a small girl who shared the same color of blue skin as he did, and a short head of blonde hair. "Well, I guess I spoke too soon," He said walking over to her. Aaron just smiled to himself. While his life may have been less than great in a lot of ways, he was at least happy that Cayde got something good going.