Wandering Wolf
Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks
The Vergeworks stretched endlessly beneath the afternoon haze. Factories belched smoke high into the sky while cargo traffic drifted between refinery towers and elevated shipping lanes overhead. The district moved with relentless momentum; cranes turning, assembly lines roaring, freighters descending toward overcrowded docking platforms. Everything here was built for production, survival, and exhaustion. Nothing more.
But compared to what it used to be, the Vergeworks felt different now. The random gang wars that once bled through entire sectors had mostly vanished. Smuggling routes operated with structure instead of constant territorial conflict. Entire districts that used to erupt over shipments or protection rackets had gone quiet beneath a heavier hand. All by Ace's hand.
He stood near the edge of a rooftop overlooking Sector 9G, one hand resting lightly against the railing as the wind tugged faintly at the fabric of his coat. From here he could see the old residential blocks wedged between industrial zones and starport infrastructure. The scrapyards stretched endlessly in the distance beneath layers of smoke and machinery.
The same skyline he'd grown up staring at as a kid. Just from a different position now. His gaze shifted briefly toward one of the eastern shipping sectors where today's operation was unfolding below. One of the distribution crews moving through Vergeworks territory had been siphoning medical shipments and reselling them off-world for profit. It destabilized the system and invited attention from people far worse than local gangs.
So Ace came personally, lately he'd found himself trusting fewer and fewer things from a distance. Coruscant, the Covenant, the cold war. Even himself sometimes. His prosthetic fingers flexed once against the railing before settling again. Brown eyes drifted back across the skyline as the weight of recent weeks lingered quietly at the back of his mind.
The Trinity. Balmorra. Jedha. The thoughts came whether he wanted them to or not. Sibylla looking at him differently on the Trinity. Lorn trying to stop him. The growing realization that more and more of the people dying around Covenant operations weren't monsters, just obstacles. And beneath Jedha's ruins... children made of light looking at him with recognition instead of fear.
Ace exhaled slowly through his nose. For the first time in a long while, the certainty underneath everything had started to crack. Not enough to stop or walk away, but enough to feel it.
Below him, the Vergeworks continued forward without pause. Workers crossing catwalks. Freighters lifting into polluted skies. People surviving because survival was the only thing this place had ever truly taught them.
Ace watched the city in silence, shoulders still beneath the afternoon wind.
Aether Verd
But compared to what it used to be, the Vergeworks felt different now. The random gang wars that once bled through entire sectors had mostly vanished. Smuggling routes operated with structure instead of constant territorial conflict. Entire districts that used to erupt over shipments or protection rackets had gone quiet beneath a heavier hand. All by Ace's hand.
He stood near the edge of a rooftop overlooking Sector 9G, one hand resting lightly against the railing as the wind tugged faintly at the fabric of his coat. From here he could see the old residential blocks wedged between industrial zones and starport infrastructure. The scrapyards stretched endlessly in the distance beneath layers of smoke and machinery.
The same skyline he'd grown up staring at as a kid. Just from a different position now. His gaze shifted briefly toward one of the eastern shipping sectors where today's operation was unfolding below. One of the distribution crews moving through Vergeworks territory had been siphoning medical shipments and reselling them off-world for profit. It destabilized the system and invited attention from people far worse than local gangs.
So Ace came personally, lately he'd found himself trusting fewer and fewer things from a distance. Coruscant, the Covenant, the cold war. Even himself sometimes. His prosthetic fingers flexed once against the railing before settling again. Brown eyes drifted back across the skyline as the weight of recent weeks lingered quietly at the back of his mind.
The Trinity. Balmorra. Jedha. The thoughts came whether he wanted them to or not. Sibylla looking at him differently on the Trinity. Lorn trying to stop him. The growing realization that more and more of the people dying around Covenant operations weren't monsters, just obstacles. And beneath Jedha's ruins... children made of light looking at him with recognition instead of fear.
Ace exhaled slowly through his nose. For the first time in a long while, the certainty underneath everything had started to crack. Not enough to stop or walk away, but enough to feel it.
Below him, the Vergeworks continued forward without pause. Workers crossing catwalks. Freighters lifting into polluted skies. People surviving because survival was the only thing this place had ever truly taught them.
Ace watched the city in silence, shoulders still beneath the afternoon wind.
Aether Verd