"Many people think the living are already dead. Many people think the dead are gone, yet they always manage to cling to life." The woman in the thick cloak lowered her hood. Under the scrutiny of the person before her, she revealed reddish-brown skin and sharply defined features. Her agate-colored eyes were full of weariness, yet still bright.
Who else could it be but Tomitaili, queen of the Aelori, Great Khan of the Marauder Empire, and the culprit behind the Great Expedition to the Dawn Starfield?
By now, wanted posters bearing her face had spread across the entire universe. Humans were somewhat face-blind when it came to every species but their own. If there was an alien whose face any ordinary human citizen would recognize, the Great Khan Tomitaili would certainly be one of them.
"It's definitely her." Miss Fangting, deputy leader of the Black Serpent Pirate Band, studied the woman's face through her powered armor's visor and sent Captain Planck a confirmation. Even so, she kept the Vulcan cannon in her hands trained on the Great Khan's slender frame, her right hand poised on her lightsaber.
The dozens of heavily armed, hardened pirates behind her adopted the same battle-ready stance. Holding their breaths, they braced themselves as if facing a formidable enemy. It wasn't really their fault. This was merely an inconspicuous system on a branch of the New Continent Route. It had no habitable planets, and fewer than a dozen ships passed through in an average year.
The Black Serpent Pirate Band's ship had finally met the Great Khan Tomitaili here. But her last known signal had actually come from a dwarf planet that couldn't even hold on to its atmosphere.
On a spot in the northern hemisphere of the tiny planet, deep inside a crater, the pirate