“We just don’t need you around the farm anymore Luca. With the new droids, the Krill harvest should be entirely automated. Hell, me and your father are thinking of taking a vacation to Avicort. They have this hotel in Vallorum town with rooms right on the reservoir! When the sun sets it turns the water-”

Luca stared across the farm. Her eyes were fixed on one of the great machine arms stirring through the vats of Krill. Yotta corporation YZ-8b agridroids. They monitored the water temperature, purity, acidity and fed the crustaceans that gave each vat its cerulean hue. The noise of her mother’s voice faded into the background, lost beneath the thrum of heavy machinery and sloshing water. They did everything around here. She wasn’t needed anymore.

The pair of women sat outside the house in cheap plasteel lawn furniture. Her mother held a beer in one hand. Condensation dripped down the side of the bottle and onto the dusty, cracked dirt beneath them. Luca left her glass of milk on the ground, preferring to pick the white enamel paint off of the rusting chair while her mom talked.

They were finally kicking her out. Mom and dad were graciously allowing their twenty something baby bird to leave the nest.

“Yeah. Find a job. I understand. Yeah. I can do that. No problem.”

Luca’s friendly smile and placid tone were a well practiced mask. Her agreements came out instinctively, like they always did. Better to just nod and live her real life in the margins of whatever her parents decided for her. She drained the last of her milk and wiped her mouth off with the back of her wrist.

“I’m gonna go check on the vats.” Luca groaned as she stood, not bearing to meet her mother’s eye. She quelled her concerns before she could voice them. “Yeah. I know. The droids can do it. Just- I’m heading out. I’ll be back before you shut down the power for the night.” She offered her mother a wave without turning her head back towards her. She’d see her later.

------

Luca hucked an orange stone off the edge of the ridge overlooking the Snet family aquafarm. It was her favourite place to watch the agridroids turn. She’d miss it. Ord Avis’ sun set over the horizon, the last of its light hitting the side of the vats of krill, turning the water a luminescent blue. For one moment each evening the farm lit up, turning her dull life fantastic. A weak smile crept onto her lips. Maybe going out and finding the fantastic for herself, on her terms, wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe it would be ok? There had to be sights in the galaxy more beautiful than glowing crustaceans.

She flicked through a list of career opportunities on her datapad. A Gamorrean junk dealer by the name of Ham Berik was offering internships for ‘people with quick fingers’. No. That wouldn’t do her at all. She could barely speak to a droid let alone disassemble one. Bulgo’s corner store and deli needed a new cashier. No. Her mind was all too ready to conjure up its own reason why the position needed filling. Of course there was always Korvus. Dad said they were always hiring. The security conglomerate offered a competitive signing bonus and were willing to provide training, bed and board. All for the low price of being the boot on some poor alien’s neck. No.

Luca sighed and lay back against the dusty bluff, staring up at the stars. They were twinkling in the dusk. Green and red sparks up against all the blackness. It must have been an asteroid shower. They got them commonly enough on the outer rim. Being up there, seeing one with her own eyes. Maybe that’d do. If she was going to get away from the farm, why not really get away from the farm?

If any crew would take her. A farm girl who stank of Krill wouldn’t have been high on her list of starship personnel. Maybe a cargo hauler? Somewhere she could lie low, lift some boxes, see the wonders of the stars through the viewport in the canteen.

A spark streaked across the sky. She’d put out enough droid fires to recognise the distinctive crimson flame lithium gave off. Must have been an alkali asteroid. It was getting bigger. And brighter. Luca lifted herself up on her elbows, dirtying the sleeves of her fiber-cloth tunic as she got a better look at the object. Flames burst from of it, decorating the atmosphere with smoke. Another one fell from space. And another. And another. One of the stars swooped down and shot green at a red glow. It erupted in a rainbow explosion. Rhydonium.

Horror washed across Luca’s face. They were ships. The planet was under attack. A Korvus carrier traced a path from the Avicort spaceport to the fracas. Attack craft poured from the hangar on its belly like a swarm of bees descending on the intruders. She couldn’t tear her gaze from the light show, captured in morbid fascination as the vessels clashed. One broke off from the fight and bolted for the surface. An old, boxy freighter that had seen better days. A long trail of smoke billowed behind it. A Korvus fighter burst through the black cloud and fired its salvo right into the freighter’s stern. It’s engines spluttered and gave out, sending it spiralling down.

Luca let out a scream. She couldn’t hear it over the roar of the starship carving through the aquafarm. Steel and krill and dirt were obliterated in its path, nothing could stand in its way. A wing sheared free from its body and smashed through the family landspeeder, cleaving it in half. The vessel came to its final resting place inside the Snet homestead. The cockpit was jammed through the crumbling remains of the kitchen wall. Nothing else remained.

Luca scuffed her leather boots and cut her fingers as she scrambled down the ridge’s rock face, pushing herself faster than she thought possible as tears streaked down her face. She crossed the farm in a blur, skidding to a halt at the ship’s grave. Her foot was caught in the warped plasteel frame of the lawn furniture. A bottle dripped the last of its beer from its fractured body. Crimson blood splattered across the ground.

Her stomach lurched. She couldn’t take another step. She couldn’t handle this. Not now. She wasn’t ready. She had to find help. Luca focused, exhaling to control herself, pushing the taste of smoke and devastation out of her mouth. She couldn’t break down. Not now. She had to find help.

She crossed over to the half a landspeeder left in their front yard and tugged on the glove compartment. It wouldn’t open. She wailed, smashing her boot into it again and again until it gave way, the whole drawer popping free of the dashboard. The only things she had left in her life tumbled out. A synthweave wallet with a handful of credits. A worn communicator decorated in stickers. Her mother’s service revolver. She scooped them up and tucked them onto her belt. She stumbled off across the dunes. She had to find help.