Sala Ries

Outsider Soldier, Allegedly AWOL, Possibly Just Lost.

Once dispatched to Shartak under the banner of crown and colony, Sala Ries was meant to be a cog in the grinding machinery of some imperial scheme--though no one now remembers exactly what the scheme was. A footsoldier in the grand abstraction of conquest, Sala arrived armed, uniformed, and poorly briefed.

But somewhere between the jungle's edge and the gutted remains of a colonial outpost, Sala saw something--or perhaps merely felt it. Fear, sudden and sour, crawled up their spine like a centipede. The squad marched on. Sala did not.

Did they desert? Absolutely. Are they a coward? Unapologetically. And yet, they live.

Now, Sala wanders the fringe: too soft for the jungle, too jumpy for the camp, too ashamed to return, too dumb to die quickly.