Life for a young Zakai Dahl was pleasant. He learned to ply his mother’s trade of hunting and butchering animal products for sale in the family restaurant, where his father resided most of the time. Those are the fondest days of his; backpacking across the wilderness of Bryndas with just his harsh, but fair mother, learning about the various qualities of tea and seasonings from his doting father and sailing across the Great Zelosian ocean upon his Uncle’s fishing ships with his cousins. Rarely did he not have something he could get involved with or learn about, and once he was older he opted to often skive off with an air rifle and a pouch of ammo to go practice his trade.

Alas, all good things come to an end, the sudden invasion and the establishment of an Imperial Garrison in the planetary capital, Kryndyn, left the people of Zelos II shellshocked. A people who loved their freedoms and natural lifestyle were quickly forced into servitude to mine a rich mineral deposit of Agrocite that the Empire had found on the planet.

Life for a twenty years old Zakai Dahl had quickly became hard on Zelos II once the empire moved in. Sadly, like most of his people and his relatives, the young Zelosian had been press ganged by the new Imperial garrison into working down in the recently established Agrocite mines. Years passed like this. Unfortunately, Zakai and many others were often selected to work in the unlit portions of the mines for failing to meet high production quotas. This left its scars on the young man. Those who spent extended periods of time with Zakai, would have long noticed his fear of dark, enclosed places and restraints.

On the eve of his twenty-first birthday, six years after the occupation of Zelos II, Zakai learned the shift changes and guard’s positions well enough to begin plotting his escape across the ocean to the uninhabited archipelago, Bryndas. It took six months, however, he succeeded, but instead of boarding a shuttle heading for a military starport across the ocean, he boarded a freighter headed off-world. A freighter that would be hit by a group of Rebel raiders targeting imperial trade routes.