Imperial Calander, Year 2677 AC.
The Lion's Gaze cruised through the void, it's engines whispering against the silence. Inside the cockpit, Titus lounge in the co-pilot seat gorging down whatever slop the automated cooker managed to put together.
Leonidas looked at the stars through his HUD. He had seen them a thousand times before, but now they took upon a new luster of shine he did not know they could have. The weight of the world had been removed from his shoulders.
"Caladan II?" he grunted. "You do realize the Mercenary Guild's headquarters are on Illion Prime. Why register in a backwater colony?"
Leonidas didn't look up from the navigation console. "Illion Prime is off-limits. Unless you want to end up in the mines of Alcatraz IV."
Titus was perplexed. Alcatraz IV was the Empire's prison planet. Where the worst of the worst were thrown to the pits to pay for their crimes. What could the young man beside him, have done to warrant such a sentence.
"By whose decree? What did you do?"
Leonidas hesitated, then leaned back, eyes fixed on the stars. "The Emperor himself."
Titus raised a brow. "Surely you jest."
"You must understand. I was young, stupid and in love. Ten and six, the both of us. Barely a man. She was the emperor's favorite daughter. Our mothers were friends so we'd meet occasionally. I was smitten. So imagine my shock when one day, she comes to tell me that she is to marry some foreign prince. A scheme from the cursed mind of, Prime Minister Viren no doubt. The Emperor knew of our affections for one another, yet he did not care. So why should I?"
"What happened?" The old soldier asked.
"We married in secret. In the Temple of the Dawn Star. A priestess as witness. Not even the Emperor could undo we had done."
Silence filled the ship. Titus was speechless.
"You married Princess Illiana?"
"That I did. For my crime of passion. I was banished from the capital, forbidden from seeing my own wife."
"You've got stones, boy. I'll give you that. So how did keep your head?"
"Our benevolent Emperor could not execute the son of his most trusted General, now could he. I do suppose those old goats who sit on the council were not happy to see me walk."
"So where is the princess now?"
"She's safe. Doing her duty. Serving in the Imperial Army, aboard the Lion's Fury" he grinned.
"Your Lord Fathers ship. So now you have exchanged a castle for a cockpit, you choose the life of an outcast."
Leonidas smiled. "I choose freedom."