Starbound: A Space Odyssey

John returned to the moon's surface and Peri tagged along since Lenny simply didn't want to teleport once again.

"Why did you come, Peri?" John asked as both him and the Floran woman walked side by side.

"Just feel like screeching my legs." Peri answered dismissively, "I'm tired of that spaceship already."

John sighed, "We'll be at the Ark Outpost very soon, you just need to hold on for a few hours."

"Yeah...I'm not looking forward to it."

"Why? Wasn't you working there?"

"No, I was working for Jevil Redhook. I only stayed there because I had a debt to pay him, and after I payed it up, I simply left. I don't like that place, the Ark Outpost is controlled by Letheia Corporation, that means, the Hylotls. You know how the relationship between Florans and Hylotls are, right?"

"Do both races still has grudges with each other because of that ancient war?" John couldn't help but shake his head as he wondered how narrow-minded these people are.

The Hylotl-Floran War that happened in the past was the first and only war that happened to between two of the seven main races.

It was a bloody conflict that lasted for centuries and the lost of lives were simply huge, more than a billion Hylotls and and Florans were killed in that war.

No one knows how it began, the reason behind the war have been long lost in time.

But the consequences of the conflict ripples until today.

It was because of this that the Hylotls ran away from the surface to hide deep in the oceans, far away from the Floran warriors.

Before the war, Hylotl were a race that lived at coast cities, and valued the preservation of their culture above everything else. They disliked conflict and never really expend time training in warfare and neither developing weapons. The political party that dominated the Universal Hylotl Government was the Sea Faction, the pacifists.

But the war changed them. After the war, they became more agressive. Their development of weapons and economy was put fort with full steam. The ones who made what they are today was the Ocean and Reef Factions. They rose in power after the ridiculous loses in the Hylotl-Floran War.

The Hylotls were no longer the race of peace and culture, but they became greedy and developed a deep hatred with Florans and some distrust and dislike with any other race they deem inferior as their own.

If you think the war ended you would be wrong.

It never reached a conclusion.

300 years ago, the Greenfinger Council and the Universal Hylotl Government signed a ceasefire treaty because the Terrene Protectorate forced them to do so.

The war that had been ongoing for who knows how long finally stopped, although temporarily.

But the hatred between two races stand strong. Albeit Florans don't really care that much about the events of the past and just moved on, the Hylotls, on the other hand, kept their grudges throughout the years and, in fact, it grew overtime with the Ocean and Reef Factions instigating the hatred.

It was obvious the results of the conflict, after all, Hylotl were not a race of fighting before the war, but the Floran were always fighting. Every single Floran, even a merchant or just a cleaner were seasoned warrior that fought their entire lives.

Hylotls didn't have a chance against the Floran, they could only hide deep within the oceans. Because of this, year passed but they forgot their shameful past even after centuries...

Nowadays, Hylotls in general have some kind of enmity with Florans.

It's not strange that Peri somewhat suffered in the Ark Outpost, of course the Hylotls of the Ocean Faction know limits and don't push Florans too much, but the Reef Faction straight up hunt down Florans just because they were Florans.

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"It's not like is our fault." Peri shrugged her shoulders, "The war already ended, but they still hate us. We moved on and almost already forgot about that war, but the Hylotls keep reminding of it and use it as an excuse to target us."

"Well, the conflict left a bitter taste on their mouth. After all, they almost lost to a race they saw as inferior, intellectually and scientifically. Is pretty easy to see why they still target the Florans."

"You are right...*sigh*...Although I dislike those stared they send towards me, I don't bother me too much. Like if I care about what others thinks about me." Peri said without a change in expression, "But, is very fulfilling to see an innocent child such as Saito. It proves that people are not born with hatred and dislike towards tigers, they simply learn how to hate." Peri had smile on her face as she spoke about Fujiwara Saito.

John nodded as he approved what she said.

As they were walking towards the Mining Facility, the place in which John dumped all the Erchius Fuel he had, John suddenly thought about something Peri said.

"You mentioned Jevil saved you, what happened?" John was curious.

"This..." Peri's eyes hovered at John for a moment before she turned away, "I can't speak about it. It might bring unnecessary trouble towards him, and he's not the kind of person you want to offend."

"Really?" John scratched his chin. He was a lot more curious now that she said it might be detrimental to Jevil, "It looks like you know him pretty well. How is him?"

"I don't actually know him well. He just helped me once, I'm sure he already forgot about me, he's the kind of person to easily forget about people he don't put much importance. But, yeah, Jevil Redhook is a strange man. He appears to be lazy and useless, nothing more than a pretty boy, but he's a lot more than that. He's ruthless and borderline crazy. His eyes show no sympathy and neither attachment to anyone or anything, all he sees is if a person can be used or not. Although he dislike to kill innocents, he is not against killing them if they somehow get in his way..."

Peri continued with a deep look on her pitch black eyes as she stared at the endless space on top of them, "...It might have something about his past you know. I don't know his actual past as few know the truth. He's shrouded in mystery, but as far as I know, he was just a normal kid that was kidnapped, with his parents, by the Syndicate and he sold to a rich tycoon somewhere. His father became a debt-slave to Letheia and his mother became a...sex worker in the BSS. His future was pretty dim, be was used and abused by the rich tycoon until he freed himself eventually..."

(There's a chapter that explain with more details about Jevil's past. If you haven't read it, it's Side Story 8: The Harbinger of Chaos. I was in doubt if I should just write about his past again here, but as some of you might have already read about it, I just wrote some of it to remind it since it was long ago when I wrote that Side Story.)

Peri continued to speak about the supposed dark past of the man known as Jevil Redhook.

The more he listened, the more John's face changed to worst.

He never expected that someone had suffered this much in the Beta Sector, right beneath Terrene Protectorate's nose.

"I'm sorry for the guy...he suffered more than his fare share..." John shook his head.

John never saw Jevil, as the two times they got closer to one another, John was drunk or he was uncouncious.

He had an image of the red-haired young man on his mind. An arrogant, ruthless and boorish underworld boss that see people as nothing more bugs.

But after he heard about Jevil's past, he sympathized with Jevil, just a little.

John, as a Protector, couldn't turn a blind eye at his actions as a pirate and a underworld boss, but he still felt that Jevil was a lot more... Human, now.

In the past John thought he had it tough being born an orphan and having to live alone, but listening to Jevil's story, he saw that he was very fortunate to have been taken by the Orphanage and later sent to the Terrene Protectorate.