A Martiansian night is warm and stinging. The planet’s septic atmosphere glows red, the light of its twin suns stained crimson as it burns its way through the still-conscious blood mist.

The clang of martial hardware sang through the window of the small room in which young Reno Phaston sat. Kept hidden from the narrow-minded population of his eternally hostile homeworld, this strange boy’s universe consisted only of these thick stone walls and the unceasing screams of fanatical abomination.

But this boy dreamed of something different, and on this day, the sixth anniversary of his miraculous birth, Reno Phaston set his teeth and emerged from his secluded entrenchment, committed to taking his place as a part of this hellish legacy.

Seeing, finally, the source of the sounds that so scarred his memory, the hideous creatures and unblinking ferocity that had possessed his forebears, and knowing his place to be among all of this, he cried out!

And the fighting stopped for the first time in decades.