A blast of energy arced across Akash's vision, flying straight into someone standing on top of a dark, boxy protrusion. As the victim fell, Akash noticed the symbol emblazoned on their blue armor.

Another one of ours; down, he thought.

He turned right around, blaster at the ready. Two men with red armor were standing shoulder to shoulder.

Kra-kow! Kra-kow!

They both collapsed. Akash couldn't help but be proud of himself.

Two for one; that's a good trade, he thought. But there was no time to celebrate- enemy backup could be here any minute.

So he ran. Getting to a good position was a fundamental battle strategy, and Akash was all too familiar with this place. He knew of a little alcove, within which he could easily shoot at passing-

Kra-kow!

As it turned out, one of Akash's allies had discovered one of his favorite hiding spots. Instead of shooting at anything that was moving and red, his friend Hari just shot at the next moving target. Which happened to be Akash. He was fortunate, though, that these blasters couldn't deal any damage to your own teammates.

"Great, they're definitely going to hear that!" said Akash, in a hushed voice. "Get out of there!"

But Hari wouldn't budge. They had less confidence in Akash's judgement than in the protection offered by a simple little nook.

"...Fine." said Akash. He ran for a little bit, before he slowed down, so as not to alert anyone else to his presence. Blaster primed and ready, he inched towards the next intersection.

The next three blaster shots rang out from behind him.

Kra-kow! Kra-kow! Kra-kow!

Akash turned, still walking. He knew in his heart that he didn't have any hope to save Hari, but if he was quiet enough, he might be able to get another two kills in.

And sure enough, two red-armored soldiers were gloating about their latest kill, mere feet away from the alcove. They were so confident in their victory, that they didn't notice Akash aiming his blaster at the small of the taller one's back.

Before there was any time to react, they were both down. This was far from Akash's first rodeo, and by no means would it be his last. He was going to make it.

"Yo!"

Akash's moment of triumph was dashed by a familiar cry. He turned around to see his best friend, Jagjit, standing confidently at the center of the intersection, wearing that red armor.

Jagjit casually slung his blaster over his shoulder, while giving Akash a confident smirk. Akash wasn't going to let an opportunity like this down, though. He immediately started shooting at Jagjit, who responded by dodging both shots and shooting a few rounds back at Akash. Akash barely managed to get past the blaster shots and started closing the gap between himself and Jagjit.

Jagjit jumped back into the intersection, and Akash chased him into the hallway. He knew better than to fire his blaster until the target was in his sights, but Jagjit had just vanished as soon as he jumped in the intersection. Akash stepped back. He knew that Jagjit would use the environment to his advantage, so if Akash had given chase, he'd be playing right into Jagjit's hands.

Akash just got an idea.

He tried to sneak back, and listen carefully to the environment. He didn't hear any blaster shots, implying that it was just him and Jagjit alone on the battlefield. He turned the corner, blaster pointed around the side.

Nothing. It was a clear shot to the alcove, and Akash took the chance. He had already wiped out the enemy team singlehandedly, which should count for something. But in his mind, it didn't matter unless he could beat Jagjit. There wasn't a better fighter around than Jagjit. But that wasn't because of his bravery, nor his toughness; it was because he fought dirty. And so, the way to beat him would be to play his own game against him.

Akash snuck off towards the alcove, ready to shoot- just in case, somehow, Jagjit had beaten him to the alcove despite the fact that he ran off in its opposite direction.

But he didn't have time to reach the alcove; Jagjit had actually jumped out of sight just to follow Akash to the hall with the alcove in it, ready to shoot him in the back. Luckily, he had made just enough noise jumping out from around the corner that Akash was able to hear him. Akash turned around, shooting at Jagjit, as Jagjit shot back at Akash.

One of Akash's blaster shots hit Jagjit in the shoulder, while the other only grazed it. Meanwhile, Jagjit fired two blaster shots, one of which missed completely, while the other hit him straight in the head.

And just like that, Akash collapsed on the ground. That was all it took. Jagjit walked towards Akash's body. He smiled as he leaned down.

"Good game, Ash."

The lights turned to red, signifying a victory for Jagjit's team. Everyone began to get back up. Akash, though, stayed down, not out of embarrassment or shame from having lost the third game in a row against Jagjit, but because his head was still throbbing from the hard-light hologram that had just been shot into his face.

"Come on;" said Jagjit, as he extended an arm out to Akash. "We've wasted enough time here."

Akash grabbed Jagjit's hand. "Could you not go for the head next time?" said Akash. "Not really." said Jagjit, as he turned to leave the arena. "I was going for your chest." Akash was not amused by this. "Still a good match, though." Jagjit added quickly.

Everyone clambered out of the arena in the basement of the canteen, returning their gear to the clerk. Akash looked up behind the counter, at a poster advertising a new map for the arena- which was due about six months ago. "With how much money we've spent here," mused Akash, "They'd better be able to install that new arena any day now."

Jagjit shot Akash a look. "Keep dreaming." he said, as the two of them went their separate ways for the day.

As much as Akash didn't want to admit it, Jagjit was right. They had an old saying on the dwarf planet Agni-Karma: Nothing ever changes in the land of sand and chains. He knew, of course, that this thought would haunt him for the entire work day. Whereas Akash harvested water from the local cacti, Jagjit worked hauling minecarts. Neither of these were fates that Akash wanted to wish upon his worst enemies, and especially not on kids their age. At least, of course, he had a vehicle just for his job parked right on the edge of the town. A four-wheeled, solar-powered brute of a car; made for two people to ride in the carriage, with a tankard in the back designed to extract water from cacti with a specially made hose. He had long since proven himself reliable enough to operate it on his own.

Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. In no time at all, the sun was scorching Akash's neck. Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. Akash was already exhausted. How much time had he spent out here? Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. He thought, just now, that it probably wasn't a good idea to play in the AR arena before work. Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. Drive the tankard to a cactus, and extract its water. Couldn't they design some kind of machine to extract water from the air? No, he thought. It wasn't feasible. The cacti he helped to harvest were genetically engineered. They were modified to extract as much moisture out of the air as possible, while keeping the vast root networks intact. Simply put, you could not build a machine that was better at collecting water than these cacti.

That didn't make the work suck any less, though.

Akash had pricked his finger the last cactus of his work day. As he bandaged his finger, he had to wonder if he didn't, subconsciously at least, do it on purpose. That phrase wouldn't leave the back of his mind, and he couldn't help but feel like it permeated every aspect of his life.

Nothing ever changes in the land of sand and chains.

The canteen and the arena were there ever since Akash was a five-year-old child, and nothing about it changed now that he was fifteen. There wasn't much to do for fun other than the arena, or, for the more delinquent types, stealing a speeder bike and driving it across the endless desert. Even then, as he and his friends grew older, he didn't know how much longer these activities would be available to him. By the time he came of age, what would him and his friends do for fun? Would this just be their lives? Endless work, scorching days, and freezing nights?

Nothing ever changes in the land of sand and chains...

The solution to that problem was obvious. So Akash boarded his tanker car, and drove down the old, familiar path to the market.

After a rather uneventful trip, Akash made it to the market with the sun still hanging high in the sky. He slowly drove the tanker in, to give the customers of the market plenty of time to clear the road.

As the crowds closed in on the booths, or made space by huddling close to buildings, Akash quickly scanned them for any sign of someone that he knew. Today's crowds were rather unusual; normally, they mostly consisted of the average village folk, running errands, buying food or sundries- but on this day, there were quite a few extraterrestrials in the crowd.

Akash was rather familiar with seeing extraterrestrials, as he and his father's most common clients were offworlders aiming to refill their water supplies for long trips. It was normal to see one or two in the crowd, perhaps aiming to buy a souvenir, but today, you wouldn't be mistaken to believe that Akash's little town was a bustling trading hub for the Royal Federation.

Akash turned to focus back on the road. He would just have to ask his father about this.

He arrived without any real incident. A long stretch of wastes that weren't fit to grow cacti were set aside for cargo ships to land. As expected from the crowd, there were many more ships here than normal. Akash spotted his father talking to somebody, though he couldn't quite make her out.

Akash drove the tanker up to his father and hopped out. "Akash! There you are, boy." he said. Akash turned to see who his father was talking to, only to find a friend from his school; Mira.

"Dad! I didn't know you knew Mira!" said Akash. "He didn't," replied Mira. "I came here looking for you, and I ran into him instead."

A mistake like this would actually be rather easy to make. Akash was his father's spitting image. They had the same curly black hair, dark skin, and gold-flecked eyes. If not for the beard that was his father's pride, they would look like twins. "I had no idea you knew such a... lovely young lady, son!" said Akash's father. Akash himself was rather embarassed by his comment, which of course, is the life goal of all fathers; no matter where in the universe you so happened to be. "She's... just a friend, Dad." replied Akash. Aiming to get the conversation over with as soon as possible, Akash attempted to divert the conversation. "Anyway, here's your tanker back, Dad." said Akash. "All full of water."

"You got your work done that quickly?" he said. Akash couldn't help but feel the legitimate surprise in his father's voice. "But, then again," his father continued. "I would, too if I had someone like Mira waiting for me." This got a laugh out of Mira, while Akash simply wanted to drive the tanker far into the wastes, never to be seen again. "It's fine, Ash." said Mira. "We've got a lot to do today."

And that was when Akash remembered why he was so eager to go to the market in the first place. But that would require money.

"Um, Dad, about my payment..." asked Akash, perhaps a bit more nervously than he had intended.

"Oh, yes. Of course." his father responded. He handed Akash a metallic card, with the number 5,160 printed on it. His usual payment for a day's labor. Akash looked up at his father, who responded with one of his typical life lessons. "Now, I could auction this off to the highest bidder, but there's a big difference between someone who wants it more, and someone who needs it more." he said. "Of course, it doesn't help that someone who could outbid all of these ships would be the kind of person who would stick a knife in ya to win out on the deal."

"Are you sure you're going to be all right, Dad?" asked Akash.

"Don't you worry about your old man, Akash." he responded. "There'll be plenty of time in the future where I could teach you a thing or two about the market.”

Akash turned back to look at Mira. She was beautiful, sure, but Akash didn’t feel anything romantic towards her. And while he didn’t know their mutual friend Jagjit’s feelings, he simply assumed that Jagjit felt the same way about her that he did.

Akash turned back to his father. “Well?” he said. “Run along, boy!”

Akash smiled. “Thanks, Dad..” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

And with that, Akash and Mira took to the market.