One of the advantages to the Badlands is the past doesn't live there. Everyone is willing let the past stay beyond the quadrant's borders and out of their lives. After all, you can't change the past so why worry about it. The past may be static but its effects never are. Only a fool believes the past does not affect the present and the future. The Badlands give sanctuary, solitude, and a cruel hint of kinder possibilities but never forgiveness for past acts. It is a delusion to think otherwise. The past may not live in the region but, despite everyone's best efforts, it does visit from time to time. You can run from it, but you cannot hide, not even in the Badlands. Raferty Hawkins has ignored his past but now must return to it in hopes of salvaging his future. His obligations to Pirate Flotilla One and his obligations to family bring him to the Aurora Empire on a personal mission. He has always known about his past but there are two other people to consider now. The first one is a stranger who is owed an explanation. The second person is someone he has known all his life and now deserves acknowledgment. Others have demons from their own history to deal with. Shane Delacruz thought he had outrun his past until Llewellyn Terrant appeared. Tactical is trying to correct her past with Mason Reed. Doc Windsor discovers the past can become the present so very easily. Ringo, captain of Renegade, has never left the past. It rules her present and will determine her future and the future of her ship if she lets it. The past can be useful. Raferty will try to use Flot 1's past to change the fortunes of his command. He brings his flotilla into Aurora space to fight two battles. Both are to correct past transgressions by the Goldenes Tor and the Orion Confederation. If the pirates earn the gratitude of the Zekes in the process, so much the better. Right now Pirate Flotilla One can use all the help they can get. Regardless of the outcome of their deployment to the Aurora Empire, they will have to return to the Badlands soon enough. That is where their future is.
