01 Ian Phillips: “The Hammer”
The hammer rose.
"I regret ever starting on this."
The hammer fell.
"I regret having met you."
The sound of the hammer blow spread throughout the hold.
"I regret leaving home."
The hammer rose again.
"I regret ever listening to you."
The hammer fell.
“I regret that I wasn’t prepared.”
The hard blow eased some of his anguish.
“I regret arguing with you.”
The hammer rose.
“I regret….”
The hammer paused.
A deep breath, and a sigh.
“….so many things”
The hammer fell.
“But I will never regret loving you.”
In the silence a single tear fell to the coffin.
02 MarktJones: “Spots”
I blink, the supernova light spotting my eyelids.
Information cascades down the screens around me, arriving afterwards. Blurring before my eyes.
I waited too long. I travelled too far. I should have come back. But there was always one more thing to see. One more wonder to experience. Just so I could come back and tell you. Tell you about what I’ve seen.
So you would come out here with me.
But now you are gone. Gone with the thousands of others I left.
But now you are gone.
And all I have left are the spots under my eyelids.
03 Philip Coutts: “To Die for One’s Empire is Glorious”
The holocube was delivered by a Senator, usually these things were delivered by drones.
“We regret to inform you that Viscount Sharpe was killed in a tragic accident at the Imperial Academy” it began, the remaining words were lost, cast aside in the visceral pain of the bereavement.
The Senator looked uncomfortable, the uninvited guest at a private display of emotion and anger. “He died in the glorious service of the Empire at a location we cannot and will not confirm.” He stated stiffly.
The Imperial Celestial Warriors medal brought no release from the screaming pain of her husband’s death.
04 Iain M Norman: “The Journey”
The star-field revolved before me through the misted remlok. Laboured breathing was the only thing I could hear. I had run out of time.
I waited…
I always knew it was bullcrap, there was no flashing before my eyes, no fast-forward video replay. Nothing.
So this was it. The End.
What a pointless waste of toil. Years of upholding the pretence of contentment, stuck in the old patterns, striving for the perfect life.
I know now, you can’t ever get there, it’s not for sale. You lie to everyone, you lie to yourself.
I wish I’d let myself be happier.
05 Darkoba: “To See the Stars”
We met in a bar on a small, insignificant planet, a way-station to the stars. I was Frontier-bound.
I recognised your accent from my home planet and spoke to you. We were attracted to each other. Years later you told me it was, for you, love at first sight. I was fascinated and drawn by your innocent honesty and your beauty.
I asked you to travel outwards with me. You were hesitant, perhaps fearful. Loving you, I stayed here.
I love you and every minute spent with you, even now...
... but I look at the night sky with longing.
06 Azdour: “A Clear Conscience”
Early in my career I learned the hard way that regret and its consequences can often mean the difference between life and death, money or no money, bounty or no bounty.
I sit alone in my cell awaiting my execution.
As the lethal drugs in my last meal start their slow dance through my body, my life passed before my eyes.
My life had been much fuller since I had escaped servitude as an Imperial slave.
If I could relive my life I would choose the same path. To be a pirate.
As darkness draws closer I have no regrets...
07 Frank: “Before You Can Regret, You Have to Gret”
"This isn't a reprimand. You made a rookie error, but I do want you to learn from your mistakes.
I had a wingman, Sterger, who was an idiot. He was always getting himself into situations. He never learned." The captain's face broke into a wry smile, "The things he would blurt out in bars! His remarks directed at the biggest thugs. He was unrepentant, always up early in the morning with a shiner and a smile.
Last time I heard Sterger's voice was when we were skirting past Thargoids, his enthusiastic yell crackling over the intercom, 'Let's get 'em boys!'"
08 Slawkenbergius: “#09004801”
Regrets? Always promised myself I'd live without them. When an opportunity comes along, you damn well take it. But when he handed me the briefcase, I hesitated. Anodised titanium. Cold, grey, heavy. Fifty thousand credits for a simple delivery to some Imp named Zordan Remer.
Drugs? Weapons? Data? Did it really matter?
When 'Import Control' came out to meet me at the edge of secure space, I knew something was wrong. One lot took the briefcase. The other lot took me. Twenty years and counting in this cold, grey hell... and my biggest regret? Never finding out what was inside.
09 Gibbonici: “Empty Space”
Deneb bursts from behind the world, casting silver rays across its many-layered rings. They catch the light and shine like the floor of some cosmic cathedral as the Casimir glides silently over them.
Salieme draws the ship to a standstill and watches. Stars wink out of existence as space itself becomes luminous, then Deneb completes her emergence, her rays diminish and the rings fade to glitter.
This would make a poet of any man, Salieme sighs, but since leaving you it is nothing. He guns the engines and the Casimir rolls away to vanish into the infinite loneliness of space.
10 Phoenix_Dfire: " The Job Interview..."
“Before I take the job, what happened to the last co-pilot?” Davie asked over the noise of the bar’s holograph player.
“She left.” replied Mac, numbly staring into his empty glass. “Got herself an eagle with the money she’s been saving.”
“Was it kitted out?”
“I told her it wasn’t." Mac sighed. "It needed a better pulse laser, a shield generator and don’t get me started about that autopilot.”
“Was she any good?”
“One of the best but …”
The holo started playing.
“The search for survivors between an eagle and a sidewinder has been called off. There were no survivors.”
11 Bikky: "Why did I choose that?"
Sitting in an unadorned classroom, the students struggled for inspiration. The lessons were to train new pilots to accept the multitude of religions, opinions and ways of life out there in other star systems. This is particularly aimed at those who may become explorers. Out there, beyond the frontier, just may find a new civilisation.
This exercise, is to make the budding pilots see that what we class as morals may not appear in other civilisations. Such as Imperial and Federal view of slavery.
Five minutes before the deadline, Commander Yaffle finally types away. No regrets on choice of topic.
12 Cassius: "Buyer's Remorse"
I picked up this pile of crap at a junk dealers on Leesti. It was cheap, the guy said it would make a great starter ship. I saved for months, scraped every last credit together. The things I did for those measly few sheckles makes my stomach turn even now.
I remember that moment I hit space for the first time, it was like nothing I’d felt before. But then that cold dawning realisation... no hyperspace drive. I asked the guy for my money back. He laughed in my face.
Buy an interplanetary shuttle, they said. Useless piece of junk.
13 W4rSkuLL: "Diamonds are forever"
Drifting through the asteroid field, with her average Cobra.
The computer picks up a signal. Corroded metal sparkle in the light of the sun.
A cargo pod. But something else lurks in the shadow of one of the asteroids,
stalking her ship.
She scoops up the pod. Its jackpot. A lone lost pod filled with diamonds.
Bisandra almost faints.
Suddenly she is awaken by a Kruger military lazer piercing her hull.
Automaticly the computer fires 3 missiles towards the attacker. They hit, and the foe is on a collision course.
The ships smash-up, diamonds scatter, her final thoughts are, "regrets".
14 Rog: "Sudden Impact"
Janna took pride in her work: Yup, she was probably the best flight mechanic on the station.
She'd warned the guy not to fit that particular impact restraint airbag in the cockpit.
She'd told the cheapskate that the TergeR™ system was for cargo zones. Jeez, it was on the label under the heavily embossed manufacturers logo. "Warning: Not Personnel Rated!"
The dumbass fitted it himself anyway...
She hadn't clipped the dock and triggered it (station alarms just silent now!)
Janna sighed as the guy stumbled back in... Smirking, she could see he had regreT written all over his face now...
15 Yaffle: "Relief"
Jasmine stood in the airlock. Millimetres between her and the cold void; she could feel it through her fingertips. She pressed her cheekbone against the door, squashing a tear. She’d known from the beginning that life with Lisa would end like this, but without suffering how could one dream of relief?
And there it was, she’d seen her lover fade and die as the disorder ate her from the inside. Years of pain for them finally over. She looked at the phial of ashes in her hand “Farewell, I don’t regret a second” and despatched Lisa on an endless journey.
16 Darren Grey: "What we do for love"
I regret turning a blind eye to what you got up to at night.
I regret lying to the police about where you were.
I regret forging the evidence, framing someone else for the piracy.
I regret breaking you out of jail just to see you recommit.
I regret taking out the bounty on you myself after you killed that family.
I regret hunting you down, chasing you through the stars and blowing your ship apart.
I regret seeing your twisted body torn from the wreckage.
But most of all, son, I regret the day I gave birth to you.
17 Psykokow: "Time's up"
“ 'I'm so sorry, but I have to do it'
The words forever spoken insincerely from my frozen heart.
They always beg for another chance, its quite pitiful really but sometimes, sometimes it gets to you.
I remember her clearly, her blue eyes, jet black hair and white skin.. The tears sparkling as they reddened their way down her cheek.
A job's a job my justification to sleep at night didn't comfort me that time.”
“Im sorry but its time now” Said my executioner
I bowed my head and faced my fate for doing my jobs. I won't plead.
18 Insanephoton: "Bounty Hunter's lament"
For you it's too late for regrets. The dead have no need for them.
For me, I'm saddened by the waste of a life so young. You could have had a career, maybe even a family. All that potential gone, snuffed out of existence. Life is precious and you wasted it.
I even gave you a second chance, you could have given yourself up, paid your fine and done the time. You still could have had a future. But no, you blew it.
I don't regret killing you. I had no choice. Dead or alive I still claim your bounty.
19 Garthyre: "Brave Words"
These are dark days for the Empire. This unwarranted, cowardly attack strikes at the very heart of everything we hold dear, everything we stand for, everything we are.
The Emperor Himself has charged me with the task of righting this dreadful wrong. Believe me when I say we do not want revenge, we do not deal in petty reprisals. Our only goal is justice, and our justice will be swift. My deep regret is I cannot stand with our brave young women and men fighting in a war we did not start, but will definitely finish - however long it takes.
20 Scorpio: "I did it my way"
Life was tough.
The term ' Fugitive ' meant nothing in deep space.
what was human morality when faced with this limitless and amoral universe?.
Survival was the only reality on the frontier.
The bounty hunters came, and i killed many of them;
But there was always one more.
My cell is a poor substitute for the Galaxy.
There is moral force here; they tutor us on ethics and enlightenment over the loud speakers for eight hours everyday.
Twenty years i have lived on a prison hulk; Its the same length that i lived in liberty.
I should have stuck to mining.
