Sword of Fire

A lone Galactic Colonization Board pilot, stranded far from home after a space warp and his co-pilot's suicide, crash-lands on an oxygen-rich, perilous world. He moves through charred jungles toward a walled city and encounters feral, kilted humanlike tribes, a slate-green porter class, and a grotesque, eight-armed octopod carried in a litter and accorded special status by the natives. Circumstances push him into the role of an armed champion against monstrous foes while he negotiates unfamiliar customs and confronts personal moral tensions, balancing action-driven survival with reflections on courage, conscience, and latent idealism.