For the civilians of Dodgeston it was just another day. Merchants were opening up their shops, beggars were choosing their spot to sit down with the most foot traffic in an attempt to get more handouts, shouters and paper boys were yelling at passersby to turn their luck and the peacekeepers were patrolling the streets keeping an eye out for criminals in this last pure city in the vast mehova desert. But it wasnt going to be just another warm day for everyone.

Torrii, a young woman of dryadic descent was ready for her first day with the peacekeepers. Her mission was to escort a postal carriage riding from Dodgeston to the closest town of Atrium. It was going to be a short ride of about 3 hours and her mentors didnt expect anything to really happen. The ride was to be too short and the postal carriage openly anounced it's inventory: 5 correspondance letters, 45 civilian mail letters, 10 medical packages, 20 packages of food supply and 9 jars of leeches. Nothing interesting for a bandit and definetly not worth the risk of robbing it so close nearby peacekeeper headquarters.

It was Torrii's ridealong, her mentor was there mostly to teach what to do and what not to do, there were 2 other peacekeepers on horseback and one sitting on the carriage next to the other carriage driver just in case someone was mad enough to try and rob a mostly valueless carriage. Torrii excitedly jumped on her horse and followed the carriage out of Dodgeston. She was equiped with a simple peacekeeper uniform and a standard issue revolver with 26 extra bullets strapped over her chest. She was told she was one of the best gunslingers the peacekeepers have recruited yet, mostly because the other peacekeeper rookies were not that skilled at all. Yet there was more to this new tree/plant like recruit that met the eye. She had a special spark in her eyes and a hunger for exploration and a deep seated curiosity for the world outside the walls of Dodgeston.

As the massive gates opened she briefly held her arms in front of her eyes, she has never been out of Dodgeston and the sun never shined in her eyes like this. They rode through the vast wasteland as Torrii's eyes darted all over the place, never getting enough of the scenery. Little did she, or the other peacekeepers know that her first mission was about to take a very dark turn...

They had been riding for about an hour or two when they suddenly came across the corpse of a horse laying on the road. Her mentor and the other peacekeepers were reluctant to stop at first yet the one sitting next to the carriage driver insisted that they would investigate. The 2 horsemounted peacekeepers jumped down and perceptively looked around to see if they could spot any bandits while Torrii and her mentor investigated the carcass of the horse...

"What was this horse doing all the way out here...? And how did it die?"  Torrii almost instantly asked her mentor who was already hunched over the carcass.

"I dont know... Horses are not just up for grabs these days... Especially one with a mount and most certainly not dead on the middle of a trade route..."  He said quietly with a very serious tone. He turned the head of the horse with a grunt to see what killed it. He didnt have to look long though as there was a clear wide hole in the forehead of the horse.

"Hum.... I thought horses were expensive to working humans native to these parts... Why would anyone shoot them like this. It doesnt look too old either..." She asked, not really being able to be quiet. She was clearly nervous and began to question wether it was a good idea to join forces with the peacekeeper when she was smart enough to become a banker, undertaker or even steam engineer.

"...To provoke an investigation... Sir! Im pretty sure this hole thang is a trap. We should pack up and continue forth."  Torrii's old and experienced mentor said to the supervisor. He did not want to lose a fresh flower like Torrii just yet and knew that something was going to happen real soon. But the supervisor was confident in his troops.

"Sheriff... We're the peacekeepers, the best shooters 'n town. Aint no one gon' spring a trap fer' you and yer recruit. We'll be continuing forth real soon. Let the boys have a bit of a break before goin' on." The relatively fat supervisor told Torrii's mentor as the other peacekeepers pulled out a waterskin.

The old man sighed and led Torrii away from the horse and sat down next to her. "Well aint this excitin'? Yer first day and you already get a taste of what bein' a peacekeeper is like." He said to her in his usualy gruff voice that Torrii has come to love over her training as he lit up a pipe. "Don worry... These aint dryad leaves..."


Torrii giggled and again began looking around excitedly, enjoying the scenery and warm sun on her plant skin. "Why yes! This is way more exciting than i thought! Poor horse though. But i think i know how it died. I think a rattlesnake bit it."

The old man grinned in response and looked at her. "Heh... What makes ye say that? Didnt ye see dem big holes in that horse's thinker?"

She put her hand on her chin and visually thought. "Hum.... I dont know what that could be... But i think it's a snake because i can hear it sizzle."

The old man smiled before processing what she said. He then heard the 'snake sizzle' and his retina's shrunk before standing up, grabbing Torrii and jumping behind a rock after yelling. "Everyone! Take fuckin' cover it's a goddamn trap!" And only minutes after the peacekeepers scrambled something in the corpse of the horse exploded violently, wrecking the carriage and killing the driver and supervisor.

As the peacekeepers were struggling to get back on their feet two well known criminals hit the scene, using the confusion to their advantage by shooting the struggling peacekeepers in the chest. Torrii wanted to shoot but her pistol gut stuck against her stetson. Her mentor jumped out of cover first and managed to hit one of the bandits in the head before being shot dead. He fell down next to Torrii who knew she had to act.

Be it out of bravery or stupidity she jumped out of cover and managed to hit Lucious in the knees briefly before getting shot in the head by Vivian. While Vivian pillaged the carriage the bandits dragged the peacekeepers off and dug shallow graves to bury them in. It seemed like a succesfull raid and it would apear to be all over for Torrii.

But it was not.

By some miracle Torrii wake up several hours later. Panicking and struggling to get out of her dirt prison. Luckily the bandits made a shallow grave and with enough struggling she was free again. Looking over the wreckage of the carriage and the number of the graves Torrii knew what she had to do. And that was to track down Lucious and Vivian and bring them to justice. So with the wounds and damaged clothing she had she limped to the nearest town to seek help.

Heather had been on this dust ball for weeks. She was assigned a task out here but soon realized she was just thrown out like an old rusty ship. She was furios with the GSU and decided to go AWOL on this hell hole. Her Squad, the Dire Wolves, where probably disbanded because of this which made it that much more infuriating. Nothing much had happened in the time she had been here. She ran into some bandits however, thinking that they could take the "Sky Bitch" on they where terribly mistaken and ended up dead and drying up on the hot sands.

Her red armor was now faded and scratched. She draped a old cloak around herself so no one would realize she was an outsider. Every now and then though she would remove the hood and let her flame red hair down, but only when wandering. She had no idea how these people survived here in these conditions there must be some place less dreadfully hot on this planet. She had come across some towns but they where horrible filled with people that wanted to do horrible things to her. So she just continued on wandering..

One day however, she was walking through the desert and came across a small spring. "Oh thank God.." she plunged her face into the water washing the salt of her sweat off and swallowing gulps of water. It was sweet and tasted alright. She then grabbed her canteen and plunged the steel canister into the small pool. After it was done filling up she sat back on a rock. She closed her eyes and took a quick nap.

"HEATHER! TAKE COVER!" Gunshots and inhuman screeching was heard, "They won't stop coming!" More gunshots, Heather was sitting behind a concrete slab as gunshots echoed phantasmal. Then a loud explosion, Heather bolted awake. She was in a cold sweat and paler then the sun bleached rocks. She then sat up hearing the echoes of an explosion she soon realized that it hadn't all been in her dream, she bolted up grabbing her side arm, it was the only thing she had withe her. She began running in the direction of where the gunshots were coming from. She ripped her cloak off and put on her helmet ready to charge into combat like she always did. When she got there however she was too late. Though one of the bandits that attacked them was on the ground wounded. "Fucking hell.." she walked over to the bandit and took out a knife. "You're staying with me.." the bandit cried out in pain as she dragged the slender man over to a twisted and dead looking tree.

She Then caught a glimpse of a wounded looking girl walking away. She stood up and ran over to where she was at. "Halt! Who are you?!"

By the time Heather saw Torrii she was already wearing her ripped up waistcoat around her head as a band aid. She knew Atrium was nearby and where it was, she only had to limp for about 2-3 hours to get there and she thought she'd make it as she wasnt exactly thirsty or even run into a peacekeeper along the way. But she was wrong, when Heather yelled at her Torrii didnt feel like halting and flipped her off in response. "I got shot in the head today im not in the mood for games!" The young dryad yelled back at the voice as she limped in the direction of Atrium. "I need to find a doctor and report to the peacekeepers. Lucious and Vivian are in the viccinity... I need to warn the local sherrif as well..." While she bravely pressed on to warn townsfolk about the bandits at large she got weaker and weaker with each step until eventually collapsing not too far from Heather.

Heather saw the young girl fall and ran over.  She arrived at where she had fallen and took a long look at the young looking woman. "What have you gotten yourself into.." Heather, not holding a grudge on the young girl flipping her off, picked her up and draped her over Heather's right shoulder. Heather put her weathered firearm in her holster, hopefully  she wouldn't have to use it again, she only had so many bullets. Soon she began walking, going the way of that the mysterious girl that had somehow cheated death came from. Hopefully, she wouldn't be delivering this girl to the casket maker. One could only hope. 

One and a half hours into the march Heather was already starting to feel exhaustion. Though the girl wasn't too heavy to Heather due to her vigorous training she had received working for the GSU. Heather felt rage boiling up inside her when she thought of the GSU. They had left her on this death trap of a planet while her team took the fight directly to HELIX. The combined weight of the two made Heather's boots sink into the golden bleached sand. Heather was looking up at the sky, they didn't have long until the sun sank behind the rocks, making this boiling death trap, into a freezing one. it wasn't long until Heather had to stop and make camp. She set up camp under a large hollow and dead tree. 

Heather went around the tree with a knife chopping chunks of wood off. She soon had a large enough pile of materials to start a fire. It took awhile to get the fire started, by that time it was already starting to cool down, but the fire was alight. Heather took her canteen out of her rucksack and took a few sips, she then poured some water over the injured woman's head cleaning the wound. She took her cloak and tore a large piece of cloth off and washed it off aswell, she then wrapped it around the young looking dryad. Heather noticed her uniform and thought that she must be some sort of law keeper or some sort. Heather shrugged "How much luck did that bring ya'"? Soon Heather rolled out a large mat of cloth, she gingerly put the wounded lawkeeper onto the cloth. "Well." Heather said "That bandage won't do much, but'll keep the wound clean.."


Heather found a spot under the old hollow and twisted tree and fell asleep almost instantly. Heather didn't dream much that night, but kept waking up throughout the night checking if the Dryad had kicked the bucket, every time she checked on her, she was still alive. Heather went back to sleep and finally, she woke up to the hot morning sun.

She was definetly not light, but it had more to do with the fact she had bark instead of skin. Nothing notable happened before dark but once the sky got dark and the fire lit up the two Torrii had certain patches on her body that gave off a pink ish glow and as the night went on it seemed she had buried some her arms in the sand and rooted there. It was a way for her kind to get water out of the ground and speed up her healing process. What seeped out of her wound was not blood though, as is to be expected from a species mainly composed out of plant life. 

When the hot sun warmed up her body it began to take on a more bright color. She woke up not too long after Heather, her bandage fell off somewhere at night revealing that the wound was significantly smaller as when it was put on. Other than that she had a healthy blush on her face due to the warmth of the sun. She stretched out before looking around at where she was and who she was with at the moment. She rubbed her head before noticing Heather and getting defensive, drawing her peacekeeper recruit pistol at an impressive speed and aiming it directly at Heather's forehead less then half a flinch after drawing it.

Luckily for Heather the pistol had no bullets in it's chamber wich Torrii of course didnt know. The pistol had newbie written all over it. It was quite clear Torrii was a natural rather than a thoroughly trained law enforcer. Not knowing that her pistol was empty Torrii began to speak in a not exactly intimidating english sounding accent. "YOU! Who are you!"

Heather stared at the dryad, she wasn't scared at all, though she did find it kind of funny that she was being threatened with an unloaded gun. Heather looked at the young girl for a while, waiting for her to pull the trigger. Heather yawned lightly her hazel eyes almost looking scarlet in the sunlight. Her hair blew elegantly in the hot desert wind. She felt at ease for the first time in a long time. She brushed some dust off of her armor and moved to stand up when she remembered the lawkeeper pointing her down with the pistol.

"I'm the one that saved you when you collapsed after being shot in the head, still have no clue how you survived that one.." Heather looked at the revolver in her hands. "Oh, by the way, you should check how many bullets you have before trying to intimidate people." Heather sighed and said "Look, I'm headed back to the town you came from to try and find a ship out of this hell hole, you are welcome to join me, but try not to point guns at me anymore." Heather nudged the pistol barrel down away from herself. Heather turned to look at the young girl again, "I'm Heather by the way. What's your name?"

Heather took a moment to observe the land, Rocky mountains lined every horizon like a giant wall keeping her trapped in this desert land. She looked up and saw the sun, Crazy how the planet still survives if it's only desert. She took out her canteen and unscrewed the top, taking a sip. She swallowed and handed the canteen to the plant girl, "You want some?"

She slowly lowered her revolver and sheathed it with a defiant look on her face. She did make sure though Heather wasnt just bluffing about the bullets and let out an annoyed grunt when she did find out she was robbed of her bullets. "Wait! You took me back into the direction of Dodgeston?! That's not good! There are notorious outlaws running around and i need to warn the deputy of Atrium that Lucious and Vivian are in the area! They're dangerous and Atrium wont survive if they dont buff up their defenses!" She jumped up quickly and wanted to run back to Atrium but winced and held her hand over her head wound again...

She heard Heather speak of ships and looked at her in confusion. "Are you new to these parts? The closest harbor where you can get a ship ride is on the other side of the continent. Unless you want to take a sandship wich isnt in these parts either. Ill help you get to the harbor on the other side of the desert but i need to resolve this situation with the outlaws first before someone gets hurt." After the last word was said she turned around with a subtle thug on her cloak swinging it around her in a cinematic style before walking off. "My name is Torrii" She said over her shoulder, assuming Heather followed her.