Vigilante in Stetson

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Crimson Horror

“No one knew his name, just some boy from a town on a barren planet who burned down an entire crime syndicate after they invaded his home and killed his people.” – Chapter from Galactic Journal Weekly

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New Garedonia, an isolated town on the barren planet "Tumbleweed" in the Aboriya star system, seemed at first glance insignificant. Surrounded by sweeping, grand canyons, it was home to Cass Nova, a teenage boy with an unusual background: raised by a blacksmith father and a military officer mother, he developed a keen interest in weaponry. Cass would often accompany his parents into the wilderness on weekends, practicing range shooting with an old United Sol Command bolt-action rifle in the canyon’s solitude.

Cass attended the local educational center where he took engineering courses, though he kept mostly to himself, save for a close friendship with another teen, Vorde Vega. Many afternoons, Cass and Vorde would sit on the canyon’s edge, overlooking the settlement they called home.

On an ordinary day, Cass asked Vorde to go with him to explore a remote oasis he’d heard about, but Vorde declined, as his partner had invited him out instead. Disappointed but undeterred, Cass set off alone, hopping onto his desert vehicle—an odd fusion of a snowbike and standard cycle, with an audio synthesizer imitating a revving engine. The wind tore past him as he sped toward the oasis under the pale, hazy sky of Tumbleweed.

Arriving, Cass marveled at the still waters reflecting jagged cliffs, but his attention was snapped away by the sudden, crackling hum of a ship’s engine overhead. Turning, he saw a black vulture-class craft zooming past the canyons, marked unmistakably with the Crimson Crew insignia—a notorious mercenary gang. Sensing the threat, Cass’s instincts kicked in, and he immediately turned back, racing towards New Garedonia.

By the time he arrived, the damage was done. The town was already leveled, nothing but smoking rubble in the wake of the Crimson Crew, hired hands for a powerful criminal syndicate. Only a few mercenaries remained, boarding their shuttle on the outskirts. As Cass neared his home, one mercenary, with a cold, dead-eyed gaze, spotted him and took aim, sending a warning shot that pierced his bike’s battery. Cass leapt from the crippled vehicle, heart pounding, and scrambled behind his house, barely avoiding the second shot.

He slipped into his home through a shattered window, his chest tightening at the dark bloodstains streaking the floor. But the real horror awaited him inside. He stumbled to the ground, his father lying lifeless against the wall, a bullet wound through his head, his cherished Stetson hat slumped beside him. The awful silence was shattered only by Cass’s own shallow breathing, his eyes locked on a Vishap Cigar that had rolled out from beneath the hat—a final, haunting image of his father.

His mother was nowhere to be seen, though he knew that as an officer, she’d kept a USC-issued pistol hidden in the house.