With Enter the Samurai coming out soon, I thought I’d let you get a sneak peek at one of its new characters: Cora Pierson
Cora was raised in an enclave, learning the dangers of the Badlands first-hand as her clan scratched out a living trading Badlands salvage with Paradise City. She showed an early talent with deaders, sensing their presence and becoming adept at tracking them and capturing them for sale. While her clan reaped the benefits, Cora dreamt of something else. Her grandmother had grown up in Paradise City, and enthralled Cora with stories from its golden years. Cora marveled at the thought of water-greedy green parks kept just for aesthetic reasons, markets filled with exotic foods and spices, and its silvery airships traveling all corners of the world on gentle winds.
After her grandmother died, Cora made her way to Paradise City and traded on her talent with deaders to get into the Imperial Academy’s Necrosonic Studies program. Paradise City didn’t quite live up to her grandmother’s stories, but there were parks and life there was easier than within the enclaves. Cora applied herself at the academy and learned quickly, but couldn’t make up the gap between herself and the other necros who had grown up in Imperial cities, and couldn’t escape the stigma of her upbringing, especially the whispers about enclave cannibalism. She stuck with it and finished with respectable marks, good enough to qualify her for an airship’s crew.
Life in the fleet was not glamorous, but better than being stuck in the Badlands with her clan. Her enclave roots weren’t as remarkable among crews recruited from throughout the empire and for the first time since leaving the enclave, she began feeling like she had found a home. She made friends, saw the far corners of the empire, served her tours, and looked on with growing apprehension as the fleet began shrinking, berths becoming harder and harder to find, especially for those without connections in the upper brass. She knew her time within the fleet was over when she suddenly received a transfer order to Outpost 342, with no mention of her position. She wasn’t certain what to expect when she arrived at her transport, but it certainly wasn’t being thrown into chains without charge or explanation.
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