Tixus had never fought side-by-side with Nexus. He did, however, personally recruit her to join the GKF. Word of a warrior with special abilities had reached him while he was traveling the cosmos long ago, and the stories were so amazing, he had to look into the rumors himself. Thus, when he landed on her home planet and met her, Tixus knew instantly he had to have her in the GKF. Not only was she very charismatic and personable, but she had a big heart, she was smart,capable – and her powers were extraordinary. She would join soon after their meeting, and Nexus quickly rose through the ranks. General Tixus also remained a mentor to her, advising Nexus on how to handle herself as she navigated the GKF, as well as how to cope with the drastic change she was experiencing, as she went from humble beginnings to becoming a mighty warrior. Thus, many years later, when Tixus called Nexus and asked for her to join him in battle for the first time in either of their careers, she jumped at the opportunity to support him.

Before Nexus went and gathered her weapons and other items for departure, she went to her starship’s armory and retrieved her brand new gear. The GKF had employed new technology into her suit, which was able to allow her powers to project through it, as opposed to her previous gear that blocked her powers and only allowed her to use them through her hands. Nexus was ecstatic it was ready, and after grabbing it she went back to her quarters to try it on.

In her room, she changed into her new armor and it fit her perfectly. Not a seam was out of place. She stared at herself in the mirror and imagined how much more capable she would be in combat, now that her powers could be exercised to their full potential. At that moment, she then began contemplating her past and how she obtained her powers.

Lieutenant Nexus was from the planet Fotia in the Foinix System. This star system was famous for its tri-sun core that rotated irregularly around a mysterious gravitational center. Every year, the three suns partially touched for a month, creating a massive solar flare that scorched the surface of the planets closest to them, while the more distant planets experienced an intense heat wave and prolonged daylight. For those reasons, the multiple species from the Foinix System were known as fire creatures, and Fotians were a prime example.

It was rumored their ancestors, called “ancients”, were able to absorb the most intense fires and heat to increase their strength. However, no Fotian in all of their recorded history had ever been known to do so. Instead, their relation to the notion they are fire people was mostly due to the unique planetary suns and their skin colors, which ranged from light yellow to deep red, with their hair and eyes being many shades of red as well.

The planet of Fotia was in the perfect zone within their system, making it the most habitable, and thus the most populated and developed. Nexus loved this about her home. It was vibrant and always filled with all kinds of people from the different planets in the Foinix System. At any turn you could encounter another species hailing from a different planet. This was never more evident than whenever she would be in the capital with her parents.

Nexus was born into a family of common folk. Their familial occupation for centuries was “surfacers” – a job that saw Fotians travel to inner planets within the Foinix System, to forage and scour the surface of the planets scorched by the tri-sun flares for vital minerals and rocks that they could sell back on Fotia. These resources were used in everything from technology to jewelry, and were only available for a short window of time, as the inner planets were inhabited by aggressive, carnivorous beasts that were virtually unstoppable, and these beasts would only remain burrowed in underground caves during the flare and shortly after.

This meant Nexus went many months a year without seeing her parents during her younger age. That was, until she became 9 years old and began working as a surfacer herself. She excelled in the occupation. Her resistance to the extreme temperatures and conditions surpassed many veteran surfacers, and her work ethic was second to none. This made her parents proud, but seeing their daughter having to work such a grueling, unpromising job broke their heart. Their parents and ancestors before them had all been surfacers, and none of them met a glorious end. They either died on the job, or they withered away old and useless due to the decades of being exposed to very high levels of ultraviolet rays and heat radiation. There was no generational wealth that could be passed down, there was no legacy or status to be gained in Fotian society, and there was no benefit from being a surfacer that might be appealing to anyone in the romantic sense, who had any other options. Plus, Nexus was a very bright child, smarter than her peers and extremely talented. Her parents had pushed her to get into academics and work hard, so she could be accepted into the Fotian Scholar Society as a young student to be groomed for a noble profession one day. The life of a surfacer was the absolute last thing they wanted for their daughter.

Yet, Nexus loved it, because she was able to spend every day with her parents. She had gone her entire life having to go without them for extended periods of time. Furthermore, when they would return, they were exhausted and it took a long time for them to recover. Nexus would not complain, as she enjoyed helping take care of them upon their return, until they were better and could be productive again. Nevertheless, it was a no-brainer for her to join her parents as a surfacer. She got to travel with them, and work side-by-side with them, too. This meant no more time apart, which was much more important to Nexus than the fact she had to do grueling labor. Thus, everything was great for her. However, when she was 13, something happened that changed all of that…

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