The web site of crystalthium's lore

Miranda Domínguez is a noble of the Domínguez family, a family which started off as mere traders for weapons of war way back before the Soltern-Auri war. Back then they only traded between the Orden, Vezzen, and Indrin systems. Between these systems they would haul, provide munitions, and supplies for these small worlds in the Sol Republic. But, this was not their haydays, nor the story of import. They truly grew to popularity and importance when the Sol Republic turned into the Soltern Empire. This caused the a giant revolt by the Aurizen Federation causing massive influxes of required weapons. Her great grandfather capitalized on this moment, beginning to war trade for the Aurizen. He dealt with many a foreigner, many an alien. His goal was to build an empire from this war, and to build he did.

Lorenzo Domínguez had no concern for the legality of his operations, nor the morals for what he was doing. It was not a concern for him, for he had a sole goal in mind. His family would war profiteer, price-gouge, rate-control, and much more. These were simply just a few of the tactics he employed in his acquisition of power. Quickly he expanded routes, providing stable supplies to the front lines, as well as building new trade-routes from the routes which were destroyed in the war. He bought cheap ships, to haul these goods, as well as smuggling items to Sol. Yes, even trading with the enemy wasn’t beneath Lorenzo. All this led to a great empire of wealth, becoming one on the seat of the aristocratic council of the Aurizen Federation.

Today, they are known for their massive fleet, and their extreme power across the systems. They are also known for their signature weaponry, the DN-Pistols, KL-Vests, and their unique form of railgun. The Domínguez families influence is quite large, though their personal zone of control is not huge. Regardless of this they are the backbone of the Military of the Aurizen Federation. Their headquarters is stationed in Orden-III, their homeworld. Recently they have acquired multiple southern systems all the way down to and including Ivanovka, increasing their influence further south, and making their name even stronger across the federation. They sit as the 3rd most powerful family, being the strongest militarily, but being beat diplomatically, and tactically by other families.

But, this tale is about Miranda Domínguez, second born on the year 2317. Her father tried not to play favorites with his children, but there clearly was one. Miranda from birth was pampered, cared for, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t forced through rigorous training. She went to the elite school funded by the Domínguez on Orden-IV, where she had a level of notoriety about her. Most people knew her as the daughter of the Domínguez family, and so people clung around her and made friends with her. She usually ended up being the bully of the groups she was in. It was not because of her prowess herself, but the people she built connections with. She had formed a small posse of friends which acted as a defensive force around her. People in this school loved to play war games, and anything which involved pretend warfare.

It was so ingrained in this school, due to it being a Domínguez school, that there were official laser tag games for the kids. Where they would bolt around and shoot each other with small toy laser guns, racking up points. Miranda being an heiress to the family of war, was always pressured to do good, but her brother who also attended the school often got the better of her, winning the games. She wasn’t the best, usually she was beaten by quite a few members, though whenever she lost, her parents gave her more training, in an effort to make her better. To them, she wasn’t supposed to lose, nor fail, and any failure would need to be corrected. They did not punish Miranda directly, but instead loaded her with more things to do, more training, and more experience.

This school was no ordinary school for her, she was loaded with electives, sports, running, and more. This school was from the early formative years, until the student was 16. It was one of the best in the galaxy, and specifically catered to each student who was in it. Each was assigned guidance councilors, tutors if they needed it, and even were taught practical skills. Miranda would learn to write letters to others, write stories to people, and petition officials for change from an extremely early age. She was taught calligraphy and perfect penmanship. Electives were chosen by her parents, of which were all combat oriented, she learned close quarters combat, basic firearms training, and command skills at an extremely young age. This school did not mess around, it had no care in the world if it trained literal child soldiers, as that was what it was supposed to do. People protested this, and were concerned their children would be indoctrinated by this school, but the commonfolk were not allowed in it. Only selected families were allowed within these halls, and getting an education from here was extremely prestigious.

Miranda’s home life was actually rather serene, the home planet she lived on was quite beautiful. It was chosen by her great great great grandfather who settled an estate on it. The grass was a beautiful golden wheat color, the winds softly blew on almost all of the planet, as a constant small gust would act. It was generally almost always springtime all around the planet, due to the fact it was on a binary star system, the cool breezes piercing with the beautiful sun, were the perfect combo. The Domínguez estate sat atop a large drawn out hill, surrounded by a massive town. The planet of Orden-III did not have huge structures, often most buildings were short, built in the neoclassical style. There were cities, like any other planet, but they were strictly limited to specific areas.

She would often walk through the fields that they had on the estate, combing through the fields and watching as the workers tended to them. The estate had many butlers, many servants, and certainly even diplomats from foreign embassies at times. When it was late at night, she would walk to the small hill nearby along the small stone path, which would lead to a gazebo overlooking the nearby lake. She would sit there, looking at the stars as they twinkled above. On this planet, there were no mosquitoes, being replaced with other bug pollinators, meaning that there was no pests when sitting outside, making the nights even calmer.

Her father grew a specific type of wine, one which their family cherished for themselves ever since the estate was founded. It was a type of pinot noir that their family cherished, and one which would be drank when a child came of age, as a coming of age ceremony. To this day Miranda has a bottle shoved into her bag, though she hasn’t drank it, as it holds a certain level of sentiment to her since she has not been able to return home.

As Miranda progressed through the years at this school, she became quite competent with weaponry, already able to fire a rifle with little to no misses. People had slowly begun to respect her properly, rather than merely hedging off her families name. She didn’t really fit in with most women in the school, who were mainly trained in intrigue and social skills. She did take these classes, but she preferred combat and command classes. Which inadvertently made her one of the leaders of one of the girl gangs in the school. She had quite a bossy attitude, one which spooked a lot of people around her. She did on plenty of occasions make fusses in the school, and would get in trouble for them. Commonly they would be punishments which would result in extra activities, extra work, and in general more medial things to do. Her teachers generally liked her but couldn’t let her get away with straight out abject bullying of other students.

Her teaching did not end just at school, often the Domínguez family would bring home tutors, as well as athletic coaches to keep their children fit. They had nutritionists which would teach the children proper food etiquette, manners, and how to attend formal events. Miranda was often seen by her father, as the actual heir of the dynasty. He tried to keep her brother up and working, but he felt him slipping. Marcus was on the outside a well mannered and well tempered individual, but on the inside, he was quite bitter, quite reductive, and quite wrathful. He knew that Marcus would not make a good heir to the family, as he would start wars in the name of uniting the families, while a more, diplomatic hand was needed. He was shamed to admit it, but it was true, which is why he believed Miranda would be a better fit. Miranda was in fact spiteful of her brothers success, but in a competitive way, not in the form of hatred. She didn’t know her fathers plans, nor knew what she was to him, forcing her to strive harder for her position.

This would continue through her teenage years, a sort of general annoyance with her brother. To her, they were rivals, she enjoyed him, but disliked how he would usually would win in competitions and beat her in many different subjects. She would strive to get better, at every chance, she wanted to win excessively badly, which pushed her. She would go many nights lacking proper sleep because she would stay up practicing her weapons training, and combat techniques. Eventually she would get better at combat than him, but she never truly beat his intellect. He was on average tactically smarter than her, but she had better combat abilities. She was still not happy with this result, and would continue to push herself. She would do whatever it took to achieve her goals, and she wouldn’t be beaten by her brother. However, time passed, and she kept trying. She never managed to break the distance between the two of them, so, she focused on areas where he lacked. She became the prom queen for the school, while he was the valedictorian. She managed to achieve it both times, wearing a signature red dress she had help making. She learned sewing and tailoring while in school, it was vital in the military to be able to patch up your clothing, and to fix them on the go. If your boot seams split, and you couldn’t fix it, you could get trench foot and die.

She graduated the school with top marks, and with an instant recommendation for service in the military. Her father was pleased, though he wished she started higher, he knew that she wanted to earn her place, and not hop and skip through ranks, but was disappointed nonetheless. She was handed her ensign uniform, and her badge, her diploma, and all of the needed materials for the trek. It wasn’t uncommon for members to start as Sergeants when graduating, but Miranda declined. She wanted to experience true hardship, and work through the system as it was meant to be worked through.

She was brazen, bold, and quite young. Miranda when she graduated was the picture of a new recruit, if you had heard nothing of her families name, you would just assume she was just overly eager. She was amped with energy, and hyped to get to work. To her, this was momentous, a moment to prove herself and to strike a different path from her brother. There was no sign of a frown on her face, just a complete innocent smile, one which was drowned in an endless amount of brazen talking. Miranda wasn’t bothered by customs, she would often just say what was on her mind, even if it offended them. Many people would grow tired of her endless talking, but she didn’t care, she would do it anyways. She was ready for her mission, setting off with a bright spiritful smile, some freshly purchased ensign clothing, and a large backpack to her name.

She took the first ship to Jarven-II, a long ride from Orden-IV, she would need to pass through many systems, and there would be a decent number of stops. Miranda during this time got to see a lot different planets and even took a momentary stop at Louky & Central Stations. Most of these planets were owned by her father, or at least indirectly owned by him, and her being a member of the corporation gave her rather extensive protections, and prestige wherever she went, even within the military. People would often elevate her in significance even if she didn’t have a right to be, to her, she was always weirded out by this, she was like anyone else really, she didn’t see herself as special. She was just as many other people were, merely human, and merely a person with a dream. But, she would always aspire to live up to these views people had of her. There was one time when she recieved a gift from a complete stranger on Louky Station, before she was deployed. She was handed a beautiful silver hair bow, by a man of extreme wealth. She declined the gift, but the man insisted. Eventually she relented and taking it, making it clear she was not willing to give favors for it. The man smiled, tutting her off, and left without many words. She still has this hair bow to this day, locked in her personal storage.

Many odd incidents like this occurred where she was gifted attention, and care when she clearly didn’t deserve it, and quite honestly… she didn’t like it. It made her feel pampered, higher than others, and honestly, she didn’t see herself that way. To her, she was a normal person, she knew that she belonged to a family, and was an heiress to a fortune, but she always felt gross when these things would occur. She felt as if she needed to earn people’s praise, not merely be handed it for simply existing. This would force her to work hard, she didn’t want to feel guilty, so she would earn the praise of others. This would become one of her fundamental principles which would follow her through life, an excessive need to prove her competency, as well as garner the respect of others. To do this she would often deny the aid of other higher up people, in an effort to show she could do something herself. It would on occasion get her into sticky situations, but as she climbed ranks she could ask for more, as now she was seen as an equal in power, rather than merely a leech on the system.

This is why Miranda slowly began to take on luxuries. If you looked at her room, and the places she stayed earlier in her career, she lived a rather spartan life. One devoid of many worldly pleasures, free from expensive items, and well made crafts. Instead opting for simpler beds, furnitures, and quicker to pack things. This of course was not reflective of her room at her home, one which was luxoriously filled with every little thing she enjoyed. Collections of her favorite weapons, gadgets, and technology filled the room to a brim. Her love for a modern style motif, with black, white, and gray color schemes.

Regardless of her musings, she eventually arrived at Jarden-II, and her mission officially started. At the start, was a long brief of the situation at hand. Talking about the endless cave systems down below, and the trouble they would get into along the way. It contained many a lecture, and talk about the molemen, their capabilities, and how their firearms worked. She quickly learned what equipment they had, and how their system of operations would work. To her, this wasn’t particularly new information, as her father had been closely watching the start of this conflict. It had started with merely a diplomatic fault between the two people, which would slowly devolve into an all out war over the span of the first year. She knew the reason for the war, the molemen wanted to keep multiple important mines, and the interior of the planet intact, which would make it nearly impossible to mine. She thought a compromise could be struck, but it seems that wasn’t what was destined, as it never occurred.

Though she never expected this war to last a long 10 harsh years, with near endless fighting. At the time, she thought it would be a simple peace keeping job, and so did her father. A quick in and out fight, to clean up the mess the molemen were causing. But no, a race which seemed to barely cling to the world, was instead deeply entrenched far into the depths, causing an utter campaign of endless total war.

To her it started off amply boring, simple patrols, and short firefights with barely many enemies. She thought she would at least see some actual… action, against maybe a gang, or some sort of boss of the molemen. But, no, it didn’t seem to be the case. Her early missions were quite simple, and filled with lack of activity, which made her incredibly bored. She would bully people, and be playful during these early missions, often funnily mocking her superiors. Though of course they did not take kindly to this, it wasn’t like she could easily be punished. She was a Domínguez after all. She would make fun of other recruits, and bully them, not things in totality discouraged by the military, so she never truly got in ‘trouble’. She at times would be the end of bullying by superiors, but would often try to come out on top, though.. She certainly did not. She learned lessons during these small missions, which helped her better understand her position in this universe. She would focus on her fitness, and training while she was doing this, to keep experienced with a gun, and physically fit. After a time she began to grow more and more displeased with what she was doing, until eventually… it started to ramp up.

Her first mission was to sting out some simple caves. Inside were allegedly a band of molemen which were terrorizing a local town. This was her first real combat moment, but she took it in stride. She used her training and tactical kit she was provided to blind the enemy using flashbangs. She abused the fact the molemen had poor hearing during gunfire, and would use this to silently move to get around into flanking positions. Her fellow squadmates would provide her covering fire, allowing her and them to easily take the molemen out as they were routed more often than not. During one mission, she utilized the stalactites on the ceiling by bringing them down with explosives to pin down the molemen and force them into a kill box. These tactic allowed her and her men to gun them down the remaining molemen in the cave with ease. She had always had a no mercy style towards her enemies. When she was lower on the command rank, this did used to get her into trouble. But, later this would become widely respected as the crimes the molemen commited would continue to mount. Either way Miranda favored her quick wit tactics, and heavy planning to make sure she had all avenues covered.

As time moved on though, she swiftly moved up the ranks becoming a Corporal where she led a squad of 4 men. She had rather strong comradery with her squad mates, and always seemed to make the mood more pleasurable. Now, she would apply her tactics to squad based situations. This was relatively easy to her, as she had already recieved a lot of squad based training from her parents, who enrolled her with personal instructors from quite a young age. She grew close to her squadmates, forming strong bonds with them, which she would bring with her throughout the war. When she was with her fellow military officials, she often would talk about many a thing with no care in the world. She never acted higher than them, often asking for their opinions on things, and how they would plan things. She would contently listen to others, heavily valuing their opinions in her operations. To her, people always had a part to play, each man and woman, needed to do a specific thing to make a unit sing, and she would spend her time trying to figure out which pieces everyone fit into in an operation. She would often take meticulous thought in this, and would reccomend her superiors plans and things, though they did often get rejected.

Her first proper squad mission was in a few icey caves. The molemen were hunkered down, and hiding from the local government. It was her job to find where they were and seek them out. Miranda scoped out their location tracking them through the snow, to their base. Her squad worked alongisde another squad to slowly peek corners, and shoot through the molemen in the inside. It didn’t go perfectly, as she got pinned down in a firefight as the molemen popped out of holes in the ground to get surrounds on the men. Her typical advancing tactic of going around while the enemy was distracted, did get her almost in trouble, but the other squad spotted for her, and kept the molemen from collapsing onto her position. She was spooked, but collected herself, ordering a couple of the men she commanded to go prone, in an effort to surprise any popups, and shoot them first. This worked quite effectively as the molemen were commonly expecting their enemies to tower over them, were surprised by a rather squat target far below. They moved up through the cleared cave, seeing an entrance to another one, where they heard scrambling about. She knew from the briefing that molemen had poor sight, and that they focused on sounds to determine where enemies were, so she had prepared for this.

She had multiple clacker grenades on her, she grabbed them, and pulled the pin on one which she threw it into the distance far into the cave. It mimicked the sound of gunfire which echoed around the caves from the distance, as the molemen were sensitive to noise, this essentially blinded them to the loud noises they heard. She watched as the molemen quickly hunkered down, and began to circle around that position, swarming it. Her and the other Seargent ordered her men to quietly move in, and flank them, this allowed their men to outflank them, forcing them to be flatfooted. After they had successfully fallen for the bait, they opened fire after having taken proper cover in the new cave. Which allowed them to effectively clear out the second cave. It was common for Miranda to be efficient, and ruthless, these were her hallmarks, but she was still playful with comrades she fought with. Kindness was not often seen in her military decisions, and would aptly form her opinion on how to handle enemies, but that would not force her to be an uptight or unapproachable person

But, she moved on to the last cave in the chain, this one was heavily fortified. It was filled with ambush spots, as well as heavy special made metal which would deflect or defract their laser shots. The other Sergeant was unsure of how to continue, and they were bogged down for a little bit of time while they thought about what to do. After a bit she remembered that she had one of her families signature heavy rail-guns with her, in her pack. It was a heavy ballistics weapon which shot bullets a hypersonic speeds while also energizing them. She proposed the idea of using it to pierce through their heavy armor, which would effectively blow up their defensive structures. The gun could also smash through rock as well as shields. The other Sergeant agreed and she prepped her gun, She pulled the trigger, and a massive light beam rung out, slamming into the defenses, blasting them to smithereens.

The mole-men would commonly use strange rock covered shields, along with their firearms. The shields were seen as a holdover from their ancestry, but would inadvertently pose issues for laser based weaponry. It created strong barriers which would deflect heat from phaser fire, which is why Miranda commonly would prefer her fathers Ballistic style weaponry in combat. Her time on this planet would greatly affect her combat style, forging a careful, cautious, and loss avoidant strategy. One which favored ballistics, and all out overwhelming force. The gun proved important and quite useful in many a different situation, in this one, it helped to clear out a room, essentially servicing as a quick one person ordinance weapon, which is why it would commonly be used by Miranda, it had it’s drawbacks though. Those being, that it was slightly unreliable, and would sometimes malfunction, causing massive amounts of heat to exhaust, causing long reload times as the gun would need to make sure it wasn’t going to melt down.

Even though it had it’s faults, it was commonly seen as Miranda’s gun, the Domínguez family certainly made others, but they were rarely seen in use, that it commonly was just a hallmark of her. It acted as a sort of gun that people recognized when it fired off, the iconic bright white beam was hard to miss. It made Miranda quite noticeable when she used it as an ordinance tool, similar to how a sniper picked off men from far ranges. The railgun could do this too, but she often found it better as a short-range heavy ordinance weapon, meant to pierce through heavy targets, allowing for swift footmen assaults.

Yet, no matter the situation she went into, she took her trusty railgun with her, using it to silence any tough enemies in her way. It was her ace in the sleeve, and often was what saved her in most situations or made her job far easier. The men after some time, learned to quickly rally around it’s firing, because if it slammed into it’s target, often that target would either be dead, or incapable of moving anymore. Down in the depths is when it had it’s greatest impact, when it split the darkness in half, acting as a guiding light. The Domínguez family produced quite a few of these weapons, but they were quite expensive, and not that practical, compared to traditional cannons, but she didn’t care, she favored the brilliance of it, the beauty of a beam which split darkness.

As she progressed, her paperwork skills also progressed. She practiced not only combat, but also the art of making clean and cut paperwork. In comparison to others, her focus on mastering this skill would make her writing far better than most in her rank, if not better than higher ranked officers. Because of her martial prowess, and ability to do work, she would be promoted to Sergeant. She was rewarded for her efficient, but never evil or cruel tactics. She had a moral compass, at first, she did not murder civillians, because the war did not demand her to. But, later, as the events became worse, and more brutal, proper genocide began to be performed. She would begin to show enemy soldiers no mercy, while giving their people and kin little time to rebound.

She later was part of a kill group, which goal was to destroy a village within the depths of the caves. This place was called the “Drul-Um”, which were seen as the deepest caves known to the surface worlders, and the common home of the molemen. These caves would stretch across the entire world. Which is why she was sent down into them, to clean up villages. The teams with her would organize surrounds on cities, and would use collapses to round up molemen, in order to gun them down, and erradicate them. One would expect this to make Miranda cruel, but she was always ever so bothered by this.

Down in the depths of the Drul-Um, was where she saw the bulk of her fighting. Down here, she became an expert in close quarter combat, and would quickly learn cave terminology, as well as the different types of flora and fauna that could grow in these caves. Down here was where an interesting discovery was found, of a rock which when crushed would work as a sort of healing serum. It was odd, but Miranda was one of the first to test it out, due to her talks with the natives. She quickly stocked up on it, after learning it’s medicinal properties, taking the form of a liquid in a syringe. Due to her quick learning of cave terminology, and of the local fauna and flora, she would be the lead expert in most units on all types of caves, and their dangers. She would constantly advice her superiors on how to keep men out of trouble, and get them out quickly.

There were many types of caves she had to go through. One of the first difficult ones for her were magma chutes. Steep drops into the darkness which would at the bottom lead to lava. Often on this planet they could reach over 5000ft of depth. Heavy grapels and thick carbon fiber rope would typically be used for these situations. She hated these, they were her least favorite of the caves. Extremely dangerous, and great death traps if explored inappropriately. She would often ask for drones to explore down first, to keep the men safe. If a drone spotted a ledge, the squad would move on the wall with the ledge, in order to keep any potential ambushes from below minimally hazardous. Whenever she descended these caves, she would always wonder if her life was going to flash before her eyes, if her rope was to break, or if one of these chutes was going to erupt. Either way, she survived, and never had problems with them. She still had a deep fear of these caves, even all the way to the Rezzen

Noodle caves were another dangerous and sly enemy to her. Though she never had problems with them, many a man died in these caves. They were incredibly small, incredibly noodle like, which is how they gained their name. Firefights in these would be down to 1 on 1’s between humans and molemen. They were extraordinarily dangerous, but needed to be explored through. Often she would take point, as she was an extremely quick shot, and would commonly use survey tools when she couldn’t get a good angle. Often if she wasn’t totally sure if there were enemies around, she would attempt to throw clacker grenades, and hug walls. This would force the mole-men to peek out, shooting wildly, it was dangerous work, but it often did pay off, as she blasted them to death after they revealed themselves. These caves could stretch one for as much as a few miles, and they were always nerve-wracking to her fellow squadmates, but they would not bother her, as she soldiered on.

Another “Fun” cave which she commonly explored were ‘tunnel-bore’ caves, or commonly called “Worm Caves”, they were massive simple structures which spanned for thousands of miles. Often they would be straight tunnels which were around 20-40ft wide in diameter. They were often huge, and allowed vehicle exploration. Often when exploring through these caves, caravans would run through them, to get to various nodes in the network of caves within the Drul-Um. These caves served as an almost highway across the Drul-Um, so it was incredibly important to secure them. Huge firefights between humans and molemen would commonly appear through these places, as well as checkpoint barriers by both.

She often had entire missions merely dedicated to breaking down these highway complexes built by the molemen in an effort to stop humanities advance through these complex caves. Often they would even require heavy weaponry, as massive stone walls were erected, almost in the style of typical fortresses. Regardless, they always fell before the might of proper artillery and weaponry. The biggest issue of most of these expeditions, was the lack of proper supplies. Command was struggling to properly supply this venture, as the complex network of caves made supply lines impossibly hard, and the fact the molemen knew these caves like the back of their hand only made their ambushes on supply lines even harder. Often Miranda would experience moments of extreme supply drought, which would cause massive issues, with their guns. Often at times when things were horrible, they would have to resort to using molemen firearms, which to most men were barbaric, but to miranda… well, she was at home with ballistics.

Hash caves were an entirely different beast, in comparison to the typical enormous maw like caves that you barely could see the ceiling of, or the tight and small noodle caves, these were short and stout caves that you couldn’t see the horizons of as they stretched far into the distance. The danger of these caves, was the lack of vertical mobility, ordinance tools basically would not work in these situations. Meaning, it was merely firefights. Grenades were also extremely dangerous, as they could potentially cause massive collapses in the roofs, held up merely by short stout pillars, which would pepper the monotonous endless horizon of cave. Smoke was suffocating, if anyone ever deployed it, it had nowhere to go, which would cause massive breathing issues to all who were within the cave. Miranda quickly learned that her smoke tactics would not work down here, and had to adapt using more traditional combat maneuvers, such as overwhelming force, and smaller combat vehicles. This was where she learned her love for shields & drones.

Shields and drones in the underground were extremely important. When moving forward, cover was few and far between in certain places, which is when a shield wall could be activated to allow advancement. In short and stout hash caves, these shields would cover all the way to the ceiling, and floor, creating impossible to breach barriers. Drones would be good for quick movement, and peeking, though they were heavily susceptible to firearm fire, which made them a little unreliable. Shields often would be used in detonation teams, in order to safely detonate mines, and clear the fields filled with traps.

The molemen were no stranger to traps, huge drop pits, which you could fall into if you weren’t careful, poison coated rocks, oil slicks, and even boulder slides. These were all things Miranda experienced first hand, as she watched a man fall straight down from ahead of her, as he fell into a pit of spikes. This is why she eventually chose to take the front position, with a second scouter, to make sure both were checking the ground as they walked. Sonar and radar were used to guarantee there was nothing strage going on, whenever they had the supplies with them. Often the supplies wouldn’t permit such thorough checks, so the men would commonly use walking sticks. Due to the stone nature of the floors, stone pressure plates carved from rocks, were also quite common, one which nearly managed to kill her. A massive door with spikes on it swung right past her face, and she narrowly avoided being staked on it.

Caves came in many shapes and sizes, these were merely a few types she had to explore. Almost all caves had strange passageways, which led off into weird paths, some which shunted straight down, others which climbed slowly downwards. This made it incredibly hard to properly breach and clear rooms, as multiple rooms would have exits, which had other exits. This often bogged down expeditions, as men had to be forced to cover flanks all over the place, as the main branches advanced, in order to insure operational security. The caves were brutal, especially when manpower was low, it was almost impossible to keep your men and supplies secure. This didn’t even mention the wildlife which lurked within these caves…

The wildlife, was a completely different venture, giant lizard like creatures with hard rock skin, which could stop bullets in their tracks was incredibly common. These lizards often were territorial, as with many other animals down in these caves. Far too much ammo was spent on these animals, but luckily for Miranda and her teams, they were edible, which meant, fresh meat directly hunted by them. Often surprisingly encounters with wildlife would actually boost morale, as people would see free meat walking. One would expect the men to want to fight less, but in fact, in almost all cases, they just wanted to fight more, in order to get it done quicker.

Naturally lit caves were also quite dangerous, as there was no guarantee what odd species were growing down in the Drul-Um. Often they would find oddly colored tall grass growing towards glow stone which was perched in the ceiling. Miranda once even saw what looked like a strange oasis, with pleasant yellow leaved trees which had dark yellow fruits growing off them. She knew from her training never to touch these things, but she had them tested, and they seemed edible, which created a nice short snack break for her squad. The pond in the middle housed strange minnow like fish, as well as various scaled frogs. It was a nice brisk break from the horrible depths of this hell, as the light basked on her and her men’s skin. It was almost scenic as she sat amongst the yellowed grass gazing up at the ceiling which twinkled like the stars above. It briefly reminded her of her home world, Jarden-II, where the grass was a beautiful yellow, almost the color of wheat fields, and it stretched on for unimaginable distances. But, after her short break, she was snapped back to reality by an ensign yelling about mole-men which were approaching.

Another danger which people not used to caves commonly did not think about was firearm noise. Firearm noise actually constituted multiple different lethal threats. Often this noise would rapidly quake through caves, alerting enemies, while also potentially deafening allies. Their noise also even created slight reverberations in the stones, which sometimes triggered collapse, which often would get many men killed. This is often why heavy ordinance could not be used too deep below. If explosives were to go off, who knows how much of a cave could collapse killing everyone in it. The death of a few molemen would not be worth squads worth of humans dying, which is why often it was either banned, or severely limited. It also did not aid with pinpointing exactly where an enemy was, as the caves would often conceal the direct location of enemies as gunshots reverberateda ll around.

The caves weren’t simple rock and stone, they varied, entire biomes were down here. Some caves were cold, others hot, some had plants, and light. Others had rivers, and even oceans. Yes, even oceans. Miranda did manage to sail across one down in the depths of this hellish world. She had to sail to an ocean fortress in order to take it out and besiege it, as it was a base for molemen raiders. They often would use the expansive caves in the area to attack supply lines massively, and used the water to boat around quickly, as well as to use the cover of darkness to better quickly fight back. Molemen could see in the darkness, unlike humans, so humans were forced to use expensive night vision equipment quite constantly, or face utter darkness, or mere bursts of light from the glowstones above. Many a men would slowly go insane down below, as the lack of sunlight made them stircrazy.

The depths weren’t made for humanity and that was arguably one of the toughest battles for them to deal with. It was not the gunfights across the planet, or the molemen themselves, but the morale of the men. It was a constant battle of morale attrition, as the men would go days without seeing much light, buried down in the caves which echoed around with strange and mysterious noises. Discipline had to be maintained, or some men would freak out, break line, or possibly open fire into the distance. Both of these were a constant danger down in the caves, as a rogue shot could hit a massive beast… or possibly even ricochet into another man.

This is why multiple base of operations were set up down below, one which emulated life on the surface. Plants, trees, and more were brought down, beneath a massive glowstone ceiling, allowing for some resemblance of normalcy to sooth the troubles of the men. Miranda from time to time, did feel this madness, though often she would suck it up, and move on, remembering her family, and how proud they would be of her, when she was done. The base was massive, carved by massive machinery, as highway like structures were tunnel bored into the existing cave systems, opening them up to quicker traversal and faster resupply. Even with this, the tunnels did not go deep enough, or far enough to cover the vast networks of caves across the planet.

Other strange oddities they found, and a particularly hellish one for Miranda, was the Spire Cave. Inside this cave layed a massive stalagmite which towered far into the air, climbing easily over thousands of feet tall. At first the men and Miranda weren’t worried by this cave, it just seemed like a quiet cave. There were no molemen around, very little noise, and a small creek pierced around the spire. But, after one of the new ensigns tripped, making a loud noise, the spire lit up. Like wildfire eyes flashed in the distance, awakening a massive swarm of bat-like creatures. Ones which would soar through the sky and claw at Miranda and her men. They were swiftly forced to retreat to connected caves as the swarms ravished through the spire cave, and surrounding caves.

Anti-air guns, as well as machineguns were brought in to quickly try to saw through the endless number of bats. Shields were deployed in order for the bats to crash into, and to protect the gunners, as they spent thousands upon thousands of bullets on firing into this spire. After enough time they did manage to clear it, and got to see a good look at it. The spire was extremely porous, with many holes for the bats to live, almost like a hornet or bee nest. The bats seemingly sat in these alcoves brooding, and breeding. The molemen heavily avoided this cave due to this, but this tactically was important for humanity. They often would breach into caves the molemen refused to explore, opening up new paths across the Drul-Um. This would often create new routes to unprotected caves, the molemen thought were safe, but were no longer due to the obstacle being destroyed.

Miranda even had to explore artificial mazes, which the molemen built in order to hide entrances to their homes. They would use complex mazes which were easy for the molemen to remember as they traveled them daily, but were unknown to the assailants. Miranda would slowly and methodically map out these maze nexuses, slowly brute forcing her way through them. Some of these horror shows required crawling, forcing the men onto their bellies to continue through. The molemen would use ambush points, and traps to make them unbearably hard to get through. Often the caves would be too short for humans to go through while standing, so they had to be artificially heightened to allow easy accessibility. This was honestly a common problem across a lot of the artifical structures that Miranda had encountered. The extreme lack of height made these missions far harder, the men having to crouch, or even go prone allowed the molemen ample mobility and ensnared their men.

Cities and towns would often be connected to these mazes, in order to make it impossible to find them. Eventually the men would use sonar, as well as other forms of radar to make maps of these caves, something the molemen didn’t expect. Allowing them to quickly breach through them, and pierce their veil. Massive drills were also employed to brutalize the rock, and form straight paths into their homes. The molemen were often terrified of the utter destruction Miranda would bring, and the total lack of care she would show them. Her and many other generals commonly were seen as butchers by the molemen. All of this had to be explored in order to guarantee a safe Jarden-II. This would lead Miranda on a journey of over 10 years of combat, through endless caves, and the rare surface adventure.

Not everything was horrible caves, and darkness though sometimes strange things could be found deep below the surface in the Drul-Um. Miranda and many other squads assaulted a fortress which sat on one of Jarden-II’s massive underground seas. The water around the fortress, and in the sea was crystal clear, like that which was often found in the polar ice caps. The islands here often were dotted with sand, allowing the men to almost live a tiny paradise on them, if it weren’t for the fact they were heavily trapped under the ground. But, even though beauty could be found, there often was a job which needed to be done, in this case that fortress needed shelled.

Even Beauty could be found down here as sometimes there were moments of…. Serenity. Miranda often did not get a break, nor did she ever expect to, most people around her would describe her as a workaholic, one whose job never ended. But, during the few times she did get to break, and relax. She would often read. She would read quite a lot, specifically she loved mysteries, and detective stories. To her it was always fun trying to predict the bad guy, or to predict who did it. She would usually rate books where this was impossible as bad, while ones which cleverly hid the antagonist as better. Though she liked noir books, and detective books, she detested romance books. She found them reductive and harmful to the experience, so she would actively avoid any books which featured hard romance, or any sort of love. To her love was sacred, a special bond between two to which should be cherished. While, most of the romance stories she did find, flagrantly broke this, and made a game out of love.

During one of her missions, she ended up finding love on the battlefield, another Sergeant. She found him during a steep cave descent. They were leading two separate squads, and were working together on clearing this cave. They had a unique chemistry, her extremely deadly tactics mixed with his boldness, often resulting in an extremely lethal combo. Often during missions with her, they would tactically rely on each other, and he would push ahead. This teamwork, she enjoyed. In fact, she fell in love with it, slowly beginning to fall for him. They both had a command of the room, and good charisma to boot. They both inspired their fellow men, and she would continue to fall for him each time they got to work together. He wasn’t anything special, a rather normal man, quite tall, standing at about 6’6, He had bright blue eyes, brown hair, and was built extremely broadly. He had a giant smile which was constantly splattered across his face, and his name, a simple Sergeant Patrick.

Whenever they were working together, she constantly would tease him, and toy with him. This would constantly lead to bickering, and infighting between the two as they would try to get ahead of each other, acting as sort of competitors betwixt each other. There were times when this did get dicey, and the two of them pushed up too far, resorting in a tangled web of enemies around them, but often the two of them together could burst through any situation, sometimes… quite explosively. They were stationed together often, as she would constantly bicker with the 2nd lieutenant for assignments with him, constantly broaching on the fact that their effectiveness together warranted them working beside each other.

Miranda when she was younger was often a rule breaker, a rule setter, as she would put it. Rules to her were important, but she also recognized that in most situations proper tactical protocol, and guaranteed successes were limiting, and not always achievable, so quite often she would risk things, in order to make big gains. Luckily for her, her tactical calls were often quite right. She would bet the strength of her team against the molemen and often got it extensively right. She would spend nights drawing up potential breach and clear plans, with all possible positions based on sonar. Then, when they were ready, they would breach like an orchestration of death. The two eventually hooked up, getting together with each other. They made a vow to marry each other when the war was over, but they were not prepared for how long this war would take. Often when they were together, they saved eachothers lives, filling in the faults of the other, usually through slightly disobeying the 2LT’s orders… But all’s fun in games right? This would net them in trouble, but with Miranda’s familial prestige, she was mostly untouchable, not to mention the results she provided couldn’t really be contested with.

Miranda truly was a killing machine, one taught from birth by the Domínguez family, to create a strong leader. Her tactical calls were great, and her talent was broad. The experience she would gain would massively shape her abilities and her calls as time would move on. Due to this, and the prestige of the Domínguez family, pissing them off was not something a 2LT could really afford to do, nor would want to do. So, their 2LT, usually let it slide, or only minimally reprimanded them, explaining how the tactical issues they exerted, could lead to deaths. These strange tactical calls weren’t insane, often they would just lead to the two squads assuming a safety area, when there wasn’t a direct guarantee, which made pushing easier, but made things potentially far more dangerous.

Eventually they did enough missions to get to the ‘proper’ frontlines of Jarden-II. They had pushed almost all of the natives off of the surface, and shallow caves. This meant that what was left was the depths of the Drul-Um. She had poked through this many a time before, and would now spend the remaining time of the war down in the depths of these chasms. At one point they were tasked with clearing a location called Rheemur’s Pass. A large cave system with a massive bridge which straddled an extremely large drop. The molemen held it with fierce intensity. Supplies at the time were quite low, and they were in a rather desperate position. The higher ups ordered them forward, utilizing their brazzen nature, and willingness to go into danger, regardless of the supply shortages, they were sure the two of them could handle it. Patrick raced up ahead, closing in on the bridge, taking cover near the cliff edge.

In his usual merry way, he went a bit further, onto the cusp of the bridge just to out perform Miranda. But, this time.. Something went wrong. Suddenly from all around, molemen appeared behind, in front, and they surrounded the bridge. They were ensnared in an ambush, one which would take many a life. The molemen quickly let loose volleys of ballistic shots, riddling man after man with bullets. Men were gunned down left and right in quick succession. The ones which did survive, ducked for cover, peeking out to take return shots. However, Patrick was out of position, and was not fast enough. There was no cover nearby, and certainly no way he could make it to many. He wasn’t fast enough, as a shot rang straight through his heart. Supplies, and squads behind them were out of position, due to the orders from above. Their reckless nature, was finally tested, and put to metal.

Patrick clutched his chest, holding black a torrent of blood. He cracked a smile, as he usually did when situations were bad. He clutched his radio talking to Miranda. “Don’t Cry, You’ve Got This.” He sighed, exasperated from the bleeding “Miranda, stay frosty.” He eeked out as his last breath drew from his ragged breathing. Miranda was stunned behind him, unable to progress forward, tears rolling down her face.

The Major at the time, had made a massive tactical error, benching on them two, to break through a heavily fortified bridge. His people were out of position, they were way past their resupply point, and were pushing too far head. The Major, Draxx, was not the most experienced at the time. He had fought in wars before, but not from a commanding position. He was given this one as a sort of second try at life by the Domínguez family, and well… he had just lost his second chance. He underestimated the threat of the molemen, thinking they weren’t that dangerous. He ontop of Miranda’s and Patrick’s risks, took even more, cutting corners as well. Regardless of this, he ordered Miranda & Patrick, as well as many other men forward to take this pass. Miranda to this day believes he is the reason for the death of Patrick.

After she heard the comm click from his death, and her short weep, which could not last long. She looked up, analyzing the position of the molemen, and got to work. She began firing shot after shot at molemen targets who peeked out in order to fire at her men. It was as if something clicked in her, a sort of switch flipping, where she started to act mechanical. She had no care, no mercy, she would execute all who stood in her way. To her, there was no end to how many molemen deserved to die. They slaughtered patrick, and her men, and she would take this bridge at all costs. Miranda was in a blind rage, she ordered her men up and over rocks and cover. Forcing her men to one side, making the situation a simple no mans land situation. Once she had done this she tactically abused the fact they were sensitive to light to blind them, and get around them. She dodged around cover solely, to pretend she was not there, while asking another woman in the team to call out orders, to mimick her voice. The tactic worked as the molemen thought Miranda was still over there shouting down orders. But instead, she was in the backlines.

She didn’t care what she had to do, she augmented her pistol, making it unstable, but capable of quick extremely lethal shots. Silently she would take target after target down, as smokes were thrown on the opposite end to distract the molemen from the dwindling fire on their side. Once enough were dead, and the molemen started to bunker down in suspicion she employed her railgun to call down stalactites from the ceiling, crashing them into enemy positions, and forcing them to route. They tried to flee back across the bridge, but the remaining men quickly slaughtered them as they ran across open ground. Miranda was not done here, she had vengeance in her heart. She no longer cared about the structual integrity of this bridge, and started lobbing grenades onto their fortified positions atop it. Blowing them to smithereens, she took charge of the remaining men, and forced a push up to the fortified front. They grabbed an MG nest, while under fire and turned it around, using it to open fire on the enemy. She would open fire upon any of the molemen who would peek from cover, as her men would push up due to the molemen being incapable of firing back for a time.

As they finally hit the middle of the bridge, she grabbed the MG, hauled it forward, with a couple other men, and continued to wield it pinning the molemen down with their own gun. Tactically this would not be relevant if they had proper supplies, but due to the circumstances, this was the best she had. Any position she couldn’t take down properly, she’d hand her railgun off to another, and order strikes to blow down rocks, and remove and level cover. With her men, she took the pass, exerting control over it, and forcing the molemen back to their bungaloos. She looked for Patrick’s body, taking one of his spare dog tags, to keep with her forever. She finally had time to cry, but by the time she got to it… she had no tears to shed. Only rage touched her face.

She would go on countless more missions, murdering and slaughtering any molemen which stood in her way. Her 2LT died in the fighting, and she was swiftly promoted. Many ambushes quickly fired off in massive succession, it was one of the molemens last tactics they had. They killed quite a lot of the command hierarchy, allowing Miranda swift promotions. Her attention to detail, and her excessive plans against the molemen made her a great target for promotions. To her it did not matter what should be done, but what NEEDED to be done. Her plans often would be called unethical in a traditional war, but it was not contested in this one, after the mass death of command positions.

There was a fury in her heart after that day. It led to her working tirelessly to clear hole after hole methodically. Some would say her efforts were wasteful, she often overused supplies, like grenades, on simple hole mounds, and simple caves, when there weren’t even guarantees there was anyone in them. She didn’t care, and most people took it as pre-emptive and necessary after those successful ambushes. She would also use napalm, as well as gasses to fish out enemies when they couldn’t easily be gotten to. It didn’t matter, if she had to cook the molemen alive, she would do it. If entire cave systems must be rendered asunder, she would do it. It didn’t matter if the entire Drul-Um must be destroyed, she would do it. By the end she had climbed the ranks making it up to a Major, after successfully having expunged all molemen from the planet.

After Patrick’s death, her temperament changed radically, the happy and smiling Miranda who had shamelessly fallen in love with a fellow officer, became far more serious. Instead of goofing around and enjoying her time, she would treat her job with utmost respect, and would follow the word and rules to the letter. It helped that she now commanded and made the rules, so that she could set the boundaries for what she thought was right. She wouldn’t exceed where she was supposed to be, unless she deemed her superior to be incompetent. She would not break or bend rules, as she did not want to experience the pain again of the many dying around her, or that of her beloved. Due to this change, she became a model officer, this rigorous training and strict adherance to rule and policy made her an excellent person for recruitment posters. The Domínguez family loved her, and especially her father. Quite often favoring her over his first born.

Her father got her a job on the southern frontier, to take a nice reprieve, and to relax from her traumatic experience. He knew she needed some time to settle down, and enjoy herself. So, she was to be sent on the S.S Rezzen. She reluctantly accepted this job, grumbling while doing it, but it technically made her a Lt. Colonel. She would head the Military of the planet, and would help to bring it together during it’s formitive years, or so… that was the plan.

She still longed to see Patrick’s face. She had a small picture, and his dogtags to remember him by, things she clung to excessively, but things she would hide from others. She would keep both in her pocket at all times, and would ask for his guidance when times got tough, asking what he would do in some situations. But it was not all sunshine and rainbows, as Draxx was sent on this colonial mission too, not as a hero, but rather… a “guardian” for her. She hated it, but her father insisted, that if he were to survive, he would protect his daughter. Otherwise, her father promised to hunt Draxx and his crew down, and eradicate them. She accepts his help, and strangely he quite fancies her. But she absolutely despises him. He is a valuable resource to her, for his dog-like nature. But, she will end his life, when she believes she could get away with it with no reprecussions.

Miranda Domínguez Biography