The blonde stepped off the teleport pad, her eyes squinting in the bright light as she shaded them with a hand. Where a town had once been erected and flourished, all that remained were a pile of rubble and ruins. In the aftermath of the war, no one had bothered to rebuild: it was too painful to begin anew in a place where so much hatred brewed. Hovercrafts and buildings were blown apart, steel pieces sticking up out of the now sandy surface of the planet like great jagged spears. The bodies had long since been found and laid to rest in peace at the edge of town. Her end destination and the purpose of this trip laid there.

Duci stood there a long moment, on a hill that overlooked the nearby vicinity, gazing over the streets she used to walk with a sense of longing. Umber glanced down at her duffel bag, and she stooped over to lift and shoulder it with a heft of a sigh. The bag was almost ninety pounds, filled with all her old military-grade essentials for recon missions, but she was built of sturdier things than dainty appearance she gave off. The stairwell was a crumbling, precarious pyramid that she weathered steadily. Blonde brows had furrowed in concentration, trying to prevent her feet from tumbling her to a very certain death.

It was eerie, the quiet of the abandoned city. At least the quiet had been expected when the fleet was in mourning, preparing to lay their loved ones to rest. Combat boots thudded dully against the gritty, pothole ridden roads, leading her down paths that were still familiar even years later. She remembered every building she passed, secretly rebuilding each one in her mind's eye. Subconsciously, she was reinventing the town, bringing it back to its once upon a time stage of splendor. Were anyone to join her in the surrounding area, they would see it the way she was thinking it, too. The buildings were modern looking and towering, glass edges and steel frame glinting in the sun.

"I used to spend a lot of time here," Duci recalled fondly, pausing to linger in front of the town library and civic center. She had interned for the Mayor when she was a young teenager, eager for a taste of politics. She saw a younger version of herself stroll out of the library with arms full of books, surrounded by a gaggle of other girls. A boy was leaning against the billowing, aged willow tree. Even from the street, you could see her blush as she broke away from her friends with a wave of her hand.

She inwardly groaned, not wishing to relive this moment, so instead footfalls hurried past and through the town square. Her pace didn't slow until she was out of sight of City Hall. It was here that her path detoured from her intended route, veering off onto a side road that would lead her to another familiar spot.