Jaloon shut the wooden door behind him, having just travelled halfway across the almost desolated city and through the constant monsoon. He grabbed his medium length unkempt hair in both hands and squeezed as much water from it as he could as he made his way to Hysees deeper in the large community centre. Jaloon had agreed to help Hysees a week ago when she got frustrated with completing a particularly confusing quest that the local government, or what was left of it, had given her. Jaloon had been quite the yes-troll lately, ignoring his own planets problems in favour of hanging out and helping his friends.

He jogged up a pair of stairs, passing one of the locals, part of a species of medium sized velociraptors, and entered a giant meeting room. In the middle was a large rectangular table that lacked any chairs, and around the room the consorts stood with various weapons held in their arms. At the other end was Hysees, stuck in what seemed like an argument with what seemed like the leader of the local government.

As he moved to greet them, he caught wind of their conversation. "Just be clear with the fucking problem so I can help you solve it, slime for a think-pan!" Hysees yelled.

"I am being as clear as I can," the thing replied, a little smaller than Hysees' 6 foot two stature, "We need to find a way to incite war with the south!"

"But how the hell does that solve your problem? If the monsoon is because of your denizen, then why fight them? I'm all for a good fight, but it needs to be justified!"

"And if they throw the first punch, we can easily retaliate without being in the morally wrong!"

"BUT I DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, FUCKWAD!"

Jaloon came up behind Hysees, placing a hand on her shoulder and intervening, "Hysees, no need to yell at the quest-giver. Excuse us sir, but we'll get on this problem right away. One question though- if we wanted to negotiate some peaceful solution, what exactly would you want in order to consider it?"

The consort crossed its arms, its raspy voice making a frustrated sigh, "I suppose, MAYBE, we can come to an understanding with those psychopaths. On one condition: they disassemble their nuclear weapons and allow our merchants full access to their cities."

"WAIT," Hysees interrupt, "They have fucking nukes?! Who the hell are we dealing with here?"

"The Vemerians," The thing growled in response. "They don't look much different than you guys. Except without the ridiculous horns and blue skin instead of grey."

"If they have nuclear weapons," Jaloon asked, "why haven't they nuked you guys yet? It seems like an easy way to finish you guys off."

"Because if they nuke us, we'll nuke 'em right back!" The consort screamed proudly. Various enthusiastic agreements were heard around the room, and Hysees slapped a hand on her face.

"Holy fuck, it sounds like you ignorant pillow-humpers want to fucking die."

"Well no-one needs to die, hmm?" Jaloon soothed, "We'll go and talk to these Vemerians and see if we can sort something out. Until then, don't do anything rash, huh?"

Jaloon grabbed Hysees by the arm and gently led her out the room as the consort gave a huff in response, and stopped her out the stairs.

"Alright, so you said you found more information on how to access your denizen?" Jaloon asked.

"Oh yeah!" Hysees realised, pulling a couple of stone tablets from her captchalog and handing them to Jaloon. He examined the inscriptions for a few seconds, scrunching his face up at the vague phrases inscribed on the stone. Fear of annihilation will keep the doors shut tight. Unity through mutual want. Both tablets weren't vague enough to keep Jaloon from figuring out what to do, but were vague enough to not tell him how to do it.

"Well," Jaloon started, "it seems your objective is indeed to unite these people. Or at least stop them from completely destroying the planet. So we've got the terms from your consorts, I guess we'll go talk to this other species. You know of any way to find them?"

Hysees rubbed her chin, thinking. "Well, maybe we can get an escort. Hang on." She turned from him and opened the door behind her, shouting into the room they'd just come from. "Yo chief, you got any way for us to get to these Vemerians?!"

"Just grab any of the soldiers, they all know the way to a nuclear site out west. From there, they'll get you to the Vemerian capital."

Hysees closed the door behind her, and shrugged at Jaloon. Jaloon gestured for her to follow him, and the two found a consort on the stairs, leaning on his lengthy rifle. He stood to attention as the pair walked up to him.

"Hey," Hysees ordered, "your boss says we can take one of yous' with us to find your nuke site out west, and lucky you, you're coming with us."

The consort scratched its head, "Why me? I don't want to head out there."

"Well I don't give a fuck what you want, because you're coming with us and that's an order!"

The velociraptor slumped its shoulders, but reluctantly nodded his head. "I can get there. It'll be a few hours by the sea-tube."

"Sea-tube?" Jaloon asked.

"A tube that connects our bases by sea. Real smooth ride. Comfy even."

Jaloon shrugged. "Sounds good to me." He gestured the consort down the stairs. "Care to lead on?"

"If you want." The consort led the pair, his gun firm in his hands and their footsteps echoing in the stairwell, while the two tailed close behind. They passed the doorway Jaloon and Hysees had used to enter the building, and descended even further down the building, eventually coming to the basement of the building. A metal door guarded the room, with a keypad next to it, which the consort walked up to and keyed in a four digit code. The door slid open, and the consort guided the two into a small station consisting of a track and a bullet shaped pod. The door was already open, allowing the group to step inside and take a seat each at the two opposite fold out chairsets. The consort's tail drooped beside it, and it pulled out a small keyboard from the side of the pod. He pressed in a few keys and the pod bolted off like a bullet, immediately blasted out of the station and out through the tube. They exited the underground of the city, the tube then taking them out under the sea.

Hysees placed her hand against the glass of the pod, looking out into the pitch black darkness of the sea. God knows what was hiding out in the water away from the tubes lights. She was glad she never had to find out.

"So," the consort broke the silence in the pod, "what's with you guys? Why do you have such an interest in our politics?"

Hysees pressed her face up to the glass. "Quest shit," she muffled.

Jaloon pulled one leg onto his seat and lent his arm on it. "We just have an interest in fixing up whatever's causing these storms."

"Well good luck with that. The stories foretell that only one person can stop the winds, a Hero of Rage that'll unite both sides and bring order to the planets eco-system."

Hysees pulled herself away from the glass and looked proudly at the consort, "Well, lucky day for you because I'm the Hero of Rage. I know, hold your applause."

The consort cocked its head to the side in confusion. "Nope. Don't believe you."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?!"

"It means you're not the Hero. The Hero of Rage is supposed to come down from Skaia itself and less us with their presence."

"And I'm telling yo-"

Jaloon cut her off, and whispered to her, "He's not going to believe you. Just roll with it." He turned to the consort. "So what's the deal with these monsoons? What causes them?"

"Well, believe it or not," the consort started, "it wasn't always like this. The planet was fairly peaceful. Our race would go about our daily business farming and trading with each other, maybe with the occasional storm. Then one day, the Vemerians came to our lands, began assimilating some of us into their colonies, and they began strip mining the planet. Our government wasn't too happy about it, of course, and we attempted to negotiate a solution. Then the wars happened. We didn't stand a chance against their military might, but we held an advantage when it came to stocks of food. That's when the storms started, just out of nowhere. Our territory was the only one affected, so of course most of our people blame something that the Vemerians did."

"Most?" Jaloon asked.

The consort sighed, "I don't really see how they could have personally. These storms, and their constancy, seem out of reach even for them." He looked up at Jaloon, his slit pupils wavering. "Look, you want my opinion? I really hope you two can work something out between us and the Vemerians. I know I don't think power is worth dying over."

"Well, uh," Hysees looked at him expectantly.

"Kyat," he replied.

"Well Kyat, I promise that I will do whatever possible to make sure your planet doesn't blow the fuck up because of you idiots."

Kyat gave her a smile and a nod. "I appreciate it. Hell, maybe we don't need the Hero of Rage with you guys around."

Note- Boy, the planet quests arcs are going to be a series of long ones. It's like, seven quests. Of course I'll have chapters separating them, but just a heads up because this'll be consuming at least a couple months! I'll also be retconning the characters planet to relate them more to their personalities, sooo be on the lookout for that.