Background

Mars was born in Gary, Indiana, a city that had long since lost the steel boom that had once built it. Mars was the middle of three children, and was the only daughter out of the three. The area that Mars had been born into was that of a slum, there were rows of boarded-up houses lining her neighbourhood like broken teeth. Mars' mother worked two jobs and still barely managed to keep food on the table and her father was barely present, often out at 'work'. As her mother was often working and did not have time to be home to raise her and her siblings, the care of her youngest brother, Rowan often fell to Mars. Mars became adept at pretending that everything was fine, often hiding overdue rent notices from her mother. When their mother was taking her rest after her jobs, Mars would send her youngest brother to bed and then set to work on her homework in their shared room. Mars had an interest in taking things apart and learning how they worked, tinkering became a hobby that she'd find great enjoyment out of. Mars did not do too well in school, not because she was not smart, but rather because the teachers would label her as 'difficult' and 'angry'. Her attitude towards her teachers and peers would often be quite short and sharp and she always found herself being tired from long nights of studying. She did however, manage to place well in tests but would often fall short when it came to social interactions. Mars put most of her effort into learning how to speak Spanish as her mother had told her being able to speak Spanish would surely secure her a job later in life. She would also excel in any classes that required her to put her hands to work, she was the kind of person that needed to be kept busy in order to not cause arguments. Mars' older brother, Jasper, fell in with a bad crowd and became a substance peddler for them. Unfortunately his 'work' with them ended abruptly when he got caught in the middle of a territory fight and was shot dead. This was a turning point for Mars, the usually quite docile at home, sister would begin to lash out and grew quite resentful to the town she lived in. She would often run away from home and spend the nights out on the streets, leaving Rowan to care for himself. When the outbreak happened, Mars and her family, including her father, packed up what little they had and took to the roads and joined a caravan. Mars would often spend what time she had out on the road to tinker with whatever scrap things she could. Her parents took up jobs within the caravan to supply them and keep the people fed. Mars on the other hand, with her fiery will and short temper was often sent to patrol the caravans with the guards, soon becoming a guard for them herself, again leaving her brother to the care of others. During nights that the caravan would settle down to rest, Mars would set to work on tinkering. She took keen interest in one of the smiths that were travelling with them, often spending time learning what she could from them. The smith taught her how to make weapons, guns and melee weapons alike. 'Old Man' as she would often call them, could only speak in Spanish, and as such she needed to put the Spanish she had learned in schooling to work in order to communicate with him. This would continue for eight years, her ability to speak the language became fluent and she would often do scrapping runs in cities and towns they passed by for Mars and 'Old Man' to work on weapon crafting together. As the years passed by and Mars grew used to her life with the caravan, she naturally became one of the guards. Her abrasive attitude to strangers paired with her willingness to participate in keeping her group of travelling traders well protected, made Mars a great guard for them. The caravan would make its way down to Kentucky after having been around the entirety of Indiana a few times and realising that trade there was becoming poor. They had hopes that expanding to Kentucky in their travels would be an interesting new horizon for all of them. Upon the tenth year of travelling along with the caravan, Mars' merchant caravan would happen upon another caravan, this one was full of refugee's from the fallen Liore QZ. They decided to stick alongside them for their journey to Knox County, as they were likely heading that way anyway to trade. Mars kept her distance from the neighbouring caravans, she would not go out of her way to protect what was not hers.