Talia: Kingdom of Banditry

It was by pure accident that the interstellar thieves came to Talia in their hasty escape from the pursuit of the Galaxy Ranger.

At first, Talia was just a desolate place known by many as the Starry Junkyard. The planet-destroying wars of the past brought mountains upon mountains of ruins and wreckage onto the surface of Talia, resulting in imperishable radiation and taking away the last remaining hope to sustain life. The thieves had nowhere else to go and fell into a cave beneath the surface of the planet, which turned out to be a tunnel left by the rodent race... The thieves managed a narrow escape, and their dream of establishing a Kingdom of Banditry was thus discreetly born in this lost realm of seclusion.

Innumerable caverns were interconnected in a massive labyrinth. More groups of thieves and bandits were lured in by this supposed dreamland meant for them and came to accumulate wealth and exchange technology, subsequently laying the foundation for the kingdom.

As more and more thieves and bandits settled down here, the once desolate planet became extraordinarily bustling with life. Thieves of great renown spoke of their ideal of a Kingdom of Banditry, promising to use the treasury to build a nation of equity and fairness. But as the amount of accumulated wealth grew larger and larger, the same thieves tore up their flimsy promises right away and attempted to monopolize all the wealth. Mercenaries, riots, double crossings, and betrayals... Chaos ensued one after another. Perhaps the initiators never even once believed in their ideal of so-called equity for all.

Henceforth, thieves who resented lofty ideals found themselves in a chaotic age where ignorance was glorified. They seized water sources to build towns of their own and mocked the very idea of fairness and justice.

Everyone in Nailscrap Town was a bandit. They drove violently destructive off-road vehicles and fought for resources with other hordes of bandits in the desert. They created mechanical armor and weapons out of scrap iron and old wires... The more barren the wasteland was, the more freedom they got out of it, like one final frenzy before doomsday. Those sweet dreams were like wisps of nonsense in the radiating heat waves and had long ceased to leave any trace behind.

In a half-awake trance, the thieves came to the realization that the Kingdom of Banditry was never about creation but about destruction.

This exposed wire was old. It had once been neatly lined up on a starship until one hasty escape attempt of the starship led to a huge shock wave, which subsequently exposed the wire to the moisture in the air.

The entire starship was dragged into a labyrinth of underground passages. On the thieves' starship, shields made of steel plates were removed layer by layer, and the power lines were crudely stripped apart, all of which were then used to build the first-ever alliance market. The thieves there began to accumulate wealth and at the same time started to talk about their ideals. Soon after, the protracted infighting began, where suspicion and betrayal were expressed by and against one another. The flames of the war fought between the dictator and their detractors eventually spread from the underground tunnel to the surface-level desert grounds...

This exposed wire was even older. It was dug out of a pothole by the bandits and then connected to a revamped overland vehicle with air leaking in from all directions, which was driven to a distant water source.

The top priority for all survivors of the war of betrayal was to locate Talia's water sources. They drove thousands of miles a day on deserts littered with glass shards in extremely shabby and poorly made vehicles. The caravans of the bandits sometimes chased each other, raising dust and heavy smoke, and other times they just wantonly threw people on or off the car... The sheer pressure of survival forced them to give up all other thoughts. Only by forging ahead could they be saved from confusion.

This naked wire was always old. It was further removed from the overland vehicle and placed into the town's lightbox by the bandits. The aging wire caused the lights to flicker frequently.

It was an old gangster who claimed to be the "police officer" who founded the original Nailscrap Town. With his strongarm tactics and charisma, he managed to keep the junkyard in good order. The town became livelier than ever. Eccentric engineers accidentally made machinery out of waste, and desperate wastelanders also enjoyed fighting back and forth in the underground arena... Late at night in a bar, they filled their glasses with grape juice that smelled like gasoline and cheered together, celebrating the fact that they had managed yet another day of survival.

There was nothing new in Talia, just old things repurposed differently in changing times.