Off in a region of the galaxy that few people bothered to come by, in those days, they'd settled. It was harsh, but it was the only planet in the system they'd been able to successfully keep inhabited, and they'd been low on fuel.
Still, morale wasn't very high. Planet Desiccant. A fitting, but none-too-optimistic name. A ball of dirt, dried up by powerful winds, and a water cycle that seemed to be dying.
But they'd saved it! They'd definitely saved it. In the nick of time, they'd showed up, with their burning ships and pollution. They'd given a dying planet another chance. Plants long dead began to grow, intermingling with the pioneering species the settlers brought with them. Animal life they thought was along for zoological study was genetically replicated and sent out, for necessity.
The ships, after steadily regenerating enough fuel to make it back for communication with the rest of the fleet, went on their way, leaving the settlers, who'd depended on the ships for fifty years since their arrival on the planet, abandoned to their own aims, and newly replicated animals and plants.
But the ships didn't come back for a long time.
Somehow, despite this, they'd thrived. For hundreds of years, they thrived, building communities where water was discovered, isolated, cut-off from the rest of their race.
When they came back, five hundred years later, they'd changed. The people drew back from them. And though, in returning, they peacefully erected a wonderful, technological city to act as a space port for the planet, few of the settlers rejoined their comrades. They had become something different.
And so life went on, now homesteads were bustling communities. Communities filled with relatively happy people, who lived day-to-day accustomed to the heat, the winds that could strike up in seconds... And the lack of wood that led to most homes being baked brick.
But nowadays, with the new technologies that were slowly, slowly, year by year, creeping up on the settlers, crime started getting rampant. Crime that the settlers repulsed, and successfully kept under wraps, for many years. Even this year.

That was why Koav Trestran thought nothing of it when the newspaper said that the Inferno Cani had struck the nearby town of Malygine. The local militias, and sheriffs would handle it. He was busy learning how to outshoot his buddy, MacGuire.
Old man Chonstene usually never spoke to anyone unless he was buying something at the general store, but he'd offered the boy lessons. Out of the blue! Said he saw something old in him. Koav wasn't sure what he meant, but he was actually firing the revolver, so it mattered little to him.
"Slacken up! You stand that stiff and you'll fall over! Stop worrying, boy!"
Oh? That was odd, he thought, for an instant. What made him so tense? What did he have to worry about?
His father owned the local tavern, the Fallen Shine, co-operated by his mother, who tended the bar when his father was busy yakking it up. They lived in the rooms above it. All in all, it wasn't a bad life. He was relatively at ease with how things were going. Only once did he hear his father complain about how tight money was, nowadays. He had seen a fevered look in his father's face that week, and some weeks after... But after a couple months, he returned to his normal, jovial self.
So Koav relaxed. He felt himself loosen, his grip punctuated slightly, to keep himself aware of the kickback. He took aim at an open bottle, closing his eyes for an instant, aligning himself.
Bulls-eye.
He stared down at the smoking barrel.
Life was good.

Veschring Nemhel…or Veschring the hunter as he was often called had grown sick of the planet he lived upon being peaceful and boring. He craved action, bloodshed, and the joy of destruction. That is why he created the Inferno Cani . Now as the leader of the largest crime syndicate in all the world he was pleased. Nothing was beyond his grasp, if he wanted it he could have it. This included goods, food, precious and scarce water, and even people. In Malygine Veschring’s temper got away with him. It got away with a lot of people actually. Seventy-five corpses lay about the town in assorted positions, all because one man was two weeks late on a payment to the Inferno Cani. When Veschring became aware that he would not be getting his money he went into auto kill mode. Anything that moved, came near him, or even sounded alive was destroyed instantaneously. When it was all done, the entire police force, and the town militia lay in waste. The small military outfit retained a third of it’s members and the police were left with three officers.

Hours later He and his gang had left the town in rubble, destroying many a building and leaving families torn apart in their wake. “Next stop is Aneria.”
“No brother! Allow me to handle this one.” A radio signal was coming into Veschring’s vehicle it was his brother in crime, his equally maniacal partner Nacht. Inferno Cani was a split group, one half loyal to Nacht, the other to Veschring. They had started the faction several years prior as a small loan shark agency and it quickly grew, recruiting thugs and bastards from all over the harsh, sandy globe.

“Nacht, you’re going to take care of this with your crew?” Veschring’s slithering voice hissed into his receiver and crackled out of Nacht’s end. His voice would be enough to make the heartiest of good doers’ skin crawl, but to members of the gang it was the commanding voice of their beloved leader. Even though two groups had arisen from within the one clan both worked together and respected one another, they were like a deranged family.

“You’ve had enough fun for the day pal, go back to Gremnia and rest up.” Nacht’s armored truck turned left, headed for the small town of Aneria for another unpaid debt. He flipped the switch on his radio to turn it off. “That careless bastard, he’s going to get us all fucking caught and hanged if he keeps doing that. Luckily I can take care of things in a much more hush hush sort of approach.” He slammed on the gas and sped off into the distance as Veschring’s car turned the opposite way.

“That fucker better not lose this one…this debt is huge and we can’t afford two major losses in one day.”

Koav returned home to find his father fretting about money again, with his mother. He tried not to pay much attention, as his father was very introverted when it came to financial matters, but he couldn't keep his mind off of it, as his sister Merin passed him some bread, babbling about school to him. He idly remarked that he was glad he was done with it, but she wouldn't let up.
They'd been enjoying dinner in the backroom of the tavern when there was a knock at the door. A single knock.
His father tensed.
"Koav, take Merin up to your rooms."
He obeyed, noiselessly.
"Lutheran," his mother said quietly, as Koav ran upstairs with his sister in tow, "Is this our... 'unsavory' lending service?"

Nacht smiled, gesturing to a couple of his men to move to the front of the rather rustic, large Tavern, which was cleanly divided down the middle by a couple of thick timbers, which marked off the family's rooms from customers' rooms. He, himself, stood at the back half's front door. Debt collection threats were always fun.
He waved to Lutheran Trestran as the older gentlemen opened the door, warily and quickly backing away, to stand beside his wife.
"Hey, Lutheran. Delia. How's your business doing?"
His wife started edging away.
"The front's guarded. Don't bother."
She stopped, her eyes wide.
Lutheran shook his head slowly, and held up a simple, double-barrelled shotgun. 12 Guage. Nice choice.
"We're slowly making a turnaround. You... gentlemen," he said, using the word begrudgingly, "are going to have to come back later. We don't want any trouble."
"Nor do we, I assure you. But... You'd better stop making excuses. Profits have been high, last I heard from you. Thought it might be a good time to drop by."
"Well... it's not, so don't get any bright ideas."
Nacht drew a pistol, solemnly, slowly. Lutheran tensed on his gun.
"Now, don't go getting hasty on me." Nacht said, grinning, slowly spinning the gun around on his hand, picking up speed, turn after turn.
Suddenly, some heated words broke out in the main gathering room.
"HEY! Why do you get the Alavastor rum?"
"I saw it first?"
"Why, I ought to slay you right here."
"Pfeh!"
"Hey, boss!" said one of the gang members, opening up the door between the rooms. "Lasky and Jernak are getting into it again."
Visible from the back room, two men circled each other, pistols drawn and held pointing into the air.
"Hey, you fuckin' idiots! Stop your bitching, you babies!" Nacht said, slapping his hand against his forehead.
"He's pissed me off for the last time!"
"Any time, any place!"
"I'll kill you now! I will waste you BOTH! Now, fucking stop your bickering!" Nacht said loudly, dropping his pistol to his side, which was now, indirectly, aimed at both Lutheran and his wife.
At that moment, Jernak fired a shot into the air, as a warning. A split-second later, a twin shotgun blast rang out.
Nacht fell dead to the ground.
"Holy SHIT! THEY GOT THE BOSS!" The gang member who'd open the door said, running scared.
The rest of the bandits cleared out of the tavern like hot air escaping from a popped balloon.
Delia kneeled down, looking at the smoking corpse that had been the source of their troubles. She shook her head slowly.
"...Dear?"
Lutheran dropped the shotgun. "I... I didn't mean it... I thought..."
"I know. But that's the end of that, isn't it? We can get the sheriff over here, and clean this up. He threatened us on our property."
Lutheran bowed his head, and leaned on the table in front of him.
"I... I hope so."

"DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GONNA DO!?!?! VESCHRING'S GONNA FUCKING MURDER US!" Tenma, Nacht's second in command screamed as they sped back to the Inferno Cani hideout. He was addressing the others in the truck, asking them for advice, but really asking them for condolences for he knew what lay ahead of him. He knew that Veschring just may kill him for allowing Nacht to die.

"Just shut up! You don't know what's going to happen when we get there!" One of his crew fired back at him. "FOr all you know the boss might break down and go after the family. He might be too depressed to worry about us!" Tenma's brass knuckle clad fist slammed up against the crew member's face.

"Don't talk like that to me!"

They arrived back at headquarters late that night and immediately made their way to the main hall where they knew Veschring would be having one of his late night accuracy sessions. (THat's what he called it when he tested out his gun on prisoners who disobeyed the Inferno Cani.) Gunshots rang out through the base as did blood curdling cries of agony and fear. These captives were blindfolded and allowed to run about the main hall while Veschring sat in a chair at the top of a set of stairs and picked them off with his various guns. They never knew which of them had died, if that last shot was meant for them, or how long they were going to live. Sometimes he left a few alive to spread fear within the cells of the basement, only to execture them in a different fashion, or to bring them up for another session. Veschring only did this on nights when parts of the gang were not in the base, it was his way of letting out the anxiety, he knew that if any of his men were taken hostage they would be tortured until his location was given away.

The locked doors burst open (they were locked from the outside) and Tenma entered. "SIR! Sir I have to speak with you! It's about Nacht!" Veschring stopped shooting and turned his eyes on the lackey.

"What about my brother?" He aimed his gun at Tenma.

"I'm very sorry to have to be the one to inform you of this but...Nacht was shot and killed by the person in debt that we were trying to collect from." Veschring stood up and descended the stairs to the main hall. As he walked towards Tenma he shot the remaining prisoners who were running aroud like chickens with their heads cut off. He reached Tenma and looked into his eyes. Suddenly Tenma dropped to the ground silently. Wordlessly Veschring had taken three blades from within his jacket and jammed them through Tenma's diaphragm.

"Woops, I forgot to ask if he got them back for it." Veschring said sarcastically. He passed through the door of the hall and walked straight out of the base. He took off in his car without saying a single word to anyone...he was on his way to Aneria.