K-Ra

K-Ra has become a household name across Nisora, and one that starts arguments. Some call her a terrorist, others call her an activist, and whether her actions are justified has been the cause of household disputes for months.

Fall

Starting the Path

The path to extremism is littered with exit signs that aren't taken. This is particularly clear in the case of Kayla Rallers, more commonly known as K-Ra. Born in the Outskirts, she moved to Galendra's Residential District at 20 to pursue work in chemical engineering. She ended up employed at an Apex lab making lubricant and coolant for heavy machinery.

After a thorough investigation, Apex Quality Control has determined the sole cause of last year's chemical spill was due to user error during loading procedures. The user who erred is no longer with Apex.

— Official statement from Apex PR

Two years into the job, a chemical spill put her and several others in the hospital. Numerous skin grafts were necessary to treat her burns. Her left leg wasn't recoverable, and had to be amputated above the knee. The cause of the spill was twofold: outdated equipment Apex had refused to replace, and user error on the part of a migrant worker in a temporary position.
Apex brought those who were injured to a company-owned hospital, but covered none of the medical expenses. The resulting bill was more than anyone on a lab worker's salary could afford, and many became effective debt slaves to Apex in an attempt to pay it off. Meanwhile, the migrant worker whose mistake caused the spill was unharmed, and soon had earned enough money to leave planet.
K-Ra was in and out of the hospital for months working through recovery. The burns left lingering nerve pain even after healed, and the scars would remain across her legs and torso for the rest of her life. When the bill arrived, she refused to pay, and never returned to work.
Wyre Rat discrimination against off-world influences had already found purchase in K-Ra's mind, and this experience only solidified it further.

Near-Death Experience

Local Wyre Rats supplied her with a functional prosthetic for her missing leg, but the nerve pain from the burns became a lingering disability that made most work impossible. She relied on substances to make her days tolerable, and what money didn't go to rent went to pain killers and alcohol. She lived in a perpetual fog, months passing between cognizant experiences.

It would be years before K-Ra would learn of Control, and would realize this mystery illness was her body going through withdrawals after leaving Cryptix territory.

When she ran out of rent money, she moved back with family in the Outskirts. Within a week, she was overcome with an unknown illness. Though home medicine did little to help, her family respected her refusal to go to the hospital, even as she faded in and out of consciousness for days. When she finally began to recover, she described it as feeling like she could think clearly for the first time since she moved to the city.

Fury

Choosing the Path

With support from friends and family, she found ways to cope with and minimize the chronic nerve pain. Art supplanted alcohol in her day-to-day, and she developed a side business making custom paints with her chemical engineering skills. Yet the fog receded only to reveal outrage that she and others were forced into such situations. (In 3228, Jorie Grey edited K-Ra's memory to make her believe the Mother of the Stars church aided her through this time.)

It wasn't just K-Ra, this one migrant, this one lab, this one piece of faulty equipment. From corporations to workers, inconsiderate off-worlders were causing problems across Nisora and leaving bodies behind. They had no interest in what Glowcore stood for, and instead restricted others' choices for their own gain.
Driving straight past the exit sign, she returned to the city in 3218 determined to channel her anger into fighting back.

"I wouldn't be able to make pretty paints for long if I didn't know which chemicals explode when you combine them."

— K-Ra, on how she can make both paint and explosives

Picking Targets

Galendran Wyre Rats had been fighting with off-world corporatists for years, largely in the form of theft, vandalism, and harassment. The 27-year-old K-Ra wasn't just aiming for the corporatists, but anyone that prevented people from living the life they want, whether by forcing people into debt or bringing harm to others through reckless action. She was very particular about who she targeted, why, and how.

K-Ra's impassioned defense of personal choice extends to virtual intelligences downloaded to human-like shells. Unlike their digital counterparts, the abuse they can suffer goes beyond the verbal. Most VIs can feel pain as a form self-regulation, but their programming prohibits them from defending themselves or leaving a bad situation.
Many Wyre Rats agree VIs in such positions should be defended or even rescued, but fewer have the same strength of compassion as K-Ra, who considers many VIs to be her genuine friends.

"You think I'm violent?
"Painting windows and stealing drones isn't violence. Restriction of personal choice is. It's an assault on your person. They're pissed off about glitter on the sidewalk while forcing Galendrans out of business. They'll come up whatever bullshit fees they want until they charge us for existing.
"How can you call me violent in the face of their destruction?"

— K-Ra, to a concerned friend

Corporations

Particularly the mega-corporations coming from off-world. They erased local cultures, exploited Nisora out of greed, and saw workplace deaths as inconveniences.

Off-worlders

Specifically those who use Nisora's lawlessness as an excuse to hurt anyone they want, or otherwise refuse to take responsibility for their actions and choices.

Cryptix

As she learned how the gang operated, she came to loathe how they enabled addiction and used drugs to force members and residents to comply.

Timeline

3191	Born in the Outskirts of Galendra
3211	Moved to the Residential District for work
3213	Lost her leg in a workplace chemical spill
3214	Moved back to the Outskirts
3218	Took the fight to Galendra
3228	Unleashed the color bombs

Demographics

Birth Name

Kayla Rallers

Current Location

Commercial District

Ethnicity

Glowcore

Birthplace

Outskirts

Aligned Organization

Wyre Rats

Associated Campaign

Campaign 2: The Gal Pals

Abilities

Skills

Chemical engineering Spraypainting Motivational speaking
K-Ra is a skilled artist with spraypaint, and has become effective at painting via drone. She's engineered her paints to last longer, smell worse, burn better, or otherwise cause more problems for those she vandalizes. Though she never tries to motivate others, the passion with which she speaks does the job for her.

Cybernetics

Wyre Rat prosthetic
Over the years, she's ordered several custom prosthetics for her missing leg, all made by fellow Wyre Rats. All of them glow under UV light, most have built-in illumination, and a handful include speakers. Her favorite is a near-empty frame that has modular pieces she can snap in and out for different colors and styles.

Trivia

K-Ra has UV tattoos over many of her scars to call attention to them and the story of how she got them.

She brings her own non-alcoholic drinks to most parties, not trusting the drinks most others provide.

K-Ra is still technically in debt to Apex

Author Commentary

Spades are Spades

I'm often reluctant to call K-Ra a terrorist, or the color bombs a terrorist attack, despite that being the accurate description. I worry it makes her immediately a villain when she kind of isn't?

Fame

Following the Path

By 3228, K-Ra had earned a reputation for her creative forms of vandalism and unique traits she baked into the paints she sold. Many followed her, but her attempts did little to change the Galendran landscape. She might make the news, cost the corporations some money, but everything would be back to normal within the week.
To truly make a difference, she had to do something that couldn't be ignored, that couldn't be powerwashed away and forgotten.
If she saw the final exit sign, she ignored it.

The Color Bombs

K-Ra wanted to make it clear that off-world corporations are not welcomed, that Nisoran culture and ideals will always prevail, but she didn't want to cause any death. Corporations did that, and she wouldn't be like them. Most of the Corporatist District, especially the corporate headquarters, was too well-guarded to be reasonable targets. But not the Commercial District.

LX had been factory reset when "rescued" from Cryptix. Once back to functionality, he chose to work with the Wyre Rats (inasmuch as a VI can choose anything) and K-Ra came to see him as one of her closest friends. Learning that he was, however unwillingly, the spy ruining many of K-Ra's plans came as a shock.
The only solution K-Ra knew of would require resetting LX again, wiping his memory of everything he'd done with the Wyre Rats. Unable to do such a thing, she instead left him with RE:L in the Outskirts when she returned to Galendra. To her knowledge, he remains there today.

Content Warning: Terrorism
Hover to reveal & read

She leveraged a deal the Gal Pals had arranged with Nisora United to get the dangerous materials she needed, and worked in secret in the Outskirts. Believing there to be a spy among the Wyre Rats, and not yet aware of Cordelia Isoto's VI spy network, only three others knew of the plan: RE:L, a teenager in the Outskirts; Roger, a mechanically-minded Wyre Rat; and LX, a VI liberated from a Cryptix casino.
With the Gal Pals' help, her so-called color bombs were placed under hundreds of businesses run by off-world corporations. At three in the morning, when all the businesses were closed and their employees home for the night, she set them off. An explosion of paint, glitter, and fireworks destroyed a portion of the city she loves. In order to reclaim it.

"Targeting people is how you become a monster. Besides, you kill a corporate leader, they just hire another. You need to kill the corporation. Bring the entire system down. Failing that, you make it too expensive for them to stay."

— K-Ra, explaining the plan to Roger

Aftermath

Past every exit, there's no way back. This is the path K-Ra will follow to its end, whatever that may be. She's never asked anyone to follow her, but her nature makes people want to follow. She's fierce, determined, unafraid, and gets results.
Several smaller corporations have left Nisora in the wake of the color bombs and similar copycat attacks. Wyre Rat members in Galendra have soared, each willing to take up arms to defend their home, far outweighing those who've lost interest with the group's new direction.
K-Ra holds on to her empathy. Even having learned that her trusted VI friends are unwilling spies for Cordelia Isoto hasn't changed her compassion for them. In every action she takes, she seeks to avoid casualties or forcing people into positions they didn't volunteer for.
But many wonder, how long will that remain true? And what of those who follow in her wake?

Wyre Rats logo by Rin Garnett