Xiomara “Mara” Contreras was born and raised alone on the wild ice planet Págos by her survivalist mother, Xenia. Mara proved gifted with a sniper rifle from the moment she was big enough to look through the scope and reach the trigger at the same time. The tight-lipped Xenia could only get her chatty daughter to stop asking questions by giving her a scavenged copy of Encyclopedia Outlandica, which Mara memorized front to back.
When Mara was 18, she discovered the wreck of the G.D.S. Vantage. Against her mother’s wishes, Mara snuck in, only to learn that she had been lied to. Her mother hadn’t grown up on Págos: she was brought there on the G.D.S. Vantage as a prisoner. Disturbed by the intrusion, the ship collapsed into a crevasse, trapping a wounded Mara. Her mother only found her after a baby bat Mara had rescued circled the crevasse holding Mara’s signature whistle. By the time Xenia got to her daughter, the injuries were too severe for her to treat.To save her daughter’s life, Xenia set off the prison ship’s SOS beacon, but was imprisoned once more in return.