Jessica delRay, Texas Ranger

The first $5 Monthly Mini Draw mini is payed, ready for her new owner. OK, technically, this was the second mini, but the first winner took a long time to let me know his choice, so I actually bought this one first.

Jon selected the CSU from Corvus Belli's Infinity range: a fine choice that I picked up from Firestorm Games for pretty much $10 on the nose.

I love this part of the Patreon campaign, because I really look forward to finding out what mini had caught your eye. Jon let me know that he saw this one as a Spook hero and that inspired me to make up some bespoke background for each hero.

Jessica's Daddy taught her a lot of stuff, amongst which was how to take a punch. Her Daddy was a people smuggler before the Fall. If someone needed to move between the city states, or need to move someone else, Jonny delRay was the man you went to - at least, as long as the cities in question were Austin and Dallas. Jonny and his daughter lived a perilous but profitable existence and Jonny taught his little girl to take no s***. He taught her so well that, one day, the Texas Rangers rolled up his whole operation thanks to Jessie's intel and, with Jonny in prison in Dallas, Jessica found herself welcomed into the ranks of the legendary Texas Rangers.

The Rangers had taken responsibility for supervising the whole of the territory once known as Texas, outside the cities. No longer an official body, they were tolerated by the Dallas and Austin melds as a useful nuisance and the Rangers spent most of their lives patrolling the sparse woodland and wide prairies, watching over the Earth's slow recovery, breaking up smuggling rings and rogue expeditions and, in particular, controlling the movement of people. Jessie's intimate knowledge of the terrain and its many secrets made her a top asset, welcome in both the cities she served... as long as she never stayed too long.

When Ammit fell, Jessie was out on the prairie as usual. The Rangers quickly realized their cities were suddenly and inexplicably empty and organized to help those caught outside the cities to get into their haunted shelter as the Yellowstone Eruption consumed North America.

Weeks later, the Mars forces arrived and found Texas struggling, but well organized. The fiercely independent spirit of Texas lived on in the Rangers who were suspicious of the Martians' advances. But in return for the assistance of a few of the Rangers' expert investigators and trackers, Mars was happy to strike a convenient truce.

Jessica delRay was one of the first to volunteer. Her X Team colleagues know her loyalty lies with Texas, but she is a skilled and deadly operator who has extended her network of contacts and informants across the whole North American continent. As for Jessica, she is beginning to understand that events unfolding around the globe are even bigger than Texas.