Find out what’s smoking

Intrigued by the smoke-pillar slowly rising up towards the sky, Druuna set out over the hill to find out what it was that was producing the smoke.

Walking across for fifteen minutes, Druuna could smell something burning.

Getting even closer, Druuna was greatly surprised when she came up over a hill to see what the smoke was coming from, but instantly dropped to the ground.

In a small gorge just below her, a shack was burning fiercely, the flames rapidly consuming the scrap-made building.

In front of the house stood a closed, box-like vehicle with threads instead of wheels, and with a turret with a large, multi-barrelled gun on the roof.

Three figures stood by the vehicle, one of them holding the hose-like weapon that was producing the sheath of flame that was consuming the house.

In front of the house laid four other figures, all of them men and all of them obviously dead, their weapons abandoned next to them in the sand.

They looked like raiders; scrap-metal armouring, diverse cruel-looking melee-weapons and a few guns, and different forms of savage decorations adorned their clothes and bodies.

The ones that killed them looked radically different; they all wore identical uniforms, designed to blend in with the landscape, helmets clad in similar cloth as their uniforms and thick, sand-coloured vests. They were all armed with weapons that looked both high-tech and newly made, something which puzzled Druuna greatly.

Surely there couldn?t be that kind of things being manufactured today?

One thing more about the soldiers puzzled Druuna; despite their concealing clothing, all three of them that were visible were clearly female, the shape of their bountiful breasts were clearly visible even when concealed under thick vests.

Suddenly, Druuna heard somebody moving behind her, but before she could react, she heard the cocking of a weapon, followed by a determined: ?Freeze.?

Not willing to die, Druuna did as she was told, lying still on the ground.