Xavier Conde was a Solarian citizen and journalist. Originally from the planet El Hira, he had become one of the Solarian League's second tier newscasters. He was good-looking and telegenic, but not particularly intelligent -- a fact he himself was unaware of. Conde, his producer, Vittoria Daramy, and their recording technician, Alex Xu, travelled to the planet Mesa in mid-1922 PD to do a special report on the casualties suffered by the planet's Seccy population during and after the nuclear attack on the city of Green Pines.