It all began when Ginger Yates sent Ligress to a lab to bust up a raid by the Devouring Earth. After routing the creatures, she spoke to Dr. Steven Sheridan, who determined that the creatures had used the lab to manufacture drugs that hamper the body's ability to fight off infections.
Seeking more information, the Elite Force associate, and current member of the Angels of Paragon, went to a front company owned by Fauna First, the eco-terrorist group aiding the Devouring Earth. There it was discovered that the creatures had turned on the activists and kidnapped one of their members, Tanya Tyler. The first attempt to rescue Tanya yielded only a map, scrawled on a love letter written to the young woman from the Devouring Earth's leader, Hamidon.
Tanya's map led to her new location, and Ligress learned her story: Tanya knew Hamidon before he was the master of the Devouring Earth. She said that the creatures were probably created by a sentient bacteria Hamidon developed, a bacteria he called the 'Will of the Earth.'
Ginger Yates took Tanya to a safehouse while Ligress, now with the help of other Angels of Paragon including former Elite Force member Divinity, went out to stop another Devouring Earth raid. The team defeated the monsters, but not before they made off with several cases of fertility drugs. Yates proposed a theory: the drug thefts, Tanya's kidnapping, Hamidon's strange attraction to her: all pointed to one conclusion. Hamidon intended to change Tanya into a Devouring Earth matriarch, a creature capable of breeding more Devouring Earth creatures.
While at the lab, Hamidon's monsters recaptured Tanya. She was rescued again, but not before the Devouring Earth infected her. Ligress took her to a lab for treatment, but she transformed into a Devouring Earth monster and escaped, leaving no choice but to track her down and defeat her.