Dagenham, Georgina

Georgina, George to her friends, is the Pratarian engineer and mechanic of the transport ship Haphazard. Although she is the youngest member of the crew, she is the most level-headed and dependable person on the ship.

Having grown up on a freighter, life aboard the Haphazard is just like the old days. Her parents ran a trade and transport company, and the company flagship, the Vesta, was also the family home. Being home schooled meant George had a colourful and varied education as she learnt a lot about life in the galaxy from the temps and occasional spacers that dropped by for work or trade. Taking an active role in the family business from a young age, she took over running the maintenance of the ship when she was eight. The old man that maintained the ship was killed during a pirate raid near the end of the Akiran War, though not before imparting as much of his knowledge as possible on a certain young and impressionable girl. Over the years she continued to improve, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better engineer in the galaxy, even in the highly trained and polished ranks of the Space Corps.

The war started when George was a mere kitten, and she was called on to help the family whenever possible due to the constant threat of attack by Akiran ships or pirates. They survived many raids and were paid well for managing to transport supplies through enemy lines to the outlying colonies that were under siege. Once the war ended, business continued to be profitable, that was until a particularly messy pirate raid. The pirates managed to severely damage the Vesta and caused an antimatter breach resulting in a full-evacuation of the ship. Most of the crew, including George, made it to the escape pods and found harbour on the other ships in the fleet; however her parents were killed while trying to make sure everyone else made it to safety.

Alone and not knowing any other life, George signed on with Tezic Odriro to work the recently vacated engineering position aboard his transport ship the Haphazard. She hasn't looked back since.

Spending most of her time in the engine room, George never feels more at ease than when she’s tweaking or repairing something. Sometimes, when particularly stressed, she deliberately breaks some non-vital component just so she can spend time repairing it. Unlike the rest of the crew, George doesn't have an assigned room; she chooses to live in the engine room and has a hammock hung there so she can fall asleep to the soothing hum of the engines. She’s rarely found without her favourite multi-purpose tool Tweakie, and a rather strange and pointy rod that only she knows what it’s for.

Swift, Nicholas David

Nick is the only known human to survive the galactic genocide of the human race. He is currently operating as the Captain of a small transport craft, the Haphazard.

Born in a small dales town in the north of England, Nick was raised on Earth until his father died in an accident at the Space Corps construction yards around Luna. Not long after, Nick’s mother moved to Luna City Three, and here he met Eugene Preston, an Oretan, and Reginald Maiar, an Alexan. The three of them spent their youths causing mischief around the Luna cities.

Before his sixteenth birthday, Nick’s mother committed suicide at her workplace in Luna City Four. She had been diagnosed as clinically depressed not long after the death of Nick’s father, and Nick believed that she only kept herself going for his sake. Her death led to Nick acting more irrational, taking risks where he normally wouldn't, but Eugene and Reg stood by him throughout his own bouts of depression.

Eventually, Nick managed to pull himself together before he could do himself, or anyone else, any serious harm. Years of joyriding hoppers and hoverbikes were put to good use as he took a job pulling freight across the Sol System. This lasted six months before he was noticed by the Space Corps after pulling various dangerous stunts in his cargo freighter. The Space Corps realised that he was an exceptional pilot and offered him a choice; enlist or lose his pilot licence.

After completing his formal training, his escort assignment was interrupted by the Akiran War. After three months on the front lines, Nick became the most senior member of his squadron, and with the conflict escalating, the Space Corps was desperate for experienced pilots. Promoted to Wing Commander of the Crescents, he had to rebuild the squadron from raw recruits. The 101^st Crescents went on to be the most well know fighter squadron of the entire war, defying all the odds and completing some of the most dangerous assignments. Towards the end of the war, Nick was approached to be the pilot for a special operations team called STORM.

Over a period of fourteen years, STORM performed behind enemy lines, defending the GSF from those that would try to take advantage of situation with the GSF at war and during its recovery in the aftermath. This was until the incident at Callatrax VI, an incident that Nick, and Reg, are not comfortable talking about. The Space Corps officially disbanded STORM, but rather than lose the abilities of some of its best agents, the Space Corps sent them deep undercover.

After six years of near isolation, Nick decided to retire and was returning to Earth to formally hand in his notice and live out the rest of his life in peace. Unfortunately, the planet was destroyed in what is being called The Human Extinction Event, or THEE, and Nick is believed to be the last living Human in the galaxy, which has made him a target of those wishing to protect him, and those that wish to make a tidy profit from his capture.

Crayh, Rydra

Rydra Crayh is an Antaran, and the second-in-command of the Ionian transport ship Haphazard.

Rydra had a normal childhood, growing up on Antara with her younger sister, Ryal, until, at the age of fourteen, both her parents were killed in a terrorist attack while on holiday on the Antaran moon of Antrak. Centuries ago, Antara went to war with the Jakara and conquered their home world. After decades of dominance, the Antaran government returned sovereignty to the Jakaran people and withdrew from Jakaran space. This was so long ago that Jakara has been under its own rule since the occupation for much longer than it was actually under Antaran rule. The occupation left its mark on Jakaran society, and despite many reparations since, a small number of terrorist cells exist and continue to try and upset to ongoing relationships between the two peoples. It was during a suicide bombing by one of the more extreme groups that Rydra’s parents were killed. Along with Ryal she was taken in by her aunt Glyral, but she couldn’t bond with her aunt like her sister. At the age of sixteen Rydra ran away and tried to make her way in the galaxy alone. After years working across the galaxy at seemingly endless jobs with no true direction, she met up with Tezic Odriro while working as a waitress in a cocktail bar in the Baltin sector. He offered a direction, a life, and a family; things she’d not really had since the death of her parents.

For years everything was great for Rydra; she had a surrogate family on the Haphazard, a fulfilling job, and a loving relationship. When Tezic betrayed the crew, the family, she was devastated and didn't know what to do. Considering the average lifespan of the galactic community, an eleven year relationship isn't that significant, except to those who live those relationships.

Rather than take command after Tezic’s betrayal, Rydra decided to employ an independent captain. Over the years, Rydra has served under a number of captains; unfortunately she tended to hire captains that just couldn't hack the job or her attitude. This was until Nick, who was hired against her wishes. For Rydra, the jury is still out on Nick’s competence as captain, and regardless of what he’s told her, she still sees him as the scruffy, immature bum that she met on Mars.

Fuss-Duo, Arn

A Gregoran spacer that, legend would have it, escaped being eaten alive by a Raum-Wal (see The Ballad of Arn Fuss-Duo).

Fuss-Duo's other claims include surfing the tail of a comet in his ship, the Astral Princess; accidently flying too close to a supernova; single-handedly preventing the breakout of war between the Y'Kalians and the Partheans, and making his way through the Bryson Singularity Cluster with an out-of-date NaviCom.

The last anyone heard of Fuss-Duo was just before he flew back into the space where he first encountered the Raum-Wal. There are two widely accepted versions of the legend from this point in the story of Arn Fuss-Duo. The first says that he found out he was dying of an incurable disease and that he wanted to make peace with the beast before the end. The other version says that he was so furious on finding out he had the disease, he set his ship to self-destruct and flew into the gaping mouth of the Raum-Wal quoting Ahab as he straddled the anti-matter core.

Spacers

Spacers cruise around the galaxy fuelled on nothing but the cheapest Mangorian Whisky and are famous for telling tall tales to the very naive and/or stupid. It should not be taken that all stories told by spacers are entirely fictitious because spacers have been places and seen things that most galactic citizens can’t even imagine; this is generally due to the fact that spacers spend more credits on booze than they do on ship repairs and keeping the ship moving is more important than having a working NaviCom.

Over the centuries of space travel, spacers have been greatly romanticised; films have been made, novels written, and ballads sung of the tales of many a spacer and their wandering ways. It’s such a shame that so few of the authors bothered to research their subject in person because if they had they would have been severely disappointed; most spacers are as romantic as a whiskey-flavoured belch.

Many a bar throughout the galaxy will have a resident spacer; this spacer may go away for a time to travel the galaxy, but they will always return to that same bar, to that same stool that no one else dare use, and there will always be a drink waiting.

There have, of course, been famous spacers, the most notable being the Gregoran, Arn Fuss-Duo. One of Fuss-Duo’s wildest claims was to have landed in the gaping mouth of a Raum-Wal, believing it to be a cave in an asteroid that he could use to shelter from pirates, and escaped to tell the tale.