Casey (Female Felsian)
The main protagonist of the series is Casey, a teenage felsian girl whose parents were killed in a shuttle accident when she was a little girl. She was adopted by her foster mother, Elissa Hart, a close friend of Casey’s father. Casey has no surviving family, no uncles or aunts, grandparents or otherwise. Casey’s only aunt passed away from DEMRES, prompting her parents to secure a ‘kit’, and the reason Casey is a felsian.
At the start of the story Casey is 17 years old, having spent her entire life in the mining town of Fuldarnus on Alerean-6. She has virtually no friends as very few people raise families in Fuldarnus, instead spending her days helping Elissa run her artefact hustling business. She is very astute and dedicated, but the relentlessly repeating cycle of their dreary daily routine takes its toll on her, and although generally a kind and understanding person, she tends to exist under an existential storm cloud that constantly tests her altruistic demeanor.
Angel (Female SI)
Casey’s close companion, Angel, is the avatar of the Angelfyre SI. She is an intelligence that exists within the SI and is responsible for assisting the Angelfyre pilots in all manner of operations, intelligence assessment and mission execution, including piloting and training. Although Angel is completely synthetic, she experiences deep, human-like emotions unlike any other artificial intelligence in existence. The feelings are completely foreign to her, causing constant conflict within herself as she tries to suppress them. Casey plays a critical role in helping Angel with dealing with her emotions, and this leads to them becoming close companions. Because Angel is constantly connected to Casey through her ISD (Interconnect Sync Device), they share experiences at a level that is simply incomprehensible for the average person. Just like Angelfyre, Angel’s origin was shrouded in mystery, and she had no memory of anything before Casey found and activated her.
Angel’s intellect is impossible to describe. She has the combined knowledge of almost the entire United Systems and computational power that is orders of magnitude greater than even the most powerful computer systems of the time. Despite this, she occasionally faces situations that she cannot figure her way out of, and Casey once again plays a critical role in supplying some good old-fashioned human perseverance irrespective of the ridiculously small odds of success that Angel may be seeing.
Elissa Hart (Female Terran)
A trader in legal and illegal artefacts and antiques, Elissa dresses as per her vocation, like one would expect of that who goes exploring in ancient tombs and sets off booby traps. Elissa has a military background, although details are scant. Now well into her 50’s, she has been in the artefact trade for decades, spending her early years with Casey’s dad as her business partner prior to his untimely demise. Most of what she deals are not entirely legal. The artefact trade is very lucrative within the UniSys systems, and strictly speaking, UniSys requires any person in possession of anything older than 200 years to have a permit (family heirlooms are exempted, a loophole that Elissa makes good use of). She has a stash of hidden storerooms, tunnels, and other interesting places around Fuldarnus where she keeps her more questionable wares, and a network of trusty individuals that assist in smuggling and moving things about.
High Commander Qutar-Rin (Male Fel)
High Commander Qutar-Rin is a well-built Fel officer serving within the United Systems Armed Forces and overseeing intelligence operations under his CO, High General Paul Favraugh. He is blunt and pertinacious, following his mission objectives to within every nanometer of their parameters. He is willing to break whatever rules are necessary to achieve his final goal, something that does not always work out in his favor.
High General Paul Favraugh (Male Terran)
High General Paul Favraugh is the head of the United Systems Armed Forces across all member systems, overseeing all manners of planetary and atmospheric defense and tactical development. He serves alongside High Admiral Edison Consworth, head of the United Systems Naval Forces, under the direction of the United Systems Security Council Head of Defense, Director Chellar Stilchron.
Jason Favraugh (Male Terran)
The estranged son of the high general, Jason Favraugh is an old family friend of Ellisa and Casey’s. The relationship between Paul and his son became strained after the passing of the general’s wife and his promotion to the High General rank, a responsibility demanding his full attention and offering little in the way of family time.
Jonroe Carter (Male Terran)
A large and jolly character of similar age to Elissa, Jonroe was an old friend and fellow artefact trader who once lived in Fuldarnus with his daughter and son-in-law. After the death of his granddaughter, Amy, who was also a close childhood friend of Casey’s, he moved from Fuldarnus with his only daughter when her marriage fell apart and now lives in the town of Jentarsus on Oreannen-4. Despite being completely unrelated, Casey used to look up to Jonroe as her uncle, and he in turn treated her like family.
Corey Hansen (Female Felsian)
Corey is a long time felsian friend of Casey’s, arguably one of Casey’s only real friends before she found Angel. Corey once lived in Fuldarnus, but after her father found better work in the neighboring town of Sultoonen she moved along with her family. She is an excitable and fun individual, the type that is constantly bouncing on her toes and giggling with joy at even the simplest of things. Casey was very fond of her, even jealous that Corey had this god-like ability to see the positive in everything and never get depressed regardless of how bad things could become. Corey had been a small light for her in times when she felt depressed, making it difficult for Casey, only 15 when Corey moved from Fuldarnus, being left alone with virtually no one else she could relate to in a town filled with poor miners and hustlers.
Anders Leks (Male Terran)
Purveyor of Fine Custom Bionics, Anders Leks (or Lex) is a quirky, weedy character that offers flesh mechanic services in the town of Fuldarnus. He garners most of his business from supplying budget neural wetware interfaces to the local asteroid mining industry, as modern-day miners now operate drone mining rigs within the nearby Alern belt remotely. On the side, he offers custom bionic services for the discerning bodymodder.
Orug Stopen (Male Goran)
Resembling a small, caramelized snowman, Orug is your typical Goran: methodical and obsessed with order and precision to the point of callousness. Despite these traits, Goran’s are not necessarily law abiding, as in the case of Orug, himself deep in the illegal artefact trade. He lives (not-so-legally) in a secluded hut hidden within the southern hemisphere forest reserve of Kustogus where he can go about his business without interference from the Constellation-at-large.
Shenteen Vlaxco (Female Gelton)
The Prime of the UniSys Council of Systems, Shenteen holds a role similar to both a speaker-of-parliament and prime minister, responsible for mediating and overseeing council debates, discussions, resolutions, votes, and other political business. Shenteen is your typical Gelton: tall and slender with subtle light-green skin, large and slanted eyes, two thin slits where one may find a nose, and the complete absence of any hair. They are a hermaphroditic species with an appearance and character tending toward female and therefore always referred to as Woman, She, or Her.