Strider: Meet the Crew

    The adventures of the mercenary freighter Strider and its crew of four take to many pockets of the galaxy, entrenching them in dangerous excursions related to political upheavals, kidnappings, and criminal behavior. In order to properly introduce you all to the four main characters of this anthology series, I figured a good topic for a blog post would be to introduce each of them!

    Acting as captain of the Strider and a former commander in the Federation Armed Forces, Mike Barrett utilized his skills as a pilot and his natural knack for leadership to lead a frontal campaign of the Settlement Initiative, through which the Galactic Federation sought to strengthen growing bonds between outlying planets and form an even stronger galactical power. In a climactic battle on the frontier world of Hjistor, which pitted the Federation's forces against the local Uun population, Barrett made the cataclysmic decision to turn over critical supplies to the Uuns to lessen tensions between the two factions. Because of this act, however, Barrett was stripped of his military rank and dishonorably discharged from the Federation, leaving him to scrounge up what was left of his old vessel and begin a new life as a mercenary.

    In his earliest exploits, Barrett encountered a hotshot orphan named Thad Nelson, who was on a path of vengeance after his family had been brutally murdered by a gang of pirates. Tracking down their trail, Nelson was bent on exacting revenge on his family's killers, a vendetta that -- as of the series' beginning -- has not been fulfilled. Thad saved Mike in a gunfight onboard a docking ring, and the two became close allies following the incident, and Thad became the copilot of the Strider. In the years following, Thad became the more level-headed of the pair, although he still held onto the dark fringe of vengeance that had been embedded into his spirit.

    The two haphazardly managed the freighter from planet to planet, eventually stumbling upon an injured Tuaturan, a species of humanoid reptilian creatures, named Charka. Formerly a slave to a mining guild, Charka had broken free of his bonds and went on the run, narrowly escaping with his life. Mike and Thad took Charka in, helping him recover from his wounds and welcoming him aboard as the third member of the crew. Now three strong, the crew of the Strider was missing only one critical asset: someone who knew the ins and outs of technology and could keep the ship running in tip-top shape.

    After crash-landing on the planet Wullox, Mike sought out a local mechanic for repairs and eventually offered the man a job as the ship's full-time mechanic. He accepted, and the crew had a fourth member for the period of roughly a month -- until Mike found the mechanic rummaging through his personal safe. Before Mike could confront the thief, the mechanic went for his sidearm, but he wasn't fast enough to beat the ship's captain.

    And alas, the crew had dwindled back down to four. A few months passed before the crew had stumbled upon a potential fourth member: seventeen-year-old Nathan Phelps. An orphan, Phelps had developed a knack for tinkering with technology from a young age and had used his skills to make ends' meet and get by. He eventually crossed paths with Mike, Thad, and Charka, and after helping successfully repair the Strider, Nathan was officially hired to fill the fourth and final vacancy in the crew's roster.

    That is the story, thus far, of the crew of the Strider. These four characters -- along with a collection of other faces, both recurring and one-offs -- will populate the series of stories featuring the titular vessel. And yes, this is confirmation that the official title of the series will be Strider, as I feel there is no better name than simply that of perhaps the most important aspect of the series.

    Stay tuned for the series' logo, which I'm hoping to unveil in the next blog post I write! I'm still working on editing the previously written material for the first story, so hopefully that will all go over smoothly as I finish up all my preliminary work before delving into the final stages as I finish the first draft of the story. Then, I will edit the entire thing over again before getting into the grand finale of the project -- namely, nailing down some cover art and actually figuring out just how to get it all published.

    Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this (semi) deep dive into the main cast of this project! I'm super excited for everyone to get to know each of these characters more closely as I wrap up their first adventure. Let me know your thoughts! Until next time.