Hunted characters

Appears from the start

Captain of the Phoenix and leader of Omega Force. During a break in operations, he reviews the uncertain threat posed by the Synod but resists committing his crew to another poorly defined campaign.

Appears from the start

A calculating murderer who kills a family but spares its child to report the crime. The killer promises more deaths as a way to draw notice from an unnamed target.

Appears from the start

Omega Force's systems and sensor specialist. He urges Jason to consider a less conspicuous ship and helps assess the crew's next move before they reunite with their companions.

First appears in chapter 2

Omega Force's close-combat specialist. A gambling dispute marks his reunion with the crew at Colton Hub shortly before they accept an investigation into a sequence of deliberate killings.

First appears in chapter 2

A Nipari traveler who pays Omega Force an unusually large fare for urgent passage to Glastnu-5. He carries several equipment cases and presents himself as anxious to reach his family.

First appears in chapter 3

Omega Force's battle synth and a capable technical combatant. His instincts lead him to judge the crew's charter passenger as dangerous even after the paid journey ends without incident.

First appears in chapter 4

Omega Force’s medic and researcher. He is aboard the Phoenix when an intruder disables the ship and attacks him in the darkness.

First appears in chapter 4

Omega Force’s engineer. He is aboard the Phoenix when an intruder cuts the ship’s power and attacks the crew members left behind.

First appears in chapter 4

A concealed saboteur who boards the Phoenix during the ground operation, shuts down the vessel, and assaults those remaining inside.

Also known as Esquarian intelligence minister

First appears in chapter 7

An Imperial intelligence ally who gives Omega Force information about relatively safe harbors in the Drift and begins investigating the species of the predator pursuing them.

First appears in chapter 9

A child found hiding in the devastated Drift. He understands its maintenance routes and tells Jason and Lucky that the surviving children have been gathered as hostages in the Foundry.

First appears in chapter 10

A former criminal power whose vault and illegal genetic enterprises remain part of Omega Force's history. His past demands on Doc and his syndicate connections offer possible context for the current attacks.

Also known as Lucky

First appears in chapter 12

The feared frontier assassin is revealed to be Lucky, whose present battle-synth body retains the instincts and experience associated with that earlier identity. The Stalker now recognizes the connection and views him as an added challenge.

Also known as Juvenile Drift survivor

First appears in chapter 12

The young guide rescued in the Drift. After the hostage children are evacuated, Rin assumes responsibility for his two sisters and receives money and useful contacts from Jason.

First appears in chapter 13

Bondrass's sister and the former head of a genetics laboratory on Kulch 4. Doc recalls her work while the crew searches its past for the origin of the engineered predator.

First appears in chapter 16

An Imperial Navy admiral from Klinta. When the predator's clue points toward her homeworld, she commits naval forces to its protection despite the danger this may create for Jason's missing crew.

First appears in chapter 17

Jason's former mentor and Kellea Colleren's former superior. Klinta honors him as a founder, although Jason remembers that he was executed after betraying them and plotting an abduction.

First appears in chapter 19

An Imperial analyst assigned to Jason's investigation. The aide connects the engineered hunter and the former passenger's criminal background to the illegal laboratories once protected by Bondrass.

First appears in chapter 20

The lead researcher behind Project Apex, identified in recovered biolab files as a living biomedical consultant on Pinnacle Station.

First appears in chapter 21

An Imperial field operative serving Saditava Mok. He accompanies Jason into the old vault to locate the captured members of Omega Force.

Also known as Revenge-driven transporter

First appears in chapter 25

The concealed organizer of the campaign against Jason. He transported the young Project Apex construct to Bondrass's vault and later directed its violence through a grievance centered on his brother's death.

First appears in chapter 30

An alien intelligence confined within Jason's neural implant. When Jason warns that outside powers may be seeking it through him, the intelligence refuses contact with the Ark on Earth but negotiates over a protective failsafe.

First appears in chapter 30

A doctor whose history includes ethically compromised genetic work associated with Bondrass. Returning toward the ruined biolab world brings that past back into view during the search for the wounded Stalker.