Starfall characters

First appears in chapter 2

The captain of the Phoenix and leader of Omega Force. With the crew operating from its ship after losing its former base, he accepts a local extraction job while repairs and limited resources shape his choices.

First appears in chapter 2

Omega Force's battle synth and technical operative. He serves aboard the Phoenix as a continuing member of Jason's crew.

First appears in chapter 2

Omega Force's sensor and combat-support specialist. He destroys a pursuing interceptor during the crew's extraction charter and helps the Phoenix survive the escape.

First appears in chapter 2

Omega Force's medic and researcher. He serves aboard the Phoenix as the crew undertakes a hazardous extraction charter.

First appears in chapter 2

The Phoenix's engineer and an established member of Omega Force. He helps manage a hybrid propulsion system whose improved performance comes with serious reliability and fuel problems.

First appears in chapter 2

Omega Force's combat specialist and a continuing member of the Phoenix crew.

Appears from the start

A young researcher pursued alongside his mentor. He escapes after the mentor sacrifices himself to stop their capture team.

First appears in chapter 4

The rescued young researcher, now confirmed as a member of the family attacked by the pursuing agents. He says a device intended for beneficial use caused his relatives' deaths, but its nature and his exact knowledge remain unclear.

Appears from the start

An academic pursued alongside his young protege. He claims the object sought by the agents has been destroyed, then sacrifices himself to eliminate their team and give the protege a chance to escape.

First appears in chapter 5

A senior researcher described as having refused efforts to turn Starfall into a weapon. The account of that refusal is part of the house heir's explanation for why the project team fled.

First appears in chapter 9

Jason's intelligence contact in an allied empire. The minister regards the newly consolidated pillar-world nation as a strategic danger and receives the crew's evidence about Starfall and the devastated system.

First appears in chapter 11

A critically injured survivor recovered from a stealth capsule after a house cruiser is destroyed. Doc keeps the patient alive while the crew hopes the survivor can explain the widening Starfall crisis.

First appears in chapter 11

The house heir's valet and bodyguard. After displaying a mysterious wafer found among the heir's belongings, he reveals that he has been paid to abduct the person he was meant to protect.

First appears in chapter 14

A senior family engineer identified by the house heir as someone with deeper knowledge of Starfall. He designed the project's first proof of concept and may offer the crew another route into the mystery.

First appears in chapter 23

Evidence in the recovered master core establishes the senior family engineer's later role as the former project director. It also reveals that he assembled plans for a Starfall weapon before any working system existed.

First appears in chapter 16

A local underworld contact Jason approaches to conceal the young noble on a smuggler moon. He arrives to take custody after the intended charge has already escaped.

First appears in chapter 18

The scientist rescued from the stealth capsule, now awake and able to identify himself as Starfall's creator. He says the project was meant to draw useful energy through a protected stellar tunnel and that others secretly redirected it toward a deniable planetary weapon.

First appears in chapter 19

An Imperial naval ally who supports Omega Force's covert assignment to keep Starfall from every competing buyer. He helps place military resources behind the containment effort.

First appears in chapter 20

A returning Imperial naval ally who oversees the Phoenix's promised refit and rearmament. He recognizes Lucky after learning that the battle synth survived in a restored body.

First appears in chapter 24

A scientist who once worked with the former project director and has access to the director's concealed research area. Gambling debts make him vulnerable when Jason and Crusher pressure him for entry.

First appears in chapter 25

A biomechanical specialist who assisted with Jason's earlier upgrades and retains connections to Imperial intelligence. Jason seeks his help escaping a locked-down shipyard world with the recovered Starfall data.

First appears in chapter 27

A human private-military squad leader pursuing Jason's escape team. After capture, he says he was rejected by the United Earth Marines and recruited into a private force without being told much about its wider organization.

First appears in chapter 28

The intelligence minister now identified by name. Saditava Mok questions the Starfall specialists and hires Omega Force to locate any alleged finished weapons and remove the remaining technical record from the house archive.

First appears in chapter 35

A senior operator connected to both the data-recovery force and the Goliath project. When the platform begins to fall, this decision-maker flees aboard a courier while retaining custody of the two detainees.

First appears in chapter 37

A returning ally now living as a scholar on the restored homeworld of an alien people. He agrees to guide the Starfall creator through historical records about a civilization destroyed by its own dangerous technology.

First appears in chapter 38

A hostile human leader linked to military industry on Earth and connections on Olympus. Following Goliath's destruction, he reports to the Synod and receives a threat against Earth if he cannot prepare for its planned conquest.