Captain Brigid Farris
Captain Farris is a career naval officer, having served for 20 years subjective, 10 of those as captain of the
Rio Grande after her promotion from executive officer aboard the cruiser
Reykjavík. In that time, she’s proven herself to be a confident and capable commander whose quick thinking and level-headedness under pressure has earned her the respect of her crew. Despite being temporally distanced from her homeworld by the time-dilating effects of extended near-light travel, Farris enjoys telling stories of her old life working at her family’s bakery, and impromptu baking contests culminating in shared meals have become something of a tradition during shore leave. Under Farris’s command, the
Rio Grande has seen occasional combat duties on her long interstellar patrols – primarily anti-piracy actions (notably against the infamous Dead Suns pirate clan) as well as joint operations with a Department of Justice and Human Rights task force during the liberation of Corazón.
1st Lieutenant Alex Kim
The executive officer aboard the
Rio Grande, 1st Lieutenant Alex Kim hasn't served as long or had as storied a career as Captain Farris, though he wouldn’t be XO if he lacked the necessary qualifications. Promoted to the post relatively recently, Kim is eager to prove that he’s up to the task – perhaps a bit too eager if you were to ask some of the ship’s personnel who’ve found themselves on the receiving end of yet another pep talk or by-the-book lecture about regulations. They’re hoping that some of the captain’s self-assurance will rub off on him and he’ll start to relax more into the role, ideally sooner rather than later. While the XO finds such relaxation something of a challenge (along with socialization in general), his eye for detail and keen grasp of tactics express themselves through a love for games of strategy, and he remains the ship’s undisputed champion of the Sparri card game Kapkat.
Rio, Shipboard NHP
Rio, the
Rio Grande’s shipboard THALASSA-class naval NHP, is an outgoing person with a bright and cheerful personality. While she’s technically always “on duty,” she enjoys socializing with the crew during those periods in which she’s allowed to leave shipboard tasks to her more automated subprocesses and take time for herself. Given her immense calculative and processing capabilities compared to the ship’s organic crew, she prefers non-competitive pastimes (1st Lieutenant Kim is one of the few people aboard she enjoys playing chess with) and has a fondness for omninet dramas. During combat, her demeanor becomes much more focused and serious – a state the crew refer to as her “game face.” Like all naval NHPs she’s more than capable of effectively monitoring and coordinating much of the Rio Grande’s various tactical systems, including point defenses, electronic/systemic countermeasures, and its complement of robotic subalterns, while also lending strategic coordination to the ship’s fighter and chassis wings and advising Captain Farris during battle.
Staff Sergeant Omari Garcia
It takes a special breed of person to be a marine lifer, and Staff Sergeant Omari Garcia is a marine’s marine. He’s tough, he’s stubborn, he’s fearless, and he proudly plays his part in the long-standing traditional sibling rivalry between Union marines and their naval mech pilot counterparts, always ready with a joke or a crack about “fancy suits” whenever a mech pilot starts getting a little too full of themselves (marine pilots are themselves only occasionally exempt from this). He is, however, fiercely loyal to everyone aboard his ship, and given the chance he’ll be the first one into danger and the last one out of it. A recipient of the Marine Distinguished Service Medal for his actions during the Pellaran Dispute, SSgt. Garcia has been wounded many times in the course of action and has seen his share of dead comrades, but although he often talks about retiring one day to somewhere tropical he shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. On those rare occasions he takes shore leave planetside he enjoys fishing, and he has an avid interest in antique firearms.
Union Ambassador Nilan Bannerjee
Ambassadorial activities, including diplomatic negotiations with Diasporan states and recontact/reintegration missions, fall under the purview of the Union Administrative Department, and the UAD’s representative for the Cressidium mission is Nilan Bannerjee. Where administrators are assigned to single worlds or sectors, ambassadors travel wherever their skills are needed; as such, Bannerjee has seen dozens of worlds in a life spent traveling the stars and bridging gaps between peoples and nations. Widely traveled as they are, recontact with a previously lostworld considering Union membership isn’t something that happens every day, and this momentous occasion will hinge upon their diplomatic prowess.
As befits his role, Ambassador Bannerjee is charming and pleasant to be around, with a dry sense of humor that grows more pronounced when he's been drinking. He speaks numerous languages and dialects fluently without the need for dataplate translation, has an encyclopedic knowledge of liquors and wines, and his poker face is second to none – as several members of the
Rio Grande’s crew have discovered to their chagrin. Despite the pressure to succeed here, Bannerjee remains poised and unflappable at all times, only ever showing irritation or annoyance with quirked eyebrows and slight frowns. This assignment may be one of the most challenging he's been tasked with in their career, and the stakes are suitably high; facilitating an accord between the LSA and the Sovereignty won’t just mean the likely admittance of Cressidium into Union, but will put an end to decades of simmering tensions, proxy skirmishes, and the threat of all-out war. For any diplomat, a success here would be the crowning achievement of a career.
