Perils on Planet X

Colonel Donovan Hawke:

Born in Ramona, California, Donovan Hawke was orphaned at a young age and raised by his grandparents. It was there that he began studying karate as a teenager, eventually achieving a rank of 6th dan black belt. He attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship, but excelled at academics as well as football, with a major in computer science. Aside from team sports, he also participated in wrestling and fencing.

After serving in USAF as a test pilot, Hawke joined NASA. In 2015, Colonel Hawke was named pilot of the ill-fated ARGONAUT I Mission, the first manned flyby mission to Mars. A freak encounter with a mysterious spatial/temporal anomaly sends his ship approximately 100 million years into the past and he crashes on the long-lost tenth planet of our solar system, situated between the orbits of mars and Jupiter, a world which the inhabitants call Xylos.

Princess Odyri:

A golden beauty with raven-black hair, Odyri is the youngest sister of Tolyn, Monarch of Empyr. Beautiful and intelligent, she is popular with her subjects and is often the official envoy of the Empyri. As befitting a scion of Empyr, Odyri is highly educated in mathematics, Xylosian history, art, and courtly and diplomatic protocol.

As with most nobles of Empyr, she is a competent fighter, skilled with both blade and pulsor ray pistol. Although proud of her nation’s superior cultural and scientific achievements, she wishes that Empyr would share some of their greater technology with Xylos’ other, less-advanced races and nations, and has made some headway in persuading her brother to do so, for the betterment of all Xylos.

Aeon The Eternal:

Diminutive robed figure of indeterminate age, Aeon is a member of a telepathic, nonhuman race known as Eternals, who are reputed to be immortal… and there’s a fair amount of evidence to suggest it’s true. For one thing, he seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Xylos’ history and an uncanny ability to foretell the future. He’s not surprised by Hawke’s presence on his planet, and seems well aware that Xylos is doomed to destruction sometime in the distant future. A fixture of Tolyn’s court, counselor and tutor to the royals, Aeon occasionally goes off on the equivalent of “spirit quests” which can last years.

Lady Valkia:

A beautiful, dangerous redhead (is there any other kind?), Valkia is the undisputed leader of the Captains of the Crimson Scourge, a highly-organized band of ravaging Strato-Pirates, operating from the Nymbis Freehold, an amazing aerial “sky city.” Valkia is a passionate woman and formidable warrior who rules her band of cutthroats and brigands with an iron fist, sharp sword, and an indomitable will.

Reddjac:

A Captain of the Crimson Scourge and master of the corsair stratoship Sky Reaver. Reddjac is a brutish and ambitious Strato-Pirate, who finds his influence with the lovely Lady Valkia threatened by the arrival in the Nymbis Freehold of the handsome Earthman, Donovan Hawke. A true bully, Reddjac is fond of sneak attacks and ambushes. Back-shooting/stabbing is his speciality.

Rayvn:

The beautiful Rayvn is a Cadre Commander of the Empyri Red Guard (an elite unit of highly skilled and loyal warriors tasked with the protection of the Empyri royal house), and Odyri’s personal bodyguard. When Odyri was abducted by the Strato-Pirates, the cunning Rayvn convinced the aerial buccaneers that she was simply one of the princess’ handmaids, and they spared her life – allowing her to remain close to her royal charge.

Baron Drykos:

The mysterious and malevolent Baron Drykos is an exiled Empyri nobleman and former member of that nation’s famed Questor Corps. (Combination explorers, archeologists and scientists, the questors search the far corners of the planet Xylos, scavenging the lost technology and knowledge of the extinct Shikari civilization.) His discovery of the ancient Shikari city of Lygosis and its forgotten secrets has given him mastery of the bloodthirsty simians known as baylocs and fueled his obsessive quest for immortality.