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"Welcome aboard this midday service to 'god-only-knows-where', please keep your hands and feet inside the spacecraft at all times..."
- Mathias Croft, about pilot the Guinevere into a Lauralyn Conduit.

Mathias Croft is a Merician-born privateer and pilot of the independent corvette Guinevere.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Mathias Croft was born on Towershield Station in the Meric's Keep System. As an adult, Croft found work as a Freelancer, which included working in a prison kitchen, and working with Schiltron Contractors, a private security firm based out of Towershield Station. The formation of the Merician State Guard during the Frontier War upended the market for private security in Mericia, however, leaving Croft out of work.[1][2][3]

Unable to find legitimate employment, Croft briefly attempted a life as a pirate, but was captured after approximately a week while attempting to steal a shipment of mustard. Given the value of condiments to the ration and protein materials consumed across the Cluster, Croft maintains that his abortive piratical career was a noble cause.[2][4]

During the Frontier War, Croft and a friend successfully broke into Gustaf's resort on Rialtis IV by disguising themselves as waste collectors.[5]

Later in life, he encountered Cassandra Farren and Tamara 'Meds' Melari, and signed on to their ship the Guinevere as a pilot and mechanic.[4] Croft participated in the Guinevere's attempted rescue of the Frontier Union freighter Canary, making repairs to their engine and successfully defusing the situation when the ship's captain was angered to discover that Cassandra was a Centran.[6]

Avalon Exploratory Initiative[]

Contact with the Advari[]

As pilot of the Guinevere, Croft accompanied the Avalon Exploratory Initiative to the CDC-41-Gamma nebula in 0304 PCU. Croft's arm was injured in the transit to the nebula, but he was determined to remain at his station. He participated in the violent first contact with the nebula's native civilisation, and successfully piloted the Guinevere away from the hostile alien ship Cloak of Mercy after it destroyed the Unioner ship Mariana. Shortly afterwards, Croft became the first pilot to intentionally fly a ship through a Lauralyn Conduit, and participated in the recovery of a wounded survivor and essential Drift Gate components from the wreck of the gatehauler GH-0007-VG.[7][4]

Several weeks after the Avalon Expedition arrived in CDC-41-Gamma, on 98th of Solstice, Croft was part of the Guinevere's expedition to a pulsar system, the first to be directly explored by Humans. While Cass and Elizabeth Ancelet conducted a seven-day expedition on the surface of pulsar planet, Croft and Meds completed scans of the pulsar. After several days of observing the pulsar, which they found to be unsettling, Croft and Meds realised that Cass and Elizabeth had missed their check-in time and returned to the planet to investigate. Discovering Cass and the severely-injured Elizabeth fallen down a crevasse, Croft and Meds successfully recovered them and returned them to the Guinevere.[8]

Triumph hostage incident[]

Croft and Meds board the Triumph

Croft and Meds board the Triumph after Richard Sedgewick seized hostages from the Avalon Expedition.

Croft was present when the Triumph, a civilian orbital ferry that had illegally accompanied the Expedition through Edric's Gate, made contact with the Avalon. After Foreman Richard Sedgewick took hostages from the Avalon, believing the Expedition to be concealing the location of a "Verdant Paradise" in CDC-41-Gamma, Croft advised Jasper Ravi on how to respond in Elizabeth Ancelet's absence. Remembering a story told by Croft about his successful infiltration of Gustaf's, Ravi developed a plan to infiltrate the Triumph through its waste disposal system. Rather than deploy Centran Marines, Croft and Meds agreed to go in the hope of negotiating a peaceful end to the hostage situation. Boarding the Triumph, Croft and Meds successfully convinced its chief engineer, Bridget Volkova, that Sedgewick had misled them. Leading them to the Triumph's command centre, Volkova successfully convinced the rest of the crew to release the hostages, and Croft and Meds took Sedgewick into custody.[5]

Redfield's coup attempt[]

When the CSV Shabayev led by Vice Admiral Winston Redfield re-established contact with the Avalon, Croft initially joined the celebrations, but clashed with the Shabayev's Marines when it became clear that they had looted wrecked Merician ships. When Admiral Redfield seized control of the Avalon and seized the Guinevere, Croft was arrested to be pressed into service.[9]

Croft and Meds were posted to the Shabayev, where they had limited privileges. Ultimately, Redfield was unable to convince either of them to assist in piloting the requisitioned Guinevere, while poor morale and exhaustion among the Shabayev's crew provoked a brawl in the dining hall that Croft and Meds were caught up in. This was one factor that led Redfield to choose to stand down his coup attempt and return control to Elizabeth Ancelet, and Croft and Meds were able to return to the Guinevere with Cass.[3]

Rescue of the Merician ships[]

After Redfield stood down, the Avalon Expedition Fleet moved to the pulsar system. After four months in the system, the Avalon intercepted a signal that Croft realised was using a Merician code to warn other ships of pirates. Croft deciphered the signal, which was revealed to be a distress call from the Treasure Ships Friendly Expedience and Swift Conveyance, and a gatehauler, which had been lost since the expedition's arrival in CDC-41-Gamma months earlier. With the assistance of Castian Vadric, an Advari prisoner, Croft led the Guinevere to the Diaconate Reaches.[10]

Upon arriving in Diaconate Reaches, the Guinevere found the three ships taking shelter in a closer orbit around a large gas giant, hiding from a patrolling Advari lightship. After consulting with Captain Maxine Blake of the Friendly Expedience, Croft devised a plan to escape by flying in a very tight slingshot orbit of the gas giant that took them through the upper atmosphere. Using the Guinevere to shield the other three ships, Croft successfully piloted the ship past the gas giant and led them to escape through a Lauralyn Conduit back to the Avalon.[10]

Meeting Maalsuwda and recovering the last gate component[]

When the crew of the Guinevere encountered Maalsuwda and his Union Militia near the Aegis of Invia, Croft recognized their use of a holdfast, having spend time on one before. Croft and Meds provided engineering assistance to the Unioner crews, and later assited in dismantling the holdfast. In a quiet moment, Meds took croft aside and asked him his opinion on Unioners. Croft's answer was ambivalent, stating that he'd met some he liked and some he didn't. During the evacuation of the holdfast and ensuing battle with the Advari, Croft piloted the Guin succesfully in battle despite loosing one maneuvering thruster.[11]

Raid on the Aegis of Invia[]

Prior to the Raid on the Aegis of Invia, Croft provided Vadric with a wrist communicator for the mission, as well as lent his less than legal pirate experience to the prospect of stealing the gatehauler from the Advari station. During the raid, Croft piloted the Guin under silent running through the Aegis Minefield. He remained aboard the Guin as a shore party fought through the station and recovered the gatehauler. As the gatehauler got under way, Croft and the Guin accompanied the hauler as they fled the minefield. [12]

The Calm Before the Storm[]

As the Avalon expedition prepared to meet an Advari attack on the Greenhouse, Croft and Meds shared a bottle of Firewatch Whiskey given to them before they departed Tantalus. Croft asserted that they had gotten out of tougher situations than this, but then conceded that they had not. They reminisced about the adventures they had had since departing, and their thoughts on the coming battle. When Cass offered them the option to abandon the battle and leave for safety, Croft turned her down, claiming that he was making it his fight.

Croft later organized a betting pool surrounding an arm wrestling competition between Meds and Vadric. He wagered his best spatula on Vadric, and lost it when Meds was victorious. He and Meds conversed with Vadric afterwards, expressing their anticipation of showing him the Tantalus cluster. As the night drew to a close, the idea of songs before battle was raised, and Croft prompted Meds to give a performance of The Grey Stablemaid.[13]

The Advari Strike Back[]

During the final battle over the Greenhouse, Croft piloted the Guinevere into battle alongside Cass and Meds. His piloting skills were invaluable in dealing with the advancing Advari and buying the expedition time to retreat. As the Guin's ammunition resources dwindled and her systems became overstressed, Croft continued to do everything possible to keep both the crew of the ship and the expedition forces safe. As the Advari advanced however, he was unable to prevent the Guinevere suffering severe damage in an Advari attack. As the battle drew to a close, and with all other ships evacuated or destroyed, Croft counted down the seconds until the Guin made the jump back to Tantalus.[14]

Return to Tantalus[]

Dire Straits[]

Returning to Tantalus, Croft continued to pilot the Guinevere. With the ship in nearly crippled following battle, Croft also worked to try to repair and source parts for the ship. He did bemoan that the only thing properly function on the ship was the microwave.

Croft accompanied the crew to visit Brynlock on Valeria Sibus, and took counsel with both Meds and Elizabeth as they processed both their circumstances and Cass erratic behavior. When Cass apologized for the way she had been behaving Croft was quick to forgive her.

On Firewatch[]

On Firewatch, Croft along with Meds were tasked with finding a buyer for goods the Guin had been transporting. They did so, though at a reduced price. They also patronized a local restaurant, where Croft was quite taken in by a signature cocktail called the Thyme's Marrow. Scavenging for parts and supplies, Croft and Meds spared a thought for Vadric, wondering where he was and why he had left.

Reuniting with Cass and Liz, Croft offered his condolences for the death of Elizabeth's father, and helped Cass steal his last remaining possession for her, a baby grand piano.

Family Reunion[]

Croft accompanied Cass and the crew back to Centrum to meet with Darius Farren. On approach, Croft expressed his disdain for planets and in particular the amount of water on Centrum. He was also mystified by the trappings of the Centran aristocracy, in particular the practice of dueling. After Cass' meeting with her father, Croft accompanied her into a quarantine zone to retrieve a scientist critical to the pulsar research. During the raid he provided fire support and technical assistance, and left Cass behind to finish the duel with Gannick.

Personality[]

"Any idea where we are?"
"Looks like we're on the bridge..."
"You're hilarious."
- Tamara Melari and Mathias Croft, after becoming stranded in the middle of an ice belt in CDC-41-Gamma.

Like many Merician Freelancers, Croft is something of a nomad. He has a sarcastic but jovial personality, often bouncing off of the Guinevere's medic, Tamara "Meds" Melari. His easy-going personality means that he gets along well with crew members aboard the Avalon.[7][4][2]

Croft is extremely attached to the Guinevere. An excellent pilot, he has mastered the Guinevere's unique and complex system of vectored fusion thrusters. As a Merician, he is occasionally called upon to act as a neutral mediator for the crew. Croft also acts as the Guinevere's mechanic, weapons technician, and chef, jokingly crediting his ability to make strawberry roulade as making Cass and Meds choose to keep him on as a permanent crewmember. Despite the Cluster-wide Great Famine, Croft puts special effort into preparing meals, making use of seasonings such as mustard, synthetic garlic, and Axian Flaky Sea Salt even for famine foods like Protein Bricks. Croft's concern over food preparation is such that he has disconnected the Guinevere's microwave oven, believing it to be unworthy on cooking food.[7][6][15][8]

Croft takes two sugars in his hot drinks, but whether he prefers tea or coffee is unknown. Meds implies that Croft runs an illicit still in the Guinevere's machine shop.[16][17]

Relationships[]

Cassandra Farren[]

Cassandra Farren's more straight-laced personality means that she and Croft occasionally have good-natured disagreements, with Cass jokingly expressing exasperation at Croft's antics. Croft is aware of Cass' lingering psychological issues from her Frontier War service, but has deliberately avoided asking questions about the subject. For her part, Cass expressed surprise at Croft's willingness to leave the crippled Canary when ordered to do so by its captain, and speculated that she still had things to learn about him.[4][7]

Tamara Melari[]

Tamara 'Meds' Melari's more serious personality means that she and Croft often trade sarcastic barbs. However this does not interfere with their working relationship, and Croft has shown a greater willingness to socialise with Meds than Cass has, despite the two women's history. However, Croft is not particularly sympathetic to Meds' extreme distrust of Unioners.[4][7]

Elizabeth Ancelet[]

Croft has a positive working and social relationship with Elizabeth Ancelet, who he regards as a good leader of the Avalon Exploratory Initiative and a good friend to the crew of the Guinevere.[16] After returning to Tantalus, he still insisted on Calling her 'boss', even though she was no longer expedition director.

Castian Vadric[]

Croft has a strong friendship with Vadric. He was one of the first people to warm to the idea of Vadric's presence on the expedition, and encouraged others to visit and get to know him. He also delights in trying to cook for Vadric, experimenting with local ingredients to creat food that the Advari would be able to eat. Vadric's somewhat more reserved nature sometimes leaves him nonplussed at Croft's exuberance. However, he is able to take Croft's antics in stride and the two have formed a solid friendship.[13] [10]

Appearances[]

Season 1

Season 2

References[]

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