Zoe AKA Sugarsnap

This is the final member of The Professor's team and the original main character of The Vicious Planer.
This is Zoe Floridian AKA Sugarsnap.

Zoe Floridian was raised by her father, a decorated Imperial military officer.  However his time in the army taught him the value of thinking outside the box of the Imperial system and he passed that wisdom onto his daughter.
Zoe is a genius.  She learns and absorbs information at an incredible pace but she hardly ever sticks with a single subject long enough to become an expert.  The place where her genius shines brightest is with computers.  After her father died she used her programming skills to support herself and came to the attention of The Professor and The Minister.


When I first started The Vicious Planet I planned for Zoe to be the main character.  She does play a major role in the early storylines.  But she may not play as a great a role in later storys and other characters could step up to the forefront.  We will just have to see.

Sidewinder

Who is Sidewinder?

Most people do not know much about the next member of The Professor's team.
In fact The Professor and The Minister are the only ones that really know where she came from and what her story is.
Her proper name is Sabrina Silas but Sidewinder is the name she answers to.  She is a master of observation and logical reasoning.  There is no mystery she can not unravel and no puzzle she can not solve.  Perhaps the only mystery that she eludes her is the same one on everyones mind after they meet her.  Who is Sidewinder?

The Emperor

There is one character in The Vicious Planet who never actually makes a physical appearance but has a huge impact on the other characters.

Say hello to Emperor Pavel Durance.

Pavel Durance ascended to the throne of the United Empire at a young age.  He distinguished himself by being one of the least overtly oppresive Emperors in history.  He did not use weapons and fear to keep the world under his control.  He used information.  He created a news media machine that brought a level of stability the Empire had not seen in decades.  But he knew that was not enough.  He created the initiative that would expand the Empire to new worlds beyond the Solar System.

The only character in The Vicious Planet who ever actually met the Emperor in person is Dr. Charlotte Mothman AKA The Professor.

Male Characters

Most of the main characters of The Vicious Planet are female but it does have a few male cast members and I felt I should get them out of the way.

First we have Brian Chesterton AKA Handyman.

Brian is a computer genius and one of the only people in the world that can keep up with Zoe Floridian AKA Sugarsnap.  They met during a demonstration of their skills at a job fair that also brought them both to the attention of The Professor and The Minister.  Zoe became a part of the team and Brian came with her.  The Minister nicknamed him Handyman although sometimes the others refer to him as "Zoe's boyfriend" instead.
Brian is more than willing to deal with the various quirks of the team members in order to be with Zoe.  There is nothing he would not do for her.  The Vicious Planet will put their relationship through tests they never imagined.



And here is Drake Garret AKA Crispy.

Drake is an engineer.  When the Endeavour was forced to land on The Vicious Planet he had to explain that there was nothing physically wrong with the ship and he got very annoyed when they kept asking him to check again.  When her team is out in the field The Professor calls upon Drake to be an extra set of eyes and ears for her around the ship.
Drake has a special interest in Sabrina Silas AKA Sidewinder.  Most people just smile and nod and walk way after meeting Sidewinder.  Drake is interested in finding out what the story behind the girl called Sidewinder is.

Stereo

Here is another member of The Professor's team.  This is Stereo.

Victoria Belfast was a small child when she went deaf.  Her parents spared no expense getting her the best cybernetic implants to restore her hearing.  Victoria decided she did not want to be dependant on the technology so she also taught herself lip reading and sign language.  But she also wanted to understand the technology.  Victoria learned to take apart her own implants and began making her own modifications.  Over the years she constantly customized and upgraded.  She became an expert tech-head overflowing with knowledge of electronic hardware and mechanics.
She met Hayley Miller in college.  A few years later her classmate showed up calling herself The Minister.  Victoria joined the team and accepted the name Stereo.

Guardian of the Green

Today we have Walter Hunt, the Green Lord, Guardian of the Green Lands.

Walter Hunt was a car salesman from Miami.  One night he was in a car accident of all things but instead of meeting his death he woke up in the lush jungles of the Green Lands on The Vicious Planet.  He met a strange old man and afterwards he was Guardian of the Green Lands.
He found that there were other humans living in the Green Lands but they had never heard of a place called Earth.  He realized he had a chance on this new world to satisfy his true desires and he soon he found he had the power to do it.  He had the ability to transform himself into a powerful beast.

He took over the Green Lands and became the Green Lord.  Those who were most loyal were also given the power of transformation and became his Huntsmen.
The Green Lord rules the Green Lands from his keep.  Those who are not under his direct control choose not to oppose him out of fear of the Huntsmen.

May Weston AKA Flowers

This is the last major cast member on the military side of things.  This is May Weston.

May Weston is not a soldier.  She is a military computer analyst.  She is the one tasked with finding out what went wrong on the Endeavour and why they were forced to make an emergency landing on The Vicious Planet.
Not everyone cares for The Minister's nicknames but May Weston kind of likes the one she got.  She likes being Flowers.  She finds that she identifies more with The Professor's team than with her military co-workers.
People do not notice May or give her much thought.  Soon it will be time for May to step forward and show off her true talents.  Everyone will be surprised.

Guardian of the Orange

Behold Keether, Guardian of the Orange Lands.

In most of the lands of The Vicious Planet the guardian is a figure that is revered.  In some of the lands the guardian is a leader.  But not in the Orange Lands.  In the Orange Lands the guardian is a monster to be feared.  No one knows much about Keether.  As far as anyone can tell he is incapable of speech but he is not without intelligence.  He seems to wander the great forests of the Orange Lands aimlessly.
The people of the Orange Lands have a saying, "stay to the left".  This refers to Keether.  They dread the possibility of falling under the gaze of Keether's right eye.  But Keether is blind on his left side, which raises a question, what happened to his left eye?

Guardian of the Violet

I present to you Doctor Jacob Humphrey, Guardian of the Violet Lands.

Jacob Humphrey was a botanist.  Through circumstances even he does not understand he ended up on The Vicious Planet and went on to become Guardian of the Violet Lands.  The Violet Lands is a place ruled by the plantlife.  In a way it is a paradise for Jacob.  He has spent years studying and cataloging the many diverse and exotic flora of the Violet Lands.  The Violet Lands is considered one of the most beautiful places on The Vicious Planet but it is also one of the most dangerous.  The flowers can grow to be very large and the biggest ones have a tendecy to be carnivorous and agressive.

Hawaii

Here we have the second member of The Professor's team.  They call her Hawaii.

Claire Yale is from Hawaii.  She acts as the team doctor.  She has field medical training but her specialty is actually neuroscience.  She has an interest in understanding what makes people the way they are.  Is it brain chemistry? Experience? DNA? She has yet to find anything she would call an answer.
One day Claire was surfing at the beach and she was approached by The Minister and The Professor and they offered her a place on the team.  The Minister nicknamed her Hawaii. The Minister knows that this was not the most clever nickname she ever came up with but it seemed right at the time.

Military People

Here are two characters who are members of the imperial military.

First we have Nick Harrison AKA Lawman.

Nick acts as Captain Vancouver Smith's second in command.  Nick is an amibtious young man eager to move up the ranks of the Imperial military.  At first he is one of the biggest supporters of getting the Endevour to fly agian and return to the mission.  But as he spends more time on The Vicious Planet he may find new opporutnites to seek the power he craves.



Next we have Helen Havoc.

Helen is more or less the third in command and the one who gets assigned to keep an eye on Dr. Mothman's team in the field.  Like many people Helen Havoc has things in her past she would like to keep there.  But she will find that sometimes the past can come back to haunt you, even when you are on The Vicious Planet.
Helen does not have a nickname because The Minister could not come up with anything that sounded nearly as good as her actual name.

The Minister

I have finally finished the first character piece for one of the main characters.  Say hello to the Minister.

Hayley Miller is an imperial ordained minister.  However she does not feel any obligation to confine herself to any one single religion or philosophy.  She has studied many different systems of belief and schools of thought and she likes to preach and move back and forth between all of them.
She was the first member of the team recruited by Doctor Charlotte Mothman and acts as her right hand woman and the leader of the team in the field.  The first thing Hayley did when she met Dr. Mothman was nickname her The Professor.  The Professor returned the favor and nicknamed Hayley The Minister.  The Minister gave everyone their nicknames.