Nostrand Crane

Nostrand Crane is the partner of Nia Worn and father of Vaxis. He used to belong to the criminal gang known as the Unheavenly Creatures under the code name "Creature." He was sentenced to serve life in prison on the planet known as The Dark Sentencer but escaped.

Appearance
Crane has black, kinky hair set in dreadlocks and black or brown eyes. He also seems to sport a circle beard. He has dark skin and is fairly tall and muscular.

Early Life
Crane was born and raised on Ruetama in Maracin, a big city. Crane had been stealing since he was little. During a family outing with his parents at a street fair, Crane slipped away and found a small amphibian. He wanted it so he took it before his mother noticed and made him bring it back. In an interesting twist, the shopkeeper let him keep the animal even after he stole it since he believed "every creature [deserved] to be loved by someone who would steal for it." He even provided a jar for the creature to be carried in. Eventually, an older Crane studied to be a pilot and became friends with Otto Cruger.

The Unheavenly Creatures
At some point after trying school, he somehow got involved with a gang boss named Ribbi Augni and was paired up with Cruger. On their first gig together, Cruger lost his patience and almost blew the job, but Crane saved it. Augni chewed him out later but Crane stepped in to defend him. From there, they started doing heists together and became the masked criminal gang known as The Unheavenly Creatures. This isolated him more and more from his parents. He was wandering around the city one day when a girl on a bicycle near a park ran into him. This girl turned out to be Worn and though she initially cursed him out for being in her way, he fell in love with her and the pair began dating shortly after. Crane even got a part-time job at the same place Worn worked at: a theater company. He built props and Worn was a costume designer. When he wasn't working there, he had told Worn that he was enrolled at a flight school, as he was previously. After a year of them being together, Crane told Worn about his involvement with the gang. She cried, and yelled at him, throwing a closed can of paint. She had left for a week. She admitted that she didn't have convictions about his stealing since no one was killed. She was upset because he had hidden a part of his life with her.

It was after this that she joined their small gang too. Preferring to be apart of his life, then left on the outside. The trio worked out alright until a year later when they attempted a larger heist in the city of Maracin on Pott’s International Bank. The gig was suppose to be simple: get in to the bank, lock it down, break the safe, get out. Things started out alright, but in the end, Worn was shot in cold blood, supposedly by an unexpected guard. Crane was so flustered by this that he'd even lifted his mask for a brief moment before Cruger forced his hand—threating the cost of the bystanders' lives. They left without Worn. This event shocked Crane to his core. He left against his will due to the coercion from Cruger, but basically lost the will to live, and pretty much only had the drive to search for information about what happened to her. This also put Crane and Cruger on the Five Houses of Star Supremacy's radar who governed the planets (HOSS for short).

Sentence on The Dark Sentencer
For some reason, Crane attempted to steal some HOSS government documents regarding his crimes. This attempt was flagged in their system, and they caught him and Cruger. The pair were immediately sentenced to be wards of the prison planet known as The Dark Sentencer and transported there on The Gavel captained by Officer Matters. It was right before their ejection to the planet that Cruger informed Crane that all his searching for what happened to Worn was in vein as it was he who killed her. It was at that moment, however, that Matters ejected the pair onto the surface. Crane attempted to fight Cruguer, even in the vacuum of space, but ultimately lost consciousness in transport. He came to abruptly—a rickshaw driven by a cyborg ran over one of his boot-covered feet since he thought he was dead. He took a minute to gather his bearings and then wandered around the area, eventually coming across what looked to be a bar called "Last Meal." He sat at its bar and was eventually helped by the owner, Damicci, who warned him to get his Gutter (a steel circle device affixed to the stomach) or that he would find himself in a lot of trouble otherwise, and offered him an advance on a drink. Crane, not wanting to take on debt he may not be able to pay back, left when Damicci was pulled away by another patron, the drink untouched.

Wandering the streets once more, Crane considered where he might be able to sweet-talk his way into a job that didn't end in being affixed with a Gutter. As he was walking, a woman who was walking ahead of him slowed down; a sign she wanted to talk. Crane recognized her immediately: an old friend named Pilo. Catching up briefly and making small talk, Pilo eventually asked him where he was stationed. Crane gave a noncommitted, coded response that Pilo immediately picked up on. That was also when she noticed he didn't have a Gutter. She took her coat off and gave it to him to cover that fact and then got him to follow her. They walked through back-alleys and ruins to get to a decrepit and abandoned apartment building. Pilo filled him on how things around the planet worked and Crane explained about what happened with Worn and why he found it weird; his reason for being determined to get off planet. The pair decided to sleep on it, but Pilo woke in the middle of the night to tell him about Windows, specifically a Window named Mr. Wish. She explained that Windows live a mysterious existence and are rumored to be riddled with souls of the dead. They don't normally speak but through the one known as Mr. Wish. Crane left right then and there.

It took Crane two days to find one, but the man's erratic movement was all he needed to try to follow him. After a maze of a trail, the man ultimately led him to cave that could only be entered via underwater. Deeper in the cave he came across a group of people circled around figure bent over in the middle, wearing odd clothing and a mask. Moving closer to the center figure, the being suddenly snapped up, all its attention focused on him. It asked, "What do you seek?" Crane tried to confirm this figure was Mr. Wish, but it gave only a vaguely positive answer. Crane explained his purpose and another Window grabbed his hand, energy sweeping over him. Mr. Wish told him no one wished to speak to him in the other dimensions. This confused Crane—was Worn dead but angry, or not there? Mr. Wish had no good answer for him but called him by name to say his son wished to speak to him. Removing one of his gloves, Crane could see Mr. Wish's hands were severely burnt and sported browned, long and curved nails. He touched Crane's cheek with the exposed hand and Crane experienced something he could only describe as a vision that centered around a child. A child whose name he knew was Vaxis and could identify him as his son. As soon as it had come, it went, and Crane was staring again at Mr. Wish. He inquired as to the boy's mother, but before he could react he was knocked out.

When he came to the next time, he was in a cell with a redish humanoid man in his face yelling about him being unconscious. The place was unfamiliar and the cage he and the others were in was made of a strange material that he couldn't quite place. Some of the other cellmates made chitchat; nervous or angry. Crane found a seat next to a nervous teen who called himself Sam. They traded rap sheets and Crane learned the kid was a hacker who stole millions of credits from a HOSS dark network. After a bit of a rocky beginning, the two became tentative friends. Finally, several guards in the same material as the cage came to escort them to wherever they were going to take them. The destination turned out to be a platform nearly twenty feet (6 m) above the floor of an enormous cavern. In the center of the cavern was a woman in the same white material on a throne with various cables or wires attached to her and the throne. She begins to determine the fate of each prisoner: whether they would serve by harvesting the planet's core energy, or whether they would become food for the rest of them. Sam is sentenced to serve, while the redish humanoid would become food. When it was his turn, standing before the Queen of the Dark, he realized he was staring at Worn. She didn't seem to register any recognition, but did say more than she had for the others: "You look like a man willing to break his back to serve his queen. Disappoint me and you’ll be hanged," and then sentenced him to serve. Her cables wrapped around him and dropped him down to the floor were other servers (called subservers) were waiting.

Working on Zero Level was excruciating, back-breaking work. He could see why many subservers chose to get mechanical limbs or stabilizers. It was as hot as an inferno, and Crane was covered in sweat that had calcified, turning into salt on his skin. Crane hadn't been able to get close enough to Worn to speak with her, but one day, after his first shift, he and Sam tiredly walked back to their barrack-like resting quarters. Only given an hour to rest, and having worked themselves to the bone as it was, Crane quickly slipped into sleep only to be woken some time later by none other than Worn herself. Motioning for him to be silent and follow her, they walked into the tunnel just outside the sleeping quarters. Telling him to be quiet and just listen, Worn informs him that the planet is going to die and she suspected that The Warden, her boss, would back out of her arrangement so she wanted to get off planet and help as many subservers as possible also have a chance to do so. After a brief exchange and even an attack from a HOSS soldier (showing Worn was correct), Crane both agrees to help and devises a small plan which included Sam.

Sneaking around the sublevels to make their way to The Pavilion, Crane tried to make conversation, but Worn wasn't having it and tried to shut down talk between them. They decided to head for Pilo's place, but along the way they were intercepted by a humanoid reptilian Window who spirited them away to what seemed to be another cave with an underwater entrance where the pair stayed the night and reconciled. Crane also told Worn about the vision of his son and implied this son would be her child. In the morning, they continued their way to The Pavilion, not needing to stay at Pilo's after all. Once there, they found a hanger and ambushed pilot Edson Aresso as he used his retina to enter. Crane stripped Aresso to use his uniform to blend in while Worn used another pilot's uniform from a locker inside the hanger to do the same. They walked into the hanger of the aerodrome and looked for the ship labeled GVD8001. Excited to finally be getting out of there, especially together, they seemed to be drawn to each other in that moment, but before they could actually meet, a hole was blown in the side of the hangar with the familiar silhouette of Cruger in its space.

Cruger called out to Crane, brandishing an bionic grenade launcher. Taunting Crane with insults, especially ones aimed at Worn, Cruger threw the launcher aside to pull out an SA41 blaster and likened it to the one he used to shoot Worn as alarms blared around them. He ultimately dropped it too to engage Crane directly and proudly. It was a pretty one-sided match with Cruger almost completely overpowering Crane, until he attempted to land a killing blow with a mace. Worn, with the master code she stole from The Warden, activated Cruger's Gutter and killed him before he had the chance to. Safe and sound, the pair truly embraced this time. Worn pulled out their masks from their gang time from her bag and asked Crane if was ready. Agreeing, the pair donned the masks and prepared for whatever came next.

Post-Escape
Coming soon...

Gallery
To be added...

Trivia

 * Nostrand was named after Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.
 * A replica of Nostrand's "Creature" mask was included in the box set for Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, released on October 5, 2018.