THE UNIVERSE
NOVA GROUP
Nova Group began as a rogue faction of Xeno-Warfare scientists, obsessed with creating human-alien hybrids for war — research every Faction had agreed to outlaw. What started as illegal experimentation slowly transformed into something else: a mercenary outfit built on stolen lives, and for the Hybrids raised inside it, the closest thing to family any of them would ever know.
KONA
Kona, six feet tall, is lean but powerfully built, with raven hair in a chic bob and luminous green eyes. Her luminous green eyes shifted through different shades of green as her emotions changed. When her eyes glow emerald green, it means something powerful inside her is awakening. She's a striking mix of Eastern and Western ancestry. Quiet. Introverted. Kind at heart. And underneath it all, a dark truth almost no one knows: she is a Hybrid. Taken from an orphanage as a toddler, Kona's DNA was fused with that of a captured alien Princess — the sole survivor of a procedure that killed every child before her. Raised for combat from the time she could barely walk, she has never known a life outside of war.
HELENA
Helena — "Doc" to everyone in Nova Group — never went to medical school, yet knew more about healing than any trained doctor in the settled systems. Her symbiote was an empath, able to feel what others felt and find injuries just by reading the color of someone's aura. About ten years older than Kona, Helena was the one hybrid she trusted completely — the closest thing to family she'd ever known.
COMMANDER JOSON
Known only as "the Commander" — Rarely called by his given name — only fellow supervisors and senior scientists ever used it. Everyone else, hybrids included, called him simply 'the Commander.' Joson rose from Private to Captain in a Faction's Special Forces before disillusionment led him to Nova Group. What began as a paycheck became something deeper: he was the one who carried Kona into the operating room as a toddler, the last one to see her original eye color, and the one who never stopped looking after her since.
IGOR
Six foot ten, built like a tank, and always grinning — Igor was stolen from an orphanage at four years old and has almost no memory of life before Nova Group. His symbiote's race was massive, powerful, and dangerous, and he inherited every bit of it. But just as much as Kona is quiet, Igor is loud. He loves to laugh, loves his job, and loves his minigun most of all — he calls it his girlfriend, though he's not entirely sure what that word means.
DOCTOR CONFORTO
The founder of Nova Group. Doctor Conforto was a genius the settled systems could have used — and instead he was lost to his obsession. When every Faction agreed to outlaw Xeno-Warfare research, he refused to stop. Gathering the few scientists who agreed with him and founding Nova Group in secret. He saw hybrids as his greatest achievement. He never saw them as children or even human. He did not live to see what Kona became — but everything she is began with him.