Zan Toros, or just "Zan" to their friends, is a freelance Steelframe pilot specializing in deep space salvage operations and upscaling reclaimed components into useful new things. Zan is a jolly Terran, able to see lemons for the lemonade they could be and appreciative of a glass half full when the alternative could be no lemonade at all! Their go-with-the-flow attitude has gotten them into and out of a whole lot of trouble over the years, tumbling from one weird situation to another until they and their Steelframe, callsign Stardiver, ultimately ended up in Titan Garden's south dockyards. They have a pair of clockwork prosthetics below their knees, which they visit Magnus and the Ironworks Clinic to maintain- they say it helps keep good circulation when twisting the accelerator off a Steelframe, but also that "it saves a lot on needing warm socks" for the many cold nights that accompany life in space. Lemons to lemonade, you know?
Zan's been working as a salvage operator for a long time, going all the way back to the height of the Inner World Terraforming Conflict twenty-someodd years ago. A rolling conflict between the Terran Star Navy and a patchwork band of resistance fighters known as the Devil's Fang produced a lot of drifting graveyards and a whole lot of scrap technology for any band of vultures keen to pick away at a fresh kill. These were daring operations; a salvager never knew if someone would be coming back for their dead, nor if it would be the Star Navy itself showing up while you have your hands in their shipwrecks, so it paid to be quick and precise, if you risked it at all. Vulture salvagers often achieve this by overloading their ship with crewmembers, recovering goods by as many hands as possible and then skedaddling before trouble shows up, but Zan had the novel idea to employ a Steelframe. Working alone, they would carry a large shipping container with them to a salvage site, use their oversized stature to more deftly pick through a shipwreck, load up the container and then get out of there- It's grim work, but it was a perfect use case for the fast and precise niche of a Steelframe. Zan thought it was pretty clever. So did some of the other salvage crews.
Trouble has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. For Zan, trouble crept up when they had their Frame's head in the belly of a Star Navy escort cruiser: the Void Corsairs, a Mercurian-led pirate crew, happened to take notice of Zan's innovations, and felt that a Steelframe pilot would make a great addition to their own crew. They were two hundred hands strong stuffed in a hundred-hand United satellite construction vessel, the URC-451-R, bristling with crane arms and cargo hatches- a veritable floating factory. The 451 was one of the more active vulture salvagers chasing the Terraforming Conflict around, plucking gold teeth from the skulls those battles left adrift in space and muscling smaller crews off the graveyards, claiming the largest fields for themselves. The Void Corsairs felt it would be in their mutual interest for Zan to join forces with them, and they insisted at cannonpoint that the Frame pilot agree. What's a scrapper to do?
The Void Corsairs were an eclectic mix of drifters, lost souls and starfarers from across the Sol system. Their leader, a Captain Brinebarrow, used a strong arm to keep his crew in line- he liked to keep the nature of his Mercurian Gift a secret, reminding his crew that "if you steal from me, I'll know it." Since they didn't know how he'd know, it was harder to cover their tracks, and loyalty ended up being easier than testing an angry Mercurian. As a member of the Void Corsairs, Zan enjoyed the comforts of a hammock and a satchel to keep their stuff in, and little else for accommodations; Stardiver would become Captain Brinebarrow's property and rest in a dedicated spot in the 451's mighty hold, fueled up and ready for work. During salvage operations Zan would take direction from a salvage leader, dismantling and extracting valuables from a wreck and quickly transporting them back to an open hatch on the 451 for on-board crew to begin sorting and cataloging- the presence of a Steelframe was a lot more nimble than the 451's construction cranes or any of the hauler shuttles that would need to be manually loaded and unloaded by external crew. During off-shift hours Zan would play small table and card games with some of their crewmates, chatting them up and getting to know them a bit better. They got the sense that not everyone elected to join the Void Corsairs of their own volition. When it came time for their shift to sleep, those tables were upturned and their hammocks were strung up- having metal feet was useful here, in that when your toes hang out the end of your hammock they're not particularly bothered by the cold. It's good lemonade.
Captain Brinebarrow ran a tight ship, and his iron grip of fear and uncertainty kept his crew mostly in line, although there were whispers and doubts among the shiphands. Being caught by the Terran Star Navy was a big concern, but rumors about the Devil's Fang- the other faction whose dead they salvaged from- began to circulate. Crewmates would tell stories they overheard themselves, some about the ruthlessness with which the Devil's Fang dealt with whoever crossed them, but others spoke about the way their captain treated her crewmembers and even the low-level workers aboard the ships they would raid. It wasn't a life of fear and toil aboard the Armadillo, it was something different; something better than what they endured under Captain Brinebarrow. The crew got to thinking, what if the Devil's Fang show up one day, while they're salvaging their fallen? It could be a good opportunity for them to improve their fortunes. Zan could recognize the growing whispers of mutiny aboard the 451, and while they could stick around and help the men of the Void Corsairs become men of the Devil's Fang, Zan rather liked their time working for themself, so it was high time to find a way outta here.
That opportunity revealed itself in the wake of a chance encounter between the Armadillo and an unusual-looking craft, unlike any the Void Corsairs had encountered before. It was hard to say that it looked "damaged", since no one was sure how the glowing mote of flame enmeshed in its steel cage was meant to appear "whole". Salvage leader instructed Zan and Stardiver to make the first approach and ascertain where habitable space and salvageable goods might even be before they crack open the outer hull. Inside their cockpit Zan could read heat signatures, lifeforms, aboard the strange ship. There was a pocket of breatheable air. There was a power signal being sent to the rear of the ship- this was no wreck, and it looked like it was about to take off. Seeing a fleeting moment of opportunity, Stardiver grabbed hold of an exterior wing of the mystery ship, diverted power to its personal forcefield projector and hung on as tight as they could. Panicked comms lit up in Zan's ear as the shipwreck came to life, its glowing engine powering up and blasting off away from the 451 and the Void Corsairs, with Zan's Steelframe stowing away on the ship's hull, its forcefield projector straining to protect it from being torn apart by the sudden acceleration it was experiencing. It was a very fast, very bumpy ride, and Zan immediately doubted the wisdom of their big escape plan, but with Captain Brinebarrow far in their wake, they were certain they had made their getaway. Whether they'd make it much further than that, they tried not to think about this.
So it turns out that Zan had inadvertantly hitched a ride with a small group of Solzari visitors living in secret amongst the people of Sol. They were curious motes of flame inhabiting wrecked old Android bodies; they hadn't been "battling" with the Armadillo, but the sudden appearance of URC-451-R had caused a great deal of alarm, spurring their rapid retreat from the Inner Belt. When their faster-than-light drives delivered them to a safely vacant point of space, they realized they had acquired a hitchhiker. In a stroke of luck, Zan had happened to find a crew of sympathetic Solzari who wanted only to learn more about the Sol system their people had been sent to explore. These were Solzari who fell in love with the vibrancy of life in the Sol system, and whose adopted Android bodies were in rough states of disrepair. To the Solzari's good fortune, they'd happened to pick up a Terran with a knack for fixing old machines who just wanted to find a way out of a rough situation. Their giant metal body was both curious and familiar to the Solzari, and Zan was happy to talk all about it with them- the Solzari were curious about the strange metal contacts on Zan's forehead, which they gently discouraged the extra-warm starfarers from touching. Fortune smiled, and Zan soon found themself aboard a crew of Extrasolars- they just needed to remind the Solzari that Terrans need food and water before their ship fully left the Sol system.
The Solzari crew had a couple hide-outs around Sol they liked to meet up in, but when they feared discovery they would often leave the Sol system entirely for a little bit until things cooled down. After their encounter with the Void Corsairs the Solzari opted to visit the Andromeda galaxy for a bit and link up with some Andromedan friends they happened to know. Riding aboard a faster-than-light ship afforded Zan a rare opportunity to see worlds beyond the Sol system, where no vessel could travel faster than light itself. They were introduced to friendly Andromedans and shared Stardiver's novel utility in a couple odd jobs reinforcing their woven life-sustaining structures with scraps of Solar salvage, earning favors from folks who'd never seen a Terran up close before. Life was weird for a few years, but it was an interesting kind of weird. Zan learned a little bit about how Andromedan technology worked, and while they couldn't make it work themself, their Andromedan friends were kind enough to spin up a couple sturdy replacement panels for Zan to repair Stardiver with. Zan did have to keep reminding their Solzari crewmates about the food-and-water thing. That part was a little stressful, but they would always slap their hands to their foreheads and go, right! Right. They meant well.
After a few years had passed the Solzari were comfortable with the idea of returning to the Sol system and reintegrating into society in their neatly patched-up Android bodies. Zan was happy to travel with their new friends, but they felt that a return to the Sol system was a good opportunity to part ways and move on with a more Terran-friendly lifestyle. Their Solzari pals agreed, offering to deploy Zan and Stardiver in orbit near Ol' Number 48, a deep-space truckstop in between Jupiter and Saturn popular with long-haul cargo vessels. The Solzari would let them out far enough away that they could arrive at the truckstop under power of Stardiver's boosters without the Solzari craft needing to be seen by more Solar starfarers. The crew exchanged pleasantries and said their goodbyes, and after Zan watched the Solzari blink away from the cockpit of their Steelframe, they realized in the midst of their pleasantries that they'd forgotten to refuel Stardiver before they disembarked. Ah jeez!
Guess they'll have to call for a tow.
These days, the current arc of Zan's life is to run a freelance salvage and machine repair shop out of a rented hangar in Titan Garden's south dockyards. They became good friends with the Red Raven crew after they arrived to tow Stardiver from the middle of nowhere- They and Amy sharing common interests in repairing machines, they and Haley sharing common interests in Steelframes, they and Keera in their experience communicating with extrasolar lifeforms, and they and Bell in the Solar tradition of preparing a big, hot meal. Titan is an interesting place to live, there's plenty to see and do, and occasionally Zan would spot one of their old Solzari friends people-watching in the Ox & Carriage. They always liked to pull up a seat and share stories whenever they see each other. It's always nice to share what kind of lemonade they've been sipping on.
Zan's hangar isn't far from the Red Raven office, and they like to pop by and visit during off-hours, usually to chat and hang out, but occasionally to help Amy and Lydia with a bit of ratchet-spinning. Red Raven occasionally offers some contract work on some extra-large salvage jobs, giving Zan first pick at earning a few extra credits for a spot of adventurous work. The crew had a rather large one planned- there was a very haunted old lunar colony that had some very urgent salvage in it, and having a Steelframe like Stardiver on hand would make the job go extra smooth. There would be an extremely high chance of ghost encounters, but the crew would also be contracting a magic-user from a shop in the E-District called the Mystic Faire to help manage those ghosts. If Zan was up to it, the crew would pay well for their time and experience.
Zan thought it over... heck, they've been in weirder situations. What's a couple ghosts to a Steelframe pilot, right?