Sam Reed

**Sam Reed** was a commander during the Green Drone War that served in the Red Wood Industries (RWI) fleet. Until the vessel crashed, he was the captain of the Defender-class Frigate *Intrepid*, before joining Captain Jack Roberts’ team. He served with Jack throughout the war, and was promoted to captain by the end of the war. After the war, he still served as Jack Roberts’s executive officer during the mission of the Joint Expedition Task Force and fought by his side during the mission on Chrome II.

## History

### Green Drone War

#### Early Battles

At the outbreak of the Green Drone War on June 9, 2733, Sam Reed was the captain of the RWI *Intrepid*, a Defender-class Frigate bearing experimental MK.II technology, and held the rank of Commander. The *Intrepid* was part of a fleet commanded by the RWI *Valiant*, a Daedalus-class Battleship, and that fleet was ambushed and overrun by a heavy GDA presence on an unidentified Earth-like planet. Multiple starships were destroyed, but Reed and the *Intrepid* managed to escape the initial onslaught and take refuge in high orbit of the planet, where they remained until they had something to act upon.

#### Rescuing the Colonists

After a few weeks of hiding, Commander Reed was informed by his XO that they had picked up a distress call being broadcasted by Captain Jack Roberts, once a captain of RWI but now leader of the Colonist Survivors (CSS). The CSS had hijacked a GDA transmitter tower to send the signal and needed assistance, as their base was under siege by GDA forces. Reed ordered the *Intrepid* to power up and locate the region where the CSS were located, and the ship soon set out.

The *Intrepid* arrived at the nick of time, as the Colonists had taken refuge in the underground hangar of Bastion Outpost. Reed ordered the *Intrepid*'s V-203 fighter squadron, Green Squadron, to shoot down the GDA Falcon-class Fighters while the frigate fired at the GDA Scourge-class Carrier with its ventral MK3 Battleship Cannon, damaging it and forcing it to flee. Reed then landed at the base along with RWI troops and supplies to help the Colonists get back on their feet, as they were allies. Reed spoke with Captain Roberts in the command center about RWI's status on the planet, then departed with the rest of the *Intrepid*'s forces to set up a small camp nearby.

#### Storming the GDA HQ

Several days later, Reed dispatched scouts to scout out the GDA's main headquarters on the planet, where it was discovered the GDA had recovered a mysterious Artifact of great value. Captain Roberts' good friend, Commander Craz, was also being held prisoner in the base. Reed asked Roberts and his forces to join up with them in order to attack the HQ, rescue Craz, and steal the Artifact. Reed commanded the *Intrepid* in the battle, providing fire support and tactical oversight for the CSS ground forces as they entered the base. However, two GDA Destroyers arrived and Reed, rather than breaking off, ordered the *Intrepid* to engage. Although one destroyer was downed, the *Intrepid* also took heavy damage and crash-landed a short distance away from the base. Reed was the only survivor, but he managed to salvage some data from the ship's computer and send a distress call to other RWI forces.

A short time later, the Colonists fled the GDA base, having rescued Craz but failing to seize the Artifact. They fought their way to the *Intrepid* where Reed was reunited with Roberts, who evacuated him onto their Keep-class Mobile Base. However, the GDA demolished the large bridge the *Keep* had fought to cross earlier, cutting off their only way back to Bastion Outpost. Fortunately, Reed's distress signal was received by the RWI *Valiant*, which sent Valkyrie-class Dropships to evacuate Reed and the CSS crew from the planet.

#### Battle of the Orion System and Transfer

The *Valiant* then retreated to the Orion System, where Captain Jonathan Hunter spoke with Reed and Roberts about their situation. Reed joined Roberts and his crew in salvaging nearby derelict ships, until two GDA ships arrived in the sector. Reed then piloted a V-203 Fighter alongside Craz, Papple, and Morslupus, and helped the *Valiant* destroy the enemy ships. Reed remained aboard the *Valiant* for a short time, and was then transferred to Roberts' crew, now officially RWI soldiers and serving aboard the RWI *Eclipse* on a mission to Ravcor. He became one of the two second-in-command officers due to his rank as a Commander, which he shared with Craz.

#### Battles of Ravcor and Demus

Reed participated in the Battle of Ravcor, in which the RWI forces made a move to steal the Artifact from the GDA base on the planet. They were joined by forces from the *Valiant*, which remained in orbit to fight the GDA fleet, distracting them for Reed and the ground teams to infiltrate the base and steal the Artifact, the evacuate aboard the *Eclipse* after their base fell under siege by GDA ships which had heavily damaged the RWI space forces. After a heated space battle, only the *Eclipse* and the *Valiant* (heavily damaged) escaped Ravcor and fled to the Amre System. Since Commander Chris Lock of the *Valiant* was killed and Captain Hunter was wounded, that left Reed and Roberts to command both ships and get them repaired as well as they could.

While the crews made repairs, Reed accompanied Roberts, Castle, Finn, and Bashful to a seemingly abandoned GDA transmitter station in a dense asteroid field. Inside, they discovered an Atlas Superlaser, a deadly laser weapon outfitted on every GDA Destroyer. They were able to reverse-engineer it and outfit two Superlaser onto the *Valiant*, which helped them fight off GDA ships that attempted to chase them out of the station. However, they managed to broadcast a distress signal from it and were soon backed up by an advance rescue party of two frigates from CNL (Crazy North Logistics), a close ally of RWI. Reed, Roberts, and Craz spoke with the frigates' captains, then continued fighting to secure the area. Fortunately, the RWI *Discovery*, a science cruiser, arrived to back them up. Roberts and the *Discovery*'s captain, Sarah Hawk, formulated a plan to offload the Artifact, the *Valiant*'s remaining crew, and the injured Captain Hunter onto the *Discovery*, which safely transported them back to Icarus, RWI's capital world, in the final moments of the battle. However, Reed was part of the skeleton crew of the *Valiant* along with Roberts, Castle, and Finn, and the *Valiant* crash-landed on the frozen world of Demus, where they were soon located by the *Eclipse* crew, and set up a small camp outside the *Valiant's* wreckage.

#### Stealing the GDA Destroyer

After being trapped on Demus for a few days due to the GDA blockade, the RWI forces raided a nearby GDA outpost and stole coordinates for a GDA shipyard in orbit. Reed built a small off-road buggy called the *Nomad*, which he used to attack the outpost on the ground, but it was either destroyed or abandoned in the retaliatory attacks, after which the crew finally fled the surface and attempted to infiltrate the GDA shipyards by using a GDA cargo freighter docked at an abandoned fuel depot. Roberts took Reed, Castle, and Bash into the shipyard for the stealth mission, but they were soon discovered inside and attacked by security forces. Reed boarded a GDA Destroyer and began overriding the systems to give them control, and soon he piloted the Destroyer out with cover from the *Eclipse*, and they fled the system. After skirmishing with GDA forces over a nearby desert planet, RWI reinforcements led by Captain Hunter and a trio of Phoenix-class Assault Frigates rescued them and escorted them back to Icarus.

to be continued