Tom Spender

"I don't work for anyone's gain but my own, nowadays. I don't think that makes me anything special."

- Spender's bitter reflection.

For all its horrors, the Human-Covenant War also created an abundance of opportunities, most of them illicit, and few were better at taking advantage of them than Captain Tom Spender. When refugees would willingly part with their livelihoods to escape a planet doomed to glassing, or a wealthy planetary official would sell their soul for a taste of some restricted commodity, Spender was there to deal, and made top dollar each time. The Madrigali smuggler was not without a heart, however. Among his acts of charity were the taking on and mentoring of a young stowaway named Gavin as cabin boy aboard his freighter, the Chancer, to one day become a spacer as good or better than himself, but his string of good luck ran out before he'd seen the task through. In the, Spender lost his crew, his ship, and for breach of the his freedom after failing to save his wife and child. While rescued from prison by the Syndicate in exchange for doing what he did best, Spender was thereafter a different man, with nothing but himself left to care about.