Run Like Hell Character Feature: Part Five

In part five of our feature on Interplay's upcoming survival-horror, Run Like Hell, focuses on Commander William Mason, commander of Forseti Station. A decorated military officer, Mason was initially sent to oversee the government mining operation on Forseti. He was eventually made commander and currently manages personnel on the station. His leadership skills are tested, and his staff is greatly thinned out with the appearance of less-than-friendly aliens on the station.

Name: Commander William Mason
Rank: Hegemony Colonel
Race: Human
Age: 52 (equivalent)
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 240 pounds
Birthplace: Europa, Sol System

William Mason grew up as part of the Europa Colony, back when Jupiter's moon Europa was still considered part of Earth territory. The terraforming of the moon had also just been completed, so the conditions were still very harsh. Mason began to gain more and more influence among the colony people as the colony grew, thanks to his helping out at an early age. He had a quiet authority about it from the beginning, and as he hit his 20s he became more and more involved with the colony politics.

At age 23, he helped the political movement of Europa break away from earth and become its own colony. Yet, politics bored him. After almost 30 years in a small colony of 3000 people, Mason began feeling the itch to have adventure. So, at age 31, he joined the Hegemony armed forces.

For the next 10 years, Mason went wherever the government would send him. He was part of the police force that put down the Corinthian riots--the real action for him didn't start, however, until the beginning of the Human Neh-Lok war. He fought many battles, both topside and groundside. He led the forces of the Hegemony at the Battle of Hodr. This battle helped take back the Hodr System, which was a key supply line for the human alliance.

At age 45, he was given command of the HSS Nerthus. This destroyer fought quite a few battles against the Neh-Lok across the Border Worlds, and by the end of the war Mason had risen in rank to colonel and had received the Metal of Honor for his valiant victory at the Battle of Hodr.

The next three years were spent in relative peace, patrolling the Border Worlds for pirates and the like. Then the Hegemony learned of an invaluable source of merosteel in the Centauri asteroid belt, at the very edge of known space. Knowing that pirates, smugglers, and other such criminals tended to set up bases on the outer edges of the Hegemony space, the Earth government sent Colonel Mason to the Forseti Station to oversee the government-sponsored mining operation there. He was made commander of the station and had complete authority over all personnel.

It was within the last year that Mason met Captain Nick Conner. Although the two are civil to each other, some would say that there are some control issues going on between the two.