Meltdown is a half-human hero who was born on the planet Karschk to a human mother and a Vais father; the planet’s population is a 20-80 mix of humans and Vais.  Like humans, Vais only gain superpowers through Unobtanium exposure – and neither of Meltdown’s parents had powers.  The Vais are mostly friendly to humans, but their domestic culture is hostile to commerce, and suspicious of businesses; despite that, Meltdown succeeded as a small businessman.  As a young man, he operated a small, independent shipping firm called Interstellar Exports, moving goods between his home system and neighboring ones.

As he traveled the stars, Meltdown was inspired by news stories of Hero Ships fighting evil and saving whole worlds.  After some in-depth research, he found that the Justice‘s meritocratic culture, with its emphasis on hard work and personal responsibility, strongly appealed to him as a place where anyone could get ahead.  He decided that he wanted to join the Justice and immigrated, along with several longtime friends.

Aboard the Justice, Meltdown leveraged his many contacts and his keen eye for deals to turn Interstellar Exports into a vast commercial empire.  While his primary focus was getting rich, he frequently offered philanthropic assistance to the Justice in the form of rare resources, connections, and loans.  Meltdown never shied from a fight, either, and gaining powers from Unobtanium exposure has only encouraged him.  This has made him many friends; Meltdown is almost as popular as Ambassador.  Over the years, he did so much to aid both the ship’s crew and the Justice Corps that Ambassador hired him as Chief Operations Officer of the Corps, joking that he was “just making it official.”

Under Meltdown’s leadership, the Operations department now handles the commercial side of the Justice Corp’s ventures – harvesting, crafting, and trading, often in dangerous locations. Meltdown has offices under the Ivar and Sons auction house and in the Justice Corps HQ building, but he can usually be found out in the field. His temperament is well-suited to the job; he’s a tireless and hands-on leader, always trying risky plans and personally exploring new venues, while he gives his most trusted subordinates wide freedom to make decisions in his absence.

While he is able and willing to fight for the ship in emergencies, Meltdown believes that his greatest accomplishment is building and paying for the cool toys that keep his friends alive. He is currently the richest of the “big five” heroes, followed by Iris, and is happily married to a civilian woman – see if you can spot her in our older videos!