Mack Winston

Tyler Macklen Winston

Known just as "Mack Winston", he is the last surviving space faring member of the now (in)famous Winston family of Newtown, Nirvana, Phekda. Born in the Interrstellar Red Cross Hospital by natural means in the city of Newtown was not a good start to his life.

The early years

Mack's parents, Damon L. Winston and Heloise McNamara were unusual in conceiving and birthing their son by natural means, a method that was falling out of favour even in frontier worlds. Damon, the older brother of James Winston and Heloise owned a shipyard in Newtown, and were only the second members of the Winston family to leave farming in nearly a dozen generations. Mack's first nine years of life were quite usual for an urban Phekdan child; Phekda at the time was still a dangerous anarchy and schooling was unheard of. His upbringing was therefore rather more practical than most children - being taught to read and write from ship maintenance manuals. Although the press would later romanticise Mack's upbringing as a pure, honest and above great real-world education, the reality was far from the rosy picture the Press painted - Mack Winston, like most urban children in Newtown could not read or write and was innumerate. It is likely had this situation continued, the Intergalactic Red Cross's education charity would have given Mack very basic literacy skills along with most other urban children in the area - at the age of 14 to 16. However, Mack's parents disappeared while they were delivering a ship to a distant customer. James Winston, who was by then an admiral of the Alliance Joint Navy offered to take responsibility for his nephew, bringing him to Edinburgh, Alioth.

Alioth was a complete contrast to Phekda. One of the wealthiest systems in the galaxy, Mack was sent to a remedial school to gain basic literacy skills before being put through the highly automated fast-track education system that is common in the Alliance. Equipped with the tools to understand the universe around him, Mack's curiosity quickly expanded to take in the surrounding galaxy. By the time Mack was 16 standard years old, his interest was clearly moving towards stellar science, and the young man would aspire to join the Alliance Science Council.

Leaving home

Although James Winston was a good guardian for Mack, and took care of him, his household was disciplinarian. Mack decided he could no longer tolerate this and instead of joining the Alliance Joint Navy at the age of 18, took out a loan to buy an aged Cobra Mk.3 to build up the necessary flight experience needed to join the ASC as a mission pilot. To his surprise, his uncle was supported and provided extra equipment for his nephew's new purchase. Mack diligently traded to pay off the loans and build up flight experience over the next four years. Mack's life was not particularly remarkable by this stage; his combat rating remained low since he chose safe systems in which to trade. It is probable that Mack would have quietly built the experience required to join the ASC as a junior mission pilot within the next couple of years had he not met Norman Mosser.

Slide into infamy

Mack's slide into a life of crime came about by a curious sequence of events. The sequence of events had started before Mack was even born - started when his uncle was a young and reckless man. James Winston carried out an extremely risky assassination right under the noses of Barnard's Star Police deep in the heart of the Federation. James managed to evade arrest by the Barnard's Star police - and it seemed that eventually the matter was closed; the assassination target was a notorious Phekdan criminal and the Federal authorities were not in the least sorry to see the target - "Senator" Kenneth Johnson of Phekda - rubbed out. However, in December 3298, relations between the Alliance and Federation had become very poor following an attempted invasion of Phekda by the Federation (with help from the Empire), and one consequence of this was that Federal secret agents were sent to arrest Admiral James Winston on charges of piracy and murder for the Barnard's Star assassination. This lead to an outcry by Alliance citizens who besieged Barnard's Star.

At this point, Norman Mosser was not known as an Imperial operative. Mosser became key in organziing the Barnard's Star protests. Mack Winston broke off his normal trading activities to visit his uncle and make a formal protest to the Federation authorities. He quickly formed a friendship with Mosser. By this point, Mack had become an angry young man, and Mosser knew how to exactly channel this anger. It wasn't long before Mosser discovered that Mack had a natural talent with a rifle, and Mack soon found himself making good money - paired up with a man named Jay Carstein as an assassin. It is not known whether Mosser had brainwashed the young man, or if Mack had decided consciously to turn to crime. Mosser saw to it that the authorities could never quite catch up with the young Winston.

When James Winston finally broke free of the clutches of the Federal authorities, he was furious about what had happened to his nephew - furious not only with Mosser but with Mack too, who he considered to be smart enough to know better. Mack and James would not see each other again until Mack became involved in the theft of parts for the Federation's new super weapon - the huge plasma accelerator. Alliance intellegence at this point had become involved, and it is alleged that the Alliance hatched a plot to steal the HPA from the thieves themselves. It is not known whether Mack's involvement stemmed from his association with Norman Mosser, or if the Alliance had found him and put him up to it. The current consensus is that it was all Mosser's doing. Mack's uncle would never make contact again - he was killed shortly afterwards in a training accident close to his home port of Dublin Citadel.

After the HPA heist, Mack's life of crime continued. His various crimes involved identity theft, assassination, multiple thefts of spacecraft (including one belonging to Pam Gilmour), piracy and murder and launching without a clearance. He was eventually captured by Pam Gilmour, only to be snatched from Gilmour by the Empire. The Empire subsequently hired (or forced) Mack to become an assassin on their behalf - his first job to kill his former partner, Jay Carstein. Much to Carstein's (short lived) surprise, Mack succeeded, and went on to have a short and troubled career in the Empire. It wasn't long before the Empire got tired of the young man, and he was destined to work the slave mines. In yet another twist in his life, he was saved from the mines by a member of the Imperial Court.

Last known whereabouts

Mack Winston is currently assumed to be still alive, and was last seen leaving Eta Cassiopiea in a (legitimately purchased) space-taxi ride, presumably for Phekda.