Cloud Strider

Cloud Striders
Overview
Focal world(s):	Neptune
Goals:	Defend Neomuna
At war with:	Shadow Legion ; Vex ; The Witness
Allied with:	Guardians ; Imperial Cabal
Average height:	Comparable to the Cabal
Distinctions:	Cyber enhancements
Average lifespan:	Reduced to a decade after enhancement
Notable individual(s):	Nimbus ; Rohan

“

Altruism. Affinity. Awareness.

”

Cloud Striders are the cybernetically-enhanced Human defenders of Neomuna.

Overview

Cloud Striders are Neomuni who have volunteered to undergo a process to enhance themselves with Nanotechnology, granting them enhanced strength and agility. The process also significantly increases their physical size, making them taller than even Empress Caiatl. The Cloud Striders' nanotechnology forms a layer of metallic armor over parts of their body and affords them powerful weapons and tools, including a compact silver surfboard-like device, called a skyboard, that has a variety of purposes, including transport around Neomuna and both offensive and defensive capabilities in battle.

However, these augmentations have drawbacks. In addition to a shortened lifespan of about a decade, only two Cloud Striders can exist at any given time. Commonly, these Cloud Strider pairs consist of an older one and a younger one (presumably a mentor and pupil, respectively).^[2] New Cloud Striders are created at the Sidereal a device or facility where the augmentation is carried out.

The deeds of past Cloud Striders are commemorated in the Hall of Heroes in Neomuna, where servers containing personal data from every deceased Cloud Strider can be accessed by the Neomuni public. When a Cloud Strider dies, their data core is retrieved and incorporated into a new server monument within the Hall.

Known Cloud Striders

History

The Strider

Many colony ships sought to escape Earth during the Collapse. Most failed to flee Sol, and many ended up forming what is now known as the Reef. However, one ship, the Exodus Indigo, successfully transported a group of people to Neptune, where they eventually settled and became the citizens of Neomuna.

At some point after Neomuna's founding, a Neomuni citizen named Mikaela Julaha experienced an accident involving nanotechnology that resulted in her strength and endurance becoming vastly augmented. She used her newfound abilities to protect the city against the Vex, but unfortunately her nanite-boosted metabolism gradually caused damage to her internal organs, shortening her lifespan considerably. Despite there being no feasible way to avoid this drawback, others would later follow in her footsteps by undergoing voluntary augmentation at a facility known as the Sidereal. These superhuman defenders became known as Cloud Striders, with Mikaela, the first among them, becoming known as "The Strider". ^[3]^[2]

The Uplift Coven

Later on, the Cloud Strider known as Maelstrom started a training program to identify potential Cloud Strider candidates, beginning with a pool of twenty-two young Neomuni volunteers and selecting one for augmentation. However, this backfired, as ten of the rejected candidates formed a terrorist group known as the Uplift Coven with the goal of seizing the augments for themselves. Maelstrom managed to put down the Coven, injuring her protégé Geist in the process when he attempted to protect his former peers.^[4]

War with the Shadow Legion

At the time of the Shadow Legion's invasion of Neomuna, the two active Cloud Striders were Rohan and his pupil Nimbus. During the conflict, Rohan sacrificed himself in order to destroy the Radial Mast, a device Calus intended to use to create a link between the Veil and the Traveler, leaving Nimbus as the sole Cloud Strider protecting Neomuna.

Trivia

In the Lightfall reveal trailer, a transforming weapon used by a Cloud Strider appears to be able to attack a Pyramid with a rocket^[5]. Had this been the case, it would have been the first known instance of a weapon being capable of doing so, as the Pyramids have negated any previous attempts at an attack.
- While the scenario above is not present during Lightfall, Cloud Strider Rohan was able to destroy the Radial Mast, which is seemingly made using Pyramid technology, during his sacrifice.
According to Nimbus, no Cloud Strider prior to Rohan ever died in the line of duty, with all of them living out their full ten-year lifespan before succumbing to their augmentations.
The nanotechnology they use is not to be confused with SIVA, however, the lore tab for the Quicksilver Storm does imply that Neomuna is dependent on technology which can interface with that of Clovis Bray.
- Elsie Bray also states in this same lore entry that it is unlike anything they had during the Golden Age.^[6]