Dustin

Dustin Kettering is a defensive adventurer who joins Rick Geller’s team after the disastrous expedition outside Greenstone.

Biography

Holding the line for Team Geller

Dustin first fights among the rescuers who reach the compromised expedition, protecting allies during a battle shaped by star seeds and betrayal. After Team Geller loses its front-line guardian, Jonah, Dustin accepts the vacancy and becomes the group’s new defender. The choice ties his advancement to a team recovering from death, giving Rick’s survivors the stable formation needed to return to contracts rather than dissolve under the expedition’s cost. (Chapters 110, 128, 136, 142–143)

He remains with Team Geller through later campaigns and ultimately reaches gold rank. His role stays consistent as the scale rises: he gives faster and more specialised teammates somewhere safe to operate from, absorbing attention and maintaining position when battles against messengers and other high-rank threats would otherwise break the team apart. (Chapters 506, 755, 783–809)

Skills and abilities

Dustin is a classic guardian. He is not especially mobile, but he is exceptionally difficult to bypass or force through, using toughness, positioning, and defensive powers to control access to vulnerable allies. That specialisation makes isolation or displacement more dangerous to him than a direct contest of endurance. (Chapters 142–143, 783–809)

Relationships

• Rick Geller: Rick accepts Dustin as the replacement defender for a team reshaped by the expedition’s deaths. (Chapters 142–143)
• Jonah: Dustin takes over the front-line role left empty by Jonah’s death. (Chapter 142)