The Cyclopedia Of Worlds

b.567 –

ROCKY IANUS STRONE is a celebrity naturalist and adventurer.

Children and adults in a hundred star systems have enjoyed his thrilling and fact-filled educational programs. His exploits include travelling to undeveloped worlds and encountering native fauna – especially predatory fauna – at close range.

Orthodox planetologists have dismissed Rocky Strone’s behavior as irresponsible. His fans argue that he raises awareness of the need for preservation of indigenous lifeforms on undeveloped planets.

Rocky Strone was born far from unexplored wilderness, in one of the crowded civic grids on Lantil Mybea. His parents were sporadically employed by the various support services for Lantil Mybea’s shipyards, docks, and spaceports. When Rocky was born, his father was in the middle of a forty-day shift aboard one of Lantil Mybea’s orbital packing engines. In a piloting accident, another company’s packing engine got jammed in a main supply dock, and Rocky’s father and crew were unable to disembark for weeks. Rocky was almost three months old when his father finally laid eyes on him.

Rocky Strone first became interested in exotic animal life when he was a boy growing up in a busy port city:

“‘Twas a man who liv’n up the Grid from us who work’n for the Livestock Shipping Authority. An’ sometimes the animals wouln’t be pick’n up, or the shipment wouln be cancel’n. Or because of’n War. So he use’n'bring some of these animals home. Oft with knowing what the hell’ney wa. An’ I’n go ov’all the time and see ‘em. Spen’ all’nay with ‘em. Looking back now, I realize he han some filly neanly (fairly deadly) species in ‘neh. But he was lucky. He neva once han an acci’nent. An’ I think he pass’nat luck on to me.”

Rocky Strone tends to adopt the public persona of a rough-n-ready adventurer, an image accentuated by his thick Soutros accent. Strone however attended the Davis University at Dakka on a full academic scholarship. He graduated with honors and a Level Five in Aquatic Biology and a Level Two in Ecological Dynamics.

He is also a competent dragonflier pilot and shares ownership of a massive Traver Cuss class dragonflier with the Davis University at Dakka. The aircraft is used as a research vessel and has appeared in several of Strone’s widely watched documentary adventures.

Rocky Strone regulary ended his documentary programs with a “Top 10 List”. They featured such lurid titles as: ”Rocky Strone’s 10 Deadliest Creatures In The Galaxy”, ”Rocky Strone’s 10 Biggest Beasts Ever”, and ”Rocky Strone’s Top 10 Sea Serpents”.

He withdrew from public life for two years in the wake of the much-publicized scandal around his king shan addiction.

Rocky Strone wrote an autobiography called ”Chasing Monsters”. It details his formative influences and his dramatic inner and outer conflicts. Its combination of straight-forward autobiographical confession and heart-stopping accounts of his encounters with deadly life-forms have made Rocky Strone’s book a top-seller. Excerpts of the book can be read in the Cyclopedia’s Library.

Rocky Strone is on the Natural History Advisory Committee of the Cyclopedia of Worlds.

Scanodon Expedition

In 595 N.E., Rocky Strone was made a household name by his documentary series “Face To Face With Planet Scanodon”, starring and produced by naturalist-adventurer Rocky Strone. Strone visited 10 locations on the planet, over the course of the planet’s year, encountering a different ”dangerous” lifeform at each location. Despite criticism by Strone’s detractors, the documentary was the first – and remains one of the best – records of Scanodon’s environment.

Of his experience there, Strone said (in his trademark Lantil Mybea accent):

“Most nangerous (dangerous) part of n’whole experience was the three years of innoculations before han’. An’ all the anti-microbial treatments we were taking mor’noon an’ night. Kept us alive. That’s about all though. I still get sick. Never fully recover’n from that trip. We oughta worn suits. Naffy buggers. Cracking nice material we got though.”

The 10 episodes of Rocky Strone’s ”Face To Face With Planet Scanodon”, indicating the lifeforms featured:

• “World of Rage” (spatoptera rex)
• “A Monster In Every Lake” (doruemic pinnipex)
• “Nightmares!” (horust & night poletake)
• “Skincrawlers” (torueme worm)
• “Death From On High!” (Scanodon bat)
• “The Blind Eating The Blind” (blind man)
• “Shabaah! Shabast!” (lehl shabast)
• “Watch Your Step” (trundle bed & other trapdoor predators)
• “Still Waters Run Deadly” (horria auss)
• “Escape From Scanodon” (megager acrix & cressi acrix)

Scanodon – the wild planet and Rocky Strone made each other famous

Palul-Lar Don Expedition

Earlier this Common Calendar year, celebrity naturalist Rocky Strone embarked upon a high profile expedition to Palul-Lar Don.

Strone’s mission, funded by grants from The Cyclopedia Of Worlds and the Davis University at Dakka, is intended to be the most complete in-flesh survey of the planet ever.

Strone, in cooperation with Cyclopedia Of Worlds and the Newstring information service, established a live data signal which allows Strone and his team to transmit live updates of their expedition to the whole of the Newstring service. The live stream is said to be the first of its kind to be used for mass civilian information transmission since the middle of the War Period.

A number of eminent paleobiologists and exobiologists have accompanied Strone on the Palul-Lar Don mission, including Dr. Mason Hauki.

Expedition Team

• Rocky Strone
• Dr. Mason Hauki
• Weddy Beluzzi, Atmospherics Head AUS-DS
• Ruddy Koi-sin, Lead Behaviorist
• Pola Nicomai, Biosystems Statistician
• Trondheim Karu, Deputy Seismologist
• Shulia Sunny, Deep Controller
• Yonah Wellington, 2nd Ear & Eye Tech
• Mandy Ben Witt, 1st Ear & Eye Tech
• Reckner Amparo
• Petra Neely
• Shaki Ywsef, Microbiologies Systematician
• Keyes Augusta Navarro, Microbiologies Tech
• Caper Smallover, Grey Studies Expert
• John-Charles Cojo, Team Physic

Follow updates from the Strone Palul-Lar Don Expedition at @rstrone

QUOTATIONS:

“I think this scio-beast is like my mother. Oh, yes. The scio-beast, she is my mother, yeah.”

- an intoxicated Strone during an encounter with a lifeform of planet Shuttleworth, moments before falling unconscious

“If you come wi’in 300 meters of a spathuala, ‘ere’s one thing you can absolutely count on – you will be eaten.”

- on planet Conus’s apex predator, the spathuala

”Most nangerous (dangerous) part of n’whole experience was the three years of innoculations before han’. An’ all the anti-microbial treatments we were taking mor’noon an’ night. Kept us alive. That’s about all though. I still get sick. Never fully recover’n from that trip. We oughta worn suits. Naffy buggers. Cracking nice material we got though.”

- on the difficult production of his documentary series on the planet Scanodon