Robert Foster

The player, the son of Richard Overmann and Maria Pierro. He was born the same day when LINC reached completion. He was born in the Union City but his mother attempted to return with him to Hobart City. He survived from the helicopter crash in the Gap in which his mother died.

Too young to fend for himself, Robert is adopted by a local group of Indigenous Australians, who teach him the skills he needs to survive in this harsh new environment; they name him Robert Foster, partly due to him being fostered by them and also because of the discovery of an empty can of Foster's Lager, an Australian beer, found near him at the crash site. Foster even learns engineering and technology and builds a talking, sentient robot called Joey.

Foster is kidnapped and his tribe annihilated by security soldiers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer LINC. The abductors refuse to give Foster any explanation, however shortly upon arriving, the helicopter malfunctions, caused by his father, who doesn't want LINC's plan to proceed; the craft crashes in the city's upper level. Foster luckily survives the crash and flees. He makes his way through a recycling plant with the help of Joey (who is now a robotic vacuum cleaner, and none too happy about it) but is eventually caught up by a security officer who had also survived the accident. The officer, Commander Stephen Reich, addresses Foster as "Overmann". Just as Reich is about to kill Foster, a nearby security camera shoots a laser, disarming him. Reich tells the camera, whom he reveals is controlled by LINC, that Foster must be stopped. In answer the camera shoots him again, this time killing him. Foster takes the officer's access card and sunglasses before he continues his escape.

As he makes his way further down the city looking for a way out, Foster eventually obtains a Schriebmann port and changes his fingerprints to that of Vic Colston. He also obtains a Security Services ID card with full access, reaching the High Green. There he befriends Daniele Piermont, a member of the city's high society, and friend of his parents.

Eventually he arrives in the abandoned subway tunnels. There he finds out that LINC has become an exponentially growing, half machine half organic entity. However, in order to function LINC needs a human host to share its brain. The current host is none other than Foster's father, who is old and seems severely worn out from his symbiosis with the organic computer. It is revealed that LINC sent for Foster because with its current host soon dead, it would need a replacement, and only a blood relative would do.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, Robert seems to have retained his urban style during his years living in the Gap; in the intro comic he is already seen clean shaved and groomed, wearing a futuristic longcoat instead of the clothes of his fellow tribesmen.
 * Similarly, while generally he seems and feels like an alien in the Union City (similarly to how a 20th century player would be in a futuristic settings), he still seems familiar to urban lifestyle and technology. For example he comments on the jukebox in the St. James Club, he compares it to how a bank violates a customer's privacy; how Robert would be familiar to a bank'soperation in the Gap is not explained.
 * Robert Foster also appears as an easter egg in the Broken Sword fanchise.