Sage Maschenny, foremost Atmospherics Engineer of Altam II, worked for NanoTrasen for most of his life. Alongside his wife, An Ten de Zara, he also had a daughter, Elise. Shortly after Elise's birth, the family was transferred on assignment to a remote NanoTrasen outpost. While there, the station was attacked, and Sage fell into a coma after shielding Elise from an explosion. When he awoke, he found that An had passed away some years prior, and that Elise had not only grown into a young adult but also taken up his mantle as the station's Chief Engineer. Back on assignment in bleak circumstances with no resources to his family's name, Sage returned to work as the station's Reserve Overseer.

Forced into desperately intimate quarters with Elise in order to survive, Sage found himself increasingly co-dependent on his daughter for feelings of safety and relief from stress, and slowly his life began to revolve around her safety and wellbeing. When she came to him with romantic and carnal affections, he held firm against it but was eventually worn down on the long trip back to Altam II, when he finally gave in and accepted her advances. It was there that Elise and Sage met Tess and Lear to form the nucleus of their crew.

Sage possesses the kind of stoic disposition that only comes from a lifetime of struggle and exhaustion. He confronts most issues with mechanical precision, regardless of subject, but takes great pains to address others with empathy. He possesses great disdain for beauracratic processes. Sage's patience knows no bounds, and will hold firm to his promises and boundaries so long as he isn't challenged by his daughter, who can usually cause him to melt quickly.