Born during the first years of the Kretonian Invasion in Jackson, Pennsylvania on Earth, Captain Russell T. Plaindid attended Wright-Armstrong Military College, majoring in Stellar Navigation and minoring in Psychology. He would later go on to lead Operation Second Noah, undergoing severe genetic modifications along with hundreds of other crew members and fleeing Earth on the Seldom Trouble in 2687. He and his crew discovered what would later be called New Luna in 2718, and established Freedom City that same year, creating a council-based society that survives to this day. Dozens of things in the L49 System have been named in his honor, including the Plaindid Asteroid Belt, the Plaindid owl, Plaindid Street in Greenville, Plaindid Isle, and the Plaindid Mountains.