Lachlan Fox is an investigative reporter.
When the series opens he is not a star journalist as he will quickly become through the truths that he uncovers at great risk to his life.
Fox had been for some years been a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy. According to the bio presented at the beginning of the first adventure, "Graduating from the Defence Academy near the top of his class, Lt Fox transferred from Defence Intelligence to the hands-on Special Forces, where he led a Clearance Diver (CD) Team - Australia's equivalent to the US Navy SEALs and Britain's Special Boat Service. He saw active service in the liberation of East Timor in 2000, and later in Afghanistan and Iraq."
It was while looking into reports of slavery in West Timor that Fox's military career came to an end for he and his men voluntarily went into an area they were not permitted to rescue those no one else was doing anything to help. Some of the captives died and one of Fox's men as well and when publicity got hot, Fox was the one taking the hit. He regretted deeply the loss of life but not in the least the lives he saved.
Escaping to Christmas Island, Fox started a small weekly newspaper and would have been content to live in obscurity for a while but life was not so accommodating and he was soon thrust into action. This time he went into it not only looking to stay alive and save lives but also to be able to tell the truth when it was over.
For most of the series, Fox is a major voice in the field for the GSR. The Global Syndicate of Reporters consists of, according to its own bio, "the greatest collection of investigative reporters and photojournalists in the world. For almost twenty years, GSR has worked as an independent news source, going where other media agencies don't dare, reporting the truth as it unfolds." Its founder and chairman is Dr. Tasman Wallace who happened to read Fox's work on people-smuggling and took an interest in him.
Fox may or may not have responded well to the offer of employment that GSR presented but Fox's best friend was in danger and Fox needed help and the GSR was there to give it with no strings so when the trouble was over, he was more than a little predisposed to listening favorably. It was a decision that worked out well for both Fox and the GSR.
That best friend and soon to be cohort-in-reporting crime is Alister Gammaldi, Fox's best friend since high school and a Navy helicopter pilot, at least for a while. Gammaldi, at 5'4" tall and "more muscles and hair than a silverback gorilla", loves adventure probably more than Fox and when he saw the kinds of reporting that Fox was starting to do - heading into the most dangerous places on the planet and coming back with the truth, he was in. Crazy, he knew, but fun.
One aspect of the adventures that Fox gets involved in that is important to mention is the fact that one of the closest friends to GSR leader Wallace is also the American National Security Advisor and sometimes having a reporter that can snoop unofficially is a good thing and having a boss with powerful friends is not bad either.