Geoffrey Tolwyn was born in a British family with a long history of military careers. Although wealthier than most people in the military, he chooses to serve the Terran Confederation, just like his ancestors chose to serve their nation throughout many preceding centuries. But in addition, he never puts the interests of his own career ahead of the interests of Truth and Justice.

In 2656, Tolwyn called for court-marshaling Christopher “Maverick” Blair for the destruction of the Tiger’s Claw; but later re-instated Blair (and later promoted him to Colonel), –after it came to light that the destruction of the Claw had indeed been an attack by Kilrathi (Strakha) stealth fighters; but ever since the court-marshal, the relationship between Blair and Tolwyn was strained.

In 2669, Tolwyn got a visit from an old friend, David Whittaker. The exact details of the conversation are hard to establish, because what we know of it was from his recounting the story to Jason Bondarevski in 2671; but he later regrets having to have said “half truths” to Bondarevski. The story he tells Bondarevski is that Whittaker came to invite him to be part of the Belisarius Group; –a military conspiracy that intends to take over the (democratic) civilian Confederation government. Reading between the lines, though, it would seem as if the real story is that Whittaker had joined the Belisarius Group to fight it from within, and came to invite Tolwyn to be part of that conspiracy within the conspiracy.

Tolwyn had inherited the secret Behemoth project. The Behemoth was a massive ship, a dreadnought; –effectively, a gigantic energy cannon, powerful enough to destroy an entire planet in a single blast. Tolwyn had reservations about the project, technical as well as ethical, but after learning about the plans of the Belisarius Group, he concluded that, without the Behemoth, either the Kilrathi would win the war, or Belisarius would take over the government, so he rushed to finish the project.

When the Behemoth was ready, he assigned Blair to the TCS Victory. Blair didn't like this assignment, as he felt an attachement to the recently destroyed TCS Concordia; and the Victory was a relic of a vessel, –a ship that, if there was no war, would have been mothballed long before. After Tolwyn himself came aboard the vessel, he explained to Blair that Confed had been losing the war for the past several months, and that if the tide was not turned, they would soon be completely vanquished. He revealed the Behemoth project; –Colonel Blair and the Victory were to defend the vessel at all costs.

The Behemoth successfully completed a test run on a Kilrathi planet (completely barren excepting a Kilrathi military base), but before it could be deployed to the Kilrathi homeworld, it was destroyed in a surprise Kilrathi attack. The Kilrathi had information about weak points in the Behemoth's shield, which they received from Kilrathi renegade turned Kilrathi spy, Ralgha nar Hallas). After the Behemoth’s destruction, Tolwyn left the Victory, defeated, hopeless and facing a court marshal. Fortunately, James “Paladin” Taggart arrived and paved the way for the Temblor Bomb’s development, which Blair used to end the Terran-Kilrathi war.

In 2673, Tolwyn pulled a retired Colonel Blair back into service. Terrorist activities involving The Union Of Border Worlds alarmed the Terran Confederation, but they were hesitant to declare war once again, having just achieved peace with the Kilrathi after decades of conflict. Tolwyn assigned Blair to the TCS Lexington, where he was to investigate the attacks, and report his findings back to Tolwyn. This was only part of an elaborate ruse on the part of Tolwyn, as he himself was performing these terrorist acts. As head of the secret military organization, “The Black Lance”, Tolwyn was using genetically engineered humans to create an army the likes of which no one had ever seen, born and bred for the sole purpose of combat, and killing. These humans were the result of the “Gene-Enhancement Program”, another black ops Confed project which was supposed to have been abandoned long ago. Tolwyn had managed to keep it running under the radar of the Confed government, and planned to use his soldiers to ignite a war between Confed and the Border Worlds.

Over the course of the Kilrathi war, Tolwyn had developed a “kill or be killed” philosophy, in which only the truly superior race deserved to win. He viewed Confed’s victory over the Kilrathi as a fluke, believing that Humanity merely got lucky with the destruction of Kilrah at the hands of Blair and the Temblor Bomb. The Black Lance represented his vision of the future of Humanity, and the only way to be sure of its survival come the next war. Tolwyn’s plan was to frame the Border Worlds for the terrorist attacks, and use the resulting war to justify the Gene-Enhancement program.

Unfortunately for Tolwyn, Blair discovered his plan, and the many atrocities that he committed while seeing it through. Not only had Tolwyn used genetically enhanced soldiers, but The Black Lance deployed a deadly biological weapon on the innocent inhabitants of a distant world. This bio-weapon would infect a person, and if their genetic makeup (skin color, eye color, height, weight) didn’t match what The Black Lance had decided was “acceptable”, they would perish. Blair presented this information to the Confederation Senate (now led by James “Paladin” Taggart), and Tolwyn was arrested. After a lengthy trial with several witnesses to testify against him, Tolwyn was sentenced to execution.

The day before his execution, Tolwyn was found dead in his cell, suicide by hanging.

In 2634, just before the start of the Terran-Kilrathi war, and when Tolwyn was a young Ensign, he took the stage at a televised political event where this slimy politician, More, is trying to paint the military as incompetent spendthrifts, as part of his political campaign. Tolwyn reminded More that the shortcomings the military were experiencing were due to the budget cuts More himself passed, and exposing More's blackmailing the military to pressure them to build a new shipyard in his own, frontier world. Tolwyn immediately acquires a reputation in military and political circles, for that daring action; –he becomes a bit of a hero for having told More off; but having done that spontaneously and without direct orders would quite possibly have meant the end of his career, if it had not been for Winston Turner.

The details are not quite clear why, back in 2634, Admiral Banbridge wants spy-master and old friend Winston Turner to go to Gar's Emporium, some way off the Landreich and into cat territory, ostensibly to learn about the cats' plans. It's my (Monk's) theory that spy-master Vakka (father of then young Jukaga), on the cat side, has secret contacts with Landreich's president Blucher, and has made arrangements to have the so-calld "Lost War Orders" delivered to that joint. This is speculation, however. In any case, Winston Turner accepts the suggestion of Vance Richards for helping hand number one, but passes on someone else Skip was suggesting, and wants the young Tolwyn to come with him on this mission, instead. Turner, Richards and Tolwyn travel to the Landreich, where they meet Hans Maximilian Kruger at a bar. Kruger will one day become President of the Free Republic of the Landreich, but in 2634 he's an independent hauler, and owns a small (but fast and well armed) cargo ship he named Lazarus; and the trio have contracted him to transport them to Gar's Emporium. The mission goes well: They return with “The Lost War Orders”, first to Landreich and from there to McAuliffe, just in time for the coming Kilrathi invasion. The war orders, signed by the kilrathi emperor, are the proof Banbridge needed to declare a high state of emergency.

It's Confederation Day, and most military personnel are drunk. Turner, Richards and Tolwyn, after alerting the commanders at the McAuliffe base, get back on the Lazarus (which they borrowed from Kruger) amidst a pandemonium. A crowd of military people try to rush the Lazarus, and Tolwyn ends up shooting a higher ranking officer on the shoulder to get him off the ship, but picks about 10 sober looking pilots to come aboard. They take off and dock with the Concordia.

Tolwyn had not had much Academy flying time on the Wildcat pure space interceptor, but decides to fly anyways. He learns quickly under Richards' coaching, and although he totaled two Wildcats during the McAuliffe engagement, and suffered burns to his legs, Tolwyn's skillful and heroic flying help save the Concordia and the Terran Confederation.

Turner recommends him for a medal, but says to Tolwyn to never forget whom he serves: The civilian government, NOT the military. Why he says that then is not very clear, but we might theorize that the Belisarius Group were already plotting long before 2634, and that Turner, being from Intelligence, might know about their secret plans already. Speculations apart, this word of advice was probably pivotal decades later, when Tolwyn decides to fight against, rather than to join, the Belisarius Group.