Randal "Spark" Kren was born and raised in the Watson district, having been born to a single mother. His father had died before his birth with his mother eventually completely abandoning him to the streets where he was eventually picked up by a small crew of Boostergangers led by Ronald "Glitch" Ho. Seeing the potential in him Glitch would begin teaching Kren the inner workings of cybernetic augmentation. For his early formative years he'd be relegated to working on the crew's cyberware until he was around the age of 16 when Spark would finally transform into a full blown ripper of his own and the crew would allow him to accompany on gigs and biz.
 
Around the early 70's when Spark was already in his 20's he met the single most important person in his life besides Glitch, his other half Zoey Gent. Their relationship would blossom quickly with them both having passions for technology, Spark being a ripper and Zoe being the local weapontech. It was this passion that would eventually lead to tragedy. Spark being the crew's personal ripper helped Zoey install the piece of borgware that would later lead to disaster. During a routine surveillance gig, the newly installed optics would trigger an outburst from Zoe, quickly resulting in the death of fellow crewmember Jay and multiple civilians. Zoe was later shot down by MaxTac with Spark watching it happen live on the news with no way to save her, this incident would cause Spark to start heavily drinking Smash and becoming more secluded from the rest of the crew who were forced to flee from the pursuing NCPD.
 
Shortly after this all the crews repeated slights to the much larger and more dangerous Maelstrom gang would also come back to haunt them, with member Wrench not only seeing the house of cards about to come crashing down, but blaming Spark for both the death of Zoe and Jay would ultimately betray the surviving members to the Maelstromers which would result in the death and scattering of their crew and Spark's enslavement within a Maelstrom workshop, refitting old Militech drones and enhancing Maelstrom borgware as their own personal ripper slave.
 
This would be Spark's life for the next few years, suffering torment at the hands of the Maelstromers and being forced to conduct slave labour until he was eventually freed with the aid of an enthralled netrunner. The pair would upload a demon into the Maelstrom network that would temporarily disable the Maelstromers and allow the duo to escape. Spark would make his way back to Watson, finding a cargo container to rent and hunker down, unsure of what to do moving forward. He would begin making deals with the locals and gangs in exchange for both protection, eddies and tech. All of Spark's hardships have left him a very mistrustful and paranoid individual, with his first priority to get some Militech turrets set up outside inside his container. Spark hopes to one day put his past behind him and open up his own ripper clinic.