Vanguard

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

• Protostar – Protasanular
• Parabola – Perambaala
• Corona – Asahi Daguchi
• Eclipse – Keisha Yow
• Mercury – Malikah Gayle
• Titan – Jacek Bartol
• Stellar – Steylarkvynto Uvranor

CLEA Classification:

• Alpha Superior – Corona, Eclipse, Mercury and Titan
• Alien – Protostar, Parabola and Stellar

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

• Alpha Superior – Jacek (Titan) has superhuman strength and increased resilience. This makes his skin tougher and this allows him to operate in the vacuum of space without protective clothing.
• Alpha Superior  – Malikah (Mercury) has superspeed capabilities
• Alpha Superior – Asahi (Corona) can generate charged plasma beams from his hands.
• Alpha Superior – Keisha (Eclipse) can generate a thick smog which not only blinds visual sensors but a wide range of other sensors such as UV, IR and EM.
• Alien/Synthetic- Protostar, like most Myzx is stronger and more resiliant to weapons fire. He was also installed with a tactical upgrade which makes him excellent at predicting “enemy” movements.
• Alien/Synthetic – Parabola has attachments to her ears which amplify her hearing range.
• Alien – Stella had telepathic abilities. She is also an accomplished engineer.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

• Protostar and Parabola are vulnerable to EM pulses.
• As the humans are all Alphas they have to be careful not to over use their gifts which will result in their bodies shutting down or even death.
• Stella – Her race comes from a world that has greatly reduced light. She can be burned or blinded by bright light.

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

• N/A

Notes/History

Vanguard are arguably the first team with human heroes  “working” in outer space.

The four human members of the team were Alpha Heroes that belonged to the first generation of heroes. At that time mankind mostly unaware of aliens and the existence of extra terrestrial life. They also did not know that the Eopua were the ones that had been behind the “creation” of Alphas. This would prove significant to several members of the team for at the edge of Eopua controlled space the Myzx encountered this galaxy’s protectors for the first time.

When the Myzx learned of the Eopua’s “experiment” on Earth they though that whatever was happening on the planet could hold the key to defeating the Eopua which were both technologically and tactically superior. Though normally after learning this the Myzx would abandon an invasion but in this case the scientists working for the machine race felt that it would be worth acquiring biological samples of the aliens they knew as “humans”. Collecting samples was normally the second stage before an invasion took place which meant the Myzx had taken a very unusual change in plans.

The logic behind the switch was that if they could not defeat the Eopua then maybe they could use the humans instead. Preliminary scans had shown their were two main types of human with slight differences in genetics. They would later learn that they had identified normal humans and Alphas, albeit they did not know that Alphas were split into Inferiors and Superiors

Myzx scientists suggested collecting several of each for study. Normal humans were easy to collect but Alphas, being rarer were a lot harder. Since the raiding party had limited time to get the samples before the Eopua would detect there infiltration they did not have time to simply scan individuals for collection.

From orbit though they found a solution by intercepting media footage. At that time Black Shadow had yet to purge the Alphas and so many were active as heroes. Since their exploits were popular news items they were quite well known, almost celebrities.

Their higher public profile meant when the Myzx had the information needed to collect their samples of Alphas in an efficient manner. After locating the likely whereabouts of several “samples” the raiding teams made their move. Some got away but others were taken by surprise. Having already collected normal humans the Myzx had learned how to create a gas that would effectively knock them unconscious and once loaded onto the ship the captives were placed in suspended animation for transport.

When the captives next awoke they found themselves alone in a room surrounded by people that were vaguely humanoid. Strapped to a table its was obvious the aliens were going to perform some sort of tests. Clearly the aliens seemed to understand Earth languages but did not respond to any questions and simply ignored their victims. Natural reactions meant the captive’s first instinct was to escape. For the “normal” humans the restraints worked as designed and all attempts were fruitless. The Alpha Superiors though had better success and could only be stopped via the use of knockout gas.

Eventually the aliens found a way to block the Alpha abilities with a special collar and from then on they had no advantage over normal humans. Thus they all became familiar with a repeating cycles of being examined, then escorted to a “chamber” where they slept, only to be awoken and taken to be examined.

Since each of them were kept separate and tested individually they were not aware that there were others being held. At first during the testing both Alphas and normal humans shared similar experiences in that they observed the aliens trying to fix some sort of device into their bodies. With ordinary humans the aliens managed to get the units to work within a few sessions and the captives found themselves under the “control” of their captors. After a few more sessions to check all was working the “normal” humans were left in their chambers.

The Alpha captives though experienced many more sessions. What they did not know was their captors were frustrated that they could adapt the implants to work on normal humans but the Alphas had a natural “resistance”.

Though it was easy to simply accept their fate some of the Alphas still held onto the hope of escape and it was Jacek Bartol aka “Titan” who eventually succeeded. Having got used to the cycle of testing and being taken to and from the chamber to sleep he noticed that in the few moments whilst inside the chamber he was free to fiddle with his dampening collar before his body shut down. Over numerous cycles he eventually managed to damage the unit and gain access to his Alpha abilities. Having done that it was then a matter of waiting for the most opportune moment to make his bid for freedom.

Escaping whilst being “tested” was ruled out because there were too many of the aliens around. However when being escorted to and from the chamber only two aliens accompanied him. Jacek figured that was the best time to make his move. Exact timing was key to success so he waited until the aliens were distracted whilst the door to his chamber was opening and then he took them by surprise and exploded into action.

His Alpha ability gave him massive strength and he managed to throw one of the aliens into a wall and get to the other one who was trying to draw his weapon. Knowing he could not stop, Jacek pulled at the arm trying to point a gun at him and yanked with all his might, pulling the limb away at the shoulder. What he saw shocked him for instead of blood and gore he saw electric arcs. It was now he realised the aliens were machines.

Pressing hope his attack he crushed the aliens head with his bare hands and it fell to the floor, limp. With one of his guards down he grabbed the other one that was trying to stand up and ripped it apart. Alarms started blaring and Jacek knew his actions had gone noticed.

Two more aliens rounded the corner, weapons drawn. He was about to launch into another attack when they suddenly opened fire on another group of aliens that were closing on him from the behind. This had Jacek totally confused. The tall male announced, “No time to explain, others will be here soon. Follow me.”

Quickly assessing that these were “friend” and not “foe”, Jacek guessed they were going to help him escape. Working with the pair, Jacek ran through the facility and helped mow down any of the forces that seemed intent on capturing him. At one section he saw another chamber and inside there was another human, a woman. For the first time he realised he had not been alone and in that instant he decided he was not going to leave that person to their fate. Consequently he refused to budge until his two new allies opened the chamber. They did not have the access code so Jacek summoned all his might and ripped the door of its mounting. The woman then sort of collapsed on the floor.

It took her some time to recover and though it allowed enemy forces to close in, Jacek had gained another ally in the form of Malikah Gayle, aka “Mercury” the speedster. In the middle of now what was fast becoming a warzone all Jacek could do to explain the situation was explain that the two aliens they were with were “good” and all the others were “bad”.

Though it was tactically risky, he had gained another Alpha Superior.  Continuing through the facility Jacek and Malikah found other chambers. Her speed enabled her to recon areas before Jacek and his two alien allies arrived. At first Jacek freed only humans he encountered but as enemy opposition intensified he decided to open every chamber he came across to create confusion.

By the time the two aliens had led Jacek and Malikah out of the facility of all the people they had set free only two other “humans” had managed to stay with them, Asahi Daguchi and Keisha Yow. Several aliens had managed to get free but of these only two were content to continue following the group. These two, the group would later learn as coming from a race known as the Luzerran. Malikah suggested using her Alpha abilities to find any stragglers in the facility but the two Myzx allies warned that to do so would risk them all get captured.

Though they did not want to leave anyone behind the group had no choice but to abandon everyone else and headed out into the wastelands beyond the facility. During this journey the humans would learn that their two Myzx allies were called Protasanular and Perambaala. Since their names were tricky to pronounce the human members of the group nicknamed them Protostar and Parabola respectively.

Now out of danger Protostar explained that he and Parabola belonged to the Myzx and how they had been “converted” from an organic to a synthetic form. He also explained mention that there were other Myzx who were not synthetics but android and had their consciousnesses transferred to a mechanical form. Though technically all were machines since Protostar had originally been “male” he referred to himself as a he whilst Parabola had once been a female.

The pair also told the group how the Myzx used other races as slaves and took “samples” to see if control implants could be made to work on them. All the other members of the group had been taken and used for that purpose. Parabola said how the implants manipulated the slaves into wanting to work for the Myzx and that when slaves were “chosen” and were given a Synthetic or Android form their thought patterns and memories were also altered to make them fit in the Myzx social order and have no regard for the other slaves whom they had once been part of.

She also told the group that Protostar and others like her had somehow broke their conditioning and tried to free the slaves as a resistance movement called the Ogla but the rebellion had been quashed. Like the other survivors they had chosen to return to their work and hide in plain sight, waiting for a time to rise up against the Myzx Emperor. Jacek’s escape attempt had led them to abandon waiting and act as the conscience dictated which meant they would be hunted along with anyone else that escaped. It was now, the humans learned that instead of being held a few months they had been kept for nearly two decades. They had not aged due to the usage of stasis chambers.  That however was not the only revelation that would surprise the human members of the group for Protostar would inform them that them about the race they knew as the Eopua whom had once defeated them.

He explained that the Eopua were an advanced race and had chosen to protect all the other races in the same galaxy where humans lived. After realising they were dying the Eopua had selected humanity as their “replacement” as protectors but feeling that humans were too young and would need additional tools for the job had set about trying to advance their evolutionary progress by performing an elaborate experiment, the purpose of which was to turn all humans into Alpha humans.

The other two members of the party, who called themselves Luzerrans, were a male, Calachen and a female Alanu. They did not speak much on the journey and revealed very little so Protostar explained the little he knew about their race.

One thing that confused the human members of the party was how come they could understand alien speech. Protostar explained that a device had been placed inside their ears which could translate incoming  alien language, whilst another one had been attached to their throats so they could speak alien languages. This he said, was about the only benign technology the Myzx had ever created and its purpose was mainly so that conquered races and later slaves would “understand” what was required of them. Though the humans would hear alien languages as Earth based languages they were not hearing what exactly was being said. Likewise when they spoke the device altered their voice to make in intelligible to the species or race they were talking to.

After three days are hard trekking the group came upon the space port. They had to fight to steal a craft but once onboard Parabola took the shuttle to a location which the Myzx called the “ships graveyard”, a storage facility where the craft of various alien species were taken after being seized. Protostar recommended they take a frigate he found. The ship, a Zhan class once belonged to the Terrus, a race the Myzx had long since absorbed. Though old, the vessel was heavily armoured and had plenty of weapons that were capable of damaging small to medium sized Myzx ships. The only reason the Terrus had never remained free was they had been overwhelmed by the might of the Myzx and had chosen to capitulate rather than fight to the death.

Getting the ship working again took a few days and it was when they were ready to leave that the Luzerrans announced that their journey with the group was at an end and they intended to follow their own path. Whilst repairs had been taking place on the frigate the pair had managed to find one of their own scout ships in the graveyard which was still operational.

Before parting company Calachen handed Malikah a signalling device and told them to use it if they ever needed help. Since the humans had freed them according to Luzerran tradition they owed them their lives and they intended to honour that tradition even with members of a race that were not their own kind. With that done the pair left for destinations unknown to the remaining group.

As per Earth tradition Jacek decided they need to give their ship a name and in the end  Vanguard was chosen. All that was needed now was a destination since Parabola and Protostar figured that  Myzx military forced would have been mobilised and they would be in the process of being hunted.  Unable to stay in Myzx space the humans suggested the most obvious place to head for Earth. The Ogla could not fault the logic since they knew the Eopua protected humans and that meant if they got to the border then there was a likelihood any pursing ship would turn back.

Protostar and Parabola though had some reservations about going to Earth because they had no idea how they would be received. As far as they were aware, humans had not yet become a spacefaring race and so most other their people might be fearful of “aliens”. Though the Ogla knew that they might not get a friendly reception they knew remaining in Myzx space would be far worse.

The journey home took quite some time. Such was the vastness of space it took them a month just to get clear of Myzx space. Then arriving  at the border of Eopua controlled space there were still several more  months of travel at maximum speed. That did not take into account the need to stop and take on supplies or make repairs.

All the while on the journey the crew of the Vanguard had to remain vigilant for just as Parabola and Protostar had feared, the Myzx were indeed hunting for them. The Myzx Emperor had been furious at escape of prisoners and the involvement of the Ogla and so had ordered the group caught or killed at all costs. To perform the task he had ordered the creation of a special strike group called the Mannoth. The one thing that the Ogla  did not count on, was that the Mannoth would follow them beyond the Eopua border, its leader Aandralis seemingly becoming so dedicated in carrying out her mission she would be regarded as fanatical.

The course they took brought the humans into contact with several other alien races giving them a valuable insight into how inhabited the galaxy was. Mostly they dealt with aliens at various space stations and trading posts.  Knowing the Mannoth were still after them the humans decided that it was in their own interests if they had addition protection and not rely totally on their Alpha abilities if they got into a fire fight. As well as weapons they traded for body armour.

However since they could not get their supplies in one go it meant that as a team they did not have a common appearance like other ships crews. In fact they looked more like a group of mercenaries that had been thrown together at random which was not really that far from the truth. It was at one of their many stops to trade that gained another crew member in the form of Stellar, a blue colour Drennemor alien with telepathic abilities. Her real name was Steylarkvynto Uvranor so they just called her Stella instead.

She too was being hunted, but not by the Myzx but instead her own people wanted her because her special gift was regarded as a problem amongst her own kind. The Drennmor once had many telepaths amongst their people but being able to read the minds of others had led to the “secrets war” which in turn escalated to all out conflicts. After peace was restored the Drennemor had “bred” the gene out of their race but occasionally there were genetic throwbacks. Stella was one of these and her gift was considered a crime punishable by death.

Like other Drennemor’s that were telepaths those that managed to escape their fate had to live on the run and the only places where they could “hide” were in the locations that were considered risky or unpleasant. The Vanguard crew found her working in a bar at a space station which had so much crime that surviving a day without getting mugged or killed was an achievement. She had originally been trained as a ships engineer which was quite a skilled job but any hopes of a career had been abandoned when her telepathy had surfaced.

Stella came to see humans for the first time when they walked into her bar. Asahi had gone there to try and buy some fuel cells from an obnoxious alien called Strav. When he learned that the Mannonth were after them, Strav realised they would be desperate and so boosted the agreed price Asahi refused to pay and so Strav decided he was just going to rob the human. Stella heard the thoughts of the pair and felt a certain amount of sympathy towards Asahi who like her was in a desperate situation.

Taking a gun she put it on Strav’s head and ordered him to leave. As Asahi was desperate to get the Vanguard running again, the fact his source for fuel cells were walking out of the door got him quite upset and he was broadcasting those thoughts loud and clear to Stella. To calm him down she revealed she knew an alternative and cheaper source for the parts she needed. As they talked, in conversation she accidentally revealed her gift by mentioning something Asahi had thought about but not actually spoke. He questioned how she was able to do that and she told him that she was a telepath. Since she had so much engineering knowledge he also asked her why she was serving in a bar and Stella told him that she detested her work but it was the only job she could have that would give her a low profile, which she needed since her own people were intent on killing her because of her gift.

That thought stuck in his mind so after Stella finished work and took Asahi to her alternative parts supplier, he figured that he might have a solution to her problem and free her from the work she hated.  Asahi asked Stella to come with him when he took the fuel cells back to the ship. There she met the other members of the team and after learning of Stella’s engineering skills and her reasons for working in a bar, they decided to offer her a place in the crew. Though boarding an alien ship and working with an alien crew went against all logic, Stella found herself accepting. Only later on did she discover she had traded being chased by her own people to being chased by the Myzx. However in not being alone her chances of survival had gone up whilst she also had come to like her new “alien” friends. There was also an advantage in the fact her telepathy came in handy during the crew’s frequent game nights.

After many months the Vanguard arrived in the Sol system but any ideas of settling down on planet Earth were short lived for the Mannoth showed up. Realising the Myzx team would attack civilians to force them to turn themselves in, made it clear that to the crew of the Vanguard that if they wanted to stay free then they had to leave to avoid collateral damage.

The decision was therefore made to continue exploring the “local” galaxy and at the same time lead their enemies away from Earth. Before leaving though the crew  left some long range communication with the Phoenix Alliance. Having been exposed to many alien races and cultures, the Vanguard crew felt they had useful knowledge that could prove vital if hostile aliens paid the Earth a visit and the Eopua (and later on other “space” teams) were not there to stop them then they were only a call away.

With that done the Vanguard left and as predicted the Mannoth followed. Whilst the team have continued to explore the galaxy they had made several visits home in the intervening years. Sometime the reasons were purely personal, on other occasions they were responding to a call for help and even rarer they come to take a break at the Harmony Island Beach Resort. The team first learned of the place through the Phoenix Alliance and its advanced cloaking from outsiders means it is the only place they can set down the ship without causing a public panic.