Ari

"Hey!" Hyperslice burst into the lounge, rocketing past Sri Sitara and Moon-Moth. She was out of her armored suit and had decided that today was the day to wear every single ring and bangle she could find, and as a result she clanked and rattled with every movement as she swept up into the group, peering curiously at the faces of the team leader and the illusionist, her great snakelike head inches from Naram's shoulder. "What are you talking about?" She whispered loudly to Liora "I sssaw you guysss talking on the monitorsss...one mic, you're Spectra!" The sidewinding speedster swiveled around to eagerly shake the new Praetorian's hand "Glad to have you, Sssri Liora! Ssseen your work, you're magnifisscent!" She turned back to Paradigm "Sssri Amara! There'sss word of Grue sshipsss ssspotted near the borderworldsss!" She slammed one powerful fist into her palm "Give the order and I'll ssshow them what I've got!" This was perhaps the least convincing excuse she had come up with that week to sneak off to the outsystem pubs.

GM The world outside was doing great! Everything was working as it should, without even the usual squabbling of the season spirits as they ebbed and flowed. At least, at first look, until Phantom saw a man die. He was lying in bed, a mansion up the hill, eyes jerking open and unfocusing as the life left his body. The ephemeral soul slipped free, turning to regard its old form. Then, quick as a flash, the soul was seized as if with a massive hand of shadow lashing out from a crack in reality! before her eyes, and before she would have had time to blink, the soul was pulled bodily into the crack...and a shadow slipped out into the room, looked down at the body, and stepped inside. The man's eyes opened again. After a moment's labor, they gradually refocused. The body got out of the bed, tugging free of the IV drips inserted into the body's veins, and walked out of the room. On the way out, the body paused by a bonsai tree on shelf. Reaching out a finger, the body touched the tree. It withered almost instantly. Until the arm had appeared, the crack had been invisible. But now Phantom knew where to go. She even had an informant, ready-made. Sometimes the Shadow could be so helpful.

Dol-Druth looked faintly pained, but rolled up his sleeves and squared himself all the same, the bulky alien focusing on the control panel. Slowly raising one hand that began to shimmer with a blue light, he sent meticulously-calculated pulses of psionic energy towards the ornate, arcane mechanism. Every blue-white pulse thumped into the thing like a car had crashed against it, but the odd reddish metal it was built from weathered the assault with ease. As switches turned, dials swiveled and buttons thunked into position, a channel of energy green as poison began to glow on the Cyclopean doorway, linking the gaping mouths of its serpentine relief in a grand spiral. With a final push, sweat beading and mixing with the blood running down his scalp, Dol-Druth tipped a slender lever into place. With a terrible groan the door began to creak open, the snakes circling as they unlocked one by one, the door at last churning apart to reveal a room even grander than its predecessor. Mountains of gold, silver, copper, bronze, tin, steel...every kind of metal that Lucien could recognize glinted and shone in the unlight. A broad central avenue ran for at least a mile, terminating at a broad staircase leading up to a small door flanked with carvings of winged horses. On either side ran great vaults heaped with treasures, coins, statues, weapons, vehicles. All of it untouched by time and blocked from the avenue by a barricade of transparent...something that reached from floor to ceiling. Wealth to dwarf that of any surface nation, forgotten. The Speaker turned to Lucien "This must connect us to the palace. Be ready, the door may be blocked. I can think of no other reason for all this to be abandoned." He blinked heavily "Then again, thinking at all is difficult for me at present. You are spinning, sir." With that Dol-Druth toppled to the floor, unconscious.

Yeah but SHADOW being all secret to lure the world into a false sense of security requires that next to nobody knows how Kantor operates. If the Scarab is a lone voice in the wilderness about an unseen threat, it's a little weird to then add that these other people also have a handle on him.

Overshadow is trying to make people think he's gone for good since Jack killed him back in the 90's, so his being part of it would make for some weirdness since the other Immortals would surely notice that something's up. Scarab, I think, would definitely be up for it...and not be able to keep up their side of the game since they keep dying, spending years or decades of their new life rediscovering their true nature, and then dying again.

I think Lucius would sign solely to find out who else is involved. Simmons, for all his bad qualities, sees his role as foremost a protector of US interests and would, I think, politely decline the offer since that might conflict with his other oaths and he's not inclined to be caught between conflicting loyalties again. Daedalus is cynical and fatalistic enough that he'd probably agree to it to have people around who could stop him if he starts to get more mastermind-y. Metropolis is largely constrained to their domain of Freedom City and has no interests or understanding of ambition. Siren sees her responsibility of proving humanity's worth and protecting them from Baron Samedi as greater by far than any ideals of non-intervention. Medea would most likely see it as a waste of her time. If she can't get something out of her eternal life she doesn't see the point, and other immortals have been getting in her and each other's way too long for her to trust that won't happen because some of the nicer ones got idealistic. Baron Samedi's entire gig is trying to show how nasty humanity and all mortals truly are. He'd agree to it to so he could have a front-row seat when it fails. The Cosmic Mind is so far removed from human thought that the request would be meaningless to her. Dr. Sin is uncertain. He's already been outfoxed at least once by Overshadow and has had to work with him and Taurus for decades. Might not want to deal with even more immortals in his business. Hellqueen would only join so she could get everyone else possessed by demons.

Dol-Druth stumped closer, squinting at the spiralling patterns on the door and the sigil above the console. "This is the gate to...it says "the cage of Hope". It may be some literary reference that isn't translating, but I can see which of these controls the door." He gestured to what looked to the Speaker and Dotrae like an archaic space-ship's instruments. A dizzying array of switches, dials, knobs and levers with a tiny screen reading out pertinent details. "We cannot detect any other means of egress, and at present trying to use my telekinesis would not be wise. Shall we, Sri Lockwood?" The alien glanced up again at the giant snakes "We wonder...Sri Lockwood, we venerate a creature called the Great Bird of the Galaxy, she appears on many of our religious relics and those of other Lor-oriented cultures. Are snakes one of your peoples' revered objects?"

GM The trek to the gate took what felt like eternity, but was likely only a small fraction of it, perhaps one tenth. The floor was slick with damp, but plumes of dust rose at every step. To Lucien this was a clear and faintly worrying sign: the maze above was so old it was crumbling. The water damage couldn't be helping, in not too long the entire floor could come tumbling down into the cavern. For his part, Dol-Druth was stumbling along, focussing on putting one heavy foot before the other. The concentration needed was too much to waste valuable blance looking around or swinging his head up. Said cavern was a little better preserved closer to the door. There the remains of what looked like high-tech chariots, transports and even fossilizing skeletons of some mechanical creature half-buried in the rock. The floor was less sturdy here, sweeping, curling and swooping like the crests of great waves or pounding surf had been petrified here. The door thrummed with power, a great blue line arcing out of the door's center and leading to a command console set into the wall. A glyph hovered above the screen, rippling like a flag in the breeze, a diagonal bar with two vertical bars, one vertical at each end of the diagonal, like a backwards N.

Hyperslice's scheme as explained in Chat, per possible additional story angles.

"Passes would be good," Ishmael said brightly "just don't get any from the guys around Wild Sheep Ave, they don't have anything that would get you into even the worst bars downtown. I know, I've tried." Folding his arms, Ishmael surveyed the Emerald Tower. Like all the big corp headquarters, it blithely ignored the ordinance against buildings above a set number of floors. Originally, the ruling had been to make it easier to resist damage in the event of a cataclysmic earthquake, but by now it had mostly become about maintaining the elegantly-equal skyline of Emerald City, the precisely-leveled tiers of white, black, greys and the rainbows in between a nice stylistic touch. In postcards that made the breaches even more dramatic and exciting. People who actually lived in Emerald City and had to see it all the time just saw a pointless bit of posturing by the super-rich that put everyone around them at risk. Things had lasted this long solely because of how much money went back into the cities themselves. There were the usual whispers, but for some reason what didn't work anywhere else was working in both Upper and Lower Emerald. One renowned local economist had driven himself into an early grave trying to figure that out. His family had been devastated, and the fact his life's work kept him a reliable punchline years later hadn't improved their feelings. Salmon had to smile. It was a comfort, to be reminded what was possible in The Facet City. "Folks," he raised a water bottle over his head "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

When Paradigm's message arrived she caught the tail of "...-leer, Cah-vah-leer, Cah-wait, huh?" Hyperslice had been trying to get across her name and that of the former(?) prisoner's newest best friend, the armored Terresi, gesturing broadly in a way Cavalier would have found faintly condescending long before he was on the receiving end of that in the Cloud. The metal mask that had been over the Kolastian's face was in several pieces in the dirt. Tapping her commlink, the Haasaan said "Sssomething'sss ssshining out over the wessstern road, where you and Ssri Traveler changed your cloaksss. Different color than the the local ssstar. Ssseemsss to be moving thisss way." She paused, tongue darting out as her reptilian eyes alighted briefly on Kyle before soldiering on: "We need to meet him. Take thisss woman with usss and talk with him and hisss advissorsss. Might jussst ssstop the army right there, delay a sseige. And at the leassst we can find out right away what the truth isss."

I am the only person who even began to use the 3e Dakana setup. In it the Red Hyena was renamed the Red Lion and was going around the world stealing daka crystals. I operated under the assumption that M'Balla had stepped down and Tafari had taken up the role to the displeasure of the older guard. Otherwise, nothing much at all. The only other Dakana-centered thread was Kill A Man.

"Since we're doing this because we want to check out the top levels let's go there first. After we know what he's hiding up there we can go anywhere else with less risk." Paris checked the door, searching for any little trips or traps that would goozle them "But we shouldn't stay any longer than we have to. I've been here before and getting out after getting in is harder than you'd think." But Sha'ir had a point, there wasn't much sense for why Mars didn't have stricter rules or harsher surveillance on people who were tinkering with the most vital parts of his biggest publicity stunt. Why wasn't he taking more care? Was he expecting that, after he was fitted for the new suit, Salmon would take care of that? From what the Singapore guys had said, they'd expected to get plenty enough speed for him to do that and take care of the rest of the valley area at the same time. "Hey," he called over to Warp "you heard of a guy called Jack Cooper? He designed some of the security for this place. Goes to Ee-See You. Real pale guy, kinda short, always wears flannel and a big scowl?" She looked and sounded the right age to be at the U, talked kind of like some of the people he knew there, too. It was a long shot, but...

GM The Helltree melted away, evaporating before the fires of its home as they swept over and around it. When the flames reached its face, the thing burst, scattering over Liberty Park with a stink of brimstone. The red light faded out. the stark winter night reasserting itself over the city and the corpse of the interdimensional invader. In hindsight, there were a number of questions that could have been asked, but at that moment none of them seemed terribly important. Later... "See? Big ol' stump legs, scraggly hair, 100% Mrs. Spuresten Jess!" Trudy gestured elegantly to the Helltree wood caricature she had been making since they'd gotten back to the apartment. Meanwhile, Serena and Coco Meowmers were playing on the sofa, while the rest had piled onto every part of the apartment sofa that wasn't a seat and were watching something with Julia Roberts in it. "So, you okay, Jess?" Trudy looked concerned "Demon stuff, that's kind of personal to you, right?"

DC25 Toughness save: 14. Ruling that destroys it, Out of rounds!

GM It's well-known fact among half-fiends who have to regularly deal with the forces that grant them powers beyond the ken of mortals or the span of morals that demons hate choices. A choice implies that there's uncertainty, something to look at from outside oneself to weigh and consider. That which is anathema and antithetical to the entirety of demonic thought and philosophy. To a demon past and future are lies, illusions of change and possibility. There is only the single, immutable, present. A thing is as it will always be, and by hook or by crook that base aspect of a creature will be layed bare for all eternity, proof to the Heavens that they never were worthy or capable of existing in that blessed realm. So in the case of the Helltree to choose was the worst punishment of all. A blasphemy darker than any it had uttered previously. The blue eyes turned to the dark fire, then to the light, then back and forth and backandforthan- With a creaking, a rattling of frigid, snapping sap and wood, the thing pointed at the flames of Hell.

GM "Love you lots!" Trudy screamed after her "Bring some of it back so we can kick it during finals!" Alighting back in the clearing of the Helltree, the fiendish foliage glared at Witchblood balefully as its unending spiel of misdeeds came to close. "-andeversinceonrestlessnightsshe'llseethatplace:SilentFallsGAHHHHH" A great, lolling purple tongue splashed out of its mouth, draped across the gaping maw of the demonoak. Mustering itself by inches, the thing pulled its awesome power together enough to spit out "Taste some of your own medicine, false-fiend!" before several more tongues lashed out and blasphemous syllables began to grate and howl along their twining lengths! Jessica could feel the building infernal power, the sheer hate, the corrupting, insidious powers of the Hells reaching a terrible crescendo! The Helltree's eyes rolled in its unreasonable face, all its tongues rearing back as a tearing scream reached its fever pitch! A white fire of pure cold drawn from the Great Prison of the Cosmos's utter heart, the throne of darkness cast into hideous reflection on the mortal plane, burst from its throat! A cold that could turn limbs to lead, still a heart and turn blood into frozen blood! And then the power blew up in its face. The howl, once triumphant, turned to anguished bewilderment as the Helltree froze itself, the white fire lashing around it and covering the thing in a sheet of unnatural ice that weighted it down to the point where it couldn't even move. It stared at Witchblood, beseechment for mercy in its beady eyes.

Round 4. +1 HP for being a good friend! Helltree: Unharmed-GM Witchblood: Bruised(x2), 2HP Helltree tries to Drain Witchblood's Defence: 11. Rolled a natural one. Just for fun, it can save vs its own power. DC22 check vs Drain: 14. Drained by 8. Witchblood is up!

Round 3: Helltree: Unharmed, Paralyzed-GM Witchblood: Bruised(x2), 1HP Moving right along, it's Witchblood's turn.

"Took you long enough, Obie," Paris muttered, slipping into his own protective suit with unthinking ease. Louder, to Peri he added "Service room on which floor? This place is all corners and most of it," he waved up at the sheer green-grey walls arcing overhead "is under vanity plates as it is." Taking the security card offered him he looked curiously at the name and face below the laminated cover. Fake IDs were as common as bad sushi in the Emerald Cities, with countless small outfits providing everything you could want to walk into nearly any building on any shore side of the Pacific. The generically-brown young man staring out at him appeared, at first glance, to be just another of the countless part-Native folks wandering the Columbia Basin, but if you looked a little closer... A render, looks like a composite from...yeah, traffic cams, the eyes have that grain in them, all the cheapos have that problem. Spide-E must have handed given Peri these, wouldn't be hurting for them with all the jenkos she puts away. Paris couldn't help but smile a little. Emerald Spider had only been active since 2016 and she'd already become a city favorite. Still smiling, he watched the older guy get into his suit, stifling a grin at his awkwardness with the cumbersome padded K-fiber equipment. The day was looking up already. "They've got this power source, I hear," he volunteered to the woman who appeared to be Warp, not looking away from Hakim's struggles "the fuel it uses gives off a real strong gas which they keep out of the actual rooms where people work with a kind of chemical shield. Rest of the place not so lucky, I heard it knocked a service guy out because too much got into his lungs. Was wearing a gas mask, too. Not to mention it can get scalding hot or freezing cold in there, depends what they're working on..." It suddenly dawned on Paris that he was staring openly. Snapping himself out of it, he turned pointedly to the door inside "Anyway, uh, up we go! Let's hope this works." It had also dawned on Paris that, if caught, he'd lose this chance forever. It didn't help that all of this had been his idea, too. Today was going to be terrible.

Skirris had utterly forgotten the tavern incident by the time they reached the ship, and had been a bundle of energetic seven-foot serpentine muscle ever since. The trek through the lower levels of the city had sparked her like even the dingiest corners of the upper levels hadn't. Brought up in splendor and elegance, the world of the disadvantaged represented the "real world", of real struggle and real chances to make a difference. That most of those chances had little to do with punching people through walls didn't dampen her spirits in the least. While Sri Melek was content to be her usual silent, ominous pillar of discipline and power self, Hyperslice stopped to strike up a conversation with absolutely everyone they so much as passed by, blithely ignoring the uneasy or hostile looks that usually were her only response. Barrier had to collar her more than once to get them moving again. But when the merely run-down was replaced by actual misery, that changed. Soon Skirris was also silent, watching the city's descent as they left the well-maintained core and upper levels. Some of the damage from the War was still here, something that made her flinch involuntarily. So when Barrier asked her what she thought they should do, it was a bit of a surprise to hear her say "We find one of their people and make them an offer." She cracked her powerful claws "One they can't refussse: with their help, we'll clear their name."

Squire Bah-Kha Power Level: 9 (135/135PP) Unspent Power Points: 0 Trade-Offs: -2 Attack / +2 Damage(energy sword), -1 Attack / +1 Damage(energy blast), -2 Defense / +2 Toughness In Brief: A brazen bull in a cosmic china-shop. Catchphrase: "I'll surrender when I'm dead!" Theme: Alternate Identity: B'Ka (Public) Birthplace: Netypayatet Residence: The Citadel of the Star Knights Base of Operations: Coalition Space Occupation: Star Knight(in training) Affiliations: Star Knights Family: Monti (Mother), Apisi (Father), dozens of siblings and extended family Description: Age: Born on the 12th day of the 8th week of the 47th Year of the Scouring Storm(November 4th, 1999) Apparent Age: To other khered of his kind: late teens. Gender: Man Ethnicity: Bronze Bulls Height: 6ft 5in/1.95m Weight: 300lbs/136kg Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Squire Bah-Kah is a powerfully-built minotaur-like creature, with dull golden skin similar to a Red Dexter and fierce eyes. His horns are mutilated stumps, broken off when he was a child. He keeps his hair shorn on his head, and his coarse red fur bristles when he's angry, which is most of the time. In his armor Squire Bah-Kah is a towering pillar of bronze, the channeling cores for his weapon systems set on either side of his head. History: Until recently, the Hapisians had been slowly developing on a semi-arid world of steppes, small seas and clustered bands of jungle. Today they occupy every planet of their system and are turning themselves into the Coalition's chief agricultural exporters. B'Ka was born amid a time of turmoil for the people of his planet. A great storm had been circling the planet every year, with no sign of abating, and the lives of Netypayatet's inhabitants had been made into miserable toil. This was a time for everyone to band together, for personality and independence to be subsumed under the necessity of focusing on daily survival. Their world hadn't yet made contact with the worlds of the Republic, so they had nobody to look to but themselves. Even their prayers to Hathor, the Horned Queen of Heaven, could only temporarily ease the storm's fury. In this time, B'Ka was more a hindrance than a help. He was caught several times stealing from the food and water stores, fought other children for their shares and used his size and strength ruthlessly to his advantage. He made others do his work and took their discoveries and produce into town faster than they could catch him. At last, when he was 15, it was decided to banish him. His horns were broken off, he was driven to the edge of inhabited territory and left in the very teeth of the storm with hardly a day's food and water. It was fervently hoped that he would die. Instead, over a course of weeks B'Ka fought his way into the storm's eye, determined to prove himself finally superior to everyone else. At last, surviving off patches of grass and pools formed by the bullet-like rainfall, he found the storm's source: a low-flying Republic probe that had malfunctioned during atmospheric entry, its electromagnetic field warping the planet's weather into the neverending hurricane. Managing to leap aboard, B'Ka had the khered's first meeting with aliens when he found the long-dead corpse of the Lor pilot. The craft's AI implanted Galstandard into his brain, requesting orders in the voice of his father. B'Ka was tempted sorely by the power all around him. If he wanted, he could become like a god, gentling or empowering the storm at will. He could make the planet his fiefdom, the rest of his people his slaves. But the voice had touched something else in the boy's heart, reminding him of when he was younger, before the endless misery and fear had taken hold, when he'd been looked at with pride and love instead of hatred. B'Ka dispatched a distress signal to the nearby exploration fleet and sent the machine crashing into the ground. The storm took days to disperse, but when it did, the Barque shone like never before. The return trip was even worse than the walk out, Without the shielding cloud cover and frequent rains, it was only by luck that he was found in the wastelands before he died. He recovered in hospital while watching news of his race's entry into the Republic. Their relatively low-tech society was far outweighed, in the expedition's eyes, by their willingness to cooperate and their dedication to equality of all. There hadn't even been a war in living memory, even the misery of the Scouring Storm only sparking brief skirmishes that quickly dispersed. When he got out of hospital at age 16, the Incursion War had begun. Still too weak to fight, he had to watch it play out at home, while he trained and worked to make up for who he used to be. After the war was over, in the search for more Star Knights, Mentor sent word for the young bull who had saved his world to be brought to the Citadel for training. Personality & Motivation: B'Ka does not, as a rule, think. Largely, that's because he's still a child by his people's standards. He's all blustering ego and blind determination. His heart is both the worst and best part of him. It sends him doggedly up against impossible odds and out to serve the weak wherever and whenever he can. It also pushes him into schemes and strategies that defy all reason based largely off of gut instinct and a now-unyielding moral compass. Squire Bah-Kah is here to do his people proud and justify Mentor's choice to make him a Star Knight, and he has a country boy's prickly pride for his rustic homecontinent with its magnetically-powered tractors and roaming herds of hyper-apes. Continually on the back foot from his new alien surroundings, B'Ka's herd instincts lead him to seek out comrades and possible friendships wherever he can, but he's hampered by a coarse, blunt and anti-diplomatic nature. Powers & Tactics: Squire Bah-Kah flings himself into the fray, goading more powerful opponents into dropping their guard or striking fear into the hearts of weaker opponents with roars and snarls. He frequently attacks without regard for his own safety, to make sure he can get every erg from his blaster array and every nanogram of power out of his arc-horns. Power Descriptions: The Star Knight's armor is a thing of legend, and even the lower-powered models that come out of the Citadel are not to be underestimated. Squire Bah-Kah's is more or less standard-issue, channeling the power of the Star Stone to protect its wearer, give him high-powered weapons, let him travel at great speeds and translating the universe's vast spectrum of meaning. The weapons systems are the most notable of changes, centered on the helmet. Instead of forming energy-expulsion tubes they create a sun-disk like construct dominated by two great curving horns of plasma. It emits concentrated beams from the disk and the horns are quasi-solid. Complications: A Little Mooncalf: B'Ka, despite learning to be a paramilitary officer in a star-spanning police force, still has a lot of maturing and learning to do. He knows this, is very self-conscious about it, and it makes him easy to manipulate. Bully For You: B'Ka has improved immensely, but it can still be tricky for him to let go of using his great strength and size to get his way and to empathize with other people. Bull-Headed: B'Ka is impulsive and prone to charging into things. Herd Mentality: B'Ka follows trends and the whims of the crowd by a powerful survivor instinct. Rangesick: Chances to be around or even speak his own people or family are precious to B"Ka, he would never turn it down. Red Bull, Blue Face: B'Ka is driven to live up to an unrealistic and frankly insultingly unsophisticated ideal of what a Star Knight should be. Off the Farm: B'Ka has no idea how any of this place works or why, but is sure that everyone else doesn't know he doesn't know that. Shame about the Horns: B'Ka is very sensitive about his lost horns and would do a lot to get them back. Abilities: 8 - 2 + 4 - 2 + 4 + 8 = 20PP Strength: 18/30 (+4/+10) Dexterity: 8 (-1) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 8 (-1) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 18 (+4) Combat: 6 + 6 = 12PP Initiative: -1 Attack: +3 Melee, +4 Ranged, +7 Energy Sword, +8 Energy Blast Defense: +7 (+3 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed Grapple: +11/+45 Knockback: -1/-12(with Star Knight armor) Saving Throws: 5 + 4 + 4 = 13PP Toughness: +2/+11 (+2 Con, +9 Protection(Star Knight Armor) [+0/+9 Impervious(Star Knight Armor)]) Fortitude: +7 (+2 Con, +5) Reflex: +3 (-1 Dex, +4) Will: +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 24R = 6PP Bluff 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Intimidate 6 (+10) Skill Mastery Language 1 (Galstandard, Ancient Egyptian(Native) Notice 3 (+5) Skill Mastery Sense Motive 3 (+5) Skill Mastery Survival 1 (+3) Feats: 8PP All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Ranged) 1 Dodge Bonus 4 Power Attack Skill Focus (Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive) Powers: 68 = 68PP Star Knight Armor Device 17 (85 DP; Hard to Lose) [68 PP] Offensive Capabilities 20 PP Array (Power Feats: Accurate 2; Alternate Power 3) {25 DP} BP: Blast 10 {20/20 PP}(energy blast) AP: Enhanced Strength 12 + Enhanced Super-Strength 3(to Super-Strength 6(+30 to Effective Strength, ) + Strike 1 (Feats: Mighty[DMG11]) (energy sword) {20/20 PP} AP: Snare 10 {20/20 PP} AP: Nullify Technology 10 (Flaw: Full Action) {20/20 PP} Comprehend 2 (speak one language at a time and understand all; read all languages) {4 DP} Enhanced Feat 1 (Quick Change) {1 DP} Immovable 1(+4 to Push, Rush, Trip or Throw Attacks, +4 to Knockback){1PP} Immunity 10 (life support; starvation and thirst) {10 DP} Flight 8 (2,500 mph) {16 DP} Protection 9 (Extras: Impervious 9) {18 DP} Super-Senses 2 (Communication Link [Mentor]; Radio; Low-light vision; Direction Sense) {4 DP} Super Movement (Space Travel) 3 ({6 DP} Hapisian Physiology 1(5PP Container, Action: None; Duration: Permanent; Feats: Innate)[6PP] Super-Strength 2(+10 to Effective Strength; Flaws: Duration(Sustained); Feats: Groundstrike(Area(Burst, 20ft) DC1d20+20){2PP} Super-Senses 3(Acute Normal Olfactory, Tracking(Normal Olfactory), Direction Sense){3PP} Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 19 Toughness Damage(Physical) E. Blast Ranged DC 25 Toughness Damage(Physical) E. Sword Touch DC 26 Toughness Damage(Physical) Totals: Abilities (20) + Combat (12) + Saving Throws (13) + Skills (6) + Feats (8) + Powers (68) - Drawbacks (0) = 135/135 Power Points

To continue this, and expand, one of the deals with the Star Knights is that, in general, it's like playing less mechanically-differentiated Praetorians. They're generally associated with the Republic/Coalition, have a history rooted in the ancient past and are quasi-independent except when not. If you're playing an Earth-based Star Knight, the PC would be flavored differently from the other battlesuit-havers, while here there's not such a clear thematic divide. So what has to set them apart is some goal/problem/other thing that the Praetorians aren't attached to. And that's where the Light of Truth, the Grue Unity and Blackstar's Blackguard comes in. I feel like Star Knight threads should mostly be about focusing on those three overarching enemies, since, after all, they're Knights and going on quests to defeat evil monsters and kings is part and parcel of the gig. The Light of Truth fits as the kind of order at the cost of freedom the Star Knights are explicitly opposed to. The Grue Unity are the unity at the cost of individuality that the Star Knight experiment was invented to counter. The Blackguard are evil opposites, power at the cost of morality that stands to plunge the local systems even further into darkness. To make them mechanically a little different, what if the Star Squires are only granted part of a Star Knight's armor? A Shield, a Sword, a Helm, which is the power description for some kind of Protection, some kind of Damage or some kind of Super-Senses, and supplement that with "natural" talents and skills/equipment? Or even, to make it more Nova Corps, take a part of the Star Stone's power into themselves for some one Big Unique Power? With the caveat that some relatively-common circumstance or Descriptor can counter or nullify that Star Heart of theirs.

Her approach hadn't garnered much reaction from the coiled Praetorian, besides a slight raise of the head to turn two large, green eyes her way. For a little while the drone of the station and the murmur of the crowds filled the awkward silence. Skirris cleared her throat "Uh...ssso, I'd like to apologissze. About the bar. Earlier. They never take me on misssionsss and every time they do it remindsss me why. Uh..." she squirmed, watching the passers-by as she fumbled for some way to proceed "Before you can leave my home planet, you have to take a tessst, ssso they know you won't ssshame the homeworld and dissshonor other haasssaan. I took it before the Incursssion War. Twenty-ssseven timesss. I failed every one. I only got to leave becaussse they got sssick of me." Slumping her head onto the floor, the snake-like alien went on "And now they'll sssend me back. You've barely even been offworld but sssoon you'll have ssseen more than I ever will." "I want to impresss them, let them know I can be ussseful, but that'sss never going to happen now."

"What's new, shohaos!" A greasy teenager in a dirty set of coveralls, lugging a heavy toolbox, tromped up to them. His voice was a little huskier than it had been on the roof, and it was harder to tell his body type under the quasi-baggy cloth, but the grin he flashed Peri with was the same as the boy on the roof. "Glad to see someone taking this seriously! I was afraid since neither of us had done something like this, you'd miss some little details, but from the looks of you two, nope. Got everything!" He glanced meaningfully up at the walls rearing above them, opening his coveralls just enough to reveal the words electronic eyes. "So, where we heading to today? Heard the all-floors shaft is busted and-" he paused, frowning "Say, any of you seen the old-timer? He's supposed to be here by now." Leaning against the Emerald Tower, he shrugged, snorting derisively "Denkas, amirite? 'Oh, I'll be there an hour ahead of time!' And then you wait like 45 minutes to get a text saying they've got something else going on." Tugging at his ponytail, the boy eyed the other two critically, dark eyes suddenly zeroing in on Kat. "You got something on the jaw, back here." He tapped a spot on the right side of his face "Smudgey. Got some stuff in my box to clear that up, but you might need a few new layers of skin afterwards."