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Squadron Power Level: 10 (150/150PP) Unspent Power Points: 0 Trade-Offs: None In Brief: Ace pilot granted superhuman physical power by an extraterrestrial collision turns military superhero. Alternate Identity: Captain Hank Taggart (Public) Birthplace: West End, Freedom City. Residence: Star Island, Freedom City. Occupation: USAF Officer. Affiliations: US Air Force, Star Island Space Control Centre, erstwhile ally of AEGIS. Family: Jack, father, deceased, 2010. Diane, mother, 60 years old, lives in early retirement in Florida. Tom, brother, 33 years old. Mickey, brother, 31 years old. Adrian, brother, 28 years old. Benny, brother, 26 years old. Jonathan, brother, 22 years old. Two nephews, two nieces by Tom. Two nephews and a niece by Mickey. One niece by Adrian. One nephew by Jonathan. Description: Age: 35 (DOB 1981) Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian Height: 6’0 Weight: 173 lbs Eyes: Electric blue Hair: Black Hank looks like he could have stepped off of a piece of wartime propaganda. His features are almost blandly handsome, with little to mark him out from the pack beyond his easy smile and square jaw. Though originally brown, his eyes are now a vibrant electric blue colour. He keeps himself in excellent shape, and has the lean yet athletic build of a middle-distance runner. He keeps his appearance to an immaculate, presentational standard befitting an officer, his hair cut close and his face clean and closely shaven. When not on the job, Hank dresses without much flair or regard for style. He is a man of simple tastes, and likes to limit himself to jeans, slacks and button-down shirts of various plain colours and simple patterns. There are places where Squadron’s techno-organic body is not covered due to the extensive damage he received in the original accident. In particular, there is a large patch of gleaming chrome muscle running from his upper left arm to his chest, and another similar patch running from over his right knee to the top of his ankle. Squadron’s costume is a combination of airman’s flight suit and more conventional spandex superhero outfit. A tight-fitting one-piece garment made of thick, warm material, it covers from his ankles to his wrists to his neck. It is a bright shade of blue, accessorised in white with gloves and boots, belt and a white star symbol on the chest. He wears a US flag patch on his left upper bicep. History: The eldest of six brothers, Hank Taggart was born to a warehouse worker and an office typing pool secretary in one of the more modest tenements of Freedom City’s West End district. Hank’s family were a loud, vibrant bunch, and the house was one where yelling from room to room was commonplace, roughhousing between the brothers frequent and love constant. As the eldest, Hank was pushed and strived in equal measure to be the model to whom his younger siblings could aspire, and he grew into the role admirably. By the time high school rolled around, he was the archetypal big man on campus: academically high-achieving, socially popular and a gifted track and field athlete. After 18 years spent kicking around the rail yards and abandoned warehouses, Hank longed to escape Freedom City and see the world, yet he felt he had a duty to his family to stay and contribute. It was Hank’s gym teacher, an Air Force veteran of some 20 years service, who pushed Hank into applying to the Air Force Academy on graduation. With the promise of the life of adventure and the chance to do his duty to family and country, Hank leapt into the challenge head-first, and found his enthusiasm rewarded. Though he was never the top student, his dedication and professionalism carried him through what raw skill alone could not. It was also at the AFA that Hank discovered a gift as a pilot. Though too professional to ever embody the model of a cocky fighter pilot, Lieutenant Taggart nonetheless demonstrated nerves of steel under pressure and proficiency behind the stick of an F/A-18. His determination earned him promotion to Captain, and he likely would have advanced further and faster had it not been for what came to pass in the skies over Afghanistan one twilit evening in 2011. A damaged exploratory probe from a distant and advanced alien civilisation had entered Earth’s atmosphere with all the speed of a meteor. Hank was on a return flight from a solo mission along the Pakistan border and the probe hit his plane like a bomb, sending him wrecked into the desert. Made of technologies far beyond the capabilities of Earth, the probe had a sophisticated techno-organic design. Possessed of only limited artificial intelligence, the probe sought to self-repair using the nearest available material, Hank’s critically injured body. Only moments away from death, Hank’s entire body was rebuilt from within by the alien craft, reinforcing damaged tissue, remaking skin and bone, replacing damaged organs and even repowering his heart and brain. Recovered from the wrecked plane by an Air Force rescue team, Hank was taken to the nearest field hospital to receive treatment. There, the fusion processed between living man and alien machine was completed before the doctors’ very eyes, with the probe completely integrated within him, powering him and granting him life. Following his rescue, extensive psychological and physical tests were carried out. It soon became apparent that he had not simply been repaired by the probe, he had been almost completely rebuilt from the skin down, “better, stronger, faster” as the old TV show went. After months of study, Hank was cleared once more for military service, though he would return to the field in quite a different role. Now more valuable for his powers than his piloting, Captain Taggart was retrained to become a superhuman operative within Air Force Special Operations Command. In situations too dangerous for ordinary infantry, Hank acted as the ultimate ground support. His versatility was such that he earned that he earned the nickname “Squadron”, a joking reference to how his superiors seemed to expect him to replicate the work of an entire squadron. Time spent on tours abroad and at air bases outside of his hometown meant that Hank had not returned to Freedom City in years before an unexpected mission brought him back. The military airfield at Star Island Space Centre had requested additional security for an experimental spaceplane, and Hank was selected. When the plane’s hangar was infiltrated prior to the launch by a crew of industrial saboteurs looking to delay the plane’s development, Hank fought and defeated the saboteurs, but was caught on camera doing so. The public revelation of what had until then been a confidential asset was sufficient to get higher-ups within the Air Force thinking. Superheroes had been allying themselves with the military since before the war, there’d been more super-soldier projects than you could shake a tube full of mysterious serum at, why couldn’t they use a pre-existing military asset as a superhero? With a costume inspired by his previous calling as a pilot and his joking nickname repurposed into a statement of power and purpose, Squadron was born. Officially a part of the USAF attachment providing security to Star Island Space Centre and a sometime ally to the city’s AEGIS group, Squadron continues to do his duty to his service and his city by fighting threats wherever they may arise. Personality & Motivation: Steely and determined, Hank is a man who knows himself inside and out, who knows his strengths and weaknesses, limits and capabilities. Experienced, and possessed of the special kind of confidence that comes from being partway indestructible, Hank is a calm, efficient professional who can remain graceful under fire and thrives under pressure. A man of rigid self-discipline, he accepts no excuses from himself and expects no excuses from others. He has an adventurer’s spirit, a love of pushing his own limits, of going above and beyond and riding the adrenaline which comes with such excitement. In spite of this, Hank is not as inflexible as he might sound. He has little patience for laziness, self-indulgence and ignorance, but he is considerate and compassionate of others’ feelings. His moral code is unapologetically old-fashioned and rigid, and he upholds all those gilded values of honesty, liberty and shared dignity. His patriotism and sense of duty is beyond doubt, as far as he is concerned. Along with his love of adventure, Hank is motivated foremost by this dedication, by the responsibility he feels to use his life to the betterment and defence of his ideals. Powers & Tactics: Squadron is most comfortable when pressing the offensive advantage, using his speed and mobility to lead charges, drawing fire with his enhanced durability. With few options for ranged attacks, Hank instead focuses on hitting the opponent with precise, high-impact physical assaults. Squadron’s combat experience and military training have made him a confident, capable fighter. His fighting style is technically very proficient, he has little time for flashy kung-fu tricks or for brawling, street-fighting tactics, and instead fights like a boxer, squaring off directly with super-strong punches, avoiding and absorbing damage when necessary. Power Descriptions: Hank’s powers are derived from the fusion of his critically injured body with a damaged techno-organic extraterrestrial probe. The probe used its own alloy and fully integrated itself with almost all of his body has used something similar to titanium- highly durable, flexible and strong- to reinforce, rebuild and enhance his body from his musculoskeletal structure to his epidermis. The process has not been perfect, and there are points in Hank’s body where his skin was damaged beyond even the probe’s repair, revealing metallic “patches”. Internally, he has been rebuilt extensively, with modifications to his nervous system and his organs, including modifying his digestive tract and changing his body chemistry, eliminating his need for both food and sleep, as well as providing an overall boost to his physical fortitude. Complications: Man Or Machine: To X-ray vision and metal detectors or even just by making him wear gym clothes to expose the metallic “patches” on his arm and leg, Hank has only limited ability to conceal his empowered nature. Even aside from the practical considerations, his cyborg nature also raises further questions: Is he even human any more? Could it be that he is simply a robot piloting a dead man, convinced “he” has the memories of the original Hank Taggart? Such concerns are rarely at the forefront of his mind, but they are perennial and nagging. Secret Origin: The purpose of the probe which constitutes the base of his cyborg components, its original mission and the alien culture who created it are unknown to Hank. He can be exploited in this way, as individuals with sufficient knowledge of alien races and technology may literally know his own body better than he does. Hank has little knowledge of his own internal processes, with even the power source of his cyborg components unknown to him, which makes getting medical treatment when injured virtually impossible from a conventional doctor. Good Soldier: Dedicated to his position, Hank is an airman first and a superhero second. He follows orders, and places his duties to his brothers in uniform, to the Star Island Space Centre and his current posting ahead of anything else in his life as a superhero or civilian. Inter-Service Rivalry: Squadron’s public profile is that of a superhuman airman. There is still sufficient inter-service rivalry between the different branches of the US military to mean that such heavy identification with the Air Force can mean that he is in for ribbing, hazing or even outright obstinacy from the other branches of the US military. Add in AEGIS, and there are all kinds of members of agencies and groups who could choose to get in Hank’s way for kicks. Big Brother Can’t Always Be Watching: The eldest of six brothers, all of whom still live in Freedom City, Hank feels like he missed out on a lot during his time away from home, and has tried to reconnect with his family to the fullest. This attempt at connection presents its own complications. With Squadron’s identity being public, his brothers and their young families may very well be in some danger themselves, and while Hank might try to reach out to his brothers, finding time in his schedule is quite another thing. Abilities: 6 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 6 = 34PP Strength: 16/30 (+3/+10) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 16/30 (+3/10) Intelligence: 14 (+2) Wisdom: 16 (+3) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 12PP + 12PP = 24PP Initiative: +3 Attack: +6 base, +10 melee (+4 Melee Focus) Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Grapple: +25/+13 (+10 melee, +10/+3 Strength, +5/+0 Super Strength) Knockback: -8/-1 Saving Throws: 0 + 4 + 4 = 8PP Toughness: +3/+10 (+3 Con, +7 Enhanced Con) [8 Impervious] Fortitude: +3/+10 (+3 Con, +7 Enhanced Con) Reflex: +7 (+3 Dex, +4) Will: +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 64R = 16PP Bluff 4 (+7) Diplomacy 6 (+9) Intimidate 8 (+11) Skill Mastery Knowledge (Tactics) 8 (+10) Skill Mastery Languages 2 (Native: English, Arabic, Pashto) Medicine 4 (+7) Notice 8 (+11) Skill Mastery Pilot 10 (+13) Skill Mastery Sense Motive 8 (+11) Survival 6 (+9) Feats: 17PP All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Melee) 4 Benefit (Airbase Security Clearance) Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus 4 Leadership Power Attack Skill Mastery Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (Auditory) Powers: 28 + 8 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 10 = 51PP Descriptors: All techno-organic probe modifications. Enhanced Traits 28 (Strength 14, Constitution 14) [28pp] (Better, Faster, Stronger) Impervious Toughness 8 [8pp] (Man of Steel-like Unknown Alien Alloy) Immunity 2 (Starvation and Thirst, Need for Sleep) [2pp] (Internal Organ Reconstruction) Leaping 1 (Running Long Jump 40’, Standing Long Jump 25’, Vertical Jump 10’) [1pp] (Superhuman Strength in Legs) Speed 2 (25mph, 100’ per move action) [2pp] Super Strength 5 (Effective Strength 55; Heavy Load: 24 tons) [10pp] Drawbacks: (-0) = 0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed w/no powers Touch DC 18 Toughness Damage ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed w/ powers Touch DC 25 Toughness Damage Totals: Abilities (34) + Combat (24) + Saving Throws (8) + Skills (16) + Feats (17) + Powers (51) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points