Only Superhuman Character Profiles

Troubleshooter Corps

A non-govermental peacekeeping agency operating in the Belt and outer Solar System, using transhuman abilities to protect the populace in the absence of an official Beltwide law-enforcement structure. Founded in 2083 as a cooperative effort of freelance crimefighters, the Troubleshooter Corps (TSC) works to bring other freelancers into the fold and train new operatives. Since it has no formal authority, its policy is to respect local laws and customs and to avoid lethal force if at all possible. It strives to remain impartial, but is somewhat dependent on private funding.

Ken Auster (Paladin)

• Born: 2079
• Sex: M
• Height: 180 cm (5’11”)
• Mass: 87 kg (192 lb in 1 Earth gravity)

Short dark hair, somber square-jawed face, muscular but agile. Costume is predominantly red and black with gold highlights.

Powers: Performance-enhancing light-armor costume, including sense-enhancing helmet with retractable visor and face shield. Some bionic and surgical augmentations to strength, durability. Highly skilled martial artist.

Personality: Serious, intense, ambitious. Dreams of running the TSA someday, believing his no-nonsense, businesslike approach makes him better-suited than more flamboyant agents.

Sanjay Bhattacharyya (Cowboy)

• Born: 2069
• Sex: M
• Height: 181 cm (5’11”)
• Mass: 76 kg (168 lb)

Dark hair and complexion, piercing eyes. Lean and rangy. Costume is high-tech armor with a Western theme.

Powers:  Bionically enhanced vision and motor functions, giving near-infallible aim. Specializes in weaponry. Also able to hit nerve clusters, pressure points precisely in hand-to-hand.

Personality: Originally a lone vigilante using lethal force. One of the more hardline Troubleshooters, quicker to use force than most and difficult to rein in. Cultivates a rowdy, macho persona inspired by Bollywood Western craze of 2070s-80s.

Emerald “Emry” Blair (Green Blaze, formerly Banshee)

• Born: 2085
• Sex: F
• Height: 168 cm (5’6″)
• Mass: 69 kg (153 lb)

Long, wavy red-gold hair, green eyes, delicate features; muscular, curvaceous build. Costume is green sleeveless shirt and boots with flame motif, black trousers, brown equipment belt.

Powers: Genetically enhanced strength, endurance, reflexes, senses and immune system, augmented with extensive bionic upgrades, including: nanotech immune-boosting and injury repair system; respiratory and digestive toxin filters; enhanced voluntary motor control and biofeedback; microfiber-reinforced skin; extended-spectrum vision and hearing; memory-buffer brain implant; retinal HUD projection; subvocal transceiver; retractible diamond blades under thumbnails.

Personality: Novice Troubleshooter, seeking atonement for the misdeeds of her delinquent past. Impulsive, flamboyant, emotionally turbulent, somewhat reckless. Highly intelligent, but prone to favor her physical side. Driven to protect others, but wary of her own strength. Much potential, but in need of seasoning.

Lydia Muchangi (Lodestar)

• Born: 2058
• Sex: F
• Height: 175 cm (5’9″)
• Mass: 62 kg (137 lb)

East African/Gikuyu, large dark eyes, elegant features, completely shaved head. Tall, slender and wiry. Costume is red-brown, sleeveless light-armor bodysuit under a long black duster-type coat, with HUD visor.

Powers: Innate genius and eidetic memory enhanced through special neuroplastic educational techniques. Bionically heightened senses, especially sight. Has extraordinary marksmanship skills, but prefers using her intellect.

Personality: Brilliant woman from a family of Martian scholars. A great detective, famed for her ability to track down anyone or anything. Considered one of the founding generation of Troubleshooters, though she initially resisted joining the Corps. Mentor of Koyama Hikari.

Maryam Khalid (Hijab)

• Born: 2065
• Sex: F
• Height: 173 cm (5’8″)
• Mass: 64 kg (141 lb)

Sloe eyes, warm brown skin, wavy black hair with strands of gray. Costume is formfitting, but includes an ankle-length cloak to conceal her shape. In default mode, the suit is black and completely covers her face and hands. Code name means “Veil.”

Powers: Smart-matter suit provides camouflage, masks IR signature, filters scent, neutralizes body sounds. The suit can detect or emit all EM wavelengths, jam or falsify radio transmissions. When needed, the suit can emit lasers or blinding light, or become dangerously hot or cold. Sound-masking ability can be used to a limited extent to confuse attackers by impeding their verbal communication. The suit is powered by ambient radiation and body heat.

Personality: Originally a detective from Vesta, she became one of the only Troubleshooters with a secret identity to protect her children after a crime syndicate murdered her husband. A liberal Muslim, she takes cues from female Muslim freedom fighters of the past who used their veiled anonymity to gain freedom of movement, smuggle literature and weapons, and perform other acts of resistance.

Koyama “Kari” Hikari (Tenshi)

• Born: 2083
• Sex: F
• Height: 162 cm (5’4″)
• Mass: 54 kg (119 lb)

Shoulder-length black hair; delicate features; slim, wiry build. Costume is a modified judo gi: saffron-trimmed red jacket with black belt over a silver leotard of light armor. Code name means “Angel,” or more specifically a “servant of heaven” (天使) from Japanese Buddhist mythology.

Powers: Gene-modded as superior martial artist, with enhanced strength and flexibility, heightened oxygen flow. Neurochemically modified to replace fight-or-flight reaction with calm, serene state of heightened awareness, the tatakai no heiwa (battle peace). Artificial neural network distributes her awareness throughout her body and vastly accelerates reaction time; cerebellar implant is programmed with every known martial art.

Personality: Estranged daughter of a yakuza crime lord who engineered his children to be enforcers. Designed and trained to be shy, demure, and girlish on the surface, but to become a cold, lethal assassin on demand. Years of training and implant reprogramming have made her less deadly and more controlled, but she still bears the shame of her past. A convert to Buddhism, hence her choice of code name.

Juan Lopez (Jackknife)

• Born: 2071
• Sex: M
• Height: variable
• Mass: variable

Narrow face, high forehead, aquiline nose, brown skin, dark hair and eyes. Quadruple amputee. Costume is reddish-brown and silver without sleeves or pant legs.

Powers: Interchangeable bionic lower appendages serving various functions as needed. Nanomorphic hands/forearms able to transform into many different types of apparatus. Bionically enhanced eyes and ears, reinforced skin and bones.

Personality: Lost his legs as a child and found interchangeable prosthetics more versatile and beneficial than cloned replacements, particularly in freefall where leglessness can be a boon. Has lifelike prosthetics available, but uses them infrequently. Chose voluntarily to have arms replaced.

Arkady Changxievich Nazarbayev (Medvyéd)

• Born: 2051
• Sex: M
• Height: 180 cm (5’11”)
• Mass: 87 kg (192 lb)

Gray-blond hair, dark almond-shaped eyes. Chubby, kind, lived-in face, powerful but stocky build. Symbot is gold and black, bulky. Code name means “Bear.”

Powers: Heavy-duty robotic-armor symbot suit, enhancing strength, speed and senses, possessing jet propulsion and mounted weapons. Neural-implant interface.

Personality: One of the original Troubleshooters, an Orbit War veteran who adapted a construction armature into a combat suit during the war and later used it to defend his community from raiders. One of the few Troubleshooters with a family: a husband Pavel and three adopted children. Mentor of Emerald Blair.

Marut Pandalai (Bhima)

• Born: 2084
• Sex: M
• Height: 198 cm (6’6″)
• Mass: 110 kg (242 lb)

Dark skin and eyes, short dark hair, square-jawed. Big and muscular. Sleeveless costume styled after classical Indian armor. Code name from character in the Mahabharata.

Powers: Enhanced strength, endurance, and durability.

Personality: Younger brother of Vijay “Arjun” Pandalai. They are collectively nicknamed the Dharma Bums. Born to a life of privilege and gene-modded for athletic achievement, but persuaded by his brother to become a Troubleshooter. Has an unruly temper and isn’t deeply committed to TS ideals, but is kept in check by loyalty to his brother.

Vijay Pandalai (Arjun)

• Born: 2082
• Sex: M
• Height: 175 cm (5’9″)
• Mass: 67 kg (148 lb)

Dark skin and eyes, dark hair worn in ponytail, lean face and body. Costume styled after classical Indian armor and archery gear, though does not actually use bow and arrows in most cases. Code name from character in the Mahabharata.

Powers: Enhanced strength, flexibility and agility. Bionically enhanced vision and marksmanship.

Personality: Elder brother of Marut “Bhima” Pandalai. Gene-modded for athletic achievement, he decided that mods had a higher duty and sought to become a Troubleshooter. However, tends to see that duty on a fairly abstract level, and hasn’t really experienced hardship firsthand.

Elise Pasteris (Tin Lizzy)

• Born: 2078
• Sex: F
• Height: 164 cm (5’5″)
• Mass: 54 kg (119 lb)

Light skin, short blonde hair, brown eyes, pleasant but plain features. Light of build but very fit and wiry. Symbot is black with white and gold trim.

Powers: Advanced, compact symbot suit increasing strength, speed and senses, possessing jet propulsion and mounted weapons.

Personality: Lunar by birth. Victim of Palladian raiders’ assault, murder of parents when she was 14. Became a Troubleshooter to to compensate for feelings of helplessness, keep others from being victimized as her family was. One of the more hardline T-shooters.

Ranulf Thorssen (Tor)

• Born: 2079
• Sex: M
• Height: 226 cm (7’5″)
• Mass: 149 kg (330 lb)

Blond, blue-eyed; craggy but handsome face; extremely big, stocky and muscular. Costume is fairly basic, suggestive of wrestling garb.

Powers: Exceptional size, strength and durability. Rapid healing. Otherwise relies on body armor and TS equipment/weaponry.

Personality: Modded for athletic achievement, a pro wrestler before becoming a Troubleshooter. Although large and dangerous-looking, is actually kind and thoughtful, preferring to resolve problems through diplomacy and talk—although not above using his intimidating appearance to get people to listen.

Yukio Villareal (Sensei, formerly Shashu)

• Born: 2046
• Sex: M
• Height: 177 cm (5’10”)
• Mass: 72 kg (159 lb)

Black hair with streaks of white; salt-and-pepper moustache; Asian/Native American features. As Shashu (Archer), wore semirigid, lightweight body armor suggestive of a samurai Robin Hood, colored mostly in green and gold. As Sensei (Master/Teacher), wears fashionable civilian clothing.

Powers: Superstrong bionic arms and hands; bionically reinforced skeleton, muscles and tendons; armored ribcage. Bionic left eye and ear with multispectral ability and recording/transmission capacity. Eye has laser targeting ability tied into arms= motor systems, providing infallible aim.

Personality: Founder and head of the TSC. Severely crippled early in the Orbit War, he chose bionic enhancements rather than limb regrowth to speed recovery. Proved instrumental in Great Compromise that ended the war. Afterward, used his powers to keep the peace as the Belt coalition fragmented, working with similar-minded “Troubleshooters,” and eventually organizing them into a corps to coordinate and regulate their efforts.

Zephyr (TSC scout DM947T)

• Born: 2089
• Sex: Cyber, presents as male
• Length: Variable, typically c. 50 m
• Mass: Depends on mission configuration

Avatars include Greek-style marble statue of winged nude male, Art Deco-styled silver winged horse.

Powers: High intelligence, vast memory, ability to evolve expertise in new fields of knowledge as needed. Member of fastest class of small spacecraft in Solsys, equipped for multiple propulsion modes including plasma drive, magnetic sail for beam propulsion, and lightsail. Equipped with magnetic and particle fields for micrometeoroid deflection.

Personality: Former property of DiCenzo Mining; after being liberated by TSC, became employed there as analyst. Re-embodied as spacecraft to serve as partner to Emerald Blair out of loyalty to Arkady Nazarbayev.

Vanguard

Originally a cislunar habitat population, dedicated to enhancing the human potential through transhuman modification. They relocated to the Outer Belt after the war in 2076 and have lived in isolation ever since.

Rachel Kincaid-Shannon

• Born: 2034
• Sex: F
• Height: 175 cm (5’9″)
• Mass: 81 kg (179 lb)

Green eyes; red/white hair; pale, nearly unlined skin; full-figured but robust.

Powers: Enhanced strength, senses, health, longevity, intelligence. Delayed menopause, enabling her to be still capable of childbirth.

Personality: Emerald Blair’s grandmother. One of the Vanguard’s main “workhorses,” both as a geneticist designing enhancements and as a mother churning out superbabies. A cheerful workaholic.

Richard Shannon

• Born: 2055
• Sex: M
• Height: 195 cm (6’5″)
• Mass: 99 kg (218 lb)

Green eyes, red hair, fair skin. Extremely handsome with strong mesomorphic build.

Powers: Enhanced strength, senses, health, longevity, intelligence.

Personality: Emerald Blair’s father. Compassionate and dedicated to helping others. Left Vanguard to help rebuild Strider community during the “Troubles” that followed the Orbit War; became paramedic, rescue worker.

Eliot Thorne

• Born: 2034
• Sex: M
• Height: 216 cm (7’1″)
• Mass: 138 kg (305 lb)

Rich, dark skin; black hair with faint gray at temples, but no other signs of age; strikingly handsome and powerfully muscled. Tends to wear elegantly tailored outfits that leave his chest largely exposed.

Powers: Exceptional strength, toughness, endurance, senses, intelligence, hormonal stability, healing ability, longevity.

Personality: The son of one of Project Vanguard’s founders, first to volunteer for viral gene-modification. Strong, robust and intelligent to begin with, enhanced to become progressively more so over time. Led the Vanguardians to become crimefighters during chaos on Earth; afterward, pursued political ambitions and met with mistrust, alienation. Finally led the Vanguardians to the Belt in 2076. A controlling, dominant personality, though dedicated in principle to the greater good of humanity.

Psyche Thorne

• Born: 2083
• Sex: F
• Height: 183 cm (6’0″)
• Mass: 62 kg (137 lb)

Warm bronze skin; straight, waist-length golden hair; vivid silver eyes; wide mouth; leggy, sleekly muscular physique. Tends to wear beautiful, revealing garments.

Powers: Enhanced strength, senses, intelligence, endurance, healing ability, longevity. Augmented social and communication abilities, including superior ability to read others nonverbally, control her own nonverbal cues. Exudes oxytocin and pheromones to increase personal allure, persuasiveness.

Personality: Thorne’s loyal daughter, right-hand woman and heir apparent, and Vanguard’s chief diplomat. Gregarious and affectionate by design, but closer to her father than anyone else.

Union of Neogaia

Environmental extremists believing Earth must be returned to a natural state. Rather than alter their environments with technology, the Neogaians alter humans to fit their environments, creating human-animal hybrids (therianthropes, or therians) through gene-modification. Fanatics willing to employ unethical experimentation and terrorist acts. Younger Neogaians are usually named to reflect the animals whose traits they bear.

Bast

• Born: 2088
• Sex: F
• Height: 173 cm (5’8″)
• Mass: 66 kg (146 lb)

Covered in black fur over brown skin. Long black mane; yellow eyes with catlike pupils; felinoid muzzle; pointed ears; felinoid tail. Build is compact and wiry. Wears light armor over vital areas in combat; otherwise, like most Neogaians, prefers to go nude.

Powers: Acute hearing, smell and night vision; extreme speed, agility and flexibility; claws, carnivorous teeth, and motion-sensitive whiskers. Eyes have light-reflecting tapeta and glow orange. Feet are catlike but with enlarged pads to facilitate bipedal locomotion. Prehensile tail.

Personality: Playful and vicious, proud and self-assured. Vain, greedy and hedonistic. A fierce fighter, but undisciplined. Likes to toy with her victims, but is a relentless hunter. Has an uncomplicated view of the world driven by self-interest. Likes jewelry and other shiny things.

Caiman

• Born: 2084
• Sex: M
• Height: 188 cm (6’2″)
• Mass: 94 kg (208 lb)

Small bright eyes, wide mouth with sharp teeth, heavy jaw and neck. Lanky but strong. Covered in thick, greenish-brown crocodilian scales. Webbed fingers and toes.

Powers: Enhanced strength. Skin is extremely tough and durable, even bullet-resistant. Exceptionally strong jaw and sharp, diamond-coated teeth. Deft swimmer.

Personality: A true believer in the cause, but quiet, patient, deliberate. Spends much time in meditation, cultivating stillness. Strives for an ideal of pure animal existence, no thought, only awareness, instinct and physical reaction to stimuli. Thus an excellent guard and lookout, but also a powerful and vicious fighter.

Erich Krieger (Wulf)

• Born: 2058
• Sex: M
• Height: 186 cm (6’1″)
• Mass: 88 kg (194 lb)

Covered in gray fur over pink skin, with pointed, canine ears, large eyes, and a slight muzzle with pronounced canine teeth.

Powers: Enhanced strength and speed; superior smell, hearing and night vision; claws. Feet are canine-like but with enlarged pads to facilitate bipedal locomotion.

Personality: Leading operative in the Neogaian old guard, born human and retrovirally modded by choice, and resentful of the younger, “purer” germline mods. A devout fanatic, cunning, relentless, and lethal. The Cause is all he lives for, though he prefers to get underlings to die for it.

Hanuman Kwan

• Born: 2038
• Sex: M
• Height: 150 cm (4’11”)
• Mass: 46 kg (102 lb)

Diminutive build, white fur on head and body, slight muzzle, limpid brown eyes, simian tail.

Powers: Prehensile tail, brachiator’s feet, enhanced agility, keen vision and spatial perception.

Personality: Co-founder of Neogaia; ambassador, advisor and agent of current regime. Born Jahnu Kwan, eccentric Australian billionaire drawn to the potential of genetics to make his slight body more powerful. Seems friendly and harmless, with a cheerful manner and an urbane accent, but is playfully devious and deceptive, a trickster. One of the most rational Neogaians, but still a true believer in their goals.

Selkie

• Born: 2089
• Sex: F
• Height: 163 cm (5’4″)
• Mass: 63 kg (139 lb)

Brown skin, large dark eyes, hairless save for seal-like fur on head. No outer ears. Elongated, webbed, flipperlike hands and feet. Well-padded but shapely figure.

Powers: Adapted for aquatic existence. Extra body fat provides insulation. Lung capacity greatly increased. Able to slow pulse and respiration for long dives, dissipate nitrogen in the blood to avoid the bends. Able to swim at over 30 km/h. Corneas have adjustable index of refraction to adapt for underwater vision; eyes are IR-sensitive.

Personality: Hanuman Kwan’s aide, bodyguard and paramour, unquestioningly loyal, obedient and submissive to him, but quite competent at acts of sabotage, espionage and assassination.

Taurean

• Born: 2082
• Sex: M
• Height: 198 cm (6’8″)
• Mass: 112 kg (248 lb)

Dark skin, bald head, heavy musculature, thick neck, strong but handsome features.

Powers: Superstrength and endurance. Bull-like horns atop head. Skull, neck and spine reinforced for ramming.

Personality: Basically muscle, not too bright. Trained to kill when ordered, but not malicious. Vegetarian and kind to animals, he fancies himself a romantic.

Freakshow

Gang founded in 2100 by Emerald Blair and other runaway adolescent mods. Prone to delinquent behavior, petty vandalism, and brawling, but not especially violent. Protective of mods subjected to exploitation or discrimination.

Javon Moremba (Thrust)

• Born: 2082
• Sex: M
• Height: 199 cm (6’6″)
• Mass: 96 kg (211 lb)

Dark eyes and skin, no hair on head or body. Atypically long legs, bulging joints, enlarged rib cage.

Powers: Modified for superhuman speed, able to run up to 60 km/h. Enhanced strength, durability, endurance, metabolism, lung capacity.

Personality: Modded for athletic achievement by wealth-seeking parents, but fled to seek independence. Fell into petty crime to get by, but basically good-natured.

Padhma Rao (Om)

• Born: 2081
• Sex: F
• Height: 166 cm (5’5″)
• Mass: 72 kg (158 lb)

Dark eyes, long dark hair, medium brown skin, soft, rounded features, full-figured build.

Powers: Modded to interface brain with computer systems; parietal lobe shuts down, removing her sense of self as distinct from the computer. Sometimes enables useful insights, but is often an impediment. Susceptible to ecstatic fits on exposure to certain RF or magnetic fields.

Personality: Modded by eccentric parents pursuing human-machine unity. Childlike and vulnerable due to mental mods, but chose to gain independence, seeking out the Freakshow and asking to run away with them.

Ruki Shimoda (Hikkaku)

• Born: 2083
• Sex: F
• Height: 170 cm (5’7″)
• Mass: 63 kg (139 lb)

Lean build, Asian eyes; foxlike features and tail, golden fur. Gang name means “Scratch.”

Powers: Modded with claws and sharp teeth, working tail; mods are otherwise cosmetic.

Personality: Abducted and forcibly modded at age 14, enslaved in “specialty” brothel on San Berardo habitat. Never losing will to resist, she was eventually freed by Emerald Blair and Javon Moremba, co-founding the Freakshow with them. Hardened, embittered by ordeal.

Daniel Weiss (Overload)

• Born: 2084
• Sex: M
• Height: 171 cm (5’7″) as of 2100
• Mass: 65 kg (144 lb) as of 2100

Blue eyes, medium-brown hair, pale skin. Lean and rangy.

Powers: Hyperacute senses and perception.

Personality: Result of a botched experiment in cognitive enhancement. Hypersensitivity results in perceptual overload, causing great difficulty in coping with the stimuli of everyday life. Implanted inhibitor dulls senses as well as clarity of thought. Liberated by the Freakshow.

Peter Wen (Crack)

• Born: 2085
• Sex: M
• Height: 165 cm (5’5″) as of 2100
• Mass: 49 kg (107 lb) as of 2100

Dark hair and eyes, Asian features, small, light build.

Powers: Bionic enhancements to strength, durability, speed, and endurance; inbuilt communication and computer interface equipment with advanced hacking software.

Personality: Orphans from a lawless Interamnian habitat, Peter and his older brother Shengli used their innate intelligence to become skilled hackers and managed to purchase black-market bionic mods to compensate for their frail physiques.

Shengli Wen (Hack)

• Born: 2084
• Sex: M
• Height: 168 cm (5’6″) as of 2100
• Mass: 51 kg (113 lb) as of 2100

Dark hair and eyes, Asian features, small, light build.

Powers: Same as above.

Personality: Same as above. Though Shengli is the older brother, he is the more reckless and irresponsible one.

Others

Lyra Blair

• Born: 2058
• Sex: F
• Height: 160 cm (5’3″)
• Mass: 43 kg (96 lb)

Brown eyes , wavy cinnamon-brown hair, light skin. Dainty, slender build.

Powers: None.

Personality: Tennessee-born dancer/performance artist with devout Wicca-based spirituality. Wife of Richard Shannon, mother of Emerald Blair.

Aaron Donner (Blitz)

• Born: 2078
• Sex: M
• Height: 173 cm (5’8″)
• Mass: 69 kg (153 lb)

Short, spiky blond hair, bright blue-gray eyes, lean face and build. No fixed costume.

Powers: Bionically, genetically enhanced to generate and use electric charges. Able to electrocute others by touch, or send electrical pulses to his own muscles to intensify the force of their contractions. Uses a shock laser to fire lightninglike discharges. In vacuum combat, uses shock darts.

Personality: A self-styled but unofficial Troubleshooter. A former gangbanger drawn to the accolades and power of Troubleshooter status. Rejected from TSC due to attitude problems. In it for the power trip and not above scoring illicit personal gains. Weapons are nominally nonlethal, but occasionally fatal, which does not deter Donner from using them frequently.

Sally Knox

• Born: 2055
• Sex: F
• Height: 120 cm (3’11”)
• Mass: 41 kg (91 lb)

Wavy blond hair, small and stocky build, stern matronly features.

Powers: None, save for naturally exceptional memory.

Personality: Right-hand woman of TSC administrator. The powerhouse who keeps the Corps running smoothly, supervising or personally handling clerical, financial, legal, and other administrative matters.

Gregor Tai

• Born: 2060
• Sex: M
• Height: 185 cm (6’1″)
• Mass: 78 kg (172 lb)

Dark hair and eyes, square-jawed Chinese features, lean but strong build.

Powers: None.

Personality: Born on Earth amid chaos of Molecular Revolution; managed to remake self into a success. Eventually migrated to Ceres Sheaf to continue work.