Strike Team: Starfire

A couple of adopted Australians who are closer than brothers

by Tanner McCracken

You know, if you hadn't told me Evans had been in a holovid, I would never have guessed. He's completely quiet in class, unless he's working with psi; then I can't shut him up. What drives me crazy is, though I've never heard of "Outback Runner," every day some 50 kids come to the door asking if they can speak with Kal Evans. There can't be that many of them, cause it's the almost the same 50 kids every day!

You know, I finally did see that movie he was in; shitty film, but his performance could have won an award. I was finally able to strike up a real conversation with him after I told him I'd seen it. Nice guy; polite to a fault and funny as hell.

He's got a lot of acting talent; wonder why he decided to hook up with the Big O. Lucky for us he did at least; he's gonna make a great Ops agent. Jomo oughta take a look at this kid.

From: Shosa Hohan
To: Shogun Toshiro
Subject: BioVARG pilots
Encryption: DSE

Sorry, but I've only got one reccomendation so far: kid from Australia named Lars McLane. Should have seen his face; ever since he got out of BT he's been talking about nothing but bio VARGs. He was so excited he nearly crashed his Silverfish before the test exercise even began. Despite that, he's got a lot of skill. I hear he's popular down at the hoverjoust arena; maybe that's where he gets it. Still, he needs to work on his psi more before we put him into acitve VARG duty.

Kal was born in the Atlanta, in the South district of the FSA. His parents decided to leave for Australia because they couldn't abide the sheep-like way in which their neibors followed the FSA's mandates and bought its propaganda.

Lars was born in Birmingham, England. His family left for Australia to escape the huge taxes that had piled up in the years following the Esperanza crash.

Neither family could afford air travel, so they got on board a boat that left from the UK, stopped by a port in Virginia, and continued from there to Australia. It was there that the two boys first met; Kal was 10 and Lars was 11. Neither boy spoke to the other until one day another passenger saw them standing next to each other looking over the rail out into the sea. In the mood for a little sadistic fun, the man called to the two boys and said, "Here you go," tossing a single candy bar in between them. Instantly the two boys lunged for the chocolate. Both got to it at the same time, so they began to fight over it, the stranger laughing at them the whole time. After a couple of minutes, the wrestling boys knocked the candy bar back in the direction of the stranger, who promptly kicked it into the sea and walked off, giggling to himself as he left.

The pair stared as the man walked off, then looked at each other. After a moment, wiping his bloody nose, Kal said, "Wellllll, shit." Lars began to chuckle, and almost instantly the boys were laughing uncontrollably. A strange way for a friendship to begin, but it turned into one of the closest friendships of all time.

The boys grew up in the Australian Outback wrestling with each other, camping, watching holopornos stolen from Lars' father, and later racing hovercycles across the desert. In 2116, they joined an underground hoverjoust league. As a duo, they quickly became prodigy sensations; Kal with his skilled hovercycle maneuvering, and Lars with his ruthless combat tactics. They quickly climbed up the tag-team circuit as Team Starfire, and were poised to take the championship, but a crash in the semi-finals left Kal hospitalized for two months.

His confidence shaken and his physical abilities suffering from less than adequate physical therapy, Kal left hoverjousting for good. Although he was dismayed by the loss of his partner, Lars decided to continue pursuing it. His fame was diminished going solo, and at first he was almost a complete failure. Recognizing that his friend could not psychologically perfrom at a maximum without him, Kal returned as Lars' "pit crew." With Kal backing him up behind the scenes, Lars quickly became one of the premiere athletes in the hoverjoust underground.

Meanwhile, Kal turned to computers to satisfy his boredom while he wasn't working on Lars' hovercycle. Having sworn off of hoverjoust, Kal did some amateur hacking to exercise his intellect instead. Although marginally successful, he found that the anonymity inherent to hacking disappointed him. His time in the limelight as a hoverjouster influenced him to where he wanted to be known publicly for his talents. When he realized that, he turned away from hacking and tried the acting instead.

Almost immediately, he was cast by a young director who also happened to be a fan of hoverjousting. Kal played the lead role in the movie "Outback Runner," about a naive young Outbacker called Donovan who rose against all odds in the underground hoverjoust league. (Admittedly, he was typecast.)

While "Outback Runner" was filming, Lars met with a member of one of the Legion hoverjoust teams, who detected him as a strong latent. Lars underwent testing and, upon learning that he showed PK potential, immediately signed up for the Legions.

As he was heading to the Legion headquarters to undergo the Prometheus Effect, he saw some of the Silverfish bioVARG's in training manuevers outside the facility. Lars was fascinated by the power and grace of the huge machines and vowed that he would become one of their pilots.

Not long after Lars finished basic training, "Outback Runner" was released by a small independent film company. It wasn't a huge blockbuster of a vid (It wasn't well-written either); however, it quickly found a small but extremly loyal fan base, most of them attracted to Kal's talented portrayal of his easily likable character.

Other people noted Kal's performance as well, and he was offered roles in several actions series (including Psi High and A.L.E.R.T.) However, when Kal visited his friend at Legion headquarters, Lars was able to detect a latency in Kal. Kal went for testing, and discovered that he had strong electrokinetic potential. After that, he turned down all his acting offers and packed his bags for New York.

Kal Evans

Physical Attributes	Abilities
Strength 2
Dexterity 3	Athletics 1 Drive 2 (Hovercycles) Firearms 2 Martial Arts 2 Melee 1
Stamina 3	Endurance 1 Resistance 1
Mental Attributes	Abilities
Perception 3
Intelligence 3	Academics 2 Engineering 3 (Computers) Intrusion 1 (Electronic Infiltration) Science 1 Survival 1
Wits 4 (Creative)	Arts 1
Social Attributes	Abilities
Appearance 3
Manipulation 1
Charisma 2	Perform 3 (Acting) Savvy 1

Aptitude: [Electrokinesis] Electromanipulation 2, Technokinesis 2
Willpower: 6
Psi: 6
Backgrounds: Allies (Lars McLane) 1, Citizenship 1, Resources 2, Influence (fans) 1, Devices 2
Gear: jumpsuit (personal or ops uniform), L-K Avenger, Orgotek Wasp II, armor vest, leather overcoat (reinforced), Orgotek Tortise minicomp (Orgotek Hare agent), modified hovercycle (see below)

Device: Although Kal left hoverjousting four years ago, he continued to ride and tinker with his bike SabreStar. Its statistics are:
VT: Hover
Tech: Hard
CS: 165
TS: 225
Handling: +3
Mass: 0.4
Cost: yeah, like he's gonna sell
Armor: 2 [2]

Gunso (Sgt.) Lars McLane

Physical Attributes	Abilities
Strength 3	Might 1
Dexterity 3	Athletics 2 Drive 1 Firearms 3 Martial Arts 3 Melee 2 Pilot (VARG) 3
Stamina 4 (Determined)	Endurance 1 Resistance 1
Mental Attributes	Abilities
Perception 2	Awareness 1 Investigation 1
Intelligence 2	Engineering 2 (Repair) Survival 2
Wits 3
Social Attributes	Abilities
Appearance 3
Manipulation 1	Command 2
Charisma 2

Aptitude: [Psychokinesis] Pyrokinesis 3, Telekinesis 1
Willpower: 6
Psi: 5
Backgrounds: Allies (Kal Evans) 1, Citizenship 1, Influence (hoverjoust fans) 1, Resources 2, Status (Legions) 2
Gear: Voss 63K, Orgotek Pulse L gauntlet, field suit, bioweave armor, Iris Aquamarine minicomp (Patton Agent)