In order to fully understand the vast capabilities of the Starship Stratalight, you must first understand her crew and their unique connection to the ship. And to understand that connection, you must come to know Chief Two Strike.

The Stratalight is the most advanced ship ever built, and that’s mainly because of one element: psytanium.  Along with the usual metals, chemicals and space-age alloys used to construct most starships, the Stratalight is also 7 percent psytanium. It is an admittedly mysterious element, and no one knows exactly where it comes from, or exactly what created it. But one thing we know for sure is that it has passive psionic properties. In other words, pystanium is telepathic without consciousness. Thus, it has nearly unlimited uses and applications. However, you need a psionic individual to manipulate it. That is where our communications officer, Placebo comes in. She, along with our master mechanic, Powerline, was able to harness the psytanium and use it to construct the Stratalight. Which means we have the privilege of crewing the first vessel with passive psionic abilities. Mystical and theoretical meta-physics aside, in laymen’s terms, all of that translates to the reality that the ship can do almost anything… as long as you have the right individuals in place to transform those passive abilities into active abilities – i.e. crew members with hyper-abilities and extraordinary powers. Example: If we had a teleporter on the ship, that would mean the ship could also teleport.

But this was all theoretical at first, because after Placebo, Powerline and I had finished the construction of the ship, we could not discover a way to effectively interface our powers with the Stratalight’s psytanium-induced capabilities. And so at that point, the most advanced ship ever built was actually just a tin can.

That’s when we heard about Chief Two Strike – more accurately, it was Placebo who used her vast telepathic abilities to detect the mind of an individual who could have the answer to our problem. And so, we traveled to meet this man.

Since before he was even conceived, the path had been laid for Two Strike to become the leader of a reclusive, yet widely respected Sioux tribe in South Dakota, known as the Lakota. Descending from such mighty warriors as Chief Sitting Bull, it’s no surprise the members of the Lakota are very adept in the art of war. But even by the standards of his people, Two Strike was far beyond anything any of them had ever seen.

Though other Lakota children had been born with special powers, none had possessed the extreme strength and near invincibility of Two Strike. He could also fly, and was a natural with almost any weapon.  When it was discovered that he was also intelligent, diplomatic, and fiercely protective of his people and his land, his place as the tribe’s supreme protector was cemented. However, only days after being given the mantle of Chief, Two Strike decided he would not only defend his own people, but anyone who needed help.

While still serving as leader and protector of the Lakota, he joined with two other heroes – Vance Champion from Los Angeles, and Mr. Ice Guy from Chicago – to form “We The Three”, an arrogant, but powerful trio with ambitious heroic aspirations. They set up operations in Ice Guy’s hometown, and proceeded to save the country – and, on occasion, the planet – from a plethora of threats. The Lakota people boasted of his exploits, and spun magnificent tales of his adventures to share with the world. He became a living legend almost immediately.

Along with his tactical and physical abilities, Chief Two Strike is also a gifted herbalist, and was able to use many natural substances to heal, maintain and enhance his physical being. When he discovered a small vial of pystanium (during a battle with an army of chimera creatures near the Earth’s core), he immediately began to experiment with it. But it was his mother, a mid-level telepath known as Red Thunder (or Shappa), who helped him to unlock the psionic properties of the element. He went on to build a machine called the Hyper Modulator Unit, which would allow him to infuse weapons, tools, and even gear with his powers through a pystanium link-up. This was the man we needed.

Placebo and I met with Chief Two Strike at his home in the Sioux Sanctum, a beautiful, isolated city in the mountains of South Dakota. He immediately expressed his distrust, dislike, and disdain for me and the entities I represented (after all, the US Government and the Lakota have a long and complicated history. But that’s a story for another time). He was arrogant, standoffish, and at times belligerent. However, he was intrigued that we were interested in his invention, and became excited when we informed him that we were in possession of more pystanium. He agreed to let us develop the HMU technology for the Stratalight, but only if we agreed to sell him a portion of the psytanium we possessed back at NASA. We countered that deal by offering him a position as a crewmember on the Stratalight.  He refused at first, but when he found that his younger sister, Euphoria (an empathic hyper-being), had taken an interest in joining my crew, he changed his mind, and agreed to become our security officer.

After leaving the mantle of Chief to his older sister, Zannika, Two-Strike (and Euphoria) joined our crew. And now, with the HMU technology, the Stratalight became everything it was built to be.  Powerline’s metal-bending abilities, Placebo’s telepathy, and the strength and durability of Chief Two-Strike and myself were able to interface with the psytanium and enhance the ship’s capabilities in unimaginable ways. Along with the powers of my lead pilot Aphelion (super-sonic vision), our young co-pilot HyperThrust (hyper-sonic speed), my first officer, Angel Wraith (force-field creation and manipulation), my science officer, Wavelength (atmospheric detection and manipulation), our engineer, Smolder (pyrokinesis) and our ship’s counselor, Euphoria (empatholgy), we had most of the tools that were necessary for us to take off toward the furthest reaches of the galaxy. We still lacked a dedicated navigator upon launch; and our medical officer awaited us on a space station about a light year away, but it wouldn’t be long before our crew would mold into a complete unit.

For his part, Two Strike has remained distrustful of me and my command, but has served gallantly in every possible way. He proved his word time and time again during our month-long game of hyper hide and seek with the Tromokratesian fleet. Thanks to HyperThrust and Chief-Two Strike’s HMU, we were able to jump to hyper-speed at a moment’s notice. But even the most advanced ships – and hyper-beings – need time to rest and recover, which meant we’d have to drop out of hyper-speed ever 12 hours or so, to give HyperThrust a chance to catch his breath. During those few hours of rest, however, it also gave the Tromokratesians an opportunity to catch up to us. Their ship’s tracking capabilities were unlike anything I’d ever seen or heard of.  Even when we were cloaked, somehow they were able to find us.

We tried everything – from hiding in solar storms to establishing an orbit around a black hole. But still, the Tromokratesian armada located us every single time. They would come out of a hyper-speed jump, and unleash an incredible array of missiles, laser fire and stealth fighter-crafts at us. And we’d have to fight them off for at least a couple of hours while HyperThrust reenergized. It was Chief Two Strike who led the fight against them every single time. While Powerline controlled the ship’s artillery and Aphelion instituted every evasive maneuver she could imagine, Chief Two Strike, myself, Placebo and Wavelength would fly out to battle them in space.

To watch the Chief battle the Tromokratesians was to watch an absolute brutal war machine in action. Over our month of hit-and-run skirmishes, Two Strike destroyed at least a half dozen battlecruisers with just his fists alone. Despite the ridiculous array of hyper-abilities my crew possessed collectively, it was Chief Two Strike’s strength and war acumen that saved us during the first month, and kept Kako from obtaining the third triplos asteri.

The multiverse owes him a huge debt of gratitude…

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