Sky Marshal
History
The Future is Now
In the 49th century Earth is now the "Old World" left behind by billions of colonists for other worlds. Those left behind, too entrenched in the old ways have fractured into hundreds warring states. Yet amidst this lapse into barbarity, the miracle of time travel is discovered by man. By the 51st century a secret organization monitors and adjust the time stream around Earth and several of it's colonies. This organization is known as the Chronost Bureau of Investigation. Towards the end of that century rumors and portents had been reaching the agency that a time-spanning war was coming and the consensus was that if the bureau was to become embroiled in it, as an agency that monitors time must, then the standard clandestine Chronost Agent was not going to be enough. In order to prepare for that war the Chronost Bureau of Investigation created the Soldier Division. The CBI's soldiers were designed to be self sufficient solo combatants with the utmost mobility and precise weaponry. Unlike their agents, the soldier project called for individuals to be suffused with nanogens to increase their physical abilities and to provided rapid healing and regenerative properties. They were also fitted with an environment suit that, coupled with the optional helmet and flight gear, made it possible to for them operate in most terrestrial environments including under water and high altitude. Their vortex manipulator took the form of a belt that also incorporated technology that allowed the soldiers to adjust their density, and inertial dampening. They could be lighter than air or heavier than lead relatively speaking. It also powered the kinetic shielding technology that could be projected from their gloves and used as either shields or battering rams. The whole combat system was also designed with a Temporal Camouflage system so that the soldiers could easily disguise themselves by having their equipment and combat suit mimic the clothing and apparatus of whatever time period they traveled to. Finally, in anticipation of the actual war that was rumored to be approaching, each Soldier was also equipped with an advanced space worthy aircraft. It could travel through time with it's own built in circuitry or it could interface with the soldiers vortex manipulator.
Up to this point, the Chronost Bureau of Investigation had experienced a number of defections and cases of agents going AWOL. In fact it was becoming so frequent that the leadership of the bureau decided that the first order of business was to police their own. The first 5 Chronost Soldiers were chosen for their utter dedication to the CBI and it was decided their first mission would be to track down and apprehend some of the worst of the defectors. Soldier number 1 was Captain Charles Griffin. He was the best of the best and was chosen to be sent after the worst of the worst, Chronost Agent Thomas Hunter. It was also the most dangerous mission as it was determined that Hunter had fled beyond the point of no return at the beginning of the 21st century, to the beginning of the 20th.
Into the Vortex
Captain Griffin piloted his ship through the time stream where he encountered a massive disruption that severely damaged his ship and him as well. He was forced to crash land in nNorthern England in the year 1916 where he was discovered and rescued by a budding super scientist/adventurer named Robert Hollingsworth. Captain Griffin recovered quickly from his injuries with the aid of his nanogens but his ship was damaged seemingly beyond repair. With the help of his brilliant rescuer, he was able to salvage all of his combat equipment that would provide him with the edge he needed to track down his quarry across Europe if need be. Unfortunately he realized that he was in the middle of World War 1 and that he had no other clues to lead him to his target. In the mean time, as an able bodied man, he was forced to join the armed services and was able to distinguish himself as a pilot. In 1917 the German Air Force began to show a marked superiority in aircraft technology, so much so that Captain Griffin was forced to use his own technology to combat it, including using his jet pack and weaponry to defend the skies over Britain. In the later case he did so anonymously and the British public began calling him, The Sky Marshal. Originally assigned to a home defense squadron, Captain Griffin asked to be assigned to the front, so that he would have a better chance at tracking the source of the new technology utilized by the Central Powers. As the Sky Marshal, he began to take a heavy toll on enemy air forces till finally the Germans fielded their own super soldier known as Baron Luftjaeger. Griffin immediately recognized the technology the Baron used as coming from his own era and knew that he had found Agent Hunter. But it was also plain that Agent Hunter's arrival had been just as disastrous as his own and lacking nanogens to heal him, Hunter had been horribly disfigured and in fact depended on an armored suit salvaged from his own craft as a life support system. Griffin and Hunter played a cat and mouse game over the skies of France and Germany for nearly a year before Baron Luftjaeger finally used his vortex manipulator to flee this time zone.
By then the war was nearly over. Captain Griffin believed that he had no way to trace the Baron's time jump, but upon returning to England he discovered that his friend Robert Hollingsworth had managed to repair his ship and the tracking equipment within pointed back to the future. Knowing that time was relative, Griffin took his time to repair his ship as well as the technology of the time would allow and did his best to prepare for the encounter with the time storm he knew was waiting for him a century from now. In 1919 Griffin bade his friend farewell and departed, slowly approaching the massive time distortion which he pinpointed as being the year 2010, with the spatial center being vibora bay Florida in the United States. Captain Griffin approached as close as he possibly could to the time storm and then dropped back into normal time. His plan being that he would simply live through the time in question in normal space and hopefully be able to come out of it on the other side. The distortion of time was so complete that he was sure that Agent Hunter would have been forced to do the same.
Calamity
The world he encountered was not one he had expected. Because of the distortion, the Chronost Bureau of Investigation knew very little about this era and although there had been legends of heroes that survived into the future, they were believed to be just that, legends not based in reality. But here Griffin found that was completely wrong. This world abounded with heroes and villains of vast power. But it wasn't long before he picked up the trail of Agent Hunter who was still going by the name of "Baron Luftjaeger" in Canada. He had apparently come out of the vortex several years earlier and had fallen in with a diabolical reclusive scientist known as Teleios. Shortly after he arrived in Canada the trail dried up. Griffin decided to settle and wait for the time of the distortion to pass and became a Canadian bush pilot as a cover for his other activities.
Despite the plethora of heroes, it seemed like there was never one around when you needed one. Captain Griffin was compelled on occasion to re-assume his persona of the Sky Marshal and was even recognized from his wartime service. (Though most people assumed this was a "new" Sky Marshal)
Also in the mean time, Charles contemplated the cause of the temporal storm hovering just outside his future. He was able to determine that while the nexus of the storm was in Florida, the tendrils of it's beginning started in Millennium City. While investigating the possible temporal nodes involved, he became embroiled in a conspiracy to steal magical artifacts from various places in the city. By the time he realized he had been duped, he also realized he had unwittingly become part of the time distortion event with nothing left to do but to press onward and hope that the solution lay on the other side of it. He was forced to travel to Vibora Bay where he faced nothing less than the end of the world. Despite his best efforts, he failed to avert it. The Champions and everyone that had arrived with them to battle the supernatural menace there perished except for the Sky Marshal and an inventor called Juryrig. An inventor that had created a time machine. The pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place. The Sky Marshal and Juryrig escaped through the time machine back to the past, but they arrived at a different time and location than when the crisis actually began. While they might still prevail to stop the Armageddon about to unfold, they could not stop the previous one from beginning again.
This is when Captain Griffin realized what had happened to the time stream. The use of a time machine at the heart of such a momentous event had caused a massive knot of time loops to form at the same moment in time. For while time would now progress again in this loop it was not capable of preventing new loops from forming. As one set of heroes fled through time to stop the end of the world, another different group was starting it again. Being from the future, Charles knew that the disaster would ultimately be averted but the only way to unravel the time knot would be to travel again back through it as he did before, which had nearly killed him. For now he would just ensure that the disaster was stopped and wait until he was clear of the knot and then consider going forward to report what he had found to the bureau. However, the magic that suffused Vibora Bay, and played an essential role in the disaster, unnerved him. Even in his time there were a few supposed practitioners but it was largely removed from the main stream of society. Here it was quite real and vital. Charles decided to return to Millennium City to look for allies against this magic, using the few contacts he had managed to make there already.
All the King's Men
stub
Upon his return he was startled to run into his old friend Robert Hollingsworth now known as the super scientist Heron. Robert was very pleased to see Charles again but also a little hesitant. Charles was confounded since he knew that Robert would have to be over 100 years old by now. And while he did appear very old and frail, clad in a strangely familiar suit that aided in his mobility and life support, he didn't seem that old.
Robert finally related his story to his old friend after Charles assured him that living with the reality of time travel had prepared him for what ever he would have to say. See Heron
Powers and Equipment
Charles Griffin is a human being from the 51st century. Due to wide spread attempts to practice advanced eugenics during the 37th and 38th centuries, most 51st century humans are descended from genetically altered ancestors which means his body is more resistant to disease and fatigue, and he is generally more intelligent than humans of this era. His natural life span is also nearly double that of 21st century humans. He is able to lift(press) 800 pounds or more. One major genetic flaw that was a side effect of the eugenics is that his hearing acuity is considerably less than 21st century humans. Instances of kidney failure are also 3 times higher for 51st century humans.
As a Chronost Soldier, Charles Griffin is trained in armed and unarmed combat from a variety of time periods. He has been trained to ignore the dilation effects of time travel and execute combat in the vortex itself. Another part of his conditioning was the infusion of 'nanogens', millions of microscopic machines that constantly repair and revitalize his body. Nanogens are capable of repairing even large traumas in a matter of minutes. However these machines must travel through the blood and lymbic systems so any large, sudden fluid loss would render the system ineffectual.
Sky Marshal uses a variety of technologically advanced weapons and gear, primarily of 51st century design and manufacture. His combat suit is designed for the maximum combination of utility and durability. It can withstand the impact of a high powered rifle bullet with minimal effect on its wearer. The suit also has an efficient energy shield capable of refracting various kinds of energy projections. It is equipped with a temporal camouflage system allowing it's wearer to appear to be wearing clothing of the appropriate time period. Sky Marshal wears his suit almost continuously and shifts the camouflage system to the appropriate appearance. He prefers to use the uniform he developed during WW1 while engaged in 'heroic' activities. This system may be temporarily disabled during combat to divert energy to the shields. The suit has an integrated flight system consisting of water fueled, cold-fusion powered jets and the helmet flight control system. As well as anti-gravity and anti-inertia dampeners.
Sky Marshal wears a vortex manipulator in the shape of a belt around his waist. This is his primary time travel device. Each trip through time is powered by a pellet of Elevenum which is only commonly found on Earth in the 46th century onward. This limits the number of time jumps he can perform while in the field. However, Sky Marshal has recently learned that refined pellets of Kelvarite will work as well. The belt has a number of time related functions that do not require burning a whole pellet or any at all such as a stasis field, the ammunition feed system, and the "slippery time" effects. He may also interface it with his time ship and use the fusion reactor it contains to power the time circuits.
His primary offensive weapons are a pair of semi-automatic 10mm magnum pistols whose magazines can either be fed manually, or connected to the circuits of the vortex manipulator belt to feed continuous ammunition from the future. They also are equipped with a temporal camouflage system to appear similar to firearms in the current time period, if they exist. This system can be set manually and Sky Marshal keeps his pistols looking like WW1 German Lugers. He also picked up a WW1 trench shot gun that he uses occasionally as well as a 21st century collapsible sniper rifle.
Sky Marshal also has a small one man 'All Environment' craft that serves as his primary time travel vehicle. Although he is capable of traveling through time with just his belt and suit, the ship provides much greater security and firepower should it be needed. At this time he keeps his ship hidden and unused.
Affiliations
Member of the 101st combat team of the Chronost Bureau of Investigation.
Member of Strike Team Zulu
Associate of Lord Xanadu
