For season 3 of the Cosmic Crit podcast, we begin a new adventure with Attack of the Swarm! Meet the all-new characters who are joining the fight against the insectoid invasion of Suskillon.
Davaasho
Player: Tyler
Davaasho, Trox Solarian, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Name: Davaasho
Race: Trox
Class: Solar Shield Solarian
Age: 35
Height:11'8"
Homeworld: Suskillon
Occupation: Guard
Davaasho, Trox Solarian, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
The Trox before the war was a bodyguard, and met his diplomat husband while on assignment. Davaasho and Tsaoduun Atiu were inseparable and married quickly after joining together in Trox fashion, raising two children. When the invasion of Suskillon started while separated the two were able to keep in touch while Davaasho joined the war effort and Tsaoduun worked diplomatic angles of the war. Tsaoduun eventually stepped down from many of his duties as they adopted and took in several more children made orphans by the war.
While on a mission to transport a high priority scientist of the BBRC Davaasho’s convoy was attacked by the Swarm. The fighting was brutal and many SDF were killed, and in the melee a portal was opened. How or why this happened to this day Davaasho does not know, but a gateway to the Negative Plane of Energy opened up on the battlefield and began to suck in the living and the dead alike. Davaasho tried to hang on but succame to the dark portal and was consumed.
A day later a ghostly visage of Davaasho appeared in an SDF military camp, his internal organs failing, the Trox lost nearly a quarter his weight and looked deathly, his solar mote of energy now dark and opaque. The medics tried to revive him, but were unable to until a doctor desperate to save the trox installed an Eoxian necrograft in his chest, pumping dark energy throughout Davaasho’s body. That brought the Trox back to the fight, and ever since he has been a constant sight on the battlefield until his unit was decimated and he was rolled into the 5th Battalion.
Davaasho, Trox Solarian, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Echo7
Player: Drew
Echo7, Soldier, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Name: Echo7 (E75ANNR362)
Race: Amrantah
Class: Bombard Soldier
Age: Unknown
Height: 6'2"
Homeworld: Unknown
Occupation: Farmhand
Echo7, Soldier, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
It was a clear night on Suskillon when a small town farmer saw a bolt of light shoot across the sky. A meteor or some other piece of space junk crashed into his fields. He hitched up his coveralls and went out to inspect the damage. He discovered the glowing red metal of some kind of ship that entered atmo. The farmer thought he found some kind of drone in the wreckage, and helped repair it and put it to work in the fields for the Longship Agricultural Alliance.
But Echo7 was not just a machine, but a living being with a soul and mind, who had escaped an attack in space and was lucky enough to land in one piece on Suskillon. Not wishing to correct the man he came to know as Moongale, Echo7 adopted his new role as a piece of farm equipment and kept his head down, remembering the life he left behind in the Vast and looking forward to his new life on Suskillon.
Life here was quiet, but that peace was short lived, as some time later the Swarm invaded the planet. Echo7 tried to stay out of the war effort, but something inside him stirred. When the frontlines eventually made it to the Northern farmlands Echo7 exited low power mode to find the farmtown miles away aflame. The SDF were retreating through the embers of the farmhouse and one of them asked if Echo7 could carry a rifle, and the unit nodded his robotic head and joined up that day in the retreating 5th Battalion.
Echo7, Soldier, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Sprouts Marlowe
Player: Myles
Sprouts, Raxilite Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Name: Sprouts Marlowe
Race: Raxilite
Class: Detective Operative
Age: 40
Height: 1'4"
Homeworld: Raxill
Occupation: Detective
Sprouts, Raxilite Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
“Hmm? Oh, so ya want an origin story? Fine. Marlowe’s the name. Sprouts Marlowe. PI. That’s Plant Investigator for you mooks not in the know. Adventurin’ ain’t really my thing. These rubes going out for flashy heroics...it’s all bunk. They conveniently forget about the people who fall through the cracks like grout. The ones you walk by without a second thought in ‘verse. Coppers don’t care. And the ones not takin a cut on someone else’ dime ain’t any better than the rubes.
That’s where me and my partner come in. We help the helpless. For a price, anyway. Never claimed to be a saint and this ain’t a charity. But someone goes missing and ain’t a soul listening to you, ya saw something dirty go down, or the entire filth of this wretched galaxy is coming down on you, you come to us: Marlowe and Briar.
Now, Briar, she’s prettier than a rose and got the thorns to match her name. I’ve seen her take out goons four times her size without rusltin’ a petal. We grew up drinkin’ out of the same bottle, as they say. No funny business going on. She’s got my back and I got hers. And unlike me, she’s a people plant. Got a soft heart.
She took a case that led her to the Suskillon system. Seemed open and shut at first. Dame came in claiming her kid went missing. Snatched, she said. Dollars to donuts the kid ran off to join the effort against the Swarm that’s not an avenue I wanna go down. Nasty customers. And I’m just a gumshoe, not war hero. I got no desire to punch my card in for some grand cause. Let every Tom, Dick, and Harry with stars in their eyes chase that dream. Not me.
That is... until I got a message from Briar. Message had so much interference I couldn’t make out most of it. What I got was that the whole thing turned out to be more than Briar thought or bargain for. She needed my help. Pronto.
So here I am. Of all the gin joints in the verse, I ended up in this hole in the wall on Suskillon, waiting on a partner whose late. Too late.
And that’s everything went sideways.
Sprouts, Raxilite Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Trest
Player: Gibert
Trest, Shirren Mystic, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Name: Trest Vakansk
Race: Shirren
Class: Warmonger Mystic
Age: 16
Height: 5' 10"
Homeworld: Suskillon
Occupation: Soldier
Trest, Shirren Mystic, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
A native of Suskillon, Trest grew up in the church of Hylax. Rebelling against his parents, he instead pulled away from them and their faith. When he grew up they left the system for Absalom and he stayed behind and joined the SDF as a Curate. He was trained under Corporal Chaplain Eustace “Bootsie” McPubbage, a magical priest of Triune who took care to teach the young Shirren. It was during a routine training exercise when everything went to hell.
During the initial invasion of Brinnoa, during the battle as Stone Sea, the combat was devastating. Trest’s unit were there are the initial invasion site, and suffered devastating casualties over the first few days. The Fifth Batallion was hemmed in, with no hope of escape they settled in to stall for as much time as they could. During the battle, seeing no means of retreat or success Bootsie teleported himself and Trest away.
“Sorry kiddo, but Triune told me today just wasn’t your day to die.”
And as fast as he could teleported himself back to the battlefield. Trest was left in an bar closed for renovations, and when he walked outside found he was in Brinnoa, hundreds of miles from the battlefield.
Trest was picked up in Brinnoa and charged with desertion. After serving some time in a brigg, Lt. Curate Trest was allowed to reenlist and enters as Private Trest, since anyone that could testify for him in his trial was KIA/MIA. Back from the battlefield the Shirren has a lot of ground to make up, and a lot of killing to do to pay Bootsie back for what he did that day, and Trest aims to do just that...
Trest, Shirren Mystic, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Zinnia
Player: Rebecca
Zinnia, Strix Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Name: Zinnia
Race: Strix
Class: Ghost Operative
Age: 28
Height: 5'1"
Homeworld: Verces
Occupation: Xenobiologist
Zinnia, Strix Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
Zinnia was born on Verces in the Pact, raised in the city of Qidel, and trained in academies and colleges across the Pact and the Vast. She attained degrees in Advanced Xenobiology and as soon as she finished 3 years of study at the prestigious Zessh University on Illemchuuva and left for placement in the field studying collapsing hierarchies she heard the news: her Alma Mater’s planet was under attack by the Swarm.
It was at this time, after a corporate takeover and restructuring, Astral Extractions headquarters on Verces put funding forth to study the Swarm and continued to fund Zinnia’s work, the so-called “Project Amphisbaena”, a look at weak points in hierarchies and natural orders of alien systems. The work was rolled into a project locally on the planet Suskillon, where Zinnia relocated to join the research think tanks on the West Coast port of Reos City.
The Bronze Bream Research Consortium approached Zinnia and contracted her to be dispatched to the field to research the Swarm first-hand after the armada invaded Suskillon, and she jumped at the chance. They assigned her two key data points to gather: The effects of weapons on the bodies of the Swarm and of the Swarm’s attacks on other species. They made it clear that this data was to be kept confidential and encrypted, and the test subjects were not to be informed of her observation or her findings so as to not muddy the data.
Armed with her wits, weapons and secret mission, the Strix scientist enlisted in the SDF, and has been at war for months until reassignment into the 5th batallion...
Zinnia, Strix Operative, Artwork by Seth Witfoth
