Born in South Boston, Terrance 'Terry' Schaffer grew as a "Southie" in the rough part of the Irish community.  In his youth, he was forced by his parents to focus on his school work rather than hang out with the trouble-making neighborhood kids. Although he still got into trouble in his younger years, he never got arrested nor did he perform any act that warranted an arrest; the same couldn't be said for his neighborhood friends. He went to Oliver Hazard Perry School during his younger years and later attended South Boston High School.

 

By age 17, Terry was considered the smartest kid in the district as well as an all-American athlete. He played football and baseball and did track & field sports, garnering dozens of state titles and awards for his athleticism. During his senior year in high school in 2000, the Soltan Star Empire invaded Earth, including Boston and his South Boston neighborhood.  The invasion changed his life forever.

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During the invasion, Soltan troops created a base in South Boston's Pleasure Bay near Fort Independence.  They landed one of their large transport and command ships in the bay and used the nearby Medal of Honor park as the place for their troop patrols to operate from.  Terry rallied a bunch of his Southie high school friends and acquaintances and planned and executed raids on the Soltan patrols throughout South Boston. All in all, he and his "Southie Knights" (his team's name was based on his high school football team, the South Boston High School Knights) killed dozens of Soltan troops and destroyed tons of Soltan munitions and weapons.  Their efforts basically made them the equivocal of an unofficial underground resistance unit in South Boston.

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At one point, Terry's Southie Knights were being chased by a Soltan patrol towards the waterfront. Knowing they were outgunned and in big trouble escaping, Terry had his team dodge into a warehouse known to be frequented by the few remaining well-armed mobsters in town. Terry and his team barged into the warehouse to be met by over three dozen mobsters sporting weapons from baseball bats to machine guns. As the Soltan patrol charged into the warehouse, the mobsters and the Southie Knights, together, obliterated the Soltan patrol with their sheer numbers, weapons and Southie attitude. Although the warehouse was later destroyed by the Soltans, the mob bosses in South Boston decided to team up with the Southie Knights and take out the alien invaders as best they could, when they could.  As a result, the rival gangs, for the first time in history, actually teamed up and worked together to kill Soltans.  Terry was considered an honorary 'family' member to each mob family involved, and the Southie Knights were considered heroes to the mobsters as well as the local families living in South Boston.

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Eventually, Terry's actions got him recognized by the Soltans. The local Soltan commander and a dozen troops went to Terry's home and executed his parents as Terry watched in hiding from across the street.  His anger gave way to a renewed focus to hurt the Soltan invaders worse than ever.  Two days later, the Southie Knights amassed nearly 200 lbs of C4 explosives and dozens of gallons of homemade napalm 'on loan' from some of the local mobsters and set up a raid on the Soltan transport floating in the center of Pleasure Bay.  Although three dozen Southie Knights and mobsters died in the raid, the transport and command ship was destroyed along with thousands of Soltan troops, in a massive fiery explosion thanks to Terry and his audacity.  As a result, the Soltans actually 'left' South Boston because it was 'too dangerous' for their troops to operate out of.  Once South Boston was considered "alien free", Terry and his Southie Knights acted as a militia over in Boston proper for the next few months, killing dozens more Soltans in their raids.

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Eventually, a special weapon design was leaked out across the black internet. Terry and his Southie Knights crafted dozens of these weapons from scratch and started taking out Boston Soltan strongholds in the closing months of the invasion. By August 2000, all of the invading Soltans had been routed from Earth.  Terry was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the President of the United States for his actions, as were dozens of his other Southie Knights (and even a couple mobsters), most, unfortunately, posthumously. Due to his fame, his medal and his pre-invasion academic and athletic skills, Terry was allowed to write his own ticket to be whatever he wanted to be.  He decided to attend the US Army's West Point Military Academy and with that earn a commission as an officer in the US Army. 

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After his 4-year stint at West Point, earning a degree in military science, Terry became a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army's 1st Special Forces Group (SFG), also known as the Green Berets.  Over the next few years, he was involved in five back-to-back combat tours across the globe.  Each operation he planned and execute with his troops was not only considered successful, but usually yielded even more results than expected.  For his actions, Terry was awarded several high level medals and was quickly promoted to the rank of Captain.  On his fifth and final combat tour, Terry was shot several times when an unknown enemy cell arrived in force against his unit.  Everyone made it out of the operation alive, but some had to be medically discharged due to their injuries.  Terry was hospitalized for months as a result of his injuries.  With a true Soltan Invasion war hero being almost killed in action, the US Army's brass decided to 'volunteer' Terry to the less dangerous Space Command division in Hawaii. Terry fought against the posting, but was ordered to shut up about it and take the down time as a reward for his actions thus far.  Unhappy with his new 'desk job', he resigned his commission and joined a new venture he'd learned of while at Space Command known as G.U.A.R.D.. GUARD happily accepted him into their ranks and posted him into their ASTROGUARD division as a tactical military leader and trainer. As far as Terry was concerned, GUARD's ASTROGUARD division was a good fit for him, although he longed to be part of the more ground-based military division known as TERRAGUARD.   

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Over the next few years, Terry not only learned how to operate in space aboard GUARD's new Fort Armstrong Moonbase and their associated GUARD satellites, but also began to fuse his skills in military tactics for space combat, which no one up to that time had done other than ASTROGUARD's leader, Vladimir Vorisch. As such, Terry became ASTROGUARD's leader in space combat, earning the relevant codename "Star Knight".  Terry was a relentless workhorse of a leader and trainer in his space combat abilities, all of which were used on several occasions while fighting discovered hidden Soltan monitoring stations left in Earth's orbit.  His skills were compounded after he discovered a digital training manual loaded with Soltan space combat techniques. Terry began teaching his ASTROGUARD troops not only the Soltan techniques but ways to counter the Soltans in space combat as well.

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As part of his team's equipage, each ASTROGUARD trooper was armed with an energy shield and an energy sword for close-in combat, as well as blasters, energy rifles, and so forth. Terry's training made him an automatic master of "Star Knight Combat Techniques", wherein his position as a leader was tested. For reasons he wasn't able to understand, Terry kept getting promoted 'sideways', being made the training director, then the 'manual writer for the new combat techniques and then finally as an 'advisor', sent back to a desk, this time on a Moonbase with the newly created 'MOONGUARD' division of ASTROGUARD.

 

Terry did NOT like this.

 

When Terry started complaining, he started realizing something was wrong with the personnel on the base. They acted 'funny' and not like themselves. After some sneaking about, Terry discovered that ASTROGUARD's Space Station HQ had been taken over by what Terry believed (at that time) to supposedly be 'shape-shifting aliens' posing as ASTROGUARD crew and personnel in an attempt to take over the ASTROGUARD space station, satellites and MOONGUARD. Terry put out an all-points broadcast to GUARD stating that MOONGUARD and ASTROGUARD had been taken over by 'shape shifting aliens'. Moments after this, Terry actually got in a fight with one of these 'aliens', killing the 'alien', only to find it wasn't an alien, but instead just a normal MOONGUARD scientist who'd instead been mind controlled by something called "I'Tor". The whole fight between Terry and the now-dead scientist was caught on video and shared out by "I'Tor", stating that Terry went 'space happy' and insane, showing him murdering a MOONGUARD scientist and falsely claiming the dead scientist was a 'shape shifting alien'. Terry was able to escape in a rickety old GUARD space fighter, and tried to hide in one of the ASTROGUARD manned Satellite stations, which, as luck would have it, was the location that I'Tor was secretly operating from. Terry, in flying the old space fighter, dodged multiple satellite defensive laser turret blasts and was ready to maneuver into the landing bay when he came across his opponent - a seasoned ASTROGUARD fighter pilot known as Captain Alex McDonald and McDonald's squadron of new, modern space fighter pilots.

 

Captain McDonald damaged Terry's spacecraft's engines and power supply, leaving emergency power operational on Terry's craft for heat and atmospheric controls and emergency communications. The Satellite ASTROGUARD Commander (who was secretly I'Tor) demanded Captain McDonald finish the job and destroy 'Star Knight' and his craft. McDonald immediately retorted and instead countered the order stating he'd tow-in Terry's/Star Knight's craft into the ASTROGUARD Satellite  Station hangar bay and once in there safely, he'd take "Star Knight" into custody. Terry KNEW McDonald was not under mind control otherwise McDonald would've killed Terry when he had the chance. As such Terry knew he had to convince McDonald what was happening. The rest, as they say, is a story for another day.

 

Both McDonald and Terry, in an incredible self-contained story, took control of the satellite station and defeated I-Tor. Both Terry and McDonald were lauded for their efforts. Terry was later asked by ASTROGUARD's director, Vladimir Vorisch, to join ASTROGUARD's newly formed superhero group called the 'Astroguardians'. Terry said he'd only join if Captain McDonald...'Alex'...would be assigned the leader of that new superhero group. Alex attempted to decline, but it became evident that ASTROGUARD and GUARD itself agreed with Terry and basically put the job onto Alex.  With that, Terry was officially designated as "Star Knight" and became an energy-sword wielding 'space knight' unlike anyone in the Earth's history up to that point.

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Alex McDonald, now designated as the Astroguardian's leader "Captain Starfighter", and Terry "Star Knight" Schaeffer quickly realized they worked great together and became good friends. McDonald's tactical thinking, along with Terry's aggressive spaceborne fighting style made the Astroguardians a truly amazing team.  When other amazing expatriate aliens were asked by McDonald and Terry to join the Astroguardians, the ASTROGUARD leader, Vladimir Vorisch declined the requests. Stating 'security' reasons, this started a divide between McDonald and Terry against Vorisch, eventually leading to McDonald quitting as leader of the Astroguardians and instead volunteering to lead a new 'Starfighter' fighter wing (a craft McDonald had designed himself). Terry stayed with the Astroguardians, however, he and Vorisch fought like cats and dogs over everything from recruitment to tactics to the chow hall food. Terry was beginning to believe he should have left with McDonald...that is, until a certain 'movement' caught his interest.

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​Over the years, the world was in a state of ideological flux about how to deal with the Soltans after their invasion and retreat from Earth. All indications pointed to the retreating Soltans to have taken up refuge on the dark side of Mars, possibly amassing for another invasion of Earth. Most of the people on Earth wanted to take the fight to the Soltans and make them think twice about ever attacking Earth again; some, however, had had enough of the Soltans and simply only wanted a 'proper defense' for Earth in case the Soltans ever returned. The people and governments of Earth debated this for years, at times, creating huge rifts in the world's communities. GUARD was no different.

 

Rumors and conjecture abounded about factions in Britain, the US, GUARD and even in the superhero community about going on the offensive without the World Council's permission. Terry looked into this and in no time flat was introduced to the movement's secret leader, Admiral Black. After several secret meetings, Admiral Black and Terry went over the reasoning and ideas that required, as far as the Admiral was concerned, for Earth to 'go on the offensive' against the Soltans.

 

Terry agreed.

 

Admiral Black wanted Terry on his executive officer team, but even Terry knew he was not 'executive' officer material and instead told Admiral Black that another man, Alex "Captain Starfighter" McDonald, might be a better choice.  As such, Admiral Black agreed and assigned Terry to 'recruit' McDonald to fill in as the 'Number 6' in charge in an executive position. If Terry could do that, Admiral Black said that he'd make Terry the Battalion Commander for the Mars ground invasion, if he chose to accept...which Terry was more than happy to accept.

 

Terry got ahold of Alex and in utter secrecy and told Alex about Admiral Black and the plans for 'commandeering' Earth's only starship, Terracer 1, from space dock, load it with troops, supplies and nuclear weaponry and have McDonald 'lead' his Starfighter fighter wing to join the pro-offensive movement freedom fighters aboard Terracer 1, using a deceptive plot to ensure no once got hurt or killed during the 'commandeering'.

 

Alex agreed to join Terry, and as such, the movement's plans went into motion. ​Within weeks, the great pro-offensive heist began.

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In the end, Admiral Black and his executives were killed during the commandeering, making his Terry's friend, Alex, as the new leader of the movement.  Reluctantly, Alex took the 'Captain's Chair' of Terracer 1 and became the new defacto leader of the pro-offensive movement which Alex now called his 'Starfighters'. Terry became #4 in the leadership chain (by Terry's own request). From that time forward, Terry was simply referred to as "Star Knight" and was assigned, as he'd wanted, to be the Battalion commander for the ground invasion of the Soltan base on the dark side of Mars.

 

Today, Star Knight is in charge of leading, training and preparing his own Star Knight Battalion of troops. He is considered to be one of the greatest space warriors that Earth has ever bred, and that's even said by some of the previously space-faring expatriate aliens that now make up Terracer 1's "Starfighters".  Terry is very much focused on taking out the Soltans once and for all, but he is not 'obsessed' with it, bringing the soldier's mentality to the battalion, mixing personalization, competitive fun, dynamic training, lessons and camaraderie to a high level of Esprit de Corps.  He is a fantastic leader and one day, he'll be doing what he's wanted to do since he was a teen in Boston fighting against the invading Soltans - he'll be leading of a Battalion of well-trained, well-armed and ready-to-fight warriors that'll once again show the galaxy what Terry's 'Southie Knights' were all about!

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