Shane "Goose" Gooseman
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Shane Gooseman is a fictional character from The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, a 1980s animated science-fiction western. Shane is a member of the Galaxy Rangers, an Earth-based interstellar law enforcement organization. In keeping with the show's Western theme, his appearance and characterization appear to be largely based on Clint Eastwood's western film characters. Even his name, Shane, is reminiscent of that genre.
Shane Gooseman is a genetically altered soldier from a failed supersoldier program. He is the only sane survivor, one of the few remaining Supertroopers from the 'Wolf Den' incident of 2101. He was genetically produced along with a group of others in an effort to produce an effective fighting force that would use enhanced meta-human abilites to defend themelves and enable them to battle hostile aliens more effectively.
This was the latest batch of supersoldiers approved by the military minds of Earth and everything was looking good until an unstable element was introduced into the genetic makeup. This substance called 'Batch 22' was supposed to enhance the abilities of the soldiers to make them even more effective. Unfortunately, in trials it also proved unstable, and generated massive brain seizures and cortexial feedback, driving the subjects incurably insane in over 80% of the trial subjects. It was never supposed to be used on a human host.
A Civilian advisor to the military fed the neurochemical into the air supply of the Supertroopers' barracks one night in 2101. Of the troopers in the barracks at the time, most were rendered unconscious by the neurochemical, some managed to escape, with dramatically enhanced powers, and remain at large. Of the remaining troopers, only Shane Gooseman was considered unaffected, as he had managed to shield himself from the chemical until it had dispersed. The incapacitated supertroopers were placed into cryonic stasis; deemed too dangerous to be allowed to awaken. And Shane Gooseman was transferred to the Galaxy Rangers corps under Commander Walsh's direct control, to be integrated into the Series V program.
Unfortunately, as an added control element, Gooseman is required to act as a bounty hunter, and recover the renegade Supertroopers for return to Earth and the cryocrypt. He is not happy about it.
Shane Gooseman's Series 5 implant enhances already formidable biogenetic defences which enable him to withstand most any attack, external or internal, as long as his body has already survived exposure to the attack previously. Like an antibody, his biodefences can only react once they have already encountered the attack. So, he must allow himself to be hit by the attack before he can defend. His implant boosts his biodefences by up to 60 times, enabling him to react to an attack in seconds, rather than minutes. It is only this which allows him to take on a Batch-22-mutated Supertrooper in fairly even combat and stand a chance of surviving.
Shane and Niko have an ongoing relationship, enhanced by the events in the episode Chrysalis to a fully-blown love for one another.
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[edit] Supertrooper background
In 2080, the combined Governments of Earth began to develop a team of genetically constructed soldiers to be prepared to fight against the alien hostiles that the militarily-active among them were concerned might want to invade Earth. Commander Joseph Walsh, a strong proponent of the genetic soldier project, was assigned to oversee the project. The Chief geneticist was Doctor Owen N'Gata (Nagata) an aging scientist with dynamic ideas on how to enable superhuman abilities within the genome to give the 'Supertroopers' an added edge aganst the perceived enemies. Also invlolved was Genetics wizard Max Sawyer.
The Supertrooper directive was thus:
Develop a soldier using known and tested genetic structures which will do the following:
- Be able to heal and survive damage at levels that would kill or cripple a normal soldier.
- Have enhanced abilities that will enable them to fight with natural weapons to supplement their technological weaponry.
- Be capable of ruthless efficiency in combat, to ensure victory under all conditions.
The Directive was interpeted by Doctor N'gata and Commander Walsh differently, and as a result, two types of Supertrooper were developed. The First Batch, and the Second Batch.
- First Batch Supertroopers were designed as front-line soldiers, mostly muscle, brawn, and brute strength or savagely efficient skill. Riker Killbane is an example of a First Batch Supertrooper.
- Second Batch Supertroopers were designed to be more intelligent and tactically minded, so they could plan and counter more intelligent maneuvers by the enemy. Shane Gooseman is an example of a Second Batch Supertrooper.
Due to the third directive, the supertroopers were never taught to like each other, ansd strong and occasionally bitter rivalries soon developed between the members of the Supertrooper corps. Although they can work together, each supertrooper feels that he or she is the best there is, so they do not normally need any assistance.
To both minimise exposure to the general public, and to keep the soldiers isolated, they were formed, decanted, trained, and lived on the island base known as Wolf Den, which was located off the south-east coast of North America. This huge Island Base was fully capable of both training, and containing the supertroopers should they prove uncontrollable, under normal circumstances.
Wolf Den covers almost 400 acres, mostly coated in varying levels of pre-stressed concrete and granite. But it has a large expanse of jungle-type terrain and other non-industrial regions to ensure the soldiers could be properly trained in all aspects of combat.
The Supertroopers numbered between sixty and eighty at the height of training and production, but during the 21 years of the base's operation, there was some attrition and by the time of the Wolf Den incident, there were only forty-six left alive.
The Wolf-Den Incident was the death knell for the Supertrooper Project, and caused many fatalities among Supertroopers and their attendant staff in the process. Senator Wheiner decided against the judgement of the actual staff, to introduce a genetic accelerator agent (x-factor) into the Supertrooper barracks to super-charge their powers to full potential. The x-factor was untested on the trooper genome, but had produced less than desirable results in test animals. Weiner released the x-factor into the air duct system while the supertroopers were resting in their barracks. The results were dramatic, shocking, and fatal for some. The x-factor instantly went to work, enhancing and charging the supertrooper abilites beyond the design specifications. Some, like Stingray, became instantly lethal, while others, like Killbane, simply became more durable.
The Supertroopers went wild, feeling an unfamilliar energy burning through them, and seeing nothing but treachery from their Wolf Den commanders. Doctor N'Gata tried to isolate them, but before he could finish sealing the barracks, was killed by Gravestone after he had been supercharged by Brainchild jamming an electrical cable into his back. The Supertroopers who were not instantly incapacitated by the accelerator escaped from Wolf Den, scattering through the League of Planets and beyond.
The only supertrooper to remain was Shane Gooseman, who was considered the 'runt' or 'baby' by the others by virtue of him being 3 years younger than any of the other troopers. He elected to remain behind, and because of this, was evetually initiated into the Ranks of the Galaxy Rangers with a special directive to hunt down and return the rogue supertroopers to Earth and storage within the Cryocrypt.
[edit] Powers and Abilities
Gooseman is genetically engineered to have a limited ability to alter his body's molecular structure, allowing him to do things such as heal rapidly, absorb energy, and adapt to various environmental conditions or attacks by physically altering his form (i.e., if underwater, he will develop gills; if hit with a laser, his body becomes reflective, etc). He cannot consciously control this shapeshifting ability; it is a purely reflexive response. His powers are partly controlled and stabilized by the Series 5 cybernetic implants that all Galaxy Rangers receive; the implants also greatly increase the speed at which his body adapts, allowing him to almost instantly develop an appropriate defense for any physical attack.
[edit] Characteristics
Shane has been assigned to the Galaxy Rangers. He will not be frozen as long as he helps capture the other escaped supersoldiers. Shane also has a specially trained group of dolphins able to communicate with him telepathically.
