Shellshock

Treaty on Principles Governing The Activities Of States In The Exploration

And Use Of Outer Space, Including The Moon And Other Celestial Bodies

January 27, 1967

Article V

.States Parties to the Treaty shall regard astronauts as envoys of mankind in outer space and shall render to them all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of another State Party or on the high seas. When astronauts make such a landing, they shall be safely and promptly returned to the State of registry of their space vehicle.

In carrying on activities in outer space and on celestial bodies, the astronauts of one State Party shall render all possible assistance to the astronauts of other States Parties.

States Parties to the Treaty shall immediately inform the other States Parties to the Treaty or the Secretary-General of the United Nations of any phenomena they discover in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, which could constitute a danger to the life or health of astronauts..

Real name: US Navy Commander James .Jim. Shelton

Callsign: SHELLSHOCK

Born: June 14^th, 1938 Biloxi Mississippi

Concept: POW astronaut who wants his life back.

Mutation: Transformation caused by concentrations of atom-sized .pores. in space.

Family: Wife Prudence Shelton (divorced), two biological children Holly and Jim Jr.

Religion: Mutant-averse Baptist.

Military background:

• Graduate of USN Academy in Annapolis, MD. First of class in flight training.
• Attended Naval Flight Test School, Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
• MS in Flight Test, US Naval Academy Graduate School, Annapolis MD.
• Deployed Korean conflict, 22 kills over North Korea in F-86.
• Assigned Pax River NAS, Squadron 21, F-100A envelope expansion test series
• First application to join Squadron 6, Naval Astronaut Corps declined due to poor academic performance at USNA.
• Assigned to Pax River NAS, Squadron 6555^th test wing, System 464L (X-20)
• Conducted 6 drop tests of X-20A hypersonic reconnaissance/SAINT-II satellite inspection system including the full-up HOLLY-1 maiden flight under power.
• Backup pilot and CAPCOM on HOLLY-4 and HOLLY-5 manned orbital flights.
• HOLLY-8 pilot and mission commander, completing 5 orbits of Earth and becoming the 9^th human to enter space.
• Mission commander and pilot of HOLLY-12 docking test flight with already-orbiting HOLLY-11 spacecraft. Hand-flew approach to docking after guidance computer failure to complete first manned hard-dock in space.
• Backup pilot and CAPCOM on ALMIGHTY-2 manned orbital flight test of DYNAMOWS hypersonic nuclear weapon system.
• ALMIGHTY-6 pilot and mission commander. ALMIGHTY-6 was lost over hostile territory after an Aerozine thruster malfunction in classified rendezvous.
• Comm. James Sheldon missing assumed KIA, executive order 34412 granted posthumous promotion to Colonel and Navy Cross.
• Recovered in prisoner swap and reported to duty, 354^th Squadron, First Expeditionary. Retained rank of Commander and presented Navy Cross by President Lyndon Johnson.
• Flight status revoked after unsatisfactory medical examination, 214^th Medical Services Wing. Security clearances simultaneously revoked.
• Separation, honorable discharge and muster out of US Navy.

Appearance and personality:

Jim is a fair-haired blue-eyed Southern boy with just a hint of Poker-Hollow drawl from Biloxi, a handsome all-American who once smiled on Life magazine covers. Short but athletic, Jim was not the smartest or best read boy at the Academy; his academic career has always limited his potential otherwise. At the end of the day, Jim is a transparent and genuinely nice guy who would rather be left to his football games and cookouts with the other pilots of his squad. Shelton.s wrist was always graced by an impossibly huge and complicated chronograph, his lucky charm from his wife when he took on flight tests of the F-100A (called the widow-maker.) Shelton has not aged since he returned to Earth from space after a botched rendezvous with the Net in the X-20A, but his mind is that of an 80 year-old man. Some geeky or older people might recognize Jim as a once-famous astronaut during the heyday of .The Program.. He looks impossibly young, maybe even younger than when he went missing years ago.

Although he does a good job of hiding them, Jim is covered with scars from years in captivity as a POW. Sadly his scars have scars -- anyone who sees his skin knows he was tortured badly with cigarettes, scorpions, grazing pistol shots, knives and myriad other instruments for years. Any cursory review of his medical file reads like a horror novel, with clinical descriptions of literally hundreds of wounds. Since he was tortured and subjected to mind-affecting serums at the hand of the enemy, Jim knows his career is effectively over. More than anything, he just wants to pretend none of this happened and go back to the glory days.

Shellshock is a huge, ropy muscled monstrosity over 8 feet tall and 1200 of tallow-colored alien flesh. Aside from a humanoid form, his anatomy is clearly not human. Vibrating with concussive energies, the air around Shellshock.s skin vibrates and glows with sonoluminescence immediately after transformation. This flash-over process is quick, unpleasant for both identities, and very hard to prevent.

Homecoming

Jim Shelton was tortured for 6 years before a random prisoner swap let him come home. After a litany of citations for meritorious conduct and shaking hands with the President, Jim was quietly removed from flight status and given incentive to leave the armed forces. On difficult days, Jim voluntarily checks himself into the Castle. Shellshock has escaped once in the 30 years he has been under study by agencies within the US government.

Mrs. Prudence Shelton, assuming her husband was dead, remarried and raised his eldest daughter Holly and son Jim Jr. without him. Her religious conviction precludes any relationship with Jim should Shellshock be revealed as one in the same with Jim.

Changing identities:

Jim Shelton cannot generally control when insidious energies from a space beyond our own seep through .hotspots. and force him to change forms. Although they do share memories to some limited degree, Shellshock has a much harder time remembering Jim.s than Jim does Shellshock.s. This has created a horrible situation for Jim, since he vividly remembers the monstrous behavior of his mutant alter ego. Jim can feel pinpricks of the pores. energy streaming out to take control of him when he enters an area that might force flash-over to Shellshock.

After being Shellshock for a long period of time, changing back causes brief periods of hypothermia and fatigue. Jim must rest after a busy day of throwing busses as Shellshock or risk illness.

Shellshock does not know when he might have to change back, but Jim does know when he might flash over uncontrollably in a flux of energies within an area. Moreover, Jim feels deeply convinced that when he becomes Shellshock he is giving over control to something outside himself, seeping in from the hot pinpricks of energy from parts unknown.

Scrapbook:

.Mr. Rendezvous does it again: First manned docking success!.

After two close approaches, Astronaut Jimmy Shelton took the controls of Holly-12 and successfully connected with the already-orbiting Holly-11 captained by Fred Haise. The rendezvous nearly was canceled after a critical guidance computer malfunction halfway through the third orbit of Holly-12.

.Jimmy just turned the malfunctioning computer down and did the rendezvous in his head the old fashioned way. Annapolis should be proud of today, what a show for America.s finest in space,. said Gene Krantz, flight director at NASA.s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

.We were turning blue for a while there on the ground, Jimmy got us breathing again..

.Jimmy Shoots for Three.

Astronaut Commander Jim Shelton will become the first time to blast-off into orbit three times after the 4-day flight of the X-20A rocket plane set to begin at 4:30am Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday.