Aster (OU)

Aster is a shape-shifter and a former ZFT spy.

ZFT Career
Aster was one of a line of shape-shifters created by the ZFT based on the Mysterious Creature's biology, and like her fellow shape-shifters, she ended up in the espionage business, using her shape-shifting abilities to infiltrate the ZFT's enemies. Upon her creation, she apparently had the memories of a kidnapped Malchiorian soldier downloaded into her brain, to help her blend into human society. On one particular mission, Aster apparently found herself forced to flee a ship before it exploded. During another mission, she met BlackZarak, and witnessed the destruction of his ship. It's possible that these were actually the same mission.

In 150,082 CMT, Aster telepathically taunted D-Klak when he escaped from his prison cell on Demon's Run before teleporting him into another cell that lacked windows. After taunting D-Klak some more with non sequiturs and logical paradoxes, Aster broke the illusion in the cell that had kept her invisible, revealing herself as a blonde woman dressed in black military gear. Introducing herself as "Lady Aster", Aster told D-Klak that she had a message to give him, but because he did not seem to be interested, she decided to leave, teleporting away.

A Rogue Agent
Later, Aster reappeared behind the controls of a shuttle that dropped out of warp near Malchior IV, pursued by several ZFT fighters. She sent a desperate message to Klak that stated that she wished to defect from the ZFT. Klak responded by telling Aster to land at Northward Hospital while several Malchiorian fighters arrived to meet the ZFT, warning them to leave. The ZFT fighters departed, but not before dealing critical damage to Aster's shuttle, which crashed outside Northward Hospital, although Aster emerged from the wreckage unscathed. When Klak arrived on the scene with Jortenn Karzdus, Rainn Sulrai, Peter, and Jinx, Aster introduced herself as a member of the ZFT's Main Intelligence Directorate who wished to defect. After Klak introduced himself and his allies, Aster walked towards the hospital, prompting the others to follow. Inside, Aster was approached by nurses and asked to lie on a bed so that they could administer treatment, complying after some persuasion. However, the treatment turned out to be only a single shot of an unknown medicine that restored her to full health.

When Aster caught up to Klak, he introduced her to Kakamu and Trantoshen, who had also arrived at the hospital. Although Aster returned the greeting, she asked to changed the subject to a more important matter, to Klak's slight annoyance. Aster summoned Frenzy, who played a holographic recording of a ZFT propaganda video that claimed that the RacKoon City vampire plague was the result of Klak and Nadle testing experimental bioweapons on the populace, revealing that the ZFT were launching a smear campaign against them both. In addition, Aster explained that, before his death, Uterio di Armechio had hidden a superweapon in the Omega system that would serve as a contingency plan in case his first method of conquering the universe failed. Unfortunately, Blackout had discovered its location and had dispatched a fleet to secure it. In response, Klak ordered everyone to head to his ship and prepare for takeoff, adding that he would also make sure that a Malchiorian fleet was on standby. Aster and Frenzy followed the group to Klak's ship, an Mu-2 long range shuttle.

Before Aster could board the shuttle, Rainn asked her to help him figure out why he couldn't get his rifle to load properly. Aster hurriedly loaded the rifle and stepped onto the ship in an attempt to avoid talking to Rainn, but the rifle broke, prompting Rainn to call her back. When Rainn asked her to tell him more about herself, Aster declined, so Rainn threw a ninja star at her and threatened her with a kunai and his fully loaded rifle, revealing that the problem with his rifle had been a ruse to find out more about Aster. Rainn warned Aster that he did not trust her before walking onto the ship, though Aster did not respond. Once the ship had set off on a course for the Omega system, Klak advised everyone to get some sleep ahead of what was shaping up to be a long flight, so Aster and Frenzy left to find their bunks.

Later, Klak awoke and began loudly screaming, prompting Aster to visit his room to investigate. As Jortenn explained to Aster that Klak had experienced a nightmare, she noticed Klak's eyes flash red before he returned to his usual demeanour and left the room, insisting he was fine. When Jortenn proposed that it could have been a psychic attack on Klak, Aster agreed, but questioned who could have been responsible. Jortenn replied that only a Makuta could be capable of such precision and fear, hinting that he suspected Caiaphus.

The Battle of Omega Supreme
Klak's ship arrived in the Omega system in the middle of the Battle of Omega Supreme, where the In Amber-Clad and the Ironclad were locked in combat with ZFT forces. The Malchiorian fleet arrived after Klak contacted Malchior IV to ask for reinforcements, enabling Klak to dock his shuttle with one of the frigates. Aster, Jinx, Jortenn, Kakamu, Klak, Peter, Rainn, and Trantoshen each left the frigate in control of their own X-Wings, intending to stop the ZFT from finding Uterio's weapon before it was too late. When Aster shot down a ZFT fighter, a small hologram of BlackZarak appeared in her ship, revealing that he was working for the ZFT. Recognizing him as "Zarak", Aster was shocked to see that he was alive because she thought that he had been killed when the Silicons vacuum-bombed his ship. "Zarak" corrected her by stating that his name was now BlackZarak, adding. Aster angrily closed the communication and set a course for the ZFT's lead ship in the area, which she correctly assumed belonged to BlackZarak. At Aster's behest, Kakamu and Trantoshen joined her for her attempt to take it down, though Kakamu was forced to break away when his X-Wing was engaged by Starscream's fighter. Aster and Trantoshen bombarded BlackZarak's ship with lasers and proton torpedoes before entering the hangar bay, where she jumped out of her fighter and shape-shifted an arm blade that she used to stab a Decepticon in the chest. Once Aster and Trantoshen had taken over the hangar bay, Aster grabbed a Decepticon gun and suggested that they head to the bridge, running into the nearest corridor.

When Aster and Trantoshen ran into more Decepticon guards, Aster took cover behind a wall and threw a grenade before randomly shooting from cover. Trantoshen, however, fired a blast of energy at the corridor ceiling, which buried the Decepticons in debris. Although Aster was annoyed because Trantoshen had blocked off the fastest way to the bridge, BlackZarak came to them instead, blasting them both into the wall with lightning bolts. While Aster recovered from the attack, Ynot made an announcement from the Ironclad where he threatened to destroy BlackZarak's ship if BlackZarak did not surrender. Once Aster had hailed the Ironclad to warn Ynot not to blow up the ship while she was still on it, she fired a shard of ice at BlackZarak's shoulder that distracted him long enough for her to run up to him and slash him across the chest. Ynot had no idea who Aster was, so he sent a reply to ask her for a reason why he should spare her life by not destroying the ship. When Aster replied that she was an ally of Klak, Ynot had her and Trantoshen teleported aboard the Ironclad.

However, Ynot intended to throw Aster in the brig for insulting him, making it clear that he would have her imprisoned if she did not leave the Ironclad. When Ynot responded to a hail from Jortenn by asking him if he wanted to take Aster aboard his X-Wing instead, Jortenn contacted Aster to advise her to leave the Ironclad as soon as possible to prevent Ynot from inching closer to the dark side. Aster relented and teleported to a nearby Malchiorian frigate, but not before calling Ynot a "real ass". Meanwhile, the moon of Omega Supreme transformed into a colossal robot, revealing that Uterio's secret weapon was actually the moon itself. Omega Supreme fired powerful blasts at the Malchiorian fleet, damaging the frigate that Aster was in and Jinx's X-Wing, which forced Jinx to land in the frigate. When Jinx was reunited with Aster, Aster told her that they needed to go to Omega Supreme because BlackZarak was still there. Without waiting for a reply, Aster stated that she was going after BlackZarak, climbing into another X-Wing that she then flew out of the hangar.

Aster parked her X-Wing next to BlackZarak's ship on the surface of Omega Supreme and exited the fighter, daring him to show himself. Just as Rainn appeared behind her to ask where BlackZarak was, BlackZarak knocked Rainn to the ground with a blast of fire. BlackZarak thrust his spear towards Rainn, but Aster shot the weapon out of his hand before it could meet its target, giving Rainn the opportunity to kick him in the face. BlackZarak then fired lightning at Rainn until Aster jump-kicked him, diverting the lightning away. While BlackZarak was distracted, Rainn ran into his own X-Wing and took off, planning to use the ship's firepower against BlackZarak. After Aster slashed BlackZarak across the chest and kicked him in the head, Rainn swooped down towards them in his X-Wing, forcing them both to run in order to avoid its path. BlackZarak tried to seize the opportunity to teleport away, but was prevented from doing so by Aster, who interrupted the teleportation by shooting him. Upon seeing Jortenn float down towards her from the remains of his own crashed X-Wing, Aster grabbed him and teleported them both into Rainn's ship. When Rainn asked Aster if she knew where Klak was, she replied that she had sensed his presence somewhere beneath the surface of Omega Supreme, but that he was acting "most unlike himself".

Before they could decide what to do about Klak, Rainn noticed that BlackZarak had climbed onto the nose of the X-Wing and had begun to fire lightning at them, prompting Rainn to spin the ship around to throw him off. At that moment, the Leviathan emerged from a spatial tear in the system and Osseron broadcast a message that was picked up by all of the local communication devices. In the message, Osseron seemingly attempted to order food, but stopped upon realizing that he had apparently arrived in the wrong place. Eventually, BlackZarak fell off Rainn's X-Wing and onto the surface of Omega Supreme, where he was soon incinerated by one of its turrets. Rainn asked Aster if she knew Osseron; although she did not, she revealed that she had seen footage of him while studying the Battle of Neo Z'traa. A blue jet then appeared behind Rainn's ship and fired missiles at it, prompting Rainn to do a barrel roll to avoid them before returning fire. The blue jet dodged the shots and transformed into Dreadwing, who grabbed the ship and began burning into it while threatening to kill them all. Rainn turned the ship around and flew back towards the surface of Omega Supreme, causing Dreadwing to follow while throwing bombs and firing lasers. Aster leaned out of the open cockpit, grabbed a bomb, and threw it into another of Dreadwing's, creating a huge explosion.

Although it looked like Aster and company might have escaped, Dreadwing soon returned with a bunch more Seekers to attack Rainn's ship with. Omega Supreme then warped to the orbit of Neo Z'traa, but the warp field conveniently engulfed all the combatants, so the result was that the battle simply moved to another spot. During the dogfight between Rainn's ship and the Seekers, Dreadwing grabbed onto Rainn's ship and began to superheat the hull. Although Aster could resist the heat due to her shape-shifter physiology, Dreadwing stated that he would destroy them by destroying their ship first, not the other way around. While Aster tried to lower the temperature with her ice powers, Rainn and Jortenn put on helmets and handed another to Aster, who also put hers on. However, Dreadwing then changed tactics by planting bombs on the ship's hull before flying away. Before the bombs could explode, Rainn pressed a button that opened a hatch on the underside of his ship, allowing Aster, Jortenn, and himself to drop safely onto Omega Supreme's surface once again.

The trio were then approached by Jinx, who told them that they would need to avoid Omega Supreme's attacks, the Leviathan's flak bursts, and the attacking Vrai spacecraft from Neo Z'traa in order to survive. Aster and company proceeded towards the hole that Klak had fallen into, only to find their path blocked by Barricade, Brawl, and Dreadwing. The group split up to fight the enemies, with Aster shooting ice shards at Dreadwing while Rainn kicked him in the face. Aster then fired a freeze ray at Barricade, but he dodged it and shot Aster in the chest. However, Aster soon got up and stabbed Dreadwing with an ice shard, causing him to collapse. When Dreadwing began to get up, Aster stabbed him again and kicked him away. At Jortenn's behest, Aster fired ice blasts at Brawl, but this did little other than anger him, causing Brawl to fire chain lightning at Aster and Jortenn. When Brawl began to charge a plasma blast, Aster froze his hand and jumped on his shoulders to plant a bomb on the back of his head. By the time Brawl realized what it was, it exploded, seemingly defeating him.