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In the early days of the occupation several of the Sylphid nurseries had the idea to engineer a resistance. They chose the most aggressive gene-lines and gave them unique wings designed for single combat. Called them Avengers. Ordinary Sylphids can project walls of hardened air with their wings and fend off enemies with sonic impacts; these Avengers could stop bullets and negate laser attacks, and slice enemies with blades of air. The project was, of course, a complete failure. The Avengers were never properly taught how to fight and most of them never showed any interest in the resistance; some of them defected to serve the Lop occupation as enforcers.
The Lops, with much crueler imaginations, soon realized that a species grown in vats can be recreated elsewhere without the inconvenient presence of other members of the species. With the help of a few Sylphid defectors they jury rigged a Sylphid nursery far away from Aurora and began to produce their own line of winged warriors.
Sylphid wings and implants draw energy from the charged air of Aurora; any Sylphid who spends too long outside the range of an energy broadcaster is reduced to a power-starved half-life. The Lops could not afford to run energy broadcasters everywhere they wanted their warriors to go. The program stalled for a few years, until one particularly unsavory researcher realized that the floating cyborgs were both highly resistant to radiation and able to project radio-shielding. It proved possible to graft micro-sized nuclear reactors onto the subject’s backs. The reactors could be made light enough by cutting back dramatically on shielding and demanding that its carrier project a neutralizing barrier around it at all times. The Sylphid itself would be within the barrier and would be cooked by the radiation, but very slowly.
Unlike the Avengers, these beings, dubbed Banshees by their engineers, were raised by the warlike Lops and learned to use their abilities to deadly effect. They knew nothing of Aurora or the other Sylphids and, in theory, existed only to advance the aims of the Lop military. In practice they proved dangerous and difficult to control and were phased out after the first prototype Revenants proved to be much more reliable super-soldiers.
A significant number of Banshees remain alive, either independently or as part of the Lop military. Some of them are trying to contact their true homeworld of Aurora, others seek to gain control of the nursery that produced them to continue the line to their own specifications. Some work as freelance bounty hunters or bodyguards, and a few have simply gone into hiding in hopes of being left alone.
The Lops, with much crueler imaginations, soon realized that a species grown in vats can be recreated elsewhere without the inconvenient presence of other members of the species. With the help of a few Sylphid defectors they jury rigged a Sylphid nursery far away from Aurora and began to produce their own line of winged warriors.
Sylphid wings and implants draw energy from the charged air of Aurora; any Sylphid who spends too long outside the range of an energy broadcaster is reduced to a power-starved half-life. The Lops could not afford to run energy broadcasters everywhere they wanted their warriors to go. The program stalled for a few years, until one particularly unsavory researcher realized that the floating cyborgs were both highly resistant to radiation and able to project radio-shielding. It proved possible to graft micro-sized nuclear reactors onto the subject’s backs. The reactors could be made light enough by cutting back dramatically on shielding and demanding that its carrier project a neutralizing barrier around it at all times. The Sylphid itself would be within the barrier and would be cooked by the radiation, but very slowly.
Unlike the Avengers, these beings, dubbed Banshees by their engineers, were raised by the warlike Lops and learned to use their abilities to deadly effect. They knew nothing of Aurora or the other Sylphids and, in theory, existed only to advance the aims of the Lop military. In practice they proved dangerous and difficult to control and were phased out after the first prototype Revenants proved to be much more reliable super-soldiers.
A significant number of Banshees remain alive, either independently or as part of the Lop military. Some of them are trying to contact their true homeworld of Aurora, others seek to gain control of the nursery that produced them to continue the line to their own specifications. Some work as freelance bounty hunters or bodyguards, and a few have simply gone into hiding in hopes of being left alone.
