The Destreum Killer - use and strategy

Some explanation behind the weapon used against Doctor Destroyer at the end of "Leap Day" and (inadvertantly) Starforce in "The Destroyer Wars" is needed due to the lack of explanation provided in either of the stories referenced.

First off, our heroes needed a way to one-shot Doctor Destroyer. My inspiration for the Destreum-Killer was in an explanation on page 118 of "Book of the Destroyer" -- even though Doctor Destroyer is an expert at nanotechnology, his ego and desire to make his victories as grandiose as possible give him a blind spot concerning possible offensive uses of nanotech. His son, being somewhat more stable of personality, has no such hang-up. I played around with some ideas before I settled upon the following construct for a nanotech virus designed to target Destreum:

Destreum-Killer: Drain BODY 1 point, Penetrating (x2; +1), Damage Over Time (60 damage increments, damage occurs every Segment, can be negated by removing the armor; +5 1/4) (22 Active Points); 1 Charge (-2), Limited Special Effect (Destreum and Destreum-based alloys; -1), OIF (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2), Lockout (-1/2), Range Based On Strength (128m running throw, 64m standing throw, 32m prone throw [HG6Ed2:81]; -1/4)

This construct, carried on Ladyhawk's Utility Belt (hence the Restrainable and Lockout limitations) costs 4 equipment points, will go through Destroyer's Power Defense (either 5th or 6th edition writeup) like it didn't exist, and will kill Doctor Destroyer inside of one minute if he does not bail out of his battlesuit in time. It will also destroy Ladyhawk's low-profile armor or Starforce's battlesuit if it comes into contact with either (which is what Rochemont in the War Armor caused to happen to Starforce in "The Destroyer Wars"), as both are based on Destreum nanoweave.

If this is the ONLY thing you do to Doctor Destroyer, however, he will simply teleport away to one of his bases as soon as he realizes what is happening to his armor and bail out of it there in relative safety. He will then reverse-engineer the nanotech, upgrade a backup suit's Power Defense to Impenetrablex2, and shortly thereafter pay a visit to Stately Dormyer Manor which will leave it a smouldering hole in the ground and the entirety of Clan Hawkins very dead. Therefore, once Destroyer's suit is infected you now need to keep him from escaping until the nanovirus runs its full course. Starforce's battlesuit has part of the solution to this quandary in that its Telekinesis at full power (120 STR!) is quite capable of holding Destroyer in place. The problem now becomes one of keeping him from teleporting out, which a naive person might attempt to solve with some form of Barrier or Entangle with the "Cannot Be Escaped With Teleportation" advantage. Leaving aside the slight problem of trying to build this power with enough DEF to absorb a pushed Destroyer-Beam without failing, chances are very good that you DON'T know Destroyer routinely buys his Megascale Teleportation Web power with FOUR (4) levels of Armor-Piercing. Unless you're prepared to spend an absolutely insane number of points buying extra levels of "Cannot Be Escaped With Teleportation," Destroyer's going to break out of any Entangle or Barrier you try to use on him.

Another approach, which had the virtue of actually fitting within Starforce's Equipment Pool budget, was what got used:

Quantum Lock: Suppress Teleportation 2d6 (standard effect: 6 points), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Teleportation NOT based on quantum displacement or psychokinetic transmission; +1/2), Constant (+1/2) (40 Active Points); Costs Endurance (to maintain; -1/2), OIF (-1/2), Lockout (cannot use anything else in his equipment pool; -1/2), Limited Range (40 m; -1/4)

This attack, costing 14 equipment points, is designed to use the Absolute Effect Rule (6E1:133) and is based on the "Immobilize" construct presented in the 6th Edition supplement "Control Powers". It renders its target incapable of using either quantum displacement or psychokinetic transmission-based teleportation -- guess which one Destroyer uses regularly?

With the hardware built, now comes the tactics. With the weapons presented above, capturing (or killing) Doctor Destroyer requires two people and a decent amount of teamwork. Ladyhawk was chosen for putting the shuriken on Destroyer as she had the highest OCV and best chance of hitting him with a Destreum-Killer. If the Destreum-killer hits, it then becomes Starforce's job to hold Destroyer in place with a combined TK grab/Quantum Lock attack until either he bails out of his armor or he dies.

As it played out in the TASK FORCE universe (during the climax of "Leap Day"), Ladyhawk placed the Destreum-Killer onto Destroyer as a surprise out of combat, and Starforce grabbed Destroyer with the multiple-attack TK/Quantum Lock combo while Destroyer was busy attempting to incinerate Ladyhawk. Destroyer finally missed his EGO roll to stay in his disintegrating armor when he dropped down to 1 BODY and triggered an emergency bail-out of what was left -- rendering him helpless and making his transport to (and incarceration at) New Spandau in the epilogue almost trivial.