Estrella

Estrella, properly called The Federative Republic of Estrella^[1][2] or The Federated republic of Estrella^[3][4] was a South American^[5] country covered in its most part by a lush rainforest, part of the Amazon Jungle. As the country lies in the Amazon River basin, it waters all the land: One third of the land in Estrella drains into the Amazon River becoming marshy land, which leads to a scarcity of dry land,^[1][2] thus of buildable terrain.^[1][2] Estrella borders Brazil to the east, west and south, and Colombia, Peru and San Diablo to the north. The country has a population of only 2,300,000 inhabitants,^[2] who speak mostly Portuguese,^[5] although Aymara, Quechua and Spanish were also major languages in the country; there was a number of local Native American communities in Estrella. The capital city was named Terra Forte.^[2]

The Federative Republic of Estrella was officially a republic,^[2] but its government was controlled by multinational corporations, including Roxxon Oil, via bribes and other illegal means, which allowed these companies to control local economy. With the Estrellan dollar as the national currency, Estrella based its economy in natural resources including coal, copper, fish, gold, hydropower, iron ore, mining, natural gas, petroleum, phosphate, potash, steel, silver and timber, and has important trade relations with Brazil, the United States, Peru, and San Diablo,^[2] being an important trade partner for those two last countries.^[6] Estrella had an ambassador in Washington, D.C.^[7] The Estrellan Armed Forces, including air force, infantry and navy, officially protected the country,^[2] but were also controlled by the corrupt government and, through it, by the foreign enterprises.^[1] Estrella was a member of international organizations including Interpol, Union of South American Nations, United Nations, UNESCO, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization.^[2]

The Estrellan government intended to fully industrialize the country, but the swampy terrain made it difficult.^[2] They called the Roxxon Oil Corporation to build a dam within the Amazon rainforest to divert the rivers and provide dry land to built upon.^[2] To do so, Roxxon chopped down parts of the rainforest^[5] and started a river diversion that would destroy the homes and lifestyle of many villagers,^[2][5] not to mention damage to the ozone layer.^{[5][note 1]} This inspired the affected Indian communities to start an armed guerrilla forced to resist the Roxxon operation and attempt to destroy the dam itself.^[2][5] The resistance used mobile encampments as their bases,^[1] along with some bunkers, and had access to traditional weaponry including rifles and explosives.^[5] One of its leaders was Joseph Verdugo,^[2][5] a Portuguese-speaking^[5] family man; Verdugo's young daughter Emilia also travelled with her father. The valiant efforts and attacks of the resistance managed to increase the costs of the dam project, thou Roxxon and the government refused to stop it.^[2][5] Instead, Roxxon resorted to Cybertek advanced weaponry to crush the resistance and expel the locals from their own lands.^[8] Cybertek sent thirty-two^[5] Worker Ants, construction devices with substantial military potential, to increase the building rate and defend the site;^[2][5] thou unmanned and autonomous to an extent, the ants were controlled by an operator in a nearby bunker called Estrella Command. The Armed Forces sent six hundred thirty-seven soldiers with traditional military equipment, under the command of a General. Even with this extra security, the costs of the dam project were still prohibitively multiplying;^[5] among the reasons for this, the guerrillas had scared the workers, who refused to work at the dam.^[1]

Clayton Burr, Roxxon's Vice President of International Development, demanded Cybertek division head Harlan Ryker^[8] to provide a way to obliterate the insurgents.^[1][2][8] Ryker was partial toward the cybernetic warrior Deathlok,^[1][2] replicated from a cyborg^[9] coming from the alternate future of Earth-7484^[10][11] The strategy including Deathlok successfully pacifying Estrella, burning the country to a crisp in the process, after which Cybertek expected to mass-produce an army of Deathloks to sell around the world as mass-destruction weapons^[12] for a great profit; Ryker himself considered Estrella an insignificant operation in a plan that would turn Cybertek into a multinational major player.^[13] However, the process was accidented when U.S. Colonel John Kelly, volunteer of the cyborgization process, was killed by the onboard computer in a test run in Paterson, New Jersey,^[14] which made the board of directors at Roxxon doubt about Cybertek's capacity to meet the deadlines. Burr intimidated Ryker insisting about the amount of money and power in Estrella; and Ryker, needing a human brain^[1] for memory storage,^[2] drugged and mutilated his own software development head Michael Collins, turning him into the new Deathlok.^[1] Roxxon and Cybertek then sent Deathlok to Estrella, with orders to eliminate the resistance.^[1][3][4] The Deathlok team at Cybertek also travelled to Estrella, along with Burr, and met with a General who had expensively "lease" Deathlok, in a bunker to oversee the operation. Deathlok itself was sent in a missile-like rocket to an enemy base,^[1] really a mobile town^[5][15] including civilians, and lacking heavy artillery or major military forces. Using flamethrowers and his plasma pistol, Deathlok murdered the Estrellans there.^[1] The massacre shocked Michael Collins' pacifist mind, and Collins managed to temporarily override the computer,^[1][3][4] just in time to not kill Emilia Verdugo,^[1][15] who was trying to defend her life with a submachine gun. The technology glitch was detected by Cybertek, thou hidden to the Estrellan Army, and the operation was considered successful.^[1] However, back in Cybertek's facility in Paterson, Collins obtained full control over Deathlok's body and escaped.^{[1][3][4][15]}

During the following weeks, Collins remembered the massacre through nightmares and investigated; his friend Jim Dworman working a Cybertek stole a file named "Project: Estrella" that revealed exactly what had happened. Cybertek then tracked Deathlok in a vain attempt to capture it,^[8] in the process catching the attention of Nick Fury, director of international law enforcement agency SHIELD.^[3][4] Burr did his best to keep SHIELD unaware of their Estrella operation,^[8] but a suspicious Fury ordered his agents, including Alexander Pierce, to keep a watch on Ryker and futilely try to link him to the then-recent arms sales in Estrella.^[5] Meanwhile, Collins stole a Dragonfly long-distance jet from Cybertek, and used it^[8] to travel back to Estrella, wanting to stop Roxxon there for good.^[2][3][4][8] Ryker had foreseen this movement and prepared his defenses in the dam,^[8] sending Cybertek expert weapon designer Ben Jacobs to control the Cybertek technology there.^[5]

Back in Estrella, Deathlok tracked the resistance and was met with violent mistrust. Collins had reprogrammed Deathlok to avoid ever taking a human life, so he destroyed an empty bunker to distract the defenses, then entered a bunker where Joseph Verdugo was meeting with several soldiers, and took Emilia as hostage (not knowing that she was Joseph's daughter) to ensure that negotiations would take place. In Portuguese, Joseph refused to thrown in the towel even if the girl was killed - but promised to kill Deathlok immediately should that happen. Collins offered to release the girl and not attack if the resistance agreed to listen to him, and Joseph accepted; his coolness impressed Collins.^[5] Deathlok then offered to join the resistance to destroy the dam,^[2][5] explaining that, once that goal was achieved, Roxxon would cut losses and retire from Estrella. One of the soldiers was still wary, but Joseph decided that Deathlok would be an useful asset.^[5]

Collins and Verdugo's men launched a night attack against the dam, with Deathlok focusing on Cybertek's Worker Ants and the Estrellan fighters confronting the Estrellan soldiers.^[2][5] Jacobs had orders to prioritize the dam's protection, but Deathlok had humiliated Jacobs in the past and Jacobs' revenge thirst overpowered him, so he focused Cybertek's Worker Ants on Deathlok. This allowed the resistance to push the Army between a rock and a hard place - but Joseph noticed Deathlok's plight against a Worker Ant and tried to help him, as he felt in debt. Joseph first tried to use Deathlok's discarded plasma gun, but it was configured to work only for Deathlok; noticing the problem, Joseph used a shell weapon from the military.^[5] Finally, Deathlok took over the Worker Ants,^[2][5] making them destroy their own transmitter and allowing Verdugo's rebels to defeat and capture the soldiers in disarray. Deathlok entered the Estrella Command bunker, capturing Jacobs and a General,^[5] then destroyed the dam using the ants' self-destruct device and explosives obtained by the resistance.^[2][5] After the explosion, the water returned to the river bed, restoring the river's original path.^[5]

As foreseen by Collins,^[5] Roxxon immediately retreated from Estrella after the destruction of the dam, unable to handle the new expenditure.^[2] The Estrellan government collapsed,^[2][5] and Verdugo's resistance forces thanked Deathlok for his help. Deathlok then returned to Paterson, wanting to go after Ryker. Simultaneously, Burr also wanted to punish Ryker, blaming him^[5] for this embarrassment;^[2] and SHIELD was besieging Cybertek's facilities to capture Ryker - They have found that Cybertek was selling their high-tech weapons not only to Estrella, but to many countries all over the world.^[5] SHIELD agreed to cooperate with Deathlok to do this,^[3][4][5] but still Ryker escaped to Japan with Collins' help, while claiming that Estrella was not at all important for him. Once in Japan, however, Deathlok collaborated with SHIELD again to arrest Ryker,^[13] which led to Cybertek's illegal operations being exposed and the company closed. Roxxon had also been involved in the same crimes, but managed to distance from those.^[16] Apparently a new government returned Estrella to stability, as there was an Estrellan ambassador in the United States not much later.^[7]

Some time later, Burr collaborated again with Ryker, by then a fugitive of justice hiding in Paris, and recruited Deathlok to supposedly stop Ryker's Paris operation, this being a trick of both Ryker and Burr to capture Deathlok themselves.^[17] Burr also betrayed Ryker, hiring cyborg mercenary Coldblood to kill both Ryker and Deathlok. Coldblood had a moral code, so Burr lied to him saying that Deathlok was Ryker's accomplice and presented forged evidence of Deathlok's murders in Estrella, Japan and the United States. Once Coldblood confronted Deathlok in Paris, however, Deathlok was able to prove his innocence, and Coldblood became his ally in the mission,^[18][19][20] which culminated in the arrest of both Burr and Ryker^[19]

Not long after this, the Estrellan ambassador in Washington, D.C., was murdered apparently while leaving his car, the sixth in a series of ambassador killings. The President of the United States put the FBI in the case, especially because Symkarian mercenary team Wild Pack retired from the investigation after one of their agents was killed and another one went missing in the operation.^[7]

Alternate Realities

Earth-94064 (Michael Collins never became Deathlok)

During the Infinity Crusade, Deathlok had an encounter with the Goddess, and had a vision of an alternate world where Michael Collins had never become Deathlok. In this vision, Cybertek built an army of Deathloks for hire that calcinated Estrella and then were released in other countries.^[12]

• Terra Forte (capital city)^[2]
• Amazon River^[1][2]
• Jungles^[1]
• Roxxon dam^[2][5]
  • Estrella Command, a bunker close to the dam site^[5]

• Estrellan Armed Forces^[1][2][5]
• Emilia Verdugo^[2][5]
• Joseph Verdugo^[2][5]

• The country is called "Federative Republic of Estrella" in both Deathlok #1 and Marvel Atlas #2 (Estrella profile), the later translating the name to "Republica Federativa do Estrella". In All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3 and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3, the country is however called "Federated (not Federative) Republic of Estrella".
  • "Estrella" means "star" in Spanish. The inhabitants of Estrella however speak Portuguese; the word in Portuguese for "star" is "estrela" (with only one L).
  • "Republica Federativa do Estrella" is not correct Portuguese. The right name should be "República Federal da Estrela". It wouldn't be correct Spanish either; that would be "República Federal de la Estrella".
  • It is unclear why the Estrellans speak Portuguese; there is no known historical link between Estrella and Portugal or any other Portuguese-speaking country (except for trade relations with Brazil), so it is unclear whether the territory was a Portuguese colony or not. The two named locals are Emilia and Joseph Verdugo. Emilia is a name in several languages including Spanish and English, but the Portuguese form is Emília with a diacritic. Joseph is a given name in English. Verdugo is a surname in both Spain and Portugal. Combining that with the weird use of Estrella, instead of Estrela, for the country's name, that suggests that the authors mixed Spanish and Portuguese in their research.
• The capital city Terra Forte is only mentioned in Marvel Atlas #2, Estrella's profile, and has not been seen yet.
• The Estrellan ambassador to the United States is seen dead in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #10, the sixth ambassador in a string of murders; the Wild Pack retires Delta Team from the case. In Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #28, Silver Sable finds and stops an all-female assassin guild murdering politicians. It is unclear whether they were responsible of the murder of the Estrellan ambassador.

• There are no known superhumans from or in Estrella, nor the country has ever had known contact with extraterrestrials.^[21]