After the fall of the Americas, many of those who survived went into hiding, in fear for their lives from the attacking mutant horde. Others fought back, but without leadership or a strategy, they quickly fell. Still others have come together, under a bold leader known as Pendulum, one of the few remaining members of the US Armed Forces. This Marine and his sidekick (and sometimes bodyguard) A.A.R.Un (Armored Android Responder Unit) gathered a remnant of the peoples in the Chicago area, those who were willing to stand up and fight for themselves. The group has started a journey towards Denver, where they hope to find those who have aired a radio message, one giving hope that there may be a larger resistance forming; one which may have an answer to the invaders that came not from overseas, not from outerspace, but from within the very country that they once knew and loved.
Enter Shooting Star, once a B-list movie star, who survived the death of the Nation along with other members of a film crew that had been working on his (last) project; he watched them die off, one by one until he alone was left. Shooting Star was rescued by Pendulum, who used his battle axe cut down a mutant drone that was choking the life out of him. Since that day, he has been one of Pendulum's most staunch and trusted allies, who believes in his leader's plan to move west, in anticipation of finding those fighting the diseased minds of the 'Colonists', who used to be their fellow citizens, neighbors, friends, and even family.
On a side note, before becoming an actor, Shooting Star was a stunt man, who used a variety of apparatus to accomplish his stunts. When he found the winged jet pack (on a fallen member of the USAF), he was able to learn how to use it through A.A.R.Un, who had knowledge of military craft in his memory banks. Shooting Star now does for real what he once did as an entertainer; if he doesn't, he won't have to worry about losing a job, he'll lose his life.
(...and he could play himself in the movie, kind of like Bill Murry in 'Zombieland'...)