John Christian Falkenberg

John Christian Falkenberg, (*2621 on Luna, &dagger;3003(?) in the Multiverse Nexus), the son of small-time Lunite smuggler James Falkenberg, who was arrested by the Vanguard for transporting weapons without a permit when John was 14 years old. This left the young John as sole supporter of his mother, Christina, who was of frail health. The young boy made his money in some of the seedier districts of the old Lunar City, primarily as a prize fighter. This put him in contact with the criminal element on Luna, where he learned many skills and made a few contacts. When he was 19, after the death of his mother, John left Luna by signing aboard a smuggler ship, following in the footsteps of his father, whom John assumed to be dead by this time. He worked his way out to the Fringe and spent several years as a mercenary for hire.

Driven by a desire to prove himself to be superior, mentally and physically, to anyone he came across, and by a consuming greed for money and power, John spent his 20's doing odd jobs around the Fringe. It was during this time that he learned to fly.

Rise
Finally, in the year 2650, he came to the attention of both Lord Fagin and Dimitri Volstov when he took a bounty hunting job aboard Nephthys Station to track down a former employee of Fagin's named Eddie Villanova, who had stolen plans for an assasin droid he had helped develop for Fagin's Riches. Falkenberg and a Qua partner he reluctantly took along named K'pin tracked Villanova to Demaria, where they captured him. However, the double-dealing Villanova tricked his captors by pretending to lead them to the plans but instead taking them into the arms of the Vanguard training base on Mars. During a confused confrontation with the Vanguard, Villanova shot a Vanguard sergeant and was himself killed, but Falkenberg and K'pin escaped with the plans and returned to Nephthys, where they collected their reward.

However, General Dimitri Volstov, commander of the Vanguard, learned of the incident and decided he wanted the plans for the assasin droid for himself. He issued an arrest warrant for Falkenberg and K'pin, blaming them for the death of the Vanguard sergeant shot by Villanova. The two went into hiding on Val Shohob under the protection of the Mystics and Eye Balthazar. They were tracked there by the Vanguard officers sent by Volstov, Colonel Grayback Windracer and Major Remy LeBeau. The Mystics, however, honored their agreement with Lord Fagin to shelter fugitives in exchange for Fagin's protection, and sheltered the two from their hunters. It should be noted that this incident began the long-running rivalry between Falkenberg and LeBeau.

After the heat died down, Falkenberg and K'pin went their separate ways, and Falkenberg returned to Nephthys, where he was greeted by Grim, Fagin's right-hand man. Fagin's palace on Tomin Kora had recently been destroyed and his organization was in a transitional state, and Grim remembered Falkenberg's brash but successful handling of the Villanova job. He offered him the chance to become the new Guildmaster of the Smuggler's Guild on Tomin Kora if Falkenberg would pledge his loyalty to Fagin forever. This Falkenberg gladly did, seeing the opportunity for riches and power, and Grim gave him a ship named the Zephyr. Falkenberg proceeded to quickly recruit a crew and rebuild the Guild. Under his command, the Zephyr performed many important tasks for Lord Fagin, including locating a new, more effective hideout for the Pirate King; the planetoid of Odysseus, lodged between the twin black holes Scylla and Charybdis. Fagin soon built a new palace there, and Grim made Falkenberg a very rich man.

Fall
One of Falkenberg's great weaknesses, however, was a pretty girl, and before long there was one who came his way who would force him to break with the Pirate King once and for all. Jest'liana Warren, who had been a member of the Smuggler's Guild under Leopold VanMahr, Falkenberg's predecessor, and who had joined the group led by Orandius Jaxx and Khatri N'Sha-El who turned against Fagin and destroyed his Tomin Kora palace, approached Falkenberg and asked to join his crew. Suspicious of her motives, Falkenberg reported the matter to Grim, who told him to accept Jest'liana and watch her until such time as Lord Fagin chose to deal with her and her friends personally. Jest soon became a key member of his crew, and the Zephyr continued to have many adventures; but Falkenberg was charmed by the lovely Jest'liana and a romance bloomed between the two. As Grim began to press Falkenberg to put pressure on Jest to see what she and her associates who had attacked Fagin's palace were planning, the Guildmaster sought to delay his master's vengeance and protect the girl.

Eventually, this angered Grim to the point that he felt he could no longer trust his Guildmaster, and he arranged an assasination plot. Through an intermediary posing as a distraught father whose daughter Falkenberg had seduced and then abandoned, Grim hired Vechkov Prague to kill Falkenberg. Prague, never realizing he was doing Fagin's dirty work, shot Falkenberg in the head, placing him in a coma from which it was expected he would never recover. Falkenberg was placed in a medical facility on Ungstir.

Meanwhile, his second in command aboard the Zephyr, Franz Messer, realized what had happened, and took action to protect Jest'liana, knowing this was what his captain would have wanted. As a result, the Zephyr crew was hunted by Fagin and went into hiding.

Some time later, a Zangali named Knuckles showed up at the Ungstiri medical center and removed the still comatose Falkenberg from it, claiming to be "a friend of the family." Falkenberg's comatose form was brought to Odysseus, where a series of experiments were performed on him by a doctor Klaus Von Nostrand. Grim, tired of seeing his Guildmasters rebel against him, had ordered Von Nostrand to place a special cyberneural implant into Falkenberg's brain. This would allow Grim to essentially program Falkenberg to do his bidding. The experiment repaired the brain damage that had placed Falkenberg in a coma, and he awoke, but found himself under the implant's control.

Around this time, Grim was killed aboard Fagin's luxury liner, the Galore. His place as Majordomo was taken by Dmitri Volstov. Volstov and Fagin were making preparations to sneak aboard the colony ship Sanctuary, which was preparing to flee from the oncoming Kretonian invasion. When it became known that all of Fagin's greatest enemies, including Jaxx, Sha, and Jest, were going to be aboard Sanctuary, they programmed Falkenberg to board the colony vessel and, once it was safely underway, hunt down and kill Fagin's enemies.

The Kretonians invaded, and Sanctuary jumped to Hiverspace. Falkenberg hid out on the colony ship for a short time, but his cybernetic implant malfunctioned, and he was found wandering the halls blabbering about killing various people. With the aid of Eye Mordecai of the mystics and Doctor Melissa Fernandez, the implant was removed and Falkenberg was set free from Fagin's control. However, during the procedure a portion of Falkenberg's memory was erased, covering most of his time as Guildmaster of the Smuggler's Guild.

Sanctuary
When he learned what had happened to him, Falkenberg swore vengeance on Fagin and all who worked for him. He joined with Jaxx in hunting for the pirate king aboard Sanctuary, for both believed he and Volstov had made it aboard. He also settled down to what appeared to be a semi-respectable life. Going back to his roots, he opened a bar complete with a fighting ring in the back, called the Smuggler's Cove. It quickly became one of the most popular spots on Sanctuary, and a center of the colony ship's underground. Falkenberg ran and promoted a number of prominent fighting matches to entertain travelers on the colony ship, and quickly became something of a community leader on the vessel. He also was instrumental in the defeat of one of Sanctuary's greatest threats, the alien Voltrix, who had been transferred from the Obelisk of Power to the body of the Demarian Silverstripe. Voltrix was all-powerful, and threatened to enslave the colony vessel. Falkenberg, joining up with Jest'liana and the small crew of her ship, the Asylum, searched Hiverspace for the Obelisk of Truth. When Falkenberg recovered this, he was granted tremendous powers, and battled Voltrix onboard Sanctuary until he had subdued and destroyed the alien, after which time his powers left him.

During Sanctuary's voyage, Falkenberg also was briefly held captive by Ancient Shog of the Thul, and when a shipless Shog later demanded a rescue before he would help Sanctuary return home, it was Falkenberg and his old rival, LeBeau, who went out and recovered the slimy Thul. Around this time, Lord Fagin and Dmitri Volstov had been captured onboard Sanctuary and put into cryogenic freeze until the vessel could return home so they could face justice. It was Falkenberg who suggested to the Sanctuary Senate that the frozen bodies of Fagin and Volstov be turned over to the Thul as payment for Shog's help. This was done, and Falkenberg's revenge upon his enslavers was apparently accomplished. Or so it seemed.

When Sanctuary returned to normal space to find 350 years had passed and the Kretonians had fallen, Falkenberg was on one of the many exploratory expeditions the colony ship sent out to learn about the changed state of affairs in the world. He made contact with Lord Boromov on Ungstir, and after a few months decided to leave Sanctuary behind and start a new life in Boromov's criminal organization. He joined Boromov's pirate fleet under the command of Captain Richardson, and was soon given his own ship, the Fallen Angel, an impressively powerful ship. He recruited a new crew that included Bartholomew Abraham Denson, the oversized Ungstiri mercenary, and Tkagorth, a foul-tempered Zangali, as well as Jasra Beaulieu. Together they wrought havoc in the shipping lanes, and the Fallen Angel became a ship that was feared around the galaxy.

Agent of Boromov
While chasing a particularly tempting target back to Sanctuary, however, the Angel ran into trouble. A Nall vessel which had agreed to protect the colony ship sought to engage Falkenberg, and he prepared to retreat rather than face the Nall. However, he received a coded message from the commander of Boromov's pirate fleet, Richardson. Richardson ordered Falkenberg to sit tight, as his cloaked battleship was nearby. It promptly engaged and nearly destroyed the Nall ship, but Sanctuary responded by turning its weapons against the only visible vessel, the Fallen Angel. Falkenberg ordered a retreat, although he never ordered his ship to fire on the Nall. He went into hiding at his secret pirate base on New Luna.

A short time later a well-known hacker named Vampire was able to tie the Fallen Angel to Lord Boromov of Ungstir and sold this information to the Nall. The Nall promptly launched an invasion of Ungstir, and captured and executed Boromov. Boromov's sons, Nikolai and Boris, escaped, and punished Falkenberg by cutting off his left leg below the knee. While for some time Falkenberg was known to wear a peg-shaped prosthesis, reportedly as part of his punishment, his leg was later miraculously regrown and restored by the Thul.

The Boromov organization remained in disarray for a while, until Nikolai Boromov negotiated a merger with Cabrerra Industries. Boss Cabrerra had recently begun construction of the city of Shadowheart on Tomin Kora, Fagin's old stomping grounds. With the merger, Falkenberg became Cabrerra property, and he and his crew found themselves working for Colin Neidermeyer.

Back on Tomin Kora
Falkenberg proved his value to Boss Cabrerra and Neidermeyer by doing much of their dirty work for them, and his name became respected and feared on Tomin Kora. After a time, however, Falkenberg was confronted by an old nemesis: Grim, the man who 350 years earlier had arranged for him to be shot and then died aboard the Galore. Grim had been ressurected by the Kamir and given great powers over mind and matter, and he disposed of Neidermeyer and took over day to day operations for Boss Cabrerra. Grim knew Falkenberg well, and knew his weaknesses, and tempted him with the promise of power. He offered to make Falkenberg a new Lord Fagin, with power that would reach across the galaxy, if the pirate would do a few appropriate jobs for him. In particular, he wanted Falkenberg to help him eliminate all those who had once challenged the original Lord Fagin.

Before long, however, Falkenberg and his crew recognized that Grim was evil to the core, and that he was using Falkenberg as a pawn to distract potential enemies from his true activities. Falkenberg realized that Grim would seek to build him up as a "new Lord Fagin" only to, at the key moment, betray him and make him appear responsible for various acts of terrorism and barbarity, letting the authorities capture and kill Falkenberg. This would serve to cover up Grim's own activities on Tomin Kora, as he prepared to take out the revenge of the Kamir upon all corporeal life in the galaxy.

Falkenberg and his crew therefore took their newest ship, the Hand of Fate, and fled Tomin Kora. They went into hiding for a time, until Falkenberg realized he would have to enlist help to defeat Grim. He journeyed to Sivad and met secretly with members of the government there, revealing just who and what Grim was and how powerful he had become. He also revealed this information to other interested parties, including his old rival, Remy LeBeau. With the threat of Grim now revealed, arrangements were made to combat him. Sivad and the Vanguard ultimately launched an assault on Tomin Kora after Grim revealed he was behind the spread of the Nexus Plague, and this assault destroyed much of Shadowheart and killed Boss Cabrerra. Grim, however, could not be so easily killed.

Falkenberg then joined an expedition through the Multiverse Nexus to find the key to defeating Grim. During this expedition, however, Falkenberg unexplainedly disappeared, and has not been heard from since.

Badges
--Stamp 16:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC) --Stamp 16:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC) --Stamp 16:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC)