K.C. Caynan

K. C. Caynan was a Mondite, former Chief of Security of the Daedalus Base.

## Early life

As a boy, he wanted to be an explorer and played games with his friends — they were aliens, and he became a bold Reticulum Scout. He never stayed on one planet more than a few years, something that to him seemed almost like a voluntary prison.

## Mondite service

He joined the Mondite cult. He remembered fondly the excercises put by the founder and leader, the Prime Paragon such as the week of shouting and the month of silence.

He was assigned to starship *Kasenko* (FMS-9TO) for Daedalus. After Commander Wilm was killed in a construction accident (d1413) Caynan became Security Chief of the Daedalus Base and started entering into the historical log. He had received the highest level of security clearance. Dr. Eden Escher asked Caynan for a proper memorial service for Wilm.

At first he had to cope with his Security Team being reluctant to cooperate with Dr. Amet Mastaba, not holding official rank. At one point he had to punish he undiciplined Grayson. Caynan would too defect from the cause shortly after.

Reports of dangerous and hostile native life-forms in the Mount Sion vicinity led him to reassign security troopers Nordish and Esposito, former Reticulum Scouts, to reconnaissance duty. He also ordered a survey as a precautionary measure.

At one point, feeling tension between his troops, and knowing that the security teams did not have enough transition from their former philosophical emersion, he considered 'inventing' the Paragon's dictates.

One time, a biological experimentation subject under the management of Dr. Mastaba. used the required nursebot to somehow overcome the security net, and freed self, overpowering the guard but was unable to escape from holding area. Caynan managed to subdue the subject.

Some days later a plasti-steel-eating fungus spread in the base, difficult it was to locate. Security had to pry open doors with brute force because the build-up had clogged mechanisms and stuck door-seams together. It was everywhere by the time they found a nanite program that would eliminate it.

Caynan started to feel uneasy with Dr. Mastaba and his uncanny fluctuation of mood. Mastaba told him (as if they were friends) that Mondite scientists have found a stable computer matrix that updates itself.

He had difficulty to cope with the support Dropships Chelios, Belfour and Roenick for not keeping the standard regulations concerning secrecy and when a ground troop encounters a life form.

The variety and hostility of Daedalus life forms made him to order that Security Team troops must wear blasters at all times, even off-duty.

Soon he discovered that the energy-dispersion units for the surface troops' personal shields are no longer working. No one can discover the reason. However he was pleased to see that troops had improved being more cautious since they now felt insecure.

Then he was troubled with the 2-months delay of a shipment of Tonfa Guns.

He was grateful to Dr. Eden Escher for touring him around the dig site. As a thanks, he offered to show her the bodies of the Phyxx Soldiers found by the *Ambassadoria*.

At one point Caynan informed Mastaba about the Phyxx shielding information discovered by the scientists.

After half a strenuous day of shift-drills he ate spice-fruit and had a nightmare which made him think that uploading his mind to a computer would not achieve immortality.

Eventually he started not to trust Mastaba and wrote a secret message to Escher telling her that their goals were not the same, and to be careful what she may divulge to Mastaba. His suspicions soared when he saw Legget trying to download his files. Furthermore, he was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the fates of the AFA subjects and kept seeing them as peple.

The following days he was with Dr. Eden Escher and he ordered his men as they put a sarcophagus in the Cell 2 along with some equipment. Martic Dane asked Caynan about what was in the next cell, and he replied that it was something that probably will kill them all, and that he shouldn't worry about it.

## Defection

He began to doubt the wisdom of the Paragon. He began to doubt the most basic beliefs of the necessity of technological evolution and the superiority of science over nature. He lost faith in the way of the Paragon. he was disgusted by what Mastaba had been doing, and the creatures they were discovering. His sympathy with the experimental subjects was a manifestation of his neurosis and he decided to betray both the project and the movement.

The following days Caynan was walking around the cellblock increasingly nervous, different and intensely in thought. His orders became erratic as his thoughts lost clarity and focus. He had heard that the person in Cell 4 was a flight officer, so one day when the camera went off, Caynan approached Dane and offered him to escape. A dropship was out on the platform brought in on autopilot for maintenance as the crew and marines on board were in cold storage.

They would need the new neighbour, AP-127, who was the "chosen one" for the experiment and they spare them in case they were caught. He gave Dane his personal access code to get out of a bad spot. As a thanks, he gave Caynan the photo of Launa. He reached in between the bars of the cell and put a blaster in his hand when the doors to the cellblock opened and 3 more guards came in to take the man from Cell 3.

The escape attempt failed. Both Dane and Caynan were captured. It has been determined that he was not susceptible to rehabilitation. Although he was never considered a serious contender for the ABA project, he did fit the requirements of an ABA prototype candidate, Mastaba found on him an available "mass of expendable tissue" instead of killing him outright.

## Captured

Eventually guards took Caynan. He fought as best he could but in the end they took him away to Cell 1. All things he had with him was Launa's picture and a Logbook, where he wrote his thoughts. On d1892 he heard the Guards torturing Dane. He believed that his former comrades would show him more mercy but instead they showed him the same cruelty he himself had showed to non-Mondites, because he was a traitor. Sometime later Mert and Amdant told him he will be turned over to Mastaba, and he hoped that they were just bluffing to terrify him. But it was not so. When they came with shocks and injections he attempted to resist but eventually they won, and took him to Control Level for surgery. That night he dreamed he was back home with his parents.

The next day he felt exhausted and in pain, unable even to eat the food they left him. He noticed one of the Tower bots rigged with an injector that injected him whenever he tried to get up. Headache prevented him to sleep. Mastaba, examining him, seemed disappointed by the results of the operation, but had to wait until he recovered to try again. The afternoon he was annoyed by a weird trilling noise of variant pitches and length, and realised it was in his head. All his body was itching and his fingers bloodied from the scratching. When the noise stopped, he fell asleep.

At midnight he woke up and noticed that his skin has turned to blue. He also started to lose his mind as he forgot whatever happened to him, until he read again the Logbook.He felt happy that his old thoughts and memories had been erased and felt the desire to become again the person he was. He had a brief sleep and dreamed of someone with a red mask, thinking he was his father. He thought that the nursebot was his mother. After some time he started arguing with "her" and destroyed the bot. He confessed his "crime" to the guards who came and they laughed. They shocked him several times and he attacked them, breaking the face of one, until they left, taking his food. They returned to collect what he kept from a man's face, and he was happy that they left the Fork, which he thought it was the key to his whole world. He thought he was making progress in some plans, and convinced his guards that they are lizards; he thought that he kept everyone else prisoner outside of his world. He was tormented by the sound of some Flute. He remembered Dane and held Launa's photo. He lost sense of what he was hearing and wrote some intelligible entries in the Logbook.

One day 2 guards went to look in on Caynan who must have mauled one of them really bad. Caynan continued to get worse. All he does is growl and howl like an animal.

He was designated BX-3497 and underwent Stages One and Two genetic alteration and a series of genetic mutations and given strength and durability superior than humans (and the side effect of blue color and insanity).

Ever since they brought him back he has been jabbering like a lunatic, screaming some conversation with his mother that must be going on inside his head.

When AP-127 fought with his nursebot and short-circuited the energy bars, this also happened with Caynan's cell; he tried to leave but the beams cut off his arm. When AP-127 approached, he warned him that he will never get his precious fork.

AP-127 can either fight him or distract him with some meat, but Caynan will attack him once he picks up the fork.

## Treatment

* Inject legs with lubricant AE-4 twice daily
* Feed meat products only
* Precede any entry with stun blast
* Stay sharp - subject is trained in combat

## Interests

Caynan had the following disks

* The Complete Philosophical Treatise of the Paragon
* Stratas' Military Histories of the Nine Planets
* The Benefits of Technological Evolution
* Mikas' Intra-Galactic Exploration Strategies
* Nanotech, Volumes I-IV and IX-XIII
* Stellar Life
* Absolute Recycling, an Achievable Lifestyle
* Bad Habits, Survival Strengths
* Understanding Hyper-Navigation

He wished to trade them for fiction or music of any kind.

## Stats

Caynan has 200 HP (double that of AP-127).

In battle, Caynan uses high attacks; with his single left arm, he prefers slow but powerful overhand strikes (in Normal mode; negative and positive are the modifications for the Easy and Hard modes).

* Right uppercut: 22 -8+4
* Right body blow: 16
* Right backhand to head: 26
* Overhead slam: 24
* Right blow to head: 21

As his arm stump is vulnerable, he is supposed to be especially vulnerable with the Alt-7 uppercut, as he stops and shakes his head in pain.

## Trivia

The portrait model is Kraig Count who worked as Artist for *BioForge*, and *Wing Commander III*; he also provided the voice for the Reactorbot.

He is voiced by actor Ryan Wickerham who also voices Osmat.