Michael Drackovich

Michael Drackovich shortly after his reappearance.

## **Overview**

A man born in trying circumstances, Michael Drackovich is a man of often unscrupulous opinion, being the son of a convicted traitor of The Commonwealth and partly being raised by the said traitor, has left an immediate bad taste in the mouths of many as they learn his family name. Michael does not let this hold himself back and if anything has embraced it. Even during his trying times at the Academy, he kept his head held high and surpassed all those around him who shot him down and graduated top of his class with a prestigious posting aboard one of the first Poniatowski-class Battleships. He eagerly awaited his fate as he went to reclaim his stained legacy.

## **Childhood**

Michael's childhood was a trying one, he was born in the midst of his father's separatist movement and suffered the repercussions. At first, his mother attempted to keep his family name a secret for his own safety. But from a young age, Michael learned to take pride in his name no matter what. Plus the constant surveillance on him that was spotted every now and then helped people to connect the dots. This led to Michael having to be moved from school to school for much of his early life, leaving him lonely and unconnected from people, having to leave any of the very few friends he made every year or two. But when Michael reached the age of 10 he was moved to a private school in one of New Warsaw's more rich districts. Here he stayed the next five years of his life, constantly facing abuse from his fellow students and even some of the instructors. He would constantly come home with cuts, scrapes, and bruises to the point on the rare days he didn't arrive home with them his mother was surprised. But Michael never let these hold him down and channeled the abuse he faced into his drive to improve himself, and show that he was not some "sorry son of a traitor" as many came to call him.

### **The First Incident**

On one rather grueling day at one of the many schools Michael attended, upon The Commonwealth's National Holiday "Day of New Begining", there was a celebration on the school grounds that most of the families attended. These events were always full of patriotic fervor, such would always lead to Michael being punished for his father's mistake so he would never attend. But this year he felt the same feeling and snuck out of the house to attend. He arrived and mingled about the crowds, enjoying in the merriment, these celebrations drew in many who did not go to the school so he was not noticed immediately. But eventually, in one of the back corners, he bumped into a group of 4th years who were one of the main groups that abused Michael. They saw him, surrounded him, threw insults at him, then fists and feet. Though this time was different, though his father was not around that often, whenever he was he would school Michael in many things he learned, one of which how to fight. At first, he was loosing, but then with a couple of swift hits to the genitals of a couple of the assaulters. Soon they were all on the ground with bloody faces and broken arms as a couple of Marshals that were there for security rounded the corner, Michael fled and scrambled over a fence and rushed his way home.

### **The Gift Emerges**

On one fateful night a little after Michael's 13th birthday, his Mother was working a late-night shift and left him with the babysitter/maid that his mother employed, Michael was very fond of the woman, felt her as something of a second mother. The night was normal and Michael had gone ahead to his room to get some sleep when a loud crash came from the living room followed by the scream of the maid. Michael rushed down to the living room to see a few men ransacking their house with a couple around the maid, striking and interrogating her. Michael rushes down the steps yelling at them to stop when one grabs Michael by the arm and knocking him out. Eventually, Michael regained consciousness in an alleyway in the city, the maid was pressed against one of the alley walls, clothes were torn and crying profusely. Michael tried to rush to her but was struck by a pistol and knocked down. The maid was dragged over and the pistol pressed to her head, the men threatened to shoot her. The men made comments of "Who's gonna care if we shoot someone related to a traitor?" and "You're gonna be a message to your traitor of a father". The man with the pistol struck the woman one more time, a tooth was knocked out and her nose began to bleed, Michael gave one, echoing scream, as his body lit up with markings becoming visible and a tendril of energy piercing and disemboweling the man, but the man pulled the trigger due to the hit, the woman's brains exploded and landed over Michael, there was a short pause before Michael lit up again and assaulted the remaining men. Later Marshall's would arrive to see the scene of obliterated and desecrated corpses, and Michael, covered in blood, holding on to the corpse of his now-deceased babysitter. Royland was able to deflect away any involvement of his son.

## **The Academy**

Michael was accepted to the New Warsaw Naval Academy and began his trials at age 16, where he would spend the next four years being beat, berated and talked down to, but also improving, defeating, and building a new legacy for his desecrated name. At the start his fellow Decker cadets did not care for him and often were outright hostile, the instructors would often press him the hardest, but after the first year, Michael showed that he was much more than what they made him out to be. Michael soon was top of his class and stayed there, he had many on his tail but none could catch up, during PT he outperformed all, whoever he went up against during the many simulated wargames they had suffered, at best, hard-fought defeats, his knowledge of everything a captain needed to know surpassed some of the instructors themselves. Michael ended up catching the eye of the Academy Commandant, who took Michael under his wing and led him to even greater heights, this all culminated in Michael's graduation. Upon graduation, Michael was given a commission and command aboard one of the first battleships of the Commonwealth and several other Academy honors.

## **Naval Service**

After the final Celebrations on June 12th, 2197, Michael Drackovich began his Naval career as Captain of the second Battleship of The Commonwealth, the CSV Legacy (Although due to some minor issues that were not spotted until much later the ship showed up on IFV's as CSV Kyohu). The first action Michael took part in was the preliminary bombardment of the Yaanari planet Thrus-Sanguur to prepare for the upcoming invasion by the Army of the Commonwealth.

### **Trial By Fire**

Michael's first combat occurred on February 15th, 2299 when Task Force Manticore was sent back to Thrus-Sanguur to relive the Commonwealth Forces being bombarded by the Yaanari Fleet Gror'cash Star Hunters. Michael went into the battle heavily optimistic, perhaps even a bit naive. Michael played countless simulations of battles, he even took losses in those, but this was *real*, something that messed with Michael, especially when the destroyer CSV Ruby detonated right off his port side with all hands. This was Michael's awakening to war, to the true frailty of life, to the motivation to protect all he could.

### **A Day That Will Live in Infamy**

Just like everywhere else in The Commonwealth, the day of the massive Psionic attack by the Zrachon on March 7th, 2305. With Michael's latent Psionic abilities he was also targeted in the attack, but somehow he was able to hold out against it. But anywho were attacked somehow knew all who should have swayed, when one of his Marines came into his quarters, covered in blood, soon realized that Michael was not turned, then attacked. Michael took a couple of good hits but was lucky enough to survive, he soon fought his way to the bridge, killing a couple more mutineers before coming to the Marine guard at the door of the bridge. He got a status report from the fleet and went to cleansing the ship. There were a few pockets who were not hidden for long as they pressed hard to make it to the bridge, they didn't last but a little under an hour.

### **The Gift Brough to Light**

November 26th, 2317, Task Force Manticore entered into combat with the Unbidden fleet that had been terrorizing Mezaca Sector. The fleet managed to get many good shots in and start taking down some of the smaller vessels, but that was before the Unbidden got in range, soon in one blast almost the entirety of the support fleet was taken down sending thousands to there untimely demise, Michael witnessed this and followed orders to put as much firepower into the unbidden as possible, more unbidden fell as the fire from Task Force Manticore became more accurate but this left the fleet itself an easy target and soon a second blast waved out destroying all battleships but the CSV Legacy which suffered damage in the blast. The sound for the retreat was sounded and the fleet made ready to break for the emergency wormhole all the while more ships dropping from the fleet as the wormhole was prepared, but with the Legacy on its last legs, and the fleet in a dire state, Michael had a vision of his father, Royland Drackovich, that told him to prove his worth, to honor his legacy and retap back into his latent psionic abilities and save his men. Michael, with these words in his mind, lashed out and made a large psionic barrier over the fleet just before the lances of energy hit the fleet causing massive feedback to hit Michael, but the barrier was not strong enough to hold out against the full force of the unbidden fleet, allowing multiple lances to breach through and to slam into the fleet, destroying Admiral Ibrahim's ship and losing contact with the emergency wormhole. Another try is made as more lances strike out from the unbidden, Michael lashing out protecting who he could but not all as more ships fell in the barrage sending him to the floor. As they reached the wormhole Michael knew they would die if they went through so he mustered all he could and opened a hole for their ship to burst into an alternate dimension.

### **Inside The Inbetween**

Michael and the CVS Legacy spent almost a month inside the "Inbetween" as it would be called after all was said and done. During the entire ordeal, three mutinies had to be put down, a small cult formed around Michael, and his resolve was tested. The main problem is while Michael could get them out of this "Inbetween" by opening a tear that the ship was on course to fly through, the main problem was that the ship was flying at too high a speed and it would be more likely to pierce a planet or fling to the next galaxy before it could stop. Luckily Michael's chief engineer managed to modify their emergency wormhole generator to detonate upon emergency expulsion and create a small, yet powerful, wormhole to pull back on the Legacy to slow it down enough to not get a one-way express trip to a planet's core. The day of their escape came, the tension was high as Royland started to feel the coming tear and soon lashed out his mind, sinking his energy through and trying to expand it, straining as bit by bit the hole opens till the last second he forces it open to its fullest extent, the ships Cheif Engineer expelled the wormhole generator just at the right moment where it was left inside of the open whole, exploding and slowing the CVS Legacy down enough where its reverse thrusters could safely stop it, the reality tear behind the Legacy collapsed sealing off the wormhole in the reality between.

### **The Dawn of A New Age**

Once outside of the "Inbetween" Michael was given reports that they had other contacts around them, fearing they were enemies Michael rushed to the bridge only to see four exact copies of his ship and on the vid screens four exact copies of himself, Honor, Bravery, Resilience, and Justice. Essences of his virtues, with fully functional battleships alongside Michael's, own fully repaired and recrewed ship, scans showed they were in dark space outside of Aasha System and that some new cores inside of the ships could get them there very quickly. After preparations were made, the Legacy Fleet jumped into Aasha System where a great battle was being waged, Manticore was fighting hard against the Sovereign Armada of The Eternal Empire above Ortus, as The Legacy Fleet jumped in, both sides reacted, unsure what side they were on, after a quick exchange with Admiral Ibrahim Michael and his duplicates dove into the Imperial's flank, taking down several ships before they returned fire on the Legacy Fleet. But not long did the true plan come to unfurl, Manticore knew they would have a hard time defeating the Imperials if they even could, so they pulled the true ace from their sleeves, down on Ortus all Psionics were gathered together for one wave of energy to hit the Armada and send them reading, but with Michael and his duplicates in orbit, they had an amplifier. Soon Michael felt the energies of millions of minds of all levels of power flood into his, his duplicates helping control the flow as the CVS Legacy got into the optimal position then Michael unleashed it, a massive wave of Psionic energy blasted across the Armada, crewmen were dazed, incapacitated and in the cases of the susceptible, killed, but the biggest thing of all was the unexpected assault on Queen Victoria VIII who was sent reeling from the assault, the fighting of the Armada became confused as Manticore took the advantage and plunged forward, crippling and destroying several more ships before the Armada warped away.

### **The Final Fight**

After the Battle of Aasha, there was a plan to get back at the Empire after their attempted invasion of Ortus, an invasion of New-Earth. But it became known that The Empress was a major psionic force and would use that against The Commonwealth, so the plan included leaving all psionically active people in the army and navy in cryo around a star while on route to New Earth, Michael loathed this idea for he wanted to protect his ship and his crew, he had been with them since the first days of this vessel, through the grandest of hardships and never abandoned the ship or them and he wouldn't do it today. So he pulled some old connections of his father and bribed a few officials and got himself and his Executive Officer Dramiki Dragan Holographic Face Bands to hide who they truly were and one for the person that would take Michaels place in the cryo pod. With the deception in place, Manticore made their way to New Earth and began to bombard her, multiple smaller Empire battlegroups were fought off until the defenses on the planet were brought down enough for the ground forces to invade and while they landed and swept away the defenders and fought them back to Mt. Westminster, but soon the Empress sent a Psionic assault out meant to cripple both the fleet and army, Michael and his copies were the only psionics in the entire affair so they felt the full brunt of it, in immense pain and thrashing around he eventually ripped the band off showing his face, his markings glowing bright one of Ibrahims planted agents shot Michael and was about to end his life with the entire bridge being in an intense standoff, but pings came up on the screen of the Empire's final gambit, so in a moment of desperation Michael was let to be in command. The Eternal Empire sent all they had left in the form of one of the largest fleets they had ever formed containing multiple dreadnoughts, a long and bloody battle ensued as ships on both sides became battered and wounded from the constant barrage. But Michael remained steadfast, his copies doing the same, raining fire on the armada but soon they started to fall either to the lances from the dreadnoughts or from the sheer amount of fire from the fleet, and soon Michaels ship was heavily wounded, he didn't wish his crew to die in this chaos so he called the order to abandon ship as another lance struck out and carved through the engines and the reactors, explosions rocked the ship and wounded Michael. In the wounded daze, Michael only saw Dragan and the agent that shot him dragging him down hallway after hallway until the reached single man escape pod and placed him in it, Dragan placed a data stick in his coat and left him with the hope to "Rebuild his name". As Michael looked on he realized who Dragan was, his father and the woman, removing her own Holographic band, his mother. The escape pod launched, CVS Legacy detonated soon after, and Michael descended to the planet below. Upon landing, Michael listened to the data stick and heard the tale of his father and his death and his cloning, his eyes filling with tears as he learned his father wasn't who he thought he was.

## **After The End**

After the fight above New Earth finished, Michael was retrieved from her surface and brought back aboard Task Force Manticore and put under arrest for endangering the fleet with his presence, over the months of travel back to Commonwealth space, Michael was pulled out of cryo a few times to answer questions on why he was there, he told them the truth, he knew he would put the fleet at risk but he felt it be better to have a capable yet dangerous commander at the helm rather than have him be a wasted asset in cryo sleep. He also brought up his father, what truly happened, and wanted to clear his name, sadly once he reached back home to Ortus the council would not heed the request and had the data stick destroyed and Michael was given an Honorable Discharge from the Navy. Years went by after the Unbidden's defeat and after a while with new synthetic bodies becoming a new normal around the Commonwealth and a new disposition settling on Psionics, Michael saw a new dawn that he couldn't be apart of, so he began again what his cloned father did, a campaign around the Commonwealth to bring in all Psionics who would wish to keep their powers to start a new life somewhere where they'll be accepted, and after almost a year most of the Psionics in The Commonwealth would be gathered up onto a few Colony ships and a small number outdated frigates for protection and flew out of Commonwealth space into the still tumultuous Thadrakos lands and laid claim to a small yet seemingly rich outer system but without a colonizable world, but with so many psionics in one place great things can happen, pooling together the energies of hundreds of thousands of Psionics, they managed to breathe life into one of the barren worlds into the now renamed "Haven", sadly some had not been able to control the flow of energy leaving them and perished but they would be memorialized as the colony ships landed and began working to forge a new life on a new world.

For the first few years before the colony could be totally self-sufficient, Commonwealth smuggler ships came and unloaded supplies for the world as they quickly grew the first city around the colony ships, and once settled they set up orbital operations around the sector. It would be almost a decade after they landed before the Thadrakos had realized these new people staking a claim in their borders but it would still be another year before the first emissaries would arrive, but by this time the Psionics were well established and had started retrofitting their ships and had set up ground forces and defenses in expectation of this. When the first Thadrakos fleet entered they were met with fierce resistance, sadly after this many of the old ships they used were badly damaged so a change of strategy was made to truly make use of their Psionic abilities, boarding. So come the next attacks the fleet grew as ship after ship came under boarding attacks from these psionics who cut through their crews with ease. After a few years, a peace was made and even a couple of outer systems were claimed by the new nation, now calling itself "The Forsaken Coven", to secure their place in the universe. After this, they prospered and became a haven for any and all psionics in the galaxy and became a major trade stop in the southern part of the galaxy. But even with his powers becoming able to extend his life and see him lead his new nation through these starting years after a few decades and many trying times, age came for Michael, and in his dying days Michael sent a request back to the Commonwealth for himself to be buried beside his mother and father, a request that was accepted, so on the 25th of September, 2393, Michael was laid to rest on Ortus on a hill overlooking his father's home city of Frostpeak beside his parents, The last organic human to be buried on Ortus.