Kataneera

*"Traitor? No shadow, my name is not "traitor". I am Zracon and I will bring you all to the Light, one way or another"*

   Born in the Commonwealth with the name of Christine Skarbek, **Kataneera**is a human native of the world of Ortus and one of the few humans known to have converted to the religion of the Zracon Union. Declared a traitor by the Commonwealth's  government after a series of kidnappings, assassinations and military sabotages in the territories of the Galactic Entente, she is one of the deadliest agents at the disposal of the Zracon  and a fanatical beliver of their faith. Few of those targeted by Kataneera ever survive, with the list of those killed at her hands continue to grow with each passing week.

Those who try to hunt down the Zracon agent (be it out of revenge, a sense of justice or the huge reward promised by different governments and families) not only face a dangerous black-ops agent with a wide range of combat skills and experience staying in the shadows. A trip to the Commonwealth world of Redamon Prime done during the woman's youth gave her the gift of psionic powers, one she uses constantly to deal with her pursuers and learn more information for her masters in the High Priesthood.

Her family had made several public attempts to convince her to come back and face a fair trial. If Kataneera has seen them, she still has given no answer.

## An unknown past

Information about the life of Christine Skarbek before her conversion is scarce and often contradictory, something which might have to do with the agent's own efforts to give her pursuers as little information as she can about herself. Born in Ortus, the first report of her existance are a series of adoption papers kept by Christine's foster family. Quiet and distant towards her new parents, she rarely gave them any trouble. Reports from her teachers in elementary and high school also speak of a smart, yet silent girl who always tried to stay away from crowds and hid whenever fights happened between her classmates. With no information about her natural parents, researchers can only especulate about what traumatic events might have happened during the girl's youth and how that might have influenced her to turn on the Commonwealth in the future.

Contradictory reports speak of the jobs she took after she left school: Working in one of Curacao's  many factories, helping with the research of biologists in one of the capital's many underground gardens and acting as the personal aid ofGeneral Aspinaca himself are only a few of the one's gathered by the Commonwealth researchers. Over the years, nearly each and every one of them has been prooven false and still more come out every year, just as difficult to believe as all which came before.

### Agent

However, there is still one theory believed by a number of researchers trying to solve the puzzle of Christine's past. Called the "Agent theory", it explains that the reason for Christine's skills and knowledge about how to properly target Entente territories has to do with her previous training as an agent of the Commonwealth's spec ops forces. Of very few words, a sharp mind and growing psionic skills, she would be a valuable asset for the nation and a natural agent ready to deal with foes within and beyond the Commonwealth's borders.

Sadly, if Kataneera was truly a Commonwealth special ops agent before her conversion, all reports about that has either been lost or destroyed. Lovers of conspiracy theories blame this lack of documents on the prime minister himself, saying that he is trying to cover his tracks and protect the people to blame for Kataneer's instruction. A few others though fear that the documents were instead destroyed by the Zracon agent herself, as a way to make sure her previous colleagues.

If this last part is true, Kataneera would truly be one of the most dangerous agents in the eastern fringe of the galaxy, a ghost who cares little about walls or doors.

### Capture

No-one knows the events which led to Christine's capture and conversion to the Zracon faith. Accident or black ops mission, she was sent to the gargantuan temples of the Zracon Union to be tested by their priests. It is believed that Wise Lumgaar, one of the best known priests outside the Union's frontiers, was the one to brainwash Christine. Propaganda sent by the Union show how, during one of their spiritual sessions, an unidentified Zracon priest allowed her to join his mind with hers to show her the truth about the Ligh and the shadows.

Two days later, Christine Skarbec the human died and Kataneera, "the light which strikes from shadow", was born as a new member of the Union.

## Zracon agent

Due to the close relationship between humanity and theAlir Commune, Kataneera had little trouble infiltrating the territory of the Union's foes. While she is mostly known for her brutal attacks against the Entente's infrastructure and military, it is now known that the agent spends more time focusing on stealing plans, strategies and designs than she does doing sabotage.

Not all of the information she gathers goes to her Zracon masters. New designs in Yaanari weaponry and tactics show that maybe she has also sent part of what she has gathered to the Yaanari league , as a way to strenghten the Entente's foes. The trap sprung during the 2nd Battle of Avaconea might not have been possible without all the information about fleet tactics and ship specifics brought by Kataneera.

### Psionic powers

Unlike other psionic users, Kataneera is very subtle in the use of her mind powers and very rarely leaves a trace on her victims (one of the reasons why even the Commonwealth's psionic agents have trouble tracking her down). From altering the perception of reality of those nearest to her, to changeing moods and giving nightmares to important officials during their sleep, Kataneera knows many ways to drain the morale of her victims.

An example of her psionic mastery is the suicide of Holuruu'Pinan, owner of one of the largest military factory chains in the whole Commune. Father of several children and beloved by many, the Alir industrialist suddenly became more distant and agressive, a factor not helped by the constant nightmares which assailed him every night. No matter what medicines he took, whenever Holuruu went to his bend in one of Cint's largest spires, he woke up not to long after screaming about shadows engulfing the planet and consuming all living things on it until only a barren rock remained. Unable to take it for any longer, he threw himself from one of the windows from his home, dying after a fall of several miles.

Only recently, it has been discovered that Kataneera was behind this suicide, her mind slowly eroding Holuruu's morale until he became desperate enough to take his own life. Hiding in one of the building's old, storage rooms, she spent nights using her powers to send nightmares and change the industrialist's moods so he would not be able to conduct his factories with the same efficiency as before. This, coupled with the lacking of a worthy successor, has slowed down the creation of new battleships for the Entente's fleet and brought fear to the hearts of many other important owners who now fear for their lives.

### Propaganda

Using equipment given to her by the Zracon Union, Kataneera has been known to also hack broadcast systems of her new nation's enemies. In place of the usual program, the agent downloads speeches and hyms from the Zracon priesthood, each transmission always ending up with a warning to all living beings about the danger of the shadows and the need to be converted to the one faith to be saved and brought to the light.

While nearly useless when it comes to converting the population of Commonwealth or Entente worlds, the mere fact that Kataneera is able to hack into a nation's broadcast systems usually lowers the morale of the population.

### Sabotage

Less subtle than the agent's other tools yet still effective when it comes to spreading panic and endagering the war effort of the Union's enemies, Kataneera has become a small, yet annoying thorn on the back of the Entene's arsenal. Several Shalani corvettes were unable to take part on the 2nd Battle of Avaconea due to sudden explosions in their core and engines just a few days before the fleet could part to battle.

Command staffs are not safe either. A Sondrithian camp was surprised by a fire which just happened to be born just a few strides away from the tent of the militia's commander-in-chief. While most men managed to escape the fames and control it so it would not spread to nearby civilian areas, the chaos of the moment allowed Kataneera a chance to slay the commander with a well-placed shot of a rifle she had stolen from their arsenal.

## Personality

*"One of the reasons why she is so difficult to find is her like of attachments. Even our best agents sometimes feel the need to interact with someone else, be it their handlers or one of the people they hire to move them from one spot to the next. Kataneera is not like that. She is a shadow, cold, merciless and always leaves a drozen wrong trails on her wake. Had she not become a traitor, I imagine she would have been a fantastic agent"*

-fragment of a report of Kataneera from the Commonwealth's black ops teams-

Those few who have managed to see Kataneera and lived talk of a humorless, cold woman with the speech patterns of a Zracon and a belif on the Light to match one of their priests. While a fanatic, she has still not tried to convert any of the people she has met or captured to the Zracon faith. Since only the priesthood of their race is allowed to perform this "sacred duty", Kataneera's choice in that matter is thought to be born out of respect and fear for her masters.

While she sometimes leaves enough clues for authorities to know she was the one behind a sabotage or assassination, Kataneera does this more to spread terror than boast about her skills. Thinking of herself as a mere tool in the Union's complex machinery, Kataneera considers her mission to be a one-woman crusade against the shadows which cannot be allowed to fail.

The surprising lack of attacks directed to the Commonwealth (a nation Kataneera knows well and would have little trouble infiltrating in) has made some researchers believe that, maybe, the Zracon agent still has a few remaining attachments to her previous home, be it personal or emotional. As all things involving Kataneera however, nothing is certain and it might also be possible that the Union is saving her best agent for later, when the Zracon once more launch a crusade into Commonwealth space.