Yelena Trotskaya

**Yelena Trotskaya** is a Mecharussian military commander, the primarcha of the Order of the Trinity, and the chief enforcer of the Archaelect Mir.

## Background

### Early life

Trotskaya was born on the 12th of July 2111 to Varvara Trotskaya, a quartermaster for the local OMON garrison in northern Ufa, Bashkortostan. She never knew who her father was, as he disappeared shortly after her birth – only that he was called *Imran*, and even then only because of her patronymic.

Generally, Trotskaya has fond memories of her childhood, except for an experience of a burglary that she had aged five. Three robbers, searching the house for weapons, held the young Yelena at knifepoint during a tense standoff with her mother. Although the thieves would eventually be subdued, she would recall this as her first experience of genuine terror. As a result of this harrowing encounter, she would have difficulties trusting strangers that would remain with her for the rest of her life. Hence, when her school life began, she possessed only a small circle of friends. Among this circle was Vasiliy Kuznetsov, a fellow student with whom she fell deeply in love.

Although Trotskaya developed a degree of social awkwardness from her lack of friends, she became more focused on her schoolwork, allowing her to acquire a positive work-ethic. In particular, she would tinker with the machining table that her mother used to maintain the OMON troopers' weapons. Her love for metalworking would grow to be such that she developed a strong affinity for it that would last well into adulthood.

During breaks, the school workshop would be Trotskaya's usual haunt, where she would be preoccupied with whatever her latest project was. To help finance her hobby, she acquired a part-time job as a waitress in an Ufa cafe from the moment that she reached working-age. By 2129, she was attending Bashkortostan's Technological College to study nanometallurgy, in which she proved to be highly gifted owing to her passion and years of experience. Her tutor, Bekhan Kravec, saw great promise in her, and he arranged for her to be transferred to the prestigious Technological Institute in New Leningrad so she could have access to the best possible material and equipment, the prospect of which delighted her. Having found the love of her life and her dream job, Trotskaya's life seemed all but perfect.

### The Rape

Unfortunately, another development cut her plans short. Vasiliy had borrowed money from a loan shark working for Anatoly Rakovsky, scion to the Balaklava syndicate, to pay for his own tuition with the promise to repay him when he started working. However, owing to his mother developing cancer, Vasiliy had to drop out of his course to care for her; just as Trotskaya was preparing to take him on a date to calm his nerves (having noticed that he was on-edge), Rakovsky's thugs broke into her home. A terrified Trotskaya immediately grabbed her mother's shotgun as an enforcer approached her, but hesitated – a move that allowed the thug to disarm her and drag her out of the house with Vasiliy. She could only watch as Rakovsky shot and killed her beloved before her eyes, before having her bundled into a car.

For the next week, Trotskaya was raped and brutally tortured at the leisure of Rakovsky and his men, the former of whom fathered her child Alexey. Toward the end of the harrowing ordeal, she had come to accept her most likely fate to be death at the hands of the mob scion and his thugs. However, during another rape, she overheard that Rakovsky planned to sell her to a slave market. She immediately broke into a psychotic rage, and she emasculated one of his henchmen with her teeth. This led Rakovsky to change his mind, deciding instead to have her savagely beaten to within an inch of her life and left in warg-infested woods to die. She would later learn from Mir that Rakovsky had also had her mother killed, just to spite her for humiliating him.

Trotskaya found an unexpected guardian angel, however, in Mir. The Archaelect found the mortally-wounded Trotskaya in the snow, desperately trying to claw her way back to civilisation. Sensing the indefatigable determination in her to survive despite all odds, it arranged for her to be brought back to the Mir Complex, with the Archaelect personally overseeing her return to good health.

During this process, Mir presented to Trotskaya a proposition that it knew she would never refuse: assist it with realising its dream of unifying all people and elevating Mankind to greatness. Trotskaya accepted, on one condition – that Mir would make her strong so that she would never allow something like the murder of Vasiliy to transpire again. The Archaelect agreed, and thus began the creation of the supersoldier that would go by the moniker of 'Crimson Seraph'.

### Rise of the Crimson Seraph

> *"Where some people would have been content with merely opening Pandora's box, Rakowski's idiot son has ripped off the lid and masturbated into it."*
> ~ Marshal Tisifona Okhotnova.
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Fuelling herself with her rage and hate, Trotskaya would train to fight for months, even before giving birth to Alexey nine months after she was taken. Afterward, she accelerated her training for two years, receiving personal education from Tisifona Okhotnova in combat, tactics and military strategy. The marshal indulged her, proving to be a harsh but effective educator – there being one incident where Trotskaya challenged her to a duel out of frustration. Okhotnova soundly thrashed and humiliated her in the first fight, but Trotskaya rebounded later on and was able to pull a draw from the second fight.

Furthermore, she insisted that each and every prototype cybernetic implant that Ivan Golovkin, Mir's resident augmentician, be affixed and trialled one at a time to test that they were perfect for her upcoming missions. She even used her own expertise in nanometallurgy to assist in designing the parts, such as devising a liquid metal lubricant to enable the joints to twist and contort at angles impossible for any baseline human. For all intents and purposes, she had commissioned herself to be rebuilt as a living weapon of war – one that would bring death and oblivion to all enemies of Mechanocracy.

Finally, on the 18th of June 2131, Trotskaya was unleashed upon the world in her first mission – Operation Khoroshev's Razor. Returning to her home town of Ufa, she went to confront Rakovsky at his mansion during a gathering of prominent vozhdi. She encountered him after slaughtering her way to the same dungeons where she herself was once held: after Rakovsky made a pathetic attempt to knock her unconscious, she subdued and killed him in the dungeon as the mansion above burned to ash.

### Operation Red Hammer

> *See also: Operation Red Hammer (story)*
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Shortly before the Mecharussian invasion of the Baltic Union, Trotskaya was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the Mecharussian Ground Forces and assigned command of SpetsTak Vympel, a crack-squad of VRU operators specialised in the deployment of advanced battlefield technology. She led the group to hunt down key Baltic military commanders, a task at which she and her squadron proved to be highly successful.

Trotskaya would achieve worldwide notoriety for orchestrating the Pytalovo Massacre, the mass execution of Baltic soldiers that defended the town of Abrene/Pytalovo. The woman herself would claim the massacre to be conducted as vengeance for the 'displacement' of ethnic Russians from the town when the Baltic Union expanded eastward. This displacement had long been a staging ground for populists in the Mechanocracy to direct hatred against the Balts – as a result, the Pytalovo Massacre won high appraisal from the hardline wing of Mekh politics in the face of global disgust and even an attempt to have Trotskaya court-martialed. To this day, she holds no regret for her actions at Abrene, even going as far as to mock someone who confronted her about it.

### Operation Weeping Sword

Trotskaya was also heavily involved in the occupation phase of the Third Baltic War.

## Personality

### Attitudes toward people

> *"Your friends were too weak and stupid to defend themselves. They deserved everything they got."*
> ~ spoken to Armin Talos upon being confronted about the Pytalovo massacre.
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To many, Trotskaya appears cold, ruthless and sometimes even sadistic. She seems to hold many of her peers with exceptionally low regard, treating them as mere instruments for her goals without regard for their personal virtues or even their lives. This assumption is largely true, though more out of pragmatic concerns than arrogance (which she profoundly lacks) or plain misanthropy.

In an ordinary setting, Trotskaya appreciates the conveniences and even some of the luxuries that accompany life at the height of Mecharussian society. Nevertheless, she feels as though she is surrounded by decadent narcissists who claim to uphold the Ideology, yet would falter the moment they are called upon to defend it, a belief that discomforts her profusely. Combining this with the general distrust of people that she already possesses, she prefers to isolate herself from the social scene, although will involve herself if necessary.

Having had firsthand experience of humanity at its worst, Trotskaya loathes depravity and exploitation like nothing else. She reserves a special degree of hatred for rapists and slavers; such individuals with the complete misfortune to face her judgement can expect her to mete out a terrible punishment. More often than not, that punishment will straddle the line between cold justice and barefaced barbarity without fear.

That said, Trotskaya does have a select circle of friends and close associates. Among these are Mir itself, Trotskaya considering it to be the nearest equivalent that she possesses to a father (her true father having disappeared under never divulged circumstances early in her youth). She also holds a high degree of respect for President Spiridon Engalychev, despite her keen awareness that he sees her first and foremost as a tool to further the state's goals (and a highly effective one at that). Additionally, she maintains close contact with Tisifona Okhotnova, the Marshal of the Mechanocracy and her educator in tactics and military strategy. Another close associate of hers is Vadim Churyumov, alongside whom she frequently works on operations.

Even despite her relationships with these individuals, Trotskaya would be hard-pressed to consider them 'friends', though Mir would without much doubt come the closest. Those chosen few who *do* manage to win her affection, however, will not find a more stalwart defender in the entire solar system. She will gladly throw herself in the line of fire to protect those she cares about, and has no qualms whatsoever about ripping through their assailants like toilet paper.

### Residences

Trotskaya maintains two homes throughout her service to Mir. She owns a penthouse in New Leningrad's prestigious Central district, but her main residence is a heavily-fortified dacha built near the resort city of Yalta in the Crimea. The penthouse was issued as her official residence by Mir, the dacha she purchased and upgraded with her own funds acquired by crafting augmentations on the side and her salary as a military intelligence officer.

Trotskaya's Yalta dacha doubles as a command centre, a position for her to direct military operations; it is for this reason that it is more comparable to a coastal fortress than a holiday home. She also hosts gatherings of high-ranking officers on a regular basis, to formulate strategies and decide the Mecharussian war machine's next move. Trotskaya even hosted President Engalychev himself and his entourage at her dacha after the collapse of the Old Nations, where she assisted in the formation and execution of the Fortress Dardanelles plan.

### Speech

Trotskaya nearly always speaks as if writing a formal letter to someone, a trait that she has possessed from a young age. She almost never uses contractions, and goes out of her way to avoid profanities and slang terms. For this reason, she is often mistaken for a Reasoning Machine. One is quickly reassured, however, by her voice lacking the distinctive metallic ring of a Reasoning Machine, as well as her eyes lacking the solid holographic triangles of an RM.

The sole exception to the rule is if Trotskaya is nervous or upset, a rare instance considering her generally calm, collected demeanour. Through observing her speech, one is able to gauge her mood: if she uses a contraction or a curse, she is on-edge. If not, then all is well.

### Habits and hobbies

Most of Trotskaya's pastimes pertain to her work and to warfare. For instance, her skill in metalworking is frequently applied to the creation and maintenance of weaponry. Likewise, she maintains a formidable collection of weapons within her Yalta dacha, with new additions being added every day.

Much to the surprise of many an associate, one of Trotskaya's more peaceful hobbies is gardening, specifically flower-arranging. One would become less surprised, however, when told that her favourite flower is the poppy, for its associations with remembering the fallen war dead. She makes a point of wearing one on her breast when she is attending a formal social event or a parade.

### Religious beliefs

In a private conversation with an associate, Trotskaya once remarked that she believes that there are indeed omnipotent and omniscient beings in existence out there, *"for how else can the Universe be filled with such horror but by design?"*. She does not, however, consider these all-powerful entities to be gods: in her image, a god - if it even exists - would also possess the quality of omnibenevolence, making it more of a father-figure. At some point in the distant past, Trotskaya professes, such a being *did* actually exist, but no longer does. However, this hypothetical 'God', creating mankind in his or her image, endowed its creation with the greatest possible gift of all - the capacity for reason.

For this reason, Trotskaya despises organised religion. She asserts that if a God exists, or exist*ed*, it would never impose the kind of heavenly tyranny upon man that Abrahamic religions suggest, and is frustrated that clergymen are so arrogant that they believe that they can interpret the laws and statutes of a being whose will they cannot even comprehend. Indeed, to demand of God that he *does* impose a tyrannical rule over a rational humanity would constitute a grievous insult. Instead, Trotskaya suggests, a God would be called upon for guidance, much like one's father would in times of hardship.

Given her criteria for a god, it can be reasonably stated that Trotskaya considers Mir to be a god (or at least a messiah), and accordingly raises the status of the Mechanocratic Ideology to a level of literal worship. Whether these rumours hold any truth, the woman has never disclosed.

### Spoken languages

Quite obviously aside from her mother-tongue of Russian, Trotskaya is fluent in several languages, among them English, Chinese and German. When learning a new language, she invests considerable effort into researching the language herself, even though she is quite capable of using a universal translator or simply downloading the language into her brain with a data-pack.

## Physical characteristics

> *"Mir and Ivan turned me into a monstrosity, a creature more metal and circuitry than woman. They took me in and rebuilt me, body and soul, into a killing machine. They did it because I **begged them** to."*
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### Appearance

Trotskaya is a statuesque woman of Bashkir birth, standing at two metres tall, with death-white synthetic skin. She possesses raven-black hair and onyx-coloured lipstick, and is well-endowed, slim and muscular. Her gunmetal-blue eyeshadow is tailored to resemble an eagle's wings, amplifying the piercing gaze of her blood-red cybernetic optics.

Trotskaya herself has meticulously handcrafted this idiosyncratic self-image to create an illusion of deadly elegance. The quasi-vampiric charm that she radiates in both appearance and intellect deeply unsettles those who would challenge her authority, and those with the complete misfortune to face her in battle find themselves terrorised by her supernatural physiognomy, speed and strength.

### Cybernetics

Trotskaya's experimental-grade cybernetic augmentations endow her with superhuman physical strength, speed, agility and durability. Her upper body strength is sufficient to allow such feats as picking up and throwing cars, punching dents into the front armour of a main battle tank, and wielding a GSh-23/12 rocket launcher in one hand. Trotskaya's lower body exhibits similarly phenomenal strength, her legs showing little to no wear or degradation when moving at high speed. She can easily run at speeds of 100 kilometres per hour for brief periods of time before the two DGM power packs built into her begin to show slight decline.

The endoskeleton replacing the majority of Trotskaya's bones is fashioned from a composite of malleable crystalline ceramics interlaced with titanium carbide nanofibres. Most general infantry-calibre munitions cannot hope to scratch the armour, and even plasma or EM-propelled bullets are unable to pierce the thick plates where her ribs and sternum would be. To all but those wielding the largest and/or most powerful infantry weapons, Trotskaya is essentially unstoppable.

For dealing with larger-calibre weapon systems, she falls back to the Shkval Active Protection System, a miniaturised version of the Uragan-M APS that appears on most Mecharussian AFVs. It uses shaped micro-charges embedded into nodules on Trotskaya's body to deflect incoming munitions that her armour and endoskeleton cannot. Although it is obviously useless against high-velocity AP rounds and energy weapons, it is highly effective against grenades and rocket-propelled munitions, and it is synchronised directly to her augmented perception. If Trotskaya sees or hears an incoming projectile, Shkval can theoretically neutralise it.

In equal measure to being able to take a beating, Trotskaya is certainly more than capable of unleashing one. She has made sure that every single one of her augmentations can be used as an offensive weapon in one way or another. This endows her with several unusual weapons, with her exploiting their unfamiliarity with most opponents to deadly effect. For instance, the skin on her hands can be pulled back to reveal razor-sharp claws, and her teeth are mounted onto tracks and can be deployed and used like a chainsaw. One of the more exotic weapons in her possession is a retractable prehensile carbon-nanotube lasher built into her tongue. It can reach out to almost half a metre, constrict and asphyxiate a man with ease, and the leaf-blade on its tip can pierce flesh and reach between the plates of powered armour.

## Notable appearances

The Main Canon 2.0 incarnation of Trotskaya first appears in the *Crimson Seraph* three-parter series of Tales from the Frencoverse.

She plays a role as one of the Mekh point-of-view characters in *Operation Red Hammer*.

## Trivia

As a result of heavy retcons and canon reformats, Yelena Trotskaya is the oldest character to still be a part of the Frencoverse's mythos. She has existed on paper for five years, taking shape in her earliest iteration for the 2041 canon that served as one of the prototypes for the Frencoverse.

Trotskaya also holds the distinction of being Blak's only protagonist *not* designed for purpose, taking the lead largely by freak accident. Originally she was to have served as an antagonist, only becoming a deuteragonist during the events of Struggle, before evolving into the main star of PTFS In Chaos - a role she has retained in stories since.