Nestor Kuznetsov

Nestor Kuznetsov is a well known Russian freelance military scientist who was one of the major contributors to the development of Altered Humans, he was mainly attributed to the Slava Rossii program by the Kremlin in creating a team of genetically-engineered "heroes" for the Russian Federation but also worked previously on the Proletarian Project before the Soviet Union was dissolved and worked on the failed Project Ogre directly after that.

### **History**

Born in Surgut, Nestor's past was something of a mystery other than that he graduated Tomsk State University in 1970 but also studied in the Russian Academy of Military Science in the 1980's, but was caught up in various soviet uprisings and never stayed in one place for too long. One of his earliest jobs took him back to his hometown where he was a chemical engineer in Surgut's gas power station, but moved on to more advanced biological research for various military organisations throughout the soviet era.

In 1981 he was recruited by the Soviet government where he was one of three scientists responsible for altering Alexei Goncharov into The Proletarian as a symbol of Soviet might, but the project was scrapped during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, resulting in Goncharov turning on Nestor and various Kremlin politicians and Nestor was ordered to shut him down; but proud of his greatest cybernetic work to date and not fully trusting this new government, Nestor actually froze Alexei in a now-abandoned deep-level facility near Pripyat perhaps in the secret hope that he might again be part of a revolution to overthrow the Federation in the future, but for now Nestor complied.

After the formation of the Russian Federation the Kremlin reinstated Nestor as part of the reformed research and development program that created The Proletarian; the first project, essentially an extension of the robotics research that became the Ogre Project, however the limitations of stable computerised balancing systems at the time meant that Ogre was a failed project from the start.

The organisation that developed after this, was both a research project and a superhuman task force in one, and it was Nestor's job to facilitate the Kremlin's desire to create altered humans, something Nestor had only just heard of and had not properly researched. The Kremlin, however were impatient and expecting results asap, and he reached out to Theodore Lind for help.

They began with contacting a known neo, a man named Artyom Chernyshevsky, that the Soviet Union were aware of, but had so far been uncooperative, promising him his own team should he comply. When Artyom did surprisingly respond this time, Lind and Kuznetsov used his DNA as a base for creating altered humans, eventually choosing five people and a dog, who were an usual mix of incredibly skilled special forces soldiers and down-and-out nobodies who had specific skillsets the Kremlin desired.

Because of Lind's previous experience with genetics, he and Kuznetsov made sure the people chosen were all successes, and there were no deaths during the process, something that impressed the Kremlin as they were fully expecting Nestor's experiments to die.

Their first experiment was Sila, an East Siberian Laika who was modified to possess cybernetically enhanced bones, impact-absorbing joints, jaw strength, metal teeth, reflexes and intelligence, but whose genes were modified as an early genetic test bed so that his body accepted and actively worked with his cybernetic components without rejection, something Nestor learned while modifying Alexei Goncharov.

### **Appearance**

Nestor was a tall, skinny gentlemen in his late 60's, he has a long beard and balding light brownish/grey hair that falls back to just below his shoulders. He often wears black-rimmed glasses and an array of other glasses on his head. Nestor suffered with lower-back pain and often walks with a slight hump and his hands behind his back.

### **Personality**

Nestor is a brilliant and advanced scientist in many fields, from biology to advanced mechanical engineering such as robotics, but is a coy and somewhat gentle man at heart, he is fearful of many of the people he works with, being himself physically frail, easily complies with his enemies and put up no resistance when he was ordered to become the lead scientist for Slava Rossii, even after several of his subordinate scientists, who were close friend of his, were shot and killed for noncompliance.

As such Kuznetsov has become complicit with braking moral and ethical codes against his will, but his secret hopes of resuscitating The Proletarian also points to a somewhat hidden rebellious side.

### **Powers and Abilities**

Kuznetsov has no superhuman powers but does possess a number of intellectual gifts that make him a particularly brilliant in terms of various sciences, although not quite considered a savant, is nevertheless one of the greatest living scientists in the world.

**Brilliant Intellect**: Although nowhere in the league of savants like Theo, Robin or Mika, his brilliance with various forms of science puts him on a high pedestal of mathematical understanding, comprehension and general knowledge assimilation far above the average person.

**Expert Chemist**: He studied a verity of chemistry disciplines, from biochemistry to petrochemical science and has used them working in various industries.

**Expert Biologist**: Nestor has studied various forms of biochemistry and by extension began specialising in the study of organic molecules and cells.

**Expert Engineer**: In addition Kuznetsov has excelled in the study of complex forms of engineering, and later specialised in robotics and miniaturisation of mechanics to highly advanced degrees.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Nestor, despite his intelligence and multifaceted scientific studies is both physically frail, and easily frightened and controlled, he hates conflicts and will actively avoid confrontation where he can, choosing to work for shady organisations with low moral and ethical standards than stand up for himself; although he does have a hidden rebellious side, keeps this quiet at all times.

Nestor can be described as a self-preservationist and will betray people to protect himself, although he is not necsecerrly a bad person, he lacks confidence and bravery in special situations and projects an aura of weakness and fragility about him that makes him more susceptible to bullying.

Kuznetsov has notable lower back problems, likely due to a mixture of inherited issues, stress and old age and has recently begun using a walking stick.