Rannis Kratz

## Biography

Renowned Chioni scientist and elder brother to current United Commonwealth of Planets President Akko Kratz, Rannis was born on Chion Prime in 2378.

Discarding his people's native belief in universal balance as a *Foolish Superstition*, Rannis Kratz entered the *Chioni Natural Sciences Institute* at the age of 19, despite the objections of his family who considered him to be an outcast but had allowed him to follow his own path.

While working as a minor researcher for the institute in 2398, conducting research into theoretical propulsion studies, Rannis became increasingly frustrated with the strict ethical regulations that the Institute needed to abide for, believe them to be holding back significant Chioni advancements.

In truth, Rannis saw Chion Prime as *expendable* as the Chioni began to discover more and more Class-M worlds which the Chioni Government refused to allow colonisation in the interests of *preserving galactic balance*. This response secretly enraged Rannis who became convinced of the incompetence of his own people.

In 2400, Rannis managed to rise to the position of senior researcher and engineering specialist with the Institute and was placed in charge of the *Cetacean Breeding Program*, which was designed to ecologically replenish the number of spaceborne cetaceans which the Chioni used as a primary form of natural transport.

During the project, Rannis began to illegal genetically modify the cetacean embryos in order enhance their physical strength and allow Chioni to control them more easily. He was discovered when his own brother, Akko Kratz, while on a political visit to the Institute uncovered his illegal modifications, recently having been elected as the leader of Aoca'metu, the capital of Chion Prime.

As a result, Rannis was banished from the *Chioni Natural Sciences Institute* in disgrace, creating a rift between the two brothers that would never fully be resolved.

In 2419, the Chioni joined the *United Commonwealth of Planets*, despite the objections of some members of Chioni society, including Rannis who secretly viewed the Commonwealth as an invading force from the Milky Way Galaxy. During the years since his dismissal, Rannis had a minor role at a Chioni communications station where he managed to make first contact with *House Telkana* of the Aventis Empire.

In April 2420, Chion Prime was made the defacto capital of the Commonwealth, with President Akko Kratz elected as the third Commonwealth President, after the suprise departure of *President Milena*. Akko attempted to mend the rift with his brother by offering him a position as a propulsion expert at the New Arkhosia Fleet Yards being constructed in orbit around Io (Arkhosia II-D).

Unknown to Akko and the rest of the Commonwealth, Rannis accepted this position in order to steal classified information about Commonwealth vessel designs and the Commonwealth High Guard Fleet in order to sell that information to the Aventis Empire. Such data was then used by the Aventis in the construction of the Aventis Burh Class in order to rival the Commonwealth itself.

In August 2420, Rannis Kratz boarded the U.S.S. Trident and secretly sabotaged a new magnetic constrictor design which he claimed would lead to a breakthrough in warp based technology similar to *The Great Experiment* of the 2280's, revising the warp scale and allowing speeds of up to Warp 15.

In reality, Rannis was already in the employ of *House Telkana* of the Aventis Empire and the supposed new *Magnetic Constrictor* was in reality, a modified version of Aventis Coaxial Warp Drive designed to propel the Trident into the path of the encroaching Pryde Worldship. *House Telkana* had hoped that The Pryde of Ma'lkon, which they had discovered due to an encounter with a crashed Pryde Crixis Class would destroy both the Commonwealth and the ruling family of the Aventis Empire, allowing *House Telkana* to rise to power once again, as they had done several hundred years prior.

Rannis was also crucial in relaying both general information about Commonwealth positions, as well as the location of several Khydallan freighters which were captured by *House Telkana* in order to synthasis a powerful antigen against the Eternium, which could be used once the Pryde had finished destroying the Commonwealth in order to neutralise them.

Rannis's treason was exposed when the U.S.S. Claidheamh Mòr travelled to the planet of Wightnare (Wightnare II) in order to retrieve the *Sword of Excalis* from *House Telkana* and General Sylveris Lunamonde discovered that Rannis had been sending encrypted communications from New Arkhosia Fleet Yards to *House Telkana*.

After being released from Redemption Prison Colony by the Umojan Empire when they conquered Chion Prime in March 2421, Rannis was chosen by Baron Yaj'reth Morphos to oversee the Chioni Collective intergration into the Umojan Empire. However Rannis took this oppotunity to reassemble Chion Forever and create a new technologically advanced city in the *"barrens"* region of Chion Prime known as "*Ranopolis"*.

Unknown to the Umojan, Rannis had adapted Umojan technology to allow him to convert living tissue into machinery, using this technology to convert thousands of Chioni into the mechanical *"Chionix"*, with unsutiable candidates, either children or elderly Chioni left in the cities across the planet, to be bombed during the Umojan suppression of the Chioni Resistance Movement.

During Operation: "Taon's Sword" when the United Commonwealth of Planets liberated the planet, it was discovered that Rannis was responsible for the deaths of over 5 million of his own people, something that the Umojan Empire was quick to disavow. He has also tortured Lieutenant Estak in an attempt to build his own kind of Synth but without the free will bestowed on the Synth people. He was captured by the United Commonwealth of Planets in May 2421.

After The Dark Ages, Rannis began to reconnect with his brother and even regret some of his past actions. He died in 2452 aboard the U.S.S. Trident (NCC-91992-A) while attempting to protect Curnaris (Omega Xi IV) from one of his inventions that had been infected by a member of the Pavarnis Assembly, alongside his brother Akko Kratz which he later reconciled with.