Zipcha Bazztik

*"You know I'm right, Zip."*

*"You're not."*

Zipcha Bazztik to Achzt Chirt before shooting him.

**Zipcha Bazztik** is a Tshchiki soldier serving as the 1st Commissary-General of Tshchik. Serving as a commander in the Free Tshchiki Army during the Tshchiki War, Bazztik, son of Zipcha Bazzt, quickly rose to become a hero to the rebellion, and his efforts saw Klygesh and Rodia join the war on the rebellion's side.

## Backstory

Zipcha Bazztik was born on August 26, 1133YL, in Hive Capizh. As the first child of the famed Commodore Zipcha Bazzt, thus being the one who would take his name, the birth was originally going to be greeted with much fanfare, however, Zip was born a drone, a weaker, wingless caste of Tshchiki considered a lesser race. Because of this, he was sent to the underground Drone Quarters with the rest of the drones.

At some point in his youth, Zip met a female drone named Ss Kichilx, despite the prohibition on opposite sexes interacting in the Drone Quarters. The two became close friends by the start of the Tshchiki War.

## History

### Tshchiki War

After Tshchik had invaded and genocided many primitive planets, it came into contact with Qilakia, commencing the Tshchiki War. Zip, then serving as a file clerk in the Naval Mili-Spire in Hive Capizh despite living in Hive Sshshik, was expected to not acknowledge his father as his father due to the embarrassment he brought upon his family. By May 20, when the rebellion began, Zip had been taken and recruited into the Free Tshchiki Army. During the Battle of Sshshik's Drones, Zip discovered that Ss had been executed by a government soldier, and thus began executing any loyalist he could find, impressing the leadership of the FTA, who desired a champion fo both military and propaganda purposes.

After a month of fighting, by mid-June, Zip had encountered a possible foil to his strength, the dreaded loyalist Captain Zap Sak. Meanwhile, under his own order, the Rebellion managed to gain the support of Klygesh and Rodia due to the atrocities committed by the regime, commencing with the invasion of the hothouse planet Xact on June 25. There, Zip rallied with Klyish Brigadier General Roman Trench and Rodian Commodore Ulan Volen, where he explained the lot in life of drones to them both.

Following the Battle of Xact, the Rebellion suffered a schism, with Generalissimo Achzt Chirt breaking off to begin a genocide of "Uppers", the winged caste of Tshchik, after the death of the other Generalissimo, Ezthack Sakik, himself an Upper. On June 26, the Battle of Hive Capizh began as Chirt's soldiers clashed with Zip's coalition and remaining loyalists under Sak himself.

### Showdown with Sak

During the battle, Zip found Chirt in the ruins of the Army's Mili-Spire and shot him after Chirt went on a rant about drones replacing the Uppers as the ruling caste. Chirt invoked Ss, musing that the Klys could clone her, but Zip replied that nobody comes back from the dead. Chirt's last words were to tell Zip that he knew he was right, to which Zip responded "You're not." before shooting the crazed rebel leader.

Sak himself then showed up, applauding Zip for killing Chirt before the two clashed. Sak even offered Zip to become his apprentice, pretending that he would spare the rebel leader's life. Zip, of course, refused, and managed to kill Sak with a final plas-charge he had for his plas-gun after a brutal fight.

### Rebuilding

With the help of Trench and Volen, Zip's men finally defeated the Chirt loyalists and Sak loyalists, freeing Tshchik from its tyrannical system. In the aftermath of the war, Zip was chosen to serve as the first Commissary-General of the Commissary Republic of Tshchik, a parliamentary stratocracy. He championed the building of the new Tshchiki capital, New Hope City, and ordered the terraforming of Captsh into a verdant paradise, renaming the planet Hope. He also pursued good relations with Klygesh and Rodia, and made peace with Qilakia, which erupted into civil war not long after the end of the ancien regime in Tshchik. Zip has sense supported the Republicans against the Reds.

In early September, Zip approached the Klyish mercenary Donovan Silverwinter, after learning that his father survived the war and joined John Rackam's Republic of Pirates. Zip hired Donovan to infiltrate a pirate capital and kidnap Bazzt for the sole reason of speaking to him. Donovan accepted, and put together a team including Zip himself.

## Personality

Zip started out as a nominally loyal drone who's love for Ss made him wonder if there was a better system than the one he lived under. The atrocities committed by the ancien regime also disturbed him, leading him to question the government. His value of life clashed with his desire for vengeance against the government after Ss died, leading up to his execution of Chirt at the end of the war.

## Trivia

* Zip is one of three named Tshchiki characters to have survived the war. The others are his own father, Zipcha Bazzt, and the former High Count of Tshchik, Chi Schsich. Of these three, he is the only to not have joined Rackam's Republic.
* He used a translator to speak to Ulan and Roman before learning Klyish off-screen after the war. Unlike his father, he speaks it without a Tshchiki Accent.