Natalya Volskaya

> *"Sympathy, Zeal, is just the politically correct way of telling someone they're a pathetic piece of shit."*
> ~ to ZL-875521.
>
>

## Introduction

**Natalya Volskaya** is a commander serving in initially the Mecharussian Armed Forces and then those of the Mechanocracy of Mankind. She is one of a handful of elite Mecharussian soldiers who served in the Superheavy Assault Component, granting her access to extremely powerful and strong experimental necrocybernetics that put her fighting capabilities on par with a main battle tank. She is also notable as one of the only superheavy assault units to attain a staff officer rank, so competent in both fighting and armoured infantry tactics is she.

As of 2172, Volskaya holds the rank of Brigadier and serves alongside the Echidnan General Bogdan Andropov; she *"reminds me of Trofima, but somehow manages to **outperform** her in tenacity!"*. In addition to the Helleon Campaigns, she would fight in Operation Tornado in 2172, the ferocious Tindalos Offensive in 2175-77, and the invasion of Canes Venatici in the 2190s.

## Personality

Volskaya is amongst the camp of Machine Race that hold a bitter hatred of all things foreign and alien, one that is justified from the perspective of many. Both of her parents and her younger brother were killed as the battle of Minsk raged during World War IV after a passing A-164 Liberator strafed their car with its rotary cannon. Volskaya herself only narrowly survived the attack, losing both of her legs and most of her skin burned away after the car's fuel tank exploded; only the timely arrival of a CasEvac unit from the 43rd Guards Regiment of the Prybaltika Legion saved her life.

She also, like many millions of her compatriots, grew up under the influence of the charismatic populist and xenophobe Varfolomei Kaffarov in an atmosphere of near universal hatred directed towards the Imperium of Sidhae amongst the Mecharussian people. Being a veteran of the Helleon Campaigns, she has learned to associate aliens as enemies by default, suspicious even of the token Vespatym who lend their lives in service to General Yulia Trotskaya (a point of contention between the two commanders, particularly during Operation Tornado).

What is particular about Volskaya's personality is that she never, ever demands sympathy or mercy from anyone. For all of the furious hate that she dedicates towards xenos, she passionately believes that even the most disgusting, pathetic creature in the entire multiverse deserves a chance to prove its worth to the world. By clinging onto the horrors of the past, Volskaya believes, one cannot possibly make progress towards the Mechanocratic Ideology-mandated improvement of both the self and others around you. This trait she acquired from a childhood idolisation of the fallen Ideological hero Victor Golovkin, who passionately believed that every wrongdoer deserves a chance to right those wrongs.

Accounting for this line of thought, Volskaya herself has trained to be a ferocious warrior in her own right, and never, ever shies from a chance to get into a good fight. She has tackled several Echidnan hypersoldiers at once and come out on top, and has even duelled Elena Trotskaya herself. Although Volskaya was veritably walloped by the Red Tigress, the latter commented that she was highly impressed with the superheavy trooper's fighting skill. This is especially in light of her hardcore military traditionalist attitude, Volskaya preferring conventional weaponry and raw brute force to more exotic weapon systems *"that belong in two hundred year-old children's cartoons, not the battlefield"*. This is why she outfits herself with such weapons as a twin-linked 35-millimetre chaingun, telescoping chainsaw and high-pressure plasma thrower on her right arm, plus a heavy-duty ballistic shield built into her left, despite having ready access to more advanced armaments. The apparently primitive nature of her weapon choices often leads opponents to underestimate her fighting capability, a secret to her combat success.

## Notable appearances

Volskaya has not yet appeared in the Frencoverse.

## Trivia

Volskaya is similar to Imperial general Rom Mohc from *Star Wars: Dark Forces*, particularly in regards to her penchant for personal combat. She is not, however, directly based on the character.