Fyodora Spalko

> *"Do you ever get lonely out there, in the cold darkness of space?"*
> ~ to Arcadius Drax. (\*)
>
>

## Introduction

**Fyodora Spalko** is a Mecharussian intelligence officer working for the Secretariat of Internal Security, the Committee of State Security and later the Consolidated Directorate of State Security. She operates as a skilled seductress, initially heading a cell dedicated to intelligence operations within the New Frenco Empire before being handpicked by the Chthonian Drakolich to operate under his personal direction, along with drone operator Arseniy Knyazev, expert hacker Valeriy Shostak and master infiltrator/assassin Vyacheslav Drago.

Along with Knyazev and Shostak, Spalko has earned a reputation in the intelligence services for being repeatedly assigned new callsigns as a result of having a death falsified to hide their existence from the enemy – one such instance of this occurring is after the ambush just before the Sixteen July conspiracy. Within the KGB/KDGB, she is nicknamed 'Deathless' because of the frequency of these reassignments.

As a result of that, Spalko has a vast number of different alibis at her disposal, and has mastered every one of them. She remarks that her favourite persona was a woman whose sister was a high-ranking Cybermancer: apparently, the sister in question was dispatched by the Supreme Leader himself to the Unified States of South America to search for an artefact of possible extraterrestrial origin. She was never seen again, however, and Spalko states that she perished during a run-in with renowned Frenkish treasure-hunter 'Montana' Johnson.

## Personality

In most scenarios, Spalko is calm, collected and adopts a dead-serious attitude to her work. She has been noted for her diligence and competence in her art, and Drakolich considers her one of his finest operatives as a result of that. Her work in the Frenkish Empire is also assisted by her possessing a sexual appetite that would be considered unorthodox by Mecharussian standards, masochistic tendencies being the most prominent example of just that. She is also capable of perfectly imitating a New Roman accent. Both have come to help her greatly with infiltrating Frenkish society.

Infrequently, however, Spalko's inclinations have led her into trouble, Drakolich having on one occasion to kill a hotel bar attendant to whom a drunken Spalko had revealed sensitive information. She also develops an infatuation with Halko, a Judicator from the Imperium of Sidhae – much to the chagrin of both him and the Chthonian Ippolyta, who had also developed a crush on him.

During the military dictatorship of Elena Trotskaya, Spalko would be augmented to Novaya Chthonian standard and serve in the same spy ring as the Original Chthonians Dzheyson and Tesey. This service would continue for many years, including long after the formation of the Mechanocracy of Mankind.

## Notable appearances

* Spalko first appears in *A Blood Debt* to play a minor role as part of Drakolich's spy-ring.

* She appears again in *Flight of the Polunochnaya*, once again operating alongside Drakolich and serving as OTAN's intelligence liaison (posing as his secretary) aboard the FIS *Isaac Asimov*.

## Trivia

* Appearance and surname-wise, Spalko is quite obviously based upon Irina Spalko, the main antagonist of *Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*. Other than that, however, the two have almost nothing in common.