Mikhail Kadnikov after his retirement from the IMC
- "The whole entirety of space is at humanity's fingertips, and we're all still trying to kill each other, just like during my grandfather's time."
- ―Mikhail Kadnikov, writing in his Journal
Mikhail Kadnikov (Cyrillic: Михаил Ка́дников), is a Russian engineer who formerly worked with the IMC prior to the civil war, where he then had a conflict of interest and retired. Mikhail left to wander human space, appearing on different world's from time to time.
Biography[]
- "I was young, I was brash, and above all naive enough to think space was the beautiful and exotic candy jar that the IMC propaganda claimed it was..."
- ―Mikhail Kadnikov, talking of his experiences
Mikhail, around the time when humanity was spreading further into the universe, was merely a boy, then still living on earth and working on old farming equipment in the rural Siberian wastes that had yet to be colonized. This captured the young Mikhail's imagination, although his father was skeptical and still enamoured with the his own father's service with the Soviet Union. This admiration of the past and future in two generations would rub off into Mikhail, and make a big impression on the young soon-to-be cadet. When he reached an age where he was elligible to join the IMC's programs expanding out into the universe, he took with him his grandfather's Makarov PM and journal. After being selected for the IMC's interstellar exploration program and going through the necessary training, he was selected for a career in engineering after his previous engineering background was revealed. Slightly dissapointed by the career move, Mikhail would spend another few years exploring different parts of the numerous world's the IMC colonized, repairing the Titans that were incredibly valued and glorified by the IMC, amazed and captivated by the beauty of these alien worlds at first, but then slowly losing interest as it became a norm in his life.
When the Civil-war began between the IMC and the Frontier Militia, Mikhail was suffering from what he described as his own 'Space-age middle-age crisis', with strong reservations against both the IMC's colonial aggression and the Militia's savage way of fighting, the 54 year old Mikhail soon made many enemies with staunch IMC patriots. With his reservations growing stronger by the time the first Titans engaged in combat, he finally retired from duty. Mikhail, dejected by both the IMC and Frontier Militia, took to wondering most of Earth's space as a hitch-hiker, as well as frequenting the independent human colony's on the border of the known and mapped space. He set about making a life for himself telling stories of his service in the IMC, his grandfather's service in the Soviet Union, hunting legally and illegally and acting as a mercenary for hire. He