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There have been two versions of John Christian Falkenberg. The first lived in Normalspace and existed from the first story arc in 1998 until December of 2003, when he disappeared. The second, and current, version of Falkenberg is native to Normalspace Variant 1. While the two Falkenbergs share many similarities, they are different people, with different memories and experiences. There are also some substantial differences in their backgrounds and personal histories, even though they tended to end up in the same places.
Normalspace Variant One
This version of John Christian Falkenberg is different from the original. He ends up in the same place doing many of the same things, but his background and experiences are quite different. He also has no knowledge of the life of the original Falkenberg, and would not remember any friends (or enemies) of that character who might have survived into Hiverspace.
Early Childhood and History
John Christian Falkenberg was born in Lunar City, on Luna, in the year 2620. His mother Christina died in childbirth. He was raised by his father, James Falkenberg, who was an officer in the Vanguard. James' career was his central focus in life, and as he rose through the ranks of the Vanguard he saw his young son mainly as a burden. John's father was a hard man, who was cruel and demanding toward his son. From the time John was five years old, he was physically and verbally abused by his father. James demanded excellence from his son in all things, and brutally punished anything less. John was expected to excel in school and at sports, and to be perfectly well behaved and disciplined. John was actually quite an accomplished student and athlete, but it seemed nothing was ever good enough for his father; he never earned praise for his accomplishments, only the demand that he do better next time.
This harsh treatment instilled in young John a deep resentment for his father and a strong rebellious streak. The more his father tried to impose discipline, the more his son rebelled. John also developed a strong competitive streak and a constant desire to prove himself, to excel to the point of demonstrating his superiority over others, in a subconscious effort to meet his father's impossibly high standards. He also became something of a braggart and show-off, seeking to give himself the acclaim he was denied by others.
Vanguard Career
James Falkenberg wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and enter the Vanguard, and so that is what John did. At 18, he enrolled in the Vanguard academy, where he was a good student who demonstrated skill as a marksman and in hand-to-hand combat. But his true talent was as a pilot; Falkenberg had the highest flight scores of any cadet in his class at the academy. He would have graduated with honors but for his disciplinary problems. On some level, he associated the Vanguard with his father, and he fought against that authority with all his might. He received many demerits for insubordination and other disciplinary problems, and had a reputation for going against orders or failing to consult with superiors before taking action on training exercises. While he was generally known as a likeable, good-humored cadet, he also had a reputation for a quick temper and a violent, dangerous streak. When a fellow cadet insulted him by claiming he was skating by at the academy on his father's reputation, Falkenberg challenged him to a fight and beat him so severely he was hospitalized for six days. The academy authorities considered expelling him for this incident, but ultimately decided to keep him enrolled after his father, who was by this time a general, exerted pressure on his son's behalf. In addition, the academy's disciplinary committee was influenced by the recommendation of one of Falkenberg's professors at the academy, who said the young man needed the structure of the Vanguard to keep him out of trouble. "John Falkenberg has the capacity to be an outstanding officer for the Vanguard, if he is given the proper support," this professor wrote. "If he were to leave the Vanguard now, I have no doubt that he'd end up a very dangerous criminal."
Falkenberg graduated the academy, and because of his outstanding piloting skills, was assigned to a fighter squadron on the SCV Versailles. He quickly distinguished himself for his flying skills, but remained a disciplinary headache, spending almost as much time in the brig as he did in the cockpit. Still, he did display remarkable leadership talent when he was motivated, and was probably the best pilot on his ship. He reached the rank of lieutenant before his career finally unraveled.
Court Martial and Departure from the Vanguard
In 2644, the Versailles was on training exercises in Sol System, near Mars, when the ship received emergency orders to intercept a ship that was departing Mars with a kidnapped girl aboard. Falkenberg and two other pilots, flying Mark II Stinger fighters, were dispatched to intercept. Falkenberg was the flight leader. His orders were to prevent the ship, a civilian racing yacht, from jumping to Otherspace with the kidnapping victim still aboard. Under standard rules of engagement, pilots were forbidden to fire on civilian craft in Consortium space without specific authorization. Falkenberg was not given such authorization. He attempted to force the yacht to change course, and ordered it to return to Mars. The pilot, however, refused to comply. As the ship prepared to jump to Otherspace, Falkenberg fired his pulse cannons, disabling the ship's OS drive just before it engaged. Marines were then dispatched to board the ship and rescue the girl.
But it turned out that all was not as it seemed. The girl was the daughter of the Consortium Defense Minister, and the pilot of the yacht was not her kidnapper but her boyfriend. He, in turn, was the son of a member of the Consortium Council, and a political rival of the defense minister. The two fathers did not approve of their childrens' relationship, and attempted to break them up; the children decided to run off together and get married on Antimone. The Defense Minister had dispatched the Versailles to prevent his daughter from marrying the son of his rival without his permission. When Falkenberg fired on the yacht, it caused a small fire aboard the ship. Both the girl and her boyfriend suffered minor injuries and smoke inhalation. The Defense Minister was outraged that his daughter was hurt; the Councillor was angry that his son was injured and his yacht damaged. More importantly, however, it would be deeply embarrassing for both men if it became public that either one had used the Vanguard for personal gain, or as part of their personal and political rivalry. Therefore, they made certain that all the focus was placed on the rogue pilot, who had fired on a civilian vessel without authorization. John Christian Falkenberg was courtmartialled.
At his trial, he argued that his orders to prevent the ship from jumping to Otherspace had implied authorization to disable the ship. But the facts did not matter here. By the time the case was over, it appeared that Falkenberg had, on his own, attacked a civilian ship without any cause, the action of a rogue and dangerous officer. The details of who was aboard the ship, and why Falkenberg's flight had been in the area, were covered up. He was found guilty, sentenced to six months in prison, and then dishonorably discharged.
Upon the completion of his prison term, Falkenberg left the Consortium an angry, bitter man. He was furious at how the Vanguard had treated him. He was looking for revenge. But he also felt surprisingly liberated, for the first time out from under both his father's control and that of the Vanguard.
His father disowned him after his conviction, and the two have not spoken since.
Out to the Fringe
Falkenberg had come into contact with the criminal element of the Consortium for the first time during his imprisonment. There, he had learned that he could make a good living as a mercenary in the Fringe. His military training would prove quite valuable there, as would his knowledge of the Vanguard. When he was released, he was so disgusted by how he had been treated by the Vanguard and the Consortium government that he booked passage on the first shuttle he could find bound for the Fringe.
He first ended up on Ungstir, and spent three months working for the captain of a cargo ship as a pilot. He knew, however, that the real place to make a fortune in the Fringe was on Tomin Kora. So after earning a little money on Ungstir, he went to Tomin Kora, and offered his services as a mercenary. He performed various odd jobs for a number of different criminal enterprises connected to Lord Fagin, before finally finding his calling when he signed aboard a ship of the Pirates' Guild.
Being a pirate appealed to him greatly. He was angry at the Vanguard, at his father, at the (as he saw it) corrupt and incompetent government of the Consortium. In his mind, he had been used and abused his entire life, and now he had an opportunity to begin to pay back all those who had wronged him. What's more, he found that the Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest world of the Fringe suited him far better than the law and order of the Consortium ever had. He quickly proved himself to be very valuable to the Pirates' Guild. His knowledge of Vanguard's proceedures and patrol routes made him indispensable, and his great skill as a pilot, as well as his overall military training and fighting skills, served him well.
Captain of the Fallen Angel
After four years in the Guild, the Guildmaster agreed to make him a captain, and allowed him to recruit crew for a new ship. When Falkenberg had been a fighter pilot in the Vanguard, his callsign had been ArkAngel. Now, he named his new ship the IND Fallen Angel. His ship kept a relatively low profile at first, raiding a number of ships without being clearly identified. Slowly, however, Falkenberg began to grow into his own as a Captain, and became an increasingly valuable member of the Guild, drawing attention from Lord Fagin's majordomo, Abernathy.
His early days as captain were not without problems, however. Falkenberg's engineer, a borderline incompetent fool named Lonnie with a gambling problem who had been pushed on him by the Guildmaster, turned out to be an informant for the Vanguard. Lonnie was actually the nephew, by marriage, of Majordomo Abernathy. After Lonnie accumulated a sizable gambling debt on Antimone, a couple of Vanguard marines learned who he was and began blackmailing him for information on Fagin's operation. Abernathy learned of this, and ordered Falkenberg to dispose of his nephew. Soon afterwards, Lonnie suffered a tragic accident, as he accidentally crammed himself into a plasma conduit for the Angel's main reactor, just before the reactor was fired up to full power.
When the soldiers who had been blackmailing Lonnie foolishly came to Tomin Kora to get revenge on his killer, Falkenberg allowed them to leave the planet alive. But he used their actions, in killing an Odarite bartender, to return the favor and blackmail them into providing information and service for Fagin's operations.
Falkenberg continues to be the Captain of the IND Fallen Angel today. He is seen by some as a rising star within the Pirates' Guild.
Normalspace (Original) Falkenberg
The original John Christian Falkenberg was an active character from 1998 to 2004. His exploits have been chronicled in many places on the Mush. He is, however, for all intents and purposes, dead, or at least missing, in the year 3004.
Background
Like the Variant 1 Falkenberg, the original was born on Luna in 2620. But his family situation was different. His father James was a small-time smuggler who was arrested and sent to a Consortium prison when Falkenberg was five. He was raised by his mother, Christina, but his family was very poor. They lived in a rough neighborhood in Lunar City, which was itself an economically depressed and struggling city, with a seedy underworld that soon attracted the young Falkenberg. To earn money for his family, Falkenberg got involved as a teenager in a number of criminal activities in the darker parts of Lunar City. He learned to fight, to lie, and to steal on the streets of his hometown. By the time he was 17, he was earning money as a pit fighter in a series of underground bars on Lunar City. He also learned the art of the con from some of the best con men on Luna. When he was 19, however, his mother died, ending any ties he had to Luna. He scraped together enough money to book passage to the Fringe.
Life in the Fringe
There, he worked odd jobs for various ship crews. He learned to be a pilot, and soon proved to be very skilled at it. He made a decent living helping cargo ships avoid pirates, honing his piloting skills. Eventually, he found himself frequenting Nephthys Station in the Tomin System. One day, in early 2650, he took a job as a bounty hunter, tracking a man named Eddie Villanova who was wanted by Lord Fagin. Falkenberg captured Villanova, earning Fagin's attention, as well as the attention of the Vanguard, who was also seeking Villanova. Falkenberg was falsely accused of shooting a Vanguard marine on Mars during the hunt for Villanova, and two Vanguard officers were dispatched, on orders from General Dmitri Volstov, to capture Falkenberg. The officers sent after him were Grayback and Remy LeBeau; this was the start of a long-standing rivalry between Falkenberg and LeBeau.
The Smugglers' Guild
Falkenberg fled his pursuers to Val Shohob, where the Mystics, under the terms of their agreement with Lord Fagin, provided him with shelter and protection. Eventually the heat died down, and Falkenberg returned to Nephthys, where he was recruited into Fagin's Smugglers' Guild, which had recently undergone a major shakeup after members of the Guild led by Guildmaster Leopold VanMahr rebelled against Fagin and destroyed his palace on Tomin Kora. This created an opening in the Guild, and Falkenberg was made Guildmaster by Fagin's new Majordomo, Grim.
Falkenberg was given command of a new ship, the IND Zephyr, and soon reorganized the Guild and made it prosperous again. One of his first major tasks was to find Lord Fagin a suitable place for a new fortress. He discovered the planetoid of Odysseus, located between twin black holes, Scylla and Charybdis. Fagin built a new palace there, and Falkenberg became one of the most trusted members of Fagin's Riches. Trouble arose, however, when he accepted Jest'liana Warren into his crew; she had been part of VanMahr's crew who had attacked Fagin's palace. Grim agreed to allow Falkenberg to hire her as a means of keeping tabs on her and the surviving members of VanMahr's crew, but Falkenberg began a romantic relationship with her. Fearing that his loyalty had come into question, Grim arranged for Falkenberg to be shot by Vechkov Prague. He spent several months in a coma, before being revived by the implantation of an experimental cybernetic chip in his brain, which would have allowed Fagin to control his behavior.
Sanctuary
About this time, the Kretonians attacked the known worlds, and Fagin's organization was smuggled aboard the Sanctuary colony ship. Falkenberg was sent to kill some of Fagin's enemies aboard Sanctuary, but the chip malfunctioned, his free will was restored, and the chip was removed by doctors aboard Sanctuary. Falkenberg now turned his back on Fagin's organization. He became a fairly prominent citizen on Sanctuary, and became the proprietor of a popular cantina, the Smugglers' Cove. His relationship with Jest'liana continued, although she now had a ship and a crew of her own, the Asylum. Falkenberg assisted the Asylum crew on a number of exploratory missions during Sanctuary's time in Hiverspace.
Perhaps his most prominent activity on Sanctuary was his battle against Voltrix, a malevolent alien entity that inhabited the Obelisk of Power, a relic was recovered by Sanctuary while it was in Hiverspace. After Voltrix was released and possessed a Demarian scientist, he began to take over Sanctuary, and killed or severely injured anyone who opposed him. Falkenberg tried to charm the entity, and became one of the few people Voltrix seemed to trust. But he also went in search of a weapon to destroy him, traveling with the Asylum crew to search for the pieces of the Obelisk of Truth. When assembled, the Obelisk chose Falkenberg as its vessel, providing him with awesome powers which he used to fight and defeat Voltrix. Afterward, his powers disappeared.
It was also Falkenberg who suggested to the Sanctuary Senate that they give the frozen bodies of Dmitri Volstov and Lord Fagin, who had been captured and placed in cryo-freeze by this time, to the Thul to purchase assistance to escape from Hiverspace.
The Boromovs
When Sanctuary returned to Normalspace, having moved forward in time 350 years to the year 3000, Falkenberg soon made his way to Ungstir, where he signed up with the Boromov Crime Syndicate. He became a pirate captain in Boromov's pirate fleet, which was commanded by Captain Richardson. Falkenberg was given a new ship, the IND Fallen Angel, and recruited a new crew, which included Bartholomew Abraham Denson and an ornery Zangali named Tkagorth. The crew of the Fallen Angel proved very successful, establishing a pirate base on New Luna and raiding shipping around the Independent Worlds, especially in the vicinity of La Terre. But things went bad when Falkenberg pursued a cargo ship bearing a load of polydenum back to Sanctuary, which by this time was orbiting Demaria as a space station. When a Nall vessel, the Sal'thra, attempted to drive off the Fallen Angel, it was attacked by Richardson's cloaked ship, the former Consortium Battleship West Virginia. The Nall, enraged, could only identify the Fallen Angel, which they tracked back to Boromov's shipyards. This led to the Nall invasion of Ungstir in 3001.
Cabrerra Industries
Falkenberg and the rest of the Boromov organization was on the run after the Nall invasion. Meanwhile, Cabrerra Industries had built a new city on the abandoned world of Tomin Kora. The Boromovs, desperate, agreed to a merger with Cabrerra Industries, and Falkenberg and his crew were one of the properties that were transferred to Cabrerra control. Falkenberg once again proved valuable, and his crew re-established itself as a pirate threat again, first aboard a new ship called the Outpacer, and later aboard a powerful ship called the IND Hand of Fate, easily Falkenberg's most famous ship since the Fallen Angel.
When the Kamir resurrected Majordomo Grim to become their instrument of revenge, he replaced Colin Neidermeyer as Cabrerra frontman and Falkenberg's immediate boss. Ultimately, Falkenberg became so concerned by Grim's invincible powers and his apparent vendetta against all corporeal life that he broke with Cabrerra, fled Tomin Kora with the Hand of Fate and its crew, and raised the alarm, revealing Grim's true identity and nature to the government of Sivad and OATO. This led to a Sivadian assault on Tomin Kora which devastated the city of Shadowheart, all but destroyed the Cabrerra organization and killed Boss Cabrerra. Grim, however, survived, as he was effectively invulnerable.
Falkenberg then joined an expedition into Hiverspace to locate a means of destroying Grim. During this expedition, he disappeared aboard Comorro Station in the year 3003. His right-hand man, Denson, was unable to learn what had happened to him, and became the de facto owner of the Hand of Fate, Falkenberg's ship. It is likely that Falkenberg was kidnapped and/or killed by agents of Grim in an attempt to derail the expedition. His fate has never been discovered.