Vadim Kozlov: the latter-day Russian Republic was seen as a place of destiny by the time mankind first left the Solar System. Half a century after the tumultuous transitions away from the old Soviet Union, modern Russia again resembled an empire, a pluriethnic oligarchical federation that was neither fully Russian nor much of a Republic. Its integrity was maintained through nationalism- all of them. In the west, the elites of St. Petersburg appealed to their Slavic kindred from Central Europe to the Balkans. In Central Asia, the memory of Tamerlane was rehabilitated as a bid to unite the Turkic and Persianate peoples under Russian rule. Even in the Far East, the ancient relations between the Golden Horde and Alexander Nevsky were played up, and Mongolia was occupied during the chaotic start of the Crimson Secession. It became a flashpoint in the following years, and was eventually abolished, becoming a series of steppe city-states split between the Russian Republic and Great China. In the Caucasus... let's move on.
Vadim Kozlov went to space at the zenith of Russian power. The republic had empowered romanticist nationalism for all the Russias, establishing control over the vast lands and resources. As such, the east had the best public space program in the world. Kozlov, whose energy and patriotism matched the country that had challenged the pre-Pax Decay Americans at the Bering Strait and built immense numbers of new farms on melted permafrost, was the poster boy for a new generation of cosmonauts. His spacewalks, advocacy for a Russian-built O'Neill habitat, valiant rescue of the doomed Kolchak Mars mission, and support for massive public works projects after the 2058 Russian economic crash turned him into an opportunity for the country to reclaim its glory, and a natural selection for the Unity mission.
Kozlov was appointed Flight Commander with a rank of Commander on Unity. Because the massive colonization vessel more resembled an ancient galleon or modern submarines than it did orbital shuttles or interplanetary exploration craft, his duties were mainly to be undertaken at arrival. Confirming the post-deceleration had no problems, overseeing the descent of colonist landers and supply pods, leading scouting missions onto an alien planet - Kozlov was to be an expedition leader. During the voyage, he used his prior experience to oversee astronautical operations, making him a visible member of the command staff. In Planetfall, he awoke to see the ship struck by sheer madness. Kozlov assisted Chief Engineer Daoming Sochua and Chief Science Officer Prokhor Zakharov with repair operations, leading his team of cosmonaut-engineers to mend the structural failures that had damaged the ship. At one point, he donned a spacesuit himself and went to the exterior to prevent irreversible electrical damage to the ship. However, the efforts eventually proved to be futile. When Zakharov and Sochua offered him a place on their escape pod, Kozlov accepted, deferring to the chain of command and recognizing the elder Russian.
But that was not to be. After evacuating from a final hopeless attempt to preserve the forward astrophysics laboratory, managing only to rescue the staff but none of their equipment, his team of cosmonauts were ambushed by a gang of Spartans. Though without combat experience, Kozlov prepared to fight. But the survivalist mutineers stepped aside and none other stepped forward but Colonel Corazon Santiago. Having heard of the hero cosmonaut of the Republic, she offered Kozlov and his team a place in the Coalition as the nucleus of a Spartan Space Force. Refuse, and Santiago gestured at the dead peacekeepers, security members, and U.N. gendarmes that littered the hallway, even as more armed Spartans poured in. Outnumbered, Kozlov chose to save the lives of his fellow cosmonauts and his rescued physicists.
True to her word, the Spartan Federation began a nascent space program soon after the establishment of their third base on Planet. While such a project was always seen as- blue sky- and very much a long-term play and near-term boondoggle, Santiago believed that it would yield middle-term improvements in manned flight and material sciences. Plenty of military applications for rocketry, after all. In exchange, Kozlov and his men were ordered to turn her terrestrial survivalists into cosmonauts of Respcosmos quality. To this end, the colonel generously built specialized facilities from neutral buoyancy pools to flight simulators. They did well. Despite being a hostage of the Federation, Kozlov gradually acknowledged some of the truth in the Spartans' vision. While he was aghast at their behavior of violent disproportionate retaliation when provoked, their focus on surviving the harsh environment of Planet was a prudent one in his judgment. And the Spartans' willingness to endure a minimalist lifestyle true to their namesake allowed their society to invest resources in the basic fundamentals- infrastructure! So the humiliation of collaboration became balanced by the drive of his new mission- and his former plans to escape were slowly forgotten.
As the mission years passed, Kozlov found himself in a tour of force around the factions. At the University of Planet Santiago displayed her honor guard, her elite commandoes, her legions, the sailors of her newly-inaugurated navy, her Unity Chopper pilot corps, and finally her Space Force. It was there too that he reunited with Zakharov, as crochety and impolite as ever. At the diplomatic reception after the showcase, they exchanged a few words, Kozlov inquiring the Academician when his pursuit of research would revealed as service to the Russian Republic. In response, Zakharov guffawed, a rarity that quieted the entire faculty lounge in alarm. Speaking in a more private study, the Academician told Kozlov to awake to the fact that Unity was never to be a round-trip. His family was no more, and his country, most likely, as well. New realities meant that new loyalties to new causes must be made. Not to mention, Zakharov concluded, he himself had left the Russian MOD all those years ago to join the U.N.'s mission for a reason, and it was not allegiance to some hoary earthbound tribe.
Crushed, Kozlov returned to Citadel Station and threw himself into his work, training new cosmonauts and overseeing Former crews in his spare time. When vendetta was declared against the University, he volunteered for frontline service, the first military combat he had ever fought in. The spaceman became a hero once again, decorated for his expert wilderness skills and reconnaissance as a scout leader. But he never developed a taste for bloodlust, and returned from the conflict still unfulfilled. Even as the Space Force swelled, the Spartans' tech levels were simply not sufficient, and they were no more closer to heaven than a pigeon on a pogo stick.
Kozlov received a new lease on life on a dark and stormy night when his former Unity colleague and casual acquaintance Captain Ulrik Svensgaard bade him visit the base docks. The former Unity astrogator had been missing for years since Planetfall, rumored to be in the service of Santiago but never publicly seen. Only recently had this leader of the newly-minted Nautilus Pirates made himself known to Planet with a daring naval raid that breached Port Yang, one of the most advanced sea bases of the time. Telling Kozlov of a new frontier full of as many hidden dangers and wonders as space, the captain offers the cosmonaut a place onboard his flagship, and the chance to be a deep sea explorer.
Even though the Spartans had given him and his team as good treatment as hostages could hope for, even gifting him a dose of the Longevity Vaccine seized from the University, Kozlov immediately agrees. If space is not yet within reach, he would make his own space elsewhere. After all, the sea would be another place to build new worlds.