Igor

Igor was a smuggler from the Landreich.

Bio

He joined the crew of the Phantom as its navigator, and gunner of the photon topside guns.

He is seen wearing an orange jumpsuit, spitting tobacco juice into a small cup (drops splattered down to the bridge).

When Hans Kruger signed in, replacing their unfortunate co-pilot, he often humiliated him, as part of the traditional hazing. Igor had a cruel reputation, and Kruger knew that provoking him would be fatal for him; he'd lose and Igor would scar him, clip his ear and/or remove his eye, if not cut his throat.

Final skirmish

On 2634.121 the ship was in Hallin system inside Kilrathi Empire territory when they were engaged by the Kilrathi forces. He confirmed that he had 3 Targu-class on his plot board.

Kevin Milady's maneuver made the ship tumble over, bringing the Vaks to the front. Igor opened up fire, and when Kevin immobilised the ship, he got one down, celebrating as tobacco juice dribbled down his chin. Kevin performed another maneuver to dodge the fire from the frigates on course to the jump point. Another fighter was sweeping past them firing, and Igor cursed wildly as he tried to track the target.

The Phantom weaved toward the jump point and the Vaks flanked it, then swept back in, trading shots with Igor who was unable to nail them; actually the lousy fire from the light frigate, in its attempt to his the Phantom, kept its own fighters away. Langer detonated the seeker missiles, but the last one was so close that the explosion tore open the aft section of the unshielded (in order to use the jump engine) ship. Igor was under debris, his legs frayed by fragments, a tangled fringe of fabric, frozen blood and bones sticking out.

Death

Although he didn't wear a helmet, he managed to bump into Hans at the copilot console, moments before the jump engines kicked in. As they overrode the artificial gravity, Igor hovered and floated up for a moment, and once they were through to the other side, he slammed back down on the deck. He rose up like a zombie, trying to scream. He clawed at Hans's helmet, as if trying to pull it off; Hans looked nonchallant, felt some satisfaction seeing this bully totally harmless.

Hans watched as Igor's eyeballs froze, and a thin cloud of ice crystals wisped from his mouth, and the chewed tobacco fell down as a frozen mass. His blows weakened and his arms and hands curled up. His lungs froze and blood filled his heart chambers. He fell to his knees clutching at his throat. Finally he seemed to smile to Hans and gave a thumbs up gesture, before falling to the deck. Hans realised that his old tormentor finally accepted him as part of the crew..