Janek Kos

Janek's and Anna's last talk before Janek joined the polanian resistance to fight in the Great War

Janek Kos is a hero of the Polania Republic. A crack shot and patriot turned cyborg, he is Anna's brother and the son of Piotr Kos, appearing as an NPC and controllable unit in both "The Price of Freedom" and "A Shadow over Europa" campaigns.

General Description[edit | edit source]

Janek is a fairly average man for his age, but interestingly does not have red hair like his father or sister. This is possibly a trait he inherited from his mother (if she indeed was brunette), the sister of Lech Kos. He wore a dark grey shirt with red lining and cuffs with a white shirt underneath, as well as dark pants and boots.

In St. Petersburg, he discarded his jacket for his white shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, and carriers a bolt action rifle as powerful as Anna's although without a scope.

In his later cyborg form, Janek is unrecognizable in every single way. His suit heavily resembles a modified SHM-60 "Groza" exosuit, but with all sorts of technology haphazardly bolted on. On his left arm is a huge five-pronged claw for grabbing objects. On his right arm is a massive energy cannon the size of a man on its own. What little skin of his that shows, mainly his head, is largely obscured by a breathing apparatus and the rest is horribly marred by burns.

History[edit | edit source]

Janek was born to Piotr and Liliana Kos while his father worked at The Factory. In 1905, when Janek was a young boy, Rusviet attacked and attempted to sieze the city for themselves, but were repulsed. Unfortunately, Janek's mother was killed in the fighting, so Piotr took them to start a new life in the Polania Republic. He grew up with a strong patriotic streak, but was very tender and protective of his sister.

One day, when Anna was still a little girl, she got in a snowball fight with a bunch of the village boys. They pinned her down with relentless snowballs until Janek arrived with an armful of his own, sending the boys packing. Anna then begged Janek to learn how to shoot a rifle, which he eventually agreed to do. Together they tracked down a deer, but as Anna was still a beginner he had her hide in a bush with the rifle while he chased the deer to her. Finally, she succeeded in the killing the buck. While showing her how to harvest the meat, a brown bear attacked the siblings. They were saved by a pair of Polanian soldiers with PZM-7 Smialy mech units, and Janek guided the soldiers to the village.

Back home, he met his uncle Lech, a military officer who was in the area looking for recruits to fight invaders from the Rusviet Union. Piotr protested strongly, but the idea of adventure, his pride, and a desire to operate mechs drove Janek to agree to enlist. Anna also tried to get him to stay, even begging to come along, but he refused. He promised he would always be there for her before he left.

The Great War.[edit | edit source]

Although the Great War was supposed to be over by Christmas, it dragged for half a decade and saw untold destruction and death. Janek survived much of the fighting and became a hardened soldier, his skill with a rifle serving him well. He fought in Książ Castle, defending it against the Saxony Empire.

During the 1920 peace summit in St. Petersburg, Janek sat on the wall top of a nearby fort to spy on the proceedings with a spyglass. He was ambushed by the Rusviet head of security Olga Morozova, who attacked him with her sword but the two called it a draw. She pointed out that he could have been a sniper, but Janek argued not if he did not have a rifle. The peace talks were then interrupted by revolutionaries who attacked the palace, forcing Janek and Olga to fight their way through to the barracks where all the guards had been poisoned. Joined by Olga's tiger Changa, they made it to the palace and went into the burning building to find the Tsar. Unknown to Janek, however, just outside Colonel Zubov used his cannons to weaken the building's stability and it collapsed on him.

Gallery of Young Janek[edit | edit source]

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Rebirth as "Victor".[edit | edit source]

Amazingly, Olga managed to find him and pull him out, but he was horrifically injured and had to be put into an advanced exosuit that would keep him alive. Because of his disfigured face, she was able to swap his identity with that of a Rusviet soldier named Victor Popov.

Waking up in a remote Rusviet testing facility, completely confused and horrified at his condition, Janek broke loose and rampaged around the base trying to escape. His suit gave him increased durability and firepower once he figured out how to move, but the pain was excruciating and he only wanted out of it. He was eventually recaptured but Olga managed to speak to him about Fenris, a shadowy organization that controlled all the nations and started wars, orchestrating the attack that left him maimed. Once she confirmed that Zubov was a part of this group, she managed to convince Janek to infiltrate the organization by gaining Zubov's trust.

His first mission under Zubov was to help capture a scientist named Heinrich Steinmetz at a Saxony Empire missile launch facility, and although the target was not there he eliminated all forces in the area, obtained valuable data, and covered their tracks. They followed the trail to the city of Kolno back in Polania, which was quickly blockaded.

However, Lech, Anna, and the Polanian resistance had broken through to deliver supplies and weapons to the people, resulting in a mass uprising and widespread chaos which saw Zubov's forces in the city completely routed and Zubov himself nearly captured. Janek helped him escape, and then confronted Anna with the fact he was still alive and how he came to be the way he now was. After explaining everything, he left to continue his mission to infiltrate Fenris despite his growing urge to kill Zubov for his massacring of civilians and, as he later found out, for killing his father.

Shortly after, they finally caught up to Steinmetz hiding in Książ Castle. Janek, familiar with the terrain, laid waste to a nearby military place and captured chokepoints. Although Steinmetz almost escaped via a secret tunnel, he was quickly captured. Rather than reveal important information and give up any technology, the scientist blew himself up, prompting Janek to shield Zubov from the blast with his mechanical body.

Assault on Tesla's City, and Destruction of Icarus.[edit | edit source]

Even with Steinmetz dead, Zubov revealed to Janek that he still possessed his father's mechanical arm, and, most importantly, its Factory Transponder, which they fitted to his exosuit. Janek and Zubov set about laying siege to Tesla's city of the future, with Janek able to bypass and disable the city's Tesla Coil defense array. Even then, their force had to fight through hordes of hyper-advanced mechs, exosuits, and many armed civilians loyal to Tesla who come to fight back. To make matters more difficult, they could be deployed anywhere in the city via the city's tunnels and elevator system.

Against the odds, Janek and Zubov eventually broke through the gate in their goal to help Fenris. Upon entering, the Polanian Army arrived shortly after to combat the Rusviet armed forces still left in the wake of the assault on Tesla's gate. Finally they found Tesla in his house and Zubov ordered him taken him to Rusviet. However, Janek had a different plan: after confirming that Tesla could remove him from the suit without killing him, Janek attempted to kill Zubov. He was shut down by Zubov with a control device mere moments before Gunter von Duisberg arrived, holding his handcannon to the Fenris Operative's head. At that moment, however, the Icarus Protocol activated: a massive machine that would explode and melt anything metal within 20 kilometres away. Kubov escaped in the chaos, dropping his controller allowing his sister Anna to reactivate Janek. Together with Anna, Gunter, Michael Sikorski, Anna Kos, Olga Morozova, and Freida Reute, the heroes had their new goa: stop Tesla's ultimate creation as it charged up, and prepared to fire.

Initially, the group could not pierce its hull unless it was charging, and after getting some damage in, friendly troops from Gunter's Saxony rebels, the Polanian Army, and formerly Zubov-led Rusviet fighters entered the arena to help hold off Icarus's escort mechs. Luckily, the group was successful in taking down the monstrous creation.

Now the alliance of the three armies and their heroes must dig in and prepare to take the fight to Fenris themselves. Understanding that he is more useful in his suit than without it, Janek postponed Tesla removing him from it.