Anatoly Korenchkin

"Glory to the Many. I am the voice in their Choir..."

- Anatoly Korenchkin Anatoly Korenchkin was TriOptimum Corporation's Chief Executive Officer and captain of the starship Von Braun. The feud between him and Captain William Diego of the UNN Rickenbacker kickstarted the events of System Shock 2.

Background
Korenchkin was born in Russia and grew up working as an illegal dealer of arms and electronics. In 2078 he left St. Petersburg and continued his criminal career in New Atlanta. Most of his clients belonged to the black market, or were corrupt UNN personnel. The latter would provide Korenchkin with classified military technology, which he would then sell to the highest bidder. Korenchkin possessed an eidetic memory, serving him well as he could avoid generating a paper trail. He avoided meeting his employees in person, preferring to keep two or three "layers" of anonymity between them. Without leaving physical records, Korenchkin soon became vastly rich. Despite his cutthroat line of work, Korenchkin despised taking lives personally, leaving his underlings to the task.

As law enforcement shifted to cybernetics, Korenchkin hired any hacker willing to go behind the law. The job attracted many teens, mostly 10 or 11 years old (the oldest, barely 19) of vulnerable socioeconomic status. Many of these hackers, such as Veronika Red, would take the fall for Korenchkin. To his guilt, his employees would endure show trials and be sentenced to capital punishment. While Korenchkin and his employees' operations were known by the authorities, the UNN could not gather sufficient evidence to link it to him personally.

As the years passed, law enforcement became more difficult to subvert. Around 2092, Korenchkin ended his underground career. Incidentally, around this time, TriOptimum was in its death throes after the Citadel Station incident. With his millions in wealth, Korenchkin bought 51% of TriOptimum's stock, effectively buying the company.

Korenchkin, now CEO of the re-licensed TriOp, became known as brutal, difficult, demanding, and intimidating to his employees. Even then, rumors spread that Korenchkin was ordering hits on uncooperative statesmen. Korenchkin exploited his new brands and leaned on his UNN contacts to relax technology restrictions. Seeing the profit in Marie Delacroix's theories regarding faster-than-light travel, Korenchkin hired her into the company, giving TriOp an exclusive monopoly over interstellar travel for the forseeable future, and himself even more leverage over the UNN. Development of the drive was rushed under TriOp, which contributed to the system failures aboard the Von Braun years later.

Von Braun
When the Von Braun was ready for her maiden voyage, Korenchkin was chosen to be the ship's captain and TriOptimum representative, despite the objections of the UNN Rickenbacker 's Captain, William Diego. Tensions between both men escalated up until the Von Braun 's arrival at Tau Ceti.

Crew members aboard the Von Braun held resentment for the CEO, with Constance Sanger calling him a "creep" and Dr. Delacroix having countless face to face arguments with Korenchkin due to safety concerns on the Engineering Deck. Fearing the UNN might take over the ship, Korenchkin secretly developed several TriOptimum Assassin Cyborgs as a contingency.

Upon arrival at Tau Ceti V, the Von Braun and Rickenbacker received a distress signal coming from the planet. Believing it to be a signal from an extraterrestrial race, Korenchkin was eager to establish first contact. After convincing Captain Diego to come down to the planet's surface, Korenchkin skipped the mandatory level B Hazard Suit exam in an attempt to humiliate Diego. Diego pursued him, skipping the exam as well.

Upon discovering the landing site of Beta Grove and the Annelid Eggs, Korenchkin and the rest of the landing party fell under the psychic influence of the Many immediately and began loading the eggs onto the Von Braun. Korenchkin ordered the Hydroponics Deck to be cleared of all personnel, offering no explanation to his crew aside from Marc Miller and another crewman named Muldoon.

Upon returning to the Von Braun, Korenchkin quickly began changing mentally and physically. Korenchkin began using words like "us" and "we" in place of "I". A crewman in Medical, Dr. Grassi, was the first to notice physical changes in him. He urged Korenchkin to see Dr. James Watts, only for Korenchkin to sharply refuse.

When it became clear the Many was taking over the ship, Korenchkin began openly infecting and converting crew members, killing any resistance. On one instance, as a Hybrid, he killed a crew member with a Shotgun. Over time, Korenchkin transformed into a Psi Reaver, relishing his newfound Psionic power. Korenchkin hatched plans to return to the Earth and infect every living human on planet. The Many's biomass enveloped both ships, locking them together in preparation for the journey to Earth.

Death
After the takeover of both ships, soldier G65434-2 made his way towards the Rickenbacker in order to destroy the Many. Korenchkin projected an indestructible Metacreative Barrier to block his path, and beckoned soldier to the bridge for a confrontation. Thanks to Prefontaine's research on the Many's physiology, the protagonist found and destroyed Korenchkin's brain, killing him permanently.

​Strategy
See: Psi Reaver 

Audio Logs

 * MedSci Deck


 * First Contact
 * Hydroponics Deck


 * Miracles
 * A New Purpose
 * Glory
 * Operations Deck


 * Everything Old...
 * Recreation Deck


 * Coming Home
 * Command Deck


 * The Machine-Mother
 * My Completion
 * The Lovers
 * UNN Rickenbacker


 * Rapture

E-Mails

 * Command Deck


 * Let's Talk

Trivia

 * The fact that Korenchkin was once a Shotgun Hybrid implies that he was a drinker.