Rudolph sketches by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

Practice sketches of Krieger, prepared, ironically, for ThreshTheSky's own art practice contest, as there were literally no good references I could find worthy of his inspection. Still not perfect, but at least I consider these sufficient for the task.

Rudolph stems from the same pre-DYOS project as Toyoda, although technically he was first put to paper even earlier. He joined the Bundesheer in 1991 and on special commendation was promoted to the KSK in 1997, serving as part of a secretive six-man squad nicknamed the Weiße Wölfe (White Wolves). In addition to usual special forces operations, the unit served as part of the shadow war against my recurring arch-villain; he had a penchant for genetically-engineered monstrosities and the team was often tasked with "cleanup operations", a euphemism for sometimes ruthless quarantine and sterilization procedures that earned the Wolves the unflattering nickname "the Angels of Death". The unit was controversially disbanded in 2004 and Krieger retired from the Bundeswehr, only to resurface as a soldier under contract with the Russian army the same year, the exact reason why involving longstanding plot spoilers. Ironically, DYOS provides a more plausible justification for how he ended up with the Russians than the original setting.

If I've learned anything as an aspiring writer, it's how characters take on a life of their own. I actually consider Rudolph to be a more complex character than Toyoda, and could easily write entire stories about him. Back when lord_joakim was still an active DYOSer, Toyoda remained relatively unknown, and the former half of Part II was meant to kill time before l_j was set to conclude his facet of the Gem arc, I'd conceived an interlude episode that would elucidate Krieger's past and help bring that cast's background up to speed with the DYOSverse. This was supplanted by the Nazi War, which offered its own tie-in to his KSK days via the FEV and that served as the impetus for creating a relationship between Krieger and Schäffer, but the thread is now too far behind to afford further tangents. That said, I may yet manage a proper revelation somewhere in the distant future.

[Originally submitted to DeviantArt March 2014.]