| Japanese name: |
クリストフ・フォン・ケーフェンヒラー |
Christopf von Köfenhiller was a captain in the Imperial Fleet, who was captured by the Free Planets Alliance during the Second Battle of Tiamat. He was born in 717 UC and died early in the morning on New Year's Day 789 UC at the age of 71.
History
In the Galactic Empire
In the Galactic Empire
Köfenhiller was the son of a noble family on Odin, and had an arranged marriage with the daughter of a count, whom he quickly fell in love with. After only one year of marriage, however, Köfenhiller's wife approached him and asked for a divorce: she had been having an affair with a promising young architect, and planned to marry him. Köfenhiller refused the divorce, and his wife left him.
The brother of his wife's lover attempted to persuade Köfenhiller to sign the divorce papers several times, even offering him money to do so. Köfenhiller refused every time. Eventually, the count used his contacts within the Empire's Ministry of the Interior, where Köfenhiller worked, to get him transferred to a frontier posting. While he took his transfer in stride, he was devastated when he learnt that his wife had a child with her lover, which caused him to join the military on impulse with the intention of seeking death.
Köfenhiller served for a time as an aide to admiral Christoph von Michaelsen, but was later transferred yet again to the Ministry of Intelligence, under admiral Kosel. Köfenhiller was on the bridge of Kosel's flagship, Diarium, during the Second Battle of Tiamat. After the flagship was heavily damaged in battle and Kosel killed, the surviving senior officer, Stekkel, ordered Köfenhiller to surrender to the Free Planets Alliance.
In the Free Planets Alliance
In the Free Planets Alliance
After surrendering to the Free Planets Alliance during the Second Battle of Tiamat, Köfenhiller and his compatriots were detained in the Alliance's internment camp on the planet Econia, in the Thanatos Starzone. While most of his fellow prisoners deeply desired to return home, Köfenhiller did not care. He relished in the fact that, so long as he remained alive and imprisoned on the other side of the galaxy, his wife would never be able to divorce him or marry her lover.
Köfenhiller assumed the responsibility of writing to the families of prisoners who died while in the POW camp, and soon became an authority figure. In the course of his 40-year stay at the camp, many Alliance officers came to respect him, and tried to get him preferential treatment for a prisoner exchange with the Empire, but each time, Köfenhiller refused. He spent most of his time researching the mysterious events surrounding the defection of Imperial admiral Martin Otto von Siegmeister and the murder of Imperial admiral Christoph von Michaelsen, eventually coming to believe that both men had been involved in a conspiracy culminating in the murder of Alliance hero, Bruce Ashbey.
Freedom
Freedom
On 9 November 788 UC, Yang Wenli was transferred to the Econia Internment Camp. He met with Köfenhiller, who immediately took a liking to the eccentric young "hero of El Facil." That night, a prisoner named Presberg, staged a small rebellion, taking several Alliance officers hostage. After Yang Wenli and Fyodor Patrichev substituted themselves for the safe release of the hostages, Köfenhiller joined them. Köfenhiller informed the two Alliance officers of the Camp Commander Barnaby Costea's crimes (embezzlement of military funds) and they quickly realized that Costea intended both of them to die so that they could become scapegoats for his crimes.
Köfenhiller led Yang, Patrichev, Presberg and the other prisoners out of the 17th Compound after Costea began shelling the area with mortars. Presberg confessed that the rebellion had been staged by Costea in order to eliminate Yang, whom he feared might be a secret agent sent to investigate his crimes. Köfenhiller led Yang and Patrichev through the camp's old communication tunnels, all the way to the command centre. There, Patrichev breaks through the walls and, together with Yang, they arrest Costea.
After Murai arrested Costea for embezzlement, Köfenhiller was granted release from the Econia Internment Camp, and granted full citizenship in the Free Planets Alliance, as well as the full retirement benefits that would be due to a captain in the Alliance military. Yang Wenli and Fyodor Patrichev accompanied Köfenhiller on the trip back to Heinessen. Yang Wen-li determined that Köfenhiller was most likely the culprit behind the Tuesday Correspondence, but Köfenhiller refused to say anything, neither admitting his guilt nor defending his innocence. During a layover at a spaceport terminal on Masjid on New Year's Eve, Köfenhiller died of natural causes. He was buried on Masszitt four days later with both Yang and Patrichev attending the funeral.
Voice actor: Masaaki Yajima
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