R/198-Nubason

Nubason is an Alintean geneticist and was one of the chief researchers in the employ of the Senate. He was one of the 300 Senate Bounty Hunters and was in charge of their R&D Division, maintaining the Setiel Research Facility in Pernaria, Nihran as well as the Advanced Research and Development Facility on the Senate Ring. He went rogue approximately 6,000 years before "Twice-Shadowed Saint" and had been in hiding until Edge hunted him down in "Double or Nothing".

Early History
Much of Nubason's youth is a mystery, although it is known that he was born in Mengaia on Nihran and was the son of a wealthy businessman. He attended the Academy on Nihran before graduating at the age of 1,300 - a full 1,200 years before his peers. Hailed as a genius and a visionary, he was bounced from company to company throughout his youth, working mostly as an information advisor or consultant for technological firms, as well as holding positions with BSC on Besodaari and RR&amp;D on Raga. At the age of 2,500, when his fellow peers were just graduating from the Academy, he had already held more jobs than most of them would hold in their lifetimes. The Senate took note of him and offered to recruit him as one of their R&D members, but he turned down the offer at first, settling instead to work in a reserach outpost on the Iharsh-Daraz homeworld of Zakaan.

At the age of 3,000, Nubason had settled into his routine of working with the Iharsh-Daraz, and knew more about their physiology than even their own medics. He became a valuable commodity on their world, and most of them gave him a wide berth, not wanting to anger an individual who held such power over their health. Things changed a few months after his annual review, however, when they allocated a team of four additional researchers to work under him. One of these, a budding young chemist by the name of Aldanai, caught his eye.

Courtship and Tragedy
Nubason and Aldanai immediately grew close, often times remaining late in the laboratories to discuss new findings. Much of Zakaan was unexplored, and they would work long hours analyzing the chemicals or proteins extracted from the exotic lifeforms. Vi'il, a psychoactive drug, is credited to their findings as well as a host of other medicinal agents and even certain forms of combat technology (such as nerve agents). Aldanai, however, lacked the political finesse of her superior and was not viewed favorably by the Iharsh-Daraz near their laboratory. They avoided her as best they could and barely spoke to her when they were required to. Often times it was Nubason who would intercede and take the Iharsh-Daraz in question somewhere else and communicate with him or her separately.

Despite her difficulties with communication, the two Alinteans grew very close. The other laboratory technicians noticed it, but chose to ignore it as it never negatively impacted Nubason's productivity. If anything, Aldanai's constant presence seemed to improve his normally crotchety mood and made him a far more easygoing supervisor.

Almost four hundred years after Aldanai first came to Zakaan, the Iharsh-Daraz revolted. Under the command of Ugo-Mot, a black-skinned behemoth with a lust for power, they swept across their homeworld cleansing it of all "outsiders". Nubason and Aldanai made it off Zakaan and took up a position at the Senate R&D with Nubason as one of their Hunters. It wasn't long before Ugo-Mot's name crossed Nubason's desk once more, however. This time it was due to his admission to the seat of Senator for the Iharsh-Daraz. Having defeated the previous senator, Kra-Duz, he had legally claimed the title.

Aldanai intercepted the message and, following up on a hunch, arranged a meeting with Ugo-Mot in his room on the Senate Ring, supposedly to congratulate him on the position. Nubason, ever watchful, learned of her plan and followed her. She confronted Ugo-Mot, claiming that she had proof of his mixed-race parentage by stating that his black coloration came from being half-Alintean. Ugo-Mot, desperate to keep his position of power, ran her through with a Heil Ion Spear he had been given as a gift.

Nubason managed to get her to the medical wards and stabilize her condition, snap-freezing her in cryogenic stasis, but was unable to find any way to cure her of the coma she slipped into. It became a desperate obsession for him as he threw all of his other projects aside, focusing solely on saving Aldanai as she hung in the pod, seconds from true death.

Descent into Madness
The more Nubason worked at saving Aldanai, the more depraved his experiments became. Sentients began to go missing, their mutilated bodies turning up in derelict wrecks hundreds of light years away. Laboratory supplies went missing or became unusable after he stripped them for parts, building stranger and stranger machines. One of his experiments resulted in the creation of a pseudosentient spore he dubbed "Anu'Bai" - Iharsh-Daraz for "dark cloud".

Ultimately, after almost five hundred years of research, Nubason was exposed and charged with the deaths of over forty thousand invididuals. He was stripped of his laboratory clearance, Senate Hunter title and rank and ordered imprisoned awaiting trial. Desperate, he released the Anu'bai into the Senate Ring, using them as a diversion in order to secure Aldanai's pod and escape. The resulting death toll was over five-hundred million and the Senate Ring was evacuated for over a decade, purging the infestation.

Nubason fled to Earth, the one place he was certain no one would ever look for him, where he used some of his strange machines to construct a pocket dimension he called "N-Space". Although only a few dozen miles across, it was suitable for his needs and he set up his laboratory within a cave inside the pocket dimension, ceratin that no one would ever find him. He abducted humans as test subjects, occasionally taking animals as well, as he pursued his quest to restore Aldanai.

Double or Nothing
At the age of 8,900, Nubason had almost unlocked the key to saving Aldanai when Richard, wearing a prototype Edge Suit, stormed his base. The Alintean used his experiments, including one derived from Richard's former lover, Jennifer, to try to kill him. Unfortunately, Richard was far more tenacious than Nubason could have predicted and made it to the center of the base where the two ultimately fought. Nubason revealed many personal augments, such as the ability to neurally connect himself to machines, controlling them remotely, as well as a host of bizzare weapons developed during the 4,400 years he'd remained in N-Space. Richard ultimately defeated Nubason, triggering the collapse of N-Space, and escaped. Unfortunately for him, Klaara remained trapped beyond the Flashpoint as N-Space collapsed in on itself.

Highest Stakes
Richard journeyed back into the void left by N-Space's collapse only to find out that, rather than imploding to nothing, N-Space had imploded to the point of triggering a miniature "Big Bang", creating an alternate cosmos of inverted and altered physics. Traversing this strange world, Richard ultimately tracked Klaara to a the center of a large island where he found a creature known as the Luminarch. Unable to defeat it alone, Richard enlisted the help of Bandrumano and Klakshan - two sentients he knew he could trust, and ultimately rescued Klaara. However, it was revealed that the Luminarch was one of Nubason's contingencies, and had been regrowing him. Richard conversed with this newly-bred Alintean body and learned of Ugo-Mot's attack on Aldanai before being offered a deal. If Edge destroyed Ugo-Mot, Nubason would never again leave N-Space.

Edge accepted the offer, luring Ugo-Mot to the icy world of Limkalan, claiming to have information about Nubason. When Ugo-Mot arrived, alogn with four of his guards, Edge destroyed his shuttle before facing him down. Klaara aided him by dispatching the honor guard, helping him focus on Ugo-Mot until the Iharsh-Daraz finally fell. Edge returned his head to Nubason as part of their arrangement, but was greeted instead by Aldanai, who had awoken from her coma. Nubason thanked Edge and swore never to reveal himself again before sealing the portal to N-Space.

The Tenth Galactic War
Klaara sought out Nubason while Edge was awaiting execution, penetrating into N-Space and hunting him down, begging for his help. Nubason, intent on repaying the debt he felt he owed Edge, gave her a means to open a gate to N-Space. She did so in the middle of the Senate Ring, allowing him to pour in with an army of his experiments. He killed several Senate Hunters, many of them prior friends or acquaintances, before retreating once Edge was safe. He later lent his armies to Edge for use during the conflict. After the war, however, it is assumed that he retreated back into N-Space and has not been seen again since.