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- "What was once ours, will be ours again! Nothing can deny us a historic victory."
- ―Vyktor Kratek[src]
Colonel Vyktor Kratek was a Helghast military officer and a zealot for the cause of Helghast superiority, and is the main antagonist of Killzone: Mercenary. He was largely responsible for the Helghast conquest of Diortem, among other things. He was cunning and utterly ruthless in achieving his goals.
Biography[]
Kratek originally headed a Helghast refinery on Helghan where he designed advanced Helghast weapons. After gaining the trust of Scolar Visari, Kratek was promoted to colonel. Following his promotion, Kratek participated in the invasion of Vekta in which he worked alongside with General Armin Metrac in taking much of southern Vekta. Kratek was also tasked by Metrac to interrogate captured ISA personnel to reveal and claim classified ISA weapons technology.[1]
Project Eschaton[]
Kratek led his forces in taking control of Diortem and capturing Admiral Alex Grey. He interrogated and tortured Grey at the Halls of Justice, demanding to know information about Project Eschaton, a bioweapons program. When Grey refused, Kratek gassed ISA prisoners to coerce her into talking. But Grey still refused. Kratek's interrogation was then interrupted, however, by Phantom Talon Corp mercenaries. He was forced to flee, but not before shooting Grey.
After Metrac's death at the hands of Jan Templar, Kratek, along with his forces, were forced to retreat back to Helghan. But he managed to stole a viral agent from Project Eschaton. His theft pleased Scolar Visari, who granted him the resources, researchers, and facility to create a virus reverse-engineered from Project Eschaton.[2] Kratek had intentions of using the virus to wipe out the Vektans and thereby swiftly ending the war in Helghan's favor. For two years, Kratek ruthlessly had lower segments of Helghast society other than hardened criminals to be use as unwilling test subjects in order to perfect and maximize the deadly potency of his bioweapon.[3][4] Kratek had assigned Doctor Mandor Savic to create a plasmid 'trigger' in the RNA coding of the virus that would make it useless without the trigger.
Hunting Savic[]
By the time of the ISA invasion of Helghan, Kratek's plans for his bioweapon's deployment was foiled by Doctor Savic, who was against using the virus and fled with the plasmid trigger. Kratek ordered a manhunt on Savic and later discovered that he had fled to the Vektan Embassy for political asylum. Kratek ordered a contingent of Helghast soldiers to capture or kill Vektan ambassador Sepp Harkin, his wife Valeria and the family's bodyguard Boris, but demands that Harkin's son Justus and Savic be taken alive.[5] Although Kratek succeeded his objection in killing Harkin and his wife, he was unable to capture Justus who was rescued by the mercenary, Arran Danner, with the aid of Boris, who gave his life to help Justus escape.
After discovering Savic's location, Kratek dispatched soldiers and policemen to apprehend the doctor. But Kratek was again foiled by Danner, who rescued Savic and allowing Grey to learn about the bioweapon.
Recruiting Danner[]
After his Petrusite refinery was destroyed at the hands of Danner, Kratek contacted the mercenary, who was left for dead by PTC commander Anders Benoit under orders of Grey, who wrongfully assumed that Danner tried to sell out Doctor Savic to the Helghast (thanks to Benoit giving her misinformation), and made him an offer: join him and live or die with the exploding refinery. Danner took the former.
After bringing Danner under his employment, Kratek informed the mercenary that Admiral Grey's real objective was to deploy the bioweapon she and Kratek have fought over for the entire war on Helghan and exterminate the entire Helghast race. Kratek assigned Danner to retrieving the security codes to unlock the viral vault from Mandor Savic before Grey tortured him for information, assassinating Grey herself and to bringing Justus (who had the plasmid trigger injected into his bloodstream by Savic), along with a sample of the virus to the Colonel.
Death[]
Kratek then sent Danner and some of his troops to Facility X01 that contained the virus. After disabling the facility's anti-air guns, he ordered Danner to destroy the bioweapon, but retrieve a sample of the virus, and to kill Grey when he has the chance. After Danner killed Grey, Kratek tells him to meet him at the facility's deck and give him the sample, promising to reward him. In reality, Kratek planned to kill Danner along with Justus after obtaining both the virus and plasmid trigger.[6] However, Danner was warned by Blackjack about Kratek's betrayal. Just as Danner fought his way to escape with Justus and the virus, Kratek made a deal with Anders Benoit to capture Justus and the virus. Kratek and Benoit were waiting for Danner and Justus at the flight deck, where Kratek then ordered Benoit to kill the mercenary. But Benoit betrayed the Colonel and shot him in the back, killing him instantly, with the intention of seizing the virus for himself. Kratek's body was lost when Facility X01 crashes.
Conversations[]
Vektan Conflict[]
Kratek: "Is there more? Admiral?"
Grey: "You're going to kill me. Get it over with."
Kratek: "When you've told me EVERYTHING."
Grey: "I don't talk with war criminals."
Kratek: "You think you're better than us. With your talk of freedom and sacrifice. I'll show you sacrifice."
Grey: "You murdering son of a bitch!"
Kratek: "TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW."
Grey: "Go... to HELL..."
Kratek: "It seems we're out of time. They sent mercenaries to save you. The ISA are desperate. And too late. Goodbye, Admiral..."
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Kratek is one of the few Helghast antagonists not to be killed by the player at the climax of the game he appears in. He is instead shot and killed by Benoit who then serves as the final boss.
- Kratek may have wanted to recruit Danner to the Helghast cause. He states after "employing" Danner that he does not have the time to convince him to join them, and will instead pay for his loyalty.
- In the 2013 Gamescom trailer Kratek's helmet/mask appears to be silver, in-game however it is white.