Article by Katimus_Prime

Name: Andrew Cherenkov
Character Type: Antagonist, Supporting character
Age: 36
Height: 5’10″ (roughly) (177cm)
Weight: Not given

Personality:
Andrew Cherenkov is the perfect example of someone who has lived such a harsh life that he’s forgotten how to be anything but harsh.  Stern, easily angered and critical at the outset, he has extremely high standards that sometimes even he himself can’t meet. Underneath, he wants to be of use to the people important to him.  Since people who are important to him are in very short supply, he goes to great lengths to keep them impressed.  He has no problem getting his hands dirty for a cause, and puts his subordinates before himself, especially when things are bad.  He wants the chance to excel at something, but it’s often taken away from him before he gets the chance to do anything, and this has made him particularly touchy.

Skills and Abilities:
Cherenkov, neither being a playable character or a human boss, doesn’t have any named skillsets, but has whatever would have been the standard U-TIC training in firearms was required to elevate him to Lieutenant.  Also, as a bio-engineered supersoldier, he possesses great physical strength and when berserked, makes quick and deadly work of anyone – friend or foe – that happens to be in his way and not ready for him.  As a party member, he might not have outclassed Ziggy with strength or Jr. in firearms, but would have at least been able to outclass Virgil.

Boss stats:
(Gargoyle)
HP: 3600
EXP: 7400
Attacks: Hell’s Lance, Obsidian Claw
Weaknesses: Lightning, Weapon Slash
Normal Item: Silver Crown – Max EP + 15%
Rare Item: Commander’s Crest – +1 AP Each Turn

Random Stuff:
- In the Japanese incarnation of Xenosaga, Cherenkov is simply referred to as Lieutenant Colonel Andrew.  His Russian surname (most likely gleaned off of Russian nuclear physicist Pavel Cherenkov) was an invention of the North American English release.
- Cherenkov’s part in the Xenosaga Anime series was cut very short.  Instead of Lieutenant Virgil dying, he gets grabbed and absorbed by the Gnosis and the show skips ahead to the Kukai Foundation rescuing the Elsa.  Virgil is still killed by KOS-MOS, but only after the Gnosis attack on the Foundation.

History:

Andrew Cherenkov was part of a genetically enhanced line of super-soldiers that were manufactured before the advent of realians.  He and the other soldiers made with him were born with heightened instincts to react quickly and deadly against battlefield threats.  It is unknown what faction of government employed Cherenkov’s unit, but it ended up in complete defeat before he even saw action, during a conflict known as the Zoar Incident on the on the planet Ariadne.  He and several other Super Soldiers were captured and given a chance to re-integrate themselves into civilian society, but the program was flawed and didn’t take into account their instincts.  Cherenkov in particular stood trial for the murder of someone who had enraged him without knowing what he was capable of.

During his trial, his lawyer argued that it was unfair to be held responsible for something he was genetically built to do and that the previous efforts provided to the other Super Soldiers were insufficient, and that if he were cared for properly, he would be able to function as a normal civilian citizen.  Due to the severity of his crimes, the court was reluctant to let him go until it was suggested that Cherenkov be subjected to a process called Personality Reconditioning.  This process entailed a procedure which called for the re-structuring of the brain’s neural networks in an attempt to alter and re-shape an individual’s memory.  This procedure also involved placing implants that regulated hormone production.  Prior to Cherenkov’s incarceration, Level 6 Personality Reconditioning was the highest the Federation government had ever attempted due to the level of danger inherent in invasive brain surgery, but since he was considered a very dangerous criminal, Cherenkov underwent Level 7 Personality Reconditioning.  In the game, the Hebrew character “aleph” (sometimes spelled “alef” and often mistaken for an “x”) appears on his forehead whenever his emotional levels reach a critical point.  This was a sail safe designed into the program as a warning that he was about to become dangerous (but never seemed to be particularly effective because it always only ever went off before it was too late).

His lawyer at the trial agreed to become his wife.  This also made her responsible for making sure he continued to take the medication for the Reconditioning to keep up its full effect and regulate his mood.  She was a strict and cold woman who tried to avoid intimacy with others and did not wish to have children, but wanted her DNA to be passed on through a clone.  Under the Life Recycling Act, it was very difficult to obtain a cloning permit for personal reasons, but due to her outstanding record within the Federation government that was topped off by taking Cherenkov in, she was able to get one.  When Cherenkov found out about this, he confronted her and she told him that the sole reason for their marriage was so that she could get her cloning permit, not for love.  She brushed off their marriage as a necessary annoyance and insulted him for even hoping to gain her affection. His anger reached a boiling point and the effects of his personality reconditioning were subverted and his instincts took over again. As she turned to walk away, he grabbed her by the throat and strangled her.

Authorities seized him and instead of terminating him, they revoked his human rights for Realian ones and used him to test out the Level 8 Personality Reconditioning procedure. He rather miraculously survived the heavily invasive procedure and was able to function in society for a short time before randomly running into his wife’s clone.  When she recognized him, she looked up and called him “garbage,” (Xenogears fans will probably marvel at the similarity in terminology used in reference to Kahran (Carlin) Ramsus, who bears a rather striking resemblance to Cherenkov) and he snapped again, killing the clone on the spot.

After much debate, the authorities attempted Level 9 Personality Reconditioning on him, but it backfired severely when Cherenkov woke up during the procedure and killed everyone in the building.  After having exhausted himself in his berserk state, he collapsed in front of the facility.  When he came to, he found Commander Margulis of the U-TIC Organization waiting for him.  Margulis had researched what Cherenkov had been put through and was very impressed with how he had rejected the Personality Reconditioning, and wanted to recruit him for the organization.  Cherenkov, still running on adrenaline, tried to rush at Margulis at first and had to be knocked out before he joined U-TIC in an official capacity.

Margulis took it upon himself to bring Cherenkov into the fold.  After years of civilian confinement, he had whipped himself back into shape as a soldier and established a very strong reputation within U-TIC.  He was still dependent on his medication to be able to function in social situations, but despite this, he performed admirably and won the respect of his peers and Margulis.  At one point, he headed a mission to acquire the KOS-MOS archetype being developed by Kevin Winnicot on the planet Carioca.  He was given a connection gear by a man in a red cloak and when he activated it, the KOS-MOS archetype went berserk and killed a good number of Vector employees and U-TIC operatives alike, including Winnicot himself.  The KOS-MOS archetype was only stopped when Shion Uzuki shot it at point blank.

Just before the events of Xenosaga: Episode I, Cherenkov was charged with heading a U-TIC experiment to connect a Zohar Emulator with the mysterious entity known as U-DO.  The test base was set up on Ariadne and Margulis saw fit put him on the mission to test his loyalty to the organization.  Cherenkov agreed to it without regrets. The experiment was a colossal failure; the entire planet (with all of its 1.5 billion inhabitants) was warped off the material plane and the Emulator was flung out into space.  Since U-TIC had been hard pressed to capture that particular Emulator, they were also hard pressed to get it back.  The Gnosis were highly attracted to the Emulators, and if they got ahold of it before U-TIC did, there would be little to no chance of recovering it.

In a matter of days, the newly launched Federation Space Cruiser Woglinde was on its way to the last known coordinates of the Emulator.  Margulis had pulled some serious strings to get Cherenkov and his men on the ship as part of the crew, posing as Federation officers.  Also positioned aboard the Woglinde was the rebuilt KOS-MOS unit, along with her development team, who was commissioned there in case the Gnosis attacked.  Retrieving the Emulator was easily done with the very nice Federation equipment they had access to, but getting the Woglinde to the UMN jump point, and then getting the Emulator off the Woglinde before the Federation noticed would have been another thing to worry about.

Unfortunately, rumors of KOS-MOS’ completion were exaggerated after reviewing Shion Uzuki’s development reports.  The hastily assembled crew didn’t stand a chance against the Gnosis, and with their main weapon still asleep, Cherenkov lost it and tried to order Uzuki and her team to get her online as soon as possible because their lives depended on it.  He was further devastated to learn that the Gnosis were coming after them more agressively than anticipated.  The Gnosis arrived a few hours later and attacked and slaughtered the completely stunned crew.  In a last-ditch effort to secure it, Cherenkov was prepared to suit up and eject himself and the Emulator containment unit out into space, where he would attempt to manually guide it to the UMN jump point, but while he was setting the containment unit up to eject, the Gnosis had found it, and it was as simple as phasing it through the ship’s hull for it to be gone.

Cherenkov was able to escape the Woglinde relatively unscathed by latching onto the outside of the escape pod used by Shion Uzuki and Allen Ridgely to get away, but not before being witness to KOS-MOS shooting through Lieutenant Louis Virgil in an attempt to maximize her efficiency in killing the Gnosis.  The pod is recovered by the Elsa, owned by Captain Matthews, who was in the area scavenging for debris after the Gnosis attack.  While Matthews is skeptical about letting Shion, Allen and KOS-MOS take a free ride to Miltia, he grants Cherenkov a free ride to the nearest Dock Colony because he notices his uniform and is glad to lend a hand to a fellow Marine (or at least someone playing the part well enough).  Before they leave the area around the remains of the Woglinde, a Gnosis appears on the bridge of the Elsa and grabs Cherenkov by the head.  He is only saved from whitening by the appearance of chaos.

After being grabbed, Cherenkov makes himself scarce.  Out of the Elsa crew and the player characters, only Shion manages to connect with him briefly over bringing him dinner (almost accidently stumbling onto another failed attempt to kidnap KOS-MOS that is thwarted by Cherenkov’s PTSD regarding the incident with the KOS-MOS Archetype).  Bio-engineered as a weapon himself, he tells an obviously still unnerved Shion that what happened to Virgil was an honest accident.

Shortly after this, the cyborg Ziggurat 8 and the 100-Series Realian designated MOMO end up on the Elsa after having escaped Margulis himself.  Cherenkov reports this, but since he doesn’t have the strength or stealth to take on KOS-MOS, Ziggy, Shion and chaos by himself, let alone find a vehicle to obscond with MOMO, Margulis sternly orders him to concentrate on getting back to Pleroma.  The closest dock colony was under Ormus influence, so catching a ride to Senir from there should have been easy, but since his Federation Marine getup was so airtight, he was spotted by some street thugs before he could explain.

Things heated up and he got shoved past his Personality Reconditioning boiling point, badly injuring (or perhaps killing?  Violence in the North American release of Xenosaga has been reported as being toned down) his assailants.  Injured himself, he wasn’t able to catch a ride from the dock colony as planned, and the crew of the Elsa and its passengers were beginning to get more concerned about him.  The more concerened about him they got, the more they would find out about him, and that wasn’t something he was prepared for, so his best course of action was to get off at the next stop after that.  After the strain of being grabbed by the Gnosis earlier, being pushed into his berserk state left him feeling much worse than he originally thought.

As the Elsa travelled through the hyperspace column toward the next stop, Cherenkov awoke from a nightmare, made for the vending machines to get something to drink and started to phase out.  After he phased out, the Elsa and the rest of its passengers were transported to a giant Gnosis classified as a Cathedral Ship.

Inside the Cathedral Ship were remnants of a suburban mall that used to be on Ariadne, held together by the Gnosis itself.  This particular mall was probably where Cherenkov’s wife’s clone recognized him.  Also merged within the mall was the U-TIC Zohar Emulator facility.  As Cherenkov was transported there seperately from the Elsa crew, he was ahead of them, and alone, drawn to the Emulator.  Still phasing in and out of normal space, Cherenkov experienced his memories very vividly as they flashed before him.  (In the manga, Jr and Mary Godwin were transported to the Cathedral Ship as well and met up with Cherenkov before he reached the Emulator, but he shrugs them off.)

When Shion and the rest of the party reach the Emulator facility, Cherenkov is already there and phasing worse.  Shion is alarmed and concerned, but Cherenkov snaps at her. He admits his involvement in Ariadne’s disappearance before he is set upon by lights that transform him into a giant, gargoyle-like Gnosis.

The party defeats him, and Shion is visited by Nephilim, who shows her a short conversation between Margulis and Commander Cherenkov, and is then transported to the Beach of Nothingness.  Cherenkov explains to Shion that he prefers being able to rest after trying and failing to connect with the world so many times. He tells her that she would end up on there herself, as she was also touched by the Gnosis.  When Shion is transported back to the place where they fought the Gargoyle, she breaks down at the realization that they just killed him. chaos comforts her, and she and shortly afterward, the rest of the party are picked up by the Elsa as the Cathedral Ship begins to become unstable.  The Elsa’s escape attempts become complicated, but they are saved by the Durandal.  On Pleroma, U-TIC tracking technology alerts Margulis and his men that Cherenkov was gone.  They were unsure of the exact details, but it is assumed by them that he was taken by the Gnosis.

After his death, Commander Cherenkov is no longer mentioned by name in the series.  The Xenosaga II database glosses over the Cathedral Ship, and the only reference to his story having occured at all is when Margulis references Ariadne’s disappearence before fighting Jin Uzuki in Labyrinthos.  He is mentioned a little more in depth in the Xenosaga III database, and Shion ends up on the Beach of Nothingness for a split second in a scene with Joachim Mizrahi and Maria, but there are no flashbacks alluding to Cherenkov having been there.