Ziko is an AGEd Assault Class from the story Project: AKRA.  He is the heavy, front line soldier in Raist’s squad.  He is a large, strong, fast and aggressive man who is very skilled in short range combat.  He has medium length hair that is dark colored, rare for Assaults, and is the equivalent of a late 20s, early 30s man.

He is very protective of Philira and is upset over how much Agrest and Raist flirt with the naive young woman.  He feels protective of her given that the two of them are the most exposed members of the squad, having their roles to literally be on the front line of the more distant fighters.

He is extremely strong like all Assaults, and prefers heavy weapons that near the equivalent of modern vehicle machine guns in terms of size, and the destruction that can bring is immense.

During the mission they are separated during a crash.  He loses one of his arms and the group watches as the hostile planet cuts his arm apart and dissolves it in the acid underbrush.  Leio is also heavily injured, but it is her legs.  They pair up with Ziko carrying her and is given a pistol whereas she stays with her Sweep Rifle as they press forward.

 

Past:

Ziko was part of larger direct action groups as an Assault for a long time before being transferred to Raist’s group that was recently promoted.  Being an Assault Class marked the transition of the group from its recon role to its more direct one.

No one left behind:

Ziko has been with the group for a few years.  The closest call they had was on a jungle world of Reiko-3 in the Reiko star system.  Philira had been separated under heavy fire when Ziko was hit by a high powered rifle from the enemy. It blew his arm off and was pinned down under the fire.  The mission had been completed and he could have been left given the trap they found themselves in.

Raist took Leio and fought their way to him.  Raist was hit during the recovery, and she treated the two of them. Dragging their way out they met the rest of the group and successfully left.  It was the closest call the group had had, and Ziko was very sincerely thankful that Raist came back for him.

 

Major Spoilers for Project: AKRA:

 

 

*Please don’t read unless you have finished the story as this is a very key reveal and spoils a major part of the book*

 

 

Ziko was in fact an agent for an unnamed but extremely powerful organization that had members from multiple races. He was placed into Raist’s squad with the sole intention of feeding his group information on missions and in the event of such a critical mission like AKRA to step in.  His sabotage started with the crashing of their jump and his murder of Leio.  He did not expect Raist to live through the fortress and was surprised he came back at all.  Likewise he underestimated Raist’s close quarters skill and died mainly to a fortunate knife Raist had.

The fact he was in such an elite, secret group and was actually part of a different group speaks both to the groups connections/power and also his own focus and intelligence to play two sides.  Getting saved by Raist at Reiko-3 was an irony because he knew one day he would betray him.