Hanz Brucker was a former Kel-Morian Hellhound pilot and overseer of a regiment of rippers, armored vehicles, and artillery, as well as Kel-Morian Internment Camp-36 on Turaxis II during the Guild Wars. He was known as "Brucker the Butcher".
Brucker was a hugely overweight man with strong appetites and a florid face. He smoked cigars. While commanding KIC-36, he had a habit of eating a huge meal in front of starving POWs while they were forced to play music for him. He was determined to keep them just barely alive since they were his enemies.
He was served by Taskmaster Lumley, a family retainer, whose tasks included keeping him fed and delivering messages.
Biography[]
Hanz Brucker was a Hellhound pilot, and had a metal "HH" implanted into his hand like other pilots.
King of the Camp[]
Brucker was put in charge of KIC-36, where he lorded over a regiment and its hundreds of POWs. He had to keep them alive for fear of reprisals against Kel-Morian POWs.
Brucker was about to suffer a run of bad luck. A trio of POWs escaped from KIC-36. The only survivor, Captain Clair Hobarth, made it to Confederate territory with information about the camp.
Kel-Morian overseer Aaron Pax had set up a criminal deal with the command of the Confederate base, Fort Howe. The deal went awry, due in part to the efforts of a squad of Confederate soldiers, including Sergeant Tychus Findlay and Lance Corporal Jim Raynor. Overseer Scaggs had heard about the deal and interrupted it, and then Findlay's squad interrupted Scaggs' interruption, resulting in both Vanderspool and Pax losing out on a quantity of loot. An irate Vanderspool came to the erroneous belief that Brucker was the overseer responsible for the interruption.
Vanderspool set up a Special Tactics and Missions Platoon which used Thunderstrike armor. This would enable its members to drop onto KIC-36, rendering its impressive defenses moot. Lance Corporal Jim Raynor believed the POWs would move slowly unless they were given previous warning and volunteered to infiltrate the internment camp.
In late 2488, Brucker was dining in front of an audience of starving, music-playing POWs when Lumley delivered a message—a Hellhound pilot, Ras Hagar, had escaped from Confederate custody. Brucker wished to see him there. When "Hagar" (actually impostor Jim Raynor) shook his hand, Brucker noticed he didn't have a Hellhound pilot implant.
Brucker left Raynor with Lumley for a short period as he summoned guards. This gave Raynor, who was not yet suspicious, enough time to warn the POWs of a rescue scheduled for the next day. The guards returned and Raynor was imprisoned.
Brucker and Dr. Moller oversaw Raynor's torture. However, Raynor had been schooled to resist interrogation by fellow POW Cole Hickson. He led Brucker to believe the rescue was coming within two weeks, but not the next day. Brucker then asked him about neural resocialization, a topic Raynor knew next to nothing about. Raynor claimed he didn't know, but Brucker felt he might have been resocialized as well. Raynor was suspended from a rope in the courtyard as a show of intimidation.
The STM platoon dropped onto the camp. They quickly dominated the opposition and rescued Raynor. The young lance corporal suggested stealing vehicles from the camp's factory. Brucker and Lumley had fled there, with Lumley driving Brucker in a saber command car. Lumley was killed and another soldier injured Brucker, who was captured.
Unfortunately for Brucker, Vanderspool had insisted on revenge for his missing loot. He had sent combative drug-using medic Petty Officer Lisa Cassidy there for that task. Ostensibly giving Brucker an injection for pain, she delivered a message from Vanderspool—"attacking Fort Howe was a serious mistake"—and injected him with something that gave him a heart attack. Brucker was unable to say anything before he died.
Colonel Vanderspool asked Cassidy for a description of his death afterward, and was quite pleased with it, as well as the cover-up that Cassidy had made.
References[]
Dietz, William C. (April 6, 2010). StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils. Simon & Schuster (Gallery Books). ISBN 978-1-4165-5084-6