General Thaddeus Lydstrom

Faction: The Empire
Eras of activity: The wars of the 3 Kingdoms, The renewed Empire
Origin: Imperialus I

General Lydstrom was the commander in chief of the Imperial military during the Imperial coup at the end of the Emperor’s reign. Born from two influent Alpha Lineages, Thaddeus certainly had a privileged upbringing but most of his rise in the ranks can be attributed to his own merit.

Before the final war of the Wars era, Thaddeus had commissioned the design and construction of a new line of Battleships. Bigger, with more powerful armament than even the best of the Terran Navy. The first of this new line of ships had its maiden voyage only days before the rebel fleet of Colonel Slander initiated their final advance on the Imperial Capital world.

Unfortunately, due to the Teran flagship and the Amazon fleet’s creative tactics the ship was boarded by Terran pirates supported by a company of Amazon clones. After a long battle, the pirates prevailed and commandeered the ship. Lydstrom still hold grudges against the Pirate crew and the shadowy Mistress who donated the troops.

Post war, the general now commands the fleets enforcing Imperial peace on core worlds but his intelligence operatives scour the periphery in search of rebels and deserters. He laments the Empress’ detached attitude towards the military but knows better than to openly criticize his immortal leader. It is believed in the higher spheres of imperial management that he and the Empress have an unsaid agreement that Lydstrom can do however he pleases with the fleet so long as he is successful.

One mystery seems to elude all in the know of current galactic events, Lydstrom does not seem to make it a priority to chase after Colonel Slander. The Renegade still campaigns to have his home province made into an independent state, both the Empress and Lydstrom seem to be willing to wait it out while Slander is obviously gathering more support from his fellow citizens.

Since the coup, Lydstrom no longer resides on the Imperial capital world but has permanent quarters for his family at the space station near shipyard 45A where the new Battleships are being built. The shipyard is located at a very tactically sound location, halfway between the capital and the Neutral zone. The station’s long-range sensors and communication’s array ensure that the General knows all and that his voice carries to every corner of the Empire.

Until recently, the Imperial military doctrine relied on large numbers of well-trained troops. Such an approach allowed for prolonged occupation of agitated areas without depleting other areas of their security complement. Maintenance of the troops and their equipment had to be kept low so Imperial personnel most often to performed maintenance on their own gear, hence keeping the level of sophistication relatively low also made a lot of sense. The doctrine still has lots of good reasons to stay in place but Lydstrom thinks a few lessons need to be learned from recent campaigns.

1- The Amazons seem to have improved their cloning yields and the quality of many of their gene seeds.
2- The last battles against Hive troops have not gone well, the new clones wear body armor and their weaponry is adjusted to the anticipated battlefield conditions.

The Imperial troops lack in comparison because:

1- Soldiers are born, raised and trained while clones can receive virtually unlimited levels of training in the cyber-womb.
2- The current “peacekeeping” weaponry is less efficient in large scale battles or prolonged engagement than the Amazon’s specialized equipment.

The General has doubled the R&D budget, hoping to find a way out of this tactical handicap.

The recast

Lydstrom only made brief appearances during Starship Bloopers TOS. His high station in the Empire makes him well suited to appear in Starship Bloopers Mercenaries as a powerful figure pulling the strings in the background.

The new model is a middle-aged Alpha Male. Though no longer at peak fitness, Lydstrom’s experience and hand to hand combat mastery make him almost as dangerous by himself as he would be with his entire squad of Omega bodyguards.