Misha Volkov — Veteran Miner of Vostok Outpost

Name: Mikhail "Misha" Volkov

Date of Birth: May 5, 2034

Place of Birth: Volgograd, Russia

Position: Veteran Miner, Vostok Outpost

Previous Occupation: Naval Infantryman (Russian Federation Navy)

Mars Arrival: 2073 (aged 38)

Misha Volkov 2083

From the ashes of one war to the dust of another.

Misha Volkov was born into a crumbling century. By the time he turned twenty, the world was already leaning into another war — and he went with it, almost without question. Drafted into the Russian Navy's ground forces, Misha served under the command of Major Anatoly Ivanov during the brutal final campaigns of the EU–Russia conflict. He was not a strategist.Not a leader. He was a soldier in the purest sense: a man who moved forward when others stopped, whose strength was not in words or plans, but in silent endurance.

Misha Volkov at 20, dreaming of ships and a life still unbroken.

When the war ended in ruins and treaties signed in smoke, there was no home waiting for him. Volgograd’s industrial sprawl — once proud shipyards and factories — had collapsed into a patchwork of shelters and scavengers. Veterans like Misha, too old to be new, too young to be forgotten, flooded the streets. Many found their way into gangs, into bottle fires under broken bridges.Misha found his way to Mars.

Or rather, Mars found him — in the form of a single offer from the man he once saluted. Ivanov, now a senior figure in the early colonization efforts, offered him a contract: work the mines of Vostok, or vanish into Earth’s forgotten corners. Misha signed without hesitation.

In 2073, he stepped onto Martian soil, a man already carved hollow by one planet, now offering himself to another.

Misha Volkov, age 28 — a soldier still able to laugh before the war truly begins.

The Miner No Machine Could Replace

At Vostok, machines outnumbered men.Massive drilling rigs, automated transports, modular refineries — they did the heavy lifting, but they couldn't survive Mars without constant hands to guide and repair them. Misha became one of those hands.

In the thin, bitter air of the red planet, he fought new battles:

• replacing frozen cables by hand at minus 70 Celsius,

• realigning fission drills while vibrations rattled bone,

• wrestling half-ton mineral cages because the robots were too delicate to trust.

Every kilo he carried was a battle not just for production, but for the survival of his own body. Gravity on Mars is treacherous — without the burden of work, muscles waste away. Misha did not allow himself to waste. Not on Earth. Not here.

When others exercised on treadmills and rubber-band contraptions, Misha simply pushed harder at the rock face. He didn’t lift weights. He lifted the world that refused to carry him.

Misha Volkov — only 38, but war had no mercy.

A Quiet King Without a Crown

Among his own crew — the “Zeta shift,” a ragged but fiercely loyal circle of miners — Misha’s authority was absolute. He was not formally promoted. No titles, no stripes. But in the way others fell silent when he stood, in the way they checked his glance before making a decision — it was clear. Misha Volkov was their backbone.

Outside his crew, he was treated with wary respect. To the untrained eye, Misha might have seemed just another battered miner. But the veterans knew. He carried the brittle calm of those who had seen death too closely, too many times.

Misha lived under an unspoken code: Protect your own. Stand until you fall. Ask nothing. Expect nothing.

It was not kindness that shaped him. It was loyalty — the pure, dangerous kind that makes men invincible in battle and unapproachable in peace. He was, and remains, a figure others orbit carefully: a relic of old wars who chose to stay when so many chose to leave.

"Не важно, кто что болтает. Важно, кто на ногах стоит."

"Don’t matter what ya say. Matters who's still standin'."

— Misha Volkov

Disclaimer: All characters, events, and storylines presented on this website are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. Visual representations of characters were created using AI-generated imagery and are intended solely for illustrative purposes.