"I have seen plenty of strange shit out there in the Wasteland. But when it comes down to a man who crushes the skulls of Raiders with his bare hands as if they were mere water melons, you know that you have seen the worst of what humanity has to offer."
- excerpts from Regulator Bowden's journal.
Urban Kriegz, infamously known as The Tank, is a feared mercenary and former Raider roaming the Wasteland. Renowned for his abnormal physical strength and his untrustworthy nature, he is the favoured target for multiple would-be bounty hunters, all of whom have failed in their effort to bring Kriegz to justice.
Though fairly tall, Urban's physically imposing body structure has caused him a slight hunch, thus appearing to be shorter than he actually is. His abnormal strength has been noted to allow him to break and crush bones with his bare hands.
History
Urban Kriegz was born the 14th of November in 2249 in the basement of a brothel called The Shallow Corner. His mother was a singer and prostitute going by her stage name Daisy Weathers and his father was a regular and a local street thug by the name of Jakob Kriegz.
Urban was raised by his mother whom he came to idolize for her kindness, calling her his "guardian angel". Jakob's constant mistreatment of her whenever he came to visit the brothel led Urban to detest and hate his father. The father, in turn, hated Urban, going as far as to call him "a mishap due to broken rubber".
As a child, Urban was often teased and taunted by other children in the neighbourhood due to his height. Though his mother encouraged him to ignore them, Urban often responded to their bullying with violence, taking on the traits of his father's short temper. Urban didn't grow in height, but instead grew in weight and width. His constant encounters with other children (often with a violent outcome) caused him to become trained and skilled in both close quarter and physical combat, developing his muscle mass to overcome that of any normal boy at his age.
By the age of twelve, Urban returned home to his mother living in the brothel, only to witness her being beaten by his father. Urban tried to intervene but was knocked to the ground and kicked multiple times in the ribs before his mother managed to chase the drunken Jakob out of her chambers using a shadeless lamp. Mere inches from death, Urban was healed by the local doctor and the officers of the city put an arrest warrant for Jakob Kriegz.
Jakob was arrested and put into a drunk tank for two days before being released. This regular and weak delivery of justice caused Urban to dislike law enforcements in general, seeing how badly his father treated his mother, only to escape a fair judgement. Two days later, Urban returned home from the bar to find his mother strangled in bed with Jakob's belt around her neck. Jakob Kriegz, himself, sat in a nearby couch, hooked up on chems and barely seeming to notice Urban taking up his father's shotgun, which he used to blow his head off at point-blank range.
The law intervened and came to arrest Urban for murder, but arrived too late at the crime scene as Urban had already escaped Kansas City and fled out into the Wasteland. After surviving for two days without water or food, he was taken in by a group of raiders to be used for their entertainment as they put him in fights against other unfortunate wastelanders. After killing 16 contestants with raw, physical prowess, Kriegz had earned his freedom and his gear; reclaiming the shotgun whom he named Daisy, in honor of his late mother.
Though released from raider captivity, Kriegz returned to their camp and killed their leader after nightfall. After taking out several other raiders whom he deemed to be a threat, Kriegz declared himself the new leader of the group. Though reluctancy over his self-proclamation roamed and after several failed assassination attempts the group eventually learned to accept the guidance of the twelve year old, and as the years went by, Kriegz was hardened by the harsh lifestyle of the Wasteland.
Raids on passing caravans earned him the moniker of "the Tank" due to his physically imposing body structure and deadly outcome as he rampaged straight on, armed with naught but his father's shotgun and a rusty machete. Though Kriegz spared the life of unarmed caravaners and wastelanders, he often killed those who dared to insult him or who had the courage to fire back at him.
His raids in the Wasteland led him to become a favoured target of bounty hunters and Regulators alike. These peacekeepers would always fail in their attempts to kill Urban Kriegz, only to suffer personally at his hands as he would torture them for his own amusement.
By the year of 2276, a newcomer going by the name of Hazzard joined Kriegz's crew. Little did Kriegz know that Hazzard was after to assume command of the raider gang. A skilled and manipulative speaker, he managed to convince the crew to turn against their leader, to which Kriegz would respond with his usual method: ultra-violence.
After killing off his entire gang, Hazzard not included as the mentioned had already fled the scene, Kriegz left the raider business and travelled to the Capital Wasteland to become a regular merc, though his past constantly chases after him in the form of Regulator Bowden, who insists that Urban Kriegz must pay for the crimes of his past.
Personality
"You call me crazy? Heh... Fucker, you ain't seen crazy. Fuck, you ain't even heard of crazy until you have seen or heard of what I do to fools like you. To scoop out the insides of some fucker's skull to use as a night lamp, to peel a fucker's skin clean off with rusty chains for the sake of twenty caps, or to disembowel a fucker before his very eyes and let the mole rats feast on his fucking entrails while he still breathes... If that's just crazy, then you probably ain't gonna like the rest of what I have to offer..."
- Urban Kriegz
Urban Kriegz is hot-tempered, sadistic, manipulative and cruel. Though not especially well-read on certain subjects, he is by no means dumb and is as such not easily fooled by liars and cheats. He hates weakness, but respects people who fight back against otherwise impossible odds. He also has a tendency to overuse profanities and vulgar gestures.
It has been said that he always shares a bed with his shotgun Daisy and the true feelings he had for his mother has often been the topic of discussion by friends and foes alike, some even coming to speculate that Urban might suffer from some sort of Oedipus complex.
Appearances
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part I
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part II
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part III
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part IV
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part V
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part VI
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part VII
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part VIII
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part IX
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part X
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part XI
- Fallout: At World's Fair - Part XII
Trivia
- According to rumors his favourite pre-war, historical celebrity is Erwin Rommel.
- Krieg in German means "war", something that fits Urban's aggressive personality.