Obregon Kaine

Obregon Kaine was a character created by Mark Waid for the comic book Negation from CrossGen Entertainment. He can also be found in the comic book CrossGen Chronicles #7.

The born fighter

Obregon Kaine was born, the youngest of seven brothers, on Kazrath, the main world in the Kazrathi Republic and one of many found in the Kazrath System, in this, the "bright", universe. Being the last born to a family of boys meant he constantly had to defend himself growing up and this knack for fighting naturally led him into joining the Army after graduation. During Training Camp he was noted among his Staff Seargants as being the fiercest and strongest among the new recruits, which made him a great candidate for leading troops. While still a Private, and while attending the wedding of his one-time rival and friend Gral Radim and new wife Shree, Obie (as Shree called him) and others in the army viewed on television the announcement by recently elected President Arno Subahdar of his intentions to reclaim colonies that had separated themselves from the Republic many years before. Back then, a civil war had erupted on Kazrath, giving these colony worlds the best opportunity to secede. It had been General Subahdar who was noted as ending the Kazrathi Civil War, stopping the chaos and restoring a sense of community. Since becoming President, it had been his goal to reclaim the worlds who left during the infighting on the homeworld. The planets of Balan, Corremina, and Tan Chiza became the new assignment for the Armed Forces' in this "Campaign of Reunification" to join together again the Kazrath System and this meant Private Obregon Kaine would be going to war.

The military leader

In boot camp, Obregon Kaine and Gral Radim had finished at the top of their class. Both made the cut for elite training at the Frontline Guard Academy. Among the newly recruited they had proven to be the best, but with these achievements and most recently this new declaration of war, they did not know that within two hellish months they would also be counted among the best of the best in the Republican Army. He and Radim were captured and both survived the infamous Blackglade P.O.W. Camp but sometime later, within their first three years in the military, they were then captured again by Tan Chizan guerrillas who interrogated and tortured them. Fortunately, Obregon Kaine was able to walk away from that experience a stronger man but unfortunately it was because his pal could not. F.G. Seargant Gral Radim was paralyzed for life. From then on, Obregon Kaine fought for his buddy and instilled that reason for fighting in the minds of the men of the Armored Air Cavalry's Paladin Platoon, of which he led as a Lieutenant on Tan Chiza. While there, they quelled the insurrection, reinstating the "Cheezies" back into the Republic. It hadn't been easy there, however, for the simple fact that many of the separatist rebels that they fought had more often been women and children. Always a difficult situation for one with morals, but it eventually stopped bothering Kaine and it quickly became easy to discard that social standard as he relived the memory of how Gral Radim told him that his Tan Chizan interrogator was a woman. Remembering the things she did to his friend was what caused Lieutenant Obregon Kaine to become an almost unstoppable machine during the Liberation of Tan Chiza and helped him in his own victory there, as he personally captured rebel leader Karik Tobold.

The war hero

Because of this, the Kazrathi Republican Army awarded him with the Medal of Valor, a great honor to be had among the Frontline Guard. This was given to him at a televised ceremony by the President of the Kazrathi Republic, a man he had highly respected since he was a boy, Subahdar being the General who stopped the civil war on Kazrath. From President Subahdar, he also received the rank of Captain. It was a great day to celebrate, though despite the attention given personally to him by the press, the Armed Forces, and the Kazrath Republic, in all that time, after all those awards and honor and glory, to him, the pat on his back from his hero, General Arno Subahdor, was the greatest thing Obregon Kaine received that day. Afterwards, the President even invited him to a state dinner, but Kaine had to decline the offer because he had intended to go visit someone. This someone was the pal he fought for during his tour in the jungles of Tan Chiza, Gral Radim, and the President, having been briefed of Seargant Radim's situation, took no offense to Captain Kaine's personal loyalties. Obie visited the house of his old friend but he wasn't there and was instead met by a cynical Shree Radim who immediately broke down saying she could no longer play the happy housewife and eventually told Kaine some interesting information about her husband. Outside, the medics had arrived and just as the door of the vehicle was opened the front door of the Radim's home burst open followed by an upset-looking Kaine who just kept walking. That was all Gral Radim ever saw of him that day as his old friend, the new war hero, quickly left out the door and out of the neighborhood. Most recent recipient of the esteemed Medal of Valor, Obregon Kaine, drank himself to the point that he might forget what was told to him by Shree but he kept thinking he should hear Gral confirm her story with his own lips. He tried to call and reached a Colonel Zant. Thinking he might have input the wrong number he almost hung up, until Zant assured him he had correctly reached the Radim's home but that they were missing and as an agent for Internal Security he was there investigating why. He requested that Captain Kaine come down to Internal Security for questioning but Kaine just walked away from the call and was then considered AWOL.