Henry Gram

Henry Gram
Personal
Born	6 July 2506
Died	15 January 2592
Affiliation	House Gram
Profile
Title(s)	Graf von Eschenberg
Position(s)	Speaker of the Assembly
Profession	Noble

Henry Gram was the Graf von Eschenberg and Speaker of the Assembly.

History

He was behind the kidnapping of Kevin Steiner-Dinesen, son of Lyran Commonwealth Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen, trying to eliminate the House Steiner influence and to ensure the Lyran Commonwealth remained separate from the Star League. He built a web of deception in order to do so.

His plan unfolded when in June 2591, Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen commanded the Tamar Tigers, Twenty-fifth Skye Rangers, and Fourth Royal Guards in conjunction with the SLDF's Thirty-first Armor Division in the campaign to liberate the Rim Worlds Republic world of Barcelona from Rim Royal Army partisans under the command of Franchetta Wong. It is then that Loki agent R. K. Jaishankar brought news that the Archon's son, Kevin Steiner-Dinesen, had been kidnapped by rogue members of the Estates General. Inaccurate intel placed the blame on Duke Selvin Kelswa of Tamar and Duke Aldo Lestrade of Skye.

In unthinking rage, Viola mobilized the Fourth Royal Guards and, in her Warhammer, personally lead them in an assault against the Skye Rangers. Despite the protests of her aide, Heinrich Schwartzmann, Viola attacked the Skye Rangers' encampment, bringing her Guards into battle with the Skye and Tamar forces. Both Heinrich and the SLDF troops under Margaret Beck unsuccessfully tried to stop the Archon without hurting her. The battle ended when Tamar Tiger commander Sabine Petrov engaged Viola with her Commando and severely wounded the Archon with a direct hit to the cockpit, shattering her arm.

In late 2591, Viola regained consciousness aboard the vessel Robert Dinesen (named for her late husband). Her trusted aide, Heinrich, informed her of the loss of her arm and briefed her on the ongoing investigation into Kevin's kidnapping. He also informed her that her rampage on Barcelona has become known as the "Day of Rage," and that he hated her because she made him fire on his brothers-in-arms in order to protect her. When she attempted to justify the attack as a necessary response to a revolt by her lords, he rebuked her with information that Kelswa and Lestrade had been exonerated, and that Jaishankar's report was only a rumor. Horrified by the realization that she caused hundreds of innocent deaths, Viola slipped back into oblivion.

In January 2592, on Tharkad, Estates General Speaker of the Assembly Henry Gram celebrated his pending success in manipulating the Lyran parliament into voting to secede from the Star League. His triumphant reverie was interrupted by his associate, Ichabod Blau, who informed him that the Lyran Intelligence Corps was starting to arrest all the conspirators involved in the kidnapping of Archon-Designate Kevin Steiner-Dinesen. Gram tried to calm Blau, noting that his steering committee had the LIC tied in knots, while Archon Viola, at last report from his spies, was still in a coma on Barcelona. The two exited Government House through a secret corridor, only to find the Fourth Royal Guards executing a combat drop on the Triad. Up above, Archon Viola oversaw Operation RIGHTEOUS FURY, coordinating efforts to seal off the roads around Government House, trapping the rogue members of the Estates General. LIC agents apprehended Gram and brought him out to where the Archon awaited in her one-armed Warhammer. Rage consumed her, and when he attempted to give a speech about patriotism, she crushed him beneath her 'Mech's heel.

Death and Legacy

His actions left a lasting distrust between the Skye, Tamar, and Donegal elements of the Lyran Commonwealth and (later) Lyran Alliance.

Bibliography

• Historical: Reunification War
• Memories of Rain (short story)