Hans Tiedemann

Hans Tiedemann was EarthGov's Director of Operations on Titan Station, responsible for overseeing Project Telomere, the research program that produced Red Marker copies on the station, chief among them the enormous Site 12 Marker. When the Necromorph outbreak spread up from the Titan Mines, Tiedemann became the principal obstacle to Isaac Clarke and the survivors who fought to escape the Sprawl, among them Ellie Langford.

Director of Titan Station#

By his own account, recorded in an audio log left in the Government Sector, Tiedemann's grandfather had run Titan Station long before him, and Tiedemann claimed to have spent his entire life in service of its residents, caring deeply for their safety. The Tiedemann Health Center was the largest hospital on the Sprawl around the time of the outbreak, which suggested that he or his grandfather had been a charitable figure or major donor, and the motto of his political campaign was "Courage. Compassion. Stability." As EarthGov's Director of Operations on the station, he oversaw Project Telomere, the program that harvested Isaac Clarke's mind to assemble Red Marker copies, most notably the massive Site 12 Marker.

The outbreak and the evacuation#

After the engineer Karrie Norton unwittingly unleashed the Necromorph infection in the Titan Mines, Tiedemann guided her through the station's underbelly, telling her it was her responsibility to repair the damage she had caused in the Government Sector. He showed no sign of knowing that Tyler Radikov had influenced her actions. When he learned that she had cut power to the station's automatic seals, he ordered her to the reactor core before it overheated and destroyed the station; Karrie destroyed the massive Necromorph at the root of the core's trouble but was gravely injured, and Tiedemann did not answer her hails afterward. He moved through the Public Sector and later to the Government Sector as the outbreak worsened.

Unable to contain the spread, Tiedemann declared martial law and ordered an immediate evacuation of all personnel, going against his EarthGov superiors, who forbade evacuation in the event of a breach. He also ordered the Titan Station Security Force to eliminate the Marker project's key subjects, a list that included Isaac Clarke, Nolan Stross and Lexine Weller. Graffiti-defaced posters of him could be found across the station, a sign of how little he was loved, particularly among its Unitologists. For authorizing the illegal evacuation, Tiedemann was reproached by his own superior, the Overseer, one of the heads of EarthGov's Marker project, who sent word of his disappointment and a promise of retribution.

Death at the Marker#

Tiedemann was the primary opposition to Isaac and Ellie Langford as they fought to escape the station, turning automated subsystems and teams of Security Officers against the engineer at every turn. At last he retreated into the Site 12 Marker chamber as his forces battled the Necromorphs Isaac had let into the Government Sector. When the horde poured in, Tiedemann sheltered at the base of the Marker, inside the dead space where the creatures could not reach him. Speaking to Isaac over the RIG link, he defended his protection of the Marker and the research behind it, insisting that EarthGov was close to controlling its power. As he spoke, the Marker began a Convergence Event, releasing bursts of energy that burned the right side of his body down to skull and muscle and seared Marker symbols into his flesh that spelled "pain."

In a rage, Tiedemann shot Isaac in the chest and hand with a Javelin Gun as the engineer approached the Marker, declaring that the research had been worth every life lost in the outbreak and that he would not let Isaac waste it. Isaac gained the upper hand, broke Tiedemann's arm, disarmed him, and used the director's own Javelin Gun to drive a spear into his neck, killing him.

A protector to the last#

For all his attempts on Isaac's life and his heavy hand, Tiedemann saw himself as a guardian of the station's residents, pointing to his family's long history as its stewards as the reason he wanted to save its people from the outbreak, orders or no. He believed in the Marker's promise of limitless energy, arguing that humanity's reliance on destructive planet cracking would drive the species to extinction unless it learned to understand the Markers, and that the outbreak was not EarthGov's fault. He apologized to Isaac repeatedly, even remarking that the engineer's resourcefulness would have been admirable in more favorable circumstances. That empathy waned as his situation grew desperate, hardening into violent anger once Isaac loosed the Necromorphs into the Government Sector. As a career politician he had few practical skills, but his technical knowledge let him command the station's systems, and even with one working arm and third-degree burns he was able to wield the Javelin Gun against Isaac in his final moments.