Rama Bhattacharya
Captain Rama Bhattacharya | |
|---|---|
रमा भट्टाचार्य | |
| Born | September 18, 1925 |
| Died | November 4, 2019 (aged 94) |
| Resting place | Heroes of the Republic Cemetery, Litudinem |
| Nationality | Daryan-Maximusian |
| Occupation | Intelligence officer |
| Years active | 1950s-1980s |
| Era | Great War |
| Employer(s) | Army Strategic Operations and Intelligence Command (ASOIC) Department of Internal Security |
Rama "Ronnie" Bhattacharya (September 18, 1925 - November 4, 2019) was a distinguished Maximusian intelligence officer deployed deep undercover in the Daryan army during the Great War. Information recovered by Bhattacharya between 1959 and 1961 was instrumental in alerting the Maximusian government to the impending Daryan invasion. Bhattacharya later served on the 1963 Maximusian Intelligence Commission, which facilitated the formation of the Maximusian Bureau of Security and its daughter organization, the Department of Internal Security. Bhattacharya's life and time undercover were the subject of the 2019 film, Spymaster, which was released shortly before Bhattacharya's death from adenocarcinoma in 2019.
Early Life
Rama Bhattacharya was born on September 18, 1925 in East Lumeniola to Arjun and Parvati Bhattacharya, immigrants from Kurwai, Darya. In 1922, the Bhattacharya family opened Bhattacharya Delicatessen, a small corner-grocery store which would operate under Arjun's management for decades to come. Rama was the middle child, with one older sister (b. 1924) and one younger brother (b. 1927). Bhattacharya was raised in a bilingual household, learning to speak both English and Daryan fluently. By the accounts of his teachers and peers, Rama was an exceptionally precocious and resourceful young man, initially looking to become a physician before forgoing those plans to join the Maximusian Office of Army Intelligence in 1944 on the behest of a persistent recruiter (and no doubt much to the chagrin of Arjun and Parvati). Bhattacharya underwent basic training shortly after his 19th birthday, but was subsequently given a sedentary position as a data analysist.
Career
Operation Disoriented Serpent (1959-1961)
By the onset of the Great War, Bhattacharya had risen through the ranks of army intelligence and was among the early officials to sound the alarm on the growing Daryan threat. Along with his commanding officer, Colonel William Hope, Bhattacharya devised Operation Disoriented Serpent in the autumn of 1958, a plan to deploy an intelligence officer in deep cover within the Daryan army to assess their offensive plans and capabilities and run counterintelligence. Bhattacharya volunteered himself for the mission, and was begrudgingly granted permission by his superiors soon thereafter. In order to solidify his cover, Bhattacharya was dishonorably discharged from the OAI on the grounds of being "unfit for general service." Bhattacharya "returned home" to Kurwai in late 1959, posing as a disgruntled expatriate disillusioned with the promises of democracy and pluralistic society. Bhattacharya was eventually excepted into the Daryan army, where he began meticulously recording the Daryan mobilization effort and reporting his findings via dead-drop to Colonel Hope. Over time, Bhattacharya grew increasingly bold, nearly blowing his cover to infiltrate a 1961 Daryan security briefing, which definitively identified Libertas Omnium Maximus as Darya's first target. The intelligence gathered by Bhattacharya during Operation Disoriented Serpent has been credited as giving the Maximusian government sufficient warning of impending Daryan invasion to secure their defenses and mobilization the national war effort. Fearing the mission was blown after the start of the Battle of the Galinios Sea, Hope recalled Bhattacharya in December of 1961.