Terry Yanzi
Age: 30
Species: Human
Physical Appearance: Terry is an unassuming figure aside from his taller-than-average height. While he is physically fit and carries himself with a confidence and posture that may betray his background to a careful observer, he is otherwise remarkably average, but not unattractive; there is no good way to tell him from a distance in a crowd. Ethnically Asian with a light complexion, he wears black hair that is often groomed stylishly. His dark brown eyes and young face are completely at odds with a stereotypical career military man’s rigid features and seriousness. His civilian clothes change routinely but are often utilitarian, drab, and durable, suited for his work. He occasionally wears body armor underneath a concealing jacket.
Skills: Terry’s skills fall mostly in the networking and influencing realm. While adept at combat fundamentals including blasters, blades, and martial arts, he prefers to train and influence organizations and networks to conduct asymmetrical attacks against his opponents. His swath of experience with criminal, terrorist, and insurgent actors has given him the wisdom of a man many years his senior. He maintains connections with senior military, police, criminal, and rebel organizations across the sector and often “knows a guy” for specific roles and jobs.
Weaknesses: Terry operates independently of other assets in the area, often alone and with only “allies” he can barely trust. This had led to a deep distrust of others outside of his former tight-knit group of soldiers, and a strictly transactional attitude to relationships. He can be difficult to work with, we he often works double-deals and alternate courses of action. Nobody even knows if his name or stories about his past are truthful. For Terry, this has led to a sense of mild paranoia and difficulty to return to social life, along with a buried anxiety about his former life that he had left behind. He drinks routinely and has started to abuse drugs, on a few occasions dangerously for his overall health. These fears may lead to missed opportunities or mistakes made in the field, especially as stress and tensions mount.
Character History: Terry Yanzi was born on Coruscant during a period of peace for the Galactic Republic. As a child, he grew up to a stable family with a handful of siblings and attended the Republic’s public schools on the planet. Getting mostly high average grades in school, he enjoyed playing outside with his friends amongst the urban city structure of the galactic capital. At 14, he had climbed the tallest building in his city sector with a group of friends; the trip had taken them four days to climb up and down the kilometers-tall structure, often having to hide from the droid security guards that roamed the property looking for trespassers. Terry attended university upon his graduation, and became yet another economics and sociology graduate ready for the job market.
His search for jobs was short-lived, however, when he was approached by a shipping company at a career fair held shortly after graduation. Terry, who had always tried to adventure around the planet, had not been out of the system yet and agreed to take a contract on a freighter hauling goods to the Outer Rim and back. While the contract was initially short, Terry signed on for another two years after his commitment was up. By then, he had risen to the rank of a senior officer onboard a respectable freighter. This success was short lived, however, when the Techno Union bought out his company and kept their contracted time: Terry’s freighter was folded into the Techno Union’s larger fleet and he was subsequently reassigned as a lower-ranking crewman.
With agency out of his hands, Terry continued to enjoy his travels across the galaxy. He entertained himself by reading foreign texts, exploring alien cultures, and learning languages not native to Basic. But while his contract was ticking down months and weeks, a galactic crisis was brewing: after conflicts on Naboo involving the Trade Federation and the Jedi-backed Republic, the Techno Union announced its secession alongside other members of the new Confederacy of Independent Systems. Preparations were made in secret for war, as Terry found himself carrying new cargo shipments from a strange planet: battle droids ferried to secret arsenals from the desert world of Geonosis. It was there where he would have his first taste of combat at age 25.
As Republic forces descended upon the planet in the largest invasion the galaxy had seen in centuries, Terry was ordered to crew one of the freighter’s shuttles to transport battle droids to and from combat zones across the fight. The gunships, a far cry from the specialized droid variants, consisted of shoddily fabricated droid racks retrofitted to the cargo bay and blaster turrets hastily welded to the fuselage. He fought as a door gunner to clear landing zones of clone troopers before the battle droids could be deployed. While heavily damaged, Terry’s shuttle returned to the freighter as Republic forces overwhelmed CIS defenders on the planet. His ship fled with the rest of the Techno Union forces.
At some point during the hyperspace jump, Terry’s freighter was crippled by previously unnoticed battle damage taken during the escape. As they descended onto a world in the Outer Rim, it became clear that the freighter was no longer going to fly. A decision was made to crash-land it softly into the deserts of Aargonar. The freighter became a key component of the CIS base to be created there, until its payload of battle droids were taken leaving it useless to the war effort. Despite its proximity to the base, the freighter became a hub for a refugee camp and shanty city populated by Geonosian refugees. Assigned to personnel and logistical management for a refugee camp, Terry was eager to get back to the fighting. He applied for a transfer to the ground forces of the CIS, with an option to attend Confederacy commando training.
Despite their reliance on battle droids, the CIS utilized organic soldiers in special roles across the galaxy. Upon learning that they had an educated and seasoned veteran from Geonosis arriving for commando training, the CIS military fast-tracked Terry to selection and qualification. For the next year, Terry endured grueling training in military operations, espionage, combat, and asymmetrical warfare. He emerged as a pioneer in the CIS commando force, with a fake identity and new set of skills. His first assignment would be his only during the war: he was to be secretly trafficked to Coruscant and inserted amongst the undercity’s web of gangs and terrorists along with a team of fellow rebels. Their objective was simple, too, with only guidance to form insurgent and rebel forces to assist in the inevitable invasion of the planet.
So Terry was inserted across the planet from his home sector, and over the years established himself as a reliably asset for the Confederacy. His persuasive demeanor and ability to use established cultural connections enabled him to network groups of criminals and insurgents into cells to self-sustain an operation. Ambushes on police and clone forces were carried out using his military training, manned by Coruscant’s disaffected and disgruntled, and funded by illicit drug dealing and blaster running. His organizations became so effective, Republic intelligence was no longer looking for an economics graduate in his late 20s but instead a seasoned mob boss and terrorist kingpin.
The Battle of Coruscant activated Terry and his team’s networks of insurgents, providing distractions to the Coruscant defense forces while, above, the Sith performed their true mission. Days of fighting ensued, with Terry often becoming personally involved in sabotage and ambushes before slinking into the shadows. Yet not all was as it seemed: the battle had decimated the Separatist fleet and left Terry without the intelligence, military, and financial support he had used to prop up an insurgency on the planet. As the days and weeks passed and the Republic closed in on General Grievous on foreign worlds, Terry now realized that he was on the verge of defeat. Despite his work, he was left high and dry by the rapidly-deteriorating military capabilities of the CIS. Terry once again took to the underworld, turning himself into a warlord instead of a CIS operative. His motives turned to self-preservation rather than mission.
Order 66 was suddenly executed across the galaxy, with no prior warning to the former Separatist commando. The Jedi Temple, once a bastion of Republic glory, was in flames. Terry watched in terrified confusion as the Republic tore itself apart, slaughtering Jedi and their supporters in the temple and the streets. With the clone troopers rapidly filling the planetary city acting as despotic police and occupiers, Terry once again realized his fight with the Republic – now dubbed the Galactic Empire by the new Emperor Palpatine – would need to continue. This time, his former enemies would become his allies.
In the aftermath of Order 66, Terry Yanzi will need to reconcile his past with the present, as he must reach out to the Jedi to become an uneasy ally amidst the chaos of the new Empire.
