So this is how it would be? His pleas falling on deaf ears, accused of the most heinous crime. No Captain speaking openly in his defence, with his strongest support being merely a plea for leniency. Referred to as a tantruming child when he had never even raised his voice. The smile of Kuroda as his gut was wrenched out would not leave his mind, nor would her vile and false words. Osamu was reminded briefly of the tale of Oedipus, most think of it as the story of a man who married his mother. Whilst true it was as much to do with the self-fulfilling prophecy. Kuroda’s words threatened to do much the same thing.
When Osamu walked into this meeting he was loyal, to the soul society, to her, to all the captains. He would have obeyed every order, perhaps not happily but he would have obeyed. What dissent he had would have been voiced openly and honestly, in the name of frank discussion and in the confidence of trust. When Osamu walked out of the meeting Kuroda had made an enemy where none existed before and his trust was gone. Not just for Kuroda, but for all of them. Osamu could no longer look at a Captain and implicitly trust him, have faith the man would defend or help him in even the smallest or most necessary degree. Before he had seen good men and women who, whether right or wrong, were at least trying to do the right thing. Now they were squabbling, scared, angry, stubborn and self-interested hypocrites. Perhaps this attitude would pass in time, perhaps not. For now he just had to supress his simultaneous urges to kill everyone else and himself. Oddly it was the same duty and loyalty that Kuroda denied that stayed his hand. He could not allow the soul society to fall solely into the hands of the men and women around that table, who either would not or could not do what was right. He had to live, he had to serve, if only to clean up their mess.
Still though he did not rest easy with it. The face of every captain at the fateful moment, was burnt into his mind. He could see them, in their every, tiniest facet. Their expression would live on in his mind, perhaps forever. He knew if they seemed shocked, disinterest or if they smiled. The smiles he would never forget. But for now he could not afford to make an open enemy of any of them. Partly because he would lose as things stood and partly because even if he won the soul society would be so weakened and distracted during the struggle that the hollows would rip them all to shreds.
So he just had to sit there and take it. He remained silent for the rest of the meeting, not even acknowledging Kuroda when she spoke directly to him. He was similarly silent when the meeting was called to an end and he walked out slowly. When he moved he moved as if in a dream, slightly detached, as if all of this was not quite real. The world began to sink in though, when he was outside, amongst the other Captains as he left the great tower. His number four was still there, waiting obediently. When his Captain appeared the man walked up briskly but before he could talk Osamu turned his head slowly to look at the shinigami, with an odd expression, forcing the man to come to an uncertain halt. There was an odd lopsided smile on his face, but it was empty and dead. His eyes expressed a worrying sense of knowing flecked with an odd sadness.
“Sir?” Asked Osamu’s number four, hesitantly. All the other captains were still around, aside from those who had remained inside or who had been particularly keen to get going. Pausing for a few moments Osamu eventually said in level, empty tones.
“Suppose there’s no sense in sugaring the pill. We have had a degree of authority stripped from us, our commander and noble houses have been lying to us for some considerable time and for seemingly no reason other than greed and paranoia and, oh yes. We have been accused of treason.” His subordinates jaw practically hit the ground, he almost staggered under the shock of it.
“Treason! But don’t they… but were…” Whereupon Osamu cut him off.
“Innocent?” He gave a low, empty chuckle. “I don’t think that matters quite as much as it used to anymore.”
“So what are going to do sir?” His number four still sounded shocked and appalled, even disbelieving that all of this was going on.
“I’m not entirely sure yet number four.” It was an odd trait of Osamu that he referred to his most senior staff by number, not by name. It was an odd form of endearment really. “But at this rate they will have our heads on spikes very soon, the whole division, food for the crows.” There was an odd moment before he added a tad more quietly. “And plenty more besides.”
Walking a few paces forward Osamu seemed to stretch before putting both hands behind his back, as he often did. “I do know this number four. We might not have long left, so let’s try and do some good whilst we still can.” He was smiling again, slightly wryly but you could tell there was no joy behind it. “Once we’re gone the 13 divisions won’t exactly have many good men left so we had better get busy.” Osamu then began slowly striding away, both hands still behind his back whilst his subordinate still just stood there. His subordinate only moved when Osamu called out in a strangely empty yet genuine voice, the words he so often said. “Come along. We have a civilisation to save.”
Edgeworth Member
- Last Seen: MIA
- Joined: 11 yrs ago
- Posts: 74 (0.02 / day)
- VMs: 0
-
Username history
- Edgeworth 11 yrs ago
Status
User has no status, yet
Bio
User has no bio, yet
Most Recent Posts
Excellent, I’ll wait a tad longer before kicking everything off as we would have a small party as things currently stand but I can start drafting up the OOC now so we can get to work. As for how to incorporate space combat I think it will be easier to do that more normal skirmishes and fights as there is less terrain to work around. I can keep track of ships positions at my end with little maps and markers. As for the one sidedness of it I’m just going to have to be really careful with how I balance ships and equally you’re going to have to be careful about the fights you pick. Also the Battle Fleet Koronus rule expansion has some useful guidance on this topic.
g-octavi said
So... who wants to kidnap me in my own ship? :P
Supply the enemy and come close to Imperial space and I'll do it. Otherwise you may have to turn to bounty hunters and so on.
Ah, okay, let me know what you had in mind I can adjust accordingly. I had waged Talon and Zsinj would some how bump into one another eventually.
As some of you may have noticed I threw up a post which start's Talons activities. If anyone wants to get involved as friend, foe, mediator, neutral bystander let me know. Also if anyone might want Talon for a plot still get in touch. I can make it so he deals with the corporate sector swiftly and hands off to other men so he can be available to be in almost anything so long as he has a reason.
The Empire was down, but not out. She still had ships, men and industry at her back, not like she once had, but enough to make the Republic hurt. Certainly Talon would wager one of his men against five of the Republics, his men were well trained veterans, brave, loyal and true. Their skill and character were superior to the lowly rebel. Talon genuinely believed that he and his men were better men than anything the Republic had. Whether or not this was true scarcely mattered, Talon believed it and would act accordingly. Still, his confidence and self-assuredness had not yet tipped over into insanity. The New Republic was winning and could out produce the damaged Empire at an alarming rate. The Imperials may have had the quality, but they needed the quantity as well.
The Empire also had a more worrying problem, internal disputes. So far as he could make out the Empire had split into four distinct groups. The first group were those who had followed gran Moff Kaine and formed the Pentastar Alignment. Second were those who had followed Zsinj and aided him in the establishment of the egotistically named Zsinj Empire. Third were those men loyal to Grand Admiral Thrawn, a fine leader and a fine choice of a man to follow. Talon had no dispute with the Grand Admiral so long as he did not seek to overturn the law of the Empire that made it such a precious thing. Finally there was Talon’s own faction, those men and women who had followed both the spirit and letter of the law and followed Madame Director Isard in service to the true Empire. At least, that’s what he thought.
Something of an impasse had developed between the factions, an impasse Talon Rake was determined to break. To that end Rear Admiral Talon Rake had suggested that the Empire temporarily adopted a more relaxed attitude towards the Republic, and go on a defensive footing, for the time being. Meanwhile, it would focus its expansive efforts against other, weaker foes. But their chief goal would be the unification of the various factions. By so doing they would gain resources, industrial capacity and troops and then give more meaningful opposition to the Republic.
Talon Rake believed that honour, duty and loyalty should be enough to move a man. Ysanne Isard knew better, she knew a tasty carrot and a big stick would move more men than principle. She could see to the carrot, Talon had to ready the stick. Strength had a habit of breeding more strength. Even a slight edge on the other factions could lead to huge gains later on. So, he had to secure ships, planets, factories, maybe even men all so Ysanne could have great bargaining power. To do this he had to strike at something that was neither controlled by the New Republic nor by one of the Imperial factions. Indeed, picking on even small, independent worlds was a risk. For all her wickedness the New Republic had fooled itself into believing itself some white knight in this dark galaxy and white knights often rode to the aid of the helpless.
Criminals, vagabonds and those unpopular in the Republic made better targets, for now. With this in mind Talon had cast his eye to two places. First was the Hapes Consortium, isolated for millennia and having only just opened her borders her tenuous ties to the New Republic were sufficiently weak in Talon’s view that the rebel dogs would not come to their aid. The population might be unmanageable though, still there was value and profit there. The corporate sector, out beyond Ruuria made for a better target. Isolated and a long way from the Republic, unclaimed by any of the major players but with enough wealth and industry to be worthwhile. Their isolation would make a prolonged campaign difficult, a short, sharp blow was what was required here. He had to take their heart in one fell swoop.
Standing with both hands behind his back, as was his custom, Talon Rake looked out through the main window of the bridge of the Ysanne. From there he could see Ysanne Isard herself, or rather the vessel that contained the fearsome woman, the Lusankya. Even Rear Admiral Talon Rake had to admit it was an impressive sight though he would wager his Daggers against it any day. It spoke to something primal in the pit of his stomach. But he could not stand here in awe of the vessel or in admiration of the woman aboard it. He had worlds to conquer. He let a wry smile hang upon his face whilst his back was turned to his crew, a smile that only grew as it noticed itself in the reflection of the glass, before adopting an even but firm expression and turning swiftly on his heel.
Still, with both hands behind his back he strode along the walkway, over the head of many of his bridge crew in their operation pits.
“Captain Dagor!” Talon called out, without anger or impatience but in the voice of one clearly used to being obeyed. Yullish Dagor, Talon’s long serving number two, came up obediently.
“Organise two thirds of our flotilla, led by the Ysanne. Lay in a course for Bonadan at Imperial II safe hyperspace speed. The remaining third will move to a location where they will be within 10 minutes hyperspace travel of the main force and hold there. Make sure it’s somewhere in dead space. Make all preparations for battle I intend to take the planet.” It was said in very matter of fact tones,as if the conquest wold not be a difficult or troublesome thing. Talon’s success had bred a certain degree of arrogance in him but his faith was not unjustified. It was a faith shared by his crew and by Yullish in particular, who clicked his heels with a smart.
“Yes Admiral.” Before returning to his duties and making ready for the attack.
It did not take long for the final preparations to be put in place, Talon and his crew knew their business well. A nod from Yullish signalling all was ready for his order. Standing at the rear of the bridge Talon turned once more to look out across space and the Lusankya. He paused to reflect for a moment, a tiny hint of that wry smile just creeping back onto his face. His bridge fell silent in anticipation before Talon said in a slightly quieter tone than normal.
“All stations, prepare for jump to hyperspace. Jump on my mark… Mark!”
A flick of the switch and the hyperspace engines burst into life, the universe bent around them and they were off. Tearing into space, tearing towards battle and, Talon hoped, tearing into the fabric of history.
The Empire also had a more worrying problem, internal disputes. So far as he could make out the Empire had split into four distinct groups. The first group were those who had followed gran Moff Kaine and formed the Pentastar Alignment. Second were those who had followed Zsinj and aided him in the establishment of the egotistically named Zsinj Empire. Third were those men loyal to Grand Admiral Thrawn, a fine leader and a fine choice of a man to follow. Talon had no dispute with the Grand Admiral so long as he did not seek to overturn the law of the Empire that made it such a precious thing. Finally there was Talon’s own faction, those men and women who had followed both the spirit and letter of the law and followed Madame Director Isard in service to the true Empire. At least, that’s what he thought.
Something of an impasse had developed between the factions, an impasse Talon Rake was determined to break. To that end Rear Admiral Talon Rake had suggested that the Empire temporarily adopted a more relaxed attitude towards the Republic, and go on a defensive footing, for the time being. Meanwhile, it would focus its expansive efforts against other, weaker foes. But their chief goal would be the unification of the various factions. By so doing they would gain resources, industrial capacity and troops and then give more meaningful opposition to the Republic.
Talon Rake believed that honour, duty and loyalty should be enough to move a man. Ysanne Isard knew better, she knew a tasty carrot and a big stick would move more men than principle. She could see to the carrot, Talon had to ready the stick. Strength had a habit of breeding more strength. Even a slight edge on the other factions could lead to huge gains later on. So, he had to secure ships, planets, factories, maybe even men all so Ysanne could have great bargaining power. To do this he had to strike at something that was neither controlled by the New Republic nor by one of the Imperial factions. Indeed, picking on even small, independent worlds was a risk. For all her wickedness the New Republic had fooled itself into believing itself some white knight in this dark galaxy and white knights often rode to the aid of the helpless.
Criminals, vagabonds and those unpopular in the Republic made better targets, for now. With this in mind Talon had cast his eye to two places. First was the Hapes Consortium, isolated for millennia and having only just opened her borders her tenuous ties to the New Republic were sufficiently weak in Talon’s view that the rebel dogs would not come to their aid. The population might be unmanageable though, still there was value and profit there. The corporate sector, out beyond Ruuria made for a better target. Isolated and a long way from the Republic, unclaimed by any of the major players but with enough wealth and industry to be worthwhile. Their isolation would make a prolonged campaign difficult, a short, sharp blow was what was required here. He had to take their heart in one fell swoop.
Standing with both hands behind his back, as was his custom, Talon Rake looked out through the main window of the bridge of the Ysanne. From there he could see Ysanne Isard herself, or rather the vessel that contained the fearsome woman, the Lusankya. Even Rear Admiral Talon Rake had to admit it was an impressive sight though he would wager his Daggers against it any day. It spoke to something primal in the pit of his stomach. But he could not stand here in awe of the vessel or in admiration of the woman aboard it. He had worlds to conquer. He let a wry smile hang upon his face whilst his back was turned to his crew, a smile that only grew as it noticed itself in the reflection of the glass, before adopting an even but firm expression and turning swiftly on his heel.
Still, with both hands behind his back he strode along the walkway, over the head of many of his bridge crew in their operation pits.
“Captain Dagor!” Talon called out, without anger or impatience but in the voice of one clearly used to being obeyed. Yullish Dagor, Talon’s long serving number two, came up obediently.
“Organise two thirds of our flotilla, led by the Ysanne. Lay in a course for Bonadan at Imperial II safe hyperspace speed. The remaining third will move to a location where they will be within 10 minutes hyperspace travel of the main force and hold there. Make sure it’s somewhere in dead space. Make all preparations for battle I intend to take the planet.” It was said in very matter of fact tones,as if the conquest wold not be a difficult or troublesome thing. Talon’s success had bred a certain degree of arrogance in him but his faith was not unjustified. It was a faith shared by his crew and by Yullish in particular, who clicked his heels with a smart.
“Yes Admiral.” Before returning to his duties and making ready for the attack.
It did not take long for the final preparations to be put in place, Talon and his crew knew their business well. A nod from Yullish signalling all was ready for his order. Standing at the rear of the bridge Talon turned once more to look out across space and the Lusankya. He paused to reflect for a moment, a tiny hint of that wry smile just creeping back onto his face. His bridge fell silent in anticipation before Talon said in a slightly quieter tone than normal.
“All stations, prepare for jump to hyperspace. Jump on my mark… Mark!”
A flick of the switch and the hyperspace engines burst into life, the universe bent around them and they were off. Tearing into space, tearing towards battle and, Talon hoped, tearing into the fabric of history.
Well, my initial plan was to bring those areas of space under the official banner of the Remnant, which would more than double the indicated area currently held by the Empire without directly stepping on Republic toes. I just wanted to know if I was going up against Pentastar, Hutts, Free systems, whatever. I just wanted to be sure what was there. For that I might need to NPC Ysanne a bit or wait for someone else to take on her juicy role. Certainly I wouldn't have her as one of my main characters simply because I wouldn't be very good at writing her.
Excellent, quick question about setting and the map you put up before I start typing away. Is the area marked out on that map as "Empire" all the Remnant currently has? If not where are there other points of power. Plus is the Pentastar Alignment still hanging around the Corporate sector in this version of events? Or is their territory Remnant, Free, Republic etc etc?
Star Wars: Dawn of the New Republic Character Application
Screen Name: Edgeworth
Character you wish to play: Rear Admiral Talon Rake
Race: Human
Faction: Imperial Remnant, Loyal to Ysanne Isard
Background: Talon began his military career in the closing years of the Galactic Civil War and shortly after the battle of Yavin. He was following in the proud military tradition of his family by going into the Empire’s service, an Empire he still believes is the legitimate government. The young officer performed well despite the Empire’s declining fortunes. However, he had some degree of difficulty in distinguishing himself from the set of other, competing, talented officers. His lucky break came disguised as an utter disaster when, shortly after the battle of Endor, the ship he was on became involved in a calamitous engagement with a far superior Republic vessel. The skill of the ship’s captain led to the destruction of the Republic ship. However, the Imperial vessel was heavily damaged in the fight and lost all power to her engines. Unable to sustain orbit the vessel plummeted towards the planet below and crashed, causing further damage to the already crippled vessel and wounding or killing several crew members in addition to the fire fight.
One such casualty was the Captain himself, who was alive but incapacitated, as well as the second in command, who was killed outright. Taking control of the situation Talon assembled what remained of the crew and made the ship as defensible as possible. There he was able to hold his position against repeated Republic attacks though a combination of cunning tactics, brinksmanship and hard fighting. Eventually Imperial vessels came to rescue the surviving crew and, having distinguished himself, Talon’s career really began to take off.
Given command of a ship he was assigned to safeguard a seemingly secure area of Imperial space. He had however, been put there by Imperial Intelligence as they believed the local Moff may be either corrupt or treacherous. Talon was not informed of the scheme as Imperial Intelligence believed he would operate best in ignorance. However, a member of Imperial Intelligence was secretly placed aboard his ship to guide Talon towards making the right decisions as well as ensure Talon did not become treacherous himself. Not only did Talon manage to prevent the Moff’s attempted defection to the Republic but he also discovered the identity of the spy aboard his own ship. Though Talon was less than pleased to be spied on his loyalty and skill were established and he was used on increasingly highly valued and highly classified missions.
Though he was never a member of Imperial Intelligence he gained a reputation, both inside and outside of the Remnant, as an effective and dependable commander, known for getting results and lightning raids. Eventually he started to receive missions from Ysanne Isard herself, after which he gained the nickname “the dagger of Ysanne.” In time Talon ended up being one of her more trusted and well used tools, even going so far as to promote him out of the role of leading small squadrons of ships and actually give him command over a portion of her fleet. This was partly because Talon was a gifted military commander, and whilst he was no Thrawn he was better than Ysanne herself who had a poor head for war but a good one for intelligence and politics. But it was largely because he had absolutely no intention of taking her job. It took two years of working under her for Ysanne to believe it but she eventually saw that the man was not going to try and overthrow her, as such he became a reliable constant in a world of intrigue and betrayal.
His privileged position allowed him to influence Ysanne in a few key areas, most notably he persuaded her to authorise the construction of three experimental vessels that Talon believed could change the face of war. These were the dagger class ships, named for Talon’s own nickname. They were slightly longer but narrower than Imperial II class cruisers and shared a similar basic shape, but the similarities ended there. The Dagger class was far more specialist than the workhorse of the Empire, this had advantages but it involved sacrifices as well. Aside from a few shuttles the Dagger class had no spaceships of its own, no fighters or bombers. It also had a significantly reduced stormtrooper contingent, with enough men to repel boarding actions or mount boarding actions of their own, even fight small battles. But they could not garrison worlds and they lacked almost all of the heavy equipment found on more standard star destroyers, such as ATSTs. Crew conditions were also cramped, with hot bunking common place for all but relatively senior officers.
However, all of this freed up space, space which was chiefly used for massive power generation which in turn fuelled more powerful shields, sensor bafflers and interdictors, more powerful engines at both sub light and hyperspace speeds, and a whole new breed of gun. There was not a single conventional turbo laser to be found on the whole vessel. Instead the guns were divided into two broad classes. A large number of point defence guns were still present, with some extra power put to them to make them more effective at dealing with fighter craft at close range, as well as incoming missiles and torpedoes as was their original function. The real revolution came in what Talon called capitol guns. Akin to the great turrets once found on naval ships in the distant past turbo laser technology had been adapted and radically redesigned to make the monumental turrets possible. These things had a surprising turning speed given their size, far greater range and greater power, but a much lower fire rate. They were designed to fight ship to ship battles in a different way but were very expensive to make, hence their extremely limited production run until their capability has been proven in battle.
So, with powerful ships at his disposal, rank and considerably autonomy Talon has now set about trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of his ships as well as serve Imperial interests in general and more specifically aid Ysanne if she requires it.
Character Class: Soldier
Items: Talon has the same equipment as most Imperial officers, generally he can be found in his uniform with various code cylinders and his E11 blaster. Whilst not standard issue he also usually has a small blade secreted about his person. Of course, he has access to the armoury and all the equipment which lies within including a special request for several suits of ATAT commanders armour for use by non stormtrooper officers when conducting dangerous missions.
His most dangerous assets however, are his ships which are as follows.
3x Dagger Class Battle Cruiser
6x Imperial II Class Star Destroyer
6x Victory II Class Star Destroyer
Assorted lesser escort and light duty ships.
These ships will rarely all be deployed together and when compared to Ysanne’s entire fleet they make up only a small, but noticeable, proportion. He has the authority to requisition more ships and will often assume a command role should he be called back to Ysanne’s fleet to direct larger actions, the above however, reflects his permanent autonomous command.
Character Personality: Talon Rake is a man from the old universe, a universe that probably never really existed in anything but slanted history books and romantic memories of a time gone. If he was asked how to describe himself he would simply say “I am an Imperial Officer.” With the unspoken addition of all that implies. He believes in the officer class and the behaviour of the model officer. Loyal, brave, dedicated, calm, hardworking, talented, honest and fair but firm, obedient and commanding. He is, or at least tries to be, everything the propaganda videos would have you believe.
He believes in the legitimacy of Imperial Rule and see’s the New Republic as little more than an Illegal usurper. Furthermore, he sees Ysanne Isard as the legitimate ruler of the Empire as he is both unaware of the true extent of her illegal activates to seize power and the fact he can trace her power through the Moffs and legislature, giving her technical superiority over Grand Admiral Thrawn, whom Talon admires and respects immensely. He will follow the chain of command absolutely, unless he believes his commander is somehow acting illegally. The thing most likely to prize him away from Ysanne is an argument based on law. His belief in the law is the centre of his character and the prime motive behind many of his choices in life.
Of course, he is only a human and not without flaws. He is not known to forgive those who abuse his trust and will persecute those who break deals and agreements with him to an almost ridiculous extent. His singular focus on completing his assigned mission means he is willing to accept loss of life. Not only in his own crew, though he will go to lengths to avoid it if possible, but also amongst bystanders and civilian populations. Again, he tries to avoid needless civilian deaths but he will not let such a loss of life stop him from completing his mission. He also fight against the Republic with the ferocious, indignant and prosecutorial air of a man who genuinely believes he is fighting an evil, an evil that must be stamped out. Furthermore, Imperial law both permits and compels certain, morally distasteful actions and whilst he does not relish in these tasks he will carry them out as necessary.
Finally the man is somewhat arrogant and does not suffer fools lightly. He is not blinded by his ego, he knows men such as Thrawn are his tactical superiors. But he also knows he is better than most and will not tolerate those of lesser rank displaying incompetence around him. Worryingly, he has even criticised those superior to him for their mistakes or bad plans and whilst he would always obey an order he might try to dissuade them from foolish courses of action. Many believed this would lead to his death on one occasion when he plainly but respectfully advised Ysanne Isard against her planned course of action, cautioning her that it would lead to military disaster. He survived the encounter but Ysanne did not heed his warnings, leading to the very defeat he predicted. Since then he has continued to advise Ysanne, undeterred by her previous dissatisfaction and relying on the fact he was proved right before to lend credit to his words. When confronted by her directly about his attitude he simply said. “I serve you poorly by telling you want you want to hear. I tell you what you need to hear.” To this day he is not entirely sure if he will regret those words, but he still draws breath and he is consulted more often than before.
Character Alignment: Walking the line
Do you know how to post pictures on the RPG Boards:
Sample Post (write a sample post that is at least 4 paragraphs long and containing at least 3 lines of dialogue or meet the RPG Advanced guidelines of 12 lines):
So he had it, at last. He had his ships, he had his daggers, daggers he would soon drive deep into the New Republic. At least that was his plan, but he knew the execution would be somewhat more difficult. He took some time to walk about his flagship, a vessel he had controversially named the Ysanne, after his benefactor who had given him these vessels. It was a gesture of respect and gratitude but the fact he had used her first name struck some as being too familiar. Still, Talon had ignored those voices, such naysayers rarely achieved anything worth mentioning. For the moment he walked his ship’s halls, visited her nocks and crannies, her major organs and saw to her health and wellbeing before finally arriving at the centre of it all. Her very mind, the bridge.
Once there he again, walked about with both hands behind his back and a long, easy stride. He looked every one of his bridge staff in the eye, giving nods, greetings and knowing smiles as needed. He became familiar with every station, every aspect of this room before walking over to the main viewing windows and staring out not just into space but into the future as well. After a few minutes a voice appeared from behind Talon.
“Admiral, all ships are reporting in as fully loaded and ready.” It was a familiar voice to Talon, it was the voice of his long serving second officer, a man named Yullish Dagor. Without turning around Talon nodded his head and remained silent for a moment before saying in an easy but confident tone.
“Very good, no need to tip the Rebels as to our hand just yet. Form a vexalation, the Yssane, two Victory II vessels and two Imperial II class cruisers. We will proceed at Imperial II class normal travel speed to Sernpidal. The rest of the flotilla will proceed to their holding location some distance from Bastion.” Upon hearing this Yullish clicked his heels in obedience and gave a slight nod of his head.
“Yes sir!” And with that he turned on his heel and was away, off to carry out Talon’s orders. Talon meanwhile continued gazing into space as if there was more there than just ships, planets and stars. So began this next chapter in his career. So began the process of bringing more worlds back under the rightful rule of the Empire. So began the process of rebuilding a military ready to shake the stars. The road to a fresh victory began here! … so it began.
((Obviously I have assumed certain things for the above, such as key characters being alive. If any of that doesn't fit let me know and I will adjust accordingly))
Screen Name: Edgeworth
Character you wish to play: Rear Admiral Talon Rake
Race: Human
Faction: Imperial Remnant, Loyal to Ysanne Isard
Background: Talon began his military career in the closing years of the Galactic Civil War and shortly after the battle of Yavin. He was following in the proud military tradition of his family by going into the Empire’s service, an Empire he still believes is the legitimate government. The young officer performed well despite the Empire’s declining fortunes. However, he had some degree of difficulty in distinguishing himself from the set of other, competing, talented officers. His lucky break came disguised as an utter disaster when, shortly after the battle of Endor, the ship he was on became involved in a calamitous engagement with a far superior Republic vessel. The skill of the ship’s captain led to the destruction of the Republic ship. However, the Imperial vessel was heavily damaged in the fight and lost all power to her engines. Unable to sustain orbit the vessel plummeted towards the planet below and crashed, causing further damage to the already crippled vessel and wounding or killing several crew members in addition to the fire fight.
One such casualty was the Captain himself, who was alive but incapacitated, as well as the second in command, who was killed outright. Taking control of the situation Talon assembled what remained of the crew and made the ship as defensible as possible. There he was able to hold his position against repeated Republic attacks though a combination of cunning tactics, brinksmanship and hard fighting. Eventually Imperial vessels came to rescue the surviving crew and, having distinguished himself, Talon’s career really began to take off.
Given command of a ship he was assigned to safeguard a seemingly secure area of Imperial space. He had however, been put there by Imperial Intelligence as they believed the local Moff may be either corrupt or treacherous. Talon was not informed of the scheme as Imperial Intelligence believed he would operate best in ignorance. However, a member of Imperial Intelligence was secretly placed aboard his ship to guide Talon towards making the right decisions as well as ensure Talon did not become treacherous himself. Not only did Talon manage to prevent the Moff’s attempted defection to the Republic but he also discovered the identity of the spy aboard his own ship. Though Talon was less than pleased to be spied on his loyalty and skill were established and he was used on increasingly highly valued and highly classified missions.
Though he was never a member of Imperial Intelligence he gained a reputation, both inside and outside of the Remnant, as an effective and dependable commander, known for getting results and lightning raids. Eventually he started to receive missions from Ysanne Isard herself, after which he gained the nickname “the dagger of Ysanne.” In time Talon ended up being one of her more trusted and well used tools, even going so far as to promote him out of the role of leading small squadrons of ships and actually give him command over a portion of her fleet. This was partly because Talon was a gifted military commander, and whilst he was no Thrawn he was better than Ysanne herself who had a poor head for war but a good one for intelligence and politics. But it was largely because he had absolutely no intention of taking her job. It took two years of working under her for Ysanne to believe it but she eventually saw that the man was not going to try and overthrow her, as such he became a reliable constant in a world of intrigue and betrayal.
His privileged position allowed him to influence Ysanne in a few key areas, most notably he persuaded her to authorise the construction of three experimental vessels that Talon believed could change the face of war. These were the dagger class ships, named for Talon’s own nickname. They were slightly longer but narrower than Imperial II class cruisers and shared a similar basic shape, but the similarities ended there. The Dagger class was far more specialist than the workhorse of the Empire, this had advantages but it involved sacrifices as well. Aside from a few shuttles the Dagger class had no spaceships of its own, no fighters or bombers. It also had a significantly reduced stormtrooper contingent, with enough men to repel boarding actions or mount boarding actions of their own, even fight small battles. But they could not garrison worlds and they lacked almost all of the heavy equipment found on more standard star destroyers, such as ATSTs. Crew conditions were also cramped, with hot bunking common place for all but relatively senior officers.
However, all of this freed up space, space which was chiefly used for massive power generation which in turn fuelled more powerful shields, sensor bafflers and interdictors, more powerful engines at both sub light and hyperspace speeds, and a whole new breed of gun. There was not a single conventional turbo laser to be found on the whole vessel. Instead the guns were divided into two broad classes. A large number of point defence guns were still present, with some extra power put to them to make them more effective at dealing with fighter craft at close range, as well as incoming missiles and torpedoes as was their original function. The real revolution came in what Talon called capitol guns. Akin to the great turrets once found on naval ships in the distant past turbo laser technology had been adapted and radically redesigned to make the monumental turrets possible. These things had a surprising turning speed given their size, far greater range and greater power, but a much lower fire rate. They were designed to fight ship to ship battles in a different way but were very expensive to make, hence their extremely limited production run until their capability has been proven in battle.
So, with powerful ships at his disposal, rank and considerably autonomy Talon has now set about trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of his ships as well as serve Imperial interests in general and more specifically aid Ysanne if she requires it.
Character Class: Soldier
Items: Talon has the same equipment as most Imperial officers, generally he can be found in his uniform with various code cylinders and his E11 blaster. Whilst not standard issue he also usually has a small blade secreted about his person. Of course, he has access to the armoury and all the equipment which lies within including a special request for several suits of ATAT commanders armour for use by non stormtrooper officers when conducting dangerous missions.
His most dangerous assets however, are his ships which are as follows.
3x Dagger Class Battle Cruiser
6x Imperial II Class Star Destroyer
6x Victory II Class Star Destroyer
Assorted lesser escort and light duty ships.
These ships will rarely all be deployed together and when compared to Ysanne’s entire fleet they make up only a small, but noticeable, proportion. He has the authority to requisition more ships and will often assume a command role should he be called back to Ysanne’s fleet to direct larger actions, the above however, reflects his permanent autonomous command.
Character Personality: Talon Rake is a man from the old universe, a universe that probably never really existed in anything but slanted history books and romantic memories of a time gone. If he was asked how to describe himself he would simply say “I am an Imperial Officer.” With the unspoken addition of all that implies. He believes in the officer class and the behaviour of the model officer. Loyal, brave, dedicated, calm, hardworking, talented, honest and fair but firm, obedient and commanding. He is, or at least tries to be, everything the propaganda videos would have you believe.
He believes in the legitimacy of Imperial Rule and see’s the New Republic as little more than an Illegal usurper. Furthermore, he sees Ysanne Isard as the legitimate ruler of the Empire as he is both unaware of the true extent of her illegal activates to seize power and the fact he can trace her power through the Moffs and legislature, giving her technical superiority over Grand Admiral Thrawn, whom Talon admires and respects immensely. He will follow the chain of command absolutely, unless he believes his commander is somehow acting illegally. The thing most likely to prize him away from Ysanne is an argument based on law. His belief in the law is the centre of his character and the prime motive behind many of his choices in life.
Of course, he is only a human and not without flaws. He is not known to forgive those who abuse his trust and will persecute those who break deals and agreements with him to an almost ridiculous extent. His singular focus on completing his assigned mission means he is willing to accept loss of life. Not only in his own crew, though he will go to lengths to avoid it if possible, but also amongst bystanders and civilian populations. Again, he tries to avoid needless civilian deaths but he will not let such a loss of life stop him from completing his mission. He also fight against the Republic with the ferocious, indignant and prosecutorial air of a man who genuinely believes he is fighting an evil, an evil that must be stamped out. Furthermore, Imperial law both permits and compels certain, morally distasteful actions and whilst he does not relish in these tasks he will carry them out as necessary.
Finally the man is somewhat arrogant and does not suffer fools lightly. He is not blinded by his ego, he knows men such as Thrawn are his tactical superiors. But he also knows he is better than most and will not tolerate those of lesser rank displaying incompetence around him. Worryingly, he has even criticised those superior to him for their mistakes or bad plans and whilst he would always obey an order he might try to dissuade them from foolish courses of action. Many believed this would lead to his death on one occasion when he plainly but respectfully advised Ysanne Isard against her planned course of action, cautioning her that it would lead to military disaster. He survived the encounter but Ysanne did not heed his warnings, leading to the very defeat he predicted. Since then he has continued to advise Ysanne, undeterred by her previous dissatisfaction and relying on the fact he was proved right before to lend credit to his words. When confronted by her directly about his attitude he simply said. “I serve you poorly by telling you want you want to hear. I tell you what you need to hear.” To this day he is not entirely sure if he will regret those words, but he still draws breath and he is consulted more often than before.
Character Alignment: Walking the line
Do you know how to post pictures on the RPG Boards:
Sample Post (write a sample post that is at least 4 paragraphs long and containing at least 3 lines of dialogue or meet the RPG Advanced guidelines of 12 lines):
So he had it, at last. He had his ships, he had his daggers, daggers he would soon drive deep into the New Republic. At least that was his plan, but he knew the execution would be somewhat more difficult. He took some time to walk about his flagship, a vessel he had controversially named the Ysanne, after his benefactor who had given him these vessels. It was a gesture of respect and gratitude but the fact he had used her first name struck some as being too familiar. Still, Talon had ignored those voices, such naysayers rarely achieved anything worth mentioning. For the moment he walked his ship’s halls, visited her nocks and crannies, her major organs and saw to her health and wellbeing before finally arriving at the centre of it all. Her very mind, the bridge.
Once there he again, walked about with both hands behind his back and a long, easy stride. He looked every one of his bridge staff in the eye, giving nods, greetings and knowing smiles as needed. He became familiar with every station, every aspect of this room before walking over to the main viewing windows and staring out not just into space but into the future as well. After a few minutes a voice appeared from behind Talon.
“Admiral, all ships are reporting in as fully loaded and ready.” It was a familiar voice to Talon, it was the voice of his long serving second officer, a man named Yullish Dagor. Without turning around Talon nodded his head and remained silent for a moment before saying in an easy but confident tone.
“Very good, no need to tip the Rebels as to our hand just yet. Form a vexalation, the Yssane, two Victory II vessels and two Imperial II class cruisers. We will proceed at Imperial II class normal travel speed to Sernpidal. The rest of the flotilla will proceed to their holding location some distance from Bastion.” Upon hearing this Yullish clicked his heels in obedience and gave a slight nod of his head.
“Yes sir!” And with that he turned on his heel and was away, off to carry out Talon’s orders. Talon meanwhile continued gazing into space as if there was more there than just ships, planets and stars. So began this next chapter in his career. So began the process of bringing more worlds back under the rightful rule of the Empire. So began the process of rebuilding a military ready to shake the stars. The road to a fresh victory began here! … so it began.
((Obviously I have assumed certain things for the above, such as key characters being alive. If any of that doesn't fit let me know and I will adjust accordingly))
This is an Int check for a Rouge Trader Campaign that I want to see if I can run through the forum. I have yet to GM a Rouge Trader Campaign but have played through several campaigns as a player and been a GM for a few different rule systems. I wrote chunks of this campaign some time ago but none of the local clubs seem particularly keen on RT at the moment so I thought I would try it online.
It’s a fairly standard set up, with a new area of space opening up after a long warp storm known as the Mists suddenly develops a gap. The known history of the area will be patchy but the party would likely know that there were once Imperial colonies in the region and the area was cut off long, long ago. It’s your job to go in there and make both discoveries and filthy huge amounts of money. Don’t worry I have it all far more fleshed out than that, but the party would not know at this stage.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rouge Trader it takes place in the 40k universe and the basic set up is you are the senior crew of decent ship that is privately owned by a person known as a Rouge Trader. It is the Rouge Trader’s job to go out and make a profit for himself and his family but they are forced out to the edge of the Empire and beyond, the theory being that the new worlds, territory and technology they discover will be beneficial to the Empire as will the trade links and diplomatic links they provide. They are the very forefront of the Empire, part merchant, part explorer, part warlord and they have almost total freedom. The party can just as easily end up becoming criminal underworld pirates as they can merchant princes and anything and everything in between. You could even end up being the East India Company in space!
I will be putting this int check up in both the advanced and the table top sections to see where most of the interest comes from. If it comes largely from the advanced section I’ll be very soft with the rules, running most of it behind the scenes and focusing on the narrative and prose of it all far more. If it comes chiefly from the table top area I’ll stick to the rules of the game. But do not feel discouraged by not knowing the rules, I can handle everything on that front.
If you have any questions about rules, setting, potential plot or anything else that comes to mind please feel free to ask
It’s a fairly standard set up, with a new area of space opening up after a long warp storm known as the Mists suddenly develops a gap. The known history of the area will be patchy but the party would likely know that there were once Imperial colonies in the region and the area was cut off long, long ago. It’s your job to go in there and make both discoveries and filthy huge amounts of money. Don’t worry I have it all far more fleshed out than that, but the party would not know at this stage.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rouge Trader it takes place in the 40k universe and the basic set up is you are the senior crew of decent ship that is privately owned by a person known as a Rouge Trader. It is the Rouge Trader’s job to go out and make a profit for himself and his family but they are forced out to the edge of the Empire and beyond, the theory being that the new worlds, territory and technology they discover will be beneficial to the Empire as will the trade links and diplomatic links they provide. They are the very forefront of the Empire, part merchant, part explorer, part warlord and they have almost total freedom. The party can just as easily end up becoming criminal underworld pirates as they can merchant princes and anything and everything in between. You could even end up being the East India Company in space!
I will be putting this int check up in both the advanced and the table top sections to see where most of the interest comes from. If it comes largely from the advanced section I’ll be very soft with the rules, running most of it behind the scenes and focusing on the narrative and prose of it all far more. If it comes chiefly from the table top area I’ll stick to the rules of the game. But do not feel discouraged by not knowing the rules, I can handle everything on that front.
If you have any questions about rules, setting, potential plot or anything else that comes to mind please feel free to ask
© 2007-2024