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Raised by a Corellian spacer named Torik Vandouver, Gillian grew up onboard an old Corellian YT 1300, traveling with her adopted father around the galaxy. Torik was your typical Corellian, preferring the to call the space-lanes his home rather than the planet of his birth, Corellia. Unlike many other Corellian's his business was legitimate, trading in legal goods, mostly Corellian products, all along the Perlemian Trade Route. The old spacer always told Gillian that she was a foundling, an abandoned child that he had happened across while on a stop over at Corellia. In truth the old man had been a suitor for the hand of her mother. When he had last seen Laari, on Corellia, she had just given birth to Gillian, and returned to her first husband, a brutal man who eventually beat her to death in a night of drunken rage. Fearing for the life of the child Gillian Torik took the child to his ship, notified the authorities of what he had found in the Strannyx home and promptly fled back to the safety of space. From that day forward Torik considered Gillian his own daughter, telling the child, when she was old enough to ask, that he had been engaged to her mother when she had died unexpectedly from a speeder accident, and that, because of his relation with her mother, he had decided to adopt Gillian, rather than let her be raised by the authorities of Corellia. Never once did Torik tell her the truth about her mothers death or the existence of her drunken father.
As a child Gillian had a knack for getting into trouble, seemingly to attract it wherever she went, much to Torik's chagrin and amusement. Planning on having her take over his business when he grew old to travel the space-lanes delivering cargo he taught Gillian how to fly his ship, how to negotiate for good rates for cargo, and generally how to be an itinerant spacer/trader. The idea being that he was not going to live forever, and it would be better to have someone he knew, trusted and had himself trained take over his business when he finally expired rather than a total stranger or one of his own estranged family members.
In her teen years at a stop over on Naboo for parts and fuel and to pick up a load of grains to be transported back to Corellia, Gillian had a run in with the local authorities. Gillian had snuck away from Torik while he was haggling with Theed authorities over tariff rates and had made her way into Theed proper, intent on exploring the nightlife there. Finding a likely bar Gillian gained admittance, and promptly found herself embroiled in a rather crooked game of Sabbaac. During the course of the game, when it appeared that she was going to win the entire pot for the night one of her fellow players accused her of filching some of his credits off of the table. In the ensuing argument Gillian was arrested by the local authorities for theft, a crime which she steadfastly refused to admit that she had done. She was given the choice, enlist in the Republic Army or Fleet, given her piloting skills or go to jail, suffice it to say she opted for service.
Sent to the Imperial Academy on Carida, known at the time as the Republic Defense Academy, she survived the grueling four year course despite being one of the few females to attend the academy, her competitiveness and stubborn streak not allowing her to give into the tremendous pressures that were placed upon her as a female in the academy. Gillian often found herself having to work harder than her fellow trainees as they continually underestimated her, or dismissed her all together assuming that because she was female she was inherently weaker.
Seeing something extraordinary in her one of Gillian's instructors, Sergeant Strent Aeyoth, silently assumed the role of her mentor, steadily pushing her harder than her fellow students, and providing her with an example of how a real leader should behave towards his or in Gillian's case her, scouts. Many times Gillian found herself ready to give up and quit the academy and take the jail time, but her instructor always seemed to have a knack of knowing when she was feeling this frustrated and would seek her out, under the pretext of discussing some assignment or other that she had recently accomplished. During these sessions he would regale Gillian with stories of his own career, planting the seeds of hope in Gillian that she too could graduate and become a soldier in the Army.
Strent taught her how to lead through his own examples, instilling in her, at least outwardly, an unswerving loyalty to the men she served with, and thus by extension to the Republic, as well as the ability to remain silent when all's she wanted to do was question her superiors. Inwardly she continued to question everything around her, believing that there was more to what the trainees were being taught and forced to believe in. Also under Strent's tutelage Gillian pushed her body to it's limits and beyond, giving her the ability to pass the demanding physical tests required of all trainees
Because of her tendency to literally run into trouble, or rather the enemy, Gillian was first assigned to a Scouting Lance Squad, attached to the Chandrila garrison. In the back of her mind Gillian always remembered the threat that she could be sent back to jail if she was found wanting by her superiors or her fellow troopers, so she continued to push herself to be the best that she coudl be, keeping the lessons of her mentor at the forefront of her mind so that she would not get herself in trouble with her superiors. While stationed there Gillian proved to be an excellent scout, her ability or rather knack for finding trouble suiting her well in this endeavor, her ability to 'sniff' out trouble gaining her the call-sign of Sniffer. Eventually she was able to work her way up to Corporal, the lessons of her mentor serving her in good steed as she slowly, but unerringly gained the trust and respect of her fellow scouts.
Gillian's unit was transfered out to Aargau, ostensibly to help the Bank of Aargau combat a growing rash of pirate sightings, and attempted break-ins and thefts of their headquarters there. Gillian's squad, together with two other squads, one scout and one line were assigned to the duty of tracking down the hiding place of the pirates, dirt-side, once the Fleet had established that the pirates operated out of a nearby Uluu, an extremely cold planet in the Zug System. Gillian's knack for sniffing out the enemy served her well in the encounter, literally allowing her to stumble across the hidden base on Uluu. With Gillian's squad on hand to call in the coordinates of the base the Republican Fleet was able to demolish the base from space, in one stroke wiping out the nest of pirates that had been plaguing Aargau. Because of her role in the encounter Gillian, now aged 22 was given a promotion to the rank of Sergeant, and was placed in command of her squad.
The encounter served as a wake-up call for Gillian, who until now had been merely competing with her fellow scouts, much as she had in the academy, and trying to keep herself from being sent to jail, although by this time the charges against her had been dropped long ago. Now she felt that sense of camaraderie that her mentor had always talked about, felt herself caring for what happened to the members of her squad, and even wanting to advance her career to attain more rank, and thus be more able to take care of her men.
Over the next several years Gillian's unit was called upon to combat pirates throughout the Republic. More dedicated to her duty than ever before Gillian pushed her scouts to excel, earning them a solid reputation as one of the best scouts squads in the army. She drilled her squad continually, stating that you could never be over-prepared for any eventuality. She became known, warmly, by her troopers as a solid leader who would take the same risk as her men, never complaining about any hardships, but always ready to lend a helping hand or foot up the rear for those that needed it. Gillian also became known as something of a training freak, her insistence on constant training during down times, to the point where she very rarely granted leave to her squad. While this was viewed as impressive dedication by her superiors some of the men in her squad resented the constant training, and the grueling hours. Those that voiced their dissatisfaction soon found themselves coming under close scrutiny by Gillian, who invariably found fault with the mens performance, but none the less always offered them guidance, falling back on her mentors teachings on how to establish respect among her fellows. In the end, while they might have grumbled about the constant training, the men invariably found themselves enjoying it as a sort of contest, to see who was the best.
During one skirmish at Recopia, Gillian's squad was called upon to do double duty, acting as both a scouting unit and a line unit. Prepared for this odd assignment, by Gillian's unrelenting training sessions, her squad preformed way above expectations, managing to outflank a battle hardened group of pirates that had built up extensive hideaways on the planet's rocky surface. However in the ensuing battle between the pirates and Gillian's platoon the Scout Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Webus Nello was killed, along with several scout and infantry squads, dangerously depleting the man power that was tasked to the surface for the operation. Despite these tremendous loss Gillian refused to give up, keeping her own squad out searching for the pirates nests.
Because there was still a size-able pirate presence left on the planet Gillian was given a field promotion to Lieutenant and given the task of discovering the remaining hiding places for the Fleet to bombard from space. Rising to the challenge Gillian divided the remaining units up equally, one scout squad to one infantry squad, and began the search for the rest of the pirate gang. With the scout squads bolstered by the infantry scouts the platoon was able to quickly and effectively search the remaining suspected hideaways, at the head of all of this activity was Gillian, pushing her scouts to succeed in their mission. The platoon was able to, after several grueling hours spent searching to pinpoint the rest of the hidden bases, and call in the strike from space, resulting in a successful mission.
Bringing her same philosophy of constant training, and dedication to her scouts, and willingness to ask no more from her scouts than she herself would do Gillian was allowed to keep her new rank and remain in charge of the Scout Platoon, placing her firmly on the track to higher leadership positions within the army. Once again Gillian found herself relying on her mentors instructions, keeping her mouth shut in the face of inept leadership, unless that ineptitude endangered her mens lives needlessly. Gillian could accept that a scouts life was dangerous, she knew that fact intimately now, but that didn't mean that shoddy equipment or lax security measures or poor battle plans should be allowed. When these types of circumstances arose Gillian would find herself succinctly, and as respectfully as possible telling her superiors of their stupidity, which earned her the reputation of being a bit of a hothead, firmly believing that when it concerned her men she knew best.
Some of her superiors resented this, while others, who had seen her past performances and accomplishments were grateful for her viewpoint, going so far as to encourage her to voice her opinions when it came to supplies for her men or battle plans that involved her scouts. Those superiors who resented her opinions soon found themselves out maneuvered by those that were familiar with Gillian's accomplishments, and slowly, and grudgingly came to accept the same viewpoints as their brethren did. Though they still remained resentful of her and constantly tried to find something wrong with her unit or her command or herself personally.
Eventually Gillian was able to achieve the command of a Troop of Scouts, with the rank of Captain. Once again Gillian pushed the scouts in her command, constantly drilling and training for any and all eventualities, asking nothing of them that she would not herself do. Being a scout she was able to continue to lead from the front as she had always done.
With Emperor Josdon's rise to power Gillian found herself questioning even more the validity of what she was doing. To her mind the Republic had come to mean her Scouts, and their lives and hunting down pirates and others who would pray upon the weak and defenseless. With the new Emperor and the formation of the Imperial Army Gillian's Troop was kept intact, their duties remaining virtually the same, hunting out pirates. The new Emperor and his new tactics were confusing to Gillian's mind, she simply could not understand how Corellia or Bellassa had offered any sort of danger to the Empire, but she kept her questions to herself. Instead she funneled these doubts into more and more training, pushing her Troop to become one of the best scout units in the new Imperial Army.
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