Rylan Voru
From An Evolution in RP :: Database
Personality: General Voru is host to two personalities. In every day life he’s a laid back but proper individual that could commonly be found silently sipping on a small glass of whiskey while possibly conversing with peers (that was rare however) or watching a holo vid. While certainly not shy, he tends to be a calm, and reserved individual. There is an obvious lack of both a love life and a social life. When engaged in dialogue or interaction however, one could find him to be a charming gentleman. Behind closed doors however, his posture would lower lazily and he would commonly fall into a depressed mess. While still quite an attractive man, the wrinkles on his face and his dark gray hair were attributed by stress more than his age.
Rylan does have a respected level of expertise and knowledge in his field though. That expertise was due to his love for military science from even a young age, and a solid will to follow through with it through the years. Due to this however, Rylan’s life becomes one of objectives once you set him down on the battlefield. A previous calm or depressed exterior hardens and he becomes more crude and outspoken. This is one of a few men within the Empire that can fill a room with his presence once he is on the job. There is no true sleep until the job is done, and he‘s a man who gets it done at all costs.
Belongings: Rylan is an Imperial officer of high stature and gets a rather large paycheck as such. For this reason he took up a fine collection of weapons and armor as a hobby. Some of these included items he personally used in his past such as one prized highlight, his Mark III Katarn-Class Commando armor, but there are many exotic and rare items. A ship was never needed as the Galactic Empire could have transportation summoned up at a moments notice. However, at the very core he owns a modified DC-15s pistol (dallorian reinforced to sustain extra heat), and chooses between Black Stormtrooper Corps Imperial officer uniforms, and standard issue Stormtrooper armor. This of course is depending on what kind of scenario he is in at that time.
History:
The Early Years
Rylan was born 53 years BTP, on Kuat into the wealthy and respected Voru family. However, he was born a few years after his older brother, Jasten. The Voru Manor was always passed down to the eldest son, if such existed. Rylan was an intelligent child as he was growing up, but never really understood the impact of this process until his teenage years where the carelessness of children meets with logic and experience of age.
Yet this didn’t have the impact on him that his parents wanted, nor was it one others would have expected. Even Jasten noted his younger brother to be an independent kid growing up. There was no love of ships or aeronautics like Jasten and their father shared and even the manor did not interest the boy. In fact Rylan took an interest with military science instead, which was not something his parents encouraged. He hadn’t learned to keep his mouth shut yet, but despite their attempts the ideas wouldn’t be stamped out of his head. The Voru’s were well off and saw no reason for their child to join any armies.
The two teenagers had become men as the years past. It was then that a split formed within the family. Rylan was young, head strong, full of ideas, and had a thirst to experience life. Jasten may have had his future set, but the future General would not sit by idly like deadweight to the side taking up room and space. There was a desire to prove himself and create his own manor.
Without his parent’s blessing, Rylan left to the republic to become a soldier at the young age of 17, 37 years BTP. He would return later on vacations to patch up relations with his family.
The Birth Of The Soldier
The Republic was a whirlpool of ideas and opportunities for him. The man finally felt alive and free, being able to make his own decisions and decide his own fate. On Coruscant he was recruited and entered training to become an enlisted republic trooper. Good marks were received from his training officers for his strong will to complete objectives.
The Voru was stationed as a simple guard within Coruscant, which would have normally been an honor due to the location. However, he was realizing that there was very little that threatened the Republic and as such the military forces were so small, and used to merely guard and police. Rylan was not blood thirsty for combat, but yet there was this unexplained thirst within him that wanted more than a simple post.
After two years of good conduct and military service, he found himself given the chance to attend the Academy at Carida. Naturally he attended, and some of his accomplishments there had caught a few eyes within Special Operations Command. He had received a low grade officer commission of second lieutenant at Carida before being thrust into the SpecOps. After all the offer of course simply couldn’t be turned down, but Rylan found himself dropping into the harshest training he had ever endured. The training however was no indication to what he had gotten himself into. Few knew that he nearly broke down and dropped out of the program, but Rylan would not be a failure. He pressed on knowing he would create his own Voru Manor on Coruscant.
For the elite of the Republic Army, there was no threat unchecked, no enemy left to return, no fear uncontrolled, and no terrain untamable. He learned to take fear, to love it, and to use it to survive. The Republic was peaceful, but under the public and media’s eye, there was a war being waged every day. His unit’s feats were unrecorded and classified as no one would ever know what truly went on outside of their homes. Rylan found comfort in the concept that he was doing something, making a difference, and even in a way he was protecting the family he left on Kuat.
The Path To Destiny
30 years BTP, and at the young age of 24, Voru was a battle hardened soldier. His eyes were cold and hard. People that knew him in the past would probably swear that it was like he didn’t live in that body anymore. Yet despite appearances and experiences, Rylan was very much alive and well. He enjoyed his status as one of the fighting elite, along with his new brothers in arms. The man was now an accomplished Captain, in charge of his own unit. However, the Republic was beginning to research new formations in troops and even further training. As the SpecOps were reorganized into the Republic Commandos, they were given brand new advanced Katarn Class Mark I Commando armor and the versatile DC-17 modular blasters at their disposal. The Commandos were retrained harshly to fit such new equipment. Even changes were felt in the regular army with the Phase I body armor and the cheaper and larger DC-15 blaster rifle.
Yet there was one more experimental program to be upheld to create Advanced Recon Commandos (ARCs). The Republic had arranged for Mandalorian Mercenaries under the direction of the accomplished Combat Sergeant Savac Relens to come in and train a new unit that would be the elite of the elite. Unfortunately due to the expensive nature of the program, High Command wanted results before they committed to it. Rylan was selected for his performance as a Commando Captain and under the direction of Savac and his comrades, he was the first to graduate as the poster boy of the ARC program. His performance allowed further batches of the ARCs to be produced before the Mandalorians parted ways and the program was self sustained five years later.
It was now 20 BTP and he did his duty over the next ten years, rising to High Colonel within that time. Many within the military felt he would make it to be another of the few High Generals. Unfortunately that was either not his desired fate, or at least one for a much more distance future. Despite what many thought, Rylan was given the opportunity to return to Carida several times for low General status. Yet he was a man of values and his duty was with the men and woman he was trained by, that he taught, and that he fought and bled with on the field. He wished to stay fielded with them.
Rylan was one of the most combat experienced officers around that stature in the Republic. His superiors strongly agreed that it was a waste of good resources to field the man and would no longer be refused. Fortunately for them Rylan was feeling the effects of his years within the military undergoing harsh training, operations, and being the original guinea pig of the ARC program and associated medical treatments in attempts to create super soldiers.
He was no longer young, now at the age of 44, and felt thin like expensive sauce spread across to large of a dinner. His hands would occasionally shake and he even found it quite difficult to hold a gun steady at some rare occasions. The Commander didn’t want that to be an example to the future of the hard fighting commandos. As such he accepted another trip to Carida to learn higher command tactics, and officer etiquette before gaining the status of Brigadier General. However, it wouldn’t be the last time he would be seen at Carida.
Rylan stayed with the Spec Ops sub branch of the Army for one last year where his superiors were pleased with his Innovative command level, but it was the end of the line for him there. Along with a promotion to Major General, he accepted a transfer to the regular army forces. Things were peaceful and Rylan enjoyed his commission at Corps level of command back on Coruscant itself. It kept his feet on the ground and unlike his past years, it was like a vacation with pay to him. This changed his views on Generals within the Army.
The Sinister Six and Disgrace
5 years before the purge, there was very subtle changes slowly taking place in the senate’s politics. Very little of this affected the Military and what little did affect it was usually just passed off as careless mistakes on the senator’s parts. However, towards the end near the Jedi Purge, there were many interesting changes.
First the military was being expanded from a righteous police force into what seemed like the beginning of more invasion centered force. No one knew what was happening at the time, but later Rylan would understand that it was key members of senate brilliantly planning for the coming Galactic Empire. His ideals and tactics were soon changed from respected to praised and rewarded with the commission of Lieutenant General as he was to be moved upward to field an army unit. Only it didn’t end there. Rylan was on a fast track he didn’t want. He was then approached all of a sudden with a promotion that would raise him several ranks higher to command a Systems Army. Rylan turned down the offer, not wishing to entangle himself so highly in the command structure and keep his feet dangling so high from the ground. His decision however was something that he would later regret.
This refusal along with new developments within the Senate against the Jedi Order had left him victim of severe accusations. Rylan found himself interrogated by Republic Intelligence Officers with the recent leak of the video of his niece, Aeria Voru, threatening what seemed to be an unrelated man. With the jedi condemned and the purge under way, Rylan was to be court-martialed for his family relations to the jedi and refusal to do his duty. However, despite their particularly nasty efforts and techniques, they couldn’t break the Voru. He’d seen tougher treatment in his days in the RSF than the men before him could hope to accomplish. Yet still in truth Rylan didn’t even know his niece outside the fact that she existed. On top of that his interaction with his family had become less and less over the years until it was nearly non existent. The Galactic Empire was not yet formed and as such, execution and more brutal techniques were not yet practiced like they would be in the future. There was little they could do to Lieutenant General.
Though innocent and indeed not a jedi sympathizer he was still punished. Voru, was demoted a couple ranks from his previous unwillingness to do what they perceived to be his duty. It was surprising that he was even sent back to Carida and even to other Academies to foresee training yet again as he did so many years ago.
The Galactic Empire and Rylan’s Spearhead
Two months after the year long purge, the Galactic Empire was finally established. Rylan wasn’t so much worried about his niece. She was family, but he didn’t know the girl and as a jedi he was sure she could take care of herself. Against previous assumptions by some superiors, Rylan stayed with the military through the change but didn‘t play a very big role at first. It truth he was rather displeased toward the corrupted government that tried to destroy him, though these feelings were never made known to those around him. Most of his superiors felt he would retire while he was ahead, but the Voru would not go down so easily. When it was time for him to leave, he wanted to leave his name in bigger letters.
Yet while anger did flow through his blood, Rylan was not stupid and knew his only possible employment would be with the new Galactic Empire. As such he did the one thing that interested and calmed him. Brigadier General Voru was one of the largest voices in helping to ease the process of the new Army’s expansion by innovative ideas in several aspects of the new movement that both helped fit the desire for an effective fighting force and the budget. Namely he helped to oversee the creation of the Stormtrooper Corps to be fielded alongside the Regular Army (which was cheapened down and expanded), and of course naturally the evolution of the Republic Commando into the Stormtrooper Commando. He did not agree with the medical treatments given to the stormtroopers, but joined the StormCorps none the less as it was not his place to question such a thing.
Unfortunately while theoretically liked and preferred, in actual practice on the field, the Imperial Armed Forces were having problems due to the high expectations riding on their shoulders and the actual structure and inter-branch politics. The creation of separate and independent ground branches was a mistake, and while still affective as the best equipped and trained military, he knew they could be even more effective. For this reason Rylan Voru came forth with a possible solution nick named the Rylan Spearhead.
Being tired of the current state of affairs within command, he hoped to manipulate his superiors into allowing him to return to the field in what he believed the best unit, the Corps. In his plan, Rylan stated that he was the best for the job and would like to personally conduct the experiment of a mixed Corps that would require mandatory and practiced cooperation between the four branches involved. Naval ships would pierce an enemy planet’s orbital defenses, drop the said experimental corps into the planets atmosphere and then take up orbital defense and support. As an elite spearhead that would be the predecessor to other units that would land much later to take the planet; the Corps under Rylan’s direction would be naturally outnumbered and hard pressed. However, through proper training, and cooperation between the Imperial Army and the StormCorps to make use of both of their specialties, Rylan guaranteed that the Corps would provide results far greater than any other in the Empire. It was the perfect unit to make use of the Empire’s policy of military augmentation and one that could take the toughest jobs.
Due to the man’s past, his superiors came under unanimous vote to field the project. He wasn’t only restored to his previous rank, but actually promoted one higher to full General to help insure the units success by possibly guaranteeing his stature over other branch variables that might be present on the field. Work quickly began to form and train the Corps.
223rd Corps “Rylan’s Spearhead”
General Voru was given a free range in unit selection to occupy the project. Two Stormtrooper Legions and two Stormtrooper Commando battallions were chosen to form the backbone of the unit due to their prowess as infantry. Rylan went further in-depth reforming the two legions to make more effective use of their combat variations in squad based formations. It went well to improve their ability to adapt and thus their effectiveness in combat. It was also a concept that while not unseen in the Army and StormCorps was not greatly in practice except within the Commando‘s units.
To add to these Stormtroopers. Rylan selected an Army Armor Battlegroup. As Army troopers were not as well equipped or trained, they were not as effective as the Stormtroopers as infantry, but Stormtroopers were also not as effective with armor. Emphasizing on support for the legions, and support by the legions, Rylan was able to create a much higher survivability rate for both the equipment and soldiers. Finally The Corps was allotted with a small amount more TIE fighters and bombers than normal ultimately equaling a full wing. The General opted for the more highly trained pilots of the Starfighter Corps. On top of their efficiency in Naval support and enemy snub fighter engagement, the General made sure the pilots were drilled hard and well prepared for the extra circumstances they would be in when supporting ground units with air ordinance in atmosphere conditions.
The extra care in training and forming the 223rd, went a long way. The unit was given the distinction of ‘Elite’ from their results in ground warfare testing. General Rylan Voru planned to keep his guarantee that there was no greater fighting force within the Empire. Amazingly enough, record timing was made and the 223rd Corps was prepared for fielding by the seventh month following the end of the great jedi purge.
