Savcus Thrael

From An Evolution in RP :: Database

"You have never lived until you have almost died. For those who have fought for it, life has a special flavor the protected will never know."

Character Name: Savcus Thrael

Titles and or Nicknames: Captain, Alliance SpecForces aka. Sav, Sav'ika ("little Sav", in Mando'a) Resol ("Six" in Mando'a)

Affiliation: Rebel Alliance, former mercenary.

Age:29

Relatives:

Father and Mother, MIA – Father is Tyrax Thrael, a disgraced ex-Republic army commando officer that also was the CEO of Strategic Advisory Incorporated, a mercenary company that specialized in training security and paramilitary concerns, such as corporate security forces. His mother, Jaana Dorcana, is a former dancer from Nar Shaddaa. Both are in the Imperial prison in Ebaq, with Tyrax Thrael kept in a special lockdown, owing to a rather 'diverse' military skillset.

Shorya Beviir, Togruta, female, former bounty hunter, and a Mando’ade, considered family, something of a godmother to Savcus who met his family during their Nar Shaddaa days. She managed to escape Fest along with Savcus.

Overall Appearance:

Savcus Thrael is about six feet and an inch tall. There was a leanness to him, the athleticism of an endurance runner, the shoulders of a man that carried heavy loads on his back. His features, while quite striking, are also quite cold, and indifferent. There is a certain distance to him, apparent in the seemingly bland expression he constantly wears; there is little warmth to him.

Dark-haired and blue-eyed, with strong, forthright features, he might have been a hit with women, except for the stern demeanor. He has no major scars except for a particularly nasty blaster bolt scar along the juncture of his neck and collar from a near miss and another, smaller one in his abdomen.

Personality:

Savcus is a man who keeps the expression of his feelings carefully controlled. Others tend to view him as cold and distant, at least in normal social settings. He has a certain intensity that some find disturbing, especially people who are more lighthearted and frivolous in nature. In conversation, he is usually to the point, and often has little problem with being straight with someone. He does not have a politician’s skill for dissembling. He is often more than a little intolerant of people who are lax in their job or who strike him as incompetent or careless. All the same, he is not a complainer. He is extremely impatient with ceremony and decorum, and often runs afoul of people who prize these things. He lets his contempt for idealists color his perception of issues; he tends to try and ignore them, especially if they are objecting to something that makes good tactical sense to him.

In the field, he makes up for these social inadequacies with a calm, solid competence. His ease at giving orders and making decisions is evident and he has a certain ruthless cunning. If nothing else, he seems more alive and energized by the challenges and difficulties of the actual job at hand. This professionalism tends to inspire people of like mind, as well as steady those people working with him who are fearful, though at the same time, others perhaps view him as a sociopathic personality at worst, and often is accorded some of the same sort of respect as a pirate or bounty hunter; his motives are often considered suspect, even if he is useful.

There is the distance even in close quarters with those under his command, but there too is the way he shares the burdens of the others; he is more of a leader than a commander, but there is little of the clichéd holo-vid character to him; he does not have a fatherly concern for his men. There is little heroic about; he is chillingly amoral when working. If he has to expend his unit to get the job done, that is a fair trade.

He has little compunction about being every bit as ruthless as the Imperials, something that may well disturb more idealistic members of the Rebellion; he is unsentimental, as war is unforgiving of sentimentality or idealism. He is a very self-sufficient person, especially as applies to his profession; a mercenary cannot expect external support, but has to rely more on themselves than a formal military person.

All the same, the self-sufficiency’s dark side is balanced out with a rebellious streak that often comes in the form of his father’s favorite quote, “It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.” When disobeying orders, he tends to pretend to be following orders and then do what he feels is necessary. Needless to say, his mercenary mentality creates friction with more formal military officers, and he is often considered somewhat insubordinate. Taking orders from someone he doesn’t respect is not generally in his makeup. On the balance, this is part and parcel with an innovative, adaptable, improvisational, tactical talent that tends to excel when thinking “outside of the box.”

History:

Savcus Thrael was born to Tyrax Thrael, a former colonel in the Republic Army who struck out into the private sector to make credits off his skills after a military scandal and subsequent court-martial, and Jaana Dorcana, an orphan dancer from Nar Shaddaa that Tyrax met while training a crime boss’ bodyguards.

The first part of his childhood, when he was youngest, saw him left with his mother in Nar Shaddaa, albeit protected by Tyrax’s employer and living in a very upscale habitat. His earliest years were his most stable, as he was too young to be taken from planet to planet with his father; this period of separation left him somewhat isolated and alone, with only his mother and a few other people about; Nar Shaddaa was dangerous, and people tended to keep to themselves. It was only when he got older that his mother and father reunited and took him with them.

Starting at the age of eleven, he moved from planet to planet as his father found new clients for his company. His father invested in a very good tutor by the name of Thodiss Haakil and Savcus was, as a consequence, well educated. Despite this expensive education, had a very different childhood from many in the galaxy; he lived the life of a well-off space tramp.

It was a tough sort of life, changing homes often, making friends and leaving them quickly, and mostly growing up in a community of rough men and women who killed for credits, often at the behest of unsavory crime bosses or shady corporate concerns. The Outer Rim was not the most settled or civilized place in the Galaxy, and the upbringing, despite the efforts of fine, expensive tutors, left him toughened. Surrounded with it, there was little doubt which way he was leaning as he grew up; his parents both wanted him to attend a university and find a different sort of life, but it wasn’t to be.

Many sons break from family tradition and others follow into the family trade. For Savcus, there was soldiering. Rather than join a service academy, like Raithal, he apprenticed to his father, first as a radio operator, for one of his platoon leaders and then as an assistant in other functions, always learning the profession from the bottom up; the nuts and bolts of soldiering.

In any case, Strategic Advisory Incorporated was a well-respected company that drew in top talent out of Republic military types headed for the private sector, lured by the promise of more money than the government could pay for their skills. The primary job was to provide those skills to interested client; various planetary constabularies in need of a tactics unit or private enterprises in need of a formidable security presence…or a crime boss that wanted professional security. While SAI was for hire in direct action engagements, such as repossessing stolen property or other combat contracts, it was more often used to provide leadership and training to clients that would absorb the skills into their own organizations. Being that Strategic Advisory Incorporated’s people were primarily instructors and leaders, Savcus was given an interesting education in the trade by people who were very competent in their fields.

After hitting majority age, he spent several years working for the company, the first four of which were spent learning, before he was given a command to cut his teeth upon. From the outset, he showed a certain flair for his job, working as a platoon leader and advisor for various contracts that his father took; in one particular instance, he led a boarding action against pirates in order to retrieve a special cargo for a smuggler lord, taking a bolt to the abdomen in the process. All the same, he was good at his job, whether it was shooting pirates or showing a security guard how to handle his weapon.

The credits came in from his share of the jobs. He didn’t question his work so much as others might, and didn’t balk at the dirty, gray area stuff that often came with working for crime lords; in particular, he did not hesitate to use force in security situations. He acquired a bit of a reputation for having cool nerves and no particular compunction about leaving enemies alive if he had to engage them, unless specifically ordered to capture or stun rather than kill.

He found that he was particularly brilliant at ship-boarding engagements, and was sought after by privateers and other groups trying to recover stolen freighters and other ships from pirates; Savcus developed a particular expertise in ship boarding and counter-boarding tactics. The work was dangerous, but exhilarating.

It wasn’t always work for crime bosses; private companies in need of trainers for their security forces provided a much steadier, less dangerous sort of work, as did planetary militias in need of sharpening up. There were a few direct action contracts against pirates and well armed groups of criminals, and Savcus’ experience built up in the process of these small-unit actions. The line of work didn’t do much for his sophistication, as he never really saw the more civilized parts of the galaxy; it was always the Outer Rim.

The change from Republic to Empire didn’t really affect the young man much, and didn’t matter much on the fringes of civilization anyways. So it came as a surprise to find that his father was actually working to help supply a local anti-Imperial group, one of the many unaffiliated planetary resistance movements, as opposed to the Rebel Alliance, on the Outer Rim planet Fest with weaponry, equipment and training, at the behest of some old friends from his Republic Army days.

The group was overeager to fight the Empire, even if direct combat was a quick ticket to suicide, and the amateurish methods of the resistance's overly idealistic commanders contributed to an Imperial intelligence operation to infiltrate and turn over the resistance; through information provided by one of their own agents, the Fest Resistance was quickly quashed and the ringleaders, and their information, rounded up by the Empire. Tyrax Thrael was compromised in the process. Savcus was endangered as well; he was working in conjunction with Fest Resistance operatives alongside his father and other people in the company.

After a particularly hairy operation for the Fest Resistance, he and his three squadmates were sent to a safehouse offplanet, but still in the Atrivis sector, where they were to wait for a contact with the Rebellion, who were trying to negotiate the Fest Resistance into their structure. Unfortunately, the arrival of the emmissary was simultaneous with a betrayal from within the organization that caused the entire Fest Resistance to get rolled up by Imperial Intelligence; the infiltrator managed to compromise the top peoople in the organization, including Savcus' parents; he received word from his father to get out, while he could.

Meanwhile, the emmissary offered to take Savcus and his group with him when they left, and Savcus accepted. Eventually, he wound up at Rebel HQ, along with other stragglers from the blown Fest operation and the abortive negotiations -- there was no Fest Resistance left to bring in, after all. Savcus wound up enlisting, perhaps out of a need for retribution, but also because he had no real options for his line of work outside of the Rebellion. It wasn’t so much idealism, as much as having no real other place to go.

Thus far, his service to the Rebellion has been abbreviated and tainted by his past associations, background and attitude. While he knows a couple people, he is still being watched for security reasons; with his mother and father captured, it is feared that he perhaps cut a deal with Imperial Intelligence and is working against the Rebellion. The inactivity and bureaucracy, of course, infuriate Savcus, who paces like a caged tiger much of the time.

NPCs:

Contact: Colonel Kaaril “Ox” Ocsho, an officer involved in the Ordnance and Supply staff for the Rebel Alliance. His job mostly consists of preparing for expansion and coming up with ways to procure more ships and equipment. He is a comrade of Tyrax Thrael’s and a highly successful executive with Corellian Engineering, prior to his retirement ‘for health reasons.’ He mostly tries to look out for Savcus, perhaps out of some paternal sentiment for his comrade’s son.

Comrade: Shorya Beviir, Togruta, female, former bounty hunter, and a Mando’ade. She is particularly experienced with catching the enemy offguard (Togruta physiology afford them an advantage in detecting movement) and is fast and skilled in close-in fighting, from her bounty hunter days out of Nar Shaaddaa, where she met Savcus’ mother and wound up being adopted into the family, and adopting them in turn. Is known as ‘Auntie’ to Savcus. In Mando fashion, she considers him family and had a very large part in Savcus’ education. A particular quirk of Auntie’s is that she can’t pass a knife merchant’s stall without buying something, if it’s of good enough quality—compulsive shopper.

Comrade: Bol Vekarr, Human, Male, mercenary, ex-Coruscant Security Force tactical response team, thereafter recruited to the Senate Guard, slicer and electronics; particularly in shutting down computers and security systems. He hooked up with SAI after he became dissatisfied with his superiors and the politicians, and became disillusioned with his work on Coruscant. Joined the private sector for a change in lifestyle and to put distance between himself and the corruption in the Republic. Does not like the stereotype of a slicer being a nerd with pimples and is obsessive about fitness, an overcompensatory issue. One of his favorite things is to lampoon people's fashion sense.

Comrade: Nimbalu, Chistori, Male mercenary, explosives expert and combat engineer – specialist in jury rigging; expert. He was apprenticed to Heb Felan, who was SAI’s explosives and engineering guru before the disbandment of SAI. (Heb died on Fest.) Known by the moniker of “Scaly.” He has a badly developed sense of hearing, but superb visual depth perception and night vision. He gets bitchy when he's shedding. He gets bitchy when he's cold. As Chistori go, he's a bit of a soft sister. Of course, Chistori are bipedal saurians with a reputation for toughness; a wimpy one is still bad news.

Possessions:

Czerka 640 Heavy Blaster Pistol; modified for rapid firing with a cooling system that forms an oblong shroud over the barrel. The grips have been chiseled with a grid pattern on the front and back, and two checkered polymer grip plates are added. A final touch is the tritium dot high profile open sights that replace the stock version. The weapon has an extra large trigger guard and a lightened trigger. While his choice of primary weapon is mission-dependent, Savcus carries this as a constant backup.

Custom-built vibroknife, with a synth-rope full tang hilt.

Survival knife/tool kit.

Commo gear, notably a throat mike, with secure encryption.

Macrobinoculars, miniature.

Tinted shades.

Medipacks, including anti-coagulants, stimulants and basic anti-toxins. Includes a FastFlesh medipak, which is only useable once, as it is dangerous to use repeated times on the same patient.

Sniffer – A device that detects hazardous toxins and radioactivity; it is generally left on to passively detect airborne toxin threats. Much like a Geiger counter. (Rules of Engagement, pg. 41)

Karflo thinsuit, which includes a heater unit and breather; vacuum sealable. It's not armor, but is prized by those who have to operate in extreme weather conditions or in space on a regular basis. (Rules of Engagement, pg. 33)