Krayd Hasperre

"You see that emblem? It's a skull and bones, not the blazing claw of a simple pirate. It signifies that I will keep fighting until only my bones remain."

- Krayd Hasperre, explaining is unusual banner.

Krayd Hasperre is a proud, utterly unshakable being who plies the stars in search of wealth, freedom and injustice to be undone. Unlike many pirates, Hasperre does not sail under the banner of the blazing claw, but instead has devised his own emblem - a humanoid skull over two crossed bones - which he claims better symbolizes his own ideals. Hasperre's short stature and unlikely species for his profession seems to have done nothing but concentrate the brooding, individualistic spirit which dwells within him. The Amaran space pirate is not one to be trifled with, and lives to a loose yet firm code of honor; though he is a pirate, he only raids marks who have the capacity to resist him, or who have knowingly perpetrated injustice against other beings. He does not kill the innocent; when he commanded a ship, prisoners were given the option of either joining his crew, or being let off at the nearest starport with a guarantee of safe passage. In typical pirate style, he did not demand discipline from his crew, merely results when they are called for. On many occasions, Hasperre and his crew came to the defense of the helpless, defending starships and even planets from enemies which included fellow pirates and even the Sith. Hasperre is not one to play the anonymous hero, however; he demands acknowledgement of his deeds from those he has protected, as well as favors. As a result, Hasperre has cultivated a network of friends and safe havens across The Galaxy. Hasperre is a devotee of single combat. If a space battle ends in a draw, he has been known to challenge the opposing captain to a duel; depending on the opponent, the challenge could be blasters at 30 paces, a dogfight or even a sword-fight. Captain Hasperre is known to be cool and collected under almost any circumstances, and those who have seen his true rage seldom live to tell of it. He is also stubborn and persistent, rarely leaving anything he undertakes unfinished.

Biography
"Ramming speed!"

- Krayd Hasperre.

Captain Hasperre is an Amaran pirate who, in his youth, had dreamed of becoming more than a simple livestock peddler, as his parents had been before him. Inspired by tales of ancient space battles of the Galactic Civil War and other conflicts, he yearned to be a spacer, and during his childhood was an obsessive scale modeler of vessels of all kinds. He also studied great captains and battles of history. When he finally came of age, Krayd Hasperre left his home-world, traveling the stars for a time before signing on with the defense forces of an out-of-the-way star system. Quickly proving to be among the most motivated and ambitious members of the force, which was composed mainly of low-grade mercenaries and formerly unemployed farmers, Hasperre quickly rose through the ranks to command one of the obsolete capital ships in the defense forces' arsenal, an antique Hammerhead-class cruiser named the Starkiller which patrolled the outer reaches of the system. Hasperre received his first taste of combat when a Sith warlord and his small fleet entered the system, hungry for conquest. The ramshackle defense fleet was scrambled to intercept the invaders, but were hopelessly outclassed. The Sith fleet destroyed almost the entire defense force, save for Krayd's Starkiller, which had been on the other side of the system and was unable to join the initial fighting. The Amaran captain arrived over the system's single habitable world just as the enemy fleet was commencing bombardment. Saddened and angered as he watched entire continents begin to burn, and frustrated that he had not been able to prevent it, Krayd ordered his ship to attack the enemy fleet on its own in an act of desperate vengeance. With shear ferocity which surprised even the Sith lord who commanded the fleet, and deft tactics, Krayd's single vessel managed to destroy a pair of Pursuit-class light cruisers, and used its hammer-shaped bow to ram and heavily damage a third. However, before he could continue the attack, Hasperre received a general broadcast from the planet below; all extant defense forces were to stand down and surrender. The broadcast was cut off just as it began to repeat, when the Sith lord's flagship reduced the planet's capital city to molten slag with its turbolasers. Coming down from his rage, and recognizing that his ship and crew had little chance at inflicting the total revenge the young Amaran craved, Krayd Hasperre ordered his ship to retreat. Jumping to hyperspace, he escaped the system, vowing that he would punish those who condoned such acts as he had witnessed.

In the years which followed, Krayd and his remaining crew turned to piracy in order to survive. Modifying their ship to operate with the number of crewers who had survived - just shy of 100 out of 250 aboard during the battle - they swore an oath to their captain, pledging to uphold a code of honor on the open spaceways. They would only prey upon those who would prey upon others, and would protect the weak and powerless. They would fight to survive, and to honor the memory of their fallen homeland. As the years went by, Krayd began to plan his own future ambitions. As the Sith began to come out of the shadows once more, he planned a war to resist them, should the time come. Since his youth, the young Amaran had been fascinated by Tionese history, especially the empires of Xer VIII and Xim the Despot. This history took on new importance to Krayd in his new profession, as he knew Xer had carved out the Kingdom of Cron while still a mere pirate chieftain. Captain Hasperre decided that, should the Galactic Alliance begin to fail against the Sith, he would try to do as much damage as he could from behind. Gathering contacts, he plotted the eventual formation of a fleet to help him take hold of his own domain, to serve as a foothold to resist the Sith. Though he modeled his ideas after Xim's to a certain extent, his ambition was ultimately to create a free state, where a being could rise based on merit and ambition, rather than political dealings or strength in The Force...

Eventually, the Captain's new order looked to be at hand. Convincing a number of more virtuous local pirates to join his cause, Krayd assembled a respectable fleet and attacked the military facilities of an outlying Imperial planet, with the intention of conquering it and liberating the population, the leaders of which had pledged private support for his cause should it succeed. Shortly after the battle began, victory seemed assured under Hasperre's carefully planned strategy, but suddenly the worst happened. A Sith lord, the same Sith lord who had destroyed the last world Captain Hasperre had tried to save, dropped out of hyperspace with a fleet many times the size of the pirate's. Krayd's tactics incurred heavy losses among the Sith fleet, but the would-be conqueror's forces eventually broke under a deluge of warships and turbolaser fire. Rallying a handful of ships, Krayd led a sortie into the heart of the Sith fleet in order to buy time for his forces to escape; at last achieving his long-sought personal revenge, he rammed his vessel into the bridge of the Sith lord's Pellaeon-class star destroyer, killing the evil being and crippling his warship. Unfortunately, it cost the Starkiller, and the few surviving crewers of the once proud vessel were forced to abandon ship. Most were recovered by retreating pirate forces, including Krayd aboard his personal starfighter, who had been the last to leave.

Defeated for the second time and now without a ship, Captain Hasperre's remaining crew disbanded. Hasperre again wandered The Galaxy for a time, and eventually bought a light freighter, which he named Ambaril after the capital city of the old Kingdom of Cron, in honor of his faded dream. Hasperre continued to live as a pirate, joining and even commanding small bands of other pirates in raids against targets in Imperial space. Though he tried to forget it, he burned at the knowledge that he had not succeeded, and that the Sith still held sway over a growing portion of The Galaxy... But then, he got a second chance. After a chance meeting with one of its higher-ups, Krayd Hasperre fell in with the Tion Coalition, a rebel faction working to free the Tion Cluster from Imperial control. Naturally sympathizing with their ideals and goals, Krayd applied for a commission in the fledgeling Tion Navy, and was accepted. Perhaps, indeed, the full revenge of Captain Hasperre is just beginning...

In service to the Coalition, Krayd was promoted from the rank of captain to a full admiral, and is in charge of the Tion Indigenous Fleet Program, an initiative to modernize and expand the Tion Navy. Later, he was made the defacto Commander-in-Chief of the Tion Coalition after the death of Darmas Thane.

Physical Appearance
Captain Hasperre is a slight individual, and is usually seen wearing a long, heavy cloak of somewhat ornate design in command situations, colored space black with dark blue trim and a high collar. Beneath he wears typical spacer's garb, including a black vest, dark blue shirt, black pants and low-slung hip holster and sheath for his sword and blaster. After the loss of his first ship, Hasperre sometimes wears a plain brown cloak with plain black-and-brown spacer's garb beneath, and a broad hat punctured by a few blaster holes. His face is rarely seen, as he tends to keep the brim of the hat down; however it is distinctive, marked by a long scar which runs from the bridge of his muzzle down across his left cheek.

Like all healthy Amarans, Krayd has fur. His is grey and white, with black highlights.

Equipment
Captain Hasperre usually carries a DE-10 blaster pistol, finished in glossy black with a bronzium skull & crossbones crest set into the grips. His secondary weapon is a slender blastsword with a black hand-guard and braided jerba leather grip, with the same bronzium crest as his blaster set into the pommel. The blastsword has a thin songsteel blade, able to parry lightsaber strikes. Non-combat articles usually found on Hasperre's person include a comlink and a remote control for his slave-rigged personal starship.

Hasperre also owns an F1 exploration droid called EffOne.

Ship
Captain Krayd Hasperre once commanded the Hammerhead-class cruiser Starkiller in the defense fleet of a small planet bordering Imperial space. This ship subsequently became his first pirate ship. After losing that command, however, Krayd is now the skipper and sole crewbeing of the HWK-290 light freighter Ambaril. This ship has been modified slightly to suit his needs, now boasting a class 1 hyperdrive, two fixed and fire-linked forward laser cannons and a center-line mounted ion cannon. It is regularly seen leading small pirate fleets into battle against Sith forces. The ship is equipped with a full-rig slave circuit, with an encrypted access code.