User:Knight of Malta/Sandbox

"I aim to be the supreme ruler, and to reach that goal, I have a policy of my own. It is to fight my own battles. That's the difference between myself and the warlords I've fought and defeated. That's also the reason why the soldiers follow me."

- Bacharan Valak

Bacharan Valak was the Lord High Admiral of the and the Prime Minister of the, also holding the title of Imperial Prince. Rising to power after the death of, the young  came to dominate the post- government on  and launched a campaign to reunite the feuding s. Valak was considered to be a brilliant strategist and managed to piece together the fractured Empire by 7 ABY, at which point he launched a massive offensive against the , which was recovering from its own civil war. By the time of his death in 9 ABY, the majority of was back under Imperial control and the New Republic had been reduced to some remote sectors in the.

Early life
Bacharan Valak was born on into House Valak, an old aristocratic family that could trace its history back to the times of the, but whose glory days were long behind it and its only item of inheritance being a list of debt it owed. His mother died early on in an accident, while his father was a drunkard who had no concern for the boy. Originally, the young Bacharan had no interest or desire to get involved in politics, but as he grew up during the and witnessed the corruption of  's regime, he became increasingly disillusioned. However, Valak believed in the cause of the itself and that the ideals that the Empire claimed to stand for were genuinely good. He thought that all that was needed was for the Empire to be purged of the corrupt elements and put to use for the good of the people of the. In his early years, that was what he set upon himself to do, believing that no one but him was up to the task.

It was also early on that he met another resident of the, who was named Alaric Remintal. The two of them lived in the same area and became close friends over the years, getting into various misadventures in the Coruscanti government district. It reached a point that when Valak asked Dantornis to lie about their age and go with him to the when they were sixteen, he agreed. Valak had been an intelligent student and studied many subjects on his own time, and Remintal was similarly gifted, although not the same level as his friend. Nonetheless, with Valak's tutoring he was able to pass the entry exams with high marks as well. It was then not surprising to their instructors that both of them excelled at the Academy upon entering its navy program, with Valak having a particular talent in strategy and tactics while Dantornis was among the best of their marksmen and  champions.

During their time at the Academy, they also happened to meet a couple of other cadets, who were several years older and were senior cadets during Valak's early months there. The blond and his red-headed friend assisted Markus Cadell and Valerian Raeder in defending themselves from a group of aristocratic students that were picking a fight due to Cadell's commoner background. Although Valak and Remintal were helping the older pair fight them off, later rumors at the Academy turned it into just the two of them beating up the senior cadets. It was a minor incident in and of itself, but it led to Valak becoming acquainted with Cadell and Raeder, who were near the top of their class and graduated not long after that.

In 1 BBY, shortly after the start of the, Valak graduated at the top of his class, with Remintal also being in the top quarter. The two of them were commissioned as a and  of the, respectively, and were given their first assignment aboard the  Cobra, which was assigned to patrol duty in the backwater  region of the. Valak was initially annoyed at their first assignment, hoping to be sent to the front lines and face the, but as Remintal pointed out, there would be plenty of opportunities to distinguish themselves in such a lawless area.

Javin anti-piracy operation
As part of the Javin sector fleet, the Cobra was often tasked with patrolling the busy and preventing s and other criminals from preying on merchant shipping. Sub-lieutenant Valak was assigned as the chief navigator aboard the frigate, while Ensign Remintal was the chief of security. The crew was skeptical about having officers in important positions being so young, and felt more distrust when they found out that Valak was a descendant of ancient nobility. They came to believe that he must of have gotten the position and the rank of sub-lieutenant (graduated cadets usually received the rank of ensign) because of his noble birth. In reality, it was due to his good performance at the Corulag Academy, but that was not known to them. They distrusted him behind his back, although they did follow his orders when they were at the bridge with him.

An incident occurred three months after Valak's arrival, when they were carrying out a routine patrol along with a small squadron of other Lancer-class frigates. Unbeknownst to them, they entered an area home to and were close to their asteroid base. The pirates ambushed the frigates while they passed a nearby, moving in from the debris and taking them by surprise. Most of the frigates tried to retreat away from the pirates in disorder, but Valak ordered the Cobra to enter the asteroid field instead. Some of the Mugaari ships peeled off to pursue them, but they ended up being destroyed in the asteroid field, allowing the Cobra to locate a large asteroid to cling on to. The rest of their squadron had been destroyed, but they pirates could tell that they missed one and entered the field to search for them. The captain of the Cobra disagreed with the chief navigator's decision to abandon the rest of the squadron, but he had no choice in the matter since the rest of their retreating allies had been destroyed.

As the Mugaari fighter and bomber squadrons entered the asteroid field and split up to search, the Cobra began to move and took them out one by one. The Lancer-class frigate also deployed its two shuttles, commanded by an ace pilot named Flight Captain Jarl Osborne. Osborne and the bridge crew under Valak worked together well to lure the enemy craft into the firing range of the main turrets of the Cobra, resulting in them being quickly defeated by superior firepower. The Mugaari were nearly wiped out in the asteroid field, with enough of them being destroyed for the Cobra to leave the area and escape back to the headquarters on. It was the only Imperial stronghold in the region and served as a general headquarters for local anti-piracy operations. There, the crew were commended for single-handily annihilating a pirate group that had been plaguing the region for a year. Valak received his promotion to full and, along with Remintal, was transferred.

The Transporter
A week after the incident in Javin, Lieutenant Valak was made the captain of the Emperor's Arrow. They were reassigned to the, where they initially had the uneventful task of hauling cargo aboard the armed freighter from to the. Valak was frustrated by this as well, viewing it as a demotion and not understanding why he was given such a simple task with no opportunities to garner battlefield accolades. Remintal calmed him down, saying that he should be satisfied with having earned his first promotion so quickly. But he was wrong, as the chance to prove himself did occur.

They ended up being selected to transport a member of the and officer of the Navy,  Karn Geldar, who was assigned to take over the leadership of a certain Core World as the  in the place of its recently deceased king. The king had left a note before his death, picking Lord Geldar — one of his distant relatives — as his replacement. Unbeknownst to them, the king's brother was furious and challenged the claim, believing he was the rightful regent and deserved to lead. Thus the king's brother sent a unit of hired to intercept and destroy the Emperor's Arrow before it could reach the target. Since the vessel was an armed transport, he informed the mercenaries that they should have no problem destroying it with their gunships and fighters.

He gave the mercenaries the planned path of the Arrow and they found an uninhabited system to wait for them in. As the transport passed through the system and approached them, the leader of the hired attackers communicated with the ship and told Valak that they were sent as an escort by the deceased king's government. The transport's sensors could detect their weapons were primed and ready to fire, however, tipping off the Imperials to the small fleet's real intent. The lieutenant knew they could not outgun them and there was not enough time to make a hyperspace jump out of the system. So Valak played a verbal game with the mercenary leader to distract him as he ordered the crew to turn around and head toward a nearby.

Finally, the hired pilots realized the Imperial crew saw through their deceit and followed the armed transport in pursuit. By then the Arrow had made it into the lower atmosphere of the gas giant and had prepared its engines to make a fast upward surge out of the atmosphere back into orbit. As the mercenary ships neared the Arrow, Valak had the gunner of one of the vessel's two laser cannons fire off as many blasts as possible into the gases below. After that the transport quickly made its way out of the atmosphere. The mercenaries attempted to pursue, but by the time they did it was too late: the fired lasers combined with the gas giant's hydrogen to cause a massive explosion, which destroyed all of their vessels before they could get away.

The Emperor's Arrow made it to the planet without any more incidents, and for his quick thinking that saved them, Rear Admiral Geldar promoted Valak to.

Personality and traits
Unparalleled aggressiveness and ambition were described to be Prince Valak's dominant traits by those who knew him, and they were a large part of what made him charismatic. Since his early years he was determined to make the galaxy his, but unlike many of Valak's rivals, he did not say it as mere empty arrogance. His brilliance in war and politics allowed him to rise through the ranks of the Imperial Navy at a young age, to eventually become the youngest flag officer in the Fleet. However, at the same time, he did not fight just for his own personal power but with a desire to improve the living conditions for the galactic populace, believing that the Empire was the perfect tool to do that with. He despised Emperor Palpatine for his corruption and abuses of power, saying that although he created the Empire, Valak could not forgive him for all that he did.

Titles and styles

 * 4 ABY – 7 ABY: His Excellency The Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Fleet
 * 7 ABY – 9 ABY: His Highness The Prime Minister and Regent of the Empire
 * 7 ABY – 9 ABY: His Imperial Highness The Prince of the Empire

Military ranks and promotions: