Ferd Swqaru

"Swqaru is the best candidate for my succession. He's clever, resourceful, loyal to me, and he knows how to spend money well."

- Unit 8311

Ferd Swqaru was a Quarren who fought for the CIS-affiliated Quarren Isolation League during the Clone Wars. He would go on to become a criminal, and would eventually take control of the major criminal organisation called the Steel Legion.

Early life
"I do not like to remember my early life. When I think of it, I remember being abused and exploited by those Mon Cal bastards."

- Ferd reminscing on his early life

Ferd was born on Dac to a family of impoverished Quarrens. At a young age, he was abandoned by his family, who was unable to care for him. Ferd managed to take a job as a cook for a wealthy Mon Cal shipbuilder, and found the work tedious and difficult. During this period he developed a dislike for Mon Cals, viewing them as being arrogant and opulent.

Eventually, Ferd grew tired of his job. He drifted from occupation to occupation, and desired to leave Dac, but could not raise enough money to do so. Eventually, he began to go into despair.

Clone Wars
"Glory to the Isolation League!"

- Ferd making a battle cry during the Battle of Dac

During the Separatist Crisis, Ferd heard of the Quarren Isolation League and joined it immediately. He took on the job of distributing Isolation League propaganda across Dac.

Tensions between the Isolation League and the Mon Cal esculated, and as the Clone Wars broke out the Isolation League began to attack the Mon Cal. With supplies of droids from teh CIS, the Isolation League gained the advantage. Ferd was given command of a division of Manta droids and was tasked with eliminating Mon Cal resistance.



However, the Republic decided to intervene, which led to the Battle of Dac. Ferd fought hard against waves of SCUBA troopers and held his ground, but when the Jedi leading the attack took down the Quarren commander, Ferd realised that the battle was going against the League. He fled Dac to the CIS ocean world of Minntooine, where he oversaw construction of Recusant-class destroyers.

Towards the end of the war, during the Outer Rim Sieges, Ferd decided that the war was going against the CIS. He resigned from the League, and quietly headed to Nar Shadda at about the same time as the Battle of Utapau. When he heard of the death of the Separatist Council and the dissolution of the CIS and Isolation League, he was distraught. On Nar Shadda, Ferd became a thug, and was hired by several crime bosses on the moon.

Imperial era
After months of beating up people for a few credits, Ferd heard of a newly-formed crime gang known as the Steel Legion, and joined it. He found it to headed by a droid known as Unit 8311, who seemed to sense potential in Ferd. As the Legion rapidly accumulated in power, Ferd began to gain more influence in the Legion, and rose from a simple thug working for it to a member of 8311's inner circle.

Ferd would go on to lead Legion forces in many Legion operations, such as the search for an invulnerability-granting Imperial device, and credit theft operations. 8311 took note of his skills, and Ferd was soon given a special vehicle from which to lead his forces: a highly modified Canderous tank, with extra armour and firepower that perhaps exceeded that of the AT-AT. Ferd would use his Canderous well, as it often made scrap metal of any Imperial vehicles it came across.

As the Legion continued amassing wealth and power, Ferd began to decide that the Legion was invulerable. He estimated that if its power continued increasing at its current rate, it would eclipse Black Sun as the most powerful crime syndicate in the galaxy. Many agreed.

However, this was not to be. Palpatine had also seemingly thought the same, and stormtroopers stormed 8311's abode on Nar Shadda. The Legion disintegrated, and Ferd became an independent crime boss, leading his own segment of the Legion. For the next few years Ferd would struggle to re-assemble the Legion, and failing that, he and his men became a mercenary group, hireable to anyone.

New Republic era
In the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, 8311 returned to the galaxy and large, and began reassembling the Legion. Overjoyed, Ferd joined him and assisted him, further solidfying 8311's trust in him. Ferd led several attacks on Imperial credit and resource depots, and with the Empire in disarray, this was not a difficult task. Soon, the Legion was rapidly returning to power.

Ferd gained more and more power in the Legion, until he was second-in-command to 8311. However, as 8311 began to lose interest in the Legion, having rediscovered an old CIS factory on Hypori, it began to decline.

Soon, 8311 announced that he would be relinquishing command of the Legion. Many of his subordinates immediately began asking or begging him for his position, but the droid had his mind set. He chose Ferd Swqaru to be his successor.

Not long after, 8311 left command as he promised, and gave Ferd the reigns of the Legion. Knowing that he was one of the most powerful figures in the underworld, Ferd began to stop the Legion's decline and began expanding it rapidly, until it began to near what it was under 8311. Unlike 8311, who spent most of his wealth from the Legion on expanding it's power, Ferd led an opulent lifestyle, dining on fine food and buying all sorts of luxuries for himself.

A brief war with Black Sun began around this time, but under Ferd's command, the Legion eventually triumphed, proving that Ferd was indeed the best leader for the Legion.

Soon, Black Sun collapsed, and Ferd immediately decided that now was the time for the Legion to gain control of the underworld. Meanwhile, he discovered a project planned by 8311 for Legion-exclusive ships before his attempted arrest. Ferd put these plans into motion, and soon massively powerful Metal Fury-class cruisers and immense Iron Glory-class destroyers were being churned out of Legion shipyards. Ferd soon made the Legion Starfleet one of the most powerful in the galaxy. It seemed that Ferd would make the Legion the most powerful crime syndicate in the galaxy, but soon an event came along that would prevent that from happening.

Yuuzhan Vong War
As the Legion neared gaining the position of the most powerful crime organisation in the galaxy, the Yuuzhan Vong attacked the galaxy, and war broke out. Ferd realised that the Legion would have to forget about its criminal activites for the time being if it was to survive, and began using Legion fleets to harass and attack Vong forces.

As the war progressed on against the New Republic, Ferd took note of the fact that the Vong were vongforming worlds, and feared that Nar Shadda, headquarters of the Legion, would fall as well. Quickly, he transferred the seat of Legion power to his homeworld, Dac. As he rightfully guessed, the Vong attacked and vongformed the Smuggler's Moon beyond recognition.