Adrian Varino II, also Adrian Varino or Varino, during his days in the Galactic Empire, was a Male Human Admiral of the Imperial Navy. He was born in Theed, Naboo, to the Varino Family. As opposed to his father, Varino II was a fierce supporter of the New Order, which was one of the leading differences between him and his father.
Varino II served the Empire until the death of the emperor and Darth Vader, after which he fled to the Varino Estate on Naboo, and went into the Unknown Regions. Over the course of several years, Varino II would work to forge the Varino Imperium.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Early Childhood[]
Adrian Varino II, the firstborn son of Adrian Varino I, at the time an officer of the Royal Naboo Security Force, however by the time Adrian Jr was seven he had always been quite interested in spacecraft and began to put his life towards that, his Father by this point still in service to the RNSF, and taking him along to see the N-1L Light Starfighters, which would soon be replaced with the Iconic N-1 starfighter, this would see him dreaming of someday exploring the galaxy in his own ship. This dream drove him through school, where he performed well, due to the tutors paid for by his father and his own interests in it at the time. However by the time he was ten years old, his father transferred him from his Theed based school, to a Kuati boarding school, which led to some distance between them.
Kuat[]
On Kuat, the young Adrian Varino would brush shoulders with Kuat's elite, however, he would never quite fit in, his distinct Naboo Accent and other culturally Naboo characteristics, led to many of his Kuati peers to ostracize him. He, however, continued to excel in his schooling, however by the time he was fourteen, he and his father had drifted greatly.
Naboo Blockade[]
While visiting his family, with the birth of his Twin siblings, Marculis Varino and Addilei Varino, when the Trade Federation began their blockade, now stuck on Naboo, and his father returning from retirement in the RNSF, which he had begun to run the Varino Real Estate Company, now he was leading troops near the Harte Secur area, but when Theed was occupied and the as such the Varino Estate put in Danger, the young Adrian Jr, would become an informant for the Resistance that was brewing in Theed. Counting droid columns, telling them where movements were, etc. This would lead to a bit of distrust between himself and droids as he had several close calls with E4 baron droids, though they end well as he outran the droid. By the end of this his Father, who had nearly been captured during the battle for Harte Secur and working as a member of the Harte Secur resistance, would berate Adrian Jr for his stupidity in working with the resistance instead of just staying in the estate and waiting it out. This would fracture their bond even deeper and Varino Jr, who would celebrate the liberation with his family, would leave for Kuat once again to finish his studies.
Early Adulthood[]
Once he finished his studies, which lead to him eventually getting a Degree in Business, he would become the Manager of the Coruscant office of the Varino Real Estate Company, as a gesture from his father to try and get him closer to him, this would not work but Adrian Jr, would eventually help his father buy up a few other companies to take the market share and grow the families wealth, these would be the Kaadu Restaurant and Services Holding Company and a few other minor companies to expand his reach, mainly companies involved in raw materials and transport of goods.
Now this job was quite lucrative, as he got quite a good portion of every lot sold, and on Coruscant, these prices were quite exorbitant. He amassed himself a small fortune, and his family was quite rich not the riches family nowhere close, but they had plenty of spending money, and if handled correctly the family could live off this money for the next millennia. However, he would use his money to buy himself a large penthouse near the Jedi Temple, as well as a small Ranch on Kuat where he would spend a large amount of his time. While on Kuat at the age of 22 he would meet who would become his wife Eliaasia Neiham.
The Clone Wars[]
Adrian Varino II, would enlist immediately after the Battle of Geonosis, wanting to live an adventurous life, however, he would be assigned to the Brood a Carrack-class Cruiser, during the war he would not distinguish himself, however, he would become quite the supporter for Chancellor Palpatine, though he would remain in reserve until the reformation of the Fourth Fleet of the Empire. Which he would, due to some nepotism become the second in command of when his father was finally rescued after his run-in with the Malevolence, during which time the younger Adrian would marry Eliaasia, out of fear of his mortality.
His career would mainly be overshadowed by his fathers, mainly due to his father's direct involvement with the command while, Varino II would be in charge of captaining the flagship of the fleet, he would as such learn directly from his father's strategies, some of which he would adopt while fighting the rebellion.
The New Order[]
The end of the republic came suddenly, however, Adrian, already a supporter of Palpatine would throw himself in with the New Order, and this change just cemented it. He would serve dutifully securing himself a promotion to Admiral and taking charge of the Fourth Fleet. After which he would begin hunting separatist holdouts, as most fleets would during this early transitional period.
After a few years he would be assigned to the Chommell Sector after a rebellion on his homeworld, which he saw as a very reactionary response to change. It was also seen by some, as money buying him his location seeing as he was assigned to his home sector. Here the fleet would largely be brought up to date, receiving a full complement of Victory II-Class Frigates as well as Imperial Star Destroyers. These ships and a small detachment of Victory-class star destroyers would make up the modern Fourth Fleet, though the reliance on some republic vessels in support capacity would still be seen it had finally fully imperialized, as such the Admiral would routinely patrol the systems in the Chommell Sector, preferring to stay near Naboo, due to his family residing there. He would during the course of his assignments deal with minor rebellions, however, Naboo was quite peaceful after this event, and the Chommell Sector would also see mainly pirate actions, however, Varino was known to mount minor expeditions into the outer rim with some of his officers. During this time his first son would be born Adrian Varino III, continuing the trend started by his father to name his child after himself.
He would remain in the Chommell sector as it's garrisoned fleet until 8 BBY, at this point the Fourth Fleet would be rotated out into the Outer Rim, this is where he would start making a name for himself in terms of his own, as he would see a large amount of action against roving pirates. This decision was also taken due to his enjoyment of testing his officers by sending them to the rim, meaning many had experience fighting the pirates in the rim.
The Outer Rim Pirates[]
While piracy was largely small scale, some pirates had acquired ships from the Clone Wars, these pirates were the main priority of Varino while assigned to the outer rim. Some of these pirates even controlled fleets. One of these fleets he would chase and engage them over Atravis, here he would destroy a large pirate fleet and would receive accommodations. On these patrols he would also pick up a few outside agents, mainly for use as investigators, one of which was Fedrazz, a Kubaz who he would become friends with, and whose friendship lasted for many years to come. He would also fight small rebel organizations though none of note. Many of his patrols as such were uneventful and he would often take leave to visit his family, and over this time his second son Leander Varino and his first daughter Charlotte Varino would be born. However, the rebellion was starting to pick up while in the Outer Rim and he would quickly have more and more on his plate to deal with.
The Galactic Civil War[]
The Rebel Threat[]
When the Alliance was formed the Outer Rim became much more dangerous. Many of his patrols would end in harassment campaigns by militias using old Y-Wings and Z-95s. As such his patrols became much longer and more dangerous, and he came to distaste the TIE Fighter due to it's weak armament, though his alternatives were also lacking in this regard, or were quite niche in terms of what they could do. So he would continue on in this early phase, using a small supply of Tartan Patrol Cruisers as his preferred anti-fighter ship, as to not waste the lives of his pilots. As such his Tartan crews had a lot of work to do, and some of the officers of these ships would become higher-ranking officers in the Fourth Fleet, due to their proven ability. These early engagements would see little major fleet actions, leading Varino to continue in his belief these were minor organizations and that the Declaration of Rebellion was just the largest of these groups attempting to garner attention. Little did he know what was to come, he would campaign against these forces, though continuing his many returns home, which during this time lead to the birth of his third and fourth son Charles Varino and Harold Varino.
Post-Yavin[]
Yavin IV changed everything, the rebels proved they were capable against the empire and as such many forces were mobilized to hunt down the rebels who had done this. Varino would be a part of these efforts, though his forces largely would be involved in battles in the lead-up to Endor, specifically he would be involved in supporting Moff Yitreas. During the early stages of the Krantian Civil War, during which time he would serve with Darth Vader who he respected and feared, his help would lead to him being rewarded, this reward would be a new flagship the Hammer's Fist, though he would not receive any other recognition for this due to allowing Vader to take much of the prestige, however, he wasn't quite looking for glory.
Pre-Endor[]
As Endor edged ever closer and the Empire began to receive many setbacks, Varino would begin to make a backup plan involving the abandoned outpost in the Unknown Region, Cerci to help this plan he gathered a strong following of Navy Commandos, he would also contact an old acquaintance of his father, the mercenary crimelord Janseek Seranno to act as his main contact for anyone who may have had given this thought of deserting, as he had come late to the making of his power base he had a hard time getting one, mainly his officers supported him including Drial Callius and Tyler Vale, a stormtrooper commander, he also gathered support of his cousin in Imperial Intelligence, Augustus Valerin. This powerbase, though small was quite loyal to the man and as the Empire began it's march toward Endor after Hoth, Varino actually expected to not have to use it as large blows had hit the Rebellion with Hoth, this would, however, change at Endor.
Endor and Founding the Imperium[]
Being in a nearby sector to Endor on orders to mop up any rebels who had managed to escape, Varino would receive the news quite quickly and his forces had gone quickly to Naboo. His contingency began with failure as parts of his fleet such as the Rear Admiral Aren Wendal who would go to his homeworld, while other parts joined Sate Pestage. His son Adrian Varino III would be quickly ferried from the Imperial Navy Academy to be on the Hammer's Fist as part of proceedings. This would become known as The Imperium Agreement, and the Varino Imperium was formed. During this time his father would be killed during the Uprising on Naboo and it would become known he was a rebel officer. This hit hard for Varino II, though in public he would not mourn, preferring to keep it in private. This however set in motion for Varino II a path of keeping his children quite close leading to his them believing that he was oppressive after this as his brothers and sisters, not to mention the cousins of the children were not forced to move to Cerci IV.
The Forgotten Refuge[]
Ilum, the long-abandoned heart of lightsaber construction, and a gateway into the Unknown Regions was somewhat forgotten after the Clone Wars. But as the Imperium's forces made their way to Cerci they stopped at Ilum, now a great ship graveyard and where many of the less appreciated officers now remained. So they were offered to either join the Imperium or join the Jedi who died there during Order 66. This would become the first battle that the Imperium would enter against fellow imperials, though it was easily won, which cannot be said about later engagements. Most notably due to the lack of teamwork by these officers as they were quite disjointed and believed themselves better than the others. This became known as the skirmish on Ilum. The change from fighting Rebels to fighting fellow Imperials, was odd for the admiral, as he realized this would be how it would continue unless someone he could follow took control of the Empire once again.
Frozen Solitude[]
Ilum and Cerci, the first two of the planets of the Imperium were frigid, compared to Naboo it was quite a different experience for him living on an arctic world. His planning had, however, born fruit, he had a small outpost on the planet with power and food, though it was not much this place would be called New Theed. Both of these planets were cold and desolate, though Ilum had more civilization on it, even if it was the remains of ships that had since been abandoned and remnants of the Jedi. This would continue for a year as New Theed was built up.
An Ally in the Remains[]
The Aradan Union under Norven Loyaler, were the first of the warlords Varino would make diplomatic overtures toward. These overtures succeeded due to the proximity of Varino to Aradan which allowed him to use that to attempt to create a block of imperials in the region. As such he had less to fear in a region of space that he knew very few of. However, even so, this early period of the Imperium would largely remain peaceful for Varino II as he began expanding. Including the industrialization of Cerci IV, this allowed him to open Imperium Fleet Systems and prepare to create a shipyard over the planet, though it would still be many years off. As he would keep his head down the years would continue on, however. Allowing him to gather his forces, and those forces to funnel in both voluntary and non-voluntary settlers to settle across the Cerci system.
The Heirs to the Empire[]
So it began that the empire would claim to be reborn over the years, Grand Admiral Thrawn whom Varino distrusted, though he chose peaceful relations with the Chiss, his close proximity to them in the Unknown Regions was partially responsible for this, and led to him to having kept his distance and which included distancing himself from the Grand Admiral. However, when the Emperor himself returned he threw his forces toward the Reborn Palpatine, believing if he can return from the grave perhaps he could lead the Empire to greatness once again. Eventually, Varino himself would join the campaign alongside his Executor-class Super Star Destroyer. However, Varino was becoming older and he had begun to fear his death, so he was rather cautious having quite the escort with him, and having installed a secondary bridge to his Executor deep within its body to avoid what happened to Admiral Piett.
Betrayal over Chazwa[]
Chazwa, a rather unknown planet was where his forces would end up, alongside the self-proclaimed Grand Moff Olyver Baines once a member of the Fourth Fleet. The two had a strained relationship, to say the least, would finally snap over Chazwa where the Grand Moff began firing upon Varino. The Battle of Chazwa was where Varino saw what he believed had truly led to the defeat at Endor, betrayal and his tolerance of traitors disappeared and some of his zealotry toward the Empire even disappeared. Though his fleet had been heavily damaged, Varino managed to escape with his life, but he became paranoid seeing shadows at every turn ready to betray him.
The Death of an Empire[]
The Final Death of the Emperor was what truly showed him that the Empire was gone in his mind, he had remained to support the Emperor toward the end of the campaign, but once word of the loss at the Battle of Onderon he began limping home to the Cerci System, deciding to look inward at his empire instead of outward to the rest of the galaxy, this would not be the total isolation that would be seen out of later periods of the Imperium, but this allowed him to expand to other uncolonized worlds in the Unknown Regions.
The Call of the Unknown[]
As he began to put his focus toward the Unknown Regions, he would slowly shift from military duties and more toward governance and took up a number of hobbies during this period including poetry and painting, though they were never sold, and were largely militaristic. But during this period exploration into the Unknown Regions and the creation of hyperlanes between the numerous outposts Varino had begun to set up were paramount. This change, however, was not appreciated by some of his advisors, his long time friend Drial Callius had disagreed with this choice but did not abandon his friend. However, as the years continued on nearing the end of the Galactic Civil war, Varino would begin yearning for a Warrior's Death, not wanting to waste away or be assassinated so he looked outwardly.
The Defeat at Ilum[]
Having come back to the galaxy with the man who initially called the retreat leading the empire, which shocked Varino, not just because he had ignored the then captain's orders, and many of his fellow warlords having perished, including his long term rival Olyver Baines. As with the previous unifiers, Varino thought that Pellaeon's Empire would not last, so he began preparing to start his own campaign to reclaim the empire, but his plan would be foiled before he was ready his outpost in the known galaxy was attacked, what he believed would be his chance for this death he so wanted had finally arrived, Admiral Benjamin Grainer had been sent to investigate the rumors of imperial Build up at Ilum and the Battle of Ilum would result in Varino once again limping out of the known galaxy, and the Rebel Admiral would earn some acclaim for defeating an Executor-class Super Star Destroyer, he would choose however not to give chase, choosing to remember the Father of his opponent once he became aware it was the son of Adrian Varino I.
Sueing for Peace and Retirement[]
After this embarrassment, Varino realized he was not the youthful and creative Admiral he had once thought he was, his hair had begun to grey and the stress of the many years fearing another betrayal had begun to take their toll. It took nearly two years for him to regain his courage but he would not go out seeking war, he would attempt to open a dialogue with the New Republic, knowing his once-beloved empire had finally been defeated and believing that his rump state may yet live on. But his requests would be denied many times. Until in 22 ABY his request was finally given it's time and a formal peace was negotiated. The Imperium handed over a number of high-level officials in it's government to be tried for war crimes, including Augustus Valerin and this formal peace would open the gateway for Varino to retire. He returned to Naboo, the Theed Estate in disrepair as his siblings had chosen to distance themselves from it as Varino II was labeled many things over the years, most of which were not good for business in their eyes. But Varino would still crave his warrior's death but thought he would truly never have the chance to die in battle like his father, so instead, he bided his time working on bringing back the Theed Estate to it's former glory.
Retirement in the New Republic[]
As part of his agreement he was cleared of his crimes, but after he retired in 22 ABY. His son and the new Imperatus, Adrian Varino III made a request for him to leave the Imperium and he accepted and returned to Naboo. Much had changed since he had last been to his homeworld, it was a member of the New Republic and many of his former neighbors supported this move, a number of his families estates had been abandoned as the family that remained dwindled a large number migrating to the families new home of Cerci. The Theed estate when he arrived was in quite the state of disrepair, as the traditional seat of the Varino family's patriarch it had been abandoned since the death of Adrian Varino I who had died nearly twenty years prior. It did give him a project to work on as he worked quite hard to restore it to it's previous condition.
He would quite enjoy this, though he would continue to have this nagging sense that he needs to find a warrior's death, and he would regret his decision to surrender believing it to be his greatest blunder. But he could not change his past, having survived his rivals and one of the few warlords to remain independent outside of the Imperial Remnant, he felt incomplete though, he felt he may become but a memory of the past without his warrior's death. So he began writing memoirs when a new threat arose. The Yuuzhan Vong had begun their invasion and his next path to this glory he craved was finally there, the Yuuzhan Vong War had begun, his three years of peace were interrupted and Varino prepared to return to the Imperium.
The Yuuzhan Vong War[]
The Yuuzhan Vong War started abruptly and soon after he had begun hearing word of their many victories. So Varino would choose to try to rejoin his Imperium to command its fleet against this threat, his son denied him this request. So Varino took the next best option, still having some staunchly loyal captains in the Imperium, he recalled an Imperial Star Destroyer,the Frantic and a number of other smaller warships, as well as gathering whatever meager number of warships the Naboo had. The rather rag-tag fleet would be whipped into shape, with it's combined Imperial, Naboo and Gungan forces, being prepared to fight. Though Varino knew little of what a truly terrifying threat the Yuuzhan Vong were and was only really preparing for what he thought would be a more conventional war.
He and his forces patrolled Naboo, receiving the news of the continued success of the Yuuzhan Vong, Varino began to worry that perhaps he underestimated this threat, and once again asked to lead the Varino Imperium's fleets, once again he was denied so he had to work with what he had. So he would drill them waiting for the inevitable invasion. Before finally he chose to seek them out himself, leaving a small force of starfighters and smaller ships behind to give Naboo a sense of security.
The Naboo Grand Fleet[]
The so called Naboo Grand Fleet left the system and began a guerilla war against the Yuuzhan Vong, raiding Peace Brigade convoys, attacking weakened Yuuzhan Vong planets, quick raids reminiscent to those he once fought against in the Galactic Civil War. His fleet grew with every engagement too, desperate civilians joined him in freighters, he convinced pirates to join him, because if the Yuuzhan Vong won, how would their business survive. He used his salesmen charm to bring in anyone who would help in his quest for a glorius end. The war did not do much to bring the ire of the Yuuzhan Vong, they were preoccupied with bigger threats, the Galactic Alliance soon arose and the Remnant fought back hard. The war was quickly coming to become winnable and Varino once again feared that he would not find his glory.
This changed with the Battle of Donov what he believed would be the last hoorah of the Grand Fleet quickly became a battle where forces from two groups he had come to somewhat despised helped him overcome the Yuuzhan Vong, especially Elgar Finn of the Imperials under Pellaeon, but Varino knew him as a former member of Olyver Baines' True Loyalists, and the betrayal at Chazwa and his want of revenge against Baines was never came to an end, until his last moments. But soon the war came to an end and Varino still lived, and the Grand Fleet dismantled
A Businessman Reborn[]
The war that consumed the galaxy had ended and there was no need for an ex-imperial Admiral anymore, so he returned to the family company, ran by his brother Marculis. Once as a child Adrian Jr believed he would one day turn the company into the largest conglomerate the galaxy had seen in generations, now it had started to wither under Marculis. So Adrian found himself back on the board of directors, having a substantial amount of stock still.
He pushed just as he did when he first helped ran the company to improve profits, he started by going through the archives and looking at the deeds of any property they still owned as realtors, and proceeded to evict anyone he deemed was illegally on the companies land. It largely failed to gain back lost properties, though he did get a number of properties on Coruscant back, aswell as coming to find his apartment on Coruscant hadn't been destroyed in the countless wars, it had been damaged and repaired but he had still been paying for it unknowingly. From here he also had the family estate in Theed rebuilt, and took a keen interest in one of the companies the Varino family still owned Spinnaker Defense Solutions.