Bork

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Bork
Biographical information
Homeworld	Zandu
Born	56 BBY, Zandu
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	1.78 meters
Mass	65 Kilograms
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Blue
Skin color	Light
Chronological and political information
Affiliation(s)	Galactic Republic Republic Fleet Galactic Empire Imperial Fleet Alliance to Restore the Republic New Republic

Bork Dantarii was a male human who served with the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, and New Republic. During his many years of service he would rise through the ranks, reaching the rank of Captain within the Republic and Commodore within the Empire, before moving into politics and becoming Governor of Zandu under the Empire. In this position, he would be a silent patron of the Rebel Alliance. Finally, with the Rise of the New Republic, he would temporarily resign as governor to serve as Rear Admiral within the New Republic Navy, before once again returning to his position as governor before his death.

Biography

Early Years

Bork was born in the year 56 BBY on Zandu to the minor noble family of Dantarri. Much of his early childhood as a pawn in his family's political dealings, being used as a tool by his grandfather to advance the interests of his family. While Bork was more than happy to play along at such a young age, he also became increasingly interested with the military, especially towards the Navy prior to its disbanding. As he began to grow older, he grew tired of the politics, as being from a minor noble house, and not even being part of its main branch, he was often treated as an inferior by the other children of the higher born houses. This soured him, and caused him to turn towards his studies, pouring much of his time and effort into them. This would sour his relationship with his grandfather, who pushed back against this academic focus, encouraging him to devote more of his time into the political jockeying with his peers, hoping one day Bork might be able to use those ties to strengthen his house's bonds with those families. However, Bork pushed back harder, forever souring his relationship with his grandfather.

Several years later, Bork's studying was proving to himself to have paid off. His high marks in school, caught the attention of many of his mentors, who helped him further advance his education. By his thirteenth year, he had become fluent in four languages, held the highest marks of all his classmates, and skipped a grade in school. His young age among his classmates would make him a further target for members of the nobility, causing him to endure bullying after this advancement in grades. However, he soon learned to fight back, devoting some of his time into studying Echani. This fighting would see him routinely get into trouble with other noble children, further causing his grandfather grief. Shortly after this, his grandfather would die of a heart attack, causing one of his uncles to become head of their house. This change in leadership put more distance between himself and the matters of the noble families, allowing him more freedom. Finally, at the age of seventeen, he would graduate from school with the second highest marks in his class.

Privateering

Upon graduating, Bork decided to forgo a career in politics and abandon the arranged marriage previously set up for him by his grandfather, instead joining a small privateering group based in the sector. Most of their time was spent on escort missions and other peaceful missions, but Bork did encounter pirates from time to time on these missions. It was on these missions that Bork defined himself above other recruits, given his background and understanding of naval warfare, he was able to quickly rise to the rank of ensign within the group, reaching it within a few years.

It was at this point in which Bork's career would begin to plateau. He faced many issues, with the largest two being a rather low pay and a rigid hierarchy within the ship, which effectively prevented him from advancing forward in rank. Due to this, he left the group and joined in with a less than reputable group of privateers, who also tended to function as pirates when contracts were scarce and often engaged in business with the Hutt Clans and other criminal enterprises. After several years of this and high pay, he was able to buy his own ships, hire on his own crew, and ran a small operation until the outbreak of the Clone Wars.

Clone Wars and the Republic Navy

At the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Bork was quick to sell off his privateering business and join the Republic Navy. However, he found himself in a rather low-ranking and unimportant post once again in a relatively support fleet. He lacked the Core-World diplomatic connections and respect to get pushed up quickly. He was also hampered by his past dealings with the less than reputable privateers, although fortunately he had a few political connections which aided him in avoiding charges. He also noticed that the sheer manpower and tactical prowess presented by the clones made it harder to move up in rank and get assigned to into combat, which was where Bork desired to be. So, Bork doubled down on studying the tactics employed by both sides throughout the Clone Wars. He quickly learned how out of date his knowledge was and had to study hard to catch up and hopefully prove himself.

When Bork wasn't studying tactics, he was following in his grandfather's footsteps. While in his younger years, he'd not understood the importance of politics, he now did, and did what he could to strengthen his political ties, especially focusing on politicians within the sector that he was assigned. He secured himself a politically advantageous marriage with the daughter of the Governor of Taris. This would prove to provide a major boost in advancing his career.

In early 20 BBY, Bork finally caught the break he needed when. While traveling between systems after having been ordered to reposition, when their small section came across a Separatist fleet massing in the system. Bork, who at this time was a Senior Lieutenant, managed to take control of the situation after his senior officer had frozen up and given a bad order. Risking a court-martial, Bork gave orders which successfully got his section of ships out of the system, only sustaining moderate damage and minimal casualties, losing no ships. While Bork was indeed court-martialed, he was able to evade punishment after the board recognized the disaster almost caused by the section's captain. For this, Bork was promoted to the position of Captain and assigned command of the newly christened Venator, the Alea. Bork happily took charge of this ship, and for the final year of the war, fought in many battles, often serving as a rational counter-balance to the sometimes rash impulses of his clone subordinates. While he had many successes and often posed useful insight during battle planning, he was also bested on several occasions by Separatists commanders.

Order 66

When Order 66 began, there were no Jedi present aboard Bork's ship. However, within his fleet there were several Jedi, and Bork received the report that they had been killed after the Jedi had attempted a coup against the Republic and made an attempt on the Chancellor's life. Bork thought this odd at first and harbored some doubts, although soon came to rationalize this in his head. Bork had heard the grumblings from some of his fellow officers about how the Jedi often kept too much from the rest of the Republic, and how many of them were unfit to serve as military leaders. Indeed, while Bork harbored respect, and even some level of admiration for the Jedi, in his mind the Jedi tended to rely too much on the force and neglected some tactics, which albeit complex, Bork felt that someone of such high rank commanding ships and men's lives should possess. Additionally while their was a time for calm in battle, which Bork often provided, he felt the Jedi also sometimes lacked the emotional investment needed to rally the troops and provide the drive needed to tip the scales and win some battles. So, he went along with Order 66 and did not question the Emperor's rise to power.

Service with the Empire

Rise of the Empire

With the launch of the Reconquest of the Rim, Bork continued his service in combat, finding himself among many of the Republics best and brightest officers now that the Jedi were gone. However, he also began to notice a shift in the military. The tactics they employed became more brutal, and indeed this new Empire did many things which the Republic, and particularly the Jedi, would never have done. Once more, Bork rationalized this behavior as merely the toll of war on men, especially against an enemy they'd been fighting for so long. An enemy who, even now, in the clutches of defeat, refused to surrendered. He knew for the clones, it was personal. After all, they were all brothers. However, he also began to notice that with the Jedi gone, the Empire had no moral balance, and nothing was off the table. At the end of the Reconquest, Bork had once against distinguished himself as a tactically sound man, earning him a promotion to Lieutenant Commander and earning him command of a line of 4 newly christened Imperial-I Class Star Destroyers. Once again, he would dub his capital ship the Alea.

After this, Bork's career would once again plateau as there was a relative state of peace within the galaxy, and the only way to advance his career was to once again play politics. During his time on leave, he would spend as much time as he could on Taris and Coruscant. On Taris, he worked on strengthening his political there and spending time with his family. Meanwhile on Coruscant, he would work to curry favor with the higher ups in the military and senators. During this time, he began to realize the extent to which things had truly changed. He heard rumors, whispers, about the Emperor and of a man called Vader. Based upon what he'd heard, he did his best to steer clear of them and stay out of their way. To further this, he eventually would begin to limit his trips to Coruscant, tending to try and meet senators on their home worlds rather than in the Imperial Capital.

Discontent with the Empire

As time went on, Bork's problems with the empire began to increase. One of the biggest changes which bothered him was the phasing out of the clones. While he understood the burden of trying to rise through the ranks against clones, over the years he had gained a respect for them and admired their abilities. As new, non clones began to join the military, and his small fleet, he immediately noticed a drop in quality, as well as a strong dislike between the clones and non-clone crew. Crew cohesiveness began to plummet, and while Bork did his best to mitigate this, ultimately he could only do so much.

Furthermore, many of the officers he received were not truly fit to serve as officers. In his line of ships, most often they were the kid of some mid or outer rim noble, governor, or politician that were simply using this as some sort of stepping stone in their career. Soon, Bork's requests for leave became few and far between and he played politics on the ship and did his best to train up a the new officers that didn't have any business being there, and trying even harder to hold onto the competent ones. Ultimately, Bork was able to stabilize things on his ship a bit, although with more and more clones being phased out, he knew the combat capability he had seen in the Clone War and in the Reconquest of the Rim would be a thing of the past.

The final nail in the coffin, for Bork, was the Tarkin Doctrine. Bork had met Tarkin on a few occasions, and during the Clone Wars, he respected the man as a voice of reason, who saw the issues with the Jedi's military leadership. However, as the empire had begun, he saw something deeper within Tarkin come out, and he did his best to avoid any contact with him. The Tarkin Doctrine broke any respect Bork had for Tarkin. While he understood the increasing issues which arose with rebellion, Tarkin's plan to deal with them was, at best a failure and at worst a detriment to the Empire. With the introduction of the Tarkin Doctrine and the growing resentment towards non-humans within the empire, soon enough Bork was spending the majority of his time quashing small rebellions, watching as things decayed.

Finding a Way Out

Thus for Bork, he had to find a way to slip away from the while being as quiet as possible. However, soon after things became difficult as he was promoted to Commander, for his actions in managing to root out and destroy various rebellions which had popped up in his region. Just one year later, he was promoted once more, to Commodore. With this, his fleet grew as several other ships joined him, his operational area expanded, and he was forced closer and closer to the Imperial higher ups he'd tried so hard to avoid.

Bork was ultimately faced with yet another problem, that being his age. In 12 BBY, Bork was 44 years old, still far away from retirement if the Imperial Navy would have anything to say about it. With such a high ranking position, Bork soon realized that he would never be able to fully leave the Empire, not without endangering his family and others around him. Nor could he easily just start making mistakes in his dealings with rebel groups to try and save them from the wrath of the Empire. Bork feared that, if anything, not only would he be found out and summarily dealt with, but it would probably cause the Empire to crack down harder and act more brutally. While he may not have been able to flee the Empire, he could mitigate his role in what they did. Thus, he reached out to a few friends and began to study the political situation on Zandu from a distance.

Political Career under the Empire

After observing the political situation on Zandu for a while, Bork was pleased to find that not much had changed apart from the people in charge. The current governor of Zandu, Garn Tblasi, was a man with a rather unimpressive career, and on a level playing field, Bork knew he would have been able to beat him easily. However, this was not a level playing field, and Bork knew he needed the support of the nobility if he had any hope of beating Garn.

Gaining Support

For the first time in nearly 25 years, Bork returned to Zandu. After reconnecting with his immediate family, he went to one of the noble's celebrations with his own family and instantly caused a stir. To many of the nobles present, Bork had once been their peer, a smart but troublesome boy who had no mind for the political game. Now, he was a confident, smart, successful, high-ranking officer with a politically powerful wife and many strong Imperial connections. The party had its intended effect and immediately drew interest to Bork from much of the nobility. Within a week, he announced his intentions to challenge Garn's run for governor. His house of Dantarii, along with its closely allied houses immediately backed his bid for the governor's seat. Likewise, Tblisi and its allies backed Garn, while the majority of other houses refrained from choosing a side immediately. Garn had more support than Bork, with Tblisi and one of its major allies being two of Zandu's major noble houses, although the other noble houses could swing the election. However, Bork soon had to depart, as his leave was up, and left his wife, family, and allies to pull much of the slack.

During his time deployed, however, Bork did not sit idle. When he had free time, he was constantly in contact with his political allies, working to make what deals he could to try and entice the other noble houses to his side. When he had his next leave, and the last one before the noble houses would decide who they would back to run for governor, he brought with him a datapad, which he presented to the other noble houses. On it was every deal he'd fleshed out which he would secure, should he win the election. To the deciding noble houses, this was a much better deal than Garn's political pandering with on-world politics he'd previously offered them. Bork's proposal would undoubtedly bring a significant boost to Zandu's economy and raise its status within the galaxy. In addition to the raise in status, Bork's connections within the Empire would give much of the nobility a chance to further their own standings and make stronger foreign connections. Many of the previously undecided noble houses came to Bork's support, along with several who had previously promised support to Garn. When the time for the noble houses to chose their candidate for governor, Bork won in a landslide.