Esarion II Napolae Daruun, often just Esa, was a male Krex born on Rokirex. He was a bounty hunter primarily active during the years leading up to and during the Clone Wars.
He first served with the Rokirex Home Guard, before leaving his homeworld and joining the Intergalactic Vanguard, with whom he ran for a couple of decades. Around 60 BBY however, famous smuggler Iaco Stark enlisted the Krex as his enforcer. He subsequently abandoned the Vanguard and entered service with Stark, flying his new starship, the Ravager.
Several years later, in 44 BBY, the Stark Hyperspace War began, during which he encountered many of his former allies amongst the Vanguard who had also been recruited. Esa commanded a detachment of ground troops during the battle of Leclite. At the conclusion of the war, Esa was presumed dead.
However, in 23 BBY, Esa had become an enforcer in the Vianden Exchange Association. He played a large role in Ciera Major's defection. By 19 BBY, he was one of the top generals in service to archduke Daljeii Merr and was instrumental to the Confederate campaign in the Cybe sector.
A veteran of the Clone Wars, Esa returned to bounty hunting in the years following, and at some point prior to 3 BBY, had joined the Bounty Hunter's Guild. In 3 BBY, Esa was hired by the Galactic Empire to hunt down defected admiral Vector Hex with limited success. In 3 ABY, he was again hired to hunt down the rogue clone CC-2937, once again to little avail.
In 10 ABY, Esa spent a brief but adventurous time on the Greyhound, having joined the Black Baron's Criminal Court. While the Krex rapidly gained prominence within the organisation, the Court was dissolved later that year as the result of a New Republic raid.
Biography[]
The Krex Esarion was born in 223 BBY on Rokirex and named after his father, Esarion Napolae Daruun. Owing it to his father, Esa always had a keen interest in weapons, his father being a weapon designer at the Aradani Arsenal, a weapon manufacturer. Esa held his first weapon, one owned by his father, when he was fifteen years old.
Prior to leaving the planet, he was employed as a soldier in the Planetary Security Forces of his homeworld.
Desiring adventure elsewhere, Esa abandoned the Home Guard and found himself in service of the Intergalactic Vanguard, for which he continued to work for several decades, eventualy reaching the rank of Vanguard Lieutenant.
By 60 BBY Esa had become a popular figure within the Vanguard, he stood out for being a Krex but in addition, had participated in a great many missions. As a result, the famed Outer Rim smuggler Iaco Stark had contacted him, in desire to recruit him. Esa was promised a high position within the Stark Commercial Combine, acting as both his personal enforcer and general. Esa, expecting fortune in the position, accepted the proposition and deserted the Vanguard, stealing his future starship, the Ravager and leaving the Augur.
Service to Iaco Stark[]
When war broke out between the Galactic Republic and the Stark Commercial Combine, Esa was stationed on Leclite, a planet used by the Commercial Combine as depot. Erruouf Azimuth, a captain in the Republic Outland Regions Security Force, led an assault on the planet, seizing a limited number of assets in the aftermath. Esa personally led the force guarding the planet, but with his imminent defeat apparent, he fled the planet. Regretfully leaving behind his ship and instead hijacking an AIAT gunship to make his escape, the Republic believed him to have perished.
Back to Zero[]
His previous ship having been lost with no way to retrieve it, Esa kept his gunship, branding it the Ranger, and left the Core Worlds, absconding Republic security forces. Esa made his way to the Corporate Sector in an attempt to find work, but due to his service as Stark's enforcer, the bounty hunter in his infancy, was left without work.
Early Separatist service[]
Murder on a Senator[]
In 24 BBY, a secret contractor – through his right-hand Count Dooku – reached out to Esarion hoping to employ him. The duo had been aware of the reputation Esa had developed during the Stark Hyperspace War and, the proficiency being scarce during the era, required someone of skill. This would be the start of a fruitful relationship between him and several high ranking Separatists.
Esarion met with Oldria Tykhon – one of Dooku's agents – who gave him his mission; the murder of Republic senator Regus Hex. Regus had been heavily opposing the establishment and centralization of the Republic Military, and slowly but certainly made himself a target for the secret Separatist Head of State.
Provided with details, Esarion made his way towards the Core Worlds, to which he hadn't returned since the end of the war. Well aware of his status as war criminal within the Republic, Esarion's way towards Coruscant was tricky, but within a week's time he had managed to safely arrive. Esa had been provided little details concerning his target's whereabouts, and hired a henchman to stalk his target.
It took his henchman a little over two days to find the target's home. Upon receiving the details, Esa made short work of his henchman, never leaving any witnesses, and proceeded to do his job.
The bounty hunter made his way across Coruscant overnight, using a borrowed speeder and arrived at the senator's home. He successfully broke into the complex and rode the elevator up the large building to the top floor. Arriving, he found his target sitting behind his work desk, and after a brief exchange, murdered him using a blunt weapon.
To wreak confusion, Esa spilled an extract of poison in the man's drink, ransacked his office, and left the premises. Throughout the night, the man's entire apartment was ransacked by a different group of criminals and a police investigation led by acting constable Erruouf Azimuth turned up little evidence. Esa had in the meantime successfully left, taking a number of important files he had found with him.
Esa made contact with his employer directly, Count Dooku, and informed him of his successes concerning the senator's death. Dooku congratulated the man on his success, and said the separatists would be in touch, before signing off.
The Vianden Enforcer[]
Towards 23 BBY, Esa had found himself in the employ of archduke Daljeii Merr, the leader of the Vianden Exchange Association who quietly harbored sympathies for the Separatist cause. During this time, the Krex led a small force to penetrate the Core Worlds and seize many of the remaining Stark assets, including a number of Vainglorious-class cruisers, and his own ship, the Ravager.
Having successfully seized the ships, a number of Vainglorious cruisers were pressed into service with the Exchange, while Esa abandoned the Ranger in favor of his old ship, the Ravager.
By 19 BBY, Esa had been promoted to general, and he commanded a Confederate Army during the Cybe theater of the Clone Wars. Following the Confederate defeat over Cybe, Esa abandoned his position within the Exchange and Confederacy and resorted to bounty hunting, hoping to avoid Republic authorities.
The Dark Times and Imperial service[]
By the Imperial Period, Esa had become a member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, granting him limited and unofficial immunity from prosecution.
In 3 BBY, Esa was hired by Imperial admiral Norven Loyaler to find the deserter Vector Hex, whose father he had killed two decades prior. Vector however proved notoriously challenging to track down.
Four years later, in 1 ABY, having joined forces with Hex's former captain Lucan Morces, Esa presumed to find Vector in the Unknown Regions and – despite directive – killed him, only for Norven to later discover it was a döppelganger.
A couple years later, in 3 ABY, Norven had learnt of the survival and employ of his former second-in-command, Blades, within the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and once again employed the Krex. This time however – with Esa's last results fresh in memory – Norven deployed the 666th along with him during a skirmish on Infamous Fallen.
Esa served as Syn's enforcer and indirect second-in-command during the battle, and the duo managed to track down and successfully kill Blades, completing Esa's contract.
After Endor[]
With the battle of Endor, the Empire collapsed. As a result, Esa's primary contractor disappeared, leaving him and many other bounty hunters unemployed.
Between the battle of Endor and the liberation of Coruscant, Esa travelled around the galaxy finding himself in employ under numerous warring Imperial factions, although a significant number of these assignments he considered surreal, as most of these warlords were bloated with power and had unrealistic expectations.
At some point around 6 ABY, Esa had become employed with the Kuati Security Forces. In 8.5 ABY, Esa aided Imperial forces under command of admiral Teren Rogriss in the defense of Kuat. However, as the battle progressed, Esa realised an Imperial defeat was imminent, and defected to the New Republic invaders. Esa lost his officer position with the Kuati Sector Forces, and spent the following one and a half years on the orbital docks, a stationing he found awful and undeserving. Nevertheless, he faithfully served the Sector Forces up until 10 ABY.
In 10 ABY, Hector Azimuth launched a kidnapping operation against Kuat Drive Yards. Esa encountered Hector's group, and eagerly defected to his Criminal Court, desiring adventure elsewhere. However, later that year, the New Republic admiral Beya Ar'Lya had caught up with Hector, all but destroying the Criminal Court during the raid on the Greyhound.
While the New Republic advertised his death, Esa firmly believed Hector to have ultimately survived the encounter.
Solo again[]
Following the dissolution of the Criminal Court, Esa resumed his duty as bounty hunter, and while bounty hunters had become scarce, work had too and he spent much of his time doing odd jobs for governments in the Outer Rim.
In 19 ABY, Esa was stranded on Endregaad doing a job for the Corporate Sector when the CSA shut down and quarantined the planet due to the outbreak of a plague virus sparked by the spice Tempest.
Being a Krex, Esa was impervious to the plague but was nevertheless barred from leaving the planet. Averse to staying grounded, Esa organized a breakout, using stolen transmitter codes to get himself and numerous others in orbit past the blockading forces, with success.
Esa fled Corporate space and reflected on the events that had occurred and acknowledged a sense of gratification helping the victims of the quarantine, and Esarion began re-evaluating some of his life choices. This led him to favour honor over wealth and to fight for the greater good of the galaxy.
The Yuuzhan Vong War[]
For the duration of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Esa was still an active bounty hunter and frequently found himself joining forces with the Mandalorian Protectors in several ground battles. At this time he also occasionally worked with fellow bounty hunters and former partners, the Trandoshan Crassk and the Devaronian Crac, with whom he served in the Criminal Court.
In 28 ABY, the trio were hired and fielded during the battle of Vianden, working together with a variety of groups to drive the Yuuzhan Vong off-world. Victory came at great cost for both sides, and pressing concerns barred victory celebration.
Second Galactic Civil War[]
By the time of the Confederation crisis, Esarion was the only member of the former bounty hunter trio to still be active. He had lent his service to the Galactic Alliance and encountered his former employer, the Black Baron during the war.
By this time, Esa worked almost exclusively for the Galactic Alliance, as he had come to the conclusion that his centuries of presumed wrongdoing needed correcting.
Equipment[]
Weapons[]
Despite being armed with a Merr-Sonn BC7 medium blaster carbine, Esa often used his distinctive horn as weapon. He was also armed with razor nets, but later replaced these with electroshock nets.
By 23 BBY, he had outfitted himself with a wrist-mounted rail cannon.
Vehicle[]
Since before the Stark Hyperspace War, Esa captained a YT-1210 light freighter, the Ravager. The Ravager's engines were modified to be on par with the YT-1300 light freighter. Its laser cannon was enhanced and directly linked to the cockpit, allowing the pilot to manually use it and eliminating the need of a gunner.
However, he lost the Ravager at the conclusion of the war, instead piloting an AIAT gunship he branded the Ranger. Over a decade later, he'd recover the Ravager.
Rocket boots[]
His boots were equipped with the modified CA-612 duo propulsion thrusters, which granted him flight over short distances, similar to fellow bounty hunter Cad Bane. By the time of the Clone Wars, he either lost or stopped using his jet boots.
Personality and traits[]
You mistake my concern, I'm not worried about your death.
—Esa to his subordinate, moments before executing him
A ruthless bounty hunter, Esa had no issues with murder, never leaving any bounties alive. Furthermore, Esa did not tolerate failure; in 23 BBY, he executed his subordinate without hesitation after a critical error during the Ciera Major crisis.
Behind the scenes[]
Esa Napolae Daruun is loosely based on an earlier bounty hunter written by the author; Esa Mulita, a Trandoshan bounty hunter.
Krex do not have a known age span.