Tull Strayfiend

Tull Strayfiend was a male Human, a member of the CIS, and smuggler. He was the uncle of Marthrull Strayfiend.

Early life

Tull was born in 43 BBY on the world of Bacrana to a trader from Bakura and a pilot from Moztooine. He was the oldest of two brothers, Keru and Zerrand, and three sisters. Although all of the other children were born on Moztooine, except for his sister, Vera, who was born on Alderaan, the children spent very little time on their mother's homeworld. Instead they traveled around the galaxy with their parents, being schooled by the droid B-6TT. However, in 27 BBY they were stranded on the planet Erayyxa when a local warlord named Sarqi Polpotta confiscated their ship for his cause. Even though a Jedi Knight and apprentice managed to solve the conflict on Erayyxa the family was unable to obtain their freighter. His father borrowed enough money to get them small living quarters while he was away for months at time working for a venture capital shipping firm. Then one day in 25 BBY his ship was captured by pirates and the company refused to pay the ransom.

Following the capture of Tull's father, his mother joined a smuggling crew hoping to earn enough money to pay her husband's ransom. Tull had just joined the Erayyxa Civil Defense League and three of his younger siblings had managed to make it to live with their grandparents on Moztooine. His sister, Vera, had managed to make it to Alderaan to attend a boarding school and his fourteen year old brother, Zerrand, stayed on Erayyxa because he thought he had a good life running with swoop gangs. In 24 BBY, Tull married an ECDL Medic, Iryne Seljeem.

CIS Agent

Thirty-three hours before the Clone Wars broke out on Geonosis, Erayyxa announced its secession from the Republic. Tull and Zerrand were both in the ECDL by this point and the CIS sent them around the galaxy to fight the Republic. The ECDL served in a variety of roles during the war. Sometimes they were on the frontlines and other times they were called upon to commit acts of terrorism, assassination, sabotage, infiltration, kidnapping, spying, or fostering dissent.

Tull's first mission was to land with a detachment ECDL soldiers on Ord Zathuun and capture the capital city of Kerrsh and hold out for twenty-four standard hours until the droid armies landed to reinforce them. Their enemy was only Ord Zathuun militias and police forces and they captured the city within a few short hours. But then the Clone Army arrived to establish a presence on the world. There were several mercenary companies that had captured other locations on the planet for the Separatists but the clones launched their primary efforts against Tull’s unit in Kerrsh. The droid armies came, four days late, and the ECDL company managed to hold Kerrsh until then, but only by losing almost two thirds of their soldiers. Tull and several other members were called to missions in other parts of the galaxy.

The Separatists were pushed off of the Ord Zathuun after two months of fighting and Tull was sent in with a Rodian named Zareedo and two infiltrator droids to rescue several CIS captives and terrorize the Republic-allied citizenry. Their first act was to assassinate the Bothan overseer of the prison camp known as Triong Re'e. Then they overrode all of the camps turrets from the overseer’s office to start attacking the clone guards. They incited a riot and several hundred prisoners escaped. Most of them were recaptured by the Republic over the next several days but Zereedo and Tull kept track of enough of the escapees to recruit nineteen and divide them into two separate terrorist cells. Tull and his infiltrator droid IB-2D oversaw one cell of nine and Zereedo and the other infiltrator droid oversaw the other cell of ten.

Tull decided to begin with a bang by bombing the planet’s seven hundred year old Kerrsh Historical Galaxy Museum that had been only slightly damaged even though the ECDL unit had used it as a base during the Battle of Ord Zathuun. The Republic had been very careful to avoid destroying it and even the ECDL treated the Museum with respect, only looting some of its many treasures during their stay. After bombing the museum, though, Zereedo contacted him to complain because he had planned to kidnap the Ruurian curator, Yeenx. Tull then attacked the Kerrsh Penitentiary releasing every single prisoner into the city except for some of the more violent or crafty ones whom he recruited into his cell. As the Republic responded to the city’s plea for help, Tull kidnapped and murdered several prominent residents and then quickly moved his operation into surrounding towns, recruiting from the CIS sympathizers of the poorer communities. He began focusing more efforts on doing damage to the Clone Army stationed on the world because he detested the work of terrorizing civilians. Zereedo, however, only increased his violent actions.

Toward the end of 21 BBY, Zereedo was promoted to oversee all operations on Ord Zathuun and Tull was recalled and sent on a solo mission. After receiving some advanced training, he was to infiltrate Coruscant and capture two high profile targets. The first target was a Gama-Senn ambassador named Ber Wend and the second was Alc Hyn'res a Caamasi member of the Refugee Relief Movement. Arriving on planet with forged documents identifying him as a Bakuran exchange student, he located both of his targets in only two standard hours. Capturing Hyn’res was easy as the Republic still had no idea that he was even wanted by the CIS. Tull merely stunned him and hid him in the lower levels until he could meet with the Iodanese contact who was to ship them offworld. He hired an old hag of some mixed humanoid species named Ya Weet to feed his prisoner while he searched for an opportunity to capture his other target.

Because Ber Wend was both corrupt and had been on Coruscant since the Chancellorship of Thoris Darus he had long ago learned to have a bodyguard at all times. But his current bodyguard was a Gand who was relatively young and inexperienced and after observing Wend for almost two standard weeks Tull noticed that Wend took a particular elevator on his way home that could also be taken to the lower levels with a maintenance passcode. One late night Wend, his Gand bodyguard, and two others entered the elevator. Tull strolled on after them, and allowed them each to choose their floors. After Wend selected his floor Tull pretended to live on the same floor and convinced the ambassador that they were neighbors, engaging him in pleasant conversation and some of the latest gossip. After the other passengers disembarked and the ambassador and his bodyguard were the only others remaining, he stunned them both and stopped the elevator. Using his maintenance code, he took them to the lowest level that the elevator had and pushed the unconscious Gand out the door. Then he took Wend to the level of the safehouse with his Caamasi prisoner and contacted the Iodanese connection who smuggled them offworld to transfer the prisoners and send Tull home to Erayyxa.

While on Erayyxa, Tull spent several months training fresh ECDL recruits. In the middle of 20 BBY the Republic invaded Erayyxa. During the battle, Zerrand Strayfiend was killed and thousands of the ECDL soldiers were slain. The droid armies finally came to their rescue but not before the Erayyxan infrastructure received massive damage. Tull was badly injured in the fight and spent an entire month in a bacta tank. He learned afterward that his wife had been killed in the fighting and his infant son, Benthar, had disappeared.

Reunion on Tatooine

In 19 BBY Tull was sent to Tatooine with a squad consisting of him and three other soldiers. Their job was to hunt down and execute a group of smugglers who had turned the tables on Dooku and made off with a large sum of credits. A few days after arriving in Mos Eisley they captured the first of the traitorous smugglers, a Ryn named Onnok. Despite torture, Onnok refused to talk so they executed him. Then they searched for the ship Onnok had crewed. They discovered that it was a freighter called Hyperius and it was captained by a Wroonian named Klippy Resh. Following the lead, they learned that Resh was planning to meet with a group of pirates out in the Dune Sea to make some kind of payment. After a brief conference they decided to kill the pirates along with the smugglers by causing them to attack each other and then killing the survivors.

As the days progressed they isolated another smuggler in the ring, this time a Wookiee named Mawyrrlac who flew as Resh's copilot. They killed her and left evidence that suggested the pirates were responsible. Resh became nervous about the rendezvous and began hiring bodyguards. According to the plan, two of Tull’s companions managed to get themselves hired while Tull and the team’s Gotal sniper, Argun Obroggva, remained hidden. They learned the location of the meeting and Tull and the sniper went several hours ahead to hide out. When the two factions arrived, their job was to simultaneously assassinate Resh and the leader of the pirates with their sniper rifles. Then the other two would start shooting wildly into the ranks of the pirates and cause a skirmish that would result in the deaths of everyone except Tull and his team. It was a dangerous plan but the ECDL never backed down from a challenge.

As the snipers watched the two skiffs approach each other, Tull examined the pirates. There were several prisoners aboard and Tull realized the credits paid to the pirates would be a ransom. Then he saw his mother among the smugglers on their skiff. He was suddenly faced with a decision. As much as he hated the Republic for the death of Zerrand, he knew that his current service to the Confederacy was about to cost him the life of his mother. With absolute resolve, he decided to act. Taking his vibroknife, he slit Argun’s throat. Then he waited. His squad leader gave the signal and he shot the pirate leader, a large purple-haired man with a beard, between the eyes. The other two members were already firing into the pirates and the smugglers responded quickly, gunning down the pirates but being far more careful about the prisoners. Realizing that the pirates were not even going to respond fast enough to thin the ranks of the smugglers, Tull killed the other two members of his squad. By the end of the skirmish all sixteen pirates were dead and only two of the eight smugglers had died. Unfortunately, three of the seven prisoners were dead.

Deciding not to approach the smugglers then and there, he watched them leave and then made his own way back to Mos Eisley. There, he sought out his mother to warn her that Dooku was after her and her companions. He found them in a cantina, celebrating their victory. To his surprise, he discovered his father was with them. They told him about the skirmish against the pirates on the Dune Sea and he listened and pretended he did not know what occurred. His father had been among the prisoners rescued and he realized that these were the very same pirates who had captured his father in 25 BBY. Then he told his mother that Dooku was on their trail. When she asked how he could possibly know that he announced that he was part of the CIS and that he was risking everything to tell them. His mother begged him to desert the Confederacy, insisting that it was evil and Tull replied that the Republic was evil. She told him that Keru was an officer in the Republic’s army and Tull angrily retorted that Zerrand had died for the Confederacy and he stormed out of the cantina, vowing to destroy the Republic.

Captured

Leaving Tatooine aboard his squad’s ship, he began filing a false report that would explain the deaths of his squad and their failure of to kill the smugglers. When he came out of hyperspace in the Ooo-temiuk system, he received an update on his ship’s computer that the Separatists had surrounded Coruscant and had captured Chancellor Palpatine. However, before the computer finished receiving the already outdated information from the holonet, his sensors picked up a Jedi starfighter. Shutting off holonet, he made the decision to attack. The Jedi seemed prepared for the assault and responded fast. Tull managed to evade the barrage of counter-fire and he noticed the fighter was damaged. Regardless, the Jedi kept managing to dodge his attacks. Finally, Tull managed to hit one of the fighter’s engines, causing it to spin out of control. Before he could finish it off though, a Republic cruiser came out of hyperspace. Tull retreated, rapidly entering coordinates to jump into hyperspace. To his surprise, the cruiser attacked the Jedi starfighter and just before he entered hyperspace he witnessed the Jedi's demise.

When he arrived at the Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship that was his destination, he gave his clearance code and was allowed to dock. Extremely tired, he exited his ship and had walked nearly ten meters before he realized the droids were all deactivated. Turning around he sprinted for his ship but was tackled by a clone trooper. He was taken prisoner. Thrown into a holding cell, he learned from the other inmates that Dooku and Grievous were dead, the Jedi were gone, the Republic was now the Empire, and the CIS droids had all mysteriously deactivated. All of the known Separatist bases and ships were now being infiltrated by clone troopers who waited to capture CIS agents and soldiers who might try to regroup or contact their superiors, which was how Tull had been caught.

For the next several months, Tull was interrogated and, in an increasing amount of cases, tortured. Finally, late in 18 BBY, his brother, Keru, visited him and pleaded with him to join the Empire. Tull refused. Knowing that death awaited his brother, Keru contacted his mother and convinced her to rescue Tull. While he was being transferred to the Outer Rim for execution, his mother and a group of smugglers attacked the prisoner convoy and rescued Tull and hundreds of other prisoners, many of whom would eventually go on to help build the Alliance to Restore the Republic. After the rescue, Keru betrayed several dissenting Imperial officers in order to prove his loyalty but, because of he was suspected to have played a role in his brother’s rescue, his commanding officer made sure that he was constantly passed over for promotions.

Becoming a Smuggler

Tull became a smuggler like his mother. His father had passed away from complications he had developed while imprisoned by pirates for six years and his mother married Klippy Resh only a month afterwards. They retired and Tull was given the Hyperius. He hired a Sullustan copilot named Dinend Dot and they smuggled in the Outer Rim, avoiding Imperial contact as much as possible. During this time, he searched for news of his son but heard nothing, eventually concluding that he had been killed on Erayyxa.

In 16 BBY, they transported Yethra the Hutt to a world in the Unknown Regions. They were not allowed to know the name of the world and, much to Tull’s dismay, had to close their eyes when Yethra entered the coordinates into the navcomputer and allow him to delete the coordinates once they arrived. While on the world, they met with a Chiss whose name they were not allowed to know and picked up a cargo that, once again, they were not allowed to know. The planet was a jungle world, full of exotic plants and animals but they landed in a fairly modern spaceport full of ships and alien species they had never before seen. Then they left the world and flew back to known space and, again, Yethra deleted the coordinates of their last journey. Yethra offered them future employment and Tull agreed but only on the condition that the Hutt never have access to his navcomputer again.

For several years they worked for the Hutt, but in 4 BBY, Tull terminated his agreement because they kept finding themselves being sent on all sorts of jobs to places they did not want to go, namely the Core. Seeking a new employer, they found work when the Earl of Ittamis decided to start arming dissidents in the domain of his rival, the Earl of Ittimorn. For two years, the job proved lucrative enough to keep them afloat but then the Empire arrived and forced both Earls to turn their domains over to the local Imperial Moff in exchange for their lives.

In 1 BBY, Dinend Dot quit being his copilot to join the Rebellion and Klippy Resh, long ago having divorced Tull’s mother, managed to convince him to take him on as his copilot. Despite the fact that Tull insisted Resh recognize him as captain, the Wroonian continually accepted extremely risky contracts without consulting him and he flew for everyone he did not wish to fly for— the Mandalorians, the Black Sun, the Rebellion, the Empire, and Yethra the Hutt.

Galactic Civil War

When Aldaraan was destroyed, Tull feared that his sister, Vera, might have been on the planet but he later learned that she had followed her mother and brother into the smuggling business and now smuggled exclusively for the Rebellion. Tull felt a little guilty when he smuggled for the Empire after learning this but Resh insisted that business was business. In 0 ABY, he landed on the planet Hraki and received a devastating message from his brother Keru’s wife, Maritta, that Keru had been killed by the Rebellion when the Death Star I was destroyed. After hearing of his brother’s death, he vowed never again to smuggle for the Rebellion and forced Resh to make a promise that he would never again accept a contract from them. Resh broke this promise on numerous occasions.

It was during 2 ABY that Tull learned his former comrade from the ECDL, Argun, whom he had betrayed on Tatooine, had somehow survived. Rumor had it that the Gotal was seeking revenge. Although Keru had long ago removed Tull’s name from the Empire’s list of fugitives, Tull knew that Argun could easily go to the Empire and inform on a former CIS agent who was still at large and obtain a handsome reward. Fearing he had no choice, he decided to confront the Gotal. Argun had been living among moisture farmers and when Tull found him, he was shocked to learn that he had no memory of his last mission for the CIS. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised to meet his old comrade. Yes, he was seeking revenge, but on the Empire, not Tull. Tull neglected to explain to him why he had worried that he was the object of the Gotal’s revenge.

After they left Tatooine, Klippy Resh once again accepted a contract for the Black Sun in spite of Tull’s protests. They’re job was to transport a holocron full of schematics from Kuat. They picked up the cargo on Nar Kreeta and were told to fly it to Jedd 6. Along the way, they stopped on Alvorine to pick up a load of spice for the Zann Consortium. There, they were approached by a representative of the Rebel Alliance who offered them a large sum of credits to be allowed to borrow the holocron for a few hours to make copies. Tull refused and, being angry with the Rebels for his brother’s death, pulled a blaster on the representative and told him to get out of his sight. When they were leaving the planet, a Rebel transport escorted by two Y-wings approached them and once again offered a handsome price in exchange for viewing the schematics. Enraged at their persistence, Tull fired a concussion missile at the transport and flew away, the two Y-wings in hot pursuit. The Y-wings tried to hit the Hyperius with ion blasts to but they fought back, destroying one Y-wing before an ion blast disabled them. The Rebel transport sent in a boarding party but Tull and Resh held them off with blasters. An Imperial Star Destroyer arrived then and sent Tie fighters after the Y-wing and caught the Rebel transport in its tractor beam.

Tull received orders from the Star Destroyer’s Captain, Uden Fruspa, to not attempt to escape. With a disabled ship, Tull had no choice but to comply. He and Resh used the delay to conceal the spice containers and the holocron in hidden compartments. For two days, they stayed as guests on board the Imperial Star Destroyer but, because they had clearly been fighting the Rebels, Fruspa decided not to search their ship too thoroughly. After they were released, the two smugglers completed their jobs without further difficulty and Tull informed Resh that if he ever took a contract from the Black Sun again he would drop him off on an uninhabited world in Wild Space. Resh then supposed that the Rebellion would not be offering the two smugglers any future employment either.

Maritta contacted Tull again in 3 ABY. She told him that she needed to meet him right away concerning the legacy of her husband, Keru. Knowing her father was wealthy but not realizing she had estranged herself from him, Tull spent the last of his credits to fly to Wrydrock. When he arrived, he discovered that his sister in-law expected him to become the legal guardian of her four year old twin sons, Mathias and Marthrull Strayfiend while she left to join the Rebellion. Resh insisted that watching the kids would be no trouble and even somehow had the credits to buy a small apartment for the kids to live in while Tull was working jobs that would prevent him from taking the kids along. Because Resh had credits and would not even give Tull money for fuel, Tull accepted his situation and adopted the twins.

Changing Times

In 4 ABY Tull received a call from Argun. The Gotal had been working for Jabba but now the Hutt was dead and Argun wanted to fly with Tull. Resh announced his retirement as soon as he found out about the message. Tull insisted that Resh stay but the Wroonian announced that he had only joined the smuggler in the first place because he thought Tull was too antisocial to find another reliable copilot. He insisted on being left on Naboo, saying he had a Gungan friend who wanted to make his life as a trader in the wider galaxy and needed help doing so. Then he gave Tull a few thousand credits and, when the smuggler objected, he told him that if he spent even one credit of that money on himself instead of the twins he would make sure strand him on an uninhabited world in Wild Space.

Argun found a permanent job as a pilot for Xyztech Systems in 9 ABY and, once again, Tull was without a copilot. About the same time, Tull was contacted by a former Imperial Marine named Benthar Anjon. Benthar had grown up in a foster home on Duro and had been living on Tovarskl since he left the service in 6 ABY. Since then he had been researching who his parents were and discovered that he was the son of Tull and Iryne Strayfiend. He had discovered first the name of his mother and had learned about her short life and the history of the Seljeem family but he could find nothing about Tull beyond his name. Finally, he had contacted his mother’s family and learned that Tull had been with the CIS and had become a smuggler after the Clone Wars and searched for his son for a few years but then they lost contact with him and assumed he was dead.

For about a year he had given up searching for his father but then he found out that a Keru Strayfiend had died in Imperial service and his sons had been adopted by a Tull Strayfiend. They had a residence on Wrydrock but when he tried to contact the residence, the protocol droid called B-6TT informed him that the family was on a business trip and would not return until the following year. Disappointed, Benthar had left a message but expected no reply. Then he was contacted by Klippy Resh who told him that Tull was his stepson. Resh helped him communicate with the Hyperius which Tull was flying alone, doing contracts for Yethra in Hutt Space.

Hearing from his son, Tull refused any further contracts for the time being and raced to Tovarskl to see his son, stopping only to pick up his mother and sisters on Moztooine. When he arrived, he met Benthar and his daughter in-law and grandchildren. He returned to Wrydrock briefly to pick up Mathias and Marthrull, bringing them to see their cousin. His sister Vera and her husband and children arrived towards the end of their reunion to meet Benthar. Finally, Tull had to leave because he owed Yethra money and had to return to smuggling to pay off his debts. Over the next few years, he began bringing Mathias and Marthrull on more and more of his jobs, teaching them how to fly and slice computers and use blasters. As often as possible, he visited Benthar but Yethra was beginning to act strangely, employing Tull for unusual assignments and threatening him when he declined, even though he paid most of his debts.

Return to Ord Zathuun

In 15 ABY Tull’s mother died at eighty-five years old. Tull and his sisters split the small inheritance and he gave half of his portion to Benthar, although his son tried to refuse. The Imperial Remnant hired him afterward to lead a break-in of a vault believed to have been left by Emperor Palpatine. It was guarded by several war-droids and numerous unknown defenses but Tull felt confident he could succeed. The vault was on Ord Zathuun, now a New Republic aligned world. Jaxe Minzo, the Imperial officer who hired Tull had been a member of the Erayyxa Civil Defense League during the Clone Wars and was one of the few people who knew Tull had been on Ord Zathuun. Tull was given charge of twenty smugglers and mercenaries as well as three agents of the Imperial Remnant but he chose to leave Mathias and Marthrull on Moztooine with his sister, Jeya Strayfiend Bek.

He decided to have the men reach Ord Zathuun independently and rendezvous at the farmstead of Plod Neergoss, one of the only surviving members of the old Separatist terror cells from the Clone Wars. His farm was near the outskirts of Kerrsh and a short distance from the entrance to the vault. Every member of the team arrived without incident and they waited until the middle of the planet’s twenty hour night before striking out toward their goal. Entering the vault proved to be time consuming and it was nearly dawn before they had the door to the massive underground complex opened. They immediately encountered in the form of auto-turrets. Two mercenaries received minor wounds but no one else was hurt. They moved through the first few rooms finding little in the way of wealth but significant resistance from automated defenses. The first of the casualties occurred when a Gamorrean mercenary who was on point stepped on a floor panel that sprang a deadly electrocution trap on him. Tailing close enough to also die was a Devaronian smuggler named Birbunt Yesh and Corellian gunslinger Nero Lanjiyo. After four more deaths, the defenses seemed to all but disappear and the value and frequency of the treasures rose. P Sal Somm, a Xexto slicer from Troiken, sliced open a door and three heavily shielded, armored droids burst from behind it, blaster cannons firing wildly, indiscriminately destroying priceless artifacts and trespassers alike. By the time the droids were disabled, only Tull, Somm, one Imperial agent, two mercenaries, and the Bith smuggler Chac Muth were still able to move. The mercenaries’ human medic, young Narth Yinult, was so terribly wounded that he insisted he was on his homeworld of Ruan, dying in the arms of his loving mother. He died in a few short minutes.

The six survivors agreed to go no further. Only the Imperial Remnant’s agent had a dissenting opinion, declaring that they had nearly reached the end of the vault and that they were short of discovering whatever its greatest treasure might be. Chac Muth pointed out that the plunder had been decreasing in value throughout the previous few rooms and he theorized that if they proceeded they would only find another entrance from the outside. Tull believed that it would be best to return to the entrance they came in to rest and refresh and then scout a little deeper to determine whether Muth or the agent was correct. Squelching any further debate, he ordered the team to head back toward the front of the vault. When they reached their destination, they found Jaxe Minzo waiting with a company of stormtroopers. The stormtroopers opened fire, killing the two remaining mercenaries. Chac Muth turned around and shot the Imperial agent as he was about shoot Tull in the back and then Tull, Muth, and Somm fled back into the vault. After losing the pursuing stormtroopers in the maze, they slowed down and began resetting traps as they went.

Because Muth had an excellent memory, he led them back toward where they had turned around. He told them that he had calculated they had turned around right underneath the edge of Kerrsh which was why he believed they would find another way out if they continued past that point. They reached the room they had turned around in and proceeded through the door the two guardian droids had attacked from. There were several traps in the room but the three survivors managed to navigate the room and they came through another door into a long hallway. At the end of the hall they found a ladder leading up toward the surface. Muth led the way up, pointing out that, as a Bith, he could sense any subsonic vibrations that might indicate a trap. Unfortunately, the Emperor had placed sound dampening technology in the area. As a result, Muth never sensed the vaults final trap and he grabbed a false rung at the top of the ladder. A single beam fired from the wall next to him and the Bith instantly died when the laser cut through his brain. P Sal Somm saw what happened and, after the body of their companion fell twenty meters to the floor, warned Tull not to grab the last rung. The slicer and the smuggler came out of the vault in a dark room in the ruins of the old Kerrsh Historical Galaxy Museum and Tull was overcome by guilt at what he had done as a Separatist many years ago. Determined to do one favor for Ord Zathuun before he left, Tull informed the authorities of the Imperial presence at the other entrance of the vault. Then he and P Sal Somm left the planet as fast as they could, each carrying a bag full of small, expensive gems they had swiped during their adventure.

Death

In 20 ABY, Tull met with Yethra the Hutt on Boonta. Yethra claimed that he wanted to discuss joining Tull as a business partner in taking over the swoop racing industry on the planet. However, when Tull arrived he was murdered by the Habassa bounty hunter, Blodre.