Image:
Kav

Player:
Devin

Character Name:
Aux Kavass, aka “Kav”; Designation CT/ARC-AA-0087 in Republic/Imperial registries, originally Alpha-87 per Kamino clone batch number conventions. Contracts under the name “The Courier.”

Species:
Human Clone, Alpha-Class ARC Trooper Batch (Fett-Type Template)

Age:
Mid-Late 30s (Genetic Age)

Gender/Pronouns:
Male, He/Him

Homeworld:
Kamino

Desired Faction Affiliation:
Independent. Formerly the Grand Army of the Republic.

Desired Occupation:
Independent pilot for hire; courier, smuggler, and related. Former Advanced Recon Commando (ARC) Trooper, Pilot/Vehicle Specialist, ranked Lieutenant, Grand Army of the Republic.

Force Sensitivity:
None

Biography:
Early Clone Wars

CT/ARC-AA-0087, or Alpha-87, was an Alpha-Class clone, part of an elite batch of Kaminoan clones grown very early in the design and creation of the Republic’s Grand Army. Like other Alpha-Class clones, Alpha-87 was personally trained by Jango Fett and his Cuy'val Dar instructors, and would be among the first Advanced Recon Commandos, or “ARC” Troopers, that all future iterations would be modeled after. Unlike the later classes of brethren to come, the Alpha-Class was highly independent, and instilled with a sense of Mandalorian pride, honor, and ethics thanks to their mentors.

When the war finally broke out, Alpha-87 would be assigned to Thranta Company of the 621st Special Missions Battalion, a part of the 411th Legion. The Legion was one of many under the auspicious 327th Star Corps commanded by High Jedi General Aayla Secura and the clone Marshal Commander Bly.

The 621st was comprised of a potent mix of varied elite troop types designed to pave the way for the rest of the Legion, earning it the moniker, "Spearhead". Thranta Company was the tip of that spear: a unit of ARC Troopers, Commandos, and other specialists Clones that would always be the first boots on the ground, tackling the most difficult problems. Here Alpha-87 would serve with distinction as the only Clone of his class, taking on the role of commando, pilot, and general vehicle specialist. While his primary duties put him behind the controls of the various Gunships and Attack Shuttles types used by the ARC Trooper for their deployments, he never missed the opportunity to join his fellow Troopers on the ground and lend them his skills with a blaster.

While Aayla Secura managed the entire 327th Star Corps, the Republic would give more Jedi control of the various Legions and Battalions under her command. One such Jedi was the Knight Ama-kiedo Vorunta, an honorable and fierce woman hailing from Naboo, who would be assigned as General of “the Fighting Four-Eleven” Legion. Her Padawan, a young and passionate mikkian named Beò Dòchas, would often serve as acting Commander of the Four-Eleven’s various battalions when not at her Master’s side, including the 621st. As the 621st Spearhead Battalion and Thranta Company were the Legion's first and final solution to particularly nasty problems, Alpha-87 and his compatriots often found themselves working directly alongside the two Jedi. The necessities of war often were at odds with the Jedi commanders, who's humanitarian outlook would lead to many well intentioned yet foolhardy decisions. Still, their selfless warrior spirt never failed to impress the Clones, and their ideology would challenge some of the strict codes of conduct and pre-conceived notions of duty the men had been instilled with in their training. Both women proved to be notable warriors and tacticians, and it would not be long before the men of Thranta Company would come to respect them.

The 327th would fight and win many battles, but also suffer from many terrible losses. Constantly under the pressures of war, each Clone would come to adapt in his own way. Some took after the Jedi, and looked for moral purpose in the chaos. Many redoubled their believe in duty, order and the Republic, and sought nothing less than victory over her enemies. All became focused on surviving the war, one operation at a time. As the only Alpha-Class in his unit, Alpha-87 garnered more independence and flexibility than his peers, giving him more space to change and grow. He had always possessed a maverick, easy-going nature, but as the War wore on, he would forge his own identity; one defined by a love of risk. This first appeared as thrill seeking on the battlefield, and particular in the air, flying his vehicles as close to the limit as he could take them. Soon he would find another way slake his thirst for thrills; bets, and gambling.

His love of card games - Pazaak in particular - would become so great it would ultimately give him his name, “Kav”, short for Kavass. It was the result of an offhand comment made by Ama-kiedo, who caught Alpha-87 trying to convince other soldiers to beat him at a hand of Pazaak while pinned down in a long siege, waiting for enemy shelling to stop. It was a lighthearted reference to legendary gunslinger, Aux Kavass, who was notoriously shot dead mid game. Much to Ama-kiedo’s chagrin, Kav - seemingly keen to take the wrong message from the Jedi's warning - immediately adopted the moniker, and the name stuck.

A Final Battle

In what would ultimately be the final days of the war, the 327th was dispatched to Felucia to engage in a manhunt for Separatist Councilor Shu Mai, an extremely important operation to be led by High Jedi General Secura herself. However, as the 327th’s fleet bore down the Perlimian hyperspace lane, a transmission containing urgent intelligence was received.

The report was light on details – intercepted transmissions, Separatist diagrams for an orbital research facility, schematics for weapons using some unknown form of weapons grade gas; it didn’t matter to the clones, they had heard it all before. Orders were to secure the research, but the location raised more questions than the orders did. The Maw Cluster was a mysterious arrangement of eerily stable black holes, rumored for their extreme difficulty to traverse due to the dense and complex gravity wells. The facility was not deep in the cluster, but regardless, progress would be slow and painful.

Unable to risk Shu Mai’s escape, it was decided the bulk of the 327th would continue to Felucia, while Ama-kiedo, Beò, the Fighting Four-Eleven and their squadron of warships would be diverted to the Maw alone.

When the Republic squadron finally arrived, the fleet organized for the attack with well-practiced precision. The Corvettes formed a forward formation, advancing on the station and screening for incoming droid fighter swarms, while the Venator Carriers Stalwart and Dependable deployed their own fighters from the reserve formation, protected by the light cruisers stationed in the rear, waiting for Separatists surprises.

Kav watched the battle commence from the open dorsal hangar doors of the Stalwart as he and the rest of Thranta Company prepared for the coming boarding action, alongside a unit of regular Clones of the 621st, also known as Regs. The Jedi were out first, their Eta-2 starfighters leading the numerous wings of shining Republic ships into a sky that was quickly full of laser fire.

Suddenly, there was a blinding light. A massive beam, emitted from the station, had split one of the Four-Eleven’s leading Corvettes in half. The Stalwart was ordered to commence the boarding action and moved out of the reserve formation towards the station.

As the Stalwart approached, Kav could see the jury-rigged cannon that sat atop the station, where the Separatists must have hurriedly erected it upon their arrival. It was quickly tracking towards them. Kav drew a deep breath as it aligned, and its emitters begin to pulse, then glow, before spotting an impossibly tiny glint, a flash of bright green, the color of Ama-kiedo’s Eta-2, as it swooped over the emitter, and delivered a surgical blast of laser fire down its muzzle.

There was a pause. Then the cannon exploded. Then the station with it. The Venator’s shields were rocked with debris, and bright shimmers of exotic gas showered the entire forward formation. Kav shut his eyes. For what seemed like an age there was nothing but light and noise and shaking, and Kav struggled to stay steady. Then, as quickly as it had begun, the sounds of the world came back to him, and the glow and rumble began to fade. They were still here, still alive.

Escape from Order 66

Kav felt lighter, different, as if some strange burden had been lifted from his shoulders. An odd sensation for a mission that did not go as planned, but coming so near to death only to be saved by another of the Jedi’s miracles was a sensation he never quite got used to. With all communication systems dead, Kav could only scan the skies for the Jedi’s starfighters, hopeful that they had made it. Within a moment he spotted their fighters inbound, and relief passed over them. The 411th had done the impossible.

Kav didn’t hear, didn’t see, where the first laser bolts came from, just a glimpse of the resulting smoke and fire as the General’s ship was hit. Then he saw one of the Dependable’s V-Wing squadrons rocket by the incoming Jedi. Immediately confusion and shock spread among the men. The V-Wings came back around, behind the Jedi’s formation, and opened fire.

Knight Ama-kiedo's ship came down hard in the hangar, narrowly missing Kav as her padawan’s fighter landed softly beside him. The Stalwart still lacked primary power, and spun lazily in space, the rest of the Republic fleet drifting into view beyond the hangar doors. As Kav and Beò helped Ama-kiedo out of her stricken ship, the emergency power begin kicking back-on, and the vessel's PA system blared to life.

"Attention all Clones, new orders from the Chancellor have been forwarded to us via the Dependable's long range communication systems. Per GAR Document CO-CL 56-95, Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic: Order 66 has been issued. The Jedi have betrayed the Republic."

Time slowed as the words processed in Kav's head. Order 66 was one of many emergency contingencies they drilled for, Clones, Jedi and all, to be ready for the unthinkable. They dictated the actions that must be taken if key assets to the Republic war effort had been compromised. What if the Senate had forsaken the rule of law? What if the Chancellor had attempted a coup? They had trained for each - but he had never expected one to be issued, let alone against the Jedi. And here he was, his arm around a Knight. He knew what had to happen next. The only way the Clones could win would be by striking first.

In his periphery, he watched a Reg reach for his weapon. Without thinking, Kav drew his own, pushed off the Jedi, and fired. Beò's lightsabers drew, ready to block both their shots - but to her surprise as much as Kav's the shots never came. The Reg fell dead, a hole ripped in him by Kav's blaster. Kav looked between Ama-kiedo, Beò, and the men of Thranta Company in silent understanding, as the ARC Troopers turned on remaining the Regs.

A chaotic battle erupted around them, and beyond the open bay doors as men and ships alike picked sides. The majority of warships and interceptors that had been friendly moments ago rushed head on into the scattered forward formation, the few remaining corvettes and starfighters loyal to the Jedi desperately trying to shield the crippled Stalwart. It seemed few non-regular Clone Troopers had made the choice to disobey. Kav and his men were vastly outgunned.

As Thranta Company finished off the Regs in the hangar, a Cruiser loomed into view from above and docked with the Stalwart. It was not long before the sound of battle came from the forward airlock, quickly followed by hostile Clones spilling into the dorsal hangar, firing on their brothers, pushing them back. They homed in on the Jedi with laser focus, their intentions deadly clear. Kav and Thranta Company did what all they could to fight them off, covering for the Jedi, but they were quickly beaten back. There were too many.

Kav knew the only hyperspace-capable ships left on the Stalwart were in the ventral Hangar, and so they fought their way there, the skirmish following quickly behind them. Ama-kedio was badly injured, and Thranta Company had become scattered in the tight passages. When they finally made it to the hangar, Kav rushed into the closest vessel, a Nu-Class Shuttle, and frantically tried to make it ready for flight with the assistance of an on-board astromech. As he did, he was forced to watch from the cockpit as what remained of his brothers were thinned out as they fought alongside Beò and Ama-kiedo, trying to stem the flow of hostile troopers that followed them.

The shuttle started, and the two ARC Troopers who remained limped aboard, trying to provide covering fire for Beò and her master. Kav watched from the cockpit as Ama-kiedo turned, and the two locked eyes. No words were exchanged, but he understood. Springing from her position with surprising grace, she displayed impressive control over the Force, simultaneously pushing her apprentice into the shuttle, and pushing the advancing troopers back to the hangar bay doors. Kav took off, firing the shuttle’s blaster cannons into the mass of bodies before turning the ship to flee. Even then he could see more pouring through. The last glimpse he had of Ama-kiedo was her jumping into the fire.

Dawn of the Imperial Era

Of the four who escaped on Kav’s commandeered shuttle, the ARC Trooper “Kite” would not survive his wounds. Kav, Beò, and ARC Trooper “Rez” would give him a burial on a moon of the nearby planet Formos.

In the following weeks, the group collected rumors from the local spacers and spice runners as they made their way down the Triellus Trade Route, putting distance between themselves and the Maw. And every cantina, every watering hole they passed through was full of whispers of the fall of the Jedi, the death of the Republic, a birth of a New Order. It unsettled them. By chance they met a scrapper from Kessel who had spied upon the battle of the Maw, and its aftermath. The picture he painted was ugly; both sides fighting to the death, a slow, painful slaughter. The trio knew they had to keep their heads down, and no mater what, keep moving. Kav was left to wrestle with his decision, but ultimately, he knew: maybe the Jedi had betrayed the Republic - but not these Jedi. His Mandalorian honor demanded he stood and fight. Killing his brothers, though - that he might not ever be able to justify.

Chance and necessity would eventually push them west, and they would finally settle on the planet Vasch, a sleepy agricultural world in the Arkanis sector, where they would build a small hideout. The trio had very different ideas on how to proceed; Kav, his hotheadedness somewhat tempered after the Maw, wanted to find answers about the Jedi and the Chancellor's claim of treachery, but not at the expense of any more Clone lives; Rez wanted to burn the Empire to the ground and was willing to light the whole galaxy on fire to do it; and Beò... her intentions were forever clouded.

Over the next couple years they would all eventually get what they wanted. Kav started a job as a courier, and occasionally a smuggler, making a living out of the stolen Nu-Class shuttle which he would name Requiem, traveling the Outer Rim and Mid Rim, using the cover that the work provided to search farther for answers. Rez died attacking an Imperial forward outpost over Savareen, taking a docked convey with him. The last time Kav saw Beò in person was on Vasch, just after Rez died, where they reminisced about the ARC Trooper, and the others they’d lost.

She was gone the next time Kav returned from a job, a simple note remaining stating that she would be travelling, there were things she needed to do. He searched for her for a long time, but she had covered her tracks well.

Kav still gets messages from her time to time, waiting, hoping she will involve him with whatever it is she is doing. In the meantime, he knows he needs to hold the line; he works the trade routes with his droid, he studies Imperial chatter, he keeps the Vasch hideout stocked, and he works on the Requiem to make her stronger, faster, and ready for action when the time comes. And he tries very hard to not leave too much in the way of destruction in his wake.

Personality:
Kav has the instincts of a killer and the skills of an ace, but time has made him a more thoughtful, cautious and compassionate man. Age has tempered his cocky and bold style, but when forced into action those old traits can be emboldened. Still, nothing can change that he was bread from birth for War. His past has left him jaded in the face of violence, and his response to aggression can be callous and disproportional, particularly against those who bully the helpless. However, he can also be unempathetic to the plight of people who he believes are capable of helping themselves.

Kav remains tormented about the choices he was forced to make on the Stalwart those four years ago - he acted to defend his friends, but paid the price with the blood of his brothers. Kav is warm and loyal to those who are close to him, but it's a trust that takes a long time to earn, and he is naturally distrusting of strangers. Kav is always tempted by card games and enjoys building out his Pazaak deck, but - having never had credits to play with in his soldiering days - has had to learn the hard way to be vigilant when playing for keeps. However, much to the surprise of many of his opponents, the thrill of a good game is what he's after, and has been known to be just as ecstatic about exciting loses as hard fought victories.

Important Assets:
A small hideout and stash on the planet Vasch nicknamed "the Farm", the heavily modified live-aboard Nu-Class Attack Shuttle Requiem, R3-S7 (an Industrial Automaton Astromech), Custom fitted and modified ARC Trooper Armor, a Valken-38x Longblaster, a modified DC-15S Blaster Carbine, and a stock RSKF-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol, among other general survival gear for life on the lam.

The Requiem

R3-S7

Other:
Kav's story introduces a change in SWC, which removes inhibitor chips as the cause for the Clone's actions during Order 66, and returns to the SWL explanation that Order 66 was one of many well known Republic military contingency orders that Palpatine took advatage of during his rise to power.

Kav rarely wears his ARC Trooper armor or brandishes his DC-15S Carbines, instead keeping most things that could identify him as a Clone stashed in a secret compartment on the Requiem for emergencies. He instead wears a full rebreather mask with a voice modulator when working with those he doesn't know/trust, to hide his face and disguise his voice, giving the vague impression he might be a humanoid species that does not breathe oxygen. When not pressed for details, he will sign most of his contracts just as “the Courier” instead of Kav.