Dralen Zhor

"To put it quite bluntly, you do not posses any of the skills or characteristics that would be suited for a special operational unit. I'm sorry, Dralen, but I think it would be a danger to yourself and your comrades to assign you to such a dangerous posting. I'm afraid you don't have what it takes to be a soldier."
— Major Tyreece Zadria

Dralen Zhor is a Human male from Almar who has aspirations of joining Zealot Special Operations Unit, despite lacking the necessary skills or qualifications.

Dralen Zhor
Biographical information
Homeworld	Almar
Date of birth	24:7:28 (19 years old)
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	1.62 metres
Weight	58 kilograms
Hair color	Blonde (short)
Eye color	Blue
Distinguishing features	Thin and lanky
Chronological and political information
Affiliation	New Republic
Ranks	Private

Childhood

Dralen had an easy childhood, and grew up on the planet Almar in a hot, humid region of the tropics of Almar Downside, as the planet's surface was known.

As the most prestigious location in the Almaran system was the orbital space station known as Almar Upside, from an early age Dralen grew up with a yearning to prove himself to be better than a mere Downsider.

A middling student, Dralen's imagination caused him to fall back in his schooling. He was not particularly unintelligent, and he could achieve at least the basics required of him when he set his mind to it. But Dralen simply bored easily, and was much more interested in immersing himself in fictional Holodrama shows, especially any involving armed conflict, of which he entertained romanticised notions.

While growing up he heard of the righteous fight against the oppressive Empire, which had little to no influence in his world. In fact, the Emperor was dead before Dralen reached his teenage years, and newsnets were constantly awash with reports of successful New Republic liberation of formerly-Imperial worlds during his adolescent years.

Upon reaching the age of maturity he left his homeworld and family behind to seek out adventure, and a name for himself, among the stars. With naïve Holodrama-inspired notions and expectations of sanitised and glorified war, he embarked on his personal quest to achieve greatness.

Academy

In 44GrS, Dralen successfully applied to the New Republic's Tarsonis Academy in the Greeop Sector, which, being three sectors rimward of his homeworld, was the closest front in the war against the Empire. However during his time there he demonstrated an effective lack of all skills useful for a special operations soldier. His training officer, Major Tyreece Zadria took pity on the cadet when she washed him out of the Zealot training programme, by promoting him to Private and assigning him to a ship posting in the Subterrel Strike Force as a junior comm specialist on one of the SSF's warships.

Not content with this, and convinced he could prove Major Zadria wrong about her assessment of his abilities, Dralen used his life savings (400 credits) to hire a slicer to alter his assignment orders. These orders would not stand up to a thorough investigation, but would pass visual inspections as legitimate. Upon boarding a shuttle to the front lines in the Subterrel Sector, Private Zhor departed Tarsonis with orders specifying he be assigned as a comm specialist on an SSF warship until the first available position came up in any elite special operations units.

Unforgiven Crewer

Upon arriving in the Subterel Sector, it quickly became apparent that Dralen's forged orders were next to useless, as the elite special operations unit, Zealot, were missing in action, all members presumed dead. The Private was automatically assigned to his secondary placement orders, the ones legitimately provided by Major Zadria back at the academy, and Private Zhor became a junior communications officer of the Nebulon-B Frigate Unforgiven.

During one of his shifts, he intercepted comm traffic indicating that there had been some survivors from Zealot who had managed to return to the Subterrel Strike Force. Seeing his dream of being part of the unit back within his reach, he endeavoured to track down the commanding officer and join the special operations unit.

Initiation to Zealot

Through a series of unfortunate events, Dralen successfully managed to receive a permanent transfer to Zealot Unit, leaving his Unforgiven posting, and quickly ran afoul of the unforgiving Admiral Kaz Falcion, who physically attacked him on two occasions before undertaking his first mission.

Despite his run-ins with the aggressive humanoid, Dralen was assigned as a gunner of the Wookiee Anishor's two-seater Y-wing in the upcoming space battle which was to take place in the Maxite belt.

This was one of the worst possible postings for the young Human, who had never had much contact with non-Human species during his childhood or even his adult years to date. Therefore his interactions with Anishor were extremely uncomfortable, as the large Wookiee was a source of terror to the young man.

Battle of the Maxite Belt

Private Zhor was the Wookiee Anishor's gunner in the Y-wing they flew in the Battle of the Maxite belt. Apart from being a hopelessly bad marksman, Dralen actually fainted within the first few moments of the battle, waking only towards the end.

In the aftermath of the battle, Dralen checked himself into the medical centre, suspecting a knock to he head had caused him to lose consciousness in the previous mission. It did not even occur to the young private that he had actually fainted from fear.

Infiltration of Penumbra Base

Despite the suspicions of his Wookiee colleague, Private Zhor was part of the Zealot operation to infiltrate the heavily-defended Rogue Imperial base known as Penumbra to extract information from the Imperial network vital to the war effort in the Subterrel Sector. The base was deep within hostile territory, and Zealot infiltrated the station in the guise of an Imperial musical troupe that were the entertainment at an Imperial wedding held onboard.

During the wedding reception, Dralen completely blew Zealot Unit's cover by tripping over and unleashing his hidden vibroblade into the boot of one of the Imperial wedding guests. Pandemonium erupted, and Dralen fled in fear, hiding at the back of the stage while the firefight between Zealot operatives and the Imperial defenders started. Private Zhor was only drawn from his catatonic state when Kaz Falcion assaulted him to snap him back into reality.

Dralen then successfully retrieved his communication gear and made contact with the extraction vessel, which was inbound to Penumbra base.

Currently

Private Zhor is currently following the rest of Zealot Unit as they attempt to reach Hangar Bay Three, where their extraction ship is heading. His emotional and mental state is extremely fragile, and he could relapse into a total breakdown at any given moment.