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The Quantum Storm and Ulin'dran Ulin'Dran Dree Biographical information Homeworld Coruscant Physical description Species Twi'lek Gender Male Aliases Vic Starwind Dorian Dree Residency Quantum Storm Height 6ft Weight 175 Lbs Hair color N/A Eye color Yellow (Light blue with retinal overlays) Affiliation Faction(s) Starwind Eclipse Syndicate, 13th Roving Line, Rebel Alliance (loosely affiliated)

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"I'm disappointed Teral. After all your humiliations, I expected your masters would send a proper fleet officer out here, not an illegitimate, rimrunning monkey-lizard like yourself."

— Captain Ulin'Dran Dree to Imperial Captain Jarek Teral moments before the Imperial's Star Destroyer is destroyed by a hyperspace reversion collision with a Black Sun Frigate.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Smuggler's Moon 3 Escape Artist 4 On the Run 5 Rebel Sympathies 6 The Discovery 7 Intergalactic Battle 8 Rebel Supplier 9 Personality 10 Ships of the SES 11 Behind the Scenes

Early Life

The Twi'lek known as Ulin'Dran Dree has had a checkered and mysterious past. Born on Coruscant, he has always had a "cosmopolitan" view of the galaxy. During the clone wars, he split his time between his parents. His early years, spent with his mother, a stylish Coruscanti courtesan, were quite dull to the adventurous Uli. When he was seventeen, he ran away with his smuggler father, seeing the galaxy aboard a dilapidated old GR-75 Gallofree transport, The Quantum Storm.

Several years before the Battle of Yavin his father ran afoul of the Zann consortium. Catching up with the small-time smuggler at Chalmun's Cantina at Mos Eisley, the thugs murdered the unfortunate Twi'lek. Overcome with anger, the young Ulin'dran joined the Black Sun criminal syndicate, a direct competitor with Zann. Using his charm, technical prowess, and uncanny luck, Ulin’dran ascended in the ranks of the Black Sun, constantly keeping his sharp ears tuned to any clues as to the location of his father's murderers.

In the meantime, the industrious young smuggler became quite adept at parlaying information collected on his hunt for credits and favors. He soon became the primary information broker for his friend and Vigo, the human known only as Green.

Smuggler's Moon

Despite Ulin'dran's indispensable intelligence work and defense of the smuggler’s moon, Green's rackets were not seen as sufficiently profitable by the new head of the Black Sun, Prince Xizor. The human counseled the Twi'lek of the dangers of getting too entrenched in the changing Black Sun organization, and warned him against rising farther in the ranks. Having grown weary of working for individuals such as Durga the Hutt and Xizor, Ulin'dran began making plans for his "disappearance." Unfortunately, Xizor moved first, executing Green, and the human’s entire network of spies (save Ulin’dran himself who escaped to Nar Shaddaa).

Ulin'dran spent some time as a small time smuggler working out of Nar Shaddaa, keeping a relatively low profile, but his was a naturally gregarious personality, and he soon found himself acquiring a loyal band of colleagues. One of these was his brilliant and beautiful [Arkanian] lieutenant, Naia Zen. With his leadership and charm and her analysis and intellect, the Starwind Eclipse Syndicate was born. The two hired a skilled crew to man the Quantum Storm, and began using their contacts to ferret out information to sell to the highest bidders.

It was during this time that Ulin’dran discovered information that indicated the Empire had plans for destroying the smuggler’s moon. Using his contacts on the smuggler’s moon and within the Black sun, he helped organize a hastily planned defense, working with freelance smugglers such as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian.

Escape Artist

The high profile as a hero of Nar Shaddaa came with a price. Soon every bounty hunter with a Black Sun patron came calling. With his home becoming ever more dangerous, Ulin'dran and the crew of the Storm slipped away from the smuggler's moon.

On the Run

With Black Sun agents and bounty hunters after him, as well as Imperial captains eager to bring him to justice, Ulin'dran was constantly on the move. During the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin, he consistently tangled with Black Sun Vigos, Bounty Hunters and Imperial authorities. One such Imperial, was Captain Jarek Teral. Teral had been an officer on an Imperial Dreadnaught during the Battle of Nar Shaadaa. Many of his comrades died in the fighting. Upon receiving the commission of his own Star Destroyer, he dedicated his life to hunting down the perpetrators of that fateful battle. One such criminal was Ulin'dran Dree.

Despite his carefully laid traps and impressive firepower, the elusive Twi'lek always seemed to slip through his fingers. In 1BBY, working with the disgusting Durga the Hutt he set a trap for the Quantum Storm. Durga, who Ulin'dran correctly surmised had just joined the Black Sun, was to meet with the Twi'lek to purchase some information regarding the death of his parent. Durga deftly set up the meeting place in an area of space that had but one safe hyperspace corridor. When the Storm arrived, the Star Destroyer Obilterator jumped in to snare the unsuspecting prey. However, Ulin'dran, anticipating the trap, immediately jumped along the Polis Massa hyperlane, reverting to real space at the asteroid field with the Star Destroyer right behind. Unable to maneuver to a position to jump to lightspeed, the Storm moved deeper within the Polis Massa revision corridor, a safe zone between asteroid gravitational fields where ships were pulled safely out of hyperspace. Knowing that the nearest Blacksun vessel in the sector was at Circarpacious IV, and calculating that Durga, eager to collect Ulin'dran himself, would send that ship to Polis Massa, Ulin'dran goaded the Imperial captain deeper into the reversion corridor. Just as the captain was about to open fire, the Black Sun Crusader-class corvette reverted to realspace, colliding with the Star Destroyer's command tower, killing Captain Teral, and allowing the Quantum Storm to escape into hyperspace.

Rebel Sympathies

With no love for the Empire, the wily Twi'lek often sold information to Rebel Agents, but he did not let his personal bias get in the way of his business sense. He soon amassed a small fortune as a "military advisor," and undercover agent. In 0BBY he infiltrated the Santhe/Sienar Technologies mainframe from the personal quarters of Lady Valles Santhe, whose granddaughter, Lady Miri Santhe, he had charmed. The information he retrieved allowed the Rebel Alliance much needed insight into Imperial research and development and information regarding regional fleet deployment.

The Discovery

In 1.3 ABY he was contracted to transport an element of Shadow Squadron pilots to Naboo to infiltrate the Royal Naboo Aerospace Museum and steal two restored ARC-170 fighters. While on Naboo, the information broker discovered the existence of an alien vessel in Imperial possession, and he managed to obtain the specifications of the strange organic fighter, while a commando team of SES members destroyed the alien ship. When the infiltration team made their escape, he explained the information he had obtained and the importance of getting it to Alliance command.

The Quantum Storm blasted out of Theed and evaded a [Victory-class Star Destroyer] as it rendezvoused with Alliance High Command on Derra IV. There they learned the location of the new Alliance base, accompanying High Command to Hoth. On the ice world, Shadow squadron briefed Command on the information found on Theed, while Ulin'dran attempted to sell the full specs of the alien vessel. Both approaches were unsuccessful in moving command to action as they were focussed on getting Echo Base secure and assembling the full command staff. They had their hands full with the Empire, and were not interested in rumors from the Unknown Region.

Moreover, Command originally ordered Ulin'dran and his crew detained, as their release would prove to be a security risk to the Alliance. Only after much assurances by Pa-hon Gin and his task force, was the crew of the Quantum Storm allowed to leave, and then only after signing an exclusivity pact with the Rebel Alliance and traveling with Shadow squadron to the Unknown Regions to guide the 13th back home.

Intergalactic Battle

Shadow Squadron, and the SES located the 13th just in time to assist them in a three way battle between an Imperial Task Force, the 13th, and an alien force utilizing technology similar to the information stolen from Theed. During the battle, the Storm collected as much data as possible on the strange technology.

During the battle, the typically unflappable Ulin'dran was moved to tears at the sacrifice of Feye Ghast as she rammed the Viper's Nest into the alien infested Praetor-Class battlecruiser. He vowed to take care of her employees if possible.

After the battle, the fleet, towing a massive reactor salvaged from the battlecruiser, returned to Hoth, where the Alliance Corps of Engineers, under the command of Major Kem Monnon,went to work installing the huge reactor groundside.

Rebel Supplier

For the next year, Ulin'dran would continue to expand the SES, taking in elements of the Sand Vipers, and their splinter group, the Red Nebula Corsairs. Allying himself with the pirate pilot and former Lieutenant of the Sand Vipers, Sigfryd Starfang, he fielded a large and diverse organization that scattered throughout the galaxy, bringing information and valuable resources to the Quantum Storm. Ulin'dran then filtered these valuable commodities back to Alliance Command. Though he remained nominally independent, he became a vital intelligence and requisitions officer in the Alliance. He was personally responsible for the purchase of a majority of the GR-75 transports used to supply the Rebel base.

In 3 ABY, Ulin'dran and the SES were caught on the ground as the Imperials attacked. In order to relay as much data as possible back to command, the Quantum Storm was the first transport to brave the Imperial blockade. With help from the massive v-150 Planet Defender ion cannon, the Storm slipped past the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Tyrant carrying many non combat staff and vital data to safety.

Ulin'dran currently acts as a Rebel informant and supplier, expanding his network of operatives throughout the galaxy. In what little spare time he has, Ulin'dran devotes as much SES resources as possible to the threat that looms in the Unknown Regions.

Personality

Ulin'dran was a study in contrasts. Early in his career, he maintained two distinct persona that he used depending on the situation. As his Vic Starwind persona, he was brash, flamboyant, energetic, and utterly charming, able to put almost any sentient at ease with his personable demeanor. Few who did not know him, guessed this Twi'lek was the same individual as the silent, brooding, ruthless Dorian Dree, a smuggler, thief, and cold information broker who haunted the seedier districts of almost any major metropolis across the galaxy.

The true Ulin'dran lied somewhere in between, yet few ever saw the man behind the many masks. A natural showman, Ulin'dran had a flare for the dramatic, enjoyed the manipulative arts of charm and seduction, but also carried with him the bitterness that was a remnant of being cast to the fringes of society as an alien child on Coruscant and losing his father to violence at a young age. His stoic, cold Dorian Dree persona was likely a constructed coping mechanism for dealing with the realities of the heartless world of smugglers and scoundrels he has existed in since he was seventeen years old.

As he aged, the lines between the two conflicting aspects continued to blur. In his time with the Rebel Alliance, he learned to live as Ulin'dran Dree, soldier, spy, pilot, and entrepreneur extraordinaire.

Ships of the SES

The Quantum Storm

The Starwind Seraph

The Solarian Zephyr

The Chir'jabril

Behind the Scenes

The character of Ulin'dran Dree was created for the Novella Out of the Shadows and the short story collection Tales from the Outer Rim and is based on character found on the Ahazi, Valcyn and Starsider Galaxies in Star Wars Galaxies.