(Archived) Khada Aran

## Khada Aran

> "*Will killing them bring my people back? No. Does the spilling of Imperial blood make me feel any better about myself? No. Is it worth it to be marked a terrorist for making moves to crumble a dictatorship bent on hurting its people? You're damn right it is.*"
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> - Khada Aran's thoughts on his actions against the Empire
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## Early life

Born into a life of obscurity on the planet Corellia, Khada Aran had a knack of going about unnoticed. His father and mother couldn't care less about their son, and spent more time gambling and plunging themselves into a life of unrecoverable debt. This wasn't to say that Khada really felt any connection with his parents, nor any other person on the planet, so when he finally departed from the planet on a cargo freighter at the age of fifteen, he simply shrugged off the blood that birthed him, watching through vacant eyes, the Imperial shipyards and industrial masses of what he once called his home drift ever further.

The Captain of the ship he had boarded noticed Khada almost immediately, a rare occurence for him, and simply offered him food and work. For eight years, Khada assisted an aging veteran of the Clone Wars in smuggling, bounty collecting, and general debauchery. The man taught the boy more in the span of two months than he had learned in his fifteen years of life, and he clung to the knowledge of the art of smuggling, trade routes, the cleanest way to kill a man, and so on and so forth. Khada found a fatherly figure in a man that appeared to be almost four times his age, and would do anything to protect and assist him.

## A Thriving Business

On Khada's twenty-first birthday, his mentor gifted him something he'd prize for as long as it existed: an XS light freighter, so badly beaten that it would take months to repair to full operational capacity. With this gift, Khada learned the ins and outs of ship maintainance and modification, as well as an outlet to hone his piloting skills once it had the wings to fly once again. Working on the ship with his mentor at his side further deepened their connection, and the old veteran truly felt Khada to be the son he never knew that he wanted. Once the repairs had been completed, the two would set out to rake in credits at double the rate, and enjoy rewards they had never experienced before. Khada grew to enjoy the purchase of expensive pieces of art and designer clothing, making many commissions for coats and hats. Especially hats.

A business opportunity presented itself two years later when a young woman, a smuggler with an ego as big as Hoth is cold, joined the group as another source of income. In a negotiated three way split, the trio became a small business that stemmed into three branches. The old man would handle contact and contract management, the girl would run supplies and other 'exotic' goods, and Khada would execute bounty contracts. Moving away from the standard of smuggling changed Khada, for better or worse, as he became deadly efficient with the pair of DE-10 blasters that he was given by his mentor near the beginning of their companionship, though his kills would always be accompanied by a 'calling card' of sorts, whether it be a flower clutched between the stiff hands of a cadaver, or a small mural of blood and blaster marks on the walls of the bounty's home. This brought mixed feelings to many of his contractors, as everyone he killed was a seriously huge dick, but they were a bit creeped out by his methods.

These traits slowed dramatically as time progressed, and he put his artistic work into painting the interior of his ship, reading novels, studying pieces, writing screenplays of things he simply thought of when he was bored, or the courting of the third Musketeer of their leadership. As the business expanded, the original three acted as executives of each branch, each doing their own share of grunt work, but substantially less than they were used to. This gave Khada time to practice his pick up lines, his demeanor around polite company, and his \*ahem\* stroke game. The two became infatuated with each other, and they ran a steady relationship for years.

## Winds of Change

Five years in, the love of his life announced that they were expecting. The same day as that announcement, however, would bear much darker fruit. On this day, the entirety of their entourage would be assisting with a heavy shipment of supplies to an insurgent cell, the transaction occurring in the dunes of Tattooine. For the most part, everything went according to plan, though nobody was counting on three of the insurgent cell being Imperial spies, nor were they counting on the mass of Imperial forces converging on them all at once, NOR were they considering that the insurgents would be 'shoot first and ask no questions' kind of people, which led to the Imperials firing indiscriminately into the two parties. The resulting firefight would receive heavy reinforcements after our trifecta of heroes and their trusty crew display their combat effectiveness, and in an act of desperation, the Imperial Navy would send bombers to cause as much damage as possible. The initial bombing run killed not only every insurgent in the cell, but every one of their crew members, and the mother of his unborn child. The old man and the boy escape once more, retreating to Nar Shadda as they had done before, with the old man giving one last piece of advice, one more gift, and a loving embrace to the boy he helped raise, before succumbing to his wounds and passing away.

## Present Day

With Khada's prized ship, his trusted crew, his loving father figure, and the love of his life all ashes in the wind, the burning hatred for the Empire remains. For the past five years, Imperials have marked him as a terrorist, and his acts of destruction only do little to soothe the pain of his emotional scars. His 'artistic' displays apparently caught the attention of the Rebellion, who he began working with in their shared goal of the destruction of this dictatorial state, responsible for the losses he suffered.

He now works alongside Seraph Cell as a gunslinger, smuggler, tertiary pilot, and a leadership figure when needed.