Damon Vann (Earth-30)

**Damon Vann**, also known as "**Night Pilot 009**" and call-sign "**Midnight**", was a renounced Force-sensitive human male scoundrel who was alive during the Historic Federation era. With his Malorian Arms D4-30 "Overture" blaster pistol, his ship known as The Tribe, and his distinctive right-hand fighting style named Marco (his namesake), An avid smoker, Damon was both well-equipped and cryptic, truly a stranger whose past was shrouded in mystery to even those whom he claims he is close to. He hailed from Mordun and was raised by his uncle, **Tyrell Vann**, after his parents became drug addicts during the end of The Sith Crusade. Tyrell was militant and imprinted that into Damon which led to him joining the reformed Galactic Federation military called WZRD and renouncing The Force. Believing that he was serving the galaxy, Damon became battle-hardened and closed off as a result. He became a highlight of WZRD as a formidable combatant and pilot in an increasingly dangerous galaxy.

Damon made a name for himself on Brando Squadron, becoming Wing Commander after the death of his former Wing Commander & mentor, **Pierre Lanton**. This placed him in the position to join the highly experimental and specialized task force called Dark Squadron which would go on unsanctioned covert ops missions with minimal support from the Galactic Squadron, offering him the rank of Wing Commander. Damon's faith in the system and the work he was doing was shaken during his time with Night Squadron as they were forced to run missions that were considered war crimes. A fellow comrade, **Morgan Akuna**, agreed with Damon but Morgan needed the job to protect his Force-sensitive daughter. Around this time, Damon led Dark Squadron to the planet of Syris IV in order to extract a Federation Officer named **Khan**. However, Damon and Night Squadron discovered that Khan was believed to be killed and that there was a Sith Death Cult on the planet. Damon was forced to fight the Sith Lord, **Mad God** and only survived because of Morgan. When reported, the Galactic Federation agreed to erase Khan's existence from their database and refused Night Squadron from investigating the Sith threat. This further shook Damon's faith in the system, however, this would have unintended consequences.

Khan did not die on Syris IV and took control of the military in the Deep Space region. Under his rule, he waged war against the Galactic Federation which became known as The Deep Space Wars. Damon and Night Squadron fought back against Khan but failed to stop his assault on the Galactic Federation homeworld, **Reve**. During the last leg of the war, Damon and Night Squadron were ordered to begin a bomb strike on the innocent village where Khan was from on the snow planet of Kalrin to draw him out. Sadly, this was the last straw for Damon and he destroyed the Militech Bomber ship, in turn, marooning himself on Kalrin. As he was technically not an official officer of WZRD due to being on Night Squadron, they did not openly hunt him nor could they as he was trained in many of their disappearance ways. As Damon attempted to reach civilization on Kalrin, he was found by the artificial man named Potens who led him to safety. This would begin a friendship between the two.

Damon would contact Morgan a year later, looking for any work. Morgan pointed him in the direction of **Lorane Shid**, leader of The Navigators, a criminal organization of bounty hunters, smugglers, scoundrels, and mercenaries. This began Damon's life as a scoundrel. The two would go on many escapades that involved bounty hunting, raiding WZRD caches, delivering ill-gotten gains, and more. During one of these escapades, Damon and Lorane willingly got themselves arrested in order to get information from a Federation Pilot inside of a Federation prison on Syris IV. It was here that Damon encountered **Korvine Nova** who attempted to recruit Damon to her new Jedi Order, **The Bôa**, sensing that he was a Force-user. After gaining the information, Korvine helped them escape but Damon refused her offer, explaining that he renounced The Force entirely. This would have a large importance on Damon's life later.

Shortly after escaping Syris IV, Damon would deliver fireworks to the Jawa homeworld of Kasit where he would meet a man named **Areus** roaming the desert aimlessly. Feeling bad for the confused individual, Damon and he would have a conversation about The Force and planets. However, they were interrupted by a distress signal and ventured to the planet of Aionios to assist the natives. Much later, Damon would take up a residency of The Navigator's homeworld, Nightly in the New Territories Region. However, one day after coming off of a job, Damon encountered a Saenian assassin named An'eah Dagan and he would save her from Lazarus Galactic Police by fleeing to his ship with her in toe. Whilst fleeing, Damon reencountered the Sith Lord, Mad God who attempted to attack them but Damon flew away before Mad God could strike. Confused as to why Mad God had returned and why the Sith were after them, Damon begrudgingly reached out to Korvine Nova and Damon, with An'eah' chartered a course for The Bôa's headquarters on Jenesis.

## **Attributes**

### **Combat Prowess**

Damon is highly trained in CQC and gunplay. His WZRD training was rigorous, forcing combat deeply into the young Damon. The fighting style they impressed upon him became muscle memory, leaving him with finely tuned skills. This was shown whenever he reversed the hold that An'eah had on him and got a hold of her gun before she realized it. However, his true combat prowess shines whenever he mastered the fighting style during his Dark Squadron days. The style known as **Marco** was originally developed by Brando Squadron leader, Pierre Laton who would go on to teach it only to one other person, Damon. After Pierre's death, Damon would expand on these teachings and create new techniques that would allow him to perform unnatural maneuvers. It was through learning Marco that Damon became an impeccable marksman in nearly all forms of blasters as Marco can be used with any type of blaster.

Beyond this, Damon has showcased an impressive amount of aerial combat. He has 35 confirmed aerial kills and while not known as an Ace pilot, he was highly regarded amongst WZRD ranks. This would unknowingly lead to his desertion from WZRD but they still show many of his dogfights in their training videos. The truest highlight of this was whenever Damon was tasked with creating a flight simulation for WZRD based on one of his missions that was a no-win scenario for incoming cadets. He dubbed it the Kobayashi Maru and it has only been beaten twice, once by Damon himself and by a newer cadet that became part of the squadron he deserted, a Torkeian named Annika Melten. She would later go on to challenge Damon to a secret stun-only dogfight over the planet of Saho. However, the outcome is never revealed.

### **Force Abilities**

Damon's connection to The Force is strong. Upon discovering his abilities, he had shown a high-level of adeptness in what is known as "Force Precognition". While Damon has renounced The Force, he had hoped that it would result in a complete shut off from it. However, this was not the case. During the Dirty Dozen story, Damon was able to use The Force in ways that allowed him to predetermine situations before they happen through The Force, such as being able to tell people to duck before blaster shots rang out or dodge lightsaber swings before the Sith Apprentice - Sabine Lata - was able to attack him. He also sensed the conflict within her and attempted to turn her but failed which forced Damon to take a life for the first time. Being untrained and using The Force sparingly has led to Damon becoming stunted in his growth as he got older. Where others like him such as Korvine Nova and An'eah Dagan - latent as her abilities may be - are adept in using multiple types of The Forces to varying degrees of adeptness.

However, having been stated by Korvine, Hela, and Lorane that Damon's Force Precognition ability - primarily toward oncoming danger - is unparalleled as he has sensed things that others won't until it is either too late or already happening. His ability is so sharp that he subconsciously uses it whenever he pilots his ship such as him being able to determine the right time to enter Hyperspace during a dogfight. However, a good example of this is his first fight with Sith Lord Mad God where he was able to effectively dodge his lightsaber strikes and retaliate with precise blaster shots at Mad God's openings. The most recent example of this is whenever he was on Aionios and encountered a woman which granted him a moment of precognition that gave him a gut feeling that he was right where he was supposed to be.

### **Other Abilities**

Damon is a highlighted and formerly decorated leader and a great planner. This was shown whenever he led both Brandon Squadron and Dark Squadron during his tenure with WZRD. For Brando, he led and completed over 13 successful missions, both of the covert ops and standard variety. However, whenever he ran with Nigh Squadron, he was forced to rely on his strategy and planning more so than his leadership. Dark Squadron was based in strictly covert ops which required Damon to make numerous backup plans for several occasions, coining the phrase, "Prepare for everything, expect nothing" which would go on to become the motto for Dark Squadron, even after his desertion. It was through WZRD (as the recruitment was open to all races), Damon learned several different languages outside of English which is called "Basic" in the galaxy such as binary (the language of the droids), Tork, Scari, and Mord (the native language of his home planet).

## **Equipment**

### **Malorian Arms D4-30 "Overture"**

Damon's blaster is a customized variant of the Malorian Arms D4-30, which was modeled after revolvers. This weapon is a standard issue for all WZRD Pilots and while many others will go on to find different weapons to call their own, Damon simply customized it as he saw fit. However, it was not originally his, to begin with. This weapon was originally the first leader of Brando Squadron, Pierre Laton, who gifted it to Damon upon his death during a mission and he dubbed it "Overture" thereafter (to read this, go up to the history section and read the sub-story underneath Brando Squadron called ***Souvenir***). Regardless, Damon has upgraded many of the capabilities the gun has to compensate for its age such as increasing the energy output to be able to fire through ships that did not have their shields up, adding a spin-reload function to quicken the cool-down process, and chief among them, an overclock function which allows for Damon to fire rapidly for a short period without needing to perform the spin-reload function to cool it down. However, the drawback came from an extended cool-down after overclocking.

### **Katarn Vibroblade**

Having been trained in all manner of combat, Damon has learned how to handle bladed combat to the point that his preferred fighting style is a combination of both a blaster and a blade as mentioned above. This brought Damon to purchase a Vibroblade that can be retracted back into the hilt. The blade itself is incredibly sharp as it uses ultrasonic vibrations to increase cutting effectiveness. However, Damon has altered the hilt of the blade where the actual metal of the blade collapses into. He has changed the collapse feature to be able to be collapsed halfway to make it a dagger, a short sword, or a Xacto knife.

### **WZRD Tactical Jacket**

The typical gear for WZRD combat operatives for both Pilots and Infantry consisted of a highly resistant orange or yellow bomber jacket that housed several different functions. Primary of which was having a series of pockets that allowed for WZRD Operatives to always be prepared in any situation. These pockets housed medical first aid, engineering tools, extra power cells for blasters, and various devices used to make contact with either his ship or others. The jacket was Pierre's and after he died, Damon was given the jacket - along with his blaster - but customized it further. He added a symbol to it and added the word SAMURAI from his native planet of Mordun. He would also dye the jacket brown. The color was yellow because it was a visual representation of the leader of Brando Squadron and Night Squadron while everyone else wore orange. While Damon did become the leader of both squadrons, he dyed it brown to separate himself from that pack as he became disillusioned with WZRD. The jacket is resistant to small caliber blaster bolts and the wear and tear of ground war. However, it can be damaged which has led to Damon fixing it numerous times. However, after deserting WZRD, Damon has been seen wearing the jacket off and on. Instead, he primarily wears his usual clothes.

## Behind The Scenes

The idea behind creating Damon was between Morpheus and NeoFantasy as Morpheus wanted to create a "Clint Eastwood-styled character set in Cyberpunk". However, he wanted to impress the importance of characters like Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and other characters who weren't part of the Jedi Order or the Sith. The idea to have Damon have Force abilities actually came from NeoFantasy who wanted to add more depth to the character as a "simple bounty hunter has stories but a conflicted Clint Eastwood character has mileage" which ultimately, Morpheus agreed with.

The idea of having him be from the military came from the popular video game franchise, Battlefield. Morpheus wanted the character to have experience and training beforehand in order to separate him from other Jedi characters who just discovered they had abilities and went on an adventure like Rey Palpatine and Luke Skywalker. Instead, Damon became a military deserter and a scoundrel who actively denies the Force. However, they all understand that they did not reinvent the wheel when doing this.

The following idea of having Damon have his own fighting style came from Tony and was later expanded on by the video game Jedi Survivor and the Star Wars Legends character, Kyle Katarn. To keep in the theme of "Clint Eastwood", this led to Morpheus creating the fighting style of ***Marco*** which utilizes both blaster and sword and weaved it into the overall narrative of Donuts/Shadows.

Funny enough, the **true** beginnings of Damon can be traced to Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic II as Morpheus was playing the game and named his character Damon Vann which would then spawn the character here.