Admiral Trench (RP)

## Admiral Trench

**Trench** was a Harch admiral employed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Known for surviving multiple presumed death, he was particularly sturdy, making him a feared naval commander. Hailing from Secundus Ando, Trench made a name for himself defending his homeplanet against raiders from the free colonies. The war was led so ruthlessly that the Republic was forced to intervene, demilitarizing the Andoans, and radicilaizing Trench in doing so. Soon after his homeworld seceded, he proceded to fight for the Corporate Alliance. After a presumed death during the assault on Malastare, he resurfaced in the blockade of Christophsis, serving the Separatists. Despite his ship being blown up, he survived once more, and continued to serve the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

## Biography

### Background

Admiral Trench embodied the Harch species—long-lived, aggressive, and tough. Well into his second century by the time of the Clone Wars, this veteran of countless conflicts gave the Separatists much-needed experience in the war against the Republic. Native to Secundus Ando, the Harch are distant cousins to the Aqualish species, with the relationship between them and the Ualaq subspecies the subject of much debate among geneticists. (The Harch consider such inquiries obscene.)

The history of the Aqualish and the Andoan worlds—known among the Harch and some Ualaq as the Spiverelda—is long, bloody, and turbulent; at various points the Harch have served as the Spiverelda’s despotic rulers, led the region from behind the scenes as wily advisers, and been cast down by their subjects. In the last century of the Republic, the Harch ruling nests were firmly allied with Ando in its struggle against the Andoan Free Colonies.

Trench made a name for himself during that struggle, defending Secundus Ando against raiders from the Free Colonies and leading counter-raids up the Horos Spine to Andosha. During the Andoan Wars of 57–39 BBY he emerged as Ando’s greatest military leader “esting the Free Forces at Arbular, Horos, and finally the decisive Battle of Raquish in 39 BBY. But Raquish quickly turned into a debacle. The Andoans had all but dismissed the prospect of Republic intervention, certain that Coruscant would confine itself to discussing Andoan demilitarization in committee. But the firepower on display at Raquish—and Trench’s ruthless tactics—convinced the Republic to intervene. The two sides were separated, sparing the Free Colonies, and demilitarization of the sector was enforced by a sizable Judicial fleet.

Seeing victory become defeat radicalized the Andoan leadership and Trench. More than a decade later Ando would become one of the first worlds to secede from the Republic. Trench spent that decade serving the Corporate Alliance. He destroyed pirate bases at Ord Namurt and Engira, seized the Kurosti merchant fleet in a daring raid at Prospera Jang, and in 34 BBY masterminded the Corporate Alliance’s assault on Malastare amid a disagreement about fuel allocations.

The Malastare crisis escalated after the Alliance hired Sikurdian pirates to seize Malastare’s fuel tankers. Trench then gathered a fleet of Alliance Fantail-class destroyers and Sikurdian privateers and blockaded the Malastare Narrows, seeking to force a settlement on the Alliance’s terms. After attempts to find a diplomatic solution failed, Malastare appealed to Supreme Chancellor Valorum to intervene.

Publicly, Valorum demurred. But he also feared that the Alliance might prevail in a shooting war, because the Dustig Sector Forces were weakened by corruption and neglect. Behind the scenes, he cajoled the neighboring Tyus and Var Hagen sectors to support Malastare, funneled credits to the Dugs to hire privateers, and dispatched “military “observers” to the scene—including the Jedi Kep-She and a capable officer named Wullf Yularen, who’d fought Sikurd’s pirates with the Kwymar Sector Forces. In the subsequent confrontation, Trench’s flagship was destroyed and the Alliance forced to retreat, but many ships and lives were lost, and the ensuing scandal embarrassed the already embattled Valorum. (A year later the Trade Federation calibrated its own blockade of a Republic world with the lessons of Malastare firmly in mind.)

The Republic believed Trench was dead, but he managed to survive thanks to a pressure suit of Andoan mineral-fish armor and his own tough Harch hide.

More than a decade later he reappeared, commanding the Separatist blockade of Christophsis from the Invincible. (Though technically classified as a Star Destroyer, the Invincible was billed as a dreadnought, one of the first of a line of scaled-up modifications of the Providence-class carrier/destroyer.) After recognizing Trench’s insignia, Yularen studied everything Republic Intelligence had gathered about Trench’s tactics. That knowledge helped him and Anakin Skywalker outwit the Harch admiral and break the blockade, destroying the Invincible, and presuming Trench dead in doing so. In spite of that, the Admiral lived on, proceeding to serve the Confederacy of Independent Systems and leading many invasions upon enemy worlds.

### Onderon

Having spoken to the queen of Geonosis, Dooku, Kalani and Trench were presented with an ultimatum. They either had to perform a show of power, or risk the Geonosians never turning on their factories again. Deciding to accept it, the three chose Onderon as their prime goal. After all, it was in their best interests to capture the planet for a while, and this was the best opportunity. Showing up at Onderon, Trench and Kalani pushed the Republic Navy presence away, and established a blockade, contesting the planet's surface.

### Conflict with the Eternal Empire

Discovering about the imprisonment of admiral Kayla on an Eternal Empire world, Trench became dissillusioned with the alliance, and his already skeptical view on the Empire turned to hatred, as he believed their actions to be insulting and disrespectful. Approaching the Council with these news, he bargained for their approval, but they responded reluctantly, sending spies to the Corporate Sector instead of sanctioning an all out war. The Harch still believed it to be an inevitability however, and would patiently wait, biding his time.