Vilhe Stiles

Born during a period of expansion into the galaxy to a military family, on board the CMS *Torn Half* during routine patrols along the Vorsaat borders. His parents were not married, nor had any interest in being tied down to each other, but agreed to each help support their son and set him up on a Station in the Libtly System, Libtly Locus 3, which was close to where the *Torn Half* was on active duty. Thus every time the *Torn Half* came in for repairs and resupply, they could visit their son.

Being raised by military Locus personnel and the occasional visit by his parents left Vilhe a very quiet boy. Thoughtful, and with good natural reflexes which led him to an early sports career, but Vilhe was always the quiet kid in the back that others avoided or made fun of. Those who did bother to interact with him found him to be very perceptive, and a loyal friend.

Both of his parents were killed when the *Torn Half* was destroyed in an extended siege of one of the Vorsaat rim worlds. His caretakers on board Libtly Locus 3 were worried this would destroy the young teenager's emotional stability, but he was surprisingly unfazed by it all. Being born and raised in the military had given him a fairly simple perspective on things, and he'd always known it was a possibility. To the point, Vilhe ended up enlisting within the month, wanting to serve on a ship to do his part in keeping threats as far away from the core systems as possible.

Vilhe breezed through the Academy at Charon. While not on the Officer's Track, his scores were exceptional and he got along well with his instructors. The Academy was the first place where Vilhe started to really open up to others, as the presence of so many like-minded people helped him to start forming real friendships with others, including an older girl serving there, Eressa. She was on the Officer's Track, and struggling with it, but he was there for her and encouraged her every step of the way. The two grew quite close.

Graduating with flying colors, he was immediately assigned to the CMS *Leander,* the Sector Flagship of Sector 9 at the time. He served as a gunneryman with distinction, being notable for having exceptional accuracy rating and being highly sought out by captains for his skill, though he remained loyal to the *Leander*.

As the years pushed on he and Eressa had grown even closer, despite different postings, and eventually tied the knot. Not too long after, Eressa was pregnant with their daughter, Lessa. Vilhe and Eressa both firmly agreed that Lessa should be born and raised planetside, and so Eressa gave birth to Lessa Stiles, on Vilarus Prime in Sector 18, Eressa's homeworld.

Eressa's career had just started taking off, and she was close to gaining captaincy of her own, so the two agreed that Vilhe would be the one to take an extended leave of absence to raise their daughter. Though, unfortunately, thanks to the Onurian Border Wars growing into a larger and larger problem at the time, Vilhe ended up being re-activated, and was only able to come back on brief occasions to see to his daughter.

By the time the Border Wars died down, Lessa was a teenager. He was exceptionally proud of her when she made the decision to enlist in the Concordat Navy and supported her fully the entire time. Vilhe actually took reduced pay for a considerable period of time willingly, the extra funds being diverted to his daughter's salary. This extra bit helped her tremendously in getting herself established and having opportunities to explore what she really wanted to do with her life, both at home and at the Academy.

The CMS *Leander* ended up being reassigned to patrol duty as the Vorsaat skirmishes were heating up, which stifled Vilhe's career considerably, as there wasn't much room for promotion or advancement on peacetime duty. Vilhe talked over with his wife about the possibility of transfer to more active duty, but she was already a Commander at this point in time and so the two mutually decided he would stay on peacetime duty for the time being.