Ric "Blade" Hunter

DC-15x
Production information
Manufacturer:	BlasTech Industries
Model:	Redeemer
Type:	Sniper Rifle
Technical specifications
Capacity:	6 shots per charge
Range:	Long range
[ Source ]

Ric "Blade" Hunter is the Aedile of House Dorimad Sol of Clan Scholae Palatinae .

Character History

Early Life

As a child, Ric would listen to his father talk about the exploits from his days as an

officer serving in the Clone Wars. He would tell tales of vast battles of huge ships in

space, of flying a small fighter into the fray and coming out on the other side. He would

also tell of action on the ground, being a part of several of the more famous battles that

the instructors only knew of from books. These tales left an impression on the small boy

and he never forgot them. Although he would spin yarns of knights fighting the evil droid

armies of the Separatists, he would almost never mention the Jedi who had been made into

Generals for the fledgling Grand Army of the Republic. The subject seemed to darken his

mood and he would withdraw into himself as if it was like a wound that had never healed.

Ric never understood the reasons behind why until years later, long after his father was

dead.

The mere thought of being a Hero, flying through space in a small fighter, and winning in

the end had stuck with the small boy for years and he vowed that one day he would do such

things. For most of the rest of his childhood, Ric focused on the skills that would make him

a warrior, whether it was martial arts at the local gym or testing his reflexes at the

entertainment district. He had a goal and would stop at nothing to get it.

When Ric turned eighteen standard years of age, he enlisted in the Imperial Navy as a pilot

candidate. He had a lot of experience flying small craft in atmo but had never flown into

space before. As he returned home to his family after enlisting and broke the news to them,

his father closed his eyes and put his head down. Ric left the next day without his father

ever speaking to him.

The shuttle took him to pilot training at Prefsbelt IV Naval Academy. He arrived and began

the two year long introduction to the Imperial Navy.

Soon after Ric gradutated from the academy, he was stationed on board the Star Destroyer,

Accuser. This Mark I Destroyer was modified to act as a fast reaction force to try and

interdict pirate and repel rebels from convoy attacks. Ric was serving on this ship when it

was ordered to Endor. During the three years that he had served as squadron executive

officer, he had learned to fly every ship in the Imperial arsenal. He had also studied

tactics of not only Imperial origin but rebel and pirate as well. His Wing Commnader

informed him that the next combat command that opened was his for the taking and he pinned

captain rank to his chest.

The days of waiting were wearing everyone down. There was no news from command about their

mission but it had to be something big. Ric would take at least one patrol a day, even if

he had to volunteer for them. Anything to kill the boredom. As his flight would circle the

fleet, he was in awe of the massive amount of firepower that floated there. To be honest,

they paled in comparison to the station that orbited the moon.

It seemed to be just another day when the alarms began to sound. Every pilot in the fleet

scrambled to their ships. It seemed that the rebels had bought their fleet in with the

intention of destroying the new battle station. Ric jumped into his ship and lead his

squadmates into the void. Once the enemy fleet figured out hat the shield was still up and

the main gun was operational, they engaged the fleet at point blank range. It seemed to be

an almost turkey shoot for the vast Imperial fleet sitting there. Ship after ship went down

in flames and Ric saw on his tactical display that there were thousands of emergency

beacons from both Imperial and Rebel pilots.

With a sudden shock, his ship bounced sideways. It took him just a quick second to realize

that he had been grazed by a turbolaser from the Mon Cal cruiser to his left. If he'd been

more than grazed, he'd never even known it. He limped his small craft back into the hanger

of the Accuser and jumped out. The Crew chief was trying to maintain order but the battle

had turned somehow to the enemies favor. Ric looked up as the Executor made its dive into

the surface of the Death Star. He looked around for another ship, anything to get back out

there and hit back. The visions of his youth were floating into his head and he felt as if

he could highhandedly turn the tide back to their favor. He spotted a Assault Gunboat on

the far side of the hanger and climbed inside. This was the tricked out version with

shields and a small hyperdrive.

As he made ready to launch, a sudden shooting pain shot into his head. He doubled over in

the seat and tried not to throw up. It was if someone had stabbed him through his brain

with a vibroblade and twisted it. Almost as soon as the pain had started, it went away. He

later found out that he had felt the Emperor die at that moment. He felt the same thing but

many times over a few moments later when he watched as the Death Star itself became one

with the universe. His mind was in a daze and he was now acting on instinct, he set a

course into the navicomp and made an almost blind jump away from the chaos behind.

After a few months, Ric made his way back home to Corellia. His family still lived in the

same small town on the outside of Coronet City and he needed to be there. When he got

there, he found the house empty of any living inhabitants. His family had just seemed to

vanish. After some investigation, he found out that his father had died and his mother had

taken his little sister and brother back to her families home on Naboo. It was such a

distance that he knew that he would never make it there in the small ship he had now. He

decided to head towards Wildspace to hide for a while. He was now considered a deserter

and knew that he could never got back to the Empire.

Ric took on work as a bounty hunter, a mercenary as well as a pilot during his time in

Wildspace. He gained a reputation of always following through on the job, no matter what it

might have been. Doing this had gained him a fair share of enemies as well. One such enemy

was a Hutt named Jogan. This Hutt blamed him for a cargo his competitor had stolen and

hired Ric to fly to a small base. The cargo was on board a small yt-1300 and the first time

Ric saw it, he had bargained with the man that it would serve as his payment. The man

agreed and Ric and his Copilot had boarded the ship and got away with it. The Hutt sent a

small fleet of fighters up after them and they dogged their tail all the way to the Minos

Cluster.

Things were looking bad for Ric and his crew. The fighters were gaining on them and

pounding their shields down. The navicomp could not set a course because of the gravity

wells in the area and was next to useless. Ric spun the ship around and planned to engage

the fighters with the concussion missiles located in the mandibles when the first craft

exploded into a fireball. It was soon followed by many others.

A small patrol of Firesprays from the Star Destroyer Intrepid had stumbled across the fight

and decided to intervene. Ric was overwhelmed with relief yet filled with dread. He hoped

that they didn't have any warrants out for him being a deserter.

The Emperor's Hammer

The force turned out to be a part of the Emperors Hammer, a small force of Imperial

Holdouts on this side of the Galaxy. After a while, Ric signed up in their TIE Corps and

became a member of the squadron that had saved him. Ric stayed in Cobra squadron and rose

to the job of Squadron Commander. It was also here that he had received a message from his

mother and requested him to return home. He went and it was there that he learned that his

father had not only been a soldier in the Clone Wars, but had been a Jedi as well. This

information had finally unlocked the mystery of his fast reflexes, his ability to see

things as well as why he had almost had his brain fried at Endor. The overwhelming force

release of first the Emperor and then the crew of the station had been too much for his

untrained mind to handle.

With this information he was sent to the moon of Eos to train as a Dark Jedi. He went

through the academy there and went to Ektrosis of Taldryan to further continue his studies.

It was under the instruction of his master, Krath Priestess Bubbles that he learned the

ways of cloning. This was knowledge that he would have a great use for over the years.

After completing his training and attaining the rank of Dark Jedi Knight, Ric returned the

the Intrepid to continue his duties as Commander. Ric led many missions against the enemy

and on returning from a large operation, was surprised to find as ships were landing, the

pilots who were Dark Jedi were all ushered to the briefing room. On the main viewer, a

message played from the Fleet Commander followed by an excerpt from the Dark Council.

A massive exodus of Dark Jedi were leaving territory controlled by the Emperors Hammer.

They had become dissatisfied with the power play in the Command Staff and had decided to

depart. The Dark Jedi who left were declared traitors and had bounties placed on their

heads. There were many who made tough choices whether to stay or leave with the clans. Ric

chose to stay.

Not long after settling in the Taruma system, it was decided by the summit to create clones

to replace some of the losses during the exodus. Most of the members of Ektrosis had DNA

samples on file in the databases and it was a simple task to grow them. As a bonus, members

of the summit also had memory downloads that would be reinserted into the clones minds as

they matured bringing them the level just prior to the Exodus. One of these members was Ric

as he had been a Tetrarch and had access to the equipment.

As his clone grew and matured, Ric had begun serving in Praetorian Squadron, the

Intelligence Divisions Elite squadron. He went on many missions there and did a two year

stint as the Commander and gaining the rank of General. The years went by and they started

to take their toll on Ric. He moved up in the new Brotherhood that the Emperors Hammer had

set up to try and gain more Force Users and reached the apex of the cult as Grandmaster.

It was during this time that Ric grew discontent with the leadership of the EH and decided

to set up an exit strategy. He had already made contacts in Wildspace and had a few in the

New Republic thanks to his time with the Intel Division. He planned to make use of these

contacts and retire to some out of the way planet. He knew that he would need more funds as

his accounts had been frozen by the petty dictator Grand Asshole Assanine. Ric made his way

to the abandoned Ektrosis base and gathered up a few items he felt he would need. He loaded

them onto the YT-1300, the Holdout, and launched for orbit.

Something pulled him to the mothball fleet at anchor. The Intrepid had been placed here

after a downsizing of the fleet and felt the need to end his career where it had began. He

did a manual landing in the hanger and entered the ship. It was a deserted ghost compared

to his memories of her. After pausing at his former quarters, he made his way to the

bridge.

It was there, staring out of the forward view point that he saw him. Clothed in a black

flight suit with no insignia stood his much younger and stronger clone. After a brief

exchange, the two men to battled, a battle that only one of them would walk away from.

The Dark Jedi Brotherhood

It was never clear exactly who had won, the only thing that was certain that a man that

matched his description down to the genetic coding, left the hanger bay of the Intrepid and

launched for Taruma space. Although the original man had never been to Taruma, his contacts

in the Dark Brotherhood had kept him up to date on his former clan. He made his way back to

find that they had left a skeleton crew to guard the system and had left to engage the

Vong.

He took a fast transport from Taruma and made his way to the Shroud where the battle was

going on. From the reports he had read said, they had engaged the Vong and the Vong had

driven the brotherhood from the Capitol worlds in the Antei system. They had also driven

clan Arcona from their homes, which in the overall scheme of things was no big loss.

After that, Ric returned to his house on Taruma and took to calling himself Blade again. He

continued his training but soon grew unhappy. He decided to seek different training and was

soon in the Cocytus system, the home of Scholae Palatinae. He entered house Caliburnus in

time for the Reclamation action, reclaiming the CSP worlds from the Vong Invaders. After a

short stay in Caliburnus, he ended up in Dorimad Sol as the Aedile.

Soon, Ric stepped down to focus more on his studies of Cloning as well as other ventures.

One of these ventures was commissioned by his clan summit and it involved surveying the

system to see what had changed since the Vong had arrived.

One of his other endeavors has been to develop new weapons for the legions, weapons such as

the MAAT/i. The Multi Altitude Assault Transport for Infantry was based on the design for

the LAAT/i of Clone Wars fame. The MAAT/i was designed for insertion from orbit and ship to

ship actions. This would allow the transport ships to stay above the planetary dangers

while still delivering troopers to target zones. This advancement as well as new tactics

earned Ric a spot on the Military High Command as the Marshal in Command of the Marine

forces. Ric took the job very seriously and helped to train the Marines into the elite

force that they are currently in.

A New Era

Once more, Ric was asked to take a position in the house summit when he was offered the

Aediles office. He accepted as he felt that it would benefit the house in the upcoming war

to retake Antei. He did what he could to prepare the house as well as others in the clan.

On a side note, those that know Ric swear that he is older than he looks. What they have

yet to realize is that he has a small cloning facility set up in the frozen wastes of

Caina. Once his clone ages or is damaged, he activates a new body complete with his most

recent memories.

Trivia

Ric leads the Clan Marine Corps, serving as a High General. He is anxious to let his marines loose on some unsuspecting Vong, if they are ever foolish enough to try and challenge CSP in their home again.

Blade was a former Tetrarch in Ektrosis, running Hex, Phoenix and Horsemen of the Apocalypse at different times. He wears the Phoenix tattoo that marks his position and wears the medallion he earned.

These days, Blade spends his time as a weapons designer, creating new ships and lightsabers.

Blade was also a former Grandmaster from the other club, the EHDB, as well as the last EHDB Sith High Warrior.

Blade is responsible for most of the images of Caina and Judecca. He has been working on that project from the time he entered the clan until now.

Blade won the CSP Oscar for Graphic Arts in 2008 with 10 votes. He also got the most votes of anyone in any category.