Application for Samantha Shepard

[Samantha Shepard]

Name: Samantha Shepard
Age: 29
Species: Human
Faction: Alliance of Free Planets
Occupation: SpecForce team leader, starship captain
Force Sensitivity: No
Description:
Summarized Biography:
Samantha Shepard was born in on 17:3:26 to Aqeb and Hana Shepard aboard a deep space medical station. Aqeb was a former Judicial pilot, transferred to the Imperial Survey Corps a year before when the New Order was declared, while Hana was a former cruiser captain, mainly tasked with troop convoy escort to the frontlines and evacuating the wounded to the rear during the Clone Wars. Aqeb's duties resulted in long absences from his family, which put considerable strain on the marriage. Aqeb and Hana divorced in 21.

Hana moved around the Outer Rim with Samantha, from duty posting to duty posting, but quickly found herself growing disaffected with the Empire's increasingly heavy-handed tactics... as well as rumors of the Empire using slaves. When a slaver she detained was released on orders from higher authorities, she was forced to accept that the Empire had become hopelessly corrupt. She quietly resigned, hiding her reasoning, but Shepard's file was marked by ISB. Forced on the run, she made a living as a mercenary naval officer in various corporate security fleets, until the Imperial authorities would inevitably discover the politically-liable officer and apply pressure to have her removed. Samantha was by her side at every base, ship, and station and, protected from the truth by youth and a diplomatic mother, quickly became enamored of the life of a spacer.
In 33, two months after Samantha’s sixteenth birthday, the galaxy was rocked when several prominent Senators and political leaders made the Declaration of Rebellion. As the harassment of the Imperial Security Bureau turned to pursuit, Hana decided the only place of relative safety would be with the new political movement. With her naval experience, she quickly found herself a captaincy, running escort missions.
Sam began doing small jobs for the Alliance, first helping out on her mother’s ship, driving cargo and personnel around the hangar bays of bulk cruisers. She was promptly transferred off this duty after a series of reckless driving incidents, but SpecForce troopers took a liking to the determined young girl and began teaching her martial skills. The first time Hana found her daughter using a blaster rifle on a makeshift range, she was horrified, but when the SpecOps team leader showed Sam’s natural aptitude with weaponry, and pointed out that she was far from the youngest volunteer in the struggling Alliance. Hana reluctantly gave her blessing, and Sam began training in earnest.

The war began to intensify, and Samantha formally enlisted in the Alliance forces. During a mission to Reytha to raid food supplies, her scouting team was cut off and her sergeant was killed in an Imperial ambush. When the inexperienced Bothan corporal froze, Samantha took charge and, leading from the front, the team assaulted a squad of Stormtroopers with an AT-PT as support. It required every grenade the squad had, and saw Sam snatching weapons off fallen Imperials and trying to shoot out the viewport on the walker, but the Rebels ultimately prevailed with the survivors sustaining little worse minor grazes. She later credited the corporal in her report, but the rest of the squad recognized her leadership. She was recommended for officer training, and eventually for SpecOps training.

Three years later, almost-22 year-old Ensign Shepard was part of a dispersed diversionary force, intended to force the Empire to deploy its fleet across the Galaxy as the Alliance concentrated at Sullust. When the news came of the Death Star’s destruction, Shepard exulted with her fellows, believing the Empire had been decapitated. Palpatine’s survival came as a blow, but the cracks in the Empire were starting to show. A few months of brutal liberation operations wore on the young officer, but also earned her respect in the Special Forces unit. She was recommended again for advanced training, but opted to take shore leave with her unit on Zeltros.

The Battle of Zeltros began on 10:35, in the pre-dawn hours by capital time, when warlord-backed slavers and mercenary pirates descended on the Alliance-aligned world. The hope had been to strike a psychological blow, as well as secure much-needed funding from slave auctions and looting of the Zeltrons’ technological exports. While the Alliance fleet blasted away at enemy vessels, assault pods, dropships, and shuttles raced to the surface with raiding parties. Shepard was in a small village 100 kilometers south of the capital and helped organize a defense. When determined assaults smashed through the defenses, Shepard lead the raiders into a series of ambushes and traps to winnow their numbers. In between were no small number of running gun battles, with Shepard suffering several serious wounds. Eventually, the breach in the defenses was sealed and the pirates were forced to surrender.

In recognition, Shepard was promoted and decorated with the Corellian Cross. After her recovery, she began cross-training with SpecForce SpaceOps. Graduating with the highest distinction, she conducted operations against the Empire and the warlords. In 43, she was reunited with her father, who had defected to the Alliance after Alderaan was destroyed and contributed his knowledge of distantly surveyed systems to find boltholes and backwaters for bases. Though Samantha was initially hopeful that her family being united in common cause might lead to a more personal reunion, both parents had long since made peace with the dissolution of their relationship.

Two years later, Shepard was attached to a secretive project in the Alliance Navy: a ship suited for special operations throughout the Galaxy. The ship, however, was not ready for deployment when Admiral Nammo made his assault down the Perlemian. Hana was part of the task force, serving as executive officer on one of the few Alliance ships to survive the battle, the Bulwark-class battlecruiser Parapet, and was wounded in action.
The political fallout of the battle impacted the special operations ship, and forced an early deployment…

[The Living Force]

Application approved.