[hider=Tybren][center][h1][color=488493]Tybren Kelborn[/color][/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/OuN6WG8.png[/img][/center]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Full Name} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Tybren Kelborn (born Tybren Girzaros)[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Age} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]51[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Species} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Mirialan[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Gender} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Male[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Force Sensitive/Alignment} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Not a chance, Jedi.[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Appearance} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Tybren measures up to a slightly underwhelming 5'7", or around 170cm. This shorter stature is balanced in turn by the older warrior's broad wrestler's build and the relaxed confidence with which he carries himself in most situations. His Mirialan features lack much of the grace and intricacy that is typical of his species - long years of battle have bestowed upon him a good collection of scars, including a fairly prominent burn scar across the right edge of his jaw and a nose which crooks slightly to the left. His face is rugged and square, with a wide, prominent jaw and a heavy brow. His black hair is generally shaved close to the scalp, and his comparatively minimalist Mirialian tattoos extend across his cheeks and back around the sides of his head. He typically wears a band of braided rawl leather around his forehead.

Tybren is frequently found in his armor, a very traditional set of Mandalorian armor that is nearly uniformly pearl-white, with accents on the helmet, pauldrons, gauntlets and greaves of both deep emerald and a lighter turquoise. On the crest of the helmet are designs in these colors resembling Tybren's own geometric Mirialan tattoos. He wears a black electromesh fabric scarf wound around his neck and shoulders to provide a small amount of additional protection to the vulnerable gaps in his armor.

When he is out of his armor, he typically dons a borrowed brown Jedi tunic over his armor's body stocking, as befitting his role as a Mandalorian liaison to the Jedi Enclaves.[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Equipment and Personal Belongings} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]
[hider=Weapons]
[list]
[*] Beskad: Tybren's weapon of choice is a unique Beskad saber passed down to him from his mentor in Clan Kelborn. The spine of the blade has been ground down to make a lighter, faster cutting weapon as opposed to the heavier splitting blade of the traditional saber. As a result, the blade shape more closely resembles a falchion than a machete or messer. After stepping away from active mercenary work to return to Mandalore, Tybren had his Beskad further customized by adding a new electrum alloy crossguard and blue leather grip to the previously featureless gray Beskar of the hilt.

[*] Convertible Blaster: As a sidearm, Tybren carries a modified BlasTech A-180 blaster pistol, capable of slightly higher firepower than the stock version and featuring a grapple-and-rope attachment mounted to the side. Tybren also possesses a longer barrel attachment to convert the weapon to a fully-fledged blaster rifle, which he typically keeps in a spring-loaded sheath affixed to the side of his jetpack.

[*] Wrist Armaments: On the right wrist, a twin missile launcher that fires two concussive mini missiles at a time. Non-explosive, these guided projectiles are designed to deliver potentially lethal amounts of force to one or two armored targets. For a more impressive result, the stock ammunition can be swapped for incendiary rockets, which have a less precise homing capability but a much bigger area of effect. On the left wrist, a retractable vibroknife that extends almost a foot from the back of the hand. Useful for wielding in the offhand during melee combat in place of the traditional Kal dagger. In dire circumstances, can be fired from the gauntlet much like a ballistic knife, then retrieved and used like a regular vibroknife.

[*] Z-6 Jetpack: Practically standard-issue for most Mandalorian warriors, with Tybren being no exception. Includes the typical top-mounted anti vehicle missile.
[/list]
[/hider]
After protecting several cargo shipments from pirate raids, Tybren managed to convince his employers to sell him one of the captured pirate fighters at a discounted rate. After spending another considerable sum of credits and time restoring the battered Rihkxyrk Heavy Assault Fighter, he continued to use and upgrade it throughout the Galaxy, preferring it for its bulk and power over the newer and faster Mandalorian fighters developed after the Clone Wars. It is currently in storage somewhere in the Enclaves.

In terms of personal belongings, the old warrior has little. Sentimentality was impractical when he lived as a mercenary, moving frequently and oftentimes bringing nothing with him but what he could carry on his armor. A set of paints and brushes (remnants of a half-abandoned attempt at a hobby), some loaned Jedi texts, and half of the faceplate from an ancient Mandalorian Neo-Crusader's helmet (a personal good luck charm) are all that decorate Tybren's small quarters.
 [/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Physical Abilities} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*] Expert close-quarters fighter: Tybren specializes in both sword fighting and hand-to-hand grappling. Despite his numerous methods of vaporizing something from a distance, he's most dangerous up close.
[*] Veteran scout: Tybren made most of his money in the post-war period as a fringe system scout during various small-scale independent conflicts and border wars. He is excellent at moving quickly, staying out of sight, and gathering information on garrisons, positions, and weaponry.
[*] Trainer: As much as he sometimes regrets it, Tybren has experience shaping new recruits into warriors as a result of being hired on to train shinies on Kamino during the latter half of the war. Part of his duties as Liaison include, to his chagrin, teaching classes of younglings the basics of combat - lightsaber and otherwise. [/list][/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Limitations} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*] Not Force sensitive: Tybren has spent years sparring against Jedi and can match them well, blade for blade. However, getting picked up and hurled across the room is somewhat harder to defend against.
[*] Past his prime: Ow, my back.
[*] Stubborn: In his mind, Tybren still exists in a time where Mandalorian warriors relied on no one but themselves, their clan, and the person paying their wage. He chafes at the bindings of his place in the new Galaxy, even as he does his best to do what is required of him.
[*] Guilt and doubts: It's never easy to see your pupils off to war. It's all that much harder when the only confirmation you get that they won't be coming home is a quickly scrolling list of names forwarded to your holoterminal, and then they might as well have not existed at all. Though he never shows it, the events of the Clone Wars left their mark on the veteran Mando and onetime clone drill instructor. He is wracked with constant doubt over his ability to train and to keep his young Jedi charges alive, should conflict arise anew in the Galaxy.
[*] Don't touch my jetpack: Kriff, I hope there isn't a Sarlacc around these parts...[/list][/indent]
[hr]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Personality} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]On the outside, Tybren is strict, stern and no-nonsense, confident and implacable in his words and actions. He has lived nearly his entire life as a warrior and does what he needs without regret or delay. Students under his instruction are like to listen carefully to his words and associates are inclined to value his word. Casual friends and acquaintances may note that for the old warrior, his word is his bond, and he will do whatever is required to do his duty, no matter the cost to his personal mental or physical well-being. They might also find that, underneath the sternness, there lurks a hint of dry wit, even mischief in the rarest of circumstances. That is about as far as most will go, however, as Tybren's career of choice and life experiences have rendered him something of a loner. Outside of the obligations presented by life, kin and station, he rarely finds himself called to seek the companionship of others.

Underneath it all, Tybren is plagued by doubt and insecurity, and has a fairly serious case of imposter syndrome. He questions the decision of his superiors to assign him as a liaison to the Jedi - he, a warrior with no diplomatic experience. He, who has spent comparatively little time around Jedi and distrusts them to boot. Though he has experience training and leading men, he believes himself unworthy to do so again. Despite these challenges, he grits his teeth and forces himself to do what he needs to. What he [i]has[/i] to.[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Place of Origin} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Originally a rancher's son from a tiny community on the plains of Ansion, Tybren was orphaned when raiders descended on the grasslands, driving away the citizens and turning the once-peaceful hamlet into a fortified pirate compound. Because of the remoteness of the settlement, the attack went utterly unnoticed by the Senate, their Judicials and the galactic community at large. Ansion's government, in desperation, turned to mercenaries for assistance. As Mandalorians of Clan Kelborn arrived to neutralize the pirates, it was a mud-streaked, half-starved Tybren that showed them the fastest routes into the village and past the watch of the pirate sentries. After the shooting was done, the Mandalorians took him in as a foundling, forever altering the trajectory of his life. Nowadays, he has mixed feelings about his homeworld being so deeply entrenched in Empire territory. On the one hand, it is no longer truly his home, but on the other, something about it makes him vaguely wistful.[/indent]
[color=488493][b]|[u] {Background} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]After leaving Ansion at a young age, the orphaned boy was thrown immediately into combat training. As part of Clan Kelborn, he learned to fight with long blades, to hunt dangerous prey, and to conduct himself with honor both on and off the battlefield. When he was only sixteen, Tybren began doing his first mercenary work, at first with his clan members and later on his own. When the Clone Wars began, Tybren did not take a side, as with most of his kin. However, after retrieving some lost equipment for a small starship manufacturing firm, he was reached out to through their mutual associates - the Kaminoans. 

Attracted by the lucrative contract, the young mercenary took his first job in training other soldiers, joining as one of the many Mandalorians of different clans and backgrounds tasked with preparing the nascent Grand Army of the Republic for the horrors of open war. Being one of the younger Mandalorian combat instructors, Tybren took fewer steps to emotionally distance himself from the clones under his tutelage, and grew earnestly attached to each batch he trained, even as he delivered shouts, sparring bruises, and stun bolts unto them. As the war continued to wax in its devastation, Tybren could not help but search for information on the platoons of soldiers he had trained. After coming up with scores of casualty reports, he was left embittered at the tactics of the GAR Command, as well as the Jedi Generals in particular. After all, if they were so benevolent and powerful, why allow your troops to become mired in such a wasteful, devastating series of campaigns?

After Knightfall, Tybren was caught with many other instructors in the siege of Kamino. He personally led several squadrons of his own troopers against the seemingly endless legions of battle droids, unwittingly taking part in the war he eschewed battle in from the start. Stormcaller saw him, like many others, making the agonizing choice to leave behind thousands of clones in a desperate last stand amidst the smoldering spires of Tipoca City. After this incident, with no one to blame but himself, the droids and the ghosts of the once-proud Jedi Order, Tybren again departed Mandalore to seek solo mercenary work, hiring himself out in numerous small skirmishes as the Republic died around him, growing close to no one and sharing camaraderie with few. 

Two years later, Tybren, like all the scattered Mandalorians around the Galaxy, received the call to Return. As Clan Kelborn planned to end their long wandering exile from the homeworld, Tybren joined them. As the many scattered clans made their triumphant return, Tybren personally appeared before Mandalore the Paladin and vowed to reclaim his honor for abandoning his comrades in arms on Kamino, and from then on worked as a soldier under his Mand'alor's direction, doing whatever was asked of him - first among fellow Mandalorians and then gradually among the Jedi. Having been far removed from the presence of the Jedi as a member of the wandering clans and coming into contact with very few during his stint as an instructor on Kamino, the wayward soldier still distrusted them and their blathering sermons about harmony, and non-violence, and other vaguely nauseating things. Their words rung hollow, particularly after the events of the Clone Wars, and their actions did little to impress him despite their staggering physical prowess with the Force. 

However, after the old Liaison to the Council of Swords had to step down due to age, Tybren found himself being ordered to assume the position. Internally reeling from the thought of having to work so closely with a group he mistrusted so much, accompanied by anxiety over the training they wanted him to give to new Jedi as an additional duty, he nevertheless threw himself into the work with diligence, swearing to himself that he would do his part to forge a Beskar-clad link between these Jedi and his people. Over time, though it hasn't gotten any easier on his conscience, he has begun to see the fruits of his and his comrades' labor as the once irreconcilable peoples draw ever closer together. [/indent][/hider]

[hider=The Ghost of Obroa-skai][center][h1][color=cd7058]Il-Lyo "Lyo" Sechero, Guardian of the Empire[/color][/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/EJQYr1n.jpg[/img][/center]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Full Name} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Il-Lyo Sechero[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Age} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]21[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Species} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Human[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Gender} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Male[/indent]
[hr]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Force Sensitive/Alignment} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Yes - Gray, but leaning towards the Light.[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Appearance} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Il-Lyo is something of an oddity - an immediately striking and eye-catching figure, yet one apparently quite unused to attention. Notably tall at 6'4", with a thin build and a slight hunch to his posture, he is possessed of long, straight black hair which is typically pulled half-up into a bun, with the rest coming down to around the middle of his shoulder blades. Where uncovered, his skin is pale and smooth, though on the rightmost parts of his face and body the skin is thick and uneven with scars, only just visible before the rest of the ruin is hidden underneath the overlapping plates of flexisteel.

The left side of Lyo's face has handsome, almost delicate features, with high cheekbones, a sharp jaw and pointed chin, and a single deep brown eye. The right eye is gone, replaced by a dimly glowing red photoreceptor affixed to a metal housing grafted to the skin. Across the right cheek and jaw, the plates of metal overlap backwards towards the scalp and neck. The right arm and leg are likewise missing, replaced with state-of-the-art cybernetics that are covered in the same smooth black flexisteel. Still breaking in these, his second-ever pair of replacement limbs, Lyo walks with a bit of an awkward dragging motion to his gait, favoring his left leg as he grows accustomed to the balance of the heavier right.

For clothing, the young Imperial Guardian wears a long, loose robe made of silvery thread, which covers his cybernetic arm down to the hand but leaves the left arm and shoulder exposed. Underneath, he usually wears a cuirass of flexible black body armor of the same standard make used by the Galaxy over by field agents, enlisted officers, and the like - the kind that's high quality enough to take a shot or two from a light blaster, but not much more. Underneath that is typically his Guardian's uniform. When off-duty, the armor and uniform are usually replaced by a nondescript brown pair of mechanic's coveralls.[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Equipment and Personal Belongings} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*]Force Pike: Lyo's current main weapon after his lightsaber was destroyed in the crash. At its full length, the pike is almost as tall as he is, made entirely of cortosis-weave durasteel with a spike on one end and a solid spherical counterweight on the other. When not in use, it can be collapsed to half its size and used as a cane, with the counterweight serving as a hand rest. During combat, its tip is charged with crackling energy that can stop enemies in their tracks. Lyo runs through a series of katas with the weapon daily, hoping if nothing else to keep his forms and instincts sharp.
[*] Merr-Son RK-3 Blaster: A small, cheap holdout blaster that can be easily concealed within one's armor or robes for the rare instance that something needs to be shot from far away rather than pulled close with the Force.
[*]Saber Crystal: The only part of the twisted, melted remains of Lyo's first lightsaber that was able to be salvaged. Strangely, the experience seems to have altered it in some way - once a deep burnt orange, the crystal has lightened to more of a lustrous gold color, with the fine, sharp edges shimmering with what seems like barely-restrained energy.
[*] Delta-7c Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor: Lyo once owned a stock Delta-7, restored lovingly and passed down to him by his father, which served as his personal starship in service to the Empire. His love for the fighter was well-known among the ranks of his peers in the Guardians, and its gold-and-white form cut an intimidating figure at the head of a formation of TIEs. When Lyo was shot down over Obroa-skai, the original interceptor was damaged beyond repair, and the youth was without a starship of his own for a long while. After finally making his return to Imperial space a year later, he was presented with a new Delta-7 for his service to the Empire: an upgraded version manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems after acquiring the design from KSE, produced and commissioned with the few elite fighter pilots of the Shadow Council in mind. This new Delta-7 is faster, better-armed, and, uniquely for its kind, carries a hyperdrive. It is all black, with Imperial cog ensigns in red near the cockpit.[/list][/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Physical Abilities} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*] Duelist: With the loss of Lyo's dominant hand as well as one of his legs, his swordplay is a pale imitation of what it used to be. However, having adopted a new two-handed fighting style with his force pike, he is able to compensate somewhat for the inherent clumsiness in both his cybernetic and non-dominant hands. He is still capable of dealing with any untrained opponent in melee combat, and would stand a good chance against all but the particularly skilled otherwise.
[*] Fighter Ace: During his early years as an Imperial Cadet and then as a Guardian-in-training, Lyo discovered his natural affinity for flying; in particular, he excelled in the handling of light and speedy fighter craft. Quickly growing to love piloting more than anything else, he spent almost as much time in flight sims as in the sparring room with saber in hand. During his brief time as a real Guardian before his accident, he spent most of it leading squadrons of TIE pilots into battle in the skies from his Delta-7. Though most strong Force users make good pilots, Lyo is a step above, seeming to have an almost precognitive sense for what maneuvers to make to place his fighter exactly where it needs to be, evading enemy fire and bringing down targets with ease. 
[*] Hobby Mechanic: Before the crash, Lyo was all too happy to allow astromechs or career mechanics to repair his starfighter for him. After coming under the employment of smugglers, however, there was no one left for him to order around to do these things. As a result, he found himself being enlisted to roll up his sleeves and get underneath the service panels of the freighters himself. Initially hating the work, he begrudgingly listened to the elder smugglers as the showed him where to place a hydrospanner to release a mechanism, what coils to pull in order to shunt power away from critical subsystems, and other things that you could only learn in the trade. Surprising himself, he grew to enjoy the work. It gave him a sense of self-reliance, allowed him to maintain his own cybernetics when they inevitably malfunctioned, and gave him an outlet for his worries - as it turns out, your hands shake less when they have something to do.
[*] Underworld knowledge: Though by no means a master of manipulating the criminal underbelly of the Galaxy, a year and a half of serving as the right hand of smuggler lord Samnel Vande gave the young Guardian a familiar sense for the organization of pirate gangs, the flow of illegal goods across the Hyperspace lanes, and other cryptic knowledge that he could never have learned through a lifetime of study at the academies of the Shadow Council. As the main point of contact for Vande's covert smuggling operations in Empire space, Lyo knows how to keep less than legal activity out of the sight of his colleagues.
[/list][/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Force Abilities} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*] Force precognition
[*] Keen mind sense
[*] Battle meditation (untrained)
[*] Force wave, push, and telekinesis
[*] Debris field: Lyo is capable of lifting numerous small objects at once, focusing on a single area and spinning everything around in a telekinetic cyclone. This leaves him immobile and vulnerable in his concentration, but can be devastating for anything caught within.
[*] Force lightning (left hand only)
[*] Force camouflage
[*] Force unity: A somewhat unique development of Lyo's, created from his constant and long meditations attempting to center himself amidst his trauma. In battle, he can call upon the Force to flow into and cloak his body, using his considerable strength in the Force to empower his comparatively weak and frail body and giving him improved stamina and strength. This gives him an edge during melee combat that he would otherwise severely lack, but it comes with the cost of hamstringing his ability to use other powerful Force abilities.
[/list][/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Limitations} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list]
[*] Crippled: Once in peak physical condition and one of the finest up-and-coming fighters in the Shadow Council, Lyo was left debilitated by his injuries in the crash (some apparent externally, and some, perhaps more devastating, internally), which caused him to deteriorate physically. He is now thin and somewhat frail, and his new cybernetics which he has not adjusted to yet have compounded this weakness to make him slower and off-balance. 
[*] War Trauma: Being one of the best pilots this side of the Hydian Way means precious little when your mind is filled with the screams of malfunctioning ion engines and the feel of sparks spraying across your skin, and your hands can't seem to stop shaking when they touch the yoke of a starfighter command console.
[*] Scarred: Though he has learned humility and social grace ever since living among smugglers, becoming much more pleasant to be around, Lyo's once handsome features have been disfigured and partially hidden under a grotesque plate of metal. Speaking directly to him can make some visibly uncomfortable, and others outright scared. 
[*] Headstrong: One thing that has consistently gotten Lyo into trouble and never changed after his accident: his ability to push straight ahead towards what he desires without regard for the consequences. Even now, his incredibly dangerous position of two conflicting loyalties may be jeopardized by his almost obsessive desire to know more about the mythical Dark Path and the artifacts they may or may not possess.
[*] Imperial superiority: Though the experiences he has gone through have humbled Lyo severely, he sometimes still has the initial instinct to look down on others for things they have no control over.
[/list][/indent]
[hr]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Personality} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]At one time, Lyo was the rising star of the Shadow Council. He had the support of many around him, and what seemed like limitless potential to climb higher in the echelons of the Empire and the powers of the Force. He was confident, self-absorbed, shameless. His injury seemed to put a firm cap on that amazing sense of potential and shattered his pride and self-assuredness. However, it also started a long journey of self-discovery for the young Guardian. The smuggler that took him in and practically raised him for over a year slowly and patiently broke down the boundaries of his arrogance and the foundations of his privileged worldview, until at last a new Lyo emerged - one that was meek, hesitant and soft-spoken, easily flustered and awkward, but also humble, friendly and empathetic. Some remnants of his upbringing still emerge from time to time - a stiff-necked response to a low-brow joke here, a knee-jerk moral judgement of a struggling individual there. As time goes on, however, occurrences of these instinctual responses are few and far between.

Some other vestiges of his old self could never be truly stamped out by his experiences, such as his impatience and stubbornness when it came to learning and gaining power, but overall the change was enough that when he finally returned to the ranks of the Empire his former friends could not reconnect with him, not quite believing that he was the same person. Some that used to resent him, however, began to warm up to him, ever so slowly.[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Place of Origin} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Lyo was born on Coruscant, to well-off but relatively unimportant parents: Manyu and Deena Sechero, who owned and managed a small starfighter parts manufacturing firm located in Coruscant's industrial district. After the events of Knightfall, his family relocated to Ord Mantell and he spent the rest of his childhood calling the new Imperial capital home.  
[/indent]
[color=cd7058][b]|[u] {Background} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Lyo was barely a year old when Grievous's warships rained death on the Galaxy's beating heart, though he was not on the surface of the planet at the time. All three of the Secheros were aboard a large luxury yacht owned by a close family friend as it orbited the far side of the planet. 

It was here, in the Republic's darkest hour, that Lyo's parents earned their distinction for heroics in the annals of the future Empire. As the CIS turned the Senate district into molten slag, Manyu commandeered his friend's vessel, bringing it down near the surface as the bombarding fleet was still overhead. As he pulled alongside the many helpless citizens stranded among the shattered and burning cityscape, his wife and others aboard the former tourist cruise worked to free the injured from under fallen debris and put out fires. They continued all day, making trips to and from the surface to rescue anyone they could and tending to their innocent son as he screamed and wailed from his place strapped securely into a seat on the bridge. 

Some time after this incident, hearing of the developing situation on Ord Mantell and Admiral Renkar's exploits in the Galactic North, Manyu and Deena gathered everything they owned, including the raw materials from their workplace, and headed directly to the nascent capital of the Empire, with many of those they rescued following suit. The Secheros freely donated all of their supplies to the war effort against the CIS, eventually setting up shop on Ord Mantell and beginning to manufacture blasters, armor and other military equipment. For these noble deeds, though they never fought themselves, they were recognized by the Emperor for heroism and service to the Empire. 

Growing up, the son of this esteemed family was made acutely aware of the importance of serving the Imperial cause and made to believe that he would be one of the best of the new generation of Imperials. When it was discovered that he was Force sensitive, Il-Lyo quickly enrolled to be trained at the academies of the Shadow Council at the enthusiastic encouragement of his father. The youth took incredibly well to his training, emerging victorious more often than not in sparring matches with all of his peers and growing strong in the Force under the careful tutelage of the masters.

Once he constructed his lightsaber and became a Guardian in earnest, Lyo, rather than guarding the Emperor himself, volunteered to lead the elite forces of the Empire in taking the fight directly to the CIS, his hatred for their kind having been carefully stoked by educators and trainers above him all his life. He was eager to prove his power and distinguish himself on the field of battle in service to the Emperor and his people. What followed was a series of lightning-quick air and space raids against key CIS strategic weak points, supplemented by information used to devastating effect by the ISB and Inquisitorius. Over time, Lyo helped to weaken the Separatists' already tenuous grasp on the hyperspace lanes of the Galactic East, weakening military targets on critical worlds that allowed them to move freely towards the Outer Core.

The Guardian's good fortune finally turned on a final fateful mission to the archival world of Obroa-skai. Intelligence gathered by ISB field agents confirmed the existence of a large collection of Force artifacts, some Jedi and others older, more cryptic, that were thought to have been destroyed in the events of Knightfall but in fact had been secretly moved offworld shortly beforehand. With their weakening grasp on the sector, the CIS was now attempting to move these artifacts en masse along the space lanes back to the south, towards more fortified portions of their space. 

Lyo again volunteered himself and his wing of fighters for this mission, as ever wanting to know more about the higher mysteries of the Force and hating the very idea of the artifacts continuing to be misused in CIS hands. Striking the furthest they ever had outside of Imperial territory, Lyo and his pilots droppped out of hyperspace into a trap. The CIS was, indeed, moving the artifacts out of system, loading them into a series of massive bulk freighters hanging in the lower atmosphere of Obroa-skai. But they had anticipated this very attack and concentrated the bulk of their military might in the area around these freighters. 

In the short, bloody, chaotic battle that followed, Lyo refused to call a retreat, believing the artifacts to be worth the cost. As he aimed his fighter directly for the path of the departing freighters, a surface turbolaser battery blasted the starboard side of his interceptor to ruin. The panicked cries of his fighter squadron and the noises of battle bled away, replaced by the out-of-control screaming of the ion engines as he careened wildly towards the ground. His control console sparked and short circuited; the friction of the air caused a blossom of flame around the pointed edge of his fighter, and, at last, the massive g-forces of its death throes caused its pilot to fall unconscious. 

He remembered very little of the next few days; a dark blur of pain and many different voices and sounds that passed him by as quickly as they came. Unbeknownst to both the Empire and the CIS, a small team of smugglers had also come to Obroa-skai to investigate the rumored caches of artifacts. These were the crew of one Samnel Vande: gentleman thief, information broker, and luxury goods dealer. While not the most famous criminal in the Galaxy, he had managed to cultivate quite a reputation as one of the best in the business. Vande saw something in the burned, disfigured youth that his men pulled from the fallen starfighter after the battle, and he had his medics get to work on him as they departed the planet otherwise empty-handed. 

Lyo finally returned to lucidity almost a week later, his right arm and leg missing and replaced with crude, flimsy surplus-grade cybernetics and his face wrapped in bacta-soaked bandages. When he met his savior soon after, he was disgusted and shamed to have been saved by a mere smuggler, a stain on the dark underside of Galactic trade. Vande, however, only showed the young Imperial kindness, to the incredulity of his crew. Lyo was forced to reflect on his biases at this unexpected showing of hospitality. At the smuggler lord's offer, he eventually agreed to work for him, and over time the two grew to be effective partners and even close friends, with Lyo serving as his second during all kinds of under the table deals on various illegal goods. Vande taught Lyo the tricks of his trade and Lyo used his senses to determine when a deal would go bad, when a client was withholding the truth of their intentions, and when an ambush was lurking ahead. Eventually, Lyo began to think of the older man as a sort of father figure. Though the smuggler was different from his parents or anyone else he had looked up to during his childhood and adolescence, he had a charm and a sense of care for his people that made the Imperial grow to love him in a similar way.

This unexpected but highly effective partnership elevated Vande and his outfit to new levels of prominence in the underworld, increasing their profits and notoriety throughout the Galaxy. Lyo began to experience a sense of camaraderie with the smugglers that he had never experienced in the Empire - a sense of familial closeness that was nothing like the cold formality of the Imperial upper crust; a feeling that would accelerate the slow change in him inside and out. Somewhat soured on the glories of the Empire, Lyo hesitantly began to share information on safe contacts to approach to set up smuggling operations in the Empire, helping Samnel Vande to begin some of the first large-scale smuggling operations in Empire space, a territory that was typically free of the corruption that plagued other reaches of the populated systems of the Galaxy.

During one meeting with a contact that specialized in extinct Force cults the Galaxy over, Lyo and Vande were told of rumors of another large collection of Force artifacts somewhere in the Galaxy - an assortment painstakingly collected and zealously guarded by a group calling themselves the Dark Path, every item steeped in the powers of the Dark Side. Lyo, being a great student of history and keenly interested in artifacts, was intrigued by this. He remembered stories from the Clone Wars before his birth, dark fables of the legendary Nightsisters of Dathomir restoring limbs and strength to their kin, giving them increased vitality and superhuman powers as well as a vicious bloodlust that could not be sated. It wasn't long before he became fixated on the idea that the Dark Path could provide some way to make him whole, restore his lost strength and functionality and finally rectify his shame from that one critical mistake during that one fateful battle. Vande, for his part, believed this "Dark Path" to be nothing more than a fabrication by a dealer that spent too much time living with the ghosts of the past in his head, having never heard any mention of such a group from a truly reliable source of information. He cautioned Lyo to not look too deeply into fairy tales of unattainable power.

Eventually, the Empire began to take notice of Vande's operations within their territory. After a few close calls, the smuggler realized that he could not risk the authorities recognizing his most valuable asset and executing him for high treason. It was decided that after almost two years, Lyo would make his return to the Empire, and serve as a contact on the inside to occasionally steer the smuggling group away from trouble. A colorful, yet believable cover story was fabricated, telling of how Lyo was captured by a prominent Nikto slaver and sold off as an unwilling informant for the Hutts, with Vande planting evidence at one of their abandoned hideaways near Imperial space to corroborate the story. In actuality, Vande's crew had killed the slaver and his crew some months before after an unpleasant run-in on Cademimu. With tales spreading through the ranks of the Guardians about Lyo's daring escape from the clutches of the Hutts and his vengeful destruction of the slaver operation that had bound him, the young Guardian was warmly, if tentatively, welcomed back to active service. His surplus cybernetics were replaced with the finest available in the Empire, and a cybernetic eye and courtesy mask were custom-made for his face. Through all the grandeur, those that knew Lyo best were privately perplexed by his complete change in personality - his newfound humility, his spirituality and frequent meditation, as well as his newer, more unrefined manner of speech. He found himself unable to reconnect with former friends as a result of the sudden gulf of life experiences between them, and soon became isolated. With his loss of combat ability, he has not yet been recalled to active service, nor has he been called to receive the parts needed to forge a new lightsaber. None of this drags him down much, though. His mind is preoccupied with helping his friends on the outside, and covertly using the full weight of the Imperial resources available to him to uncover any trace of the supposed Dark Path.

Now, for the first time since his return, Lyo has been invited along to accompany the Imperial delegation in celebrating the Republic of Mandalore's Founding Day celebrations. Most likely a sympathy call and nothing more, given the presence of numerous other more capable Guardians on the guest list already. However, Lyo readily agreed, spurred on by a vague sense of opportunity felt through the Force...[/indent][/hider]