Belkor Dray was a human male who served as an Imperial colonel on the planet Ryloth. Belkor, seeking advancement, secretly supported the anti-Empire Free Ryloth Movement in order to undermine his superior, Moff Delian Mors, for years committing treason against the Galactic Empire. After the Free Ryloth leader Cham Syndulla received intelligence that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader would be visiting Ryloth, Belkor was coerced into assisting with the assassination attempt. Belkor managed to convince Cham to send his resistance fighters to assassinate Moff Mors during the confusion of the attack.

During the Free Ryloth movement's attack on Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer Perilous, Belkor maintained his cover by leading the Imperial rescue efforts while secretly leaking information to the rebels. Despite their efforts, the Emperor, Lord Vader, and Mors survived the attacks and managed to retreat to Ryloth. While flying a recon craft, Belkor helped the Free Ryloth movement in their efforts to hunt down the Emperor and the Sith Lords. Belkor also tried to cover his tracks by telling his men that Mors was a traitor. However, Moff Mors managed to reassert her control over the Imperial forces. She located Belkor and executed him for his treason against the Empire.

Biography[]

Background[]

Belkor Dray was a Colonel in the Imperial Military who was stationed on the Outer Rim planet Ryloth during the Age of the Empire. When Moff Delian Mors became lax with carrying out her duties on Ryloth, choosing to spend her time doing various illegal activities, she placed Belkor Dray in charge of maintaining the Imperial forces on the planet. For years afterwards, Dray supplied information to Cham Syndulla's Free Ryloth Movement in an effort to discredit and remove Mors from office.^[1]

Chafing under Moff Mors[]

After Darth Vader personally neutralized a group of Free Ryloth hijackers who had hijacked an Imperial weapons shipment above Yaga Minor, Belkor visited Moff Mors at her luxury palace on Ryloth's largest moon to deliver his quarterly report. Upon arriving, Belkor found Mors entertaining Nashi the Hutt, an emissary of Jabba. In Nashi's presence, Mors joked about Belkor's tall, lanky frame and his habit of speaking in serifs. After Mors had left, the Colonel briefed her about staff levels, troop movements, spice shipments, and other matters on Ryloth.^[1]

When Mors questioned Belkor about the Free Ryloth movement's activities, Belkor claimed that he had his best assets handling the case. He reported that things had been quiet on the planet and that it had been over a month since the last attack. Mors then informed him about the "terrorist" attempt to hijack a weapons shipment. Hiding his dealings with the rebels, Belkor vowed to redouble their efforts and to have the movement back on its heels. Since the Free Ryloth movement blended in with the civilian population, Belkor argued that killing innocents would antagonize neutral Twi'leks sympathetic to the resistance.^[1]

Moff Mors then informed them that Ryloth's Senator Orn Free Taa would be returning to Ryloth in ten days. When Belkor asked why the senator was returning so soon, Mors speculated that the Emperor had ordered him back to publicize the terrorists' failed hijacking and to rally support for the occupation. Belkor added that Taa had come to reassure the non-militants that the terrorists were doomed to fail. Belkor volunteered to handle the preparations for Taa's homecoming visit.^[1]

Double agent[]

Following the meeting with Moff Mors, Belkor decided to get Cham's rebels to assassinate Senator Orn Free Taa in order to discredit Moff Mors. Upon returning to his quarters on Ryloth, Belkor used his portable personal comm to send an encrypted message to Cham telling him they needed to meet immediately. Cham promptly replied since he had learned that the Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader would be secretly visiting Ryloth under the cover of Taa's state visit. Cham and his lieutenant, Isval, had wanted to meet with Dray to check that the Emperor and Lord Vader's visit was not an Imperial trap. Belkor himself was unaware that the two Sith Lords would be accompanying Senator Orn Free Taa aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Perilous.^[1]

Five hours after nightfall, Belkor donned civilian clothes and traveled out of Ryloth's capital Lessu in an airspeeder to meet with Cham in his secret cave hideout. Cham's lieutenant Isval led him inside the cave. After exchanging pleasantries about Ryloth's history, Belkor tried to reassert his authority over Cham in the relationship by claiming that Cham was working for him, and not the other way round. Cham reminded him that they had come to talk about Senator Taa's upcoming visit to Ryloth and retorted that Belkor was naive to think that he had been dancing to his song the whole time.^[1]

During the meeting, Belkor threatened to end his relationship with Cham by releasing a data disk of all the movement's bases, and leadership in the event of his death. However, Cham outmaneuvered Belkor by threatening to disclose recordings of their previous meetings to the Empire, thus exposing him as a traitor to the Empire. After Cham had reasserted his authority over Belkor, he told the Colonel that they could both reach a win-win solution in their relationship if Belkor was prepared to show him more commitment and collaboration. Belkor tried to protest but Cham emphasized that he had no choice.^[1]

Cham then asked Belkor to disclose everything he knew about Taa's trip aboard the Perilous. Unaware of the Emperor and Vader's presence, Belkor told Cham that only Senator Taa was coming. Having ascertained that Belkor was telling the truth, Cham warned that he would expose his collusion with the rebels should their plan go awry. Belkor responded that he was prepared to give him the assistance that he needed but could not guarantee Cham's success. Cham responded that he was trying to guarantee his best efforts and told the Colonel that he was involved in the plan regardless of whether he wanted to or not.^[1]

Before leaving, Cham reminded Belkor about the consequences of failure. However, he promised Belkor that if they both succeeded in killing Taa, Mors would be disgraced and that he would arrange for Belkor to look the hero. This appealed to Belkor, who coveted Mors' position. When Belkor contended that he would still be in Syndulla's pocket, Cham responded that he would be alive and a Moff. After returning to his aircar, Belkor reflected on the gravity of his situation. Entangled with Cham, Belkor began pounding the instrument panel with his fist until it bled. After some contemplation, Belkor decided to continue with aiding Cham's plan to assassinate Senator Taa.^[1]

A desperate gamble[]

Belkor aided Cham Syndulla's ambush of the Ryloth by diverting patrols and flight clearance paths away from the margins of the Ryloth system. To cover his tracks, Belkor used Mors's authorization code. This allowed the Free Ryloth movement to sow the surrounding space with space mines. Cham also had a large number of vulture droids and droid tri-fighters based in Ryloth's third moon. As planned, Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer Perilous exited hyperspace in the middle of the mind field. While special mines drained the Star Destroyer's deflector shields, Vulture droids attacked the ship.^[1]

Colonel Belkor was at his personal quarters when he received news of the attack. Upon arriving at the Imperial communications center, Belkor feigned shock. He also received orders from Cham to put out a call for all available repair ships including non-Imperial ships to offer aid to the Perilous. This was part of Cham's ploy to infiltrate several Free Ryloth operatives aboard the Perilous When a furious Moff Mors contacted Belkor and demanded to know how the Free Ryloth movement had been able to form an entire fleet at the edge of the system, Belkor claimed that Imperial resources were limited. Belkor promised to investigate and convinced Moff Mors to authorize an order to send all available repair ships to assist the Perilous.^[1]

Belkor was further startled to learn that the Emperor and Lord Vader had been aboard the Perilous. Angered that Cham had concealed this information for him, Belkor destroyed the station's holoprojector in a moment of rage. After instructing the Lieutenant Colonel to send fighters to escort the repair ships, Belkor headed to the officers-only restroom and contacted Cham by comlink. When Belkor expressed anger that Cham had concealed this information from him, Cham responded that he had no choice but to help him because the attack had already happened. Cham reassured Belkor that Vader, the Emperor, and Taa would die today and instructed Belkor to do nothing more than supervise the repair and rescue operations.^[1]

Meanwhile, a team of Free Ryloth infiltrators led by Isval succeeded in planting explosives in the Perilous's hyperdrive chamber, causing an explosion that destroyed the ship. However, the Emperor and Vader both managed to escape the Star Destroyer in a small shuttle. Cham then contacted Belkor and ordered him to supply them with the shuttle's identification so it could be found and destroyed in orbit. Realizing that Moff Mors, who was also en route to Ryloth on her own shuttle, would have to be killed for his own safety, Dray sent Syndulla both shuttles' identifications and falsely claimed he did not know which shuttle the Emperor and Vader were on. Belkor also agreed to delay sending V-wings until after Cham's forces had managed to shoot down one of the shuttles.^[1]

Covering his tracks[]

Belkor diverted Moff Mors' shuttle into the path of Isval's escort boat under the pretext of evacuating VIPs in escape pods. While both shuttles were critically damaged, none of the three targets were killed. Mors' pilot Breehld was killed but she managed to regain control of the craft. Meanwhile, Vader and the Emperor escaped an encounter with Isval's escort boat and Lord Vader managed to crash-land his stricken shuttle in Ryloth's equatorial forest. However, the Imperial communications center lost contact with both Mors' and Vader's shuttle. Belkor dispatched Imperial rescuers to pick up escape pods, which were landing all over Ryloth's western hemisphere. Belkor then began concocting a believable cover story to conceal his involvement in Cham's conspiracy.^[1]

Later, Belkor was contacted by Cham, who ordered him to send the Free Ryloth movement a false clearance to enter the Equatorial Communications Hub, allowing them to sabotage it and cause a planet-wide communications blackout. In return for helping Cham to knock out the communications network, Belkor got Cham to give him the trajectory for Moff Mors' ship so that he could check that she was indeed dead. Belkor's actions enabled Isval's escort boat to bomb the Communication Hub's satellite dishes, creating a communications black-out.^[1]

As Syndulla and his men landed in the search zone to track down the Emperor and Vader, Dray gathered six Imperial V-wing pilots who were loyal to him, fabricated a story claiming that Mors was a traitor, and led them on a mission to find and kill the Moff. For that mission, Belkor traveled in a recon craft that was piloted by Ophim, who accepted Belkor's claim that Mors was conspiring with the Free Ryloth movement to assassinate the Emperor and Lord Vader. After seeing the damaged Equatorial Communications Hub, Dray contacted the base's acting officer Captain Narrin and learned that Mors and Major Steen Borkas were now leading two ships and a force of stormtroopers to rescue the Emperor. Based on what Narrin told him, Dray deduced that Mors had figured out his betrayal.

While flying over Ryloth's equatorial forest, Belkor's recon ship's scanner picked up three grounded ships, which turned out to be Syndulla's team. After confirming that those ships did indeed belong to Cham's forces, Belkor contacted the Free Ryloth leader and pretended to order him to surrender. Belkor then tricked Ophim into letting him take control of the ship. While Ophim was distracted, Belkor shot him in the back of the head. Belkor then asked if Cham's forces had located the Emperor's shuttle. Cham confirmed they had found the shuttle but that Vader and the Emperor were still at large.^[1]

After some arguing, Belkor agreed to help Cham's forces get to Vader and the Emperor. Cham instructed Belkor to order his V-wings to hunt for both Mors and the Sith Lords. Cham also told Belkor that he would give him the Emperor and Vader's coordinates so that he could transmit them to his V-wing pilots. Belkor was ordered to use his V-wings to bomb the Emperor and Vader. In return, Cham agreed to help Belkor to hunt down and kill Moff Mors. Throughout the night, Belkor trailed Cham's forces in his recon craft. As he aided Syndulla in tracking the Emperor, Dray became increasingly erratic, even questioning his own sanity at one point, and began conversing with the pilot's corpse.^[1]

The conspiracy falls apart[]

Eventually, he discovered the Emperor, Lord Vader, and dozens of Twi'leks gathered in a village, with Syndulla spying on it from nearby. Wanting to rid himself of them all, he ordered the V-wing pilots to bomb both targets. However, Mors had already come in contact with the pilots' Wing Leader Arim Meensa and had convinced them that Dray was the real traitor. Still believing that the pilots were under his command, Belkor transmitted the coordinates of the Twi'lek village to Meensa. While pretending to obey Belkor's orders, Meesa secretly transmitted the coordinates of the Twi'lek village to Moff Mors.^[1]

Instead of strafing the village, the V-wings flew a circle over it long enough for Moff Mors to arrive with two ships. Belkor contacted the ships and was greeted by Moff Mors. Mors confronted Belkor his treason and condemned him for killing hundreds of his own comrades. Belkor tried to protest his innocence but Mors saw through his facade. When Belkor chastised Mors for her negligent leadership, laziness, and corruption, Mors pointed out that he was covered in blood. Belkor realized that she was right both literally and figuratively. As the V-wings arrived to escort Mors and her men, Dray briefly communicated with Mors, stating that she was the one that had been betraying the Empire through neglect for years. However, Mors retorted that he had the blood of hundreds of Imperials on his hands.^[1]

When Belkor asked if she was going to turn him over to the Imperial Security Bureau or Lord Vader, Mors informed him that was not the case. Seeking to cover up her own wrongdoings, Mors ordered one of the V-wings to move into attack position. As the V-wing moved into weapons lock, a guilt-ridden Belkor apologized to Ophim's corpse and closed his eyes as the V-wing destroyed the craft with him in it. Belkor's death deprived Cham of using the V-wings to bomb the Twi'lek village, forcing him to launch a ground assault. Mors' forces then attacked and scattered the Free Ryloth movement.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Belkor Dray was a human male. Nashi the Hutt regarded him as "straight and rigid" as trees. Belkor was an ambitious young Imperial Colonel who resented his superior Moff Delian Mors' hedonistic and indolent lifestyle. Seeking to boost his own political career, Belkor became a spy for Cham Syndulla, the leader of the Free Ryloth movement. Belkor also installed several Imperial units with commanders who were loyal to him over the Empire and Mors. He was known to enter fits of rage when things did not go his way. On on occasion, he destroyed a holo-projector in a fit of rage.^[1]

Belkor found himself an unwilling participant in Cham's plot to assassinate the Emperor and Darth Vader. Cham was able to blackmail Belkor into assisting with the conspiracy by threatening to expose his dealings with the Free Ryloth movement. Since Belkor valued his status within the Empire, he was unable to break his relationship with Cham. Just as Cham exploited him, Belkor sought to use Cham to fulfill his own ambitions by discrediting and later trying to assassinate Moff Mors. However, Moff Mors saw through his treachery.^[1]

Belkor was stricken with guilt after he murdered his pilot Ophim in order to conceal his involvement with the Free Ryloth movement. As an opportunist, Dray did not share the Free Ryloth movement's goals but merely sought to advance his own ambitions. Due to his desire for power and hatred for Mors, Belkor was willing to endanger the lives of hundreds of his own Imperial comrades. Moff Mors regarded Belkor Dray as a dishonorable self-serving man who had blood on his hands.^[1]

Skills and abilities[]

As a Colonel, Belkor Dray was familiar with the Imperial military hierarchy and communications systems. He used this knowledge to help the Free Ryloth movement launch raids on Imperial facilities and personnel on Ryloth. Belkor also knew how to operate an airspeeder and a recon craft.^[1]

Equipment[]

Belkor Dray wore the uniform of a Colonel in the Imperial Military which included a cap. He owned a belt blaster, which he kept for ceremonial rather than practical reasons.^[1]

Appearances[]

• Lords of the Sith (First appearance)
• Lords of the Sith audiobook

Notes and references[]