Vril Vrakth was a male Zabrak who lived during the last years of the Galactic Republic. He was raised on a colony world where life was harsh, and the settlers there soon became divided in a series of violent wars. Vrakth originally trained as a soldier so that he could participate in the conflict, but he soon switched careers and became a scout. The combat and survival skills Vrakth learned helped to keep him alive, and he eventually caught the attention of Jeyrs Hundar, a bounty hunter who was passing through the world while chasing a criminal. Impressed by Vrakth's potential, Hundar offered to train him as an apprentice. The Zabrak agreed, and he traveled offworld with Hundar to be trained as a bounty hunter. Vrakth adapted well to his new career, and after Hundar was killed by a violent Rodian they were hunting, Vrakth was able to capture the Rodian on his own, and he used this success to establish himself as a bounty hunter.

During the Clone Wars, Vrakth was hired by a local Republic governor to hunt down Confederate generals. Following the end of the war, Vrakth began to work almost exclusively for the Republic's successor government, the Galactic Empire; in particular, he took assignments from Inquisitor Valin Draco, a Dark Side Adept who served the New Order. After Draco was almost killed on the Mid Rim planet Almas by a group of agents working for the Alderaanian Resistance, an anti-Imperial group based on the world of Alderaan, the Inquisitor sent Vrakth to capture them. After Vrakth learned that the agents planned to travel to Nizon, a planet located in the Centares system, he went there and waited for them to arrive. The agents helped to stir up a revolt against the Imperial control of the planet, and during the battle, they confronted and defeated Vrakth.

Biography[]

A career as a bounty hunter[]

Vril Vrakth was a Zabrak male who lived during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. Vrakth was raised on a failed colony world where conditions were too harsh to support much life. Food shortages were commonplace and sparked a series of violent settlement wars on the world for control of resources. Vrakth trained as a soldier in order to be able to participate in the conflicts; however, he soon switched careers and instead learned to become a scout. A bounty hunter named Jeyrs Hundar came to Vrakth's homeworld while in pursuit of a criminal and met the young Zabrak. By this time, Vrakth was one of only a handful of surviving colonists. Hundar was impressed with Vrakth's combat and survival skills and took the young Zabrak as a bounty hunter apprentice.^[1]

Vrakth traveled offworld with his new master, and with Hundar's help, he learned the skills of both a hunter and a warrior, and Vrakth eventually became a crack shot with a pistol. Vrakth would also assist Hundar by serving as backup when his master was chasing a bounty; he covered the escape routes of his master's quarry. On occasion, Vrakth would aid Hundar more directly by helping him to take down dangerous targets. While they were trying to capture a Rodian, however, Hundar was killed. Vrakth was able to finish the job on his own and collect the bounty on the Rodian, and his success helped him to establish his career as a bounty hunter.^[1]

Vrakth eventually took on his own apprentice, the Trandoshan Koorst. Vrakth also obtained six LM-432 crab droids and modified them so that they could serve him as scouts. With the outbreak of the Clone Wars,^[1] a galaxy-wide conflict fought between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems,^[2] Vrakth came to the attention of a local Republic governor, who hired him to hunt down CIS generals as part of the Republic's war effort.^[1]

Tracking the Alderaanian Resistance agents[]

Following the end of the war, Vrakth began to work almost exclusively for the newly-formed Galactic Empire, the Republic's successor government. In particular, he labored for Inquisitor Valin Draco,^[1] a Dark Side Adept who served the New Order.^[3] In circa 17 BBY,^[4] Draco was severely injured following an encounter on the planet Almas with a group of agents working for the Alderaanian Resistance,^[3] an anti-Imperial group that was based on Alderaan. In response, the Inquisitor posted a bounty on the agents and sent Vrakth to collect it. Vrakth tailed them for a few weeks, and when Senator Bail Organa—the leader of the Resistance—made a request to Aldera University for information on Nizon, a planet located in the Centares system, Vrakth inferred that his targets planned to travel to there and decided to go there himself.^[1]

Vrakth and Koorst flew to Nizon in CloakShape fighters. Upon their arrival, the Zabrak set himself up as a scout for the planet's Imperial forces while he waited for the Alderaanians to arrive. Vrakth also planned to kill Sartok, the leader of the Nizon resistance, a rebel group that opposed the Empire's control of Nizon.^[1]

The main Imperial operation on Nizon was the capture of the native sentient Nazren species for use as slaves in the Sarlacc Project, a secret operation to build a Super Star Destroyer prototype. The Imperials gave Vrakth a datachip that contained information about the project and also allowed him to use a platform at Point Gold—an under-construction turbolaser battery located on Mount Antas—as his base of operations on Nizon. Vrakth kept his CloakShape fighter docked at a small landing bay on the edge of the platform, where it was guarded by some of his crab droids; as an additional defense, Vrakth loosened one of the plates that made up the floor of the platform to create a primitive trap, causing anyone who stepped on it to fall through.^[1]

Due to the threat posed by blade scorpions, dangerous predators that lived on Nizon, Vrakth sent out his crab droids to search the planet for the Alderaanians rather than do so himself. However, Vrakth occasionally ventured into Ahdjok, the capital city of Nizon, where he would question people if they had seen any newcomers recently, allowing him to check whether the Alderaanian agents had arrived.^[1]

Confrontation at Point Gold[]

Main article: Battle of Nizon

When the Nazren began to revolt against the Imperials, Vrakth correctly deduced that the Alderaanian agents were behind the uprising, and he planned to use it as an opportunity to capture the agents. Vrakth believed that if he lured them to Point Gold, he could defeat the agents and then turn the tide of the revolt. He hoped that he would then receive a reward from the Empire for saving its operation on Nizon. While Vrakth prepared for combat, he remained in contact with Koorst, who was flying his CloakShape fighter in orbit of Nizon.^[1]

After the Nazren and Alderaanians captured a planetary control center in Martyr's Plaza that had been used to track asteroid fragments around Nizon, an Imperial officer contacted Vrakth. The officer told him to wait for any surviving Imperial officers to make their way from Ahdjok to Point Gold, and then destroy the Sarlacc Project datachip. The bounty hunter acknowledged the officer's order but did not promise to obey it. Knowing that the Alderaanians were seeking to learn more about the Sarlacc Project, Vrakth planned to instead use the datachip to lure them to Point Gold where he could capture them.^[1]

Wearing his battle armor, Vrakth waited for them at the edge of the platform. The Alderaanian agents saw a copy of the Imperial officer's conversation with Vrakth and took the bait, heading out to Point Gold to recover it. When Vrakth saw them, he held up the datachip in his hand and then used a voice amplifier to project his voice, enabling him to taunt them from a distance. Shortly afterward, Vrakth engaged them in combat but was defeated. Although the datachip was cracked and burned by the fight, the Alderaanian Resistance agents were able to recover it from Vrakth and eventually decoded it, learning that the Sarlacc Project involved a massive construction project in the Deep Core, which was coordinated from the galactic capital of Coruscant.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Vrakth was tenacious and self-reliant, which enabled him to survive the violent conflicts that plagued his homeworld. Following his decision to become a scout, Vrakth learned that prey required caution while hunting, and he also learned that most battles were won by those who could shoot the quickest and withstand the most damage. He tried to put these principles into practice, and as a bounty hunter, he used situations to his full advantage. For example, when he traveled to Nizon, he planned to maximize the profits he could earn during his stay by hunting Sartok in addition to the Alderaanian agents, the latter whom were his primary targets.^[1]

Vrakth could also adapt his plans to suit changes in circumstances, as shown when he used the Nazren uprising as an opportunity to lure the Alderaanian agents to Point Gold. He was astute, deducing that the Alderaanians were going to travel to Nizon, and later theorized that they were, in part, responsible for the Nazren uprising. However, Vrakth knew when to avoid taking risks, and he deployed his crab droids on Nizon to search for the Alderaanian team—rather than do so himself and risk being attacked by a blade scorpion.^[1]

Due to his training under Jeyrs Hundar, Vrakth was a skilled hunter and warrior. However, his skills were more similar to those of an assassin, rather than a conventional bounty hunter. The Zabrak was multilingual, and in addition to Basic, he could also speak Huttese and Zabraki.^[1]

Equipment[]

As a bounty hunter, Vrakth wore battle armor to protect himself. He armed himself with a variety of weapons, and while on Nizon, he carried two blaster pistols, a force pike and four thermal detonators. His other equipment included a pocket scrambler^[1] to encode any comlink messages that he sent;^[5] a code cylinder, which could store encrypted information; and a voice amplifier that enabled him to be heard clearly from half a kilometer away. Like his apprentice Koorst, Vrakth flew a CloakShape starfighter.^[1]

Vrakth owned six LM-432 crab droids, and each were heavily modified. They served him as both scouts and hunting drones, allowing him to search large areas for targets; the latter was a task they fulfilled when deployed on Nizon. Although they were programmed to operate independently, the droids were all fitted with comlinks to enable Vrakth to give them override orders from his CloakShape fighter. They also bore an owner's stamp, which consisted of a Zabrak symbol that translated into Basic as "Long Hunter," identifying them as the property of a bounty hunter.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Vril Vrakth was created by writer Owen K.C. Stephens and made his first and only appearance in Star Wars canon in The First to Strike, the fifth scenario in the Dawn of Defiance campaign, a Wizards of the Coast online supplement to the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.^[1]

In the supplement, the actions of the players who role-play the Alderaanian Resistance team can affect Vrakth in a number of ways. When the players first land on Nizon, if the location of their ship is discovered by the Empire, then one of Vrakth's crab droids steals something from the ship, and Vrakth uses it to guess some of their plans. If the players succeed in destroying the Imperials' Checkpoint Gamma, then Vrakth sends two crab droids to Ahdjok. If they do not destroy the checkpoint, then the Imperial forces give him information about the activities of the players, and he sends two crab droids to the next encounter they have in the scenario.^[1]

After the players investigate The Bloody Credit, a ship used to transport Nazren slaves off Nizon, any of Vrakth's surviving crab droids attack them, and after one is destroyed, the rest flee in different directions and rendezvous with Vrakth. After the players help capture the Imperial control center, they intercept and watch the Imperial officer's conversation with Vrakth, and after it has ended, the players have the option of calling the Zabrak. If they choose to do so, Vrakth offers to leave the Sarlacc Project datachip intact but taunts them, and suggests that they come and speak to him about it in person. It is possible for the players to kill Vrakth during the confrontation with him, and if they do so, he drops his comlink as he falls, and Koorst calls out from it, asking for more information from his mentor. If the players reply, then Koorst swears his eternal hatred to them for killing Vrakth.^[1]

Appearances[]

• "The First to Strike" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link) (First appearance)

Notes and references[]