Vaelana

Family

Parents: Colonel D’Aela ir-Shaya D’Kaeyn (mother, Tal Shi’ar Colonel and operative, Matriarch of the D’Kaeyn Clan, Believed KIA), Admiral Rhian i-Ramsu tr’Terrh (Father, Sector Admiral, KIA with the Breen, 2331)

Siblings: several, all of them Half-siblings. Colonel D’Kaeyn was infamous for her prodigious progeny, most of them sons who joined the Tal Shi’ar, including an adopted Reman orphan known as Terrh. She was nothing if not eccentric. Due to their nature as Tal Shi’ar operatives, almost all are classified in identity and most are declared dead or rogue, in the wake of the destruction of the Romii System and the establishment of the Romulan successor states.

Spouse: n/a

Children: n/a

Personal History
Vaelana was born on the Tal Shi’ar Vessel, the Aehallh, and directly into shadow, or rather, in the shadows. Specifically, the shadows of her mother, an infamous Colonel in the Tal Shi’ar known as D’Aela D’Kaeyn. The majority of the D’Kaeyn clan were brought into the Tal Shi’ar by the matriarchial colonel, and her own diverse and numerous brood of children (almost none of which possessed the same father as the others), were almost always entered into the Tal Shi’ar’s ranks and training. Vaelana was the “almost” in that last statement.

Vaelana’s father was a rather popular Admiral in the Galae Command or Romulan Star Navy, by the name of Rhian tr’Terrh. When she was only 10 years old, her father was killed in combat with the Breen and Vaelana spent the rest of her adolescent years growing up listening to the legends of his career. She resented her mother’s shadowy dealings and somewhat cold, distant parenting style, and the constant urgings and preliminary training that she was made to endure, to better fit the mold of a future Tal Shi’ar operative.

Determined to escape the shadows and strike out on her own, Vaelana left her mother’s holdings for the Romulan Star Naval Academy on Rihan, but not before changing her name. She dropped the “D’-” from “D’Kaeyn”, to distance herself from her mother, becoming Vaelana t’Kaeyn. In the Star Naval Academy, she started starship operations, navigation, tactics, and combat training. She took an instant liking in particular to the art of the Sienovan, or Swordsperson, do to it’s directness and “honesty” in compared to the dagger and knife training she had been subjected to prior. Her skill with a long blade rose quickly, and soon she had been named the Academy’s top champion, a title she would hold for 2 years straight before loosing it in a tourney, only to regain again on her last year. She almost killed her opponent in the that last title match after a brief loss of control caused her blade to slip too close to his jugular, and that close encounter with her own lethality caused her to seek to maintain more control in her actions in the future.

Vaelana graduated in the top 5% of the Academy, and won the position as a junior weapons officer with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant to the IRW Devoras. On the Devoras, she took part in the quelling of uprisings on rebellious worlds, the annexation of a whole star system, and came into conflicts with the Breen, Klingons, and Tholions on more then one occassion. By the end of her first tour, she was a Lieutenant and had become the assistant to the Chief Weapons Officer.

For her second tour on the Devoras, Vaelana found herself on a mission of patrolling the frontiers of Romulan space, exploring, mapping and “flying the flag”. She also found herself in conflict with her own superior officer after he refused to fire on a transport that was identified as an unarmed civilian transport, but was believed by Naval Intelligence, the Tal Diann to be carrying arms for a local colonial governor who was facing a corruption investigation. She eliminated him under the orders of her Commander, and took his place as Chief Weapons Officer, marking her asscension in position with a plasma torpedo burst that detonated against the hull of the Transport and revealed it to indeed be carrying antimatter warheads (judging the by the size and density of the warp core implosion that occured on detonation).

For her fourth tour Vaelana found herself reassigned to the RDBCHH16, as Chief of Station Security. The change occured do to the Devoras being laid in shore for massive repairs after a significant boarding action with Breen shocktroops, and Vaelana using a peice of sharp debris from the damaged bridge to defend her Commander after an EMP surge had drained the disruptor pistols. Her stint as Chief of Security was rather uneventful, at least profressionally. Personally on the other hand, her mother tried to make another attempt at recruiting her into the Tal Shi’ar, which colluminated in Vaelana seeking reassignment again, away from a fixed position.

Her request was granted, and Vaelana was assigned in 2362 as Chief Weapons Officer with the rank of Centurion to the IRV Kra’ex, a reconniscence scout frigate and bird of prey. The Kra’ex was assigned to the Romulan/Federation Neutral Zone, to spy and report back on Federation movements across the otherside of the Zone. During this time, the Kra’ex, and other ships in the area began to notice something startling. Whole colonies along the Neutral Zone were going dark. No communication replies and no ships came out from these dark worlds.

After this report, Vaelana and much of the Kra’ex crew were reassigned a warbird under the leadership of Commander Tebok and sent on a mission back to the Neutral Zone in 2364 to investigate these distrubances more closely. This mission would be turning point for Vaelana’s career, as well as the Romulan Star Empire, as it ended the Star Empire’s period of isolationism along the Federation Neutral Zone. Further investigations would reveal the dissapearances to be the work of the Borg, which was only finally peiced together after the Federation was invaded at Wolf 359.

Vaelana rose to the rank of Sub-Commander after this and was reassigned as the first officer of the IRW Sukar, a D’Deridex warbird. Around this time, the Dominion became players on the scene of the Alpha and Beta quadrant. Vaelana also had another brush with her mother, who was among the Tal Shi’ar ship commanders assigned on the secret attack on the Founder homeworld. After this failed and the mission became known in the military circles, Vaelana felt herself dealing with the apparent death of her mother…producing conflicting emotions she had yet to be prepared for.

…the conflict was resolved however, when it became known that Colonel D’Kaeyn’s attack wing had escaped the Founder trap by being assigned to the far reaches of the Breen Frontier. Vaelana immediatly returned to her dislike of her mother, but the brush with the possible demise of that powerful figure in her life, softened her dislike slightly.

As the Dominion War began, Vaelana found herself wishing to join in the fight. Her family’s experiences with the Dominion made her highly distrustful of the peace, but more so these feelings where driven by a need and want to test herself in an actual war.

She got her wish and then some, when the Romulan Star Empire ended its neutrality over the assassination of one of its senators.

The Sukar became the vangaurd of the Romulan third fleet, assigned to fight the Dominion and Cardassisns along the Gavarian Corridor. After the Dominion, assisted by the Breen, made a major push past the Corridor and into Romulan space, the Sukar was assigned a large force of Reman Commandos to deploy against the Jem’Hadar in the retaking of the colonies there. At the battle for Hrakon Core, Vaelana found herself in charge of the Reman ground forces after the overseer was slain by a Jem’Hadar trooper. When the fight moved into close quarters, Vaelana distinguished herself by leading the troops into the charge from the front, with sword drawn, and continued to fight even after an enemy bayonet found its way into her right thigh.

In the wake of her victory and after recovering from the injuries sustained, Vaelana was offered command of her own warbird, the IRW Namyr.

Wen she accepted the warbird and the promotion to Commander that came with it, her mother appeared again, this time with a present to commemorate her ascension to command: a long red sash over 120 years old, once worn by Vaelana’s own father during his first command.

The Namyr was assigned to finish driving out the dominion incursions into Romulan Space and afterwards was moved to join the Federation and Klingon joint fleets in the Alpha Quadrant, giving Vaelana an opportunity to study both of the Star Empire’s old foes up close and from the other side of her usual battlefields with them.

Still however, the war was brutal and  Vaelana’s war hawkish feelings were strained and soon replaced with jadedness and a budding cynicism.

So when the war ended, Vaelana actually found herself wishing for a return to her old patrol routes and scouting missions. Instead, she was about to become involved in a series of political coups known as the Reman uprising.

Vaelana herself was apolitical, always the warrior and soldier first. However, her position as a Warbird commander made her a valuable pawn…and target, in the chaos and quick series of reordering that followed.

Of note, she had several officers executed in the fallout for attempted mutiny (both Shinzonites and Praetorians), and this angered both sides of the conflict as well as made her an enemy of several clans to whom the executed had belonged too.

Still, Vaelana was a warbird commander in the Galae command, and virtually untouchable to all but the Tal Shiar as long as that remained so.

…that changed in the next major shakeup in her career: The Romulus Supernova.

The Romulus Supernova devoured the twin home worlds of the Star Empire, and shattered the political and military command structures that had dominated Romulan life for thousands of years. The Galae Command dissolved as surviving warbirds were scattered across the quadrants, their Commanders often either throwing in with planetary and system governors who had become little more then tinpot dictators and warlords…or becoming warlords and mercenary commanders themselves.

Vaelana tried to maintain discipline and order in her warbirds actions, often acting as if the Galae Command was still a thing and began operating on the outskirts of Romulan Space, putting out “fires” at hotspots in the border colonies or intercepting would-be trespassers at the shattered remains of the old Star Empire’s borders. Vaelana and her crew tried to remain relatively neutral again, even shying away from the Romulan Free State, which Vaelana could feel the tendrils of the Tal Shiar at work within.

The Disaster also had two other major side effects for Vaelana. First, the attempted rescue and evacuation missions headed by Admiral Picard and Commander Musiker had brought a modicum of respect to the UFP in Vaelana’s eyes…Starfleet complete reversal and isolationism in the wake of the Utopia Planitia Attacks actually increased this respect, as the uncharacteristic self-interested pragmatism from Starfleet was something she understood, even as she decried the ‘inevitable cowardice’ that would doom so many in the years to come.

Secondly,  the Disaster destroyed the majority of Vaelana’s enemies, as they too had lived close to the former seat of political power, Romulus…however, it didn’t quite kill or otherwise break all of them.

In the political vacuum of the sector worlds bordering the Breen Confederacy, Clan Jarnu had set up their Matriarch, retired Senator Haelua D’Jarnu, as presiding warlord and created their own minor empire out of the now Balkanized systems with an alliance of related naval commanders and admirals to secure their base of power.

This was a problem, as Centurion Gaikus tr’Jarnu was Haelua’s favourite grandson…and also one of the mutineers that Vaelana had personally executed in a rather old fashion manner: decapitation via sword strike. Though Vaelana rarely operated near Breenspace post-Supernova, Lady Haelua made it her own personal side project to hound the Commander and make her life as tempestuous as possible.

This came to a head in the mid 2380s, when a Jarnu strike fleet of three warbirds and a handful of scout ships, attacked Vaelana and her warbird while they were navigating a crisis on a Reman mining colony with a group of Fenrisian Rangers (an organization that Vaelana’s ship had a mixed history with, leading to circumstantial pragmatism guiding their encounters). A battle ensued in which the Mining Colony was destroyed (records are hazy on which side was responsible with fingers pointing every direction), and the Namyr was driven out of Romulan space and into the utter lawlessness of the Triangle, fleeing the strike force.

Loosing the strike force in the wild space of the Triangle, Vaelana and the crew of the Namyr found themselves facing some hard choices. Vaelana, at her utmost cynical and pragmatic, relented on her remaining ideological trappings and turned to piracy, raiding, and mercenary work just to acquire the basic resources to survive.

Much to the horror of what remained of Vaelana’s transitional sensibilities, the Namyr and her crew became incredibly efficient and effective at piracy and doing the dirty work of ne’er-do-wells…a Romulan Warbird was in a class of it’s own after all (with the cloaking device, size, and fire-power that was rarely matched in other piracy and free-shipping fleets), and Vaelana stressed maintaining the discipline expected of a Romulan Star Navy crew, even if the Romulan Star Navy was little more then a memory. Deploying Reman shock troops to attack Klingon holdings on the request of rival houses, preying on Federation shipping near the Neutral Zone border worlds, stalking targets of interest for Yridian info-brokers.

Though initially giving other pirates and mercs in the Triangle a wide berth, Vaelana and the Namyr eventually started to answer requests to join up with others for larger rewards and better targets. In one job, backed by the Orion Syndicate, the Namyr joined up with a sizeable (for pirates) fleet of ships with their sights set on a large cargo fleet headed for the Neutral Zone from the Federation.

During this raid, Vaelana uncovered the truth that the cargo fleet was carrying relief supplies gathered and funded by Federation citizens to several of the Romulan Refugee colonies that were in desperate need.

For the first time in years, Vaelana felt an attack of conscience and ordered the Namyr to switch sides mid-battle, firing on the lead raiders to allow the cargo vessels to escape.

This was a slug match of attrition as the multitude of smaller raiding vessels and pirate ships tore into the Namyr, while the Namyr unloaded everything into the now enemy fleet, obliterating a vessel for every few shots fired.

It is not on record if any of the Orion-backed fleet survived, but the Namyr decloaked in front of a Starfleet patrol ship three days later, barely held together by what remained of her crew, and requested asylum in the Federation.

Vaelana’s last act as Commander of the Namyr, was to scuttle her with a singularity core implosion that went off shortly after the survivoring crew (less then a 100 Romulans and Remans in total) were beamed over to the Starfleet vessel, so that the Namyr would never fall into the hands of a non-Romulan crew.

Needless to say, Vaelana’s defection caused a shockwave through Starfleet, especially the security and intelligence divisions. Most of Vaelana’s crew were slowly processed through the typical channels, give or take some extra background checking by Starfleet Security, while Vaelana herself became the “guest” of Starfleet Intelligence for several years.

She provided what intell she could on Triangle piracy and PoIs, and relayed what she knew on “most” Romulan operations, both pre- and post-Disaster, settling several outstanding cold and active cases. The entire time, she requested to be allowed to enter Starfleet service, to put more then just her memory of Romulan operatives, to use.

Each time however, no matter how well a case she made, she was rebuffed by Starfleet Security, specifically by one Admiral Oh…who struck Vaelana as rather familiar for some reason.

In her spare time, with what limited resources she was allowed by her Intelligence “benefactors”, Vaelana began to investigate this Admiral and started building a case of suspected espionage and sabotage against her…and then Admiral Oh went ahead and came out as an operative of the Tal Shiar and Zhat Vash and returned to Romulan Space with a fleet of hidden warbirds.

Vaelana nevertheless completed her investigation’s loose ends and submitted the report to her handlers, allowing them to uncover the extent to which Admiral Oh had infiltrated and manipulated Starfleet from the inside.

With Oh out of the way, and finding herself in Starfleet’s…better…graces, Vaelana’s requests to join the service were finally processed and in a special arbitration session, for services and special knowledge rendered, and in light of what could confirmed about her past military career, she was granted the provisional rank of Starfleet Commander and assigned to assist Starfleet in a command-advisory position, as First Officer of the USS Venture…she was not however, let completely off SFI’s leash however, as her handlers still kept in touch and her labelled as “Special Intelligence Asset”, watching her carefully with one hand ready to yank her chain if they needed information, and the other hand ready to choke her should she become a liability instead.

A year later, she was reassigned via special redeployment orders from Starfleet Intelligence, to be the Commanding Officer of the USS Aquarius, a Resolute-class cruiser that was headed into territory formerly held by the Star Empire.