Herrana Orex

Herrana Orex was born on February 18th, 2336, to an influential family with ties to the Star Navy admiralty. She led a privileged upbringing, and was sent to the best academies that her parents could get her into. She performed well in school, and was accepted into the Imperial Military Academy upon completion of compulsory education. In her academy days, Herrana studied to be a flight control officer, and was often commended for her dedication to her work. However, she occasionally found herself subject to disciplinary action as a result of her rather wild weekend activities at local hangouts, and was noted for being amongst the most prolific ale drinkers in her class.

Herrana graduated in 2359 at the top 12% of her class. She was assigned to the IRW Suldas, one of the new D’deridex-class battleships, as a shuttle pilot. She performed well at the position, earning accolades for the same traits she’d exhibited in the academy, and had largely outgrown her former desire to spend her time off in such a hedonistic fashion. After six years of service, Herrana was transferred to the Malem-class light warbird Harakon to act as helmsman.

Herrana would look back time flying the Harakon quite fondly in her later years. The vessel’s assignment was mostly anti-piracy and border patrol operations, and Herrana loved using the small Malem’s maneuverability to its fullest extent. Her commanding officer, Subcommander Nurahk, was highly impressed with Heranna’s understanding of complex zero-g tactics, often citing how excellently she was able to interpret his orders into making the Harakon dance.

In 2374, after eight years in service as the Harakon’s helmsman under two different CO’s, Herrana was promoted to Subcommander. The Harakon herself was upgraded and chosen to become the lead ship in a Malem-class wolfpack under now-Commander Nurahk, and he specifically requested Herrana as his executive officer.

This occurred only three weeks before the assassination of Senator Vreenak and the entry of the Romulan Star Empire into the Dominion War. The Harakon and its wolfpack were amongst the first Romulan vessels to strike at the invaders from the Gamma Quadrant, participating in the Empire’s initial assault on the Romulan-Cardassian border. Herrana would be active throughout the war, seeing some of the heaviest fighting; the Harakon was involved as a screening vessel in in the first battle of Chin’toka, and had one of its nacelles blown off by a Breen warship shortly after the second. Following this, her crew was given the IRW Nireesa as a replacement, and Herrana served on that ship throughout the remainder of the war. Herrana again distinguished herself in her position; as Nurhak was often busy coordinating the actions of his wolfpack, she was often the one most directly in control of the Harakon and later Nireesa themselves, and her excellent ability to understand and implement aggressive maneuver tactics did much to endear her to her superiors.

Near the end of the Dominion War, the Star Navy revisited plans for a powerful, quick, and maneuverable warbird to bridge the gap between the Malem and D’deridex classes, eventually resulting in the Valdore-class strike warbird. Herrana’s excellent showing during the war (along with more than a few family connections) lead to her name being put forward as a potential commander of one of the new vessels. While the relatively short time she’d spent as a Subcommander prevented her from being one of the first wave of Valdore jockeys, she easily placed in the second. Herrana was promoted to Commander in 2377, and was given the IRW Scorah.

The Scorah’s first actions were mostly skirmishes along the Romulan-Federation border, which in many cases were nothing more than dramatically-timed decloakings to act as a show of force. However, after the revelation of a Federation agent leading the Tal Shiar, the Empire geared up to go to war with Starfleet, and Herrana couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the idea. Her emotions during the following events generally coincided with those of the Star Navy as a whole; disappointment over the cancelled invasion, tacit support for Shinzon’s coup, and finally disgust at the viciousness of Shinzon’s actions and an eagerness to rectify the mistake of his ascension to Praetor. Herrana and the Scorah took part in the invasion of Remus to destroy Shinzon’s power base, as well as subsequent “cleanup” operations of the whole affair.

During the period of détente with the Federation following the Shinzon Crisis, the Scorah was amongst the vessels to receive a Starfleet exchange officer; a Bajoran Lieutenant Commander named Deraj Pelia served as a science officer under Herrana, and the two developed a something of an acquaintanceship during this time.

The Scorah would later be slated to assist in the evacuation of Romulus. As a slim and speedy Valdore, she had very little internal volume available for refugees, so the vessel was originally assigned to act as an escort for the Federation rescue fleet. However, once plans for said fleet were cancelled, the Scorah was reassigned to cram anyone it could into its cargo hold and take them to anywhere that wasn’t Romulus. Herrana and her crew did as much as they could, and in the end were able to rescue over 2000 civilians in four evacuation runs.

Following the destruction of Romulus, Herrana was prepared to help establish a new capitol of the Star Empire and a continuity of government. All in all, she had been directly hurt very little by the supernova; as much of her family was upper-class, she had only lost distant relatives who had been particularly unlucky. What followed next, however, would rock Herrana to the core.

Instead of simply mourning losses and continuing on, the Romulan Star Empire began to fracture. Factions within factions began to develop, and it wasn’t long before the Scorah was being ordered in five different places by ten different superiors. This already began to wear away Herrana’s composure, as the her faith in the strength and unity of the Star Empire had been one of her most deeply held beliefs. It felt like everything she knew was crashing down around her.

The final straw happened in 2388, when an Admiral demanded that the Scorah fire on Romulan ships belonging to a separate faction (what would go on to become the Free State). Herrana flatly refused, and was subsequently removed from command. Spitefully abandoning her vessel the next time it docked at a station, Herrana boarded a civilian transport with the cheapest tickets available, and wound up arriving on a planet that would become a member of the Romulan Republic a year later.

During this time, Herrana hit rock bottom. The Star Empire she’d given everything and lost friends to protect was gone, and all illusions of its strength were shattered. Herrana didn’t care one bit about the ideals of the Republic, or any of its enemies for that matter; she didn’t even tell any of her new neighbors about her military background. She became something of a vagabond; flying atmospheric transport by day to make a living, then drinking away her problems by night. It wasn’t long before she began to put on weight, which Herrana accepted with a kind of dreary fatalism, seeing it as just another symptom of her old life of proud and noble service fading into memory

Herrana existed in this state for eleven years. She was only snapped out of her funk when she saw Deraj Pelia, her old exchange officer, disembark a Federation shuttlecraft in the spaceport she worked around. Deraj had become a captain, and was leading an effort to deliver lend-lease supplies to the Romulan Republic. Herrana had immediately bolted to hide from her, mortified by anyone from her old life seeing her in this state. While hiding behind a dilapidated and out-of-service Worker Bee utility craft, it hit her just how low she’d allowed herself to sink. The other Romulans in the Republic weren’t wallowing in self-pity, they were defiantly building new lives for themselves while a once-proud Warbird Commander drank herself to an early grave.

The next day, Herrana flew to the Republic Navy headquarters, provided them with her credentials, and requested a commission.

The Navy was initially not overly enthusiastic about the prospect. There was an eleven-year gap in her resume, and it didn’t take long for the admiralty to figure out what she’d been up to for the past years. However, it was the intervention of a Commander named Saren that convinced them to give her a chance. Saren had witnessed Herrana’s skills in action during a battle in the Dominon War while his D’deridex was screened by the Harakon; during said battle, Commander Nurahk had been rendered unconscious, leaving Herrana to take command of the wolfpack and escort Saren’s battleship to deliver the killing blow on a Dominion Dreadnought.

While the Navy flatly refused to return Herrana to her old rank of Commander, they did grant her the rank of Subcommander on the condition that Saren accept her as his executive officer. The Commander heartily agreed.